The first portion of this psalm describes the condition of the world immediately preceding the judgment of the living nations. It will be evident that the government of the earth in man’s hands has entirely failed. The sons of men no longer speak nor act righteously.

As in the days that preceded the judgment of the flood, men were corrupt and filled with violence in their ways (Gen. 6:11); so, before the judgment falls upon the present world, it will again be manifest that their hearts are utterly corrupt and their hands filled with violence. It will be seen that men are estranged from God not only by nature, but also by their habitual practices—speaking lies, and spreading the poison of error. Moreover they are deaf to every appeal of grace, however attractively and wisely that grace is presented. Thus the sons of men seal their doom and prove themselves ripe for judgment.

The psalm closes by expressing the joy of the righteous (the Jewish remnant) as they behold the judgment of the wicked (vv. 10–11). The righteous will wash their feet in the blood of the wicked. They reach their blessing through the judgment of their enemies. It will then become manifest that the righteous have their reward, and that there is a “God who judges in the earth.”

The Christian, blessed with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies, looks for deliverance from suffering and evil by being taken out of the scene of evil to be with the Lord; therefore, he does not look for the judgment of his enemies. The godly Jew in the Tribulation, whose blessing is on earth, is divinely instructed that the time of blessing for the earth can only be reached through the judgment of evil; therefore, he rightly looks for the judgment of his enemies.