Fearless

I shall not be afraid

Psalm 36.4

I came across a great chiasm today. A chiasm is a form of Hebrew structure, in which the verses are paired up from the middle outwards. So the first line is connected to the last, the second to the penultimate, the third to the antepenultimate (I just wanted to include that word!). It ends up looking a bit like a rocket on it's side.

So look at this:

A  "When I am afraid,

          B  I put my trust in you,

                    C  In God whose word I praise

          B' In God I trust

A' I shall not be afraid"

So the singer talks about moving from being afraid to no longer being afraid. But chiasm does more than this. As you move from the outside in, you move towards the main point the writer wants to get across (Hebrew writing often puts the main point in the middle and not the end). 

So moving to the middle, we see that the singer stops being afraid because he trusts in God. Unsurprising. But what does trusting God look like? You then move to the very heart of the phrase and you find the punchline - he is trusting in God whose word he praises. In other words, the psalmist finds freedom from fear by praising God's word. This must include trusting God's word, but moves beyond that to praising it, rejoicing in it, delighting in it (Psalm 119). 

Sometimes we will be tempted to erode the evangelical confidence in God's word - we might hope that it makes mission easier, or opposition less likely. But to do so has awful personal consequences. Undermining the centre of this chiasm is like pulling on a loose thread of wool - pretty soon the whole jumper has unravelled. 

Once I stop praising God's word as true and trustworthy, I might want to trust God, but I no longer know with confidence what he has promised. I might then either fall into despair immediately, or start thinking that God has promised things he hasn't and so fall into disillusionment. Either way I am left with my fears.

Every time we hold on to a difficult passage of scripture and don't stop at reluctantly (but with some embarrassment) hold to it, but praise God for it, Romans 8.28 and all the other wonderful promises in God's priceless word shine more brightly - dispelling the fears that crowd in as we are reminded - with God for me, "what can flesh do to me?"