Flee as a bird to your mountain (Ps 11: 1)

Julie Swannell

What is the Psalmist talking about?  Let’s take a look at two Bible translations and paraphrases first:

King James Version:
In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?  For, lo, the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string, that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart.  If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?  The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his eyelids try, the children of men.  The Lord trieth the righteous: but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soul hateth.  Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup.  For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his countenance doth behold the upright.

From Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase in The Message:
^1-3I've already run for dear life straight to the arms of God.
So why would I run away now
when you say,
"Run to the mountains; the evil
bows are bent, the wicked arrows
Aimed to shoot under cover of darkness
at every heart open to God.
The bottom's dropped out of the country;
good people don't have a chance"?

^4-6 But God hasn't moved to the mountains;
his holy address hasn't changed.
He's in charge, as always, his eyes
taking everything in, his eyelids
Unblinking, examining Adam's unruly brood
inside and out, not missing a thing.
He tests the good and the bad alike;
if anyone cheats, God's outraged.
Fail the test and you're out,
out in a hail of firestones,
Drinking from a canteen
filled with hot desert wind.

⁷ God's business is putting things right;
he loves getting the lines straight,
Setting us straight. Once we're standing tall,
we can look him straight in the eye.

From the Hebrew lexicon:

Flee (Hebrew: nüd) - move oneself; shake oneself; wander; be a fugitive; take flight
Bird (Hebrew: tsip·pōre') – any bird; sparrow
Mountain (Hebrew: har) – mountain, hill country, promotion

In Chapter 4 of Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, in discussing the topic of Healing, Tomlinson tells us that Mrs Eddy got a clear view of the “significance of the admonition” to flee as a bird to your mountain in regard to prayer.  He writes “She went to say that the little bird does not hop his way to the mountain; he flies straight and swift as an arrow. 
So in our healing, if the patient is reached through divine Love the discordant condition “will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine¹.””

¹ Science and Health p. 365:16

And in No and Yes p. 7: 12, speaking about the Science of Mind-Healing, she writes: “Sooner or later the eyes of sinful mortals must be opened to see every error they possess, and the way out of it; and they will “flee as a bird to your mountain”, away from the enemy of sinning sense, stubborn will, and every imperfection in the land of Sodom, and find rescue and refuge in Truth and Love.”

This lovely thought of taking flight and rising up in glorious freedom is echoed in Psalm 18: 10 “he did fly upon the wings of the wind”.  How glorious; we too can fly!