What Can the Righteous Do?

Good morning, everyone. It is a humbling honor to be
able to be here and worship with you in this way this morning.
Thank you for the very kind introduction and for your desire to honor
the Lord as we worship together. I’d like to open with our passage
today and give the Lord the first word in our time as we worship
through the preaching of his word. If you’ll turn your Bibles
to Psalm 11, we’ll start there. 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.
If 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 scorching
wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds. The
upright shall behold his face. Let’s go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we are your
people. We are your bride. We are the
body and The Temple of Living Stones. We’ve come to offer our
praise to you, to give glory to you where it is due. And we
ask that our worship this morning would be a fragrant and sweet
offering, that you would be pleased with our delight in your law,
and that we would hear it well. Father, I beg you that you would
protect me, that you would guard my tongue, that I would preach
only what is true, that the sermon this morning would be your words
and not mine, your thoughts and not my thoughts. And I ask that
you would open ears that those who are here would hear you clearly
and that your word would be proclaimed faithfully and received faithfully
and acted upon well in life. So we come before you in delight
in your word. to study it, to know it, so that
we can know you and serve you and give you glory. We lay this
time before you in the name of your son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
amen. So our opening psalm this morning
was Psalm 88. And reading through that, it
was kind of a downer, as they say. And I wanted to call attention
to just another verse down the road here. In verse 14, it says,
the psalmist says, oh Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from
me? And I think this is the source
of the psalmist’s great anguish in all of this suffering. And
today we’re going to see the other side of that coin. So Psalm
88 is a weighty and heavy thing that rests on us because of the
realities of the world. For the world is a wicked place
and there is sorrows all the time. We will today examine another
psalm, Psalm 11, and see the other side of that coin. And
so, I would invite you to turn back there to Psalm 11, and we’ll
begin. So today we’re gonna look at
this magnificent text. I love Psalm 11. It’s just seven
verses, but it’s filled with rich mercy. It’s this song, this
poem that calls our attention to our great hope as Christians,
as God’s people. just as it has for thousands
of years, even in David’s day to the Israelites. And we will
be looking at David’s aim and argument and the setting and
structure of this psalm and see how the recipients of this psalm
would have thought about it in David’s day and understand how
this text encourages and admonishes us today. In the center of the
text is the central question, which is very convenient. This
is right in the middle. So the question we’re going to be asking
of the text today is the question that David’s companion is asking
him. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? So
we’re going to look at how David responds to that real question. And I think it’s a question that
is clearly a concern in David’s day, and I don’t think that has
changed in the time since. I think that in many ways we’re
asking those questions today. And so I’d like to examine how
David responds when everything around him is coming apart. So
what can the righteous do? To begin, let’s take a step back
and consider hymns. Hymns are these amazing texts. The Bible is a complicated document.
It’s written over an enormous span of time by many authors,
and there’s lots of genres. And we have this great big book
of songs and poems right in the middle. And it seems a little
odd, especially in our day, in my field, we read a lot of academic
papers and journal articles. We read a lot of textbooks, very
different genre of literature. Even in the Christian circle,
we have the works of Paul. That’s where we spend a lot of
our time because they’re sort of technical, theological. You can really unpack them. So
why then is this enormous book of songs and poems so important? And that is because hymns and
songs are really memorable. They teach complicated ideas
in ways that we don’t forget. And they are filled with faith-arousing
truths that we cling to as God’s people. And most importantly,
hymns and songs turn knowledge into action. So I’ve grown to
love the Psalms more and more as the years go by for these
very reasons. They spur my spirit on to the glorious truth that
I cling on to day by day, even when it seems like the foundations
are crumbling. And so that’s what I am hoping
to do here this morning with you, is draw our attention to
the foundation that we can rest in. Ephesians, I think this kind
of drives that point home. In Ephesians 5, 16-21, Paul says,
making the best use of time. This is like the best thing you
could be doing. Because the days are evil, therefore do not be
foolish, but understand what is the will of the Lord. And
do not get drunk with wine, for that is the debauchery, but be
filled with the Spirit. addressing one another in psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to
the Lord in your heart, giving thanks always and for everything
to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” So
Paul’s saying, like, the days are evil. We’re in a tough spot
here. The best thing you could do with
your time is songs and hymns, making melody to the Lord with
your heart. And so we’re called to sing psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs to shape our hearts and minds towards what
is good and right and true and away from the lies and dangers
that the world tells us, that the world is filled with. Charles Simmons calls psalms
the rich repository of experimental knowledge. And through this poetic
verse, Psalms remind us and teach us how to live in light of God’s
word, to worship and glorify God, to respond to our problems,
to have appropriate spiritual lenses through which we can view
the world, how to think, how to pray, how to confess our sins,
to mourn and to rejoice. and to study what to study and
why we should study. So David records Psalms to strengthen
Israel and call them to remember the security that they have as
God’s people because of who God is, where God is, and because
of what God is doing in the world. And so Psalm 11 is David’s answer
to this pressing and urgent question that’s being asked of him. If
the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? And
Psalm 11 is here to teach us to answer that same question
for ourselves and those around us today. David opens with his answer to
the question and closes with his defense. What can the righteous
do? There’s just one thing, one thing
alone. David says, in the Lord I take refuge. That is his thesis
statement for Psalm 11. That is the thing that he will
defend in this passage. David’s claim is that no matter
what the calamity is, The Lord is a sure foundation, a secure
refuge for those who seek righteousness, and most importantly, desire
to see His face. In our songs this morning, going
back to this idea that we need to sing spiritual hymns and psalms. So if you looked at Psalm 30
in the hymnal here, I love that you sing from a hymnal. It’s
something I’m quickly falling in love with, recently started
doing. In the second verse here, under the shadow of your throne,
your saints have dwelt secure. Sufficient is your arm alone,
and our defense is sure. In the same way, our other song from this morning.
We stood beneath the cross of Calvary and gazed on your face
at the thorns of oppression and the wounds of disgrace. So we
see that even now we’re singing the same spiritual songs that
David is calling us to sing here in Psalm 11. Those are perfect
songs to sing this morning. I was really excited to sing
those with you and and see the very Word of God in the songs
that we’re singing and you know for me I will remember these
lessons well because I’ve sung them with you. It’s not really
known what calamity David’s responding to in Psalm 11 but his life was
full of them as we’ll soon see. He was the defender of a flock
of sheep against bears and lions. He was chased like an animal
by a king, attacked by neighboring nations as a king himself. So
his life was full of calamities. His own sons betrayed him. And so, there were many cases
in David’s life that this psalm could have been written about.
Some commentaries suggest that this was when he was fleeing
from Saul, others when he was being attacked by a neighboring
nation. But whatever the case may be, we can see the sense
of urgency that his friend or companion is treating the threat
with. And we’re going to dive into
that in just a minute. Yet, despite the reality of David’s tricky
situation, the calamity that’s befalling him, he remains consistent
in taking his refuge in the Lord alone. And we’ll see how he defends
that position as we dive in. So, I think this passage is split
up into two sections, so if you’ll look at this with me. The first
section, verses one through three, is the crisis defined. David opens with his thesis statement,
in the Lord I take refuge, and here’s why I need to do that.
How can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to your mountain?
Behold, the wicked bend the bow. They have fitted their arrow
to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? So
we have this definition of the problem, and then the second
part is the justification for his thesis statement in the beginning.
Okay, the problem’s really bad, and I’m not disputing that, but
I’m still going to take refuge in the Lord, and this is why.
So in this case, I think we will see clearly that the really good
news of why we can take refuge in the Lord outweighs whatever
calamities might befall us. At the same time, David does
not deny the seriousness of this situation. He’s not making light
of his companion’s concern. So let’s dive into the word here
and see what David’s psalm here has to teach us about our condition. So as mentioned, we’ve got his
thesis statement. In the Lord I take refuge. But
he’s responding to a question that his friend is asking him.
And his response is, how can you say to my soul, flee? David’s
pushing back against the caution to flee because of who the Lord
is. It’s our natural instinct to
run away from our problems. And we can see in the coming
verses why this person thinks David should run. And David doesn’t
say, it’s not a big deal, that’s why I’m not running. Whatever
it is that’s going on affects him to his very soul. How can
you say to my soul, My soul, I’m trying to cling in my soul
to the refuge of the Lord. Flew like a bird. Birds are flighty. They are explosive in their fleeing. We have a nest of finches living
on our porch right now, which is really fun, especially for
my children. Abby and Haley and Nathan love
to see the progress of the finches. But every single time I go out
the front door, they flee explosively from the nest. And so I have
in my mind, and I’m sure you have had this experience as well,
this really clear image of what it means to flee like a bird.
To run, even though I’m no threat to the bird, it flies violently
away. And where does David get pushed
to flee to by his companion? To your mountain. David even
has an earthly refuge he could flee to here. And in all cases,
whether it’s being chased by Saul or whether he’s being attacked
by a neighboring nation, David had fortresses. David had caves
to hide in. He could go to the mountain for
earthly security. Yet David pushes back against
this. So how can you say to my soul
that I would abandon the refuge I have in the Lord? So why is
David being asked to flee? The wicked are right there at
the door. Behold, the wicked bend the bow.
Behold them. They’re right there. They bend
the bow. They fitted the arrow to the string to shoot in the
dark at the upright in heart. The wicked here are unnamed,
though David had many enemies. He had wild animals as his enemies. He had Goliath the Giant as his
enemy, and the Philistines along with him. Saul, the first king
of Israel, God’s anointed, became an enemy of David. Absalom, David’s
son. Ish-bosheth, David’s other son. Nabal. The Philistines again. The Amalekites again. I mean, yeah, a lot of enemies.
A lot more enemies, I hope, than most of us. And so all of these enemies sought
David’s demise. The reason that that was wicked
is that David was God’s anointed. We even see this in David’s own
approach towards Saul. When Saul was hunting him through
the wilderness, and David had a chance to kill Saul, He wouldn’t
do it. He would not raise his hand against
the Lord’s anointed. So the wicked in this case are acting
against the will of God, acting against God’s anointed king. So even David dare not raise
his hand against the anointed by God. So what David is calling
us to recognize here is that these wicked enemies of God are
real and serious and the reason that they are wicked is that
they reject God’s sovereignty and righteousness over the things
that are going on. They are acting in opposition
to what God is working out in his people here in Israel and
even today in the church. These wicked are lethally armed. They’re not just slandering or
slinging mud. They’re not trying to defend
their point. No, no. They are poised to use
lethal force against David, even as his companion is begging him
to flee. And it’s not a fair fight. The
wicked are setting up an ambush. They are shooting under the cover
of darkness like assassins. And so the situation is very
dire for David. They’re not just targeting any
victims either. They’re after the upright in
heart. They’ve set their sights on those who are God’s own because
they oppose God’s will. They’re not just trying to reclaim
resources or defend themselves. They are on the offensive against
God and His work in the world. That is what makes them wicked.
A friend of mine, Carl Darnell, said, the wicked are always looking
for a soft spot and a clean shot, an opportunity to do the most
damage. So that’s David’s dire situation.
It’s why his friend is urging him to flee. I mean, you can
kind of see, like, this friend is compassionate, though David
is not encouraged by this. I mean, we see the same thing
in Psalm 88 again. I wasn’t really planning on using
Psalm 88 this morning, but it’s just so beautiful, like, how that
speaks to this passage or harmonizes with this passage. I mean, he’s
saying here, like, in verse 17, You’ve caused my beloved friends
to shun me. My companions have become darkness. You know, David’s
wanting encouragement from this friend to take refuge in the
Lord, but his friend, I mean, he’s urging David to flee away. He doesn’t want David to perish
at the hands of the wicked, at the arrows that are incoming. And so the threat is very real. And we see that David does not
deny that reality. The threat is so imminent and
so significant that David’s companion seems to think that the very
foundations that their lives are built on are destroyed as
a result of this onslaught. The wicked have the upper hand
in this situation that David is in. The foundations of their
society, of the way that they were doing life, crumbling all
around them. and everything that is good is coming undone. And so this then raises our question
of the morning and the central question of this passage. In
circumstances like this, what can the righteous do? What can
the righteous do when the foundations of our society, culture, and
life are destroyed? What can the righteous do when
the wicked attack with deadly intent? In the excellent book,
The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, you’ve probably heard
of it. There was also some movies I think made about it a while
back. King Théoden asks a similar question of Aragorn, who is one
of the central players. During the final moments of the
Battle of Helm’s Deep, the king and his people are cornered in
this fortress called Helm’s Deep, and there’s just this faceless
sea of evil enemies swarming the fortress. And during their
attack, it seemed like the fortress would hold, but the enemies of
Theoden and Aragorn, and all that is good, and that’s what
I like about Lord of the Rings, is that the distinction between
good and evil is very clear. They damage the foundation of
the wall, and by that damage are able to enter the fortress,
and everything seems lost. King Theoden asks Aragorn, what
can men do against such reckless hate? And their answer is that
they ride out to meet the wicked. And they trust that their help
is at hand. In this case, in the case of
the story there, the help is some allies coming to save them.
In David’s case, he doesn’t even feel the need to ride out and
meet the wicked in battle. His refuge is in the Lord. And
he trusts fully that the Lord will execute his justice. David’s
companion is seeking the foundations built by men that can be destroyed
by the wicked. David is anchoring himself in
the sure foundation of the Lord and the Lord’s judgments. So in light of the destroyed
foundations and the attack of the wicked, David’s urging him
to flee like a bird, or David’s companions urging him to flee
like a bird, and you can hear that despair, what can the righteous
do? So let’s see here. We still have the same trouble
today, asking, what can the righteous do? You hear it in different
ways. Back in my day, things were like
this. We would have never seen that sort of thing on TV. The
whole world is coming apart. The end of righteousness is at
hand. The wrong party got elected to government. Health is failing. Marriage is failing. Work is
failing. Our dreams are collapsing and
even potentially, not potentially, definitively, the people we love
die. And all of these things hit us like an arrow in the dark.
These are the calamities of our day as much as they were in David’s. Many of these things have wicked
people behind them. and all of them are the result
of wickedness in the world under which creation groans. The foundations
of the world are coming undone. Our natural response in the face
of this reckless hate, this wickedness, is to flee. We flee to better
politics, trying to find hope in the restoration of new policies.
We flee to anger at the way things are and the way things used to
be, the way things maybe even should be. We rage against the
changes and the pain. We flee to despair, giving up
completely on the goodness of God in all things. We flee to
lies, lies like Maybe I was the wicked or I was the problem.
Now, of course, we are wicked. And the blood of Christ is needed
to fix that problem. We lie to ourselves. We buy into
the lies of the world. We flee to the next doctor, to
the next treatment, the next essential oil, the next counselor. And just to be clear, I’m not
suggesting that God does not use medical and counsel for his
great glory. But we cannot find our foundation
in those things as we deal with the arrows of wickedness that
come at us in our day. We flee to our next dream or
to no dreams at all. It’s our natural response to
run away from danger that we face. But this is not what David
is doing in Psalm 11. And this is not how we should
respond to the trials and tribulations and wickedness that we encounter
in our day. Rather than running or fleeing
like a bird to our chosen mountain, we need to seek refuge in the
glorious security of the Lord alone. So now we arrive at verse
4 through 7. This is David’s rebuttal to that
challenge that his friend has brought to him, the urgency to
flee. David’s saying, I am going to
find refuge in the Lord here, and this is why I’m going to
do that. Though David’s companion has correctly identified the
seriousness of the situation, and David does not refute that
reality, David says, I have good reason to remain in the Lord. What David’s companion said to
him affected his very soul, but he does not abandon his refuge.
He holds fast to the anchor. that he has. Hebrews 6, 18, and
19 says, hold fast to the hope that is set before us. We have
as this sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters
into the inner place behind the curtain. In holding fast to the
Lord as his refuge, David identifies two realities that ensures his
refuge in the Lord is secure. And these are the realities I
think we need to hang on to with all we’re worth today. Firstly,
where God is, the Lord is in his temple. The Lord’s throne
is in heaven. And secondly, what God is doing,
he sees, he tests, he identifies the righteous and the wicked,
and he punishes the wicked, executing perfect judgment and justice.
He loves righteous deeds, and he shows his face to the upright. In Psalm 11, 4, we see the Lord
is in his holy temple. The Lord’s throne is in heaven.
His eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. First, David
correctly identifies who the Lord really is. He rules from
his throne in heaven. He is set apart from the world
and its troubles. He is above the meager foundations
laid by men. His heavenly throne is unassailed,
though the wicked attack the upright. His temple remains secure. He is deserving of all of our
worship and glory. He is the maker of the wicked
and the upright. He made David. He made Israel. His throne is
the symbol of his supreme rule over all things. David knows
that this current crisis is no different than any others and
that the Lord’s temple, his throne in heaven, still presides over
all of it. In Isaiah 6, 1-5, Isaiah says,
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting
upon a throne, high and lifted up. And the train of his rope
filled the temple, and above him stood the seraphim, each
had six wings. With two he covered his face,
and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one
called to the other and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. And the foundations of the thresholds
shook at the voice of him who called. And the house was filled
with smoke. And I said, woe is me, for I
am lost. For I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. You cannot see the
glory of the Lord God and not be undone in your soul. It is
the reality that David had in his mind when he makes the case
to his companion that they can find refuge in the Lord, even
though the wicked are knocking at the door, bows bent. The temple
is holy. It is set apart from wickedness.
The throne is in heaven. It is above the chaos and calamity
of the world. The Lord dwells there, and in
his dwelling, he sees all things. From the seat of glory, the Lord
sees all things, and nothing happens in heaven or on earth
or under the earth which he does not see. He does not just observe,
but he tests the children of men to find the righteous and
the wicked. This is the great and terrifying
news. God will find the truth and lay bare all the hidden deeds
of the wicked. He sees and knows the wicked
from the righteous. The Lord tests the righteous.
It says in Psalm 11 5. The Lord tests or tries the righteous. Being made righteous in Christ
does not exempt us from trials and hardships. James says in
James 1, 2, and 4, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet
trials of various kinds. Do you know that the testing
of your faith produces steadfastness? And let steadfastness have its
full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking
in nothing. God tries us that we might become
perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. Henry Smith, another
commentator on this psalm says, as a bear came to David after
a lion, and a giant after a bear, and a king after a giant, the
Philistines after a king. So too, when believers have fought
with poverty, they shall fight with envy. And when they have
fought envy, they shall fight with infamy. And when they fight
infamy, they shall fight sickness. They shall be like a laborer
who is never out of work. role or work as Christians is
not to be free of trials and troubles and tribulations, not
to be free of the onslaught of wickedness in the world, but
instead to fight back against those things in righteousness,
pursuing the face of the Lord as they come. David here is claiming
that the Lord is not promising him protection from the trials.
David’s not saying, that the Lord will protect him from all
the arrows of the wicked. David is saying that the goal
of finding refuge in the Lord is higher than our own earthly
security and safety. So we must follow suit. We cannot
seek our hope in comfort found in this life. Rather, we must
fight and fight fiercely each new temptation to sin as the
trials of life come at us one after another. They are not punishments. for the righteous, they are testing
for the strengthening of our faith that we may be made perfect,
lacking in nothing. So we meet each trial with courage
that comes from knowing that the Lord is our refuge, that
he sits in his throne in heaven and presides over all things.
His soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. While
the righteous are tested, the wicked are hated. This is counter
to our popular view of God’s nature in our culture today.
I know at CSU I pretty much interact with people of all types, and
I think I see three main categories of common view on the nature
of God. One is a kinder, gentler God than the Old Testament God
of Days past, one who’s kind of worn out on smoting people,
maybe a little more relaxed than he was in David’s day. Good with
whatever, you might say. Another view is that he remains
a harsh and cruel God, bent on crushing men. Or, perhaps most
popularly in my discipline, is an ambivalent God. He’s not really
interested in his creation at all. He wound the thing up and
it’s been pretty interesting for him to sit back and watch
it roll. In Psalm 11 and in all of scripture,
we see that none of these are the case. These do not accurately
describe the nature of God and are indeed in great error on
who he is. He does not simply hate wicked
deeds, he hates the wicked. Yet he tests the righteous and
loves righteous deeds. God is neither a tyrant nor is
he a pushover. He is involved in his creation.
This reality should give us pause as Christ’s own. Our claim is
as Abraham, Sarah, and David before us, to righteousness,
which is not our own righteousness, but was imputed, gifted by Christ
Jesus. So we must cling ever more tightly
to the cross in light of the work of grace done there on our
behalf. For the portion of the wicked
is our portion, except by Christ alone. The thing that separates
the wicked from the righteous, the heaven bound from hell, is
one tree, and the blood shed there. Our claim to righteousness
is not our own, but in Christ and in Christ alone. So he rains
coal on the wicked, fire and sulfur and scorching wind are
the portion of their cup. The Lord does not sit idle in
his throne room watching things unfold, watching the wicked and
testing the righteous. He is active in his justice. He punishes the wicked in accordance
with his righteous and good justice, and it is as much a part of our
hope that the Lord is just as it is that he is merciful. Without
a just God, chaos and wickedness would reign over all of creation
rather than the Lord God. We do not, in our weakness, appeal
to the Lord God in heaven to forego his justice. This is not
the plea of the Christian, to forego his justice. We instead
appeal to the justice which was fully and rightly met out on
our behalf. God does not stay his righteous
wrath. Christ Jesus bore it all on himself. And so the wicked are warned,
without Christ’s imputed righteousness today, the scorching wind, fire,
and sulfur is yours to drink to the fullest. It was this cup
which was my own. And yet Christ, in his glory
and that of his Father, drank my cup to the dregs for me, though
I was still his enemy. And the same is true for each
of you. The psalmist calls our attention
to a different cup. In Psalm 16, if you turn there,
16, five and six, the wicked have their cup, which is the
wrath of God, but we have another cup, as David did before us. The Lord is my chosen portion
and my cup. You hold my lot. The lines have
fallen for me in pleasant places. Indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. So now we arrive finally at the
victory. The Lord is righteous, not man. He loves righteous deeds, but
he knows that there are no righteous men, none that he didn’t himself
make. So our faith makes us righteous
through Christ, not through our deeds, yet deeds of righteousness
are ours to do. In Ephesians 2.10, we see, for
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
In his righteousness, God has prepared righteous deeds that
we do. He loves them. And finally, we
arrive at the great hope of David’s thesis. The hope of David’s thesis
was not security on earth, was not ascending to the throne which
was given to him by God at his anointing. It was not security
from the Philistines. It was not the defeat of lions
and bears. This was not the hope of David’s thesis as he claims
that he takes refuge in the Lord. Instead, we find the hope here
in the very last line. It is his hope that he shall
behold the face of the Lord, to be undone and made whole again
like Isaiah was in the words of Psalm 88. That was the source
of his despair, that God turned his face away from him. So this
is David’s driving passion, his end game, his goal in all of
life. It is so precious to him to see the face of the Lord that
he would die in order to achieve that end. He’s willing to risk
all danger in order to see and behold the face of the Lord. So the upright shall behold his
face. David’s refuge is in God and
in God alone. And David doesn’t dispute the
reality of his tricky spot. We’ve seen that. David holds
fast his thesis statement. And the reason behind that is
that he desires above every other thing to see the face of the
Lord. The Lord, seeing the face of
the Lord, is, in David’s mind, the best outcome of this trial
and calamity. It would be better for David
to see the face of the Lord than to have security on earth. The
Lord doesn’t give David security, the Lord is David’s security. The Lord doesn’t give David treasures
on earth, the Lord is David’s treasure. That is what all those
health, wealth, and prosperity heretics get wrong. God does
indeed give those who love him the best, but what they miss
is that he himself is the greatest good for us. David takes refuge
in the might of the Lord, trusting that whatever earthly outcomes
the Lord God has, he will lovingly guide his children into his presence
in his holy temple in heaven to look upon his face and rejoice. So this is David’s goal in all
of this. This is how David defends his
position, that he will take refuge in the Lord because of where
the Lord is, because of who the Lord is, because of what the
Lord does, and because in doing so, he will see the face of the
Lord more clearly with each passing trial. So what do we do with
all of this reality? The wicked are really bent on
the destruction of their upright. That is a real thing. There really
is wickedness in the world, and it really is awful. There are
horrid things that happen. There are horrid things that
happen to me, there are horrid things that happen to you, I know. Wickedness
is a real thing. The foundations really can be
destroyed. All the things that we think are secure, the structures
built by men, they do not last. They do not last. They can be
assailed. Yet God is in His heaven, set apart and above. He’s on
His throne, ruling over all creation with justice and grace. those
two things in perfect tension and harmony. And so the upright
will see his face, and the wicked will be destroyed. Our faith
is in this God, who is both just and merciful. With such a sovereign
and authoritative king presiding over all things, we have nothing
to fear. He is worthy of our full trust
as our refuge from the wicked and from the storms of our lives.
Psalm 11 can give us courage to brave the long dark of the
night when the wicked are all around and danger is everywhere
in our lives. We don’t need to flee to the fallible fortresses
of men. We don’t need to seek refuge
in better politics or find a better business strategy, be more successful
financially. We don’t need to find a more
attractive way of presenting the word of God to get those
growth numbers up. We don’t need to chase after
better jobs. We, like David, need to find our great hope in
the Lord and the Lord alone. We need to take refuge from the
arrows of evil in Him. We need to stand on the foundation
that He has laid for us now in Christ, who is the cornerstone,
so that all we do will weather the onslaught. There’s one final consideration
I think we need to look at. It’s what to do about our own
wickedness. But if you’re reading this psalm
today, and you see that your life looks more like the wicked
than it does David’s, or even David’s companion, who doesn’t
seem to find his hope in resting in the Lord, but rather in the
foundations built by men. What do you do then? If this
is your case, then you, friend, are in deep trouble. As was I
at one time, and as were all who are rescued. The foundation
you stand on is failing. The things you set as the guiding
star in your life will fade and flicker out. All of us were once
in that position. Even David, a man after God’s
own heart, was far worse than many of us. He was a murderer
and a liar. He was an adulterer. Yet even
the slightest violation of God’s law brings upon us guilt. And
with it, righteous wrath and condemnation. What can we do
about our position before God in this state? We do what David
did. David knew that he was wicked,
sinful from his mother’s womb. In Psalm 51.5, he says, Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived
me. He was sinful from the day he was conceived. Yet still he
lays claim to the promises of God, towards the upright. How can you do this? David knows
that he is at the mercy of God. It is the mercy of God that gives
David the confidence to say, in the Lord I take refuge. David
understood something about the nature of God that we see much
more clearly on this side of the cross. Any hope that we have
in righteousness is not our own righteousness, but that glorious
gift of Christ, which is given to us. If we are upright and
see the face of God, it is because God has given us Christ’s upright
nature. We are counted as sons, though
we are just adopted. Christ Jesus gave up his rightful
place on that glorious throne in heaven, set apart and above,
where he ruled over all things, condescended to our wicked world,
suffered as one of us, died for us, and was raised again. When we embrace Christ, we come
face to face with our own wickedness. And this can be a frightening
thing in the view of Psalm 11. Yet there is one stronghold we
can rest in, and that is that the Lord Jesus and his death
on our behalf. Christ did not die so that you
could live how you like. He died so that you would die
with him. And he lives again, that you might, in his likeness,
be raised up to live with him. If you embrace the cross alone
as your refuge and foundation in the Lord, then the wicked
have no sway over your life. And you will be counted as upright
in Christ and will behold the face of your Lord seated on the
throne to be undone and made new again. This is our gospel
promise. As a Christian, this is the thing
that you cling to if you’re not a Christian, and you’re talking
to a Christian, you’re wondering what they’re all about, that’s
what it is. That’s what it is. It is this
reality that we are undone and made new, that we are dead in
Christ so we can be raised in Christ. It’s the gospel promise. If you already embrace these
truths, then I hope that our time together has strengthened
you and given you courage to rejoice in the Lord, even as
the foundations seem to be crumbling around us. And if you don’t believe,
and I urge you, please repent and come to the cross. So let’s
conclude here with a passage in Revelation. This is the future
for anyone who takes their refuge in King Jesus and continues to
do so. Revelation 22, three through
five. No longer will there be any accursed but the throne of
God, and of the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will
worship Him. They will see His face, and His name will be on
their foreheads, and night will be no more. They will need no
light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light,
and they will reign forever and ever. Amen. So let’s close in
prayer, and then worship and song.