Selah:

Sacred Songs of the Psalter

 

Max A Forsythe

 

© Anno Domini 2002

From the pulpit at Pilgrim’s Rest

Presbyterian Church in America

Psalm 11

04       The LORD is in His holy temple;
 the LORD’s throne is in heaven;
        His eyes behold,
His gaze assays, the sons of man.
        
TEXTUAL RESOURCES

English Standard Version                                   Interlinear NIV Hebrew-English Old Testament
New Geneva Study Bible (NKJV)    Bratcher & Reyburn. Translator’s Handbook on the Psalms
Authorized (King James) Version     Barthelemy.  Pre & Int Rpt on the Hebrew OT Text Project
New American Standard Bible                                         Dahood.  The Anchor Bible: Psalms 1-50
The Jerusalem Bible
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He is in His Temple
For the Lord’s Day:  the 14th of September 2003

Introduction:  As I hinted last week, the text for today is one of the most comforting concepts enjoined upon believers in the whole of the Scriptures.  Many cultures would join with the wisdom of the old German proverb:  “Gott ist im himmel, und alle is richtig mit den welt.”  God is in heaven and all is well with the world!  Come hell or high water  the comfort of that concept is the foundational base upon which the rest of our beliefs can be established.

According to surveys, at least ninety per cent of the American population would agree that there is a god, that this supreme mover is in heaven and that somehow, sometime he can and will set things aright.  Would that the Church of both Covenants stop there and leave every sinner in the comfort of their desires  the world would have not reason to rail against the real God of heaven and His church.  However, as one earnest worldling once insisted:  if there was a god, he wouldn’t be a busy body  checking up on everyone’s activities and limiting those which were the more interesting and self-fulfilling.  Therein is a short summary of the worldly desire to have a limited god of some sort as well as a license to sin to their heart’s content, “to have their cake and eat it too,” as another popular proverb also goes.  What I mean is this, there is an innate desire in mankind to acknowledge the existence of a creator, just as there is also a fallen base desire to pretend that either He doesn’t exist, or more likely that He doesn’t care about the small stuff!

That sinful attitude is exactly why our text is fleshed out with the whole counsel of God.  Our text teaches us that not only does God exist, but He does sweat the small stuff much to our eternal discomfort if we choose to ignore Him and refuse to give Him the confession of sin He demands.

But of course, the worldly know what the great God of heaven and earth is all about, other wise the Santa myth wouldn’t remember that someone knows if we have been naughty or nice!

Development:  Calvin would agree with our assessment of the worldly:  “All men acknowledge that the world is governed by the providence of God; but when there comes some sad confusion of things, which disturbs their ease, and involves them in difficulty, there are few who retain in their minds the firm persuasion of this truth.”

However, we should learn from David’s case here that we ought not to be dismayed when the world crushes in and threatens our honest endeavor to serve our God and king.  Delitzsch too agrees in principle “David justifies his confidence in God with which he began his song.  Jahve sits enthroned above all that takes place on earth that disheartens those of little faith.”

“The LORD is in His holy temple,” David boldly writes.  While this is a phrase that would later be applied to Solomon’s Temple on Zion’s holy hill, the following phrase encourages us to realize that David is thinking of something more, something grander, greater and other worldly.  Isaiah and John were both, later in time, privileged to see the grandness of this heavenly abode.  It is a temple beyond the heavens which cannot be contained in this world, but which by its very nature may include all the earth within its borders.

“And this temple, this palace in the heavens, is the place whence issues the final decision of all earthly matters.  For His throne above is also the super-terrestrial judgement-seat:” so observes the German evangelical Delitzsch.

That thought leads us to the second line of this strophe:  “The LORD’s throne is in heaven;” The fact of this otherworldly location of the true seat of justice should encourage us.  This is no Federal Supreme Court where aging liberals will cast down every legal restraint before the worldly clamor for privacy.  This is no world court where the contemporary mood of socialists and dictators may prevail.  This is a heavenly court where the only righteous God of heaven and earth holds eternal sway!

Calvin encourages us with this thought.  “If God reigns in heaven, and if his throne is erected there, it follows that he must necessarily attend to the affairs of men, in order one day to sit in judgment upon them.”  He continues:  “It is the glory of our faith that God, the Creator of the world, does not disregard or abandon the order which he himself at first established.  And when he suspends his judgments for a time, it becomes us to lean upon this one truth that he beholds from heaven.”

This awesome thought leads us on to the second two lines in this verse:  “His eyes behold, His gaze assays, the sons of man”.  In most translations these two thoughts count as one line, but in order to draw out the full impact of the meaning here  I have divided the poetry into two lines.  Please remember, the poetic arrangement in the English is not a part of the original or final inspiration or meaning.  For many reasons  it is indeed difficult to translate poetry into another language, and if by poetic license we enhance the original meaning  so much the better.  Much can eventually be made of even a comma in some instances; here my intention is only to highlight the thought that is conveyed in the text itself.

The first phrase is simple enough and has already been hinted at by our faithful commentators working through the French, Latin and German thought processes in which they originally wrote.  “His eyes behold” all things, we may understand by divine implication.  The United Bible Societies Translator’s Handbook evaluates the implication carefully:  “Yahweh is described as watching and judging the actions of all humankind.  Two parallel statements portray this in picturesque language … He sees and evaluates everything that everybody does.”

In many parts of the world, spy cameras are being set up to monitor the behavior of the population.  A couple years ago, a picture was taken of a speeding motorist.  A ticket was sent along with the evidence documenting the time, place, license plate and driver behind the wheel.  The culprit, not being willing to co-operate with the new procedures, took a Polaroid picture of some money and sent it in.  The court, rising to the challenge sent a picture of handcuffs by return mail.  Getting the point  the victim of modern technology quickly sent in the exact amount of the fine!

More and more we are all going to have to get used to being watched in such a manner.  For Christians, this should be nothing new really  since God’s perfect knowledge of all things has been going on since the foundation of the world.  David knew this, it was only the enemies of God who pretend that the One true God in heaven does not care nor observe their secret sins!

The second phrase here goes a step further:  “His gaze assays, the sons of man”.   The Anchor Bible commentator Dahood catches a significant detail in this passage, that there is a “metallurgical connotation” in the verb here.  Thus, we may understand that everything the Lord beholds is also “assayed” carefully and measured by His holy and righteous standards.

Delitzsch observes: “The mention of the eyelids is intentional.  When we observe a thing closely or ponder over it, we draw the eyelids together, in order that our vision may be more concentrated and direct, and become, as it were, one ray piercing through the object.  Thus are men open to the all-seeing eyes, the all-searching looks of Jahve; the just and the unjust alike.”

Application:  I am reminded of an awkward dilemma some students got me into some years ago.  It was a work day in class, and a spirited discussion was going on in the back row.  One of the young ladies announced loudly to her peers that she would ask Mr Forsythe and let him decide their argument.  She marched up to the desk and asked for all to hear:  “Are my jeans too tight?”  The total silence was deafening as the class realized the awkward position I had been placed in.  My mind was swirling for a graceful way out of the situation.  As she turned around for my evaluation I noticed a coin in her back pocket.  Relieved, I quickly turned my eyes back to my grade book and announced to all who were interested:  “Is that a 1986 dime in your back pocket?”  The laughter of the crowd told me that I had avoided the obvious dangers of the situation.  She stomped back to her seat, looked at the coin and announced that her friends were correct:  her jeans were too tight!  Evidentially, I had made a lucky guess as to the correct date, and that fact convinced her to dress more appropriately in the future.

Let us be cognizant of the fact that the Lord God of heaven and earth never has to guess when it comes to our thoughts, actions and desires.  He knows us all through and through.  Therefore, David  being willing to admit all the sinful things that were ongoing in his life, is all the more willing to lay every dangerous situation before the Lord, thereby trusting in His righteous judgment in and over all things.  God is in His heaven and He judges all things aright, we might paraphrase the whole of this excellent verse.

As a final thought, this all-seeing, all-knowing and ongoing righteous evaluation of all things, should give us confidence that if we know the God of heaven through His only Son Jesus Christ, then we are safe and secure in the covering blood of our Lord and Savior  whose own perfect obedience makes it possible for us to stand before the Lord of all the earth at the end of the age and acknowledge the forgiveness we have received in Christ.  Without that blessed covering  there would be no future in eternity for any one of us.  Next week we shall read further of the blessed hope that is in us and the loving care that David’s God is willing to bestow upon us.  Amen.
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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.
Delitzsch, F:  Commentary on the Old Testament  Psalms.
Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.
The Westminster Confession & Catechisms.
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