Psalm 10: 1 – 18
Born with a wooden spoon
1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide in times of trouble? 2 The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; He blesses the greedy and renounces the LORD. 4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts. 5 His ways are always prospering; Your judgments are far above, out of his sight; As for all his enemies, he sneers at them. 6 He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity.” 7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. 8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the secret places he murders the innocent; His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. 9 He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; He lies in wait to catch the poor; He catches the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 So he crouches, he lies low, That the helpless may fall by his strength. 11 He has said in his heart, “God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see.” 12 Arise, O LORD! O God, lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble. 13 Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, “You will not require an account.” 14 But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, To repay it by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless. 15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; Seek out his wickedness until You find none. 16 The LORD is King forever and ever; The nations have perished out of His land. 17 LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, 18 To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may oppress no more.
Why is it that some people skate through life? In case you do not know what, I am talking about, it is about those who are born with a ‘silver spoon. ‘I mean the minute they come out of the womb they enjoy the good life. They are never in need of anything. They receive all favor from God and man. Do you know of anyone who fits this picture? I know a lot of people who are in this category.
Then there are us. We are the ones who are born with a wooden spoon and the splinters hurt. No matter what you do you never get ahead. You take two steps forward and are thrown five steps back. So, can we play a little sympathy music? Do we get any condolences? No, the answer we receive is ‘mind your own business. Stop looking around at others and focus on those things which you do have.’
In this psalm the writer is puzzled why The Loving and Holy Yahweh will not intervene in difficult times. His cry can be echoed through all ages. He is asking why the unrighteous seem to triumph while the people of God suffer. He describes the unrighteous in detail, drawing God’s attention to what they are.
It does not make sense. It is like a father who blesses other kids on his block while not doing the same for his own children.
From Whom God has revealed Himself to be, the writer knows that God is All Loving, Kind, and Merciful. Our Holy Master hates evil. So, why is He blessing these evil folks?
He cries to Father God to rise and deal with the evil humans.
1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide in times of trouble? 2 The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.
Have you ever thought this way? The psalmist is puzzled and concerned. Almighty God Is in charge of everything. He rules completely no matter what fallen angels or sinful men do. Then why is God standing back in the day of trouble, why He seems to be hiding Himself while the lowly believers are suffering, being caught in the schemes of the unrighteous.
You see the problem here is that we do not think correctly. Our Holy Master and Ruler Is Pure and Perfect. Therefore, He does not think or act like us sinful people do. The writer did not at this stage see the lowly as themselves sinful and that in reality they are just as bad in their sins.
He failed to recognize that The Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent Supreme Creator has His own purposes in allowing things to happen. The outright unrighteous are indeed sometimes used as instruments of chastening for God’s true people, prior to their own final defeat and judgment. This is a constant theme throughout Scripture.
When we are having a hard time at work or in other various battles we have the tendency to think this about our God, ‘Why do you stand far off?’ That is, seemingly so because of His inaction. We do our own inventory to try to find out if God Is mad at us. Or perhaps He does not like us. Maybe we have committed the unpardonable sin and God will not help us anymore. After all, Scripture backs up these types of thoughts. We read in the book of Isaiah chapter 59 verse 1-2, “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”
We cry out to a large degree blaming Him, ‘Why do you hide yourself?’ Seemingly covering his eyes so that He cannot see, and his ears so that He cannot hear.
It appears that we are living in hell right here on earth. Evil is winning. Men and women who are selfish, greedy and strong tend to treat all others arrogantly. And often no one seems to be able to do anything about it. They go their own way without regard for the weak.
It is almost enjoyment to evil people. They go out of their way to pick on others - ‘The poor is hotly pursued.’ It is always the weak and helpless and poor who suffer most under the arrogance of the unrighteous, for they have no way of countering it. These people are treated just as pawns and targets. And yet it is often those poor who are the righteous ones. Why then does God allow them to be pursued like hunted animals?
Often my prayer has been towards these evil people that they experience that same things they are dishing out - ‘Let them be taken in the schemes that they have conceived.’ The poor are not only hunted but often captured by the schemes of the unrighteous. The picture is a sad one of the sufferings of the hunted animal and its final entrapment. This continuation of the theme seems to fit better than the alternative rendering.
3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; He blesses the greedy and renounces the LORD. 4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts. 5 His ways are always prospering; Your judgments are far above, out of his sight; As for all his enemies, he sneers at them. 6 He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity.”
We read in Proverbs 23.7, “What a man thinks in his heart, that is what he is”. With deep insight the psalmist recognizes that the behavior of the unrighteous reveals their true attitude to God, whatever their outward displays. So here he sees these unrighteous men as actually stating by their behavior that they take no heed to Adoni Yahweh’s judgments, and do not believe that He will call them to account for their failure to observe them. They openly state in pride that they will stand before God and have no regrets for their actions. In fact, these phonies are basically saying in their hearts, ‘There is no God’.
The arrogance of the modern day is vividly portrayed here. Here are what successful people wind up doing;
1. Boasting
2. Greedy
3. Ignoring God’s word
4. Fixed in their own ways
5. Closing their hearts against God’s requirements
6. Secretly getting even at those who contend with them
7. Maintaining a life that says that nothing can stop them in their ways.
Godless men and women set their hearts and thoughts on what they want, and not on what God wants, and openly boast about it. There is no submissiveness to God, but a determination to get what they want in any way they can. This is the competitive society with a vengeance, but the point is that they do it without regard for others, and without regard to God.
To save tax dollars and make themselves look good they get involved in a favorite charity. They are recognized in the news for how great they are.
The deceitfulness of riches chokes the word and it becomes unfruitful. Those seized by a desire to possess and to be rich, or even ‘well off’, put God’s will to one side in their pursuit. The desire for gain and wealth possesses them. They make out that evil is good, and that their greed is right. Thus, in effect they renounce The One Who owns all things and His requirements, and the Instruction He has given man in His Law, and declare that God’s ways are wrong, and thrust Him away, and even pass judgment on Him and His ways, whatever the outward appearance of piety.
His attitude towards God continues through into his attitude towards his fellow-man. He treats his competitors and opponents lightly and with certain contempt. He is confident that he is so firmly established that he can cope with them and that nothing can halt his future, or the prosperity of his descendants. He has no fears at all for the future.
7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. 8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the secret places he murders the innocent; His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. 9 He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; He lies in wait to catch the poor; He catches the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 So he crouches, he lies low, That the helpless may fall by his strength. 11 He has said in his heart, “God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see.”
Our Precious Holy Spirit here instructs us about the gradual growth of sin. It begins with a callous attitude towards God and his fellow-man and leads on into deeper and deeper sin. Here the sinner is depicted at his worst. Not all reach these depths, but all have the propensity for it. It begins with his words, which reveal what he is, continues into unscrupulous behavior, and into increasing callousness, and all because he convinces himself with the vain hope that God has forgotten the world and will not see what he is doing.
He is loud-mouthed, aggressive, and deceitful, and plans evil and mischief with his tongue. ‘Cursing’ may indicate his aggressive attitude, or his willingness to lie on oath to obtain what he wants. ‘Deceit’ declares his dishonesty in his dealings. He says what he wants people to think, while hiding the true situation. His aim is to deceive people. ‘Oppressiveness’ indicates his determination to get his own way by any possible means. He tries to obtain his own way by aggression and forcefulness. Nothing that he says can be trusted.
I find the term ‘Under his tongue’, quite interesting. It means that this evil guy enjoys his unscrupulous behavior like a man enjoying a tidbit.
These people enjoy making life horrible for others. They try to catch people, or trap them into something, and make profits at their expense, without giving due and fair return. They character assassinate others. They cause a problem for others and cover up their tracks to hide their involvement.
12 Arise, O LORD! O God, lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble. 13 Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, “You will not require an account.” 14 But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, To repay it by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless. 15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; Seek out his wickedness until You find none.
Now for all of us who are the recipients of this oppression we cry out like we read here. We express our puzzlement and distress at our Heavenly Father’s reluctance to act. We like the psalmist calls on Him to act speedily on behalf of those who are in need. Let Him ‘arise’ (in order to do something), let Him ‘lift up his hand’ (to act in power), let Him show that He has not forgotten the needy. Why does He allow the unrighteous man to get away with his attitude? The psalmist himself is not deceived. He knows very well that God does see the full situation and knows that God will one day deal with it. But he wants to know, why the delay? And so he reminds God that the helpless are looking to Him and depending on Him to act. For they know that He is the helper of the fatherless, of those who have none to look after them.
Our prayer in distress is always ‘Arise, O YHWH.’ Do not wait any longer. Start to act! Right away and often. ‘Lift up your hand.’ Commence actual action with your strength. ‘Do not forget the needy.’ Do not do what these people say you are doing, but rather show that they are wrong by what You do on behalf of the needy. ‘You have seen, for you behold all the evil these people are doing.
Faith declares that, contrary to the belief of the unrighteous, God does see all that is done on the weak and helpless. And faith also knows that one day He will deal with it and bring retribution accordingly. For the helpless and the weak look to Him as their only Protector. They abandon themselves to Him. And He will not fail them.
Have you ever taken any martial arts training? In unarmed combat the breaking of the arm renders the opponent powerless. Thus our Holy Maker Is exhorted to render the unrighteous powerless, and search out the evil man’s wickedness so that He can call it to account. And He will in fact be so successful in removing it that when He looks for wickedness He will find none.
16 The LORD is King forever and ever; The nations have perished out of His land. 17 LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, 18 To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may oppress no more.
I have learned from personal experience to daily sing songs to my Holy El Shaddai and to study His word. It gives me great comfort. This is one reason why I love the book of Psalms so much. We see the writer overwhelmed with the awful things in life. He thinks and brings them before our Holy Lord. Then after spending some time in the Lord’s Presence he is okay.
The psalm, which began with such hopelessness, finishes with the triumphant picture of the everlasting kingdom, with Adoni Yeshua established as everlasting king, all adversaries and unrighteous thrust out and dealt with, and the meek and the fatherless and the oppressed living quiet lives in full confidence of true justice, and treated with respect by all. It will not be men of the earth who control things, but God. Righteousness will reign supreme. The picture is of total divine dominance by God, dwelling in His light.
The land that He promised His people will now be free of all enemies, of all who defile it and of all unrighteous men. The thought is clearly that the unrighteous were unrighteous because they did not respond to our Holy Yahweh but submitted to subversive influence, the ways of the godless nations.
David knew and so do we that our Holy Father God has heard the cries of the meek and lowly. Though they had cried to Him day and night for what had seemed so long, now He would avenge them speedily. In the end His will, will be done. All fear will be done away. All wrongs will be righted. The future will be eternally secure in righteousness.
Now after many years of struggling through life I have learned that there is one way to look at riches and that is to know. To love and more importantly be loved by Almighty God. In truth it does not get better than that.
Now, like the psalmist we can rest in the promises that our God will take care of all things in a perfect and righteous way. Thank You dear Lord.
