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

Psalm 56 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

 A Mikhtam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

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.

In today’s text David, the psalmist, 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. What can mere man do to me?   Regardless of what people do to us; no matter what happens here in this natural realm, if we trust in God who is spirit and who is eternal, we too can have the same confidence as David. In Psalm 23:4 David says:  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me.  When we trust in the eternal God, then even death holds no lasting power over us. It is merely a shadow. 1 John 1:5 says:  God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.   Shadows do not exist in the presence of full light; they are darkness. If darkness, not even death, can harm us, then what can mere men do to us?  The psalmist says:  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.  The days may seem long when people are against us or when we suffer through the difficulties of life. Trusting in God does not guarentee that we will not have difficult times. In fact, in John 16:33 Jesus 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.”   He has overcome the natural and finite world by giving us access to and residency in the spiritual and eternal kingdom of God. That is why and how we have peace.  2 Peter 3:8 says:  Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day.  Even the longest of days, even a lifetime of difficulty and tribulation is but a twinkling in the scheme of eternity. We not only do not need to fear, but we actually overcome whatever this natural and finite world brings against us through Jesus; by trusting God and His word.  

David says:  You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?   In Jeremiah 1:5 God says:  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, And before you were born I consecrated you.”  In Jeremiah 29:11 He says:  “I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”    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."   God knows the beginning and the end. He knows all of the difficult times that we face, but He also knows His plan for our future and for our welfare now, in this time. David continues:  Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call; This I know, that God is for me.  In Romans 8:18;31-39  it says:  I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us…  If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies;  who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …  in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Regardless of the present circumstances of this life, may we have the confidence to know that nothing can separate us from God’s love. Like the psalmist may we declare today:    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.  Amen. Thank You eternal heavenly Father, Lord Jesus Christ and precious Holy Spirit. Amen.