Psalm 10

The question that starts this chapter is honest and ancient. The wicked prosper and hunt the poor. They say to themselves: God won’t call me to account. There is no God. They’re arrogant, they thrive, they oppress, and nothing stops them.

It’s natural that this makes us ask questions like Why do you stand far off?

The psalm doesn’t resolve the problem philosophically. It doesn’t argue that the wicked aren’t actually prospering. It brings the observation to God as a complaint. You see this. You see the trouble and grief. The victims commit themselves to you. You are the helper of the fatherless.

And then a turn: the Lord is King forever and ever. The nations will perish from his land. You hear the desire of the afflicted. You encourage them. You listen to their cry.

The turn doesn’t come from circumstances changing. It comes from remembering who God is and what He has said He will do. The wicked seem to win in the present. But the Lord is King forever. Those two things are in tension and the psalm holds both without resolving them too quickly.