Psalms 11

Section 2. (Psalms 11:1-7; Psalms 12:1-8; Psalms 13:1-6; Psalms 14:1-7; Psalms 15:1-5.)In view of the evil and the enemy. There follows now a second series of remnant psalms, their exercises in view of the prevalent evil and power of the enemy. There is not the same ploughing up of the soul or question of relationship to God that we found in the first; for even the complaint of forgetfulness is not the dread of wrath; nay, is in fact almost the opposite of that: for the plea is, Canst Thou forget me -Thine own? On this account the connection of the psalms with one another is more difficult to trace; there is not the same process in the soul to be detected which gave each its place in the former case; the eyes of the remnant are more upon their circumstances, less upon themselves. This does not, however, make the psalms less simple to understand individually: they are, on the contrary, quite easy to be read; and orderly connection, too, there surely is; but it is not that of life-development. We begin, however, at the same point in each series, with faith in an absolute God who governs all, the eleventh psalm being broader and fuller in character than the third, as it is less personal. In the next psalm, the twelfth, we have the words of Jehovah as the resting-place of faith, amid the empty clatter and worse of human tongues. The thirteenth third of the series -is a cry of distress, Jehovah’s face hidden and the enemy prevailing, though with realized blessing in the end. The fourteenth sees the ignorant folly of the oppressor, and moralizes on it, though salvation has not yet come. While the fifteenth, thoroughly Deuteronomic in its character, declares the indispensable moral condition of those who at last dwell with God. These psalms are all very brief, the longest only of eight verses; they are plainly still introductory: outline-sketches to be filled in at a later time.

Psalms 11:1-7

Jehovah on the throne, and ordering all for blessing. To the chief musician, [a psalm] of David. 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. (Luke 17:28-30; Luke 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.”
   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.