“You, LORD, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror” (Psalm 10:17-18).

As I read these final verses from Psalm 10, they made me pause. Because there are far too many tragic incidents that come to mind when sinful humanity at its worst strikes terror in the hearts of their fellow humankind.

So that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror… Really?

What about all of the atrocities we read and see on the news or scrolling through social media? Or all of the terrible things that should send us staggering when we hear about them, but because they didn’t happen to our loved ones or us, they only occupy our thoughts for a brief moment or two?

What about the people who’ve actually suffered through those unimaginable experiences and still struggle with the resulting trauma? Or the people who live in constant fear of what might happen to them and their loved ones?

“Why, LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalm 10:1)

Is it any wonder the psalmist began Psalm 10 with the questions above?

Sinful people do awful things, and there are times when it appears as though God is a distant, passive observer. We struggle with that! We wrestle with that false assumption, as the psalmist did, because we know from God’s Word that he is not distant. He is not passive. He will not let the deeds of the wicked go unpunished, even though it seems as if they sometimes do.

As the psalmist went on to write:

“But 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. Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out” (Psalm 10:14-15).

And he does.

God does call the evildoer to account for his wickedness. Sometimes that judgment is witnessed by us; other times it seems that justice has failed. But in eternity, God’s justice will be evident and visible to all, and those who do evil will not be able to think to themselves, ‘God will not notice my misdeeds; he covers his face and never sees.’

No. God sees and knows. He does not hide his face. He hears his afflicted people. He listens to them and defends them, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.

How? How will they never again strike terror? Those words made me think of another psalmist’s verse:

“The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Psalm 118:6).

In our world, there is much cause for terror. Wicked people do horrible things to their fellow human beings. And there’s no guarantee that we as Christians will escape unscathed—if we haven’t suffered already. (In fact, our Savior warned us that we will have trouble in this world because we’re his followers!)

But never forget, dear Christian, what our God has already done for us, his poor and needy, afflicted and oppressed people.

The Lord has absolutely and utterly decimated our spiritual enemies, so they can never again cause us terror. Sins, removed. Taken away. Death’s sting, non-existent. Its fangs ripped out. The devil, crushed. Ground underfoot by our victorious Savior.

“The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” (Psalm 118:6).

We still have very real trouble because of people in this sin-darkened world. But Jesus has overcome the world, and because he has, so will we.

We have absolutely nothing to fear because of him.

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