Bible Commentaries
Psalms 10

Verses 1-18

This Ps. has no title. Its relationship to Psalms 9 has been discussed in intro. to that Ps. It reflects a time of great social disorder, in which wickedness and violence are rampant, and the righteous are sorely oppressed. It falls roughly into two parts. The wrongs which call for redress are described (Psalms 10:1-11) and God’s interposition is invoked (Psalms 10:12-18).

1. God seems to be ignorant of what is taking place, or indifferent to it. The Psalmist, however, does not really believe this, or he would not appeal to God at all.

2b. RM ’They (the poor) are taken in the devices that they (the wicked) have imagined.’

3. And blesseth the covetous, etc.] RV ’And the covetous renounceth, yea, contemneth the Lord.’

4. Will not seek, etc.] RV ’saith, He (God) will not require it’: see Psalms 10:13. God is not, etc.] RV ’all his thoughts are, There is no God.’

5. Always grievous] RV ’firm at all times.’ He seems to prosper in all his plans. Puffeth] in scorn and contempt.

7. Fraud] RV ’oppression.’ Vanity] RV ’iniquity.’ Part of this v. is quoted in Romans 3:14 as a description of human depravity in general.

8. The brigand life here described has never been uncommon in Eastern lands, and the picture given is by no mearis metaphorical: see Proverbs 1:10-18. Poor] RV ’helpless,’ RM ’hapless,’ a word found only here and in Proverbs 1:10, Proverbs 1:14.

10. RM ’And being crushed he (the poor) boweth down, and the helpless fall by his strong ones’ (by the wicked man’s followers).

11. Cp. Psalms 10:1, Psalms 10:4. The blindness of God, which the Psalmist knows is only apparent, is what the wicked man really believes in.

14. Thou hast seen it] A direct contradiction of the wicked man’s thought in Psalms 10:11.

15. Break.. the arm] destroy the power.

16. The faith of the Psalmist here asserts itself. The heathen] RV ’the nations.’ The past extermination of the Canaanites, or some repulse of foreign invaders, is regarded as a pledge that God will remove the present troublers of society.

18. The man of the earth] RV ’the man which is of the earth.’ The word is again ’frail man.’ Foreign enemies and evil-doers at home must alike be made to feel their impotence against God.