Psalm 94:17-18 expresses the Psalmist’s realization that without God’s intervention, they would have been overcome by life’s hardships.
- Verse 17: “Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have lived in the land of silence.” (The “silence” represents the silence of the grave or death).
- Verse 18: “When I thought, ‘My foot slips,’ your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.” (The slipping foot highlights a moment of profound weakness, where God’s immediate love caught and supported the Psalmist).
Psalm 94:17-19 Meaning and Commentary
INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 94
Some, as Jarchi and others, think this psalm was written by Moses; others, with greater probability, assign it to David; as do the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions; and which all but the Syriac version say it was composed to be sung on the fourth day of the week, on which day the Talmudists say it was sung; see the argument of the preceding psalm. This psalm and others, that go before and follow, are without any title in the Hebrew Bible: the title of it in the Syriac version is:
“A Psalm of David, concerning the company of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; but spiritually, concerning the persecution against the church;”
Not of the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt, as some suggest; nor of the Jews in their present exile, as Kimchi; but rather of the people of God under the tyranny of antichrist; who are represented as complaining of his insults and cruelty, and as comforting themselves in the hopes of deliverance, and in the view of his destruction.