Chapter Overview
Summary
Psalm 11 (MT) / Psalm 10 (LXX) is a short Davidic confidence-psalm: when well-meaning advisers urge flight in the face of rampant wickedness, David responds with faith in YHWH's unshakable moral governance. The psalm's climactic assurance — 'the upright will behold his face' (v. 7) — supplies Revelation 22:4's eschatological-vision promise.
Notable Variants
The 'flee to your mountain like a bird' at 11:1 as the temptation-to-despair; 11:4 'the LORD is in his holy temple' that Habakkuk 2:20 and Revelation 7:15 echo; 11:6 'fire and sulfur' judgment-imagery; 11:7 'the upright will behold his face' → Rev 22:4.
Structural Notes
MT Ps 11 = LXX Ps 10. TCR follows MT numbering; LXX has 7 verses.
For the choirmaster. Of David. In the LORD I have taken refuge. How can you say to my soul, 'Flee to your mountain like a bird'?
Superscription and opening declaration of trust track MT. The advisers' counsel — flee — is rejected by the psalmist's 'in the LORD I have taken refuge.'
For look — the wicked bend the bow, they fit their arrow to the string to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.
'Bend the bow … shoot from the shadows' tracks MT. The nighttime-ambush imagery.
When the foundations are torn down, what can the righteous do?
'When the foundations are torn down' tracks MT. The foundations-crumbling question is one of the Hebrew Bible's most quoted 'collapse-of-moral-order' formulations. Paul's 'God's firm foundation stands' (2 Tim 2:19) responds confidently to this psalmic question.
The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD — his throne is in heaven. His eyes observe, his eyelids examine the children of humanity.
'The LORD is in his holy temple' tracks MT. Habakkuk 2:20 ('the LORD is in his holy temple — let all the earth keep silence before him') carries the same assurance. Revelation 7:15 ('they are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple') develops the image eschatologically.
'Eyes observe, eyelids examine' — the divine-vision vocabulary recurs across the Psalter, contrasting with the wicked's 'God does not see' of Ps 10:11.
The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and the lover of violence his soul hates.
'His soul hates the wicked and the lover of violence' tracks MT. The divine-hatred-of-the-wicked theology is the hard-edge of biblical moral theism — parallel to Psalm 5:6.
He rains down on the wicked burning coals, fire and sulfur; a scorching wind is the portion of their cup.
Masoretic (WLC)
יַמְטֵר עַל־רְשָׁעִים פַּחִים אֵשׁ וְגָפְרִית וְרוּחַ זִלְעָפוֹת
He rains down on the wicked burning coals, fire and sulfur; a scorching wind is the portion of their cup
Septuagint (LXX)
ἐπιβρέξει ἐπὶ ἁμαρτωλοὺς παγίδας πῦρ καὶ θεῖον καὶ πνεῦμα καταιγίδος
He will rain down on sinners snares, fire and sulfur and a stormy wind
The 'fire and sulfur' (pyr kai theion) — Sodom-and-Gomorrah judgment-imagery (Gen 19:24) — becomes the paradigmatic divine-fire-judgment formula. Revelation 14:10 ('he will drink the wine of God's wrath … tormented with fire and sulfur,' pyr kai theion), 19:20 (beast and false prophet 'thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur'), 20:10 (Satan 'thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur'), 21:8 ('the lake that burns with fire and sulfur') all carry this LXX vocabulary into apocalyptic-eschatology.
'Portion of their cup' — the cup-of-wrath imagery — recurs at Jeremiah 25:15 and is extensively developed in Revelation 14–19's 'cups of wrath.' Jesus' Gethsemane 'cup' (Mark 14:36, Matt 26:39, Luke 22:42) inverts the image: Christ drinks the cup meant for the wicked.
For the LORD is righteous — he loves righteous deeds. The upright will behold his face.
Masoretic (WLC)
יָשָׁר יֶחֱזוּ פָנֵימוֹ
The upright will behold his face
Septuagint (LXX)
εὐθύτητα εἶδεν τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ
His face has seen uprightness
BEATIFIC-VISION PROMISE. MT and LXX differ in the direction of the seeing: MT 'the upright will behold his face' (beatific vision of God); LXX 'his face has seen uprightness' (God-sees-righteousness). The Hebrew subject-object is reversible.
Most critical scholars and modern translations follow the MT: the upright will see God's face. This verse, with Numbers 6:25–26 and Psalm 17:15, establishes the biblical-vision-of-God tradition that culminates in Matthew 5:8 ('blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God') and Revelation 22:4 ('they shall see his face').
The tension with Exodus 33:20 ('no one can see my face and live') is Christologically resolved at 1 John 3:2 ('when he appears, we shall see him as he is') and 1 Corinthians 13:12 ('then we shall see face to face').