Psalm 10: Where Are You God?
1 Why do You stand afar off, O Lord? Why do You hide in times of trouble? 2 The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; he blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. 4 The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts. 5 His ways are always prospering; Your judgments are far above, out of his sight; as for all his enemies, he sneers at them. 6 He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity.” 7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. 8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages; in the secret places he murders the innocent; his eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. 9 He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; he lies in wait to catch the poor; he catches the poor when he draws him into his net. 10 So he crouches, he lies low, that the helpless may fall by his strength. 11 He has said in his heart, “God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see.”
12 Arise, O Lord! O God, lift up Your hand! Do not forget the humble. 13 Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, “You will not require an account.” 14 But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, to repay it by Your hand. The helpless commits himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless. 15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; seek out his wickedness until You find none. 16 The Lord is King forever and ever; the nations have perished out of His land. 17 Lord, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, 18 To do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more.
Why do You stand aloft, Jehovah of hosts? "As if Thou hadst forgotten what thou hadst promised thy people in the former psalm; which the Greek and Latin versions make to be one and the same with this, as having no title.” (Trapp)- “’Why do You hide in times of trouble?’ When God seems to take no notice of His people, does not look upon them, but turns a deaf ear to them, He is said to hide His face, His eyes and ears, from them: and this is sometimes the case of the best of saints, as it has been of Job, David, Heman, and others.” (John Gill) But all the while, that Word of faith is near us, in our mouths and in our hearts. (Rom 10:8)
“’The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor;’ of heart, that is the humble saints of God's Kingdom. They hate them for their religion and the practice thereof. And they devise schemes to make them fall. The devil hates godliness; and the wicked man hates it also because the devil is his father. The man described has no thoughts of the Judgment; it is far out of sight. Thus, he sneers at his enemies, that blessed remnant. “He has said in his heart, ‘I shall not be moved ‘ I hold whatsoever view I now have for I am prospering in it, even in my idols. "I have money and goods to procure me every gratification...” (Adam Clarke), even in the future. “I shall never be in adversity." As it is now, so shall it ever be.
Yea Lord, “Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.” The wicked man’s “mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. He sits in the lurking places of the villages; in the secret places he murders the innocent; his eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly, as a lion in his den; he lies in wait to catch the poor; he catches the poor when he draws him into his net. So he crouches, he lies low, that the helpless may fall by his strength.’ If God intends to succor His servants, it is now a proper time for doing so, inasmuch as the lawlessness of the ungodly has burst forth to the utmost possible excess.” (John Calvin) “He has said in his heart, ‘God has forgotten;’— He hath cast off this people, and he will never more re-establish them.” (Adam Clarke) This man says that God “‘hides His face; He will never see.’ Such is his confidence in the permanence of his way or course of life, that he disregards God‘s providential government (out of sight, because he will not look, Isaiah 26:11), sneers at his enemies, and boasts perpetual freedom from evil.” (Jamieson, Fausset, Brown)
“‘Arise of God and show forth your strength. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man; seek out his wickedness until You find none,’ that is until they are destroyed. ‘Yeshua or Jesus is King forever and ever; the nations have perished out of His land.” For in the end, they will be utterly destroyed after the Judgment. Nothing shall enter that defiles. “Under all your exercises, look to Jesus, and never, never forget that the Lord is King forever and ever; and the heathen are perished out of his land. Yet a little while, and the ungodly shall be cut down as the grass, and be withered even as the green herb; while the righteous shall flourish like the palm-tree, and spread abroad as the cedar in Lebanon. Blessed Jesus! in thy light we shall see light. There is a rest that remaineth for the people of God. Into that rest, which is thyself, thou wilt ere long bring all thy people, and thy ransomed shall return and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads, and they shall obtain joy and gladness; and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.” (Hawker's Poor Man's Comm)
“The land that He promised His people will now be free of all enemies, of all who defile it and of all unrighteous men. The first thought is probably of the final fulfilling of God’s requirement that ‘the nations’ who had dwelt in Canaan should be thrust out as God had previously commanded, so that all pernicious influences would be removed.” (Peter Pett)
But that was but a type of that blessed heavenly abode. If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob “had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.” (Hebrews 11:15-16)
“Lord,” help us— not to retaliate, even with desires for our enemies to fall, as they desire for us. But rather help us by your Spirit to pray for our enemies (those political opposites), even Your enemies (those religious rebels). Let us smother them with kindness, desiring only Your truth to prosper. “You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more.’ God prepares the heart for prayer, by kindling holy desires, and strengthening our most holy faith, fixing the thoughts, and raising the affections, and then He graciously accepts the prayer. The preparation of the heart is from the Lord, and we must seek unto Him for it.” (Matthew Henry)