Aug 25 - Psalm 11:1-2

I have taken refuge in the Lord.

How can you say to me,

"Escape to the mountain like a bird!

For look, the wicked string the bow;

they put the arrow on the bowstring

to shoot from the shadows

at the upright in heart.”

Psalm 11:1-2

HCSB

Life is hard. Our neighbors are often unthinking and occasionally unjust. Our enemies are worse. As the Psalmist says, “they put the arrow on the bowstring.”

Have you been shot at lately? Have you been gossiped about? Do you know people who are the victims of injustice?

In your life, who would you define as your enemy?

When I was a kid, it was the Russians. Nowadays, however, the enemy isn’t just foreign nations. Often the enemy is among us.

In our world today, it seems like the people of God are increasingly devalued, demeaned, and defamed. Has it ever felt to you that the enemies-among-us “shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart”?

It’s nothing new. Three thousand years ago and in today’s verse, David was obviously lamenting his persecution. Seventeen hundred years ago, Christians were being fed to the lions. In our supposedly advanced world, there are more martyrs every year now than there ever were in Bible times.

What can we do about it?

Today’s Psalm provides two options. The first is to “escape to the mountain like a bird.”

Running is some people’s choice. Hiding is some people’s preference. Isolation does allow us, however, to fulfill Christ’s calls and commissions. How can we make disciples of all nations if we’re flighty and fleeing.

David chooses a more confident option. When he says, “I have taken refuge in the Lord,” he’s proclaiming, “Me plus God are an overwhelming majority.”

A thousand years before the birth of the Messiah, David was essentially prefiguring the words of Jesus: “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul …” (Mt 10:28). Indeed, do not fear the bow-stringers and gun-slingers, rather take refuge in the one who guards your soul for eternity.

Or as The Message renders this verse: "Don't be bluffed into silence by the threats of bullies. There's nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life - body and soul - in his hands” (Mt 10:28).

In Christ’s Love,

a penguin

(since I can’t fly away,

I’ll stand my ground!)