Psalms 11
Big idea: Someone gives the psalmist sensible advice — flee to the mountains; the archers are already drawing; if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? — and he refuses it in seven verses. His answer is not a strategy but a location: Yahweh is in his holy temple; Yahweh is on his throne in heaven. If the foundations are gone down here, the throne is not down here.
Psalm 11 says God's eyes examine. Psalm 12 says what he finds when he looks: flattery, a double heart, and nobody left to trust.
11:1–7 — Yahweh is on his throne in heaven
A friend gives sensible advice and the psalm spends six verses declining it. What makes the refusal work is that the advice is quoted first, in full, including its unanswerable question — if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? The reply never addresses the foundations. It relocates the argument upward to a throne that was never among the things being destroyed, and answers a question about collapse with a statement about eyesight.
1 For the Chief Musician. By David. In Yahweh, I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”? 2 For, behold, the wicked bend their bows. They set their arrows on the strings, that they may shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. 3 If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? 4 Yahweh is in his holy temple. Yahweh is on his throne in heaven. His eyes observe. His eyes examine the children of men. 5 Yahweh examines the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and him who loves violence. 6 On the wicked he will rain blazing coals; fire, sulfur, and scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup. 7 For Yahweh is righteous. He loves righteousness. The upright shall see his face.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).