He will not fear evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.
— Psalm 112:7
More often than not, we find ourselves on the receiving end of bad news. This is not an uncommon experience — it is simply a reality of life in a fallen world. We will encounter bad news. This is what the psalmist describes as evil tidings — a piece of information that does not meet our expectations, that catches us off guard, or that confirms our worst fears. It may come in the form of a financial setback, a health diagnosis, a broken relationship, or any number of other trials. Sooner or later, bad news will find us.
The Man Who Fears the LORD
The psalmist introduces us to a particular kind of person — the one who fears the Lord. He opens Psalm 112 with this description:
Praise the LORD! How blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments.
— Psalm 112:1
This is not an ordinary person. This is someone the psalmist calls blessed — and he is characterised by a delight in the commandments of God. He is a person who finds deep satisfaction in what God says. He rests fully upon the promises and counsel of God, trusting that God is a truth-teller who cannot lie.
Not Shaken by Bad News
What the psalmist then does in verse 7 is show us how this person — the one who fears God and delights in His commandments — responds when bad news arrives. And the answer is striking: he does not fear it.
Unlike most people around him, this man is not shaken when evil tidings come. Fear is the natural response to uncertainty and the unknown. When we do not know what tomorrow holds, when the situation around us feels unstable or threatening, fear is the instinctive reaction. We fear for our health. We fear for our finances. We fear what is happening in the economy, the possibility of war, disease, inflation, broken relationships, and broken trust. We live in an almost constant state of low-level anxiety about what may come.
But the man who fears the Lord operates on a different foundation entirely.
Verse 6 makes this explicit:
For he will never be shaken; the righteous will be remembered forever.
— Psalm 112:6
His heart is steadfast — a word that speaks of being firmly fixed, immovable, not given to wavering. And the reason for this steadfastness is not his own emotional resilience or his circumstances. It is because his full trust is placed in God — the God who created the universe, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and entirely good. His feet are planted on a rock that does not shift with changing financial circumstances, health crises, or relational upheaval. He stands on the immutable nature and unchanging promises of God.
For I, the LORD, do not change.
— Malachi 3:6
Trusting the God Who Ordains All Things
Finally, we are introduced to the nature of this person’s trust. The man who fears the Lord is one who reveres God — and to truly revere God is to place total trust in Him. When bad news comes, instead of spiralling into fear like everyone around him, this person runs back to God and entrusts himself entirely to Him.
He does this because he understands something profound — that the same God who ordained the bad news to come to pass is also the God who already knows how He will resolve everything that the bad news brings with it. He understands that God not only permitted this difficulty but has already seen through it to its end. This is what total trust in God actually looks like in practice — not the absence of hard circumstances, but the confidence that the God who governs all things is working through them for His glory and our good.
A Steadfast Heart
May we be a people who fears the Lord — who comes to Him in praise, adoration, and worship. For if we are such a people, then when evil tidings come, we will be the kind of people who can stand firm and persevere.
May the God of peace make us a people who does not fear evil tidings — a people whose hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
Amen.
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