Bible Commentaries
Psalms 10

Verses 1-18

In the Septuagint and other versions, probably the ancient Hebrew, Psalms 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.