Psalms 10:15

The desire for Jahve's interposition now rises again with fresh earnestness. It is a mistake to regard דּרשׁ and מצא as correlative notions. In the phrase to seek and not find, when used of that which has totally disappeared, we never have דּרשׁ, but always בּקּשׁ, Psa 37:36; Isa 41:12; Jer 50:20, and frequently. The verb דּרשׁ signifies here exactly the same as in Psa 10:4, Psa 10:13, and Psa 9:13 : "and the wicked (nom. absol. as in Psa 10:4) - mayst Thou punish his wickedness, mayst Thou find nothing more of it." It is not without a meaning that, instead of the form of expression usual elsewhere (Psa 37:36; Job 20:8), the address to Jahve is retained: that which is no longer visible to the eye of God, not merely of man, has absolutely vanished out of existence. This absolute conquest of evil is to be as surely looked for, as that Jahve's universal kingship, which has been an element of the creed of God's people ever since the call and redemption of Israel (Exo 15:18), cannot remain without being perfectly and visibly realised. His absolute and eternal kingship must at length be realised, even in all the universality and endless duration foretold in Zac 14:9; Dan 7:14, Rev 11:15. Losing himself in the contemplation of this kingship, and beholding the kingdom of God, the kingdom of good, as realised, the psalmist's vision stretches beyond the foes of the church at home to its foes in general; and, inasmuch as the heathen in Israel and the heathen world outside of Israel are blended together into one to his mind, he comprehends them all in the collective name of גּוים, and sees the land of Jahve (Lev 25:23), the holy land, purified of all oppressors hostile to the church and its God. It is the same that is foretold by Isaiah (Isa 52:1), Nahum (Nah 2:1), and in other pas…

The Septuagint translation joins this psalm with the ninth, and makes them but one; but the Hebrew makes it a distinct psalm, and the scope and style are certainly different. In this psalm, I. David complains of the wickedness of the wicked, describes the dreadful pitch of impiety at which they had arrived (to the great dishonour of God and the prejudice of his church and people), and notices the delay of God's appearing against them (Psa 10:1-11). II. He prays to God to appear against them for the relief of his people and comforts himself with hopes that he would do so in due time (Psa 10:12-18).

10:15 The psalmist strongly invokes a curse as he prays (see “Prayers for Vengeance” Theme Note). • Arms represent an ability to wage war (18:34; 44:3).