The Song of the Afflicted (Part 2)

As I mentioned in the last episode, Psalms 9 and 10 are sometimes viewed as one psalm because they share a lot of vocabulary, there’s no title on Psalm 10 that separates it, and Psalm 10 continues the partial acrostic pattern from the previous psalm. But I’ve labeled them part 1 and part 2 because while these connections are significant, there are also important differences that set the psalms apart. They’re companion pieces, and the biggest difference is the tone and type of psalm. Psalm 9 is full of thanksgiving and trust. David has experienced a victory over his enemies that fills him with hope, even though the victory isn’t final and he’s still waiting for God to deliver him fully. But in Psalm 10, David laments and cries out in pain at the injustice he sees. A glimmer of his previous confidence is there, but he also wonders in verse 1, “Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” David feels alone and forgotten, and he’s filled with rage and sorrow at the cruelty of wicked people. This is how placing Psalms 9 and 10 side-by-side can lead us to greater insights. We might expect to see the order reversed; first David suffers and cries out for deliverance, and then he’s triumphant in God’s power over evil. But that’s not how life always works. Sometimes we take one step forward just to be dragged two steps back. Sometimes we have to watch all the work we’ve accomplished crumble before our eyes. Sometimes it looks like despite our short-term victories for goodness, the bad guys are going to get away with it. That’s when we need Psalm 10: when the affliction comes back and we have to return to God and say, “Are you still there, Lord? Will you help me again?”

The first half of Psalm 10 is a scathing and deeply provoking indictment of people whom David called “the wicked.” In verses 2-11, he uses vivid images to describe three things: the heart, the acts, and the victims of the wicked. The heart of the wicked can be summarized as arrogant autonomy. Not only does an evil person boast of the desires of their soul (which is to say they do whatever they want and brag about it), but they also shout out their bravado to the heavens. Three times David imagines what the wicked person says: “There is no God,” “I shall never be moved,” and “God has forgotten, he will never see it.” At the root of our sinful hearts is the proud posture of the toddler or the teenager stamping their foot and saying, “I’ll do what I want, and nobody can stop me.” But these wicked people do more than talk; their acts are schemes and ambushes that hunt down vulnerable people like prey. Whether the weapons are words or violence or tricks or betrayals, the wicked use whatever means necessary to get what they want. And of course, the victims are the poor, the downtrodden, the afflicted. David uses a word here that appears nowhere else in the Bible: חֵלְכָה, which means “helpless, overwhelmed, miserable.” All of us know what it means to feel that kind of helplessness, like you’re stuck in affliction. The predators take down the ones who are already wounded, heavily burdened, easy to pick off and isolate and destroy. David’s prayer in verse 2 is that these enemies would “be caught in the schemes that they have devised.” Let the one who takes advantage of others experience the kind of suffering that they inflict on others. Let them learn the horror of their ways and be stopped from harming anyone else.

In the second half of the Psalm, David falls on his knees in prayer. Verse 12: “Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.” He’s asking God to step up, step into this mess, and prove to everyone, including the wicked, that God does see everything and that evil cannot get away with it in the end. In verse 15, David prays, “Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call his wickedness to account till you find none.” In other words, disarm those who hurt others and hold them accountable. Don’t let a drop of evil remain. If they’re guilty, declare them guilty in the sight of all. And in the middle of this prayer for divine intervention, David makes an incredibly insightful comment: “to you the helpless commits himself; you have been the helper of the fatherless.” The wicked pursue the helpless, but the best response to helplessness at the hands of wicked is to surrender in helpless trust to the One who can do something about it. The LORD is the king, and unlike so many human rulers who lord their power over others, this king listens to the lowly. This is where the psalm ends: “O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; 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.” The arrogant wicked proclaim themselves to be gods, untouchable and undefeated. But they are mortal, created from the dust of the earth. One day, the Lord will bring them back down to the dust, and he will lift up and brush off the weak. I love the line, “you will strengthen their heart.” There are times when the people of God are broken and beaten down, when their bodies are abused, when their minds are assaulted, when their resources are stolen, when their circumstances are dire. But in the midst of any affliction, this is a promise that the Lord will strengthen us at the core of our being. When our heart is breaking, the unbreakable God will hold us together in love.