We Fly Away by Uriah Smith

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 27, 1882

We Fly Away.

By Uriah Smith

Ps. 90:10: "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be four-score years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off and we fly away."

ON the authority of this text it is claimed that something flies away when our strength is cut off in death; that that something is the immortal soul, and that if it flies away, it is therefore conscious; and if it thus survives the stroke of death, it is therefore immortal; rather a numerous array of conclusions, and rather weighty ones, to be drawn from the three words, "we fly away." Let us look at David's argument. The reason given why our strength is labor and sorrow, is because it is soon cut off and we fly away. If, now, our flying away means the going away of a conscious soul, into Heaven, for instance, if we are righteous, his argument stands thus: "Yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we go to Heaven." Singular reasoning, this! But his argument is all consistent if by flying away he means that we go into the grave, where Solomon assures us that there is no work, wisdom, knowledge, or device. Let us not abuse the psalmist's reasoning.

The text plainly tells what flies away; namely, we fly away. We is a personal pronoun and includes the whole person. According to Buck's assertion that man is composed of two essential elements, soul and body, the man is not complete without them both; and the pronoun, we, could not be used to express either of them separately. The text does not intimate any separation; it does not say that the soul flies away, or the spirit flies away; but we, in our undivided personality, fly away. What place does the body, an essential part of the we, fly? To the grave, and there only.

This is confirmed by Eccl. 9:3: "The heart of the sons of men is full of evil; and madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that they go to the dead." Had this text read, "And after that they go away," it would have been exactly parallel to Ps. 90:10; for no essential difference can be claimed between going and flying. But here it is expressly told where we go: we go to the grave. What is omitted in Ps. 90:10, is here supplied.

We may also add that the Hebrew word gooph, rendered "fly away," signifies, according to Gesenius, "First, to cover, spec. with wings, feathers, as birds cover their young. Second, to fly, properly of birds. Third, to cover, wrap in darkness. Fourth, to overcome with darkness, to faint, to faint away."

The idea is plainly this: Though our days be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we sink away, go to the grave, and are wrapped in the darkness of death. Viewed thus, David's language is consistent, and his reasoning harmonious; but his language we pervert and his logic we destroy, the moment we try to make his words prove the separation from the body, of a conscious soul at death. U. S.