Commentary - Psalm 10:15-16

Bird's-eye view

In these concluding verses of the psalmist's plea, there is a dramatic and powerful shift from petition to proclamation. The prayer begins with a raw, visceral appeal for God to execute justice by shattering the power of the wicked. This is a request for a divine and thorough audit, for God to seek out evil until none remains. But this intense imprecation does not hang in the air; it immediately resolves into a bedrock statement of faith. The reason the psalmist can pray such a prayer is because he knows who is actually in charge. The prayer for justice is grounded in the unshakeable reality of God's eternal kingship. Yahweh is not a candidate for the throne; He occupies it. The final clause provides the historical precedent and the prophetic confidence for this: God has dealt with wicked nations before, and He will do so again. This is a movement from crying out against the temporary success of evil to resting in the eternal triumph of God.

This passage serves as a model for Christian prayer in the face of injustice. It is both a desperate cry for intervention and a serene declaration of sovereign confidence. The plea for God to act is not a sign of wavering faith, but rather the logical outworking of a robust faith. Because God is King, we can and must ask Him to act like the King He is. The destruction of the wicked is not the ultimate point; the manifestation of God's righteous reign is.

Outline

Context In Psalms

Psalm 10 is a continuation of the thought in Psalm 9, and some scholars believe they were originally one psalm. Psalm 9 is a song of thanksgiving for God's past judgments, while Psalm 10 is a lament and a plea concerning the present prosperity of the wicked. The psalmist begins by asking why God seems so distant in times of trouble (v. 1). He then provides a detailed, street-level description of the arrogant, greedy, and violent atheist in action (vv. 2-11). This is not a theoretical problem for the psalmist; he is feeling the heat. The turning point comes in verse 12 with "Arise, O Yahweh," a cry for God to intervene. Our text, verses 15-16, forms the climax of this petition, where the specific request for judgment flows directly into a declaration of the truth that makes the prayer possible: God's sovereignty. The psalm concludes with a statement of confidence that God has indeed heard the cry of the afflicted and will bring justice (vv. 17-18).

Key Issues

The Broken Arm and the Unshakable Throne

We live in a sentimental age, an age that has difficulty with the robust and masculine prayers we find in the Psalter. We are comfortable asking God to bless, but we squirm when the psalmist asks God to break things, specifically the bones of His enemies. But this is not the prayer of a man seeking petty personal revenge. This is a prayer that flows from a deep and abiding jealousy for the glory of God and the justice of His kingdom. The psalmist has spent the better part of this psalm detailing the outrages of the wicked man who says in his heart, "God has forgotten" (v. 11). The prayer in our text is the righteous response. It is a plea for God to demonstrate, in bone-crunching reality, that He has not forgotten at all. The entire prayer hinges on the foundational truth declared in verse 16: Yahweh is King. Because He is King, He must judge. Because He is King, we can appeal to His throne for justice. This is not vindictiveness; it is an appeal to the chief executive of the universe to enforce His own laws.

Verse by Verse Commentary

15 Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none.

The prayer begins with a startlingly graphic petition: Break the arm. In biblical language, the arm is the symbol of strength, power, and the ability to act. The wicked man uses his strength to crush the poor and the helpless (v. 9-10). The psalmist is therefore asking God to disarm him, to render him impotent, to shatter his capacity for oppression. This is a prayer for God to intervene in the power structures of this world and to bring them to nothing. This is not a prayer that the wicked man would have a bad day. It is a prayer that his entire enterprise of wickedness be brought to a catastrophic halt.

The second clause intensifies the first. "Seek out his wickedness until You find none." This is a request for a complete and final reckoning. The psalmist wants God to conduct a meticulous, divine audit of the wicked man's life and administration. He wants God to keep searching, keep judging, keep exposing, until every last vestige of the man's rebellion is dealt with. This can be understood in two ways, both of which are true. It is a prayer for God to so thoroughly judge the wicked man that his evil enterprise is completely dismantled and ceases to exist. It is also a prayer for God to bring the man himself to an end, so that his wickedness can no longer be found because he is no longer there. This is a prayer for total justice, leaving no sin unpunished and no evil deed unaccounted for.

16 Yahweh is King forever and ever; Nations have perished from His land.

Here is the pivot. The prayer for judgment is not a shot in the dark; it is based on a non-negotiable theological reality. Yahweh is King forever and ever. This is the central confession of the Old Testament. God's reign is not a future hope; it is an eternal fact. He is not a king in exile, wringing his hands. He is on the throne, right now, and His reign has no expiration date. This is the truth that undergirds every imprecation and every plea for justice. We do not ask God to become King. We ask the one who is King to act in accordance with His character and office. The chaos and injustice described earlier in the psalm do not for a moment threaten the reality of God's throne.

The psalmist then provides the historical evidence for this theological claim: Nations have perished from His land. The believer's confidence is not based on abstract philosophy but on God's redemptive acts in history. The psalmist and his original audience would have immediately thought of the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea and the Canaanite tribes driven out of the promised land. God has a track record of dealing with organized, godless rebellion. He has toppled nations before. The word "land" here is rich. It refers specifically to the land of Canaan, but in the larger biblical context, the whole earth is the Lord's. God is in the business of cleansing His land of those who defy Him. The past tense, "have perished," is a promise for the present. What God has done, God will do. The wicked man who seems so powerful now is simply another "nation" in miniature, destined for the same historical dustbin.

Application

First, we must recover the practice of righteous imprecation. When we see systemic evils like the abortion industry, government tyranny, or corporate greed that crushes the poor, we should not respond with milquetoast prayers for "niceness." We should pray with biblical precision, asking God to "break the arm" of these wicked systems. We should pray that He would defund them, expose them, and render them powerless to harm the innocent. This is not about personal hatred, but a love for God's justice and a compassion for the victims of evil.

Second, our prayers for justice and our labors against evil must be anchored in the unshakable truth of God's sovereignty. The daily news is not the ultimate reality. The fact that Yahweh is King forever and ever is the ultimate reality. This should give us a calm and cheerful confidence in the midst of turmoil. We are not fighting for a victory that is in doubt; we are fighting from a victory that has already been secured by the death and resurrection of the ultimate King, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Finally, we must learn to reason from history. God has given us a record of His mighty acts so that we might be encouraged. He has brought down empires and principalities. He has judged wicked nations. The historical record of the church is the story of Christ's kingdom advancing and the pagan nations perishing from His land, the earth. The wicked man of Psalm 10 is a bully on a temporary playground. The King is coming to clean house, and He has done it before. Our job is to pray and work with the confidence that the arm of the wicked will be broken, and the throne of our God will stand forever.