Would you turn with me to Psalm
10. Psalm 10. Why standest thou far off, O
Lord? Why hidest 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 has said in his heart, I shall
not be moved for I shall never be an adversity. His mouth is
full of cursing and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief
and vanity. He said it's in the lurking places,
the villages and the secret places. Does he murder the innocent?
His eyes are privileged, said 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 has said in his
heart, God hath forgotten. He hideth his face, he'll never
see it. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up
thine hand. forgetting of the humble? Wherefore
doth the wicked contemn God? He has said in his heart, thou
will not require it. Thou hast seen, 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 will prepare their heart.
Thou will cause thine ear to hear, to judge the fatherless
and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may know more. oppress. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for everything there is, because
we know that you are the God of all things. How we thank you
that you're on the throne, how we thank you for all your glorious
attributes. Lord, how we thank you that you're
pleased to speak. For Christ's sake. Now be with
us. Bless your word. Bless the preaching of your word. Bless the reading of your word.
Bless these public prayers. Lord, enable us truly to worship. Unite our hearts together to
fear thy name. May your gospel be preached in
the power of your spirit. And Lord, may we be found in
Christ. Forgive us of our sins. Bless the Sunday school teachers. Lord, we pray for your blessing
on the upcoming Vacation Bible School, that you would bless
it, that you'd speak to these young people for Christ's sake.
Be with all your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's
name we pray, amen. David asks this question. In verse 1, why standest thou
afar off? Why hidest thyself in time of
trouble? Now, which one of us have not
asked that question? All the things going on, why
doesn't the Lord do something about it? All the evil things
that are taking place, Why doesn't the Lord do something about it?
He could, but he doesn't. Why? Why do you stand so far
removed? You hide yourself in times of
trouble. Why? Why don't you do something? You could stop this. You could
stop this. You could prevent this from happening.
You're God. Why do you not do something? Now, which of us have
not asked that question? Why does the Lord permit this? Why doesn't the Lord prevent
this? How could the Lord let this happen? Now, I'm thankful for this scripture
because it lets us know some of the things that go through
our corrupt minds. Now, why do I say that? Because God is to be trusted. And you might not understand
what he's doing, but he does. And we trust him. Yes, he could prevent this. Yes,
he could cause something to stop or start. He's God. He's in control of all of this.
But when I start saying, why do you let this happen? Why do
you let that happen? What I'm doing, I'm becoming
God's judge. I'm saying, I wouldn't do this. Why do you do this? All of a sudden, I'm becoming
his judge. Now, I love Scott Richardson's
statement. It's one of the most powerful
statements I've ever heard with regard to looking at everything
that's taking place. If I were omnipotent, all powerful,
I would stop things, I would change things, I would change
circumstances, I would stop this, I would start that, if I were
all powerful. But if I were all wise, I would keep things exactly
as they are. Now me and you don't have the
sense to understand why God does what he does, but isn't that
okay? He's God. Whatever he does is right. Now, David goes on to speak of
the wicked after this. He spends quite a long time in
this passage of scripture describing the wicked. I think it's interesting
the way he ends it up as the man of the earth. That's the
wicked, the man of the earth. Now, let's look in verse two.
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor. Now we have in this Psalm two
people, the wicked and the poor. The wicked and the righteous,
the poor and the righteous. The poor describes every believer.
And if you're a believer, you know what that means. If you're
poor, that means you don't have anything to bring to the table
of your own that God could accept. You realize that. It's not like
you don't have a plan B because you don't have a plan B. All
you have is Christ. You don't have anything else.
Now that's the poor. The wicked though, through the pride of
his countenance, does persecute the poor. Now, pride. Pride, now there's, sometimes
we think I wanna do my best, and you should, you should. You
ought to take, and I don't know if pride's the right word, but
pride in workmanship, pride in what you do, you oughta wanna
do the best and be the best at what you do. Now you ought to,
everybody should, that's the right thing to do. I don't know
if pride is the right word to use, because pride is evil. It's
evil. It's the thing God hates. Six
things doth God hate, yea, seven are abomination to him, and the
first thing he mentions is pride. Pride of race, pride of face,
pride of place, most detestable pride of grace, pride. Pride
is the most, Lynn tells me I shouldn't use the word stupid when I preach.
Well, I'm gonna use it here. Pride is stupid. It's stupid. Pride of race. Let me tell you
how stupid that is. There's no such thing as races.
There's only one race. When you have pride of races,
well, that's stupid. There's only one race, the human
race. We're all of the same race. We're all descendants of Adam. We're all descendants of Noah.
Pride of race. Pride of face. How base And yet
how natural this is to the natural man, how base it is to take some
kind of pride in the way you look and thinking you're better
than somebody else because of the way you look. How base. Pride
of place. Look at the position I'm in.
The only reason you are where you are is because God put you
there. That's it. You've got nothing to be proud
of. Most detestable, pride of grace. Thinking you're somehow,
grace destroys pride. And yet there's pride of grace.
The wicked through the pride of his countenance. How base. The wicked through the pride
of his countenance. What do you have that you didn't
receive? Who made you to differ from somebody
else? In every respect, what do you
have? The wicked through the pride
of his countenance to persecute the poor. He hates the poor.
And then David says, let them be taken in the devices that
they've imagined. They imagined all these things
that they're gonna do. Let them be taken in. You know,
the Lord controls everything. The wicked has these devices
that they're going to perform. Lord's gonna let them be entrapped
in their own net, is what he's saying. For the wicked boasteth of his
heart's desire and blesseth the covetous whom the Lord abhorreth. He boasts in what he should be
ashamed of and he blesses the covetous. Now, I think this is
interesting. The sin that men really never
much think of is covetousness. How many people have you ever
heard in the world talk about covetousness as if it's a bad
thing? It's not even recognized as a
sin by most people, yet it is the summary of all sin. It's the last of the 10 commandments
and covetousness is involved in every other breaking of one
of God's commandments, desiring what God hasn't given you, thinking
it's coming to you. Covetousness and covetousness
all I got I love the way Paul says in Romans 7 He says I had
not known sin except the law had said thou shalt not covet
That's when I learned something about sin. I Found out that all
I do is covet When I breathe I covet I can't try to stop coveting
You can't do it. It's an expression of the sinfulness
of our nature. And I love the way David says,
the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and he blesses, he admires,
he looks up to the covetous, and that's men coveting power,
and praise, and prestige, and material things, and the world. But look what it says, the Lord
says about these people, whom the Lord abhors. The Lord abhorreth. The Lord is disgusted by the
covetous. Verse four, the wicked through
the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. God is not in all his thoughts. His thought is who needs God?
God is not in all of his thoughts. Now, what does that mean? Is
God in all your thoughts? Well, how many times do you go
an entire day without even thinking about it? You're in having your
responsibilities and you're doing your things and whatever it is
we do through the day, maybe we're working, we're having a
thought about the Lord. Well, is that what David is saying? The believers always thinking
about God? Doesn't mean that at all, but
God is in all of his thoughts. He doesn't compartmentalize God.
God's in all of his thoughts. Everything that he thinks, he
can't divorce it from the living God, his God, his Lord, his Savior. Whatever it is, the Lord's in
it. Whatever thing you're doing in your life, it's not like,
well, I can get God out of that. No, the believer has God in all
of his thoughts. Nothing is divorced from the
Lord. Now, the unbeliever can compartmentalize
God. Well, today's Sunday, I need
to worship today. I need to, but not the believer. God is in all of his thoughts,
every single one of them. You can't think about anything
without thinking of its relationship to the Lord. Now look what it
says in verse five, his ways, the ways of the wicked, his ways
are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out
of his sight. Now this is talking about the
gospel really, his judgments. You know, a natural man, if you
tell him how God can be just and justify the ungodly, so what? It's not even an issue. It's
not important. The glorious judgments of God
are far above his sight. He can't enter into them. He
doesn't even care one way or the other. They're far above
his sight. For all his enemies, he puffeth
at them. He just disregards them. And the enemies, this is not
talking about human enemies. It's talking about God's offended
law, God's offended justice, the living God, he puffs at them. He's not concerned whatsoever. He doesn't even think about them,
doesn't give God the time of the day in his thoughts. Is it
any wonder God will destroy the wicked when they think so illy
and lightly of him? He puffs, not even something
to worry about. His judgments are past finding
out. He says in verse six, he has said in his heart, I'll not
be moved. For I'll never see adversity.
What blindness to say this. What a false sense of security. I'm okay. You know, that's really
the attitude of the church at Laodicea. I'm okay. I'm fine. Don't worry about me. I'm rich
and increased with goods and have need of nothing. That's
the attitude of the wicked. And here he is, his mouth, look
at this verse seven. His mouth is full. Now here's
the depravity of the natural man. Here's a description of
it. And what comes out of your mouth is what comes from your
heart. It's the heart that is the index of what comes out of
the mouth. And look at this description. His mouth is full of cursing
and deceit and fraud. Under his tongue is mischief
and vanity. Now that describes every word
that comes out of the natural man's heart. Every single word. The natural man has no love for
God at all. No esteem of Jesus Christ at
all. Every word that comes out of
his mouth is described As is said in verse 7, even if what
he says is good, that's still behind it. Verse 8, he sitteth
in the lurking places of the villages. An ambush is what that
means. He sitteth to ambush. In the
secret places, doth he murder the innocent? His eyes are privileged
set against the poor. He sits in an ambush to get what
he wants. In the secret places, he's a
murderer. He's a murderer. Murders means characters. Murders
means everything about men. What it is, they have something
he wants, and he's willing to do whatever it takes to get what
he wants. That's the description of the
natural man. Somebody says, are there no good
people? No. No. Now, there are people who
conduct themselves well. I'm thankful for that. We couldn't
live in this society without that, could we? I mean, everybody'd
be killing each other and shooting each other down. I'm thankful
that there are people that conduct themselves in a good manner. But as far as what somebody is
in their heart, this describes every natural man, what you and
I are by nature. What it says in verse nine, he
lieth and waits secretly as a lion in its den, He lieth in wait
to catch the poor. He doth catch the poor when he
draweth them into his net. There's nothing he would rather
love to do than see the poor drawn in his net and fall. You
see, a natural man, would love to see anybody who professes
to believe to fall. Because he could say, see, see
where your gospel got you? It didn't do anything for you.
You're no different than anybody else. And so he's saying, oh,
I'd love to have them caught in my net and see them exposed
and fall and so on. That's that desire. That's that
secret feeling of pleasure at the fall of somebody else. That
is what this is referring to when it's talking about the natural
man. Verse 10, he croucheth. He humbled himself, mock humility. He acts real humble. You ever
been around somebody, I'm gonna act humble. Well, that's the
problem, it's an act. And he'll do that in order to
get what he wants. He crouches, he humbles himself
that the poor may fall by his strong ones. He has said in his
heart, and this is where the true thoughts and feelings come
from, the heart. He has said in his heart, God
hath forgotten. He hideth his face, he'll never
see it. Now talking about deceiving yourself,
God never forgets anything. Somebody says, well, what about
him forgetting our sins? Well, he does forget those because
there's nothing there to remember. That's how powerfully the blood
of Christ has removed our sins and made everybody in his sight
justified. There's nothing there for him
to remember. Don't think he ever forgets anything.
I want you to think about how many times you've committed some
kind of sin that you felt terribly guilty about. And you haven't
thought about it for years. I'm not trying to bring anything
up, but you haven't thought about it for years. The Lord never
forgets sin the way we do. The only way he forgets it is
because there's nothing there to remember. But he remembers
everything. And the man who tries to convince
himself that God's going to forget, what self-deception. Verse 12, arise, O Lord, lift
up thine hand, forget not the humble. Now he, David at this
time sees, and this is the Lord speaking too, of the lowly, his
people. Don't forget the humble. Wherefore,
verse 13, does the wicked contemn God? Speak degradingly with regard
to God and his attributes and his character. He has said in
his heart, thou will not require it. Once again, the Lord will
require it. Thou hast seen. For thou beholdest mischief in
spite to requite it with thy hand. The poor committed himself
unto thee. Thou art the helper of the fatherless.
Now this is such a comfort. The Lord sees everything. He
sees, he's in control of everything. No matter what the wicked may
do, He's in control of the wicked. They are His pawns. I like using
that word. They are His pawns performing
His will. And we might not understand it,
but we don't need to understand it because we trust the Lord.
Whatever he does is right, holy, just, and good, and his ways
are above our ways. We're so fine with that when
the Lord gives us the grace to be fine with that. And look,
I love what it says here in verse 14. The poor committeth himself
unto thee. The poor, those who have nothing. Those who have no righteousness
to recommend them to God, Those who can't bring anything to God,
they're poor, they don't have anything. What does the poor
do? They commit themselves to thee. And we have a New Testament
scripture that tells us exactly what that means. Paul said, I
know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day, speaking
of the day of judgment. Now, what have you committed
to him, Paul? Now, listen to me real carefully,
because I hope I'm entering into the same thing Paul does when
he makes his statement. Everything with regard to my
salvation, everything, I burned all my bridges I don't have a
plan B because I'm poor. I'm too poor to even have a plan
B. All I have is Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has done
for me. If, when he said it is finished,
if there's anything left undone, I'm toast. There's no hope for
me. All my hope is in it is finished. And I have committed I have entrusted,
this is all I have. This is all I hope in. I've committed
the poor, the one who has nothing, who really has no, it's not like
I've made a decision to do this. It's the only thing I have to
do. I don't have any other thing to do. I don't have anywhere
to look but to Christ only. I have nothing. That's the poor. That's every believer. You've
got the wicked and the pride of his countenance and the poor
who have nothing. Now, if you're poor, here's what
you'll do. You'll commit You'll entrust
the entire salvation of your soul to Him. If my salvation
is in any way dependent upon me coming up with the faith and
the repentance or wholly living on my part, I have no hope. My
only hope is that who He is, And what he did is everything
God requires of me. And I have committed the salvation
of my soul to him. And what I love about this, I
didn't choose to do this. I just don't have anything else
to do. And only the poor feel that way. And if you're poor,
God made you poor. God made you a sinner in the
sense that if you didn't see you're a sinner, he's the one
who revealed to you that you're a sinner. And this is what the
poor do. They commit himself unto thee. Thou art the helper
of the fatherless. You know, that old saying, God
helps those who help themselves. No, he doesn't. He helps those
who cannot help themselves. the poor, the oppressed, the
fatherless. And David says, break thou the
arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness
till thou find none. The Lord's gonna do that. Shall
not the judge of the earth do right? The Lord's vengeance is
mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Now understand this, it's
never right for me or you to try to get even. Vengeance belongs
to the Lord. It's never right for you to try
to avenge yourself. Vengeance belongeth to the Lord.
And what a joy it is to know, I'm the Lord, He's gonna do what's
right. Just rest in that. You see, God is in all of our
thoughts. To the wicked, God's not in all their thoughts, but
God's in all of our thoughts. Whatever happens to us, God did
it. He's in control of it, and we
believe that, and we rest in that. David says, the Lord is
king forever and ever. Now that is what gives us peace,
he is king. Now it's not an empty title,
that means he reigns. That means he's in control, he's
in control of everything. The Lord is king, he's king in
creation, He's king in providence. Everything that takes place is
his will being done. He's king of salvation. He's the one who saves. And he
wills the salvation of everybody he saves. The Lord is king forever,
eternally, forever and ever. The Lord is king. The heathen, the wicked, are
perished out of his land, heaven. They won't be there. Lord, thou
has heard the desire of the humble. Now, what is the desire of the
humble? I think it's expressed, the desire of every believer.
The desire of the humble is expressed most clearly in Philippians chapter
three, where Paul said, oh, that I may win Christ and be found
in him. That's my desire, not having my own righteousness.
I don't want to go that route, but that which is through the
faith of Christ, the righteousness, which is of God by faith, that
I might know him. That's my desire, I want to know
him. I mainly want him to know me, but I want to know him too.
And know the power of his resurrection, the power of what his resurrection
accomplished, the fellowship of his sufferings. I want to
know that I had a share in what he did, that what he did, he
did for me. If by any means I may be made
conformable to his death, if by any means I might attain the
resurrection of the dead. The Lord sees the desires of
the believer, and the desires are what you really are. If you
want to know what you really are, what's your desire? Well,
my desire is to be in Christ, found in Him. Lord, thou hast
heard the desire of the humble. Thou wilt prepare their heart.
Thou wilt cause thine ear to hear. You're gonna give them
the heart to ask, and you're gonna cause your ear to hear.
You're gonna hear the desire of the poor. That's how glorious
God is. To judge the fatherless and the
oppressed, the ones who have no recourse for protection but
you alone, that the man of the earth, and that's what he calls
the unbeliever, the man of the earth, the man of this world,
may be, may no more oppress. Psalms are glorious, aren't they?
Amen.