Psalm 10 — The Way of the Wicked

10 Why do You stand afar off, O Lord?
Why do You hide [a]Yourself in times of trouble?
2 In pride the wicked [b]hotly pursue the afflicted;
[c]Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire,
And [d]the greedy man curses and spurns the Lord.
4 The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him.
All his [e]thoughts are, “There is no God.”

5 His ways [f]prosper at all times;
Your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.
6 He says to himself, “I will not be moved;
[g]Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity.”
7 His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression;
Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.
8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages;
In the hiding places he kills the innocent;
His eyes [h]stealthily watch for the [i]unfortunate.
9 He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his [j]lair;
He lurks to catch the afflicted;
He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net.
10 He [k]crouches, he [l]bows down,
And the [m]unfortunate fall [n]by his mighty ones.
11 He says to himself, “God has forgotten;
He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”

12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Your hand.
Do not forget the afflicted.
13 Why has the wicked spurned God?
He has said to himself, “You will not require it.”
14 You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to [o]take it into Your hand.
The [p]unfortunate commits himself to You;
You have been the helper of the orphan.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer,
[q]Seek out his wickedness until You find none.

16 The Lord is King forever and ever;
Nations have perished from His land.
17 O Lord, You have heard the desire of the [r]humble;
You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear
18 To [s]vindicate the orphan and the oppressed,
So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.

David’s enemies were external in Psalm 9. In Psalm 10, his enemies are local, internal to the house of Israel. In particular, the house of Saul displayed repeated disdain for David. Robert Pyne, in his anthropological work, Humanity and Sin (1999; p. 234), captures the drama of the angry group and their repeated pattern of producing a scapegoat:

A society’s anger and violence is not always directed toward an external enemy, for it sometimes turns against an internal scapegoat. In this case the anger is not usually provoked as much by envy as by fear. The community that seeks a scapegoat is often under unusual pressure — perhaps a natural disaster or some other crisis — and they come to regard an individual or a group of persons as responsible for their distress. The chosen scapegoat is enough a part of the community to represent an internal threat, but he is also different enough that his place in the community may be challenged. When that challenge comes, and the selected individual suffers persecution, the community expects a return to those halcyon days before their present distress. It never comes, for the scapegoat was never the cause of their problem, but that lesson is not easily learned, and it will not be long before another victim is selected.

David opened with an inquiry as to the reason for divine absence (v. 1). The parallelism uses two inquiries with the “why?” question, which searches for motive. God appears most transcendent when we are most in trouble. David would like a reason for God’s hiding Himself in a time when he would like to hide in the stronghold of the Rock (Ps 9:9).

David saw the troublemakers and made a request for their self-retribution (v. 2). The mother of all sin, pride, is the motive for the wicked in their aggressive maneuvering against the victim. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5). But where is He? “The afflicted” is the first of six labels given to the scapegoat/victim in Psalm 10. There is no other place in the Psalms where the writer uses such variety of terms. David knew that God’s judgment was often executed through self-inflicted evil schemes. We remember Saul’s faithless visit to the witch of Endor, only to receive his death sentence.

David added to the list of verbal sins committed by the greedy/wicked (v. 3). Boasting of one’s ambitions reveals the sin of greed, the desire for more and more of something. Despite prowess in attainment, the greedy are never satisfied, which produces the sin of cursing God and despising Him. Man is eager to ascend the mountain to become king, and God moves too slow for the wicked to consider Him.

David alluded to the functional atheism of the proud-faced ones (v. 4). The wicked reiterate the question of Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice? I do not know the Lord.” Contrasted with the righteous, who do seek the Lord (9:10), the wicked pursue their idols and deny the existence of the God of Israel (Ps 14:1; 53:1). The practical atheist is more dangerous and the theoretical atheist. Consider Nietzsche the theorist versus Hitler the practitioner. Nietzsche damaged many minds; but Hitler put Nietzsche’s ideas into practice and millions were destroyed in mind, body, and soul.

David lamented the prosperity of the wicked, along with complementary disdain for God and even his own adversaries (v. 5). The arrogant elevate their self-importance because of achieved levels of attainment in what the world values. Wealth, power, control, lead to a spiritual blindness that shuns everyone else. Evil dictators are notorious for being oblivious to anything apart from self-interest. The Jews were Hitler’s scapegoat, and the German people turned a blind eye to the tragic genocide. The Christians at Darfur and Jos are recent scapegoats of the Muslims who slaughter with little resistance.

David recounted the claims of his enemies as untouchable in time and space (v. 6). The insanity of the wicked never seems to cease. Years go by and nothing seems to change. Both the oppressor and the oppressed are aware of this elongation of elapsed time. The wicked are also territorial. The occupation of space is a testimony of their authority. Satan is the self-appointed prince of this world. God created man in His image in order to multiply His image in number and fill the earth. Death is Satan’s tool to disrupt the number of images. Population control is the work of our adversary. He has been a murderer from the beginning (Jn 8:44)

David charged the wicked with a variety of verbal sins (v. 7). The devil is always communicating his deceits. Words have power to bring death. The children of the devil follow the speech pattern of their father, who has been a liar from the beginning, too. While Christians are instructed to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15), the twisted words of the wicked produce chaos. James warned the church that the tongue is a fire (Jas 3:5–6). We must be encouraged to be careful with our words at all times, lest we become ignorant agents of our enemy.

David identified the strategy of the wicked as one waiting to ambush his prey (v. 8). The brutality against the unfortunate, innocent is purposeful to destroy him. The imagery of the ambush is prevalent. Wicked men scheme together, select their prey, and pounce on him with an element of surprise. David used the simile of a lion on the hunt (v. 9). In the scheme of survival of the fittest, the oppressors choose the weak as their scapegoat and make their offering to the god of death. In removing the weakest link, they grow stronger in the pursuit of their ambitious ends. The end goal is to be king of the jungle by whatever means are necessary. Widows’ houses are robbed to feed their idol god, and orphans are neglected.

David suggested the work of wicked was teamwork (v. 10). “His mighty ones” reveals the way of the wicked requires more than one to oppress. The junta self-affirm and proceed to lead the people astray. Eight million Nazi party members added weight to Hitler’s oppression of the righteous. The elite group at the top had proven themselves to their fuerher by violent acts of allegiance. The tragedy of group think is the removal of individual conscience in favor of the party line. Fear remains the motive because love is absent.

David argued the position of the wicked viewed God as blind or absent (v. 11). The way of the wicked perceives an absent deity. The work of the devil is to reduce the conscious presence of the truth of God’s existence. The blind lead the blind into the pit (Mt 15:14). World religions and religious cults are masters at reducing the level of awareness of Jesus Christ. The countermeasure of the church is to saturate the earth with the message of God’s judgment, which is the warning of punishment for the wicked and salvation for the righteous.

David pleaded with God to remember the weak (v. 12). The psalmist shifts from describing the way of the wicked to addressing YHWH. The perception of God passively sitting and watching the drama of evil unfold provokes petitioned prayer. The request for God to lift His hand is a request for powerful intervention. The feeling of being left alone prompts the call for God to remember.

David again asked why the wicked prevail in his view of an absent God (v. 13). The psalmist uses the theodicy of the wicked, arrayed against God, as the case he presents to God. The wicked feel they will not be held accountable. David suggested God sees everything the wicked and the orphan do in relation to Him (v. 14). God surely sees the wicked avoid Him, while the unfortunate casts his life into YHWH’s care.

David made his plea for YHWH to flush out and put an end to the power of the wicked (v. 15). God’s judgment purges evil as the evildoers are removed. Breaking the arm immobilizes the wicked from exercising oppression.

David attributed eternal kingship to YHWH, while reminding Him of His past actions against the wicked (v. 16). God is not just King of Israel, but He is the eternal King of the universe. The wicked nations that previously occupied the Promised Land were made into ruins by God’s judgment. However, evil emerges again, even from the sons of Noah. The final judgment will come with a purifying fire that destroys the earth (2 Pet 3:10–12). This will make way for a new heavens and a new earth (Is 65–66; Rev 21–22). God’s people will finally be at rest in Zion, the dwelling of God.

David implored YHWH to act on behalf of the needy (v. 17). The humble, poor and needy, unfortunate, afflicted, oppressed, fatherless, and innocent hear the promise of God’s salvation and are strengthened in hope. The day of the Lord is surely coming (Mt 24–25; Mk 13; Lk 21; 1 Thess 4:13–5:11; Rev 19:11–21).

David petitioned God to rescue the fatherless and oppressed from the way of the wicked (v. 18). Salvation delivers God’s people from the terror of wicked men. They are vindicated for the righteousness imputed to them by faith in God’s Word. They demonstrate they are children of God by trusting in God’s Word of power to deliver them. They trust God alone to deliver them.

In sum, we join David in lament during our times of trouble. The psalmist empathizes with us in search of the distant, absent deity. The way of the wicked is to practice godlessness in view to becoming gods in the absence of YHWH, the judge. Godlessness is demonic influence upon man to oppress his fellow human being, made in the image of God.

In the game of survival of the fittest or king of the mountain, the wicked operate in word and deed to destroy those who wait for God to deliver them, instead of defending themselves. The scapegoat is sacrificed to idols of money, power, and position. At the gates of death, he cries out to God, the King. Psalm 10 leaves us in suspense. Will YHWH deliver? The faithful believe He will deliver; but the wicked press on with their godless agenda, in their quest for gaining the whole world.

David Norczyk

Spokane Valley, Washington

May 28, 2021