In the Lord put I my trust, how
say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? For lo, the
wicked bend their bow, they may greater their arrow upon the
string, that they may proudly shoot at the upright in heart.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? 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 in him that loveth violence his soul hateth. But
the wicked in 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 doeth behold the upright." Our blessed, blessed Savior,
our gracious Father in Heaven, Father, I first come to thank
You, to praise You that You kept us, kept the saints here, kept
us. that we could come here and worship
together again, to be united in heart and will and purpose,
goal and aim, to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, to worship Him,
to honor Him, to bless Him, to praise Him, to thank Him, to
attribute our all salvation and all of it completely to Him and
Him alone. And Lord, I thank You for the
men that so ably preached and took the services I know, Lord,
that the saints were blessed through their ministries. And,
Lord, You're so gracious to us and so kind. Thank You for Your
traveling mercies. And, Lord Jesus, we pray for
Your holy and blessed presence tonight. God, we need You tonight. Need Your power, need Your presence.
And, Lord, we pray that the saints would be fed and be encouraged
and be strengthened. And Lord, for everything that
is so unlike you, we ask for your forgiveness. For every thought,
word, deed, feeling, emotion, everything that is so contrary
to the Spirit of grace, to the Spirit of Christ. Oh God, cleanse
us, save us, have mercy on us, be gracious to us, and have mercy
again upon our children and our grandchildren. meet with us and
bring glory to yourself in Christ's holy name. Amen. Sad to see you. Look here in
Psalm 11 with me that I read to you. David said, In the Lord
put I my trust. How say you to my soul? Flee
as a bird to your mountain. You know, if on our money Back
in 1956, Congress passed a law, and they put on our money, In
God We Trust. In God We Trust. And some people
do, and some don't. That's the national motto. That's
our national motto. But to God's people, it's not
just a motto. It's not something that's, no,
it's a reality to us. In the Lord put on our trust.
In God We Trust. It's not just an auto. We find in Him all of our confidence. We find in Him all of our comfort. Trust in Him. Put our trust in
Him, in God. That's the essence of our faith.
Trust in God. Abraham believed God. And so
we see here in the beginning of this psalm, it says, to the
chief musician, the psalm of David. What that means is when
he says to the chief musician, they're going to use the psalm
When the whole congregation sings, the chief musician is going to
lead this particular psalm in a corporate worship. It's just
like all of us. If we sung this psalm, we'd no
doubt sing it. And so David gave it to the chief musicians. They're
going to sing it all of Israel when they meet for their worship.
But he opens up, and the Lord put out my trust. You see, Saul,
the king, is astray. He's got lots of enemies. And
David's life was often in danger. One time he said, they hunted
me as a partridge on a mountainside. And they was questioning him. David, how say you to my soul,
flee as a bird to the valley? And you know, so they began to
question him and ask him questions. Where are you going to turn for
safety, David? Saul, you ain't going to get away from the king.
You're not going to get away from the enemies. Well, David
has a very clear answer, and it is the answer that every believer
has. Where are you going to turn?
For your comfort, your confidence, and refuge from your enemies?
Where do we find our help? Where else can we turn? In the
Lord do I put my trust. Where else are you going to go?
Where else are you going to go? And let me show you something
in Psalm 20. I think it's Psalm 20 and verse
7. I know Psalm 118. I'll read it to you here in a
minute. Psalm 20, verse 7, talking about putting our trust in the
Lord. Look what he says there in verse 7. This is one of my
favorite verses of Scripture. Mary and I read this the other
day. He said, Here's some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. Wouldn't
it be awful to put your trust in a horse or in a chariot? Psalm 118, verse 9 says, It is
better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. And
always better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in
princes. I mean, his breath is going for
him, and princes come and princes go. But God is always the same
and ever the same. And that's why we trust God.
David said, In the Lord we put our trust. Now, I've got four
points to this psalms and I'm trying to break it down for us
if I can. First of all, in four areas in which we trust the Lord.
We trust his preserving protection in verse one and two. We trust
his powerful, blessed providence in verse three. We trust his
personal presence in verse four. And we trust his perfect pronouncements
in verses four through five through seven. First, we trust His preserving
protection. That's why they said here to
David, I'll save you to my soul. Somebody told me so. Somebody
said, David, where in the world are you going to go? Flee as
a bird to the mountain. And he says, for the world, the
wicked have been their foe. They make rid of their alcohol
and their strength. They're ready for you, David. They'll wait
for you. They've got an ambush for you, and you're not going
to get away. And it says there in verse, that they may privately,
and that word privately means in darkness. Men in darkness
only do their deeds in darkness. Dark hearted do dark deeds. And here he says, I'll say it
to my soul. And they're ready to shoot the
upright in heart. And oh David, what it is, he's
being tempted to turn away from God and place his confidence
someplace else. And how many times does that
happen to people? You know, they get tempted, they
get tried, they think people say to their soul. And it may,
you know, it may have been advice of some friends of him. It's
like Job's wife. It may have been like Job's wife. And Job, you know, he just shaved
his head after he lost everything, and he bowed before God and worshipped
the Lord. And he kept on trusting God,
and finally his wife comes to him and said, Job, why don't
you just go ahead and cuss God and die? He said, woman, you
speak as a foolish. You speak as a fool. Shall not
the Lord give and the Lord take away? And he did not sin. foolishly with his mouth or charge
God with anything. And that may have been the way
it was with David here. People were trying to turn him.
Run for your life, David. There's people after you. There's
enemies after you. And Saul's going to get you.
There ain't no way in the world that you're going to get away.
They're probably hidden. They got that bone drawn back.
And, oh, beloved, that's the way the world is. They're always
looking for something else to trust in. But God helped us to
always seek wise counsel. The Scriptures tell us in Psalm
1, walk not in the counsel of the ungodly. Don't do it. Walk on the world and get counsel.
Oh no, we got a Bible that gives us counsel. We got the Word of
God that tells us how to think, where to go, and how to act,
and what to do, and how to treat people. We got a blessed book
that tells us what we ought to be, and what we ought to do,
and what we ought to treat. And we got the book that tells
us how things ought to be. And oh, beloved, David may have
some enemies who said, David, you better run. You better run.
There's no one can help you. And look over at Psalm 34 with
me, just 36, excuse me. And this is what happened over
here. You might remember a few months ago, I believe I preached
from this. But in Isaiah 36, 14, you remember
Isaiah 36 and verse 14. And, oh, you know, there's no
help for you. This is what Sennacherib of the
Assyrians, when he surrounded Jerusalem, surrounded Israel,
this is what he said. This is what he said here in
Isaiah 36 and verse 14. Thus saith the king, thus saith
Assyria, that Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, let not Hezekiah,
he's the king of Israel, Let not Hezekiah deceive you, for
he shall not be able to deliver you." Now that's what they tell
you. Neither let Hezekiah make you
trust in the Lord. Oh, don't let Hezekiah say, trust
in the Lord, because the Lord ain't going to do you no good
either. The Lord will surely deliver us. This city shall not
be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. And this
is what he said, Hearken, Lord, to Hezekiah. For thus saith the
king of Assyria, Make an agreement with me by a present, and come
unto me, and eat ye every one of his vine, and every one of
his fig tree, and drink ye every one of the waters of his own
city. And that's what's happening to David. David, turn away from
God. Why you won't trust God? God
ain't gonna save you. And that's what the enemy told
him. These folks over there, that's what Hezekiah said. And
that's what we, don't we face this? Don't we face this in our
own lives? Huh? People all the time wanting
to tell us what we need to do, where we need to go, and how
we need to act. The devil comes and whispers in our ear, says,
you know, this may not be real after all. There may not be nothing
to this for your profession whatsoever. There may not be absolutely nothing.
You may be a hypocrite of the highest order. And when it comes
down to push comes to shove, nobody will be able to help you.
You know, you really ought to trust yourself. You're a pretty
good person. Trust yourself. Use your own
wisdom. Figure this out for yourself. And then our own hearts. Our
own hearts tempt us. It fills our hearts with fear
and with anxiety, sometimes wondering how in the world we're going
to deal with certain things. And how are we going to turn
away and trust this thing over here, or are we going to trust
the Lord? Are we going to trust doctors, or are we going to trust
Christ? Are we going to trust medicine, or are we going to
trust Christ? We gonna trust our wisdom or
we gonna trust Christ? We gonna trust our own abilities
or we gonna trust Christ? And that's where we're at. That's
what they said here. David, turn around and run, buddy. Run for
your life, David. Oh, I'm not running. Are you
gonna run? If I run, I'm gonna run one direction, to Christ.
And then look what else he said here now. And oh, listen. David, what he says was, you
can say that if you want to. Look what he says there. For
lo, the wicked bend their bow. David, they make ready their
arrow upon the spring that they may privately shoot at the upright
in heart. David, they're ready to shoot you. David, they've
got an ambush laid wait for you. And all these voices telling
David not to trust in the living God, go hide in a cave somewhere.
And there the enemy had his bow set and his arrow pointed at
him. But David, just like every child of God, knew where to go,
knew who to trust. And I'll tell you something about
arrows. You can take a little arrow here
if you want to, but arrows mean a lot of things in the Scripture,
lots of arrows. Arrows may take the form of a
ton, sharp words that pierce a person's heart. They may be
words that somebody uses to discourage you. I heard years and years
ago, a discouraged person, all they're fit for is to discourage
somebody else. Ain't that true? So, you know,
that's why, no complaints, no complaints, because one discouraged
person, all he's fit for is to discourage another, and then
he'll discourage them. Next thing you know, the whole
bunch is sitting in long rows. But oh my! And then they may
be, you know, they may be harrows. that assault our character and
make charges against us. May these somebody that come
along and we have all these struggles and difficulties and things going
on in life. And every trial that we go to,
put your trust in the Lord. Huh? Look what David said in
Psalm 91. This is what I'm talking about. Psalm 91. Psalm 91. Look what he said in verse 2. Oh, there's only one place for
us to go. That's why when all those men turned and walked away,
all those disciples in John 6, and turned and walked away from
the Lord, and the Lord turned to the twelve and said, we also
go away. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life. Where else are we going to turn
to? Who else are we going to turn to? And look what he said
in Psalm 91 and verse 2. I will say of the Lord. You know,
he said over there, he says, and the Lord put on my trust.
But this is what I'm going to say about the Lord. He's my refuge. He is my refuge. When a storm
comes, people got storm cellars, especially out in Oklahoma and
Kansas, and they run in those things. And it saves lots and
countless lives. And David said here, He is my
refuge. He's my fortress. You know, you
get in the fort, you got walls around you, you got surrounded
by an army, and you're right in the middle of that fort. And
look what he says, My God and Him will I trust. So we trust Him. We trust Him
for His blessed preserving protection, how He preserves us, even though
we've got enemies out there with their bows bent and their arrows
shooting them. Then look what He says next in verse 3. We trust
Him in His powerful providence in this awful, awful, wicked,
evil world. Look what He said in verse 3.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? That's
what David was going on saying to David. He said, David, go
ahead and run. Be like a bird. Fly off to the mountains. Because
they've got their arrows ready to shoot at you. And the foundations
have been destroyed. And you say you're righteous.
We're in your world. What are you going to do now?
What are you going to do? Where are you going to go? Where
are you going to turn? And I want you to notice something
about this word foundation. It says foundations. It does
not singular. Foundations. Oh, there's so many
foundations in this world. And, oh, beloved, and I tell
you what, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do? And, oh, beloved, what can the
righteous... Foundations everywhere we look, everywhere we look,
we see foundations destroyed. Politicians, they try every foundation
that they can find that's got some solemnness to it and make
it round and corrupt. People or sub-people are covetous
people so bound by greed. Judges are hired and bribed and
manipulated around to do what they, instead of beating out
justice, they got an agenda and they want their agenda and all
that to go through instead of themselves. Abortion, homosexuality,
adultery, gambling, drunkenness, There's no end to what's going
on. The foundations, and I'll tell
you the foundation is really, two foundations really destroyed
in this world, and more so in the last 25 years, that it astonishes
us and scares us. First of all, the family. The
family and the foundations of the American home, the family
has been destroyed. I mean they attacked it, insulted
it. The only reason they had gay
marriage is trying to do away with marriage altogether. Do
away with it. No sense getting married. Marriage
is a thing of the past. How many children are born out
of wedlock that they don't have a clue who their mother and their
daddy is and never know what it is to live in a two-parent
home? Raised by single parents, raised by a husband, raised by
a step-dad, raised in a foster home. I mean, our home, our foundation
of our home is destroyed. People don't think no more of
living together now than they would spitting on the ground.
And you try to talk to them about getting married, they get aggravated
at you and say, well, we're just not ready yet. Oh, how many divorces? Oh, divorce,
divorce, divorce, divorce, divorce. And I'll tell you one thing,
it don't change the way it says in God. God made a man for a
woman and a woman for a man, and he made a woman to be a helpmate
for God, and God brought them two together and said, they two
shall be one flesh. And I'll tell you one thing that
will never be destroyed, that till death do us part, and that's
the way it's going to be. That's the way God meant for
it to be. And men can do whatever they want. Those foundations
are destroyed. It's awful. And I'll tell you the second
great foundation that's destroyed. The Church, over in 1 Timothy,
it says the Church is the pillar and ground of the truth. It's
the pillar that holds up the truth. Great big pillar, got
strength in it. It's the pillar of truth, and
it's the ground of truth. It's what holds the truth up.
And the Church, The world now is so far away from God and Christ
and the truth, that they cease to be, that there's no truth,
no pillar of truth in places. You think I'm sitting here, listen,
for heaven's sake, what on earth are you doing? That's what subterfuge
rules are for. So energy used inside. Never tire of what's doing right.
Weather forecast, God's rain, the sun shines. The best sermons
are those lived, not spoken. That's a lie. That's a lie. There's a lot of folks who live
a heap sight better than I do, in the way they're very particular
about the way they dress, very particular about where they go,
very particular about what Clothes they wear and all that, and how
they attend church, and how every women sit here. And I'll tell
you, Pharisees would put us under the table when they come to live
in us. But the gospel is the spoken
words is what God uses to save souls. And it's Christ's life
that saves us, not our life. It's not how we live that saves
us, it's how Christ lived, and how He died, and how He put our
sin away that has saved us. Now, we want to live to His glory.
We want to honor Him. But I tell you, don't never,
ever put yourself and your life and your living in the place
of the gospel, or in the place of Christ, and in the place of
the grace of God. Now, would you agree with that?
Oh, I tell you, the foundations are being destroyed. Honesty
and integrity? Oh, my. And we trust God, though. Foundations are destroyed. Oh,
the Constitution, lawlessness everywhere you look. A lot of
places you go, some people don't like what's happening. They just
start throwing chairs and throwing cussing and ripping and roaring
if they don't like what the decision don't go their way. And when
the foundations are crumbling, and you can't go in certain parts
of cities and that's because you'll get killed. You'll get
destroyed. And if we're living like that,
and our Constitution and everything just being ripped out in front
of our very eyes, what in the world can the righteous do? I'll
tell you what he's going to do. And the Lord put out my trust.
What are we going to do? We're going to take our refuge
in Christ. People don't want to get married,
they go on to hell. I'm going to put my trust in
Christ. People want to have children
out of wedlock and never get married, I'm going to put my
trust in Christ. Families want to split up, then
I'm going to put my trust in Christ. And that's what we do. He's the ruler of this world.
Nothing happens outside of His dominion, outside of His glorious
rule. That's why Isaiah said, For unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government,
government, shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called one, the Pope-Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, and the Prince of Peace." We ain't been surrounded by the
Nicareb and 85,000 soldiers around us saying, surrender or we gonna
get you. Oh no, we got enemies, but our
God is greater than all of them put together. Our God defeated
everything that's against us. Bless His holy name. And I'll
tell you what, we stand on a firm foundation when we... The foundation
of this world may be destroyed, but on Christ the solid rock
I stand. God laid inside us a foundation,
a tri-stone, a sure foundation, and that stone is Christ Himself. And I'll tell you, beloved, He
has all authority and He rules with all power. And I'll tell
you what, we stand on Him and let everything come what may.
And I'll tell you something else, He knows everybody that belongs
to Him, too. Do you know what Dr. Timothy
said? Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands assured, the Lord
knows them that are His. Oh, now, Lord, we trust Him in
His powerful providence. and His protection. But oh, we
trust Him also and bless His name for His personal presence.
Look what it says in verse four. The Lord is in His holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. You see, God's presence, wherever
we go, He's there. He sees us. He never slumbers.
He never sleeps. Never slumbers, never sleeps.
It's like, you know, in His very dark, in our Lord's darkest hour.
When He was in Gethsemane, He prayed until His sweat became
as great drops of blood. And when they came to get Him,
you know what He said? He said, if you get me, let these
go their way. Huh? Let these go their way. You can't have us both. You see, the Lord, He never slumbers
or sleeps. Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
told His disciples when He was fixing to leave, fixing to go
back to glory, said, Boy, what are we going to do? Who's going
to watch over us? Who's going to care for us? Who's going to take care
of us? He said, Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end
of the world. Peter, and you know, Paul said,
Let's look at it. Let's just look at it. Hebrews
13, 5. I could quote this to you, but look at it with me. This is one of the most glorious
things that you'll find in the scriptures in Hebrews 13 and
5. There's five negatives in this,
and I preached on it one time, and it says, never, I'll never,
no never, no never, no never forsake you. And Alan Smith went
home and he looked it up and come back and said, you're right,
there's five negatives. There's five nevers in that verse of
scripture. I'll never leave you, never forsake
you. He says in verse five, let your conversation, let your manner
of life be without covetousness and be content with such things
as you have. For he has said, who said? God said, Christ said, I will
never leave thee. Has he ever left you? Never left
me. There's been a time or two I
felt like I was so far off from him. that I couldn't hear his
voice, but he's never left me. And never has left me. And look
what he says here. And I'm forsaken. Ever forsaken? Could you imagine
Christ forsaken? One for whom He died. Catch you
in the hour of need, catch you in the hour of trials, catch
you when everything's against you, catch you when you're wet,
your flesh is so weak, and your spirit is so low, and the darkness
is so deep, and the discouragement is so great, and to say, I'm
not going to be there for you, I'm going to forsake you, could
you imagine Christ doing that? No! Oh, listen, and that's why
I'm going to say, And that's why it says, I'll never, no never,
never, no never, never leave you. So that we may boldly say,
with great confidence say, the Lord is my helper, and I will
not fear what man shall do to me. Oh my. And that's why it says,
when you know you're different. Everybody loves these verses.
When thou passest through the waters, I'll be with you. When
you go through the rivers, they won't overflow you. When thou
walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither
shall the flame kindle upon you." And I tell you something, beloved,
we've always got a place to go. The world ain't got no place
to go. We've got a place to go. We have got someone to go. We
don't only have a place to go, we have someone to go to. Someone
to go to in desperation. In our desperation, we've got
somewhere to go. In our deepest, darkest trials,
we look up to Christ sitting on His throne. The believer is
never alone. God has the night watch. He's
always vigilant. I was talking to an old Marie
this morning. Him and I were over there about
the same time, and of course he was with a much, much dangerous
outfit than I was with, but they had the night watch. And boy,
I tell you, if you had the night watch, in some place you'd be
scared to death, you would not bat your eyes you were so scared. And other times you'd be so tired
you just couldn't go. And you sometimes you'd take,
you'd have to crawl out, you'd go outside, And two men would
go outside the perimeter and lay out there all night long.
Just lay out two men, lay out there all night long, just listening
for something all the time. All the time. God's got the night watch. And
He won't go to sleep. He won't slumber. And He knows
every move that everybody makes. And there ain't no way He's gonna
sneak up on us. And He ain't scared, like I was.
Oh, we take great, great comfort in God's watchfulness over us.
Oh, my. God's watchful eyes on us all
the time, all the time, all the time. And, oh, let me hurry. I know I'm taking too long. God's
always present and beholds the affairs of men. Look what He
says there again, verse 4. The Lord is in His holy temple.
The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, His eyelids
cry, the children of men. Now, for somebody that's unconverted,
when he says his eye lives, behold, and his eye lives, try. For the
person that's unconverted, that ought to slip a tear in your
heart right now. God's looking at you. He sees everything there
is about you. Nothing hid. Not a thought you
thought, not a motive you had, not a desire you've ever had.
And he beholds every sin, every offense, everything you've ever
thought, said, or done. But for the believer, what wonderful,
wonderful peace this brings. God's looking at me. God's eye
is beholding me. Huh? Watch your doors. We have His protection. And we
have access to the throne of grace. God's got three thrones. Throne of justice. Judgment and
justice. Throne of glory. And thank God,
a throne of grace. And because of the throne of
grace, we don't have to worry about those other two. And we'll
see Him on that glory one of these days. And as we go through
this life, we have confidence that God is always mindful. He never takes His eyes off of
us. Look what it says there. Down in verse 7. The last part
of verse 7. His counsel is to do it beholding
upright. This fellow over here wanted
to shoot you upright in the heart. God built his countenance. He's
looking at him. He's got his countenance on him. Face leant
towards him. And oh, beloved, he's always
doing everything for us. He's always our defender. And
then let me show you this in closing. Verse 5 through 7. We
trust him and he's perfect pronouncers. What God does and says is right. He said in verse 5, he says,
The Lord tries the righteous. Tries the righteous. He observes
them. He knows them. He tries them. He knows who they are. He knows
how much trial they can take. That's why Job said, The Lord
knows the way that I take. After He has tried me, I shall
come forth as gold. He knows the way that I take.
Because the Lord knows. And then He knows every thought
we have, every thing we've ever done. And then look what else. God on and on tries the righteous,
but He does the wicked. But the wicked is Him that loves
violence. His soul hates it. He examines the wicked. Oh, they
love violence, and they may live in the lap of luxury, may think
they're not getting by with everything, but listen to what's going to
happen to them. Upon the wicked, he shall bring snares, fire,
and brimstone. He did, didn't he? And you read
Revelations, you're going to do the exact same thing again,
except it's going to be on the whole world this time. Fire and
brimstone are going to fall and destroy this whole thing. Melt
it with a fervent heat and a new one is going to come down. And
this shall be the portion of their cup. Wouldn't you hate
to have a cup and the portion be that God hates you and rain
fire and brimstone down? I've got a cup of water here. But did God give you a cup? And
all that's in it is snares and fire and brimstone and judgment. Wouldn't that hate to have a
cup like that God put in your hand? That's what He says He's
going to do here. That's going to be the portion
of their cup. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. Oh, my. Foundations are being destroyed,
but we've got someplace to trust. In God we trust. It's more than
a motto to us. In God we trust. In the Lord
put out my trust. David, you better run. No, I
ain't going nowhere. In the Lord put out my trust.
Well, they got an arrow at you. I can't help that. In the Lord
I put my trust. The foundations are destroyed.
That's okay. I'm going to put my trust in
the Lord. Amen.