As we prepare to hear God’s word read, I encourage you to take your Bibles in hand and open up to Psalm 56. If you didn’t bring your Bible with you, you can find it in the pew on page 476. But in anticipation of the reading and the hearing of God’s word, let me pray. This will flow from Psalm 119, the section entitled Vab. Let us pray. Father, we ask that your steadfast love would come to us. Oh, Lord, that your salvation would be revealed according to your promise, that we should have an answer for those who would taunt us because we trust in your word. Lord, do not take your word out of our mouth, for it is our hope. Your rules, your law is our hope. We ask that you would keep the law before us, that we would obey you continually, forever and ever. And then we would find that we are walking in a wide place because we seek your precepts. Lord, that you would give us an opportunity to speak of your testimonies before Kings, and that we shall not be put to shame, for we trust in your word. Lord, help us to take delight in your Commandments.
Help us to love your law. Lord, we lift up our hearts and our hands to you this day as we stand before your word and ask that we might hear you in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. Psalm 56, this is God’s inherent word, to the choir master, according to the dove on the far-off terribiths, a mid-cam of David, when the Philistines seized him in gaff. Be gracious to me, oh God, for man tramples on me all day long. An attacker oppresses me. My enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you, in God, whose word I praise. In God, I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? All day long, they injure my cause. All their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps as they have waited for my life. For their crime, will they escape? In wrath, cast down the peoples, O God. You have kept count of my tossings, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call, ‘this I know that God is for me.
‘ In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise. In God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vows to you, oh God. I will render thank offerings to you, for you have delivered my soul from death. Yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. The word of our Lord. You may be seated. Let me pray for the preaching of God’s word. Father, as my words are true to your word, may they be taken to heart. But if my words should stray from your word, may they be quickly forgotten. I pray this in the name and the power of Jesus Christ. Amen. It was Halloween night in 1938, Orson Welles broadcasting on the CBS Mercury Theater, launched into a radio drama based on the 1898 novel by H. G. Welles entitled The War of the Worlds. Orson Welles reported of a Martian invasion, and it was so convincing that thousands of Americans thought that, in fact, New Jersey was being invaded by aliens. While it’s true that many of the later reporting of this widespread panic, people jumping out of buildings was exaggerated, it is also true that many communities throughout the night and the next day panicked.
All of this in spite of repeated disclaimers and reminders that it’s only radio drama. Fear is a powerful motivator, sometimes for good, urging caution. But many times fear can paralyze us. It can blind us. It can trap us in our anxiety. As we briefly explore Psalm 56 this morning, I hope you’ll see that a deep entrust in the Lord and in his word that will relieve us of paralyzing fear and will enable us to walk before God in the light of life. To that end, let’s look at our Psalm. The first thing that you will likely notice is the rather long superscription. And in it, we get some introductory information. It was written for the choir master. It was likely written to the tune of the far-off terebints. We don’t know that tune today, but some scholars note that perhaps this Is this a tie into or a connection with Psalm 55, the one that proceeds? In it, you may remember when we looked at it last month, Psalm 55: 6, where David sang, Oh, that I had wings like a dove. I could fly far away and be at rest. Perhaps this Psalm is, in some sense, inspired by David’s desire to find peace in the midst of the anxiety and trouble and fear he experienced.
Further, we read in the superscription that it was written in the style of a mast skill. It’s likely a musical term which we don’t fully understand. But finally, we are given some historical information that this Psalm was inspired by the events that you can read of if you turn or and look at 1 Samuel 21: 10-15. That reads in part, David rose and fled that day from and went to Achish, the king of Gath. And the servants of the king of Gath, of Achish, said to him, Is not this David, the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands, and David, his 10 thousands. And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of the king of Gath. That is the background. And so appearances would suggest that what David needed was a gracious reception from Achish, the king of Gath. That’s not how this psalm starts. It’s a psalm of personal lament. And David rather pleads, Be gracious to me, oh God. It’s a beautiful cry and is always an appropriate way to begin our prayer and our petition to God.
David begins by noting his utter dependence upon the grace of God. He’s not starting from a position of strength, but rather of need. Now, he may know intellectually of God’s strength and his sovereign power and his grace. He may know that, that they are real and true, but at this point, he doesn’t feel it. Instead, we read in verse one what he actually feels and experiences. Man tramples on me. All day long, an attacker oppresses me. Verse two parallels this and expands it by moving it into the plural. All day long, my enemies trample me, for many attack me proudly. At this point in David’s life, he had already been anointed king, but as the current king Saul was still alive and reigning, David’s life was literally one of fleeing from cave to cave. It’s not hard to imagine how easy it would be for him to cry out in desperation to the Lord. What are you doing? Or to use David’s language, How long, oh Lord? We experience similar emotions when at one level we believe we are doing that which the Lord has asked us to do. And yet, far from feeling blessed in that endeavor, we are thwarted, we are opposed, or perhaps even ignored.
And at those times, it is easy to let fear and anxiety reign in our hearts. Fear of failure in a project or a business, fear of rejection in a relationship. Fear of pain in body or in soul. Fear of death. Any and all of these fears can overwhelm our senses and blind us to the truth of God’s power and loving nature. Notice the Psalmist’s response in verse three. However, he writes, When When I am afraid. That is, he first admits his fear, his vulnerability, his weakness, his need, his state. When I am afraid, that is, he first admits his fear, his vulnerability, his weakness, his need, his state. When I am afraid, I ‘put my trust in you. ‘ When I was a boy, I had horses, and the walk to the barn was a walk with a dark forest immediately to my right and open lawns to my left. At times when I was getting ready to go to bed, I realized I had forgotten to feed the horses. More likely my dad would knock on the door and said, Have you fed the horses? ‘ I would have to go out and venture pleasure in the darkness.
Fear gripped me. My imagination conjured all sorts of evil lurking in the boundaries of those trees. When I was a grown man in Afghanistan, hurting the all clear from a rocket attack, I went back to my plywood hut and tried to lie back down to sleep, and fear gripped me. When I was afraid, I put my trust in you. The Psalmist clarifies in verse 4, In God, whose word I praise. I’ve included a Van Gimmeren quote in the bulletin, and he notes that this, that the Psalmist neither feeds his fears nor stares at his problems, but looks to his redeemer who will deliver him. How often do we, instead of looking to our redeemer, looking to our Lord, looking into his word which he has so gracially revealed himself, instead, we gaze at that which terrifies us. We freeze, we focus on ourselves, we focus on our despair, on our plight, on our trouble. In a word, we engage in morbid introspection. And instead of admitting our fear and then turning our attention, and notice this, our praise to God and to his word. Hear the bold declaration of the Psalmist in the midst of his fear.
He says, In God, I trust. I shall not be afraid. At this point, David is speaking prophetically. He’s speaking prophetically to himself, these words of truth. He is currently afraid, but he knows that when, that is when, he ought to trust in the Lord. And as he does, he knows that he shall not be afraid. As he focuses on his redeemer, not on his fear, or more specifically, as he praises God and his word, his fear is relieved when he considers verse 4, What can flesh do to me? It’s a great question. And David will repeat this reflection. He’ll ask this question again in verse 11. But right now, with his enemy still near or at the forefront of his thinking, he considers them again in verse 5 and 6. And we ought to notice how significant David enemies were. David uses, in fact, three different words to describe his adversaries. He calls them his foes or his attackers in verse one. And then he uses two different Hebrew words that can be translated as enemy in verses two and verse nine. Notice also the intensity with which they seek to destroy him. It’s remarkable.
They are committed three times, David mentions, all day long. They oppressed in verse one, they trample in verse two, and they injure his cause in verse 5, or in an alternate, and in my opinion, a preferred reading, they twist my word. Words, David says. God’s words are praised in verse four. David’s words are twisted here in verse five. His enemies are determined. They stir up strife. They are diligent, they watch, they wait. And such, at times, are our enemies as well. And if we look at them, we are undone. But when When we look to God, when we praise his word, our fear is turned to trust. How is this done? I appreciate the concise answer to the Westminster Shorter Catechism question number 3. The question asks, what do the scriptures principally teach? Here we read, the scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duties God requires. It’s the first half of that catechism answer that we’re looking at today in which we begin to understand how our fear is turned to trust. Because as we look to God’s word, we see God himself. God’s word is a revelation of himself.
As we look to his word, we gaze on our redeemer. We see his power, his faithfulness, his love, his compassion. And in verse seven, we also see his wholeness and his justice. In verse seven, David wonders, Will they escape? He calls on the God of justice to act, Cast them down, oh God. Perhaps here, David is recalling Deuteronomy 32: 4, where God is described as the Rock. His work is perfect. All his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. Here in our text, when David is harassed by his enemies, as he looks to the Lord, he remembers that God, as a God of justice, will act. Indeed, over 20 times in the Psalm, David mentions and calls out to God and to his justice. Not only is David reminded of what God will do to his enemies, but positively, David, as he looks to God, as he praises God’s word, God’s revelation of himself, he also sees God’s compassion. What a beautiful picture this is of God’s love and care. Look at it in the text. It’s in verses 8. He God has kept count of my tossings, which might mean that he is aware of our sleepless nights, or it might mean that he is aware of all of our wanderings, all of our tossings to and fro, feeling lost.
Those are the various ways scholars see that phrase. But even more pointedly, God puts David’s tears in a bottle. He records them in a book. At Susan’s recommendation, I just finished reading Roland Allen’s insightful work called The Notebook, A History of Thinking on Paper. In that work, he writes of the Ulubaran shipwreck of 1305 BC, in which they were covered waxed tablet notebooks. He cites these as among the earliest examples of journals and record keeping. And yet here, David writing in nearly the same time period refers to God as keeping a journal. It’s a record keeping book. And into it, God is recording all of our tears, all of our troubles. Writing even earlier, Moses in Exodus 32, he cries out to God. He says, God, have mercy on your people. And he pleads for the forgiveness for Israel. And he says, Lord, if you will forgive their sin, Amen. But if not, please blot me out of the book that you have written. Moses standing as a picture of a redeemer willing to trade his life for another. Nothing. Not one tear, not one trouble, not even a single hair falling escapes our Father in heaven’s notice.
Have you considered his careful attention to your sorrow? And if you truly believe that God loves you in particular in that same way, how would that change your attitude? How might that change the way you lived your life? For David, it’s a pretty dramatic change. The enemies that had been on display, one scholar says they were in the forefront in verses 1 through 8, are now began to recede into the background. We see that they’re in retreat. The fear that it overwhelmed David is now turning to hope and to trust because David is looking at the Lord and at his word. On this, John Calvin remarks, Fear and hope may seem opposite and incompatible affections. Yet the latter, the hope, never comes into full sway unless there exists some measure of the former. Hope, trust become stronger as it reacts to fear. God takes our fears, he takes our struggles, and he turns them into something beautiful and hopeful. In verse 9, David sees his enemies turned back, and as he sees them retreat. He is filled with an assurance that God has answered him, and even more, that God is for him. The apostle Paul likely had this in mind when he notes in Romans 8: 31, If God is for us, who can be against us?
Yeah, it’s the verse quoted by every Christian athletic team on the field, right? God is for us, who can be against us? Well, maybe that’s the wrong context, but this is the right context. In the midst of your struggle, in the midst of your fear, look to the Lord and praise his word, and you will find that God is for you. Van Gemmeren also notes that these majestic works of God’s compassion are compelling proof of God’s covenantal relationship. God has covenanted to be in relationship with you. He understands your tears and your troubles. He’s recording them. Not one will be spent in vain. And verse 10 and 11, repeat that refrain that we’ve heard before. But here there’s a doubling of the phrase, Whose word I praise. In fact, three times David has declared this, which match the many triplets in this text. There three words to describe his adversaries, and those three have three counterparts when God is being trusted, when his word is being praised. That is when the attackers, the foes, the enemies now become merely people or flesh or mortal man. The change continues for David. For now, in verse 12, he realizes that in addition to shifting his focus off of himself and what he fears onto God and his word, that as a member in a covenant relationship, David also needs to perform those vows, especially to offer his thanks and praise to God.
Vows that we make, the ordination vows that Patrick and Scott took this morning, or for some of you, your wedding vows that you took years ago, they aren’t to be suspended when life gets difficult. The classic wedding vows make this plain in sickness and in health. For richer or poorer, for better or for worse. We vow to keep up the struggle. And in addition to the vows kept, David knows that he needs to offer thanks. And here it’s not because he’s out of danger, The text doesn’t tell us that, but rather because David’s outlook has been changed. As he looks to God, he no longer fears man, and instead he experiences true relief and true freedom. Look at verse 13, For you have delivered my soul from death. Because David knows that truth, he can offer his thanks. This is a redemption. This is a deliverance that is Often experienced in waves. First, we can experience it when we are new to the church or new to the gospel or new to Christ. And then we experience it again and again in our lives. That may be you this morning. You may be here in church for the first time.
You may be back again after a long time, or you may simply have been walking with God for a while and are struggling against some fear, some anxiety. In any case, as you realize your need for deliverance, call out like David does in verse one, be gracious to me, oh God, and confess your sins. Everything you broke, everything you’ve lost, only God can restore. Now, I’m not suggesting that you pray for forgiveness. Your life will get easier. But I am saying that as you turn your eyes to your redeemer, King Jesus, as you look into his word to get to know him better, you’ll see it again and again in the story of how he did it all. And one day, he’s going to give it all to us. You can look in the text we just read. If you still have it open, you can see it. It is Jesus who is most despised of his enemies. It is Jesus who was the word made flesh. That is the word we are to praise. It is Jesus who had his words twisted. It is Jesus who delivered us from death. It is Jesus who cast down on the cross and in his resurrection, the great enemy, Satan.
It is Jesus who is our redeemer, and it is Jesus who we are to praise. It is Jesus who we are to trust. Jesus is the one who is worthy of our offerings of thanksgiving and praise. He has delivered our soul from death. Jesus, speaking in John 1: 8, he declares, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. This is the light of life that in verse 13, David says he now can walk in. God has kept and will keep his feet from falling so that David can live for God’s glory. That David recognizes that he, like us, can walk in a covenant relationship with the Father. Because of the Son’s work, we can walk in this light of life. In Christ, your circumstance may not immediately change, but everything else will. Lament is redeemed into thanksgiving, fear into trust, the vision of oneself turned to God, and life walked in relationship with Christ becomes light to a dark world. Give your fear to the Lord, praise his word, and trust in him. Let us pray. Father, I thank you for your word.
I thank for opening it up to us this morning. Father, I thank you for your son, Jesus Christ. Indeed, that word made flesh. I thank you for the work that he has accomplished for us on the cross. Oh, work we will now celebrate as we prepare to come to this table, which is a visual of the gospel. Father, we praise you and we thank you for your word. In Jesus name, Amen.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.