Psalms 11:5

The Lord trieth the righteous.

The godly discipline

I. The characters tried--the righteous. This word righteous is used for two reasons.

1. Because in God’s sight they are such.

2. Because they are such in the sight of men.

II. The various ways in which the righteous are tried. They have their natural dispositions even as other men. Though trials come to all, they differ in character, and are proportioned in degree. Christians are tried when--

1. They are led to investigate the character and tendency of their life.

2. When special and direct afflictions are sent.

3. When alterations and changes in our family circumstances occur.

4. When temptations of a trying character are permitted to come in their way.

III. The ends that are to be answered by these trials. There is nothing purposeless in the plans of God. We are tried--

1. That we may be corrected.

2. That we may be proved.

3. That we may be purified.

Learn to recognise the Lord’s hand in our trials, and to distinguish between the results of our own folly and God’s chastisements. Let us rejoice in the anticipation of a world without sorrow, the “unsuffering kingdom” of our Lord. (W. G. Barrett.)

Trials and their lessons

David was living at the court of Saul, and many were plotting for his destruction. But his support was that God would permit no real harm to come to him, and that his trial was from God. They wanted David to flee away. They said, the foundations were broken up, and what could the righteous do? You never know what you can do when God helps you.

1. Believers are righteous--by the pardon of the past, which conceals it as if it had never been. Because God puts within them a new heart and a new spirit. And practically, by fulfilling God’s commandments.

2. Righteous people are tried. In one sense the probation of the wicked is over. Believing people are on trial. You have accepted mercy--and your trial is whether you will be faithful to the grace given, whether you will persevere to the end. The truth that there is a possibility of your falling away has its practical value. It ought to lead you to caution, vigilance, and self-denial.

3. It is the Lord who tries you. Then you will not be tried too much. The Lord has the control of all your trials, whether they come through prosperity, adversity, bereavements, persecutions, or the sufferings of others.

4. Why does the Lord try the righteous? That they may know themselves, to train and discipline character, to make us more useful, and to advance His own glory. It is God’s opportunity of showing the truth of His promise to help. You ought to learn to get good out of your trials. “Glory in tribulations also,” that the power of Christ may rest upon you. (Samuel Coley.)

The mission of trial

He tries them for their own good, that they may know themselves. He tries them for the good of others, that the world may learn how powerful a thing faith in God is, when it has once laid fast hold of His promises. It was for this purpose that He tested Abraham when He commanded him to offer up his son Isaac, with his own hand, a burnt offering unto the Lord. The trial taught Abraham--what he could never have known of himself without it--the character of true evangelical obedience, that it falters at no sacrifice known to be required by the will of God. It is these testing trials of the righteous that bring out their graces, develop and perfect their virtues. The hand of God is in them all, seeking higher praise for Himself, and working out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory for the believer. “The Lord trieth the righteous”; only, however, to consume their dross and refine their gold. The wicked have no just cause for triumphing over him, when they see the righteous man in affliction. The hand of God is thus upon him only for his good. His trials are no evidence that the fact is otherwise. The prosperity of the wicked is by no means indicative of the Divine approbation. (David Caldwell, A. M.)

The testing of the perfect

Pure gold may remain in the fire a thousand years without loss of substance, without contracting a single stain or losing an atom of its weight. The fire that burns the oak into ashes, marble into dust, iron into rust, has no power to destroy or even injure a metal that shines but the brighter for the glowing flame. Gold is therefore called in the language of metallurgy--a perfect metal; and were we perfect, perfect in holiness, the only effect of fiery trials would be, not to burn up, but to brighten God’s image. (Thomas Guthrie.)

The test of trial

The sword is not tested until the battle rages, the ship is not proved until the storm blows, even diamonds are now so wondrously imitated that the best judges can only tell them by putting the steel file to their facets--that does no mischief except to shams; the genuine fear nothing, fire only purifies the real gold. So trial will show the real value of Christian character. The general is best estimated in the battle, the skill of the physician in the sick room. (R. Venting.)