to crumble · conjunction + verb, piel, 3rd person masculine singular
oppressor
עוֹשֵֽׁקo.Shek
H6231
to press upon · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 11:4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod…
Ezekiel 34:15-16 I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
Psalms 109:31 For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.
Zechariah 9:8-10 And I will encamp about mine house because of the army, because of him that passeth by, and because of him that returneth: and no oppressor…
Job 34:24 He shall break in pieces mighty men without number, and set others in their stead.
Psalms 2:9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.
Psalms 72:12-14 For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.
Psalms 94:5 They break in pieces thy people, O LORD, and afflict thine heritage.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
John Gill on Psalms 72:4
He shall judge the poor of the people,.... Of the people of God, whether among Jews or Gentiles; See Gill on Psalm 72:2;
he shall save the children of the needy; whose parents being needy, they are so too, in a spiritual sense, and in distressed circumstances. Such Christ saves from their sins; from the curses and condemnation of the law: from, wrath to come, and out of the hands of all their enemies;
and shall break in pieces the oppressor; the tyrant Satan, the god of this world; that has usurped a power over it; who works in the children of disobedience, and leads captive the people of God in their unregenerate state: the "calumniator", as some render the word; the accuser of the brethr…
Psalm 72:1-6
1. O God! give thy judgments to the king, and thy righteousness to the king's son. 2. He shall judge thy people in righteousness, and thy poor ones in judgment. 3. The mountains shall bring forth peace to the people, and the hills in righteousness. [121] 4. He shall judge the poor of the people; he shall save the children of the afflicted; and shall break in pieces the calumniator. 5. They shall fear thee with the sun; and generation of generations shall fear thee [122] in the presence of the moon. 6. He shall descend as rain upon the mown grass; as the showers [123] which water the earth.
1. O God! give thy judgments to the king. [124] While David, to whom the promise had bee…
The name of God, occurring only once, is Elohim; and this is sufficient to stamp the Psalm as an Elohimic Psalm. מלך (cf. Psa 21:2) and בּן־מלך are only used without the article according to a poetical usage of the language. The petition itself, and even the position of the words, show that the king's son is present, and that he is king; God is implored to bestow upon him His משׁפּטים, i.e., the rights or legal powers belonging to Him, the God of Israel, and צדקה, i.e., the official gift in order that he may exercise those rights in accordance with divine righteousness. After the supplicatory teen the futures which now follow, without the Waw apodoseos, are manifestly optatives. Mountains an…
The Church Fathers
"He shall judge the poor of the people, and shall save the sons of the poor" [Psalm 72:4]. The poor and the sons of the poor seem to me to be the very same, as the same city is Sion and the daughter of Sion. But if it is to be understood with a distinction, the poor we take to be the mountains, but the sons of the poor the hills: for instance, Prophets and Apostles, the poor, but the sons of them, that is, those that profit under their authority, the sons of the poor. But that which hath been said above, "shall judge;" and afterwards, "shall save;" is as it were a sort of exposition in what manner He shall judge. For to this end He shall judge, that He may save, that is, may sever from those that are to be destroyed and condemned, those to whom He giveth "salvation ready to be revealed at the" last time. For by such men to Him is said, "Destroy not with ungodly men my soul:" and, "Judge Thou me, O God, and sever my cause from the nation unholy." We must observe also that he saith not, He shall judge the poor people, but, "the poor of the people." For above when he had said, "to judge Thy people in justice and Thy poor in judgment," the same he called the people of God as His poor, that is, only the good and those that belong to the right hand side. But because in this world those for the right and those for the left feed together, who, like lambs and goats at the last are to be put asunder; the whole, as it is mingled together, he hath called by the name of the People. And because even here he putteth judgment in a good sense, that is, for the purpose of saving: therefore he saith, "He shall judge the poor of the people," that is, shall sever for salvation those that are poor among the people. "And He shall humble the false-accuser." No false-accuser can be more suitably recognised here than the devil. False accusation in his business. "Doth Job worship God gratis?" But the Lord Jesus doth humble him, by His grace aiding His own, in order that they may worship God gratis, that is, may take delight in the Lord. He humbled him also thus; because when in Him the devil, that is, the prince of this world, had found nothing, he slew Him by the false accusations of the Jews, whom the false-accuser made use of as his vessels, working in the sons of unbelief...
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Psalms, Book Of — The present Hebrew name of the book is Tehill’im, “Praises;” but in the actual superscriptions of the psalms the word Tehillah is applied only to one, (Psalms 145:1) ... which is indeed emphatically…
Gentiles · PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF — PROPHECIES OF THE CONVERSION OF
Judge · Kings and other rulers as — Kings and other rulers as
King · Acts as — Acts as
Oppression · God’s help promised against — God’s help promised against
Rulers · CHARACTER AND QUALIFI — CHARACTER AND QUALIFI
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
A just ruler will defend the poor against injustice, rescue them from violence, and bring their oppressors to account for their wrongdoing.
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 72:4
He shall judge the poor of the people, he shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the oppressor.
He shall judge the poor of the people. He will do them justice, yea, and blessed be his name, more than justice, for he will delight to do them good. He shall save the children of the needy. Poor, helpless things, they were packhorses for others, and paupers themselves, but their King would be their protector. Happy are God's poor and needy ones; they are safe under the wing of the Prince of Peace, for he will save them from all their enemies. And shall break in pieces the oppressor. He is strong to smite the foes of his people. Oppressors have been great breakers, but th…
