Psalm 94:1 ¶ O LORD God, to
whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.
2 Lift up thyself, thou judge of the
earth: render a reward to the proud. 3
LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?
4 How long shall they utter and
speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?
5 They break in pieces thy people, O
LORD, and afflict thine heritage. 6 They
slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. 7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither
shall the God of Jacob regard it. 8
Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will
ye be wise? 9 He that planted the ear,
shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? 10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he
correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know? 11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that
they are vanity.
This is thought to be a Psalm of David by some Jewish authors of
old while others attribute it to Moses. Notice what is said by Paul in the New
Testament regarding the idea presented in this first verse.
Romans 12:19 Dearly
beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is
written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.
Hebrews 10:30 For we know
him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the
Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Vengeance belongs to God although that does not please our flesh
as we sometimes think of ourselves as some kind of avenging angel righting
wrongs and shooting lightning bolts at people we see on TV and on our computer
who don’t know God. I am surprised at how many conservative Christians would
pray for someone’s death rather than for their salvation. But vengeance belongs
to God alone.
The Psalmist wants justice. He wants God to come down and judge
the world now and settle accounts. Evil people seemed to run wild then as they
do today. God, the rightful judge of the earth is asked to deal with the proud,
the wicked. Then, he asks the age-old question of how long is God going to let
this nonsense go on without doing anything.
Psalm 74:10 O God, how long
shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
Jeremiah 12:1 ¶ Righteous
art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy
judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? wherefore are all they
happy that deal very treacherously? 2
Thou hast planted them, yea, they have taken root: they grow, yea, they
bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.
I am reminded of how we wonder at when the Tribulation will come.
When will the Antichrist be revealed? Why is the earth, filled with mankind’s
wickedness, allowed to continue?
How long will the evil people be allowed to do their evil. We ask
this often if we are honest. We can see all through Revelation how God’s people
that are saved and martyred during the end times would ask that just as the
Jews themselves must have asked this during the last 2,000 years through
crusade and progrom and the Holocaust. We have a record of spokesmen for the
descendants of Africans enslaved in pre-Civil War America wondering how long
God would allow racial slavery to continue, using Biblical terminology to
describe their sufferings.
Revelation 6:9 ¶ And when
he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were
slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How
long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them
that dwell on the earth? 11 And white
robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their
brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.
But as one old-time Christian said, “God’s ways are sure, but they
are tedious,” meaning things don’t happen as fast as we’d like them to happen.
The wicked don’t think there is a God or that He hears or sees
what they are doing but the Psalmist is confident that the God who made the ear
and the eye knows what emptiness and evil is in man’s heart, as we should be.
Psalm 94:12 ¶ Blessed is
the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; 13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days
of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. 14 For the LORD will not cast off his people,
neither will he forsake his inheritance. 15
But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in
heart shall follow it. 16 Who will rise
up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the
workers of iniquity? 17 Unless the LORD had
been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. 18 When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O
LORD, held me up. 19 In the multitude of
my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. 20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship
with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? 21
They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and
condemn the innocent blood. 22 But the
LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. 23 And he shall bring upon them their own
iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea, the LORD
our God shall cut them off.
We don’t often think of chastening as a state of blessedness but
the Bible tells us that we should consider God’s correction in just that way. There
are a number of verses that I want to share individually with you.
Psalm 119:67 ¶ Before I was
afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word…71 ¶ It is good for me that I have been afflicted;
that I might learn thy statutes.
Job 5:17 ¶ Behold, happy is
the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the
Almighty:
Proverbs 3:11 My son,
despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: 12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even
as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
1Corinthians 11:32 But when
we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned
with the world.
Hebrews 12:5 And ye have
forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son,
despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of
him:
6 For whom the Lord loveth
he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. 7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you
as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? 8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof
all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. 9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh
which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? 10 For they verily for a few days chastened us
after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of
his holiness. 11 Now no chastening for
the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it
yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby.
Job 33:14 ¶ For God
speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. 15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when
deep sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed; 16 Then he openeth the ears of men, and sealeth
their instruction, 17 That he may
withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man. 18 He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and
his life from perishing by the sword. 19 ¶
He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his
bones with strong pain: 20 So that his
life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat. 21 His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be
seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out. 22 Yea, his soul draweth near unto the grave,
and his life to the destroyers. 23 If
there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to shew
unto man his uprightness: 24 Then he is
gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have
found a ransom. 25 His flesh shall be
fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth: 26 He shall pray unto God, and he will be
favourable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy: for he will render
unto man his righteousness. 27 He
looketh upon men, and if any say, I have sinned, and perverted that which was
right, and it profited me not; 28 He
will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his life shall see the
light. 29 ¶ Lo, all these things worketh
God oftentimes with man, 30 To bring
back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
Revelation 3:19 As many as
I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Every day we are given comes with its own set of challenges and
troubles that God has either directly willed or permitted to happen for some
reason we often know nothing about.
Matthew 6:34 Take therefore
no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of
itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
A character in a television series (Lady Violet Crawley on Downton
Abbey played by Maggie Smith) once stated, “My dear, all life is a series of
problems, that we must try and solve. First one, and then the next, and the
next, until at last we die.”
This chastening will occur until the day we are given rest from
our labors in God and while we are facing chastisement, He is preparing the
punishment for the wicked.
In the context this Psalm promises that God will not cast of His
people, the Jews, forever and we can by inference move this forward to
Christians. As we believe that Christ will never leave us or forsake us…
Hebrews 13:5 Let your
conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye
have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
…so He is not done with the Jews as we see by reading Revelation. One
example of the Jews being God’s inheritance says;
Isaiah 19:25 Whom the LORD
of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work
of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
And for Christians, both Jew and Gentile;
Ephesians 1:18 The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his
calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
In verse 15 the thought continues that God’s judgment will return
His people to righteousness and the upright or righteous will follow His
commands.
No one stands with the Psalmist, or often with us, against
evildoers and the wicked, except God and without God he would have been
destroyed.
The suggestion in verse 17 is that he would have died without the
Lord’s help. When we stumble or slip the Lord will hold us up.
Proverbs 24:16a For a just
man falleth seven times, and riseth up again:
Job 5:19 He shall deliver
thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.
Psalm 34:19 Many are the
afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
Psalm 37:24 Though he fall,
he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with his hand.
Micah 7:8 Rejoice not
against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness,
the LORD shall be a light unto me.
Verse 19 shows us that within our thoughts God works in us, if we
are His. When we contemplate who God is and His power we are delighted and
comforted.
Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in
thee.
Psalm 63:6 When I remember
thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
The throne of iniquity in verse 20 could be a prophetic
reference to the Beast of Revelation, whom we call THE Antichrist. But closer
to home it refers to all evil rulers who enact corrupt laws that dominate and
oppress and care nothing for God or His ways.
They condemn the innocent blood, another reference perhaps
to Christ prophetically. As Judas lamented.
Matthew 27:4 Saying, I have
sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that
to us? see thou to that.
But wicked kings and chief executives of every nation on earth
have pursued the righteous and killed them.
But God is the defense and refuge of the righteous and He will
bring down the wicked, we trust, and cut them off in their own wickedness.
To cut off is, based on the context, to kill, to destroy.
Isaiah 10:7 Howbeit he
meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to
destroy and cut off nations not a few.
We must be honest with ourselves and understand that we’ve prayed
a prayer much like this one when we saw the wickedness around us and
experienced it personally in its wrath. But we must look to and trust in God
for our deliverance. But rather, after Christ’s resurrection, pray for the salvation
of your enemies and those that abuse you, rather than their destruction.
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