Psalm for Today =
11:1-4
"In the Lord I take refuge;
how can you say
to my soul,
"Flee like a bird to your mountain,
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;
if the
foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
The Lord is in his holy temple;
the Lord’s throne is in heaven
Comments:
I
get the sense that the psalmist was shocked that someone thought that just
because it was dangerous he should disengage and flee much the way the U.S. Secret
Service agents spirit the American President and Vice President away in the
face of imminent threats.
God’s
people of both Testaments has been threatened and persecuted many times
throughout history, but God has faithfully preserved a faithful remnant. It
would seem that having the Lord as
his refuge enables/empowers/emboldens the psalmist to stay in right where he
was, doing what he had been doing—trusting the Lord.
But
what about the fight over "the foundations?" It was not the psalmist
that was concerned about the imminent collapse of “the foundations”, but the
fearful. There have always been those that think that the best way to deal with
the corruption that is in the world today is to retreat from the world and
carve out some kind of insular community that would be safe from temptation, pollution,
or attack. There are others who think that the best defense is a strong offense
and tend to take the lead in any culture war that breaks out. They feel that if
they don’t defend “the foundations” that surely they will be destroyed. But our
foundation is none other than Christ himself (Psalm 118:22) and he doesn't need our protection. I don’t
want to be like Uzzah and think that just because the ox-cart stumbles doesn't mean God is dependent upon us to catch the Ark (2 Samuel 6)!
The
psalmist was neither of these extremes.
I am siding with David and actively taking refuge in the Lord...right where I am. Will you join me?
