In The LORD Put I My Trust

Psalm 11

In The LORD Put I My Trust!

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.

¹  In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? ² For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. ³ If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? 

⁴ The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. ⁵ The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. ⁶ Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. ⁷ For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

¹  In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? 

David is incredulous at the thought; “Flee?, Flee? Is my confidence in man or is it in the Lord? Shall such a man as I flee”. 

There are none who know with certainty at what point of his life David wrote this. Was it when David first suspected Saul the King desired to take his life?

Was it when his own son Absolom had tried to take the kingdom from him after enticing many men to his cause? Or was it before any of the multitude of battles and conspiracies against his life in between? We don’t know, but we do know that in the Psalm is a perfect understanding of where his trust is to be most employed. ¹  In the LORD put I my trust:

There are times in each of our lives that we ought to know in whom it is we are to have our trust. David knew God, he knew Gods character and he knew his nature. David’s music was motivated by the Lord, and David’s joy was found in the Lord each time he looked into the stary night sky when caring for those few sheep in the wilderness. No doubt it was this that inspired Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the Glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handiwork”.

O there is no doubt in my mind at all that David knew God well and had more than enough opportunities for his trust to be tested. “³⁶ Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.” (1 Samuel 17:36-37)

How often had David placed in trust in the Lord against odds so much greater than he was to face before he stood before Goliath? Was it not for preparation?

Beloved, there are experiences in our lives that we look back on that PREPARED US to stand against future trials. Times when all we had were trials before us but God behind us, and we took courage and “In the LORD we put our trust” and moved ahead. We checked, we saw that we were ‘upright in heart’ before the Lord, and if it was not we broke our hearts before him and he gave us mercy and grace to help in times of need (Heb 4:16), and we went forward with our Trust in the Lord. David did just the same. 

As a shepherd lad he experienced trial after trial, times when creatures many times stronger than him came against him and took a sheep from the flock and he perused the beast to retrieve it.  Goliath? When we read the account of Goliath in 1 Samuel, we see absolutely no hesitation in David. He simply reasoned that the same God who saved him from the Lion and the Bear will deliver such an one that dare defy the armies of the living God? (1 Sam 17:26, 36), No hesitation! Is this not also with you?

Have you had the experiences of God being right there with you when you went through trials that overwhelmed you? When David stood before this giant of a man he said to him;

“Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. ⁴⁶ This day will the LORD deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel” (1 Sam 17:45-46)

Did you ever stand before your trial with that same confidence? If not, why not? You serve the same God, his Spirit dwells in all those who have put their trust in him. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Have you held God to his promises and stood firm trusting him for the outcome?

If not, why not? Re-read Hebrews Chapter 11. Read the books of missionaries that have gone out before you. Read the testimonies of those who lived for Christ and see that he is the same and all he looks for are men and women who are willing to stand in the gap.

Or is the faith of so many as in the days of Ezekiel, where God said among the millions of the land, ³⁰ And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. (Ezek 22:30)

These are NOT the days for your faith to wane beloved, this is not the time to be weak as other men (Jud 16:7,11).

This is the time for courage, this is the time to stand in the gap before the Lord for the land; he is looking for one, even one that will say IN THE LORD PUT I MY TRUST!

David was a boy when he first did so, is it not time for adults to do so?

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¹  In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?  ² For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

Flee, run, flee to your mountain…Why? ² For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

And yet ¹  In the LORD put I my trust!

My trust is not in my ability to withstand the arrow or the bow, my trust is not in the armor placed upon my chest or the quickness of my legs to carry me away, ¹  In the LORD put I my trust.

• He it is that can break the bow or snap the string.
• God is the one who’s breath steers the arrow from its course
• The LORD is he who can blind the archer or hide his target

How indeed say ye to my soul, Flee?

Again, it is our trust in the Lord that sees the multitude of ways he can deliver a soul from death or hide a person from danger, or bring about an end that works together for good to them that love him. (Rom 8:28).

There is a story of a young Christian lad who was walking home in the evening and his enemies were lying in wait for him. Their intention was to catch him and beat him up. His best friend heard that this was what was going to happen but he was not able to warn the lad. The following day he met up with his friend and the friend was relieved to see him safe and sound. The other boys were disappointed in their efforts but the lad did not even know their plans.

The friend asked the Christian lad who was the person he was walking with the night before and told the boy of the plans of his enemies and that they did not follow through because, they said a large man was walking with him. The boy turned to his friend and said there was no one walking with him that night, he was on his own and was just thinking about how the Lord blessed his family that week.

Did God put an image in the minds of his enemies? Or was there an angel walking beside the boy?

I was going to rattle off a few more stories and accounts of people who were wonderfully saved by the Lord from an otherwise bad end, but the truth is that each one of you have your own stories and accounts and they are the real ones that will make the greatest difference to your life as you remember what the Lord did to save or spare you.

Look back and think of those times if you have forgotten them. Look back and see again those times if you have missed the significance of them AND DO NOT PUT IT DOWN TO CHANCE. There is no such thing as CHANCE in a purpose-built universe. Gods counsel shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure: ¹¹ Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it. (Isa 46:10-11)

There is NOTHING insignificant in creation

For he maketh small the drops of water: they pour down rain according to the vapour thereof: ²⁸ Which the clouds do drop and distil upon man abundantly. (Job 36:27-28)

Recall to mind the experiences that you might employ to encourage your trust and strengthen your faith; Some are near misses, some are events that could easily have taken a turn for the worst but did not, some are lessons that you had learnt that only made you wiser or stronger or more trusting of the Lord. But each one of those events MUST BE RECALLED to your mind that you might say with David ¹  In the LORD put I my trust!

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 ³ If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? 

There is no better place to stand than to stand on your TRUST in the LORD. David knew the Lord, and not ONLY by experience, he knew Gods Word and trusted in each and every one of them. Moses wrote that the man of God was to read and to teach the word of God, to live as if absorbed by them that they would ingrain and consume him;

⁶ And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: ⁷ And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. ⁸ And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. ⁹ And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. (Deut 6:6-9)

Jesus confirmed what Moses wrote in Deut 8:3 saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. (Luke 4:4). Turn to Psalm 19:7-11 and consider how David felt about the Word of God

⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple. ⁸ The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes. ⁹ The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether. ¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. ¹¹ Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is great reward.

It is through the reading of the word of God and believing God by his words that we learn to trust him. Take this away and you are led into all sorts of vanity. Just take a look at the world around you! Men become cowards when they have no sure foundation to trust in.

The Bible says “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he. (Prov 29:18) the word ‘Vision’ in the Bible is used respecting the words of God, his revelation to man. We see it employed that way in the vast majority of the 103 times the word ‘Vision’ appears in the Bible. And the context is equally clear here;

“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

³ If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Clearly the answer is ‘Nothing’. If our Trust in God is as fleeting as our feelings, we have no foundation and can essentially do nothing. 

That is the Church at large today. That is the state of most Christians today. The word of God is taken away as a foundation for anything.  Even in Independent Baptist circles, the only thing they can still recall is some of the doctrines, but even those are now being tested, why?

Because pastors DO NOT KNOW WHY we use the King James Bible, and if they don’t know why we call this Bible ‘The Bible’, it is inevitable their congregations will fall away.

From the Bible College to the Pulpit, doubt has been created in this very book. Like bricks to a foundation, when the first word is doubted, what trust can we have in the others?

³ If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

There was a time when the vast majority of English Christians believed that the King James Bible is the very perfect infallible word of God for the English speaking people; Not a handful, the vast majority of them believed that to be the case. Don’t believe me?

“If every word between the covers of the Bible is not absolutely true, then we had better burn it…” (D.L. Moody; quoted in H.M. Tabor, Faith Or Fact?, 1897)

That is exactly how I felt when the Fundamental Independent Bible College I attended had a lecturer that changed just two small words to make Judges chapter 11 a little more palatable.

“If every word between the covers of the Bible is not absolutely true, then we had better burn it…” (D.L. Moody; quoted in H.M. Tabor, Faith Or Fact?, 1897)

In the year the corrupt Revised Version was created we have quotes like this;

1881: “It is further affirmed that the evil is done by dis-turbing popular associations with biblical language. The Bible of the people, again, it is affirmed, is King James’s translation. Their faith in the whole may be impaired by the loss of their faith in a fraction.” (Austin Phelps, The Theory of Preaching, 1881)

And this the following year

  1882: “It is computed that at this time the Authorized Version is the Word of God to as many as ninety millions of souls. No words can exaggerate the amount of interest with which any alterations in a possession of such vast importance, and in which so many human beings have a share, must be viewed by those whose religious belief or cherished religious sentiments may be affected by such alterations.” (Charles Frederick Bryan Wood, Notes Designed to Illustrate Some Words and Expressions in the Greek, 1882)

And this by the Bibles enemies who boast that they are doing a service through corruption another year later.

“We need not be surprised at such talk, for to the great mass of English readers King James’s Version is virtually the inspired Word of God…It may take a whole generation to emancipate the mass of the people from the tyranny of ignorance and prejudice.” (Philip Schaff, Companion to the Greek Testament, and the English Version, 1883)

This is 1873

“Revisions at moderate intervals of fifty years, will keep alive the idea of man’s limited acquaintance with the original Scriptures in all the fullness of their meaning, and prevent superstitious attachment to the letter. Whatever checks bibliolatry is good and profitable.” (Samuel Davidson, On a Fresh Revision of the English Old Testament, 1873) 

1878: “…these very words have for a long time, and by millions of our race, been held to be the very words of God…Is it wise to lift the anchor…?” (The New York Times, September 27, 1878)

Now to the logical and evidently verifiable truth of what HAS happened to the Foundations was predicted almost two hundred years ago in 1832

“If alterations of the received version once commence, where will they end?…The reception of the ‘authorized version of the Bible,’ by the whole Christian community wherever the English language is spoken, is a blessing the value of which cannot be estimated, and the loss of which would be one of the heaviest curses which could befall the Church of Christ…If one substitution may be made, another may be; and the Bible, by this impious transmutation, become, after a few successive changes, the book of man, and not the Book of God…If to the curse pronounced on him who should remove his neighbor’s landmarks, all the people were required to say Amen, what shall be said of them who would remove the landmarks of the faith, and turn aside the wanderer from the path that leads to heaven!”  (Banner of the Church, Stimpson & Clapp, 1832)

It astounds me how many pastors and people think I am one who has moved the landmarks. Yet I simply follow that which Baptists once believed true, it is not me who has shifted but they, how? ONE WORD AT A TIME.

Beloved, the foundations are all but destroyed and very few can say ‘In the Lord put I my trust’. But the day will come where search will be made for the words of the Lord and none shall find it.

Amos 8:11-12

¹¹ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD: ¹² And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

Those days are not yet, but woe to the foolish men who precipitate it one word at a time!

David would not be such a fool, he holds to this foundation because he knows that if his trust in the Lord is derailed simply because his enemies put their arrow to the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

If his trust be in himself, his foundation is destroyed.

IN THE LORD PUT I MY TRUST

PSALM 56:11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.

Psalm 118:6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

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And there is a reason that David has such confidence in the LORD, not only because of his trust in his words, not only because he has put that trust to the test in his life time and again, but also because of verse 4-5

⁴ The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’S throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. ⁵ The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 

Too often do we forget that the LORD is high and lifted up. 

That “It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: ²³ That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity (Isa 40:22-23)

THIS IS GOD and you, if you are born again, if you have been saved from the penalty of sin and placed your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are a Child of GOD and ⁴ ….his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. ⁵ The LORD trieth the righteous:

God has his throne on High, there are none that can compare with him in power and glory, what is man that can contend with God? Truly, it is the most ridiculous thing to even begin to contemplate;

He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. ⁵ Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. (Psalm 2:4-5)

We are living in a time of trial, a time of testing in the West, one that does not yet compare to the one the East has endured for a number of years. But our trials should not be one of either amazement or anxiety, but in faith we see that …his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. ⁵ The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. 

Here we have one of those verses that contradicts the popular saying “God loves the sinner but hates the sin”, be careful never to separate the sinner from his sin until he is saved! the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

In the LORD put I my trust, but woe to them who his soul hateth. Truly, it were better for them that they were not born.

We pour scorn on those who are wicked and come against the saints to take away their liberty and their freedom and rights, but we also need to have in our hearts and minds in an understanding of their state before a Holy God.

• They tread a ground and is crumbling beneath their feat.
• They walk a thin thread to which the fires of hell lick at their heals. 

Be careful to pour scorn on them, be careful to even speak evil of dignitaries, the Lord has them stand and has them stand for a reason, and we KNOW the reason, it is not a secret to us; These are “them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well” (1 Peter 2:14). And they will increase all the more as we see the day approaching!

Beloved, Psalm 7:11 speaks plainly that “¹¹ God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.” And how I pray for the wicked. I know it is hard for anyone to consider themselves as wicked, but that was you and I before we came to the Lord. We ran with the same excess of riot that the world does today. We were godless, and without hope in the world, but that is not our lot today, and yet it is certainly the lot of ALL THOSE WHO KNOW NOT GOD! It does not matter if they are politically fools or wise, if they are on the left or the right, if they are still in their sins THEY ARE THE WICKED.

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And what is their end?

Friends we need to be sober when it comes to the consideration of the end of those who do not know the Lord. I say this with great concern for us all, especially in the days that we are living.

There are those who lead us at the moment that each one of us are at risk of scorning and hating, but we all, including me, need to be very, very careful and also very, very concerned. 

⁶ Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. 

This is the end of all those who do not know God, from those you love in the flesh to those you openly despise. This is the end of the sinner who dies in his or her sin, regardless if they spend most of their time in the garden or in government. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way. BUT the most incredible thing of all is what comes in the second part of that famous verse in Isaiah 53:6; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all

There are men and women who are blind to their sin today. They certainly do not identify themselves as wicked, they see themselves as they choose to see themselves, and yet God sees them both as wicked AND as redeemable. But to those who you will not share the hope of the Gospel, there is one end for them; Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. 

But to those who you do share the Gospel, to give them the choice of their end and yet they still will not turn and live; Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. Notice that there is no ambiguity in the text, this shall be the portion of their cup. There is an inevitability of the damned that we must be sober about.

My trial, no matter its severity, is temporary, but not so for those who will not turn to the Lord, the portion of their cup shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest

Therefore; IN THE LORD PUT I MY TRUST!

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⁷ For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

David knew where he stood before the Lord, he knew that he was an upright man before the Lord

PSALM 56:11 In God have I put my trust: 

He said;

Psalm 118:6 The LORD is on my side

He wrote

IN THE LORD PUT I MY TRUST

There is something here then that identifies with clarity WHO it is that are the upright! Simply, it is those who do not place any trust in themselves, but in the LORD. This same King David wrote; 

“¹³⁶ Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. (Psalm 119:136). But unlike too many of the wicked, David also said “For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me ⁴ Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight…:” (Psalm 51:3-4a)

There is only one way for the wicked to be saved from the penalty of their sin, and that is that they may turn and live, that they may have true sorrow for their sin and IN THE LORD PUT THEIR TRUST.

Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came from God for the specific purpose of paying the penalty of the sin of the world. God hates sin, and he does indeed hate the wicked, but he HAS NO PLEASURE IN the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways (Ezek 33:11).  Will it be the Lord you place your trust? Or will you continue to place your trust in man?

I am speaking to those who profess to know the Lord, and understand that, as I speak, I am not excluding myself from the subject of this sermon:  Does our anger with government betray where our hope and trust has been laid? Is not this anger a sign of being disappointed, and is not the object of our disappointment an indicator of where we have practically placed our trust? 

I think myself as a fool for placing my trust in the fickle promises of men and women rather in the absolute promises of the Lord. He said that, “….In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  (Jn 16:33)

If we find it so hard to understand how it is that those who do not know the Lord will not repent, perhaps it is time for those of us who do, to do so first.

IN THE LORD PUT I MY TRUST

PSALM 56:11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.

Psalm 118:6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me?

The passage in Psalm 11 teaches with clarity that to the sinner, there is eternal trouble coming, and to the upright in heart, there is joy.

The question for you today is where will you PRACTICALLY PUT YOUR TRUST?

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