“When [David] penned [Psalm 11] he was [very likely] under persecution from Saul, who sought his life…his timid friends were alarmed for his safety, and recommended him to flee to some mountain where he had a hiding-place, and thus to conceal himself from the rage of Saul. But David, being strong in faith, spurned…such [cowardly actions], and determined confidently to [put] his trust in God…When Satan cannot overthrow us by presumption, how craftily will he seek to ruin us by distrust! He will employ our dearest friends to argue us out of our confidence, and…unless we once for all assert our immovable trust in [Yahweh], he will make us like the timid bird which flies to the mountain whenever danger presents itself.” (C.H. Spurgeon)
Cardiphonia:* Our Lord Jesus also faced a similar temptation to run from the path of courage and trust. Whether in the wilderness (when tempted by Satan to take an easier path to by-pass the Cross), or in his earthly ministry (when people constantly reviled him), or in Gethsemane (where the agony of his impending resolve to drink dry the cup of God’s wrath over our sin squeezed his blood out his pores), Jesus refused to flee. Peter tells us that our Lord, when he was reviled and threatened, and facing great suffering, “continued entrusting himself to the One who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23). This was how our salvation came to pass. Jesus refused to flee when wicked men aimed their sharpened arrows at him. He refused to run and hide because he knew that his Father in heaven was on the throne, and would come to his defense. May we—in the face of all spiritual enemies—have a similar trust. The One who defended David, and then later, David’s Son, will rescue us, too.
* A word coined by and borrowed from John Newton (meaning “sounds of the heart”). The Cardiphonia comments in the Shorey Psalter are my personal reflections on the Psalm.
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