Chapter 10

2021 - 2 In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor; let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised. [Psa 10:2 ESV].  Another non-defensive prayer.

This Psalm questions God's delay in avenging those hurt by the wicked.  It asks God why he lets the wicked continue in their ways instead of stopping them.  And this verse, which I have missed up until now, is in there:

4 In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, "There is no God." [Psa 10:4 ESV]

Those who habitually do evil, those who take advantage of others for their own gain, want nothing to do with God, and their thoughts - I suspect their hope in many cases - is that God does not exist.  Hmm...I haven't seen it before because that's not  how it is worded at all in the KJV or NKJV. 

Instead of that last phrase in ESV, KJV says "...God is not in all his thoughts."  Seems to me there's quite a bit of difference there.  The KJV makes it clear the wicked believes in God, but pushes him back from his thoughts so that he does not feel guilty.  ESV implies that he doesn't really believe.  I am not a linguist.  Don't know which is right.  The versions all line up as they usually do. 

I believe this is how pre-meditated sin takes place, not just with the wicked, but even those who are saved.  The only way a saved person can commit sin is to push God completely out of his/her thoughts to do it.  We cannot think of the consequences or we wouldn't do it.  We'd turn back.  We can't consider whether we should or shouldn't, or we wouldn't.  BUT, we WANT to do it, so we shut off the consideration of it, and just confine our thoughts to the present, to the doing of it.  Even if we're just talking about a second piece of pie.  If you think about the consequences, you wouldn't eat it.  So all you think about is the desire for it, and your thoughts go no further.

2023 - Look at this one, especially thinking about the Book of Job.  There, we saw that sometimes the wicked DO win and we wonder why they are not afraid:

5 His ways prosper at all times; your judgments are on high, out of his sight; as for all his foes, he puffs at them. [Psa 10:5 ESV].  They can't see that real, true, severe judgment will come.  They cannot see that wickedness will not be worth it in the long run.  Because today, judgment is out of their sight - and our sight also when we sin.  We just pull in our "vision", shorten up our future, and sin has no consequences.  This isn't really about Job, as I think about it more.  This isn't about God's justice on earth.  This is about how people can be so evil, so oppressive of the poor or those with fewer resources.  This is how evil men rob those who have nothing.  The evil don't believe in God, an/or the evil discount the judgment of God.  They get away with evil for so long they deny that accountability even exists.  In this world, judgment is out of sight, allowing us to act as if it does not exist at all.

Possible FB post?

There is a long section then on how the wicked operate.  How they take advantage of the poor, needy, and helpless.  That section ends with this verse:

11 He says in his heart, "God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it." [Psa 10:11 ESV]

The wicked believe their deeds are hidden from God.  They forget that He is omnipresent, that he sees everything that they do - that WE do!  Nothing escapes him.  The wicked choose to forget this.

This Psalm ends with the thought that God will ultimately wipe out all oppression.  He is King for ever and ever.

2025 - This Psalm is a cry for justice.  Verse one starts with "Why"?  David asks why God lets the wicked do what they do, because he wants justice.  As King he can only do so much.  There is too much evil in the world for even a great king or President to stamp it all out.  And David is talking about low level justice anyway - justice to individuals rather than to organized crime or cartels or gangs.  But that fundamental craving for justice is in us all.  It was in David's day, it is so now.