Psalm 94--The LORD Will Not Forsake His People

Psalm 94
English Standard Version

The LORD Will Not Forsake His People
94 O LORD, God of vengeance,
    O God of vengeance, shine forth!
2 Rise up, O judge of the earth;
    repay to the proud what they deserve!
3 O LORD, how long shall the wicked,
    how long shall the wicked exult?
4 They pour out their arrogant words;
    all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O LORD,
    and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the sojourner,
    and murder the fatherless;
7 and they say, “The LORD does not see;
    the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

8 Understand, O dullest of the people!
    Fools, when will you be wise?
9 He who planted the ear, does he not hear?
He who formed the eye, does he not see?
10 He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?
He who teaches man knowledge--
11     the LORD—knows the thoughts of man,
    that they are but a breath.

12 Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD,
    and whom you teach out of your law,
13 to give him rest from days of trouble,
    until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 For the LORD will not forsake his people;
    he will not abandon his heritage;
15 for justice will return to the righteous,
    and all the upright in heart will follow it.

​16 Who rises up for me against the wicked?
    Who stands up for me against evildoers?
17 If the LORD had not been my help,
    my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,”
    your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.
19 When the cares of my heart are many,
    your consolations cheer my soul.
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
    those who frame injustice by statute?
21 They band together against the life of the righteous
    and condemn the innocent to death.
22 But the LORD has become my stronghold,
    and my God the rock of my refuge.
23 He will bring back on them their iniquity
    and wipe them out for their wickedness;
    the LORD our God will wipe them out.

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We don't normally address the LORD as "Ood of Vengeance," but He says, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay."  David knew not to try to take vengeance for himself and to trust that the LORD would take vengeance for him (though he does ask his son Solomon to take care of a list of enemies that he hadn't dealt with, and he doesn't want them to escape justice).  There is no superscript on this psalm to tell us this is a psalm of David, but it sounds to me like something he would write.  The author wants the LORD to judge the wicked who are the enemies of the author and, presumably, the enemies of the LORD.  We have a picture in the New Testament though with Saul of Tarsus on why it may be that the LORD does not immediately answer our prayers for wrath to be poured out on our enemies.  If the LORD dealt swiftly with Saul of Tarsus when he was persecuting the Church, the Church would not have scattered (like it was supposed to), grown in faith as they had to rely more and more on God, and we wouldn't have ever had the Apostle Paul.  God sees both the end and the beginning.  We cannot.

That being said, we still don't want the wicked to go unpunished so that people would look at the prospering of the wicked and desire to take that path that leads to destruction.  Romans 1, like this psalm, paints a picture of people who aren't just willing to do evil in the shadows, but they must brag about it, and try to make others do the same kind of evil things--even asking others to celebrate the evil they do.  They commit violence against the innocent people of God and the widows and orphans.  They are pictured as wolves that devour the helpless.  Who will defend these people if the LORD Himself does not fight for them? Yet sometimes the LORD's answer is to allow the innocent to die so that they might receive the blessings of their inheritance.  Only the LORD has numbered our days.

The wicked think that LORD does not see or hear what they do.  The atheist makes foolish statements like "God is dead, and we have killed Him" (meaning that God was just a thought that was needed to fill gaps in our knowledge, in their minds, and that gap has been filled by their worldview of Science).  They have a god that they worship, but it is the god of their own reasoning--they have imagined themselves to be gods like in Genesis 3 when the serpent tempted Adam and Eve.  "The fool says in heart, 'There is no God.'"  The God who made the eye most certain sees all and the God who made the ear most certainly hears all, and the God who made the mind certainly knows all.  Nothing will escape His omniscience on the coming Day of the LORD when all people of the earth will stand before Him in judgment (the righteous will be judged on the works of Christ and the wicked on their own works).

​"Those whom the LORD loves, He disciplines."  The Bible tells us that parents who won't discipline their children to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the LORD do not love them.  Therefore, we should love the LORD's discipline (I'm not saying that we will always be thankful for it in the moment, but we should never doubt that He acts in a way consistent with His perfect love towards us).  He is disciplining us to refine us and make us more like Jesus.  Discipline belongs to those who are sons and daughters of God, and they need not fear it, but wrath belongs to those who are children of the devil, and they should fear the Lake of Fire that was prepared for the devil and his angels.  Even if we do not see the LORD take vengeance on the wicked in this life, they will drink the full measure of the cup of His wrath when the time comes, and the righteous will be vindicated and have all the blessings earned for them by Christ the King.

​The author asks who else rises up to defend him against his foes.  Is it not the LORD alone who has defended Him?  It seems that all the author's friends have either died or abandoned him.  They are not there to defend him, and he can only cry out to the LORD.  However, our first cry should be to the LORD anyways because, "It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes." (Psalm 118:8-9).  "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."  and "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God." (Psalm 20:7).  Our first and only call for help should be to the LORD who is "Mighty to Save."

The LORD not only saves us from our enemies, but from the flesh (our own lusts that draw us away) and the devil.  He helps to keep us from falling into snares that have been set for us and from going the wrong way.  The LORD comforts us when our hearts are heavy.  Yes, we look to our Father for protection and vengeance on our enemies, but we also look to Him for tenderness, mercy, and affection when we need it most.  We may feel like everyone has turned against us, but we know the LORD is always for us.  We are safe in His arms and under the safety of his wings (like a hen that gathers her chicks under her wings to keep them dry, warm and let them feel safe in the midst of the storm).

The LORD will not ally Himself with the wicked.  They have nothing to offer Him.  He has no need of increasing the size of His army by making friends.  They must submit to Him and become His subjects if they wish to be a part of His kingdom and experience the blessings of a kingdom citizen.  They may try to band together to overcome the LORD's people and thwart the LORD's plans, but there is no strength in numbers when it comes to the LORD.  The Lord spoke everything into existence and at His word, it will be destroyed.  No one and nothing will stand in opposition before King Jesus when He comes back to have vengeance on His enemies and claim His Kingdom.  The righteous can rest safe and secure that they are not under the LORD's wrath, and the wicked can be sure that nothing, not even death, is an escape from the coming wrath of God, if they are not in Christ.  You are either inside the Ark when the Flood starts, or you are outside.  Everyone inside is safe, and everyone outside drowns.  Though, the next judgment will not be a flood, but a judgment of fire where the elements will melt with fervent heat.  There will be no place to escape and the whole universe as we know it will go up in flames.  No one will be strong enough to survive.  This world and the kingdom of this world will one day soon come to an end, and it will not be because of global warming, climate change, or anything else that the media portrays as "end of life" scenario.  The LORD Himself will decide when the clock has run out, and judgment will come suddenly and swiftly.  No one will know the exact day or hour so that the wicked will continue to be wicked and will refuse to repent, and they will be caught up in the judgement meant for them (just like the wicked people in the time of Noah that had 120 years to repent while Noah was building the Ark, and they refused to repent because they wanted to sin and enjoy their wild living).  We are not that different from the people in the time of Noah, which is what makes me believe that the Day of the LORD is just around the corner.