In this first section, the psalmist thoroughly and with chilling accuracy dissects destructive behavior. This is a poetic, powerful, and thorough description of the mission, master, and means of the chronically self-centered abuser. As previously noted, abuse is the desecration of the image of God in another person through patterns of intentionally misusing power, overtly and covertly, in words and actions, to gratify self. Every aspect of this definition is seen in verses 2-11.
The abuser’s mission. Abuse is motivated by the arrogant pursuit of self- gratification. “In arrogance, the wicked hotly pursue the poor” (Ps 10:2a). For what purpose? “For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul, and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord” (Ps 10:3). The wicked person’s mission is to satisfy the
“desires of his soul” and his greed for gain. In his pursuit of his desires, the perpetrator of
26 Martin Luther, Select Works of Martin Luther: An Offering to the Church of God in the Last Days (London: T. Bensley, 1826), 3:318.
27 Kidner, Psalms 1-72, 86.
abuse hurts others to get what he wants. He sees his success as validation of his efforts (Ps 10:5). Any future judgment is not contemplated in the least. Any person who dares to confront him (his wife, kids, small group leader, pastor, or elder) is “puffed at” and dismissed, as he is determined to continue and is confident he will get what he wants.
The abuser’s master. While a perpetrator of abuse might even claim to follow God, his functional god is himself. Abusive people are like those “enemies of the cross of Christ” whom Paul describes this way: “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things” (Phil 3:19). Goldingay comments that these people are “robbers who treat their inner desires as if these were God.”28 Such a man trusts himself only, he does not seek God or inquire as to his ways.
He is a functional atheist. David uses these words to describe such a person: he “curses and renounces the Lord” (Ps 10:3b); he “does not seek [God]” (Ps. 10:4a); “all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God’” (Ps 10:4b); “he says in his heart, ‘God has forgotten, he has hidden his face, he will never see it’” (Ps 10:11). Kidner comments,
His blasphemy (3b) and his repeated assurances to himself of his impunity (4,6,11,13) betray a basic disquiet. The bold words, “There is no God” (4), are bravado, for his inner dialogue contradicts them (verses 11,13). Yet they are the language of his choices and actions, since thoughts in verse 4 means “schemes” in verse 2. He is a practicing atheist, if hardly a convinced one.29
In his words and in actions, the abusive person is a godless person. Thus, he is willing to desecrate the image of God in another person to get what he wants.
The abuser’s means. The abusive person commits this desecration of the imago Dei through patterns of intentionally misusing power, overtly and covertly, in words and actions. He “hotly pursues” (Ps 10:2a), devises “schemes” (Ps 10:2b), says in his heart, “I shall not be moved,” (Ps 10:6a) and “the helpless are crushed, sink down,
28 John Goldingay, Psalms 1-41, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids:
Baker, 2006), 185.
and fall by his might” (Ps 10:10). These phrases describe intentional patterns of misusing power. David Powlison agrees that abuse is intentional, writing, “People think about using and abusing others. They follow the ‘devices’ of their hearts. . . . They pursue a plan of action: schemes and plots. Violence and betrayal are not accidental, but devised.”30 Abuse is intentional and typically follows predictable pattern.
Sometimes, as in verse 10, the misuses of power are more overt. Other times, such as in verses 8-9, the actions are more covert: sitting in ambush, in hiding places, stealthily watching with his eyes, lurking. Commenting on those described in verse 9, Powlison states, “They are stalkers, literal or figurative. They don’t live out in the open.
They conceal what they do, creeping low to the ground like a hunting lion, seeking to trap the innocent.”31 Goldingay adds that abusive people “work by combining fraud and oppression, using legal but underhanded means to achieve oppressive ends.”32 Such is the predatory nature of abuse.
Sometimes the abuse is verbal instead of physical. Note in verse 7 what comes out of the mouth of the wicked oppressor: cursing, deceit and oppression, mischief and iniquity. What apt descriptions of verbal abuse! With his words he curses his victim, deceives her, talks down to her and minimizes her, perhaps threatens her, toys with her, calls her crazy, and all other manner of sinful, untruthful, ungodly manipulations.
After carefully describing the mission, master, and means of his abuser, the psalmist now returns his gaze to the Lord and pleads with him to come through as the Judge and Protector praised in Psalm 9.
30 David Powlison, “Predator, Prey, and Protector: Helping Victims Think and Act from Psalm 10,” The Journal of Biblical Counseling 16, no. 3 (Spring 1998): 30.
31 Ibid., 31.
32 Goldingay, Psalms 1-41, 185.