What Are We Afraid Of

 Fear in the Midst of Trials

Book of Psalms 56

We must remember we live in a cursed world because of sin.

We must remember sin is everything that goes against the Word of God.

The greatest sin of all is to not believe in the work that the Lord Jesus Christ has completed for our salvation.

When do we have the most fear? When we are in the midst of our daily trials.

Things that devastate us can come to us at any moment. 

The death of a loved one.

A terrible sickness, such as cancer or a heart attack.

Today it seems like half the world is trying scam us out of the things we have no one really cares as they say they do.

A car wreck can set us backwards financially and I could go on because there are so many problems that come upon us, just unexpectedly.

In the Book of Job we see these words: Job 14:1  Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.

This still describes our world today. This still describes humanity today but even worse.

Most of our hardships are the result of trouble finding us.

Many of our hardships are of our own making.

We know the Job was the most upright man on earth in his day and all his children died in one day because of a tornado like wind.

Robbers came and stole many of his animals.

Lightning killed the rest of his animals.

Job got up one morning as usual and was a rich man, at the end of that day Job was heartbroken and a poor man and he had done nothing to cause all these things to happen.

But it is still a fact that many of our problems come from our own actions.

We are still our own worst enemy.

David did this very thing.

When David was on the run from King Saul, who was trying to kill him.

David was innocent of any wrongdoing toward Saul but this did not stop Saul from trying to kill him.

David had gone to the Philistine city of Gath to seek refuge from Saul.

David thought that Saul would never look for him there.

The Philistines were Israel's sworn enemy.

Saul had declared David to be his enemy.

David hoped that the King of Gath would help him because they were both the enemies of King Saul.

Keep in mind that David had been the one to kill Goliath and Goliath had family members who still lived in Gath.

Goliath had four brothers and many family members there.

David was even carrying the sword of Goliath.

We can only imagine his thought process at this time.

The truth is that David's logic was flawed. He went to the world when he should have gone to Jehovah.

After all he was a man after God's own heart.

It is certain that we all make mistakes that can cause us harm!

The advisors of King Achish were convinced that David was still a threat to the Philistines so suddenly David was in grave danger.

We know from previous lessons that David put on a show of being crazy and it saved his life.

1Sa 21:10  And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 

1Sa 21:11  And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances, saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands? 

1Sa 21:12  And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 

1Sa 21:13  And he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands, and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard. 

Unwise decisions will most always get us into trouble!

If we are close to God, then we will find it easier to go to Him when trouble comes to us!

*****Psa 56:1  To the chief Musician upon Jonathelemrechokim, Michtam of David, when the Philistines took him in Gath. Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.

Psa 56:2  Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High. 

We know that trouble is usually accompanied by more trouble and we know we need help, but we forget that we are a child of God and we think the world can solve our problems, when the world is the cause of most of our problems.

This world is a wicked and evil place, and has no intention of solving anybody’s problems, but the rich who simply want more riches.

We should be crying out to the Lord and we should be crying out for His mercy even if we have to beg God for mercy, because we know God is merciful or we would not know anything about Him.

That phrase "would swallow me up" simply means that this world will walk all over us, trample on us, or crush us and we all know this is true because we live it every day and we see it getting worse, especially for the child of God, but we have a merciful God who will remove some of these things or He will go through them with us.

How did God describe Himself to Moses?

Exo_34:6  And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth,

Deu_4:31  (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

God does not change, so He is the same God to all those who love Him today.

God will not allow our enemies to swallow us up or walk all over us, if we go to Him in prayer trusting in Him.

David was under daily attacks so much so, that he could not find rest.

David explained these things to the Most High God, Jehovah, and he realized he needed God more than ever and just as we all do.

*****Psa 56:3  What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. 

Psa 56:4  In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. 

This is the only place in the Bible where we read that David might be afraid of any man.

The way this verse reads is "When the day comes that I feel fear stealing over me, by an act of will, I will put my trust in thee".

We must be more like David and never be afraid of what man can do to us! 

We already know that if we die today, we will wake up in Heaven and will be far better off.

In all danger, in all trouble, whatever happens, whatever we think is going to happen, we can always trust the Lord for the right outcome.

We cannot say we are Christians and then, not trust that God will always do the right thing for us.

This is the only way we will ever overcome our fears.

If we stay close enough to the Lord in our lifestyle and prayers, we will seldom fall into the traps of this world.

David was going to be the next King of Israel and he needed to learn on God's training ground.

God's training ground can be tough most of the time.

God will fulfill every promise He makes to us.

We can be secure in God's plans for our life! There are no human beings who can overrule God's purpose for our life!

*****Psa 56:5  Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil. 

Psa 56:6  They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.

To me this sounds just like our own government today. 

In verse five we see one of the things that happens so much today.

Evil people take our Constitution and twist the words that we have had for many years into another meaning that was never intended by its writers.

In fact, people are listening just to see if we say something that can be twisted into some other meaning, things we never intended to say.

They will use these twisted meanings to plot against us.

This happened to David.

This happens to good politicians today.

These things happen to us.

If you are a Christian, people will try to twist your words to have an evil meaning because this is what they do to the Word of God every day.

These are what can be called a verbal ambush.

Our news sources do this all day long so that we cannot get the real truth but only someone's twisted version of their political views.

It should be alright to have a different point of view from someone else without it causing a war between them.

No matter our circumstances, we can trust the Lord to help us if we love Him and trust Him.

When we cry out to the Lord, He will hear us!

We must understand that no one makes us sin! No one can be the cause of our sin but us!

We have a sin nature that cannot be overcome without the help of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God went to great lengths in order to rescue us from our sin nature!

Rom 8:31  What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 

Rom 8:32  He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 

Rom 8:33  Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 

It is true that fear is one of the most powerful emotions we face today, but it should not be that way.

What are we afraid of?

Fear can cause us to act differently than we normally act.

Many just run off and hide when they should just go to the Lord.

God is certainly greater than any force upon this earth.

The way to defeat fear is by faith in the promises of the Word of God!

Heb 13:6  So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

No one can escape the "judgment" of God especially those who try to use sin to defeat Him.

*****Psa 56:7  Shall they escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God. 

The problem with most sinners is that they think they can escape the wrath of God.

They do not believe in Hell and they do not think the Bible is a Divine book.

Isa 28:14  Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. 

Isa 28:15  Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: 

Again I can only think of the America of today when I read those words "for we have made lies our refuge and under falsehood have we hid ourselves".

We have the lies of our own government.

We have the lies of Meta and Google and other tech suppliers.

We have the lies of our financial services.

We have the lies of our News Sources.

Isa 28:18  And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. 

David was bold enough to ask God to deal with His enemies.

We can be sure that all the enemies of God will see His wrath at a time of His choosing, but sometimes we need God to do something sooner and He promises us His help on a daily basis, after all we have Heavens Angels with us at all times.

Psa 55:23  But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee. 

Another thing David did was to ask God to keep a record of all these things.

We should know that God keeps a record of all our doings!

Psa 139:2  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 

David certainly did not realize that so many things of his life would be placed in the Bible for us all to read.

I am sure there are many things that he would rather not be made so public.

*****Psa 56:8  Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? 

Psa 56:9  When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.

We can be sure that the Lord will not allow His enemies to get by with their evil deeds. His enemies are also our enemies!

There is no one upon the face of this earth that can escape the "judgment" of God!

We can be sure that the Lord is angry at those who cause harm to God's people, but it is a righteous anger.

God does see our pain!

We might ask ourselves, why would God display the life of David before us?

We are not very old before we learn that bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people.

Mat_5:45  That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Human life is described as a form of wandering and tears.

Life is represented is a scene of unending struggle. 

Life can be more than just wandering and tears!

We know that that are some pleasures in this life, such as a good marriage, children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

The knowledge of God and our Savior makes this life a whole lot better and there are no words to describe our future life for eternity.

The same Bible that tells us of the sorrows of this life also tell us of the wonderful things that are going to happen after this life is over.

The Bible does speak of these problems David had in his life, but the Bible also keeps a very accurate record of all those things and I believe that it is true that God puts our tears in a bottle.

These things are told to us to show that our God is a caring God. He cares about us and what we are going through.

God may have placed the life of David in the Bible for us to see, but God keeps complete records of each and every one of us with Him at all times.

God knows what we are going through!

We may not understand why bad things happen to us, but the Lord promises to open our eyes to the truth once we get to Heaven and we will understand the reasons why.

Some of these things are a test of our faith and our patience.

Those who reject the Lord but have their own gods believe that we are supposed to suffer.

We must realize that even today, none of us have suffered as our Savior did to provide our means for salvation.

Almost the entire life of the Lord Jesus was filled with sorrow.

The Lord Jesus also shed tears, but He did not shed tears at His crucifixion! 

He shed tears for us!

The Lord Jesus Christ also sheds tears for those who do not believe Him!

As Christians, we must realize that we have enemies in this world and even enemies that we do not know about.

Our own government has placed us on the terrorist lists.

The white Christian has become the enemy because those true to the Lord will fight against abortion, will fight against the LBGTQ movement, and will fight against immorality of all kind.

The Lord is on our side.

The Lord sees our pain.

The key to success is faith in the truth of God!

The truth is when we suffer the Lord suffers with us.

God will never forget the suffering of His people!

Our tears surely are God's treasures.

Psa 126:5  They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 

Psa 126:6  He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. 

We have so many things that we need to give God the praise for!

*****Psa 56:10  In God will I praise his word: in the LORD will I praise his word. 

Some say, "just what is so important about the Bible"?

Let us first put it bluntly.

Pro 13:13  Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded. 

Those that reject any part of the "Word of God" bring destruction upon themselves!

The unbeliever cannot escape his future tragedy unless they accept the Word of God as the truth of life!

The unbeliever cannot escape the truth of God by ignoring the Word of God or by despising the Word of God.

They will suffer throughout eternity for neglecting the Messiah who came to this earth to save them!

Pro 14:9  Fools make a mock at sin: but among the righteous there is favour. 

Those who choose to go their own way will end up in destruction!

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. 

What we see in this Psalm is that David's faith had conquered any fear that he had.

God gave us His Words so that we could know right from wrong!

As loving and merciful as God is, He will not tolerate disobedience!

The Word of God allows us to see the true meaning of righteousness and points to the fact that God will always be faithful to His Word!

When we give praise to the Word of God we are giving praise to Elohim the triune God.

When we give praise to the LORD we are praising "YAHWEH" (Jehovah) the great "I AM" of the Bible.

We know of many false gods and not a single one of them show the mercy and love that Jehovah shows to those who believe Him.

In this passage we see the government of Jehovah combined with the Elohim of our creation!

Only Elohim does whatever He wants to, anytime He wants to, and in any way that He wants to do it.

But it is only His mercy that brings His "grace" to those that believe Him!

We should be more like David here when he says in the attribute of the "Justice of God", I will praise His Word and in the attribute of the "Mercies of God" will I praise His Word.

It does not matter if we are suffering adversity or living in prosperity, whether we receive evil of good things at the hand of the Lord, we should praise Him because He is the Almighty Living God.

It is the Word of God that denotes the "Grace" and the "Goodness" of the covenant that God makes with us because of Jesus Christ!

*****Psa 56:11  In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me. 

David knows his deliverance is forthcoming so he praises God in advance for this deliverance.

Since we know the promises of God, we should all do this!

Sometimes we forget to offer thanksgiving to our God. We take Him for granted.

It is our duty to offer thanksgiving to the Lord!

1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

It is our duty to pray with thanksgiving!

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. 

It is our duty to offer thanksgiving to God for our victory in Jesus.

2Co 2:14  Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

It is our duty to thank God for His Word!

1Th 2:13  For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

As David was suffering in his misery and pleading with God for help, he was also praising God for the vows God has made to each believer.

The Lord has made certain promises to us about the things that cause us trouble.

Psa 50:14  Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: 

Psa 50:15  And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. 

*****Psa 56:12  Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee. 

When the Lord gives us victory then how can we not praise Him?

We must understand that because God is in control the things that happen to us then whatever comes to us must be included in the plan of God for us, and it will be good for us in the end.

This being true and it is, then we have no cause to fear the problems that come before us.

We must rest upon the promises of God and we must trust in God's timing.

We must offer sacrifices of praise to God consistently!

When we make vows to the Lord, we are creating debts that must be paid.

Many times when a serious problem comes before us, we will go to the Lord and make great promises to the Lord, if He will solve that issue before us, but when He has done what we ask Him to do, we forget to keep our promises which is the same as a vow.

David promised God that he would never forget.

David promised to be a vessel of praise especially in the worship services.

Since this thing happened to David while he was young, we can also see in the Book of Psalms and God used David to write so many of them.

We must never forget to give God the glory and the praise for the things we know He has done for us especially since God has delivered our soul from death.

*****Psa 56:13  For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living? 

When we have genuine faith, we can certainly thank God even before He acts.

We can consider something done although it has not been done yet.

Heb 11:1  Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

For instance we know we are saved and the Lord has already built us a home in glory but He has not placed us in it yet.

We know the rapture is a true event, but it just has not taken place yet.

We know we are saved; we do not have to ask to be saved again.

We know we have been delivered; we do not have to ask God to be delivered again.

We know we are a child of God and we know that God puts His children first, we do not have to ask for the favors of the redeemed, they are already ours.

We are in the family of God.

As far as those vows are concerned, we should never make a promise that we cannot keep or we do not intend to keep.

Ecc 5:4  When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools: pay that which thou hast vowed. 

Ecc 5:5  Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. 

Ecc 5:6  Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin; neither say thou before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at thy voice, and destroy the work of thine hands? 

God is faithful to us, even when we act foolishly or make unwise decisions.

When we walk in the wisdom of the Word of God which was given to us by God the Holy Spirit, we can avoid these mistakes that our flesh makes.

Even when we fail to follow the Lord, He is still faithful to us and He still keeps His promises to help us.

1Co 10:13  There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. 

When that path to escape comes, we need to take it simply because God provided it!

2Ti 2:13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself. 

God can only be God, He cannot be something He is not like we humans do.

It is simply not in His character and the more we learn about Him from the Book we call the Bible, which is actually the Revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the better we will know Him.

Joh_14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Amen