Psalms 94:23

Verse Psalms 94:23. Shall cut them off] This is repeated, to show that the destruction of the Babylonians was fixed and indubitable: and in reference to the Jews, the persecutors and murderers of our Lord and his apostles, it was not less so. Babylon is totally destroyed; not even a vestige of it remains. The Jews are no longer a nation; they are scattered throughout the world, and have no certain place of abode. They do not possess even one village on the face of the earth.

The last verse is thus translated and paraphrased in the old Psalter: -

Trans. And he sal yelde to thaim thair wickednes, and in thair malice he sall skater thaim: skater thaim sal Lorde oure God.

Par. Alswa say efter thair il entent, that thai wil do gude men harme; he sall yelde thaim pyne, and in thair malice thai sal be sundred fra the hali courte of hevene, and skatred emang the wiked fendes of hell.

For different views of several parts of this Psalm, see the Analysis.

ANALYSIS OF THE NINETY-FOURTH PSALM

In this Psalm the parts are, -

I. A petition for vengeance upon the wicked, Psalms 94:1.

II. A pitiful complaint, with the causes of it, which were two: -

1. The delay of God's judgments on them, Psalms 94:3.

2. Their insolence, oppression of the poor, and blasphemy against God, Psalms 94:4.

III. A sharp reprehension of their blasphemy and atheism, and the refutation of it.

IV. A consolation to all good men, that God will punish the wicked and defend the righteous, Psalms 94:12. Which is confirmed, -

1. From God's faithfulness, who hath promised, and will perform it, Psalms 94:14.

2. From David's own experience, Psalms 94:16.

3. From God's hatred of injustice, tyranny, and oppression, Psalms 94:20-19. 1. Which will cause him to be a rock and defence to his people, Psalms 94:22. 2. A severe revenger to the oppressors, Psalms 94:23.

1. He begins with a petition that God would take vengeance of the oppressors of his people: "O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs, to whom vengeance belongs;" as if he had said, Thou art the most powerful Lord, a God of justice and power, and hast vengeance in thine own hand. Therefore now -

1. "Show thyself." Appear, shine forth evidently, and apparently show thy justice, Psalms 94:1.

2. "Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the earth." Do thy office of judicature; ascend thy throne and tribunal, as judges use to do when they give judgment.

3. "Render a reward unto the proud." For the proud humble themselves not unto thee; they repent not.

II. And now the prophet begins to complain that, by the delay of God's judgment, wicked men were hardened in their impiety, and gloried in their villany.

1. "How long? how long?" This thy forbearance seems tedious; especially since the wicked grow worse and worse by it, and insult over us the more.

2. "For they triumph in their strength." They glory in their prosperity, and in their wickedness.

3. "They utter and speak hard things." Boldly, rashly, proudly, they threaten ruin to thy Church.

4. "They are workers of iniquity, and they boast themselves." It is not sufficient for them to do ill, but they boast of it.

Now to what end do they make use of all these? The consequence is lamentable - the event sad. The effects are lamentable, for in their fury and injustice -

1. "They break in pieces thy people, O Lord." The people dedicated to thee.

2. "They afflict thine heritage." The people that thou hast chosen for thy possession.

3. "They slay the widow," destitute of the comfort of a husband - 1. "And the stranger." A man far from his friends and country. 2. "And murder the fatherless." All which thou hast taken into thy protection, and commanded that they be not wronged. Exodus 22:21-2; Deuteronomy 24:14; Deuteronomy 24:17-5. Yet such is their fury, that they spare neither sex, nor age, nor any condition of men.

"Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." This is their impiety; this is their blasphemy; this is the true cause of all their injustice, tyranny, cruelty, and oppression.

III. Now our prophet sets himself seriously to reprehend and confute this. By an apostrophe he turns to them, and calls them fools; and proves by a manifest argument that they are fools; demonstrating, from the cause to the effect, that God is neither deaf nor blind, as they presumed and conceived: and urgeth them emphatically, -

1. "Understand, ye brutish among the people. O ye fools, when will ye be wise?" What! will ye be brutish always? will ye never have common sense in your heads?

2. "He planted the ear," caused you to hear; "and shall he not then hear?"

3. He formed the eye with all the tunicles, and put into it the faculty of vision by which you see; "and shall he not see?" To say the contrary, is as if you should affirm that the fountain that sends forth the stream had no water in it; or the sun that enlightens the world had no light; or the fire that warms, no heat. Are these affirmations fit for wise men? Neither is it, that the God of Jacob doth not hear nor see.

4. "He chastiseth the heathen," as Sodom, Gomorrah, c., or he chastises them by the checks of their own conscience "and shall not he then correct you," who go under the name of his people, and yet so impiously blaspheme?

5. "He that teacheth man knowledge" - hath endued him with a reasonable soul, and made him capable of all arts and sciences; is he stupid? is he without understanding? "Shall not he know?" He looks into your hearts, and knows your thoughts and counsels, and findeth them all vain: "The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but vanity." With which he concludes his reprehension.

IV. And so from them he comes to the good man, and shows his happiness, whom he labours to comfort in his extremities, pronouncing him blessed: "Blessed is the man." And his blessedness lies in three things: -

1. In his sufferings; because when he is punished, he is but chastised, and his chastisements are from the Lord: "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest."

2. In his teaching, for when he is chastised, he is but taught obedience to the law of God, taught out of thy law.

3. In consideration of the end; that he feel not, but bear more moderately, the injuries of the wicked; for the end why God chastiseth and teacheth thee out of his law is: That he may give thee rest - a quiet and even soul, from the days of adversity; and that thou shouldst expect with patience, till the pit be digged up for the ungodly. Such a day there is, and the day will come. Hell is as ready to receive the sinner, as a grave digged up for a dead body. Expect therefore, their punishment and thy deliverance with a quiet mind. For which he gives three reasons: -

The first reason is, that though God for a time seem to be angry, and suffer his people to be afflicted, yet he will not utterly neglect and forsake them: -

1. "For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance."

2. A day of judgment and execution of justice shall come, "when judgment shall return unto righteousness."

A second confirmation of the comfort he gave to the Church in affliction is drawn from his own experience, Psalms 94:16.

1. Object. Yea, but this time of judgment may be long; in the meanwhile it is necessary to have some helper and help against the persecutions and injuries of cruel men. Who will arise for me, and labour to protect me in so great a concourse of devils or mischievous men? "Who will stand up for me, and defend me against the workers of iniquity?"

Resp. Even he that then stood up for me. No man, but God alone. He did it; and "unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence;" I had been laid in the grave among the dead, saith David, Psalms 94:17.

2. If I said, and complained to him, that I was in any danger, my foot slips - I was tempted and ready to fall, thy mercy, O Lord. held me up; in mercy he lent me his hand, and sustained me.

3. "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul:" -

(1) The thoughts within me were sorrows of heart, and many they were, occasioned from within, from without; a multitude of them.

(2) "Thy comforts delight my soul." As were the troubles in the flesh, so were comforts in my soul.

His third reason, to comfort the Church in affliction, is drawn from the nature of God, to whom all iniquity is hateful.

1. "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?" Thou art a just God, and wilt thou have any thing to do, any society, with those that sit upon thrones and seats of justice, and execute injustice?

2. "Which frame mischief by a law," i.e. frame wicked laws; or, under the colour of law and justice, oppress the innocent. With those who do injustice by the sword of justice, God will have no fellowship.

3. And yet there is a third pretense of wicked men to colour their proceedings against innocent men. The first was their throne, the second was the law, and the third is their council, and consultations in them. These they call to that end. They meet by troops as thieves; they assemble, they convene in synods; "they gather themselves together," and that to a most wicked end: -

1. "Against the soul of the righteous." θηρευσαι, To hunt. - Septuagint.

2. "To condemn the innocent blood." Their laws are Draco's laws. Now what shall the poor innocent do in such a case? How shall he be comforted? Help he must not expect from man; from man it cannot come; it must come from heaven; and therefore let him say with David, Though my enemies rage as they list, and exercise all cruelties towards me, under a pretence of zeal, piety, and legal justice; yet

1. "The Lord is my defence," so that their treachery and plots shall not hurt me.

2. "My God is the rock of my refuge," on whom my hope shall safely rely.

3. "I am fully assured, for I have his word and his promise engaged for it."

1. "That he shall bring upon them their own iniquity;" that is, that the iniquity of the wicked man shall return upon his own head.

2. "And shall cut them off in their own wickedness;" not so much for their sin as for the malice of it.

3. Which for assurance of it he repeats, and explains who it is that shall do it: "Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off;" the Lord, whose providence they derided; "our God," the God of Jacob, whom they contemned, Psalms 94:7, he "shall cut them off;" they shall have no part with his people.