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
07      For the LORD is righteous;
                He loves righteousness;
His countenance approves the upright.
        
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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To See His Face
For the Lord’s Day:  the 28th of September  2003

Introduction:  As I was working over the translation of this last verse in the eleventh psalm, I did not anticipate any difficulties or interesting anomalies.  And so my research went until I came to the NKJV and then I quickly checked with Spurgeon’s and Calvin’s notes to read up on an unexpected translation emphasis.  You see, the normative translation of the last line in verse seven is this:  “The righteous shall see His face.”  Calvin writes that this last clause “is, indeed, variously explained; but the true meaning, I have no doubt, is, that God has always a regard for the upright, and never turns away his eyes from them.  It is a strained interpretation to view the words as meaning that the upright shall behold the face of God.  But I will not stop to refute the opinions of other men.”

Spurgeon too picks up on this theme as well:  “We need never be out of countenance, for God countenances us.  He observes, he approves, he delights in the upright.  He sees his own image in them, an image of his own fashioning, and therefore with complacency he regards them.”

When I came upon this Calvinistic translation, it was like throwing red meat to a hungry lion  will I go with the minority report on this text, or will I ignore it?  What do you think?  For this affection and leaning on my part, I embrace Calvin’s thinking here automatically and that is why I have followed his translation and that of the NKJV:  “His countenance approves the upright.”  Even the Translator’s Handbook admits that “the expression ‘shall behold his face’ reflects the practice of admitting to the presence of the king only those who were qualified by reason of their proven devotion and loyalty to him.  The thought in the psalm may be of the blessings which come from the presence and favor of the Lord in this life, or else of being in his presence after death.”

I would argue that any king worth his salt in ages past would control all access to his person.  But, there are many records where the regal personages preferred to keep their known enemies close at hand, precisely where they could keep a watchful eye on them!  Thus, I would qualify the Translator’s Handbook observations by insisting that it is the King of all the earth who determines who is not only to be accounted righteous, but also He alone will determine to whom He will make Himself available.

But, like an impatient reader of a mystery novel, we have skipped to the end so that we may know the final outcome before doing our duty of working through the details.  And yet, isn’t this precisely the common “fault” of Calvinism and dare I include all biblical scholarship:  to comprehend and understand the whole of scripture, life and history from the final assize of the Lord of life on that great day when all heaven breaks loose?  Were it not for the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of every nuance of the Old Covenant record, we would be left like the contemporary Jewish cultus  with no other purpose than being consumed with an ethical ideals and moral debates alone?  Unless Christ be perceived in the Old Covenant revelation and the whole of moral history be understood in the light of God’s grace and mercy  what reason would there be to even read, let alone meditate and hang upon every word?

There is indeed a profound difference in the manner in which we comprehend not only this text but every text in the Old Covenant. record.  After all, if we understand things arightly  mere mankind cannot by attempting righteousness ever come into the presence of the holy and righteous Almighty God of heaven and earth.  Like Isaiah, John and all the rest:  He determines our place and only by His grace and mercy are any admitted to His presence at the end of the age!

Development:  While we should be encouraged with the promise of good things for those who love God at the end of the age, we must nevertheless comprehend the exact nature of He who would call us and grant us mercy.  And in this last verse we may see an understanding, allowance and teaching of one of the essential doctrines of the revelation record:  “For the LORD is righteous.” And like Luther’s emendation to his meditations on Habakkuk, we too might add in the margin here the word “alone.”

Solomon, in all his glory and wisdom did at the end of his life and reign reveal the orthodox understanding of his and our own standing before the Lord of all the earth.  “Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”  Ecclesiastes 7: 20  Paul too agrees and not only reaffirms Solomon’s father David, but also the combined testimony of all the saints:  “As it is written: ‘None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.  All have turned aside’.”  Romans 3: 10-11a

One underlying theme of all the scriptural record is the awesome holiness and perfect righteousness of our Creator God, which doctrine is in harmony with the observations of David in the passage before us today.    And according to that same record, the first Adam was unable to fulfill any covenant of works  and thereby he and the whole human race with him fell into sin and perdition.  Immediately, the Lord God provided a bloody covering that symbolically the sins of the first couple might be covered until the fullness of time when a final solution would be revealed for their redemption.  Of that redemption Isaiah prophesies:  “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.”  Isaiah 53: 11

We must all be willing to admit that the Creator God is absolute in his holiness and righteousness and that He can tolerate no wickedness at all in His immediate presence.  Well does the psalmist appreciate that and in the second line of verse seven we are assured that David’s God “loves righteousness.”

We are reminded of this love for righteousness and absolute hatred of unrighteousness: throughout the whole of this psalm.  We are even reminded in this psalm of the eternal punishment that the Lord has prepared for those who know Him not.  The comparison is implicit and hearkens back to Abraham, Lot and the destruction of the two specifically humanist cities of antiquity: Sodom and Gomorrah.   In the Genesis context, Abraham had already made certain that the King of Sodom understood that he was owed no favors.  And Lot, as the revelation record tells us, was not only invited but even compelled to leave the cities of wickedness and flee for his life.  This is certain evidence that the God of heaven did, still does and will finally separate His own from the wicked: who must go to another, far worse place.

Paul, in his first letter to the Thessalonians advises us and his contemporaries of the great and vast gulf which must separate the living Church from every worldly and merely social secular organization aimed at self-improvement only. “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering  since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.”  2 Thessalonians 1: 5-10

Application:  While, these ideas, issues and concepts are not directly addressed in our verse for today, the observations by David and his understanding of the Lord’s work and witness in his daily life are still in accord with the totality of the scriptural revelation.  And while, in the whole of Psalm 11, we see the grand scheme of redemption and reprobation played out and even appreciated  we must nevertheless understand what David knew only by spiritual instinct and for which we have the fuller commentary of the New Covenant writers.

The Apostle John writes about the grand themes before us today, in this revealed wisdom:  “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are.  The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.  Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is.  And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.”  1 John 3: 1-3

And so, we come full circle in our commentary on verse seven.  From the end, back to the beginning and on through to the end again.  Sin and redemption are much in David’s mind in this psalm and by virtue of a God given inspiration; David is comforted even as we may be as well.  And like David, we too can look forward not only to the blessings of knowing our Lord and Creator in this life, but also and especially to that great day at the end of the age, when:  “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  And night will be no more.  They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”  Revelation 22: 3-5

So too may our understanding of the end of this matter, give us like David a blessed hope in the present even as we labor on towards the end of all things and look forward to spending eternity in the light of His blessed face.  Amen.
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PREACHING RESOURCES

Calvin, John:  Commentary on Book of Psalms.
Spurgeon, C.H:  Treasury of David.
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