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Psalm 94

God the Avenger of the Righteous

O L ord, you God of vengeance,

you God of vengeance, shine forth!

Rise up, O judge of the earth;

give to the proud what they deserve!

O L ord, how long shall the wicked,

how long shall the wicked exult?

They pour out their arrogant words;

all the evildoers boast.

They crush your people, O L ord,

and afflict your heritage.

They kill the widow and the stranger,

they murder the orphan,

and they say, “The L ord does not see;

the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

Understand, O dullest of the people;

fools, when will you be wise?

He who planted the ear, does he not hear?

He who formed the eye, does he not see?

He who disciplines the nations,

he who teaches knowledge to humankind,

does he not chastise?

The L ord knows our thoughts,

that they are but an empty breath.

Happy are those whom you discipline, O L ord,

and whom you teach out of your law,

giving them respite from days of trouble,

until a pit is dug for the wicked.

For the L ord will not forsake his people;

he will not abandon his heritage;

for justice will return to the righteous,

and all the upright in heart will follow it.

Who rises up for me against the wicked?

Who stands up for me against evildoers?

If the L ord had not been my help,

my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.

When I thought, “My foot is slipping,”

your steadfast love, O L ord, held me up.

When the cares of my heart are many,

your consolations cheer my soul.

Can wicked rulers be allied with you,

those who contrive mischief by statute?

They band together against the life of the righteous,

and condemn the innocent to death.

But the L ord has become my stronghold,

and my God the rock of my refuge.

He will repay them for their iniquity

and wipe them out for their wickedness;

the L ord our God will wipe them out.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

21. They will gather together against the soul of the righteous As the Hebrew word גדד, gadad, or גוד, gud, ³⁹³⁹ “יגודו, (ja-ghod-du,) will collect in a troop Targ. ‘will heap together evils;’ LXX. ‘will hunt after.’ From גדד, ran by troops, invaded with an army.” — Bythner signifies to collect forces or a band of men, the Psalmist evidently intimates that he had to do with leading persons of influence, and not with those merely in private station. The term implies too, that it was not merely one or two private individuals who persecuted him, and others of the Lord’s people, but a public convention. Melancholy and disgraceful must the state of matters have been, when the wicked thus ruled in lawful assembly, and those who formed the college of judges were no better than a band of robbers. The case becomes doubly vexatious, when the innocent victims of oppression are not only injured, but have a stigma fixed upon their character. And what more unseemly spectacle, than when the whole course of judicial administration is just a foul conspiracy against good and innocent men? ⁴⁰⁴⁰ “Deinde quid minus consentaneum, quam ut tota forensis ratio nihil aliud sit quam scelesta conspiratio ad insontes damnandos?” — Lat. The instance here recorded should prepare us for a like emergency, if it chance to occur in our own day, when the wicked may be permitted, in the providence of God, to mount the seat of judgment, and launch destruction upon the upright and the righteous, under color of law. Intolerable as it might seem at first sight, that persons innocent of any crime should meet with cruel persecution, even from the hands of judges, so as to be loaded with ignominy, we see that God tried his children in other times by this double species of oppression, and that we must learn to bear submissively not only with unrighteous violence, but with charges most injurious to our character, and most undeserved. ⁴¹⁴¹ “Toutesfois pour autant que Dieu a jadis exerce ses serviteurs en l’une et l’autre sorte de tentation, apprenons non seulement de porter patiemment une violence injuste, mais aussi les calomnies indignes,” etc. — Fr.

³⁹ “יגודו, (ja-ghod-du,) will collect in a troop Targ. ‘will heap together evils;’ LXX. ‘will hunt after.’ From גדד, ran by troops, invaded with an army.” — Bythner

⁴⁰ “Deinde quid minus consentaneum, quam ut tota forensis ratio nihil aliud sit quam scelesta conspiratio ad insontes damnandos?” — Lat.

⁴¹ “Toutesfois pour autant que Dieu a jadis exerce ses serviteurs en l’une et l’autre sorte de tentation, apprenons non seulement de porter patiemment une violence injuste, mais aussi les calomnies indignes,” etc. — Fr.