“For the needy shall not alway be forgotten: the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever.”
The final affirmation that the needy shall not always be forgotten and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever asserts that God's justice will ultimately vindicate the vulnerable. The emphasis on forever suggests eschatological hope that transcends present appearances where the poor appear abandoned. The connection between forgetting and hope suggests that God's remembrance of the needy guarantees ultimate justice. This verse concludes the psalm by returning to the vulnerable and oppressed, affirming that God's concern for them proves ultimate and eternal.
Church Fathers on Psalms 9:18
1. The inscription of this Psalm is, “To the end for the hidden things of the Son, a Psalm of David himself.” As to the hidden things of the Son there may be a question: but since he has not added whose, the very only-begotten Son of God should be understood. For where a Psalm has been inscribed of the son of David, “When,” he says, “he fled from the face of Absalom his son;” although his name even was mentioned, and therefore there could be no obscurity as to whom it was…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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