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DAILY CHRISTIAN LIVING (Psalm 56)

Every day you live, certain burdens come. Every day has its trials and tests.

The Bible says in Matthew 6:34, “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” But it also says in Deuteronomy 33:25, “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.”

As you face your trials and struggles, every day God has the strength to give you for that day. That is why the Lord Jesus taught us in Matthew 6:11 to pray, “Give us this day our daily bread.”

This brings us to Psalm 56 - a psalm about the daily Christian life. One thing that has struck me as I have meditated through the book of Psalms is how so many of them repeat the same refrain. The emphasis is the same over and over.

Do not let yourself get bored with that. There is a reason for it. Every day we need certain reminders. We must constantly return to the same truths and disciplines.

Psalm 56 was written during a time when David was taken by the Philistines at Gath. You can read all about it I Samuel 21. It was a very difficult season in David’s life, and it is important to know the context in which he wrote these words.

Verses 1-2: “Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me. Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.”

Verse 3 is one of the most famous passages in the entire Bible: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”

What a beautiful verse. But it is the context of daily struggles and stress. Every day, David had to watch his back and look over his shoulder for people who were after him. His enemies wanted to devour him and make him disappear.

This sounds like our enemy. God wants you to grow stronger, but Satan would have you do just the opposite.

I have marked in my Bible the word “daily” which appears in verses 1 and 2. The thought continues in verses 5-7: “Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul. Shall they escape by iniquity? In thine anger cast down the people, O God.”

He was fighting these battles daily. Every day he got up thinking that might be the day it got better, but the struggle just continued.

That is life. In a sin-cursed world filled with sinners, there will be battles regularly. But it doesn’t mean you have to be depressed, discouraged, or defeated. This psalm gives a prescription for your daily fight and daily fears.

First of all, you need daily faith. Your faith must be active, not passive. There is a command to rest in the Lord, but you must choose every day to do that. Faith is exercised, and you must decide each day whether you are going to believe God. You have to trust Him in the moment of the battle.

You also need a daily word. Verse 10: “In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word.” Faith is always connected to the Word of God, so if you are going to have daily faith, there must be something upon which to build it. Rom. 10:17 says, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Every day you need a word from the Lord, and you get that from the scriptures. Remember what David wrote in verse 4: “I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” What brought about that kind of confidence just a few verses after he displayed his fear? David got his eyes back on Someone greater than his enemy, and something in his soul greater than his fear - that is faith. The Word of God alone brings faith.

Let me remind you that this is not the time to lay your Bible aside. Dust it off, read it, and meditate on it. God will speak to you.

Verse 8: “Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” As he meditated on scripture, he was reminded of certain things about God. The Bible reminds us of God — that He knows our fears and records our prayers.

Verse 9: “When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.” This sounds to me like the psalmist was getting bolder. In my Bible next to this verse, I wrote “Rom. 8:31.” Remember what that verse says? “If God be for us, who can be against us?”

Verses 10-11: “In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word. In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.” Notice the continued emphasis on the Word of God. We must spend time in the Word each day!

From what we have seen so far, there is a natural progression to daily praise. Verses 12-13: “Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee. For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?”

Praise looks back to what God has done in the past and also looks ahead to what He is going to do. Because of this, it helps you right where you are now. Praise should always be in the present tense because we have a present-tense God.

Sometimes we reserve our praise for when a situation has passed, but God wants us to praise Him amid the fire. That is where the strength comes from. We are to praise God not just on Sunday but every day; not just on the easy days but also on the tough days (think of Paul and Silas in prison in Acts 16:25-34). For every daily fight and fear, there is power to praise His holy name and give Him glory.

If we did these three things daily, we would find that God would give us strength for the battle at hand. You should study all of the times in Scripture that God uses the word “daily.”

The Christian life must be lived one day at a time. Certain things must be in every day; try these three — faith, the Word, and praise — today. You will find that God will be enough.