Psalm 94:3

LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

94:1-11 We may with boldness appeal to God; for he is the almighty Judge by whom every man is judged. Let this encourage those who suffer wrong, to bear it with silence, committing themselves to Him who judges righteously. These prayers are prophecies, which speak terror to the sons of violence. There will come a day of reckoning for all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against God, his truths, and ways, and people. It would hardly be believed, if we did not witness it, that millions of rational creatures should live, move, speak, hear, understand, and do what they purpose, yet act as if they believed that God would not punish the abuse of his gifts. As all knowledge is from God, no doubt he knows all the thoughts of the children of men, and knows that the imaginations of the thoughts of men's hearts are only evil, and that continually. Even in good thoughts there is a want of being fixed, which may be called vanity. It concerns us to keep a strict watch over our thoughts, because God takes particular notice of them. Thoughts are words to God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Lord, how long shall the wicked ... - As if there were to be no end to their exaltation; their joy; their success. How long would God allow this? How long would he sit by and see it done? Was he disposed to let them go on forever? Would he never interpose, and arrest them in their career? How often do we wonder that God does not interpose! How often does it seem inexplicable that a Being of almighty power and infinite goodness does not interfere with respect to the wickedness, the oppression, the slavery, the wrong, the cruelty, the fraud, the violence of the world - and put an end to it! Nay, how entirely are we overwhelmed at the thought that he does not put an end to iniquity in the universe altogether; that he never "will" thus interpose, and put an end to sin and sorrow! Such things are too high for us now; perhaps will be always so. Things on earth are not as we should suppose they would be; and we can only pause and adore where we cannot comprehend!

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3, 4. In an earnest expostulation he expresses his desire that the insolent triumph of the wicked may be ended.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

No text from Poole on this verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Lord, how long shall the wicked,.... The reign of antichrist is thought long by the saints, being the space of forty two months, or 1260 days or years and this tries the faith and patience of the church of Christ, Revelation 13:5.

how long shall the wicked triumph? in their prosperity, and in the ruins of the interest of Christ; the Targum is,

"how long shall they sit in tranquillity, or prosperity?''

the triumphing of the wicked may seem long, but it is but short, Job 20:5, the inhabitants of the Romish jurisdiction will triumph when the witnesses are slain, and send gifts to one another, as a token of their joy; but this will not last long, no more than three days, or three years and a half; and while antichrist is saying, I sit a queen, and shall know no sorrow, her plagues shall come upon her in one day, Revelation 11:10.

Geneva Study Bible

LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked {c} triumph?

(c) That is, brag of their cruelty and oppression, or esteem themselves above all others.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

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

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? "How long?" is the continual cry of the psalmists to God, as it is of the souls under the altar (Revelation 6:10; comp. above, Psalm 6:3; Psalm 13:1, 2; Psalm 35:7; Psalm 74:10; Psalm 79:5; Psalm 89:46; Psalm 90:13). It is a cry of weakness and impatience, but has an element of faith in it, on which God looks with favour. Psalm 94:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The first strophe prays that God would at length put a judicial restraint upon the arrogance of ungodliness. Instead of חופיע (a less frequent form of the imperative for הופע, Ges. ֗53, rem. 3) it was perhaps originally written הופיעה (Psalm 80:2), the He of which has been lost owing to the He that follows. The plural נקמות signifies not merely single instances of taking vengeance (Ezekiel 25:17, cf. supra Psalm 18:48), but also intensively complete revenge or recompense (Judges 11:36; 2 Samuel 4:8). The designation of God is similar to אל גּמלות in Jeremiah 51:56, and the anadiplosis is like Psalm 94:3, Psalm 94:23, Psalm 93:1, Psalm 93:3. הנּשׂא, lift Thyself up, arise, viz., in judicial majesty, calls to mind Psalm 7:7. השׁיב גּמוּל is construed with על (cf. ל, Psalm 28:4; Psalm 59:18) as in Joel 3:4. With גּאים accidentally accord ἀγαυός and κύδεΐ γαίων in the epic poets.