Psalm 10:4 The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. In this Psalm we have a full-length portrait of a careless, unawakened sinner, drawn by the unerring pencil of truth. Two of the features which compose this portrait are delineated in our text. 1. An unwillingness to seek after God. 2. Pride, which causes that unwillingness. I. THE WICKED WILL NOT SEEK AFTER GOD. They do not, because they will not. To this purpose they obstinately and unalterably adhere, unless their wills are subdued by Divine grace. 1. The wicked will not seek after the knowledge of God. This is evident from Scripture statement, and from the experience of all ages. The wicked will not pray for the knowledge of God, nor improve their opportunities for acquiring the knowledge of God. 2. The wicked will not seek the favour of God. Knowing nothing experimentally of His excellence and perfections, and ignorant of their entire dependence on Him for happiness, they cannot of course realise that the favour of God is life, and His loving kindness is better than life. 3. The wicked will not seek after the likeness of God. That they do not at all resemble Him is certain. They do not wish or endeavour to resemble Him. There is, indeed, in their view, no reason why they should. There are but two motives which can make any being wish to resemble another. A wish to obtain the approbation of the person imitated; or admiration of something in his character, and a consequent desire to inscribe it into our own. But the wicked can be influenced by neither of these motives to seek after conformity to God. 4. The wicked will not seek after communion with God. Communion supposes some degree of resemblance to the being whose communion is sought, and a participation of the same nature, views, and feelings. II. THE REASON WHY THE WICKED WILL NOT SEEK GOD. 1. Pride renders God a disagreeable object of contemplation to the wicked, and a knowledge of Him as undesirable. Pride consists in an unduly exalted opinion of one's self. It. is therefore impatient of a rival, hates a superior, and cannot endure a master. 2. The pride of the wicked prevents them from seeking the knowledge of God, by rendering them unwilling to be taught. Pride is almost as impatient of a teacher as of a master. 3. Pride renders the wicked unwilling to use the means by which alone the knowledge of God can be acquired. It renders them unwilling to study the Bible in a proper manner. Pride also renders the man unwilling to pray. And it prevents him from improving public and private opportunities for acquiring religious instruction. The pride of the wicked will not allow them to seek after the favour or the likeness of God. It makes them unwilling to seek after communion with God.Reflections — 1. How evident it is that salvation is wholly of grace, and that all the wicked, if left to themselves, will certainly perish. 2. How depraved, how infatuated, how unreasonable do the wicked appear! 3. How foolish, absurd, ruinous, blindly destructive of its own object does pride appear! The subject may be applied for purposes of self-examination. (E. Payson, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.WEB: The wicked, in the pride of his face, has no room in his thoughts for God. |
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