Psalm 10:1 Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble? 2 In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised. 3 For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD. 4 The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, “There is no God.” 5 His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them.
Why will men not seek God? Why will men seek God in their own imaginations but not truly seek the true God? The Pharisees thought they were diligent seekers of God, but in reality they did not seek the true God at all. Psalm 10 tells us the true problem, and it is one that should not surprise anyone. In reality, however, coming to the realization that men do not seek the Lord because of pride does surprise men, but primarily when they see this in themselves. It should be pointed out, though, that men will only see this in themselves when it is shown them by grace.
The text is so clear in verse 4 that the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD, but the wicked, from a haughty countenance which is pride, does not seek the LORD. The passion and great desire that greed is causes a man to curse the LORD when he does not get what his heart truly desires, but in the pursuit of the desires of the heart the greedy man spurns the LORD. The greedy man and the proud man are not two separate men, but in fact they are the same man. A greedy man is a proud man and a proud man is a greedy man, though greed can demonstrate itself in several aspects or ways. A man can be greedy for honor and glory in the eyes of men and that in worldly terms of in the terms of professing religion.
The proud heart exalts self and is blinded by what appears as good to self, so the proud heart pursues things that appear good to self and will run over other people to get what it wants. The proud heart will abuse other people in both words and actions in order to pursue and obtain what its greedy heart desires. When a proud heart spurns the LORD, it will also spurn those who are made in His image. This proud heart will also especially spurn and abuse those who are the true children of God.
The proud heart is so full of self and self-love that it is really a god to itself and is playing as God before others. The proud heart wants men to honor it, whether in the things of religion or in the things of the world. The proud heart will abuse some men in order to be honored by others, but the proud heart is playing God even if it does not recognize what it is doing. The proud heart is like Adam and Eve in that it has bought into the lie of the Devil and wants to be like God in knowing good and evil. It will decide for itself what is good and evil and it will do what it wants to do when it wants to do it.
The proud heart may be easy to see in other people, especially in the way they treat others if they are calloused toward others. But the proud heart is not so easy to see to those who have it. Pride works in that heart to blind it to what it really is and part of that blinding work is to justify itself to itself. What the proud heart does not realize, however, is that God is hardening that heart in a judicial judgment and the proud heart is growing more and more proud and at the same time is getting more and more blind to its own pride and its work in justifying itself.
But in getting to the things of religion, this is where the heart is in some ways more proud than at any other place. It is true that those who are criminals indulge the self and pride in gross criminal acts, but the religious person uses things that are even more specifically to be used for the glory and honor of God and uses them for its proud heart in order to exalt itself in the eyes of self and of men. Even worse, the heart of the religious proud will use the things that God has given to the humble in order to exalt itself in the eyes of God. Oh how deceptive the proud heart is and how men must be humbled by the Spirit of God in order to see this.
The religious proud seek themselves in their preaching and not God. The religious proud seek themselves in their evangelism and not God. The religious proud seek themselves in their praying and not God. The religious proud seek themselves in their good works and not God. The religious proud seek themselves sin their reading and study of the Bible and not God. The religious proud can be great and exalted names in Christendom and yet not seek God in what they do. The proud do not really seek God and that includes the religious proud who may be worse than the rest.
God Loves... Himself 
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