You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call. This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me?

Psalm 56:8–11

I love David’s confidence in God’s care for him in this passage. He is hiding out in a foreign land, the land of his enemies the Philistines, who would gladly destroy him if they knew who he was and were given the chance. Can you imagine how frightening that would be?

But David knows that all of his fears and anxieties are noted by God, he bottles up the tears and records them in his book. God knows, and he remembers—just as he did for the Israelites when they cried out to him in Exodus 2:23-25. At some point, David knows that God will act for him and turn his enemies away.

He ends this little stanza with praise for God: he praises God, trusts his Word. God, who is his “LORD,” or Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God of the people of Israel who promises to preserve them. David knows that with his God on his side, he has no reason to fear.

We serve the same God; we praise him and we thank him for his Word. We might not be living in hiding in the land of our enemies, but in our suffering and fear, Yahweh is there and he wants us to put our trust in him, lean on his Word, and wait to see him work—for his glory and our good (Romans 8:28).

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The “Isolation Introspection” series started as an opportunity for me to encoruage members of our Bible Study with daily reflections from the M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan during the 2020 “Stay at Home” mandate in Los Angeles. I’ve moved them here so that they can be shared easily, and perhaps benefit others. I hope you enjoy!