Psalm 10:3-6 (NLT)
For they brag about their evil desires; they praise the greedy and curse the Lord. The wicked are too proud to seek God. They seem to think that God is dead. Yet they succeed in everything they do. They do not see your punishment awaiting them. They sneer at all their enemies. They think, “Nothing bad will ever happen to us! We will be free of trouble forever!”
New York passed radical abortion legislation in December of 2018…to thunderous applause. Many of New York City’s biggest skyscrapers were suddenly illuminated in bright pink lighting including the tallest building in Manhattan – One World Trade Center. It was a triumphant day for a wicked law…and wicked people celebrated it.
That was a significant day in the abortion fight, but not an abnormal day in 21stcentury America…or for the rest of the world, either. Immorality is the new norm in every nook and cranny of life, and it appears as if shame is nearly dead. Such were the days of King David, as well, and like God’s people today he found himself shaking his head and wondering how wicked people could be so brazen…so proud…so oblivious to the eternal and terrible price they would eventually pay if they chose to die in their sin and rebellion. David’s son was right when he said, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9b).
Do you ever find yourself asking, “Where is God in the midst of all this evil? Why doesn’t He do something?” David began this psalm with the exact same sentiment, asking, “O Lord, why do you stand so far away?” The Bible calls us to remember and play the long game, if you will…to rest assured in the knowledge that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil. 2:10-11). The great Charles Spurgeon put it well when he said, “There are none who will dispute the justice of God, when he shall hang every Haman on his own gallows and cast all the enemies of his Daniels into their own den of lions.” Was it not for the blood of Christ applied to your life and to mine, would we not hang from the same gallows and be cast into the same den of lions?
We might be tempted to think that David is only talking about the worst of the worst in this psalm, but that simply is not the case. The great bible commentator Matthew Henry said, “Wicked people will not seek after God, that is, will not call upon him. They live without prayer, and that is living without God. They have many thoughts, many objects and devices, but think not of the Lord in any of them; they have no submission to his will, nor aim for his glory.” This is the hard truth of God’s perspective rather than the clouded truth of ours…and while it might seem at times that evil is winning, it is only because God is waiting…and every moment He waits is mercy.
None of us should ever delight in the eventual downfall of the wicked. On the final Day of the Lord, amongst the wicked, will be people that today we call friends. All of us know people that “do not see the punishment awaiting them,” but are we willing to explain it to them? We say we love and care for them, yet in most cases, we remain silent. Shame on us.
