In your Writing,Show- Don’t Tell!
Meditations on Psalm 10
I am tired. I am stressed.
If you have been following this series of reflections on the Psalms, you know I have been writing to inform as well as to encourage.
This post is simply show- don’t tell.
This is me, Bible in hand, recording what I am shown, and then reflecting back to God in conversation what I am learning.
I’m showing- not telling!
I trust as I simply share these reflections- and the prayer elicited from meditating on God’s Word, that you may enter into the struggle to live righteously- particularly when suffering is your present lot.
I’m with David in temperament and attitude, and I am waiting on God. My circumstances are different: stressed in personal relationships, grieving a loss of a friend in the previous week, having money stolen from us, as well as physical pain in my body.
Please know that God is always a present help in trouble.
Psalm 10 A Psalm of Lament (complaint).
Structure of the psalm:
1. Complaint — v.1 Why, O Lord, do you stand far off
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2. What’s happening — v.2–11 The wicked are prospering
3. His petition — v.12–15 Asks God to intervene
4. His resolution — v.16–18 Recalls the character of God
Characteristics of the wicked: (the wicked are prospering v.2–11)
· Arrogant, oppressive, clever (v.2)
· Boastful, selfish, delights in wrong, reviles the Lord (v.3)
· Pride, doesn’t seek God, godless (v.4)
· Prosperous, haughty, unconcerned about opposition (v.5)
· Self-confident, high expectations for happiness and fulfilment (v.6)
· Brash in speech, curses and swears (v.7)
· Treats human life carelessly, takes human life willingly (v.8)
· Exploits the weak (v.9)
· He is successful in what he does (v.10)
· No sense of accountability or responsibility, even to God. God is impotent, as far as he is concerned (v.11)
Characteristics of the one who prays to God: (asks God to intervene v.12–15)
· Turns to God for help, he believes God can rescue the helpless (v.12)
· Confused. If God is Almighty and loving, how can the wicked prosper as he does. (v.13)
· He affirms his faith in the one true God, regardless of present circumstances (v.14)
· He asks God to give retribution to the guilty, wicked man (v.15)
Affirms his faith: (ve.16–18)
· “The Lord is king forever and ever
The nations will perish from the land” v.16
God is eternal. Man in his pomp, is mortal.
· You hear. You encourage. You listen. You defend. You are faithful . . . You are merciful to the afflicted and to the oppressed.
The biggest difficulty I share with the saints of old is your merciful patience towards the wicked. If David wrote this psalm, (and many believe he is the likely author) he spent the prime years of his life, running from murderous King Saul, who, given the opportunity, would have killed him in cold blood. Ten years of isolation, living as a fugitive, never knowing when or from where the next threat might appear. It is hard to fathom such grace and mercy, O God, to this evil king. It is hard to imagine the suffering of David in the prime years of his life.
This was the same stumbling block that Asaph faced when evil men prospered and he was afflicted all day long. It nearly did his head in! He needed to take a wider perspective, an eternal perspective of troubling circumstances, and not lose his faith in You. (Psalm 78)
The Lord is King forever and ever.
The Lord helps the afflicted and encourages them.
The Lord will bring judgement and mercy. He will avenge every wrong, for the sake of his glorious Name.
Keep me believing. Keep me faithful. Let me be one who endures to the end. Let me rest in the righteousness you have given me through your Son, and depend on You alone. In this world there is certainly tribulation. I follow one who has overcome and will enable me to overcome by His grace.
Teach me to walk in humility and honesty, and let me not covet people’s affirmations more than Yours. If You are my light and my salvation, I can trust the moments of my life to You.
You are worthy of all my days- and more.
I love you.
