Psalm 10

Invocation

Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up you hand; forget not the afflicted. Come in your saving might, and reign over us, and subdue all yours and our enemies. Let them see that they are men. Come and do justice. For you have set your king on Zion, your Son on your Holy Hill, He is our king, and we are gathered this LORD’s Day in His name to worship. As we lift our hearts and cry to you, hear and respond. Through Christ our king, who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end, and Amen.

New testament lesson

Revelation 11:15–19 ESV

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, “We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.” Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

Pastoral Prayer

Gracious God, we bless you that you are a God who hears our prayers. We bless you for the promise of your son, that whenever we pray to you and his name, you hear us. It is, therefore, in the name of Christ that we make our intercession.

To see your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Great thanks for the purchase of this building

Make us effective witnesses in Green Ridge and beyond

Families of Hope

Pregnant mothers

Unemployed, or under employed

Missions of Hope

Andrew & Megan Nairn in Tokyo (MTW)

Safe delivery of Peter Pascal Nairn

For Megan’s recovery, and Andrews paternity leave.

Praise for the recnet anniversary and the church-warming celebration at the brand-new location of Grace City Church in Tokyo.

For our denomination (PCA) as many prepare to meet for GA in a few weeks.

Nation (president, etc.)

For our daily bread.

For forgiveness of sins

For deliverance from our enemies, the World, the flesh, and the devil.

Including deliverance from sickness:

Olivia Bartoli (Goleneski) (Brain surgery to correct CM1 in July)

Receive the Word.

Gracious God, to your fatherly care we entrust your people, praying as Jesus taught us, Our father who art in Heaven...

When God Seems Absent

Intro

One of the biggest barriers to belief in God is the problem of evil. People look and see all the suffering, all the pain, that people cause one another and think, how can there be a god? They think if there is a God who is all powerful and benevolent, then why is there evil in the world? They think they have god trapped on the horns of a dilemma by saying perhaps god is good, but he is not all powerful, and so is incapable of fixing the problem of evil; or they say perhaps god is not good, and so does not care to fix the problem of evil, either way, they would say since there is evil in the world, there can’t be a good God who is all powerful.

Reasoning this way often leads people to conclude that there is no God at all. This is often called the Logical Problem of Evil. But it is not really a logical problem for it assumes that there is a contradiction between the goodness, power, and knowledge of God, and the presence of evil in creation. The problem is not with God, but with us, and our limited knowledge of God’s plan. There only seems to be a contradiction between the goodness and omnipotence of God and the presence of evil simply because we do not fully understand God and His reasons for allowing evil to corrupt the goodness of His creation. But we can safely say, that God has allowed evil for a greater good, the good in fact of His people, the church.

The real problem of evil is the emotional problem of evil. The one we feel viscerally deep in our soul when we encounter evil in the world. For as the covenant people of God, we believe God is good, that He is a God of love, and that he is in sovereign control of the world. That nothing falls outside of His plans. But this confession is tested when we encounter wicked men. For when you see wicked men get away with horrendous acts of evil, your immediate response is God, are you there, are you seeing what I am seeing? Are you going to let this person get away with that? Aren’t you going to do something? Aren’t you going to bring justice? Why do you seem so absent?

So cries the Psalmist as he laments not only the presence of evil, but how it seems to flourish among wicked men. Before we read Psalm 10 together, I want to remind you of the form this psalm takes, which we call a lament. A lament is a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. It is an emotional response to tragedy and suffering that expresses itself as a complaint, usually directed to God.

"A lament is a psalm in which the writer prays that God will deliver him from some crisis: sometimes his enemies, sometimes defeat in battle, sometimes a life-threatening illness." (Wenham, Psalter reclaimed)

Lament Psalms make up one of the largest portions within the Psalter, are the most quoted in the New Testament, and our found also on the lips of Jesus. Psalm 22, the cry of dereliction, “my God, my God, why have your forsaken me,” is a good reminder of the type.

They often follow a very noticeable pattern, which is easily picked out. They are addressed to God, that is key. God condemns Israel often for grumbling and complain, so why does he accept the psalmist’s complaint? Well, there is a difference between complaining about God to others, and complaining to God about the problems you face in the world. So a lament is addressed to God, and in it, the psalmist lays out his complaint, then he pleads with God to deliver him, and much of the time he ends by first reminding himself of some characteristic or attribute of God, followed sometimes by a commitment to trust in Him. In that way, they help the worshipper move from a place of pain to a place of trust in God.

So as we read Psalm 10 together, I want you to notice these elements of a lament.

Psalm 10

The Wicked (seem) to Flourish

David’s Complaint

The Psalmist, who although he is not named in a subscript, was probably David, since originally Psalm 9 and 10 may have been one. Now I think there are better reasons to read them separately as their own, for although there is a similarity they have quite different themes. Psalm 9 is a hymn of praise, and psalm 10 is a lament. But in the Hebrew there is an acrostic pattern that carries through from one to another, with the caveat that letters are missing. David is the primary author found in the first book of the psalter (1-41).

So David addresses His complaint to God, his covenant Lord, “why, O LORD.” Then he precedes to lay out the problem. Most often, these complaints arise from the injustice the psalmist encounters in the world. Here it is, the wicked man. And what a telling portrait the psalmist paints of men of wickedness.

The wicked man is characterized by their pursuit and oppression of the poor, often resorting to ambush attacks and even murder. They boast about their desires and express confidence in their invulnerability, puffing at their foes. Their actions are driven by a prideful disregard for God, to the point of renouncing Him and convincing themselves that He does not exist, or at the very least, will not hold them accountable for their actions. They speak and act in deceit, oppression, mischief, and iniquity, always on the lookout for their next victim. Like a lurking lion, they seize the poor and crush the helpless. Despite their prosperity, their lives are marked by cursing and denial of the Lord's existence and authority.

We can learn the essential character of the wicked man, just by looking closely at what he says (to himself) and then consider their victims and their weapons of choice.

What the Wicked Says (to himself)…

“There is no God” (4)

Because all men know that there is a God and that he is to be obeyed, they must do some mental gymnastics to overcome the natural feelings of guilt and shame when they sin–the wicked man is no different. He must convince himself that his actions are ok, and he does so by telling himself, “there is no God.” But how did he come to this conclusion?

Notice v. 3 that the wicked are marked by false worship. You could translate that as the KJV does, “For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, And blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.” (Ps 10:3). Driven by his sinful desires, instead of blessing the Lord, he blesses the one greedy for gain, cursing God. What we see is a covenant-breaker, one who has turned away from God to serve and worship his fleshly desires. That has led him to be a practical atheist, to live as if there is no God. Dr. Boice once said, “The functional atheist is not concerned so much with the theoretical question as to the existence of God; rather, he lives and behaves as if God did not exist" (Boice, 85).

The scary thing is to live in unrepentant sin is to live as a practical atheist, to live as if God and His law don’t matter. For here we are talking about the wicked within Israel, within the covenant people of God. What made them wicked was their persistent unrepentant sin, with no remorse. Watch out lest you too be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.

“I shall not be moved…I shall not meet adversity” (6)

Also, the wicked go unchallenged, snorting in the face of their enemies. They have built up their confidence by telling themselves, “I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.” (Ps 10:6). They think because they have gotten away with their wickedness in the past, that they will not face any challenges in the future. They are confident that they are untouchable.

Who then are the enemies of the wicked whom they puff at? It is the righteous who are their enemies. Those like David, tasked with caring for the poor and needy, the down-trodden and oppressed. Those who identify with David when they sing along pleading with God to see and bring justice. And also the wicked’s poor victims.

“God has forgotten…he will never see it” (11)

The more the wicked get away with their schemes, the more they are emboldened to do more. The preacher in Ecclesiastes noted this. “Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil.” (Ec 8:11). The wicked man encourages himself that “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.” (Ps 10:11). We can combine that with the thought of verse 13, “you will not call to account.”

Both of these sound strangely familiar, coming as they did in the beginning in the form of a question. Lord, why have you forgotten, why have you hidden your face, why do you not see what the wicked is doing and call them to account? Both the righteous and the wicked notice that God seems absent. But they respond much differently. The wicked grow bolder in his sin; whereas the righteous cry out to the LORD for deliverance.

The picture painted by David of the wicked is terrible and all too real. History is filled with men who fit this description. Who hated God and hated even worse God’s people. Those who hunted down the innocent, so that might crush the helpless. Church history is filled with accounts of the saints experiencing this kind of hostility from the wicked. In fact, we see a very similar lament from the martyrs who were killed for their faith in Rev. 6. “They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”” (Re 6:10).

So how is this psalm training us to respond when we sing it? First, we need to ensure that our behavior does not resemble the wicked. Before we start looking around for wicked people to blame for all our ills, certain that we are always the innocent victim, we need to take a good hard look at our own hearts to make sure we don’t do the same things as the wicked.

Start first with an examination of your desires. Do they align with Gods? The wicked “boasts in the desires of his soul” and these desires are characterized by greed. By seizing and prospering at the expense of others. He is constantly on the lookout for ways to profit off the needy and helpless. Where are desires pointed? Are the aligned with the LORD’s? Do you love what he loves and hate what he hates? Or are you cherishing evil desires in your heart?

Second, one of the wicked’s chief weapons is His tongue. “His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.” (Ps 10:7). His speech is foul and filled with the malice of his evil plans. But the righteous are to control the tongue. Paul teaches, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.” (Eph 4:29). For some reason, especially with you young men, you seem to believe that Paul’s exhortation does not apply to your online discourse. The foul things that I have heard online over politics, I daresay more resemble the wicked man than righteous. Whose speech is “like apples of gold in a setting of silver” (Pr. 25:11). If you would be ashamed if your child read your tweets, or comments on other’s posts, then you should not write it. Some of you might not be ashamed, which tells me that perhaps you are accustomed to speak to them that way too.

It is possible to be the shining example of righteousness at church on Sunday, and have all the characteristics of wicked man on Monday when you are home with the family. The poor and oppressed, the helpless and needy can just as easily be your wife and children. While you hide behind good doctrines like patriarchy, and godly submission, you live like “there is no God,” and “he will never see.” Woe to you, do you not see that you are devouring your own house? You may think you can get away with it, but as we will consider in a moment, God does see, and he will call you to account for your management of your home, for every idle word you spoke. It’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an avenging God. So repent, and since your sins are public repent publicly to your wife and children. Or online to your followers and friends.

Singing this Psalm helps align your desires so that you want what is true, good, and beautiful. It helps you watch your tongue, so that you only speak those things that are edifying and build up others. But it also trains you to hate this kind of behavior and to seek God to deliver you from the wicked, which is where the psalmist turns next.

But God does See and will do Justice

It does not follow that because wicked men “get away” with their wicked schemes that God has actually forgotten or doesn’t see. A Lament helps us move from a place of pain to a place of trust. When we pour out our complaint before the Lord naming what seems to us to be inconsistencies between how the world should be and how it is, we then remind ourself of some characteristic or attribute of God and draw our confidence from that.

So as David calls on God to deliver the afflicted from the schemes of the wicked saying, “Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted,” (Ps 10:12) he bolsters his faith by reminding Himself of who God is. Reminding himself that God is king.

It’s as if the psalmist, after seeing the wicked in his schemes, and lamenting that it seems that God is absent, stops suddenly and says to himself, wait a sec…you do see, and you take note of all the ways of the wicked so that you can do justice for the oppressed. Then comes his plea:“Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.” (Ps 10:15).

By break the arm he means break his power, his smug self-confidence that has thus far triumphed over the helpless and call him to account. David wants to see those who have experienced such turmoil at the hands of the wicked to see and experience justice, as all the righteous surely do.

And the ground for all his hopes and the surety of his confidence comes in his great confession of faith.

“The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land. O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.” (Ps 10:16–18).

There are three brief things I want to draw out from this great confession of faith. first, God is king. Second, He hears your cry. Third, just as in Psalm 9 we are reminded that our enemies, the wicked, are mere men.

God is King

We don’t have a king, and some will gather all over the country to assert that fact, crying, No Kings! And honestly, earthly kings are a mixed bag. Things can go really good if you had a good one, and things can go terribly wrong if you don’t. Our age has not seemed to produce the great men of the past, virtuous men. One of the problems all king’s face is the tendency to go behind their allotted bounds. To take more than they should, to ask more than they should, and to usurp the god-given authority of others. Israel at the time of David is new to the Monarchy, having recently upgraded from rule by judges, often isolated by tribes and not in a united coalition. Now they have had two kings, one was not so good, although he looked like all the other kings of the nations. Then there was David.

Under David and his son Solomon, Israel experienced a period of great prosperity and blessing. All because Israel’s kings were loyal to keep-covenant with Yahweh. Because through them the enacted justice and beat back Israel’s enemies. What ensured this blessing was a recognition that Israel’s king must resemble God. That first and foremost, God was king, not just of Israel, but over all of His creation. When the king accepted that his authority came from God, and he was committed to keep the statues and commandments of God, then the people of God were blessed.

But the history of Israel and her kings shows that this was rarely the case. Even with David and Solomon, they did not maintain throughout their whole lives but had periods of faithfulness followed by sin and God’s discipline.

The story of God’s kingship most impressed upon the people’s memories was the exodus. It’s a lament story too, and forms the fabric of Israel’s imagination. For there God acted as king, intervening to deliver His people from wicked men who oppressed them. He broke the arm of wicked Pharoah and called his wicked deeds to account. Israel’s kings were to rule like that. But Israel would have to wait for a greater David to come, Christ Jesus our king. I’m reminded of the larger catechism question #45:

How doth Christ execute the office of a king?Christ executeth the office of a king, in calling out of the world a people to himself, and giving them officers, laws, and censures, by which he visibly governs them; in bestowing saving grace upon his elect, rewarding their obedience, and correcting them for their sins, preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and powerfully ordering all things for his own glory, and their good; and also in taking vengeance on the rest, who know not God, and obey not the gospel.

Christ is a perfect king. He is now seated at God’s right hand, ruling and reigning until he puts all His enemies under His feet. He restrains your enemies, ensuring that all things are ordered for your good. And as king he hears you.

He hears your cry

The AH tells us in his great chapter of faith that “without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Heb 11:6). The wicked man says “there is no God” and charts a course on the path of wickedness. And the righteous sea, and they rightly wonder why God allows such men to prosper, but they ultimately believe that when they cry to the Lord, he hears and he will respond.

We are more impatient for justice than God is. And it is His grace and mercy towards you that He is patient. For who would be saved if God did not wait to bring justice? But he does see and does take note of wickedness. And even more comforting, he has taken steps to fix the problem, and in the most staggering.

By sending His only Son, our king, a humble king, a good king, who conquered by dying for wicked men, to change them to be His righteous subjects. God’s Son took the stroke of justice promised to all those who had waited for God to Arise and deliver them. The Son who dwelled in unapproachable light, with glory unimaginable, came to enter in to the suffering of the oppressed, the poor, and the needy, to take on their pain and persecution so that as king he could identify with them. Then he goes one step further and suffers death in their place. The AH again tells us,

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,” (Heb 5:7–9).

Jesus sang psalm 10 and prayed its prayer. And God heard His cry and answered His prayer, when he raised Him from the dead, and seated Him as king in heaven. Now you have access with boldness to come and continue to cry to God for deliverance from wicked men, from those distressing things that oppress and make you helpless, and you can be assured that he hears from heaven and will act to save.

Lastly, as I said last week, you must constantly remind yourself that the wicked are merely men. This psalm ends on the same note as Psalm 9. “Arise, O Lord…let the nations know that they are men.” Here in Psalm 10 he says, “Arise O Lord…incline your ear to do justice…so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.” (Ps. 10:14,17-18). Christ is king in heaven and rules over all, man is of the earth and the Terror he strikes is only ever temporary. Be assured he will meet his end when God in His judgement opens the books, and recounts every wicked deed, every idle and malicious word, calling them all to account. For them, His words will be only judgement when he casts them into the eternal fires of hell to burn forever and ever.

But to the righteous, those who suffered at the hands of the wicked, those who fled to Christ and found refuge in His salvation, for them he will say, welcome to joy of eternal life in glory. Where there is no more pain, no sorrow, and more importantly–no more wicked men. So by faith saints, continue to patiently endure and sing with me this song of lament when God feels absent. So that you may always be reminded that Christ is king. Amen!

Lord’s Supper Meditation

Here we rehearse the story of the innocent sufferer who triumphed over the wicked. Your great high priest offers you this reminder in His body and blood of His sacrifice on your behalf. Reminding you that as your king he continues to feed and care for you while you wait for Him to come and do justice. He sets this table in the presence of our enemies. Feeding faith while we wait. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Charge

Since the LORD is king, you must trust that He sees and will do justice to those who are oppressed.