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We’re living through a long earthquake that is shaking our society from top to bottom. It’s not just the tumult in our political system, and it’s not just the virus that’s rocking our world. It’s the moral and spiritual earthquake that’s our greatest threat. Good is now called evil and evil is now called good. Truth is lies and lies are truth. The most basic distinctions in society are cracked and crumbling: What is marriage? What is a man? What is a woman? What is a family? What is right? What is wrong? The earthquake has spread from the media to schools to businesses to courts to churches and even to our own homes. Nothing is steady and sure. Everything is shaking and quaking—including ourselves. We need earthquake faith to support and strengthen us, and that’s what we find in Psalm 11.

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Why is God so quiet? Why is God so quiet when the wicked are so noisy? Why is God nowhere to be seen when the wicked are everywhere to be seen? Why is God so slow when the wicked are so busy? Why does God delay when the wicked are so early?

We’re not the first believers to feel like this and ask questions like this. Three thousand years ago, the Psalmist was asking the same painful questions. Thankfully, in Psalm 10, God also gave him a comforting answer, three comforting answers actually.

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Pastor Doug was a sensitive man with a big heart for the lost. But he struggled with preaching about God’s anger and God’s judgment. If he ever preached on divine judgment, he tended to apologize for it. As a godly man, he was ashamed of his shame. One day, he shared his struggle with one of his elders. His elder took him to Psalm 9 to help him shed his shame.

There, he saw that although some Psalms lament the persecution of the wicked, this Psalm rejoices in the judgment of the wicked. The celebratory tone is set is the opening verses: “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High” (1-2). Why is he celebrating? He’s celebrating for two reasons.

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“What can I do?” Ever asked that? We see the power of God’s enemies ranged against his people, and ask, “What can I do? Who am I against so many?” We see the chaos and disorder in the world and again ask, “What can I do? Who am I against all this confusion?” Because we can’t do everything, we do nothing. We become passive and fatalistic. We’re the losers and they’re the winners. Psalm 8 interrupts our pessimism with a resounding rallying cry that calls us to praise God because he uses weak humanity to win his wars and manage his world.

Sermon Notes on Proverbs 14:14.

Sermon notes on Matthew 1:18-25.