Psalms 11

I have made the LORD my safe place. So how can you say to me, "Fly away to your mountain like a bird"?

1In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?

NoteLORD in capital letters stands in for the personal name of God (the four Hebrew letters YHWH), which Jewish readers did not say aloud; English translations have marked it this way since the sixteenth century. "Flee to your mountain" is advice to run for the hills, the rough hill country with its caves was where fugitives from armed enemies hid. The speaker is quoting advice given to him and rejecting it.

2Look, the wicked are bending their bows. They have set their arrows on the bowstrings, ready to shoot from hiding at people whose hearts are honest.

2For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.

Note"Heart" in Hebrew means the mind and will, the place where a person thinks and decides, rather than the feelings. People "upright in heart" are straight in their intentions, not warm in their emotions. Shooting from cover was the tactic of ambush and assassination, and the bow drawn in secret was a standard image for plotting and slander.

3If the foundations are torn down, what can a good person do?

3If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Note"Foundations" is a building word: the base courses a structure stands on. Here it refers to the settled order of law and justice that holds a society up. Where the quoted advice ends is disputed, the question may still be part of what the frightened advisers are saying in verses 1-3, or it may be the psalmist's own.

4The LORD is in his holy temple. The LORD's throne is in heaven. His eyes watch; he looks closely and examines everyone.

4The LORD is in his holy temple, the LORD’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "temple" means a palace as well as a sanctuary, and the verse pairs it with a throne in heaven, so the picture is a royal throne room. "His eyelids try" is a Hebrew idiom for narrowing the eyes to look hard at something; "try" in 1611 English meant to test or assay, as a metalworker tests ore for purity, not to attempt.

5The LORD tests the person who does right. But the wicked person, and the one who loves violence, he hates with all his heart.

5The LORD trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.

Note"Tests" is again the metalworker's word for assaying metal in fire to find out whether it is genuine. The Hebrew of the first line is ambiguous: it can be read as "tests the righteous and the wicked" (both alike) or, as here, "tests the righteous, but hates the wicked." "His soul" in Hebrew means his whole self, not a part of him.

6On the wicked he will rain down snares, fire and burning sulfur, and a scorching, raging wind. That is what they will be given to drink.

6Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.

Note"Brimstone" is the old English word for sulfur, which burns with a choking flame; fire and sulfur raining down recalls the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. A "cup" in Hebrew usage is the share poured out for a person at a meal, and so stands for the lot or fate assigned to them; "portion" is the measured amount served.

7For the LORD is righteous, and he loves what is right. His face looks on those who are honest.

7For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

Note"Countenance" means face. To see a king's face meant being admitted to his presence and received in favor; to be shut out from it meant disgrace. The Hebrew here can be read either way (either God's face looks on the upright, or the upright will see his face) and translations divide on it.