Psalms 10:3

"For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire,

And the covetous renounceth, yea, contemneth Jehovah.

The wicked in the pride of his countenance, saith, he will not require it.

All his thoughts are, There is no God."

Note the recurrence of the word "pride" in Psalms 10:4. The pride, conceit and stubbornness of man are vital elements of his unredeemed carnal nature, and the fountainhead of many of his troubles.

"The wicked boasteth." These verses describe the character of the wicked oppressors, the thing cited here being the boastfulness of evil men. "He vaunts himself, or makes an ostentatious display of something upon which he prides himself, such as wealth, strength, beauty, talent, etc."[4]

The second line is more understandable if the marginal rendition is followed, as follows: "He (the wicked) blesses the covetous, and revileth Jehovah." His ideals are exactly the opposite of those found in the hearts of the righteous. An apostle has warned us that "covetousness is idolatry" (Colossians 3:5). Christ himself said that a man cannot serve God and Mammon; and any person whose god is money is a practical atheist.

His thoughts are, There is no God. The wicked man depicted here may not have been an avowed atheist, but he was a practical atheist. He ordered his life, planned all of his deeds, and laid out all of his objectives as if there was no God whatever. We should note that, "David does not here speak of the words, but of the innermost thoughts of the wicked, their practical or their half-conscious atheism."[5]

There are many kinds of atheists: (1) There is the conceited fool who thinks he is an intellectual (Psalms 14:1; 53:1). (2) There is the proud but deceived sinner who has somehow adopted the falsehood that supposes atheism to have been derived from superior knowledge or learning. On the contrary atheism did not begin in a university, but in the vulgar, reprobate village of Nazareth. (See my dissertation on this in Vol. 1 of my New Testament Series, pp. 209-211, where there is noted that atheism is essentially: (1) unworthiness; (2) egotism; (3) mental laziness; (4) illogical; (5) moral cowardice; (6) the opiate of the people; and (7) a form of self-pity.)

(3) Another kind of atheist is one who acknowledges that there must indeed be a God, but who supposes him to be merely some kind of impersonal law, or vital force behind the whole creation; but as Delitzsch wrote, "But to deny the existence of a living, acting, all-punishing, in one word, a personal God, is equivalent to denying the existence of any real and true God whatever."[6]

"Thoughts." Kidner pointed out that the word here actually means "schemes."[7]

Atheism is invariably the product, not of learning, nor of intelligence, nor of information, nor of any thought process whatever, but of wickedness. "God's Word declares atheism to be the product of corruption."[8] Where is the scripture that states such a truth? Here it is, "Here is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil" (John 3:19 KJV). This blunt reason behind all atheism does not cite super-knowledge, education, intelligence, or any special power of discernment as the cause of atheism, but simply wickedness. Atheism is invariably the product of a sinful heart.