Grosey's Messages

Psalm 56 Fear Not.

On July 17, 1999, thirty-eight-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr, the son of the thirty-fifth president of the United States make the headlines. However, it was not good news.

The night before he had piloted his single engine Piper Saratoga plane from New Jersey to an island just off the coast of Massachusetts called Martha's Vineyard. With him were his wife Carolyn and his sister-in-law Lauren.  Kennedy had logged 310 hours of flight time and had only completed half of an instrument training course. He was overconfident in his ability to fly at night – although he'd done it several times before.  However, on this particular night, there was no moon, and fog obscured the shore line of the island, blocking out the lights. The motion of a plane can fool the senses, especially when everything is completely dark around you; but the instrument panel is objective – they reveal that a plane is level, banking, climbing and descending. If a pilot trusts his instruments, he cannot go wrong. However, one author wrote, if he trusts himself, he can take his plane into what is called a graveyard spiral and crash.  From the investigation that would follow, radar showed the plane right on course, heading in for the airstrip. However, at just twenty miles out the plane began making turns away from the airstrip. It began spiraling down and within minutes, it crashed into the Atlantic Ocean, 16 miles away from Martha's Vineyard.  According to investigators, Kennedy had lost his sense of direction and equilibrium . . . he either ignored or misunderstood his instrument panel.

His plane was equipped with an autopilot that would have returned the plane to straight and level flight – if he had switched it on, but evidently in the panic and confusion of those final moments he never did.

The Psalmist David is writing a poem about being surrounded by difficult and even life threatening circumstances.

Psalm 56 fact, the lights have effectively gone out . . . and he is flying in the dark.

This particular Psalm is placed at the time – notice – when the Philistines seized David in Gath.

You can read all about that dangerous and difficult event in 1 Samuel 21. Let me give you a quick review.

David is alone – this event took place before he had gathered a personal entourage of friends and soldiers. He was running for his life from King Saul, who wanted to kill this heir apparent to the throne of Israel.

There is little doubt that David was thinking that the last place on the planet King Saul would ever come looking for him – would be the hometown of a giant named Goliath . . . a giant that David had killed only a few years earlier.  To make it even more ironic – and dangerous for David – a few days before running to Gath, David had gone to the village of Nob where a priestly establishment was located.

David asked the priest if he had any weapons and the priest said, "The only weapon I have is the sword of Goliath." It had evidently been given as an offering of praise to the power of God. And the priest gives David the sword of Goliath.

So David arrives at the hometown of Goliath, carrying the murder weapon.

And you can imagine the Philistines immediately plan to kill him, and David ends up acting as if he'd lost his mind, and the king did not want anything to do with him, allowing David to escape.

David's flight to the city of Gath was proof of his despair (loss of equilibrium). He was ignoring the instrument panel of God's promise, spiraling, spiraling downward, and heading for a crash.

However, God rescues David and in the process teaches him valuable lessons about faith . . . and fear.

"A Mikhtam of David."  That word mikhtam (michtam) more than likely means "to engrave" or "to cut". In other words, this is a Psalm that you want to engrave or cut into stone . . . you do not want to lose it.

And for many reasons – one of which is the obvious reason that this poem becomes the instrument panel for every believer from David's generation to ours – this is how you fly level and straight when the darkness of fear demands nothing less than faith in the word of God.

I am outnumbered, and I am never going to make it out of here alive.  And I am afraid.

Faith does not eliminate fear. In fact, faith is perhaps most clearly seen when you act in faith while in the midst of fearful circumstances.

Trust does not eliminate the trouble. Who among us trusts God more? The one who trusts Him when the sun is out, or the one who trusts Him when it is dark and the fog of circumstances hides our eyes from the shoreline of our destination?

Faith does not mean the absence of fear:  Spurgeon writes, David was no braggart; he does not claim never to be afraid . . . evidently, it is possible for fear and faith to occupy the mind at the same time; but blessed is the fear that drives us to faith and trust.

David admits his fear . . . and he speaks further with realism . . . notice the last line of verse 4. What can mere man do to me?

Now you might think David wants us all to shout – they can do nothing to you, David . . . praise God!

Not quite: David goes on for two verses telling us what mere man can do to him – and to us.

Notice verse 5. All the day long they distort my words. They misinterpret him; they twist his words.

Notice verse 5b. All their thoughts are against me for evil – in other words, they make it clear that they wish he were dead.

Look at v. 6. They attack, they lurk: they constantly intimidate me with their words – it is not physical attacks yet, but verbal attacks.  They misinterpret him and they malign him.

He writes, they lurk, they watch my steps – they dog my heels – the word for lurk can actually be translated they, "pant after" – like a dog on the hunt. David says I just can't seem to lose them!

It is time to check the instrument panel for directions and guidance and oversight.

David gives us what we can call three principles from the inspired instrument panel of God's word.

This becomes his source of hope, encouragement and direction and ours as well.

1. Principle #1: God's word is consistently appropriate for every trouble.

When David talks about how God's word brings him to such delight and praise – keep in mind he does not have 66 Books of the Bible. He is got Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy . . . the Books we can hardly make it through in our through the Bible reading.

However, those books were sufficient to bring David to understand the power and grace and justice and holiness and atonement and sacrifice and the faithful, covenant love of God for His people. God's word is consistently applicable to every season and every situation in life.  So . . . Principle #1: God's word is consistently appropriate for every trouble.

2. Principle #2: God is consciously aware of every trail.

Notice the first phrase of verse 8. I love this statement – You (speaking of God) You have taken account of my wanderings.  The Hebrew word comes from a verb that refers to the wandering trail of someone experiencing rejection and deep grief.

The last phrase of verse 8 refers to a book, where God keeps it all written down. This is the kind of book you might call a diary or a journal.  This is deeply personal language that tells us without any question that God is not some distant sovereign who maps everything out and then expects you to stay on task . . . He keeps a close watch – a journal account, so to speak – of every step you take and even what you might describe as wandering. David says – He tracks every step.

God knows everything about our wandering. He knows everything about our distractions; He knows everything about our weakness.  He knows us so well!

Let me ask you, what do you think God knows about you?

The truth is, He is infinitely aware of every dot in your dotted path – your wandering trail as you travel home.  He has not missed a step along the way.

God is consciously aware of your trail.

3. Principle #3: God's is compassionately attentive to every tear.

Notice verse 8 again – You have take account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle.

It was not until I traveled to Israel that I discovered the ancient practice of tear bottles. In the Latin language, they are called lachrymatories.

In the ancient days and even up to the times of the Roman empire, people kept delicate little containers to catch and store their tears.  In the Roman world, many of them were made out of glass. It's a simple vase like creation with an opening at the top of its long neck that someone placed at their cheeks to catch the falling tears.  It was normal at a funeral procession in Roman times for friends to bring along their lachrymatory and weep their tears, catching them in these miniature, delicate bottles and then place them at the graveside as a token of their sorrow.  It was common for wives of Roman soldiers to collect their tears and then give the brimming tear bottle to their husband upon his return as a token of their love and devotion.  In fact, we have uncovered accounts of marital unrest because the tear bottle was empty upon their return.  Tear bottles became companions to people in grief – they would take solace in the fact their tears were not lost.

However, here's the interesting point David is making; notice again; God is the one holding the bottle to your cheek, and God is the one collecting your tears.  He has a bottle just for your tears. In other words, what David means is this – God has not missed one tear you've ever shed.  Tears of sorrow . . . repentance . . . anguish . . . confusion . . . fear . . . hurt . . . rejection . . . He is so deeply interested in your trouble and your trail and your tears that he is keeping all of them in mind.

By the way, one of the promises of heaven means more to me now – where we've been promised that God will wipe every tear from our eye (Revelation 21:4).

You never have, nor will you ever, cry alone.  And David is moved to praise God for this word.

David has shifted his focus from what people thing about him to what God thinks about him; he has shifted his perspective from what people are saying about him to what God has said to him.

No wonder he sings in verse 10, "This I know – that God is for me" – that is an incredible statement of faith when you are afraid.  This I know – God is for me – for my good – for my future – for my redemption – for my eternal fellowship with Him one day in glory (verse 13).  He is not against me . . .

God is for me . . . verse 20, In God whose word I praise; In the Lord, whose word I praise.

Notice again the refrain – verse 11. In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

No matter what your senses might say – this is the instrument panel of Psalm 56.  God knows . . . and God cares. John Rippon wrote the hymn How firm a foundation.  I have always loved that hymn.

Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,

For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid;

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,

Upheld by my gracious omnipotent hand.

The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose,

I will not, I will not desert to his foes;

That soul, tho all hell should endeavor to shake,

I'll never – no, never – no, never forsake.

From a sermon by Stephen Davey