Which Mountain is Your Refuge?
Psalm 11:1-7 (text) • January 25, 2015 • KSYC103.9FM (Yreka)
In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven; his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man. The LORD tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. Let him rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
For the LORD is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.
In A.D. 68, the Roman general Vespasian laid siege to Jerusalem before the Romans completely destroyed the city and the Temple. But before they entered the city to destroy it and massacre its residents, Christians trapped in the city remembered the words of Jesus in Luke 21:20-21 when they saw the Roman legions encamped around the city, “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies… then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.” So they fled to the mountains in an area called Pella.
Psalm 11 also begins with David answering a similar warning to him when his enemies threaten to kill him. Like Jesus, David’s counselor also tells him to flee from his godless enemies. The counselor’s warning even has a mocking tone: “When all your defenses are down, can you protect yourself from the arrows of your wicked enemies? Can God now be your refuge from your evil pursuers? There’s nothing you or your God can do, so flee like a bird to your mountain refuge!”
Your Mountain? King David the psalmist begins the psalm by questioning his friends whose counsel is for him to escape from his enemies by going to his mountain hideout. David’s advisers may have assessed that their only hope is to escape and flee to the mountains, like a bird that flies to the mountain forests.
How often do we also look at our desperate situation and conclude that God is sleeping and does not care about his people because we see all around us wicked people prospering. We see all around us our brethren in Christ suffer deprivation, sickness, hunger and thirst. While multitudes of righteous believers suffer persecution all around the world, we see ungodly and unrighteous enemies of God prosper and multiply.
In the midst of these crises, David’s counselors see the very foundations of their lives as God’s people crumble into a heap of destruction. In the same way, we see today the wicked enemies of the righteous reject and destroy God’s laws as the law of their nation’s moral, religious and civil life. The moral laws are discarded in favor of wanton immorality and lawlessness—lust for money and power, drunkenness, drug addiction, and sexual immorality. The social fabric of the country seems to have been torn apart. Corruption is standard practice not only among those in positions of authority, but also among many people, rich and poor, employer and employee.
As God’s special people called out of darkness into his marvelous light, you must not look at all these things around you and throw your hands up and say, “What can we do? The foundations are destroyed and all ‘the pillars of the land are crushed’” (Isa 19:10). You are not to put your trust in earthly foundations, because if you do, then hopelessness, desperation and resignation set in. You are not to flee as a bird to your own mountain retreat.
What are some of our earthly foundations that are so easily shaken and destroyed? Material things such as money, homes, cars and other possessions, families and jobs are usually our most treasured foundation. Those are our security, and we continually store treasures, not in heaven as our Lord has commanded, but on earth where moth and rust will destroy them in the end.
When these are your foundations and your mountain refuge, you are on shaky ground. Because when the storms of life come, your house will be as a house of cards built on the sand, built with weak materials and without a strong foundation. All of these man-centered foundations of the world are passing away. Only those who “do the will of God abides forever.”
But King David rejects his friends counsel to flee to his mountain refuge. “Why would I flee to my mountain refuge where my enemies would find me and kill me? Why would I put my trust on earthly foundations? ‘In Yahweh I take refuge’! God’s mountain is my refuge!”
God’s Mountain? There, you’ll find more information about our location, services, sermons and other useful resources for Christian living.] From his “holy temple” which is his heavenly throne, God actively reigns sovereign over the whole universe. David has complete trust in God because he knows that God is not just allowing and watching events “from a distance.” He knows and controls every big and little event in history. He knows each person who ever lived, whether righteous and wicked. This knowledge gives him total confidence in God, because no evil schemes by Satan and his wicked people are hidden from God’s eyes.
And although he suffers from affliction and persecution, David knows that God continually tests his own as a father tests the children he loves to make them stronger. This is why Christians suffer in this world. He proves the genuineness of our faith, repentance and obedience, but he also chastises us and uses his rod when we go astray.
But the psalmist also remind us that God also knows the way of the wicked, and he hates them and their violence! David’s enemies plot treacherously in vain to kill him in the darkness of night with an arrow in the heart. This is what God surely hates: when the wicked persecute and kill his righteous people.
We also see what the wicked will reap on Judgment Day. The Lord’s hatred of all evildoers is complete; not one of them will be spared from destruction. He will show no mercy or leniency towards them. On that day, God will vindicate both his just and righteous deeds and his righteous people. Each one of us will be given a cup filled with God’s just rewards. The righteous will be rewarded with a cup that overflows with chosen portions and blessings. But the wicked will inherit a cup that overflows with God’s bitter wrath of destruction.
On that day, all the righteous will enter God’s throne room in heaven and see his face, Jesus himself on the throne as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Conclusion: When perilous times come, where do you flee for refuge? To your own mountain, founded on the world’s security? Or do you lift your eyes to God’s holy hill, from where your help comes?
There will be a coming period of time—maybe days, maybe months, maybe years—before Christ returns, when lawlessness will be unparalleled in the history of mankind. Wars and rumors of wars, pestilence, famine, persecution, false teachers, earthquakes and natural disasters will come to a terrible climax. In terror, the unbelieving people of the earth will hide in the rocks and mountains and plead to them to end their suffering because they see the great day of Christ’s return. But their mountains and foundations will not protect them and hide them from God’s wrath. Because all of their lives, Jesus was a cornerstone of offense that they rejected, and the mountain of Calvary was a rock of stumbling for them. Instead, their foundations are built on the sands of human effort and works-righteousness.
What about you? Will you flee to God as your refuge and hiding place? Will you go hide yourself in the cleft of Christ your Spiritual Rock? Will you stand on the only firm and solid foundation of the holy Scriptures, written by the prophets and apostles breathed out to them by the Spirit? If you have faith in Christ, the Rock of Ages, then you are standing on solid ground. Christ the Foundation is one that will never be shaken or destroyed during perilous times, and even when God shakes up the whole universe at his coming.
Are you looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God, heaven itself?
LET US PRAY: O Lord, our Almighty Refuge, you dwell in the highest heavens, where you look towards your creation. You care about it, and especially your people, whom you test. Help us to flee to you as our Refuge when the storms and sufferings of life come. Because our Refuge and Foundation is not our own self, our own mountain, our money, house, families, jobs, but Christ alone. Because he is our only sure Foundation and Refuge.
Now we pray for the week ahead of us. We pray again for our homes, our jobs, our fields, our schools, our government. We continue to pray for good weather, for rains, for sunshine, for snow. We pray for provisions for daily bread, especially for the widows and the poor. Heal those who are ill, especially those with serious illnesses. May you also heal our broken relationships. Through Jesus Christ our Sure Foundation and Refuge. Amen.
