1 Wherefore, O Jehovah, standest thou afar off? hidest thou thyself in times of distress?
2 In the pride of the wicked he doth hotly pursue the poor; they are taken in the very devices they devised.
3 For the wicked [man] boasteth of his soul’s desire; he blesseth the plunderer, he despiseth Jehovah.
4 The wicked [man] according to the pride of his anger seeketh not; all his thoughts [are], There is no God.
5 His ways are firm at every time; thy judgments [are] a height away from him; all his adversaries—he puffeth at them.
6 He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved; to generation and generation [I am] he which shall not [be] in any evil.
7 Of cursing his mouth is full, and of deceits and violence; under his tongue [is] mischief and iniquity.
8 He sitteth in the place of ambush of the villages; in the lurking places he slayeth the innocent his eyes lurk for the wretched.
9 He lieth in wait in the secret place like a lion in his covert; he lieth in wait to catch the afflicted; he catcheth the afflicted when he draweth him into his net.
10 And he is crushed, be is brought low, the wretched hath fallen by his might.
11 He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hath hidden his face; be will not see for ever.
12 Arise, O Jehovah; O God, lift up thy hand; forget not the afflicted.
13 Wherefore hath the wicked [man] despised God? He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require.
14 Thou hast seen; thou beholdest mischief and provocation to requite it with thy hand; the wretched committeth himself to thee; [of] the orphan thou hast been the helper.
15 Break thou the arm of the wicked [man] and the evil [man]: thou shall search out his wickedness, [till] thou shalt find nothing.
16 Jehovah is king for ever and ever; the Gentiles have perished from his land.
17 The desire of the afflicted thou hast heard, O Jehovah; thou strengthenest their heart, thou causest thine ear to hearken,
18 To judge the orphan and the oppressed: he shall continue no more to terrify man from the earth.
Notes on Psalm 10
This untitled psalm, dependent on the preceding one of which it is the supplement, is occupied with the wicked internal enemy that hates and afflicts the righteous Jew. As Psalm 9 looks at the Gentile oppressors generally as the object of Jehovah’s judgment at the close, so this details the enemy within, though it binds up with the expected judgment the perishing of the nations out of His land (ver. 16) when Jehovah is King for ever. It is more special. Both run to and converge on the end of the age.
When the wicked one rises up from character to a person, it will be realized in the antichrist of the last days and in the midst of the Jews as here. As the Lord is from heaven, so he is emphatically from the earth, frail man but energized by Satan. The Psalm answers much to the cry of the elect, according to the parable of the importunate widow, whom God at length avenges.