Bible Commentaries
Psalms 10

Verses 1-18

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 Jacob’s 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 Church’s trouble, but that it is the time of Jacob’s 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 2:0] 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 heart’s 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 Emmanuel’s 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.