A Reflection on Psalm 11
I thought I'd share Psalm 11 with you to reflect and meditate on today:
I trust in the Lord for protection.
So why do you say to me,
“Fly like a bird to the mountains for safety!
The wicked are stringing their bows
and fitting their arrows on the bowstrings.
They shoot from the shadows
at those whose hearts are right.
The foundations of law and order have collapsed.
What can the righteous do?”
But the Lord is in his holy Temple;
the Lord still rules from heaven.
He watches everyone closely,
examining every person on earth.
The Lord examines both the righteous and the wicked.
He hates those who love violence.
He will rain down blazing coals and burning sulphur on the wicked,
punishing them with scorching winds.
For the righteous Lord loves justice.
The virtuous will see his face.
I love how the first part of the Psalm says that we trust in the Lord for protection. The word literally means to flee to, to confide in, and to make our refuge. It paints a picture of how we as Christians should live - God should and must be the first and only place we seek our refuge in, which makes the next part of the passage a big contrast: "so why would we flee to the mountains?" It's easy to read that and say, "well yes of course I trust God." But how often do we flee from the very place we should run to, and instead try to trust in the 'mountains' of our own strength, wisdom, relationships, governments, finances. Why do we do that? I don't know about you, but that is a lesson I seem to have to re-learn over and over again. I pray for all of us that we can truly grasp this and run to the only one worth running to.
We are surrounded by wickedness all around us, and the chaos we see in the natural is a direct reflection of the demonic influence in the spirit realm. But when we run to the Lord, go deep with Him and make Him our one and only refuge, we find our strength and help from the only place we can. The more we do that, the more we spend time in the presence of the Lord, the more we realise that nothing else even compares or comes close.
Interestingly enough, the more we run to the Lord as our refuge the enemy will "shoot from the shadows at those whose hearts are right" as it says in this Psalm. As we press into God, the enemy, out or fear and feeling threatened, will do all he can to bring us down. And when the battle is relentless, we can easily become worn out, discouraged and battle weary. I have faced feeling that way on numerous occasions just this year, and as we look at all going on around us, it can feel like a relentless attack of the wicked against the righteous, and that the enemy is winning.
BUT the Lord is in his holy Temple; the Lord still rules from heaven. In the time we live in, it is VITAL that we truly grasp this fact, and it is a fact, that God is still on His throne, and still rules over the entire physical and spiritual realm. The enemy can create a lot of noise, confusion, chaos and fear, but it is all an attempt to distract from this reality. There is a reason why the beginning of this Psalm talks about making the Lord our protection and refuge. When we do, we are leaning into the winning team. And, unlike the US election, it's not a battle that is yet to be decided. God has ALREADY won through the finished work of the cross. Because our 'righteous Lord loves justice', he took it upon Himself to defeat the powers of evil, sin and death through what Jesus has done on the cross, and through the power of the Holy Spirit that is literally the presence of God intertwining in the lives of those who put their faith and trust in Him.
So, as you go about this day, and as we all continue to navigate the increasingly uncertain world we are living in, let the words of Psalm 11 encourage, strengthen and challenge you today!