If the Foundations Be Destroyed, What Can the Righteous Do?

Too many have misread the text, and with it David's point.

by Rod D. Martin
Feb. 11, 2016

As long as I can remember, I have heard well-meaning souls quote Psalm 11, lamenting the state of one thing or another -- usually America's fate -- with the Psalmist's words, "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" They rightly call us to repent, seeking action before "the foundations are destroyed," after which the only hope they can see is in Heaven.

But they’ve misread the text, and with it David's point.

In Psalm 11, David quotes some unnamed person who, similar to Job’s counselors, has given him the following advice (vv. 1-3): "Flee like a bird to your mountain, for behold the wicked bend the bow; they have fitted their arrow to the string to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

David utterly rejected this. In verse 1 he began, "In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul..." and then quotes their words above. "How can you say to me" David asks them with i…