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Psalm 27 offers faith as the antidote for fear. The psalm states that faith in the goodness of God gives us hope for the future. We take courage in the presence of God and the assurance of God being with us now and into the future. God is a God of the things that will be. There are those who say we are living in an age of anxiety. Indeed, there is much to fear. From Global Warming to overpopulation to cancer and crime, it is easy to see why many are consumed with fear. It can take control of your life. Haunted by bad health, some people become hyper vigilant, detecting in every pain and symptom the sign of disease. We dose ourselves with vitamins and seek organic, healthy foods; as Garrison Keillor puts it; we walk the aisles of the grocery store “go shopping for immortality”. If we have good health, if is easy to live in the fear that we will lose our mental stability and we live with a sense of impending disaster or failure. Some take refuge from fear in various addictive behaviors, hiding from the reality of life and death. Fears can breed phobias; fear of flying, of closed rooms, high places and the ultimate phobiaphobia, fear of fear itself. War and life in the post nuclear age means that many of us have lived all of our lives with the knowledge that the human race can destroy itself, and seems determined to do so some days. Our fears breed conflict with others, and Martin Luther King, Jr. noted in the book, The Strength to Love, the fear if the cause of war; “first fear, then hate, then war and finally deeper hatred”. It must be said that repressing fear never helps. Fears must be faced to be conquered. Courage is necessary. Emerson said; “He has not learned the lesson of life who does not everyday surmount a fear”. Dr. King agreed. He tells how he and Coretta rented a fishing boat on a trip to Mexico. They didn’t have much money and rented a lousy boat, which didn’t bother them until a storm started to brew. Then they began to regret their choice and were paralyzed by fear as the wind came up. Faith, said King, did not stop the storm, or protect them unnaturally from the reality of the wind. But it did give them the courage and fortitude to face the storm. Fear can be positive, of course. Humans and other creatures would be in big trouble if we did not have a part of our brain that registers when we are in danger. Fear helps us protect ourselves. It stimulates creativity in solving problems. It sounds the alarm in our brains when we need to make changes. Healthy, normal fear is an asset. But we are plagued by abnormal fears. Perhaps it has always been this way for humans, but it is tempting to wonder if the contemporary world is breeding more abnormal fears. There is so much to fear rationally; perhaps irrational fears find more fertile ground. Psalm 27 offers faith as an antidote for fear, as did Dr. King and many others. It is not faith that we will be protected from all danger, but that as the storms of life hit, God is there with us, offering shelter and courage. And finally, the existence of a loving God helps us face the ultimate existential fear, death and life. We are offered the assurance that we are not alone in this vast, uncertain universe; that there is a loving God. As Psalm 23 says: Ye, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear not evil, for though art with me…” The Psalms are a witness of faith to us that thousands of years ago there were other humans who had mystical experiences that led them to believe, as we do, that there is a good God who is with us. This God, this mother of all creattion, this source of life, this Tao, this way of being, is the God of those in the past, of us in this moment, and in the future, and at death. Dr. King tells of one of the most dedicated participants in the Montgomery bus boycott. She was an elderly woman affectionately known at Mother Pollard. After having walked for several weeks during the boycott to her job, she was asked if she was tired. King says she answered with ungrammatical profundity, “My feets is tired, but my soul is rested”. On a particular Monday evening, following a tension packed week with included being arrested and receiving numerous threatening phone calls, King spoke at a mass meeting. He was trying to express courage and strength, but he said inwardly he felt depressed and fear stricken. At the end of the meeting Mother Pollard came to the front of the church and said, “Come here, Son”. He went right over and hugged her and she said, “Something is wrong with you, you didn’t talk strong tonight”. Seeking to disguise his fears, King answered, “Oh no, Mother Pollard, nothing is wrong, I am feeling as fine as ever.” But she saw past his lie and said, “Now you can’t fool me, I knows something is wrong. Is it that we ain’t doing things to please you? Or is it that the white folks is bothering you?” Before King could respond, she looked directly into his eyes and said, “I don told you we is with you all the way.” Then her face became radiant and she said in words of quiet certainty, “But even if we ain’t with you, God’s gonna take care of you.” As she spoke those words, King wrote that everything in him quivered and quickened with raw energy. He never forgot that night, though he went to face much more fearful times. “God’s gonna take care of you.” Mother Pollard is in the tradition of the Psalmist who wrote, “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let you heart take courage; Yea, wait for the Lord.” I believe the only final cure for fear is faith. The end with the old motto that used to hang in the homes of believers; “Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. There was no one there.” 2650 Table Mesa Drive
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