The erroneous thinking of the wicked

Psalm 10:11 (NLT)

The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us!
  He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!”

Rationalization is a common human trait.  Rationalization is making excuses to justify what might normally be viewed as unacceptable behavior.  All kinds of examples:

--  why you failed to meet a certain objective at work

-- why you didn’t perform better in school

-- why you didn’t play your best in a sporting event

-- why you evade paying taxes

-- why you spend more than you can afford

-- why you didn’t want to achieve a failed goal anyway, e.g. being rejected from a job or school or promotion

-- why you blame God for your circumstances

Making excuses is avoidance of the truth.  It is used primarily to protect self-worth and place blame on other people and/or other factors. 

The Bible says that the wicked rationalize their actions by thinking that God doesn’t know what they are doing.  They think that they can do any evil thing and that God doesn’t know and doesn’t care.  Psalm 10:6 says that they think that nothing bad will ever happen to them; that they will be free of trouble forever.  Even Psalm 10:5 says that they succeed in everything they do.  Implicit in these verses is that the wicked don’t see a need for God.  They think that He is dead (verse 4). 

Wickedness is described in Psalm 10 as arrogance (2), planning evil that involves others (2), bragging about their evil (3), greed (3), cursing the Lord (3), pride (4), sneering (5), cursing, lies and threats (7), murder (8), and taking advantage of helpless victims (8-10).

When you witness people acting like this (and be certain that you never do), you likely react like David wrote in Psalm 10:12-18 where he prays that God will punish and destroy all wicked people.  Indeed it is acceptable to pray that the wicked are punished and destroyed, but note that this is left to God to do something, not you.  Often you do want to take matters into your own hands, but you must not if you wish to obey the Lord.  Romans 12:19 says, “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.”    

So the next time you witness wickedness---most likely later today (!)—and/or you hear people arrogantly express opinions that God isn’t watching, doesn’t care, doesn’t even exist, just remember the verses of this ancient Psalm and realize that God knows what’s going on and will deal with the wicked and the ignorant in His due time.  Just keep focusing “on the things above, not on the things (and certain people) that are on the earth” (Col 3:2). 

“God bears with the wicked, but not forever.” --Miguel de Cervantes