Subject: - The writer sees evil-doers in power, and smarts under their oppressions. His sense of the divine sovereignty, of which he had been singing in the previous psalm, leads him to appeal to God as the great judge of the earth ... The psalm is another pathetic form of the old enigma – "Wherefore do the wicked prosper?" It is another instance of a good man, perplexed by the prosperity of the ungodly, cheering his heart by remembering that there is, after all, a King in heaven, by whom all things are overruled for good.
Verse 1. "O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongeth; O God, to whom vengeance belongeth, show thyself." A very natural prayer where innocence is trampled down, and wickedness exalted on high. If the execution of justice be a right thing – and who can deny the fact? - Then it must be a very proper thing to desire it; not out of private revenge, in which case a man would hardly dare to appeal to God, but out of sympathy with right, and pity for those who are made wrongfully to suffer. Who can see a nation enslaved, or even an individual down-trodden, without crying to the lord to arise and vindicate the righteous cause? In this present psalm, the "toleration" of injustice is attributed to the Lord's being hidden, and it is implied that the bare sight of him will suffice to alarm the tyrants into ceasing their oppressions. God has but to "show" himself – "O God ... show thyself" – and the good cause wins the day. He comes, he sees, he conquers! Truly in these evil days we need a manifest display of his power ...."
Verse 3. "Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked triumph?" What answer shall we give with regards to putting a date on this "how long?" The answer is given (as far as man's desire is concerned) in verse 23: "And he shall bring upon them their own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness ..." It's as though the psalmist was saying, Until the Lord cuts them off in their wickedness, they will never leave off doing wickedly. A godly man says, "If God kills me, yet will I trust in him;" but some wicked men say, "Until God kills us we will go on sinning against him."
Verse 9. "He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?" The true idolater desires a blind god. The great first cause in all idolatry is the desire of the fallen nature to escape from the look of the living God, and only a dead image (even of the living God) can serve this purpose and desire.
Verse 9. "He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? He that formed the eye, shall he not see?"
It was no Limited power that could make this eye to see, this ear to hear; this heart to understand. And if this eye which he has given you can see all things within its view; and that ear that he planted in you can hear all sounds within its compass; and that heart can know all matters within its comprehension - How much more shall the sight, and hearing, and knowledge of that infinite God who knows no bounds, observe and know all the actions and events of his creatures that lie open and obvious before him who made them!
Verse 10. "he that chastiseth the heather, shall he not correct? He that teacheth knowledge, (shall not he know?)" The words in brackets – in italics in our Authorised Version of the Bible – were simply inserted by the translators in an effort to fill out the sense of the verse. This was the practice of the translators of the Authorised Version and speaks much for their integrity. Whereas, they always endeavoured to "help" the reader with some additions to the actual words of scripture in difficult places, they, nevertheless, also wanted to make it clear that such words were only their own and not the Lord's - and so, they inserted these words and phrases in italics. The sense of the psalmist's words are well-captured by the added words, but to simply place an "exclamation" at the end of the word "knowledge" gives great force to the whole argument from verse nine. "Enough argument!" says the psalmist; "the application must be obvious to you all."