Psalms 10:14

Art - "Are"; second person singular.

Requite - Recompense; return; restore; repay.

Spite - Vexation; anger; grief.

Thou hast seen it - Nothing can escape thy notice. Thou hast not forgotten thy justice, though judgment is not speedily executed on an evil work. But thou wilt requite it with thy hand. By thy power thou wilt cast down and destroy the wicked.

The poor committeth himself unto thee - To thee he has given up his body, his soul, and his cause; with the full conviction that thou who art the helper of fatherless, will not forget him.

Thou hast seen it - Thou seest all. Though people act as if their conduct was not observed, yet thou art intimately acquainted with all that they do. The workers of iniquity cannot hide themselves. The idea here is, that although God seemed not to notice the conduct of the wicked, and though the wicked acted as if he did not, yet that all this was seen by God, and that he would deal with men according to justice and to truth.

For thou beholdest mischief - All that is done on the earth, though perhaps in this case referring particularly to that which gave the psalmist trouble.

And spite - The word spite with us, though it originally denoted rancour, malice, ill-will, now denotes usually a less deliberate and fixed malice than is indicated by those words, but is used to denote a sudden fit of ill-will excited by temporary vexation. It relates to small subjects, and is accompanied with a desire of petty revenge, and implies that one would be gratified with the disappointment or misfortune of another. The word here, however, in the original, means anger, wrath, malice; and the idea is, that God had seen all the anger of the enemies of the psalmist.

To requite it with thy hand - By thine own interposition or agency - the hand being the instrument by which we accomplish anything. The idea is, that the psalmist felt assured that God would not pass this over. Though the wicked acted as if he did not see or regard their conduct, yet the psalmist felt assured that God would not be unmindful of it, but would, in due time, visit them with deserved punishment.

The poor committeth himself unto thee - Margin, "leaveth." The word rendered poor is the same as that which occurs in Psalm 10:10. It means here those who are helpless and defenseless; the oppressed and the downtrodden. The word committeth or leaveth means that he leaves his cause with God; he trusts in his protection and interposition; he gives himself no anxiety as to the result. He knows that God can deliver him if he sees that it is best; and he is assured that God will do that which it is best should be done.

Thou art the helper of the fatherless - That is, this is the general character of God - the character in which he has revealed himself to man. Compare Exodus 22:22; Deuteronomy 10:18; Isaiah 1:17; Psalm 68:5; Psalm 82:3; Jeremiah 49:11; Hosea 14:3; Malachi 3:5; James 1:27. The psalmist here refers to the "general character" of God as that in which all the oppressed, the crushed, the helpless may trust; and he mentions this particular case as one that best illustrated that character.

10:14 Requite - Heb. to give (to restore or pay the mischief which they have done to others) with thy hand, by thy own extraordinary providence, because the oppressed were destitute of all other succours.Fatherless - Of such as have no friend or helper, one kind of them being put for all.