8/16/59

Scripture: Psalm 11

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

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Here the Psalmist asks a classical question. A good foundation is necessary at the beginning of any worthy building enterprise. We are told that before a sky-scraper is erected on Manhattan Island in New York, the builders go down many stories into the earth and rock to establish firm foundations that will support the giant superstructure.

Anyone who wishes to build a career in music has to lay a foundation of long and faithful hours, days, years of practice in the skill, and study of the theory of music.

Personal character and national welfare alike are established only on well-laid foundations. Else they fall whenever the storms of personal or national destiny come. And then the foundations must be maintained.

The way in which the psalmist asks the question, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”, sounds almost as if the expected answer is, “Nothing.”

A man has a summer cabin beside a North Wisconsin lake. Time, moisture, wood rot, and insects have well-nigh destroyed some of the logs at the base of the wall. The structure will begin to sag, and may finally collapse. What shall the owner do? He may shrug his shoulders over the condition of the cabin and say, “Nothing can be done, We’ll just have to let it go and be glad for the use we have had from the building in the past. Perhaps it may be possible for us to save money, time, and materials to build a new cottage in the future.”

But I know an owner who did not say that. He decided what needed to be done and, though he could not be there himself at the time, he engaged a couple of young men to tackle the job. With heavy jacks, they lifted the sagging wall enough to remove the rotted logs at the foundation, put in strong new logs, eased the wall down upon them and put in fresh chinking. By repairs and maintenance, they preserved the building at its base.

“If the foundation be destroyed what can the righteous do?” Well, sometimes the foundations need not be completely destroyed before one repairs them in order to preserve the whole structure.

The writer has begun his psalm with a faithful assertion: “In the Lord I take refuge.” Then there follows a question, “How can you say, ‘flee like a bird to the mountains? An archer already has his bow bent with arrow pointed straight at the bird’s heart.’” It is always like that. The wicked are ready to shoot the righteous even in the dark! Then the writer goes on with his question about foundations. But he continues with a song of assurance that the Lord is still, and always, in his heavens. Right is still right, and the Lord loves the righteous. And the walls of right can be built, maintained, defended, by people who will not just quit, but will go ahead with their striving.

In the building of national relations, there is meat here for the statesmen and for all of us upon whose support the efforts of statesmen depend. There was a time when a majority of the citizens of our nation assumed that the welfare of other nations was their own affair, and our country’s well-being is solely our affair. We have come to see that this is an insecure foundation. For the welfare of nations is interdependent, and political arrangements everywhere are of concern to all peoples. Through two world wars, there was a great deal of talk and thought about rebuilding a better world. Perhaps it was necessary as a counter-balance to the destruction in which all nations had to participate. But it was also an evidence that people wanted a better world in which right should be so present, and prevalent, that wars need not again occur.

And so there was discussion, and thought and planning for a better world. This resulted, during World War I, in efforts to build a League of Nations; and in World War II to build the United Nations. These efforts involve such questions as national sovereignty, international police powers, tariffs and world-wide economic controls. It is obvious that all of these considerations are important and vital. And the questions must have solutions. But many forget that such international arrangements are superstructures. They must be built on something in the minds and hearts of the people -- on ethical, intellectual, spiritual foundations strong enough to sustain them.

For example, what made the Constitution of the United States a success? The average American would loyally assert, as a British Prime Minister once said, that this constitution is “the most wonderful work struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man.” That is an admirable statement! But it was said nearly a century after the Constitution came into being.

At the time of the Constitutional Convention this document was a compromise. Its provisions were fought over with bitter differences of opinion. In the end it seemed, to the men who framed it, so unsatisfactory that, out of the 55 of them, 16 were too disquieted to sign it, and none of the other 39 was altogether content with it. What made our Constitution a success was, first, it did prove to be a great document, and second, there was underneath it, in the citizens of all the colonies, enough intelligence, conscience, and loyalty to sustain it and give it a chance. Without that kind of foundation, the Constitution would have crashed -- just as some of its framers expected it to do!

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” That verse conjures up a picture full of meaning for the efforts of righteous people to build an international superstructure of cooperative living in our time, putting into it the best of their time, effort and thought. The United Nations, and all of its departments of activity, and the various treaty organizations, depend upon the skill of politicians and statesmen. But deeper than that, they depend on how far people will back them up, and make the necessary sacrifices to support them. For an ordered and peaceful world requires this. Are there ethical and spiritual foundations among us, and other peoples, to sustain the superstructure? This is an affair for which not statescraft, but homes, schools, churches, and multitudes of us persons, are responsible.

We Christians have been here on the earth for nearly 2000 years. Over 650 million professing Christians are in the world today. Still the question arises whether there are deep, and solid, enough foundations for a decent, peaceful, righteous world. And the question is not one which we can duck. For it has been our business to build such a world. And Christ continues to say to churches and Christians, “Take the beam out of your own eye so that you may see clearly to take the splinter out of the eye of your brother, the statesman.” [Luke 6: 41-42].

Former Prime Minister Churchill remarked, some years ago, that the League of Nations could have worked successfully. To be sure, it was organizationally faulty, but it could have worked for a progressive and peaceful world -- if; if the intelligence and conscience of the world had really backed up its intent; if the spiritual quality of enough people had been met as to be willing to sacrifice for its effectiveness. The League collapsed not because its structure, though faulty, was hopelessly wrong, but because the spiritual foundations in the minds and hearts of people underneath it were not strong enough.

The continuing need for today, in each field of human endeavor -- international relations, our national and state politics, labor- management relations, personal and community affairs -- is for the right spirit upon which to build. And that spirit starts, not with any haughty kind of pride, but with humility of spirit, and a deep desire for integrity.

The Great Wall of China was a gigantic structure, erected at a cost in materials and hard human labor that must have seemed fantastic. When it was finished, it must have seemed a superb way to gain security. But within a few years, it was breached 3 times by the enemy. Only notice how it happened to be breached. The enemy did not break down the wall at any point by frontal attack. The breaks were accomplished by bribing the gatekeepers. It was the human element that failed, and the personal integrity of a minute portion of China’s vast population (only a few gatekeepers) that proved to be the vulnerable spot in China’s defenses. It was character that was insufficient to make the great structure really work.

A like fate awaits us, when we become absorbed in our diplomatic, political, industrial and community affairs without spiritual foundations. The churches have a distinctive message which must be constantly lifted. For Christ says to us, just as surely as John the Baptist proclaimed to Palestine hearers, “Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

The Old Testament says, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” [Isaiah 53: 6a]. And the New Testament reaffirms the message: “There is no distinction; for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.” [Romans 3:22b-23]. Seen thus from the standpoint of the Eternal, we must all start from the standpoint of the humble, and sincere; and we may never dare to leave it behind.

No decent, cooperative world, or community, can be built upon ill will or vindictiveness. This is a platitude, but its significance runs deep. For the superstructure of planning and hard work depends on the foundation of right spirit, intelligent and far seeing good will, which knows that the welfare of each depends on the welfare of all.

Corrupted ideals and vindictive ill will have brought many a hopeful structure to destruction. A little child stood at a street curb after a shower. There was a shallow pool of water left on the pavement and a smear of oil made iridescent colors in it. The little child looked at it and exclaimed, “O mother, there’s a rainbow gone to smash.” Many a rainbow has gone to smash in low ideals, arrogant pride, or careless character. Let Christians, and the church, stand against hatred or vindictiveness, and for far-sighted magnanimity and understanding.

The business of believing in Christ is terribly important right now. Only good will lays a foundation for building anything durable --- not softness, not sentimentality, not appeasement in any relationship; but good will overriding enmity; outwearing ingratitude; holding the care and welfare of all mankind.

“If the foundations be destroyed, What can the righteous do?”

A better world can be built on humility and penitence, on intelligent good will. And it will most certainly be built on faith and courage.

There may be some men and women, present here today, who are tempted to give up their Christian faith, to think that there is no God, to suppose the Christ’s way of life is a fantastic dream. But before you do give over your Christian faith, will you let me ask, do you really believe that any kind of brotherhood, serving the peace and progress of all mankind, can be built on such negation?

When the founding fathers of our nation were framing the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin, 81 years old, arose in the convention. He was a hard headed realist, and certainly no plaster-cast saint. I doubt that he would have been elected deacon of a church in his lifetime. But he considered it realism then to say to the chairman and the delegates: “I have lived, Sir, a long time; and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs the affairs of men. And, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings, that ‘except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.’ I firmly believe this; and I also believe, that, without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.”

Well, any superstructure -- political, economic, industrial, social, community organization, family -- can not endure without an underpinning of faith.

Forty years ago, General Ludendorf gave his reasons for turning from Christianity: “I reject Christianity,” he said, “because it is Jewish, because it is international, and because, in cowardly fashion, it preaches peace on earth.” Those are the reasons why his successors, the Nazis, rejected it. And they are precisely the reasons why a host of us accept Christianity! It is rooted in the finest concepts of deity and morality found in the Hebrew religion. Jewish prophets were quoted, and heeded, by our Lord and his followers. Christianity does preach peace on earth -- and not in cowardly fashion! -- and it is international in its earnest appeal to all people.

Let our days align us not with the Ludendorfs, but with the Franklins and Washingtons, and Lincolns; the prophets and the martyrs; and the builders, who found their hope for the brotherhood of man in the fatherhood of God.

“A wise man built his house upon the rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it did not fall; (it stood), for it was built upon the rock.” [Matthew 7: 24b-25]

The righteous can build firm foundations.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, August 16, 1959 (Union Service).