Scripture is subversive in that it has within it the power to undermine, to topple and overthrow the existing world order –– its values, its thinking, its way of life. This subversive quality is frequently apparent in the Psalms where the poets have discovered something utterly amazing about God. What they have discovered, as the Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann observes, is this: “Yahweh’s peculiar inclinations are with the broken-hearted and the ones with crushed spirits. That is, Yahweh’s solidarity is not with the ones who go from success to success, but the ones denied success.” In the Psalms the poor, the marginalized, the oppressed and the humble look only to God–– have no one but God for their help. The Psalms are subversive, then, because God is subversive. I thought you might appreciate the following version of Psalm 10. Well, actually, I hope it will feed your own subversive passions––your feelings of compassion and justice in an age of exploitation, corruption, greed, violence, mendacity and arrogance.

Psalm 10: A Song of the Oppressed

1Why do you stand so far from me, O God?
Why are you hiding, Lord, in all this crisis?
2 In arrogance the selfish and greedy chase down the poor.
May they be caught in their own cruel traps
set for the innocent!
3 Having departed from the path
they have no knowledge of what is sacred,
and no compassion
for the suffering of humanity.
They boast of their power to take whatever they want,
they curse the Lord and reject God as weak.
4 With smug and condescending faces
they disdain God and deny the divine power.
In their self-centered importance they are always saying,
“There is no God.”
5 They are rich, powerful, and entirely self-satisfied.
The wisdom of your Way, O God,
is far beyond their comprehension.
As for any who would challenge them,
they laugh in derision.
6 They say to themselves,
“Nothing can touch me!
No one can bring me down!
No one is as clever as I am!
Nothing bad is ever going to happen to me!”
7 Their mouths are full of rotting lies,
violence, and oppression;
Under their tongues are plots to hurt
and destroy all that is good, beautiful, or true.
8 Courts, markets, and positions of leadership
are their lurking places;
they spring from hidden blinds
to kill the innocent and vulnerable.
Their stealthy eyes are always watching for victims.
9 Like predator lions
they stalk those alone and helpless;
They lurk in the dark shadows
ready to catch those already afflicted;
They catch the injured and the poor
and draw them into their net.
10 In their speech they camouflage their true motives
with high principles and ideals,
but they are always crouching in readiness
to spring on the innocent.
11 They confidently reassure themselves saying,
“God has forgotten;
God has hidden His face; God will never see it.”
12 Arise!, O Lord, Arise; lift up Your hand.
Do not forget the hurting, troubled and afraid.
13 Why have the wicked despised You O’ God?
Because they do not believe
You will require accountability.
14 But You have seen it,
You have carefully noted the harm they do
how they devour the poor and vulnerable as prey.
The defenseless commit themselves to You;
You have been the helper of those
who have no other help.
15 Break the power of the unjust,
the indifferent and the cruel;
seek out all their ways of wickedness,
until by your goodness they are overcome;
and no injustice or oppression or unkindness is to be found.
16 You are the Lord, You are our good and strong King;
You are our Help and Comforter.
17 O Lord, You have heard the cries of the oppressed
and know the longing hearts of the humble.
Strengthen their hearts, listen to their desperate pleas.
18 Vindicate the vulnerable, the helpless, and the oppressed;
So that those who have become their own god
will no longer cause terror.
(trans. larry hart)