Psalm 11 · a question people ask
"Flee as a bird to your mountain" (11:1). Is it wrong to flee from danger?
The psalm answers the advice with where the psalmist's refuge is: "In the LORD, I take refuge. How can you say to my soul" (11:1). It doesn't say whether the psalmist stayed or went, and its title names no occasion (11:1). Other verses speak of fleeing in other ways. When Saul sent messengers "to kill him in the morning" (1 Samuel 19:11), David "went away, fled, and escaped" (1 Samuel 19:12). Another psalm says, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest" (Psalm 55:6). And Jesus told his disciples, "But when they persecute you in this city, flee into the next" (Matthew 10:23). Strong's gives the psalm's verb for take refuge as "to flee for protection" (tap take refuge). These verses stand side by side in Scripture, and these notes don't choose how they fit together.
The verses
“For the Chief Musician. By David. In the LORD, I take refuge. How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?”
“Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him and to kill him in the morning. Michal, David’s wife, told him, saying, “If you don’t save your life tonight, tomorrow you will be killed.” So Michal let David down through the window. He went away, fled, and escaped.”
“I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest.”
“Jesus sent these twelve out and commanded them, saying, “Don’t go among the Gentiles, and don’t enter into any city of the Samaritans.”