Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Be aware that there is a quarterly business meeting on January 2nd, I know we’re still quite some time away from that, but I always try to announce meetings way in advance so that we’re all well aware of it when the time comes.

In just under a month, we have some special services coming up.

I want you to be aware of these dates, so you don’t miss anything.

On December 22nd and 29th, we don’t have our typical Wednesday evening Bible Study & Prayer times.

In lieu of our normal services, we’ll instead of the following special events:

Christmas Eve, Carols and Lessons at 7pm in the Auditorium; we’ll follow the service with a dessert social in the Activity Room.

We’re asking that everyone bring one dessert to share—that can be whatever you’d like it to be, it could be a dozen cookies, your grandmother’s apple pie, or really anything that you’d like to bring.

New Year’s Eve, we’ll have our annual celebration from 7pm-12am.

This isn’t really a service, it’s purely a fellowship opportunity.

We’ll have tons of food for everyone to enjoy and board games in the Activity Room.

We’ll show the ball drop on the screens in the Auditorium.

It’s very casual, and you don’t have to stay the whole time if you don’t want.

Feel free to come and enjoy food and then leave if you need to, or stick around the whole night.

Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

This evening’s message is a continuation of our series through the book of Psalms and as you know through our series so far, many of the psalms were written by David and a handful of certain authors.

Psalm 10, however, doesn’t fit that pattern, it wasn’t written with a superscription, which makes it difficult to determine the exact background of the text.

However, if you remember two weeks ago, I mentioned when we were working through Psalm 9 that many scholars believe that Psalms 9 and 10 were originally connected as corresponding psalms.

If that’s the case, then we could rightly say that David wrote Psalm 10 as well, but there’s a bit of uncertainty because Psalm 10 doesn’t carry a superscription like Psalm 9 does.

Because of the lack of superscription, we can’t really postulate the time, the circumstances of life, or even the exact details of the text, because we simply don’t have them; but, not having these details actually allows the text to be applicable in a more generic sense.

Much like some of our previous psalms, when a psalm is very specific, the application tends to be very specific; but when a psalm is more general, the application is a little more general.

What we see in Psalm 10 is the anonymous psalmist complaining about the wickedness of the wicked.

And he starts this complaint by asking the LORD why God seems to hide himself in times of trouble.

I think, we can already see how relatable this is.

The psalmist spends the first half complaining about the wicked, but then in the second half of the text, he prays for the LORD to relieve his people.

The psalm ultimately ends with praise to the LORD.

Let’s read together Psalm 10.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) The Psalmist’s Complaint of the Wicked, vs. 1-11 and (2) The psalmist’s prayer for God to appear, vs. 12-18.

Both sections of this psalm ultimately drive at one point.

That though the wicked seem to prosper now and oppress the people, true prosperity is found in God and he will relieve his people from wicked oppression.

Prayer for Illumination

The Psalmist’s complaint of the wicked (1-11)

Psalm 10 starts with a question to God. “Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

These are clearly rhetorical in nature, because the psalmist doesn’t necessarily expect God to respond to him, but the rhetorical nature of the questions and the questions themselves reflect the psalmist’s heart and current life situation.

The life situation itself will be expounded on through the text, but the heart of the psalmist is seen in the first verse.

In a time during which the wicked seem to prosper and in which the righteous are oppressed, the psalmist cries out, “where are you Lord?” “Why are you not here?”

These are all questions that we relate to because as I’ve often said in this series, sometimes life is simply difficult and hard; and in those times of great difficulty, when those who are living wickedly seem to prosper, our mind and our heart tend to think in similar ways to how the Psalmist thinks in this verse.

“Why are you not here God?” “Where are you Lord?”

These statements or questions express the desperate nature of the psalmist, that after witnessing all this wickedness, he can’t help but to cry out to the LORD.

Allen Ross, “The fact that the wicked may triumph caused the psalmist to ask why the Lord was hiding himself from the trouble.

The question is a bold expression of the true feelings of oppressed people who cry out for help.”

After making this initial proclamatory question, the psalmist then turns to describing the character of those that are oppressing others.

Starting in Vs. 2 all the way to Vs. 7, he describes these people as arrogant, wicked, prideful, and full of cursing and deceit.

Vs. 2 calls them arrogant and wicked people who “hotly pursue the poor.”

Vs. 3 calls them boastful people who boast about all the things that they’ve obtained, they’re greedy for gain, and they’ve renounced the LORD.

Vs. 4 tells us that out of the pridefulness, they refuse to seek God and all they think is that “there is no God.”

Vs. 5 shows us that they don’t even consider the judgments of God, because he’s so focused on his own prosperity.

In haughtiness, he puffs at his foes.

Vs. 6 tells us that he is so haughty, prideful, and stubborn that he doesn’t even think he’ll meet adversity.

Vs. 7 tells us that his mouth is filled with cursing, lies, and oppression.

That under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

We can draw further conclusions from these verses, that this person epitomizes everything that we think of when we think of the wicked.

Prideful, cunning, mischievous, selfish, and oppressive.

I can’t help but to think of a villain from a comic book or movie—in fact, when I was studying through this passage, the image put forth of this wicked person reminded me of Lex Luthor from Superman.

Someone who seems to have it all, is intelligent and cunning, and that walks all over those who get in his way.

The psalmist describes someone who cares only for himself and is willing to hurt others to get what he wants; in context, those that are being hurt and oppressed are God’s people and they’re described as the afflicted (17), the fatherless and the oppressed (18).

Interspersed in the psalmist’s description of the wicked, we see one brief statement about what the psalmist is hoping for the LORD to do:

Vs. 2, “Let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.”

Again, iterating the point that these wicked oppressors are acting mischievously.

They have come up with schemes probably to continue in the oppression of the people around them; to continue gaining the desires of their souls.

But the psalmist doesn’t stop at just describing the character of those that oppress others.

Vss.

8-11 describe the actions of those wicked people that oppress others.

In a similar manner to how he describes their character, the psalmist uses vss.

8-11 to show us how this person acts; and the psalmist utilizes vivid imagery to show us this:

Vs. 8 says that this wicked person “sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent.

Vs. 9 says that the wicked person “lurks in ambush like a lion; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.”

Vs. 10 tells us the “helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might.”

Vs. 11 is the wicked person making the claim that God doesn’t care that he’s wicked, God has forgotten, God isn’t watching, and God won’t see him acting wickedly.

Again, let me point out the vivid imagery that the psalmist utilizes to make his case against the actions of the wicked.

The psalmist describes the wicked like a lion, which in our modern-day Western context, I don’t think we appreciate what exactly this looks like.

A few years ago, there was an uproar against a dentist who went to Africa and shot and killed a lion.

In the United States, people were upset that this person would dare go out in the wild and kill such a majestic animal.

The reality is, that the people who actually live in Africa are deathly afraid of lions.

And if you were to ask them what they thought of a person killing a lion, they would’ve thought of this as a good thing.

Lions stalk their prey.

The National Geographic, writes that “Lions are fierce predators that often stalk their prey before attacking.

Their attacks cause prey to panic and disperse, allowing the lions to isolate and attack a weaker or slower [animal].”

That imagery from National Geographic helps us to understand how these wicked people are acting.

They’re described as people who are waiting to do evil things towards others and those that fall victim to them are crushed by their might—they are the ones waiting to do harm towards others because they only care for themselves and their own delight.

They are the ones that won’t hesitate to run over other people because what they desire is of more importance to them than others.

In this way, they are like lions who are fierce predators that stalk their prayer before attacking.

Again, I can’t help but to think of certain villains in comic books and movies who are utterly manipulative seeking their own power, control, and desires—people like Lex Luthor in Superman, Presidents Snow and Coin in the Hunger Games, or like Sauron in the Lord of the Rings.

The result of their evil and wickedness is that they genuinely believe that God doesn’t care that they’re acting wickedly, that God has forgotten, that God has hidden his face from them and won’t see what they’re doing.

Matthew Henry describes these wicked people like this: “The sinner proudly glories in his power and success.

Wicked people will not seek after God, that is, will not call upon him.

They live without prayer, and that is living without God.

They have many thoughts, many objects and devices, but think not of the Lord in any of them; they have no submission to his will, nor aim for his glory.

The cause of this is pride.”

What the psalmist describes is one who is so caught up in his own sin, his own wickedness, and his own evil that he doesn’t care to know God, he doesn’t care if God sees him, in fact, he’s certain that God doesn’t see him.

And because of this, he continues in wickedness hurting those that are around him.

Now that the psalmist has expressed his thoughts and feelings about the wicked and God’s apparent lack of action, he then turns his attention to prayer.

And the psalmist prays specifically for the LORD to respond, to appear, and to bring relief to the people.

Let’s re-read Vs. 12-18:

The Psalmist’s prayer for God to appear (12-18)

In the last seven verses, the psalmist turns his attention to prayer.

And this prayer is something that I think we can all relate to when we find ourselves in similar situations.