Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 10:18

"To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, That man who is of the earth may be terrible no more." — Psalms 10:18 (ASV)

To judge the fatherless - This means to vindicate the orphan, to rescue him from the hand of those who would oppress and wrong him. In other words, the psalmist prays that God would manifest Himself in His real and proper character as the vindicator of the fatherless (see the note at Psalms 10:14), or of those who are represented by the fatherless—the feeble and the helpless.

And the oppressed - This refers to those who are downtrodden, crushed, and wronged. See the note at Psalms 9:9.

That the man of the earth - Literally, “the man from the earth;” that is, that man springing from the earth, or created of the dust (Genesis 2:7)—man frail, short-lived, feeble—should no more set up an unjust authority, trample on the rights of his fellow-worms, or suppose that he is superior to his fellow-creatures.

May no more oppress - Margin, “terrify.” The original word properly means to terrify, to make afraid; that is, in this place, to terrify by his harsh and oppressive conduct. It is to be observed here that the original word—ערץ ‛ ârats—has a very close resemblance in sound to the word rendered earth—ארץ 'erets—and that this is commonly supposed to be an instance of the figure of speech called paronomasia, when words have the same sound but different meanings. It is not certain, however, that there is in this case any designed resemblance; it is rather to be supposed that it was accidental.

Regarding the prayer in this verse, it is proper to observe that there is always occasion to utter it, and will be until the Gospel pervades the hearts of all men. One of the most common forms of wickedness in our world is oppression—the oppression of the fatherless, of the poor, of the dependent, the oppression of the subjects of government, and the oppression of the slave.

One of the most affecting things regarding this is that it is done by a man made “from the earth”—a child of dust, a creature composed of clay, of no better mould than others, and soon to return “to” the dust from which he was taken.

Yet frail and weak man strives to feel that he is better than those clothed with a skin not colored like his own, or those born in a more humble condition of life; and, in defiance of all the laws of God and all the rights of his fellow-men, he crushes and grinds them to the earth.

For such sins God will interpose, and He will yet show Himself to be the helper of the fatherless and the oppressed. May He hasten the day when oppression and wrong cease in the world!