Psalm 10 - Where is God in Times of Trouble?

So good morning.

Turn with me, if you will, to the book of Psalms.

This morning, as I said, we will be in Psalm chapter 10.

Psalms 10 · chapter mention

And today's passage addresses the question where is God when the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer?

So just a fun fact about me, if you guys don't know this, I'm a huge fan of technology.

My wife hates it.

But one thing I do despise about technology is how it has caused us to be overconnected.

Okay, in one sense, it's great to know what's going on all around the world.

It keeps us informed and aware.

But in another sense, I'm not sure if we were meant to handle emotionally and mentally the amount of data, especially when it's all negative.

So because we have platforms like television, social media, live broadcasting, anybody can record a video and post it online in just a single second.

And so we see everything that's going on around the world.

And by the way, these platforms, for the most part, they don't make money advertising things that are boring, right?

They make money on what's called clickbait.

For example, if I'm on Facebook and two articles pop up, and one pops up saying how to have a better diet.

And the other one that pops up says big bomb went off.

Okay, I'm gonna click on the big bomb article.

And so at our disposal, then is every injustice, murder, mass shooting.

We see the worst of humanity.

There are kids literally starving to death in Africa because a warlord won't share food in their region.

You see Christians being lined up on the side of a beach, getting beheaded because they have faith in Jesus.

You see evil celebrities who corrupt our youth and live just a complete immoral lifestyle, having babies left and right.

And meanwhile, the sweet Christian family down the road who just want to have one kid, they're infertile.

I see nasty people, people who hate God, they exploit others.

They're living in comfort and wealth, prosperity.

And I see good people who are just eating scraps, barely making it by, living paycheck to paycheck, just to get by in life.

I see evil systems thriving, like the porn industry or sex slave trafficking.

Meanwhile, good institutions like seminaries, churches, they're having to close their doors.

I see the wicked prospering and exploiting the innocent, and I see the innocent suffering at the hand of evil.

And we can't help but to think at times, where is God?

Where is his justice?

It's like, God, your word says that you're good, that you're merciful.

To the humble, you're you oppose the proud.

Why is this not happening?

And naturally, this causes us to fall to our knees, to look up to the sky, and to cry out, Where are you, God?

That is what this Psalm is all about.

The author, King David, feels as if God is distant in all that he's witnessing.

And this leads him to a lament, starting in verse 1.

He says, Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?

Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

David is addressing an emotion that we have all had, probably.

We feel like God is distant.

We see all the wickedness, the brokenness, the unfairness in this world, and God seems absent.

There seems to be no divine intervention happening.

Is God hiding?

Is he ignoring the problem?

Or worse, does he just not care?

And why do we feel this way?

We feel this way because it feels out of character for God.

God is a God of justice.

James 4, 6 tells us that God opposes the proud.

And God is a God who cares for those who are hurting.

His word specifically says in Psalm 34, the Lord is near to the brokenhearted.

In Psalm 147, it says that he heals the brokenhearted and he binds up their wounds.

And so, if that's true, why are innocent people being unfairly oppressed while evil monsters are living in comfort?

They're living like kings.

And so what David does next, after this lament in verses 2 through 11, is he explains in detail all the corruption that he's seeing.

And he doesn't do this, by the way, to inform God.

Okay, God knows all things, right?

He's all-knowing.

But David does this to process his feelings to God.

He begins to verbally process what he is seeing, describing the wickedness that he is seeing.

Starting in verse 2, he says, In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor.

Let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.

And so David is seeing arrogant people aggressively pursuing innocent poor people.

Okay, this can take many forms.

It could be exploitation.

They're mistreating someone for the benefit to themselves.

It could be murder for benefit, like Jezebel, who hired men to bear false witness to take Naboth's vineyard.

Big bullies are beating down, they're taking from, they're abusing defenseless people.

David is witnessing this, and he says, Lord, let them be caught in their schemes.

Stop this injustice.

And then in verse 3, David says, look at the verse, for the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.

These people are bragging about their sinful desires.

Most people are modest sinners, if there is such a thing, right?

They sin privately behind closed doors.

At least there's some level of shame and guilt.

But not these people.

And because their grief for gain, the verse says, they renounce the Lord.

God gets in the way of our greed.

So for the sake of their conscience, right, they curse and they renounce the Lord's existence.

They become atheistic.

Look at verse 4.

In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him.

All his thoughts are, there is no God.

This phrase, the pride of his face, is this image of someone who is sneering at God.

It means turning up one's nose against God.

As Woody Allen, an atheist, once said, To you, to the Christian, I'm an atheist, but to God, I'm the loyal opposition.

They openly hate God, whom they say isn't real.

An all-powerful, all-sovereign God directly opposes their self-importance and their self-worth.

Therefore, they do not seek God.

They don't need him.

He's a threat to their desires.

If you plan on living in sin, you must deny the fact on some level that God exists.

Otherwise, you will probably lose your mind.

It's a soothing lie that actually comforts the depraved mind.

And this is still around today.

The new atheistic slogan in our day is thank godlessness.

This kind of this tongue-in-cheek mockery.

And this is nothing new.

And then David says in verse 5, his ways prosper at all times.

Your judgments are on high out of his sight, as for all his foes, he puffs at them.

And so these evil people, they're succeeding in their efforts.

So because they have things like power, influence, wealth, they actually get what they want.

And they're doing this, giving no regard to the laws of God.

God's standards, his ordinances are the last thing on their mind.

And they're fearless.

They puff their chest at anyone, God or man, that opposes them.

They look at God and any potential threat and they say, Come at me, bro.

Come at me.

Try to stop me.

And so David elaborates on this further, and he says in verse 6 that he says in his heart, I shall not be moved.

Throughout all generations, I shall not meet adversity.

They are utterly convinced that they are immovable.

No one can stop me.

This is the climax of pride.

Like King Nebuchadnezzar, these men they glare at themselves, they look at all their possessions, their status, and they say, My will be done, my kingdom come.

Nothing could ever overtake me.

This, friends, is where pride will lead us.

Into the delusion that thinking we are God, we are unstoppable, we are immovable.

And next, uh, David addresses their mouth.

He says in verse 7, his mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and depression, and under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

So Jesus taught this principle in Luke 6, verse 45.

Luke 6:45

Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

And so because their hearts are full of wickedness, they use the instrument of their mouth to slander, to tear down people, to oppress and mock and degrade and boast.

They are using God's blessed gift of vocal cords to hurt other people and to curse God.

They use their tongue as a weapon of mass destruction.

And next, David addresses their eyes.

He says in verses 8 and 9, he sits in ambush in the villages and hiding places.

He murders the innocent.

His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless.

He lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket.

He lurks that he may seize the poor.

He seizes the poor when he draws them into his net.

Here is this picture.

It's kind of a dark picture that David is trying to paint here.

These people are looking for vulnerable villages.

They look for weak, defenseless people and lure them into a trap.

Like a lion in a thicket, they lurk, they watch until they can kill and take.

There's nothing worse than taking candy from a kid.

It's not even a fair fight.

Next, David addresses the victims.

The helpless, he says in verse 10.

The helpless are crushed.

They sink down and fall by his might.

So because these things are happening, the helpless, the lowly, the poor, those who have nothing, who are just trying to make ends meet, who are trying to live life honestly, they're just crushed.

Their spirits are broken.

It seems like there's nothing they can do to stop the violence and the suffering.

It feels as if they're just chickens in a cage with a bunch of wolves.

There's nowhere to go.

They have no way of fighting back.

And suffering is inevitable.

And there is seemingly no hope for justice or accountability, at least not in the foreseeable future.

And so David concludes this description by saying in verse 11, he says in his heart, God has forgotten.

He has hidden his face, he will never see it.

Now who's saying this?

Is it the helpless because of their suffering?

Or is it the wicked because of their pride?

I believe this is actually what's called a dual narrative.

Okay, the answer is both.

The helpless say this because of the lack of accountability, a feeling of despair, that justice will never come.

And the wicked are saying this because they have the distorted belief that their actions will go unnoticed and unpunished.

They can act without repercussion.

They think God's retribution is just a joke, at best, a fairy tale.

So you have criminals getting away with murder saying, clearly God is not around, and his justice doesn't exist.

And then you have victims watching their villages burned down, saying, clearly, God is not around, and his justice doesn't exist.

As David observes the world around him, this is what he sees.

And do we not see the same today, church?

Look around the community.

Look at the news.

Look at the history of your own family.

Do you not see bad people doing bad things who seem to be blessed?

And do you not see good people doing good things who seem to suffer for it?

So what do we do when we feel like God is distant in all of this?

What do we do when we witness so many atrocities and God's hand seems to be totally absent?

Well, David shows us what to do with these emotions.

After lamenting, he reaches a powerful, wonderful conclusion.

And it is twofold.

First, he calls God to action.

He calls God to action.

And secondly, he reminds himself of who God is.

Look at verses 12 through 18.

David says, Arise, O Lord, O God, lift up your hand, forget not the afflicted.

Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, You will not call to account.

But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands.

To you the helpless commits himself.

You have been the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, scull his wickedness to account till you find none.

The Lord is king forever and ever.

The nations perish from his land.

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted, you will strengthen their heart, and you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is on the earth may strike terror no more.

So, in response to these emotions that David is having, he summons God to action.

Arise, O Lord, lift up your hand to action, forget not the afflicted.

David actually does something about the way that he is feeling.

So often we complain about the state of this fallen world.

We grumble about all the evil that we see.

We just sit there and we chatter about everything that's wrong in the universe.

Well, how about this?

Cry out to God.

Call him to action.

Because here's the reality: he is the only one who can do something about it.

Complaining about evil and getting all frustrated about it will not bring about change.

Lamenting or venting to God should always lead us to call God to action.

The whole purpose of coming to God with our worries, our anxieties, our complaints is so that either one, he can intervene, two, he can accomplish his will, whatever that may be, or three, it's to change our perspective.

That's why David says, Lift up your hand, God, do not forget the afflicted.

His lament turns into a prayer of intercession.

And in this request, look at verse 13.

It's very important.

David is reminded.

Right in the middle of the Psalm, there's this huge turning point in verse 13 where David says, wait a minute, why are the wicked saying that God will never account?

What a silly thing to say.

Verse 14, God, you do see, you do take notes.

Not only that, but the helpless are committing themselves to you.

And you do help the fatherless.

God checks David.

He changes David's perspective.

It's as if God is telling him, David, are your emotions reality?

Like that I'm far away, I'm distant, I'm disengaged.

Look again.

Think again.

And David takes a second inventory and says, wait a minute, God is just.

He is taking notes, he is helping the poor, and he is actively storing up wrath against the wicked.

God does see, God does help, and God is here.

And so David, after verbally processing his emotions, he's confronted with reality.

God, right now, everywhere around this entire world, at every moment, is working.

He is working behind the scenes in ways that my physical eyes can't see.

He is right now all around the world comforting hearts.

He is right now comforting those who are poor.

He is providing for the lowly.

He is actively opposing the proud.

He is in the business, as Romans 1 says, of hardening hearts, stirring up wrath against the wicked.

And this is the powerful conclusion that David reaches in this lament.

And David ends with this yearning for justice.

In verse 15, he says, Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, scull his wickedness to account until you find none.

An arm represents strength.

And the wicked use Their strength for violence and cruelty.

And David says, Lord, break it.

Break their arm.

So that they can no longer throw spears or shoot arrows or swing the sword.

Render them powerless.

Seek out all of his wickedness, so that the sinner may be assured that they will not be punished for part of their sin, but for all of it.

And so after calling God to action, David is now reminded of who God is.

And this is the sweet conclusion, the answer, if you will, to this whole lament.

Whenever life or situations don't make sense, it's because in those moments we have forgotten, Church, of who God is.

And so David is reminded, verse 17, that the Lord is king forever and ever.

There has never been a time, nor will there ever be a time when the Lord is not reigning and ruling over all of his creation.

Not only that, but David says, the nations perish from his land.

What's he getting at here?

In other words, David reminds himself that nothing will thwart God's plans for his people.

No man can overcome the promises of God.

The promises of God are irrevocable, and no man, no devil, or power in all of the universe will change it.

If evil has entered God's land, they will perish.

God may allow them to enter, God may even allow them to prosper for a short, short season.

But we can be sure of this.

God is a promise keeper.

And when God says, be gone, they are gone.

And then in verses 17 and 18, David says, O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted.

You will, you will strengthen their heart.

You will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

In other words, he is reminded that God does care about the afflicted.

God's heart is close to the broken.

He will listen and care for them.

That is who God is.

He is in the business of justice.

He is in the business of helping the needy.

He is in the business of listening to the outcast and the needy.

The fact that God sent his one and only Son into this world to save sick sinners is evidence that God cares for those who are poor in spirit.

Just because I think that God isn't doing anything, just because I have those feelings, doesn't mean that he isn't.

Your thoughts and your feelings, they're all over the map, if you're anything like me.

But it does not change truth and reality.

Just because I think God is absent doesn't mean that he is.

God doesn't work the way we work.

We want instant results right here, right now.

That's not how God works.

Not often.

His ways are not our ways.

He works in mysterious ways.

It's not that God is absent, it's that God accomplishes his will in his timing, in his own way, according to his good plan and purpose.

God will execute justice.

He is patient with the world.

We've got to remember that.

Not wishing that any would perish, but that all might come to repentance.

He doesn't bring justice right away and thank God for that.

You know why?

Because if God brought justice right away, none of us would be here right now, would we?

He will bring justice, he will comfort the afflicted, he will humble the proud, he will render to each person perfect righteousness.

And one day, on that great day, the Lord's day, he will rid the earth of all terror.

Look at the end of the verse.

Last verse.

So that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

We look forward to that day.

There's a day coming when the Lord will right every wrong, he will make sin extinct, and he will create a new heaven and a new earth.

Total vindication.

We who believe in Christ will dwell with him forever in unbroken fellowship.

There will be no evil men to spoil purity, no more death, no more tears, no more yearning for justice, because crime will be no more.

That day is coming, church.

But in the meantime, in the midst of this chaotic world that we live in, God is still saving people.

We are living in the age of grace.

God is patiently giving sinners time to repent.

And this is all according to God's timetable and his grand narrative.

So, Proclamation Church, how does this apply to us?

If you are here this morning and you're feeling the weight of this broken world, and it's causing you to look up to the sky and say, God, where in the world are you?

Learn from this psalm.

Learn from this psalm.

Like David, tell God what you are seeing.

Tell him.

Explain to him all of the injustice, the terror, the horror that you're witnessing all around the world.

Get it all out.

Vent to him the details.

It's okay.

God can handle it.

He already knows.

But don't stop there.

Pray and ask God for his intervention.

And maybe, just maybe, God is giving you that burden for a reason.

Maybe God is the one through his Holy Spirit that is burdening you with such observations for the purpose of inviting you into greater intimacy with him.

Have you ever thought about that?

And as you call upon God, be reminded through scripture, through prayer, of who he is.

In your questioning, in your doubting, in your confusion, be reminded of reality.

He's an all-knowing, all-powerful God.

He is a God who is actively helping the innocent and actively opposing the proud.

And you might say, yeah, but you know, I don't see it.

You know, the wicked don't seem oppressed, the innocent don't seem vindicated or helped or comforted.

Well, God works in his way, not your way.

Okay, he works according to his timing, not yours.

God is a promise keeper.

All of his ways are good.

And right now, all around the world, in ways that we can't even see, God is changing motivations.

He's comforting hearts, innermost parts of people's hearts.

He's granting people repentance.

He is taking detailed notes of sinful crimes committed by wicked people.

He's actively storing up wrath against unrepentant sinners.

And he is actively storing up treasure for the righteous who suffer for his name's sake.

And maybe if you're here this morning and you're on the other side of this, maybe you can't quite relate to David's feelings, but maybe you can relate to the description here of the wicked.

Maybe you don't know the Lord.

I've got good news for you this morning.

You can escape the wrath of God that's coming.

You can escape it.

God Himself has provided a means of salvation 2,000 years ago.

He sent Jesus Christ into this broken, fallen world to go and die on a cross and pay the penalty that you deserve.

God poured out his wrath against your sin on Christ.

And you can be saved today.

You can be transformed today.

You can receive the grace and the righteousness of Christ today.

You can have forgiveness of your sins right here, right now, by turning from evil and putting your trust in Christ's finished work.

You can have a real relationship with God and no longer be his enemy, no longer wreaking havoc on the innocent and the poor.

You can experience his goodness, his love, his grace, his awesomeness.

And so if that is you this morning, I ask, will you not come?

I urge you on Christ's behalf to come and be reconciled to God.

So, church, let us pray.