If the foundations of our country be destroyed
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalms 11:3 (KJV)
July 4, 2006
Can I tell you that there are times that I get discouraged? I mean real discouraged. These times seem to come when I watch, read or hear news of sexual abuse of children, parents murdering their children, lawsuits that seek to remove a cross (at a war memorial in San Diego that has been accepted for nearly five decades), activist judges that are more interested in advancing their abhorrent moral agendas than they are correctly applying the law, when I see “Christian leaders” who lie and steal without conscience, and just this week I learned of an agenda item of the National Education Association (NEA) teacher’s union to be held in Orlando, Florida, June 30 to July 5, wherein its leaders will seek to educate grade school children in sexual perversion by teaching homosexual marriage as an acceptable lifestyle in our public schools. It is no wonder that Muslim cultures think we are the great Satan and afraid of us. Afraid that we will bring this abhorrent moral structure to their homes and families. I can get real discouraged by this hurricane of evil. Will America ever get its moral compass set back on due north?
If the moral foundations of this country are destroyed, what can the righteous do? This was the question that the Psalmist asked in Psalms 11:3. It is the same question we can ask today.
Answers are given quickly by the Psalmist in the immediate verses that follow where he sings:
“The LORD is in His holy temple, The LORD’s throne is in heaven … The LORD tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates … For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright”(Psalms 11:4-7).
I must remind myself that to be in despair is just sin. The Lord our God is in control. He always has been; He always will be and there is a day of ultimate justice coming.
America has been in desperate moral conditions before. In the early and mid 1700’s evil was so rampant that women could not safely walk down a street without fear. But something happened! Something wonderful swept the nation and changed everything! It was when a genuine Spiritual Awakening swept the country. Our pulpits were aflame!
When the pulpits were aflame with righteousness and power, America changed. It seems that these times of awakening were preceded by powerful prayer which brought powerful preaching. The preachers did not preach without adversity and even physical abuse. One need only read the biographies of Whitefield, Wesley, Brainerd and others to understand this.
This sweeping, wonderful change in America turned it into a world power and the envy of nations. It was a country that everyone realized was blessed by God Himself.
The King of France sent an Ambassador to America by the name of Alexis de Tocqueville to discover the secret of America’s greatness. He wrote this report to his King:
“Not until I went into the Churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America. America is good. And if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Today, it seems as if we have lost due north on our moral compass. The foundations that made America great seem to be crumbling. What can we do? Remember the answer sung in Psalms 11:7: For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright.
The Lord watches our lives. We must walk upright, pray with fervency, remember God’s sovereignty, walk in holiness and preach righteousness with passion. America will be good again, if its Christian people will again have hearts aflame for righteousness.