Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.
Wickedness is first worked inwardly in the heart and then weighed out outwardly as violence done by the hands in the earth, including when those who judge establish injustice by law. The psalm belongs to a prophetic declaration of the punishment that the wicked have merited, not to a personal prayer arising from the psalmist's feelings against them. The roots of others' crimes are present in every heart and can be restrained only through God's mercy and renewing grace, so every reader is warned to watch himself and to seek the Saviour's guidance.
Wickedness is first worked inwardly in the heart and then weighed out outwardly as violence done by the hands in the earth, including when those who judge establish injustice by law. The psalm belongs to a prophetic declaration of the punishment that the wicked have merited, not to a personal prayer arising from the psalmist's feelings against them. The roots of others' crimes are present in every heart and can be restrained only through God's mercy and renewing grace, so every reader is warned to watch himself and to seek the Saviour's guidance.