What to do when things fall apart?

With many feeling fearful and considering emigration to a ‘safer place’, “what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3). 

In a wicked world, in which the foundations are shaken, and lies and oppression are rife, the believer has four assurances in God (from Psalm 11 & 12): 

1- The Lord is our Refuge 

Psalms 11:1 (ESV) ‘In the Lord I take refuge; how can you say to my soul, “Flee like a bird to your mountain.’

Rather than always trying to run to a safer place, I choose to find my security in God. This world is a dangerous place. In a way, there is no totally safe place in this world which is under judgment. It’s ‘as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him’ (Amos 5:19).

2- The Lord Reigns 

Psalms 11:4 (ESV) ‘The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven;

his eyes see, his eyelids test the children of man.’

The Lord is King and in Jesus and the Holy Spirit, God has already, decisively asserted his kingly authority to get his will done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 12:22-29).

But God’s kingly authority has not yet fully conquered the world. There are still enemies of God’s will all over the place (1 Corinthians 15:25-26).

Pessimism sees only the ‘not yet’ of the kingdom. Triumphalism imagines that the kingdom has already full won (1 Corinthians 4:8-13). Realism believes in the already and the not yet of God’s invading reign.

3- The Lord is Righteous 

Psalms 11:7 (ESV) For the Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds; the upright shall behold his face.

In a wicked, evil world, we take heart that God is good.‘The Lord is righteous; he loves righteous deeds.’ The day will come when all wickedness and evil will have lost and God and his righteousness will have won! (Psalms 11:5-7).

4-  The Lord’s word is Refined and perfectly reliable 

Psalms 12:6 (ESV) The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times.

A big part of the problem in this fallen world, is who do we believe? It seems that ‘everyone utters lies’ (Psalms 12:2) and ‘vileness is exalted among the children of men’ (Psalms 12:8).

Thank God that he a God of truth (Psalms 31:5) who does not lie (Numbers 23:19). God’s word is the truth (John 17:17). In a world of deception, deceit and falsehood we can rely on the refined, pure, perfectly reliable word of our God (Psalms 19:7).