Devotional: Accountability and the Wicked – Psalm 10:3,4

For the wicked one boasts about his own cravings; the one who is greedy curses and despises the Lord. In all his scheming, the wicked person arrogantly thinks, “There’s no accountability, since there’s no God.” (Psalm 10:3,4, CSB)

In the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint), Psalms 9 and 10 are one psalm, and you can see they deal with the same theme and together are “a single acrostic poem in which alternating lines began with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet” (CSB note). They are concerned about the threat the wicked person is to the righteous and the confidence that God will deal with the wicked and rescue the righteous.

David’s characterization of the wicked is fascinating:

• They prey on the weak (10:2)
• They boast about their own cravings/desires (10:3)
• They are always greedy for more (10:3)
• They are full of pride and arrogance (10:4)
• They believe they are unshakeable (10:6)
• They are full of deception (10:7)

But what does the wicked believe about God? In the Hebrew, verse 4 says of the wicked, “All his thoughts there is no God.” Various translations have interpreted this differently:

• All his thoughts are, There is no God. (ASV)
• There’s no accountability, since there’s no God. (CSB)
• They think, ‘God will not give me any trouble.’ (EASY)
• in all his thoughts there is no room for God. (NIV)
• There is no God in all his schemes. (NASB)
• God won’t hold me accountable; he doesn’t care. (NET)
• The whole texture of his thoughts is, i.e., proceeds from and tends towards the thought, that he (viz., Jahve, whom he does not like to name) will punish with nothing…that in fact there is no God at all. (Keil and Delitzsch)

Those who interpret these words to suggest the wicked does not think God exists may be going too far, for in verse 11 David says of the wicked, “He says to himself, ‘God will never notice; He covers his face and never sees.’” This supposes that the wicked believes God does exist, just that he believes God doesn’t care about or judge the behavior of the wicked. So, the translations of verse 4 that suggest this are more likely correct (EASY, NIV, NASB, NET).

It is not, however, unlikely that some of the wicked have moved to the view that there is no God. David has seen this perspective (Psalm 14:1, The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”). In either case, no God or one who doesn’t care, there is no accountability. The absence of accountability, or at least the belief that there is no accountability, leads to wickedness. Perhaps as a child or young person the one who would become wicked does something bad and is not punished for it by God. Maybe he sees other wicked people prospering by wicked behavior and comes to the conviction that God doesn’t care or maybe doesn’t exist.

Both the Deist view (God doesn’t care about the affairs of mankind) and the Atheist view (there is no God) can result in the same arrogant wickedness. My cravings, my desires, for power, for wealth, for recognition, and for comfort, are powerful and deserve to be fulfilled. I don’t have to regulate them. I should give full rein to them.

But if there is a God who cares, I must be careful. Though there may not be immediate punishment for wicked behavior, there ultimately will be. Likewise, there will be ultimate reward for righteous behavior. Asaph had this realization (Psalm 73). Have you had it? Of course, this says nothing about how you stop giving rein to wicked cravings, nor how you give rein to righteous cravings. David does not address it here, but the wisdom of the sages does, and their answer is that “the fear of Yahweh is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 1:7). In essence, a conversion to Yahweh is required, as well as the continued instruction of Wisdom through it’s various means. This is exactly what the New Covenant promises:

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares Yahweh. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know Yahweh,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares Yahweh. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33,34)