Psalm 94 explained: Does God See the Injustice?

Call for the Judge (vv. 1-3)

The writer asks God, as judge of the whole world, to step in and pay back arrogant people. The cry for vengeance is a plea for the rightful judge to act, and the repeated question of how long is an honest complaint that justice is slow.

Cruelty of the powerful (vv. 4-7)

The oppressors boast and crush God's people, the family he claims as his own. Widows, foreigners and orphans had no one to defend them and were specially protected in Israel's law, so killing them shows the worst cruelty, done on the belief that God is not looking.

Of course God sees (vv. 8-11)

The psalm calls that belief foolish, since the one who made ears and eyes can surely hear and see. The God who corrects whole nations knows every human scheme and how empty it is.

Hardship as teaching (vv. 12-15)

The person God corrects and teaches from his law, meaning his instruction, is called fortunate, because God gives them rest until the wicked fall into their own pit. The writer trusts that God will not abandon his people and that justice will one day be fair again.

Held up when slipping (vv. 16-19)

When no one stood up for the writer, God did, and kept them from the silent world of the dead. Their foot was slipping and God's love held them up, and his comfort calmed their anxious, crowded thoughts.

Injustice made legal (vv. 20-23)

The writer asks whether God could ever side with a wicked seat of power that makes misery into law and condemns the innocent. Scholars are unsure whether these were foreign rulers or Israel's own leaders, but the psalm ends trusting God as a safe high place and expecting him to destroy the wrongdoers for their evil.

Key verse: Psalm 94:9

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on how to pray a psalm that asks God to repay and destroy enemies, some praying it as a fitting cry for justice for the oppressed and others reading it as needing to be tempered by Jesus' teaching to love enemies.

Something to think about

When you see powerful people harm the vulnerable and face no consequences, what do you find yourself wanting to happen, and why?