Psalm 10: When the Wicked Seem to Win

Core Theme: For when you’re angry — at injustice you can’t stop, and at watching the wicked get away with it

(Related Theme: This psalm also opens with the feeling that God is far away, a thread I pick up in “Carrying this forward” below.)

Background

Psalm 10 does not name its author or the occasion that prompted it. In the Hebrew text it stands on its own, and the Greek Septuagint joins it to Psalm 9. The two share an acrostic pattern, with each section beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. For that reason it is often linked with David, but the text itself does not say so, and we should hold that lightly.

What we do know is what the psalm shows. The writer is watching the strong prey on the weak, and he sees the oppressor prospering without consequence. The psalm moves from a hard question aimed at God, through a vivid portrait of the wicked, to a prayer, and then to a settled confidence that the LORD is King. It is one of the most honest places in Scripture for anyone who has watched injustice go unanswered.

The Psalm (KJV)

1. Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
2. The wicked 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’s 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 never be in adversity.
7. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit 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 secretly 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.
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 committeth 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 wilt hear the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
18. To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of earth may no more oppress.

The heart of it

Psalm 10 gives voice to something many believers feel and few say aloud: if God is good and just, why does He let the wicked prosper? The psalmist does not soften the question or answer it too quickly. He asks it plainly, and the Bible lets him.

Notice what he does with it. He does not stew in his anger or take matters into his own hands. He brings everything to God, the confusion, the outrage, and the picture of what the oppressor has done. That is what makes this psalm a model for anyone who has been wronged. Your anger at injustice is not a sign that your faith is weak. Taken to God, it becomes prayer.

The psalm also holds a quiet corrective. The wicked man believes “God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it” (v. 11), and Scripture says otherwise: “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good” (Proverbs 15:3). The apparent silence is not absence. And Solomon explains why wrongdoing can seem so bold: “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil” (Ecclesiastes 8:11). Delay is not the same as indifference.

Walking through it

Verse 1: An honest question. “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD?…” You are allowed to ask this. The prophet Habakkuk asked almost the same thing: “O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!…” (Habakkuk 1:2). God did not rebuke either man for asking. He answered them, though not always on the schedule they hoped for.

Verses 4-11: What the wicked tell themselves. The longest part of the psalm is a portrait of the oppressor, and the key is what he says in his heart: “I shall not be moved” (v. 6), “God hath forgotten” (v. 11), “Thou wilt not require it” (v. 13). His whole way of life rests on the belief that no one is watching. Psalm 94 answers the same boast: “He that planted the ear, shall he not hear? he that formed the eye, shall he not see?” (Psalm 94:9).

Verse 14: The turn. Verse 11 says “he will never see it.” Verse 14 answers in four words: “Thou hast seen it…” Everything shifts here. The one thing the wicked man is most sure of is the one thing he is wrong about. God sees the mischief and spite, and the helpless “committeth himself unto thee.” That phrase is the heart of how a believer handles being wronged. It is the same posture Peter urges on those who suffer: “Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator” (1 Peter 4:19).

Verses 16-18: The King. The psalm does not end with the wicked defeated. It ends with God enthroned: “The LORD is King for ever and ever…” And then comes a tender promise: “LORD, thou wilt hear the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear.” God hears, and He even prepares the heart of the one who prays. If you can barely find words, He is not waiting for you to get them right.

Carrying this forward

If the situation is behind you, Psalm 10 invites you to look back at the season when God seemed far off. The distance you felt was real, but the psalm suggests it was not the whole truth. He saw it then, and He sees it now.

If you are in the middle of it, the psalm offers a pattern. Ask God your honest question. Tell Him what has been done, and name it plainly. Then entrust it to Him, which does not mean pretending it didn’t happen, and it does not mean staying in harm’s way. If you or someone vulnerable is being hurt right now, take practical steps to be safe and to get help. Trusting God and acting wisely go together.

Psalm 10 does not promise that every wrong will be set right on the schedule you would choose, or that you will see it settled in this life. It promises something steadier: the LORD is King for ever and ever, He has seen it, and He hears the desire of the humble. You can bring your anger to Him, and you can leave it in His hands.