תהלים, פרק י׳, פסוק י״ב

Faced with the cruelty of corrupt individuals who believe God neither sees nor intervenes, a powerful plea emerges for active divine protection of the weak. The urgent prayer for God to rise up is a request for Him to step forward with mercy and save the oppressed [מלבי״ם]. Alternatively, it is a call for God to actively withdraw His mercy from those who do evil [אלשיך].

When asking God to lift His hand, the primary approach among commentators is that He is being called upon to reveal His ultimate power and strike down the wicked. This serves as a direct response to the arrogant belief that God ignores human actions. However, another perspective views this gesture through the lens of pure kindness. Rather than asking God to strike the wicked, the plea asks Him to open His hand and directly feed the poor. By sustaining them, God ensures that the vulnerable are no longer forced to rely on the hollow generosity of wealthy, corrupt people [אלשיך].

The desperate cry for God not to forget acts as a direct counterweight to the earlier arrogance of the wicked, who secretly convinced themselves that God had abandoned the world [רד״ק, אבן עזרא]. It is a heartfelt petition for Him to remember the poor and the humble who are trapped in the grip of the wicked and left entirely without comfort [מצודת דוד, מלבי״ם, רד״ק, מנחת שי].