TO FLEE OR NOT TO FLEE!

Psalm 11 commences with a statement of faith, “In the Lord put I my trust”. Then follows a question, “how say ye to my soul?”. These were things being suggested to David, and particularly so that he might flee. The reasons why he should do so were also given to him.

The first reason was that his enemies were out to destroy him; indeed, their arrows were already fitted to the bow, v. 2, and as they “loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil”, John 3. 19, they aimed at him under cover of night. So the advice of his friends seemed justified by the peril that he was in. The second reason given for his flight is that the foundations of society were being destroyed, v. 3. The administration of justice had at that time fallen into total confusion. What, then, could the righteous do? Surely flight was the answer?

Looking at the circumstances by which he was surrounded, it seemed a correct solution. But remember how David started the psalm. Having sought and found shelter in God Himself, how absurd that he should listen to this advice and flee. The advice of fear in verses 2, 3 has significant omissions—the Name and thought of God are absent. The peril is paramount; there is nothing to do but flee. Yet the vision of faith is that of the Lord enthroned, v. 4; He also sees the peril. The enemy may have fitted his arrow to the string, but there is Another whose bow is bent and whose arrow will fly before his; cf. Psalm 7. 12. Furthermore, do not measure things by the circumstances of the hour—look up, the throne is filled. Self-preservation is not a man’s first duty; flight is his last. Better to be noble, standing fast, staying at our post, though we fall there. Better far to toil on, even when toil seems vain and results few, than to keep a whole skin at the expense of a wounded conscience, or to throw up the work in despair because the going is hard and the results imperceptible.

So David rejects the counsel of his friends to save his life by flight. Similarly the friends of Nehemiah came under guise of friendship, and hoped to trap him by advising him to escape for his life, Neh. 6. 11. “Should such a man as I flee?”, he asked. Faith will do more for us than flight.