FEAR NO EVIL [Psalm 34]

September 24, 2001 Preached by Dr. Paul R. Smith West Side Presbyterian Church Seattle, WA Copyright 2001 Contact: office@wspc.org FEAR NO EVIL [Psalm 34] Prayer for Illumination - Heavenly Father, as we reflect now upon your word of truth, I pray that you would reveal yourself to us. Perhaps all of our hearts are more open than they have been in a long while, open to hear what you have to say. We are distressed. We are confused. We need a clear word from you. We need to know how to proceed, what to do next, and we need to find from you the courage to do it. I pray that you would guide our reflections then on this word, that you would reach out and embrace every person who is gathered in this place today, that they would feel the closeness of your Holy Spirit, that you would speak to each individual heart and each individual mind, that we would know you are with us, that there is something you are requiring of us and there is something you are offering to us. May we know what it is as we listen in Christ s name, AMEN. Message I don t know whether or not any of you have convinced yourself that you are not afraid. We watched in horror just over a week ago as great fireballs engulfed the largest buildings in America and sent them and their terrified occupants tumbling to the ground from nearly a quarter mile in the air. What a horrendous scene that was. Over 6000 people crushed or incinerated without warning in a matter of seconds! Since then we have seen a good deal of bravado as our military arms for war against a faceless enemy, and we declare that these terrorists cannot scare us. But I am afraid, as the old saying goes, we are whistling past the graveyard. Of course we are frightened! We would be fools not to be. For all our frantic activity, the threat of terror has really not been diminished in these last days to any significant degree. We have no guarantee that a military operation will actually incapacitate the enemy, and we know there is a very good chance it will make him even more dangerous than ever sort of like poking a stick in a hornets nest. Meanwhile, opportunities for terror abound. We are told that the capacity for nuclear or biological weapons is very real, and we know that there are numerous people, many already in this country, cut from the same cloth as those who hurled their own bodies into the inferno that destroyed our sense of invulnerability. Friday night as I lay half asleep in my bed some time after midnight, I became aware that I was hearing the heavy thudding sound of a helicopter circling overhead. After 1

several passes, I stuck my head out the window and looked up. Again and again and again it circled--just upwind of the city, I noticed. I sniffed the air. It smelled normal. Of course, I thought, just like they told us, biological emissions, borne on the wind, are absolutely odorless. It is what I ought to have expected. I closed the window, but the ominous circling continued. Finally (I am a bit ashamed to admit), unable to set this unknown intrusion aside, I crawled out of bed again and dialed 911. I don t want to be paranoid, I began, but is there a reason for this helicopter that s continuing to circle over West Seattle? It s OK. It s the police, the operator assured me, it s not the bad guys. I felt a bit foolish, but it showed me that even I, one of the most secure people I know, (I don t know why everyone laughs when I say that!), even I was feeling our vulnerability. The dictionary defines fear as a painful emotion or passion excited by the expectation of evil, or the apprehension of impending danger. Dread is an even stronger word. Dread adds the idea of intense reluctance to face or to meet a person or situation. Panic implies unreasoning and overmastering fear causing hysterical activity. And terror implies the most extreme degree of fear one that immobilizes us. Truth be told, most of us in this country and this time in history have never really experienced the extreme anxiety and sheer terror that has plagued most of the human race throughout history. Oh, we all had our childhood fears the universal fear of the dark, which might harbor unknown terrors for us; the fear of abandonment. But we have not faced the fears others have faced. After all, we live in a huge and powerful land, surrounded by the most extensive moat on the planet two vast oceans. While everyone everywhere else on the globe has lived in jeopardy of invasion by those who would kill them and violate their families and take their possessions, we have never really faced a serious threat of invasion. Nor with the exception of one interlude provided by the Great Depression, have we really ever had to face the possibility that we might starve to death, something others have lived with constantly. If we have been the victim of a crime, we may have felt the horror of our vulnerability for a time, but then again at least we knew that we have a government and law enforcement system set up to protect us. For others, those are often the very people who violate them. No, what you and I have felt for the past 10-12 days is new for us and very unsettling. Even yet we can hardly believe it. We hope the terrifying images will slowly fade from our memories, and our military will be successful in a short time with a minimum of casualties, and nothing more dreadful will happen, and we can slowly resume our previously carefree existence. But no one can guarantee that this will be the case, and in fact it is quite doubtful. Fear has already seeped into our world and stained our blithe spirit, and we cannot ignore it. There is value, of course, in fear. It is mankind s oldest and strongest emotion, and God has built it into us on purpose. It warns us away from harmful and destructive actions and situations. A fearless child is terribly vulnerable, because he or she does not seek to avoid hurtling traffic or vicious dogs or hostile intruders. Some measure of fear is necessary for our survival. 2

Fear also motivates us to action, whether the action is fight or flight, or whether it moves us to take precautions we might otherwise have ignored to our detriment, precautions such as those many of us are beginning to take now. Edgar Watson Howe, in a collection of Country Town Sayings, dated 1911, observes, A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice. That is wisdom also. All of us know the truth of that. Whether it is a near miss in traffic after a moment of carelessness, or whether it is something cataclysmic like we experienced in New York City two weeks ago, it motivates us to consider and to do a lot of things we had been neglecting. Most of us are taking life and family and faith a lot more seriously than we were two weeks ago aren t we? And a good thing it is! Fear motivates us to take positive actions. But fear can also be detrimental. Fear, an old German proverb states, makes the wolf bigger than he is. Fear can magnify the threat to our well-being, inflating it out of proportion to the reality. It can make it difficult for us to see things clearly. Blind panic we call it. Rushing in fear from some phantom enemy, can make us do foolish things, and leave us more vulnerable than ever. And in politics, Samuel Taylor Coleridge warns us, what begins in fear usually ends in folly. We need to be in constant prayer for our president and congress, that they will keep their heads about them, and that they will act with wisdom and with discretion, and not out of fear. Irrational fear not only blinds us, it often paralyzes us as well. We become incapacitated by our terror, and cannot respond effectively at all. In perhaps the most famous fear quote of all time, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, The only thing we have to fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. There are, of course, times when we need to retreat. As we recoiled in terror from the events of twelve days ago, we did what fear motivated us to do. But always it is with a mind to how we may subsequently advance, and I think we are coming to that place now. We cannot allow fear to paralyze us. We must go on with our lives more wisely now, and we must consider the most effective ways of reducing the threats suffered by all in our world. If we think only of ourselves, and do not embrace the welfare of all peoples, we will only make ourselves more vulnerable still. So what are we called upon to do, and how will we do it? It will take courage, of course, to act in the face of impending danger. Courage is, in fact, the one virtue which makes all other virtues possible. As C. S. Lewis writes in Screwtape Letters, courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. That is a profound insight: courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.... A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful till it became risky. Many of us, perhaps most of us, wonder if we truly have courage, or how we might inspire that courage in ourselves. One of our problems is that we equate courage with fearlessness. But courage and fearlessness are not the same at all. If we are truly without fear, then no courage is required. Courage is simply the will to act even in the face of our fears, as those firefighters in New York City did when they charged into a collapsing building to save 3

anyone they could. But this is much more easily defined than practiced. How can we develop the courage to do the right thing, even at great personal risk? It seems to me that the answer to this profound question may be found in another question: What, ultimately, should we fear? There is no such thing as being fearless, unless you are a complete idiot. So what do you fear most? The fear of one thing may keep you from an act of cowardice with regard to another. For example, you may rightly fear a knife-wielding intruder in your house, but a greater fear is the harm they might do to your children. So in an act of great courage, you confront them bare-handed, and despite this considerable disadvantage, your fear has motivated you to an intensity of response which stands a very good chance of prevailing. Were you motivated by courage, or by fear? And of course the answer is, Yes! So the issue is not whether or not we will be afraid, but what truly should we fear? When Jesus was sending His disciples out into a hostile world to confront evil, He told them, I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. There s a frightening image. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues.... Brother will betray brother to death.... All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.... But then He concludes, So do not be afraid of them. What? What do you mean, do not be afraid? You have just told us that we are facing a pack of wolves who would like nothing less than to devour us. How can we not be afraid? And then He reveals this profound truth, in Matthew 10:28, Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. And then this further, and even more profound truth, Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.... Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.... [Think who you fear the most.] Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. You see, this is the reason for the most profound and fundamental truth revealed in the Bible, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Who should you take more seriously, the one who can destroy your body? Or the One the Creator and the Re- Creator of your body who holds your eternal soul in His sovereign hands? You see, it is not a question of not being afraid. It is a question of who you really need to fear. If we are on the right side of God, then all other fears pale to insignificance, for He has set himself to be our shield and our defender. 4

Psalm 118 says, Let those who fear the LORD say: His love endures forever. In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free. The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? If this is where I stand, if I am in His hands, what can man do to me? It sounds like a contradiction, but in fact it is the only answer we can give to our terror of evil. Those who fear the LORD need not be afraid of anything else! In placing ourselves in His hands, surrendering to Him, we find our only true security. But now, this is what the LORD says he who created you, Isaiah writes. Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. It is the lesson David had learned, as he explained in Psalm 34 which we read earlier. Pursued by Saul who had made several attempts on his life, David had fled into the enemy s camp, only to find suspicion rising against him there as well. In sheer terror, with nowhere to run and nowhere to hide literally, David had feigned madness, scrabbling at the doors with his fingernails and letting the saliva run down his beard so that the people would dismiss him as a madman and not kill him. With nowhere else to turn, David had finally surrendered his fate to God, and now he confesses in Psalm 34:4, I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. The Hebrew word here is a strong one, akin to terror. But God had delivered him from that abject terror. This poor man cried, David says describing himself, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. There is that word fear again, but this time directed at the one who truly holds the future in His hands. To surrender to Him is to be delivered from all other fears. Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing, David goes on to say. It sounds like a contradiction, but it is the wonderful contradiction which delivers us from all fear, for the One who would be our most formidable enemy has become our Protector and our Friend. Taste and see that the LORD is good; try it out for yourselves David says, blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. It is not, of course, that surrender to God makes us immune to trouble. The psalm goes on to say in verse 18, The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit, implying that there may indeed come times when our hearts are broken and when our spirits crushed. But we will not be left alone to face those times of desolation. A righteous man may have many troubles, he admits in verse 19, but the LORD delivers him from them all. And then that grand conclusion: The LORD redeems his servants; no one will be condemned who takes refuge in him. What a wonderful promise!! No one will be condemned who takes refuge in him. It is the ultimate promise 5

of salvation. It is what He asks of us: simply that we take refuge in Him, that we do not go our own way, that we do not seek our own salvation by our own efforts, but we surrender to Him. You and I live in a broken world, where we are going to have to confront evil, and where evil may sometimes gain the upper hand and threaten us seriously. But those who have taken refuge in God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, are assured of the final victory. Therefore they may have the courage to do the right thing without fear, for the consequences are always in God s hands. Writing to the Hebrews in the New Testament in the 13 th chapter, the author concludes with something fascinating in the face of our fears. He says this, if we are wanting to know where to go from here, what to do, Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers,... remember those in prison... and those who are mistreated. Marriage should be honored by all... Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? What a wonderful challenge! In the face of our fears, what is required of us? What is required of us is to go on with the business of living, to do it with that courage even in the face of fear, to do the right thing, to keep on loving each other as brothers, to entertain strangers, to remember those in prison and those who are mistreated, to honor your marriage vows, to do what you have committed yourselves to do, to keep your lives from the love of money, to be content with what you have because God is our provider, our protector, and our friend. One of the most comforting passages of scripture in the entire Bible is Psalm 23. Todd Beamer, a fellow graduate of Wheaton College who was a passenger on hijacked Flight #93 heading toward Washington DC, reportedly recited that psalm with a telephone operator before joining several other passengers in an act of great courage in the face of fear, an act which undoubtedly spared our country even greater and more unimaginable terror and tragedy. At the heart of the psalm are these words (you might imagine him reciting them in the air in those moments), Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. He knew full well that he was entering the valley of the shadow of death. But he also knew the One who had walked all the way through that valley and emerged on the other side in His resurrected body. And he knew that the One who had conquered Death for him was going to take his hand and bring him into a place of unimaginable glory. So he did not hesitate. Was he afraid? Of course he was afraid! Only a fool would not be afraid. But he had already made his peace with God the only one you do not want as your enemy when you approach the gates of death. The Lord consequently had become his refuge, his helper and his strength. The Lord was his shepherd. There was no one else to fear. 6

Closing prayer - Heavenly Father, of course we fear in this broken world. There are threats to us and to our loved ones. We fear not only the terrorism that we ve seen the last few weeks, we fear cancer, Alzheimer s disease, we fear the loss of a job, we fear the loss of the trust or the confidence of our friends, we fear the loss of our position, our reputation. There are so many things we do fear. Yet, in asking courage of us, you simply call us to do the right thing in the face of our fears, and in this is great courage. I thank you for your demonstration in Jesus Christ of doing the right thing in the face of fear. And I pray that whatever we face in the days to come we might be reminded that you have called us to be true to our word, to be compassionate to the people around us, to be faithful and honest and trustworthy, to do that no matter the cost, without paying attention to the risk, simply doing what is right and knowing that all our tomorrows are in your hands. We offer these prayers then as we thank you for loving us and caring for us, for being our Great Shepherd. In Jesus name we pray, AMEN. 7