UNSHAKEABLE FOUNDATIONS

From the writings of Pastor David Seefried

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3

It was not that many years ago when Sally and I felt our world falling apart. All our plans for the future, including growing old together, seemed to fade as liver failure struck. Our foundations shook, violently quaked, and almost broke to bits in 1991. The Lord by His mercy brought us through the liver transplant, but at the end of the day we had learned many lessons. Our text asks us what we will do if we begin to sense that our private little world is falling apart.

David was in deep trouble both physically and as a king. His enemies were pursuing him and the advice he was receiving was to flee to the mountains like a bird (1). David’s world was falling apart and this troubled him, and rightly so. It is in this setting that our verse for today is penned. David was pressured to forsake his deep faith in the Lord and to begin leaning on the weak arm of flesh. When things fall apart, what are we to do? There are two answers I would suggest.

First, humanly speaking, things around us could fall apart today. In this world, we live surrounded by shakable foundations, things that are here today and gone tomorrow. World peace is shakable at best and things could crumble quickly. We note the shaking financial matters in Asia, that economic powerhouse just yesterday. Nothing says our mutual funds must keep growing as they have. And, there is the issue of our health. I used to say that I was as strong as a bear, never broke a bone and never spent a day in the hospital. As I said, that foundation shook and nearly broke.

What can we do when the foundations of this world shake? We can trust the Lord. Our hope is not built on world stability or big bank accounts, but rather on the Lord. When the doctor looks us in the eye and says to us that it looks like we are going to die, we can trust the Lord because for the Christian to die is gain. Nothing that happens on this earth can disturb our security in the Lord. If the foundations shake, Christians will simply step up to the plate and serve humanity by offering a dying world eternal hope.

Second, in answer to this question of what the righteous will do if the foundations are destroyed, we can answer: Our foundations cannot be destroyed. Take away our health, wealth, and citizenship and all things eternal remain in place. We build upon the eternal, not on the temporal. We have the Word of God which cannot be shaken but which is settled in heaven. We have Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God who now is at the right hand of the Father. We have salvation which brings us eternal life and which can never be taken from us. We have the church, which Christ is building and which shall never be destroyed by hell. We have a home in heaven waiting for us. God’s foundations are unshakeable!

We worry and fret about shakable items when we should not. Our ability to hold fast when things seem to be falling apart is based on the foundations of our focus. Look to the temporal and you will fall apart. Look to the eternal foundations and you will hold together. When they told us they could not get a liver for me in time, I began to make funeral preparations. You see, the bottom never falls out for the Christian, that is, if we are building on the eternal foundations. Take heart; the Lord is in His holy Temple (4). That can and never will change. Let us be thankful for unshakeable foundations! God bless.

David Seefried