Charles H. Spurgeon on Psalms 94:16

Who will rise up, etc. I think we ought to look upon David here in a public capacity, as a prince or magistrate; and then as such he deplores the increase and confidence of the wicked; and having fortified himself in God by prayer, he resolves, in the words of the text, to do the duty of his station, to employ all the power God had given him for the extirpation of wickedness, and the reformation of an impious people; and earnestly invites and calls in to his assistance all that had either heart or ability for such a work, as being well aware of the great difficulty of it. This is the sense I prefer, because it best becomes the zeal and faith of David, best suits the spirit and genius of several other parallel psalms, and seems plainly to me, to have the countenance of the Targum and the Septuagint. In the words thus explained we have these three things:

1. The deplorable state of Israel. This is easily to be collected from the form and manner of David's expressing himself here, Who will stand up for me? or who will take my part? As if he should have said, Such is the number and power of the wicked, that how much soever my heart is set upon a reformation, I can hardly hope to effect it, without the concurrence and joint endeavours of good men. And yet, alas! how little is the assistance I can reasonably expect of this kind? How few are the sincere friends of goodness? How great and how general is the coldness and indifference which possesses men in the things of God?

2. The duty of the magistrate. This is plainly implied here, and is, to curb and restrain wickedness, and to promote a general reformation.

3. The duty of all good people. Which is, as far as in them lies, to assist and encourage the magistrate in this good work. Richard Lucas, 1697.