Echoes From the Campfire

The facts were plain enough and always had been; you fought your whole life long if you wanted to live.”
              –Luke Short  (Savage Range)

    “For the Lord your God is He who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
              –Deuteronomy 20:4 (NKJV)
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I’m going to use the New Living Translation for Psalm 11, simply because I like the way it puts the first verse.  There is much hostility and hatred in our land today.  Some of it is directed toward Christians, God, and biblical morals.  Laughter, derision, mockery, hate are commonplace today.  There is a move to destroy or compromise Christianity within the “religion of society” with is humanism and postmodernism.  On the scene, Psalm 11.

         1  I trust in the LORD for protection.  So why do you say to me, “Fly to the mountains for safety!
         2  The wicked are stringing their bows and setting their arrows in the bowstrings.  They shoot from the shadows at those who do right.
         3  The foundations of law and order have collapsed.  What can the righteous do?”
         4  But the LORD is in his holy Temple; the LORD still rules from heaven.  He watches everything closely, examining everyone on earth.
         5  The LORD examines both the righteous and the wicked.  He hates everyone who loves violence.
         6  He rains down blazing coals on the wicked, punishing them with burning sulfur and scorching winds.
         7  For the LORD is righteous, and he loves justice.  Those who do what is right will see his face.

Doesn’t verses 1-3 sound like today’s society? Look at the news, the stupidity, and the hatred that abounds in this land.  Those that seek to do right; do have justice served at being shot at.  What has happened to law and order?  
    The lawless would like nothing better than for the righteous to flee.  But to flee is to escape and God has called us to endure.  How many times have I desired the refuge of the mountains–I could hear the High Lonesome call–rather than to do the will of God.  The tendency is to run from danger (and there are myriad types of danger).  Our example is Christ.  He did not flee from the cross.  He endured the pain, the suffering, and the death so that we might have life eternal.  He also rose with victory as we shall to with His appearing.
    Charles Wesley wrote:

              “All my trust on Thee is stayed,
               All my help from Thee I bring;
               Cover my defenseless head
               With the shadow of Thy wing.”

We do not have to fear the rages of society, for Christ is with us.  But I must ask, where is your foundation?  If it is in man or culture or humanism then you are tottering on the brink of destruction even though it may appear that evil is winning.  G. Campbell Morgan wrote, “To the psalmist the surrounding circumstances were not foundations.  He saw God, enthroned, watching, acting.  To him this was the one foundation.”  I ask again, where is your foundation?  This is a good Psalm for today with so many attacks on the foundational beliefs of our country.  God is still on the throne; He is in charge.
    God is our firm foundation!  O, do you hear the sound and the declaration of that wonderful hymn?  “On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand, all other ground is sinking sand.”  Don’t flee from the spot where God has placed you, for you are there for a reason, a purpose.  Don’t deny the wonderful experience that you have in Christ, for He is directly your life.  It is there that you are meant to give your witness by your obedience to His will for you.  I would admonish you to stand for righteousness, for then you will see His face.  The HCSB says, that “He loves righteous deeds.”