"if the foundations are destroyed, what shall the righteous do?"
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Playlist for Life Series_ Psalm 11: Faith or Flight_ Bevin Elliott
Amen. Good morning church. Can we turn to Psalm 11? Psalm 11. We have ended our series on Romans. We will make a turn by the letter of Romans sometime next year again and I'll just encourage you to keep reading through Romans. Keep reading to the Word of God. We send our communication in the week for you to read Psalm 11, a trust that you have. A good leader doesn't just expect, he inspects. So who has been reading? Who's read Psalm 11? Guys don't be shy, raise your hands, join us so you can look up high. Anybody else has read Psalm 11? Thank you, Terrell. I see that hand at the back. Man, there's just nothing better you can do with your time than read through the Word of God. The more you read through the Word of God, the more you grow and the more we come to understand who he is and what is required from us. So Psalm 11 I'm reading from the ESV Bible translation and Jesus follows through 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, a 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. This is a literary technique that we've mentioned and referenced before. It's called a meerism. So when you take two contrasting elements to convey an idea of completeness, it's like saying heaven and earth. It's like saying from A to Z, from Dust or Dawn. It represents a complete picture. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. In other words, his presence is everywhere. 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 reign, coals on the wicked, fire and sulfur and a scorching one shall be the portion of their cup. The Lord is righteous. He loves righteous deeds. The upright shall behold his face. The upright shall behold his face. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your presence. We felt the presence of your spirit here this morning and we ask that you'll be glorified now in the fellowship of your word. The Lord your speaker will speak as an oracle saying, "Thus saith the Lord and those who would hear would hear what the spirit of the Lord is saying to their hearts this morning." In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Family like the Psalms suggests and states that this is a Davidic psalm. We are still in Book 1 of the Psalms. Psalms are divided into five books which murder the law of the five books of the Pentateuch. Book 1 covers Psalm 1 to Psalm 41 and 37 of the 41 Psalms in Book 1 are Psalms of David. Usually a Psalm, especially a Psalm of David gives us some historical footnote or some indication to what gave occasion to the Psalm. But in Psalm 11 we just have speculation. Some say this was a psalm was written during the time when David was in the palace of Saul fleeing for his life. Some say it was during the time he fled from Saul and was in a sense a nomad in caves. Some say this psalm was written during the time when Absalom rebelled against David, took over the throne and David fled for his life. But there is no theological consensus about the historical setting of Psalm 11. All we know that this is a psalm of David. This is also an individual lament but it's the shortest lament in all the Psalms. Just one verse of statement in 11 1 B. We also know that the psalm grows out of an immediate threat of danger. There's a threat of danger and this trouble and crisis has developed out of the nature of wicked people who love violence, who are seeking the life of David. What's also interesting about the psalm is that the name Yahweh particular is referenced more than five times in the Psalm. The frequency of the name Yahweh suggests that God's presence is worth us even in times of danger. One of the most notable times when God reveals himself as Yahweh was when he hears the affliction and sees the affliction of the children of Israel in Egypt and he comes down in the manifestation of a bush burning that's not being consumed and Moses wants to know who is he speaking with and he says, "It is Yahweh. I am who I am." And so the name Yahweh recalls for us the time when God intervened for man in the time of distress. So whenever you see the name Yahweh, think about the Lord is worth us even in our most difficult times. A few of the literary features of the psalm to note is that psalm 11 has and presents to us an inclusio. So an inclusio we mentioned is a framing of a particular passage of scripture and so what we have in Psalm 11 in the beginning of the psalm and at the end of the psalm we have a reference to the presence and protection of God. Creating for us and forming for us was known as an inclusio. We also have what's known as a synthetic parallelism within the psalm and if you understand anything about Hebrew poetry you cannot interpret and understand the psalms without knowing how to identify parallelisms and during our first sermon on psalms we went to a list of Hebrew parallelisms. So I'll encourage you to go back someone and just do some research about what is a parallelism but what we have here in verse 5 what I want to point out to you is what's known as a synthetic parallelism. In other words the second line is expands the thoughts of the first line. So we have in verse 5 the Lord tests the righteous but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence and so what we see in verse 5 is that the second line of thought burls and expands on the idea of the first line. So here are the two ideas contrasted. The Lord tests the righteous and the Lord hates the wicked. Now the second line expands the idea of the wicked. The wicked are described as the ones who love violence and so more characteristics of the wicked are provided for us in the second line and this is what you call a synthetic parallelism. Amen. So with me family is also a lot of imagery in the Psalm in particular and images and metaphors are used in writing to engage the listener. For the reason why Jesus told a lot of parables and so the psalmist paints for us a number of pictures to grab our attention in verse 2 he presents was the image of a hunter with a bow. The in verse 3 speaks about foundations being destroyed verse 6 he speaks about the rain and coal of fire and then in verse 7 he presents was the picture of beholding the face of God. One other thing worth noting here in Psalm 11 according to Wilcock he stated that there's an absence of prayer in the Psalm that is not common in any of the devotee Psalms and so when you get a typical lament Psalm you usually have the Psalms especially David addressing God and pleading with God but in this case David offers no form of direct appeal to God he just simply makes a proclamation about God and he makes some statements about God and so those are interesting features about this particular Psalm and how we can divide it there's various ways you can divide and structure the Psalm but I'd like to point out one particular way firstly verse 1a forms the first part where David declares his trust in the Lord in the Lord I will take refuge. The second part of the Psalm is from 1b the second half of verse 1 to verse 3 where David begins to provide us with the counsel and advice that came from his friends or advisors and then he gives us some context around the trouble and crisis he's facing and in the last section of the Psalm is from verse 4 to 7 where David literally gives us reasons for why he trusts in the Lord and why he rejects the counsel of his advisors and so this whole Psalm is built around David's response to the counsel he received and then from first reverses he begins to give us the description of the situation that triggered the advice of his trusted friends and then he then exclaims and proclaims who God is and why he places his trust in the Lord and so before we get into the verses this morning I just want to lay down some theological groundwork for you this morning and every now and again if you if you follow me on Facebook I share out some thoughts and this week I shared out some thoughts about the the bigness of God you know and I'll put out some comments around the bigness of God and in theology there's a branch of theology that is categorized as theology proper okay so if you would buy a systematic theology textbook or book the first issue of theology that's dealt with is theology proper now theology proper is the study of who God is and it explores the existence of God the nature and essence of God and how God relates to mankind so when you hear the phrase theology proper it is basically a study of who God is and what God is about and one of the most foundational concepts we can have in our work with God is the idea of a big God I put out some statements that made some people a little bit uncomfortable and one of those statements were that God is not obligated to explain himself it goes down a bit tough difficult it's like ah peanut butter you know Rosco and Judy makes you toast and forgets to put the butter on just puts the peanut butter on your choking you know why it goes down hard you know put out a statement they got never ashes you never harries they brought more conflict someone said no yes he does so my question was how does an omniscience omnipotence all powerful God who knows all things at all times perfectly how is he anxious about meeting a deadline and what makes us assume that we can reduce God to our level to demand explanations for why he does what he does the problem with us is that we've been carrying around with us the image of a small God God is bigger than your experience God is bigger than your theology God is far bigger than you've ever imagined and our life's experience and our our life's education somehow has led us to this point where we believe that we can judge God or review God on our level and that's our greatest problem our greatest problem is that we have a down sized image of God you know where this comes from you know when you are I don't know when I'm coming from the south or sometimes so it helps me with when I'm trying to find myself without any navigation system I just look at that what's that building with it has Vodacom on it you know a big tower what's going to pointy pointy scheme pointy you have this big tower but the further you are away from it the smaller is yeah but the closer you get the more you realize how huge it is and the reason why we have a small image of God is because we are so distant from God but the closer you get to God the bigger he becomes amen A.W. Pink said in a quote the God of the century no more resembles the supreme sovereign of Holy Scripture then does the dumb flickering of a candle resemble the glory of the midday sun the God who is now talked about in our average pulpit talked about in our ordinary children's church mentioned about in religious literature of the day and preached in the most so-called Bible conferences today is simply a figment of human imagination an invention of modulent sentimentality the heathen outside of the pale of Christendom forms gods out of wood and stone while millions of heathen inside Christendom manufacture God out of their own carnal imaginations unquote what are the challenges that are presented to us when we have a downsized image of God number one a weakened faith and trust in the Lord you cannot have strong faith and great faith in a diminished view of God how do you trust in a God that you perceive to be limited and not more powerful yeah how do you worship a God that is that does not invoke any awe and majesty and holiness in you how do you worship and truly adore a God that you view as limited now the issue with having a downsized image of God is that a small image of view of God leads to a minimized view of sin sprout put it this way the problem with a small view of God is that it creates a small view of sin if our sin is trivial then the price that Christ paid is trivial if God is small then his rod is trivial and so is his love a small view of God reduces the significance and impact of the gospel how do you believe that God can change the most wicked of souls if you've diminished a view of his power we undermine the weight of the sacrifice of Christ how do you grow spiritually how do you pursue a deeper relationship with God when you perceive him to be distant and powerless how do you pray fervently to a God that you see his power and his ability to be restricted and there is not willing to answer all your prayers a small view of God may be the reason why some of us are so infrequent in prayer and so superficial in prayer we don't really know who it is we praying to we think prayer is just a toss of the coin in a lake what pool of the arm but a slots no when you pray understand the God that you pray to he's not the God of your imagination he's not the God of the culture he may not even be the God that your average preacher is making out to be he is the God of the scriptures the closer we get to the God of the scriptures the bigger he becomes how do you how do you foster and nurture an urgency to spread the gospel if you don't believe that God can transform lives we need to believe and adopt a big view of God a big God theology when you love your life with the big God theology you crown your life you crown your walk with God and don't allow your experience and don't allow your limited understanding to restrict you from having a big God theology amen now as we get into Psalm 11 I want your Bibles open I want you to follow and track with me the first point we going to address this morning is verse 1a David's declaration of trust right from the beginning of Psalm 11 David is telling us and sitting the scene for what he's going through he's actually paraphrasing a conversation with an imaginary advisor friend might even be in a real conversation he had someone or some people who are really telling him in a nutshell David there's nothing left for you to do you need to flee the righteous are defeated there's nothing left you can do but run and they say in verse 1 and 2 feel like a bird to your mountain for behold the wicked bend the bow they have footed the arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at all those who are upright at heart interesting to note that before the Psalm begins David tells us that he's already made a decision yeah before he gets to describe the trouble he's facing give us the details of what what's occasioned him putting pin to paper and giving us a song invites us into the fact that he has already made a fixed resolution to make God his refuge his refuge and his trust is in the Lord sometimes you have to have made the decision long time before you encounter an issue that my trust is in the Lord sometimes the issues we face because we have not made the decision before you get out of that bed tomorrow morning you tell yourself my trust is in the Lord regardless of what the day presents because we don't know how the days weeks or months are going to unfold but you have to have made that decision in your heart already in the Lord I will trust in the Lord I will take refuge sometimes we overtaken by the stress and challenges of the day because we have not drawn that line in the sand from the word go we have not drawn the line of faith in our lives so the psalmist makes a faith statement sometimes you just gotta make some faith statements I'm not talking about you know at year into the extreme ideas of the clean and the clearing and you know confessing your possessance and your gravity you know I'm talking about vocalizing your faith every now and again you tell yourself I'm a child of God I believe in the Lord every now and again when you presented with with temptations even though you everything in your body wants to say yes you just say it out anyway no I'm a child of God when you vocalize your faith you reinforce your faith sometimes you got the people you gotta preach to you you gotta push yourself first first person you got a preaching and as we see through the life and journey of David sometimes he preached to himself say why are you downcast oh my soul how dawing God yeah sometimes you got to make yourself both the preacher and audience you are encourage yourself in the Lord you are a preach to yourself you're in a pover or my God or you just preach to yourself you vocalize your faith when you vocalize your faith and you make these faith statements it also invites listeners into a deeper relationship and understanding of of your faith than God I mean imagine you surround with family of friends and they are witnessing what you are going through and you tell them my faith and my trust is in God and nothing else and then they witness the miracle unfold and they can come back and they have this point of reference hey I remember that day we didn't even see it my trust is in God man given how did you make it through that yeah did I not tell you my trust was in the Lord so when you make these faith statements you create a point of reference for others as well you can call them to remembrance remember that day when I thought I wouldn't make it through did I not tell you that God was going to bring me through and look there's the proof Strauss says that when we also trust in the Lord and place our confidence in the Lord represents a spiritual disposition that gives your life stability in other words when you place your confidence and trust in the Lord that describes a frame of mind that you've adopted a frame of mind that shapes your behavior and shapes your personality and it enables us to resist the most unbiblical ungodly alternatives and advice that people will voice upon us so when we place our trust in God it's important to know that while we make these declarations there's moments that he'll deliver us from it but what Strauss was hinting to was that there may be moments when he doesn't deliver you from it but he'll deliver you through it but when we place our trusting God it gives us the stability this frame of mind that Lord even if you don't bring me through the fire or bring me from the fire you'll take me through it but I'm not going to disintegrate and my life's not going to fall apart even if the worst happens to me because I trust in the Lord gives you peace in the middle of a storm now when we get to the second part of us one we see the advice that David's counselors present to him and this creates a context for the trouble that David is facing so David says in verse one in the Lord I take refuge then he goes on to say how can you say to my soul flee like a bird to the mountain and so this tells us that his faith statement was a response to the council he received and so David is presented with a choice you have faith in God or you take the council of your friends and you take flight to the mountains like a bird now in psychology the concept is fight or flight this is the situation that that David is in you have a choice to fight or you have a choice for flight and what happens in the flight or fight scenario is that oftentimes your body and your mind will react to a certain threat or danger in in a few ways and so your your mind triggers the part of the nervous system which causes some physical reactions at times so what happens is your heart rate increases and your blood now your your blood pumps really quickly to your muscles and your organs and you have an increased respiratory rate and now your body's trying to get more oxygen into your system and and your pupils become dilated trying now your body's attempt to improve your vision and your peripheral vision in case there's danger around you and there's an increase of adrenaline and cortisol to increase your energy and focus and in this moment you are presented with a choice are you going to fight and confront the danger head on or are you going to be like the proverbial ostrich and put your head in the ground or flee like a bird to the mountains or you're going to take flight and escape from the situation but as a believer we have a different kind of fight of light set up you have the choice to fight in faith or you have the choice to take the flight of fear our fight is always a fight of faith and so David's life was at risk and he was in a time of crisis but he chose faith instead of light and the same is true for us we will always be presented with fate of light the fight of fate because fate is a fight is a fight. Paul says to Timothy he says fight the good fight or faith fate is a fight and so David chooses to trust in the Lord he decides to take asylum in God because he knows who God is he has a big God theology he knows I'm safer in his care and in his hands and in the caves and in the mountains so he's grounded by a big God theology he's not slipping into a deep dark depression or panic because he's carrying around with him a big God theology his life's not falling apart in fear because he does not have a small view of God our lives must be so rooted and grounded and saturated in God in our first response to crisis is faith you know post a client likes to say to speak of a knee jerk reaction you know when life hits you you just have a knee jerk reaction to fate it was Luther who said fate is a loving daring confidence in God's grace so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times this knowledge and confidence in God's grace makes men glad and bold and happy and dealing with God and with all creatures uncle when you place your trust in God you take a asylum in God knowing whom you trust know the God that you serve the God that we trust is an unshakable tower and refuge when you place your trust in the one whose power is unlimited whose wisdom is unsearchable whose love is re-immeasurable you are in safe care he's never broken a promise and his word he esteem's above all he's holy name so when you place your faith and your trust in God you not only place your trust on his promises you place your trust on the promise keeper your faith rests on the character of God and like Tosa said true faith rests on the character of God and us no further proof other than the moral perfections of the one who cannot lie so the advice that David has given comes from well-meaning friends but is able to recognize that even though they are sincere they are sincerely wrong and it was the wrong thing to do and sometimes the worst advice can come from the most well meaning people in your life and sometimes the advice is good but there's a difference between good advice and godly counsel and real discernment is not just knowing how to distinguish between what's good from bad you've got to distinguish between what's good and best you've got a discern was good counsel but what counsel is rooted in biblical truth and so David was discerning enough to tell that though the advice was good it was not rooted in faith and it incited him to fear Tosa stated that counsel that is not rooted in the word of God can be perilous no matter how sincere the giver may be human wisdom without divine truth can lead us to a spiritual wasteland unquote discern human sentiment from godly wisdom discern flawed human reasoning from sound scriptural counsel don't allow well meaning counsel even from the people you love to obscure the wisdom and the voice of God not saying throw away the friendship I'm saying distinguish the council and the two metaphors here that that David uses to describe the council of his friends the first we see from one beat to verse two and it's the extended metaphor he's given the advice to flee like a bird to a mountain and the scripture says in verse two for behold the wicked bend the bow they are footed the arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at those who are upright in hearts the image is of a hunter with bow bows and arrows who have stringed the bows already and the arrow was placed in the bow this tension on the string they getting ready to shoot at any moment but the archers or hunters are in the dark so David does not know when they're going to strike but it's guaranteed that they will strike and so the attacks will come from the shadows it will come from from the secrets in the dark it's not an open attack the goal is to kill the righteous before they see it coming just carries the idea for David that he does not know when the enemy will strike or when he will fall prey to the wicked's intentions the threat is real it will take place soon he doesn't know the precise moment that they will strike and it feels like he has a gun to his head not knowing when the trigger will be pulled in the second metaphor we have is in verse three where the counselors are quoted to have have said if the righteous if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do now this metaphor is presented to us in the form of a rhetorical question the right if the foundations are destroyed what can the righteous do so what we see in verse three is that the crisis goes on to a new level and move from a personal level and now it moves to a more societal level and what the rhetorical question suggests is that the only recourse is flight it's no other option because the foundations once they go on there's no hope for the righteous and so Longman states that the foundations here are likely those of society and probably suggests a disintegration of those institutes and values that maintain social order and protect virtue and thin of evil unquote Ben field states that the foundations year refer to the things that are set in order and futato states that the foundations year generally refer to the foundations of law and order so in the middle of the song the heartbeat question of the summers is actually when all of of the establishments of law and order have fallen apart what can the righteous do yeah this is the despairing question of the song what do we do when the laws of society are not upheld when moral law is disregarded when evil sweeps unchecked what do we do where do we turn what do we do when family values disintegrates what do we do when the tide of divorce sweeps over the nation and culture what do we do when it is increasing damage to to family and home and and the peace of the home what do we do when the economy crashes what do we do in the foundations of law and order for about what do the righteous do David's response in short we take refuge in the Lord amen and so the world might look like it's crumbling at every turn in every institution in every corner but we know we have asylum we have asylum in the Lord his name is a strong tower the righteous run into it and they are safe amen now we get to our lost trophy our lost passage from verses 4 to 7 David now shows us why his trust is in the Lord and his response initially comes to us in two powerful affirmations in verse in verse 4 David says in verse 4 the Lord is in his holy temple and then he says the Lord rules is on the throne in heaven and your two ideas and affirmations yeah the first one is that David turns our attention to the truth that the Lord is imminent the Lord is with us the Lord is present with us because he's in his holy temple this is a reference to the temple of of Solomon or what a temple that was in the time of David in the tent the Lord was not just in heaven above he's with us he hasn't gone anyway and the implication here is that since God is in his temple and hasn't gone anyway we can frequent his temple and we can seek refuge in his presence and in prayer and so right here in the earth as the foundations of society crumble we can take refuge in the fact that God is present with us and not a God who's detached from our daily experience and we can seek him out in his temple and so one of the worst responses you can have or attitudes to adopt when you're going to a crisis is to neglect the corporate fellowship of the saints because we come together in his presence to plea before him come before him amen Calvin said David being destitute of human aid he takes himself to the providence of God it is a signal proof of faith to borrow light from heaven to guide us to the hope of salvation when we are surrounded in this world with darkness on every site now he brings our attention to the fact that he's not only the God that is near he is the transcendent king who was enthroned in the heavens he's present with us but equally true that he rules and reigns from heaven he's not abandoned he's drawn he's sovereign over the affairs of this life he's sovereign over the affairs of this of this world this implies that he's the history of the world and the events of the world are not spinning out of control your life is not spinning out of the parameters of his sovereignty he is still in control and Ephesians says that all things are subject to him all things are subject to his immediate control because he is the God who rules from the heavens and all things are working together for our good because he rules from his throne in heaven one important understanding about God ruling from his throne especially for his new covenant believers his understanding that Christ rules within the Christ isn't thrown in the heavens at the right hand of the Father and he stands there as our mediator and high priest and so we have a high priest and this is so important for we have a high priest who rules from the throne of of the heavens who has been through this life and Hebrews puts it this way we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us in our weaknesses and this brings our tangent to the fact that we have a man upstairs the man Jesus Christ the mediator between the Father and man who has suffered at the hands of wicked men who have suffered the injustices of this world who knows what it's like to be reviled who knows what it's like to be mistreated who knows what it's like to suffer the worst at the hands of men we have someone who knows what it's like to be betrayed physically assaulted appeared clocked from him mercilessly beaten crucified and humiliated on the cross we have someone who has been through worse than you standing at the right hand the Father representing us in the throne room of heaven who looks down upon us and sees our suffering and sees our struggle and knows exactly by experience what you going through but even more so and so he's touched now with the feelings of our infirmity he knew what you went through previously by a sovereign knowledge and his omniscience but now he knows what you go through because he assumed the bodily form in Christ Jesus and he knows to the full extent what it's like to go through pain and suffering and he saw firsthand the pain and suffering that humanity went through every time he looked at a widow that was oppressed every time he looked upon people were who suffered at the hands of sin and wrong me he understood what they went through we often overlooked the fact that it's really a comforting truth to know that we have a high priest who's been through what we've been to and more so and so Christ in heaven represents us and that means God is not detached from what you going through not only is he with us but he's in the heavens represented in Christ and he stands and he understands by experience the misery of what it's like to be human because he knows what it's like to be lonely ostracized persecuted abandoned falsely accused he suffered injustice from every side and now David in verse 4 also turns our attention to the truth that God sees he says his eyes behold his eyelids test the sons of men and so God sees this is a comforting truth God is omniscient he sees and the Psalmist here speaking in anthropomorphic terms and language and basically he's giving human attributes to God and he describes God's knowledge of the affairs of the world and the affairs of our life as as as him looking intently at us examining our lives and Ross stated that this expression probably first to the fact that when God is looking at us he's actually squinting with a close focus on his object and his eyelids are becoming involved with his eyes as engages every detail of your life in other words God is closely and intently aware of all the details of your life and sometimes one reason why I appreciate prophetic ministry I mean so the few weeks ago we had prophet Angela on a team's call and the wrong was it Candace was on the call and prophet Angela began to prophesied to Candace and said Candace I had the sense that you're moving house Candace were you moving house at the time yeah moving in the next month so when he shared that Candace was moving house and she was literally moving house soon did that not indicate that God is aware of even the minute details of your life come on God is interested in your every move and is aware of everything so when you suffer any kind of injustice from people let's not say to assume that he doesn't know he knows he knows and no one is more for you than him and if he knows it's enough you don't need the whole company to know you don't need the whole family to know he knows and that's enough if he knows he'll stand for you he'll fight for you and he'll defend you so sometimes people can mistrew your all your best efforts and misunderstand your intentions and sometimes people will even believe a lie about you instead of the truth what is comforting to know that he knows and that's what matters and so Henry stated that God not only sees man but he sees through them not only all that they say and do but knows what they think what they design and how they really stand affected whatever they pretend we may know that men see what men seem to be but he knows what they really are as the refiner knows what the value of the gold is when he has tried it amen the fact that he sees and he knows should assure us this morning and comfort us this morning in many ways and what's beautiful to know about the fact that God is omniscient and he sees every detail of our life is that he's righteous and we see that in verse four in verse seven Davis is the Lord is righteous and he loves righteousness and so God cares deeply about what's right and he will not allow what's false to go unjudged and unpunished and so I'm at peace that he knows even if nobody else believes me he knows and he's righteous he will do what's right and he will not allow anything to go unjudged having states that the knowledge of God encompasses all things great and small visible and invisible presence and future he sees every act of injustice and in his perfect wisdom and righteousness he will bring every deed into judgment with every secret thing where the good or evil unquote and so when when David says in verse four his eyelids test the sons of men Von Gomeran states that the verb test denotes and speaks to us about the activity of a smith in the process of refining gold and silver now I want you to keep that in mind and so what David does now what we see in verse in verse one to three he gives us more clarity and reason behind the challenges he's facing when he states the Lord tests the righteous and the wicked in verse five so he's testing the righteous and the wicked like a smith would refine gold or silver and now he's given us some understanding as to why he's going through all of this between verses one and three he says because the Lord has allowed this because he's testing us God allowed these moments David understood God had allowed the crisis and the challenges he was facing between verses one and three because the Lord was putting him through a trial dispersion states the righteous are so precious to God that he allows him to be refined with afflictions you and I are so precious to God that he's not simply invested in rescuing you from trouble but he sees how trouble can't benefit you you are you you are so precious to God that is allowed trouble in your life why because trouble and trials will produce in you what good times never will it's tough isn't it yeah we don't we don't we don't think like this with when the block is hot we don't think about us when we going through the pain and the tears and the grief and the depression and the ups and the downs but God is using trials as a crucible to refine you and shape you and deflect you into his image even Jesus had to learn obedience to the things he suffered as a son and so if Jesus did not escape the pruning process through trials and suffering who are we and so he said in this life you will have trouble but hoping God hoping God and some of you trouble has come like a prophet like an answer to play you play Lord increase my faith to go okay I'm on saying you some trouble careful what you play Lord make me more loving I love my wife more brother you don't know what you're asking for the only way you bold muscle is through tearing down muscle weight resistance training your muscles here on a microscopic level micro tears they call it it's painful off the leg day two days off the leg day I can barely walk any of the crutch painful but the resistance is necessary to build your faith so now the psalmist gives us some insight into why he faced trouble even though this was the wicked intentions and motivations of men who loved violence and evil God permitted it and God said I'm gonna you I'm gonna take what's what's evil what men intended for evil and I'm gonna bring out some good in this and that's how infinitely wise and sovereign God is that he can take a disaster bring something beautiful out of it man I I I once I once met a guy who's been through so much and but at the end of all the hell he went through from what I knew him to be and to the man he is now is like the difference between light and darkness but it was necessary for God to allow trials to break him down and mold his character to present this different version of him and so the psalmist gives us clarity as to why he went through what he went through and then we get to to verse five if you if you if you follow with me I'm going now to put my foot on a theological landmine he says the Lord tastes the righteous and the wicked right but he also in verse 5b he says he says something very difficult he says the Lord tastes the righteous but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence the Lord hates the wicked oh my Lord yeah my foot is on it very difficult statement to interpret it's not exactly a clear and direct consensus I'm all at the lodge the theologians I've consulted David declares that God hates the one who loves violence it was Augustine who argued that while God hates the son he loves the son this means that God's hatred is directed towards the wickedness and rebellion inherent in the evil do and not necessarily means the person themselves but I'm going to disagree with Augustine I hope you guys in the leadership of praying from here but if you recall my message last week and I feel sorry for those of you weren't there we have we had to distinguish last week between what's what human rod is and what God's rod is we described human rod has been hysterical out of control out of bounds full of emotionalism but we describe God's rod as being his attitude and action against son his revulsion of son so there's a disparity between how God hates and how man hates how God loves and how man loves how God forgives and how we forgive as I want to present to you a definition for what it truly means for God to hate the wicked at first you need to understand that the evil do and wicked man in this passage is the man who loves what is doing his angry pendants he's woefully disobeying God he has no interest in doing what is right he's an evil doer consumed with wickedness so here's the definition of God's hatred of evil doers is his judicial stance against those woefully and persistently opposing and love wickedness it's his judicial stance against the wicked man in other words God's decided you judged your fate is judgment and condemnation that's God's stance against the wicked and so there are weaker people who enjoy and love wickedness to the extent that God has taken a judicial stand to condemn them at judgment just as he did with Sodom and Gomorrah and here we are presented with this picture in verse 6 where Davis is let the Lord rain colds on the wicked fire and sulfur the scorching of a wound be the portion of the a couple he calls the image of Sodom and Gomorrah how God's judgment was forth right and direct then we conclude in verse 7 the Lord is righteous he loves righteousness and the upright will behold his face verse 7 provides us with a with a suitable conclusion appropriate conclusion for the entire song and it ends on the note of comfort and encouragement the upright those who are righteous will behold his face now this carries a few ideas firstly Walton states that the Mesopotamians carried this metaphor of someone who finally comes before judge or comes before the face of a judge or the face of a God as being an equivalent to being on the good side of the judge in other words if the judge of the God allowed you into your presence before your face you stood on favorable grounds simply for the fact that you gained access to the oppressors and usually in this case the judge or the God would turn upon you with favor the the other idea represented here is is what every old testament believer spied to the hope that was in the heart of every true believer in the Old Testament was a hope of beholding the face of God this is also the ultimate hope that we aspire to as Christians Jesus said in Matthew 5 verse 8 blessed at a pure in heart for day shall see God can you imagine with me for a moment what will be like oh what must have been like for for David the Apostle Paul what will be like for you going through this life having experienced the love of God the saving regenerated work of God saved you from hell and destruction brought you through every crisis in your life formed you protected you nurtured you fed you and given you such hope promise and love enjoy in this life imagine what it would be would have been like for the possible someone who was persecuted for you you know eventually when you got to Rome he was beheaded can you imagine was like for David wondering from you know the ship a boy anointed by Nathan became the king of Israel you know being through so many experiences with God running away from soul running away from Epsilon God speaking to him God giving him a count can you imagine what his life was one day after having gone through this entire life with ups and downs with God what it would be like to finally stand before him can you imagine what that would be like to look into the eyes of the one who saved you so don't tell a story as a funeral once again I'm done so story of an old missionary couple and they were working out in Africa for many many many years and they eventually reached retirement and they were making their way back to New York City where they where they had a home and where they would retire where they would stay they had no pension and their health had taken a toll for the many years in the mission field they were defeated the courage and afraid and they've been through so much spreading the gospel they discovered that when they booked on to the ship it was the same ship that president Roosevelt had had been on and he was returning from a big game hunting tournaments and expedition and so they are on the same ship with the president but no one paid much attention to them it's an old missionary couple all the fanfare was around the president and he was a company with an entourage and all the passengers there were trying to catch a glimpse of the president you know this great man was leading the the nation as the ship moved across the ocean the old missionary man said to his wife babe I feel like something is wrong we've given our whole lives to the faithful service of God we spent many years in Africa and it seems like no one cares about us and here this man comes back from a hunting trip everybody makes much about him nobody gives two hoots about us so his wife turned to him and said yeah don't feel that way and he says I can't help but hon just doesn't seem right and so the ship dot in New York there's a band of people waiting to greet the president the mayor a number of other dignitaries were all there the newspapers and journalists were there they made a good time of the president's arrival and nobody noticed the missionary couple they slept off the ship found the cheap apartments hoping the next day they will get to make it through to the city and that night missionary man's heart was broken thinking to himself I've done so much for the Lord and nobody even gave us a welcome home so he says his wife I just feel like I can't take this feels like God is treating us unfairly his wife responded like any good wife would would do why don't you go into the bedroom and tell the Lord so the man decided to go into his prayer closets prayed and a short time later he comes out of his bedroom and now his face looks different he's happy there's a glow on his face and his wife says dear what happening there and he said and responded to his wife the Lord settled it with me I told him about how part I was that the president would receive this great homecoming and when we got off the ship no one was even there to welcome us and when I was finished seemed to me as though the Lord put his hand on my shoulder and simply said son you're not home yet you're not home yet family is not home and our hopes one day is to stand eyeball to eyeball with the redeemer of our souls we are pilgrims and strangers passing through this life all our hopes are not in what we can achieve here all our hopes are invested like first John chapter Jesus beloved what men of love bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God but has not been revealed what we shall be but we know that when he appears and when we see we shall be just like him that's the hope of my odds one day I get to be whole this face doesn't matter what we go to in his life we'll we'll hit many curves in the road life will throw us many blows an uncertain circumstance but we have this one fixed hope the Lord who is righteous will judge right the Lord who loves righteousness will judge the wicked the Lord who was righteous we will get to behold his face that face that was once mod beyond recognition I was nail scar hands will we'll see it for ourselves amen can we stand and let's pray Lord there are so many folk here this morning your children are going through the most some are going through a tough time in your relationship some are battling health wise some are battling economically financially we overcome with many fears and uncertainties but I pray that we will have this one fixed resolution come what may come hell or high water my trust is in the Lord we take refuge in you whether you deliver it from from us whether you take us through it it's all the same because you righteous and like a refiner like a goldsmith you are working in us the image of your son desires for us to be your image pairs and our desires to be hold you one day face to face and say thank you thank you for giving us this life thank you for giving us everything that we have and possess we are not ungrateful for the things we don't have we thank you for what we have thank you for saving us thank you for identifying with us in this human experience you know what we going through by experience tempted and tested all points as we are yet without sin we have a high priest in heaven our mediator who's touched with the feelings of our infirmity who cares about every detail of our lives you're not detached from everything we're going through help us Lord to be fixed in our trust towards you we bless you and we honor you and I pray Lord that this word will be enough for the Holy Spirit to remind us during this week that we have a God who is in His holy temple that we have a God that we can approach with boldness at any time we can approach Him in our car in our kitchen even in the shower we get