Psalms 11 KJV
The Lord Is Righteous
About This Psalm
When everyone says 'run!' David says 'I trust God.' Choosing faith over flight when the foundations are shaking.
1n 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 LORDโs 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 an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.
7 For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
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Did You Know?
The psalm's reference to God's 'eyelids' trying humanity offers a rare anthropomorphism emphasizing meticulous, almost forensic scrutiny rather than general oversight, distinguishing it from more common eye imagery in the Psalter.
By invoking 'fire and brimstone' as the wicked's portion, the chapter deliberately echoes the Sodom narrative, framing personal persecution within the larger biblical pattern of cataclysmic judgment on systemic violence.
The question about destroyed 'foundations' subtly engages ancient Near Eastern cosmology where moral and social order rests on divine pillars, implying that human wickedness threatens the created structure itself rather than merely individual safety.
The 'cup' metaphor for the wicked's allotted fate anticipates its fuller development in prophetic and apocalyptic texts as an instrument of divine wrath, positioning Psalm 11 as an early node in that recurring motif.
David's refusal to 'flee as a bird' rejects pragmatic survival advice in favor of throne-room theology, highlighting a counterintuitive trust that relocates security from earthly refuge to the Lord's heavenly temple amid active threats.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain my soul โ me (Ps 3:2). Flee โ literally, "flee ye"; that is, he and his companion. as a bird to your mountain โ having as such no safety but in flight (compare 1Sa 26:20; La 3:52).
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Psalms 11 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: On title, see introduction. Alluding to some event in his history, as in 1sa 23:13, the psalmist avows his confidence in God, when admonished to flee from his raging persecutors, whose destruction of the usual foundations of safety rendered all his efforts useless. The grounds of his confidence are God's supreme dominion, his watchful care of his people, his hatred to the wicked and judgments on them, and his love for righteousness and the righteous.
- 1
- my soul โ me (Ps 3:2). Flee โ literally, "flee ye"; that is, he and his companion. as a bird to your mountain โ having as such no safety but in flight (compare 1Sa 26:20; La 3:52).
- 2
- privily โ literally, "in darkness," treacherously.
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