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.

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.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

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 (Psa 11:1), and trusts in him for deliverance from his persecutors (Psa 11:4-7).

Psa 11:1

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 () is used collectively.

Psa 11:2

For, lo, the wicked bend their bow. The words are still those of the timid friends. “Lo,” they say, “the ungodly are already bending the bow against thee”preparing, i.e; to attempt thy life. They make ready their arrow upon the string; or, fit their arrow to the string. The last thing before discharging it. That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart; literally, that they may shoot amid darkness at the upright in heart.

Psa 11:3

If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The word translated” foundations” is a rare one, only occurring hero and in Isa 19:10. The meaning of “foundations,” first given to it by Aquila, is now generally adopted. We must suppose the timid friends to be still speaking, and to mean that, under the lawless rule of Saul, the very foundations of society and of moral order were swept away; the righteous (, a collective) had done and could do nothing to prevent it. What remained for David, but to withdraw from a community where there was neither law nor order, where the first magistrate commanded (1Sa 19:1) and attempted (1Sa 19:10) assassination?

Psa 11:4

The Lord is in his holy temple. David’s reply to his timid advisers is an expression of absolute faith and trust in God. Saul may reign upon earth; but Jehovah is in his holy temple (or rather, “palace,” ) on highhis throne is in heaven, where he sits and reigns. What need, then, to fear an earthly king? Especially when God is not inattentive to human affairs, but his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men (comp. Psa 7:9; Psa 17:3; Psa 139:1). His “eyelids” are said to try men, because, when we closely scrutinize a thing, we drop our eyelids and half close our eyes.

Psa 11:5

The Lord trieth the righteous. God tries the righteous, scrutinizing them with his penetrating glance, but a glance wherein there is protection and love. When he tries (or closely scrutinizes) the wicked, the result is differentthe wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

Psa 11:6

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares. On Divine displeasure follows Divine punishmentnot always speedy, but sure. Those who have plotted against David will have” snares rained” upon them. God is said to “rain” on men both his blessings and his curses, when he gives them abundantly (comp. Job 20:23; Hos 10:12; Eze 34:26). By “snares” are meant any difficulties or troubles in which men are entangled by the action of Divine providence. Fire and brimstone. The punishment of Sodom and Gomorrah was the typical example of God’s vengeance to the Israelites generally. And an horrible tempest; literally, a breath of horrors (comp. Psa 119:53; Lam 5:10). It is thought that the simoom may be intended. But none of the threats are to be taken literally. All that the psalmist means is that God’s vengeance, in some shape or ether, will overtake his persecutors. This shall be the portion of their cup. This is probably the earliest place where the metaphor of a “cup” for man’s lot in life is employed. Other instances are Psa 16:5; Psa 23:5; Psa 73:10; Psa 75:8; Psa 116:1-19 :23; Isa 51:17, Isa 51:22; Jer 25:15; Eze 23:31, Eze 23:32; Mat 20:22, Mat 20:23; Mat 26:39; Joh 18:11.

Psa 11:7

For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; rather, for the Lord is righteous; he loveth righteousness (see the Revised Version); literally, righteousnesses; i.e. good and righteous deeds. His countenance doth behold the upright. So the LXX; the Vulgate, Hengstenberg, Bishop Horsley, and ethers; but the bulk of modern commentators prefer to render, “The upright will behold his countenance.” Either translation yields a good sense.

HOMILETICS

Psa 11:3, Psa 11:4

The question of fear and the answer of faith.

“If the foundations,” etc. The Bible is God’s gift to a world such as its pages describe. Not a world of sinless holiness and painless peace, but a world of sin, sorrow, strife. A book for pilgrims, toilers, warriors, mourners, sinners. The “sword of the Spirit,” forged in the fire of affliction, tempered in tears. Light in darkness; songs in the night-time; manna in the wilderness; water from the flinty rock; an anchor for the tempest-tossed soul. It leads us along the path beaten by the feet of scores of generations; across ancient bottle-fields; shows us the monuments of heroes and conquerors; and fills our daily life with the echoes of the mighty past. Whether or no this psalm belongs to some particular occasion in David’s lifea question of no practical momentit reflects the stormy experience he and many another saint have had oftentimes to face; and it does this for all time. In these verses we have

(1) the question of fear; and

(2) the answer of faith.

I. THE QUESTION OF FEAR. “If what shall the righteous do?” The foundations, namely, of society; the pillars or supports of public order, peace, prosperity. These main pillars are four: authority, justice, policy, wealth. If these are shaken, the fabric totters. If they utterly fail, anarchy or tyranny ensues. When war threatens or assails, a weak distrusted government, an unrighteous cause, incapacity, an empty treasury, are more dangerous than any foreign foe. And though there were profound peace as regarded other nations, a nation afflicted with these four evils, one in which these main pillars break, would be on the verge of ruin. Yet underneath all these lies a deeper foundationnational character (Pro 14:34). The particular form in which public life rested on religion has never been possible for any other nation than Israel. None other has had a covenant like that of Sinaian inspired code of laws; a perfect identity of Church and state. The relations of Church and state differ in different lands; are matter of controversy. This does not change the fact that public as much as private lifethat of the nation no less than of the individualis healthful, safe, prosperous, truly free, only as it conforms to God’s law: is just, truthful, temperate, pure, peaceable, benevolent.

II. THE ANSWER OF FAITH. God reigns; God rules.

1. “In his temple,” q.d; “in heaven.” “His throne”his supreme omnipotent dominionis the reign, not of arbitrary power or mere mechanical law, but of holiness; perfect righteousness, wisdom, love. Therefore it is the “throne of grace” (Heb 4:6).

2. “His eyes behold,” etc. In all this wild confusion, as it seems, nothing is overlooked; nothing unjudged or uncontrolled. God rules as well as reigns. Never for a moment is his hand off the helm (Rom 8:28; Psa 76:10). Example: The beneficial results of the Babylonish captivity, in which the ruin of the nation had appeared total and final.

PRACTICAL LESSONS (especially in times of political strife and danger).

1. Courage. “How say ye,” etc.? it is no part of a Christian’s duty to flee, either in terror or disgust, from public duty. Public serviceas citizen, official, or rulerprogresses under the great Christian law of love to our neighbour (comp. Gal 6:10; 1Pe 4:10). Who should be fearless and faithful, if not he who seeks in all to glorify God, and knows that all earthly as well as heavenly power is in Christ’s hands (Mat 28:18)?

2. Prayer. Prayer for our country is a great Christian duty.

HOMILIES BY C. CLEMANCE

Psa 11:1-7

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. (Psa 11:2.) 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 (Psa 11:2). 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 Psa 11:2, 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. (Psa 11:1, “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. (Psa 11:1, Psa 11:3.) The advice begins with the word “flee” (Psa 11:1), 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 (Psa 11:3). 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. (Psa 11:4-6.) 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.

(1) God sees all (Psa 11:4).

(2) God tests all (Psa 11:4).

2. On the righteous.

(1) God tries his people. He proves them to improve them (Psa 11:5).

(2) He loves the righteous; i.e. he approves them, and, in the midst of all confusion, he smiles upon them.

(3) He will crown them with honour at last (Psa 11:7, Revised Version).

3. On the wicked.

(1) He hates them; i.e. he disapproves their ways (Psa 11:5; Psa 1:6).

(2) The time will come when that disapproval will be manifest (Psa 11:6).

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 (Psa 11:1): “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 ungodly man knows nothing.

2. That trust in God gives him the victory over his foes.

3. The God whom he trusts will be his Shield no% 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” (1Jn 5:4, 1Jn 5:5).C.

HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH

Psa 11:1-7

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. (Psa 11:1-3.) 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 suggestsWhy 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. (Verses 4-7.) God’s truth is like Constantine’s banner: “By this we conquer.”

1. Realizing God‘s 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 God‘s 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 (Jas 5:10, Jas 5:11; 1Pe 1:3-7).

3. Anticipating God‘s 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.

Psa 11:7

The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.

This is true for ever.

I. RIGHTEOUSNESS IS CONGRUOUS TO GOD‘S NATURE. If light is pleasant to the eye, and music to the ear, and beauty to the soul, it is because they are in the line of rightness. “No man ever yet hated his own flesh” (Eph 5:29): how much more must God love that which is akin to himselfwhich is of the very essence of his character!

II. RIGHTEOUSNESS FULFILS GOD‘S PURPOSES. What God seeks is righteousness. This is the end of the Law; this is the purpose of all good government; this is the teaching of the prophets and the great object of Christ (Isa 42:1-14; Mat 3:15; Rom 5:21). Christ is the “Righteous One;” and of him the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” “Christ suffered once the Just for the unjust;” and we see how dear righteousness was to God when “he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” The cross is the measure of God’s love of righteousness.

III. RIGHTEOUSNESS SECURES THE BLESSEDNESS OF GOD‘S CREATURES. Sin brought death into the world, and all our woe. It is by the taking away of sin and the re-establishment of the rule of God in the heart, that happiness is restored (Rom 14:17). The prophets tell with rapture of the good time coming; and note it as the peculiar glory of the new heavens and the new earth, that in them “dwelleth righteousness” (Isa 65:17-25; 2Pe 3:13, 2Pe 3:14).

Here is a test: Do we love as God loves? “Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God” (1Jn 3:5-10).W.F.

HOMILIES BY C. SHORT

Psa 11:1-7

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. (Psa 11:1-3.) This was the temptation with which his friends assailed himto abandon the righteous cause by flight. The temptation was plausible:

1. Because his very life was in danger. If anything less had been threatenedreputation or propertyit might have been prudent to remain; but “skin for skin,” etc.

2. The attack upon his life was secret, and not open. (Psa 11:2.) 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. (Psa 11:3.) “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. (Psa 11:4 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 trusta trust that does not work and fight in the good causeis no better than cowardly flight.

2. He trusted in God‘s overruling power. (Psa 11:4, Psa 11:5.) 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. (Psa 11:5, Psa 11:6.) 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. (Psa 11:7.) 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.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Psalms 11.

David encourageth himself in God against his enemies. The providence and justice of God.

To the chief musician. A Psalm of David.

Title. lamnatseach ledavid. This Psalm was probably composed by David, when his friends advised him to avoid the evil designs of Saul and his other enemies, by sheltering himself in the mountains of Judea. In answer to this advice, contained in the three first verses, he is determined to put his trust in God, whose eyes were open upon what was doing; who would protect the good, and confound the wicked man. The dialogue form in which the Psalm is written, gives it great spirit and beauty.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Psalms 11

To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David

1In the Lord put I my trust:

How say ye to my soul,
Flee as a bird to your mountain?

2For, lo, the wicked bend their bow,

They make ready their arrow upon the string,
That they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

3If the foundations be destroyed,

What can the righteous do?

4The Lord is in his holy temple,

The Lords throne is in heaven:

His eyes behold,
His eyelids try, the children of men.

5The Lord trieth the righteous:

But the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

6Upon the wicked he shall rain snares,

Fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

7For 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.2C. 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 righteouswhat 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 Bttcher (N. hrenl., who compares with , 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 Jehovahs 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. = cernere, of a penetrating glance. = 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 Bttcher), or ashes (Hitzig), then this means of punishment consists either of masses (Bttcher 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. samm = 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 believers 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. LessonAttempt 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 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.]

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

DISCOURSE: 506
THE WORKINGS OF UNBELIEF AND OF FAITH

Psa 11:1-7. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain; 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: if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lords throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men. The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness: his countenance doth behold the upright [Note: The three first verses of the psalm should be read as one continued speech, just as they are here printed: then the force and spirit of the passage is made clear.].

THE Psalms are a rich repository of experimental knowledge. David, at the different periods of his life, was placed in almost every different situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be placed: and in these heavenly compositions he delineates all the workings of his heart. He introduces, too, the sentiments and conduct of the various persons who were accessary either to his troubles or his joys; and thus sets before our eyes 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.
Thus in this psalm we see, in a contrasted view,

I.

The counsels of unbelief

Unbelief always views the dark side of a question; and not only keeps out of view those considerations that should animate and encourage the soul, but suggests others which are most injurious to its welfare:

1.

It magnifies the difficulties we have to encounter

[Doubtless the dangers which encompassed David were great and imminent: the arrows with which his enemies sought to kill him, were already on the string, pointed at him, as it were, and needing only to be drawn, in order to pierce him to the heart: the foundations also of law and justice were so entirely subverted under the government of Saul, that there was nothing to prevent the wicked from executing their murderous plots. But still there is no sufficient ground for that desponding question, What can the righteous do? Methinks the question under any circumstances is not only unbelieving, but atheistical: for if there be a God, and that God be a hearer of prayer, the question would rather be, What cannot the righteous do? Let us look at an instance or two, as a specimen of what one righteous may do, even when, according to human appearance, the circumstances may be most desperate. The whole army of Israel is appalled at the sight of one gigantic warrior: yet a young stripling, with his sling and stone, destroys the giant, and puts to flight the whole army of the Philistines. Again: at a period when idolatry so prevailed in Israel, that Elijah thought himself the only worshipper of Jehovah in the whole land, one righteous man stems the torrent, destroys the priests of Baal, and demolishes all his temples and altars throughout the country. But another instance of singular importance is that of Oded [Note: 2Ch 28:9-15.]; who, by his own unaided expostulation, liberated two hundred thousand captives, and constrained their victorious enemies not only to restore them to their homes without injury, but to treat them with a tenderness truly parental Shall any one, after such instances as these, and many others that might be mentioned, ask, What can the righteous do? We should remember, that, as with God all things are possible, so all things are possible to him that believeth; yea, if we have faith only as a grain of mustard-seed, we may root up trees or mountains, and cast them into the depths of the sea.]

2.

It prompts to the use of unbecoming expedients

[However it might be proper for David to use prudential cautions, and not to put himself directly into the hands of Saul, it did not become him to flee as a bird to his mountain, just as if he had no refuge in his God. His duty was, to repose a confidence in God, and to expect assuredly the accomplishment of all Gods promises towards him, in spite of all the efforts of his most malignant enemies. But such is constantly the voice of unbelief: it bids us not wait Gods time, but contrive some way for ourselves, lest peradventure God should have forgotten his engagements, or not be able to fulfil them. Thus it operated in Rebecca. She knew that God had designed the blessings of the birthright for Jacob, her younger son: but when she saw that Isaacs intention was in the space of an hour or two to give them to Esau, she conceived that the Divine purpose would be frustrated, if she did not instantly interpose for its accomplishment. To what a system of falsehood and treachery she had recourse, is too well known to need any recital: but it is a striking instance of the tendency of unbelief. And who does not feel this tendency in his own heart? Who has not at some unhappy moment sought, by dissimulation or concealment, to avoid the cross, which a more faithful confession of the Saviour would have brought upon him? But to use any indirect means either to avoid an evil or to obtain a good, is a certain proof of an unbelieving heart: for, He that believeth will not make haste.]
In the noble reply of David to his friends, we behold,

II.

The dictates of faith

It is the peculiar province of faith to see Him who is invisible; and in all situations to have respect to God,

1.

As an Almighty Sovereign

[Mark the answer which David, with holy indignation, gives to his timid advisers: How say ye to my soul, Flee? How say ye with desponding apprehension, What can the righteous do? This is my answer to all such vain fears; The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lords throne is in heaven. What plots can men or devils form, which God does not see? or what can they essay to execute, which he cannot defeat? He that sitteth m the heavens laughs them to scorn. He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that they cannot perform their enterprise; yea, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness. It is not possible to find a more beautiful elucidation of this subject than that which is recorded in the history of Elisha. When the king of Syria was warring against Israel, behold, all his plans were made known to the king of Israel; and were thereby defeated. But how were these secrets made known? Was it by treason? No: God revealed to Elisha the things which the king of Syria spake in his bed-chamber. The king of Syria determined therefore that he would kill Elisha, and sent an army to encompass the city wherein Elisha was. Elishas servant, just like Davids friends, cried, Alas, my master! how shall we do? But, when God opened his eyes, he saw the whole surrounding atmosphere filled with horses of fire and chariots of fire: and soon afterwards he saw the whole smitten with blindness, and led by the prophet into the very heart of their enemys country [Note: 2Ki 6:8-20.]. Thus are all the saints watched over by an Almighty Power; and under his protection they are safe.]

2.

As a righteous Judge

[It may be that God sees fit to let the enemies of his people prevail over them: but their success is only for a moment: the time is near at hand when the apparent inequality of these dispensations will be rectified; when God, as a righteous Judge, will recompense tribulation to those who trouble us; and to us who are troubled, rest. He narrowly inspects [Note: His eyelids try as persons narrowly inspecting some very minute object, almost close their eyelids, to exclude every other object.], not the actions only, but the dispositions also, of men, in order to render unto them according to their works: the wicked his soul hateth; and in due time he will rain upon them snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, even as he did upon Sodom and Gomorrha: yes, this shall be the portion of their cup; and they shall drink it to the very dregs. On the other hand, he loveth the righteous, and beholds them with delight; and reserves for them a weight of glory proportioned to all that they have done and suffered for him. The believer is persuaded of this: whom then shall he fear? He knows that no weapon formed against him can prosper, unless Infinite Wisdom has ordained that it shall; and that no evil can be suffered to approach him which shall not be recompensed an hundred-fold even in this life; and much more in that world where God himself will be the unalienable portion of all his people. How these views compose the mind may be seen throughout all the Sacred Records [Note: See Psa 7:10-17; Psa 27:1.]: and they will always be realized in proportion to our faith.]

Address
1.

Those who meet with opposition in their Christian course

[You are tempted perhaps by Satan, and by timid friends, to put your light under a bushel, instead of causing it to shine before men for the glory of your God. But you should say as Nehemiah, Shall such a man as I flee? No: my Saviour shunned not the cross for me; and, God helping me, I will gladly take up my cross and follow him Beware how you listen to flesh and blood, or attempt to reconcile the services of God and mammon: to follow the Lord fully is the only true way to present peace and everlasting happiness.]

2.

Those who are ready to faint by reason of spiritual conflicts

[It is doubtless an arduous task to wrestle with all the principalities and powers of hell; but, if God be for you, who can be against you? Do not, because of some occasional darkness, say, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God; but know, that your God is infinite both in wisdom and power; and that he is engaged to keep all who trust in him [Note: Isa 40:27-29.]. Reject then with indignation the unbelieving suggestions of your great adversary: and, if for a moment he prevail against you, chide yourselves for your cowardice, as David did; Why art thou cast down, O my soul; and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God [Note: Psa 42:11.]. Consider the force of our Lords reproof to Martha, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God [Note: Joh 11:40.]? The same then he says to us: let us therefore never stagger at his promises through unbelief, but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Let Davids confidence be ours also [Note: Psa 5:11-12.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

CONTENTS

In the circumstances of evil, from the persecutions of ungodly men, the Psalmist is here represented as reposing in the sure protection of God. Much consolation is found in this security, and the firm reliance of a happy termination to all sorrow.

To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David

Psa 11:1

A poor timid bird, in times of danger, taketh her flight to the covert; and the Lord’s people flee as a cloud, and as doves to the windows, when they take shelter in Jesus. The Lord is a strong tower, the righteous fleeth into it, and is safe. My people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the Lord. And they who are satisfied with Jesus and his righteousness, never seek any other to recommend them.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

The Lord in His Temple

Psa 11:3-4

I. To the question ‘what can the righteous do?’ the old reply must be given: ‘The Lord is in His holy temple’. This is the great creed. It involves much that does not appear. The first thing that it involves is the personality of our God and Father; and that personality of our God and Father takes up into itself all the attributes that in Revelation are ascribed to Him. There is His omniscience, and therefore, there is nothing that man can discover that is unknown to God. There is His omnipotence; there is nothing that man can do that is outside the power of God. And there is His omnipresence. Wherever man goes the Lord is in His holy temple. He is with His believing child; He is with His struggling society; He is with the Catholicity of His Church; so that when dangers threaten, the cry of His people will be the cry of the Psalmist and the cry of one who knew how to expect deliverance from the mercy of His heavenly Father.

II. Anti-religious Philosophy. I regard the greatest danger which religion has to face in our century as a non-religious philosophy. Call it naturalism, call it monism, call it agnosticism. Those who give us these ideas are in our own land and in other lands. They make short work of all that we hold vital and precious in the Christian faith. They give us instead grim negations of even the strongest and deepest instincts of every human soul. One says everything is by natural means. Another says nature is all-sufficient. A third says there can be no intervening influence from without or beyond nature.

III. The Denial of Personality. But whether God be openly denied, or whether He be regarded as a stream or tendency or as an eternal energy, or whether His existence and sympathy are to be dismissed in the blank ignorance of the agnostic, ‘I do not know,’ this is clear; all agree in one thing, and that is, they banish from the world, and they would banish if they dared from the Church, the personality of God. The denial of the personality of God is the overthrow of the responsibility of man; and if you were to ask me, ‘what is the danger of England today,’ I answer, we are in great danger of being affected by an epidemic of irresponsibility. We are making for ourselves the character of a nation that cannot be serious, and this is because of the utter frivolity which is entering into and corroding our moral fibre and, in its best sense, our national virility.

IV. Athirst for God. The prevailing irresponsibility is to me the outcome of the general apathy to, if not a denial of, the cardinal doctrine of the personality of God. The personality of God corresponds to the personality of the instinct for God. And not all the heaving waves of scepticism or of infidelity can ever hush the cry of the soul, ‘My soul is athirst for God. Yea, for the living God.’

W. Lefroy.

References. XI. 1. J. Vaughan, Sermons (10th Series), p. 109. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 691. XI. 5. Spurgeon; Evening by Evening, p. 249. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 395. XI. 7. R. Allen, The Words of Christ, p. 110.

Psa 11

Dr. Ker tells us that when John Welsh and his fellow-captives were summoned from their prison in Blackness, on the Firth of Forth, to appear before the court at Linlithgow, they sang this Psalm as they walked by night under guard to their trial. While they were lying in their dungeon, deep and dark, below the level of the sea, they received a letter from Lady Melville of Culross, bidding them be thankful that they were only ‘in the darkness of Blackness, and not in the blackness of darkness’.

They were at length banished ‘forth the kingdom,’ under the arbitrary government of James VI., who was bent upon the establishment of Episcopacy.

Calderwood says: ‘Upon the 6th of Nov. 1606, about the evening, when they were ready to embark, Mr. John Welsh conceived a fervent prayer, on the shore of Leith, and they took good-night of their friends, wives, and acquaintances, and entered in the boat; and after they had waited a good space upon the skipper, because he was not ready, they returned by two hours in the morning, at which time many were present. After prayer, they entered in the boat, with singing the 23rd Psalm. The people were much moved, and prayed heartily for them.’

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Psa 11

[Note. This psalm must be regarded as referring to the position of David at the court of Saul when he was first put in peril by calumniators. It is generally agreed that the psalm shows a master-hand. Whilst the timid friends of David were filled with consternation, the Psalmist himself was full of confidence and rapture.]

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 an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness: his countenance doth behold the upright.

David’s Grand Creed

“In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?” (Psa 11:1 .)

This is a psalm of David, and was evidently composed when he was in extremest distress. Whether he was in trouble under Saul or under the rebellion of Absalom does not immediately appear, but whether the one or the other his soul was probably never in deeper despair than at this moment. The utter helplessness in which his soul was plunged may be inferred, too, from the advice which his friends had kindly, yet foolishly, tendered to him. It would seem from the construction of the first verse that the friends of David 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. A very remarkable thing is this, namely, the exhaustion of the world’s proposals and remedies. The world offers one after another, with mechanical regularity, and soon comes to the end of its provision; immediately on reaching the point of exhaustion the world adopts the coward’s creed, and preaches it with violent weakness to the distressed soul, saying, Flee ye as a bird to her mountain, get out of the way; run as far as you can; seek the darkness, and conceal yourself in impenetrable obscurity. That is but another way of saying, Take refuge in death; put an end to all this trouble; make your own quietus with a bare bodkin, or otherwise; only have done with this trouble once for all. The soul in its best moods must be left to say whether there is any true reasoning in such proposals. Is the reasoning based on sound principles? has the reasoning in it any quality of nobleness or courage? does it not, then, cease to be reasoning at all, and fall into the degradation of proved and undisputed sophism and insanity? It is when the soul is in these great extremities that it must either invent a religion or rush upon destruction. Happily 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. The people who pitied him, and who undertook to advise him, did not know upon what his soul was built as to its faith and expectation; they imagined he was looking out for whatever might occur to the vigilant mind as the best means of dealing with a temporary trouble: they regarded him as open to intellectual suggestions and all kinds of experiments, with a view to the baffling of his enemies and the soothing of his own pain. This was their profound mistake. Outwardly David 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.

“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” ( Psa 11:2 ).

Here we discover not the policy of the unwise, but the policy of the really wicked. That policy is marked by cruel cunning. Wicked men hide themselves in darkness, that they may “shoot at the upright in heart.” These old pictures of the wicked man are portraitures which must not be taken down from the gallery of history. They are painted with a masterly hand. Fix the mind upon the figure which is here so vividly presented; the upright man is walking in the light, stumbling indeed, it may be, and not without fear as to the way which he is taking, yet his eyes are looking straight on, and in his heart there is a hope that he is advancing towards the desired destiny: but in a secret place the wicked man has hidden himself, and made ready his arrow upon the string; light is upon the good man, but the bad man has hidden himself and is practically in darkness; from the security of that darkness he delivers his arrow, hoping that he may strike the heart of the good man. That is a delineation of wickedness which is true in every line today. The wicked man, by the very necessity of his wickedness, is a coward. Men should make themselves familiar with the whole policy which wickedness has always adopted, that by being informed of its crooked ways they may be ashamed of it and abandon it for ever. Wickedness cannot modify itself, or improve itself, or make its moral quantity less; it may invent, or simulate, and perform many a trick that may surprise the unwary and the innocent, but in the soul of it it is for ever bad, diabolical, and humanly incurable. In another psalm we learn that wicked men “shoot in secret at the perfect.” They would seem to have no friend but night, and to be unable to move but for the cloud of great darkness. That they can do so much in the darkness betrays the presence of a vision which is at once unnatural and cruel. Let us, therefore, learn to hate wickedness as an abominable thing, to have no sympathy with it, to repel it at every point, to hate it with infinite detestation.

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men” ( Psa 11:3-4 ).

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 might 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? where will the righteous be? of what use will be their presence upon earth when they have nothing to appeal to either of the nature of reward or punishment? 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. Our laws and institutions are only valuable and are only assured in permanence in proportion as they represent the spirit of the universe, which is a spirit of order and light and steadfastness. Whatever errors there may be in the superstructure of society there should be no doubt about the solidity of the corner-stones upon which the building is set. On the other hand, it is of no consequence how grand and even solid may be the superstructure itself if the corner-stones are unequal to the weight, or are in any sense faulty and unreliable. When the foundation gives way, the superstructure, however noble, cannot maintain its own integrity. The great necessity, therefore, 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, and being profound it is of necessity somewhat slow in its progress, making no demonstration, but quietly and almost secretly proceeding in its holy endeavours. In this respect it stands in strong contrast to the men who are fond of demonstration and of making such appeals to the eye as are likely to secure popular interest and applause. The programme of reformation is likely to be much more popular than the programme of regeneration. Unquestionably there is a disposition in the human mind to admire that which is lofty yet measurable, and which in some subtle way reflects a compliment upon its architect and builder. Many see the spire who have never seen the foundation. Many can admire the swelling dome who have no information whatever as to the nature of the soil upon which the stupendous edifice is placed. But if the foundation give way, who can keep the spire in its place? If the corner-stones shrink out of position, who can maintain the dome? 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. God has laid in Zion a corner-stone elect and precious. “Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid.” “The foundation of God standeth sure.”

David’s grand creed is repeated once more in the fourth verse:

“The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.” ( Psa 11:4 )

The Psalmist instinctively turns to the holy temple and fixes his eye upon the enthroned Lord. We cannot but be struck by the noble elevation of the thought, as well as by the religious vigour of the language. The Lord himself claims all heaven as his throne, and because the Lord is in his holy temple the prophet demands that all the earth keep silence before him. This verse is indeed distinctively divided into two parts. In the first part we have the utterance of rapture and religious confidence and delight: the Lord is far away, enthroned in a temple not made with hands, enshrined in the very centre of the infinite heavens: the picture is grand and overwhelming, but if it ended there it would be of little use, except as a stimulus to religious veneration. The second part of the verse, therefore, comes to our aid, and establishes a direct connection between the majesty of God in heaven and his relation to the children of men. Though high and lifted up and seated upon a throne, yet God’s “eyes behold,” and “his eyelids try,” the men who are upon the earth. “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous; and his ears are open to their cry.” God must never be put so far away that our prayers cannot reach him, or his replies be lost in their infinite descent. Nor must God be so far lifted up, even in imagination, as to cease from the work of judging the creatures he has made. It should always be possible for us to say, “Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

“The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup” ( Psa 11:5-6 ).

We have already seen that the conduct of the wicked man is marked by the meanest cruelty, now we see that the fate which awaits him is adapted to his quality and to his whole character. The wicked man has been using bow and arrow in secret, now the Lord himself shall be, as it were, in secret, and from his lofty concealment he shall not use bow and arrow upon the wicked, but “he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest.” Mark the similarity of the action and yet the diversity of the instruments. If the wicked man can conceal himself, so can God. Whilst, however, the wicked can only shoot in one direction at a time, the Lord can make the whole heaven contribute to the vastness and intensity of the storm which he will pour down upon unholy spirits. This is no novel feature in the Scriptures: “The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.” In the prophet Ezekiel we read that God will rain upon Gog, “and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God! The wicked undoubtedly have their day, and they industriously employ themselves in turning its hours to their own purpose; yet it is only a brief day: “the triumphing of the wicked is short;” whilst they are yet pursuing their unholy course the whole heaven shall darken above their heads, the earth shall reel beneath their feet, and the great wind shall be as a great fire, scorching and burning and destroying them altogether. “In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.” However horrible the fate of the wicked, every soul that has not lost its religious consciousness or its sense of justice must own that such fate is well deserved. We are allowed to separate the wicked man from wickedness, and instead of desiring all these storms to fall upon the wicked man as such, we may pray that they may fall rather upon wickedness itself and utterly consume it. Whilst, however, we are thus at liberty to pray that the wickedness, rather than the wicked, may be destroyed, let no wicked man take encouragement from this view: it still stands as a literal truth that the wicked shall be driven into hell with all the nations that forget God.

“For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright” ( Psa 11:7 ).

This verse most fitly concludes the psalm. The Psalmist is now himself in his best and happiest mood. He sees that the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and that being so he will not forsake the righteous cause, but will bring it to fruition and victory. Not only does the Lord’s countenance behold the upright, but the upright behold the countenance of the Lord. Recognition and fellowship thus become identical terms. Goodness knows goodness wherever it sees it. Fellowship is not a mechanical arrangement, but a natural expression of instinct, sympathy, and trust. What the Lord loves must eventually be supreme. Otherwise the Lord though omnipotent would be defeated, and though all-wise would be outwitted, and though all-good would be put into a minority in his own universe. Herein is the confidence of the soul that longs to be good. “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.” “The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers.” “We then being in Christ are fellow-labourers, to the end that wickedness may be destroyed.” We will not flee away like a bird of the mountains when the cloud shuts out the sun and the storm roars across the whole earth with destroying fury; we will say, All these things are but for a moment; behind them there is a solid beneficent purpose; they are but sent to try our faith and complete our patience. Being based on the one foundation, we will continue to build, however unfavourable the weather, however rough the wind, however unlikely the instruments with which we have to work, and however difficult it may be to obtain the right materials. The one solid comfort we have is that the foundation is right, and that if we persist in building upon it according to the best of our opportunities, even though the fire may destroy our work, we ourselves shall be saved. Nor will we envy the lot of the wicked. Now and again an arrow shot from his bow does indeed smite the good man and make the upright momentarily afraid; but the Lord is still in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven. We will wait on, prayerfully, patiently, hopefully. The Lord hath not hidden from us his purpose to rain snares fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest upon the wicked. We know of a surety that this rain will fall, and that when it falls there will be no escape from its all-devouring fire. My soul, come not thou into the secret of that destiny; be thy portion with the righteous Lord who loveth righteousness, and be the chiefest of thy delights to behold the countenance of the Lord.

Prayer

Almighty God, the appeal of the heart is always to thee in the dark day and the starless night. Men find out God when they are in extremity, when strength has failed, and wisdom has no further word to utter, and all life is darkened and distressed. We bless thee for living faith in thy presence, nearness, and willingness to save. This is our strength and our joy; it has become our song even in the nighttime, so that now we have music at home, and we have joy in the presence of danger. All things are under thy control; yet hast thou permitted the will of man to arrest thy purposes or to delay their fulfilment: thou hast had patience even with evil; thou hast waited until the anger of little men subsided and the angry soul began to pray. Thou hast not crushed thy way forward with the violence of almightiness; thou hast waited and wondered and complained and entreated; thou hast stood at the door and knocked, asking to be admitted. This is thy way. It is the way of almightiness; it is because thou art almighty that thou art patient: with less of power thou wouldst have extended thine arm in resentment and penalty; because thou art the Infinite One thou art calm, thou art patient, yea, thou art hopeful even of the unthankful and the evil. Blessed be God for this revelation of himself in Christ Jesus. We know that thou didst love the world; thou didst wait for it as thou wouldst wait for one without whom thou wouldst lose companionship and joy. We bless thee for thy patience, thy love, thy Cross, O God the Son, in which thou didst display the ineffable tenderness of the divine heart as well as the infinite patience of the divine will. Now and evermore be with us a great light and a tender benediction, an assurance of immediate and perfect help in all time of danger and difficulty, and a perpetual peace, calming the tumult of the soul, and bringing in a week-long Sabbath-day to reign over all our activities and distresses, our hopes and fears. Gather us near thine heart; bind us with the cords of thy love; give our souls a time of feasting day by day in thine own banqueting-house; and may the strength we derive be expended in self-sacrifice, in doing good, in heroic imitation of the dying, rising, glorious Son of God. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

PSALMS

XI

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS

According to my usual custom, when taking up the study of a book of the Bible I give at the beginning a list of books as helps to the study of that book. The following books I heartily commend on the Psalms:

1. Sampey’s Syllabus for Old Testament Study . This is especially good on the grouping and outlining of some selected psalms. There are also some valuable suggestions on other features of the book.

2. Kirkpatrick’g commentary, in “Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges,” is an excellent aid in the study of the Psalter.

3. Perowne’s Book of Psalms is a good, scholarly treatise on the Psalms. A special feature of this commentary is the author’s “New Translation” and his notes are very helpful.

4. Spurgeon’s Treasury of David. This is just what the title implies. It is a voluminous, devotional interpretation of the Psalms and helpful to those who have the time for such extensive study of the Psalter.

5. Hengstenburg on the Psalms. This is a fine, scholarly work by one of the greatest of the conservative German scholars.

6. Maclaren on the Psalms, in “The Expositor’s Bible,” is the work of the world’s safest, sanest, and best of all works that have ever been written on the Psalms.

7. Thirtle on the Titles of the Psalms. This is the best on the subject and well worth a careful study.

At this point some definitions are in order. The Hebrew word for psalm means praise. The word in English comes from psalmos , a song of lyrical character, or a song to be sung and accompanied with a lyre. The Psalter is a collection of sacred and inspired songs, composed at different times and by different authors.

The range of time in composition was more than 1,000 years, or from the time of Moses to the time of Ezra. The collection in its present form was arranged probably by Ezra in the fifth century, B.C.

The Jewish classification of Old Testament books was The Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings. The Psalms was given the first place in the last group.

They had several names, or titles, of the Psalms. In Hebrew they are called “The Book of Prayers,” or “The Book of Praises.” The Hebrew word thus used means praises. The title of the first two books is found in Psa 72:20 : “The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended.” The title of the whole collection of Psalms in the Septuagint is Biblos Psalman which means the “Book of Psalms.” The title in the Alexandrian Codex is Psalterion which is the name of a stringed instrument, and means “The Psalter.”

The derivation of our English words, “psalms,” “psalter,” and “psaltery,” respectively, is as follows:

1. “Psalms” comes from the Greek word, psalmoi, which is also from psallein , which means to play upon a stringed instrument. Therefore the Psalms are songs played upon stringed instruments, and the word here is used to apply to the whole collection.

2. “Psalter” is of the same origin and means the Book of Psalms and refers also to the whole collection.

3. “Psaltery” is from the word psalterion, which means “a harp,” an instrument, supposed to be in the shape of a triangle or like the delta of the Greek alphabet. See Psa 33:2 ; Psa 71:22 ; Psa 81:2 ; Psa 144:9 .

In our collection there are 150 psalms. In the Septuagint there is one extra. It is regarded as being outside the sacred collection and not inspired. The subject of this extra psalm is “David’s victory over Goliath.” The following is a copy of it: I was small among my brethren, And youngest in my father’s house, I used to feed my father’s sheep. My hands made a harp, My fingers fashioned a Psaltery. And who will declare unto my Lord? He is Lord, he it is who heareth. He it was who sent his angel And took me from my father’s sheep, And anointed me with the oil of his anointing. My brethren were goodly and tall, But the Lord took no pleasure in them. I went forth to meet the Philistine. And he cursed me by his idols But I drew the sword from beside him; I beheaded him and removed reproach from the children of Israel.

It will be noted that this psalm does not have the earmarks of an inspired production. There is not found in it the modesty so characteristic of David, but there is here an evident spirit of boasting and self-praise which is foreign to the Spirit of inspiration.

There is a difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint. Omitting the extra one in the Septuagint, there is no difference as to the total number. Both have 150 and the same subject matter, but they are not divided alike.

The following scheme shows the division according to our version and also the Septuagint: Psalms 1-8 in the Hebrew equal 1-8 in the Septuagint; 9-10 in the Hebrew combine into 9 in the Septuagint; 11-113 in the Hebrew equal 10-112 in the Septuagint; 114-115 in the Hebrew combine into 113 in the Septuagint; 116 in the Hebrew divides into 114-115 in the Septuagint; 117-146 in the Hebrew equal 116-145 in the Septuagint; 147 in the Hebrew divides into 146-147 in the Septuagint; 148-150 in the Hebrew equal 148-150 in the Septuagint.

The arrangement in the Vulgate is the same as the Septuagint. Also some of the older English versions have this arangement. Another difficulty in numbering perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another, viz: In the Hebrew often the title is verse I, and sometimes the title embraces verses 1-2.

The book divisions of the Psalter are five books, as follows:

Book I, Psalms 1-41 (41 chapters)

Book II, Psalms 42-72 (31 chapters)

Book III, Psalms 73-89 (17 chapters)

Book IV, Psalms 90-106 (17 chapters)

Book V, Psalms 107-150 (44 chapters)

They are marked by an introduction and a doxology. Psalm I forms an introduction to the whole book; Psa 150 is the doxology for the whole book. The introduction and doxology of each book are the first and last psalms of each division, respectively.

There were smaller collections before the final one, as follows:

Books I and II were by David; Book III, by Hezekiah, and Books IV and V, by Ezra.

Certain principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection:

1. David is honored with first place, Book I and II, including Psalms 1-72.

2. They are grouped according to the use of the name of God:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovah psalms;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohim-psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovah psalms.

3. Book IV is introduced by the psalm of Moses, which is the first psalm written.

4. Some are arranged as companion psalms, for instance, sometimes two, sometimes three, and sometimes more. Examples: Psa 2 and 3; 22, 23, and 24; 113-118.

5. They were arranged for liturgical purposes, which furnished the psalms for special occasions, such as feasts, etc. We may be sure this arrangement was not accidental. An intelligent study of each case is convincing that it was determined upon rational grounds.

All the psalms have titles but thirty-three, as follows:

In Book I, Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 33 , (4 are without titles).

In Book II, Psa 43 ; Psa 71 , (2 are without titles).

In Book IV, Psa 91 ; Psa 93 ; Psa 94 ; Psa 95 ; Psa 96 ; Psa 97 ; Psa 104 ; Psa 105 ; Psa 106 , (9 are without titles).

In Book V, Psa 107 ; III; 112; 113; 114; 115; 116; 117; 118; 119; 135; 136; 137; 146; 147; 148; 149; 150, (18 are without titles).

The Talmud calls these psalms that have no title, “Orphan Psalms.” The later Jews supply these titles by taking the nearest preceding author. The lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; and 10 may be accounted for as follows: Psa 1 is a general introduction to the whole collection and Psa 2 was, perhaps, a part of Psa 1 . Psalms 9-10 were formerly combined into one, therefore Psa 10 has the same title as Psa 9 .

QUESTIONS

1. What books are commended on the Psalms?

2. What is a psalm?

3. What is the Psalter?

4. What is the range of time in composition?

5. When and by whom was the collection in its present form arranged?

6. What the Jewish classification of Old Testament books, and what the position of the Psalter in this classification?

7. What is the Hebrew title of the Psalms?

8. Find the title of the first two books from the books themselves.

9. What is the title of the whole collection of psalms in the Septuagint?

10. What is the title in the Alexandrian Codex?

11. What is the derivation of our English word, “Psalms”, “Psalter”, and “Psaltery,” respectively?

12. How many psalms in our collection?

13. How many psalms in the Septuagint?

14. What about the extra one in the Septuagint?

15. What is the subject of this extra psalm?

16. How does it compare with the Canonical Psalms?

17. What is the difference in the numbering of the psalms in our version which follows the Hebrew, and the numbering in the Septuagint?

18. What is the arrangement in the Vulgate?

19. What other difficulty in numbering which perplexes an inexperienced student in turning from one version to another?

20. What are the book divisions of the Psalter and how are these divisions marked?

21. Were there smaller collections before the final one? If so, what were they?

22. What principles determined the arrangement of the several psalms in the present collection?

23. In what conclusion may we rest concerning this arrangement?

24. How many of the psalms have no titles?

25. What does the Talmud call these psalms that have no titles?

26. How do later Jews supply these titles?

27. How do you account for the lack of titles in Psa 1 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 10 ?

XII

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS (CONTINUED)

The following is a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms:

1. The author: “A Psalm of David” (Psa 37 ).

2. The occasion: “When he fled from Absalom, his son” (Psa 3 ).

3. The nature, or character, of the poem:

(1) Maschil, meaning “instruction,” a didactic poem (Psa 42 ).

(2) Michtam, meaning “gold,” “A Golden Psalm”; this means excellence or mystery (Psa 16 ; 56-60).

4. The occasion of its use: “A Psalm of David for the dedication of the house” (Psa 30 ).

5. Its purpose: “A Psalm of David to bring remembrance” (Psa 38 ; Psa 70 ).

6. Direction for its use: “A Psalm of David for the chief musician” (Psa 4 ).

7. The kind of musical instrument:

(1) Neginoth, meaning to strike a chord, as on stringed instruments (Psa 4 ; Psa 61 ).

(2) Nehiloth, meaning to perforate, as a pipe or flute (Psa 5 ).

(3) Shoshannim, Lilies, which refers probably to cymbals (Psa 45 ; Psa 69 ).

8. A special choir:

(1) Sheminith, the “eighth,” or octave below, as a male choir (Psa 6 ; Psa 12 ).

(2) Alamoth, female choir (Psa 46 ).

(3) Muth-labben, music with virgin voice, to be sung by a choir of boys in the treble (Psa 9 ).

9. The keynote, or tune:

(1) Aijeleth-sharar, “Hind of the morning,” a song to the melody of which this is sung (Psa 22 ).

(2) Al-tashheth, “Destroy thou not,” the beginning of a song the tune of which is sung (Psa 57 ; Psa 58 ; Psa 59 ; Psa 75 ).

(3) Gittith, set to the tune of Gath, perhaps a tune which David brought from Gath (Psa 8 ; Psa 81 ; Psa 84 ).

(4) Jonath-elim-rehokim, “The dove of the distant terebinths,” the commencement of an ode to the air of which this song was to be sung (Psa 56 ).

(5) Leannoth, the name of a tune (Psa 88 ).

(6) Mahalath, an instrument (Psa 53 ); Leonnoth-Mahaloth, to chant to a tune called Mahaloth.

(7) Shiggaion, a song or a hymn.

(8) Shushan-Eduth, “Lily of testimony,” a tune (Psa 60 ). Note some examples: (1) “America,” “Shiloh,” “Auld Lang Syne.” These are the names of songs such as we are familiar with; (2) “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” and “There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood,” are examples of sacred hymns.

10. The liturgical use, those noted for the feasts, e.g., the Hallels and Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 146-150).

11. The destination, as “Song of Ascents” (Psalms 120-134)

12. The direction for the music, such as Selah, which means “Singers, pause”; Higgaion-Selah, to strike a symphony with selah, which means an instrumental interlude (Psa 9:16 ).

The longest and fullest title to any of the psalms is the title to Psa 60 . The items of information from this title are as follows: (1) the author; (2) the chief musician; (3) the historical occasion; (4) the use, or design; (5) the style of poetry; (6) the instrument or style of music.

The parts of these superscriptions which most concern us now are those indicating author, occasion, and date. As to the historic value or trustworthiness of these titles most modern scholars deny that they are a part of the Hebrew text, but the oldest Hebrew text of which we know anything had all of them. This is the text from which the Septuagint was translated. It is much more probable that the author affixed them than later writers. There is no internal evidence in any of the psalms that disproves the correctness of them, but much to confirm. The critics disagree among themselves altogether as to these titles. Hence their testimony cannot consistently be received. Nor can it ever be received until they have at least agreed upon a common ground of opposition.

David is the author of more than half the entire collection, the arrangement of which is as follows:

1. Seventy-three are ascribed to him in the superscriptions.

2. Some of these are but continuations of the preceding ones of a pair, trio, or larger group.

3. Some of the Korahite Psalms are manifestly Davidic.

4. Some not ascribed to him in the titles are attributed to him expressly by New Testament writers.

5. It is not possible to account for some parts of the Psalter without David. The history of his early life as found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1and 2 Chronicles, not only shows his remarkable genius for patriotic and sacred songs and music, but also shows his cultivation of that gift in the schools of the prophets. Some of these psalms of the history appear in the Psalter itself. It is plain to all who read these that they are founded on experience, and the experience of no other Hebrew fits the case. These experiences are found in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.

As to the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition, I have this to say:

1. This theory has no historical support whatever, and therefore is not to be accepted at all.

2. It has no support in tradition, which weakens the contention of the critics greatly.

3. It has no support from finding any one with the necessary experience for their basis.

4. They can give no reasonable account as to how the titles ever got there.

5. It is psychologically impossible for anyone to have written these 150 psalms in the Maccabean times.

6. Their position is expressly contrary to the testimony of Christ and the apostles. Some of the psalms which they ascribe to the Maccabean Age are attributed to David by Christ himself, who said that David wrote them in the Spirit.

The obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result if it be Just, is a positive denial of the inspiration of both Testaments.

Other authors are named in the titles, as follows: (1) Asaph, to whom twelve psalms have been assigned: (2) Mosee, Psa 90 ; (3) Solomon, Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ; (4) Heman, Psa 80 ; (5) Ethem, Psa 89 ; (6) A number of the psalms are ascribed to the sons of Korah.

Not all the psalms ascribed to Asaph were composed by one person. History indicates that Asaph’s family presided over the song service for several generations. Some of them were composed by his descendants by the game name. The five general outlines of the whole collection are as follows:

I. By books

1. Psalms 1-41 (41)

2. Psalms 42-72 (31)

3. Psalms 73-89 (17)

4. Psalms 90-106 (17)

5. Psalms 107-150 (44)

II. According to date and authorship

1. The psalm of Moses (Psa 90 )

2. Psalms of David:

(1) The shepherd boy (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 ).

(2) David when persecuted by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ).

(3) David the King (Psa 101 ; Psa 18 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 2 ; Psa 110 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 20 ; Psa 21 ; Psa 60 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 41 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 3:4 ; Psa 64 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 ).

3. The Asaph Psalms (Psa 50 ; Psa 73 ; Psa 83 ).

4. The Korahite Psalms (Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 84 ).

5. The psalms of Solomon (Psa 72 ; Psa 127 ).

6. The psalms of the era of Hezekiah and Isaiah (Psa 46 ; Psa 47 ; Psa 48 )

7. The psalms of the Exile (Psa 74 ; Psa 79 ; Psa 137 ; Psa 102 )

8. The psalms of the Restoration (Psa 85 ; Psa 126 ; Psa 118 ; 146-150)

III. By groups

1. The Jehovistic and Elohistic Psalms:

(1) Psalms 1-41 are Jehovistic;

(2) Psalms 42-83 are Elohistic Psalms;

(3) Psalms 84-150 are Jehovistic.

2. The Penitential Psalms (Psa 6 ; Psa 32 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 51 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 130 ; Psa 143 )

3. The Pilgrim Psalms (Psalms 120-134)

4. The Alphabetical Psalms (Psa 9 ; Psa 10 ; Psa 25 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 37 ; 111:112; Psa 119 ; Psa 145 )

5. The Hallelujah Psalms (Psalms 11-113; 115-117; 146-150; to which may be added Psa 135 ) Psalms 113-118 are called “the Egyptian Hallel”

IV. Doctrines of the Psalms

1. The throne of grace and how to approach it by sacrifice, prayer, and praise.

2. The covenant, the basis of worship.

3. The paradoxical assertions of both innocence & guilt.

4. The pardon of sin and justification.

5. The Messiah.

6. The future life, pro and con.

7. The imprecations.

8. Other doctrines.

V. The New Testament use of the Psalms

1. Direct references and quotations in the New Testament.

2. The allusions to the psalms in the New Testament. Certain experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart, such as: (1) his peaceful early life; (2) his persecution by Saul; (3) his being crowned king of the people; (4) the bringing up of the ark; (5) his first great sin; (6) Absalom’s rebellion; (7) his second great sin; (8) the great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 ; (9) the feelings of his old age.

We may classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time, thus:

1. His peaceful early life (Psa 8 ; Psa 19 ; Psa 29 ; Psa 23 )

2. His persecution by Saul (Psa 59 ; Psa 56 ; Psa 34 ; Psa 7 ; Psa 52 ; Psa 120 ; Psa 140 ; Psa 54 ; Psa 57 ; Psa 142 ; Psa 17 ; Psa 18 )

3. Making David King (Psa 27 ; Psa 133 ; Psa 101 )

4. Bringing up the ark (Psa 68 ; Psa 24 ; Psa 132 ; Psa 15 ; Psa 78 ; Psa 96 )

5. His first great sin (Psa 51 ; Psa 32 )

6. Absalom’s rebellion (Psa 41 ; Psa 6 ; Psa 55 ; Psa 109 ; Psa 38 ; Psa 39 ; Psa 3 ; Psa 4 ; Psa 63 ; Psa 42 ; Psa 43 ; Psa 5 ; Psa 62 ; Psa 61 ; Psa 27 )

7. His second great sin (Psa 69 ; Psa 71 ; Psa 102 ; Psa 103 )

8. The great promise made to him in 2Sa 7 (Psa 2 )

9. Feelings of old age (Psa 37 )

The great doctrines of the psalms may be noted as follows: (1) the being and attributes of God; (3) sin, both original and individual; (3) both covenants; (4) the doctrine of justification; (5) concerning the Messiah.

There is a striking analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms. The Pentateuch contains five books of law; the Psalms contain five books of heart responses to the law.

It is interesting to note the historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms. These were controversies about singing uninspired songs, in the Middle Ages. The church would not allow anything to be used but psalms.

The history in Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah is very valuable toward a proper interpretation of the psalms. These books furnish the historical setting for a great many of the psalms which is very indispensable to their proper interpretation.

Professor James Robertson, in the Poetry and Religion of the Psalms constructs a broad and strong argument in favor of the Davidic Psalms, as follows:

1. The age of David furnished promising soil for the growth of poetry.

2. David’s qualifications for composing the psalms make it highly probable that David is the author of the psalms ascribed to him.

3. The arguments against the possibility of ascribing to David any of the hymns in the Hebrew Psalter rests upon assumptions that are thoroughly antibiblical.

The New Testament makes large use of the psalms and we learn much as to their importance in teaching. There are seventy direct quotations in the New Testament from this book, from which we learn that the Scriptures were used extensively in accord with 2Ti 3:16-17 . There are also eleven references to the psalms in the New Testament from which we learn that the New Testament writers were thoroughly imbued with the spirit and teaching of the psalms. Then there are eight allusions ‘to this book in the New Testament from which we gather that the Psalms was one of the divisions of the Old Testament and that they were used in the early church.

QUESTIONS

1. Give a list of the items of information gathered from the titles of the psalms.

2. What is the longest title to any of the psalms and what the items of this title?

3. What parts of these superscriptions most concern us now?

4. What is the historic value, or trustworthiness of these titles?

5. State the argument showing David’s relation to the psalms.

6. What have you to say of the attempt of the destructive critics to rob David of his glory in relation to the Psalter by assigning the Maccabean era as the date of composition?

7. What the obvious aim of this criticism and the necessary result, if it be just?

8. What other authors are named in the titles?

9. Were all the psalms ascribed to Asaph composed by one person?

10. Give the five general outlines of the whole collection, as follows: I. The outline by books II. The outline according to date and authorship III. The outline by groups IV. The outline of doctrines V. The outline by New Testament quotations or allusions.

11. What experiences of David’s life made very deep impressions on his heart?

12. Classify the Davidic Psalms according to these experiences following the order of time.

13. What the great doctrines of the psalms?

14. What analogy between the Pentateuch and the Psalms?

15. What historic controversies concerning the singing of psalms?

16. Of what value is the history in Samuel, 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, and in Ezra and Nehemiah toward a proper interpretation of the psalms?

17. Give Professor James Robertson’s argument in favor of the Davidic authorship of the psalms.

18. What can you say of the New Testament use of the psalms and what do we learn as to their importance in teaching?

19. What can you say of the New Testament references to the psalms, and from the New Testament references what the impression on the New Testament writers?

20. What can you say of the allusions to the psalms in the New Testament?

XVII

THE MESSIAH IN THE PSALMS

A fine text for this chapter is as follows: “All things must be fulfilled which were written in the Psalms concerning me,” Luk 24:44 . I know of no better way to close my brief treatise on the Psalms than to discuss the subject of the Messiah as revealed in this book.

Attention has been called to the threefold division of the Old Testament cited by our Lord, namely, the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms (Luk 24:44 ), in all of which were the prophecies relating to himself that “must be fulfilled.” It has been shown just what Old Testament books belong to each of these several divisions. The division called the Psalms included many books, styled Holy Writings, and because the Psalms proper was the first book of the division it gave the name to the whole division.

The object of this discussion is to sketch the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah, or rather, to show how nearly a complete picture of our Lord is foredrawn in this one book. Let us understand however with Paul, that all prophecy is but in part (1Co 13:9 ), and that when we fill in on one canvas all the prophecies concerning the Messiah of all the Old Testament divisions, we are far from having a perfect portrait of our Lord. The present purpose is limited to three things:

1. What the book of the Psalms teaches concerning the Messiah.

2. That the New Testament shall authoritatively specify and expound this teaching.

3. That the many messianic predictions scattered over the book and the specifications thereof over the New Testament may be grouped into an orderly analysis, so that by the adjustment of the scattered parts we may have before us a picture of our Lord as foreseen by the psalmists.

In allowing the New Testament to authoritatively specify and expound the predictive features of the book, I am not unmindful of what the so-called “higher critics” urge against the New Testament quotations from the Old Testament and the use made of them. In this discussion, however, these objections are not considered, for sufficient reasons. There is not space for it. Even at the risk of being misjudged I must just now summarily pass all these objections, dismissing them with a single statement upon which the reader may place his own estimate of value. That statement is that in the days of my own infidelity, before this old method of criticism had its new name, I was quite familiar with the most and certainly the strongest of the objections now classified as higher criticism, and have since patiently re-examined them in their widely conflicting restatements under their modern name, and find my faith in the New Testament method of dealing with the Old Testament in no way shattered, but in every way confirmed. God is his own interpreter. The Old Testament as we now have it was in the hands of our Lord. I understand his apostle to declare, substantially, that “every one of these sacred scriptures is God-inspired and is profitable for teaching us what is right to believe and to do, for convincing us what is wrong in faith or practice, for rectifying the wrong when done, that we may be ready at every point, furnished completely, to do every good work, at the right time, in the right manner, and from the proper motive” (2Ti 3:16-17 ).

This New Testament declares that David was a prophet (Act 2:30 ), that he spake by the Holy Spirit (Act 1:16 ), that when the book speaks the Holy Spirit speaks (Heb 3:7 ), and that all its predictive utterances, as sacred Scripture, “must be fulfilled” (Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:16 ). It is not claimed that David wrote all the psalms, but that all are inspired, and that as he was the chief author, the book goes by his name.

It would be a fine thing to make out two lists, as follows:

1. All of the 150 psalms in order from which the New Testament quotes with messianic application.

2. The New Testament quotations, book by book, i.e., Matthew so many, and then the other books in their order.

We would find in neither of these any order as to time, that is, Psa 1 which forecasts an incident in the coming Messiah’s life does not forecast the first incident of his life. And even the New Testament citations are not in exact order as to time and incident of his life. To get the messianic picture before us, therefore, we must put the scattered parts together in their due relation and order, and so construct our own analysis. That is the prime object of this discussion. It is not claimed that the analysis now presented is perfect. It is too much the result of hasty, offhand work by an exceedingly busy man. It will serve, however, as a temporary working model, which any one may subsequently improve. We come at once to the psalmist’s outline of the Messiah.

1. The necessity for a Saviour. This foreseen necessity is a background of the psalmists’ portrait of the Messiah. The necessity consists in (1) man’s sinfulness; (2) his sin; (3) his inability of wisdom and power to recover himself; (4) the insufficiency of legal, typical sacrifices in securing atonement.

The predicate of Paul’s great argument on justification by faith is the universal depravity and guilt of man. He is everywhere corrupt in nature; everywhere an actual transgressor; everywhere under condemnation. But the scriptural proofs of this depravity and sin the apostle draws mainly from the book of the Psalms. In one paragraph of the letter to the Romans (Rom 3:4-18 ), he cites and groups six passages from six divisions of the Psalms (Psa 5:9 ; Psa 10:7 ; Psa 14:1-3 ; Psa 36:1 ; Psa 51:4-6 ; Psa 140:3 ). These passages abundantly prove man’s sinfulness, or natural depravity, and his universal practice of sin.

The predicate also of the same apostle’s great argument for revelation and salvation by a Redeemer is man’s inability of wisdom and power to re-establish communion with God. In one of his letters to the Corinthians he thus commences his argument: “For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? -For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preach-ing to save them that believe.” He closes this discussion with the broad proposition: “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,” and proves it by a citation from Psa 94:11 : “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.”

In like manner our Lord himself pours scorn on human wisdom and strength by twice citing Psa 8 : “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight” (Mat 11:25-26 ). “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children that were crying in the temple and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Mat 21:15-16 ).

But the necessity for a Saviour as foreseen by the psalmist did not stop at man’s depravity, sin, and helplessness. The Jews were trusting in the sacrifices of their law offered on the smoking altar. The inherent weakness of these offerings, their lack of intrinsic merit, their ultimate abolition, their complete fulfilment and supercession by a glorious antitype were foreseen and foreshown in this wonderful prophetic book: I will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices; And thy burnt offerings are continually before me. I will take no bullock out of thy house, Nor he-goat out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is mine, And the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all of the birds of the mountains; And the wild beasts of the field are mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee; For the world is mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? Psa 50:8-13 .

Yet again it speaks in that more striking passage cited in the letter to the Hebrews: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers, once purged should have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, But a body didst thou prepare for me; In whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure: Then said I, Lo, I am come (In the roll of the book it is written of me) To do thy will, O God. Saying above, Sacrifice and offering and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, (the which are offered according to the law), then hath he said, Lo, I am come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second” (Heb 10:1-9 ).

This keen foresight of the temporary character and intrinsic worthlessness of animal sacrifices anticipated similar utterances by the later prophets (Isa 1:10-17 ; Jer 6:20 ; Jer 7:21-23 ; Hos 6:6 ; Amo 5:21 ; Mic 6:6-8 ). Indeed, I may as well state in passing that when the apostle declares, “It is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins,” he lays down a broad principle, just as applicable to baptism and the Lord’s Supper. With reverence I state the principle: Not even God himself by mere appointment can vest in any ordinance, itself lacking intrinsic merit, the power to take away sin. There can be, therefore, in the nature of the case, no sacramental salvation. This would destroy the justice of God in order to exalt his mercy. Clearly the psalmist foresaw that “truth and mercy must meet together” before “righteousness and peace could kiss each other” (Psa 85:10 ). Thus we find as the dark background of the psalmists’ luminous portrait of the Messiah, the necessity for a Saviour.

2. The nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah. In no other prophetic book are the nature, fullness, and blessedness of salvation so clearly seen and so vividly portrayed. Besides others not now enumerated, certainly the psalmists clearly forecast four great elements of salvation:

(1) An atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit offered once for all (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:4-10 ).

(2) Regeneration itself consisting of cleansing, renewal, and justification. We hear his impassioned statement of the necessity of regeneration: “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts,” followed by his earnest prayer: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” and his equally fervent petition: “Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psa 51 ). And we hear him again as Paul describes the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, And whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin Psa 32:1 ; Rom 4:6-8 .

(3) Introduction into the heavenly rest (Psa 95:7-11 ; Heb 3:7-19 ; Heb 4:1-11 ). Here is the antitypical Joshua leading spiritual Israel across the Jordan of death into the heavenly Canaan, the eternal rest that remaineth for the people of God. Here we find creation’s original sabbath eclipsed by redemption’s greater sabbath when the Redeemer “entered his rest, ceasing from his own works as God did from his.”

(4) The recovery of all the universal dominion lost by the first Adam and the securement of all possible dominion which the first Adam never attained (Psa 8:5-6 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 ; 1Co 15:24-28 ).

What vast extent then and what blessedness in the salvation foreseen by the psalmists, and to be wrought by the Messiah. Atoning sacrifice of intrinsic merit; regeneration by the Holy Spirit; heavenly rest as an eternal inheritance; and universal dominion shared with Christ!

3. The wondrous person of the Messiah in his dual nature, divine and human.

(1) His divinity,

(a) as God: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever” (Psa 45:6 and Heb 1:8 ) ;

(b) as creator of the heavens and earth, immutable and eternal: Of old didst thou lay the foundation of the earth; And the heavens are the work of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou shalt endure; Yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. But thou art the same, And thy years shall have no end Psa 102:25-27 quoted with slight changes in Heb 1:10-12 .

(c) As owner of the earth: The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof; The world, and they that dwell therein, Psa 24:1 quoted in 1Co 10:26 .

(d) As the Son of God: “Thou art my Son; This day have I begotten thee” Psa 2:7 ; Heb 1:5 .

(e) As David’s Lord: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool, Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:41-46 .

(f) As the object of angelic worship: “And let all the angels of God worship him” Psa 97:7 ; Heb 1:6 .

(g) As the Bread of life: And he rained down manna upon them to eat, And gave them food from heaven Psa 78:24 ; interpreted in Joh 6:31-58 . These are but samples which ascribe deity to the Messiah of the psalmists.

(2) His humanity, (a) As the Son of man, or Son of Adam: Psa 8:4-6 , cited in 1Co 15:24-28 ; Eph 1:20-22 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Compare Luke’s genealogy, Luk 3:23-38 . This is the ideal man, or Second Adam, who regains Paradise Lost, who recovers race dominion, in whose image all his spiritual lineage is begotten. 1Co 15:45-49 . (b) As the Son of David: Psa 18:50 ; Psa 89:4 ; Psa 89:29 ; Psa 89:36 ; Psa 132:11 , cited in Luk 1:32 ; Act 13:22-23 ; Rom 1:3 ; 2Ti 2:8 . Perhaps a better statement of the psalmists’ vision of the wonderful person of the Messiah would be: He saw the uncreated Son, the second person of the trinity, in counsel and compact with the Father, arranging in eternity for the salvation of men: Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 . Then he saw this Holy One stoop to be the Son of man: Psa 8:4-6 ; Heb 2:7-9 . Then he was the son of David, and then he saw him rise again to be the Son of God: Psa 2:7 ; Rom 1:3-4 .

4. His offices.

(1) As the one atoning sacrifice (Psa 40:6-8 ; Heb 10:5-7 ).

(2) As the great Prophet, or Preacher (Psa 40:9-10 ; Psa 22:22 ; Heb 2:12 ). Even the method of his teaching by parable was foreseen (Psa 78:2 ; Mat 13:35 ). Equally also the grace, wisdom, and power of his teaching. When the psalmist declares that “Grace is poured into thy lips” (Psa 45:2 ), we need not be startled when we read that all the doctors in the Temple who heard him when only a boy “were astonished at his understanding and answers” (Luk 2:47 ); nor that his home people at Nazareth “all bear him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth” (Luk 4:22 ); nor that those of his own country were astonished, and said, “Whence hath this man this wisdom?” (Mat 13:54 ); nor that the Jews in the Temple marveled, saying, “How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?” (Joh 7:15 ) ; nor that the stern officers of the law found their justification in failure to arrest him in the declaration, “Never man spake like this man” (Joh 7:46 ).

(3) As the king (Psa 2:6 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 45:1-17 ; Psa 110:1 ; Mat 22:42-46 ; Act 2:33-36 ; 1Co 15:25 ; Eph 1:20 ; Heb 1:13 ).

(4) As the priest (Psa 110:4 ; Heb 5:5-10 ; Heb 7:1-21 ; Heb 10:12-14 ).

(5) As the final judge. The very sentence of expulsion pronounced upon the finally impenitent by the great judge (Mat 25:41 ) is borrowed from the psalmist’s prophetic words (Psa 6:8 ).

5. Incidents of life. The psalmists not only foresaw the necessity for a Saviour; the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation; the wonderful human-divine person of the Saviour; the offices to be filled by him in the work of salvation, but also many thrilling details of his work in life, death, resurrection, and exaltation. It is not assumed to cite all these details, but some of the most important are enumerated in order, thus:

(1) The visit, adoration, and gifts of the Magi recorded in Mat 2 are but partial fulfilment of Psa 72:9-10 .

(2) The scripture employed by Satan in the temptation of our Lord (Luk 4:10-11 ) was cited from Psa 91:11-12 and its pertinency not denied.

(3) In accounting for his intense earnestness and the apparently extreme measures adopted by our Lord in his first purification of the Temple (Joh 2:17 ), he cites the messianic zeal predicted in Psa 69:9 .

(4) Alienation from his own family was one of the saddest trials of our Lord’s earthly life. They are slow to understand his mission and to enter into sympathy with him. His self-abnegation and exhaustive toil were regarded by them as evidences of mental aberration, and it seems at one time they were ready to resort to forcible restraint of his freedom) virtually what in our time would be called arrest under a writ of lunacy. While at the last his half-brothers became distinguished preachers of his gospel, for a long while they do not believe on him. And the evidence forces us to the conclusion that his own mother shared with her other sons, in kind though not in degree, the misunderstanding of the supremacy of his mission over family relations. The New Testament record speaks for itself:

Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them. How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my Father’s house? And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them Luk 2:48-51 (R.V.).

And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Joh 2:3-5 (R.V.).

And there come his mother and his brethren; and standing without; they sent unto him, calling him. And a multitude was sitting about him; and they say unto him. Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee. And he answereth them, and saith, Who is my mother and my brethren? And looking round on them that sat round about him, he saith, Behold, my mother and my brethren) For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother Mar 3:31-35 (R.V.).

Now the feast of the Jews, the feast of tabernacles, was at hand. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may behold thy works which thou doest. For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou doest these things, manifest thyself to the world. For even his brethren did not believe on him. Jesus therefore saith unto them, My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil. Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; because my time is not fulfilled. Joh 7:2-9 (R.V.).

These citations from the Revised Version tell their own story. But all that sad story is foreshown in the prophetic psalms. For example: I am become a stranger unto my brethren, And an alien unto my mother’s children. Psa 69:8 .

(5) The triumphal entry into Jerusalem was welcomed by a joyous people shouting a benediction from Psa 118:26 : “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Mat 21:9 ); and the Lord’s lamentation over Jerusalem predicts continued desolation and banishment from his sight until the Jews are ready to repeat that benediction (Mat 23:39 ).

(6) The children’s hosanna in the Temple after its second purgation is declared by our Lord to be a fulfilment of that perfect praise forecast in Psa 8:2 .

(7) The final rejection of our Lord by his own people was also clear in the psalmist’s vision (Psa 118:22 ; Mat 21:42-44 ).

(8) Gethsemane’s baptism of suffering, with its strong crying and tears and prayers was as clear to the psalmist’s prophetic vision as to the evangelist and apostle after it became history (Psa 69:1-4 ; Psa 69:13-20 ; and Mat 26:36-44 ; Heb 5:7 ).

(9) In life-size also before the psalmist was the betrayer of Christ and his doom (Psa 41:9 ; Psa 69:25 ; Psa 109:6-8 ; Joh 13:18 ; Act 1:20 ).

(10) The rage of the people, Jew and Gentile, and the conspiracy of Pilate and Herod are clearly outlined (Psa 2:1-3 ; Act 4:25-27 ).

(11) All the farce of his trial the false accusation, his own marvelous silence; and the inhuman maltreatment to which he was subjected, is foreshown in the prophecy as dramatically as in the history (Mat 26:57-68 ; Mat 27:26-31 ; Psa 27:12 ; Psa 35:15-16 ; Psa 38:3 ; Psa 69:19 ).

The circumstances of his death, many and clear, are distinctly foreseen. He died in the prime of life (Psa 89:45 ; Psa 102:23-24 ). He died by crucifixion (Psa 22:14-17 ; Luk 23 ; 33; Joh 19:23-37 ; Joh 20:27 ). But yet not a bone of his body was broken (Psa 34:20 ; Joh 19:36 ).

The persecution, hatred without a cause, the mockery and insults, are all vividly and dramatically foretold (Psa 22:6-13 ; Psa 35:7 ; Psa 35:12 ; Psa 35:15 ; Psa 35:21 ; Psa 109:25 ).

The parting of his garments and the gambling for his vesture (Psa 22:18 ; Mat 27:35 ).

His intense thirst and the gall and vinegar offered for his drink (Psa 69:21 ; Mat 27:34 ).

In the psalms, too, we hear his prayers for his enemies so remarkably fulfilled in fact (Psa 109:4 ; Luk 23:34 ).

His spiritual death was also before the eye of the psalmist, and the very words which expressed it the psalmist heard. Separation from the Father is spiritual death. The sinner’s substitute must die the sinner’s death, death physical, i.e., separation of soul from body; death spiritual, i.e., separation of the soul from God. The latter is the real death and must precede the former. This death the substitute died when he cried out: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me.” (Psa 22:1 ; Mat 27:46 ).

Emerging from the darkness of that death, which was the hour of the prince of darkness, the psalmist heard him commend his spirit to the Father (Psa_31:35; Luk 23:46 ) showing that while he died the spiritual death, his soul was not permanently abandoned unto hell (Psa 16:8-10 ; Act 2:25 ) so that while he “tasted death” for every man it was not permanent death (Heb 2:9 ).

With equal clearness the psalmist foresaw his resurrection, his triumph over death and hell, his glorious ascension into heaven, and his exaltation at the right hand of God as King of kings and Lord of lords, as a high Driest forever, as invested with universal sovereignty (Psa 16:8-11 ; Psa 24:7-10 ; Psa 68:18 ; Psa 2:6 ; Psa 111:1-4 ; Psa 8:4-6 ; Act 2:25-36 ; Eph 1:19-23 ; Eph 4:8-10 ).

We see, therefore, brethren, when the scattered parts are put together and adjusted, how nearly complete a portrait of our Lord is put upon the prophetic canvas by this inspired limner, the sweet singer of Israel.

QUESTIONS

1. What is a good text for this chapter?

2. What is the threefold division of the Old Testament as cited by our Lord?

3. What is the last division called and why?

4. What is the object of the discussion in this chapter?

5. To what three things is the purpose limited?

6. What especially qualifies the author to meet the objections of the higher critics to allowing the New Testament usage of the Old Testament to determine its meaning and application?

7. What is the author’s conviction relative to the Scriptures?

8. What is the New Testament testimony on the question of inspiration?

9. What is the author’s suggested plan of approach to the study of the Messiah in the Psalms?

10. What the background of the Psalmist’s portrait of the Messiah and of what does it consist?

11. Give the substance of Paul’s discussion of man’s sinfulness.

12. What is the teaching of Jesus on this point?

13. What is the teaching relative to sacrifices?

14. What the nature, extent, and blessedness of the salvation to be wrought by the coming Messiah and what the four great elements of it as forecast by the psalmist?

15. What is the teaching of the psalms relative to the wondrous person of the Messiah? Discuss.

16. What are the offices of the Messiah according to psalms? Discuss each.

17. Cite the more important events of the Messiah’s life according to the vision of the psalmist.

18. What the circumstances of the Messiah’s death and resurrection as foreseen by the psalmist?

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

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):

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.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)