Coty Pinckney On Wednesday afternoon April 7, Phillip Adams, armed with two firearms, approached the house of prominent Rock Hill physician Robert Lesslie. He shot two HVAC technicians working at the property. Adams then forced entry into the house, where he shot and killed Dr Lesslie, his wife, and two of their grandchildren, ages 5 and 9. Phillip Adams later killed himself. At this point, apparently no one knows why.
We live in a world where terrible events happen all too frequently. And many feel as if our world is getting worse.
Look around this world, this country, this city – what concerns you?
Ask this question of your neighbors, friends, and colleagues – you’ll hear answers such as:
- Increasing violence
- The “othering” of political opponents
- Sexual identity confusion
- More and more power concentrated in executive branches, state and federal
- Racism, whether personal or structural
- Secularization of the US
- Poverty and hunger
- China, Iran, Russia, N Korea
- Persecution of Christians
- Modern day slavery
- Human trafficking
- The next pandemic
For some, the concern is much more personal:
- Increasing conflict in the marriage, or in the family
- Deteriorating health
- Loss of a job
Furthermore, many of those who explicitly oppose the Gospel and openly mock Jesus believe they are on the ascendancy – they will have more and more power; nothing can stop them.
Psalms 93 and 94 address our concerns directly – whatever they may be. These psalms describe the wicked – their power, their arrogance, their terrors. They also describe God’s people – crushed and afflicted by the wicked, crying out to Him for vengeance and protection. And they describe who God is: His might, His plan, His knowledge, His justice and righteousness.
These psalms assure us: God is the answer to all our concerns, private concerns as well as public, local concerns as well as international. God is the answer – not so that we then say, “Oh, these really aren’t that important!” Instead, so that we might know: We have a mighty ally. We have a stronghold. We have a rock of refuge. God stands by His people. He sees all. He cares about every hurt, every injustice. He will both protect His people and see that justice is done.
So let’s look at these psalms under three headings:
- God’s Enemies
- God’s People
- God
God’s Enemies
We’ll consider five actions of God’s enemies, leading to a concluding statement:
First: God’s enemies try to upset His order.
Psalm 93:1 tells us, “The world is established [by God], it shall never be moved.” But then Psalm 93:3: “The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring.”
God establishes an order – and then that order is attacked. Think of a tsunami, or a flash flood, or an overflowing river. These can sweep away whatever is before them.
The enemies of God can seem that way – whether those enemies are human or spiritual. And the spiritual enemies are behind the human ones. As Paul tells us, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, … but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Satan himself works diligently to sweep away God’s order.
Second: God’s enemies boast.
Psalm 94:3-4: “O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words; all the evildoers boast.”
They boast not only to express joy in the advance of their cause, but also to discourage the people of God, to make them think there is no hope of overcoming evil, to get them to give up, to surrender, or to retreat into isolated enclaves.
Third: God’s enemies crush God’s people.
Psalm 94:5-6: “They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict your heritage. [That’s the general statement – verse 6 then gives some specific examples:] They kill the widow and the sojourner [or refugee], and murder the fatherless.”
This crushing takes several forms: Murdering the weak and powerless is simply the most extreme. Crushing can include ostracizing, taking away businesses, stifling advancement in careers, discriminating against for employment, and – as is happening today in parts of Nigeria and elsewhere – slavery, maiming, rape.
Fourth: God’s enemies institute injustice.
The third action focused on what God’s enemies do against individuals; the fourth emphasizes systemic actions, carried out through the legal system.
God gives His people His Law, showing what real justice and righteousness look like. When God’s enemies control the legal system, they institute a contrary system, which violates true justice: “Can wicked rulers be allied with you,
those who frame injustice by statute? [NET “who make oppressive laws”] They band together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death (Psalm 94:20-21, emphasis added).
Finally: The wicked act as if God doesn’t see
Psalm 94:7: “They say, ‘The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’”
The point is not that they say this in so many words – though on occasion, while speaking to God’s people, they may make such mocking statements. The point is that this is how they act. They act as if their Creator, the God of the universe, is impotent. They act as if God cannot see, or as if, seeing, He still can’t do anything about their actions.
The concluding statement: God’s enemies deserve vengeance.
Psalm 94:2: “Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve!” (emphasis added)
To set oneself up against God, to rebel against Him and His Law, to oppress others and to institute injustice, to mock God, to act as if He can’t see you or sees and can’t do anything about your actions – all that deserves righteous judgment. Justice must be done.
God’s People
What do these psalms tell us about God’s people?
As we’ve seen, they are crushed and afflicted (Psalm 94:5). Psalm 94:13 speaks more generally; they have “days of trouble.” So they cry out: “Who rises up for me against the wicked? Who stands up for me against evildoers?” (Psalm 94:16)
Has that been your cry? When you consider the concerns we enumerated in the introduction, do you ask: Who will stand up against such evil?
The answer has to be God.
So God’s people cry out to God for vengeance, for justice: “O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth!” (Psalm 94:1)
Is this right? Is God a god of vengeance?
Undoubtedly – Scripture makes this clear again and again. We could support this from hundreds of passages, but let’s consider a New Testament epistle, Paul’s second letter to the Thessalonians. These new believers are suffering because of their faith in Jesus. The apostle writes:
God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might (2 Thessalonians 1:6-9, emphasis added).
He is indeed a God of vengeance. It is right and proper to call upon Him to exercise such justice, for it is just “to repay with affliction those who afflict” His people.
He will sometimes exercise that justice immediately, in the short term, as He does in Acts 12 when Herod basks in the cries of the people, “The voice of a God and not of a man!” (Acts 12:22) God immediately strikes him down. Luke graphically states that he is eaten by worms, “because he did not give God the glory” (Acts 12:23).
But while God’s justice may not be implemented immediately, He always brings about perfect, ultimate justice when Jesus returns, as the Apostle says. God will judge, seeing that every sin receives exactly the right punishment.
There’s a popular myth that the Old Testament is a book of judgment, while the New Testament is a book of love. Friends, 2 Thessalonians is in the New Testament. Yes, this letter speaks much of God’s love – but is also crystal clear about God’s judgment. Indeed, Jesus Himself speaks much about judgment, including referring to the unquenchable fire and undying worm of hell (Mark 9:42-48).
Now, in Romans 12:19 Paul tells us not to exact revenge ourselves – but the reason we are to do so is that vengeance belongs to God, and He is certain to repay the evil.
So God’s people are crushed and afflicted, they have days of trouble, they cry out for vengeance.
Finally, God’s people know: They themselves deserve vengeance.
Scripture tells us there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). We all sin (Romans 3:23). We become God’s people not through straightening out our lives, but by His grace and mercy, offered to us through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. God places the penalty for our sins on Jesus – His takes the just punishment due for the all the sins of all those saved through faith in Him. Therefore God is just (righteous), and the one who justifies (declares righteous) those who have faith in Jesus (Romans 3:26).
So when we pray “O God of vengeance shine forth” (Psalm 94:1), we know that we ourselves deserve God’s vengeance. Apart from His mercy, we ourselves would face His judgment. We long for perfect justice to be done – for our own sins as well as for the sins done against us. So we can pray sincerely for the salvation of those who commit evil against us, and pray, “O God of vengeance, see that Your perfect justice is done! Pay for these sins! – either by the blood of Jesus or by inflicting vengeance on the perpetrator.”
God
Eight statements about God from these psalms:
First: God is almighty from everlasting
From Psalm 93:1-2: “The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. … Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting.”
Then after saying floods rise up against what God has established, the psalmist writes, “Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty!” (Psalm 93:4)
Second: God makes the world and puts it on His path.
We saw earlier from Psalm 93:2 that the world God established cannot be moved. You see: If God is almighty and His throne is established and solid from everlasting, then anything He determines to be solid and firm will be so. Thus, the world itself is firm, now and in the future. God has established its course. No attacks of any enemy can change that.
Third: God hears, knows, sees all
In response to the wicked saying that God does not see, the psalmist writes:
Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge– the LORD– knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath (Psalm 94:8-11).
God is the source of sight; He is the source of hearing; He is the source of wisdom; He is a teacher and trainer – and He instructs you, you don’t instruct Him. Apart from God, man’s best thoughts, man’s most intelligent thoughts, are insubstantial, just a breath, all in vain.
So the most intelligent of men, the wisest of women – whether scientists or philosophers or statesmen or businessmen -know nothing apart from what God has granted them. They speak some truth – as God permits. But if they reject their Creator, if they ignore the One who made their eyes and granted them their brains and enabled them to research and to write, they are fools. Indeed we are fools – when we act as if we did not receive any good gift we have (1 Corinthians 4:7, James 1:17, Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
Fourth: God speaks
God not only creates, controls, directs the world to its final end. He also issues decrees or laws; He speaks to us by His Word, telling us who He is, who we are, and where the world is headed.
Psalm 93:5: “Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.”
Through His revelation, we can know Him, know His holiness, and so be His house His holy temple, as we live in this fallen, sinful world (Hebrews 3:6, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
Fifth: God never forsakes His people.
Psalm 94:14: “For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage.”
Yes, as we have seen God’s people experience affliction, hardship, and oppression. Jesus Himself says, “In this world you will have tribulation.” But He continues: “Take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
God is with us in the midst of whatever tribulation we face. In what way?
- Psalm 94:12: God blesses His people with training, with correction, with the teaching of His Law – and He does this especially when we are suffering hardship. Indeed, the hardship itself is often an excellent teacher.
- Psalm 94:13: God gives His people rest. So we are to make every effort to enter God’s rest (Hebrews 4:11).
Sixth: God is the help or ally for His people
This is a positive way of saying God never leaves us nor forsakes us.
Psalm 94:17-18: “If the LORD had not been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence. When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up.”
In desperate times, we feel like we can’t hang on; we’re at the end of our own resources. But God’s love holds us and sustains us, enabling us to endure in faith to the end and so be saved (Matthew 10:22).
Psalm 94:19: “When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.”
So yes, God is our ally against the forces of evil arrayed against us. But the thrust of these verses is not His help against our enemies per se, but against our own doubts, our own cares, our panic.
Do you know this aspect of God’s love? Do you know the comfort of Jesus? His love holds you up.
Seventh: God is our stronghold, our rock
Psalm 94:22: “But the LORD has become my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge.”
If the Lord is my stronghold, clearly nothing else can take His place; nothing else can serve in that role.
God must not be our last resort, what we finally reach out to when all else fails. He should be our first and last resort. For nothing else is strong in comparison to Him.
Finally: God will enact just vengeance.
Psalm 94:15: “For justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.”
The Christian Standard Bible renders the first part of verse 15, “The administration of justice will again be righteous.” That’s the idea. God’s enemies have tried to pervert justice. God will correct that. As the psalmist explains in Psalm 94:23: “He will bring back on [the wicked] their iniquity and wipe them out for their wickedness; the LORD our God will wipe them out.”
As Psalm 1:4 says: The wicked “are like chaff that the wind blows away.” As powerful and dominant as they may look, they are ultimately insubstantial. God simply poofs – and they are gone.
God will exercise His perfect justice. Praise Him.
Conclusion
So friends:
Amidst the chaos of this world, as we try to love and serve in the chaos, as we suffer and hurt and experience loss, know: God reigns. Jesus is King. Whenever any powers of evil try to assail His order, His plan, He flicks them away with His little finger.
If you are in Christ, this Almighty God is your ally, your helper, your avenger. He is not a power that you can wield to accomplish your purposes. Rather, He is the sovereign God who invites you to fulfill His, saying:
“Come to My arms through Jesus, you rebels! Play your assigned role in my plan. Along the way, there will be hardship. There will be loss. There will be pain and suffering. So cry out to Me! Call upon Me to fulfill My every promise, to display My righteous character! Trust Me in the midst of the tribulation! And in ways you cannot see, in ways you would never expect, I will bring about perfect justice, perfect vengeance, indeed, perfect peace for My people. The kingdom of this world will become My kingdom, Christ’s Kingdom; He will reign forever and ever. And I will wipe away every tear from your eye.”
That is God’s promise.
That is God’s Gospel.
So come to Jesus.
Cry out to Him.
Trust Him.
And delight in your Almighty Father forever and ever.
[This is a condensed write-up of a sermon on Psalm 93 and 94 preached April 11, 2021. You can watch the service at this link; the sermon begins about 31:30 into the recording.]