Emotional Meditation—By Micah Siemens
The lament breaks. Suddenly, David shouts upward: “Arise, Lord! Lift up Your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless.” It’s not polite. It’s not restrained. It’s desperate and commanding, like a child grabbing a parent’s sleeve.
David throws the words of the wicked back in God’s face: “Why does the wicked man revile God? Why does he say to himself, ‘He won’t call me to account’?” It’s almost as if David is saying, “God, are You really going to let them get away with that?”
And then comes the turning point: “But You, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; You consider their grief and take it in hand.” That one line flips the psalm. What the wicked dismissed—God’s sight—David now reclaims with full force. God does see. He notices the grief. He holds it.
The tone moves from accusation to worshipful trust: “The victims commit themselves to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.” God isn’t distant. He’s defender. He’s not the absentee landlord the wicked imagine—He’s the advocate of the weakest.
Then David dares to ask what many of us hesitate to pray: “Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out.” This isn’t “Lord, bless them.” This is “Lord, break their strength.” And maybe that’s okay. Maybe prayers for justice need that edge sometimes, especially when evil crushes the vulnerable.
The psalm closes with this resounding declaration: “The Lord is King forever and ever; the nations will perish from His land. You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; You encourage them, and You listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.”
It started with “God, why are You far off?” It ends with “God, You are King forever.” That’s the journey of Psalm 10—the arc from bewilderment to bold confidence. Not because the circumstances have flipped, but because David remembers: God does see. And He will act.
Psalm 10:12–18 is the psalm for anyone who has prayed through tears and then, somehow, found their voice turning into praise. It’s faith clawing its way through the silence until it remembers: God’s eyes are never shut.
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