Tehillim 10 | “Why, Lord, Do You Stand Far Off?”

Psalm 10 opens without a title and begins with a storm of emotion: “Why, Lord, do You stand far off, hiding Yourself in times of trouble?” It is quite possible that Psalms 9 and 10 form a single composition, which may explain the absence of a heading for Psalm 10. Dr. Beni Gesundheit develops the comparison between Psalms 9 and 10, showing how the hopes described in Psalm 9 — that God rules his world with justice and saves those who seek Him — crash against the harsh realities depicted in Psalm 10. This dissonance sets the tone for the psalm’s opening question: why does God disappear when He is most needed?

For many verses, Psalm 10 describes the deeds of the wicked. It highlights their arrogance, their deceit, their cunning, and ends with a chilling portrait of how the wicked lie in ambush to cruelly trap the helpless. The poet summarizes that the root of the wicked person’s confidence is his denial of divine providence: “They say to themselves, ‘God has forgotten – He has hidden His face and averted His gaze forever’” (10:11)

Several key phrases from Psalm 9 appear again in Psalm 10 — but with the opposite meaning. In Psalm 9, God is described as “a stronghold in times of trouble” (9:10), but in Psalm 10, the poet cries out, “Why, Lord, do You stand far off, hiding Yourself in times of trouble?” (10:1). In Psalm 9, God is named the “avenger of blood” (9:13), but in Psalm 10, the wicked is complacent, believing God does not investigate his actions: “The wicked revile God, thinking, ‘You will never call us to account’” (10:13). Dr. Gesundheit also points out that Psalm 9 follows an alphabetical acrostic pattern from א to כ, and then Psalm 10 begins with ל — but immediately after, the alphabetical sequence is broken. The order of the world has been shattered.

Toward the end of Psalm 10, the poet moves from lamenting the success of the wicked to praying for justice. He appeals to God to shatter the arrogance of the wicked and to seek out their actions until they disappear: “Call the evil to account for their wickedness until it is gone” (10:15). In this final section, the alphabetical structure reappears: verses 12–18 form stanzas from the letters ק to ת. The return of the acrostic structure reflects the restoration of the poet’s confidence in God. The psalm closes on an optimistic note: God’s kingship is revealed on earth, and the hiddenness that had allowed wickedness to thrive in secret is no more: “To bring justice to the orphan and the downtrodden so that mere earthly mortals will never spread terror again” (10:18).