For Jehovah will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance;
Psalm 94 is the prayer of people crushed by proud oppressors who think God is not watching. This verse turns from the violence to God, and its opening "for" ties the promise to the chastening just before it: how can chastening and a promise never to abandon be one story?
The verses just before this one speak of God chastening and teaching. So this promise gives a reason, not a new idea. The trials are His work, not His absence.
For a time God may not "show" Himself by stepping in to act for His suffering people. Even so, He is not at all indifferent to our trials and struggles. On the contrary, He is using the trials for our blessing through "chastening" and "teaching." By these trials He chastens us. He does it so that we may spot and judge the evils of the flesh, and learn what we are in His sight. In this way we share "His holiness" and bring forth the "fruit of righteousness" (Heb. 12:10-11).
Earlier in the psalm the oppressors break God's people in pieces and afflict His heritage. This verse picks up the same two words. What the wicked do to them is not what God will do to them. Older translations read "cast off" and "forsake His inheritance."
The godly feel the terrible evil of the world, and they may try to put things right. Every such effort ends in weariness and heart-breaking disappointment. But God chastens and teaches, and then the godly see His ways in letting evil win for a time while they suffer. The submissive soul finds rest. Then it is clear. The wicked crush God's people (v. 5), yet God will not cast off His people (v. 14). The wicked afflict God's heritage (v. 5), yet God will not forsake His inheritance (v. 14).
The security does not rest on how the people are behaving. It rests on whose they are — a possession God has taken for Himself.
The psalmist knows from experience that the Lord will not cast off His people. God sees fit to give that experience, to prove this is true of all believers. They are "His inheritance," and He can never forsake them (v. 14).
Being kept is not the whole of it. Chastening also teaches the heart more about God's own character.
When failure or inconsistency brings chastening, He uses that chastening to work out the evil in the heart that needed dealing with. In chastening, He throws the heart back on the sources that gave rise to the evil. This lays the soul bare, so that God's truth reaches it and His word comes home with power. The soul learns why it has been chastened. More than that, God brings it into the secret of His own heart. It learns more of His character, who "will not cast off his people, neither forsake his inheritance" (v. 14). God wants more for us than privileges given to us. He wants us to have fellowship with Himself. Through these chastenings, God brings the whole framework of the heart into association with Himself. This settles it firmly on the certainty of the hope that grace gives.
This is not a promise locked in the past. The New Testament repeats it as God's own word to believers.
First, he realises that though the LORD may chasten, He "will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His heritage" (14). So the Apostle, in his day, can remind believers that the Lord has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).
The verse does not stop at survival. The next line looks on to the day when the world's courts are put right.
For faith it was a settled thing that Jehovah would never cast off His people. But judgment would return to righteousness, and the upright in heart would follow it. Judgment, long separated from righteousness, now returns to it. Judgment was in Pilate, righteousness in Christ. There the two stood in complete opposition — and more or less everywhere else too.
- Chastened, not cast off. The rod in the verses before and the promise here belong together. God's hand on His people trains them; it does not reject them.
- Crushed, not forsaken. The oppressors break His people and afflict His heritage. Of those same people God says He will not cast them off or forsake them.
- His, therefore kept. The guarantee is ownership. They are His inheritance, so He can never forsake them.
- Taught, therefore near. The trial does more than keep them safe. It brings the soul into the secret of God's heart. The aim is fellowship, not just privileges.
- Waited for, then vindicated. The promise runs on to the day when judgment returns to righteousness. The two that parted at Pilate's judgment seat meet again.
For judgment shall return unto righteousness, and all the upright in heart shall follow it.
Psalm 94 is the cry of God's people under the power of the wicked: how long will the wicked win? Verse 15 is the answer of faith. The split between power and right, seen all over the world, will not last.
The verse assumes a separation. Older translations read, "judgment shall return unto righteousness." Judgment means the power to decide and enforce. Righteousness means being in the right. One commentator finds both the problem and the promise at a single trial:
Now judgment and righteousness are too often divorced. Power and authority have been given to the nations, but they have abused that power by separating righteousness from judgment. This was clear at the judgment seat of Pilate, where Pilate held the judgment but righteousness was with the holy Prisoner. The day is coming when "judgment will return to righteousness." Judgment will then work in righteousness, and the upright in heart will follow the judgment. They will approve and justify the judgment of evil.
God has still not avenged the death of His Son. But the wait has not been empty:
Judgment and righteousness have been apart for a long time. Judgment was in the hands of Pilate, who sat on the judgment seat. Righteousness — perfect righteousness, human as well as divine — stood in front of him in the person of the blameless victim. Pilate washed his hands to declare that he was sure of His innocence, and it changed nothing: he still gave Him up to be crucified! And God looked down on that scene, and has put up with the world that was stained by it ever since! Could we expect Him to avenge any lesser wrongs while that greatest crime of all goes unavenged? ... He used that crowning act of human hatred and wickedness to show us the full depth of His own love. He sent His Spirit to testify that God accepted in heaven the blood that men shed on earth. Even the men who actually shed it would find it a sure hiding place, if only they took refuge in it for eternity.
The word "return" implies that judgment once belonged with righteousness and strayed. One writer pictures this with the staff of Moses:
"Judgment" has slipped away from righteousness, just as the rod of Moses (the sign of authority) left his hand and became a serpent. But he kept authority over it after all. When he reached out his hand to take it, it became a rod in his hand again. In the same way, judgment will return to righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it. They will pursue it in peace, without the hindrance that evil now causes.
Verse 15 does not stand alone. Just before it, the psalm speaks of God chastening and teaching His people:
"You chasten" is the admission that behind the hand of those who trouble God's people is the hand of God Himself, dealing with His people. "You teach" is the acknowledgment that God teaches His people through that chastening. He shows them what is in their own hearts, and also the grace, the goodness, and the holiness of His own heart. So they stop trusting themselves and rest in God. God's chastening is often God's way of teaching, and God's teaching leads to God's rest — "that You may give him rest from the days of adversity."
Commentators place the fulfilment in the reign of Christ. They read Psalms 93 to 100 as one series moving toward it:
The Psalms from 93 to 100 describe God bringing the First-begotten into the world... Psalm 93 sets out the theme. In the rejection of Christ there was judgment in Pilate, and righteousness in Christ. Look at the world as it is: the one righteous man stands entirely on one side, and judgment sits in the place of authority on the other. But when Christ comes to reign (Ps. 94:15), judgment returns to righteousness, and the two go together.
Until that day, obeying God can be costly:
In every kingdom on earth, all through history, the servants of God have had to choose. Would they obey certain laws of the state they lived under, or the specific commandments of the living God they were here to serve? And it must always be this way until the kingdom of God comes in power and His Christ reigns... Until then, if the servants of God are faithful, they will meet persecution, imprisonment, and even death itself.
- Divorced. Authority and right have been pulled apart. Pilate held the judgment seat, and righteousness stood before him as a prisoner.
- Delayed. God did not avenge that crime. He used it to show His love, and offered the very blood men shed as a hiding place — even to the men who shed it.
- Retained. Like the rod that became a serpent yet returned to Moses' hand, judgment has slipped away but is still God's to reclaim.
- Taught. Meanwhile God's chastening teaches the heart what is in it and what is in God. That teaching brings rest before the promise arrives.
- Restored. When Christ reigns, judgment and righteousness go together again. Until then, faithful people should expect opposition, not justice.