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).