Charles Ellicott 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)

Oppressed. —See Psalms 9:9. “God’s choice acquaintances are humble men.”—Leighton.

That the man. —Literally, that may not continue to terrify (or defy) mere man from the earth, which may mean that mere mortals may have to confess their weakness in comparison with God.

But Psalms 9:20, where the same word is used, indicates that it is here used in a contemptuous sense of the “heathen.” “That the nations from the earth (i.e., spread over the earth) may know themselves to be but men, and no longer defy Israel and Israel’s God.”