Day 21: When the Foundations Go
Read: Psalm 11:1–4
if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?
— Psalm 11:3 (ESV)
Reflect
This is one of the starkest questions in the Bible. "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
In the ESV, these are the words of advisers urging David to run (vv. 1–3). David's answer is not flight but faith: "In the LORD I take refuge."
The word for "the foundations" is hashshatot. It is the picture of the base a building stands on. When foundations crack, it is not a cosmetic problem. Everything resting on them is now at risk. The question describes a world where the things that were supposed to hold steady no longer do. Justice. Truth. Order. Trust.
Notice something about how the verse is worded. The foundations "are destroyed," but no one is named as the destroyer. The damage seems to come from unseen hands. That is often how it feels. You cannot always point to who did it. You only know that what you were standing on is giving way.
So what can the righteous do? Verse 3 asks. Verse 4 answers, and the answer begins with one clause: "The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD's throne is in heaven."
That does not instantly fix the foundations. But it reminds you that there is a foundation underneath the foundations. The things on earth can shake. The throne in heaven cannot.
The question is not whether foundations shake but what you do next.
Across Scripture
Psalm 82:5 describes a time when "all the foundations of the earth are shaken." Jesus taught that the house built on the rock still stands when the storm hits (Matthew 7:24–27). Hebrews reminds us that we are "receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken" (Hebrews 12:28; see 12:26–28). And notice how Psalm 11 begins: "In the LORD I take refuge" (11:1; see Day 13).
Sit With It
Name the foundation in your life that is shaking. Then say verse 4 out loud: the LORD is still on his throne.
Pray
You are in your holy temple. That is enough to stand on.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.