Psalms 94:8

Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? UNDERSTAND, YE BRUTISH AMONG THE PEOPLE. The Psalmist turns from the infidel oppressors who uttered the cavil against God () to those "among the people" of God by profession who give ear to and secretly sympathize with it. Men become "brutish" by severance from God; because it is only by union with Him that man, made in the image of God, attains His true ideal (; ). AND YE FOOLS, WHEN WILL YE BE WISE? "The world by wisdom knew not God" (). Therefore, "if any man seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise...

8_Understand, ye stupid among the people _As it was execrable impiety to deny God to be Judge of the earth, the Psalmist severely reprimands their folly in thinking to elude his government, and even succeed by artifices in escaping his view. The expression, _stupid among the people, _is stronger than had he simply condemned them as foolish. It rendered their folly more inexcusable, that they belonged to the posterity of Abraham, of whom Moses said, “What people is there so great, who have their gods so near unto them, as the Lord thy God hath this day come down unto thee? For this is your understanding and wisdom before all nations, to have God for your legislator.” (Deuteronomy 4:7) (21) Perhaps, however, he may be considered as addressing the rulers and those who were of higher rank in the community, and styling them degraded amo

1-11 We may with boldness appeal to God; for he is the almighty Judge by whom every man is judged. Let this encourage those who suffer wrong, to bear it with silence, committing themselves to Him who judges righteously. These prayers are prophecies, which speak terror to the sons of violence. There will come a day of reckoning for all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against God, his truths, and ways, and people. It would hardly be believed, if we did not witness it, that millions of rational creatures should live, move, speak, hear, understand, and do what they purpose, yet act as if they believed that God would not punish the abuse of his gifts. As all knowledge is from God, no doubt he knows all the thoughts of the children of men, and knows that the imaginations of the thoughts of men's hearts are only evil, and that continually. Even in good thoughts there is a w...

Verse Psalms 94:8. _UNDERSTAND, YE BRUTISH_] These are the same expressions as in Psalms 92:6, on which see the note. Psalms 92:6....

UNDERSTAND, YE BRUTISH AMONG THE PEOPLE - See Psalms 73:22. The meaning here is, “You who are like the brutes; you who see and understand no more of the character and plans of God than the wild beasts of the desert.” The meaning is, that they did not employ their reason in the case; they acted like beasts, regardless of the consequences of their conduct - as if God would treat people as he does the beasts; as if there were no retribution in the future world. AND YE FOOLS, WHEN WILL YE BE WISE? - How long is this stupidity to continue? When will you attend to the truth; when will you act as immortal beings; when will you suffer your rational nature to lead you up to just views of God? It is implied that this folly had been manifested for a long period, and that it was time they should arouse from this condition, and act

EXPOSITION THIS psalm is primarily (Psalms 94:1) a "cry for vengeance on Israel's oppressors, passing into an appeal for more faith to God's own people" (Cheyne). In the latter half (Psalms 94:12) the psalmist comforts himself with the thought that God will assuredly protect his own, and bring destruction upon the evil doers (Psalms 94:12). Metrically, the psalm is made up of four strophes—the first of seven verses (Psalms 94:1); the next of four (Psalms 94:8); the third of eight ...

UNDERSTAND, YE BRUTISH AMONG THE PEOPLE,.... Or the most brutish and stupid of all people; especially that profess themselves to be the people of God, or Christians, as the Papists do; and who seem to be the persons here addressed: "brutish"; to murder the servants of the Lord, and drink their blood, till inebriated with it; stupid to the last degree to think that hereby they did God good service: hence the pope, the head of them, is represented both in his secular and ecclesiastical power by two beasts; the one rising out of the sea with seven heads and ten horns, a monster in nature, most like a leopard, his feet as a bear's, and his mouth as a lion's, having the fierceness and cruelty of them all; and the other coming out of the earth with two horns like a lamb, but spake like a dragon, Revelation 13:1, the exhortation to these brutish creatures supposes them to be without understand

Let us read this evening the ninety-fourth Psalm, and may the Spirit of God instruct us while we read it! Psalms 94:1. _O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself._ God is the God of justice, and when iniquity and oppression prevail, it is natural that his people should call upon him to come forth out of his hiding-places. Sometimes, when oppression and iniquity and error prevail, it seems as if God had hidden himself away. Hence the prayer of the psalmist, «O Jehovah, the God of recompenses (or revenges, as the margin has it), show thyself.» Psalms 94:2. _Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud._ As one who is about to strike a heavy blow lifts himself up, to increase the force of

PSALM 94-100 Psalms 94 Prayer for the Execution of the Vengeance of God _ 1. The Prayer on account of the enemy (Psalms 94:1)_ 2. Expostulation with the wicked (Psalms 94:8) 3. The comfort of the righteous (Psalms 94:14) The seven Psalms which follow lead on to the full establishment of the kingdom on earth and most of these Psalms celebrate His judgment reign, and the blessings of the age to come. We start once more with a Psalm which pictures vividly the trials of the days which precede the coming of the Lord and the coming of His kingdom. The Spirit of God has arranged these Psalms, as we have by th

XCIV. A PRAYER FOR VENGEANCE ON OPPRESSIVE RULERS AND FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THEM. Psalms 94:1. The wickedness of the arrogant. The bad rulers here are evidently Jews. They are oppressors, not invaders, and their offences against the moral law are just those which the prophets had denounced in the Israel of their day. PSALMS 94:7. The practical (see on Psalms 14), not theoretical atheism of the arrogant. They thought God did not care for men's conduct. As if He who planted ear and eye would fail to hear and see! Only a Jew could adopt this semi-sceptical position to Israel's God. PSALMS 94:10_ b_. Emend, He that teacheth men shall he be without knowledge?...