Forget Not the Afflicted – Psalm 10

This psalm feels like a companion to Psalm 73.  We don’t know who wrote it, but like us, he had experienced God seeming to hide Himself away during the psalmist’s times of trouble.  He saw the wicked prospering despite their greedy attacks on the poor and innocent.  The helplessness of the innocent and the lack of judgment from God emboldened the wicked to continue their oppression of people less powerful than the wicked.

Why, O LORD, do you stand far away?  Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.  For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the LORD.  In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”  His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them.  He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved; throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”  His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.  He sits in ambush in the villages; in hiding places he murders the innocent.  His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless; he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket; he lurks that he may seize the poor; he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.  The helpless are crushed, sink down, and fall by his might.  He says in his heart, “God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.  Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?  But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands; to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.  Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.

The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land.  O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.  (Psalm 10 ESV)

At times it seems to believers that the God whom we expect to judge wickedness seems to allow it to flourish.  It does no good to pretend that we are not disappointed.  And though it is not true that God is hiding Himself away, that is often how it feels to us and we may say so to God without fear of punishment.

The wicked can pursue all their greedy desires and tell themselves there is no God because He does not call them into account.  But we lift up our voices in appeal to Yahweh Elohim to come to our rescue.  We know He sees all that is going on and we commit ourselves to Him, the helpless to the Helper, the fatherless to the Father.  Israel knew that Yahweh is the one and only King of all the nations and that He would listen to them and judge the wicked as He had promised.