Psalm 10 (NIV) - In all his thoughts there is no room for God

From Psalms

Psalm 10 (New International Version, ©2011)

¹Why, LORD, do you stand far off?
     Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

²In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
     who are caught in the schemes he devises.
³He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
     he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD.
⁴In his pride the wicked man does not seek him;
     in all his thoughts there is no room for God.
⁵His ways are always prosperous;
     your laws are rejected by him;
     he sneers at all his enemies.
⁶He says to himself, “Nothing will ever shake me.”
     He swears, “No one will ever do me harm.”

⁷His mouth is full of lies and threats;
     trouble and evil are under his tongue.
⁸He lies in wait near the villages;
     from ambush he murders the innocent.
His eyes watch in secret for his victims;
⁹like a lion in cover he lies in wait.
He lies in wait to catch the helpless;
     he catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.
¹⁰His victims are crushed, they collapse;
     they fall under his strength.
¹¹He says to himself, “God will never notice;
     he covers his face and never sees.”

¹²Arise, LORD! Lift up your hand, O God.
     Do not forget the helpless.
¹³Why does the wicked man revile God?
     Why does he say to himself,
     “He won’t call me to account”?
¹⁴But 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.
¹⁵Break the arm of the wicked man;
     call the evildoer to account for his wickedness
     that would not otherwise be found out.

¹⁶The LORD is King for ever and ever;
     the nations will perish from his land.
¹⁷You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted;
     you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
¹⁸defending the fatherless and the oppressed,
     so that mere earthly mortals
     will never again strike terror.

Wow - there's a lot of great things here. Where do I begin?  Let's start with verse 4 - "in all his thoughts there is no room for God."  This is another part of what I have learned during recovery.  I now know that I did not have room for God in my thoughts.  However, as I started to rewrite the Psalms I lost room in my thoughts for my addiction.  As I worked through the 12 steps I made room for God, too, and lost room for my addictions.  These are habits that needs to be practiced and repeated.  After years of drinking and acting out sexually for hours every day I had some deep rooted habits.  It will probably take years reading the Bible and working the steps for hours every to replace my old habits with my new habits.

There are two other parts of this Psalm I want to look at quickly.  "God will never notice," and, "Call the evildoer to account for his wickedness."  As addicts, we say things, "We're not hurting anyone," ""Nobody will ever know the difference," or "Everybody does it."  In saying these things we are saying, "God will never notice."  However, in recovery we learn God was watching.  Inevitably, God puts us in a situation where we are taken to account, when we hit "rock bottom."  It's at this point we have to choose between being saved by him or losing everything we have in life.  My hope is that you choose to open your heart to God and recovery instead of losing everything.

With that, I would like to close with a thought of hope.  Verse 17, "You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry."  We the afflicted, the addicted, the alcoholics, God hears our cry.  Listen to the Holy Spirit for his encouragement.  We will prevail over the chains of alcohol.  We will prevail over the prison of our sexual addictions.

Thanks for letting me share.