WHEN I AM AFRIAD

PSALM 56

David, King of Israel approximately 1,000 years prior to the life of Jesus, writes vividly of the challenges in his life.  He writes of being captured by a hated enemy, running from the king who preceded him, ignored and even despised by his family. His written prayers are the nucleus of the song and prayer book of Jesus and His early disciples. They learned to pray, in the synagogues of their hometown, by reciting and singing David’s prayers, many of which were birthed in some sort of crisis.

            Psalm 56:3-4 contain an intriguing phrase:

“When I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 56:3–4, HCSB)

‘When I am afraid…I will not fear.’ How does that work? When I am afraid, telling myself to not be afraid increases the fear. Rarely can I ‘talk’ myself out of fear. I find it comforting to know that David, a strong warrior in battle, a powerful military leader who – even prior to assuming the throne – gathered an army, and a prolific writer (at least 14 Psalms are identified as his, while a host of others are often ascribed to him), often experienced fear.

I wonder, did David ‘talk’ himself out of fear? On closer observation the power for overcoming fear is not in David’s self-talk. The freedom from fear is a result of a deliberate choice. In the midst of circumstances that create fear, David chooses to trust God. The Hebrew word translated ‘trust’ in Psalm 56 suggests more than confidence. To trust God, as used in the OT, particularly in the Psalms means to devote one’s self fully to God, to choose to exercise a confidence in God’s presence and power that seems foolish to others, and to choose to look past the present and express hope that the future will be different than the present.

We are living in an era when fear runs rampant. Don’t talk yourself out of fear. Choose to give your fear to God, to devote your time and energy to seeking His presence, and knowing that the future, which is fully in God’s hand, will be different than the present.