This I know, that God is for me

Psalm 56 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Be gracious to me, God, for a man has trampled upon me;
^[Fighting all day long he oppresses me.
² My enemies 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 mortals 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 their wickedness, will there be an escape for them?
In anger make the peoples fall down, God!

⁸ You have taken account of my miseries;
Put my tears in Your bottle.
Are they not in Your book?
⁹ Then my enemies will turn back on 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 mankind do to me?
¹² Your vows are binding upon me, God;
I will render thanksgiving offerings to You.
¹³ For You have saved my soul from death,
^[Indeed my feet from stumbling,
So that I may walk before God
In the light of the living.

The psalmist says: Be gracious to me, God, for a man has trampled upon me; Fighting all day long he oppresses me. My enemies have trampled upon me all day long, For they are many who fight proudly against me. 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 mortals do to me? In Psalm 23:4 the psalmist says: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.  People may trample and oppress us. They may fight with us because they see us as enemies because we don’t embrace the immorality of our culture, but mere mortals can only affect our mortality. Even death is nothing for us to fear because in Christ we have been given immortality, eternal life. In John 11:25 Jesus says: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies.”  Galatians 6:14 says: Far be it from me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.  If we are in Christ, then we have already died to this world and are alive in Him. I shall not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? 

The psalmist says: You have taken account of my miseries; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book? Then my enemies will turn back on 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 have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can mankind do to me? Your vows are binding upon me, God; I will render thanksgiving offerings to You. For You have saved my soul from death, Indeed my feet from stumbling, So that I may walk before God
In the light of the living.  It is more though than just eternal life that God has given us through Christ. Our souls have been saved from death, but God’s vows and promises are also binding for us. In John 10:10 Jesus says: “I came so that they would have life, and have it abundantly.” We can walk in this life without stumbling. We can live the abundant life of Christ in the light and the sight of the living. In Jeremiah 29:11 God’s vow is: I know the plans that I have for you, plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.  

Like the psalmist we can say: This I know, that God is for me, and so Romans 8:31-39 can be our thanksgiving offering, our declaration and prayer: 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 charges against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, 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 trouble, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? Just as it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” But 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 that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In God, whose word I praise, In the Lord, whose word I praise, In God I have put my trust. Amen.