Lord, thank you so much for not leaving us alone. Thank you for giving us your word. Thank you for sending your Son. Thank you for sending your Spirit. We ask now as we read Psalm 10 that you would help us, help us to trust you, help us to wait on you. We ask that you would reveal yourself to us in the psalm this morning. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. I invite you all to turn with me to Psalm 10. Psalm 10, I'll read it in its entirety to open us. Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor. They are caught in the schemes which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are on high, out of his sight. As for all his foes, he puffs at them. He says in his heart, I shall not be moved. Throughout all generations, I shall not meet adversity. His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue are trouble and iniquity. He sits in ambush in the villages. In hiding places, he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless. He lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket. He lurks that he may seize the poor. He seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. The helpless are crushed, sink down, and they fall by his might. He says in his heart, God has forgotten. He has hidden his face. He will never see it. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, You will not call to account? You do see You note trouble and vexation, that you may take it into your hands. To you the helpless commits himself. You have been the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer. Call his wickedness to account until you find none. The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations perish from his land. O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. This morning we are concluding a kind of two-parter through Psalms 9 and 10. Last week we looked at Psalm 9 and we called that sermon Praising with the Psalms and we considered the importance of praise and we considered the fact that David was praising God in a situation of affliction. He was suffering and yet still he praised. And in fact, Psalm 9 ended with a prayer, a prayer of faith that David would not have been able to pray had it not been for his praise. For we consider the fact that praise reminds us of fundamental truths about who God is. Truths that are easy to lose sight of in the midst of suffering. We considered specifically, as David did in Psalm 9, the justice of God. His righteousness. How God demonstrates his justice in the gospel. We praise him for how he demonstrates his justice in the triumph of the gospel in history. How he demonstrates his justice in the triumph of the gospel in our own lives. And because of David's praise, he was able to pray at the end of Psalm 9, Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord. Let the nations know that they are but men. We said last week, that is a prayer of faith. That is a prayer that you cannot pray unless you know God for who He is. Unless you know Him to be righteous. So David praises God for his righteousness before he even gets to the prayer, even in the midst of all his suffering. And Psalm 10, which we were looking at this morning, is really an expansion of the prayer in Psalm 9 verses 19 to 20. Psalm 10 is linked very closely with Psalm 9. I mean in general the Psalms are arranged in such a way that Psalms that are related tend to be near each other. However, Psalm 9 and 10 are linked even more closely than just happen to be put next to each other in the final collection. So they're linked more closely than say 8 and 9 are or 10 and 11 are. You'll notice that in your Bible, usually, like if you're using the ESV, you see all these titles, all these headings in the first number of chapters telling you that David wrote them and sometimes giving you some context, but you notice that there's none of that for 10, right? Psalm 9, it just goes right into 10. We're not giving a heading. And in fact, in the old Greek translation traditions, in the Septuagint, the LXX, Psalm 9 and 10 are just treated as one psalm. They're listed as one psalm. They're just Psalm 9. And more than just in our translation history and in tradition, they're actually linked formally. I think there's a footnote in most of your Bibles that say Psalm 9 and 10 together are an acrostic, which is just a poetic device. It's where you organize the poem according to the alphabet, where each line or each colon will start with one letter of the alphabet and the next one will go, so it'll go like A, B, C, D, E. It's kind of a memory helping device. And Psalm 9 and 10 form an acrostic across the whole Psalm. Across both of them. It goes A, B, C, D, E. So Psalm 9 and 10, they go together. You are meant to read them together. Even more so than, you know, reading 8 and 9 together. That means that we need to understand the prayer in Psalm 10 in light of the praise of Psalm 9. They go together. Praise in Psalm 9 came first and then we come to the prayer in Psalm 10. So today's sermon, we're going to look at Psalm 10. Psalm 10, apart from this kind of opening introductory verse, this kind of question that sets the tone, divides fairly neatly into three different sections. So we're going to look at each of the sections. We'll walk through them one at a time. We'll consider some of the details. We'll draw out some of the things that David is saying and doing. And then I'm going to make application along the way in the form of questions this morning. I have some application questions for you. So look with me at Psalm 10, eyes on the text, as we consider David's prayer of faith in the midst of his affliction. As I said, Psalm 10 opens with verse one and it's kind of this big picture question. Why, oh Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? God feels far away because bad people are getting away with stuff. David is suffering. Suffering unjustly. You see this question sets the tone for the entire psalm. Right? This prayer is not a disinterested academic discourse on the inscrutability of God. Right? This isn't a proverbial reflection on the difficulties and complexities of the world. It's not, ah, man, sometimes the wicked do seem to prosper. Too true, friend, too true. It's not like that. David is upset. he's upset this question sets the tone for how you read what follows what follows in verses 2 through 11 we might call David's complaint or David's lament he opens with this really really long section bringing out in detail exactly what has led him to this point he says in arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor I like the hotly pursue. This word in Hebrew originally just meant burn. It's the word for like if you burn, you know, wood or kindling. And sometimes idiomatically it's used for pursuit. Kind of the way the fire moves along something and it eats up something. So it's a very negative sense of pursue. It's not like how you might pursue your wife or pursue a pastime. This is with ill intent. You might even just literally say the wicked, they burn up the poor. The following line, you might have noticed if you're reading the ESV, I read a little bit differently. The ESV kind of interjects a prayer here. It reads it as a prayer. It says, let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised. They are taking the them to be the wicked. Although literally it just says they are caught in the schemes that they have devised. I think the NIV is probably right here to read this as a reference to the poor. The poor are caught. We're not at the prayer yet. This is David's complaint. The poor are caught in the schemes that the wicked devise. And then verses three and four are this really important foundational reason for all this wickedness reason for what the wicked are doing for the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord The wicked boasts of the desire of his soul. And it starts with for, because. This is the reason that they're burning up the poor. This is the reason for all the destruction that they're causing. It's because ultimately they glorify self and they reject God. The wicked boasts of his desires. What he wants. What he thinks. He boasts. He celebrates them. He raises up his own inclinations, his own thoughts. He praises those. He determines who he is. He determines what he wants. He determines the course of his life. Whatever comes to his mind, that's what he celebrates. He boasts of his desires. and he rejects God. The one greedy for gain, which is parallel here with the wicked, another way to describe them. The one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. So not only does he elevate his own desires, his own thoughts, his own plans, his own interpretation of the world, he rejects God and he rejects God's plan and God's purpose. He elevates his own self-definition and he rejects God's definition of himself. So much so that in the pride of his face, we read in verse 4, the wicked does not seek God. All his thoughts are, there is no God. Or maybe better, all his plans don't include God. Right? This isn't necessarily talking about maybe like a new atheist that we meet today who thinks about God a lot. They really don't like God and that's all they want to talk about. Here the sense is, he never thinks about God. Whatever he's planning, whether it's what he's going to eat for breakfast, or what he's going to do with his day, or what he's going to do with his life, God doesn't factor in to the equation. God doesn't affect his plans. And what's most horrible about this, the existence of the wicked who praise themselves, reject God, and do not consider God, is, as we see in verse 5 and 6, they seem to be successful. His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments, God, are on high, as in they're not there. They're out of his sight. He doesn't even know they exist. As for all his foes, he puffs at them. He says in his heart, I shall not be moved. Throughout all generations, I shall not meet adversity. God's judgments don't seem to apply to him. So much so that they're boastful about their evil. They're totally unafraid of judgment. Did you ever have a friend when you were little, and you go over to their house, and they climb up on the counter, and they get down the jar of cookies and Oreos, and they're stuffing their face, and like, wow, you're allowed to do that? And they're like, I'm allowed to do whatever I want. My dad doesn't care. He lets me do whatever I want. And then his dad walks in the room, and you turn, and there's just a pile of Oreos hanging in the air because he's running for his life. That's what's going on here. Make no mistake, the wicked is only this arrogant and boastful because he feels like God's not around. And God does not care what he's doing. He is totally unafraid of God's judgment. This evil is A far deeper issue than just any particular action. We read in verse 7, his mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. Or mischief for us is sometimes a relatively benign word. Like oh he's getting into a little mischief. It's trouble. This is serious stuff. His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit. Our Lord Jesus told us that out of the heart the mouth speaks. This reveals the condition of his heart. It's not just been taught poorly. It's not just that he wasn't raised right or could use a little more discipline in his life. This is a heart issue. He is corrupt at the core. And so, he sits in ambush in the villages, in verse 8. In hiding places, he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless. He lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket. He lurks that he may seize the poor. He seizes the poor when he draws him into his net. Now you have to understand that it need not literally mean, the wicked that David is talking about need not literally be doing these things every day. Not necessarily limiting this to robbers and and other men like that the point is when you reject God when you boast in yourself when you lift yourself up because of the deep corruption that exists The results are going to be parallel to this. The results are devastation and destruction. Whether you are actually making plans to murder the poor or whether you are simply indifferent because you love yourself and you don't care what God thinks. You see, the result of their evil, the result of their rejection of God is real devastation. It is real suffering, as David himself is experiencing. Remember, David's the king. He's not what we might necessarily think of as totally helpless. But the result of the wicked, the result of rejection of God is real devastation. It's real suffering. In verse 10, the helpless are crushed. they sink down they fall by his might and the wicked says in his heart God has forgotten he has hidden his face he will never see it he's smug and arrogant about it every time the wicked speaks in the two times he speaks in this opening section your blood should boil So this might make me young to some of you or make me old to some of you. I remember when you're sick at home and you watch TNT and it just seems like they ran Law and Order perpetually. And I would watch Law and Order and they're trying to be realistic, right? So not every time they got the bad guy, not every time the bad guy got convicted. And I remember those episodes where the bad guy doesn't get convicted and your blood just boils. And sometimes they had that scene where he knows he's guilty and he knows he got away with it. And he looks at the lawyers or the cops and there's just a smile on his face and he knows, I'm walking away. You know I did it, I know I did it, and I'm walking away. That's verse 11. He is winking and smirking. God has forgotten. He's hidden his face. He'll never see it. I win. I win. And so I have, considering this, these verses 2 to 11, this very serious lament of David. I have a couple application questions or questions that lead to a number of related applications. My first is, is this your complaint? Is this your lament? You see we're given this psalm. This is an example of inspired prayer. We are given this as an example of prayer. What we see here is inspired prayer includes godly lament. David writes not so much as the everyman as he writes as the ideal man. He writes inspired of the spirit in a way to teach you and reflect to you how you ought to think and relate to God. He writes as the ideal man, a man whose prayers are not smattered with sin the way ours so often are. He writes as a representative of the people, as the king. The way we also say this theologically is he writes as a type of Christ. He writes pointing forward to who Christ is, to who we ought to be as we are conformed to the image of Christ. You see, this text very much, this lament very much represents Christ's response to sin. This represents our Lord Jesus' response to sin. Are we complacent about sin and wickedness? When we're not suffering, when things aren't going bad for us, do we care? Does it upset us? Maybe we like the world the way it is. Maybe the system works for us. Sometimes, like I said, sometimes suffering happens and we're never happy about that. I think a lot of times we're quite content with the way the world is. We find ourselves being complacent about sin. But what we see here is that Christ is not complacent about sin. Jesus is not complacent about suffering. He's not complacent about your suffering. Notice we're going to see that that kind of opening question of David, why oh Lord, why do you stand far away? He doesn't answer it in this psalm. There isn't a kind of theodicy. David doesn't go into the many reasons why God does some things versus other things. Why he allows certain things, ordains certain things. David doesn't specifically get into that. He doesn't answer the question in maybe the way that we want him to. I mean there are other parts of the Bible that deal with those types of issues. But what happens here is God reveals himself. The way the question is answered is God reveals himself, much like in the book of Job. Job never learns about the the contest with Satan. Job never learns about the test and why he went through what he went through. What happens at the end of Job is God just shows up. He reveals himself to Job and that satisfies him. What happens here in this psalm is not that we are specifically given an answer to why do these things happen sometimes, but rather we are revealed, God is revealed to us. Christ is revealed to us. A Christ who does not minimize sin or suffering, but who is upset about it? Who is angry about it? He hates it. You see, I'm cheating, but it's on the same page, so it's not that much cheating. Jump over to Psalm 11. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. This complaint in verses 2 through 11, that's Christ's complaint. The question is not answered, but God is revealed to us. Jesus is revealed to us. We can trust him. We can trust Jesus because he's not complacent about sin. We can trust him because he's not complacent about our own suffering. We can go to him and pray like this. We can trust him. And another question I have when we consider this opening lament is, is this your confession? Is this your confession? Because you see, there's another danger when we read this. One danger is we're just complacent about sin. We don't care when the world's going good for us. Another danger is self-righteousness. Maybe you heard all that and you're like, hey man, no worries. I am complaining about other people's sin all the time. I have a whole blog about my neighbor's wickedness. You want to read it? No problem. as we recognize that ultimately this reflects Christ's perspective and Christ is the speaker we also have to recognize in case any of you are unsure we are not Christ we are not Jesus and I think it is impossible regardless of what you are going through I think it is impossible to read this psalm and not see ourselves here That might not be the emphasis on any given read-through, but it is impossible to read it and just totally not see yourself there. In fact, Paul, the Apostle, cites from this very psalm in Romans 3, starting in verse 10, where he kind of condemns all people under the judgment of God because all people are wicked. He goes in that medley of quotations. There's none righteous, no not one. Psalm 10 is one of the places that he draws from. Under his tongue are trouble and guilt. His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression. It's impossible not to recognize our own indifference to God. It's impossible not to recognize that quite often what we celebrate is ourselves. And our ideas and our interpretations of the world. And what we care about are our plans. Our purposes. We want to define ourselves. Whether you're murdering or not. You say, I'm not murdering the poor. I haven't murdered the poor this week. But I'm sure that this week we decided to define our reality according to any number of things that struck our fancy. We ignored what God had to say about reality. We rejected God and his interpretation, his authoritative word. We make our plans not thinking about God. Make our plans for what we want to do with the day or the week, what we want to do with our lives. God doesn't come into the question. We don't bring our things before the Lord because He's not on our mind. And as we see in Psalm 10, that attitude, that heart disposition always results in devastation and destruction. You cannot reject God and have things go well. Even if you're not planning to murder anyone. And so at least part of the answer to the question in verse 1, why do you stand far away? At least part of the answer to the question is mercy. Mercy. You have to read yourself there sometimes. You have to see yourself there and recognize part of the reason why it seems that the wicked get away with stuff is because God is in the business of saving wicked people. The Lord is not slow. The Lord is not slow. Well we see David has this long lament in verses 2-11 and then he transitions. He transitions to the next section of the psalm which is verses 12-15 and this we'll call David's petition, his request. He's opened with his lament. He's opened with his complaint about his situation, about the world. And now he petitions. Now he asks for something. In verse 12, Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. He asked God to act. Step in. Don't stand far off. Don't stand far off. Do something Lord. Step in and notice that David asks with confidence. We read in verse 13, why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart you will not call to account. This why is different than the why in verse 1. The why in verse 1 is why is this happening? This why is, why is this guy dumb enough to think this way? Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart he will not call into account? That's so rhetorical. What is he thinking? Verse 14, you do see, you do note, you take it into your hands. David asked God to act and he asks him with confidence. He asks them with confidence. And as we see in verse 14, you do see, you do note that trouble and vexation to take it into your hands. To you the helpless commits himself. You have been the helper of the fatherless. We note that he asks in accordance with his praise from Psalm 9. Remember, all this opens with praise for God's righteousness, praise for his character, praise for the fact that he does take care of the poor. He does take care of his people. And in the midst of affliction, it's easy to feel like that's not the case, but objectively, it's true. He does. And so David prays, he asks God in accordance with what he has praised. In other words, he asks God in accordance with who he knew God to be, who he reminded himself of who God was in his praise. Remember in Psalm 9, he praises God's righteousness. He praises God's justice. And so here in verse 15, he asks for total justice. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer. End his power. End his ability to get away with all these things. End his ability to think arrogantly. This is never going to come back against me. Call his wickedness to account until you find none. Leave none of this. Act God. Step in. And so my question here is, do you pray like this? Do you pray like this? Do you bring God the hard things? Listen, big shiny requests are not hard prayers. God, please give me Mercedes. That's not a hard prayer. God, bring justice. That's a hard prayer. God, you hear the cry of the unborn in our country. End this. End abortion. That's a hard prayer. Do you bring God the hard things? Do you pray assuming that God is righteous? Do you believe it? Do you believe that God is righteous and just and pray accordingly? Ask him accordingly. If we aren't praying like David, perhaps it's because we don't praise like David. You see, simplistic, fluffy, happy thoughts that don't go deep, that just stay at the surface, those kind of fluffy things that talk about God, it will not give you the faith you need to pray like this. a surface level or incorrect view of God will not underscore faith to pray this way. That's why we preach the way we do. That's why we care about scripture here at this church. We want to know God for who he is. We want to know him for who he has revealed himself to be in the Bible because only God himself can give real faith. Only knowing God for who He is can underline real faith. Only when you know God as a righteous judge can you come to Him and pray to Him as a righteous judge. You need not just a friend to comfort you, you need a creator. You need the writer of DNA, the inventor of gravity. You need someone who holds it all together. You don't just need a genie who will give you an occasional wish. You need a sovereign king to whom you owe all obedience, who holds all things together in the palm of his hand, who rules over the entire planet, over all of creation, all of nature. You don't just need a cheerleader who celebrates you in everything that you are. You need a savior who saves you from what you are. You don't just need some life tips. You need new life. You need to be brought to life. You need spiritual life. We don't just need a lackadaisical grandpa who doesn't care what we're doing. We need a righteous judge who cares about the evil in this world and who will bring it all into account. My brothers and sisters, it has to be God. It has to be God who we're here for. The real God as revealed in the Bible. The real God as revealed in the praise of Psalm 9. As revealed in the complaint that we read. It has to be the real God. He has to underline all that we do. He has to underline our worship. Only then will we be able to pray like David prays. the final section of the psalm verses 16 to the end we read more praise more praise and there's no indication in the text at least that there's a long break in the writing it's not like oh everything was resolved and then I wrote this praise at the end as far as we know it just gets back to praise all right Right in the middle of everything. Right in the middle of all his affliction. Right in the middle of the situation that brought out the lament of 2 through 11. He started with praise in Psalm 9 and he gets right back to it here at the very end. The Lord is King forever and ever. The nations perish from his land. The Lord is King forever and ever. Jesus Christ is King. And he is building his kingdom and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And the nations perish from his land. All other false systems, all other empires, all other ideas, all other world views, they're temporary. They will not endure. They come and they go. They die out. One day they will all completely die out. The nations will perish from his land. There will be nothing infecting God's world. Christ will exert his authority totally. He will cleanse his land. Verse 17, Lord you hear the desire of the afflicted. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline your ear God hears the prayers of his suffering people. Christ hears the prayers of his suffering people. In fact, we heard not too long ago when we were preaching through Romans. Not only does he hear the prayers of his people, and also when we were preaching through Hebrews, but Christ himself intercedes for his people. He prays for you. You might not be able to pray this. You might not have the faith yet to pray Psalm 10, but that's okay. Christ is praying it for you. He prays for you. The Spirit prays for you. Even when you don't know what to pray. God hears the prayers of his people. And he will strengthen those same people. He'll strengthen their heart. Not necessarily going to fix the injustice right away. Not necessarily going to bring an end to that in the moment. But He will strengthen them. He will give them the strength of Spirit by empowering them with His Spirit, by comforting them with the love of Christ so that they can endure. And God will eventually, totally, right all injustice. There is coming a day when the man of the earth will strike terror no more. It's coming. Remember at the beginning I mentioned that Psalm 9 and 10 they form an acrostic right? It's A, B, C, line A, line B, line C, line D. The first word starts with the letter A. That's kind of not true. It goes like this, actually. A, B, C, D, L, Q, R, Z. It just kind of devolves. And then right here at the end of Psalm 10, it picks up again. It goes W, X, Y, Z. So A, B, C, jumble, jumble, jumble, jumble, jumble, W, X, Y, Z. So some people say, At some point in transmission, this got messed up and corrupted. Some people say, it's just, it's not an acrostic at all. But it's just, it's too much of perfect. A, B, C, and W, X, Y, Z. It's too much to have been an accident or unintentional. Some people say, David just couldn't think of the letters. Like he just couldn't, he just couldn't do it. Right? I think there's a different answer. He starts with praise and everything is ABC. And then it's L, G, F, M. Life doesn't always feel like ABC. Life doesn't always feel simple. It isn't always easy to understand. It doesn't always make sense. Maybe today your life isn't A, B, C. Maybe your life is Q, R, 7, I don't know. But David makes sure. He makes sure to get back. And right at the end of Psalm 10, it's W, X, Y, Z. Your life might not make sense now, but if you are in Christ, if you belong to Him, I promise you it will. I'm not promising you that you're going to understand everything that God did. We'll never be God. But I promise you one day it will not be chaotic injustice. The Lord is King forever and ever. Christ is King. The nations will perish. And he will do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. I promise you, I promise you if you're in Christ you have a WXYZ ending coming. I promise you. I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the dwelling place of God is with man he will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away let's pray Lord I thank you for the hope that you have set before us. I thank you for the hope that is you. You yourself. I thank you for setting yourself before us. I thank you for revealing yourself to us in your son Jesus. I thank you for revealing your son Jesus to us in these verses in this psalm. I thank you for your justice and your righteousness. I thank you for the fact that you care about justice and righteousness. And we do not pretend to understand all of your ways. And we do not pretend to understand all of your reasons for allowing what you allow and ordaining what you ordain. But we trust you. And we know you are trustworthy. And we ask you now, continue to reveal yourself to us. Continue to build our trust. Continue to strengthen our faith. Faith in you for who you are. Help us to pray. Help us to pray in real faith. Help us to bring you the hard things. To give you the glory you deserve by being trusted. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.