Text:—"In God I have put my trust, I will not be afraid." Psalm 56, 11
Christian should never be down-hearted.
If we can say as we have just said, "I believe in God the Father, Almighty," we should always be supremely confident. Dark days may come but we shall not be afraid, the outlook may be discouraging but God is on the throne. The Book of the Psalms is a great tonic for just such dark and discouraging days, as these through which we are passing just now in Shanghai. If you are tempted to lose heart, turn back to this section of the Bible.
Faith and confidence walk hand in hand through its pages as they should in the life and walk of every Christian man or woman.
Turn the pages. From beginning to end they are full of the expression of splendid faith. "Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses," says the psalmist, "but we will remember the name of the Lord, our God." Mark, for instance, how often the one word "trust" appears. There are almost 100 occasions when this cine word is used in psalms, while the thought is present in almost every psalm, and in many over and over again. "În God I have put my trust." That is the background of every confident word, he trusts in God, he knows he is good, he looks back and past experiences increase his confidence. We are often willing to trust when appeara,: ces seem to justify it, but when things go wrong and difficulties crowd in, me become faithless and despairing. How did the Psalmist act 17 the dark days? A few extracts from this old world Giary may help us to place our trust əs unreservedly in God as did these men of old firs.
The Lord Sustained me Take, for instance, the third Psalm. This was written as David fled before the rebel hosts of Absalom, To outward, appearance, all hope was gone, he had been taken quite unprepared and it seemed that only his immediate body guard and a few loyal retainers remained true to him, the heart of the nation seemed to have gone out in response to the subtle flattery of Absalom. And yet David does not despair nor is he filled with cowardly fears, He says, "I will mot be afraid of ten thousand of the people that have set themselves round about. I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the Lord sustained, me."
Faith and fear are mutually exclusive, it is only as we forget that we are afraid, The history of the Christian Church testifies to the truth of the Psalmist's testimony. Think of Paul on the storm-tossed ship standing unafraid amid his despairing companions. Or of Luther as he goes to meet the council at Worms. A friend, who was in the confidence of the Elector, learns that Luther's saieconduct is not to be respected and sends the monk a warning; Luther replies that he will enter the city though there should be as many devils in it as there were tiles on the roofs, Our God is almighty, and if we really believe in Him we shall not fear, however dark the clouds fe that gather about us. It is often his way that the darkest hour comes just before the dawn. The story is told of a sailor shipwrecked on a lonely island in the Falklands. He had "secured a few boards from the wreck and with them had built a rude- shelter against the weather, which can be very severe there. One windy night, a spark from his little fire set the whole shack ablaze and he lost everything, and all hope. But the blaze attracted a passing ship and Jed to his rescue. tw God I Trust We must consider, when we are tempted to doubt and be afraid because everything seems to be going wrong, that very often in the course of human affairs first appearances are most deceptive and do not at all indicate the probable result. Thi: Book is full of illustrations of Cot" over-ruling providence, of morning's dark with clouds that issue in fair noon-days and a glorious sunset. Think of the reception Jacob expected from his brother and the welcome he received. Of Joseph sold into Egypt. Could a worse apparent fate be imagined? But think of its glorious issue. Of the Children of Israel at the Red Sea, the enemy behind and the broad sea in front, but God delivered them. And so one might go on. Look back over your own life. As one has said, there is no tonic like a dose of history, and our own personal experience can furnish many an instance of God's over-ruling love. From all this we should be encouraged to trust in the dark, and byon when hope seems too dead, to say, "In God I have put my trust, I will not be afraid."
The Unknown But not only are we possessed by dears for the present, we are afraid of what lies in the future. The future is so unknown and uncertain, we dread the unknown far above anything that we can see. The testimony of our soldiers in the Great War was that the time before the attack was by far more trying than the actual going over the tgp, its fears more difficult to bear. How many there are that fear the dark, when a little noise terrifies because its source is unseen and unknown; man seems so constituted that mystery and uncertainty fill the heart with anxiety, for-boding and gloom. How we fear the unknown, but what could be so wholly beyond the reach of human experience or speculation or imagination as the "Valley of the Shadow of Death" with all that is associated with it, but the Psalmist said, "Yea, though I walk thfough the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me, thy rod and' thy staff they comfort me." We should ever remind ourselves that God has ever been equal to his peoples' need. He has been our strength and stay in all the known paste of life, and therefore there is every reason to believe he will be in the unknown future.
I know not what the future hath Aret alone, that Me and death rary se, His mercy underlies.
It does not mean we are to have no thought for the future, to make no preparation or provision for it, to wait until the storm breaks and then expect a miracle of deliverance. That is not God's way in any sphere of human endeavour. We must bring to bear all the wisdom and strength that God has given us, that "having done all we may stand." And having done all, we are not to give ourselves to fearing and despair. Fear only weakens our hands and clouds our judgment, rather go forward into the unknown future meeting each day as it comes with the strength that God gives us day by day, remembering that we have a promise which is ours with him of old time, "My strength is sufficient for thee."
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.