“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in His holy Temple; the Lord’s Throne is in Heaven. His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. The Lord tries the righteous; but the wicked and him that loves violence His soul hates. . .For the Lord loves righteousness; His countenance does behold the upright.”
Psalm 11:3-5, 7
Fiery trials are God’s furnaces for “soul-purification,” but we should always remember we don’t go through them alone (Dan. 3:24-25).
It’s a pretty poignant and pointed question, this query posed by David in today’s Manna: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
What foundations is he referring to? The ones under his house? The local place of worship? The neighborhood bank? The military’s encampment?
Or, is he referring to God’s Truths and “faith’s foundations”?
We know the answer, don’t we?
It’s everything we believe in. Our conviction about Who God is. . .the Bible as the inspired Word of God. . .the Ten Commandments and their important place in our relationship with God and others, etc.
And, no one needs to tell us that these are under attack, seemingly being undermined and eroded on every hand.
Both in David’s day and in ours.
So, yes, his question is especially important and relevant in every generation: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
But, thankfully, he doesn’t leave us to figure it out on our own like a shipwrecked man at sea looking for anything that floats.
No, he comes back and reminds us that “The Lord is in His holy Temple; the Lord’s Throne is in Heaven.” And, when we couple that when Paul’s reminder of our bodies being “the Temple of God” (I Cor. 3:16-17; II Cor. 6:16), we realize that He is quite near and truly “a very Present Help in trouble” (Ps. 46:1).
Interestingly, we who are called by His Name are the ones who are being “tried by the Lord.” Shouldn’t that be the other way around? Shouldn’t His “beholding eyes and scrutinizing eyelids” be focused more on the evildoers than us?
That would seem so UNTIL we realize the Hebrew word used here for “try” is “bachan” and basically means “to try a metal, investigate, examine, prove, put to the test, etc.” Thus, it’s the picture of a refiner’s fire and how those metals like gold and silver must be subjected to intense heat before the dross comes out, leaving them both pure and precious.
And, so it is with our faith/trust in their transformation toward 24 karat status (I Pet. 1:6-7). If our “foundations can be destroyed,” it means our faith is misplaced. But, when Christ is our Rock and His Word is our stay, we will not be collapse when storms come (Mt. 7:24-25). Remember: “The Lord loves the righteous (you) and He can’t take His Eyes off you.”
By Tom Smith Morning Manna Dated November 2, 2010
