The Psalms give us models for particular steps to conquer fear.  Practical Steps to Conquer Fear. It sounds simple, right? Well, fear is not a simple thing that without a miracle, one just “gets over”. Still, in Psalm 27 we find three things we can do about fear. Check these out, ask God to help you put them into practice and see what happens.

The Psalms are replete with emotion. Yes, emotion. They are cries from the heart, questions from the heart, questions that keep us up at night. Our natural curiosity about God and his world. Questions that we ask during the long dark night of the soul. Questions that don’t always have a neat succinct and tidy answer.

Our hearts are the center of our emotions and the Psalms are the cries from our hearts, their cries of lament, cries of confidence, cries of thanks and cries of praise. 

Now, let’s be honest. In our world, we primarily focus on what we know to be true and we should, rightly so. We focus on our minds, the center of our intellects. And so we process things accordingly. If A, B, C is true, then X, Y, Z is. And, I am supposed to be rational, not concerned with how I feel. After all, emotions can’t be trusted, right?

But in the day in, day out reality of the Christian life, things don’t always happen this way. Things aren’t that cut and dry, are they?

I once heard a very well known pastor say he’d never cried in his entire adult life. If I told you his name you’d immediately know him. Well, when I heard him say he’d never cried, I about got up and left the building and I suspect that Jesus nearly did, too. The first thing that came to mind was that he was lying, but it sure seemed that he was being honest. The second thing that came across my mind after I’d decided to stay was, “this man may be a good teacher, but I’d never want him to be my pastor. Teacher, maybe, but not pastor.” If he’d never cried what good would he be when I cried?

But the Psalmist isn’t like that man. David, and the other Psalmists understood that things aren’t that cut and dry. And the circumstances of life, because we live in a fallen world, are filled with thorns and thistles. What we know in our minds, doesn’t always flow down to our hearts. And then we question, we question God, and we question his plan. And our questions have great potential to lead us into fear and into anxiety and confusion. And even into despair. Christians very much experience these things. 

But questioning is not necessarily a bad thing though. We’re actually in good company with David and the other Psalmists. The questions that they struggled through are often the same questions that we struggle through.

Why do the nations rage? What is man? When will I be comforted? People in today’s world are asking lots of questions. Now, if you don’t hear them, maybe they’re not asking them out loud or maybe they’re not asking them directly to you. But nevertheless, they are asking questions. And often people suffer through these questions silently.

No Christian should suffer alone through questions about God and his world. God has been gracious to us to give us one another, the body of Christ. And so we walk through these questions together as the people of God. As well, non-Christians should be able to ask honest questions about God and his world. They should be able to ask free from judgment and free from condemnation on our parts. God has commissioned us as his people to be able to give honest answers, truthful answers, graciously and compassionately. 

And so we come to today’s question in Psalm 27, whom shall I fear? Depending on how we answer this question, it says a great deal about our understanding of God and the Christian life. And what I want us to see is how David walks us through the Christian’s response to fear or very practically, you can say three things that Christians can do in the face of fear. 

We believe, we pray, and we wait.

First, we believe. Look at Psalm 27:1-6. 

And note here who is talking to whom. 

“The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war rise against me yet I will be confident. One thing I have I asked of the Lord that will I seek after, that I might dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple for he will hide me in his shelter in the day of comfort and the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord.”

David begins this Psalm by teaching us what we are to believe concerning fear. Now, if Christians are nothing else, at least we are people who believe. We believe what God tells us in his Word. Now we might not always do that perfectly. I often find that my believing is quite weak. And I find myself agreeing with the father of the boy with an unclean spirit when he cries out to Jesus. “I believe help my unbelief.” 

But unbelief is detrimental to the Christian who is facing fear. I think about in Hebrews chapter three, when the people of God are trying to enter into the promise land and they do not enter. And the writer tells us very clearly why in verses 12 and 19. Hebrews 3:12, 19.

“Take care, brothers. Lest there be in any of you, an evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God…So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.” 

Unbelief is detrimental to the people of God. It keeps them from God’s rest. The first six verses of Psalm 27 are David telling himself what he believes, what he knows to be true. He is basically talking to himself, but in a good way. He’s telling himself what God has already told him in his Word. Martin Luther said we must preach to ourselves, lest we forget. And that is exactly what David is doing here.

Now we don’t really know the specifics or the context of this Psalm. We don’t know exactly what David was going through or dealing with so that he would write this Psalm. Some have speculated that he wrote this when he was on the run from Saul in I Samuel 22. And that’s possible. But in reality, David always found himself in some type of situation or circumstance that would lead him into fear. He had many different opportunities for that to take place. Because fear is a tricky thing, it hits different people in different ways. And so what are you fearful of today?

Is it snakes or spiders or critters? Maybe it’s a dangerous situation walking downtown at night, or maybe it’s just you’re walking into your house alone at night. Maybe that makes you fearful. Maybe it’s the thought of going to war. Our nation or maybe yourself or someone you love, maybe a child or a grandchild that will go to war, or maybe it’s terrorism in general.

You’re fearful of what’s happening in our nation today. Is it losing your job or how you will provide for your family if you were to lose your job. Maybe that keeps you up at night. Or maybe it’s your family. Maybe it’s your children. You want to protect them from the world so you wrap them up in a bubble to care for them. Maybe it’s fear of rejection. Maybe you just want to be liked by others and you’re fearful that people won’t like you. Maybe it’s COVID. Maybe you’re fearful of getting the vaccine or you’re fearful of not getting the vaccine or a sickness like cancer, or maybe you’re even fearful of death. 

Fear hits different people in different ways. And often fear is irrelevant until it strikes close at home. 

As we read through the first part of this Psalm, David is telling us he has no reason to fear because of what he believes. And this we believe as well. The Lord is light in the midst of our darkness. The Lord will rescue his people from evildoers. The Lord is our security, our stronghold, our shelter.

The Lord will cause our enemies to stumble and fall. The Lord is our confidence, our courage. This we believe as God’s people. Friends, we have nothing to fear when we believe God’s promises. But we must know God’s promises to believe God’s promises. 

Aside from believing, the second thing we see here is that we pray when we are afraid. We pray what we believe. And there’s a transition here in verse seven beginning where David begins to teach us how we are to pray in the face of fear. Up to this point, David has been talking to himself but now he begins to talk to the Lord in verse seven.

Look at Psalm 27:7-12. 

“Hear, Oh lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face. My heart says to you your face Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. Oh, you who have been my help cast me not off forsake me not, oh God of my salvation. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way Oh Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries for false witnesses have risen against me and they breathe out violence.” 

Each one of these requests fall under one main request and I call it the umbrella request. And that request is David asking for God’s presence. 

Please listen to me. Please answer me. Do not hide from me. Do not turn away from me. Do not reject me. Do not leave me or abandon me. Walk with me so that I will not be alone or afraid. 

The very near presence of the living God is the most comforting and the most peaceful feeling a person can have. God is love, and perfect love casts out fear. It’s the most comforting and most peaceful feeling a person can have. Yes, feeling because our heads can tell us that the Lord is with us. But even though we know it and we believe it, we still might feel alone. We still might feel fearful or anxious or worried.

And during these times, especially during these times, we pray for the Lord to be very near in our struggles. 

C.S. Lewis, in “The Horse and His Boy”, writes about the boy Shasta who finds out that he’s going to be sold into slavery. And so he decides to escape after meeting a talking horse who was stolen from Narnia. And so in the story he tells of all the adventures and the struggles that they encounter as they journey together from oppression to freedom in Narnia. Now, at one point, Shasta is walking through a very dark and very cold and dense forest.

There’s dense, fog all around. He’s tired. He’s been crying. He’s been feeling sorry for himself. And he discovers as he’s walking someone or some thing is walking beside him very quietly. He has the impression that it’s something very large because the breathing is very deep and slow. He can almost feel the breath. After a while, Shasta can’t take it anymore. And so he asks in a whisper, “who are you?” And the thing says back to him, “one who has waited long for you to speak.”

Once more, he feels the warm breath of the thing on his hand and his face. And it says to him, “This is not the breath of a ghost. Tell me your sorrows?” As Shasta begins to share all of his sorrows, the thing begins to explain to Shasta, he had walked with him the whole journey through every struggle, through every fear. 

So Lewis writes, “Shasta was no longer afraid that the voice belonged to something that would eat him, nor that it was the voice of a ghost, but a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too. And the mist was turning from black to gray and from gray to white. And the whiteness became a shining whiteness. Somewhere ahead he could hear birds singing. He knew the night was over at last. He turned and he saw walking beside him a lion, Aslan (the Christ figure in Lewis’ work). And it was from the lion that the light came.”

The Lord walks with us in our fears and he waits long for us to speak to him of our sorrows. And when we do that, his light will come eventually. 

So so not only do we believe and pray, but finally, we wait. 

We believe, we pray and we wait. Psalm 27:13-14:

“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong, let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord.” 

David teaches us to wait on the Lord. The Christian that waits on the Lord will be the strongest most courageous Christian. If you’re not very good at waiting, you probably struggle in the Christian life too, because one of the fruits of the spirit is patience.

And the Lord needs to teach us that often. Very much of the Christian life is believing what God says, praying for God to work and then waiting to see what God does. Sometimes waiting is a very hard thing, but this is not a passive indifference or whatever happens, happens type of waiting. It’s an active, seeking, confident and trusting type of waiting. 

You see throughout the Bible, fear is often associated with darkness. And in the darkness we cannot see, but the Lord is our light. And in him, there is no darkness at all. When we dwell in the presence of the Lord, look upon or gaze upon his beauty, seek his face, our darkness, our fears began to fade.

So how do we wait like that? Well, Jesus tells us in John 14. 

Jesus says, “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” 

When we turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full into his wonderful face, the things of the world will grow strangely dim in light of his glory and grace. 

Jesus also says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all who labor and are heavy Laden. And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me from gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” 

We go to Jesus. 

We believe, we pray, and we wait and we find courage and strength to face our fears. 

Questions: What are you most afraid of, right now? What do you believe about that fear? Be honest and specific. Is what you believe consistent with what God has promised? Have you spoken with others about this fear? Have you spoken with God about it? Are you willingly waiting on God? While you wait, will you believe and continue to pray? What are some other practical things you believe you can do while you wait on the Lord?