Finding comfort and resolve in God

By Rob Hurtgen

I do not like being afraid. I never have. I do not like scary movies, nor am I a fan of television series where what is supposed to be dead does not stay dead. Not that I have not tried to watch or enjoy the horror genre of movies and television. The anxiety of wondering what is going to jump out at me and when wears me out. Even though I know what I am watching is not real, I cannot stand that pit in my stomach from the fear that is manufactured by that type of entertainment. Many enjoy the entertainment value of being afraid; I am not one of them.

Regardless of one's tolerance for things that go bump in the night, Psalm 56 captures several commonly shared fears by men and women everywhere. The psalmist gives voice and resolve to his fears. Twice in Psalm 56 this phrase is found: "In God I trust; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

One common anxiety identified in this Psalm is the fear that no one knows me. That no one knows my hurt. No one knows the pain I have gone through. No one really understands what I am passionate about. No one knows me.

The psalmist, though, writes of God, who places his tears in a bottle. He counters his own fears of solitude with a reminder of God seeing and caring for the smallest detail. This poetic imagery of God capturing and bottling tears drives not the literal sense of packaging tears, but the poetic sense of one's tears not going unnoticed. Tears that do not go unnoticed means neither do our lives.

The psalmist also presses to hope that is beyond the temporal realm we know. His hope rests not in the environment nor circumstances, not in accomplishments nor accolades. The psalmist's vision is greater than what he sees. He looks beyond what causes his pain. He looks to the one who transcends all. Possessing a vision and understanding of God, who is greater than all we see or experience, fuels a confidence that presses back all fears. The answer to his rhetorical question of, "What can man do to me?" is a confidence boosting "zilch." Nothing boosts confidence like having nothing to lose.

There are many reasons to be afraid. Being unknown and uncared for is not a reason for fear.