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.

      David, in these verses, discovers,

      I. A very great affection to God and his favour; for, in the time of trouble, that which he complains of most feelingly is God’s withdrawing his gracious presence (v. 1): “Why standest thou afar off, as one unconcerned in the indignities done to thy name and the injuries done to the people?” Note, God’s withdrawings are very grievous to his people at any time, but especially in times of trouble. Outward deliverance is afar off and is hidden from us, and then we think God is afar off and we therefore want inward comfort; but that is our own fault; it is because we judge by outward appearance; we stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and then we complain that God stands afar off from us.

      II. A very great indignation against sin, the sins that made the times perilous, 2 Tim. iii. 1. he beholds the transgressors and is grieved, is amazed, and brings to his heavenly Father their evil report, not in a way of vain-glory, boasting before God that he was not as these publicans (Luke xviii. 11), much less venting any personal resentments, piques, or passions, of his own; but as one that laid to he art that which is offensive to God and all good men, and earnestly desired a reformation of manners. passionate and satirical invectives against bad men do more hurt than good; if we will speak of their badness, let it be to God in prayer, for he alone can make them better. This long representation of the wickedness of the wicked is here summed up in the first words of it (v. 2), The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor, where two things are laid to their charge, pride and persecution, the former the cause of the latter. Proud men will have all about them to be of their mind, of their religion, to say as they say, to submit to their dominion, and acquiesce in their dictates; and those that either eclipse them or will not yield to them they malign and hate with an inveterate hatred. Tyranny, both in state and church, owes its origin to pride. The psalmist, having begun this description, presently inserts a short prayer, a prayer in a parenthesis, which is an advantage and no prejudice to the sense: Let them be taken, as proud people often are, in the devices that they have imagined, v. 2. Let their counsels be turned headlong, and let them fall headlong by them. These two heads of the charge are here enlarged upon.

      1. They are proud, very proud, and extremely conceited of themselves; justly therefore did he wonder that God did not speedily appear against them, for he hates pride, and resists the proud. (1.) The sinner proudly glories in his power and success. He boasts of his heart’s desire, boasts that he can do what he pleases (as if God himself could not control him) and that he has all he wished for and has carried his point. Ephraim said, I have become rich, I have found me out substance, Hos. xii. 8. “Now, Lord, is it for thy glory to suffer a sinful man thus to pretend to the sovereignty and felicity of a God?” (2.) He proudly contradicts the judgment of God, which, we are sure, is according to truth; for he blesses the covetous, whom the Lord abhors. See how God and men differ in their sentiments of persons: God abhors covetous worldlings, who make money their God and idolize is; he looks upon them as his enemies, and will have no communion with them. The friendship of the world is enmity to God. But proud persecutors bless them, and approve their sayings, Ps. xlix. 13. They applaud those as wise whom God pronounces foolish (Luke xii. 20); they justify those as innocent whom God condemns as deeply guilty before him; and they admire those as happy, in having their portion in this life, whom God declares, upon that account, truly miserable. Thou, in thy lifetime, receivedst thy good things. (3.) He proudly casts off the thoughts of God, and all dependence upon him and devotion to him (v. 4): The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, that pride of his heart which appears in his very countenance (Prov. vi. 17), will not seek after God, nor entertain the thoughts of him. God is not in all his thoughts, not in any of them. All his thoughts are that there is not God. See here, [1.] The nature of impiety and irreligion; it is not seeking after God and not having him in our thoughts. There is no enquiry made after him (Job 35:10; Jer 2:6), no desire towards him, no communion with him, but a secret wish to have no dependence upon him and not to be beholden to him. Wicked people will not seek after God (that is, will not call upon him); they live without prayer, and that is living without God. They have many thoughts, many projects and devices, but no eye to God in any of them, no submission to his will nor aim at his glory. [2.] The cause of this impiety and irreligion; and that is pride. Men will not seek after God because they think they have no need of him, their own hands are sufficient for them; they think it a thing below them to be religious, because religious people are few, and mean, and despised, and the restraints of religion will be a disparagement to them. (4.) He proudly makes light of God’s commandments and judgments (v. 5): His wings are always grievous; he is very daring and resolute in his sinful courses; he will have his way, though ever so tiresome to himself and vexatious to others; he travails with pain in his wicked courses, and yet his pride makes him wilful and obstinate in them. God’s judgments (what he commands and what he threatens for the breach of his commands) are far above out of his sight; he is not sensible of his duty by the law of God nor of his danger by the wrath and curse of God. Tell him of God’s authority over him, he turns it off with this, that he never saw God and therefore does not know that there is a God, he is in the height of heaven, and qu supra nos nihil ad nos–we have nothing to do with things above us. Tell him of God’s judgments which will be executed upon those that go on still in their trespasses, and he will not be convinced that there is any reality in them; they are far above out of his sight, and therefore he thinks they are mere bugbears. (5.) He proudly despises all his enemies, and looks upon them with the utmost disdain; he puffs at those whom God is preparing to be a scourge and ruin to him, as if he could baffle them all, and was able to make his part good with them. But, as it is impolitic to despise an enemy, so it is impious to despise any instrument of God’s wrath. (6.) He proudly sets trouble at defiance and is confident of the continuance of his own prosperity (v. 6): He hath said in his heart, and pleased himself with the thought, I shall not be moved, my goods are laid up for many years, and I shall never be in adversity; like Babylon, that said, I shall be a lady for ever,Isa 47:7; Rev 18:7. Those are nearest ruin who thus set it furthest from them.

      2. They are persecutors, cruel persecutors. For the gratifying of their pride and covetousness, and in opposition to God and religion, they are very oppressive to all within their reach. Observe, concerning these persecutors, (1.) That they are very bitter and malicious (v. 7): His mouth is full of cursing. Those he cannot do a real mischief to, yet he will spit his venom at, and breathe out the slaughter which he cannot execute. Thus have God’s faithful worshippers been anathematized and cursed, with bell, book, and candle. Where there is a heart full of malice there is commonly a mouth full of curses. (2.) They are very false and treacherous. There is mischief designed, but it is hidden under the tongue, not to be discerned, for his mouth is full of deceit and vanity. He has learned of the devil to deceive, and so to destroy; with this his hatred is covered, Prov. xxvi. 26. He cares not what lies he tells, not what oaths he breaks, nor what arts of dissimulation he uses, to compass his ends. (3.) That they are very cunning and crafty in carrying on their designs. They have ways and means to concert what they intend, that they may the more effectually accomplish it. Like Esau, that cunning hunter, he sits in the lurking places, in the secret places, and his eyes are privily set to do mischief (v. 8), not because he is ashamed of what he does (if he blushed, there were some hopes he would repent), not because he is afraid of the wrath of God, for he imagines God will never call him to an account (v. 11), but because he is afraid lest the discovery of his designs should be the breaking of them. Perhaps it refers particularly to robbers and highwaymen, who lie in wait for honest travellers, to make a prey of them and what they have. (4.) That they are very cruel and barbarous. Their malice is against the innocent, who never provoked them–against the poor, who cannot resist them and over whom it will be no glory to triumph. Those are perfectly lost to all honesty and honour against whose mischievous designs neither innocence nor poverty will be any man’s security. Those that have power ought to protect the innocent and provide for the poor; yet these will be the destroyers of those whose guardians they ought to be. And what do they aim at? It is to catch the poor, and draw them into their net, that is, get them into their power, not to strip them only, but to murder them. They hunt for the precious life. It is God’s poor people that they are persecuting, against whom they bear a mortal hatred for his sake whose they are and whose image they bear, and therefore they lie in wait to murder them: He lies in wait as a lion that thirsts after blood, and feeds with pleasure upon the prey. The devil, whose agent he is, is compared to a roaring lion that seeks not what, but whom, he may devour. (5.) That they are base and hypocritical (v. 10): He crouches and humbles himself, as beasts of prey do, that they may get their prey within their reach. This intimates that the sordid spirits of persecutors and oppressors will stoop to any thing, though ever so mean, for the compassing of their wicked designs; witness the scandalous practices of Saul when he hunted David. It intimates, likewise, that they cover their malicious designs with the pretence of meekness and humility, and kindness to those they design the greatest mischief to; they seem to humble themselves to take cognizance of the poor, and concern themselves in their concernments, when it is in order to make them fall, to make a prey of them. (6.) That they are very impious and atheistical, v. 11. They could not thus break through all the laws of justice and goodness towards man if they had not first shaken off all sense of religion, and risen up in rebellion against the light of its most sacred and self-evident principles: He hath said in his heart, God has forgotten. When his own conscience rebuked him with the consequences of it, and asked how he would answer it to the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, he turned it off with this, God has forsaken the earth,Eze 8:12; Eze 9:9. This is a blasphemous reproach, [1.] Upon God’s omniscience and providence, as if he could not, or did not, see what men do in this lower world. [2.] Upon his holiness and the rectitude of his nature, as if, though he did see, yet he did not dislike, but was willing to connive at, the most unnatural and inhuman villanies. [3.] Upon his justice and the equity of his government, as if, though he did see and dislike the wickedness of the wicked, yet he would never reckon with them, nor punish them for it, either because he could not or durst not, or because he was not inclined to do so. Let those that suffer by proud oppressors hope that God will, in due time, appear for them; for those that are abusive to them are abusive to God Almighty too.

      In singing this psalm and praying it over, we should have our hearts much affected with a holy indignation at the wickedness of the oppressors, a tender compassion of the miseries of the oppressed, and a pious zeal for the glory and honour of God, with a firm belief that he will, in due time, give redress to the injured and reckon with the injurious.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Psalms 10

THE WAY OF THE WICKED

Verses 1-18:

David’s Complaint Against Ungodly Oppressors

Verses 1,2 inquire why, and complain against, the Lord for standing afar off or aloof from executing judgment against the proud and wicked who persecute the poor. He appeals to the Lord to let the wicked by suddenly taken away who caused the poor to be inflamed with indignation against their oppressors. David continued his expressed desire that the proud, wicked, ensnarers of the poor be snatched away by and in their own entrapment devices; He is disturbed at the delayed judgment of the Lord against the wicked.

Verse 3 discloses that the wicked continually, repeatedly boasts, congratulates himself on his success that he has made by oppressing the godly. Of this it is elsewhere said that “their glory is in their shame,” in fulfilling their own lusts, not in the Lord, Psa 44:8; Php_3:19; Hab 1:11. It is added that these proud, boastful, wicked bless and commend the covetous in their lawless, immoral, and unethical ways, a thing that the Lord continually abhors. See Zec 11:5.

Verse 4 adds that the wicked through pride of countenance, uplifted nose, will (does not will to) seek after God, and God is not at all in his thoughts, will or desires, Psalms 9; Psalms 12; Psa 34:4; Psa 77:2.

Verse 5 further adds that his ways are always grievous, oppressive, fraudulent, or offensive. While David laments that the Lord’s judgment is delayed, afar off, out of the sight, not now experienced by the wicked, Pro 24:7. Tho delayed they shall come, Isa 5:12. Tho they deny coming judgment He disposes of them in His own time with a mere puff of His breath, Isa 40:24.

Verse 6 recounts the boast of the wicked of heart that he would never be moved from the security of his imagined prosperity and plenty. He boasted that he would never, never see adversity or hard times and oppression, like the oppressed whom he had subdued, cowed on his road to wealth. So did the rich barn builder reason, Luk 12:15-21.

Verses 7, 8 describe the arrogant attitude of the proud, covetous, and boastful wicked. His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and fraud, with mischief and vanity beneath his tongue, like the venom of a serpent, Psa 140:3. Tho the venom or poison of the serpent is located under the tongue, from where it is spewed forth as the serpent coils and strikes, the poison of sin comes forth from the fountain of the heart, Mat 12:34; Mar 7:23; Rom 3:13-14. He also habitually sits in the lurking places, where he hides with squinted eyes, looking out, surveying the area for movement of the poor, on whom he may pounce to pillage, plunder, and kill to increase his own wealth, Pro 1:11; Pro 1:18.

Verses 9, 10 add that he lieth in premeditated wait, as a lion in his den waits to lunge out of his hiding place on his passing prey, to kill it in a moment. He catches the poor by setting a net or digging a pit in the path of the poor to capture him for his own covetous use, as a helpless slave. This wicked, proud, covetous one is described as “cunning” as he both hides himself and conceals the strong nets or traps that he sets, into which he plans suddenly to see the poor fall as his prey, Psa 35:7.

Verses 12, 13 call on the Jehovah God to rise up, lift up His hand of judgment, forgetting not the humble, afflicted, or ill treated to defend the poor, Mic 5:9; Exo 7:5; Isa 5:25. David then inquired just why the wicked continually denied that the Lord required an accounting for their wickedness, as indicated v.4.

Verse 14 affirms David’s belief that the Lord had been beholding, with definitive scrutiny, the spite and dastard deeds of the wicked against the poor, who trusted in Him, and that He was the helper of the fatherless, who would surely come to their rescue, bring judgment upon their oppressors, and deliver them, as asserted Psa 68:5; Hos 14:3.

Verses 15, 16 call for imprecatory judgment on the wicked, to break their arm of fierce wickedness, till it was fully punished. Then David asserted that the Jehovah exists as King forever, causing the heathen to perish, Psa 145:13; Psa 146:10; Isa 33:22; Jer 10:10; La 5:19; Dan 4:34; Dan 6:23; 1Ti 1:17.

Verse 17 declares that the Lord had given ear to the desire of the humble, his cry from his oppression. And he does, Exo 3:7. It is certified that the Lord would prepare, establish or sustain the hearts of the humble and oppressed who looked to Him. To their cries He gives heed, Psa 102:7; Isa 65:24; 1Pe 3:12.

Verse 18 concludes that Jehovah God would judge both the fatherless (orphans) and all who had been oppressed, rendering certain just punishment to their wicked destroyers in His own time, Ecc 12:13-14. The hour of the former terror will be ended and known no more, Isa 47:14; Mat 12:36; Act 17:30-31; Rom 2:16; Rom 14:10; Rom 14:12.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. Lord, why standest thou afar off? We here see how the prophet, seeking a remedy for his calamities, which were apparently past hope, directly addresses himself to God at the very commencement. And the rule which we should observe, when we are in trouble and sorrow, is this: We should seek comfort and solace in the providence of God; for amidst our agitations, vexations, and cares, we ought to be fully persuaded that it is his peculiar office to give relief to the wretched and afflicted. It is in an improper sense, and by anthropathy, (191) that the Psalmist speaks of God as standing afar off. Nothing can be hid from his eyes; but as God permits us to speak to him as we do to one another, these forms of expression do not contain any thing absurd, provided we understand them as applied to God, not in a strict sense, but only figuratively, according to the judgment which mere sense forms from the present appearance of things. It is possible that a righteous man may not check an injury which is done to a poor man before his eyes, because he is destitute of the power; but this cannot be the case with respect to God, who is always armed with invincible power. If, therefore, he act as if he took no notice, it is the same as if he withdrew himself afar off. The word תעלים, taelim, which signifies to hide, is explained in two ways. According to some, David here complains of God for hiding himself, as if he accounted the care of human affairs beneath him. Others understand it as meaning to shut the eyes; and this appears to me to be the more simple view. It is to be observed, that although David here complains that God kept himself afar off, he was, notwithstanding, fully persuaded of his presence with him, otherwise it would have been in vain to have called upon him for aid. The interrogation which he employs is to this effect: Lord, since it is thy prerogative to govern the world, and also to regulate it by thy righteousness as thou sustainest it by thy power, why is it that thou dost not more quickly show thyself a defender of thine own people against the arrogance and incredible pride of the ungodly? David, however, speaks thus not so much in the way of complaining, as to encourage himself in the confidence of obtaining what he desired. Through the infirmity of sense, he says, that it is unbecoming of God to cease so long from executing his office; and yet, at the same time, he fails not to yield to him the honor which is his due, and by his prayers he deposits into his bosom the great burden of trouble with which he was laden. The expression which follows, at needful times, relates to the same subject. Although God may not stretch forth his hand to take vengeance (192) at every moment, yet when he beholds the simple and innocent oppressed, it is not time for him to defer any longer. David briefly defines the fit time for putting the hand to the work to be when the faithful are in distress. Of this form of speech we have spoken in the preceding psalm, at the tenth verse.

(191) “ C’est quand nous attribuons a Dieu les passions, affections, et fatOhs de faire des hommes.” — Fr. marg. “That is, when we attribute to God the passions, affections, and manners of men.”

(192) “ Pour faire vengence.” — Fr.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

INTRODUCTION

This psalm seems to belong to the time of the Captivity, or the return of the captives. It was probably made in reference to Sanballat, and the other enemies of the Jews. There is a great similarity between this and the 12th, the 14th, the 35th, and the 53d. In these, as Calmet remarks, we find the same complaints, the same sentiments, and almost the same expressions.Dr. A. Clarke.

SOUL PERPLEXITY

(Psa. 10:1-2.)

I. The problem.

Why standest Thou afar off, O Lord? &c., i.e., like an idle, passive spectator, unconcerned at the misery which he sees, but refuses to relieve.Perowne. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Through the proud dealings of the wicked, their victims are placed in the fire or furnace of affliction.Perowne. Through the pride of the wicked the afflicted man burns.Moll. The soul is sorely puzzled with this painful problem, and asks earnestly, Why is it thus? Let it be observed, this is not

(1.) A presumptuous question. The meaning is not that of searching for the reason.Moll. There is no disposition to know the secret things which belong unto the Lord.

(2.) Not a murmuring question. In the anguish of external trouble and internal affliction, the pious may, with propriety, urge God to hasten to their relief; but although the voice of their lamentation may resound, yet it must not contain a complaint against God, as if He improperly delayed, or as if He left the afflicted in continual danger without reason, or as if He had purposely shut His eyes and ears against their need and prayers. In the realisation of their weakness, they must give themselves and their cause entirely into the hands of God.Moll. Neither is it,

(3.) A despairing question. The good soul knows that God waiteth to be gracious; and as He seldom cometh at our time, so at His own (which is ever the best) time, He never faileth.Trapp. It is a lovers question; it is the cry of a righteous man, impatient that justice should be done; but it is a question nevertheless which bespeaks the deep sorrow and perplexity of the religious soul. A little child cried in the night, and the parent came to correct it; said the little thing, Whip me, but dont leave me. Thus, the bitterest trial of the saints is the consciousness of Gods absence.

II. The solution.

The explanation of the problem may be found:

1. Partly in regard to our personal discipline.

(1.) It rebukes our faults In these hours of sorrow, we remember our faults.

(2.) It reminds us of our personal helplessness. We never know the preciousness of our friends until we have lost them; and it seems necessary that our greatest Friend should withdraw His presence sometimes, so that we may realise His preciousness more fully, and know how helpless we are without Him.

(3.) It drives us nearer to God.

2. Partly in respect to the salvation of the wicked. God delays to do justice that the wicked may have space for repentance. It may be that the wicked abuse these delays, put upon them a wrong interpretation, but God grants the longer delay, that the sinner may turn and live. Thus, if the righteous suffer because Heaven delays its judgments, let them not complain. Let them regard their sufferings on this account as vicarious suffering, as identifying them with their thorn-crowned Master, who was bruised for our iniquities, and by whose stripes we are healed. God is sublimely patient, bearing with sinners, and suffering whilst He bears; let us imitate His long-suffering, and not complain at the delays of justice, because such delays are in the interests of mercy and salvation.

3. Certainly, in regard to the glory of God. God will not dishonour Himself by hiding Himself; when all things are seen clearly, the Divine attributes will shine all the brighter for these obscurations. Each explained mystery will be a crown on Gods head; not one of them a blot on Gods throne. The throne at last will be A great white throne (Rev. 15:3-4).

PRACTICAL ATHEISM

(Psa. 10:3-14.)

We have here a full-length portrait of the practical atheist. The Psalmist is not speaking of the theoretical atheist, not of the man who ignores God with his lips, but who ignores Him in his life.
Let us mark:

I. The nature of this atheism.

1. The atheism here spoken of ignores God in actual life (Psa. 10:4). God is not in all his thoughts. THERE IS NO GOD: not that he is literally an atheist, but that the whole of his conduct, all his purposes and schemes, are carried on as if there were no Godin a practical denial of His existence.Perowne. David does not speak of the words, but of the innermost thoughts, of the wickedtheir practical, it may be half-conscious atheism.Speakers Com. How much of this secret atheism there is in the world! How often in the bed-chamber of the heart do men curse the King! How continually do men acknowledge God, and yet in their conduct deny Him! The Chinese acknowledge no God in their creed, and yet their houses and shops and streets are full of idols. The reverse of this is seen in Christendom; our creed is full of God, and then we shut Him out from our shops, homes, hearts.

2. The atheism here spoken of excludes God from systems of thought. No God, is the whole of his philosophy (Psa. 10:4).Horsley. Such are intended as those who

(1.) Acknowledge that God is, but that He cannot be known, putting God at a vast and inaccessible distance;

(2.) Those who contend that we cannot affirm or deny Gods existence,

(3.) Those who deny a personal God. To deny the existence of a living, acting, all-punishing (in one word, a personal) God, is equivalent to denying the existence of any real and true God whatever.Ewald. Psa. 10:11. The thought of a personal God would disturb the ungodly in his doings, he therefore prefers to deny His existence, and thinks there is only fate, and fate is blind, only an absolute, and it has no eyes, only a notion, and that cannot interfere in the affairs of men.Delitzsch.

We notice:

II. The history of this atheism.

This atheism is here shown to spring from the pride and corruption of the heart.

1. In the second verse the atheist is shown to be personally corrupt.

2. Next, he glories in his corruption. For the wicked boasteth of his hearts desire (Psa. 10:3). He giveth praise to his hearts desire.Perowne. To his souls lust.Kay. He blesses and idolises himself; he sings hallelujahs to himself, and forgets God.Wordsworth. This seems to be a description of the last stage of corruption, in which men openly defend or applaud their own vices.Alexander.

3. The wicked man not only glories in his own shame, but has pleasure in those who do such things. He blesseth the covetous.

Out of this rampant wickedness comes

(1.) The hatred of God. He abhorreth the Lord. When we have wronged any one, the next thing is we hate them.

(2.) The ignoring of God (Psa. 10:4). He is so wrapped up in his rapacious propensities that he forsakes and altogether despises God.Phillips. Here we have the devils chain. Each several link is manifest of that awful fetter with which the devil binds his victims ere he casts them into hell. Many of our sceptics give atheism a very proud lineage; its ancestors are thought, logic, love, and righteousness; Gods Word declares atheism to be the monstrous child of corruption. Yes; atheism springs not from a clear head, but a disordered heart; it is not the characteristic of a pure and simple age, but of a civilisation debauched with luxuries, and mad with pride.

III. The characteristics of it.

1. Pride (Psa. 10:4). Through the pride of his countenance. The wicked in the height of his scorn.Speakers Com. Psa. 10:5. His ways are always victorious.Ewald. Job. 12:6. His ways always prosper, and he is full of pride. They judgments, &c. Gods judgments, His punishments for sin, are so far out of the sight of the wicked that he acts as if they could never reach him.Perowne. As for all his enemies, &c. He cares as little for man as he does for God.

2. Presumption (Psa. 10:6). In his unbounded carnal security he lets his wicked tongue have free course.Delitzsch. The idea of the wicked is that they and their families would continue to be prosperous, that a permanent foundation was laid for honour and success, and for transmitting accumulated wealth and honours down to far-distant times.Barnes. For ever and ever they shall flourish.

3. Practical and outrageous wickedness. Blasphemy, falsehood, injustice, cruelty, murder. When you have ignored God, and denied His intervention in the affairs of men, you have opened the flood-gates of iniquity.

IV. The doom of it.

Psa. 10:12, &c. God marks and punishes this atheism, and what springs out of it. In the 11th verse the wicked say: God hath forgotten, &c. But, says the Psalmist in the 14th verse: Thou hast seen it, to requite it. There is a time coming, he feels assured, when all this disorder will be set right. God is not the passive spectator of human affairs which these men deem Him. He considers (i.e., regards with interest and sympathy) what is going on. The helpless, therefore, may leave all to God.Perowne. And woe unto the godless (Psa. 10:15-16). Let the wicked and his wickedness disappear, so that even when sought for it cannot be found.Perowne.

BLACK ARTS

(Psa. 10:7-18.)

A missionary who recently returned from Polynesia brought home with him a curious object called a soul-trap. This consisted simply of a series of rings twisted in cocoa-nut fibre. If a native should commit a great offence, or have the misfortune to offend a sorcerer, the latter immediately proceeds to make a new ring in his chain, so as to form a trap to catch the poor mans spirit. Soon a bird or butterfly alights on the ring, and the sorcerer asserts that the soul of the culprit assuming this form has passed into the trap. It is immediately known throughout the tribe that a certain man has lost his soul. As a matter of fact, it invariably happens that the soulless man shortly afterwards dies, of course through sheer mental distress at having had his soul thus entrapped. We smile at such traps, but we are all familiar with soul-traps of a far more subtle and dangerous character. In the verses before us the Psalmist vividly pictures the crafty schemes of the wicked in order to entrap their victims. They seek by most subtle arts to entangle and destroy.

I. It is thus that selfish men set traps for the young and inexperienced.

With lies and enticements the covetous seek to entrap and destroy the young. Soul-traps for the young! How numerous they are! How cleverly contrived! The utmost artifice and plausibility. How successful they are (Psa. 10:10). Crouching down as low as possible, he lies on the watch, and the feeble and defenceless fall into his strong ones, i.e., claws.Delitzsch. How many thus fall! Our cities are full of fallen young men and women. We have thousands of heartless men in society answering to the vile robber pictured in these verses. For the sake of gain and lust, they set traps in which the health, honour, happiness, and hope of the youthful perish. The whole civilised world was shocked the other day by the discovery that, by means of an infernal machine, a villain sent ships and their crews to the bottom of the sea for the sake of the insurance money; but thousands of atheistical, covetous men, for the sake of gain, are ingeniously seeking to sink the souls of the people in the gulf of hell. May God save our young people from their cruel schemes!

II. It is thus that the world contrives traps for the godly.

The world does not like the godly, and in various subtle methods it seeks to worst them. It has traps for their reputation. His mouth is full of perjury and deceit. He sets a net of cunningly-devised speech, that he may be able to bring their good name into discredit. It has traps for their fortune. It will privily seek to damage their circumstances. It will adroitly circulate reports, frame laws, to bring them into financial trouble. It has traps for their character. They know the natural weaknesses of a Christian, and they bait their hook, set their net, accordingly. He is short-tempered, and they contrive to put in his way occasions of anger; he is given to levity, and they provoke his mirth; he has strong appetites, and they put drink to his lips; he is feeble in faith, and they press him with scepticisms. The world hates the righteous, and when it cannot injure them openly, it will secretly. The devil is a wily destroyer, and his children imitate his tactics, and seek to murder the innocent.

III. It is thus that Satan sets traps for us all.

He is the great bandit pictured in the text; he is the great sorcerer whose soul-traps beset us at every turn. What a clever fowler is he! what a politic huntsman! what a subtle angler! The devil hides himself, he disguises his movements, and in an evil hour men are drawn into the net. Here he betrays by pleasure. Bates tells us of a spider in South America which looks like a blossom, and insects alighting on it for sweetness find death. So the great foe, under the aspect of pleasure, betrays thousands. Here he betrays by honour. One of the Roman Emperors used to fish with a net of purple and gold; the devil has used this net largely, and taken great prey. And by many other devices does he destroy the unwary. Beware! That was a clumsy soul-trap in Polynesia, but the sorcerer of hell has traps of strange powerof damning efficacy. Beware of those soul-traps made of flowers called pleasure; of those purple-lined ones called greatness; of those gay-painted ones called fashion; of those scientific ones called philosophy; of those jewelled ones called honour; of those golden ones called wealth. Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. The devil will lie, fawn, flatter, and do this patiently for years to ruin us.

1. Let the innocent put their trust in God. The afflicted committeth himself unto Thee; Thou art the helper of the fatherless (Psa. 10:14). Alas! for us if we attempt to stand in our own strength, and take our defence into our own hands. He that takes himself out of Gods hands into his own, by and by will not know what to do with himself.Whichcote. And in our darkest hours of temptation and trial, we may have the fullest assurance that God has not forgotten us. The wicked say: God will never see it (Psa. 10:11). But the Psalmist replies: Thou hast seen it; for Thou beholdeth mischief and spite to requite it with Thy hand (Psa. 10:14). The Psalmist means to say, so far from the assertion of the wicked man being true, that God is forgetful of the poor; He is, on the contrary, observant of their trouble and vexation; and in order not to forget their calamities, He places a memorial of them on His hands (see Isa. 49:26). I have engraven thee on the palms of My hands; which would be done for the purpose of assisting the memory.Phillips. God has not forgotten His tried ones who look to Him; He will not forget them. The Lord preserveth the simple.

As far from danger as from fear,
Whilst Love, Almighty Love, is near.

2. Let the innocent walk circumspectly. Lurking places, secret places, eyes privily set, lieth in wait secretly. He croucheth. The image is that of a beast of prey, a fox or a wolf, lying upon the watch about the farm-yard in the evening.Horsley. This great enemy is ever on the watch for us in the world. Ambushed often where least expected. And in the Church. The wolf prowls about Christs fold. Let us

(1.) Live in the spirit of watchfulness.

(2.) Let us be specially on our guard against what promises unusual gain, or liberty, or pleasure. The angler makes his artificial fly as big, and fat, and dazzling as he can, and the devil acts thus with the bait which he dangles before human souls.

(3.) Let us keep as far from danger as we possibly can. They try sometimes how near they can swim to the Niagara falls without going overit is not wise. God will keep us, if we strive thus to keep ourselves.

3. Let any who are in the snare of the devil look up to the Deliverer. It is best to keep out of Satans claws, but Christ can deliver us from the paw of the lion and the mouth of the bear. In the devils trap, held by the iron teeth of evil, stained with blood and tears, look up, and Mercys hand shall liberate you, and you shall sing: My soul has escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowler; the snare is broken, and I have escaped.

4. Let the wicked be assured that Gods eye is upon them, and that justice must overtake them (Psa. 10:15). Because the Lord continues to spare them, therefore they go on to provoke Him. As He adds to their lives, so they add to their lusts. Because justice seems to wink, men suppose her blind; because she delays punishment, they imagine she denies to punish them; because she does not always reprove them for their sins, they suppose she always approves of their sins. But let such know that the silent arrow can destroy as well as the roaring cannon. Though the patience of God be lasting, yet it is not everlasting.Spurgeon.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Psalms 9, 10

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE

The Kingship of Jehovah in Zion Finally Triumphant over a League between the Nations and the Lawless One.

ANALYSIS

These two psalms are bound together as originally one, chiefly by the remains of a set of Alphabetical Initials beginning the former psalm and extending into the latter, and by Coincidences of Language which cannot be regarded as accidental; and yet the feeling of the Compound Psalm so completely changes as to reveal Two Distinct Situations,the one suited to the time of David after a decisive victory over his enemies, and the other strikingly fitted for Hezekiahs peculiar trials due to the Assyrian Invasion. For an attempt to trace these changes, see Exposition. The Remains of the Alphabetical Acrostic are as follow: aleph, Psa. 9:1-2, four times; beth, Psa. 9:3, once; gimel, Psa. 9:5, once; he, Psa. 9:6, once; wow, Psa. 9:7-10, four times; zain, Psa. 9:11, once; heth, Psa. 9:13, once; teth, Psa. 9:15, once; yod, Psa. 9:17, once; koph (? for kaph), Psa. 9:19, once; lamed, Psa. 10:1, once; koph, Psa. 10:12, once; resh, Psa. 10:14, once; shin, Psa. 10:15, once; tau, Psa. 10:17, once.

(Lm.) PsalmBy David.

1

1 I would fain thank Jehovah with all my heart,

I would tell of all thy wondrous works:

2

I would rejoice and exult in thee,

I would make melody of thy name[68] O Most High!

[68] Ml.: I would psalm thy name=celebrate in psalm (singing and playing). See Intro. Chap. II., 2.

3

Because mine enemies turned back,

they stumbled and perished at thy presence:

4

For thou hast maintained my right and my cause,

thou hast sat on a throne judging righteously.

5

Thou hast rebuked nations hast destroyed the lawless one,

their name hast thou wiped out to the ages and beyond.

6

As for the enemy they have come to an end their ruins are perpetual,

and as for the cities thou hast uprooted perished is their very memory.

7

But Jehovah to the ages holdeth his seat,

he hath set up for judgment his throne;

8

And He himself will judge the world in righteousness,

will minister judgment to the peoples in equity.[69]

[69] Ml.: in straightnesses. (Prob. intensive pl.)

9

So may Jehovah become a lofty retreat for the crushed one,[70]

[70] The oppressedDel.: the down-troddenDr.

a lofty retreat for times of extremity:[71]

[71] Ml.: Dearth.

10

That they may trust in thee who know thy name,

because thou didst not forsake them who were seeking after thee Jehovah!

11

Make melody[72] to Jehovah who dwelleth in Zion, declare among the peoples his doings:

[72] Or: psalm.

12

For he will exacteth satisfaction for shed blood of them had remembrance,

he forgot not the outcry of humbled[73] ones:

[73] So written: read, humble. Cp. Intro., Chap. III., Humble (d).

13

Be gracious unto me Jehovah, see my humiliation from them who hate me,

my Uplifter out of the gates of death!

14

To the end I may tell of all thy praises,[74]

[74] Some cod. (w. 5 ear. pr. edns. [i Rabb.]): praise (sing.)Gn.

in the gates of the daughter of Zion let me exult in thy salvation.

15

Nations have sunk down in the pit[75] they made,

[75] Or: ditch.

in the net which they hid hath been caught their own foot.

16

Jehovah hath made himself known justice hath he done,[76]

[76] Or: maintainedDel., Dr.

by the work of his own hands is he striking down the lawless one.

Soliloquy.

17

Lawless ones shall turn back to hades,

all nations forgetters of God;

18

For not perpetually shall the needy be forgotten,

nor the expectation of humble[77] ones perish for ever.

[77] So written: read, humbledGn.

19

Oh arise Jehovah! let not mere man prevail,[78]

[78] Or: be defiantDel.

let nations be judged before thy face:

20

Set O Jehovah a Terror[79] for them,

[79] With other vowels: a lawgiver.

let nations know that mere men they are.

(Nm.)

PARAPHRASE

Psalms 9

O Lord, I will praise You with all my heart, and tell everyone about the marvelous things You do.
2 I will be glad, yes, filled with joy because of You. I will sing Your praises, O Lord God above all gods.[80]

[80] Literally, O Most High.

3 My enemies will fall back and perish in Your presence;
4 You have vindicated me; You have endorsed my work, declaring from Your throne that it is good.[81]

[81] Literally, You sit on the throne judging righteously.

5 You have rebuked the nations and destroyed the wicked, blotting out their names for ever and ever.
6 O enemies of mine, you are doomed forever. The Lord will destroy your cities, even the memory of them will disappear.
7, 8 But the Lord lives on forever; He sits upon His throne to judge justly the nations of the world.
9 All who are oppressed may come to Him. He is a refuge for them in their times of trouble.
10 All those who know Your mercy, Lord, will count on You for help. For You have never yet forsaken those who trust in You.
11 Oh, sing out your praises to the God who lives in Jerusalem.[82] Tell the world about His unforgettable deeds.

[82] Literally, in Zion.

12 He who avenges murder has an open ear to those who cry to Him for justice. He does not ignore the prayers of men in trouble when they call to Him for help.
13 And now, O Lord, have mercy on me; see how I suffer at the hands of those who hate me. Lord, snatch me back from the jaws of death.
14 Save me, so that I can praise You publicly before all the people at Jerusalems[83] gates and rejoice that You have rescued me.

[83] Literally, in the gates of the daughter of Zion.

15 The nations fall into the pitfalls they have dug for others; the trap they set has snapped on them.
16 The Lord is famous for the way He punishes the wicked in their own snares![84]

[84] The Hebrew text adds here: Higgaion. Selah. The meanings of these words are not known.

17 The wicked shall be sent away to hell; this is the fate of all the nations forgetting the Lord.
18 For the needs of the needy shall not be ignored forever; the hopes of the poor shall not always be crushed.
19 O Lord, arise and judge and punish the nations! dont let them conquer You!
20 Make them tremble in fear; put the nations in their place until at last they know they are but puny men.

Psalms 10

(Nm.)

1

Why Jehovah wilt thou stand in the distance?

why wilt thou hide thyself in times of extremity

2

Through the pride of the lawless one the humbled one burneth,

let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

3

For the lawless one hath boasted of the longing of his soul,

and the robber hath contemned[85] Jehovah:

[85] The primitive readingG. Intro. 365.

4

The lawless one according to the loftiness of his look saith, He will not exact.

No God here! is in all his plots.

5

Firm are his ways at all times,

on high are thy judgments out of his sight,
as for all his adversaries he puffeth at them.

6

He hath said in his heart

I shall not be shaken,

To generation after generation am I one
Who shall be in no misfortune.

7

Of cursing his mouth is full

and of deceits and oppression,

Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

8

He sitteth in the lurking places of villages,

in hiding places he slayeth the innocent one:

As for his eyes for the unfortunate are they on the watch.

9

He lieth in wait in the hiding-place like a lion in his thicket,[86]

[86] So Gt. Cp. Jer. 4:7.

he lieth in wait to capture the humbled one,

He captureth the humbled one dragging him along in his net.

10

He croucheth he sinketh down,

and there fall into his claws the disheartened.[87]

[87] So written: to be read, host of afflicted onesGn.

11

He hath said in his heart

GOD hath forgotten,
He hath veiled his face,
He hath never seen.

12

Oh arise Jehovah! do not neglect the crushed one,[88]

[88] So Gt.

do not forget the humbled[89] ones.

[89] So written: read humbleGn.

13

Wherefore hath the lawless one contemned God?

said in his heart Thou wilt not exact?

14

Thou hast seen!

for thou travail and vexation dost discern
to lay them in thine own hand:
Unto thee doth the unfortunate one give himself up,
to the fatherless thou thyself hast become a helper.

15

Shatter thou the arm of the lawless one,

and as for the wrongful wilt thou exact his lawlessness till
thou find it no more.[90]

[90] That it may vanish from before theeDel.

16

Jehovah is King to the ages and beyond,

vanished are nations out of his land.

17

The longing of humble[91] ones hast thou heard Jehovah!

[91] Some cod. have humbled. Others write: humbled but read humbleGn. Cp. Intro., Chap. III., Humble (d).

thou dost establish their heart dost make attentive thine ear:

18

To vindicate the fatherless and the crushed,

that weak man of the earth may cause terror no more.

(Lm.) To the Chief Musician.

PARAPHRASE

Psalms 10

Lord, why are You standing aloof and far away? Why do you hide when I need You the most?
2 Come and deal with all these proud and wicked men who viciously persecute the poor. Pour upon these men the evil they planned for others!
3 For these men brag of all their evil lusts; they revile God and congratulate those the Lord abhors, whose only goal in life is money.
4 These wicked men, so proud and haughty, seem to think that God is dead.[92] They wouldnt think of looking for Him!

[92] Literally, that there is no God.

5 Yet there is success in everything they do, and their enemies fall before them. They do not see Your punishment awaiting them.
6 They boast that neither God nor man can ever keep them downsomehow theyll find a way!
7 Their mouths are full of profanity and lies and fraud. They are always boasting of their evil plans.
8 They lurk in dark alleys of the city and murder passersby.
9 Like lions they crouch silently, waiting to pounce upon the poor. Like hunters they catch their victims in their traps.
10 The unfortunate are overwhelmed by their superior strength and fall beneath their blows.
11 God isnt watching, they say to themselves; Hell never know!
12 O Lord, arise! O God, crush them! Dont forget the poor or anyone else in need.
13 Why do You let the wicked get away with this contempt for God? For they think that God will never call them to account.
14 Lord, You see what they are doing. You have noted each evil act. You know what trouble and grief they have caused. Now punish them. O Lord, the poor man trusts himself to You; You are known as the helper of the helpless.
15 Break the arms of these wicked men. Go after them until the last of them is destroyed.
16 The Lord is King forever and forever. Those who follow other gods shall be swept from His land.
17 Lord, You know the hopes of humble people. Surely You will hear their cries and comfort their hearts by helping them.
18 You will be with the orphans and all who are oppressed, so that mere earthly man will terrify them no longer.

EXPOSITION

In all probability these two psalms were originally one, as may be inferred from the remains of an alphabetical structure beginning with Psalms 9 and ending with Psalms 10, and from coincidences of language and sentiment which cannot otherwise be easily explained. The probability is nearly as great that the interference with the original initial alphabet is due, not so much to accident, as to editorial adaptation to later circumstances. In short, the phenomena visible on the face of this compound psalm seem to be easily reconcilable by the hypothesis that it was originally composed by David after some signal overthrow of his enemies, and was afterwards adaptedvery likely on two occasionsby Hezekiah, first soon after the Assyrians invaded his land, and then again, when their presence had for some time been permitted to continue. This hypothesis will account for the gradual subsidence of praise into prayer, and the increasing sense of urgency which is seen in the suppliants petitions. It will also account for the disappearance of so many of the successive alphabetical initials; it being natural to think that in the perturbed state of things consequent on the presence of invaders in the land, Hezekiah would lack both time and inclination to preserve so refined and elaborate a literary result of a perfect alphabetical arrangement in the adapted psalm. The great inspiration of faith derivable from his illustrious ancestors danger and deliverance, would be the attraction offered by the old carefully prepared composition: some abruptness and lack of finish in the new matter do but add to the verisimilitude of additions made under such disadvantageous circumstances.

The more fully we allow for changed circumstances as thus accounting for the damage visible on the surface of the psalm, the more firmly can we maintain its essential unity. The enemies of Israel are throughout foreigners: only, in Davids day they were foreigners threatening the land, whereas in Hezekiahs time they were foreigners already encamped in the land and insolently treading down its villages. The lawless one would be the robber; the robber would be the God-defier (Rabshakeh) whose blasphemies are heard reproaching Jehovah the God of Israel (as in Isaiah 36, 37). The humbled one, the crushed one, the unfortunate one, would, all through, be Israel, or Israels suffering representatives.

When we have thus approximately ascertained the conditions under which this remarkable psalm was originated, our minds are set free to observe the outgoings of the Spirit of Prophecy working through the circumstances of the present into the future.
The overthrow of Davids enemies was sufficiently decisive to furnish a thread of thought along which the psalmists mind could easily be led to the contemplation of the overthrow of all Israels enemies who should at any time rise up against her: he foresees nations rebuked, the lawless one destroyed, the ruins of Israels foes made perpetual.

The re-establishment of Davids own throne, brings in glimpses of the perpetuity and universal extension of Jehovahs reign out of Zion over all the earth; when He himself should minister judgment to the peoples in equity.

But even as his eye catches sight of this entrancing prospect, there seems to be borne in upon the singer the foreboding, that, as he himself had been led up to the throne of Israel along a path of sore trial and long waiting, so his people would yet have to be humiliated and crushed, and to pass through times of extremity before their destiny among the nations would be realised. This foreglimpse of such times in Psa. 9:9-10 is so remarkable as to tempt us to think that here already we detect the revising and adapting hand of Hezekiah; until a comparison of this place with Psa. 10:1 causes us to reflect on the access of power to the psalm, if we choose rather to think that there was really granted to David a foresight of the times of trouble through which Hezekiah had to pass; which would serve to invest the second allusion to such dark times with an experimental interest which otherwise it would not possess; as much as to say, in the second reference: Alas! the times of extremity, of which thy servant David my father spake, are now upon me, but he desired that when such times should come thou wouldst prove a lofty retreat: wherefore, then, shouldst thou stand in the distance and suffer us to pass through such a fiery trial as this, whilst thou hidest thy faee?

Thus declining to yield to our first inclination to see in Psa. 9:9-10 some other than Davids hand, we are triumphantly borne along (still by David) through the jubilant call to praise found in Psa. 9:11, and the anticipation of Divine remembrance and vindication preserved in Psa. 9:12, past the parenthetically quoted outcry of the humbled ones set forth in Psa. 9:13-14 up to a suitable Davidic climax in Psa. 9:15-16, whereupon, after a significant Soliloquy and Selah-call to look backwards and forwards (Cp. Intro., Chap. III., Selah), and mark well the path by which we are travellingway is made for Hezekiahs newly originating hand to put before us first his assurance, in Psa. 9:17-18, that the present Assyrian enemy shall be overthrown, and then the strong plea that Jehovah will effect that overthrow:the which prayer, however, not at once being answered, but the Assyrian occupancy of the land still dragging along its slow length, to the fearful devastation of the villages, further additions and modifications follow, which, while wholly unsuited to Davids circumstances, depict to the life the ravages and the reproaches and the blasphemies of the robber Rabshakeh. And thus the present Tenth Psalm unfolds itself, with echoes, indeed, of the previous psalm, but modified by the sombre mutterings of present trouble: nevertheless, at length rising up to the very same climax as that which characterised Hezekiahs first addition at the end of the Ninth Psalm: the desired Divinely taught lesson in each being a lesson to the nations, to be enforced by Jehovahs ultimate deliverance of his people Israel.

It would not be wise to lay overmuch stress on the sevenfold occurrence of the expression the lawless one, in the singular number (Psa. 9:5; Psa. 9:16, Psa. 10:2-4; Psa. 10:13; Psa. 10:15), as against the one occurrence of the plural number (Psa. 9:17), as though that circumstance alone would warrant the inference that here already we have references to The Lawless One of later prophecies. It is easy to conceive that, in every combination of nations against Israel, there has ever been some one turbulent spirit actively inciting the nations to rebel against Jehovah and his Anointed One. Nevertheless the appearance of such a lawless one in combination with what looks like a final assault by the nations on Israels land is very suggestive, and should be borne in mind by the student of prophecy. All the more does the significance of this ebullition of evil become impressive, when it is observed how the heading-up of evil is converted into its death-knell.

On Psa. 10:15-16 Delitzsch significantly observes: The thought that God would take the wickedness of the wicked so completely out of the way that no trace of it remained, is supplemented by the thought that he would do this by means of a punitive judgment. It is not without deliberation, that, instead of employing the form of expression that is used elsewhere (Psa. 37:36; Job. 20:8), the psalmist still addresses his words to Jahve: that which can no longer be found, not merely by the eyes of man, but even by God Himself, has absolutely vanished from the sphere of that which actually exists. Such a conquest of evil is as certainly to be looked for, as that Jahves universal kingship, which has been an essential element in the faith of Gods people ever since the election and redemption of Israel (Exo. 15:18) cannot remain without a perfect and visible realisation. His absolute and eternal kingship must ultimately be exhibited in all the universality and endless duration predicted in Zec. 14:9, Dan. 7:14, Rev. 11:15.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1.

There were several singular victories in Davids life to which this 9th psalm might have applicationdiscuss two of them.

2.

Is it true that the Lord always gives deliverance to those who call on Him? Discuss.

3.

How shall we account for the note or suggestion of vengeance which seems to be present in these psalms?

4.

Are we to assume that the wicked men described in Psa. 10:3-11 have had opportunity to know the God they mock? Discuss.

5.

Why do the poorthe humble and the orphans have a special claim on the interests of God?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

1. Why Not a demand for the reason of delay, but a plaintive appeal for help.

Afar off hidest thyself Not literally, but in appearance seemest to hide thyself.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Why do you stand far off, O YHWH?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

As a result of the arrogance of the unrighteous the poor is hotly pursued;

They are taken (or ‘Let them be taken’) in the schemes that they have conceived.’

The psalmist is puzzled and concerned. His own heart is righteous, and as he surveys the society in which he lives he cannot conceive why YHWH stands back in the day of trouble, why He seems to be hiding Himself while the lowly righteous are suffering (compare Psa 22:1), and are caught in the schemes of the unrighteous. Alternately (for the Hebrew can mean either) he prays that YHWH will ensure that the unrighteous are ensnared in the schemes and snares that they themselves have set.

Like many he had a low view of sin. He did not at this stage see the lowly as themselves sinful and needing to be purged and as being given the opportunity to become strong in faith, although later his own faith in the face of what is happening will come out. And He did not recognise that YHWH had deeper purposes than he could conceive of. He failed to recognise that the outright unrighteous are indeed sometimes used as instruments of chastening for God’s true people, prior to their own final defeat and judgment, a constant theme throughout Scripture.

‘Why do you stand far off?’ That is, seemingly so because of His inaction (see Isa 59:1-2 for one answer). In contrast when YHWH openly acts He is said to be ‘near’ (Psa 34:18; Psa 75:1).

‘Why do you hide yourself?’ Literally ‘muffle yourself’. Compare Psa 55:1. Seemingly covering his eyes so that He cannot see (Isa 1:15), and his ears so that He cannot hear (Lam 3:56).

‘The arrogance of the unrighteous.’ Men who are selfish, greedy and strong tend to treat all others arrogantly. And often no one seems to be able to do anything about it. They go their own way without regard for the weak. The writer recognised the total wrongness of this, and therefore wondered why God did nothing about it. Possibly it is saying that He wants them to be caught out by their own schemes, as indeed they often are, but not often enough.

‘The poor is hotly pursued.’ It is always the weak and helpless and poor who suffer most under the arrogance of the unrighteous, for they have no way of countering it, and are treated just as pawns and targets. And yet it is often those poor who are the righteous ones. Why then does God allow them to be pursued like hunted animals?

‘They are taken (or ‘Let them be taken’) in the schemes that they have conceived.’ The poor are not only hunted but often captured by the schemes of the unrighteous. The picture is a sad one of the sufferings of the hunted animal and its final entrapment. This continuation of the theme seems to fit better than the alternative rendering.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Psalms 10

Psa 10:1  Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

Psa 10:1 “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD?” – Comments – Note a similar cry from Job in Job 13:24, “ Wherefore hidest thou thy face , and holdest me for thine enemy?” Note a similar verse in Psa 13:1, “ How long wilt thou forget me, O LORD ? for ever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?”

Psa 10:7  His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

Psa 10:7 “His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud” – Comments – Paul quotes from Psa 10:7 to show that all people are under sin (Rom 3:14).

Rom 3:14, “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Prayer against the Enemy of the Church.

Luther writes in his summary of this psalm: “This is a psalm of prayer which complains about the arch-enemy of the kingdom of Christ, that is, Antichrist, who for the sake of his covetousness and pomp troubles Christendom with both might and guile; he wields both the sword of worldly tyranny over the body and the net of false doctrine over the souls. “

David Complains of the Outrage of the Wicked

v. 1. Why standest Thou afar off, O Lord? apparently indifferent to the oppression of His people. Why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble? both His eyes and His ears being covered, so that He seems to be altogether unconcerned about the misery which comes upon His believers.

v. 2. The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor, rather, “Through the pride of the wicked the afflicted is burning,” consumed with the heat of anxiety. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined, that is, the believers are taken and harmed by reason of the plots devised by the wicked. There is oppression on every hand and apparently no deliverance for the godly.

v. 3. For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, of the fact that he succeeds in his evil plans, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth, that is, he renounces and despises Jehovah, while he praises the defrauder, who makes his gains by craft or force.

v. 4. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, the fact that he literally carries his nose high, in haughty disdain and contempt of God, will not seek after God; God is not in all his thoughts. Those are his thoughts, that is the way he has figured it out for himself: God does not punish; there is no God! He believes that he can go right ahead with his pride and his trespasses; he tries to make himself believe that there will be no day of reckoning.

v. 5. His ways are always grievous, the manner in which he acts seems to be safe against punishment at all times; Thy judgments are far above out of his sight, out of the range of his vision; wherefore, in the opinion of the wicked, they do not exist. As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them, in an act of sneering contempt, his arrogance causing him to despise both God and men.

v. 6. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, he is filled with unlimited pride and security; for I shall never be in adversity, one generation after the other in his family being safe against misfortune, in his opinion, his prosperity, his wealth and honor, safe to far distant times.

v. 7. His mouth is full of cursing, blasphemous reviling and execration, and deceit and fraud, by which he oppresses the godly; under his tongue is mischief and vanity, violence for others and the essence of meanness for himself.

v. 8. He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages, in his nomad encampment, where he could easily waylay unsuspecting travelers; in the secret places, where he believes himself safe from observation, doth he murder the innocent, him who has in no way provoked him, out of mere lust for killing; his eyes are privily set against the poor, watching and planning to bring harm upon the godly sufferer.

v. 9. He lieth in wait secretly, hidden in ambush, as a lion in his den, in the thicket where he has his lair; he lieth in wait to catch the poor, like a hunter taking wild animals in his net; he doth catch the poor, the righteous sufferer, when he draweth him into his net.

v. 10. He croucheth, the description again being that of a beast of prey, and humbleth himself, ducking low, getting ready for the sudden spring, that the poor may fall by his strong ones, his wicked helpers, who also rejoice in iniquity.

v. 11. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten; He hideth His face; He will never see it. This blasphemous thought is the consolation of the wicked; by it they lull themselves into a false security, stifling the voice of their conscience in order to ply their wicked trade without hindrance.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

This psalm is to some extent connected with the preceding one, but not very closely. It has turns of expression which are identical, and not common elsewhere; e.g. “in times of trouble” (Psa 10:1; comp. Psa 9:9), and much similarity in the thoughts (comp. Psa 10:2, “Let them be taken,” etc; with Psa 9:15, “In the net which they hid is their foot taken;” Psa 9:12, “Forget not the humble,” with Psa 9:12, “He forgetteth not the cry of the humble;” Psa 9:16, “The heathen are perished out of the land,” with Psa 9:5, Psa 9:6; and Psa 9:4, “God is not in all his thoughts,” with Psa 9:17, “The nations that forget God”). The metrical structure is thought to be similar (‘Speaker’s Commentary’), and there is the same imperfect and irregular employment of alphabetic arrangement. Moreover, in the Septuagint Version the two psalms are run into one; and the unusual absence of a title in the Hebrew raises the suspicion that they were once united there also. Yet in their subject they are markedly different. Psa 9:1-20. is concerned almost wholly with the heathen, Psa 10:1-18. with the wicked, by which we must understand wicked Israelites The former is a psalm of praise and thanksgiving, the latter one of complaint and entreaty; the former is triumphant and exulting, the latter menacing and mournful. Possibly they were composed about the same time, and with some reference of the one to the other, Psa 9:1-20. being a review of Israel in its external relations, and Psa 10:1-18. a review of Israel in its internal relations and prospects.

Psa 10:1

Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Here is the key-note struck at once. Why does God stand aloof? Why, after delivering his people from their foreign foes, does he not interfere to protect his true people from their domestic oppressors? “Throughout the reign of David,” as it has been truly observed, “Palestine was infested by brigands, and disturbed by a factious nobility”. Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? “Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself,” says Isaiah (Isa 45:15). And so Job complains, “He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him” (Isa 23:9). He seems neither to see nor hear. The psalmist inquiresWhy? It can only be answered, “In his wisdom; for his own purposes; because he knows it to be best.”

Psa 10:2

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Dr. Kay translates, “Through the pride of the wicked man the poor is set on fire;” and our Revisers, “In the pride of the wicked, the poor is hotly pursued;” and so (nearly) the LXX; the Vulgate, Aquila, Symmachus, Kohler, Hengstenberg, and others. The Authorized Version paraphrases rather than translates; but it does not misrepresent the general sense, which is a complaint that the poor are persecuted by the wicked. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined (comp. Psa 35:8, “Let his net that he hath hid catch himself;” and Psa 141:10, “Let the wicked fall into their own nets;” see also Psa 7:15, Psa 7:16; Psa 9:15; Pro 5:22; Pro 26:27 : Ecc 10:8). Some, however, translate, “They (i.e. the poor) are ensnared in the devices which they (i.e. the wicked) have imagined;” and this is certainly a possible rendering. Hengstenberg regards it as preferable to the other “on account of the parallelism and connection.”

Psa 10:3

For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire; rather, for the wicked sings praise over his own soul‘s greed. Instead of praising God, he praises his *own greed and its success (comp. Her; ‘Sat.,’ 1.1. 66, “At mihi plaudo ipse dotal, stimul ac nummos contemplor in area.” And blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth; rather, and when he gets a gain blesses (but) despises the Lord (so Kay, Alexander, Cheyne, and Hengstenberg). Each time that he gets a gain, he says, “Thank God!”but, in thanking God for an unjust gain, he shows that he despises him.

Psa 10:4

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. The construction is concise to abruptness, and it is hard to determine the ellipses. The passage in the original runs thus: “The wicked, in the height of his scornwill not requireno Godall his thoughts.’ Of the various attempts to supply the ellipses, and obtain a satisfactory sense, the following (that of the ‘Speaker’s Commentary’) is probably the best: “As for the wicked in the height of his scorn’God will not require”There is no God’such are all his thoughts.” (Compare the Revised Version, which is not very different.) The general sense is that his pride conducts the wicked man to absolute atheism, or at least to practiced atheism (comp. Psa 10:11, Psa 10:13).

Psa 10:5

His ways are always grievous; lather, firm; i.e. steadfast and consistent, not wavering and uncertain. The thoroughly wicked person who “neither fears God nor regards man,” pursues the course which he has set himself, without deviation, turning neither to the right hand nor to the left. There is nothing to hinder himno qualm of conscience, no distrust of himself, no fear of other men’s opposition. Thy judgments are far above out of his sight. They are held in reserve; he does not foresee themhe does not believe in them. As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. His human adversaries he wholly despises, believing that a breath from his month will bring them to nothing.

Psa 10:6

He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved (comp. Psa 30:6). The idea of continuance is instinctive in the human mind. “The thing that has been, it is that which shall be” (Ecc 1:9). We expect the sun to rise each day, solely because in the past it has always risen (see Butler’s ‘Analogy,’ part 1. Psa 1:1-6.). The wicked man, who has always prospered, expects to prosper in the future; he has no anticipation of coming change; he supposes that his “house will continue for ever, dud his dwelling-place to all generations’ (Psa 49:11); he thinks that “to-morrow will be as to-day, and much more abundant” (Isa 56:12). For I shall never be in adversity; rather, unto generation and generation, I am he who will be exempt from calamity. The wicked man has no thought of dyinghe will be prosperous, he thinks, age after age.

Psa 10:7

His mouth is full of cursing. (On the prevalence of this evil habit among the powerful in David’s time, see Psa 59:12; Psa 109:17, Psa 109:18; 2Sa 16:5.) And deceit and fraud; or, guile and extortion (Kay); comp. Psa 36:3; Psa 55:11. Under his tongue is mischief and vanity; rather, as in the margin, mischief and iniquity. These are stored “under his tongue,” ready for utterance whenever he finds a fit occasion.

Psa 10:8

He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages. These “lurking-places” must not be supposed to have been inside the villages, but outside of them They were retired spots at no great distance, where brigands or others might lie in ambush, ready to seize on such of the villagers as might show themselves. In the secret places doth he murder the innocent (comp. Job 24:14). The usual object would be, not murder, but robbery. Still, there would be cases where it would be convenient to remove a man, as Jezebel removed Naboth; and moreover, in every case of robbery, there is a chance that the victim may resist, and a struggle ensue, in which he may lose his life. His eyes are privily set against the poor; or, his eyes lay ambush for the helpless (Kay). The word translated” poor” () is only found in this place and in Psa 10:10, where the antithesis of “strong ones” seems to imply that the weak and helpless are meant.

Psa 10:9

He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den; or, he lurks in the covert as a lion in his lair (Kay)a very striking image! He lieth in wait (or, lurks) to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net; rather, by drawing him into his net. The mode of capture is intended.

Psa 10:10

He croucheth, and humbleth himself; rather, crushed, he sinks down. The subject is changed, and the poor man’s condition spoken of. That the poor may fall by his strong ones; rather, and the helpless (comp. Psa 10:8)fall by his strong ones. The “strong ones” are the ruffians whom the wicked man employs to effect his purposes.

Psa 10:11

He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten (comp. Psa 10:4, Psa 10:13). “The wish is father to the thought.” As Delitzsch says, “The true personal God would disturb his plans, so he denies him. ‘ There is naught,’ he says, ‘but destiny, and that is blind; an absolute, and that has no eyes; an idea, and that has no grasp.'” He hideth his face. He looks away; he does not wish to be troubled or disturbed by what occurs on earth. So the Epicureans in later times. He win never see it (comp. Job 22:12; Psa 73:11; Psa 94:7).

Psa 10:12

Arise, O Lord (comp. Psa 9:19). At this point the psalmist passes from description to invocation. From Psa 10:2 to the end of Psa 10:11 he has described the conduct, the temper, and the very inmost thoughts of the wicked. Now he addresses himself to Godhe summons God to arise to vengeance. As Hengetenberg says, “Here the second part beginsprayer, springing out of the lamentation which has preceded;” prayer and invocation, beginning here, and terminating at the close of Psa 10:15. O God, lift up thine hand; i.e. to strike, to take vengeance on the wicked. Forget not the humble; or, the afflicted. Do not justify the hidden thought of the wicked (Psa 10:11), that thou forgettestshow that thou rememberest at once the sufferings of the afflicted, and the guilt of their oppressors.

Psa 10:13

Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? God’s long-suffering does but make the wicked despise him. Wherefore is this allowed to continue (comp. Psa 10:1)? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it; rather, as in the Prayer-beck Version, while he cloth say in his heart (see Psa 10:6, Psa 10:11).

Psa 10:14

Thou hast seen it. The most emphatic contradiction that was possible to the wicked man’s “He will never see it” (Psa 10:11). God sees, notes, bears in mind, and never forgets, every act of wrong-doing that men commit, and especially acts of oppression. For thou beholdest mischief and spite; or, perhaps, mischief and grief (see Job 6:2); i.e. the “mischief” of the oppressors, and the “grief’ of the oppressed. (so Hengstenberg, Cheyne, and the’ Speaker’s Commentary’). Others refer both words to the feelings of the oppressed, and translate, “travail and grief.” To requite it with thy hand. Again the Prayer-book Version is preferable, “to take the matter into thy hand,” both for reward and requital. The poor committeth himself unto thee. He has no other possible refugetherefore no other reliance. Thou art the Helper of the fatherless. The word “thou” is emphatic”Thou, and no other ().”

Psa 10:15

Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man; i.e. “break thou his strength; take away his ability to work evil to others.” Seek out his wickedness till thou find none; rather, require his wickedness. The verb is the same as that used in the last clause of Psa 10:13. The wicked man had said in his heart, “Thou wilt not require;” the psalmist calls on God, not only to require, but to require to the uttermost. Seek out, be says, require, and bring to judgment, all his wickednessevery atom of ituntil even thy searching eye can find no mere to require, requite, and punish.

Psa 10:16-18

Here begins the third part of the psalm. It is, as has been observed, “confident and triumphant.” The psalmist has, in the first part, shown the wickedness of the ungodly; in the second, he has prayed for vengeance on them, and for the deliverance of their victims; in the third, he expresses his certainty that his prayer is heard, and that the punishment and deliverance for which he has prayed are as good as accomplished.

Psa 10:16

The Lord is King for ever and ever (comp. Psa 29:10; Psa 146:10). Thus God’s kingdom is established, his authority vindicated, his absolute rule over all men made manifest. Internal and external foes are alike overcome. The heathenwhether uncircumcised in the flesh or in the heart (Jer 9:25, Jer 9:26)are perished out of his (Jehovah’s) land.

Psa 10:17

Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble (comp. Psa 9:12). It is not the psalmist’s prayer alone that he regards as heard and answered. The oppressed have cried to God against their oppressors, and their cry has “come before him, and entered into his ears.” Thou wilt prepare their heart; rather, thou dost establish (or, make firm) their heart. Through their conviction that thou art on their side, and art about to help them. Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear; or, thou causest.

Psa 10:18

To judge the fatherless (see Psa 10:14) and the oppressed; i.e. to vindicate themto judge between them and their oppressors. That the man of the earth may no more oppress; or, that terrene man may no longer terrify. There is a play upon the two words in the original, which might thus be rendered. But it has been said, with truth, that this sort of rhetorical ornament “does not suit the genius of our language” (Erle).

HOMILETICS

Psa 10:13

The protest of faith against sin.

“Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God?” etc. This psalm is one of those which utter with burning fervour the protest of faith against unbelief, of righteousness against iniquity, of loyalty to God against rebellion. To understand these utterances, we must try to see sin as it is in itself, apart from the gracious light of forgiving mercy which the gospel shedsas they saw it who had to live the life of faith when no cross had been set up, no sacrifice offered “for the sins of the whole world,” no gospel of forgiveness preached to the nations. If the prevalence of sin, and its consequent misery, is so heavy a burden to pious hearts to-day, what must it have been then?

I. A TERRIBLE VIEW OF SIN: CONTEMPT OF GOD. Wilful transgressors despise God.

1. They are regardless of his Law. (1Jn 3:4.) It is written on their conscience. The blessing of obedience and the curse of disobedience are inwoven in their very nature; for besides that some sins (drunkenness, gluttony, lust, and sloth) destroy even the body, the man himself is worse, mentally, in character, for every sin he commits.

2. They are careless of God‘s honour. Sin insults and dishonours Goda greater crime than all the injury it does to man.

3. They despise his call to repentance. (Isa 1:18; Act 17:30.)

4. They defy his displeasure and are reckless of his judgment (Luk 13:3, Luk 13:5).

II. A QUESTION ASKED AND ANSWERED. “Wherefore,” etc.? Because “he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it” (so Psa 10:11). Men persuade themselves that, as they forget God, so he forgets them. That is all they desire. An ungodly man’s notion of forgiveness is mere omission to punish; neglect of justice; indulgence, not because it is right not to punish, but merely because the thought of punishment is too dreadful and painful. “God,” he says, “is too merciful to punish.” He does not consider or understand that, as it is impossible for God to forget anything, so there would be no true mercy, but the reverse, in the neglect of justice. This is what is meant by “will by no means clear the guilty,” even in the very proclamation of Divine mercy (Exo 34:6, Exo 34:7).

III. THE FATAL MISTAKE. God has seen, does remember, will require and judge. To build hope for eternity on the supposed negligence and injustice of God, is to try to cross an abyss on a cloud. If God forgives sinners, he must do it justly, on good grounds (Rom 1:17, Rom 1:18; Rom 2:6-9; Rom 3:23-26). The gospel is the glorious revelation of God’s pardoning love and grace, not thrust at random on those who continue to despise him, but freely given to each, even the worst, who seeks to “be reconciled to God” (2Co 5:20), and lays hold on his promises in Christ (Heb 2:3; Heb 10:28, Heb 10:29).

HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE

Psa 10:1-18

Why? or, Hard facts and puzzling questions.

Whether or no this psalm was originally a part of the ninth is a question which, as may be seen, is discussed by many expositors. The mere absence of a title to it is, however, a very slight indication in that direction; while the contrast, almost violent, between the two psalms seems to be sufficient to show that they could scarcely have been penned by the same writer at the same time. The ninth psalm is a song of praise over the great deliverance God had wrought in bringing about the destroyer’s destruction. This is a mournful wail over the ill designs and too successful plans of the wicked on the one hand, and over the long silence of God on the other. The ungodly are at the very height of their riotous and iniquitous revelling; and the Divine interposition is passionately and agonizingly implored. We have no clue whatever to the precise period of disorder to which reference is here made. Perhaps it is well that we have not. There have been times in the history of the world and of the Church, again and again, when designing and godless men have been, as it were, let loose, and have been permitted to play havoc with God’s people, while the righteous were mourning and the wicked were boasting that God did not interpose to check their cruelties and crimes. And it will be necessary for the student and expositor to throw himself mentally into the midst of such a state of things, ere he can appreciate all the words of a psalm like this. For it is one of those containing words of man to God, and not words of God to man. We have thereinterrific facts specified; hard questions asked; a permanent solace; a forced-out prayer.

I. TERRIFIC FACTS. (Psa 10:2-11.) Let every phrase in this indictment be weighed; it presents as fearful a picture of human wickedness as any contained in the Word of God. It sets before us pride, persecution, device, boasting, ridicule, denial of Providence, hardness, scorn, evil-speaking, defying and denying of God, oppression and crushing of the poor, a glorying in deeds of shame, and expected impunity therein. And what is more trying still is, that God seems to let all this go on, and keeps silence, and stands afar off, and hides himself in times of trouble. Such trials were felt by the Protestants in their early struggles; by the Covenanters in times of persecution in Scotland; by faithful ones on the occasion of the St. Bartholomew Massacre; by the Waldenses and Albigenses; by Puritans and Independents under Charles I.; by Churchmen under Cromwell; and by the Malagasy in our own times; and it is only by the terror of such times that psalms like this can be understood.

II. HARD QUESTIONS. Of these there are two. One is in the first verse.

1. Why is God silent? As we look at matters, we might be apt to say that if God has indeed a people in the world, he will never let them fall into the hands of the destroyer; or that, if they are oppressed by evil men, God will quickly deliver them out of their hands, and will show his disapproval of their ways. But very often is it otherwiseto sight, and then faith is tried; and it is no wonder that Old Testament saints should ask” Why?” when even New Testament saints often do the same! But we know that to his own, God gives an inward peace and strength that are better marks of his love and better proofs of his timely aid than any outward distinction could possibly be. Take, e.g; the case of Blandina in the times of early persecution; and the cases of hundreds of others. And besides this, it is by the Christ-like bearing of believers under hardships such as these, that God reveals the reality and glory of his redeeming pace (see 1Pe 4:12-14).

2. A second question is: Why doth the wicked contemn God? Ah! why does he? He does contemn God in many ways.

(1) His inward thought is, “There is no God” (Psa 10:4).

(2) He denies that God will call him to account (Psa 10:13).

(3) He denies that God watches his actions (Psa 10:11).

(4) He lulls himself in imagined perpetual security (Psa 10:6).

Thus the life of such a one is a perpetual denial or defiance of God. And all this is attributed

(a) to “pride” (Psa 10:4);

(b) to love of evil as evil (Psa 10:3).

And yet the psalmist, seeing through the vain boast of the ungodly, may well peal out again and again the question, “Why does he do this? “for the implied meaning of the writer is, “Why does he do this, when, in spite of all his proud glorying in ill, he knows that God will bring his wickedness to an end, and will call him to account for it? This is the thought which connects our present division with the next.

III. PERMANENT SOLACE. However hard it may be to interpret the ways of nod at any one crisis, yet the believer knows that he must not judge God by what he sees of his ways, but ought to estimate his ways by what he knows of God. And there are four great truths known about God by the revelation of himself to man.

1. Jehovah is the eternal King (Psa 10:14).

2. God is the Helper of the fatherless (Psa 10:14).

3. God is known as the Judge of the oppressed (Psa 10:18; cf. Psa 103:6; Psa 94:8-23).

4. God hears his people’s cry (Psa 10:17).

When believers know all this, they have a perpetual source of relief even under the heaviest cares. God’s plan for the world, in his government thereof by Jesus Christ, is to redress every wrong of man, and to bring about peace, by righteousness (Psa 72:2, Psa 72:4).

IV. FERVID PRAYER. (Psa 10:12, Psa 10:15.) Times of severest pressure are those which force out the mightiest prayer (Act 4:33 -38). Luther, etc.; Daniel (Dan 2:16-18; Dan 9:1-19). The true method of prayer is thus indicated, viz. to ascertain from God’s revelation of himself, what he is and what are his promises, and then to approach him in humble supplication, pleading with him to reveal the glory of his Name, by fulfilling the promises he has made; and when our prayers move in the direct line of God‘s promises, we are absolutely sure of an answer (but see Psa 65:5; Rev 8:4, Rev 8:5; Deu 33:26-29). To-day is a day of God’s concealing himself; but his day of self-revealing is drawing nigh.C.

HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH

Psa 10:1-18

Times of darkness and fear.

The experiences of the psalmist may differ from ours, but by faith and sympathy we can enter into his feelings. Besides, there is always more or less of trouble. Life is full of vicissitudes. Times of darkness and of fear come to all. Not from one, but from many, the cry goes up to Heaven, “Why standest thou afar off?”

I. THE COMPLAINT. (Psa 10:1-11.) Why? Perplexity and fear are natural because of the silence of God. What makes his silence the more awful is that it is in sight of the sufferings of the good (Psa 10:2). On every side evil abounds. Truth, justice, benevolence, are set at naught. Might prevails against fight. Righteousness is fallen in the dust. Oppression has reached such a height that it seems as if it would finally triumph. The mystery deepens, when we mark that God’s silence is in the hearing of the vauntings of the wicked (Psa 10:3-11). The proud not only boast of their strength, but exult in their success. They have accomplished their evil desires. They parade their insolence and scorn in the very hearing of Heaven. Seeing there is no judgment executed, they harden their hearts, and hold on their way with reckless hardihood.

II. THE APPEAL. (Psa 10:12-18.) The cry is impassioned and urgent. God’s truth and honour are concerned. Redress must be given, else things will soon be beyond remedy.

1. The experience of the past is urged. (Psa 10:14.) God is just. What he has done is earnest of what he will do. His deeds bind him as well as his promises.

2. The present also bears witness. (Psa 10:5.) There is requital even now. As surely as the good is blessed in his deed, the wicked is cursed in his wickedness.

3. The future is therefore anticipated with confidence. (Psa 10:6.) As the sinker muses on the character and ways of God, he rises to a bolder strain. Faith sees the vision of coming judgment. There are sore trials, there are great perplexities, but God is just. He is not indifferent. He is not helpless. He is not slack concerning his promise. But he waits in long-suffering mercy for the fitthe appointed time. A prepared heart will always find a prepared God (Psa 10:16-18): “Thou wilt cause thine ears to hear.” Men may give their ears, and no more. Not so God. He not only hears, but acts. There is the tenderest pity; but there is also the most tremendous power. “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”W.F.

Psa 10:4

Man’s thoughts.

I. MAN HAS THOUGHTS. He can direct his mind to the past, the present, the future. He can speculate as to the manifold things that come before him and affect his interests. It is his glory that he can think; it is his shame that he so often thinks foolishly.

II. MAN‘S THOUGHTS DEPEND UPON HIS MORAL CONDITION. We are creatures of feeling. What is uppermost in our hearts will be uppermost in our thoughts. The good man has good thoughts, the evil man evil thoughts. Change the character of the heart, and you change the character of the thoughts (Pro 12:5; Pro 15:26; Mat 12:33).

III. WHEN THE MORAL DISPOSITION IS CORRUPT, THE TENDENCY IS TO EXCLUDE GOD FROM THE THOUGHTS. The plan, the labours, the enjoyments of life are too often without God (Luk 12:19, Luk 12:20; Jas 4:13). This is irrational, criminal, and ruinous (Psa 146:4).W.F.

Psa 10:17, Psa 10:18

Trial in three aspects.

I. TRIAL AS A PAINFUL INFLICTION. “For the present grievous” (Heb 12:11).

II. As A HOLY DISCIPLINE. There is a “needs be.” God means us good, to make us partakers of his holiness.

III. As A SALUTARY EXPERIENCE. David says, “It was good for me that I was afflicted,” and he gives reasons for this. Looking hack, humbled and awed, but grateful, we can praise God for his judgments as well as for his mercies. We have the witness in ourselves that God is love, and that when he chastens us it is for our good. Thus we learn to suffer and to wait. The future is bright with hope. In the heavenly world to which we aspire there shall be no more pain, no more sorrow, nor crying, nor tears. Christ will make all things new.W.F.

HOMILIES BY C. SHORT

Psa 10:1-18

The righteous God.

The one grand thought which runs through this psalm and most of the Old Testament literature is that God, notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, is a Righteous Being, and that all wickedness must be punished and overthrown. In this psalm two principal thoughts are vividly pictured forth, and a prayer.

I. A COMPLAINT TO GOD OF THE DARING ATHEISM OF THE WICKED. (Psa 10:1-11.)

1. He imagines himself to be above all restraint, human or Divine. (Psa 10:2-4.) Proud. boastful, blessing the robber, despising God, blind. “He requireth not; there is no God.”

2. He feels safe and prosperous. (Psa 10:5, Psa 10:6.)

3. His ways are full of deceit and violence. (Psa 10:7, Psa 10:8.) This is a description of the wicked man in the very fulness and monstrosity of his evil power.

4. The cruelty of his ways. (Psa 10:9-11.) He is compared to a ravenous lion. His ferocity is entirely unrestrained, because either there is no God or he will not concern himself with the fate of the oppressed and afflicted.

II. A PRAYER FOR GOD‘S INTERPOSITION. (Psa 10:12-15.)

1. Founded upon the contrast between the thoughts of the wicked and the actual conduct of God. (Psa 10:12-14.)

2. And upon the expectations of the helpless and the forlorn. (Psa 10:14.) “The helpless leaveth it to thee, and thou wilt not disappoint him.”

3. Wickedness can be destroyed and made to disappear from amongst men. (Psa 10:15.)

III. THE TRIUMPH OF FAITH. The psalmist looks upon God’s work of comfort and salvation as being quite as certain in the future as if they had been works done in the past.

1. Jehovah is King for ever and ever. (Psa 10:16.) Nothing can overturn his eternal will.

2. The future triumph of God‘s righteousness is regarded as already completed. (Psa 10:17, Psa 10:18.) The beginning of the work which he has seen gives him faith that it will be perfected. “Perfect that which concerneth us.” “He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.”S.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Psalms 10.

The Psalmist complaineth to God of the outrage of the wicked: he prayeth for remedy: he professeth his confidence.

Psa 10:1. Why standest thou, &c. Neither the author nor the particular occasion of this Psalm are certainly known; but it is, as Bishop Patrick observes, a most lively description of wicked men when they are in authority, which they abuse to the oppression of their inferiors, and make no conscience by what arts they bring about their designs. The Vulgate and LXX join this Psalm to the foregoing; and the Rabbis have a rule (which however will not hold good) that every psalm which has not any title prefixed to it, is to be ascribed to the same author who composed the preceding. Mudge observes, that the subject of this psalm is similar to that of the 59th, both of which seem to have been composed at the time when the Assyrians made inroads under Hezekiah.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Psalms 10

1Why standest thou afar off, O Lord?

Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

2The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor:

Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

3For the wicked boasteth of his hearts desire,

And blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.

4The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God:

God is not in all his thoughts.

5His ways are always grievous;

Thy judgments are far above out of his sight:

As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.

6He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved:

For I shall never be in adversity.

7His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud:

Under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

8He 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.

9He 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.

10He croucheth, and humbleth himself,

That the poor may fall by his strong ones.

11He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten:

He hideth his face; he will never see it.

12Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand:

Forget not the humble.

13Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God?

He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

14Thou 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.

15Break thou the arm of the wicked

And the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

17 The Lord is King for ever and ever:

The heathen are perished out of his land.

17Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble:

Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

18To judge the fatherless and the oppressed,

That the man of the earth may no more oppress.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Its Character.The last four strophes (Psa 10:12 sq.) begin with the last four letters of the Hebrew alphabet in their order; Psa 10:1 with ; the six intervening strophes correspond in number with the corresponding letters; but they are not represented in acrostics. Many interpreters are therefore inclined to regard this Psalm, which is without title, but has many resemblances in its language to the previous Psalm, as originally a part of it, and indeed so that either the author has not succeeded in carrying out the alphabetical order so strictly as in the preceding part (most interpreters), or that the present Psa 10:2-11 are a later substitute for the acrostic verses (Olsh.) But this very passage has a very ancient color, and is full of obscurity and is rough. Delitzsch, recognizing the peculiar subject of this Psalm as differing very widely from the preceding Psalm, would regard it rather as a copy of the form of the earlier Psalms 9, made not so much by David himself as by a poet about the same time. But how then can we explain the fact, that the alphabetical order, which begins with with so much purpose, should be given up already in the second strophe and reappear so long after? In the present form it is inadmissible to unite it with the ninth Psalm into one Psalm (as the Sept.). But the similarity cannot be denied, and the thoughts of the oppressed condition of the pious, who seem to be forgotten for awhile by God, which are expressed towards the close of the former Psalm passing over into petition and invocation of Jehovah, are here carried out into lamentation. There is a transition in Psa 10:12. God is called upon to interfere; and he finally expresses the confidence that he will be heard (Psa 10:17). For this reason we may very well regard them as belonging together as a pair of Psalms (Hengst.). [Vid. the introduction of the preceding Psalm.C. A. B.]

Str. I. Ver I. Why.For the explanation of the accentuation as oxytone, in order to give the word a firmness and emphasis especially before the name of God, vid. Hupf. The meaning is not, that of searching for the reason, not that of objection and displeasure, but it is a question of lamentation, with the request that God will draw near to judge and to help.

[Standest thou afar off.Perowne: Like an idle, passive spectator, unconcerned at the misery which he sees, but refuses to relieve.C. A. B.]Hidest.The covering over is here not expressed as reflexive = to conceal ones self, but as active, so that we must supply: thine eyes (Is. 50:15), or thine ears (Lam 3:56).

Psa 10:2. Through the pride of the wicked the afflicted man burns [A. V., The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor].It does not mean the heat of persecution (many Rabbins, Calv.), no more the heat of anger (Hengst.), but the heat of anxiety (all ancient translators, and most modern interpreters), the heat of affliction (Clauss., Stier). [Perowne: Through the proud dealing of the wicked their victims are placed in the fire or furnace of affliction.C. A. B.] The collective singular is exchanged for the plural in the second member. Since the subject is not given more particularly, there is an uncertainty whether the wicked are referred to as taken in their own craftiness, or the afflicted as taken in the plots devised by the wicked. With the first interpretation the verb is regarded as optative (Aquil., Jerome, Kimchi, Calv.), and the clause as a parenthesis, a pious ejaculation uttered in advance (Ruding). Most interpreters, however, adopt the second view, regarding it as indicative, with all the other ancient translations. This short statement of the circumstances is completely explained in the following verses, and thereby the propriety is proved of the lamentation which has been made.

Str. II. Psa 10:3. Blesseth the defrauder.Hupf. maintains this interpretation, which is represented by Aben Ezra, Kimchi, Geier, et al, according to which the subject is contained in the verb, and the word which begins the clause is in the accusative. (This word means not an avaricious, covetous man or indeed a man who makes a gain generally, but a man who makes an unrighteous gain whether by craft or force). Indeed those who regard the substantive as subject. and the verb as passive (Sept., Vulg., Syr., Michael., et al.), or reflexive (Jerome, Venema, Stier), which the language does not allow, gain a similar sense. Others regard the subst. as subject, and take the blessing either in a bad sense = curse, abuse (Gesenius and De Wette with other of the fathers), or they get this meaning, which cannot be shown except in the language of the Talmud, through the meaning: valedicere, depart, forsake, renounce, which can certainly be proved (Rosenm., Ewald, Kst., Delitzsch, Hitzig), whilst Hengst. and Hofm. explain: he blesses, he reviles, no matter whether the one or the other.Despiseth Jehovah.[A. V., whom the Lord abhorreth. This is contrasted with the blesseth the defrauder, so Perowne, Wordsworth, et al. The authorized version is incorrect.C. A. B.]

Psa 10:4. The wicked in his haughtiness: He doth not punish. Thinks or speaks is to be supplied after haughtiness. Earlier interpreters were in error in regarding these words as the predicate of the ungodly, and translating: he asks not, namely, after God [A. V] or Divine commands; or he does not investigate; or, indeed, he asks after nothing. [Perowne: He (God) will not require it. Wordsworth: God will not make inquisition; there is no judgment to come. This is the impious and scornful spirit of which the prophets speak (Isa 5:19; Mal 2:17), Where is the God of judgment? and which St. Peter describes, There shall come in the last day scoffers, walking after their own lusts and saying, Where is the promise of His coming? 2Pe 3:4. Almost all modern interpreters are agreed in a similar translation.C. A. B.]There is no God; (thus) all his calculations.This clause others, in accordance with the translations, regard as an exclamation: There is no God in all his thoughts [A. V., God is not in all his thoughts.]. Mich., Rosenm., et al., following Kimchi, more properly find the contents of his thoughts stated. Since however the text does not speak of thoughts but of calculations, and even in the previous clause the existence of God is not denied by the ungodly, but the activity of God, and indeed His judicial activity, Hengst., Hupfeld, Delitzsch, following Calv. and Venema, explain it with more accuracy thus: God is not, are all His calculations, that is, they are a continual practical denial of God.9

Str. III. Psa 10:5. Strong [A. V. grievous].Since the entire passage is a description of the walk of the ungodly, and not of his lot, the reference of the Chald. to the success of his undertakings, which most interpreters follow, is not entirely correct. We might rather, with Luther and Geier, suppose a reference to the duration and perseverance of his bad conduct; only this does not agree very well with the clause: at all times. This would very well express the idea of daily, constant, if we could, with Schrder, (Comm. inPs. 10, Grning. 1754) explain in accordance with the Arabic: distorted = crooked are his ways. But this meaning cannot be shown in the Hebrew, but rather that of being strong. Is not this meant to indicate the regardless and heedless, and therefore dangerous advance of the wicked to their purposes, treading down many persons and things; as contrasted with every kind of feebleness and sneaking conduct? The ancient translations are all astray on account of false etymologies.Are far above, out of his sight.[Barnes: They are out of the range of his vision. His thoughts grovel on the earth, and he is never elevated in his view so as to see the great principles of truth. Wordsworth refers to Job 22:12-13 Is not God in the height of heaven? And thou sayest how doth God know?C. A. B.]He puffeth at them.This could be said of snorting in wrath, or thirst for blood (Chald.), or of blowing away (Symm., Calv., Hengst.), and blowing down (Isaki, Flam., Vatab.); it is best to refer it to a gesture of contempt (Syr., Jerome, and most others). [Hupf: A description of the security of the wicked, all is favorable to him, and neither God nor man hinder him. Riehm: The third clause describes his relation to his enemies as the preceding his relation to God: he has neither God nor man to fear, Luk 18:14.C. A. B.]

Str. IV. Psa 10:6. [Delitzsch: In his unbounded carnal security he lets his wicked tongue have free course.C. A. B.] The brings into prominence the dear I of the proud fool (Delitz.) Others translate by for, [A. V.], or seek by a different pointing, to get the meaning of success, or failure, or successful, never unfortunate (Mich., Dathe, Khler), or they change the reading. Hupf. and Camph. refer the clause as relative to the preceding word: generation = which is without misfortune. [Hupf.: I shall not be moved for generations, or from generation to generation, which will be without adversity. Riehm follows Hitzig thus: introduces the direct discourse, as 2Sa 1:4, and is put back in the clause as in the corresponding passage, Zec 8:20; Zec 8:23, from generation to generation, that I shall not be in adversity. Barnes: The idea of the wicked is that they and their families would continue to be prosperous, that a permanent foundation was laid for honor and success, and for transmitting accumulated wealth and honors down to far distant times.C. A. B.]

Str. V. Psa 10:8. Villages.[Perowne refers to the haunts of the robbers, nomad encampments of predatory Bedouins, who thence fell upon helpless travellers.10 Perowne: There is some confusion in the metaphors employed. The wicked man is compared first to the lion watching for his prey, and then to the hunter taking wild animals in his net. Whereas again in Psa 10:10 we seem to have the image of the wild beast crushing his prey.C. A. B.]

Psa 10:10. He stoops [A. V., croucheth.]A continued description of lying in wait (Chald., Isaki, Vatabl., Ewald, Olsh., Delitzsch). Others regard the unfortunate one as the subject, and translate with Aquil. and Jerome: and he sinks down crushed (Rosenmller, De Wette, Hengstenberg, [Alexander, Perowne]), or they regard the adjective itself as the subject, and the oppressed sinks down (Hupfeld).11His strong ones, according to Mich., are the companions of the wicked, according to Jerome his powers, or according to the Rabbins, his limbs. Most interpreters suppose a particular reference to the claws or teeth of the lion. Others, with Chald. and Calv., regard the plural as indicating the abstract strength. Hupfeld, since the verb is in the singular, although elsewhere it is often connected with the plural of the subject, connects it with the preceding clause = and falls, on account of the singular which precedes. He does not then decide whether the concluding words form an adverbial clause = by his strength, the poor; or an independent clause = the poor are in his power.

Str. VI. Psa 10:11. [Hupfeld: Refrain with full meaning at the close of the lamentation, ground and motive of the action just described, and at the same time prelude to the following prayer.C. A. B.]

Str. VII. Psa 10:12-13. [Delitzsch. In contrast with those who have no God, or only dead idols, the Psalmist calls upon his God, the living God, that He will do away with the appearance that He was not the Omniscient, self-conscious being. The names of God are heaped up. He is to lift up His hand in order to punish.C. A. B.]

Str. VIII. Psa 10:14. [Thou hast seen it.Perowne: An energetic protest against the words immediately preceding, and also with a reference to the He will never see, Psa 10:11, throwing back the words in the mouth of the wicked. There is a time coming he feels, when all this disorder will be set right. God is not the passive spectator of human affairs which these men deem Him.C. A. B.]To take in thy handMost interpreters suppose a writing upon the hand in order to call to remembrance. Some, following Sept., Syr., Symm., Jerome, of giving over to punishment, others following the Chald., of punishment itself as requiting with the hand [So A. V.] Hupfeld finds here a reference to the energy and practical consequences of Divine knowledge, as a transition to action.

Str. IX. Psa 10:15. [A. V., Seek out his wickedness till thou find none. Perowne: When his wickedness is sought for, let it no more be found. Wordsworth: Thou wilt exercise a searching inquiry into all human actions, and wilt make a full end of iniquity by utterly destroying every vestige of it. Riehm regards Jehovah as the subject, and the verb as imperative, as in the first member, and translates: And the unrighteousness of the wicked mayest thou seek and not find it, the idea being that the wicked should be made so harmless that his wickedness should disappear without leaving any trace, so that God, when He seeks after it in order to punish it, may find it no more. God ever continues to seek out wickedness; but the Psalmist desires that it may be that He shall find nothing more to punish.C. A. B.] Respecting the eternal sovereignty of Jehovah, Psa 10:16, compare Zec 14:9; Dan 7:14; Rev 11:15.Jehovah is king forever.[Alexander: He is not dethroned, as His enemies imagine; He is still King, and will so remain in perpetuity and eternity, forever and ever.C. A. B.]

Str. X. Psa 10:17. [Wilt prepare.Hupfeld: Strengthen their heart; to make a firm, comforted heart, unwavering in its feelings (Psa 51:12; Psa 57:8; Psa 78:37; Psa 112:7), in contrast to a heart agitated, trembling, shaken in its attitude, inconstant, fluctuating between hope and fear, and other opposite feelings. Here God strengthens by hearing, or rather by faith, the inner confidence that the prayer will be heard.C. A. B.]

Psa 10:18. Terrify [A. V., oppress.]The play upon words may be expressed in Latin: ne terreathomo e terra. It may also be translated: defy (Sept., Jerome, Luth., Geier, Hengst.), or to be violent (Mich). The verb stands absolutely (Calv.) so that they (Kimchi) cannot be supplied. This translation: no longer will he (the wretched one) frighten man from the earth (Aben Ezra), is less appropriate; still less the very different rendering: they or he (the wicked man) will no more frighten the man (the miserable) from the land (Syr., Rosenm., De Wette). The earth is here not mentioned as the material from which the ensh is made, but as the place of his abode, from which he rises in wickedness. Baur (in De Wettes Comm.) proposes to refer the first words of the last line as parenthesis to the oppressed = he is it no longer, to regard the last words, however, as parallel with the previous line, as a statement of the kind of Divine help = frightening the rabble from the land. Bttcher translates: Let not the weak flee terrified from the land. [Riehm: No longer will man inspire with fear from the earth. The Psalmist expresses the confidence at the close corresponding with the wish, Psa 9:19, that it will result from Gods judgment that no wicked man, or that no man will any more be terrible to others, but Jehovah alone in heaven. This completely remedies the lamentation, Psa 10:2.C. A. B.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The enemies of the pious are not only strong, crafty, unscrupulous, cruel, and eager to devise the ruin of their opponents, but they are likewise without faith, and godless even to the extent of denying that there is a God. But whilst they rage. scorn, and blaspheme, and in their pride wickedly disregard all Divine commands, and offend against all human order and rights; God sees how they act and how His servants suffer; and God reveals to them both the power of his hand, as the God who is always and eternally King.

2. On this very account the pious very properly commit themselves to God, and this secures them from despair. But the time, before Divine help appears, is often very long, and it is hard for him to wait. It is well for him if he then strengthens his hope and revives his trust in God, and arms himself for patience in suffering, by prayer.

3. In the anguish of external trouble and internal affliction the pious may, with propriety, urge God to hasten to their relief; but although the voice of their lamentation may resound, yet it must not contain a complaint against God, as if He improperly delayed, or as if He left the afflicted in continual danger without reason, or as if He had purposely shut His eyes and ears against their need and prayers. In the realization of their weakness, they must give themselves and their cause entirely into the hands of God.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

He who has nothing under him but the earth upon which he walks and stands, may indeed at times in wicked presumption be arrogant and proud as if there was no God; but he will ere long be cast down by the everlasting King, whom he blasphemes and denies.Many speak about God, but act as if there were no God.God sees all that takes place on earth, He neglects nothing, He forgets no one, but He will not have the time, the place, or the form of the revelation of His righteousness prescribed to Him.We should learn patience by the patience of God.With God there is indeed delay, but no neglect.He who would see the fulfilment of his hopes, must not only believe that God is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him; he must likewise pray to God and wait upon God.As sure as God is everlasting King, so sure is the final and complete ruin of the ungodly, and the final and eternal salvation of the pious.If God has taken anything into His hands we need not trouble ourselves with care; but we must at all times humble ourselves under His powerful hand, and lie in His hand of grace.

Starke: God often hides His face from us, and postpones His help, only that we may pray more earnestly.The more success the ungodly have in their hearts desire, the less they care for God.Pride and haughtiness make the ungodly so unreasonable that they do not inquire after man or God, and they regard all wholesome reflection as folly.The security and dissoluteness of man receive their support in not reflecting upon the judgments of God.If an ungodly man believes in the word of God, he must likewise believe that his fall is near, that it will surely come. Since however he does not believe this, he must likewise regard the word of God as lies.The ungodly make lies their refuge and hypocrisy their shelter; but the curse reaches them.To deny Divine providence is to blaspheme against God.When God begins to search after wickedness, then everything must come out; for God sees even into the most secret corners.As long as the enemies of Christ are unable to cast Him down from His throne of glory, His Church will remain in spite of all the devils.

Osiander: Those who say that God does not take up the affairs of men, do as much as deny that there is a God, and blaspheme Him in the most cruel manner.Menzel: What makes the ungodly so secure in the world? 1) Their success and progress; 2) their great number and adherents; 3) their wicked heart, which despises God, and does not fear that He will punish their wickedness because He delays a little. Why are such complaints of the saints described to us? 1) That we may see how painful it is for the pious heart when God seems to give way to the wicked; 2) that we may likewise know the weakness of the saints; they have likewise flesh and blood, therefore they struggle wonderfully with their trials; 3) that we may learn that God can bear with such weakness if only faith is maintained.Franke: The heart must first be brought into the school of the cross, if a word that treats of the cross, is to be relished by him, and give him strength and nourishment.Baumgarten: As long as a man regards God as his enemy, he wishes that there were no God.Although some things are forgotten for a time, and no creature is troubled about them, yet God will in His time inquire for them, and break the arm of the ungodly.Herberger: Hell is behind the pride of the ungodly; heaven and eternal life are behind the sufferings of pious hearts.To err is human, but to continue constantly in wickedness is devilish.Taube: Pride and wrath are always brothers.The severest conflict, but likewise the most brilliant victory in cross-bearing, is the believing appropriation of the power and grace of God to myself as an individual, and to my present circumstances.

[Matth. Henry: We stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and then we complain that God stands afar off from us.Where there is a heart full of malice, there is commonly a mouth full of curses.Let those that suffer by proud oppressors hope that God will in due time appear for them; for those that are abusive to them are abusive to God Almighty too.Barnes: Pride is at the root of all the Atheism, theoretical or practical, on the earth; at the root of all the reluctance which there is to seek the favor of God; at the root, therefore, of the misery and wretchedness of the world. Men act as if they were not responsible to their Maker, and as if it were a settled point that He would never call them to account.Spurgeon: To the tearful eye of the sufferer the Lord seemed to stand still, as if He calmly looked on and did not sympathize with His afflicted one. Nay more, the Lord appeared to be afar off, no longer a very present help in trouble, but an inaccessible mountain, into which no man would be able to climb. The presence of God is the joy of His people, but any suspicion of His absence is distracting beyond measure.The refiner is never far from the mouth of the furnace when his gold is in the fire, and the Son of God is always walking in the midst of the flames when His holy children are cast into them.It is not the trouble, but the hiding of our Fathers face, which cuts us to the quick.A smiling face and a rod are not fit companions. God bares the back that the blow may be felt; for it is only felt affliction which can become blest affliction. If we were carried in the arms of God over every stream, where would be the trial, and where the experience, which trouble is meant to teach us?The only place where God is not in the thoughts of the wicked. This is a damning accusation; for where the God of heaven is not, the Lord of hell is reigning and raging; and if God be not in our thoughts, our thoughts will bring us to perdition.Ah! there is one enemy who will not be puffed at. Death will puff at the candle of his life, and blow it out, and the wicked boaster will find it grim work to brag in the tomb.God shall hunt the sinner forever; so long as there is a grain of sin in him it shall be sought out and punished.God permits tyrants to arise as thorn-hedges to protect His Church from the intrusion of hypocrites, and that He may teach His backsliding children by them, as Gideon did the men of Succoth with the brier of the wilderness; but He soon cuts up these Herods, like the thorns, and casts them into the fire.Spurgeons Treasury of David: Thos. Watson: A spiritual prayer is an humble prayer.The lower the heart descends, the higher the prayer ascends.C. A. B.]

Footnotes:

[9][Hupfeld regards it as unnecessary to supply speaks in the former clause, and translates thus: The unrighteous in his pride: he will not avenge it, there is no God, are all his calculations.C. A. B.]

[10][Thomson, in the Land and the Book, p. 314, alludes to these verses thus: A thousand rascals, the living originals of this picture, are this day crouching and lying in wait all over the country to catch poor helpless travellers. And again, p 383: It was somewhat novel to be riding gaily along this solitary shore with professed robbers, and these bushy ravines swarming with their comrades, prowling about like beasts of prey.C. A. B.]

[11][Thomson, Land and Book, p. 445, thinks that David has the panther in view who lies flat on his belly, and creeps almost insensibly toward the flock. His color is like the surrounding grass and stubble. He will thus manuvre for hours, until finally within leaping distance, when he springs with one tremendous bound upon his terrified prey. This is likely in the mixture of metaphorics.C. A. B.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The Psalmist is still before the mercy seat at his devotions, The subject is that general one, of the oppression of the wicked, and their triumphs. Deliverance is humbly sought for, and due confidence in divine mercy professed.

Psa 10:1

From the authority given to us in other parts of Scripture, to interpret, in numberless instances, the Psalms as referring primarily, and in their most important sense, to the person and offices of the Mediator, we may very safely, in places less clear, be upon the lookout for discoveries to the same blessed and profitable purpose. In this Psalm, which is without a title, (and probably, therefore, in the Septuagint translation is joined with the foregoing), we may exercise this inquiry for Jesus to no small advantage. When we hear Jesus on the cross complaining of his Father’s desertion, we may be assured that he takes interest in what concerns the Divine withdrawings from his people. And it is both sweet and consolatory to a soul under the Lord’s hidings, to recollect, that the great Head, like the members, was so exercised. Mar 15:34 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Atheism

Psa 10:4 ; Psa 14:1

The Psalmist’s view of the men whom he calls the ‘Ungodly’ is explained in those two verses.

I. He does not bring against the ungodly any charge of theoretical Atheism. He is dealing with practical as distinct from theoretical Atheism, and therefore it is that his words have an interest for ourselves. The practical Atheist is he who says not in his speech, not in look or pamphlet, but in his heart, ‘There is no God,’ one of whom may be said in other words of the Psalmist, ‘Neither is God in his thoughts’. The great question for us is really not whether we confess the existence of a God or not, that may matter little to us, still less perhaps to God but how far our belief in Him plays an active and practical part in our lives. Do we, as a practical creed in our present time, believe more in the power of God or the power of gold? Do we in our political relations believe more in the right cause or brutal force, or do we say and this, remember, is the most atheistical thing we can say, far more atheistical than denying the creed that ‘God is on the side of the big battalions?’

II. ‘The ungodly is so proud that he careth not for God, neither is God in all his thoughts.’ The ungodly is so proud. When Holy Scripture paints us the picture of an Atheist, it is not the picture of a person in his study inventing arguments against God’s existence but rather that of a severely practical person, with plenty of gods of his own, whose only real faith is in material force. We know how across the stage of history those tremendous and portentous figures Napoleon’s and others have stridden, setting at defiance all spiritual power; saying in their hearts ‘There is no God,’ but indeed this practical materialism is not confined to them. It is found in lowly places and among quite ordinary men.

III. And so the real question for us is just this What is our real practical working religion? What do we believe in most? God or Mammon? fear most, poverty or wrong? What do we love most? Worldly power, comfort, success, or purity, righteousness, truth? It is in some such way as this that we shall find out whether we are Atheists or not.

H. R. Gamble, Christianity and Common Life Sermons, p. 146.

References. X. 4. International Critical Commentary, vol. i. p. 68. Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv. p. 57. X. 5. C. Kingsley, Sermons on National Subjects, p. 174. X. 13. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. i. p. 288. X. 16. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 118. X. 19, 20. J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 256. X. I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 212. XI. International Critical Commentary, vol. i. p. 88.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Psa 10

The Boasting of the Wicked

We have already pointed out that in the Septuagint and the Vulgate, Psalms ix. and x. are combined into one. This being the case, the authorship of the tenth psalm is clearly traceable to David. It has further been pointed out that the whole piece was originally alphabetical; our immediate business, however, is with the spiritual purport of the psalm itself.

The whole strain of the psalm is one of deep religious depression, and of lamentation over the condition of the poor and helpless. The first verse is full of sacred pathos:

“Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?” ( Psa 10:1 )

The conscious absence of God or even his conscious distance from the soul is no unfamiliar experience. It is something to know that the experience is of no modern origin, but that it seems to attach to the entire course of the spiritual life. The mourning which invests so many of the psalms with so deep a sadness is literally expressive of our own religious tumult and despair. Indeed, when we wish to give precise utterance to our deepest and saddest feelings, we seem instinctively to turn to the Psalms that we may find proper words. There is more religious instruction in this fact than would at first sight appear. It shows how truly the religious life of mankind is one under all conditions of time and space. There is the same God, the same alternating faith and doubt, the same bright hope and sudden darkness. We are thus united in our deepest experiences, however far we may be separated by circumstances of an incidental kind. The heart of man would seem to be most deeply one alike in trouble and in prayer. Such trouble, too, has its own peculiar place in spiritual education. It inspires the truest and noblest cry for the absent or distant God. But the particular idea of this verse would seem to be not so much a loss of consciousness of spiritual fellowship with God, as a deep and bitter feeling that the Lord has separated himself practically from all the affairs of men. The picture is of the strong oppressing the weak, and God, instead of coming into the battle to avenge injustice and assist helpless poverty, stands upon a distant hill that he may watch the fight from afar. The contest awakens the pity of David and yet does not seem to awaken the pity of God! Has not a similar experience occurred to ourselves? In innumerable instances have we felt that if God himself would only come near he might burn the wicked with a spark, and lift up the virtuous poor to the elevation which is worthy of their spiritual pureness. But affairs appear to go quite in another manner; it is as if men must fight out their own cause whilst the living God is a mere observer looking on from a great distance, and indeed hardly looking on at all. This last point indeed coincides with the grammar of the verse, for the literal rendering, according to Isa 1:15 , would be, “Why hidest thou thine eyes in times of trouble?” In other words, Why dost thou wink at the wrongdoing of oppressors? Why not look straight at them with eyes of fire, and burn them as they madly pursue their infamous course? Whilst therefore it is profoundly true that there are times when the soul is conscious of the absence of God in a purely spiritual sense, it must not be overlooked that the writer of this verse is rather complaining that God is taking no active part in the battles and sorrows of mankind. The Psalmist asks Why? It is a bitter question; it is a question forced out of the soul by distressing circumstances.

“The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth” ( Psa 10:2-3 ).

The grammar of these verses it is difficult to settle, but the moral purpose of them is perfectly distinct. The wicked man does not know the proper measure of his strength, his prosperity makes him proud, and his pride fills him with contempt in reference to the poor. His reasoning is basely carnal: he would say, Look at me and behold what my right hand has done, and then look at the poor man in his vileness, and in that vileness see a proof of his incapacity and worthlessness: his hand is without skill, his eye is destitute of sagacity, and all his plans are marked by the feeblest childishness: surely a man so vile was made to be trampled upon, and in trampling upon him I am but carrying out in a human way what God himself is evidently doing in his mysterious providence. The speech of the wicked man concerning the poor thus aggravates its wickedness by a pretended piety. The wicked man would pretend to see in the poor man’s poverty a proof of God’s contempt; if the man were not poor he would be more respected in heaven, and because he is not respected in heaven it is evident to the wicked observer that he was not intended to be respected upon earth.

A very strong and vivid figure is that presented in the third verse. The wicked are represented as speaking praise to the lust of their own soul. When wicked people overwhelm the poor, they arise and address to their own souls rhetorical congratulations. They pour upon their own hearts eloquent tributes to their genius and strength. The literal idea is that of a villain addressing his vilest passions and congratulating them upon their satisfaction and triumph. An illustrative instance is found in the case of the rich man who told his soul that much goods had been laid up for many years and that the time of holiday and feasting had now come. The covetous man is represented in the text as blessing himself, which is exactly the idea of the parable of the rich man and his abundant harvests. The literal translation of “covetous” in the third verse is “robber.” This is not only a grammatical change, it is a truly spiritual rendering. When we speak plain language to ourselves we shall not disguise the fact that covetousness is robbery. We speak now in modified language of covetous men being “close,” “thrifty,” “prudent,” “worldly-wise,” but these softened expressions must be indignantly driven away, and in their places there must stand the word so terrible but true, that the covetous man is a thief and a robber. The expression at the close of the third verse, “whom the Lord abhorreth,” should be inverted and read, “who abhorreth the Lord.” Many such expressions ought to be inverted, and thus many a difficulty in regard to the divine nature would be removed. When we read of the Lord abhorring a man we may set it down as an absolute certainty that the man first abhorred the Lord. This true interpretation gets rid of the unholy and debasing notion that the Lord conceives particular prejudices against particular persons on grounds which are purely arbitrary. Set it down as a guiding fact, as indeed a key of interpretation, that wherever the Lord is said to be opposed to a man or nation, the act of hostility began on the human side. We can hardly determine whether the Psalmist is fixing his mind upon some merely dramatic personalities whom he describes by the name of wicked and covetous. What is the result of our own observation in these matters? Have the wicked changed? Are covetous men more softly and tenderly inclined towards the poor? Has the hand of the tyrant relaxed?

“The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity. 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. 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 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it” ( Psa 10:4-11 ).

The expression, “pride of his countenance,” literally refers to the heightening of the nostril. This was a Hebrew form of representing pride. Men were said to lift their heads high, to turn up their noses at the poor, and to set hard faces against the heavens. Wherever there is such self-confidence, truly religious feeling is impossible, hence we read “God is not in all his thoughts.” The simple doctrine is, that either God or selfishness must be the ruler of the human spirit: where there is self-trust, there is no God; where there is true reverence, there is no self-trust.

But consider how strong are the temptations of the wicked man to trust his own sagacity and skill! See how many acres he owns, how many people do obeisance to him, how many institutions knock at his door and supplicate his patronage, how men flee before him that he may have ample room on the highway, and then consider how difficult it must be for such a man to believe that he is merely mortal and that his breath is in his nostrils. There is no God in all his thoughts. Why should he trouble himself about God? He has but to look upon his gardens and they smile in flower; he has but to put out his hand even in the darkness and to take it back again filled with gold; he is not in trouble like other men, his eyes stand out with fatness. He is a trouble to all who are pious in heart, yet whose way is hedged up with hardness and difficulty. The idea of the fifth verse is that the ways of the wicked man are always successful. A corresponding expression is found in Job 20:21 : “Nothing escapes his covetousness, therefore his prosperity shall not last.” Whatever judgments he may honour in an abstract way, he says they are practically “far above out of his sight,” so that they have no relation to him and he need not concern himself about them. They do not from his point of view descend into his life and trouble him by their searching criticism: the wicked man is prepared to give assent to theological propositions, but he will not allow that the divine judgments are the rule of daily discipline and conduct.

Having got rid of God it is easy for the wicked man to get rid of his enemies. “As for his enemies, he puffeth at them,” that is to say, he treats them with scorn, so to say, with the most scornful scorn; he does not condescend to use words or arguments, he simply snorts out his contempt against his impotent foes. The wicked man has abounding confidence in his own stability: “he hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity,” more literally, “I shall never be moved at any time, I who am without ill.” His mouth is filled with perjury. He sits in enclosed spaces and watches in darkness that he may murder the innocent. He is represented as secretly watching the poor. His eyes wait for the darkness. The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight. To-day “the Arab robber lurks like a wolf amongst sand-heaps, and often springs out suddenly upon the solitary traveller, robs him in a trice, and then plunges again into the wilderness of sand-hills and reedy downs where pursuit is fruitless.”

This is the picture of the truly bad man. When will the poor cease to trust in him? It is folly to expect anything from the clemency of a tiger; it is madness to attempt to make rational terms with a wolf. What then is the poor man to do? In what direction are his eyes to turn for light and help? To this enquiry the remainder of the psalm gives a sublime reply:

“Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked condemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. 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. Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none. The Lord is king for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land. Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress” ( Psa 10:12-18 ).

Now God is called back again, as in the first verse he was felt to be absent and careless. He is appealed to as if he had been asleep, or had allowed the affairs of the world to glide far away from him and plunge themselves into unrighteousness and all moral confusion. But the very withdrawment of God is the occasion of this heart-felt desire for him. We never know how gladsome the summer is until we feel the biting cold of winter. It is in the deep midnight that we are most vividly reminded of the splendours of day. The Psalmist notes what cannot have escaped our own observation, namely, with what terrific rapidity the wicked man doubles his wickedness. Not only does the wicked man deny God in some kind of paltry philosophical way, from denial he proceeds to contempt, and from contempt to defiance. Man cannot stop at the point of agnosticism. It would appear to be impossible to be coldly irreligious any more than to be coldly pious. There is a point of passion even in irreligiousness; a point at which a man takes his affairs into his own hands, and having none other to trust to, he boasts of his strength and offers sacrifices to his own ingenuity. Let it never be supposed then that a man can rest at the point of merely not knowing; the next point is denying; the next point is defying; the next point is absolute self-idolatry. But out of all the darkness which oppresses the soul of the Psalmist the sufferer comes with a song of hope and exultation. Through some rift of the angry cloud he has seen the king upon his throne, and has realised that though a king he is yet identified with the cause of the humble, he is the judge of the fatherless and the oppressed. Thus the greater triumphs over the smaller. Oppression, robbery, haughtiness, self-seeking had but a short day in which to display their folly and rioting, and within the narrow limits of that day they seemed to be triumphant and secure, but the time came when a greater law asserted its sovereignty and swept them away. The great lesson is that we are not to judge within misleading limits or to pronounce final judgments whilst processes are being developed. We are not to deny the force of wickedness or the malignity of unclean hearts, nor are we to deny the sorrows of the poor and the despair of the helpless, all these things are to be recognised in the broadest possible way; but to our immediate observation of these appalling realities we are to add the religious faith that at the right time and in the right way God himself will come and make the very boasting of the wicked the deepest depth of his humiliation, and the very grandeur of the robber shall be constituted into an element of his disaster and shame.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

PSALMS

XI

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS

According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:

1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.

2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.

3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.

4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.

5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.

6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.

7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.

At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.

The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.

The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.

They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”

The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:

1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.

2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.

3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .

In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.

It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.

There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.

The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.

The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.

The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:

Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)

Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)

Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)

Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)

Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)

They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.

There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:

Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.

Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:

1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.

2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.

3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.

4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.

5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.

All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:

In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).

In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).

In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).

In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).

The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .

QUESTIONS

1. What books are commended on the Psalms?

2. What is a psalm?

3. What is the Psalter?

4. What is the range of time in composition?

5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?

6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?

7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?

8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.

9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?

10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?

11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?

12. How many psalms in our collection?

13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?

14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?

15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?

16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?

17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?

18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?

19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?

20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?

21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?

22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?

23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?

24. How many of the psalms have no titles?

25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?

26. How do later Jews supply these titles?

27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?

XII

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)

The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:

1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).

2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).

3. The nature, or character, of the poem:

(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).

(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).

4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).

5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).

6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).

7. The kind of musical instrument:

(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).

(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).

(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).

8. A special choir:

(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).

(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).

(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).

9. The keynote, or tune:

(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).

(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).

(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).

(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).

(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).

(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.

(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.

(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.

10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).

11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)

12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).

The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.

The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.

David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:

1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.

2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.

3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.

4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.

5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:

1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.

2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.

3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.

4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.

5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.

6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.

The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.

Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.

Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:

I. By books

1. Psalms 1-41 (41)

2. Psalms 42-72 (31)

3. Psalms 73-89 (17)

4. Psalms 90-106 (17)

5. Psalms 107-150 (44)

II. According to date and authorship

1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )

2. Psalms of David:

(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).

(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).

(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).

3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).

4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).

5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).

6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )

7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )

8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)

III. By groups

1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.

2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )

3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)

4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )

5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”

IV. Doctrines of the Psalms

1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.

2. The covenant, the basis of worship.

3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.

4. The pardon of sin and justification.

5. The Messiah.

6. The future life, pro and con.

7. The imprecations.

8. Other doctrines.

V. The New Testament use of the Psalms

1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.

2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.

We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:

1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )

2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )

3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )

4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )

5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )

6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )

7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )

8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )

9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )

The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.

There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.

It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.

The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.

Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:

1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.

2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.

3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.

The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.

QUESTIONS

1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.

2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?

3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?

4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?

5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.

6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?

7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?

8. What other authors are named in the titles?

9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?

10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.

11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?

12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.

13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?

14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?

15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?

16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?

17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.

18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?

19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?

20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?

XVII

THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS

A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.

Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.

The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:

1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.

2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.

3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.

In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).

This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.

It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:

1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.

2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.

We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.

1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.

The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.

The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”

In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).

But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .

Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).

This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.

2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:

(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).

(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .

(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”

(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).

What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!

3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.

(1) His divinity,

(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;

(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .

(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .

(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .

(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .

(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .

(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.

(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .

4. His offices.

(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).

(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).

(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).

(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).

(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).

5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:

(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .

(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.

(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .

(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:

Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).

And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).

And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).

Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).

These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .

(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).

(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .

(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).

(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).

(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).

(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).

(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).

The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).

The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).

The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).

His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).

In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).

His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).

Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).

With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).

We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.

QUESTIONS

1. What is a good text for this chapter?

2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?

3. What is the last division called and why?

4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?

5. To what three things is the purpose limited?

6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?

7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?

8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?

9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?

10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?

11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.

12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?

13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?

14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?

15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.

16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.

17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.

18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

XVI

THE MESSIANIC PSALMS AND OTHERS

We commence this chapter by giving a classified list of the Messianic Psalms, as follows:

The Royal Psalms are:

Psa 110 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 72 ; Psa 45 ; Psa 89 ;

The Passion Psalms are:

Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 ;

The Psalms of the Ideal Man are Psa 8 ; Psa 16 ; Psa 40 ;

The Missionary Psalms are:

Psa 47 ; Psa 65 ; Psa 68 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 100 ; Psa 117 .

The predictions before David of the coming Messiah are, (1) the seed of the woman; (2) the seed of Abraham; (3) the seed of Judah; (4) the seed of David.

The prophecies of history concerning the Messiah are, (1) a prophet like unto Moses; (2) a priest after the order of Melchizedek; (3) a sacrifice which embraces all the sacrificial offerings of the Old Testament; (4) direct references to him as King, as in 2Sa 7:8 ff.

The messianic offices as taught in the psalms are four, viz: (1) The Messiah is presented as Prophet, or Teacher (Psa 40:8 ); (2) as Sacrifice, or an Offering for sin (Psa 40:6 ff.; Heb 10:5 ff.) ; (3) he is presented as Priest (Psa 110:4 ); (4) he is presented as King (Psa 45 ).

The psalms most clearly presenting the Messiah in his various phases and functions are as follows: (1) as the ideal man, or Second Adam (8); (2) as Prophet (Psa 40 ); (3) as Sacrifice (Psa 22 ) ; (4) as King (Psa 45 ) ; (5) as Priest (Psa 110 ) ; (6) in his universal reign (Psa 72 ).

It will be noted that other psalms teach these facts also, but these most clearly set forth the offices as they relate to the Messiah.

The Messiah as a sacrifice is presented in general in Psa 40:6 . His sufferings as such are given in a specific and general way in Psa 22 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 69 . The events of his sufferings in particular are described, beginning with the betrayal of Judas, as follows:

1. Judas betrayed him (Mat 26:14 ) in fulfilment of Psa 41:9 .

2. At the Supper (Mat 26:24 ) Christ said, “The Son of man goeth as it is written of him,” referring to Psa 22 .

3. They sang after the Supper in fulfilment of Psa 22:22 .

4. Piercing his hands and feet, Psa 22:16 .

5. They cast lots for his vesture in fulfilment of Psa 22:18 .

6. Just before the ninth hour the chief priests reviled him (Mat 27:43 ) in fulfilment of Psa 22:8 .

7. At the ninth hour (Mat 27:46 ) he quoted Psa 22:1 .

8. Near his death (Joh 19:28 ) he said, in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 , “I thirst.”

9. At that time they gave him vinegar (Mat 27:48 ) in fulfilment of Psa 69:21 .

10. When he was found dead they did not break his bones (Joh 19:36 ) in fulfilment of Psa 34:20 .

11. He is represented as dead, buried, and raised in Psa 16:10 .

12. His suffering as a substitute is described in Psa 69:9 .

13. The result of his crucifixion to them who crucified him is given in Psa 69:22-23 . Compare Rom 11:9-10 .

The Penitential Psalms are Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 . The occasion of Psa 6 was the grief and penitence of David over Absalom; of Psa 32 was the blessedness of forgiveness after his sin with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah; Psa 38 , David’s reference to his sin with Bathsheba; Psa 51 , David’s penitence and prayer for forgiveness for this sin; Psa 102 , the penitence of the children of Israel on the eve of their return from captivity; Psalm 130, a general penitential psalm; Psa 143 , David’s penitence and prayer when pursued by Absalom.

The Pilgrim Psalms are Psalms 120-134. This section of the psalter is called the “Little Psalter.” These Psalms were collected in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, in troublous times. The author of the central psalm of this collection is Solomon, and he wrote it when he built his Temple. The Davidic Psalms in this collection are Psa 120 ; Psa 122 ; Psa 124 ; Psa 131 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 133 . The others were written during the building of the second Temple. They are called in the Septuagint “Songs of the Steps.”

There are four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents,” viz:

1. The first theory is that the “Songs of the Steps” means the songs of the fifteen steps from the court of the women to the court of Israel, there being a song for each step.

2. The second theory is that advanced by Luther, which says that they were songs of a higher choir, elevated above, or in an elevated voice.

3. The third theory is that the thought in these psalms advances by degrees.

4. The fourth theory is that they are Pilgrim Psalms, or the songs that they sang while going up to the great feasts.

Certain scriptures give the true idea of these titles, viz: Exo 23:14-17 ; Exo 34:23-24 ; 1Sa 1:3 ; 1Ki 12:27-28 : Psa 122:1-4 ; and the proof of their singing as they went is found in Psa_42:4; 100; and Isa 30:29 . They went, singing these psalms, to the Feasts of the Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles. Psa 121 was sung when just in sight of Jerusalem and Psa 122 was sung at the gate. Psa 128 is the description of a good man’s home and a parallel to this psalm in modern literature is Burns’s “Cotter’s Saturday Night.” The pious home makes the nation great.

Psa 133 is a psalm of fellowship. It is one of the finest expressions of the blessings that issue when God’s people dwell together in unity. The reference here is to the anointing of Aaron as high priest and the fragrance of the anointing oil which was used in these anointings. The dew of Hermon represents the blessing of God upon his people when they dwell together in such unity.

Now let us look at the Alphabetical Psalms. An alphabetical psalm is one in which the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used alphabetically to commence each division. In Psalms 111-112, each clause so begins; in Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 145 ; each verse so begins; in Psa 37 each stanza of two verses so begins; in 119 each stanza of eight verses so begins, and each of the eight lines begins with the same letter. In Psa 25 ; 34 37 the order is not so strict; in Psa 9 and Psa 10 there are some traces of this alphabetical order.

David originated these alphabetical psalms and the most complete specimen is Psa 119 , which is an expansion of the latter part of Psa 19 .

A certain group of psalms is called the Hallelujah Psalms. They are so called because the word “Hallelujah” is used at the beginning, or at the ending, and sometimes at both the beginning and the ending. The Hallelujah Psalms are Psalm 111-113; 115-117; 146-150. Psa 117 is a doxology; and Psalms 146-150 were used as anthems. Psa 148 calls on all creation to praise God. Francis of Assisi wrote a hymn based on this psalm in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister. Psa 150 calls for all varieties of instruments. Psalms 113-118 are called the Egyptian Hallel. They were used at the Passover (Psalm 113-114), before the Supper and Psalm 115-118 were sung after the Supper. According to this, Jesus and his disciples sang Psalms 115-118 at the last Passover Supper. These psalms were sung also at the Feasts of Pentecost, Tabernacles, Dedication, and New Moon.

The name of God is delayed long in Psa 114 . Addison said, “That the surprise might be complete.” Then there are some special characteristics of Psa 115 , viz: (1) It was written against idols. Cf. Isa 44:9-20 ; (2) It is antiphonal, the congregation singing Psa 115:1-8 , the choir Psa 115:9-12 , the priests Psa 115:13-15 and the congregation again Psa 115:16-18 . The theme of Psa 116 is love, based on gratitude for a great deliverance, expressed in service. It is appropriate to read at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper and Psa 116:15 is especially appropriate for funeral services.

On some special historical occasions certain psalms were sung. Psa 46 was sung by the army of Gustavus Adolphus before the decisive battle of Leipzig, on September 17, 1631.Psa 68 was sung by Cromwell’s army on the occasion of the battle of Dunbar in Scotland.

Certain passages in the Psalms show that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices. For instance, Psa 118:27 ; Psa 141:2 seem to teach very clearly that they approved the Mosaic sacrifice. But other passages show that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important and foresaw the abolition of the animal sacrifices. Such passages are Psa 50:7-15 ; Psa 4:5 ; Psa 27:6 ; Psa 40:6 ; Psa 51:16-17 . These scriptures show conclusively that the writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the Royal Psalms?

2. What are the Passion Psalms?

3. What are the Psalms of the Ideal Man?

4. What are the Missionary Psalms?

5. What are the predictions before David of the coming Messiah?

6. What are the prophecies of history concerning the Messiah?

7. Give a regular order of thought concerning the messianic offices as taught in the psalms.

8. Which psalms most clearly present the Messiah as (1) the ideal man, or Second Adam, (2) which as Prophet, or Teacher, (3) which as the Sacrifice, (4) which as King, (5) which as Priest, (6) which his universal reign?

9. Concerning the suffering Messiah, or the Messiah as a sacrifice, state the words or facts, verified in the New Testament as fulfilment of prophecy in the psalms. Let the order of the citations follow the order of facts in Christ’s life.

10. Name the Penitential Psalms and show their occasion.

11. What are the Pilgrim Psalms?

12. What is this section of the Psalter called?

13. When and under what conditions were these psalms collected?

14. Who is the author of the central psalm of this collection?

15. What Davidic Psalms are in this collection?

16. When were the others written?

17. What are they called in the Septuagint?

18. What four theories as to the meaning of the titles, “Songs of the Steps,” “Songs of Degrees,” or “Songs of Ascents”?

19. What scriptures give the true idea of these titles?

20. Give proof of their singing as they went.

21. To what feasts did they go singing these Psalms?

22. What was the special use made of Psa 121 and Psa 122 ?

23. Which of these psalms is the description of a good man’s home and what parallel in modern literature?

24. Expound Psa 133 .

25. What is an alphabetical psalm, and what are the several kinds?

26. Who originated these Alphabetical Psalms?

27. What are the most complete specimen?

28. Of what is it an expansion?

29. Why is a certain group of psalms called the Hallelujah Psalms?

30. What are the Hallelujah Psalms?

31. Which of the Hallelujah Psalms was a doxology?

32. Which of these were used as anthems?

33. Which psalm calls on all creation to praise God?

34. Who wrote a hymn based on Psa 148 in which he called the sun his honorable brother and the cricket his sister?

35. Which of these psalms calls for all varieties of instruments?

36. What is the Egyptian Hallel?

37. What is their special use and how were they sung?

38. Then what hymns did Jesus and his disciples sing?

39. At what other feasts was this sung?

40. Why was the name of God delayed so long in Psa 114 ?

41. What are the characteristics of Psa 115 ?

42. What is the theme and special use of Psa 116 ?

43. State some special historical occasions on which certain psalms were sung. Give the psalm for each occasion.

44. Cite passages in the psalms showing that the psalm writers approved the offering of Mosaic animal sacrifices.

45. Cite other passages showing that these inspired writers estimated spiritual sacrifices as more important than the Mosaic sacrifices.

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Psa 10:1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? [why] hidest thou [thyself] in times of trouble?

Ver. 1. Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? ] As if thou hadst forgotten what thou hadst promised thy people in the formed psalm; which the Greek and Latin versions make to be one and the same with this, as having no title, and tending almost to the same purpose. Hence the difference in numbers, which holdeth almost to the end of the psalter, viz. to Psa 148:1-14 .

Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? ] So God seemeth to do when he helpeth not presently; neither doth anything more trouble the saints in affliction than the want of God’s gracious presence. This maketh them thus to expostulate and lament after the Lord; not quarrel, as those hypocrites did, Isa 58:3 , or revile, as Caligula did his Jupiter, taking up that verse in Homer, Z Y , or with him (little better) in the holy history, who said, “Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any lenger?” 2Ki 6:33 . The good soul knows that God waiteth to be gracious; and as he seldom cometh at our time, so at his own (which is ever the best) time he never faileth.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

This untitled psalm, dependent on the preceding one of which it is the supplement, is occupied with the wicked internal enemy that hates and afflicts the righteous Jew. As Psa 9 looks at the Gentile oppressors generally as the object of Jehovah’s judgment at the close, so this details the enemy within, though it binds up with the expected judgment the perishing of the nations out of His land (ver. 16) when Jehovah is King for ever. It is more special. Both run to and converge on the end of the age.

When the wicked one rises up from character to a person, it will be realised in the antichrist of the last days and in the midst of the Jews as here. As the Lord is from heaven, so he is emphatically from the earth, frail man but energised by Satan. The Psalm answers much to the cry of the elect, according to the parable of the importunate widow, whom God at length avenges.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 10:1-2

1Why do You stand afar off, O Lord?

Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?

2In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted;

Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.

Psa 10:1 This is a common question for faithful believers in a fallen world. Evil and suffering are often surprises and unexpected events. Why would our loving, merciful God allow this?

There is no biblical answer except that we live in a fallen world. This is not the world God intended it to be, nor is it the world it will be in the future. As a theologian I must assert that God has allowed us to reap the consequences of both Adam/Eve’s sin and our personal choices. Yet He has aggressively acted on our behalf in redemption! The best book on the subject of evil and suffering in this life/world, which truly takes it seriously, is John W. Wenham, The Goodness of God.

The psalmist asks two specific questions (why) about God’s apparent absence.

1. stand far off BDB 763, KB 840, Qal imperfect

2. hide Yourself BDB 761, KB 834, Qal imperfect, cf. Psa 27:9; Psa 55:1; Psa 69:17

YHWH promised to be present and involved with His covenant people but He seems to be absent and purposefully inactive (cf. Psa 10:5 a,11)!

Notice the sound play and parallelism so characteristic of ANE poetry (see Special Topic: Hebrew Poetry).

These charges are not reality but the emotions of confused and hurting believers.

Psa 10:2 Notice the characteristics of the wicked.

1. pride/arrogance BDB 144, cf. Psa 31:18; Psa 31:23; Psa 36:11; Psa 73:6

2. hotly pursue BDB 196, KB 223, Qal imperfect, cf. Gen 31:36; 1Sa 17:53; Lam 4:19

3. devise plots BDB 362, KB 359, Qal perfect

This is developed further in the next strophes (Psa 10:3-11).

Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised This is translated by NASB as a jussive (BDB 1074, KB 1779, Niphal imperfect used in a jussive sense), as should Psa 10:15 b.

This expresses a typical OT motif of role reversal. What is expected does not occur because of God’s presence.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Why . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6.

times of trouble = the great time of tribulation. Compare Psa 9:9.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Psa 10:1-18

Why do you stand a far off, O LORD? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? ( Psa 10:1 )

Have you ever prayed that? “Lord, why aren’t You doing something about it? Why do You seem to hide Yourself when I am in trouble?”

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasts his heart’s desire, and blesses the covetous, whom the LORD abhors. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffs at them. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing, deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and emptiness. He sits in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privately set against the poor. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lies in wait to catch the poor: he does catch the poor, when he has drawn him into his net. He crouches, and humbles himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hides his face; he will never see it ( Psa 10:2-11 ).

And so he describes the wicked in his deeds. The idea, the consciousness is that God has forgotten. He hides his face. He doesn’t see. There is a mistake that people oftentimes make, and that is, they mistake the patience of God for blindness. Because God hasn’t already smitten them, hasn’t already destroyed them, they begin to get a comfortable feeling like, “Well, God doesn’t know,” or, “God doesn’t see.” It is always a dangerous position to be in.

David says,

Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand: forget not the humble. Wherefore does the wicked contemn God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it; for you behold mischief and spite, to requite it in thy hand: the poor commits himself to thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out the wickedness till you find none. The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land. LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, that will cause your ear to hear: to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, and the man of the earth may no more oppress ( Psa 10:12-18 ). “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Psa 10:1-2

MAN: PREDATOR AND PREY

We are using as the title of this psalm the one used by Kidner. The psalm falls naturally into two divisions (1) Psa 10:1-11 in which the character and conduct of the wicked are graphically presented, and (2) Psa 10:12-18 a fervent prayer for God to arise from his seeming indifference and “break the arm” of the wicked.

There is no superscription for this psalm, and that is cited as a support for the theory that it should be joined with Psalms 9. We discussed this possibility at the beginning of Psalms 9; but the two psalms “are radically different.”; Psalms 9 is a triumphant exultation and praise of God for the great victories he has awarded Israel, either actually, or prophetically promised, whereas Psalms 10 describes a situation of great social disorder. “Wickedness and violence are rampant and the righteous are sorely oppressed.”

Psa 10:1-2

“Why standest thou afar off, O Jehovah?

Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

In the pride of the wicked the poor is hotly pursued

Let them be taken in the devices which they have conceived.”

The psalmist here cannot mean that God is either far off or that he is hiding from the cry of the righteous, but merely that it seems so; for otherwise, he would never have cried out to God for his judgment and destruction of the gross wickedness cited in these first eleven verses.

Of all the things that God hates, pride stands very high on the list (Pro 6:17). It appears in this first verse that pride is the primary basis and cause of oppressing the poor.

The psalmist is here sorely grieved and distressed at the rampant wickedness that was bringing so much wretchedness, misery and sorrow to the poor and oppressed of the land; and his purpose is to bring the attention of God Himself to focus upon the shameful conduct of lawless men whose behavior cried out to God for vengeance against them.

E.M. Zerr:

Psa 10:1. David was an inspired man when he wrote his portions of the Bible. Whenever he reported the occurrences of his day he told the truth. And, like Job, he had many personal tribulations from his enemies and was authorized by the Lord to write about them for the information of the reader. In keeping with this idea he made frequent complaints of his experiences. In some of them it might seem that he was dissatisfied with the care he received from God. We should observe that he was often giving a description of those circumstances as they appeared to him “as a man” (see Job 38:3 with my comments). But in giving a “write-up” of his feelings and experiences he was an inspired scribe. Let the reader constantly keep these thoughts in mind studying this book and he will be saved much confusion. So here we have an example of the conditions just described. David felt that God was too far from him for his comfort while his enemies were so near.

Psa 10:2. David’s fine character was often manifested by his consideration for others. In this verse he was worried because of the troubles of the poor, and prayed that the persecutors might be trapped in their own wicked devices.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

In the Septuagint and other versions, probably the ancient Hebrew, Psa 9:1-20; 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.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

God Will not Forget the Lowly

Psa 10:1-18

The malice of our foes, and especially of Satan, is powerfully described, Psa 10:1-11. Now it is the venom beneath the serpents tongue, Psa 10:7; now the bandit in ambush, Psa 10:8; now the lion in his den, and again the hunter snaring his unsuspecting prey, Psa 10:9. And all the while God is so quiet that it seems as if He has abdicated His throne.

Then the oppressed begin to pray, committing themselves to Him, Psa 10:12-15. May we not rise above the spirit of the Old Covenant and ask that the venomous evil which is in the heart of our foes may be exterminated, so that it leave no vestiges? And such prayer must be answered. Compare Psa 9:19 with Psa 10:16-17. True prayer begins with God and returns to Him. When He prepares the heart, Psa 9:17, He prepares the answer, which exceeds all, 1Co 2:9.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

In the two opening verses he has the lawless one before him and cries to God as his refuge, Why standest Thou afar off, O Lord? why hidest Thou Thyself in times of trouble? This will be the time of Jacobs trouble. We never would have people asking the question, Will the Church go through the great tribulation? if they could understand that the great tribulation is not the time of the Churchs trouble, but that it is the time of Jacobs trouble, and the judgments of the tribulation are not to be poured out on the Church but on those that dwell on the earth. The Church is to be taken out of the scene before that time begins. Here you have in view the people, the remnant of Israel, the seed of Jacob, but this is the last trouble they will have to go through before the Lord brings them into the blessings of the kingdom. Here you see this wicked one who seeks to destroy the people of God in that day, The wicked [really, the wicked one, the lawless one, the same one that Paul refers to in 2 Thessalonians 2] in his pride doth persecute the poor. And there are others associated with him. Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his hearts desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.

From verses 4 to 11 you have a description of the wicked one, the evil character of this lawless one. It is really the antichrist himself that comes before us. The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; Thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He imagines that he is going to subject everything to himself. He knows very little of what God is doing or has planned. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity. How often tyrants of this world have taken that haughty position. We read that, when Mussolini was shot at and might have been killed, he laughed it off and said, The bullet has never been made that can kill me. He felt he was absolutely superior to all the efforts of his foes to destroy him. And so the antichrist says in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity. 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. Not he personally, of course, but through his agents. You can see this taking place in Russia: the secret police on the lookout for any who serve the Lord in order to entrap them. 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. He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: He hideth His face; He will never see it. He thinks that God has nothing to do with these things and that he can have things his own way.

Now in the closing verses of this Psalm David again, as representing the remnant suffering under the hand of antichrist, lifts up the heart in prayer to God for deliverance, Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Thine hand: forget not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it. This man of the earth, this lawless one may think that God is indifferent; he may think that there is no God; he may be atheistic in his belief, but God has seen and God knows. Thou hast seen it; for Thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with Thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto Thee. Is not that a lovely verse? If you are in distress, will you not take it for yourself? The poor committeth himself unto Thee. That is better than committing yourself to the civic authorities. He will undertake. Thou art the helper of the fatherless. How often God has pledged Himself to be a Father to the fatherless.

Break Thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till Thou find none. In other words, seek him out until he is destroyed and cannot do any more evil. Is that not a vindictive thing to pray? In those dark days when Japan overran China did you not feel like praying, Lord, destroy the Japanese army so that it cannot do any more wickedness in China? Think of the thousands of women, children, and babies who were destroyed. Would it not be right for Christians to pray, Lord, put a stop to all that? Surely it would. We have a kind of pacifist idea nowadays that we must just look on and not be upset by anything. But that is not the spirit of the Bible. We have a right to call on God to put a stop to wickedness. Then he says, The Lord is King for ever and ever: the heathen [nations] are perished out of His land. It is as though he sees all those nations gathered together in Palestine, as they will be, and sees the judgment of God executed and the nations perished out of His land, and His land is Emmanuels land.

Lord, Thou hast heard the desire of the humble: Thou wilt prepare their heart, Thou wilt cause Thine ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress. And the man of the earth is the antichrist.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Psa 10:17-18

The Psalter contains two main ideas: the defeat of God’s enemies, yet the suffering of God’s people.

I. When we sing the Psalms, we triumph in the Church’s exultation over the might of this world. (We find triumph expressed in Psalm xxvi., Psalm xlvii., Psalm lxxxii., etc.)

II. Notice the other aspect of the Christian kingdom, which is much more frequently brought before us in the Psalms: the suffering, troublous state which in this world naturally befalls an empire so large, so aggressive, so engrossing, so stately and commanding, yet so destitute of weapons of earth. It provokes persecution at all times, both from its claims and from its weakness. (1) Thus then we cry out to God against our enemies (Psa 27:2-3, Psa 27:13, etc.). (2) We lay before Almighty God our desolations (Psa 44:12-13). (3) We complain of our captivity (Psa 14:7). (4) The Psalms say much concerning the poor and needy, and God’s protecting them against bad men (Psa 9:9-19). (5) The Psalms speak especially of the righteous being in trouble, plead for them, and wait for their deliverance (Psa 34:17, etc.).

III. Now here it is easy to make this objection: we are not in persecution; for us to use the language of the Psalms is l unreal. But many answers may be made to this objection. (1) It is not necessary that all parts of the Church should be in persecution at once either to fulfil the Scripture statements, or to justify the use of the Psalms. If we are members of the body of Christ, we must feel for the rest, in whatever part of the world they are, when they are persecuted, and must remember them in our prayers. (2) In spite of her prosperity for the moment, even in this country the Church of Christ is in peril, as is obvious. Is there no battle between the Church and the world in this country, and no malevolence, no scorn, no unbelief, no calumny, no prospect, or at least materials, of open persecution, though persecution, through God’s mercy, as yet be away? (3) If we are not altogether in a position to use the words of the Psalter, is it not possible that so far we really do lack a note of the Church? is there not a fear lest the world be friends with us, because we are friends with the world? Let us but put off the love of the world, and follow the precepts of our Lord and His Apostles, and then see in a little while where we should all find ourselves, and what would be the condition of the Church.

J. H. Newman, Sermons on Subjects of the Day, p. 256.

Reference: Psalm 10-I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 212.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

Psalm 10

1. The cry of Jehovah and what causeth it (Psa 10:1-2)

2. That wicked one (Psa 10:3-11)

3. Prayer for divine Intervention: Faiths Vision (Psa 10:12-18)

Psa 10:1-2. Here is a renewed cry to Jehovah and why? Because the wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. The wicked is that coming man of sin.

Psa 10:3-11. That persecutor of the saints of God is now prophetically revealed in his arrogant pride, defiance of God and oppression of the poor and needy. Such will be the character of the beast out of the earth, the man of sin and son of perdition (2Th 2:1-17). We shall get other photographs of the same person in other Psalms.

Psa 10:12-18. Significant prayers these. And they will be prayed by that future remnant. Arise–lift up Thy hand–forget not-Thou hast seen it–break Thou the arm of the wicked! And then faith seeth the answer. The LORD is King forever and ever. The prayer of the humble has been heard. The man of the earth no more oppresseth.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

am 3464, bc 541

standest: Psa 22:1, Psa 46:1, Jer 14:8

hidest: Psa 13:1-3, Psa 27:9, Psa 30:7, Psa 44:24, Psa 88:14, Job 13:24, Job 23:9, Job 34:29

Reciprocal: Exo 33:7 – afar off Job 23:8 – General Psa 22:11 – Be not Psa 22:19 – But Psa 27:5 – For in Psa 35:22 – be Psa 69:18 – Draw Psa 74:1 – O God Psa 78:4 – praises Psa 89:46 – wilt Psa 119:54 – General Pro 15:29 – far Isa 64:12 – General Eze 39:23 – hid I Hab 1:13 – wherefore Mat 8:25 – and awoke Mar 4:38 – carest

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The wicked one, and the deliverance.

Psa 10:1-18.

The tenth psalm, linked too closely with the ninth to have any separate title, is occupied largely with the description of the wicked one, as we have seen; and this is the cause of a gap in the alphabetic arrangement, six letters (from Mem to Tzaddi) being absent. Delitzsch would find, however, six strophes standing here to represent them, but the numerical division is into five parts, which are very unequal. The larger divisions are three: it is in fact a sort of resurrection psalm.

1. The first division gives us only the cry to Jehovah with the cause of the cry, this being the persecution of the humble by the wicked one. “Why standest Thou afar off, Jehovah? [why] hidest Thou Thyself in seasons of strait?” The previous psalm had declared God to be a stronghold in just such seasons (verse 9). Why such dissimilarity between the faith and the experience? But in truth faith in no wise rests upon experience here, but confesses that, as to His government, clouds and darkness may be round about Him. True, at last experience will come round to faith, and the exercise meanwhile be found needed and helpful. But faith is in the invisible, -sees Him indeed who is so, -has its ground, its arguments, is not credulity, but has sure evidence, all its own.

2. (a) Now we have the picture of the wicked one, the enemy of God and man. Pride and lust characterize him, the tokens of a soul out of the presence of God, but here in distinct and awful rejection of Him. He boasts of his soul’s desire, -of having his own way; pursuing it, he refuses all the check of Jehovah’s will; he renounces, he scorns Him, is in entire independence: like a “wandering star”, he is bound to no orbit, by that very fact indeed showing himself to be in earth-bonds that he knows not, a meteor to he quenched in darkness; safety and permanency are only in the orbit.

He is not only independent of God, he denies Him; but he denies Him in the interest of his own lawless acts. “He will not search out,” he says. His plottings, the weaving together of his purposes, are atheistic therefore. His pride and his lusts mutually support each other.

(b) Security is the natural outcome of his pride: God’s judgments are out of his sight altogether. If faith has to own often that clouds and darkness are about Him, it is in no wise strange that he should refuse all cognizance of One thus removed out of all natural ken. Nay, if God acts most clearly, the very fact that He makes all things serve Him in it still conceals Him amid the multiplicity of instruments. Then the scale in which God weighs things is too spiritual; the balances are “balances of the sanctuary”: a careless and callous conscience cannot appreciate them; the handwriting on the wall needs an interpreter, and who knows if it were correctly given?

He knows not God then, and he derides men: “all his adversaries, he puffeth at them.” These things do not always go together: it does not follow that he who has emancipated himself from the restraint of conscience is necessarily free from the fear of man. Man is more intelligible, and yet not always more calculable; he is as to tangibility nearer; and the mystery of one’s own heart is dark enough to threaten one with the likeness of other hearts to ours. And yet over this also pride can lift the heart; and it is so here. Nay, he of whom this is spoken can look on indefinitely to the future as one not to be subject to the ills that afflict other men, -“from generation to generation one in no calamity.”

(c) Being thus secure, all that is in his heart comes out: “out of the heart the mouth speaketh”; and “his mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression.” What is “under his tongue,” hidden, and yet ready to show itself, is “trouble” for others, “and vanity” in itself. A short description, indeed, but an effective one. If God be displaced it is to make room for man; and what is the man, then, for whom this is to make room?

(d) So we have now his ways, -a monotony of wickedness which the psalmist, seeking to describe, can only do so by repeating himself in various ways. The figure is that of a wild beast and a beast of prey, -human so far only as there is with it the cunning and forecast of the hunter. Man without God is only such a beast; the spiritual part sunk into the animal only giving to it preternatural potency for evil. This process of degradation a Nebuchadnezzar is witness to; while in the prophet’s vision, the imperial powers following him inherit his shame: they are but “four wild beasts.”

Even the numerical structure seems in the minor sections to fall through here, which, considering that the alphabetic has already done so, and yet with design, may make us realize design here also, -the three verses manifesting what is yet a nameless horror, like the fourth of the imperial beasts in Daniel’s vision. (Dan 7:1-28.)

(e) One closing comment takes us back to his attitude toward the divine government, which yet has its hold upon him: “he hath said in his heart, The Mighty hath forgotten: He hideth His face; He hath never seen it.”

3. (a) The alphabet is resumed with Koph, and now continues to the end. Let us notice that this letter is 100 in numerical value, the years of Abraham’s life before the promise is fulfilled, and to one “as good as dead” Isaac is born. So now it is time for God to arise and act: this consummation of denial and defiance is the index-hand which points to the last possible limit of divine long-suffering. The living God must show Himself. The Mighty One must put forth might. The suffering of the righteous calls for it; and so does the cool contempt of the wicked. Patience will be no longer forbearance, but the aggravation of the evil.

(b) Faith holds confidently yet to an All-seeing One, interested as He is observant, sure to interfere. The wretched one, plunged in affliction, yet abandons himself to Him, who has proved Himself the helper of those destitute of natural help. The height of the evil is but the supreme necessity which God must respond to, and with which He directly charges Himself. With all help beside cut off, is not the soul in this condition just this “orphan” to whom He is pledged?

(c) Then with the cry comes the flash of recognition: “Break Thou the arm of the wicked and the evil one! Thou shalt seek out his wickedness till there is no more to find.” And then the glorious accomplishment seems before the sight: “Jehovah is King for ever and aye: the nations are perished out of His land.” Purgation is effected, the evil is cast out; the intrusive presence of the nations in the land that is Jehovah’s land is found no more. It is only faith still that realizes this, but it is realized. Faith can be as sure as if the thing were done, and while there may be for it at times the struggle upwards through the mists of the valley, there are also the clear air of the mountain-top and the perfect vision.

(d) And the soul goes on strengthened on its way. There is an experience of faith, braced and energized by communion with God, which makes already the path to shine with the glow of far-off skies, and lifts up the feet with energy and purpose. So it is now, as the soul sings:

“The desire of the humble Thou hast heard, Jehovah: Thou confirmest their heart; Thou causest Thine ear to hearken, to judge the orphan and the oppressed, that frail man of the earth” -whose abode the earth is -may no more alarm.” Thus with a strain of joy and confidence the tenth psalm ends.

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary

Psa 10:1. Why standest thou afar off As one unconcerned in the indignities offered to thy name, and the injuries done to thy people? Why hidest thou thyself Withdrawest thy presence and aid, and the light of thy countenance which was wont to shine upon us? Why art thou as a person concealing himself, so as not to be found of those who would petition for aid or counsel? In times of trouble? When we most need thy pity and succour. Do not add affliction to the afflicted. Gods withdrawing his presence and favour from his people is very grievous to them at any time, but particularly in times of trouble. For when outward blessings are afar off, and, as it were, hidden from them, then especially do they want the inward support and comfort which his gracious presence affords. But that we have not this, is generally our own fault. We stand afar off from God by unbelief and love of the world, and then complain, that God stands afar off from us, and does not favour us with manifestations of his love and mercy.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Psa 10:1. Why standest thou afar off, oh Lord? This is the prayer of David against some very wicked and neighbouring prince, who through pride and thirst for gold, was lurking like a lion, and murdering the poor. In religion he was an atheist: he said in his heart, I shall not be moved. God hath forgotten, he hideth his face; he will never call me to account for the effusion of blood. Therefore, through the pride of his countenance, he will not seek after God. In war, he was a coward, he crouched in secret places, that the poor might fall by his strong ones, the captains of his bands. In public, as in private life, he was a prince without faith, full of fraud and deceit. If any one complained of injustice, he was requited with cursing and blasphemy. What could David do but cry for help against those restless Cains that murder the earth. Arise, oh Lord, that the man of the earth may no more oppress the peaceful poor.

But it is not one wicked and restless tyrant only, of whom David complains; it is thousands of rich and infidel characters, who launch the reins to passion, and scorn the restraints of equity, the bonds of marriage, and the duties they owe to God. Through the pride of their countenance they despise confession, and fill up their measure, till God in anger sends them strong delusion, or the efficacy of error, that they may be damned.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

9 and 10. Yahweh the Refuge of His People.These two Pss., divided in MT, were originally one, This is proved by the fact that they are one in LXX. and Vulg., by the absence of title over Psalms 10, and, conclusively, by the evidence that 9 and 10 form one acrostic poem. It was arranged in strophes of four lines each, the first letter of each strophe being one of the letters of the Heb. alphabet in regular succession. This system is carried out in the whole of Psalms 9-2 in Psalms 10. So far we have the first twelve letters of the alphabet, the only omission being that of the fourth letter, which, however, can be supplied by an easy and convincing emendation. Then from Psa 10:3 to Psa 10:11 the acrostic character disappears and can be recovered only by precarious emendation. It reappears in Psa 10:12 and continues to the end, where the strophes begin with the last four letters of the alphabet. This irregularity implies great corruption in MT, and shows, like the comparison of Psalms 18 with 2 Samuel 22, that any absolute trust in that text is misplaced.

The subject-matter raises a further difficulty. The poem is in part a triumphal song over Israels foes, but the writer oscillates between the thought of foreign oppressors and of godless Israelites who defy Yahweh and spoil the orphan and the afflicted. A very slight emendation in Psa 10:16, proud instead of nations, removes this second difficulty. But a third remains: the Psalmist begins with gratitude for the defeat of his adversaries and changes his song to one of supplication for a victory which is not yet secure.

Psa 9:13 f. Observe the contrast between the gates of Sheol and those of Zion.

Psa 10:4. Here, as always in the OT, the atheism meant is practical not theoretical. The godless believe in a God who lives far away and does not trouble Himself with human affairs.

Psa 10:5. Read, He prospers in his ways at all times. The villages in Psalms 10 may, being unwalled, have fallen an easy prey to the enemy, or, more probably, they have become nests of robbers. The LXX. Psa 10:8 reads, He sitteth in ambush with the rich.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

PSALM 10

The expression of confidence in God on the part of the Jewish remnant in the time of their greatest distress, under the reign of Antichrist.

Prophetically the psalm presents the position of the godly Jew in the land of Israel, in the midst of an apostate nation, under the rule of Antichrist at the close of the age.

(v. 1) The distress of the remnant is occasioned, not only by the wickedness of Antichrist rising to its height, but also by the fact that, when it does so, he appears to prosper exceedingly while the godly are allowed to suffer. Moreover, God apparently hides His face as if alike indifferent to the prosperity of the wicked and the suffering of the godly.

(vv. 2-11) A description of the wicked man, his evil and his prosperity. The word wicked throughout this passage is in the singular. The use of the singular would show that the description given is characteristic of any wicked man, though doubtless it will have its full expression in one man – the Antichrist. Thus the passage is a description of the character of the Antichrist, without being a distinct prophecy of him personally.

(1) His attitude towards men. The wicked persecutes the poor man that fears God. On the other hand he blesses the covetous man that the Lord abhors. (vv. 2-3).

(2) His attitude toward God. He has no fear of God; God is not in all his thoughts. (v. 4).

(3) His ways are without conscience of right or wrong. God’s judgments as to right and wrong are far above out of his sight. (v. 5).

(4) His success over all his enemies leads him to imagine that he carries a charmed life, so that he will never be moved or come into adversity. (v. 6).

(5) His language is marked by violence, deceit and vanity. (v. 7).

(6) His acts are marked by craft, behind which there lurks the violence of a beast. His victims are the godly – the innocent and the poor. (vv. 8-10).

(7) His triumph over all these enemies, and the apparently defenceless people of God, deceive him into thinking that God hath forgotten: he hideth his face: he will never see it (v. 11).

(vv. 12-15) The faith of the godly in this terrible trial. They appeal to God to show His hand – lift up thine hand. They plead for God’s intervention; first, because of the suffering of His afflicted people; second, because God Himself has been condemned. For the wicked has said in his heart, God will not require it. The suffering of God’s people, and the vindication of God’s character, call aloud for God’s intervention in judgment. (vv. 12-13).

In spite of outward appearances faith knows that God has seen all the evil; God will require it with His hand; God is the Helper of the defenceless. (v. 14).

Hence the direct appeal of God to break the wicked, and root out all his evil. (v. 15).

(vv. 16-18) Anticipating God’s intervention, the godly celebrate with praise His answer to their appeal. In result the judgment of the wicked, summed up in Antichrist, will introduce the everlasting kingdom of the Lord – The Lord is King for ever. As to the godly, their prayer will be answered, their heart established, their sufferings over, and no more will they be terrified by the man of the earth (JND).

Fuente: Smith’s Writings on 24 Books of the Bible

10:1 Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? [why] hidest thou [thyself] in {a} times of trouble?

(a) As soon as we enter into affliction, we think God should help us, but that is not always his due time.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Psalms 10

This psalm is a prayer for immediate help in affliction. It contains a powerful description of the wicked who oppose God and attack His people. The focus of the previous psalm was on the judgment to come, but in this one it is on the present.

"The problem in Psalms 9 is the enemy invading from without, while the problem in Psalms 10 is the enemy corrupting and destroying from within." [Note: Wiersbe, The . . . Wisdom . . ., p. 106.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

1. Description of the wicked 10:1-11

The emphasis in this part of the psalm is the problem of theodicy, the justice of God in the face of the prosperity of wicked Israelites. Like the Book of Job, the psalm does not resolve the problem but refocuses on God (Psa 10:14).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The psalm begins with two questions that voice the psalmist’s frustration as much as his ignorance. David could not understand why God did not act for His afflicted people. The word "why" occurs four times in this psalm, twice here and twice in Psa 10:13 (as reflected in the NIV translation).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Psa 10:1-18

Psa 9:1-20; Psa 10:1-18 are alike in their imperfectly acrostic structure, the occurrence of certain phrases-e.g., the very uncommon expression for “times of trouble,” {Psa 9:9; Psa 10:1} “Arise, O Lord” {Psa 9:19; Psa 10:12} -and the references to the nations judgment. But the differences are so great that the hypothesis of their original unity is hard to accept. As already remarked, the enemies are different. The tone of the one psalm is jubilant thanksgiving for victory won and judgment affected; that of the other is passionate portraiture of a rampant foe and cries for a judgment yet unmanifested. They are a pair, though why the psalmist should have bound together two songs of which the unlikenesses are at least as great as the likenesses it is not easy to discover. The circumstances of his day may have brought the cruelty of domestic robbers close upon the heels of foreign foes, as is often the case, but that is mere conjecture.

The acrostic structure is continued into Psa 10:1-18, as if the last stanza of 9 had begun with the regular Kaph instead of the cognate Qoph; but it then disappears till Psa 10:12, from which point it continues to the end of the psalm, with the anomaly that one of the four stanzas has but one verse: the unusually long Psa 10:14. These four stanzas are allotted to the four last letters of the alphabet. Six letters are thus omitted, to which twelve verses should belong. The nine non-acrostic verses (Psa 10:3-11) are by some supposed to be substituted for the missing twelve, but there are too many verbal allusions to them in the subsequent part of the psalm to admit of their being regarded as later than it. Why, then, the break in the acrostic structure? It is noticeable that the (acrostic) Psa 9:1-20 is wholly addressed to God, and that the parts of 10 which are addressed to Him are likewise acrostic, the section Psa 10:3-11 being the vivid description of the “wicked,” for deliverance from whom the psalmist prays. The difference of theme may be the solution of the difference of form, which was intended to mark off the prayer stanzas and to suggest, by the very continuity of the alphabetical scheme and the allowance made for the letters which do not appear, the calm flow of devotion and persistency, of prayer throughout the parenthesis of oppression. The description of the “wicked” is as a black rock damming the river, but it flows on beneath and emerges beyond.

The psalm falls into two parts after the introductory verse of petition and remonstrance: Psa 10:3-11, the grim picture of the enemy of the “poor”; and Psa 10:12-18, the cry for deliverance and judgment.

The first stanza (Psa 10:1-2) gives in its passionate cry a general picture of the situation, which is entirely different from that of Psa 9:1-20. The two opposite characters, whose relations occupy so much of these early psalms, “the wicked” and “the poor,” are, as usual, hunter and hunted, and God is passive, as if far away, and hiding His eyes. The voice of complaining but devout remonstrance is singularly like the voice of arrogant godlessness (Psa 10:4-11), but the fact which brings false security to the one moves the other “to prayer. The boldness and the submissiveness of devotion are both throbbing in that “Why?” and beneath it lies the entreaty to break this apparent apathy. Psa 10:2 spreads the facts of the situation before God. “Through the pride of the “wicked the afflicted is burned,” i.e., with anguish, pride being the fierce fire and burning being a vigorous expression for anguish, or possibly for destruction. The ambiguous next clause may either have “the wicked” or “the poor” for its subject. If the former (R.V), it is a prayer that the retribution which has been already spoken of in Psa 9:1-20 may fall, but the context rather suggests the other construction, carrying on the description of the sufferings of the poor, with an easy change to the plural, since the singular is a collective. This, then, being how things stand, the natural flow of thought would be the continuance of the prayer; but the reference to the enemy sets the psalmist on fire, and he “burns” in another fashion, flaming out into a passionate portraiture of the wicked, which is marked as an interruption to the current of his song by the cessation of the acrostic arrangement.

The picture is drawn with extraordinary energy, and describes first the character (Psa 10:3-6) and then the conduct of the wicked. The style reflects the vehemence of the psalmists abhorrence, being full of gnarled phrases and harsh constructions. As with a merciless scalpel the inner heart of the man is laid open. Observe the recurrence of “saith,” “thoughts,” and “saith in his heart.” But first comes a feature of character which is open and palpable. He “boasts of his souls desire.” What is especially flagrant in that? The usual explanation is that he is not ashamed of his shameful lusts, but glories in them, or that he boasts of succeeding in all that he desires. But what will a good man do with his hearts desires? Psa 10:17 tells us, namely breathe them to God; and therefore to boast of them instead is the outward expression of godless self-confidence and resolve to consult inclination and not God. The word rendered boast has the two significations of pray and boast, and the use of it here, in the worse one, is parallel with the use of bless or renounce in the next clause. The wicked is also “rapacious,” for “covetous” is too weak. He grasps all that he can reach by fair or foul means. Such a man in effect and by his very selfish greed “renounces, contemns God.” He may be a worshipper; but his “blessing” is like a parting salutation, dismissing Him to whom it is addressed. There is no need to suppose that conscious apostacy is meant. Rather the psalmist is laying bare the under meaning of the earth-bound mans life, and in effect anticipates Christs “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” and Pauls “covetousness which is idolatry.”

The next trait of character is practical atheism and denial of Divine retribution. The Hebrew is rough and elliptical, but the A.V misses its point, which the R.V gives by the introduction of “saith.” “The pride of his countenance” is literally “the elevation of his nose.” Translate those upturned nostrils into words, and they mean that God will not require (seek, in the sense of punish). But a God who does not punish is a dim shape, through which the empty sky is seen, and the denial (or forgetfulness) of Gods retributive judgment is equivalent to denying that there is a God at all.

Thus armed, the wicked is in fancied security. “His ways are firm”-i.e., he prospers-and, in the very madness of arrogance, he scoffs at Gods judgments as too high up to be seen. His scoff is a truth, for how can eyes glued to earth see the solemn lights that move in the heavens? Purblind men say, We do not see them, and mean, They are not; but all that their speech proves is their own blindness. Defiant of God, he is truculent to men, and “snorts contempt at his enemies.” “In his heart he says, I shall not be moved.” The same words express the sane confidence of the devout soul and the foolish presumption of the man of the earth; but the one says, “because He is at my right hand,” and the other trusts in himself. “To all generations I shall not be in adversity” (R.V). The Hebrew is gnarled and obscure; and attempts to amend the text have been made (compare Cheyne, Gratz in loc.), but needlessly. The confidence has become almost insane, and has lost sight altogether of the brevity of life. “His inward thought is that he shall continue forever”. {Psa 49:1-20} “Pride stifles reason. The language of the heart cannot be translated into spoken words without seeming exaggeration” (Cheyne). He who can be so blind to facts as to find no God may well carry his blindness a step further and wink hard enough to see no death, or may live as if he did not.

Following the disclosure of the inner springs of life in the secret thoughts comes, in Psa 10:7-10, the outcome of these in word and deed. When the wicked “lets the rank tongue blossom into speech,” the product is affronts to God and maledictions, lies, mischiefs, for men. These stuff the mouth full, and lie under the tongue as sweet morsels for the perverted taste or as stored there, ready to be shot out. The deeds match the words. The vivid picture of a prowling lion seems to begin in Psa 10:8, though it is sometimes taken as the unmetaphorical description of the wicked mans crime. The stealthy couching of the beast of prey, hiding among the cover round the unwalled village or poorly sheltered fold, the eyes gleaming out of the darkness and steadfastly fixed on the victim with a baleful light in them, belong to the figure, which is abruptly changed in one clause {Psa 10:9 c} into that of a hunter with his net, and then is resumed and completed in Psa 10:10, where the R.V is, on the whole, to be preferred-“He croucheth; he boweth down”-as resuming the figure at the point where it had been interrupted and finishing it in the next clause, with the helpless victim fallen into the grip of the strong claws. With great emphasis the picture is rounded off {Psa 10:11} with the repetition of the secret thought of Gods forgetfulness, which underlies the cruel oppression.

This whole section indicates a lawless condition in which open violence, robbery, and murder were common. In Hoseas vigorous language, “blood touched blood,” the splashes being so numerous that they met, and the land was red with them. There is no reason to suppose that the picture is ideal or exaggerated. Where in the turbulent annals of Israel it is to be placed must remain uncertain; but that it is a transcript of bitter experience is obvious, and the aspect which it presents should be kept in view as a corrective of the tendency to idealise the moral condition of Israel, which at no time was free from dark stains, and which offered only too many epochs of disorganisation in which the dark picture of the psalm could have been photographed from life.

The phrases for the victims in this section are noteworthy: “the innocent”; “the helpless”; “the poor.” Of these the first and last are frequent, and the meaning obvious. There is a doubt whether the last should be regarded as the designation of outward condition or of disposition, i.e. whether “meek” or “poor” is the idea. There are two cognate words in Hebrew, one of which means one who is bowed down, i.e. by outward troubles, and the other one who bows himself down, i.e. is meek. The margin of the Hebrew Bible is fond of correcting these words when they occur in the text and substituting the one for the other, but arbitrarily; and it is doubtful whether in actual usage there is any real distinction between them. “Helpless” is a word only found in this psalm (Psa 10:8, Psa 10:10, Psa 10:14), which has received various explanations, but is probably derived from a root meaning to be black, and hence comes to mean miserable, hapless, or the like. All the designations refer to a class-namely, the devout minority, the true Israel within Israel-and hence the plurals in Psa 10:10, Psa 10:12, and Psa 10:17.

The second part of the psalm (Psa 10:12-18) is the prayer, forced from the heart of the persecuted remnant, Gods little flock in the midst of wolves. No trace of individual reference appears in it, nor any breath of passion or vengeance, such as is found in some of the psalms of persecution; but it glows with indignation at the blasphemies which are, for the moment, triumphant, and cries aloud to God for a judicial act which shall shatter the dream that He does not see and will not requite. That impious boast, far more than the personal incidence of sufferings, moves the prayer. As regards its form, the reappearance of the acrostic arrangement is significant, as is the repetition of the prayer and letter of Psa 9:19, which binds the two psalms together. The acrostic reappears with the direct address to God. The seven verses of the prayer are divided by, it into four groups, one of which is abnormal as containing but one verse, the unusual length of which, however, somewhat compensates for the irregularity (Psa 10:14). The progress of thought in them follows the logic of emotional prayer rather than of the understanding. First, there are a vehement cry for Gods intervention and a complaint of His mysterious apparent apathy. The familiar figure for the Divine flashing forth of judgment, Arise, O Lord, is intensified by the other cry that He would “lift His hand.” A God who has risen from His restful throne and raised His arm is ready to bring it down with a shattering blow; but before it falls the psalmist spreads in Gods sight the lies of the scornful men. They had said (Psa 10:11) that He forgot; the prayer pleads that He would not forget. Their confidence was that He did not see nor would requite; the psalmist is bold to ask the reason for the apparent facts which permit such a thought. The deepest reverence will question God in a fashion which would be daring, if it were not instinct with the assurance of the clearness of His Divine knowledge of evil and of the worthiness of the reasons for its impunity. “Wherefore doest Thou thus?” may be insolence or faith. Next, the prayer centres itself on the facts of faith, which sense does not grasp (Psa 10:14). The specific acts of oppression which force out the psalmists cry are certainly “seen” by God, for it is His very nature to look on all such (“Thou” in Psa 10:14 is emphatic); and faith argues from the character to the acts of God and from the general relation of all sin towards Him to that which at present afflicts the meek. But is Gods gaze on the evil an idle look? No; he sees, and the sight moves Him to act. Such is the force of “to take it into Thy hand,” which expresses the purpose and issue of the beholding. What He sees He “takes in hand,” as we say, with a similar colloquialism. If a man believes these things about God, it will follow of course that he will leave himself in Gods hand, that uplifted hand which prayer has moved. So Psa 10:14 is like a great picture in two compartments, as Raphaels Transfiguration. Above is God, risen with lifted arm, beholding and ready to strike; beneath is the helpless man, appealing to God by the very act of “leaving” himself to Him. That absolute reliance has an all-prevalent voice which reaches the Divine heart, as surely as her childs wail the mothers: and wherever it is exercised the truth of faith which the past has established becomes a truth of experience freshly confirmed. The form of the sentence in the Hebrew (the substantive verb with a participle, “Thou hast been helping”) gives prominence to the continuousness of the action: It has always been Thy way, and it is so still. Of course “fatherless” here is tantamount to the “hapless,” or poor, of the rest of the psalm.

Then at last comes the cry for the descent of Gods uplifted hand (Psa 10:15-16). It is not invoked to destroy, but simply to “break the arm” of the wicked, i.e., to make him powerless for mischief, as a swordsman with a shattered arm is one blow from Gods hand lames, and the arm hangs useless. The impious denial of the Divine retribution still affects the psalmist with horror; and he returns to it in the second clause of Psa 10:15 : in which he prays that God would “seek out”-i.e., require and requite, so as to abolish, and make utterly nonexistent-the wicked mans wickedness. The yearning of every heart that beats in sympathy with and devotion to God, especially when it is tortured by evil experienced or beheld flourishing unsmitten, is for its annihilation. There is no prayer here for the destruction of the doer; but the reduction to nothingness of his evil is the worthy aspiration of all the good, and they who have no sympathy with such a cry as this have either small experience of evil, or a feeble realisation of its character.

The psalmist was heartened to pray his prayer, because “the nations are perished out of His land.” Does that point back to the great instance of exterminating justice in the destruction of the Canaanites? It may do so, but it is rather to be taken as referring to the victories celebrated in the companion psalm. Note the recurrence of the words “nations” and “perished,” which are drawn from it. The connection between the two psalms is thus witnessed, and the deliverance from foreign enemies, which is the theme of Psa 9:1-20, is urged as a plea with God and taken as a ground of confidence by the psalmist himself for the completion of the deliverance by making domestic oppressors powerless. This lofty height of faith is preserved in the closing stanza, in which the agitation of the first part and the yearning of the second are calmed into serene assurance that the Ecclesia pressa has not cried nor ever can cry in vain. Into the praying, trusting heart “the peace of God, which passeth understanding,” steals, and the answer is certified to faith long before it is manifest to sense. To pray and immediately to feel the thrilling consciousness, “Thou hast heard,” is given to those who pray in faith. The wicked makes a boast of his “desire”; the humble makes a prayer of it, and so has it fulfilled. Desires which can be translated into petitions will be converted into fruition. If the heart is humble, that Divine breath will be breathed over and into it which will prepare it to desire only what accords with Gods will, and the prepared heart will always find Gods ear open. The cry of the hapless, which has been put into their lips by God Himself, is the appointed prerequisite of the manifestations of Divine judgment which will relieve the earth of the incubus of “the man of the earth.” “Shall not God avenge His own elect, though He bear long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.” The prayer of the humble, like a whisper amid the avalanches, has power to start the swift, white destruction on its downward path; and when once that gliding mass has way on it, nothing which it smites can stand.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary