Thou therefore, O LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to visit all the heathen: be not merciful to any wicked transgressors. Selah.
Thou therefore, O Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel. These names of God are so many pleas for obtaining the divine help. LORD or YAHWEH (H3068), is the most profound and far-reaching of the divine names. God, or 'Elohiym (H430), implies His is Deity and His being the Creator. The epithet "of hosts" ( tsªbaa'owt (H6635)) implies the boundless resources which He has at command for His people's good. Then this glorious God is "the God of Israel." He has the people of His covenant under His special protection. The same plea implied in the designation "the God of Israel" is expressed in Psalms 59:13 - "let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth." Compare Jeremiah 35:17; Jeremiah 38:17, which derive this accumulation of names from the passage here. Compare David's words, 2 Samuel 7:27.
Awake to visit all the heathen. The primary objects of the judgment the judgment prayed for are not "the pagan," but the wicked transgressors, or 'men of perfidy' х bogªdeey (H898)] (Psalms 59:3; Psalms 25:3). But since God, as the Judge of all the earth, is about to visit in judgment all the pagan, much more will He judge those in Israel who perfidiously transgress against the law of brotherly love, and justice (Psalms 25:3). The thought that God's judgment extends to "all the pagan" assures the believer that he need not be frightened by the number of his adversaries, who, after all, are but few compared with the hosts of heaven. There is an ulterior reference to the final retribution which shall visit "all the pagan," or rather 'the nations' leagued; with Antichrist against Messiah and His people.