WHENEVER I AM AFRAID
PSALM 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?
Depending on the Bible you read, there is often information about the individual Psalms. In Psalm 56, we are informed that David wrote this Psalm when he was in captivity to the Philistines in Gath.
David had gone to the city of Gath to escape from King Saul, who was doing his best to kill him.
When David went into the court of Achish, the king of Gath, some of the servants of Achish recognized him. They knew that this was the David that Israel sang about. This was the David that killed thousands in war. They may have recognized David as the one who took down Goliath. And Gath was the hometown of Goliath and his brothers.
In any case, David was afraid. In fact, in 1 Samuel 21, the scriptures say David was very much afraid, so much so that he acted like a crazy man just to be able to escape.
So, David knows what he is talking about when he says whenever I am afraid. David, the warrior, faced different circumstances that caused fear.
But David does not allow fear to have the last word. He tells us what he does next. Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in God. And specifically, I will praise God's word. In God, he put his trust and made the decision to not give into fear. God was bigger than the men who came against him.
David did not deny the presence of fear in his life. However, he did not accept the fear as inevitable but rather something to be resisted.
David resisted by declaring his trust in God and his praise for God's word. He declared again that he trusted God and refused to fear. He magnified God and minimized the power of men.
APPLICATION:
We live in a world filled with fear. But we do not have to accept fear as the dominant force in our lives.
We, like David, can profess our faith and trust in God. We can praise God's word as the solid rock to us. We can maximize God and minimize fear inducting people and natural circumstances.
Whenever we are afraid, we have answers.
PRAYER:
Lord, I put my trust in You. Your word comforts and strengthens me. I will not be afraid. I will trust in You.