Chapter Ninety-Three

According to the inscription, the psalm was sung on the fourth day of the week, that is, on Wednesday. The words of the law of Moses, read before Josiah and the people, filled this pious king with a zealous desire to restore among his subjects a life in accordance with the commandments of the Lord, grossly trampled upon and forgotten by that time. The unknown writer of this psalm is imbued with the same holy zeal, which is why he addresses the Jews with words of rebuke and exhortation.

Rise up, O Lord, and judge the wicked, who perform violence against the weak and helpless in the hope that the Lord does not see them (1–7). Such hope is ignorant: does not God, who has given man sight, hearing, and reason, know the vain thoughts of the wicked and see their deeds (8–11)? Blessed is the one who listens to the rebuke of the Lord, for he will receive a reward, and the wicked will perish (12–13). If the people will live in accordance with the law, then it will not be rejected by the Lord, who loves righteousness (14–15). And on whom else can hope be placed except the Lord? If it were not for Him, the persecuted righteous would perish. With the increase of afflictions, even the consoling promises of the Lord are able to strengthen the righteous (16–19). Where the Lord appears in defense, all those opposing His law will disappear. In Him the righteous will find a firm foundation, and the wicked for their wickedness He will destroy (20–23).

Psalm 93:1. Rise up, O God of vengeance, O Lord; rise up and shine forth. The writer begs the Lord to show Himself before the wicked as “God of vengeance,” that is, not to allow their deeds any longer, not to be merciful to the wicked, but to appear before them as an avenger of the justice constantly trampled upon by them.

Psalm 93:3. How long will the wicked, O Lord, how long will the wicked be jubilant? Psalm 93:4. They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting; Psalm 93:5. They crush Your people, O Lord; they oppress Your inheritance; The wicked dominate the earth; they meet no obstacles in expressing and manifesting their predatory and sinful inclinations, so that all of God’s inheritance, that is, the righteous, suffer from them.

Psalm 93:6. They slay the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless. Psalm 93:7. They say, “The Lord does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed. Against the poor and defenseless (“the widow and the foreigner”) they commit violence, and they believe in their impunity, denying divine omniscience and the action of His judgment on earth. They say “The Lord does not see and God does not know.” The wicked here are depicted as knowing the law concerning widows and foreigners given through Moses, therefore by them one should understand not the pagan nations that oppressed the Jews, as this is sometimes interpreted and on the basis of such understanding the psalm is referred to the times of the advent of the Babylonian captivity, but corrupted Jews who consciously trampled upon God’s law. This wickedness was widely spread and was the chief evil that undermined the peace of the internal life of the Jewish people.

Psalm 93:8. Consider, you senseless among the people; you fools, when will you become wise? Psalm 93:9. Does He who planted the ear not hear? Does He who formed the eye not see? Psalm 93:10. Does He who disciplines nations not punish—He who teaches mankind knowledge? Psalm 93:11. The Lord knows the thoughts of men; he knows that they are futile. The writer addresses the wicked with a stern word of correction. They count on impunity in their deeds because they think that the Lord will not see their actions. Such reasoning shows only their extreme ignorance. Man possesses sight, hearing, and reason, which he uses as means and instruments for knowing the world and accordingly arranges his life and actions. If man knows, sees, and understands everything around him, then how can one think that the Lord, who gave him these means of knowledge, does not see and does not know what his creation does?

Psalm 93:12. Blessed is the one You discipline, O Lord, the one You teach from Your law; Psalm 93:13. You grant him relief from days of trouble; a pit is dug for the wicked. Faith that the Lord sees and knows everything instills in the writer a conviction that the prevalence on earth of the wicked is temporary, as is also the suffering of the righteous, that calamities will come upon the earth as an expression of God’s wrath and judgment, and then the wicked will perish and the righteous will be at peace, that is, rewarded by God.

Psalm 93:15. Judgment will again be founded on righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it. “Judgment will again be founded on righteousness.” The purpose of judgment on earth is to proclaim justice in its decisions and protect the innocent. Under the dominance of the wicked on earth, this purpose of judgment has been distorted: there is no justice in it. When the Lord comes, He will restore to judgment the justice that has been trampled upon by punishing the wicked and establishing on earth the dominion of the pious, who will then become worthy judges and conductors of it.

Psalm 93:17. Unless the Lord had been my help, I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death. In his own example the writer proves the manifestation of divine action in the world: if the Lord had not helped him, he would have long ago perished (“to dwell in the silence of death”—to descend into Sheol, that is, to die). Evidently, the writer was a zealous rebuker of the wicked, for which he incurred constant persecution from them and attempts on his life. His deliverance from them he ascribes to the direct protection of the Lord, which is for him factual proof that the Lord governs life and watches over its course. If this is indeed so, then the restoration of justice on earth and the true judgment he spoke of earlier will be both possible and inevitable (see verse 15).

Psalm 93:19. When anxiety was great within me, Your consolation brought me joy. “Your consolations bring joy to my soul”—the promises given by God in the law that the wicked will certainly be punished and the righteous rewarded, served the writer with encouragement and strengthening during the time of his increased afflictions. In advocating for his faith in the restoration of justice on earth and judgment, he tries to instill this faith in others also, when in the following verses he says that the Lord will destroy all those who live by wickedness.