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.