The Terrible Meekness of God's Justice Text: Psalm 94:1-2
Introduction: Our Allergic Reaction to Justice
We live in an age that has developed a severe allergy to the concept of divine justice. Our generation has been catechized by a soft, sentimental, and ultimately heretical version of Christianity that pictures God as a celestial guidance counselor, a divine therapist whose chief attribute is being nice. We have traded the Lion of the tribe of Judah for a neutered housecat. Consequently, a passage like this one strikes the modern ear as jarring, offensive, and perhaps a bit embarrassing. A God of vengeance? A Judge who deals with the proud? This is not the sort of thing you put on a coffee mug.
But this squeamishness is a spiritual sickness. It is a symptom of a church that has lost its nerve because it has lost its God. We want a God who affirms us, not a God who judges us. We want a gospel of unconditional affirmation, not a gospel of blood-bought redemption from the very wrath this psalm invokes. We have forgotten that the cross of Jesus Christ is the most violent display of divine vengeance in the history of the world. At the cross, the ultimate recompense was rendered. God the Father poured out the full measure of His holy fury against sin upon His own Son, in order that justice and mercy might meet.
If you are embarrassed by the God of Psalm 94, you are embarrassed by the God of the cross. If you cannot pray this psalm, it is because you do not yet grasp the horror of sin or the holiness of God. This psalm is not a barbaric cry for personal revenge. It is a righteous, Spirit-inspired appeal for cosmic order. It is a prayer that God would be God. It is a plea for the King to ascend His throne and set the world to rights. And in a world groaning under the tyranny of the proud, the arrogance of godless rulers, and the celebration of perversion, this is not an embarrassing prayer. It is a necessary one. It is a prayer for the kingdom to come.
The Text
O Yahweh, God of vengeance,
God of vengeance, shine forth!
Be lifted up, O Judge of the earth,
Render recompense to the proud.
(Psalm 94:1-2 LSB)
A God Who Repays (v. 1)
The psalm opens with a direct, startling, and repetitive address to God:
"O Yahweh, God of vengeance, God of vengeance, shine forth!" (Psalm 94:1)
Let us be very clear about what this word "vengeance" means. In our therapeutic culture, we immediately think of petty, vindictive, personal revenge. We picture a bitter man nursing a grudge and plotting retaliation. But that is not the biblical concept at all. The Hebrew word here, naqam, refers to the execution of justice. It is not about "getting even"; it is about setting things right. It belongs to God precisely because He is the only one who can do it impartially, righteously, and with perfect knowledge. This is why Paul, quoting Deuteronomy, says, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Romans 12:19). He is not claiming a divine prerogative to be petty; He is asserting His exclusive right to execute perfect justice.
So when the psalmist cries out to the "God of vengeance," he is crying out to the God of righteous settlement, the God of just accounts. He is appealing to God's covenant faithfulness. God has made promises to His people, to defend them, to protect them, and to judge their oppressors. This prayer is a plea for God to act according to His own character and His own covenant promises. The world is out of joint. The wicked prosper, the proud boast, and the righteous suffer (as the rest of the psalm makes clear). The psalmist is asking God to intervene and restore moral order to His own world.
The repetition is emphatic: "God of vengeance, God of vengeance." This is not a hesitant suggestion. It is an urgent, desperate plea. And the request is that He would "shine forth!" This is the language of a theophany, a divine appearing. It is a prayer for God to make His justice visible, manifest, and undeniable. Do not just be the God of justice in heaven; show Yourself to be the God of justice here on earth. Let the darkness of human pride and wickedness be scattered by the brilliant light of Your righteous judgment.
The Judge and the Proud (v. 2)
The second verse clarifies the nature of this shining forth. It is a judicial action against a specific kind of sinner.
"Be lifted up, O Judge of the earth, Render recompense to the proud." (Psalm 94:2 LSB)
The prayer for God to "be lifted up" is a prayer for Him to assume His rightful place, to make His sovereignty plain. When God is lifted up, everything else finds its proper level. He is the "Judge of the earth," not just of Israel. His jurisdiction is total. Every king, every president, every supreme court, every international tribunal, every corporate board, and every arrogant blogger who shakes his fist at heaven is under the authority of this Judge. There is no appeal to a higher court. His is the final verdict.
And what is the action of this Judge? It is to "render recompense to the proud." Recompense is a word of accounting. It means to pay back what is due, to give a return that is fitting. And who are the recipients of this payment? It is the proud. Pride is the original sin, the mother of all other sins. It is the creature telling the Creator that he knows better. It is the clay instructing the potter. Pride is the fundamental refusal to accept one's place as a creature under God. It is the delusion of autonomy. The proud man believes he is the center of his own universe and the author of his own law.
This is why God's justice is aimed so squarely at the proud. The proud are those who build their towers of Babel, their godless civilizations, their corrupt legal systems, and their perverse cultural institutions in defiance of the living God. They frame mischief by a law (Psalm 94:20). They crush God's people. They say in their hearts, "The LORD does not see" (Psalm 94:7). The psalmist's prayer is a prayer for God to dismantle these arrogant structures and to humble those who build them. It is a prayer for a great and glorious reality check to be delivered to the entire planet.
Praying for the Kingdom to Come
So, how are we to pray a psalm like this? We are not to pray it with personal malice in our hearts. We are not praying for God to smite our neighbor because his dog barks at night. This is not a weapon for settling petty scores. This is a prayer for the public vindication of God's name, God's law, and God's people.
To pray this psalm is to pray as Jesus taught us: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." When God's kingdom comes, it necessarily involves the tearing down of rival kingdoms. When His will is done, the will of proud men is broken. The advance of the gospel is an act of war, a declaration that Jesus is Lord and Caesar is not. Therefore, to pray for the success of the gospel is to pray for the God of vengeance to shine forth. It is to pray that He would lift Himself up as Judge of the earth and render recompense to the proud systems and philosophies that stand in opposition to the crown rights of Jesus Christ.
We should pray this with a confident, postmillennial heart. We are not just screaming into the void, hoping for a last-minute rescue from a world spiraling into chaos. We are praying in accordance with the promised victory of our King. Christ is risen, He is ascended, and He is currently reigning. He is, right now, putting all His enemies under His feet (1 Cor. 15:25). Our prayer for vengeance is simply our plea for Him to continue and to hasten that work. It is a prayer that the light of His gospel would shine forth so brightly that the darkness of pride and rebellion is exposed and scattered.
So do not be embarrassed by this psalm. Embrace it. Pray it. Pray that God would shine forth in our land. Pray that He would be lifted up as Judge over our corrupt institutions. Pray that He would render a fitting recompense to the proud who celebrate wickedness and call evil good. Pray for the coming of His kingdom, which is a kingdom of perfect, terrible, and beautiful justice. For the God of vengeance is our God, and He will not fail to set all things right.