Today we have a relatively short Psalm to go over. You probably noticed this because it only took me a couple days to get this one posted… But, while this particular Psalm may be short, it’s huge in the scope of what we’re dealing with. Righteousness if everything to God. I don’t even think that that’s hyperbole. Let’s get into it!
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.
There’s no point in running away from ourselves. Sometimes it seems like the easiest choice. Just give up your convictions and don’t stand up to the injustices going on around you. I know what it feels like. We all know how it feels that first time you stand firm in your convictions and you get kicked right in the teeth. It makes you question taking that stand again. Wouldn’t it be easier to just put my head down? But then, eventually, you’re one of the ones causing the injustice. At least I’ve seen that in my own life. The minute you let yourself worry about the hardships that may ensue, that’s the minute that you become someone different.
3 If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?
All that stuff that I said just a minute ago, this is why. Your convictions are your foundation. When you let your foundation get swept away, it’s only a foregone conclusion that the rest of the house will also get swept away without a foundation. And the truth is, righteousness can only come from your foundation. And even then, only if your foundation is laid firmly in the Father.
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.
When we read this there’s the tendency to see the word temple and think about this big building that we’ve seen in paintings. We think about it like it’s cold and detached from our world, and all of that’s true, but it’s also not. The temple is God’s home. To think about it as cold and detached is like thinking about your own home as cold and detached. So when we think of the LORD being in His holy temple, we have to think about Him sitting in His house. I know this may seem like a small thing to mention but I think that it’s important to keep the temple in its proper context.
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.
There’s something here that we may not see at first. It may even seem counterintuitive, but a straightforward reading of this verse makes it seem like the righteous are the ones who go through the refiner’s fire of tribulation. He hates the wicked, but He tests the righteous. When you read this and you see that the two are set in opposition to one another, you can’t help but think that this means that it’s one or the other. Now, I’m not saying this is how it always happens, but there seems to be a reason to believe that the wicked have it easy sometimes because God has given up trying to make them better. Conversely, much like we read about in 2 Cor 1:3-7 and 2 Pet 4:12-19, so long as we’re created anew in Messiah, we should expect trials to test our resolve, and to mold us more closely into the works of art which the Father has in mind for us.
And then, in the end, fire and brimstone will be the reward of the wicked. We shouldn’t confuse trial and tribulation with fire and brimstone, either. Sodom and Gomorrah got fire and brimstone, but not until God was going to wipe them off the face of the earth. The fire and brimstone came, not to mold the people of the cities but to end them. Trial and tribulation are a creative process which the Father uses to make us better, to make us more like Him. Fire and brimstone are the opposite. Fire and brimstone is all about destruction.
7 For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.
This is the beginning and end, right here. The LORD is righteous. He loves righteousness. But, what is righteousness? When you look it up in the dictionary you’ll probably see something like, “the quality of being morally right or justifiable.” If you look up the Biblical definition of righteousness you’ll get this from Strong’s (H6666), “From H6663; rightness (abstractly), subjectively (rectitude), objectively (justice), morally (virtue) or figuratively (prosperity): - justice, moderately, right (-eous) (act, -ly, -ness).” This all comes from the Hebrew word Tsedeqah (צדקה). But these are all words on the page what does ‘righteousness’ actually mean?
Righteousness and justice are the very foundation of the Throne of God (Ps 89:14). If we look back to verse 3 of this psalm we are asked what will happen if the foundations are destroyed, and what the righteous will do. Well, without the foundation of righteousness, the righteous will be able to do nothing because there will be no righteousness. Righteousness, indeed, is our very calling! If we think back to the instructions which God gave the Israelites, there’s really nobody out there who would say that God didn’t want them to offer up sacrifices, but when you read Proverbs 21:3 we see that God views doing righteousness and justice as more acceptable than sacrifice.
The truth is that obedience to God is so much more important than most of us make it. Too often, we view our faith as a badge that we pin on top of our clothes but the truth is that our faith should be the clothes that we put on. And deeper than that, our faith should be how we walk while wearing those clothes and that badge. Do you have Biblical swagger? Would anyone know you’ve given your allegiance to the King of the Universe by the way you walk? Or do they need to look at the badge you’ve pinned to your chest?
This was first published on my personal blog at the following address:
http://thepoiema.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-psalms-11-faith-in-lords.html