Psalms 11

Wesley: Ye—mine enemies. The opening sets trust against counsel to flee as a bird to the mountain.

Refuge is a live act of trust that refuses despair’s advice. Grace enables the stand; the hearer must still say no to flight that abandons the LORD’s keeping. Panic counsel is not wisdom because danger is grave—danger is answered by refuge, not by surrendering the soul to fear.

Calvin: when all strove to drive him to despair, fortified by faith he leaned on the promises of God. The advice Flee ye tended only to utter despair; yielding would shake faith. Though often forced to wander like a fearful bird, he never alienated himself from the people of God or slipped from the call and promises.

The shield is trust in Jehovah’s promise, not a mountain hideout. Stay at the post of faith so the promises do not slip away—even when the world treats you as a lost limb.

Wesley: For lo—David turns from enemies to God and pours out complaints. Ready—they lay designs for destruction and make all things ready to execute them.

Bent bow and fitted arrow are chosen designs against the upright in heart. Name the plot before God; uprightness of heart is not naïveté—it is the target malice aims at in the dark.

Calvin: not only danger but exposure to death itself—wherever he hid, escape from enemies’ hands seemed impossible. Shoot secretly: no place so hidden that their darts did not penetrate; death followed as inseparable attendant.

The description heightens the grace of later deliverance. Human caves cannot outrun arrows God alone can stop.

Wesley: Foundations—piety, justice, fidelity, and mercy, the pillars of a state or kingdom. What—the condition of all righteous men will be desperate.

When public pillars of piety and justice collapse, the righteous feel cornered. The cry is pastoral honesty, not unbelief—bring the desperate question to the God who still sits above ruined foundations.

Calvin: foundations agrees with the scope—straits so shut that preservation seemed hopeless. Metaphor from buildings: when foundations are undermined, all falls. In the world’s eyes he was utterly overthrown. What hath the righteous one done?—asserts innocence, comforts by good conscience, and hopes God favors a just cause.

Felt overthrow is not the last word; innocence under God still has an Advocate when every earthly footing looks gone.

Wesley: Temple—in heaven; majesty, sovereign dominion, and accurate inspection of all men and actions. Throne—where he examines all causes and gives righteous sentence according to every man’s works. Try—he throughly discerns inward and secret actions; he will reward innocency and defeat secret designs.

Heaven’s throne means inspection and sentence. Live as those whose secret deeds are already before the Judge who rewards and defeats according to truth.

Calvin: destitute of human aid, he borrows light from heaven. Implied contrast of heaven and earth—when justice is trodden under foot, God sits in heaven perfect and unchanged. Not merely dwelling there, but reigning from a royal judgment-seat. Epicurus would spread God a couch to sleep; faith erects a throne. When judgments are suspended, lean on this: he beholds from heaven.

Providence is not idle repose. The temple and throne assure that confusion below has a Judge above who has not abandoned the order he established.

Wesley: Trieth—he chastens even righteous persons, yet still he loves them, and therefore will in due time deliver them. But as for the wicked, God hates them, and will severely punish them.

Testing of the righteous is fatherly chastening that does not undo love or final deliverance. Hatred of the violent is moral and certain. Endure the trial without reading it as abandonment; flee the love of violence God hates.

Calvin: God distinguishes righteous and unrighteous so as to show he is not an idle spectator—he approves the righteous and hates the wicked. Bachan may mean examine, but here: he inquires into every cause so as to distinguish. He hates those set on injury; to keep his appointed mutual order among men he must be enemy of the troublesome wicked. Their love of iniquity gains nothing by self-flattery.

Testing is judicial discrimination from the throne, not bare curiosity. Love of violence meets God’s settled hatred; approval of the righteous is the Judge at work.

Wesley: Rain—plentifully, swiftly, suddenly. Snares—grievous judgments that surprize, hold fast, and destroy. Horrible tempests—Sodom’s pattern; not so much present calamities as eternal punishments. This—their portion, meat and drink appointed by God.

The cup is appointed, not accidental weather. Sudden judgment answers sudden arrogance. Do not envy the wicked’s calm before the rain—their portion is already named.

Calvin: though God delay, the hour of vengeance will assuredly come. Punishments compared to rain—sudden storm when weather seemed serene; when they say Peace and safety, sudden destruction. Allusion to Sodom; snares first entangle escape, then fire and brimstone. Portion of their cup: God as householder distributing each his allowance—they must drink to the dregs.

Delay is not cancellation. The tribunal remains; hatred of the wicked is armed with power and will not prove ineffectual.

The close grounds hope in God’s character: he is righteous and loves righteousness; the upright shall see his face.

Righteousness loved is righteousness to be done. Beholding his face is the promised end for the upright who walk what God loves—grace enables the deeds; the hearer must still pursue them toward that vision.

Calvin: from God’s office he will punish the wicked; from God’s nature he will defend the good. Being righteous, he must love righteousness, or deny himself. Cold to conceive righteousness in God without concluding he graciously owns what is his and shows it in governing the world. His countenance approveth the upright—special care, protection, perfect safety. Scope: all who, depending upon the grace of God, sincerely follow after righteousness shall be safe under his protection.

The upright are safe because God owns his own and keeps them—not because history rewards virtue by chance.