Psalms 82:5(v3)They don’t know, neither do they understand. They walk back and forth in darkness. All the foundations of the earth are shaken.
2 Timothy 2:19(v3)However God’s firm foundation stands, having this seal, “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let every one who names the name of the…
Isaiah 58:12(v3)Those who will be of you will build the old waste places. You will raise up the foundations of many generations. You will be called…
Revelation 22:4(v7)They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.
Psalms 103:19(v4)Yahweh has established his throne in the heavens. His kingdom rules over all.
Show all 100 cross-references
Psalms 17:15(v7)As for me, I shall see your face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with seeing your form.
Ezekiel 38:22(v6)I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood. I will rain on him, and on his hordes, and on the many peoples who are…
Psalms 2:4(v4)He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.
Psalms 18:6(v4)In my distress I called on Yahweh, and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears.
Genesis 19:24(v6)Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky.
Psalms 56:11(v1)I have put my trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Proverbs 6:16-19(v5)There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him: arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed…
1 Peter 3:12(v7)For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears open to their prayer; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
Isaiah 26:3-4(v1)You will keep whoever’s mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you. Trust in Yahweh forever; for in Yah, Yahweh, is an…
Habakkuk 2:20(v4)But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!”
1 Samuel 23:14(v1)David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day,…
James 1:12(v5)Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to…
Psalms 33:13(v4)Yahweh looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.
Psalms 34:15-16(v4)Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry. Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory…
Psalms 45:7(v7)You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
Isaiah 66:1(v4)Yahweh says, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest?
Jeremiah 23:24(v4)Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
Ezekiel 13:13(v6)“ ‘Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: “I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath. There will be an overflowing shower in my anger,…
Luke 17:29(v6)but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky and destroyed them all.
Job 36:7(v7)He doesn’t withdraw his eyes from the righteous, but with kings on the throne, he sets them forever, and they are exalted.
Psalms 25:2(v1)My God, I have trusted in you. Don’t let me be shamed. Don’t let my enemies triumph over me.
Psalms 75:3(v3)The earth and all its inhabitants quake. I firmly hold its pillars.
Psalms 75:8(v6)For in Yahweh’s hand there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and…
1 John 3:2(v7)Beloved, now we are children of God. It is not yet revealed what we will be; but we know that when he is revealed, we will be like him; for…
2 Chronicles 16:9(v4)For Yahweh’s eyes run back and forth throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward…
Job 18:15(v6)There will dwell in his tent that which is none of his. Sulfur will be scattered on his habitation.
Job 20:23(v6)When he is about to fill his belly, God will cast the fierceness of his wrath on him. It will rain on him while he is eating.
Psalms 33:18(v7)Behold, Yahweh’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness,
Psalms 34:15(v7)Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.
Acts 4:24-33(v3)When they heard it, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, “O Lord, you are God, who made the heaven, the earth, the…
Hebrews 4:13(v4)There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an…
Revelation 4:2(v4)Immediately I was in the Spirit. Behold, there was a throne set in heaven, and one sitting on the throne
Psalms 7:9(vv5, 7)Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.
1 Chronicles 17:5(v4)for I have not lived in a house since the day that I brought up Israel to this day, but have gone from tent to tent, and from one tent to…
Job 27:13-23(v6)“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty. If his children are…
Psalms 5:12(v7)For you will bless the righteous. Yahweh, you will surround him with favor as with a shield.
Psalms 21:6(v7)For you make him most blessed forever. You make him glad with joy in your presence.
Psalms 33:5(v7)He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of Yahweh.
Psalms 42:5(v7)Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his…
Psalms 66:7(v4)He rules by his might forever. His eyes watch the nations. Don’t let the rebellious rise up against him.
Psalms 99:4(v7)The King’s strength also loves justice. You establish equity. You execute justice and righteousness in Jacob.
Psalms 105:32(v6)He gave them hail for rain, with lightning in their land.
Proverbs 15:3(v4)Yahweh’s eyes are everywhere, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
Jeremiah 25:15-17(v6)For Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you…
Habakkuk 2:16(v6)You are filled with shame, and not glory. You will also drink, and be exposed! The cup of Yahweh’s right hand will come around to you, and…
Matthew 5:34(v4)but I tell you, don’t swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is the throne of God;
Matthew 23:21(v4)He who swears by the temple, swears by it, and by him who has been living in it.
John 18:11(v6)Jesus therefore said to Peter, “Put the sword into its sheath. The cup which the Father has given me, shall I not surely drink it?”
2 Thessalonians 2:4(v4)he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting…
Genesis 22:1(v5)After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.”
Exodus 9:23-24(v6)Moses stretched out his rod toward the heavens, and Yahweh sent thunder and hail; and lightning flashed down to the earth. Yahweh rained…
2 Kings 19:13-18(v3)Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah?” ’ ” Hezekiah received the…
Psalms 5:4-5(v5)For you are not a God who has pleasure in wickedness. Evil can’t live with you. The arrogant will not stand in your sight. You hate all…
Psalms 16:5(v6)Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure.
Psalms 21:8(v5)Your hand will find out all of your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you.
Psalms 21:12(v2)For you will make them turn their back, when you aim drawn bows at their face.
Psalms 26:2(v5)Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind.
Psalms 37:14(v2)The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to kill those who are upright on the path.
Psalms 64:3-5(v2)who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words, to shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shoot at him suddenly…
Psalms 146:8(v7)Yahweh opens the eyes of the blind. Yahweh raises up those who are bowed down. Yahweh loves the righteous.
Isaiah 24:17-18(v6)Fear, the pit, and the snare, are on you who inhabit the earth. It will happen that he who flees from the noise of the fear will fall into…
Isaiah 51:17(v6)Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of…
Isaiah 61:8(v7)“For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth and I will make an everlasting covenant…
Jeremiah 4:11-12(v6)At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my…
Jeremiah 9:3(v2)“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to…
Jeremiah 17:10(v4)“I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
Luke 13:31(v1)On that same day, some Pharisees came, saying to him, “Get out of here, and go away, for Herod wants to kill you.”
Acts 7:49(v4)‘heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord. ‘Or what is the place of…
1 Peter 1:7(v5)that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in…
Exodus 40:34-35(v4)Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and Yahweh’s glory filled the tabernacle. Moses wasn’t able to enter into the Tent of Meeting,…
2 Chronicles 16:8(v1)Weren’t the Ethiopians and the Lubim a huge army, with chariots and exceedingly many horsemen? Yet, because you relied on Yahweh, he…
Psalms 9:11(v4)Sing praises to Yahweh, who dwells in Zion, and declare among the people what he has done.
Psalms 10:3(v5)For the wicked boasts of his heart’s cravings. He blesses the greedy and condemns Yahweh.
Psalms 16:1(v1)Preserve me, God, for I take refuge in you.
Psalms 139:23-24(v5)Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.
Proverbs 6:5(v1)Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.
Isaiah 51:22(v6)Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the…
Zechariah 2:13(v4)Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”
1 Peter 4:12(v5)Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you.
2 Chronicles 14:11(v1)Asa cried to Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, there is no one besides you to help, between the mighty and him who has no strength. Help…
2 Chronicles 32:13-15(v3)Don’t you know what I and my fathers have done to all the peoples of the lands? Were the gods of the nations of the lands in any way able…
Nehemiah 6:10-12(v3)I went to the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home; and he said, “Let us meet together in…
Psalms 7:1(v1)Yahweh, my God, I take refuge in you. Save me from all those who pursue me, and deliver me,
Psalms 9:10(v1)Those who know your name will put their trust in you, for you, Yahweh, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Psalms 17:3(v5)You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not…
Psalms 31:14(v1)But I trust in you, Yahweh. I said, “You are my God.”
Psalms 44:21(v4)won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
Psalms 139:1(v5)Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me.
Jeremiah 12:8(v5)My heritage has become to me as a lion in the forest. She has uttered her voice against me. Therefore I have hated her.
Daniel 3:15-18(v3)Now if you are ready whenever you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipe, and all kinds of music to fall down and…
Micah 1:2(v4)Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord Yahweh be witness against you, the Lord from his…
Zechariah 11:8(v5)I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me.
Zechariah 13:9(v5)I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will…
1 Samuel 18:21(v2)Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Therefore Saul…
1 Samuel 19:11(v1)Saul sent messengers to David’s house, to watch him, and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t…
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (127 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (28 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 71. In Jehovah do I put my trust. Almost…
1. In Jehovah do I put my trust. Almost all interpreters think that this is a complaint which David brings against his countrymen, that while seeking in every quarter for hiding-places, he could find nowhere even common humanity. And it is indeed true, that in the whole course of his wanderings, after betaking himself to flight to escape the cruelty of Saul, he could find no secure place of retreat, at least, none where he might continue for any length of time undisturbed. He might, therefore, justly complain of his own countrymen, in that none of them deigned to shelter him when he was a fugitive. But I think he has a respect to something higher. When all men were striving, as it were, with each other, to drive him to despair, he must, according to the weakness of the flesh, have been afflicted with great and almost overwhelming distress of mind; but fortified by faith, he confidently and steadfastly leaned on the promises of God, and was thus preserved from yielding to the temptations to which he was exposed. These spiritual conflicts, with which God exercised him in the midst of his extreme perils, he here recounts. Accordingly, as I have just now observed, the psalm should be divided into two parts. Before celebrating the righteousness of God, which he displays in the preservation of the godly, the Psalmist shows how he had encountered even death itself, and yet, through faith and an upright conscience, had obtained the victory. As all men advised him to leave his country, and retire into some place of exile, where he might be concealed, inasmuch as there remained for him no hope of life, unless he should relinquish the kingdom, which had been promised to him; in the beginning of the psalm, he opposes to this perverse advice the shield of his trust in God.
But before entering farther upon the subject, let us interpret the words. The word נוד, nud, which we have rendered to flee, is written in the plural number, and yet it is read in the singular; Calvin’s meaning is, that according to the Hebrew letters, the verb is in the plural number; but according to the Hebrew punctuation, which regulates the reading, it is in the singular. Piscator, in his commentary on this passage, observes, נודו, nudi, according to the points, is singular and feminine, and refers to the soul of David; according to the letters it is plural, נודו, nudu, and refers to David and his associates. This last reading appears to me the most appropriate, both because it is followed by the relative in the plural number, and because it does not seem to be a proper or natural mode of expression, to speak of persons addressing the soul of another” The phrase, to my soul, however, may simply mean to me, a sense in which it is frequently used in Scripture.
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This is the reading adopted by the Chaldee, Septuagint, and Vulgate versions. Hammond observes, that “where the Hebrew now reads, הרכם צפור, har kemo tsippor, To your mountain a sparrow, all the ancient interpreters uniformly read, To the mountain as a sparrow.” Horsley translates the words, “Flee, sparrows, to your hill,” and views the expression “as proverbial, denoting a situation of helplessness and danger, in which there was no hope of safety but in flight” The noun, צפור tsippor, which he renders sparrows, is singular, and it is here construed with a plural verb and a plural pronoun. But he remarks, that as this word, like most names of animals in the Hebrew language, signifies either the individual or the species, it may here be used in the singular number for many individuals, and construed with plural verbs, adjectives, and pronouns.
“Sans specifier a qui est ceste montagne. — Fr. “Without specifying whose mountain it is.”
But as he seems to intimate that it would be a sign of distrust were he to place his safety in flight, it may be asked, whether or not it would have been lawful for him to flee; yea, we know that he was often forced to retire into exile, and driven about from place to place, and that he even sometimes hid himself in caves. I answer, it is true he was unsettled like a poor fearful bird, which leaps from branch to branch, “Je response que combien qu’il n’ait non plus este arrestd qu’un poure oiselet craintif qui saute de branche en branche.” — Fr.
“Combien que les autres le tenissent pour un homme perdu et duquel les affaires estoyent bors d’espoir et qu’ils n’en felssent non plus de casque d’un membre pourri.” — Fr.
“Nous deteste et poursuyve.” — Fr.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4, 6This is the wicked counsel of his enemies to…
This is the wicked counsel of his enemies to him and his companions to drive him from the hope of God’s promise.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv1–7Psa 11:1 « To the chief Musician, [A Psalm]…
Psa 11:1 « To the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David. » In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee [as] a bird to your mountain?
Ver. 1. In the Lord put I my trust] This was that which David had and held, wherewith to answer him that reproached him (and it was an excellent good one), that he trusted in God’s word, Psa 119:42. When it was that he gave this answer, "In the Lord put I my trust" (whether when Saul’s courtiers, under pretence of friendship, counselled him to quit the court for fear of Saul, which he was very loth to do, see the like Neh 6:10 Luk 13:31, or else when he was with Samuel at Naioth, 1Sa 19:18, &c., where his carnal friends might advise him, as Peter did his Master, Mat 16:22, with a Fuge, fuge, David, cite, citius, citissime Flee, flee david, quick, quicker, most quickly), is uncertain. But this is certain, that all the troops of ungodliness aim and act vigorously to cast down the castle of confidence we have in God. This, therefore, we must be sure to secure, as the serpent doth his head, the soldier his shield, Eph 6:16. This is the victory whereby we overcome the world (with its allurements or affrightments) even our faith, 1Jn 5:4. The believer walketh about as a conqueror; and he alone is the man whom the heathen poet elegantly describeth (Horat. Carm. lib. iii. Od. 7):
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Iustum et tenacem propositi virum,
Non civium ardor prava iubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit solida, &c.
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae.
The poet instanceth in Hercules and Bacchus, but had he known of David, Moses, Micah, Nehemiah, Daniel and his three friends, &c., he would rather have pitched upon them, or some others of those worthies of whom the world was not worthy, Heb 11:38.
Flee as a bird to your mountain?] Get you gone, you and your followers (the Hebrew word flee is plural), or flee to your mountain, O bird; see you not the fowler’s snare? and will you not away with all speed? Thus they sought to fright him (as birds are fearful, Isa 16:2), and to make him flee from his place, as a bird fleeth from her nest, Pro 27:8. But he was never without his cordial, the same that relieved him at the sack of Ziklag, where, in the fail of all other comforts, he "encouraged himself in the Lord his God," 1Sa 30:6, he knew that, as birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend his people; defending also he will deliver them, and passing over he will preserve them, Isa 31:5. This, though it were not written in David’s days, yet he had the good assurance of it in his soul.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv1–7In the Lord, i.e. in his faithfulness, who hath…
In the Lord, i.e. in his faithfulness, who hath promised, and will, I doubt not, give me the kingdom.
How say ye? either,
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1. Ye my friends; who through diffidence and despondency advised him to this course. Or,
2. Ye my enemies; who said it scoffingly and insultingly. How say ye? With what face or reason can you say thus to him, who hath the Lord God Almighty for his refuge?
To my soul, i.e. to me, as Psa 6:4; 7:2.
Flee as a bird, suddenly and swiftly, and to some remote place, where thou mayst be out of Saul’s reach. Feed not thyself with vain hopes of the kingdom, but consult for thy own safety, which thou canst not do without taking the wings of a dove, or some other bird, that thou mayst flee away out of the land, and be at rest, as thou sayest, Psa 55:6. Or, Flee away, O thou bird, thou little silly bird, lest the royal eagle seize upon thee.
To your mountain, i.e. to some of your mountains in Judah, and there hide thyself. But this was David’s common practice; and therefore there was no need that any should advise him to it, or that he should reprove them for that advice. Or, from (which prefix is oft wanting, and to be understood, as Jos 10:13; 2Sa 23:24)
your mountain i.e. from the mountain or mountainous country of Judah, as it is called, Jos 20:7; the mountain being frequently put for a mountainous country, as Num 13:29; 23:7; Jos 9:1; 10:6,40, and oft elsewhere. Or, from your mountains, in which thou and thy companions use to hide yourselves. Flee into some foreign land, where you may be safe. For this was the design of David’s enemies, as he complains, 1Sa 26:19; and afterward, when David was under sore temptations, it was his practice once or twice.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn vv1, 4Here is, I. David's fixed resolution to make God…
Here is, I. David's fixed resolution to make God his confidence: In the Lord put I my trust, Psa 11:1. Those that truly fear God and serve him are welcome to put their trust in him, and shall not be made ashamed of their doing so. And it is the character of the saints, who have taken God for their God, that they make him their hope. Even when they have other things to stay themselves upon, yet they do not, they dare not, stay upon them, but on God only. Gold is not their hope, nor are horses and chariots their confidence, but God only; and therefore, when second causes frown, yet their hopes do not fail them, because the first cause is still the same, is ever so. The psalmist, before he gives an account of the temptation he was in to distrust God, records his resolution to trust in him, as that which he was resolved to live and die by.
II. His resentment of a temptation to the contrary: "How say you to my soul, which has thus returned to God as its rest and reposes in him, Flee as a bird to your mountain, to be safe there out of the reach of the fowler?" This may be taken either,
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1. As the serious advice of his timorous friends; so many understand it, and with great probability. Some that were hearty well-wishers to David, when they saw how much Saul was exasperated against him and how maliciously he sought his life, pressed him by all means to flee for the same to some place of shelter, and not to depend too much upon the anointing he had received, which, they thought, was more likely to occasion the loss of his head than to save it. That which grieved him in this motion was not that to flee now would savour of cowardice, and ill become a soldier, but that it would savour of unbelief and would ill become a saint who had so often said, In the Lord put I my trust. Taking it thus, the two following verses contain the reason with which these faint-hearted friends of David backed this advice. They would have him flee, (1.) Because he could not be safe where he was, Psa 11:2. "Observe," say they, "how the wicked bend their bow; Saul and his instruments aim at thy life, and the uprightness of thy heart will not be thy security." See what an enmity there is in the wicked against the upright, in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman; what pains they take, what preparations they make, to do them a mischief: They privily shoot at them, or, in darkness, that they may not see the evil designed, to avoid it, nor others, to prevent it, no, nor God himself, to punish it. (2.) Because he could be no longer useful where he was. "For," say they, "if the foundations be destroyed" (as they were by Saul's mal-administration), "if the civil state and government be unhinged and all out of course" (Psa 75:3, Psa 82:5), "what canst thou do with thy righteousness to redress the grievances? Alas! it is to no purpose to attempt the saving of a kingdom so wretchedly shattered; whatever the righteous can do signifies nothing." Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere mei, Domine - Away to thy cell, and there cry, Pity me, O Lord! Many are hindered from doing the service they might do to the public, in difficult times, by a despair of success.
2. It may be taken as a taunt wherewith his enemies bantered him, upbraiding him with the professions he used to make of confidence in God, and scornfully bidding him try what stead that would stand him in now. "You say, God is your mountain; flee to him now, and see what the better you will be." Thus they endeavoured to shame the counsel of the poor, saying, There is no help for them in God, Psa 14:6; Psa 3:2. The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, are a riddle to a carnal world and are ridiculed accordingly. Taking it thus, the two following verses are David's answer to this sarcasm, in which, (1.) He complains of the malice of those who did thus abuse him (Psa 11:2): They bend their bow and make ready their arrows; and we are told (Psa 64:3) what their arrows are, even bitter words, such words as these, by which they endeavour to discourage hope in God, which David felt as a sword in his bones. (2.) He resists the temptation with a gracious abhorrence, Psa 11:3. He looks upon this suggestion as striking at the foundations which every Israelite builds upon: "If you destroy the foundations, if you take good people off from their hope in God, if you can persuade them that their religion is a cheat and a jest and can banter them out of that, you ruin them, and break their hearts indeed, and make them of all men the most miserable." The principles of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the righteous are built. These we are concerned, in interest as well as duty, to hold fast against all temptations to infidelity; for, if these be destroyed, if we let these go, What can the righteous do? Good people would be undone if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv1–7In the Lord put I my trust,.... Not in…
In the Lord put I my trust,.... Not in himself, in his own heart, nor in his own righteousness and strength; nor in men, the greatest of men, the princes of the earth; nor in his armies, or any outward force; but in the Lord, as the God of providence and of grace; and in the Messiah, in his person and righteousness; so the Chaldee paraphrase renders it, "in the Word of the Lord do I hope": and the phrase denotes a continued exercise of faith in the Lord; that he was always looking to him, staying himself on him, and committing himself and all his concerns to him; for he does not say, I "have", or I "will", but I "do", put my trust in the Lord; at all times, even in the worst of times, and in the present one; wherefore he is displeased with his friends for endeavouring to intimidate him, persuading him to flee and provide for his safety, when he had betaken himself to the Lord, and was safe enough;
how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? they compare him to a little, fearful, trembling bird, wandering from its nest, moving through fear from place to place, whereas his heart was fixed, trusting in the Lord; and this gave him a disgust: they advise him to flee either "from" his mountain, so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it; that is, either from Judea, which was a mountainous country, especially some parts of it; or from Mount Zion, or rather from the mountain in the wilderness of Ziph, or the hill of Hachilah, where David sometimes was, Sa1 23:14; or it may be rendered "to your mountain", as we, so the Targum; that is, to the said place or places where he had sometimes hid himself; and this they said to his "soul", which was very cutting and grieving to him; the word rendered "flee" in the "Cetib", or writing of the text, is in the plural, "flee ye"; but is pointed for, and in the "Keri", or marginal reading, is "flee thou"; the latter agrees with this being said to David's soul, the former with the phrase "your mountain", and both are to be taken into the sense of the words; not as if the one respected David's soul only, and the other both soul and body, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; but the one regards David's person, and the other his companions, or the people with him; and contains an advice, both to him and them, to flee for their safety; the reasons follow.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn vv1–6David encourages himself in God, against the attempts of…
David encourages himself in God, against the attempts of his enemies, ver. 1-3. Asserts the dominion and providence of God, ver. 4-7 To the chief musician, A psalm of David.
Ye - Mine enemies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv1–7David's friends advise him to flee to the wilderness…
PSALM XI
David's friends advise him to flee to the wilderness from
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Saul's fury, 1-3.
He answers that, having put his trust in God, knowing that he
forsakes not those who confide in him, and that he will punish
the ungodly, he is perfectly satisfied that he shall be in
safety, 4-7.
NOTES ON PSALM XI
The inscription is, To the chief Musician, A psalm of David. By the chief musician we may understand the master-singer; the leader of the band; the person who directed the choir: but we know that the word has been translated, To the Conqueror; and some deep and mystical senses have been attributed to it, with which I believe the text has nothing to do.
Verse 1. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye] Some of David's friends seem to have given him this advice when they saw Saul bent on his destruction: "Flee as a bird to your mountain;" you have not a moment to lose; your ruin is determined; escape for your life; get off as swiftly as possible to the hill-country, to some of those inaccessible fortresses best known to yourself; and hide yourself there from the cruelty of Saul. To which advice he answers, "In the Lord put I my trust," shall I act as if I were conscious of evil, and that my wicked deeds were likely to be discovered? Or shall I act as one who believes he is forsaken of the protection of the Almighty? No: I put my trust in him, and I am sure I shall never be confounded.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn vv1–7Psa 11:1. In the Lord put I my trust…
Psa 11:1. In the Lord put I my trust — It is not in fortresses or strong holds that I place my confidence, but only in the Lord, in his power, and love, and faithfulness. How say ye to my soul — Ye, my friends; Flee as a bird to your mountain? — Fly away, as a timorous bird before the fowler, to a place of safety. Thus “the Christian, like David, in perilous times, should make God his fortress, and continue doing his duty in his station; he should not, at the instigation of those about him, like a poor, silly, timorous, inconstant bird, either fly for refuge to the devices of worldly wisdom, or desert his post, and retire into solitude, while he can serve the cause in which he is engaged. Nor, indeed, is there any mountain on earth, out of the reach of care or trouble. Temptations are everywhere, and so is the grace of God.” — Horne.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv1–7In the Lord put I my trust - This,…
In the Lord put I my trust - This, in general, expresses the state of mind of the author - a state of feeling which runs through the entire psalm. It is designed to be an answer to the counsel which others had been giving him to escape, and it implies that he was determined at that time, and always, to put his trust in God. They advised him to flee. In the existing circumstances he felt that that would have implied a want of confidence in God. He determined, therefore, to maintain his present position, and to rely upon the interposition of God in due time.
How say ye to my soul - How say ye to “me” - the soul being put for the person himself. “Why” do you say this to me? how can you give me such counsel, as if I were to run away from danger, and to put no trust in God? He seems to have supposed that such an act of flight would have been construed by his enemies, and by the enemies of religion, as evidence that he had no faith or confidence in God. Such circumstances often occur in the world; and when that would be the “fair” and “natural” construction of one’s conduct, the path of duty is plain. We are to remain where we are; we are boldly to face the danger, and commit the whole matter to God.
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Flee as a bird to your mountain - This implies that it was supposed there was no longer any safety where he then was. The use of the plural number here - “Flee ye,” by a change not uncommon in the Hebrew writings - seems designed to refer to the whole class of persons in those circumstances. The mind turns from his own particular case to that of others in the same circumstances; and the language may be designed to imply that this was the usual counsel given to such persons; that, on the same principle on which they now advised flight in this particular case, they would also advise flight in all similar cases. That is, they would counsel persons to flee to a place of safety when they were in danger of their life from persecution. This is the common counsel of the world; this would be the ordinary teaching of human prudence. The mountains in Palestine were regarded as places of safety, and were the common refuge of those who were in danger. In their caves and fastnesses, and on their heights, those who were in danger found security, for they could there hide themselves, or could more easily defend themselves, than they could in the plains and in the vallies. Hence, they became the place of retreat for robbers and banditti, as well as for the persecuted. The allusion to the bird here does not imply that birds sought a refuge in the mountains, and that he was to resemble them in this respect; but the point of the comparison turns on the rapidity with which this refuge should be sought:” Fly to the mountains as swiftly as a bird flies from danger.” Compare Mat 24:16; Jdg 6:2; Heb 11:38.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 11
Psalms 11
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David
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1 In the Lord put I my trust:
How say ye to my soul,
Flee as a bird to your mountain?
2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string,
That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations be destroyed,
What can the righteous do?
4 The Lord is in his holy temple,
The Lord’s throne is in heaven:
His eyes behold,
His eyelids try, the children of men.
5 The Lord trieth the righteous:
But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares,
Fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness;
His countenance doth behold the upright.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The firm trust in God whilst the foundations of the State and social order are shaking, the manly rejection of the counsel of discouraged friends who advise to flee from the threatening danger, the cheerful confidence in sure help through the judicial government of God, correspond so well with the character of David, that there is no reason to doubt the correctness of the title, whether we think of the earlier period of the persecution by Saul (Ewald), or of the battles of David with the Philistines, with a reference to 2Sa_21:17 (Hitzig), or on account of Psa_10:3, of the rebellion of Absalom (Maurer, Delitzsch). The vigorous brevity, and the fresh, lively movement of the language do not agree at all with the supposition that this is a Psalm of lamentation, composed by Hezekiah at the time of the siege of Sennacherib.1
Str. I. Psa_10:1.—With Jehovah have I refuge. [A. V. “In the Lord do I put my trust.” Hupf.: “With Jehovah have I taken or found refuge.” So Perowne: “I need no other refuge: how can ye say to me, etc.; my feet are on the true Rock, why should I look elsewhere for safety? This is the full force of the expression. There is, moreover, a force in the perfect, ‘I have found.’ It is an exclamation of joyful confidence in the thought that he has such a refuge, and is not yet to seek it. The advice here given, and which he repels, is that of timid and desponding friends, who would persuade him that all is lost, and that the highest wisdom is to yield to circumstances, and to seek safety not in resistance but in flight. But in fact the voice which thus speaks is the voice of the natural heart, of the selfish, and therefore short-sighted and cowardly instinct, which always asks first, not, what is right? but, what is safe? The advice may be well meant, but it is unworthy (comp. Psa_3:3; Psa_4:8). This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. But it is often a sorer trial for faith to have to withstand the pleadings of well meaning friends than to arm itself against open enemies.”—C. A. B.]
Flee.—Hupf. advocates the plural which includes those who are in similar circumstances and danger, in opposition to the interpreters who, with the Jewish critics, adopt the singular reading. The bird is used as a figure of the pursued, 1Sa_26:20; Lam_3:52; it is here a collective, and either as a vocative in apposition, or as a comparison. [Ewald regards this expression as a proverb in use among the Jews, not found elsewhere it is true, but yet natural as a figure of speech in those times. So Hupfeld:—To your mountain.—De Wette: “A figure taken from birds, which, when hunted upon the plain, flee back speedily to the wooded mountains; but it is likewise a proper idea. The mountains of Palestine being rich in caves afforded safe places of refuge from enemies who held possession of the plains. Thus Mattathias and his sons fled to the mountain, 1Ma_2:28.” So also David in his flight from Saul.2—C. A. B.]
Psa_10:2. The see, [A. V., “Lo”], and the statements of Psa_10:3 do not allow us to regard these words as an explanation of the poet (Calv.) It makes no difference in this respect whether we begin Psa_10:3 with “for” or “if.” The hypothetical interpretation has nothing to do with the contents of the clause, but only with its structure. [There is a change of tense which is lost in the A. V., which is very dramatic, vid., Hupf. and Alexander in loco. Hupf.: “They span the bow, they have adjusted their arrow to the string.” Alexander translates they “have fixed” their arrow. The English “make ready” is too vague.—Privily, more properly “in darkness,” in the dark, in secret, treacherously.—C. A. B.]
Psa_10:3. The foundations here are not persons (Gesenius, Hitzig) as Isa_3:1; Isa_19:10; Gal_2:9, but the laws and ordinances of public justice, 1Sa_2:8; Psa_75:3; Psa_82:5; Eze_30:4. Calv. et al., following the Sept., Vulg. Aquil., Symm. translate: What has he done? namely, wrong; wherewith has he done wrong? The perfect, however, does not force us to this; but it prevents the usual interpretation: What shall he do? namely, otherwise than flee. The perfect in interrogative clauses is often used in the sense of the Latin subjunctive = what could he do? (Seb. Schmidt, Hupf., Delitzsch), or it expresses the result of experience (Ewald, et al,) [The Anglican prayer book translates: “For the foundations will be cast down, and what has the righteous done?” So Alexander. Hupf.: Whilst he grants the possibility of the above, yet translates: “For the pillars are destroyed; the righteous—what has he done (accomplished)” that is “what has he done, accomplished according to his previous experience?” And thus he states his agreement with Ewald and Böttcher (N. Æhrenl., who compares with συνήρτακεν, Xen., Cyrop., iv. 2, 26). This seems to be the better view.—C. A. B.]
Str. II. Psa_10:4. Jehovah in his holy palace,etc.—[A. V., “temple.” Delitzsch: “Above the earth are the heavens, and in the heavens is Jehovah’s throne, the King of kings. And this heavenly temple, this palace, is the place from whence all earthly things are finally decided, Hab_2:20; Mic_1:2. For the royal throne there is also the judgment seat above the earth, Psa_9:7; Psa_103:19. Jehovah, who is seated there, is the all-seeing and the all-knowing. חָזָּה = cernere, of a penetrating glance. בָחַן = trying metals by fire, of a searching glance into the innermost nature of things. The eyelashes are mentioned designedly. When we consider and investigate sharply, the eyelids approach one another in order that the glance may become more single, direct, and like a flash penetrating through the object.”—C. A. B.]3
Psa_10:6. Rain.—Hupfeld holds fast strongly to the optative, and makes “fire and brimstone as nets” depend upon “He makes to rain.” According to Delitzsch the future in the jussive form states a fact of the future resulting with necessity from facts of the present. “Rain” denotes the abundance in which the means of punishment descend. If the accents and pointing are not altered in order to find stated something corresponding to fire and brimstone, e.g. coals (Ewald, Olsh., now also Böttcher), or ashes (Hitzig), then this means of punishment consists either of masses (Böttcher previously), lumps in general, pieces (Aben Ezra, Geier, Mich.) or slings which most interpreters regard as figurative of lightning; others, following Calvin, as a means of holding them fast in order that they may not escape the punishment.
The fiery wind” [A. V., “Horrible tempest”] is the hot east wind, Arab. samûm = the poisonous. Hupf. does not consider that the meaning fire has been proved, but rather that of rage, and translates: Blast of wrath. So likewise Hengst.4 [Wordsworth: “The Psalmist refers to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as a prophetic emblem of what awaits the ungodly; and he anticipates the language of St. Jude concerning those cities “as set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Judges 7). And he anticipates the imagery of the Apocalypse Rev_19:20; Psa_21:8.”—Portion of their cup.—Alexander: “something measured out for them to drink, according to the frequent Scriptural representation, both of God’s wrath and favor as a draught or as the cup containing it. Comp. Psa_16:5; Mat_20:22-23; Mat_26:39. The meaning of the whole verse is that notwithstanding the present security of the ungodly, they shall sooner or later be abundantly visited with every variety of destructive judgment.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_10:7. Righteous acts [A. V., “righteousness”], literally, “righteousnesses,” that is, acts of righteousness.—The upright shall behold His face.—The adjective in the singular is collective as subst., hence the plural of the predicate. The suffix is in a poetical, solemn form of the singular (Ewald, Olsh.) and is not necessarily plural of majesty, or an inexactness (Hupf.). Since the face is elsewhere only the object, and not the subject of seeing, the translation which is certainly possible here, “his countenance doth behold the upright,” (Isaki, Kimchi, Geier, Mich., Hengst. [A. V.]) is not to be recommended, although in the other clauses God is the subject, and the plural forms in the suffix and verbs are very well explained whilst the object remains in the singular. Luther, et al., following most of the ancient translations, regard this as abstract = uprightness. [Almost all recent commentators adopt the rendering of the author. Thus Hupfeld: “’To behold God’s face’ is figurative of the highest favor with God and blessedness, as Psa_17:15, like sitting and standing before the face of God, Psa_41:12; Psa_140:13; Job_33:26, etc.; borrowed from the privilege of oriental magnates to appear before the king, and be favored with the constant sight of majesty, and so transferred to the relation of the pious to God, who alone are worthy of this sight, and are capable of it, so far as only the pure can bear the sight of the Holy One; but sin excludes from the privilege; comp. the promise, Mat_5:8, that ‘the pure in heart shall see God,’ and the corresponding figure of spiritual reception in the house of God, which only the pious have, Psa_5:5; Psa_15:1.”—C. A. B.]5
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Those are not true friends who, in dangerous times, put the duty of self-preservation before that of duty to the community, and then when the foundations of the State are rooted up, and the pillars of social order begin to shake, advise to flight instead of to the conflict which should be waged in the name of God, and with the assurance of Divine assistance. Indeed every courageous man and brave warrior rejects such imputations as cowardly and shameful; how much more the Sovereign, who is called of God, and who trusts in God?
2. That God is enthroned in heaven does not prevent His government on earth, but rather is presupposed as well for His government of the world in general as for His special dealings with individuals, and therefore it is the foundation of the believer’s confidence that even in the worst times, he will receive seasonable help from the Lord.
3. It is not stated here how a man is justified, but how it fares with the righteous. He may indeed on earth fall into the greatest dangers and needs, and be surrounded by timid, unsafe, and false friends, and be oppressed by mighty, crafty, and merciless enemies; but God does not forsake those who trust in Him with living faith. He tries them, it is true, as a discerner of hearts, but the upright, whom He has found faithful, He causes to experience His love, and helps them out of all their needs.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
He who has faith does not flee.—The King of heaven is not only an almighty but likewise an omniscient God and the just Rewarder.—Where even the strength of the righteous fails, the arm of Him who is enthroned in the heavens helps.—The rulers of the earth have likewise to reflect that they have a Lord in heaven.—The wicked have to reckon upon no lasting success; it only remains for them to wait for the terrible judgments of God whilst the righteous may hope in the assistance of God and at last will behold His countenance.—In times of danger we must not hearken to the advice of weak and cowardly men, but trust in the word and assistance of God. Not to flee from God but to God brings deliverance, salvation and peace.
Calvin: Although all alike confess that the world is ruled by God, yet there are but few, when a sad complication of affairs surrounds them with darkness, who have this conviction confirmed in the innermost part of their souls.
Starke: Whenever any one turns to fearing God, there are ever wicked decoy birds which think to prevent him.—No hunter can pursue the game more hotly than the ungodly are greedy for the ruin of the pious.—It is well for those who are well-grounded, especially at this last time, when the ground is not destroyed, yet is made to shake in many ways and when so many fundamental truths are contested. There are two ways in which God is present; one in which He fills heaven and earth, the other when He is present in the word and sacrament, yes, in the hearts of believers.—The omnipresence and omniscience of God are a very strong consolation to the believer when oppressed.—There is a difference between the cross of the pious and the punishment of the ungodly, the former are preserved by suffering, the latter are entirely destroyed.—He who loves God and will be loved by God must love righteousness.—Speak what is right, maintain the right and deviate not a finger breadth from righteousness and the Lord will be favorable to you.
Osiander: Although we do not in all ways serve the law of God after the flesh, yet we should do it with our souls and have pleasure therein after the inner man (Rom_7:22) in order that God may not be hostile to us.—Selnekker: The favor of God and the favor of wicked men are wider apart than heaven and earth.—Moller: What comforts and encourages the pious, fills the ungodly with fear and terror.—Arndt: The reward of the pious is the love of God, yea God Himself.—Herberger: The more defiant the ungodly are in favorable times, the more dejected and discouraged they are in misfortune.—Rieger: It is well for those, to whom all in God is so dear, that they can gain for themselves a basis of good hope from His holiness, His power, His omniscience, and His zeal against wickedness.—Stiller: Sighs ascend and consolation descends.—Guenther: There are two kinds of enemies, the open and the secret; the former persecute us, the latter give us the so-called good advice.—Diedrich: Make no peace with the world until after a decisive victory, and let your daily confession be this only: I trust in the Lord.
[Matth. Henry: The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, is a riddle to a carnal world, and is ridiculed accordingly.—Good people would be undone if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.—In singing this Psalm we must encourage and engage ourselves to trust in God at all times, must depend upon Him to protect our innocency, and make us happy; must dread His frown as worse than death, and desire His favor as better than life.—Barnes: The wicked have everything to fear; the righteous, nothing. The one is never safe; the other, always. The one will be delivered out of all his troubles; the end of the other can only be ruin.—Spurgeon: When prayer engages God on our side, and when faith secures the fulfilment of the promise, what cause can there be for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies?—Is it suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross, and shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the voice of the charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may wrestle with principalities and powers and follow the Lord fully, going without the camp, bearing His reproach. Mammon, the flesh, the devil, will all whisper in our ear, “Flee as a bird to your mountain,” but let us come forth and defy them all. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”—The advice of cowardice and the jeer of insolence, both answered by faith. Lesson—Attempt no other answer.—If all earthly things fail, and the very State fall to pieces, what can we do? We can suffer joyfully, hope cheerfully, wait patiently, pray earnestly, believe confidently, and triumph finally.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[1][This Psalm may have been composed at that critical period mentioned, 1 Samuel 29-31, and 2 Samuel 1-3. David lost the confidence of the Philistines, was in trouble with his own men, 1Sa_30:6; 1Sa_30:22-24; 2Sa_3:39, and all the religious as well as the political institutions of Israel were disturbed and in danger of dissolution.—C. A. B.]
[2][“Your” is significant; it refers to the well-known mountain stronghold, the familiar hiding places of David and his friends; some such one as the cave of Engedi, 1 Samuel 24, or the hill Hachilah, Psa_26:1. This Psalm was composed when these remembrances were fresh in the minds of David and his adherents.—C. A. B.]
[3][Delitzsch: “Thus men are manifest to the All-searching eye, the all-trying glance of Jehovah: righteous and unrighteous. He trieth the righteous, that is, He recognizes in the depths of their souls their righteous nature, which stands the test (Psa_17:3; Job_23:10) so that He protects them with love as the righteous cling to Him in love; but the wicked and he who uses violence against the weak. His soul hates, and He hates them with all the energy of His holy being. The more intense this hate is, the more fearful will the punishment be which He sends down upon them.”—C. A. B.]
[4][There is here probably a reference to the Sirocco of the Holy Land thus described by Thomson. “The air becomes loaded with fine dust, which it whirls in rainless clouds hither and thither at its own wild will; it rushes down every gorge, bowing and breaking the trees, and tugging at each individual leaf; it growls around the houses, romps and runs riot with your clothes.”—“The eyes inflame, the lips blister, and the moisture of the body evaporates, under the ceaseless application of this persecuting wind; you become languid, nervous, irritable, and despairing.” Vid., still further Thomson, Land and the Book, pp. 295 and 537.—C. A. B]
[5][Delitzsch: “To behold God’s face is in itself impossible for mortal man without dying. But when God graciously allows Himself to be seen, He makes it possible for the creature to look upon Him. This enjoyment of the Divine face when it is softened in love, is the highest honor which God’s grace can bestow upon man, it is the blessing of the upright, Psa_140:13. We cannot say that this means beholding His face in the world to come, or that it is exclusively in this world. The future עולם is lost to the Old Testament idea in the night of sheol. But faith breaks through this night, and consoles itself with a future beholding of God, Job_19:26. The New Testament redemption has realized this postulate of faith in that the Redeemer has broken through the night of the realm of the dead, raised up with Himself the pious of the Old Testament, and transported them into the sphere of the Divine love which is revealed in heaven.” Perowne: “Thus Faith kindles into hope. Not only does David make Jehovah his refuge in calamity, but he can rejoice in the thought that he shall behold the face of God,—behold now the light of His countenance even in the midst of gloom and darkness. Did his hope reach beyond this, and are we to suppose that here he looks forward to seeing God in the resurrection? We cannot tell. But see Psa_16:11; Psa_17:15. To us, however, his words may be the expression of a ‘hope full of immortality.’ ‘We know that our light affliction worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ ‘We know that when He shall appear … we shall see Him as He is.’ We can take this Psalm likewise to ourselves, and think upon ‘seeing God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ ”—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv2–7privily--literally, "in darkness," treacherously.
privily--literally, "in darkness," treacherously.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv1–71. Flee as a bird, etc.—Literally, Flee, bird, to…
1. Flee as a bird, etc.—Literally, Flee, bird, to your mountain. The ancient versions read, as a bird. The particle of comparison is implied. This advice is given to the psalmist as the only measure of safety, at a time of imminent peril. There is no ground for assuming that the imperilled one here is an ideal person. The universal application of the psalm to all innocent sufferers is not at all impaired by admitting a real historic origin, which Psa_11:1-3 clearly require. The direct flight of a bird from the valley to its mountain home, when frightened, is a marked though common event, probably the occasion of a proverb by the Hebrews.
How say ye—This is not a rejection of the advice given, as some have taught, as though David scorned to yield to circumstances and save his life by flight. Both in the time of Saul and Absalom he did fly “to the mountains.” It is no honour to our faith in God to despise danger, or refuse lawful means to save life, when duty so permits. Jesus and his apostles repeatedly retired before their enemies. But David here only professes higher and more essential trust in Jehovah than in any natural means of defence or escape.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv1–71. put I my trust] Rather, have I taken…
1. put I my trust] Rather, have I taken refuge (cp. Psa_7:1): and therefore it would be an act of unbelief as well as cowardice to seek another asylum in the mountain.
to my soul] To me, as one whose very life is in danger. Cp. Psa_3:2, note.
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Flee as a bird] Or, as R.V. marg., flee ye birds. David and his companions are addressed, and exhorted to flee to their obvious or accustomed place of refuge in the mountain. But the pronoun your should probably be omitted, and as inserted. Timorous and defenceless birds supply a graphic figure for the victims of persecution who have no resource but flight. Cp. 1Sa_26:20; Lam_3:52. The ‘mountain’ or ‘hill-country’ with its caves and strongholds was the natural place of retreat for fugitives. See 1Sa_14:22; 1Sa_23:14; 1Sa_26:1; 1Ma_2:28. Possibly ‘to flee to the mountain’ may have been a proverbial phrase, taken from the narrative of Gen_19:17 ff., for the last resource in extremity of peril.
Note IV
On Psa_11:1
There are two readings here: the Qrç, flee thou (fem.): the Kthîbh, flee ye. If flee thou is addressed, as it is natural to suppose, to David’s soul, it must be explained as a bold combination of direct and indirect speech, equivalent to ‘that she should flee as a bird to your mountain,’ i.e. join you in your mountain retreat. Or David and his adherents may be addressed. ‘Flee, O birds (fem. collective), to your mountain!’ The second reading, ‘flee ye, like birds (or, ye birds), to your mountain,’ is simpler. David and his companions are exhorted to seek the mountain which is their natural or accustomed place of refuge. But it must be admitted that the plural ‘flee ye’ is harsh, and that we should expect the poet’s soul to be addressed; while at the same time if the singular ‘flee thou’ is read, the plural ‘your mountain’ can only be explained by the assumption of a bold construction, or an abrupt transition from sing, to plur. And when we find that all the ancient versions give the verb in the singular, and none of them express your, it becomes almost certain that by a very slight change of text we should read ‘Flee (thou) as a bird to the mountain.’ (גודי הר כמו צפור).
1–3. Faith’s indignant repudiation of faint-hearted counsel in the hour of danger.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7(1) Put I my trust.—Better, as in Psa_7:1, I…
(1) Put I my trust.—Better, as in Psa_7:1, I find my refuge.
Flee as a bird.—Literally, flee ye a bird. The plural verb, with the singular noun, offers a difficulty which is not obviated by the reading which changes the verb to the singular, since your mountain has the plural suffix. We may supply the sign of comparison, as elsewhere sometimes omitted (Psa_22:14); “flee ye like a bird;” or we may, with Ewald, take the noun as collective—a flock of birds. The idea of trepidation is conveyed in the original by the verb, which suggests the hurried flap of wings. Dr. Thomson, in The Land and the Book, finds in the habits of the dove an illustration of the passage; and compares Psa_55:6, “Oh that I had wings as a dove!”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv1–7ASCRIBED to David in the "title," this psalm is…
ASCRIBED to David in the "title," this psalm is almost universally allowed to be his. It "has all the characteristics of the earlier Davidic psalms." No allusion enables us to assign it to any particular occasion; but, on the whole, it would seem to belong most probably to the period of David"s residence at the court of Saul, when he had provoked the jealousy of the courtiers, and calumnious accusations were being continually brought against him. At such a time his friends and companions may well have lost heart, and advised him to "flee away to the mountains." But David flees to God (ver. 1), and trusts in him for deliverance from his persecutors (vers. 4-7).
In the Lord put I my trust; or, in the Lord have I taken refuge (Kay, Cheyne). Before his friends address him on the subject of his danger, David has himself recognized it, and has fled to God for succour. How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? rather, flee ye, birds, to your mountain. Probably a proverbial expression, used when it was necessary to warn a man that in flight lay his only safety. The singular (rwOpxi) is used collectively.
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HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-7. The victory of faith; or, rest amid storm.
In each one of those psalms which represent some historic experience, there is its own differential feature. This feature it is the work of the student and expositor to seize and to utilize. We do not know and have no means of knowing the specific incidents in the writer"s life to which reference is here made, although, since David was the writer, we should find but little difficulty in fixing on some passages of his history to which the psalm might possibly apply. But although that might furnish some interesting points of history, it would add little or nothing to the value of the psalm. It is one which is far too much overlooked; since it yields us a powerful illustration of a faith which overcomes the world. Let us set to work and see if it be not so.
I HERE IS A BELIEVER IN GOD EXPOSED TO PERIL FROM DESIGNING FOES. (Ver. 2) Those who are upright in heart are hated by the wicked. (cf. 1Jn_3:12, 1Jn_3:13) This is not to be wondered at, for righteous men by their righteousness are a standing condemnation of the ungodly. (Heb_11:7) The Lord Jesus was pre-eminently the object of hatred by the world. (Joh_7:7 Joh_15:18-24) In the time of the psalmist this hatred was expressed by plots for the destruction of God"s servants (ver. 2). But, as if conscious of wrong and of the meanness and wickedness of their aims, men sought the cover of darkness for their designs (see ver. 2, Revised Version). What a mercy there is One to whom the darkness and the light are both alike!
II HERE ARE WELL-MEANING FRIENDS GIVING THEIR ADVICE. (Ver. 1, "Flee as a bird," etc.) This is the counsel of timidity. There may possibly be circumstances in which it may be right to take flight. (see Mat_10:23) Although our Lord expected his disciples to be prepared, If Need be, to lay down their lives for him, yet he did not wish them unnecessarily to expose themselves to danger. So that at times, flight may be wise. But in the case of the psalmist, the whole tenor of his psalm indicates that it would not have been right, and that the counsels of his friends were those of timidity and even of cowardice. Note:
1. We may any of us be exposed at some time or other to this temptation
(1) to flee from the spot where we are placed;
(2) to quit the duty we have in hand, because of peril; or
(3) to resort to some safe nook, and thus consult our own ease and safety, regardless of the work in hand.
2. Such temptation may be even harder to resist when it comes from friends than if it came from foes. So our Lord Jesus found it; he felt Peter"s effort to dissuade him from the cross far more acutely than he did Satan"s. (cf. Mat_16:22, Mat_16:23)
III THIS ILL-JUDGED ADVICE MAY BE ENFORCED WITH PLAUSIBLE ARGUMENTS. (Vers. 1, 3) The advice begins with the word "flee" (ver. 1), and ends with the close of the third verse. The arguments for flight are:
1. The secrecy of the designs of the wicked; since they work under cover of the darkness, it is best to be entirely out of their reach.
2. The grievous consequences of their success (ver. 3). If the men who are the strength and glory of a state are removed, the righteous therein will be dismayed, This is a more specious argument than the former: it is equivalent to, "If you care not to flee for your own sake, you owe it to others to guard yourself; for if you, as one of the supports of the state, are overthrown, what will the righteous people do?" The wicked would rejoice, and would seize the occasion for the purposes of rapine and murder; but the righteous would be in sore dismay.
IV TO SUCH ADVICE, FAITH HAS A READY ANSWER. (Vers. 4-6) The various features of this answer may be summed up in one sentence, "The Lord reigneth!" This is faith"s rest and refuge in all times of trouble. Things are not left to the cross-purposes of man. There is a throne above all, and One sitting thereon. This fact has a manifold bearing:
1. On men generally.
a. God sees all (ver. 4).
b. God tests all (ver. 4).
2. On the righteous.
a. God tries his people. He proves them to improve them (ver. 5).
b. He loves the righteous; i.e. he approves them, and, in the midst of all confusion, he smiles upon them.
c. He will crown them with honour at last (ver. 7, Revised Version).
3. On the wicked.
a. He hates them; i.e. he disapproves their ways. (ver. 5 Psa_1:6)
b. The time will come when that disapproval will be manifest (ver. 6).
The terrible figures used in this verse are probably drawn from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. What the dread reality may be, of which these words are symbols, God grant that we may never know! More fearful than any physical judgments is the adverse verdict of the Great Supreme. (Joh_3:19) Note: It is all-important for a believer in God, in the midst of the greatest calamities, and of the most serious public disorder, so to maintain his calm serenity of soul, as to enable him thus to rest in what he knows of God and of his revealed mind and will.
V KNOWING ALL THIS CONCERNING GOD, THE PSALMIST HAD ACTUALLY ANTICIPATED THE ADVICE OF HIS ADVISERS, though in another and a better way (ver. 1): "In the Lord put I my trust;" rather, "To the Lord I have fled for refuge." I need no other. He is mine. He will guard me. I am at rest in him. I will therefore stay where I am, and keep in the path of duty. I can calmly look on the raging storm, and wait till it has passed by. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Note:
1. The man who trusts in God has already a Refuge of which the ungodlyman knows nothing.
2. That trust in God gives him the victory over his foes.
3. The God whom he trusts will be his Shield and his exceeding great Reward hereafter and for ever!
How much broader, deeper, and firmer should be our trust, now that we know God"s love as revealed in Christ] "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith". C. (1Jn_5:4, 1Jn_5:5)
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-7. A battle in the soul.
Faith and fear are in conflict. Plausible reasons are suggested why the fight should be given up, but nobler thoughts prevail.
I FEAR CONFRONTING FAITH. (Vers. 1-3) The outlook is discouraging. Our foes are many and strong; more, they are inveterate in malice; more still, they have already gained ground, and amidst the overturn of all right principles and the confusion worse confounded, it seems as if they were to prevail all along the line. In such a state of things selfish fear suggests Why fight longer? Our best efforts are fruitless; we are spending our strength and labouring in vain. Better bow to the inevitable; better look to ourselves ere it be too late. The temptation is subtle and dangerous; even the best of us have felt its force. It was Jeremiah who said, "I will not speak any more in his Name"; (Jer_20:9) it was the great Elijah who cried out, as if in despair, "I only am left, and they seek my life". (1Ki_19:10) Then there are not wanting false and mistaken friends, who say, as St. Peter to our Lord, "This shall not be unto thee", (Mat_16:22) or as the disciples said to St. Paul, "Go not up to Jerusalem". (Act_21:11-13 Neh_6:10, Neh_6:11) So it has been in all great enterprises. There are lions in the way; difficulties arise that seem to the fearful impossibilities. So it is specially in the Christian life. "The fear of man bringeth a snare," but so also does the fear that rises in our own hearts.
II FAITH CONQUERING FEAR. (Vers. 4-7) God"s truth is like Constantine"s banner: "By this we conquer.
1. Realizing Gods presence. God is not afar off, but near; he is not an indifferent spectator, but pledged to defend the right. The end is in his hands. He will save his people. The presence of an earthly chief gives courage to his soldiers: how much more should we take heart when we know that God is with us!
2. Confiding in Gods protection. It is not chance, nor caprice, nor arbitrary rule, that settles things, but the will of God. He "trieth the righteous." There is a holy, loving discipline. The furnace may be hot, but it is for the purifying of the gold. (Job_23:10) Let us have patience. (Jam_5:10, 11 1Pe_1:3-7)
3. Anticipating Gods deliverance. Faith looks beyond the seen. When the vision of God"s power is revealed, our fears give place to confidence, our tremblings to tranquillity. (2Ki_6:17) What God loves must live. What God has promised he will certainly perform. (2Pe_2:9) "Put we our quarrel to the will of Heaven, Who, when he sees the hour is ripe on earth, Will rain hot vengeance on th" offenders" heads. (Shakespeare) W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-7. Faith"s antidote to fear.
This psalm is referred by some to the early struggles of David against the unrelenting jealousy of Saul; by others to the rebellion of Absalom; by others to the general conflict ever waging between the good and the evil powers. The subject of it is "Confidence in the Lord, and his protection even against the mightiest force of the wicked." The two leading ideas are the doctrine of David"s friends, and David"s own doctrine.
I SAFETY IN DANGER COULD BE FOUND ONLY IN FLIGHT. (Vers. 1-3) This was the temptation with which his friends assailed him to abandon the righteous cause by flight. The temptation was plausible:
1. Because his very life was in danger. If anything less had been threatened reputation or property it might have been prudent to remain; but "skin for skin," etc.
2. The attack upon his life was secret, and not open. (Ver. 2.) He might resist and conquer an open attack; but what can defend us against cunning plots hatched in secret?
3. The greatest social disorder prevailed. (Ver. 3) "What shall the righteous do?" was their plea with him. "You are powerless if you remain." They were in despair, and thought that flight was his only desperate resource. But David"s doctrine was
II THAT SAFETY WAS FOUND BY TRUSTING TO GOD"S PROTECTIVE CARE. (Vers. 4-7)
1. Trust in God enabled him to stand by the righteous cause; by flight he would abandon it to the wicked. Faith in God gives an unconquerable devotion to the right; flight is unbelief and cowardice. Indolent trust a trust that does not work and fight in the good cause is no better than cowardly flight.
2. He trusted in Gods overruling power. (Vers. 4, 5) That somehow he would uphold the righteous cause and righteous men; that as long as his throne was in the heavens, they could not be in any lasting peril, whatever appearances might be.
3. He trusted in the retributive providence of God. (Vers. 5, 6) A providence that dealt with the righteous and the wicked; an inward and an outward retributive providence, which rewards and punishes in both spheres.
4. Whatever his outward lot, he trusted that he should one day see God"s face. (Ver. 7) That is safety; that is salvation from all danger and all trouble. The highest salvation is of a spiritual kind, not outward and temporal. To see God"s face is to stand firmer than the mountains, and to be richer than all the outward universe. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon1885 · Public DomainOn vv1–7Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of this Psalm…
Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of this Psalm in the following sentences: "The Psalms are a rich repository of experimental knowledge. David, at the different periods of his life, was placed in almost every situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be placed; in these heavenly compositions he delineates all the workings of the heart. He introduces, too, the sentiments and conduct of the various persons who were accessory either to his troubles or his joys; and thus sets before us a compendium of all that is passing in the hearts of men throughout the world. When he penned this Psalm he was under persecution from Saul, who sought his life, and hunted him `as a partridge upon the mountains.' His timid friends were alarmed for his safety, and recommended him to flee to some mountain where he had a hiding place, and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. But David, being strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting to any such pusillanimous expedients, and determined confidently to repose his trust in God."
To assist us to remember this short, but sweet Psalm, we will give it the name of "THE SONG OF THE STEADFAST."
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From Ps 11:1-3, David describes the temptation with which he was assailed, and from Ps 11:4-7, the arguments by which his courage was sustained.
Ver. 1. These verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust God, with which David was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It may be, that in the days when he was in Saul's court, he was advised to flee at a time when this flight would have been charged against him as a breach of duty to the king, or a proof of personal cowardice. His case was like that of Nehemiah, when his enemies, under the garb of friendship, hoped to entrap him by advising him to escape for his life. Had he done so, they could then have found a ground of accusation. Nehemiah bravely replied, "Shall such a man as I flee?" and David, in a like spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming,
In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our confidence, and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us like the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself.
Whole Psalm. The most probable account of the occasion of this Psalm is that given by Amyraldus. He thinks it was composed by David while he was in the court of Saul, at a time when the hostility of the king was beginning to show itself, and before it had broken out into open persecution. David's friends, or those professing to be so, advised him to flee to his native mountains for a time, and remain in retirement, till the king should show himself more favourable. David does not at that time accept the counsel, though afterwards he seems to have followed it. This Psalm applies itself to the establishment of the church against the calumnies of the world and the compromising counsel of man, in that confidence which is to be placed in God the Judge of all. W. Wilson, D.D., in loc., 1860.
Whole Psalm. If one may offer to make a modest conjecture, it is not improbable this Psalm might be composed on the sad murder of the priests by Saul (1Sa 22:19), when after the slaughter of Abimelech, the high priest, Doeg, the Edomite, by command from Saul, "slew in one day fourscore and five persons which wore a linen ephod." I am not so carnal as to build the spiritual church of the Jews on the material walls of the priests' city at Nob (which then by Doeg was smitten with the edge of the sword), but this is most true, that "knowledge must preserve the people; "and (Mal 2:7), "The priests' lips shall preserve knowledge; "and then it is easy to conclude, what an earthquake this massacre might make in the foundations of religion. Thomas Fuller.
Whole Psalm. Notice how remarkably the whole Psalm corresponds with the deliverance of Lot from Sodom. This verse, with the angel's exhortation, "Escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed, "and Lot's reply, "I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil take me and I die." Ge 19:17-19. And again, "The Lord's seat is in heaven, and upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire, brimstone, storm and tempest, "with "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven:" and again "His countenance will behold the thing that is just, "with "Delivered just Lot... for that righteous man vexed his righteous soul with their ungodly deeds." 2Pe 2:7-8. Cassidorus (A.D., 560) in John Mason Neal's "Commentary on the Psalms, from Primitive and Medieval Writers, "1860.
Whole Psalm. The combatants at the Lake Thrasymene are said to have been so engrossed with the conflict that neither party perceived the convulsions of nature that shook the ground
"An earthquake reeled unheedingly away, None felt stern nature rocking at his feet."
From a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the Lamb. They believe, and, therefore, make no haste; nay, they can scarcely be said to feel earth's convulsions as other men, because their eager hope presses forward to the issue at the advent of the Lord. Andrew A. Bonar.
Ver. 1. I trust in the Lord: how do ye say to my soul, Swerve on to your mountain like a bird? (others, "O thou bird.") Saul and his adherents mocked and jeered David with such taunting speeches, as conceiving that he knew no other shift or refuge, but so betaking himself unto wandering and lurking on the mountains; hopping, as it were, from one place to another like a silly bird; but they thought to ensnare and take him well enough for all that, not considering God who was David's comfort, rest and refuge. Theodore Haak's "Translation of the Dutch Annotations, as ordered by the Synod of Dort, in 1618." London, 1657.
Ver. 1. With Jehovah I have taken shelter; how say ye to my soul, Flee, sparrows, to your hill? "Your hill, "that hill from which you say your help cometh: a sneer. Repair to that boasted hill, which may indeed give you the help which it gives the sparrow: a shelter against the inclemencies of a stormy sky, no defence against our power. Samuel Horsley, in loc.
Ver. 1. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? The holy confidence of the saints in the hour of great trial is beautifully illustrated by the following ballad which Anne Askew, who was burned at Smithfield in 1546, made and sang when she was in Newgate:
Like as the armed knight, | On thee my care I cast,
Appointed to the field, | For all their cruel spite:
With this world will I fight, | I set not by their haste;
And Christ shall be my shield.| For thou art my delight.
Faith is that weapon strong, | I am not she that list
Which will not fail at need: | My anchor to let fall
My foes, therefore, among, | For every drizzling mist,
Therewith will I proceed. | My ship substantial.
As it is had in strength | Not oft use I to write,
And force of Christe's way, | In prose, nor yet in rhyme;
It will prevail at length, | Yet will I shew one sight
Though all the devils say nay.| That I saw in my time.
Faith in the fathers old | I saw a royal throne,
Obtained righteousness; | Where justice should have sit,
Which makes me very bold | But in her stead was one
To fear no world's distress. | Of moody, cruel wit.
I now rejoice in heart, | Absorbed was righteousness,
And hope bids me do so; | As of the raging flood:
For Christ will take my part, | Satan, in his excess,
And ease me of my woe. | Sucked up the guiltless blood.
Thou sayest Lord, whoso knock, | Then thought I, Jesus Lord,
To them wilt thou attend: | When thou shall judge us all,
Undo therefore the lock, | Hard it is to record
And thy strong power send. | On these men what will fall.
More enemies now I have | Yet, Lord, I thee desire,
Than hairs upon my head: | For that they do to me,
Let them not me deprave, | Let them not taste the hire
But fight thou in my stead. | Of their iniquity.
Ver. 1. How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? We may observe, that David is much pleased with the metaphor in frequently comparing himself to a bird, and that of several sorts: first, to an eagle (Ps 103:5), "My youth is renewed like the eagle's; " sometimes to an owl (Ps 102:6), "I am like an owl in the desert; " sometimes to a pelican, in the same verse, "Like a pelican in the wilderness; "sometimes to a sparrow (Ps 102:7), "I watch, and am as a sparrow; "sometimes to a partridge, "As when one doth hunt a partridge." I cannot say that he doth compare himself to a dove, but he would compare himself (Ps 55:6), "O that I had the wings of a dove, for then I would flee away and be at rest." Some will say, How is it possible that birds of so different a feather should all so fly together as to meet in the character of David? To whom we answer, That no two men can more differ one from another, that the same servant of God at several times differeth from himself. David in prosperity, when commanding, was like an eagle; in adversity, when contemned, like an owl; in devotion, when retired, like a pelican; in solitariness, when having no company, (of Saul), like a partridge. This general metaphor of a bird, which David so often used on himself, his enemies in the first verse of this Psalm used on him, though not particularising the kind thereof: "Flee as a bird to your mountain; "that is, speedily betake thyself to thy God, in whom you hope for succour and security.
Seeing this counsel was both good in itself, and good at this time, why doth David seem so angry and displeased thereat? Those his words, "Why say you to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" import some passion, at leastways, a disgust of the advice. It is answered, David was not offended with the counsel, but with the manner of the propounding thereof. His enemies did it ironically in a gibing, jeering way, as if his flying thither were to no purpose, and he unlikely to find there the safety he sought for. However, David was not hereby put out of conceit with the counsel, beginning this Psalm with this his firm resolution, In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye then to my soul, etc. Learn we from hence, when men give us good counsel in a jeering way, let us take the counsel, and practice it; and leave them the jeer to be punished for it. Indeed, corporal cordials may be envenomed by being wrapped up in poisoned papers; not so good spiritual advice where the good matter receives no infection from the ill manner of the delivery thereof. Thus, when the chief priests mocked our Saviour (Mt 27:43), "He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him." Christ trusted in God never a whit the less for the fleere and flout which their profaneness was pleased to bestow upon him. Otherwise, if men's mocks should make us to undervalue good counsel, we might in this age be mocked out of our God, and Christ, and Scripture, and heaven; the apostle Jude, (Jude 1:18), having foretold that in the last times there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts. Thomas Fuller.
Ver. 1. It is as great an offence to make a new, as to deny the true God. In the Lord put I my trust; how then say ye unto my soul (ye seducers of souls), "that she should fly unto the mountains as a bird; "to seek unnecessary and foreign helps, as if the Lord alone were not sufficient? "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God, and my strength; in him will I trust: my shield, the horn of my salvation, and my refuge. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be safe from mine enemies." "Whom have I in heaven but thee, "amongst those thousands of angels and saints, what Michael or Gabriel, what Moses or Samuel, what Peter, what Paul? "and there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of thee." John King, 1608.
Ver. 1. In temptations of inward trouble and terror, it is not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan. David in Ps 42:11, seems to correct himself for his mistake; his soul was cast down within him, and for the cure of that temptation, he had prepared himself by arguments for a dispute; but perceiving himself in a wrong course, he calls off his soul from disquiet to an immediate application to God and the promises, "Trust still in God, for I shall yet praise him; "but here he is more aforehand with his work; for while his enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him, he rejects the temptation at first, before it settled upon his thoughts, and chaseth it away as a thing that he would not give ear to. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? And there are weighty reasons that should dissuade us from entering the lists with Satan in temptation of inward trouble. Richard Gilpin.
Ver. 1. The shadow will not cool except in it. What good to have the shadow though of a mighty rock, when we sit in the open sun? To have almighty power engaged for us, and we to throw ourselves out of it, by bold sallies in the mouth of temptation! The saints' falls have been when they have run out of their trench and stronghold; for, like the conies, they are a weak people in themselves, and their strength lies in the rock of God's almightiness, which is their habitation. William Gurnall.
Ver. 1. The saints of old would not accept deliverances on base terms. They scorned to fly away for the enjoyment of rest except it were with the wings of a dove, covered with silver innocence. As willing were many of the martyrs to die as to dine. The tormentors were tired in torturing Blandina. "We are ashamed, O Emperor! The Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more resolute, "said one of Julian's nobles. This the heathen counted obstinacy; but they knew not the power of the Spirit, nor the secret armour of proof, which saints wear about their hearts. John Trapp.
Ver. 1. Faith's bold avowal, and brave refusal.
Ver. 1. Teacheth us to trust in God, how great soever our dangers be; also that we shall be many times assaulted to make us put far from us this trust, but yet that we must cleave unto it, as the anchor of our souls, sure and steadfast. Thomas Wilcocks.
Ver. 1. The advice of cowardice, and the jeer of insolence, both answered by faith. Lesson Attempt no other answer.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7In the Lord put I my trust.
Psa_11:1-7
In the Lord put I my trust.
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Jehovah the Protector and Avenger of the persecuted saint
The Psalmist, beset by malicious foes, is warned by some of his adherents to seek refuge in flight. The Psalm is his response to this suggestion. In Jehovah, he says, is his trust, and there is no need for him to fear; Jehovah is watching all human actions from His heavenly sanctuary, and it is certain that He will eventually whelm the ungodly in a terrible ruin, and cheer with the light of His countenance the righteous whom He has proved in the furnace of adversity. The Psalm is Davidic by title, and may perhaps be assigned to the period when Davids life was imperilled by the rebellion of Absalom. (A. C. Jennings and W. H. Lowe.)
Safety in God
The singer is in danger of his life, and timorous and fainthearted counsellors would fain persuade him to seek safety in flight. But full of unshaken faith in God, he rejects their counsel, believing that Jehovah, the righteous King, though He tries His servants, does not forsake them. Not the righteous, but the wicked have need to fear. The Psalm is so short and so general in its character that it is not easy to say to what circumstances in Davids life it should be referred. The choice seems, however, to lie between his persecution by Saul and the rebellion of his son Absalom. Delitzsch decides for the last, and thinks the counsel (Psa_11:1), Flee to your mountain, comes from the mouth of friends, who were anxious to persuade the king to betake himself, as he had before done when hunted by Saul, to the rocks of the wild goats. The expression (Psa_11:3), When the foundations are destroyed, points to a time when lawful authority was subverted. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)
Faiths answer to timid counsellors
The structure of the Psalm is simple and striking. There are two vividly contrasted halves: the first gives the suggestions of timid counsellors, who see only along the low levels of earth; the second, the brave answer of faith which looks up into heaven. Verses 1-3. The Psalmist begins with an utterance of faith, which makes him recoil with wonder and aversion from the cowardly, well-meant counsels of his friends. The metaphor of flight to a stronghold, which is in the word for trust, obviously colours the context, for what can be more absurd than that he who has sought and found shelter in God Himself should listen to the whisperings of his own heart, or to the advice of friends, and hurry to some other hiding place? Safe in God, the Psalmist wonders why such advice should be given, and his question expresses its irrationality, and his rejection of it. Have we here a good mans dialogue with himself? Were there no voices in him: the voice of sense which spoke to the soul, and that of the soul which spoke authoritatively to the sense?. . .. The timid counsel is enforced by two considerations: the danger of remaining a mark for the stealthy foe, and the nobler thought of the hopelessness of resistance, and therefore the quixotism of sacrificing ones self in a prolongation of it. Prudent advice, when the prudence is only inspired by sense, is generally foolish; and the only reasonable attitude is obstinate hopefulness and brave adherence to duty. In the second part the poet opposes to the picture drawn by fear the vision of the opened heaven and the throned Jehovah. To the eyes that have seen that vision, and before which it ever burns, all earthly sorrows and dangers seem small. There is necessarily in the Divine nature an aversion to evil, and to the man who has so completely given himself over to it as to love it. Retribution, not forgiveness, is here the conception of the relations between man and God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Moral courage
We have in this Psalm a striking instance of Christian heroism. The Psalmist is found in circumstances of great moral perplexity and personal danger, but he stands his ground, trusting in God.
I. The severity of his trial. Davids timid counsellors bring before him several pressing reasons why he should despair of his cause, and retire from the scene of conflict.
1. The desperate designs of his enemies.
2. Their perfidious policy.
3. Their successful action.
II. The constancy of the tried. What were the sources of this sublime courage?
1. The presence of God.
2. The majesty of God.
3. The knowledge of God.
4. The righteousness of God.
Here the Psalmist rested, and here may we rest. God loveth the wise, the just, the good, and in Him may we rest.
III. The certainty of the triumph.
1. All Gods people may expect to be thus tried. At one time or other our faith, principle, hope will be thus severely tested.
2. Let us at such times beware of the temporising policy of faint-hearted men. It is often a sorer trial for faith to withstand the pleadings of well-meaning friends than to arm itself against open enemies.
3. Let us trust confidently in God, and He shall make us to triumph. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Courage,
says Webster, is that quality of mind which enables men to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, or without any fear or depression of spirits.
I. Genuine moral courage tested. By the alarming intelligence and cowardly counsels, not of enemies but of friends. They presented to his mind two facts to prompt him to a cowardly flight.
1. The imminence of his danger.
2. The uselessness of religion.
II. Genuine moral courage explained. All this did not intimidate David. On the contrary, it reinspired him. What was the very spirit of his courage? Trust in an all-sufficient Helper. In the Lord put I my trust. To show that He in whom he trusted was sufficient to help him, he refers to four things.
1. Gods authority. The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lords throne is in heaven. He is the King of the universe, and is able to control the events that are transpiring.
2. Gods knowledge. His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. He is not ignorant of what is going on, nor is He a mere spectator. He examines the motives of every actor m the scene.
3. Gods feeling. The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, His soul hateth. He not only superintends and sees all that is going on, but He has a heart in the matter. His feelings are interested. He loves the good; He loathes the wicked.
4. Gods retribution. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, etc. Such is the God he trusted in. One who has moral feelings, who recoils from the wrong and sympathises with the right. One who will exercise a righteous retribution. Who that trusts in such a God as this need fear? (Homilist.)
A song in the night
The environment of the Psalm is stormy. The singer is a soul in difficulty. He is the victim of relentless antagonists. It is a song in the night.
I. Inadequate resources. The Psalmist hears the voices of counsellors. They are urging him to get away from the exposed plains to the strongholds. But to the Psalmist the suggested defences are inadequate. The enemy can reach him there. Against these imperfect defences the Psalmist proclaims his own confident boast, In the Lord put I my trust. Look at some of our suggested refuges. Take up literature, music, science, or art. All such suggested strongholds are inadequate.
II. The all-sufficient security. Upon what, then, shall the driven soul depend? In the Lord put I my trust. The Psalmist enumerates some of the foundations upon which his joyful confidence is built. See some stones of the grand foundation--the Lords immanence, the Lords sovereignty, the Lords discernments, the Lords repulsions, the Lords purposes. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Trust in the Lord
Birds of high flight and of great strength make their nests in mountains. When these creatures are alarmed and desire a place of refuge you find them flying not to the valley, but to the mountain. Every man is liable to fearfulness and alarm. And every man has his mountain--wealth, friends, patronage. The man of God has his mountain in God. Many a good man forgets this, and advises others by his fears rather than by his faith. David is speaking of such people, for such have given him bad advice.
I. The proper influence of trusting in god. It should give you a firm adherence to that which you feel to be right. The man who trusts in God keeps from doing anything until he sees the right thing to be done. The effect of this is the production of peace of mind--calmness of spirit.
II. God does not disturb this quietness, but there are those who do. Not Satan and his angels only, but also your fellow men. Do not put the blame of every mischief on Satan. We are our own Satans very frequently. Whatever use a man may make of friends, neighbours, and religious advisers he will take care that they never come between him and God.
III. Infer your duty from your principles. Whatever is consistent with trust you may do. The application of the principle of trust will keep you consistent, and will settle ten thousand matters that otherwise would perplex you. (Samuel Martin.)
The secret of faiths victory
The exercise of genuine faith is frequently involved in a conflict with unbelief; and they not seldom get entangled one with the other, like wrestlers, so that they can scarce be distinguished. Just such a struggle is set forth in this Psalm. It tells of Davids experience as a believer assaulted by suspicions and fears and perplexities prompted within him by unbelief.
I. The manner in which the assault was made (verses 1-3). We cannot tell the circumstances which occasioned their suggestions. But the danger represented was well-nigh desperate. The very foundations of his safety were threatened. Then it was said to him, Flee, flee as a bird to your mountain. The suggestion was insidious in form, of a prudent and very practical hint for self-preservation. And yet it was alien to his faith. That was not disturbed in its depths where it was anchored on the Lord. Their suggestions did indeed ruffle his feelings, but did not make him doubt the truths of his faith. Hence he avows his trust. In the Lord put I my trust. How dare ye say to my soul, flee?
II. How he met the assaults of unbelief. By turning his gaze outwards and upwards to the Lord. From Him he derived all the power wherewith to meet their assaults.
III. The Psalm may be taken as a dialogue.
1. The suggestion to flee is met by asking how they dare to say that when the Lord is in His holy temple.
2. That the wicked bend their bow is met by the thought, His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. As if He could not see!
3. That the foundations were destroyed, by the thought that if they were the Lord was dealing with him; the Lord trieth the righteous; and I put my trust in Him, who of old laid the foundations of the earth, in Him the Eternal. Then, should such a man as I flee?
IV. Lessons.
1. Dread and resist the faintest whisper of retreat, whatever be the troubles and dangers of your course.
2. Live much aloft in communion with the Divine object of a victorious faith. (Robert R. Muir.)
Confidence in God
The utter helplessness in which Davids soul was plunged may be inferred from the advice which his friends had kindly, yet foolishly, tendered to him. They had advised him to flee as a bird to the mountains; in other words, they had advised flight from trouble,--the cowards cure for the distresses of life. The quality of Davids spirit is seen from the answer which he returned to this mean counsel. It was absolutely intolerable to him, creating in him a sense of revulsion and utter disdain. There is only one flight possible to the truly good man, and that is a flight towards the Lord, his Infinite Deliverer. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. The suggestion made by the friends of David shows their own irreligiousness, and shows indeed all that the world has to offer to the soul when it is in its last extremity. In the case of the Christian there is no need to invent any religious alleviation of trouble, for that alleviation is abundantly supplied by the promises of God, which are exceedingly great and precious, never so great as when greatly needed, and never so precious as when every other voice is silenced, and all the world confesses itself to be unable to touch effectually the tremendous agony. It is beautiful to notice how an assault of this kind is repelled by the very character of David. In the Lord put I my trust. That was the solidity of his character. Outwardly he was troubled enough; waves and billows were rushing upon him in great storms, so rapidly that he had not time to lift up his head and open his eyes upon the fair scene that was above; but inwardly there was a religious trust which made him what he was--a secret, unfailing, abounding confidence in the living God; all this confidence seemed to the outward observer to be eclipsed and indeed destroyed, but it was still there, making Davids heart strong amidst all the temptation and wrath which turned his life into daily suffering. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The mission of trial
It is very remarkable that this world has always hated the good and loved the evil; but it has always been so. The world and the Church are perpetual and eternal enemies. Darkness and light continually are opposed to one another. If we look down the list of Gods servants from the first, we find it as an invariable rule that the world has ever hated them in their generation. Men cast them out of whom the world was not worthy. Still, they all maintained their faith in God; each could say with the Psalmist, to the close of his life, In the Lord put I my trust. And God has never forsaken them that trust in Him. Sorrows may fall thick around them at times, trials grievous to be borne, and divers temptations may come upon them; but all these things tend only to strengthen faith in them that are saved. If a man enjoys all good things on earth--great prosperity, continual ease, nothing to vex him--then it needs, we know not what an amount of grace, and what years of careful training in himself, and of prayer and watchfulness, to keep that man from falling away. There are so few of us who would really love and serve God if we met with no trials in life, that in His great mercy God sends these things, first upon one, and then upon another amongst us. It is out of love to us He does so. No less true is this principle of faith, and trust, and security as applied to a nation, as it is to a church, or to each individual Christian among us. It is the secret of all national security, and prosperity, and peace. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.)
Flee as a bird to your mountain.
Times for flight
It is by no means always an easy question for the good man to decide when he shall flee, and when resist, the storm of immorality and irreligion that may be prevailing in the community to which he belongs. He may err as widely in precipitating the time for doing a thing as he can in allowing the time to pass by unimproved. It is as much the part of a good general to know when to halt as when to advance; when to retreat as When to attack; when to save life as when to cast it away. The only question for him to settle is, which course for the time being will, in the end, best promote the cause he has in hand. Our Lord both spoke and acted on this principle, counselling His disciples at one time to save themselves by flight, at another to remain at their post, even at the cost of their lives. He counselled them to determine their line of conduct, not by its consequences to themselves, but by its consequences to the cause in which they were identified. If flight would best promote its interests, they were to flee; if remaining at their posts, they were to remain; and, if needs be, die there. Many a bishop in the primitive Church did this; fleeing, so lone as flight could best serve their Masters cause; but when it demanded the surrender of their lives, giving themselves up freely to martyrdom. David, for years after he had been divinely designated to the throne of Israel, fled before his persecutors like a terrified bird. In this Psalm his affairs are no longer as they have been. The time has come when the cause with which he has identified himself can no longer be promoted by his flight. It demands champions and defenders, and it may be martyrs. (David Caldwell, A. M.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible1887 · Public DomainOn v1Psalms 11
Psalms 11
The correctness of the superscription is, in the present case, defended by Ewald and Hitzig. Delitzsch refers the psalm to the eve of Absaloms conspiracy, while other supporters of the Davidic authorship prefer the Sauline persecution. The situation as described in the psalm corresponds sufficiently well to either of these periods, in both of which David was surrounded by stealthy hostility and counselled by prudence to flight. But there are no definite marks of date in the psalm itself; and all that is certain is its many affinities with the other psalms of the group which Cheyne calls the "persecution psalms," including Psa_37:9-14; Psa_37:17. These resemblances make a common authorship probable.
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The structure of the psalm is simple and striking. There are two vividly contrasted halves; the first gives the suggestions of timid counsellors who see only along the low levels of earth, the second the brave answer of faith which looks up into heaven.
In the first part (Psa_11:1-3) the psalmist begins with an utterance of faith, which makes him recoil with wonder and aversion from the cowardly, well-meant counsels of his friends. "In Jehovah have I taken refuge"-a profession of faith which in Psalms 7. I was laid as the basis of prayer for deliverance and is here the ground for steadfastly remaining where he stands. The metaphor of flight to a stronghold, which is in the word for trust, obviously colours the context, for what can be more absurd than that he who has sought and found shelter in God Himself should listen to the whisperings of his own heart or to the advice of friends and hurry to some other hiding place? "He that believeth shall not make haste," and, even when the floods come, shall not need to seek in wild hurry for an asylum above the rising waters. Safe in God, the psalmist wonders why such counsel should be given, and his question expresses its irrationality and his rejection of it. But these timid voices spoke to his "soul," and the speakers are undefined. Is he apostrophising his own lower nature? Have we here a good mans dialogue with himself? Were there two voices in him: the voice of sense, which spoke to the soul, and that of the soul, which spoke authoritatively to sense? Calvin finds here the mention of spirituales luctas; and whether there were actual counsellors of flight or no, no doubt prudence and fear said to and in his soul, "Flee." If we might venture to suppose that the double thought of the oneness of the psalmists personality and the manifoldness of his faculties was in his mind, we should have an explanation of the strange fluctuation between singulars and plurals in Psa_11:1 b. "Flee" is plural, but is addressed to a singular subject: "my soul"; "your" is also plural, and "bird" singular. The Hebrew marginal correction smooths away the first anomaly by reading the singular imperative, but that leaves the anomaly in "your." The LXX and other old versions had apparently a slightly different text, which got rid of that anomaly by reading (with the addition of one letter and a change in the division of words), "Flee to the mountain as a bird"; and that is probably the best solution of the difficulty. One can scarcely fail to recall the comparison of David to a partridge hunted on the mountains. Cheyne finds in the plurals a proof that "it is the Church within the Jewish nation of which the poet thinks." The timid counsel is enforced by two considerations: the danger of remaining a mark for the stealthy foe and the nobler thought of the hopelessness of resistance, and therefore the quixotism of sacrificing ones self in a prolongation of it.
The same figure employed in Psa_7:12 of Gods judgments on the wicked is here used of the wickeds artillery against the righteous. The peril is imminent, for the bows are bent, and the arrows already fitted to the string. In midnight darkness the assault will be made. {compare Psa_64:3-4} The appeal to the instinct of self-preservation is reinforced by the consideration {Psa_11:3} of the impotence of efforts to check the general anarchy. The particle at the beginning of the verse is best taken as in the same sense as at the beginning of Psa_11:2, thus introducing a second coordinate reason for the counsel. The translation of it as hypothetical or temporal (if or when) rather weakens the urgency of Psa_11:3 as a motive for flight. The probably exaggerated fears of the advisers, who are still speaking, are expressed in two short, breathless sentences: "The foundations [of society] are being torn down; the righteous-what has he achieved?" or possibly, "What can he do?" In either case, the implication is, Why wage a hopeless conflict any longer at the peril of life? All is lost; the wise thing to do is to run. It is obvious that this description of the dissolution of the foundations of the social order is either the exaggeration of fear, or poetic generalisation from an individual case (Davids), or refers the psalm to some time of anarchy, when things were much worse than even in the time of Saul or Absalom.
All these suggestions may well represent the voice of our own fears, the whispers of sense and sloth, which ever dwell on and exaggerate the perils in the road of duty, and bid us abandon resistance to prevailing evils as useless and betake ourselves to the repose and security of some tempting nest far away from strife. But such counsels are always base, and though they be the result of "prudence," are short-sighted, and leave out precisely the determining factor in the calculation. The enemy may have fitted his arrows to the string, but there is another bow bent which will be drawn before his. {Psa_7:12} The foundations are not being destroyed, however many and strong the arms that are trying to dig them up. The righteous has done much, and can do more, though his work seem wasted. Self-preservation is not a mans first duty: flight is his last. Better and wiser and infinitely nobler to stand a mark for the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and to stop at our post though we fall there, better infinitely to toil on, even when toil seems vain, than cowardly to keep a whole skin at the cost of a wounded conscience or despairingly to fling up work, because the ground is hard and the growth of the seed imperceptible. Prudent advices, when the prudence is only inspired by sense, are generally foolish; and the only reasonable attitude is obstinate hopefulness and brave adherence to duty.
So the psalm turns, in its second part, from these creeping counsels, which see but half the field of vision, and that the lower, to soar and gaze on the upper half. "God is in heaven; alls right with the world," and with the good men who are trying to help to make it right. The poet opposes to the picture drawn by fear the vision of the opened heaven and the throned Jehovah. In Psa_11:4 the former part is not to be taken as a separate affirmation: "The Lord is," etc., but "Jehovah" is a nominative absolute, and the weight of the sentence falls on the last clause. The "holy palace" in which Jehovah is beheld enthroned is not on earth, as the parallelism of the clauses shows. To the eyes that have seen that vision and before which it ever burns, all earthly sorrows and dangers seem small. There is the true asylum of the hunted soul; that is the mountain to which it is wise to flee. If the faint hearted had seen that sight, their timid counsels would have caught a new tone. They are preposterous to him who does see it. For not only does he behold Jehovah enthroned, but he sees Him scrutinising all mens acts. We bring the eyelids close when minutely examining any small thing. So God is by a bold figure represented as doing, and the word for "beholds" has to divide as its root idea, and hence implies a keen discriminating gaze. As fire tries metal, so He tries men. And the result of the trial is twofold, as is described in the two clauses of Psa_11:5, which each require to be completed from the other: "The Lord trieth the righteous (and finding him approved, loveth), but the wicked" (He trieth, and finding him base metal), His soul "hateth." In the former clause the process of trial is mentioned, and its result omitted; in the latter the process is omitted, and the result described. The strong anthropomorphism which attributes a "soul" to God and "hatred" to His soul is not to be slurred over as due to the imperfection of Hebrew ideas of the Divine nature. There is necessarily in the Divine nature an aversion to evil and to the man who has so completely given himself over to it as to "love" it. Such perverted love can only have turned to it that side of the Divine character which in gravity of disapprobation and recoil from evil answers to what we call hate, but neither desires to harm nor is perturbed by passion. The New Testament is as emphatic as the Old in asserting the reality of "the wrath of God." But there are limitation and imperfection in this psalm in that it does not transcend the point of view which regards mans conduct as determining Gods attitude. Retribution, not forgiveness nor the possibility of changing the moral bias of character, is its conception of the relations of man and God.
The Divine estimate, which in Psa_11:5 is the result of Gods trial of the two classes, is carried forward in Psa_11:6-7 to its twofold issues. But the form of Psa_11:6 is that of a wish, not of a prediction; and here again we encounter the tone which, after all allowances, must be regarded as the result of the lower stage of revelation on which the psalmist stood, even though personal revenge need not be ascribed to him. In the terrible picture of the judgment poured down from the open heavens into which the singer has been gazing, there is a reproduction of the destruction of the cities of the plain, the fate of which stands in the Old Testament as the specimen and prophecy of all subsequent acts of judgment. But the rain from heaven is conceived as consisting of "snares," which is a strangely incongruous idea. Such mingled metaphors are less distasteful to Hebrew poets than to Western critics; and the various expedients to smooth this one away, such as altering the text and neglecting the accents and reading "coals of fire," are unnecessary sacrifices to correctness of style. Delitzsch thinks that the "snares" are "a whole discharge of lassoes," i.e., lightnings, the zigzag course of which may be compared to a "noose thrown down from above"! The purpose of the snares is to hold fast the victims so that they cannot escape the fiery rain-a terrible picture, the very incongruity of figure heightening the grim effect. The division of the verse according to the accents tarts the snares from the actual components of the fatal shower, and makes the second half of the verse an independent clause, which is probably to be taken, like the former clause, as a wish: "Fire and brimstone and a burning wind [Zornhauch, Hupfeld] be the portion of their cup," again an incongruity making the representation more dreadful. What a draught-flaming brimstone and a hot blast as of the simoom! The tremendous metaphor suggests awful reality.
But the double judgment of Psa_11:5 has a gentler side, and the reason for the tempest of wrath is likewise that for the blessed hope of the upright, as the "for" of Psa_11:7 teaches. "Jehovah is righteous." That is the rock foundation for the indomitable faith of the Psalter in the certain ultimate triumph of patient, afflicted righteousness. Because God in his own character is so, He must love righteous acts-His own and mens. The latter seems to be the meaning here, where the fate of men is the subject in hand. The Divine "love" is here contrasted with both the wicked mans "love" of "violence" and Gods "hate" (Psa_11:5), and is the foundation of the final confidence, "The upright shall behold His face." The converse rendering, "His countenance doth behold the upright" (A.V). is grammatically permissible. but would be flat, tautological-since Psa_11:4 has already said so-and inappropriate to the close. where a statement as to the upright, antithetical to that as to the wicked, is needed. God looks on the upright, as has been said; and the upright shall gaze on Him, here and now in the communion of that faith which is a better kind of sight and hereafter in the vision of heaven, which the psalmist was on the verge of anticipating. That mutual gaze is blessedness. They who looking up behold Jehovah are brave to front all foes and to keep calm hearts in the midst of alarms. Hope burns like a pillar of fire in them when it is gone out in others; and to all the suggestions of their own timidity or of others they have the answer, "In the Lord have I put my trust; how say ye to my soul, Flee? Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary1892 · Public DomainOn v1“The friends of David advise him in this psalm…
INTRODUCTION
“The friends of David advise him in this psalm to flee unto the mountainous parts of the land of Judah, in order to avoid the danger which was threatening him, should he remain in the place where he was then residing. The psalm is written in the form of a dialogue, of which the first three verses contain the advice of David’s friends, and the remaining portion his reply, wherein he declares his unshaken confidence in God, and his conviction that the wicked will be punished, and himself duly protected.”—Phillips.
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MORAL COURAGE
(Psa_11:1-7.)
We have in this psalm a striking illustration of Christian heroism. The Psalmist is found in circumstances of great moral perplexity and personal danger, but he stands his ground trusting in God.
We notice:
I. The severity of the trial.
David’s timid counsellors bring before him several pressing reasons why he should despair of his cause, and retire from the scene of conflict. They urge—
1. The desperate designs of his enemies. “They bend their bow, and make ready their arrow upon the string” (Psa_11:2). They will take his life; their thoughts are thoughts of blood.
2. Their perfidious policy. “That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart” (Psa_11:2). They were prepared to resort to the basest stratagems to compass his death.
3. Their successful action (Psa_11:3). “What hath the righteous done?”—P. B. Version. “The question in the last clause of this verse implies that the righteous have effected nothing in opposition to the prevalent iniquity.”—Alexander. “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?”—Clarke. The position here is, then, that righteousness has been unsuccessful, and the inference is that righteousness will be unsuccessful. “Thus wickedness seemed to be getting the upper hand to such a degree that the godly remnant (Isa_1:9) felt themselves tempted to flee, as Lot was bidden to flee, from the city to the mountain.”—Kay. “All is hopeless disorder and confusion.”—Perowne. The representatives of moral ideas were false, the practice of righteousness ceased, the very principles of law and order were subverted, and there seemed no hope.
II. The constancy of the tried.
“In the Lord put I my trust” (Psa_11:1). “My feet are on the true rock, why should I look elsewhere for safety?”—Perowne. “How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? How can ye say?”—Phillips. Dark as the hour was, the Psalmist’s resolution was unshaken. What were the sources of this sublime courage?
1. The presence of God. “The Lord is in His holy temple” (Psa_11:4). God may seem to have deserted the earth, but He has not.
2. The majesty of God. “The Lord’s throne is in heaven” (Psa_11:4). Far above all human or devilish energy. The supreme power is moral.
3. The knowledge of God. “His eyes behold,” &c. (Psa_11:4). “His is a fixed and penetrating look that sees into a thing to the foundation of its inmost nature. The mention of the eyelids is intentional. When we observe a thing closely of ponder over it, we draw the eyelids together, in order that our vision may be more concentrated and direct, and become, as it were, one ray piercing through the object. Thus are men open to the all-seeing eyes, the all-searching looks of Jahve, the just and the unjust alike.”—Delitzsch. One of the Greeks said: “He is the best general who knows the most of the affairs of the enemy.” God knows His enemies, and the enemies of His people—all their secrets, subtleties, stratagems, and in due time He shall confound them.
4. The righteousness of God. God hates wickedness (Psa_11:5). “A cordial hatred.”—Alexander. “He hates the wicked with all the energy of His perfectly and essentially holy nature.”—Delitzsch.
Here the Psalmist rested; here we may rest. Truth may fail in the Church, righteousness in the State; the magistrate may cease to be just, the priest to be good, the king to be honourable; but God liveth, the Wise, the Just, the Good, and in Him we may rest.
III. The certainty of the triumph.
The wicked shall be destroyed with awful terrors (Psa_11:6), but the righteous shall triumph (Psa_11:7). “The upright shall behold His face.” “His unveiled countenance, no longer hidden behind deeds of strange providential discipline (Psa_13:1), no longer making itself felt in a few straggling rays; but like ‘the sun in a morning without clouds.’ ”—Kay.
1. All God’s people may expect to be thus tried. At one time or other our faith, principle, hope, will be thus severely tested. We must all be tried by fire.
2. Let us in such days beware of the temporising policy of faint-hearted men. “Flee like a bird to the mountain.” “The advice here given, and which he repels, is that of timid and desponding friends, who would persuade him that all is lost, and that the highest wisdom is to yield to circumstances, and to seek safety, not in resistance, but in flight. But in fact the voice which thus speaks is the voice of the natural heart, of the selfish, and therefore shortsighted and cowardly instinct, which always asks first, not what is right, but what is safe. The advice may be well meant, but it is unworthy. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. But it is often a sorer trial for faith to have to withstand the pleadings of well-meaning friends than to arm itself against open enemies.”—Perowne.
3. Let us trust confidently in God, and He shall make us to triumph. Torstensohn, the great commander to whom Gustavus Adolphus transmitted the prosecution of the Thirty Years’ War, was a man so shattered by disease that he had to be carried at the head of his forces in a litter. Yet no commander of his age was so resistless and terrible in his onset and so invariably victorious Schiller has expressed his leading maxim in these words: he never counted his enemies. Let us not count our enemies, but trust our God, and we shall be more than conquerors. “Flee as sparrows to your mountain.”—Phillips. But, trusting in God, the sparrow becomes an eagle, mounting above the storm, and delighting itself in the eternal sunshine of the Father’s face.
FORLORN HOPES
(Psa_11:1-7.)
I. The hopes of the saint often appear forlorn hopes.
The Psalmist trusted in God, but to the timid and distrustful ones his hope was a wild, forlorn hope. A hoping against hope. Thus the hopes of the Christian often seem absurd in the eye of sense and the count of reason.
1. It is thus sometimes in the troubles of life. There are Egyptians behind, the sea before, and the believer’s expectations of deliverance seem most Utopian.
2. Amid abounding and triumphant wickedness. As in this psalm. “ ‘For the foundations are being overthrown,’ say the alarmed and timid ones. ‘He is as much in a minority now as he ever was. Had he not better leave the field of battle? Why struggle against (what men call) the inevitable course of events?’ ”—Kay.
3. As to the entire sanctification of character. How impossible it seems that we should become entirely holy, and love God with all our heart! Will not the sky always recede as we approach it?
4. At the grave. How utterly improbable the grand hopes of the saint!
II. Hopes which appear forlorn hopes to the world have nevertheless strong foundations.
The timid felt that the foundations were being destroyed, all on which a rational confidence could be founded was giving way, and yet, as we see, the Psalmist’s hope had a basis strong and deep. The foundations were gone. “It is not said, if the roof be ruinous, or if the side walls be shattered, but if the foundations.”—Fuller, quoted by Spurgeon. Nothing for sense or reason was left. But there are foundations under foundations, the eternal granite, and on this David built (Psa_11:4-5). The power of God, the truth of God, the grace of God, the unchangeableness of God; here was the everlasting rock on which David rested his hopes. When the expectations of the saints seem most wild, yet do they rest more securely than the pillared firmament.
III. The forlorn hopes of the saints are destined to glorious realisation.
“Which hope maketh not ashamed.” In deepest trouble He will deliver us, opening in the valley of Achor a door of salvation. Amid triumphant wickedness He vindicates the just, shattering the proud pottery with a rod of iron. He makes us without spot or wrinkle. He raises from the sepulchre to immortal glory and honour.
THE TACTICS OF THE TEMPTED
(Psa_11:1.)
In this psalm we see David stand firm; he will not accept the counsel of his advisers to flee, but at another time he seems to have followed this advice.
Observe:
I. There are times when we ought to stand firm in the scenes of trial.
Such times are when—
1. Such trials come in our providential path.
2. When our testimony for God is specially needed.
3. When the cause of God imperatively demands our presence, &c., &c.
II. There are times when we may lawfully withdraw from such scenes.
1. When they do not seem to lie on our providential path.
2. When our testimony has been, faithfully given.
3. When God’s cause would seem to be best served by our retirement, &c., &c.
III. The standards by which our conduct should be regulated in the changing scenes of life.
Consult:
1. The finger of God in Providence.
2. The Word of God.
3. The Spirit of God.
“Oh, wouldst Thou, Lord, Thy servant guard,
Gainst every known or secret foe;
A mind for all assaults prepared,
A sober, vigilant mind bestow,
Ever apprised of danger nigh,
And when to fight, and when to fly.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible1900 · Public DomainOn v1I. Look at true foundations. (1) God is God,…
Psa 11:3
I. Look at true foundations. (1) God is God, before all things pre-ordaining, revolving within Himself and all things else, as He pleases, the great foundation given to Moses in the bush—"I am!" (2) This good God has given us a revelation. We can prove it by every evidence: the external evidence—prophecy; the internal evidence—the harmony; the experimental evidence—what it has been to many, and what it is to me. (3) In the revelation there is shown a way—the only way—by which a just God can forgive a sinner. He has found and accepted a Substitute, Who outweighs the whole world—His own Son. (4) To communicate this thought and to give this faith, there is a Holy Ghost, Himself also God; and He being spirit, works in the spirit of a man, and creates in his heart trust and love towards Jesus Christ. (5) As soon as by that Spirit a man really trusts, as a sinner, in Christ, he is united to Christ. God sees him in Christ, and in Christ God sees him righteous. (6) By the same union, and through the operation of the Holy Ghost, that man, now a living member in Christ, has a motive sufficient to change his whole life and to make him do all good works. God, inspiration, Christ, the Holy Ghost, faith, good works—these are the foundations.
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II. Be always looking to foundations and resting in foundations. Sometimes a child of God thinks he has lost his foundations. (1) If he thinks so, he should see whether any part of his foundation is impaired, or loose, or out of order. (2) If he finds out the fault, he should try to repair it; but if not, then let him throw himself back at once on the all foundation that God is God. There is nothing in the world so sure as a believer’s foundation. As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more, but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.
In the eleventh Psalm we have a description of a faithful heart in time of trial declaring itself resolved to trust on God alone, when some would advise it to fly or to draw back.
I. If our lot is cast in times and places when and where the truth as such is slighted and set aside, it is easy to see that, so far as such opinions prevail, the foundations are destroyed. When men use the sacred Scriptures familiarly and irreverently, forgetful of their Author, and endeavouring to subject them to the puny rules of human reason, then surely in their hearts the foundations of true faith are loosened, if not destroyed.
"They grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness."
II. The great danger which besets us is the danger of mistaking or slighting the great Christian doctrine of Divine grace. Whatever concerns the foundations of belief or practice concerns all Christian people as Christians. This consideration should make people cautious of two things: first, not to pass over religious questions in a careless, slighting way, as if it were no matter of interest to them; and secondly, not to enter on arguments and disputes about such matters in a hasty, disrespectful manner, without considering either the solemn nature of the subjects they are discussing, or their own very great ignorance. Remembering these two cautions, we may and ought to consider it a duty, so far as we can, to ascertain where the truth lies in the great questions which from time to time agitate the Christian world. And one object in making such inquiries should not be a vain curiosity and the fondness for the worst of all gossip—religious gossip—but simply the desire to know and to follow sacred truth, to the glory of God and the benefit of our own souls.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. x., p. 163.
References: Psa 11:5.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 395; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 249. Psa 12:1.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 169; W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 196; J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. i., p. 243. Psa 12:6.—J. Aldis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 120. Psalm 12—I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 245. Psa 13:1.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 202. Psalm 13—I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 253. Psa 14:1.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 35; J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 424. Psalm 14—I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 261. Psa 15:1.—E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 116. Psa 15:1-3.—M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 182.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v1Jehovah on the throne, and ordering all for blessing.
Jehovah on the throne, and ordering all for blessing.
To the chief musician, [a psalm] of David.
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The first psalm, though but of seven verses, is of varied character, and has five divisions, -is of itself a little pentateuch. Its theme is the sovereignty of God, as faith owns it, His complete control when things are at their worst, and all foundations in appearance gone. Amid the abysmal sea, He is the one thing that abides; and abiding, bears the soul up and through all surges to the shore. Yet, necessary as this truth is, and blessed as is the assurance of it, there is abundance that will try it in a scene like this, God consenting also, as the psalm says, that it should be tried, that patience may be wrought and have its perfect work: for "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, a hope that maketh not ashamed"; and if "patience have her perfect work," then are we "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Thus the psalms that follow find their reason and justification.
1. Naturally we begin with Jehovah as the one sufficient stability of the soul. He the living, the unchanging God, is the sure refuge of the faith that cleaves to Him. Yet because no eye but that of faith discerns this refuge, men may mock and threaten the feebleness which alone they see, and see not the enclosing arms that compass about the feeble one. But he publishes his security, and the grounds of it. It is something of which we never can be deprived, while cleaving to it; and confidence grows in the confession of it. "Why say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? In Jehovah I have taken refuge."
2. But now we see the elements that breed unrest. They are of two kinds mainly. The first, in such a day as we have seen the psalms look onward to, looms large and grave enough: it is that of personal peril: "for lo, the wicked bend their bow, they fix the arrow upon the string, that they may shoot in the dark at the upright in heart." The danger is there, and yet, just where is uncertain; but the evil grows, and the moral question of this uprise under the government of God becomes the deepest: "if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" The path seems lost in this uttermost confusion.
3. But we have the correcting truth. If Jehovah’s sanctuary is to be found no more on earth, -and we must remember that it is Israel to whom the earthly sanctuary is the expression of the distinguishing favor enjoyed by them, which marked them as His people, -yet in His heavenly temple He is; and thence no sin of man can drive him. Thence He still rules the earth; and when, because He is quiet, men little deem this, He exercises the most perfect oversight over them all. Left indeed thus, they show fully what they are; and He remains, too, what He is, the throned and Holy One.
4. But He trieth also the righteous: just those He loves, and because He loves them, for the sake of what the trial works, in them and through them for His glory. And this may make the wicked, the instruments of this trial, forget or ignore that the "wicked and the lover of violence He hates." Not yet is the day of manifestation, when the truth will all come out; but he that will may nevertheless know this now. Conscience alone, if truly listened to, is competent to declare it.
5. But the psalm carries us on to the day of retribution, from its standpoint very near at hand; "upon the wicked He will rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and a scorching wind, -the portion of their cup." The imagery is borrowed from the description of the destruction of Sodom, so solemn a picture of the world’s judgment, and referred to by our Lord in connection with His own coming. (Luk 17:28-30; Luk 17:32.) The "snares" are evidently the fire and brimstone themselves, rained down from heaven,* laying hold of men before they are aware of their danger, as with Lot’s wife: "while they say, peace and safety, sudden destruction cometh upon them."
{* Dawson has shown that the instrument of divine judgment upon Sodom was no doubt a "bitumen or petroleum eruption, similar to those which, on a small scale, have been so destructive in the oil-regions of Canada and the United States of America. They arise from the existence of reservoirs of compressed inflammable gas along with petroleum and water, existing at considerable depths below the surface. When these are penetrated, as by a well or bore-hole, the gas escapes with explosive force, carrying petroleum with it, and when both have been ignited, the petroleum rains down in burning showers, and floats in flames over the ejected water, while a dense smoke towers high into the air, and the inrushing draught may produce a vortex, carrying upward to a still greater height and distributing still more widely the burning material, which is almost inextinguishable, and most destructive to life and to buildings. . . . Now the valley of the Dead Sea is an ’oil-district,’ . . . and it is well known that petroleum exudes from the rocks both on the sides and in the bottom of the Dead Sea, and, being hardened by evaporation and oxidation, forms the asphaltum referred to by
so many travelers." (Modern Science in Bible Lands, pp. 486-488.) The word used here and in
Gen 19:1-38 for "brimstone" may include "any kind of mineral pitch or oil, and possibly sulphur as well." And the "scorching wind" is therefore not the "simoom" of the desert, as generally supposed.}
On the other hand, as surely as "Jehovah is righteous, loving righteous acts," "the upright shall behold His face." Fellowship here leads on to the fellowship hereafter. Thus the first psalm of this series ends.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow1909 · Public DomainOn v1The Ps. is a song of confidence in God,…
The Ps. is a song of confidence in God, and in the security of the righteous under His protection, notwithstanding the timid counsels of less trustful friends, and the evil devices of the wicked, who are doomed to destruction.
3. If the foundations be destroyed] if those in high places disregard the first principles of righteousness. This is an argument of unbelief and cowardice. It is suggested that wickedness may be so successful as to make resistance useless.
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4. God is the great Reality whom such pleadings leave out of account.
His holy temple] the heavenly sanctuary.
Try] test, as precious metals are tested.
5. Trieth] tries and approves. They stand the test.
6. Snares] Another reading is 'burning coals,' which fits the context better. Fire and brimstone] as in the destruction of Sodom: Gen_19:24. An horrible tempest] RV 'burning wind,' like the simoom of the desert. Their cup] a common Scripture figure for 'their destiny'; men's experiences in life being like a draught which they have to drink.
7. RV 'The Lord is righteous: he loveth righteousness.' God's dealings with men reflect His own character. His countenance, etc.] RV 'the upright shall behold His face,' shall be admitted to His favour, as worthy subjects are admitted to the presence of a king: cp. Mat_5:8.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield1917 · Public DomainOn v1(See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
trust
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein1922 · Public DomainOn v1Psalm 11
Psalm 11
1. Faith’s resources in the day of trouble (Psa 11:1-4)
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2. The recompense for the righteous and the wicked (Psa 11:5-7)
Psa 11:1-4. Their refuge is the Lord, in Him they trust as we, His heavenly people, know Him as our hiding place in the time of trouble. That coming day of trouble is the time “when the foundations are destroyed.” It is the time of apostasy and confusion. But their comfort is “Jehovah is in His holy temple, the Throne of Jehovah is in heaven.”
Psa 11:5-7. But faith also reckons with the day of retribution and judgment, when the days of tribulation are ended. Then the wicked receive their punishment. But the righteous shall behold His face.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn v1David’s Refusal to Flee When in Danger of Life.
David’s Refusal to Flee When in Danger of Life.
There was a time when David’s throne was in danger, when Absalom was scheming to usurp the royal power in Israel, when David’s very life was no longer secure. It was when the situation finally became acute that some of David’s faithful counselors seem to have urged him to flee from Jerusalem, in order to save his life and to let the danger blow over. But David, far from heeding their urging, composed this psalm of faith. To the chief musician, for use in the liturgical services of the Tabernacle, a psalm of David.
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v. 1. In the Lord put I my trust, with Jehovah he had found refuge, wherefore he surely needed no other; how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? As a bird, when in danger, seeks the refuge of the wooded mountains, so the friends of David urged him to flee to the rocky caves of the mountainous section of Palestine, there to remain secure until conditions proved more favorable.
v. 2. For, lo, so the counselors of David told him, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, adjusting it for a sudden shot, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart, in a treacherous attempt at assassination.
v. 3. If the foundations be destroyed, the laws and ordinances of public justice were rudely overthrown, what can the righteous do? In such an event the outlook evidently is hopeless for those who loved law and order, and therefore David should seek safety in flight. But he felt differently about it.
v. 4. The Lord is in His holy Temple, on the throne of His palace, His heavenly Temple: the Lord’s throne is in heaven, all the earth is absolutely under His government. His eyes behold, His eyelids try, with a penetrating, all-seeing glance, the children of men. Jehovah was fully conscious of everything that was going on in the world, and David felt that he could safely trust in His powerful and just rule, that nothing could harm him without the permission of the heavenly King.
v. 5. The Lord trieth the righteous, proving or testing them for evidences of their sincerity and then giving them the full measure of His protection; but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth, upon them His judgment will finally descend.
v. 6. Upon the wicked He shall rain, sending down in great abundance, snares, to prevent the escape of the ungodly, fire and brimstone, usually associated with the pains of hell, and an horrible tempest, the word really signifying the fiery, poisonous wind of the desert, the samum, to indicate the terrible form of punishment sent upon the wicked by God; this shall be the portion of their cup, that which was measured out to them to drink, what was included in the punishment which they must suffer.
v. 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, such acts of righteousness as His children on earth delight in; His countenance doth behold the upright, they alone behold His face, they alone are worthy of standing in His sight. Thus the Christians place their trust in their heavenly Father and proudly confess His name, for they know that God looks upon them in love for the sake of their Savior, Jesus Christ, His Son, and that they will finally be delivered from every evil work, to be taken up to the realms of glory.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1, 3, 5General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
take refuge in Yahweh
Going to Yahweh for protection is spoken of as taking refuge in him. AT: "go to Yahweh for protection" (See: Metaphor)
how will you say to me, "Flee like a bird to the mountain"?
This question is asked to provide emphasis. It can be translated as a statement. AT: "So do not ask me to run away!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
For see! The wicked prepare their bows. They make ready their arrows on the strings to shoot in the darkness at the upright in heart
"Look! the wicked are preparing to attack upright people"
upright in heart
Here "upright in heart" refers to godly or righteous people.
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv1–7Ps 11 The psalmist affirms his faith in the…
Ps 11 The psalmist affirms his faith in the righteous God. Even though the world appears hopelessly chaotic, both the godly and the wicked can count on God’s justice. The godly can depend on him as a refuge and shelter.
11:1 God provides protection (or refuge; see 5:11; 9:9; 25:20) when the foundations of justice collapse. • The mountains provide another place of refuge (see 121:1).
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 1. In Jehovah do I put my trust. Almost…
1. In Jehovah do I put my trust. Almost all interpreters think that this is a complaint which David brings against his countrymen, that while seeking in every quarter for hiding-places, he could find nowhere even common humanity. And it is indeed true, that in the whole course of his wanderings, after betaking himself to flight to escape the cruelty of Saul, he could find no secure place of retreat, at least, none where he might continue for any length of time undisturbed. He might, therefore, justly complain of his own countrymen, in that none of them deigned to shelter him when he was a fugitive. But I think he has a respect to something higher. When all men were striving, as it were, with each other, to drive him to despair, he must, according to the weakness of the flesh, have been afflicted with great and almost overwhelming distress of mind; but fortified by faith, he confidently and steadfastly leaned on the promises of God, and was thus preserved from yielding to the temptations to which he was exposed. These spiritual conflicts, with which God exercised him in the midst of his extreme perils, he here recounts. Accordingly, as I have just now observed, the psalm should be divided into two parts. Before celebrating the righteousness of God, which he displays in the preservation of the godly, the Psalmist shows how he had encountered even death itself, and yet, through faith and an upright conscience, had obtained the victory. As all men advised him to leave his country, and retire into some place of exile, where he might be concealed, inasmuch as there remained for him no hope of life, unless he should relinquish the kingdom, which had been promised to him; in the beginning of the psalm, he opposes to this perverse advice the shield of his trust in God.
But before entering farther upon the subject, let us interpret the words. The word נוד, nud, which we have rendered to flee, is written in the plural number, and yet it is read in the singular; Calvin’s meaning is, that according to the Hebrew letters, the verb is in the plural number; but according to the Hebrew punctuation, which regulates the reading, it is in the singular. Piscator, in his commentary on this passage, observes, נודו, nudi, according to the points, is singular and feminine, and refers to the soul of David; according to the letters it is plural, נודו, nudu, and refers to David and his associates. This last reading appears to me the most appropriate, both because it is followed by the relative in the plural number, and because it does not seem to be a proper or natural mode of expression, to speak of persons addressing the soul of another” The phrase, to my soul, however, may simply mean to me, a sense in which it is frequently used in Scripture.
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This is the reading adopted by the Chaldee, Septuagint, and Vulgate versions. Hammond observes, that “where the Hebrew now reads, הרכם צפור, har kemo tsippor, To your mountain a sparrow, all the ancient interpreters uniformly read, To the mountain as a sparrow.” Horsley translates the words, “Flee, sparrows, to your hill,” and views the expression “as proverbial, denoting a situation of helplessness and danger, in which there was no hope of safety but in flight” The noun, צפור tsippor, which he renders sparrows, is singular, and it is here construed with a plural verb and a plural pronoun. But he remarks, that as this word, like most names of animals in the Hebrew language, signifies either the individual or the species, it may here be used in the singular number for many individuals, and construed with plural verbs, adjectives, and pronouns.
“Sans specifier a qui est ceste montagne. — Fr. “Without specifying whose mountain it is.”
But as he seems to intimate that it would be a sign of distrust were he to place his safety in flight, it may be asked, whether or not it would have been lawful for him to flee; yea, we know that he was often forced to retire into exile, and driven about from place to place, and that he even sometimes hid himself in caves. I answer, it is true he was unsettled like a poor fearful bird, which leaps from branch to branch, “Je response que combien qu’il n’ait non plus este arrestd qu’un poure oiselet craintif qui saute de branche en branche.” — Fr.
“Combien que les autres le tenissent pour un homme perdu et duquel les affaires estoyent bors d’espoir et qu’ils n’en felssent non plus de casque d’un membre pourri.” — Fr.
“Nous deteste et poursuyve.” — Fr.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 6 This is the wicked counsel of his enemies to…
This is the wicked counsel of his enemies to him and his companions to drive him from the hope of God’s promise.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Psa 11:1 « To the chief Musician, [A Psalm]…
Psa 11:1 « To the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David. » In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee [as] a bird to your mountain?
Ver. 1. In the Lord put I my trust] This was that which David had and held, wherewith to answer him that reproached him (and it was an excellent good one), that he trusted in God’s word, Psa 119:42. When it was that he gave this answer, "In the Lord put I my trust" (whether when Saul’s courtiers, under pretence of friendship, counselled him to quit the court for fear of Saul, which he was very loth to do, see the like Neh 6:10 Luk 13:31, or else when he was with Samuel at Naioth, 1Sa 19:18, &c., where his carnal friends might advise him, as Peter did his Master, Mat 16:22, with a Fuge, fuge, David, cite, citius, citissime Flee, flee david, quick, quicker, most quickly), is uncertain. But this is certain, that all the troops of ungodliness aim and act vigorously to cast down the castle of confidence we have in God. This, therefore, we must be sure to secure, as the serpent doth his head, the soldier his shield, Eph 6:16. This is the victory whereby we overcome the world (with its allurements or affrightments) even our faith, 1Jn 5:4. The believer walketh about as a conqueror; and he alone is the man whom the heathen poet elegantly describeth (Horat. Carm. lib. iii. Od. 7):
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Iustum et tenacem propositi virum,
Non civium ardor prava iubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit solida, &c.
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae.
The poet instanceth in Hercules and Bacchus, but had he known of David, Moses, Micah, Nehemiah, Daniel and his three friends, &c., he would rather have pitched upon them, or some others of those worthies of whom the world was not worthy, Heb 11:38.
Flee as a bird to your mountain?] Get you gone, you and your followers (the Hebrew word flee is plural), or flee to your mountain, O bird; see you not the fowler’s snare? and will you not away with all speed? Thus they sought to fright him (as birds are fearful, Isa 16:2), and to make him flee from his place, as a bird fleeth from her nest, Pro 27:8. But he was never without his cordial, the same that relieved him at the sack of Ziklag, where, in the fail of all other comforts, he "encouraged himself in the Lord his God," 1Sa 30:6, he knew that, as birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend his people; defending also he will deliver them, and passing over he will preserve them, Isa 31:5. This, though it were not written in David’s days, yet he had the good assurance of it in his soul.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–7 In the Lord, i.e. in his faithfulness, who hath…
In the Lord, i.e. in his faithfulness, who hath promised, and will, I doubt not, give me the kingdom.
How say ye? either,
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1. Ye my friends; who through diffidence and despondency advised him to this course. Or,
2. Ye my enemies; who said it scoffingly and insultingly. How say ye? With what face or reason can you say thus to him, who hath the Lord God Almighty for his refuge?
To my soul, i.e. to me, as Psa 6:4; 7:2.
Flee as a bird, suddenly and swiftly, and to some remote place, where thou mayst be out of Saul’s reach. Feed not thyself with vain hopes of the kingdom, but consult for thy own safety, which thou canst not do without taking the wings of a dove, or some other bird, that thou mayst flee away out of the land, and be at rest, as thou sayest, Psa 55:6. Or, Flee away, O thou bird, thou little silly bird, lest the royal eagle seize upon thee.
To your mountain, i.e. to some of your mountains in Judah, and there hide thyself. But this was David’s common practice; and therefore there was no need that any should advise him to it, or that he should reprove them for that advice. Or, from (which prefix is oft wanting, and to be understood, as Jos 10:13; 2Sa 23:24)
your mountain i.e. from the mountain or mountainous country of Judah, as it is called, Jos 20:7; the mountain being frequently put for a mountainous country, as Num 13:29; 23:7; Jos 9:1; 10:6,40, and oft elsewhere. Or, from your mountains, in which thou and thy companions use to hide yourselves. Flee into some foreign land, where you may be safe. For this was the design of David’s enemies, as he complains, 1Sa 26:19; and afterward, when David was under sore temptations, it was his practice once or twice.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 4 Here is, I. David's fixed resolution to make God…
Here is, I. David's fixed resolution to make God his confidence: In the Lord put I my trust, Psa 11:1. Those that truly fear God and serve him are welcome to put their trust in him, and shall not be made ashamed of their doing so. And it is the character of the saints, who have taken God for their God, that they make him their hope. Even when they have other things to stay themselves upon, yet they do not, they dare not, stay upon them, but on God only. Gold is not their hope, nor are horses and chariots their confidence, but God only; and therefore, when second causes frown, yet their hopes do not fail them, because the first cause is still the same, is ever so. The psalmist, before he gives an account of the temptation he was in to distrust God, records his resolution to trust in him, as that which he was resolved to live and die by.
II. His resentment of a temptation to the contrary: "How say you to my soul, which has thus returned to God as its rest and reposes in him, Flee as a bird to your mountain, to be safe there out of the reach of the fowler?" This may be taken either,
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1. As the serious advice of his timorous friends; so many understand it, and with great probability. Some that were hearty well-wishers to David, when they saw how much Saul was exasperated against him and how maliciously he sought his life, pressed him by all means to flee for the same to some place of shelter, and not to depend too much upon the anointing he had received, which, they thought, was more likely to occasion the loss of his head than to save it. That which grieved him in this motion was not that to flee now would savour of cowardice, and ill become a soldier, but that it would savour of unbelief and would ill become a saint who had so often said, In the Lord put I my trust. Taking it thus, the two following verses contain the reason with which these faint-hearted friends of David backed this advice. They would have him flee, (1.) Because he could not be safe where he was, Psa 11:2. "Observe," say they, "how the wicked bend their bow; Saul and his instruments aim at thy life, and the uprightness of thy heart will not be thy security." See what an enmity there is in the wicked against the upright, in the seed of the serpent against the seed of the woman; what pains they take, what preparations they make, to do them a mischief: They privily shoot at them, or, in darkness, that they may not see the evil designed, to avoid it, nor others, to prevent it, no, nor God himself, to punish it. (2.) Because he could be no longer useful where he was. "For," say they, "if the foundations be destroyed" (as they were by Saul's mal-administration), "if the civil state and government be unhinged and all out of course" (Psa 75:3, Psa 82:5), "what canst thou do with thy righteousness to redress the grievances? Alas! it is to no purpose to attempt the saving of a kingdom so wretchedly shattered; whatever the righteous can do signifies nothing." Abi in cellam, et dic, Miserere mei, Domine - Away to thy cell, and there cry, Pity me, O Lord! Many are hindered from doing the service they might do to the public, in difficult times, by a despair of success.
2. It may be taken as a taunt wherewith his enemies bantered him, upbraiding him with the professions he used to make of confidence in God, and scornfully bidding him try what stead that would stand him in now. "You say, God is your mountain; flee to him now, and see what the better you will be." Thus they endeavoured to shame the counsel of the poor, saying, There is no help for them in God, Psa 14:6; Psa 3:2. The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, are a riddle to a carnal world and are ridiculed accordingly. Taking it thus, the two following verses are David's answer to this sarcasm, in which, (1.) He complains of the malice of those who did thus abuse him (Psa 11:2): They bend their bow and make ready their arrows; and we are told (Psa 64:3) what their arrows are, even bitter words, such words as these, by which they endeavour to discourage hope in God, which David felt as a sword in his bones. (2.) He resists the temptation with a gracious abhorrence, Psa 11:3. He looks upon this suggestion as striking at the foundations which every Israelite builds upon: "If you destroy the foundations, if you take good people off from their hope in God, if you can persuade them that their religion is a cheat and a jest and can banter them out of that, you ruin them, and break their hearts indeed, and make them of all men the most miserable." The principles of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the righteous are built. These we are concerned, in interest as well as duty, to hold fast against all temptations to infidelity; for, if these be destroyed, if we let these go, What can the righteous do? Good people would be undone if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–7 In the Lord put I my trust,.... Not in…
In the Lord put I my trust,.... Not in himself, in his own heart, nor in his own righteousness and strength; nor in men, the greatest of men, the princes of the earth; nor in his armies, or any outward force; but in the Lord, as the God of providence and of grace; and in the Messiah, in his person and righteousness; so the Chaldee paraphrase renders it, "in the Word of the Lord do I hope": and the phrase denotes a continued exercise of faith in the Lord; that he was always looking to him, staying himself on him, and committing himself and all his concerns to him; for he does not say, I "have", or I "will", but I "do", put my trust in the Lord; at all times, even in the worst of times, and in the present one; wherefore he is displeased with his friends for endeavouring to intimidate him, persuading him to flee and provide for his safety, when he had betaken himself to the Lord, and was safe enough;
how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? they compare him to a little, fearful, trembling bird, wandering from its nest, moving through fear from place to place, whereas his heart was fixed, trusting in the Lord; and this gave him a disgust: they advise him to flee either "from" his mountain, so Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it; that is, either from Judea, which was a mountainous country, especially some parts of it; or from Mount Zion, or rather from the mountain in the wilderness of Ziph, or the hill of Hachilah, where David sometimes was, Sa1 23:14; or it may be rendered "to your mountain", as we, so the Targum; that is, to the said place or places where he had sometimes hid himself; and this they said to his "soul", which was very cutting and grieving to him; the word rendered "flee" in the "Cetib", or writing of the text, is in the plural, "flee ye"; but is pointed for, and in the "Keri", or marginal reading, is "flee thou"; the latter agrees with this being said to David's soul, the former with the phrase "your mountain", and both are to be taken into the sense of the words; not as if the one respected David's soul only, and the other both soul and body, as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe; but the one regards David's person, and the other his companions, or the people with him; and contains an advice, both to him and them, to flee for their safety; the reasons follow.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1–6 David encourages himself in God, against the attempts of…
David encourages himself in God, against the attempts of his enemies, ver. 1-3. Asserts the dominion and providence of God, ver. 4-7 To the chief musician, A psalm of David.
Ye - Mine enemies.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–7 David's friends advise him to flee to the wilderness…
PSALM XI
David's friends advise him to flee to the wilderness from
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Saul's fury, 1-3.
He answers that, having put his trust in God, knowing that he
forsakes not those who confide in him, and that he will punish
the ungodly, he is perfectly satisfied that he shall be in
safety, 4-7.
NOTES ON PSALM XI
The inscription is, To the chief Musician, A psalm of David. By the chief musician we may understand the master-singer; the leader of the band; the person who directed the choir: but we know that the word has been translated, To the Conqueror; and some deep and mystical senses have been attributed to it, with which I believe the text has nothing to do.
Verse 1. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye] Some of David's friends seem to have given him this advice when they saw Saul bent on his destruction: "Flee as a bird to your mountain;" you have not a moment to lose; your ruin is determined; escape for your life; get off as swiftly as possible to the hill-country, to some of those inaccessible fortresses best known to yourself; and hide yourself there from the cruelty of Saul. To which advice he answers, "In the Lord put I my trust," shall I act as if I were conscious of evil, and that my wicked deeds were likely to be discovered? Or shall I act as one who believes he is forsaken of the protection of the Almighty? No: I put my trust in him, and I am sure I shall never be confounded.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Psa 11:1. In the Lord put I my trust…
Psa 11:1. In the Lord put I my trust — It is not in fortresses or strong holds that I place my confidence, but only in the Lord, in his power, and love, and faithfulness. How say ye to my soul — Ye, my friends; Flee as a bird to your mountain? — Fly away, as a timorous bird before the fowler, to a place of safety. Thus “the Christian, like David, in perilous times, should make God his fortress, and continue doing his duty in his station; he should not, at the instigation of those about him, like a poor, silly, timorous, inconstant bird, either fly for refuge to the devices of worldly wisdom, or desert his post, and retire into solitude, while he can serve the cause in which he is engaged. Nor, indeed, is there any mountain on earth, out of the reach of care or trouble. Temptations are everywhere, and so is the grace of God.” — Horne.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–7 In the Lord put I my trust - This,…
In the Lord put I my trust - This, in general, expresses the state of mind of the author - a state of feeling which runs through the entire psalm. It is designed to be an answer to the counsel which others had been giving him to escape, and it implies that he was determined at that time, and always, to put his trust in God. They advised him to flee. In the existing circumstances he felt that that would have implied a want of confidence in God. He determined, therefore, to maintain his present position, and to rely upon the interposition of God in due time.
How say ye to my soul - How say ye to “me” - the soul being put for the person himself. “Why” do you say this to me? how can you give me such counsel, as if I were to run away from danger, and to put no trust in God? He seems to have supposed that such an act of flight would have been construed by his enemies, and by the enemies of religion, as evidence that he had no faith or confidence in God. Such circumstances often occur in the world; and when that would be the “fair” and “natural” construction of one’s conduct, the path of duty is plain. We are to remain where we are; we are boldly to face the danger, and commit the whole matter to God.
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Flee as a bird to your mountain - This implies that it was supposed there was no longer any safety where he then was. The use of the plural number here - “Flee ye,” by a change not uncommon in the Hebrew writings - seems designed to refer to the whole class of persons in those circumstances. The mind turns from his own particular case to that of others in the same circumstances; and the language may be designed to imply that this was the usual counsel given to such persons; that, on the same principle on which they now advised flight in this particular case, they would also advise flight in all similar cases. That is, they would counsel persons to flee to a place of safety when they were in danger of their life from persecution. This is the common counsel of the world; this would be the ordinary teaching of human prudence. The mountains in Palestine were regarded as places of safety, and were the common refuge of those who were in danger. In their caves and fastnesses, and on their heights, those who were in danger found security, for they could there hide themselves, or could more easily defend themselves, than they could in the plains and in the vallies. Hence, they became the place of retreat for robbers and banditti, as well as for the persecuted. The allusion to the bird here does not imply that birds sought a refuge in the mountains, and that he was to resemble them in this respect; but the point of the comparison turns on the rapidity with which this refuge should be sought:” Fly to the mountains as swiftly as a bird flies from danger.” Compare Mat 24:16; Jdg 6:2; Heb 11:38.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 11
Psalms 11
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David
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1 In the Lord put I my trust:
How say ye to my soul,
Flee as a bird to your mountain?
2 For, lo, the wicked bend their bow,
They make ready their arrow upon the string,
That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
3 If the foundations be destroyed,
What can the righteous do?
4 The Lord is in his holy temple,
The Lord’s throne is in heaven:
His eyes behold,
His eyelids try, the children of men.
5 The Lord trieth the righteous:
But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.
6 Upon the wicked he shall rain snares,
Fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness;
His countenance doth behold the upright.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Contents and Composition.—The firm trust in God whilst the foundations of the State and social order are shaking, the manly rejection of the counsel of discouraged friends who advise to flee from the threatening danger, the cheerful confidence in sure help through the judicial government of God, correspond so well with the character of David, that there is no reason to doubt the correctness of the title, whether we think of the earlier period of the persecution by Saul (Ewald), or of the battles of David with the Philistines, with a reference to 2Sa_21:17 (Hitzig), or on account of Psa_10:3, of the rebellion of Absalom (Maurer, Delitzsch). The vigorous brevity, and the fresh, lively movement of the language do not agree at all with the supposition that this is a Psalm of lamentation, composed by Hezekiah at the time of the siege of Sennacherib.1
Str. I. Psa_10:1.—With Jehovah have I refuge. [A. V. “In the Lord do I put my trust.” Hupf.: “With Jehovah have I taken or found refuge.” So Perowne: “I need no other refuge: how can ye say to me, etc.; my feet are on the true Rock, why should I look elsewhere for safety? This is the full force of the expression. There is, moreover, a force in the perfect, ‘I have found.’ It is an exclamation of joyful confidence in the thought that he has such a refuge, and is not yet to seek it. The advice here given, and which he repels, is that of timid and desponding friends, who would persuade him that all is lost, and that the highest wisdom is to yield to circumstances, and to seek safety not in resistance but in flight. But in fact the voice which thus speaks is the voice of the natural heart, of the selfish, and therefore short-sighted and cowardly instinct, which always asks first, not, what is right? but, what is safe? The advice may be well meant, but it is unworthy (comp. Psa_3:3; Psa_4:8). This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. But it is often a sorer trial for faith to have to withstand the pleadings of well meaning friends than to arm itself against open enemies.”—C. A. B.]
Flee.—Hupf. advocates the plural which includes those who are in similar circumstances and danger, in opposition to the interpreters who, with the Jewish critics, adopt the singular reading. The bird is used as a figure of the pursued, 1Sa_26:20; Lam_3:52; it is here a collective, and either as a vocative in apposition, or as a comparison. [Ewald regards this expression as a proverb in use among the Jews, not found elsewhere it is true, but yet natural as a figure of speech in those times. So Hupfeld:—To your mountain.—De Wette: “A figure taken from birds, which, when hunted upon the plain, flee back speedily to the wooded mountains; but it is likewise a proper idea. The mountains of Palestine being rich in caves afforded safe places of refuge from enemies who held possession of the plains. Thus Mattathias and his sons fled to the mountain, 1Ma_2:28.” So also David in his flight from Saul.2—C. A. B.]
Psa_10:2. The see, [A. V., “Lo”], and the statements of Psa_10:3 do not allow us to regard these words as an explanation of the poet (Calv.) It makes no difference in this respect whether we begin Psa_10:3 with “for” or “if.” The hypothetical interpretation has nothing to do with the contents of the clause, but only with its structure. [There is a change of tense which is lost in the A. V., which is very dramatic, vid., Hupf. and Alexander in loco. Hupf.: “They span the bow, they have adjusted their arrow to the string.” Alexander translates they “have fixed” their arrow. The English “make ready” is too vague.—Privily, more properly “in darkness,” in the dark, in secret, treacherously.—C. A. B.]
Psa_10:3. The foundations here are not persons (Gesenius, Hitzig) as Isa_3:1; Isa_19:10; Gal_2:9, but the laws and ordinances of public justice, 1Sa_2:8; Psa_75:3; Psa_82:5; Eze_30:4. Calv. et al., following the Sept., Vulg. Aquil., Symm. translate: What has he done? namely, wrong; wherewith has he done wrong? The perfect, however, does not force us to this; but it prevents the usual interpretation: What shall he do? namely, otherwise than flee. The perfect in interrogative clauses is often used in the sense of the Latin subjunctive = what could he do? (Seb. Schmidt, Hupf., Delitzsch), or it expresses the result of experience (Ewald, et al,) [The Anglican prayer book translates: “For the foundations will be cast down, and what has the righteous done?” So Alexander. Hupf.: Whilst he grants the possibility of the above, yet translates: “For the pillars are destroyed; the righteous—what has he done (accomplished)” that is “what has he done, accomplished according to his previous experience?” And thus he states his agreement with Ewald and Böttcher (N. Æhrenl., who compares with συνήρτακεν, Xen., Cyrop., iv. 2, 26). This seems to be the better view.—C. A. B.]
Str. II. Psa_10:4. Jehovah in his holy palace,etc.—[A. V., “temple.” Delitzsch: “Above the earth are the heavens, and in the heavens is Jehovah’s throne, the King of kings. And this heavenly temple, this palace, is the place from whence all earthly things are finally decided, Hab_2:20; Mic_1:2. For the royal throne there is also the judgment seat above the earth, Psa_9:7; Psa_103:19. Jehovah, who is seated there, is the all-seeing and the all-knowing. חָזָּה = cernere, of a penetrating glance. בָחַן = trying metals by fire, of a searching glance into the innermost nature of things. The eyelashes are mentioned designedly. When we consider and investigate sharply, the eyelids approach one another in order that the glance may become more single, direct, and like a flash penetrating through the object.”—C. A. B.]3
Psa_10:6. Rain.—Hupfeld holds fast strongly to the optative, and makes “fire and brimstone as nets” depend upon “He makes to rain.” According to Delitzsch the future in the jussive form states a fact of the future resulting with necessity from facts of the present. “Rain” denotes the abundance in which the means of punishment descend. If the accents and pointing are not altered in order to find stated something corresponding to fire and brimstone, e.g. coals (Ewald, Olsh., now also Böttcher), or ashes (Hitzig), then this means of punishment consists either of masses (Böttcher previously), lumps in general, pieces (Aben Ezra, Geier, Mich.) or slings which most interpreters regard as figurative of lightning; others, following Calvin, as a means of holding them fast in order that they may not escape the punishment.
The fiery wind” [A. V., “Horrible tempest”] is the hot east wind, Arab. samûm = the poisonous. Hupf. does not consider that the meaning fire has been proved, but rather that of rage, and translates: Blast of wrath. So likewise Hengst.4 [Wordsworth: “The Psalmist refers to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as a prophetic emblem of what awaits the ungodly; and he anticipates the language of St. Jude concerning those cities “as set forth for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire” (Judges 7). And he anticipates the imagery of the Apocalypse Rev_19:20; Psa_21:8.”—Portion of their cup.—Alexander: “something measured out for them to drink, according to the frequent Scriptural representation, both of God’s wrath and favor as a draught or as the cup containing it. Comp. Psa_16:5; Mat_20:22-23; Mat_26:39. The meaning of the whole verse is that notwithstanding the present security of the ungodly, they shall sooner or later be abundantly visited with every variety of destructive judgment.”—C. A. B.]
Psa_10:7. Righteous acts [A. V., “righteousness”], literally, “righteousnesses,” that is, acts of righteousness.—The upright shall behold His face.—The adjective in the singular is collective as subst., hence the plural of the predicate. The suffix is in a poetical, solemn form of the singular (Ewald, Olsh.) and is not necessarily plural of majesty, or an inexactness (Hupf.). Since the face is elsewhere only the object, and not the subject of seeing, the translation which is certainly possible here, “his countenance doth behold the upright,” (Isaki, Kimchi, Geier, Mich., Hengst. [A. V.]) is not to be recommended, although in the other clauses God is the subject, and the plural forms in the suffix and verbs are very well explained whilst the object remains in the singular. Luther, et al., following most of the ancient translations, regard this as abstract = uprightness. [Almost all recent commentators adopt the rendering of the author. Thus Hupfeld: “’To behold God’s face’ is figurative of the highest favor with God and blessedness, as Psa_17:15, like sitting and standing before the face of God, Psa_41:12; Psa_140:13; Job_33:26, etc.; borrowed from the privilege of oriental magnates to appear before the king, and be favored with the constant sight of majesty, and so transferred to the relation of the pious to God, who alone are worthy of this sight, and are capable of it, so far as only the pure can bear the sight of the Holy One; but sin excludes from the privilege; comp. the promise, Mat_5:8, that ‘the pure in heart shall see God,’ and the corresponding figure of spiritual reception in the house of God, which only the pious have, Psa_5:5; Psa_15:1.”—C. A. B.]5
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Those are not true friends who, in dangerous times, put the duty of self-preservation before that of duty to the community, and then when the foundations of the State are rooted up, and the pillars of social order begin to shake, advise to flight instead of to the conflict which should be waged in the name of God, and with the assurance of Divine assistance. Indeed every courageous man and brave warrior rejects such imputations as cowardly and shameful; how much more the Sovereign, who is called of God, and who trusts in God?
2. That God is enthroned in heaven does not prevent His government on earth, but rather is presupposed as well for His government of the world in general as for His special dealings with individuals, and therefore it is the foundation of the believer’s confidence that even in the worst times, he will receive seasonable help from the Lord.
3. It is not stated here how a man is justified, but how it fares with the righteous. He may indeed on earth fall into the greatest dangers and needs, and be surrounded by timid, unsafe, and false friends, and be oppressed by mighty, crafty, and merciless enemies; but God does not forsake those who trust in Him with living faith. He tries them, it is true, as a discerner of hearts, but the upright, whom He has found faithful, He causes to experience His love, and helps them out of all their needs.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
He who has faith does not flee.—The King of heaven is not only an almighty but likewise an omniscient God and the just Rewarder.—Where even the strength of the righteous fails, the arm of Him who is enthroned in the heavens helps.—The rulers of the earth have likewise to reflect that they have a Lord in heaven.—The wicked have to reckon upon no lasting success; it only remains for them to wait for the terrible judgments of God whilst the righteous may hope in the assistance of God and at last will behold His countenance.—In times of danger we must not hearken to the advice of weak and cowardly men, but trust in the word and assistance of God. Not to flee from God but to God brings deliverance, salvation and peace.
Calvin: Although all alike confess that the world is ruled by God, yet there are but few, when a sad complication of affairs surrounds them with darkness, who have this conviction confirmed in the innermost part of their souls.
Starke: Whenever any one turns to fearing God, there are ever wicked decoy birds which think to prevent him.—No hunter can pursue the game more hotly than the ungodly are greedy for the ruin of the pious.—It is well for those who are well-grounded, especially at this last time, when the ground is not destroyed, yet is made to shake in many ways and when so many fundamental truths are contested. There are two ways in which God is present; one in which He fills heaven and earth, the other when He is present in the word and sacrament, yes, in the hearts of believers.—The omnipresence and omniscience of God are a very strong consolation to the believer when oppressed.—There is a difference between the cross of the pious and the punishment of the ungodly, the former are preserved by suffering, the latter are entirely destroyed.—He who loves God and will be loved by God must love righteousness.—Speak what is right, maintain the right and deviate not a finger breadth from righteousness and the Lord will be favorable to you.
Osiander: Although we do not in all ways serve the law of God after the flesh, yet we should do it with our souls and have pleasure therein after the inner man (Rom_7:22) in order that God may not be hostile to us.—Selnekker: The favor of God and the favor of wicked men are wider apart than heaven and earth.—Moller: What comforts and encourages the pious, fills the ungodly with fear and terror.—Arndt: The reward of the pious is the love of God, yea God Himself.—Herberger: The more defiant the ungodly are in favorable times, the more dejected and discouraged they are in misfortune.—Rieger: It is well for those, to whom all in God is so dear, that they can gain for themselves a basis of good hope from His holiness, His power, His omniscience, and His zeal against wickedness.—Stiller: Sighs ascend and consolation descends.—Guenther: There are two kinds of enemies, the open and the secret; the former persecute us, the latter give us the so-called good advice.—Diedrich: Make no peace with the world until after a decisive victory, and let your daily confession be this only: I trust in the Lord.
[Matth. Henry: The confidence and comfort which the saints have in God, when all the hopes and joys in the creature fail them, is a riddle to a carnal world, and is ridiculed accordingly.—Good people would be undone if they had not a God to go to, a God to trust to, and a future bliss to hope for.—In singing this Psalm we must encourage and engage ourselves to trust in God at all times, must depend upon Him to protect our innocency, and make us happy; must dread His frown as worse than death, and desire His favor as better than life.—Barnes: The wicked have everything to fear; the righteous, nothing. The one is never safe; the other, always. The one will be delivered out of all his troubles; the end of the other can only be ruin.—Spurgeon: When prayer engages God on our side, and when faith secures the fulfilment of the promise, what cause can there be for flight, however cruel and mighty our enemies?—Is it suggested to us that there are ways of avoiding the cross, and shunning the reproach of Christ? Let us not hearken to the voice of the charmer, but seek an increase of faith, that we may wrestle with principalities and powers and follow the Lord fully, going without the camp, bearing His reproach. Mammon, the flesh, the devil, will all whisper in our ear, “Flee as a bird to your mountain,” but let us come forth and defy them all. “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”—The advice of cowardice and the jeer of insolence, both answered by faith. Lesson—Attempt no other answer.—If all earthly things fail, and the very State fall to pieces, what can we do? We can suffer joyfully, hope cheerfully, wait patiently, pray earnestly, believe confidently, and triumph finally.—C. A. B.]
Footnotes:
[1][This Psalm may have been composed at that critical period mentioned, 1 Samuel 29-31, and 2 Samuel 1-3. David lost the confidence of the Philistines, was in trouble with his own men, 1Sa_30:6; 1Sa_30:22-24; 2Sa_3:39, and all the religious as well as the political institutions of Israel were disturbed and in danger of dissolution.—C. A. B.]
[2][“Your” is significant; it refers to the well-known mountain stronghold, the familiar hiding places of David and his friends; some such one as the cave of Engedi, 1 Samuel 24, or the hill Hachilah, Psa_26:1. This Psalm was composed when these remembrances were fresh in the minds of David and his adherents.—C. A. B.]
[3][Delitzsch: “Thus men are manifest to the All-searching eye, the all-trying glance of Jehovah: righteous and unrighteous. He trieth the righteous, that is, He recognizes in the depths of their souls their righteous nature, which stands the test (Psa_17:3; Job_23:10) so that He protects them with love as the righteous cling to Him in love; but the wicked and he who uses violence against the weak. His soul hates, and He hates them with all the energy of His holy being. The more intense this hate is, the more fearful will the punishment be which He sends down upon them.”—C. A. B.]
[4][There is here probably a reference to the Sirocco of the Holy Land thus described by Thomson. “The air becomes loaded with fine dust, which it whirls in rainless clouds hither and thither at its own wild will; it rushes down every gorge, bowing and breaking the trees, and tugging at each individual leaf; it growls around the houses, romps and runs riot with your clothes.”—“The eyes inflame, the lips blister, and the moisture of the body evaporates, under the ceaseless application of this persecuting wind; you become languid, nervous, irritable, and despairing.” Vid., still further Thomson, Land and the Book, pp. 295 and 537.—C. A. B]
[5][Delitzsch: “To behold God’s face is in itself impossible for mortal man without dying. But when God graciously allows Himself to be seen, He makes it possible for the creature to look upon Him. This enjoyment of the Divine face when it is softened in love, is the highest honor which God’s grace can bestow upon man, it is the blessing of the upright, Psa_140:13. We cannot say that this means beholding His face in the world to come, or that it is exclusively in this world. The future עולם is lost to the Old Testament idea in the night of sheol. But faith breaks through this night, and consoles itself with a future beholding of God, Job_19:26. The New Testament redemption has realized this postulate of faith in that the Redeemer has broken through the night of the realm of the dead, raised up with Himself the pious of the Old Testament, and transported them into the sphere of the Divine love which is revealed in heaven.” Perowne: “Thus Faith kindles into hope. Not only does David make Jehovah his refuge in calamity, but he can rejoice in the thought that he shall behold the face of God,—behold now the light of His countenance even in the midst of gloom and darkness. Did his hope reach beyond this, and are we to suppose that here he looks forward to seeing God in the resurrection? We cannot tell. But see Psa_16:11; Psa_17:15. To us, however, his words may be the expression of a ‘hope full of immortality.’ ‘We know that our light affliction worketh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ ‘We know that when He shall appear … we shall see Him as He is.’ We can take this Psalm likewise to ourselves, and think upon ‘seeing God in the face of Jesus Christ.’ ”—C. A. B.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–7 privily--literally, "in darkness," treacherously.
privily--literally, "in darkness," treacherously.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1. Flee as a bird, etc.—Literally, Flee, bird, to…
1. Flee as a bird, etc.—Literally, Flee, bird, to your mountain. The ancient versions read, as a bird. The particle of comparison is implied. This advice is given to the psalmist as the only measure of safety, at a time of imminent peril. There is no ground for assuming that the imperilled one here is an ideal person. The universal application of the psalm to all innocent sufferers is not at all impaired by admitting a real historic origin, which Psa_11:1-3 clearly require. The direct flight of a bird from the valley to its mountain home, when frightened, is a marked though common event, probably the occasion of a proverb by the Hebrews.
How say ye—This is not a rejection of the advice given, as some have taught, as though David scorned to yield to circumstances and save his life by flight. Both in the time of Saul and Absalom he did fly “to the mountains.” It is no honour to our faith in God to despise danger, or refuse lawful means to save life, when duty so permits. Jesus and his apostles repeatedly retired before their enemies. But David here only professes higher and more essential trust in Jehovah than in any natural means of defence or escape.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–7 1. put I my trust] Rather, have I taken…
1. put I my trust] Rather, have I taken refuge (cp. Psa_7:1): and therefore it would be an act of unbelief as well as cowardice to seek another asylum in the mountain.
to my soul] To me, as one whose very life is in danger. Cp. Psa_3:2, note.
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Flee as a bird] Or, as R.V. marg., flee ye birds. David and his companions are addressed, and exhorted to flee to their obvious or accustomed place of refuge in the mountain. But the pronoun your should probably be omitted, and as inserted. Timorous and defenceless birds supply a graphic figure for the victims of persecution who have no resource but flight. Cp. 1Sa_26:20; Lam_3:52. The ‘mountain’ or ‘hill-country’ with its caves and strongholds was the natural place of retreat for fugitives. See 1Sa_14:22; 1Sa_23:14; 1Sa_26:1; 1Ma_2:28. Possibly ‘to flee to the mountain’ may have been a proverbial phrase, taken from the narrative of Gen_19:17 ff., for the last resource in extremity of peril.
Note IV
On Psa_11:1
There are two readings here: the Qrç, flee thou (fem.): the Kthîbh, flee ye. If flee thou is addressed, as it is natural to suppose, to David’s soul, it must be explained as a bold combination of direct and indirect speech, equivalent to ‘that she should flee as a bird to your mountain,’ i.e. join you in your mountain retreat. Or David and his adherents may be addressed. ‘Flee, O birds (fem. collective), to your mountain!’ The second reading, ‘flee ye, like birds (or, ye birds), to your mountain,’ is simpler. David and his companions are exhorted to seek the mountain which is their natural or accustomed place of refuge. But it must be admitted that the plural ‘flee ye’ is harsh, and that we should expect the poet’s soul to be addressed; while at the same time if the singular ‘flee thou’ is read, the plural ‘your mountain’ can only be explained by the assumption of a bold construction, or an abrupt transition from sing, to plur. And when we find that all the ancient versions give the verb in the singular, and none of them express your, it becomes almost certain that by a very slight change of text we should read ‘Flee (thou) as a bird to the mountain.’ (גודי הר כמו צפור).
1–3. Faith’s indignant repudiation of faint-hearted counsel in the hour of danger.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 (1) Put I my trust.—Better, as in Psa_7:1, I…
(1) Put I my trust.—Better, as in Psa_7:1, I find my refuge.
Flee as a bird.—Literally, flee ye a bird. The plural verb, with the singular noun, offers a difficulty which is not obviated by the reading which changes the verb to the singular, since your mountain has the plural suffix. We may supply the sign of comparison, as elsewhere sometimes omitted (Psa_22:14); “flee ye like a bird;” or we may, with Ewald, take the noun as collective—a flock of birds. The idea of trepidation is conveyed in the original by the verb, which suggests the hurried flap of wings. Dr. Thomson, in The Land and the Book, finds in the habits of the dove an illustration of the passage; and compares Psa_55:6, “Oh that I had wings as a dove!”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–7 ASCRIBED to David in the "title," this psalm is…
ASCRIBED to David in the "title," this psalm is almost universally allowed to be his. It "has all the characteristics of the earlier Davidic psalms." No allusion enables us to assign it to any particular occasion; but, on the whole, it would seem to belong most probably to the period of David"s residence at the court of Saul, when he had provoked the jealousy of the courtiers, and calumnious accusations were being continually brought against him. At such a time his friends and companions may well have lost heart, and advised him to "flee away to the mountains." But David flees to God (ver. 1), and trusts in him for deliverance from his persecutors (vers. 4-7).
In the Lord put I my trust; or, in the Lord have I taken refuge (Kay, Cheyne). Before his friends address him on the subject of his danger, David has himself recognized it, and has fled to God for succour. How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? rather, flee ye, birds, to your mountain. Probably a proverbial expression, used when it was necessary to warn a man that in flight lay his only safety. The singular (rwOpxi) is used collectively.
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HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE Vers. 1-7. The victory of faith; or, rest amid storm.
In each one of those psalms which represent some historic experience, there is its own differential feature. This feature it is the work of the student and expositor to seize and to utilize. We do not know and have no means of knowing the specific incidents in the writer"s life to which reference is here made, although, since David was the writer, we should find but little difficulty in fixing on some passages of his history to which the psalm might possibly apply. But although that might furnish some interesting points of history, it would add little or nothing to the value of the psalm. It is one which is far too much overlooked; since it yields us a powerful illustration of a faith which overcomes the world. Let us set to work and see if it be not so.
I HERE IS A BELIEVER IN GOD EXPOSED TO PERIL FROM DESIGNING FOES. (Ver. 2) Those who are upright in heart are hated by the wicked. (cf. 1Jn_3:12, 1Jn_3:13) This is not to be wondered at, for righteous men by their righteousness are a standing condemnation of the ungodly. (Heb_11:7) The Lord Jesus was pre-eminently the object of hatred by the world. (Joh_7:7 Joh_15:18-24) In the time of the psalmist this hatred was expressed by plots for the destruction of God"s servants (ver. 2). But, as if conscious of wrong and of the meanness and wickedness of their aims, men sought the cover of darkness for their designs (see ver. 2, Revised Version). What a mercy there is One to whom the darkness and the light are both alike!
II HERE ARE WELL-MEANING FRIENDS GIVING THEIR ADVICE. (Ver. 1, "Flee as a bird," etc.) This is the counsel of timidity. There may possibly be circumstances in which it may be right to take flight. (see Mat_10:23) Although our Lord expected his disciples to be prepared, If Need be, to lay down their lives for him, yet he did not wish them unnecessarily to expose themselves to danger. So that at times, flight may be wise. But in the case of the psalmist, the whole tenor of his psalm indicates that it would not have been right, and that the counsels of his friends were those of timidity and even of cowardice. Note:
1. We may any of us be exposed at some time or other to this temptation
(1) to flee from the spot where we are placed;
(2) to quit the duty we have in hand, because of peril; or
(3) to resort to some safe nook, and thus consult our own ease and safety, regardless of the work in hand.
2. Such temptation may be even harder to resist when it comes from friends than if it came from foes. So our Lord Jesus found it; he felt Peter"s effort to dissuade him from the cross far more acutely than he did Satan"s. (cf. Mat_16:22, Mat_16:23)
III THIS ILL-JUDGED ADVICE MAY BE ENFORCED WITH PLAUSIBLE ARGUMENTS. (Vers. 1, 3) The advice begins with the word "flee" (ver. 1), and ends with the close of the third verse. The arguments for flight are:
1. The secrecy of the designs of the wicked; since they work under cover of the darkness, it is best to be entirely out of their reach.
2. The grievous consequences of their success (ver. 3). If the men who are the strength and glory of a state are removed, the righteous therein will be dismayed, This is a more specious argument than the former: it is equivalent to, "If you care not to flee for your own sake, you owe it to others to guard yourself; for if you, as one of the supports of the state, are overthrown, what will the righteous people do?" The wicked would rejoice, and would seize the occasion for the purposes of rapine and murder; but the righteous would be in sore dismay.
IV TO SUCH ADVICE, FAITH HAS A READY ANSWER. (Vers. 4-6) The various features of this answer may be summed up in one sentence, "The Lord reigneth!" This is faith"s rest and refuge in all times of trouble. Things are not left to the cross-purposes of man. There is a throne above all, and One sitting thereon. This fact has a manifold bearing:
1. On men generally.
a. God sees all (ver. 4).
b. God tests all (ver. 4).
2. On the righteous.
a. God tries his people. He proves them to improve them (ver. 5).
b. He loves the righteous; i.e. he approves them, and, in the midst of all confusion, he smiles upon them.
c. He will crown them with honour at last (ver. 7, Revised Version).
3. On the wicked.
a. He hates them; i.e. he disapproves their ways. (ver. 5 Psa_1:6)
b. The time will come when that disapproval will be manifest (ver. 6).
The terrible figures used in this verse are probably drawn from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. What the dread reality may be, of which these words are symbols, God grant that we may never know! More fearful than any physical judgments is the adverse verdict of the Great Supreme. (Joh_3:19) Note: It is all-important for a believer in God, in the midst of the greatest calamities, and of the most serious public disorder, so to maintain his calm serenity of soul, as to enable him thus to rest in what he knows of God and of his revealed mind and will.
V KNOWING ALL THIS CONCERNING GOD, THE PSALMIST HAD ACTUALLY ANTICIPATED THE ADVICE OF HIS ADVISERS, though in another and a better way (ver. 1): "In the Lord put I my trust;" rather, "To the Lord I have fled for refuge." I need no other. He is mine. He will guard me. I am at rest in him. I will therefore stay where I am, and keep in the path of duty. I can calmly look on the raging storm, and wait till it has passed by. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Note:
1. The man who trusts in God has already a Refuge of which the ungodlyman knows nothing.
2. That trust in God gives him the victory over his foes.
3. The God whom he trusts will be his Shield and his exceeding great Reward hereafter and for ever!
How much broader, deeper, and firmer should be our trust, now that we know God"s love as revealed in Christ] "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith". C. (1Jn_5:4, 1Jn_5:5)
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Vers. 1-7. A battle in the soul.
Faith and fear are in conflict. Plausible reasons are suggested why the fight should be given up, but nobler thoughts prevail.
I FEAR CONFRONTING FAITH. (Vers. 1-3) The outlook is discouraging. Our foes are many and strong; more, they are inveterate in malice; more still, they have already gained ground, and amidst the overturn of all right principles and the confusion worse confounded, it seems as if they were to prevail all along the line. In such a state of things selfish fear suggests Why fight longer? Our best efforts are fruitless; we are spending our strength and labouring in vain. Better bow to the inevitable; better look to ourselves ere it be too late. The temptation is subtle and dangerous; even the best of us have felt its force. It was Jeremiah who said, "I will not speak any more in his Name"; (Jer_20:9) it was the great Elijah who cried out, as if in despair, "I only am left, and they seek my life". (1Ki_19:10) Then there are not wanting false and mistaken friends, who say, as St. Peter to our Lord, "This shall not be unto thee", (Mat_16:22) or as the disciples said to St. Paul, "Go not up to Jerusalem". (Act_21:11-13 Neh_6:10, Neh_6:11) So it has been in all great enterprises. There are lions in the way; difficulties arise that seem to the fearful impossibilities. So it is specially in the Christian life. "The fear of man bringeth a snare," but so also does the fear that rises in our own hearts.
II FAITH CONQUERING FEAR. (Vers. 4-7) God"s truth is like Constantine"s banner: "By this we conquer.
1. Realizing Gods presence. God is not afar off, but near; he is not an indifferent spectator, but pledged to defend the right. The end is in his hands. He will save his people. The presence of an earthly chief gives courage to his soldiers: how much more should we take heart when we know that God is with us!
2. Confiding in Gods protection. It is not chance, nor caprice, nor arbitrary rule, that settles things, but the will of God. He "trieth the righteous." There is a holy, loving discipline. The furnace may be hot, but it is for the purifying of the gold. (Job_23:10) Let us have patience. (Jam_5:10, 11 1Pe_1:3-7)
3. Anticipating Gods deliverance. Faith looks beyond the seen. When the vision of God"s power is revealed, our fears give place to confidence, our tremblings to tranquillity. (2Ki_6:17) What God loves must live. What God has promised he will certainly perform. (2Pe_2:9) "Put we our quarrel to the will of Heaven, Who, when he sees the hour is ripe on earth, Will rain hot vengeance on th" offenders" heads. (Shakespeare) W.F.
HOMILIES BY C. SHORT Vers. 1-7. Faith"s antidote to fear.
This psalm is referred by some to the early struggles of David against the unrelenting jealousy of Saul; by others to the rebellion of Absalom; by others to the general conflict ever waging between the good and the evil powers. The subject of it is "Confidence in the Lord, and his protection even against the mightiest force of the wicked." The two leading ideas are the doctrine of David"s friends, and David"s own doctrine.
I SAFETY IN DANGER COULD BE FOUND ONLY IN FLIGHT. (Vers. 1-3) This was the temptation with which his friends assailed him to abandon the righteous cause by flight. The temptation was plausible:
1. Because his very life was in danger. If anything less had been threatened reputation or property it might have been prudent to remain; but "skin for skin," etc.
2. The attack upon his life was secret, and not open. (Ver. 2.) He might resist and conquer an open attack; but what can defend us against cunning plots hatched in secret?
3. The greatest social disorder prevailed. (Ver. 3) "What shall the righteous do?" was their plea with him. "You are powerless if you remain." They were in despair, and thought that flight was his only desperate resource. But David"s doctrine was
II THAT SAFETY WAS FOUND BY TRUSTING TO GOD"S PROTECTIVE CARE. (Vers. 4-7)
1. Trust in God enabled him to stand by the righteous cause; by flight he would abandon it to the wicked. Faith in God gives an unconquerable devotion to the right; flight is unbelief and cowardice. Indolent trust a trust that does not work and fight in the good cause is no better than cowardly flight.
2. He trusted in Gods overruling power. (Vers. 4, 5) That somehow he would uphold the righteous cause and righteous men; that as long as his throne was in the heavens, they could not be in any lasting peril, whatever appearances might be.
3. He trusted in the retributive providence of God. (Vers. 5, 6) A providence that dealt with the righteous and the wicked; an inward and an outward retributive providence, which rewards and punishes in both spheres.
4. Whatever his outward lot, he trusted that he should one day see God"s face. (Ver. 7) That is safety; that is salvation from all danger and all trouble. The highest salvation is of a spiritual kind, not outward and temporal. To see God"s face is to stand firmer than the mountains, and to be richer than all the outward universe. S.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv1–7 Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of this Psalm…
Charles Simeon gives an excellent summary of this Psalm in the following sentences: "The Psalms are a rich repository of experimental knowledge. David, at the different periods of his life, was placed in almost every situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be placed; in these heavenly compositions he delineates all the workings of the heart. He introduces, too, the sentiments and conduct of the various persons who were accessory either to his troubles or his joys; and thus sets before us a compendium of all that is passing in the hearts of men throughout the world. When he penned this Psalm he was under persecution from Saul, who sought his life, and hunted him `as a partridge upon the mountains.' His timid friends were alarmed for his safety, and recommended him to flee to some mountain where he had a hiding place, and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. But David, being strong in faith, spurned the idea of resorting to any such pusillanimous expedients, and determined confidently to repose his trust in God."
To assist us to remember this short, but sweet Psalm, we will give it the name of "THE SONG OF THE STEADFAST."
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From Ps 11:1-3, David describes the temptation with which he was assailed, and from Ps 11:4-7, the arguments by which his courage was sustained.
Ver. 1. These verses contain an account of a temptation to distrust God, with which David was, upon some unmentioned occasion, greatly exercised. It may be, that in the days when he was in Saul's court, he was advised to flee at a time when this flight would have been charged against him as a breach of duty to the king, or a proof of personal cowardice. His case was like that of Nehemiah, when his enemies, under the garb of friendship, hoped to entrap him by advising him to escape for his life. Had he done so, they could then have found a ground of accusation. Nehemiah bravely replied, "Shall such a man as I flee?" and David, in a like spirit, refuses to retreat, exclaiming,
In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our confidence, and he will use such plausible logic, that unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in Jehovah, he will make us like the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself.
Whole Psalm. The most probable account of the occasion of this Psalm is that given by Amyraldus. He thinks it was composed by David while he was in the court of Saul, at a time when the hostility of the king was beginning to show itself, and before it had broken out into open persecution. David's friends, or those professing to be so, advised him to flee to his native mountains for a time, and remain in retirement, till the king should show himself more favourable. David does not at that time accept the counsel, though afterwards he seems to have followed it. This Psalm applies itself to the establishment of the church against the calumnies of the world and the compromising counsel of man, in that confidence which is to be placed in God the Judge of all. W. Wilson, D.D., in loc., 1860.
Whole Psalm. If one may offer to make a modest conjecture, it is not improbable this Psalm might be composed on the sad murder of the priests by Saul (1Sa 22:19), when after the slaughter of Abimelech, the high priest, Doeg, the Edomite, by command from Saul, "slew in one day fourscore and five persons which wore a linen ephod." I am not so carnal as to build the spiritual church of the Jews on the material walls of the priests' city at Nob (which then by Doeg was smitten with the edge of the sword), but this is most true, that "knowledge must preserve the people; "and (Mal 2:7), "The priests' lips shall preserve knowledge; "and then it is easy to conclude, what an earthquake this massacre might make in the foundations of religion. Thomas Fuller.
Whole Psalm. Notice how remarkably the whole Psalm corresponds with the deliverance of Lot from Sodom. This verse, with the angel's exhortation, "Escape to the mountains, lest thou be consumed, "and Lot's reply, "I cannot escape to the mountains, lest some evil take me and I die." Ge 19:17-19. And again, "The Lord's seat is in heaven, and upon the ungodly he shall rain snares, fire, brimstone, storm and tempest, "with "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire out of heaven:" and again "His countenance will behold the thing that is just, "with "Delivered just Lot... for that righteous man vexed his righteous soul with their ungodly deeds." 2Pe 2:7-8. Cassidorus (A.D., 560) in John Mason Neal's "Commentary on the Psalms, from Primitive and Medieval Writers, "1860.
Whole Psalm. The combatants at the Lake Thrasymene are said to have been so engrossed with the conflict that neither party perceived the convulsions of nature that shook the ground
"An earthquake reeled unheedingly away, None felt stern nature rocking at his feet."
From a nobler cause, it is thus with the soldiers of the Lamb. They believe, and, therefore, make no haste; nay, they can scarcely be said to feel earth's convulsions as other men, because their eager hope presses forward to the issue at the advent of the Lord. Andrew A. Bonar.
Ver. 1. I trust in the Lord: how do ye say to my soul, Swerve on to your mountain like a bird? (others, "O thou bird.") Saul and his adherents mocked and jeered David with such taunting speeches, as conceiving that he knew no other shift or refuge, but so betaking himself unto wandering and lurking on the mountains; hopping, as it were, from one place to another like a silly bird; but they thought to ensnare and take him well enough for all that, not considering God who was David's comfort, rest and refuge. Theodore Haak's "Translation of the Dutch Annotations, as ordered by the Synod of Dort, in 1618." London, 1657.
Ver. 1. With Jehovah I have taken shelter; how say ye to my soul, Flee, sparrows, to your hill? "Your hill, "that hill from which you say your help cometh: a sneer. Repair to that boasted hill, which may indeed give you the help which it gives the sparrow: a shelter against the inclemencies of a stormy sky, no defence against our power. Samuel Horsley, in loc.
Ver. 1. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? The holy confidence of the saints in the hour of great trial is beautifully illustrated by the following ballad which Anne Askew, who was burned at Smithfield in 1546, made and sang when she was in Newgate:
Like as the armed knight, | On thee my care I cast,
Appointed to the field, | For all their cruel spite:
With this world will I fight, | I set not by their haste;
And Christ shall be my shield.| For thou art my delight.
Faith is that weapon strong, | I am not she that list
Which will not fail at need: | My anchor to let fall
My foes, therefore, among, | For every drizzling mist,
Therewith will I proceed. | My ship substantial.
As it is had in strength | Not oft use I to write,
And force of Christe's way, | In prose, nor yet in rhyme;
It will prevail at length, | Yet will I shew one sight
Though all the devils say nay.| That I saw in my time.
Faith in the fathers old | I saw a royal throne,
Obtained righteousness; | Where justice should have sit,
Which makes me very bold | But in her stead was one
To fear no world's distress. | Of moody, cruel wit.
I now rejoice in heart, | Absorbed was righteousness,
And hope bids me do so; | As of the raging flood:
For Christ will take my part, | Satan, in his excess,
And ease me of my woe. | Sucked up the guiltless blood.
Thou sayest Lord, whoso knock, | Then thought I, Jesus Lord,
To them wilt thou attend: | When thou shall judge us all,
Undo therefore the lock, | Hard it is to record
And thy strong power send. | On these men what will fall.
More enemies now I have | Yet, Lord, I thee desire,
Than hairs upon my head: | For that they do to me,
Let them not me deprave, | Let them not taste the hire
But fight thou in my stead. | Of their iniquity.
Ver. 1. How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? We may observe, that David is much pleased with the metaphor in frequently comparing himself to a bird, and that of several sorts: first, to an eagle (Ps 103:5), "My youth is renewed like the eagle's; " sometimes to an owl (Ps 102:6), "I am like an owl in the desert; " sometimes to a pelican, in the same verse, "Like a pelican in the wilderness; "sometimes to a sparrow (Ps 102:7), "I watch, and am as a sparrow; "sometimes to a partridge, "As when one doth hunt a partridge." I cannot say that he doth compare himself to a dove, but he would compare himself (Ps 55:6), "O that I had the wings of a dove, for then I would flee away and be at rest." Some will say, How is it possible that birds of so different a feather should all so fly together as to meet in the character of David? To whom we answer, That no two men can more differ one from another, that the same servant of God at several times differeth from himself. David in prosperity, when commanding, was like an eagle; in adversity, when contemned, like an owl; in devotion, when retired, like a pelican; in solitariness, when having no company, (of Saul), like a partridge. This general metaphor of a bird, which David so often used on himself, his enemies in the first verse of this Psalm used on him, though not particularising the kind thereof: "Flee as a bird to your mountain; "that is, speedily betake thyself to thy God, in whom you hope for succour and security.
Seeing this counsel was both good in itself, and good at this time, why doth David seem so angry and displeased thereat? Those his words, "Why say you to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?" import some passion, at leastways, a disgust of the advice. It is answered, David was not offended with the counsel, but with the manner of the propounding thereof. His enemies did it ironically in a gibing, jeering way, as if his flying thither were to no purpose, and he unlikely to find there the safety he sought for. However, David was not hereby put out of conceit with the counsel, beginning this Psalm with this his firm resolution, In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye then to my soul, etc. Learn we from hence, when men give us good counsel in a jeering way, let us take the counsel, and practice it; and leave them the jeer to be punished for it. Indeed, corporal cordials may be envenomed by being wrapped up in poisoned papers; not so good spiritual advice where the good matter receives no infection from the ill manner of the delivery thereof. Thus, when the chief priests mocked our Saviour (Mt 27:43), "He trusted in God, let him deliver him now if he will have him." Christ trusted in God never a whit the less for the fleere and flout which their profaneness was pleased to bestow upon him. Otherwise, if men's mocks should make us to undervalue good counsel, we might in this age be mocked out of our God, and Christ, and Scripture, and heaven; the apostle Jude, (Jude 1:18), having foretold that in the last times there should be mockers, walking after their own lusts. Thomas Fuller.
Ver. 1. It is as great an offence to make a new, as to deny the true God. In the Lord put I my trust; how then say ye unto my soul (ye seducers of souls), "that she should fly unto the mountains as a bird; "to seek unnecessary and foreign helps, as if the Lord alone were not sufficient? "The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and he that delivereth me, my God, and my strength; in him will I trust: my shield, the horn of my salvation, and my refuge. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be safe from mine enemies." "Whom have I in heaven but thee, "amongst those thousands of angels and saints, what Michael or Gabriel, what Moses or Samuel, what Peter, what Paul? "and there is none in earth that I desire in comparison of thee." John King, 1608.
Ver. 1. In temptations of inward trouble and terror, it is not convenient to dispute the matter with Satan. David in Ps 42:11, seems to correct himself for his mistake; his soul was cast down within him, and for the cure of that temptation, he had prepared himself by arguments for a dispute; but perceiving himself in a wrong course, he calls off his soul from disquiet to an immediate application to God and the promises, "Trust still in God, for I shall yet praise him; "but here he is more aforehand with his work; for while his enemies were acted by Satan to discourage him, he rejects the temptation at first, before it settled upon his thoughts, and chaseth it away as a thing that he would not give ear to. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? And there are weighty reasons that should dissuade us from entering the lists with Satan in temptation of inward trouble. Richard Gilpin.
Ver. 1. The shadow will not cool except in it. What good to have the shadow though of a mighty rock, when we sit in the open sun? To have almighty power engaged for us, and we to throw ourselves out of it, by bold sallies in the mouth of temptation! The saints' falls have been when they have run out of their trench and stronghold; for, like the conies, they are a weak people in themselves, and their strength lies in the rock of God's almightiness, which is their habitation. William Gurnall.
Ver. 1. The saints of old would not accept deliverances on base terms. They scorned to fly away for the enjoyment of rest except it were with the wings of a dove, covered with silver innocence. As willing were many of the martyrs to die as to dine. The tormentors were tired in torturing Blandina. "We are ashamed, O Emperor! The Christians laugh at your cruelty, and grow the more resolute, "said one of Julian's nobles. This the heathen counted obstinacy; but they knew not the power of the Spirit, nor the secret armour of proof, which saints wear about their hearts. John Trapp.
Ver. 1. Faith's bold avowal, and brave refusal.
Ver. 1. Teacheth us to trust in God, how great soever our dangers be; also that we shall be many times assaulted to make us put far from us this trust, but yet that we must cleave unto it, as the anchor of our souls, sure and steadfast. Thomas Wilcocks.
Ver. 1. The advice of cowardice, and the jeer of insolence, both answered by faith. Lesson Attempt no other answer.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 In the Lord put I my trust.
Psa_11:1-7
In the Lord put I my trust.
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Jehovah the Protector and Avenger of the persecuted saint
The Psalmist, beset by malicious foes, is warned by some of his adherents to seek refuge in flight. The Psalm is his response to this suggestion. In Jehovah, he says, is his trust, and there is no need for him to fear; Jehovah is watching all human actions from His heavenly sanctuary, and it is certain that He will eventually whelm the ungodly in a terrible ruin, and cheer with the light of His countenance the righteous whom He has proved in the furnace of adversity. The Psalm is Davidic by title, and may perhaps be assigned to the period when Davids life was imperilled by the rebellion of Absalom. (A. C. Jennings and W. H. Lowe.)
Safety in God
The singer is in danger of his life, and timorous and fainthearted counsellors would fain persuade him to seek safety in flight. But full of unshaken faith in God, he rejects their counsel, believing that Jehovah, the righteous King, though He tries His servants, does not forsake them. Not the righteous, but the wicked have need to fear. The Psalm is so short and so general in its character that it is not easy to say to what circumstances in Davids life it should be referred. The choice seems, however, to lie between his persecution by Saul and the rebellion of his son Absalom. Delitzsch decides for the last, and thinks the counsel (Psa_11:1), Flee to your mountain, comes from the mouth of friends, who were anxious to persuade the king to betake himself, as he had before done when hunted by Saul, to the rocks of the wild goats. The expression (Psa_11:3), When the foundations are destroyed, points to a time when lawful authority was subverted. (J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D.)
Faiths answer to timid counsellors
The structure of the Psalm is simple and striking. There are two vividly contrasted halves: the first gives the suggestions of timid counsellors, who see only along the low levels of earth; the second, the brave answer of faith which looks up into heaven. Verses 1-3. The Psalmist begins with an utterance of faith, which makes him recoil with wonder and aversion from the cowardly, well-meant counsels of his friends. The metaphor of flight to a stronghold, which is in the word for trust, obviously colours the context, for what can be more absurd than that he who has sought and found shelter in God Himself should listen to the whisperings of his own heart, or to the advice of friends, and hurry to some other hiding place? Safe in God, the Psalmist wonders why such advice should be given, and his question expresses its irrationality, and his rejection of it. Have we here a good mans dialogue with himself? Were there no voices in him: the voice of sense which spoke to the soul, and that of the soul which spoke authoritatively to the sense?. . .. The timid counsel is enforced by two considerations: the danger of remaining a mark for the stealthy foe, and the nobler thought of the hopelessness of resistance, and therefore the quixotism of sacrificing ones self in a prolongation of it. Prudent advice, when the prudence is only inspired by sense, is generally foolish; and the only reasonable attitude is obstinate hopefulness and brave adherence to duty. In the second part the poet opposes to the picture drawn by fear the vision of the opened heaven and the throned Jehovah. To the eyes that have seen that vision, and before which it ever burns, all earthly sorrows and dangers seem small. There is necessarily in the Divine nature an aversion to evil, and to the man who has so completely given himself over to it as to love it. Retribution, not forgiveness, is here the conception of the relations between man and God. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
Moral courage
We have in this Psalm a striking instance of Christian heroism. The Psalmist is found in circumstances of great moral perplexity and personal danger, but he stands his ground, trusting in God.
I. The severity of his trial. Davids timid counsellors bring before him several pressing reasons why he should despair of his cause, and retire from the scene of conflict.
1. The desperate designs of his enemies.
2. Their perfidious policy.
3. Their successful action.
II. The constancy of the tried. What were the sources of this sublime courage?
1. The presence of God.
2. The majesty of God.
3. The knowledge of God.
4. The righteousness of God.
Here the Psalmist rested, and here may we rest. God loveth the wise, the just, the good, and in Him may we rest.
III. The certainty of the triumph.
1. All Gods people may expect to be thus tried. At one time or other our faith, principle, hope will be thus severely tested.
2. Let us at such times beware of the temporising policy of faint-hearted men. It is often a sorer trial for faith to withstand the pleadings of well-meaning friends than to arm itself against open enemies.
3. Let us trust confidently in God, and He shall make us to triumph. (W. L. Watkinson.)
Courage,
says Webster, is that quality of mind which enables men to encounter danger and difficulties with firmness, or without any fear or depression of spirits.
I. Genuine moral courage tested. By the alarming intelligence and cowardly counsels, not of enemies but of friends. They presented to his mind two facts to prompt him to a cowardly flight.
1. The imminence of his danger.
2. The uselessness of religion.
II. Genuine moral courage explained. All this did not intimidate David. On the contrary, it reinspired him. What was the very spirit of his courage? Trust in an all-sufficient Helper. In the Lord put I my trust. To show that He in whom he trusted was sufficient to help him, he refers to four things.
1. Gods authority. The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lords throne is in heaven. He is the King of the universe, and is able to control the events that are transpiring.
2. Gods knowledge. His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. He is not ignorant of what is going on, nor is He a mere spectator. He examines the motives of every actor m the scene.
3. Gods feeling. The Lord trieth the righteous; but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, His soul hateth. He not only superintends and sees all that is going on, but He has a heart in the matter. His feelings are interested. He loves the good; He loathes the wicked.
4. Gods retribution. Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, etc. Such is the God he trusted in. One who has moral feelings, who recoils from the wrong and sympathises with the right. One who will exercise a righteous retribution. Who that trusts in such a God as this need fear? (Homilist.)
A song in the night
The environment of the Psalm is stormy. The singer is a soul in difficulty. He is the victim of relentless antagonists. It is a song in the night.
I. Inadequate resources. The Psalmist hears the voices of counsellors. They are urging him to get away from the exposed plains to the strongholds. But to the Psalmist the suggested defences are inadequate. The enemy can reach him there. Against these imperfect defences the Psalmist proclaims his own confident boast, In the Lord put I my trust. Look at some of our suggested refuges. Take up literature, music, science, or art. All such suggested strongholds are inadequate.
II. The all-sufficient security. Upon what, then, shall the driven soul depend? In the Lord put I my trust. The Psalmist enumerates some of the foundations upon which his joyful confidence is built. See some stones of the grand foundation--the Lords immanence, the Lords sovereignty, the Lords discernments, the Lords repulsions, the Lords purposes. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)
Trust in the Lord
Birds of high flight and of great strength make their nests in mountains. When these creatures are alarmed and desire a place of refuge you find them flying not to the valley, but to the mountain. Every man is liable to fearfulness and alarm. And every man has his mountain--wealth, friends, patronage. The man of God has his mountain in God. Many a good man forgets this, and advises others by his fears rather than by his faith. David is speaking of such people, for such have given him bad advice.
I. The proper influence of trusting in god. It should give you a firm adherence to that which you feel to be right. The man who trusts in God keeps from doing anything until he sees the right thing to be done. The effect of this is the production of peace of mind--calmness of spirit.
II. God does not disturb this quietness, but there are those who do. Not Satan and his angels only, but also your fellow men. Do not put the blame of every mischief on Satan. We are our own Satans very frequently. Whatever use a man may make of friends, neighbours, and religious advisers he will take care that they never come between him and God.
III. Infer your duty from your principles. Whatever is consistent with trust you may do. The application of the principle of trust will keep you consistent, and will settle ten thousand matters that otherwise would perplex you. (Samuel Martin.)
The secret of faiths victory
The exercise of genuine faith is frequently involved in a conflict with unbelief; and they not seldom get entangled one with the other, like wrestlers, so that they can scarce be distinguished. Just such a struggle is set forth in this Psalm. It tells of Davids experience as a believer assaulted by suspicions and fears and perplexities prompted within him by unbelief.
I. The manner in which the assault was made (verses 1-3). We cannot tell the circumstances which occasioned their suggestions. But the danger represented was well-nigh desperate. The very foundations of his safety were threatened. Then it was said to him, Flee, flee as a bird to your mountain. The suggestion was insidious in form, of a prudent and very practical hint for self-preservation. And yet it was alien to his faith. That was not disturbed in its depths where it was anchored on the Lord. Their suggestions did indeed ruffle his feelings, but did not make him doubt the truths of his faith. Hence he avows his trust. In the Lord put I my trust. How dare ye say to my soul, flee?
II. How he met the assaults of unbelief. By turning his gaze outwards and upwards to the Lord. From Him he derived all the power wherewith to meet their assaults.
III. The Psalm may be taken as a dialogue.
1. The suggestion to flee is met by asking how they dare to say that when the Lord is in His holy temple.
2. That the wicked bend their bow is met by the thought, His eyes behold, His eyelids try the children of men. As if He could not see!
3. That the foundations were destroyed, by the thought that if they were the Lord was dealing with him; the Lord trieth the righteous; and I put my trust in Him, who of old laid the foundations of the earth, in Him the Eternal. Then, should such a man as I flee?
IV. Lessons.
1. Dread and resist the faintest whisper of retreat, whatever be the troubles and dangers of your course.
2. Live much aloft in communion with the Divine object of a victorious faith. (Robert R. Muir.)
Confidence in God
The utter helplessness in which Davids soul was plunged may be inferred from the advice which his friends had kindly, yet foolishly, tendered to him. They had advised him to flee as a bird to the mountains; in other words, they had advised flight from trouble,--the cowards cure for the distresses of life. The quality of Davids spirit is seen from the answer which he returned to this mean counsel. It was absolutely intolerable to him, creating in him a sense of revulsion and utter disdain. There is only one flight possible to the truly good man, and that is a flight towards the Lord, his Infinite Deliverer. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe. The suggestion made by the friends of David shows their own irreligiousness, and shows indeed all that the world has to offer to the soul when it is in its last extremity. In the case of the Christian there is no need to invent any religious alleviation of trouble, for that alleviation is abundantly supplied by the promises of God, which are exceedingly great and precious, never so great as when greatly needed, and never so precious as when every other voice is silenced, and all the world confesses itself to be unable to touch effectually the tremendous agony. It is beautiful to notice how an assault of this kind is repelled by the very character of David. In the Lord put I my trust. That was the solidity of his character. Outwardly he was troubled enough; waves and billows were rushing upon him in great storms, so rapidly that he had not time to lift up his head and open his eyes upon the fair scene that was above; but inwardly there was a religious trust which made him what he was--a secret, unfailing, abounding confidence in the living God; all this confidence seemed to the outward observer to be eclipsed and indeed destroyed, but it was still there, making Davids heart strong amidst all the temptation and wrath which turned his life into daily suffering. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The mission of trial
It is very remarkable that this world has always hated the good and loved the evil; but it has always been so. The world and the Church are perpetual and eternal enemies. Darkness and light continually are opposed to one another. If we look down the list of Gods servants from the first, we find it as an invariable rule that the world has ever hated them in their generation. Men cast them out of whom the world was not worthy. Still, they all maintained their faith in God; each could say with the Psalmist, to the close of his life, In the Lord put I my trust. And God has never forsaken them that trust in Him. Sorrows may fall thick around them at times, trials grievous to be borne, and divers temptations may come upon them; but all these things tend only to strengthen faith in them that are saved. If a man enjoys all good things on earth--great prosperity, continual ease, nothing to vex him--then it needs, we know not what an amount of grace, and what years of careful training in himself, and of prayer and watchfulness, to keep that man from falling away. There are so few of us who would really love and serve God if we met with no trials in life, that in His great mercy God sends these things, first upon one, and then upon another amongst us. It is out of love to us He does so. No less true is this principle of faith, and trust, and security as applied to a nation, as it is to a church, or to each individual Christian among us. It is the secret of all national security, and prosperity, and peace. (W. J. Stracey, M. A.)
Flee as a bird to your mountain.
Times for flight
It is by no means always an easy question for the good man to decide when he shall flee, and when resist, the storm of immorality and irreligion that may be prevailing in the community to which he belongs. He may err as widely in precipitating the time for doing a thing as he can in allowing the time to pass by unimproved. It is as much the part of a good general to know when to halt as when to advance; when to retreat as When to attack; when to save life as when to cast it away. The only question for him to settle is, which course for the time being will, in the end, best promote the cause he has in hand. Our Lord both spoke and acted on this principle, counselling His disciples at one time to save themselves by flight, at another to remain at their post, even at the cost of their lives. He counselled them to determine their line of conduct, not by its consequences to themselves, but by its consequences to the cause in which they were identified. If flight would best promote its interests, they were to flee; if remaining at their posts, they were to remain; and, if needs be, die there. Many a bishop in the primitive Church did this; fleeing, so lone as flight could best serve their Masters cause; but when it demanded the surrender of their lives, giving themselves up freely to martyrdom. David, for years after he had been divinely designated to the throne of Israel, fled before his persecutors like a terrified bird. In this Psalm his affairs are no longer as they have been. The time has come when the cause with which he has identified himself can no longer be promoted by his flight. It demands champions and defenders, and it may be martyrs. (David Caldwell, A. M.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Psalms 11
Psalms 11
The correctness of the superscription is, in the present case, defended by Ewald and Hitzig. Delitzsch refers the psalm to the eve of Absaloms conspiracy, while other supporters of the Davidic authorship prefer the Sauline persecution. The situation as described in the psalm corresponds sufficiently well to either of these periods, in both of which David was surrounded by stealthy hostility and counselled by prudence to flight. But there are no definite marks of date in the psalm itself; and all that is certain is its many affinities with the other psalms of the group which Cheyne calls the "persecution psalms," including Psa_37:9-14; Psa_37:17. These resemblances make a common authorship probable.
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The structure of the psalm is simple and striking. There are two vividly contrasted halves; the first gives the suggestions of timid counsellors who see only along the low levels of earth, the second the brave answer of faith which looks up into heaven.
In the first part (Psa_11:1-3) the psalmist begins with an utterance of faith, which makes him recoil with wonder and aversion from the cowardly, well-meant counsels of his friends. "In Jehovah have I taken refuge"-a profession of faith which in Psalms 7. I was laid as the basis of prayer for deliverance and is here the ground for steadfastly remaining where he stands. The metaphor of flight to a stronghold, which is in the word for trust, obviously colours the context, for what can be more absurd than that he who has sought and found shelter in God Himself should listen to the whisperings of his own heart or to the advice of friends and hurry to some other hiding place? "He that believeth shall not make haste," and, even when the floods come, shall not need to seek in wild hurry for an asylum above the rising waters. Safe in God, the psalmist wonders why such counsel should be given, and his question expresses its irrationality and his rejection of it. But these timid voices spoke to his "soul," and the speakers are undefined. Is he apostrophising his own lower nature? Have we here a good mans dialogue with himself? Were there two voices in him: the voice of sense, which spoke to the soul, and that of the soul, which spoke authoritatively to sense? Calvin finds here the mention of spirituales luctas; and whether there were actual counsellors of flight or no, no doubt prudence and fear said to and in his soul, "Flee." If we might venture to suppose that the double thought of the oneness of the psalmists personality and the manifoldness of his faculties was in his mind, we should have an explanation of the strange fluctuation between singulars and plurals in Psa_11:1 b. "Flee" is plural, but is addressed to a singular subject: "my soul"; "your" is also plural, and "bird" singular. The Hebrew marginal correction smooths away the first anomaly by reading the singular imperative, but that leaves the anomaly in "your." The LXX and other old versions had apparently a slightly different text, which got rid of that anomaly by reading (with the addition of one letter and a change in the division of words), "Flee to the mountain as a bird"; and that is probably the best solution of the difficulty. One can scarcely fail to recall the comparison of David to a partridge hunted on the mountains. Cheyne finds in the plurals a proof that "it is the Church within the Jewish nation of which the poet thinks." The timid counsel is enforced by two considerations: the danger of remaining a mark for the stealthy foe and the nobler thought of the hopelessness of resistance, and therefore the quixotism of sacrificing ones self in a prolongation of it.
The same figure employed in Psa_7:12 of Gods judgments on the wicked is here used of the wickeds artillery against the righteous. The peril is imminent, for the bows are bent, and the arrows already fitted to the string. In midnight darkness the assault will be made. {compare Psa_64:3-4} The appeal to the instinct of self-preservation is reinforced by the consideration {Psa_11:3} of the impotence of efforts to check the general anarchy. The particle at the beginning of the verse is best taken as in the same sense as at the beginning of Psa_11:2, thus introducing a second coordinate reason for the counsel. The translation of it as hypothetical or temporal (if or when) rather weakens the urgency of Psa_11:3 as a motive for flight. The probably exaggerated fears of the advisers, who are still speaking, are expressed in two short, breathless sentences: "The foundations [of society] are being torn down; the righteous-what has he achieved?" or possibly, "What can he do?" In either case, the implication is, Why wage a hopeless conflict any longer at the peril of life? All is lost; the wise thing to do is to run. It is obvious that this description of the dissolution of the foundations of the social order is either the exaggeration of fear, or poetic generalisation from an individual case (Davids), or refers the psalm to some time of anarchy, when things were much worse than even in the time of Saul or Absalom.
All these suggestions may well represent the voice of our own fears, the whispers of sense and sloth, which ever dwell on and exaggerate the perils in the road of duty, and bid us abandon resistance to prevailing evils as useless and betake ourselves to the repose and security of some tempting nest far away from strife. But such counsels are always base, and though they be the result of "prudence," are short-sighted, and leave out precisely the determining factor in the calculation. The enemy may have fitted his arrows to the string, but there is another bow bent which will be drawn before his. {Psa_7:12} The foundations are not being destroyed, however many and strong the arms that are trying to dig them up. The righteous has done much, and can do more, though his work seem wasted. Self-preservation is not a mans first duty: flight is his last. Better and wiser and infinitely nobler to stand a mark for the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune" and to stop at our post though we fall there, better infinitely to toil on, even when toil seems vain, than cowardly to keep a whole skin at the cost of a wounded conscience or despairingly to fling up work, because the ground is hard and the growth of the seed imperceptible. Prudent advices, when the prudence is only inspired by sense, are generally foolish; and the only reasonable attitude is obstinate hopefulness and brave adherence to duty.
So the psalm turns, in its second part, from these creeping counsels, which see but half the field of vision, and that the lower, to soar and gaze on the upper half. "God is in heaven; alls right with the world," and with the good men who are trying to help to make it right. The poet opposes to the picture drawn by fear the vision of the opened heaven and the throned Jehovah. In Psa_11:4 the former part is not to be taken as a separate affirmation: "The Lord is," etc., but "Jehovah" is a nominative absolute, and the weight of the sentence falls on the last clause. The "holy palace" in which Jehovah is beheld enthroned is not on earth, as the parallelism of the clauses shows. To the eyes that have seen that vision and before which it ever burns, all earthly sorrows and dangers seem small. There is the true asylum of the hunted soul; that is the mountain to which it is wise to flee. If the faint hearted had seen that sight, their timid counsels would have caught a new tone. They are preposterous to him who does see it. For not only does he behold Jehovah enthroned, but he sees Him scrutinising all mens acts. We bring the eyelids close when minutely examining any small thing. So God is by a bold figure represented as doing, and the word for "beholds" has to divide as its root idea, and hence implies a keen discriminating gaze. As fire tries metal, so He tries men. And the result of the trial is twofold, as is described in the two clauses of Psa_11:5, which each require to be completed from the other: "The Lord trieth the righteous (and finding him approved, loveth), but the wicked" (He trieth, and finding him base metal), His soul "hateth." In the former clause the process of trial is mentioned, and its result omitted; in the latter the process is omitted, and the result described. The strong anthropomorphism which attributes a "soul" to God and "hatred" to His soul is not to be slurred over as due to the imperfection of Hebrew ideas of the Divine nature. There is necessarily in the Divine nature an aversion to evil and to the man who has so completely given himself over to it as to "love" it. Such perverted love can only have turned to it that side of the Divine character which in gravity of disapprobation and recoil from evil answers to what we call hate, but neither desires to harm nor is perturbed by passion. The New Testament is as emphatic as the Old in asserting the reality of "the wrath of God." But there are limitation and imperfection in this psalm in that it does not transcend the point of view which regards mans conduct as determining Gods attitude. Retribution, not forgiveness nor the possibility of changing the moral bias of character, is its conception of the relations of man and God.
The Divine estimate, which in Psa_11:5 is the result of Gods trial of the two classes, is carried forward in Psa_11:6-7 to its twofold issues. But the form of Psa_11:6 is that of a wish, not of a prediction; and here again we encounter the tone which, after all allowances, must be regarded as the result of the lower stage of revelation on which the psalmist stood, even though personal revenge need not be ascribed to him. In the terrible picture of the judgment poured down from the open heavens into which the singer has been gazing, there is a reproduction of the destruction of the cities of the plain, the fate of which stands in the Old Testament as the specimen and prophecy of all subsequent acts of judgment. But the rain from heaven is conceived as consisting of "snares," which is a strangely incongruous idea. Such mingled metaphors are less distasteful to Hebrew poets than to Western critics; and the various expedients to smooth this one away, such as altering the text and neglecting the accents and reading "coals of fire," are unnecessary sacrifices to correctness of style. Delitzsch thinks that the "snares" are "a whole discharge of lassoes," i.e., lightnings, the zigzag course of which may be compared to a "noose thrown down from above"! The purpose of the snares is to hold fast the victims so that they cannot escape the fiery rain-a terrible picture, the very incongruity of figure heightening the grim effect. The division of the verse according to the accents tarts the snares from the actual components of the fatal shower, and makes the second half of the verse an independent clause, which is probably to be taken, like the former clause, as a wish: "Fire and brimstone and a burning wind [Zornhauch, Hupfeld] be the portion of their cup," again an incongruity making the representation more dreadful. What a draught-flaming brimstone and a hot blast as of the simoom! The tremendous metaphor suggests awful reality.
But the double judgment of Psa_11:5 has a gentler side, and the reason for the tempest of wrath is likewise that for the blessed hope of the upright, as the "for" of Psa_11:7 teaches. "Jehovah is righteous." That is the rock foundation for the indomitable faith of the Psalter in the certain ultimate triumph of patient, afflicted righteousness. Because God in his own character is so, He must love righteous acts-His own and mens. The latter seems to be the meaning here, where the fate of men is the subject in hand. The Divine "love" is here contrasted with both the wicked mans "love" of "violence" and Gods "hate" (Psa_11:5), and is the foundation of the final confidence, "The upright shall behold His face." The converse rendering, "His countenance doth behold the upright" (A.V). is grammatically permissible. but would be flat, tautological-since Psa_11:4 has already said so-and inappropriate to the close. where a statement as to the upright, antithetical to that as to the wicked, is needed. God looks on the upright, as has been said; and the upright shall gaze on Him, here and now in the communion of that faith which is a better kind of sight and hereafter in the vision of heaven, which the psalmist was on the verge of anticipating. That mutual gaze is blessedness. They who looking up behold Jehovah are brave to front all foes and to keep calm hearts in the midst of alarms. Hope burns like a pillar of fire in them when it is gone out in others; and to all the suggestions of their own timidity or of others they have the answer, "In the Lord have I put my trust; how say ye to my soul, Flee? Here I stand; I can do no otherwise. God help me. Amen."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 “The friends of David advise him in this psalm…
INTRODUCTION
“The friends of David advise him in this psalm to flee unto the mountainous parts of the land of Judah, in order to avoid the danger which was threatening him, should he remain in the place where he was then residing. The psalm is written in the form of a dialogue, of which the first three verses contain the advice of David’s friends, and the remaining portion his reply, wherein he declares his unshaken confidence in God, and his conviction that the wicked will be punished, and himself duly protected.”—Phillips.
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MORAL COURAGE
(Psa_11:1-7.)
We have in this psalm a striking illustration of Christian heroism. The Psalmist is found in circumstances of great moral perplexity and personal danger, but he stands his ground trusting in God.
We notice:
I. The severity of the trial.
David’s timid counsellors bring before him several pressing reasons why he should despair of his cause, and retire from the scene of conflict. They urge—
1. The desperate designs of his enemies. “They bend their bow, and make ready their arrow upon the string” (Psa_11:2). They will take his life; their thoughts are thoughts of blood.
2. Their perfidious policy. “That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart” (Psa_11:2). They were prepared to resort to the basest stratagems to compass his death.
3. Their successful action (Psa_11:3). “What hath the righteous done?”—P. B. Version. “The question in the last clause of this verse implies that the righteous have effected nothing in opposition to the prevalent iniquity.”—Alexander. “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?”—Clarke. The position here is, then, that righteousness has been unsuccessful, and the inference is that righteousness will be unsuccessful. “Thus wickedness seemed to be getting the upper hand to such a degree that the godly remnant (Isa_1:9) felt themselves tempted to flee, as Lot was bidden to flee, from the city to the mountain.”—Kay. “All is hopeless disorder and confusion.”—Perowne. The representatives of moral ideas were false, the practice of righteousness ceased, the very principles of law and order were subverted, and there seemed no hope.
II. The constancy of the tried.
“In the Lord put I my trust” (Psa_11:1). “My feet are on the true rock, why should I look elsewhere for safety?”—Perowne. “How say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? How can ye say?”—Phillips. Dark as the hour was, the Psalmist’s resolution was unshaken. What were the sources of this sublime courage?
1. The presence of God. “The Lord is in His holy temple” (Psa_11:4). God may seem to have deserted the earth, but He has not.
2. The majesty of God. “The Lord’s throne is in heaven” (Psa_11:4). Far above all human or devilish energy. The supreme power is moral.
3. The knowledge of God. “His eyes behold,” &c. (Psa_11:4). “His is a fixed and penetrating look that sees into a thing to the foundation of its inmost nature. The mention of the eyelids is intentional. When we observe a thing closely of ponder over it, we draw the eyelids together, in order that our vision may be more concentrated and direct, and become, as it were, one ray piercing through the object. Thus are men open to the all-seeing eyes, the all-searching looks of Jahve, the just and the unjust alike.”—Delitzsch. One of the Greeks said: “He is the best general who knows the most of the affairs of the enemy.” God knows His enemies, and the enemies of His people—all their secrets, subtleties, stratagems, and in due time He shall confound them.
4. The righteousness of God. God hates wickedness (Psa_11:5). “A cordial hatred.”—Alexander. “He hates the wicked with all the energy of His perfectly and essentially holy nature.”—Delitzsch.
Here the Psalmist rested; here we may rest. Truth may fail in the Church, righteousness in the State; the magistrate may cease to be just, the priest to be good, the king to be honourable; but God liveth, the Wise, the Just, the Good, and in Him we may rest.
III. The certainty of the triumph.
The wicked shall be destroyed with awful terrors (Psa_11:6), but the righteous shall triumph (Psa_11:7). “The upright shall behold His face.” “His unveiled countenance, no longer hidden behind deeds of strange providential discipline (Psa_13:1), no longer making itself felt in a few straggling rays; but like ‘the sun in a morning without clouds.’ ”—Kay.
1. All God’s people may expect to be thus tried. At one time or other our faith, principle, hope, will be thus severely tested. We must all be tried by fire.
2. Let us in such days beware of the temporising policy of faint-hearted men. “Flee like a bird to the mountain.” “The advice here given, and which he repels, is that of timid and desponding friends, who would persuade him that all is lost, and that the highest wisdom is to yield to circumstances, and to seek safety, not in resistance, but in flight. But in fact the voice which thus speaks is the voice of the natural heart, of the selfish, and therefore shortsighted and cowardly instinct, which always asks first, not what is right, but what is safe. The advice may be well meant, but it is unworthy. This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. But it is often a sorer trial for faith to have to withstand the pleadings of well-meaning friends than to arm itself against open enemies.”—Perowne.
3. Let us trust confidently in God, and He shall make us to triumph. Torstensohn, the great commander to whom Gustavus Adolphus transmitted the prosecution of the Thirty Years’ War, was a man so shattered by disease that he had to be carried at the head of his forces in a litter. Yet no commander of his age was so resistless and terrible in his onset and so invariably victorious Schiller has expressed his leading maxim in these words: he never counted his enemies. Let us not count our enemies, but trust our God, and we shall be more than conquerors. “Flee as sparrows to your mountain.”—Phillips. But, trusting in God, the sparrow becomes an eagle, mounting above the storm, and delighting itself in the eternal sunshine of the Father’s face.
FORLORN HOPES
(Psa_11:1-7.)
I. The hopes of the saint often appear forlorn hopes.
The Psalmist trusted in God, but to the timid and distrustful ones his hope was a wild, forlorn hope. A hoping against hope. Thus the hopes of the Christian often seem absurd in the eye of sense and the count of reason.
1. It is thus sometimes in the troubles of life. There are Egyptians behind, the sea before, and the believer’s expectations of deliverance seem most Utopian.
2. Amid abounding and triumphant wickedness. As in this psalm. “ ‘For the foundations are being overthrown,’ say the alarmed and timid ones. ‘He is as much in a minority now as he ever was. Had he not better leave the field of battle? Why struggle against (what men call) the inevitable course of events?’ ”—Kay.
3. As to the entire sanctification of character. How impossible it seems that we should become entirely holy, and love God with all our heart! Will not the sky always recede as we approach it?
4. At the grave. How utterly improbable the grand hopes of the saint!
II. Hopes which appear forlorn hopes to the world have nevertheless strong foundations.
The timid felt that the foundations were being destroyed, all on which a rational confidence could be founded was giving way, and yet, as we see, the Psalmist’s hope had a basis strong and deep. The foundations were gone. “It is not said, if the roof be ruinous, or if the side walls be shattered, but if the foundations.”—Fuller, quoted by Spurgeon. Nothing for sense or reason was left. But there are foundations under foundations, the eternal granite, and on this David built (Psa_11:4-5). The power of God, the truth of God, the grace of God, the unchangeableness of God; here was the everlasting rock on which David rested his hopes. When the expectations of the saints seem most wild, yet do they rest more securely than the pillared firmament.
III. The forlorn hopes of the saints are destined to glorious realisation.
“Which hope maketh not ashamed.” In deepest trouble He will deliver us, opening in the valley of Achor a door of salvation. Amid triumphant wickedness He vindicates the just, shattering the proud pottery with a rod of iron. He makes us without spot or wrinkle. He raises from the sepulchre to immortal glory and honour.
THE TACTICS OF THE TEMPTED
(Psa_11:1.)
In this psalm we see David stand firm; he will not accept the counsel of his advisers to flee, but at another time he seems to have followed this advice.
Observe:
I. There are times when we ought to stand firm in the scenes of trial.
Such times are when—
1. Such trials come in our providential path.
2. When our testimony for God is specially needed.
3. When the cause of God imperatively demands our presence, &c., &c.
II. There are times when we may lawfully withdraw from such scenes.
1. When they do not seem to lie on our providential path.
2. When our testimony has been, faithfully given.
3. When God’s cause would seem to be best served by our retirement, &c., &c.
III. The standards by which our conduct should be regulated in the changing scenes of life.
Consult:
1. The finger of God in Providence.
2. The Word of God.
3. The Spirit of God.
“Oh, wouldst Thou, Lord, Thy servant guard,
Gainst every known or secret foe;
A mind for all assaults prepared,
A sober, vigilant mind bestow,
Ever apprised of danger nigh,
And when to fight, and when to fly.”
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. Look at true foundations. (1) God is God,…
Psa 11:3
I. Look at true foundations. (1) God is God, before all things pre-ordaining, revolving within Himself and all things else, as He pleases, the great foundation given to Moses in the bush—"I am!" (2) This good God has given us a revelation. We can prove it by every evidence: the external evidence—prophecy; the internal evidence—the harmony; the experimental evidence—what it has been to many, and what it is to me. (3) In the revelation there is shown a way—the only way—by which a just God can forgive a sinner. He has found and accepted a Substitute, Who outweighs the whole world—His own Son. (4) To communicate this thought and to give this faith, there is a Holy Ghost, Himself also God; and He being spirit, works in the spirit of a man, and creates in his heart trust and love towards Jesus Christ. (5) As soon as by that Spirit a man really trusts, as a sinner, in Christ, he is united to Christ. God sees him in Christ, and in Christ God sees him righteous. (6) By the same union, and through the operation of the Holy Ghost, that man, now a living member in Christ, has a motive sufficient to change his whole life and to make him do all good works. God, inspiration, Christ, the Holy Ghost, faith, good works—these are the foundations.
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II. Be always looking to foundations and resting in foundations. Sometimes a child of God thinks he has lost his foundations. (1) If he thinks so, he should see whether any part of his foundation is impaired, or loose, or out of order. (2) If he finds out the fault, he should try to repair it; but if not, then let him throw himself back at once on the all foundation that God is God. There is nothing in the world so sure as a believer’s foundation. As the whirlwind passeth, so is the wicked no more, but the righteous is an everlasting foundation.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 10th series, p. 109.
Reference: Psa 11:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 691.
Psa 11:3-4
In the eleventh Psalm we have a description of a faithful heart in time of trial declaring itself resolved to trust on God alone, when some would advise it to fly or to draw back.
I. If our lot is cast in times and places when and where the truth as such is slighted and set aside, it is easy to see that, so far as such opinions prevail, the foundations are destroyed. When men use the sacred Scriptures familiarly and irreverently, forgetful of their Author, and endeavouring to subject them to the puny rules of human reason, then surely in their hearts the foundations of true faith are loosened, if not destroyed.
"They grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness."
II. The great danger which besets us is the danger of mistaking or slighting the great Christian doctrine of Divine grace. Whatever concerns the foundations of belief or practice concerns all Christian people as Christians. This consideration should make people cautious of two things: first, not to pass over religious questions in a careless, slighting way, as if it were no matter of interest to them; and secondly, not to enter on arguments and disputes about such matters in a hasty, disrespectful manner, without considering either the solemn nature of the subjects they are discussing, or their own very great ignorance. Remembering these two cautions, we may and ought to consider it a duty, so far as we can, to ascertain where the truth lies in the great questions which from time to time agitate the Christian world. And one object in making such inquiries should not be a vain curiosity and the fondness for the worst of all gossip—religious gossip—but simply the desire to know and to follow sacred truth, to the glory of God and the benefit of our own souls.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to "Tracts for the Times," vol. x., p. 163.
References: Psa 11:5.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 395; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 249. Psa 12:1.—Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 169; W. M. Statham, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 196; J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. i., p. 243. Psa 12:6.—J. Aldis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xi., p. 120. Psalm 12—I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 245. Psa 13:1.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 202. Psalm 13—I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 253. Psa 14:1.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 35; J. H. Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 424. Psalm 14—I. Williams, The Psalms Interpreted of Christ, p. 261. Psa 15:1.—E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 116. Psa 15:1-3.—M. Dix, Sermons Doctrinal and Practical, p. 182.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v1 Jehovah on the throne, and ordering all for blessing.
Jehovah on the throne, and ordering all for blessing.
To the chief musician, [a psalm] of David.
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The first psalm, though but of seven verses, is of varied character, and has five divisions, -is of itself a little pentateuch. Its theme is the sovereignty of God, as faith owns it, His complete control when things are at their worst, and all foundations in appearance gone. Amid the abysmal sea, He is the one thing that abides; and abiding, bears the soul up and through all surges to the shore. Yet, necessary as this truth is, and blessed as is the assurance of it, there is abundance that will try it in a scene like this, God consenting also, as the psalm says, that it should be tried, that patience may be wrought and have its perfect work: for "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, a hope that maketh not ashamed"; and if "patience have her perfect work," then are we "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." Thus the psalms that follow find their reason and justification.
1. Naturally we begin with Jehovah as the one sufficient stability of the soul. He the living, the unchanging God, is the sure refuge of the faith that cleaves to Him. Yet because no eye but that of faith discerns this refuge, men may mock and threaten the feebleness which alone they see, and see not the enclosing arms that compass about the feeble one. But he publishes his security, and the grounds of it. It is something of which we never can be deprived, while cleaving to it; and confidence grows in the confession of it. "Why say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? In Jehovah I have taken refuge."
2. But now we see the elements that breed unrest. They are of two kinds mainly. The first, in such a day as we have seen the psalms look onward to, looms large and grave enough: it is that of personal peril: "for lo, the wicked bend their bow, they fix the arrow upon the string, that they may shoot in the dark at the upright in heart." The danger is there, and yet, just where is uncertain; but the evil grows, and the moral question of this uprise under the government of God becomes the deepest: "if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" The path seems lost in this uttermost confusion.
3. But we have the correcting truth. If Jehovah’s sanctuary is to be found no more on earth, -and we must remember that it is Israel to whom the earthly sanctuary is the expression of the distinguishing favor enjoyed by them, which marked them as His people, -yet in His heavenly temple He is; and thence no sin of man can drive him. Thence He still rules the earth; and when, because He is quiet, men little deem this, He exercises the most perfect oversight over them all. Left indeed thus, they show fully what they are; and He remains, too, what He is, the throned and Holy One.
4. But He trieth also the righteous: just those He loves, and because He loves them, for the sake of what the trial works, in them and through them for His glory. And this may make the wicked, the instruments of this trial, forget or ignore that the "wicked and the lover of violence He hates." Not yet is the day of manifestation, when the truth will all come out; but he that will may nevertheless know this now. Conscience alone, if truly listened to, is competent to declare it.
5. But the psalm carries us on to the day of retribution, from its standpoint very near at hand; "upon the wicked He will rain snares, fire, and brimstone, and a scorching wind, -the portion of their cup." The imagery is borrowed from the description of the destruction of Sodom, so solemn a picture of the world’s judgment, and referred to by our Lord in connection with His own coming. (Luk 17:28-30; Luk 17:32.) The "snares" are evidently the fire and brimstone themselves, rained down from heaven,* laying hold of men before they are aware of their danger, as with Lot’s wife: "while they say, peace and safety, sudden destruction cometh upon them."
{* Dawson has shown that the instrument of divine judgment upon Sodom was no doubt a "bitumen or petroleum eruption, similar to those which, on a small scale, have been so destructive in the oil-regions of Canada and the United States of America. They arise from the existence of reservoirs of compressed inflammable gas along with petroleum and water, existing at considerable depths below the surface. When these are penetrated, as by a well or bore-hole, the gas escapes with explosive force, carrying petroleum with it, and when both have been ignited, the petroleum rains down in burning showers, and floats in flames over the ejected water, while a dense smoke towers high into the air, and the inrushing draught may produce a vortex, carrying upward to a still greater height and distributing still more widely the burning material, which is almost inextinguishable, and most destructive to life and to buildings. . . . Now the valley of the Dead Sea is an ’oil-district,’ . . . and it is well known that petroleum exudes from the rocks both on the sides and in the bottom of the Dead Sea, and, being hardened by evaporation and oxidation, forms the asphaltum referred to by
so many travelers." (Modern Science in Bible Lands, pp. 486-488.) The word used here and in
Gen 19:1-38 for "brimstone" may include "any kind of mineral pitch or oil, and possibly sulphur as well." And the "scorching wind" is therefore not the "simoom" of the desert, as generally supposed.}
On the other hand, as surely as "Jehovah is righteous, loving righteous acts," "the upright shall behold His face." Fellowship here leads on to the fellowship hereafter. Thus the first psalm of this series ends.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 The Ps. is a song of confidence in God,…
The Ps. is a song of confidence in God, and in the security of the righteous under His protection, notwithstanding the timid counsels of less trustful friends, and the evil devices of the wicked, who are doomed to destruction.
3. If the foundations be destroyed] if those in high places disregard the first principles of righteousness. This is an argument of unbelief and cowardice. It is suggested that wickedness may be so successful as to make resistance useless.
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4. God is the great Reality whom such pleadings leave out of account.
His holy temple] the heavenly sanctuary.
Try] test, as precious metals are tested.
5. Trieth] tries and approves. They stand the test.
6. Snares] Another reading is 'burning coals,' which fits the context better. Fire and brimstone] as in the destruction of Sodom: Gen_19:24. An horrible tempest] RV 'burning wind,' like the simoom of the desert. Their cup] a common Scripture figure for 'their destiny'; men's experiences in life being like a draught which they have to drink.
7. RV 'The Lord is righteous: he loveth righteousness.' God's dealings with men reflect His own character. His countenance, etc.] RV 'the upright shall behold His face,' shall be admitted to His favour, as worthy subjects are admitted to the presence of a king: cp. Mat_5:8.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v1 (See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
trust
(See Scofield "Psa 2:12")
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 Psalm 11
Psalm 11
1. Faith’s resources in the day of trouble (Psa 11:1-4)
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2. The recompense for the righteous and the wicked (Psa 11:5-7)
Psa 11:1-4. Their refuge is the Lord, in Him they trust as we, His heavenly people, know Him as our hiding place in the time of trouble. That coming day of trouble is the time “when the foundations are destroyed.” It is the time of apostasy and confusion. But their comfort is “Jehovah is in His holy temple, the Throne of Jehovah is in heaven.”
Psa 11:5-7. But faith also reckons with the day of retribution and judgment, when the days of tribulation are ended. Then the wicked receive their punishment. But the righteous shall behold His face.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 David’s Refusal to Flee When in Danger of Life.
David’s Refusal to Flee When in Danger of Life.
There was a time when David’s throne was in danger, when Absalom was scheming to usurp the royal power in Israel, when David’s very life was no longer secure. It was when the situation finally became acute that some of David’s faithful counselors seem to have urged him to flee from Jerusalem, in order to save his life and to let the danger blow over. But David, far from heeding their urging, composed this psalm of faith. To the chief musician, for use in the liturgical services of the Tabernacle, a psalm of David.
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v. 1. In the Lord put I my trust, with Jehovah he had found refuge, wherefore he surely needed no other; how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain? As a bird, when in danger, seeks the refuge of the wooded mountains, so the friends of David urged him to flee to the rocky caves of the mountainous section of Palestine, there to remain secure until conditions proved more favorable.
v. 2. For, lo, so the counselors of David told him, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, adjusting it for a sudden shot, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart, in a treacherous attempt at assassination.
v. 3. If the foundations be destroyed, the laws and ordinances of public justice were rudely overthrown, what can the righteous do? In such an event the outlook evidently is hopeless for those who loved law and order, and therefore David should seek safety in flight. But he felt differently about it.
v. 4. The Lord is in His holy Temple, on the throne of His palace, His heavenly Temple: the Lord’s throne is in heaven, all the earth is absolutely under His government. His eyes behold, His eyelids try, with a penetrating, all-seeing glance, the children of men. Jehovah was fully conscious of everything that was going on in the world, and David felt that he could safely trust in His powerful and just rule, that nothing could harm him without the permission of the heavenly King.
v. 5. The Lord trieth the righteous, proving or testing them for evidences of their sincerity and then giving them the full measure of His protection; but the wicked and him that loveth violence His soul hateth, upon them His judgment will finally descend.
v. 6. Upon the wicked He shall rain, sending down in great abundance, snares, to prevent the escape of the ungodly, fire and brimstone, usually associated with the pains of hell, and an horrible tempest, the word really signifying the fiery, poisonous wind of the desert, the samum, to indicate the terrible form of punishment sent upon the wicked by God; this shall be the portion of their cup, that which was measured out to them to drink, what was included in the punishment which they must suffer.
v. 7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, such acts of righteousness as His children on earth delight in; His countenance doth behold the upright, they alone behold His face, they alone are worthy of standing in His sight. Thus the Christians place their trust in their heavenly Father and proudly confess His name, for they know that God looks upon them in love for the sake of their Savior, Jesus Christ, His Son, and that they will finally be delivered from every evil work, to be taken up to the realms of glory.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5 General Information:
General Information:
Parallelism is common in Hebrew poetry. (See: Poetry and Parallelism)
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For the chief musician
"This is for the director of music to use in worship."
A psalm of David
Possible meanings are 1) David wrote the psalm or 2) the psalm is about David or 3) the psalm is in the style of David's psalms.
take refuge in Yahweh
Going to Yahweh for protection is spoken of as taking refuge in him. AT: "go to Yahweh for protection" (See: Metaphor)
how will you say to me, "Flee like a bird to the mountain"?
This question is asked to provide emphasis. It can be translated as a statement. AT: "So do not ask me to run away!" (See: Rhetorical Question)
For see! The wicked prepare their bows. They make ready their arrows on the strings to shoot in the darkness at the upright in heart
"Look! the wicked are preparing to attack upright people"
upright in heart
Here "upright in heart" refers to godly or righteous people.
translationWords
chief
psalm
David
Yahweh
evil
bow and arrow
darkness
heart
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–7 Ps 11 The psalmist affirms his faith in the…
Ps 11 The psalmist affirms his faith in the righteous God. Even though the world appears hopelessly chaotic, both the godly and the wicked can count on God’s justice. The godly can depend on him as a refuge and shelter.
11:1 God provides protection (or refuge; see 5:11; 9:9; 25:20) when the foundations of justice collapse. • The mountains provide another place of refuge (see 121:1).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.