This afternoon we're going to be looking at the 56th Psalm, but as I've been doing, we're going to be examining this psalm of David that was written during the time, the exact time and events of David's life that we're covering in the book of Samuel. The title of the 56th psalm tells us that David wrote the psalm when the Philistines seized him in Gath. This is a reference to David's flight from Gath in 1 Samuel 21 verses 10 to 15. That's what we'll look at, 1 Samuel 21. verses 10 to 15. He's running away from King Saul. David hastily seeks refuge in Gath, which is his enemy's territory. The king of Gath, Achish, David fears the king and so to escape he fakes insanity. And that incident, whether again for right or wrong, showed us that David felt safer on enemy ground than he did in Israel under the reign of the mad king Saul. For Saul had become just like the kings of the nations, if you remember that point. Let's remind ourselves of the events by reading 1 Samuel 21, verses 10 to 15. As I read it, I want you to notice David's physical and emotional state. David is alone. David is desperate. David is afraid. David is alone, desperate, and afraid. And I think these are all emotions that we can identify with at one time in our lives or another. It is because David is this way that he makes this reckless journey into Gath to begin with. 1 Samuel 21, beginning in verse 10. And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, Is not this David the king of the land? Did they not sing to one another of him in dances? Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands. And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before him and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let the spittle run down his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, Behold, you see this man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? Do I lack madmen that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?" It's interesting in and of itself to consider in David's life how desperation and suffering became the push for David to write a song. In addition to Psalm 56, he also composed Psalm 34 under the duress of this very same incident. Both Psalms mention this event in their titles, Psalm 34 and Psalm 56. Commentators generally agree that David was not trusting God at this time of his life when he wandered into and out of Gath so quickly. However, Psalm 34 and Psalm 56 indicate that he did ultimately trust God in the midst of his trial. Now we did Psalm 34 back in March of 2020. Today we're going to look at and study Psalm 56. So turn to the 56th Psalm and let us pray. Heavenly Father, we recognize our desperation and our need for you, Lord, in order to understand this word, in order to receive this word into our hearts, in order to understand it in our minds, and in order to apply it to our lives. Lord, we're hopeless in and of ourselves to do these things, but by your Spirit, Lord, we can have hope, not only to understand, but to apply this to our circumstances and our situations, which we so easily become distracted by. So please help us, Lord, bring this psalm to mind when we face our next trial or if we're in the midst of a trial now. Help us to apply this word that we would not be afraid, but that we would trust in you. Build our trust today, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. First, a word in general about Psalm 56 from the title. First of all, this is in the second book of the Psalter. The Psalter contains five books. Psalms 42 to 72 are the second book of the Psalter. The title of the psalm, To the Choir Master, According to the Dove of Far-off Terabiths, Amiktam of David, When the Philistines Seized Him in Gath. to the choir master tells us that this is a song, like modern songs, including the one we just sang. It contains two verses, each followed by a chorus, and then a closing bridge. It's a song that is sung according to the tune of the dove of far-off Terebinth. We know nothing of that tune. It's an ancient tune. It does refer to the dove, however, which hearkens back to the 55th Psalm in verse 6, where David cries, Oh, that I had the wings like a dove, I would fly away and be at rest. Yes, I would wander far away, I would lodge in the wilderness. Now, David does not have wings like a dove, but we do find him fluttering around in a way, wandering around as he seeks to escape the pursuit of Saul. I do find value in reading the Psalms in order. I think whoever arranged the Psalms put them in order for a reason, and I think that's why here we see a connection between the 55th and the title of the 56th Psalm. Further, the title tells us that it is a miktam of David. What is that? Well, honestly, we don't know fully what that is. The word appears in the superscription of six psalms, and some say it means golden, or important, or hidden, or inscription. The 56th Psalm is also the first in the Psalter to actually contain a repeated chorus, like many of our modern songs. Psalm 56 is an individual lament. You'll notice that it's written in the first person. The title of this sermon is In God I Trust. However, like all of the Psalms, remember, it was written to be sung corporately, corporately. It's written to the choir master. It's meant to lead the worshipers to express themselves individually to God, but part of a corporate worship, right? Corporate worship, when we sing together, we're singing as a body, but we are each individuals, right? Some of us are just kind of edging out, looking around while we sing. Others are actually engaging the words. Others, who knows what's going on in your mind, but were each individual's as we sing corporately together. So what the psalm does is it puts the right words into the mouths of the individuals who are singing corporately. This is one of the reasons I I encourage the brethren who are leading us to sing the Psalms, especially when we are preaching a Psalm. It may feel awkward to do so. There's no catchy hymn. There's no repetitive chorus. It's not easy to remember. But we know 100%, brethren, that we are singing not only God's Word, but we are properly expressing our words in a God-pleasing fashion. We're singing God's word and he's pleased. Further, songs are supposed to invoke emotion, right? Human writers write music today, whether it be secular music or Christian music, they write it to invoke emotion. We see this in Christian songs, for example, where we ask Jesus to feel the warmth of his embrace, or how heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss. These are actual songs. What does it mean, for example, when we sing to God that we want to lay back against you and feel your heartbeat? How do we make sense of that? But they do invoke emotion. In Psalms, God's Word shows us how to properly express emotions. Now, I'm not suggesting and saying this that solid hymns and modern songs and some choruses are wrong to sing. I think that's part of the command for the church to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. But what I'm saying is that even the grandest of hymns as wonderful and beautiful and emotional as they are, are not inspired by God as the Psalms are. So we ought not neglect the singing of Psalms. The 56th Psalm puts God's words into our mouths as we sing, and it creates a faith-filled song of worship amid our daily troubles. As such, the psalm, although it was written under particular circumstances in David's life, we'll never know what it's like to flee the gath, for example. But the words of the psalm are general. And that's intentional, so that we all can apply them to ourselves. We all can identify with these words. What individual has not experienced the very same emotion as David? when he wrote this song. Who has never felt alone, or desperate, or even in terror at times? Like David, we all find ourselves in a troubled world filled with trials. We are all challenged at times in our lives to trust God, and we are all called to thank God in the midst of our trials for delivering us from our fears. Though David wrote this in the wake of fleeing from Gath, the trial, the terror, the trust, and the thanksgiving are something that we all experience in our day-to-day lives. Now you don't have an outline today, but it's going to be very easy to follow. If you're taking notes, it's going to be all T's. It's all T's today, three points, all with the letter T. So I, pity the fool, cannot remember this outline. The first point. is the two verses of the psalm, which is verses one and two and five to seven, which is from trouble to terror, from trouble to terror, that's the first point. Verses one to two and five to seven. Secondly, we'll consider the choruses in verses three and four, and eight to 11 under the heading of from terror to trust. So from trouble to terror, then from terror to trust. And thirdly, we'll consider the bridge at the end of the Psalm in verses 12 and 13, which lead us from trust to thanksgiving. Again, all T's, trouble to terror, terror to trust, trust to thanksgiving. Let's begin by looking at the trouble. in verses one and two, Psalm 56 verses one and two. Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me. All day long an attacker oppresses me. My enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. Notice the repetition of the words trample. Your version might say pursue. the word attack, and all day long. It creates this idea of an overwhelming onslaught. David is crying out to God here. It's a highly emotional response to his trouble in verses one and two. If you look in verses five to seven, the song's second verse, there is a more reasoned, rational description of the specific nature of the attack that he is experiencing. Look at verses five and six, Psalm 56. All day long they injure my cause and their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps as they have waited for my life. These enemies are described as predatory lurkers who hound and press their prey. They conspire, they watch your steps, They look for an opportunity to accuse you, and they stir up strife. While the psalm refers to physical enemies, we too might at times experience the same thing, a wicked plot made by human hands against us. It also applies spiritually to our lives. All of us, if you're in Christ today, you have a spiritual adversary, the devil. And we understand that Satan torments. He's our adversary. He seeks to devour us. He seeks to trample and attack us. In 1 Peter 5, 8, it says, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. See, that's his 24-7 occupation. He seeks to manipulate circumstances in your life, to overwhelm you, to create fear, to create anxiety, to bring you ultimately to despair. Even when the attack is coming from physical hands that we could see with our eyes from other people, we're also told in the scripture that our struggle, our battle, is not against flesh and blood, right, but against principalities and powers that are behind the circumstances that it would even use a physical enemy. Troubles, whether they are worldly troubles or otherworldly troubles, lead to terror. And in verse three, David confesses this fear. He says, when I am afraid. Now there's so much in this world that we can fear, right? There is a Chapman University survey that every year that traces trends that people in our country fear most. And among the top 10 fears of 2023 last year, fears that are held by 50% to 60% of those surveyed included economic or financial collapse, not having enough money for the future, war or nuclear attack on the United States, terror attacks from poisoned water to cyber attacks, and loved ones becoming seriously ill or dying. I think we can all identify with those, one of those at least. The number one cause of fear, ironically, in this season that we're in, the corruption of our government. And if you've been keeping abreast of the political climate leading to November's election, I think you can understand that fear. It's obvious. The troubles of our world have led many to terror, and God's people are not exempt. In verse 7, the psalmist cries out with a desperate, imprecatory prayer for God to judge his enemies. Look at verse 7. For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God." And I think we all can understand that, getting to that place where you have this sense of justice and we're tired of all the rhetoric and we see the nonsense that goes on in the name of politics who say they care for the weak and the marginalized while they kill babies in their parking lot. The sins of our society are filling our cups to the brim. Sometimes we wish that God would just end it. God, how long are you gonna let the wicked prosper? When will you cast them down in your wrath? How we long for the day that we heard about last week, when the Lord returns and there's no more pain and no more tears and no more terror, no more sin. The trouble that causes terror in our times is very real. And not just troubles in the world, but personal trials. Have I saved enough money to sustain my retirement? What happens if I lose my job? Can I afford to continue living in this state? Is my salary enough to pay my mortgage? Will my aging parents or my spouse be struck with Alzheimer's? What kind of world will my children inherit? Or for a young person, what kind of world am I going into? Is there a chance that I might be drafted to fight in a war? Are we headed for a recession or a depression or a World War III? The troubles of our world and our personal struggles are not unique. Every age has had them. Every age has lived in a very real world where there are troubles that produce terror, and they take their emotional toll on us, as they do David. In David's case, his fears are causing him to recklessly wander. But look at what he says in verse eight. You have kept count of my wandering. The ESV translates that as tossings, but it is best and really only translated as wandering. We remember the story in Samuel from last time how David wandered from Nob to Gath to Adullam to Moab and back and forth from east to west, back and forth, into and out of the nation, right? He was wandering, driven by his fears. Well, those fears, as they often do, led to tears. Tears of anxiety, tears of despair, tears of loneliness. But that Hebrew word for wandering, you would miss this in English. The Hebrew word for wandering is nadi. And nadi triggers the idea in the Hebrew, of the Hebrew homophone, Node, nadi node, what's node? Node is a flask, or a bottle, or a canteen, or a water skin. So it creates this beautiful poetic imagery, far better than feeling the warmth of his embrace. He says in verse eight, you have kept count of my wandering, put my tears in your bottle. What a beautiful picture of affection that is, isn't it? The psalmist knows that God is keeping a record of his every tear until the day when there are no more tears. He continues in verse eight and nine. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. So there's two things here that he finds solace in, in the midst of his trials, two things. First of all, it's that God understands the fact that he's, God understands his fears, his terror, his tears, he's keeping count of them. And then secondly, that God will deliver him from those fears. And he takes solace and comfort in these two things. One of them is obvious, right? We all would take comfort in the idea of God delivering us, right? It's obvious. We can be, we would take comfort, God will deliver us from our enemies. But less obvious, And unlike all the other false gods, unlike any god in any religion, our God understands us. He identifies with our sufferings. And brethren, we can derive comfort as well in these two same things in Jesus and in the Gospel. First, our enemies are defeated, right? When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, God vanquished our greatest enemies, sin and death. And listen, your financial woes, as difficult as they may be, are nothing compared to the enemies of sin and death that have been vanquished. So you can be comforted that you don't need to fear the same thing the world fears. That when you die, you know where you're going because of Christ and his death and his resurrection and you trusting in that. You need not fear what the world fears. But secondly, you can also take comfort in that God understands your suffering now in this world. We know this also because of Christ. He was in all ways tried like us, tempted like us. God demonstrated his love by condescending in the incarnation. Christ took on flesh, dwelled with us. He became Emmanuel, God with us. He weeps with those who weep. And though David didn't know Jesus, David had a strong sense of God's compassion, of God knowing his pain. And he comforts himself in this knowledge. God knows his pain. He counts his tears and saves them in his bottle. What a beautiful image that is. Yahweh is unique in many ways. Our God, Yahweh. But this makes him so radically different than any god in any other religion. It's wonderful, brethren, just to know this, that your god is sovereign and powerful, yes, amen, but at the same time he counts your tears in a bottle and remembers them in his book. You see these two attributes of God here, it's beautiful, power and compassion. Very rarely exist in human beings, power and compassion. Once you get power, you often lose compassion. And truly compassionate people very rarely rise to power. But God is all powerful and he is genuinely compassionate and there's no disconnect between these two attributes. In fact, when God reveals himself to Moses, and he reveals himself as Yahweh in Exodus 33, he says, he tells Moses, I'll cause my goodness to pass in front of you. I will proclaim my name, Yahweh, in your presence. Then he says this, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And we often look at that and say, amen, God is sovereign. but also it shows his compassionate nature, doesn't it? We find both sovereign power and compassion side by side here in the very name of God. He has compassion and the resolve to carry out that compassion on the objects of his mercy. This is all over the scripture. Isaiah 54 verse 10, God says, though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken, nor my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you. In Psalm 51, when David was confessing his sin, he experienced, he knew he would be forgiven based on the compassion of God. He says, oh, have mercy on me, oh God, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion, blot out my transgression. And in the New Testament, in 2 Corinthians 1, it calls God the father of compassion. It was compassion that was the motivation for Jesus to heal the sick and feed the hungry. It was compassion that drove him to exercise his sovereign power to multiply loaves and fish to feed thousands. It was compassion that drove the power, the motivation of the power. A God who was sovereign and powerful but distant incapable of being touched by our feelings. He's transcendent. He's far away. He will attract followers, but it will be out of fear or tradition. That's why many people follow God, just out of fear or out of tradition. But a God who is on the other side, you have a God who is only compassionate. If your God is only compassionate and he's incapable of carrying out any powerful action, he will attract people as well. But he'll attract the kind that are looking for that grandfatherly Santa Claus idol. But brethren, we serve a mighty God, a God who has compassion on his people. and who understands our terror, and not only understands it, but defeats it. The psalmist knows this, and he sings this in the chorus. Now we will move from terror to trust as we look at the chorus, verse 3. Look at verses 3 and 4. When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust. I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?" Notice, David does not deny his fear. He says, when I am afraid in verse three. He's not like the name it and claim it folks who say, oh, don't confess that brother. Don't confess being fearful. You're gonna make it happen. He acknowledges, he says he's afraid, I am afraid. But something changes that fear. Something moves him from being afraid to, as we're gonna see in a moment, not being afraid, or actually in verse four, not being afraid. How does he say in verse three, I am afraid, and in verse four, I shall not be afraid. What changes when I am afraid, what? I put my trust in you. This trust is an act of his will. Kidner says it defies his emotional state. In other words, he is afraid, but he's willfully putting his trust in God even when he's terrified. Verse four, in God whose word I praise, in God I trust. His trust is where? Placed where? in the person of God. And here, by the way, he uses the general term for God, Elohim. Elohim is the most common word for God in the second book of Psalms. You very rarely see Yahweh, but occasionally you do, as we'll see. But he trusts in God. He trusts in Elohim. But not just any God, not just any Elohim, but his trust has a basis to it. His trust has a content. And what does he say? Very important. In God, verse 4, whose word I praise. In God, whose word I praise. And he says in verse 10, he repeats the same chorus, but this time he adds the name of God, Yahweh, in verse 10. Look at verse 10. In God, whose word I praise, in Yahweh, and if your version says the Lord, that's Yahweh, in Yahweh, whose word I praise. Now this is an important repetition. Because many people, if you go out in the world, of course I trust God. I trust God. I mean, our U.S. currency says it, right? Right on the back of your dollar bill. In God we trust. But what God is this? We are hearing out of the mouths of politicians all about some God. But what God is that? You see, you could say, I trust in God. I pray, I trust in God. But who is your God? In what God are you trusting? And on what basis are you trusting? Because apart from his word, it's impossible to trust God. Because if you don't know him, if you don't know what he's promised, how are you going to trust anything, right? You have to know someone to trust them. So David adding here, whose word I praise, And then the addition of the name of God in verse 10 clarifies this is not just any Elohim. This is Yahweh who gave me his word. And brothers and sisters, isn't it wonderful that God has given us his word? He's made himself, his will, his promises known to us, that we have a God breathed word that is perfect and truth and can be trusted. From little children we learn, right? Jesus loves me, this I know. How? Because I feel it? Because I feel the warmth of his embrace? No, Jesus loves me, this I know, because the Bible tells me so. See, without the scripture, the only basis to trust God would be some nebulous feeling or some baseless tradition. I was born, I was raised this way, I was born this way, my parents were this way, and I'm just following what they're doing. is a baseless tradition or nebulous feeling. I feel God. But God's word is the source of our confidence. The grass withers, the flowers fade, wandering emotions fade, but God's word endures forever. Based on his word, you can lay all of your trust in God and be confident. he says in verse 4, I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? What can flesh do to me? Right? Think about it. What can mortal flesh do to me? Well, quite frankly, mortal flesh can cause a lot of damage, can't it? Human beings can hurt people. Human beings can slander, or oppress, or attack, or trample, or use, or pursue, or injure, or stalk, or even murder. Flesh can cause a lot of damage. But that's not the answer that David is anticipating here in the Psalm, is it? What can flesh do to me? The implied answer is nothing. Nothing. If God is for me, that is, And he says that at the end of verse nine. Look at in the second chorus, the end of verse nine, 9b through 11. This I know that God is for me. In God whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? David's very real enemies who are oppressing him all day long, and they truly are. Verses 1 and 2 is not hyperbole. They're oppressing him. He's sensing it all day long, the oppression of the enemy. Now here in verse 4 and in verse 11 are mere man, mere flesh. How do you get there? Trust in God. Trust makes all the difference. David was alone, he was desperate, he was afraid. That's what landed him in Gath in the first place. And when he hears the Philistines start to talk about him, they recognize him, and they say, wait a minute, isn't that guy the one who they sang about? Saul is struck down as thousands, and David is tens of thousands. Well, who are those tens of thousands? They're the Philistines' family members and friends who David killed. David was afraid, and he had the right to be afraid in that situation, didn't he? Fear is a normal, expected reaction. But by the time he writes these words in this Psalm, by faith, he knew that God was for him. And if God is for him, as the Apostle Paul tells us later on in Romans chapter 8, who can be against me, right? If God is for me, who can be against me? And that's why David could sing these words, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid, what can man do to me? Even while man was doing great evil to him, he could still sing those words. Despite the zealous oppressor's relentless pursuit, David found solace knowing that God took careful account of his sufferings and would soon turn away his enemies. Though they were causing him great temporal damage, David could ultimately trust Yahweh, his God. Psalms like this minister to us. I think even from that you can make application to things you're going through in your life now. But they minister to us because, first of all, they bear witness to the vicious reality of trials in this world. This is a fallen world we're in. We can't be in denial of reality. There's no denial of the reality of pain and suffering in this psalm. However, it also celebrates the fact that God is bigger than our circumstances and our suffering. He is one in whom we can trust, and if God is for us, who can be against us? Trusting in God, we not only find a refuge from our storms in a future promise of eternal life, But we also find confidence today, here and now, to walk before the Lord. David, for David in this situation, his refuge was coming up right around the corner. We read about it last time. From Gath, his next stop was gonna be the cave of Adullam. And we're gonna look at a couple of Psalms that David wrote in the cave of Adullam. Next time, 52 and 142, I believe we're gonna look at next time. In the cave, while David was in that cave, is when he was joined by 400 men and his family. So the cave of Adullam is where things started to turn around into David's favor, as we're gonna see. But don't miss the fact that David's trust was built in the moment of fear. The moment of fear was required to build his trust. And the same is true of us, brethren. This is so incredibly practical. It's difficult to receive, but it holds the key to our conquering our fears. When you're going through a trial, your reaction, your first reaction, all of our first reaction is going to be, how can I get myself out of this? Let me get myself out of this trouble, this trial that I'm experiencing. And we miss the fact that there is something more precious in a relationship with God in the midst of the trial, in the midst of the suffering. If our life was free of suffering and free of tears, we would never know a God who keeps our tears in His flask. There's a beauty that can only be discovered when we understand that God is our refuge. He considers my tears. And that is something that you will never experience apart from pain. Finally then, third point, let's consider the bridge. I know sometimes we don't like singing the bridge, right? It's not our favorite part of any song. But it's God's word here. This bridge is God's word, verses 12 and 13. I must perform my vows to you, O God. I will render thank offerings to you, for you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life." So now that David trusts, has some breathing room, And he can step back from his situation and say, I'm going to offer a praise offering, a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God who delivered my soul from death. This is a vow that is bred in confidence. It comes from trust. He's trusting that God will deliver him. And so coming at birth out of this trust comes thanksgiving. From trust to thanksgiving, the third and final point. You say, how do I know if I'm trusting God? How can I know if my confidence level in God is right? How confident am I that God has delivered my soul from death? How confident am I that he will deliver me from my present struggle? How confident? Do I trust God? Do you trust God? How can you know? Well, how confident are you in the midst of trials, in the midst of terror, that He will deliver you. I'll tell you how confident you are. Are you ready in the midst of the turmoil to thank Him? Can you thank God now even amid turmoil? That's how much you trust Him. You can say, yeah, I believe that he delivered my soul from death, that's what the cross is for, amen, I believe the gospel, I believe that Jesus died for my sins, I believe he saved me from death and hell, and I'm confident in eternal life, amen, good. But brethren, consider, if he's done all the heavy lifting necessary to deliver your soul from death, can you not trust him for lesser things? David here trusts God amid loneliness, desperation, and fear. What trouble are you presently experiencing? What turmoil? What is terrorizing you? What is keeping you from fully trusting in His grace this hour? Is not He who died on the cross and rose from the dead also able to handle what troubles you now? And will you not thank Him in faith? Give Him the praise that is due His name? You know, sometimes we get so into ourselves and our problems, and we don't feel like praising God. We say, ah, you know, I don't feel like going to church today. My worship's gonna be hypocritical if I go to church today. Well, that reveals how little you trust God. Look at David here in the midst of all that he's going through. He says, I must perform my vows to you, O God. I will render thank offerings to you. It's an act of his will. If you're truly trusting God amid troubles, wild horses could not keep you away from thanking him. You could not be able to wait to offer thanks to him along with the saints of God. You see, too many times we become so consumed with our troubles that we lose sight of God. And we give our thoughts over to, what if this? What if that? How can I fix this situation? How can I fix that situation? When what? We ought to be thanking Him. And brethren, please understand, I'm not suggesting that your troubles are not genuine. I know they are. I know that your terror is real. I know that the trials that we face can so easily derail our faith at times, or at least cause our minds to wander. The psalmist is not denying trials, suffering, it's real. but he knows a God who will remember every last one of them and deliver him from everyone. So if you want to gauge, get back to that question, if you want to gauge your level of trust in God, take account of your thoughts. Are you anxiously looking at your circumstances? Does worry fill your soul? Do you fear the future? Or are you ready to thank God? Only as much as you thank the Lord amid trials are you trusting him. There's your gauge. You can all put that into your little calculators and figure out where your level of trust is and rate it from one to 10. If you assess your thoughts and you realize, wow, my faith can so easily be derailed by trials. First, know you're in good company. David felt this way when he fled from Gath. He said, I'm afraid. But then in faith he knew his duty. I must perform my vows to you, O God. I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death. Yes, my feet from falling. What is his prayer here? Lord, you deliver my soul from death. You're gonna take care of all the lesser things that concern me. And then look at verse, the next word in verse 13. So he says, for you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling. What's the next word? That. In order that, there's a purpose. So that, that I may walk before God in the light of life. See, trust is something that affects us in this life now. that you may walk before God. Why should you trust God? That you may walk before God in the light of life. See, sometimes it's easier to trust God for unseen things, eternal things. It's easier to say, yeah, Jesus conquered death. He's gonna deliver me from hell when I die. But David's example of trust here enables him to walk today in the light of life, in the present, even while his enemies are pursuing him. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, verse 12, said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. So if your life seems like you're in darkness, maybe in disarray, you don't know where you're going, you don't know what your next step is, in faith, follow Jesus. If your faith is often derailed by troubles, the answer is follow Jesus. He's the light of the world. He's gonna light your path. He knows exactly what it feels like to be pursued by an enemy. In Luke chapter eight, it says of Jesus's enemies, it says they began to press him hard and provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say. He knew. He understood what it was to be attacked. When your enemies abound, when you feel trampled down, scrutinized, mocked, hated, when it feels like you're in a dark pit, what are you gonna do? Look to Christ, follow Jesus. He was in all ways tested, just as you are, but he did not sin. And that's good news because that perfect record of righteousness, he was tempted just like you were. When you sinned, he didn't. And that perfect record of righteousness, that perfect record of trust is now on your account if you're trusting in Him. So look to Christ. Look upward to the light of the world. Whatever dark circumstances you're in, render the sacrifice of praise to Him. Sing to Him. Join your congregation in singing with all of your heart and soul and mind and strength. In a few moments, we're going to be partaking of the Lord's Supper. But before we do, we're going to sing together a couple more songs. I want to, though, prepare us for the singing. That vow to offer thanks in verse 12 refers to songs of thanksgiving. And I mentioned early on that David not only wrote Psalm 56, but probably after Psalm 56, he wrote Psalm 34. So Psalm 34 was birthed out of victory over fear that David recounts in Psalm 56. Psalm 34 could actually be the fulfillment of David's vow to render an offering of thanksgiving. And we're gonna sing this, God willing, soon, or words from Psalm 34, but I thought it appropriate for us to turn to Psalm 34 as we close and read it, just in light of what we just studied. Just read it, I'm gonna read it without comment, and then I'll call on Brother John to pray. Psalm 34. Of David, when he changed his behavior before Abimelech so that he drove him out and he went away. Verse one. I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord and he answered me and delivered me from all of my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all of his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Oh, fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him have no lack. The young lions suffer want and hunger, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Come, O children, listen to me. I will teach you of the fear of the Lord. What man is there who desires life and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ear toward their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil to cut off the memory of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He heaps all of his bones, not one of them is broken. Affliction will slay the wicked, and those who hate the righteous will be condemned. The Lord redeems the life of His servants. None of those who take refuge in Him will be condemned. Amen.