สดุดี 11:7 วิจารณ์

In this psalm we have David's struggle with and triumph over a strong temptation to distrust God and betake himself to indirect means for his own safety in a time of danger. It is supposed to have been penned when he began to feel the resentments of Saul's envy, and had had the javelin thrown at him once and again. He was then advised to run his country. "No," says he, "I trust in God, and therefore will keep my ground." Observe, I. How he represents the temptation, and perhaps parleys with it, (Psa 11:1-3). II. How he answers it, and puts it to silence with the consideration of God's dominion and providence (Psa 11:4), his favour to the righteous, and the wrath which the wicked are reserved for (Psa 11:5-7). In times of public fear, when the insults of the church's enemies are daring and threatening, it will be profitable to meditate on this psalm. To the chief musician. A psalm of David.

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 11 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. This psalm has no name; it is neither called a psalm, nor hymn, nor song, nor prayer, only said to be David's; and is inscribed and directed as others to the chief musician, or master of the song, to be used in public service; and seems to be written much upon the same subject with the two preceding psalms. According to Theodoret it was written when David was persecuted by Saul, and was advised by some to flee for his safety.

For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness,.... The Lord is righteous in himself, and in all his ways and works; and therefore righteousness, as it lies both in punishing the wicked, and in maintaining the righteous cause of his people, must be loved by him, it being agreeable to his nature: he loves to exercise righteousness in the earth, to administer it to and among men; this he delights in. He is well pleased with the righteousness of his Son, it being satisfactory to his justice, and that by which his law is magnified and made honourable; and he is well pleased with his people, as they are clothed with it: and he approves of their righteous actions, as they are done in obedience to his righteous law, in faith, from a principle of love, and with a view to his glory; these are acceptable to him in Christ; his countenance doth behold the upright; whom wicked men privily shoot at, Psa 11:2; God looks with pleasure upon them, and takes delight in them, and takes care of them, protects and defends them, and at last saves them; and which, with all that goes before, was an encouragement to David to trust in the Lord; see Psa 7:10; and moreover, the Lord lifts up the light of his countenance on such, and indulges them with his gracious presence, than which nothing is more comfortable and desirable. Some choose to render the word, "their countenance" (y), meaning the trinity of Persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, who all have a gracious regard to such: others render the clause thus, "the upright shall see his face", the face of God; so the Chaldee paraphrase and the Arabic version; see Psa 17:15. (y) "facies eorum", Genebrardus, Vatablus, Gussetius; so R. Japhet in Aben Ezra, who compares it with Genesis xx. 13. Next: Psalms Chapter 12

The ultimate justice itself is Christ, “who was made wisdom for us from God, and justice, and sanctification and redemption.” The justice in each person, however, is formed from that justice, so that many justices come into existence in those who are saved; wherefore it has also been written, “The Lord is just and has loved justice.”

"Fire and brimstone and the blast of the tempest is the portion of their cup." This is their punishment and end, by whom the name of God is blasphemed; that first they should be wasted by the fire of their own lusts, then by the ill savour of their evil deeds cast off from the company of the blessed, at last carried away and overwhelmed suffer penalties unspeakable. For this is the portion of their cup: as of the righteous, "Your cup inebriating how excellent is it! For they shall be inebriated with the richness of Your house." Now I suppose a cup is mentioned for this reason, that we should not suppose that anything is done by God's providence, even in the very punishments of sinners, beyond moderation and measure. And therefore as if he were giving a reason why this should be, he added, "For the Lord is righteous, and has loved righteousnesses" [Psalm 11:7]. The plural not without meaning, but only because he speaks of men, is as that righteousnesses be understood to be used for righteous men. For in many righteous men there seem, so to say, to be righteousnesses, whereas there is one only righteousness of God whereof they all participate. Like as when one face looks upon many mirrors, what in it is one only, is by those many mirrors reflected manifoldly. Wherefore he recurs to the singular, saying, "His face has seen equity." Perhaps, "His face has seen equity," is as if it were said, Equity has been seen in His face, that is, in knowledge of Him. For God's face is the power by which He is made known to them that are worthy. Or at least, "His face has seen equity," because He does not allow Himself to be known by the evil, but by the good; and this is equity.

As to the ungodly, if you give all the world to the poor, you will not benefit him at all. For to whom the Deity was an enemy while he was alive, it is certain he will be so also when he is departed; for there is no unrighteousness with him. For “the Lord is righteous and has loved righteousness.”

He added: “his face beheld righteousness,” namely, that righteousness that he himself graciously grants. For humanity does not have anything of worth on its own; it can only lay claim to what it has received from the Lord, the Granter of all good things.

"Because the Lord is just and has loved justice," therefore nothing is to be expected from Him except justice. Jer. 9: "I am the Lord who exercises mercy, judgment, and justice on the earth." Ps. 144: "The Lord is just in all His ways." "Equity has His countenance beheld" -- or "His face" -- that is, equity has been seen by His knowledge; as if to say: to those to whom He makes Himself known and whom He loves, He shows equity.

On title, see Introduction. Alluding to some event in his history, as in Sa1 23:13, the Psalmist avows his confidence in God, when admonished to flee from his raging persecutors, whose destruction of the usual foundations of safety rendered all his efforts useless. The grounds of his confidence are God's supreme dominion, His watchful care of His people, His hatred to the wicked and judgments on them, and His love for righteousness and the righteous. (Psa 11:1-7) my soul--me (Psa 3:2). Flee--literally, "flee ye"; that is, he and his companion. as a bird to your mountain--having as such no safety but in flight (compare Sa1 26:20; Lam 3:52).

his countenance--literally, "their faces," a use of the plural applied to God, as in Gen 1:26; Gen 3:22; Gen 11:7; Isa 6:8, &c., denoting the fulness of His perfections, or more probably originating in a reference to the trinity of persons. "Faces" is used as "eyes" (Psa 11:4), expressing here God's complacency towards the upright (compare Psa 34:15-16). Next: Psalms Chapter 12

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. Bצttcher 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 Sa1 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 Ch2 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 (Sa1 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 Shel. 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.