FLEE OR FAITH

-[Psalm 11}

-You may have heard from psychologists or medical personnel about the fight or flight response—when someone is in danger, there are physical and psychological changes that happen to the body to get it ready to do one of two things: either get ready to defend yourself through fight, or run for it in flight.

-When Trish and I were first married, she had a cat, and once we got our first house the cat liked to go outside. I remember that sometimes there were neighborhood dogs that would run be running loose. They were friendly dogs and probably just wanted to play, but when they would come near the cat, the cat would run under my shed—that’s flight mode.

~I also remember when a certain playful dog had gotten out of their cage and came over to our yard to check the cat out, but instead of running, the cat arched her back, hair was standing on end, she started growling and hissing at this dog 10x her size and jumped at the dog swatting. That was fight mode.

-I bring this up because us Christians can have one of two responses or reactions when we are in spiritual peril—when times are trying and troublesome in our lives. One is a good, God-honoring response, and the other is not, although it might be the response that is more likely according to the flesh. The two responses that we can have to life’s problems is we can either flee or we can have faith.

-You can choose to be fearful of what is going on and flee from the trouble and flee from God. Or you can stand firm in your faith in God, and watch Him deliver you as He sees fit. Not that things won’t get uncomfortable for a time, but if you are in Christ God will always fight on your behalf. This psalm talks about these two responses, and I want us to consider them both. So, first, let’s talk about the wrong response as the psalmist describes...

1) Fleeing out of Fear

Psalm 11:1–3 NET 2nd ed.

1 In the Lord I have taken shelter. How can you say to me, “Flee to a mountain like a bird! 2 For look, the wicked prepare their bows, they put their arrows on the strings, to shoot in the darkness at the morally upright. 3 When the foundations are destroyed, what can the godly accomplish?”

-The intro to the psalm says that the was written for the music director by David. David wrote this psalm remembering a trying circumstance that he was under—maybe Saul was chasing him, or Absalom, or he might be thinking of a combination of life circumstances. David tells us that during these trying times he had some friends or counselors who told him to flee like a bird—run away, get out of here. They may have told him that from the human perspective it was a losing battle that he could not win.

-They were telling David to live in fear and let that fear determine his course. They were saying that David’s situation was so bad that God couldn’t help him—in essence saying that God couldn’t be trusted. Since God couldn’t be trusted, better to just run away.

-When we go through trials and tribulations we might run into the same advice from people. If not from people, the enemy will definitely be put those ideas into our head. And we need to know that we’re not alone in being told this. Many Bible heroes were told to live in fear, don’t trust God, and just run away. It wasn’t just David. Job’s own wife was one of those counselors.

Job 2:9–10 NET 2nd ed.

9 Then his wife said to him, “Are you still holding firmly to your integrity? Curse God, and die!” 10 But he replied, “You’re talking like one of the godless women would do! Should we receive what is good from God, and not also receive what is evil?” In all this Job did not sin by what he said.

-Even Jesus was told by the religious leaders to flee:

Luke 13:31 NET 2nd ed.

31 At that time, some Pharisees came up and said to Jesus, “Get away from here, because Herod wants to kill you.”

-And we have a choice: do we give up on God and the Christian faith and living by Biblical principles and following God’s will for our lives? If our flesh believes it’s a losing battle and we can’t change anything, do we just take the easy way our and run away—maybe flee living for God so that we can conform to the ways of the world and live in comfort and ease? It might be tempting. And David, in the Psalm, lists some circumstances that might cause us to feel this way:

a) The problem of persecution

-These sad bunch of friends told David in v. 2 that his enemies were preparing their bows to shoot some arrows at him—we could generalize this to mean that there are wicked people who want to do some harm to God’s children. Their weapons are ready and they want to do a sneak attack (as the verse says about shooting in the darkness at the morally upright).

-There are those who want to harm God’s people because they belong to the kingdom of darkness. In our nation, for now, you might not be threatened with physical harm for your faith, but because the world doesn’t like who we serve or what we stand for, they oppose us and try to silence us and minimize us. But it also might come at a more personal level—persecuted by family or friends or coworkers or schoolmates.

-Persecution can come in many forms: disapproval, ridicule, pressure to conform, loss of educational opportunity, economic sanctions, shunning, alienation, loss of employment or property. And we are not the first to go through this—ever since the birth of the church it has happened:

~Archaeologists, who were digging in the remains of a school for imperial pages in Rome, found a picture dating from the third century. It shows a boy standing, his hand raised, worshiping a figure on a cross, a figure that looks like a man with the head of an donkey. Scrawled in the writing of a young person are the words, "Alexamenos worships his God." Nearby in a second inscription: "Alexamenos is faithful." Apparently, a young man who was a Christian was being mocked by his schoolmates for his faithful witness. But he was not ashamed; he was faithful. He did not flee.

-Another possible cause to be tempted to flee is:

b) The corrosion of our culture

-The friends told David to flee to the mountains because (in v. 3) when the foundations are destroyed, what can the godly actually accomplish? It’s talking about the foundation or basis upon which a society is established. His friends were in essence saying: Look, our society and culture and morals no longer tolerate godliness, holiness, or godly ethics. No one is following God any more or His Word. Nobody cares about your faith, so just flee to the mountain and live a quiet life because there’s nothing you can do.

-And the postmodern American culture tells us much of the same: Look, you Christians are intolerant. Your beliefs are outdated, your God is antiquated, your Christ has no place in society. Just keep your beliefs to yourself, do whatever you want inside your church building, but don’t leave your building trying to preach at us or influence our society because you no longer have a voice in our society.

-It would be so easy to agree with that sentiment and let the discouragement just send us into our shells. As the pillars of society fall, as the culture corrodes, it would be easy to give in to hopelessness. It would be easy to flee in fear and give up trying to influence society for Christ.

-But is fleeing in fear the God-honoring response? Would we not be showing that we don’t trust God if we do that? Thankfully, David didn’t listen to these friends. Instead show us in the rest of the psalm that in troubles, trials, and adversities, we need to be:

2) Firm in our Faith

Psalm 11:4–7 NET 2nd ed.

4 The Lord is in his holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven. His eyes watch; his eyes examine all people. 5 The Lord approves of the godly, but he hates the wicked and those who love to do violence. 6 May the Lord rain down burning coals and brimstone on the wicked! A whirlwind is what they deserve! 7 Certainly the Lord is just; he rewards godly deeds; the upright will experience his favor.

-David wasn’t going to let these friends to convince him to abandon God’s cause, and neither should we allow the world to cause us to flee or abandon Christ. On this earth there’s never a promise of being free of trouble, but it ought not cause us to flee in fear. We stand firm in the faith because of who God is. David goes on to embellish about what it is that causes his faith to remain firm. First,

a) God rules and watches

-in v. 4 David reminds us that the Lord is in His holy temple, He is on the throne in heaven, and His eyes are watching everything that goes on. God can be trusted because He sees everything that is going on and sovereignly rules over all of His creation.

-Often times when things don’t go our way, we turn to the cliche saying, “Well, God’s still on His throne.” That might just be a saying we say when we don’t know what else to say, but it is the truth. There is no time when God stops seeing what’s going on or that He stops ruling over all that exists, including our own lives.

-After Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, at no time did Jesus say: OK, I’VE DONE MY PART, NOW YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN. God is sovereign and always in control. Jesus is on the thrown and has been given all power and authority in heaven and earth. And we’re told that His eyes watch/behold, so we know that God sees everything going on. So, when troubles and adversities do come, we know that God sees what’s happening to us and He has power over the situation.

-We think of what Jesus says in Luke 12 where He reminds us that if God knows all the little things going on in the universe, even with the animals on the earth, how much more does He know and care about what’s going on in our lives whether it’s big or small? How much more does He know our needs and problems? If God sees all the minute details of the world like birds being sold in a market and how many hairs are on our head, how much more important is your life to Him?

-With God ruling and watching, shouldn’t we stand firm in our faith with whatever is going on in the world? God not only rules and watches, God also:

b) God tests and judges

-In v. 4 it says that His eyes examines all people. That word means to test the genuineness of coins and the like. While some people are able to hide their true selves, God knows everything that is in a person’s heart. We can be firm in the faith because God knows people better than they know themselves. He sees and knows their actions and motives and nature because He can thoroughly examine the soul. God knows those who are wicked (never trusting in Christ) and those who are righteous (those who have trusted in Christ).

-We don’t have to flee in fear, but can stand firm in the faith, because according to David in vv. 5-7 the Lord approves of the godly and will reward the godly and with bestow His favor on the godly—all of those found in Christ. Yes, God may let us be refined and purified through the trials we face, but those so refined will be rewarded as the righteous God who loves righteousness will meet with us face to face.

-But David reminds us that God hates the wicked and the lovers of violence and will judge them in his wrath—raining fire and brimstone on them. We can be firm in the faith because God makes a distinction between people, and He knows those who are His.

-There’s a story about a father and daughter who were walking through the grass in a prairie. In the distance they saw a prairie fire; eventually, they realized, it would engulf them. The father knew there was only one way of escape: they would quickly begin a fire right where they were and burn a large patch of grass. When the huge fire drew near, they then would stand on the section that had already burned. When the fire actually did approach them, the girl was terrified by the raging flames. But here father assured her, “The flames can’t get to us. We are standing where the fire has already been.”

-If you haven’t come to Christ, you need to flee to Him to avoid the fire of God’s wrath, and then you can stand firm. But if you are already in Christ, stand firm in your faith, God sees and knows and rules over your life.