The Maker of the Eye Has Not Failed to See

“Vengeance” is plural in Hebrew, El neqamot, “God of vengeances”, and in the Old Testament the word means the vindication carried out by a rightful authority, not private revenge. Deuteronomy 32:35 is the source line: “To me belongeth vengeance.” “Shew thyself” is hofia, shine forth, the verb Moses used of God appearing from Mount Paran (Deuteronomy 33:2).

“Judge of the earth” is Abraham’s title in Genesis 18:25: “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” “Lift up thyself” pictures a judge rising from his seat to pronounce sentence. “Reward” is gemul, what someone has dealt out, returned to him.

The doubled “how long” is the stepped repetition Hebrew poetry uses to build pressure. “Triumph” is ya’alozu, to exult or whoop, the noise of a crowd enjoying a win. The complaint is not only that the wicked prosper, but that they celebrate.

“Utter” is yabbi’u, to bubble up or gush like a spring, speech that pours out unchecked. “Hard things” is atak, arrogant, insolent talk. “Boast themselves” uses a rare form of the verb to say, suggesting people who talk themselves up into lords.

“Break in pieces” is dakka, crush to powder, the root behind “destruction” in Psalm 90:3. “Heritage” is nachalah, the word for a family’s allotted land. The people are God’s inherited property, so to crush them is to trespass on what is his.

Widow, stranger and fatherless are the three the law names for protection, and Exodus 22:22–23 attaches a promise: if they are afflicted and cry, “I will surely hear their cry.” The murderers of this verse are betting that the promise is empty. “Slay” and “murder” are different verbs, the second being ratsach, the word of the sixth commandment.

“The God of Jacob” sounds, on their lips, like a local deity with a limited view. “Regard” is yavin, to perceive or understand. They are not claiming God does not exist, only that he is not paying attention.

“Understand” is binu, the same verb the wicked used in verse 7 when they said God would not “regard”. They claimed God does not understand; the psalm tells them to understand. “Brutish” is the cattle word of Psalm 92:6, and here it is applied “among the people”, to Israelites, not only to foreigners.

“Planted” is nata, the verb for setting a tree or driving in a tent peg, the ear fixed into the side of the head. “Formed” is yatsar, the potter’s verb of Genesis 2:7, where God formed man of the dust. Both organs are handmade by the one said not to hear or see.

“Chastiseth” is yasar, to discipline, and “correct” is yokhiach, to rebuke or prove wrong as in a court. The final question is not in the Hebrew: the line stops at “he that teacheth man knowledge”, and the King James supplies “shall not he know?” in italics. The unfinished sentence makes the point sharper.

“Vanity” is hevel, a breath, the name of Abel and the keyword of Ecclesiastes. When Paul quotes this line in 1 Corinthians 3:20, he renders “the thoughts of man” as “the thoughts of the wise”, aiming it at the clever men of Corinth.

“Chastenest” is yasar again, the discipline of verse 10: what God does to nations he also does to the man he blesses, but with teaching attached. “Teachest” is from lamad, the verb of verse 10’s “teacheth man knowledge”. “Law” is torah, instruction, from a root meaning to point the way.

“Rest” is hashqit, to give quiet, calm after a storm. The pit is a hunter’s pit dug to trap an animal, and the verb is in progress: it is being dug now, spadeful by spadeful. The waiting time is the time of digging.

The line echoes Samuel’s words in 1 Samuel 12:22: “the LORD will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake”. Paul answers his own question in Romans 11:2 in nearly these terms: “God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew.” Inheritance is nachalah again, repeating verse 5.

Justice, mishpat, is pictured as having wandered away from righteousness, tsedeq, and returning home to it: court verdicts will again match what is right. “Follow it” is literally “after it”, the upright falling in behind like a procession behind a returning king.

To “rise up” and “stand up” for someone are courtroom verbs, what a witness or advocate does. The speaker looks round the court for someone to take his side and the two questions receive no human answer. Verse 17 supplies the only one available.

“Silence” is dumah, the stillness of the grave; Psalm 115:17 speaks of those who “go down into silence”. “Almost” is the whole weight of the verse: the speaker came within a step of the land where no one speaks or praises.

“Slippeth” is mot, the verb of Deuteronomy 32:35, “their foot shall slide in due time”, there said of the wicked. “Held me up” is sa’ad, to sustain, like a hand taken under the arm. The speaker had only to say the words for mercy to arrive.

“Thoughts” is sar’appim, anxious, branching thoughts, the word of Psalm 139:23, “try me, and know my thoughts”. “Delight” is the verb Isaiah 66:12 uses for a child “dandled upon her knees”, and Isaiah 66:13 speaks of “one whom his mother comforteth”. The comforts are a parent soothing a frightened child.

“Frameth” is yotser, the same verb as “he that formed the eye” in verse 9. God shapes eyes and ears; the corrupt throne shapes misery and gives it the form of statute. “Throne of iniquity” is literally a throne of destruction, and “have fellowship” means to be allied or joined.

“Condemn” is the court’s verb for declaring someone guilty, so the killing is done by verdict. The trial of Naboth, convicted on two paid witnesses and stoned (1 Kings 21:10–13), is the Old Testament’s own record of this happening. “Gather themselves together” pictures men banding as a troop.

“Defence” here is misgav, a high place out of reach, and “rock of my refuge” pairs tsur with machseh, the shelter of Psalm 91:2. The wicked had a throne; the speaker has a height and a rock, older and higher than their seat.

“Cut them off” is said twice, closing the psalm with a doubled verdict. “Their own iniquity” returns upon them, as the pit of verse 13 was dug for them. The first line of the psalm addressed the God of vengeances; the last says “the LORD our God”, the only place the psalm uses “our”.