“O LORD, God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve! O LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked exult? They pour out their arrogant words, all the evildoers boast. They crush your people, O LORD, and afflict ur heritage. They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; and they say, ‘The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob does not perceive.’” — Psalm 94:1–7 (ESV)
Psalms 94 is an odd Psalm to use as an exhortation for a new year, but 2022 has to rank amongst the oddest of years. Where we might have entered 2021 with a fresh hope that COVID would soon be behind us, 2022 threatens with more of the same. Hope is scarce, as are our energies. Languishing, monotony, and apathy seem to be the clarion call everywhere I go. Yet, we are asked to keep going, keep progressing, keep moving on, because the multifold complexities and impacts of the first major pandemic in a globalised world have now become a quotidian facet of life. This liminal state of being between the now and not-quite-yet is what this Psalm seeks to shake the very foundations of. As a result, it is a perfectly apt meditation for a perfectly quizzical year.
The first thing one notices is that God is referred to here as the God of vengeance. This is a strange honorific by our modern sensibilities. To us, vengeance is a vindictive, possibly cruel notion best reserved for action movie plots. It is guttural, basal, and unaligned with the civilised nature of mature discourse. Vengeful replies on social media, where one stirs without some prosaic cry to a higher enlightened understanding, are particularly egregious. It betrays emotional fragility. However, such an interpretation fundamentally misunderstands the hope and faith laden in the Psalmist’s words.
Here in Psalms 94 is a man who has been through tumult. His enemy has murdered the fatherless, killed widows, killed sojourners, and walked away proud of what they had done. A wishy-washy God that seeks to weigh the pros and cons of both sides does no good here. He would fail to deliver justice. Rather, God steps in as a sure and steady avenger. He has an acute sense of what is right and wrong. He has the power to execute His judgments, and His actions restore things to the way they should be. The Psalmist, rather than taking things into his own hands, triumphantly declares “O Lord, God of vengeance”, and knows with full certainty that God will deliver him from his trial. This Psalmist’s faith is what we need to develop. It is an antidote to apathy and defeatism from enemies, seen and unseen.
In this long war we’re having against COVID, battles have appeared to come in every form. There is the virus itself and the direct human toll it has taken. There is also the countless slew of lockdown measures which has created huge inconveniences and even starvation in less developed countries. And then there is the pent-up frustration these lockdown measures have created in so many of us. Ugly sides of human nature have reared their heads: selfishness, insouciance, violence. Against this complicated backdrop, there is a tendency to gravitate toward one of two extremes: engaging injustice valiantly and fighting evil on one’s own convictions as well as strength OR retreating into oneself and seeking solace in scant pleasures. Neither is sustainable nor productive.
Instead, we can trust the God who sees and hears all, and who is neither absent nor apathetic. Not for a moment!
“Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge — the LORD — knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.” — Psalms 94:8–11 (ESV)
We should never say or demonstrate with our actions that “the LORD does not see”. It might seem strange to proclaim that in this year but the LORD still sees everything that is going on. He is working something for His purposes through this season. Our job is to trust His character, willingly subject ourselves to His discipline, and rely on Him that He will bring us through this. There is no need to exhaust ourselves or become so jaded that we just cease to act altogether, for even when we falter, He will be there to catch us (v.18)
Psalms 94 says the Lord is the God of vengeance. He will not forsake his people (v.14), and he will not ally himself with wicked rulers (v.20). We can find clarity of good and evil in Him, and we can trust in Him to produce justice even when we are confused and tired. It is to me, a most encouraging exhortation for 2022.