Psalm 94

The Lord Will Not Forsake His People

¹O Lord, God of vengeance,

O God of vengeance, shine forth!

²Rise up, O judge of the earth;

repay to the proud what they deserve!

³O Lord, how long shall the wicked,

how long shall the wicked exult?

⁴They pour out their arrogant words;

all the evildoers boast.

⁵They crush your people, O Lord,

and afflict your heritage.

⁶They kill the widow and the sojourner,

and murder the fatherless;

⁷and they say, “The Lord does not see;

the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

⁸Understand, O dullest of the people!

Fools, when will you be wise?

⁹He who planted the ear, does he not hear?

He who formed the eye, does he not see?

¹⁰He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke?

He who teaches man knowledge—

¹¹the Lord—knows the thoughts of man,

that they are but a breath.

¹²Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord,

and whom you teach out of your law,

¹³to give him rest from days of trouble,

until a pit is dug for the wicked.

¹⁴For the Lord will not forsake his people;

he will not abandon his heritage;

¹⁵for justice will return to the righteous,

and all the upright in heart will follow it.

¹⁶Who rises up for me against the wicked?

Who stands up for me against evildoers?

¹⁷If the Lord had not been my help,

my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.

¹⁸When I thought, “My foot slips,”

your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.

¹⁹When the cares of my heart are many,

your consolations cheer my soul.

²⁰Can wicked rulers be allied with you,

those who frame injustice by statute?

²¹They band together against the life of the righteous

and condemn the innocent to death.

²²But the Lord has become my stronghold,

and my God the rock of my refuge.

²³He will bring back on them their iniquity

and wipe them out for their wickedness;

the Lord our God will wipe them out.