John Calvin Commentary Psalms 11

In Jehovah do I put my trust. Almost all interpreters think that this is a complaint David brings against his countrymen: that while seeking everywhere for hiding places, he could find nowhere even common humanity. It is indeed true that in the whole course of his wanderings, after fleeing to escape Saul's cruelty, he could find no secure place of retreat—at least, none where he might continue for any length of time undisturbed.

He might, therefore, justly complain of his own countrymen, because none of them deigned to shelter him when he was a fugitive. But I think he is referring to something higher. When everyone was striving, as it were, against each other to drive him to despair, he must, according to the weakness of the flesh, have been afflicted with great and almost overwhelming distress of mind; but fortified by faith, he confidently and steadfastly leaned on God's promises and was thus preserved from yielding to the temptations to which he was exposed.

He recounts here these spiritual conflicts, through which God tested him amidst his extreme perils. Accordingly, as I have just observed, the psalm should be divided into two parts. Before celebrating God's righteousness, which He displays in the preservation of the godly, the Psalmist shows how he had encountered even death itself, and yet, through faith and an upright conscience, had obtained the victory.

Since everyone advised him to leave his country and retreat to some place of exile where he might be hidden—given that no hope of life remained for him unless he relinquished the kingdom promised to him—he, in the beginning of the psalm, counters this perverse advice with the shield of his trust in God.

But before going further into the subject, let us interpret the words. The word נוד, nud, which we have translated to flee, is written in the plural, yet it is read in the singular; but, in my opinion, this is a corrupt reading. Since David tells us that this was said to himself only, the Jewish scholars, thinking the plural unsuitable, have taken it upon themselves to read the word in the singular.

Some of them, wishing to retain the literal sense, as it is called, perplex themselves with the question of why it is said Flee ye, rather than Flee thou; and, eventually, they resort to a very weak subtlety, as if those who counseled him to flee addressed both his soul and his body.

But it was unnecessary effort to go to so much trouble in a matter where there is no difficulty, for it is certain that those who counseled David did not say that he alone should flee, but that he should flee together with all his attendants, who were in the same danger as himself.

Although, therefore, they addressed David especially, they also included his companions, who had a common cause with him and were exposed to the same danger. Commentators also differ in their interpretation of what follows. Many translate it from your mountain, as if it were מהרכם, meharkem; and, according to them, there is a change of person, because those who spoke to him must have said, you flee from Our mountain. But this is harsh and strained.

Nor does it seem to me that they have any more reason on their side when they say that Judea is here called "mountain." Others think we should read הר כמו צפור, har kemo tsippor, that is, into the mountain as a bird, without a pronoun.

But if we follow what I have said, it will agree very well with the passage's scope to read it this way: Flee ye into your mountain, for you are not permitted to dwell in your own country. I do not, however, think that any particular mountain is indicated, but that David was sent away to the desert rocks wherever chance might lead him.

Condemning those who gave him this advice, he declares that he depends on God's promise and is not at all disposed to go away into exile like this. Such, then, was David's condition that, in his extreme necessity, everyone repelled and chased him far away into desert places.

But since he seems to imply that it would be a sign of distrust if he were to place his safety in flight, it may be asked whether or not it would have been lawful for him to flee. Indeed, we know that he was often forced to retreat into exile, driven about from place to place, and that he even sometimes hid himself in caves.

I answer that it is true he was unsettled like a poor, fearful bird, which leaps from branch to branch, and was compelled to seek different bypaths and to wander from place to place to avoid his enemies' snares; yet still his faith continued so steadfast that he never alienated himself from God's people.

Others considered him a lost man, one whose affairs were in a hopeless condition, valuing him no more than if he had been a rotten limb; yet he never separated himself from the body of the Church. And certainly these words, Flee ye, tended only to make him yield to utter despair.

But it would have been wrong for him to have yielded to these fears and to have fled, as if uncertain of the outcome. He therefore says expressly that this was spoken to his soul, meaning that his heart was deeply pierced by such an ignominious rejection, since he saw (as I have said) that it tended only to shake and weaken his faith.

In short, although he had always lived innocently, as befitted a true servant of God, yet these malignant people would have doomed him to remain forever in exile from his native country.

This verse teaches us that however much the world may hate and persecute us, we should nevertheless remain steadfast at our post, so that we do not deprive ourselves of the right to claim God's promises, or so that these promises do not slip away from us. Furthermore, however much and however long we may be harassed, we should always remain firm and unwavering in the faith that we have God's call.

Surely, see! The ungodly. Some think that this is added as the excuse made by those who desired David to save himself by flight. According to others, David reasons earnestly with his countrymen, who saw death menacing him on all sides, and yet denied him shelter. But, in my judgment, he here continues his account of the trying circumstances in which he was placed.

His design is not only to place before our view the dangers with which he was surrounded, but to show us that he was exposed even to death itself. He therefore says that wherever he might hide himself, it was impossible for him to escape from the hands of his enemies. Now, the description of so miserable a condition illustrates the more strikingly the grace of God in the deliverance which he afterwards granted him.

With respect to the words, they have fixed their arrows upon the string, to Shoot Secretly, or in darkness, some understand them metaphorically as the attempts David’s enemies made to surprise him by craft and snares.

I, however, prefer this interpretation, as being simpler—that there was no place so hidden that the darts of his enemies did not penetrate, and that, therefore, to whatever caves he could go for concealment and shelter, death would follow him as his inseparable attendant.

Truly, the foundations are destroyed. Some translate the word השתות, hashathoth, as nets, a meaning in which Scripture often uses this word in other places; and their explanation of the words is that the wicked and deceitful arts which the ungodly practiced against David were defeated. If we accept this interpretation, the meaning of what he adds immediately after, What has the righteous one done? will be that his safe escape was owing neither to his own exertion nor to his own skill, but that, without putting forth any effort, and when, as it were, he was asleep, he had been delivered from the nets and snares of his enemies by the power of God.

But the word foundations agrees better with the scope of the passage, for he evidently proceeds to relate into what straits he had been brought and shut up, so that his preservation, to all appearances, was now hopeless. Interpreters, however, who maintain that foundations is the proper translation of the word, do not agree on the meaning.

Some explain it as meaning that he did not have a single spot on which to fix his foot; others, that covenants, which ought to have stability by being faithfully kept, had often been shamefully violated by Saul. Some also understand it allegorically, as meaning that the righteous priests of God, who were the pillars of the land, had been put to death.

But I have no doubt that it is a metaphor taken from buildings, which must fall and become a heap of ruins when their foundations are undermined; and thus David complains that, in the eyes of the world, he was utterly overthrown, inasmuch as all that he possessed was completely destroyed. In the last clause, he again repeats that being persecuted so cruelly was something he did not deserve: What has the righteous one done? And he asserts his own innocence, partly to comfort himself in his calamities from the testimony of a good conscience, and partly to encourage himself in the hope of obtaining deliverance. That which encouraged him to trust in God was the belief he held that, on account of the justice of his cause, God was on his side and would be favorable to him.

Jehovah is in the palace of his holiness. In what follows, the Psalmist glories in the assurance of the favor of God, of which I have spoken. Lacking human aid, he turns to the providence of God. It is a clear sign of faith, as I have observed elsewhere, to take and to borrow, so to speak, light from heaven to guide us to the hope of salvation when we are surrounded in this world with darkness on every side.

Everyone acknowledges that the world is governed by the providence of God; but when some distressing confusion of events occurs, which disturbs their peace and involves them in difficulty, there are few who maintain a firm conviction of this truth. But from David's example, we ought to regard God's providence in such a way as to hope for a remedy from his judgment, even when matters are in the most desperate condition.

There is in the words an implied contrast between heaven and earth; for if David’s attention had been fixed on the state of things in this world, as they appeared to natural perception and reason, he would have seen no hope of deliverance from his current dangerous circumstances.

But this was not David’s response; on the contrary, when in the world all justice is trampled underfoot and faithfulness has perished, he reflects that God sits in heaven perfect and unchanged, from whom he should look for the restoration of order out of this state of miserable confusion.

He does not simply say that God dwells in heaven, but that he reigns there, as it were, in a royal palace, and has his throne of judgment there. Nor do we truly give him the honor which is his due, unless we are fully convinced that his judgment-seat is a sacred sanctuary for all who are in affliction and unrighteously oppressed.

When, therefore, deceit, craft, treachery, cruelty, violence, and extortion reign in the world; in short, when all things are thrown into disorder and darkness by injustice and wickedness, let faith serve as a lamp to enable us to behold God’s heavenly throne, and let that sight be enough to make us wait patiently for the restoration of things to a better state.

The temple of his holiness, or his holy temple, which is commonly understood as Sion, undoubtedly here signifies heaven; and that this is so is clearly shown by the repetition in the next clause, Jehovah has his throne in Heaven; for it is certain David expresses the same thing twice.

His eyes behold. Here, he infers from the preceding sentence that nothing is hidden from God and that, therefore, people will be obliged to give him an account of all that they have done. If God reigns in heaven, and if his throne is erected there, it follows that he must necessarily attend to human affairs, in order to one day sit in judgment on them.

Epicurus, and those like him who would persuade themselves that God is idle and enjoys rest in heaven, may be said to spread a couch for him on which to sleep rather than to erect a throne of judgment for him. But it is the glory of our faith that God, the Creator of the world, does not disregard or abandon the order that he himself first established.

And when he suspends his judgments for a time, it is fitting for us to lean upon this one truth: that he beholds from heaven. Just as we now see David contenting himself with this comforting thought alone, that God rules over humankind and observes whatever takes place in the world, although his knowledge and the exercise of his jurisdiction are not immediately apparent.

This truth is still more clearly explained in what is immediately added in the fifth verse: that God distinguishes between the righteous and the unrighteous, and in such a way that shows he is not an idle spectator; for he is said to approve the righteous and to hate the wicked. The Hebrew word בחן, bachan, which we have translated as to approve, often signifies to examine or to try. But in this passage, I explain it as simply meaning that God so inquires into everyone's cause as to distinguish the righteous from the wicked.

It is further declared that God hates those who are intent on inflicting injuries and on doing mischief. As he has ordained mutual interaction among people, he would also have us maintain it as inviolable. Therefore, in order to preserve this his own sacred and appointed order, he must be the enemy of the wicked, who wrong and are troublesome to others. There is also contrasted here God’s hatred of the wicked with wicked people’s love of iniquity, to teach us that those who please and flatter themselves in their mischievous practices gain nothing by such flatteries and only deceive themselves.

He will rain upon the ungodly. David now, finally, lays it down as a certain truth that although God, for a time, may be still and delay His judgments, yet the hour of vengeance will certainly come. Thus we see how by degrees he rises to the hope of a happy outcome for his present affliction, and he strives for this, so that the social and moral disorder he saw prevailing around him might not weaken his faith.

Since the tribunal of God remains firm and immovable, he, first, sustains and comforts himself by considering that God from on high beholds all that is done here below. Next, he considers what the office of a judge requires, from which he concludes that the actions of men cannot escape the inspection of God’s omniscient eye, and that although He does not immediately punish their evil deeds, He hates all the wicked.

Finally, he adds that since God is armed with power, this hatred will not be in vain or ineffectual. Thus, while God defers the infliction of punishment, the knowledge of His justice will have a powerful influence in maintaining our faith, until He actually shows that He has never departed from His watch-tower, from which He beholds the actions of men.

He appropriately compares the punishments which God inflicts to rain. As rain is not constant, but the Lord sends it forth when He pleases; and, when the weather is calmest and most serene, suddenly raises a storm of hail or violent showers of rain; similarly, it is here intimated that the vengeance that will be inflicted on the wicked will come suddenly, so that, when they are indulging in mirth and intoxicated with their pleasures, and when they shall say, Peace and safety, sudden destruction will come upon them. At the same time, David here evidently alludes to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

As the prophets, when they would promise the grace of God to the elect, remind them of the deliverance from Egypt, which God performed on behalf of His ancient people, so when they would alarm the wicked, they threaten them with a destruction like that which befell Sodom and Gomorrah, and they do so on good grounds; since Jude, in his Epistle, tells us that these cities are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire (Jude 1:7). The Psalmist, with much beauty and propriety, puts snares before fire and brimstone.

We see that the ungodly, while God spares them, fear nothing, but give themselves ample scope in their wayward courses, like horses let loose in an open field; and then, if they see any adversity impending over them, they devise for themselves ways of escape. In short, they continually mock God, as if they could not be caught unless He first entangles and holds them fast in His snares.

God, therefore, begins His vengeance by snares, shutting up against the wicked every way of escape; and when He has them entangled and bound, He thunders upon them dreadfully and horribly, just as He consumed Sodom and the neighboring cities with fire from heaven. The word זלעפות, zilaphoth, which we have rendered whirlwinds, is by some translated kindlings or burnings; and by others, commotions or terrors. But the context requires the interpretation I have brought forward, for a tempest is raised by stormy winds, and then follow thunder and lightning.

The portion of their cup. By this expression he testifies that the judgments of God will certainly take effect, although ungodly men may delude themselves with deceitful flattery. This metaphor is frequently found in the Scriptures.

Since the carnal mind believes nothing with greater difficulty than that the calamities and miseries which seem to be fortuitous happen according to a just distribution from God, He represents Himself as a householder who distributes to each member his portion or allowance.

David, therefore, here intimates that there is certainly a reward stored up for the ungodly; that it will be in vain for them to resist when the Lord shall reach to them the cup of His wrath to drink; and that the cup prepared for them is not one they may sip drop by drop, but a cup, the whole of which they will be compelled to drink, as the prophet threatens:

Thou shalt drink it off even to the dregs (Ezekiel 23:34).