John Calvin Commentary Psalms 94:10

"He that chastiseth the nations, shall not he correct, [Even] he that teacheth man knowledge?" — Psalms 94:10 (ASV)

He that chastiseth the nations, shall not he correct? He would have them argue from the greater to the less: if God did not spare even whole nations but visits their iniquity with punishment, they could not imagine that He would allow a mere handful of individuals to escape with impunity.

The comparison intended, however, may possibly be between the Gentiles and the Jews. If God punished the heathen nations, who had not heard His word, with much severity, the Jews might expect that they, who had been familiarized with instruction in His house, would receive still sharper correction, and that He would vindicate His justice most in that nation over which He had chosen to preside.

Still, the former sense of the passage appears to me preferable: that it is folly for any number of individuals to flatter themselves with impunity when they see God inflicting public punishment upon collective peoples. Some think there is an exclusive allusion to the signal and memorable instances of Divine judgment recorded in Scripture, as in the destruction of Sodom with fire from heaven (Genesis 19) and of the whole human family by the flood (Genesis 7). But the simpler meaning is best: that it is the height of madness for individuals to think that they could escape when nations perish.

In adding that God teacheth men knowledge, the Psalmist alludes to the overweening confidence of those who despise God and pride themselves in their acuteness and shrewdness, as we find Isaiah denouncing a woe against those crafty enemies of God who dig deep, that they may hide themselves from His sight (Isaiah 29:15). It is a disease prevalent enough in the world still.

We know the refuges under the cover of which both courtiers and lawyers take occasion to indulge in shameless mockery of God. It is as if the Psalmist had said — You think to elude God through the confidence which you have in your acute understandings, and would pretend to dispute the knowledge of the Almighty, when, in truth, all the knowledge that is in the world is but as a drop from His own inexhaustible fullness.