Psalm 94: Blessed are the Disciplined

Today’s reading is Psalm 94.

When we started reading the psalms two and half years ago, we met two people: the righteous and the wicked (Psalm 1). The righteous meditated on God’s law day and night. The wicked followed their own paths. The righteous are blessed; the wicked are judged. Psalm 94 takes us back to that dichotomy. But it explains the separation of these two characters doesn’t happen immediately. The prosperity of the righteous may take time to come to fruition. The judgment of the wicked may take time to be meted out.

At the same time, Psalm 94 provides deeper understanding of precisely who are the righteous. In a beatitude calling to mind the first line of the psalms, our present psalmist claims:

Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD,
and whom you teach out of your law,
to give him rest from days of trouble,
until a pit is dug for the wicked.

Psalm 94:12-13 (ESV).

The righteous who meditate on God’s law are not wholly innocent, perfectly obedient, self-sustaining righteous people. Not at all. Rather, we are people who have to be disciplined by God, corrected by God, called to account by God. We are people who have needed to repent under God’s disciplining hand. The righteous are not those who have accomplished righteousness by our own perfect working. We are those who have heeded the disciplining hand of the Lord through His Word and Law. We are those who have heeded the disciplining hand of the Lord even when He administered that discipline through the actions of wicked men. We know the Lord disciplines whom He loves (see Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:5-11). We accepted it and grew from it.

The wicked who are punished then are not those who just couldn’t cut it on their own. They are those who refused the Lord’s discipline and training. They rebelled, pushed back, ignored, until God’s discipline finally became God’s punishment, retribution, and judgment.

The righteous are not righteous because we have lived better than the wicked. We are righteous because when the Lord disciplined, we heeded. When the Lord corrected, we repented.

What will you do when the Lord disciplines?

Tomorrow’s reading is Psalm 94.

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PATHS:
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How does Psalm 94 prompt or improve your hope in God?