Psalm 94

Psalm Category: Community Song of Lament

Central Thought: God is the refuge of the righteous, who are saved by His grace.

The godless have to hope there is no God—or if there is, that “the Lord does not see” (v. 7). Bold sinners will openly mock the Lord and “deny God’s government of the world, banter His covenant with His people, and set judgment to come at defiance” (Matthew Henry). Sometimes even believers wonder if God sees what is going on. The psalmist cries, “Lord…how long will the wicked triumph? (v. 3). He knows the Lord sees and understands, but he questions His timing and His apparent inaction. This severely tests his faith. Accordingly, he appeals to God—but also anticipates God’s answer.

An Appeal for God to Act (vv. 1-11).

1. He cries to God for help (vv. 1-3). Eric Lane aptly notes, “As long as the wicked are getting away with their crimes God is hidden from view: He is not seen as Judge of the earth” (Psalms, vol. 2:23). But God is “the God to whom vengeance belongs” and “the judge of the earth.” So, “How long will the wicked triumph?”

The answer to this is twofold. First, Jesus teaches us there will be both weeds—evildoers—and wheat in the world until the last judgment (Matt. 13:30). Second, it is also a fact that God’s “judgments are in all the earth” all the time (Ps. 105:7). Many people see setbacks and disasters and discount God. The discerning, however, see God’s hand at work, both for blessing and for cursing. Because vengeance “belongs” to Him, it must be right to pray for Him to “shine forth” and “rise up” in His righteousness—according to His timetable.

2. He gives his reasons for appealing (vv. 4-7). Wickedness works in three ways: People boast of being sinners (v. 4); they target God’s people and the vulnerable (vv. 5-6); and they thumb their noses at God (v. 7). Have you heard someone dare God to strike them with lightning and then cite their survival as proof positive that God is powerless or nonexistent?

3. He warns of the certainty of punishment (vv. 8-11). “Get real!” is the thrust of these verses. You are out of your mind—“senseless” and “fools”—if you think you can escape God’s justice (v. 8). God created you, ears and eyes both, so He hears and sees you (v. 9). God, who gave law to nations, will correct them (v. 10a). And in any case, God knows everything, including your futile thoughts (vv. 10b-11)! Death and judgment are sure things, but so is salvation to all who “eagerly wait for Him” (Heb. 9:27-28). The Lord sees those who trust and follow after Him.

An Answer to Anticipate (vv. 12-23).

1. God answers to assure His people of help and justice (vv. 12-15). If He knows “the workers of iniquity” (v. 4), He surely knows, loves and blesses those who are His (v. 12; 2 Tim. 2:19). If He digs a pit for the wicked, He plans rest from “days of adversity” for believers (v. 13). He punishes the wicked but never casts off His elect people (v. 14) and He confirms this to them in their heart-experience of His goodness (v. 15).

2. God’s people will stand up and be counted (vv. 16-19). We are saved to serve, not to sleep! In the face of opposition, however, it is easier to complain than to contend (Jude 3). The psalmist recounts his personal testimony, mentioning three salient points: The Lord saved me in the past (v. 17); He answered prayer (v. 18); and He turned my anxieties to rejoicing (v 19). Rising to a rhapsody of praise, he exults, “Your comforts delight my soul.”

3. God’s outcomes—the judgment of the wicked and the salvation by grace of repentant and believing sinners—calls the world to listen to the Lord and flee to Him for salvation (vv. 20-23). God will not cozy up to the “throne of iniquity which devises evil by law” (v. 20)—a word to those who justify wickedness by clothing it in false legality and virtue. In contrast, the Lord will be the “defense” and “rock of…refuge” of His saints (vv. 21-22). All that will be left for the unrepentant and unbelieving will be the fruit of their iniquity—to be cut off from God forever (v. 23).

As you read this, you are a day’s march nearer eternity than you were yesterday. God is warning you—and so is calling you to repentance and faith in His Savior Son. The Lord does see—through every one of us! What does He see in you? How do you view the prospect of death and the judgment to come?

When John Cochran faced death for his faith in 17th Century Scotland, he testified on the scaffold that this prospect was “no discouragement” to him: “For when the storm blew hardest the smiles of my Lord were at the sweetest. It is a matter of rejoicing unto me to think how my Lord hath passed by many a tall cedar, and hath laid His love upon a poor bramble bush, the likes of me” (J. Purves, Fair Sunshine, p. 95).