Bible Commentaries

O LORD God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, shew thyself.

O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth — Heb. Jehovah, God of revenges; so Jeremiah 51:56 , "The Lord God of recompences." "Vengeance is mine," saith he, "I will repay," Deuteronomy 32:35 . And it is best he should, for he returneth "a just recompense of reward," Hebrews 2:2 ; whereas men seek oft an unequal revenge, Hebrews 10:30 , as a stab for the lie given; and, besides, in seeking the lives of others, they sometimes lose their own.

Show thyself — Heb. shine forth, appear for thy poor wronged servant. David knew the law, and submitted to it; he turneth over his enemies to God to be ordered by him, neither did he himself herein any disservice. "I seek not mine own glory" (so mine own revenge), saith Christ, but there is one that seeketh it. God never faileth to do it, to be their champion, who strive not for themselves; only they must wait his leisure, and not usurp his executions.

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Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth: render a reward to the proud.

Lift up thyself, thou judge of the earth — Judges, as they ascend the tribunal, so when to pass sentence they usually stand up. See Isaiah 33:10 . And hereunto the psalmist alludeth.

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LORD, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?

Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long? — Bis, quia de die in diem gloriantur, saith Aben Ezra. Twice he saith it, because the wicked boast day after day, with such insolence and outrage, as if they were above control.

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[How long] shall they utter [and] speak hard things? [and] all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

How long shall they utter — Heb. They will bluster (or well-out, as a fountain), they will speak hard things (speak millstones, throw daggers), they will boast themselves (talk largely of their good parts and practices); all this is expressed by an elegant asyndeton, A rhetorical figure which omits the conjunction. to show that they did all this ordinarily and incessantly.

Aκολαστον εχοντες γλωσσαν, αισχιστην νοσον

(Euripid.).

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They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.

They break in pieces thy people — They make potsherds of them. And this is the best use they make of thy patience; break it off, therefore.

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They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.

They slay the widow and the stranger — Those sacred persons, thy proper clients; to such a height of hard heartedness are they grown, that they pity not them whom nature and courtesy would show compassion to.

Let us bless ourselves out of the bloody fingers of barbarous and brutish men, skilful to destroy.

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Yet they say, The LORD shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard [it].

Yet they say, The Lord shall not see — To all other their enormities they added this, that they denied a Divine providence, and professed profaneness. Irridendum vero, curam agere rerum humanarum illud quicquid est summum, saith Pliny, lib. 2, c. 7, delivering the sense of all other atheists.

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Understand, ye brutish among the people: and [ye] fools, when will ye be wise?

Understand, ye brutish — Ye that are ringleaders to the rest, but no wiser than the reasonless creatures; yea, therefore worse, because ye ought to be better. Polybius complaineth of man’s folly, above that of other creatures, in those words, Caeterae animantes ubi semel offenderint, cavent; non vulpes ad laqueum, lupus ad foveam, cants ad fustem temere redibunt; Solus homo ab aeve ad aevum peccat fere in iisdem.

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