This Psalm is a prayer for the revelation of the righteous judgement of God, and an expression of confidence in the ultimate triumph of right. It falls into two main divisions.

i. The Psalmist appeals to Jehovah to manifest Himself as judge of the earth (Psalm 94:1-2). How long will He tolerate the arrogance of the tyrants who oppress His people, and contemptuously declare that He is ignorant or indifferent (Psalm 94:3-7)?

Addressing some of his own countrymen who are inclined to doubt Jehovah’s moral government of the world he rebukes them for their folly, and argues that Jehovah must of necessity see and hear and in due time punish (Psalm 94:8-11).

ii. The second part of the Psalm is occupied with thoughts of consolation for times of trouble. Happy the man who is taught by God to endure patiently until right once more triumphs (Psalm 94:12-15).

To whom can Israel look but to Jehovah, Whose love has been proved in time past (Psalm 94:16-19)?

He cannot be the ally of injustice, but will defend His people, and exterminate their enemies (Psalm 94:20-23).

Who were the oppressors of whom the Psalmist complains? From the contrast in Psalm 94:5; Psalm 94:8; Psalm 94:10; Psalm 94:12 it would seem that they were foreigners, who openly despised Israel’s God as indifferent to the sufferings of His people (Psalm 94:7). It is true that much of the language of the Ps. resembles that used elsewhere to describe the oppression of poor Israelites by their powerful countrymen. But it is the community as such (Psalm 94:5) and not one portion of it, which is oppressed, and a Psalmist who borrows so freely from his predecessors might easily use their language though the circumstances were somewhat different. Dependent though this Psalmist is in almost every line upon earlier literature, his argument with the doubters of God’s moral government is urged with a force and originality of his own, and his clear assertion of the Divine education of the nations is almost without parallel in the O.T.

There is little or nothing to fix the date of the Ps. Some points of style and language seem to connect it with the two preceding Psalms. The figure of ‘anadiplosis’ or rhetorical repetition is common to all three (Psalm 92:9; Psalm 93:1; Psalm 93:3; Psalm 94:1; Psalm 94:3; Psalm 94:23); the same language is applied to the doubters of God’s Providence (Psalm 92:6; Psalm 94:8); the same terms are used to designate Israel’s oppressors (Psalm 92:7; Psalm 92:11; Psalm 94:16); Psalm 94:11 may be a contrast to Psalm 92:5. Possibly it may belong to the closing years of the Exile, and refer to harsh treatment which the Israelites had to suffer in Babylon. If so, the cry for vengeance is an echo of the language of Isaiah 40-66 and Jeremiah 50, 51. But it may belong to some later time in the post-exilic period, when the struggling community was oppressed by foreign governors.

In the LXX the Psalm bears the title A Psalm of David, for the fourth day of the week, and according to Talmudic tradition it was the special Psalm for that day in the services of the Second Temple. Cheyne suggests that its position here, where it certainly intervenes strangely between two jubilant Psalms, arose “out of an attempt (not carried very far) to promote liturgical convenience,” though it must obviously be “later than Psalms 93, from which it differs so much in tone and import” (Origin of the Psalter, p. 72). Style however seems to point to a closer connexion of these Psalms than that of liturgical usage merely.

1. God of vengeance, Jehovah,

God of vengeance, shine forth!

The Psalmist appeals to Jehovah, Who has the power and the right to punish (Deuteronomy 32:35; Nahum 1:2; Romans 12:19), to manifest Himself in all the splendour of His Presence (Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 50:2; Psalm 80:1). God is El, ‘the mighty God’; and the word for vengeance is plural, denoting the completeness of the retribution which He can inflict. Cp. “God of recompences,” Jeremiah 51:56. For the ‘anadiplosis’ cp. Psalm 94:3; Psalm 94:23, and Psalm 92:9, note.

1, 2. An appeal to Jehovah to manifest Himself as Judge of the world and Avenger of wrong.

2. Lift up thyself] Shew Thyself to be the supremely exalted Ruler. Cp. Isaiah 6:1; Isaiah 33:10; Psalm 7:6.

judge of the earth] Cp. Genesis 18:25; Psalm 58:11; Psalm 82:8. The universal Judge is needed to call the subordinate ‘judges of the earth’ to account.

render a reward to the proud] R.V. Render to the proud (their) desert; assimilating the rendering to that of Psalm 28:4. Cp. Lamentations 3:64.

3–7. How long will Jehovah tolerate the tyrannies of these proud blasphemers?

4. The verses run in pairs, and it seems preferable, with A.V., to regard Psalm 94:4 as a continuation of the question in Psalm 94:3, rather than, with R.V., to render it as an affirmative sentence. Workers of iniquity is the subject to the whole verse.

(How long) shall all workers of iniquity

Belch out, talk arrogantly, act haughtily?

Cp. Psalm 59:2; Psalm 59:7; Psalm 31:18. The exact sense of the last verb is doubtful. It may mean ‘exalt themselves,’ or ‘speak proudly one with another.’

5. They break in pieces] Or, crush (as Isaiah 3:15; Proverbs 22:22), by violence and extortion. Thy people … thine inheritance, as in Psalm 28:9. Cp. Deuteronomy 4:20.

6. A proverbial expression for inhumanity and treachery. They do not scruple to murder the most defenceless, and those whose lives, by the traditions of Semitic hospitality, should have been inviolable. “From the earliest times of Semitic life the lawlessness of the desert … has been tempered by the principle that the guest is inviolable.… To harm a guest, or to refuse him hospitality, is an offence against honour, which covers the perpetrator with indelible shame.” Robertson Smith, Rel. of Semites, p. 76. Cp. Exodus 22:21-22; Psalm 10:14; Malachi 3:5.

7. And they say, Jah doth not see,

Neither doth the God of Jacob consider.

They proclaim their contempt for Israel’s God as one who is either ignorant of the sufferings of His people or indifferent to them (Psalm 10:11; Psalm 10:13; Psalm 59:7). He is in their estimation but one among many gods of the nations (Isaiah 36:18 ff.).

8. Understand] Consider. Those Israelites are addressed who lack the spiritual discernment to realise that in spite of the temporary triumph of the wicked Jehovah still rules (Psalm 92:6; Psalm 73:22).

when will ye be wise?] When will ye understand? a word used of the intelligent consideration of God’s working in Psalm 14:2; Psalm 64:9; Psalm 106:7.

8–11. From pleading with God the Psalmist turns to argue with those of his fellow-countrymen who are tempted to agree with their oppressors, and to think that Jehovah is wanting either in power or in will to defend them.

9. It is absurd to suppose that the Creator of the organs of sense does not Himself possess faculties corresponding to them.

10. He that instructeth the nations, shall not he rebuke?] The word rendered chastiseth in A.V. includes the ideas of instruction, admonition, discipline, chastisement (LXX ὁ παιδεύων, Vulg. qui corripit, Jer. qui erudit). That rendered correct means to reprove, rebuke, call to account, punish (Psalm 50:21). This noteworthy passage stands almost by itself in the O.T. in its explicit assertion that there is a divine education of the nations, analogous to the divine education of Israel (Deuteronomy 8:5, &c.), an education which must involve fatherly correction and chastisement (Proverbs 3:12). It anticipates the teaching of St Paul in Romans 1:20; Romans 2:14-15. Yet long before this, Amos had implicitly taught that a measure of moral knowledge is possessed by the heathen, for the right use of which they are responsible (Amos 1, 2). Cp. also Psalm 65:2, and the general purport of the Book of Jonah.

he that teacheth &c.] We expect a question such as A.V. supplies, to complete the sentence, shall not he know? But instead of putting the question the poet breaks off abruptly, and substitutes the comprehensive affirmation of Psalm 94:11. It is prosaic to render as R.V., “even he that teacheth &c.”

11. The positive answer to the self-delusion of the wicked and the doubts of the faithless. Jehovah not only sees their works, but knows their very thoughts.

that they are vanity] So the LXX, quoted by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:20, with the substitution of the wise for men to suit his argument. This rendering gives a good sense, and suggests an emphatic contrast between the designs of men and the designs of God (Psalm 92:5). But the masculine pronoun they is more naturally referred to man than to the feminine word for thoughts, and its emphatic position further points to the rendering, For they, in contrast to Jehovah, are (but) a breath (Psalm 39:5). How can man, the feeble creature of a day, escape the knowledge of the Omniscient and Eternal, or entertain designs which He cannot fathom?

12, 13. Happy the man whom thou instructest, Jah,

And teachest out of thy law,

To give him rest from the days of evil,

Until a pit be dug for the wicked.

Israel, as well as the nations (Psalm 94:10) is being divinely educated, and that with a higher teaching, the teaching of revelation. This will give him such an insight into the ways of God’s Providence, as will enable him to endure calmly, without murmuring or losing heart, until the day of retribution overtakes the wicked. Cp. Habakkuk 3:16. The A.V. rendering chastenest limits the meaning of the verb, which is the same as that in Psalm 94:10. But doubtless it includes the discipline of suffering which Israel was undergoing. Cp. Job 5:17; Proverbs 3:11-12. The conception of life as a discipline and education is specially characteristic of the Book of Proverbs. The wise man welcomes it, but the fool rebels against it. Thy law is not limited to the Pentateuch or any part of it, but is synonymous with the word of Jehovah, and includes all Divine revelation as the guide of life (Psalm 1:2). The days of evil, or, of the evil man, are the times when wrong and wrong-doers seem to have undisputed sway. Cp. Psalm 49:5.

until a pit &c.] Until the day of retribution comes, as it certainly will do; a metaphor from the pitfalls used by hunters. Cp. Psalm 7:15; Psalm 35:7; Psalm 57:6.

12–15. The Psalmist consoles himself and his fellow-sufferers with the thought that they are being educated by God, and that, sooner or later, Right must have its rights.

14. That day will come, for Jehovah cannot finally abandon His persecuted people (Psalm 94:5). Cp. 1 Samuel 12:22; Jeremiah 12:7; Romans 11:1-2.

15. But] Or as R.V. For. Judgement will again be justice: i.e. its administration will once more be conducted upon principles of equity, when those who now pervert it are destroyed; and all true-hearted men will attach themselves to it as its supporters and adherents.

16. Who will rise up &c.] Who will stand up as my champion? It is not a question of doubt or unbelief, but an emphatic form of assertion that Israel has no helper but Jehovah.

16–19. Israel has no champion but Jehovah. Experience has proved His goodness. The Psalmist is partly speaking in the name of the people even when he uses the singular (Psalm 94:16-18; Psalm 94:23, our God), partly expressing his own personal feelings (Psalm 94:19).

17. Cp. Psalm 124:1 ff.

almost] R.V. soon.

dwelt in silence] The stillness of the grave (Psalm 115:17).

18. The A.V. misses the picturesqueness of the tenses. When I said, My foot hath slipped, thy lovingkindness, Jehovah, was supporting me. I gave myself up for lost, but the right hand of love had hold of me all the time. Cp. Psalm 38:16; Psalm 18:35.

19. thoughts] Or, as R.V. marg., doubts; distracting thoughts which divide and perplex the mind.

20. Though He may tolerate them for a time, it is inconceivable that Jehovah should let these rapacious judges shelter themselves under His authority. Cp. Psalm 50:21. The throne or tribunal of destruction (Psalm 91:3, note) denotes the rulers or judges who were ready like a yawning gulf to swallow up the innocent. They contrive wrong by statute, inflict injury and misery under the shelter of legal forms. Cp. Isaiah 10:1-2.

20–23. The doom of tyrants and the deliverance of their victims.

21. They gather themselves together] So the Targ. and Jer., possibly reading yâgûrû, as in Psalm 56:6; Psalm 59:3. The Mass. text however seems to mean they make raids upon the life of the righteous.

condemn the innocent blood] I.e. condemn the innocent to death.

22, 23. The R.V. renders, But the Lord hath been my high tower … and he hath brought upon them their own iniquity. But the latter clauses of Psalm 94:23 shew that the punishment of the wicked is still in the future, and it is best to regard the tenses as expressive of certainty: But Jehovah will surely prove a high tower for me, and my God shall be the rock of my refuge. Cp. Psalm 18:2; Psalm 9:9, &c.

and he shall bring upon them &c.] Cause their wrong-doing to recoil upon their own heads. Cp. Psalm 94:2; Psalm 54:5.

in their own wickedness] Or, for their evil: or perhaps, through their own evil. Cp. Psalm 5:10; Psalm 7:15-16; Psalm 9:16.