HOW DAVID DEALT WITH FEAR
Psalms 56:3-4 NKJV
3 Whenever I am afraid,
I will trust in You.
4 In God (I will praise His word),
In God I have put my trust;
I will not fear.
What can flesh do to me?
The setting of this Psalm was David in the city of Gath. Gath was in the land of the Philistines and was home to Goliath, the giant David had killed. David had to escape Israel to elude King Saul, who was doing his best to kill him. When David comes to Gath, the king of Gath is informed of David's military success and how he was a living legend in Israel. In effect, David is the enemy. And David had to act like a mentally insane person in order to escape. No doubt, this was a scary time for David.
This Psalm 56 was written during David's time in Gath. David is having to deal with fear for his life and feels the pressure of enemies all around him. In our verses for today, David addresses the reality of being afraid, but what he does in response to this fear is a powerful lesson we can learn from.
Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. David's response to fear is to declare his trust in God. David trusts in God, and David trusts and praises God's Word. This word could be the Scriptures that David valued highly. This word could also be the promises that God made to him that he would be king. In the middle of a fearful situation, David is praising God's Word, which he takes personally.
Then, we see David make a stronger declaration. In God, I have put my trust: I will not fear. This is sounding more like David, the mighty warrior. David goes on to state, what can flesh do to me? He lists what flesh is trying to do to him in the next verses, but in classic David fashion, he winds up giving praise to God for delivering him and enabling him to walk free.
APPLICATION
David's example is helpful in understanding what to do when encountering fear. Recognize that fear comes to everyone. But it's the response to fear that we take from David.
Declare that we put our trust in God. Simply saying I trust You, Lord, is helpful. We can choose where we put our trust.
Praising God's Word is a great alternative to focusing on the fear. This is where knowing scriptures and promises give us something solid to hold onto.
Declaring that we will not give in to fear and that we trust in God are declarations of faith that solidify our stance and help us resist the fear.
And then, minimizing what people can do to us is helpful. They can reject us, criticize us, and cancel us, but what is that compared to what God can do?
David adopted an aggressive stance when dealing with fear. He is a quality example for us.
PRAYER
Lord, I love You, and I trust You. I will not fear because I put my trust in You and in Your Word. Thank You for being there for me. You are my rock and my strong place.