Prayer and psalm 10

This psalm starts off in with God standing on the sidelines, no where to be found.

Verse 1 says, “Why Oh Lord do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? “ This is verse is asking the why of what is happening. In the Bible it says, seek and you will find, in this case it is not seeking and you’re not going to find. The following verses confirm that this is what is happening.

Verse 2 thru 11 reads, “ In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises, he boasts of the cravings of his heart, he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord, In his pride the wicked does not seek him, in all his thoughts there is no room for God, His ways are always prosperous, he is haughty and your laws are far from him, he sneers at all his enemies, He says to himself, “Nothing shall shake me: I’ll always be happy and never have trouble, His mouth if full of trouble, lies and threats, trouble and evil are under his tongue." He lies in wait near the villages, from ambush he murders the innocent, watching, in secret for his victims, He lies in wait for like a lion in cover, he lies in wait to catch the helpless, and catches the helpless and drags them off in his net. His victims are crushed, they collapse and fall under his strength, He says to himself, “God has forgotten and God never sees."

Here the Lord is standing on the sideline from the presence of the wicked and therefore seems distant from him. From this the wicked man mistakenly believes that he isn’t be watched by the Lord, and that the Lord’s eyes don’t reach him and see what he is doing.

Looking at this description of the wicked man and his behavior, a lot of what is going on is predatory in nature. He has enough power or position where he can play the predator, like the lion in the jungle. Greed is mentioned, he probably had enough to sit with in the corner and enjoy himself without bothering anyone else, but he wants that much more and in seeking that he feels he has the need to go further and step on the toes of the easiest targets he can find out there. Take a lot of what’s evil out there, and see how much confers to the idea of preying upon some half unsuspecting soul, to the common scams to more insidious crimes.

Another point is that we can’t be so sure that we wouldn’t fall into some of the types of behavior that define this prototypical evil man and we need to not only watch out for the evil man out there but also the evil man that is potentially manifest in ourselves. For example, almost anyone can be subject to road rage.

I think the verse that contains the fulcrum, where the seesaw hinges is verse 4, again saying, “In his pride the wicked does not seek him, in all his thoughts there is no room for God." This is the antonym of seeking God, which is not even thinking about him. This is the fulcrum point where the game is won or lost, thinking about God is the key to a good start in the right direction and having my thoughts on God and towards God is always on the right side of the road according to this psalm, if you want to reverse course from the way of the evil man, who’s thought’s of God have diminished to the point of evaporation.

It’s good to be happy and this wicked man apparently is, but it is a false perch that he is overlooking his personal landscape from, because to start with he hasn’t thought of God and all roads from there are slippery.

This psalm continues on starting with verse 12 thru 16 saying," Arise Lord," Lift up your hand Oh God, don’t forget the helpless. Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, “He would call me to account"? But you oh God, do see trouble and grief, and you consider it to take it in hand, the victim commits himself to you, you are the helper of the fatherless, Break the arm of the wicked and evil man, call him to account for his wickedness, that would not be found out. The Lord is King forever and forever, the nations will perish from his hand. “ The wicked isn’t even thinking about God, who is not being found because he is not seeking him in this case. At other times the Lord might not be found as a test of the faith. What the wicked man hasn’t lost though is a God that he will have to answer to, even though he may have thought otherwise. God will come out into the forefront and he will have to answer to him for his wicked behavior. Nations will perish at his hand for wickedness, what chance will the puny wicked man have then?

Continuing on with the remaining two verses of the psalm which are verses 17 and 18 and using the King James version this time which says," The Lord, though has heard the heart of the humble, thou will prepare their heart, thou will cause thine ear to hear, To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no longer oppress.

Also, in verse 14 we see the oppressed person or the victim of the wicked man, commits the situation to the Lord, for redress and does get it. So the wicked man made the mistake of crossing into others that are within God’s watchful eye and have the ability to commit the situation of what happened to the Lord who will deal with it for them.

Here this psalm is saying that the Lord will prepare the individual hearts for his releasing of those in the bondage of the oppression of the wicked man or the many wicked men. Here, more generally, this verse shows how the Lord does prepare for someone not only exteriorly but also interiorly for what he might do for them.

Two major points of this psalm is to make and keep room in your thinking for God. Don’t exclude thinking about God, as you go about your business; do include him in your thinking on everything that matters to you. Secondly, God addresses not only the exterior makings of a persons life but also the interior disposition that someone has as per verse 17 in the King James version of this psalm. Thus, if you are praying for a change, part of receiving and being able to make this change may be a matter of your interior disposition and what might be great for you, is something that you might just need to begin to believe, think and feel in your heart as you proceed in relationship with the Lord in thinking about him and seeking him in prayer.

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