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Please turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 10 as we continue to work our way through the Psalms. Psalm 10 I'll read beginning in verse 1. Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire.

He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. His ways are always prospering. Your judgments are far above, out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved. I shall never be an adversity.

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. He sits in the lurking places of the villages. In the secret places, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws them into his net. So he crouches. He lies low that the helpless may fall by his strength.

He has said in his heart, God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see. Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble. Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require an account. But you have seen, for you observe trouble and grief, to repay it by your hand. The helpless commits himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations have perished out of his land. Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more.

Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for your written word. We thank you for the glory of the incarnate word, our Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you for these psalms that point us to him and his earthly ministry. We pray that you would guide our thoughts, our minds, and hearts now by the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

We pray for any and all who've come here dead in their trespasses and sins, that they by grace would kiss the Son, that they would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would know the joy of being found in Him, not having a righteousness of their own, which is from the law, but that righteousness which is from you and received by faith alone. May they rejoice as well in that forgiveness of sins. May you encourage all of your people here, all of us who by grace have believed, May we be strengthened with might in the inner man as we reflect upon these words of our blessed Savior. We ask that you would again forgive us now for all of our sins and unrighteousness and be glorified in this glad hour. And we ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Well, in our study of the Psalms of David, we have said, or I have said on many occasions, that they really are about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, David as the psalmist, oftentimes reflecting upon circumstances in his own life, wrote about his own conditions and his own situation, but he wrote typically as well prefiguring or pointing forward to his greater son. the Lord Jesus Christ. But when we go to the New Testament we see that Christ himself applies the Psalms to himself. We see that the Apostles apply the Psalms to our Lord. We see in fact in Hebrews 2 that when the Apostle speaks concerning the Psalms, specifically Psalm 22, he says that he says Jesus in that particular Psalm. As well, we have the statement of our Savior that the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms are written about Himself. But when we mention this, that the Psalms are about Jesus first and foremost, some say, well it's tough to see Jesus in certain Psalms. I would submit this morning it's tough to see David in Psalm 10.

I think it is uniquely and specifically about the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ while he was here on earth. As well, the church. benefits. These prayers of Christ are the prayers of the church as well. And insofar as David was a blood-bought child of the living God, who had the Holy Spirit, who was a member of the church, even though that might offend the sensitivities of some in the church, David nevertheless is included here.

Not again by his own express position as the king of Israel, but as one who does suffer and the one who is connected to our blessed Redeemer. The psalm is very simple. It breaks down into two sections. First, the challenge for the psalmist in verses 1 to 11, and then secondly, the confidence of the psalmist in verses 12 to 13.

So we have seen the blessed man of Psalm 1 is our Lord Jesus. That triumphant King of Psalm 2 is that only begotten Son of the Father, even our Lord Jesus. Psalms 3 to 7 give us something of the mind of Christ in His earthly ministry and something of His prayer life and the things that He underwent. on our behalf. Psalm 8 shows the glory, the dignity, the majesty of the incarnate Son, which is our Lord Jesus.

And back to Psalms 9 and 10, which are closely connected. Again, the psalmist is crying to the God of justice and judgment to bring punishment to bear upon the enemies of the Most High, because in that bringing of the punishment of the enemies of the Most High, there is help, there is blessing, there is peace and safety. for His people. So note first with me in verses 1 to 11. Basically we have the communication of the challenge in verses 1 and 2 and then secondly the presentation of the evidence in verses 3 to 11. In other words, Jesus in His humanity, in His earthly ministry And again, speaking for David, who had these sorts of struggles, and speaking for us as the church who has these sorts of struggles, starts off with this particular question in verse 1. Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble?

The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. Now, the specific context here in verses 1 to 11 is the wickedness of the wicked, the wretchedness of man apart from the grace of God, the evil that he commits, the evil that he perpetrates, the evil that he imposes upon the righteous or the oppressed. But I would suggest that the question of the psalmist, as we see in other psalms, applies equally to whatever the circumstances might be in your life.

In fact, if you're going through some difficult medical situation, perhaps you've lost a job, perhaps you're facing other challenges and hardships, it can at times appear that God has hidden himself, and that is precisely what the psalmist is addressing here. So again, notice in verse one, he says, why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? Now here he's questioning, and I'm going to argue not in an arrogant or in a wicked or in an ungodly way, but he's questioning something that is a settled proposition in Psalm 9 at verse 9. Notice, the Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble. That's his settled conviction. That is his confident assertion. That is his declaration. That is his knowledge that he has tried and proven to be true. And yet when we come to verse 1 in chapter 10, why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble?

With reference to the Christology, according to His humanity, our Lord, when He lived in this world, when He went about doing good, when He went about fulfilling all that the Father had given Him, faced what appeared to be at times God's absence amongst the sons of men. And before that shocks you, remember that Jesus assumed true humanity. He didn't just appear to be a human. He didn't just kind of look like one of us.

True humanity means the sorts of expressions that we find in a psalm like this. True humanity expects what we see in the Garden of Gethsemane when our Lord Jesus says, True humanity, we would expect, would cry from the cross in Psalm 22, 1, quoted by the Savior from the cross, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? So the very question itself is not wicked. The question itself is not sinful. Now, we mingle a lot of wickedness with them. We mingle a lot of sinfulness with them.

But the question itself will evidence the confidence of the Savior as we turn to verses 11, verses 12 to 18. But with reference to this question, Samuel Pierce says, he pleads with his father to appear for him. It does not imply that the father was not continually with him, but it is expressive of the feelings, sorrows, and troubles which the human nature in Christ was exercised with. The rage of the enemy increased. It was in their view as though God had forsaken him.

And then Christopher Ashe, in an excellent commentary on the Psalms of David with a Christological focus, Samuel Pierce a couple of hundred years beforehand, I would say is just as good in terms of finding Christ in each of the Psalms. But Ashe says, why? And then he cites 22.1, 22.2, 22.11. Again, the expression of the psalmist in Psalm 22, picked up by our Lord from the cross, applied by the apostle to our Lord in Hebrews chapter 2, and he calls them Jesus says in Psalm 22.

But Ash says, why is an evidence of lively faith. And there he quotes David Dixon in his commentary on the Psalms. Why is an evidence of lively faith? For it takes the distress to God and sets what we know by faith that He is our stronghold against what we feel and experience.

See, brethren, the fact is is that when the Savior, when David the psalmist, when you or I go to the Lord with this, we're evidencing faith. A lack of faith would mean we didn't go to the Lord. A lack of faith would mean we'd throw up our hands and conclude there is no God. We'd live like the wicked who have that proposition in their hearts that there is no God, and we wouldn't care. So, why is an evidence of lively faith for it takes the distress of God or to God and sets what we know by faith that He is our stronghold against what we feel and experience.

This is agony but not despair. Again, we'd expect this from the Savior who's holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners. We'd expect this from one who sees the sin of man as it really is in terms of transgression against God. We expect it of one who has that approach to life and the world with a God-centered mindset that the destruction of the wicked is perfectly just and the blessing upon the righteous is perfectly just.

I fear at times the church doesn't pray these Psalms because we don't think like the Savior. And then Ash says, there are times in the life of faith when God feels hidden. Please don't look at me like I'm nuts. Please don't ever assume or think that Jesus was nuts. Again, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? There are times in the life of faith when God feels hidden.

Ash says this is a psalm for those times. I agree with Ash. Notice his argument after the appearance in verse two. The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. The description of the times of trouble, again, the times of trouble unique to this particular psalm is the oppression of the righteous by the wicked. The murder of the righteous by the wicked.

Things that you see played out in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. But also, times of trouble can be all those things I said before, because the rest of the Psalms speak to those particular situations and issues in the lives of God's people. So if your time of trouble right now isn't necessarily somebody lurking behind the hedges of your front house to try to off you and rid you from the face of the earth, you can't conclude, well, Psalm 10's not really for me. No, Psalm 10 is for you, and as Christopher Ashe says, this is a psalm for those times.

The desire with reference to the times of trouble in verse 2, the wicked and his pride persecutes the poor, let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. Those things as traps they have set for the righteous, may their foot be caught. Those things they have engineered to try to bring the downfall of their enemies, which are the righteous, may they be caught. This is not brand new in this section of the Psalter. Psalm 7 verses 15 and 16. Psalm 7, verses 15 and 16.

He made a pit and dug it out, and he has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown. 9, 15 to 17, the nations have sunk down in the pit which they made, in the net which they hid. Their own foot is caught. The Lord is known by the judgment he executes. The wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Meditation, say la. the wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

So the psalmist cries out in light of the appearance of things, the things that we experience by sense, the way that we look around, the way that we see, the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. But then notice he presents that evidence very clearly in verses three to 11. And he does so with four particulars. He speaks concerning the heart of the wicked in verses three and four, the prosperity of the wicked in verses five to seven, the conduct of the wicked in verses 8 to 10, and then the theology of the wicked in verse 11.

So this is the evidence. I'm not just making up this idea that there's wicked people out there persecuting the righteous. I'm not just making up this concept for the sake of a literary argument. No, no, this is what the Savior witnessed. This is what the Savior saw. This is what the Savior experienced in his own earthly ministry. And this is what the Savior's church experiences. This is what the Savior's church gets in their own experience throughout the ages.

Remember, Jesus says, I will build my church and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. He doesn't say the gates of Hades aren't gonna try to prevail against it. He doesn't say that the gates of Hades are gonna just let you go. He doesn't say that at all. He assumes the triumph of the church, but the continuous persecution of the church on behalf of Satan and his minions until that state of glory when he ushers in a new heavens and a new earth.

But note the heart of the wicked in verses three and four. For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. The self-centeredness of the wicked. The self-centeredness of the wicked.

That shouldn't surprise us. Was it true for David as he faced the pagans around him? Was it true for David as he faced King Saul? As he faced the Philistines? Yeah, it certainly was. But I'll argue that this is specifically the experience of our blessed Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ understood this, the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, he blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord.

Didn't the Sanhedrin wanna murder Jesus? Don't they in John's gospel in chapter five want to stone him because he being a man made himself out to be God? Don't they boast in John chapter 8 that we were not born of fornication, implying, hint, hint, that that was Jesus' condition. Don't they arrogantly assert, we are sons of Abraham in John 8, to which Jesus replies, if you were Abraham's sons, you wouldn't be trying to kill me. Actually, you are sons of your father, the devil, the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer and a liar from the beginning.

John chapter 10, another instance, they pick up stones to throw at Jesus. John chapter 11, Caiaphas, the high priest, prophesies concerning the death of the one for the nation, vis-a-vis our Lord Jesus Christ. Or consider the arrogance when the Sanhedrin delivers up our Lord to Pontius Pilate, and according to John's gospel, they don't want to enter into the praetorium because it was the Passover day and they didn't want to defile themselves. You're going to commit murder.

You are delivering up a man that even Pilate said three times was without guilt. You're going to destroy the Lord of glory but in your fastidiousness you don't want to go into a pagan palace lest you be defiled and you can't eat the Passover. This is what Jesus, speaking through the psalmist, is saying.

For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. Didn't they bless Judas, the betrayer? Didn't they bless him, that greedy wretch who was a prophet for profit? They give him 30 pieces of silver to betray our Lord Jesus Christ and deliver him up to them so that they can murder him. This is, again, difficult to put into the context life and service of King David of Israel, but it fits lockstep with the experience of the Savior as portrayed for us in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

So we've got the self-centeredness of the wicked, but also notice the practical atheism of the wicked there in verse four. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. Again, I'm sure Saul was a wretch and the Philistines were wretched and the church has faced a lot of wretched people to be sure in terms of religious commitment or religious rejection. But here he says, the wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. So that really doesn't apply to the Sanhedrin. I mean, they were the religious ones after all, weren't they? Yeah, sure.

Jesus upbraided them as whitewashed tombs. Jesus said they were like a cup that was all clean on the outside but inside it was disgusting and filthy. Jesus says they tithe mint, anise, and cumin. They're fastidious. They're weighing out these tiny seeds to give their tithe to God, but they've neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith.

What else does Jesus teach in John's Gospel in chapter 15 verses 21 and 23? He says it unequivocally. He says it absolutely clearly. Their rejection of me, the one sent by the Father, is the rejection of the one who sent me. So for all of their claims to the contrary being the religious folk that they were, according to our blessed Savior, the wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. And I would suggest that this as well explains sufficiently the problem in the world today. I mean, there's a lot of problems, aren't there? You could give me a Dan to be a Sheba list. But you know what is foundational to that?

The wicked and his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. Pierce again says, all sin proceeds from this infidelity. It is the very spring of it. Ashe says, arrogance toward heaven fuels cruelty on earth. In other words, theology drives ethics. For the wrath of God, Romans 118, is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.

That's their fundamental problem. They know God is, and yet they don't honor God, nor are their hearts thankful toward that God. So what happens? They commit gross misdeeds. They engage in all manner of wickedness and lawlessness. This is the problem in the world today. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts.

Now, there's blessed inconsistencies. Not every atheist is the functional equivalent of a Joseph Stalin. And certainly not every Christian lives up to the standards set forth for him in the New Testament. There are inconsistencies in terms of theology driving ethics. But when you look upon the world today, how do you make heads or tails out of it without a doctrine of a holy God, without a doctrine of a sinful man, without the doctrine of total depravity, total inability?

It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense in the Christian worldview, but it makes sense. Right? It's a mess. It's gross. It's vile. It's horrible. But it makes sense in that when man turns from God. When man rejects God, when man suppresses the truth and unrighteousness, he gives himself over and thus God gives himself to destruction.

And so the psalmist is rehearsing this. So the heart of the wicked. Notice as well, secondly, the prosperity of the wicked in verses five to seven. His ways are always prospering. Your judgments are far above. Out of his sight, as for all his enemies, he sneers at them.

That's the declaration of the psalmist there. That's the Asaphian dilemma. I've often mentioned that. Psalm 73, Asaph laments that the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper. Isn't that what Jesus is doing here? His ways are always prospering. Your judgments are far above, out of his sight. So in one sense, the believer and the unbeliever are living by sense. They're living by experience. They're living by what they see or don't see. Again, verse one, very clear. Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? Well, this is what the psalmist says in verse five. His ways are always prospering, the wicked. Your judgments are far above, out of his sight.

See, we both operate according to sense. We both operate according to experience. We both operate according to what appears to be the case. But you see what the unrighteous does? He banks on that. Well, there's no God. There's no God watching. So I can conduct myself in any manner I wish. For the righteous, God please come to our aid. God come please spread your wings. Lord God receive us as the stronghold and the refuge of your people.

I love at the end it says he sneers at them. If you got the old King James it says he puffs at them. Intriguing to me that ESV follows the old King James rendering. He puffs at them. I think sneers is probably better, and we just heard Pastor Porter read that in Luke's gospel. What happens at the base of the cross? The rabble, but along with the religious leaders, sneer. They're disgusted by Jesus. He is their enemy. Verse five, his ways are always prospering, your judgments are far above, out of his sight, as for all his enemies, he sneers at them.

That's the conduct or rather the prosperity of the wicked. Notice then his confession, verse six, he has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, I shall never be in adversity. It's pretty arrogant. described to Babylon in the prophet Isaiah in chapter 47, I am and there is no other. The Babylon of Revelation chapter 18 says the same sort of a thing. This is the heartbeat of wicked man in rejection of God, left on his own, in his own pride, in his own arrogance, in his own denial of all that is holy and good and sovereign and righteous. Verse 6, he has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, I shall never be in adversity.

Guess what, dummy? The psalm ends with the absolute triumph of the righteous God and the no more-ness of those who profess that they will never taste adversity. The wicked lose. The wicked fail. The wicked are cast off. The Lord Most High is victorious. Notice the manifestation of this prosperity. Verse seven, his mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. The professed faithfulness of the Sanhedrin. We have no God but God. The persistent blasphemy of the Sanhedrin of our blessed savior.

What do they do in terms of the orchestration of his death? They hatch it, they express it, they hire Judas, they incite the multitudes, they lie to Pontius Pilate, and they basically, well they do sneer at him while he's on the cross, they puff at him while he's on the cross. But as well, something else that they do is the slapping of the Savior. Again, look at verse seven. His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under His tongue is trouble and iniquity. Remember the Savior when He's before the Sanhedrin, before they ship Him off to Pilate so that Pilate can give the kill order?

But what happens? Are you then the Son of God? What does Jesus say? He doesn't say, in case of mistaken identity, it is as you said. And hereafter you shall see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with power. What's the high priest do? He tears his garments. He says, we have no further need of any witnesses.

We've heard it ourselves. And then that group of religious Political leaders in Israel in the first century, they spit on Jesus. They slap Jesus. They mock Jesus. Tell us, prophesy, who smacked you? You see, what we have in Psalm 10 is a window into the very ministry of our Lord Jesus for us men and for our salvation.

Ken, it's tough to find David in here, brethren. You may, you know, if you stick around long enough, we keep moving through Psalms. I'm probably going to get to that point where, you know, I think of Psalm 114 or, you know, somewhere out there. It's tough to find Jesus here. It's not tough to find him here. This is the prayer of Christ. This is the lament of Christ. Luther said, on top of the tongue there is honey. Right? On top of the tongue is honey. Abraham is our father. God is our God. We're not born of fornication. On top of the tongue there is honey, but under the tongue there is poison.

And thus they teach evil and their own pernicious teachings, disguised to look like piety and truth. Jesus puts to death that notion that they're somehow godly but misdirected men. If they don't know the one sent, they don't know the one who sent. They don't know the Messiah, they don't know the God of Israel. They don't know what the prophets testified and the psalmists announced and the law of Moses affirmed that Jesus was in fact the one promised. If they don't get that, they don't have the true God.

Jesus says as much in John 5, you search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life, but these are they which testify of me. or in John 8, before Abraham was, I am. Abraham rejoiced to see my day, not some nebulous, vague conception of some undefined Messiah character. Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and he was glad. That evokes from them, you're not yet 50 years old and you're talking about Abraham.

That's when they want to stone him. They want to put him to death. This is the very sense and experience of our Savior. And then notice the conduct of the wicked in verses 8 to 10. Verses 8-10, He sits in the lurking places of the villages, in the secret places. He murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when He draws them into His net. So He crouches. He lies low that the helpless may fall by His strength.

That's the opposition to our Lord. Remember, before they paid Judas, Before they seek truck with Judas, what does Matthew tell us in 26, 4 and 5? They made the decision. They were going to kill him. But not during the Passover lest there be an uproar. They got to do it through covert ops. They got to do it through subterfuge. They don't seize him on a Thursday afternoon when he's there in the temple. No, they come by stealth at night with a garrison of Roman troops to seize him while he is off duty with his disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Everything expressed in verses eight to 10. Again, I'm not discounting that David didn't have his enemies out there. I'm not discounting that the church doesn't have her enemies out there. But I am suggesting that what 8 to 10 suggests has been given to us in amplified detail by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Look at their tactics. And this shouldn't be tough, brethren, hermeneutically. Oh, he's just making this up.

I'm not making up the fact that Jesus applies Psalm 41.9 in John 13 with reference to the betrayal by Judas. or Psalm 35, 69, 109 in John 15, 25 when he speaks about being hated without cause.

Do you understand that there's always a cause for people to hate us? That probably burst your bubble this morning, I wanted to feel good. Who could it be said of that they hated me without cause? He was in all points tempted as we are, and yet without sin, Hebrews 7, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.

Do you ever think about that? Yeah, I'm not, you know, maybe I didn't do this thing at this point. Let's just put it in a real practical sort of a context. Husband and wife, I was gonna say debate, but let's say dispute. and your wife comes to you, or your husband comes to you, you did such and such. Well, this time I actually didn't, but I've done enough bad enough stuff that I get why you're angry. I understand, it's valid, it's legit, unless we're one of those social justice warriors, I didn't do that one. Just own it, brother, fall on the sword for once. You've done plenty of other stuff that she never detected. Take the loss. They hated me without cause, John 15. Where does he go to affirm this?

The Psalms. What about on the cross, the prayer of the Savior? The Psalms or the triumphant cry in Luke 23, into your hands I commit my spirit. The Psalms. Why is it that we're ready to jump ship on verses 8 to 10 or the imprecations laced throughout when it comes to these Psalms? Hermeneutically brethren, I think the tighter case is that when Jesus says that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning me.

Notice that oppression or verse 8, "...he sits in the lurking places of the villages, in the secret places he murders the innocent, his eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den. He lies in wait to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws him into his net, so he crouches. He lies low that the helpless may fall by his strength."

If that isn't a description of the way they took out the Savior, I don't know what is. That's exactly what happened in the way that they took out the Savior. And then the theology of the wicked, notice in verse 11. So I said the psalmist and the unrighteous, kind of look at sense and experience in the same way. It doesn't seem like God's there.

You see that back in Psalm 9 verse 18, for the needy shall not always be forgotten, the expectation of the poor shall not perish forever. Why do you think Psalm 918a says that? For the needy shall not always be forgotten. Because it appears at times like the needy are forgotten.

As I mentioned, the Psalms don't address some idyllic non-existent world. It deals with the world in the mess that it is. It deals with the world populated by God's people who oftentimes walk by sense and experience and conclude that God is not involved.

It's for those times that Psalm 10 is to be sung. It is those times that Psalm 10 is to be prayed. The boldness of the wicked, based on his theological commitments. Verse 11, he has said in his heart, God has forgotten, he hides his face, he will never see. He's just ramped up in terms of his wickedness.

And this is a principle Solomon picks up in Ecclesiastes 8, an argument for why civil society should actually punish criminal offenders. I know that's a pretty radical notion, that civil society should punish criminal offenders shouldn't be a radical assumption or a radical notion.

It should be part and parcel. Do you know why the civil government exists? It's not to feed you, clothe you, house you, burp you, nurture you, wipe your nose, take care of you from cradle to grave. They're under God, over man, for the glory of God, the good of man. In what particularly? The maintenance of justice and peace. No justice today. There's no execution of justice. No vindication of the oppressed or the righteous. Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 8, because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

That's this principle. He has said in his heart, God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see. And if the atheist's premises are given, then his conclusion follows. He'll never see, and I can get away with murder. I can lie and wait. I can be like that lion. I can oppress the helpless. I can take out the only man that was wholly harmless and undefiled. I can deliver him up to Pontius Pilate, I can sit there and whine and even threaten to blackmail Pontius Pilate so that Pilate will hang the Son of God on the cross and we can sneer at him, we can mock him, we can say things like, oh, he saved others. Let's see him come down from the cross and save himself.

You see, when that premises or when those premises are entertained, the conclusion follows. God will never see. Ash concludes his comments on this portion, he says, Psalm 10, 2 to 11, paints in primary colors the heart, the pride, the hedonism, the self-absorption, and the cruelty of the wicked. No wonder the believer cries out, why? He's right again.

See brethren, before we proceed, and we will get through this, and it won't be one, We need to pray like Jesus. Well, it just doesn't feel right. You're going to pray based on sense and experience? Rehearsing scripture in prayer doesn't feel right? If that's the mindset of the modern church, we got much bigger fish to fry than I ever had anticipated. If it doesn't feel right to take the Psalms and open them up and make them our prayers to the Most High, what is it then that will feel right?

Benny hymns, prayers and meditations for the day? The Savior prayed thus, surrounded by the wicked. What do we do when we're surrounded by the wicked? Pray thus. Let's look at how he prayed. Verses 12 to 18. I would suggest first the prayer of the psalmist in verses 12 and 13. Second, the theology of the psalmist in verses 14 and 15. And then thirdly, the doxology of the psalmist in verses 16 to 18. So, in other words, what the ungodly believe concerning God that he doesn't see drives his conduct. But what the godly sees and what the godly confesses and what the godly knows drives his prayer and it drives his conduct. But note the petition in verse 12.

Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble. Brethren, that's the response to seeing the world in sin around us. That's the response when we see the times of trouble upon us. That petition is not only not ungodly, it is godly, it is boldness. We come to the throne of grace with boldness through the Savior according to Hebrews chapter four.

So the petition, in light of appearance, verse 12, arise, O Lord. Because in verse 1, why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide in times of trouble? So what's the follow-up petition in terms of prayer? Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble. ash again. He says the anointed king leads his people in calling for God to do what Psalm 9 has celebrated that he characteristically does.

The impenitent go on and on living as if there were no God. To the righteous it sometimes feels as if this is the case, 10.1. But the righteous, and then he's quoting from Calvin and then Augustine, but the righteous soon shake from their minds, that false imagination returning to a due consideration of what the truth is about all this. This is the struggle of faith, to set the promise against the troubled experience of our senses. Indeed, now he goes to Augustine, the church which labors in such times is like a ship in great waves and storms.

It wakens the Lord as if he were asleep in the hope that he will command the waves and that, calm may return. What a good picture, a good analogy. Remember the Savior, according to Mark, has a pillow and he's sleeping in the boat while the disciples are besought by the wind and the waves.

What's that mean? It means they saw, they felt, they experienced, they witnessed times of trouble. What'd they do? Wake up. Save us. We're perishing. Do you think the psalmist is setting forth an example for us in the prayer closet or in the prayer meeting? I'd like to think so. In days characterized by wickedness, by the oppression of the poor, by the subjugation of the righteous, by the unrighteous. by the wholesale desire to exterminate the church and some segments of society in the world. Arise, O Lord! That's good praying.

That's what we're supposed to be doing. Note the argument he offers up after the petition in verse 13. Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require an account. He's praying to God, musing on the folly of the wicked, like, why does he renounce God? He has said, he has purposed, he's made a conviction in his heart, you will not require an account. So therefore, if God will not require an account, I can be murderous of the oppressed. I can take holy, harmless, and undefiled men and throw them into the hands of Pontius Pilate and see them executed because I hate them, and I wanna sneer at them, I wanna puff at them. Notice then the theology of the psalmist in verses 14 and 15.

But you have seen, you see that? The psalmist is praying as one who knows his God. The senses, the experiences, the hardships, the trials, certainly they evoke from him a commentary on the state of the wicked in the world around him. When he comes to praying to God, he petitions, and he comes to comfort himself. The Lord to whom I pray is a proven and faithful Lord. That's verse 14. The theology of the psalmist is in stark difference or stark contrast to the theology of the wicked. But you have seen, for you observe trouble and grief, to repay it by your hand. The helpless commits himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none.

So the confession of God's omniscience, the perfections of God, aren't so many things that interest theologians alone, but they're for the people of God. You have seen, for you observe trouble and grief. God's omniscience is a comfort and encouragement to the people of God. Your friends, your relatives, your closest associates, your wives, your husbands, they may not witness the kind of persecution or oppression that you face in the world.

God does. Honey, you'll never believe what happened to me in the lunchroom at work today. God does. God does observe, God does vindicate, God does rescue, God does help, and that's what comforts the psalmist as he prays to God, arise, O Lord, O God, lift up your hand. Notice the confession of God's glorious works, to repay it by your hand as you've done in the past vis-a-vis the exodus, vis-a-vis the destruction of Og, king of Og and Bajon. vis-a-vis the destruction of all the enemies of the Lord that have raised up in history. God has done this. And then the confession is ultimately the basis for the believer's commitment to God. Listen to Dixon again. He says, sense may sometimes speak contrary to faith. Right? Again, don't look at me like I'm nuts, brethren. I can't be the only one that ever has gone through this.

You know, those especially melancholic days, those especially dark and dreary days that we get a lot of in Chilliwack, just physically, and then it kind of works on the psyche and the soul, and you might be down, and you might be depressed, and you might be struggling. You might just start to say, woe is me. Everything's only ever miserable. We sound like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh. There's a black cloud following us all over the place. Sense, at times, and experience, at times, does a number on our faith.

We get bad news from a husband. We get bad news from a wife. We get bad news at work. We get bad news from a doctor. We get bad news concerning what's happening. Instead of the maintenance of justice and peace, the weirdness and oddities and criminal activity perpetrated on us every day, from not on high, but on high.

Sense may sometimes speak contrary to faith. In this case, the speech of sense is not to be subscribed, but the truth of the word should be relied upon. Amen. Amen. Sense is not to be subscribed. It's the truth of God's Word. It's the confidence in His promises. It's the reality that He has shown Himself faithful over and over and over again. That's the emphasis. And then notice the desire of the psalmist is in verse 15. Remember back in Psalm 3 verse 7. We get to this and we go, oh, it can't be Jesus.

Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. That sounds pretty miserable. Did you forget how He described the wicked in verses 8 to 10? Did you forget how they crouch and hide? and through covert ops, through bribery, through deception, through lies, orchestrate the worst criminal act that ever took place because he was wholly harmless and undefiled. Pilate thrice confesses, I find no guilt in this man. What do you expect? Jesus says, break their arm. Stop their power. Restrict their ability. Restrain them from murdering the innocent. Restrain them from oppressing the poor.

Persons that have a problem with the imprecatory psalms that don't reflect upon why the psalmist is praying thus is bizarre logic. And I thought about this because we've seen that kind of refrain in all these psalms concerning the ministry of our Lord Jesus. Jim Butler didn't write the first 10 Psalms with his earnest desire for the judgment of God upon his enemies. Jim Butler loves those Psalms. But you know what?

We're not living when they did, surrounded by the things they saw, and in constant warfare, hardship, trouble, and trial. What is it that brings encouragement to somebody in a condition like that? Yeah, the love of God does. God's grace, God's mercy, but God's justice upon the enemies who oppress.

Why is that bad? It's not bad because that's exactly what Jesus says in verse 15. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. What does that mean? Till they're all gone. till such a time as things like this do not occur.

I believe that waits for us in the new heavens and the new earth. We see it in 21.8 in Revelation. The wicked are out excluded from the new heavens and the new earth. 22.15 outside are the dogs and the sexually immoral and those wicked ones. But what is going to be ought to be fodder for our prayer lives for what is happening even now.

The Savior had no problem saying, break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. I mean, if the guy's described in verses eight to 10 in such a way that he's praying murderously upon innocent people, I don't want to be in society with him. I want God to deal with him.

And that brings us then to the doxology in conclusion. The declaration of God's kingship in verse 16 and the manifestation of His kingship in verses 17 and 18. Notice the Lord is King forever and ever. The nations have perished out of His land. What's He comfort Himself with? The eternal reign, majesty, glory, power, dominion of the Most High. Beautiful. Where do we find our comfort? Oh God, set me up in such a way that I can buck up my own heart and be faithful. No, no, he finds his solace in God. The Lord is king forever and ever.

The nations have perished out of his land. That certainly happened as well to that murderous group of Sanhedrin. What happened to them a generation later as prophesied by our Savior in Matthew 24? Their city and their temple was destroyed. They reaped the promises of the covenant in Deuteronomy chapter 28. You act like Canaanites, you're going to be dispossessed from the land like the Canaanites.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Notice the manifestation of his kingship in verses 17 and 18. Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear. The desire of the humble answers to the expectation of the poor in 918. How does God prepare their heart? Oh, I don't know, services like this. Meditations upon Psalm 10, singing Psalm 10, praying Psalm 10.

How does God prepare our hearts for the sorts of things that we face in this time of trouble? He doesn't do it magically. He doesn't just wave a wand and all of a sudden we're wholly harmless and undefiled. No, the ebb and flow of the Christian life, the difficulties and the hardships associated with life in this present evil age, how does God prepare our hearts to deal with such?

He gave us the Lord's day, he gave us his house, and he gave us his people, and he says, come together and worship. Come together and gain this perspective so that you know how to deal in the midst of the wicked, and you know how to call upon the one who delivers the righteous from the midst of the wicked. And then notice at the end. So He's merciful to His people, verses 17 and 18a, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed. But notice how He is to the wicked.

That the man of the earth may oppress no more. That the man of the earth may oppress no more. There is a judgment coming. And for the wicked who boasts, according to verse 6, he has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, I shall never be in adversity, maybe not in this present evil age, but I can guarantee you there is an age coming in which you will not only be moved, but you will know nothing but adversity throughout eternity. The psalm ends on that note, that the man of the earth may oppress no more. As we saw in Psalm 9, the psalmist prays not only according to what is, but he prays according to what ought to be.

The utter elimination of all the transgressor. The utter elimination of all the sinners. The utter elimination and destruction of all those who raise up, in the language of Psalm 2, against Yahweh and against His Christ. That's how the Psalm ends. Listen to William Plummer.

The meaning is that God will decide in favor of the defenseless and the wronged, and he will do this that the man of the earth may no more oppress. There is benevolence in all God does. His government is amiable. So far as it is respected and honored, his creatures are happy. Indeed, the only perfectly joyful society in the universe is one where there is never an infraction of any law of God.

But some men will not learn by words. It's true, isn't it? Preach the gospel to some people until you're blue in the face? There's no God. God doesn't see. God doesn't care. Therefore, they're emboldened to go out and live as if there is no God. Who's ultimately going to fall? It ain't God and it ain't His church. It's them. And notice it speaks of the total destruction, not just, you know, there's a handful of wretches out there. We're just getting rid of that. But the man of the earth may oppress no more. Again, I think that awaits the new heavens and the new earth.

Ash says, the words no more give a sure hope at the end of this troubled Psalm. Amen. Amen. Well, brethren, in terms of the humanity of Christ, I think Psalm 2 evidences that it was true. He didn't fake it. He didn't partially become a man. He wasn't some composite, a bit of God and a bit of man. One blessed person, two natures.

And in his humanity, he sees the wickedness, he experiences the wickedness, he senses the lawlessness, and he evokes from him, why? Why do you stand afar off? Why? Is it as it were you've hidden your face? But as true humanity, he comes to that blessed reality, arise, oh Lord. I have a proven track record of your faithfulness, and I'm bringing that by way of petition to ask you to break the arm of these wicked men. I'm asking you to destroy these wicked men, and I'm living with that confident expectation that that man will oppress no more. There is a day coming, brothers and sisters, where there will be no more sorrow. There will be no more tears. There'll be no more pain. There'll be no more death.

Until such time, Psalm 10 ought to make its way into our prayer closets. I would suggest as well, with reference to the church, the prayers of Jesus, the prayers for his church, Bonar makes the observation, any member of Christ can use this psalm who feels the earth's unholiness and atheism, and who is at all like Lot and Sodom, his righteous soul vexed from day to day by their unlawful deeds. Amen, brother. We should use this psalm in our prayer closets, in our prayer meetings, at our family altars, such that we can indeed cry out to God when sense or experience start to kind of crouch in on our faith, Faith says, no, I stand upon the promises of God most high.

He is a king who reigns forever and I have the sure confidence that he will bring destruction to all his and our enemies. And if you're not a believer here this morning in Jesus Christ, don't be an enemy of God. I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet, but I can read. And based on what this text says, it will not end for you well if you are in opposition to our blessed God.

But based on this psalm and the rest of the Bible, that blessed God takes enemies and saves them. That blessed God does what He does with reference to that thief on the cross who started off the day blaspheming the Savior and ends the day in paradise with the Savior. Or those wretched demoniacs, the Gadarenes cutting themselves, crying out, breaking shackles and chains. What does Jesus do for them? They're sitting clothed and in their right minds.

Don't persist in enmity against God. You're gonna lose. There is no sure hope whatsoever that the devil triumphs, that the godless rule. No, everything tells us exactly contrary. You are going to lose. Wave the white flag and surrender now and come to the Savior King.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Well, let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for Psalm 10. We thank you for what it teaches us concerning our blessed Savior. We thank you for what it teaches us as the church in terms of prayer. in terms of rightly assessing the situation in which we live, those times of trouble. May we find refuge, may we find our stronghold, may we find our comfort, peace, and stability in the living and true God. And we ask this in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.