Psalm 11
Let’s hear from God’s word together
from Psalm 11. This is a Psalm of King David,
and it says to the choir master of David, in the Lord, I take
refuge. How can you say to my soul, flee
like a bird to your mountain? For behold, the wicked bend the
bow. They have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the
dark at the upright in heart. The foundations are destroyed.
What can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple.
The Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes see, his eyelids test
the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
Let him rain coals on the wicked. Fire and sulfur and a scorching
wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous,
he loves righteous deeds, and the upright shall behold his
face. This is God’s word for us. We
give him thanks for it. In our first chapter of our Westminster
Confession of Faith, and some of you may be in that Sunday
school class, you can remember all the way back to the reasons
God gave us his holy word. And one of the sets of reasons
it gives is that we might be encouraged and built up as Christians
in this life with the enemies we have, it gives us our three
classic enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world
and all its systems. the flesh or a remnant sin within
us that rears up its ugly head and causes us to sin, and then
of course the devil himself. So God knows where we live and
that we need his word. And he knows that we need it
because we will waver into bad answers to the difficulties of
life. Do you remember when Abraham went down, or when he was going
through the promised land, what happened when there was a famine?
God had promised that he would sustain his family in that land,
but what did Abraham do? He decided that it would be better
to go down to Egypt for help. And he does that twice. And that
really shows us our own hearts. Sometimes we don’t believe God,
we don’t trust him. And so we come up with our own
devices, we come up with our own ways of providing for ourselves. And so that first section of
the confession of faith helps us remember that God has given
us his word to help us when we’re in the midst of hardship. Well,
King David here is in the midst of hardship, and he has friends
who are telling him to do pagan or worldly things. Instead of
running to God, run to the mountains. Instead of running to God for
help, put your trust in the next presidential election, that sort
of business. So here we have the choice. Do we trust God? or do we put our trust in man?
And that’s often one of the themes of the Psalms. What our hope
and prayer is, is that we’ll be like King David and we’ll
be conditioned to do the first and not the second. We’ll be
conditioned to run to God when we need help and not conditioned
to run to men. For this we know is true. The
earth will shake, it will quake, it will fall apart. And even
the foundations will be destroyed so that we will say things like
we often hear ourselves saying, how much worse could it get?
Could there be any more evil? Could there arise another generation
worse than the one now? Or could we get a worse president
in office? Or you fill in the blank. You know how we say it. But could
it get worse? Well, the foundations can be destroyed. This psalm
takes us through three looks, a look around, a look up, and
then a look ahead. Let’s first look at the look
around. If you read verses one through three, you have to understand
or come to the conclusion that it’s gotten really bad, it’s
gotten, excuse me, really, really bad for King David for his, His
cry out is this, in the Lord I take refuge. Just the fact
that he needs refuge shows there’s trouble. Then he says to those
around him, how can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to
the mountain? For behold, the wicked bend the
bow. They have fitted their arrows
to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
The foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Now,
what David has in mind is that it’s dark and that his enemies
are around him and that they’re just gonna begin to fling arrows
and they’re gonna pierce his heart. They’re gonna make their
mark. And he’s in great fear. His friends are telling him to
run to the world for help. And he’s saying, no, I must run
to God. But he puts this question before
Christians. If the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do? And he’s speaking here of earthly
things. What if the laws are not obeyed? What if we begin
to get rogue judges who legislate from the bench or we find ourselves
in a time where police officers cannot uphold the law and enforce
righteousness? What if we find ourselves in
a position where our nation does not desire to defend itself or
new enemies arise? What do we do when the foundations
are shaken and it seems somehow, some way we must survive this
world? Now, the question also comes
to your mind, what kind of situation was David in? Was he running
from Saul here? Was this one of those situations
where maybe Absalom, his son, was rising up against him, or
was this a period of war? Well, we don’t really know. We
don’t really know, but it causes us to think about our own hardships. We now are in that period of
time where we pretty much know who our two presidential candidates
are, If you’re on the one side, you’re a never-Trumper. And if
you’re on that same side, you’re a definitely never-Hillarier.
At least that’s what I see all over the line. We know what we
also don’t want, and that’s another eight years of what we had. But
we think about this, right? As Christians, what has our culture
come to? Where is our world now? It’s
a handout society that we’re living in. So we ask these questions.
We say the foundations are shaking. What can the righteous do? How
are we going to have church? We start to despair. And what
do folks now say? If so and so gets elected, I’m
going to move to Canada. Well, that’s really not a fine
upstanding model of government if you’re against one already.
So that’s not going to help. You know, you can’t afford to
move to some little deserted island and have your food shipped
over. So fleeing to the mountains is not really the godly way.
What does God call us to do? He says, live where you are and
serve where you are called. But sometimes it is true, it
is a fact that the foundations are destroyed. So what can the
righteous do? Well, we can look around and
say it’s really bad. But if we dwell there, we don’t
have a very big view of God. We don’t have a very big view
of his kingdom. And so that question is a very
real question for us this day in time. Now, you may also say,
we’re living in unprecedented times. Somebody begins a sentence,
like that till you say no, no we’re not. There’s nothing new
under the sun. You think about those who’ve
lived in the Soviet regime, those who’ve lived under the Nazi regime,
those who’ve lived during David’s time when Saul was in reign,
or how about under the Columbia drug lords, or just go ask our
people south of the border what it’s like to live in Mexico where
the drug czars run the country. There’s Really no unprecedented
time, right? The foundations have always been
shaken. Now David may be thinking of
here of a particular time in his life where he had to flee
from Saul. And where did David go? He fled to the sanctuary
of God. Now later we’ll get to David
fleeing to the eternal sanctuary, the heavenly sanctuary. But one
of the times David got in trouble where Saul was after him, he
went to the true sanctuary and he found Ahimelech the priest.
And Saul was angry and he came and he destroyed 85 priests. And he destroyed not only the
priests, but their wives and their children and all their
livestock. In fact, he took out a whole town because he was angry
that David had a place to flee. And so you can imagine a situation
where David writes a psalm like this, where he knows exactly
what it’s like to have his world fall apart and to face great
intense difficulty. Saul wiped out a town and all
the people and their animals. And so you can see David might
be tempted to flee to the mountains. He’s done it before. He’s fled
to the Philistines. He’s fled to the caves. He might be tempted, but what
does he say? He says, my soul will flee to God and his holy
temple. Running to the mountains or fleeing
to Canada or wherever it is we might go, going down to Egypt
if you’re Abraham. We have to make a choice, right? As we look
around, are we gonna choose the world’s help or God’s help? So that’s looking around. The
second look is looking to God. And it answers the question,
where do we find refuge? You find it in verses four through
six. He says, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord’s throne
is in heaven. His eyes see, his eyelids test
the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
let him rain coals on the wicked. Fire and sulfur and a scorching
wind shall be the portion of their cup. I hate to belabor the point,
but I keep saying it over and over. Where do the righteous
go when we want to find refuge? Okay, we might flee to Canada.
We may put our hope in the next presidential election. In the
1980s, we just thought the moral majority was great and these
things did wonderful things. But where do we ultimately put
our trust? What happens when a man runs
for office then gets in office? It’s amazing, his views change,
right? His promises become null and void and he’s gonna do something
else. But what about God? Where does it say his throne
is? His throne is in heaven. Where does it say his presence
is? His temple is in heaven. That does not change. God makes
covenant and keeps covenant. He doesn’t have empty, campaign
promises. So when we look around and see
the world in chaos, where then do we look? We look to God and
we see heaven, we see peace. Do you remember John on the Isle
of Patmos, because he was in prison for the sake of the gospel,
probably having a little difficult time. What does God do for him?
He takes him up into heaven. That’s an amazing thing. I think
we mentioned this a few weeks back, maybe on Sunday morning,
when the going gets tough, what does God do to his saints? He
shows them He shows them his throne. He shows that to Ezekiel. He shows it to Isaiah. He shows
it to John. He shows it to his servants.
And they see that in heaven, his rule and reign and worship
and his established kingdom and authority are there. And so it
makes the world seem to fade into the background. So what
do we do when the foundations are shaken? What do we do when
presidential elections are as wacky as they are in 2016? What
do we do when judges are legislating from the bench? What do we do
when there’s lawlessness in the land? We look to God. I mean,
yes, we do care. Yes, we pray. Yes, we serve.
We run for office. We support local and regional
and even state and national efforts to bring more peace to our land.
But ultimately, we look to God. What do we say before every single
morning service? Our help is in the name of our
president. It is he who rules heaven. No,
it’s our help is in the name of the Lord. We look to God,
our creator. So we look, we look around and
see, and then we look up for help. This is where God’s presence
is. It’s where his face is, where
his temple and throne is. And if you really want to think
about it. It’s the plumb line. It’s what
is right. It’s your compass. It is true
north. What we see in heaven is what is good and right and
true. That’s why we need a weekly Sabbath to come directly into
the presence of God with his people. But what does it say
about God? It says he’s in his holy temple. His throne is in
heaven. And then it says his eyes see. His eyelids test. the children of man. The Lord
tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the
one who loves violence. Remember maybe back before Christmas
in our study of Hebrews, Hebrews 4.12, the word of God is living
and active. It is sharper than any two-edged
sword and it gets deep into us, even cutting to joints and marrow.
What does God say? He says, my word will judge you.
My word will prove who you are. And in that particular context,
God is saying to the people of God, don’t lose faith. Don’t
be like faithless Israel who lost heart and they died in the
wilderness. Don’t be like them, but be like Moses, be like Abraham,
be like the men and women of faith who persevered under hardship. And so it reminds us that God
does see and that he does test, he does prove us, but he also
looks at our deeds to see where we are. He’s gonna look to see
if we run to the mountains or if we run to his holy mountain. But God sees, he knows the thoughts
of men, he knows the hearts of men, he knows the intentions
of men. I forget who it was. I was talking with somebody today
about, oh, it was Ben, we were talking about Dick Cheney’s famous,
what was it, Unknown Unknowns and all that, remember that,
with the award? Well, with God, there are unknown. unknowns, right? He knows everything.
He knows what’s in the heart of Kim Jong-un. He knows what’s
in the heart of the worst dictators of human history. He knows what’s
in the heart of Nero. He knows what’s in the heart
of each of us. And so what a wonderful thing
it is to look around and see evil, but also look up and see
God. He knows, he sees, he judges. Well, then it moves on to say,
not only does God see, but he pronounces a verdict. His soul
hates the wicked, but he loves the one who is righteous. But
his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. So
there’s a verdict, but then there’s judgment. Let him rain coals
on the wicked. Fire and sulfur and a scorching
wind shall be the portion of their cup. Have any of y’all
I know some of you have, but many of y’all seen the Babylon
Bee, the little fake online Christian newspaper. A couple of weeks
ago, there was a headline that said there was gonna be a new
adult coloring book based on the imprecatory Psalms. So when
you see something like, let him rain coals on the wicked, you
can have a little coloring sheet for the raining coals coming
down, something like that. It’s interesting, we overlook
those portions of scripture, but God really says, and some
have prayed difficult things, but surely David has in mind
here, Sodom and Gomorrah, that God has indeed judged the wicked,
and that brings peace to us, right? What is it to us when
there’s an execution of a heinous crime or a criminal of a heinous
crime? What is it to us when we hear
that our war planes are flying over a region of the world where
there’s not peace? and there’s tyranny. What is
it to us when we see our warships in the Red Sea or the Suez Canal
or in the Mediterranean and those parts of the world? What is it
to us? It provides comfort because it lets us know that there’s
discipline and order, or at least the hope of it to come. And so we understand that God
is in heaven, that he sees, he examines, Issues a verdict and
there is judgment. And what else does that say to
us? It says to our enemies, you better watch out. You better
look for God to come because he will come and he will judge
and he will perform what he decides. So it brings to us peace. It
brings to us great joy. Remember also when God gave John
the vision into heaven, what was John able to see? He saw
the throne room, he saw Jesus, He saw the spirits, the father,
the son, he saw everything, but he began to see the end of history
unfold. And in various cycles, in several
cycles, over and over, God shows John the apostle that Jesus wins. Jesus has the victory over sin
and death. He holds the keys to Hades. He
has Satan chained and he will ultimately destroy him. And so
for John, that was a great comfort. Though in prison, God may allow
him to die on earth, but he sees into heaven and sees the ultimate
triumph. So if we look around and see
difficulty, we look up to God’s face and see peace. What’s the
third direction we should look? Well, that final direction we
find in verse seven. We should look onward. We should
look to the end of things. And that’s something we often
forget. We need to think, oh, what’s that fancy word? We need
to think eschatologically. We need to think about the ultimate
end. Some of you probably have a little
summer vacation all lined up. You’ve got your place at the
beach or your place in the mountains to stay. You’ve got your time
off. Everything’s all arranged and
you can’t wait for that eschatological bliss of the ocean lapping over
your toes or the cool air of the mountains or what is it,
Glade Spring, Tennessee. or Vermont or something like
that, you look forward to it. Well, we need to think like that
about heaven. We need to think very often like that about heaven,
that we have a future that is bright and joyous. And so when
the momentary hardships come, we think about heaven. Maybe
bad now, but we look onward. And what does this passage say
that we will see in heaven? It says, the Lord is righteous,
he loves righteous deeds, and the upright shall behold his
face. That’s something that we may
not often think of, but what’s the first thing that ought to
come to your mind when somebody passes into glory that we love? They’re looking at God face to
face. That’s the ultimate gift that God gives us. We shall see
him. We even read that this evening
in 1 John chapter two. We shall see him as he is. We shall see God face to face. And I can imagine that would
help in hardship. Even Stephen, remember when he
was stoned? God’s grace to him, once again,
was to see into heaven. And so what did Stephen see?
He saw a glimpse of God’s face where we get peace. How do we
end every worship service? We end it with a benediction.
And sometimes, not all the time, how do we end it? The Lord bless
you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and
be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon you and give you peace. So we find peace there at the
throne of God. Remember, was it Thomas who said, to Jesus,
show us the Father and that will be sufficient. And what does
Jesus say? If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father. And so
we should get excited about seeing the face of God. So how does
this psalm end? There’s hardship, there’s judgment,
there’s the raining down of God’s fire and brimstone and sulfur
and scorching wind. The wicked get judgment, but
what do the righteous get? They get salvation, and they
get to see the face of God. And so that’s something you can
sort of cheer yourself up with when you’re going through hardship,
is we will see him face to face. That’s a good little phrase to
say when you’re down and things are tough. We shall see him face
to face. Let’s pray together. Our God,
we thank you that we have the promise of seeing Jesus’ face. have the precious promise of
beholding his glory, his majesty, and to find that great and wonderful
place of peace where we no longer will have tears and pain and
sorrow. The wicked around us and the wars that are about us
will no longer affect us, but we will be in your loving arms
in your glorious presence and find eternal peace. Until then,
may we live and hope in the promises that are ours in Jesus, that
we will see him as he really is, face to face in glory. In
Christ’s name we pray, amen. you say to me like a bird from
arrowheads and to your mountain free though it can’t bend the
bow with arrow tips for flight The Lord is in His holy place
The Lord’s throne is lowly ♪ His eyes will surely see ♪ ♪
His eyelids drive in stars ♪ ♪ The Lord tries just and wicked men
♪ ♪ His soul is cruel and wild ♪ ♪ Upon a wicked man’s heart
♪ ♪ It’ll rain in tangling stairs ♪ ♪ With stone and fire and burning
wind ♪ ♪ Before their cup prepares ♪ ♪ For righteous is the Lord
God of hosts ♪ Amen. Go in peace.