Taking Refuge in the Lord When Foundations Shake

Psa 11:4-6 The words of David’s counsellors who fear for him are now ended. And David justifies his confidence in God with which he began his song. Jahve sits enthroned above all that takes place on earth that disheartens those of little faith. At an infinite distance above the earth, and also above Jerusalem, now in rebellion, is a קדשׁ היכל קד, Psa 18:7; Psa 29:9, and in this holy temple is Jahve, the Holy One.

Above the earth are the heavens, and in heaven is the throne of Jahve, the King of kings. And this temple, this palace in the heavens, is the place whence issues the final decision of all earthly matters, Hab 2:20; Mic 1:2. For His throne above is also the super-terrestrial judgment-seat, Psa 9:8; Psa 103:19. Jahve who sits thereon is the all-seeing and omniscient One.

חזה prop. to split, cf. cernere , is used here according to its radical meaning, of a sharp piercing glance. בּחן prop. to try metals by fire, of a fixed and penetrating look that sees into a thing to the foundation of its inmost nature. The mention of the eyelids is intentional. When we observe a thing closely or ponder over it, we draw the eyelids together, in order that our vision may be more concentrated and direct, and become, as it were, one ray piercing through the object.

Thus are men open to the all-seeing eyes, the all-searching looks of Jahve: the just and the unjust alike. He tries the righteous, i. e. , He knows that in the depth of his soul there is an upright nature that will abide all testing (Psa 17:3; Job 23:10), so that He lovingly protects him, just as the righteous lovingly depends upon Him. And His soul hates (i.

e. , He hates him with all the energy of His perfectly and essentially holy nature) the evil-doer and him that delights in the violence of the strong towards the weak. And the more intense this hatred, the more fearful will be the judgments in which it bursts forth. Psa 11:7, which assumes a declaration of something that is near at hand, is opposed to our rendering the voluntative form of the fut .

, ימטר, as expressive of a wish. The shorter form of the future is frequently indicative in the sense of the future, e. g. , Psa 72:13, or of the present, e. g. , Psa 58:5, or of the past, Psa 18:12. Thus it here affirms a fact of the future which follows as a necessity from Psa 11:4, Psa 11:5. Assuming that פּהים might be equivalent to פּחמים, even then the Hebrew פּחם, according to the general usage of the language, in distinction from גּחלת, does not denote burning, but black coals.

It ought therefore to have been אשׁ פּחמי. Hitzig reads פּהים from פּיח ashes; but a rain of ashes is no medium of punishment. Böttcher translates it “lumps” according to Exo 39:3; Num 17:3; but in these passages the word means thin plates. We adhere to the signification snares, Job 22:10, cf. Job 21:17, Pro 27:5; and following the accentuation, we understand it to be a means of punishment by itself.

First of all descends a whole discharge of missiles which render all attempt at flight impossible, viz. , lightnings; for the lightning striking out its course and travelling from one point in the distance, bending itself like a serpent, may really be compared to a snare, or noose, thrown down from above. In addition to fire and brimstone (Gen 19:24) we have also רוּח זלעפות.

The lxx renders it πνεῦμα καταιγίδος, and the Targum זעפא עלעוּלא, procella turbinea . The root is not לעף, which cannot be sustained as a cognate form of להב, לאב to burn, but זעף, which (as 1Sa 5:10 shows) exactly corresponds to the Latin aestuare which combines in itself the characteristics of heat and violent motion, therefore perhaps: a wind of flames, i.

e. , the deadly simoom, which, according to the present division of the verse is represented in connection with אשׁ וגפרית, as the breath of the divine wrath pouring itself forth like a stream of brimstone, Isa 30:33. It thus also becomes clear how this can be called the portion of their cup, i. e. , what is adjudged to them as the contents of their cup which they must drain off.

מנת (only found in the Davidic Psalms, with the exception of 2Ch 31:4) is both absolutivus and constructivus according to Olshausen (§§108, c, 165, i), and is derived from manajath , or manawath , which the original feminine termination ath , the final weak radical being blended with it. According to Hupfeld it is constr . , springing from מנית, like קצת (in Dan.

and Neh.) form קצות. But probably it is best to regard it as = מנות or מנית, like גּלות = גּלות. Thus then Jahve is in covenant with David. Even though he cannot defend himself against his enemies, still, when Jahve gives free course to His hatred in judgment, they will then have to do with the powers of wrath and death, which they will not be able to escape.

When the closing distich bases this different relation of God towards the righteous and the unrighteous and this judgment of the latter on the righteousness of God, we at once perceive what a totally different and blessed end awaits the righteous. As Jahve Himself is righteous, so also on His part (1Sa 12:7; Mic 6:5, and frequently) and on the part of man (Isa 33:15) He loves צדקות, the works of righteousness.

The object of אהב (= אהב) stands at the head of the sentence, as in Psa 99:4, cf. Psa 10:14. In Psa 11:7 ישׂר designates the upright as a class, hence it is the more natural for the predicate to follow in the plur . (cf. Psa 9:7; Job 8:19) than to precede as elsewhere (Pro 28:1; Isa 16:4). The rendering: “His countenance looks upon the upright man” (Hengst. and others) is not a probable one, just because one expects to find something respecting the end of the upright in contrast to that of the ungodly.

This rendering is also contrary to the general usage of the language, according to which פנים is always used only as that which is to be seen, not as that which itself sees. It ought to have been עינימו, Psa 33:18; Psa 34:16; Job 36:7. It must therefore be translated according to Psa 17:15; Psa 140:13 : the upright ( quisquis probus est ) shall behold His countenance.

The pathetic form פנימו instead of פּניו was specially admissible here, where God is spoken of (as in Deu 33:2, cf. Isa 44:15). It ought not to be denied any longer that mo is sometimes (e. g. , Job 20:23, cf. Job 22:2; Job 27:23) a dignified singular suffix. To behold the face of God is in itself impossible to mortals without dying. But when God reveals Himself in love, then He makes His countenance bearable to the creature.

And to enjoy this vision of God softened by love is the highest honour God in His mercy can confer on a man; it is the blessedness itself that is reserved for the upright, 140:14. It is not possible to say that what is intended is a future vision of God; but it is just as little possible to say that it is exclusively a vision in this world. To the Old Testament conception the future עולם is certainly lost in the night of Sheôl.

But faith broke through this night, and consoled itself with a future beholding of God, Job 19:26. The redemption of the New Testament has realised this aspiration of faith, since the Redeemer has broken through the night of the realm of the dead, has borne on high with Him the Old Testament saints, and translated them into the sphere of the divine love revealed in heaven.

Psa 11:1-7 is appropriately followed by Psa 12:1-8, which is of a kindred character: a prayer for the deliverance of the poor and miserable in a time of universal moral corruption, and more particularly of prevailing faithlessness and boasting. The inscription: To the Precentor, on the Octave, a Psalm of David points us to the time when the Temple music was being established, i.

e. , the time of David - incomparably the best age in the history of Israel, and yet, viewed in the light of the spirit of holiness, an age so radically corrupt. The true people of Jahve were even then, as ever, a church of confessors and martyrs, and the sighing for the coming of Jahve was then not less deep than the cry “Come, Lord Jesus! ” at the present time.

This Psa 12:1-8 together with Psa 2:1-12 is a second example of the way in which the psalmist, when under great excitement of spirit, passes over into the tone of one who directly hears God’s words, and therefore into the tone of an inspired prophet. Just as lyric poetry in general, as being a direct and solemn expression of strong inward feeling, is the earliest form of poetry: so psalm-poetry contains in itself not only the mashal , the epos, and the drama in their preformative stages, but prophecy also, as we have it in the prophetic writings of its most flourishing period, has, as it were, sprung from the bosom of psalm-poetry.

It is throughout a blending of prophetical epic and subjective lyric elements, and is in many respects the echo of earlier psalms, and even in some instances (as e. g. , Isa 12:1-6; Hab 3:1) transforms itself into the strain of a psalm. Hence Asaph is called החזה in 2Ch 29:30, not from the special character of his Psalms, but from his being a psalmist in general; for Jeduthun has the same name given to him in 2Ch 35:15, and נבּא in 1Ch 25:2.

(cf. προφητεύειν, Luk 1:67) is used directly as an epithet for psalm-singing with accompaniment-a clear proof that in prophecy the co-operation of a human element is no less to be acknowledged, that the influence of a divine element in psalm-poesy. The direct words of Jahve, and the psalmist’s Amen to them, form the middle portion of this Psalm-a six line strophe, which is surrounded by four line strophes.

\ v 2 Psa 12:1-2 (Heb. : 12:2-3) The sigh of supplication, הושׁיעה, has its object within itself: work deliverance, give help; and the motive is expressed by the complaint which follows. The verb גּמר to complete, means here, as in Psa 7:10, to have an end; and the ἁπ. λεγ. פּסס is equivalent to אפס in Psa 77:9, to come to the extremity, to cease. It is at once clear from the predicate being placed first in the plur .

, that אמוּנים in this passage is not an abstractum , as e. g. , in Pro 13:17; moreover the parallelism is against it, just as in Pro 31:24. חסיד is the pious man, as one who practises חסד towards God and man. אמוּן, primary form אמוּן ( plur . אמונים; whereas from אמוּן we should expect אמוּנים), - used as an adjective (cf. on the contrary Deu 32:20) here just as in Pro 31:24, 2Sa 20:19, - is the reliable, faithful, conscientious man, literally one who is firm, i.

e. , whose word and meaning is firm, so that one can rely upon it and be certain in relation to it. We find similar complaints of the universal prevalence of wickedness in Mic 7:2; Isa 57:1; Jer 7:28, and elsewhere. They contain their own limitation. For although those who complain thus without pharisaic self-righteousness would convict themselves of being affected by the prevailing corruption, they are still, in their penitence, in their sufferings for righteousness’ sake, and in their cry for help, a standing proof that humanity has not yet, without exception, become a massa perdita .

That which the writer especially laments, is the prevailing untruthfulness. Men speak שׁוא (= שׁוא from שׁוא), desolation and emptiness under a disguise that conceals its true nature, falsehood (Psa 41:7), and hypocrisy (Job 35:13), ἕκαστος πρὸς τὸν πλησίον αὐτοῦ (lxx, cf. Eph 4:25, where the greatness of the sin finds its confirmation according to the teaching of the New Testament: ὅτι ἐσμὲν ἀλλήλων μέλη).

They speak lips of smoothnesses (חלקות, plural from חלקה, laevitates , or from חלק, laevia ), i. e. , the smoothest, most deceitful language (accusative of the object as in Isa 19:18) with a double heart, inasmuch, namely, as the meaning they deceitfully express to others, and even to themselves, differs from the purpose they actually cherish, or even (cf. 1Ch 12:33 בלא לב ולב, and Jam 1:8 δίψυχος, wavering) inasmuch as the purpose they now so flatteringly put forth quickly changes to the very opposite.

Psa 12:3-4 (Heb. : 12:4-5) In this instance the voluntative has its own proper signification: may He root out (cf. Psa 109:15, and the oppositive Psa 11:6). Flattering lips and a vaunting tongue are one, insofar as the braggart becomes a flatterer when it serves his own selfish interest. אשׁר refers to lips and tongue, which are put for their possessors. The Hiph .

הגבּיר may mean either to impart strength, or to give proof of strength. The combination with ל, not בּ, favours the former: we will give emphasis to our tongue (this is their self-confident declaration). Hupfeld renders it, contrary to the meaning of the Hiph . : over our tongue we have power, and Ewald and Olshausen, on the ground of an erroneous interpretation of Dan 9:27, render: we make or have a firm covenant with our tongue.

They describe their lips as being their confederates (את as in 2Ki 9:32), and by the expression “who is lord over us” they declare themselves to be absolutely free, and exalted above all authority. If any authority were to assert itself over them, their mouth would put it down and their tongue would thrash it into submission. But Jahve, whom this making of themselves into gods challenges, will not always suffer His own people to be thus enslaved.

Psa 12:3-4 (Heb. : 12:4-5) In this instance the voluntative has its own proper signification: may He root out (cf. Psa 109:15, and the oppositive Psa 11:6). Flattering lips and a vaunting tongue are one, insofar as the braggart becomes a flatterer when it serves his own selfish interest. אשׁר refers to lips and tongue, which are put for their possessors. The Hiph .

הגבּיר may mean either to impart strength, or to give proof of strength. The combination with ל, not בּ, favours the former: we will give emphasis to our tongue (this is their self-confident declaration). Hupfeld renders it, contrary to the meaning of the Hiph . : over our tongue we have power, and Ewald and Olshausen, on the ground of an erroneous interpretation of Dan 9:27, render: we make or have a firm covenant with our tongue.

They describe their lips as being their confederates (את as in 2Ki 9:32), and by the expression “who is lord over us” they declare themselves to be absolutely free, and exalted above all authority. If any authority were to assert itself over them, their mouth would put it down and their tongue would thrash it into submission. But Jahve, whom this making of themselves into gods challenges, will not always suffer His own people to be thus enslaved.