Fear and faith coexist in the believer's walk with God. Like David in Psalm 27, faithful people express their fears while holding fast to God's promises, knowing there is nowhere else to go.
Confidence and Vulnerability in Psalm 27
The origins of Psalm 27 remain uncertain, though it appears to contain two distinct songs that may have been brought together over time. The first six verses reveal David’s confidence as he extols God’s character and praises Him for past help. The Lord is light, giving vision for difficult paths and wisdom and insight. Light takes away fear in ways that darkness cannot. God is salvation itself—the one who takes us from darkness into light. He is our stronghold and strength, the one who lifts us and moves us. David’s singular desire, expressed in verse 4, is simply to be in the presence of the Lord, to talk with Him, to see His face, to be with Him.
This longing emerges from David’s difficult circumstances. He is under pressure, surrounded by enemies, and life has come crashing in upon him. Yet David perceives that God will save him and deliver him. Even when we feel despair, when enemies surround us, when the path is not well illuminated and salvation seems too far away, there is something within us that says, I just want to be with God. I just want some answers. If I could be in His presence, all the things surrounding me won’t go away, but being with Him makes it easier. David had experienced this truth throughout his life. As a young man caring for sheep, he learned that life is filled with challenges, yet his strength came from God.
The Cry of Fear in Verses 7-12
The beauty of David’s songs is that they are not logical treatises devoid of emotional connection. In verses 7 through 12, all of David’s emotions pour out. The intensity appears in verses 9 and 10, where David begs God not to forsake or abandon him. How can you plead with God not to abandon you unless you feel that has happened? How can you acknowledge that your parents have abandoned you unless you know that feeling? This stands in sharp contrast to the confidence of “salvation” and “stronghold.” Now the plea becomes personal: Please don’t turn your face from me. Please don’t abandon me. Please don’t give up on me. Please don’t let your presence be away from me.
Yet even in this vulnerability, there is a certainty to David’s faith. He doesn’t know where else to go except to hold on to God. We experience the same thing. Temporary fears come and eventually go—the roller coaster ride ends and we’re still here. But then comes the long game, the seemingly permanent struggle, and we beg God in those times not to leave us. We beg Him to reveal Himself. We beg Him to turn His face toward us. He knows where his salvation comes from, but it doesn’t feel close.
It is time to stop demanding that people give up their fear when facing things that cause fear. Scripture speaks repeatedly of not being afraid, yet every time someone is told not to be afraid, it is because they are afraid. Somewhere we’ve created the impression that fear indicates weak faith. This is Satan’s lie. Our heart rates still rise, our pupils dilate, we struggle to breathe—we get afraid. It is time to quit demanding that we set aside fear. Fear and faith are not opposites; they coexist in the faithful person.
David expresses both fear and confidence simultaneously. He writes that he is confident God will deliver him, yet he also cries out in fear. How do you balance those? On one side you’re afraid, on the other side you hold God’s hand and say, I trust that God will not abandon me. I want to be confident in God, but there’s a part of me that doesn’t. This is precisely like the man in Mark chapter 9 who brought his son to Jesus for healing. When Jesus asks what the father believes, he responds, “I believe, help me in my unbelief.” That is the human condition. We want to hold on to God. We believe in Him. We’re confident He can deliver us, but we’re afraid. That doesn’t make you faithless—it makes you faithful.
Peter experienced this after Jesus refused to provide breakfast following the feeding of the five thousand. When Jesus asked His disciples if they would leave too, Peter answered, “Where should we go? You are the one who has the words of eternal life.” In the shadows, in the darkness, when doctors give bad news, when we bury the one we wanted to spend life with—where else do we go? The faithful person says, I’m holding on to God’s hand, even while their heart says, I don’t know. I’m not certain. The future looks blurry. And that is being faithful. You are faithful, holding on to God, even in your fear.
Even Jesus was afraid while holding on to His Father’s hand. Before His arrest, Jesus told His disciples, “I feel like I’m going to die now. I am so emotionally upset right now that I feel like I’m going to die before I ever get to the cross.” At Gethsemane, Jesus was not devoid of emotion. He handled this not with detached faith as if nothing could touch Him. If Jesus could admit that, we are in good company to admit our fears too. Faithful people get scared. Faithful people are uncertain. Faithful people in darkness pray to God to stay, because they know there’s nowhere else to go.
Waiting and Hope in the Midst of Darkness
By verse 14, David wants to revert to the confidence of verse 1. The Lord is his light, his salvation, his strength, his stronghold. He writes, “Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord.” That word wait means to be patient. Life will continue to happen, and while it does, we learn to patiently and expectantly look to God. Some translations use the word hope—to hope in the Lord. It’s hope that expresses expectation while acknowledging that you must wait.
When we are in the darkness of midnight and our heart is poured out before God, we pour it out in patient expectation that He will act. It may not be in the morning. There may be several midnights. There may be twenty months of midnights. There may be five years of midnights. And we wait in confident expectation that God will not and has not abandoned us. We try to find two, three, or four people who will walk alongside us so that we can tell them, I’m afraid. I’m scared. I don’t know. I’m uncertain. I’m not confident, but I sure want to be. Like David, we proclaim what we know to be true and we hold on to God. In our fear, we keep reminding ourselves: The Lord is my light, my salvation, my strength. Whatever this world can throw at me, He will not abandon me. He will not turn His face from me. And I will wait.
That’s what gets you through. That’s how you do it. Nobody said it’s easy. I know this is true because we’ve all been there at one time or another, and if you haven’t yet, hang on—it’s coming. I don’t want you to think I haven’t had my midnights. I have. I don’t want you to think I wasn’t afraid. I have been. Like David, I have begged for God to stay. The midnights lasted longer than I wanted them to. But I can look behind me and see the faithfulness of God, and He never left me. In all my fear, He was there. Faithful people get afraid. Our God is greater than our fear. So we hold on to Him. Where else are we going to go?
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