Psalms 56:3-4 When I am afraid,
I will trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I will not be afraid.
What can mortal man do to me?

One thing that makes David’s Psalms so relatable is his honesty. He expresses aspirational things, certainly, but he doesn’t pretend he’s always at that level. Here he is making a statement of will, expressing a decision of his heart. He doesn’t say, “If I am afraid,” he says, “When I am afraid.” He was in plenty of situations where simple logic would dictate fear, because he was in mortal danger. I don’t think he took risks for the thrill of it, but plenty of people over the course of his life honestly and earnestly tried to kill him. That’s the background of this Psalm, as the introduction says explicitly. Here he acknowledges his very natural fear, but then he chooses trusting God over that fear. The devil tries to tell us we can’t do that, but he’s a liar as always. The past two years have taught us a major lesson in this area. The viral outbreak was real, but the fear generated by it, heavily encouraged by those with ulterior motives, was much worse. The absurdity of trumpeting, “Follow the science,” all the while ignoring the genuine science, would have been laughable if it hadn’t had such tragic effects. The thing that made people so vulnerable to the fear was a lack of perspective. Everyone born on this earth will die at some time, from any of an uncountable number of causes. This new virus just added one more potential cause to the list. What was and is angering is the way effective treatments were and are being put down or outright refused for strictly political reasons. Masks have been shown to be effectively meaningless in preventing the spread of this virus, besides having a very negative psychological effect on human interaction, yet they have been mandated in countless ways. And the “vaccines” that are still being so heavily promoted are now being shown not to limit the spread of the virus at all, besides having many potentially disastrous side effects. In America, the clearest evidence is that the best virus-related statistics in the whole nation are in Florida, which has had and continues to have the fewest restrictions. Fear has been the driving force behind all of this, twisted and manipulated by those with a thirst for power. We need to learn from David to choose trusting God over fear, submitting to God alone and so resisting the devil. (James 4:7)

I didn’t expect to jump up on my soapbox like that, but I am quite disgusted with the fear mongers. Hand sanitizers are logical, but the majority of the other junk isn’t. The suicide rate alone should have been sufficient reason to stop all the nonsense! I currently put on a mask going into stores, simply because I don’t want to offend needlessly, but have made no other changes to my lifestyle. We did cancel Sunday service for two weeks in the spring of last year, when there was very little real data available, and we started online streaming as an option, but that’s the total extent of the accommodations we made. We have been attacked for our position, but God has certainly been faithful. I know that in this world we will have trouble, just as Jesus said, (John 16:33) but I will choose to trust God whatever comes my way, knowing that my eternity is with Him.

Father, thank You for all that You are teaching those who have ears to hear. Help us share the the Gospel of life, of freedom in Christ, with all who will receive it, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!