Psalm 10

For my weekly quiet time today, I will blog about Psalm 10. Psalm 10 is believed to be connected with Psalm 9 because, when we look at Psalms 9-10 together, we see an incomplete acrostic. Some scholars try to make the acrostic complete by emending the text, but I prefer not to deal with speculative readings (although, as a Bible professor of mine once said in a class, even the reading that is in the text in front of us is speculative). In any case, here are some issues that I encountered in my study of Psalm 10 and its interpreters:

1. As with Psalm 9, Psalm 10 has been interpreted eschatologically. St. Augustine relates it to the coming Antichrist. He says that Psalm 10:9 speaks of three persecutions of God's people: the persecution by the pagans, which was violent; the persecution by the heretics, which was a crafty attempt to deceive Christians; and the coming persecution by the Antichrist, which will be both violent and deceptive, in that there will be crafty miracles. John Gill applies Psalm 10 to the Roman Catholic persecution of Protestants, and Jimmy Swaggart interprets it in light of the coming Antichrist's affliction of the Jewish people. In the medieval Midrash on the Psalms, of course, I did not find a reference to the Antichrist (which is a Christian concept), but, in one opinion, the oppressor of Psalm 10 is identified as the persecutor of God's people in the Book of Daniel. There were Jewish interpreters who looked to this Psalm for hope that God would defeat the Jewish people's Gentile oppressors and restore Israel.

I think it's fun to read the Psalms in terms of eschatology---probably because I enjoyed learning about eschatology when I was growing up. I got the same sort of thrill that I'd get from reading comic books, or from watching fantasy and science fiction---only I was taught that the biblical prophecies really would happen. I still get that sort of thrill---although I hope that I won't have to endure the end times. But, while reading the Bible eschatologically as an armchair reader may be fun, I should respect those who applied the Psalms to their own concrete sufferings.

2. St. Augustine spiritualizes some stuff in Psalm 10. He interprets the poor of Psalm 10:9 to be the poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), Christians. He views the orphan of v 14 as spiritual orphans, who died to their father, the world (Galatians 6:14; cp. Matthew 12:48; 23:9). Augustine does something similar for Psalm 9:13: he views the poor speaker there as Christ, who, as a poor man, (II Corinthians 8:9) intercedes for the saints.

I once had a professor who was critical of tendencies within churches to ignore biblical passages about the poor. He would probably object to attempts to spiritualize away the economic destitution of the victims in Psalm 10, or maybe even to interpret the suffering in light of religious persecution. Personally, I can identify with interpreters' attempts to relate Psalm 10 to their own suffering, and I think that Christians can benefit when they reflect that Christ made himself poor and vulnerable to persecution. Moreover, Psalm 10 may concern the plight of all sorts of people---not just the economically poor. But I believe that, somewhere in my mind, I should remember that this Psalm also relates to the plight of the economically destitute, and that God is concerned about their mistreatment at the hands of oppressors.

3. In my study, I encountered a lot of discussion about practical atheism. J. Vernon McGee said that there were no atheists in those days, and Peter Craigie (who wrote for the conservative Word Commentary series) distinguished practical atheism from theoretical atheism. Craigie said that Psalm 10 is talking about those who dispense with morality and justice in their belief that God does not punish the wicked. It's not talking about atheists who live moral lives, or something like early Buddhism, which had a high standard of moral conduct, even though it lacked a theistic aspect. I think that, in the eyes of the Psalmist, dispensing with a belief in God or divine providence opened the door for immorality, for, if there is not a God who punishes wickedness, why would the wicked decide to discontinue their evil, selfish deeds? This makes a degree of sense. I think that doing good can benefit society and myself, and that doing evil can be counter-productive. This is the case whether or not God exists. But the Psalmist was looking at a situation in which the wicked were prospering, notwithstanding their wickedness, and so I can understand why he was clinging to the existence and the justice of God.

4. Romans 3:14 quotes Psalm 10:7, as Paul criticizes the human race as sinners. I have issues with interpreting the wicked of Psalm 10 in reference to all of humanity, for there are many people who may not believe in Jesus or God, and yet they're not lurking about, looking for ways to trip up the poor. In my opinion, and even in the opinion of many Christian interpreters, Psalm 10 is talking about the truly wicked---those who delight in wickedness and look for opportunities to hurt and oppress others; I doubt that it's speaking about those who are sinners in God's sight simply because they're not morally perfect, or as good as God is. At the same time, should I look at myself and make sure that I don't have the wicked characteristics that Psalm 10 condemns? Absolutely.