What About the God of Vengeance? | Psalm 94

Worshiping God means worshiping him for who he really is. Our lives become more anchored horizontally when we anchor them vertically to the true God. Worshiping God in Spirit and truth, as Jesus puts it in https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%204%3A23-24&version=NIV (John 4:23-24). But if you read through the Psalms, you’ll soon run into Psalms like Psalm 94 that talk about God being a “God of vengeance.” We relatively comfortable moderns have a particularly hard time with this view of God. How could God be loving and be a God of vengeance? But most Christians in the world throughout history would have the opposite problem: “How could God be loving and not judge all this evil?”  In her excellent book, https://www.amazon.com/Confronting-Christianity-audiobook/dp/B081S7C287/ref=sr_1_2?crid=CEEKTDPODASX&dchild=1&keywords=confronting+christianity+by+rebecca+mclaughlin&qid=1619019028&sprefix=confronting+Christianity%2Caps%2C186&sr=8-2 (Confronting Christianity), https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/profile/rebecca-mclaughlin/ (Rebecca McLaughlin) writes: “The idea of the wrath of God seems alien to us—a psychologically damaging relic from a bygone era. But just as we cannot absolve people of moral accountability without also erasing their ability to love, so God’s love and God’s judgment cannot be pulled apart. Think of the anger you feel when you see school children shot, women raped, or people beaten because of the color of their skin. Think of your anger at the slave trade, the Holocaust, and global sex trafficking. When you analyze that anger, its root is love. ...And the more we love, the more easily our anger is kindled. We rush to defend our children from the least attack because we love them: anyone who harms them inspires our fury. ...Imagine that this kind of love-motivated anger is so deeply entrenched in the heart of God that your own commitment to justice is like a drop in the ocean.” But this Psalm turns it back on ourselves and helps us see God’s grace