Psalm 112: Not Fearing Bad News

Psalm 112:1, 7 "Blessed is the man who fears the LORD. . .He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD."

When was the last time you got some bad news? Perhaps last week you found out that a good friend of yours was moving away. Or perhaps yesterday you learned that your bank account was lower than you thought it was. Now how about this question: when's the last time you got some really bad news? Perhaps you ended up having a miscarriage. Perhaps a dear family member was diagnosed with a terminal disease. Perhaps you found out that one of your children walked away from the Lord. The question this morning is this: what do we do with this "bad news"? What do we do when we hear truths that are horrible, reports of things that are scary? How do we react? How do we respond? Psalm 112 has a great answer for us.

Psalm 112 is all about the blessedness of the man who fears the Lord (1). This is a great theme throughout the book of Psalms, as we see that there are great blessings for those who walk in the Lord's commands (see Psalm 1). In an acrostic-fashion, the psalmist in psalm 112 gives several listings describing the blessedness of a man who fears the Lord. This morning, we are going to simply look at one of them, that is, the blessedness of not having to fear bad news.

Psalm 112:7 says this: "He [that is, the man who fears the Lord, verse 1] is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD." The idea here is that one who is truly fearing the Lord does not have to fear any bad news that may come to him because he is trusting in God. This is truly a great principle, one that ought to convict us and lead us to repentance. How often do we fear bad news when we shouldn't? God is in control, is he not? Yet, we still so often fail to take comfort in this very fact.

Look at the two options laid out for us in this verse: either we are not afraid in bad news while we trust in the Lord, or we are afraid of bad news while we don't trust the Lord. There truly is no in between. Either we are fearing God, or we are fearing bad news. Either we are fearing the Lord, or we are fearing our situation. There is no middle ground. Thus, we must trust in the Lord in order to fear no bad news.

In application to this psalm, I encourage you today to fear no bad news. Let me pause here for a moment: this is not to illegitamize the news that comes your way. Things happen in this life that are downright terrible. I am by no means saying that you ought not to be sad when a loved one passes away or a circumstance alike. But what I am saying is that we serve a God who is over and above all of those situations. Our hope in not fearing bad news is not that the news isn't bad, it's that our God is good, and that even in the deepest, darkest moments in this world, we can still trust in his sovereignty. I encourgage you to do so today.

If you wish, feel free to pray the following prayer in response to today's devotional:

Lord, I repent for all of the times in which I have feared bad news. So often, I do not trust in you, but rather trust in my circumstances. Lord, let it not be so with me. Let me fear you, and not this world, that I might glorify you by trusting you, and not fearing any bad news. Amen.