Psalms 10:1-7

A Prayer for God to Throw down the Wicked

1 Why, O Yahweh, do you stand far off? [Why] do you hide during times of distress?
2 In arrogance [the] wicked persecutes [the] poor. Let them be caught in [the] schemes that they devised,
3 for [the] wicked boasts about the desire of his {heart}, and [the] one greedy for gain curses [and] treats Yahweh with contempt.
4 {With bald-faced pride} [the] wicked will not seek [God]. There is no God in any of his thoughts.
5 His ways endure at all times. Your judgments are aloof from him. [As for] all his enemies, he scoffs at them.
6 He says in his heart, "I shall not be moved {throughout all generations}, [during] which [I will have] no trouble."
7 His mouth is filled with cursing, with deceits and oppression; under his tongue are trouble and evil.

Psalms 10:1-7 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 10

This psalm in the Septuagint version, and those that follow it, is a part and continuation of the preceding psalm, and makes but one with it; hence in these versions the number of the following psalms differ from others, and what is the eleventh with others is the tenth with them, and so on to the hundred fourteenth and one hundred fifteenth, which also are put into one; but in order to make up the whole number of one hundred and fifty, the hundred sixteenth and the hundred forty seventh are both divided into two; and indeed the subject of this psalm is much the same with the former. Antichrist and antichristian times are very manifestly described; the impiety, blasphemy, and atheism of the man of sin; his pride, haughtiness, boasting of himself, and presumption of security; his persecution of the poor, and murder of innocents, are plainly pointed at; nor does the character of the man of the earth agree to well to any as to him: his times are times of trouble; but at the end of them the kingdom of Christ will appear in great glory, when the Gentiles, the antichristian nations, will perish out of his land, Ps 10:1-11,16,18.

Footnotes 7

  • [a]. Or "shut [your eyes]"
  • [b]. Or "pursues"
  • [c]. Literally "soul"
  • [d]. Literally "According to the height of his nose"
  • [e]. According to the reading tradition (Qere)
  • [f]. Hebrew "time"
  • [g]. Literally "for a generation and a generation"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.