{"id":669,"date":"2017-12-03T08:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T13:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/?p=669"},"modified":"2017-12-02T22:10:23","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T03:10:23","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-confidence-in-god-during-difficult-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/2017\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-confidence-in-god-during-difficult-times\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about confidence in God during difficult times?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cIf the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD\u2019s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men\u2026For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness, His countenance beholds the upright.\u201d Psalm\u00a011:3\u20137<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is probably the rule, rather than the exception, that believers have regularly felt restricted, threatened, and besieged by the world. Americans have been blessed to have lived in a land that has not generally persecuted Christians, but has cherished the doctrine of Individual Soul Liberty since its founding. Christians have been free to worship and witness. They have been free from despotic men. Do you realize how blessed you are to have been born here and to live your life here? Rarely has any nation celebrated Christianity and encouraged biblical Christianity to thrive within its borders.<\/p>\n

Our generation may be witness to the closing of the window of freedom of conscience through which we have been able to enjoy the fresh, revivifying air of liberty. Voices from many quarters of society are calling for the throttling of freedom of speech and thought. Believers are feeling the effects of being crowded out by an increasingly godless society.<\/p>\n

It is growing commonplace for Christians to quote and misapply our passage, \u201cWhen the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?\u201d They tend to sigh wistfully as they speak. They seem to throw up their hands in despair. They opine that as our society walks away from God, dismantling what our founders sought to protect in our limited-government Constitution, believers must resign themselves to powerlessness in the face of increasing opposition. After all, isn\u2019t this what Psalm\u00a011:3 foretells? A closer look at the context is warranted because context is everything in interpretation.<\/p>\n

The King James Version and the NKJV place quotation marks which tend to detract from what David was communicating. You will notice that the quotation marks are only used in verse one, but I think they should have begun in verse one and continued through to the end of verse\u00a03. That generally seems to suit the context the best in clarifying the meaning of the whole Psalm.<\/p>\n

Let me explain. David is the author of the psalm and was apparently in quite a tight spot. Two particular times are revealed in Scripture when he was surrounded by enemies. One was when he was in Saul\u2019s court. Another was when he was being challenged by his own son, Absalom. The enemies sought his life and verse\u00a02 talks about bow snipers lurking in the dark alleys of the city seeking an opportunity to shoot from the shadows and snuff out his life. The very foundations of society were moving under his feet and his life was hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n

Right off the bat, David declares his intended message of the psalm. \u201cIn the LORD I put my trust.\u201d His declaration sets the stage for the interpretation of the next two verses because He will counter the enemy message of \u201cRun for the hills\u201d with his reality of \u201cI have asylum with God, looking for escape is not an option!\u201d He puts his trust (\u201cI take my refuge\u201d) in the Lord Jehovah, the Covenant Keeping God. His unfaltering trust in the righteous God is why the solution of running for the hills cannot work. To his surprise his advisors are counseling a different tack.<\/p>\n

They tell him him to be like a bird seeking escape. The word \u201cflee\u201d insinuates an aimless kind of wandering back and forth, fruitlessly flying among the wilderness wastes. They tell him to escape for two reasons.<\/p>\n

First, his life is in danger. The wicked are visibly bending the bow to string it and then to use it to shoot secretly from the shadows at anyone who walks on the straight and level (the \u201cupright\u201d characterized by integrity). It is never a happy circumstance to know that you are being targeted!<\/p>\n

The second reason is the feeling of hopelessness that pervades the times. The third verse contains the words of the treacherous, rather than the faith-filled. This certainly places a different emphasis in the meaning of, \u201cIf the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?\u201d The treachery is seen in magnifying the destruction and emphasizing the weakness of the righteous man. David actually quotes them as saying, \u201cWhat can the righteous one do?\u201d It is not a very big leap from seeing through the powerless righteous man to assuming His righteous God is powerless as well. These are never the words of faith, but of panic and despair. For this reason I believe the quotation marks should be place at the end of verse three.<\/p>\n

The rest of David\u2019s psalm, the meditation of his heart (and devotion for yours) is a declaration of the truth that though the society\u2019s foundation is crumbling the true foundation can never be destroyed! As Isaiah declared, in the days of a similar situation (Isaiah\u00a06:1ff), \u201cThe Lord is in His holy temple.\u201d God\u2019s throne is in heaven. Our hope is in the unchangeable God! His eyes see everything, scrutinizing all men, good and bad alike. He employs the metal smith\u2019s artisanship in testing the righteous man, especially in the tough times.<\/p>\n

David declares that treachery and the treacherous will come to a bitter end for they are enemies of the righteous One (Psalm\u00a011:7). God loves righteous deeds, especially in the face of adversity! The righteous man will see His face! Fear not, be mighty in the Lord. Trust and obey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD\u2019s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men\u2026For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness, His countenance beholds the upright.\u201d Psalm\u00a011:3\u20137 It is probably the rule, rather than the exception, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}