Why, Jehovah, standest thou afar off? [Why] hidest thou thyself in times of distress?
The psalm opens with a cry to God and with the reason behind it: a wicked man is persecuting the humble. The question is not whether God is there, but why He seems far off just when trouble comes.
The question stings because the psalm just before it promised the opposite. It called God a stronghold in times of trouble. Now trouble has come, and He seems far away.
The first division gives us only the cry to Jehovah with the cause of the cry, this being the persecution of the humble by the wicked one. "Why, O LORD, do You stand far away? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?" The previous psalm had declared God to be a stronghold in just such times (verse 9). Why such a difference between faith and experience? But in truth faith does not rest upon experience here at all. It confesses that, as to His government, clouds and darkness may be around Him. In the end experience will come round to faith, and meanwhile the testing will prove needed and helpful. But faith looks to the invisible — it really sees Him who is invisible. It has its ground and its arguments. It is not credulity: it has sure evidence, all its own.
The pain here is not suffering alone. Writers who read this psalm as prophecy see the faithful suffering while the man who oppresses them prospers.
Two things cause the distress of the remnant. One is the wickedness of Antichrist rising to its height. The other is that, when it does, he appears to prosper greatly while the godly are allowed to suffer. What is more, God seems to hide His face, as if He were indifferent to both alike — the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the godly.
The long description that follows verse 1 keeps using "the wicked" in the singular. That grammar carries meaning.
The word "wicked" throughout this passage is in the singular. The singular would show that this description fits any wicked man. No doubt it will have its full expression in one man — the Antichrist. So the passage is a description of the character of the Antichrist, without being a distinct prophecy of him personally.
Another writer finds a clue to that reading near the end of the psalm.
This Psalm has the widest moral bearing. Yet read as a prophecy, it becomes definite, and that gives it a new and special interest. The mention of the Lord's land (verse 16) gives us a key to the more precise meaning of the general language used. There is also a very plain link of subject between this Psalm and the one just before it.
Later in the psalm the wicked man says what the sufferer feels in verse 1: God has hidden His face. The sufferer asks it as a question. The wicked man treats it as settled fact.
His triumph over all these enemies, and over the seemingly defenceless people of God, deceives him. He thinks that "God has forgotten, He has hidden His face, He will never see it" (v. 11).
The sense of being abandoned is not the truth of the matter. Another writer shows where the answer to the cry comes.
Chapter 14 of Revelation is the answer to the cry of the remnant. It records God's intervention in grace and judgment. Satan is at work and seems to triumph, so we might suppose that God is indifferent, and that He had abandoned His people to the cruel mercy of the enemy. But it is not so.
The psalm does not leave the question open. By the end, the God who seemed far off had already been at work in the heart that cried out.
Jehovah has heard the desire of the humble. He prepared their heart, and then listened. That listening will take the form of judging — of being Judge for the fatherless and the oppressed, so that the man of the earth, the one whose strength and hope were there, should oppress no more.
- Distance — The cry is not doubt but an honest question. The psalm before called God a stronghold in times of trouble; now trouble has come and He stands far off.
- Delay — The pain is double: the wicked prospers, the godly suffers, and God seems untroubled by both.
- Description — The singular "wicked" describes any wicked man, and points to one man in particular. The mention of the Lord's land ties the psalm to a real place.
- Deception — The oppressor turns the sufferer's question into his own conclusion: God has forgotten, He will never see. But he is deceived.
- Deliverance — God had already prepared the heart that cried before He listened to it. Faith rests on the invisible, and in the end experience comes round to faith.
The wicked, in his pride, doth hotly pursue the afflicted. They shall be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
Psalm 10 opens with a question many have asked in trouble. Why does God seem to stand back when evil is at its strongest? Verse 2 gives one answer. It names pride as the force behind the hunt of the poor. Then it asks that the hunters fall into their own traps.
The verse does not blame greed or revenge. It names pride as the motive, and one writer traces that root through the whole psalm. (The older translation renders verse 4 as "God is not in all his thoughts"; the ESV has "all his thoughts are, 'There is no God.'")
He does persecute the poor, but it is his pride that moves him to do it... He has no desire for God: "God is not in all his thoughts" (v. 4), and this is because of his proud looks... Only the most insufferable pride could lead him to treat God with contempt.
The same writer applies the description to the world's leaders:
This description of the wicked was written about three thousand years ago, yet it exactly fits the leaders of the ungodly world today. They completely rule God out of everything. They shut Him out everywhere, at least in their thinking... He has no place in their politics or their business. He has no place in their science or their philosophy.
From verse 2 onward the psalm speaks of "the wicked" in the singular, not of a crowd. Commentators read that singular in two ways, and one holds both together.
The word "wicked" throughout this passage is in the singular. The singular shows that the description fits any wicked man. But no doubt it will find its full expression in one man — the Antichrist. So the passage describes the character of the Antichrist. It is not a direct prophecy about him as a person.
Others read the figure as one coming man:
These verses no longer speak in the plural — "them" and "they" — but of one outstanding enemy. He does not come from the nations outside Israel, but from inside the nation Israel... Verses 2 to 11 describe the antichrist who will arise in Israel, claiming to be God (2 Thess. 2:3-4)... Those who join him in oppressing the poor to enrich themselves will be fine people in his eyes.
The verse sets the proud man against the afflicted. One writer names what each of them acts on:
The wicked in his pride acts on what he can see. The righteous acts by faith on the character of Jehovah, faith in Him... He pursues his plans without conscience, seeking to destroy the humble by craft, and reckons that God has forgotten him. How well Christ could help them here! The humble cry under the oppression.
The second half of the verse asks God to catch the plotters in their own plans. An older translation reads the line as a statement: they will be taken. The psalm reports the outcome:
He declares that God has not seen his sin, or that if He has, He does not mind and will never call him to account for it. And so with full confidence he says in his heart, "I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity" (Ps. 10:6). Yet before that Psalm ends, we find that he is moved... He is not only moved, but removed in judgment. His boasted security turns out to be a lie.
Psalms 9 and 10 run through the Hebrew alphabet in order — except for a gap of six letters. The place where the order breaks is not random:
Notice where this gap in the structure falls. Not in the ninth psalm, which celebrates the reign of the Most High from beginning to end, but near the start of the tenth, where the psalm describes the man of sin. The alphabet returns as soon as the description ends and the appeal begins again: "Arise, Jehovah!" This wicked one seems for a time to resist the government of God, and even to prevail against the Most High. But it cannot truly be so.
The request of verse 2 is not left hanging:
God has long been a patient Observer (v. 14). But patience is not indifference, and the world will learn that by terrible experience. God will repay in perfect righteousness. The helpless have committed themselves to Him, and they will find Him a real helper — a Helper of the fatherless, of those who have no one on earth to depend upon.
- Pride starts it. The hunt of the poor is no accident. Pride moves him to do it. The same pride later leads him to treat God with contempt.
- Pride empties the mind of God. The proud rule God out of politics, business, science and philosophy. They shut Him out of every thought.
- Pride wears one face and many. The singular "wicked" fits any proud man. Commentators see its fullest expression in one coming man.
- Pride recoils. The schemes aimed at the poor close on the schemer. He is not only moved, but removed. His boasted security turns out to be a lie.
- Pride ends at "Arise." The alphabet picks up again the moment the psalm cries "Arise." God's patience was never indifference, and the helpless find Him a helper.
For the wicked boasteth of his soul's desire, and he blesseth the covetous; he contemneth Jehovah.
Psalm 10 is the cry of the oppressed while God stands far off. Verse 3 turns the light on the man causing the trouble, and it raises a hard question: how can other people admire a man whom God abhors?
The psalm describes one man, yet it is not about only one man.
The word "wicked" throughout this passage is in the singular. Using the singular shows that the description fits any wicked man, though it will surely reach its full expression in one man — the Antichrist.
Read as a portrait, verse 3 gathers three faults into one line.
The third verse describes his covetousness, his blasphemy, and his boastful self-confidence.
To boast of "the desires of his soul" is to brag about getting your own way, with nothing allowed to stand in the way.
He boasts of his soul's desire — of having his own way. As he chases it, he refuses every check of Jehovah's will. He renounces Him, he scorns Him, he is completely independent. Like a "wandering star", he is bound to no orbit. That very fact shows he is held by earthly chains he knows nothing about, a meteor that will be put out in darkness. Safety and permanence belong only to the orbit.
The second half of the verse is rendered differently by different translators. The ESV has the greedy man cursing and renouncing the LORD; older versions have him blessing the covetous whom the LORD abhors. One rendering keeps both ideas side by side:
For the wicked man boasts of his soul's desire; he blesses the plunderer, he despises Jehovah.
On that older reading, the wicked man hands out congratulations, and his verdict on people reverses God's.
The wicked boasts himself in his heart's desire, and blesses him (counts him happy, that is) whom Jehovah abhors. He pursues his plans without conscience, seeking to destroy the humble by craft, and reckons that God has forgotten him.
That same reversal still runs through ordinary life, and it reaches into religion as well.
The deep selfishness of the heart prefers its own care to God's care, and that ties it in worldly sympathy to the people of this age. So let us beware, for "what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God." No evil is more common in the religious world today, and it was just as common in our Lord's day. Ease, honour, influence, and position are valued as highly as ever, and this belittles the truth beyond measure.
Greed looks like ordinary ambition, which is why so few people fear it.
Covetousness involves no dishonesty. It is not even hard or sharp dealing. It is no more than the desire for more — the very spring of modern effort, the drive to better yourself that everyone is urged on to, from the mechanic to the millionaire. So the creature becomes the object, and not God; and that is why covetousness is called idolatry. It is man looking down, not up in dependence on God.
Greed also hides best from the person who has it.
It is one thing to see it in others, and quite another to judge it in ourselves. The fact is that only one thing can help us detect the hateful sin of covetousness: the light of the Word of God shining into the soul and reaching every room of our moral being.
Trace the boasting, the praise of greed, and the contempt of God back far enough, and one thing sits underneath them all.
He is covetous and "blesses the covetous" (verse 3), and his pride leads him to boast of this evil. Again, he has no desire for God, and the reason is the pride of his face (verse 4). He shuts God out of his thoughts completely... No wonder, then, that verse 15 gives us the prayer, "Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer" — a prayer God will answer in due time.
- Pride starts it. Boasting, greed, and contempt for God all grow from the same root — a man too proud to let God's will check him.
- Desire becomes the god. Wanting more looks harmless. But it puts the creature where God should be, and that is why covetousness is called idolatry.
- Praise reverses the verdict. The wicked man calls happy the very person the LORD abhors. What people exalt, God calls an abomination.
- The blind spot is personal. Greed is easy to see in others and nearly invisible in ourselves; only the light of God's Word exposes it.
- Judgment ends it. The psalm closes with a prayer: break the arm of the wicked. God will answer it in due time.
The wicked [saith], in the haughtiness of his countenance, He doth not search out all his thoughts are, There is no God!
Psalm 10 paints a man in whom evil has grown up fully. Verse 4 gives the root: a proud face, a refusal to seek God, and a mind with no room for Him. Two questions follow. What goes on inside such a person? And is the psalm describing people in general, or one figure still to come?
One writer counts how often the psalm names this man, and finds one root behind all his evil.
Will our readers examine this tenth Psalm, which exposes the character of unconverted man. They will discover that five times over it calls him "the wicked." It does not only call him that. It also describes what makes up his wickedness: in one word, it is the pride of his heart.
Pride does not just go along with shutting God out. It causes it. (Older translations end the verse "God is not in all his thoughts," which is the wording the next two writers quote.)
Again, he has no desire for God: "God is not in all his thoughts" (v. 4), and this is because of the pride of his face. He shuts God out of his thoughts completely. He does this because self-sufficiency fills him and he imagines that he will never be moved.
Does this mean the man never thinks about God at all? One writer looks at what fills the space instead.
Being evil himself, he has no idea of a Being supremely good. If a notion of God comes into his mind, it is a demon that rises up before him. It is a being with all the lusts he has himself, and with unlimited power as well. As the Psalmist puts it, "God is not in all his thoughts" (Ps. 10:4); that is, no true thought of God is there. A hard master, a harsh man, takes the place of God in his thinking, but that is not God at all. So he has no confidence in God, and the thought of having to do with Him is, more than anything else, a terror to his soul.
The verse says the wicked "does not seek him." One writer shows how far that refusal reaches.
Although it is always the duty of men to seek after God, in fact they refuse to do so. Psalm 53:2 is deeply solemn. It says: "God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one." The great and gracious Creator looked over the whole human race. He could not see one who wanted Him, or even one who understood why his Creator made him! Psalm 14:2-3 and Romans 3:11-12 confirm this. To this we would add Psalm 10:4.
Fereday does not leave the picture there.
Since this is the true state of things, everyone would perish in their appalling folly, if God were not at work in grace. If men do not want Him, He wants them!
Some translators read the Hebrew another way. They take "He will not search out" to mean that God will not investigate. On that reading, the man's denial of God is not a conclusion he reached. It is a convenience he needs.
He is not only independent of God, he denies Him; but he denies Him in the interest of his own lawless acts. "He will not search out," he says. His plottings, the weaving together of his purposes, are therefore atheistic. His pride and his lusts support each other.
Commentators differ over which sense the words carry. Both readings end in the same place: no room for God.
Throughout this psalm "the wicked" stands in the singular. One writer takes that as pointing beyond a general type.
In the singular it is, I judge, a description of a character. Yet I have no doubt there will be one special wicked one: The Lawless One of 2 Thessalonians 2:8 — the Antichrist. He is known here by his character, though, not by a distinct prophecy of his person. Lawlessness shows itself, but not The Lawless One, and it is not limited to one man.
This portrait still fits public life today.
Someone wrote this description of the wicked some three thousand years ago, yet it exactly fits the present leaders of the ungodly world. They completely rule God out of everything… He is outside the scope of all their politics, their business, their science, their philosophy. And if some of them cannot do without a religion of some kind, they take care to push Him far into the background even there. He becomes a vague and shadowy Being they can pretty safely ignore.
- Pride starts it. The wickedness described here has one root, named five times over in the psalm: the pride of his heart.
- Pride empties the mind. Self-sufficiency crowds God out, so that no true thought of Him remains — only a hard master of the man's own making.
- The empty mind refuses to seek. God looked down over the whole race to find one who sought Him, and found none. If men do not want Him, He wants them.
- The refusal serves the appetite. Denying that God investigates suits his lawless plans. Pride and lust prop each other up.
- The mind reaches full growth. The single "wicked" one points on to the Lawless One. The same outlook already rules God out of politics, business and science today.
His ways always succeed; thy judgments are far above out of his sight; [as for] all his adversaries, he puffeth at them.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
He saith in his heart, I shall not be moved; from generation to generation I shall be in no adversity.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
His mouth is full of cursing, and deceit, and oppression; under his tongue is mischief and iniquity.
Psalm 10 paints a man who has pushed God out of his thoughts. Verse 7 is the moment his mouth gives him away. On its own the line describes one cruel man. Paul later quotes it as part of God's charge against the whole human race.
The verse sits directly after the boast of verse 6, where the wicked man tells himself he will never be shaken. One writer ties the boast to the words that follow, and asks what kind of man now fills the place God once held. (He uses an older translation, which reads "trouble" and "vanity" where the ESV has "mischief and iniquity.")
Because he feels so secure, everything in his heart comes out: "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks", and "his mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression." What is "under his tongue" is hidden, yet ready to show itself. It is "trouble" for others and "vanity" in itself. It is a short description, but an effective one. If God is pushed out, it is to make room for man. And what kind of man is he, for whom the room is made?
The word does not have to mean bad language. One commentator shows what this cursing aims at, and how smooth the same mouth can sound.
This does not have to mean he uses swear words. Of this same man we read, "His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart" (Ps. 55:21). His cursing is more a matter of running others down — and above all God. He is one who curses God, uses deceit among his friends, and oppresses the poor. "Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity." People may not see this at first, but it lies under everything he says. What a terrible charge!
Paul places this line in a chain of quotations in Romans 3, and one writer traces the chain as a downward slope. Cursing is not the bottom of it.
The fourth quotation is from Psalm 10:7: "His mouth is filled with cursing." Lying leads to slander, and slander leads to cursing, because the slandered man hits back with cursing and bitterness.
The next quotation in Paul's list moves from words to blood.
The fifth quotation is from Proverbs 1:16: "their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed blood." From "cursing and bitterness" it is only a short step to murder.
It would be comfortable to read verse 7 as a description of somebody else. One writer removes that escape by noting whom Paul is describing when he borrows the line.
In Romans 3 we have God's charge against man, set out as a string of quotations from the Prophets and the Psalms. Among them we find these terrible words from Psalm 10: "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." If the heart did not hold these evils, the mouth could never pour them out. Here then we have an insight into the human heart. Notice too where this dreadful quotation stands. It comes in Paul's description of religious Jews, not in his account of the nations outside Israel… So a man can sing the praises of God on Sunday and be guilty of cursing and bitterness towards others on Monday.
Throughout Psalm 10 "the wicked" stands in the singular. One writer reads it as the picture of a type, and also as a hint of one man still to come.
As a rule — and always in Psalm 10, and every time the word is used in Psalm 9 except verse 17 — "the wicked" is singular… In the singular it describes, I judge, a character. Yet I have no doubt there will also be one particular wicked man, the Lawless One of 2 Thessalonians 2:8, the Antichrist. Here, though, he is known by his character, not by a clear prophecy about his person.
The psalm does not leave this mouth talking. Another writer follows the man to the end of the chapter and shows what happens to his confidence.
He claims that God has not seen his sin, or that if He has, He does not care and will never call him to account… The God he despises searches out his wickedness, breaks his arm, and destroys him out of the land. He is not only moved, but removed in judgment. His boasted security turns out to be a lie.
- Displaced. God is pushed out of his thoughts first; the mouth only reports what has already happened inside.
- Disguised. His cursing can sound smooth, and what lies "under his tongue" stays hidden until it shows itself.
- Escalating. Lying breeds slander, slander breeds cursing, and cursing is a short step from bloodshed.
- Universal. Paul aims this line at religious people, not only at obvious criminals. It shows what the human heart holds.
- Ended. The man who said he would never be shaken is himself removed in judgment; his security was a lie.
He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages; in the secret places doth he slay the innocent his eyes watch for the wretched.
Psalm 10 turns from wickedness in general to a close-up of one man. Verse 8 catches him at work: crouched out of sight, killing people who never saw him coming. Two questions follow. Who are the "innocent" he hunts, and does anyone see what happens in hidden places?
The wickedness here is not spread across many offenders. The psalm keeps one man in view, and commentators take that as deliberate.
The word "wicked" throughout this passage is in the singular. Using the singular shows that this description fits any wicked man, though no doubt it will have its full expression in one man — the Antichrist. So the passage describes the character of the Antichrist. It is not a distinct prophecy of him personally.
Hiding and watching take skill. But skill is only the surface here.
His acts are marked by craft, behind which there lurks the violence of a beast. His victims are the godly — the innocent and the poor.
The word "innocent" here points to what these victims do not share in.
They are "the innocent" (ver. 8). They take no part in the cursing, deceit, fraud and scheming that fill the lives of the wicked.
The ambush can be read at more than one level. It also raises a question: whose hand strikes the blow?
Verses 8 and 9 are literally true of some men. They may also be a picture of the antichrist. He will be able to do such things by proxy — using servants to carry out his evil plans. But God will hold him responsible for the evil his servants do by his direction. Many men are clever enough to hide that they are the source of the wickedness. They do it by manipulating servants they have deceived.
The killer's boldness has a root. He is sure no one will ever ask him for an account. One writer sees the same mix in the men who handed Jesus over.
Judas betrayed innocent blood and they condemned it. He at least had some feeling of remorse for what he had done — enough to drive him to take his own life. They had no feeling whatever. What was innocent blood to them? They had no reluctance about shedding it, nor had they any fear of the God who repays evil. They were prepared to "murder the innocent," saying in their hearts, "You will not call to account" (Ps. 10:8, 13).
Someone did see the hidden places. The long wait for justice is not neglect.
God has long been a patient Observer (v. 14). But patience is not indifference, as the world will learn by terrible experience. God will repay in perfect righteousness. The helpless who have committed themselves to Him will find Him a real helper — a Helper of the fatherless, those who have no one on earth to depend upon.
It is easy to read a portrait like this at arm's length. One writer warns against that.
When we look at these great examples of human wickedness in Scripture, our minds are often in danger of forgetting one thing. The Holy Spirit marks out the moral features of Christ's chief adversary among men. What He shows us there is simply the ripe development of what is in the human heart of every one of us.
- Hidden — verse 8 shows one man's method. The singular fits any wicked man, and points to one in whom it comes to full expression.
- Hunting — his acts are marked by craft, with the violence of a beast behind them.
- Helpless — his victims are the innocent and the poor. They take no part in the deceit around them, and they have no one on earth to defend them.
- Heartless — he kills because he has told himself God will never call it to account. The men who condemned Jesus made the same calculation.
- Held to account — God's long silence is patience, not indifference. He is the helper of those who have no other.
He lieth in wait secretly, like a lion in his thicket; he lieth in wait to catch the afflicted he doth catch the afflicted, drawing him into his net.
The psalm has been describing a man who has pushed God out of his thoughts. Here that inward atheism turns into a hunt. Two images stack up: an animal crouching in cover, and a trapper with a net. Who is the predator? Who are the prey? And why does God let it happen?
The verse fuses two pictures: a lion in its thicket and a man with a net. One writer takes that fusion as the point.
So now we have his ways — a monotony of wickedness. The psalmist tries to describe it, and can only repeat himself in different ways. The picture is a wild beast, a beast of prey. It is human only in this: it carries the cunning and forethought of the hunter. Man without God is only such a beast. The spiritual part has sunk into the animal, and that gives the animal an unnatural power for evil.
The lion does not charge in the open; it waits. One writer reads verses 8 to 11 as a study in concealment. A man can hunt without anyone seeing him at the kill.
Verses 8 to 11 then emphasise the deceit that marks his every activity. Verses 8 and 9 are literally true of some men. They may also be a picture of the antichrist. He will be able to do such things by proxy — that is, with servants to carry out his evil plans. But God will hold him responsible for the evil his servants do at his direction. Many men are clever enough to hide that they are the source of the wickedness. They manipulate their deluded servants.
Twice the verse names the target: "the poor." That is not about money. The word points to the heart, and it stands opposite the pride running through the rest of the psalm.
They are "the poor" (v. 2). That is, of course, poor in spirit, and not merely poor in worldly possessions. Their poverty of spirit is the exact opposite of pride, and pride is the mark of frail mortal man.
Psalm 10 follows patterns — one of them alphabetical. At these verses the patterns break down. One commentator treats that breakdown as designed, not accidental.
Even the numerical structure seems to fall through here in the smaller sections. The alphabetic structure has already done so, and yet by design. So we may recognise design here too. These three verses show what is still a nameless horror, like the fourth of the imperial beasts in Daniel's vision (Dan. 7).
It is easy to read this as a portrait of somebody else — a tyrant, or a future enemy of God. One writer warns against that reflex.
We study the great examples of human wickedness in Scripture from a distance, and our minds are often in danger there. The Holy Spirit sketches the moral features of Christ's chief adversary among men. We forget that this is only the ripe development of what is in the human heart of every one of us. Fallen and corrupted nature produces "the man of sin" — nature grown to full wickedness under the nurture the devil is allowed to give.
The other half of the mirror is the prey. If the wicked hunts the poor, a searching question follows for anyone who is never hunted.
We come so little into collision with the men of this age. One reason, we may be sure, is that we are so little marked by the features that stand in such sharp contrast to them. The wicked in his pride persecutes "the poor." He does, whatever the age. The moment "the poor" shows up, he itches to persecute him. We have the wicked with us right enough. But where is the poor? Well, if the wicked of this age compliment us and pat us on the back, that raises some serious questions.
The victim drawn into the net has no rescuer left. That is the ground faith stands on later in the psalm.
Faith still holds firmly to an All-seeing One. He is as interested as He is observant, and certain to step in. The wretched one is sunk in affliction. Still he throws himself on Him who has proved to be the helper of those with no natural help. The height of the evil is just the supreme need that God must answer, and He takes it on Himself. Every other help is cut off. Is not the soul in this condition the very "orphan" He has pledged Himself to?
- Beast — Shut God out, and a man sinks to a beast of prey. He keeps the hunter's cunning, and that gives his evil an unnatural power.
- Ambush — He works out of sight, by deceit and often through servants. God still holds him responsible for the evil they do.
- Prey — The hunted are "the poor," poor in spirit, the exact opposite of the pride that fills the rest of the psalm.
- Breakdown — The psalm's own pattern breaks down here. It marks a horror still without a name.
- Rescue — The net cuts off every other help. That is the very condition God pledges Himself to. He is the orphan's Helper, who sees and will step in.
He croucheth, he boweth down, that the wretched may fall by his strong ones.
By now the psalm has drawn a full portrait of a man who hunts people. This line is the moment the trap shuts, and commentators read it both as plain human cruelty and as a picture of one oppressor still to come.
Verses 1–11 expose wickedness that is winning. One writer traces its root to a settled denial of God, and sees one particular enemy behind the general description.
These verses set out, with vivid seriousness, the plans and deeds of human wickedness that is prospering. They open up the hidden springs of godless action, and show that all of them rise from one source: the atheism of the heart. That heart-atheism soothes and encourages the madness of a rebellious will as it runs its desperate, self-destroying course. But these are general statements with the widest practical use. Under them the Spirit of God is clearly tracing in this psalm the moral features and actual conduct of the Wicked One, as they show themselves in his treatment of the faithful remnant of Israel, whose urgent cry is heard in the opening verse.
The psalm names both his method and his victims.
Craft marks his acts, and behind that craft lurks the violence of a beast. His victims are the godly — the innocent and the poor.
One writer takes the beast image as a measure of what a man becomes once God is pushed out.
The picture is of a wild beast, a beast of prey. It is human only in this: it has the cunning and forethought of a hunter. Man without God is only such a beast. His spiritual part has sunk into the animal, and that only gives the animal an unnatural power for evil.
Translators split over who is doing the crouching. Some make the oppressor the subject, lowering himself for the spring:
He crouches, he humbles himself, and the poor have fallen by his strong ones.
Others make the victim the subject. The ESV reads the line that way, and so does this rendering:
And he is crushed, he is brought low, the wretched has fallen by his might.
Psalms 9 and 10 follow the order of the Hebrew alphabet, but that pattern has already broken down by this point. One writer sees the collapse as part of the message.
Even the numerical structure seems to fall through here in the smaller sections. The alphabetic pattern has already fallen through, and yet by design. That may make us see design here too: the three verses show a horror that still has no name, like the fourth of the imperial beasts in Daniel's vision.
A man can strike with his own hands, or he can send others to strike for him. Commentators differ on how far the picture reaches, and one who reads it as prophecy adds a warning about accountability.
Verses 8 and 9 are literally true of some men. They may also be a picture of the antichrist, for he will be able to do such things by proxy — that is, with servants to carry out his evil plans. But God will hold him responsible for the evil his servants do at his direction.
Studying a monster at a distance is comfortable. Pridham refuses the comfort.
When we look at these great examples of human wickedness in Scripture, our minds are often in danger of forgetting one thing. The Holy Spirit marks out the moral features of Christ's chief adversary among men. What He sets before us there is only the full-grown form of what is in the human heart of every one of us.
The helpless fall in verse 10, but the psalm does not stop there.
God will not forget the humble. He sees what the wicked does. He has prepared the heart of the humble so as to bless them. God has broken the arm of the wicked, and the nations too have perished out of His land by His judgment. He is King for ever and ever. "The man of the earth" will oppress no longer.
- Crouch. The oppressor hunts with a hunter's cunning. The craft is only a cover for the beast underneath.
- Crush. The helpless go down under sheer strength. Whether he strikes himself or sends servants, God holds him accountable.
- Chaos. The psalm's own pattern breaks down here. The disorder in the man shows up as disorder in the poem.
- Confess. What Scripture exposes in the worst man is the ripe form of what is in every heart.
- Crown. The arm of the wicked is broken, the humble are not forgotten, and the oppressor oppresses no more.
He saith in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hideth his face, he will never see [it].
Psalm 10 traces the thinking of a man who has grown powerful by crushing weaker people. Verse 11 is the verdict he reaches inside his own heart: not that God does not exist, but that God is not watching.
The verse does not stand alone. It follows a run of victories, and those victories become the man's proof.
He triumphs over all these enemies, and over the seemingly defenceless people of God. That triumph deceives him into thinking that "God has forgotten: He hides His face: He will never see it" (v. 11).
One writer renders the name here as "the Mighty," where the ESV has "God." The man is not shaking off a stranger. He is dismissing the power that still rules over him.
One closing comment takes us back to his attitude toward the divine government. That government still has its hold upon him: "he has said in his heart, The Mighty has forgotten: He hides His face; He has never seen it."
The verse is not a claim that there is no God. It is a claim that God is out of the picture. One writer points to the moment that illusion collapses.
"He has said in his heart, God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see" (v. 11). So it is clear he knows there is a God, but thinks God is unable to take account of what the deceiver is doing. What an awakening it will be when he is caught red-handed in his fight against God, and sent with the Beast into the horror of the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20)! What a dreadful end for this proud challenger of the God of creation!
God's people feel the same silence the wicked man counts on. The psalm opens with the cry of that suffering remnant. One writer, commenting on that opening verse, uses almost the words of verse 11.
Two things distress the remnant. One is the wickedness of Antichrist rising to its height. The other is that, when it does, he seems to prosper hugely while God lets the godly suffer. God also seems to hide His face, as if He cared nothing either for the prosperity of the wicked or for the suffering of the godly.
The difference is not in the evidence but in where confidence rests.
Why such a gap between the faith and the experience? But in truth faith here does not rest on experience at all. It confesses that, as to His government, clouds and darkness may be around Him. In the end experience will come round to faith, and meanwhile the testing will prove needed and helpful. But faith is in the invisible. It does see Him who is invisible. It has its ground and its arguments. It is not credulity; it has sure evidence, all its own.
Commentators read this man as a portrait of a coming figure of concentrated evil. That makes him easy to study from a safe distance.
When we look at the great examples of human wickedness revealed in Scripture as things outside ourselves, our minds are often in danger of forgetting one thing. The Holy Spirit marks out the moral features of Christ's chief adversary among men. What He sets before us there is only the ripe development of what is in the human heart of every one of us.
The denial does not have to be spoken.
Men leave God out, and explain everything as if there were no God. Whenever I act as if God were not — that is, without reference to His will — I so far say in my heart, "There is no God."
Verse 11 is the low point of the psalm. After a boast like this, waiting would serve no purpose.
So now it is time for God to arise and act. This final act of denial and defiance is the hand that points to the last possible limit of God's patience. The living God must show Himself. The Mighty One must put forth might. The suffering of the righteous calls for it; and so does the cool contempt of the wicked. To wait longer would not be patience; it would only make the evil worse.
- Seen — the verse is a verdict passed in the heart: God has stopped looking. Everything else in the psalm answers that one sentence.
- Seen wrongly — the man is not an atheist. He knows God is there. He has decided God cannot keep track of him. One day he is caught in the act.
- Seen alike — God's people feel the same silence he does. What separates them is that faith rests on the invisible God, not on how things look now.
- Seen in us — the ripe wickedness of Scripture's worst figure is the same seed found in every human heart. To act without reference to God's will is to say the same thing in the heart.
- Seen by God — the boast points to the last limit of God's patience. When contempt reaches that height, the Mighty One must act.
Arise, Jehovah; O God, lift up thy hand forget not the afflicted.
The wicked man of this psalm tells himself that God will never call him to account. Verse 12 is faith's answer to that boast: a cry for God to stand up and act while His silence still looks like proof that the mocker is right.
This prayer is made when nothing in sight backs it up. One writer says faith does not rest on experience at all.
Why such difference between the faith and the experience? But in truth faith in no way rests upon experience here. It confesses that, as to His government, clouds and darkness may be all around Him. True, at last experience will come round to faith, and meanwhile the trial will prove needed and helpful. But faith is in the invisible — it sees Him who is invisible — it has its ground, its arguments; it is not gullible belief, but has sure evidence, all its own.
One writer finds two grounds in this plea, not one. The second is not about the sufferer at all.
The faith of the godly in this terrible trial. They appeal to God to show His hand — "lift up your hand." They plead for God's intervention: first, because of the suffering of His afflicted people; second, because God Himself has been condemned. For the wicked has said in his heart, "God will not call him to account." The suffering of God's people, and the vindication of God's character, both call aloud for God's intervention in judgment.
The prayer asks God to act now. One writer explains why this moment, and not an earlier one, calls for it.
So now it is time for God to arise and act. This final denial and defiance points like a hand to the last possible limit of God's patience. The living God must show Himself. The Mighty One must put forth might. The suffering of the righteous calls for it; and so does the cool contempt of the wicked. Patience will no longer be forbearance, but the making worse of the evil.
The psalm follows the Hebrew alphabet, one letter starting each section. That pattern stops, then starts again at verse 12. One writer ties the restart to a crisis still ahead.
The acrostic sequence starts again in verse 12 because it points to the Lord stepping in. He will patiently allow the antichrist to have his way. That lasts until the antichrist sets up "the abomination of desolation" in the temple area of Jerusalem — an idol image to the Roman Beast. This will be a bold challenge to the authority of God, so that His judgment falls very swiftly after this... He will certainly not forget the humble. His answer will come swiftly and solemnly to those who renounce God, thinking they can avoid giving an account to Him.
The wicked man's whole confidence was that God had forgotten. Verse 12 throws that word straight back. Where the ESV says "afflicted," the writer quoted here says "the humble" and "the poor."
They call upon God to lift up His hand — not to forget the humble. Why should the wicked despise God? Jehovah has seen it and will repay; the poor committed himself to Him... Jehovah is King for ever; the nations have perished out of His land. There is the public judgment; now the secret of the Lord. Jehovah has heard the desire of the humble. He prepared their heart, and then listened.
The one praying has no help left anywhere else.
Faith holds confidently to an All-seeing One, as interested as He is observant, certain to step in. The wretched one is sunk in affliction. Still he hands himself over to Him who has proved Himself the helper of those with no natural help. The height of the evil is simply the extreme need that God must answer, and which He directly takes upon Himself. With every other help cut off, is not the soul in this condition the very "orphan" to whom He is pledged?
- Silence — God standing far off is the setting of this prayer, not an argument against it. Faith rests on the invisible God, not on what experience shows.
- Nothing left — having no other helper is not a weakness in this prayer. It is its strongest ground. God has pledged Himself to the person with no help.
- Two pleas — the prayer rests on the suffering of God's people and on the insult to God's own character. His honour is at stake as much as their relief.
- The limit — God's patience has a fixed edge. When defiance is complete, waiting longer would only feed the evil. So He rises.
- The answer — the wicked said God had forgotten. The psalm ends with God hearing the desire of the humble.
Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require [it].
Psalm 10 describes a man who hunts down the helpless and tells himself God has stopped watching. Verse 13 stops describing him and asks God a direct question: why is such contempt possible, and what must a man believe about God before he can live like this?
One writer traces every feature of this man back to a single root.
He persecutes the poor, but it is his pride that drives him to do it. He is covetous and "blesses the covetous" (v. 3), and his pride leads him to boast of this evil trait. Again, he has no desire for God: "God is not in all his thoughts" (v. 4), and this is because of the pride of his countenance. He shuts God completely out of his thoughts, because he is full of self-sufficiency and imagines he will never be moved. Then comes the question, "Why does the wicked renounce God?" (v. 13). The answer is obvious. Only the most unbearable pride could lead him to treat God with contempt.
The second half of the verse gives the man's own reasoning: God will never call him to account. Older translations put it, "You will not require it." The same writer follows that thought to where the psalm ends.
He declares that God has not seen his sin, or that if He has, He does not mind and will never call him to account for it. And so with complete assurance he says in his heart, "I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity" (Ps. 10:6). Before the end of that Psalm, however, we find that he is moved. The God whom he despises seeks out his wickedness, breaks his arm, and destroys him out of the land. He is not only moved, but removed in judgment. His boasted security turns out to be a lie.
The question is a plea, not a puzzle. Another writer lists the charges behind it.
Psalm 10 — the previous psalm declared a judicial inquiry. This one is an appeal to Jehovah, who is King, on behalf of His land and the afflicted in it, against the wicked. He persecutes the poor, he glories in his own thoughts, he encourages the covetous, and despises God and His government. He scorns his enemies, he murders the innocent and helpless, and hardens his conscience against God. The Spirit of Christ in intercession asks, Why? — for he has said in his heart, "You will not call to account."
Is "the wicked" one man or a type? One writer weighs the psalm's own wording.
In general the word is singular. It is always singular in Psalm 10, and every time Psalm 9 uses it except verse 17. In verse 17 it is plural, to show that all of them will be cast down into sheol. The singular, I judge, describes a character. Yet I do not doubt there will be one special wicked one, The Lawless One (2 Thess. 2:8), the Antichrist. Here he is known by his character, not by a direct prophecy of his person.
That character has already appeared. One writer hears this verse's inward speech in the men who condemned Jesus — worse, he shows, than Judas, the disciple who betrayed Him.
Judas betrayed innocent blood and they condemned it. He at least had some feeling of remorse for what he had done — enough to drive him to take his own life. They had no feeling whatever. What was innocent blood to them? They had no scruple about shedding it, nor had they any fear of the God who repays evil. They were prepared to "murder the innocent," saying in their hearts, "You will not call to account" (Ps. 10:8, 13).
One writer traces this delusion to its source and names whose fight it really is.
He had seen it all, though the proud heart of the Wicked had told him flatteringly that God had forgotten. This is the crowning misery of man. Unless mercy rescues him, he is Satan's fool for all his boasted wisdom. He dreams of independent action while his will is entirely swayed by the deceiver... Meanwhile, God's ear is open to the cry of His distressed people. He tests the faith He gives them for a while, so that patience may have its perfect work... The land where the Oppressor will do his final evil work is none other than Immanuel's inheritance. His quarrel, therefore, is with God and not with man.
- Pride — contempt for God is not an argument. It is a swollen self, big enough to shut God out of every thought and still feel safe.
- Boast — the inner words "You will not call to account" drive the cruelty. They assume no reckoning, so the last restraint is gone.
- Cry — the "why" is intercession, an appeal to God as King on behalf of the afflicted in His own land.
- Answer — God has seen it all. The flattering thought that He forgot is the man's own delusion. His real quarrel is with God, not with his victims.
- Outcome — the boast collapses. The one who said he would never be moved is not only moved but removed, and his security proves a lie.
Thou hast seen [it], for thou thyself beholdest trouble and vexation, to requite by thy hand. The wretched committeth himself unto thee; thou hast been the helper of the fatherless.
The wicked man of this psalm has just told himself that God will never call him to account. Verse 14 is faith's answer to that boast. God has seen everything. He keeps a record so that He can repay. And He has already made Himself the protector of those who have no other.
One writer sets God's seeing against the lie the oppressor believes, and names what that pride makes of a man.
The work of the liar and the murderer has reached its height. So now the solemn call goes up to Jehovah to avenge His own cause by delivering His afflicted people. He had seen it all, though the proud heart of the wicked man had told him the flattering lie that God had forgotten. This is the crowning misery of man. Unless God's choosing mercy rescues him, all his boasted wisdom leaves him nothing but Satan's fool.
God's watching covers plots the victim knows nothing about. Israel's enemies hired Balaam to curse the nation. Israel knew nothing of the danger until it had already passed.
When the LORD told Moses about the evil plot against Israel, Moses might well have used the words of the Psalmist: "But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands" (older wording: "to repay it with Your hand"). Later Moses told the people about the danger that had threatened them. Enemies had hired Balaam the son of Beor to curse them. But the LORD their God would not listen to Balaam. Instead He turned the curse into a blessing, because the LORD their God loved them.
God does not just observe. He notes the wrong so His hand can settle the account. The long delay before that is easy to misread.
For a long time God has been a patient Observer (v. 14). But patience is not indifference, as the world will learn by terrible experience. God will repay in perfect righteousness. The helpless, who have committed themselves to Him, will find Him a real helper — a Helper of the fatherless, those who have no one on earth to depend upon.
The same principle reaches beyond Israel's story. Naboth was murdered so a king could take his vineyard. One writer applies the verse to every killing of God's people since, done under cover of law.
Rulers and governors who served the mood of the moment have been all too willing to put God's choicest saints to a cruel death at the command of the so-called "Church." But in the coming day of repayment God will remember everything done in Israel and in Christendom. He will yet avenge innocent blood (Rev. 18:24).
The middle of the verse describes an act of the sufferer: he leaves himself with God. Notice how the argument runs — the worse the case, the stronger the claim.
Faith still holds with confidence to an All-seeing One, as interested as He is observant, and sure to step in. The wretched one, sunk in affliction, still hands himself over to the One who has proved Himself the helper of those with no natural help. The evil at its worst is simply the supreme need that God must answer, and He takes that need on Himself. With every other help cut off, is not such a soul exactly this "orphan" to whom He is pledged?
The verse calls them "the fatherless." The name points to what they do not have.
They are "the fatherless" (ver. 14). They have no natural protector; no one on earth to stand up in their defence, and protect their rights.
The same writer turns that description into a test for the reader.
The wicked in his pride does persecute "the poor." He does indeed, no matter what the age may be. As soon as "the poor" is in evidence he simply itches to persecute him. The wicked we have with us right enough. But where is the poor? Well, if the wicked of this age compliment us and pat us on the back, it raises some serious questions!
The closing verses give God's answer. Even the prayer He answers is His own work.
Jehovah has heard the desire of the humble. He prepared their heart, and then He listened. That listening will show itself in judging — in being Judge for the fatherless and the oppressed. Then the man of the earth, the man whose strength and hope were in the earth, will oppress no more.
- Seen. The oppressor rests his whole confidence on a lie he tells himself: that God has forgotten. God has seen all along.
- Noted. Seeing is not passive. God observes mischief with repayment in view, and long patience is not indifference.
- Committed. The sufferer's part is to hand himself over to God. The deeper the trouble, the stronger his claim on the One who has pledged Himself to the helpless.
- Helped. "The fatherless" have no one on earth to defend them. Having no other protector is what gives them their claim on God.
- Ended. God prepares the heart to pray. He hears the prayer. Then He judges for the fatherless and the oppressed, and oppression stops for good.
Break thou the arm of the wicked, and as for the evil man, seek out his wickedness [till] thou find none.
For fourteen verses this psalm describes a violent man. Verse 15 turns from describing him to praying against him — so who is he, and may a Christian pray like this today?
The prayer targets a man the psalm has already described. One writer traces the thread that runs through him: pride.
He persecutes the poor, but it is his pride that moves him to do it. He is covetous and "blesses the covetous" (v. 3), and his pride leads him to boast of this evil feature. Again, he has no desire for God: "God is not in all his thoughts" (v. 4), and this is because of the pride of his countenance. He totally excludes God from his thoughts, because he is filled with self-sufficiency and imagines that he will never be moved... No wonder then that in verse 15 we have the prayer, "Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man" — a prayer which will be answered in due time.
One writer looks ahead. The description of the wicked man, he says, will finally fit one person at the end of the age.
When the wicked one rises up from character to a person, it will come true in the antichrist of the last days and in the midst of the Jews as here. As the Lord is from heaven, so he is emphatically from the earth — frail man but energised by Satan. The Psalm answers much to the cry of the elect, according to the parable of the widow who keeps asking, whom God at length avenges.
The second half of the verse asks for more than a defeat. Another translation reads, "seek out his wickedness till you find none" — God hunts the evil down until the search comes up empty. Faith already sees the result.
Then with the cry comes the flash of recognition: "Break the arm of the wicked and the evil one! You will seek out his wickedness till there is no more to find." And then the glorious accomplishment seems before the sight: "Jehovah is King for ever and ever: the nations are perished out of His land." The cleansing is done, the evil is thrown out... Only faith grasps this now, but it does grasp it. Faith can be as sure as if the thing were done.
Another writer shows what this breaking will look like, in almost physical detail.
"Break the arm of the wicked and evil man" (v. 15). We read the answer to this in Zechariah 11:17: "Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye! Let his arm be wholly withered, his right eye utterly blinded!" Sudden and dreadful will this judgment be!
One writer warns against taking the verse as a model for how Christians should pray about enemies now.
"Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none" (Ps. 10:15). This is not language for a Christian under persecution. It suits those who stand with Christ when the days of His patience are over, and He is acting in judgment towards the world.
What the verse still teaches is where vengeance belongs. Another writer turns it into a warning about our own tempers.
At the same time, the godly man knows that "vengeance" belongs to God. This is surely a truth the Christian needs to remember... In the presence of provocation, anger, and deliberate insults, let us beware of seeking to take vengeance. The insults and injustice may stir righteous anger. Still, we cannot be trusted to take vengeance. That the Lord keeps in His own hands.
Clearing out the evil is not the end. It makes room for a kingdom that lasts.
But God, having broken the arm of the wicked, the nations also have perished out of His land by His judgment; He is King for ever and ever. "The man of the earth" will no more oppress.
- Pride — The earlier verses draw the man in this prayer. He shuts God out of his thoughts and imagines he will never be moved.
- Person — The wicked one is not just a type. He becomes one man, "the man of the earth," frail but energised by Satan.
- Purged — The prayer asks for more than a broken arm. It asks God to search out the wickedness until none is left.
- Postponed, not denied — God will answer this prayer in due time. Faith already holds it as sure as if it were done.
- Placed in God's hands — These words do not suit a Christian under persecution today. Vengeance is one thing the Lord keeps to Himself.
Jehovah is King for ever and ever the nations have perished out of his land.
Most of this psalm describes a wicked man who pushes God out of his thoughts and scoffs at his enemies. Verse 16 answers him with a settled announcement: who really holds the throne, and a land cleared of the nations that seized it.
Nothing outward has changed here. What changes is what the sufferer sees. One writer traces how the cry against the wicked passes straight into this song:
Then with the cry comes the flash of recognition: "Break the arm of the wicked and the evil one! You will seek out his wickedness till there is no more to find." And then the glorious accomplishment seems to be there before his eyes: "Jehovah is King for ever and ever: the nations have perished out of His land." The cleansing is complete. The evil is thrown out. The nations that forced their way into Jehovah's land are found there no more. It is still only faith that grasps this, but it is grasped. Faith can be as sure as if the thing were done.
A dictionary entry traces the word behind "for ever" through other statements about God:
ad: very often translated "for ever," and with another word, olam, "for ever and ever." "The LORD will reign forever and ever." Exodus 15:18. "The LORD is king forever and ever." Psalm 10:16... Ad is also translated "everlasting": "Everlasting Father," or "Father of the everlasting age." Isaiah 9:6. Also "eternity": "the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity." Isaiah 57:15.
The second half of the verse assumes an owner. One writer draws out what it meant for Israel that the land belonged to God:
The Jew should have found it a precious support that underneath rules like these stood one principle: the land belonged to Jehovah. This secures an inalienable title for Israel in the long run. The Gentiles have trodden down the land and its capital for many centuries; but their times will be fulfilled.
Earlier in the psalm the wicked man tells himself he will never be moved. One writer sets that boast beside the same words on the lips of a godly man:
The wicked man, trusting in himself, "said in his heart, I shall not be moved," only to come under the judgment of the LORD (Psalm 10:6, 16). The godly man, trusting in the LORD at his right hand, can say, "I shall not be moved." And he can say it with complete confidence. For if the Lord says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you," then we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?" (Heb. 13:5-6).
The psalm calls the oppressor "the man of the earth." One writer names the One who ends him:
The godly are carried on in thought to the setting up of the kingdom on earth in power. Nothing short of this is God's design. Nothing less will meet the need of His tried, persecuted, earthly people. And notice who will bring this happy outcome about: One who is a man, and could die. He will show everyone what the wicked one of Psalm 10 really is. That man banishes God from his thoughts in the pride of his heart and scoffs at his enemies. He is only a man of the earth. He must give way before the power of the Son of Man, who, though He has died, will return as man to reign.
The verse is not only about enemies removed. One writer reads the psalm's close as a prayer answered:
Anticipating God's intervention, the godly celebrate with praise His answer to their appeal. As a result, the judgment of the wicked, summed up in Antichrist, will bring in the everlasting kingdom of the Lord — "The LORD is king forever and ever." As for the godly, God will answer their prayer, establish their heart, and end their sufferings. Never again will "the man of the earth" terrify them.
- Cry. The psalm shows a wicked man who banishes God from his thoughts and boasts that he will never be moved.
- Certainty. Faith sings this answer before the rescue comes. It is as sure to the believing heart as if it were done.
- Crown. "For ever and ever" is the language of eternity itself, the same word used of the One who inhabits eternity.
- Cleansing. The land is His, held in trust, never forfeited; the nations who trod it down have their allotted time, and it ends.
- Consequence. The man of the earth gives way before the Son of Man. God hears the oppressed. The boast "I shall not be moved" is left to God alone — and to those who lean on Him.
Jehovah, thou hast heard the desire of the meek, thou hast established their heart thou causest thine ear to hear,
Psalm 10 spends sixteen verses staring at an oppressor who acts as if God were blind. Then the psalm turns and speaks to God as one who has already listened. Verse 17 is that turn: the prayer is answered, and the answer begins further back than the prayer itself. (The ESV says "the afflicted." Older translations use "the humble," and the writers quoted here follow that wording.)
The verse belongs to the psalm's closing praise. That praise is sung before the rescue has come.
(vv. 16-18) Anticipating God's intervention, the godly celebrate with praise His answer to their appeal. The judgment of the wicked, summed up in Antichrist, will usher in the everlasting kingdom of the Lord — "The Lord is King for ever." As for the godly, their prayer will be answered, their heart established, their sufferings over. Never again will "the man of the earth" terrify them.
The verse names three acts of God, and their order matters. He does not overhear a desire that came from nowhere. The desire He answers is the desire He produced.
Jehovah has heard the desire of the humble. He prepared their heart, and then listened. That hearing will be in judging — in being Judge for the fatherless and the oppressed. So the man of the earth, the one whose strength and hope were there, should oppress no more.
What God stirs up in a person, He commits Himself to satisfy.
God will fill the hungry because He Himself has stirred up the hunger. As with prayer, when God prepares the heart to pray, He prepares His ear to hear (Ps. 10:17). So with spiritual hunger: when God prepares the heart to hunger, He will prepare His hand to fill.
The verse does not say God hears the desire of the eloquent or the deserving. Humility is not a decoration on prayer; it is what makes prayer prayer at all.
A spiritual prayer is a humble prayer: "Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble." Prayer is asking for charity, and that needs humility. It is fitting to see a poor nothing lying at the feet of its Maker: "Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27). The lower the heart descends, the higher the prayer ascends. God accepts broken expressions when they come from broken hearts.
If God's ear follows the heart He prepares, the state of the heart is no side issue in prayer.
How few of the countless prayers continually offered — often sincerely, too — spring from a well so deep and pure! We are invited to make our requests known to God, whatever the burdened heart is aware of. How great is His grace! But prayer to God is always tied to communion, the state of the heart before Him. "If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God." How often the heart groans, yet not to Him! "They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds" (Hos. 7:14). "You will prepare their heart, you will cause your ear to hear." Fruitfulness to God, and the promise that He answers all prayer, are inseparably tied to abiding in Him.
Commentators also read the psalm as a picture of Israel's future. Verse 17 is the relief on the far side of the trouble.
"The Lord is King forever and ever" (v. 16). The challenge of the antichrist will have been completely silenced. No such challenge will ever rise again. Christ will reign for the thousand years of peace, and for eternity nothing can change His title of all authority. The nations that dared to attack His land will have perished. The psalmist voices the gratitude of the humble: the Lord has heard their prayer, and He will also prepare their heart for the unmixed blessing that will be theirs (v. 17).
The prepared heart does not arrive alone.
This passage shows the Lord's kingdom that lasts forever. With it come the deliverance of the land of Israel from foreign rule, the humbling of the people before God, and His preparation of their heart.
- Prepared — God works first: He prepared their heart, and then listened. The prayer He answers is the prayer He produced.
- Humbled — the desire He hears is the humble one. The lower the heart descends, the higher the prayer ascends.
- Heard — when God prepares the heart to pray, He prepares His ear to hear; when He stirs hunger, He prepares His hand to fill.
- Abiding — His ear follows the heart He prepares. So answered prayer grows out of communion with Him, not out of many words.
- Delivered — the hearing ends in judging. Prayer answered, heart established, suffering over, the oppressor silenced under a King who reigns forever.
To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed one, that the man of the earth may terrify no more.
Psalm 10 spends seventeen verses watching a wicked man do as he pleases — hurting the poor, boasting, and leaving God out of his thinking. The last verse answers all of it in one sentence, and raises one question: who is this "man of the earth"?
This verse finishes the sentence before it. One writer follows the steps: God prepares, hears, then judges.
Jehovah has heard the desire of the humble. He prepared their heart, and then listened. That listening will be in judging — in being Judge for the fatherless and the oppressed. So the man of the earth, the one who had his strength and hope there, should no more oppress.
The verse names two people God acts for: the fatherless and the oppressed. One writer shows what that action costs the oppressor, and what it gains the world.
So, in perfect righteousness He champions the cause of the fatherless and the oppressed over "the man of the earth," so that all oppression may cease (v. 18). The dreadful end of the man of sin will mean the greatest relief and blessing for the whole world.
Older translations end this verse "that the man of the earth may no more oppress," and the writers below quote from them. Hebrew has more than one word for "man," and the choice here matters.
In the Old Testament several words are used for "man." One of them is enosh, which we are told carries the sense of "frail mortal man," and is almost a term of contempt. This is the word used when the Psalmist asks his question in Psalm 9: "Arise, O Lord; let not man prevail" — and again, "Put them in fear, O Lord; that the nations may know themselves to be but men." It is used once more in Psalm 10, when he speaks of "the man of the earth."
The second half of the title matters too. This man can look impressive, but his reach stops at the ground.
Enosh may look like quite a big man to himself, and to others. When he rises to his full height he may do many pretentious things. He may defy God. He may oppress those who fear God. But after all, he is only "the frail, mortal man of the earth." With heaven he has nothing to do.
One writer traces every side of this man's evil back to a single root.
He persecutes the poor, but it is his pride that moves him to do it. He is covetous and "blesses the covetous" (v. 3), and his pride leads him to boast of this evil trait. Again, he has no desire for God: "God is not in all his thoughts" (v. 4), and this is because of the pride of his countenance. He completely shuts God out of his thoughts. Self-sufficiency fills him, and he imagines that he will never be moved.
One writer reads the phrase as pointing past any local tyrant to a final one, with a careful limit on how far the Psalms take it.
The book of Psalms speaks of this coming one in prophecy, in his character as "the man of the earth" (Ps. 10:18), and also as "the bloody and deceitful man" (Ps. 5:6). These descriptions do fit the wicked in general in the coming crisis. Yet there is one person, and only one, to whom they can refer in the fullest sense. It is the character of the Antichrist, and not his person, that is before us in these and other Psalms.
The oppressor is a man. So is the One who removes him, and that contrast closes the psalm.
So the godly are carried forward in thought to the setting up of the kingdom in power on earth. Nothing less than this is God's design, and nothing less will meet the need of His tried, persecuted, earthly people. And we should notice who will bring this happy outcome about: One who is a man, and could die. He will show everyone that the wicked one of Psalm 10 is only a man of the earth. That is the man who in the pride of his heart banishes God from his thoughts and sneers at his enemies. He must give way before the power of the Son of Man, who, though He has died, will return as man to reign.
- Heard. God prepares the desire of the humble before He answers it. The prayer itself is His gift.
- Judged. His way of listening is to act as Judge; the fatherless and the oppressed get a courtroom, not just sympathy.
- Frail. The oppressor's title is his sentence — enosh, frail mortal man. The earth is his whole domain; he has nothing to do with heaven.
- Proud. What makes him wicked is pride: it drives the cruelty, the greed, and the shutting of God out of his thoughts.
- Overthrown. A man of the earth falls before the Son of Man, and when he falls, oppression itself ends — relief for the whole world.