THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: Living By Faith In God

CXIX. The Vast Value Of God’s Word

S. Handling Fears That Keep Us Up At Night

(Psalm 119:145-152 [Qoph])

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

A number of fears that we face today can keep us up at night:

(1) One fear might be the threat of overreach by lower court judges: Some “Supreme Court Justices” are “fiercely critical of lower courts overusing nationwide injunctions and . . . overstepping their authority. Alito this month penned a scathing dissent backed by Justices Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh over a decision not to nix a lower court ruling compelling the Trump administration to unfreeze $2 billion in (USAID) funding. ‘Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out . . . 2 billion taxpayer dollars?’ Alito groused in his dissent. ‘The answer to that . . . should be an emphatic ‘No’’” (Ryan King, “Executive Thwarters,” The New York Post, March 24, 2025, p. 9).

(2) Another such fear might be the integrity of some evangelical groups who have been on the take from such USAID grants: “‘(A) Senate Finance Committee report” revealed that “evangelical charity World Vision has received nearly $2 billion in USAID grants – and facilitated a sub-grant to the Islamic Relief Agency, an al-Qaeda group designated for terrorist financing.’” (Gregg Roman, “How American Aid Has Subsidized Terror,” Commentary Magazine, April 2025 issue, cited in “Quotable,” Republican-American, March 22, 2025, p. 8A).

(3) Another fear might be the continuing ideological integrity of the Waterbury Republican-American: It was recently sold to Hearst Connecticut Newspapers, and its March 22^nd editorial, “Leaf-blower ban is ill advised,” p. 8A, referred to Hearst columnist Dan Haar’s March 19 story in the paper where Mr. Haar had written, “(G)as leaf blowers are bad for global warming” and for “crushing noise and actual particle and chemical pollution that we breathe” (Dan Haar, “State ban on gas leaf blowers gains wide support,” Ibid., March 19, 2025, p. 1A). However, the same paper’s March 22^nd lead editorial countered Mr. Haar’s piece, stating, “Suburbanites love their . . . riding mowers, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles, chain saws, chipper-shredders, weed-whackers, generators, and yes, their leaf blowers. If legislators decide to go after one of these machine types because it’s noisy and causes pollution, Mr. Haar and others . . . likely will be in for a surprise” (Ibid., “Leaf-blower ban is ill advised”).

(4) Another fear might be the state’s potential threat to home schoolers, a threat seemingly backed by Hearst Connecticut Media Group reporter Lisa Backus in her piece, “Waterbury man’s decades in captivity prompt concerns that homeschooling is hiding abuse in CT” (March 24, 2025; ctinsider.com). She wrote, “(A) 2018 . . . Office of the Child Advocate” report held “36 percent of the . . . children . . . withdrawn from public schools to be homeschooled in six municipalities between 2013 and 2016 had at least one prior report to DCF for suspected neglect or abuse.”

However, the Republican-American backed innocent homeschoolers, asserting, “The . . . case of the . . . man whose stepmother allegedly held him captive for . . . 20 years” is “about DCF’s failure to . . . intervene despite the agency being handed the opportunity to do its job. It’s not . . . about hypothetical abuse” in “the homes of families who . . . homeschool . . . If this . . . case . . . couldn’t be . . . dealt with even after school officials repeatedly flagged it, . . . it’s . . . unclear how DCF . . . or other agents of the state could identify and remedy abusive situations by knocking on the door of every homeschooler in the state . . . (If) home schooling (is) initiated after allegations of abuse (that) should trigger automatic investigations. But until the state changes the way it conducts” them, “the conversation must focus entirely on DCF’s deficiencies” (“No excuse for DCF,” Republican-American, March 18, 2025, p. 6A).

Need: So, we ask, “How does God want us to handle fears that can keep us up at night?”

I. In Psalm 119:145-147, the psalmist realized that his great burden of heart kept him awake at night, but he also recalled that the solution to his need was his preoccupation with and reliance on God’s Word:

A. On the one hand, the psalmist called on the Lord with his whole inner man while on the other hand he said that he would keep God’s Word, expecting God to reward him for that obedience, Psalm 119:145-146.

B. The psalmist’s concern led him to rise before dawn and cry out to God while he hoped in His Word, v. 147.

II. Accordingly, the psalmist spent the night watches awake and exposing himself to Scripture, v. 148 NIV.

III. In applying Scripture this way, the psalmist found strength to handle his concerns, Psalm 119:149-152:

A. Relying on Scripture’s revelation that God is both loving and righteous in His alignment with His own laws, the psalmist expected the Lord to hear his call for God to preserve his life, Psalm 119:149.

B. The psalmist voiced the cause of his concern, that his enemies who devised evil schemes were near to do him harm, though they were far from the righteous standards of God’s Word, Psalm 119:150.

C. Nevertheless, the psalmist took courage from realizing the nearness of the omnipresent God and of the truthfulness of God’s Word that promised to address the threat he faced from his enemies, Psalm 119:151.

D. The psalmist also took comfort from his long familiarity with Scripture that convinced him of its eternal effectiveness, that the current trial was just another issue that God’s eternal Word could address, Psa. 119:152.

Lesson: The psalmist handled his fear that kept him up at night by focusing on God’s Word, for God was reliably loving and righteous to preserve him from the danger from his foes, and He was omnipresent, faithful, and omniscient to produce His eternal Word that would anticipate and solve whatever the psalmist faced in his life.

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God's gift of eternal life, John 3:16; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11. (2) If we stay up at night over some fear, may we focus on God’s Word that was divinely inspired by an Almighty God Who has anticipated so as to solve every problem we face.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message and/or provide additional guidance . . .)

We apply Scripture passages that deal with the issues of concern mentioned in our introduction (as follows):

(1) On the concern of overreach by lower court judges to block what elected officials were elected by the public to do in for the public’s good, (a) Psalm 58:1-5 in the Hebrew text condemns ungodly judges who do evil and violence by their rulings (Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 836-837). (b) In verses 6-11, the psalmist anticipated the relief that the righteous would sense when God avenges the wrongs by these judges. (c) Ultimately, we believers in Christ must rely on God’s sovereign oversight as He allows current judges to be in power for His purposes (Romans 13:1) and that we meanwhile keep living law-abiding lives (Romans 13:2; 1 Peter 2:11-17).

(2) On the concern that some evangelicals take USAID money and sub-grant it out to terrorists, (a) we must not receive financial support from unbelievers such as government moneys that come from taxing the public, but only from believers (3 John 5-7). (b) Similarly, we must watch that every missionary entity that our Church supports performs Biblical ministries that we would sanction as a Church since we partner with them in ministry (3 John 8).

(3) On the concern of the continuing ideological integrity of the Republican-American, (a) 2 Timothy 3:13 NIV predicted that evil men and seducers would go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. For this reason, we should always evaluate every report we receive from every media outlet, and (b) rely on written Scripture as our ultimate source of truth (2 Timothy 3:15-17). (c) As for Hearst columnist Dan Haar’s claim that “gas leaf blowers are bad for global warming” (Ibid., Haar), God in Genesis 8:22 promised to keep the earth habitable for man for the rest of the earth’s existence, so the use of gas leaf blowers is irrelevant to the climate! God in Genesis 8:22 also said that the climate would constantly vary in temperature anyway, so we should not fret about the climate!

(4) On the concern of the state’s possible threat to home schoolers, (a) since God holds parents responsible to rear their children in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), the Lord MUST provide the means for parents to be able to obey that command regardless what state authorities do! Parents thus need to live by faith in God regarding the rearing and educating of their children. (b) We have an illustration from Scripture on how God has already done this: Due to his mother Hannah’s vow to the Lord that Samuel would be given to God for life, Samuel had to be raised at the tabernacle away from his parents starting in early childhood. Thus, he grew up under the guardianship of High Priest Eli though Eli lacked as a good father seen in his sons’ wicked lives (cf. 1 Samuel 2:11-17, 22-25). Nevertheless, Hannah kept up her influence with Samuel for the Lord by making him a little me’il, a little “robe” every year, and bringing it with her to give to him when she annually came to the tabernacle to worship with her husband, Samuel’s father (1 Samuel 2:19-20). Many years later after Samuel had died, when God let the witch of Endor call the deceased Samuel up from the dead, Samuel appeared as an elderly man who was wearing a me’il, the same type of “robe” that his mother had made for him as a small child and that he had since then habitually worn as evidenced by the fact that Saul at the meeting with the witch recognized Samuel by his me’il (Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 408, 452; B. D. B., A Heb. and Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 591; 1 Samuel 28:14). Hannah’s influence thus stayed with Samuel throughout his life! (c) Similarly, Proverbs 22:6 states, and we paraphrase the verse to perceive the thrust of the Hebrew text, “Rub date poultice on the roof of a newborn to accentuate his correct, natural sucking action to enhance his taking his mother’s milk; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” If we then teach our child the right way to go about his divinely programmed bents, that training will stick with him throughout his life!

May we trust in Christ Who died as our Atoning Sacrifice for sin that we might receive God’s gift of eternal life. If we are up at night over some fear, may we focus on God’s Word to handle the problem.