Thursday, September 18, 2014

Why do You Hide Yourself? Psalms 10




A Prayer for the Overthrow of the Wicked.



1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD?

          Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?

2 In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted;
          Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.



3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire,


          And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD.


4 The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him.
          All his thoughts are, “There is no God.”


5 His ways prosper at all times;
          Your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
          As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.

6 He says to himself, “I will not be moved;
          Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity.”

7 His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression;
          Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness.

8 He sits in the lurking places of the villages;
          In the hiding places he kills the innocent;
          His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate.

9 He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair;
          He lurks to catch the afflicted;
          He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net.

10 He crouches, he bows down,
          And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones.

11 He says to himself, “God has forgotten;
          He has hidden His face; He will never see it.”

12 Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand.
          Do not forget the afflicted.

13 Why has the wicked spurned God?
          He has said to himself, “You will not require it.

14 You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand.
          The unfortunate commits himself to You;
          You have been the helper of the orphan.

15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer,
          Seek out his wickedness until You find none.



16 The LORD is King forever and ever;


          Nations have perished from His land.


17 O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble;
          You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear

18 To vindicate the orphan and the oppressed,
          So that man who is of the earth will no longer cause terror.



With all the things going on in the world today, this Psalm really hit home. It reminds me of the age old question"Why does a Loving God allow bad things to happen?" Why do those who have evil design constantly and consistently rise to power? 


These are good questions and obviously have been around for a lot longer than I was aware of. And I of course have no real answers, just some thoughts. 


How can a loving God allow this?? I think that can be answered by a question that was posed to Me in my youth. "If God is all powerful, can He make a rock so big He can't move it?" Ahhh a riddle. I want you to think about this for a moment. I do have an answer. It's yes...What? God can't do something???? Here's my reasoning Free Will (replace the word rock with free will). God promises us free will. He promised us that He would not force us to choose Him. He wants us to serve Him with open and living hearts but He. Will. Not. Force. US. Because He gave His word because His word is His bond, He Can Not break it. Why? Because He said He wouldn't. 


So there's your answer. How can God allow all the evil things to happen? Because He promised us He would allow us free will. Yeah, but what about the Christians who serve Him? Don't they deserve better? Of course they do. And God offers His comfort and support, God carries their burdens for them. For all of us if we let Him. The struggles and troubled and persecutions don't go away, the just become easier to bear because God carries them for us. Why? Because we asked Him to!


Consider all the nation's that have risen to power based on evil and consider how many have stumbled, failed and are now crumbled to dust. In a way we are a "last man standing" kind of world. And God will be that "man". So the evildoers will fail, the nation's Will fall and we, His children will be there to praise Him in victory.


Shauni


*remember these are my thoughts on this verse and what I took away from my Bible study.. feel free to add yours to the discussion.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Please Share your thoughts, I welcome them