Aug-13-0489-In God I trust, what can man do to me?
489_In God I trust, what can man do to me? Ps 56 Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; 2 my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. 3 When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. 4 In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? 5 All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. 6 They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. 7 For their crime will they escape? In wrath cast down the peoples, O God! 8 You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? 9 Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. 10 In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, 11 in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? 12 I must perform my vows to you, O God; I will render thank offerings to you. 13 For you have delivered my soul from death, yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. The night was tense and unnaturally quiet as the underground church gathered. In a country where Christianity was illegal, and gatherings could lead to arrest or worse, they still met. One young believer, no more than twenty, stood at the door as lookout. Just weeks earlier, two members of the same group had been arrested by the secret police and hadn’t been heard from since. When asked why he continued to risk his life, he simply said, “They can imprison my body, but they can’t touch my soul. I belong to God. My life is in His hands.” This man knew, not the absence of fear, but the courage born out of deep trust. Psalm 56 mirrors the same unshakable faith. This psalm was written by David “when the Philistines had seized him in Gath.” Surely this was among the most desperate moments of his life. Recorded in 1 Samuel 21:10-15, this was when David, the slayer of the Philistine giant and constant enemy of the Philistines fled from his own king to take refuge in the land of his enemies, the Philistines. But it didn’t take long before he was recognized. The servants of King Achish remembered the songs sung by Israelite women: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” David was no ordinary refugee. He had been Saul’s champion against the Philistines, who constantly harried Israel. Caught and helpless, David resorted to strategy. Scratching doors, drooling on his beard, he pretended to be insane in order to save his life. And this humiliating plan worked. King Achish dismissed him as a madman, and David was chased out of the city - to freedom. Back in