Psalm 10 — Plea for God's Judgment

In the Psalms we read how afflictions must be borne, and what should say both during and after the affliction.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

The psalmist makes a strong case for how God seems to be absent and the evil that is allowed and even applauded. I like the descriptions of the wicked — we all recognize it. 

When it gets to the part about sitting in ambush in the villages, murdering the innocent in hiding places I really thought of how many times I've seen that scenario in Indian films where evil village headmen are common characters and often are able to commit heinous crimes. It made me think of how we can still relate to the scriptures because human nature hasn't changed. 

That's also how we understand when the psalmist laments on behalf of the afflicted. We've had those feelings too.

Shema Yisrael at the Knesset Menorah in Jerusalem.
Verse 16 is part of the Bedtime Shema.

As with psalm 9 (part one of this two-part psalm), I love the fact that part of this psalm is included in daily prayers. According to Wikipedia, before going to sleep, the first paragraph of the Shema is recited. This is not only a commandment directly given in the Bible (in Deuteronomy 6:6–7), but is also alluded to from verses such as "Commune with your own heart upon your bed" (Psalms 4:4). 

 The wicked man boasts, the greedy man renounces the Lord, and the proud man thinks, "There is no God." Again, this is familiar territory. I like what St. John Chrysostom says and the lesson he draws for us to keep in mind in our own lives.

10:5 Out of God's Sight

The Peril of Flattery. Chrysostom: Do you see the folly? Do you see the unutterable ruin. Do you see the destruction gradually increasing? Do you see the things prized by the mindless, in reality full of deep misery, and now they sink from sight? Those people are applauded in their sins, commended in their wrongdoing. This is the first pitfall, sufficient to trip up the unwary. Hence it is much more necessary to welcome those who censure and correct us than those who applaud and flatter us to the point of destruction. The latter, in fact, prove the ruination of the stupid and impel them to worse evil—as though even by puffing up these sinners they led them on the way to folly.  Commentary on the Psalms

Psalms 1-50 (Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture)

We briefly mentioned that this is related to Psalm 9 because of acrostic beginnings to each line which go in the order of the Hebrew alphabet. Here is a reflection that these two psalms are related to a larger grouping. Again, we're reminded that the editors of the big book are giving us the opportunity for a cumulative message.

The Relationship of Psalms 7-10

With the exception of Psalm 8, all of these psalms are pleas for deliverance from trouble. Singly and together these compositions call on Yahweh to serve as refuge and defender of the faithful and to act as righteous judge in revelation to the wicked. We can observe a shifting identification of the enemies from the more localized wicked who oppress the individual faithful person in Psalm 7 toward the more generalized criticism of the "nations"—the non-Israelite goyim—who are called to account for their treatment of the community at large (Pss. 9-10). ...

As a result of reading these four psalms as a thematic unit, a powerful message of divine power and human responsibility is displayed. this is not to say, however, that we only read these psalms rightly when we read them together. The ancient editors of the Psalter, who arranged the psalms in their present order, saw fit to preserve the psalms as individual compositions ... Each psalm has its own integrity, shape and voice that ought to be heard and appreciated.

What I am suggesting here is not an exclusive way of reading the psalms but another way to appreciate the ensemble that the ancient editors created and arranged in the Psalter. In reading the whole Psalter as an ensemble, one hears new voices and new tensions between voices that offer new and challenging insights that are overlooked in isolation. It is something like hearing the overture to an opera on a CD collection of overtures and then hearing it as it was originally intended—as part of the whole work. The music can be appreciated either way, but with different effects and understandings. The same is true of the music of the psalms.

Psalms Volume 1 (The NIV Application Commentary)

This also makes me think of the wisdom of continually meditating on the psalms so that one is familiar enough with them to pick up the themes and insights as threads in a bigger book — not only that of individual psalms to the whole collection, but of the psalms to the rest of the Bible.

Sources are here and an index of psalm posts is here.