We can never go wrong by reminding ourselves that our Lord sang and prayed the psalms during his earthly ministry. He made them his own. He experienced what David and the other psalmists experienced. Their praise and thanksgiving, both for who God is and what he has done, are his. Their cries for help are his. In every psalm and in every part of each psalm we hear his voice. They are his songs first, and ours only because we are in him. This psalm is, then, his praise for justice received and his cry for grace in affliction, as well as his voice calling on all the rest of God’s oppressed and humble people to join him in trust in and praise of their God.
Second, we should ask what David means in verse 7 when he says, He has prepared his throne for judgment. When we ask that question, then it becomes immediately obvious that we cannot fully understand this psalm without seeing that God has prepared his throne by the incarnation and exaltation of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, made him the judge of all and committed all judgment to him (Jn. 5:22).
Third, verse 13 speaks of God’s condescension to us, his stooping to our help. He has done this in Christ, who was made in the form of a servant and touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Finally, the justice of God in turning back on the wicked the trouble they plan for others is nowhere more clearly evident than in the cross. There the leaders of the Jews, Pontius Pilate and Herod presumed to set themselves up as judges of the Son of God and condemned him. But through their condemnation he perfected his obedience to the Father, obtained righteousness for his own, and condemned them.
The psalm reveals Christ in his suffering especially at the hands of enemies, but also in his glory, especially as judge of the nations.