Danger and Difficulty Aren’t Going Anywhere – Psalm 56
Psalm 56
To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me;
all day long an attacker oppresses me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long,
for many attack me proudly.
3 When I am afraid,
I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they injure my cause;
all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk;
they watch my steps,
as they have waited for my life.
7 For their crime will they escape?
In wrath cast down the peoples, O God!
8 You have kept count of my tossings;
put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
9 Then my enemies will turn back
in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
in the Lord, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
12 I must perform my vows to you, O God;
I will render thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death,
yes, my feet from falling,
that I may walk before God
in the light of life.
Danger and difficulty will never go away until the Lord himself returns.
This is a fact that the Bible acknowledges over and over. In Psalm 56, e.g., David finds himself attacked yet again by vicious enemies:
5 All day long they injure my cause;
all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk;
they watch my steps,
as they have waited for my life.
Who or what are your enemies today? What are you afraid of? What do you dread?
The Bible acknowledges that danger and difficulty are ever-present, but it also tells us something more important:
God is for us, and if God is for us, who can be against us?
Here’s how David puts it in Psalm 56:9:
“This I know, that God is for me.”
What if you were CERTAIN that God was with you today?
What if you were CERTAIN that God was for you?
What if you were CERTAIN that God was with his church?
THE GOOD NEWS?
HE IS.
(And anything else is a lie.)