Psalm 10:16

The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) The Lord is King.—If the psalm has hitherto been personal, it here swells out into a larger strain of national hope and faith.

Benson Commentary

Psalm 10:16. The Lord is king — To whom it belongs to protect his subjects. Therefore thou wilt save the humble, and punish the oppressors; for ever and ever — Therefore his people’s case is never desperate, seeing he ever lives and reigns to help them, and, therefore, he will help them in his time, sooner or later. The heathen — Either, 1st, Those impious Israelites who oppressed David and other good men, whom, although they were reputed Israelites by themselves and others, yet he might call heathen for their heathenish opinions of God and his providence, and for their ungodly and unrighteous lives. Compare Isaiah 1:9, and Amos 9:7. Or, 2d, The Canaanites whom God, as king of the world, did expel or destroy, and gave their land to his people. By which great example David confirms his faith and hope for the future. Are perished out of his land — Out of Canaan, which God calls his land, Leviticus 25:23, because he chose it for them, Ezekiel 20:6, and gave it to them, and fixed his presence and dwelling in it.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:12-18 The psalmist speaks with astonishment, at the wickedness of the wicked, and at the patience and forbearance of God. God prepares the heart for prayer, by kindling holy desires, and strengthening our most holy faith, fixing the thoughts, and raising the affections, and then he graciously accepts the prayer. The preparation of the heart is from the Lord, and we must seek unto him for it. Let the poor, afflicted, persecuted, or tempted believer recollect, that Satan is the prince of this world, and that he is the father of all the ungodly. The children of God cannot expect kindness, truth, or justice from such persons as crucified the Lord of glory. But this once suffering Jesus, now reigns as King over all the earth, and of his dominion there shall be no end. Let us commit ourselves unto him, humbly trusting in his mercy. He will rescue the believer from every temptation, and break the arm of every wicked oppressor, and bruise Satan under our feet shortly. But in heaven alone will all sin and temptation be shut out, though in this life the believer has a foretaste of deliverance.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16-18. God reigns. The wicked, if for a time successful, shall be cut off. He hears and confirms the hearts of His suffering people (Ps 112:7), executes justice for the feeble, and represses the pride and violence of conceited, though frail, men (compare Ps 9:16).

The Treasury of David

16 The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

17 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

The Psalm ends with a song of thanksgiving to the great and everlasting King, because he has granted the desire of his humble and oppressed people, has defended the fatherless, and punished the heathen who trampled upon his poor and afflicted children. Let us learn that we are sure to speed well, if we carry our complaint to the King of kings. Rights will be vindicated, and wrongs redressed, at his throne. His government neglects not the interests of the needy, nor does it tolerate oppression in the mighty. Great God, we leave ourselves in thine hand; to thee we commit thy church afresh. Arise, O God, and let the man of the earth - the creature of a day - be broken before the majesty of thy power. Come, Lord Jesus, and glorify thy people. Amen and Amen.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The Lord is King; to whom it belongs to protect his subjects. Therefore thou wilt save the humble, and punish the oppressors.

For ever and ever; therefore his people’s case is never desperate, seeing he ever lives and reigns to help them, and therefore he will help them in his time sooner or later.

The heathen; either,

1. Those impious Israelites who oppressed David and other good men, whom, although they were reputed Israelites by themselves and others, yet he might call them heathens for their heathenish opinions of God and his providence, and for their ungodly and unrighteous lives. Compare Isaiah 1:9 Amos 9:7. Or,

2. The Canaanites, whom God as King of the world did expel or destroy, and gave their land to his people; by which great example he confirms his faith and hope for the future.

Out of his land, i.e. out of Canaan, which God calls his land, Leviticus 25:23, because he spied it out for them, Ezekiel 20:6, and gave it to them, and fixed his presence and dwelling in it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The Lord is King for ever and ever,.... Christ was King from everlasting, and during the Old Testament dispensation he was promised and prophesied of as King; and he had a kingdom when he was here on earth, though not of this world; nor was it with observation. At his ascension to heaven, and session at the right hand of God, he sat down upon the same throne with his Father, and was made or declared Lord and Christ, and appeared more visibly in his kingly office; and in the latter day it will be yet more manifest that he is King of saints, and when indeed he will be King over all the earth, and his kingdom will be an everlasting one: he will have no successor in it, nor will any usurper obtain any more; the devil, beast, and false prophet, will be cast into the lake of fire; all antichristian states will be destroyed, and all authority, rule, and power, put down; nor can his kingdom ever be subverted, he must reign till all enemies are put under his feet; he will reign to the end of the present world, and with the saints a thousand years in the new heaven and earth, and in the ultimate glory to all eternity; nor will his government cease when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to the Father, only the mode of the administration of it. Here begins the song of praise; the reign of Christ is matter of joy; see Psalm 97:1;

the Heathen are perished out of his land: not the seven nations which were driven out of the land of Canaan, to make way for the people of Israel, that was long ago; nor the wicked and degenerate Jews, called the Heathen, Psalm 2:1; compared with Acts 4:27; on whom, and on whose temple, city, and nation, Christ's native land, wrath is come to the uttermost; and they are perished out of it: nor hypocrites out of churches, which are Christ's property; but the antichristian party out of the world, which is Christ's land by creation, as God, and by the gift of his father to him, as Mediator. The followers of antichrist are called Gentiles, and the nations of the earth, Revelation 11:2; and these will be no more; they will be utterly destroyed, when the man of sin shall be consumed with the breath of Christ's mouth and the brightness of his coming. The seventh vial will clear the world of all the remains of Christ's enemies: this also is cause of rejoicing, Psalm 132:16.

Geneva Study Bible

The LORD is King for ever and ever: the {k} heathen are perished out of his land.

(k) The hypocrites or such as live not after God's law, will be destroyed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. The second clause has been variously explained to refer (1) to the past, or (2) to the future (prophetic perfect). If (1) it refers to the past, the Psalmist finds the guarantee for the fulfilment of his prayers and hopes in the extermination of the Canaanites, or, it may be, in the repulse of ‘the nations’ referred to in Psalm 9:5-6; Psalm 9:15 ff. As the nations have been driven out before God’s people, so the wicked must ultimately give place to the godly, and Jehovah’s land will become in fact what it is in name, the Holy Land. Cp. the frequent warnings to Israel that the fate of the Canaanites might be theirs (Deuteronomy 8:19-20, &c.). If (2) the clause refers to the future, it is a confident anticipation (expressed as though it were already realised) of the ultimate destruction of the foreign oppressors of Israel, including, it may be supposed, all the godless of whom they are typical.

The first explanation suits the context best. The complaint and prayer of the psalm are directed against wicked oppressors within the nation of Israel, not against foreign enemies. An anticipation of the destruction of such external enemies is foreign to the line of thought. But an appeal to history as the ground of hope for the future is quite in place.

his land] Cp. Leviticus 25:13; Joel 2:18.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 16-18. - Here begins the third part of the psalm. It is, as has been observed, "confident and triumphant." The psalmist has, in the first part, shown the wickedness of the ungodly; in the second, he has prayed for vengeance on them, and for the deliverance of their victims; in the third, he expresses his certainty that his prayer is heard, and that the punishment and deliverance for which he has prayed are as good as accomplished. Verse 16. - The Lord is King for ever and ever (comp. Psalm 29:10; Psalm 146:10). Thus God's kingdom is established, his authority vindicated, his absolute rule over all men made manifest. Internal and external foes are alike overcome. The heathen - whether uncircumcised in the flesh or in the heart (Jeremiah 9:25, 26) - are perished out of his (Jehovah's) land. Psalm 10:16

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The desire for Jahve's interposition now rises again with fresh earnestness. It is a mistake to regard דּרשׁ and מצא as correlative notions. In the phrase to seek and not find, when used of that which has totally disappeared, we never have דּרשׁ, but always בּקּשׁ, Psalm 37:36; Isaiah 41:12; Jeremiah 50:20, and frequently. The verb דּרשׁ signifies here exactly the same as in Psalm 10:4, Psalm 10:13, and Psalm 9:13 : "and the wicked (nom. absol. as in Psalm 10:4) - mayst Thou punish his wickedness, mayst Thou find nothing more of it." It is not without a meaning that, instead of the form of expression usual elsewhere (Psalm 37:36; Job 20:8), the address to Jahve is retained: that which is no longer visible to the eye of God, not merely of man, has absolutely vanished out of existence. This absolute conquest of evil is to be as surely looked for, as that Jahve's universal kingship, which has been an element of the creed of God's people ever since the call and redemption of Israel (Exodus 15:18), cannot remain without being perfectly and visibly realised. His absolute and eternal kingship must at length be realised, even in all the universality and endless duration foretold in Zechariah 14:9; Daniel 7:14, Revelation 11:15. Losing himself in the contemplation of this kingship, and beholding the kingdom of God, the kingdom of good, as realised, the psalmist's vision stretches beyond the foes of the church at home to its foes in general; and, inasmuch as the heathen in Israel and the heathen world outside of Israel are blended together into one to his mind, he comprehends them all in the collective name of גּוים, and sees the land of Jahve (Leviticus 25:23), the holy land, purified of all oppressors hostile to the church and its God. It is the same that is foretold by Isaiah (Isaiah 52:1), Nahum (Nahum 2:1), and in other passages, which, by the anticipation of faith, here stands before the mind of the suppliant as an accomplished fact - viz. the consummation of the judgment, which has been celebrated in the hymnic half (Psalm 9) of this double Psalm as a judgment already executed in part.