Psalm 10
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SLIDE 1 Turn to Psalm 10. As I mentioned last week, many believe this psalm to be an extension of Psalm 9 and perhaps at one time they were just one psalm. As a result, I’m going to assume that David wrote the psalm.
Have you ever felt frustrated? Really, that’s a stupid question. We’ve all felt frustrated at one time or another.
A small storeowner felt frustrated. He was being pressured to sell his store to the owners of a large department store who had bought every building on the block, except his. The larger store was frustrated by the man’s refusal to sell. Eventually they opened their huge store on either side of the small one, with a big banner running from one side to the other, proclaiming in huge letters, “Grand Opening.” Feeling equally frustrated, the small storeowner did finally outsmart the large department store. Below the grand opening sign, and across the front of his small store, the man put up a small banner over his door: “Main Entrance.”
I guess that’s one creative way to creatively deal with frustration.
Have you ever felt frustrated with God? When things aren’t going right, we often wonder why God lets them happen. We wondered why God would allow men to hijack airplanes that would crash into the World Trade Center. We wonder why God would allow diseases like COVID. Each of us has experienced our tragedies and wonders why God allowed them and wondered where God was. If you’ve ever asked such questions you are not alone. David asks these same questions in Psalm 10. Hopefully this psalm will help us handle our occasional frustration with God.
The first lesson is it is okay to ask, “Why?”
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.” (Psalm 10:1-11)
The psalms are saturated with questions of God. Here’s just a sample.
SLIDE 2 How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? (Psalm 13:1)
SLIDE 3 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? (Psalm 22:1)
SLIDE 4 I say to God my Rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?” (Psalm 42:9)
SLIDE 5 23 Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. 24 Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression? (Psalm 44:23-24)
And the Psalms isn’t the only place we find these kinds of questions. SLIDE 6
Jeremiah asked: Why did you even let me be born?
Moses said: If this is how you’re going to treat me, then just let me die.
Abraham questioned God about the destruction of Sodom: I know you’ve said you’re planning on destroying Sodom, but let me make a bargain with you. How about 50? 40? 30? 10?
Elijah lamented: I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me. Just let me die.
Sometimes it seems as if God is indifferent to wickedness. David wondered that as well and begins by asking why: “Why are you avoiding me? Where are you when I need you? What are you waiting for?” These are the words of frustration about a God that seems to be distant and hidden. And David has good reasons.
For example, David wonders why does arrogance goes unchecked. David’s complaint is about the wicked that think they can pursue the helpless and the poor without any reaction from God. They act as if they have immunity. It is as if they think God is completely absent, so much so that they don’t even bother to hide their sin. So what are their thoughts about God? Nothing but absolute contempt. They ignore the possibility of God and his judgment. They literally snort at their foes in disdain. They strut about, proud that no one can or will stop them. Their speech is hateful and deceitful. They take down those they oppose with no regard to any ethical standard except their own. And they lie to get ahead at the expense of others. Their wickedness is boundless. So David asks where God is when all this is going on. How can such evil continue without penalty?
David describes their character using several metaphors.
They’re like a thief waiting for the right time to come and steal.
They are like a murderer who waits in the dark for their victim.
They are like a lion waiting for the pounce, in order to consume their prey.
They act as if there were no God. David describes their actions.
They are arrogant (2)
They hunt down the weak (2)
They’re controlled by their own evil desires (3)
They bless the greedy (3)
They revile the Lord (3)
They have no room for God in their life (4)
They lead prosperous lives (5)
They sniff at the laws of God (5)
They think things will always go their way (6)
They curse and lie (7)
They ambush the innocent (8)
They look for more victims (9)
They crush the helpless (10)
They think God does not see what they’re doing (11)
If there is no God or if God isn’t watching, why not do as you wish?
In one of the Count of Monte Cristo movies, one of the characters, Edmond Dantes, is unjustly imprisoned. He is accused of conspiracy and a murder that didn’t commit. Dantes is welcomed to prison with a beating by the evil warden. When the warden makes a snide remark about the justice of God, Dantes claims that God is everywhere. To this the warden responds, “I’ll tell you what. You call on God, and if he comes, I’ll stop.” Then with a sneer he says, “God is never in France this time of year.” Then, after years of imprisonment, Dantes starts to lose his faith and begins to agree with the warden that perhaps there is no God. Because he didn’t believe in God the warden did as he wanted, just like the wicked in the psalm.
I don’t think David had gotten to that point of Dantes doubting the existence of God, but he does ask why God seems oblivious to the actions of wicked. So David asks:
1 Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? (Psalm 10:1)
The wicked had no constraint. They acted out their evil in the most cavalier manners imaginable. It appeared that the wicked were right; God might not to call them into account for their sin. The wicked seemed to get away with the very things the righteous had been taught to avoid. It was bad enough that they were wicked, but that they should be successful made it all the more painful.
At a Catholic school the Mother Superior stacked a pile of apples on one end of a table with a sign saying, “Take only one apple please, God is watching.” On the other end of the table was a pile of cookies beside which a student had placed a sign on saying, “Take all the cookies you want, God is watching the apples.”
Sometimes people think the same way. They don’t think God is watching or he’s busy watching someone else. If God is watching the apples he can’t be watching the cookies. And sometimes believers are caught up in this lie. God must be somewhere else since he’s not here attending to my needs. I wait and we wait and we wonder what’s keeping him. So like David we ask: “Why are you avoiding me? Where are you when I need you? What are you waiting for?”
David teaches us it’s okay to ask.
Second, it’s okay to ask for help.
David wonders where God is and why the evil continues, but that doesn’t stop him from seeking relief from God.
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. (Psalm 10:12-15)
David starts this section asking for God’s help, “Lord, please do something.” It is as if he’s had enough. He is tired of trembling in the trenches. He knows God’s will is done in heaven and he wants it done on earth as well.
David recognizes an important fact here. He is powerless to make the change. The wicked are beyond his control, but they are not beyond God’s. The strength to conquer them lies with God alone. “Lift up your hand” and remember the afflicted. Remember us.
It is here that David’s faith begins to break through. He again looks past the problem itself and sees that maybe there is a solution if he will be patient. There is a truth of which he is confident. He knows that those who commit wickedness and injustice will be held accountable. God is seeing what is going on. He is not at a distance. He is not hiding. Perhaps God is merely biding his time.
So David asks that God would intervene in a dramatic way. David asks God to break them. He tells God exactly what he feels. He wants God to break the power of the wicked to execute their evil acts. Break them, until the wickedness has disintegrated and disappeared.
So it is okay to ask God questions and it is okay to ask God for help.
Third, it’s okay to ask because God is still the King.
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. (Psalm 10:16-18)
It would seem that David’s faith has rebounded.
David proclaims that God still reigns regardless of what people might do. He talks about the nations that have fought against God. But it’s a waste of time. They will all perish because they cannot overcome God. This truth must not be missed, God will outlast them all. Regardless of the circumstances, regardless of their evil actions, and regardless of their perceived power, God is still King. Nothing has changed that and nothing ever will. As a result, we can take courage. David reminds us that God hears our prayers for help and that encourages us. God hears us and God will act. It may not be in the time frame that we want, but he will act. That’s what we need to know.
What the wicked need to know but will never listen to is that their time of rebellion is only temporary. As a result, they are blind to the spiritual judgment that awaits them. They may gloat, but they will be humbled. They are only deceiving themselves because the day will come when they will be held accountable. God is still on his throne, and he still rules. As David wrote, the Lord is King forever.
Because of what we know about God we can commit ourselves to him. God is the helper of the fatherless and he takes special interest in those who are in need. According to Psalm 34: SLIDE 7
15 The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry; 16 but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth. (Psalm 34:15-16)
David went from questioning to praising as he remembered what God did for those who are in need. This is very similar to the process Jeremiah went through in the Book of Lamentations. Jeremiah was filled with “why” questions as he watched the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. So he listed his grievances to God. When he got through, it’s as if he forced himself to think about what is true. Listen to what he wrote in chapter 3: SLIDE 8
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. SLIDE 9 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. SLIDE 10 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” (Lamentations 3:19-24)
Jeremiah was down but he determined to deepen his commitment to God.
SLIDE 11 Is God absent? At times He seems so, especially in the midst of the wicked’s persecuting the poor. As David considers this, however, he does not speculate on how his faith can grow when his prayers are unanswered, nor on what the poor are learning under persecution. Neither does he offer theological possibilities about God’s self-limitation in this world. Rather, in simple faith, David sees the oppression, hears the egotism of the wicked, and then cries out, “Arise, O Lord!” David expects God to do something. “Break the arm of the wicked,” is his prayer.
Do we expect God to answer our prayers? Do we experience him as the living God? Paul prays that we may know “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe …” (Eph. 1:19). May God deliver us from our practical atheism. He is not absent; he is always present.