“The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile.” Psalm 94:11.

The last study ended with the above verse. Psalm 94:8-11 gave us a glimpse of God reasoning with brutish and foolish men, we now turn to the wise man that is blessed by God’s teachings.

“Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O Lord, and teach out of Your law…” Psalm 94:12.

The “Amplified Old Testament” by Zondervan Publishing House expands the meaning of the word instruct above as “discipline and instruct”. This explains why there are a number of references to discipline in the margins of our Bible.

“You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him.” Deuteronomy 8:5-6.

“Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects; therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty. For He bruises, but He binds up; He wounds, but His hands make whole. He shall deliver you in six troubles, yes, in seven no evil shall touch you. In famine He shall redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the scourge of the tongue, and you shall not be afraid of destruction when it comes. You shall laugh at destruction and famine, and you shall not be afraid of the beasts of the earth.” Job 5:17-22.

“It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your statutes.” Psalm 119:71.

“And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Hebrews 12:5-11.

After saying, “Blessed is the man whom You instruct [through discipline], O Lord…” in Psalm 94:12, the psalmist continues by saying, “…and teach out of Your law”, the words teach out of Your law for the Christian means through study of God’s word.

Many Christians go through life with the impression that all they need to do is go to church every Sunday and the pastor will teach them the word of God.

While this is a habit all of us should have, and we can learn a lot, but it is not sufficient for growth in Christ, nor is it enough to carry us through the week until next Sunday.

“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” Luke 4:4b.

The manna which the children of Israel were to gather six days a week is a type of the study of the Bible.

Every morning, the people were to go out and gather enough manna to eat that day, and on the sixth day they were to gather twice as much because none was to be gathered on the Sabbath, see Exodus chapter 16.

The study of the Bible should be done in a similar manner, many suggest in the morning, and the amount of Bible reading should be enough to give you, if possible, something to think about through the day; whether 10 minutes, a half an hour, hour or more, is up to the reader.

How much study is up to the personality and capacity of the Christian; too much and it may all run together and important lessons will be lost. Too little and it becomes a habit that one does mechanically without any benefit to themselves.

The reason for chastening and study of the Scriptures is as follows.

“…that You may give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit is dug for the wicked.” Psalm 94:13.

Let us not forget that this psalm is speaking to believers living in the tribulation period. However, we too gain rest from adversity when we stay in the presence of the Lord through study of the Scriptures.

“…rest from the days of adversity”, another word for rest is relief, in either case the idea is one of carrying them through the days of adversity.

“Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him; do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; do not fret – it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; but those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; indeed, you will look diligently for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalm 37:7-11.

The thing that is most effective about chastening from the Lord is that it gives us the patience and confidence that God is able to rescue us from every harm.

When this is combined with familiarity with the word of God we find that God has taken the responsibility upon Himself of caring for us and for repaying the wicked, and He will not fail nor will He forget. You can rest in this.

The Christian needs to sit down and think about these things. We have the hope of having someone all powerful outside of ourselves who loves and cares for us to turn to.

The world has no real hope; they evolved, meaning that there is no one out there to call on.

They are born, with luck, within wedlock. They live a pointless life; as Jean-Paul Sartre put it, “A finite point without an infinite reference point, is meaningless and absurd.”

The meaning of this is; man without God is a joke. People know this instinctively and search for meaning everywhere other than the Scriptures, because the world tells them that Christianity is a myth.

After a long superstitious life of fear and misery they die in dread of the dark void they are stepping into; or they immerse themselves in a fantasy world and die young, in hopeless despair, by drugs, alcohol, or violence.

Have pity when you see the Goth girl with black lipstick and fingernails, or someone like a punk rocker, or the drug addled teen; they are dead and without hope.

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” Jude 20-23.

“…until the pit is dug for the wicked” Psalm 94:13b, then there are the wicked. The wicked in this verse are the wicked that choose the Antichrist over God; these in turn persecute the Jews and the saints of God (those who accept Jesus Christ as Savior during the tribulation).

The unhinged things you see in the Middle East today and even in our country will happen worldwide, and in the case of killing, raping, and torturing Christians, Jews, and the helpless, will go unchecked by the law.

But there is a pit being dug for the wicked, and, I believe, they are digging it themselves.

“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and he who rolls a stone will have it roll back on him.” Proverbs 26:27.

The thing that we and those enduring the tribulation have to realize is that the pit has to be deep enough, and that takes time, something that we do not have the patience for, yet still we must wait on God’s timing.

“Behold, the wicked travails with iniquity, conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood. He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.” Psalm 7:14-16.

The pit in this psalm is hell and the evildoer digs it deep.

“For the Lord will not cast off [abandon] His people, nor will He forsake His inheritance.” Psalm 94:14.

The people being referred to here are, once again, Jews suffering during the tribulation. If God will not abandon the Jews, He will not abandon those who have accepted Christ as their Savior during this dark murderous period.

As it is with the Christian today who endures chastening so it will be in the near future for believers during the tribulation.

This will be a period of intense chastening and building up of those believers during that period conforming them to become Christ-like citizens of heaven just as it tells us in the book of Daniel.

“Many shall be purified, made white, and refined, but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand, but the wise shall understand.” Daniel 12:10.

This is one of a number of reasons for the tribulation period. Those who go into that time will be from vile immoral, pagan, occult, ungodly or just spiritually lazy backgrounds.

It will be the purpose of the tribulation to bring countless souls to Jesus Christ and to turn new believers away from vile affections, and superstitions, and to purify, make white, and refine them into godly, loving, Christians.

“But judgment will return to righteousness, and all the upright in heart will follow it.” Psalm 94:15.

Judgment must never be separate from righteousness. Yet judgment has been separate from righteousness for most of the history of mankind. But when Christ returns to rule the world, judgment will always be coupled with righteousness.

F.W. Grant made a beautiful analogy to demonstrate the inseparability of judgment and righteousness.

When Moses went before the elders of the children of Israel to lead them out of Egypt he was given three signs. One of which was to cast his rod (staff) before them and it would turn into a snake. Moses would then grab the snake by the tail and it would again become a rod in his hand.

When the rod remained in Moses’ hand it was a sign of authority and righteous judgment, but when it left his hand it became a serpent, judgment separate from righteous and out of control.

Again, when he took it up again it represented judgment returned to righteousness, in the same manner Christ will take up the rod of authority when He returns to rule. See Exodus 4:1-9 and 7:1-13 for more details of this marvelous story.

“But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Amos 5:24.

Psalm 94:12-15, taken from godisrevealed.com posted on 3-27-15, updated on 3-4-23. “Instruct and Teach”

Scripture taken from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission, all rights reserved.