He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten
Meaning either his own sins, because they are not immediately punished; wherefore he hopes to go on for ever with impunity, but will be mistaken, for God will remember the iniquities of Babylon, and render to her double, ( Revelation 18:5 Revelation 18:6 ) ; see ( Amos 7:17 ) ; or else the poor ones he oppresses; for though they seem for a while to be forgotten by God, they are not, a book of remembrance is written for them;
he hideth his face;
that is, from his poor saints, which is true oftentimes; but then the use the wicked one makes of it is bad, namely, to insult them on that account, and to imagine that it is grateful to God, and doing him good service, to afflict and persecute them; and that God will never regard them, nor return to them more, as follows;
he will never see [it];
or them; he will never more look upon the poor, he will no more regard them, and take notice of them and their afflictions; than which nothing is more false; for though he hides his face for a moment, yet with everlasting kindness will he gather them to himself; and he beholds all their oppressions and afflictions, and not as a bare spectator; he sympathizes with them, and delivers them out of them. Or "he will never" the wickedness committed by the wicked; which is a very foolish thought, since what is done in the dark, and in the most secret manner, is seen by God, the darkness and the light are alike to him; he is all-seeing and ever-seeing, and everywhere seeing; and he it is that has made the eye, and shall not he see? ( Psalms 94:5-9 ) ; the sense of the whole in general is, that God takes no notice of good men or bad men, nor of what is done by either of them; he does not concern himself with the affairs of this world, which is an impious denial of divine Providence; see ( Ezekiel 9:9 ) ( Zephaniah 1:12 ) .