Psalm 56

Psalm 56:1-13:
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?
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Flesh can only wound flesh. Man may kill you, but not take anything of eternal value from you. Why should you fear of losing that which you have already given to Christ? You have no life to lose because you have given it to Christ already.



If you are a Christian, that is to say, if you know Jesus Christ by being born again through faith in the gospel of Christ, then know this: God is for you. Though every evil human being on this planet be against you, God Almighty is for you. This means that He sees it all. He hears your every cry to Him. He knows every detail of the wicked enemy who works to destroy you.

And He is keeping track of it. Every detail. Every syllable. Every lying glance and every conspiring thought. He has, as the Psalmist says, kept count of your tossings and put your tears in a bottle.
In this present day, there are many, many abuse victims whom we just cannot help. I mean, we cannot go get them, whisk them away, set them up in a new house and provide for them in a safe, guarded place. We all wish we could. But we cannot. Sometimes perhaps, but most of the time, no. Some will get completely free. Some will escape but still have to be taunted by the wicked one. And some never escape. Some, as grievous as it is to say it, perish. They are killed.

But this is not the end. Oh no. God still has the evidence in His heavenly chamber. He has the records. And on that Great Day to come, He will bring it all out. Perfect, eternal justice will be effected then. What can man do to me? Kill my body, but that’s about it. Torment me for some years, but not forever. That Day is rushing at us at terrific speed. Christ is going to be revealed, and then the play days of the wicked will be over forever.

Victims and survivors – be encouraged. What can man do to you? Abusers, tremble, because you are going to find out what God can do to you.
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Psalm 56:3:
Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.

​Scripture states, “The righteous are bold as a lion” (Proverbs 28:1), but we must be righteous. “I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13), but I must ask him to strengthen me. We can answer the ongoing challenges of these days with sacrificial courage, but we must first say with David, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you” (Psalm 56:3).

​ The setting of this verse is the time when David was taken by the Philistines in Gath, which caused him to feign madness or pretend he was insane. Fear can affect a person in a terrible way and can cause a person to respond in ways that they otherwise would not. In Psalm 55:5, David reveals this about the circumstances he was experiencing. "Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me." (KJV) Fear brought David to the point that he cried out in verse 6, "And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest." (KJV) Have you ever experienced such fear at some point in your life?
We are living in a day when circumstances in life can paralyze a person with fear. How can we combat this? The key is found in today's text verse, "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee." Great importance is placed upon the ability to trust, or in other words, place "faith" in Jesus Christ. The Psalmist David was a believer, or someone who had placed his faith in God for the salvation of his eternal soul. Because God was his Savior, David could pray and call upon His Name, knowing that God had promised to hear the prayer of the righteous as Psalm 34:15 declares, "The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry." (KJV) -Joey Durham

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