FAITH OR FEAR?

Psalm 56 NKJV

To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A Michtam of David When the Philistines Captured Him in Gath. 1 Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; Fighting all day he oppresses me. 2 My enemies would hound me all day, For there are many who fight against me, O Most High. 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? 5 All day they twist my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil. 6 They gather together, They hide, they mark my steps, When they lie in wait for my life. 7 Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, O God! 8 You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? 9 When I cry out to You, Then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. 10 In God (I will praise His word), In the Lord (I will praise His word), 11 In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You, 13 For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, That I may walk before God In the light of the living?

I Samuel 21

1 Samuel 21:10–11 NKJV

10 Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands’?”

We see that story behind the Psalm.

I. Orchestration of fear.

A. Physical pain.

B. Death

C. Forgotten promises of God.

1 Samuel 16:12–13 NKJV

12 So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!” 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

D. Forgotten provision of God.

He was trusting in the Sword of Goliath, the very thing that God had used David to defeat with a mere sling.

II. Operation of Fear.

A. Insanity

David said that his enemies would swallow him up. This caused David to act like a crazy man.

B. Injudicious

David’s fear had caused him to flea from Saul and go somewhere where he was in just as much danger.

C. Inharmonious

Fear will cause us to act out of our normal character. David a man who was known to the philistines for the tens of thousands that he had killed was behaving out of character.

III. Overcoming of Fear.

Give me one hundred preachers who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God;... such alone will shake the gates of hell and set up the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. JOHN WESLEY

A. Reliance upon the Word of God.

v. 4,10 David returned to the promises of God.

Psalm 56:4 NKJV

In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?

B. Remembrance of the compassions of God.

v. 8 David remembered that God had not forgotten him.

Psalm 56:8 NKJV

You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book?

C. Repentant spirit.

v. 9 When David returned to God then was he delivered.

Psalm 56:10 NKJV

In God (I will praise His word), In the Lord (I will praise His word),