Psalm 10--Why Do You Hide Yourself?

Psalm 10
English Standard Version

Why Do You Hide Yourself?
10 Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
    let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
    and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD
4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
    all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
5 His ways prosper at all times;
    your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
    as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
    throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
    under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
8 He sits in ambush in the villages;
    in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9     he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor;
    he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,
    and fall by his might.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
    he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand;
    forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
    and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
    that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
    you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
    call his wickedness to account till you find none.

16 The LORD is king forever and ever;
    the nations perish from his land.
17 O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
    you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
    so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

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This is going to be one of those times where David tells God how he feels, but does not let his feelings dictate what is true.  We could learn something from that in our culture today where the greatest truth seems to be ones feelings and perceptions of their personal experiences (their "story" or "narrative").

We'll see as we look at this psalm that there is a movement from focusing on the wicked ones that David wants to have punished to focusing on the the LORD and crying out to Him to fix the problems (though David is still crying out for the LORD to fix things the way that David wants them fixed and in David's time) to finally submitting to the fact that God will take care of the issues in His way and in His time and that we can trust that He will not let the wicked go unpunished.  This is pretty consistent for these types of Psalms as there is a change in focus from inside myself and my feelings to outside myself and the world that I see to finally looking at the one who is ruler over not only all that I see, but all that I feel, and even my feelings must come into submission about the truth of who He is and what He is doing.

​David correctly identifies the wicked as boastful and arrogant.  They believe that they somehow have won against God or that they somehow will escape His judgment.  Even in the end of days when they know the wrath of the Lamb who sits on the throne is being poured out on them, they will imagine that death will be an escape for them.  They are greedy and selfish and curse the LORD with their mouths and with their actions.

They are proud and they deny the very existence of God whom they curse (isn't that ironic?).They are defiant and stubborn and they imagine themselves to be invincible as they thumb their nose at God and dare Him to do something about their rebellion.  He is proud of the accomplishments that He thinks belong to him, not understanding that the LORD is the one that provides all good things, causing it to rain on both the just and the unjust.  We have nothing that does not first come from the LORD.  He surrounds himself with foolish friends who are likeminded and puff him up with the words that he wants to hear--his words coming out of their mouths.  We will see much about this that describes "the fool" from the book of Proverbs soon.

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression because these are his native tongue, just like it is for his "father" the devil.  His intent and motives (what is under his tongue) is mischief and iniquity (intentional, volitional sin of rebellion).  There is a progression here as he is not satisfied to simply attack men with his words, but he seeks to lay a trap for those in the villages (probably to indicate some kind of kidnapping or human trafficking) and this even escalates to murder of innocents as he desires to take advantage of the helpless.  Again, he is like his father the devil who was a liar and a murder from the beginning.  (See John 8:44 and Revelation 21:8 as all those who have their identity in wickedness will receive the same judgment as the devil and his angels as that man has taken on that identity for himself).

Such an evil man stalks his prey in the same way that a lion does, seeking to take advantage of the poor and needy.  He catches them in his snare and the LORD allows such a man to let the helpless be crushed so that they sink down under his might.  The arrogant, wicked man imagines that God has forgotten about the poor and needy or has turned a bind eye to them or that God will not take vengeance for the innocent.  The wicked man imagines he has escaped God's justice or judgment, or that this is somehow proof that God doesn't exist and that "might makes right" and that he is a god unto himself because if God were stronger than him, certainly God would be good enough and strong enough to put an end to him.  This forgets though that God is merciful and gracious and wants all to come to repentance, and even though God is all-powerful and all-knowing, God also allows those who are going to fall under condemnation to behave in such a way that when the time for judgment comes, no man, woman, or child will question that suck a wicked person is deserving of the eternal condemnation that falls upon them, because they have lived a life in open rebellion to God and taking advantage of those made in the image of God.

David cries out to God to see what is going on and to do something about it.  David is not content to have God's ultimate justice served some day in the Day of the LORD, but he wants God's justice here and now.  Let the wicked be punished so that people will know that the LORD, He is God and we are to serve and obey Him in the fear of the LORD.

David knows that God sees everything and is keeping an accurate account of what is going on, but he is perplexed about why God doesn't seem to be lifting a finger to do anything about it.  Those who are poor and helpless have no one else to turn to other than the LORD--the same LORD who David has identified as the Shield and Defender of those who were weak, powerless, defenseless, and innocent.  There seems to be a disconnect here if the LORD is not standing up for them and defending them.  When is God going to defend them and their Shield and Defender like David knows He is?  When is God going to be the Avenger that David knows He is and break the arm of the wicked one to show that wicked man that he has no power and that he needs to stop abusing the power he's been given.  David wants God to judge all the wicked people until there are no more wicked people left to judge.  I'm taking it that David is saying this before his encounter with Bathsheba as the Psalms are not written in any kind of chronological order by more grouped by "theme."  We'll see when we get to some other psalms later that David realizes he is caught up in the group of those who are wicked and have committed iniquity and if God answered his prayer to kill all the wicked people, he would be the first that needed to die.  Paul identifies himself as the "chief of sinners," probably due to who he was before he was saved.  Aren't you glad that God doesn't always give us what we ask for?

David then recognizes that no matter how bad it looks that the LORD is still the King of Heaven and Earth and all nations are subject to Him whether they want to admit it and live like it or not.  There will be no other kingdom that will survive other than the kingdom of the LORD.  David is still certain that the LORD is who He is and that He definitely hears the cries of these innocent victims and that He will avenge them and that He is taking account of all the evil deeds of the wicked and that He will repay.  He will get justice for the oppressed and those who were made orphans (the fatherless) because of these deeds of evil men.  He will bring an end to the reign of terror of such evil and wicked men and every knee will bow before Him.