Photo by Jonny Gios on Unsplash
By Mike Chaffin
In the Lord I put my trust;
How can you say to my soul,
“Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
2 For look! The wicked bend their bow,
They make ready their arrow on the string,
That they may shoot secretly 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 behold,
His eyelids test the sons of men.
5 The Lord tests the righteous,
But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates.
6 Upon the wicked He will rain coals;
Fire and brimstone and a burning wind
Shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the Lord is righteous,
He loves righteousness;
His countenance beholds the upright.
In the Lord I put my trust. Sound familiar? It was on every coin minted in the United States; “In God We Trust.” A motto that deserves to be lived out and leaned on.
This Psalm is one of a series of laments, Psalm 10 – 14, which are grouped together depicting a world of wicked people flourishing amid our confusion as to why God allows this. We answered that question with our study of Psalm 10. God is a loving, merciful and patient God, not willing that any should perish but that all should repent and be saved.
Psalm 11:3 asks, “What can the righteous do if the foundations are destroyed.” The foundations are the moral principles of society. This was a problem in the time of David, and it is still a problem today. Wicked people want to call good evil and evil good. Immorality is tearing out society apart. Therefore, we can read, sing, or pray the laments of Psalms 10 -14 today and completely understand. They have not lost their meaning. In fact, they help us understand that evil people do evil things, and for a time, appear to prosper.
However, if we trust in God, hold on to Him, and let His righteousness live in us, He will uphold us, as the scriptures say, “With His mighty right hand.” He sees what the wicked are doing and they will be judged.
In the beatitudes Jesus told us those who mourn will be comforted. If we are righteous, we feel the pain of living in a society ruled by wickedness. We mourn for God; we mourn for those sinners, and for a time when unbelief and wickedness will flee before the light of Christ. That day is here. Trust in God for He is in control.
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
