TITLE: A DESCRIPTION OF THE WICKED
TEXT: PSALM 10:1-11
INTRODUCTION:
- We’re continuing our study through the book of Psalms.
- Last time, we saw in chapter 9 that David wrote the chapter as a triumphant song of thanksgiving for God’s vindication.
- God showed how great He was by judging the wicked nations.
- He also showed that He is a true and eternal judge in whom we may trust.
- He also praised God because he knew God could and would remove his affliction when it was God’s timing.
- Chapter 10 shifts over to a complaint and prayer over godless men in the nation.
- David is praying for God not to delay His help for the afflicted.
- So today, we’re going to look at the first part of chapter 10 which gives us a description of these wicked men.
- When I was a kid, I loved to watch the show “Cops” with my father.
- It was a show full of action and I always looked forward to seeing the new episodes with my dad.
- One of the things I remember from the show was when an officer would get a call to respond over the radio, the dispatcher would usually give them a description of what the suspect looked like.
- Something like “5’10” male white suspect, shoulder length blonde hair…wearing a hat on backwards with blue jeans and a yellow tank top shirt.”
- Sometimes the descriptions were more detailed, and sometimes they were less, but the police officer would use the description to find the person they were looking for.
- It always fascinated me how good the police officers were at finding the right suspects, even if they had to search for them.
- So, when it came to giving descriptions of the suspect, the dispatchers always provided as much information as possible, so the search would be easier for the officer.
- Here in the first part of Psalm 10, we see David giving a description of the wicked.
- Obviously, God already knows who they are and what they’ve done, but I think it helps build David’s faith by calling out to God, telling Him what these people had done, and trusting that God will take care of it.
- So, let’s look at David’s description of these wicked people.
FIRST POINT: THEY ARE GODLESS- VS 1-4
- David starts out by asking God “why” two times.
- Why do you stand far off and why do you hide in times of trouble?
- To David, in the thick of a struggle, surrounded by his enemies, it seemed like God was far off and hiding.
- I like what Charles Spurgeon says about this.
- “The presence of God is the joy of his people, but any suspicion of his absence is distracting beyond measure… It is not the trouble, but the hiding of our Father’s face, which cuts us to the quick.”
- Looking a little deeper, at the Hebrew word for “trouble”, we find that this is a rare use of the word.
- It means a cutting off, i.e., of hope of deliverance. The notion of distress intensified to despair is conveyed.
- Before you go giving David a hard time, think back to times when you were feeling distressed and were full of despair, as you were facing a trial.
- It wasn’t easy to go through, was it?
- You wished that God would act on your behalf instantly, didn’t you?
- It seemed like God was hiding or didn’t care, didn’t it?
- But remember, one day, in His timing, He came and took care of whatever the problem was.
- That’s because He’s not distant and He’s not hiding…He is there, and it’s okay in our flesh to cry out to Him and tell Him how we’re feeling.
- Remember when the Disciples were out on the boat in the middle of the Lake, and Jesus was not with them…
- When the wind began to blow, and the waves began to crash against their boat, they were scared, and they thought Jesus had abandoned them and was going to let them die.
- And yet when they cried out, there He was…as a matter of fact, many commentators believe that the spot where he was on top of the mountain was a spot where He had them in His sights the entire time, looking down at them from afar…
- Then, instantly, He was there with them and He calmed the storm.
- He’s with us as well.
- In vs 2, David explains that the wicked are full of pride and are persecuting the poor.
- So, he’s describing the wicked as evil, tyrannical persecutors, unjustly persecuting the poor.
- I remember when I was in Iraq, the terrorists used innocent women and children as human shields while firing on our troops.
- They even threatened people’s families if they didn’t strap an explosive vest on and blow themselves up somewhere near the Coalition forces.
- These men were evil, and they took advantage of the poor people of Iraq, using them for their evil purposes.
- Charles Spurgeon tells us that the persecutor Emperor Domitian assumed divine honors, and when the Christians refused to worship him, he had the furnace heated seven times hotter and had them thrown in.
- He also tells of the popes of Rome being decorated with blasphemous titles of “Masters of the world” and “Universal fathers”, and when the Protestants refused to submit, many of them were killed by the power-hungry leaders of the Catholic church.
- So, when David says, “Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised”, we can understand his outrage and his desire for their plots to fail.
- I like what Charles Spurgeon says here.
- “There are none who will dispute the justice of God, when he shall hang every Haman on his own gallows and cast all the enemies of his Daniels into their own den of lions.”
- I think even the world understands this somewhat, because they’re always saying, “What goes around comes around.”
- Obviously, that’s a flawed view of God’s justice, but it does show you that even the world wants to see justice served when evil godless people take advantage of the lowly poor and innocent.
- In vs 3, David continues his description of these godless, tyrannical persecutors as greedy boasters who want nothing to do with the Lord our God.
- They actually believe that they have reason to boast, which leads me to believe that they have deceived themselves.
- After all, why else would they boast about having power over weak, defenseless, innocent people?
- They’re arrogant and they’re evil.
- Yet they aren’t alone…
- David tells us that they bless the greedy, which means they approve of the behavior of other godless sinners, they get along just fine with one another.
- In vs 4, he continues in his description by saying the wicked are proud and don’t seek God, and they don’t even think about God!
- So, we’ve gone from one extreme, them renouncing God, to another extreme, where they are completely clearing their minds of any thoughts about God.
- They want absolutely nothing to do with Him.
- Some people might say, “Well, that was in David’s time, when there were all sorts of false idols and the culture was different. That’s not true today.”
- Actually, the Apostle Paul described it in the New Testament, as well.
- In the book of Romans, we read about wicked men suppressing the Truth by their wickedness, even though what may be known about God is plain to them…so they’re willingly ignorant, choosing to ignore any thoughts about God Almighty.
- David Guzik says, “Men do not seek God; this is a great sin. Men do not think about God; this also is a great sin. Man has obligations to God as His creator and sovereign, and it is a sin to neglect them. Man commits these sins because of his proud countenance; ignoring God is an expression of our independence and perceived equality (or superiority) to Him.”
- The wicked are godless.
SECOND POINT: THEY ARE PRIDEFUL- VS 5-7
- Scripture tells us that pride comes before a fall.
- There are many examples in history of pride causing people to make huge mistakes.
- One such example happened to golf legend Arnold Palmer, who learned a lesson about overconfidence.
- It was the final hole of the 1961 Masters tournament, and he had a one-stroke lead and had just hit a very satisfying tee shot.
- He felt like he was in pretty good shape.
- As he approached his ball, he saw an old friend standing at the edge of the gallery.
- He went over to say hello, and his friend stuck out his hand and said, Congratulations.
- Palmer took his hand and shook it, but as soon as he did, he knew he had lost his focus.
- On the next two shots, he hit the ball into a sand trap, then put it over the edge of the green.
- He missed a putt and lost the Masters.
- He learned a valuable lesson from that mistake…
- Pride causes you to become overconfident and full of yourself.
- Here in vs 5, David points out that it seems like the ways of the wicked are always prospering.
- So, it looks like things are always going their way, and because of that, they become prideful.
- They have thoughts like “Look at me, I’m so great, look what I can do, look what I’ve got…”
- And to the outside person looking in, it certainly doesn’t seem fair that the wicked are prospering and getting anything that they want.
- Yet because they are prideful, they are also blind…
- Vs 5 tells us “Your judgments are far above, out of his sight…”
- So, the wicked, prideful man doesn’t realize that judgment is coming, sooner or later.
- They don’t think about that because their focus is on themselves, and as we saw earlier, they refuse to acknowledge or believe that there is a God…
- Yet they will be accountable to Him.
- As if it’s not bad enough that they prosper, David continues by saying they sneer at their enemies.
- So, they’re not afraid of their enemies, and that’s a huge part of their pride, because they think they’re more powerful than everyone else and no one can stand against them.
- We need only look at history to see how true that is.
- One powerful kingdom after another would conquer other kingdoms and keep expanding…
- Just look at the Roman Empire, for example, who viewed themselves as all powerful, and thought no one could stand against them.
- Or how about Hitler, who thought he could defeat his enemies and take over their nations.
- There are so many examples of this happening…wicked, prideful men, sneering at their enemies.
- They put their trust in themselves, and as vs 6 says, they genuinely believe in their heart that, “I shall not be moved! I shall never be in adversity!”
- This is a dangerous mindset to have because it only takes into account physical enemies…
- There are no thoughts about God’s impending judgment, which could come in any form…
- It might come by striking down their health, like what happened to Alexander the Great, who was prideful as he conquered the world…
- Yet he was only 32 years old when he died.
- It might come by striking down their finances, completely devastating their economy, which happened to the Roman Empire over time…
- It might come by striking down their crops, or their herds of animals, completely devastating their livelihoods, which happened to the Egyptians just before God delivered His people from their bondage.
- Or it might come some other way.
- Either way, God will judge the prideful when they least expect it.
- In vs 7, David points out that they are full of cursing, deceit, and oppression…
- Through their cursing, they’re telling God, “I can say whatever words I want! My words can be filthy. I can call people names and use your name in vain! This is my tongue, and these are my words to speak!”
- Through their deceit, they’re telling God, “I can lie and cheat people because I am my own man. I can lie because no one will ever find out, not even God!”
- Through their oppression, they’re telling God, “I can threaten and trouble and speak evil of anyone I want to! I am above everyone else!”
- Then, David adds that “…under his tongue is trouble and iniquity.”
- John Morison compares this description with that of a venomous snake.
- They “…carry bags of poison under their teeth, and with great subtlety [they] inflict the most-deadly injuries upon those who come within their reach…”
- So just like the snake can strike at any moment with their venom and cause great injury or even death to a person, a wicked, prideful person will strike with their evil words, and “…be as injurious to the mind as the deadliest poison can be to the body.”
- A prideful, wicked person believes that all of these things make them powerful and much stronger than everyone else.
- They lift themselves up, with no thoughts of God, but their end is destruction.
THIRD POINT: THEY ARE VIOLENT AND BLASPHEMOUS- VS 8-11
- A lot of people have blasphemed the name of our Great Lord over the years.
- More recently, Netflix filmed a television show aimed at doing just that.
- Just to clarify before I tell you about the show, I have not watched it and don’t plan to…
- When I read an article about it, it completely disgusted me!
- It’s supposed to be a comedy about a teenage girl who lost 70 pounds.
- In order to get revenge on those who bullied her, she enters a contest called “The Miss Magic Jesus Pageant” in which the winner is awarded a crown of thorns.
- In the pageant, a group of girls sings a song about having sex with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
- They use sexually explicit language and dance moves as part of their performance, and the whole thing is supposed to make you laugh.
- Obviously, the show upset a lot of people, but not for the reasons you’d think.
- The big reason people were calling for the show’s cancellation was because they felt like it was shaming fat people and objectifying women’s bodies.
- According to one news article, they want the show canceled because of the “…jokes about sexuality, race, and molestation.”
- The only people outraged about their blasphemy are Christians.
- Sadly, our world is not afraid to blaspheme the name of our Great God.
- And that’s something David understood, but it really bothered him when the wicked did so…
- Remember when Goliath blasphemed the name of God, and little David the shepherd boy went out and stood against him?
- David loved God, and when people blasphemed His name, David took it personally.
- Here in vs 8-11, he points out that these wicked men are both violent and blasphemous.
- In vs 8, he says they “…sit in the lurking places, in the secret places, and murder the innocent…”
- These men are cowards.
- They hide until they see their prey, and then they come out…
- But the people they’re coming out against aren’t warriors…
- No, they’re coming out against the helpless, the innocent…
- Vs 9 says the people they’re coming out against also are poor…
- William Thomson was a missionary in Syria in the 1800’s, and he wrote a book about his time there, titled, “The Land and the Book.”
- He wrote about some of the men there who fit this description…
- “The Arab robber lurks like a wolf among these sand-heaps, and often springs out suddenly upon the solitary traveler, robs him in a trice, and then plunges again into the wilderness of sand-hills and reedy downs, where pursuit is helpless…”
- Another author, John Gadsby, wrote about his time traveling in the Holy Land in the 1800’s, in a book titled, “My Wanderings.”
- In it, he recounts, “My companions asked me if I knew the danger I had escaped. ‘No.’ I replied. ‘What danger?’ They then told me that, just after they started, they saw a wild Arab skulking after me, crouching to the ground, with a musket in his hand; and that, as soon as he had reached within what appeared to them musket-shot of me, he raised his gun; but, looking wildly around him, as a man will do who is about to perpetrate some desperate act, he caught sight of them and disappeared.”
- The reason I use those two accounts is because they happened in the Holy Land, but if those men were to travel out West here in America in that same time-period, they would have faced similar problems.
- That’s because these wicked, violent, blasphemous men aren’t isolated to only one part of the world…
- No, they’re everywhere because of the sin problem in our world.
- And instead of attacking people who can fight back, they attack people who are helpless.
- The Hebrew word for ‘helpless’ is found only here in this Psalm.
- It means “poor wretch, miserable…”
- But God sees, and God knows, and He won’t let them get away with it.
- Yet look what they say about God in vs 11, as they blaspheme His name…
- “God has forgotten, He hides His face, He will never see.”
- They genuinely believe this because they don’t believe God exists, or if He does, that He doesn’t care about what they’re doing.
- They’re saying God is nothing, God is weak, and even if He did see what was going on, He couldn’t stop me, because He doesn’t have the strength to do it! He even hides from me!”
- So, they think they’re getting away with it.
- I think some people picture God as an old man up in the sky.
- And because they picture Him as old, they figure that He is weak and that He forgets or doesn’t have enough of a mind to know all that’s happening on earth.
- But that’s a flawed, unrealistic picture of our Great God.
- He’s not old, He’s not weak, He’s not ignorant of all that happens here on this earth.
- God is All Powerful and they will find that out someday.
- And while the wicked are on this earth, they might live many years without being judged for their wickedness.
- But when they take their last breath, they will face eternal judgment.
- I’m reminded of a story I saw on Dateline.
- A young man robbed a fast food store and killed the young woman who was there by herself, trying to close the store.
- He fled the scene, but he left something behind…
- The police didn’t know what it was, but it looked like it could be a clue, so they collected it as part of the evidence.
- They arrested a man they suspected of being the killer, but they couldn’t prove it was him, so they had to let him go, and his girlfriend provided and alibi that she was with him that night.
- Unfortunately, this was back in the 80’s, so they didn’t have the technology they do today, so they didn’t get very far in their investigation, and it became a cold case.
- Twenty years later, a detective recognized that the item found at the crime scene was actually a piece of foam that was part of a boot.
- They were able to link it to a pair of boots that belonged to the suspect, and they arrested him, tried him in court, and he was found guilty with a life sentence given.
- This wicked man had moved on with his life, as if it never happened, and supposedly became a Christian.
- He became a Captain for the Forestry Department and was living as if he’d gotten away with it.
- Thankfully, they were able to arrest him, and yet he still pled not guilty and claimed his innocence.
- He had gotten away with it for so many years that he must have believed he would always be a free man.
- But God brought justice to him.
- Unfortunately, not all of the stories of the wicked turn out like that one, but David knew that God was the Final Judge and these violent, blasphemous men would face Him one day.
- You and I know that, and we can take comfort knowing that God knows all, sees all, and will take care of it all!
- We don’t need to fret because of the wicked…God’s got it under control!
