Psalm 10 - When Life Gets Real

turn to psalm 10

Summer has flown by

End on a psalm that has a 2020 kind of ring to it.

This psalm helps us with the question: what do you do when life gets real? How do you avoid feelings of doubt and hopelessness when it feels like God has decided to take a divine siesta?

In Psalm 10, the sense that God is absent comes from a heightened awareness wickedness in the world, and leads the psalmist to a desperate prayer of faith for deliverance and ultimate justice. When this world seems full of injustice and evil, the only hope we have is that God is a wise and fatherly king who will call wickedness to account and will give aid to those who find themselves in a position of dire helplessness.

Psalm 10 ESV

1 Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. 4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.” 5 His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. 6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.” 7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. 8 He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; 9 he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might. 11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.” 12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted. 13 Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”? 14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless. 15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none. 16 The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land. 17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear 18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

prayer

Psalm 9 & 10 as a reflection of reality/arc of David’s life.

Kidner :

Psalm 9 the center of gravity was the judgment to come

Psalm 10 it is the present age, where injustice is rampant

In psalm 10:1-11 we are confronted with

Real life: the problem of wickedness

I got a dose of this reality over this past week as I signed up for a webinar put on by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (which serves at the behest of the Southern Baptist Convention). They were detailing the human rights violations taking place under the Chinese Communist Party.

For decades abuses have been documented, including systematically monitoring and destroying Christian churches.

More recently, you may have seen the viral video of the CCP forcing Uyghur Muslims onto trains and taking them to “re-education camps,” where it is thought that more than one million people are being held. In these concentration camps, communist party officials attempt to indoctrinate the Uyghur people detained into the ideological standard of Xi Jinping and the reigning communist party.

This type of evil abuse of others is just one of the thousands of examples that I’m sure we could brainstorm today if we were to consider how evil and wickedness persist all around us in an open defiance of God and his commands.

But the Bible is not silent about the reality of wickedness. It is not, as some think it to be, a neat and tidy book about little cherubs on harps in the clouds with no sense of what the real world is like. Instead, we are confronted throughout the Scripture, and perhaps especially in the psalms with an accurate picture of humanity.

Of course, if we were going to look from the widest possible angle, we know that the reality of evil’s existence is a function of our own sinful rebellion against God detailed in the first three chapters of Genesis.

And ever since the 3rd chapter of Genesis, humanity has been plagued by the realities of murder, rape, theft, adultery, sexual immorality, slander and lies.

But specific to the psalms, it was about this psalm in particular that Martin Luther once said:

[QUOTE] “There is not, in my judgment, a Psalm which describes the mind, the manners, the works, the words, the feelings, and the fate of the ungodly with so much propriety, fulness, and light, as this Psalm. So that, if in any respect there has not been enough said heretofore, or if there shall be anything wanting in the Psalms that shall follow, we may here find a perfect image and representation of iniquity. This Psalm, therefore, is a type, form, and description of that man, who, though he may be in the sight of himself and of men more excellent than Peter himself, is detestable in the eyes of God.” [END QUOTE]

And therein is the rub of Psalm 10. It uniquely describes the realities of a person who thinks of himself as smelling like a rose when he is more putrid than the smell of a rotting corpse. Look at the description of the wicked in verses 2-11

He is described as arrogant in verse 2

He is described as greedy in verse 3

He is prideful in verse 4

Also in verse 4 it is said of him he does not have God in his thoughts. We talked a little bit about this last week. The sin of forgetting God.

Charles Spurgeon said: [QUOTE] “The only place where God is not is in the thoughts of the wicked. This is a damning accusation; for where the God of heaven is not, the Lord of hell is reigning and raging; and if God be not in our thoughts, our thoughts will bring us to perdition.” [END QUOTE]

When you look at verse 5 the wicked are seemingly prosperous! They seem to have everything going for them in this life.

He has a haughty heart (v6)

and a defiled and deceitful tongue (v7)

This description surprised C.S. Lewis in his reflections on the psalms. He said that in a simpler and more violent age when more evil was done with the knife, the big stick, and the firebrand, he thought less would be done by talk. But in reality the Psalmists mention hardly any kind of evil more often than the evil done with our TONGUES - something even the most civilized societies share in common.… It is all over the Psalter.

He said, [QUOTE] “One almost hears the incessant whispering, tattling, lying, scolding, flattery, and circulation of rumours. No historical readjustments are here required, we are in the world we know.” [END QUOTE]

Listen, dear friends, Evil shows itself most often in verbal violence. In fact, the Apostle Paul quotes Psalm 10:7 to show that everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike, are under the power of sin (Romans 3:14). And James says,

The tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. (James 3:6).

If you want to peer momentarily at one of Satan’s most impressive arson jobs, look no further than the comment sections of most social media feeds.

This is REAL LIFE folks… there is REAL WICKEDNESS and its dripping from our lips.

But the description continues in verse 8-11. The wicked person is seen as a murderer and violent oppressor of the poor and innocent. He prowls like a lion, and worse than a lion, he devours his own kind - other fellow humans.

All of this is done in an ever more brazen fashion as the wicked person feels as though he keeps on getting away with his evil deeds without God noticing. The fact that God has not enacted immediate justice leads him to continue in his wicked ways instead of leading him to humble repentance and gratefulness for God’s kindness in not destroying him.

Romans 2:3–5 ESV

3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? 5 But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

Psalm 10 is all about this kind of fake religious person. They are not proper atheists, they are PRACTICAL atheists. Psalm 10 could very easily be about someone who attends church - acknowledges there is a God, but never LIVES like there is one. They think the God’s rules apply to EVERYONE ELSE BUT THEMSELVES. They feel bulletproof to God’s judgment of their OWN sin, and blindly live for themselves and their own bottom line and could care less about how it impacts anyone else around them. They become presumptuous with God’s patience and they are impenitent to his prodding, and they are as Paul says in Romans storing up WRATH for themselves on the day of judgment - because God DOES see and God DOES keep account. That’s what the psalmist knows as he gets real with God in prayer. So we see secondly what I’m calling

Real faith: the prayer of dependence

When life gets real and wickedness seems unchecked, we can and we must get real with God and pray in faith for his deliverance and justice to prevail.

Verse 12 says

Psalm 10:12 ESV

12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.

If you’re keeping track, that’s the fourth time in ten psalms we’ve seen this call to action - this battle cry for God to rise up and defeat his foes.

When the wicked think they are getting away with it, the person of faith trusts that God is keeping score and calls for him to respond! The psalmist confidently writes:

YOU DO SEE. YOU DO TAKE NOTE.

The wicked have been sorely mistaken. When God has not executed swift judgment they’ve seen it as tacit approval, when plainly we know from Scripture that God’s kindness is meant to lead sinners to repent not to repeat offend!

So the psalmist prays with boldness for God to exact punishment, to protect the poor and helpless and to break the power of the wicked.

Note also that in his prayer he completely entrusts himself to God, and avoids taking matters into his own hands. Look at verse 14

Psalm 10:14 ESV

14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.

I suppose this aspect of faith ultimately defines one of the most fundamental differences between the righteous and the wicked. Do you trust God to administer justice - even if it doesn’t seem like he’s doing so quickly or severely enough? Will you trust him, or will you take matters into your own hands? Will you do what is right in your own eyes? Or will you trust the fatherly wisdom of your God and King?

Core essence of sin, need for repentance and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior!

Think with me about our Savior, Jesus, and the wickedness that surrounded him, and yet he said “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” He entrusted himself to the one who judges justly, and we must pray and believe that God will do the same for us.

Paul tells us in Romans:

Romans 12:19 ESV

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

It is that faith-filled prayer of dependence on God and his ultimate deliverance that leads a person to a place where he can experience...

Real hope: the prospect of justice

we see this in verses 16-18

Psalm 10:16–18 ESV

16 The Lord is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land. 17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear 18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

In this psalm as in many of these psalms it is unclear whether or not the psalmist ever saw the justice for his specific plea in his own lifetime. But the psalmist knows that one day - whether in this life or in the life to come, all things will be set right. That confidence in God is the bedrock of our hope.

God’s wrath may be delayed, but it is never canceled.

Psalm 10 ends with an extraordinary measure of confidence in God’s full and final judgment precisely because the Lord is a forever king. There will be no end to his rule and reign. By contrast, the wicked will perish and will come to understand that they are mere men who will not be allowed to persist in their wicked ways forever.

I want to close today with a bonus point, so to speak, because this psalm so perfectly describes the way the righteous are called to live in a world filled with injustice and extremely difficult days.

I was reminded in my preparation for this message by James Montgomery Boice’s commentary of the prophet Habakkuk. Interestingly, our kids were studying Habakkuk not that long ago in their CBFs.

Habakkuk was told by God that extremely bad times were coming. The Babylonians were going to overrun his country and carry the people into slavery. But God said that during those times, the righteous will live by faith.

This is never easy for us. But this is the call of psalm 10 - live by faith NOT by sight. All around us will be injustice, but do you trust expectantly that God will ultimately break the power of evil?

Habakuk said:

Habakkuk 3:17–18 ESV

17 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, 18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Now… let me connect the dots for you to my final bonus point today. As I was reflecting on the righteous living by faith and the justice of God, and the salvation of God, I could not help but think of Romans 1:16-17… and Romans 3.21-26

Romans 1:16–17 ESV

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”

Wrath revealed - excursion Romans 1:18-3.20

Paul is going to pick up where he left off describing the revelation of the righteousness of God. But before we read this text, you need to know that the word translated Righteousness in this text is “δικαιοσύνη”

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. δικαιοσύνη

the quality, state, or practice of judicial responsibility w. focus on fairness, justice, equitableness, fairness

A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed. δικαιοσύνη

quality or state of juridical correctness with focus on redemptive action, righteousness

That is to say, in either case, God’s correctness or responsibility as judge is being revealed in the gospel which Paul says is the power of God.

Real justice: the power of God to save

Romans 3:21–26 ESV

21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. 26 It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Putting all of this together, we come to understand that the Gospel IS the power of God to save…which is specifically revealed in his justice to punish sin on Christ and to pardon sinners by grace through faith in the redemption Jesus provides.

Real justice means that God does not take sin lightly. He punishes it. God, the forever righteous judge would not let his juridicial character be sullied by allowing sinners like David and like me to get off without perfect punishment being exacted. And that punishment, Paul says, was SATISFIED or PROPITIATED by Jesus Christ whom GOD put forward by his blood to be received by faith.

The righteousness…the JUSTICE of God is demonstrated in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Oh, yes, the world NEED a just king to sit on his throne, hear our pleas against injustices and judge properly! But we also need an atoning sacrifice to cover our own sin, or else his infinitely holy justice would wipe every single one of us out!

So the King of Kings was made a suffering servant for our sake.

Isaiah 52:13–53:11 ESV

13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14 As many were astonished at you— his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind— 15 so shall he sprinkle many nations. Kings shall shut their mouths because of him, for that which has not been told them they see, and that which they have not heard they understand. 1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? 9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. 11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

I hope you caught the contrast between Psalm 10 and Isaiah’s Suffering Servant-King

Psalm 10:13 said that wicked people think God will not call sin to account.

Isaiah said the suffering servant-King’s offering for guilt will prove that God is quite good at keeping the books.

Psalm 10:8-11 said that wicked people are violent

Isaiah said the suffering servant-King’s non-violent hands would be pierced.

Psalm 10:7 said that wicked people speak deceit

Isaiah said the suffering servant-King’s mouth would have no deceit.

Psalm 10:5-6 said that wicked people prosper themselves.

Isaiah said the suffering servant-King’s prosperity is from the LORD.

Psalm 10:4 said that wicked people forget God.

Isaiah said the suffering servant-King knew and obeyed the will of the Lord.

Psalm 10:3 said that wicked people are greedy.

Isaiah said the suffering servant-King would be cut off from the land of the living and the only fancy thing he’d occupy would be a grave he borrowed for three days from a rich guy.

Psalm 10:2 said that wicked people trap and oppress the innocent.

Isaiah said the suffering servant-King would be the innocent one trapped by wicked oppressors.

And Psalm 10:1 said that sometimes it feels like God is hiding his face from us.

Isaiah said the suffering servant-King would have no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He would be despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he would be despised, and we would esteem him not.

Friends, do you feel like you’re constantly looking for real justice and never see it? Perhaps you’ve haven’t fixed your gaze on the face of King Jesus.

The sign above his cross was no mistake.

The crown on his head was no mistake.

The purple robe with which they mocked him was no mistake.

All hail King Jesus. Why? Because in Jesus Christ, and only in his sacrificial death on the cross for the sins of all who trust in him can we truly begin to understand real justice. Justice paid for you and for me, and justice anticipated for all of eternity - because our King was high and lifted up.

Philippians 2:6–11 ESV

6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

When life gets real, get down on your knees and plead justice from the King of Kings by virtue of his blood shed for you, and then forever entrust yourself to his rule and reign knowing that the wicked will not prosper forever, because He will execute perfect justice for all of eternity on any and all who fail to submit to him.