Psalms 10:1 - Meaning and Application

David shows here, first, a very strong love for God and for God’s favor. In trouble, the thing he feels most deeply is God’s seeming distance. He cries, “Why do you stand far off, as if you do not care about the insults to your name and the harm done to your people?” God’s hiding seems especially painful in hard times.

When outward help seems far away, we are tempted to think God is far away too. Then we lose inward comfort, but that is often our own fault. We judge by what we can see, and our unbelief puts us at a distance from God. Then we complain that God is far from us.

David also shows strong anger against sin, especially the sins that make times dangerous, as Paul later describes (2 Timothy 3:1). He sees the wrongdoers, is troubled by them, and brings their evil before his heavenly Father. He does not do this to brag, like the Pharisee who boasted before God (Luke 18:11), and he is not venting personal anger. He speaks as one who is burdened by what offends God and hurts good people, and he wants people to turn from evil.

Sharp attacks on wicked people usually do more harm than good. If we speak about their sin, it should be to God in prayer, because only God can make them better. David sums up the whole description of the wicked in the opening words: “The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor” (Psalm 10:2). Two charges are laid against them here, pride and persecution, and pride is the root of the persecution.

Proud people want everyone around them to agree with them. They want others to follow their religion, accept their rule, and submit to their judgments. Anyone who outshines them or refuses to yield becomes a target of their hate. Tyranny, in both government and the church, begins in pride.

David begins this picture and then adds a short prayer in the middle of it, which does not break the sense at all: “Let them be caught in the plans they have made” (Psalm 10:2). Proud people often fall into their own traps. Let their plans turn back on them, and let them fall by their own schemes.

The first thing said of them is that they are very proud and full of themselves. No wonder David wonders that God does not rise quickly against them, because God hates pride and opposes the proud. The sinner boasts in his own power and success. He acts as if he can do whatever he wants, as if even God cannot stop him, and as if he has reached all he wanted. Ephraim said, “I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself” (Hosea 12:8). David asks, in effect, is it for God’s honor to let a sinful person pretend to have the rule and happiness that belong to God alone?

The wicked also contradict God’s judgment, even though God’s judgment is always right. They bless the covetous, the greedy, whom the Lord hates. God and man often judge people very differently. God hates greedy worldlings who make money their god, and he will have no fellowship with them. “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.” But proud oppressors praise such people and approve what they say (Psalm 49:13). They call wise those whom God calls foolish (Luke 12:20). They call innocent those whom God condemns as deeply guilty. They admire those who have their portion only in this life, even though God says that makes them truly miserable. “You received your good things in your lifetime.”

The wicked also throw off all thoughts of God and all dependence on him. “Through the pride of his face,” meaning the pride in his heart that shows on his face (Proverbs 6:17), he will not seek after God or think about him. God is not in any of his thoughts. This is the nature of irreligion: not seeking God, not calling on him, and not living in fellowship with him. It is a hidden wish to have no dependence on God and to owe him nothing. Such people live without prayer, and to live without prayer is to live without God.

The cause of this is pride. Men will not seek God because they think they do not need him. They believe their own hands are enough. They think religion is beneath them, because religious people are few, poor, and despised, and because religion’s restraints seem like a loss of status.

He also makes light of God’s commands and God’s warnings. He goes on boldly in sin, even when it is tiring to himself and troublesome to others. He is worn out by his wicked ways, yet pride makes him stubborn in them. God’s judgments, both his commands and the punishment he warns about for breaking them, are far above his sight. He does not feel God’s authority over him, or his danger under God’s anger and curse. If you tell him that God rules him, he brushes it aside. If you warn him about God’s coming judgment on those who keep on sinning, he will not believe it is real.

He also despises all his enemies and looks down on them with great scorn. He snorts at those whom God is preparing to use as a rod and ruin for him, as if he could defeat them all and handle them himself. Yet it is unwise to despise an enemy, and it is also wicked to despise any tool of God’s anger.

Finally, he defiantly dismisses trouble and feels sure his success will last. “I shall not be moved,” he says in his heart. “My goods are stored up for many years, and I will never be in trouble.” He is like Babylon, which said, “I will be a queen forever” (Isaiah 47:7; Revelation 18:7). Those who put ruin farthest away are often closest to it.

Second, they are persecutors, cruel persecutors. To feed their pride and greed, and in open resistance to God and religion, they oppress everyone they can reach.

These persecutors are deeply bitter and full of hatred. Their mouth is full of cursing (Psalm 10:7). If they cannot do real harm, they still spit out venom and speak the destruction they cannot carry out. God’s faithful worshipers have often been cursed in this way, with every kind of public shame. A heart full of malice usually shows itself in a mouth full of curses.

They are also false and treacherous. They hide their evil plans under their tongue, so they cannot be easily seen. Their mouth is full of deceit and lies. They have learned from the devil how to deceive in order to destroy, and they cover hatred with smooth words (Proverbs 26:26). They do not care what lies they tell, what promises they break, or what tricks they use to reach their goal.

They are also cunning and crafty in how they carry out their plans. They set traps and make secret arrangements so their evil will succeed. Like Esau, the hunter, they sit in hidden places and watch for a chance to do harm (Psalm 10:8). This is not because they are ashamed, for if they felt shame, there would be hope of repentance. It is also not because they fear God’s anger, for they think he will never call them to account (Psalm 10:11). Rather, they hide because they fear their plans may be exposed before they are finished. This may especially point to robbers and highwaymen who lie in wait for travelers and take their goods.

They are also cruel and savage. Their hatred is aimed at the innocent, who have done them no harm, and at the poor, who cannot resist them. Those who should protect the innocent and care for the poor often become the very ones who destroy them. Their goal is to catch the poor and pull them into their net, that is, to get them under their power, not just to strip them, but to kill them. They hunt for precious life. God’s poor people are among those they persecute, and they hate them because they belong to God and bear his image. Like a lion that thirsts for blood, they lie in wait to destroy. The devil, who uses them as his tools, is also pictured as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

They are base and hypocritical too (Psalm 10:10). They crouch and humble themselves, like animals of prey when they are ready to strike. This shows that persecutors and oppressors will stoop to anything, however low, to carry out their wicked plans. Saul, when he hunted David, showed this kind of shameful behavior. It also shows that they cover their evil with a show of gentleness and humility. They seem to care about the poor and take an interest in their needs, but only so they can bring them down and make a prey of them.

They are also deeply ungodly and practically atheistic (Psalm 10:11). They could not so openly break the laws of justice and kindness toward others unless they had first rejected all real fear of God. He says in his heart, God has forgotten. When his conscience warns him and asks how he will answer to the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, he pushes it aside by saying, God has forsaken the earth (Ezekiel 8:12; Ezekiel 9:9). This is a blasphemous insult against God’s omniscience, his all-seeing care, as if he did not know what happens in this world. It also insults his holiness, as if he saw evil but did not hate it. And it insults his justice, as if he would never call the wicked to account or punish them.

Those who suffer under proud oppressors should take comfort that God will, in time, act for them. Anyone who treats them with abuse is also insulting God Almighty. When we sing this psalm and pray it, our hearts should feel holy anger at the wickedness of oppressors, deep compassion for the suffering of the oppressed, and a true zeal for God’s honor. We should also hold firmly to this hope, that he will, in due time, help the injured and judge those who injure them.