Faith that Refuses to Flee

Psalm 11

For weeks and now months, missionaries have been told to leave Ukraine. Western nations have abandoned their embassies and the oligarchs, businessmen, and those who can afford to do so are leaving their country, protecting their families from war. But Vasyl Ostryi, his wife, and four girls decided to stay. He serves as the pastor of Irpin’ Bible Church near Kyiv. Through the Russian attacks, he, his family, and his church have maintained a constant presence and witness to the hope that the gospel of Jesus Christ provides, offering first-aid training at the church, shelter in the church’s basement, and most importantly – a gospel witness.

Though we aren’t experiencing outright invasion and warfare in the U.S., we are also witnessing the gradual but unmistakable rise of lawlessness, injustice, and oppression by wicked and godless people. Those who follow Christ are especially aware of this concerning reality. But what should we do? That’s the question that Psa 11 encourages us to ask ourselves.

To the lead musician, from David.

We know that David wrote this song and submitted it to the worship leaders at the tabernacle to be taught and sung regularly by the people of Israel as they followed Yahweh as their God and King.

We know that David wrote this psalm either before he became king or while he was king over Israel, but we don’t know anything more than that. From what this psalm says, we know that David was facing some difficult challenges in which unjust and ungodly people were mounting a serious threat, perhaps to David’s kingship and the nation of Israel.

Have you placed your trust in the God of the Bible? (v.1)

In Yahweh I have taken refuge;

how can you say to my soul –

To begin this psalm, David announces that he had found a safe place for shelter, defense, and protection. What’s remarkable about this safe place was that it was not really a place at all but a person, God himself. To “take refuge” in Yahweh, the all-sufficient, all-powerful God of eternity, is to put your trust in him to protect you from life’s dangers.

People search for safety in so many places. We purchase insurance, build underground bunkers, move to the suburbs, accumulate wealth, install sophisticated security systems, and hoard guns and ammunition. Though all these things have their place, they become wrong when we rely on them for ultimate security and when we rely on them more than on God himself. Are you trusting in the God of the Bible for your safety and security?

Whatever crisis David was facing, he wanted to make clear that he was trusting in God to defend him. However, other people were offering him different advice.

We don’t know who these people were. They were probably not his adversaries because his adversaries would be spoken about in the third person. Perhaps David was wrestling “inner voices,” his own inner fears causing him to second-guess himself. It’s even more likely that these people were advisors, friends, or relatives trying to give David some well-intended but mistaken advice.

Notice how these people were not only speaking to David, but their words were penetrating to his innermost thoughts and feelings (“to my soul”). Their misleading but well-intended advice were tempting David to abandon his faith in his innermost being. This was not just an intellectual conversation or a friendly debate – it was a genuine and intense temptation that he was wrestling through.

What would you have done if you were David?

Are you tempted to withdraw when wickedness rises? (v.1-3)

The next six lines tell us what they were saying.

“Flee to a mountain like a bird;

for look, the wicked are stepping on a bow,

they have put their arrow on the string

to shoot in the dark at the upright heart!

If the foundations are cast down,

what can the righteous do?”

These people used an analogy from the wonderful world of nature to capture David’s attention and imagination. They described his situation as though he were a helpless dove fluttering around in the open plains, and they portrayed his adversaries as hunters who had locked their sights on him and were nearly finished loading their bow and arrow to shoot at him.

“Preparing” means “to step on” and likely describes how ancient archers would place their foot on their bow to steady it as pulled back the string to hold the arrow.

“In the dark” likely portrays a nighttime hunt in which a dove would be unable to spot those who were hunting him.

If David stayed put, his advisers believed he would die at the hands of those who here pursuing him, so it was better for him to flee to a reclusive place in the mountains, whether a place of dense, thick underbrush or a crevice on a high and hidden ledge in the cliffs.

It's possible that this illustration vividly portrayed David in an actual military standoff, and it’s also possible that it dramatically portrays a more political standoff in which David was being attacked through political intrigue, maneuvering, and propaganda. We simply don’t know. Whatever the case, the assumption here is that David had been overpowered, outmaneuvered, and placed into a defenseless position.

This leads to another description, one involving stonemasonry and demolition. “Cast down” refers to how soldiers would destroy an ancient city by breaking up its walls and foundations and casting the stones and debris down over the hill or ‘tel’ (the built-up mound on which the city had been built). In this case, the imagery doesn’t portray the demolition of an actual city but the demolition of the society which that city represents.

David’s advisors here imply that his adversaries had already made significant progress in demolishing and toppling David’s hold on the throne as king over Israel and that there was nothing either he or any other right-hearted people could do to restore godly morals and a righteous reign.

What we need to point out here is that this question, “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” is not a godly principle or statement of biblical wisdom (like we find in Proverbs); it is a piece of bad advice and an example of faulty logic. David’s well-meaning advisers believed that it was useless for David to stand in his place and wait for God’s intervention. They believed that enough damage had been sustained from ungodly people that there was no longer any hope of regaining that ground.

So, how should we answer this question? Well, first of all, we can say what David said at the start of this psalm. “Why are you saying this?” In other words, think about what you’re saying; what you’re saying doesn’t make sense – it doesn’t add up!

So, when wicked people appear to gain the higher ground in the struggle to influence this world, what can the righteous do? I like how one Bible commentator, Allen Ross, answers this question. He says, “They can go on being righteous. And they can stand against the evil of their society … The one thing they must not do is ‘flee to the mountains.’”

Rather than retreat and withdraw from society, we who follow Christ need to remember…

Remember that God’s reign transcends world events. (vv.5-6)

Yahweh is in his holy temple:

Yahweh – in the heavens is his throne;

his eyes see, his eyelids examine the children of mankind.

Do you what David is saying here? He is saying, lift up your eyes. Get your eyes off my throne and the thrones of this world. Get your eyes off the battles, skirmishes, and struggles of this world and focus instead on the fact that God’s temple and throne is in heaven. Remember, the temple had not been built yet, so the temple in view here is a heavenly temple, one that is “holy.” This is one thing that cannot be said of any of the building in St. Paul or Washington, D.C. Congress is not holy, the Supreme Court is not holy, and the White House is not holy.

Another thing that cannot be said of our earthly religious or political structures is that they are “in the heavens.” Our earthly structures, though impressive and strong, are themselves able to be destroyed through bad weather and warfare. Yet our God reigns from heaven, which means that his reign is not threatened to any degree by the political battles, social struggles, and outright warfare on this earth. In fact, his reign is universal, and he rules over all nations and kingdoms forever.

Not only does God reign from the untouchable heavens, he is paying attention to what’s happening on earth, as “his eyes see” makes clear. When a major natural disaster strikes, it is expected that the U.S. president will fly into the storm zone afterwards to walk around, talk to local residents, and observe the devastation firsthand, resulting in an announcement of a massive donation of federal aid to the clean-up effort. But our God reigns from the heavens and see everything as it happens. He doesn’t need to fly in.

And God is not just paying attention, but he is paying close attention to every detail, as “his eyelids examine” tells us. This funny-sounding phrase envisions how we squint our eyelids when we are examining something closely, soaking in every detail. So it is with God; he is not only logging every detail of what happens in this world, but he is evaluating the best response to each development as well. So, if you wonder whether God sees what you are facing in particular, you can rest assured that he does.

Yahweh examines the righteous and the wicked,

and those who love violence his soul hates.

Here we see David’s confidence in God’s complete awareness of not only his own life situation but the situation of every other person in the world. Yahweh plays close attention to every detail of every person who walks the face of this earth. He observes all people equally and perfectly.

“His soul” means that God hates the wicked with all of his being from the very core of his essential nature as God. “Hating the wicked” is an essential aspect of his character, of who he is, and that is why David could rest in God in the face of rising injustice.

Perhaps you may be repulsed by the idea that God hates anyone, but since we are all made in the image of God, we experience hatred because God experiences hatred. We get our feelings of hatred from him – only his hatred is perfect and ours is imperfect and flawed by sin. Sometimes we hate things that are good, tolerate things which are evil, and we never hate to the proper degree. God only hates what is evil and he hates evil perfectly, exactly as it deserves to be hated.

Though God carefully scrutinizes every person, whether righteous or wicked, he only hates those who are guilty of sin like a criminal is guilty of a crime, those who have broken his moral law. Violence here focuses on violations such as treating other people with cruelty and plundering, oppressing, or hurting people. God has a zero-tolerance policy for the mistreatment of other people, esp. when those people are those who are trusting in him. Knowing this, David offers a prayer request to God as he trusted him for safety.

May he rain snares on the wicked,

and may fire, sulphur, and scorching wind be the portion of their cup.

Can you see the irony and humor here? David’s advisors urged him to fly away like a hunted bird, but here he says that his hunters should be the ones who are scared because God will reign countless bird snares (or traps used by bird hunters) upon them.

This is a small sample of what theologians call an imprecatory psalm, which is a psalm that wishes bad things for bad people. Is it okay for us to pray such prayers today? I will say yes, with at least two qualifications:

First, trust God to answer your prayer based upon his perfect knowledge and justice and don’t try to bring about the answer yourself. It’s one thing to ask God to rain fire on the wicked but another to light a fire to your neighbor’s house. It’s okay for instance to pray that God will destroy the abortion clinic down the street, but it’s not okay to light the clinic on fire. Imprecatory prayers are valuable because they allow us to share in God’s holy hatred of sin while trusting his perfect wisdom to bring about justice.

Acknowledge the possibility of wicked people to receive God’s salvation. Everyone deserves God’s judgment, don’t we? That’s why Christ came, to receive God’s full judgment and justice for our sins on himself so that the fires of judgment would not fall on us. We should not be like Jonah who cursed God for allowing the cruel Ninevites to repent and receive his forgiveness from their sins.

David’s prayer here reminds us of God’s judgment on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their rampant immorality and mistreatment of others (Gen 19:24). So, David had a precedent that informed his prayer and was not driven by mere personal, selfish frustration.

This prayer also anticipates the great judgment that God will send on the wicked at the end of this age: “this shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths” (Zech 14:12-15), not to mention similar judgments that are foretold in Revelation.

Knowing that God is righteous and just, that he reigns from the heavens, and that he sees and knows all things, we can …

Rest in the righteousness of God. (v.7)

For Yahweh is righteous:

righteous deeds he loves;

the upright will see his face.

Here David tells us why he questioned the advice he had received at the start of this psalm. Why should he flee when he was trusting in Yahweh who is righteous? This same God who hates wickedness loves righteous deeds, and those who are upright in their hearts will someday see his face not only in judgment but in eternity in the new heaven and Earth where God himself will reign and the foundations will never be destroyed.

As believers, we must be ready to stand firm in our faith remain active in our community even when godly morals, just laws, and godly order are crumpling. “If the foundations are cast down,” what can the righteous do? We can remain where God has placed us and find our refuge in God.

As you know, none of us are righteous, “for there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin” (Eccl 7:20). For that reason, we all deserve the fiery judgment which David spoke about. To become righteous in God’s sight, you must turn to Jesus Christ alone as your God and Savior. Let him absorb God’s wrath against your sin and transfer his perfect righteousness to your life.

If you have done that, then you are his child, and he views you as a righteous person in his sight thanks to the righteousness of Christ given to you. With this confidence, then, you can find your safety and security in God, even as wickedness rises in our world and threatens to throw down godly morality, justice, and order.

Even as God’s people experience increased persecution and marginalization, we can remain where God has placed us and rest in him, providing our world with examples of calm, peaceful confidence in a righteous God. We do not have to fly away like a hunted bird to hide in the mountains. We can continue to be salt and light in the world through wherever God has placed us in government, education, employment, and even our places of residence, making a difference for Christ.