Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps! I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day two thousand seven hundred forty of our Trek. The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.

Today, we are stepping into the courtroom of the cosmos as we open Psalm Ninety-four, covering the first half of this intense psalm, verses one through eleven, in the New Living Translation.

In our previous trek through Psalm Ninety-three, we stood in the royal throne room. We heard the triumphant declaration that "The Lord is king!" We saw that He is robed in majesty, stronger than the chaos waters, and that His reign is established from everlasting. It was a psalm of high theology, celebrating God’s absolute sovereignty over the universe.

But today, Psalm Ninety-four drags that high theology down into the gritty, often painful reality of life on earth. It asks the hard question: "If God is King, and if He is mightier than the waves, why do the wicked still crush the innocent?"

This psalm acts as a bridge. It takes the truth of God’s Kingship from Psalm Ninety-three and demands that it be applied to the injustices of the present moment. It is a cry for the King to stop sitting on the throne and to start acting from the throne. It confronts the arrogance of those who live as if God is blind, and it uses profound logic to dismantle their foolishness.

So, let us lace up our boots and walk through this powerful plea for divine justice.

O Lord, the God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!  Arise, O judge of the earth. Give the proud what they deserve.

The psalmist begins with a title for God that might make modern listeners uncomfortable: "O Lord, the God of vengeance."

We often associate "vengeance" with petty retaliation, uncontrolled anger, or getting even. But in the biblical worldview, and specifically within the Ancient Israelite context, vengeance (neqamah) is a legal and royal term. It refers to restorative justice. It is the act of a legitimate authority stepping in to right a wrong, to punish the guilty, and to vindicate the innocent.

When the psalmist calls God the "God of vengeance," he is not asking God to lose His temper. He is appealing to God’s office as the Supreme Magistrate. He is saying, "God, You are the only one with the authority to fix this broken situation." He repeats it twice for emphasis: "O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!"

The Hebrew phrase here literally asks God to "shine forth" (yapha). This is theophany language—the language of God appearing in radiant glory to intervene in human history, much like He did at Mount Sinai. The psalmist wants the hidden King of Psalm Ninety-three to become the visible Judge of Psalm Ninety-four.

He cries out: "Arise, O judge of the earth. Give the proud what they deserve."

The command to "Arise" (nasa) is significant. It evokes the imagery of the Divine Council. God is seated on His throne, presiding over the affairs of the nations. When the psalmist asks God to "Arise," he is asking Him to stand up to deliver a verdict. It is a call for action. The target of this judgment is "the proud"—those who have elevated themselves above God's law, thinking they are untouchable.

This opening prayer sets the stage. It is not a cry of personal bitterness; it is a formal appeal to the High Court of Heaven to enforce the law of the universe.

How long, O Lord? How long will the wicked be allowed to gloat?  How long will they speak with arrogance? How long will these evil people boast?  They crush your people, O Lord, hurting those you claim as your own.  They kill widows and foreigners and murder orphans.  "The Lord isn’t looking," they say, "and the God of Jacob doesn’t notice."

The psalmist moves from his appeal to his complaint, asking the perennial question of the suffering believer: "How long, O Lord?"

He sees the wicked, not just succeeding, but gloating. They are speaking with arrogance, pouring out insolence. This is more than just doing bad things; it is a posture of absolute defiance. They boast in their ability to do harm.

The psalmist then presents the evidence of their crimes, and notices who the victims are: "They crush your people, O Lord... They kill widows and foreigners and murder orphans."

In the Ancient Near East, and specifically in the Torah, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner were the most vulnerable classes of people. They had no natural protectors—no husband, no father, no clan to defend them. God declared Himself to be their personal Defender. By attacking these specific groups, the wicked are not just committing murder; they are attacking the very people God has pledged to protect. They are violating the heart of God's covenant law.

But their crime goes deeper than violence. It is rooted in a profound theological error. Verse seven exposes their mindset: "The Lord isn’t looking," they say, "and the God of Jacob doesn’t notice."

This is practical atheism. They don't necessarily deny that Yahweh exists; they deny that He is involved. They view God as a distant, disinterested deity who is either too busy, too far away, or too weak to care about what happens in the dark corners of the earth. They believe they have autonomy—that they can act without consequence because the Divine Judge is absent from the bench.

This reflects the corruption of the Divine Council worldview we saw in Psalm Eighty-two. There, the lesser elohim (spiritual beings) and their human counterparts failed to judge justly. Here, these wicked human rulers have adopted that same corrupt mindset, believing they are unaccountable. They think the God of Jacob—the covenant God—has checked out.

Think again, you fools! When will you understand?  Does he who fashioned the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see?  Does he who instructs the nations not punish? Does he who teaches people knowledge not know?  The Lord knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless!

Now, the psalmist turns his attention directly to these arrogant oppressors. He assumes the role of a wisdom teacher, dismantling their bad theology with ironclad logic. He calls them "fools" (ba‘ar), which implies a brutish, animal-like stupidity. He asks, "When will you understand?"

He then launches into one of the earliest and most powerful teleological arguments (arguments from design) in Scripture: "Does he who fashioned the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see?"

You have an ear. It was designed to capture sound. Who designed it? The Creator. Is it logical to assume that the Creator possesses less capability than the creature He made? Can the One who invented the concept of "hearing" be deaf? Can the One who engineered the complexity of the "eye" be blind?

The psalmist is arguing from the lesser to the greater. If humans, who are merely created beings, have the capacity to perceive reality, how much more does the Source of all reality perceive? The idea that God "doesn't notice" (verse seven) is philosophically absurd. It violates the law of cause and effect. You cannot give what you do not possess. Since God gave us sight, He must possess ultimate Sight. He is the All-Seeing Eye and the All-Hearing Ear.

The argument then shifts from biology to history and governance: "Does he who instructs the nations not punish? Does he who teaches people knowledge not know?"

This touches on the Divine Council worldview again. God is the one who "instructs the nations." Even though the nations were disinherited at Babel (Deuteronomy Thirty-two: eight), God remains the ultimate disciplinarian of all peoples. History is full of examples where God brought judgment on corrupt nations. The psalmist asks: If God actively disciplines entire nations, do you really think He will let you—a mere individual—get away with murder?

Furthermore, God is the source of all human "knowledge." Every thought, every concept of justice, every bit of reasoning power we have comes from Him. Therefore, it is impossible for Him to be ignorant.

The section concludes with a crushing verdict on human arrogance: "The Lord knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless!"

The wicked think they are clever. They devise "crafty schemes" (as we saw in Psalm Eighty-three). They think their plan to oppress the widow and the orphan is brilliant strategy. But God looks at their inner thoughts and dismisses them as "worthless" (hebel).

This word hebel is the same word used throughout the book of Ecclesiastes, often translated as "vanity" or "vapor." It means something fleeting, insubstantial, and ultimately empty. The "deep thoughts" of the wicked, their plans to evade justice, their atheistic philosophies—in the eyes of the Eternal King of Psalm Ninety-three, they are nothing but a puff of smoke.

God is not intimidated by their intellect; He is not blinded by their secrecy. He knows their thoughts before they even think them.

This first half of Psalm Ninety-four serves as a wake-up call. It establishes that the problem of evil is not a problem of God's ability, but of His timing. The wicked may prosper for a season, and they may delude themselves into thinking God is blind, but the logic of creation proves otherwise. The God who made the eye sees every act of oppression. The God who made the ear hears every cry of the widow. And the God of Vengeance is preparing to shine forth.

 

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Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most importantly, I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.   As we take this Trek of life together, let us always: Live Abundantly.   Love Unconditionally.   Listen Intentionally.   Learn Continuously.   Lend to others Generously.   Lead with Integrity.   Leave a Living Legacy Each Day.

I am Guthrie Chamberlain, reminding you to’ Keep Moving Forward,’ ‘Enjoy your Journey,’ and ‘Create a Great Day…Everyday! See you next time for more daily wisdom!