Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for the day and his Word, and ask him to apply it to his people's hearts so they will love him, seek him, and follow his light.
Read
Scripture Passage
Psalm 11
Faith in the Lord’s Righteousness
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
1 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.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Ps 11.
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
When the wicked threaten the upright and the foundations appear destroyed, David puts his trust in the Lord. God remains enthroned in his holy temple, sees and tests humanity, hates violence, judges the wicked, and loves righteousness.
B — Best Verse
Which Verse Best Summarizes the Passage?
Psalm 11:7
For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright.
Bryan explicitly highlights verse 7. It summarizes the psalm by grounding hope and justice in the Lord's own righteousness, his love of righteousness, and his regard for the upright.
C — Called or Christ
C — Christ Connection
Put your trust in God rather than yourself or any human source of justice. Look to Jesus Christ seated on his righteous throne, ruling with justice forever, and retain hope even when the world appears dark and the wicked seem to prevail.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Hey, hey, welcome to Coffee and Devotions.
This Wednesday afternoon, this is where every day you and I, we get together. We get into God's Word. We grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2020, we will make it through all of the gospel, or sorry, all of the wisdom literature. Why don't we go ahead and have some coffee. We'll pray and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. And we thank you for your word. We pray now that as we read your word, that you would apply it to our hearts. Let us love you, seek after you. Lord, we pray that you would light our path and let us follow you with all of our hearts in Jesus' name, amen. All right, here we go. Let's go ahead and turn over to God's word this afternoon. All right, Psalm 11. To the chief musician, a Psalm of David. In the Lord, I put my trust.
How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? 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. 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 behold, his eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence his soul hates. Upon the wicked he will rain coals. Fire and brimstone and burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. His countenance beholds the upright.
Oh, we need to ask ourselves real quick, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? Well, I'm just going to go ahead and in my Bible, I'm going to highlight here verse 7. Verse seven, for the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness as countenance beholds the upright. What is this getting at? Once again, David is crying out to the God of righteousness for justice. David is crying out to the God who made heaven and earth. And what does he say?
If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? What can those who are in Jesus Christ do? We can go to God who sits enthroned in heaven. We can look to Jesus Christ who sits upon his righteous throne and reigns with equity and justice forever. We can go to God and we can find righteousness. We can go to God and we can find justice.
See, we can't find it out in this world. We can't find it by looking in ourselves, right? For what does the scripture say? There is none righteous. No, not one. Not one seeks after the Lord. This is not us looking to ourselves. We can't look to other people for righteousness and justice ultimately.
But we lift up our eyes to heaven and we see God sitting there in holiness, arrayed with majesty. And it is in God we trust. God is righteous. God is holy. God is perfect. And so we always have hope today. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you that you are righteous. We thank you that no matter how dark or bleak the times might be, no matter what the shadows might cast over our lives, no matter how it might seem that the wicked prevail, Father, we know that you are seated upon your throne and that you are righteous. So we trust in you, not in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ. We pray these things in his name. Amen. May the Lord bless you today, may He fill you with peace, and I'll see you tomorrow morning. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith in your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.