His mouth is full of cursing . (On the prevalence of this evil habit among the powerful in David's time, see Psalms 59:12 ; Psalms 109:17 , Psalms 109:18 ; 2 Samuel 16:5 .) And deceit and fraud; or, guile and extortion (Kay); comp. Psalms 36:3 ; Psalms 55:11 . Under his tongue is mischief and vanity; rather, as in the margin, mischief and iniquity. These are stored "under his tongue," ready for utterance whenever he finds a fit occasion. read more
He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages . These "lurking-places" must not be supposed to have been inside the villages, but outside of them They were retired spots at no great distance, where brigands or others might lie in ambush, ready to seize on such of the villagers as might show themselves. In the secret places doth he murder the innocent (comp. Job 24:14 ). The usual object would be, not murder, but robbery. Still, there would be cases where it would be convenient to remove... read more
His mouth is full of cursing - Profaneness; blasphemy against God. In the former verse the writer had described the feelings of the “heart;” he now proceeds to specify the open acts of the wicked. The meaning is, that the wicked man, as here described, was one who was full of imprecation, swearing, execration; a “profane” man; a man who, whatever was his belief about God, would constantly call upon his name, and imprecate his wrath on himself or others. An atheist, strange as it may seem, is as... read more
He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages - As robbers do, who hide themselves in the vicinity of villages, that they make a sudden descent upon them in the silence of the night, or that they may seize and rob the inhabitants as they go forth in the morning to attend their flocks to the pastures, or to labor in the fields. The word rendered “villages” means properly an enclosure, as a court before a building; and then a village or hamlet, farm-buildings, or farm hamlets, usually erected... read more
Psalms 10:7. His mouth is full of cursing Of oaths and blasphemies against God; of reviling and execration of other men, especially of those that are good, and those that stand in his way, and hinder his wicked designs; and, perhaps, also of oaths and imprecations against himself, by which he endeavours to gain credit, and to make his neighbours secure, and so to make way for the deceit and fraud here next mentioned. He sticks at nothing that may serve his ends: for he makes no conscience... read more
Psalms 10:8-9. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages Not within the villages, but in the ways bordering upon them, or leading to them, as robbers used to do. In the secret places That he may avoid the shame and punishment of men; which is the only thing that he fears. His eyes are privily set Hebrew, יצפנו , jitzponu, delitescunt, lie hid; skulk, or lurk. He watches, and looks out of his lurking place, to spy what passengers come that way. The allusion is still to the... read more
Psalms 9-10 God fights for the oppressedIn Psalms 9:0 and 10 we meet another kind of Hebrew verse, the acrostic. (Other acrostics are Psalms 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119 and 145.) In an acrostic the first word of each verse (or stanza) begins with a different letter of the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet, moving in order, so to speak, ‘from A to Z’. The acrostic in this case moves unbroken through Psalms 9:0 and 10, indicating that originally they probably formed one psalm. The absence of a heading to... read more
His mouth, &c. Quoted in Romans 3:14 . read more
the poor = a weak one. Hebrew. helkah. read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Psalms 10:1-18
The righteous God. The one grand thought which runs through this psalm and most of the Old Testament literature is that God, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, is a Righteous Being, and that all wickedness must be punished and overthrown. In this psalm two principal thoughts are vividly pictured forth, and a prayer. I. A COMPLAINT TO GOD OF THE DARING ATHEISM OF THE WICKED . ( Psalms 10:1-11 .) 1 . He imagines himself to be above all restraint ... read more