Psalm 10 explained: When Cruel People Seem to Win

Why are you far away? (v. 1)

The psalm opens with a blunt complaint that God seems distant and hidden just when trouble is worst. It has no heading, probably because it was once joined to Psalm 9, which shares its pattern of lines starting with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Portrait of the arrogant (vv. 2-6)

The wicked man is driven by pride: he brags about getting what he wants, praises greed, and leaves God out of his thinking entirely. This is less a reasoned denial of God than a way of living as if he will never have to answer to anyone.

A hunter in hiding (vv. 7-11)

His lies and threats lead to real violence, pictured as an ambusher near villages, a lion crouching to spring, and a hunter dragging prey off in a net. Verse 10 is hard to translate, so it is unclear whether the victims fall to his own strength or to the men who work for him.

Get up and act (vv. 12-15)

The speaker asks God to use his power and insists that God does see the suffering the wicked think goes unnoticed. Asking God to break the oppressor's arm means breaking his power, a raw and honest plea for him to be stopped and held to account.

The LORD is King (vv. 16-18)

The psalm ends confident that God rules, hears the afflicted, and defends orphans and the oppressed, so that mere mortals can no longer terrorize others. Scholars are unsure whether the nations mentioned here are foreign enemies or the oppressors already described.

Key verse: Psalm 10:14

Something to think about

When people who hurt others seem to prosper and nothing stops them, how do you make sense of the gap between how things are and how they ought to be?