Psalm 94

⁴Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.”

²The Lord is a jealous and avenging God; the Lord is avenging and full of wrath. The Lord takes vengeance on His foes and reserves wrath for His enemies.

³⁰For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

³⁵Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”

¹⁹Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written: “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”

⁸in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

⁶Arise, O Lord, in Your anger; rise up against the fury of my enemies. Awake, my God, and ordain judgment.

²³Love the Lord, all His saints. The Lord preserves the faithful, but fully repays the arrogant.

¹⁰For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive his due for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.

²²Furthermore, the Father judges no one, but has assigned all judgment to the Son,

²³so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him.

²⁵Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?”

⁹Your hand will be lifted over your foes, and all your enemies will be cut off.

¹⁰And they cried out in a loud voice, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge those who dwell upon the earth and avenge our blood?”

¹Righteous are You, O Lord, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?

²You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their hearts.

⁵the triumph of the wicked has been brief and the joy of the godless momentary?

²For You are the God of my refuge. Why have You rejected me? Why must I walk in sorrow because of the enemy’s oppression?

⁴O Lord God of Hosts, how long will Your anger smolder against the prayers of Your people?

⁸They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression.

¹⁸May lying lips be silenced—lips that speak with arrogance against the righteous, full of pride and contempt.

¹For the choirmaster. A Maskil of David. After Doeg the Edomite went to Saul and told him, “David has gone to the house of Ahimelech.” Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man? The loving devotion of God endures all day long.

²⁵He will speak out against the Most High and oppress the saints of the Most High, intending to change the appointed times and laws; and the saints will be given into his hand for a time, and times, and half a time.

¹⁴Yet they say to God: ‘Leave us alone! For we have no desire to know Your ways.

¹⁵Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we pray to Him?’

⁹The enemy declared, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake. I will divide the spoils; I will gorge myself on them. I will draw my sword; my hand will destroy them.’

¹⁰But You blew with Your breath, and the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

³They sharpen their tongues like snakes; the venom of vipers is on their lips. Selah

¹⁵Why do you crush My people and grind the faces of the poor?” declares the Lord God of Hosts.

²They have given the corpses of Your servants as food to the birds of the air, the flesh of Your saints to the beasts of the earth.

³They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there is no one to bury the dead.

¹¹“Because you rejoice, because you sing in triumph—you who plunder My inheritance—because you frolic like a heifer treading grain and neigh like stallions,

²or they will shred my soul like a lion and tear me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

³And I will empower my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

⁷for they have devoured Jacob and devastated his homeland.

²to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.

⁷Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

⁶if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,

⁵“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the Lord of Hosts.

¹⁵Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword.

¹⁶Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished.

³This is what the Lord says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Do not shed innocent blood in this place.

³And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’

⁴For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect men,

¹¹He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”

¹²Arise, O Lord! Lift up Your hand, O God! Do not forget the helpless.

¹⁵Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the Lord. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”

¹²“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’”

¹²Is not God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are!

¹³Yet you say: ‘What does God know? Does He judge through thick darkness?

¹²And at that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men settled in complacency, who say to themselves, ‘The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad.’

⁶A senseless man does not know, and a fool does not understand,

³For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.

¹⁰For it is clear that wise men die, and the foolish and the senseless both perish and leave their wealth to others.

¹¹When its limbs are dry, they are broken off. Women come and use them for kindling; for this is a people without understanding. Therefore their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.

¹¹There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.

²⁹If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate.

¹¹And the Lord said to him, “Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the Lord?

²³“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the Lord, “and not a God far away?”

²⁴“Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the Lord. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the Lord.

¹²Ears that hear and eyes that see—the Lord has made them both.

⁴The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord is on His heavenly throne. His eyes are watching closely; they examine the sons of men.

²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart?

¹For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. O Lord, You have searched me and known me.

²You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar.

¹¹who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’

²⁶For his God instructs and teaches him properly.

²⁵Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge You, and on the families that do not call on Your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have consumed him and finished him off; they have devastated his homeland.

⁴⁵It is written in the Prophets: ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from Him comes to Me—

³And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

²With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out.

²⁰And again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”

¹⁹For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”

²¹For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts.

²²Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools,

¹¹Surely He knows the deceit of men. If He sees iniquity, does He not take note?

¹²But a witless man can no more become wise than the colt of a wild donkey can be born a man!

²⁵For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.

²¹For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

¹¹My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, and do not loathe His rebuke;

¹²for the Lord disciplines the one He loves, as does a father the son in whom he delights.

¹⁷Blessed indeed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.

³²But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world.

⁵And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

¹⁹Those I love I rebuke and discipline. Therefore be earnest and repent.

⁷¹It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes.

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

⁹if all this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.

¹⁵The nations have fallen into a pit of their making; their feet are caught in the net they have hidden.

⁷and to grant relief to you who are oppressed and to us as well. This will take place when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels

⁸in blazing fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

¹³And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”

²⁰Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed.

²¹For behold, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer conceal her slain.

²²Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the Lord will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own.

¹I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

²God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel:

²⁸For the Lord loves justice and will not forsake His saints. They are preserved forever, but the offspring of the wicked will be cut off.

⁹But the Lord’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance.

²⁷My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

²⁸I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand.

⁵Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.”

⁹Because I have sinned against Him, I must endure the rage of the Lord, until He argues my case and executes justice for me. He will bring me into the light; I will see His righteousness.

³⁴Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will raise you up to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you will see it.

²Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation.

¹⁸So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

³For the scepter of the wicked will not rest upon the land allotted to the righteous, so that the righteous will not put forth their hands to injustice.

⁴Do good, O Lord, to those who are good, and to the upright in heart.

³A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.

²³‘Curse Meroz,’ says the angel of the Lord. ‘Bitterly curse her inhabitants; for they did not come to help the Lord, to help the Lord against the mighty.’

⁵⁰Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who himself was one of them, asked,

⁵¹“Does our law convict a man without first hearing from him to determine what he has done?”

⁸Therefore we ought to support such men, so that we may be fellow workers for the truth.

¹“Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.

²Deliver me from workers of iniquity, and save me from men of bloodshed.

⁵I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that no one assisted. So My arm brought Me salvation, and My own wrath upheld Me.

¹A song of ascents. Of David. If the Lord had not been on our side—let Israel now declare—

²if the Lord had not been on our side when men attacked us,

¹⁷O Lord, let me not be ashamed, for I have called on You. Let the wicked be put to shame; let them lie silent in Sheol.

¹⁶At my first defense, no one stood with me, but everyone deserted me. May it not be charged against them.

¹⁷But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message would be fully proclaimed, and all the Gentiles would hear it. So I was delivered from the mouth of the lion.

¹³I was pushed so hard I was falling, but the Lord helped me.

¹⁷It is not the dead who praise the Lord, nor any who descend into silence.

³Consider me and respond, O Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death,

³He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber.

¹⁰Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will surely help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

¹¹⁶Sustain me as You promised, that I may live; let me not be ashamed of my hope.

¹¹⁷Uphold me, and I will be saved, that I may always regard Your statutes.

²³The steps of a man are ordered by the Lord who takes delight in his journey.

²⁴Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, for the Lord is holding his hand.

¹⁶For I said, “Let them not gloat over me—those who taunt me when my foot slips.”

³²But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

²From the ends of the earth I call out to You whenever my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

⁴who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

⁵For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.

²In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.

³I remembered You, O God, and I groaned; I mused and my spirit grew faint. Selah

²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

³Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

⁵My soul is satisfied as with the richest of foods; with joyful lips my mouth will praise You.

⁶When I remember You on my bed, I think of You through the watches of the night.

¹⁶I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the people who invade us.

¹⁷Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,

¹Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees,

²No, in your hearts you devise injustice; with your hands you mete out violence on the earth.

¹⁵The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed.

¹⁶And the second beast required all people, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,

¹⁶Furthermore, I saw under the sun that in the place of judgment there is wickedness, and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness.

⁵⁷But the chief priests and Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where He was must report it, so that they could arrest Him.

³You dismiss the day of calamity and bring near a reign of violence.

¹When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people conspired against Jesus to put Him to death.

¹⁵Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—both are detestable to the Lord.

⁷Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty.

³See how they lie in wait for me. Fierce men conspire against me for no transgression or sin of my own, O Lord.

⁶I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her.

²⁷Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

²The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

¹Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—whom shall I dread?

²When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh, my enemies and foes stumbled and fell.

⁹I will keep watch for You, O my strength, because You, O God, are my fortress.

⁶He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress; I will not be shaken.

¹⁶But I will sing of Your strength and proclaim Your loving devotion in the morning. For You are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble.

¹⁷To You, O my strength, I sing praises, for You, O God, are my fortress, my God of loving devotion.

¹⁶he will dwell on the heights; the mountain fortress will be his refuge; his food will be provided and his water assured.

¹⁶His trouble recoils on himself, and his violence falls on his own head.

³²The wicked man is thrown down by his own sin, but the righteous man has a refuge even in death.

²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

²³But You, O God, will bring them down to the Pit of destruction; men of bloodshed and deceit will not live out half their days. But I will trust in You.

¹⁰David added, “As surely as the Lord lives, the Lord Himself will strike him down; either his day will come and he will die, or he will go into battle and perish.

¹¹But the Lord forbid that I should extend my hand against the Lord’s anointed. Instead, take the spear and water jug by his head, and let us go.”