John Calvin Commentary Psalms 10:13

"Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God, And say in his heart, Thou wilt not require [it]?" — Psalms 10:13 (ASV)

Why does the wicked despise God? It is, indeed, superfluous to bring arguments before God for the purpose of persuading him to grant us what we ask; but still he permits us to make use of them, and to speak to him in prayer, as familiarly as a son speaks to an earthly father.

It should always be observed that the use of praying is so that God may be the witness of all our affections; not that they would otherwise be hidden from him, but when we pour out our hearts before him, our cares are by this greatly lightened, and our confidence of obtaining our requests increases.

Thus David, in the present passage, by considering how unreasonable and intolerable it would be for the wicked to be allowed to despise God as they please, thinking he will never bring them to account, was led to cherish the hope of deliverance from his calamities.

The word translated here as despise, is the same one he had used before. Some translate it to provoke, and others to blaspheme. But the meaning I have preferred certainly agrees much better with the context, for when people take from God the power and office of judging, this is to drag him ignominiously from his throne and degrade him, as it were, to the station of a private individual.

Moreover, just as David had complained a little earlier that the ungodly deny the existence of a God, or else imagine him to be constantly asleep, having no concern for humankind, so now he complains to the same effect that they say, God will not require it.