By It feels like a flood of information coming without relenting. News broadcast with both true and fake news keep us posted on all the worrisome developments. WhatsApp is abuzz with personal opinions and forwarded messages. Presidential speeches, local police, international podcasts all try and keep us informed. It feels like a sense of humour and a good meme are the only interruptions for potentially great fear and worry.
But the saints of the Lord have a better interruption plan for great fear and worry. In Psalm 56 the Psalmists floods his prayer with the details of his fears and worries, and then interrupts himself with an affirmation of God’s Word still being praiseworthy and God Himself still being trustworthy.
When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust;
I shall not be afraid.
Then again, flooding his prayers with the earthly realities of his fears and worries, but also again the blessed interruption.
In God, whose word I praise,
in the LORD, whose word I praise,
in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
The Psalm ends with “I may walk before God in the light of life“.
It might be a long time before our world is ‘back to normal’. We therefore need to imitate the Psalmist and interrupt our fears and worries every so often with an affirmation that God’s Word is still praiseworthy, and God Himself is still trustworthy. Then, though our troubles continue, we can still know that we are walking before God with clarity and vitality.