Psalms 94:15-23

Context

94:15 For justice will prevail,¹

and all the morally upright² will be vindicated.³

94:16 Who will rise up to defend me⁴ against the wicked?

Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?⁵

94:17 If the Lord had not helped me,

I would have laid down in the silence of death.⁶

94:18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,”

your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.

94:19 When worries threaten to overwhelm me,⁷

your soothing touch makes me happy.⁸

94:20 Cruel rulers⁹ are not your allies,

those who make oppressive laws.¹⁰

94:21 They conspire against¹¹ the blameless,¹²

and condemn to death the innocent.¹³

94:22 But the Lord will protect me,¹⁴

and my God will shelter me.¹⁵

94:23 He will pay them back for their sin.¹⁶

He will destroy them because of¹⁷ their evil;

the Lord our God will destroy them.

[94:15] ¹tn Heb “for judgment will return to justice.”

[94:15] ²tn Heb “all the pure of heart.” The “heart” is here viewed as the seat of one’s moral character and motives. The “pure of heart” are God’s faithful followers who trust in and love the Lord and, as a result, experience his deliverance (see Pss 7:10; 11:2; 32:11; 36:10; 64:10; 97:11).

[94:15] ³tn Heb “and after it [are] the pure of heart.”

[94:16] ⁴tn Heb “for me.”

[94:16] ⁵sn Who will stand up for me…? The questions anticipate the answer, “No one except God” (see v. 17).

[94:17] ⁶tn Heb “If the Lord [were] not my help, quickly my life would have lain down in silence.” The psalmist, perhaps speaking as the nation’s representative, recalls God’s past intervention. For other examples of conditional sentences with the term לוּלֵי (luley, “if not”) in the protasis and a perfect verbal form in the apodosis, see Pss 119:92 and 124:2-5.

[94:19] ⁷tn Heb “when my worries are many within me.”

[94:19] ⁸tn Heb “your comforts cause my soul to delight.”

[94:20] ⁹tn Heb “a throne of destruction.” “Throne” stands here by metonymy for rulers who occupy thrones.

[94:20] ¹⁰tn Heb “Is a throne of destruction united to you, one that forms trouble upon a statute?” The rhetorical question anticipates the answer, “Of course not!” The translation, while not preserving the interrogative form of the statement, reflects its rhetorical force.

[94:21] ¹¹tn Or “attack.”

[94:21] ¹²tn Heb “the life of the blameless.”

[94:21] ¹³tn Heb “and the blood of the innocent they declare guilty.”

[94:22] ¹⁴tn Heb “and the Lord has become my elevated place.” The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[94:22] ¹⁵tn Heb “and my God [has become] a rocky summit of my safety.”

[94:23] ¹⁶tn The prefixed verbal form with vav (ו) consecutive is used in a rhetorical sense, describing an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[94:23] ¹⁷tn Or “in.”