The book of psalm can be said to be both a collection of hymns as well as a collection of prayers, because it’s meant to be addressed to God - whether to petition or supplicate. The book of psalm is hence a very good reference book for prayer.

Psa 11 will be shared in this sermon. It’s not strictly a prayer but it’s good to read because it tells us of the attitude and faith we must have when we pray to God.

v1-3 looks at the question: why should I flee?
v4-7 The Lord is in His holy temple

The psalmist begins with “In the Lord I put my trust; how can you say to my soul, ‘Flee as a bird to your mountain?’”
“Why should I flee? How can you tell me to flee when I’ve already put my trust in my Lord?”
“You tell me the wicked have already put their arrow on the string and you inform me they’re going to shoot me secretly.”
“But in the Lord I put my trust. I can’t flee now. If I flee my mission won’t succeed. God has put me here for a purpose. I won’t flee!”

This reminds the speaker of a similar situation in Nehemiah.

Neh 6:1 talks about certain wicked people - the enemies of Judah. Sanballat was a Samaritan. Tobiah was an Ammonite. Geshem was an Arab. These were enemies of God’s people. In chapter 2, when they heard the wall was going to be built, they weren’t happy. They had failed to stop the rebuilding of the wall and were unhappy, so they wanted to do something else. They sent messengers to Nehemiah to meet at some place. But Nehemiah knew they meant harm to him. He didn’t go of course. Neh 6:10-12 Nehemiah came to the house of Shemaiah and someone was supposed to give him a secret message. It was supposed to be a closed door meeting in the temple because some people were going to kill him. Nehemiah asked, “Should a man as I flee?”

This is similar to the question in Psa 11, “How can you say to my soul: flee?”

Nehemiah asked, “Why should I flee? I have work to do!”

Nehemiah perceived God hadn’t sent a secret messenger to them, but was hired by Tobiah. They wanted to make him afraid so he would run away. “that I should be afraid and act that way and sin“

Fear is something the enemies of God would like to instil in us to stop us from doing what we should do.

We know that David fled a few times in his life. Psa 11 is a psalm of David. So was it wrong for David to have fled in those times of his life?

v1 “In the Lord I put my trust; how can you say to my soul, ‘Flee as a bird to your mountain?’”
This isn’t a matter of having an adrenaline surge where we then choose whether to fight or flee. If someone comes close to us suddenly, we’d blink or give him a punch. This is a hormonal response. It’s something people can use psychologically to make you fear.

When you’re in trouble, you might react emotionally. Someone may make you abandon your trust in God. You lose your trust in God, you become a fugitive forever.

This is different from David escaping because he did so temporarily, and waiting in faith, trusting God would give him an opportunity to return to replace Saul as king. Because he knew he had been chosen and anointed as king. He’s not stupid to stay in the palace to be killed by Saul. It’s also different from the Jerusalem Christians who scattered when met with persecution, subsequently preaching where they scattered to.

Psa 11 is a psalm of David. There’re two periods in David’s life where he was threatened:
(1) when Saul knew God had chosen to give his kingdom to David
(2) when Absalom his son usurped his throne

When David was still serving Saul’s court; when he still had no reason to run, even though there were rumours of Saul wanting to kill him, fleeing would be seen as a show of guilt or cowardice.

But if David was told to run further than he had, it would have reflected that David lost faith in God “don’t return to Jerusalem”

Later, David had to flee because Saul already sought to kill him. He had to flee out of a window. He also had to find out what Saul was up to. Jonathan helped him by signalling.

It’s different. It wasn’t fleeing because he was afraid. It was fleeing to come back. It was fleeing out of wisdom to preserve his life.

This psalm tells us: when faced with danger, do not be afraid. Do not strategise. Just like David. Never never give up. Because this word ‘flee’ is different from the word used for David’s ‘fleeing’. This word ‘flee’ means to permanently leave the place and not coming back. It was first used to Cain. “Flee from My presence” God had said to him. Cain became a vagabond/fugitive for life.

Psa 11
v3
Truly. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Often, people who try to scare us will use a true principle to do so. If they can’t frighten us by threats, they’d frighten us with supposed reason.

But if our trust is in God, even if the foundations of righteousness and justice seem to be destroyed by the powers of darkness - like in the case of Israel who was under wicked regimes many times, the righteous people still held on; like when Saul became so wicked he dared to kill the priests - still our trust should be in the real ruler, which is God.

Hymn 5
Tho the wrong seems oft so strong
God is the ruler yet!

In the New Testament era, there was a time the Jewish Christians were under fierce persecution. The Romans weren’t really against other faiths at first. But later on the Christians were fiercely persecuted, especially the Jewish Christians. Because some of the Jews at that time seemed very militant; they wanted to set up their kingdom to break away from roman rule. The Christians Jews were doubly persecuted for being Christians and Jews. They were also persecuted by fellow Jews who took them as heretics. That’s the reason for the book of Hebrews where the author encourages the Jewish Christians not to go back to Judaism without Christ. Because the Old Testament Faith is supposed to lead them to Christ. “They’ve already come to Christ, why go back?”

So Heb 13:6 says, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can Man do to me?”
This is actually taken from the book of Psalm (Psa 118:6).

Compare this to Psa 11: what can the righteous do? (v3)

The righteous can’t do anything because we’re in this wicked age where the foundations are destroyed. But if the righteous people still have faith in God they will remain righteous. They’ll say the Lord is their helper. Instead of asking, “What can I do?” they’ll ask, “What can you do to me?”

Prov 16:12
A kingdom must be founded on righteousness and justice. If it isn’t, then it won’t last. Human rulers won’t last. We seek God’s kingdom that is righteous. That’s why when Jesus says to seek God’s kingdom and His RIGHTEOUSNESS. Not just to seek God’s blessing, not just to seek God to protect us, not just for all the good things in life. It means seeking His righteousness. It means maintaining your righteous no matter what happens. Only when we persist in righteousness will the Kingdom of God persist THROUGH us.

Heb 11 tells us that Abraham and the other patriarchs of faith: when they were seeking to enter the promised land of Canaan, what were they seeking? Especially Abraham who died without inheriting Canaan. He was seeking a heavenly city with foundations.

As long as we know what we’re seeking, we know it’s worth it.

Because there is a God. Because God is righteous.

Phil 4:13
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
This verse begs the question: What CAN’T the righteous do?
We can do all things as long as it’s Christ who strengthens me. So why should I flee? Why should I give up what the Lord has given for me to do?

What do we pray for? It’s good to ask God for help when we’re sick, have family crises. But as a Christian, the challenge we face is to be part and parcel of God’s project to build His church and extend His kingdom.

Those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

So if the central purpose of our life is to please God and build His kingdom, we’d need to spend much of our time praying to help us stay our cause and not give up on our worldly mission.

But what have we been praying for? Very personal things. Things very related to our short-lived needs and purposes.

If we really think about what the church is facing; about what God wants us to do - preach the gospel to the whole world - you’d realise you really need to put in a lot of time and effort to pray. Otherwise it’ll be really easy for us to be tempted to give up.

Psa 11
v4-7 the Lord is in His holy temple and His throne is in heaven
“The Lord is in His holy temple”…let all the earth keep silence before Him (Hab 2:20).

The Lord is in His holy temple. He’s on His throne. Therefore all the earth should keep silence. It is silent before judgement. Because the following chapters in Habakkuk talks about how there’s silence before judgement.

The gods the pagans worship are limited to a certain place because they are represented in human/animal/idol form.

When the Syrians fought with Israel, they lost. They were fighting in the mountainous area and concluded YHWH was the God of the mountains. “Let’s fight with them in the plains!” Of course that didn’t work. Because God isn’t the God of the mountains. Heaven is His throne. From heaven He will rain fire brimstone and a something wind.

He who sits in the heavens will laugh.

Eze 38:22
God brings judgement with pestilence and bloodshed. He rains down flooding rain, great hailstones, fire and brimstone. Flooding reminds us of a great judgement in the early history of mankind. The whole earth died. Even animals died. Only those in the ark Noah built survived. God promised not to flood the whole world so He brings down flooding rain. Fire and brimstone reminds us of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The raining down of flooding rain, great hailstones, fire and brimstone hence talks about the total elimination of the wicked. When the world ends, it will really end. Not a single wicked soul will live. God has already demonstrated to the city of Sodom, since there were not even 10 righteous men; God demonstrated it by the flood.

In the midst of wickedness when we feel we’re fighting a losing battle, never be tempted to flee. “The foundations are destroyed! There’s nothing to hold on to! What can I do with my righteousness?” Contrast God’s righteousness with the total destruction of the wicked. The battle is not done yet.

Jer 17:12 cf Psa 11:3
The temple and the throne are seen by the prophets already. They are one. This is our security.

But before the elimination of the wicked happens, God says He tests the sons of men (Psa 11:4). He tests the righteous! (11:5)

He tells us of the consequences the wicked will face (11:6) but He will also test the righteous!

Psa 139:23-24
We should be able to say to God, “Test me. Search me.” Because when God eliminates the wicked, no wickedness remains in His sight. Any wickedness in us won’t escape God’s judgement. So it’s better God tests us now so we can remove the wickedness far far away. Because there’ll be a time the wicked and the righteous will be totally separated. If we have wickedness in us, what will happen?

Psa 11:7
God loves the upright and righteous because He sees His own image in them. That’s why our entire life must be in pursuit of righteousness.

In conclusion:
Heb 11:27
Moses fled! Why? Because he killed an Egyptian bullying a Hebrew. But did he flee out of fear? Hebrews says Moses did not fear the king’s wrath. Before this happened, Moses already purposed to be with his people. His actions spoke louder than words. When he grew up, he went to identify with his brethren. Twice the Bible tells us his brethren refers to the Hebrews not the Egyptians. He delivered one of them by killing the bullying Egyptian. It was a choice that he made. If he was a coward he wouldn’t have made that choice. He would’ve maintained his status. He didn’t shrink from doing the right thing. Acts 7 said he did it out of righteousness. He assumed his brethren knew God had sent him to deliver them. So loses did the right thing. Made the right choice. Didn’t shrink from his responsibility, because he knew he was a Hebrew. He knew his God.

So let’s not shrink. Whoever your enemy is. Sometimes your enemy is the person closest to you.