Summary: Maintain
your confidence in the LORD the heavenly King because the righteous will see
his face and the wicked will face his justice
Uses:
Confidence in God in the
face of mockery / criticism / defeatism / enemies / wickedness
When tempted to fear /
flee / give up
When in danger /
threatened by enemies
When everything seems to
be going wrong
Looking to God for justice
and vindication
Key verses / possible memory verses: v1a, vv4-5 (temple understood as Christ / church /
believer), v7!
Outlines / structure:
Expositor’s Bible:
Refuge in the Righteous
King
Vv1-3: Refuge in God
Vv4-6: Yahweh is the
righteous king
V7: God is the refuge of
the righteous
Goldingay, Baker
Commentary
Stay or Flit?
Wilcock, BST:
Something familiar,
something new
In the dark (vv1-3)
The central fact (v4a)
In the light (vv4b-7)
Kidner, Tyndale:
Panic and stability
Vv1-3: Voices of despair
Vv4-7: The forgotten
dimension
Wilson, NIV application
commentary
Refuge or flight (v1)
What can the righteous do?
(vv2-3)
Yahweh the Examiner
(vv4-6)
Affirmation of Yahweh’s
righteousness (v7)
Dale Ralph Davis, The Way of the Righteous in the Muck of Life
Crumbling foundations
The advice faith hears
(vv1-3)
The answer faith gives
(vv4-7b)
The assurance faith holds
(v7c)
ESV devotional Psalter
Eugene Peterson, Praying
with the Psalms
Motyer, Psalms by the Day
devotional
A. Safety (v1a) and
misleading voices (vv1b-3)
B. Sovereignty (v4a-b) and
a true view of life (vv4c-6)
C. Confidence under divine
scrutiny (v7)
Notes:
Title:
To the choirmaster
Of David
Vv1b-3: Supposed reasons
for cowardice
Vv4-end: Solid reasons for
confidence
Vv1-3 – true and false
refuges
Similar themes to Pss 3-10
– the righteous and the wicked, the Lord’s punishment and favour
No prayer in this ps. It
is a kind of testimony / creed – no address to God, rather proclamation about
him
A theology proved in time
of crisis
David as a potential
refugee – 1 Sam 18-27 threatened by Sail better background than 2 Sam 15-19,
when David fled from Absalom
V1, better, have taken
refuge – have you resolved to do that? A decision is necessary. When a crisis
comes you will need to know where you stand and to what / whom you are
committed. What are your foundations? Where is your refuge / rock / fortress /
security?
V1 – In Yahweh emphatic in
the Hebrew text – the LORD acts as David’s anchor – David is not all at sea –
the foundations may be torn down but this ultimate foundation remains
Cf. other inadequate
supposed refuges – security system, pension, family etc. all inadequate refuges
– On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand – Rock of
ages cleft for me
V1 – I’ve already fled to
the LORD so why should I flee?
Those who walk with the
Lord may be (v1) vulnerable and unprotected (v2) under attack.
V1 – on fleeing to the
mountains: Gen 19:17; 1 Sam 14:22; I Kings 19:3-9; Mt 24:16
? your mountain – 1 Sam
23:14, 25-29; 26:1 – Mt Zion
V1bff – how long is the
quotation? – Calvin, NBV, NKJV end it at 1c; NEB, REB include v2, others
include v3, JB, NIV, NASB, TEV, ESV.
The foundations are being
destroyed (v3) – the normal protections and securities are lacking or seem
lacking, ? social fabric disintegrating, civil order unsettled – everything
falling apart
V1 – 1 Sam 18:8-16 could
be a suitable background – David did eventually flutter off to the mountains
V2 – The speaker
distinguishes himself from the wicked – likely David is quoting his friends or
he could be summarising his own fears – cf. The Benedict Option ???!!!
Vv1c-3 – The advice of
fear, sane but in conflict with 1a
If this advice comes from
friends or seeming friends, perhaps it is the more subtle and dangerous for
that. Not the advice of a hypocrite, enemy or agnostic, but opposed to faith.
Pious, sincere, caring, plausible. Discernment needed. The danger of
well-meaning friends! Cf. Peter to Christ – surely not the cross, Lord?!
It’s all very well to take
refuge in the Lord, but what are you actually going to do?, David’s friends
might have asked.
In matters little whether
David is here or in the hill country if he is in the Lord. Attitude not
location is key. (Wilcock)
Prudence or unbelief?
Mt 10:23 – flee – Ps 11 –
don’t flee!
When to flee and when to
stand? – Pray for discernment – Phil 1:9-10
H. L. Ellison, “The love
of your friends will often create your most subtle temptations.” (D R Davis,
p128)
The assumption behind this
advice: safety is all important – security / self-preservation potentially an
idol – risk sometimes right
Nothing good can be done
here – save your own skin – run for the hills! – don’t run scared
V1 – in Yahweh I am as
safe as I ought to be
V2 – the attack of the
wicked is immanent (their bows are bent and the arrows are already at the
string – they have cocked their gun and are about to shoot) and clandestine,
secretive, underhand (they shoot from the shadows). The implication is that
their attack will be deadly.
V2 – cf. the modern
shadowy threat of terrorism
V3 – could be lit. The
faithful one – what has he done? Yahweh?
V3 – pessimistic /
defeatist / hopeless – the battle seems already lost, but of course this is to
fail to take account of the LORD (v4)!
All the old certainties
are gone, nothing fells secure / stable / safe / sure, you can’t tell how
things will be from one day to another – and there’s nothing you can do about
it
V3 – perfect tense: what
could even the righteous have done? Or maybe even “What could even the
righteous have determined to do?”
V3 – note the alternative
of the NIV footnote – “what is the Righteous One doing?” – God seems absent,
inactive, uncaring, powerless?
V3 – the foundations, the
ground rules of society
V4 – The LORD is, the
crucial central fact
V4 – unlike Theresa May’s
government, the LORD’s government is strong and stable, established, firm,
immovable
Vv4-5 – temple or palace –
same word
V4 – The temple parallel
to (a model of) God’s heavenly throne room
Solomon’s temple of course
not built in the time of David. The tabernacle?
Yahweh enthroned amongst
his people in the temple and also in heaven – with them and exalted – immanence
and transcendence – with his people in the crisis and above the crisis
Hab 2:20
V4 – Yahweh, Yahweh –
placed emphatically at the beginning of the clauses
“note the imagery,
especially about the throne, eyes, and eyelids. David replies that his picture
does not imply Yahweh is removed but
that he rules (throne); that throne
is not a place of inactivity but of supremacy; it does not suggest distance but dominion. Yahweh’s exaltedness or ‘transcendence’ doesn’t indicate
distance or indifference but activity
(gaze, test), which leads to judgement.” (DR Davis, p129)
The Lord sees – he is not
in the dark – his vision penetrates the shadows of v2
V4 – eyelids, Motyer: used
as a parallel to eyes for the sake of variation – Ps 132:4
V4 – You need Yahweh front
and centre of your vision – that transforms the whole landscape
V4 – God’s judgements
just, based on careful scrutiny (gaze, test)
V4 – test – the trials of
life as in vv1-3
V4 – God hasn’t moved to
the mountains
Steadfastness in a chaotic
world all depends where you look: at the wicked (v2a) or at Yahweh (v4). Yahweh
must be at the centre of your vision. Yahweh reigns: everything will ultimately
be okay.
Cf. Revelation 4 – 12
references to a throne
Keller: 3 responses /
insights:
(1) Theological – God is
still on his throne and will execute justice in his own wise time (v4)
(2) Practical – crises are
really tests, opportunities to find out what is solid etc. (vv4-5)
(3) Spiritual – what we
really need is knowledge of God himself, his presence, his face (v7)
V5 – Motyer suggests “It
is Yahweh who tests and it is the righteous he tests” brings out the sense of
the Hebrew
V5 – the faithful and the
unfaithful
V5 – Yahweh’s stillness is
not inertia but concentration (Kidner)
V5 – examine, assessing a
precious metal
V5 – The righteous pass
the test and are safe under God’s all powerful and all-knowing eye. The wicked
fail God’s examination and will be subject to terrible judgement
Yahweh’s examination is
not just an interesting piece of research – it forms the basis for his action.
V5 – cf. God hates the
wicked – “God hates the sin, loves the sinner”
God v definite, a living
extremist, loves & hates, virile, not sentimental or bland (see DR Davis
p130)
God’s righteous character
(v7a) explains his justice and judgement (vv5-6) which is the basis of the
believer’s hope. God’s judgement good news for his people
Ps 96:10-13
2 Thess 1:6-9
V6 – the cover of darkness
or fleeing to the mountains could not save them
V6 – Motyer, a fine mixed
metaphor – “He will rain down on the wicked traps – fire and sulphur and raging
heat, the measure in their cup” – not as in NKJV coals
V6 – cup – Ps 6:5; 75:8;
116:13 – Motyer, “life’s experiences as decided upon and measured out by
Yahweh”
Not a pleasant share or a
cup of blessed wine
V6 – cf. Sodom and
Gomorrah – Gen 19:24 – fire in NT Lk 17:28-30; 2 Pt 2:6-9; 1 Pt 1:7
V7 – upright – not
sinlessly perfect but basically trusting God, in their better moments loving
righteousness and hating evil
V7 – The image is of the
face of Yahweh turned favourably to those he loves – Num 6:25; Ps 80:3 – “It is
not by flight (v1b) but by confidence in divine favour (v7) that life’s
challenges can be faced.” (Motyer)
V7 – cf. Rev 22:4, “They
shall see his face” – assurance – remember this is coming when all seems
darkness and ruin and you are dodging arrows!
1 Cor 13:12
It is love that causes us
to want to gaze on someone’s face
Kidner, “If the first line
of the psalm shows where the believer’s safety lies, the last line shows where
his heart should be.”
Fellowship with God,
loving him for his own sake, God himself the ultimate goal and reward of the
believer – not just protection and blessing from God but communion with him.
1 Pt 1:8
DR Davis (p133):
Faith needs discernment to
filter out counsels of despair and fear
Faith needs vision to see
the just and reigning God
Faith needs hope that
anticipates awaking and gazing on God’s face
Only 2 categories, the
righteous and the wicked, no neutrality, no 3rd way
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