Psalm 10:5 Komentář

The Septuagint translation joins this psalm with the ninth, and makes them but one; but the Hebrew makes it a distinct psalm, and the scope and style are certainly different. In this psalm, I. David complains of the wickedness of the wicked, describes the dreadful pitch of impiety at which they had arrived (to the great dishonour of God and the prejudice of his church and people), and notices the delay of God's appearing against them (Psa 10:1-11). II. He prays to God to appear against them for the relief of his people and comforts himself with hopes that he would do so in due time (Psa 10:12-18).

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 10 This psalm in the Septuagint version, and those that follow it, is a part and continuation of the preceding psalm, and makes but one with it; hence in these versions the number of the following psalms differ from others, and what is the eleventh with others is the tenth with them, and so on to the hundred fourteenth and one hundred fifteenth, which also are put into one; but in order to make up the whole number of one hundred and fifty, the hundred sixteenth and the hundred forty seventh are both divided into two; and indeed the subject of this psalm is much the same with the former. Antichrist and antichristian times are very manifestly described; the impiety, blasphemy, and atheism of the man of sin; his pride, haughtiness, boasting of himself, and presumption of security; his persecution of the poor, and murder of innocents, are plainly pointed at; nor does the character of the man of the earth agree to well to any as to him: his times are times of trouble; but at the end of them the kingdom of Christ will appear in great glory, when the Gentiles, the antichristian nations, will perish out of his land, Psa 10:1.

His ways are always grievous,.... To God and to his people; or, "his ways cause terror" (a), so Aben Ezra; make men fear; as antichrist has made the whole world tremble at him, Rev 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, Tit 1:15; or, "his ways always remain" (b); they are always the same, there is no change in them for the better: or they "prosper" (c) as Jarchi interprets it; and this is sometimes stumbling to the saints, Jer 12:1; 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 Psa 12:6. (a) "terrent", Cocceius. (b) "Permanent sive perdurant", Lutherus, Gejerus. (c) "Prosperantur", Musculus, Calvin, Ainsworth, Piscator.

Do you see the folly? Do you see the unutterable ruin? Do you see the destruction gradually increasing? Do you see the things prized by the mindless, in reality full of deep misery, and now they sink from sight? Those people are applauded in their sins, commended in their wrongdoing. This is the first pitfall, sufficient to trip up the unwary. Hence it is much more necessary to welcome those who censure and correct us than those who applaud and flatter us to the point of destruction. The latter, in fact, prove the ruination of the stupid and impel them to worse evil—as though even by puffing up these sinners they led them on the way to folly.

"God is not in his sight, his ways are polluted in all time" [Psalm 10:5]. He that knows what in the soul gives joy and gladness, knows how great an ill it is to be abandoned by the light of truth: since a great ill do men reckon the blindness of their bodily eyes, whereby this light is withdrawn. How great then the punishment he endures, who through the prosperous issue of his sins is brought to that pass, that God is not in his sight, and that his ways are polluted in all time, that is, his thoughts and counsels are unclean! "Your judgments are taken away from his face." For the mind conscious of evil, while it seems to itself to suffer no punishment, believes that God does not judge, and so are God's judgments taken away from its face; while this very thing is great condemnation. "And he shall have dominion over all his enemies." For so is it delivered, that he will overcome all kings, and alone obtain the kingdom; since too according to the Apostle, who preaches concerning him, "He shall sit in the temple of God, exalting himself above all that is worshipped and that is called God." [2 Thessalonians 2:4]

This is the reason why the sinner provokes the Lord, because he does not keep him before his eyes, because he turns himself away from God. The one who sins conducts himself in this way. Concerning all of this, God says, “They have shown me their backs and not their faces.” Cain, the offspring of this wickedness, “departed from the face of the Lord God.” That is, he turned himself away from him. Inasmuch as these words are spoken about people being sinners, even more so do they speak about the devil. “His ways are profaned at all times.” For of which people are the ways profaned for all time, since even the wicked often live with much honesty? He enters without permission to draw people to corrupt deeds and even to deny the providence of God. And so he persuades many to believe that the world is without the direction of God, and later he falls away from right ideas concerning the governing of God and the knowledge of judgment.

"They are removed." Here he shows how they contemn divine judgment. And first, he sets forth the cause. Second, he shows the effect, at "all his enemies." "Your judgments," that is, your benefits, "are removed from his face," that is, from his mind and memory; and so he will not fear because he does not think about them. Prov. 28: "Evil men do not think about judgments; but those who seek the Lord observe all things." Dan. 13: "They turned away their eyes so as not to see heaven." But Jerome's text must be read with some strain: "They will despise all his enemies," as if he does not believe in the judgments of God. "And he shall have dominion," supply, "in his heart." Or sometimes, by God's permission, the wicked have dominion over their enemies. And this is the cause why the divine judgments are not recognized: Hab. 1: "He himself triumphed over kings." Ibid.: "The wicked prevails against the just; therefore perverted judgment goes forth." Another cause is presumption about oneself; and they presume two things. Stability; and this is what he says: "He said in his heart, I shall not be moved from generation," that is, my dominion shall not extend from one nation to another, and I will not inflict evils on many; "I shall not be moved," that is, I shall not lose my prosperity. Is. 47: "You have laid your yoke very heavy; you said, I shall be a lady forever." Jerome has, "and he said, forever I shall be, from generation without evil," that is, I shall never suffer evil. Rev. 18: "I sit a queen and am not a widow." And Lk. 3, in the Gloss, explaining one passage: the sinner, wishing to perpetuate his name, said, "He will not go by celebrity and fame." "Without evil," that is, I will not do evil. Or, "I shall not be moved," that is, I shall not attain to the possession of houses, "without evil" of violence and injustice. And so the Antichrist will act, according to the Gloss. Or, "I the Antichrist shall not be moved," that is, disturbed, "from generation to generation without evil," that is, I shall be according to what is lawful.

The Psalmist mourns God's apparent indifference to his troubles, which are aggravated by the successful malice, blasphemy, pride, deceit, and profanity of the wicked. On the just and discriminating providence of God he relies for the destruction of their false security, and the defense of the needy. (Psa. 10:1-18) These are, of course, figurative terms (compare Psa 7:6; Psa 13:1, &c.). hidest--Supply "thine eyes" or "face."

Such is his confidence in the permanence of his way or course of life, that he disregards God's providential government (out of sight, because he will not look, Isa 26:11), sneers at his enemies, and boasts perpetual freedom from evil.

This strophe, consisting of only three lines, describes his happiness which he allows nothing to disturb. The signification: to be lasting (prop. stiff, strong) is secured to the verb חיל (whence חיל) by Job 20:21. He takes whatever ways he chooses, they always lead to the desired end; he stands fast, he neither stumbles nor goes astray, cf. Jer 12:1. The Chethמb דרכו (דּרכו) has no other meaning than that give to it by the Kerמ (cf. Psa 24:6; Psa 58:8). Whatever might cast a cloud over his happiness does not trouble him: neither the judgments of God, which are removed high as the heavens out of his sight, and consequently do not disturb his conscience (cf. Psa 28:5, Isa 5:12; and the opposite, Psa 18:23), nor his adversaries whom he bloweth upon contemptuously. מרום is the predicate: altissime remota. And הפיח בּ, to breathe upon, does not in any case signify: actually to blow away or down (to express which נשׁב or נשׁף would be used), but either to "snub," or, what is more appropriate to Psa 10:5, to blow upon them disdainfully, to puff at them, like הפּיח in Mal 1:13, and flare rosas (to despise the roses) in Prudentius. The meaning is not that he drives his enemies away without much difficulty, but that by his proud and haughty bearing he gives them to understand how little they interfere with him.