And now let's pray a prayer for illumination. Heavenly Father, you know that we are weary and tired and worried and in distress and some lost in sin. Lord, we pray that you would distribute the bread of heaven, that you would set before each of us what is needed. Lord, we think of the sweetness of this time and this place and the closing of the Lord's day. Lord, one day this, we will face our last Lord's Day and then we will be in your presence forevermore. Lord, we look forward to that time. In Jesus Christ's name, amen. Well, it seems like there's an epidemic of fear and despair and hopelessness facing our nation. And the church has not been immune. The foundations of society, when they begin to shake, it's like there's a hand that gets put on our faith and our faith gets shaken as well. Maybe you have struggled or doubted God's providential care in these difficult days. More hidden and dangerous yet than the foundations of our society shaken is the foundations of the church shaken. And I would bet that most of us have had our thoughts and prayers on our nation. and have not prayed as much for the church in these days, which is sorely needed. Matthew Henry on Psalm 11 said, in times of public fear, when the insults of the church enemies are daring and threatening, it would be profitable to meditate on Psalm 11. In Psalm 11, David's been the anointed king, but he's in a desperate condition. The foundations of Israel are crumbling. His example of faith and hope in a dark hour to be an example to us and a light to our path. We are in need of our faith to be renewed, and we're in need of our hope in God's providential care over His church and all the commotion of the world to be restored. Psalm 1 and 2 provide a context for all the psalms in the Psalter, And I want to sort of pull out just the themes of hope in both of those psalms. Psalm 1, hope for me, and Psalm 2, hope for the nations. Have you ever read Psalm 1 and asked yourself, am I the blessed man, or are my sins excluding me from the blessing of God? Well, our hope is that the blessed man was first and foremost Christ Jesus, and that our blessing is found in him, that he breaks it open for us We can think of ourselves as a stick snatched from the fire. And we listen to the Old Testament when it talks about God the Father electing his people in love and planting his branch like an oak of righteousness that he might be glorified. And we think of Christ the vine that we're attached to, and also the gardener that's pruning, bringing sort of a New Testament imagery in. Christ is actively pruning us with his word, and he's actively pruning you with his trying providences. And then we think of the influence of the Holy Spirit, that river that waters the tree. Revelation talks about the Spirit of God flowing out of the throne of heaven like a mighty waterfall. And so, as we talk about hope for me and hope for you, we have the election of the Father that is standing over us and planting us, not in the soil of this life, but in the soil of eternity. The Son at our side, trimming and pruning with His word and providence, and the sweet influences of the Holy Spirit, so that no matter what happens to us, it works for our good, and it grows us in our sanctification to the end of our salvation. Well, if Psalm 1 is hope for me, how about Psalm 2, hope for the nations? Here's the hope for the nations, that as they all gather together and band against our Christ and our king, they're unable to break free. They don't overcome the king. God has set his son holy and just in the heavens, and he has given the nations as an inheritance. They've not yet been destroyed, and that means there's time for salvation. There's mercy yet for the nations. And so these two Psalms together set a context for where we're about to go. We're about to talk about God's king and God's covenant and God's kingdom. The holy and just man Christ Jesus that blesses and benefits us and is working on the stage of nations for his good and for his glory. Psalm 11 can be broken down into two sections. First, if you look at verses one through three, you'll see a lament of the crumbling kingdom of Israel. It'll be interesting to note, this isn't David's lament. It's the lament of his counselors. And in verses four through seven, we have David's response of faith and hope in an eternally secure kingdom of God. So we're gonna see this in two sections. And here's what we're gonna learn. Psalm 11 teaches us that even in conditions that cause distressing anxiety, the believer should sing a song of confidence. Psalm 11 teaches us that even in the conditions that cause distressing anxiety, the believer should sing a song of confidence. As we look at David's song, we'll notice that he's singing it before he's delivered. and that the argumentation that he enacts is based on God's character, his active involvement in history, and his just and perfect judgments. That's why David is in the darkness and singing of the light of God and his deliverance. Beginning with David's distressing condition in verse one through three. Well, we immediately notice a contrast between the logic and emotion of David's counselors and David. David opens up saying, in the Lord, I put my confidence. In the Lord, I put my trust. In the Lord, I take refuge. He calls God Lord, all capital letters, Yahweh, the eternal creator God that's also bound himself in covenant to people of Israel. So his trust is squarely on the eternal God that has married himself to his bride. David's vulnerable and he's in need of refuge. When's the last time you ran anywhere for help? typically don't have to flee, and so it can be kind of a foreign picture to us. My daughter Eden is two years old, and trucks will come down our street, and there'll be this great rumble, and she'll squat down, she'll cower, and then she'll just start running to me. And that's a beautiful picture of what the vulnerable do. There's a cowering with that initial fear, and then there is a clinging to the Heavenly Father. Well, Sometimes it might surprise you, as we have all these hurricanes that come to our coast, some people just never leave, right? And so there's the opposite, which could be a self-reliance. And there's nothing necessarily wrong with self-reliance, but it can have a dark side. There can be a spiritual self-reliance that can cause injury. What if Our continual anxiety and exhaustion and fear is because we can't cope with all that we can't control, and we're cowering in the front yard and not running to our Heavenly Father. This may be difficult for us to deal with, but what if Christians that are locked in prison actually are experiencing more freedom in Christ than we are? Persecution has a way to clarify ultimate realities and it weans you from the world. And I can feel anxious when I am worried about losing all those things that I can't control. Self-reliance can cause self-injury. And so from David, who is in a vulnerable position, he's not trusting in his safe places, his prepared places of refuge, but ultimately and only on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, as a father, it would pain me if I was in the front yard and Eden was terrified and she wouldn't come to me or she ran the other way. There's a picture of our heavenly father loving to see us run to him and cling to him. And so the question is, has our anxiety and distress not stopped because we've refused to cling to God with a childlike faith? Cowering is not a mark of the spirit. It's in the Christian's DNA to run and cling to their Heavenly Father. And David, in a life or death situation, is a wonderful example of this. Here's the demoralizing counsel that starts very early on. Forsake your post, David, is the essential part of this argument. Flee like a bird to your mountain. Hebrew, the word flee is in plural, meaning we should flee now. And David, has an intended rebuke. How can you say this to me? As a soldier, we know that David had retreated before, but there's something different this time. As a saint, he can't give up on the covenant promises of God. He can't forsake his post as the anointed king. He can't let the promises of God go. There's something of the sin of apostasy wrapped up in this where David must cling to the Lord and not cower and not abandon or abdicate the throne. Now David doesn't say, how can you say to me, but he says, how can you say this to my soul? And the reason why he says to my soul is because this counsel strikes him deep. It's an icy hand that puts a grasp on his faith. And it's so piercing to him because it's very persuasive. In verse two, we're gonna see a progression of grave danger. 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. Unrighteous men from positions of power in great darkness want to assassinate the Lord's anointed. And here they are to kill a king and to kill a kingdom and to oppose the very purposes of God. And the prince of darkness is behind it, going after that bloodline of Christ. So many times in the Old Testament, a line of promise just hangs by a thread, and yet God is always faithful in razor decisions to save His church. Now, I haven't read the New Living Translation, but I wonder, in the modern translation, how they would translate verse two. Maybe it would read something like this. David, there's a bullet in the chamber. Crosshairs are on your back. Red dots are lighting up our chest. It's time for us to go. Verse three is the conclusion of their demoralizing argument. David and Israel are under attack. The kingdom is at the verge of being overthrown or destroyed. And here's what they say. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Now, the verse is a little tricky to translate. In whichever way you take it, verse three is demoralizing and full of despair. In the face of anarchy, nothing's worth doing. Maybe just get under a rock and hide. Or, a little less likely, David, you should save your life at all costs. Well, David's response is his song of confidence. David's gonna raise the shield of faith against fiery darts, and he's gonna see ultimate realities. Here's what he says, my mediator is in heaven, in his holy temple, and God is on his royal throne. Here's David's resolve. I'm not gonna think, act, or live like the king of heaven has lost control. He's not able to combat evil, no longer cares about mounting unrighteousness, or no longer cares for me. Calvin said that everybody believes in God's providence until a confusion of distressing events disturbs them and then few do. What I'd like you to do is just scan your thoughts, the thoughts of your heart over the last five months. Do you need to recommit to a bedrock doctrine of God's providential loving care for his church? Maybe you've had the truth in your mind, but it's time for it to go down to the basement of your soul. David's resolve comes from his argument in verses four through seven. In summary, this is what he says. One, my mediator is in his holy temple. My king is seated on his judgment throne. He has dominion over men. He sees everything. He is testing the righteous and he hates those who love wickedness. He's going to preserve me and the storm of his judgment is soon coming. And in the end, I'm gonna see him face to face because he loves me. The tension in the Psalm is obviously for David's immediate physical safety and he is expecting to be delivered. He needs no other refuge. He doesn't need to go to the mountains. He has his God. And as we begin to look at this section, we see a great contrast between two kings and two kingdoms. Below is a king who is tempted into exile. and above is a king who is enthroned, and court is in session, and all the earth should keep silent before him. Below, the foundations of Israel are crumbling, and above is a heavenly city whose builder and maker is God." Well, Revelation 4 takes us into the throne room of heaven, and as we go there, we are looking at the glory of God shining through three precious gemstones. And like I had alluded to in the reading of Revelation 4, these stones show up in the foundation of the New Jerusalem. And they teach us something about the throne and the glory of God himself. Now we know that God dwells in unapproachable light, and he clothes himself in light like a garment. And so when John is describing the throne and the father sitting on it, he's careful. He doesn't say, God, the father's sitting on the throne. He says, one, someone with reverence. And he's not describing God himself, but the radiating glory of God through these object lessons. There are not literal stones sitting on the throne, but there is something to learn of the glory of God. Revelation 4.3, we have the jasper stone, the stardust stone, and the emerald rainbow. And the jasper was clear as crystal. We think of the cleanliness and the purity and the perfection and the holiness of God. We know that Jasper is clear as crystal because in Revelation 21, when the church like a bride is descending, the church is clothed with God's glory. And she's wearing the Jasper stone. She is radiating the very glory and purity given to her by Christ. Well, the Sardis stone was a blood red stone. And when you think about the glory of God radiating through a blood red stone. It must have been something like a dancing fire. And here we look at the holiness of God expressing itself in holy and just judgments. And that we have to acknowledge that men will be judged from this heavenly throne and that they will be sent away from this throne. God's purity and his wrath are limitless. But so is His grace. And we see an emerald rainbow, 360 degrees around the throne of God. And we might do well to remember that the throne of God and the heavens themselves are part of the created order. And that they have been there since the beginning of time. And that this ring, this ring of promise, this covenant sign, was there from the very beginning. Joel Beakey commenting on this emerald rainbow said, the storm of God's wrath has passed, and the smile of his love meet here at the center of the universe. For the one who comes to God in Christ, the storm has passed, the floodwaters of judgment have receded, and mercy and grace rush from the throne in every direction. So we might think of the covenant of redemption, that pact the father made with the son and the spirit, that the father would give a people to his son, that the son would willingly die for that people, and that the spirit would bind them together forever. In eternity past, That promise is made, and at the very beginning of time, this ring of promise shows up. And it reminds us that no matter how God looks at us, whatever direction or angle that he's looking through his covenant love, there's never been another way that God can look upon his church except through covenant. His mercy is full and free. Is it not broken? That rainbow is not broken by my sin. When God looks out in any direction, he's looking at his church through covenant faithfulness, ordering all provinces, all actions for the good of his church. And at the center of the universe is not cold sovereignty, but fatherly love for me. And so as we go back to this sort of original problem of having our faith challenged with trying providences, this is what you need to hear, that God has loved you from old. And here's the sign of promise that he has always had before him, even before you came to this earth. Well, look at verse four. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. David is not just telling us that God is in heaven, but that he rules from heaven. He's ruling and reigning. And if God rules from heaven, he must necessarily attend to the affairs of men. in order to one day bring judgment upon them. His judgment is infallible and perfect. We know other men by what they report to us and how they appear, but God knows men not only as they seem, but as they really are, testing the spirit, trying the motives. God not only sees men, he sees through them. You might think of the Gospels when Jesus startled his opponents by telling them their very thoughts. In verse five we read, and end of verse four as well, his eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men. He rules men and so he examines them. That's in his domain. He is proving them, he is trying them, he is testing them for value. You know the Lord tests you, tries you, tests your mettle to bring out the best in you. He's patient with us. The Lord tests the righteous. for the purpose of bringing them perfection and salvation. And when James tells us to count it pure joy, it's rational, it's not hyper-spiritual. That's what God is doing for his bride. Deuteronomy 8.16 tells us, God tries the children of men to do them good in the latter end. I think of the life of Job, the difficulties that he went through. to bring him good in his latter days, and that's true for every believer. But the wicked, there's distinction here, but the wicked and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. There are those that hate the order of God. the work of God, the mission of God, the Christ of God, and they are seeking to undo all that the church would like to do. When you think back to Psalm 2, as the nations conspire wickedly against our Christ and our King, and yet they are unable to stop the advance of the gospel. Now, God doesn't immediately punish the wicked, but we read here that he hates all wickedness. Now as you look at verses five and six, the life of the church lives in the white space between those two verses. There's a coming judgment and there's a patience that the church needs to endure as it struggles under wicked men in wicked days. It can be difficult. It'd be very difficult to endure wicked days when wicked men prospers. Maybe we'll have some more difficult days ahead that make these days feel easy and light. Sometimes you might ask yourself, why doesn't God just crush evil now? Maybe some of you, like me, have a hard time sleeping at night as you think about all the evil things that are happening in this world. Why doesn't God bring it all to an end right now? You see, God had a different plan. His plan was to crush his son instead. You see, my sins put him to death, and that's worse than anything we can ever do to anybody. And there's hope for the nations in this time, and there's hope for me, and we should be praying that all the earth would be gathered into the kingdom of God. Judgment's coming soon. God has the authority, the divine awareness and power, and the right to both exercise his justice and distribute his grace. Verse six, upon the wicked he will rain coals. Fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous. Have you ever opened a door to an oven and been knocked back by the hot blast? It's a small picture of the wrath wind of God that is coming. Malachi 4, speaking on the day of final judgment. For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven. And all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts. That will leave them neither root nor branch. The wrath of God is coming, and the wrath wind is coming. The psalmist here picks up the words fire and brimstone out of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Just like the deliverance from Egypt is this type of salvation used throughout the Bible, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is a type of final judgment that's to come. The thing about fire and brimstone was that it was sudden, it was surprising, it was final judgment by fire. And so that is what David is saying will come. There's a line here with a reference to the cup. We might think of the cup of blessing that Christ gives us to drink. And he drank down the cup of God's wrath as eternal fire on our behalf. And yet for the wicked who refuse to drink from the cup of God's mercy, it's their turn to drink from the cup of God's wrath. It shall be their importion and it shall be their inheritance. A cup of God's wrath is infinite, and it has no bottom, and they will be made to drink from it for all eternity. It has no end. In this life, the righteous may not be able to stop the wicked, but it's up to a righteous God who has an untouchable kingdom. We look at verse seven. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright. God is righteous and he loves the church, and he's working all things for her good, for those who love him and are called according to his purpose. And we have here something of the countenance and the face of God, and it makes us think of that ironic blessing. God's face shines upon his people for blessing. In the Old Testament, when God's face would shine upon you, it was his grace, it was his peace, it was his favor, and it was his blessing. The first line of the psalm, in the Lord I put my trust, tells us where our safety lies. But the last line in the psalm tells us where our heart should be. His countenance beholds the upright. Our heart is in that moment when we get to see our Savior face to face. One day our hearts will break wide open with joy. Well, as we come to the end of the Psalm, we might look to the story that Psalm 11 is telling, really a story of two kings, one delivered and one crushed. David feared anarchy. He feared helplessness, both church and state, and God delivered that king. What David feared fell to our Lord Jesus Christ. The world's foundations were bankrupt in Pilate and in Rome, and the deeper tragedy is that his own rejected him. His own covenant people received him not, and they crucified him. And he was all alone. Didn't happen to David. Jesus was all alone with everything turned against him. And then worse than that, his father turned away. His father turned his face away. When he rose from the dead, he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. For lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. And out of the rubble of humanity and the ashes of the old covenant, Christ has promised to build his church and that the gates of hell will not prevail. He will guard the righteous, he will destroy the wicked, and all men now should prepare for his coming. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.