When I was young and I asked to do something I really wanted to do, my dad had a line that drove me up the wall: “We’ll see.” It seemed like a “no,” but without outright saying it. It felt like the worst of all worlds in that I would not get my way but would also be left on the hook wondering about the slight possibility.
That example is just one instance of how we tend not to like suspense. We want certainty. And we tend to want that certainty immediately. I am in that weird age bracket where I remember the advent of internet access in our homes and am still young enough that I basically grew up with internet access. I certainly recall that static screech of dial-up internet where it took minutes just to connect to the internet. It would then take minutes to load every single page. By contrast, now if my browser does not load exactly what I want in seconds, I am about to lose my mind. We want what we want now. We do not like “we’ll see” because it leaves us hanging and waiting. When we join those two together, uncertainty and having to wait, we have the modern mix for a meltdown.
Psalm 10 brings us into the situation where we have sought the Lord for respite from our trouble, but it feels like the answer is “we’ll see.” How do we pray when it feels like the Lord leaves us hanging? What should our response be when we not only lack certainty but also immediacy regarding how the Lord will respond to us?
As we sit with this psalm and consider how it teaches us to live before the Lord in those times of tension, we ought to recognize its value for our ongoing discipleship. It touches upon what are perhaps the hardest moments—when things are not only difficult, but also uncertain.
We should keep in mind that the Psalms are songs to instruct us about Christ and the Christian life. The Psalter is a book about the godly response to the full spectrum of experience and emotion encountered in the Christian life. It teaches us how to pray in countless circumstances. It also supplies us words for when we are not able even to put together our own words to pray.
The Psalter is a book about something, starting somewhere, going somewhere, and ending somewhere. Psalms 1–2 show this book is about the law and the gospel. They also tell us that it is about the paths of righteousness and the king who blesses his people even as the nations rage against him. Psalms 3–14 are prayers from that king about the experience of the righteous amidst the nations raging. Even with the anchor of God’s promise that his king will prevail, the experience of facing those enemies is still incredibly hard.
The Psalter takes us into the depths of God’s promises. It also takes us into the depths of struggling as we wait to see God fulfill his promises in our experience. The Psalms give us insight into the dynamics of living on earth in light of realities that are guaranteed in heaven. Psalm 10 focuses our attention on what to do when we cannot help but feel overwhelmed by our circumstances. This series argues the central idea that Psalm 10 teaches us that God is near to his people even when we do not feel like he is.
Valuing the Psalms
What would have given rise to this psalm in the writer’s original experience? Although we know the Holy Spirit inspired David to pen this song, we also believe he inspired David to do so in light of real circumstances that prompted these words. That context of inspirations shows us that even the psalms depicting the hardest situations did not arise in an experiential vacuum. That reality ought to teach us something about why we should value the Psalter for our own use in the Christian life.
Before we get to the specifics, we ought not miss the real weight of how God has left the psalms of lament to us. We might easily overlook that God let his servant endure the sort of hardship recounted in these psalms with the purpose that we, ages later, could have them to instruct us in our faith. David had to go through real trial so that God’s people would later be blessed by this inspired song of Psalm 10. Such is true with so many psalms.
We should not write off these songs just because they might be less trendy than other praise music. God himself providentially let his own beloved saints endure trial so that we could have these songs. We know he wants us to have them because they are inspired Scripture. Let us not dismiss the seriousness of God’s providence and the sacrifices of his people of ages past so that we could be blessed.
On our Independence Day—and on Memorial Day not that long ago too—Americans remember those who sacrificed much if not all to procure freedom for our nation. We value the freedoms we have in part because of how much people gave to make sure we would have them. We ought to see the same issue at work in the Psalms. The Psalter lays bare the suffering and turmoil of so many situations that believers have had to endure. Those saints endured those trials in part so that we could have these portions of inspired Scripture for our spiritual benefit. We ought not to downplay their sacrifices by neglecting these songs. Considering we value things that people sacrifice to give us, we should value the Psalms tremendously.
That reality comes through when we understand that Psalm 10 is mainly about the perception that the wicked are prospering and might be victorious. David really had to endure the trouble he expresses here so that we could be blessed by this Scripture.
A Broad Sketch Outline
Psalm 10 falls into two major halves. In verses 1–11, we find David’s lament over how the enemies around him seem to be prospering in their wickedness. In verses 12–18, David calls upon God as the righteous king to come to his aid and hold these evil doers to account.
Psalm 10 opens with its main idea: “Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” It is a cry expressing David’s feeling that God had distanced himself from his servant. The situation that gave rise to this psalm is one where David perceived that God was leaving him in trouble and the reasons were not clear.
This opening plea governs the theme of the whole psalm. It seems like God is far away. It almost seems as if the wicked experience more blessing than the righteous. Thus, David’s confusion in his trial is not just that he faces trouble, but that he also sees the wicked around him succeeding. David’s consternation with his own struggle set next to the prosperity of the wicked bubbles out into the lament of verses 2–11.
Without going through all the details, this lament section portrays the wicked as committed to the ways of evil and to disregarding the Lord. The wicked lean into what they want with no regard for what is right: “For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord” (v. 3). The wicked conduct life in full pride as if they are not accountable for their actions before the Lord: “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God’” (v. 4). In their pride, they live how they want because they pretend that God does not exist. The wicked speak without concern for righteousness: “His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity” (v. 7). The wicked plans how to do wrong to others for their own gain: “He sits in ambush in the villages” (v. 8). The wicked people around David have a pattern of intentional devotion to their evil ways.
David switches gears at verse 12 to call upon the Lord to help him. That section has two aims: 1) to seek the Lord’s help in this troubled time, and 2) to remind the psalmist himself about who the Lord is. This section opens: “Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.” David knows that when God acts, it will be in light of his faithfulness to those who are the victim of evil. He knows that God will side against the wicked. That request is accompanied by descriptions of God’s commitment to help those in need and his kingship over the nations, which truths restore the confidence of the psalmist that his prayer will be heard and his trouble will not last forever.
Conclusion
To pull the issues together, David not only felt like God was far away, he felt like God’s blessing was upon his enemies. The point of the psalm as it teaches God’s people is then to show us that we need to lament before the Lord when we see the wicked succeed to the detriment of God’s people. It is a problem that the unrighteous would prevail. That should not be, even though it is a common feature of this age. David’s laments show us that prayer must reckon with the hardship of life. David’s turn to prayer also reminds us that we do not pray in light of just our feelings. We may feel like God is distant, but we should pray in light of the truth we know about God’s commitment to his people.
© Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.
You can find this whole series here.
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A much needed essay.
Is God not marvelous in giving us such words of comfort, even for such a time as this?
Always enjoy your writings here, Dr. Perkins.