The Goodness of God when we are Afraid

Mar 18, 2025

Psalm 56:3-4

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? (Psalm 56:3-4, ESV).

THE SKY IS FALLING! Doomsday predictions are nothing new, but in the 21st century, they seem to have taken on exaggerated proportions, from the end of democracy to catastrophic climate change. It doesn't matter where you are on the political spectrum, someone is telling you that you need to be afraid, all the time. The culture of fear in which we live mediates perceived threats as imminent and certain, leaving people feeling helpless, hopeless, and alone. Private fears become public fears, shared over the internet with little substantive evidence (Furedi). Isolation post-COVID led to increased individualism and self-centered orientation; instead of thinking about a community, people think about how whatever it is they fear will affect them, personally.

Fear often drives people to tribalism. We find others who share our fear and then together build a fortress of resources that substantiate that fear without ever leaving our computers. We define ourselves by what we fear, obstinately refusing to consider that we may have exaggerated the source of our fear or that there is something wrong with those who are not afraid of the same things we are. It's a cycle that divides, and with each iteration, the divisions deepen until they seem insurmountable.

It doesn't help that the voices in the media, both legacy and social, profit from fear. Fear sells. It sells products for protection (e.g. doomsday disaster kits, anti-aging creams, pills for pretty much anything), it sells protests (on both the left and the right), it sells news programming and podcasts, it sells legislation, and it sells publications in print and online. Between feeling fear and being inundated with the things fear sells, complicates our response to fear, sending us deeper into the morass.

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Those who trust in God need to remember that He is sovereign, even over the things we fear. Healthy fear leads us, not to tribal hives, but to the Lord, Himself. When David penned the words, "when I am afraid, I will trust in you" (Psalm 56:3), he was running from Saul, who wanted to kill him and into the path of the Philistines, who also wanted him dead (1 Samuel 21). Most of the time our fears are not of imminent death, but of what might happen in the future. If David could trust God and offer praise when facing death, we should be able to face fear while praising Him.

Paul, too, faced threats to his life on a regular basis, doing much of his writing from prison. Yet Paul did not linger in fear, but rather trusted God to protect him or take him home. He wrote to Timothy near the end of his life, "God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control" (2 Timothy 1:7 ESV). He went on to say,

Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. Follow the pattern of the sound words that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus (2 Timothy 8-13 ESV).

The sound words of the gospel are far greater than our fear. What is the worst thing people could do to us? Jesus conquered death, gave us peace better than anything the world offers (John 14), and equips us to be "the aroma of Christ" in a broken world, carrying the life of Jesus wherever we go (2 Corinthians 2; 4). Fear in the world must drive us to Jesus. Matthew Henry, 18th century scholar noted,

"There are some times which are, in a special manner, times of fear with God's people; in these times it is their duty and interest to trust in God as their God, and to know whom they have trusted. This will fix the heart and keep it in peace" (Henry).

A heart at peace is able to see through and beyond fear. A heart at peace can bring that peace into a contentious world, and if that world rejects peace, believers still stand strong, remembering Psalm 46:1-3:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Selah

Selah. Resting in the presence of the Lord, secure in His love, confident of His authority over all things, and trusting in His word. We do not need to live in fear; the Lord is a refuge for us.

Defaulting to Grace

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