Psalm X
1 Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? — why hidest thon thyself in times
of trouble?
2 The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor:
Let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.
3 For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire,
And blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth.
4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.
5 His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his
sight:
As for all his enemies he puffeth at them.
G He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved : — for I shall never be in adversity.
7 His mouth is full of cursing, and deceit, and fraud: Under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
8 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.
9 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.
10 He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his
strong ones.
11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he
will never see it.
12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.
13 Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God?
He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.
14 Thou hast seen it; — for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it
with thy hand: The poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: Seek out his wickedness till thou find none.
16 The Lord is King for ever and ever! the heathen are perished out of his
land.
17 Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble:
Thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:
18 To judge the fatherless and the oppressed.
That the man of the earth may no more oppress.
There is much that is prophetic in this Psalm towards its .p^ prophetic
close — the gloom of the present turning the eye forward in element.
search of the coming day-spring. In ver. 16, faith is seen in
its strength, singing as if already in possession of anticipated
victory and deliverance,” llie Lord is king for ever and ever:
the heathen are ‘perished out of his land!” Such confidence
and faith must appear to the world strange and unaccountable.
It is like what his fellow-citizens may be supposed to have felt
(if the story be true) toward that man of whom it is recorded,
that his powers of vision were so extraordinary, that he could
distinctly see the fleet of the Carthaginians entering the hari hour of Carthage, while he stood himself at Lilybseum, in Sicily. A man seeing across an ocean and able to tell of objects so far
j off! he could feast his vision on what others saw not. Even
PSALM X, — DETAIL OF EARTH S WICKEDNESS IN
thus does faith now stand at its Lilybseiim and see the longtossed fleet entering safely the desired haven, enjoying the bliss of that still distant day, as if it was already come.
It is a Psalm for “times of trouble” (ver. 1), like the preceding, (ix. 9). In it we again hear the cry, “Arise,” addressed to the Lord, as in the preceding (ix. 20). Here, too, man is felt as the oppressor (ver. 18), even as in Psa. ix. 19. So much does it resemble the preceding, that the Septuagint have reckoned it a continuation. There is, however, this obvious difference, viz., while the ninth dwells much on the ruin of the ungodly, this Psalm dwells much on their guilt. Both Psalms also are in some measure alphabetic. (See Hengstenberg.) Both, however, are alphabetic in a very irregular manner. Perhaps it was intended by the fact of irregularity in the first two instances of an alphabetic kind, to teach us not to lay too much stress upon this kind of composition. God occasionally employs all the various ways in which men are wont to express their thoughts, and by which they are wont to aid the memory in retaining them.
Three parties are presented to our view in succession. God — the wicked — the righteous. Ood (ver. 1) is seen standing afar off, covering his eyes from the painful sight (D v^H, scil. D^!l’’y), being of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. The wicked (vers. 2-1 ] ) is seen in all his ungodliness and unprincipled selfishness, practising evil as if no eye regarded. The righteous (vers. 12-14) calls God’s attention to these scenes, and raises the cry for his interposition. Then, at ver. 1 5, and onward, the scene suddenly changes. God has come nigh; “the arm of the wicked, is broken.” In the Hebrew, the first clause is a prayer, “Break thou the arm of the wicked and evil man;” and the next seems to be the response to that prayer, q. d., “Yes, it shall be broken.’*” And thou shalt seek out his wickedness, and find none” His extirpation shall be complete, (compare Jer. 1. 20). “The Lord is King.” He has heard the desire of the humble; “he has judged the fatherless*
* Augustine gives one reason why saints are called fatherless: — ‘■’ Pupillus; id est, is cui moritur pater hie mundus, per quem carnaliter genitus est; et am potest dicere, ‘mundus mihi crucifixus est, ego mundo.’”
ANTICIPATION OF EARTH’s DELIVERANCE. 37
and the oppressed,” i.e., he has acted to them as Othniel, and Gideon, and Samson, and other judges of Israel did when they brought down the foe, and set things to right in the land.
Our Master, in the days of his flesh, might see all that is Exempimea here described verified before him. He saw the buyers and days.“” ’ sellers making gain in the courts of the Temple, and probably fulfilling there, Zech. xi. 5, “Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich,” — even as it is said, ver. 3, ‘’ And whosoever makes gain blesses (God for it), and yet despise Jehovah.’” In the Sadducees, he saw before him men of whom it might be said,
“‘I7iere is no God,’ in all their thoughts.” (ver. 4.) Their ways were firm (ver. 5, Hengstenberg). They feared no adversity, saying (as the Prayer-book version graphically renders ver. 6), “Tush! I shall never be cast down.” The Pharisees, and Scribes, and Elders furnished abundant exemplification of “mischief is under his tongue,” (ver. 7,) — the storehouse, or cellar, that seemed to lie under their tongue, ever providing their lips with plans and suggestions of evil Their lying in wait, as a lion in his covert, most vividly paints the plots entered into against Christ, and against his disciples afterwards. At the same time, “The servant is not above the master,” — the members of Christ have ever met with the same treatment, and found the world lying in the same wickedness. Any member of Christ can use this Psalm who feels earth’s unholiness and atheism, and who is at all like Lot in Sodom, “his righteous soul vexed from day to day by their unlawful deeds.” It will be well fitted for those who are on earth when Antichrist practises and prospers ere his final overthrow. In short, it is so comprehensive, that whether used by Christ or by his people, whether in the days of the,First Advent, or in the days that precede and usher in the Second, it may be said to be — The Righteous One detailing earth’s wickedness in anticipation of earth’s deliverance.
Chiist’sClmrch
in all ages.