A Study in Psalms - Psalm 11

We've been covering 10 to 12 psalms a summer. This summer, we're only gonna do seven because in about 30 days from now, I'll be going to Argentina with 14 members of our church. So we'll take a little bit of break and then we'll come back and do some more psalms. But we do have a great summer for you. We'll have updates from Ecuador, updates from Argentina, updates from our youth group. So I hope you'll come out. But we're gonna do seven psalms. I thought I'd give you the list because I do want you to read them before you come.

Tonight, we're gonna look at Psalm 11, call it the faith or flight psalm. Next week, you gotta read this one when you go home tonight, Psalm 22, the psalm of the cross. Then we'll look at Psalm 50, the judgment psalm.

Psalm 56, a psalm of trials. Psalm 63, the psalm of thirsting for the water of life. Psalm 110, the conquering Messiah. And Psalm 122, the psalm praying for the peace of Jerusalem. So 11, 22, 50, 56, 63, 110, and 122. If you turn them in your Bibles to Psalm 11, this psalm was written over 3,000 years ago, but I think you'll see tonight, if you haven't already, how applicable it is to our date and time. Psalm 11, 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. 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 men. 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. The upright shall behold his face. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we love you, and thank you for allowing us to come out on a Wednesday night to study your word. Father, may we leave here today, not worrying, not in despair, not in discouragement, but trusting you, the incomprehensible, the providence of God, the omnipotence of God, understand you more and what's going on. We love and thank you, in Jesus' name, amen. There was a question in Lance Reddit on Sunday, verse three.

If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? It was in 1939 that a very famous Bible teacher, A.C. Gabilian, called this the burning question of our day. Well, that was in 1939. It's a thousand more times true today, isn't it? The foundations of our country, our constitution, the founders would be in shock and disbelief if they were to see what is going on, how our constitution is being reinterpreted to protect and promote criminal activity and evil. What happened to our foundations?

I believe that over half of the founders of our constitution were men who had Bible degrees in seminary. We had strong foundations for so many years. Many people think it began, the foundation started to crumble in about 1925 when they had the Scopes trial, and they tried to prevent evolution from being taught in schools, and that was not, it happened, and so many people think that was the turning point, the Scopes trial in 1925. In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court banned prayer in public schools. Now, I was only two years old, so I didn't know this, but you know what the prayer was?

Anybody remember the prayer from back then? This is the prayer they banned. Almighty God, we acknowledge our dependence upon thee, and we beg thy blessings upon us, our parents, our teachers, and our country. Thought that was really interesting. And then, of course, 1973, Rovers Wade legalized abortion in the United States, and now California is the abortion tourism capital of the United States. Our governor took billboards out in several states back east that had banned abortions, and on the billboards said, love your neighbor as yourself, misinterpreting and misquoting Mark 12, 31, inviting people in those states who could not have abortions to come for tourism to California to have their abortions.

And of course, we have the same-sex marriage that happened recently, and now you have the transgender, and it's increased so much that several states have actually could have your, you actually have to read it, what's going on up in Washington State, and I think just two weeks ago, New Mexico passed laws that they can take your child away from you at school, begin the puberty blockers without the parent's consent. You can't even believe it, it's so shocking. And this week, in case you hadn't heard, there's a bill in the California Senate right now, they were arguing it today, called AB 957, which would affirm the sexual transition of a child to the state standard for parental responsibility in child welfare, making any parent who doesn't affirm transgenderism for their child guilty of abuse under California law.

That's just shocking, isn't it? You know, the state of our country could be summed up with what happened in Jeopardy last night. You hear about that? Last night in Jeopardy, they had a Bible category, and one of the questions was, Matthew 6, 9 says, our father which art in heaven, blank, be thy name. Fill in the blank. What was it? Allowed. Well, do you know the three guests just stood there and couldn't even hit the buzzer? That's the condition of our country. Not one of them could come up with the word allowed.

We are living in a wicked time and wickedness. You know, I try to tell everybody, you need to read one Psalm a day, and you need to read one proverb a day. And if you read proverbs, you're gonna see that word wicked or wickedness 90 times. That's almost 10% of all the verses in Psalms have the word wicked in them. And I'll just give you a couple examples. Proverbs 29.2 says, when the righteous increase, the people rejoice. But when the wicked rule, the people groan. There's a lot of groaning going on right now, isn't there?

And the last time the word is mentioned wicked in Proverbs is Proverbs 29.27. And that says, an unjust man is an abomination to the righteous. We see a lot of abominations, don't we? But the verse concludes, but the one whose way is straight is an abomination to the wicked. Are you an abomination to the wicked because you're righteous? We live in a wicked world that only seems to be getting more and more wicked. It seems like our generation is like that of Genesis 6.5, when the Lord saw that the wickedness of man on earth was great and that every inclination of the heart was evil continually.

And like that of Jeremiah's day in Jeremiah 17.9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick, who can understand it? Many of you grew up studying Calvinism and you know there are five pillars of Calvinism, the TULIP, T-U-L-I-P, and the T in the TULIP of Calvin stands for the total depravity of man. And this is the doctrine of total depravity asserts that people are as a result of the fall, not inclined or even able to love God wholly with heart, mind, strength, but rather are inclined by nature to serve their own will and desires and reject rule.

And in the reform theology tradition, we would say total depravity does not mean utter depravity. I would make the argument that we're seeing utter depravity these days in our state and our country. Romans 1.28 says, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. As Christians, like our psalmist here, we have two choices, to stand strong in our faith or flight. That's the title of our message. And remember when Jesus said in Luke 18.8, when the son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?

Before we get into our psalm, you have to look at the superscription. So right next to your number 11 in your Bibles, it says to the choir master of David. So you know there are 116 of these out of the 150 psalms. Only 34 do not have a superscription. This one doesn't give us a lot of information, but what's most important about them are the authors. So this tells us this is about David and then historical settings. We don't know the historical setting here, but a lot of them have to do with musical instruments.

And a lot of them, we just don't even know what they mean. Jewish rabbis today don't even know what they mean. The type of psalm that we're looking at tonight is called a song of trust psalm. And one author said, when the righteous are threatened by the power of the wicked, what course will conduct take, flight or faith? Psalm 11 is a song of trust that answers that question. What's the context or what's this psalm around? You know, a lot of people think 150 psalms are just jumbled together and there's no cohesion, but actually you can read them together.

So Psalms 10 is in the same context as Psalm 11. Psalms 10, in fact, has the word wicked five times. So in Psalms 10, we see the wicked attacking the righteous. In fact, Psalms 10 verse four says, in the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him. All his thoughts are, there is no God. The style of the psalm is interesting. It's written in the form of a dialogue. The first three verses are advice to David from his counselors or friends.

The remaining four verses, four to seven, are David's replied it about his confidence in God. So you've got a question in verse one to three and an answer in verse four to seven. But I've broken the outline and I hope you got an outline tonight. Very simple if you don't. The psalmist's trust, verses 1A, the first six words of verse one.

Point two, the psalmist's troubles, verse 1B to three. And then of course, point three, the psalmist's triumph, verses four to seven. By the way, David wrote about 75 of the psalms. Some say 73. You could probably use this outline for 40 of David's psalms. He always have a trust and he gives you his trouble. Then he gives you his triumph. So it's a quite common outline. So let's look at the psalmist's trust in verse one.

You know, many of the psalms record David's troubles and David had a lot of troubles. I believe he was running from Saul for about 13 years, right? Psalms 11, he was probably living in Saul's court. So we read about that in 1 Samuel 18. Then Psalm 59 is about being saved. Michael helps David escape from Saul. You can read about that in 1 Samuel 19. And then Psalms 63 and 143 are about David escaping from Saul. Psalms 34 is about David escaping from Achish. And then in Psalm 52, we looked at that last year about the slaughter of the priests at Nob.

In Psalm 57, David's living in a cave, hiding out. In Psalm 54, David's gonna be betrayed by the Zebites. And then Psalms 18 is about the end of Saul's efforts to kill him. Then you have David's flight from Absalom. And some people think that's Psalm 3, 4, 35 and 41. And then Psalm 7 might be about when David was cursed by Shimei when he had to flee. So the point I'm making is there's a lot of psalms that David writes in the middle of his troubles. But David had a trust. And that motto is, in the Lord, I take refuge.

The first six words. I wish Don Scott was still here because I'd ask him to make me a carving of that and put it on my wall. I might need it on my, when I leave in the morning, I might need it on my dashboard, I might need it in my office but that's David's motto, in the Lord, I take refuge. This word refuge is used 39 times in Psalms. So you see it often. In the Hebrew, the word is makaseah, which means shelter, protection, or to go inside. It's the same word that's used for the city of refuge. Do you remember the city of refuge?

Moses set up six cities of refuge that if you accidentally killed a man, let's say your axe head came off the axe and it struck somebody, you didn't mean to do it. But that family's probably gonna wanna kill you. So you would escape to the city of refuge. And when you go to that city of refuge, the elders of the city would protect you from any avenging family coming. It's the same word. And you would be protected there and you could stay there for a long time. You were safe there. It was a city of refuge.

There are five verses in the Psalms that begin with the words refuge. Psalm 7, one says, oh Lord, my God, in you do I take refuge. Or Psalm tonight, Psalm 11, one. In the Lord, I take refuge. Psalm 16, one. Preserve me, oh God, for in you I take refuge. Psalm 31, one. In you, oh Lord, do I take refuge. And Psalm 71, one. In you, oh Lord, do I take refuge. You wanna turn with me to Psalm 91.

Do you remember? It was here last year. The first Psalm we looked at last year was Psalm 91. What do we call this one? The dial 911 Psalm. Psalm 91, you'll see the word refuge three times. Remember in verses one and two of Psalm 91, we have four names of God. Psalm 91, one says, he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress. Then verse four, he will cover you with his pinions and under his wings, you will find refuge.

His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler. Verse nine, because you have made the Lord your dwelling place, the Most High who is my refuge. So you see that word 39 times in Psalms. It's only used once in the New Testament in Greek. Then we looked at that in Hebrews. Hebrews 6, 18 says, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. That should be your model. In the Lord, I take refuge and we can flee there.

That was David's refuge. Is God your refuge? Let's look at point number two, the Psalmist's troubles.

And there's two sub points here. There's a counsel to depart and there's a, lost it already, a counsel to despair. Counsel to depart and a counsel to despair. First off, let's look at the counsel to depart.

There's a question here. How can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to your mountain? Now we're not told under what circumstances this Psalm was written. Authors will debate. Most people think it is about David's life under Saul. You know, I recall in first Samuel, two times Saul threw a spear at David, right?

So those were some pretty trying times. So I do think as most commentators think it was, it was written when David was in Saul's court. But here, David's advisors, David's friends, his counselors are telling him, you need to flee. You need to get out of Jerusalem or you're gonna die. Go to the mountains, that's where safety is. So the situation is serious, it's dangerous, but David is not gonna flee. He has his motto and he has his trust in the Lord. That's why this is called a song of trust Psalm.

So David is gonna use the first of three word pictures in our Psalm in verses one to three. The first word picture is a defenseless bird, okay?

David compares himself to a defenseless bird that has to flee to the mountain when danger comes for refuge. And this is actually a common theme in the Psalms. Psalms 55, I think it's first six says, oh, that I had wings like a dove.

I would fly away and be at rest. So you see the beautiful poetic words in the Psalms. One author said, David did not need wings of a dove. He needed wings like an eagle, Isaiah 40, 31. But they who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. So they're asking David a question and it's a rhetorical question because David has his motto in the Lord, I will trust. He's not gonna advocate. He's not gonna listen to bad advice from worldly counselors. He's not gonna compromise.

He's not thinking about himself, but his people. David is gonna walk by faith and not by sight. And then it says, 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. David's gonna use the second word picture of three word pictures here.

And this word picture is an assassin hiding in the dark, ready with the bow and arrow to kill, to assassinate an unanticipated act. So it speaks of imminent danger. And many commentators think it's not actual warfare here, bloodshed, but it's slanderous words. They're Saul's henchmen and Saul had some pretty nasty people in his court are jealous of David and so they're talking bad about him. So like in Psalm 64, we see this in Psalm 64, it says in verse one, hear my voice, O God, in my complaint preserve my life from the dread of the enemy.

Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked from the throng of evil doers who wet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows, shooting from the ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly without fear. So even though it's talking about a bow and arrow, it might be the dangerous tongue we're talking about here. So like David, Jesus was once told to flee from the Pharisees. Remember that story in Luke 13? The Pharisees came to Jesus and they said, get away from here for Herod wants to kill you.

And Jesus said to them, go tell that fox, behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow and the third day I finish my course.

Jesus knew the exact hour He would go to the cross, the exact day. They couldn't chase Jesus away, they couldn't flee. And like Jesus, David knew his life was in the Lord's hands. There are two missionaries that I love and respect. And one of them said, Henry Martin, he was a missionary to India and one reason I love India. And Henry Martin said, whether life or death be mine, may Christ be magnified in me. If he has work for me to do, I cannot die. And then of course, Lance talked about Jim Elliot last Wednesday.

Jim Elliot said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. And both those men died, I believe before they were 30 years old. You know, I'm sure all of us have days like you wanna quit, right? Days where we throw up our hands and say, I'm leaving, that's it, I'm out of here. Where's the mountain that you wanna flee to? You know, where are you gonna go? We have people that will flee physically, right? It used to be that California was the favorite place for restless Americans to come to, right?

Maybe your parents or your grandparents. There was a famous quote by Saul Bellows back in the 70s that said, the earth is tilted at such an angle, so everything in America that is not tied down slides into California. Well, not anymore, right? Californians are fleeing in mass to so-called red states. But how long will those states remain red? So some people flee physically. Other people flee by moving off the grid. They just get away from it, get away from everybody and everything, away from civilization.

Then you have others who flee by isolating themselves culturally. Since COVID, you've seen some people like this. I have a neighbor that comes out once a week to put her trash cans out and another week to put them back. Never goes out at all. So there are people that have isolated themselves these days. And then you have other people who flee emotionally. They stop caring for the world around them and maybe they're just waiting for Jesus to come or they don't care. Then you have others who flee through nostalgia.

They imagine the past and for a long time when they remember those good old days when it was good, right? Others flee to TV and watch Tucker Carlson. Well, they used to, I guess. Or some other modern day pundit like Ben Shapiro or Matt Walsh or Jordan Peterson. I'm not sure any of those are believers, but we like to listen to those guys because they're smart, right? And we live in a very stupid world. So we flee for comfort. We're so desperate for wise counselors today. But this psalm teaches us that we must choose between fear, walking by sight, or trust, walking by faith.

Listening to human wisdom or obeying wisdom that comes from the Bible and the Lord is what we need to do. Beware of listening to any unwise counsel that says flee. Let's look at sub point B in verse three, the counsel to despair.

And this is that great verse. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? So David's gonna use a third word picture here, shaky foundations.

The word foundations, this Hebrew word section here is only found here in the Hebrew Bible. And it's a metaphor for our society. Those things which society rests upon, by which social order is sustained, the great principles of truth and righteousness that uphold society, like the foundations that uphold a building, we have to have foundations that uphold our society. What destroys foundations? A. Barnes says, and Lance hit this last week, when truth is no longer respected, when justice is no longer practiced, when fraud and violence have taken the place of honesty and honor, when evil prevails, when righteous can find no security.

Isn't that a great picture of our state and country? You know, fear runs away though. Faith stands tall. Let me give you two examples of men in the Bible who didn't despair.

One of them is my favorite Old Testament Bible character, and that's Nehemiah. Love Nehemiah. And remember Nehemiah in chapter six, the bad guys, Tobiah and Gishom and all those guys came. And they told him that he needed to go meet on the plains. He needed to get away. You need to get out of here. There are people coming to kill you. You need to flee. And I love what Nehemiah says. One of the great verses in the Bible I've underlined. I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?

Nehemiah was saying, I cannot flee. David here is the other example. Did David just learn not to flee here? No. He learned when he was a youth and he had to fight the lion trying to steal the sheep. When he had to fight the bear, not just when he fought Goliath. So even before he had great faith to fight Goliath because he learned at a boy by fighting lions and bears. And I love that verse in first Samuel 1747.

When David shouts back at Goliath, all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with the sword or the spear for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand. Can one woman or one man make a difference? Yes. Don't flee to the mountain, flee to the throne of grace. When you feel like quitting, when you feel like running away, when you're discouraged and when you're despaired, remember you can't run away from your troubles. You can't run away from yourself. The answer is not running away, it's running to.

It's running to the throne of grace where we find grace to help us in our time of need. And you know that verse is Hebrews 4, 15 to 16. It says, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize us in our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way yet was without sin. Then it says, therefore, let us approach the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive grace and mercy in our times of need. There was a man that Spurgeon quotes when talking about this Psalm. His name is William Gurnall.

And all I know is he lived in the 16th century. But what he said is this, sinning times have been saints praying times. Sinning times have been saints praying times. When the foundations crumble, we need another foundation and we have it in the eternal living God. Let's go on to point number three, the Psalmist triumph.

That's verses four to seven. I said verses one to three was a question. What can the righteous do? Well, verse four to seven is the answer for us. David is gonna give us four principles that he used and they're absolutely applicable to our date and time today. And they will encourage you, strengthen you when we see our society falling apart, our foundations crumbling, people rejecting God. And the four points are in your outline. God reigns, God sees, God judges and God rewards. So, you know, when you look at that verse here, right here, verse four, just the first part, maybe you need to turn off the TV.

Maybe you need to get off social media where we see all the evil, where we see. And maybe you need to meditate upon this part of verse four. What's it say? The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. Meditate upon that verse of scripture for some time. What is God doing? What's he doing up there? What's going on? When is he coming back? Think about it, meditate upon it. The word Lord or Yahweh is mentioned four times in the next three verses. So what's God doing up there? I was just thinking of some things.

Let me just give you six or seven things that I think God's doing, maybe while you meditate. And one of them, God's residing in heaven. You might think when we see the word temple, it's thinking of Solomon's temple here in this Psalm. But no, it's talking about, this is David, Solomon's temple wasn't even built. This is talking about the temple in heaven. And that's where God is. When the foundations on earth are shaking, God's not frightened. He's the one who's doing the shaking. Habakkuk 2.20 says, but the Lord is in his holy temple.

Let all earth keep silent before him. God resides in heaven and it's a holy place. And we're going there someplace someday. Number two, God rules.

You get the word throne there, the Lord's throne is in heaven. I lived in Myanmar for about three and a half years, and there's not much to do in Myanmar. So one day I went to the National Museum. I was literally in there for about 10 minutes because there was just a bunch of pottery and nothing to see. But the one thing that was good to see, and you can Google it and look it up, was the throne from the last emperor in Burma. The British had conquered Burma and they disposed of this emperor and they sent him to India where he died.

But there's the throne. King Charles was just thrown a couple of weeks ago, right? And you saw his throne, okay, not too big. But this throne in Burma reminds you of the one that you hear about Solomon's throne. It's like two stories tall. It has a staircase to go up to the throne. And there's like 100 and something heads of lions around the throne room in gold. It's massive, it's huge. But the point is the king is always exalted high above everybody. And all the subjects usually have to lay prostrate looking up at the king.

That's a picture of our God in heaven. What's he doing up there? He's not just residing in heaven, he's ruling in heaven. And when the world's going crazy, remember Psalms 2. One of the brothers read this to me tonight. Psalms 2 says, why do the nations rage and the people's plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us. Then verse four says, he who sits in the heaven laughs, the Lord holds them in derision.

God is ruling from heaven even though we can't see what's going on, even though we cry out for better days. Number three, God reassures us.

Isaiah 41.10 says, fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Remember that Proverbs 16.4 says that the Lord made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of disaster. God made Pharaoh, God made Caesars, God made Cyrus, God made Nebuchadnezzar who were wicked kings at one point, Nebuchadnezzar repented, but that God used them and their wickedness for his kingdom, for his glory.

Number four, God remembers. You know, we see things, think people are getting away with things. Matthew 12.36 says, I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account for every careless word they spoken. Not only does God remember, God records. When you go to the Revelation 20, it says, I saw a great white throne. 37 times in Revelation, we have that word throne and him who was seated on it from his presence, earth and sky fled, no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were open.

Then another book was open, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the book. And it says, according to what they had done. They're not getting away with it. Number six, God restrains from heaven. God could unleash his full fury of wrath now, but God restrains because 2 Peter 3.9 says, the Lord is not slow in filling his promise as some count slowness, but he is patient toward you, not wishing that anyone would perish, but that all should reach repentance. We may not see it in California, but God is saving souls every day in Asia and Africa and South America, reaping a great harvest.

So God restrains from pouring out his violence so he can finish reaping his harvest. And lastly, God rumbles from heaven. Romans 1, 18 to 20 says that, that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. And it goes on to say, they are without excuse. You know, we have earthquakes, we have tsunamis, we have things that go on that ought to cause people to seek his face. Just that verse specifically speaking about creation, but I believe God gives us warnings that cause people to seek his face.

So if you wanna overcome trials in your life, you wanna overcome worrying every time you turn the TV on or the latest bill that the California Congress is gonna spread or the latest news our governor's gonna do, remember, God rules. G. Campbell Morgan said, the man who sees Jehovah enthroned and governing has no panic. Do you see God exalted sitting on his throne governing? Then you shouldn't have any panic. That goes to our second point, God sees.

And that's the last part of verse four to five. Two points here. God observes all men and God examines all men. God observes all men. It simply says his eyes see. The word see can be translated gaze or scrutinize. God is paying attention even though he may not think he isn't. While our country is going to pot, it seems that God isn't doing anything, but we can be assured that our omniscient God is watching carefully and evaluating every human being on earth. Proverbs 15 three says, the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.

God sees what's going on in those teachers classrooms when they're spreading their LBGQ agenda. God sees what's going on in the corporate boardroom when they wanna push their woke agendas. God sees what's going on in the PTA and board school board meetings. God sees what's going on in the president's cabinet and the Congress. God sees what's going on in churches and God sees what's going on in your home. Not only does God observe all men, God examines all men. And that's the last part of verse 4C to 5A says, his eyelids test the children of men.

The Lord tests the righteous. So two times there it says God tests. What this is is a metaphor for refining of metals. You know, one of my favorite TV shows is Gold Rush. I think it's about the only TV show I watch, but you know, they get that flaky gold, but they melt it down, but then they gotta scrape the impurities off the top, get rid of the impurities by refining it. So like a goldsmith who heats up the precious metals and melts it down and removes the impurities, God tests us because he loves us and he wants to remove the impurities from our life.

Question is, are we passing the test? It was D.L. Moody who said, character is what you do in the dark when no one is watching. God is watching us today and our foundations are shaken. They're being destroyed right before our eyes. And it seems like there's nothing we can do. Maybe you could move to a red state. Maybe you could wait for the next great Republican. Maybe you could stuff the ballot box or pass some moral laws. God is testing us though for his good and glory. Not only does God see man's deeds, the next point, he pronounces judgment upon those deeds.

So here, God rejects the wicked and God judges the wicked. He says, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. What a powerful verse this is. The word wicked is mentioned, I think, three times in this short psalm. You know, I pass by a church on Bonita Avenue when I go through Luverne to pick up my daughter from school and there's a rainbow sign there that says God loves everyone. This verse says God hates the wicked. God doesn't love Satan. God doesn't love the demons. Listen to what J.

Vernon McGee said. Frankly, I do not like this distinction I hear today that God loves the sinner but hates the sin. God has loved you so much that he gave his son to die for you. But if you persist in your sin and continue in that sin, you are an enemy of God. And God is your enemy. God wants to save you and he will save you if you turn to him and forsake your sin. Until then, may I say, God is not some lovely, dovely, sentimental old gentleman from Georgia. God does reject the wicked. And then God judges the wicked.

So look at verse six. This here is an imprecatory verse in this Psalm of Trust. Now last year, we looked at, I think, Psalm 40, which was an imprecatory psalm. You may not know what an imprecatory psalm is. Imprecatory psalm, easy to find imprecatory psalms because they always begin with let him. And what's it saying is let God do something to the wicked. So there are entire psalms that are imprecatory psalms. But here you have one verse. God has already rained down coals of fire and sulfur when he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.

Second Peter 3.7 tells us that fiery judgment is coming again. So in one small verse, David's gonna use three more word pictures here. Coals of fire and sulfur. So that reminds you of Genesis 19.24, when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone. Then he says scorching wind. So it's like a terrible desert storm. And then number three, a poisonous cup.

And when you drink the cup, it's often a picture of judgment in the Bible. So this is an imprecatory prayer that maybe, I think a lot of Christians are afraid to pray imprecatory prayers. Remember, you do not act out the violence. Vengeance is mindless as the Lord. But even when you pray, amen, Lord Jesus, return, that's an imprecatory prayer. Because when Jesus comes and takes us, the wrath of God is gonna be poured out in the tribulations. So we can pray an imprecatory prayer. We want God to bless America, but it's really God bless America right now.

But like David, we cry out for judgment. We cry out for justice. The wrath of God is serious. God reigns, God sees, and God judges. So let's go to point number four, God rewards. And that's the last verse seven. David is gonna close out this short Psalm with a beautiful meditation on the character of God. David had looked around at the wicked. David had looked above at God. Now David's gonna look into the future. Three points here. God is righteous, God loves justice, and God favors the upright. God is righteous.

It says, for the Lord is righteous. That verse there tells you because God is righteous, the wicked must be judged. They will not get away with it. Number two, God loves justice.

It says he loves righteous deeds. David knew he couldn't flee, and we can't flee. You know, if you flee, you lose your sphere of influence, maybe in your job, maybe in your neighborhood, you know. But there's another danger is that you might stay and become like the world. We have to remain righteous, we have to remain holy. To be righteous is to be right with God, which often means to be at wrong by the world. God loves righteous deeds, and he will reward those who remain faithful to him. Number three point there, our beautiful psalm ends with six words.

The upright shall behold his face. We began this psalm with six beautiful words. In the Lord I take refuge. And now we'll finish with six beautiful words. But they're only beautiful if God's your refuge. Is God your refuge? Is he your savior? Because if he's your savior, who you put your faith and trust in him, that he died for your sins, only then can he be your refuge, only then can he be your savior. If so, only then you could claim these last six words. The upright shall behold his face. To behold his face means to have special access to a person.

God is gonna welcome the upright into his presence, where they, we shall stand with him for all eternity. Many years ago, I stood right here, probably technically right here, about 20, almost 21 years ago. And that door opened and my bride came through that door. And that was one of the greatest days of my life. She's radiant and white, beautiful. I think many of you husbands can relate to that. But there's coming a day that's gonna be a thousand times greater than that. And that's the day when we see Jesus face to face.

First Corinthians 13, 12 says, for now we see in a mere dimly, but then we shall see face to face. First John three, two says, beloved, we are God's children now.

And what will be is not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we'll should be like him because we shall see him as he is. We sang the hymn tonight, number 781 in our hymnal, face to face. And that first line says, face to face with Christ, my savior.

Face to face, what will it be? With the rapture, I behold him, Jesus Christ, who died for me. So the present circumstances may be dark and they are getting darker, but the future is glorious. We shall see his face. One commentator said, truth may fail in the church, righteousness in the state, magistrates and judges may cease to be just, the president to be honorable, but God lives and we are in his care. So what's our application as we close tonight? Bruce says, don't move to Texas. No, that's not our application.

Three simple things. We will not flee, we will not fear, and we will not fret, okay? We will not flee. Faced with the breakdown of law and order and attacks from the wicked, the righteous must stand firm in their faith in the sovereign God who reigns and judges from above. How are you responding in that crisis? Psalms 11 gives us the motto, in the Lord, I take refuge. When we flee, that means our crisis is greater than God, but we need to turn to God and his word. And that's why I say, you gotta read one Psalm a day and one Proverb a day.

And when you read this Psalm 11, my faith is strengthened and I hope yours is. You know, I saw a pastor this week go to a school board back East, and he had a book that seven year olds were reading in school. It was a pornographic book that they had put in the school library to teach kids about the LBG agenda. He starts to read it to the school board and they're trying to get him to shut up, shut up, we don't wanna hear it. It was unacceptable to read that book in the school board meeting, but seven year olds were reading it.

But that pastor stood up. We need men like that. I'm not saying we go out and protest, but we don't need to flee. We can stake our stand. We can be used by God for his glory and his purpose. Number one, we will not flee.

Number two, we will not fear. We need to have courage in an increasing time of antagonism that's spreading. If you really believe that a sovereign God is ruling from heaven, then you're gonna be courageous in the face of antagonists. In Matthew 10, verses 16 to 20, Jesus warned the disciples that he was sending them as sheep among wolves, but he tells them to stand firm in their faith and not fear those who only have power over the body, but fear the Lord who has power over the body and soul. We mentioned that great missionary, Jim Elliot, and it is the five of them.

They were killed by the Akha Indians in Ecuador back in the 50s, but they did not fear the Indians because they knew they could not kill their souls and they're in heaven today. Faith is the answer, not flight. We need Noah's to be preachers who had preached for 120 years that a judgment was coming. We need lots who are preachers of righteousness in a sick city of Sodom. We need Daniels who are willing to disobey the King Zedek who said, don't pray. We need Jeremiah's who weep over the sins of their nations.

We need apostle Paul's who everywhere he went, there was either a riot or there was a revival. And then we need to remember, we need to be like Jesus Christ ultimately, who when he hung on the cross, when they were mocking him, he said, father, forgive them. They do not know what they do. Number three, we will not fret.

I can't remember if it was last year or the year before, but we looked at the do not fret Psalm. Anybody remember that one? Psalm 37. Psalm 37 says three times, fret not yourselves because of evildoers. We're not supposed to fret, okay? So if you're watching TV, reading the newspaper, spending a lot of time in social media, and it's hard, especially when you have children and they have to go to school and you don't know what they're being taught. Don't fret though. Remember that quote? Sinning times have been the saints praying times.

I noticed last week that this prayer card, the month of June, some of you don't come on Sunday. Once a month, we have a new category. This month, we're praying for the United States. Next month, we'll be praying for the Buddhist world. But we ran out of these. I think that's the first time we ran out of these.

So I hope that means a lot of you are praying for the United States. It's not easy to pray for your president, your senators, is it? But it's a command there in 1 Timothy 2. Pray for kings and those in positions of authority that we might what? Lead peaceful and quiet lives. So we are commanded to pray for our leaders. So I hope you're praying. So don't fret. If you're fretting, you're probably not praying. If you're praying, you're probably not fretting. So I think I have enough time, and I'm going to read it.

Because you can't pick your kid up till 815. I'm not going to go to 815. But when my dad died, there was a clip in his Bible. And I don't know where it came from. All it says is it was written by a young African pastor and tacked on the wall of his house. My dad was a missionary in Africa for about 16 years. So I think that's where he got it. But let me read it to you.

It's a little long. But I just love this quote. It's called, My Commitment as a Christian. We need to have Christians like this pastor. He writes, I am part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I'm a disciple of his. I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still. My past has been redeemed. My present makes sense. My future is secure. I'm finished with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarf goals.

I no longer need preeminence, prosperity, position, promotion, plaudits, or popularity. I don't have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or awarded.

I now live by faith, lean on his presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power. My faith is set. My gate is fast. My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions few. My guide reliable. My mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded, or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

I won't give up, shut up, let up until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. I am a disciple of Jesus. I must go till he comes, give till I drop, preach till all I know, and work till he stops me. And when he comes for all his own, he will have no problems recognize me. My banner will be clear." Written by a young African pastor tacked to the wall of his house. You know, Psalms 11 tells us, put your trust in the Lord. Is your trust in the Lord? Do you take refuge in the Lord?

The psalmist had troubles. He saw the foundations of Israel and Saul's kingdom were being destroyed. And they cried out, what can the righteous do? Well, we're not gonna flee, we're not gonna fear, and we're not gonna fret. Because our triumph is the upright. The upright shall see Jesus' face. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we know we live in a wicked world. We may live in the most wicked state in the union. But Father, you have us here for a purpose and a plan. We were not born a hundred years ago.

We were not born a hundred years to come. We were born now. So you have us in our homes, in our families, in our neighborhoods, in our work, in our church for a reason and for a purpose. The time is now.

Father, may we and the Church of Christ Community Church seize the moment, redeem the time, be used of you in a mighty way. Even when the foundations are crumbling, remember that God is using the wicked for his day of disaster. That God reigns, that God sees, that God judges, and God will reward us. Help us to stand strong. We love and thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.