Psalms 10

Psalms 10:1-11

The Septuagint transfusion joins this psalm with the week, and makes them bad one, as it doth the cxx. to the dark, and to complain the number of 150, the cxxi, and the calvi, are each divided into two. In this psalm, David defends, 1. The pride, trusty, and impiety of the wicked, ver. 1—11. 2. He prays in faith to God to appear in behalf of his people, ver. 12—18. This description of the man of the earth, may well be supposed to refer to the man of sin, to whom the characters here mentioned eminently agree, and wholly obfuscates are determined at the appearing of our great God and Saviour Yesus Christ.

1. WHY standeft thou afar off, O LORD? why hideft thou thyself in times of trouble? 2. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. 3. For the wicked bouffeth of his heart’s desire, and blefeth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. 4. The wicked through the pride of his countenance: will not seek after God: ‘God is not in all his thoughts. 5. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. 6. He hath laid in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. 7. His mouth is full of curling, and deceit, and fraud: under his tongue it mischief and vanity. 8. He throeth in the lurking-places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against

the poor. 9. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. 10. He croucheth and humbletth himself, that the poor may fail by his strong ones. 11. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face, he will never see it.

Two things the psalmist complains of,

1. The distance of God from him, and the hiding of his face in the times of trouble, when most he needed the light of his countenance to cheat and comfort him. Nate, [1.] The withdrawing of God’s gracious pretence, is one of the heaviest burdens of a believer’s heart. [2.] The greatest faints usually undergo the feverish exercise of their faith, without any lightings, within fears. [3.] If we are at any time left in a state of darkness, and deadness, it becomes us to enquire if there be not a cause, and whether it is not for the correction of our unfaithfulness.

2. The prevalence of the wicked, whose character in strong and striking colours he lets forth. Their general character is the wicked, and the various branches of it are reckoned up. [1.] He is proud, v. 2. this is the fruitful shock, from whence all evil springs. [2.] A persecutor: when man vainly concurs himself the thrashed of all that is wide, then to diffuse from his opinion becomes a heinous offence, and the poor are persecuted; the poor in spirit, as well as those whose worldly circumstances expose them more easily to opposition: are burned, to some translate it; for thus have many faints and martyrs finished their glorious testimony. Let them be taken in the demon they have imagined, or they shall be taken, either it is a prayer that the wicked may meet their just doom, or an intimation of their successful progress in persecuting the saints of God, who listen for a time given up into their hands. [3.] A boulter, v. 3. because he seems for a while to prosper, he impossibly concludes the day in his own. [4.] Covetous: the friend of the world, commanding his parsimony as prudence, calling his idolatrous attachment to the world minding the main chance, and counting those happy who have their portion in this life, whom God abhors. [5.] Prayerless: he will not find after God, which is among the furett marks of an impenitent heart. [6.] Careleft about God, or religion, leaving him far above out of his sight, and never concerning himself whether he be pleaded or disheard, for God is not in all his thoughts; or atheistical, as it may be rendered; there is no God, for all his thoughts. [7.] Disobedient: His ways are always grievous to God and man, being a constant violation of his duties on both. [8.] Impenitent: The judgments are far above out of his sight, he pays no more regard to the strokes of God’s vengeance, than to the command of his law. [9.] Incident: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them, defying and defying all his foes, as if able to cross them with the breath of his lips, as is seen in the anathema of anthemistical. [10.] Secure: he hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity, notwithstanding all the Divine threatening are against him, Rev. xxvi. v. [11.] Profane: his mouth is full of curling, oaths and blasphemes are in his ordinary conversation. [12.] Treacherous: full of deceit and fraud, he hicks at no lie to gain his purpose, and lays it down as a maxim, that no faith is to be kept with those he brands as heretick. [13.] Heavical: under his tongue is mythical and vanity, false and damnable doctrines, that, like the serpent’s poison, corrupt the foul; whilst those who follow them are not aware of their vanity, and that there is a lie in their right hand. [14.] Bloody-minded: the innocent are murdered, v. 8. for as a lion secretly he lies in wait to destroy. Thus corrupters seek to enslave the unfulpicious, and especially the emissaries of the man of sin labour to delote and deforce the souls of men. [15.] Hypocritical: making the Lord’s throes of humility and kindness, in order, as the crouching lion, to feast more forthy his prey; for there is no merceness to which pride will not stoop to compass its ends. And thus he that calls himself God upon earth, annexes to his beasting that humbling title of a servant of servants. [16.] Blasphemous: he hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hideth his face, he will never see it, which is in effect denying God’s being, as it robs him of his omniscience, truth, and holiness. And this is all the miserable support, the hopeless hope of the wicked, for if there be a God that taketh notice of the concerns of men, tho his ruin is certain, and his damnation inevitable. Let these characters be well pondered; wherever they are found, there the eternal wrath of God abides.

3. Arife, O LORD, O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. 13. Wherefore doth the wicked conteme God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. 14. Thou hast seen it, for thou he holdeth mischief and spite to enquire it with thy hand: the poor committed himself unto thee, thou art the helper of the fatherless. 15. Break thou the arm of the wicked.

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ed, and the evil men: seek out his wickedness till thou find none. 16. The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land. 17. LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: ’thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt caule thine ear to hear: 18. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more to oppress.

Psalms 10:12-18

Having represented his own distress, and the wickedness of his enemies, David calls upon God to arise; not that he forged, and needed to be awaked, but to manifest the notice he took of the ungodly, to punish them, and the remembrance he had of the humble to protect them. Left up thy hand, forget not the poor, and high time it was to curb the insolence of the wicked, now exalted to the highest pitch, contending God, his threannings, omniscience, and judgments; he hath just in his heart, then will not require it. Note, Confidence of impunity is the great encouragement to sin, but how vain is the hope of the hypocrisy? Thou hast sien us, for from those all-searching eye nothing is hid, nothing is secret; nor is there any darkness or shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves; for thou beholdest misloved and spite, their inveterate malice against thy people, though but conceived in thought, to require it with thy hand, in punishment adequate to their provocations. The poor committed himself unto thee, in confidence he shall not be disappointed, whether for body or soul, for time or eternity, he leaveth all his cares in the hands of a faithful creature, for thou art the helper of the fatherless; thou wilt like me art deftivant, and unable to provide for themselves, find in thee a guardian and protector. Therefore in answer to their humble confidence, break thou the arm of the wicked and evil, be they men or devils, disappoint their devices, and restrain their malice; find out his wickedness till thou find none, make thorough inquisition, and leave none of his iniquities unpunished. And this the faithful may assuredly expect, for the Lord is king for ever and ever, to protect his loyal subjects, to destroy his rebellious foes, and this for ever and ever; his punishments and rewards are both everlasting. Therefore the humble are perished out of the land; by David’s victories they were expelled from Canaan; by the more glorious victories of the son of David, not a Canaanite shall be shortly left in the believer’s heart; and when the Lord Jesus shall appear, to put a final period to the kingdom of antichrist, and reign over his saints gloriously, not one sinner shall be suffered to have a place in that new heaven and earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: the secret prayers, which arise inwardly in the heart, God notices before the mouth speaks, and grants the request of the humble. Thou wilt prepare their heart, pouring out upon them a spirit of supplication, and teaching them how to pray; or confirm their heart, enable them to trust, and not be afraid. Thou wilt caule thine ear to hear, thou hast, and thou wilt continue to do so; ever attentive to the prayers of thy people, and ready to give more than they are able to ask or think. To judge the fatherless and oppressed, to plead their caule, and rescue them from wrong; that the man of the earth may oppress no more, that wicked men in general, and the perplexing antichristian power alluded to in particular, may be utterly and finally destroyed, in the day when the glorious angel shall proclaim, I view your heathen. Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and Jesus shall complete the salvation of his people, and put all their enemies and his for ever under their feet. Well may every faithful soul with eager expectation cry, Lord, how long!