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94. Psalm 94

¹ The LORD is a God who avenges.
   O God who avenges, shine forth.
² Rise up, Judge of the earth;
   pay back to the proud what they deserve.
³ How long, LORD, will the wicked,
   how long will the wicked be jubilant?

    ⁴ They pour out arrogant words;
   all the evildoers are full of boasting.
⁵ They crush your people, LORD;
   they oppress your inheritance.
⁶ They slay the widow and the foreigner;
   they murder the fatherless.
⁷ They say, “The LORD does not see;
   the God of Jacob takes no notice.”

    ⁸ Take notice, you senseless ones among the people;
   you fools, when will you become wise?
⁹ Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?
   Does he who formed the eye not see?
¹⁰ Does he who disciplines nations not punish?
   Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?
¹¹ The LORD knows all human plans;
   he knows that they are futile.

    ¹² Blessed is the one you discipline, LORD,
   the one you teach from your law;
¹³ you grant them relief from days of trouble,
   till a pit is dug for the wicked.
¹⁴ For the LORD will not reject his people;
   he will never forsake his inheritance.
¹⁵ Judgment will again be founded on righteousness,
   and all the upright in heart will follow it.

    ¹⁶ Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
   Who will take a stand for me against evildoers?
¹⁷ Unless the LORD had given me help,
   I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.
¹⁸ When I said, “My foot is slipping,”
   your unfailing love, LORD, supported me.
¹⁹ When anxiety was great within me,
   your consolation brought me joy.

    ²⁰ Can a corrupt throne be allied with you—
   a throne that brings on misery by its decrees?
²¹ The wicked band together against the righteous
   and condemn the innocent to death.
²² But the LORD has become my fortress,
   and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.
²³ He will repay them for their sins
   and destroy them for their wickedness;
   the LORD our God will destroy them.

11. Jehovah knoweth the thoughts of men, etc. He again insists upon the folly of men in seeking to wrap themselves up in darkness, and hide themselves from the view of God. To prevent them from flattering themselves with vain pretexts, he reminds them that the mists of delusion will be scattered at once when they come to stand in God’s presence. Nothing can avail them, so long as God from heaven stamps vanity upon their deepest counsels. The Psalmist’s design in citing them before the Judge of all, is to make them thoroughly search and try their own hearts; for the great cause of their self-security lay in failing to realize God, burying all distinction between right and wrong, and, so far as that was possible, hardening themselves against all feeling. They might contrive to soothe their minds by means like these, but he tells them that God ridiculed all such trifling. The truth may be a plain one, and well known; but the Psalmist states a fact which many overlook, and which we would do well to remember, That the wicked, when they attempt to hide themselves under subtile refuges, cannot deceive God, and necessarily deceive themselves. Some read — They (that is, men themselves) are vanity; but this is a forced rendering, and the form of expression is one which both in the Greek and Hebrew may be translated, God knows that the thoughts of men are vain.