The LORD true the righteous

 James 1:12

Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

 How often the righteous fall into the traps laid out for them by these tempters! During times of trouble and temptation we must trust in God, for He has a purpose for everything we experience. He is testing us and strengthening us through our trials. We are only righteous because of our faith in Christ Jesus- and He imputes His righteousness onto us. 

The trial of your reins is to test the quality of your love.  We are to love God above everything else [Matt 22:37]. So, set your affections on things above [Col 3:2]. Don’t be like the Pharisees who loved the chief seats [Matt 23:6] more than they loved God.  These days, men are lovers of their own selves and lovers of pleasures, more than lovers of God [2 Tim 3:2-4]. The trials prove you so that you and the Lord both know the sincerity of your love. 

In the gospels we find faith that ranges from great faith [Matt 8:10, to little faith [Matt 8:26]. The Lord wants us to have great faith.  According to 1 Pet 5:10, suffering will “make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” The Lord wants us to be able to “watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong,” [1 Cor 16:13]. Well-timed tests from the Lord reveal the true condition of our faith.  When you find that your faith is small, learn from the trials so that your faith will grow stronger.

Are you in a season of “wilderness” right now? I am! We are to count trials as JOY, because what great honor it is to stand for Jesus and to suffer for His name’s sake!

#jesusislord #yeshua #trial #testing #wilderness #holyspirit #bornagain #righteous #righteousness #hebrew #christian #jewish

There came a time when David became tired of his continual flight from Saul, not just because it was wearying, but because it was cutting him off from the public worship places of God’s people (1 Samuel 26:19). His spiritual life was weakened and he gave in to the temptation to leave his own country for the safety of enemy Philistia (1 Samuel 27:1). This is the sort of temptation that David considers in Psalms 11:0, the temptation to go along with wrongdoing instead of resisting it.

If people act solely according to common sense, their suggestion in such a crisis will probably be to do what creates least hardship. After all (so the argument runs), if there is no law and order in the community, and if people in positions of power have set themselves to do evil, what can a righteous person gain by trying to resist (11:1-3)? David replies that such action really shows a lack of understanding of God’s holiness and no respect for his authority. God sees and understands all. He will pour out his wrath on the wicked, but he will comfort the faithful with the security of his presence (4-7).

The theme of Psalms 10:0 and 11 continues in Psalms 12:0, and indeed right through to Psalms 17:0. Ungodly people hold all the positions of power and pay no attention to the opinions of those who walk in God’s ways. They maintain their authority and influence only by twisting, ignoring or withholding the truth (12:1-4). But God sees and knows. He promises to protect the godly, and his promises can be trusted (5-6). His people know that their only hope is in him (7-8).

Continual persecution can be hard to bear. It tries the psalmist’s patience to the limit, causing him to cry out to God, almost in despair, asking when will God deliver him from his troubles (13:1-2). If he dies, his enemies will think they have won the battle against him (3-4). However, the very act of crying out to God lightens his burden. It reminds him that the one to whom he cries has bound himself to his people with a covenant love, and he will not fail (5-6).

God’s steadfast love

Frequently the psalmists rejoice in a characteristic of God that RSV translates as ‘steadfast love’, GNB translates as ‘constant love’, and other versions translate as ‘loyalty’, ‘love’, ‘mercy’, ‘kindness’ and ‘loving kindness’. These are all translations of the Hebrew word chesed, which has the meaning of covenant loyalty or faithfulness.

A covenant was an agreement between two parties that carried with it obligations and blessings. Chesed was a particularly strong form of love, which bound a person to be faithful and loyal to the other party in the covenant. In the Psalms the word is used frequently to denote the loyal love and covenant faithfulness that God exercises towards his people through all their trials and joys (e.g Psalms 13:5; Psalms 25:7).

Both the righteous and wicked suffer adversity on earth – so that natural men cannot discern God’s love or hatred (Eccl 8:14; 9:1-3). However, the Bible reveals very great differences, which natural men cannot learn. God treats the righteous and the wicked very differently. Spiritual men know this: they understand His present and future dealings.

God sends adversity in love to chasten and perfect the righteous (Pr 3:11-12; Ps 11:5; Amos 3:2; I Cor 11:32; Heb 12:5-17). His thoughts are only good toward them; He hears their prayers and gives them their desires (Ps 34:10-16; 37:4; 84:11). He blesses them with riches, or things better than riches, or both (Pr 15:16-17; 21:21; 22:4; I Tim 6:6).

God sends prosperity in hatred to the wicked (Pr 1:32; Ps 17:14; 73:1-20). And He sends adversity as a warning of greater judgment to come. His thoughts are evil toward them; He does not hear their prayers; He laughs at their calamities (Pr 15:8; 28:9; 1:20-31). Their foolish joys will condemn them in the Day of Judgment (Ac 14:15-17; Ro 1:18-32).

The proverb and its interpretation are true (Pr 11:20; Ps 58:10-11). Will you believe it and live accordingly? Righteous reader, take comfort! Sinner, beware! Read this:

“The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright” (Ps 11:4-7).

Life is hard, but the righteous are loved now and later; the wicked are despised now and later. Though God presently loves and blesses the righteous, eternity is still the best view of life (Ps 49:1-20; 73:1-28; I Cor 15:19; II Cor 4:17-18; Phil 3:18-21; Col 3:1-4).

The fining pot and the furnace were tools used by artisans of the day that dealt with precious metals such as silver and gold. Silver and gold never came pure and perfect. It had to be refined. The purpose of these instruments was to purify the metals; to take all the foreign objects out of the precious metal in order to make it 100% precious. These were tools of the trade. These tools got the job done. They were successful and useful.

So is the Lord. The text says that he trieth the hearts. This is the same purpose as the fining pot and the furnace. (Psalm 139:23-24) Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: ²⁴ And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. I like the last part of these verses. God is going to search; he’s going to know; he’s going to try; he’s going to see. But what I like is that he’s also going to lead. He’s going to do something about what he’s found. Trying is not just examination, but also extraction.

We are tried for the purpose of purification. (Jude 24) Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, Now unto him? Praise the purifying and perfecting furnace of the heart. (Hebrews 12:29) For our God is a consuming fire. I hope this doesn’t sound irreverent, but God in this verse is likened to a machine or a tool. What is the purpose of the machine? What does it do? God refines and purifies. That is what he does. You can’t get close to God without experiencing his purifying power. That is just what God does.

A specific process for a specific material

Notice in the text also that the fining pot is used specifically for silver. And the furnace is specifically used for gold. This brings to mind the differences in every saint of God. Different metals require different processes to refine them. Some metals are dirtier than others. However some metals, though they may have little impurities, they’re very difficult to purify. So a specific process must be used to deal with specific situations.

In this psalm we have David's struggle with and triumph over a strong temptation to distrust God and betake himself to indirect means for his own safety in a time of danger. It is supposed to have been penned when he began to feel the resentments of Saul's envy, and had had the javelin thrown at him once and again. He was then advised to run his country. "No," says he, "I trust in God, and therefore will keep my ground." Observe,

• I. How he represents the temptation, and perhaps parleys with it, (v. 1-3).
• II. How he answers it, and puts it to silence with the consideration of God's dominion and providence (v. 4), his favour to the righteous, and the wrath which the wicked are reserved for (v. 5-7).

In times of public fear, when the insults of the church's enemies are daring and threatening, it will be profitable to meditate on this psalm.

To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

Psa 11:1-3

Here is,

• I. David's fixed resolution to make God his confidence: In the Lord put I my trust, v. 1. Those that truly fear God and serve him are welcome to put their trust in him, and shall not be made ashamed of their doing so. And it is the character of the saints, who have taken God for their God, that they make him their hope. Even when they have other things to stay themselves upon, yet they do not, they dare not, stay upon them, but on God only. Gold is not their hope, nor are horses and chariots their confidence, but God only; and therefore, when second causes frown, yet their hopes do not fail them, because the first cause is still the same, is ever so. The psalmist, before he gives an account of the temptation he was in to distrust God, records his resolution to trust in him, as that which he was resolved to live and die by.
• II. His resentment of a temptation to the contrary: "How say you to my soul,which has thus returned to God as its rest and reposes in him, Flee as a bird to your mountain, to be safe there out of the reach of the fowler?" This may be taken either, 
  • 1. As the serious advice of his timorous friends; so many understand it, and with great probability. Some that were hearty well-wishers to David, when they saw how much Saul was exasperated against him and how maliciously he sought his life, pressed him by all means to flee for the same to some place of shelter, and not to depend too much upon the anointing he had received, which, they thought, was more likely to occasion the loss of his head than to save it. That which grieved him in this motion was not that to flee now would savour of cowardice, and ill become a soldier, but that it would savour of unbelief and would ill become a saint who had so often said, In the Lord put I my trust. Taking it thus, the two following verses contain the reason with which these faint-hearted friends of David backed this advice. They would have him flee, 
    • (1.) Because he could not be safe where he was, v. 2. "Observe," say they, "how the wicked bend their bow;Saul and his instruments aim at thy life, and the uprightness of thy heart will not be thy security." See what an enmity there is in the wicked against the upright, in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman; what pains they take, what preparations they make, to do them a mischief: They privily shoot at them, or, in darkness,that they may not see the evil designed, to avoid it, nor others, to prevent it, no, nor God himself, to punish it.
    • (2.) Because he could be no longer useful where he was. "For," say they, "if the foundations be destroyed" (as they were by Saul's mal-administration), "if the civil state and government be unhinged and all out of course" (Ps. 75:3, 82:5), "what canst thou do with thy righteousness to redress the grievances? Alas! it is to no purpose to attempt the saving of a kingdom so wretchedly shattered; whatever the righteous can do signifies nothing." Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere mei, Domine-Away to thy cell, and there cry, Pity me, O Lord! Many are hindered from doing the service they might do to the public, in difficult times, by a despair of success.
  • 2. It may be taken as a taunt wherewith his enemies bantered him, upbraiding him with the professions he used to make of confidence in God, and scornfully bidding him try what stead that would stand him in now. "You say, God is your mountain; flee to him now, and see what the better you will be." Thus they endeavoured to shame the counsel of the poor, saying, There is no help for them in God, Ps. 14:6; 3:2. The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, are a riddle to a carnal world and are ridiculed accordingly. Taking it thus, the two following verses are David's answer to this sarcasm, in which, 
    • (1.) He complains of the malice of those who did thus abuse him (v. 2): They bend their bow and make ready their arrows; and we are told (Ps. 64:3) what their arrows are, even bitter words, such words as these, by which they endeavour to discourage hope in God, which David felt as a sword in his bones.
    • (2.) He resists the temptation with a gracious abhorrence, v. 3. He looks upon this suggestion as striking at the foundations which every Israelite builds upon: "If you destroy the foundations, if you take good people off from their hope in God, if you can persuade them that their religion is a cheat and a jest and can banter them out of that, you ruin them, and break their hearts indeed, and make them of all men the most miserable." The principles of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the righteous are built. These we are concerned, in interest as well as duty, to hold fast against all temptations to infidelity; for, if these be destroyed, if we let these go, What can the righteous do? Good people would be undone if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.

Psa 11:4-7

The shaking of a tree (they say) makes it take the deeper and faster root. The attempt of David's enemies to discourage his confidence in God engages him to cleave so much the more closely to his first principles, and to review them, which he here does, abundantly to his own satisfaction and the silencing of all temptations to infidelity. That which was shocking to his faith, and has been so to the faith of many, was the prosperity of wicked people in their wicked ways, and the straits and distresses which the best men are sometimes reduced to: hence such an evil thought as this was apt to arise, Surely it is vain to serve God, and we may call the proud happy. But, in order to stifle and shame all such thoughts, we are here called to consider,

• I. That there is a God in heaven: The Lord is in his holy temple above, where, though he is out of our sight, we are not out of his. Let not the enemies of the saints insult over them, as if they were at a loss and at their wits' end: no, they have a God, and they know where to find him and how to direct their prayer unto him, as their Father in heaven. Or, He is in his holy temple, that is, in his church; he is a God in covenant and communion with his people, through a Mediator, of whom the temple was a type. We need not say, "Who shall go up to heaven, to fetch us thence a God to trust to?" No, the word is nigh us, and God in the word; his Spirit is in his saints, those living temples, and the Lord is that Spirit.
• II. That this God governs the world. The Lord has not only his residence, but his throne, in heaven, and he has set the dominion thereof in the earth (Job 38:33); for, having prepared his throne in the heavens, his kingdom ruleth over all, Ps. 103:19. Hence the heavens are said to rule, Dan. 4:26. Let us by faith see God on this throne, on his throne of glory, infinitely transcending the splendour and majesty of earthly princes-on his throne of government, giving law, giving motion, and giving aim, to all the creatures-on his throne of judgment, rendering to every man according to his works-and on his throne of grace, to which his people may come boldly for mercy and grace; we shall then see no reason to be discouraged by the pride and power of oppressors, or any of the afflictions that attend the righteous.
• III. That this God perfectly knows every man's true character: His eyes behold, his eye-lids try, the children of men; he not only sees them, but he sees through them, not only knows all they say and do, but knows what they think, what they design, and how they really stand affected, whatever they pretend. We may know what men seem to be, but he knows what they are, as the refiner knows what the value of the gold is when he has tried it. God is said to try with his eyes, and his eye-lids,because he knows men, not as earthly princes know men, by report and representation, but by his own strict inspection, which cannot err nor be imposed upon. This may comfort us when we are deceived in men, even in men that we think we have tried, that God's judgment of men, we are sure, is according to truth.
• IV. That, if he afflict good people, it is for their trial and therefore for their good, v. 5. The Lord tries all the children of men that he may do them good in their latter end, Deu. 8:16. Let not that therefore shake our foundations nor discourage our hope and trust in God.
• V. That, however persecutors and oppressors may prosper and prevail awhile, they now lie under, and will for ever perish under, the wrath of God. 
  • 1. He is a holy God, and therefore hates them, and cannot endure to look upon them: The wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth; for nothing is more contrary to the rectitude and goodness of his nature. Their prosperity is so far from being an evidence of God's love that their abuse of it does certainly make them the objects of his hatred. He that hates nothing that he has made, yet hates those who have thus ill-made themselves. Dr. Hammond offers another reading of this verse: The Lordtrieth the righteous and the wicked(distinguishes infallibly between them, which is more than we can do), and he that loveth violence hateth his own soul, that is, persecutors bring certain ruin upon themselves (Prov. 8:36), as follows here.
  • 2. He is a righteous Judge, and therefore he will punish them, v. 6. Their punishment will be, 
    • (1.) Inevitable: Upon the wicked he shall rain snares. Here is a double metaphor, to denote the unavoidableness of the punishment of wicked men. It shall be rained upon them from heaven (Job 20:23), against which there is no fence and from which there is no escape; see Jos. 10:11; 1 Sa. 2:10. It shall surprise them as a sudden shower sometimes surprises the traveller in a summer's day. It shall be as snares upon them, to hold them fast, and keep them prisoners, till the day of reckoning comes.
    • (2.) Very terrible. It is fire, and brimstone, and a horrible tempest,which plainly alludes to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and very fitly, for that destruction was intended for a figure of the vengeance of eternal fire,Jude 7. The fire of God's wrath, fastening upon the brimstone of their own guilt, will burn certainly and furiously, will burn to the lowest hell and the utmost line of eternity. What a horrible tempest are the wicked hurried away in at death! What a lake of fire and brimstone must they make their bed in for ever, in the congregation of the dead and damned! It is this that is here meant; it is this that shall be the portion of their cup, the heritage appointed them by the Almighty and allotted to them, Job 20:29. This is the cup of trembling which shall be put into their hands, which they must drink the dregs of, Ps. 75:8. Every man has the portion of his cup assigned him. Those who choose the Lord for the portion of their cup shall have what they choose, and be for ever happy in their choice (Ps. 16:5); but those who reject his grace shall be made to drink the cup of his fury, Jer. 25:15; Isa. 51:17; Hab. 2:16.
• VI. That, though honest good people may be run down and trampled upon, yet God does and will own them, and favour them, and smile upon them, and that is the reason why God will severely reckon with persecutors and oppressors, because those whom they oppress and persecute are dear to him; so that whosoever toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye, v. 7. 
  • 1. He loves them and the work of his own grace in them. He is himself a righteous God, and therefore loves righteousness wherever he finds it and pleads the cause of the righteous that are injured and oppressed; he delights to execute judgment for them, Ps. 103:6. We must herein be followers of God, must love righteousness as he does, that we may keep ourselves always in his love. He looks graciously upon them: His countenance doth behold the upright; he is not only at peace with them, and puts gladness into their hearts, by letting them know that he is so. He, like a tender father, looks upon them with pleasure, and they, like dutiful children, are pleased and abundantly satisfied with his smiles. They walk in the light of the Lord.

In singing this psalm we must encourage and engage ourselves to trust in God at all times, must depend upon him to protect our innocence and make us happy, must dread his frowns as worse than death and desire his favour as better than life.

Psalms 11:5: “The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.”

 

I really hate when our Modern Translations use the word hate in association with God. I mean if He can hate even a violent person then what is it going to take for Him to hate me?  Just what line do I need to cross before God moves from mere intolerance to hatred.  I know I am getting old and eccentric and worrying about things that I should not have to worry about.  I mean I would really have to do something absolutely horrible  for God to hate me.

 

What is the worst a person can do, be a mass murder?  Well, the Apostle Paul falls right in that category and yet Jesus reached out to him with a blinding light and transformed his life. God’s salvation is for anyone, no matter how bad they are.  God is no respecter of persons.  He does not sit up there in heaven and suddenly jumps out of throne, “Hooky smokes, angels stop that guy before he goes into that revival meeting.  He hears about all my love and forgiveness and he just might pray that old sinner’s prayer and I will have to save him and I hate that guy. He gets up here to heaven and he will just ruin everything.”

 

So if this passage is true then God is capable of hating and we are in danger of being hated by God. Not a thought you would like to take to bed with you tonight.  I looked up this Hebrew word for hate sane’ in every lexicon and they all say hate. Sigh, I guess I go back to a life of fear that I will one day cross some line and God will begin to hate me.

 

What I am building up to is to point out that our modern translations of the Bible are just that, a translation and any translation is still at best a paraphrase. Hebrew became a dead language in 500 BC and with any dead language we can only guess as to what certain words means. We look at a word through its context and how it is traditionally rendered.  We examine the context of the word in many different documents representing hundreds maybe thousands of years and then draw some conclusion.  Even if we have the right English word someone may have a different spin on the word.

In tracing this word for hate sane’ back to its Semitic root I discovered it has its origins in a briar or prickly thorns. The original idea of a sane’ is an irritation. It is really in a later use of the word that it became associated with hate as you really hate an irritation.  So the word can run a gamut from being just an irritant, someone who has an irritating habit that you wish they would change but you in no way wish harm upon them  to outright hate where you wish harm upon a person. So for myself, when I see the word sane’ associated with God I prefer to plug in the mildest form of the word sane’ which would be behavior that God wishes He could change.

 

Can I get away with that in this verse?  I think I can.  I was reading in the Jewish Commentary Genesis Rabbah s.55 where a rabbi was commenting on Psalms 11:5 and indicated that this verse is drawing from a common picture of a potter who is constantly working the flaws out of his clay pots.  The word for evil is rasha’ which is not really a word that is commonly rendered as evil, although evil is not entirely wrong to use.  But the intent of the word is for one who is hostile in this case against  God.  It is one who is consistently ignoring God and saying that he wants nothing to do with God.  The word rasha’ could be applied to the atheist who devotes his life to suing anyone or any organization that uses religious symbols on public property. Some atheist don’t care if you sing Silent Night on the Capital lawn during Christmas, they are above that, they will humor us ignorant folk while they live in their blissful world of the enlightened. That is not rasha’.  Rasha’  is that atheist who comes unglued when their first grader has to be exposed to a classmate who draws a picture of a cross on Easter and is ready to bring the whole public education structure down if that first grader’s picture of a cross is not removed from board with the other children’s pictures of bunny rabbits and Easter eggs.  That is the rasha’ or evil one shown in this Psalm.

 

The rasha’s and those that love violence are specifically signaled out here.  The word violence in Hebrew is hamas’.  Doesn’t that sound a bit familiar?  Hamas as we know it today is an Arabic word meaning enthusiasmwhich is an acronym for Harakat Al Mugawamah Al-‘Islamiyyah  or as we know in English as the Islamic Resistance Movement, a terrorist organization that is dead set on reeking violence upon Israel. It is only by some strange coincidence (divine?) that it is also the Hebrew word for violence. It also means to be cruel and oppressive and unjust. In the Aramaic it means to be very hard and   unsympathetic to someone. I read an article yesterday where a ten year old child was expelled from a private school because she missed too many days of classes and her grades were failing.  The child has cancer and was going through chemotherapy.  But rules are rules and she was expelled from the school and will not be allowed to return. I am sure there is another side to the story, but as it was reported, that is hamas.   Basically a hamas person is one who shows no mercy, no understanding, is so self-centered and self-absorbed that they care for no one else but themselves.  Such people are a really an irritant to God.

 

In Genesis Rabbah s.55 the rabbi points out that the reason such people, the rasha’ and the hamas,  are such an irritant to God is that they refuse to change.   That is such an irritation to God because he can make them better. Sure, like the potter, you have to crush the vessel a few times to get rid of the flaws, but in the end you have a beautiful vessel.  The thing is that the clay has not choice. It is going to be made into a beautiful vessel whether it likes it or not.  However, we do have a choice, we have a free will and it is very irritating to God that He stands there with the wherewithal to make us into something beautiful but because we are rasha’ or hamas with a free will, he can’t do it.  He sent his very Son to suffer and die on a cross to make a beautiful vessel out of us and what do we do we are rasha’ hostile to this God who loves us and are hamas, so self-centered and self-absorbed we will not allow the Great potter to mold us into a beautiful vessel.

 

We don’t need to worry about God hating us, what we do need to worry about is God being disappointed in us.  Like the woman who spends all day in the kitchen meticulous preparing a special dinner for her husband, anticipating his delight and pleasure over her gift and he takes one bite and says, “Too much salt.”  That man is rasha’ and hamas. And what we do to God when we reject His offer of Salvation to make us beautiful is a million times worse.

 Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Isaiah 61:8 For I the LORD love judgment, I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

Psalm 11:1 – “In the LORD put I my trust [confide; flee for protection; make refuge]: how say [speak; command] ye to my soul [life; person; mind], Flee [disappear; remove] as a bird to your mountain? 

The counselors answered their king, reminding him the plot of the wicked was to destroy the just and upright (11:2) and as king, he was the moral pillar, the foundation of the nation (11:3).

Psalm 11:2-3 – “For, lo, the wicked  [ungodly; immoral; guilty] bend their bow, they make ready [prepare; set up; fix] their arrow upon the string, that they may privily [secretly] shoot at the upright [right; just; righteous] in heart [mind].  3 If the foundations [purpose; support; moral pillars] be destroyed [thrown down; broken in pieces], what can the righteous [just] do?”

David’s counselors reasoned, not only was his life at risk, but so also were the lives of the people and the future of the nation (11:3b).  In other words, what will become of the righteous should the king fall?

We find David’s response in Psalm 11:4-7.

Psalm 11:4-5 – “The LORD is in his holy [sacred; hallowed] temple, the LORD’S throne [seat] is in heaven: his eyes behold [perceive; look; gaze], his eyelids try [examine; prove], the children of men. 5 The LORD trieth [proves; examines] the righteous [just; law-abiding]: but the wicked [ungodly; immoral; guilty] and him that loveth violence [injustice] his soul hateth [as a foe].”

What a great reminder…regardless the threats of an enemy or his demands we compromise our integrity, the LORD has not abdicated the throne of heaven and He is Just!  The ways of the righteous will not go unrewarded and the ways of the wicked will surely be punished!

Our devotion ends with the assurance, “the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.”(Psalm 11:7)

What a great thought!  The righteous are the objects of the LORD’s love!  Like a father looks adoringly at his children, the LORD looks upon the righteous.

My friend, perhaps there is an enemy that haunts your life with threats, maligning gossip, or with disapproving gazes.  Take confidence in this…the LORD loves the righteous and He is just. Trust the LORD!

Isaiah 40:31 – “But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”