Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Praying Our Fears

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

Your first sound, our first sound, is a wail of fear. The baby comes out saying, “Why is it so cold? Who has a finger down my mouth? Who’s grabbing me? What’s going on?” That’s the way you come into the world. Fear, therefore, is maybe the most primal of all emotions.  In Psalm 3, David has something to be afraid of. He has literal armies after him, trying to kill him. But right in the middle of the psalm, he says he will not fear and he will sleep in the midst of this. He’s found a way of praying his fear so he’s able to handle it. What do we learn from David about fear and how to handle it? The answer is 1) there are two levels down into fear, and 2) there are four steps out. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 5, 2000. Series: Psalms – The Songs of Jesus. Scripture: Psalm 3:1-8; Genesis 15:1, 8. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. We'd like to help you prepare your heart for Christmas by sending you a free daily devotional during the Advent season. To sign up, just visit gospelinlife.com slash Advent to receive an email each day from December 1st through December 24th. Again, to sign up, just go to gospelinlife.com slash advent. Now here's today's teaching from Tim Keller. If you turn in your bullet into the passage on which the teaching is based, it's a psalm because we're doing a short series on the Psalms. And what we're doing is we're taking

a different emotion every week. And this week, just guess what it is. Let's read it. I'm going to read Psalm 3, all of it, verses 1 to 8. And then we're going to also read a very important parallel passage, just two verses out of Genesis 15. So I'm going to read Psalm 3, 1 to 8, Genesis 15, 1 and 8. A Psalm of David when he fled from his son Absalom.

O Lord, how many are my foes? How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him. But you are a shield around me, O Lord. You bestow glory on me and lift up my head. To the Lord I cry aloud, and he answers me from his holy hill. I lie down and sleep. I awake again, because the Lord sustains me.

I will not fear the tens of thousands drawn up against me on every side. Arise, O Lord, deliver me, O my God, strike all my enemies on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people." Genesis 15 says, after this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield and your very great reward.

But Abram said, O sovereign Lord, how can I know? How can I know how we'll gain possession of it? This ends the reading of God's Word. Now the Psalms are deeply emotional prayers and you know we modern people have this pride that we're really into emotional honesty. Unlike you know that we're really into emotional honesty. Unlike traditional cultures, we're into emotional honesty, but I don't know about this. The Psalms, if you actually read them through, modern people are always taken aback by the Psalms. Take a look at verse 7.

Didn't you squirm a little bit? See how angry he's getting? Break the jaw, smash the teeth of my enemies. Now, if you're a modern person, modern New Yorker, even though you might, whether you're religious or not religious or whatever you are, you have a tendency to say, now David, we mustn't be angry at our enemies,

must control ourselves. But you see, the Psalms are too real for that. The Psalms are saying, but I'm angry, you see. It's not just there, it's all sorts of places in the Psalms. The emotions are hot, they're raw, they're intense, they make us uncomfortable, why? Because the Psalms give us a unique approach to emotions. The Psalms, they're giving us a third way.

I said this every week, right? On the one hand, the religiosity approach to emotions is stuff them, deny them. You know, act like they're not there. We're uncomfortable with these strong emotions. We need to get control of them quickly. And one of the ways we get control of our strong emotions in religious circles is not admit they're there.

On the other hand, in secular circles, there's a sort of a love of just expressing our emotions as if it's a good in itself. The Psalms don't do either. The Psalms do not say that we should be under aware of our emotions or overawed by our emotions. We shouldn't be stuffing our emotions or bowing to them. We shouldn't be denying them or venting them. We should be praying them. And we don't mean by praying them that you put them into nicely manicured and managed little theologically correct confessional prayers, but you pre-reflectively pour them

out into the presence of God and you process them there. You don't just vent them, you don't just stuff them, you don't just express them. And what we have today is the most, maybe the most primal of all the emotions. Maybe the most primal. I could be wrong on this. What, you know, I've seen three babies born, my three, and they all came out crying. But what do those tears mean? What do they really mean? Were they tears of doubt? That was one of the emotions we looked at, right?

Are the babies coming out saying, I don't know about this? No, that's not it. You know, maybe, but no, I don't think so. Are they tears of sorrow and grief? We talked about that emotion last week. Are they tears of sorrow and grief? No, that's too complex for a baby. You know, it's not sorrow and grief.

There's a more primary emotion than doubt. There's a more primary emotion than grief and sorrow. And that's the emotion, the first sound, your first sound, our first sound is a wail of fear. You know, the baby comes out saying, where are the walls? There were nice walls, why is it so cold? Who's got a finger down my mouth?

Who's grabbing me? Why did you hit me? What's going on? Everything was fine. I'm scared, I'm scared, it's all new? What's going on? Everything was fine. I'm scared. I'm scared. It's all new. What's going on? And that is the way you come into the world. And fear, therefore, is the most primal of all emotions, maybe. And what's interesting? David has got something to be afraid of. He's got literal armies after him. He's got literal people after him trying

to kill him. And right in the middle, what does he get to? I will not fear. I sleep in the midst of all these armies. So he has discovered a way of praying his fear because Psalm 3 is a praying his fear. He's found a way of praying his fear so that he's able to handle it. And if it could help him, I mean, I know a lot of you have got troubles, but you know, probably you don't have an army after you. David did and he was able to handle it. So what do we learn here about fear and about how to handle it? Well, the answer is there's two levels down into fear we learn from this Psalm and there's

four steps out. Very practical. The more I've been meditating on this Psalm, the more I say, gee, why didn't I understand this years ago? Two levels down, four steps out. Okay, look at the two levels down. They're the first two verses. David says, what's he saying in his first two verses? David says, how many are my foes, how many rise up against me, many are saying of me, God will not deliver him. Now, those are two levels of fear. Let me show you what I mean. You see the heading? When did David pray this? When his son Absalom had risen

and had started a coup attempt. Absalom had himself declared king and David had to run into the wilderness to flee for his life. He's being deposed as king and there's an army after him to literally imprison and kill him. And so David experiences first in verse 1 when he says, many are my foes. You know, sometimes paranoid people are right. And here's one of these places where, here's a guy who says, everybody's after me, everybody's after me.

Tens of thousands of people are after me. And he's right, unfortunately, for him. And so the first thing we have is he's being attacked, his body's being attacked, his physical being is being attacked. They're after him to imprison him or kill him. But in verse two, we have something deeper. Many are saying of me, God will not deliver him. Now, you have to read that.

That verse doesn't seem like much until you read it in the context of the kingship, that this is what they're saying about the king. And here's what this means. They are not just attacking his body, but his identity. They're attacking his calling. They're attacking his character. If you go back into 2 Samuel chapter 15 to 18, you'll see it. Here's what they were doing. What they were doing is this. They were saying, remember King Saul? Remember how King Saul sinned? The king before David. He sinned and he did wrong and God abandoned him. God took the kingship from him. See, God fled from him, withdrew from him.

That's what's happening to David. See? Look at the terrible things David has done. He had an affair with Bathsheba and then he murdered her husband Uriah. What terrible things he's done. How can a man like that be our king? He's forfeited his right to be our king. That's what's going on in verse 2. And what that means is David is not just simply being attacked physically, he's being attacked psychologically, spiritually. His very identity is under attack and assault as well as his actual physical life.

Now you say, what does that teach us? Some of you are saying, well, not much. I mean, I'm not the potentate of a small Near Eastern nation, nor am I likely to ever have a career move in that direction in the near future. So what do I need Psalm 3 for? Well, I'd like to show you that it's very relevant to you. In the middle of the 20th century, there was an awful lot of work done by philosophers and writers and psychologists and psychiatrists about anxiety. And W. H. Auden wrote a very famous poem in 1947 called The Age of Anxiety

in which he called our modern times the age of anxiety. And there was a lot of consensus that we modern people have a lot more anxiety disorders than our ancestors did. And much of the work was very helpful back in those days and still is. And a lot of people back then, not so much now, made a distinction between fear and anxiety. Now I'm going to say a couple of times, I don't think you can completely separate those words like that. In the Bible, fear and anxiety are really not two separate things. There are different ways of talking about the same thing. In our modern life, we don't tend to, fear and anxiety or worry are kind of similar. But for a moment

I believe that these guys who were talking about this were getting at something important. They're really talking about two kinds or even two levels of fear. One they called fear, one they called anxiety. And I don't know if you can really separate the words like that. They're right about these two levels. Rallo May, for example, is a good example of this kind of theorist. Rallo May, who is a pretty, his books are still out, I mean a lot of his books, he wrote this in the 50s and 60s about anxiety and fear and this is how he showed you the difference. He said in one book, if you are walking across a highway and you see a car speeding towards you, your

heart beats faster, you focus your eyes on the distance between the car and you, you focus and see how far you have to go to get to the other side of the street and you run. This is fear. But if after the cars have sped away and the day goes on, if after the danger is over, you find that there is an abiding feeling of hollowness, an abiding feeling that you're fragile, an abiding sense that your life is fragile. He says, this is anxiety. Anxiety is what we feel when our existence as selves is threatened. Now what he's doing I think is helpful. He's saying there's a healthy kind of fear and there's a deeper unhealthy and debilitating kind of fear. Now the first kind of what he calls fear is there is a healthy fear. It is specific and it's constructive. Now what do I mean? Well, let

me give you an example of this. I was, some of you heard me use the illustration but it's a good one and Kathy suggested I use it again. When our middle son was four years old, I had put him like a really smart young father. I had put him at the top of this eight or nine foot sliding board, very tall, very high sliding board on this playground. And then I had walked to the other end of the sliding board,

which is very long, at least 12 feet away. And I was waiting at the end of the sliding board. And Michael, being a typical four-year-old, stood up and pitched backward. And he was heading on down to, you know, to the concrete, and I caught him. And Kathy and I still look back and say, how did you do that? And Kathy says, do that again. I'll never be able to do it again. And the answer, I caught him, and here's the reason why. I'll tell you what the researchers would tell you. My autonomic nervous system was set into place by my fear. And I had this enormous burst of physical energy and mental clarity. And it's almost like time slowed down. It felt like I had five minutes at least to get there. And what

they'll say is simply this. Fear is healthy. Fear can be healthy. Healthy fear is like this, you have a specific threat and you identify something good that's threatened, the life of your son or your own life, which is a way of saying my life is good, it's worth protecting. And then what fear does is it helps you, summons up all your deepest capacities to do something to protect the thing that you know is so important. So fear is specific and it's constructive. It gets you together. It galvanizes fear for action.

It's great. But then there's another kind. And Ronald May is right when he says it's a deeper kind. He calls it anxiety for the moment. Let's do that. And here's what it means. And you see the difference. Anxiety unlike fear is

Not specific. It's diffuse. It's generalized. It's sort of amorphous. It's undefined You don't know what's going on. You don't know what it's attached to you. Don't know why it's there You don't know what exactly is causing it with fear. You know, he's falling, you know, or the The cars coming after me with anxiety you don't know what exactly is wrong. So it's not specific, it's diffuse. Secondly, fear galvanizes you for action, but this anxiety, this deeper kind of fear, debilitates you and paralyzes you. It makes you unable to act.

It makes you unable to make a decision. And what the researchers are finding is fear is a good thing. Fear is like a thunderstorm that comes on through and there's all this thunder and lightning and then it passes away and the sun comes out and everything's greener for it. But this deeper kind of anxiety is not like the thunderstorm of fear. This deeper kind of anxiety is sort of like a cold drizzle, 34 degrees and raining all the time. Sort of like the Shetlands or the Orkney Islands, all the time, always raining. And instead of it, you know, passing through

and making everything greener, after a while your soul starts to mildew. And you know what the researchers will tell you? This kind of deeper anxiety, this deeper kind of sense of fear that's abiding, that's diffuse, that you can't really put your finger on, that goes down into your roots. When you're always agitated, always nervous, always sort of upset, always kind of restless, always a little bit scared, your autonomic nervous system is always on. Now this is bad for you physically, because your autonomic nervous system is always on. Now this is bad for you physically,

because your autonomic nervous system is a fight or flight thing. It's there for bursts of energy, for crises. But when it's always on, because you're always agitated, you're always kind of pushing yourself, and you're always kind of nervous, you're always looking around, you're always kind of scared and restless and agitated, you're always agitated, the autonomic nervous system stays on all the time,

and you get ulcers, you get high blood pressure. You're literally eating up, you're getting eaten away and the inside Well, what causes it then and here's what Rallo May said remember what he said he said It's not just a threat to your physical being. It's not just a threat to your existence. It's a threat to your sense of self Anxiety comes when something that you have put your your your real in, something that made you feel in control, something that made you feel like you had an identity, that that is being eaten away at. And that's the reason why this deeper kind of thing,

this deeper kind of root, it has more spiritual roots. This is something that really is destructive. An example, a lot of, I know professional athletes, really good professional athletes, while they're in their career, fear is a good thing. For example, one of the reasons why they catch that fly ball is they're afraid it'll go over their head. And everybody will say, we lost the World Series because of you. You were playing into shallow, you know. So you run back and get it. Fear is a good thing when you're an athlete. You're afraid of doing bad or you're afraid that you're, you know, you had a bad game so you've got to turn your batting average around or whatever.

But when their career is over and they've lost that thing that they really made them feel that they had some identity and no longer are they the athlete, who are they now? And they begin to experience that anxiety. They begin to experience a certain kind of lack of control, my security. Something that was my security is gone. And that's the reason why David has got two levels here. He's not just being assaulted in his physical being, but his very identity is being assaulted and his very sense of who he is and is being assaulted and therefore he is down in the pit and if you put if you put on top of the normal fear, see Rallamay suggests as he does in his

example that these things come together. You may have the normal good kind of fear and that debilitating acidic anxiety fear together but when they're together you'll sink.'ll sink. You're down in a pit. That's the reason why I've said we're at the bottom of a pit here. And David is really at the bottom. So what's he going to do about it? He's down at the bottom. He's at the lowest level of fear. He's just frightened. What does he do? Look at verse 3. There's

four things from verse 3 to the end that he does. See, verse 3 starts with a very important word. Whenever you're having any trouble with emotions. I'm scared. I'm depressed. I'm angry. I'm doubtful. You know, whatever. I'm guilty. Whatever your feelings are, the first word in verse 3 is very important. But. He's saying, I'm scared, but he's going to do something. He's turning. And the four things he does, the four steps out of the pit, are all there in verses three to eight. I'll tell you what they are, then I'll tell you what they are. Verse, okay, follow your thread,

relocate your glory, see the substitute, remember the people. That's the four things, see? Follow your thread, relocate your glory, see the substitute, and remember the people. Let's get started. Number one, follow your thread. Now, verse three says, but you are a shield for me. No, that's not what it says. You are a shield to me. No, that's not what it says. You are a shield to me.

No, that's not what it says. What does it say? You're a shield around me. Now, that's a very telling phrase, very telling. Why? Well, there's two kinds of shields we can talk about here. Not that I'm this great expert, but just do what the commentaries tell me. There's a little shield that you can put on your arm and you're in hand to hand combat and you know what you're doing with a little shield is you're moving it all around of course, you can move it all around and you see somebody coming at you and you use it to ward off the blow of your opponent and then you take your other arm, your right arm if you're right handed and you make a blow and then you shield yourself from a blow and then you make a blow and that's a shield. But that kind of shield certainly in no way

in any sense is around you. It's too small. There's another kind of shield though that's the size of a door that wraps around. You've probably seen pictures of it probably in movies and things like that. And that's the kind of shield he must be talking about. But what is that kind of shield for? When do you use a shield like that? Not for hand-to-hand combat. You only use that kind of shield when you're following your general to go besiege a fortress. In other words, you only use that shield when you're going into horrible danger. This shield is not a shield that gets you away from danger. This is a shield that goes into danger. I mean, you only use a shield when you're going on purpose,

following your general, into a place where they're going to do things like, oh, pour hot lava down on you, throw two ton boulders down on you, spears, arrows, slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, and so on. And so when David says, the first thing he says, I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared, but I remember that you are a shield around me. What is he doing? He is saying, he is not just saying, I know that you won't let bad things happen to me.

Is that what he's saying? I'm scared, but I know you will never let bad things, no, because of the kind of shield he's using. Here's what he's saying. He says, I'm scared, but I know that you often take me into danger. And your shielding, your protection, only works going forward.

Only works when I'm obeying you. Only works when I'm actually following you. I know that no matter how bad things are, you are gonna somehow work good things in my life. You're going to shield me. But you're not going to shield me from danger. You're not going to shield me from pain and arrows and spears. You're going to shield me in them or even with them.

What do you mean with them? When he says, he says you are a shield, what that means is anything that happens to you as a Christian, if you're a Christian and you're obeying God at this moment, anything that bad that happens to you is part of his shielding of you. It means that even a bad thing that's happening to you now, even a pain, even an arrow in your side is actually part of something that God is doing to protect you. What do you mean protect me? If God lets you get hurt today, it's because he's trying to save you from a greater hurt tomorrow. He's trying to wake you up now with some kind of, with a pain now to keep you from a greater pain.

He'll bring you a loss now to keep you from a greater loss later. We'd like to help you prepare your heart for the Christmas season with our free Advent Devotional Series. Each day of Advent, you'll receive a devotional with a daily meditation on a Bible passage that points you to the meaning of Christmas, that Jesus came into this world to reconcile us to our Heavenly Father. It's our prayer that these daily devotionals will help you focus on the hope, joy, peace, and love we have through our Savior's birth. To sign up, just visit GospelInLife.com slash Advent to receive a daily email from December 1st through December 24th.

That's GospelInLife.com slash Advent. In addition to the daily emails, every Sunday you'll also receive a previously recorded video with an Advent meditation from Tim Keller, followed by a brief discussion with Tim and his wife Kathy. Again, to sign up, visit gospelandlife.com slash Advent. May Christ's birth be a source of joy and hope to you this Christmas and all through the year. In other words, into danger, God's protection works.

Obeying Him, even though you don't understand why He's doing it, He'll protect you if you're willing to follow into danger. But if you run, that shield is of no help when you're running. The shield David's talking about is of no help when you're running away, no help when you're giving up, no help when you're disobeying the order of your general. You might as well just be, you know, if you're coming in like this, onward, onward, oh my gosh, onward, look at this. How are we ever going to take this?

So you turn around and run, then you're really dead. So there's only two things for you. Do you realize that? The Bible says obedience. Obedience to God is very hard because he'll often take you places you don't understand. You know, you make prayers, you're praying and you're banging and you're trying to do your best and the prayers don't come true. In other words, obedience is extremely difficult, very confusing, very, very hard. But what's your alternative? Disobedience. And that's impossible.

So those are your only two alternatives. Obedience is very, very, very hard. Disobedience is lethal. And the Bible says those are your only two alternatives for any human being before you. So the first thing David's doing is he's grabbing hold and he's saying, hey, listen, this is all I know. I'm scared. Bad things are happening to me. But God's protection only works if I'm going forward, if I'm following him. It doesn't work backwards.

The only way, in other words, David's saying, one ounce of disobedience can hurt me more than 10 tons of pain and suffering. So I'm going to go forward. You know, a perfect example of this is George McDonald's little fairy tale, The Princess and the Goblin. It's a children's fairy tale and it's about a little princess who lives in a big house and she's surrounded by goblins that they're trying to protect her from. The goblins are trying to take her, trying to capture her, and they live in the mountain.

One night, the little princess finds in the very utmost, topmost garret, like the attic of their house, that she has her fairy grandmother living there, a beautiful woman, supernatural woman, a woman of power and beauty and majesty. And little princess says, grandmother, if I'm ever in danger, if I can just find you, I'll be all right. How can I do that? And the grandmother says, it's very simple.

She gives her a ring. She says, I'm going to tie a little thread around the ring. I'm going to put the other end of the thread, the ball of thread, in my drawer right here. Now she says whenever you're in danger it's very simple. You take off the ring, put it under your pillow, pull the thread tight, and then put your forefinger on it and follow the thread and it'll take you to me. And the little princess says great, this is terrific. And the grandmother says, there's only one thing, it may take you in a roundabout way. So the first night that she's in danger, you know, the little princess is in her room and

suddenly she hears some creature has come in through the window and she hears snarling and hissing. And she, uh-oh, so she takes off her ring and she puts it under the pillow and she pulls it tight and she's very excited because immediately it starts to take her out of her room. But here's what it basically, well I don't know if I should read you, yeah I'll read the actual text to you. She says, she expected it to lead her straight up the old stair to her grandmother's room, but when she reached the door, to her surprise and dismay, the thread led her away from the stair

in the opposite direction. And then to her shock, it led out of the door, out into the night. And then a greater shock, it began to lead her up the mountain. And finally, the thread took her right to a cave that took her down into the heart of the mountain, but she plunged in.

She kept trying to say to herself, I know it's going to take me to my grandmother sometime, I know it, I know it, I know it. She tried so hard to think of her grandmother, but her heart was tried dreadfully when the thread took her down steep path after steep path after pit after pit in the pitch dark, deeper and deeper into the mountain where the goblins lived. Through one narrow passage after another, finally the thread took her through a tiny little hole she had to creep through. Still on she went, obedient to the guiding thread. Finally it took her to a heap of stones piled in a slope against the wall of the cavern. Up on it she climbed until she found that it vanished right into the heap of stones

and left her standing on it. She felt her grandmother had forsaken her and then a thought struck her. At least she could follow the thread backward to get home. But the instant she tried to feel it backward, it vanished. Forward it led into the heap of stones, backward it seemed to go nowhere. She burst into a wailing cry and threw herself down on the stones. Now that's a picture of what it means to follow Jesus. Over and over and over again, trying to do the right thing, trying to follow Christ, praying and hoping seems to take you to a wall. But if you go backward, it's not there at all. God's protection only goes forward.

You have to remember something. Jesus himself one time was very scared. He was sweating in the garden. Why was he sweating? You don't sweat in sorrow. He was sweating blood. Why was he sweating? He was frightened. He was scared. It was all right to be scared. He should have been scared. And you know why? Because the thread of the will of God, the call of his general was taking him right into a tomb. That's surely a dead end, isn't it? Over and over and over again, this is what's going to happen. To obey seems nuts. To obey seems like it's not going anywhere. The only thing David knows is to obey may take me into danger. That's the only way

God's protection will work. That's the only way God's protection will work. That's the only way I know that he's working good things in my life. If I back out, if I go in the other direction, then I have really something to be scared of, really something to be afraid of. So his first step is follow the thread forward. Suck it up. That's the first step.

That's always the first step. But that's not all. That's not enough. Stoicism won't get you through. Just sucking it up won't be enough. The second is, after follow your thread, second, relocate your glory. What does he say literally in the second part of verse three? In the Hebrew, he's literally saying this, you are my glory and the lifter of my head. Now, what does it? Why would he say, you are my glory? In fact,

if you don't forget, he's saying, but you are my glory. I'm scared, but you are my glory. Now he wouldn't say, but you are my glory unless something else has been. And this is what he's, this is what's going on. He has experienced this deeper level of fear, that anxiety that Rallamay is talking about. Why? Because the things that he built his identity on, the things that he built his emotional and psychological security on had been taken away. And what are those things? Well, here's a man who had said, I am a popular sovereign but not anymore. Or he might have said, I'm a good father. Well, that illusion is over.

Or he said, well, but I have this great moral record. I have really, well, yeah, adultery, murder. Well, but I have the power. Not anymore, you don't. See, here's a man who's admitting something and here's what he's admitting. He says, I'm filled with anxiety, yes, but it's because my moral record, my family's love,

the approval of my people, and my political power, those are okay things, but I had located my glory in them. And what's glory? The word glory means weight. It means significance. And what he was saying is, these were good things, but I had located my glory in them. I had located my security. The reason I felt secure and good in life is because

I am a king or I have the approval of my people. If you are starting to experience, as Rallamay says, this kind of debilitating, deep anxiety, here's what it is. Something good, you've located your glory in. It's a good thing to be talented at something. It's a good thing to have a spouse who loves you. It's a good thing to have children that you are taking care of. It's a good thing. All these things are good, but if you locate your glory in them, what you've done is you've put your glory, your worth, your security in something finite. And finite things are out there in time and space where they are vulnerable to the circumstances

and history and vicitudes of time and space and you will always live in fear. And David realized that's what he'd done. See what's interesting is the first step is follow your thread which means suck it up. But that's not enough. Now he's examining his heart. He's really looking and

saying, why am I this anxious? Why am I this scared? It's because I have located my glory in things that were good things, but now they're gone, and that's the reason I'm feeling like I'm falling. That's the reason I'm having this anxiety. When you get that kind of anxiety yourself, it's not enough just to stuff your feelings and go on. That's what a lot of you do. But it's also not enough just to sort of, you know, wail. You have to say, your anxiety is smoke. And if you follow it, it'll take you to the fire. And the fire is something that's become too important to you.

And therefore, what's going on is not stoicism, stuffing it, but not ventilation. Instead, he is saying, I'm gonna relocate my glory and I'm gonna get new help. And therefore what's going on is not stoicism stuffing it but not ventilation instead He is saying I'm gonna relocate my glory and I'm gonna get new help It's not their approval. It's your approval. That's my glory. It's not serving them. It's serving you. It's not their love It's your love and when he says you're the lifter of my head an amazing statement See even today lifter of my head means what you lift up your head when you're proud, when you're confident. But a lifter of your head is somebody who says, I'm proud of you. You are, you know, a lifter of your head says, get your head

up. You're great. You're this. You're that. That's a lifter of your head. So here's what David's saying is, as great as it was to have the love of my family, I don't have it. The love of my people, I don't have it. The knowledge that I was a good king, I don't have that. The political power to do what I want, I don't have that. He says, and even though they're gone, I'm not going to make them my identity anymore. If I've got your approval, your honor, if I know you're proud of me, then I don't have to really be afraid. I've got a self back.

Then I can only deal with, I only have fear, not that deeper anxiety. So that's the second thing, relocate your glory. What's the third thing? Well, the third thing is very important and here's why. The third thing is, see the substitute. Somebody says, well, what does that mean? Well, surely there's some people out there saying, I don't know, you know, by the way, you weren't listening carefully. Of course, I do talk fast, I know. But you weren't listening carefully if you're not asking this question.

How in the world does David know that God is proud of him? I mean, listen, if you go to God, let's just go to God and say, oh, yeah, I killed somebody, I failed as a father, I failed as a king, I failed as a human being, I failed as a believer, I failed in every way, but I know you're proud of me. You know, it would be hard to say that, but David's saying it. David's saying, I failed in every way, but I know that you are the lifter of my head. I know that you honor me. I know that the knowledge that you're proud of me

is my glory. How does he know that? And that's the issue. That's the whole key. Don't you realize if you knew that, if that was the heart of your identity, nothing really could bother you. Nothing could really scare you to death.

You are scared to death to the degree that you've put your glory in something that can die. So, how does he know that? Well, he says actually, he gives us a hint in verse 4, but in some ways the whole psalm is the hint. What's he saying in verse 4? I will cry to you. He doesn't just say I will cry to you and you will hear me. He says I will cry to you. He doesn't just say, I will cry to you and you will hear me. He says, I will cry to you and I have confidence that you will hear me. Why? Because of your holy hill.

Well, what's on the holy hill? The tabernacle on Mount Zion, the place of sacrifice. David realizes his sins can be dealt with. Well, is that all he knew? Was that all it... Did he just know in some vague general way when he saw the sacrifice on the altar that somehow God was dealing with his sins? No, I don't think so.

I think he was thinking of the most amazing incident in all of the Bible. It's in Genesis 15 and I read you a little piece of it. And the reason I think David was thinking of Genesis 15 is because the same words show up at the beginning of Genesis 15 is because the same words show up at the beginning of Genesis 15 as Psalm 3. Look, Abraham is scared and God comes to him and says, Abraham, be not afraid. So here we have a situation where God is trying to help Abraham with his fear. And what does he say to Abraham?

How does he deal with his fear? I am your shield and your glory, your great reward. So now it's almost impossible for me to believe that David, who had known Genesis 15, this is the books of Moses, it's almost impossible for me to believe that David was not thinking about this because David is trying to heal his own fear exactly the way God healed Abram's fear. But when he was thinking about Genesis 15, what was he thinking about? Go back to Genesis 15 some day. It's my favorite chapter in the Old Testament. Someday I'll preach a whole sermon

on it. Actually, I did preach a whole sermon on it about six, five or six years ago. It's in the tapes library somewhere. But Abraham was scared. God said, I'm your shield and I'm your glory. And Abraham says, how do I know? See verse 8? How do I know? And God did something that night that David's thinking about. And then unless you think about it, and see David thought about it even though he didn't understand, you understand more than he does. And therefore you have resources against fear that better than David, who dealt with armies coming after him. So think of what you'll be able to deal with. But what did David think of? He thought of

that night. Abram says, how do I know? How do I know that you're my shield and reward? How do I know you'll give me this blessing? How can I be sure that you love me and value me like that? God says, take a bunch of animals. Now it's not in the bulletin there. I didn't print it out, but here's what happened. He says, Abram, take a bunch of animals. Now it's not in the bulletin there, I didn't print it out, but here's what happened. He says to Abram, take a bunch of animals, take a goat and a heifer and a ram and a bunch of birds and cut them up. Well now Abram immediately knew what that meant. It meant that he was probably going to take a vow, that Abram was going to take a vow. Because in those days the way, hey listen, the way you made a contract in those days where you didn't sign, the way you made a contract in

those days, well you didn't sign and have some notary public stamp it. No wonder everybody breaks their contracts nowadays. Back in the old days, you didn't do that, what did you do when you were taking a solemn vow? You know what you would do? You would cut up an animal and you'd walk between the pieces as you made your vow. What did that mean? What you were doing is you were identifying with the animal and you were acting out the curse of the breaking of the covenant and you were saying, if I do not do all the things that I am saying today, if I do not keep my promises that I'm making today, may I be as this animal, may I be cut into pieces and thrown out into the wilderness to be eaten by the jackals. See how much better things

would be in New York if that's how we, you know, this notary public thing, you know, stamped. So what? Okay, they stamped it. But those are the days. And you see, therefore, when Abram is told to cut up some animals, he figured he was going to have to take a promise. But that night, God came down, darkness showed up, and Abram was amazed because he saw a smoking torch pass between the pieces it was the theophany of God and passed between the pieces and the Lord said I promise to give you this blessing to you and your descendants and Abram realized that God was taking an oath and God was identifying with the animals and God was saying I promise to honor you and take away your sins

and to give you this blessing even if I have to be cut up, even if I have to be cut off, even if I have to pay the price of your disobedience, I'm going to bless you. Now David knew that and that's how David could say, you're the lifter of my head. But David still didn't know what you and I know, and that is how God did that, and here's how God did it. Centuries later, darkness came down on the Calvary's Hill, and Jesus Christ, as Isaiah said, was cut off from the land of the living. And that's how you and I know what? That he's

proud of us, that he loves us, that he values us like that. Now to the degree that sunk down and become the thing on which your life is based, to the degree that that's your glory, that that's the thing that makes me know I'm significant, and nothing else, to that degree you'll be impervious to the debilitating kind of fear. And there's one last thing. Follow the thread, relocate your glory, see the substitute, and remember the people. If you look at verses seven and eight,

it seems like he's just sort of getting angry, but no, look carefully. He says, it's not enough that he's got inner peace now, as you see in verse five and six. It's not enough that he's over his insomnia. He's not enough that now he's dealt with his fear through the first three steps. It's not enough that he's got inner peace because what does he want now? He wants to go out and he wants justice. Why? For his verse eight people. He knows that Absalom is not going to be a good king. He knows Absalom

is not the king that God has chosen. And therefore, what is he doing with his peace? He says, I'm not going to really overcome my fear unless I begin to actually do it in community. I care about my people. Let's go. God, I got my peace back. Let's go forward and let's work for justice. Now here's the point.

The opposite of fear, the Bible says, is love. The opposite of love is fear. First John 4, 18, perfect love casts out fear. Did you think the opposite of love was hate? No. The opposite of love is fear, which means fear is self-centeredness. Love is self-giving. And therefore you'll never really deal with your fear all by yourself. You've got to love somebody. You've got to get your mind off of yourself. You've got to stop thinking about your little needs. And the only way to finally, finally, finally destroy fear is in community and in love. Jesus Christ sweated in the garden because he was scared. But he didn't let that stop him. He followed the

thread into the grave. But guess what? It wasn't a dead end. There's a resurrection on the other side of the grave. And there'll be a resurrection on the other side of anything that you are brought into with God and yet you fear. You fear? Go through it. Suck it up. Relocate your glory. Look at the substitute. Think of other people. And God will heal you through your fears. And God will heal you of your fears. Let's pray. Father, the last thing we need is your reality. So, I ask that you would make yourself real enough to the people here tonight, some people who may have never really thought this out,

and who realize you're nothing but an abstraction. I pray that some people tonight might say, Lord, become real to me, so real that you can become my glory. And there's a lot of the rest of us that, well, we believe that in the abstract, but it's not our reality to us. So we ask that you would help us deal with our fears the way David did and follow your son who was so frightened and yet out of love for us, followed your will right into the grave and is burst out of it. We pray that we could follow him and have the same thing happen to us. We pray that by following you, you might bring us into new realms of love and joy and power because we followed you not with fear, but through our fears.

We pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. Because we followed you not with fear, but through our fears. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the gospel in life podcast The Advent season helps us prepare our hearts to focus on the birth of our Savior We'd like to send you a free daily devotional from December 1st through December 24th. Each devotional has a daily meditation on a Bible passage that points you to the true meaning of Christ's birth. To sign up, just visit GospelInLife.com slash Advent. Again, that's GospelInLife.com slash Advent.

Today's sermon was preached in 2000. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.