Psalms 10:1-18
1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
2 The wickeda in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart'sb desire, and blesseth 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 said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall neverc be in adversity.
7 His mouth is full of cursing and deceitd and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
8 He sitteth 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 secretlye 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 humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.
11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.
12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.f
13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
14 Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committethg himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: 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 prepareh their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.i
In the Septuagint and other versions, probably the ancient Hebrew, Psalms 9:1; Psa 10:1-18 appear as one. There is a clear connection between them, but it is that of contrast. In the former the singer has rejoiced in the exercise of Jehovah's rule in the whole earth. In this he mourns what seems to be the abandonment of His own people. There is, first, the protesting cry of the heart against what seems to be divine indifference to the injustice being wrought by the wicked against the poor (1,2). This injustice is then described in detail. It is graphic description of the brutality of earthly rule when it has forgotten God, or says in its ignorance that God has forgotten it.
The picture would fit many times of misrule on the pages of human history. There is a heart cry to Jehovah, to God to interfere. If the psalm opens in complaint, it closes in confidence. The wicked man is wrong about God. He does see and know. The cry of the oppressed He hears. Deliverance must come, for Jehovah is King. Not once or twice, but often the men of faith have been driven to cry out against the oppression of man by man. Happy is he whose faith causes him to complain directly to Jehovah. The result is ever a renewed consciousness of the certainty of the divine government and the necessary rightness of the ultimate issue.