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Psalm 10; The Arrogance of the Wicked

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2025 06/01 Psalm 10; The Arrogance of the Wicked; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20250601_psalm-10.mp3

YHWH Protects, Watches Over, Upholds

We’ll be in Psalm 10 today.

Psalm 68:5 Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

Psalm 146:9 The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

God cares for the hurting, the helpless, the broken in society. God cares. In his law, God established means for his people to care for the helpless, and threatened his wrath against those who used their power to mistreat the vulnerable (Ex.22:21-27).

Psalm 9 and 10 are a pair; together they make up a partial acrostic poem in the Hebrew, they share some unique vocabulary, and look at the issue of God’s seeming injustice and failure to act from different angles. Psalm 9 begins with a resolve to give thanks, to worship God for his works and his person, his character, his justice, his power. Psalm 9 celebrates the poetic justice that returns on the head of the one who intends evil. It reminds us that the needy and afflicted are not forgotten, and it invites YHWH to arise and act.

Psalm 10 is a lament, spending more time describing the wicked in their thoughts, words, and deeds, and cries out again for YHWH to arise and not forget the afflicted.

The Psalms help us pray. They are full of faith, but also real, raw, sometimes ragged. Where Psalm 9 focuses on the God of justice and the certain judgment to come; Psalm 10 focuses on the now, where the vulnerable are oppressed, and those in power who oppress them seem to thrive with no consequence.

There is tension between these two Psalms. Psalm 9 confidently asserts:

9:9 The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.
But Psalm 10 laments:

10:1 Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

“Times of trouble” is a unique phrase found only here in 9:9 and 10:1; causing us to feel the tension; is YHWH a stronghold in times of trouble, or does he stand far off and hide himself in times of trouble?

‘Why?’ The question ‘why’ can express exasperation; it ought not be so, it makes no sense, so make it stop. ‘Why’ can also be formed as a genuine question seeking an explanation; rooted in confidence that there is a good reason, looking to grow in understanding and maturity.

We might expect Psalm 10 to come first, as it asks the question ‘why’ that is answered in Psalm 9. We might expect the sequence to move from question and doubt into faith, confidence and worship. But that is not always our experience. Sometimes we begin with simple confidence, but the complexities of life and the harsh reality of living in this broken world cause us to cry out with a ‘why?’ that is more a call for God to act than it is an expression of doubt in him.

Profile of the Wicked

Psalm 10

1 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.”

Arrogant Pride

This is a detailed description of the wicked. Verse 2 gets to the root of it; pride, arrogance; puffed up, thinking too much about oneself, and thinking too much of oneself. In verse 2 is a prayer, a prayer for retribution; ‘let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.’

In Thought

Verses 3-6 give the heart behind it; they boast in their desires. It’s all about what they want; they are greedy for gain. And in that they blaspheme and renounce the LORD. As Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters (Mt.6:24). These are not outsiders; they are part of God’s people, but by their inordinate allegiance to their own pleasures they deny the Lord. As Jesus said in the parable of the soils,

Mark 4:19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

Pride chokes out dependence. An ‘I can do it’ attitude does not seek help, certainly not God’s help. His thoughts completely leave God out, ignore God, disregard his very existence. He takes no thought of God.

Verse 5 is startling; ‘his ways prosper at all times’. Proud blasphemous self-sufficient God ignoring people should be brought low, but instead he prospers. Everything seems to be going his way.

God’s judgments are acknowledged by the Psalmist, but from the perspective of this arrogant one, they are out of sight. God’s judgments are pictured as high, so high they are out of sight, but they are sure and certain, hanging precariously over the head of the rebellious and proud.

He puffs at his enemies; he blows them off with a breath. His self talk is ‘I shall never be moved,’ but only God is immovable. He affirms himself that even his children and children’s children will not encounter adversity. There will be no consequences.

In Word

In verse 7 his thoughts and self-talk come out of his mouth. Jesus said ‘out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks’ (Lk.6:45). It comes out in cursing, deceit, oppression, mischief, iniquity.

In Deed

This one is wicked in thought, word and deed. Verses 8-10 describe his actions; he sits in ambush, he murders, he watches, he lurks in ambush, seizes, draws into his net, he causes his prey to be crushed, to sink down, to fall. Pride and arrogance is not content with thougths and words; he must prove himself superior by cunningly hunting and entraping those he views as beneath him. He is likened to a hunting lion.

His victims? The innocent, the helpless, the poor; the very ones YHWH says he protects, watches over, upholds. But this one concludes: “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.” The God he told himself in verse 4 that doesn’t exist, this is the God he now claims has forgotten, has hidden his face, will never see. He has to reassure himself that the God that he claims is not, will not see what he does or hold him accountable.

Arise O LORD!

But the Psalmist knows better. The God the arrogant man says is not, is the God the Psalmist knows by name; YHWH, the I AM, the one who is. He calls on the God who is to arise, to act, to demonstrate that he is, and that he has not forgotten. Verse 12:

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.

He asks another ‘Why?’ In verse 3 he asserted the arrogant renounces YHWH; here he asks ‘Why does the wicked renounce God?’ In other Psalms (14, 53) it is the fool who says in his heart, ‘there is no God’. Why? Because he is a fool, because he lives for his pleasures, his desires, for the now, with a foolish hope that he will not be held accountable to a God he would like to believe does not exist. Why does he say in his heart ‘You will not call to account’? The truth is that YHWH, you do see, and you take note, and you will take it into your hands.

The helpless one commits himself (literally abandons himself) to you YHWH. Where is my hope? Not in the rich or powerful; they are the oppressor in this Psalm. Not in becoming one, for that has its own dangers, and may be out of reach. The wise man sees things as they truly are and abandons himself to the Lord, the helper of the fatherless.

The Psalmist calls for the LORD to lift up his hand and break the arm of the wicked and evildoer. A hand is relatively weak compared to an arm, which is a symbol of strength. And yet, as we saw in Psalm 8, the heavens are the work of YHWH’s fingers, so his hand is more than able to break the strength of evildoers.

Call his wickedness to account till you find none. What the proud wishes will not happen, the believer calls on God to do. God is just, and will account for every sin until none is left to account for. The word translated ‘call to account’ in these verses is the word from 9:12 ‘He who avenges blood’; he who calls to account any blood shed.

Gospel Connection

Paul quotes verse 7 in Romans 3, alongside Psalm 14, 53, 5, 140, here in Psalm 10, Proverbs 1; Isaiah 59; Psalm 36, to give God’s verdict on his people.

Romans 3:9 What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin, 10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” 13 “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” 14 “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” 15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood; 16 in their paths are ruin and misery, 17 and the way of peace they have not known.” 18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.

‘All’ includes all of us. ‘No, not one’ means I am not the exception. In Psalms like this we tend to identify with the oppressed, the needy, the helpless, the victims. But the New Testament turns around and says we all are those who forget God, who think and talk and act as if God did not exist, who live for our own desires, often at the expense of others. It is our mouths speaking blasphemies that must be stopped, it is I who will be held accountable to God. We want desperately to point the finger at others and pretend as if we are guiltless, but that is simply not true. And God is just. He is righteous. He sees. He takes note. And he will call all to account. The fool says in his heart there is no God, but the wise will humble himself, recognize he is helpless, and abandon himself to God. That is what it means to have faith, to believe. I have no place to hide from God, so I abandon myself to God and his mercy. I throw myself on him as a proud evil doer deserving to be called to account, but in need of a refuge, a stronghold in times of trouble.

This only makes sense at the cross, in Jesus, who willingly endured what I deserve, so that my record could be wiped clean, paid in full. If I abandon myself to God’s mercy and grace, he is both faithful and just to forgive, to cleanse, to welcome me in, no longer as an evildoer, but a son. He is a Father to the fatherless, adopting, welcoming us in.

YHWH is King

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.

YHWH is king forever and ever. YHWH hears, he strengthens, he inclines his ear, he does justice. The wicked boasts in his evil desires; but the Lord hears the desire of the afflicted. The wicked hopes that God has forgotten, but the man of faith is amazed that God is mindful of him (Ps.8:4). The evildoer hopes that the Lord has hidden his face, but the helpless knows that ‘in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore’ (Ps.16:11).

Numbers 6:24 The LORD bless you and keep you; 25 the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; 26 the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

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