📖 The Book of Psalms — Unit 7: Psalm 56, When I Am Afraid

1. My Father Is in the House

When I was a child I had the nightmares that so many children seem to have. I would wake with my heart pounding and my eyes wide open, certain that a monster or a robber had broken into the house. I was terribly afraid. Then I would remember that my father was in the house, and I knew that as long as he was there I did not have to be afraid. And I went back to sleep. That childhood memory holds the whole message of Psalm 56. The psalmist faces real danger, but he has learned where his Father is.

During the days of the Covenanters in Scotland, believers faced terrible persecution; many were killed and tortured for their faith. Some of them developed a code phrase. When they were stopped and asked where they were going, they would answer, "I am going to my Father's house." It meant more than a journey home. It was a confession that, whatever happened to the body, they belonged to God and were on their way to Him. They had learned to be unafraid because they knew the Father was in the house.

2. Whenever I Am Afraid

I remember sitting before the television during the Gulf War, watching the live coverage as the conflict began with deadly swiftness. My first reaction was fear. My heart pounded. Men would die, and some commentators were speaking of Armageddon and a world plunged into war. And then I remembered that my Father was in the house, and that I did not have to be afraid. Notice that the psalmist does not say "if" I am afraid, but "whenever" I am afraid — he expects fear to come. The promise is not that the believer never feels afraid, but that in the moment of fear he has somewhere to turn: "I will trust in You." Let us look at four reasons we do not have to be afraid.

3. The Promises of God

First, we do not have to be afraid because of the promises of God. God keeps His promises. He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." In the days of the prophet Amos, Israel was prospering as never before, controlling more territory than at any other time, and the people assumed their wealth was a sign of God's favor. But beneath the prosperity was great sin — oppression of the poor, corruption in the courts, idolatry, and immorality. So Amos warned that God would send them into exile, and He did, by the hand of the Assyrians, whose capital Nineveh stood where Baghdad stands today. Yet even in judgment God promised mercy beyond it. For nearly two hundred years they were captives in a distant land, and surely they wondered whether God had forgotten His promises. But in the end they returned and rebuilt the Temple. Our promise is the same: that "all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

An elderly Christian lay dying in great distress. "Oh, pastor," he said, "for years I have relied upon the promises of God, but now in the hour of death I cannot remember a single one to comfort me." Knowing that Satan was troubling the man, the preacher answered, "My brother, do you think that God will forget any of His promises?" A smile spread over the face of the dying believer, and he exclaimed, "No, no! He won't! Praise the Lord, now I can fall asleep in Jesus and trust Him to remember them all and bring me safely to heaven." Peace flooded his soul, and a short time later he was ushered into the light of God's eternal day.

4. The Plan of God

Second, we do not have to be afraid because of the plan of God. Ephesians 1:11 says that God "works all things according to the counsel of His will." Job declared, "He makes nations great, and destroys them; He enlarges nations, and guides them." Through all of history nations have risen and fallen, grown strong and been led away captive, yet God has remained upon His throne. And this plan reaches both the great and the small: the Lord who governs the nations has also numbered the very hairs of our head. Someone may object that the world is full of chaos — rising crime, broken homes, gross immorality, weapons enough to destroy the earth many times over. Yet the Bible insists that God has a plan and that He is in control. The world has been in a desperate state before and has survived only because of God's providence. If not for His restraining hand, it would be far worse.

5. The Plan of God: No "Ifs" in His World

6. The Power of God

Third, we do not have to be afraid because of the power of God. "Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding is infinite." Job said, "I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You." At God's word the Red Sea divided and stood up like walls; the sun stood still; iron floated on the water; ravens carried food to Elijah; and the lions kept their mouths shut and would not touch Daniel. Men may, in their sin, make decisions outside the will of God, but in the end God's will is done. Nothing can finally stop His plan; one might as well try to hold back a flood with a wall of sand, or turn the stars from their orbits, as to overrule the sovereign will of God.

Consider Pharaoh, who thought his power was supreme and refused to free the Hebrew slaves. The Bible says four times that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, and three times that Pharaoh hardened his own. Who hardened it? Both did — for the same sun that melts the wax also hardens the clay; the heat is the same, but the nature of each is different. Napoleon and Hitler, too, dreamed of ruling the world, yet every power must finally bow to God. Napoleon himself wrote that he knew men, and that Jesus was more than a man — He was God.

7. The Power of God: The Righteous Seed Preserved

Satan also has power, and sin can do great damage; if God did not restrain them, the world would be far worse. But Satan has never once been able to thwart God's plan. From the beginning he tried to destroy the Righteous Seed, remembering God's word that the seed of the woman would crush his head. Thinking Abel was the seed, he used Cain to kill him. Centuries later he used Pharaoh to try to drown the seed in Egypt. Because God had said the line would run through David, he used wicked Athaliah to slay every male in David's family — but a nurse hid away the infant Joash, and he lived to become king. He used Herod to kill the children of Bethlehem when Jesus was born.

Finally, on the day Jesus died, it seemed that Satan had at last succeeded. We may imagine the demons rejoicing at the cross, certain the Righteous Seed was destroyed. But God had planned every bit of it from the beginning, and on the third day He raised Jesus from the dead. The divine plan is fixed; there can be no deviation from it and no destroying it. "Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven." The very moment that looked like Satan's victory was the hour of our salvation.

8. The Protection of God

Fourth, we do not have to be afraid because of the protection of God, who "upholds all things by the word of His power." A few centuries ago many people, including some of America's founders, held to Deism — the belief that God set the world in motion and then stepped back, leaving it to run like a great machine without His further involvement. If that were true, then God is not active now, prayer is useless, and the world is simply drifting toward chaos. But the Bible tells us the opposite: God upholds all things, and He calls us to pray, even for those in authority over us, whether or not we agree with them, for they need His wisdom. Men are sinful and make mistakes, sometimes terrible ones — yet God can take even the mistakes of men and still accomplish His purposes. God always knows what is best. Even if we knew every fact, we could not make every right decision; but God can. When we pray, God already knows our need, and He answers by giving what is best.

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