We are excited to be starting a new series of reflections on the Psalms. Each day we will upload a new reflection to the website. We hope and pray that you will find them helpful and that they bring hope during this season. Click on these buttons to read the text of the psalm or listen to a recording of it. You can also listen to the reflection using the audio player below.
Read Psalm 11 Listen to Psalm 11
Podcast (cnc-daily-psalms): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:48 — 1.1MB)
“In the Lord I take refuge.” The psalm begins with a quietly spoken statement of confidence in God. Then we hear the kind of things people have been saying to David, all designed to create fear and anxiety. Their point is that when everything is going to pot, what’s the point in being good? You better get out of here, fast. To quote The Message, “The bottom’s dropped out of the country; good people don’t have a chance.”
David quietly and effectively rebuts and stills the voices that are so strident at the opening of the psalm, by reminding himself (and us) of where the Lord is in the current circumstances: in his holy temple, on his heavenly throne.
From that place, however exalted it is, God examines all of us, upright and otherwise. His eyes miss nothing.
At the end, David comes back to God’s character of righteousness. People who share in his character “will see his face”. To see someone’s face is to be in their presence (not counting the marvels of modern technology). This is what God’s people everywhere can enjoy and rely on right now.
Father, thank you that through Jesus’ work for us on the cross we can live in your presence, knowing that you look on us with love.