Psalm 94 deals with the great question of Hashem's governance of the world: why do the wicked prosper, why are they not punished immediately, and why do the righteous also not visibly receive their reward? In the section before us, the Psalmist moves from perplexity to the answer: divine justice is not delayed out of weakness, but because it is bound up with righteousness; and from here on, he describes the salvation of the Jewish people from the hands of their persecutors, the corrupt laws enacted by the wicked, and their ultimate end when they are cut down by their own malice.
כִּי עַד צֶדֶק יָשׁוּב מִשְׁפָּט וְאַחֲרָיו כָּל יִשְׁרֵי לֵב׃ - For judgment shall return to righteousness, and after it all the upright in heart.
The Malbim explains: There is a difference between strict judgment (mishpat) and righteousness (tzedek). Sometimes the moment arrives when strict judgment ought to take effect and punish the wicked, but the Holy One, blessed be He, looks and sees that true righteousness is still far from inflicting punishment - meaning that, from the perspective of righteousness, it is still proper to show him mercy. In such a situation, judgment runs ahead, as it were, and is told: No, turn back. According to righteousness, the time for punishment has not yet arrived. This is the meaning of "judgment shall return to righteousness": judgment returns to the place of righteousness, waits for it, and brings it along. When they proceed together, then the judgment is truly a righteous judgment. But if judgment were to run ahead alone, it would result in a judgment that lacks righteousness.
"And after it all the upright in heart" - after it, after righteousness, all the upright in heart will follow. Just as with the wicked there are reasons to delay punishment, so with the righteous there are reasons to delay reward. According to strict judgment, the righteous should receive their reward immediately, but according to righteousness, the Holy One, blessed be He, delays it. Sometimes Hashem sees that wicked children are destined to descend from him, and He does not want those wicked descendants to receive all the bounty; other times, the righteous person committed a minor misdeed, and the Holy One, blessed be He, does not give him his full reward in this world so that his sin may be atoned for, leaving him pure and spotless for the World to Come. This is righteousness - ensuring that the outcome serves the ultimate good. Thus, the upright in heart merit that the Holy One, blessed be He, deals with them according to the laws of righteousness, and therefore their reward is delayed. This is the conclusion: that justice is not exacted upon the wicked immediately, and that the righteous do not receive their reward immediately, is because divine judgment also encompasses righteousness, and it is righteousness that demands not executing judgment immediately and not granting reward immediately, each case according to its circumstances.
After this deeper explanation, the Malbim explains the verse according to its plain sense: it appears to us that judgment is not righteous, for you see that the wicked surrounds the righteous - the one who appoints the "righteous" is the wicked person, so you can easily understand what kind of righteous leaders he will choose to appoint. We see this today as well, when the committee electing rabbis is sometimes composed of individuals far removed from Torah and mitzvot, and they search for a rabbi who will carry out their agenda - a "pet rabbi," a "pliant rabbi," and if he takes money that is not his, an "octopus rabbi" with grasping tentacles. Take, for example, the entire effort to change the conversion law: there are rabbis whom Rav Ovadia Yosef barred from entering the rabbinate at the time (one of them even testified about himself that he goes to the cinema), and they seek to allow any rabbi to perform conversions. Then people would go to places where the rabbi "follows the path of Beit Hillel," as they put it - without mitzvot, without anything, accepting payment and converting people. Today this is not possible because there is a local rabbinical court, but if any rabbi could convert, anyone could do as they pleased, and suddenly the "Russian problem" would be solved: the person keeps their Christmas tree and all their old habits, only now they are called a Jew, registered in the Rabbinate as a Jew, and laws would even be passed requiring rabbis to marry them.
We have already seen an example of this when the High Court of Justice ruled that the Rabbinate must grant kosher certification to a certain establishment. They responded: We cannot - the place operates on Shabbat. This is not a punishment, but a technical impossibility: the kosher supervisor does not come on Shabbat, and if I do not know what was cooked there, how can I continue certifying it on Sunday? Should I re-kosher all the utensils every week? Furthermore, some authorities hold that if someone cooks in a vessel on Shabbat, the forbidden food is absorbed into the vessels and renders them non-kosher. Yet the High Court ruled: You cannot dictate to him whether to operate on Shabbat or not, you must grant him certification. What did people do? They posted on the restaurant, "Under the supervision of the High Court." If you want to eat there, go ahead and eat - that is your supervision. This is the meaning of "the wicked surrounds the righteous": the wicked is the one who appoints, who decides, and everything is dictated by his decree.
Incidentally, this was the original plan. Ben-Gurion was asked: Why are you perpetuating the Rabbinate? After all, the foundations of Zionism, as Herzl wrote in his book The Jewish State, were to confine rabbis to an enclosed space, a kind of ghetto, where they would stay and from which they would not emerge. He replied: When I pay their salaries, they will do what I want. That was the goal of establishing the Chief Rabbinate: not that they be independent, but that they draw a salary from me and remain dependent on me. They tell of the Rabbi of Kiryat Ata, whom they repeatedly tried to persuade to accept a salary from the religious council, but he refused. They said to him: Do not worry, we will not come to you to tell you what to do. He answered them: Do you think I am afraid you will come to me? Once you pay me a salary, I will come to you to ask what to do! A person who knows which side his bread is buttered on immediately seeks to please, and therefore I prefer to remain independent and run matters as I see fit.
This is what the Malbim is saying: today the wicked surrounds the righteous, and therefore justice is perverted. But know that in the end, judgment will return to righteousness, and then "after it all the upright in heart" - all the upright in heart will be drawn after it, seeing how truly just the judgment was, and recognizing the righteousness of Hashem in everything He does.
מִי יָקוּם לִי עִם מְרֵעִים מִי יִתְיַצֵּב לִי עִם פֹּעֲלֵי אָוֶן׃ - Who will rise up for me against evildoers? Who will stand up for me against workers of iniquity?
Rashi explains: What merit will arise and stand up for us amidst all those who harm us? Ibn Ezra explains that the Psalmist is describing the great distress here - the wicked rejoice over his troubles, and concerning this he cries out: Who will help me be saved from them? And Radak says that this very reality proves that the Holy One, Blessed is He, is with us and sees our affliction: so many evildoers have risen against us, so many nations persecute us, and in every generation they rise against us to destroy us - how then do we still survive?
Indeed, even the nations of the world who observed the incomprehensible survival of the Jewish people stood astonished. Mark Twain and others marveled: How is it possible that the Jewish people have survived for thirty-three hundred years? All the mighty empires of history - Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria - held the torch aloft with pride and were consumed by their own flame, while the Jewish people saw them all, outlasted them all, and still exist forever. Furthermore, the Yaavetz writes: By my life, greater in my eyes than all the miracles of the Exodus from Egypt and all the wonders that befell Israel is the very survival of the Jewish nation. So many pogroms, decrees of destruction, massacres, and inquisitions, yet the nation still endures. What natural explanation is there for this? There is no explanation other than the ancient promise: "And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I abhor them, to destroy them" - a promise that the Jewish people are eternal and will never be destroyed.
לוּלֵי יְהֹוָה עֶזְרָתָה לִּי כִּמְעַט שָׁכְנָה דוּמָה נַפְשִׁי׃ - Unless Hashem had been my help, my soul would soon have dwelt in silence.
The Malbim connects the verses: "Who will rise up for me against evildoers?" - who would rise up for me against those who persecute me were it not for the assistance of the Holy One, Blessed is He? In the natural course of events, I have no salvation whatsoever, and it would be impossible for me to survive. I would have almost completely despaired of rescue; "my soul would soon have dwelt in silence" - my soul would already be silenced, already in the grave, were it not for Hashem Who helps and delivers.
The Malbim analyzes the precise wording: "workers of iniquity" are worse than "evildoers." Evildoers (mere'im) are those who scheme wickedness and carry out their deeds in secret, while workers of iniquity (po'alei aven) actually execute the evil openly, with noise and commotion. This is as it says: "Hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers, from the tumult of workers of iniquity" - regarding evildoers it says "secret counsel," while regarding workers of iniquity it says "tumult." Similarly, there is a distinction between "rising up" (yakum) and "standing firm" (yityatzev): standing firm implies holding one's ground with strength and actively fortifying oneself. Therefore he says: Even if someone were to rise up against evildoers whose wickedness is concealed, who will stand firm for me against workers of iniquity whose evil is overt and carried out in practice? Against these, one needs an active stand and open warfare - and who can do that for me? Only the Holy One, Blessed is He, Who helps and delivers.
The sefer Otzrot HaAggadah cites a homiletic explanation from Tehillot Maharith: If a person tells himself, "I can manage on my own, even without divine assistance," and thinks, "My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth" - as if to say, even without Hashem's help I have support - of this it is said, "my soul would soon have dwelt in silence," for in such a state he would have no existence at all. But the following verse says: "If I said, 'My foot slips'" - if I recognize and admit how weak and powerless I am, then "Your lovingkindness, Hashem, supported me"; then I merit Hashem's lovingkindness and salvation.
This aligns with the words of the author of Chovot HaLevavot in Sha'ar HaBitachon, that when a person places his trust in anyone other than Hashem, blessed be He, the Holy One, Blessed is He, leaves him in the hands of the one he trusted: You trust him? Turn to him. But if a person says: Master of the Universe, I rely solely upon You - the Holy One, Blessed is He, is, as it were, bound to help and assist him, for he relies on Him alone. Therefore, a person should never say, "I will try to manage, and if not - I will turn to the Master of the Universe." That is trading in options: I have this option and that option, and if all else fails, the Almighty is also an option. Hashem says to him: Am I just another option? If you have options, turn to them! As Scripture states: "Where are their gods, the rock in whom they took refuge... let them rise up and help you, let them be your shelter" - you rely on him? Ask him to help you and protect you.
From here stems a practical lesson: whenever a person faces a problem, the very first thing he should do is turn to Hashem. For us, this usually happens too late. I have a headache - I immediately look for a pill, and only after half a day when it hasn't gone away do I remember the Master of the Universe. It ought to be the reverse: first of all, "Master of the Universe, my head hurts, help me be healed," and only then pursue natural means. Taking practical steps, yes, but the absolute baseline is turning first to Hashem, blessed be He.
אִם אָמַרְתִּי מָטָה רַגְלִי חַסְדְּךָ יְהֹוָה יִסְעָדֵנִי׃ - If I said, "My foot slips," Your lovingkindness, Hashem, supported me.
Radak explains: I thought my foot had already slipped in exile, but the kindness You perform with me every day is what supports me and sustains me so that I do not collapse entirely. For if there were a complete collapse, whom would Hashem redeem when the time comes? Therefore, even in exile, the Holy One, blessed be He, sustains and supports us until the complete redemption.
In the sefer Tenufah LeChaim, this is explained based on an incident in Sefer Chasidim: A certain pious man was afflicted with an ailment in his leg, and he said, "I give thanks to Hashem, blessed be He, that He did not place the ailment in my eyes." There is a great moral lesson here. Whenever trouble befalls a person, he immediately begins to dwell on how difficult things are and how much he is suffering. The counsel is to consider what could have been worse, and with whom he would never wish to trade places. You arrive at the hospital with a child who fell and broke his leg, and now you must spend the entire night there until they put on a cast, only returning home at dawn - but in that very same hospital, there is another ward, the oncology ward. Would anyone want to trade places, Heaven forbid? If so, say thank you that you are here with a broken leg and not in a far worse situation. This is the meaning of "If I say, 'My foot slips'" - even when a foot is broken and a stumble occurs, say, "Your kindness, Hashem, supports me"; thank You, Master of the Universe, for the kindness that it is not in the eye. When a person looks at things this way, his entire perspective on life becomes positive: after all, the Holy One, blessed be He, could have collected His debt through far harsher trials, and I may well deserve it for various inappropriate things I have done - so thank Him that He collected from me in an easier way rather than a harsh one.
בְּרֹב שַׂרְעַפַּי בְּקִרְבִּי תַּנְחוּמֶיךָ יְשַׁעַשְׁעוּ נַפְשִׁי׃ - In the multitude of my anxious thoughts within me, Your comforts delight my soul.
"Sar'apai" - my thoughts. Radak explains: Amid the multitude of thoughts I ponder in my heart concerning the reality of exile, "Your comforts delight my soul" - the consolations recorded in the books of the Prophets, which promise us all the hidden good, are what bring joy to my soul. And why? Because I know that prophecies never fail. Every prophecy designated to be fulfilled up to this day has come to pass; not a single prophecy whose time has arrived has remained unfulfilled. From this we know that all future prophecies will likewise be fulfilled, for they all stem from a single source. This is why the "Seven of Consolation" (Sheva DeNechemata) and the other prophecies of comfort console us and declare that the Holy One, blessed be He, will ultimately redeem us and bestow upon us an abundance of good.
הַיְחָבְרְךָ כִּסֵּא הַוּוֹת יֹצֵר עָמָל עֲלֵי חֹק׃ - Can the throne of destruction be allied with You, which frames injustice by statute?
Consider an example often cited: a person recites this verse once a week in the Wednesday Psalm of the Day, yet if you were to ask ninety-five percent of people what it means, they would not be able to explain. Perhaps this is an extreme example, but it illustrates how easily a person can recite without understanding what he is saying. Hence the vital importance of studying the Book of Tehillim - so that even if we do not remember everything, at least we connect to something.
"Hayechavrecha" - can it ally with You, can it resemble You? "Havot" - ruin, something devoid of truth, falsehood. Radak explains: You, Hashem, are a true Judge and Your throne is truth, and therefore I am certain that all the promises You made through the Prophets will be fulfilled. This is unlike the throne of earthly kings - a king or prime minister who rises to power and immediately forgets all his promises, and later people compile video clips contrasting what he said with what he actually did, showing the exact opposite. That is a "throne of destruction" (kisei havot), a throne of deceit and injustice, broken in action and broken in thought. Could it ever be that Your throne would resemble a throne upon which falsehood and deceit sit?
"Who frames injustice by statute" (yotzer amal alei chok) - here Malbim offers a marvelous explanation. The wicked king legislates laws of misery and wrongdoing, gives them color, and makes them a permanent statute. In ancient times, it was customary to engrave laws onto stone tablets so that they would endure - such as the Code of Hammurabi known to this day, from eras before written parchment, where stone engraving lasted for generations. However, to make the engraving legible, they would fill the carved grooves with ink and pigment: on the one hand it could not be erased because it was carved, and on the other hand it was easily readable because of the ink within it. Thus, carving and drawing always accompanied one another.
From here Malbim explains the verse, "From Machir came down commanders (mechokekim, legislators), and from Zebulun those who wield the scribe's pen": the legislators are the enactors of the laws, named after the engraving (chakikah) in stone, while the scribes are those who fill the carved letters with ink. So too, "The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver (umchokek) from between his feet" - meaning that even in exile there will be sages termed legislators, as well as scribes wielding the pen of the scribe over the engraving. This is the meaning of "yotzer ... alei chok" - yotzer in the sense of drawing, as he writes and draws over the engraving, inscribing injustice and wrongdoing there and making them law. And as it is said, "Woe to those who enact iniquitous decrees and the writers who record injustice" - they engrave false statutes and fill the carved inscriptions with writing, and the entire law is deceit through and through.
יָגוֹדּוּ עַל נֶפֶשׁ צַדִּיק וְדָם נָקִי יַרְשִׁיעוּ׃ - They band together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn innocent blood.
Rashi and the Radak explain yagodu from the root of gedudim (troops or bands) - they gather like armed bands against the soul of the righteous. Others explain it as forming an association or coalition. Still others explain it in the sense of chopping and cutting down, like gudo ilana ("cut down the tree") in the Book of Daniel, meaning that they hand down a verdict to take our lives, decreeing death upon whoever is righteous. "And condemn innocent blood" - they declare the innocent guilty in court and shed their blood.
The Malbim adds depth: they establish laws through which bands gather against the soul of the righteous. That is, they are not content merely to persecute the righteous, but pass laws to persecute them. This has foolishly been their way to this day: all persecutors of Judaism are not satisfied with mere persecution, but rather enact laws to persecute Judaism. Among the nations of the world, they pass special laws banning brit milah (circumcision) and shechitah (kosher slaughter), so that every observant Jew automatically becomes a criminal under the law. The same applies to the draft law: if it is codified into law, anyone who does not enlist is deemed a criminal with a police record; and knowing that this alone lacks deterrence, they pass a law cutting off budgets, through which they coerce you to do their bidding. Everything is channeled through the law.
It is well known that one of the most powerful instruments of control is the High Court of Justice (Bagatz). Reform groups and left-wing activists file petitions, and even if a petition is rejected, they are rarely assessed legal costs; their arguments are heard and the State is ordered to respond. Yet when someone from the right files a petition, he is usually summarily dismissed and burdened with court expenses, and filing with the High Court is very costly. In this way, they ultimately succeed in exercising de facto rule here. The draft law is a prime example: previously, the matter lay within the authority of the Defense Minister, who decided whom to draft. Then a petition was brought to the High Court, which opened Pandora's box, demanded primary legislation, and referred the issue to the Knesset - and from that point until today there is no resolution to an arrangement that operated smoothly for decades. It turns out that whatever they wish to direct against observant Jews, they file a legal petition against, using the power of the law to batter you. This is "They band together against the soul of the righteous" - assembling in band after band against the righteous, through the force of legislation.
"And condemn innocent blood" - instead of the law vindicating the innocent and condemning the wicked, they pass laws under which the innocent suffers while the guilty party walks away completely clear. The previous government passed legislation: if an ordinary citizen extends a balcony - fines, demolition orders, and relentless harassment; yet a Bedouin in the Negev may illegally build up to seventy meters, and it passes without any problem. Had someone proposed such a law for Bnei Brak, the entire media would be in an uproar: how can you legalize lawbreakers with a mere stroke of a pen? But because it happened in the Negev, even the legal advisers, who usually stand up and declare, "It cannot be done, this is illegal," remain silent and everything passes quietly. This is "who frames injustice by statute": taking malice and deceit and turning them into law, and as long as it aligns with their agenda, everything is acceptable. They legislate laws precisely to justify wickedness.
The deeper intent of the verse, as the Malbim explains, is this: the Holy One, blessed be He, sits upon the throne of judgment and is the Supreme Lawgiver. If you were to think that the wicked oppressing Hashem's people - as mentioned earlier, "They slay the widow and the stranger" - occurs with His blessing, reasoning that if Hashem allows them to continue He seemingly endorses their deeds, that is utterly impossible. "Can the throne of corruption have fellowship with You?" Could falsehood ever ally itself with the Holy One, blessed be He? Can one who "frames injustice by statute" stand before Him? Surely this does not stem from Him! Therefore, rest assured: the Holy One, blessed be He, will settle accounts with all of them, each according to what he deserves. This is the answer to those who ask where Hashem is and why He does not execute justice - could anyone imagine that He consents and stays silent? No; in the end, everyone will pay the price.
וַיְהִי יְהֹוָה לִי לְמִשְׂגָּב וֵאלֹהַי לְצוּר מַחְסִי׃ - And Hashem has been a stronghold for me, and my God the rock of my refuge.
The Holy One, blessed be He, rescued us from their hand; I was fortified by His lovingkindness, and the wicked could not carry out against me what they had plotted. A misgav is a place of strength, and the Holy One, blessed be He, is my deliverance; "the rock of my refuge" refers to the fortress in which I have sought shelter. The Malbim explains: just as I believed, so it came to pass - I trusted that the Holy One, blessed be He, would rescue and protect me, and that is precisely what happened. The Malbim consistently distinguishes between the Tetragrammaton (Hashem) and Elokai ("my God"): the Name Hashem denotes His universal governance of the cosmos, whereas Elokai denotes hashgachah pratit (individual divine providence), my God Who personally watches over me. Thus, "And Hashem has been a stronghold for me" applies to Him as the Creator and Sovereign of all, while "and my God the rock of my refuge" applies to Him as my God in personal providence, the Rock in Whom I take refuge individually.
וַיָּשֶׁב עֲלֵיהֶם אֶת אוֹנָם וּבְרָעָתָם יַצְמִיתֵם יַצְמִיתֵם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵינוּ׃ - And He brought back upon them their own iniquity, and will cut them off in their evil; Hashem our God will cut them off.
"Onam" means their power, as in yitzpon levanav ono ("He stores up his power for his children") - on signifies strength. The Holy One, blessed be He, will bring back upon them the violence, falsehood, and everything they did against me, turning it back upon their own heads. "And in their evil He will cut them off" - with the very evil they brought upon me, He will destroy them; yatzmit denotes annihilation, as in litzmitut ("permanently"). And what is the meaning of the repetition, "will cut them off; Hashem our God will cut them off"? Have no doubt in the matter: even if you see Him tarrying, know that in the end Hashem our God will surely cut them off, and ultimately the Holy One, blessed be He, will exact retribution from all who deserve it.
The Malbim explains: Do not think that the retribution will come through an external cause - rather, "in their own evil He will cut them off." The Holy One, blessed be He, orchestrates circumstances so that a person's own wrongdoing becomes what harms him; it is not an external misfortune that Hashem inflicts upon you, but your own evil turning back upon you. This is the meaning of "Your own wickedness shall chastise you" - the very evil you committed is what torments you. And similarly: "Nations sank into the pit they made... Hashem is known, He executed judgment." The nations sank into the very pit they had dug themselves, and through this Hashem's presence becomes known - as we see how He brought it about that their own wickedness would become their downfall.
And the well-known example: Haman built a gallows to hang Mordechai, and on that very gallows he was hanged. Furthermore: Haman was the one who instituted the decree that the king could put someone to death immediately without convening the council and without the seven highest ministers of the kingdom - all in order to execute Vashti. And the first person against whom this decree was carried out after her was Haman himself: Achashverosh did not need to consult anyone; they hanged him, and that was that. And who changed the law? Haman. From this we see that the Holy One, blessed be He, destroys the wicked through their own wickedness, making the hand of Hashem evident and proving that "He executed judgment." Finally, the verse tells us that there are two reasons for their destruction: one stems from their own evil, and the other because Hashem is "our God" - Who watches over us and champions our cause against the oppressor.