Psalm 11 - Overcomer - In the Lord do I trust
This is the 6th Psalm to the Overcomer. To be an overcomer we need to trust in the Lord, not only in word, but in deed, and not always in our counselors.
Use this Psalm when your friends give you advice to go a way that you feel would be not trusting in the Lord. You bear the responsibility for your actions, not your advisors, even if some of them are your mentors.
Able to See Through Those Who do not Hold the Lord as Being Supreme
This is one of the most crucial. Psalm 11 is a psalm David wrote when Saul was chasing him. It depicts those who seem to follow the Lord, and yet who do not direct those who are growing in life to take the Lord as their refuge. Instead, they advise them to flee to the mountains like a bird ( v1), to be a common saint, and to give up fighting for the purpose of God. Jehovah is in His holy temple. On His throne and in heaven, His eyes behold and try the sons of man ( vv4-5). How good is the conclusion of this psalm! "The upright man will behold His face." ( v7) -Titus Chu training on Psalms
v1 David's friends tell him to flee to "your mountain", because they do not trust in the Lord. David says, How can you tell me this? I trust in the Lord. To say that we trust in the Lord is common, but to really trust in the Lord in your decisions in your life is NOT common!
"Your mountain" is a place where you are secure and comfortable, and need not trust in the Lord. (Ps 30:6-7). It is common for birds to be in mountans ( Ps 50:11).
"The worst thing elders can do for saints is tell them to be common. Always choose for the Lord's best interest." -Titus Chu Psalms Training
The "ye" in v1 is David's advisors or friends. It is hard to tell where their speaking stops and David's begins. At a minimum the advisors said, "Flee ... for, behold, the wicked bend the bow." The "behold" shows that they are exclaiming to David, Look, open your eyes, and see the obvious. The rest of v2 may be David's acknowleging that what the advisors say is true, or it may be a continuation of the advisors' advice. It doesn't matter. I think the advisors said something like that, and David's repeating it in his own words means that it was true.
This psalm is similar to what happened to Nehemiah.
v2 An example of this is to slander others anonymously.
v3 "Who are the foundations? The leading ones. If seniors are destroyed, not absolute for Christ and the church, what can the righteous do? The more absolute the leading ones are, the more the saints are. If you are a destroyed foundation, the whole church goes nowhere." -Titus Chu Psalms training
In the United States today, 2015, the constitutional foundations of our country are being destroyed. What shall the righteous do? The answer is in the next verse.
v4 Even if the foundations are destroyed, the Lord is still in His holy temple, on His throne in heaven, beholding and trying all men.
To be tried by the Lord's eyelids is to be very sensitive to the Lord's feeling.
v5 It is part of the Lord's purpose to try the righteous. He will use the wicked to do this, but the wicked are hated by the Lord's very soul.
v7 The reward for trusting practically in the Lord is great! Righteousness comes from trusting in the Lord, which is living by faith. This is the kind of righteousness that the righteous Lord loves! ( Heb 10:38-39; Hab 2:4) In the previous psalm, Psalm 10, the Lord hides His face. This psalm ends with beholding the Lord's face. While we are being tried, the Lord hides His face. Then, when we have gone against common human wisdom, which says to take the easier way, but instead trust in the Lord, we behold His face like anew.
We can gaze upon His face by being sensitive to the Lord's eyelids trying us ( v4).
4/1/2015 - added comment on v3 after the Indiana RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) was reversed.
copyright 2009 Steve Miller voiceInWilderness.info
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Psalm 11 To the Overcomer, a Psalm through David
Meter: 6.6.8.6.
1 1 In the Lord do I trust.
How say ye to my soul,
“Flee as a bird to your mountain,
2 for ( 2.1) wicked bend the bow.
2 They ready their arrow
upon the string that they
may shoot at the upright in heart
in darkness stealthily."?
3 3 What can the righteous do,
What can for them avail,
if the foundations are destroyed,
and all the pillars fail? ( 3.2)
4 4 The Lord's holy temple,
the Lord's throne in heaven -
His eyes behold, His eyelids try
all the children of men.
5 5 The Lord tries the righteous,
but to His soul hateful:
The wicked, lover of violence ( 5.1)
sins against his own soul. ( 5.2)
6 6 Upon the wicked, He
rains snares, fire, brimstone.
A horrible tempest shall be
Their cup and their portion.
7 7 For the Lord is righteous.
He loveth righteousness,
The upright gaze upon His face,
and oh how blessed it is.
2.1. Lit. Behold, the wicked ...
5.1. Lit. wicked and lover of violence
5.2. The added words are how the LXX translates the phrase
Psalm 30:6-7. And I, in my prosperity, I said I shall never be moved. LORD, by Your favor You made my mountain to stand strong. You hid Your face from me. I was troubled.
Hebrews 10:38-39 But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul does not delight in him.'' 39 But we are not of those who shrink back to ruin but of them who have faith to the gaining of the soul.
Habakkuk 2:3-4 For the vision [is] yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. 4 Behold, his soul [which] is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
of the mountains and the beasts of the field,
They are mine.
Nehemiah 6:10 And I came to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabeel, who had shut himself up. And he said, Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple, and let us shut the doors of the temple; for they are coming to kill thee; even in the night are they coming to kill thee.
11 And I said, Should such a man as I flee? and who is there, that, being as I am, could go into the temple, and live? I will not go in.
12 And I perceived, and behold, God had not sent him; for he pronounced this prophecy against me; and Tobijah and Sanballat had hired him.
13 Therefore was he hired, that I should be afraid, and do so, and sin, and that they might have wherewith to spread an evil report, that they might reproach me.
14 My God, remember Tobijah and Sanballat according to these their works, and also the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets who would have put me in fear.
(Neh. 6:10-14 DBY)
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copyright 2009 Steve Miller voiceInWilderness.info
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