Psalm 10, unlike many of those
that surround it, has no title. It's not described as being a
Psalm of David and there is no instruction. But it is broken in its 18 verses
very much into three sections. It opens in verse 1 with a cry
in trouble. There follows 10 verses describing
the wicked and the enemies of God. And then from verse 12 to
the end, in the last seven verses, there is a cry of prayer and
of faith, ultimately in God's salvation. The psalmist opens,
why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times
of trouble? 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 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. 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. And the psalmist goes on in the
last seven verses, 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, yet 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. 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 thy 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. Why standest thou afar off, O
Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times
of trouble? So opens the psalm. What a cry. What a cry that you and I may
have cried. This is the cry of the child
of God many times. Many times when he's surrounded
by trouble, when he feels the iniquity and the sin and the
darkness of this world, the loneliness of his pilgrimage through this
world. when he sees the rise of sin
all around when he looks upon the nation and the nations and
sees how the wicked rise to power and how the voice of the wicked
has the ears of the people and how the hearts of the people
are stirred to run after wickedness and to despise the things of
God and to despise Jesus Christ and to despise his salvation
when he sees the darkness and the evil all around and when
he feels that darkness and that evil and that unbelief and that
rejection and that scorn in his own heart and when he feels that
the Lord is at a distance and he looks within at his own sin
and feels that he is the cause then he cries out he cries out
to his God for he can cry to none other He cries out to his
God, why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself
in times of trouble? I'm alone, my God. I'm alone
in a world of sinners. I'm alone amongst mine enemies. And I feel my own sin. Is that the cause? My God. Hast thou removed thyself, O
Lord, because of what I am, what I've done, because of my sin?
O Lord, have mercy on me. Don't withdraw, don't abandon
me, don't leave me. I have no strength of myself. I have no strength in myself. I have no ability. I have no
righteousness of my own. How can I stand except thou dost
show me mercy? O Lord, remember me. Why standest thou afar off, O
Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times
of trouble? Have you cried that way? Have
you felt like that? Have you been in that place? Do you feel surrounded, engulfed,
enveloped, overwhelmed by the wicked? And does your faith, that weak
faith, that spark of faith that little faith within does your
faith though it should cry out to God
though it knows its only hope is in God and his salvation does
your faith feel enveloped by the flesh all around and by the
sin and the desires of the flesh and the motives and the movements
and the actions of the flesh. Do you feel stained by your own
sin? Do you feel at times like your
corruption has set God at a distance? Do you feel like you've gone
too far? You've said too much? You've done the unforgivable
and God has removed. Why standest thou afar off, O
Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times
of trouble? The psalmist goes on in the next
10 verses to describe the wicked. and in a sense this is a description
of the wicked in this world whom he looks out upon his enemies
the haters of God those who hate his God and hate him because
of his love for God in one sense this is what he observes in the
world all around him but in another sense it's what
he sees within it's not just them it's me it's
not really them it's all me I am the wicked and he knows what
the wicked is like because every action, every thought, every
deed and every motive of the wicked he sees in his own natural
heart. And he knows that God would be
just to stand afar off. And God would be just to hide
from him in times of trouble. And he knows that God would be
just to judge that sin within and
cast him off forever. And he knows that his only hope
is for God to have mercy upon him. So he goes on to describe
the wicked. And as we read this description
of the wicked, I want you to read it. As with the psalmist, not just
as a description of the wicked that you might see in this world. but as a description of you and
as a description of me and as a description of the old man
of sin within because every deed and every thought and every action
described here is in us all all have gone astray all have sinned
there is none righteous no not one The wicked in his pride doth
persecute the poor. How proud our wicked hearts are
by nature. 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 and God is not
in all his faults. Or as the margin says, alternatively
translated, all his thoughts are that there
is no God. Not only is God not in his thoughts,
but when he does think, if ever there is a mention of God, it
is that there is no God. He lives and acts and thinks
as though there is no God. That's the thought of his heart.
He says in his heart, as Psalm 14 tells us, there is no God. And you and I by nature have
a heart that lives like there is no God. We don't care for
Him, we don't think of Him, we don't seek Him. The world this day, in its religion,
will speak of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the natural
man religious or otherwise cares nothing for the resurrection
of Jesus Christ and cares nothing for the God who sent his own
son into this world to lay down his life for sinners. He says
I have no need of him because of the pride and the boasting. of his own heart. God is not
in his thoughts. The wicked's ways are always
grievous and God's judgments are far above out of his sight. He lives and acts like there
is no God so he lives and acts like he's not accountable for
anything he does. So everything you do every day
you think you get away with it because God appears to be stood
afar off. And there appears to be a freedom
which you have to indulge your own heart's desire and to indulge
your deceitful ways and to indulge your lusts and to indulge your
pride. And God never seems to stop you
So God's judgments are just not in your heart and in your mind. As for all his enemies, he puffeth
at them. So proud are we, by nature, that
because God doesn't bring us low, we think we're invincible. And if we can tread all over
God and His Gospel, we think we can tread all over our enemies. The wicked have said in his heart,
I shall not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. No trouble
shall come my way, I shall be fine. His mouth is full of cursing
and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief
and vanity. He sitth in the lurking places
of the villages, in the secret places doth he murder the innocent. His eyes are privily set against
the poor. You may say, well that might
be true of some, but I have never murdered. And yet every day that
you care not for God, and every day that you turn your back on
His Son, Jesus Christ, is a day when you, in your heart, have
put the Son of God to death. A day when your wicked heart
has said of Jesus Christ, away with Him. He shall not reign
over me. Away when your heart has said
of Jesus Christ, crucify Him. A day in which your heart, in
the secret place of your heart, has murdered the innocent. The secret places, in the secret
places, Duffy murder the innocent. No one can see what you're doing
in your heart. But in your heart, because you
care not for him, You put the innocent Jesus Christ to death
on a daily basis. We are all guilty. We all have
gone astray and we all have set Jesus Christ at naught. In our secret place of our secret
heart we have all murdered the innocent. The wicked 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. He croucheth and humbleth himself
that the poor may fall by his strong ones. Oh, how evil the
heart of man is! how he crushes those who are
weaker than himself. He cares not for the innocent.
He cares not for the poor. The natural man cares only for
himself. The heart of man as in Adam,
the heart of the flesh, your heart and my heart, cares only
for self. And the poor We will crush and
oppress. People talk of fighting like
a man or standing like a man, of being a man. Well man by nature
is anything but. He doesn't fight those who are
his equal. He doesn't stand against those
who are his equal. Man by nature will walk all over
those who are weaker. Those who have no strength. He
is merciless. He cares not. He seeks his own
gain. He seeks his own way. And any
who gets in that way, he will tread upon. He hath said in his heart, God
have forgotten. he hideeth his face he will never
see it because our natural heart lives and reigns in its domain
as though there is no God it causes us to live and to act
and to think as though God does not see God won't see I'm immune I'm
free, I can do what I like, he's left me alone, he's not seeing,
he's not caring, he doesn't exist, he's not there, I can do what
I like, I will get away with it. But the fools of men that
live and act in this way and the foolishness of your own heart
that lives and acts in this way will lead you and lead them to
destruction because God does see and God has simply left us
alone for a moment and our life is but a moment and when we've
gone through and indulged our every desire and lived and acted
as though there is no God unaged from being a babe to a youth
to a young man to an old man till the day in which we pass
through the grave. Then we will stand before that
God who we said had forgotten and then we will discover that
he forgot nothing and that he saw everything and that nothing
was hid from his face. Then we will discover that all
that we thought was reality was a lie and all that we thought
was to our gain was to our loss. and all that we thought was to
our advantage will come to our destruction because he will ask
of us, why did you not worship me? Why did you not love me? Why did you not seek me? Why did you murder the innocent? Why in your heart did you put
my son to death? Why did you ridicule and mock
his gospel? Why did you turn your ears and
your face away from the truth? Why when I sent my witnesses
to your door to say my son is risen Did you shut your ears? Why when I declared unto you
that I have given my son as a ransom for sinners, that he was crucified
and bore the sins of his people, that he loved the people and
gave himself for them, why did you shut your ears? And why did
you mock and scoff? Why did you turn your face? He will ask. And you will have
to find an answer, my friend. When you stand before Him in
but a few years' time for some, or a few months' time for others,
or a few days' time, or a few hours' time for others yet, when
you stand before Him, you will need an answer. And the wicked,
through the pride of his heart, has no answer. Because he has
said, there is no God. He's forgotten. He doesn't see. I can get away with it. and on that awful day you will
know that you've not got away with it and that the moments
of your life though they seem so long as you lived them out
when you look back they're but a blink and the enjoyment and
the pleasure and the riches and the indulgence and the pride
that you dwelt in has all gone and here you are stood on a day
of reality before Almighty God. And no more will you say, where
is God? But he will say, why have you
not worshipped my son? And he will send you away. Oh, the heart of the wicked. The evil, this is the Psalmist's
description. But it's not so much a description
of other men. It's more of a description, as
I've said, of his own natural heart. And believer, this is
a description of your own natural heart. And unbeliever, this is
a description of your heart. For we all have a heart like
this and we're all wicked like this and we all think like this. and the believer when the sin
in his flesh rises up and causes him to act in pride and causes
him to live as though God isn't there and causes him to crush
the poor and to murder the innocent in his heart and to shout with
anger at somebody that gets in his way and as it were puts them
to death when he falls in this way he feels God at a distance
And he cries out in his time of trouble Why standest thou
afar off, O Lord? Have I caused it? Have I done
it? O have mercy upon me Look not
upon my wickedness Wash me Cleanse me Take me to that place where
there is blood in a fountain to wash and cleanse my sin. O Lord, lead me to the cross,
lead me to the Saviour, lead me to my Saviour, wash me of
all my wicked ways, cleanse me, look not upon my sin, look not
upon my flesh, look not upon me in Adam, look upon me in Christ,
O Lord, have mercy upon me for Christ's sake. Hide not thyself
in my time of trouble. What does your heart say? Do
you say there is no God? Are you full of pride, boastfulness,
covetousness, greed, selfishness, hatred, anger, fretfulness, scorn? Is that your heart? Is that your heart? It's the description of the wicked.
Or it's the description of ourselves. And the psalmist knew his own
heart. He knew this within. He felt
the burden of it. And he knew that his hope was
in God alone. He rises up in these last seven
verses and cries out to his God. Arise O Lord! Arise! O God, lift up thine hand, forget
not the humble. Wherefore doth the wicked condemn
God? He hath said in his heart, thou
wilt not require it, yet thou hast seen it, 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. Yes, the psalmist knows that
God sees him as he is. He knows that it's foolish to
condemn God because he knows that God sees him inside and
out. And he knows as one who has nothing
himself as one who's poor as one who has no righteousness
by nature as one who has no strength by nature as one who has no riches
that he can cling on to beyond this earthly world as one who
in truth has nothing as one who's poor he knows that his hope is
not to be found in man is not to be found in the wickedness
of this world is found in God alone. The poor committeth himself
unto thee, thou art the helper of the fatherless. Break thou
the arm of the wicked and evil man, seek out his wickedness
till thou find none. Oh Lord crush him, crush this
wickedness, crush this evil, crush him in me. Crush my wickedness. Break the arm of my old man,
of my evil man. Seek out the wickedness within
me until thou find none. Take it all away Lord. Blot it
out, cleanse it in the blood. Judge me. Take away all my sin. Make me righteous. 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, and the man of the earth may
no more oppress. So he rises up in faith in his
God. He knows that his God, the Lord,
is King forever and ever. He knows that his wicked heart
will be judged and destroyed. He knows that the wicked all
around him will be judged and destroyed. He knows that heathen
are perished, but that God is King forever and ever. And God
hears the desire of the humble. He hears the cries of the poor. He prepares their heart. He will
cause His ear to hear them, to judge the fatherless and the
oppressed. He will hear them and in judging
the fatherless and the oppressed, in judging His people, He will
judge them in the Son, in the Saviour and He will say, their
sins have I blotted out, their sins are no more. their old man
is crucified and in them I see no more iniquity I see the righteousness
of God I have blotted out their iniquity I have taken it away
I have washed their sins I have cleansed them I have renewed
them I have justified them I have ransomed them from the grave
oh judge me the psalmist says judge me in thy son that the
man of the earth may no more oppress not so much the man of
the earth outside of him not so much those who are his enemies
but the man of the earth within the old man Adam his flesh oh
he feels the flesh warring against the spirit he feels the deadness
of sin within his members he feels the old man and his wicked
ways he feels the unbelief and the doubts and the fears oh lord
may the man of the earth this old man no more oppress crucify
him and he knows that the Lord who is King forever and ever
will judge the old man will judge the fatherless and the oppressed
that the man of the earth may no more oppress so we see the
heart of the psalmist, who knows the wickedness of the man of
the earth, the old man Adam, the flesh within. And he knows
his hope is in God alone, the God who is king forever and ever. But through the cries of the
psalmist, we see the cries of the Saviour. The cries of the
Saviour, who came as the one man, the man of heaven not the
man of the earth but the man of heaven the man that came from
heaven that one man who is without sin he came into this wicked
world made a man made a little lower than the angels taking
humanity into union with his divinity he came born a man born
of Mary born of the Virgin a man without sin and he walked amongst
the wicked and he felt the oppression he felt the hatred he felt the
iniquity he felt it all around him he saw the wicked man all
around him but he came into the midst of the darkness because
he loved a people chosen amongst that people a people chosen before
the world was ever created he loved a people who by nature
in Adam are wicked he loved a people who by nature were men and women
of the earth and though they were wicked though they hated
God though they said in their hearts there is no God though
they were full of pride and boasting and covetousness though they
put the innocent to death He loved them and he took their
hatred, he took their scorn and he bore it and he endured it
because he would deliver them from their sins. Though you by
nature hated him, though you despised him, Though every year
when the world around spake of the death and the resurrection
of Jesus Christ, you poured scorn upon it, and laughed at it and
mocked it, or treated it with apathy, or treated it with disdain,
or said, what's it got to do with me? Though you treated Christ
as nothing, if you are His, if He died for you, then he loved
you when you hated and he loved you when you rejected and he
loved you when your heart went everywhere except towards him
and he endured the wicked and he went to a place called Golgotha
the place of a skull where he was delivered up into the hands
of the Romans who took him and beat him and bruised him and
put a crown of thorns upon his head and put a robe upon his
back and mocked him and spat upon him and the people mocked
him and spat upon him and they all cried out crucify him, crucify
him. And he staggered to the cross
trying to carry this great weight of the cross. He staggered to
that place where the cross would be lifted up and where he would
be nailed to it. And they took him and nailed
him. Nailed him to the cross. with great nails through his
arms, his hands, his wrists and his feet and they lifted him
up in the sun and they left him to die and the people all mocked
and laughed and you in your heart looked upon him and mocked and
laughed and said away with him and he did it because he loved
his own and his own looked and laughed and mocked and put him
out of their hearts and he endured it because he loved his own and
his people. When others laughed, wouldn't
dare to be identified with him, they stayed quiet, they went
away because they didn't want to endure the rejection that
he endured. and yet he loved his own and
when he was laid upon that cross and lifted up a mysterious transaction took
place. The man of the earth looked and
beheld another man crucified upon a cross. You in your natural
heart may look and see a historical figure crucified upon a cross
But when he was lifted up on that cross, God looked upon his
son and said, you are the sacrifice for the sins of my people. And his son went as a priest
to a place of sacrifice. And his own son took himself and offered himself up unto God
for the sin and the sins of his people. And God took the sword
of justice and looked upon his and he took the sin of that people
and made his son to be it and he took the sins of that people
and laid them upon him and he bore them and God took the sword
of justice and struck him and pierced him through and poured
down the fires of his wrath upon his own son and his son endured
because the people whose sins he bore, he loved. And he bore the sins of the wicked,
the sins of the wicked, the sins of those who in pride persecute
the poor. The sins of those who boast of
their heart's desire. The sins of those who bless the
covetousness that the Lord abhoreth. He bore the wicked's pride in
his countenance and the wicked's rejection of God. He bore the
wicked's grievous ways. He bore the wicked's puffing
at their enemies and their arrogance and their hatred. He bore the
wicked's mouth of cursing and deceit and fraud. He bore the
wicked's mischief and vanity. He bore the wicked's lurking
and hiding in secret places. He bore the wicked's murder of
the innocent. He bore the wicked's hiding as
a lion to devour the poor. He bore the wicked's unbelief. All this description of the wicked
here in this psalm is a description of that evil which Christ bore. And when in Gethsemane's garden
Christ in turmoil called out to His Father and asked if this
cup is one that He must drink This is what he saw. This is
what he knew. He knew the wickedness of man's
heart and he knew he must bear this. He knew he must be made
to be this. He knew that he must stand before
God as though he was the wicked. And he knew that he must bear
his father's judgment against this evil man of the earth. the man of the earth. God slew him in Christ. As Paul said in Galatians, I
am crucified with Christ. I am crucified. My old man, me,
the man in Adam, the man of the earth, I'm crucified with Christ. Were you crucified? Was your
old man crucified? Did Christ bear the man of the
earth, your man, you, your wicked heart? Did he bear your sins? Was he slain for you? Can you
with Paul say, knowing this, that my old man is crucified
with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is free from
sin. Now if we be dead with Christ
we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ
being raised from the dead dieth no more, death have no more dominion
over him. for Christ did not remain upon
the cross and Christ did not remain under the judgment of
God forever but he drank up the cup of God's wrath to the end
and he rose victorious having taken away all the judgment and
all the wrath and drunk that cup to the end. He was laid in
the grave and on the third day he rose again. The Lord is risen, indeed. 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. may no more oppress. Oh, how the man of the earth
persecutes those who are born of heaven. How men in this earth persecute
the children of God, born of God, those who are brought to
look and behold this Saviour who was crucified for them. How
they know the hatred and the persecution of the men of the
earth. But how they know how that man within wars against
the spirit within. How they know the death in the
old man Adam. But how they know they're at
the cross. that old man and that flesh which
still reigns within them now has been judged has been slain
has been crucified because of that King who reigns forever
and ever why does that King why does the Lord who is King reign
forever and ever? why? because at the cross The
son of God was slain, but rose again. Because he wrought a victory. Because he took away death. Because he took away sin. Because
he slew the man of the earth. Because he confronted the great
enemy of God. and he destroyed him because
he destroyed your enemies because he destroyed our enemies child
of God because that man of the earth that flesh has been destroyed
that's why Christ rose that's why he's victorious today that's
why he's seated on high and that's why with the father he reigns
forever and ever Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Christ
cried upon the cross. Because at that hour he was made
sin, and God must judge the sinner. But having judged it, the Son
arose, and He ascended, and He entered back into His Father's
presence, never to be separated again. And God will never stand
afar off from His Son. And if you're in His Son, If
you've been washed by the blood of the Son, if the Son of God
died and rose for you, then God will never ever stand afar off
and never ever hide himself in times of trouble because all
the trouble has been answered. You may feel it in your pathway
in this world at times. You may feel as the flesh remains
that God is judging you, but he's already judged the flesh. and it's only as you look upon
the man of the earth that you will despair but when you look
up and you look up to the Saviour seated on high with four wounds
in his hands and feet and a fifth wound in his side and see the
blood then you will know that God in Christ is never a far
off. and never hides himself that
he is as near as faith is in your heart he's as near as the
cry of your heart under him is near just look and cry he's right
there and he hears the cry of the fathless, he hears the cry
of the oppressed, he hears the cry of the poor, he hears your
cry, child of God, because his son has made peace by the blood
of his cross. And his son is risen indeed. Why standest thou afar off, O
Lord? Once because of sin, But now
no more, for the Lord is King forever and ever, and his people
will reign with the Son in him forever and ever, as they dwell
around the throne upon which sits the Lamb of God, who loved
them and gave himself for the he is risen indeed. Amen.