Psalm: ANATOMY OF THE SOUL
Finished Perfect Word: Psalm 10:12-18
Pastor John Weathersby
Sunday September 25, 2022
Notes, Not a Transcript.
As we continue in our study of Psalm 10, we will see the Psalmist rounding out his frustration in verses 12 and 13, then course correct himself – and this is something we’d do well to observe. Ask yourself, “what caused the Psalmist to change course” and “is there something I can learn from this”.
Throughout each of our Christian experiences there can be temptation to liken God’s patience to absence, indifference, or worse yet evidence that God does not exist. We’ll see the Psalmist turning to Biblical principles, which we can do, even more, having this perfect finished Word.
We’ll learn that God cares for His people like a father… but more and more perfectly!
Psalm 10:12-18 (ESV)
12 Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
Frequently we see the Psalms crying out to God for help, for action.
Psalm 3:7 (ESV)
7 Arise, O Lord!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
Psalm 7:6 (ESV)
6 Arise, O Lord, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
Psalm 9:19 (ESV)
19 Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before you!
The Psalmist’s lament over the previous 11 verses has given a view to wallowing and despair. As much as we don’t like to admit it or want to know it, we, people, but dust (Psalm 103:14) and are fickle. We can forget who God is and lose sight of who we are in the process. Our earth-limited vision of life is why we said last week we need frequent reminders of our timeless God.
Psalm 103:14 (ESV)
14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
As a matter of encouragement, if you’re tempted to discouragement, you would do well to remember God’s many promises. His promises are a great study. When you find yourself struggling and desperate – to remember God’s promises to His people, we have the blessing of this finished perfect Word. RC Sproul wrote a great book called: The Promises of God: Discovering the One Who Keeps His Word, I would encourage you to buy it.
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
Why he laments do the wicked renounce, God. After observing all the evil around him, he’s confused and desperate and crying out to God. On this point, I like Calvin’s reflection:
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, 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 hereby greatly lightened, and our confidence of obtaining our requests increases.
Isn’t that a great observation? Formulating our thoughts and bringing them to God is cathartic. Meaning, we get relief from bundling up our concerns and fears and placing them before God … why? Here are some thoughts.
Matthew 7:8–9 (ESV)
8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
Luke 11:10–12 (ESV)
10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; 12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
Matthew 6:25–27 (ESV)
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
What is the common thread here? God is active and alive and cares for His people like a father… but more, and more perfectly. Prayer and talking to God are often cathartic as it causes us to even more consider our weak fears and bring them to our perfect Father God, who cares for us. More than the flowers of the field, not giving us an egg over a scorpion, not a stone over bread, it gives us confidence knowing God does not withhold God.
Psalm 84:11 (ESV)
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield;
the Lord bestows favor and honor.
No good thing does he withhold
from those who walk uprightly.
Our honesty with God gives us a kind of bold confidence. Honesty in prayer is one reason I struggle with public prayers. Public prayer can morph into some sort of public oration, to the people in the room, over an open conversation with God and a plea to Him.
Before saying “do not be anxious about your life” in Matthew 6, Jesus cautioned,
Matthew 6:5–7 (ESV)
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Knowing how God cares for us and doesn’t withhold good for us, that the design for prayer is for us to bring our concerns, our worship, our celebration fears, and anger before God and know that we are heard should transform our prayer and our lives.
1 John 5:14 (ESV)
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
James 5:13–18 (ESV)
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise.
14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.
15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
Scripture does not call us to a coy prayer but open flowing, an honest, and trusting lifestyle of prayers.
Philippians 4:6–7 (ESV)
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
The Psalmist here in the first 13 verses has done that. He has lamented and here concludes:
Psalm 10:13 (ESV)
13 Why does the wicked renounce God
and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
Does He not call the sinner to count:
Genesis 9:1–7 (ESV)
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.
4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
Matthew 12:36 (ESV)
36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
Remembering the scope of the word of God keeps us from despair. Read this word, and hide it away in your heart.
Matthew 7:24 (ESV)
24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Psalm 119:11 (ESV)
11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
As the Psalmist has laid himself out bare before God, we’ll see a pivot:
14 But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
you have been the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
call his wickedness to account till you find none.
He recalls Biblical principles. Of course, God sees and is aware:
Proverbs 15:3 (ESV)
3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place,
keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Jeremiah 16:17 (ESV)
17 For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
Hebrews 4:13 (ESV)
13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
Perhaps you wish God would speak. We would do well to remember that The Word is His living Word, written just above the earlier reference
Hebrews 4:12 (ESV)
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Precepts and truth about God re-encourages the parched Psalmist, who has been observing people so much that he is discouraged as he turns his gaze to God, his mood, tone, and countenance all change. How are we reminded or even instructed truth about God, only from here, His Word.
What is the common thread here? God is active and alive and cares for His people like a father… but more, and more perfectly. Prayer and talking to God are often cathartic as it causes us to even more consider our weakness and fears even more bringing them to our perfect Father God, who cares for us.
16 The Lord is king forever and ever;
the nations perish from his land.
17 O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.
The Christian gets relief from bundling up our concerns and fears and placing them before God
Matthew 7:8–9 (ESV)
8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
Luke 11:10–12 (ESV)
10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
11 What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent;
12 or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?
Matthew 6:25–27 (ESV)
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Praying to God, Honestly. It grows our faith, encourages us to trust Him, and conforms us more into Jesus’ image.
Church, let’s be a praying people. God is active and alive and cares for His people like a father… but more, and more perfectly.
Remember our opening questions:
- “what caused the Psalmist to change course” and
- “is there something I can learn from this”
You’ll have an opportunity today after service and carry that all week this week, emphasizing prayer and hiding the Word away in your heart. This Psalm is an excellent exercise for recalling Biblical principles in God’s finished word while praying and crying out to God.
Pray, Observe, Apply.
