Psalms 10:1-18 KJV Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why
hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
[2] The wicked in his pride doth persecute
the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. [3] For the wicked boasteth of his heart's
desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. [4] The wicked, through the pride of his
countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his
thoughts. [5] His ways are always
grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for
all his enemies, he puffeth at them. [6]
He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall
never be in adversity. [7]
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is
mischief and vanity. [8]
He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places
doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor. [9] He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his
den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he
draweth him into his net. [10]
He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his
strong ones. [11] He hath said in his
heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it. [12] Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand:
forget not the humble. [13]
Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou
wilt not require it. [14]
Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to
requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou
art the helper of the fatherless. [15]
Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his
wickedness till thou find none. [16]
The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out
of his land. [17] LORD, thou hast heard
the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine
ear to hear: [18] To judge the fatherless
and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
I.
INTRODUCTION—THE
MATTER OF INJUSTICE
-When Paul made mention of something that we may have
overlooked in our rapid, hurried, and sometimes desperate look at the
Scriptures. But if Paul had the stature
of one of the greatest saints and preachers who has ever lived, I think that
what he may have spoken should warrant our attention.
Romans 8:22-23 KJV For we know that the whole creation groaneth
and travaileth in pain together until now.
[23] And not only they, but ourselves also,
which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of
our body.
2 Corinthians 5:1-4 KJV For we know that if our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
[2] For in this we groan, earnestly desiring
to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven: [3] If so be that being clothed we shall not be
found naked. [4] For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but
clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
-There are things that good saints of God come in contact
with on this earth that creates a sense of groaning and the pressure that comes
from life. Obviously there are some
matters that are more difficult to bear than others but one of those matters we
often groan about is that of justice.
-We desire justice, we seek justice, and we want justice,
and I believe that this is one of the matters of the Christian life. Once we receive the Spirit, there is an
innate sense of justice that comes to us.
Because we are partakers of the divine nature (Heb. 3:1; 2 Peter 1:4) we
gain a very small portion of the feeling that comes with one of God’s
attributes.
-One of God’s attributes is justice. Therefore when we are Spirit-filled there are
moments where we feel this sense of God’s presence about us that deals with God’s
sense of justice. When we see it not
being fulfilled there is a longing that prevails in the heart of a saint.
-To stir your heart toward justice, all that we have to
do is simply to open our eyes to those around us:
·
The man who is laid
off with about two years left until retirement and now is left with nothing.
·
The person who has
to endure the criticism of those who don’t know all the details of the story.
·
The young man or
young woman who is dropped by someone they are dating because they refuse to
understand a commitment to purity and godliness.
·
The person who is
committed to holiness and lives a life that exalts God but never seems to catch
the breaks.
·
The person who is
divorced and it seems as if everything their ex touches turns into gold despite
them knowing so much more about their character than anyone.
·
The children who
seem to be trapped in conditions of poverty with no way out and parents that
neglect them because of sinful pursuits.
·
Public humiliation
and private pain of the righteous.
-All of us come into contact with that kind of activity and
if you have a heart for God, it can cause you to have feelings in your heart
that sometimes aren’t the most productive in the world.
-How do we react to that kind of thing? Here is another reason that I am profoundly
grateful for the Word of the Lord because it moves us into a place of properly
responding as we should.
II.
PSALM
10—A PRAYER FOR JUSTICE AGAINST THE WICKED
-This psalm is closely connected to the previous
one. In fact, the absence of a
superscription before Psalm 10 leads many biblical scholars to think that there
perhaps should not be a chapter break between the two.
-Psalm 9 is a psalm of praise and Psalm 10 is a psalm of
prayer. If ever I needed to understand
this in my walk with the Lord it is now.
I cannot ever separate the two of them in my life. Praise is closely connected with my prayer
and prayer is closely connected to my praise.
-We will further see that Psalm 9 deals with the enemy
that is outside of Israel and Psalm 10 deals with the enemy that is inside of
Israel.
-Psalm 10 is a lengthy lamentation that falls into the
category of one of the lament psalms.
Sometimes we have a tendency to feel guilty about the focus of our
prayer on ourselves. Psalm 10 ought to
be such an experience that removes the guilt that you may feel over praying for
yourself. Obviously our prayer does not
need to be always focused on us but there are many times that you should and must pray for yourself.
-Psalm 10 is about people who say they believe in God but
do not live in a manner that would exalt God.
It is a sense of practical atheism at work. In my own walk with the Lord, I do not want
this to be one of my characteristics; to say I believe in God but do not live
like I believe in God.
A.
Psalm
10:1—An Alarming Question
Psalms 10:1 KJV Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why
hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
-This is an alarming question that David asks. He can see the injustice of the wicked
triumphing (at least for now). The
success of sin and the wicked brought discouragement to David.
-You cannot but help to have this ominous feeling about
America even now as you see sin being exalted in every market square and public
arena in America. Increasingly those who
are righteous are finding more and more that they are out of step with the direction
and tone of this climate in America.
-Even the most lukewarm and uncommitted church attenders
are finding that they are being out-foxed by this momentum that is taking
place. . . Why do You stand afar off,
Lord? Why are You hiding Yourself in the
times when we need You the most?
-That is the feeling that David is pouring out to God in
his prayer. To make it even more
challenging, it almost feels as if God is indifferent to all of it.
Charles Spurgeon—To
the tearful eye of the sufferer the Lord seemed to stand still, as if he calmly looked on, and did not sympathize with
his afflicted one. The Lord appeared to
be afar off, no longer “a very present
help in trouble,” but an inaccessible mountain, into which no man would be able
to climb.
-It is not so much the trouble that seems to be the issue
as it is the distance by which the Lord seems to be separated from the godly. Yet we all know that no matter what comes in
our direction, the Lord is there!
B.
Psalm
10:3-4, 11—The Action of the Wicked against God
Psalms 10:3-4 KJV For the wicked boasteth of his heart's
desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. [4] The wicked, through the pride of his
countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
Psalms 10:11 KJV He hath said in his heart, God hath
forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
-That alarming question that David raises now is followed
by his description of the wicked actions against God. Look at how they are operating against God:
·
He brags on his sin
that was the desire of his heart.
·
He exalts the man
who gains money by dishonest means (“blesseth the covetous”).
·
He refuses to seek
God.
·
He never even thinks
of having God in his thoughts (Paul goes after this in Romans 1 and 3).
-What motivates all of this? The connection is actually in verse 2 where
it addresses the matter of pride.
-All of that should motivate us as men and women in our
service to the Lord to do everything we can to oppose pride and the treacherous
place that it puts us into. Pride makes
us silly boasters and braggarts. But it
is especially contemptible when it comes to bragging sinners.
-It is part of the routine for sinners to glorify
themselves. But what is even more
alarming is how that those who practice sin on a regular basis have a wrong
understanding of the deeds of other sinners and also of God.
-How does this work?
It causes sinners to praise ruthless and greedy men and then he will
curse God:
·
God is blasphemed.
·
God is not sought
for.
·
God is shut out of
all of his thoughts.
·
They suppress the truth
in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18-21).
(Key is v. 18, “who hold the truth in unrighteousness.”)
-At the root of this is pride. . . It is ever so hard to
get a proud man to bend his knee in a place of prayer. It is ever so hard for a proud man to have a
broken and contrite spirit and yet these are two areas that moves us toward
God. . . Prayer and brokenness. . .
Thomas Manton—Pride
gave us the first merit of death, and
envy the first instance of it; the
one was the mother, the other the midwife of human ruin. Adam was a sinner, but Cain a murderer; there
envy tasted blood, and ever since it is glutted with it.
·
Pride withdraws our
heart from God.
·
Pride lifts our
minds up against God and blinds it.
·
Pride revolts
against bearing crosses.
·
Pride disdains the
blessings of God in exchange for the promotions of man.
·
Pride takes God to
court and accuses Him.
·
Pride puts judgment,
discernment and discretion to sleep.
·
Pride pushes us to
pursue carnal achievements and possessions.
-Nebuchadnezzar lost his reason and turned into a beast when
he became proud. The same thing is
repeated on a daily basis in 2014.
-Then David describes how that the pride mixes with covetousness
and causes him to gain money through dishonest means.
-When we skip down to verse 11 and look at the last way
they move against God, we find another troubling thing. He thinks that God is blind or at best
forgetful. If we are honest this can be
a huge problem for a real saint of God because he may wonder where God is in
all of this difficulty of life.
-They say, “God has forgotten!” Sin causes a wrong understanding of the deeds
of other sinners and also of the ways of God.
A sinner will praise ruthless and greedy men from one side of his mouth
and curse God from the other side of it.
-The inner thoughts of the wicked one are exposed in this
very instance in Scripture! What has
taken place outwardly is just an expression of their inward sin and godlessness
(Matt. 5:21-30; Mark 7:20-23).
-The lesson for the saint in this is that we must
carefully cultivate our own soul in such a way that inward godliness directs
the steps of the outward man.
C.
Psalm
10:2, 5-10—The Action of the Wicked against Man
Psalms 10:2 KJV The wicked in his pride doth persecute the
poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
Psalms 10:5-10 KJV His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are
far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. [6] He hath said in his heart, I shall not be
moved: for I shall never be in adversity.
[7] His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and
fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
[8] He sitteth in the lurking places of the
villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are
privily set against the poor. [9] He
lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the
poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net. [10] He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the
poor may fall by his strong ones.
-The characteristics of the wicked are spelled out for
us:
·
Arrogance—vv. 2-4—A
contempt for God and man.
·
Prosperity—v. 5—Rich
and have everything at their hand. They
laugh at holiness, reverence, and spiritual things.
·
Security—v. 6—Their
prosperity seems to help them have a great sense of security.
·
Vile Speech—v. 7—They
have destructive words they use.
·
Violence—v. 8-11—David
uses incredibly descriptive language when he notes their ways of violence. They operate like assassins, like lions, and
like skillful hunters.
-All of these matters that are taking place can be
directly attached to the work of pride in the wicked. Their ways are grievous (KJV). . . Their ways
prosper at all times (ESV). . . This leads to great boasting.
-I would think that you have picked up on this matter as
we have walked through the first nine psalms but I would like to camp out on it
a bit more. The use of the tongue is a
great matter.
Psalms 10:7 KJV His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and
fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
Psalms 10:7 YLT Of oaths his mouth is full, And deceits, and
fraud: Under his tongue is perverseness and iniquity,
-In this one single verse, we find three of the most
destructive uses of the tongue:
·
Cursing—Words that
seek to bring down evil powers on people.
·
Deceit—False testimony
and slander.
·
Fraud—The work of
intimidation; the use of fraudulent words.
-Further it describes the outcome of these three uses of
the tongue:
·
Mischief (Perverseness from Young’s Literal
Translation)
·
Vanity (Iniquity from Young’s Literal Translation)
-C. S. Lewis wrote a commentary on some of the selected
Psalms and he had this to say about the matter of the tongue:
I had half expected that in a simpler more violent age
when more evil was done with the knife, the big stick and the firebrand, less
would be done by talk. But in reality
the psalmists mention hardly any kind of evil more often than this one, which
the most civilized societies share. . . It is all over the Psalter. One almost hears the incessant whispering,
tattling, lying scolding, flattery and circulation of rumors. No historical readjustment are here required,
we are in the world we know.
-May the Lord sanctify our own tongues in such a way that
we are not guilty of this kind of thing!
-In the very next verse, he links up those who use their
tongue for a bad cause with murderers and assassins. He puts them in lurking places. . . secret
places. . . Which is where they lie in wait for the next victim to be swept up
in their mayhem.
-The picture that David paints of them being lions who
are attacking the prey appears in other places in the Psalms:
Psalms 17:12 KJV Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey,
and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
Psalms 37:32 KJV The wicked watcheth the righteous, and
seeketh to slay him.
Psalms 56:6 KJV They gather themselves together, they hide
themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.
Psalms 59:3 KJV For, lo, they lie in wait for my soul: the
mighty are gathered against me; not for my transgression, nor for my sin, O
LORD.
Psalms 64:4-5 KJV That they may shoot in secret at the perfect:
suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not.
[5] They encourage themselves in an evil matter:
they commune of laying snares privily; they say, Who shall see them?
-Snares are laid all about us. Charles Spurgeon in his great work on the Psalms,
The Treasury of David, included these
lines when he was commenting on verse 9:
The close pursuers’ busy
hands do plant
Snares in thy substance;
snares attend thy want;
Snares in thy credit; snares
in thy disgrace;
Snares in thy high estate;
snares in thy base;
Snares tuck thy bed; snares
surround thy board;
Snares watch thy thoughts;
and snares attack thy word;
Snares in thy quiet; snares
in thy commotion;
Snares in thy diet; snares in
thy devotion;
Snares lurk in thy resolves;
snares in thy doubt;
Snares lie within thy heart,
and snares without;
Snares are above thy head,
and snares beneath;
Snares in thy sickness;
snares are in thy death.
-May the Lord keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins!
-The way that the poor and the needy have force used
against them troubles David. (Multiple
references among the prophets about this very thing: Isaiah 1:15-17; 1:21-23; Jer. 7:9; Ezek.
22:2-5.)
-One of the greatest examples of where the wicked
attacked the helpless was in 1 Kings 21 where Naboth lost his vineyard because of
the attack of the evil Jezebel and Ahab.
You cannot help but reading that and having an outright reaction to say
that “this is not right!”
-All through the hallways of history this kind of
activity has been going on and one day, God is going to set all of it right!
D.
Psalm
10:1, 13—The Cry of Anguish from the Godly
Psalms 10:1 KJV Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why
hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
Psalms 10:13 KJV Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he
hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
-There is that great cry of anguish from the godly. We find that when we come to Scripture if we
search out all of the implications that take place due to the anguish in men,
it is one of the vehicles that God uses to work with men.
-David is concerned about this and makes the connection
that when it seems as if the Lord is distant that wicked men seem to
gloat.
-Churches go through seasons just as individual saints
will go through seasons in their walk with the Lord. We should be extremely concerned if the Lord
seems to be distant from our local church and from our individual life.
-Plead with the Lord in this matter when you feel a
distance from Him.
-The word “contemn” in the KJV could also be understood
as spurn, disrespect, renounce, provoke, scorn, blaspheme, or despised God in their
heart.
-There can be a great spiritual weariness that settles in
on believers and those of the redeemed church who can hear the thousands of
voices that are crying out against the holiness and righteousness of God. David was at that exact place!
-The wicked were saying:
·
There will be no
judgment for us!
·
There will be no
hell for us!
·
There will be no
reckoning day for us!
·
We celebrate our
depravity!
·
We curse that little
church!
-However, you must have a clear understanding that this
apostolic church is now 2000 years old.
None of its detractors have managed to kill it yet. It has been through the fire, it has been
through the flood. . . It’s the Church Triumphant!
E.
Psalm
10:12, 15-18—The Prayer Request of the Righteous
Psalms 10:12 KJV Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand:
forget not the humble.
Psalms 10:15-18 KJV Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil
man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none. [16] The LORD is King for ever and ever: the
heathen are perished out of his land. [17] LORD,
thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou
wilt cause thine ear to hear: [18]
To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may
no more oppress.
-David has a response to all of this activity of these
wicked men:
·
v. 12—He asks God to act.
·
v. 14—He reminds himself
that God does see what is taking place.
·
v. 16—He knows that there
will be an eventual judgment.
-In David’s mind, he is thinking about the judgment that
is coming in this life. As we have
tracked through the previous psalms, that has been one of the concerns of
David. He wants his enemies to get what
is coming to them on this earth, in this life.
He wants judgment to come here and never even considers the judgment
that is coming.
-I need to remind you that the greatest judgment is not
what may be meted out down here but after we die:
2 Peter 3:3-7 KJV Knowing this first, that there shall come in
the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, [4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming?
for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the
beginning of the creation. [5]
For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the
heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the
water: [6] Whereby the world that
then was, being overflowed with water, perished: [7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now,
by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of
judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
2 Peter 3:10 KJV But the day of the Lord will come as a thief
in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and
the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that
are therein shall be burned up.
-Rest in this fact that just as certainly as our
salvation rests in the work of the New Birth in us, there is also coming a day
that justice and judgment will be imparted by God to take care of all of
it.
III.
CONCLUSION—A
POWERFUL ILLUSTRATION OF GOD HAVING THE LAST SAY
-God will have the last say in all matters! No matter what end of the spectrum that men
come from, they will ultimately answer to God.
Towards
the end of the nineteenth century there emerged in Europe a man who tried his
best to inflict as much damage on Christianity as he possibly could. His name was Friedrich Nietzsche. He was born in the home of a pastor of which
his mother and father had come from a long line of ministers. His father died when he was a young man. When he was twelve he rejected the religious
upbringing of his parents and blasphemously redefined God. This was the first step in a lifelong revolt
against what his parents and the church had instilled in him.
His
philosophies were radical, violent, and disastrous to himself and to society. He died a lunatic but his teachings lived
beyond the grave and heavily influenced Adolf Hitler. The writings of Nietzsche led to the core
beliefs of the Nazis and their construction of the concentration camps that
killed millions of Jews. His book, The Will to Power, was at the core of
Hitler’s beliefs and Hitler regularly preached what this book promoted. Nietzsche taught that Christianity was the “one
great curse. . . the one immoral blemish of mankind.” He hammered away at the lie of lies: “God is dead!
God is dead! God is dead!” He called for the removal of any moral restraints
and called for the world to be ruled by the anti-Christ. God silently watched all of this man’s scorn
and he judged him by having him locked up in a mental institution to spend the
rest of his days in his mad rantings.
(Adapted from John Phillips Exploring
the Psalms, Volume 1, Psalm 1-88).
-Don’t let the question in Psalm 10:1 prevail in your
mind:
Psalms 10:1 KJV Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why
hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
-Instead, you need to remember Psalm 10:16-18:
Psalms 10:16-18 KJV The LORD is King for ever and ever: the
heathen are perished out of his land. [17]
LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their
heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
[18] To judge the fatherless and the oppressed,
that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
Philip Harrelson
November 9, 2014
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