January 10thPsalms 94
God reigns, let earth be glad
We recently watched a film, The Bank of Dave. Dave Fishwick is a self-made millionaire, owner of seven van dealerships in Burnley, Lancashire. Burnley was once one of England’s most profitable mill towns, majoring in textiles, but now it has fallen on hard times and is seen as a dead-end town. Dave, however, has done well – so well that in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis he starts lending money at reduced rates to his customers and local businesses. As the movie begins he has loaned out more than a million pounds, and every loan has been re-paid back to the pound. Now Dave has an idea: why not set up a tiny local bank that uses local money to fund local enterprise. He enlists the help of a London lawyer and tells the lawyer he knows he will probably fail to get permission, after all the agency that oversees banking in England has not granted a new licence in over 150 years. But he wants to the chance to confront the bankers and force them to acknowledge their elitism and cronyism. He details, in anger, how the banks were granted bailouts during the financial crises and then used some of that money to pay bonuses to the managers who had mismanaged their funds in the first place; the same bankers who now refuse to help low-income customers and small businesses seeking loans.
I thought of Dave and his quest when I read Psalm 94.20:
20 Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who contrive mischief by law?
Psalm 94 begins with an appeal to God to judge the wicked. He laments their arrogance:
4 They pour out their arrogant words;
all the evildoers boast.
5 They crush your people, O Lord,
and afflict your heritage.
6 They kill the widow and the stranger;
they murder the orphan,
7 and they say, “The Lord does not see;
the God of Jacob does not perceive.”
But our psalmist does not despair. Though he sees the wicked seeming to flourish he stoutly maintains that those who trust in Yahweh’s instruction (Law) will be vindicated. God will not be mocked.
The heading of this psalm is unique: God the Avenger
of the Righteous. We may cringe at such language but it is important to know what ‘God’s vengeance’ means in Biblical thought. God does not hate, in the way we feel emotional hate when we are wronged. Rather, God’s vengeance is an act to restore justice where justice has not been practiced. God as king has a right and responsibility to restore the right order of things (and Israel’s kings were to act in like manner; see Psalm 72). So the plea is for God to demonstrate His authority by intervening in the human situation in a time when wrong is out of control.
The wicked seem to act with impunity. They say: ‘The Lord can’t see….’ But in a series of hard hitting questions (vs.8-11) our psalmist insists that God does indeed know what is going on.
8 You ignorant people better learn quickly.
You fools—when will you get some sense?
9 The one who made the ear,
can’t he hear?
The one who formed the eye,
can’t he see?
10 The one who disciplines nations,
can’t he punish?
The one who teaches humans,
doesn’t he know?
11 The Lord does indeed know human thoughts,
knows that they are nothing but a puff of air.
Our psalmist is confident that his prayer conforms to the gracious will of God. Here the psalmist acts as a pastor to console and comfort those going through difficult times. He counsels the people to trust God to enact justice, much as Paul in Romans reminds the church there, under persecution from the Roman Empire, to leave vengeance to God (Romans 12.19).
And who knows: Justice does come in surprising and unexpected ways. Remember the end of apartheid in South Africa; the fall of East Germany due in large part to the prayers of a persecuted church. As the hymn writer put it:
This is my Father’s world,
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world,
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King, let the heaven’s ring!
God reigns, let earth be glad.