John Gill Commentary Psalms 10

Why standest thou afar off, O Lord ?
&c.] This psalm begins with a complaint which proceeds on two general heads; the one is with respect to God, his distance from his people, and desertion of them in times of trouble, in this verse; and the other is with respect to the wicked in some following ones. God by his infinite essence and power is everywhere, and is never far off from any of his creatures; and though his glorious presence is in heaven, which, with respect to us on earth, is a land afar off, yet this hinders not but that there is often great nearness between God and his people.

And when he stands afar off from them in their apprehensions, it is when he withdraws his gracious presence from them, and defers help and assistance to them, and does not immediately and directly come and visit them: this they cannot bear, they complain; they wonder that, seeing they are the objects of his love, this should be his manner of conduct towards them; they expostulate with him, and inquire for what end and upon what account he should so use them, and most earnestly desire that he would haste and come unto them and help them; see (Psalms 22:1Psalms 22:11Psalms 22:18) ;

[why] hidest thou [thyself] in times of trouble ?
when God seems to take no notice of his people, does not look upon them, but turns a deaf ear to them, he is said to hide his face, his eyes and ears, from them: and this is sometimes the case of the best of saints, as it has been of Job, David, Heman, and others; and though this is done in a sovereign way by God, who comes and goes when he pleases; for sensible communion with him as much depends upon his sovereign pleasure as the gift of his grace itself does; yet, generally speaking, the denial or withdrawing of his gracious presence is by way of resentment for some disagreeable conduct and behaviour of his people; and is consistent with his everlasting and unchangeable love to them, but is what fills them with grief and sorrow; nor can they: forbear making mournful complaints upon it.

And this is aggravated when it is a time of trouble with them, either of soul trouble, by reason of the prevalence of unbelief, and the force of Satan's temptations; or of bodily affliction; though times of trouble here seem to design times of persecution, as may be concluded from the connection of these words with the following; and antichristian times are times of persecution: during the reign of antichrist, in which he is suffered to make war with the saints and overcome them; and during the church's being in the wilderness the space of one thousand two hundred and sixty days or years, God may seem to stand at a distance, and to hide himself from her.

The wicked in [his] pride does persecute the poor
The "poor" is the good and gracious man, who is commonly poor in this world's things, and is sensibly poor in spirit, or sensible of his spiritual poverty; or he is so called because "afflicted", as the word signifies; and he is afflicted because he is poor: these two characters generally go together. The "wicked" man is the wicked one, the lawless one, the man of sin, and son of perdition, antichrist, the great persecutor of Christ's poor saints and faithful witnesses, more or less, ever since he has been in power; and which arises from the "pride" of his heart, not bearing that any should refuse to pay homage to him, contradict his will, or dissent from him.

The word ^F19 signifies to follow after, to pursue, as Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, interpret it; and "to pursue hotly", as it is rendered in (Genesis 31:36) ; and denotes the vehemence and heat of his wrath and fury, with which antichrist persecutes the followers of the Lamb; hence persecution is compared to the heat of the sun, (Matthew 13:6Matthew 13:21) ;

Some render the words, "through the pride of the wicked the poor is burned", or "the poor burns" ^F20 : which may be understood either literally, of the burning of the martyrs of Jesus by antichrist, as here in Queen Mary's days; and which was foretold, that some of the saints should fall by flame, as well as by sword, captivity, and spoil; and to which that part of the description of Christ answers, whose feet are said to be like fine brass, as if it burned in a furnace; and which is prefaced to the epistle to the church at Thyatira, which is an emblem of the apostate church: see (Daniel 11:33) (Revelation 1:15) (2:18) ; or figuratively, of the poor saints burning with grief at the pride and wickedness of the man of sin, and with zeal for the honour and glory of God; see (2 Corinthians 11:29) (Song of Solomon 8:6) (Psalms 69:9) ;

let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined :
we read the words as a petition; and so the sense is, let the wicked persecutors be taken in the wicked and crafty schemes which they have devised for the hurt of others, as they are, or will be; see (Psalms 9:15Psalms 9:16) . But the psalmist has not yet come to petitions, nor does he until (Psalms 10:12) ; but is all along describing the wickedness of the wicked one. It seems better therefore to render the words as do the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin versions, "they are taken in the devices that they have imagined": and the meaning is, that the poor, who are persecuted by the wicked, are taken by their crafty schemes they lay for them, as Jarchi interprets it, and are put to death by them. So these words show the issue and event of persecution: and this sense best agrees with the boasted success of the wicked man (Psalms 10:3) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F19: (qldy) "fervide persequitur", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "ferventer", Gejerus; so Ainsworth.
• F20: "Incenditur", V. L. "ardet", Tigurine version, Muis, Cocceius.

For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire
As antichrist does of his universal power over all bishops and princes, which his heart was long desiring after; of his being Christ's vicar, Peter's successor, and head of the church; and of having power in heaven, earth, and hell:

he boasts of his wealth and riches, of the righteousness and merits of saints, of works of supererogation, a stock of which he pretends to have in his hands to dispense to others: he boasts of his own holiness and infallibility, and of miracles, signs, and lying wonders done by his creatures, and of his great success in destroying those that oppose him; see (Revelation 18:7) (2 Thessalonians 2:4) .

The words may be rendered, "the wicked praiseth himself for the desire of his heart" {u}, so the Chaldee paraphrase; to which agrees Jarchi's gloss, ``wicked Esau praiseth himself, because he hath obtained the desire of his soul:'' and thus it is usual for proud, haughty, wicked men, as the Assyrian monarch, Nebuchadnezzar, and so the man of sin, to ascribe whatsoever they have or do to their own power and prudence; see (Isaiah 10:12Isaiah 10:13) (Daniel 4:30) . Or they may be rendered, "he praiseth the wicked for his heart's desire" ^F23 ; or for his lusts, for his indulging them: for a wicked man not only delights in committing sin himself, but he also takes pleasure in those that do it; and some of the antichristian party have even wrote in commendation of the most unnatural lusts;

and blesseth the covetous, [whom] the Lord abhorreth :
the covetous man is one that makes no use of what he has but for himself; and oftentimes withholds that which is meet from himself, as well as from others; and who makes use of unlawful ways to get, retain, and increase wealth, and is never satisfied:

such an one God abhors, because he is an idolater, he has other gods before him; he worships his gold, be sets his affection on it, places his confidence in it, and expects protection and security from it, to a neglect of divine Providence; and yet the wicked man blesses him, calls his covetousness frugality and good husbandry; ascribes what he has to his diligence, care, and industry, and bestows gifts upon him.

The words may be rendered, "the covetous man blesses himself" ^F24 ; with the good things he has laid up for many years; he pronounces himself blessed, and promises himself a great deal of happiness, in futurity; and ascribes all he has to his own hands.

Or, "the covetous man curses, he abhors the Lord" ^F25 ; for the same word in the Hebrew language signifies to bless and curse, (Job 1:5) (2:9) , which Aben Ezra on the place observes; and it is applicable enough to antichrist, who opens his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven; see (Revelation 13:6) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F23: "Quoniam laudat ipsium pro desiderio animi sui", Tigurine version.
• F24: (Krb euwbw) "et avarus benedicit sibi", Piscator; so Ainsworth.
• F25: "Avarus maledicit sive blasphemat Jehovam", Tarnovius, Hammond; so some in Michaelis.

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek [after God] We supply it, "after God"; as do the Targum and Kimchi on the place: the sense is, he will not seek to God for counsel or assistance, he will not pray to him; which is the character of every unregenerate man (Romans 3:11); or, he will not inquire into the will of God, to know what is right or what is wrong, but will do what seems best in his own eyes: and this arises from the pride of his heart, which shows itself in his countenance, in his proud and haughty look.

It is said of the little horn, who is antichrist, that he has a look more stout than his fellows (Daniel 7:20). The words may be rendered, "the wicked inquires not into the height of his anger"; so Ainsworth observes; that is, of God's anger; he is not concerned about it; he neither fears God nor regards men.

Jarchi's sense of the words is,``all his thoughts say to him, God will not inquire into everything that I shall do, for there is no judgment.''

God [is] not in all his thoughts ; nor in any of them, for they are evil continually; and if he does at any time think of him, his thoughts of him are wrong; he thinks he is altogether such a one as himself:

or, "all his thoughts [are, there is] no God" ^F26 : though he does not choose to say so, he thinks so; at least, he wishes it may be so. He works himself into such impiety and atheism as to deny the providence of God, thinking that he does not govern the world, nor concern himself with what is done below; that he takes no notice of men's actions, nor will call them to account for them; and that there will be no future state or judgment, in which secret as well as open things will be made manifest:

or, as the Chaldee paraphrase glosses it, "that all his thoughts are not manifest before the Lord".

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: (wytwmzm lk Myhla Nya) "non Deus, omnes cogitationes ejus", Montanus, Vatablus, Muis; "nullum esse Deum hae sunt omnes cogitationes ejus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Ainsworth.

His ways are always grievous
To God and to his people; or, "his ways cause terror" ^F1 , so Aben Ezra; make men fear; as antichrist has made the whole world tremble at him, (Revelation 13:4) ; or, "his ways are defiled", as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin render it; for to him is nothing pure, his mind and conscience being defiled, (Titus 1:15) ; or, "his ways always remain" ^F2 ; they are always the same, there is no change in them for the better: or they "prosper" ^F3 as Jarchi interprets it; and this is sometimes stumbling to the saints, (Jeremiah 12:1) (Psalms 73:2Psalms 73:3) ;

thy judgments [are] far above, out of his sight :
meaning either the laws, statutes, and commandments of God, which are not taken notice of by him; but his own decrees or orders are set in the room of them; or the examples of punishment inflicted on wicked men, as on the old world, on Sodom and Gomorrah, the Egyptians, and other nations; these are not regarded, when they should be a terror to him;

[as for] all his enemies, he puffeth at them ;
who are the poor saints, and are looked upon by antichrist as feeble creatures, and all their efforts against him and his kingdom are treated with contempt: he blows upon them, and suggests that he can cause them to fall with the breath of his mouth, or strike them down with a straw or a feather; see (Psalms 12:6) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F1: (wlyxy) "terrent", Cocceius.
• F2: "Permanent sive perdurant", Lutherus, Gejerus.
• F3: "Prosperantur", Musculus, Calvin, Ainsworth, Piscator.