Psalms 10:11

_HE HATH SAID IN HIS HEART, GOD HATH FORGOTTEN: HE HIDETH HIS FACE; HE WILL NEVER SEE IT._ He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten - God (saith he in his heart, if not with his lips) forgets alike my sins and the sufferings of my victims. HE HIDETH HIS FACE - so as not to see wrong. HE WILL NEVER SEE IT - He pays no regard to it (the evil I do) 'forever.' So the Hebrew, Ezekiel 8:12; Ezekiel 9:9. The sinner's long impunity fosters his notion that God takes no cognizance of wrong-doing on earth. This constitutes an urgent claim for God's interposition at once, and is the ground of the prayer that follows in Psalms 10:12....

11._He hath said in his heart. _The Psalmist again points out the source from which the presumption of the ungodly proceeds. Because God seems to take no notice of their wicked practices, they flatter themselves with the hope of escaping unpunished. As, however, they do not openly utter with their mouth the detestable blasphemy, that _God hath forgotten their conduct, and hath shut his eyes that he may never see it, _but hide their thoughts in the deep recesses of their own hearts, as Isaiah declares, (Isaiah 29:15) the Psalmist uses the same form of expression which he used before, and which he repeats a little after the third time, namely, that the ungodly say to themselves, in their hearts, that God takes no concern whatever in the affairs of men. And it is to be observed, that the ungodly, when all things happen to them according to their wishes, form such a judgment of the

1-11 God's withdrawings are very grievous to his people, especially in times of trouble. We stand afar off from God by our unbelief, and then complain that God stands afar off from us. Passionate words against bad men do more hurt than good; if we speak of their badness, let it be to the Lord in prayer; he can make them better. The sinner proudly glories in his power and success. Wicked people will not seek after God, that is, will not call upon him. They live without prayer, and that is living without God. They have many thoughts, many objects and devices, but think not of the Lord in any of them; they have no submission to his will, nor aim for his glory. The cause of this is pride. Men think it below them to be religious. They could not break all the laws of justice and goodness toward man, if they had not first shaken off all sense of religion....

Verse Psalms 10:11. _GOD HATH FORGOTTEN_] He hath cast off this people, and he will never more re-establish them. So _Sanballat_ thought....

HE HATH SAID IN HIS HEART, GOD HATH FORGOTTEN - That is, this is his practical, habitual feeling. He acts as if God had forgotten, or as if God takes no knowledge of what is occurring in the earth. Compare Psalms 10:6. HE HIDETH HIS FACE - God has hidden his face; that is, he does not look on what is occurring. HE WILL NEVER SEE IT - That is, he will never see what is done. It cannot be supposed that any man would deliberately say either that the memory of God has failed, or that he will not see what is done upon the earth, but the meaning is, that this is the practical feeling of the wicked man; he acts as if this were so. He is no more restrained in his conduct than he would be if this were his deliberate conviction, or than if he had settled it in his mind that God is regardl

EXPOSITION This psalm is to some extent connected with the preceding one, but not very closely. It has turns of expression which are identical, and not common elsewhere; _e.g. _"in times of trouble" (Psalms 10:1; comp. Psalms 9:9), and much similarity in the thoughts (comp. Psalms 10:2, "Let them be taken," etc; with Psalms 9:15, "In the net which they hid is their foot taken;" Psalms 9:12, "Forget not the humble," with Psalms 9:12, "He forgetteth not the cry of the h

HE HATH SAID IN HIS HEART, GOD HATH FORGOTTEN,.... Meaning either his own sins, because they are not immediately punished; wherefore he hopes to go on for ever with impunity, but will be mistaken, for God will remember the iniquities of Babylon, and render to her double, Revelation 18:5; see Amos 7:17; or else the poor ones he oppresses; for though they seem for a while to be forgotten by God, they are not, a book of remembrance is written for them; HE HIDETH HIS FACE; that is, from his poor saints, which is true oftentimes; but then the use the wicked one makes of it is bad, namely, to insult them on that account, and to imagine that it is grateful to God, and doing him good service, to afflict and persecute them; and that God will never regard them, nor return to them more, as follows;

Psalms 10 _ 1. The cry of Jehovah and what causeth it (Psalms 10:1)_ 2. That wicked one (Psalms 10:3) 3. Prayer for divine Intervention: Faith's Vision (Psalms 10:12) Psalms 10:1. Here is a renewed cry to Jehovah and why? Because the wicked in his pride persecutes the poor. The wicked is that coming man of sin. Psalms 10:3. That persecutor of the saints of God is now prophetically revealed in his arrogant pride, defiance of God and oppression of th

9 AND 10. YAHWEH THE REFUGE OF HIS PEOPLE. These two Pss., divided in MT, were originally one, This is proved by the fact that they are one in LXX. and Vulg., by the absence of title over Psalms 10, and, conclusively, by the evidence that 9 and 10 form one acrostic poem. It was arranged in strophes of four lines each, the first letter of each strophe being one of the letters of the Heb. alphabet in regular succession. This system is carried out in the whole of Psalms 9-2 in Psalms 10. So far we have the first twelve letters of the alphabet, the only omission being that of the fourth letter, which, however, can be supplied by an easy and convincing emendation. Then from Psalms 10:3 to Psalms 10:11 the acrostic character disappears and can be recovered only by precarious emendation. It reappears in...

FORGOTTEN. Compare Psalms 10:12, and Psalms 9:12; Psalms 9:17; Psalms 9:18. NEVER SEE IT. Compare Psalms 10:14....