God Sees You And Cares For You
There are times when people with power or authority are so onerous, uncaring and oppressive that you just have to cry out to God for Him to exert His power and authority over your situation. You need the Lord to remove the yoke of the wicked and to remind everyone that there are consequences for messing with His people. In Psalm 10:12-18, the psalmist turned His face toward God and prayed that God would see the affliction that the wicked had caused him and others, and punish them for it. He trusted in the sovereign, eternal and almighty God to hear His plea and care for His people. I pray that you would trust God in your time of powerlessness over your circumstance and know that He sees you and cares for you. Amen
Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.
Do not forget the helpless.
Why does the wicked man revile God?
Why does he say to himself,
“He won’t call me to account”? (Psalm 10:12-13)
The psalmist calls out to God in prayer, imploring God to rise up and raise His mighty hand in vengeance against the wicked, who have taken advantage of the helpless. The psalmist asks why wicked people believe they can reject and despise God, acting as though God will not hold them accountable for their actions.
But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted;
you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you;
you are the helper of the fatherless.
Break the arm of the wicked man;
call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
that would not otherwise be found out. (Psalm 10:14-15)
In prayer, the psalmist puts his trust in God to see those who are afflicted, help those who are victims and helpless against the wicked. The psalmist calls on God to punish the wicked and break their power. The wicked believe that God does not see their evil acts and they can act with impunity. But the psalmist asks God expose them and make them pay for what they have done. He trusts God to help those who have committed themselves to Him.
The LORD is King for ever and ever;
the nations will perish from his land.
You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror. (Psalm 10:16-18)
The psalmist, having asked God to exert His might to break the power of the wicked, now confidently praised God in advance. He praised God because He is sovereign, everlasting and almighty. He knew that God sees the oppression of His people and He hears their cry. He trusted in the eternal God’s power and desire to defend His people from the wicked. And that one day, God will cause the wicked to perish and never again terrify them.
The Psalms are a powerful demonstration for us of how God’s people are to look toward God in every circumstance. The psalms tell us to trust in God in our adoration and in our praise, in our anticipation and in our anger, in our despair and in our exaltation. Rather than attempting to take things into their own hands, the psalmists recognize the limitations of their own power. And instead, they look to God in faith that He will use His sovereign power and authority on behalf of His people, so that He will get the glory and His righteousness will prevail. The psalms teach us that we can look to God and trust Him in all of our circumstances because He sees us and He cares for us. And the day is coming when He will cause the wicked to cease from troubling us forever!
Blessings, Rev. Glenn
