This sounds more like chronicles of pity for those who would so behave that the trusting ones ask God, “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”
Have you been there? Trusting that God will deliver, yet still wondering why deliverance takes so long? Indeed, it seems (only seems) that the Almighty is far off. A divine habit of presenting a posture that the wounded might just entertain, even for a while, the thought that God is temporarily blinded to the wounds being afflicted.
At such times, the counsel of Frederick William Faber (1814-38) is useful:
Workman [sic] of God! O lose not heart, But learn what God is like, And in the darkest battlefield Thou shalt now where to strike.
Thrice blest is [he] to whom is given The instinct that can tell That God is on the field when He Is most invisible.
Surely, the psalmist knows the enemy’s characteristics, maybe because there is that streak of enemy in each one of us.
- Arrogance that the schemes they devise will trick the poor, forgetting that ‘whosoever digs a pit to trap another might well fall in it.’
- Ignorance that continues to express inwardly and outwardly the foolishness that “there is no God.”
- False confidence that “God will not seek it [my wicked way] out. Throughout our generations we shall not meet adversity”.
- Pretentiousness- “They stoop, they crouch, and the helpless fall by their might” because they have perfected the art of forgery, of hypocrisy- the kind if drama that lets the unsuspecting not be wary of their tricks- and recognise that they are children of the devil!
- Sheer stupidity! Thinking that God will abandon the oppressed!
Oh yes, when the enemy overpowers its prey, the wounded can easily feel helpless; but don’t be surprised, when you are wounded, that this is not the end of God’s story for your life. Hold on in faith and just don’t quit.
In your weakness, be strong and discover that those who wait on the Lord, find their strength renewed; and opportunity might just arise for them to be the upper hand, forgiving the enemy and bringing them deliverance.