Perfection (Psalm 11)

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

As a chosen race and royal priesthood that supersedes any and all national and ethnic boundaries, we look all around us and see wickedness.

The kingdoms of this world are all described in Psalm 2 where David said...

Psalm 2:1 ESV

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

Middle Eastern nations rage against the kingdom of God as they exchange His Son for a counterfeit savior.

African nations rage against the kingdom of God as religious extremists raid neighboring villages beheading anyone who professes Christ.

Asian nations rage against the kingdom of God as they censor and raid churches while imprisoning and abducting pastors.

Our nation, the American nation, rages against the kingdom of God by electing officials that promote godless ideologies and pass legislation that seeks to eliminate the defenseless and unborn.

All of these nations are the kingdom of this world.

They live by worldly wisdom.

They plot and scheme and oppose the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.

But… it is all in vain!

Our God is our refuge.

We can flee to Him knowing the truth of God’s Word according to Isaiah 54:17

Isaiah 54:17 ESV

no weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.”

Hang your hat on that, brothers and sisters!

And this is the message of Psalm 11.

A bit of context...

This Psalm was written by King David at an undisclosed time.

There are Psalms that are attributed clear historical settings, and then there are Psalms like the one we are looking at tonight that provides nothing in the way of setting.

We see that it was written for the choirmaster, so it could logically be assigned a later date, once David officially became king and had that sort of influence on the worship of the people,

But we cannot know for certain.

It references a time of intense trouble.

The world is coming apart around David.

So, what does he do?

He composes.

He sings.

He, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, puts into words the outpouring of his soul as he is staring trouble straight in the face.

When it comes to posturing our hearts, we can learn a lot from the Psalms.

They give voice to every possible human emotion in a way that honors the Lord.

They describe the Lord rightly

They describe the Lord as He is, not simply as we want Him to be.

They describe us, His people with clarity.

When we stand, fully basking in His righteousness, the Psalms show us how to celebrate.

When we are in sin, they show us how to confess.

When we are hurting, they show us how to mourn and lament.

So let’s tune our souls this evening.

Let’s put our hearts in harmony with the Gospel.

May our souls be expectant as we digest its truth this evening.

As we parse through Psalm 11 this evening we are going to see...

Perfect Trust (v 1-3)

Perfect Holiness (v 4)

Perfect Hatred (v 5-6)

Perfect Love (v 7)

If you are able, please stand as we read.

These are the very words of God...

Exposition

Psalm 11 ESV

To the choirmaster. Of David. 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?” The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

[Pray]

Right out of the gate, David exemplifies...

Perfect Trust (v 1-3)

It was first and foremost in his mind that the Lord is in control.

We aren’t sure who is telling him to flee.

It could be kindly friends who want to see their king kept safe in the face of certain danger.

It could be wicked enemies taunting him.

“Run away little David. Flee before our might!”

Whatever the case, David is confident in his safety.

His refuge,

His stronghold,

His place of safety,

isn’t a mountain.

It isn’t a statically advantageous high ground.

It is His Lord.

Because of this, David is incredulous at these suggestions.

He refuses to back down and flee even though we see that the wicked come at him from a position of strength.

Let’s consider their approach.

The wicked are bending the bow, targeting God’s people in a manner that flexes their muscles.

Any of you who have hunted and held a bow know the difficulty this

Their arrow is on the string, meaning the threat is imminent.

Just as you don’t put your finger on the trigger of a gun unless you are intending to fire, you don’t put an arrow to the string without intending to shoot.

They are shooting in the dark showing calculated cunning.

They aren’t just randomly firing into the night, hoping they hit something.

This is the picture of an assassin poised and ready to strike.

They aren’t fighting fair.

They aren’t coming head on.

They are sneaking about in the dark setting ambush.

They have one goal, and one goal alone.

To take out the righteous by any means necessary.

Application

So often, we want to start with the latter part of verse 1 and pass through our lamenting BEFORE we state our trust.

We want to talk about hardship.

We want to complain about difficulties.

How many conversations have you had where you bemoan the state of things only to tack on the obligatory “But, I know that God’s in control!” at the end of things?

As God’s people we have to BEGIN with trust and view every circumstance through the lens of God’s sovereignty.

He is in absolute control.

He has the final say.

He has written the end from the beginning.

We HAVE to trust Him.

Satan wants us to tremble, not trust.

The wicked want us to retreat, despair, lose hope.

Charles Spurgeon once said...

When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our confidence, and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us like the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself.

Charles H. Spurgeon, The Treasury of David

Distrust is a chink in our armor that we have to constantly maintain.

We have to plug it continually with the kept promises, the accounted faithfulness, of our God.

We not only need to remember what He has said and done, but Who He IS.

And that leads us into verse 4.

Perfect Holiness (v 4)

After seeing righteous David positioned in the refuge that is his God,

and the wicked positioned to strike David down,

we get a reminder of God’s position over it all.

Psalm 11:4 ESV

The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.

Position of Holiness

He is in a position of holiness.

Here David depicts the Lord as simultaneously being in His temple AND enthroned in heaven.

Both are holy places.

The temple was the physical representation of God’s holy presence among His people.

And heaven is synonymous with the eternal presence of God.

He is above all things, set apart, other, holy.

Using both of these locational references for God’s presence is also a poetic way to emphasize His omnipresence.

How He is everywhere all at once.

By saying that He is in His holy temple, it is recognized that the Lord is in the midst of His people.

By saying that His throne is in heaven, the psalmist is calling attention to the fact that the Lord reigns over all and nothing can escape His watchful gaze.

He sees everything...

The Lord’s holy position affords Him a holy perspective.

He is not only there, He sees all.

David expounds on the omnipresent watchfulness of God more fully later in Psalm 139.

Psalm 139:7–12 ESV

Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

There is nothing hidden from the Lord.

There is no separation from His presence.

This can either be a very comforting truth, or a terrifying reality.

Nothing that is done in the hidden darkness of individual solitary life is missed.

He sees your integrity.

And He sees your secret sins.

Jesus Himself spoke to this when He said...

Luke 12:2–3 ESV

Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

He tests everything...

If the knowledge that everything you do is exposed before the Almighty God of the universe is not sobering enough for you, verse 4 also makes clear that He doesn’t merely SEE everything.

He TESTS everything.

And the standard by which He tests everything is His own holiness.

His perfect holiness informs how He interacts with the righteous and the wicked alike.

Application

As God’s people, we must join the Psalmist in acknowledging the holiness of God.

We must recognize that we live under His watchful gaze.

This should give us great courage and deepen our trust when we are living righteously.

But it should, likewise, call us to repentance when we are sinning in the shadows.

The final verses of Psalm 11 offer further insight into God’s testing eye.

While the Lord turns His piercing, righteous gaze at everyone, judging the righteous and the wicked alike, He has a strong reaction against the wicked.

Perfect Hatred (v 5-6)

Psalm 11:5 ESV

The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

The Lord HATES the wicked from the depths of His being.

Now, passages like this can be difficult for us to swallow.

We live in a world where hate can be anything from burning down the house of a rival to saying that men cannot play women’s sports.

We’ve so diluted and diversified the meaning of the word that it is almost useless to us at this point.

We also read elsewhere in Scripture (even just verses later) and hear sermons on God's great love.

Pastor Matt just preached from Matthew 5, that we are supposed to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

So, how do we reconcile God's graciously merciful love with such clear statements of hatred?

We often either dismiss them outright or try to explain them away.

We are going to do neither this evening.

Let’s tackle this head on using Scripture to understand Scripture.

First, we have to acknowledge that Psalm 11:5-6 does not stand alone in expressing this sentiment.

Psalm 5:4–5 ESV

For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you. The boastful shall not stand before your eyes; you hate all evildoers.

Malachi 1:2-3 is quoted in Romans 9:13...

Romans 9:13 ESV

As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

And there are plenty more...

Likewise, passages expressing the love of God to unworthy sinners abound.

1 John 4:9–10 ESV

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Romans 5:6–10 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

Each of these passages must be used to interpret the others.

Because, as people of the book, we recognize that there is nothing contradictory within God’s Word.

Next we have to recognize that hatred and love, even when aimed directly at someone, can convey different connotations.

On one hand, hate can be an intense loathing of a quality.

On the other, it can be an intense intentionality to destroy.

Love is the same way.

One one hand it can mean an intense delighting in a quality.

And on the other, it can mean an intense intentionality to bless even IN SPITE OF the presence of some unsavory quality.

Thirdly, we must recognize that God’s application of hatred and love stem from His sovereignty.

The same sovereignty that invites our trust, loves us despite the unsavory scent of sin that still clings to our souls.

His hatred of the wicked is the hatred is the loathing of their sinful qualities.

They are identified BY their sins.

They are dead IN their sins.

Notice that this is more than simply hating their wickedness.

A quality is not something one does, it is a part of who they are!

If you are at odds with God, and dead in your sins, God hates the quality of your life.

You are His enemy and stand diametrically opposed to His holiness.

He cannot allow unrighteousness to stand.

His perfect holiness and justice cannot allow it.

He would cease to be holy and just if He loved, or even tolerated, the quality of sin.

So, He hates the wicked with a perfect, righteous hatred.

What does He do with that hatred?

He punishes it.

He eradicates it.

Psalm 11:6 ESV

Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.

This language is reminiscent of Genesis 19 where God rained down fire and sulfur upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It also harkens back to Psalm 1:4 where wicked are blown away like chaff.

In the culture of Ancient Israel, the host, the authority, had the duty and obligation of ensuring that the cups of those with him were filled appropriately.

The Lord fills everyone’s cup.

The cup of the wicked He fills with judgement.

Psalm 75:8 ESV

For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

Application

There are several encouragements to find in the Lord’s perfect hatred.

If you are in Christ, if He is the Lord and Savior of your life, He this cup for you on the cross.

God’s holy wrath had to be satisfied.

So Christ took it upon Himself to drain it to its dregs in the stead of ruined sinners so that we could be reconciled to God the Father.

The quality of your life can be reconciled through Christ.

On top of this, we can know that there is no wickedness in this world that will not go unpunished!

When we are staring injustice in the face and crying out for the world to be mended,

when all feels lost and like the very foundation of society is coming unraveled,

go back and hope in the perfection that is our refuge!

It is neither within your power, nor your responsibility, to redeem this world.

Leave that to the already completed work of Christ.

In light of God’s perfect hatred of the wicked, we have one last perfection to behold.

If He can hate with perfect hatred, how important it is to recognize His perfect love...

Perfect Love (vs 7)

Psalm 11:7 ESV

For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

The Lord ultimate love is Himself.

And this is not a selfish, self-serving kind of love.

The reality is that He is in full understanding that He is the only thing WORTHY of this kind of love.

He is jealous for His own glory.

But the beautiful thing is that He has created mankind in His image.

He loves His people because He sees himself in them.

He looks at you and sees His righteousness reflected in the seal that Christ has put on your soul.

The robe of righteousness that was traded for our filthy rags of works.

Conclusion

And, in the place of a wrath-filled cup, the LORD is the portion for the righteous.

Psalm 16:5 ESV

The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.

Tonight, I want to ask you what’s in your cup?

Are you silently drowning in the wrath of God?

Or have you found a portion in Him?

Are the foundations of your life being destroyed?

Does it look easier to run for the hills than to face your present circumstances?

There is a perfect One to place your trust.

Trust in His perfect holiness.

Trust in His perfect hatred.

Trust in His perfect love.

John Newton, the author of Amazing Grace wrote a lesser known hymn titled Why Should I Fear the Darkest Hour?

I close with these beautiful words.

Why should I fear the darkest hour,

Or tremble at the tempter’s power?

Jesus vouchsafes to be my tower.

Though hot the fight, why quit the field?

Why must I either fly or yield,

Since Jesus is my mighty shield.

- John Newton, Why Should I Fear the Darkest Hour?

Related Media

Related Sermons

Earn an accredited degree from Redemption Seminary with Logos.