“The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.”
The description of the wicked arrogantly pursuing the poor and they are caught in schemes they have devised portrays the wicked as active agents who deliberately target the vulnerable. The verb pursue suggests relentless persecution, making the wicked not merely evil but predatory. The phrase caught in schemes they have devised employs irony, suggesting that the wicked's own plots will ensnare them, though the psalmist implicitly asks when this justice will occur. This verse establishes the occasion for the lament: the righteous poor suffer from deliberate persecution by the wicked.
Church Fathers on Psalms 10:2
“Why, O Lord,” says he, “have You withdrawn afar off?” Psalm 9:1. Then he who thus inquired, as if all on a sudden he understood, or as if he asked, though he knew, that he might teach, adds, “You despise in due seasons, in tribulations:” that is, You despise seasonably, and causest tribulations to inflame men's minds with longing for Your coming. For that fountain of life is sweeter to them that have much thirst. Therefore he hints the reason of the delay, saying, “Whilst…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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