When a Psalm starts with, “The Lord is a God who avenges,” you know it’s going to be a bumpy ride. Indeed, Psalm 94 does not disappoint. It is a tirade against the proud and powerful, decrying their lies and schemes against the defenseless.
Sound familiar? See, that’s the thing about the Psalms, they seem hopelessly anachronistic until you suddenly find them giving words to the moment you’re living in. I’ve been so frustrated with the state of the world lately that it was with great glee that I wrote lines like “shut their filthy, snickering mouths” and “corrupted kingdoms will collapse.”
As this Psalm points out, God sees all. We don’t know when it will happen, but God, our Refuge, will set things right. We pray with the Psalmist that it won’t be long.
Oh, it won’t be long.
It won’t be long.
It won’t be long.
No, it won’t be long at all.
1. Rise up, O God, and show your power
to shut their filthy, snickering mouths.
2. They crush the weak beneath their feet.
They laugh and say that you won’t see.
3. But you, who fashioned ear and eye,
know every plan of humankind.
4. O God, do not forget your own.
We’re almost down, rise up, once more!
5. From misery’s chains we’re free at last.
Corrupted kingdoms will collapse.
6. For every wrong will be made right.
The sun will rise and scatter night.