Psalm 94:16

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Rise up.—Stand up—i.e., as champion. (Comp. 2Samuel 23:11, of the exploit of Shammah, the son of Agee the Hararite; comp. Psalm 2:2.)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 94:16. Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers? — Have I any friend that, in love to me, will appear for me? Hath justice any friend that, in a pious indignation at unrighteousness, will plead my injured cause? He looked, but there was none to save, there was none to uphold. On the side of the oppressor there was power, and therefore the oppressed had no comforter. God alone helped him, as he says in the next verse.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

94:12-23 That man is blessed, who, under the chastening of the Lord, is taught his will and his truths, from his holy word, and by the Holy Spirit. He should see mercy through his sufferings. There is a rest remaining for the people of God after the days of their adversity, which shall not last always. He that sends the trouble, will send the rest. The psalmist found succour and relief only in the Lord, when all earthly friends failed. We are beholden, not only to God's power, but to his pity, for spiritual supports; and if we have been kept from falling into sin, or shrinking from our duty, we should give him the glory, and encourage our brethren. The psalmist had many troubled thoughts concerning the case he was in, concerning the course he should take, and what was likely to be the end of it. The indulgence of such contrivances and fears, adds to care and distrust, and renders our views more gloomy and confused. Good men sometimes have perplexed and distressed thoughts concerning God. But let them look to the great and precious promises of the gospel. The world's comforts give little delight to the soul, when hurried with melancholy thoughts; but God's comforts bring that peace and pleasure which the smiles of the world cannot give, and which the frowns of the world cannot take away. God is his people's Refuge, to whom they may flee, in whom they are safe, and may be secure. And he will reckon with the wicked. A man cannot be more miserable than his own wickedness will make him, if the Lord visit it upon him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Who will rise up for me against the evil-doers?... - This is the language of the psalmist. It is what he had said in the circumstances referred to in the first part of the psalm, when the wicked seemed to triumph; when they had come in upon the land, and laid waste the heritage of God, Psalm 94:3-6. At that time, full of anxiety and trouble, and deeply impressed with a sense of danger, he had anxiously looked around for help, and had asked with deep concern who would stand up for him and defend him. The following verses Psalm 94:17-18 show what was then his reliance, and in what way confidence in God had kept him from falling into despair.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. These questions imply that none other than God will help (Ps 60:9),

The Treasury of David

16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

Notwithstanding the Psalmist's persuasion that all would be well eventually, he could not at the time perceive any one who would stand side by side with him in opposing evil; no champion of the right was forthcoming, the faithful failed from among men. This also is a bitter trial, and a sore evil under the sun; yet it has its purpose, for it drives the heart still more completely to the Lord, compelling it to rest alone in him. If we could find friends elsewhere, it may be our God would not be so dear to us; but when, after calling upon heaven and earth to help, we meet with no succour but such as comes from the eternal arm, we are led to prize our God, and rest upon him with undivided trust. Never is the soul safer or more at rest than when, all other helpers failing, she leans upon the Lord alone. The verse before us is an appropriate cry, now that the church sees error invading her on all sides, while faithful ministers are few, and fewer still are bold enough to stand up and defy the enemies of truth. Where are our Luthers and our Calvins? A false charity has enfeebled the most of the valiant men of Israel. One John Knox would be worth a mint at this hour, but where is he? Our grand consolation is that the God of Knox and Luther is yet with us, and in due time will call out his chosen champions.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To defend and help me. I looked hither and thither, and called to my friends for their help, saying,

Who will, & c.? but none of them appeared, but God alone helped me, as he saith in the next verse.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers?.... These are the words of the psalmist, representing the church of God, under sore persecutions from the antichristian party; called "evildoers", because of their thefts, murders, idolatries, sorceries, and all manner of wickedness committed by them, Revelation 9:21, intimating that she had looked all around her, and could not observe any that she could hope for assistance from, to fight her battles for her with the enemy, and deliver her out of his hands: the Targum is,

"who will rise up, for me, to make war with the evildoers?''

what the church here seems to say in a despairing way, the followers of antichrist say in a triumphant and insulting manner; "who is like unto the beast who is able to make war with him?" Revelation 13:4, or "who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?" to contend or strive with them, as the Targum; suggesting, that she had no friends to appear for her, that had either courage or strength to engage in such a warfare; her case was like that of the oppressed, Solomon speaks of, Ecclesiastes 4:1, or the Apostle Paul's, when none stood with him; but all forsook him, excepting the Lord, 2 Timothy 4:16 and so here the church had none to rise up, and stand by her, but the Lord; Michael, the great Prince that stands for the children and people of God, and who is a match for all the enemies of his church; and he will rise and stand up for them, and fight their battles; and overcome the beast and false prophet, with the kings of the earth, Daniel 12:1.

Geneva Study Bible

Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. Who will rise up &c.] Who will stand up as my champion? It is not a question of doubt or unbelief, but an emphatic form of assertion that Israel has no helper but Jehovah.

16–19. Israel has no champion but Jehovah. Experience has proved His goodness. The Psalmist is partly speaking in the name of the people even when he uses the singular (Psalm 94:16-18; Psalm 94:23, our God), partly expressing his own personal feelings (Psalm 94:19).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? or, who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? But meanwhile, until this happy time come, what is the condition of the godly? Are they not left a prey to the evil doers, at their mercy, without a champion? The answer is given in the next verse. Psalm 94:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In the fifth strophe the poet celebrates the praise of the Lord as his sole, but also trusty and most consolatory help. The meaning of the question in Psalm 94:16 is, that there is no man who would rise and succour him in the conflict with the evil-doers; ל as in Exodus 14:25; Judges 6:31, and עם (without נלחם or the like) in the sense of contra, as in Psalm 55:19, cf. 2 Chronicles 20:6. God alone is his help. He alone has rescued him from death. היה is to be supplied to לוּלי: if He had not been, or: if He were not; and the apodosis is: then very little would have been wanting, then it would soon have come to this, that his soul would have taken up its abode, etc.; cf. on the construction Psalm 119:92; Psalm 124:1-5; Isaiah 1:9, and on כּמעט with the praet. Psalm 73:2; Psalm 119:87; Genesis 26:10 (on the other hand with the fut. Psalm 81:15). דּוּמה is, as in Psalm 115:17, the silence of the grave and of Hades; here it is the object to שׁכנה, as in Psalm 37:3, Proverbs 8:12, and frequently. When he appears to himself already as one that has fallen, God's mercy holds him up. And when thoughts, viz., sad and fearful thoughts, are multiplied within him, God's comforts delight him, viz., the encouragement of His word and the inward utterances of His Spirit. שׁרעפּים, as in Psalm 139:23, is equivalent to שעפּים, from שׂעף, סעף, Arab. š‛b, to split, branch off (Psychology, S. 181; tr. p. 214). The plural form ישׁעשׁעוּ, like the plural of the imperative in Isaiah 29:9, has two Pathachs, the second of which is the "independentification" of the Chateph of ישׁעשׁע.