Psalm 10

A Prayer for Justice

10Why are you so far away, O Lord?

Why do you hide yourself when we are in trouble?

²The wicked are proud and persecute the poor;

catch them in the traps they have made.

³The wicked are proud of their evil desires;

the greedy curse and reject the Lord.

⁴The wicked do not care about the Lord;

in their pride they think that God doesn’t matter.

⁵The wicked succeed in everything.

They cannot understand God’s judgements;

they sneer at their enemies.

⁶They say to themselves, “I will never fail;

I will never be in trouble.”

^7*Their speech is filled with curses, lies, and threats;

they are quick to speak hateful, evil words.

⁸They hide themselves in the villages,

waiting to murder innocent people.

They spy on their helpless victims;

⁹they wait in their hiding places like lions.

They lie in wait for the poor;

they catch them in their traps and drag them away.

¹⁰The helpless victims lie crushed;

brute strength has defeated them.

¹¹The wicked say to themselves, “God doesn’t care!

He has closed his eyes and will never see me!”

¹²O Lord, punish those wicked people!

Remember those who are suffering!

¹³How can the wicked despise God

and say to themselves, “He will not punish me”?

¹⁴But you do see; you take notice of trouble and suffering

and are always ready to help.

The helpless commit themselves to you;

you have always helped the needy.

¹⁵Break the power of wicked and evil people;

punish them for the wrong they have done

until they do it no more.

¹⁶The Lord is king for ever and ever.

Those who worship other gods

will vanish from his land.

¹⁷You will listen, O Lord, to the prayers of the lowly;

you will give them courage.

¹⁸You will hear the cries of the oppressed and the orphans;

you will judge in their favour,

so that mortal men may cause terror no more.