Psalms 10:16

Heathen - People; nations; non-Jews.

The Lord is king for ever - He has, and ever will have, the supreme power.

The heathen are perished out of his land - They are all either cut off or converted. This may refer to the Canaanites. What a mercy that we can say this of our own country! Once it was entirely heathen; now not one heathen family in the whole land.

The Lord is King forever and ever - That is, he reigns, and he will reign forever. This is one of the instances which frequently occur in the Psalms, where, though there is a desponding spirit, or an apprehension of danger expressed in the beginning of the poem, it ends with the language of exultation and triumph. The psalmist speaks here as if what he had desired was actually accomplished, and as if the enemies that had encompassed him, and all the enemies of the Lord, were actually overthrown, and God now reigned supreme. He was so confident that this would be so, that he speaks of it as if it were already done. Compare Romans 4:17; see also Psalm 6:8-9; Psalm 7:17; Psalm 9:18.

The heathen are perished out of his land - That is, this would so certainly occur that he might speak of it as if it were actually done. The word "heathen" here refers to the enemies of God and of his cause, who are the principal subjects of the psalm. Compare Psalm 9:5. The "land," here, refers to the land of Palestine, or the holy land, regarded as a land sacred to God, or in the midst of which he himself dwelt.

10:16 Is king - To whom it belongs to protect his subjects. Therefore his peoples case is never desperate, seeing he ever lives to help them.The heathen - The Canaanites; whom God, as king of the world, expelled, and gave their land to his people. By which great example he confirms his faith and hope for the future. His land - Out of Canaan, which God calls his land, because he gave it to them, and fixed his presence and dwelling in it.