To the choir master, according to the dove and far off terabit, amidst them of David when the Philistine ceased him and gassed. Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me. All day long an attacker oppresses me. My enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid I put my trust in you, in God whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? All day long they endure my cause. All their thoughts are against me for evil. They stir up strife, they lurk, they watch my steps as they have waited for my life. For their crime will they escape? And wrath cast down the peoples of God. You have kept count of my tossing. Put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know that God is for me. In God whose word I praise, in the Lord whose word I praise, in God I trust, I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? I must perform my vow to you, O God. I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death. Yes, my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. May the Lord add a blessing to the reading in the hearing of his words. The date was April 3rd, 1968. Dr. King was in Memphis. And what we now know, delivering his final speech at the Mason Temple. Dr. King had been the recipient of many death threats and violence and taunts. And Dr. King long spoke of the fear that he had that his life would end before a long age. And these threats were real. And in fact, his flight to Memphis from Atlanta was delayed because the pilots heard of the threats that might be coming his way. And there in the Mason Temple, he completed his speech with these words. And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountain top. And I don't mind, like anybody, I would like to live a long life, longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain top. And I've looked over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people, we will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. Now brothers and sisters, I have not been gifted with the cadence or the oracle stills that the Lord had blessed Dr. King with. But I couldn't help but read the final words of his final speech this morning because as I have been reflecting on Psalm 56 this morning, that speech, the end of that speech, came to mind. Dr. King and the face of threats and those who sought to take his life was not in fear. You hear it? He said, I'm not fearing man. But he had a trust, a trust in the Lord. Well, the sisters, this is David's situation in Psalm 56. Yes, there are some differences. Dr. King was not on the run. David here in Psalm 56 was on the run for fear of his life. But there is a trust that they both demonstrate. David was hunted. He was hunted and was confronted with the possibility of death. There were threats against David for his life. The context of the Psalm is the same context of Psalm 34. David on the run from Saul, if you remember, found himself before the king, a kiss. If you recall, David pretended to be crazy so as to not be put to death by the king of Gav. This was indeed a trying circumstance for David. And as we know, he at least wrote two Psalms during this time. And so once again, David finds himself lamenting before God over his current circumstances, over his predicament. But in Psalm 56 brothers and sisters, I want to suggest to you this morning that what we have David here doing is fighting back against his pursuers. We didn't use violence or coronal means. But David here takes up spiritual means to fight the enemies that sought to take his life. And in that, I couldn't help but again, reflect on the civil rights heroes that we lost this past Friday. Men like the Reverend C. T. Vivian and the representative John Lewis, men who themselves also faced taunts and violence and threats upon their life. But against those enemies, against those who were seeking to take their life, they didn't take up coronal means. They took up spiritual means, trusting in the Lord to fight for them, even as they protested, even as they spoke again, out against injustice, even in the face of threats and taunts and violence. They trusted in the Lord. May we be those this morning who he, David's approach and the Reverend C. T. Vivian and the representative John Lewis's approach. For this is how we are to live our lives as we encounter the enemy that is pursuing us. Perhaps you're thinking, well, what enemy? What enemy is pursuing us? Oh, few of us. Give it a thought. Oftentimes we think our enemies are those around us. However, I think the Bible makes clear that we are all being hunted by an enemy. Brothers and sisters, death. Death is that enemy that hunts us all. It is the two of the mile markers on the Romans road that makes this clear to us. Romans three and 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And because of all have sinned and because we have offended a just and a holy and a righteous God, we read in Romans six and 23 for the wages of sin is death. But the freak gift of God is eternal life in Jesus our Lord. Whether you and I realize it or not because of sin because we've offended a holy and a just and a righteous God we are deserving of his wrath. Death hunts us all. And the Bible calls it an enemy in 1 Corinthians 1526. Paul says the last the last enemy to be destroyed is death. So as we navigate as we navigate this world pursued by this enemy may we indeed use the weapons David used to fight the first weapon David used to fight his enemies was the weapon of a prayer. David fights his enemies with prayer. The temptation and reading the song may be too quickly gloss over the opening line. Oh, but brothers and sisters, we shouldn't do that. David begins the song by crying out to the Lord in prayer. He says be gracious to me. Oh, God. That's that is where he starts. Not ends but start. David fights with prayer. Oh, all that we would know the power of prayer the need of our dependence upon the Lord and the willingness of our heavenly father to help or speaking with somebody just this week and we were discussing how often times prayer is the last thing that we do. But brothers and sisters, it should be the first weapon that we implore when we are in a difficult and in a tough place when we are being pursued by an enemy who is causing us strife. David says this enemy was tripling upon him. And so what did he do? He says, oh, it cries out to God. Oh, God be gracious unto me. It is such a simple prayer. But do you realize that this prayer says this Christ says so much? David, David requests from the Lord grace. He requests it from the Lord grace. He is asking the Lord himself to be merciful to him. David is doing in this request is acknowledging the Lord's sovereignty and power over his life and his circumstances. What we will learn in this Psalm is that David's enemies are relentlessly pursuing him in order to take his life. He makes the comment that all day long, all day long these oppressors are at him. He says it three times in five verses to express the persistence of these oppressors. He says that they stir up strife and lie in wait for him. But I want you to notice something about David's prayer and who it's to. He is not crying out to his enemies for grace. He is not wishing his enemies would be merciful to him. He is crying out to Yahweh to God Almighty for grace. Be gracious to me, O Lord. Oh, because David knew from whence's help came from he says my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Brothers and sisters, God controls all things. He has every single resource at his disposal. That's what it means for God to be sovereign. It means he controls all things. He is never without resources. If you need grace and mercy, we ought to be doing just what David does here. How about going to the one who is full of the grace and the mercy that you need? Hebrews 4 and 6, the writer tells us what we ought to do. Says let us go with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. Listen, you do realize brothers and sisters that any grace, any mercy, any mercy, any relief that you and I receive in this life is ultimately from the hand of God. That's what it means for God to be sovereign. He controls it. He dispenses it. And so David cries out, oh, oh God, be merciful. Be gracious to me. So in the time of need, brothers and sisters, be mindful of who you, you cry out to. In fact, in fact the grace of God to you is that he bids you to come during those times of need. Come, come to me, all you who are weary, all you who need rest, come, come, come lay your burdens down at my speed. Cast your cares upon him. Brothers and sisters, know that when you cry out, he is the God who answers. He is the one who grants mercy and grants grace to those who call. And if you don't know what to pray in your darkest hours, in the times when you are low, if you do not know what to pray, cry out, be gracious, be gracious unto me, oh God, oh, it demonstrates your dependence. It shows that you believe in the power of prayer. David first fights his enemies with prayer, but David also fights his enemies with humility, with humility. At meeting weakness and lack of strength, I don't know if you realize, but it actually is a weapon against those who taunt and slander you. It disarms them. But it also, what it also does is reminds you that you need someone else to fight for you, because you're not strong enough. You don't stand a chance. Second Corinthians 12 and 10 says, for the sake of Christ, then I am content, I am content with weakness insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities for when I am weak, then I am strong, because it's in our humility, it's in our weakness that God begins to be strong. And so here, David expresses his weakness. You say, well, how does he do that? Well, in verse three, he says, when I am afraid, the transparency that David often demonstrates in his Psalms are so instructive for God's people. Oh, it's so important to remember that the heroes of the Bible, the men and women that we read about in the pages of scripture that we look to and that we celebrate are humans just like you and me. But in verses they have clay feet that you have emotions like you and me. It always blows and boggles my mind and stirs my heart when I go to James chapter five. And I read what James says in James 5 and 17. He says Elijah, Elijah, go and read about Elijah and all the wonderful works that he did was a man with a nature like ours. All the writers would have us to remember that these men that we encounter in the scriptures, these women that we encounter in the scriptures that show extraordinary faith are just like you and me. They are not, they are not super Christians. David and his admission of fear model this for us. You do remember that David was a warrior. He was a fighter. He was a warrior. If you want into battle, you know who you wanted with you, you want to David there. In fact, you want to David out in front of you. He was a warrior. He had been anointed by Samuel as the eventual king of Israel. He had taken down bears and lions and he stood before Goliath to find that uncircumcised Philistines despite all of these acts of courage. David here admit that he was afraid. That's that's that's that's an admission of weakness. That's humility. Brothers sisters, I don't care who you are or how tough you think you are. There are circumstances and situations that will strike fear into your heart. Happens to me all the time. No one is exempt and it's in these moments in these circumstances. That you need to own up to your struggle own up to the fears in your heart. You need to stop pretending stop covering up and admit it. David admits to it. He admits to God the struggles of his soul. He says to the Lord, when I am afraid when I am scared but here in the important part of what David does in this admission of fear. His fear doesn't paralyze him nor does it cause him to fret. He says in the same breath in the same sentence when I am afraid I trust in you. And so what David does is David fights his enemies with faith. He fights his enemies with faith. David's answer to fear is always the Bible's answer to fear. It is faith. David trusts in the God to whom he is crying out to. When I am afraid he says I trust in you. Whole brothers and sisters, I know. I know this scene. I was thinking about this as I was writing this. I know this scene redundant. It seems like all we ever say is to trust in the Lord. It seems like we always say that. If anything's going on, trust God. Trust God. But brothers and sisters, it is not like we are preaching the same passage week after week. This is the message of the Bible to be a Christian is to trust in God. And so I know it may sound redundant. But brothers and sisters, it's the message of the Bible. And so I'm going to keep saying whenever you are afraid, when there is something going on, trust in God. This is the message that the Bible would want us to know. It comes up over and over and over again. And you know what the goal of the evil one is what he tries to do is to get you to distrust God. So of course we want to remind you over and the Bible wants to remind you over and over again to trust in God. I was so important because I think the point that David is making is that when he is fearful, when he says that when he admits to his weakness, when he says I am afraid, what he is saying is I don't trust God. Oh, you don't understand. Faithful living in this world must must must have at its foundation. Trust in God. Trust in God. The reason why you and I sin is because we don't trust God. We saw this in the life of David even in this very contact when he was before King Acres. He made himself to act like he was crazy because he didn't trust God. He was fearful of his life and he didn't trust God. Hold the reason you and I worry and we fret and our anxious is because we don't trust God. David in this proclamation of trusting in the Lord in this cry, David wants to ground his heart again where it needs to be grounded. He fights the fear that his enemies strike in his heart with, and this is the thread, this is the thread that we see woven throughout the rest of the song, the theme of trusting in God. In fact, David goes on to develop our frame in enhancing his resolve to trust in God. We see this refrain or chorus in the song in verse four and then we find it again, repeated in verses 10 and 11. The refrain in God whose word I pray in God I trust I shall not be afraid what can flesh do to me. Now, you know, there are some choruses for songs that are just so catchy that all you need to do is hear it once and it's stuck in your head all day long. Well, by the way, this is the chorus that needs to get stuck in your head this morning. Now, I don't know that I try looking enough to see if there was some catchy chorus song tune. I don't need to set this to music so that we can get this thing stuck in our brains because this is a chorus that needs to get stuck. David pens a chorus that helps him stare that his fear in the face and needed head on. But it is trust in God, this trust in God that he outlines in this chorus that allows him to utilize another weapon against his enemy. David fights his enemies with praise. Oh, with praise, with praise. He is trust in God is undergirded by praise. Praise and this praise is rooted in the word of God namely his revelation and his testimony. I will praise God, he says, in God whose word I praise. It is his word that he praises, David says. It is the works of God and the character of God that he is delighted in. Because God has yet to fail him, he sings and he rejoices in God's words. All the Psalms tell us all about the light, the joy that David took in the law and the command of God. Remember Psalm 19, he says, remember speaking about the law that it is, that the law, the Lord is sweeter than honey and that it is more precious than gold. Why does he declare these things? Why is this the light in these things? Because he says that the word of God is pure. It is trust worthy. It is clean. Oh, but as an assistant, those who trust in God praise him. They praise him. What's the correlation? What's the correlation? Those who trust in God praise him. What's the correlation? When you praise God, you praise him for what he has done and who he is. That is what the word is concerned with. Psalm 145, 1 through 3 says, I will extol you my God and King and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. The great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsurchable. And as you and I praise God for who he is and what he has done, your faith and your trust in him is bolstered. Your the praise, praise and trust feed each other. They would trust in God if undergirded by his praise of God. Oh, by the insistence. Oh, we shouldn't do it. I know some Christians are not, they're not particular for singing and praising. But we should never, we should never underestimate the praise of God. You see this in the description. When the moral bites and the ammonites were arrayed against the hosts of fat and the rest of Israel. God told them that he was going to give victory into their hand. Read the story and second chronicles. Chapter 20. And God told them not to fear that they would have go down because he was going to grant them victory. And we read this as Israel is before the ammonites and the moral bites. We read this in second chronicles 20 and verse 19 and the Levites of the cohort sites and the core types stood up to praise the Lord. The God of Israel with a very loud voice. They were on the front line of the battle. The Lord used them to help flee the enemies from their presence. It was praise. It was the praise of these men who stood up and praised God in the midst of this battle. May we never, never, underestimate the power of praise to encourage a heart to remind you that your enemies have no power over David's fights his enemies with praise but David also fights his enemies with fear with fear. You say fear, what fear? Well, fear of God rather than fear of May. David adds a line to the end of his of this chorus that can to ease the concerns of the most fearful of heart. Psalm 56 and 4 in God I trust. I shall not be afraid and here is the phrase what can man do to me? Oh, the fear of man plays more of us than we care to admit. Their opinions, their threats, their taunts, their violence, paralyzed and produced in us actions and responses that demonstrate our lack of trust in God. Sometimes our fear of man is subtle and but but sometimes it is blatant but you need to know that it is a powerful tool that the evil one uses against God's people. But David affirming this trust in God says and declares what can flesh? What can man do to me? Now, now this is a this is a very very for for flexing question for the Christian because in reality man can and do indeed do a lot to you. They can man can slander you? Man can taunt you they man can enslave you persecute you. Man can even kill you and take your life and David himself was experiencing an under the threat of all these things. Taunt threats upon his life. Yet he still confidently declares what can man do to me? Well, when you trust in God the answer is nothing. Oh, oh, yes, yes. They may indeed be able to do all that to you. But that which really matters, that which is most crucial they can't touch. We learn about that in Matthew 10 and 28. Jesus says and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both body both soul and body in the health. Oh, brothers and sisters we don't fear man. We fear God. Fear man is a man that the devil uses to cause God's people to stumble. Oh, but you need not fear man. Fear God and remember which is another way of fighting. David fights his enemies by remembering that God fights for him. God, God, who fights for him. What would David declares in verses 8 and 9, sums this up clearly. He says you have kept count of my tossings. You put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know that God is for me. David trusts the Lord with the fight. The battle, the battle he is declaring in these verses belong to the Lord. Brothers and sisters taking the fight into your own hands should never be the option of Christians take. Saying like you you you got a fight for yourself or no one else will. That's not Christian. Brothers and sisters. Lord knows you do understand. He knows your struggles. He knows your business. What David is saying? You have kept count of my tossings. You know them. You have bottled up my tears. You know my situation. You are aware of my predicament. You know my enemies. David is declaring that the Lord can't. God knows the struggles and the battles of his people. But guess what? He will vindicate his own. David affirms the faithfulness of the Lord. He needs not fear man because and brothers and sisters if you do not hear anything else I say if you are cooking if you are throwing the Internet right now take time to stop pause and listen to what David says here. He says it's perhaps the most glorious words in the song. God is for me. God is for me. Dr. Day I packer who went to went to be with the Lord on Friday. Wrote in his book. Knowing God. This when talking about song 56. The simple statement. God is for us. It's in truth. One of the richest and waitiest utterances that the Bible. Oh, brothers and sisters do you remember in Psalm excuse me in Romans chapter 8 when Paul gets to preach and he says if God is for us then who can be against us? Oh, brothers and sisters has not the Lord proved this over and over and over again to you. It is his word not true in Deuteronomy 3 and 22. He says you shall not fear them the enemies for it is the Lord your God who fights for you. David knew it. David declared God is for me. I have nothing to fear. He could trust in the promise that God was for him. You believe that, brothers and sisters? Do you believe? Do you believe? Do you say with David like David says that God is for you this morning? Do you believe that? Believe that he is for you. He is with you. Oh, if you believe that or then put down your sword turn away from the worry and the fear that is gripping your heart. Stop trying to take the fight and into your own hands and battle on your own. Deuteronomy 24 says for the Lord your God is he who goes with you the fight for you against your enemies to give you the victory. And that is the last weapon that David uses against his enemies. David fights his enemies with the hope of victory. Some 56 and 13 but you have delivered my soul from death. Yes, my feet from falling that I may walk before God in the light of life. Brothers and sisters, why David has no reason to fear? This is the basis for his hope and the source of his praise, victory and deliverance from his predicament or his confidence that his soul will be delivered from death regardless of what his enemies do to his body and he will live forever secure. Oh, this is David bringing to life Matthew, Matthew 10, fearing the one who can destroy the soul and the body and not just the body. David is assured of victory here. He is assured of victory in the song. He has a hope that it will happen and not just a hope and hope but a trustworthy hope and a God who always answers prayer and who is always faithful. David is assured of victory because the battle belongs to the Lord and victory belongs to Jesus. Oh, brothers and sisters, our weapons are not carnal but they are spiritual. We trust in the Lord. We hope in the victory that will be our victory, victory belongs to Jesus. Last enemy, the last enemy remember Paul tells us in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians, last enemy pursuing us. It pursues us every single day through the soul, namely death. Paul would later say in 1 Corinthians 15, the end of 56 and into 55 to 57. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sin? The thing of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, victory belongs to Jesus. Oh, the sin on the way here. This morning as my heart was, was troublesome. Just reminded a fresh of the victory in Jesus. The song I was listening to in my ears speaking about praise and how it combats our enemies. The core is that your spirit lives within me. So I will walk in your peace. Your spirit lives within me. My victory, my victory. Oh, the reason I've got victory is not because I fought this battle on my own brothers. We don't fight battles on our own. We won't win. We can't fight our enemies on our own. But we trust, we trust in God. We rest in Jesus. We trust in Him. Then you and I have nothing to share. What can man do to you? Oh, nothing, both insisting. Nothing. We fight. We fight not with corner weapons. But we fight with spiritual weapons. Take them up this morning. Take them up. And fight with the weapons of faith. Let's fight.