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.