PSALM 10 Whereas psalm 9 started out with praise, Psalm 10 begins in despair. This Lament psalm may have been written by David. Kidner calls this psalm “The Predator and the Prey.” Wickedness and violence are rampant and the righteous are oppressed. The psalmist is grieved and distressed at the rampant wickedness that was bringing so much misery and sorrow to the poor and oppressed. His purpose is to call God’s attention to the shameful conduct of lawless men whose behavior cried out to God for vengeance.
1 Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.
3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.
4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous; your laws are rejected by him; he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.” He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”
7 His mouth is full of lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue.
8 He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
9 like a lion in cover he lies in wait. He lies in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
10 His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall under his strength.
11 He says to himself, “God will never notice; he covers his face and never sees.”
12 Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.Do not forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, “He won’t call me to account”?
14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand. The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out.
16 The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.
SECTIONS:
I From His World of Hostility, Discouragement (10:1-11);
II From His World of Hope, Encouragement (10:12-18).
or
I Questions God’s apparent lack of action
I The character of the enemy
II Cries for justice-The appeal to God to set things right
THEME: Lament at the seeming prosperity of the wicked and oppression of the helpless, but ultimate confidence in the judgments of God.
QUESTIONS:
List all the questions David asks in this psalm.
What are all the things David accuses the wicked of doing? Have you ever had any of these things done to you?
What things do you see happening in today’s world that are just like David describes?
Have you ever found yourself doing anything the wicked are accused of doing?
What do the wicked say?
What does David say about God and what God does?
Why do you think God sometimes doens’t intervene immediately?
ADDITIONAL VERSES:
Prov. 1:19 (Barean)But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives. Such is the fate of all who are greedy, whose unjust gain takes the lives of its possessors.
Isaiah 57:17 I was enraged by his sinful greed, so I struck him and hid My face in anger; yet he kept turning back to the desires of his heart.
Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath. For it is written, “Vengeance belongs to me. I will pay them back, declares the Lord.”
Romans 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Carefully consider what is right in the eyes of everybody.
Hebrews 10:30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”
Luke 6:27-29 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Barenes Commentary (my summary).
The character of the enemy is clearly seen and are outlined. God seems to be indifferent to the sorrow and afflictions of the oppressed. How could God appear so unconcerned? How often have we asked this same question about what is happening in our world? Nothing bad is happening to the wicked to deter their behavior. They seem to be living a life of ease and boast about it and see themselves as superior. The wicked don’t want to seek or to answer to God because of pride. It makes them unwilling to confess and admit to sin. Pride is the root of all atheism. They are reluctant to seek God. They actually curse and blaspheme God and make fun of those who do believe. They refuse to be humble before a mighty God or acknowledge that they are his creation. They don’t think about his wrath or dread it, though one day they will certainly face it.
I can see myself in David’s cry to the Lord. Can you? Sometimes we feel that God is so far away from us and that He is hiding from us. But this is only how it feels because God is always near to His children, and He knows the pain we’re going through. Many times, what we call a problem, is really the Lord teaching us. Trials must come to make us strong. Thank God that He cares enough to let us learn in our trials. God’s withdrawing grieves his people, especially in times of trouble. We stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and then complain that God stands afar off from us.
All things pertaining to God and His holy ways are trying to be struck down by our worldly courts today. Our atheistic society doesn’t recognize God at all. They don’t feel that godly teachings are in order, because they don’t believe in God nor in his day of judgment. What a rude awakening they’re in for! God fights the battles of the fatherless and the helpless. In the book of Revelation, we find God has an all-seeing eye and will take vengeance on those who oppress those who cannot help themselves. David asks for God to hurry up and bring judgement on these evil ones. But God judges when He’s ready, not when we want Him to.
A subtle form of pride is being more concerned with self rather than with others. For example: Have you thought only your way was the “best” way? Do you think people should be more concerned about you? Do you get hurt when people don’t do things the way you expect them to? Another interesting aspect of pride that we may not have considered is when our thoughts aren’t focused on God, but rather are focused upon so much else that we have no room for God. Have you ever been too busy to take time out for God?
Jesus told a parable about the soils. The thorny soil is when people hear the Word of God but the cares of this world and the desire for riches choke it out. How often do we look at the ungodly and desire the riches that they enjoy? One reason they have riches is because that is their life’s focus and pursuit. Children are left in daycare and spouses work unreasonable hours for more money. They may have more things, but is our purpose for existence to accumulate wealth and possessions? These things have no true value. Things that have meaning in life are often neglected. God is cast aside in the pursuit of riches. Families are neglected in effort to attain more.
“I’ll always be happy and never have trouble.” How foolish for the arrogant to believe this. Yet how often do we have the same false belief in our minds? Too often we think that God should always work things out for life to go smooth and happy. We have false expectations of never having any trouble happen to us. Yet God never promised that Christians would not endure troubles. If fact, just the opposite can happen. Paul said that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. But God did make this promise: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in Him.” (Nahum 1:7). God says that He’ll be there to help us in our times of distress The ungodly believe that the accumulation of possessions will insulate them from trouble. They believe if they could just have a little more, then they will be secure and trouble-free. But this is a false sense of security, for God is the only a refuge. And he is there for those who trust in Him.
We know that we shouldn’t have lies, curses, and evil under our tongues. But have you used your tongue to cause trouble? It’s hard to admit that many of us have used our tongues to stir up strife and create problems. But this is the characteristic of the ungodly and not the righteous. “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless“(James 1:26). I’m amazed at the trouble that Christians can stir up with their tongues. Rumors and gossip are not good to get involved in. As followers of Christ, we must watch our tongues.
Remember that we have the right to go before God and request action. Instead of grumbling or turning away from God, we need to turn to God with all our heart and tell Him what we feel and desire. Many times we get frustrated with the ungodly. But we forget to tell God about it and ask for his intervention. In times of trouble turn to God first. This is important and shows where our faith lies.
studylight.org (about atheist)
Atheist at their hearts are deceived, proud, and foolish (Psalms 14:1; 53:1).They believe the lie that atheism means you have superior knowledge. Some atheists acknowledge that there must be a God, but think of him merely as some kind of impersonal law, or force behind creation. Delitzsch wrote, “But to deny the existence of a living, acting, all-punishing, in one word, a personal God, is equivalent to denying the existence of any real and true God whatever.” Atheism is not the lack of learning,intelligence, information, or of any thought process whatever, but a product of wickedness. “Here is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19 KJV).
explaining the book.com (about how psalms are written as poetry, focusing on psalm 10)
It sounds almost like the psalmist is accusing God. How patient the Lord is to his small, needy creatures. He mercifully bears with his people when things happen in life that lead us to wonder if God is even listening. But we find a complete turn around of David’s thoughts in this psalm. It starts with David wondering why God seems to be hiding himself and it ends with his praise. Lament psalms are ultimately the psalmist working toward mastering some crisis in his life. Psalm 10 goes from perplexity at God’s felt absence … to praise for God helping David through his crisis.
Wicked, powerful men are oppressing and persecuting the poor, needy, and innocent people. These men have absolutely no fear of God. They oppress the poor and get away with it. And because they keep getting away with their injustices, they believe that God isn’t aware of it. They’re convinced that God won’t punish them for their evil. Meanwhile, David looks on in bewilderment. He knows that God is just. And yet God is allowing this injustice to continue. Why isn’t he responding? Why isn’t he judging the wicked and delivering the innocent?
In studying this psalm (and psalms in general), 1) we find the underlying situation 2)We try to summarize it. Is there a single word that summarizes the realities expressed by the psalmist? We call this the psalm’s “topic.” So, what is David musing on in this psalm? I would say it’s “oppression.” And you can test this by relating the topic to each of the five elements of the structure of this psalm.So, in the lament a) David mulls over the oppression that he’s seeing. b) His petition is for God to end the oppression c) His confidence is that God will end it. d) The invocation at the beginning expresses his grave concern at what he perceived to be God’s initial reticence to end the oppression e) And the praise at the end of the psalm actually ends with these words – “that the man of the earth may no more[what?…] oppress.” Do you see how this topic of oppression relates to each of the five structural elements? So, that’s the topic of Psalm 10.
3- Next, we consider the theme of the psalm. The theme is what the psalmist says about the topic of the psalm. And the topic is “oppression.” David says the wicked practice oppression without fear. The innocent are the unhappy recipients of it. And ultimately God will end it. We could say that the theme is: God will end the oppression of the wicked against the innocent. Or – to be more terse – God Will End Oppression. This is the genre of this psalm. We’ve delineated its structure. We’ve dug intothe reason why it was written – the psalm’s underlying situation. And we’ve found the psalm’s topic and theme.
Let’s look for poetic devices used in the Psalms and in particular Psalm 10.
metaphor-A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an action or an object in a way that isn’t literally true but helps explain an idea or make a comparison. It states one thing is another thing-not because they are the same but for the sake of comparison. Ie: Her heart is gold. You are my guardian angel.
Similie-a figure of speech that makes a comparison showing similarities between two different things. Unlike a metaphor, a similie draws a resemblance with words “like” or “as.” It’s a direct comparison. Ie: The student was as quiet as a mouse. Using above example a metaphor would say Her heart is gold but a similie would say Her heart is like gold
Anthropomorphism is also pretty common. That’s where the psalmist attributes human qualities to God.
Parallelism-It connects opposing ideas. ie: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness etc from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
Hyperbole- an exaggeration or overstatement used to emphasize a point. ie: I’m so hungry I could eat a horse. It’s raining cats and dogs
In Psalm 10:1 – David asks God why he stands at a distance. Does God physically stand? God has no physical form: he’s a spirit. This is anthropomorphism. Later in the verse – does God really hide himself? Is there a rock that’s big enough for him to hide? No. It’s not meant to be taken literally. But that doesn’t mean that what’s being said isn’t true. What are these pictures communicating? Imagine that there’s some sort of trouble. You need help. This person ought to draw near and help. But instead he’s actually hiding himself from you.What kind of emotions does that elicit from you? Fear? Helplessness? Frustration? Anger? These are the emotions David is trying to communicate. He’s afraid. He feels helpless, forsaken. “Why is God not answering?” Where is he? Why won’t he come to my aid?
One unmistakable feature of Hebrew poetry is parallelism. There are two lines in Psalm 10:1. And in this case they both basically communicate the same point. So, we’d call that synonymous parallelism. Standing afar off and hiding oneself are two ways of saying the same thing. Why did the Hebrew poet use parallelism? It forces you to stop and meditate on what he’s saying. Since the Scripture places some level of importance on meditation, it makes sense that the authors use repetition to slow you down and make you stop and really think about what he’s saying.
In Psalm 10:2 we have another form of parallelism. Only this time it’s not synonymous. The two lines aren’t communicating the same idea. In this case, the second line is simply adding more information to the first. But other than that, Psalm 10:2 seems to be pretty literal. The wicked really do persecute the poor. Whenever we talk about the depravity of man, we need to explain that even though man is totally depraved, that doesn’t mean he can’t do any good. Wicked men go to work and provide for their family. They pay taxes. When they’re walking down the road and a dog passes by, they don’t always kick the dog.
My point is that the wicked are not always grievous. And yet, that doesn’t nullify the truth of the psalm. The lament section of the psalm is often exaggerated because it’s not necessarily conveying literal physical facts. It’s to communicate emotional truth to us. He wants us to feel how evil the wicked truly are. He’s not lying to us. He wants us to feel the very grave evil that these men embody. And so he sometimes will use hyperbole – emotional truth – that if it were taken as literal facts would not be true.
Read Psalm 10:11. Someone is saying something. Who is it this time? Some think the wicked. But maybe it could be a reference back to the poor in Psalm 10:10. The poor are now saying “God’s not paying attention to this evil. He’s hiding. He won’t see.” When wicked men are allowed to have their way this is what happens – the wicked themselves feel like they’re literally getting away with murder. And the oppressed ones feel like God doesn’t care. In both cases, both parties forget that God is always watching – the one who has eyes that go to and fro throughout the earth beholding the evil and the good.” The Lord has seen. He will pay back the wicked and take vengeance for the most vulnerable in society who are being mistreated. It’s not only the poor and fatherless that receive God’s help. But they represent the most vulnerable and helpless in society. And these are who the Lord helps.
Psalm 10:15 – the psalmist asks the Lord to break people’s arm. What is he communicating? The arm is a symbol of strength. He’s asking God to undo the strength that the wicked use to oppress the innocent.
That is a rather disturbing list, but we must say, an accurate description of the wicked. What’s even more disturbing is the fact that many of those who demonstrate these traits in our day are popular-great athletes, movie stars, singers, and the list goes on. Many of these are people our children “worship” every day! So, what should be our response? How can we protect our children from the wicked who thrive everywhere our children go?
Teach your children the truths of God’s Word. Pray for the wicked, for such were we before God shone His light of salvation upon us. Often we’re quick to condemn people as though there is no possibility of change. Remember, the Apostle Paul murdered Christians before the Lord reached down and saved him! We must examine our own hearts and honestly compare our hearts to God’s Word, not to those around us. How do we look when we compare ourselves to God?
My reflections on Psalm 10: When I first started to memorize psalms I chose a part of this Psalm but my focus was not on verses about what the wicked did. My thought was of the oppressed. We have done prayer ministry for almost 15 years with those who have been broken and tormented in life. Some experienced terrible abuse and some never felt loved by their parents. At the heart of their despair was the basic question “Where was God?” Where was God when I was being abused at the hands of my parent? When I was raped? When I was abandoned? When children were making fun of me?
And when we pray with them asking Jesus to minister to them, he comes with his truth and love. Sometimes they can picture him or they get a revelation or insight. Many can hear him say in their spirit that when they felt alone and abandoned they were not. He tells them that he was there next to him. He saw what happened. He cried with them. His heart was broken too.
God always shows up in one way or another to these poor hurting people when they seek him in prayer. They eventually realize that he was and has always been with them. He gave them the strength to go on so that they didn’t take their life when they were tempted to. They were able to go on with life in the midst of their great pain.Some found love, married and had children. Others went on to minister to others.
So my focus in this psalm was on the words “the victim commits himself to you. You are a helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evil man. Call him to account for his wickedness.” Yes I wanted God to work justice for all those who committed violent acts of abuse for rape victims and for those who were beaten and unloved by the ones who were supposed to love and protect them but didn’t. I could understand the cry for justice. Today Christians are killed because of their belief in Jesus. Women are trafficked, Little boys are kidnapped and turned into soldiers who kill. There’s so much evil and injustice and my heart cries out “Break the arm of the wicked!” Yet I also memorized the second half to the story-the most important. Oh Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man, who is of the earth, may terrify them no more.”
When we pray for people, Jesus always comforts them. He hears them and encourages them with his words. He lets them know they are protected. We may not be protected from the physical things that happen to us in life. That is part of living in this sadly fallen world. We’re not in heaven yet. But our souls that connect us to God are HIS. The evil one cannot have them. John 10:28 says “And I give them eternal life, and they will never, ever [by any means] perish; and no one will ever snatch them out of My hand.” That’s what I take out of this psalm and how it has blessed me.
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