Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 146:9

"Jehovah preserveth the sojourners; He upholdeth the fatherless and widow; But the way of the wicked he turneth upside down." — Psalms 146:9 (ASV)

The stranger, the widow, and the orphan are constantly presented in the Law as objects of compassion and beneficence. The orphan and widow are mentioned as under God’s care (Psalms 68:5).

Relieves.—Or rather, restores, by taking up their cause and seeing justice done. Certain forms of the verb are used of bearing witness, and possibly here there is an allusion to a court of justice, in which God appears as witnessing on the side of the weak and defenseless.

Turns upside down.—Rather, bends aside. The same word in Psalm 119:78 is rendered dealt perversely. The idea in both cases seems to be that of interference, to thwart and impede a course of action.

In Psalm 119:0, it is an evil-disposed person who interferes with the righteous. Here, it is Divine Providence which, when the wicked man has laid out his plans and looks, as it were, along a plain and level road of prosperity, bends the prosperous course aside. It makes the path crooked instead of straight, full of trouble and calamity instead of prosperous and sure.