READ: Ps. 10:1–18: Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? … For the wicked … renounce the LORD … All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’ … His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression … Arise, O LORD … Do not forget the humble … You have seen it … LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble …
If in Psalm 9 there is exuberant praise, now David makes an appeal to the LORD. It is not a sign of uncertainty, doubt, or disappointment in the LORD when he cries out: LORD, why do You stand afar off when the wicked despise You, blaspheme You, and deceitfully seek to deceive, persecute, and murder believers?
Rather, it is the certain expectation that the LORD will act against evil and injustice and that He will not hold the guilty innocent but will punish evil. Did David not sing it out in Psalm 9:11: “Those who know Your name [that is, those who believe in the LORD as He has revealed Himself and love Him] will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You”?
Yet the LORD can severely test His children in their trust, for example by leading them through a deep valley of hostility with physical or spiritual afflictions. It is that strengthening that the LORD wants to see in His own.
Then we can even glory in tribulations (Rom. 5:3–4) and count it all joy when we fall into various trials that are intended to produce perseverance in faith (Jas. 1:2–4). Precisely when, in such situations, we continue to direct our hope and expectation toward the LORD, we will certainly be assured of His help and deliverance.
The people David describes as wicked are of the worst kind. They mock and blaspheme God and kill people; they imagine themselves completely free to do whatever comes into their evil hearts toward the weak, the humble, the innocent, the poor, the fatherless, the oppressed. Their sins cry out to heaven (Gen. 4:10; Ex. 22:22,23).
David appeals to the LORD: On You the poor commits himself; You have been a helper of the fatherless. And then to know God’s answer: You have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear; You will do justice.
Do we recognize the situation described?
Singing: Ps. 10:6,7