Psalm 56
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To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. 1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; 2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. 3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. 4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? 5 All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. 6 They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. 7 For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! 8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? 9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. 10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, 11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. 13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
INTRO: Something to do with being afraid
What does it mean to be afraid?
To be in a state of fear
Fear is an unpleasant emotion driven by the belief that harm in some fashion is soon to come
A child and thunderstorms
Chicks easily afraid will find their mama
A toddler hears a loud noise will cry in fear and run for mom or dad
Being afraid is driven by a weakness in us, and causes a knee jerk reaction to find shelter in something that is stronger
When fear of a tornado settles in, it shows your inability to stand up to one
So you seek the security of something that can
Fear is always driven by a realization of weakness, and will always drive you to find something that is not weak
In Psalm 56 we see David is afraid, and he shows what you are to do when afraid, and what it enables him to do after that is desirable.
If in fear of a tornado, it makes a big difference if you, in your fear, run to a shelter versus running around outside in a panic
When fear is handled rightly, you will have a response that leads to life
Fear handled wrongly will lead to death
So first why is David afraid. As we uncover it we will see a greater picture that we find ourselves in so that this teaching of the psalm will find a place within our own heart:
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; 2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly.
Psalm 51-
Have Mercy on Me, O God
For I have fallen in sin
Psalm 56-
Be gracious to me, O God
For I have fallen into the hands of sinners
David’s Circumstance
“Philistines seized him in Gath”
10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. 11 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’?” 12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.
10
Why was David fleeing from Saul?
Saul was jealous that God was working through David now and not Saul
11-12
David was known by the philistines because of David’s fighting against them
David had a reputation of fighting for Yawheh and is now paying a price for it both from Israel (Saul) and from without
Gath: has significance for David’s first great work for the LORD
Early in Saul’s reign, Israel was drawing battle lines with the Philistines:
3 And the Philistines stood on the mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on the mountain on the other side, with a valley between them. 4 And there came out from the camp of the Philistines a champion named Goliath of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
24 All the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him and were much afraid. 25 And the men of Israel said, “Have you seen this man who has come up? Surely he has come up to defy Israel. And the king will enrich the man who kills him with great riches and will give him his daughter and make his father’s house free in Israel.” 26 And David said to the men who stood by him, “What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 27 And the people answered him in the same way, “So shall it be done to the man who kills him.”
David kills Goliath, and only continues to work valiantly for Yahweh, and it has recieved hatred from Saul, and now the people of Gath (for all the philistines he has killed for God and for killing their champion Goliath).
So the context of this Psalm: David is caught between a rock and a hard place, not because of his sin, but because of his service to Yahweh
David’s faithfulness to God has created enemies from the world, and the pressure from them proves to make David afraid
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; 2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly.
Man, attacker, enemy
Tramples, oppresses me
All day long
Proudly
Proper bible study is to see the immediate context as we have done
But there’s more that we have to see here
There is a bigger picture here that we must see and in so doing we will see this not just a story about David, but about Jesus and all those who are for him
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.
Jesus walked this earth with enemies from Israel constantly looking for his death
Jesus walked this earth with enemies from the gentiles of Rome looking for his hurt
Jesus’ enemies came as a result of his faithfulness to the Father
The same power at work against David both from Saul and the Philistines
Was the same power at work against Jesus from the Jews and Rome
It is the dragon of Revelation 12 that’s now at work against the church
It is the the prince of the power of the air that every one in sin is following
Including you if you have not repented and believed upon Christ
But for the saints before me who have turned away from sin and the dragon, the enemy has now set his sights on you....us
Jesus faced this enemy in full 2000 years ago
So that all that came before him and after would engage in the same fight as well
So as we read
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; 2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly.
We see the struggle against God’s enemies that David faced
We know the fight that Jesus engaged in total during his time
And we share in the same fight in our own day
God’s enemy becomes our enemy
We are people of the Word, and that creates division between us and those who hate the Word
You need to know that there is an evil force behind the movements of:
LGBTQ+
fourth wave feminist
CRT
In General: the leftist ideology
Is not just a difference of opinion, but a system lead by the prince of the power of the air to try and destroy the church
It is not coincidence to see that they all share in their hate for
the God of the Bible
The Bible
The traditional family
The true Church
The dragon using liberalism went after the church and knocked out the major protestant denominations in the past century
It moved on to society to destroy the family and propagate an insidious movement to destroy all things Christian
And as we see the growing chaos in the very fabric of our society we can say that the cancer of liberalism has reach a terminal stage
So when we hear David cry here of
A proud enemy that all day tramples down
That was the battle Jesus took up
And its something that is relatable to us now
Because it is the enemy of God that works against all that is good in all ages from the world
From Adam to Christ, From Christ through the church age
Main point of this psalm though is the refrain here:
Psalm 56:3 “3 When I am afraid
Not if, but when
The enemy of God, Satan and his angels makes for a frightful enemy
David, because of his faithfulness to God, had Saul chasing him, and his only way of escape was an enemy city—he was afraid
We have a powerful enemy that says our faithfulness to the Word of God is dangerous and offensive, and racist, and sexist, and needs to be destroyed like the Confederates and the KKK
To our society today, to say basic biblical truths like:
A proper family is one that is made up of one husband, and one wife
Parents are to train up their child in righteousness and submission to the Lord
Humanity is made up of only men and females
Is like being pro slavery 200 hundred years ago and saying the N word a hundred years ago
Its backwards and offensive
Google search Gender Binary and the first thing that pops up is an official US government website whose purpose is to discover the cause of cancer and informing the means for prevention
Beyond the Gender Binary
Beyond the Gender Binary
The gender binary describes the inaccurate concept that gender is categorized into only two distinct forms (i.e. man/woman). Many gender-expansive identities exist either between or outside of this binary, such as genderfluid, genderqueer, non-binary or agender.1 Various pronouns like the singular, third person they may be used to reflect gender neutrality.
Genderqueer – An umbrella adjective for someone who avoids conventional ideas of gender, e.g. genderfluid, non-binary, agender
Genderfluid – Describes a person who experiences gender as dynamic and changing over time
Non-binary – Describes a person who does not identify exclusively as masculine or feminine
Agender – Describes a person who rejects a gender identity or is gender-neutral
Point:
The US government is the most powerful entity ever
The philosophy of the West is do not go against the science—as determined by US Government
The morality of the West is freedom for the sinful self to express anyway they like
Anything that goes against this secularist crusade is like being for the Nazi’s in the 1900’s and the KKK in the 1800s---backwards, offensive, and cannot be tolerated.
What do we do when this goes from being a fringe thing to at the center of though of the US government and all the major cities?
The same thing David learned to do when he was faced with God’s enemies
Psalm 56:3 “3 When I am afraid,
When something has threatened the secure foundation under me
When circumstances are highlighting my weakness
Inability to see nor control the future
When the enemies of my life produced by my faithfulness to you are causing me to be fearful of my future
Where I will go immediately when my weakness is on full display
Psalm 56:3 “3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”
Like a toddler that finds mama right when he becomes afraid
So the Christian’s first response in the feeling of fear is to trust in God
How can we know that we are reacting in trust?
Psalm 56:4 “4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust
When we go to God’s word as our meditation, as our understanding, as our practice
Ironic that the Word that caused David to praise and have many enemies
Is the same thing he turns to when Afraid because of those enemies
It was the Word that said Saul would not be king but David would be which made Saul an enemy of David
It was the Word that David stood for which created an enemy in the Philistines that did not obey God’s word
And when fear come as a result of the hatred of God’s enemies against us
Instead of abandoning the Word, we are to go to it for comfort as our foundational trust.
The tool of Satan is sin and chaos
So the comfort of the Christian is God’s word which stands firm despite the raging of the evil one
Which causes us to say in our in our reaction a top of God’s word
Psalm 56:4 “4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?”
When I am afraid, I will not be afraid
Because God’s word remains true which says God’s enemies will not have the final victory
Is it wrong to be afraid?
No…it is a natural initial reaction to something that happened which causes you to look for firm foundation
There is nothing wrong with being afraid when an earthquake begins because it drives you to action to find security
There is nothing wrong with being afraid when a tornado is coming near because it drives you to proper action
What makes fear bad is when we do not react properly and in an earthquake or tornado we run around outside like an insane person
When I am afraid (natural response to a circumstance that arouse that underlines your weakness)
I will trust in you by praising your word
Then i will not live in fear (I will not be afraid)
As I conclude what can the enemy of God do to me?
That was verse one and chorus of the song
And verse two sounds similar:
Psalm 56:5-6 “5 All day long they injure my cause (twist my words); all their thoughts are against me for evil. 6 They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life.”
This seems most fitting to be explaining Saul and the thugs he sent to David to try and destroy him
It is mind numbing to David to see just how much collective effort they put in to destroying him
It was fueled by Saul’s thirst to keep his kingdom for him and his posterity
But even more, it was fueled by Satan’s attempt to get David and his line away from the kingdom
(since it was this line that would produce Christ)
And in our own day, it is amazing to see the enemy expend so much effort to
Twist the words of truth
Stir up strife
Watch and wait to do harm
In the public square it used to not be all that controversial to proclaim to society
that God made humanity in his own image as male and female
And man has entered into a state of sin that causes us not be able to trust our feelings but to repent of our waywardness and trust in Christ and obey him
But now the hate to say such a thing in public is to the point where destruction is their only ethic
They used to say you can think that just don’t say it outside your church building
Now we are seeing that go away as it is believed more and more to have that belief even in secret is to be an offense worthy of destruction
As David is alarm of the enemy in his own day to be zealous for his blood
So we should be alarm in our own day of the same thing
And now he will make his way back to the chorus, or refrain, of answering such fear in relying upon God’s word, but not without adding a little more color first:
“Yahweh” denoting God’s covenant name
Being in covenant with God denotes his nearness as he takes care of our sins
And denotes him being for us in light of our enemies being near
Psalm 56:8 “8 You have kept count of my tossings (wanderings); put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book?”
There is a very nearness to the relationship David had with God
Where David before stated his trust in God
Now he is stating God’s care for David
God is intimately aware of David’s sufferings
Psalm 56:9 “9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me.”
David says he is sure his enemies will not prevail because he is sure that God is for him.
How?
Because of what God has said to him in his Word
Samuel anointed David to be King after Saul died
And what that involved was David having victory over all his enemies
Saul’s son Jonathan knew it
15 and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.”
Even Saul knew it
20 Then Saul and all the people who were with him rallied and went into the battle. And behold, every Philistine’s sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion.
David knew God was for him because of the Word of God that promised to establish his throne
Another words, the security that David felt when faced with a fearful situation was to remember the covenant God had with him
God’s covenant name is what’s used in the refrain this time:
Psalm 56:10 “10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise,”
Psalm 56:11 “11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
God’s word is clear
Those who look upon the Son of David, Jesus Christ, can be forgiven of sins and brought near to Jesus
What that means is you are brought out of the world who follows Satan
And are brought near to God in Christ, he is your Lord
You are in covenant with God through Christ
And when fears arise because of the enemy you once were part of
You must remind yourself of the nearness of your God, and how he is for you in Christ
Which is the point of Paul at the end of Romans 8 as he concludes the implications of Jesus forgiving the sins of his people
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. 13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
Conclusion:
If you go to the wrong place when you are afraid you will have bad practice
There are many Christians who are very afraid right now and they are not relying upon God’s truth and so it leads them
To be quiet
Or to be loud and hateful in their fear
The hope of the future is not the Republican party or the secular conservative movement