He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?
The wicked act as if God cannot hear them and cannot see them. This verse answers them with a question about their own bodies: who gave them the ear and the eye?
The psalm points the mockers to evidence they carry in their own heads.
Foolish men might well be told to wake up and understand at least the basic facts. If they are fools, when will they be wise? (v. 8). The evidence of their responsibility to God is in their own ears and eyes. They can hear: an amazing fact, but where did their hearing come from? They can see: how did they receive this amazing ability? Are they senseless enough to think that their Creator, who gave them these organs, cannot hear and see Himself?
Learned people still deny that God made the ear and the eye. One writer finds their unbelief humbling.
The hearing ear is a wonderfully good gift. The seeing eye does even more for people in this life. The unbelief of the would-be wise is humbling. They try to convince themselves and others that the LORD made neither! Even a pagan like Galen felt and confessed that the hand which made them was divine.
So what exactly reaches His ear and His eye?
The wicked forget that He who made the ear can hear the hard things spoken against God's people, and the boastful things the wicked say about themselves. They forget that He who made the eye can see all their violent and evil deeds. They forget that He who teaches man knowledge "knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath." These are solemn truths for us all. We do well to remember that the Lord hears all our words, sees all our acts, and knows all our thoughts. But they are twice as solemn for those who throw off all fear of God.
This verse meets anyone who feels powerless against people who speak against them.
Are we then, as believers, helpless and without resource when others "pour out their arrogant words" and boast in themselves (v. 4)? So far from being helpless, the psalm shows that we have the greatest possible resource. The LORD Himself is the resource of the godly. Faith falls back on the great fact that nothing escapes the LORD. He hears the hard speeches; He sees every wrong act; He knows every secret motive.
The same writer draws the practical line: secrecy is no protection and no barrier.
Those who are maliciously disposed may speak hard things about the godly and slander them in secret, but the LORD hears, the LORD sees, the LORD knows.
The questions do not stop at hearing and seeing. Verse 10 carries the same logic into how God handles the nations, and one writer links it to the patient skill of farming.
Surely we may say: "He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? He who disciplines the nations, does He not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge" — even all the preparation that goes into farming, aimed at a definite end — does He not know how to manage man? how to make man understand that He is God alone, and man himself only the creature of His hands?
If God planted hearing, He can also open it again. Jesus did that for a deaf man who could hardly speak.
After His touch of sympathy, the Lord spoke His word of command: Ephphatha. His word was just as powerful to control and to correct as it was to create. Had He not "planted the ear" (Ps. 94:9)? If He made the hearing ear (Prov. 20:12), should He not cause the deaf ear to hear His voice? So the Lord spoke to the deaf ear itself rather than to the man, and said, "Be opened." The man's ears were opened and his tongue was set free, so that he spoke properly.
- Made — God planted the ear and formed the eye; every person carries the evidence of a Maker in their own head.
- Heard — because He made the ear, the arrogant speeches against His people and the boasting of the wicked all reach Him.
- Seen — because He formed the eye, every violent and evil deed is already in full view.
- Known — the argument runs past the senses. The God who teaches man knowledge knows man's thoughts, and He knows how to manage him.
- Restored — the hand that planted the ear can open a deaf one; the Creator's power to make is His power to heal.
He that instructeth the nations, shall not he correct -- he that teacheth man knowledge?
In Psalm 94 the wicked crush God's people and boast that God neither sees nor cares. Verse 10 answers with two questions: can the God who disciplines nations and gives man knowledge be blind to what happens under His own hand?
The psalm moves in three steps: a cry for God to act, an argument with those who doubt He sees, and then an explanation of His ways.
Psalm 94 speaks to the LORD as the God of vengeance. It asks Him to show Himself — to lift Himself up as Judge of the earth and give the proud what they deserve. The cry "how long?" grows urgent and pressing. Verses 4-11 address the unbelieving Israelites on the folly of their conduct. Verses 12-15 explain the ways of the LORD in a most instructive way: blessed is the man whom the LORD disciplines and teaches out of His law.
Verses 9 and 10 reason from what God made to what God must know. The question in verse 10 breaks off unfinished, and the next line of the psalm completes it.
The wicked forget that He who made the ear can hear the hard things people speak against God's people, and the boastful things the wicked say about themselves. He who made the eye can see all their violent and evil deeds. And He who teaches man knowledge "knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath." These are solemn truths for us all. We do well to remember that the Lord hears all our words, sees all our acts, and knows all our thoughts. They are far more solemn for those who throw off all fear of God.
The first half of the verse points to something anyone can see in history. God corrects nations, and correction implies a Master with the right to correct.
The psalmist turns to argue with them, though they are like animals with no ability to know God. Is there not a moral government of the world which shows itself — such as the Teacher of all human knowledge must have — the rod of the Master? Ah, the LORD knows well the thoughts of men, that they are empty. Happy is the man who knows the restraint of His government and the teaching of His law.
The phrase is not limited to religious instruction. One writer takes it to cover the step-by-step methods of farming, each one worked out for a purpose.
Surely we may say: "He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? He who disciplines the nations, does He not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge" — even all the preparatory methods in agriculture, working toward a definite end — does He not know how to manage man? How to make man understand that He alone is God, and that man himself is only the creature of His hands?
If God teaches every mind, no thought is private. One writer asks what this changed in people who feared the Lord.
Does this not imply that they were not content with an outward show of religion in front of others? A round of religious services was not enough for them, nor was drawing near to God with correct words on their lips. Instead, they lived their secret lives with the sense of being under the eye of God. They were aware that God heard their words, saw their acts, and knew their thoughts.
The two ideas of verse 10, correction and teaching, return in verses 12-15. There they are aimed at God's own people.
In these verses we learn that, though for a time God may not "show" Himself in any active intervention on behalf of His suffering people, yet He is by no means indifferent to our trials and exercises. On the contrary, He is using the trials for our blessing through discipline and teaching. By these trials He disciplines us so that we may detect and judge the evils of the flesh, and learn what we are in His sight.
- Teacher. God gives man knowledge, so He cannot be short of it Himself. The verse argues from the gift back to the Giver.
- Rod. His discipline of nations is visible proof of a moral government of the world. Behind it stands a Master with a rod.
- Reach. His teaching covers everyday skill, down to the methods of farming. If He can manage that, He knows how to manage man.
- Exposure. Nothing hides from a Teacher like this. He hears our words, sees our acts and knows our thoughts, in private as much as in public.
- Blessing. The hand that corrects nations also corrects His own people for their good. That is why verse 12 calls the disciplined man blessed.