In his excellent book When People Are Big and God is Small, Ed Welch says we all struggle with fears that other people will see us, reject us, or attack us. In fact, he says, “Fear of man is such a part of our human fabric that we should check for a pulse if someone denies it.”
Our culture tells us that the problem comes from low self-esteem. We just need to think better thoughts about ourselves. But Welch says there’s a much better and more lasting solution: “The most radical treatment for the fear of man is the fear of the Lord. God must be bigger to you than people are.”
Many centuries ago, King David discovered the same thing when he was hiding in his castle, fearing the horde of Philistine soldiers outside who wanted to kill him and destroy his nation. When God delivered him, he began to overcome his fear of man. And celebrating his deliverance in Psalm 124, he gave us three ways to overcome our own fears.
1. Remember how God delivered you.
David says in Psalm 124:2-4, “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us; then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us.” But God was on our side. He did deliver us. The enemy may have taken a few bites, but they didn’t swallow us alive. God delivered us!
This is an important thing to recognize. No matter what people have done to you in the past, the fact that you’re still here means that God delivered you. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, which means we should have died a long time ago — the first time we ever sinned. Anything we get in life that’s better than death is a gift from God. God has delivered us from literal death.
And even better than that, God’s made a way to deliver us from spiritual death. I was talking to someone last week who told me that a year ago, he felt dead. He had no hope in life, nothing to look forward to. He was angry and alone. And then someone introduced him to Jesus. He saw that he was a sinner, and he needed a savior. He saw how Jesus died on the cross to pay for his sin, and how Jesus rose from the dead to become his king, and how Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be his comforter, and his counselor. And overnight, he came to life! Now, he can’t wait to see what Jesus has in store for him. He was delivered!
If you’ve put your faith in Christ, you’ve been delivered too. Maybe you’ve been walking with Jesus for so long that you don’t quite remember what you’ve been delivered from. Some Christians can’t remember a time when they didn’t know Jesus, which is a pretty awesome thing — the kind of thing I hope my kids will be able to say later in life, but the downside is that it can start to feel like they’ve earned God’s love. They start to forget that God had to deliver them from death, and he’s still rescuing them from their sin every single day. We need to remind ourselves every day that God delivered us.
2) Respond with thanksgiving and praise.
I love how David says it in Psalm 124:1-2, “If it had not been the Lord who was on our side — let Israel now say — If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when people rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us up alive.” He’s saying, “Don’t leave me hangin’ y’all! I’m not singing a solo here. Let all Israel say — let’s all sing together — the Lord is on our side!”
David was being a worship leader. You know how sometimes worship leaders are in the middle of a song, and they’ll blurt out something like, “Sing it out!” … Let’s hear it!” They do that because they’re looking at us, and they’re saying, “That guy in the second row isn’t thankful enough. And that guy in the back doesn’t really see what God’s done for him. If he did, he’d be singing louder.” And so worship leaders need to remind us to praise God. If God delivered you, then sing it out! Loud and proud.
David’s praising God over and over. In Psalm 124:6 he says, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not given us as prey to their teeth! We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!” He’s not looking back at the experience with the Philistines and saying, “Why did that happen? Why did I even get put in the trap in the first place? I didn’t deserve that! I was faithful and obedient. I was a man after God’s own heart!” No, David’s not bitter about past negative experiences with other people, he’s stoked about the way God worked through those experiences. “Blessed be the Lord!”
3) Recommit your trust in God.
In Psalm 124:8, David says, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” In other words, “From now on, we’re going to trust the Lord. We won’t fear man, we’re going to fear God. No matter what happens, and no matter who comes against us, we’ll honor him, and obey him, and praise him, and trust him. Because he’s for us!”
David has come to see a powerful truth. Your mother isn’t for you. Not all the time. Your husband or wife isn’t for you, not every single moment. They can’t be. They’re human. Only God is truly for us. All the time. No matter what.
That’s so important to understand. David could have said, “If we hadn’t been on the Lord’s side, then the people would have swallowed us up alive. If we hadn’t been on the Lord’s side, then the flood would have swept us away.” But that’s not what he said. The Lord is on our side!
God’s favor on you, and his protection over you isn’t dependent on your faithfulness or righteousness. It’s dependent on his sovereign decision to love you. It’s based on his sovereign decision to give his own Son for you. Paul said, “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:31-35)
Do you believe that? Do you believe God is really for you? Some Christians would say, “Well, it doesn’t feel like God is for me. If God was for me, then my job wouldn’t be so hard.If God was for me, then my marriage wouldn’t be so hard. So I’m not sure about that. Maybe God was for me, but then I did something wrong that made him not for me.”
But that’s making God’s love dependent on you. Paul said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” The answer? Nobody. Not even ourselves. Because of Jesus, God is for us. Even when we’re not acting like we’re for God.
And in the end, that’s what will give us the power to overcome our fear of man. That’s what will free us to love others like we never have before. We won’t fear them, worship them, or idolize them. We won’t be bitter or hateful toward them. We’ll forgive them, love them, and serve them.
We’ll be for them, because our sovereign, holy, and loving God is for us.