AS IF THERE WERE NO GOD
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Opening Prayer
I praise you, Lord God, for who you are. I am overwhelmed with thanksgiving that you are mindful of me, that your great power has saved me, that your boundless love encompasses me and always works for my good.
Read PSALM 10
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Psalm 10
1 Why, 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 about the cravings of his heart;
he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.
4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous;
your laws are rejected by him;
he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”
7 His mouth is full of lies and threats;
trouble and evil are under his tongue.
8 He lies in wait near the villages;
from ambush he murders the innocent.
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
9 like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
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 will never notice;
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, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out.
16 The Lord is King for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.
Reflect
‘Trust in the Lord and do good; Live in the land and cultivate faithfulness.’1
Continuing the theme of Psalm 9 (the two are often treated as a single unit), our psalmist wants to see God act on behalf of those who seek him. Instead of the earlier confidence that he will intervene and judge evil,2 our reading starts with a plaintive cry about God standing far off, withdrawn from our troubles (v. 1). It is a sentiment that we all feel at some point. What bothers the psalmist, however, is that this absence is used by the wicked to live as they like. It is a kind of practical atheism where people act as if there were no God to hold them to account.
The wicked are characterized by arrogance (v. 4). They do what they like and are seemingly immune to disaster (vv. 5, 6). They take advantage and exploit others, confident that God will not notice (vv. 8–11). Although the language is extreme, the human pride that we can make our own rules in morality finds echoes in secular Western societies today. We may even recognize that attitude in ourselves when we have no room for God in our thinking and decision-making (v. 4). When the consequences do not immediately follow, we can lull ourselves into complacency that God is not concerned about our sin, or perhaps that it is not even sin, after all.
Although the psalm nowhere answers the why of God’s seeming absence, the only way forward is to continue to cry to him for justice and for his involvement (v. 12). Like a muscle exercised, faith is strengthened as it is practiced by seeking God even when his presence is not felt. As we do so, we come to recognize that God does see and hear—and he will bring justice (vv. 14, 17, 18).
Apply
If not in your own circumstances, then in those of the world, how easy is it for you to trust that God is at work to bring himself glory?
Closing prayer
Lord, help me to stand as a Christian who has firm confidence in your concern for justice and give me a heart sensitive to the part I can play in seeing it exercised.
1 Ps 37:3, NASB. 2 Ps 9:7–10.
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