Psalm 11

Psalms 11:1-3

In the Lord put I my trust answers a counsel already circulating in David's hearing, how say ye to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain, advice given from real danger since the wicked bend their bow and make ready their arrow upon the string to shoot privily at the upright in heart. Verse 3 states the crisis in its starkest form, if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do, the ground itself, not merely the enemy, seeming to give way. Spurgeon reads the question as the counsel of despair against which the whole psalm is one settled answer.

Psalms 11:4-5

The Lord is in his holy temple: The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven answers verse 3 directly, the true foundation standing untouched above whatever ground gives way below. His eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men is testing language John Gill reads as scrutiny rather than mere observation, a King who examines what he governs. The Lord trieth the righteous divides the same gaze in two, testing the righteous and hating the wicked and him that loveth violence, one throne and two verdicts.

Psalms 11:6-7

Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest, this shall be the portion of their cup, the Sodom vocabulary of Genesis 19 turned into the wicked man's own inheritance, a cup he drinks rather than a sentence read to him. The closing verse states the ground of it all, for the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, his countenance doth behold the upright, the same face that tried the righteous in verse 4 now shown to rest on them with favor. Barnes notes the psalm's whole movement, from the counsel to flee to the settled confidence that the Judge of all the earth needs no man's rescue plan.