Neal Pollard
One of the most important lessons we teach our kids is that life is not always fair. We need them to know that not everybody plays by the rules or even knows the rules. More and more do not believe in an ultimate rule-maker. We have got to teach them to follow the rules when other do not. We tell our kids this, but it is amazing how easily we forget this truth in our own lives. We are not wiser than Job, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, and David–a few of the godly individuals whose recorded struggle with this dilemma are preserved in the sacred text.
In Psalm 10, David seems to be in the middle of struggling with this lesson. He begins by asking where God is when the wicked are running amuck. Is He afar off or hiding? Perhaps you have wrestled with that before, wondering why God does not seem to be hearing your prayer request, seeing your struggle or punishing evil doers. After asking where God is, David focuses on why he wants divine intervention. He makes no fewer than six observations about the actions and attitudes of the wicked: (1) they persecute the poor (1,8-10), (2) they boast of their heart’s desire (2), (3) they bless evil and denounce God (3), (4) they do not seek God (4), (5) they do not have God in any of their thoughts (4), and (5) they sin greatly with their tongues (7). Scour the newspaper, stand at the water cooler at work, stare at the TV, or survey the school student body, and you will hear and see an abundance of what David describes in Psalm 10.
But, David goes beyond just their actions and attitudes. Led by the Holy Spirit, David points to three things the wicked say in their hearts. Could these be the same things most of mankind says today? Consider what the wicked say in their heart.
“I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity” (6). This is true for the righteous (Ps. 1:3). But even the righteous know they face adversity. Ultimately, though, the righteous shall not be moved. Sin deceives the heart and causes one to trust in self and believe oneself to be invincible and unconquerable. Sadly, though, the wicked build on the sinking sand (Mt. 7:24-27) and, without repentance, face eternal adversity.
“God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it” (11). The wicked say this in light of their unrighteous treatment of others. Sin will deceive and harden the heart to the fact that an omniscient God watches and keeps an unflawed record of such. Tragically, this emboldens the sinner to be set in sinfulness.
“You will not require it” (13). The wicked rejects God and His commands, believing obedience to be unnecessary. He convinces himself that he can live like he wants to live and God will not call him into account.
David ends this psalm confident that God knows and helps those who trust in Him. One may be poor and helpless by earthly standards, but he is heard, strengthened, and vindicated by the Lord (17-18). The reassuring news for the righteous amidst such wicked people is one of David’s final assertions, that “the Lord is King forever and ever” (16). Faith in such facts will keep us from the thoughts of the wicked.
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