Psalms 94:4 · Clearspring

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Other translations

WEBBE

They pour out arrogant words. All the evildoers boast.

BSB

They pour out arrogant words; all workers of iniquity boast.

KJV

How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

ASV

They prate, they speak arrogantly: All the workers of iniquity boast themselves.

BBE

Words of pride come from their lips; all the workers of evil say great things of themselves.

Original Hebrew

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יַבִּיעוּ ya·bi·'u they pour forth H5042 יְדַבְּרוּ ye·da·be·ru they speak H1696 עָתָק 'a·tak arrogance H6277 יִתְאַמְּרוּ yit·'a·me·ru they boast H559 כָּל־ kol- all H3605 פֹּעֲלֵי po·'a·lei [those who] do H6466 אָוֶן 'a·ven (of) wickedness H205

The early church

"Lord, how long shall the ungodly, how long shall the ungodly triumph?" [Psalm 94:3]. "They answer, and will speak wickedness, they all will speak that work unrighteousness" [Psalm 94:4]. What is their saying, but against God, when they say: What profits it us that we live thus? What will you reply? Does God truly regard our deeds? For because they live, they imagine that God knows not their actions. Behold, what evil happens unto them! If the officers knew where they were, they would arrest them; and they therefore avoid the officer's eyes, that they may escape instant apprehension; but no one can escape the eye of God, since He not only sees within the closet, but within the recesses of the heart. Even they themselves believe that nothing can escape God: and because they do evil, and are conscious of what they have done, and see that they live while God knows, though they would not live if the officer discovered them; they say unto themselves, These things please God: and, in truth, if they displeased Him, as they displease kings, as they displease judges, as they displease governors, as they displease recorders, yet could we escape the eye of God, as we do escape the eyes of those authorities? Therefore these things please God....Some righteous man comes, and says, Do not commit iniquity. Wherefore? That you may not die. Behold, iniquity I have committed: why do I not die? That man wrought righteousness: and he is dead: why is he dead? I have wrought iniquity: why has not God carried me off? Behold, that man did righteously: and why has He thus visited him? Why suffers He thus? They answer; this is the meaning of the word "answer:" for they have a reply to make; because they are spared, from the long-suffering of God, they discover an argument for their reply. He spares them for one reason, they answer for another, because they still live. For the Apostle tells us wherefore He spares, he expounds the grounds of the long-suffering of God: "And do you think this, O man, who judges those who do such things, and does the same, that you shall escape the judgment of God? Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not knowing that the long-suffering of God leads you to repentance?" "But you," that is, he who answers and says, If I displeased God, He would not spare me, hear what he works for himself; hear the Apostle; "but after your hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up into yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his deeds." [Romans 2:5-6] He therefore increases His long-suffering, you increase your iniquity. His treasure will consist in eternal mercy towards those who have not despised His mercy; but your treasure will be discovered in wrath, and what thou daily layest up little by little, you will find in the accumulated mass; you lay up by the grain, but you will find the whole heap. Omit not to watch your slightest daily sins: rivers are filled from the smallest drops.

Augustine of Hippo · d. 430Expositions on the Psalms

Commentary

Matthew Henry · Verses 1–11

We may with boldness appeal to God; for he is the almighty Judge by whom every man is judged. Let this encourage those who suffer wrong, to bear it with silence, committing themselves to Him who judges righteously. These prayers are prophecies, which speak terror to the sons of violence. There will come a day of reckoning for all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against God, his truths, and ways, and people. It would hardly be believed, if we did not witness it, that millions of rational creatures should live, move, speak, hear, understand, and do what they purpose, yet act as if they believed that God would not punish the abuse of his gifts. As all knowledge is from God, no doubt he knows all the thoughts of the children of men, and knows that the imaginations of the thoughts of men's hearts are only evil, and that continually. Even in good thoughts there is a want of being fixed, which may be called vanity. It concerns us to keep a strict watch over our thoughts, because God takes particular notice of them. Thoughts are words to God.

Read Matthew Henry on Psalm 94 →

Spurgeon · Verse 4

How long shall they utter and speak hard things? The ungodly are not content with deeds of injustice, but they add hard speeches, boasting, threatening, and insulting over the saints. Will the Lord for ever endure this? Will he leave his own children much longer to be the prey of their enemies? Will not the insolent speeches of his adversaries and theirs at last provoke his justice to interfere? Words often wound more than swords, they are as hard to the heart as stones to the flesh; and these are poured forth by the ungodly in redundance, for such is the force of the word translated utter; and they use them so commonly that they become their common speech (they utter and speak them) —will this always be endured? And all the workers of iniquity boast themselves? —they even soliloquise and talk to themselves, and of themselves, in arrogance of Spirit, as if they were doing some good deed when they crush the poor and needy, and spit their spite on gracious men. It is the nature of workers of iniquity to boast, just as it is a characteristic of good men to be humble —will their boasts always be suffered by the great Judge, whose ear hears all that they say? Long, very long, have they had the platform to themselves, and loud, very loud, have been their blasphemies of God, and their railings at his saints —will not the day soon come when the threatened heritage of shame and everlasting contempt shall be meted out to them? Thus the oppressed plead with their Lord, and shall not God avenge his own elect? Will he not speak out of heaven to the enemy and say, "Why persecutest thou me"?

Read Spurgeon on Psalm 94 →

Cross-references

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Topics

Boasting