What does Psalm 10:2 mean?

Throughout human history, there have been evil people who deliberately target the poor, the defenseless, and the weak to take advantage of them. Here, David evokes the feeling of hunting: targeting and running down prey. Not only do evil people target the poor, but they also applaud themselves for doing it.

Pride is common to unregenerate human beings. It is a trait that prompted Lucifer, the Devil, to rebel against God, and it is the trait that causes human beings to follow their own will rather than God's will. Ephesians 2:3 describes believers before they trusted in Christ as Savior as "carrying out the desires of the body and the mind." Isaiah 53:6 points out that "all we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way."

David prays in Psalm 10:2 for the Lord to catch evil schemers in their own tricks (Psalm 37:14–15). He wants God to "turn the tables" on those wicked men. The book of Esther discloses wicked Haman's scheming against righteous Mordecai. He even planned to hang Mordecai, but his scheme backfired, and he was hanged on the gallows he had built for Mordecai (Esther 7).