T. Austin-Sparks · 1 of 4

Chapter 1

Reading: Psalm 11:1-7 (Note verse 3); 1 Cor. 3:11; 2 Tim. 2:19.

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” “For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” “Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth...”

In referring to this eleventh Psalm we cannot be sure exactly as to when it was written; that is, as to exactly what the incidents were, or the historic events which gave rise to it; but whenever it was written, it was clearly written in a time of very severe stress, when the circumstances were very difficult, and the Psalmist’s position from man’s standpoint was a very precarious one, full of peril, and as man judged, full of pending disaster. It was a time when whatever those foundations were literally, the foundations were assailed; the very foundations had become subjected to a bitter assault; and again, from the human standpoint the foundations were destroyed; as man looked at things, the foundations had been destroyed. David was in the vortex of that tumult with which we are not unfamiliar, made up of all external things seeming to prove that the situation was hopeless. Yet inwardly there was something holding which would not give consent to that, simply an unexplained, undefined reality in the heart which in effect said: It is not so. Because of the appearances and all the external evidences which would go to prove that it was so, David was counselled to flee, to abandon the whole situation to save his face, to save his very life; to flee to the mountain, to take refuge in some earthly place of security. A mountain sometimes appears to be a very secure place. It is not always so from the spiritual standpoint, and here is one of those occasions when however substantial a refuge a mountain may appear to be, it is a place of weakness if hiding in it is the result of fear. They advised him to flee to the mountain, to take refuge in the mountain, and David refused the counsel and said: “In Jehovah do I take refuge.”

We gather from the Psalm, and the one preceding it, that a wicked one, or wicked men occupied position and power. The tenth psalm contains some half-a-dozen references to the wicked, the wicked one. Whoever this was, or whoever they were, they occupied a place of great power and were menacing the heritage of God, and striking at the very foundation of God’s inheritance. Now in the midst of it all one question arose. It is the only question; and the whole situation is gathered up into this one question: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” That does not mean that David consented to the suggestion that they were destroyed: although there is a marginal rendering which would make this verse a part of the advice and counsel of his fearful friends. The marginal rendering would make it follow on as a statement: “For the foundations are destroyed”; if so, “what can the righteous do?”

Well, if that is the right way to read it, it all the more exempts David and shows that he is not involved in it. But if it is a question into which David enters simply as a matter of consideration—for it is perfectly clear that he does not yield to it—it gives us some very valuable basis for a very important consideration. “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” The answer, of course, is obvious; there is only one answer to that question: “Nothing.” If the foundations are destroyed the righteous can do nothing, the situation is utterly hopeless; then the advice of these men is good advice. Abandon the situation and take some ground of earthly security, give it all up, abandon your vision, your vision is a false one, it offers nothing. Now that is one line along which consideration must be pursued for a little while. The other line is by placing a very strong line underneath the note of interrogation. That is, it is still a matter of question: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” “If the foundations be destroyed...”. Are they after all, in spite of all appearances, are the foundations destroyed? No matter how things seem to be and what men say about things as to the hopelessness of the situation, and as to the great power as well as the treachery of the Evil One, are the foundations destroyed? Is there reason for abandoning the vision? Should we take what men would call a safer course, and find ourselves some line of greater security in this very precarious situation?

I am quite sure that those of you who are thinking, and looking with your inner eyes into things as they are today, have already caught the meaning of this psalm, and of this verse. There is undoubtedly a tremendous onslaught from the Evil One upon the foundations; the foundations of God’s heritage are assailed bitterly, fiercely, and treacherously—for you notice in the Psalm the elements of treachery associated with the activity of the enemy, of the Wicked. He shoots in the dark. He does not come out into the open, and his is not warfare, his is murder. He is hiding himself. He does not give a fair and square chance of battle. He keeps out of the way and shoots in treachery from dark places. And his antagonism, his treachery is directed at the very foundations of the life of the people of God.

Now there are two ways in which we have to look at this question of the destroying of the foundations. In a sense, and in the deepest sense, that is an absolute impossibility. It is impossible to destroy the foundations. The other two passages have been drawn in to support that side of things. “For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” Can that be destroyed? Never! Everything has been allowed to test its power of destruction upon Him, every hammer of satanic bitterness and treachery has fallen upon that anvil and the anvil has broken the hammer and remains itself without a scar: “Howbeit the firm foundation of God standeth.” So that from one standpoint, the true standpoint, the foundations cannot be destroyed.

But there is another standpoint from which this has to be regarded which does amount to a virtual destruction of the foundation, not an actual destruction, but a virtual destruction, it amounts to it in effect. I mean this, that the enemy is so against the foundations for their destruction, that he is doing everything he can to get the people to put up a superstructure of profession, of a supposed Christian life, of an assumed relationship to God without any foundation at all. And that is a treachery in the train of which will come unspeakable disaster, because all those who do that are bound to come down, they are bound to collapse, and then they will blame God. The enemy will rush in at once into their minds and say: You put your trust in God; He has let you down. In that sense the foundations are destroyed, they are nullified by being kept out. There is a great deal of that going on today.

Now it is from those two standpoints that we for a moment have to look at this primary proposition: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” That means that right at the outset we have to give very special attention to the matter of having God’s foundation. That foundation will become impregnable and indestructible once it is established, but it is of importance beyond any other importance for you and for me that we have God’s foundation, and that foundation well and truly laid. The whole situation is entirely hopeless unless that is so.

We are fast entering into the period of this world’s history when the foundations of faith are to be subjected to the ultimate test. God’s great emphasis today is being brought to bear upon the state of His own people. He is centering His attention upon His people. There have been great periods when His whole attention was directed through His people upon the multitudes of unsaved; they were great days of ingathering through the evangel. There may yet come in the ordering of God’s purposes still further emphasis of that kind when again He will reach out in a special way to gather in lost sheep. He is not entirely ignoring that work today, and He will not have us ignore it. But anyone who knows the present situation will see that God’s main work today, for which He is giving Himself, is not for the ingathering of multitudes of unsaved souls; but you do find that everywhere there is a growing movement of God in stirring the hearts of His own people, deepening the hunger, making manifest weakness and need, and putting Christians everywhere to the test. Are you facing times of spiritual trial and testing? Are you finding it easier today to live the life of the saint than it used to be? If we are honest in our hearts we will say: No, it is certainly more difficult and our spiritual lives are very rarely out of the fire. We seem constantly to be brought back to the place of testing, and every testing seems to be a deeper one than that which preceded it. The Lord is centering upon His people and the effect of it all is to get down to foundations, and, in a day when God is focussing upon foundations, the Devil is particularly concerned to get people without foundations, and that explains great movements of today which have no foundations. We are passing swiftly into a time of the ultimate test of our foundation. The question for every one of us will be as to really whether we have God’s foundation adequately, sufficiently laid as the basis of our faith. We have to see, of course, what those foundations are, or what that foundation is inclusively, but I simply now draw attention to the necessity. Superficiality of spiritual life will not last long; it will go. The winds of God are going to blow and then we shall discover how deep our roots are. Therein then is the need for considering the question of foundations.