Psalm 112 – Part iv
Surely he will never be shaken
The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance
He will not be afraid of evil tidings
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord
His heart is established
He will not be afraid
Until he sees his desire upon his enemies v 6-8
This is one of those biblical passages whose first impression is that it’s off-beam.
On the one hand, isn’t it a bit Hollywood hero-ish? One can imagine the long chords, building the emotion as the hero, courageous and unflinching, defeats all his foes and comes home rejoicing. And on the other hand, we dismiss it as an unattainable ideal, like heaven on earth.
The romantic and the realist slug it out.
But romantics and realists are all brought to their knees (aren’t we?) in repentance, in acknowledging our deepest spiritual needs before the love and true judgement of God.
The rich young ruler ‘went sorrowful away’ from Jesus, unwilling to relinquish his material wealth to obtain true spiritual wealth, the kingdom of heaven.
This Psalm is addressed to the righteous. And, though space forbids a long discussion, the staggering truth turns out to be that ‘righteousness’ is a gift on offer to the most unlikely recipients….us…sinners. But like all gifts, we have to let go of anything already in our hands to take hold of the gift, unwrap it, and explore all it can unleash in our lives.
The New Testament has some extraordinary statements; here’s one, speaking about Jesus on the cross, ‘He became sin that we might become the righteousness of God’.
To the extent that we believe this, we can start to enjoy Psalms 112 and others addressed to ‘the righteous’ and let the word of God reconfigure us.
The potential of evil tidings to flood us with fear is not an uncommon experience
1. Evil tidings
In some translations, it simply says ‘bad news’. Whether we are Christians or not we all face reversals, suffering, grief, loss, and pain due to bad news. The potential of evil tidings to flood us with fear is not an uncommon experience. We are shaken to the core, to the depths of our souls.
2. Unafraid
How can Ps 112 state so simply that we are not shaken and our hearts remain steadfast and unafraid? Years ago, I used to wake up at 3am, sit bolt upright in bed, my heart and mind racing out of control with fearful thoughts. I felt as if I was being unzipped. If you’ve ever suffered from panic attacks, you’ll recognise this description. All I could see was personal and financial ruin; all my molehills were mountains, and everything became grossly exaggerated. In that period of time, I found Ps112…and 1 Sam 30 v6 ‘Now David was greatly distressed…but David strengthened himself in God’ The bible doesn’t tell us how David strengthened himself in God…and I think I know why. There is no one way; it’s not a method or a technique. In my distress, I learnt to strengthen myself in God by reminding myself of the essential truths of the gospel, of what Christ achieved for us all on the cross, his resurrection, and His ascension…and therefore me. I preached some good sermons (!) - to myself! As I did so, and this happened on many occasions, I worked myself away from panic and towards God’s loving purpose to ‘establish my heart’.
3. Until
I may come back to the final sentence ‘his desire on his enemies’ in the next post, but for now, sometimes we need to realise our enemy is the fear itself…and whatever voice is feeding those fears. What I will say here is that mountains can be turned back into molehills. The true circumstances that evoked such fear have not gone on holiday but have shrunk back to their true size and now your soul, rather than being frozen in fear, is being thawed out; he warmth of faith is returning…so that you can take whatever appropriate action is needed and not remain paralysed by fear.
Final note. We are not called to be romantics or realists, but have entered a new kingdom whose resources of faith, love and courage are inexhaustible…our faith is not that we have to be unflinching heroes or confined to realism but that in us the faith of Christ is at play and at work in times of trouble, anxiety, distress and ‘evil tidings’.