Meditation on Psalm 11 – Un-destroyable foundations
This Psalm begins with David talking of the need to flee from his enemies. David observes or asks the question,
“If the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do?” Ps 11:3, KV & NKJV
According to Calvin this verse can be translated as,
Truly, the foundations are destroyed. What, hath the righteous one done?
A.R. Faussett, in the JFB commentary, says,
Literally, “The foundations (that is, of good order and law) will be destroyed, what has the righteous done (to sustain them)?” All his efforts have failed.
This is the situation we appear to be headed for, if not already in, today. Law and order of society, which has to some extent reflected the Law of the Bible, the Ten Commandments, appears to be crumbling. It is being systematically rejected.
Our society is removing reference of God from the public spaces. Our society is replacing the worship of God with the worship of our own ideas. What the courts of the land say is right is being followed. We are more and more defining as acceptable what God says is evil. When these new laws fit with our own desires, we bow down and worship them and worship the democratic institutions that promote them. Our society repeatedly takes the name of the Lord in vain. The name of the Lord God and His beloved Son, Jesus, have become the commonest swear word of our day. We make fun of the body of the Lord. We take Pride in our acceptance of sexual deviance and laugh at the prudishness of the God fearing church. Out society has taken over the Sabbath day and changed in into our day to do what we want, our day to work, our day to rest in our own leisure, our day to gather together to the sport cathedrals and fields to worship together, not to remember the Lord God and his glory, but to worship what we and our fellow man can do with our bodies.
Our society is destroying God’s design for society, the family, with a loving father, mother, caring for children, and children learning to respect of the Lord God, and His ways. Instead, children are being encouraged to ignore and go against their parents, and to follow the new ways of Society. Parents are being told they have no business in directing their children in ways Society does not think the children should go. We say parents have no business directing the sexuality of their children, or having any say as Society guides their children to kill their grand children in the womb. Our society has turned away from seeing every human being as being valuable. We say murder is not murder, as we murder more than 50 million humans in with womb world wide annually. We say murder is not murder, as we encourage our courts to legalize infanticide of those we were unable to abort. We say murder is not murder, as we insist that doctors and nurses put their patients to death. Our society encourages adultery. Marriage is not longer seen as being useful. Sex and things to do with sex are a recreational activity if not to participate in as recreation then to view others participating in it. Our society still protects against the stealing of my stuff but turns a blind eye from stealing from each other through avoiding taxes, using tax money to do things that ought not to be done. Our society sees little harm in twisting the truth as long as it is not discovered and, better yet, if people can be convinced the lies somehow benefit people. We, as a society, encourage coveting, teaching our children we ought to want the best of everything. We not only ought to want to have it, we have a right to have everything that everyone else has.
Yes, the foundations, as seen in the laws of the Lord which have been a guide for society to do well, appear to have all but been destroyed. What have the righteous done? What are the righteous doing? It seems very little. Some cry out to the Lord. But what has the Righteous One done to stem the tide against what is happening?
David, after he allows himself to be distracted by the doings of the wick, as he finds them making ready their arrows to destroy the upright, especially by doing everything to try to destroy the foundations for a just and good society, David turns his thoughts back to God. With the eyes of faith, looking beyond the crumbling foundations he can see. David turns his sight on the truth of God, who from His throne room, does behold and try, or test, all things that go on, with nothing escaping from His sight.
David knows it is better to be among the tried of God then to be of those who are trying to destroy the foundations and are hated by God. On those who are wicked, those bent on destroying the foundations, the Lord will come quickly and trap them in a snare of fire and brimstone, in a horrible sudden tempest. (KJV says horrible tempest) It may not be soon. It may not look at this time like they have anything to fear. It may appear that their ways are the right way. But the Lord will deal with these wicked according to His unshakable foundations, His unchangeable law. When the Lord deals with the wicked and judges them according to the foundations which they have tried to destroy, it will be something to behold.
Even in the midst of the trials of living in this wicked world, David and those who are with him, know the Lord tests those He loves, the righteous. The faces (that is the literal translation of “Countenance.”) of the Lord, as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, together they look upon the upright. It is not a passive looking but an active looking that sees their righteousness in the Son, through the power of the Holy Spirit, loved by the Father.
We need not fear to live in this trying time. Although it appears the foundations are being destroyed, they are not. The Righteous One, the Lord God, is in His holy temple. From His throne room in heaven, He beholds all things in the light of His foundations which He continually upholds.