Well, we're going to read together now from God's Word, from the Old Testament, two short passages. First of all, from 1 Samuel chapter 21. 1 Samuel chapter 21, going to read from verse 10. to the end of the chapter. These verses provide us with the historical background for Psalm 56, which is the Psalm that we're going to be focusing our thoughts on this evening. 1 Samuel 21, reading from verse 10. And David rose and fled that day from Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath, And the servants 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 ten thousands. And David took these words to heart, and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands, and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. Then Akish said to his servants, Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house? Then we turn forwards to the book of Psalms, to Psalm 56. Psalm 56, we read the whole psalm. The title, to the choir master, according to the dove on far off Terebinth, a miktan of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be gracious to me, O 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, O 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. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Well, please do keep that psalm open before you, Psalm 56, because it's this portion of God's Word that I want us to think about together this evening. Psalm 56 is one of a series of seven consecutive psalms, running from Psalm 54 through to Psalm 60, but each deal with a different enemy of God's anointed king. The opposition to the king, the attack comes in different forms in each psalm, and yet each psalm ends on a note of triumph. These seven psalms together are teaching us that no enemy can ever overcome God's anointed king. And that was true of David, God's anointed king in the Old Testament, and it is wonderfully true of David's greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. King Jesus and his kingdom triumph. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. We're going to see in a moment which enemy in particular David is facing in Psalm 56. But the real problem here in this psalm that the root of the matter is not so much the enemy as the fear that the enemy inspires. The real enemy here in Psalm 56 is fear. We have nothing to fear but fear itself. frightened. He's not a stoic. He's not some mythical Greek hero who feels no fear. We see here in the psalm that even the strongest believers feel fear. Christians are not immune to being afraid. So the question is not whether or not we feel afraid at times, the question is what do we do with our fear? How do we respond to our fear? How do we cope with fear? Psalm 56 gives us the answer to that question. I want us to notice first of all the reasons for fear and then secondly the reasons for faith. fear and faith. These two contrasting experiences are often set side by side in the book of Psalms. And that is certainly true here in Psalm 56. So first of all then, the reasons for Well, the title of the psalm gives us some insight into what was going on in David's life when he wrote this song. We're told that it was when the Philistines seized him in Gath, and we read about that in 1 Samuel 21. Jonathan, David's best friend and son of King Saul, Saul, his father, is bent on murdering David at all costs. So David is on the run. He had to leave in a hurry. He didn't have time to prepare for his flight. He doesn't have any food. He doesn't have any weapons. And so he stops at a place called Nob, where he is given the showbread from the tabernacle to eat and the sword of Goliath as a weapon. Israel is not safe for David. An enemy called Doeg, the Edomite, saw David at Nob and David knew that it would only be a matter of time before Doeg reported him to Saul. So where should he go? Where is safe for David to flee to? Well, he decides to flee to a place called Gath Gath was one of the five cities of the Philistines. Now why would David go to Gath of all places? Well, he's desperate. It is a case of any port in a storm, but perhaps it's also a kind of clever double bluff, because Gath was the last place in the world that anyone would think David would go. Why was Gath such an unlikely place? Because it was the hometown of Goliath. Goliath was the great champion of the Philistines whom David killed in combat. And it was David's conquest of Goliath that had led to the Philistines being subjugated to the Israelites. Back in 1 Samuel 17 verse 9, David said, if I prevail against Goliath and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us. And David did kill Goliath. And so the Philistines did become subservient to Israel. And David was the reason for that. Perhaps David hoped that he could slip into Gath unrecognized If that was his hope, his plan backfires because he is recognized. And really that's hardly surprising. 1 Samuel 21 verse 11 says, The servants 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 ten thousands. 10,000 what? 10,000 Philistines. David is responsible for the death of countless Philistines. And now this slayer of the Philistines, this conqueror of Goliath comes walking into Goliath's hometown. And what is he carrying? He's carrying Goliath's old sword. The sword that he used to cut off It was a very distinctive sword. David says in 1 Samuel 21 verse 9, there is none like it. And that was no overstatement. It was massive, presumably, just like the rest of Goliath's armor and weapons. We're told that his spear was like a weaver's beam and if you want you can go online and you can do a Google search for Goliath's spear and you'll probably find pretty quickly a reconstruction that someone has made a real life model of Goliath's spear and you can see it standing there beside a normal sized man. It would dwarf even someone like me because it is so big and heavy. And no doubt his sword was of the same kind of scale. So here is David in the hometown of Goliath carrying the sword with which he defeated Gath's greatest champion. And they recognize him. and they seize him and they denounce him. And what is David's response? 1 Samuel 21 verse 12, David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gareth. Well Psalm 56 tells us a bit more about the Philistines treatment of David. David asks the What can man do to me? And the answer according to Psalm 56 is quite a bit clearly. Just look at verses 1 and 2 and just notice the repetition there of violent words. Trampled. Attacked. David's enemies are violently assaulting him. They sound more like wild animals than men, don't they? And the worst thing about it, David says, is the relentlessness of it. It never stops. He mentions the phrase, all day long, three times. All day long, all day long, all day long, there is no let up. Hour after hour after hour, there are many of them, these enemies. And so when one group wearies of attacking David, in comes a fresh set of enemies. Here's their chance for a bit of payback. And no doubt, some of Goliath's relatives are among those who are trampling and attacking. You can imagine them saying to David as they spit on him and kick him, this is for Goliath, as they land another punch or kick. Verses five and six says that all day long they injure David's cause. Their thoughts against him are for evil. In other words, these are not just violent thugs who are beating him up and hurting him physically. These are clever, cunning men. They're setting their minds to work at how best they can maximise the harm that they're going to do to people. Verse 5 says, they stir up strife. The marginal reading in the ESV says, they twist my words. And perhaps that's a better way to translate this phrase. They twist my words. Are they trying to make David out to be some kind of revolutionary? Trying to get him into more trouble back at home. David says, I'm running away from Saul. I'm trying to escape from Saul. And they twist his words and they say, he's planning a revolt against Saul. 1 Samuel 21 verse 11, the Philistines call David King of Israel. But he wasn't the king of Israel at this point. Saul was the king of Israel. A paranoid king of Israel at that. This is dangerous language. They're twisting his words. The king of Israel. It's very, very dangerous. torture, the physical torture, the psychological torture that leads to David clutching at straws in desperation and pretending to be insane. Apparently the Philistines were very superstitious and they believed that anyone who had killed or who held a madman prisoner would be cursed And so perhaps that's why David decides to pretend to be mad. The ruse works. David escapes. He had many reasons to be afraid. And he was afraid. And perhaps you can identify with that feeling this evening. You're not being tortured by vengeful, bloodthirsty men who are after your life. But perhaps you know very well all about unremitting pressures and stresses that dog your steps, make you feel as if you're being trampled and attacked all day long. This current pandemic has certainly brought all kinds of trouble and pressure and even danger into our lives, hasn't it? There's the stress, the relentless stress of being confined in your own home. Now perhaps for many people that isn't a great hardship. Our homes are comforting places. They're happy places. They're the place where we feel most relaxed. But it's very different, isn't it, being confined to your home for weeks and weeks on end. And if you live alone, then it may be perhaps that that loneliness and that sense of isolation that you have to struggle with, even at the best of times, is being exaggerated and accentuated all the more. If you're part of a family, Well, even the closest families can get on one another's nerves after a while. And many families are not close. I heard the other day how Women's Aid here in Northern Ireland are emphasising that they are still open and they are still available to help women who are perhaps being isolated, confined at home with an abusive spouse. Perhaps you know all about fear-inspiring circumstances. There's the relentless pressure of this situation with the coronavirus going from bad to worse. Every day brings bad news upon more bad news. It feels at the moment, doesn't it, as if there is just no daylight in the whole situation. We can't see the way ahead. Every day there is a jump That's the language that's always used, isn't there? There's a jump in infection rates. There's a jump in the death rate. We're on the brink of a surge. That's the word that's used. There's going to be a tsunami of cases that the NHS could be overwhelmed. We see empty shelves in the supermarkets. Long queues of people waiting to get in, wearing face masks. no vaccine available for months still to come. Am I at risk? Will I catch COVID-19? And if I do catch it, will I get really sick? The fear of relentlessly frightening circumstances. And even if we don't have an enemy like David did here in Gath, all Christians have an enemy that is far worse than all the Philistines put together. The devil, who prowls around like a roaring lion, hunting for prey. And he's clever, and he is relentless in his efforts to trample us through temptation, and through discouragement, and through doubt, and through anxiety, and through fear. It may be that you're unusually conscious of satanic attack right at this time. The devil will certainly be taking every opportunity that he can to attack us and to kick us when we're down, when we're vulnerable, when we're lonely, when we're isolated. That's when he loves to get in at Christians. And perhaps we're afraid of giving in. going under. There are all kinds of things, aren't there, that cause believers to fear. David knew about these things and so do we. The question is, what do we do with our fear? Yes, there are all these reasons for fear, but what do we do in response? How do we overcome fear with faith? And that brings us secondly then to reasons for faith. Reasons for faith. Because the focus of this psalm is not on what is making David afraid. The focus of the psalm is on truths about God that enable him to overcome his fear. I just want to point out three truths about God that enabled David to overcome his fear. The first thing that we see is the power of God. The power of God. We see that in the refrain of verses 3 and 4 that's repeated then in verses 10 and 11. Here is the heart of the psalm. In God I trust, I shall not be afraid. And this is what we are always to do whenever we're afraid. Don't focus on the thing you fear. Focus on the Lord. That puts our fears into perspective. And that is what David does here in verses 4 and 11. He focuses on the Lord and then says, what can flesh do to me? What can man do to me. David compares these two things, these two people. On the one hand, there is the Almighty God who created the universe, and on the other hand, there is mortal man. And as soon as he compares the two, as soon as he puts them side by side, he realizes where the true power lies. Perhaps he's remembering his encounter with Goliath. As he looks there in Gath at the very sword that Goliath brandished at him as he came at him, taunting him, threatening to cut him to pieces with that very sword. What did David say to Goliath as he waved this sword at him on that day when, humanly speaking, the odds were stacked decisively against David? What did David say? 1 Samuel 17 verse 45. David said to Goliath, you come to me with a sword and a spear and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. What can man do to me? What can any created thing do to me, even this powerful virus? God is infinite in His power, infinite in His knowledge, infinite in His wisdom, infinite in His goodness. There is nothing that can happen to you or to me that God does not permit and has ordained. Of course, that would be no comfort whatsoever. But for verse 9, this I know, that God is for me. This God, this powerful, mighty God is for me. Now, it doesn't look like it there in Gath, surrounded by Philistines who are baying for David's blood. But David believes that God is powerful and that God is on his side. And what was true for David then is true for you now. If you are a Christian, then God is for you. God is on your side. The power of God. Then, secondly, the Word of God. Here's another truth that David focuses on that helps to drive out his fear. He believes in the Word of God. He believes the Word of God. And it's emphasized, the Word of God, because it's repeated. three times. We have it in verse 4 and we have it twice in verse 10. Why such emphasis on the word of God? What word is David thinking of here? Was it the word of the Lord that was given to David by Samuel the prophet that he would be king after Saul? Is he clinging to that promise? Is he saying to himself, I can't die here in Gath. This can't be the end because then God's word, God's promise wouldn't come true. And that's impossible. Or is he thinking perhaps of some part of scripture that had been written that he had, perhaps he's reflecting on the story Joseph says to his brothers, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Is that what David is thinking about? God is overruling this situation for good. It's an evil thing that's happening to me, but God is using it for good. Is he thinking about the book of Exodus? That mighty demonstration of God's saving power, delivering his people from slavery and from oppression. Is he thinking about the book of Job and how God used Job's sufferings, terrible anguish, agonizing sufferings to bring glory to himself? We don't know for sure. It could be any of these things. It might be all of these things. But what is clear is that focusing his mind on God's word increases his trust in God. when his circumstances are bewildering, and when the way ahead seems unclear or terrifying, he holds on to what he knows from God's word. I don't know if perhaps you've heard of a thing called spatial disorientation. Spatial disorientation is what pilots sometimes experience when they're flying in weather that prevents them from seeing the horizon or the ground. They're flying through a very thick cloud, perhaps, and they have no points of reference. Their senses are disorientated. They don't really know where they are. They don't know which direction they're flying. They don't even know which way is up and which way is down. The pilot isn't able to trust his perception. In fact, I've read of people who've flown out of thick cloud cover to discover that the plane is upside down. They were so disoriented that they thought that they were flying the right way up, but in fact they were upside down and they needed to flip over once they came out of the cloud. Spatial disorientation can be deadly. And the only thing to do to overcome spatial disorientation if you're a pilot to listen to what they are telling you is real, to suppress what your feelings are telling you. And that's why flight instructors force student pilots to learn to fly planes by instruments alone, so that they will not fall prey to spatial disorientation. And that is a great illustration of a spiritual truth. Don't listen to your feelings in times of crisis. Your feelings at a time of crisis will be going haywire. They won't be giving you reliable readings. You won't be able to know which way is up and down. What you need to do is listen to the truths from God's word that you know to be true and reliable. That's where we need to look in times of crisis. That's what we do when fear takes hold. as we thought about last Sabbath morning in Psalm 46, when the mountains are falling into the sea and the earth is shaking and the sea is surging, be still and know that I am God. Stop and remember what you know to be true about God because God has said, no matter how things look, No matter what's going on in the world, no matter how you feel, trust your instruments. That's what David's doing here. I'm going to listen to your word. I'm going to trust your word. I'm going to praise your word, Lord. The idea of David becoming king looked very unlikely at this point in his life. A prisoner in Gath. and yet he's holding on to God's word and he's believing it. And that's what we need to do. Stay our minds on the Lord. Think, remember, believe what God has said in his word, that he is sovereign, that he is wise, that he is good, that he is holy, that he is righteous, that he is all-knowing, that he is working everything for his people's good. It doesn't matter if we don't understand how he's working something for our good. We just need to believe that he is. Just because we can't see it with our tiny little minds and our very, very limited perspective, just because we can't see how God is using this pandemic for good, doesn't mean that he isn't using it for good. that he isn't bringing millions and millions of things that are good out of this evil thing. We walk by faith in his word, not by sight. So David focuses on the power of God and the word of God and then thirdly he focuses on the care of God. The care of God. Verse 8 is one of the most beautiful pictures in all of scripture. I think wanderings is a better translation than tossings here. You have kept count of my wanderings. Put my tears in your bowl. Are they not in your book? David has been on the run for a while now and there is much more wandering still to come. But God knows God has been keeping count of every mile, every place, every night that he has spent as a fugitive. It's as though God has a tally chart on the wall of heaven. And also he keeps his tears in a bottle and he records them, writes them down, the number of them in his book. Think of all the tears that David has shed since leaving his beloved friend Jonathan and going on the run. Think of all the tears that he has cried since falling into the hands of the Philistines and being trampled and attacked and ill-treated by them. Tears flow from our eyes and they just fall to the ground or we just brush them away. They're not precious to us. that they matter to God. God puts them in his bottle. It's as if they are vintage wine or precious oil or water. Liquid was a precious commodity in a dry climate. It needed to be preserved. And that's the picture here, that this is something precious. Every last teardrop needs to be captured and kept by the Lord. Our tears are precious to our Father. He cares about our sufferings. He's moved to compassion by our weeping. He doesn't tell David to pull himself together and stop being such a baby. Every spasm of pain and sadness that you experience is known to the Lord. Maybe you carry around with you every day a secret sadness that you can't share with another living soul. Maybe you spend time weeping private tears that no one knows anything about. precious to him. This is the God that David trusts when he's afraid. Not some God who has just raw power like some energy force, but a God who loves and cares for heartbroken people with tender pity. Isn't that just exactly what we need at this time? Isn't this the antidote to the fear that perhaps we feel welling up inside us when we pay a visit to the supermarket or when we switch on the news reports? We have many reasons for fear, but we have many lower and far greater reasons for faith. The power of God, the word of God, and the care of God. Let's focus on those things in these coming weeks. Let's stay our mind on these truths that the Lord has revealed to us in his word. 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? Amen. Well, let's bow our heads in prayer. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we do confess that we are afraid. We have many reasons to be afraid. As we look out on our world at the moment, We see so many things that are troubling, that are fearful, not just in our own province and nation, but in every nation throughout the world. The scale of this emergency is hard to take in and it is overwhelming and we feel so out of our depth. Heavenly Father, in our Help us to focus on your power. Help us to focus upon your word, not our feelings. Help us to be assured of your care, your tender, compassionate, loving care for your people. We pray, Heavenly Father, for those who are particularly frightened this time, who have perhaps because they themselves are at risk from this virus or members of their family. Lord, we pray that you will draw close to them and that you will give them a real sense of your presence and your peace. We pray that you would envelop them in your power, that you would bring your word powerfully to their minds. We ask this in Jesus' name.