Photo by Anand Thakur on Unsplash
By Mike Chaffin
O Lord, why do you stand so far away?
Why do you hide when I am in trouble?
2 The wicked arrogantly hunt down the poor.
Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others.
3 For they brag about their evil desires;
they praise the greedy and curse the Lord.
4 The wicked are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
5 Yet they succeed in everything they do.
They do not see your punishment awaiting them.
They sneer at all their enemies.
6 They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen to us!
We will be free of trouble forever!”
7 Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats.
Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.
8 They lurk in ambush in the villages,
waiting to murder innocent people.
They are always searching for helpless victims.
9 Like lions crouched in hiding,
they wait to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture the helpless
and drag them away in nets.
10 Their helpless victims are crushed;
they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
11 The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”
12 Arise, O Lord!
Punish the wicked, O God!
Do not ignore the helpless!
13 Why do the wicked get away with despising God?
They think, “God will never call us to account.”
14 But you see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You defend the orphans.
15 Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
Go after them until the last one is destroyed.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever!
The godless nations will vanish from the land.
17 Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
18 You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
so mere people can no longer terrify them.
There are times when you just have to let it all out to God. Every frustration, injustice, confusion, and pain spilled out from the heart to a merciful God. This lament is one of those times.
This psalm reflects the thoughts of every Christian who has been wronged, hurt, and persecuted by others for personal gain, emotional pain, and spiritual terror. The psalm is not wrong. Evil exists and evil people prosper in it. Hitler, Stalin, and Mao stand out as three of the vilest people in the last hundred years. They gained popularity, power, and riches on the backs of Christians, Jews, the poor and oppressed. They are evil, but they didn’t do all the things they did on their own. Others bought into their evil plans and piled on.
“When will they get what’s coming?” we ask God. It’s a legitimate question and one God has answered. Some of God’s greatest prophets have prayed a similar prayer to psalm 10. Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations, Job in his distress, Ezekiel in captivity.
God said in Ezekiel,
Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’ Ezekiel 33:11
But if the evil ones don’t repent, we are reminded In Nahum,
The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. The Lord has His way In the whirlwind and in the storm, And the clouds are the dust of His feet.
It seems the question psalm 10 poses is even asked after death. Martyrs cried out to God asking when they will be avenged,
9 When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. 10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” Revelation 6:9-10
God replied to those martyrs to wait just a little longer.
Jesus taught about when terrible things happening to good people,
44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Matthew 5:44-46
What God teaches us is that it is okay and sometimes necessary to pray this prayer. David recites a litany of wrongs people do and seem to prosper. But God is not mocked, He will judge them one day and David knows this so he ends the psalm by reminding himself how they will turn out. The key David knew, Jesus taught, and we should learn, is to not allow their evil behavior to cause a root of bitterness in our soul that can drive a wedge between us and God. Love them for we were just like them before we came to Christ.
The Heidelberg Catechism states:
Will God suffer such disobedience and rebellion to go unpunished? By no means, but is terribly displeased with our original as well as our actual sins, and will punish them in just judgment temporarily and eternally, as He hath declared, “Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law; to do them.” (Q&A 10)
