Looking at Psalm 10, it says, Why standest thou afar
off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times
of trouble? The wicked in his pride doth
persecute the poor. Let them be taken in the devices
that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his
heart's desire and blesseth the covetous. whom the Lord abhorreth. The wicked, through the pride
of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not in
all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above,
out of his sight, as for all his enemies he puffeth at them.
He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved, for I shall never
be in adversity. His mouth is full of cursing
and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief
and vanity. 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. He lieth and waits secretly as
a lion in his den. He lieth and waits to catch the
poor. He doth catch the poor when he
draweth him into his net. He croucheth and humbleth himself
that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in
his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face, he will never
see it. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up
thine hand, forget not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn
God? He hath said in his heart, Thou
wilt not require it. Thou hast seen it, for Thou beholdest
mischief and spite, to require it with Thy hand. The poor committed
themselves unto Thee. Thou art the helper of the fathers. Break Thou the arm of the wicked
and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness till
Thou find none. The Lord is King forever and
ever. The heathen are perished out
of his land. Lord, thou hast heard the desire
of the humble. Thou wilt prepare their heart.
Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear, to judge the fatherless
and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress. or directly the prayer and the
consideration of the Lord Jesus Christ as He walked among men. At all times it is difficult
for us to recognize the humanity of Christ alongside His deity, how He could
know all things, be all things, be God, and yet be man, and identify
with man in the exact station and way that man is in, yet be
without sin. And yet, that is the true thing. All of man's troubles stem from sin, but all of his
troubles are not sin. I don't know if that makes a
whole lot of sense, but man's troubles began because of sin. If there had been no sin, there
would have been no trouble. But because there was sin, there
is trouble. But we are all troubled by things
that are not sinful, but they are just troubling things. And
so such a thing as we see here as the Lord, I believe, says
these words as a man, and of course David, we believe, wrote
this psalm as he says those things as well. Why standest thou afar
off, O Lord? Why hidest thyself in times of
trouble? Now that is a natural concern
of a spiritual man. is to see the face of the Lord. But because men are what we are,
and the Lord would teach us that we are but men, He often hides
Himself from us. Now, that doesn't make any sense
to men. Men say, well, I wouldn't do
that, you know. But the Lord would do that. He
does hide Himself from His people from time to time, and He is
not always easily found in order that men might desire Him the
more. Now, whether you like that or
not, that's just the way it is. And so the Lord does. Sometimes,
in the midst of our troubles, it seems like the Lord is not
listening. Have you ever felt like that? Lord, I'm having a
problem here. Will you help me? And we think,
well, maybe he's gone on vacation or something, or he's not paying
any attention to us. But that's the nature. That's
the station in which we are. It basically falls back to that
thing that Al was talking about. There is a structure that the
Lord has established, and He is the top, and all things else
are underneath. And He will do what He will do
and He will do right and He will do good because He is God and
He will do those things that He will do which are good and
right and who can question Him or say unto Him what doest thou? But the Lord Jesus coming as
a man and identifying Himself with men, He also entered into
this same thing, did He not? I mean, did He not say on the
cross, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Because you
see, He would identify with man in every aspect. And so even here, why standest
Thou far off, O Lord? Lord, You are not listening to
me. Now we imagine that when the
Lord prayed as He often did, Scripture says many times He
went up into a mountain to pray, continued there all night. We
assume quite often that it was just a wonderful thing. But the Scripture says that He
hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. having an enjoyable time here
in the earth. He was acquainted with grief,
was he not? He knew what it was to pray. And it seemed that the Lord was
far off. Because you see, whenever we
are in trouble, it always seems like the Lord is far off, does
it not? I mean, because otherwise there
wouldn't be trouble, would it? I mean, you know, If you're with
somebody that can beat everybody else up, you're not worried about
anything. You can say anything, do anything or whatever, because
nobody is going to bother you and you know it. But oh, when
trouble comes upon you and you don't know which way to turn,
you see, that's when the Lord does seem far off. I mean, when
everything is going great, we figure the Lord is near, don't
we? Well, thank you, Lord. How often in the day do we thank
the Lord when things go well? I think it's a pretty common
thing. Well, thank you, Lord. Praise the Lord. And well, we
should. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. That's what
we should do. We should thank the Lord when
things go well. But how often do we thank Him
when things don't go well? I mean, how often does that occur?
You know, not very often. We get to thinking, why on earth
is this happening to me? Doesn't the Lord know I need
to do this or whatever? You know, I'm amazed how often
in working on something that the most aggravating things occur. You can have everything prepared
just like you want to have it. And you can start doing something,
and you reach for the one thing that you need, and you can't
find it to save your life. And you know it was there. I
mean, you know it was. I mean, it's like looking for
a Phillips head screwdriver. And you look in the toolbox,
and there's nothing in there but flat heads and torques and
all that. And then the next day, or even
an hour, You can be looking for a flathead. And all that you
will find is Philip Ted. Now why is that? You know, I
can't explain it. But I know this, that I believe
the Lord brings these things upon His children. Now I believe
it probably occurs in the lives of everybody the same way. But
you see, He brings them upon His people in order to cause
them to cry out to Him. And to cause us to learn something,
oh how humbling it is to realize that everything doesn't, the
world doesn't revolve around us in our plan, does it? And everything is not working
out just like we want it. Why hidest thou thyself in times
of trouble? Because it seems good to it.
And it is good for us because it causes us to cry out the louder.
The wicked, however, in his pride, doth persecute the poor. Let
them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. Now
he speaks a lot here about the wicked. There is a contrast in the Scripture
between the righteous and the wicked. Now, we suppose a lot
of times that that contrast is the contrast between one man
to another man. But reality, the contrast between
the wicked and the righteous is between the Lord Jesus Christ
and men fallen men in sin. That's where the contrast is.
Because you see, all men, without exception, have the tendencies
of the wicked. And there's not one scripture
that is in this Bible that speaks about the wicked and the activities
of the wicked that we have not, in thought and deed, been guilty
of. That's just the way that it is.
So when we speak about the wicked, we need to remember this is talking
about us. It's not talking about them.
You know, we talk about, oh, the wicked. I mean, that's the
old wicked over there. The wicked, the Lord's going
to judge the wicked. Well, brethren, we fall in that category. The
wicked in his pride does persecute the poor. Now, all of this really covers, kind
of much of it is about the same type of mindset, letting them
be taken in the devices they have imagined. For the wicked
boasteth of his heart's desire, blesseth the covetous whom the
Lord abhorreth. The wicked through the pride
of his countenance will not seek after God. Now, the wicked in
his pride does persecute the poor. Now often he thinks of
it as he's not particularly persecuting the poor, but he just wants to
get a good deal. And all the time men will, in
their desire to get a good deal, they'll convince themselves that
they're doing somebody a favor. You know, somebody is maybe down
on their luck, as men would describe it, we don't believe in luck,
but you know a man gets kind of in a financial bind, and somebody
gets thinking about, well, you know, he's got this, I'll go
over there and offer to buy that from him, and in the back of
their mind they're thinking, you know, I'm going to help him
out. But also in the back of their
mind they're thinking, I'm going to get me a good deal on this. And is that not how men would
persecute the poor? I mean, when a man is in a bind,
if you was really concerned about him, wouldn't you want to be
giving him full price and help him out? I mean, are you really
trying to help him out? I remember, and I've seen this often, it
happens when somebody dies. I remember back when my father
died. And a gentleman in the community
came around and he wanted to buy, so he knew that my dad had
had some hay stored and he figured we weren't going to need the
hay or my mother wasn't going to need the hay. And he was going
to buy the hay. Well now, you know, he's going
to do a good deed. He's going to help a widow. And
he's going to give her money for this hay. Well, he didn't
want to buy the hay for what the hay was worth. He wanted
to buy the hay for about half what the hay was worth. Because
he figured he'd help her out. But what was he really doing?
He was helping himself out. The wicked persecute the poor.
See, that's the mindset of the wicked, is to look out for himself. That's what he says down here.
The wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blesseth the covetous."
See, men think that's a good thing. Aren't you smart? That's
just you getting a good deal. I mean, you're looking out for
yourself. Isn't that what we're supposed
to do? Isn't that what the world thinks?
Oh, man, he's a good businessman. Well, what they mean by that
most times is he really knows how to put screws on people and
get the most out of them. at their expense. I'm often amused,
and I've had people, you know, approach me with this thing,
and it's like they want to buy this part or whatever, but they
want me to sell it to them at the just rock-bottom price. They say, well, you know, I'm
a Christian, and you know, brethren ought to help one another out. Well, you know, that's a two-way
street, isn't it? I mean, you know, if you've got
a brother in Christ and he wants to sell you something, do you
want him to just sell it to you? Do you want to get every dime
for your benefit? Or would you say, hey, let me
pay you some more for that? But you know, that's just natural,
isn't it? That's just the way we are. Brethren, that's in us. We think about only number one. The wicked blesseth the covetous.
What does the Scripture say? Whom the Lord have horeth. See,
the Lord hates covetous. Is that not one of the commandments?
Thou shalt not covet. The wicked, through the pride
of his countenance, will not seek after God. Men by nature
won't seek the Lord. John, we were talking earlier,
we think about sometimes we'll read a Scripture or we'll see
something, maybe a movie or something that was beneficial to us or
some message we heard or whatever, and we think, well, if old so-and-so
would just listen to this, maybe he would seek the Lord. Well, no, he won't seek the Lord
because of that or anything else. The only reason that a man will
seek the Lord is because the Lord works in his heart to cause
him to seek Him. Because the Scripture says, the
wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after
God. Who's that talking about? Talking
about us. Yeah, brethren, we wouldn't be
seeking the Lord if the Lord hadn't sought us. if he had not
come to us. And listen to what it says here,
God is not in all his thoughts. Now, it doesn't say God is not
in his thoughts, does it? Most everybody thinks about God,
don't they? Especially when they get in a
bind. I mean, you know, when things are really going bad,
everybody thinks about God. You know, even the most wicked
of men, when he's on his deathbed, he starts thinking about God,
or at least the people around him do. They say, oh, we need
to get the preacher down here and we need to talk to him. But
you see, that's not what it says here. It doesn't say God is not
in his thoughts, because all men are religious to a certain
degree. All men will pursue after some
sort of religion by and large. Now there are those whom the
Scripture calls fools who said in their heart there is no God.
But it says God is not in all of his thoughts. Now what does
that mean? Now is God in all of your thoughts? No, but who's this talking about?
It's talking about the wicked. God's not in all of your thoughts.
But there is a work that God does in the hearts of His people
that does, in a measure, cause God to be in all of our thoughts.
Because we can't escape it. You see, the man in whom the
Lord does not work, he goes on about what he's doing and he
just does it without any compulsion or whatever. But you see, when
the Lord works in a man's heart, He causes him to think, well,
you know, is this what the Lord Jesus would do? I mean, we can't
escape that. We might escape it for a while.
I mean, you know, this old flesh is strong and it might seek to
direct us down the wrong path for sure. Flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. But the Lord is in
the thoughts of His people. We can't lay down at night. We can't wake up in the morning
that the Lord is not there. And if we look at our life, we'd
surely say, well, we don't seek the Lord like we should. And
who does? But the Lord is in the thoughts of His people. His
ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out
of His sight. As for all His enemies, He puffeth
at them. He has power. You know, somebody
that puffs at His enemies is somebody that gets puffed up.
And there are plenty of people. A fellow was talking the other
day about how he demanded respect of men. And he was talking about,
you know, how his daddy had got on to him for the way he was
acting, and he said, Daddy, I've just got to demand respect from
men. See, that's how men think what respect is. They puff at
somebody. That's the way of the wicked. His way is the right way. He said in his heart, I shall
not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. I've got power.
I'll triumph in the world. See, that's the way of the world,
is it not? I'm going to plan these things
out and I'm going to manipulate things and I'm going to be smart. That's why the Scripture says
that the Lord hath revealed these things the poor, the babes, and hidden
them from the wise and prudent. The wise and prudent usually
think they got there by their own power. Do they not? I mean, and there are plenty
of folks today preaching and teaching that you can get there
by your own power. I'm talking about to gain the
things of this world and do all these smart things. You know,
people think, well, I'm just smart. Now, I don't want to be critical
of our President, but he thinks he's smart. And he is a smart
man. I mean, whether you like him
or whether you don't, he is a smart man. But unfortunately, sometimes
he thinks he's smarter than he is. And that's just the way of
men. Do we not do the same thing? I mean, if the Lord doesn't restrain
us, well, not each one gets to think of how smart we are. We've
got the tiger by the tail. We've got this thing under control.
We can do it. We know how to do it. We are
smarter than they are. I shall never be in adversity.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his
tongue is mischief and vanity. Is that not hidden in the hearts
of men by nature? I mean, where does a man learn to be
vile in his speech? Where does that come from? I've
known people that grew up around and never was in an environment
where they, you know, was really particularly exposed to that
kind of language or whatever, but yet, where does it come from? And you know, often even the
kindest and mildest of people that you've ever known in the right situation, They
can come out with some stuff, but you say, wow, I didn't know
they had it in them. Why is that? It says the mouth is wicked, full
of cursing, deceit and fraud. I mean, have you ever told a
lie? A fellow told me one time, he said it wasn't wrong to tell
a lie as long as you're just doing it to get yourself out
of a bind. Well, I thought to myself, well, when else do men
lie? I mean, that's when they do lie. But he thought that was real
smart, and he thought it was all right. Under his tongue, in mischief
and vanity, he sitteth in the lurking places of the villages,
in secret places doth he murder the innocent. His eyes are pliably
set against the poor. This is often seen in the workplace. You know, employers, our society is geared to aggrandize
the free enterprise system. And I wouldn't want to live in
any other system than a capitalistic society, okay? But capitalism
is built on a precept which is in the hearts of men, and it
really will only work among men because of this very precept,
that men are greedy, that men think of themselves. I mean,
is that not really what capitalism is based on? Now, because of
that, you see, the communist idea won't ever work. Why? Because,
heck, if I'm not going to get any more than you're going to
get, I'm not going to do any more than you're going to do.
I mean, that's just the way people think. That's just in us. And this, in that system, is
often played up. You know, there is always going
to be the poor. The Lord said the poor will always
be with you. But man is not to be patted on
the back, but when he takes advantage of the poor to line his own pockets. And all of us, you know, from
time to time have done that. You know, you find somebody that
will work for less. Now what's wrong with that? Nothing
wrong with it, per se, is it? Well, that's what I'm saying.
So see, you have to think about it from our perspective. Why
do we think like that? I want to pay him just as little,
whatever, if I could get him to, I want to see him work for
ten cents less than that guy over there. That's just in the
mind, is it not? And of course, some say, well,
that's just business. Well, it is. But it's sinful
business. I don't think that's the way
it will be in heaven, do you? But that's just the way it is.
I mean, it's this sinful world we're living in. And this is
a description of those. Their eyes are probably set against
the poor. I mean, that's just really... You know, most fortunes have
been made in great measure in taking advantage of those who
are less fortunate. Now, that's just the system and
the way it is. Now, how do we correct it? It
can't be corrected. It won't ever be corrected until
the Lord corrects the hearts of men. That's when it will be
corrected. And I don't think it's going
to happen in this world. He lieth and wait secretly as
a lion in his den, he lieth and wait to catch the poor. He doth
catch the poor when he draweth them into his net." Isn't that
what advertising is? Huh? Drawing in. Buddy, you need this here. I
mean to tell you this is really something you need. You know,
most people that are selling stuff, they know people don't
really need these things. I have people call me up on the
phone practically every day trying to sell me something on the phone.
And they've just got the best deal, and this is just, you're
going to get in on the ground floor. I mean, this is going
to be your time to shine here. And they're just trying to sell
something. They don't no more care about
how much benefit that is to you or not. They are interested in
what the benefit is to them. Now, that's the way of the wicked. He croucheth and humbles himself
that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He hath said in
his heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face. He'll never
see it. Now, what he really is saying here is that he's saying,
well, it's all right. I mean, the Lord, He's going
to overlook this. This is just business. This is
just the way that we do things. It's going to be alright. He
hides His face. He won't say anything about it
because, you know, it's okay. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up
Thine hand, forget not the humble which He will not. Wherefore
doth the wicked contemn God? Now in this, all of these things
that he has spoken here of, he's kind of bringing this to a head
here. He says, Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? And that
word contemn, though it is very similar to the word condemn,
that's not what it's saying. It means to hold God in contempt. How well they will hold God in
contempt, that is to say. Yet we know what God said, but
we're not going to pay any attention to it. See, that's the way of
the wicked. He has said in his heart, God
has forgotten. Wherefore doth the wicked contemn
God? He has said in his heart, he
won't require it. Ain't nothing going to come of
this. We can do whatever we want to do. It's going to be alright.
But, he said, thou hast seen it. For thou beholdest mischief
and spite, to requite it with thy hand. The poor committed
himself unto thee. Thou art the helper of the fatherless."
He is the helper of the fatherless. The Lord will bring to light
all the hidden things, and he will cause justice to triumph. The Lord said, every idle word
shall be brought into account. The poor committed themselves
unto Thee. Why? Because they can't do anything
else. See, that's the men that will
seek the Lord when they can't do anything else. See, you didn't
seek the Lord until you couldn't do anything else. As long as
you could find some relief in something else, you wouldn't
seek the Lord. Men don't seek the Lord when they can seek something
else. Men seek the Lord when they can't
find anything else. That's when they come to the
Lord. Because that's how the Lord brings men. They aren't the helper of the
fatherless. Those that don't have anybody to look out for
them, those are the ones whom the Lord helps. Now, it's a wise
thing that men say often, is that the Lord helps those that
help themselves. And that sounds good, and it's
the basis upon which modern I hate to say it this way, but
modern Christianity is built upon. It is that the Lord helps
those who have not said, well, if you would help yourself, you
know, and seek the Lord, why, He would help you. Well, dear
brethren, that is getting the cart ahead of the horse. The
Lord helps the fatherless, those that are in the place of need,
He comes to. Break thou the arm of the wicked
and the evil man, which he will. Seek out his wickedness till
thou find none." Which he will. The Lord will destroy the wickedness
of man. I mean, there is no doubt about
that the wickedness of man is coming to an end in the Lord's
time. The Lord is King forever and
ever. The heathen are perished out of His land. There is no wickedness. in the
land of the Lord, in the kingdom of God. You see, the Lord has
put out the wicked. They shall perish. None shall
enter their inn. Lord, thou hast heard the desire
of the humble. Thou wilt prepare their heart.
Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. He does hear the prayer
of the humble. It is broken in the contrite
heart. The Scripture says, He will not despise. To judge the
fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may
no more oppress." Now who is he speaking of there? He is speaking
of all men, is he not? Because all men, by nature, will
oppress other men if they get the opportunity and if it is
in their benefit. They will do that. We will do
that. Apart from the grace of God,
for He will judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man
of the earth may no more do that." You see, that is the ultimate
end of all things, is that the Lord is going to make all things
right. Now, He's not going to make all
things right for your sake. In other words, oh, so-and-so,
he did me wrong and the Lord is going to really get him taken
care of, you know. I mean, some people, we think
like that sometimes, don't we? Well, he's going to get his.
And all that kind of stuff. No, that's not what I'm talking
about. Because you see, when the Lord lines all men up, they're all the same. The only
difference between any man and another man is the mercy of God
is bestowed on some. according to the good pleasure
of His will. And there is nothing for any man to boast in, because
everything that he said here about the wicked could be said
about every one of the children of God except for one thing,
and that is that the Lord Jesus Christ has stood in their room
instead, and He has taken all of the wickedness that is described
in this passage of which they are all guilty. And He has taken
it upon Himself, and He has borne it for them. Dear brethren, that's
the only place wherein there will be no more oppression is
to be in Christ. Because He's done away with it. It's already done away with in
Christ. May the Lord help us.