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Psalm 10 · a question people ask

"Why do you stand far off, LORD?" (10:1). Does the psalm say why?

In the text

No. The psalm asks the question and doesn't give a reason for it. It asks twice in one verse: "Why do you stand far off, LORD? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?" (10:1). Then it tells what the psalmist sees: the wicked who "hunt down the weak" (10:2) and say "God has forgotten" (10:11). Then it asks: "Arise, LORD! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless" (10:12). By its end it speaks another way: "But you do see trouble and grief" (10:14), and "LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble" (10:17). It doesn't say whether anything happened between its first verse and its last, or why the LORD had seemed far off. Other psalms put the same why to God: "Why are you so far from helping me" (Psalm 22:1), with this psalm's word for far (tap far), and "LORD, why do you reject my soul? Why do you hide your face from me?" (Psalm 88:14). Each of them asks God himself, and these notes don't answer the question for the psalm.

The verses

“Why do you stand far off, LORD? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? In arrogance, the wicked hunt down the weak. They are caught in the schemes that they devise.”
Psalm 10:1-2 · World English Bible
“He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.” Arise, LORD! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless.”
Psalm 10:11-12 · World English Bible
“But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.”
Psalm 10:14 · World English Bible
“LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble. You will prepare their heart. You will cause your ear to hear,”
Psalm 10:17 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 10

Psalm 10: Why do you stand far off?

Psalm 10 lets the wicked speak his heart, then answers him to God with his own verbs: "God has forgotten" (10:11) meets "Don’t forget the helpless" (10:12); "He will never see it" (10:11) meets "But you do see" (10:14); and "God won’t call me into account" (10:13) meets "seek out his wickedness" (10:15), one Hebrew verb, darash.

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions