“Tracks 11-12: If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Trust God To (Psalm 11-12)" | 6/23/24
I’ve only been in ONE physical fight in my life (that I can remember), and I LOST. I was probably 6 years old, and we’d just gotten the rare snowfall in west TN that was barely substantive enough for SLEDDING, which I was DOING in my backyard… when the JENKINS from next DOOR asked if they could come over, because our HILL was better. Mark is three years older than me, so maybe NINE; Michael is two years YOUNGER than me; around FOUR at the time.
Now, I was mostly FRIENDS with the Jenkins boys, so I was initially happy to have someone to sled with. However - and NONE of you probably KNOW this about me (DEFINITELY not my WIFE!) - but: I’ve always had pretty STRONG OPINIONS about the best way to DO things. So when there is a LIMITED amount of SNOW on the hill, and I’m trying to strategically MAXIMIZE the number of RUNS we can make with it, I had a very definitive PLAN for how this sledding should take place. And I was NICE enough to LET them use MY hill, MY yard! So I didn’t APPRECIATE it when 4-year old Michael started violating my protocol, and sledding all willy-nilly as if there was just ENDLESS snow to enjoy! So I did what ANY upset 6-year old boy would do: I called Michael the WORST NAME I knew, a word I can’t repeat in church. (Shout out to my DAD, though, who introduced me to bad words; funny story: my DAD actually DID let an expletive fly once in CHURCH; during our Thanksgiving service when they passed the microphone around, so the whole church heard it!)
But returning the sledding: as upset as I was with Michael’s sledding, his older brother MARK was even MORE upset with my cursing. So he PUNCHED me, I RAN inside crying and told my mom, who made ME apologize and write out 20 lines of Ephesians 4:29, which is why I still have it memorized to this DAY - “Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up… that it may benefit those who listen”.
But I tell you this story to illustrate our overarching principle for this morning, from Psalms 11 & 12, in a nutshell: that…
1) we ALL face opposition from those who are bigger and BADDER than us…
2) but like Michael, we TOO have someone watching OUT for us - GOD has got our backs…
3) So, as the sermon title puts it: “If you can’t BEAT ‘em…”, don’t JOIN ‘em; trust GOD to beat ‘em INSTEAD!
If it had just been me and MICHAEL out sledding that day: bad news for MICHAEL. But it WASN’T just me and Michael.
And we see this over and over again in the Bible:
David vs. Goliath: not a fair fight for David. But David PLUS GOD vs. Goliath: not a fair fight for GOLIATH!
Elisha and his servants vs. the whole army of SYRIA? Not a fair fight for Elisha. But Elisha plus GOD and HIS host of angelarmies?! Not a fair fight for SYRIA.
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12 guys vs. the entire, pagan Roman Empire? Not fair. But 12 disciples plus Jesus’ indwelling Holy SPIRIT empowering them for the job? Not a fair fight for paganism.
Similarly, Church, Psalms 11 & 12 for this morning remind us of 3 very simple but very important truths:
#1) You and I are NO match for the WICKED.
But #2) The WICKED are no match for GOD.
Therefore, 3) We rely on GOD.
That’s your outline. But let’s examine it now in greater depth together. I invite you to STAND with me… Psalms 11-12:
“To the choirmaster. Of David.
11:1 In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
“Flee like a bird to your mountain,
2 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;
3 if the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?”4 The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord's throne is in heaven;
his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
5 The Lord tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
6 Let him rain coals on the wicked;
fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the Lord is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold his face.[And we continue in ch12; ALSO written…] To the choirmaster: according to The Sheminith. [which, remember, means “8th” in Hebrew; perhaps referring to an 8-stringed instrument, or to the octave in which the psalm was to be SUNG; we’re not sure. But we DO know it is ALSO] A Psalm of David.
V1: Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone;
for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
2 Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.3 May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
the tongue that makes great boasts,
4 those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,
our lips are with us; who is master over us?”5 “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
I will now arise,” says the Lord;
“I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
6 The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times.7 You, O Lord, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
8 On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man.”[This is the word of the Lord… Seated…]
The first important truth we learn here is that on our own, you and I are NO match for the WICKED. Why? THREE reasons.
#1A - for STARTERS: the Wicked are RELENTLESS (11:1-3)
Now, we should probably start by identifying who the wicked ARE. We’ve studied a number of psalms now that employed similar language, where David referred to “the wicked” or “my enemies”, and we’ve interpreted that in different ways.
There is the HISTORICAL interpretation. We’re unsure about the context that occasioned these psalms, but most scholars speculate it was either when David was being chased by King SAUL through the wilderness, OR when he was later chased out of Jerusalem by his own son ABSALOM. The problem with BOTH those suggestions is that David seems to be making the point here, especially in ch11, that he has been ADVISED to “flee like a bird”, to run for his life, and yet, INSTEAD of fleeing in FEAR, he is deciding to stand FIRM in FAITH. We know David had no SHORTAGE of enemies and attackers throughout his life - the Philistines, Moabites, Arameans, Edomites… it could have been any NUMBER of opponents after him here.
Moreover, the opposition in ch12 sounds more like it is INTERNAL; not just an OUTSIDE threat to God’s people, but as though God’s people THEMSELVES, who were CALLED to be the “godly ones”, the “faithful”, v1 - like they have “VANISHED” and been replaced by - or have themselves TURNED INTO - the wicked.
Which brings up a SECOND interpretation of “the wicked” that we’ve considered - they’re US! Ch10 last week decried the wicked’s INJUSTICE against the poor and the marginalized and we were forced to admit that “We’ve ALL got blood on our hands”. In the NT, the apostle Paul QUOTES these psalms to point out that “NONE is righteous, no not one”; we ALL need a Savior! So there’s a very REAL sense in which we can read OURSELVES into these psalms, AS “the wicked”.
But THIRDLY - there’s the historical, the personal, and now the THEOLOGICAL interpretation. And we’ve ALSO noted that as God’s people (no matter how imperfect), we really DO have a “WICKED ENEMY” in this world: SATAN. So when the psalms speak of our being AFFLICTED and ATTACKED, we Christians can relate since we too are harassed by the “spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places”, as the Bible calls them (Eph 6:12).
So returning to Psalms 11 & 12 now: how should we identify and understand “the WICKED” here? Are they OTHERS, DEMONS, or US? We sometimes refer to the believer’s 3 big enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. Which one is in view here?
Well, I think many of the details that David offers us here about “the wicked” seem to point most naturally to an identification with OTHERS - these are REAL PEOPLE who OPPOSE the Lord and his ways, the way of RIGHTEOUSNESS.
That doesn’t mean that Satan isn’t still our even GREATER enemy, behind the scenes, riling the wicked UP - that’s true.
It doesn’t mean we don’t still struggle with sin, as BELIEVERS; sometimes we’re guilty of “OPPOSING the Lord” ourselves, in our flesh.
We STILL battle the flesh; we STILL battle the devil. But we need to know that as followers of Jesus, we can and SHOULD still expect to face opposition from THE WORLD also. From those around us who have REJECTED God and his ways. Jesus said, “If they persecuted ME, they WILL persecute YOU, if you FOLLOW me.” THAT’s who David has in mind here.
And as I said, the first reason that the WICKED of the WORLD seem to be so overpowering is their RELENTLESSNESS.
Psalm 11 is David’s RESPONSE to his royal COUNSELORS who are ADVISING him to run for his life, “flee like a bird” to the hills. But if we look CLOSER at their WORDS which David QUOTES here, we see that part of the issue David HAS with their counsel is that - RUNNING WOULDN’T STOP their attacks ANYWAY! Look at how he describes them: “they’ve fitted their arrow… to shoot at the upright… INTO THE DARK”. David says, “Even if I try and HIDE, they’re not gonna STOP til they’ve hunted me down, like a DOG in the NIGHT. And he implies in v3, “they won’t STOP until the FOUNDATIONS have been destroyed”; the foundations of David’s KINGDOM? Of his very LIFE? YES! All of the above! The wicked are RELENTLESS.
And there’s nothing new under the sun, is there? We could apply this in any NUMBER of ways in our lives, in our world today. But since it’s JUNE…
I’ll be honest: I used to get skeptical when Christians would use words like “AGENDA” - the LGBTQ “agenda”. I thought, “Ehh; they just want to be able to get “married” and enjoy the same tax breaks and hospital visitation rights as the rest of us.” Which I get. I don’t LOVE the government sanctioning gay marriage, but since marriage was GOD’S idea and institution, I’m not sure why the government gets a say in ANYONE’s marriage in the FIRST place…
But it didn’t STOP in 2015 with Obergefell, did it?
And it didn’t stop with HOMOSEXUALITY either. On to the next battle. LGB: check; on to the T.
Because it was never ABOUT having the same RIGHTS; the movement won’t stop until we share the same WORLDVIEW. It’s not enough to tolerate; we have to CELEBRATE.
And that’s why they have to INDOCTRINATE. Another notion I thought was pretty “out there”, until I heard the audio from the Disney board room for myself. And the evidence just kept piling up, too BLATANT to ignore. Just last week, a Kentucky judge had to strike down legislation from the Biden administration attempting to federally defund any schools that refuse to teach gender fluidity in the classroom.
A pediatrician in Texas faces up to a DECADE in prison because he’s a whistleblower who exposed the abusive practices of his peers - genital mutilation of minors experiencing gender dysphoria, 80% of whom, studies show, will REGRET their decision later in adulthood to seek life-altering surgery as a teenager. But to call that OUT could earn you JAIL time.
Why? Because the wicked are RELENTLESS. There really IS an agenda. And it won’t STOP until “the FOUNDATIONS are destroyed - of MORALITY, of TRUTH, of God’s WORD - they need every last vestige of it GONE, so they can try and REDEFINE what is “good”; what THEY call “good”, God calls WICKED.
But unfortunately for them, GOD’S word, GOD’S truth, isn’t going ANYWHERE; “the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the LORD endures forever”. So the battle rages ON.
And unfortunately for US, the wicked aren’t just RELENTLESS; they are ALSO… #1B- RIFE (12:1-2, 8)
“abundant, plentiful, numerous”.
David goes so far as to say, “the faithful have VANISHED… EVERYONE utters lies” and revels in their depravity.
None is righteous; no not ONE.
David feels out-NUMBERED, like the prophet ELIJAH who took the advice to “flee like a bird”, from the wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. And God FOUND him cowering in a cave, and confronted him - “What are you DOING here, Elijah?” - and he replied, “Your people, Israel, have FORSAKEN your covenant, God, killed your prophets, and I’m the ONLY ONE LEFT!” But God informed him, “I have saved a REMNANT - 7,000 - who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” (1 Kings 19:10)
I know it FEELS like it, Elijah, but you are NOT in fact alone.
Like Elijah, like David, sometimes as believers in a culture like ours, we can start to FEEL alone, out-numbered. “Am I the ONLY one NOT celebrating Pride month?” EVERY business seems to be; they get CANCELED if they don’t. We are WAY past the cultural TIPPING point on this one now. By the way, you can always track the “progress” of the moral decline by tracking the politicians’ positions, since they’re just chasing the votes.
In 2008, Obama was opposed to gay marriage; by 2012, he was FOR it.
In 2006, Biden said he did NOT “view abortion as a woman’s choice or right”; by 2019 he was ready to use tax-payer dollars to PAY for them!
In 2022, Trump’s Supreme Court appointments helped overturn Roe v. Wade; but as of this April, Trump no LONGER supports a nationwide ban on abortion.
Don’t blame THEM - they’re just after the VOTES. They’re just a bellwether of the American populace at large. And the view of a majority of Americans today on these kinds of moral issues is decidedly WICKED.
So what does the Christian DO in the face of such RIFE, abundant wickedness? 3 things:
First, we remind ourselves that even if we WERE alone, the truth’s not democratic. It’s better to be RIGHT and alone than WRONG with others. Like your Momma asked, “If your friends JUMPED OFF A CLIFF…?” NO - you don’t JUMP!
But SECONDLY- we take great comfort knowing that we’re NOT alone, because GOD is with us. As v7 here says, “For the Lord is RIGHTEOUS”. And as LUTHER said, “God plus one is a MAJORITY.” Stand with God, for truth, and you’ll NEVER be alone.
But THIRDLY: we ALSO find encouragement - and strength in numbers! - with God’s PEOPLE. It’s NOT just “ME & God”; it’s US & God, Church. God has given us the gift of ONE ANOTHER; WE are “Elijah’s remnant”, the modern-day equivalent of the “7,000 who REFUSE to bend the knee to Baal”. And we find community and support right here.
That doesn’t mean we withdraw from society altogether and just stick to our little holy huddles. Jesus called us to be “light and salt” - to push BACK the darkness, to STEM the moral decay of the culture; but in order to act effectively as a preservative agent, salt has to be PRESSED INTO the meat. Jesus didn’t AVOID sinners; he pressed IN so much that the “good religious” people pejoratively nicknamed him the “FRIEND of sinners”. The scribes & Pharisees failed to realize that THEY TOO were just as wicked, just as guilty, in their self-righteous hypocrisy. And yet Jesus still didn’t avoid THEM either! He hung out with tax collectors AND Torah scholars; with the whores AND the “holy”.
But at the end of the day, he set up camp with the TWELVE. With like-minded, God-fearing BROTHERS and SISTERS. That’s who Jesus truly “did life” with. Because there really IS strength in numbers. We really CAN’T go it alone, and survive in a culture this RIFE with wickedness. But we don’t HAVE to; why would you WANT to? Life is BETTER when it’s shared.
Church: may we not neglect God’s GIFT of EACH OTHER, his CHURCH.
Before we move on, notice how this point - the rifeness and RAMPANTness of sin - is where the passage ends, in ch12, v8; it’s NOT a particularly HAPPY note: “On every side the wicked prowl, as vileness is exalted among the children of man.”
But consider with me THREE things that teaches us:
First, that the Bible is REAL. David’s not saying, “Stand firm for the truth and all your problems will magically go away overnight”, cuz they WON’T. Friends: the popularity of wickedness isn’t going to SHRINK in the years to come. No; vileness will only become more and more “EXALTED” among the children of men. But not SO among the children of GOD.
And that’s our SECOND takeaway at the end of ch12: that ultimately our HOPE as believers isn’t derived from our circumstances anyway. Even IF a “moral majority” could be cobbled together to CURB some of the spread of the sin in this world, our hope isn’t found in this world ANYWAY, but RATHER, as David says in v7, that God would “KEEP” us, “GUARD” us, for the world TO COME.
And the THIRD thing that the ongoing presence of wickedness in this present world ought to cause us to do, is to cling even CLOSER to Christ AMIDST all the “vileness”, for refuge and deliverance. I know we’re still working our way THROUGH the passage, but BIG picture: it describes the spiritual CYCLE that we all experience as followers of Christ living life in a fallen world:
We face relentless opposition. (11:1-3)
So we trust God for deliverance. (11:4-7)
We deal with wickedness AGAIN. (12:1-4)
So we trust GOD again. (12:5-7)
But then the pervasiveness of wickedness at the CLOSE in v8 brings us right back to where we STARTED the cycle in ch11!
Which is, as we’ll see, not a BAD place to start, or END, so long as we ALLOW the preponderance of evil to DRIVE us, time and time again, back to THE LORD, to take refuge in HIM.
So the wicked are RELENTLESS, RIFE, and finally, #1c- they are REPROBATE. (12:2-5a)
Reprobate means “morally depraved” and “rejected by GOD” (dictionary.com). And the wicked are BOTH.
First, they are DEPRAVED. It’s not just that the “children of man” ARE sinful; it’s that they LOVE their sinfulness. They CELEBRATE it, take “PRIDE” in it. “Shout your Abortion”.
In DAVID’s day, the wicked were especially characterized by FOUR TRAITS, that I’m sure you will agree are in NO way UNIQUE to antiquity. Even a cursory survey of our OWN world today reveals that MUCH of our modern-day wickedness is rooted in these four sins:
First: lying, flattering lips. “Everyone utters LIES to his neighbor; with FLATTERING lips… they say, “With our TONGUE we will prevail”.” Wicked people use their WORDS to get what they WANT; whether those words are TRUE or not is immaterial in their eyes.
It has been said FLATTERY is saying something to someone’s FACE that you would NEVER say about them behind their back, while GOSSIP is saying something behind someone’s BACK that you would never say to their FACE. And the wicked do BOTH, often.
And the REASON, secondly, is that “they SPEAK”, v2, from a “double heart”. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the HEART, the mouth SPEAKS” (Lk 6:45); we know what’s in a person’s HEART by the words that come OUT of them. But it’s HARDER in the case of lying flatterers, because they’ve got TWO hearts: the FAKE one they APPEAR to be speaking from when they’re over at YOUR house, buttering you up… but as soon as they’re back in their OWN house, their words display their TRUE heart… as well as their true MOTIVE: they were buttering you up FOR DINNER! To DEVOUR you for their OWN selfish gain.
And as believers, we ought to run all of our words through this same litmus test - “Would I SAY that same thing if she was STANDING here to HEAR it?” “Would I STILL be talking this glowingly of him if he WASN’T here, to hear my praise, and reward me for it?”
I will admit: that’s a test I often FAIL.
Third, the wicked are known by their BOASTING; their “tongues make great BOASTS… “who is MASTER over US?”” (12:3).
I am my OWN master; I’M number ONE. Which is WHY they lie and manipulate - they’re just looking out for numero UNO: themselves.
Which brings us to the FOURTH trait of the wicked: when you’re CONVINCED that you’re the most important person on earth, and that everyone and everything else should revolve around YOU, then how do you treat others?
It’s no WONDER that the wicked OPPRESS those around them. V5 says: “the poor are plundered… the needy groan”, under the oppression of the WICKED.
Now I don’t know about you, but I find this to be a pretty CONVICTING list, personally, for self-evaluation:
Do I use my WORDS to edify and advance OTHERS, or for SELF-promotion?
Does my life LINE UP with my words; am I a person of INTEGRITY? Or do I speak from a divided, “double heart”, saying one thing, while proving what I REALLY believe in my HEART of heart’s, by my contradictory ACTIONS?
Am I a BOASTER? If NOT in word, how about in actual PRACTICE? If an objective, 3rd party observer could be a fly on the wall for every single moment of my life for the next WEEK, and THEN that person was asked to answer the question: “Who is #1 in WILL’S life?”... would the answer CLEARLY be “JESUS”, or am I, de facto, living like the WICKED of Psalm 12? As if I am my OWN master (“Master?! Who is MASTER over me? I am!”)
And fourth, do I USE people for my own selfish gain? If not outright OPPRESSION, do I at least OVERLOOK others who have nothing to OFFER me? Do I treat everyone the SAME, regardless of how I stand to benefit from their friendship? How do I treat those who are “poor, needy” - not just financially but spiritually, emotionally, socially - do I GIVE to others - emotionally, relationally - who really don’t have much to give BACK in return? The person who texts… who calls… and if you’re honest, your heart kind of DROPS a little, when you see their name pop up - “Ugh… AGAIN? I don’t know if I have the ENERGY for her right now…” - Do you pick up the phone ANYWAY? Because you remember that YOU were once poor and needy, and thank God JESUS didn’t screen YOUR call…
Church, I gotta tell ya: it’s HARD for me to read David’s description here of the “wicked” and just stick to our nice, neat categories, where the WICKED, GOD-haters are all over HERE, but ME - I’m over HERE with the “faithful”, the “godly ones”.
As soon as you start to actually DESCRIBE the “wicked”, like David does, you REALIZE why he says “EVERYONE lies”, ALL the faithful have vanished… because “NONE is righteous; no not ONE”. We ALL need a SAVIOR!
And the difference between Christians and everyone else ISN’T that we’re good and they’re wicked; it’s just that we know the SAVIOR and they DON’T yet. See: there are only two kinds of people in the world, and they’re BOTH wicked! There are wicked REPROBATES, who are still STUCK in their sin, still CELEBRATING it, because they don’t yet realize how GOOD the good news of the GOSPEL truly IS… how GOOD it is to be set FREE from your enslavement to sin… And then there are those of us who DO. We’re just as SINFUL. But the difference - the all-important, eternity-DEFINING difference - is that our sins have been FORGIVEN.
So before we move on (and finish points 2 & 3 much quicker, I promise), but I’d be remiss not to ASK you: Which of those two wicked people are YOU? The one who is relentless, reprobate - remember: not just “morally depraved” but “REJECTED by God”; ch11, v5 says “[God’s] soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence”; we like to say, “God loves the sinner but hates the sin”, but God’s WORD tells us that He LOVES the sinner, yes, but he also hates the sin SO much that there’s a very real sense in which God ALSO HATES the COMMITTER of sins...
UNLESS… you’ve been FORGIVEN. Had your sins PAID for, by JESUS, in your place. Is that YOU, friend? Which kind of sinner are you: forgiven or UN-forgiven?Repent of your sin, trust in Jesus for your pardon this morning, and be SAVED.
#2 now - half of Psalms 11 & 12 paint a picture for us of the WICKED. But the OTHER half, now, is David offering us a contrasting portrait of THE LORD. If the WICKED are REPROBATE, the LORD, by contrast, is perfectly…
(#2a-) RIGHTEOUS (11:4, 7; 12:6)
David almost MOCKS the wicked here, trying to destroy his foundation, because they don’t REALIZE that David’s foundation is in the LORD, who is WHERE? V4: “the LORD’S throne is IN HEAVEN.” And what kind of throne IS it? What kind of PLACE is God’s heavenly abode, his “temple”? It is a HOLY temple. We sang it already this morning: “Holy, all the earth singing HOLY…” - Holy literally means “set apart”. It means “ONE of these things is NOT like the OTHERS” - namely: GOD is NOT like US - he is totally set apart in his RIGHTEOUSNESS.
V7: “the Lord IS righteous”. And David COULD have gone even farther - and Scripture DOES elsewhere - to explain that it’s not just that God IS righteous, like it’s an ancillary trait that describes him to some degree; NO - God DEFINES righteousness. God DICTATES and DETERMINES righteousness. He is what makes righteousness… RIGHTEOUS.
Lying is wrong because God is TRUTH (not just “truth-FUL”; God is TRUTH! The very ground and SOURCE and ESSENCE of all other derived truths).
Murder is wrong because God is LIFE.
Adultery is wrong because God is FAITHFUL.
Right is right, and wrong is wrong, because GOD is GOD!
And “the Lord is RIGHTEOUS”.
In his very BEING. In his ACTIONS - 11:7 says “the Lord loves righteous DEEDS”. But also in his WORDS. Ch12 now contrasts the deceitful, WILY words of the wicked with the good, gracious, genuine words of GOD.
“The words of the Lord are pure words,
like silver… purified seven times.” Seven is the biblical number of COMPLETION, wholeness. God’s word is PERFECTLY pure.
We can TRUST it, as our STANDARD of righteousness and morality. I don’t know if you NOTICED, but there is a “New Moral Order” getting pushed out there. Whereby WE - the ones who REFUSE to call “good” what God has clearly called “wicked” - WE become the “immoral” ones. The only “SIN” anymore is believing there’s such a THING… AS SIN!
But friends: God’s perfectly pure and trustworthy WORD is CLEAR: there really IS sin. And not just “their” sin - the conservative talking points we’ve hit on - how about MY sin! YOUR sin! Our sin is REAL. And it’s a real PROBLEM. Which is why we ALL of us - you, me, the wicked - we ALL really need a SAVIOR.
And not just ANY Savior; a RIGHTEOUS one. A Savior HOLY enough to fulfill God’s righteous and right-FUL demands in His Law, and yet LOVING enough to lay down his life as a SACRIFICE, to TRADE all of his righteousness for all of OUR unrighteousness.
Behold JESUS! The spotless, RIGHTEOUS Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!
Our God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love… forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin”...
BUT… he is ALSO a God “who will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex 34:6-7) who REFUSE to come to Jesus in humility and repentance for their pardon. Because God is RIGHTEOUS… and he is ALSO…
#2b- REGARDING (11:4)
Psalm 11:4 reminds us that God’s “eyes SEE, his eyelids test the children of man.”
God is WATCHING, REGARDING - “considering, observing”, taking into ACCOUNT - all of our thoughts, words and actions, our LIVES. And sometimes that means, v5, that God “TESTS the righteous”.
See, God ALONE is truly holy. But time and time again throughout his holy WORD, God calls US to “BE holy as I am holy”. And it’s a lot easier to be holy when the sun’s out and your belly’s full, isn’t it? “Why does God allow BAD things to happen to GOOD people?”
Well, in one sense, he DOESN’T, not since JESUS anyway; there hasn’t BEEN a truly “GOOD” person in the last 2,000 years. But the Bible DOES have a category for those who HAVE acknowledged their sin, TURNED from it, and trusted by FAITH in GOD’S righteousness, imputed TO them - “the righteous shall live by FAITH”, God says. Only Jesus is TRULY righteous. But when we trust in HIM, the Bible does call us “the righteous”, ch11, v5; “the UPRIGHT”, v7.
And it ALSO acknowledges that sometimes God TESTS us, the righteous… WHY?
To PURIFY us! When God allows us to go through trials in this life, He isn’t JUST “regarding” us - passively watching, to see how we’ll hold up under pressure; he is also REFINING us - melting away the dross of doubt and self-reliance, to make us more wholly reliant on and trusting in HIM.
But David is ALSO clear here: God regards not ONLY the righteous, but the WICKED too. He tests THEM as well, to give them every possible opportunity to TURN from their sin and come to Him as well. But if they refuse, God REGARDS; nothing escapes his NOTICE. And MOREOVER…
#2c- God is REPAYING (11:5-7; 12:3-5).
God not only REGARDS, he also REPAYS - the RIGHTEOUS and the WICKED alike.
On the ONE hand, David PRAYS in ch11, v6: “Let him rain coals on the wicked”. And he expects and trusts God to actually DO it: “fire and sulfur and a scorching wind SHALL be the portion of their cup”.
But just as assuredly, God will ALSO repay and REWARD all who trust in HIM. v7: “ the upright shall behold [God’s] face.” And not just BEHOLD him, friends, but be TRANSFORMED, to become LIKE him: 1 John 3:2 promises us that “what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when [Christ] appears [whether that’s when he returns to be with US, at his 2nd Coming… OR when he takes us home to be with HIM in Heaven - whichever comes FIRST… either way, on THAT day…] we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” What a glorious promise.
But UNTIL that day, Church, when our faith will at LAST be turned to SIGHT… what do we DO? While we wait and watch for the Lord, here in a world still SATURATED by relentless, rampant, rife, reprobate WICKEDNESS - what do we DO?
TWO THINGS, according to these psalms:
First: #3a - We, the FAITHFUL, are invited to REACH OUT (11:6; 12:1a, 3a).
That’s what these psalms ARE - they are David’s CRIES, his PRAYERS, his pleads of PETITION to the Lord:
“Let him rain down JUSTICE!”
“Save, O Lord…”
“May [you] cut OFF the lips of the wicked!”
God - it feels like I’m fighting in the wrong WEIGHT class here! I am out-matched, out-numbered, out-flanked, “On every side the wicked prowl”, if I’m gonna SURVIVE down here, YOU’RE gonna have to be the One to get me THROUGH!
We REACH OUT. And then…
#3b- We RELY ON the Lord. (11:1a, 7b; 12:7)
We make DAVID’S prayer our OWN: “In the Lord I take refuge”.
We TRUST God to regard and reward the upright, by ALLOWING us to one day “behold his face”, to bring us home to be WITH him in Glory. And we live THIS life in light of the life to COME.
Trusting God’s PROMISE here, that “You, O Lord, will keep them [keep US, the righteous]; you will guard us from this [wicked] generation forever.”
Church: that is a promise we can RELY on.
“Mine are days here as a stranger
Pilgrim on a narrow way
One with Christ I will encounter
Harm and hatred for His name
But mine is armour for this battle
Strong enough to last the war
And He has said He will deliver
Safely to the golden shore.
Come rejoice now, O my soul
For His love is my reward
Fear is gone and hope is sure
Christ is mineforevermore” (“Christ is Mine Forevermore”, CityAlight)