1 Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.
2 My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me.
3 When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you.
Free Grace note
When I am afraid, not if When I am afraid, I will put my trust in you. David does not say if I am afraid, as though a strong believer never trembles. He says when, because fear is a certainty in a fallen world. Maturing in faith is not learning to stop feeling fear; it is learning where to run the moment fear arrives. David turns the trembling into a deliberate act of trust, and he does it repeatedly through the psalm (see verses 4 and 11). Some teach that a truly faithful person would never be anxious. This verse quietly corrects that. The point is not a fearless heart but a trusting response, and that response can be practiced. What can flesh do to me, he asks, when the living God is the one I am leaning on?
4 In God, I praise his word. In God, I put my trust. I will not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?
5 All day long they twist my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They conspire and lurk, watching my steps, they are eager to take my life.
7 Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, God.
8 You number my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren’t they in your book?
Free Grace note
God keeps the record of your tears You number my wanderings; you put my tears into your bottle; aren't they in your book? In David's world mourners were sometimes thought to save their tears in a small flask, so the picture is stunning: God himself treasures every tear you have cried. Nothing in your sorrow is wasted or forgotten. This is the same God who says the very hairs of your head are numbered (Matthew 10:30). From that tender confidence David draws a bold conclusion in the next breath: This I know, that God is for me (verse 9). Assurance does not come from calm circumstances but from a settled fact about God's heart toward his own. For the believer, God's being for you was proven finally at the cross, and it will never change.
9 Then my enemies shall turn back in the day that I call. I know this, that God is for me.
10 In God, I will praise his word. In Yahweh, I will praise his word.
11 I have put my trust in God. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
12 Your vows are on me, God. I will give thank offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death, and prevented my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living.
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