SC Sermon - Psalm 10

Let me begin our continued study of the Psalter by praying Psalm 19:14 over us. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in Your sight, O Yahweh, our rock and our Redeemer. Ok, I invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 10. (MIDDLE OF YOUR BIBLE)

As I mentioned, we are continuing our study of select Psalms. So far we’ve looked at Psalms 1, 2, 3, 8, and 9, and now we are turning our attention to Psalm 10 before Shay and Matt jump us forward a good bit in the next couple of weeks.

We had a great discussion about Psalm 10 on Friday morning with the men. I love these guys, and I love discussing God’s word. Just feels like a brief moment where everything is right in the world - a sweet time that I look forward to each week.

In that discussion we noticed some of the connections between Psalm 9 and 10 and why we may want to consider them together. You’ll notice in your Bibles that there is no superscription (remember those are the sentences before verse 1 - “of David”). This is a rare thing in Book One of the Psalter (we saw it with Psalm 2). I also pointed out to the guys that folks have noticed what is called a Hebrew acrostic in the original language (a-z/aleph-tav with each line) but that starts in verse 1 of Psalm 9 and concludes at the end of Psalm 10. But I also mentioned that this acrostic is incomplete and clunky, so we don’t really want to put to much weight on it. In the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament Psalm 9 and 10 are actually combined and make up one Psalm. But none of this is going to play heavy in our exposition today.

I’d like to begin by giving you an overhead view of Psalm 10 so you can see where we’re going and what’s going on in the Psalm. If you do notes in your Bible this may be a handy thing to annotate.

PSALM 10 OVERHEAD

The first thing to note, for the sake of today’s sermon, is that I’m going to discuss verse one a little later in the sermon. It’ll make sense when we get there. Old Testament scholar Jim Hamilton has written a spectacular commentary on the Psalms and this 4-part breakdown comes from him. I found it so helpful that I incorporated it into our approach to the Psalm today. You’ll see that verse 2 through 5 expound the pride of the wicked man, and verses 6 through 11 illuminate his plan to carry out his wickedness. Verses 12 through 18 form a prayerful response to the wicked by the righteous consisting in two parts – 12 through 15 opening the prayer, and verses 16 through 18 honing in on the humble posture of the righteous. So, 4 parts, and we’ll look closer at verse one in the middle of this exposition of Psalm 10.

Ok, let’s dive in.

2-5 : The Pride of the Wicked

In his lofty pride the wicked hotly pursues the afflicted; Let them be caught in the thoughts which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of his soul’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns Yahweh. The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them

2-5b

The proud stand juxtaposed to God. James and Peter tell us that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Wickedness, disobedience, self-centeredness are all inherently rooted in pride. So in verses 2-5 we see the pride of the wicked on full display.

In his lofty pride the wicked hotly pursues the afflicted. Hotly pursues is literally the word for burn in the Hebrew. The wicked is willing and ready to burn down others to build himself up. Here the Psalmist breaks in with a request similar to what we saw in Psalm 9, that they fall into their own traps. The wicked boasts, not in the goodness of Yahweh, not in the blood of Jesus, no the wicked boasts of his soul’s desire. His own desires are supreme above all things. The wicked man, is proud self-centered and intoxicated with greed, and thus he curses and spurns Yahweh. Another way to translate this sentence is that the wicked man blesses the greedy man and spurns Yahweh, the wicked and the proud man sees a kindred spirit in the greedy man. Guys, we don’t have to do a lot of work to map this on to our cultural moment. None of this should be news to anyone who’s lived longer than 5 minutes.

The Psalmist continues that the wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Yahweh. The haughtiness of his countenance is literally “with his nose stuck up in the air” in the Hebrew. He spurns Yahweh, he does not seek him. In fact all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” You know who says there is no God? Flip over to Psalm 14:1 and you’ll read that the fool says, “There is no God.” Wickedness, Pride, Greed is all rooted in the foolish insistence that there is no God. It’s funny and predictable that they both spurn Yahweh and say “there is no God.” I know people like that. They feverishly hate something they say the don’t believe in. Make that make sense.

By denying God they are really denying that they will be held accountable for their wickedness. They need him to not exist, or they are in trouble. Well, spoiler alert, he does exist. The wicked, proud fool thinks everything before him is prospering, even his scheming against the vulnerable will lead to success, but he’s blind. Oh, Yahweh’s judgments are indeed there, he just can’t perceive them because he’s too busy tending to himself and his own desires. With his nose stuck up in the air he snorts at any who would get in his way. This snorting language makes me think of an animal. A wicked, proud, greedy, selfish existence is a sub-human existence. It’s beastly and piggish.

6-11: The Plan of the Wicked

So, we’ve seen his pride, let’s quickly survey the wicked man’s plan.

He says in his heart, “I will not be shaken; From generation to generation I will not be in adversity.” His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. He sits in the places of the villages where one lies in wait; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate. He lies in wait in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lies in wait to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. He crouches, he bows down, And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. He says in his heart, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”

“I will not be shaken; from generation to generation I will not be in adversity.” Again, the wicked man is aloof to the reality that he will indeed be held accountable for his deeds. Oh he will be shaken. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Yahweh will shake both the heavens and the earth. His judgments will fall upon the wicked like a consuming fire. But the wicked are delusional in their pride.

But his wicked delusions aren’t all idealogical, they are practical. His mouth is full of curses, deceit, and oppression under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. He’s a liar, he’s a cheat, and it costs others. He’s a snake. This reminds me of Romans 3 where Paul writes, Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

He sits in the places of the villages where one lies in wait; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate. He lies in wait in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lies in wait to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. He crouches, he bows down, and the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. His schemes are not on the up and up. He needs people to be deceived, he needs his victims to be caught off guard. He’s a predator that hunts the weak and innocent. In the hiding places he kills the innocent. I can’t help but think of the wicked crouched behind the sterile doors of the abortion clinic when I read this. The predatory practices of Planned Parenthood and their murderous counterparts. It makes me sick to my stomach. It’s a billion dollar industry. These murderers think that they will not be shaken…let’s move on.

The unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. The wicked man rarely works alone. He has his goons, his assistants. There’s always fools around fools, and they can hunt in packs.

He says in his heart, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.” The person that the wicked deceives most is himself. God sees everything. He has forgotten nothing. Every wicked deed, every murderous act, every lie and curse that the wicked man has poured out on the innocent is bear before the King and Judge of the universe. The wicked operate on disastrously faulty assumptions. Verse 1 : Where are you?!

But, have you ever been on the receiving end of wicked plans and schemes. Have you been the prey of these predators? Have you witnessed the innocent oppressed and afflicted by the wicked?

TEN BOOM

I have this picture on my bookshelf, does anyone know who this is? This is a picture of Casper Ten Boom, the father of Betsy and Corrie Ten Boom. As I was studying this Psalm this week, I was thinking about the horrors of World War 2 and the story of Casper and his family. The utterly despicable acts of the Nazis and the distress that millions of innocent people, the elderly, children went through.

In light of the ever present reality of the wicked man’s pride and enacted plans, let us return to verse 1. Why do You stand afar off, O Yahweh? Why do You hide Yourself in times of distress? As I reflect on the plight of the Ten Booms, as I watch Planned Parenthood prosper, as I witness the wicked, lunacy of the Left daily destroy relationships in my own family. Can I, can we ask, “Where are you God?!” Yes. Yes, we can ask this.

I’d like to share a quote from John Calvin that helped me this week in my study. CALVIN Nothing can be hid from his eyes; but as God permits us to speak to him as we do to one another, these forms of expression do not contain anything absurd, provided we understand them as applied to God, not in a strict sense, but only figuratively, according to the judgment which mere sense forms from the present appearance of things. It is possible that a righteous man may not check an injury which is done to a poor man before his eyes, because he is destitute of the power; but this cannot be the case with respect to God, who is always armed with invincible power. (Calvin)

I’m going to risk losing you by reading a slightly longer quote from Calvin that will not be on the screen. But I just found him to be very helpful on this topic. Listen closely. “God does not always put a stop to injuries so speedily as we would wish, nor break the attempts of the wicked at the first, but rather withholds and delays his assistance, so that it may seem that we cry to him in vain, a truth which it is of importance for us to understand; for if we measure the help of God according to our senses, our courage will forever fail us, and in the end our hope will be entirely extinguished, and will give place to despondency and despair. We would fondly wish him, to stretch forth his hand to a distance, and drive back the troubles which he sees to be prepared for us; yet he seems to take no notice, and does not prevent the blood of the innocent from being shed. Let this consolatory consideration, however, sustain us, that he will at length actually show how precious our blood was in his sight. If it is objected, that God’s assistance comes too late, after we have endured all calamities, I answer, God delays to interfere no longer than he knows it to be of advantage for us to be humbled under the cross, and if he chooses rather to take vengeance after we have suffered outrage, than to aid us previous to the infliction of evil, it is not because he is not always willing and ready to support us; but because he knows it is not always a proper time for manifesting his grace.”

We have permission to be human. In our distress we can ask where God is? We can pray according to our perceptions, but as Calvin says we cannot measure the help of God according to our senses. We must trust him in faith. In our affliction, if we are to hold fast to hope, we must reach beyond what is immediately perceptible to us. As our family recently read through the book of Job and considered God’s sovereignty in suffering, I was reflecting with them on how important it is for us to understand God’s goodness and faithfulness to us now, while we are in relative peace and comfort so that we have something to hold on to when we are in distress.

_______

I need to also once again remind us that we can only pray these Psalms from the perspective of the Psalmist if we are in Christ. David was in Christ, as were all the Old Testament saints. They looked forward to the coming Messiah with deep conviction and faith, just as we now look back on his finished work. David’s only hope is in Yahweh and his Anointed, so too is our only hope. Apart from Christ we are the wicked in this Psalm. Because of Jesus we are now counted among the righteous, and we are to live accordingly.

________ So, It is ok to pray verse one when you are in the depths of despair, but this Psalm directs the prayers of the righteous in a better direction.

12-15 : The Prayers of the Righteous

Arise, O Yahweh; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said in his heart, “You will not require it.” You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none.

Where is God? He is with us and will never forsake us! He is our defender and our hope. Even if in his good wisdom he intends to allow us to suffer longer than we would like, we can still take up the prayer of Psalm 10! If we are not the direct victims of the wicked but are privy to injustice, we can take up the prayer of Psalm 10 with gusto on behalf of the afflicted.

Arise, O Yahweh! O God lift up your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. We must take up this prayer in the face of injustice. Where else should we direct our petitions? As Calvin said, only God is always armed with invincible power. In his prayer the Psalmist restates the absurdity of spurning God, and the delusion God will not hold the wicked accountable. No, God has not hidden his face from affliction. He sees it. He is intimately aware of every sinister plan of the proud. Thus the unfortunate, the victim of injustice casts himself on to Yahweh, a God great in compassion, and abounding in steadfast love. Yahweh is a helper to the orphan, he is a protector and provider for the fatherless.

Now the prayer of the righteous petitions divine action. Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer. We should absolutely pray this prayer in the face of wicked injustice. Asking God to break the arm of the wicked is asking God to destroy the means by which the wicked afflict the innocent. O Yahweh, stricken the abusive father with sickness, strike the abortion clinic with lightning, sink the boats of pirates, burn down the pornsite servers and blind every pedofile. We are not just allowed to pray for Yahweh to destroy the means by which the wicked afflict the innocent, we ought to pray these kinds of prayers. It is loving to pray for evil to stop. It is loving the wicked and the proud, for us to pray that God would humble them and stop them from committing further acts of evil.

The technical term for these kinds of prayers are imprecatory prayers. Imprecations are curses. Praying imprecations on the wicked is very common in the Bible, and there are entire Psalms called imprecatory Psalms, where the Psalmist prays that God would meet out the curses that he has promised to impose of evil.

We had an exploratory discussion on this topic on Friday, and later on in this series we will speak directly to these sorts of prayers, but let me take this moment to plug a wonderful book on this topic. I have invited all the guys in our text thread to get this book and read it. And we have scheduled a get together for the men to discuss the book and the topic.

16-18 : The Humility of the Righteous

Ok, let’s bring this Psalm home! Yahweh is King forever and ever; Nations have perished from His land. O Yahweh, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will cause Your ear to give heed To give justice to the orphan and the oppressed, So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.

The proud do not recognize the authority of Yahweh. They do not obey him. They are the Most High in their myopic imaginings. This is NOT the posture of the righteous. No. Our declaration is that Yahweh is King forever and ever! It is to him we bow. We pledge allegiance to him and seek to delight in his will and walk in his ways. We seek to be faithful to him through humble obedience to his kind commands. God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. In Christ, we who once walked according to the prince of the power of the air, sons of disobedience, children of wrath, we have received the grace of God in the face of Jesus. God made us alive by his grace alone. The proud boast in the desires of his own heart, but the humble boast in Christ, because we know that apart from his grace we are lost. When we pledge allegiance to King Jesus, even that is a work of the Spirit of God within us. The righteous are not self righteous, no we are the recipients of a gift we don’t deserve, a gift we didn’t earn, a gift that God alone could give of his own free will.

In the face of affliction we stand humbly before God, plead for him to rise up, and take up the cause of the innocent. We trust him because we know that he hears our cries, and he will strengthen the heart of the humble. Only the humble can be hopeful. In the final verse of this Psalm we get a glimpse of the hope of the Eschaton. When Jesus comes and casts all wickedness from the earth. No more terror, no pain nor sorrows. Let us walk humbly before our Triune God and King. Let us resits the evil one in the power of the Spirit. And trust our father in the face of affliction. Amen.