Feeling and thinking in Psalm 11: Run, stand your ground or call in the big guns?

 Feeling and thinking in Psalm 11: Run, stand your ground or call in the big guns?

Psalm 11

For the choir director: A psalm of David.

1 I trust in the Lord for protection.

So why do you say to me,

    “Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!

2 The wicked are stringing their bows

    and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings.

They shoot from the shadows

    at those whose hearts are right.

3 The foundations of law and order have collapsed.

    What can the righteous do?”

4 But the Lord is in his holy Temple;

    the Lord still rules from heaven.

He watches everyone closely,

    examining every person on earth.

5 The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked.

    He hates those who love violence.

6 He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked,

    punishing them with scorching winds.

7 For the righteous Lord loves justice.

    The virtuous will see his face.

People get panic stricken. They convince themselves that this is the worst it has ever been. People become alarmist and they become compelled to convince everyone that extreme measures are needed because we are in the worst of times, we are in the end times, we are in a godless, evil time where there is no hope for good. These pessimists only know the human side of the equation. They deliberately forget, says Peter about the time of Noah. So as holy scaremongers they only see retreat as the answer. Hunker down and wait, get ready, gather all your supplies and be prepared. The hard part is that of course there is wisdom in wise planning and there is truth in a terrible future here on earth. But as David reminds us, these doom merchants have forgotten something even more crucial in an emergency. God does not change. God has never ceased to be in charge. God sees everything. And God has an opinion. David is confident that not only does God have a strong opinion about evil and violence but David is sure God has an action plan to sort it out. I am constantly faced with this decision: do I accept the assessment of the situation I am being presented by the hopeless and harried? Or do I cling to the comfort I have that this is part of God’s plan? God can handle this too. If God can raise the dead and make a force out of the dry bones of a long dead army, then God can handle this too. And David repeats to himself the same thing I sometimes have to say as a mantra to my fears. He knows. God knows. Nothing has escaped His attention. He has not missed the latest news. And He really knows the truth.

In The Message by Eugene Petersen Psalm 11 is paraphrased like this, 

“I’ve already run for dear life

straight to the arms of God.

So why would I run away now

when you say,”

And then a bit further on

“But God hasn’t moved to the mountains;

his holy address hasn’t changed.”

 

And that got me thinking about Jesus. He is described as a mountain in Daniel.

44 “During the reigns of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed or conquered. It will crush all these kingdoms into nothingness, and it will stand forever. 45 That is the meaning of the rock cut from the mountain, though not by human hands, that crushed to pieces the statue of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God was showing the king what will happen in the future. The dream is true, and its meaning is certain.”

Daniel 2

Today we know with certainty that this is Jesus the King God has established to rule over the kingdom of God which is taking over everything. So we don’t have to run to the mountains for safety, the mountain has come to us.

I know there are many of you reading this still thinking that the enemy isn’t so bad and it’s not a God of love if that God hates,

He hates those who love violence.

6 He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulfur on the wicked,

Psalm 11:5b-6a

The humanist keeps placing his hope in the ability of humans to change, make peace, fix things and improve the world. Their faith is in the idea that man is basically good or at least neutral at heart and can be educated to do good, to make peace and improve themselves.

These humanist hopes are based on a very personal and individual perspective. The pessimist and the humanist can be the same person. I know things can be better. I am not a bad person. I could do good if given a chance. So I figure that if we all give each other a chance and quit placing our hope on a distant and inactive God or myth, then we will all get along and have peace. These people are very disturbed by passages in the Bible that tell us God will judge evil, that He hates violence and that He will use floods and fire from heaven to sort things out.

But David starts this Psalm with a simple declaration of trust. The New Living Translation wraps up the meaning of the whole phrase and renders it, I trust in the Lord for protection.

In Hebrew it begins with the Lord, In the LORD / Yᵊhōvâ and ends with David I take refuge ḥāsâ

 בַּֽיהוָ֨ה חָסִ֗יתִי

Whatever comes after that is of little concern really. People will say all kinds of things about every sort of situation, circumstance or potential outcome. David has a plan. Run to God. All the advice givers, prophets of doom or proclaimers of freedom can give all the advice they want but David, his plan is to go to God. His protection, his safe place, his hope, his response is to hunker down in faith. Trust the Lord. Trust the Lord for your protection. Is the world falling apart? Trust the Lord. Are people threatening you? Trust the Lord for protection? It may seem too simple. It may sound too naive. But David is confident he’ll see God's face. And David ends with a recap of the same simple formula:

The Lord is righteous

The Lord loves righteousness.

The righteous person will see the Lord’s face.

I don’t know what you are afraid of. I have been afraid of world collapse, evil gangs, wicked thieves, violent people, and encroaching wars, devious governments, and lying, cheating, and stealing false prophets. But the answer to my fears is simple, and David points me in the right direction. 

Trust the Lord for protection.

Landscape with the Flight to Egypt from 1545 until 1550

Cornelis Metsys (Circa 1510 - Around 1562) Antwerp