Psalm 10:2King James Version (KJV)
The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined
Psalm 10
V 1: WHY? The psalmist asks why God seems a long way off and not to respond in his time of trouble. V 2–11: WICKED He then details some of the sins of the wicked, who think that God has forgotten and does not see what goes on. V 12–15: WAITING The psalmist goes on to wait on the Lord , now assured by God that He does see and can and will act. God helps him. V 16–18: WORSHIP Confidence in the eternal and kingly character of his God, and in the fact that He intervenes, end this Psalm. God is in control and hears the psalmist’s prayer.
■ Introduction to the Book of Psalms:
Title. The English title comes from the Septuagint, which entitled the book Psalmoi, meaning “Sacred Songs Sung to Musical Accompaniment.” The Hebrew title...
■ Psalm 9: Psalms 9 and 10, taken together, form the first of the acrostic psalms, though the 38 verses are a very irregular representation of the Hebrew alphabet of 22 letters. Marvellous (v. 1) is...
■ Psalm 10: In contrast to the prayer at the end of the preceding psalm, David now points to the present condition in the world, where God seems to have permitted the wicked to triumph over the...
■ 8795 persecution, nature of:
■ WISDOM:
■ 8795 persecution, nature of:
Persecution by the world and secular powers is a likely consequence of faith.
Believers must expect persecution
Persecution is part of the tribulation of the church
■ WISDOM:
Where could a man obtain wisdom was a question of vast importance to the writers of the books of the Bible and non-Biblical lit. as well.
A. Naturally acquired. Human ability to acquire wisdom is acknowledged; but such wisdom, according to the Bible, comes only from “the fear of the Lord” (Prov 1:7). To the Jew, wisdom was the application of divine truth to human experience and only “fools despise wisdom and instruction.” Young men were esp. encouraged to apply themselves to the quest for wisdom; making their ear attentive to wisdom and inclining their heart to understanding (2:2). The author of Psalm 49 gives the wisdom of his years of experience when he announces, “My mouth shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding.” That which followed was the author’s observations about life and death. Especially in Psalm 73 there is a union of human thought and divine truth, the two combining to result in wisdom. The writer of that Psalm said “But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God” (Ps 73:16, 17). The author of the Wisdom of Solomon makes his appeal for men to seek wisdom: “Wisdom is radiant and unfading, and she is easily discerned by those who love her, and is found by those who seek her” (6:12).
B. Learning. The writings of the rabbis concerned with the interpretation of the law became eventually the depository of wisdom, and those who studied the law gained the treasure of wisdom. Proverbs gave the practical advice that led to a happy and successful life, which that book termed “wisdom,” such an ethical quality that it was a short step from morals which equalled law to wisdom which equalled law. In the Apoc. the book of Ecclesiasticus (The Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach) gave a moral and religious interpretation to law which likewise foreshadowed that identification of wisdom with law. It is incorrect to say that wisdom was equivalent to law in Ecclesiasticus, but the identification of the two was definitely in prospect. By NT times so definitive of wisdom was the knowledge of the rabbis and their interpretation of the law that those who were untutored in rabbinics could be described as accursed (John 7:49).
C. Revelation. Wisdom is not often ascribed to deity in the OT (1 Kings 3:28; Isa 10:13;31:2; Jer 10:12; 51:15; Dan 5:11). Even in the books of Wisdom it is rare that God is described as wise (Job 9:4; Ps 104:24; Prov 3:19). Probably it is so because in the judgment of OT writers God’s wisdom so transcended human wisdom that His knowledge and understanding were not appropriately described by the same term that pointed out human capacities. In the Apoc. later writers were more willing to speak of God’s wisdom (Ecclus 42:21;Baruch 3:32). In the NT there are several references to the wisdom of God (Rom 11:33; 1 Cor 1:24; Rev 7:12).
The Biblical point of view seems to be that wisdom comes from God, is to be found with God, rather than that God is wise. After asking where is the place of understanding, Job answers by saying “God understands the way to it, and he knows its place” (28:23). Human wisdom then is given by God. It is given in answer to prayer, as previously noted, when men seek His counsel. In the NT God’s wisdom is esp. associated with His Spirit. In the last analysis man possesses wisdom only as a gift from God; it comes by divine revelation. This is esp. the view of the NT (Acts 6:10; 1 Cor 2:6; 12:8; Eph 1:17; Col 1:9; 3:16; James 1:5; 3:15-17); but is indicated in the OT also (1 Kings 3:11ff., Eccles 2:26; Isa 11:2; Dan 1:17).
Christian concept
Wisdom for some of the prophets became a word that was heathen in its connotation. The NT finds something of the same problem, and wherever wisdom has become identified with legalism on one hand, or pagan philosophy on the other, it is rejected. Yet there is an appreciation of a certain kind of wisdom to be found in Christian teaching.
A. Jesus. There is in the Sermon on the Mount the clearest and fullest approach to the wisdom method to be found in the teachings of Jesus, though there are other briefer passages that possess this character (Luke 14:8-10 is a quotation of Prov 25:6, 7). The love of life and the learning of large lessons with spiritual import from nature, both of which characterize the sages of the OT, are much in evidence in Jesus’ longest sermon of record. Even the method of the Wisdom writers seems to have been employed by Jesus, using as He did the short, pithy, and sometimes antithetical statement designed to live in the memory. There were, however, two kinds of wisdom recognized by Him, the one accepted and the other rejected. There was a true wisdom, fully justified of her children, which brought men to God (Luke 7:35), but there were also the falsely wise from whom He hid His teaching’s meaning, while revealing it to the simple (10:21; Matt 11:25). Some have thought that Jesus was actually attacking the teaching of Wisdom lit. in Luke 6:27-38when He commanded “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,” for Sirach had taught, “Give to the godly man, but do not help the sinner. Do good to the humble, but do not give to the ungodly” (Ecclus 12:4,5).
B. Paul. 1 Corinthians 1-4 is a passage esp. concerned with wisdom. In fact it is primarily a denunciation of wisdom. It is important to know that the wisdom against which Paul wrote was not of Jewish parentage, but Gr. It was the vain speculations of philosophy expressed in the empty, high-flown phrases of meaningless rhetoric that brought the apostle’s wrath. This philosphy was a trusting of man’s thought processes rather than a reception of God’s revelation. It was esp. at the point of the meaninglessness and futility of the cross of Christ in the judgment of men that Paul took his stand. Such an attitude toward the cross was clearly a testimony to the perversity of the wisdom against which he wrote.
Positively Paul taught a wisdom of his own which was for mature Christians, morally strong. It was prob. not a reference to doctrine that Paul made when he said “Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom” (1 Cor 2:6), though some have believed it to refer to the depth of Paul’s teachings. It seems more likely to be associated with the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of God’s people in a full and meaningful way, for Paul wrote “God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (2 Cor 2:10).
C. James. The Book of James is the only book in the NT that can be accurately described in its entirety as Gnomic, or Wisdom lit. The writing most similar to James in early Christian lit. is known by the Lat. title, De Doctrina Apostolorum(Concerning the Doctrine of the Apostles). The epistle of James could, with a very few Christian notations removed, pass quite appropriately as a synagogue exhortation. James contemplates the danger to Christianity not so much as a perversion of doctrine from a heretical teaching but as a mistake (or mistakes) in the realm of practical living. The interest of the book is dominantly ethical, an emphasis on a godly life. The wisdom of James is the wisdom of living a life acceptable to God which is the same emphasis that Jesus gave as recorded in the synoptics.
