Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?  Psalms 56:3‭-‬4 

The Philistines had captured David after he fled from King Saul was surrounded by these enemies.  In fact, in 2 Sam, we are told that David had to pretend he was mad as a strategy to stay alive.

Thus, in this context, David was afraid, for his enemies were many (v2). And it was not just their sheer numbers but also their persistency to attack him all day long.

Now, we know that it is one thing to be going through a short trial but quite another when it is prolonged and increasingly intense.  However, under these intense pressures, what was David’s response to calm his fear? 

He said to God, I will trust in You. 

He didn’t say he feels like trusting God but that he will. It was a deliberate choice he made.  And on what basis? In what God has revealed regarding himself and his promises in His word

Spurgeon once said that “if we cannot do all we would, we ought to throw ourselves upon the promise of God“.

Brothers and sisters, in this period of global pandemic,  fears prevail everywhere, especially for those who are most vulnerable and lacked medical care. 

We have seen this playing out in countries like India and Bangladesh and Nepal recently. Where hundreds and thousands of people died every day. And many are struggling in the hospitals to take in each breath.  

But what can we do when we are afraid?  Like David, we can choose to trust in God.  

A story was told of a  little child playing in a  room by himself, amused, but every ten minutes he ran to the foot of the stairs and called out, “Mother, are you there?” and his mother  answered, “Yes, I am here,” and then back he went to his play and fun—again,  until later it crossed his mind that his mother might have gone. 

So he ran to the  stairs again and called, “Mother, are you there?” “Yes I am,” she said, and as soon as he heard her voice  again, back he went once more to his play.

So it is for us, in times of our trouble and fears, we go to God in prayer and we say, “Father, are You there?  Is it Your  providence that has brought me this difficulty?” And as soon as you hear the voice which says, “It is I, and I am still here“, you are no longer afraid!  

But then notice David did not linger at this level for short term calm and relief.  For he went on to say in v4,  

In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?  

Now at this stage, David not only found a temporal calm but he has decided to lower his anchor of faith deeper, to prepare and protect himself for the next wave. And when he did that, he was able to say ” what can flesh or man do to me?”

I call that a kind of holy defiance against fear and this came about because he anchored his trust in God deeper.

Here is another story.   

One day people came to Martin Luther and  said, “Martin, it is  all over with the Reformation cause now, for the Emperor of Germany has sworn a solemn oath to help  the pope.” But what did Luther reply?

“I do not care a snap of my finger for both of them,” he said, “nor for all the devils in hell!  This is God’s work, and God’s work can stand against both emperors and popes!” 

Luther was a man  who trusted God intensely—and because of this he was not afraid. 

You know, it is a good thing that faith can bear us through a crisis —but it is even better  if  we have a faith that is anchored well to live above future fears and troubles! 

So bros and sis, let us not be content with the faith that provides only temporal relief in times of trouble but let us seek to anchor our faith deeper in God.   A faith that firmly knows and believes that he does all things good for those who are called according to his purpose.  

And to believe that we have a great High Priest in heaven, who never ceases to intercede on our behalf, and whose intercession is always heard and answered by His Father.  

So that even when circumstances seemed to turn against us, we may say with David, what can man do to me? Or in our case today, “What can Covid-19 virus do to me?”

Yes, make no mistake, we ought to do our part to be socially responsible and take necessary precaution as advised and out of love for those around us. However, we should also not allow fear to dwarf our faith. We need to constantly keep our focus on Christ instead of the waves so that we do not sink under them. And in the event that God willed that we become infected (not due to our presumption or carelessness), may we still be able to say, “what can covid do to me? For nothing shall separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

May God help us to trust Him when we are fearful so that we can trust and no longer fear.

Paul Phua