Psalm 10 has 2 parts, the first part David is describing the wicked and in the 2nd part he is describing his confidence in God’s judgements and asking for God’s help. I haven’t printed it all here, just some main verses.
The wicked in his pride persecutes the poor; For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire; He blesses the greedy and renounces the Lord. The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts.
Your judgments are far above, out of his sight; As for all his enemies, he sneers at them.
He has said in his heart, “I shall not be moved; I shall never be in adversity.”
“God has forgotten; He hides His face; He will never see.”
Why do the wicked renounce God? He has said in his heart, “You (God) will not require an account.” But You have seen, for You observe trouble and grief, To repay it by Your hand.
Can I say something before we go on? I know that the laments part of Psalms that we’ve been studying can be very depressing, but I have been really encouraged by what I learned from preparing this lesson and I hope y'all will too.
What I really noticed about the wicked in this chapter and actually a lot of the Psalms that we have been studying, is how often David talks about pride and defines pride as one of the things that differentiates the wicked from the righteous. I never made that connection before.
I knew that it’s good to be humble, that’s part of the Christian life and The New Testament talks about pride as being a sin, but it’s not defined as much or discussed as much there as it is here in the Psalms and the Old Testament in general, it seems to be. It’s been helpful for me to study this and learn more about pride and how not to have a prideful attitude and how to be humble.
I would like to focus on what he says about the wicked in chapter 10, what they think. Even though this was written 3000 years ago, I feel like this is still accurate today. Humans haven’t changed. David writes 6 things that the wicked person says in their heart:
I will not be moved
I will never be in adversity.
God has forgotten
God hides His face
God will never see
God will not require an account.
1. I shall not be moved
Question: What does “I shall not be moved” mean? I am curious to know from those of you who have been followers of God longer than I have, what has that phrase meant to you or what has been your understanding of it?
I thought that when the scriptures say “I shall not be moved”, like in the song, I was thinking of that very literally… in like a way of like being scooted over. “I will not be scooted over” would not make a very good song!
Hebrew word for “moved” is môṭ (pronounced moat/mote).
“môṭ” can also means or can be translated as “ fall, slip or wobble”.
In Leviticus chapter 25, God is giving instructions to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and he gives the people instructions on what to do if one of them becomes poor:
‘If one of your brethren becomes poor, and falls (môṭ) (into poverty among you), then you shall help him and let him live with you. Take no usury or interest from him; but fear your God, that your brother may live with you.
Psalms 140: burning coals that fall (môṭ)
Psalm 17 and 94: footsteps that slip (môṭ)
Isa. 40 and 41 talk about making something out of metal, like a statue, and making sure that it’s level and steady and doesn’t wobble (môṭ) or totter.
So the wicked person is thinking that nothing bad will ever happen to him. But I think he’s thinking physically, not spiritually.
the wicked person relies on his own strength and his pride thinks that he can:
Keep himself from falling into poverty (or falling in general)
Keep his own foot from slipping
keep himself from wobbling (keep himself steady)
In contrast to that, we as Christians have to rely on God to help us with that. here are some other instances of the word môṭ when describing the person who trusts in God
“He only is my rock and my salvation I shall not be moved” Psalm 62:6
“I have set the LORD always before me, I shall not be moved”. Psalm 16:8
“the king trusts in the LORD, and through the mercy of the Most High he shall not be moved Psalm 21: 7
Even if physical things happen to us that are bad, we have an anchor, a spiritual anchor that there for us, we have a rock. It reminded me of a song we sing: based on Hebrews 6 that talks about the hope we have in God’s promise and to hold on to that hope:
We have an anchor that keeps the soul,
Steadfast and sure while the billows roll
Fastened to the rock with cannot move
Grounded firm and deep in the saviours love
Question: So what does God being a rock have to do with us not being moved?
this Hebrew word môṭ is translated as a few different Greek words in The New Testament, Sometimes it’s translated as a word that means “fall”, like generally anything falling (to the ground), and it’s also translated as “to shake” in other cases.
We will look at one of the Greek words meaning shaken: saleuó (pronounced sal-YOO-o), not hard to say.
I want to read 4 New Testament passages that talk about being shaken and use this Greek word saleuó.
In Luke 6, we all know the story and the song, Jesus tells the parable of the wise man and the foolish man.
“the wise man dug down and built the foundation of his house on a rock, and the floods came but the house was not shaken because it had been well built”
And the wise man’s house stood firm! And the foolish man’s house went crash!
Paul tells the church in Thessalonica (2 Thessalonians 2:2), not to be easily shaken by those saying that the resurrection of Jesus had already happened and that they had missed it!
Matthew 24 , Luke 13 and Mark 21, Jesus says that when he comes back, the heavens will be shaken and the stars will fall and then people will see him (the son of man) coming in the clouds.
Hebrews 12 talks about this day of the Lord too.
Hebrews 12: 25 -2825 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks (God). For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth ( referencing Exodus 19 when God came to the top Mt. Sinai and spoke to the people gave them the 10 commandments) much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him (God) who speaks from heaven, 26 whose voice then shook the earth (when he spoke to the people from Mt. Sina and the mountain and the ground shook);
but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us be grateful, and serve God well-pleasingly, with reverence and fear.
Sister Rebecca made an interesting comment last time I taught about the city of Petra that was in Edom (current day Israel/Jordan) and how it had been abandoned for a few reasons, one of them being earthquakes. I didn’t know that that area was prone to earthquakes, there’s actually a fault line that runs right through that area.
The city of Petra itself, may or may not be the fortified city in Edom that David is referring to have conquered with the help of God, but it could be. The area of Edom was/is very mountainous area, as we saw in the pictures from last time I taught) and they built a lot of fortresses on top of those clefts and mountains, keeping them safe from all directions.
With good reason Jehovah’s prophecy through Jeremiah speaks of the Edomites in Jeremiah 49.16
The pride of your heart,O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock,Who hold the height of the hill!Though you make your nest as high as the eagle,I will bring you down from there,” says the LORD
The Edomites were confident in the rocks around them.
Not only do they have alot of earthquakes in that area but there’s also evidence of a devastating flood that happened in Petra too, estimated to be sometime around the 8th century AD, they think it was abandoned pretty much after that. It was just too much to rebuild.
When I was thinking about why God is called a rock I guess it’s because rocks and stones were the strongest things that people in ancient times had. They had metal, like gold and silver and swords, but those could be melted down. even lava is melted rock, so rock can be melted too.
Nowadays we have steel, which is very strong and I would think that a tall, steel skyscraper would be super strong, but after 9/11, I don’t think it’s as strong as I thought it was, we learned it can melt too! So I guess a mountain would be the strongest thing I can think of, like if an airplane crashes into mount Everest, that mountain isn’t going anywhere or melting.
2 Peter 3, Peter tells us that the current heavens and earth are being reserved for fire on the day of judgment. Peter says on the day of judgement, the heavens will be destroyed and the earth and everything in it will be burned up.
Even diamonds, the strongest material that we know of, does have a melting point, I looked this up! It’s about 8,000 degrees, but still, a hot enough fire can - and will - melt and destroy even the strongest things on earth.
When the hurricane Milton was going to hit Florida, there’s a certain celebrity that lives there and I was wondering if they were going to be ok, and Google actually said that their house was going to be ok, because they had 3 foot thick concrete walls and the foundation had been drilled into a coral reef.
So if I was in that house, it would be easy to put my faith and confidence in that house in my strong concrete walls and my strong rock foundation under me, I would think, I’m safe from everything, right? Maybe for now? but not from God’s judgement.
There’s a song called “The Sure Foundation”, and I don’t remember how the verses goes, but I remember how the chorus goes:
Some build their hopes on the ever-drifting sand,
Some on their fame or their treasure or their land;
Mine’s on a Rock that forever will stand,
Jesus, the Rock of ages.
What can we conclude from all of this? Physical Heaven and physical earth were made by God and will one day be shaken by God and then destroyed and melted by fire. Verse 22 in Hebrews 12, says the heavenly Jerusalem is our kingdom.
God’s kingdom, which is spiritual, which is what we are a part of, can not be shaken or flooded or burned and will never be destroyed by anything or anyone. God is our rock and foundation. No one is EVER going to conquer God’s kingdom! That’s what we can be secure in, no matter what hurricanes or tornadoes or earthquakes or floods may come our way.
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