Psalm 11:1-7

May 10, 2020

Lord’s Day Worship

Sean Higgins

The sermon starts around 19:30 in the audio file.

Or, The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is the Lord Himself

One way to hear the Word but not do it is to run away when it gets hard.

Imagine a mechanic who trained for years at the best technical schools, who opened his own shop, who owned the finest tools in town, and then who, when anyone brought him a car for repair, shut the garage doors and went home. He explained to his wife, “You wouldn’t believe how badly the engine sounded! And the brakes were squealing like crazy. What could I do?”

Imagine a soldier who secured the best position on the battlefield, who rallied his fellow troops up to the line, who loaded all his weapons, and who abandoned the cause as soon as he heard the first shot fired. “But they were using real bullets. We could be killed. What could I do?”

A mechanic is meant to use his tools and fix the broken not ignore it. A soldier is meant to fight a real enemy when the rounds are live. He has live rounds, too. Neither one should fear when it’s hard or threatening.

Are not many in the modern Western church mostly men who run away? We believe as long as it doesn’t require us to be too bold, as if someone might disagree with us, let alone if they tried to hurt us. We live in a time and place where others have fought to secure the relative peace we enjoy, and we don’t really expect the foundations to crumble. We may not run, we just ignore. Things are getting harder to ignore.

Psalm 11 should encourage us. David was in a much more dangerous situation than we probably ever will be. But so was his situation more drastic than most of the Jews in Israel who were under his leadership. Yet this song, To the Choirmaster, was meant for corporate worship, these are lyrics to learn and to use.

There are two directions to look, and note, Where are the cameras focused? There is a lot of “seeing” in this psalm. The fearful say, “behold” (verse 2) the wicked who are ready to attack. The faithful, instead, see the LORD in His lordship (verses 4-6) and will see His face (verse 7). More than that, the Lord Himself sees all that’s happening, even the wicked in the dark.

Fearing the Worst (verses 1-3)

The poem is about threat, but the threat wasn’t poetic. The threat was imminent and far-reaching.

In the LORD I take refuge;

how can you say to my soul,

“Flee like a bird to your mountain,

for behold, the wicked bend the bow;

they have fitted their arrow to the string

to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;

if the foundations are destroyed,

what can the righteous do?”

(Psalm 11:1–3, ESV)

It would be helpful to know who was giving this counsel to David, also, that’s not context the Lord wants us to have; those documents were shredded.

Of course, without explicit context, the breadth of possible applications increases, both for the original assembly of Jewish worshippers, and for us as Christians who are called to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

We can also observe from the psalm itself that the counsel does appear to be someone ostensibly on David’s side. The wicked seem to be other, those who presumably would want David dead, not in hiding. The argument for this being an enemy’s mockery might be from the “flee like a bird,” but wouldn’t then the wicked be “we” not a them? “Run away from us like you’ve done before, little birdie.”

They are saying it, David says, to my soul, stimulating anxiety. They are contra Philippians 4:8, “if there is any sense of responsibility, if it could save just one life, think about all these dangers.”

It could be a friend, a trusted counselor, or maybe in effect it is the media and press, reporting so that we can be “safe.” Or maybe it’s medical experts, warning about risks to “public health.” Imagine [...]