{"id":7792,"date":"2024-01-17T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T08:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/?p=7792"},"modified":"2026-06-03T14:31:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T21:31:44","slug":"psalm-113-if-the-foundations-are-destroyed-what-can-the-righteous-do-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/?p=7792","title":{"rendered":"Psalm 11:3: &#8220;If the foundations are destroyed, \/ What can the righteous do?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>King David seemed to be referring to the basic order of society, from the individual to the family to the highest places in the government. Scripture asserts that God has created and is sustaining the order of the world in all its complexities, including established institutions and the social and civil order of the community and heads of government. So the problem is, what can believers do when a society is headed the wrong way? David concluded that the only place we can turn is to God Almighty.<\/p>\n<p>As believers, when the foundations of life are taken out from under us, we can still be confident that if we cling to God, we will remain secure. British writer G.K. Chesterton said it\u00a0this way: &#8220;As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.&#8221;<sup><small>1<\/small><\/sup> This does not mean hoping in some abstract idea of <em>hope<\/em>, but having hope in the God of hope.<\/p>\n<p>There is a great story about this that always brings a smile to my face. A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, &#8220;Eighteen to nothing\u2014we&#8217;re behind.&#8221; &#8220;Boy,&#8221; said the man, &#8220;I&#8217;ll bet you&#8217;re discouraged.&#8221; &#8220;Why should I be discouraged?&#8221; replied the little boy. &#8220;We haven&#8217;t even gotten up to bat yet!&#8221; In real life there are no truly hopeless situations, but there are often people who have grown hopeless about their circumstances. They need to put their problems back into the hands of the Creator as David did in this psalm.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;LORD, we have placed our hope in You this day. Take us by the hand and lead us along the path You want us to travel, in Jesus&#8217; name.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><small><sup>1<\/sup> G.K. Chesterton, <em>Heretics<\/em> (Nashville: Sam Torode Book Arts, 2011)<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n<p>=============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Psalms 11 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>1<\/sup>&nbsp;In the&nbsp;LORD&nbsp;put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee&nbsp;<em>as&nbsp;<\/em>a bird to your mountain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>2<\/sup>&nbsp;For, lo, the wicked bend&nbsp;<em>their&nbsp;<\/em>bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>3<\/sup>&nbsp;If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>4<\/sup>&nbsp;The&nbsp;LORD&nbsp;<em>is&nbsp;<\/em>in his holy temple, the&nbsp;LORD\u2019S&nbsp;throne&nbsp;<em>is&nbsp;<\/em>in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>5<\/sup>&nbsp;The&nbsp;LORD&nbsp;trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>6<\/sup>&nbsp;Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest:&nbsp;<em>this shall be&nbsp;<\/em>the portion of their cup.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><sup>7<\/sup>&nbsp;For the righteous&nbsp;LORD&nbsp;loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>King David seemed to be referring to the basic order of society, from the individual to the family to the highest places in the government. Scripture asserts that God has created and is sustaining the order of the world in all its complexities, including established institutions and the social and civil order of the community [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7792"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16502,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7792\/revisions\/16502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}