In God I Trust

IN GOD I TRUST I WILL NOT BE AFRAID. WHAT CAN MAN DO TO ME? Psalm 56.11.

A morning newspaper reported, ‘A sixteen year old lad, bright in his studies, obtaining ‘As’ in all subjects, was found hanging in his university hostel by his friends’. The authorities suspect he committed suicide in desperation because he couldn’t get admission to pursue the course he wanted!

Often you and I succumb to our circumstances. Our experiences can be most frustrating, painful, distressing or even devastating. A good family friend, a good Christian leader who had been a help to many, suddenly died of a fatal brain hemorrhage. He left behind a wife and growing children, one of whom is severely incapacitated. Most people have complaints about discrimination and disadvantages in the schools, universities, government, jobs, business and in many other areas of life.

My son asked for advice and help to bail out a Christian friend who has no steady job and a sickly wife and 2 children because he has run into increasing debts he cannot clear or even keep up the interest payments. Another friend wept and asked for prayer because her husband suddenly lost his job and they have no other income.

You and I are ‘in distress all day long’ and ‘are afraid’, as the psalmist King David said in his psalm. What can we do? We must find answers and soon too! If not, desperation and discouragement will lead us into depression. It will make us drop out of the race and waste our lives. A few unstable ones may go mental or even commit suicide!

Dear believer, in this beautiful psalm, David tells us what we can and what we should do in times of distress and even calamity. Notice he describes his predicament ‘when the Philistines had seized him in Gath’.

David cried out to God who alone could help him. He tells how he confronted his impossible situation in life. He determined, ‘When I am afraid, I will trust in you’. He praised God for His Words of promise. In spite of the terrible present, he remembered God’s past goodness and deliverances. He vowed to God, “I will present my thank offerings to you, ‘for you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life’”.

Pray and practice with me: Dear Lord, when I am afraid, I will trust in You. In You whose word I praise I trust; I will not be afraid. Nothing can harm me without Your knowledge or permission. Amen.