When the Foundations Are Destroyed

WHEN THE FOUNDATIONS ARE DESTROYED

An Exposition of Psalm 11

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: January 17, 2021

Series: Renewal 2021

Note: Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard   Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

OPENING PRAYER

Let's pray:

Father, we come before you knowing that you are seated on your throne, and you have no rivals. And you have exalted your Son, who loved us and gave himself for us. You have exalted him to your right hand. He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and through him you have sent the Holy Spirit to draw us into fellowship with you and to teach us your ways and lead us in your truth. Father, we pray that by your Spirit your words would hold sway over our hearts and minds and lives, even this very morning and as we go through the week ahead. Teach us. Transform us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Last week's sermon, and this week's sermon, and – Lord-willing – next week’s sermon are designed here at the beginning of the year to help us have a good, strong, biblical footing as we navigate tough times. This morning I'm going to focus on Psalm 11, but before we get to Psalm 11 what I actually want to do is read Psalms 10, 11 and 12 consecutively, so that you get a bigger picture of what is going on – not only in David's world when the Psalms were written, but in our world three thousandyears later.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

Let's begin with Psalm 10:

¹ Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

² In arrogance the wicked hotly pursue the poor;
    let them be caught in the schemes that they have devised.
³ For the wicked boasts of the desires of his soul,
    and the one greedy for gain curses and renounces the Lord.
⁴ In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
    all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”
⁵ His ways prosper at all times;
    your judgments are on high, out of his sight;
    as for all his foes, he puffs at them.
⁶ He says in his heart, “I shall not be moved;
    throughout all generations I shall not meet adversity.”
⁷ His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression;
    under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.
⁸ He sits in ambush in the villages;
    in hiding places he murders the innocent.
His eyes stealthily watch for the helpless;
⁹     he lurks in ambush like a lion in his thicket;
he lurks that he may seize the poor;
    he seizes the poor when he draws him into his net.
¹⁰ The helpless are crushed, sink down,
    and fall by his might.
¹¹ He says in his heart, “God has forgotten,
    he has hidden his face, he will never see it.”

¹² Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
    forget not the afflicted.
¹³ Why does the wicked renounce God
    and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
¹⁴ But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
    that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
    you have been the helper of the fatherless.
¹⁵ Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
    call his wickedness to account till you find none.

¹⁶ The Lord is king forever and ever;
    the nations perish from his land.
¹⁷ O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;
    you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear
¹⁸ to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,
    so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

(Psalm 10:1-18)

Now let’s continue with Psalm 11:

¹ In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say to my soul,
    “Flee like a bird to your mountain,
² for behold, the wicked bend the bow;
    they have fitted their arrow to the string
    to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart;
³ if the foundations are destroyed,
    what can the righteous do?”

⁴ The Lord is in his holy temple;
    the Lord's throne is in heaven;
    his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.
⁵ The Lord tests the righteous,
    but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.
⁶ Let him rain coals on the wicked;
    fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
⁷ For the Lord is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
    the upright shall behold his face.

(Psalm 11:1-7)

Finally let’s hear Psalm 12:

¹ Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone;
    for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man.
² Everyone utters lies to his neighbor;
    with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.

³ May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
    the tongue that makes great boasts,
⁴ those who say, “With our tongue we will prevail,
    our lips are with us; who is master over us?”

⁵ “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan,
    I will now arise,” says the Lord;
    “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”
⁶ The words of the Lord are pure words,
    like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
    purified seven times.

⁷ You, O Lord, will keep them;
    you will guard us from this generation forever.
⁸ On every side the wicked prowl,
    as vileness is exalted among the children of man.

(Psalm 12:1-8)

This is Holy Scripture – God's Word – given to us for our good.

THE PERIL OF THE TIMES

The Perils of the Past

Think about how these three psalms capture the peril of the times. These are times of trouble. Wicked people, full of pride and greed, are in high rebellion against the Lord and are scheming against the poor, the innocent, the helpless. These wicked people are wicked in their speech: cursing, deceit, oppression, mischief, and iniquity are rolling off of their tongue. These people are wicked in their conduct: they murder, seize, crush, do violence. Their words and deeds strike terror throughout the land. They take aim to destroy the upright in heart. The foundations are being destroyed. The wicked are many, the faithful are few. Everyone is a liar, a flatterer, a deceiver. The poor are plundered and the needy groan. The world is not safe. The wicked prowl on every side, on the left and on the right, and people exalt vileness. Welcome to the world! There is trouble and terror, oppression and lies, violence and vileness. The wicked are puffing, lurking, prowling, scheming, stealthily watching, bending the bow and shooting the arrows under the cover of darkness.

Notice that the wicked are very sure of themselves. They have this great self-confidence. You see that in Psalm 10:4 – “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”” The wicked man is full of himself and, at the same time, is confident that God is far away, that God doesn't see, that God doesn't remember, that God will not call to account. The wicked are very confident in the power of their words, which we see in Psalm 12:4 – they say, “With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is master over us?” They think, As long as we are loud enough and clever enough, as long as we control the flow of information and draw people into our schemes, then our words will carry the day. We are sovereign, our words are sovereign. No one is master over us.

And what are the righteous ones experiencing in this kind of world – the world of three thousand years ago, when David wrote these psalms, and the world of today? What are the righteous experiencing?

By the way, we’re still in the introduction – you don't have to start your note-taking yet if you’re a note-taker! We are just painting the picture right now. Now what are the righteous experiencing? The righteous are crushed, afflicted, and oppressed. They feel alone. They are groaning and suffering. And they wonder why God hasn't shown up yet, right? The beginning of Psalm 10 says, “Why, O LORD, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” In our weakness we get to thinking, If only the Lord had showed up five minutes ago and taken care of the problem. Or better yet, If only the Lord had prevented the problem from arising in the first place! But that's not the world that we live in. We live in a fallen and sinful world. And God often allows a great deal of that fallenness and brokenness and sinfulness to run a long way and wreak a lot of havoc before he steps in.

But even though the righteous wonder why God hasn't already stepped in, they are praying – they are praying people. For example, they pray in Psalm 10:12, “Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up your hand; forget not the afflicted.” And they pray at the beginning of Psalm 12, “Save, O LORD, for the godly one is gone”. They are praying – and the reason they are praying is because they are trusting the Lord. Notice these indications of their confidence in the Lord. The psalmist says at the very end of Psalm 10:14, “[You] have been the helper of the fatherless.” They know that the sovereign Lord has a track record of coming through for the fatherless and the helpless. They know that “[the] LORD is king” (Psalm 10:16). They know that “[he] will incline [his] ear to do justice” (Psalm 10:17-18) on behalf of his people. And they know that the Lord will keep and guard his faithful ones in the midst of a corrupt generation (Psalm 12:7). So the righteous ones are always looking to the Lord in the midst of these troubled and vexing times.

The Perils of the Present

Now before we transition into the lessons of Psalm 11, let's reflect for a few moments on the difficult days in which we now live. We live in a time when the foundations are being destroyed (to use the language of Psalm 11:3). We realize that the foundations have actually been crumbling for some time. In the 1990s, James Montgomery Boice – who is now with the Lord – wrote this in his comments on Psalm 11:

“More than 50 years ago the great Bible teacher, Arno C. Gaebelein, called this the burning question of our day. What can the righteous do when the foundations are destroyed?”

Boice continues:

But if that was so in 1939 [when his study was copyrighted], it is a thousand times more true today [and Boice was writing in the 1990s]. What shall we do when the laws are not upheld, when morality is undermined, and evil sweeps on unchecked? What shall we do when the Bible is undermined and its teachings disregarded? When even churchmen seem to support the rising tide of secularism? What shall we do when family values are crumbling, and the tide of frequent divorce sweeps forward with increasing damage to children, parents and society alike? What can we do when everything around us seems to be giving way?”[1]

Well, the crumbling of the foundations has only intensified in the last two decades, since Boice wrote those words in the 1990s. John Adams, one of America's founders, said in 1798: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Now whatever might have been the case in 1798, it is clear that in 2021 we are not a moral and religious people. We have thrown off restraint and shown ourselves to be incapable of self-government. If we continue to walk down the path of immorality, greed, disregard for God, ambition, and political revenge, then our unbridled human passions will – to quote Adams again from the same document – our unbridled human passions will “break the strongest Cords of our Constitution as a Whale goes through a Net.”[2] To put it another way: the American Republic will not survive an unprincipled citizenry, which is what we are.

Think about it: does the Bible protect and restrain those people who refuse to live under its authority? No. And if that is true of God's Word, then neither shall a human constitution restrain or protect a nation that does not want to live under it. And as a nation we don't want to live under our constitution’s authority.

The Bible is clear: righteousness is essential to any proper foundation of a people, at any and every level. Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Proverbs 16:12 says that “the throne is established by righteousness” – by conformity to God's ways. If there is wickedness or corruption or evil, then there is rot and cracks at the very foundation. It is like building on sinking sand, and it is only a matter of time before the ship sinks.

Immediately after Proverbs 16:12 is Proverbs 16:13, which says, “Righteous lips are the delight of a king” – that is, an ideal king, a good king – “Righteous lips are the delight of a king, and he loves him who speaks what is right.” In other words, righteousness entails truth and truthfulness and truth-telling. For a people to be strong there has to be trust, and goodwill, and treating each other with charity and kindness. How are we doing as a nation? Mutual trust and goodwill is not how I would describe the American citizenry at the present time. I think our situation is more along the lines of Judges 21:25, which says, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” Or right here in Psalm 12:2, “Everyone utters lies to his neighbor”. Who do you trust if you live in a society where ‘fact checking’ is a thing? You just know you've got a big problem. Of course, it is no wonder that we are full of lies all over the place. I get it. But the fact checkers are not immune from the problem that afflicts us all.

Galatians 5 talks about “the works of the flesh” and these fleshly works include “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy” (Galatians 5:19, 20-21). That is what sinners do, and that is what we are called not to do. We have passed out of the season of a soft political correctness, which was troublesome enough, and we have entered into the era of a harsh cancel culture, censorship, de-platforming, and the forfeiture of business and professional opportunities. Trust is broken. The social fabric is torn. The foundations are being destroyed. And if you do not adhere to the secular orthodoxy of our time, then you can expect the social microphone to be pulled away from you. So fasten your seatbelts, because it is going to be a bumpy ride – and you thought 2020 was rough!

“[If] the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” This question in Psalm 11:3 was probably part of the counsel coming from the guy who is being quoted starting at the end of verse 1. So there is probably a flare of cynicism to the question – When the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? I mean, nothing. There's nothing to do. But, of course, when we think about the question and understand what is going on in these psalms, then we understand that the skeptic who is being quoted here is actually wrong. There is actually quite a bit for the righteous to do when the foundations are being destroyed, and this is what we want to look at this morning. I want to draw out a few lessons for us from Psalm 11.

LESSONS FROM PSALM 11

Lesson #1: Take Refuge in the Lord

Here is the first lesson: when the foundations are destroyed, take refuge in the Lord. Psalm 11:1 says right off the bat, “In the LORD I take refuge”.

We take refuge not in a place, but in a person – in a person whom we know is good and trustworthy. He is our refuge and rock, our strong tower, our mighty fortress, our shield and defender. We take refuge in the Lord because he is king. Psalm 10:16 declares, “The LORD is king forever and ever”. And this same truth is echoed in Psalm 11:4 – “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD's throne is in heaven”.

Sometimes we get very anxious. We wonder what is really going on, who is really doing this and who is really doing that, and what are the schemes that are out there, and how is it all playing out? And we get all worked up about it. Relax!

The Lord is sovereign, he is seated in heaven, and his authority is uncontested. He knows exactly what is going on. And he is not worried about any of it. And he says to us, Trust me. Trust my words. We take refuge in the Lord – not only because he is king, but also because his words are pure (Psalm 12:6).

Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the LORD are pure words” – durable, reliable, valuable, you can take them to the bank. Notice how many false words – the false words of wicked men – are in play in Psalms 10 and 12. There are all kinds of boastings and deceit and lies and flattery and double-heart-speak. Who are you listening to? We need to listen to the Lord. We take refuge in him, which means that we are heeding his words and resting in his promises, because his words are silver and gold.

Psalm 33:10-11 say, “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations.” Whose counsel and plans are you looking to? The counsel and plans of the 45th president will go down, and the plans and counsel of the 46th president will go down. The counsel and plans of the 116th Congress will go down, and the plans and counsel of the 117th Congress will go down. The counsel and plans of ‘The Roberts Court’ is going down. It is just a matter of time. These are no place to put your trust and confidence. But the Lord's counsel – His plans and His promises – they will come to fruition. Hold on to the words of the Lord!

We also take refuge in the Lord because he hears. Psalm 10:17 says, “O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted”. But he doesn't just hear so as to obtain interesting information; he hears as one who is ready to act on behalf of his people. As Psalm 10:17 continues: “you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed” (Psalm 10:17-18). We take refuge in the Lord because he hears, and because he cares, and because he will do something about it in due course.

“Some trust in chariots and some in horses” (Psalm 20:7). Some trust in men, and some trust in constitutions, and some trust in political schemes. “[But] we trust in the name of the LORD our God. They [who trust in chariots and horses] collapse and fall, but we rise and stand upright.” (Psalm 20:7)

Lesson #2: You Don’t Need to Escape

Here is the second lesson: when the foundations are destroyed and the wicked are threatening you, you do not need to escape to any other safe place, because the Lord is your safe place. Do you understand the logic of verse 1? Psalm 11:1 begins, “In the LORD I take refuge”. This is the truth that David puts out there right away. I'm taking refuge in the Lord, he tells us. Therefore, in light of the fact that the Lord is his resting place, he says, “[How] can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain…?”” David is saying, I don't need any other safe place. I don't need any other refuge. I don't need any other escape. I don't need any other strong tower, because the Lord is my refuge. Of course, David knows that there are threats against him. Why does this advisor tell David that he should flee like a bird to his mountain? The advisor’s counsel continues in verse 2: “for behold, the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart”.

It is dangerous. We are vulnerable. When circumstances are against us and the substructure of society is imploding, there is a very real temptation to flee, to run away, to find a safer place in which you can survive the madness. There is a temptation to resignation – there is nothing to be done, I'm checking out. Or there is a temptation to retreat – there is nothing to be done, I'm out of here.

One commentator, Gerald Wilson, refers to how your refuge or your mountain is like the concept of a safe place.[3] And there is a metaphorical component to it. It may not be a physical refuge. It might be a mental or emotional refuge. And so you can ask yourself when you're facing difficult days: What is “your mountain” – your physical or emotional or intellectual safe place where you are tempted to run in order to find safety and protection when society is crumbling? You know, you can think of all kinds of big things: go off the grid, retreat to the mountains, hole up in your underground bunker, move to Montana, or stay at home and become a recluse and close yourself off from the rest of the world and find some little online pseudo-community and play video games. The enemy really wants you out of the game, out of the battle.

The point of verses 1-2 is not that physically fleeing persecution is always wrong. We know that fleeing persecution is not always wrong, because there are positive examples in Scripture of the faithful who are trusting the Lord and who physically flee persecution. You can physically flee persecution and still be trusting in the Lord and walking in obedience and seeking to love those around you. But the lesson here is that seeking to escape out of a vulnerable situation is never necessary for those who are trusting in the Lord, because if we are trusting in the Lord then we are already in the safest place in the universe. Are you dwelling in the safest place in the universe? Are you dwelling in “the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1)? Are you taking shelter beneath his wings? Do you hear his sure and certain promises?

When we rest in the Lord, then we can stand firm amid the threats, amid the violence, amid the decay and incivility and chaos. The upright are vulnerable to oppression, persecution, slander, and opposition. But we have been commissioned by our Lord to stand firm, and to spread the good news of the gospel. And this often involves suffering. At the end of Philippians 1, the apostle Paul gave this instruction: “[stand] firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents” (Philippians 1:27-28) – not frightened by those who are bending the bow. “This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also to suffer for his sake” (Philippians 1:28-29). Sharing in the sufferings of Christ is a privilege. Our calling is to stand together in the Lord, wherever his good providence has placed us.

And remember the gospel. When you hear that the wicked are bending the bow and fitting their arrow and shooting in the dark and scheming, remember that there was no greater scheme than that of those wicked men who were involved in the plot to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet it was all according to the Father's plan (Acts 2:23, 4:27-28). And the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect God-Man, took refuge in his Father. He entrusted himself completely to the Father's plan and, though it cost him his life, he laid down his life for sinners like you and like me. Our salvation depends on the glorious reality that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, did not flee like a bird to some other mountain, but finished the race that God had appointed for him by dying for the sins of the world. This is the gospel!

Psalm 11:3 presents the question, “[If] the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” It is important for you to understand that before you can do righteousness, you must first of all berighteous. What does it mean to be righteous? The starting point for being righteous is to be in a right relationship with God. And when we are born into this world, none of us are in a right relationship with the Lord because of the sin in our hearts. And that sin in our hearts gets played out in all kinds of practical and concrete ways as we go through life, and sin always separates us from the Lord. But through his Son, who atoned for our sins on the cross, the Father made a way for us to be restored and to be reconciled and to be forgiven. The way that you make yourself right with God is not by trying to clean up your act, but by laying down your track record of sinfulness and going before the Lord and taking refuge in the cross. This is the starting point for being righteous: to be right with the Lord.

Lesson #3: See the World from God’s Perspective

Here is the third lesson: when the foundations are destroyed and the wicked are threatening you, make it your aim to see the world from God's point of view. This means having a heavenly, spiritual, and eternal perspective. The world will not help you see the world from God's point of view. The media, the experts, the popular pundits, and the bitter complainers – they will not help you see the world from God's point of view.

There is a very real temptation to have this narrow ‘here and now’ perspective. The foundations are destroyed, lies are perpetuated, there is oppression all around, the wicked are puffing and prowling, comforts and privileges are gone, wealth and safety have vanished. And if you focus on these ‘here and now’ circumstances, then you will despair. You must get a big picture perspective! You must aim to see God's perspective, which the psalmist begins to reflect on in verse 4.

It starts with a big view of God, right? “The LORD” – the Holy One, the sovereign King – is in his holy temple; the LORD's throne is in heaven” (Psalm 11:4). The Lord is sovereign over the whole universe. Nothing happens apart from what he has ordained or allowed to happen. And he factors all things into his perfect plan, which he will bring to fruition.

God is not only the sovereign King, but also the scrutinizing Judge, which gets a lot of focus in verses 4-6. Psalm 11:4 goes on to say that “his eyes see”. Do you remember what the wicked man said in Psalm 10? The wicked man said that the Lord does not see (Psalm 10:11). But that is not true. The Lord sees, and “his eyelids test the children of man.” (Psalm 11:4) He is examining the human race. He is examining to see who will trust him. He is examining to see who is turning away from him. He knows.

“The LORD tests the righteous” (Psalm 11:5) He tests the righteous with a view to their passing the test, which we will see in just a moment when we get to verse 7. But God is utterly opposed to the wicked and to those who love violence. Verse 5 continues to tell us about the Lord in his role as scrutinizing Judge: “but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.” God “has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed” (Acts 17:31) – that is, through the man Christ Jesus whom he has appointed to the role of Judge. On that day the pride of men will be laid low and the wicked will be sent away into eternal punishment.

The Lord Sees and Judges the Wicked

Scripture records several examples throughout history where we are told that God has seen and judged. In Genesis 6: “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth” (Genesis 6:5, italics added) – and he sent a great flood upon the ancient world to judge it. In Genesis 11: proud men, in defiance of God, were attempting to build this man-exalting temple of safety. And we are told that “the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.” (Genesis 11:5, italics added) And then the Lord confused their language and dispersed the people over the face of the earth.

Another example is the judgment upon Sodom. In fact, David is probably thinking about God’s judgment upon Sodom when he prays, “Let him [the LORD] rain coals on the wicked; fire and sulfur and a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.” (Psalm 11:6) In Genesis 19 we are told that “the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.” (Genesis 19:24) Additional insight is given in Ezekiel 16: “Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.” (Ezekiel 16:49-50, italics added) The Lord sees. The Ezekiel 16 passage shows us that the Lord has a heart for the poor and needy. Psalm 12 shows us this, too: “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise” (Psalm 12:5). But Sodom was no helper to the poor and the needy. The proud self-absorbed schemers of self-enrichment and self-empowerment at other people’s expense, will come to ruin.

The judgments of the past are recorded for us in Scripture as previews of the future final judgment, as 2 Peter 2 teaches us: that “by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes” and by “[condemning] them to extinction,” God “[made] them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:6).

Now we take comfort in the fact that the righteous God will set the record straight and will judge perfectly the sons and daughters of men. But we do not gloat over the punishment of the wicked. We say to a wicked world: “Save yourselves from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40); “flee from the wrath to come” (Luke 3:7); turn from your wicked ways and take refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ, the true King who stooped low to rescue the perishing.

The Lord Delights in the Righteous and Their Righteous Deeds

The wicked shall be destroyed, but the righteous shall be blessed. Psalm 11:7 begins, “For the LORD is righteous”. The Lord is so thoroughly righteous that it helps us understand why he responds the way that he does. In Psalm 11:5 we are told that “his soul hates the wicked”. And in Psalm 11:7 we are told that “he loves righteous deeds”. God's love for righteousness is not some kind of abstraction. Righteousness or unrighteousness is personal; it is embodied; there is specificity to it. When the Lord sees the wicked doing their wickedness, he is repulsed by that and totally opposed to it. But when he sees “the righteous” (Psalm 11:3) living righteously, when he sees “the upright in heart” (Psalm 11:2) performing “righteous deeds” (Psalm 11:7), he is pleased. The Lord delights in righteous deeds.

What does it mean to be righteous? I already told you that the starting point is to be in a right relationship with the Lord, which means taking refuge in the Lord (Psalm 11:1). Being truly righteous also means having an upright heart (Psalm 11:2), which means having a heart that is rightly inclined to and delighting in the things of God. And finally, being righteous means to actually live righteously, to consistently bear fruit in the form of “righteous deeds” (Psalm 11:7). Saying that you are righteous doesn't make you righteous. But if you love righteousness and do it, then this demonstrates that you are righteous.

WHEN THE FOUNDATIONS ARE DESTROYED, KEEP BEING RIGHTEOUS

And so, here is the question: “if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Now here is the answer: keep being righteous! Keep trusting in the Lord. Keep delighting in the ways of the Lord. Keep doing righteous deeds. Don't think about that as some checklist, as if I'm going to check off a few righteous deeds and then I’m good to go. Instead, walking in righteousness involves the whole manner of life: demonstrate love for other people; give generously; show hospitality; bless your persecutors; weep with those who are suffering; use your gifts to serve the Lord; build up the church; be reconciled to each other; “if your enemy is hungry, feed him” (Romans 12:20); hug your kids; say thank you and mean it; “so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all” (Romans 12:18). Those are righteous deeds.

LOOK TO THE REWARD!

And what shall be the reward of the righteous? The streets of gold? Glorified bodies? Feasting with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Dancing with Naomi and Ruth? No more suffering? All those are just the outer echoes of the reward. The chief reward of the righteous is that they will see the face of God. Psalm 11 concludes: “the upright shall behold his face” (Psalm 11:7). And perhaps when you behold his face, you will realize how totally stupid it was that you were so captivated with other things. The Holy One, the One who is full of mercy and grace, the One who laid down his life for you, the One who has a warm heart and welcomes you, the One who forgives you and restores you and heals – you who believe in him, you will see his face. “They will see his face” (Revelation 22:4).

Another thing that the righteous should do when the foundations are destroyed is this: they should keep singing, just like Jonathan told us before the first song. We should keep singing. And we're going to sing again. We're going to sing a song that is a fitting conclusion to this message. One of the lines goes like this:

“Let us then be true and faithful,

Trusting, serving every day;

Just one glimpse of Him in glory

Will the toils of life repay.”[4]

Let's pray.

Father, I pray that your faithful ones – we are weak, we are vulnerable, but we are looking to you – I pray that your faithful ones would not lose heart, would not fall into despair, but would remember that you are on the throne and would be resolved to walk in your ways, to keep on being righteous, and to look ahead to that glorious day when we will see the Lord face to face. In his name we pray, amen.

ENDNOTES

[1] James Montgomery Boice, Psalms Volume 1: Psalms 1-41 (An Expositional Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Publishing Group, 1994.

[2] John Adams, “From John Adams to Massachusetts Militia.” October 11, 1798. Available online: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-3102.

[3] Gerald H. Wilson, Psalms Volume 1 (The NIV Application Commentary). Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.

[4] From “When We All Get to Heaven” by Eliza E. Hewitt.