011) Psalm 10
8.6.8.6.
1 Thy presence why withdraws’t thou, Lord? why hid’st thou now thy face, When dismal times of deep distress call for thy wonted grace?
2 The wicked, swelled with lawless pride, have made the poor their prey;
O let them fall by those designs which they for others lay.
3 For straight they triumph, if success their thriving crimes attend; And sordid wretches, whom God hates, perversely they commend.
4 To own a pow’r above themselves their haughty pride disdains; And therefore in their stubborn mind no thought of God remains.
5 Oppressive methods they pursue, and all their foes they slight;
Because thy judgments, unobserved, are far above their sight.
6 They fondly think their prosp’rous state shall unmolested be;
They think their vain designs shall thrive, from all misfortune free.
7 Vain and deceitful is their speech, with curses filled and lies; By which the mischief of their heart they study to disguise.
8 Near public roads they lie concealed, and all their art employ, The innocent and poor at once to rifle and destroy.
9 Not lions, couching in their dens, surprise their heedless prey With greater cunning, or express more savage rage than they.
10 Sometimes they act the harmless man, and modest looks they wear;
That, so deceived, the poor may less their sudden onset fear.