Psalm 10

Let's pray. Oh Father, we do thank you for the blessing it is to get to come to your word this morning. We pray that your Holy Spirit work in our hearts, that we would look to you. for rescue and for justice. In Jesus's name, amen. All right, here we go. Let's go ahead and turn over here and look at the screen and we'll pull up Psalm 10. Psalm 10.
Real quick, if this video is helpful to you, feel free to hit that like button, like Facebook, YouTube. elsewhere know that this is valuable content. And if you're on social media, feel free to hit, you know, type in something down in the comments. Say amen, good morning, something like that. Let me know you're watching. It's a help to me to see who's engaging here. All right, here we go. Psalm 10. A song of confidence in God's triumph over evil.
Why do you stand afar off, O Lord? Why do you hide your face in time of trouble? The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire. He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God. God is in none of his thoughts. His ways are always prospering, your judgments are far above out of his sight. As for all his enemies, he sneers at them. He has said in his heart, I shall not be moved, I shall never be in adversity.
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue is trouble and iniquity. He sits in the lurking places of the villages. In the secret places he murders the innocent. His eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless. He lies and waits secretly as a lion in his den. He lies and waits to catch the poor. He catches the poor when he draws him into his net. So he crouches. He lies low that the helpless may fall by his strength. He has said in his heart, God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see.
Arise, O Lord. O God, lift up your hand. Do not forget the humble. Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require an account. But you have seen, for you have observed trouble and grief, to repay it by your hand. The helpless commits himself to you. You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and the evil man. Seek out his wickedness until you find none. The Lord is king forever and ever. The nations have perished out of his land.
Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and to the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more." Well, what a honest cry we hear from David today, isn't it? The psalmist cries out. He's looking at the world.
And this reminds us of the book of Job, doesn't it? God, why does this happen? Lord, why do the wicked go out and are able to do everything that they're able to do? You've felt this in your life at times, haven't you? As a nation, we felt this on 9-11, didn't we? The Americans felt this. Lord, why have we suffered in such a way?
But other people have suffered this personally. Maybe you know this in your life, where you see the wicked, and they don't care, and they steal, and they cheat, and maybe it's your boss. Maybe it's your co-worker. They get the promotion, they do these wicked things, and you work faithfully, quietly, humbly.
And sometimes we honestly have to ask, Lord, why? Why, Lord, why is this the case? Once again, this is one of the beauties of the wisdom literature. All right, sometimes as Christians, we can get kind of super pious and act like God is totally removed from our problems. Like, oh, we can't ask God these things. We can't lay our hearts bare before God. I mean, he's too holy, or maybe it's just a false sense of piety.
But here the psalmist is inspired by God to say these things. So when we see that in our lives, what are we called to do? Well, we have a recourse. The reality is that the person here, the wicked, why did the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, you will not require an account. But what does the book of Hebrews 9, verse 27 say?
And that is, it is appointed for man to die, but after this, the judgment. God will judge the living and the dead. But for those of us who are in Jesus Christ, We have passed out of judgment and have come into life. If Christ is in us and if we are in Christ, then we know that we will have mercy. We know that we will find grace. We know that all things will be made right.
And so what's the best verse to summarize this section or this passage? I'm kind of fond of verse 16, the Lord is king forever and ever. I'm just going to go ahead and underline 16, 17, and 18. Those are my favorite passages for this. The Lord, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may oppress no more. What are you called to do from this passage? Rest in God. Job suffered and he rested in God. We suffer and we rest in God. We shouldn't be surprised that we live in a fallen world. We shouldn't be surprised that the ruler of the prince of the air would want to exalt his own. Does that feel good? No, absolutely not.
But we know it's going to come to an end. We know that God sees. We know that our judge lives. We know that the one who holds the universe in his right hand will judge one day the living and the dead. But thanks be to God, he doesn't judge me or you according to our deeds.
No. No, we can humbly come before God and we can confess that we are also those who deserve judgment. We've sinned, we've fallen, but yet we know that God hears our prayers, not because we are righteous, but because we are in Jesus and He is righteous.
So we can cry out this prayer. We can, in Jesus Christ, cry out this prayer. And when we pray, We know that the Lord hears us because our high priest sits in heaven and he intercedes for us. So lift up your eyes to Jesus. Pray with confidence and have hope even in times of darkness. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. We pray that you would give us hope in the darkest of hours. We pray that we would have a sincere faith crying out to you for justice. and thankful to you for your mercy. Lord, we do long for the day when you will make all things right again. Please let our hearts rest in Jesus. In his name we pray, amen. Well, may the Lord bless you today and may he give you peace as you rest in the justice of God shown in Jesus.
Bye, see you tomorrow. Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.