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Psalms 10:4 · World English Bible

Psalms 10:4 Meaning The Wicked

The wicked, in the pride of his face, has no room in his thoughts for God.

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What does Psalms 10:4 mean?

Pride is the mind grown so full of itself that no room is left for anything deeper. When you are convinced you are the story running in your head, that self-image demands all your attention, and there is nowhere for a quieter presence to enter.

From the Ego v. Being reading below.

Psalms 10:4 through 1 lens

The same verse, read by one tradition.

EGO & BEING

Ego v. Being

Pride is the mind grown so full of itself that no room is left for anything deeper. When you are convinced you are the story running in your head, that self-image demands all your attention, and there is nowhere for a quieter presence to enter. This is why the proud person does not seek. The seeking would require admitting that something is missing, and the ego cannot bear to feel incomplete.

God is not in all his thoughts because thought, when it fills every moment, leaves no gap through which the sacred can be sensed. The divine is not another idea to add to the crowd inside your mind. It is found in the still space between thoughts, and that space only opens when the self stops insisting on its own importance long enough to grow quiet.

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Ego v. Being lens

Live Psalms 10:4 today

  1. Sometime today, when your mind is running its usual commentary about how you are doing, stop reading it for thirty seconds and just listen to whatever is around you. The quiet underneath is not empty, it was only crowded out.
  2. In a conversation where you are sure you are right, ask one real question instead of making your point. Let the answer land before you reply.
  3. When someone corrects you in a meeting or a group chat and your face goes hot, try saying you had not thought of that. It costs nothing, and the relief of not having to defend yourself is immediate.

What would you have to admit is missing before you would start looking?

The same truth in other traditions

Zen

A full cup takes no tea. Empty it first, and then there is somewhere for anything new to go.

Tao Te Ching

Knowing that you do not know is the beginning of real knowing. The one certain of everything has already stopped learning.

Stoicism · Epictetus

It is impossible to learn what you already believe you know. Pride is the lid on the pot.

Mid-century illustration of Jesus teaching the crowd on a hillside above the sea

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