Psalms 94:1 - Meaning and Application

In these verses, we have a solemn appeal to God against the cruel oppressors of his people (Psalm 94:1-2). This is enough to strike fear into them, because God’s people are praying against them day and night, asking him to defend them and avenge their wrongs (Luke 18:3, Luke 18:7). The point is clear: if God hears those prayers, how can the oppressors expect to escape?

Notice the names they use for God to strengthen their faith in this appeal. They call him the God to whom vengeance belongs and the Judge of the earth. They can speak to him with confidence because he is the highest judge, the one from whom every person’s judgment comes. He gives the law and also gives the sentence according to that law. He has set up his throne for judgment, and while he appoints rulers as servants of justice under him (Romans 13:4), he remains the chief avenger, to whom even rulers answer.

He is also the judge of the whole earth, not of one city or nation only. No one is outside his authority, so no one can say that an appeal to him is invalid. He is also just by nature. Because he is both able and willing to punish wrong, people must not take revenge for themselves. God has said, “Vengeance is mine” (Romans 12:19), and it is bold presumption for us to step into his place.

This should warn those who do evil, whether they hide it carefully or act openly and proudly. There is a God to whom vengeance belongs, and he will certainly call them to account. It should also comfort those who suffer wrong, helping them bear it quietly and trust the one who judges fairly.

The prayer also asks God to honor his own name. The wicked persecutors seemed to think God had turned away and left the earth. So the church says, in effect, “Lord, show yourself. Let them know that you are real, and that you stand with those whose hearts are right with you.” The enemies acted as if God had been defeated because his people were suffering. So the prayer is, “Rise up. Show your strength. Do not let your name be trampled and dishonored.”

They also ask God to humble the oppressors: Render a reward to the proud. In other words, “Deal with them for all their arrogance and for all the harm they have done to your people.” These prayers are also warnings. They speak fear to all violent people, because the righteous God will deal with them according to what they deserve.

Then comes a humble complaint to God about the pride and cruelty of these oppressors, along with a respectful question about it (Psalm 94:3-6). The enemies are described as wicked and as workers of evil. They are deeply bad themselves, and that is why they hate and persecute people whose goodness exposes them. Those who are cruel to the innocent and hate the righteous show just how far they have fallen.

Their behavior is proud and barbaric. They boast, speak in a high and loud way, and act as if they answer to no one. They carry on as if the day belongs to them and they will certainly win against God and his truth. But there will be a day of accounting for every harsh word ungodly sinners have spoken against God, his truth, his ways, and his people (Jude 1:15).

They are also hostile to God’s people because they belong to him (Psalm 94:5). They break God’s people in pieces, tear apart their gatherings, their property, their families, and their very persons, and they do everything they can to afflict God’s heritage. God’s people are his special possession. They belong to him, he takes pleasure in them, and their lives show his glory in the world. That is a strong reason to pray for the church: “Lord, it is yours. You have a claim on it. Why should wicked men be allowed to trample on what belongs to you?”

They are also cruel to the helpless (Psalm 94:6). They do more than oppress and make poor. They kill widows and strangers. They do not merely ignore the fatherless and take advantage of them, they murder them, because they are weak and exposed and sometimes at the mercy of these people. Those whom they ought to protect, they harm most. It is hard to imagine how human beings can become so savage.

So the prayer turns into a patient plea: “Lord, how long will they keep doing this?” How long will the wickedness of the wicked continue? The question is not unbelief. It is the cry of suffering people who long for God to act.

Then the psalm makes a charge of atheism against the persecutors and answers them. Their atheistic thoughts are exposed in this claim: “The Lord will not see” (Psalm 94:7). Even though their wickedness is loud, and even though they rebel against both nature and conscience, they still say that God will not notice. They may think he only overlooks small sins, or they may believe they have hidden their crime so well that it will never be judged. They even flatter themselves that the God of Jacob, though his people trust him, will not care enough to call them to account. In this way, they deny God’s rule over the world, mock his covenant with his people, and challenge the certainty of final judgment.

If anyone says that the living God will not see, or that the God of Jacob will not notice the wrongs done to his people, he is a fool, and folly is with him. Yet the psalmist still speaks to such people plainly, to convict them and turn them back before they are put to shame (Psalm 94:8). “You brutish people, understand,” he says in effect, “and let reason guide you.” The atheist may boast of being wise, a philosopher, or a politician, but he is really acting like an animal without sense. If such people would only think clearly, they would believe.

God speaks through the prophet as if the wait has been too long for people to act like human beings and show understanding. “You fools,” he says in effect, “when will you become wise enough to know that God sees and cares about all you say and do, and to live that way, as people who must give an account?” No one is so bad that we should stop trying to bring him back. No one is so foolish or brutal that we should not still test whether he can become wise. While there is life, there is hope.

To prove the folly of those who question God’s knowledge and justice, the psalmist reasons from creation. The body itself shows the truth. God formed the ear, and he planted it in the head as a tree is planted in the ground. Shall he not hear? Of course he hears, and far better than we do. He formed the eye, and its careful design is far beyond any other part of the body. Shall he not see? Could he give that ability to a creature if he did not have it in himself in a far greater way? All the powers found in nature come from the God of nature (Exodus 4:11). And if we know ourselves rightly, even through our bodies and senses, we are led far toward knowing God. If we can see and hear because he gave us sight and hearing, then he surely sees and hears much more. The idols of the nations had eyes and did not see, ears and did not hear, but our God is not limited like we are. He has given us sight and hearing, and we are answerable to him for how we use them.

The psalmist also argues from providence, God’s rule over the world. He corrects the nations for their false worship and idolatry, so shall he not much more correct his own people for their unbelief and irreverence? He punishes people for oppressing and hurting one another, so shall he not deal with those who claim to be his children and yet persecute those who truly are his? We are all under his correction, because the whole world is under his government. If he rules as King of the nations, how much more will he act as the God of Jacob. Dr. Hammond gives another likely sense: God teaches the nations by giving them his law, and then he judges them by that same law. If there is no judgment on the law, then the law was given in vain. The same word can mean both “correct” and “teach,” because discipline is meant to instruct, and instruction should go along with discipline.

The psalmist also reasons from grace. God teaches man knowledge, so shall he not know? He has not only given the light of reason as the God of nature, but also the light of revelation as the God of grace. He has shown people what true wisdom is. If he gives that knowledge to others, then surely all knowledge is in him in fullest measure (Job 28:23, Job 28:28). As streams flowing from a fountain show the fountain is full, so all knowledge coming from God shows that knowledge is in God first. This truth answers the atheists who said, “The Lord will not see” (Psalm 94:7), and it also warns us that God notices even our thoughts (Psalm 94:11). “The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vain.” He knows those false thoughts in particular, the ones that say God will overlook wickedness, and he sees how empty and foolish they are. He also knows all human thoughts, and most of them are vain, since people’s imaginations are evil, only evil, and that continually. Even our better thoughts are mixed with weakness and change. That is why we must guard our thoughts carefully, because God gives them his attention. Thoughts are words to God, and vain thoughts are offenses before him.