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Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 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? Psalm 11:1-7 The correctness of the superscription is, in the present case, defended by Ewald and Hitzig. Delitzsch refers the psalm to the eve of Absalom’s 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 Psalm 37:9-14 ; Psalm 37:17 . These resemblances make a common authorship probable. 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 ( Psalm 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 Psalm 7:1-17 . 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 man’s 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 psalmist’s 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 Psalm 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 one’s self in a prolongation of it. The same figure employed in Psalm 7:12 of God’s judgments on the wicked is here used of the wicked’s 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 Psalm 64:3-4 } The appeal to the instinct of self-preservation is reinforced by the consideration { Psalm 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 Psalm 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 Psalm 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 (David’s), 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. { Psalm 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 man’s 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; all’s 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 Psalm 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 men’s 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 Psalm 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 man’s conduct as determining God’s 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 Psalm 11:5 is the result of God’s trial of the two classes, is carried forward in Psalm 11:6-7 to its twofold issues. But the form of Psalm 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 Psalm 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 Psalm 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 men’s. 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 man’s "love" of "violence" and God’s "hate" ( Psalm 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 Psalm 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." The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

In the Lord put I my trust. Psalm 11 Jehovah the Protector and Avenger of the persecuted saint A. C. Jennings and W. H. Lowe. 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 David's life was imperilled by the rebellion of Absalom. ( A. C. Jennings and W. H. Lowe. ) Safety in God J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D. 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 David's 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 (ver. 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 (ver. 3), "When the foundations are destroyed," points to a time when lawful authority was subverted. ( J. J. Stewart Perowne, B. D. ) Faith's answer to timid counsellors A. Maclaren, D. D. 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. Vers. 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 man's 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 one's 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 W. L. Watkinson. 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. David's 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 God's 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 Homilist. 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. God's authority. "The Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven." He is the King of the universe, and is able to control the events that are transpiring. 2. God's 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. God's 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. God's 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 J. H. Jowett, M. A. 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 Lord's immanence, the Lord's sovereignty, the Lord's discernments, the Lord's repulsions, the Lord's purposes. ( J. H. Jowett, M. A. ) Trust in the Lord Samuel Martin. 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 faith's victory Robert R. Muir. 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 David's 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 (vers. 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 Joseph Parker, D. D. The utter helplessness in which David's 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 coward's cure for the distresses of life. The quality of David's 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 David's heart strong amidst all the temptation and wrath which turned his life into daily suffering. ( Joseph Parker, D. D. ) The mission of trial W. J. Stracey, M. A. 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 God's 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 David Caldwell, A. M. 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 Master's 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. ) If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalm 11:3, 4 Christian firmness in evil times Contributors to the, Tracts for the Times. We have here 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. No man need despair; but still, when the foundations are assailed, and perhaps (humanly speaking) destroyed, it is the plain duty of believers to consider what they ought to do; to consider how they may most effectually, under God's blessing, join hands with Him in maintaining, against the world, the cause of true religion in His Church and household. 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. If men come to think it of small consequence whether or not they embrace and hold fast Divine truth, they will, by degrees, go on to doubt whether there is any such thing as Divine truth at all; and so, beginning with what they were pleased to call Christian liberty, they will end in unbelief. If men should be led to encourage the opinion that God's most holy Bible is to be handled, judged, criticised, praised or blamed like other books, then, beyond all doubt, however human reason may triumph, Divine faith will be undermined, and by degrees will be destroyed from its foundation. The thoughts of serious Church people are now directed to inquiry into the nature of the Christian Church and the duty of cleaving fast to it, more and more, as the world seeks to destroy its foundations. Some persons think the Church means anything, and some think it means nothing, but, at all events, it is of no great consequence what it means. Another danger is that 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. ( Contributors to the " Tracts for the Times. ") The foundations of the true faith indestructible Stephen Jenner, M. A. The Christian's would be friends are often his worst enemies. Instead of Strengthening his faith when he is in difficulties, they counsel him to fly. Thus was David tempted by the feeble faith of well-meaning friends. He was sure that the foundations of his faith could never be destroyed, because — 1. God is present in His Church. Ever present to preserve, revive, and defend it. 2. Because the Lord's throne is in heaven. By His throne we understand His authority. Not human laws, not Church authority, not creeds, which are fences rather than foundations. 3. Because His design is to try His people. Hence all these alarms and trials. Then we should have stability in our faith. Distaste for profitless controversy. Patience in well-doing. ( Stephen Jenner, M. A. ) An immovable foundation The "if" comes suddenly upon us. 1. Consider this "if" as being nothing but an "if." There are certain spiritual foundations which never can be removed.(1) There is the foundation book.(2) The foundation doctrine — justification by faith.(3) The foundation fact — "God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself."(4) The foundation work — the blood of Jesus applied by the Spirit of Divine grace.(5) The foundation hope — the blessed hope of eternal life with Christ. These foundations can never be moved. 2. Take this "if" as being something more than an "if." The foundations of many things may be removed — of civil government, of commerce, of one's estates, of all trust between man and man. Now suppose them removed, what should the righteous do? If the worst come to the worst —(1) He can bear it with a holy equanimity.(2) Hope for the best cheerfully.(3) Do right. Be upright, whether he fail or not.(4) If we have a hand to spare we will help a comrade up.(5) He can trust in God that it will be well in the end. And(6) The righteous can commune with Christ therein. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Lost foundations Joseph Parker, D. D. Here is the expression of a mortal fear. The idea occurred to the mind of the Psalmist that the very foundations of law and order may be destroyed. This is the most disastrous temptation that can assail the human mind. Immediately following it are all the consequences of a panic. So long as evils seem to be open to the restraints of civilisation and the penalties of righteous law, society retains a considerable sense of security, notwithstanding occasional and even violent outrage. In this case, however, the idea has occurred that the very foundations of law, justice, and equity might be ploughed up and utterly destroyed. Then the question arises, What will the righteous do? All life that is to be solid and lasting is really a question of "foundations." Our inquiry should be into basis, principles, original necessities, the eternal fitness of things, the harmony that is based upon the very nature of God. Whatever errors there may be in the superstructure of society, there should be no doubt about the solidity of the cornerstones upon which the building is set. The great necessity of Christian civilisation is to have a solid basis, to lay down principles which do not admit of disputation, and to secure assent to laws which express the spirit of eternal righteousness. Hence the work of Christianity is profound. It is the honour of Christianity that it alone is profoundly careful concerning the bases of society and the bases of the individual life. It insists upon the foundation being Divine, not human. ( Joseph Parker, D. D. ) Disturbances in nations John Jessop, M. A. All disturbances in nations are but appointed dispensations marked out on the plan of God. We may safely trust God to reign in a manner worthy of Him. Do you ask why God's purposes cannot be fulfilled without all this earthly trouble? They would have been, if sin had no dominion on earth. But man being sinful, the way of suffering is the only way for him to pursue. Often have men thought that the foundations were destroyed. They thought so in David's time. But the greater the activity and apparent disorder of the hive, the more does the fruit of the honeycomb abound; the more the threads which cross and appear to confuse with each other on the loom, the richer and purer is the damask. See what days of blessing have followed days of adversity and trial It is sometimes difficult to see which of two courses of action should be chosen. Weakness submits to evil circumstances; decision overcomes evil with good. Hanani grieves over the condition of Jerusalem; but Nehemiah resolves to amend it. Erasmus denounced with his pen the evil in the Church of his day, but kept aloof from the work of reformation. Luther nerved himself for battle. When political troubles threaten, what are we to do? Some Christians refuse to take action. But political action may be requisite, and if a man can see a plain way of duty he should follow that way. Whatever may be the disturbances of the foundations of society, it is the duty of the Christian to trust. There have also been ecclesiastical disturbances, but let us be sure that God will bring good out of them. Let our ruling aim be to nourish in ourselves the life hidden with Christ in God. ( John Jessop, M. A. ) The Lord is in His holy temple. Psalm 11:4 The earthly temple Edward Rice, M. A. How are we to be assured of the truth that the Lord is in His holy temple? We have no visible sign; but He reveals Himself in our hearts, and requires that we should know and feel His presence there. How, then, are we to meet Him in the temple? 1. We come as created beings to offer a tribute of gratitude. Are any so worn with trouble as to think the gift of existence not worth the expression of gratitude? Let such remember that here we are but preparing for a blessed immortality, and that our trials, well endured, will add to the measure of our bliss hereafter. 2. We are dependent creatures. Then we should offer our thanks for the past, and supplications for the future. 3. We are sinful creatures. Then we should make confession to our God, whom we have so often and deeply offended. 4. We are accountable creatures. Then we should come here to learn His holy will, and of our obedience to it exact account will be required. 5. We are social creatures. Then we should ask blessings, not for ourselves only, but also for others. The sinner, the penitent, the believer, the sorrowful, the sufferer — all are remembered in our prayers. Learn so to worship that you may ever feel that you have indeed been with the Lord in His holy temple. ( Edward Rice, M. A. ) The Lord trieth the righteous. Psalm 11:5 The godly discipline W. G. Barrett. I. THE CHARACTERS TRIED — the righteous. This word righteous is used for two reasons. 1. Because in God's sight they are such. 2. Because they are such in the sight of men. II. THE VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH THE RIGHTEOUS ARE TRIED. They have their natural dispositions even as other men. Though trials come to all, they differ in character, and are proportioned in degree. Christians are tried when — 1. They are led to investigate the character and tendency of their life. 2. When special and direct afflictions are sent. 3. When alterations and changes in our family circumstances occur. 4. When temptations of a trying character are permitted to come in their way. III. THE ENDS THAT ARE TO BE ANSWERED BY THESE TRIALS. There is nothing purposeless in the plans of God. We are tried — 1. That we may be corrected. 2. That we may be proved. 3. That we may be purified.Learn to recognise the Lord's hand in our trials, and to distinguish between the results of our own folly and God's chastisements. Let us rejoice in the anticipation of a world without sorrow, the "unsuffering kingdom" of our Lord. ( W. G. Barrett. ) Trials and their lessons Samuel Coley. David was living at the court of Saul, and many were plotting for his destruction. But his support was that God would permit no real harm to come to him, and that his trial was from God. They wanted David to flee away. They said, the foundations were broken up, and what could the righteous do? You never know what you can do when God helps you. 1. Believers are righteous — by the pardon of the past, which conceals it as if it had never been. Because God puts within them a new heart and a new spirit. And practically, by fulfilling God's commandments. 2. Righteous people are tried. In one sense the probation of the wicked is over. Believing people are on trial. You have accepted mercy — and your trial is whether you will be faithful to the grace given, whether you will persevere to the end. The truth that there is a possibility of your falling away has its practical value. It ought to lead you to caution, vigilance, and self-denial. 3. It is the Lord who tries you. Then you will not be tried too much. The Lord has the control of all your trials, whether they come through prosperity, adversity, bereavements, persecutions, or the sufferings of others. 4. Why does the Lord try the righteous? That they may know themselves, to train and discipline character, to make us more useful, and to advance His own glory. It is God's opportunity of showing the truth of His promise to help. You ought to learn to get good out of your trials. "Glory in tribulations also," that the power of Christ may rest upon you. ( Samuel Coley. ) The mission of trial David Caldwell, A. M. He tries them for their own good, that they may know themselves. He tries them for the good of others, that the world may learn how powerful a thing faith in God is, when it has once laid fast hold of His promises. It was for this purpose that He tested Abraham when He commanded him to offer up his son Isaac, with his own hand, a burnt offering unto the Lord. The trial taught Abraham — what he could never have known of himself without it — the character of true evangelical obedience, that it falters at no sacrifice known to be required by the will of God. It is these testing trials of the righteous that bring out their graces, develop and perfect their virtues. The hand of God is in them all, seeking higher praise for Himself, and working out a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory for the believer. "The Lord trieth the righteous"; only, however, to consume their dross and refine their gold. The wicked have no just cause for triumphing over him, when they see the righteous man in affliction. The hand of God is thus upon him only for his good. His trials are no evidence that the fact is otherwise. The prosperity of the wicked is by no means indicative of the Divine approbation. ( David Caldwell, A. M. ) The testing of the perfect Pure gold may remain in the fire a thousand years without loss of substance, without contracting a single stain or losing an atom of its weight. The fire that burns the oak into ashes, marble into dust, iron into rust, has no power to destroy or even injure a metal that shines but the brighter for the glowing flame. Gold is therefore called in the language of metallurgy — a perfect metal; and were we perfect, perfect in holiness, the only effect of fiery trials would be, not to burn up, but to brighten God's image. ( Thomas Guthrie . ) The test of trial R. Venting. The sword is not tested until the battle rages, the ship is not proved until the storm blows, even diamonds are now so wondrously imitated that the best judges can only tell them by putting the steel file to their facets — that does no mischief except to shams; the genuine fear nothing, fire only purifies the real gold. So trial will show the real value of Christian character. The general is best estimated in the battle, the skill of the physician in the sick room. ( R. Venting. ) Upon the wicked He shall rain snares. Psalm 11:6 Divine rectitude in punishing sin Homilist. I. HELL IS NOW ANNIHILATION. Many would wish it were. God's plans and purposes are not to be affected by what men wish. II. HELL IS AN ABODE OF MISERY. 1. Possibly physical suffering. It is called "everlasting fire," outer darkness. 2. Spiritual misery. It is spoken of as, a prison, the blackness of despair. 3. Wretched reflections. "Son, remember. III. HELL IS OF ETERNAL DURATION. "Its worm dieth not, and its fire is not quenched." If hell could change we might justly judge that heaven also might change. IV. HELL IS CONSISTENT WITH DIVINE ATTRIBUTES. Nay, more than that, it is a very necessity of His existence. "Upon the wicked He shall rain snares, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness." God does not punish men from passion — passion passes away; but He punishes from fixed, unalterable principle. Neither does He punish from pleasure ( Ezekiel 18:23 ). He is essentially benevolent. ( Homilist. ) The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. Psalm 11:7 The righteous God and righteousness R. Allen, M. A. "Righteousness may be taken as. but another word for rightness, equity, justice, the being and rendering what is right. Here it describes God. It is the quality which binds and blends into a perfect unity all His Divine perfections. We feel instinctively that righteousness is essential to Divine perfection. Show how this statement that God is a righteous God bears on matters of faith and practice. God, because He is the righteous Lord, loveth righteousness. 1. This will explain a peculiarity in the redemption accomplished for us through the atoning death of Christ. The problem to be solved was, how can the love of God be manifested, and righteousness be at the same time upheld in all the majesty of its eternal rectitude? 2. There is much which is mysterious, perplexing, and inexplicable in God's providential dealings. But throw on all these mysterious providences the light of this statement, that "the Lord is righteous and loveth righteousness," and you calm the troubled spirit to patience and submission. Then with entire trustfulness you would leave yourselves in God's hands. In the conviction of His righteousness, let us face the problems and perplexities which confront us in the world. N

11:1-7 David's struggle with, and triumph over a strong temptation to distrust God, and betake himself to indirect means for his own safety, in a time of danger. - Those that truly fear God and serve him, are welcome to put their trust in him. The psalmist, before he gives an account of his temptation to distrust God, records his resolution to trust in Him, as that by which he was resolved to live and die. The believer, though not terrified by his enemies, may be tempted, by the fears of his friends, to desert his post, or neglect his work. They perceive his danger, but not his security; they give him counsel that savours of worldly policy, rather than of heavenly wisdom. The principles of religion are the foundations on which the faith and hope of the righteous are built. We are concerned to hold these fast against all temptations to unbelief; for believers would be undone, if they had not God to go to, God to trust in, and future bliss to hope for. The prosperity of wicked people in their wicked, evil ways, and the straits and distresses which the best men are sometimes brought into, tried David's faith. We need not say, Who shall go up to heaven, to fetch us thence a God to trust in? The word is nigh us, and God in the word; his Spirit is in his saints, those living temples, and the Lord is that Spirit. This God governs the world. We may know what men seem to be, but God knows what they are, as the refiner knows the value of gold when he has tried it. God is said to try with his eyes, because he cannot err, or be imposed upon. If he afflicts good people, it is for their trial, therefore for their good. However persecutors and oppressors may prosper awhile, they will for ever perish. God is a holy God, and therefore hates them. He is a righteous Judge, and will therefore punish them. In what a horrible tempest are the wicked hurried away at death! Every man has the portion of his cup assigned him. Impenitent sinner, mark your doom! The last call to repentance is about to be addressed to you, judgement is at hand; through the gloomy shade of death you pass into the region of eternal wrath. Hasten then, O sinner, to the cross of Christ. How stands the case between God and our souls? Is Christ our hope, our consolation, our security? Then, not otherwise, will the soul be carried through all its difficulties and conflicts.