Psalm 11 | Faith or Flight | Austin Duncan

October 15, 2017 Speaker: Austin Duncan Series: Stand-Alone Message

Topic: Stand-alone messages Passage: Psalm 11

Well, Andrew is making me preach today, so I’m going to ask you to open your Bible to Psalm 11. Psalm 11. I agreed with the nice lady who talked to me before the service started. She said, I’m looking forward to hearing you preach. I, too, am looking forward to hearing me preach, and … that’s not the part I agree with. She said, but we’re always sad when Andrew’s not up here. That’s the part I agree with. So, he’ll be back, I promise.

Psalm 11. I’ve entitled this message “Faith or Flight.” Psalm 11, let’s read it together.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.

In the Lord I take refuge;
How can you say to my soul,
“Flee as a bird to your mountain;
For, behold, the wicked bend the bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string
To shoot in darkness 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 behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.
The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked,
And the one who loves violence His soul hates.
Upon the wicked He will rain snares;
Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup.
For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness;
The upright will behold His face.

(NASB)

So reads the word of the living God. May his Spirit write it on our hearts this morning.

There are questions that arise in every age. Generations face the same questions that the prior generation faced. Otherwise philosophers wouldn’t have jobs. It’s those timeless questions that we are faced with this morning in Psalm 11. You can see the question, and I know it’s one that’s familiar to you, in verse 3. “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Classic questions about human existence, about the nature of good and evil. Questions that try to seek to bring meaning to human life in this world. They’re called perennial questions. And verse three is a perennial question that God’s people face generation after generation. Often in times of societal decay or in times of personal crisis, we have asked the question, if the foundations, everything we see that holds this world together, are destroyed, if they’re crumbling, how are we as God’s people to respond?

It can be a political question that we’re asking in times of upheaval. It can be a social question. It could be a question that we ask in the face of natural disasters. And it can be the question that we ask when our own personal lives seem to be falling apart. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

There’s a note of despair in this question. But it’s obvious that this is a perennial question, a classic question that David poses in his generation but one that we could easily apply to our generation as we survey the scene and see the foundations of our society being upended. Social, political, personal, even natural changes are all around us from year to year. And this year seems particularly disastrous.

Fifteen hundred homes destroyed in a fire in my home state. The floods that hit Houston and Florida. An earthquake on the anniversary of an earthquake in Mexico City. I mean just the very natural order of things seems to be under assault, and we look around at the society and there’s so many changes. Almost unrecognizable from a generation before. Things fundamental and things assumed have been upended and changed.

That’s why a commentator a hundred years ago looked at verse 3 and said this is the burning question of his day. How much more so today. One generation ago Jim Boice, pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, called this question in verse 3 a classic question. And so certainly it is a perennial kind of question, a question that is always in season, because there are times when God’s people feel as if all our normal securities are nowhere to be found, and our usual protections have apparently vanished.

So, my friend, if you feel under assail this morning, if you feel surrounded by an increasingly wicked world, and if you feel unsure of what tomorrow holds and it seems like safety is slipping away, this song calls us to trust in a sovereign God’s reign and in his judgment in which we will find security and seeks to answer this perennial question that has troubled righteous people for so long.

This song, Psalm 11, is a song of confidence and faith in the face of pressure and severe crisis, and that question in verse 3 is such a timely question as we look and we see morals and morality under assault, social norms changing, times when God’s people feel like the bottom is falling out. Anarchy and wickedness in high places, societal decay, examples of injustice and turmoil.

The temptation to run away can be very real and timely. People in my town talk about it all the time. They’re looking for a place like this … or Colorado Springs. Isn’t there somewhere where we can go and cluster together and hide and get away from this crazy world? The temptation to flee can be very, very real and timely. Gotta get out of this state. I gotta find a Christian utopia. I gotta protect my kids.

Or instead of fleeing, we can have faith in the sovereign God who rules over this world in perfect wisdom.

So, my friends, if you feel under assault this morning, if you feel under assail, if you feel surrounded by an increasing tide of wickedness and unsure of what tomorrow holds, King David would like to sing you a song. A song for those who feel like safety is slipping away, who feel like circumstances have clouded their vision of faith, a song of trust in a sovereign God’s reign and judgment where we can find lasting, even everlasting security.

Psalm number 11 is a song of trust, a song of faith, a song of confidence in the face of pressure and severe crisis, presenting the solution to this perennial question: “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” What will we do when everything feels uncertain, when crisis is all around? How does faith respond with certainty when uncertainty is all we see?

You see, King David, in its original context, doesn’t give us a specific account that this relates to in the superscription of the Psalm. It just says, “For the choir director.” So we know it was intended to be helpful in public worship. And we know it’s Davidic because he claims authorship, as he did so many songs.

But unlike other songs, this one doesn’t have a specific historical attachment to it, and there’s a variety that we could choose from in the life of David. He spent years on the run. If you just think about his life in the royal house in stages, you remember as a young man the champion who beat the Philistine, who became more popular than the king of Israel, was invited into the king’s inner court and served both as a tormentor to Saul’s pride and ambition and as a comforter, as a songwriter in the kingdom.

It was there that he faced the spears of King Saul and was often on the run from him, and from that stage went to become Saul’s errand boy, being sent on increasingly dangerous missions with the hope that YAWEH would destroy him. Saul burned with jealousy over David’s favor with God. But then it only got worse. Worse for David in danger and more tension between Saul and God’s chosen King David as David would make a covenantal best friend with Saul’s son Jonathan.

And Jonathan would have a loyalty to David that would be so strong it would even put aside his own right to the throne because he knew that David was God’s choice. And then David would commit the ultimate offense by marrying Saul’s daughter. The favor of God upon David over and over and over again, and at this point in the story David ran away. Was it that account that’s in his mind in Psalm 11? Perhaps.

But there’s so many other times in his life where he could have been on the run and out in the South in the wilderness trying to hide from Saul and the armies. Or even later in his life as his own son Absalom betrayed him and turned on him and sought to take his life from him. David was a man who knew what it was like and knew the temptation to cut and run, to flee to the mountains. That panic was a possibility for David.

And in this song, he asserts that God is his refuge and is a more safe place to hide than the hills. David gives us a higher perspective in this song. He teaches us to consider God’s perspective from his holy temple and heavenly throne, and he tells us to think on God’s judgment and God’s sovereignty as he will vindicate those who follow him.

David’s in a place where he feels like his faith could be choked out, and he’s being told that he should run, but what this song does for us is it puts faith on display. And it reminds us as a people who believe in unseen things just what faith involves in crisis. So let’s look at it in three simple parts.

1.  The Discernment That Faith Requires

Verses 1 through 3, let’s call it the discernment that faith requires. And in this opening section we hear the voice of David and David’s counselors calling for a flight to safety. But let’s begin with his opening conviction to learn what kind of discernment faith requires.

Verse 1: “In the Lord …” In YAWEH, all caps there. It’s the covenant name of God, the name God told his people in the Old Testament to call him by because he was their personal, covenantal, loyal God. YAWEH, the God of Israel, the God who is and defines his own existence. David calls him by name and says, In YAWEH “I take refuge.”

At the outset of this song David testifies that he is already in the safest possible place. He has a discerning faith because a discerning faith requires that kind of a posture, that kind of a starting point. We live in a world that is sorely lacking confidence. People seek security in many things: retirement accounts and real estate holdings and storehouses of money, in numbness at the bottom of a bottle or safety in a relationship or in an actual home security system.

Yet God, to David, is a refuge, and to God’s people, our fundamental starting point of security ought to be to see ourselves inside of a castle. And that castle, that refuge, that stronghold is God himself. All throughout the Psalms God is presented in this way. Psalm 5, verse 11: “But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you.”

Or famously, Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Or Psalm 91: “I will say to the Lord, ‘my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!’” Fifty times almost in the Psalms alone is God called a refuge, a stronghold, a strong tower. And you can picture it. You can picture that ancient castle, that building that’s impenetrable. That’s the metaphor that’s being described here, and that’s how David thinks of his relationship with his God.

God, to David, is a refuge and a shelter. David sees himself as a very sheltered person. We don’t use that word like that, do we? When we say that someone is sheltered, we’re talking about, you know, a homeschooled kid who’s never seen a drug deal or something like that. [Laughter] Or older folks look at younger folks and say, you’re so sheltered. You have no idea. We used to dig for our water. [Laughter] You have it so good.

And so we might use the word sheltered in a disparaging way, but think about how sweet it is to be sheltered, to be protected by God. Luther understood this, and he wrote a song based on Psalm 46. Martin Luther, he said a mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark, a stronghold, never failing. How wonderful it is to be sheltered by God.

A discerning faith knows who God is as refuge and shelter and protector. So before the problem is even presented, David at the outset says, In YAWEH I take refuge. But then he hears a voice, and it’s unclear in your Bible here whether this voice—where it concludes, there’s some quotation marks in my Bible that run all the way to the end of verse 3. And that’s a translation question. But we know that someone is talking here. Most translations end the quote there.

And I don’t think it’s an enemy that’s speaking because the way this voice portrays the wicked. You see that word upright in verse 2 and upright in verse 7, framing and enveloping this song. But someone tells David and David quotes them by saying, “How can you say to my soul, ‘Flee as a bird to your mountain?’” Flee as a bird to your mountain.

It could be the thoughts of his own heart, I suppose, as he wrestles with this issue of security, but I think it’s the voice of another. And I think it’s the voice of someone who cares about David, who wants to see him safe, a counselor who’s trying to give him good advice. The friend sees imminent danger and wants David to be secure, so he advises him to run.

Go again, David, to the land down south where you’ve wandered so many times, hiding from Saul, hiding from an advancing army. The counsel is for David, not against him. And it’s counsel from a counselor who doesn’t realize that for David in this particular instance the choice lies between fleeing and believing. For David in this instance the choice is between fleeing and believing. To run in faith is what the counselor is telling him, and it is a possibility to run in faith.

But in this situation, it seems that this is being presented as an option up against David’s opportunity to stay and trust God. It reminds me of that moment when Peter, trying to protect Jesus in Matthew 16 says, far be it from you, Lord—after Jesus speaks of going to the cross of his execution, Peter corrects the Lord and says, far be it from you, Lord. This should never happen to you. He said it out of love for Jesus. He had every good intention. He didn’t realize his advice was Satanic until Jesus said get behind me Satan.

And so I think it’s that kind of counsel that David’s hearing. There’s lots of counselors in our lives that are well meaning, but sometimes they can be well meaning and dead wrong.

And so this siren voice comes to David and says, in Hebrew, flutter off, bird, to your mountain. Flutter off. Fly, little bird, fly. He wants David to go into defeatist mode. Similar to the words of Psalm 55:6-8:

And I say, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!
I would fly away and be at rest;
yes, I would wander far away;
I would lodge in the wilderness; Selah
I would hurry to find a shelter
from the raging wind and tempest.

David’s been given some advice, and the advice is, cut and run. But now he gets a description in verse 2, and this could be the voice of his counselor still. And it’s a description of those who oppose David, those who are the cause of David needing to be safe and get out of here. It says: “For, behold,” verse 2, “the wicked bend the bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart.”

And now we have a description of the wicked. We’re introduced to that concept—the upright in heart. Upright in heart again envelopes this song. Verse 2 and verse 7, presenting the righteous on both ends of this song, but it also has a vivid description of the wicked in verse 2 and also in verse 5(b) and (c).

The wicked is described firstly as assassins in verse 2. And the upright in heart, the righteous people—straight rather than crooked is the idea of that word in Hebrew. A person elsewhere in the Psalms, an upright person is marked by honesty and integrity. But verse 2 is describing the wicked as deadly and dangerous. The wicked are depicted as assassins. They’re ready to fire. They’re aimed at the upright in heart from the cover of darkness, unseen, like a modern-day sniper. A night vision moment. Crosshairs aligned. The wicked are ready to let the arrow go.

I’m in Arizona so I can talk about a crossbow or a bow and arrow here. If you talk about that in California, you go to jail. But if you’ve ever pulled on a compound bow, it requires some amount of strength and effort to pull that back. But once you get it all the way back, it’s resting and it’s ready, and all that’s left is to aim and to release.

That’s what it looks like in verse 2. The wicked have bent the bow and they make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. It will take very little effort to send that arrow hissing through the darkness. That’s the vivid kind of threat that’s being described in David’s life.

And we’ve felt like this before. Haven’t you felt maligned? Haven’t you felt in danger? Haven’t you felt under assault? When you felt like your life is falling apart, was there a better way to express it than verse 3? If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Threats all around, the question is now asked.

A few paraphrases give you a sense of it in the vernacular. One says it this way: The bottom’s dropped out of the country. Good people don’t have a chance. Or the Good News Bible says there’s nothing a good man can do when everything falls apart.

And so here’s our question, our perennial question: How does faith respond when the bottom drops out? What are the righteous to do when faced with the option of fleeing or believing? When the fabric of society is coming undone?

I don’t need to give you much illustrative material here. You’ve watched the headlines over the past few years. You’ve heard the decisions come down from on high about the nature of our society. Rulings about marriage. Decisions about justice that are contrary to our understanding of what a society should be about if it seeks to honor God.

One author has recently written that “America is entering a new dark age brought about by rising hedonism, waning religious observance, the ongoing breakup of the family, and a general loss of cultural coherence.” And some have read it and decided it is definitely time to hide, to close ourselves off from this evil world, to insulate our children from their influence.

And so the perennial question is a very timely one to us in our society today. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Should we run or should we believe? Should we stay in faith or do we flee?

Look, I don’t want to exclude the rest of the Bible’s teaching here. There are times when the faithful flee. It’s not that the faithful never flee. 2 Corinthians 11, Paul was lowered in a basket over the wall. David lived on the run many times in his life. Jesus told his apostles in Matthew 10 that there would come a time when they would be persecuted in one town and that they should flee to the next town.

So flight can be done in faith, but it requires discernment, doesn’t it? If our initial response is to run, we need to ask ourselves, is that running we’re doing—are we doing it in faith? And if our initial response is to stay, then that staying needs to be done in every confidence in the sovereignty of God.

And that’s why we’re saying that there’s a discernment that faith requires in this Psalm. And for David it’s clear that for him to leave would be the choice that would be antithetical to faith.

And I think a few thoughts about what it’s like to run—when we run from our problems, the thing that we often forget is that we take our biggest one with us, right? You can’t run from you. There’s nowhere you can outrun your sinful heart. No place in this wicked world that you can hide from your biggest problem.

And I think second, there’s a kind of flight that’s faithless, and I think some have chosen panic over peace. And so it’s a difficult decision—is it basket-over-the-wall time or is it stand-and-face-and-faith time? And the only way to know is through discernment and faith and prayer.

William Gurnall, the Puritan, said, “Troubled times are praying times.” And it’s never the answer to flee in fear. We can’t run away from a fallen world. Jesus reminds us of that, that we’re here. And we’re here on mission. And we’re here with a purpose. And when we run, we must run to God, our refuge and our stronghold.

And I think safety can be such an idol in a fallen world. And safety isn’t always what we think it is, is it? But safety is always found in our anchor, our refuge, the God presented as the one worthy of our trust in verse 1. Because it’s not ultimately about our location, our surroundings, our perception of safety. The discernment that faith requires transcends location and circumstance and hangs onto that immutable reality that trusting God is our refuge.

That doesn’t satisfy every question, does it? I don’t think it’s intended to. I think it’s intended to show us that we need to assess the situation from the starting point of how God is our refuge. No matter where we are, no matter where we go, he will be there. The Scriptures are full of assurances of his presence as an antidote for our faith, for our fear, that our faith can hang onto his presence. And indeed, David says God is his refuge.

2.  The Vision That Faith Needs

What’s the middle of this song teach us? It’s a good second point here, verses 4 through 6. It’s called the vision faith needs. The vision that faith needs. And faith does need a vision, doesn’t it? The vision presented here is of a just and reigning God. Sometimes we use faith as a nebulous kind of word, and faith doesn’t need help with being vague. Faith needs to grow in its specifics. It already operates, according to Hebrews 11, in an unseen kind of world. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be called faith.

But to have some kind of vague cracker barrel faith for faith’s sake that is just faith and not faith in a God who is like himself is what I think 4 through 6 is trying to show us. Because in 4 through 6 now David turns his attention to God. In verse 1 he said, In YAWEH I put my trust, and then the counselor tells him about the wicked and contrasts that to the dilemma of the righteous. But now in verses 4 through 6 you see a concentrated emphasis on the character of God.

Look with me at verse 4 in your Bible. You see it says the Lord is in his holy temple, and then the next line the Lord’s throne is in heaven. And then the next line, his eyes, the Lord’s eyes, behold. And then again, the Lord’s eyelids test the sons of men. And then verse 5, the Lord, the covenant name of God, YAWEH, tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence his (the Lord’s) soul hates.

It’s a concentration of theological observation. YAWEH is in his holy temple. YAWEH’s throne is in heaven. YAWEH’s eyes behold. YAWEH’s eyelids test the sons of men. YAWEH tests the righteous, and the one who loves violence and wickedness his soul hates.

This is the vision that faith needs. See, David raises his eyes beyond the hills that are before him, the place where refuge could be found, because he knows his refuge isn’t in those mountains; it’s in his God. And now he has to rehearse what kind of a God that is that he will take refuge in.

This is how we need to talk to ourselves when we are in moments of fear and when we are lacking faith and when we need a deeper trust. The statement of faith is expanded in verse 4 as his perspective is lifted higher. No longer looking at the distant mountains southward as a place of refuge, he looks higher still to God himself. And you see the comparison to the voice of the counselor who says the wicked are—the wicked bend, they make ready their arrow, they shoot secretly. And now YAWEH is, YAWEH’s throne, YAWEH’s eyes, YAWEH’s eyelids, YAWEH tests, YAWEH hates.

The emphasis here is on God. But maybe that’s not helping you right now because you need help. You don’t need a theology lesson. You want help. You’re in danger. You’re suffering. Your world is falling apart. You’re concerned about the future, and you need help now. You can see mountains. You can see medicine. You can see political solutions. But you cannot see God. I get that. You have heartaches and dilemmas, and you need help now.

But what these verses are teaching you is that faith needs a vision, and it’s a vision of someone who is unseen. And so, the way that you see God is not by some divine vision that appears to you when you’re in Sedona one weekend. That is not how you see God. The way you see God is through his revelation, through his word. You have to know what he is like, and you have to by faith embrace that truth.

And so, David uses some imagery here. He compares God not now to a castle, but now to a person. Using anthropomorphic kind of language, he speaks of God’s throne where a king would sit, God’s eyes where God is able to see and perceive, and then God’s, interestingly, eyelids. It’s a provocative way of talking about a God who is spirit, personifying him to remind us that our God, though unseen, is never distant. He’s never impersonal. He’s never indifferent. He’s never removed or far off.

And he speaks of these two locations in verse 4. YAWEH is in his holy temple, and YAWEH’s throne is in heaven. I think two parallel, parenthetical kind of statements that are reminding you location-wise where God is. Flee to the mountains, little bird. Or here’s another place you should consider—the holy temple of God and the heavenly throne of God.

You see, the temple and the ark within it was the earthly manifestation of God’s heavenly throne. So he’s really saying one thing by speaking about YAWEH’s association with these two locations. What is a throne for? Well, a throne is a seat for a king to sit upon and to rule from, and so when we speak of God’s throne, we’re reminded that he rules in sovereign supremacy, that his dominion is on display. God is sovereign. He is in control.

Listen to the words of Lamentations 3:37-38: “Who can speak and have it happen, if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come?” (NIV) You see, David finds comfort that God has throne control. His dominion is on display. And it’s a place associated with worship—holy temple. And though God is exalted on his throne, he is active and watchful and involved. That’s why he uses the word testing two times here.

It’s not that God is just transcendently above us on his throne ruling like a puppet master, some kind of robotic, computerized sort of reality where everything just marches along. It’s not fatalism. The sovereignty of God is never presented that way. It’s active rulership. It’s sovereign supremacy. And that’s why it says that his eyes are beholding, his eyelids are testing, and YAWEH tests the righteous, and his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

See, God’s sovereignty is immediately related to his character and his justice and his insight. It’s why David uses these words—visual kind of words—see and behold and eyes and gaze. Why the eyes of God? Because God’s watchful eyes signify protection for his people. And why the word eyelid? We don’t usually use eyelids in poetic language. How beautiful are your eyelids, my love. [Laughter] But what are eyelids for?

I think it’s further amplifying the idea of scrutiny. I take off my glasses, and my first instinct is to employ my eyelids to try to see what’s in front of me. I squint them. I scrutinize. I think that’s why David is talking about the eyes and then the eyelids of God. His watchfulness is examining you at the closest level.

How could you ever think, dear people, that if you are a child of God that you would ever be in any danger for a moment? He has you in his hand. He has you in his hand. His eyes are upon you. And though you see your circumstances, you are called to trust him even though all you can see is circumstances. But what you know more than the reality around you is the eternal reality that’s set before you that you are in the hand of God and his eyes watch over the just.

And he will care for you, and you will never know real danger. If the worst thing that can happen to you is your death and that is the best thing that can happen to you, to translate you into his presence to a sinless world forever, then what do we have to fear?

It’s why Paul insists even to those who are grieving that the grave and death have no sting. Your eyes have burned at a funeral though, haven’t they? But that’s because you saw the circumstances around you, but the moment you remembered eternity and that our lives are this long in comparison to it, that sting began to be replaced.

And as you saw that friend lowered gently into the grave, you remembered that they are not there, are they? You remember that it used to be that they were animated and lively, but their soul is somewhere else. And that’s what causes us to triumph.

So, if our greatest enemy is one that we no longer fear, then an awareness of the eyes of God watching us, protecting us, scrutinizing all people, having an awareness of and an interest in, is of great consolation to us. God’s ever watchful, and though the enemies presented in those earlier verses are hidden by darkness, YAWEH sees them as if it were the noonday sun.

Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good” (NIV). Or the verse we saw this weekend—Hebrews 4:13: Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and exposed before the eyes of him to whom we must give account (paraphrase).

You see, God’s watchfulness is not like a surveillance camera simply rolling tape. Instead he is evaluating, weighing it all. The word there for testing is the word for testing precious metal, to assay. And he’s doing this to the righteous and to the wicked. Do you see that in verse 5? YAWEH tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence his soul hates.

After recalling God’s temple and God’s throne for those in Christ, the sovereignty of God is far from an academic conception. Judgment is not an indifferent eschatological calculation. Instead for those who are surrounded and whose foundations seem to crumble, the judgment of God and the sovereignty of God—the two aspects of God most presented here—are vital and real to us.

And we beg a sovereign God to prove himself, to show himself by answering our prayers, by giving us grace to believe, to have a vision of God in our hearts of faith to intervene, to help us in rescue, and if he answers our prayers differently than we would have expected, to give us the grace to trust that he is infinitely wise and perfectly loving in his complete sovereignty.

And that’s why verse 5 is so stunning. It says his soul hates the wicked in the ESV. My goodness, David, you lack sensitivity. You can’t talk like that. I mean people complain about fire and brimstone preaching, and he literally in verse 6 says fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. You can’t do that. You’re going to shrink a church. You’re supposed to put up good signage and stuff. It’s about reaching demographics and using the word community a lot. You can’t say fire and brimstone.

Why does he do it? Because apparently God’s judgment should bring consolation to those who’ve been exempted from it. You see David knew he had right standing with God. He had a relationship, a covenant with God. And to compare our relationship with God through Christ to David’s is to compare the burning bright sun to a dim candle light.

I mean do you know how much more revelation we have on this side of the cross? Do you know all who God is to us in Jesus? And do you know how much more we understand the judgment of God than David did with the revelation he was given? But he trusted and we ought to trust as well. And I think we both can see that thinking carefully about the judgment of God, the righteous judgment of God is something that should bring our hearts great comfort, if we belong to him.

For David to say fire and brimstone and judgment is for David to be using his Bible. In David’s mind would be Genesis 19, a place where those three words were combined. It’s a reference to Sodom and Gomora, the most famous statement of God’s judgment on wicked people that would have been before David even to this day, whose mindful of that burnt-out place and the judgment that was signified there.

And if you think about that day in Sodom and Gomora, those cities in the plains, it was probably a lovely morning, and they went about their business with their families and commerce. And they remarked at what a beautiful day it was … until it wasn’t when God rained judgment down on them.

And so he describes fire, brimstone, burning wind will be the portion of their cup. David provides evidence from the past to guarantee that the same righteous God who judged people then will judge people now and in the world to come.

Fire is an important theme in the Bible. It’s fire with which he tests the righteous, but the fire described here is an altogether different kind of fire, both in form and function. It’s the fire that Jesus warns us about in Luke 17. Loving Jesus warns us about fire. It’s the fire that the aged apostle Peter writes in his final letter to his precious flock for them to flee from the fire to come. 2 Peter 2:6. And it’s the smells and sounds of fire that are so vivid in the book of Revelation that remind us that God will make all wrong things right.

You see our faith needs a vision, a vision of who God really is. Not to see him as some sentimental, vague deity, but we are called, if we are going to have an unshakable kind of faith that can endure the foundations being destroyed and press on, then we need to know God—the Biblical God. A God who loves and a God who, verse 6, hates. A God who’s passionate, active, real, alive. A God who has a nature and a character, and oh, what a character God is.

Do you know him? Do you know the God of the Bible? Do you know who he is? Do you know what he’s like? Or do you know a storybook, sensitized, simplified for early readers, softened on the edges, blurry and bland kind of God? A God who actually looks a lot more like you than the God in the Bible. Because if your God isn’t a God of righteous judgment and total sovereignty, that’s not the God of the Bible. And here’s the sad part, that’s not a God who can save.

You see, in order for God to rescue people, then he has to be a God like this, a God of total and complete sovereignty who is able to save, and a God of perfect judgment who rules always in perfect righteousness so he knows how he should save. If you don’t believe me, then you need to re-read the account of Jesus on the cross. Look at that bloody cross and what God accomplished in sovereignty and righteousness as he poured out his wrath on his Son. A God of perfect love found it necessary to atone for the sins of his people by pouring out his wrath on the cross.

That’s the kind of God who saves, a God of sovereignty and a God of judgment. You cannot have a God of love and rescue and redemption without having a God who sees the difference between right and wrong and without having a God who is able to accomplish everything in his mind. Ultimate salvation demands final judgment. God will, we can be assured, right all wrongs, and there will never be a single miscarriage of justice in his final evaluation. If there was, we could not be saved.

Look to the cross for all the evidence you’ll ever need. That’s how serious the judgment and sovereignty of God is.

3.  The Assurance That Faith Brings

A final point in these last verses here. Let’s call it the assurance that faith brings. The assurance or the hope that faith brings. And faith needs hope. And it’s hope in verse 7 to see his face. Look how this concludes. Again, its focus is back on God. After another brief look at the judgment of the wicked, he goes back to a theological perspective. Fear and frustration meet once again his character.

And we see that there’s something more prized than safety. Verse 7: “For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; the upright will behold His face.” Faith meets assurance in verse 7. This song finishes like it started. It began with YAWEH as a refuge and now it concludes by telling us that YAWEH is righteous. He loves righteousness, and the upright will behold his face.

It tells us about his nature and his will, what he is and what he loves. Calvin commenting on this passage says this last verse is a celebration of the righteousness of God which he displays in the preservation of the godly. But I think there’s more to it than the preservation of the godly here. I think something’s being presented to us that’s more compelling and more prized and more attractive than safety and rescue and foundations that appear very secure.

What we’re seeing in verse 7 is a righteous celebration of God’s righteousness. The fear and frustration of verses 2 and 3, the societal crumble that he observes, the oppression by the wicked, the hard and difficult things of this life is answered by this simple statement: YAWEH loves righteousness. And it’s this final line that brings it all together—the sovereignty of God and the justice of God—with this stunning closing line. And it says it is at the upright one that his face gazes. His countenance beholds the upright. The upright will behold his face.

That is a stunning promise of assurance and hope in the face of crumbling foundations. In a fallen world, in a persecuted kind of environment, in a place where we can’t see what’s happening next, we can be sure, we can have hope that because the Lord is righteous, as righteous as he is, he is committed to loving righteousness. And just as righteous as God is, we can have every assurance and every hope and every confidence that the upright will behold his face!

David affirms that God, the righteous judge, the sovereign one on his throne, will show his face to those who love him and who are sharing in his righteous ways. Friends, we understand from the New Testament that that is a perfect description, not of a person who is able to have every bit of integrity so to earn God’s favor, but because of the grace of God, the same grace of God that forgave a sinner like David, forgives us through the gospel of Christ so that we too are called righteous.

Repeatedly in the New Testament you’re reminded that the transaction that took place at your salvation was God taking your sin away and giving you the righteousness of Christ in him. And so, for a Christian to read that last verse of Psalm 11 in light of the entirety of the Christian Scriptures, we are reminded that the righteousness that the Lord defines himself by and the righteousness that he loves, that righteous action, is the same kind of righteousness that he places on us and sees us when he looks upon us as part of the righteous ones that he loves.

That’s why it would conclude with the line, the upright, the righteousness ones will behold his face. What is the hope here? What is the payoff? What is the assurance? If we can’t be guaranteed rescue in a temporal sense, if we can’t be guaranteed a perfectly smooth life with no waves and no ruffles, then what is it that we hope in? We hope in this, my friends, it is at the righteous one, the upright one that this righteous God will look upon.

The image in that last verse is of the upright person being lifted up to be put before the face of God. The face of YAWEH turned favorably towards those he loves. A line repeatedly used through the Old Testament to speak of God’s favor. To be before God’s face is to have the look of God upon you with confidence and love and acceptance.

Derek Kidner, my favorite commentator on the Psalms, describes this moment with these words. “If the first line of the psalm showed where the believer’s safety lies, the last line shows where his heart should be. God as refuge may be sought from motives that are too self-regarding. But to behold his face is a goal in which only love has any interest.”

Did you catch that? God as refuge may be sought from motives that are too self-regarding. [With a weak and whimpering voice] Help me. Protect me. Make my life easy. Who doesn’t want it? But to behold his face is a goal in which only love has any interest. Amen.

Safety. Who wouldn’t want safety? Fellowship with God. That’s not for everyone, is it? Security. Sign me up! Everybody wants security. But intimacy. Only love has interest in that. You want to be rescued by God? Who wouldn’t want to avoid fire, brimstone and burning winds? But do you want to have a relationship with the God who judges wickedness and rescues those who receive his righteousness.

Who wouldn’t want protection? Everybody wants protection. But only those who love God want communion. This final line of beholding the face of God is a description of fellowship, intimacy, relationship, and communion, and that is what the upright person wants. They want to be made right with their God.

And so, when all appearances tell you that the world is crashing around you, turn your heart to Psalm 11. And please note, you’ve been through the whole thing now, what did this Psalm tell you to do? Did you note any word of command in Psalm 11?

I didn’t tell you this at the beginning because I didn’t want to spoil the surprise, but there’s plenty of Psalms that would tell you to trust. Psalm 34, Psalm 52. There’s plenty of Psalms that tell you to not be afraid. There’s plenty of Psalms that tell you to turn from your sin.

But this Psalm doesn’t tell you, command you to do anything. By implication it upholds a standard of righteousness. It doesn’t tell you though, it doesn’t command you, there’s no imperatives here. So what do you do with that in conclusion? We have this whole Psalm, and I told you it’s about faith. And it has a word about David’s trust—in the Lord I trust. I put my trust. I take refuge. But it doesn’t tell you and I to do anything.

Why doesn’t it have the words of Psalm 9:10: “And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you”? I think this is why. This Psalm simply states what you desperately need—unseen reality. You see, the vision of the songwriter is on the circumstances. Crumbling foundations, a world going to hell in a handbasket. The solution is these things that are not seen. A sovereign God who will judge righteously, who provides refuge for his people who trust in him.

And so, the solution to the perennial question is to see an unseen reality by knowing who God is and what he’s like and having every confidence that if we follow him in righteousness, we can expect, be assured, and hope with every confidence to see his face. This Psalm offers us an exchange for the perceived realities all around us. Things look bad. To exchange those for unseen realities, ultimate realities that dare us by implication to trust him boldly.

And it calls for a discerning faith, doesn’t it? That knows when it’s time to run and believe or when it’s time to stay and believe. And it requires a vision of faith, doesn’t it? A portrait of God, the Biblical God who’s sovereign and just. And it requires a posture that looks forward and longs to meet God’s face with favor and hope and assurance.

Friend, are you convinced that the sovereign God reigns from his throne right now over this world? Are you? Are you quite certain that he will righteously judge the wicked on the basis of his perfectly righteous character? Do you? Do you live in the awareness that God will destroy those who oppose him and conversely that God will show himself with favor to those who belong to him? Do you believe these things? Then choose faith over flight and we will see his face.

Father, thank you for your character and nature, that we can trust you when life is full of pain and uncertainty, and that we can be convinced that you are a God worthy to be trusted. That in the end, that in the end, the ultimate unseen final realities will show us that every time we ever trusted you, every time we ever believed your promises, every time we held fast to your character, we would be vindicated in the world to come. God, give us that vision of you today. In Jesus’ name.