God Is Above It All

      For those who are discouraged, God has a word for you.  For those who are feeling a sense of despair, but love Christ, you can claim Psalm 11.  For it is in this sense of hopelessness that David finds himself as he begins the 11th Psalm.  He says, “I put my trust in the LORD” and yet the wicked are surrounding me.  In verse 2 we see that his enemies have, “bent their bow” and their “arrow is ready” and that they “shoot secretly” at me.  It is the picture of a soldier in fierce attack against him.  The threat is imminent and it feels overwhelming.  In verse 3, “if the foundations be destroyed, what will the righteous do?”.  In other words, the rug is being pulled out from underneath me, what should I do?  Even the very foundations of my life are being attacked and I need help.  People are attacking me.  The devil is attacking me.  My emotions are attacking me.  My enemies have flanked me on every side and are moving in quickly.  From where does my help come?  I feel so hopeless, is there help for me?

We all know this feeling of despair and if we live much longer we will know it again.  God speaks very clearly to us and gives help for the hopeless.  He says we must see God above it all.  David answers his question of discouragement in verse 4.  He says, “the LORD is in His holy temple.”  That word holy means that God is separated.  He is not bound by the gloom of this life.  His light outshines the darkness.  His righteousness overpowers transgression.  His holiness is not polluted by the sin of this world.  He is in His holy temple and He is not threatened.  

Isaiah saw Him there.  In Isaiah 6:1, “I saw the LORD sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.”  And the seraphim were there and they covered their eyes because of God’s holiness and they cried, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!”  God is above it all.  Isaiah spoke of Him there again in 57:15 as “the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy” and God said, “I dwell in the high and holy place.”  God is above all of your problems.  He dwells in eternal holiness.  Though the foundations of this world may quake, God is not moved.  

I cannot think of a man who lived this more than Stephen.  He was the first deacon and the first martyr of the early church.  In Acts 7 he preached to an assembly of Jewish leaders and told them that they killed the Messiah.  He said to them that they were stiff-necked and stubborn people who were resisting the Holy Spirit and that God’s judgment would come upon them.  He spoke the truth.  The Bible says they “gnashed their teeth at him, charged at him and stoned him to death.”  Their bow was bent, and they shot their arrows.  What could be more hopeless than being pummeled with stones?  But Stephen was not discouraged.  He was not hopeless.  His face glowed with the glory of God and he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, do not charge them with this sin.”  How could he do that?  How could he face such hateful opposition, such despair, and still respond with such love?  He saw Jesus above it all.  For we are told that Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God.  That he saw Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God.  

Dear friends, when you feel hopeless and discouraged.  When the enemy is moving in and the foundations of your life are being shaken.  Look to Christ and see that He is above it all.  Above your fear, above your anxiety, above your despair, above your enemies, above their ability.  Remember that God is above it all.