Psalms 94:23

Verse 23. Shall cut them off] This is repeated, to show that the destruction of the Babylonians was fixed and indubitable: and in reference to the Jews, the persecutors and murderers of our Lord and his apostles, it was not less so. Babylon is totally destroyed; not even a vestige of it remains. The Jews are no longer a nation; they are scattered throughout the world, and have no certain place of abode. They do not possess even one village on the face of the earth.

The last verse is thus translated and paraphrased in the old Psalter: -

Trans. And he sal yelde to thaim thair wickednes, and in thair malice he sall skater thaim: skater thaim sal Lorde oure God.

Par. Alswa say efter thair il entent, that thai wil do gude men harme; he sall yelde thaim pyne, and in thair malice thai sal be sundred fra the hali courte of hevene, and skatred emang the wiked fendes of hell.

For different views of several parts of this Psalm, see the Analysis.

ANALYSIS OF THE NINETY-FOURTH PSALM

In this Psalm the parts are, -

I. A petition for vengeance upon the wicked, Ps 94:1-2.

II. A pitiful complaint, with the causes of it, which were two: -

1. The delay of God's judgments on them, Ps 94:3-4.

2. Their insolence, oppression of the poor, and blasphemy against God, Ps 94:4-7.

III. A sharp reprehension of their blasphemy and atheism, and the refutation of it.

IV. A consolation to all good men, that God will punish the wicked and defend the righteous, Ps 94:12-23. Which is confirmed, -

1. From God's faithfulness, who hath promised, and will perform it, Ps 94:14.

2. From David's own experience, Ps 94:16-20.

3. From God's hatred of injustice, tyranny, and oppression, Ps 94:20-21. 1. Which will cause him to be a rock and defence to his people, Ps 94:22. 2. A severe revenger to the oppressors, Ps 94:23.

1. He begins with a petition that God would take vengeance of the oppressors of his people: "O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs, to whom vengeance belongs;" as if he had said, Thou art the most powerful Lord, a God of justice and power, and hast vengeance in thine own hand. Therefore now -

1. "Show thyself." Appear, shine forth evidently, and apparently show thy justice, Ps 94:1.

2. "Lift up thyself, thou Judge of the earth." Do thy office of judicature; ascend thy throne and tribunal, as judges use to do when they give judgment.

3. "Render a reward unto the proud." For the proud humble themselves not unto thee; they repent not.

II. And now the prophet begins to complain that, by the delay of God's judgment, wicked men were hardened in their impiety, and gloried in their villany.

1. "How long? how long?" This thy forbearance seems tedious; especially since the wicked grow worse and worse by it, and insult over us the more.

2. "For they triumph in their strength." They glory in their prosperity, and in their wickedness.

3. "They utter and speak hard things." Boldly, rashly, proudly, they threaten ruin to thy Church.

4. "They are workers of iniquity, and they boast themselves." It is not sufficient for them to do ill, but they boast of it.

Now to what end do they make use of all these? The consequence is lamentable - the event sad. The effects are lamentable, for in their fury and injustice -

1. "They break in pieces thy people, O Lord." The people dedicated to thee.

2. "They afflict thine heritage." The people that thou hast chosen for thy possession.

3. "They slay the widow," destitute of the comfort of a husband - 1. "And the stranger." A man far from his friends and country. 2. "And murder the fatherless." All which thou hast taken into thy protection, and commanded that they be not wronged. Ex 22:21-22; De 24:14; De 24:17-22. Yet such is their fury, that they spare neither sex, nor age, nor any condition of men.

"Yet they say, The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." This is their impiety; this is their blasphemy; this is the true cause of all their injustice, tyranny, cruelty, and oppression.

III. Now our prophet sets himself seriously to reprehend and confute this. By an apostrophe he turns to them, and calls them fools; and proves by a manifest argument that they are fools; demonstrating, from the cause to the effect, that God is neither deaf nor blind, as they presumed and conceived: and urgeth them emphatically, -

1. "Understand, ye brutish among the people. O ye fools, when will ye be wise?" What! will ye be brutish always? will ye never have common sense in your heads?

2. "He planted the ear," caused you to hear; "and shall he not then hear?"

3. He formed the eye with all the tunicles, and put into it the faculty of vision by which you see; "and shall he not see?" To say the contrary, is as if you should affirm that the fountain that sends forth the stream had no water in it; or the sun that enlightens the world had no light; or the fire that warms, no heat. Are these affirmations fit for wise men? Neither is it, that the God of Jacob doth not hear nor see.

4. "He chastiseth the heathen," as Sodom, Gomorrah, c., or he chastises them by the checks of their own conscience "and shall not he then correct you," who go under the name of his people, and yet so impiously blaspheme?

5. "He that teacheth man knowledge" - hath endued him with a reasonable soul, and made him capable of all arts and sciences; is he stupid? is he without understanding? "Shall not he know?" He looks into your hearts, and knows your thoughts and counsels, and findeth them all vain: "The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but vanity." With which he concludes his reprehension.

IV. And so from them he comes to the good man, and shows his happiness, whom he labours to comfort in his extremities, pronouncing him blessed: "Blessed is the man." And his blessedness lies in three things: -

1. In his sufferings; because when he is punished, he is but chastised, and his chastisements are from the Lord: "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest."

2. In his teaching, for when he is chastised, he is but taught obedience to the law of God, taught out of thy law.

3. In consideration of the end; that he feel not, but bear more moderately, the injuries of the wicked; for the end why God chastiseth and teacheth thee out of his law is: That he may give thee rest - a quiet and even soul, from the days of adversity; and that thou shouldst expect with patience, till the pit be digged up for the ungodly. Such a day there is, and the day will come. Hell is as ready to receive the sinner, as a grave digged up for a dead body. Expect therefore, their punishment and thy deliverance with a quiet mind. For which he gives three reasons: -

The first reason is, that though God for a time seem to be angry, and suffer his people to be afflicted, yet he will not utterly neglect and forsake them: -

1. "For the Lord will not cast off his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance."

2. A day of judgment and execution of justice shall come, "when judgment shall return unto righteousness."

A second confirmation of the comfort he gave to the Church in affliction is drawn from his own experience, Ps 94:16-20.

1. Object. Yea, but this time of judgment may be long; in the meanwhile it is necessary to have some helper and help against the persecutions and injuries of cruel men. Who will arise for me, and labour to protect me in so great a concourse of devils or mischievous men? "Who will stand up for me, and defend me against the workers of iniquity?"

Resp. Even he that then stood up for me. No man, but God alone. He did it; and "unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence;" I had been laid in the grave among the dead, saith David, Ps 94:17.

2. If I said, and complained to him, that I was in any danger, my foot slips - I was tempted and ready to fall, thy mercy, O Lord. held me up; in mercy he lent me his hand, and sustained me.

3. "In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul:" -

(1) The thoughts within me were sorrows of heart, and many they were, occasioned from within, from without; a multitude of them.

(2) "Thy comforts delight my soul." As were the troubles in the flesh, so were comforts in my soul.

His third reason, to comfort the Church in affliction, is drawn from the nature of God, to whom all iniquity is hateful.

1. "Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee?" Thou art a just God, and wilt thou have any thing to do, any society, with those that sit upon thrones and seats of justice, and execute injustice?

2. "Which frame mischief by a law," i.e. frame wicked laws; or, under the colour of law and justice, oppress the innocent. With those who do injustice by the sword of justice, God will have no fellowship.

3. And yet there is a third pretense of wicked men to colour their proceedings against innocent men. The first was their throne, the second was the law, and the third is their council, and consultations in them. These they call to that end. They meet by troops as thieves; they assemble, they convene in synods; "they gather themselves together," and that to a most wicked end: -

1. "Against the soul of the righteous." θηρευσαι, To hunt. - Septuagint.

2. "To condemn the innocent blood." Their laws are Draco's laws. Now what shall the poor innocent do in such a case? How shall he be comforted? Help he must not expect from man; from man it cannot come; it must come from heaven; and therefore let him say with David, Though my enemies rage as they list, and exercise all cruelties towards me, under a pretence of zeal, piety, and legal justice; yet

1. "The Lord is my defence," so that their treachery and plots shall not hurt me.

2. "My God is the rock of my refuge," on whom my hope shall safely rely.

3. "I am fully assured, for I have his word and his promise engaged for it."

1. "That he shall bring upon them their own iniquity;" that is, that the iniquity of the wicked man shall return upon his own head.

2. "And shall cut them off in their own wickedness;" not so much for their sin as for the malice of it.

3. Which for assurance of it he repeats, and explains who it is that shall do it: "Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off;" the Lord, whose providence they derided; "our God," the God of Jacob, whom they contemned, Ps 94:7, he "shall cut them off;" they shall have no part with his people.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Psa 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.

Ver. 23. And he shall bring upon them, &c.] See Psa 7:15-16.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23. (Psa 94:23) And he returns upon them their iniquity, and in their wickedness he mill destroy them, (yes) destroy them will Jehovah our God. The first verb denotes retaliation or requital. The preposition upon suggests the idea of infliction by a superior power. Iniquity expresses their misconduct towards others, wickedness the general depravity which prompted it. In their wickedness, i.e. in the midst of it, and by implication on account of it. The verb destroy is the one used in Psa 54:5; Psa 69:4; Psa 101:5. The repetition of the last verb with its object is like that in Psa 90:17. Compare Psa 92:7; Psa 93:4; Psa 94:1. The force of this emphatic repetition may be partially secured in English by a particle of affirmation, yea or yes.

Joseph Addison Alexander, The Psalms Translated and Explained (1850) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

It is a great token of God’s judgment when the purpose of the wicked is broken, but most, when they are destroyed in their own malice.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity,.... The just punishment of it; or cause the mischief they designed to others to fall upon themselves; or make retaliation to them; that whereas they had drank the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus, blood should be given them to drink; or their own blood should be shed, Rev 16:6, the Jews (i) say, that the Levites stood on their desks, and recited this passage, both at the precise time of the destruction of the first temple by Nebuchadnezzar, and of the second by the Romans:

and shall cut them off in their own wickedness; in the midst of it, while slaying the witnesses, and triumphing over them, Rev 18:7, yea,

the Lord our God shall cut them off; the God of Jacob, who, they said, did not see nor regard what they did, Psa 94:7, and so this latter part of the psalm fulfils the former, and proves that God is a God of vengeance, to whom it belongs; and he will exercise it in due time.

(i) Seder Olam Rabba, c. 30. p. 92.

Next: Psalms Chapter 95

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity - The consequences of their sin. He shall punish them as they deserve. See the notes at Psa 7:16.

And shall cut them off in their own wickedness - As the result of their wickedness, and while they are engaged in perpetrating acts of sin.

Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off - Expressing, by the repetition of the sentiment, the utmost confidence that this would be so. This is in accordance with the prayer with which the psalm opens, and is expressive of entire faith that God will deal justly with the children of men. However the wicked may seem to prosper and to triumph, yet the day of vengeance is approaching, and all which they have deserved will come upon them.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Their own iniquity, i.e. the fruit and punishment of their sins.

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 that lie did not see nor regard them, but now they find the contrary proved to their cost.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ver. 23. The natural result of oppression is the destruction of the despot; his own iniquities crush him ere long. Providence arranges retaliations as remarkable as they are just. High crimes in the end bring on heavy judgments, to sweep away evil men from off the face of the earth; yea, God himself interposes in a special manner, and cuts short the career of tyrants while they are in the very midst of their crimes. Wicked men are often arrested by the pursuivants of divine justice red handed, with the evidences of their guilt upon them.

He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness. While the stolen bread is in their mouths wrath slays them, while the ill gotten wedge of gold is yet in their tent judgment overtakes them. God himself conspicuously visits them, and reveals his own power in their overthrow,

yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off.

Here, then, the matter ends; faith reads the present in the light of the future, and ends her song without a trembling note.

Ver. 23. He shall bring upon them their own iniquity, etc. It is an ill work wicked ones are about, they make fetters for their own feet, and build houses for to fall upon their own heads; so mischievous is the nature of sin that it damnifies and destroys the parents of it. William Greenhill.

Ver. 23.

1. None may punish God's enemies but himself. "He shall bring, "etc.

2. None need punish them but himself. (a) It will be complete, "shall cut them off." (b) Certain. "Yea, "etc. G.R.

In the Works of Cardinal Sadoleto (1477-1547), pp. 895-972, there is an Exposition of this Psalm, 8 volume edition, Anno Domini 1607.

Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

23. He shall bring upon them their own iniquity—The iniquity of their own devising. “He shall return that mischief on them which they designed to bring on others, and by making their sins their scourges and certain ruin, manifest his fatherly care over his obedient and faithful servants.”— Hammond.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity. Most manifestly when he makes them fall into their own snare, (Psa_7:15 Psa_35:8 Psa_57:6 Psa_141:9, Psa_141:10) but really also whenever he punishes them for their sins. And shall cut them off; or, "destroy," "exterminate" them. In their own wickedness; or, "by their wickedness." The wicked man is often "hoist with his own petard." Yea, the Lord our God shall cut them off. The repetition, like that in ver. 1, is emphatic, and solemnly confirms the entire section (vers. 20-23).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

their violence Heb. אונם, their violence, as (Job 21:19): “Should God lay away his violence (אונו) for his sons?”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.