The shaking of the foundations

When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalm 11:3

What is the mood of that question? Despair? Hopelessness? Cynicism?

Certainly, it’s what is known as a “rhetorical” question, one that doesn’t expect an answer, but is just a way of getting things off your chest. You can almost see the writer shrugging his shoulders as he asks it.

It would seem that wickedness is prevailing and goodness is under threat. To make matters worse, he has friends who give him demoralizing advice: “Flee like a bird to your mountain” (verse 1). Things are out of control! There’s nothing we can do! So run away! And he pleads with them, “How can you say that to me…?’” (verse 1). What sort of friends are you!

Well, the question of verse 3 may indeed be a rhetorical question. But if we think about it with a cool mind, perhaps it’s no bad thing to seek an answer: yes, when the foundations are being destroyed, what indeed can the righteous do? For this isn’t a question which belongs only to the world of the Old Testament, but one which can rear its head in any and every generation.

You may feel it at the moment. I certainly do.

On the news recently we saw buses burning and people throwing stones and petrol-bombs in Belfast. The army in Myanmar have been shooting people in cold blood in their cities. Horrible stories keep emerging about what seem to be brain-washing centres in China, determined to “re-educate” Muslims (and others) to be good, obedient communists.

Or it may be more personal matters. I’m sure we all know people, if not ourselves, who are wrestling with major health problems, or marriage crises, or financial worries that keep them awake at night. The coronavirus statistics are still heading upwards in many countries, even if not here in Britain: hospitals are having to turn people away, and bodies left unburied.

And are we heading for a mental health crisis?

We see respect for the Bible and the church at, it seems, an all-time low. Time-honoured moral principles to do with sex and relationships have been swept aside. The idea of objective truth – not just “your truth” or “my truth”, but actual truth – has gone by the board under a welter of “fake news”, and arguments are dominated by the person who shouts loudest.

A shaking of the foundations indeed.

Can Psalm 11 help us find a place to stand at such a time? Yes, it can.

For one thing, the writer declares his faith: “In the Lord I take refuge” (verse 1). His faith in God may have wobbled a bit, but it’s still there; oh yes, it’s still there: “The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord is on his heavenly throne” (verse 4).

It reminds me of that time when “some Pharisees” urged Jesus to run away to escape Herod’s death squad (Luke 13:31). They meant well, perhaps (Pharisees weren’t all bad!). But Jesus will have none of it, any more than the psalmist here: he tells those Pharisees to tell “that fox” exactly what he can do… For himself, he is going to “press on”.

In language which may seem rather startling to us, the psalmist declares that God “hates with a passion” those who are opposed to him. Indeed, he will “rain fiery coals and burning sulphur” upon them (verses 5-6). Wickedness may indeed seem to be prevailing at the present time – but it’s only for a time. God is a God of justice, and his justice will prevail.

The psalm ends with a calm, simple statement of conviction: “The Lord is righteous, he loves justice; the upright will see his face” (verse 7).

Trusting God in the teeth of doubt and trouble is a skill we need to learn as Christians; the psalmist makes that plain.

But trust – faith - has to be coupled with action, of course.

That question – “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” – can be answered very plainly: “They can roll up their sleeves and fill their lives with good things, that’s what!” Like Jesus, they can “press on”.

Listen to Paul talking to the Christians of Thessalonica, who were showing themselves to be a bit flaky:

Live in peace with each other…  warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.  Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances… Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil. (1 Thessalonians 5:14-22).

None of that defeatist nonsense there about fleeing like a bird to your mountain!

The great evangelist and founder of Methodism, John Wesley, put the same thought even more briefly: Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.

I trust we can all say a big Amen to that – whether the foundations are being shaken or not!

Lord God, give me the grace of your Holy Spirit to fill my days with Christlike deeds and words in both good times and bad. Amen.