"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."
Psalm 94
A word about the nature of punishment will not come amiss at this point. The 'humanitarian' idea argues that to punish a man because he deserves it, and as much as he deserves, is mere revenge, and therefore barbarous and immoral. Thus, as C.S. Lewis observes, 'It removes from punishment the concept of desert. But the concept of desert is the only connecting link between punishment and justice. It is only as deserved or undeserved that a sentence can be just or unjust. Whether it deters, or cures, is not a question of justice'. It is not without significance that it is generally those who have departed from the classical idea of retribution in punishment that are given to advocate taking things into their own hands, in terms of violent revolution. Assuredly, something does not tie up there!
To go on: in 3-6 the evil of the oppressors is described in words and ideas very sim- ilar to those expressed in Psalm 73, and echoed many times in the Old Testament and in human experience alike. They need little comment! In 7-11, the Psalmist is reminding himself of needed truth - or perhaps the afflicted, who are doubting God's goodness and remonstrating with themselves - in the assertion that God does take to do with mankind (10): He has built His universe on moral lines, and this is how He means things will be. This is a much needed and timely assurance, which we do well to remember. One recalls in this connection the story of an atheist farmer who sowed his grain and harvested it on Sundays, and who wrote to the editor of a newspaper in the following terms: 'Dear Sir, I have been trying an experiment. I have a field of corn, which I ploughed on Sunday. I planted it on Sunday. I cultivated it on Sunday. I cut and hauled it to the barn on Sunday. And I find that I have more corn to the acre than has been gathered by any of my neighbours this October'. The editor published the letter, and added a brief editorial note: 'God does not make full settlement in October'.