Psalm 10

Apparently Psalms 9 and 10 are combined in the Septuagint into one psalm in an acrostic style. They seem to me totally separate in focus, but I guess it's possible. They do overlap a little.

vs 1

A question asked not only by the unbeliever, or the weak of faith - this is being asked by David! The wording suggests that it is God who disappears when trouble comes, but of course we know that to be untrue.

vs 2

Anyone who has eyes and is alive has seen this happen. And that is frustrating and challenging - why does God allow people so wicked, who pick on the weak, to survive?

vs 3

Not only do they wail on the weak, but they also revile God directly! Surely worthy of some smiting. I've felt that way about certain people who write books about atheism *ahem*.

vs 4

You can take this both ways, of course - I mean, in anyone's thoughts, God is so big that he fills up everything and there is yet still more of him to consider! But I think David means it the other way - their minds are so full of themselves and other unimportant guff that there isn't even the smallest window for God.

vs 5

For every Enron executive that rides his business into the ground at the cost of millions of dollars to investors everywhere, for every Alan Bond who goes to prison, there are thousands of megabuck execs and porn-heros who are living the high life in their underpants, bathing in champagne and casually breaking laws of both God and man. These people may have enemies - they also have pantloads of cast to protect them.

vs 6

They really do say such things, too. But mostly in their heads. They think they're invincible.

vs 7

I will point out that not everyone who has a wad of cash large enough to beat whales to death is a lying prick. But I will concede the point that enough of them are that it's easy to make the stereotype.

I guess I should also point out that it's not just big dollar white collar corporate thugs that David is trashing here - anyone who has wicked schemes, and they seem to be successful, fits in here. So someone who uses intimidation and fear to get ahead in life, even if their life is still mid-level mediocrity, is successful in using bastard-coated bastard schemes to succeed where others try to be, well, normal.

vs 8-9

Marx would say that the only way to make money, really, is to exploit people. If everyone was paid for the true value they added to their finished product, then the workers would control the means of production. While I'm not a grey-overcoat wearing drugged-out peacenik commie, I will pay that some exploit more than others in this way.

But of course, back in David's time, his enemies really did murder and kidnap people. Terrorists and freedom fighters still do this stuff today. David's point is that their victims are innocent. And yet, regardless of their wicked actions and the innocent people's innocence, this stuff continues to happen.