"Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
3 For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
5 His ways prosper at all times;
your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
7 His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
8 He sits in ambush in the villages;
in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
9 he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor;
he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
10 The helpless are crushed, sink down,
and fall by his might.
11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”
12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever;
the nations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more."
Psalm 10
This Psalm is a companion-piece to the previous one, the difference being that in Psalm 9 the theme is the sovereignty of God decisively vindicated in the world by the defeat of Israel's enemies, whereas here the Psalmist's plaint is that within the nation of Israel wrong seemed to be triumphant. So he prays for a similar manifestation of the divine sovereignty within the nation itself. The Psalm falls into two parts, after two introductory verses of petition and remonstrance: in 3-11 we are given a grim picture of the enemy of the poor, and in 12-18 the cry for deliverance and judgment, which receives its assurance of answer in the knowledge of the sovereignty of God. David first describes the character (3-6), then the conduct (7-11) of the wicked. His plaint is against their practical atheism (4), and their contemptuous attitude towards the idea of there being a God at all and the bland assurance that, if there is a God, He will not see their wickedness (6). Then his conduct (7-11), springing from this practical atheism, is described as the prowling of a lion after its prey, showing no mercy. It is a grim picture indeed, but wonderfully offset by the prayer and assurance that the verses that follow unfold.