Psalms 11:1 «To the chief Musician, [A Psalm] of David. » In the LORD put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee [as] a bird to your mountain?
Ver. 1. In the Lord put I my trust] This was that which David had and held, wherewith to answer him that reproached him (and it was an excellent good one), that he trusted in God's word, Psalms 119:42. When it was that he gave this answer, "In the Lord put I my trust" (whether when Saul's courtiers, under pretence of friendship, counselled him to quit the court for fear of Saul, which he was very loth to do, see the like Neh 6:10 Luke 13:31, or else when he was with Samuel at Naioth, 1 Samuel 19:18, &c., where his carnal friends might advise him, as Peter did his Master, Matthew 16:22, with a Fuge, fuge, David, cite, citius, citissime Flee, flee david, quick, quicker, most quickly), is uncertain. But this is certain, that all the troops of ungodliness aim and act vigorously to cast down the castle of confidence we have in God. This, therefore, we must be sure to secure, as the serpent doth his head, the soldier his shield, Ephesians 6:16. This is the victory whereby we overcome the world (with its allurements or affrightments) even our faith, 1 John 5:4. The believer walketh about as a conqueror; and he alone is the man whom the heathen poet elegantly describeth (Horat. Carm. lib. iii. Od. 7):
Iustum et tenacem propositi virum,
Non civium ardor prava iubentium,
Non vultus instantis tyranni
Mente quatit solida, &c.
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae.
The poet instanceth in Hercules and Bacchus, but had he known of David, Moses, Micah, Nehemiah, Daniel and his three friends, &c., he would rather have pitched upon them, or some others of those worthies of whom the world was not worthy, Hebrews 11:38 .
Flee as a bird to your mountain? ] Get you gone, you and your followers (the Hebrew word flee is plural), or flee to your mountain, O bird; see you not the fowler's snare? and will you not away with all speed? Thus they sought to fright him (as birds are fearful, Isa 16:2 ), and to make him flee from his place, as a bird fleeth from her nest, Proverbs 27:8 . But he was never without his cordial, the same that relieved him at the sack of Ziklag, where, in the fail of all other comforts, he "encouraged himself in the Lord his God," 1 Samuel 30:6 , he knew that, as birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend his people; defending also he will deliver them, and passing over he will preserve them, Isaiah 31:5 . This, though it were not written in David's days, yet he had the good assurance of it in his soul.