Psalm 11 – Sometimes God tells us to hang in there

Have you ever called out to God for help? For an answer of some kind? But nothing happens? There's no answer. Your situation doesn't change. You don't hear yes. Or no. The thing is, sometimes God tells us to hang in there. To wait. With no reason given.

Being told to wait can be really hard. Especially when things aren't going well. Consider the adjacent image. Some rocks, sticking up out of the ocean. Swirling waters. That really cool shade of blue-green water.

It's beautiful. Unless you're on the rock. Then it can get downright scary.

We know if we're on that rock, figuratively speaking. But our friends don't. So they might not know how we feel when we're right there, barely hanging on to the top of that rock, and the tide's coming in.

And when we call out to God, nothing happens. But we usually don't know if He's saying no to us, or telling us to just hang in there. Wait. Relief is coming. But not yet. Worse yet, maybe relief isn't coming. But we don't know.

That's what's happening in Psalm 11.

                     Psalm 11 

For the director of music. Of David

     Ps 11:1 In the LORD I take refuge. 
             How then can you say to me: 
             “Flee like a bird to your mountain. 

     Ps 11:2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; 
             they set their arrows against the strings 
             to shoot from the shadows 
             at the upright in heart. 

     Ps 11:3 When the foundations are being destroyed, 
             what can the righteous do ?” 

     Ps 11:4 The LORD is in his holy temple; 
             the LORD is on his heavenly throne. 
             He observes the sons of men; 
             his eyes examine them. 

     Ps 11:5 The LORD examines the righteous, 
             but the wicked and those who love violence 
             his soul hates. 

     Ps 11:6 On the wicked he will rain 
             fiery coals and burning sulfur; 
             a scorching wind will be their lot. 

Some background on Psalm 11

Psalm 11 contains faith’s response to fear’s counsel. The psalmist is in danger from the wicked, who are bending their bows and shooting at him, and either his friends or his enemies are advising him to take flight. “Flee to the mountains,” they say. But he refutes their advice, asserting that his true refuge is in God.

In the midst of this psalm, probably as a despairing question asked by David’s fearful but well-meaning friends, we have a classic question. You have probably heard it many times. “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (v. 3). More than fifty years ago the great Bible teacher Arno C. Gaebelein called this “the burning question of our day.” But if that was so in 1939, when his study was copyrighted, it is a thousand times more true today. What shall we do when the laws are not upheld, when morality is undermined and evil sweeps on unchecked? What shall we do when the Bible is undermined and its teachings disregarded—when even churchmen seem to support the rising tide of secularism? What shall we do when family values are crumbling and the tide of frequent divorce sweeps forward with increasing damage to children, parents, and society alike? What can we do when everything around us seems to be giving way? Some counsel hiding, that is, running away from what is happening. David’s response was to take refuge in the Lord. It is this—what it means and how it is done—that we must consider in this study.