Psalms 10

A believer cries out because God seems far away while the wicked crush the weak and boast that God does not care. The psalm describes the oppressor in detail, then turns to prayer. It ends in confidence that the LORD is King, hears the humble, and will put right what is wrong.

Psalms 10:1

The psalm opens with an honest complaint. God seems to stand at a distance and to hide just when trouble is worst. Scripture lets believers say this out loud. The question is itself a prayer, spoken to the very God who seems silent.

BSA: hide (“to conceal, be hidden from view”): God seems to have covered Himself from sight, so the sufferer cannot see Him at work.

See also: Psalm 22:1.

Psalms 10:2

The proud hunt down the weak and afflicted. The psalmist asks that their own plots would trap them. Evil plans often turn back on the people who make them. This is a prayer for justice, not private revenge.

BSA: pursue (“hotly chase, persecute”): The wicked do not merely neglect the poor; they hunt them like prey. needy (“afflicted, humble, weak”): These are people with no power to defend themselves.

See also: Psalm 7:15-16.

Psalms 10:3

The wicked man boasts about his own appetites and cheers on those who grab what is not theirs. He treats the LORD with contempt. His greed is his god, and he is proud of it.

BSA: cravings (“desires, longings”): His desires have become his rule of life. reviles (“spurns, shows contempt”): He does not merely forget God; he treats Him as worthless.

Psalms 10:4

Pride keeps him from seeking God. He does not deny God in words so much as leave Him out of every plan. He lives as though God did not exist. This is a practical atheism.

BSA: seek (“inquire, search for”): He never asks what God wants or wonders whether he must answer to Him.

See also: Psalm 14:1.

Psalms 10:5

Because nothing seems to touch him, he feels safe. God’s judgments are too lofty for him to notice, and he waves away anyone who opposes him. His success makes him careless about right and wrong.

BSA: sneers (“ridicules”): He laughs off every rival and every warning. judgments (“justice, verdicts”): God’s verdicts are real, but he does not keep them in mind.

Psalms 10:6

He comforts himself with a boast of permanent safety. He believes that nothing bad will ever happen to him. The man has forgotten that life is short and that God is judge. Jesus told of a rich fool who made the same mistake.

See also: Luke 12:19-20.

Psalms 10:7

His speech shows his heart. His mouth is full of curses, lies, and threats. Harm waits under his tongue, ready to be used. Paul quotes the first part of this verse when describing human sin.

BSA: deceit (“fraud, cheating”): His words are traps, built to cheat people of what is theirs.

See also: Romans 3:14.

Psalms 10:8

The picture changes to a bandit who hides near villages and strikes the innocent in secret. His eyes watch for someone helpless. He is a coward who attacks only those who cannot fight back.

BSA: ambush (“hidden trap, secretly”): The violence is planned in secret and carried out where no one can see.

Psalms 10:9

Now he is a lion in cover, waiting to spring. He is also a hunter with a net. The weak are caught before they know the danger. The psalm wants us to feel how defenseless the victims are.

BSA: net (“a trap, snare, means of capture”): He gets his prey by trickery and not only by force.

See also: Psalm 17:12.

Psalms 10:10

The victims are crushed and collapse under his strength. The verse is hard and short, with no softening. The psalmist wants God to see what is happening in all its pain.

BSA: crushed (“beaten down, bruised”): The victims are physically and spiritually broken.

Psalms 10:11

The wicked man explains himself: God has forgotten, God covers His face, God never sees. It is the same charge the psalmist felt in verse 1. The difference is that the wicked man draws a false conclusion and the psalmist takes the question to God in prayer.

BSA: forgotten (“is oblivious to, has mislaid”): He imagines God has simply lost track of the matter.

See also: Psalm 94:7.

Psalms 10:12

The prayer turns direct and urgent: arise, lift up Your hand, do not forget. The psalmist asks God to act openly against what the wicked man says is not happening. The helpless are not forgotten by Him.

BSA: Arise (“take a stand, rise up”): God is asked to stand up against the oppressor and for the weak. helpless (“afflicted, humble, or weak, the poor, the oppressed”): These are the people God especially cares for.

Psalms 10:13

The psalmist asks why anyone would spurn God and expect no reckoning. The wicked man’s idea that God will never call him to account is exactly what he believes. His confidence rests on a lie. God will require an answer.

BSA: renounced (“to spurn, scorn”): His rejection of God is open contempt and not mere doubt. call me to account (“require it, seek punishment”): He assumes God will never require payment for what he has done.

Psalms 10:14

The mood shifts to faith. God does see trouble and grief. The helpless can hand themselves over to Him, and He has always been the helper of orphans. What the wicked man denied in verse 11, the psalmist affirms.

BSA: entrusts (“commits, trusts”): The victim leaves his case with God instead of taking revenge. helper (“defender, protector”): God acts as the guardian of those who have no human protector.

See also: Psalm 68:5.

Psalms 10:15

The psalmist prays that the oppressor’s power would be broken. The arm stands for strength to do harm. God is asked to hold the wicked to account until wickedness is gone. It is a prayer that evil would be ended.

BSA: arm (“the arm as stretched out; strength, might, power”): The oppressor’s means of hurting others is to be taken away.

See also: Psalm 37:17.

Psalms 10:16

The question of verse 1 is answered with a declaration: the LORD is King forever. Earthly oppressors come and go, but His reign has no end. The nations that defy Him will disappear. This is the anchor of the whole psalm.

BSA: King (“ruling sovereign”): God is not an absent bystander but the ruler over all.

See also: Psalm 146:10.

Psalms 10:17

God hears the longing of the humble before it is fully spoken. He strengthens their hearts and leans down to listen. Rescue may take time, but the humble are not left alone while they wait.

BSA: incline (“cause to lean or bend”): The picture is of God bending close so that He hears every word. strengthen (“establish and make firm”): God steadies the heart even before the trouble is over.

Psalms 10:18

The psalm closes with hope for justice: the fatherless and oppressed will be vindicated, and mere mortals will no longer be able to terrify them. The one who looked far off at the start is now seen as the defender of the weak.

BSA: vindicate (“judge, avenge”): God steps in to set the case right for those who were wronged.

See also: Deuteronomy 10:18.