“O LORD, you will hear the desire of
the meek; you will strengthen their heart, you will incline your ear to do
justice for the orphan and the oppressed, so that those from earth may strike
terror no more.”
— Psalm 10:17-18 (NRSV)
This
lament of bitter complaint for what the wicked and unjust get away with has no
superscription, and though it reads like it comes from David’s genre there is
no such clue; unless we, like a lot of commentators do, link it with Psalm 9.
Then it is David’s.
Those “from
earth” are the many worldly ones who do what their despicable hearts
conspire, denying the Sovereignty of God that will inevitably judge them. Faith
has it that the psalmist, and those sympathising, can believe that ‘right’ will
ultimately prevail over ‘might’.
The Distress
Verse
1 is as raw as it is powerful. If we pray this single verse aloud, with the
corresponding emotion, we’ll soon learn what it feels like to pray
uncomfortably, thinking, “Can we talk to God like that?” Yet, anyone who has
been dealt cruel blows in life must certainly have prayed these ways.
God seems absent. And, when God seems
most absent, he’s never more present.
We
know it in our own experience; the Lord seems
not to help when we most need it. Then, as we look back from a better place—as
the Footprints poem suggests—we see that God was far from
absent. But such knowledge doesn’t come to our rescue when we are deep in
distress.
Descriptions of Wickedness – the Source of Lament
It
might be that Psalm 9 deals with wickedness beyond Israel, or outside the
church, and Psalm 10 the wickedness occurring within the nation, or inside the
church. We don’t need to be sarcastic suggesting the rhetorical, “Really?
Wickedness in the church?” We know it happens, because the
church is full of sick and broken people just as there are sick and broken
people everywhere beyond its walls.
Verses
2-11 feature a protracted description of the psalmist’s vision that perplexes
them. What they see explains why they reconcile God as standing far off, hiding
himself in times of trouble (verse 1).
And
of course we identify with this.
We
see people doing the wrong thing and getting away with it. They say what they
want and are not held to account, whilst we carefully select our words and
perhaps get in trouble. Some intentionally trick the “helpless,” taking
advantage, and when we choose advocacy we might be implicated, somehow, in
wrongdoing. The courage it takes to reverse injustice involves risk because the
nasty are upset and the claws are out.
The Plea
Verses
12, 15 and 17 carry the pleading refrain. Now we begin to notice the transformation
in the psalmist’s mood; distress and complaint are gradually giving way to
faith-tied pleas, for that all-powerful Sovereign will of God to save those who
are suffering.
The
pinnacle of the final third is verse 16—a valiant statement of confidence in the Lord to restore justice.
As
we consider laments like this, as well as the repetitiveness of laments in the
Psalms generally, we can again rest assured that God is Sovereign, in control,
and reckoning plans for Judgment, eternally.
***
God
seems absent because there are often so many more reminders of evil in our
world than good. Our minds polarise toward the bad we see, and away from
evidence of God’s Sovereignty. The Lord is
so good to have provided us the freedom to think either way we wish, but, literally,
we are not thankful when thoughts tend negative.
We
can always expect in our deepest trials to feel as though God is not present.
We
can, however, learn the habit of knowing the Lord is always present, helping us
even when we don’t see or feel it. Such knowledge
is faith personified in and through us.
When
God seems most absent, he is never more present. Don’t forget to take him with
you into your storm. Imagine he is there and he is there!
©
2011, 2015 S. J. Wickham.
General
Reference: W. Graham
Scroggie, A Guide to the Psalms: a Comprehensive Analysis of the Psalms –
Vol. 1 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1995), pp. 78-85.
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