When the governments of nations are shaken with revolution, and ancient constitutions are being repealed, it is comforting to know that the throne of God is unshaken, and his law unaltered.
CHS – Treasury of David, Psa. 19:9-11
Below is not one of my musings, but that of a beloved teacher and mentor in the faith through his many books, lectures and all to brief personal encounters. In view of current events, I have been thinking much on what is being said here, returning many times in my thoughts, if not multiple times daily, to Psalm 11. I’m posting this with the hope and prayer that it might bring a measure of comfort, encourage, and instruction to others.
As preface to what’s being said here, he makes reference to the Kefauver hearings that occurred 1950 and 1951, a U.S. Senate committee investigation into organized crime, exposing its corruption of public institutions. I was a young boy at the time, but I can recall the public concern from overhearing “adult” conversations and media coverage swirling about. As such, I believe we can learn and apply much from this in our current cultural, national and world crisis.
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“What Can the Righteous Do?”
by R. J. Rushdoony
Good morning, friends. A very appropriate psalm for these troubled times is Psalm 11. It was written by David under very difficult and trying circumstances. Although not many realize it, the nation had passed into the hands of evil and unscrupulous men. King Saul and his associates were unreservedly committed to evil although the nation continued as before, unaware of the extent of the change in the government. David’s popularity had apparently waned, and his great victory forgotten. As a result, there were many who felt that his cause was hopeless, and they gave David some practical advice: run for the mountains and save your own skin. These men are aiming for you, and they aim to destroy you. “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (v. 3).
There are many people who have uttered that same cry in our own day. Many asked that question, for example, during the Kefauver hearings of a few short years ago. Those hearings, and others as well, revealed a hidden and unobserved network of organized crime across the nation, an evil government behind many local governments. Around us, we see, as well, an indifference to the things of the Lord, to Scripture, and the Ten Commandments. We see the nation pursuing security and indifferent to truth, more concerned with prosperity than with righteousness. And, worst of all, we see that men do not see conditions which daily grow more obvious. We can thus understand the feeling of David’s good but pessimistic friends, who said, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” To them, the solution was clear: run for the mountains, save your own skin, and forget the whole thing.
The answer of David to this advice was unhesitating: “In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?” (v. 1). David was forced for a while to flee to the mountains, but not to escape from the struggle for righteousness but only to continue it. This was his confidence:
“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 trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.” (Ps. 11:4–5)
Thus David gave a twofold answer to those who said, “What can the righteous do?” First, the righteous, he declared, can put their trust in the Lord. This means that they can have confidence in the sure and infallible justice of God. The courts of this world are always faulty and all too often corrupt, but the final decision is not in their hands. Over and above and beyond all the courts of this world is the great and supreme court of Almighty God, and there are no appeals against or reversals of His judgments. And God hates evil in all its manifestations: “The wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth” (v. 5). There is no triumph for evil, because all its seeming victories have God’s judgment of reversal against them. “What can the righteous do?” They can put their trust in the Lord, who alone reigns, and who will ultimately confound all unrighteousness.
The second thing that the righteous can do is this: they can continue to be righteous. This is their strength and their assurance of victory. “For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright” (v. 7). The outlook of faith is one of sure and certain assurance. The pervasive and masked character of evil is hard to take, upsetting to see, and often leads us to pessimistic views. We are tempted to agree with the good friends of David who asked, “What can the righteous do?”
But David’s declaration stands: “God is in the generation of the righteous” (Ps. 14:5). He is present among them to defend them and strengthen them. Every defeat He turns into good; every victory He crowns with His blessings.
History witnesses to the grace and power of God. Again and again, the Lord has turned defeat or trouble into victory. What a dark moment for the church, when, only a handful, it was persecuted by Saul and made to fly for refuge to other cities. And Paul, then called Saul, journeyed with companions toward Damascus, and had authority and command from the High Priest that he might bring them bound, men and women, unto Jerusalem (see Acts 9:2). But at that moment the Lord instead bound Saul hand and foot by His sovereign grace and delivered him to the church a new man.
But the Lord is mindful of His own; He remembers His children … Bow down before Him, ye mighty. For the Lord is near us. (Felix Mendelssohn, “The Lord Is Mindful of His Own,” n.d.)
O rest in the Lord; wait patiently for Him, and He shall give thee thy heart’s desires … Commit thy way unto Him, and trust in Him, and fret not thyself because of evil doers. (Felix Mendelssohn, “O Rest in the Lord,” 1846)
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Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
Prov. 3:5-6
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.
Isa. 26:3
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Taken from “Good Morning, Friends: A Collection of Radio Messages by R. J. Rushdoony,” Volume 1, pp. 130-133 – available at ChalcedonStore(dot)com.
