Day 112: Empires of Dirt, Pillars of Sand (Psalm 10:12-15)

A Spurgeon Snapshot

Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up your hand;
    forget not the afflicted.
¹³ Why does the wicked renounce God
    and say in his heart, “You will not call to account”?
¹⁴ But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,
    that you may take it into your hands;
to you the helpless commits himself;
    you have been the helper of the fatherless.
¹⁵ Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;
    call his wickedness to account till you find none.

Psalm 10:12-15

Through the Bible: Psalm 6, 8-10, 16, 19, 21

Before his death in 2003, Johnny Cash covered the song “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails. The haunting video shows the country legend, old, frail, voice quavering, sitting in a chair and playing his guitar. The footage is intercut with images of Cash at his most successful, vital, reckless, and young. There are shots of his museum, his multiple gold records, appearances of him at award shows, concert footage.

Toward the end of the video, Cash is sitting at a banquet table, full of rich food and wine. The food is untouched, and one realizes that it was all too much for an old man to digest anyway. Cash stands, pours an undrunk glass of wine all over the table, and sings,

And you can have it all-- my empire of dirt.

Similarly, In their 2009 song Viva La Vida, Coldplay, a band at the height of their career, sang,

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand. 

History has shown that every earthly empire will crumble. Every kingdom that sets itself against God will be destroyed. Every ruler, dictator, despot, autocrat, strongman, and President will find that the castles they’ve inhabited are made of sand, and the empires are made of dirt. It is inevitable, but it is also biblical. At the end of history, the voice will proclaim from heaven, “the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our God.” (Revelation 11:15).

Here is how Charles Spurgeon said it:

If the history of the world is rightly read, it will be found that no case of oppression has been allowed to go long unpunished. The Assyrian Empire was a cruel one, but what is now left of Nineveh and Babylon? Go to the heaps of ruins by the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates and see what will become of an empire that is made to be only an instrument of oppression in the hands of an emperor and of the great men under him. It has ceased to be more than a name; its power has vanished and its palaces have been destroyed. … There is a fatal flaw in the foundations of any throne that does not execute justice. Though the empire seems to stand high as heaven and to raise its pinnacles to the skies, down it must come if it is not founded on right.

Spurgeon Study Bible, Note on Psalm 10

This raises two questions for us. The first one is personal: What are you building your life upon? Human accomplishments and achievements? If that is all you have, then at the end of your life you will find that all you really have is an empire of dirt.

The second is corporate. What foundations are we building our country upon? Justice? Fairness? Integrity? Protection of the helpless and the fatherless? Or are we building an empire in which might makes right, where violence is strength and compassion is weakness? Where cruelty is a virtue and accountability a punchline?

An empire that is built only to serve the narcissistic whims of an earthly emperor will become nothing more than a pillar of salt, a castle of sand, and an empire of dirt.

One of my favorite study Bibles is The Spurgeon Study Bible, available from Lifeway, Christianbook.com, and Amazon. All of the study notes are quotes from Charles Spurgeon’s sermons and writing. For more on Charles Spurgeon, click here.