Psalm 94: ☧ of Vengeance, No Cliques in Humble Justice

Rev. Delwyn Campbell, domestic missionary and pastor of St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church & Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Gary, Indiana, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Psalm 94. Learn more about Pastor Campbell and how to support his work at lcms.org/campbell. “O God of vengeance, shine forth! Rise up, O judge of the earth; repay to the proud what they deserve!” Does the Bible really say that? Yes it does, in Psalm 94. Vengeance however doesn’t mean rubbing it in people’s faces to the greatest fanfare—it means setting things straight, putting things back in place, and ultimately the created order being restored to its Creator, as in Christ’s sacrifice of “recompense.” The psalm is about restoring justice, but not in the name of ideology. Recompense happens when we are humble, acknowledging our shortsighted mortality and resisting the opposite temptations of opportunism and utopianism. Even in the church, cliques come and go. Only Christ endures.