I invite you to turn with me to the 10th Psalm. Psalm 10 as we turn to worship our God together through hearing His Word. Psalm 10. Last week we looked at Psalm 9, and I mentioned last week that Psalm 9 and 10 were originally written as one psalm. of an acrostic pattern where each line begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We don't know why or when they were later broken up into two psalms, but our best guess is that Psalm 9 serves as more as an individual hymn of praise, while Psalm 10 really turns more to a corporate lament. Nevertheless, they both kind of carry the same theme. In Psalm 9, David praises God because of what he anticipates God will do in the future. Remember, we considered last week, David goes back to the future. But here, in Psalm 10, this week, it's as if his praise is tested. He laments how far away God seems to be. And yet, in the very same manner, his focus is on the person of God and His character, the deeds of God in the past, and His faithfulness in the past that serves to inform how He will act in the future. So Psalm 10 is our text. We'll read the entire psalm, of course. Brethren, this is God's Word. Why, O Lord, do You stand far away? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? In arrogance, the wicked hotly pursue the poor. Let them be caught in the schemes that they've devised. For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord. In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. His ways prosper at all times. Your judgments are on high out of his sight. As for all his foes, he puffs at them. He says in his heart, I shall not be moved. Throughout all generations, I shall not meet adversity. His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression. Under his tongue are mischief and iniquity. He sits in ambush in the villages. In hiding places he murders the innocent. His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless. He lurks in ambush like a lion in the thicket. He lurks that he may seize the poor. He seizes the poor when he draws them into his net. The helpless are crushed. sink down and fall by His might. He says in his heart, God has forgotten. He has hidden His face. He will never see it. Arise, O Lord, lift up Your hand. Forget not the afflicted. Why does the wicked renounce God and say in his heart, You will not call to account? But You do see. For you note mischief and vexation, that you may take it into your hands. To you the helpless commits himself. You have been the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer. Call his wickedness to account till you find none. The Lord is King forever and ever. The nations perish from His land. O Lord, You hear the desire of the afflicted. You will strengthen their heart. You will incline Your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more. Amen. Brethren, this is God's Word. Pray with me again as we ask for God's mercies upon the preaching of it. Oh God, our Father, you are our pure delight and our greatest joy and happiness and confidence. Would you be near to us now, we pray. Would you grant your spirit to our hearts and minds that we might live in you and you in us. We pray this in Christ our Lord. Why, oh Lord, do you stand so far away? Why do you disappear in times of trouble? If you're like me, if you hear these words, it's like a gut punch. It brings me to my knees. Have you ever felt this way at times? Why? Where are you? Have you ever felt as if God is nowhere to be found? That right when the trouble in life starts, it seems as though God runs in the other direction? Have you experienced this feeling of being utterly and entirely alone? In the midst of all of this evil and oppression and suffering? Maybe you feel that way today. Maybe you feel that way right now. The Psalms express kind of the common experiences of life. This is kind of a normal thing for the saints of God. In fact, if you've never felt this way, there might be something wrong with you. We know that God sometimes hides His face from us. We know that He does this when we persist in sin. We know that He hides His face from us when we neglect the means of grace, when we fail to assemble with God's people, when we fail to seek His face. We know sometimes in His love that He withdraws from us for our ultimate sanctification and growth. This is a common experience. But in this situation, though, at other times, there doesn't seem to be any reason at all that God withdraws from us. That's what David is writing of here. Why, Lord, have You gone away? I'm not confessing my sin. That's not why You're gone. It's not that I'm not seeking You. I am seeking Your face. I don't think that You're testing me. I can't perceive that in any sense. Why, Lord? Are You gone? Why are You so far away? If you read this psalm, David is in the midst of praising God. He's in the midst of worshiping God. And yet, he breaks out in lament and says, God, I feel like You are a million miles away from me. What is going on? Brethren, how do we respond to times like this? What do we do when this happens? When we can't explain it. When we can't put our finger on it. But when God is absent from our lives. The temptation may be, well, Maybe we just need to act like we don't feel this way. Kind of a mind over matter thing, right? God's always present everywhere. I should never doubt that he's distant from me. Maybe we should just put on a happy face and act cheerful, right? I'm a Christian. My eternal salvation is secure. What can I ever complain of? Maybe our tendency is to think, I just need to have more faith. I need to suck it up and repent of shamefully doubting that God was distant from me. Brother, these are common responses you might hear in our day, but we don't find any of this in this psalm. That's not how David responds. How are we to respond when God feels distant to us? We are to cry out to Him. We're to cry out to Him. That's the proper response. This psalm is a psalm of lament. Lament is an expression of intense expression, of deep grief and sorrow. And lament is a legitimate expression of faith. And lament is an important part of true Christian worship. Lament is how we are called to bring our sorrow to God. It is the language, the worshipful language, where we let God know how we feel and what's going on deep down within us. And so, rather than just staying silent and saying, you know, things are really okay, I'm gonna at least act like that, the Christian response is to cry out. And this crying out, this lament is a way in which we process our pain. And truth be known, when we are silent, when we are stoic, when we act like nothing ever bothers us, when we're indifferent, or when we always just put on our happy face, we're really just manifesting unbelief. Crying out reflects the heart of faith. Crying out is an expression of knowledge that God is near, ultimately. Crying out is the means, oftentimes, that God uses to rescue us in times of trouble. So that's what I want us to see in this psalm today. Whatever the reason of your trouble may be, I believe we find in this psalm what the famous poem expresses so well, that the valley of darkness is often our valley of vision. Just as in the daytime, you can see the stars from the bottom of a deep well. It often takes the darkness of life's troubles for the light of God's face and His presence to shine the brightest. And so here, what I want to present before you today is that here we find divine help for those times when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. And that help is found in crying out to God and letting Him know exactly how we feel. Three things then from this passage today. I want to answer the question, how do we respond when God seems to hide Himself from us? Three responses. We're called to complain, we're called to petition, and we're called to trust. First, When God seems distant, we're called to freely bring our complaints to God. And we see this right away in the two why's there in verse 10. Why, verse one of Psalm 10. Why, oh Lord, why do you hide yourself? See, as best as we can tell, David feels that God is distant because the prosperity of the wicked around him. This is important to understanding the lament in this particular context. It's not that David feels that God is not omniscient. He's not calling that into question. He speaks about how God sees everything that's going on. David also isn't really concerned that God has forgotten about him. Because he says many times, God hasn't forgotten the cry of the afflicted. He knows these things. But the thing is, he's not experiencing these things. He looks out at the prosperity of the wicked and that nothing is being done about it. And he's saying, okay, I'm singing about God's infinite presence. I'm singing about God's perfect justice. But this doesn't really seem to line up with the realities of life. The wicked appear to get away with everything. even as they consume the faithful to get what they want. And God seems to be just standing around, hands in His pockets, whistling, quietly observing everything that's going on, and doing nothing about it. And that's why He complains. That's what burns within Him. Why do you do this, Lord? Something's not matching up here. And so really, the gist of his complaint is captured in verses two through 11, where he gives this really detailed description of the wicked. In fact, one Puritan I found. identified 17 characteristics of evil found here. He said this is the fullest description of the wicked found in Scripture. Luther himself went on and on about arguing that this passage details the Antichrist. You know, Luther can find the Antichrist behind every rock, right? But he went on and on. This is the Antichrist. This is the fullest, most complete, most in-depth description of wickedness found in Scripture. Of course, we're not going to go through all of that, but I will say, you know, this is why Paul quotes this passage in Romans chapter 3. He kind of refers back to it as a summary of the sinfulness of natural man as he's laying forth his case for the gospel. But this is a description of the wicked, and I want you to notice that there's this interplay here between inner sinfulness, desires of the heart, that manifests itself in outward disobedience, or outward wickedness. Notice here, in verse 2, David describes the wicked as being arrogant. They're prideful, they're haughty, and they're arrogant in taking advantage of the poor. The poor here being not just the physically poor, but those who are victims of oppression. David's complaint is essentially saying the wicked are arrogant. They plunder others for their own gain, and they do so with apparent immunity. They're arrogant in their unbelief and their disobedience, not just persistent in it. Then he goes on to describe them as boastful. They boast in their sinfulness. They're greedy for gain and other desire of the heart. They curse and renounce God. He says in v. 4, with pride, they even conclude that there is no God. They openly boast of their sin. They glory in their shame. They act as though God does not exist. And the worst part about it, v. 5-6, they prosper in it all. He doesn't get it. Instead of God being the immutable One, perfectly executing justice and never changing, it's the wicked in v. 6 who boasted He Himself is actually immutable. I shall never be moved. It's the Antichrist. Instead of God being the omnipotent, all-powerful One, it's the wicked in v. 6 concluding, I shall not meet adversity. Nothing can stop me. David is lamenting how man has set himself up as God, and his inward lusts are driving him to greater and greater disobedience, and his haughty tongue is boasting of these things. He's proud of it. He's glorying in it. And as from there, he goes on to speak about how the tongue of the wicked is filled with cursing and deceit, verse 7, oppression and mischief and iniquity. I think it goes well with what James speaks of in the New Testament. The tongue is a world of unrighteousness. It sets the world on fire. Jesus speaking as well saying that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks more than anything else our words reveal What's in here? And so the haughty, the proud, the wicked, they're boasting and it's revealing these inward lusts and these inward sins. And they ambush the innocent, verse 8. They stalk them like a lion in verse 9. And they say all the time, all the while, in their heart, verse 11, God has hidden His face. He hasn't seen. They live like atheists. David is saying, how, Lord, can you stand around and see these things and not do anything about it? Now, brethren, break all this down, because I want you to see here, this isn't just describing the drunk guy in the gutter, or the chairman of the gay pride parade, or the president of Plain parenthood, or the crooked politician, or the corrupt businessman. This isn't just describing those types of people. Dave is talking about the heart. He's talking about the tongue. He's talking about those who profess to know God, but then live as though He doesn't exist. Practical atheists. And this ought to hit home with all of us. Who here hasn't stumbled with their tongue? Who here hasn't from time to time lived as though God didn't exist? Or that He doesn't see our secret sins? Or that He doesn't care? You see, before you conclude anything about this psalm, we have to first ask ourselves, does this describe me? And we naturally, egotistically read Scripture as if we're always the good guy, right? We're always David, the bad guy's always Goliath. We're always the good guy, and all those bad people are all out there. But we must first ask, maybe I'm on the wrong side of this psalm. Maybe I'm the problem that David is lamenting. That's certainly how the Apostle Paul picks up in Romans 1-3 and quotes this passage. We've got to face that question before we can face anything else in this psalm. And so, I mention that just in passing because we're going to come back to it later, but that is key to understanding what's going on here. Recognizing ourselves in the wicked. But the point here, the main point, is that God is lamenting, excuse me, David is lamenting these things to God. And he's laying complaints at God's feet, and it should be striking to us, David's not complaining about his circumstances. He's not asking God to fix his situation. His complaint is with God. He's essentially saying, God, if it's evil for me to turn a blind eye to sin, evil, oppression. If it's evil for me to be indifferent about sin in my world, what are you doing? Why do you see all this and stand so far off? Why are you so seemingly disinterested? Show yourself to be just. Show yourself to be near. Show yourself to be holy. Here's what I want you to see though. David isn't being irreverent in this. Even though it might strike us that way at first. And he's not questioning God's existence. He's not questioning God's character. You see, David isn't complaining because of his lack of faith. David is complaining because his faith is so strong. Think about it. Unbelief does not waste time crying out to God. It doesn't waste time speaking to God about these things. Unbelief is expressed by indifference. Unbelief is expressed by giving God the silent treatment, like a member of our family who hurts us, and we just kind of subtly avoid them the rest of the day. Unbelief is expressed by brushing things off and saying things like, oh well, it is what it is, oh well, God is sovereign, I can't do anything about it. No, we may think that's mature and stoic and steadfast faith, but really it's unbelief masking itself as true faith. It takes real faith to lament rather than just walking away. And that's what David is doing. He doesn't cry out and complain because he doubts God's character, but because he knows God's character. He doesn't cry out and complain because he doubts God's presence, but because he knows His presence, because he knows His justice, because he knows His sovereignty, and because he believes so strongly in these things. He lays his heart before the Lord, and he does so honestly, not holding anything back. And you know what else is amazing? He does so publicly. Publicly. This is a corporate prayer of lament. It's often been said that to cry is human, but to lament is Christian. And I want you to see that one chief way in which we find strength in times of trouble is when we freely bring our complaints to God in an act of worship. a way in which we process our pain, a way in which we pour our heart out before the Lord, and a way in which God is often pleased to use this prayer of lament to strengthen us for the days ahead. That's the first thing we see here. We must bring our complaints to God. But all this being said, we must at the same time strongly conclude We're never to just bring our complaints to God. But secondly, we're called to bring our petitions to God as well. We can't stop at complaints. We must move on to petition. We must move on to petition. Petition. True faith never just complains. It never just stops at that. We complain, we lament, we express how we feel for the expressed purpose of moving our hearts towards God. It's because we long for God. It's because we long for Him to hear our prayers. We form our complaints into petitions. You see, complaining, or I should say lamenting, is how we bolster our petitions for why God should hear us. This is what it means to pray with our minds. This is what it means to pray with intentionality. This is what it means to pray according to the will of God, to bolster our petitions with sound arguments for why God ought to hear us. And so in this sense, you see, lament is more than just complaining. It presents, or is a way of presenting, arguments for why God ought to hear us. And if it never ends in petition, if it never forms into petitions, if it never takes complaints and moves towards petition, then it can really just be sinful grumbling and complaining. So that's what we see here. David sees the wickedness all around him, and he forms the wickedness in this detailed description of them as an argument for why God should hear his prayer. Don't you see how wicked they are, God? Don't you see what they are doing? And he does this because, again, not because he doubts that God will answer him, but because he knows God will answer him. That's why in v. 12, we see after his description, after he lays the case before the judge as prosecutor, he says, now judge, on the basis of these things, arise. Ancient battle cry. Lift up your hand. Show your might. Do something about it. And here he takes on the covenantal name of God, the Lord Yahweh, the ever-present, the immutable, the omnipotent One. He boldly asks, arise, Lord. Intervene in a righteous manner. Be who You are in my life as the present One, as the powerful One, as the just One. Fulfill Your promises, Lord. Forget not the afflicted. Do what you've said you're going to do. Praying God's promises back to him. He says in v. 14, I know you see the wicked. I know you've noted it. I know you hear every idle word and deed that has been done and that you will repay in full. I know that you are a helper to the fatherless. This goes back to what we considered last week. God's past acts. of faithfulness reveal how He will act in the future, and we have to go back to those things in times of doubt. David's going back to these things, and he's saying, break the arm of the wicked. That means, essentially, remove their power from them. Call them into account. Bring justice. Punish evil. Vindicate your name. Fulfill your promises. He's calling on the Lord as His ultimate help, His ultimate hope in times of trouble. And He's not just praying that God would fix His circumstances. He's praying for God to fulfill His promises and glorify His own name. Just note again how this teaches us about prayer. Nothing, no prayer is so commendable to God than when we plead His own promises. And then we plead and aim only and solely and ultimately for His glory. We have the assurance in the divine promise that He hears those prayers and He will answer. This is what David is doing. Pleading the glory and the promises of God. So his complaint becomes a petition. And this is how we too are called to respond in such times. We are to cry out to God. Even when He seems distant. even when He seems to have hidden Himself from us, even when it seems like we have no hope and nothing is ever going to be done, that it's a waste of breath. We are to cry out, we are to bring arguments, we are to plead promises, we are to aim for His glory. This is how we ought to respond. This is the response of faith. And yet in this, he's complained, he's petitioned, but there's one last thing, one last response that brings us all together, third and finally. In times of trouble, we're called to trust as well. I know it's kind of obvious, but we're called to trust as well. At the end of the day, it's noteworthy, David never gets an answer. for the why questions that he asks. So often the case in the Psalms. It's not the answer to the why that gives confidence. It's not the answer to the why that gives hope. In your struggles, in your affliction, in your suffering, in your difficulties, I hear it all the time. Oh, if I only knew what God was doing and why He brought this about, then I could handle it. No! No! Then your faith would be in having the answers, not in a person. He doesn't get the answer to why. But his trust in God is strengthened. His trust in his faith is strengthened. And this is really, really key here. I've spoke a lot today about when we feel that God is absent. When we feel the despair of Him hiding His face. When we feel as though the wicked get off scot-free. Although we may feel this way at times, we must always move away from what we feel toward what we know from God's Word. If we never escape our feelings, we will never escape. Yes, it is appropriate to express our feelings to God in these ways, but we don't stay there. We express our feelings for the purpose of moving from our feelings back to what God has revealed and what we receive by faith. And that's what we see with David here. He returns to faith over his experience. He moves away from viewing things from his own perspective to viewing things from God's perspective. And this is what bolsters his confidence in the end. This is what gives him strength in the end. Notice he says in verse 16, the Lord is king forever and ever. He goes back to the reality. Back to reality. God is sovereign. His rule is eternal. His rule is immutable. It will never end. And though I cannot explain all the wickedness around me, God is still on His throne. And I trust in that. Then he goes back in v. 17 to the fact that the Lord hears the desires of the afflicted. Despite the fact that it seems as though the afflicted are forgotten. That they're taken advantage of. That they're plundered. David goes back and clings to what he knows to be true about God. That he hears and is near to the afflicted. And he trusts in that rather than what he sees from his own perspective. He's walking by faith and not by sight. And he says in v. 18 that God will do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed. It may seem as though justice has failed, that truth lies slain in the streets, but David assures himself, God will act. I know this. I've got to come back to this. He assures himself that based upon who God is and what He has said, God will answer and act in due time. This is a manifestation of David's faith. And perhaps most encouraging in this is what he says at the end of verse 17. You hear the desire of the afflicted, but also you will strengthen their heart. Did you hear that? This phrase ought to have hit you like an atom bomb, you will strengthen their heart. You're looking for the answer to your experience of troubles in life. Are you wallowing in the why questions of God's absence that this psalm opens up with? Where is your hope? Where is the solution? Where do we go in times like this? Yes, we are called to complain. Yes, we are called to petition. But ultimately, the greatest hope of David, the greatest hope of this psalm is not found in what we do. It's rather found in the promise of what God will do for us. David's heart is weak. And he cries out, but he confesses, you will strengthen the hearts of your people. In times of lament, in times of sorrow, in times of pain, you must cling to this promise. You. that help is not found in your obedience, in your prayer life, in your personal piety. Hope is not found in you getting things together and ultimately just pulling yourself up in the strength of your own faith. That's not where hope is found. David's hope is in God. Your only hope is in God. and in His promises. His hope, His strength, His trust is that God will draw near to Him in due time. That when I fear my faith will fail, when the tempter would prevail, He will hold me fast. And this is what brings everything all together here in this psalm. He complains and he petitions, not because doing so is going to earn God's favor and get God's attention and cause Him to act, but because he knows that these are means by which God uses to strengthen His heart. And the same is true for you and me. That's why we're here today. That's why we're here. We've come together today not because our faith is perfect and we can stand with all of what's going on the other six days of the week. We're here today not because we have everything in life all together. Sometimes my life is an utter mess. It's a mess. And I know it's true for many of you as well. But we come together today as a family, we come together corporately to recite truth together. What we know to be true about God's Word. And we do so because we know it's one way, the chief way, in which God strengthens our hearts. six days a week, this world screams at you on every channel on the dial, if I can still speak in those terms. It screams at you that God has forgotten, that He's on vacation, that He never sees, that He'll never act, that the wicked are going to win the day, you can't beat Him, might as well join Him, that you've kept your heart clean in vain, Every single day, the world screams this at you. But right here, in the Lord's day, in the means of grace, through the reading of the Word, you are reminded of what God says that trumps how you feel. In the praying, and the singing, and the reciting, you join with the people of God to say things that you know to be true and that you want to be true in your own heart and life. And in the Lord's table, you see judgment, final judgment brought to this place, because Christ is illustrated and lifted up as crucified, showing that God takes sin seriously. But where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. in the means of grace, in seeking His face, in laments, in prayers, in petitions, in trust. It's in these things that God strengthens our hearts so that we might persevere, so that we might stand in the day of trouble, so that we may place our hope on the solid rock, not on seeking sand. Our hope comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth." Complain, move to petition, end in trust, relying and looking upon God as your strength, as the one who will sustain you to the end. This is the promise of His Word. Well, brethren, let's bring this to a conclusion and If you've ever been here before, you know that we never do justice to any text of Scripture without viewing it in light of Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself said, the Psalms speak of Me. The same is true with this Psalm as well. I want to conclude on that note. This Psalm not only speaks to us about Christ, but it is Christ Himself speaking. This psalm is not only a psalm that shows us what God has promised to give us in Christ, but it also shows us how God fulfilled those promises in the life of Jesus Christ. How so? Well, I hope that immediately, upon hearing verse one, Why, oh Lord, do you stand so far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? I hope that immediately your thoughts ran to Jesus Christ. He's the one who cried, my God, my God, why? Why have you forsaken me? He's the one who looked down from the cross and saw the wicked men speaking blasphemies, plundering the innocent, rejecting, renouncing the God who came and visited them in the flesh, living and acting as though God didn't exist. But how did he respond in the midst of this? He lamented, why have you forsaken me? He petitioned, Father, let this cup pass from Me, but not My will, Your will be done. And in the end, He ultimately entrusted Himself to God as well. Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit. I've got no other hope. Glorify Your name. Thus, the ironies of the ironies here is that it's in the darkness of the cross, the physical and spiritual and moral darkness of the crucifixion. It's in that darkness where the face of God is most clearly revealed. Can you believe it? God wasn't absent. When the Lord of glory was slain upon the tree, He was present as never before. And He was manifesting His glory and reconciling the world to Himself. And this is what brings the psalm together in full. This is the key which makes everything else make sense. Remember, I argued earlier, we are the wicked people in this passage. Every single one of us by nature, in every detail. This is describing our hearts by nature outside of Christ. And so David is crying out to God here, and think about it, if God would have heard his prayer right then and right at that point in history, we would all be swept away in justice as well. He's crying for our punishment in this psalm, believe it or not, by nature. Where then is our hope found if we are the wicked in this passage? Again, the irony of ironies is that the righteous speaker in the psalms here became the wicked. and took on the punishment of the wicked so that we might be forgiven and free. On the cross, he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God. On the cross, God became the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ. On the cross, God's sovereignty, God's justice, God's immutability, God's fulfillment of His promises, and God's glory is most clearly seen and revealed because sin is punished Justice is brought. Mercy is given. The judgment of the wicked is sealed. And in Him, all the promises of God, that He will hear the cry of the afflicted, even those who are afflicted with sin, all the promises of God are yes and amen in Him. And that's why on the cross, Jesus cried, Why? Why? Why? God turned His back upon His Son in punishment so that we might cry, why? And never be forsaken. There is always an answer on the other end of our whys. God is always near to those who call upon Him because of Christ, because He was forsaken instead of you. And that is our hope. And that is our confidence. This psalm shouts the cross to us. And it says, run to Jesus. All you who are weary and heavy laden. Weary, broken, troubled. Why? Why? But there we are promised rest. Rest, beautiful rest in a world of unrestlessness. He promises us rest. Because He takes our burdens. He takes our troubles. He strengthens our hearts. And He bears us up. And He will present us faultless before the throne at that last day. This is how God through Christ works to strengthen your heart even in the midst of trouble. And you are called today to hear His voice, to trust in His name, and to rest in your only hope in this life and the life to come, your Savior, Jesus Christ. Well, may God give us the faith to believe and receive and cling to these things, even in the midst of great sorrow and trouble. Bow with me in prayer.