Three Pearls, Three Minutes, Thirty Days. (Day 10)

Psalm 10: 1Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? 2In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises. 3He boasts about the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. 4In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God. 5His ways are always prosperous; your laws are rejected by him; he sneers at all his enemies. 6He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.” He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.” 7His mouth is full of lies and threats; trouble and evil are under his tongue. 8He lies in wait near the villages; from ambush he murders the innocent. His eyes watch in secret for his victims; 9like 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. 10His victims are crushed, they collapse; they fall under his strength. 11He says to himself, “God will never notice; he covers his face and never sees.” 12Arise, Lord! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. 13Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, “He won’t call me to account”? 14But 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. 15Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out. 16The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations will perish from his land. 17You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, 18defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.

  P.S. Psalms 9 & 10 are considered to be a single psalm in some biblical texts.       

                                                      Today’s Three Pearls

• In his pride, the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts, there is no room for God – v.4:Pride – the fundamental sin and the root cause of almost all, if not every other sin.  C.S. Lewis said: “There is no fault which makes a man more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves. And the more we have it in ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.” Think that far-fetched? Let’s see: Did I do anything in my life today without God, all on my own? Did I take God or His will or His preference into consideration in all the projects and plans I made today? Following my own rules and inclinations is the basic definition of pride; it is what drove Lucifer from heaven and banished Adam and Eve from Eden. A proud man looks down on people  and happenings constantly and is thus not spiritually tuned into looking up to God. The proud Christian thinks himself approved in God’s sight because of His salvation and ensuing gifts, and proceeds to believe himself better than the man who has not yet encountered redeeming grace. More C.S. Lewis: “The first step to acquiring humility is to realize that one is proud; if you think you are not conceited, it means that you are very conceited indeed.”

• He  says to himself, God will never notice; He covers his face and never sees – v.11: We either believe God is omnipotent and omniscient or we don’t. He cannot be all-seeing in the life of everyone around us and not in our own lives. He cannot be all-seeing when we are doing good works and not all-seeing when we deliberately choose to commit sin. He cannot be all-seeing of only our external actions and not of our inner thoughts. As we make a choice, any choice, in the course of our day today, let us chant that mantra to ourselves, God is all-seeing…

• You Lord hear the desires of the afflicted, you encourage them and listen to their cries – v.17: Our desires are the petitions in our hearts carried in words and cries unto our Father in heaven. A good listener actually hears what is being said, as one can listen without hearing, e.g. planning a response while another is talking. God will listen to our cries and words but He is also hearing our unspoken desires; may our desires never be half-hearted, may they be as fervent and animated as our spoken words.

Ref: Treasury of David