One of the most remarkable things in the psalms is the repeated expression of fearlessness. Given the context of the psalms this is quite astonishing. Military threat was a constant reality for these people. Your village might be attacked anytime without warning and there were no rules or conventions to follow; it was unmitigated cruelty on men, women and children. The biggest threat came from the incursions of major empire-building nations like the Egyptians, the Assyrians and the Babylonians. The narrow land of Israel was a busy highway between Assyria and Babylonia in the north and Egypt in the south. This was a great place to be if you had something you wanted to disseminate to the world but it also put you in constant danger of military incursions as nations went to-and-fro in an effort to control the ancient Near East. Israel was regularly accosted by the fiercest and cruellest nations that the world has ever seen. Fear was their tool of intimidation and their threats were never empty. Despite this we find the psalmists often expressing a remarkable sense of calm in the face of these threats. Given the situation it is actually quite bizarre. This isn’t just wishful-bravado and it’s not even just self-motivation. It is clear from these psalms that they genuinely felt absolutely calm in the face of these threats and they even seem amazed at their own calm. This is what you can get from God. A supernatural sense of security and confidence in the face of any threat.
Put your life into God’s hands and entrust your ways to him.
Read Psalm 27
