I flee unto Thee to hide me

Psalm 143:9

Deliver me, O LORD, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.

As a child of the living God, we are daily compassed with enemies. I do not speak of other people. I certainly do not speak of other children of God. For they are brothers and sisters. They are not enemies! I do not speak of those that we do not get along with well. In a diverse world with a vast variety of personalities and peoples, we will find that we must work diligently to be agreeable with others, and live peaceably with all men. But I am not speaking of people hardly at all. Only on rare occasion will we deal with a hostile and virulent enemy who is seeking to hurt us. And in those cases God will help us to have the spirit of Christ, and to find Him to be our help and protection. But I am speaking today of the invisible enemies that we constantly face. The world! It is vile and it is everywhere present. The world is a caldron of wickedness, hatred for God, and love of evil. It is our enemy! It daily seeks to destroy us. And then there is our own flesh! What an enemy it is! It actively seeks our hurt. It actively prods us to disobey the Lord. It is black, filthy, and obstinate. It wants us to be in bondage to “the beggarly elements.” The flesh can ruin us if given power and control. But then there is the devil himself! That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan. He walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. He continually and purposefully seeks to deceive, to lure, to belie, and to beguile every person, including the Christian. But, you see, we are not ignorant of his devices. Therefore, we know that we are to resist him steadfast in the faith. We are to resist the devil, for then he will flee. His devices are discouragement, anger, evil thoughts, unbelief, hate for your brother, etc. All these things we must resist at once! But how are we to do this? How are we to be efficacious in our resisting of the devil?

There is one answer! Only one! There is one solution for this age-old difficulty! There is only one recourse of action! One guaranteed escapade, only one dependable answer! And it is in our verse today. “I flee unto Thee to hide me!” This is what we must do! We must go to the Lord, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty! See Psalm 91. We must dwell under the shadow of His wings. He must be our pavilion. He must be our refuge, our fortress, and our high tower! He is the One that will fight our enemies. He will defeat the foe. He will fight our battles. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!

My dear friend, do you encounter the devil’s attacks daily, and even hourly? Run to the Lord every hour and every moment. Flee to Him to hide you! Shelter in Him. Find refuge in Him. For “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Don’t go anywhere else. Run to Christ, your Savior! And stay there by His side. Do not stray. For the enemy has no power over the child of God that is under the protective wings of the Savior. Go to Him, as a frightened child runs to the side of his mother or father. He holds the hand, and looks up, as if to ask, “Will you protect me?” Yes, He will. When you are with Him, you are safe in His arms.

Here, Fanny Crosby comes to our aid again,

“Safe in the arms of Jesus,

Safe on His gentle breast,

There by His love o’ershaded,

Sweetly my soul shall rest.”

“Oh Father, may we run to Thee and rest in Thee this day. We flee to Thee to hide us from life’s temptations and troubled sea. We come to Thee to protect us from the wiles and darts of the enemy. We come because we are safe when we are in Thy care. We are safe at Thy side. Help us to abide there. Help us to stay there, dwelling in the pavilion of your presence. We turn to Thee in our fright. We look to Thee in our fear. Because by Thy side, all fear and fright will flee. We thank you! We praise you! We extol you! For we have this refuge in our Savior. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen.”