Ok, back to Psalm 10. This Psalm seems to be a continuation
of Psalm 9. You can see there's no name there,
but we know who the author of it is, the Holy Spirit. We know
that. I believe David wrote it, because
it seems to be in the same vein as Psalm 9, just more of a continuation
of it. And here, the psalmist opens
this psalm with a question. Why? He's troubled as to why God is
standing far off and seemingly hiding himself in times of trouble. There's another psalm that reminds
me of this one. Psalm 22. Listen to this. This is why I believe this is
a cry. We can see here, it's not only
the cry of David, but it's also the cry of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In Psalm 22, he says, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not
silent. You know, our Lord experienced
everything you and I experienced. The scripture says that he was
tempted. He was tried in all points as
we are, yet without sin. He knew no sin. And he has this
cry here, why standest thou far off, O Lord? Why hidest thou
thyself in times of trouble? Well, we know concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ being our substitute, He did so because of our sins. Our sins were laid on Him. And
because of that, He was forsaken. Now, He was forsaken of God.
Now, you and I will never be forsaken of God. But there may
be times that God withdraws the joy of salvation. David says in Psalm 51, Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. Sometimes the chastening that
God sends our way calls for it. It would not be chastening if
we enjoyed His presence, now would it? Part of the chastening
is God withdrawing the joy of salvation, we cannot detect His
presence, although God Himself is never
absent. He's never absent, is He? He's
never absent. As I was looking at this today,
I thought, God, really and truly, God is never far off. He's never
far off. We are the ones far off. We are
the ones in our perception, in our understanding, and at
times in our affections. Our affections go somewhere else.
God is our rock, isn't He? He's never far off. God does
not move. He's immutable. He's the same.
I'm the Lord. I change not. That's why you
sons of Jacob are not consumed, because I don't change. And I've
learned that when there's a real problem, it's always with me. It's never with God. Never. When there's a problem, just
look in the mirror and say, all right, what's your problem? Because
it's never with God. And then as Peter said in his
writings, he's talking about trials. He called them need-be
trials, if need be. God sends us trials, fiery trials,
if need be. And if God needs to withdraw
what we perceive to be His presence, it's a need be. We need it. Sometimes it just needs to be
because we take His presence for granted. Remember that lady
in the Song of Solomon, when her husband came to the door
and he said, open to me, he knocked and opened and she said, I can't,
I've washed my feet, I'm tired. Don't bother me, basically is
what she's saying. And he put his hand in by the door and it
dripped with love and then she came to the door and he was gone.
He proved to her he's the sovereign, not her. And sometimes, sometimes you
and I get caught up with other things in this life and the Lord
withdraws his presence. At least we can't sense it. Now,
he says in verse 2 through 11, he gives a description of the
wicked. And as I said before, this has
to be the Lord Jesus Christ describing the wicked. I know this is David
describing his experience with the wicked, but this is the Lord
describing the heart of the wicked. You and I see the outward man.
We see the things that go on outwardly. God sees the heart,
and He calls it just like it is. He calls men and women what
they are, the wicked. The wicked. And so He gives us
a description. of the wicked, how men and women
really are outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see that
truly there are none good, no, not one. Not one. He says here in verse 2, the
wicked, and here is his greatest sin, in his pride. In his pride. Pride is the chief character
of the unbeliever. I don't care if that person is
outwardly wicked or they're just self-righteous. They are ate
up with pride. Pride. You know, you could take
a person who's poor as can be and they can be proud as can
be. Pride will grow on concrete. It'll grow on concrete. It'll
grow anywhere. It'll grow in any soil. And it's
the chief character of the unbeliever. Pride is nothing more than self-righteousness. It's the root cause of persecution. It's the reason the Pharisees
persecuted the Lord Jesus Christ. Their pride would not let them
bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Their pride would not let them
bow and receive His righteousness. That's why they went about to
establish one of their own. They were too proud to bow to
His. Pride won't let you do that. And this is, this is one of the
things that God hates. You know, it says in Proverbs
chapter 6, there are six things, yeah, seven that God hates. You
know, the first one that He mentions, the first one He mentions is
a proud look. I'm somebody. I'm somebody. And because of this pride, the
wicked man boasts of his heart's desire. He boasts, he brags about his desire. How foolish! I thought about this today when
I was reading over this. How foolish to boast in something
that does not exist. It's just a desire. What's a
desire? There's no substance to it. But
he boasts about his desire. He brags about what he's going
to do. Listen to James again. We saw this months and months
ago. But listen to this. James 4, Go to now you that say,
Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city and continue
there a year, buy, sell, and get gain. That's our desire.
We're going to go and we're going to do business and we're going
to get gain. And he's bragging about it. He's
boasting about it. Whereas you know not what shall
be on tomorrow, you don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.
For what is your life? What is your life? It's even
a vapor. What is your life? What are you going to do tomorrow?
I'll tell you exactly what you're going to do tomorrow. Whatever
God is going to let you do. Whatever he's purpose for you
to do. And me too. That's what we're going to do.
If we live, if we live past the night. I got one. I'm going to tell
you on a Vicky here. Last week Doug was over here
doing something. I told Vicky, I said, I said,
man, he is a jewel. He's a jewel. She goes, I'm going
to miss him when he's gone. I said, what makes you think
he's going to go before you? I said, you might go before him. She
goes, oh, I never thought of that. Where was I? But yeah, here back here in James,
you don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. What's your life?
You don't know if you're going to live to be at any age. You don't know. We don't know. My grandfather,
on my dad's side, died at 48 years of age. And here my dad
is, 88, and he thought, and I'm telling you, he spent his life
thinking he's going to die young. All those years, he's thinking,
I'm going to die young, because his dad died young. And here
he is, 88 years old. Your life is even a vapor. Even
if you live to be 88, 89, 90, 100, it's just a vapor. That's nothing compared to eternity. Nothing. Even Methuselah, what,
he lived 969 years? Well, that's over with. Thousands
of years ago. That's been over with a long
time ago. It's just a vapor. that appears for a little time
and then it vanishes away. For that you ought to say..."
You ought to say, and I thought about this. Tommy asked me if
I was going golfing here a couple of days ago or yesterday or something
like that. I said, yes, Lord willing. I said, yes, I started
to send it. Then I stopped. I thought, Lord
willing, I will. Lord willing, yes. Not willing, no. You ought to say, if the Lord
will. We shall what? Live. Live. That's the first thing you gotta
do. You know the first thing you gotta do before you do anything tomorrow?
You gotta live. That we shall live and do this
or that. Oh, he boasts of his harsh desire.
He brags on what he's gonna do. Just like that rich man, he said,
I'm going to pull down all my barns. He says, so you've got
much goods. Here's what we're going to do.
We're going to pull down the barns. We're going to build bigger barns.
God said, you fool, you fool. This is not your soul's required
of you. He thinks because he desires
something in it that he can bring it to pass. Because he has a
desire, he can bring it to pass. This is what we're reading here.
Now listen, this is the Lord reading to us, exposing to us
the heart of the wicked. In verse 3, "...and then He blesses
the covetous." That is, He blesses Himself. Look at verse 8, I mean
in the margin, that number 8. "...Or the covetous blesses himself,
he abhors the Lord." Isn't this amazing? He blesses himself like,
so thou hast much good. Well, who gave it to him? Paul
said this, what do you have that you didn't receive? And if you
received it, if God gave it to you, then why do you boast about
it? Why do you brag about it as though you came up with it? He thinks because he has a desire,
he can bring it to pass, and then he brags about it, he boasts
about it, he blesses himself, and he takes sides with those
whom the Lord abhors. He not only blesses himself and
he abhors the Lord, he takes up with those, the covetous,
which is idolatry. He takes up with idolaters. And because of his pride, In
verse 4, "...he will not seek the Lord, the wicked, through
the pride of his countenance." He's got this proud look. That's
what his countenance is. He's got this proud look. He
will not seek after God. One of the greatest things that
God can do for me and you is to humble us, bring us off that
high horse that we like to ride on. He will not seek after God. God
is not in all his thoughts, or his thoughts are that there is
no God. Because of his pride, he'll not
seek after God. He sees no need of God. He's
so proud, he sees no need of God. You know, the poor need
God. He sees no need of God. His heart's never been broken. He has no understanding of sin,
no understanding of himself, no understanding of his need
of a Savior. He's proud. And God is not in any of his
thoughts. You know, I thought about this. You never think of someone you
don't know. That's why God's not in his thoughts.
He doesn't know him. He doesn't know Him. He's consumed
with His own glory. There's no room in there for
thoughts of God because He can't stop thinking about Himself. You know, the people that I have
met in my lifetime, that I've met, that are the most miserable,
I can tell you, hands down, the ones that I've met are the most
miserable are the ones who are always thinking about themselves.
They can't quit thinking about themselves. Their situation or
this or that. I mean, it's like they have no place for God or
anyone else. And because of this, Verse 5, His ways are always
grievous. They're always grievous. He's
always grieving somebody. Thy judgments are far above out
of His sight. As for all His enemies, He puffs
at them. Whoa, the arrogance. The arrogance
of thinking that you're just up here above everybody and you
just roll over them. But because of his pride, his
ways, which are not God's ways, are always grievous, and God's
judgments are far out of his sight. He never considers God
in anything. He can never understand. Listen,
God's judgments are out of his sight. He can never understand
how God can be a just God and a Savior. And the truth is, he
doesn't really care. He doesn't care. And in his pride, he thinks he
can puff at his enemies and blow them away. Well, I'll tell you this. It'll
take a lot more than a puff to blow sin away. It'll take a lot
more than a puff to blow Satan away. It'll take a lot more than
a puff to blow the curse of the law away. When that day comes, he won't
be able to do it. And in his pride, verse 6, he
thinks he shall not be moved. Can you imagine the arrogance
of the human heart? This is the arrogance of the
human heart. He shall not be moved. That adversity shall not
come to his house. What fools pride makes of men. He thinks he's omnipotent. Sickness won't come to my house.
You know, he gets a clean bill of health, he goes to the doctor,
gets a physical, and the doctor gives him a clean bill of health,
and he goes home, and he just feels so good about everything.
I'm a healthy man. Been healthy all my life. This is the arrogance of the
human heart. And his thoughts are, I'll never
get sick, I'll never die. These are not realities to him.
Death is not reality to him. Even when he gets old, it's not
a reality to him. It amazes me over the years of
the people that I have met that's old, and I'm old, I'm getting
old. And they don't think, they're
about to go to the grave and it's like, it's like it's not gonna happen.
It's like it's not gonna happen. He thinks he's not going to die. And the words, listen here in
verse 7. His mouth is full of cursing. The older he gets, the meaner
he gets. You ever met people like that? I tell you, the older
they get, the meaner they get. His mouth is full of cursing. This is His character. Now, He's
going to describe the character here of the wicked, of those. And I tell you, the wicked is
everyone who does not believe God. This is their heart. The Lord is exposing the heart.
You know, we hide a lot of things. I can't see your heart, you can't
see my heart. God sees the heart. And He says, this is how it is
with the wicked, all of those outside of Christ. The mouth
full of cursing. I tell you what, they may not let
it come out of their mouth, but it's in the mouth. Talk about
cursing someone under the breath. This is his character. He's deceitful.
He's a very deceitful person. He's after something. People
are always after something, really. Always after something. Always working an angle. He speaks deceit and fraud that
his oppression is under his tongue. That's what he is, he's mischief
and vanity. This is a description of the human heart. And he seeks opportunity to destroy.
He says here in verse eight, he said it in the lurking places
of the villages in the secret places. Does he murder where
I didn't Donald, which I was reading this just here when I
read it a little bit ago in the secret places, does he murder?
Where's the secret place in the heart, in the heart, hate
your brother without a cause. You cry, say it's a murder. In
the heart, he may be slapping him on the back, but he hates
him. It reminds me of someone, a person I was around years ago. You don't know him. It's years
ago, working with him. He was just bragging on this
guy standing there in front of him. When he left, he was like,
man, I can't stand that guy. I mean, he was just standing
there bragging on him and just slapping him on the back and
they were laughing. And when he left, he was looking at me.
I couldn't stand that guy. That's the human heart. That's
it. In a secret place, he seeks to
murder the innocent. His eyes are privately set against
the poor. They hide themselves over my
margin, it said. They hide themselves. And he
lies in wait secretly. He's also, listen, he hates them
in his heart, but he's also a coward because he hides in a secret
place. They're cowards. He lies in wait secretly as a
lion in his den. He lieth in wait to catch the
poor. And I believe the poor here are
the poor of God's people. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
They're just waiting to catch you up in something. You just
stumble and see what they make of it. You just stumble. Before I came here, I was working
at a place. I spilled a bucket of something.
It was a bucket of coolant. And I said, I've said a word.
Because I spilled it on me and everything else. And the guy
was standing there and he said, well, I thought you was a preacher.
I said, well, I get two of those a year. And I already used them
up. I said, that was my last one. But I did. I spilled that bucket. I spilled
it on me. I was wet. And I said, you know, I just
said something. And I didn't understand. I thought
you was a preacher. But I told him, I did tell him,
I said, well, I get two of those a year, and that was my second
one. But anyway, they're always trying to catch you up, waiting
for you to stumble. I thought you was a believer.
I thought you was a believer. Always waiting for the poor to
stumble. He's like his father, the devil, waiting, just waiting
for that opportunity to pounce. The Scripture says that Satan
is like a lion, roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, going
about seeking whom he may devour. And in verse 10, he disguises
himself, this person disguises himself in humility. He doesn't
go around popping his suspenders and says, look at me, I'm proud.
No, he puts on a cloak of humility, false humility. He learns how
to mimic humility. It's not of God. And He uses
it to draw people in and get close to Him and try to get out
of them what He wants out of them. Deceitful. And He says, and listen to His
thoughts of God in verse 11, He has said in His heart, You
can see only the Lord knows the heart, so He's telling us what's
in the heart. He has said in His heart, God
hath forgotten, He hideth His face, He'll not see it. Who does that sound like? Does
that not sound like Satan in the garden? Hath God said, well,
you know God's not going to do that. You're not going to die.
You know that. That voice is still here with
us today. That voice of deceit, that voice
of lying, God hath forgotten, because nothing happened. Nothing's
happened. When Eve took a bite of that
fruit, nothing happened. He will never see it. You know,
God said over in Isaiah, I believe it was in Isaiah, can any hide
himself from God? is not the night like the day
before me?" And then here comes the intercession
of our Lord. It's the intercession of David,
but it's the intercession of the greater David. Arise, O Lord,
O God. Lift up Thine hand. Forget not
the humble. Here's our Lord's intercession. Not only for Himself when He
walked on this earth, but for us. This prayer is for us. Forget not the humble, forget
not those whom you have humbled, and forget not those whom you
have saved. The believer's refuge and strength
is in God at all times and against all enemies and all situations.
And we can take courage in the fact that our Lord prays for
us. He intercedes for us. You don't know, probably 99.9%
of the time, you really don't know what to pray for each other,
do you? We don't know each other that well. I mean, we don't know
what, I don't know what's going on in your house. You don't know
what's going on in my house. God does. The Lord Jesus Christ
does. The great high priest, our great
high priest does. He knows. Our desire is for God to arise
and show his power that men may know themselves to be but men. That's what he says over there
in Psalm 9 verse 20. The wicked believes that God
will not punish sin, but God will. God will. Wherefore does
the wicked spurn God? Can you imagine that, spurn God?
Just get out of here. He has said in His heart, here
it says again, He has said in His heart, it's said in verse
11, He has said in His heart. And here it says, He has said
in His heart, that will not require, God's not going to do anything
about it. Could there be any lower thoughts
of God than this? That God would pass by sin and
not do anything about it? That He'd pass by the oppression
of His poor children and not do anything about it? But thou, he says in verse 14,
thou has seen it. God has seen it. He has observed
it. Nothing escapes the all-seeing
eye of God. You know, you may have been oppressed
by someone. I'm sure at one time or another,
all of us have been oppressed by somebody. And we've thought,
Lord, why are you standing so far off? I'm your child. Why
does this keep continuing? But He has seen it. He observes
it. He said, For thou beholdest mischief
and spite, God sees it, to requite it with thy hand. The poor commits
himself to thee. This is what we do. We commit
ourselves to Him at all times and in all situations. Thou art the helper of the fatherless, the orphan. Oh, I tell you, He has adopted
us in Christ, He's adopted us, chosen us, and He will help us. He will help us. "...Break thou
the arm of the wicked and the evil man." Listen, if this is
the prayer of our Lord, if He's interceding and if He's praying
this, I assure you, the arm of the wicked and the evil man is
going to be broken. In God's time, it's going to be broken. Seek out His wickedness until
you find none. Seek Him out until there's nothing
left. Bring Him to an end. You know,
the Lord prays. He prays for His people. You
go over in John 17. He prayed for His people. He
said, I pray not for the world. But here's a prayer. that God would destroy the wicked.
That He'd break their arm, break their power. You know, your arm
is your power. Break their power. Break the power until they have
none. And then it's like here, He has
just this ray of light, just like this
burst of light comes into His soul. The Lord is King forever. There is no one on this earth
that is king forever. There's no tyrant. We've seen
some tyrants, and we've seen them hanged. They have destroyed
and killed their people and done a lot of stuff, and then what
happened? They were hung. I'm thinking of Saddam Hussein. I bet he didn't think that was
going to happen, did he? He didn't get up one morning thinking that
was going to happen. But I tell you this, the Lord
is King forever. No one will dethrone Him. All
other kings will be dethroned. Sooner or later, they will be
dethroned. But the King of glory will never be dethroned. And
no enemy, no enemy will ever rule and reign over God's people.
God will allow it to go to a point in order to teach them a lesson,
then He'll break the power of it. The heathen are perished out
of his land. The battle's over. You know,
the battle's over. As far as God's concerned, the
battle's over. He's already taken care of them. Lord, thou hast
heard the desire of the humble. You know what the desire of the
humble is. What is the desire of God's children? That I may win Christ. and be
found in Him, not having my own righteousness, but to have His
righteousness. That's the desire of God's children.
That is the desire of the humble. Thou wilt prepare their hearts, establish. Thou wilt establish
their heart. You know, every time a trial
comes along to a child of God, and whether it be a hard one,
a severe one, or not as severe. But every time God sends a trial
to one of His children, it just strengthens their heart. It just
strengthens their faith. It just establishes them in Christ. They are more convinced They
are more convinced after it's over than they were when it's
going into it. And as they grow older in Christ, they become
more and more convinced that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. He's God. He's our Savior. He prepares, He establishes the
heart. Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. He'll hear. He hears
you. He hears His people. that will cause thine ear to
hear, to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that is, to
take up their cause, that the man of the earth may
no more terrify." I do believe the older a child
of God is in Christ, they grow in grace and in knowledge of
Christ, the less terrified they are of men. The less terrified they are of
wars and rumors of wars and all the stuff that you see going
on out in the world and out in the political landscape, it doesn't
terrify you, does it? It doesn't terrify you. Because
here's why. The Lord is king forever. All right.