Psalms 10

Wesley’s later notes press the same wound: impunity tempts the wicked to contemn God, and the oppressed cry for God’s extraordinary hand. The opening question names felt distance in trouble.

The cry is an earnest petition, not theater. Grace enables the afflicted to ask why and to keep asking; the hearer must still bring the complaint to the LORD rather than baptize despair as wisdom. Distance is felt; prayer refuses to treat it as final.

Calvin: seek comfort in providence; it is God’s peculiar office to relieve the wretched. “Standing afar off” is anthropathy—figurative from sense’s present appearance, not literal absence. Nothing is hid from his eyes; God is always armed with invincible power. Though David complains, he is persuaded of God’s presence, else aid-prayer were vain. The question encourages confidence of obtaining what is desired; needful times are when the faithful are in distress.

Delay is not desertion. Sense says far; faith deposits the burden in God’s bosom and waits the season of his hand.

The psalm’s indictment begins in moral heat: arrogance pursues the poor, and the plea is that schemes rebound on their authors.

Pride’s hunt is chosen cruelty. Pray that traps catch the trapper—and refuse the arrogance that treats the poor as prey. Grace convicts; the hearer must still renounce disdainful treatment of neighbors.

Calvin: before prayer against the ungodly, David sets forth their cruelty—vexing the afflicted only because pride disdains them. Pride is the mother of wrongs; without overweening self-conceit, common humanity would teach humility and justice. Beware taking pleasure in treating others disdainfully; free the mind from pride’s disease.

Oppression here is pride’s fruit, not random misfortune—so repentance aims at the root of disdain.

Wesley: Boasteth—he glorieth in his very sins which are his shame, and especially in the satisfaction of his desires.

Boasting in desire and blessing greed while renouncing the LORD is shameless self-congratulation. Desire satisfied is not proof of blessing; it may be the stage of renunciation. Do not envy the loud desire—flee its glory.

Calvin: the ungodly praises himself on account of the desire of his soul and blesses himself; he despises Jehovah. Desire here is lust and intemperate gratification—they indulge depraved desires, fearlessly absolve themselves, and glory in wickedness. This foolish confidence breaks forth into every excess; base contempt of God is the cause.

Prosperity-fed self-praise is contempt of the Judge, not merely loud appetite.

Wesley: Countenance—though pride be seated in the heart, it is manifest in the face. The wicked will not seek God; God is not in all his thoughts.

Refusal to seek is a live, responsible no. Pride of face shows a heart that will not inquire after God. Practical atheism is chosen neglect of seeking—not a puzzle about whether God exists on paper.

Calvin: in the pride of countenance the ungodly inquireth not—permits himself anything without discriminating lawful from unlawful, lust as law. Inquiry begins well-doing and proceeds from humility that assigns God the place of judge. All his devices say, There is no God—not always flat denial of existence, but stripping God of power and judicial office, as if he were an idle idol. Cold head-knowledge is not enough; heartfelt conviction of providence keeps us in subjection.

No God here is eviction of the Judge from the world—atheism of practice under a bare name of deity.

Wesley: Judgments—threatenings and punishments upon sinners; he doth not regard or fear them, yea despises them, confident he can blow them away with a breath—a gesture of contempt.

Prosperity without fear of judgment is moral intoxication. Puffing at foes is practiced contempt. Do not read success as divine approval when judgments are treated as distant jokes.

Calvin: ways are prosperous at all times; from God’s goodness they harden themselves. Judgments are on high to them—presuming God’s distance, they promise themselves truce with death and shut God up in heaven like Epicureans. They mock God, taking encouragement from his forbearance, and think to put down enemies with a puff.

Delay of judgment is misread as absence of judgment; forbearance becomes fuel for pride.

The wicked’s heart-speech claims unmovable security across generations—no adversity ahead.

False assurance of never falling is the opposite of humble walking. Grace teaches watchfulness; boasting “I shall not be shaken. For” without God is presumption to repent of, not envy.

Calvin: he says in his heart—hidden arrogance, not only loud talk—I shall not be moved from generation to generation, because he is not in adversity. Unlike the faithful who lean wholly on God’s grace while knowing life hangs by a thread, the despiser builds his nest above the clouds and exempts himself from man’s common condition.

Godly “I shall not be shaken. For” rests on God’s protection under affliction; ungodly immovability is self-hardened exemption from trouble.

Wesley: Tongue—under fair and plausible speeches, mischief is hid; vanity—injury, the vexation or oppression of others.

Cursing, deceit, and oppression are not slips of temper but filled mouths. What hides under the tongue still harms neighbors—guard speech as moral ground, not decoration.

Calvin: mouths full of cursing, deceit, and malice; under the tongue, mischief and iniquity. Cursing here includes perjuries sworn to deceive; dealings with them bring loss. If God intends to succor his servants, this excess of lawlessness marks a fit time.

Speech-violence is evidence for prayer’s urgency—the flood of fraud calls for heaven’s help.

Wesley: Sitteth—not within the villages but in ways bordering them, as robbers do; eyes are hid—he watches from his lurking-place.

Ambush and murder of the innocent are concrete sins against the helpless. Name them as such; protect the watched-for poor; do not spiritualize predation into abstraction.

Calvin: like highwaymen at narrow roads; eyes bent to take aim. Not only forest bandits—great robbers hide wickedness under honor, pomp, and splendor, converting mansions into places of robbery.

Polished status can be a hiding place; providence must unmask titled predation.

The lion-and-net image continues: lurk, seize, draw the poor into the net.

Craft mixed with force is still chosen cruelty. Refuse both the lion’s spring and the net’s invitation—neither “cleverness” nor power excuses seizing the poor.

Calvin: thirst for prey like lions in dens—a step higher in wickedness than common robbery. Deceits and snares join violence; they catch by drawing into the net—open force and hidden snare together, so the children of God would be miserable without help from heaven.

Comfort: the double threat (violence plus craft) drives prayer upward; self-rescue is not enough.

Wesley: Croucheth—like a lion lying close, partly undiscovered, partly to seize prey more suddenly.

The helpless crushed and sunk are not metaphors only—they are people under might. Side with the fallen; do not admire the crouch that looks humble while it hunts.

Calvin: they crouch and cast themselves down so cruelty will not frighten prey away; then sudden violence when the simple are in their power—feigned humility with armed strength ready. Wicked men hide strength by crafty courteous demeanor yet keep claws ready.

Counterfeit lowliness serving predation is exposed; God must judge the gesture, not the costume.

The wicked’s theology of convenience: God has forgotten, hidden his face, will never see.

This is false comfort for cruelty. God does see; the claim of divine amnesia is a lie the oppressor tells himself. Do not grant that lie—live and pray as those who know the Judge watches.

Calvin: presumption’s source—because God seems not to notice, they flatter themselves with escape. They say in the heart (often not aloud) that God has forgotten and shut his eyes. When wishes prosper, they act as if God were obliged to them and skip solemn reckoning; long-suffering misread becomes security.

Silence of judgment is not forgetfulness; patience stores a stricter account.

The turn of the psalm: Arise, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless.

This is petition the church must actually pray. Grace enables the cry; the afflicted still lift it. “Forget” trusts God’s care enough to ask for its public stretch of hand.

Calvin: flesh imagines God idle when judgments delay; the wicked cherish that opinion into contempt, but the faithful shake the false imagination and return to due consideration. “Arise” does not so much stir God as awaken the pray-er to hope for more assistance than presently felt. The more the ungodly harden in “God takes no concern,” the more the godly must be persuaded of the contrary.

The imperative trains faith against Epicurean slumber—prayer as self-awakening under providence, not information for an absent deity.

Wesley: Contemn—why dost thou by giving them impunity, suffer and occasion them to despise thee? The wicked says, Thou wilt not require it.

Impunity’s scandal is pastoral and moral—delayed account can embolden contempt. Pray that God not leave contempt unanswered; the heart that says “God won’t call me into account” must be proven wrong in history and judgment.

Calvin: why do the wicked despise God?—taking from him the power and office of judging is to drag him from his throne. Arguments in prayer are permitted familiar speech; pouring the heart before God lightens care and increases confidence. They say, Thou wilt not require it—same practical atheism as denying God or calling him asleep.

Contempt is dethronement of the Judge; prayer insists he still requires.

Wesley: Requite—pay the mischief with thy hand by extraordinary providence, because the oppressed lack other succours; fatherless—such as have no friend or helper.

“You do see” grounds commitment. The helpless truly commit themselves; God has been helper. Trust is a grace-enabled act the oppressed take—placing the case in God’s hands when human help fails.

Calvin: Thou hast seen—armed with faith, David turns from men’s blasphemies to God. It is God’s province to take cognisance of wrongs; he is no idle spectator but takes the matter into his hand as judge. Upon thee shall the poor leave—give providence time; cast cares into his bosom and wait the fit time of deliverance. Prayer will not be vain; he is helper of the fatherless.

Commit-and-wait is faith under delayed vengeance—disburdened patience, not frantic self-rescue.

Wesley: Seek—search out and punish these wicked atheists; till—no such wickedness left in the world, or at least in the church.

Breaking the arm is prayer for restraint of evil power. Call wickedness to account until none remains—justice aimed at exhaustion of evil, not endless theater. Side with that prayer for the church’s purity and the oppressed’s relief.

Calvin: break the arm—break the power of the wicked; prayer and prophecy together. However frantic malice appears, God can remedy it promptly; ungodly violence proceeds only as far as God permits, and when he ascends the judgment-seat he can destroy with his look. As sunrise clears the air, God’s hand as Judge restores order.

The wicked’s strength is contingent; God’s look as Judge is enough.

Wesley: Is king—it belongs to him to protect his subjects; therefore his people’s case is never desperate, seeing he ever lives to help them. The heathen—Canaanites expelled as great example confirming hope; his land—Canaan, God’s by gift and dwelling.

Forever-kingship means the church’s case is never finally hopeless. Hold the throne when nations rage; the King lives to help.

Calvin: Jehovah King forever—confidence and joy; he reigns not shut within narrow time. Mortal princes disappoint; our King has full power even when he does not immediately execute judgments—he reigns for us forever. Heathen perished from his land: the holy land purged; “heathen” can name apostate hypocrites in the church’s bosom. Beseech God to purge his house.

Everlasting reign underwrites delayed help—and holy jealousy for a purged people of God.

Wesley: Prepare—by thy grace and good spirit, that they may so pray as thou wilt hear. Desire heard; ear caused to hear.

God hears desire and prepares the heart by grace and Spirit for prayers he will answer. Strengthening is gracious enablement for right asking—the afflicted must still desire and pray as prepared.

Calvin: Thou hast heard the desire of the needy—what God granted the fathers we obtain if we share their solicitude for the church’s deliverance. Direct/establish their hearts: God sustains and comforts in trouble, furnishes fortitude and patience, inspires hope, stirs to prayer—keeps hearts from fainting or fleeing elsewhere. Inclining the ear means hearts directed to call on him are not in vain.

Heart-strength is God’s establishing grace that keeps faith and prayer near him until hope proves effectual—not bare human grit.

Wesley: To judge—give sentence for them and against their enemies. The man—earthly and mortal men who yet presume to contend with their maker.

Justice for fatherless and oppressed is the aim; terror from mere earth-man is not the last word. Live toward that verdict—defend the weak, and do not fear mortal bullies as if they outranked their Maker.

Calvin: judge the fatherless and poor—apply hearing to oppressed saints; bear crosses with patience, for God often withholds aid until extremity. Man of earth may terrify no more: wicked power is still mortal, going forth from earth like worms from crevices, yet attacking God who helps from heaven. Forgetfulness of their condition makes their threatenings cruel; remember they are of earth.

Earthly terror is true but bounded; the Judge’s justice ends the bully’s license.