Ps. 94.7 (the divine vision)

And they say,
“Yah will not see!
Jacob’s god / wont understand."

These lines are crucial to the overall thrust of the psalm and, in particular, to the verses that follow. Much of what we have to say here flows from the previous verses—these words are but the theological expression of their exploitation of the widow, orphan and resident alien. In other words, the absence of protection for these people on earth is but a manifestation of Yhwh’s ‘absence’ in the heavenly realm, his limited power, authority and perception. For the wicked, then, these ‘Yhwh’s people and heritage’ are not merely vulnerable; they are absolutely exposed because their divine protector is both blind and stupid. What the wicked do understand, however, is that ‘justice’ is a matter of divine power; it does flow from the divine realm. For them, it is simply the case that these people have aligned themselves to a god that is unable to protect them. As such, they inhabit a sphere essentially empty of justice. 

This is key: as will be more apparent in the following verses, the wicked have no conception of an all-embracing deity; they only have a conception of a localized, inherently limited one. For them, Yhwh is simply “the god of Jacob”; he is not, however, the god of all others. What this entails, it seems, is there can be these ‘gaps’ through which people fall, or ‘spheres of divine absence’ where people can reside. These places are, for those who fall into them, a type of ‘hell’ in that they stand invisible to the divine realm, where all protection, justice (and blessing) resides. To enter into this realm is to become invisible and to enter a realm of ‘divine ignorance’. For the wicked, then, these people represent utter and complete possibility and opportunity; they are completely free to be exploited. 

Now, as we will see, this approach to the wicked, in this portion of the psalm is very ‘epic’ in scope; it comprehends the entire scope of humanity (as the following verses will describe). In the second portion of the psalm, however, the scope is entirely personal to the psalmist; we move from the macrocosmic to the microcosmic. And there we move ‘inside’ of the vulnerable people, these people who seem to live outside the realm of Yhwh’s protection. The psalmist says, “Who will rise up for me against evildoers? Who will take a stand for me against evildoers? Unless Yhwh had been a help for me, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. Though I said, “My foot is slipping…”, your loyal-love sustained me. When my cares were great within me, your comforts brought joy to my soul.” In these verses we see one of “Yhwh’s own” straining underneath the pressure injustice. Unlike the wicked, he does not accuse God of blindness or stupidity, but there is a palpable sense that he is in a real danger of being engulfed by the wicked. To be ‘in Yhwh’ allows for this experience (‘My god, my god, why…’), even though it is framed in a very different manner than the way the wicked frame it (and, as such, has almost entirely different possibilities).

Ps. 94.5-6 (a perceived void)

They crush / your people / O Yhwh
and oppress / your heritage
they kill / widows / and resident aliens
and murder / orphans. 

Crush, oppress, kill and murder. These verbs of action form the enactment of the ‘spewing forth’ of the previous verse. And they are encased within these exclamatory words, as the immediately following verses reflect the ‘vaunting’ words of the wicked in the face of Yhwh: “And they say, “Yah will not see!”.  I think part of the point to this is that these wicked accomplish this ‘crushing, oppressive, killing and murder’ by way of their speech, probably more so that by direct action. I think there is additional warrant for this but first we need to look at who these victims are: widows, resident aliens and orphans. 

These are “Yhwh’s people” and his “heritage”. This group is commonly portrayed together, particularly widows and orphans and we have looked at them in previous psalms. There, we have noted how they represent a type of ‘invisible’ group of people. They are the vulnerable, without no one to protect. It is precisely because they live within this invisible hole within society that they become of particular concern to Yhwh. Yhwh is the one who ‘fills in the gaps’. They are dear to him precisely because their protection is a form of his sovereignty over the social order. What I mean is this: if there existed a perpetual ‘gap’ within society, a group of people that could be victimized without fear of judgment, then that ‘gap’ would represent a divine gap, a place that the god would not go. It would be a place of (wicked) freedom. When Yhwh moves into this sphere, however, he shows himself to be the sovereign of every social space. In other words, just as in time and space there is no place to hide from Yhwh, so too, within the social order, is there no place to hide. This is why, when the ‘lowly are lifted up’, it becomes an expression of Yhwh’s sovereign glory and mastery. He ‘fills’ every void. Clearly, however, the wicked do not see it that way. Rather, this social void, for them, is opportunity and freedom. It is a type of real or absolute absence. It is a place wherein they can exercise their will completely unfettered. It is a place of invisibility (“Yah will not see!”). Interestingly, throughout other stories, the ability to be invisible results in extreme depravity and wickedness (from Plato to Tolkein).It is as if they wicked have ‘found a hiding place’, a metaphysically empty space. 

And now we can circle back to the original idea that these actions are ‘verbal actions’. I think these wicked are some form of administrators of justice, or judges, and that they pervert justice such that their rulings (their ‘speech’) effectively kills the ‘widow, resident alien and orphan’. They believe that their rulings are, in a sense, utterly and absolutely secular and devoid of divine oversight. For them, these people are essentially empty, pure vessels that they can pour themselves into. As we will see, though, this perception of their ‘rulings’ will be revealed to have been ‘always-already’ performed within a prior ruling (a prior courtroom) of Yhwh. When ‘the time comes’ these victims will be revealed to have been Yhwh’s all along and they will become the judgment of the wicked. This is why the psalmist prefaces the description of these people as “your people” and “your heritage”. That which the wicked thought was an absolutely empty space will be understood to have been full, without remainder. While they thought Yhwh didn’t ‘see’ them, they will learn that, in fact, these people were Yhwh’s eyes.

Ps. 94.3-4 (wicked celebration)

How long / will the wicked / O Yhwh
how long / will the wicked / celebrate
spewing out arrogance / when they speak
and all the evildoers / vaunting themselves. 

These lines, in their context following verses 1 and 2, resonate with a deeper meaning than would usually be the case. Verses 1 and 2 refer to the ‘time of judging’, when Yhwh would ‘shine forth’ and ‘rise up’ in order to ‘render payment’ on the wicked. They contemplate a time, or a moment, when Yhwh would enact his ‘vindication’, calling the earth to account. It is looking forward to, in other words, an historical event at which time things would be set to right. The petition to Yhwh to enact this event is full of confidence. His ‘shining forth’, his ‘rising’, his being the ‘God of Vindication’, and the fact that the entire earth is his courtroom, inaugurates this psalm with the tone of an extreme assurance. This is important to note as we read these lines because usually the question of ‘how long….’ is a very heavy question, laden with anxiety and sorrow. In other psalms, when this question is posed, there is a degree of uncertainty as to when, or even perhaps if, Yhwh will choose to rectify the injustice. Here, however, it has a different tone. Because it is rooted in the confidence of verses 1 and 2, it feels more like a rhetorical question, a question whose answer is known. In this sense it comes at us from a different direction. Now, it is important to note that the more ‘tragic’ sense is alluded to in the second portion of the psalm. However, there it is told strictly in the terms of the past tense. The psalmist now stands within the light of Yhwh’s faithfulness and has been rescued from his troubles. Here, that ‘confidence’ resides in a different place—not in the personal sphere of redemption but in the more ‘cosmic’ sphere of Yhwh’s utter mastery over all areas of life (vs. 8-11). The point to all of this: this ‘how long’ is contained. It is not as open ended as in other psalms. The psalmist knows the ‘tie will end’ in the same way that his time of injustice ended. Importantly, though, we need to note that this question can still be posed within this sphere of assurance. The certainty that the time will end does not nullify the question, although it does change it in an important way. 

Celebration and Arrogance. The word ‘celebrate’ is important, as this is not simply a type of festival that the wicked are engaged in but rather a victory celebration. They are celebrating their own power and freedom from any divine oversight; they ‘vaunt themselves’. It is this type of ‘abandon’ that is deemed by the psalmist to be ‘arrogance’ and a type of ‘spewing out’. For him, this is some type of mock-liturgy to the darkness rather than a celebration. The wicked are portrayed as emitting filth from their mouth. The image is one of utter contrast. The wicked ‘celebrate’ but they do so by ‘spewing from their mouth’. This disconnect between the psalmist and the wicked, between what they understand themselves to be doing and what the psalmist perceives, will be most fully embodied in the mock questions posed to them in verses 8-11.  The ‘freedom’ the wicked believe they celebrate in will be revealed to have been encapsulated within a greater realm of Yhwh’s sovereign judgment. At that point the ‘real’ celebration will occur, the celebration of the righteous.

Ps. 94.2 (revealing the courtroom)

Rise up / O Judge / of the earth
render / on the proud / what they deserve. 

The “God of Vindication” “shines forth”. The ‘Judge of the earth’ “rises up”. Both movements—going ‘forth’ and ‘rising up’—express the momentum of Yhwh’s judgment, the momentum whereby the “earth” is called to account. And this economic phrase—called to account—is not accidental. In a very deep sense, this psalm calls for the enactment of payment. In a way, the psalm contemplates a type of outstanding obligation on the part of Yhwh to ‘pay back’ what has been rendered on the earth, this ‘obligation’ being the enactment of this faithfulness. Yhwh ‘renders’ to the proud what they have ‘rendered’. They are, in other words, being judged ‘according to their works’ (later a ‘rendering’ will be toward the righteous). This points to a deeper reality: upon Yhwh’s rising the proud will be revealed to have been participating in a type of court case all along. This fact is important as it will directly contradict what the wicked later say about Yhwh: “Yah will not see! Jacob’s god wont understand!” (vs. 7). The wicked, in other words, believe that they operate in an ‘open space’ of freedom from divine oversight. What the psalmist is saying here, however, is that upon Yhwh’s rising as Judge, it will then be shown that there was no ‘space’ that he does not exercise authority and judgment over. The clash between these two perspectives—the wicked and Yhwh’s—largely forms the drama of the psalm, and it is the psalmist’s intent to initiate the listener into Yhwh’s absolute realm of judgment and reveal the wicked’s limited viewpoint. How he does this remains to be seen in the following verses.