Psalm 10:14














I. MAN HAS THOUGHTS. He can direct his mind to the past, the present, the future. He can speculate as to the manifold things that come before him and affect his interests. It is his glory that he can think; it is his shame that he so often thinks foolishly.

II. MAN'S THOUGHTS DEPEND UPON HIS MORAL CONDITION. We are creatures of feeling. What is uppermost in our hearts will be uppermost in our thoughts. The good man has good thoughts, the evil man evil thoughts. Change the character of the heart, and you change the character of the thoughts (Proverbs 12:5; Proverbs 15:26; Matthew 12:33).

III. WHEN THE MORAL DISPOSITION IS CORRUPT, THE TENDENCY IS TO EXCLUDE GOD FROM THE THOUGHTS. The plan, the labours, the enjoyments of life are too often without God (Luke 12:19, 20; James 4:13). This is irrational, criminal, and ruinous (Psalm 146:4). - W.F.

Wherefore do the wicked contemn God?
How astonishing that any should be guilty of this. Excellence and station and authority shield men from contempt. But yet the wicked contemn God. Notwithstanding He is unspeakably glorious and great, the blessed and only Potentate possessing vast dominions, sustaining His creatures and glorified in all His works. And all things depend upon Him. Some, allured by His grace, with cheerfulness adore Him; others, constrained by His power, reluctantly Submit; but others are wicked enough to contemn Him. Their conduct and temper —

I. TOWARD HIM SHOW THIS. They have no delight in Him, they put the world far before Him, they deliberately disobey Him.

II. TOWARDS THINGS RELATING TO HIM. His ordinances they count weariness, His word they disregard, His people they scorn, His ministers they despise, His day they neglect.

III. WHY DO THEY THUS ACT? Not from superior wisdom, but from depravity of the will, and encouraged by inconsistent Christians and by the strifes amongst such. But what an awful sin it is. Amazing madness!

(John Erskine, D. D.)

Let us examine our hearts, our lives, and the Scriptures of truth.

1. Look at your mind and you will be forced to acknowledge that you seldom think of God.

2. Pass to an examination of your words.

3. Consider your actions.

4. The manner in which you treat the threatenings of God.

5. The regard you pay to the promises of God.

6. Your contempt of God is manifested in your disobedience to His commandments.

7. The declarations of One who perfectly knows you place this matter beyond a doubt.

(H. Rollock, D. D.)

I. A QUESTION PROPOUNDED.

1. Somewhat is here implied, something is laid as a charge. The wicked does contemn God. Take the word "wicked" collectively. Three ways wherein wicked men may be said to contemn God: In His ordinances, in His providences, in His servants. Whence does this proceed from them? Partly from pride, partly from ignorance.

2. Somewhat is expressed. The absurdity of such a temper is seen in this, that no good account can be given of it. See the inequality of it in reference to God. He does not deserve it. See the danger of it. Those that contemn Him, He will contemn them again. And His contemning is followed by His condemning; those whom He despises, He destroys.

II. THE GROUND OR OCCASION OF THIS QUESTION. "He hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it." According to the absolute sense, this is a declaration of the temper of wicked men. According to the relative sense of them, they seem to he either a proof or an account of what was said before concerning such persons, as to their contemning of God. This is a proof that they do so, and this is a reason also why they do so. "They say in their heart, God will not require it."

(T. Horton, D. D.)

It has been a puzzle to some good men, and a pretext for unbelief to many wicked men, that the sinner, a moral and responsible being, could rest unconcerned in his sins. Why do not wicked men repent? This can only be resolved on the ground suggested in the text, the practical infidelity of wicked men. They do not believe in God as a just and inflexible moral governor. They do not accept the ideal of an exact and certain retribution. A carelessness of retribution. Moral law is held as an abstraction, and the reality, the extent, the terribleness of its sanctions are actually forgotten. Till this general sense of security be assailed, till this general indifference be shown to be causeless, the instances of awakening and conversion among sinners will be few.

I. EXPLAIN AND ILLUSTRATE THE CARELESSNESS OF RETRIBUTION PREVALENT IN THE WORLD.

1. The world's old age in sin. Sin has been producing its appropriate results, modified mainly, and almost alone, by the fact that men exist in successive generations, and not in an uninterrupted, individual life. But as the generations of men all overlap each other, so that everyone includes some members both of preceding and succeeding ones, it follows that each new generation is not cast entirely back to the starting point of its predecessor, but gains a little upon it. It will be found that whatever has characterised one age morally, intellectually, or socially, also has characterised in a less or greater degree the following one. Sin is not an institution peculiar to any age or country. The same corrupt principle is more corrupt in the sons than it was in the fathers. Is not the world wicked now as it never has been before?

II. THE WORLD'S PROSPERITY IN SIN. Existence is in itself a blessing, and an element of prosperity. Man's existence at every period has had much to make it pleasant and desirable. God, as Sovereign and Judge, has benefited the subject and sinner. In this age the world still sins and prospers. Everybody, almost everybody, boasts of a prosperous world. But the world sins as well as prospers. Is not the world, with all its pomp and pride, a wicked world? Individualise the sinner. He has, in these days, so high an idea of personal dignity and independence and irresponsibility to any power that is not a reflection of his own will, as to have become very thought. less of the Divine law, and very careless of its sanctions. We may examine the growth of this idea, and illustrate its prevalence. When the sinner is thus individualised and made to think so much of his own happiness and rights, is he not apt to forget God? Consider now the judicial hardening of the world. The powers of darkness and the powers of holiness are at enmity with each other by Divine appointment. There is such a thing as a judicial permission and even encouragement to wickedness, whereby God asserts His sovereignty over free moral agents, and makes them ready, and makes all things ready, for the final manifestation of His glory at the coming of the Lord. One great reason why the world is so careless of approaching retribution is, that it is judicially hardened, rendered insensible to the proofs of its coming, and the fear that ought thereby to be awakened.

(John H. Lord.)

Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Pitt said, '"I have no fear for England; she will stand till the day of judgment." Burke answered, "It is the day of no judgment that I dread."

(The Quiver.)

The wicked contemn God. Why? "Because they say He will not require it." Ah! They forget that it is as true of God's threatenings as of His promises,, that although He delays He does not deny them. A reprieve is not a pardon. It defers the execution, but does not necessarily cancel the sentence. And how many men in business, hard pressed for money and tottering on the edge of bankruptcy, have known too well that the bill which they had got the money lender to renew was not thereby paid; that, however often renewed, it has still to be paid, and that the oftener, indeed, it is renewed with interest added to the capital the debt but grows the larger, the payment the heavier. Just so will it be with you if you persist in rejecting the Saviour. Every day of mercy here will but aggravate the misery of hereafter, and the reckoning, by being long of coming, will be the more terrible when it comes — as that storm roars with the loudest thunder which has been the longest gathering.

( T. Guthrie.)

People
David, Psalmist
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Afflicted, Anger, Beheld, Beholdest, Child, Commits, Committeth, Consider, Faith, Fatherless, Giving, Grief, Hands, Hapless, Hast, Helper, Helpless, Leave, Mayest, Mischief, Note, Orphan, Perverseness, Poor, Puts, Requite, Sorrow, Spite, Thyself, Trouble, Unfortunate, Vexation, Victim, Wretched, Yea
Outline
1. David complains of the wicked
12. He prays for remedy
16. He professes his confidence

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 10:14

     5448   poverty, attitudes to
     5730   orphans
     5797   bereavement, comfort in
     5952   sorrow
     5963   sympathy
     5970   unhappiness

Psalm 10:12-14

     5360   justice, God

Library
One Saying from Three Men
'The wicked hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved.' --PSALM x. 6. 'Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.' --PSALM xvi. 8. 'And in my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved.' --PSALM xxx. 6. How differently the same things sound when said by different men! Here are three people giving utterance to almost the same sentiment of confidence. A wicked man says it, and it is insane presumption and defiance. A good man says it, having been lulled into false security by easy times,
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Poor Man's Friend
"The poor committeth himself unto thee."--Psalm 10:14. GOD IS THE POOR MAN'S FRIEND; the poor man, in His helplessness and despair, leaves his case in the hands of God, and God undertakes to care for him. In the days of David,--and I suppose, in this respect, the world has but little improved,--the poor man was the victim of almost everybody's cruelty, and sometimes he was very shamefully oppressed. If he sought redress for his wrongs, he generally only increased them, for he was regarded as a rebel
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 53: 1907

Jerome
I, Jerome, [2568] son of Eusebius, of the city of Strido, which is on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia and was overthrown by the Goths, up to the present year, that is, the fourteenth of the Emperor Theodosius, have written the following: Life of Paul the monk, one book of Letters to different persons, an Exhortation to Heliodorus, Controversy of Luciferianus and Orthodoxus, Chronicle of universal history, 28 homilies of Origen on Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which I translated from Greek into Latin,
Various—Jerome and Gennadius Lives of Illustrious Men.

Look we Then, Beloved, what Hardships in Labors and Sorrows Men Endure...
3. Look we then, beloved, what hardships in labors and sorrows men endure, for things which they viciously love, and by how much they think to be made by them more happy, by so much more unhappily covet. How much for false riches, how much for vain honors, how much for affections of games and shows, is of exceeding peril and trouble most patiently borne! We see men hankering after money, glory, lasciviousness, how, that they may arrive at their desires, and having gotten not lose them, they endure
St. Augustine—On Patience

The Tests of Love to God
LET us test ourselves impartially whether we are in the number of those that love God. For the deciding of this, as our love will be best seen by the fruits of it, I shall lay down fourteen signs, or fruits, of love to God, and it concerns us to search carefully whether any of these fruits grow in our garden. 1. The first fruit of love is the musing of the mind upon God. He who is in love, his thoughts are ever upon the object. He who loves God is ravished and transported with the contemplation of
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

These Things, My Brother Aurelius, Most Dear unto Me...
38. These things, my brother Aurelius, most dear unto me, and in the bowels of Christ to be venerated, so far as He hath bestowed on me the ability Who through thee commanded me to do it, touching work of Monks, I have not delayed to write; making this my chief care, lest good brethren obeying apostolic precepts, should by lazy and disobedient be called even prevaricators from the Gospel: that they which work not, may at the least account them which do work to be better than themselves without doubt.
St. Augustine—Of the Work of Monks.

The Situation of the Jews During this Period.
As we have seen in earlier chapters, the declarations of Holy Writ make it very clear that Israel will yet be restored to God's favor and be rehabilitated in Palestine. But before that glad time arrives, the Jews have to pass through a season of sore trouble and affliction, during which God severely chastises them for their sins and punishes them for the rejection and crucifixion of their Messiah. Fearful indeed have been the past experiences of "the nation of the weary feet" but a darker path than
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return

Question Lxxxiii of Prayer
I. Is Prayer an Act of the Appetitive Powers? Cardinal Cajetan, On Prayer based on Friendship II. Is it Fitting to Pray? Cardinal Cajetan, On Prayer as a True Cause S. Augustine, On the Sermon on the Mount, II. iii. 14 " On the Gift of Perseverance, vii. 15 III. Is Prayer an Act of the Virtue of Religion? Cardinal Cajetan, On the Humility of Prayer S. Augustine, On Psalm cii. 10 " Of the Gift of Perseverance, xvi. 39 IV. Ought We to Pray to God Alone? S. Augustine, Sermon, cxxvii. 2 V.
St. Thomas Aquinas—On Prayer and The Contemplative Life

Out of the Deep of Suffering and Sorrow.
Save me, O God, for the waters are come in even unto my soul: I am come into deep waters; so that the floods run over me.--Ps. lxix. 1, 2. I am brought into so great trouble and misery: that I go mourning all the day long.--Ps. xxxviii. 6. The sorrows of my heart are enlarged: Oh! bring Thou me out of my distress.--Ps. xxv. 17. The Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping: the Lord will receive my prayer.--Ps. vi. 8. In the multitude of the sorrows which I had in my heart, Thy comforts have refreshed
Charles Kingsley—Out of the Deep

"And the Life. " How Christ is the Life.
This, as the former, being spoken indefinitely, may be universally taken, as relating both to such as are yet in the state of nature, and to such as are in the state of grace, and so may be considered in reference to both, and ground three points of truth, both in reference to the one, and in reference to the other; to wit, 1. That our case is such as we stand in need of his help, as being the Life. 2. That no other way but by him, can we get that supply of life, which we stand in need of, for he
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Life of Jerome.
The figures in parentheses, when not otherwise indicated, refer to the pages in this volume. For a full account of the Life, the translator must refer to an article (Hieronymus) written by him in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography. A shorter statement may suffice here, since the chief sources of information are contained in this volume, and to these reference will be continually made. Childhood and Youth. A.D. 345. Jerome was born at Stridon, near Aquileia, but in Pannonia, a place
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome

The Revelation and Career of the Anti-Christ.
Who is the Anti-christ? Varied and wild have been the answers to this question. In pre-christian times there were many who regarded Antiochus Epiphanes as the one whom Daniel and the other prophets described. At the beginning of this dispensation Nero was looked upon as the predicted Man of Sin. After the Reformation the Papacy was selected as the fulfiller of the prophecies given through the Patmos seer. And in our day there have been those who consider the Kaiser to be the Son of Perdition. It
Arthur W. Pink—The Redeemer's Return

Being Made Archbishop of Armagh, He Suffers Many Troubles. Peace Being Made, from Being Archbishop of Armagh He Becomes Bishop of Down.
[Sidenote: 1129] 19. (12). Meanwhile[365] it happened that Archbishop Cellach[366] fell sick: he it was who ordained Malachy deacon, presbyter and bishop: and knowing that he was dying he made a sort of testament[367] to the effect that Malachy ought to succeed him,[368] because none seemed worthier to be bishop of the first see. This he gave in charge to those who were present, this he commanded to the absent, this to the two kings of Munster[369] and to the magnates of the land he specially enjoined
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

He Does Battle for the Faith; He Restores Peace among those who were at Variance; He Takes in Hand to Build a Stone Church.
57. (32). There was a certain clerk in Lismore whose life, as it is said, was good, but his faith not so. He was a man of some knowledge in his own eyes, and dared to say that in the Eucharist there is only a sacrament and not the fact[718] of the sacrament, that is, mere sanctification and not the truth of the Body. On this subject he was often addressed by Malachy in secret, but in vain; and finally he was called before a public assembly, the laity however being excluded, in order that if it were
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

Letter Xlv (Circa A. D. 1120) to a Youth Named Fulk, who Afterwards was Archdeacon of Langres
To a Youth Named Fulk, Who Afterwards Was Archdeacon of Langres He gravely warns Fulk, a Canon Regular, whom an uncle had by persuasions and promises drawn back to the world, to obey God and be faithful to Him rather than to his uncle. To the honourable young man Fulk, Brother Bernard, a sinner, wishes such joy in youth as in old age he will not regret. 1. I do not wonder at your surprise; I should wonder if you were not suprised [sic] that I should write to you, a countryman to a citizen, a monk
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

The Desire of the Righteous Granted;
OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN'S DESIRES. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man's heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity--the evidence of the new birth--the spiritual barometer of faith and grace--and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes--the foundation upon which all our desires after God and holiness are built--and the root
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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