Paraphrase Upon the Books of the Psalms, Book 1 · Psalm 11
The Eleventh Psalm.
TO the chief Musitian, A Psalm of David.
Paraphrase. The Eleventh Psalm is a declaration of Davids full confidence in God, in despight of all discouragements, and was by him composed, and committed to the prafect of his Quire.
1. In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye then to my soul, flee as a bird toa. ‖theyour mountain.
My full trust and confidence is in God, not in any strength or preparations of my own: and therefore their advice is very unreasonable, that as in a state of destitution and despair, counsel me to retire to some remote place of solitude, for fear of mine enemies forces; as when fearful birds flie to the tops of mountains, out of the foulers reach.
2. For loe, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready the arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.
They are dayly discouraging me, with the approach, and preparations of mine enemies, and the closeness, and unavoidableness of their designs against me.
3. ‖For the strong holds will be demolished.If theb. foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous doe?
Assuring me that within a while all my preparations and forces will be routed, and then 'tis not my righteousness will give me any support or security.
4. The Lord is in his holy Temple, the Lords throne is in Heaven; his eyes behold, his eye-lids try the Children of men.
But my full reliance and confidence in God, arms me against all these temptations to fear and despair Let the strength, and preparations of my enemies be what they will, and my condition as low and destitute, in the eye of man, as is possible; yet I am sure God sits in Heaven, as in a sanctuary, and on a throne: so that I have my double appeal, and resort, to his mercy and his justice; the former to secure the righteous, the latter to subdue and destroy the wicked oppressour: and from these two I have grounds of assured confidence, that that all-seeing Majesty, that knoweth and judgeth the actions of men, will not fail to judge on my side, to secure me, and destroy my proudest adversaries.
5. The Lord tryeth the righteous; *or, and the wicked, and he that loveth violence hateth his own soul.but the wicked and him that loveth violencec. his soul hateth.
For as it is most infallibly certain, that God doth overlook and sentence all and every action of all sorts of men, both good and bad, and approves, and justifies, and acquits, and withall maintains the cause, undertakes the patronage of the sincerely upright person, and though he permit him to be under some temptations, and seeming destitutions for a while, yet finally delivers him, and vindicates his integrity, and suffers not any thing which is truely ill to befall him, but converts all into good to him; so on the other side, he abhors violence and injustice, and permits not that finally to prosper, save to the destruction and endless mischief of the Authors of it.
6. Ʋpon the wicked he shall rain Snares,d. fire, and brimstone, and‖a tempestuous wind shall be foreign an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their Cup.
Be their forces and preparations never so strong, God can and will defeat them all: when man cannot intrap them, or overcome them by his policy, God will do it for him, bring them into some trap or other, that shall keep them fast enough from injoying their projected prey, from hurting the righteous; and this oft so unexpectedly and so strangely, as that it shall be acknowledged the immediate work of God, as much, as if it came down in a showre of rain, visibly from Heaven. And so when men cannot by their own strength resist them, God will destroy them by his interposition, and and that so observable to pious considering spectators, that it shall be attributed to him as immediately and signally, as was the destruction of Sodome by fire and brimstone, or of the Egyptians by means of the strong east-winde, Exod. XIV. 21. which drowned them c. XV. 10. and secured the Israelites. Thus shall God finally deal with the wicked oppressors, though he bear patiently with them for a while.
7. For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.
For as God is most just and upright in himself, and perfectly abhors all the injustices and oppressions of wicked men; so doth he think himself obliged to favour and protect innocence, wheresoever it is, and accordingly considers and regards, and with his own eye of special watchful providence defends, and secures all those that walk uprightly.
Annotations on Psalm XI.
V. 1. Your mountain] where the Hebrew now reads foreign to your mountain a Sparrow, foreignall the antient interpreters uniformly read, to the mountain as a Sparrow: foreign say the Chaldee, foreign, and so the rest, and so the sense exacts, and so it is possible the reading antiently was, without the foreign to the mountain as a Sparrow, as Psal. cii. 7. we have foreign as a Sparrow upon the house top. However, if it be, flie Sparrow to your mountain, the sense will be the same, as a Sparrow to the mountains (your] being redundant in sense) so the Jewish-Arab, to some of the mountains.
V. 3. If the foundations] It is not certain, what foreign foreignsignifies here. The word is once more found Isa. xix. 10. where we read purposes, and in the margin, foundations, and by some learned men 'tis rendred nets, by others, more agreeably to the context, dammes or pool-heads. The Radix foreign posuit, denotes promiscuously to make or prepare, or raise, whether a damme, a work, a fortress, and rampart of any kind, or a family, or an army, &c. From the first of these (wherein tis used Isa. xxvi. 1. God saith foreign he will found or cast up Salvation for walls and bull-warks) the noun may here signifie a refuge or place of strength, such as were ordinarily built on hills, which were mention'd v. 1. from the second is Seths name, Gen. iv. because, saith Eve, God foreign hath prepared me another seed for Abel; hath given me, saith the Chaldee; foreign, raised up, say the Lxxii. In the third sense tis used Psal. iii. 6. for laying siege, incamping, raising an army, foreign assembling, saith the Chaldee, in a militarie manner: so Isa. xxii. 7. foreign shall set themselves in array. And it is most probable that here in a discourse of enemies and hostility, it should be used either in that first or in this third sense, either for fortresses or strong holds, ot else for other forces and preparations militarie. It is thought also capable of another notion, for laws, the foundations of Government, and the defences or bulwarks of every mans right, which, by another word foreign, are so stiled, Psal. Lxxxii. 5. speaking of Judicature perverted, All the foundations of the earth are out of course. But the context here speaking of David and his enemies, and using another word, doth not so well allow of this. To that of sortresses the storie agrees not, for David had none such. To the latter of forces or preparations military the Lxxii. (and the other interpreters following them) best agree, foreign, they have destroyed what thou hast prepared; and the Syriack yet more fully foreign what thou hast prepared, they have dissipated. The Latine not so fully, yet to the same sense, quae perfecisti destruxerunt, they have destroyed what thou hast done, i. e. (the preter for the future) they will soon scatter and dissipate all thy preparations; and when they have done so, foreign foreignwhat hath the righteous done? i. e. what can or will he do? His righteousness will stand him in little stead. And thus it is fitly a part of the speech of the distrustful friends of David, that discouraged him, and bid him flie to the hills, places of strength or safety, v. 1. (and it may be farther observed, that in Scripture stile we frequently read of the foundations of the mountains, or hills, Deut. xxxii. 22. Psal. xviii. 7.) and so still insist here, telling him that the enemie will destroy all his forces, and then a righteous man or cause, without any other defence, will soon be taken, and ruined. And therefore this is most probably the meaning of it.
V. 5. Soul hateth] The different significations of the particle וו have made this verse capable of several interpretations. For if as a Copulative it be rendred [And] then the first part of the verse runs thus, The Lord trieth the righteous, foreign and the wicked, i. e. examines the actions and thoughts of both: and this seems most probable, as best connecting with v. 4. his eyelids trie the children of men, i. e. all men in the latitude, righteous and wicked, good and bad. And then, as a consequent of that, it fitly follows, And he that loveth violence hateth his own soul, i. e. doth instead of oppressing others, mischief himself; he is sure to have the worst of it; when God comes to examine it, his unjust dealing will be the greatest cruelty to his own soul: and for this the ו before foreign he that loveth violence] may be indifferently rendred, [and] or [but] but most fitly [and.] This sense the Lxxii. have imbraced foreign, but he that loveth iniquitie hateth his own soul; and from them the Latine, qui autem diligit iniquitatem, odit animam suam; and so the Arabick and Aethiopick: and there is only this prejudice against it, that foreign is in the seminine, and so more fitly agrees with foreign his soul in the nominative case. On the other side then, if ו in the first place signifie [but] then it will disjoyn foreign the wicked, from the former part of the verse, and make it begin the latter part; and then our ordinarie rendring of it, which is favoured by the Chaldee, will be most commodious, so as to make an opposition betwixt the fate of the righteous on one side, and the wicked and violent on the other; that God trieth the one, and then trying must signifie either permitting to be tempted and afflicted for a while, or else (as foreign to trie sometimes signifies) approving the former, and abhorreth and detesteth, and so will severely punish the latter. And the only exception against this understanding of it is, that foreign trieth, is in the 4th. verse used in another sense, for a judicial Examination of mens actions, such as is common to the sons of men indefinitely, i. e. to all sorts of them, good and bad, and not peculiar to the righteous; as in the notion either of tempting for a while, or of approving, it must be. In this uncertainty I thought it best, that the Paraphrase should not be confined to one, but inlarged so as to take in both of them.
V. 6. Fire, brimstone] This verse is best divided, by making the pause after foreign foreignsnares, thus, Upon the wicked he shall rainsnares; putting all that follows [fire and brimstone, and winde of tempests or tempestuous winds] into one also, of all which together it is affirmed, that they are the portion of his Cup. And thus the Lxxii. read it, foreign, and so the Syriack and Latine; and thus there is no ellipsis to be supplied, but only of the verb, are, or, shall be, thus, Fire and brimstone and a tempestuous winde shall be the portion of their Cup: which last phrase [portion of Cup] is proverbial in Scripture. foreignGods gifts and dispensations, good and bad, are ordinarily exprest by a Cup poured out, and given men to drink; thus 'tis very frequently in Scripture. And even the Heathen had the same expression of their Gods; foreign—in Homer, there be two Cups of the Gods, one of good things, another of bad. And then foreign foreignportion from foreign numeravit, to tell out, signifies either a payment, or that which is destin'd to any, as his foreign or portion, in a division.