When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You.

Psalm 56 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me;

Fighting all day long he oppresses me.
² My foes have trampled upon me all day long,
For they are many who fight proudly against me.
³ When I am afraid,
^[I will put my trust in You.
⁴ In God, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust;
I shall not be afraid.
What can mere man do to me?
⁵ All day long they distort my words;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
⁶ They attack, they lurk,
They watch my steps,
As they have waited to take my life.
⁷ Because of wickedness, cast them forth,
In anger put down the peoples, O God!

⁸ You have taken account of my wanderings;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?
⁹ Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;
This I know, that God is for me.
¹⁰ In God, whose word I praise,
In the Lord, whose word I praise,
¹¹ In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
¹² Your vows are binding upon me, O God;
I will render thank offerings to You.
¹³ For You have delivered my soul from death,
^[Indeed my feet from stumbling,
So that I may walk before God
In the light of the living.

Throughout scripture we are encourage not to be afraid; not to fear. Yet we live in a time when fear and anxiety are at all-time highs in our society and even in the church.  Doctors prescribe millions of doses of medication, but the psalmist has the best remedy. He says:  When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid.   Trusting in God; having faith in God dispels fear.  Fear is the opposite of faith. It is believing more in the things that we don’t want, than in the things we do want. It is believing the worst rather than the best. In Jeremiah 29:11 God says:  I know the plans that I have for you, plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  When we trust in God’s plan for our future, we need not fear about the present. Even more, in Revelation 1:8 the Lord says:  “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”  When we put our trust in God, we don’t need to worry about the past, present or future. He is there. Romans 8:31 says:  If God is for us, who can be against us? 

The psalmist says: What can mere man do to me? All day long they distort my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil. They attack, they lurk, They watch my steps, As they have waited to take my life.  Even if they would be successful in taking our lives, 2 Corinthians 5:8 says:  we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.  In Psalm 23:4-6, the psalmist says:  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.  Even death holds nothing to fear. It is merely a shadow with no lasting power over us. When we trust God and walk with Him, His goodness and mercy will fill the days of our lives and when this life is over, we will dwell with Him forever.  

The psalmist says:  This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, In the Lord, whose word I praise,  In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?  Your vows are binding upon me, O God; I will render thank offerings to You.  For You have delivered my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, So that I may walk before God In the light of the living.  The one sure way that we can be certain that no one or nothing can take our lives, is to choose to give them to God. In Luke 9:23 Jesus says:  “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”   For us, our cross is not an instrument of suffering and sacrifice, only Jesus could bear that cross.  All that dies when we deny ourselves to daily follow Christ, are the hardships, the anxiety and fear. Our cross is really more like another wooden instrument. In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says:  “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”   The burdens we bear in this life become easier to bear because Jesus has already born the weight on the cross and in John 19:30 He said:  “It is finished!”  We need not worry of be afraid, because Jesus has already done all that needs to be done for every situation and circumstance we face. In John 16:33 He says:  “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” 

When I am afraid, I will put my trust in You. In God, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust; I shall not be afraid.  Amen.