The LORD is for me; I will not fear;
What can man do to me?
— Psalm 118:6
One of the most pervasive fears we face as human beings is the fear of other people. We find ourselves in constant concern about what others think of us, what they say about us behind our backs, and what they might intend to do against us. We worry whether people look down on us, whether they regard us the way we think they should, and whether those who call themselves our friends are truly for us.
This concern is not a small thing — it touches almost every part of our lives. It shapes the schools we choose, the neighbourhoods we want to live in, the jobs we pursue, the way we speak, and even the kind of church we attend. The fear of man is like a dark cloud that never fully lifts.
The Fear We Cannot Escape
Beyond the general anxiety about what people think, there is also the deeper concern about what people might actually do to us. We know that not everyone likes us. We know we have enemies. And because we cannot fully see into the hearts of others, we are never entirely certain of their true intentions.
Jeremiah captures this reality plainly:
The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?
— Jeremiah 17:9
We simply cannot fully know what is in the heart of the people around us — and that uncertainty breeds fear.
God Is For Me
And yet the psalmist makes a startling declaration. He says he will not fear — and his reason is not that he is indifferent to people’s opinions, nor that he is blind to the enemies in his life. His confidence rests entirely on one thing: the LORD is for me.
This is the claim of one who has come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation — one whose sins have been atoned for through Christ’s finished work on the cross, who has been made a new creation, of whom the Bible says the old has gone and the new has come — one who has been called a child of God. Such a person can make exactly this claim. God is for them.
When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He told them to begin with these words:
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.
— Matthew 6:9
Our Father — that is a claim. It is a declaration that the Creator of the universe, the Alpha and the Omega, the one who was and is and is to come, is the Father of all who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul makes the same claim when writing to the Philippians:
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
— Philippians 4:19
My God — another claim. For every believer, this God is personal. He is theirs. And God being for us means that He is fighting our battles, supplying our needs, protecting us, and actively keeping us. Paul brings it to its most powerful expression in Romans 8:
If God is for us, who is against us?
— Romans 8:31
Fear Dissolved by a Greater Reality
This is precisely what the psalmist is doing. He places all the fear that comes from what people think and do on one side — and then he holds it up against the reality of God. The God who is the Creator of the universe. The God who is all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present, and entirely good. And when he makes that comparison, the conclusion is clear: there is no reason to fear.
May this be the same declaration we make — that regardless of what people think of us, regardless of the adversaries that rise up against us, regardless of the opinions men hold toward us, we can stand in the settled confidence that we have a Father in heaven who is watching over us continually.
Amen.
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