“In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.”
The final affirmation that because God is for the psalmist, the supplicant will not fear what humans can do repeats and reinforces the fundamental claim of the entire psalm: divine support negates human threat. The condensed form of this final statement suggests the conclusive nature of the affirmation: this is not a tentative hope but a settled conviction that determines the entire orientation of the psalmist's life. The movement from the particular threat (enemies' persecution) to the universal principle (humans cannot harm one grounded in God) suggests that the psalm offers a vision applicable beyond the specific crisis. This verse closes the psalm with the reinforcement of its fundamental theological claim: God's presence is sufficient security against all human threat.
Church Fathers on Psalms 56:11
1. Just as when we are going to enter into any house, we look on the title to see whose it is and to whom it belongs, lest perchance inopportunely we burst into a place whereunto we ought not; and again, in order that we may not through timidity withdraw from that which we ought to enter: as if in a word we were to read, These estates belong to such an one or to such an one: so on the lintel of this Psalm we have inscribed, “At the end, for the people that from holy men were…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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