Why Do You Stand Far Off?
1 Why do you stand far off, Yahweh? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2 In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak. They are caught in the schemes that they devise. 3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s cravings. He blesses the greedy and condemns Yahweh. 4 The wicked, in the pride of his face, has no room in his thoughts for God. 5 His ways are prosperous at all times. He is arrogant, and your laws are far from his sight. As for all his adversaries, he sneers at them. 6 He says in his heart, “I shall not be shaken. For generations I shall have no trouble.” 7 His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and oppression. Under his tongue is mischief and iniquity. 8 He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless. 9 He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net. 10 The helpless are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength. 11 He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.” 12 Arise, Yahweh! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless. 13 Why does the wicked person condemn God, and say in his heart, “God won’t call me into account”? 14 But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless. 15 Break the arm of the wicked. As for the evil man, seek out his wickedness until you find none. 16 Yahweh is King forever and ever! The nations will perish out of his land. 17 Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear, 18 to judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that man who is of the earth may terrify no more.
The complaint that God is absent is made at length, and the psalm's answer is that he has been seeing it the whole time.
Why do you stand far off, Yahweh? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
The psalm before this one thanked God for judgment executed. This one opens by asking where he has gone, and the two stand side by side in the collection without any attempt to reconcile them. That is the Psalter's method: both are true experiences, and both were kept.
The complaint is specific rather than general, and most of the psalm is given to describing the man it is about. He boasts of his heart's cravings, he blesses the greedy and condemns Yahweh Psalms 10:3, and his ways are prosperous at all times Psalms 10:5. The problem is not that evil exists. It is that it is working.
The wicked, in the pride of his face, has no room in his thoughts for God.
The portrait is of practical atheism rather than argued atheism. He has not concluded that God does not exist; he has simply found no space for the question, and the psalm treats that as the more dangerous condition. Twice it quotes what he says in his heart — I shall not be shaken Psalms 10:6, and God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it Psalms 10:11.
That second quotation is the hinge, and it should be read against verse one. The psalmist has just accused God of hiding himself. The wicked man says the same thing. The difference between them is that one says it to God as a complaint and the other says it to himself as a license — and the psalm's entire response is aimed at that sentence.
8 He lies in wait near the villages. From ambushes, he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly set against the helpless. 9 He lurks in secret as a lion in his ambush. He lies in wait to catch the helpless. He catches the helpless when he draws him in his net.
The verbs are those of hunting, and the prey is named four times as the helpless. Whatever else the wicked do in this collection, what makes them wicked is consistently what they do to people who cannot resist them.
But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.
The answer to the whole psalm is one word: see. Not that God will act later, though that follows, but that the assumption underneath both the complaint and the boast is false. He has been watching. And the psalm ends with the thing it asked for at the start now stated as fact — Yahweh, you have heard the desire of the humble Psalms 10:17 — with the final purpose given as protection rather than revenge: that man who is of the earth may terrify no more Psalms 10:18.
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