One of the beauties of the Bible is that it does not seek to paint a perfect picture of life or that of its characters. What you are sure to get in the Bible is truth, always the truth even if it is at the expense of the children of God. In the book of Psalms, we see raw emotions from the psalmists. Indeed, they did not portray themselves as having it all figured out but instead, they wrote as mere men– sinful, broken, inadequate. Men who were afraid of other men; men who were afraid of not being right thus losing their status before other men; men who loved men above God. However, from the same Psalms, what is comforting to see is how often and quickly the psalmist turned to God. One of those instances is in Psalm 56 where David gives us the remedy for fear. He says, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you” (Psalm 56:3). From this statement, David recognizes that he will be afraid, but he also realizes that rather than giving into fear, the solution is to trust in the LORD. In today’s post, I would like to encourage us to tackle fear the way David did by highlighting two of his strategies.
The first strategy David gives us to combat fear is to trust in the LORD. This is probably one of David’s keys and likely the reason he always ran to God whenever confronted with trouble. Trusting in the LORD means putting your confidence in the LORD; it means to believe that He is who He claims to be and that His promises are true. Trusting in the LORD means being sure that the LORD is able to deal with whatever situation you are faced with and letting Him take the lead. When we trust in the LORD, first, we go to Him like David did and second, we entrust the situation to Him, waiting on His course of action. It is as though we give God our fear and we take His comfort. Most of the things we are afraid of are futile and don’t hold any weight in the grand scheme of things. Like David, we are often afraid of what people would do to us, we are afraid of dying, afraid of dying alone, afraid of being lonely, afraid people will see us for who we truly are; afraid of pain and much more. There are so many types of fear these days that it is safe to assume we have made fear into an idol. For David, it was imperative to run to God with His fear rather than running to men. However, in our day, we run to men with our fears first and then perhaps we run to God. Sadly, not many will do the latter. The introduction to Psalm 56 tells us that David wrote the psalm when he was seized by the Philistines in Gath. This incident happened as David was fleeing from Saul and landed in enemies’ land. We learn that when David heard the report the Philistines gave their king concerning him, “David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish king of Gath” (1 Samuel 21:12). Instead of wallowing in fear and his state of despair, David went to the LORD with his fear. He did not meditate upon it, nor did he reasoned within himself about his fear. Moreover, he did not “talk it out”, or command the fear to go, instead he entrusted that to the LORD. In other words, David let his confidence in the LORD be magnified. He elevated the LORD, His power and might, His ability to rescue from any danger, indeed, David simply proclaimed and declared the attributes of God. He reminded himself of the security that the LORD is to the righteous: a strong tower, a fortress, a refuge.
The second strategy David gives us to combat fear is to praise the LORD. When we exalt the name of the LORD, when we magnify His name we let go of the fear and bask in His attributes, that is all that He is. Praising the LORD, singing to Him, worshipping the LORD allow us to take our focus away from ourselves and surroundings and putting it on God alone. David often sang about the glory of God to be over all the earth (Psalm 57:5,11). David focused on God which turned into praise. He says “In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mortal man do to me?” (Psalm 56:4,10-11). When we praise the LORD, we fix our eyes on the LORD and our problems suddenly feel small. Praising God teaches us to put God in His rightful place of Ruler and ours at His feet, the place of the servant. In such a posture, it is impossible for fear to penetrate because there is no place for it. Songs have a way of transporting us and getting our senses and focus where the lyrics go. This is no different for spiritual songs, gospel songs, hymns, all that we refer to as worship music. That is why it is very important to listen to good worship music, the type that has lyrics that elevate God, His character. Songs that declare the excellencies of God, songs that celebrate the LORD or bring you into a state of celebration and rejoicing to the LORD because of what He has done, His faithfulness, etc. David knew it was crucial to make space for God when he was afraid, and he used music to get his mind and heart aligned to God and His word. I was surprised to see that some of these songs written by David where to a certain tune (see introductions to Psalms 57-59) which would suggest that the tune was known to his audience at the time and David simply added words that fit the tune. This shows that worship music is a whole package, the tune and the lyrics are equally important. Thankfully, the LORD does not call us to all make record-label type of music to Him in order to worship Him. He does call us to make music to Him (Psalm 98:5, NIV) and a simple clap can be music to the LORD or singing off-key a joyful noise (Psalm 98:6). What is important is the posture of our heart.
In His mercy, the LORD has not left us alone to walk life on this earth. That is why the Holy Spirit stirs our hearts to worship and gives us signals so that when we are afraid, we can turn to the Father. Therefore, like David, let us take advantage of the resources available to us in order to combat fear. Let us allow God to have full control over our lives and the circumstances surrounding us. Let us trade fear for the joy of the LORD. May the LORD train us to have our first reaction to be trusting in Him when fear arise in us. Amen.
A Word Aptly Spoken 