Why, Lord, do you stand far off?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

2 In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
    who are caught in the schemes he devises.
3 He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
    he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.
4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
    in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
5 His ways are always prosperous;
    your laws are rejected by him;
    he sneers at all his enemies.
6 He says to himself, ‘Nothing will ever shake me.’
    He swears, ‘No one will ever do me harm.’

7 His mouth is full of lies and threats;
    trouble and evil are under his tongue.
8 He lies in wait near the villages;
    from ambush he murders the innocent.
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
9     like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless;
    he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
10 His victims are crushed, they collapse;
    they fall under his strength.
11 He says to himself, ‘God will never notice;
    he covers his face and never sees.’

12 Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God.
    Do not forget the helpless.
13 Why does the wicked man revile God?
    Why does he say to himself,
    ‘He won’t call me to account’?
14 But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
    you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
    you are the helper of the fatherless.
15 Break the arm of the wicked man;
    call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
    that would not otherwise be found out.

16 The Lord is King for ever and ever;
    the nations will perish from his land.
17 You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted;
    you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
    so that mere earthly mortals
    will never again strike terror. NIVUK

Did you ever encounter the school bully, with his (or her) arrogant question, ‘Well, what are you going to do about it?’ They don’t believe you will take action, because if you do you’ll get beaten to pulp, stuck to the pavement like a postage stamp.

But the ‘bullies’ described in this psalm are mistaken to think that God won’t intervene.

”They live (they think) a charmed life:
    “We can’t go wrong. This is our lucky year!” ” The Message.

Psalms 9,10 may have originally been a single acrostic psalm, and in fact they appear as one in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Certainly, we are breathing in the same air exuded in the ninth psalm in this sense: that behind everything there is a living God whose ultimate triumph is certain. Although, at times, we may feel that He is absent, we can always resort to Him in prayer. He will, ultimately, set all things straight.

”God’s grace and order wins;
    godlessness loses.” The Message.

Bad belief leads to bad behaviour. When people live without reference to God (practical atheism) it tends to affect their conduct towards others. At one end of the spectrum this may amount to little more than a casual and careless indifference; but at the other end it shows up in cruel, callous, ‘dog eat dog’ attitudes and actions.

But this world’s big bullies, who may say there is no God (or think it makes no difference anyway, because they are untouchable) are in for a rude awakening:


”Time to get up, God—get moving.
    The luckless think they’re Godforsaken.
They wonder why the wicked scorn God
    and get away with it,
Why the wicked are so cocksure
    they’ll never come up for audit.

14 But you know all about it—
    the contempt, the abuse.
I dare to believe that the luckless
    will get lucky someday in you.
You won’t let them down:
    orphans won’t be orphans forever.

15-16 Break the wicked right arms,
    break all the evil left arms.
Search and destroy
    every sign of crime.
God’s grace and order wins;
    godlessness loses.

17-18 The victim’s faint pulse picks up;
    the hearts of the hopeless pump red blood
    as you put your ear to their lips.
Orphans get parents,
    the homeless get homes.
The reign of terror is over,
    the rule of the gang lords is ended.” The Message

‘…prayer is heard (17), deliverance is total (18)…Equally striking is that nothing is done except through prayer. Deadly though the threat is (9:13;10:8), mighty though the opponent (10:9), prayer is enough, because the Lord is king (9:4,7), he knows our needs (10:14), and he is pledged to shelter (9:9,10), uplift (9:13) and help (10:14)’ Alec Motyer.