O God of vengeances, Jehovah, God of vengeances, shine forth;
The psalm opens with a cry, not with praise. It calls twice on the God who owns vengeance and asks Him to step into view. Behind it lies a world where the wrong people are winning. Does God see? When will He act? And what should the sufferer do while waiting?
This name calls on the God bound by covenant to His people, and it treats His judgment as light breaking out.
So this is the cry here: "God of vengeances, Jehovah... God of vengeances, shine forth." Jehovah is the covenant God of His people, pledged to take up their cause. The lightning-stroke is still the light showing itself: "Rise up, You Judge of the earth! Pay back the proud what they deserve."
This prayer comes from faith, not from doubt.
The psalm addresses the Lord as the "God of vengeance" in the dispute with the nation about Zion. It is the language of faith, for vengeance is in God's heart, and He would even clothe Himself with it. Faith always knows, calls for, and acts upon what is in God's heart.
God claims vengeance, which takes it out of the hands of the person wronged.
The godly man finds himself in a world where the people of God suffer and the proud prosper. He also finds a world where, to natural sight, it might seem that God is indifferent. So the Psalmist prays that God would "show" Himself, act on behalf of His suffering people, and deal with the proud. At the same time he knows that "vengeance" belongs to God... In the presence of provocation, anger, and deliberate insults, let us beware of seeking to take vengeance. That the Lord keeps in His own hands.
The reason is not only that we lack the right, but that we lack the accuracy.
The psalmist addresses the "Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs" (v. 1), for God is the only One who has any right to exercise vengeance. If man tries to avenge himself, he will always go beyond what is just and right. We can never be trusted to make fair judgments in our own case. We may think too that judgment ought to come sooner than it does. But God knows better than we do both the time of judgment and its character.
The request can sound harsh. It rests on what God is.
God never treats the guilty as innocent. It is contrary to His nature, and would not be the truth. He may put away the sin, and receive the sinner cleansed; but He cannot act as if it did not exist when it does, nor be indifferent to it while He remains Himself... His coming vengeance will free the world from the crushing misery of the enemy's yoke and of human lusts. Then the world may flourish under the peaceful eye of its Deliverer.
The waiting is measured, not endless. God's love for His own is the ground of the answer.
Will the enemy's hatred be allowed to triumph, and His own be oppressed forever? It cannot be... The seeming delay lasts only "until the pit is dug for the wicked. For Jehovah will not cast off His people." He will prove Himself their help, their defence, and the rock of their refuge. Because He cares for them, and because He loves them, "He shall cut them off in their own wickedness"... "Will not God avenge His own elect," said the Lord Jesus, "who cry day and night to Him, though He is patient with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily" (Luke 18:7-8).
Commentators differ on what the shining is. One reads it as judgment breaking out like light. Another finds in the words more than the psalmist may have grasped.
The psalmist adds, "shine forth," though possibly he did not understand the force of what he wrote. Has God "shone forth"? Yes, in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, in whose face all the glory of God is shining (2 Cor. 4:6). Is not the shining of that face the full answer to the need of saints of God who endure days and months and years of suffering?
The psalm has a first setting, and a wider reach.
Probably most would agree that the main application of Psalm 94 is to the sufferings of the Jews in the last days. Still, the Psalm holds great principles for all God's people as they pass through a world from which Christ is absent.
- Belongs. Vengeance is God's, not the sufferer's. The verse names Him by that right before it asks Him for anything.
- Because. He cannot treat the guilty as innocent and stay Himself — so the request is not cruelty but a call on His nature.
- Cannot. God keeps vengeance out of our hands for two reasons: it is not our right, and in our own case we always overshoot.
- Shine. The cry asks for light, not just a blow: judgment that reveals God, and light already shining in the face of Christ.
- Speedily. The delay runs only until the pit is dug; He will not cast off His people, and He answers the cry because He loves them.
Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth, render the reward to the proud.
Psalm 94 opens with a prayer from a world where cruelty is winning and God seems to be doing nothing. Why may the righteous ask God to repay the proud, when they must never repay anyone themselves?
One writer describes the world this prayer rises from, and who alone has the right to avenge:
The Psalm opens with a prayer. The godly man finds himself in a world where the people of God suffer and the proud prosper. Worse, to natural sight it might seem that God is indifferent. So the Psalmist prays that God would "show" Himself, act on behalf of His suffering people, and deal with the proud. At the same time he knows that "vengeance" belongs to God. Christians surely need reminding of this, for the Apostle Paul says to us, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.'" When we meet provocation, anger, and deliberate insults, let us beware of trying to take vengeance.
Another writer explains why man is the wrong person to settle the score:
If man tries to avenge himself, he will always go beyond what is perfectly just and right. We can never judge our own case with perfect fairness. We may also think God ought to judge sooner than He does. But God knows better than we do both the time of judgment and its character.
The title here does not point to a courtroom at the end of all things:
This does not refer to God judging from a throne, as at the great white throne. It speaks of Him as the One who will govern the earth in righteousness. So Abraham speaks of God as Judge when he says, "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?" (Gen. 18:25)… Under man's rule righteousness is too often separated from judgment. Under God, the Judge of all, righteousness will return to judgment: "with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth" (Isaiah 11:3-5).
It points forward to a day when no one will dispute it:
Through past ages men have refused to give God His true place in the world. In the world to come all will acknowledge Him as the Judge of all. There will be no atheists or unbelievers in that day, for God's will shall be done on earth even as it is in heaven.
The verse names the proud, not the violent or the cruel. One writer treats pride as the root of the whole problem:
Yes, it is pride that must be brought low. "For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low… And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day" (Isa. 2:12-17). Pride is the very essence of sin: the creature lifted out of its place, and God pushed out of His. For this the blow must come.
One writer reads this cry as a clear-eyed appeal, not a burst of temper:
Psalm 94 gives us this cry. It also expresses the fullest understanding of where they stand, of God's dealings, of where the wicked stand, and of the result about to come… Psalm 94 speaks to the LORD as the God of vengeance, and demands that He show Himself — lift Himself up as Judge of the earth and give the proud their reward. The "how long" is pressing and urgent.
One writer links the cry to a promise from Jesus:
The introduction gives us the cry of the righteous — the appeal of righteousness to power. As the Lord says: "And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily" (Luke 18:7-8).
- Cry — The verse is a prayer, born where the faithful suffer, the proud prosper, and God seems to be doing nothing.
- Surrender — Asking God to repay is the opposite of repaying yourself. He keeps vengeance in His own hands, because only He can measure it fairly.
- Judge — "Judge of the earth" means God governing this world in righteousness, not a final courtroom. Under Him, righteousness and judgment go together again.
- Pride — God aims at the lifted-up heart, not cruelty alone. Pride is the essence of sin, so every high thing comes down and the LORD alone stands exalted.
- Answer — The "how long" is urgent, but God hears it. He will give justice to His elect speedily.