Psalms 11:3

If the foundations be destroyed,.... Or, "for the foundations are destroyed" (s); all things are out of order and course both in church and state; the laws, which are the foundations of government,

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? If the foundations be destroyed - rather [ kiy (H3588)], 'For' ... 'are' - i:e., the particular malice of the wicked against the godly

If; or, for; or, when. The foundations, i.e. piety, and justice, and fidelity, and mercy, which are the pillars or foundations of a state or kingdom, as they are called, ,3 82:5; by which they are established, , and which Saul and his courtiers had manifestly violated and overthrown in persecuting David and his friends. The sense is, There is nothing in public administrations but disorder and oppression, and right can take no place. What can the righteous do? the condition of all righteous men (whom thou hast engaged thyself to protect and deliver) will be desperate; which will not be for thine honour. Heb. what hath the righteous done? As for me and my friends, upon whom all the blame is laid, what have we poor, but righteous, persons (for such thou thou knowest us to be) done? namely, to cause all these calumnies and persecutions, or to occasion all these commotions and disturbances of public peace and justice. It is easy to slander us, but let them prove their accusations by any one of our actions.

Psalms 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?Ver. 3. If the foundations be destroyed] If all things be turned "topsy turvy" in the state, and no regard had to right or wrong, Sed vi geritur res, ut in regno Cyclopico; if Saul, notwithstanding mine alliance to him, and innocence toward him, his many fair promises to me, and those hazards and hardships I have suffered for his sake, will needs go on to hunt me up and down, as a partridge in the mountains, and to seek mine utter undoing, what can I do to help it? how can it be but the most righteous must have his share of sufferings? See Psalms 82:5. What can the righteous do?] More than glorify God, by suffering his will, and patiently wait for better times, comforting himself (as in the next verse) in this confidence, that God is in heaven, &c. Some render it, What hath the righteous done? The wicked will say that he hath undone all, and that David with his accomplices are the causes of all the public calamities and confusions. So the primitive persecutors charged the Christians ( Christianos ad leones. Tertul.), and Papists do still the Protestants, to be the troublers of the states, the seed men of sedition, the disturbers of the Church’ s peace, &c., when as indeed themselves are flagella Reip. flabella seditionis, the only traitors and troublers of Israel; with Athaliah, they cry out, Treason, treason, when they themselves are the greatest traitors and incendiaries of Christendom. We may confidently say, with the psalmist, The foundations are destroyed, but what hath the righteous done? Some render the words thus, But those purposes or counsels (of Saul and his flatterers, Psalms 11:2) shall be destroyed (Saul shall be frustrated in his hope, therefore I will not flee into the mountains), but what hath the righteous done? That is, I have done nothing unrighteously against Saul, therefore I will not fly, &c.

(3) The foundations.—By this word must be understood the principles of morality, which are the foundation of society. Symmachus and Jerome render “laws.” But the rendering “What could the righteous do?” is doubtful. The image is of a house shattered by an earthquake (comp. Psalms 82:5); in such a case how find safety? The LXX. and Vulg. have “Since they have destroyed what thou hast established, what has the righteous done?” The order of the Hebrew words seems to support this rendering, “While morality has been overthrown, the righteous what has he done?” A suggested emendation, involving but a slight change in the Hebrew letters, would produce, however, a far better sense: “If the foundations be destroyed, what will become of the tower, or superstructure?”

Verse 3. If the foundations be destroyed] If Saul, who is the vicegerent of God, has cast aside his fear, and now regards neither truth nor justice, a righteous man has no security for his life. This is at present thy case; therefore flee! They have utterly destroyed the foundations; (of truth and equity;) what can righteousness now effect? Kimchi supposes this refers to the priests who were murdered by Doeg, at the command of Saul. The priests are destroyed, the preservers of knowledge and truth; the Divine worship is overthrown; and what can the righteous man work? These I think to be also the words of David's advisers. To all of which he answers:-

3. The state, or society, is compared to a building. The foundations upon which it rests (or the pillars which support it) are the fundamental principles of law and order and justice. The figure sometimes denotes nobles, or chief men, as in Isaiah 19:10 (R.V.), but the more general explanation is preferable here. Cp. Psalms 75:3; Psalms 82:5; Ezekiel 30:4. When these principles are being subverted, ‘what,’ asks the voice of despair, ‘can the righteous do? and the form of the question in the original seems to be intended to exclude the possibility of an encouraging answer. But the verse should probably be rendered (cp. R.V. marg.), For the foundations are being overthrown; what hath the righteous wrought? The efforts of the righteous have availed nothing to avert the general anarchy. What then, it is implied, can he hope to effect by remaining in the midst of it at the peril of his life?

If the foundations be destroyed - These are still to be regarded as the words of the psalmist’s advisers; or as an argument why he should make his escape.

3. If foundations—Not princes and nobles as pillars of the State, but laws and institutions of justice. Psalms 75:3; Psalms 82:5. When these are overthrown the righteous have no appeal.