If God is your stronghold, know this, He has a strong hold
Read Psalm 94
When you read Psalm 94, what a beautiful Psalm, but it doesn’t start beautifully.
“O Lord, God of vengeance,
Psalm 94:1-2
Oh God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise, O judge of the earth;
repay to the proud what they deserve!”
Who God Judges
Read the verses for yourself in this Psalm and list which God judges. Here’s my list.
God judges:
- the proud
- the wicked
- evildoer’s who boast
- arrogant words
- Those who:
- crush God’s people
- afflict God’s heritage
- kill the widow
- kill the traveler
- murder the fatherless
- claim God doesn’t see or know what they are doing
Does God See?
So many of us (me included) get upset about what is happening in the world. Some arrogantly pronounce judgment on a God they don’t know nor understand by saying “if He was real, He couldn’t be God because He allows all this evil in the world.”
Well, rest assured that God does see.
“He who planted the ear, does He not hear?
Psalm 94:9-11
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.”
Wow! What an attitude adjustment.
Know this.
God made your ears, and He hears everything.
God formed your eyes, and He sees everything.
God disciplines the nations.
God rebukes foolishness but teaches knowledge.
God knows your thoughts and mine.
God knows you and I are but a breath
Judgment is Coming
This breaks my heart. I know some want everyone to get zapped and zipped and for God to “smote” all the wrong people.
There’s one problem with this: we’re all “bad people.”
For all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God.”
Romans 3:23
All means all. All people, you and me.
Sure, as we compare ourselves to others, we might think – “well, I’m not as bad as that person,” or “this person was truly evil, and I’m not like that.”
However, our standard isn’t other people; it is God.
God is perfect; we’re not.
But He gives us choices — to do right or wrong- which is precisely why the world is such a mess.
The Story of Little Boy Who Ran on the Road
Think of a child whose Father says, “Don’t go play on the road,” and the child thinks he knows better.
So, the little boy sneaks out of the house at night and plays on the road and gets hit by a car.
The child wakes up in the hospital in pain and has lost both legs. And then, the child yells at his father,
“Why did you let me go on the road? Why did you make me lose both legs? Why are you making me have so much pain?”
Then the whole family suffers (even the Father) because of the child’s mistake. And the Father does everything He can to provide for the child and help him deal with the consequences of his mistake. He spends his fortune, his time, and everything he has to help his child with the consequences of going on the road and getting hit by a car.
It may be the father’s responsibility to help the child, but don’t for one second think it is the father’s fault. The father gave the child a command not to go on the road. The father had the house locked up tight and the child snuck out the window. The child intentionally disobeyed and had consequences.
Consequences are not God’s fault; He tells us how to live right and commands us how to live.
Furthermore, He gives us the wisdom to guide our choices.
When we disobey, every consequence is our fault. He promises to never leave or forsake us.
However, in a world that runs further and further from its Father, we have more and more suffering because of the choices being made by all of us humans. Greedy. Prideful. Arrogant. Boastful. Unrealistic. Kind of like the people in Psalm 94, huh?
Start in the Circle
But, you say, “everything is such a mess, I can’t make a difference.”*
Well, friend, draw a circle around yourself. Start there. We each have enough faults of our own to deal with first because, in the end, the one person I can change is me. Because “apart from Him I can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
“But the Lord has become my stronghold
Psalm 94:22
and my God, the rock of my refuge.”
For me, every need, every issue for improvement starts with prayer.
God will show me how to do what He has designed me to do and He’ll show you too.
In Conclusion
Psalm 94 is such great comfort. Even with injustice in the world, we can each know and follow the God who sees and knows. We can each have God Almighty Himself as our stronghold and every present help in times of trouble.
God is so good to me. I wish everybody knew Him. The world would be a better place with so many less painful consequences that we in the human family must suffer each day.
And now, to pray to my God who is my stronghold.
For He has a strong hold and He won’t let any of us who call on His name and place our faith in Jesus His Son go.
What safety we have!
What a stronghold!