"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
In 12-15 the Psalmist turns from the oppressors to their victims, and here it is all gracious consolation. We can take this either as the Psalmist speaking to them or, alternatively, the afflicted giving expression themselves to an attitude of faith and discernment. Either way, it is the assurance that when afflictions come they can work for good to them that love God, to see in them part of God's educational processes. God instructs His people, and by 'law' teaches the right interpretation of such afflicted providences. It is when we learn this that peace can come - this is the deeper 'end' and purpose of God's dealings and of His allowing the pressures to come. In 16ff the Psalmist is very personal, he is himself conscious of the pressures upon him and of what he has suffered in times of perplexity. There is a sense in which the whole thought of the Psalm is summed up and illustrated in these words of personal experience. The heart cry in 16 corresponds to that in 1, 2, and there may be a sense of rising panic in it with a feeling and fear that 'there is no one'. But past experience confirms to the Psalmist the present help of the Lord. He cannot change, for He is God. The words in 18 echo Psalm 73:2, 23. When we go down into despair or doubt of God's goodness and love we prove afresh that He is greater than all our weakness. In the wonderfully reassuring statement in 19 it is a further enrichment to consult alternative, modern renderings of the Psalmist's words: the RSV reads 'When the cares of my heart are many, Thy consolations cheer my soul'. Maclaren suggests the idea of 'divided' thoughts, alternating between open despair, doubt and faith, and this seems corroborated by the doubt expressed in 20. The Psalm ends with a final thrusting away of the dark doubt and fear (22, 23) and the assertion of faith and trust.