Psalms 11 - Introduction

XI.

The tradition assigning this psalm to David is accepted by some of the greatest of modern scholars, but it is difficult to assign it to any known period of his history. Both in his troubles under Saul and in the rebellion of Absalom, he adopted the flight which this poet scorns as unworthy of one whose conscience is clear, and whose faith in Jehovah is sure; and yet the tone of the psalm is too personal to allow it to be taken as merely representative of a type of character, though it certainly stands as a rebuke for ever to those pusillanimous friends who are always ready to counsel flight or compromise, even when the very principles of right and wrong are at stake.

The poetical form is irregular.