Tehilim Perek 94

Hello everyone, I’m Rabbi Shaya Sussman, covering the entire TANACH one perek at a time. Today’s NachDaily is Tehilim Chapter 94, continuing the chapters written by Moshe Rabbenu.

This perek was said about Am Yisrael in galus, exile. Moshe had foreseen the hardships of our nation, and davened for all the future generations until the coming of the final redemption.

At that time, Hashem will eradicate all evil from the world. There will be an influx of spirituality and kedusha which will elevate creation to a new level of consciousness. Emes and sheker, truth and falsehood, will no longer be intermingled, but be clearly differentiated for all to see.

The first part of the chapter is a call for God to unleash His vengeance upon the world, to judge the earth and give each living thing what it deserves.

The prayer questions God, asking why the reshaim, the evil ones of the world, don’t get punished for the damage that they’ve done to His nation. This can also be understood on an individual level for anyone who’s caused grief to a specific person and gets away with it. Why doesn’t God take care of the perpetrator immediately?

The psalmist goes so far as to say that fortunate is a person who experiences suffering, which denotes tribulations as good.

The last part of the perek expresses our faith that Hashem will never forsake His nation no matter how long it may take. Ultimately, if God were not involved, Am Yisrael would no longer exist. Of all the nations that have come and gone throughout world history, only the Jewish people are here to stay!

The chapter ends by returning to the initial theme of retribution. Ultimately God will show His Face by giving back to the nations what they wanted to do to us.

Verse 12 says:

אַשְׁרֵ֤י ׀ הַגֶּ֣בֶר אֲשֶׁר־תְּיַסְּרֶ֣נּוּ יָּ֑הּ וּֽמִתּוֹרָתְךָ֥ תְלַמְּדֶֽנּוּ׃

Fortunate is the man whom You, God, admonish and teach him from Your Torah.

Every person experiences decrees of bitterness and sadness at various times throughout life. The question is how to internalize emunah, faith, by bringing it closer to our hearts.

The Tanya in chapter 26 explains, based on this passuk, that Chazal, our Sages, had given sound advice on how to cleanse a person’s heart, to be free of sadness and worry about health, children, livelihood, and all major challenges in life.

The well-known saying that a person needs to make a blessing on the bad just as much as on the good, means to accept all suffering with happiness, joy and simplicity.

Suffering comes from the hidden world which is considered higher than the revealed world, but it’s just not apparent for us to see in our present state.

The Tanya goes on to explain that the revealed world corresponds to the letter “vav” in Hashem’s name, while the hidden world corresponds to the “yud-hey,” which is much loftier.

Now we can understand why experiencing suffering is fortunate. There is no doubt that it is for our complete good even though it may not look like that in the revealed world. Suffering comes from the hidden deeper world of joy and happiness.

May we merit being happy with our lot in life even through difficulties, and deeply understand that hakol letovah, it’s all good.

Thank you for listening, and have a wonderful day.