The Refuge of the Righteous

Psalm 11 “The Refuge of the Righteous”

Do you want the good news or the bad news? Those words always make me uneasy. In Psalm 11, we will find the bad news, the good news, and the best news. The book of Psalms as a whole is almost like good news, bad news.

Psalm 1 and 2: God’s people win, God’s king reigns
Psalm 3-7- But right now, the enemies of God’s people are overtaking them
Psalm 8- God is amazing, and God has given humans glory and honor
Psalm 9-14- But, because of sin, humans are stupid and foolish and mess things up

And so it goes throughout the book of Psalms. We see things from God’s view. We see life as it will be when God reigns over all. But now, we face the reality of suffering, evil, death, and enemies breathing down our neck. There seems to be a conflict between God’s view of life and our experience of life. We call that dissonance. The Psalms help resolve the tension between God reigning over everything and our experience of suffering. The answer is to find refuge in God and to trust Him. And we will see the author of this Psalm, do that.

Back in Psalm 11, people are telling David: things are bad: get out of here! Run! Flee! Instead of running away, instead of focusing on the bad news, he reminds himself of the good news. And he stays.

Read Psalm 11

1. The Bad News (1-3)
David is trying to trust the Lord. He says, “In the Lord I put my trust” or “in the Lord I take refuge.” But people around him are saying: flee! Head for the hills. Like a bird that is exposed on the plain, get fly away to the high mountains where you will be safe. Don’t think of the mountains here, where you can normally hike them through the trees. Think of inaccessible, rocky cliffs, filled with holes and caves to hide in. In other words: you should be freaking out now! Don’t you see the danger facing you!

This almost like what happens when you are driving somewhere with your spouse. “Dear, don’t you see the cars have their brakes on? Um, shouldn’t you slow down since it’s snowing? Please maintain at least a ¼ mile between us and the car in front of us.” In other words, “aren’t you concerned?” David’s friends are saying that: “aren’t you concerned?”

What is this bad news that David is facing?

A. The wicked stalk him
The wicked are out to get him. They bend their bow: it means the step on it and set the bow string. Then they nock the arrow. He was surrounded by the enemies wielding bow and arrow. They were set to take him out. This could refer to David’s enemies literally pointing bows and arrows at him, or it could refer to his enemies using their words like arrows to destroy him.
A few other places in the Psalms, arrows are used for sharp words.

Psalm 57:4
My soul is in the midst of lions; I lie down amid fiery beasts—
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.

Psalm 64:2-4
Hide me from the secret plots of the wicked, from the throng of evildoers,
who whet their tongues like swords, who aim bitter words like arrows,
shooting from ambush at the blameless, shooting at him suddenly and without fear.

Perhaps that is what the bad news is. David is in danger, not of being shot with arrows, but being destroyed by evil words and gossip. Depending on your situation, words may be more destructive than arrows. And these arrows are aimed for the heart.

B. The wicked lurk in the dark
The wicked are waiting for the upright in the dark. When you here “dark” don’t think of a clear night with twinkling stars. Think more of a monster hiding under your bed. Something might reach out the dark and get you, kind of dark. Think of gloom. If you’ve read or watched the Lord of the Rings, think of Mordor, “the black land” or “the land of the shadow.” It is the dark land of the evil Sauron and his hordes of orcs. In the center was Mount Doom. It was a gloomy and evil land. That kind of dark.

As Psalm 91:5 talks about the danger from the darkness:
5 You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
6 nor the pestilence that stalks in darkness, nor the destruction that wastes at noonday.

David’s friends were saying: “The bad guys are waiting for out there in the dark.”

C. The foundations are destroyed
His friends continue: the sky is falling! The foundations will be destroyed- what will we do?! The foundations are referring to the order of society. If the bad guys win, our city and our country will crumbled. Perhaps this is said to David while he is king, and there are people plotting to rebel against his rule. If David is taken out, what will happen to the land of Israel? What can the righteous do?

And that is a question that has been asked ever since. What will God’s people do? Back in the book of Exodus, God rescued his people from Egypt and led them straight to the Red Sea. THe Egyptian army was headed right to them! What would they do? God delivered them by a dry path through the middle of the sea.

Back to David’s time, a giant named Goliath challenged God’s people. He mocked the God of Israel and the armies of Israel. What would they do? Through the courage of David, God delivered his people once more.
When the Israelites where conquered and taken away to Babylon and Assyria. They were hundreds of miles away from home, and they thought God had forgotten them. What would they do? As we saw in Isaiah 40 this summer, God promised to bring them back to their land, and he kept his promise to them.

When Jesus’ disciples stared at their Messiah hanging on the cross, dying. Their expectations of victorious King lay crushed in the dust. When he was taken down dead from the cross and buried in a tomb, they thought at hope was lost. What would they do? But God delivered them, by raising Jesus from the dead.

When the Apostle Peter was thrown in jail for preaching the gospel, and scheduled for execution, his friends wondered what they would do. But God heard their prayers. As they were having a prayer meeting for Peter, he shows up at the door, freed from prison.

When the early church was persecuted, when Christians were fed to lions, and hung on crosses like Jesus, they wondered what they would do. But God delivered them, even though they died, they received eternal life that no dictator or nation could take from them. And throughout the history of the church, God’s people have faced persecution, death, famine, sickness, collapsing governments, and every evil imaginable. What will they do? We as Christians in America face truth crushed in the streets and in the courts of our land. We see sin celebrated, and truths that we hold dearly called evil. What will we do? We look across in Asia, and see our fellow Christians hunted to death, thrown out of their houses and villages, and their churches burned down. What will they do?

It doesn’t matter the time, the country, or the evil that is faced, God’s people always find refuge in God. Now is not the time to say: the sky is falling. God has preserved his people no matter the time, no matter the evil, no matter what the suffering. God will keep us to the end, whatever may be lurking in the darkness.

Why can we find refuge in God? Why can we trust him?

2. The Good News (4-6)

A. God reigns
What never changes is that God is seated on his throne. No one can topple his throne or hinder his reign. He is in his holy temple. That means, that he is in his throne room in heaven, being worshiped by angels. The temple that was built in Jerusalem is just a copy of the one in heaven. God is up there, and the evil people can’t touch him. There little more comforting to David in his time of distress, and little more comforting to us in our times of trouble than: “Our God reigns.” God has a plan and it will come to pass. No one can stop God. Every speck of dust dances according to his design. Nothing has happened or will happen that has not been planned by our God. David grounds his hope, not on an idea that good things happen to good people or what goes around comes around or that he thinks he will have good luck this time. No, his hope is grounded on God’s powerful and unstoppable reign.
B. God sees
Sometimes it might be easy to mistake God’s inactivity on behalf of children for his lack of awareness or lack of concern. Just because God does not intervene in your life in the way or time you would like, does not mean he does not see or is not in control. Verse 4 reminds us: God sees. His eyelids test people on earth. The idea behind “eyelids” is squinting to focus intently on an object. He sees everything, and examines every single one of us humans.

For my 30th birthday, Emily allowed me to get a .22 rifle. Like with almost anything I buy, I researched in on the internet, and picked out the model that would give me the most bang for my buck. And I found one used at a local gun shop. Now, I knew how to use a rifle, but I am not an expert on firearms, so I had one of our men come along with me to examine it before I purchased it. All of sudden, there were tools and terminology I did not know existed coming out. The .22 rifle was given a very thorough inspection and given a clean bill of health.

God is very thorough in his examination. He knows how evil the wicked people are, he knows the good deeds of the righteous. We might not see the extent of a person’s character here on earth, but God knows every single aspect of your life. He is watching you.

C. God judges
So, if God sees how wicked someone is, and he doesn’t judge them, what’s happening? Or if God sees a righteous person suffering, why doesn’t he do anything about it? Don’t mistake God’s delay of justice for a lack of justice. He will judge. In his time. In his own perfect way. It’s like a school teacher giving a reward for the best behaved student at the end of the school year. Except, she didn’t tell you she was going to be watching. But all year she was watching, observing your speech and actions. Even though we don’t see God, he sees all of us.

It says in verse 5 that God hates the wicked and those who love violence. We don’t like to hear that God hates people. But, remember, that God is perfect. He is holy. He has no part in sin. We don’t want God affirming people who murder in cold blood. We don’t want him to be friends with people who steal money from widows. God is not indifferent to his standard of righteousness. He is not like this: Oh, I’m sorry I have to enforce my rules. God delights in righteousness, so he cannot be ho-hum toward sin and sinners.

The judgment is deadly: coals, fire, sulfur, and scorching wind. The judgment facing the wicked is dangerous and scary. That is their portion of their cup. We would say, those are their just desserts. When we would have our college spring banquet, we would sit down at the tables, and the servers would come by and ask: do you want the chicken or the beef. Those were your choices. Beef or chicken. Water or iced tea. If you want pork and lemonade, that is not possible. When we sit down at the God’s judgment at the end, there are only two options. But they are not beef or chicken. They are blazing fire or the comfort of God’s presence. We don’t get to pick then. We will have chosen already in this life.

3. The best news (7)
Vs 7 should be translated bit differently than it is translated in the KJV.
For the LORD is righteous;
He loves righteous deeds;
The upright in heart shall behold his face.

For the righteous, the best news ever, is not that the latest iPhone has been released, or that your brand new, fully-loaded pickup truck has arrived at the dealer, or that your loan has finely been approved for your first house. The best news is that one day we will see God’s face. For David, God’s reign over the universe was the bedrock of his faith. But the mountain peak of his faith was the hope of seeing God’s face one day.

We know that we can’t see God. So, how can we say that we will see his face? Seeing God’s face is another way of saying that we will be in God’s presence. Psalm 16:11 says this:
You make know to me the path of life; I your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

When this life is over, we will go the one whom we treasure the most. We will see the one who created us to know him and to love him. This is why we exist: to be in God’s presence. We looked this morning at Genesis 3, where, because of sin, Adam and Eve were expelled from God’s presence. Because of Jesus, we can be brought back into God’s presence.

We begin the psalm with evil people lurking in the dark, waiting to take out the righteous. But God reigns. He will set things right. He will judge the wicked. He will save the righteous. And we will see his face. That is the best news ever.

Conclusion: are you righteous?
I would like to close with this question? Are you righteous? Are you upright? This good news of seeing God’s face is only for the righteous. If you are not righteous, fire and blazing wind await you. Often in the Psalms, the righteous are those who do righteous deeds. And we might be mistaken to think if we work hard and do some good stuff, we will arrive in heaven and see God’s face. But, we have to go deeper than that. The righteous are those who are rightly related to God. That’s why they do good deeds (righteousness).

The way to be rightly related to God has always been by faith. We trust what God does and God says. As we work our way into the NT, we find that the way to be rightly related to God is through Jesus Christ. We trust him, not ourselves, so we can have a right relationship to God. On the cross Jesus took our sin, so we could have his righteousness. In that way, we as sinners, can be rightly related to God. We are considered to be righteous.

If you are righteous in Christ, you have the best news ever: that you will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.