Well, I invite you to take your Bibles and open up to Psalm 56 for our time and God's Word this morning. And while you're turning there, let me just remind you of one other thing. We have a Scripture of the Day here at Compass Bible Church. How many of you read along with Scripture of the Day? God bless you. This week, we're starting the book of Daniel. And when you leave today, you're going to get a book about the book of Daniel to help you in your reading through it over the next couple of weeks. This is a book that was written by Pastor Bobby, and put together by Pastor Bill and our graphics team. It's an impressive book, it'll really help you. And so, these are available as you leave after the service. Be sure you pick one up; it'll help you as you read through Daniel together these coming weeks. Well, if you're at Psalm 56, let's stand for the reading of God's Word in honor of our Lord. And we're going to zero in on Psalm 56:3-4, but I want us to read the whole Psalm to start with. So, follow along as I read Psalm 56. I'm going to start with the little introduction, which is actually part of the inspired text. It would be verse one in a Hebrew Bible. Well, let me read it, it says: “To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.”
“Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.”
You may be seated. We're going to be looking at Psalm 56:3-4. We're going to be talking about when I am afraid. And just another resource to tell you about out in the Book Nook, we have a book called Running Scared by Ed Welch. If you'd like to study more about what the Bible teaches about fear and anxiety, that would be a helpful resource for you. There can be no denying that fear is an unavoidable element of human life. We have all experienced fear, and we have experienced all kinds of fears. Many of our fears are imagined. Like a lot of the things we're fearful about they never happen. But we do experience many real fears. Mostly, our fears are connected to the things that we value. For example, we have fears related to money and possessions. Do I have enough? Will I have enough? Or what if I lose what I have? We have fears like that. Or we have fears about people and their judgments of us. What are they thinking about us? What are they saying about us? We have fears of being unloved and lonely. We also have fears related to illness, pain, and death, and not just our own, but of the people that we love. We have many fears. In fact, fear is such a dominant part of our lives that the psychological community has developed a long list of descriptive titles for our fear and anxiety, starting with one that's just called a Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and then getting more specific with things like Social Phobia, Sleep Terror Disorder, Nightmare Disorder, and Separation Anxiety. And then the list just keeps on going. It's seemingly endless. We have a multitude of fears. In fact, we have one fear the title of it is Araquibutirofobia. Araquibutirofobia is the fear of having peanut butter stick to the roof of your mouth. I'm not kidding.
We have all kinds of fears. Fear is a common experience, along with its relatives, anxiety, worry, and stress. In fact, a few months back, a doctor, when he found out that I was a pastor, he asked me if I experience stress. And he asked me that because he has seven other patients who are pastors, and all they talk about is how stressful their lives are. I think we're living in a time in our culture where anxiety is accepted as normal. We're all going to live with a certain level of anxiety. That's just normal. And anti-anxiety meds are common and becoming more common. The sale of anti-anxiety medications has gone way up in recent years. In fact, fear is so common, and fears are so commonly attached to the things that we value, things like money, possessions, health, and life, that politicians count on us having those fears, and usually, the candidate who best taps into our fears, they're the one that wins. Am I right? That was an unpaid, nonpolitical statement right there. We have seen the rise of fears in recent years in our country. Fear is common, and if it's not handled biblically, it can have extremely negative effects in your life. But the Bible is powerfully sufficient, not only to lead a person to salvation, but to cover all the issues of real life. For example, you'll constantly read statements in the Bible, like fear not, or do not worry or be anxious for nothing. Why do you think it says that so many times? Because that's where we live. That's where we live. The Bible addresses the issue of when I am afraid, and this Psalm, Psalm 56, is going to be particularly helpful for us as we think about this very common issue that we all have to deal with. And as we look at these two verses, Psalm 56:3-4, I want to show you three responses for when I am afraid. And number one is right there at the beginning of verse 3, “When I am afraid.”
So, put this down for number one: You need to recognize the reality of your fear. Recognize the reality of your fear. David did not claim to never be afraid. That's a significant thing because David was a man's man. And the point is, we all deal with fear. It's a part of our human frailty. It's a sign of the feebleness of man. And notice, he says, when I am afraid, not if I am afraid, because we're going to be afraid, it's just a matter of when. And, in fact, the “when” doesn't really translate the power of the original word there. It's in the day I am afraid, or what time I am afraid. Those are really strong, vivid statements expressing fear. Fear is a part of our experience. It was for David. And remember, David, he's the guy who courageously took down Goliath.
David was a mighty warrior who led Israel in many victorious battles. And yet he experienced fear. He had times when he was afraid, and he wrote this Psalm at one of those times. And the title tells us when it was. If you look back at that title there, the second half of it says, “Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.” So, it identifies the time when he wrote this Psalm. And we know about that time if we go back into 1 Samuel chapter 21. So, turn there with me and let's look at the circumstances behind the writing of this particular Psalm. We'll start in 1 Samuel 21:10. David is being chased by King Saul. Saul is the king of Israel at the time. He's jealous of David. He wants to kill David. He and his men are on the lookout for David. They're chasing David around with the intent of killing him. And so, David runs to a city called Gath, a Philistine city, because he knows Saul is not going to chase him into there. He's not going to go into the Philistine territory. David feels like he'd be safe there. So, verse 10 says “David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.” So, he flees to Gath in order to get away from Saul. David is afraid at this time; he is really afraid. He's afraid for his life. And he's desperate. Because Gath isn't just any Philistine city. Gath, it was the hometown of Goliath. You’ve got to ask yourself, David, what were you thinking?
But anyways, that's what fear will do. And remember, David, he has killed Philistines, and they recognize that our Psalm the title says that they seized him; they recognized David. They brought him before the king. And here's what happened. Verse 11 there says, “And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances, ‘Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?” And oh, by the way, aren't we those ten thousands he kills? What's this guy doing here? Why are we letting him live? So, there's David, he's afraid. He's desperate. And at this point, he's all alone. He's now in double trouble. And he is afraid. Look at verse 12, it says “David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.” Yeah, rightfully so. He is very afraid. And he's in terrifying circumstances. And that just lets us know, terrifying circumstances can come into the life of any believer. And here, David's experiencing them. And so, what does he do? Well, in this case, he panics. Let's keep reading verse 13. “So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard.” Bobby should really be up here. But you get the picture. Verse 14 is what gives some of the great lines of the Bible. It says, “ Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me?” That's a great statement there. “Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence?” In other words, get this guy out of here. And so, David pretended to be crazy, pretended to be out of his mind, so that Achish would despise him rather than kill him. But that really doesn't solve his problems. He's just unsuccessful now in seeking safety away from Saul. So, he still has all of his fears, and he packs them up, and he leaves Gath. And 1 Samuel 22:1 says, “David departed from there and escaped to the cave of Adullam.” And so, he goes to this cave to hide out. It’s ten miles from Gath, it's seventeen miles from Jerusalem. It's out in the middle of nowhere. And there's David in this cave. And in this cave he writes this Psalm, and he addresses his fear.
Let's go back to Psalm 56. And he describes the situation this is how he's looking at it. What's going on in the first two verses where he says, “Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attacked me proudly.” So, he says they're trampling on him. They're in hot pursuit after him. And this is going on all day long. And there are many who are out to get him. His life is in danger, and he's afraid, and he knows he's afraid. You have to recognize the reality of your fear. And I would encourage you to call your fear what the Bible calls it. Yeah, we've come up with a lot of descriptive titles for different kinds of fear, but I would encourage you just to call it what the Bible calls it. Call it fear, call it worry, call it anxiety. You're not going to find Araquibutirofobia in your Bible concordance, but you will find fear, worry, and anxiety. And the value of identifying it with how the Bible talks about it is that then you can find the Bible solution maybe, but you have to recognize the reality of your fears. David did. He said, “when I am afraid,” and then he took the steps to deal with that fear. So, let's go back now and see what are those steps having recognized the reality of the fear? Well, what should we do? Look at Psalm 56:3 again, the second half of the verse, he says, “I put my trust in you.”
So put this down for number two: You need to purposefully put your trust in God. Purposefully put your trust in God. The Bible makes it clear that the antidote to fear is faith. The antidote to fear is faith. But at the time when I'm afraid, it requires a deliberate act on my part to respond in trust and faith. Because my emotions are going somewhere else. My feelings are going in a different direction, I need to make a deliberate choice. That is, this moment, at this time, in this situation, I'm going to put my trust in the Lord. You know, in our world, when you have fears, while we can offer medication that might help you feel better, might help calm you down, but it really doesn't deal with the problem. It doesn't deal with the fear itself. Or we can try talking to you and reasoning with you and giving you all these statistics for why you shouldn't be afraid in this situation. For example, if you're afraid to fly, we might give you all the statistics about how flying is really a whole lot safer than a whole bunch of other stuff you do every day, and we might even point out to you, hey, you’ve flown in planes before and you're still alive. So, you know, trying to reason with you in your fear, but here's the thing. logic doesn't work on fear. Fear doesn't listen to logic. In fact, a lot of fears are illogical. Talking about afraid of flying in planes, my own dad had a kind of a fear of flying. And so, his solution was he always sits in the back of the plane because he's never seen a plane go backwards into a mountain. When he said that, I'm trying really hard to honor my father. That was that was a bit of a challenge. I'm thinking, I think if you crashed into a mountain, it doesn't matter where you're sitting on the plane. But anyways, that's the whole point. Fear can be illogical.
David says, I will put my trust in you. It's a definite, purposeful act of your will, in defiance of your emotions. I must acknowledge my weakness, I must acknowledge my inadequacy, I must acknowledge my frailty, and I must deliberately and consciously put my trust in God. And that tells me there's a bunch of other things I'm not going to put my trust in. I'm not going to put my trust in my circumstances, thinking that they'll just work out or they'll just go away. I'm not going to put my trust in man, whether it's family or friends, a counselor or even a pastor, I mean, they might be able to help me and encourage me, but I can't trust in them. I'm not going to trust in myself, not going to trust in my abilities. I'm not going to trust in my resources. I must choose to put my trust in God. Now, if you're here today and you're a Christian then, by definition, you have trusted God for your salvation. You have trusted him for the forgiveness of all of your sins forever. You have trusted him to save you from the wrath to come, a wrath that you totally deserve. You have trusted him for eternal life. You have turned around in repentance from the direction you were going, the sinful direction that you were going and, as an act of faith, you are now following Jesus Christ. That's a Christian. If that's you, you're a Christian. If that's not you, you're not a Christian. But that, by definition, is a Christian. So, if you're a Christian, you have already trusted him for all of that. And the consequences of sin are far more dangerous than any danger you're going to face in this world. Because the consequences of unforgiven sin, the consequences of living an unrepentant life is the wrath to come. It is eternal judgment. It is eternal pain, eternal torment, eternal agony, and eternal fear, without the hope, without even a hope that it's ever going to let up for even one minute. So, if you're a Christian, you've trusted God to deliver you, to rescue you from all of that, so can you also trust him with the dangerous circumstances of this life? Talk to me now. Yeah, okay, we’ve got five people down here in front, they're pretty sure. Can you trust him? At those times you feel all alone, can you trust him? And those times when you might be feeling fearful or despairing, or even feel desperate? And the answer is yes. And the reason is, because you can trust in God. You can do it by deliberately, purposefully choosing to think about God and his attributes, and trust in him.
See, when I'm talking about trusting God, that means I'm thinking about who it is I'm trusting in. And the God of the Bible is the God who has all power. He's got all power. He created everything out of nothing just by saying so. And he's the one who sustains it all. He has all power, that's the God I'm going to trust in. That's the God, I'm going to choose to trust him when I'm afraid. He's also the God of all wisdom, and his thoughts are way above mine. And I know that somehow, some way, in this situation. his plan and his purpose is being fulfilled. I can trust him. He's also the God of all sufficiency, he can meet all my needs. I can trust him to do that. He's also the God of justice as David alludes to down here in Psalm 56:7 about those who have committed crimes against him, are they going to escape? And here's the answer: Nobody's getting away with anything. There is justice. He's a God of justice; everybody will face justice sooner or later. I can trust in the God of justice. And he's also a God of mercy and love. I mean, David talks about his tears – God collecting David's tears in his bottle. That's a God who cares, a God who loves his people, who watches out over his people. I can trust in Him. So set your mind on the Lord and purposely put your trust in Him, which means you’ve got to fill your mind with the truth about him. But we can also, as we even look through the Scriptures, as we look at David here, we can see others who have been in dangerous situations, and they have been helped by choosing to trust the Lord.
Think about it like this. We can, at the human level, deal with the surface issues may be related to our fears, but we can't really deal with the root causes. So, none but God can relieve your fears. And God can relieve all of your fears. God can relieve all of your fears. In fact, turn back to Psalm 34, which we believe was written at the same time, in the same cave, under the same circumstances. Psalm 34:I. It's helpful to note that David wasn't sitting on the beach writing his worship Psalms. He is in a cave. I think he wrote his best Psalms in the cave. Psalm 34. If you look at the title there, it says it's “Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech” which would be like the title like Pharaoh or king. It His title is Abimelech, his name was Achish. But he changed his behavior before Abimelech, so that he drove him out and he went away. And listen to what David says in Psalm 34:4: “ I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.” How many fears? All my fears. He delivered me from all my fears. God can relieve your fears and he can relieve all of your fears.
Go back to Psalm 56. And look at what David says they're in Psalm 56:9. At the end of the verse, he says this: I know I want to put my trust in God because “This I know, that God is for me.” God is for me. I’m going to put my trust in him when I'm afraid, because I know he is for me. God is for me. What a great statement of confidence that is to be able to say that in the middle of a fearful situation, to say there's one thing I do know about what's going on right now. God is for me. God is for me sounds like something that the apostle Paul would say. And let's look at one of them in Romans chapter 8. Paul was no stranger to dangerous circumstances himself as we've seen going through the book of Acts, following Paul around. And here's what he says in Romans 8:31. He says, “What shall we say to these things?” And he's just finished reviewing salvation, what God does all the way from regeneration, sanctification to glorification. He says, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” That’s a significant statement right in there where he says, “God is for us.” Romans 8:32: “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” If he's already given us everything under the sun; he’s already delivered us from the greatest danger that we could ever face, we can trust him to take care of everything else. Romans 8:33: “Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” So, not only is God for us, Jesus is interceding for us. Romans 8:35: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” And this list that Paul is going to give here? This is no hypothetical list for him. This is like daily life for him. “Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” So, God is for us. Christ is interceding for us. God loves us. And in all these things, in the midst of all of these situations and circumstances, we are more than conquerors. We are super victors. Which means we're not just squeezing out a victory in triple overtime. We've won the game before it even starts, because of him who loved us. He goes on to say, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” He says, there in verse 38, I am sure, I am convinced there's one thing I know, God is for me.
We're all going to face fearful circumstances in our lives. The only question is, what are we going to do? What are we going to do in those circumstances? Well, David would help us to see that we need to recognize the reality of our fear. And then we need to purposefully put our trust in God. Let's go back to Psalm 56. And see the third response Psalm 56:4 says, “In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”
So, here's the third response: Place your confidence in God's word. Place your confidence in God's word. Trusting God involves putting your confidence in his Word. That statement of confidence is repeated down to Psalm 56:10. It says, “In God whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise.” You have your confidence in God's word. Here's the simple fact. We don't know God apart from his Word. We learn about his character, we learn about his attributes, we learn about his mighty acts from what's revealed to us in the Scriptures. That means, if I'm going to deal with fear in a godly way, I need to know the book. I need to have a solid grip on what it teaches. I need to have a solid theology. Did you know that you're all theologians? Theologian is somebody who thinks about, has thoughts and ideas about God. So, you're all theologians, it's just a matter of how good you are at it. You want to face fears that we all have to face, you need to have a good solid theology.
Turn with me to over to Psalm 119, and let's see how the writer of this Psalm, which is the longest Psalm, a Psalm all about the greatness, power, the sufficiency of God's Word. Let's see how his commitment to God's Word helped him. And by the way, Psalm 119, we don't know who wrote it, we're not told who wrote it. It could have been David that wrote it. And you'll notice this, if you read through that Psalm that the writer was dealing with some dangerous circumstances or could have been David; could sound like David. But I had a professor once who tried to convince me ,and I think he kind of has, that this could be Daniel. You read through here, you listen to, you see the situations that he describes, it could be Daniel. So, you might be thinking about that, as you read Daniel over the next two weeks. But just look at the first two verses. This expresses the commitment and sets the foundation right up front. It says, “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.” So, this is the blessing way, the way that is following the law of the Lord, and keeping the testimonies of the Lord, and seeking the Lord with all of your heart. That's the way to go. That's the bottom-line commitment. I want to know what God's Word says. I want to know what his commandments are. I want to know what his testimonies are, because I want to know him. I want to see him. And so, I want to know what he has to say so that I can get to know him. And he's going to tell us how that's helpful in certain ways. For example, Psalm 119:23, says, “Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.” Is that what you're doing when princes are plotting against you? I mean, these are people in authority. These are people in power, they're plotting against the writer of this Psalm. And he says, when that's going on, when they're doing that, here's what I'm doing: I am meditating on your statutes. And why? Verse 24, “Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.” How am I going to deal with these fearful circumstances, people in power coming against me? I'm going to meditate on your Word. It's my delight. Go to verse 30. It says, “I have chosen the way of faithfulness.” I have chosen, I have made a deliberate choice to go the way of faithfulness. “I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord; let me not be put to shame.” So, in the difficult pressure-filled situations that he describes throughout this, it'd be easy for him to react in a wrong way and be put to shame. I don't want to do that. I don’t want to respond in fear. I want to respond in the way of faithfulness. So, I cling to your testimony. Verse 32: “I will run the way of your commandments.” These are going to help me; they're going to be my counselors, are going to be my delight. They're going to keep me from being put to shame. Look at verse 50. “This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise, gives me life.” Verse 51, “The insolent utterly derived me but I do not turn away from your law. When I think of your rules from of old, I take comfort, O Lord.” So, even in times of affliction and times when others are given him a hard time to writing him, he finds comfort from knowing God's word.
That's what we need. We need to put our confidence in God's Word. We need to know God's Word; we need to know what it says. And we need to be in the practice of doing what the Bible says, if it's going to have a significant impact in our lives in those times when I'm afraid. And I need to be able to draw from it. Specifically, I need to have go to verses, go to passages that I'm going to look to when I am afraid, passages that are going to help me, promises that are going to give me hope. I need to look at those particular passages. And David had promises that he could draw on.
Let's go deeper back into 1 Samuel 16:1-13. Before he's hiding in the cave, a promise that's given to David that would help him in the difficult situations like the one he's facing with King Saul. “The Lord said to Samuel, ‘How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.’ And Samuel said, ‘How can I go? If Saul hears it, he will kill me.’ And the Lord said, ‘Take a heifer with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you.’ Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, ‘Do you come peaceably?’ And he said, ‘Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.’ And he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord's anointed is before him.’ But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, ‘Neither has the Lord chosen this one.’ And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The Lord has not chosen these.’ Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are all your sons here?’ And he said, ‘There remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.’ And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send and get him, for we will not sit down till he comes here.’ And he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him, for this is he.’ Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah.
So, here's something that David has to hold on to, the prophet Samuel representing God as anointed him to be the next king of Israel, after Saul. And it was verified by the Spirit of the Lord rushing upon David, from that point. So, David, as he's hiding in this cave from Saul, who wants to kill him, he has this promise to draw on. The Lord would see David through all of these threats, and he will serve as King of Israel, just like he promised. So, David had a promise that gave him hope, even in the difficult times he might not have understood how this is going to work. How's this going to happen? But he had a promise to hold on to.
David had promises, and so do we. We have promises as well. In fact, go back to Psalm 56:4. There, he says, “What shall man do to me?” That's a phrase that's repeated throughout the Bible. And it's often in these kinds of contexts. So, let's keep going past Psalm 56, and go to Psalm 118. Is it okay if we look at a bunch of Bible verses here? This is Compass Bible Church, right? Want to make sure I'm in the right place. So, I'm in Psalm 118:5. The writer says, “Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is on my side as my helper; I shall look in triumph on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.” It's better. It's better to trust in the Lord because the Lord is on my side. He is my helper. I have that promise. We've already seen where God is for us. And now he's on my side, he's my helper. That's the promise that I have that the Lord is on my side. And that's in the context there of physical danger.
But this phrase is also used in the context of financial worry. And we see that in Hebrews 13:5-6. Listen to these words. I mean, these are incredibly encouraging statements that are in the Scriptures, that give us hope from God's Word to help us when we are afraid. It says in verse 5, “Keep your life free from the love of money and be content with what you have for he has said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.” So, we can confidently say the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? So, there's the promise that the Lord, he will never leave me, he will never forsake me. Everybody else might leave me, everybody else might forsake me. I might be all alone in a cave, but the Lord has not forsaken me. The Lord has not left me. I don't need to be afraid. But the Lord is with me. And verse 6, there is a quote from Psalm 118 that we just read.
There are so many of these promises, we could just pile them up all day long. But just to remind you of one that's really familiar, in Psalm 23, where David says, “The Lord is my shepherd.” We're familiar with that one. But, you know, Psalm 23:4, which says, “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.” You are with me. And he's drawn from a familiar event in the life of a shepherd. A shepherd would take his flock of sheep at certain times of the year from the lower pastures up the mountain to a higher pasture. Like in the summertime, he would take them up to the higher pasture, summertime bring them down to the lower pasture. And going up the side of the mountain, they'd go through these ravines, working their way up the mountain or down the mountain. And those ravines were very deep and very dark. And hiding in those ravines would be animals that like to eat sheep. And sheep are very fearful animals. But even though they walk through the valley of the shadow of death, they don't need to be afraid because the shepherd is with them. He's with his people; the shepherd is with his sheep, and he's going to take care of them; they don't need to be fearful because the shepherd is with them. These are great promises. And these promises, they're not excuses for me to be lazy, or to do nothing. But they assure me that the Lord will help me in the dangerous circumstances of life. And he will see me through, you know. I need to have these promises plastered on the inside of my eyelids so that I remember them. I see them at the times when I am afraid.
You can see why in Psalm 56 David praises God's Word, because it's so full of real hope, hope that I can place my confidence in. That's in contrast to the false hopes that we so often turn to. False hopes are based on human ideas, or false hopes are based on denials of reality, or false hopes usually involve some kind of mystical thinking, some kind of twisting of Scripture to make it say what I want it to say, so that I feel good about something. But the Bible, rightly understood, gives real hope. And with a true hope that comes from the confidence of God, I can say, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? That's a rhetorical question, but it implies a negative answer. Man could do nothing to me, except what my all-powerful all-knowing God allows. And my all-sufficient God can even overrule men's malice for my good. That's an important one to remember. Because I've talked to a lot of people over a lot of years, and you would they don't say this out loud. But you would think that their circumstances, their situation, is too big for God. Nobody would say that on a Sunday morning at church, but on Thursday afternoon, when the problems come down, that's what they're thinking. This one's too big. There's no way God could use this for my good. Well, how about the malice of men who killed your Savior? Did that work out for your good? Yeah, I did.
And when I recognize the reality of my fear, and I purposefully put my trust in God, and my confidence in his Word, then my anxiety is turned into assurance. And I'll just read you some verses that make those kinds of statements. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep him in perfect peace,” which is that great Hebrew word shalom. You keep him in perfect shalom, “whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” You want perfect peace. God says I give it to those who trust in me. Philippians 4:6-7. These are just more scriptures you want to keep in mind, to have them on your go-to list at these times when you are fearful. Philippians 4:6 says, “do not be anxious about most things.” That’s what it says, do not be anxious about anything. And it means anything ... “but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” And here's what will happen: “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” It's a peace that surpasses understanding. You would think that there's no way, sitting in a cave, being hated by people on both sides of him, could have perfect peace. But that's what the Bible promises. If I will take my anxious thoughts to him, take everything to God in prayer, it says that I'll get this peace that surpasses all understanding. And the picture here is like a military picture. It's like a fortress. There's this fortress there, and you're inside the fortress, and God's peace is on the patrol, guarding the fortress, the fortress of your heart and mind. And the name of the fortress is Christ Jesus. That's what God is offering to those who will come to him. And then there are the great words of Jesus himself in John 14:27, where he says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” He says, hey, I'll give you my peace. And I like the Word’s peace. The world's peace depends upon your circumstances; my peace doesn't depend upon circumstances. It depends on me, depends on Christ. So, you don't need to let your hearts be troubled. You don't need to be afraid. Charles Spurgeon said, a true love for the great book will bring us a great peace from the great God.
Let's go back to Psalm 56 and bring it to a conclusion by looking at the last two verses 12 and 13. David says, “I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling that I may walk before God in the light of life.” He talks about vows; he's resolved. He's made a commitment, this is what I need to do. I need to give thanks to you, Lord. I need to present an offering of thanks to you. David, despite his circumstances, and by the way, he's still in the cave, still has people wanting to kill him, the circumstances that haven’t changed, but he knows he's got every reason to praise God, and to thank God because God has delivered him. He's not just wanting the Lord to get him out of a jam. He's wanting to glorify God in the jam. He drew confidence from knowing that God was his deliverer. And this was written, not just so that we could see something about David, this was written to help us with our fears, our real fears, the fears that we all face. And I like the way it ends there. Verse 13, “that I may walk before God in the light of life.” That sounds a lot like what Jesus said in John 8:12, where he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” We need to learn to live looking upward into the face of Jesus, our Savior, our shepherd, our Lord. That's where we find the light of life. That's where we find the abundant life. That's where we find full blessedness even when I am afraid, Amen. Let's pray.
We’re so thankful that we could be here today and talk about this issue. Something we all can relate to, something we all know, something we all experience when I am afraid. And to be reminded of the greatness of our God, and the great work that you do on behalf of your people, and the way you have provided for us through your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. In him, we have eternal life. In Him, we have everything we need for this life. And you promise that you're for us, you're with us, you love us. You'll never leave us, never forsake us. Lord, I pray that we would learn these lessons and respond, as we've learned from your Word today. At this time in David's life, when he was afraid, and the things he learned, sitting in a cave, thinking about you, well, I pray that they would be helpful for us every day. I pray that this week we would address the issues of our life differently. We would not act in fear, but act in faith. We would live out lives trusting you, rather than being afraid of what others might do. Well, I pray that you'll work in all of our hearts that we would draw closer to you, that we will put our hope in you and your word and your promises, that we would find great joy and peace, comfort in you even when others are coming against us. So, we thank you again for this time. Thank you for your Word, Lord. It is so powerful and so full of hope for those who put their trust in you. We're thankful that, because of what you have done and continue to do, we can say it is well with my soul, no matter what. So, we thank you in our Savior’s name, Amen.