Thou hast seen [it]; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite [it] with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
Ver. 14. Thou hast seen it] For thou art All-eye, whatever the wicked conceiteth to the contrary, making thee a God of clouts, as they say, or a heathen idol, which is nothing in the world.
To requite it with thy hand] Reponendo in manu tua, by taking it in thy hand, so some render it, sc. ut propius intuearis, certius consideres, diiudices et vindices, that thou mayest take a more near and narrow view of it, and duly punish it (Aben-Ezra).
The poor committeth himself unto thee] Heb. leaveth, relinquit seipsum, et currit ad te, he relinquisheth himself, and runneth unto thee, Relinquit in te onus suum (R. Solomon). Now, whosoever committeth himself and his affairs to God shall be sure to find him a faithful depositary.
Thou art the helper of the fatherless] The world's refuge, as the Grand Seignior is called; The poor man's king, as James V, of Scotland. In God "the fatherless findeth mercy," Hosea 14:3. And these arguments David useth in his prayer, not to move God to hear and help, but to work upon his own heart thereby, and to persuade himself to more faith, love, obedience, humility, thankfulness, whereby we are the better fitted for mercy. When a man in a ship plucks a rock it seemeth as if he plucketh the rock nearer the ship, when as, indeed, the ship is plucked nearer the reck. So is it in this case: we seem to persuade God by our arguments, when as, indeed, the change is not wrought in him, but only in ourselves; our arguments are curarum nostrarum levamenta, et fiduciae impetrandi augmenta, the cure of our cares, and props to our faith of obtaining.