Psalm 10 Practical Atheism Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. He boasts of the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. In his pride the wicked does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. His ways are always prosperous; he is haughty and your laws are far from him; he sneers at all his enemies. He says to himself, “Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have trouble.” His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue. He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent, watching in secret for his victims. He lies in wait like a lion in cover; he lies in wait to catch the helpless; he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net. His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall under his strength. He says to himself, “God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees.” Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, “He won’t call me to account”? But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evil man; call him to account for his wickedness that would not be found out. The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land. verses 1–16 A number of years ago George Gallup, president of the American Institute of Public Opinion, wrote a report of his research into the religious beliefs of Americans entitled “Is America’s Faith for Real?” He was struck by a strange anomaly. On the one hand, the answers to his questions indicated that America is unusually religious. But on the other hand, the same research showed that America’s religious beliefs make little difference in how people actually live and act. Here is the positive side: Eighty-one percent of Americans claim to be religious, which places them second only to Italians, whose rating is eighty-three percent. Seventy-one percent believe in life after death. Eighty-four percent believe in heaven. Sixty-seven percent believe in hell. A large majority says it believes in the Ten Commandments. Nearly every home has at least one Bible. Half of all Americans can be found in church on an average Sunday morning. Only eight percent say they have no religious affiliation. Most say that religion plays an important role in their lives. One-fourth claim to lead a “very Christian life.” Ninety-five percent believe in God. But listen to these percentages: Although 95 percent believe in God and four out of five say they are religious, only one in five says that religion is the most influential factor in his or her life. Most want some kind of religious instruction for their children, but religious faith ranks far below many other traits parents would like to see developed in their sons and daughters. Only one in eight says he or she would consider sacrificing everything for religious beliefs or God. Gallup records “a glaring lack of knowledge of the Ten Commandments,” even by those who say they believe in them. He observes “a high level of credulity, … a lack of spiritual discipline,” and a strong “anti-intellectual strain” in the religious life of most Americans. Only one in eight Americans says that religion makes a significant difference in his or her life.1 This is practical atheism, and it is extremely widespread. In fact, according to Gallup and his statistics, it is the religion of most of today’s Americans. It is the philosophy of the wicked who are described by David in Psalm 10. Two Kinds of Atheism There are two kinds of atheism in the psalms. One is a theoretical atheism, the kind we normally think of when we use the words atheist or atheism. It is described in Psalms 14 and 53, for instance. These psalms are almost identical. They begin with the well-known words, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ ” This person really believes that God does not exist, though the psalmist says he is a fool to think so. The other kind of atheism is a functional or practical atheism. The practical atheist might acknowledge that there is a God. “Of course there is a God,” he might say. “Only a fool would deny it.” A person like this might go to church and even take an active role in church affairs. But so far as his or her life is concerned, God might as well be non-existent. P. C. Craigie says rightly, “The functional atheist is not concerned so much with the theoretical question as to the existence of God; rather, he lives and behaves as if God did not exist.”2 It is this person that Psalm 10 describes. According to David, “In all his thoughts there is no room for God” (v. 4). What a description this is! Martin Luther was correct when he said, “There is not, in my judgment, a psalm which describes the mind, the manners, the works, the words, the feelings and the fate of the ungodly with so much propriety, fullness and light, as this psalm.”3 The Practice of Atheism What are the chief characteristics of those who practice atheism? There are five of them, according to David. Arrogance (vv. 2–4) The characteristics of the practical atheist overlap in David’s description, but if we take them in the order they appear, the first notable mark is arrogance. David uses the word itself in verse 2: “In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.” Then he fleshes out his description with the words boasting (“He boasts of the cravings of his heart”) and pride (“In his pride the wicked does not seek him,” that is, God) in verses 3 and 4. This haughty, boasting, vain, arrogant person shows contempt for both God and man, and does it by both actions and words. He exploits the weak and crushes them. As for his words, He says to himself, “Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have trouble. He says to himself, “God has forgotten; he covers his face and never sees” (vv. 6, 11). Prosperity (v. 5) The godly person might expect the practical atheist to be struck down by a resentful and avenging deity, but for a time at least the opposite seems to be the case. Instead of experiencing God’s judgment, the atheist prospers. In fact, his prosperity makes his arrogance both possible and offensive. “His ways are always prosperous,” says David. “He is haughty and your laws are far from him; he sneers at all his enemies.” If an unsuccessful person throws his weight around, everyone laughs at him. But when this arrogant person drives a Maserati, wears designer suits, and flys off for vacations to all the hot spots of the jet-set world, it is different, particularly when he laughs at us for our old-fashioned morality. “Forget all that,” he says. “There may be a God; but if there is, he doesn’t have anything to do with practical life. If you’re going to get ahead, you’re going to have to do it yourself. God won’t help you. And in this world only the strong succeed. If you’re not successful, it’s your own fault. The poor are poor because they want to be.” Haven’t you heard that? Of course you have. It is a well-articulated philosophy in today’s culture. Security (v. 6) The third characteristic of the practical atheist is his apparent security, which his prosperity seems to guarantee. David quotes him as saying, “Nothing will shake me; I’ll always be happy and never have trouble.” During the Second World War the fascist premier and dictator Benito Mussolini was shot at and nearly killed on one occasion. But he laughed it off, saying, “The bullet has never been made that can kill me.” That is the attitude of the “secure” atheist. No one can touch him. And as far as any divine retribution is concerned, well, if God has even seen what he has done, he has forgotten. God doesn’t interfere. Vile Speech (v. 7) The fourth characteristic of the practical atheist is a surprising element for most of us, but it is nevertheless in many of the psalms: vile or destructive speech. In words later quoted by the apostle Paul (in Rom. 3:14) as uniquely descriptive of the ungodly, David says, His mouth is full of curses and lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue. I call this surprising, because most of us think of truly bad acts as wicked and of words as harmless and unimportant. C. S. Lewis says that at first he found it surprising too. “I had half expected that in a simpler and more violent age when more evil was done with the knife, the big stick, and the firebrand, less would be done by talk. But in reality the psalmists mention hardly any kind of evil more often than this one, which the most civilized societies share. … It is all over the Psalter. One almost hears the incessant whispering, tattling, lying, scolding, flattery and circulation of rumors. No historical readjustments are here required, we are in the world we know.”4 And if we think about it, the psalmist clearly is right and we are wrong. Cursing, lying, threatening, and troubling and evil speech are all destructive. They flow from one who does not believe that God will hold him or her accountable. Violence (vv. 8–11) The last characteristic of the practical atheist is violence, which has been mentioned in one form or another all along but is developed explicitly in verses 8–11. Verses 8 and 9 portray the violent person by three images. He is an assassin or murderer (v. 8), a lion (v. 9), and a hunter (v. 9). The characteristic that holds these three images together is that each involves the perpetrator lying in wait or hiding to seize his unsuspecting prey. Verse 10 describes the result of this undeserved and sudden violence. It is successful! The arrogant man is able to crush his victims, who “fall under his strength.” Verse 11 describes the conclusion the godless man draws. He reasons that God either does not see him or else quickly forgets his evil actions. A Problem for the Righteous The problems the wicked create for their victims are obvious. Because they are weak, the victims of these people are “caught in the schemes” they devise and are “crushed.” But David was not one of these weak persons. He was a strong military commander and later king of Israel. Nevertheless, the success of these practical atheists created a problem for David also. What is it? It is God’s apparent toleration of the wicked, and the suspicion that their boasts about God’s not seeing or not caring might be true. Haven’t you ever thought that way, perhaps when you have looked about at the practical atheism of our age? When you have been down about what seems to be a great injustice done either to you or to someone close to you, haven’t you sometimes doubted whether God actually does see and care, as you have been taught to believe? Haven’t you thought that God does seem to be unresponsive and even unfair? Or at least that it looks that way? Here is how Craigie puts it. It is easy to say that God exists, to affirm that morality matters, to believe in divine and human justice, but the words carry a hollow echo when the empirical reality of human living indicates precisely the opposite. The reality appears to be that the atheists have the upper hand, that reality really does not matter and that justice is dormant. At the moment that this reality is perceived, in all its starkness, the temptation is at its strongest to jettison faith, morality and belief in justice. What good is a belief and a moral life which appear to be so out of place in the harsh realities of an evil world? Indeed, would there not be a certain wisdom in the oppressed joining ranks with the oppressors?5 The Response of Godly People That may be worldly wisdom, of course, and many have bought into it. But it is not the response of those who know God, as David did. In this psalm David’s response to those who show their contempt of God by taking advantage of the poor is threefold. We find it in the psalm’s second half (vv. 12–18). First, David asks God to act: “Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless” (v. 12). Many times God does not act or does not seem to act. We look on and cannot understand his silence or inactivity. We are puzzled, distraught. In such times it is never wrong to ask God to intervene. He may not do it when we ask him to, but it is still right to ask. We can pray for ourselves in such circumstances, asking for God’s intervention and deliverance, and we can certainly intercede for others. This seems to be the heart of David’s concern. He saw injustice being done and prayed for God’s intervening help for the victims. Second, David reminds himself that, although God does not seem to see what is happening—the wicked say that “God … covers his face and never sees”—God nevertheless does see, is concerned, and eventually does intervene. God’s retributive actions are often delayed. That is why David intercedes for the suffering. But when he does intercede, he does so confidently because of his knowledge of what God is like and how he operates. But you, O God, do see trouble and grief; you consider it to take it in hand. The victim commits himself to you; you are the helper of the fatherless (v. 14). Finally, David thinks of an eventual judgment of the wicked. “The LORD is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land” (v. 16). In David’s mind this was probably an earthly judgment. We have already seen how judgment in this life, rather than judgment in the life to come, is the major concern of the psalmists. There are grounds for this confidence. Arrogance against God and man frequently oversteps itself. The mighty are often caught in their own devices and brought down. The words “How the mighty are fallen!” have been uttered more than once in human history (see David’s moving lament for Saul and Jonathan, 2 Sam. 1:19–27). Nevertheless, for a final balancing of accounts we must await the final judgment. Never mind that the wicked scoff at it. The apostle Peter spoke of people who would be like this. They too would be practical atheists. He wrote, You must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. … But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare (2 Peter 3:3–7, 10). In other words, the proof of the final judgment is the fact that God has already judged the world once in the great flood of Noah’s day. God’s wrath may be delayed, but it is not canceled. The final judgment is no less certain than the former one. In the meantime, what shall the righteous do? Habakkuk had the answer. God told him of extremely bad times that were coming. The Babylonians were going to overrun his country and carry the people into slavery. But, said God, in such times, “The righteous will live by his faith” (Hab. 2:4). This is not always easy to do, but it is what Habakkuk did and what David did too. In this psalm is as in many of these psalms, we do not see the answer the psalmist was expecting. David asked God to “break the arm” (that is, the power) of the wicked. But we do not know that David lived to see it in the cases he was troubled about. Or even if he did, we know that there would soon have been other practical atheists to take the places of those who had fallen. Still David trusted God. He lived by faith and was therefore confident of the ultimate ends of the righteous and the wicked. Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior (Hab. 3:17–18). That was Habakkuk’s testimony, and it is David’s, too. God’s timing is not our timing. But we will be able to live joyfully even in times of trouble, if we carry our troubles to the King of Kings. Boice, J. M. (2005). Psalms 1–41: An Expositional Commentary (pp. 82–89). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 02:05:23 +0000
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