I don’t like it when the Psalms talk about “the wicked”. Am I allowed to say that? Perhaps I am just a child of my generation - we talk about tolerance, and not judging, and the capacity for good and evil in all of us. Probably a comfy life in safe, leafy southwest London has made me indifferent to far-off, out-of-sight-and-mind injustice. Nobody ever did me any serious wrong. And if they did, I fancy that the justice system would sort them out, and compensate me, and all would be well again. So who is the “wicked man” when he’s at home anyway?
But injustice bothers the psalmist. It bothers him in Psalm 10, that the wicked man “hunts down the weak” (v2), “boasts about the cravings of his heart”(v3), and “murders the innocent” (v8). And I suppose injustice would bother me, if I were a Syrian refugee, trafficked into slavery by people smugglers who took advantage of my vulnerability, my need for help. It would bother me, if I were a woman trapped in an abusive marriage. It would bother me, if I were the parent of a child caught in the crossfire of London drugs gangs, knocked off a moped and stabbed to death. “Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (v1). This is the cry of anyone who has ever suffered injustice, anyone who has ever seen the real wickedness people can do to one another.
The only way to be wicked is to say to yourself, “God will never notice; he covers his face and never sees” (v11). How else could you bring yourself to do these things, unless you thought there was no judgment? That is the thought which lies behind everything I have ever done in contravention of my conscience. God won’t see, He won’t care, it won’t matter.
But God does see. The psalmist is not like the wicked. He wonders why they seem to get away with it, but unlike them, he believes firmly that they will not. “You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed” (v17-18). God is going to break the arm of the wicked (v15) – he is going to take away their power to oppress. He is going to call them to account for what they have done (v15). His is a perfect court, with no scheming defence lawyers, no getting off on technicalities, no false confessions. He is the perfect judge, and will bring perfect justice.
And so when I eventually do suffer injustice, I can cry out to him, and know I am heard, and that justice will be done. I know, despite appearances today, that the last laugh will not belong to the wicked. And Psalm 10 challenges me as well, in my suburban comfort – do I care for the oppressed like God does? Will the victims and the fatherless know who my God is, by my intolerance of wickedness, and my compassion for them?
Thank you for this challenge to remember there will indeed be justice and we are called to have God's heart of compassion. We can fall so far short.
Thank you for these eye opening comments on an eye-opening psalm. Good to connect with Hope from Russia. Yesterday I was at dinner with a pastor and his wife, both alcoholics when saved, he in prison. 8 kids. Sharing the Gospel with churchless towns around from their home base church. God's heroes.
Beautifully captured. Good to know that the LORD watches over & hears the cry of all who love him i.e. (the righteous), but the wicked He will destroy.
Thanks for sharing David.