SEE
I’m turning to the psalms again today.
Psalm 10 begins with a challenging question of God: Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do your hide yourself in times of trouble?
The psalmist recites the actions of the wicked, creating a list that could have been written today: devising schemes, boasting of their desires, deceiving and oppressing, persecuting the poor.
Their eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
they lurk in secret like a lion in its covert;
they lurk that they may seize the poor;
they seize the poor and drag them off in their net.
They stoop, they crouch,
and the helpless fall by their might.
They think in their heart, “God has forgotten,
he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”
And here’s where the psalm takes an interesting turn.
Even though the psalmist has accused God of standing far off and hiding in times of trouble, even though the psalmist is painfully aware of the predators that capture the poor and drag them away from home, and health, and hope…now the psalmist counters the thoughts of the wicked with a proclamation of trust.
Where the wicked think God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it, the psalmist declares:
After a time of questioning and lament the psalmist lands in a place of hope and trust. I pray we might land there too. God holds the trouble and grief of this world in hands scarred by the nails that pierced them. We are seen by a God who refuses to stand far off while the world suffers, but instead comes among us in the Word made flesh. Thanks be to God.
Amen.