My Advice Sir, Get Godly Advice Sir! Series

Intro:

1. Tozer, “No man has any right to offer advice who has not first heard from God.”

2. David certainly has a right to give us advice since he is writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The problem today is that most of the advice given originates from man instead of God.

3. My Advice Sir, get Godly Advice Sir!

Trans: Psa. 11:

As one noted, “There came a time when David became tired of his continual flight from Saul, not just because it was wearying, but because it was cutting him off from the public worship places of God's people (1 Sam 26:19). His spiritual life was weakened and he gave in to the temptation to leave his own country for the safety of enemy Philistia (1 Sam 27:1). This is the sort of temptation that David considers in Psalm 11, the temptation to go along with wrongdoing instead of resisting it.

If people act solely according to common sense, their suggestion in such a crisis will probably be to do what creates least hardship. After all (so the argument runs), if there is no law and order in the community, and if people in positions of power have set themselves to do evil, what can a righteous person gain by trying to resist (11:1-3)? David replies that such action really shows a lack of understanding of God's holiness and no respect for his authority. God sees and understands all. He will pour out his wrath on the wicked, but he will comfort the faithful with the security of his presence (4-7).”

I…FIRST, THE COWARDLY ADVICE. 11:1-3

A. The Recommendation. 1

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David. In the LORD I put my trust; How can you say to my soul, "Flee as a bird to your mountain"? – birds flee to the forest when they are frightened. In Palestine forests were mountains.

The figure here is used to represent some kind of refuge or protection which is outside the realm of God's provision. It refers to283 human plans and expedients for the protection and welfare of the person. He expects us to fly to Himself for refuge, and this picture is seen in Jeremiah 48:28.

1. False Solution – flee!

nûd̠: A verb meaning to flee, to wander, to mourn. It has the sense of aimless motion or actions. It refers to a person moving about aimlessly without a home (Gen. 4:12, 14); to birds, persons, flora, inanimate objects moving or shaking (1 Ki. 14:15; Ps. 11:1; Isa. 24:20; Jer. 18:16). It has the meaning of to drive away, to cause to wander in a figurative sense (Ps. 36:11[12]). It takes on the sense of concern for people, sympathy, mourning for them (Job 2:11; 42:11; Ps. 69:20[21]); but also to show disdain by shaking one's head (Isa. 51:19; Jer. 48:27). It means to bemoan oneself, to grieve, in its reflexive usage (Jer. 31:18). It refers to making a person or a people wander about, homeless (2 Ki. 21:8).

Ps 55:6 — So I said, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.

Ps 55:7 — Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wilderness. Selah

Pr 6:5 — Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

How many people seek to solve their problems by running away from them. Members running away from congregations; Spouses running away from their spouses to the divorce courts; Children running away from parents to the dead-end streets; People running away from their jobs to the unemployment line or early retirement; etc.

The problem with running away from our problems is we take our real problem with us – ourselves!

2. False Substitutions – our mountain.

Our mountain represents anything we are fleeing to outside of God. Some mountains are called workaholic mountains; some mountains are drug or alcohol; there are mountains of sensual pleasure, sports, the list is too long to name. It is a place where we seek to cope with life’s pressures.

“These verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust God, with which David was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It may be, that in the days when he was in Saul's court, he was advised to flee at a time when this flight would have been charged against him as a breach of duty to the king, or a proof of personal cowardice. His case was like that of Nehemiah, when his enemies, under the garb of friendship, hoped to entrap him by advising him to escape for his life. Had he done so, they could then have found a ground of accusation. Nehemiah bravely replied, "Shall such a man as I flee?" and David, in a like spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming,