Psalm 10:1-18
Why Do You Hide
1 Why, O LORD, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
who are caught in the schemes he devises.
3 He boasts of the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.
4 In his pride the wicked does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous;
he is haughty and your laws are far from him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, "Nothing will shake me;
I'll always be happy and never have trouble."
7 His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue.
8 He lies in wait near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent,
watching in secret for his victims.
9 He lies in wait like a lion in cover;
he lies in wait to catch the helpless;
he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
10 His victims are crushed, they collapse;
they fall under his strength.
11 He says to himself, "God has forgotten;
he covers his face and never sees."
12 Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
"He won't call me to account"?
14 But you, O God, do see trouble and grief;
you consider it to take it in hand.
The victim commits himself to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evil man;
call him to account for his wickedness
that would not be found out.
16 The LORD is King for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
17 You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more.
The Psalmist cries out, like most of us and asks why our LORD stands so far away...Why does the Father hide, when we are in trouble and need Him???...Sometimes it seems our prayers do go unanswered...During extended troubled and suffering times we wonder, where He went, and like the Psalmist, why is He backing off and so far away...
In different times do we seek God???...Is He a part of our lives where we are always seeking Him???...When things are going good for us, and we are happy, do we seek Him as much as we should???...When we have problems, troubles and affliction and need help and want it quickly, is that when we go seeking...That may not be in God's time or be part of His plan...
Moses, King David, Elijah, and Jeremiah all had great faith and yet, in some point in their lives felt abandoned...
There are times in history when God seems to be hiding...
The first seven verses of Exodus cover four hundred years from Joseph, the son of Jacob to a new King of Egypt...During that time period the Israelites were oppressed and were looking for God...Where did He go???...In Genesis we see God throughout, yet for the four hundred years, we have no word, except for seven short verses...
After Malachi we do not hear anything until Jesus is born approximately four hundred and fifty years later...Many things happened in the Promised Land during these times, but they we not canonized into the Bible...
In this Psalm, the wicked do not seek Him...They go about their ways and do what they want, with no room for Him...With sin entwined in everyday life, on the Good Judge will be able to ferret out true justice...
Maybe God wants man to always be helping and then when man stops, God steps in...We know we should defend the fatherless and the oppressed...
The Psalmist teaches us that we are not alone in this feeling of abandonment...God gave us emotions to feel things...We need to use our mind and feelings and love God with both...We know we are to love Him with all our heart and mind, and all our strength...When we do we can be certain that God is always with us no matter how we feel, even during these periods when we feel abandoned...
When we are in highly troubled, emotional times or sensitive states in our lives we can feel extra sensitized...Do not despair...Even Jesus said in Matthew 27:46 "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me"???...We are in the company of Jesus, when we temporarily feel that God is hiding...