Ps. 94.20 (seats of destruction)

Can a seat of destruction / be allied with you?
one who forms misery / by decree? 

This question emerges on the ‘far side’ of suffering and deliverance. We should recall that the original question, during the time of injustice, was full of anxiety and uncertainty. He was unsure of whether someone would come to his aid and, if so, who. Here, by contrast, he speaks in a type of ironic confidence. The question is clearly rhetorical. There is, then, a distance between him and his suffering. There is an important implication to this—that when Yhwh redeemed him, he was not merely delivered from his suffering and put back into the position he was before. Rather, his deliverance elevated him. He now has obtained wisdom. This ‘elevation into wisdom’ is why the deliverance is also designated as “discipline” (vs. 12). It is a deliverance and a shaping. And, importantly, within this realm of wisdom, the nature of the lament-question changes from anxiety to ironic-confidence. 

In order to see deeper implications to this we should recall that the psalmist has asked these ironic questions before when he asked the wicked whether they were so foolish as to think that the one who created their ability to hear did not himself hear, or the one who formed their eye was himself unable to see (vs. 9). Both questions revolve around the question of justice and how Yhwh is one who is the authority over justice. In the first set of questions, Yhwh’s authority is established in a more ‘vertical’ fashion as it establishes him as ‘Creator’ or ‘always-already’ prior to any human act. There, the more deeply Yhwh is understood to stand at the root of creation the more present and sovereign is his power. Here, the same point is made but from a different perspective and in a different ‘sphere’—the sphere of judgment. It is more ‘vertical’ in that Yhwh is now the one who stands as the judge of human actions between themselves. In other words, Yhwh is the judge of history. Here is how that point is made: this ‘seat of destruction’ likely refers to the ‘seats of judgment’ upon which judges sit to decide disputes between people. These are the ‘seats’ on which Israel will sit in the final days to ‘judge the world’. The import of this is that these ‘seats’ are not simply human seats of judgment, but divine ones. The source of their authority resides in their being ‘allied’ with the divine realm. So, when a judge makes a ruling, it is not merely a human judge but (should be) a human agent of the divine (which is why Solomon prays for ‘wisdom’ above all else…; and why Adam’s reaching for it is so problematic). In this way the divine displays its authority over justice and, more importantly, how it establishes justice. Each time a ruling is made justice (should be) propagated (and, chaos thwarted…as in Genesis). 

Hence, the question is utterly absurd: can a ‘seat of destruction’ be allied with you? ‘A seat of destruction’ is a contradiction in terms. Justice is creative, fecund and abounding. This is why this question hits with the same force as those asked in verse 9 regarding the ‘eyes’ and ‘ears’. What the irony of the question reveals is the utter stupidity and vanity of those who now occupy these ‘seats’. They are not ‘allied’ with Yhwh, but with chaos. They are the ‘agents of chaos’. However, if that were all, the question would be one of anxiety, but it is not. The psalmist surveys these ‘seats’ with puzzlement. For him, the ‘chaos’ they channel is vanity. Although it is clearly destructive, and worthy of lament, it does not represent a powerful force. Rather, these ‘seats of destruction’ are digging the pit of their own destruction (vs. 13). Their ‘intentions amount to nothing’ (vs. 9). Yhwh is merely waiting for them to ‘fill up their sin’ so they can be destroyed. It is precisely this ‘wisdom’ that has changed the psalmist original, anxiety filled question into one of irony and detachment. The psalmist, through his suffering and redemption, has been elevated into Yhwh’s time. This ‘elevation’, though, is the ‘fruit of discipline and suffering’. This ‘wisdom’ is gained through a historical journey with Yhwh, in that it requires a redemption from suffering in order for the person to be initiated into this incredibly broad (absolute?) time of Yhwh. 

And now we come to our final point: creation and redemption, in this psalm, both speak to the absolute authority of Yhwh and his ability to establish justice. One, perhaps, is more ‘vertical’ is in its contemplation while the other his more ‘horizontal’, but they mutually inform each other. The more one contemplates Yhwh’s ‘creative authority’ the more one deepens one’s understanding of him as the ‘God of Vindication’. And, the more one contemplates the depth of his authority over the ‘seats of judgment’, the more one plumbs the root of creation. One is not ‘prior’ to the other, for they both flow from Yhwh.