BOOK 19 OF 66 · WISDOM & POETRY · KING JAMES BIBLE

Psalms 10

Psalms book home•Chapter 10 of 150•18 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Psalms 10 Overview

The psalm describes arrogant oppression in detail, asks God to arise, and ends by confessing that the LORD is King who hears the humble.

PsalmsBook

10Chapter

18Verses

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Before you read Psalms 10

Coming from

Psalm 9 centered on thanksgiving to the judge who defends the oppressed. Psalms is an anthology rather than a continuous chronological story, so the connection here is canonical and thematic.

In this chapter

The psalm describes arrogant oppression in detail, asks God to arise, and ends by confessing that the LORD is King who hears the humble.

Leads into

Psalm 11 turns to refusing panic because the lord still reigns, continuing the Psalter’s arranged movement without requiring that the two psalms describe consecutive historical events.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Psalm 10 belongs to Book I of the Psalter (Psalms 1–41). The prayer gives unusually sustained attention to the wicked person's mindset before answering it with God's kingship.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Central truth

Why does God seem far when the wicked prosper?

Lament truth

In Psalm 10, biblical faith brings grief, fear, confusion, and need directly to God rather than hiding them.

Judgment truth

In Psalm 10, moral judgment finally belongs to God, who sees what human courts and observers may miss.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Lament connection

Lamentations 3 shows the same biblical freedom to bring profound affliction before God while still remembering hope. This connection helps frame Psalm 10.

Judgment connection

Romans 12:19 likewise tells believers not to avenge themselves but to leave vengeance with God. This connection helps frame Psalm 10.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Keep lament in context

Do not mistake every anguished sentence in Psalm 10 for the psalmist’s settled theological conclusion; lament often voices how the crisis feels before faith answers it.

Keep judgment in context

Distinguish the temporal, national, and judicial settings in Psalm 10 from final eternal judgment where the text itself does not equate them.

Read Psalms 10 watching for…

why standest afar.

boasting wicked.

poor caught in devices.

God seen as forgetful.

LORD is King.

Chapter outline2 sections

1-11The wicked proudly oppress the poor and think God does not see 12-18The psalmist asks God to arise, defend the oppressed, and break the wicked

Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.

The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.

His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.

He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.

His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he will never see it.

Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up thine hand: forget not the humble.

Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.

Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.

Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.

The LORD is King for ever and ever: the heathen are perished out of his land.

LORD, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.

STUDY THIS VERSE

Psalms 10:5

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