Psalm 94:11

The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) That they are vanity—The literal rendering, “for they are breath,” referring not to thoughts, but to man collectively, gives equally good sense, and would, notwithstanding the order of the words, be natural, since the masculine pronoun is used. But the LXX. stands as the Authorised Version, and is so quoted by St. Paul (1Corinthians 3:20), with the substitution of wise men for men.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 94:11. The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man — This is an answer to the foregoing question, Shall not he know? Yes, he knoweth all things, yea, even the most secret things, as the thoughts of men; and in particular your thoughts, and much more your practices, which you supposed he did not see, Psalm 94:6-7. And he knows that they are generally vain and foolish; and that, while you applaud yourselves in such thoughts, you do not benefit, but only delude yourselves with them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

94:1-11 We may with boldness appeal to God; for he is the almighty Judge by whom every man is judged. Let this encourage those who suffer wrong, to bear it with silence, committing themselves to Him who judges righteously. These prayers are prophecies, which speak terror to the sons of violence. There will come a day of reckoning for all the hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against God, his truths, and ways, and people. It would hardly be believed, if we did not witness it, that millions of rational creatures should live, move, speak, hear, understand, and do what they purpose, yet act as if they believed that God would not punish the abuse of his gifts. As all knowledge is from God, no doubt he knows all the thoughts of the children of men, and knows that the imaginations of the thoughts of men's hearts are only evil, and that continually. Even in good thoughts there is a want of being fixed, which may be called vanity. It concerns us to keep a strict watch over our thoughts, because God takes particular notice of them. Thoughts are words to God.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man - That is, He who teaches people all that they know Psalm 94:10, must understand all that there is in the mind. See the notes at 1 Corinthians 3:20.

That they are vanity - That is, that they are foolish, vain, unwise, wicked. The knowledge of the thoughts themselves carries with it also the knowledge that they are vain and foolish - for that is their character, and to know them truly is to know this of them. They do not appear to him as they do to people themselves. They are to his view stripped of all that is flattering and illusive, and are seen to be vain and foolish.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-11. The evidence of God's providential government is found in His creative power and omniscience, which also assure us that He can punish the wicked in regard to all their vain purposes.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

This is an answer to the foregoing question, shall not he know? Yes, he knoweth all things, yea, even the most secret things, as the thoughts of men; and in particular your atheistical thoughts, and much more doth he know your wicked practices, which you said he did not see, Psalm 94:6,7. And he knows that they are generally vain and foolish, and that whilst you mock God and applaud yourselves in such thoughts, you do not relieve, but only delude yourselves with them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man,.... He not only hears their words, and sees their actions; but he knows their thoughts, the secret thoughts of their hearts, though he is afar off from them, and, they from him; he is the searcher of the hearts and trier of the reins of the children of men; see Psalm 139:2, and so is Christ, who is the omniscient God, and is the Jehovah all along spoken to and of in this psalm; he knows the thoughts of men, and is a critical discerner of them, Matthew 9:3.

that they are vanity; either that their thoughts are vanity; the object of them is vanity, the riches and honours of this world, which are all vanity and vexation of spirit; and sinful lusts and pleasures, which are vain and useless, yea, pernicious and hurtful: and so they are in their issue and event; they come to nothing, they are without effect; the Lord disappoints men's devices, and frustrates their designs; they think of this and the other, form schemes, but cannot execute them: or else the sense is, that they themselves are vanity, as man in his best estate is; even every man, whether of high or low degree; see Psalm 39:5. The Syriac version is, "for they are a vapour"; with which compare James 4:14. Thales, an Heathen philosopher (e), being asked whether men's deeds could be hid from God, answered, no, nor their thoughts.

(e) Apud Laert. Vit. ejus, Valer. Maxim. l. 7. c. 2. extern. 8.

Geneva Study Bible

The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. The positive answer to the self-delusion of the wicked and the doubts of the faithless. Jehovah not only sees their works, but knows their very thoughts.

that they are vanity] So the LXX, quoted by St Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:20, with the substitution of the wise for men to suit his argument. This rendering gives a good sense, and suggests an emphatic contrast between the designs of men and the designs of God (Psalm 92:5). But the masculine pronoun they is more naturally referred to man than to the feminine word for thoughts, and its emphatic position further points to the rendering, For they, in contrast to Jehovah, are (but) a breath (Psalm 39:5). How can man, the feeble creature of a day, escape the knowledge of the Omniscient and Eternal, or entertain designs which He cannot fathom?

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man. Not only does the Almighty see and know all the actions of men (ver. 9), but he is even acquainted with their thoughts (comp. Psalm 7:9; Psalm 26:2; Psalm 139:17; Isaiah 66:18; 1 Corinthians 3:20). That they are vanity (comp. Ecclesiastes 2:14, 15). Psalm 94:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The third strophe now turns from those bloodthirsty, blasphemous oppressors of the people of God whose conduct calls forth the vengeance of Jahve, to those among the people themselves, who have been puzzled about the omniscience and indirectly about the righteousness of God by the fact that this vengeance is delayed. They are called בערים and כסילים in the sense of Psalm 73:21. Those hitherto described against whom God's vengeance is supplicated are this also; but this appellation would be too one-sided for them, and בּעם refers the address expressly to a class of men among the people whom those oppress and slay. It is absurd that God, the planter of the ear (הנּטע, like שׁסע in Leviticus 11:7, with an accented ultima, because the praet. Kal does not follow the rule for the drawing back of the accent called נסוג אחור) and the former of the eye (cf. Psalm 40:7; Exodus 4:11), should not be able to hear and to see; everything that is excellent in the creature, God must indeed possess in original, absolute perfection.

(Note: The questions are not: ought He to have no ear, etc.; as Jerome pertinently observes in opposition to the anthropomorphites, membra tulit, efficientias dedit.)

The poet then points to the extra-Israelitish world and calls God יסר גּוים, which cannot be made to refer to a warning by means of the voice of conscience; יסר used thus without any closer definition does not signify "warning," but "chastening" (Proverbs 9:7). Taking his stand upon facts like those in Job 12:23, the poet assumes the punitive judicial rule of God among the heathen to be an undeniable fact, and presents for consideration the question, whether He who chasteneth nations cannot and will not also punish the oppressors of His church (cf. Genesis 18:25), He who teacheth men knowledge, i.e., He who nevertheless must be the omnipotent One, since all knowledge comes originally from Him? Jahve - thus does the course of argument close in Psalm 94:11 - sees through (ידע of penetrative perceiving or knowing that goes to the very root of a matter) the thoughts of men that they are vanity. Thus it is to be interpreted, and not: for they (men) are vanity; for this ought to have been כּי הבל המּה, whereas in the dependent clause, when the predicate is not intended to be rendered especially prominent, as in Psalm 9:21, the pronominal subject may precede, Isaiah 61:9; Jeremiah 46:5 (Hitzig). The rendering of the lxx (1 Corinthians 3:20), ὅτι εἰσὶ μάταιοι (Jerome, quoniam vanae sunt), is therefore correct; המּה, with the customary want of exactness, stands for הנּה. It is true men themselves are הבל; it is not, however, on this account that He who sees through all things sees through their thoughts, but He sees through them in their sinful vanity.