It’s an experience familiar to most parents. From the depths of peaceful slumber, you sense a stir in the darkness. Resisting every somnolent desire, you open your eyes to see the frightfully large face of a small child mere centimetres from your nose. Startled, you can’t make out all they’re saying, but the words “nightmare”, “scared”, and “sleep in your bed” are clear enough. They climb in and cling to you. Their fears subside in the comfort of your embrace, albeit at the cost of your rest.

In his fatherly kindness, God offers himself as a safe haven to run to in fearful times.

Fear arises when uncertainty and hostility collide. As wars rage within us, against or around us, the corruption of a broken and sinful world often means we step forward only with the greatest trepidation. In the darkness, how will we know if our feet will land on solid ground tomorrow? Who will light the way ahead? When fear descends, where are the strong arms that will hold us? Where can our worries be put to rest?

Psalm 56 points us to God and his word. His word is a word of promise. It’s a word anchored in God’s proven faithfulness and directed towards the sure future he has prepared for us. And so, no matter what tomorrow holds, we can step forward confident in the carriage of this promise. Like the child fumbling in the dark for the refuge of his parents’ bed, so we can find comfort in God and his word.

In this world we will have trouble. Nightmares too often become realities.  But Jesus has overcome the world. What, then, can mere mortals do to us? Because of Jesus, we know that no man can take from us that which our God has secured for us.  When we are afraid, we have a good God to turn to, a God who promises us life eternal in the compassionate embrace of his Son.