Confidence

June 27, 2020

“Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. 

In God (I will praise His word), 

In God I have put my trust; 

I will not fear. 

What can flesh do to me?

In God (I will praise His word), 

In the LORD (I will praise His word), 

In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. 

What can man do to me?”

—Psalm 56:3-4, 10-11 NKJV

The context of this psalm is important. The heading reads, “To the chief Musician. Set to “The silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A Michigan of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath.”

This is no armchair theologian, an ivory tower songwriter casually singing about his joy in the Lord. He is held captive by ruthless people who haven’t forgotten what he did to their champion Goliath years before; when he sings about trusting in God and not fearing what men can do to him, he has every reason to be terrified. He was in grave danger, and speaks openly of his concern.

“My enemies would hound me all day, 

For there are many who fight against me, O Most High.

All day they twist my words; 

All their thoughts are against me for evil. 

They gather together, 

They hide, they mark my steps, 

When they lie in wait for my life.”

—Psalm 56:2, 5-6 

David had every reason to be afraid, yet navigated his way through a dangerous situation by actively and deliberately putting his trust in God. He kept his eyes on the One who had his eye on David, calming his fears in the assurance that God would not abandon him. Listen to how he finishes:

“You have delivered my soul from death. 

Have You not kept my feet from falling, 

That I may walk before God In the light of the living?”

As of the time of his writing, he was still a prisoner of war, yet spoke of his deliverance as already having taken place. He saw by faith things not yet a reality in experience. Three times in this psalm, he explains how this faith worked: “I will praise his Word.” He wasn’t living by his present experience as we so often do. We want to “feel” the presence of the Holy Spirit, and often go to great lengths to manufacture some sort of holy tingle up our spines. David wasn’t in a place where that was very likely, but he had something we often lack: trust in the Word, the promises, of God.

Yesterday’s reading illuminates this trust in God’s Word. Psalm 145:5 says, “I will meditate on your wondrous works.” Psalm 119 is a running litany of meditation upon the Word of God. When in distress, David turned (perhaps with great effort) his attention to the Word of God instead of his surroundings. We would be wise to do the same if we wish to win the battle of fear. So much of what we thought of as settled has been swept away. The future is uncertain. Only God’s Word remains, as no less than Jesus himself said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words shall never pass away.” As if to emphasize the certainty of this, all three gospels record Jesus’ affirmation: Matthew 24:35, Mark 13:31, Luke 21:33. God’s Word will stand forever!