SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 12/28/2011 8:49 AM
My
Worship Time Focus:
Psalm 10
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Psalm 10
Message of the verses: “1 Why
do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? 2
In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots
which they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the
greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. 4 The wicked, in the haughtiness of his
countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no
God." 5 His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of
his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. 6 He says to himself,
"I will not be moved; Throughout all generations I will not be in
adversity." 7 His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under
his tongue is mischief and wickedness. 8 He sits in the lurking places of the
villages; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch
for the unfortunate. 9 He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He
lurks to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into
his net. 10 He crouches, he bows down, And the unfortunate fall by his mighty
ones. 11 He says to himself, "God has forgotten; He has hidden His face;
He will never see it."
“12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand.
Do not forget the afflicted. 13 Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to
himself, "You will not require it." 14 You have seen it, for You have
beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits
himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan. 15 Break the arm of the
wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none. 16 The LORD
is King forever and ever; Nations have perished from His land. 17 O LORD, You
have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will
incline Your ear 18 To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed, So that man who
is of the earth will no longer cause terror.”
In
the John MacArthur Study Bible there is a note telling that Psalms 9 & 10
used to be one Psalm but now they are split between 9 & 10, and the reason
they used to be on is that they are very similar, as they speak of the enemies
of Israel. Psalm nine speaks of those
from the outside while psalm 10 speaks of enemies on the inside, those who
claim to know God, but don’t and have no fear of God or of the last judgment
that will come from God at the end of time as we know it now. The Bible calls this judgment the “Great
White Throne Judgment,” and it is found in Revelations 20:11ff.
Questioning
God (v. 1): “1 Why
do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?”
The psalmist is wrestling with the
same old question that many people have wrestled with for many years and that
is why to the wicked prosper and why do those who follow the Lord become
afflicted by the wicked. Isn’t God going
to do something about all of this? We
see this in other parts of the Bible, this same question being asked, for we
saw it in the book of Job when we studied Job.
We know that God has a special part of His heart for the orphans and for
the widows and yet there are times when they too are afflicted and so the psalmist
asks this age old question in verse one.
Rejecting
God (vv. 2-13): We will see four statements in these verses that
will express what those rejecting God believe and because of this belief it
will determine how they behave in their lives.
“There is no God” (vv.2-4 NASB) “2 In pride
the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which
they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the
greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. 4 The wicked, in the haughtiness of his
countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, "There is no God.’”
I have mentioned in an earlier SD
that Dr. Wiersbe’s commentaries use the King James Bible and I have always used
the NASB and in his commentary on this section he wants his readers to see
verse four in the NASB because of the statement at the end of verse four: “There is no God.”
I
have also mentioned that the reason that many people of this age flock to the
theory of evolution is that by believing this lie they take God out of the
picture and become their own gods doing what they want, not fearing any
judgment, well the psalmist is speaking of people who are doing the same kind
of thing in his day.
We
see that these evil and wicked people live only for their self, and have no
fear of God or what they do to other people as long as it causes gain for them.
This sounds all too familiar as we look at the world around us today.
“I shall not be moved” (v.5-7): “5 His
ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for
all his adversaries, he snorts at them. 6 He says to himself, "I will not
be moved; Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity." 7 His
mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief
and wickedness.”
Let us look at two passages of
Scripture to help understand these verses above: “10
For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all
things, even the depths of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a
man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God
no one knows except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit
of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely
given to us by God, 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human
wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with
spiritual words. 14 But a
natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually
appraised. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he
himself is appraised by no one. 16 For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT
HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.” (1Cor. 2:10-16) This passage shows that unconverted man has
no knowledge or understanding of the Word of God, or the ways of God and that
is the problem with these people in Psalm 10.
These
people of Psalm 10 misunderstand God, especially that God is longsuffering, and
because He is longsuffering they think He will not act at all. “Because the sentence against an
evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men
among them are given fully to do evil.”
(Eccl. 8:11)
One
of these days these people will wake up and see that the longsuffering of God
is over and then their peace and prosperity will end very suddenly.
“God will not judge me” (vv. 12-13): “12
Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. 13 Why
has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, "You will not require
it.’”
“12 Arise, O LORD! Punish the wicked, O God! Do not ignore the helpless! 13 Why do the
wicked get away with despising God? They
think, “God will never call us to account.’” (NLT)
In
these verses we see the psalmist crying out for help to God and we also see
three names for God in these verses:
God: Jehovah, the God of the covenant, and El and Elohim, the God of
power. I would like to say here that it
would be a wonderful study to know all the names that are used for God
throughout the Bible and by knowing this it will enhance our prayer life, for
like the psalmist in these verse we could cry out to God by using His names
that fit into what we are praying about.
Dr.
Wiersbe writes: “The Lord will keep His
covenant promises to His people, and there will be a day of reckoning when
sinners will be judged by a righteous God.
‘Arise, O God’ takes us back
to Numbers 10:35 and the triumphant march of Israel.”
Trusting
God (vv.14-18) The psalmist shows his great trust in God in this
last portion of this psalm and has full confidence that God will answer his
prayers about the wicked, for he knows that God is on His throne and has
everything under control. Dr. Wiersbe
writes, “The Lord may not explain to us why some people seem to get away with
their evil deeds, but He does assure us that He will judge sinners and
ultimately defend His own. In this
paragraph, the Lord answers all four of the statements of the wicked that are
quoted in verses 2-13.”
God sees what is going on (v. 14): “14 But you see the trouble and grief they
cause. You take note of it and punish
them. The helpless put their trust in you.
You defend the orphans.”
In verses 8-11 we saw that the
wicked boast that God does not know what is going on, but He does see the
trouble and the grief that the wicked are causing.
God judges sin (v. 15): “15
Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
Go after them until the last one is destroyed.”
This answers the false claim of
verses 12-13. God will answer this
prayer, for He is bound by His Word, and although the answer may not come in
the time frame we want it to come God will answer this prayer and God will
judge sin.
God is King (v. 16): “16
The LORD is king forever and ever! The
godless nations will vanish from the land.”
The wicked claim that there is no
God (vv.1-4) but that is not the truth, for the truth is that God is and He
rules over all.
We know that this prayer was
answered for there were many nations that have vanished from their lands since
the writing of this psalm, and we know according to the prophecies of the Bible
that God will do this in the end times and the reason is that He is King and
rules over His kingdom.
God defends His own people (vv. 17-18): “17
LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them. 18 You will bring
justice to the orphans and the oppressed, so mere people can no longer terrify
them.”
In verse verses 5-7 the wicked
claim that they will not be moved, but God has other plans for them. God hears the prayers of those who are being
persecuted and He see their plight, He also gives strength to their hearts to
enable them to go through trials (see Romans 8:28). He will eventually judge the wicked, those
who have abused them. Paul writes in
Philippians 3:20-21 these words, “20 For
our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into
conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion (action) of the power
that He has even to subject all things to Himself.” This is a wonderful promise for all
believers, especially in times of trouble.
Yes
God will one day judge all of the wickedness that has gone on during the
history of wickedness upon this earth, and God will take His children to be
with Him to live forever, and these are two great promises we can hold onto.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I know that the promises of God are true and
that one day God will judge the wicked, and when He does that it will not be in
the sense of getting even with them, but God is just and His justice will be
seen in that day when the Great White Throne Judgments take place (Revelation
20:11-15). I believe it is Ezekiel who
said that God gets no pleasure from the judgment of the wicked, and I suppose
that waiting on God to judge the wicked is a part of learning to be content,
knowing that God is in control and will keep His Word.
My
Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Continue
to learn contentment, knowing that one day all wrongs will be made right by
God.
12/28/2011 10:08:15 AM
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