Trusting the LORD to Find True Security: Learning to Pray Psalm 11

 ¹ In the Lord I take refuge.

    How then can you say to me:
    “Flee like a bird to your mountain.
² For look, the wicked bend their bows;
    they set their arrows against the strings
to shoot from the shadows
    at the upright in heart.
³ When the foundations are being destroyed,
    what can the righteous do?”

⁴ The Lord is in his holy temple;
    the Lord is on his heavenly throne.
He observes everyone on earth;
    his eyes examine them.
⁵ The Lord examines the righteous,
    but the wicked, those who love violence,
    he hates with a passion.
⁶ On the wicked he will rain
    fiery coals and burning sulfur;
    a scorching wind will be their lot.

⁷ For the Lord is righteous,
    he loves justice;    the upright will see his face. (NIV)

Psalm 11 is a song of trust. It reminds God’s people of the true source of their security. This is a crucial word for us today. It is easy for us to misplace our security. Too often we rely on our owns strengths and resources. This may involve our wealth, our relationships, our network, our possessions, our intellect, or our talents. Psalm 11 assumes that the challenges facing God’s people are more than our own assets can overcome.
 
Psalm 11 divides into two parts. Verses 1–3 describes the challenges facing the faithful in the world as it exists today. Verses 4–7 proclaim a security that transcends the dangers of the present. It affirms the deep relationship between the LORD and the people of God.
 
Verse 1a opens with the psalmist declaring full trust in the LORD. It is in the LORD alone that the psalmist finds refuge. This is the grounding for the psalmist’s life. The psalmist can face the challenges and even dangers of the present because of the LORD.
 
Verses 1b–3 contain the problem that the psalmist’s trust and faithfulness answers. The psalmist addresses the real concern of the community. How can the righteous find security when people with wicked or evil intent threaten their lives and families? This is no mere hypothetical question for many believers around the world today. A life of faith and mission can be risky. The psalmist’s community ponders the need to flee from the dangers of the world by heading to the mountains. What are the people of God to do when it seems as if all of their assumptions and practices of how to live seem to crumble?
 
The psalmist knows the answer to his implied question. Security is found in the LORD. Verse 4 grounds this is the dynamic truth of the LORD’s presence in our world and transcendence over all Creation. As Christians, we can find comfort and peace in the reality that God is present with us in the now of our lives yet simultaneously able to rule with a view from all eternity.
 
On basis of this truth, the psalmist sketches out the implications for our lives. As we’ve seen in other psalms, there are two groups of people: the righteous and the wicked. The psalmist assumes that he is among the righteous. Whenever we find these divisions in Scripture, it is crucial for us to recognize that it is the LORD who makes these categories and it is the LORD who makes these judgments. As we read vv. 5–6, the righteous are not to rejoice at the downfall of the wicked. The backdrop of the psalm is that the righteous are suffering affliction and hardship. Vv. 5–6 describe the reversal that will ultimately occur if those who prefer and practice injustice and violence do not turn from their ways to abide in the LORD. Verse 7 reminds God’s people of their hope-filled future. The takeaway is that God’s people must stay on course in the present and model God’s holy character with the assurance that this is the right way to make it through the world.

What practices do you keep that ground you in God?
 
What kind of person does this psalm invite you to become to be able to live with integrity as one of the righteous?

The Majesty of the LORD: Learning to Pray Psalm 8 (Part 2)

This post will cover the remainder of Psalm 8. For comments on 8:1–3, check out yesterday's post.

 ¹ Lord, our Lord,

    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

You have set your glory
    in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
⁷ all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
⁸ the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas.

⁹ Lord, our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!

The psalmist stands in awe when contemplating God’s marvelous creation on one hand and on the other hand humanity’s place within it. God shaped the universe in all its vastness yet God invites humanity into a special relationship. Verse 4 asks this question in a way that captures the psalmist’s wonder: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”
 
Verses 5–8 reflect on the place of women and men in God’s world. Much of the language here comes from the creation account of humanity in Genesis 1:26–31. Scripture announces that God has crafted every single person who has ever lived and ever will in God’s image. This lifts up the dignity of every person regardless of economic status, gender, ethnicity, or any other idea or belief that divides our world. This was a unique idea in the ancient world of the psalmist. In the Ancient world, only kings were thought to be in God’s image and this gave them a license to use and abuse other humans as expendable slaves and servants of the king and the gods. 

The biblical view of humanity is sharply different. The bible views every person as a king. All of us have value. This is the what the psalmist marvels about.
 
God created people to serve in God’s mission as stewards over all creation and as witnesses of God’s character to the rest of creation. In light of this good news,  the psalmist returns to his initial exhortation: “O LORD our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
 
We may object and say, “Where do we see this truth manifest in our day?” In Scripture, the reality described by Psalm 8 finds its fullest manifestation in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.
 
In Hebrews 2:6–11, the author connects the hope expressed in Psalm 8:5–6 with the work of Jesus. Jesus comes to fulfill God’s original intentions for all humanity. Jesus lives the perfect human life in anticipation of the full renewal of all things through his death and resurrection. Through Jesus’ faithful life and sacrificial death, Jesus offers the opportunity for all people to receive God’s grace, be made holy, and be reconciled fully to God’s family (Heb 2:11). Jesus came to make it possible for each of us to live as the person whom God created us to be. This is good news. Psalm 8 marvels at the possibilities and potentials of each person. It envisions a different type of world.
 
With the coming of Jesus and his death and resurrection, we as Jesus’ followers can begin to witness through our own lives and serve in God’s mission to manifest God’s future abundance in the now while we await its full manifestation in the coming New Creation.

What does Psalm 8 remind us about the role of humanity in God’s creation?

What does Psalm 8 teach us about Jesus’ life and mission?

How does Psalm 8 help us to understand our mission?