O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth... show Thyself. Psalm 94 Persecutors and their victims Homilist. I. THE AWFUL CONDITION OF THE WICKED PERSECUTOR. The persecutors referred to (vers. 1-10) are represented as "proud," speaking "hard things," as "workers of iniquity," as "breaking in pieces" the people of God, as "slaying the widow and the stranger," and "murdering the fatherless." Every age and country has abounded with such oppressors, they are rife even in this land of liberty. 1. They are prayed against by their godly victims (vers. 1, 2). 2. They are understood by their godly victims, who saw in their hearts — (1) Atheism (ver. 7). (2) Brutality (ver. 8). (3) Folly (vers. 8-10). II. THE BLESSED CONDITION OF THEIR PIOUS VICTIMS. These victims regarded their persecution — 1. As a Divine chastisement (ver. 12). All afflictions even when they come by the cruel persecution of men are employed by the Almighty Father as chastisements and corrections. Although He does not originate the evil He directs it and uses it for good. 2. As a Divine chastisement that would come to an end (ver. 13). The afflictions will not continue for ever, a long and blessed repose will ensue. The persecutors will fall into the pit which they have dug. The sinner is ever his own destroyer; with every crime he is sinking his own dark bottomless pit into which he must fall. 3. As a chastisement under which they were guaranteed Divine support. The pious victims experienced (1) Divine help (vers. 17, 18). (2) Divine consolation (ver. 19). 4. As a Divine chastisement that would end in the ruin of their enemies (vers. 20-23). ( Homilist. ) Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it. Psalm 94:7-10 The absurdity of libertinism and infidelity J. Saurin. In the style of the sacred authors, particularly in that of our prophet, to deny the existence of a God, the doctrine of providence, and the essential difference between just and unjust, is one and the same thing ( Psalm 10 ; Psalm 14 ; Psalm 53 ). 1. If ye consider the discernment and choice of the people, of whom the prophet speaks, ye will see, that he had a great right to denominate them most brutish and foolish. What an excess must a man have attained, when he hates a religion, without which he cannot but be miserable! 2. Having taken the unbelieving libertine on his own interest, I take him on the public interest, and, having attacked his taste and discernment, I attack his policy. An infidel is a disturber of public peace, who, by undertaking to sap the foundations of religion, undermines those of society. Society cannot subsist without religion. Nor can worldly honour supply the place of religion. Finally. Human laws cannot supply the place of religion. To whatever degree of perfection they may be improved, they will always be imperfect in their substance, weak in their motives, and restrained in their extent. 3. The infidel carrieth his indocility to the utmost degree of extravagance, by undertaking alone to oppose all mankind, and by audaciously preferring his own judgment above that of the whole world, who, excepting a small number, have unanimously embraced the truths which he rejects. 4. Yet, as no man is so unreasonable as not to profess to reason, and as no man takes up a notion so eagerly as not to pique himself on having taken it up after a mature deliberation; we must talk to the infidel as to a philosopher, who always follows the dictates of reason, and argues by principles and consequences. Well, then! Let us examine his logic, or way of reasoning; his way of reasoning, ye will see, is his brutality, and his logic constitutes his extravagance. In order to comprehend this, weigh, in the most exact and equitable balance, the argument of our prophet (vers 9, 10). These are, in brief, three sources of evidences, that supply the whole of religion with proof. The first are taken from the works of nature; He who planted the ear; He who formed the eye. The second are taken from the economy of Providence; He that chastizeth the heathen. The third are taken from the history of the Church; He that teacheth man knowledge. These arguments being thus stated, either our infidel must acknowledge that they, at least, render probable the truth of religion in general, and of this thesis in particular, God regardeth the actions of men: or he refuseth to acknowledge it. If he refuse to acknowledge it, then he is an idiot; and there remains no other argument to propose to him, than that of our prophet, Thou fool! When wilt thou be wise? But if the power and the splendour of truth force his consent, then, with the prophet, I say to him, O thou most brutish among the people! 5. Why? Because in comparing his logic with his morality I perceive that nothing but an excess of brutality can unite these two things. 6. I would attack the conscience of the libertine, and terrify him with the language of my text, He who teacheth man knowledge, shall not He correct? That is to say, He who gave you laws, shall not He regard your violation of them? The persons whom I attack, I am aware, have defied us to find the least vestige of what is called conscience in them. 7. Perhaps ye have been surprised that we have reserved the weakest of our attacks for the last. Perhaps ye object, that motives, taken from what is called politeness, and a knowledge of the world, can make no impressions on the minds of those who did not feel the force of our former attacks. It is not without reason, however, that we have placed this last. Libertines and infidels often pique themselves on their gentility and good breeding. Reason they think too scholastic, and faith pedantry. They imagine that, in order to distinguish themselves in the world, they must affect neither to believe nor to reason. Well, you accomplished gentlemen! do you know what the world thinks of you? The prophet tells you; but it is not on the authority of the prophet only, it is on the opinions of your fellow-citizens that I mean to persuade you. You are considered in the world as the most brutish of mankind. You live among people who believe a God, and a religion; among people who were educated in these principles, and who desire to die in these principles; among people who have many of them sacrificed their reputation, their ease, and their fortune to religion. Moreover, you live in a society the foundations of which sink with those of religion, so that were the latter undermined, the former would therefore be sunk. All the members of society are interested in supporting this edifice, which you are endeavouring to destroy. What is this but the height of rudeness, brutality, and madness? ( J. Saurin. ) God and human misery G. Gladstone. Whatever we think of it, there can, I think, be no doubt that the pressure of human misery has led many to doubt that there can be a God at all; and, if He exists, whether He can be as beneficent as He has been represented to be. Men simply say that if they were omnipotent they would not tolerate the wrongs that now smite, the evils that now destroy. They say that they could not tolerate it if they had only power to prevent it, but God, if He exists at all, and if He be all-powerful, seems to us as if He paid no heed, but restrains His power and lets the hideous carnival of misery go on from generation to generation. Now, let me say inferences on this line are often hasty, and obviously erring. Things are overlooked that must needs be considered if intelligent judgment is to be reached. I do not know, indeed, any explanation that removes every difficulty Concerning some things we can at best but yet see as through a glass darkly. Still, I want to mention some things that, in forming our judgment concerning God and His relation to human misery, should never be forgotten. 1. Wrong is very often done by the general ascription to God of all human misery. Men overlook what the Divine purpose of our Lord was, to declare the relation of God to the sin and woe of our race. We find in the world wheat and tares — that is indisputable; the tares are hurtful, deadly — yes, but whence came they? Not from God: He repudiates alike responsibility and blame. "An enemy hath done this." The world is not as God wants it, not as God designed it, not as God seeks it shall yet become. He should not, therefore, be credited with, or blamed for that which men freely and wickedly do. Now, it is no reply to say that God should have made a race that could not sin. That is but the spluttering of human ignorance. God had a right, if He saw it wise, to create a race of moral beings; but moral being you cannot have without the possibility of sin. If the moral nature be given, then man may exercise his power in good or in evil. He can go up or go down, can do the one because he can do the other. 2. Wrong is often done by thinking of the misery that prevails as if it were undistributed. We are apt to think of the mass of suffering that we know exists as if it fell on one human heart. But no one bears it all. It falls on those who are countless in their multitude. Every heart knows its own sorrow, but no heart knows the sorrow of all other hearts. Each carries his own burden. Now, let us be honest and face the facts. We speak of human misery as crushing men and women. But should they be crushed by it? Have we a right to complain of misery as mastering us, if we do not take advantage of the grace by which God means us to master the misery? And then let us not overlook that into every life, however darkened, there comes some compensation. I have known a man declaim against God for creating a world like this, speak of it as hurtful and unfair and without interest; and within a few minutes he was in raptures over a painter's reproduction of a very little bit of the earth or of the sea. I have known a man complain by the coffin of his child, but never thank God for the gift of that child, or for all the gladness the child meant to him during the years that it lived. 3. Wrong is often done by overlooking the slowness of moral progress. The cruel wrong that grieves and hurts is not, as I have pointed out, of God. He is against it, and He would have men to put it away from them. But then men are slow in responding to the Divine call. Of course we should have been far further on in progress than we are now, and we would have been if we had only been more responsive to God; but the selfishness that seeks to sway us all, the ignorance as to what is really our true interest, the absorption in the things that can be seen and felt — these have betrayed, and have prevented God's will being done on earth as it is done in heaven. The wheels of the Gospel-chariot drag heavily, and wrongs that have hurt others still remain to hurt us, and some of them probably will remain to hurt generations yet to be. You say, Why does not God arise in His might, and lay all iniquity in the dust? Because He is God. That which you desire is not His method, cannot be, just because He is God. He deals with His children alike, the loyal and the rebellious, according to the nature which He has given them. He teaches, He draws, He allures from evil, and you can see the effect in the growing sensitiveness as to what we owe to our fellow-men. There are forces at work that must make for a fairer distribution of wealth; forces at work that must bring to an end the wide disparity between East and West. 4. Wrong is often done by overlooking that pain is often sanctified unto much good. Pain in itself is not an evil. Pain is but nature's cry to men to give heed to avoid what is hurtful, and to follow that which is beneficent. God doth not afflict willingly the children of men, but in order that we may be made partakers of the Divine nature. There is always an uplift in our sadness, an uplift towards God and heaven. 5. Wrong unutterable is often done by overlooking the all-transforming and all-subduing grace that is put at our disposal. the sorrow of life is too great for any one to bear alone, but no one is meant to bear it alone. God wants to carry our griefs for us; grace is revealed, grace that touches our common lot, grace that lightens our larger and our lesser griefs, grace that comes that through it we may attain even now unto the foretaste of heavenly blessedness. All things work together for good to them that love God. ( G. Gladstone. ) A blind god wanted W. Arnot D. D. A god or a saint that should really cast the glance of a pure eye into the conscience of the worshipper would not long be held in repute. The grass would grow again around that idol's shrine. A seeing god would not do: the idolater wants a blind god. The first cause of idolatry is a desire in an impure heart to escape from the look of the living God, and none but a dead image would serve their turn. ( W. Arnot D. D. ) He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see? Psalm 94:9, 10 Evolution and design Canon Tristram. These words contain the germ of all natural and moral philosophy. There are two great underlying ideas — First, the abstract argument from design that intention and purpose, not blind chance, has evolved the most wondrous mechanism of the animal frame; second, the parallelism between the laws and working of mind and of matter, proceeding from one and the same Author. Each has its laws of sequence, causes produce results, and those results intended and foreseen in both cases alike. As the ear is made for hearing and the eye for seeing, so He that gave man knowledge, or, what is the same thing, the power of acquiring knowledge, intends it to be used; and if, as in the case of the heathen, the moral light is perverted, suffering, punishment, as a necessary law or consequence must ensue. Chance is set aside, as it is now by the student of physical science, dismissed like the older idea of fate. On the scientific doctrine of chances, the evolution of such a mechanism as the eye is, as has been shown by Professor Pritchard, almost incalculable. "Blind law," the next hypothesis, is equally insufficient. Hence some of the ablest exponents of the doctrine of evolution maintain that the circle of evolving laws or forces must certainly be ruled by some Intelligence, either inherent and immanent, or else transcendental and probably personal, guiding and superior to them all. One of the foremost living naturalists and a champion of the doctrines of evolution maintains (1) that atoms are centres of force, (2) that force is known to us as Will, (3) that the Will that governs the world is the will of higher intelligences, or of our own supreme intelligence; that we cannot account for man's physical peculiarities, much less for his consciousness, his language, his volition, or his moral sense by evolution simply, that there is a feeling, a "sense of right and wrong in our nature, antecedent to, and independent of experiences of utility" ( Wallace ).A "Blind Intelligence," immanent in matter or not, by no means solves the problem. "What are the core and essence of this hypothesis? Strip it naked and you stand face to face with the notion that not alone the more ignoble forms of animalculae or animal life, not alone the noble forms of the horse and lion, not alone the exquisite mechanism of the human body, but that the human mind itself, emotion, intellect, will, and all their phenomena, were once latent in a fiery cloud. Surely the "mere statement of such a notion is more than a refutation." But when, passing beyond the notion of a blind intelligence, we accept the fact that He that made the eye could see, that there is a relation between a personal Supreme Being, and His creation; we find far fewer difficulties. There are difficulties, but the fact of the possibility of the theory is admitted by all. John Stuart Mill designated it as the most persuasive of all arguments for Theism. It explains the world; and, what is more, it does what no other theory does, it finds a first ground for all existing things. The theory of design stands undisturbed by the doctrine of evolution. No laws impressed upon matter or upon mind, banish a God from the world He has made. We do not necessarily press the idea of design in each detail, but we maintain that, throughout the universe, there is a general fitness, a correlation of function with power, which point to a prescient antecedent Intelligence. Above all is this correlation manifest in organic structures, animal and vegetable. Mind is presented to us throughout the universe. And, as evolution in the organic world, carries out the Will of a prescient Intelligence, so, in the moral world, sin or evil, by a natural consequence, entails punishment. "He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct, for He knoweth?" We are here brought face to face with the greatest admitted difficulty in the world as we know it: the existence of evil, and of suffering as a consequence of evil. Nothing can be more unphilosophical than to separate the material and moral government of the world. Parallel laws rule both. The existence of man now throws light on the final cause of the animated creation. To be consistent with the plan adopted by God, it was necessary to evolve successively the long line of vertebrates from the Silurian epoch to the present day. Man's rudimentary organs are suggestive of evolution. But in his moral nature he stands apart from animals by a gap which neither observation nor philosophical reasoning has ever bridged. Nor can we conceive of any force capable of being differentiated into the Will, a power which may act in direct opposition to the forces of nature. Evolution could not by natural laws produce man. As Mr. Wallace writes, "If it be proved that some Intelligent power has guided or determined the development of man, we may see indications of that power in facts which by themselves would not seem to prove its existence." Among these he adduces the brain, with its convolutions far beyond the needs or use of the savage, the absence of hair on the back of even the lowest races, and the hand, which has all the appearance of an organ prepared beforehand for the advance and use of civilized man, and one which was indispensable to render civilization possible. But why should evil be introduced? Simply because of God's will. Man was made a moral free agent. Moral evil has been defined as the conscious abuse of means, instead of using them for the ends for which they were designed. An animal cannot be guilty because it obeys natural laws without reflecting upon them. Man can and does reflect, and uses his freewill to obey or not: but he has disobeyed. The heathen did not choose to retain God in their knowledge. Here comes in the distinctive feature of God's moral government. In all else, a gradual process is wrought out by natural laws. But moral evil has come in, and, as nature cannot always effect a cure without external aid, so natural processes alone could not restore humanity. The impetus of evil was too strong; the natural instincts of goodness were overborne. God steps in as the physician, and by the revelation of His Son enables humanity to rise from its moral degradation. Neither out of Greek philosophy, nor out of Judaism, nor out of any other existing system could the teaching or the work of Christ have been evolved. The results have proved it. No other system has ever done for man what this has done, and is doing, in elevating the degraded. Christ's teaching of universal love and everlasting life through Himself, has done what no other religion or philosophy ever attempted. If evil be the necessary concomitant of Freewill, it is no less a recognized law of nature as a result of the struggle for existence. Pain and death are spoken of as physical evils. Let it be so. But death is a necessary accompaniment in the natural world of the struggle for existence, and pain is a necessary and benevolent provision for maintaining the instincts of self-preservation. So in the moral world, misery, the result of sin, and sin itself, or the misuse of powers and faculties, are the necessary concomitants of Freewill. Why does evil exist? Why do animals exist? Why do I exist? There is no answer except for Christianity. There is but one explanation of our existence here, and Revelation gives it. It was to render man's life here probationary in every way. The future existence of man is the only interpretation of his existence here, and the more we wait for our final redemption in patience and hope, the less shall we feel the penal character of physical evil here. And in spiritual life there is the same doctrine of development as in the natural, for what is the growth in grace but the evolution of the perfect man in Christ from the germ of the Holy Spirit's planting? That Holy Spirit and His work may be an enigma, but it is no greater enigma than the origin of physical life. For both we claim an origin, and that origin divine. And the doctrine of evolution, which deduces all natural life from the germ, on the origin of which it does not speculate, is exactly parallel to the doctrine of theology, which deduces all spiritual life from the heaven-implanted germ, and all man's spiritual future from the unfolding of that grand revelation of the Will of God, that "what the law could not do," etc. ( Romans 8:3 ). ( Canon Tristram. ) The three/old argument W. M. Statham. Reverence is at the root of all religion! When the libertines of the French Revolution crowned the Goddess of Reason with garlands, they worked hard to eradicate the old reverence for God out of the hearts of men! Reverence is not superstitious fear; it is not a degrading and debasing affright at the Great Power above us, who rules the world as with an iron sceptre: it is a reverence for God as He is, the embodiment of all holiness, justice, righteousness and truth. Who, in this sense, shall not fear Thee, O God? I. THE FIRST ARGUMENT IS PHYSICAL, AND FOUNDED ON THE SENSES. Use has deadened our sense of wonder. The ear is the most wonderful harpsichord in the universe. It is exactly related to the constitution of things around us, working with ease, with pleasure, and with perpetuity, so that year after year it never requires returning, is unaffected by variations of temperature, and is not worn out with use — all this is very, very wonderful! It has opened up to us already a most wonderful world. Myriad are the voices of creation, the whispering of the breeze, the purling of the brook, the songs of birds, the rustling of the corn, the deep bass of the breaking waves of the sea, and all the varied tones of human voices. These sensations of hearing which might have been painful, are all full of pleasure. And so wonderful is the variety of sound, that we know the tones of our own children's voices in an assembly. The prisoner knew the voice of the musician singing outside his cell. Mary knew her Master's voice after the resurrection. The sheep on Israel's mountains may hear the familiar call of Jesse's shepherd son, but God's sheep must not hear His voice! We are often told of the marvels of faith: of what men will believe. I have often longed to prepare a paper on the marvels of unbelief! With these facts of observation before us, with this present constitution of things, with man himself the great marvel of workmanship, well may we once more ponder the words, "He that planted the ear, shall He not hear?" Then think of the eye; on its soft and delicate mirror, what pictures have been reflected: they have required no porters to carry them into the picture gallery within you, and memory, with little effort and no noise, re-touches them as they hang upon the wall. And is God, who created the eye, the only Being that is not to see? Is the finite being to watch, to behold, to observe, and the Infinite One to be sightless? What a marvel of unbelief is this! We have indeed reached the ultima thule of folly's argument if we can believe this. II. THE SECOND ARGUMENT IS HISTORICAL, AND FOUNDED ON GOD'S MORAL GOVERNMENT OF NATIONS. "He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not He correct?" God not only hears and sees, He acts. When the ungodly were exclaiming, as the psalmist says, "The Lord shall not see, the Lord shall not regard it," the Lord was seeing, regarding, judging! Had they forgotten how Pharaoh and his host were drowned in the Red Sea? Had they forgotten the heathen priests ( 1 Samuel 5:4-6 )? Had they forgotten the judgments on the priests of the house of Ahab ( 2 Kings 23 )? We have a larger and broader background of history than they had! We have seen "joy and gladness taken away from the plentiful field, and from the land of Moab" (Jeremiah 44:32, 33), and now pastures, vineyards, villages, cities, all are waste. Yes! "Moab is spoiled and gone up out of her cities" ( Jeremiah 44:15-24 ). We can see from ruined ramparts Bozrah desolate as Isaiah says ( Isaiah 33:10 ), "without man, without inhabitant, without beast." We can look upon the high places of Eastern Judea, and remember the words of Jeremiah, "I beheld, and lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness," etc. Yes, and far away from Judea we can walk amid the ruins of the idolatrous Egyptians, we can visit their pyramids and the remains of their stupendous temples, and we can turn to the words, "I will make the land of Egypt utterly waste and desolate, it shall be the lowest of the kingdoms, neither shall it exalt itself any more upon the nations." We can visit Nineveh, and Babylon, and find the truth of our text written there. We can go to Hebron and Kerioth, and read the words of the old Hebrew prophets ( Isaiah 27:10 ; Isaiah 22:4 ). "He that chastiseth the heathen, shall," etc. In the light of these facts we need no voice from the heavens to give us the audible yea! And conscience and Scripture say the same. Is it wise, then, to live the frivolous, indevout lives that so many do? to risk our high estate as immortal beings? III. THE THIRD ARGUMENT IS MENTAL, AND FOUNDED ON THE MIND OF MAN. "He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not He know?" Few study their own minds! I cannot think that they would indulge in such empty conceits about the future if they did! Any one mind is more wonderful even than a material universe! How noiselessly it works; how vast its store. Some minds, of course, illustrate this wonderfulness more than others. Historians like Hume, Macintosh, Macaulay, Lecky, must have the rich gatherings of years of study stored in their mental treasury. Let a man ponder himself, and then he will cease to be deluded by the sophistries of materialism! Two facts will be self-evident, one is personal consciousness — man is! He mingles with no other! If he is certain of anything, he can say, "I think, therefore I am." The other fact is, a receptive power, man is constantly receiving, growing alike in the extent of his knowledge and in the capacity to know. Now whilst man has this consciousness himself, it is strange that the tendency of modern science should be to do away with the idea of a personal God, and to lose Him in some generalization of force or law. The psalmist anticipates this beautifully in these words: You know, you think! How came you to do it? "He that teacheth man knowledge," etc. Yes, the teacher of knowledge knows. Let that thought comfort our hearts in all the bitter experience of grief. He knows. Many of our inner histories may be as difficult for others to interpret as Egyptian hieroglyphics. But He knows. Verily, then, there is a God that judgeth in the earth. Verily, then, there is a God that comforteth His people. Verily, then, there is a God that is able to help and willing to cast His shield over us in every time of battle and trouble. His eye is upon us, His ear is open to our cry, His judgment is not according to outward appearance, but His judgment is just and His thoughts are to us-ward: and once more the Saviour stands before us with open arms, saying, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." ( W. M. Statham. ) Views of the Divine character D. Dickson, D.D. The argument by which the being of a God is established is one of the simplest that can be conceived. We feel that we ourselves exist; we see the world, both of intelligence and of matter, existing everywhere without us; we know that neither we ourselves, nor any other human beings, were the original causes of the existence and powers which we and they possess. Matter, we not less irresistibly conclude, could not create itself. From what we feel in ourselves and see in others, and behold in the material world, we therefore rise to some higher Being and power — to some superior mind — till we reach one that is above all — a first cause, which must be immaterial and uncreated; and this cause is God. Whoever has ears to hear, or eyes to see, or an understanding to apprehend any truth, has, in these powers of body and of mind, a constant and indisputable evidence, if he would only attend to it, of the providence and government of God. I. "HE THAT PLANTED THE EAR, SHALL HE NOT HEAR?" The wonderful mechanism of the human ear; its exquisite adaptation to the purpose which it is intended to serve; the delicate construction of some, and the stronger texture of other parts of its organization; the one so requisite to the acute discernment of the almost infinite variety of sounds that are conveyed to it, and the other to protect it from the external injuries to which it is constantly exposed: all these circumstances bespeak the existence and influence of a Power in its formation super-eminent alike in wisdom and in goodness. He who heard the groanings of Israel in the land of Egypt, and the prayer of Daniel in the lions' den, heard also the cry of Abel's blood from the field of fratricide, and the sigh of Jonah from the bowels of the deep. And His ear is not now heavy that it cannot hear. We may be bound in the arms of sleep, and incapable of being roused by the loudest noise around us; but He never slumbers nor sleeps: His ear is ever watchful and acute. We may, through inattention or ignorance, mistake one sound for another; but nothing can weaken or injure His power of perfect and intuitive discernment. We can hear a voice only when it is comparatively near us, and when unimpeded by natural obstructions to its conveyance; but, from the very ends of the earth, and throughout every region of the universe — from the depths of a dungeon, as well as the solitude of an unpeopled wilderness — every sound that is uttered enters His ear. II. "HE THAT FORMED THE EYE, SHALL HE NOT SEE?" As, of all our senses, that of sight is the most important and, valuable, so its organs are the most exquisitely and delicately constructed; presenting us, in every part, with new and most demonstrative evidence, that He who formed them must be equally almighty and all-wise. Knowledge is to God what vision is to us. When, therefore, in the figurative language of Scripture, we speak of His eyes being in every place, beholding the evil and the good; of His eyes seeing and His eyelids trying the children of men; of the darkness and the light being both alike unto Him; and of His looking not on the outward appearance, but on the heart — we speak of His universal, intuitive, and penetrating knowledge of every object, and event, and being, through every region and spot of His universe, during every day and hour and instant of time. Appearances may deceive us, but nothing can impose on Him. We may be betrayed by an illusion of our senses, but His is an eye of unerring, penetrating and infallible knowledge. III. "HE THAT TEACHETH MAN KNOWLEDGE, SHALL HE NOT KNOW?" Must not He who formed the human mind, with its wondrous complement of varied yet united, and, when in the state in which they originally came from Him, exactly balanced and harmonizing faculties, be perfectly acquainted with every movement of every one of them? He knows on what our affections are most constantly and supremely placed — whether on objects of present earthly endearment, and things that perish with the using; or on Himself and Christ, and the things that are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. He knows how our conscience is directed and influenced — whether by our own wayward passions, and the maxims and practice of the world around us, or by His unerring and holy will, by the dictates of His Word, and the motions of His Spirit; and whether it is insensible and hardened, sometimes roused, but again and more deeply deadened; or sensible and tender, alive and on the watch, as the monitor of His grace within us. He knows also the reception which we have given to the re

Benson Commentary Psalm 94:1 O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. Psalm 94:1-4 . O God, to whom vengeance belongeth — To whom, as the supreme Judge of the world, the patron and protector of the righteous, and the declared enemy of all wickedness and wicked men, and to whom alone it belongs to take revenge on those who oppress thy people when they should protect them; show thyself — Make thy justice conspicuous, by speedily avenging thine elect, and rendering a recompense to their enemies. Lift up thyself — To punish thy proud enemies. Be exalted in thine own strength, and let those proud men, who have acted as if they thought none could control them, know that they have a superior. How long shall they utter — Pour forth freely, constantly, abundantly, as a fountain doth water, (so ????? , jabbignu, signifies,) and speak hard things — Grievous, insolent, and intolerable words against thee and thy people; and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves — Of their invincible power, and prosperous success in their wicked designs. Psalm 94:2 Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud. Psalm 94:3 LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph? Psalm 94:4 How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? Psalm 94:5 They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage. Psalm 94:5-7 . They afflict thy heritage — Those righteous persons whom thou hast chosen for thy portion or inheritance. They slay the widow, &c. — Whom common humanity obliged them to spare, pity, and relieve. Yet they say, The Lord shall not see — Their meeting with impunity and prosperity in their impious and barbarous practices makes them ready to doubt, or to deny, the providence of God in the government of his church and of the world. Neither doth the God of Jacob regard it — Though there are such evident demonstrations of the divine interpositions in favour of Jacob, and of his watchful care over them as his people, yet, for all that, they fancy he does not regard, nor will call them to any account for their doings. Psalm 94:6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless. Psalm 94:7 Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it . Psalm 94:8 Understand, ye brutish among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise? Psalm 94:8-9 . Understand, ye brutish — Hebrew, ????? , bognarim; ye who are governed by your lusts and appetites, as the word signifies; who have only the shape, but not the understanding, reason, or judgment of men in you, or are not directed and governed thereby; who, though you think yourselves the wisest of men, yet, in truth, are the most brutish of all people; he that planted the ear — The word planted (Hebrew, ???? , notang ) is very emphatical, signifying the excellent structure of the ear, or of the several organs belonging to the sense of hearing, and the wise position of all those parts in their proper places; shall he not hear? — He must necessarily hear. The truth of the inference depends upon that evident and undeniable principle in reason, that nothing can give to another that which it hath not either formally or more eminently in itself, and that no effect can exceed the virtue of its cause. He that formed the eye, &c. — By the word formed, (Hebrew, ??? , jotzer, concerning which see note on Genesis 2:7 ,) he seems to intimate the accurate and most curious workmanship of the eye, which is observed by all who write on the subject. Psalm 94:9 He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see? Psalm 94:10 He that chastiseth the heathen, shall not he correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ? Psalm 94:10 . He that chastiseth — Or, He that instructeth, or teacheth, or reproveth (as the word ??? , jasar, often signifies, and is rendered Proverbs 9:7 ; Isaiah 8:11 , &c.) the heathen, the Gentiles, or nations of the world: not only the Jews, but all other people, all mankind, as the next clause explains it; shall not he correct? — He who, when he pleases, can and does punish the nations of the world, is he not able to punish you for your wicked speeches and actions? Or, He that reproveth, and therefore discerneth their evil words and works, shall he not discern and reprove yours, who sin against greater light, and more privileges and advantages, and whose sins therefore are more aggravated? He that teacheth man knowledge — That giveth him understanding, and the knowledge of many excellent things by the light of nature; shall not he know — Namely, men’s thoughts, as in the next verse, and of consequence their whole conduct? These words are not in the Hebrew text, but are easily understood out of the foregoing clause. The meaning of the verse, in substance, is, “He that instructeth the nations, and supplieth them with all the knowledge they have, can he want means of discovering what they are contriving and doing, or of finding them out? Will not he be able to trace them out in all their machinations?” Or, as Dr. Horne paraphraseth the words, “It is God who hath instructed the world, by his revelations, in religious knowledge, and, consequently, without all doubt, he cannot be ignorant of the use and abuse which men make of that unspeakable gift.” Psalm 94:11 The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. Psalm 94:11 . The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man — This is an answer to the foregoing question, Shall not he know? Yes, he knoweth all things, yea, even the most secret things, as the thoughts of men; and in particular your thoughts, and much more your practices, which you supposed he did not see, Psalm 94:6-7 . And he knows that they are generally vain and foolish; and that, while you applaud yourselves in such thoughts, you do not benefit, but only delude yourselves with them. Psalm 94:12 Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O LORD, and teachest him out of thy law; Psalm 94:12-13 . Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest — Not he that prospers in his wickedness is happy, but he whom the Lord chasteneth when he acts amiss, and thereby teaches to study and obey his law with the greater care and diligence. That thou mayest give him rest, &c. — For the present and short troubles of the righteous prepare them for, and lead them to, true rest and blessedness, while the seeming felicity of the wicked makes way for those tremendous judgments which God hath prepared for them. Psalm 94:13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. Psalm 94:14 For the LORD will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance. Psalm 94:14-15 . The Lord will not cast off his people — Though he may for a time correct, yet he will not utterly destroy, his true and obedient people, as he will their enemies, but will, in due time, put an end to all their calamities. But judgment shall return unto righteousness — Although the world is now full of unrighteous judgments, and even God himself seems not to judge and administer things justly, because he suffers his people to be oppressed, and the wicked to triumph over them, yet the state of things will, at the proper season, be otherwise ordered; God will show himself to be a righteous judge, and will advance and establish justice in the earth, and especially among his people. And all the upright in heart shall follow it — Namely, just judgment restored; they will all approve of and imitate this justice of God in all their actions, whereas the wicked shall still do wickedly, as is said Daniel 12:10 , and in a land and state of uprightness will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord, Isaiah 26:10 . Or, as ????? , acharaiv, may be rendered, shall go after, or follow HIM, namely, the Lord, whose act it is to bring judgment to justice. While the wicked forsake God, these will cleave to him, as being confident that, how much soever he may suffer them to be oppressed for a season, yet he will, in due time, plead their cause, and bring forth their righteousness. Psalm 94:15 But judgment shall return unto righteousness: and all the upright in heart shall follow it. Psalm 94:16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Psalm 94:16 . Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? — Have I any friend that, in love to me, will appear for me? Hath justice any friend that, in a pious indignation at unrighteousness, will plead my injured cause? He looked, but there was none to save, there was none to uphold. On the side of the oppressor there was power, and therefore the oppressed had no comforter. God alone helped him, as he says in the next verse. Psalm 94:17 Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence. Psalm 94:18 When I said, My foot slippeth; thy mercy, O LORD, held me up. Psalm 94:18 . When I said, My foot slippeth — I am now upon the point of falling into mischief and utter destruction; thy mercy, O Lord, held me up — A merciful, gracious, and powerful hand was immediately stretched out to support my steps, and establish my goings. Observe, reader, we are beholden, not only to God’s power but to his pity, for spiritual supports, and we are then prepared to receive those supports, when we are sensible of our own weakness and inability to stand by our own strength, and come to God to acknowledge it, and to tell him how our foot slippeth. Psalm 94:19 In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul. Psalm 94:19 . In the multitude of my thoughts within me — While my heart is filled with various and perplexing thoughts, as the original word signifies, and tormented with cares and fears about my future state; thy comforts delight my soul — Thy promises, contained in thy word, and the remembrance of my former experience of thy care and kindness to me, afford me such consolation as revives my dejected mind. Psalm 94:20 Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? Psalm 94:20 . Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee? — Wilt thou take part with the unrighteous powers of the world, who oppress thy people? Wilt thou countenance and support these tyrants in their wickedness? We know thou wilt not; but wilt manifest thy justice and displeasure against them. A throne has fellowship with God, when it is a throne of justice, and answers the end of its being erected; for by him kings reign; and when they reign for him their judgments are his, and he owns them as his ministers; and whoever resist them, or rise up against them, shall receive to themselves condemnation; but when it becomes a throne of iniquity, it has no longer fellowship with God. Far be it from the just and holy God that he should be the patron of unrighteousness, even in princes and those that sit on thrones; yea, though they be the thrones of the house of David. Which frameth mischief by a law — Who devise wicked devices, and lay heavy burdens upon men by virtue of those unrighteous decrees which they have made in form of laws; or by false pretences of law. Or, against law, against all right, and the laws, both of God and men. Psalm 94:21 They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. Psalm 94:21-23 . They gather themselves against the soul of the righteous — Against the life, as the word here rendered soul commonly signifies, and as the next clause explains it. They are not satisfied with the spoils of the estates of the righteous, but do also thirst after their lives. And condemn the innocent blood — They shed the blood of those innocent persons whom they have wickedly condemned. Innocent blood is here put for the blood of innocent persons. But the Lord is my defence — Let them decree what they please, and be too hard for all laws; the Lord, who hates unrighteousness, will be my defence; he, who hath long been very gracious to me, will secure me from their violence. He is the rock of my refuge — In the clefts of which I may take shelter, and on the top of which I may set my feet, and be out of the reach of danger. He shall bring upon them their own iniquity — The fruit and punishment of their iniquity. He shall deal with them according to their desert; and that very mischief which they designed against God’s people shall be brought upon themselves. He shall cut them off in their own wickedness — Either in the midst of their sins, or by their own wicked devices, the mischief whereof he will cause to fall upon their own heads. The Lord our God — The God of Jacob, of whom they said, he did not see, nor regard them, shall cut them off — And they shall find themselves mistaken in their false views and expectations of impunity, to their sorrow; he shall cut them off out of the land of the living; shall cut them off from any fellowship with himself, and so shall make them completely miserable; and their pomp and power shall stand them in no stead. Psalm 94:22 But the LORD is my defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge. Psalm 94:23 And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; yea , the LORD our God shall cut them off. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 94:1 O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself. Psalm 94:1-23 THE theme of God the Judge is closely allied to that of God the King, as other psalms of this group show, in which His coming to judge the world is the subject of rapturous praise. This psalm hymns Jehovah’s retributive sway, for which it passionately cries, and in which it confidently trusts. Israel is oppressed by insolent rulers, who have poisoned the fountains of justice, condemning the innocent, enacting unrighteous laws, and making a prey of all the helpless. These "judges of Sodom" are not foreign oppressors, for they are "among the people"; and even while they scoff at Jehovah’s judgments they call Him by His covenant names of " Jah " and "God of Jacob." There is no need, therefore, to look beyond Israel for the originals of the dark picture, nor does it supply data for fixing the period of the psalm. The structure and course of thought are transparent. First comes an invocation to God as the Judge of the earth ( Psalm 94:1-2 ); then follow groups of four verses each, subdivided into pairs, -the first of these ( Psalm 94:3-6 ) pictures the doings of the oppressors; the second ( Psalm 94:7-11 ) quotes their delusion that their crimes are unseen by Jehovah, and refutes their dream of impunity, and it is closed by a verse in excess of the normal number. emphatically asserting the truth which the mockers denied. The third group declares the blessedness of the men whom God teaches, and the certainty of His retribution to vindicate the cause of the righteous ( Psalm 94:12-15 ). Then follow the singer’s own cry for help in his own need, as one of the oppressed community, and a sweet reminiscence of former aid, which calms his present anxieties. The concluding group goes back to description of the lawless lawmakers and their doings, and ends with trust that the retribution prayed for in the first verses will verily be dealt out to them, and that thereby both the singer, as a member of the nation, and the community will find Jehovah, who is both "my God" and "our God," a high tower. The reiterations in the first two verses are not oratorical embellishments, but reveal intense feeling and pressing need. It is a cold prayer which contents itself with one utterance. A man in straits continues to cry for help till it comes, or till he sees it coming. To this singer, the one aspect of Jehovah’s reign which was forced on him by Israel’s dismal circumstances was the judicial. There are times when no thought of God is so full of strength as that He is "the God of recompenses," as Jeremiah calls Him, { Jeremiah 51:56 } and when the longing of good men is that He would flash forth, and slay evil by the brightness of His coming. They who have no profound loathing of sin, or who have never felt the crushing weight of legalised wickedness, may shrink from such aspirations as the psalmist’s, and brand them as ferocious; but hearts longing for the triumph of righteousness will not take offence at them. The first group ( Psalm 94:3-6 ) lifts the cry of suffering Faith, which has almost become impatience, but turns to, not from, God, and so checks complaints of His delay, and converts them into prayer. "How long, O Lord?" is the burden of many a tried heart; and the Seer heard it from the souls beneath the altar. This psalm passes quickly to dilate on the crimes of the rulers which forced out that prayer. The portrait has many points of likeness to that drawn in Psalm 73:1-28 . Here, as there, boastful speech and haughty carriage are made prominent, being put before even cruelty and oppression. "They well out, they speak arrogance": both verbs have the same object. Insolent self-exaltation pours from the fountain of their pride in copious jets. "They give themselves airs like princes." The verb in this clause may mean to say among themselves or to boast, but is now usually regarded as meaning to behave like a prince -i.e., to carry oneself insolently. Vainglorious arrogance manifest in boasting speech and masterful demeanour characterises Eastern rulers, especially those who have risen from low origin. Every little village tyrant gave himself airs, as if he were a king; and the lower his rank, the greater his insolence. These oppressors were grinding the nation to powder, and what made their crime the darker was that it was Jehovah’s people and inheritance which they thus harassed. Helplessness should be a passport to a ruler’s care, but it had become a mark for murderous attack. Widow; stranger, and orphan are named as types of defencelessness. Nothing in this strophe indicates that these oppressors are foreigners. Nor does the delusion that Jehovah neither saw nor cared for their doings. which the next strophe ( Psalm 94:7-11 ) states and confutes imply that they were so. Cheyne, indeed, adduces the name "God of Jacob," which is put into their mouths, as evidence that they are pictured as knowing Jehovah only as one among many tribal or national deities; but the name is too familiar upon the lips of Israelites, and its use by others is too conjectural, to allow of such a conclusion. Rather, the language derives its darkest shade from being used by Hebrews, who are thereby declaring themselves apostates from God as well as oppressors of His people. Their mad, practical atheism makes the psalmist blaze up in indignant rebuke and impetuous argumentation. He turns to them, and addresses them in rough, plain words, strangely contrasted with their arrogant utterances regarding themselves. They are "brutish" {cf. Psalm 73:22 } and "fools." The psalmist, in his height of moral indignation, towers above these petty tyrants, and tells them home truths very profitable for such people, however dangerous to their utterer. There is no obligation to speak smooth words to rulers whose rule is injustice and their religion impiety. Ahab had his Elijah, and Herod his John Baptist. The succession has been continued through the ages. Delitzsch and others, who take the oppressors to be foreigners, are obliged to suppose that the psalmist turns in Psalm 94:8 to those Israelites who had been led to doubt God by the prosperity of the wicked; but there is nothing, except the exigencies of that mistaken supposition, to show that any others than the deniers of God’s providence who have just been quoted are addressed as "among the people." Their denial was the more inexcusable, because they belonged to the people whose history was one long proof that Jehovah did see I and recompense evil. Two considerations are urged by the psalmist, who becomes for the moment a philosophical theologian, in confutation of the error in question. First, he argues that nothing can be in the effect which is not in the cause, that the Maker of men’s eyes cannot be blind, nor the Planter of their ears deaf. The thought has wide applications. It hits the centre, in regard to many modern denials as well as in regard to these blunt, ancient ones. Can a universe plainly full of purpose have come from a purposeless source? Can finite persons have emerged from an impersonal Infinity? Have we not a right to argue upwards from man’s make to God his maker, and to find in Him the archetype of all human capacity. We may mark that, as has been long ago observed, the psalm avoids gross anthropomorphism, and infers not that the Creator of the ear has ears, but that He hears. As Jerome (quoted by Delitzsch) says, " Membra sustulit, efficientias dedit. " The teaching of the strophe is gathered up in Psalm 94:11 , which exceeds the normal number of four verses in each group, and asserts strongly the conclusion for which the psalmist has been arguing. The rendering of b is, "For (not That) they ( i.e. men) are but a breath." "The ground of the Omniscience which sees the thoughts of men through and through is profoundly laid in the vanity, i.e. the finiteness, of men, as the correlative of the Infiniteness of God" (Hupfeld). In the strophe Psalm 94:12-15 the psalmist turns from the oppressors to their victims, the meek of the earth, and changes his tone from fiery remonstrance to gracious consolation. The true point of view from which to regard the oppressors’ wrong is to see in it part of God’s educational processes. Jehovah, who "instructs" all men by conscience, "instructs" Israel, and by the Law "teaches" the right interpretation of such afflictive providences. Happy he who accepts that higher education! A further consolation lies in considering the purpose of the special revelation to Israel, which will be realised in patient hearts that are made wise thereby-namely, calm repose of submission and trust, which are not disturbed by any stormy weather. There is possible for the harassed man "peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation." If we recognise that life is mainly educational, we shall neither be astonished nor disturbed by sorrows. It is not to be wondered at that the schoolmaster has a rod, and uses it sometimes. There is rest from evil even while in evil, if we understand the purpose of evil. Yet another consolation lies in the steadfast anticipation of its transiency and of the retribution measured to its doers. That is no unworthy source of comfort. And the ground on which it rests is the impossibility of God’s forsaking His people, His inheritance. These designations of Israel look back to Psalm 94:5 , where the crushed and afflicted are designated by the same words. Israel’s relation to Jehovah made the calamities more startling; but it also makes their cessation, and retribution for them on their inflicters more certain. It is the trial and triumph of Faith to be sure, while tyrants grind and crush, that Jehovah has not deserted their victims. He cannot change His purpose; therefore, sorrows and prosperity are but divergent methods, concurring in carrying out His unalterable design. The individual sufferer may take comfort from his belonging to the community to which the presence of Jehovah is guaranteed forever. The singer puts his convictions as to what is to be the upshot of all the perplexed riddles of human affairs into epigrammatic form, in the obscure, gnome-like saying, "To righteousness shall judgment return," by which he seems to mean that the administration of justice, which at present was being trampled under foot, "shall come back to the eternal principle of all judicial action, namely, righteousness,"-in shorter words, there shall be no schism between the judgments of earthly tribunals and justice. The psalmist’s hope is that of all good men and sufferers from unjust rulers. All the upright in heart long for such a state of things and follow after it, either in the sense of delight in it (" Dem Recht mussen alle frommen Herzen zufallen "-Luther), or of seeking to bring it about. The psalmist’s hope is realised in the King of Men, whose own judgments are truth, and who infuses righteousness and the love of it into all who trust in Him. The singer comes closer to his own experience in the next strophe ( Psalm 94:16-19 ), in which he claims his share in these general sources of rest and patience, and thankfully thinks of past times, when he found that they yielded him streams in the desert. He looks out upon the multitude of "evildoers," and, for a moment, asks the question which faithless sense is ever suggesting and pronouncing unanswerable: "Where shall I find a champion?" As long as our eyes range along the level of earth, they see none such. But the empty earth should turn our gaze to the occupied throne. There sits the Answer to our almost despairing question. Rather, there He stands, as the proto-martyr saw Him, risen to His feet in swift readiness to help His servant. Experience confirms the hope of Jehovah’s aid; for unless in the past He had been the singer’s help, he could not have lived till this hour, but must have gone down into the silent land. No man who still draws breath is without tokens of God’s sufficient care and ever-present help. The mystery of continued life is a witness for God. And not only does the past thus proclaim where a man’s help is, but devout reflection on it will bring to light many times when doubts and tremors were disappointed. Conscious weakness appeals to confirming strength. If we feel our foot giving, and fling up our hands towards Him, He will grasp them and steady us in the most slippery places. Therefore, when divided thoughts (for so the picturesque word employed in Psalm 94:19 means) hesitate between hope and fear, God’s consolations steal into agitated minds, and there is a great calm. The last strophe ( Psalm 94:20-23 ) weaves together in the finale, as a musician does in the last bars of his composition, the main themes of the psalm-the evil deeds of unjust rulers, the trust of the psalmist, his confidence in the final annihilation of the oppressors and the consequent manifestation of God as the God of Israel. The height of crime is reached when rulers use the forms of justice as masks for injustice, and give legal sanction to "mischief." The ancient world groaned under such travesties of the sanctity of Law; and the modern world is not free from them. The question often tortures faithful hearts, "Can such doings be sanctioned by God, or in any way be allied to Him?" To the psalmist the worst part of these rulers’ wickedness was that, in his doubting moments, it raised the terrible suspicion that God was perhaps on the side of the oppressors. But when such thoughts came surging on him, he fell back, as we all have to do, on personal experience and on an act of renewed trust. He remembered what God had been to him in past moments of peril, and he claimed Him for the same now, his own refuge and fortress. Strong in that individual experience and conviction, he won the confidence that all which Jehovah had to do with the throne of destruction was, not to connive at its evil, but to overthrow it and root out the evildoers, whose own sin will be their ruin. Then Jehovah will be known, not only for the God who belongs to, and works for, the single soul, but who is "our God," the refuge of the community, who will not forsake His inheritance. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.