“In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.”
The affirmation that in God the psalmist will praise God's word indicates that trust in God's reliable utterances and commitments is the antidote to fear and threat. The declaration that the psalmist's trust in God negates fear suggests that confidence in God is sufficient to overcome even serious external threat. The reference to the flesh (the mortal, physical self) emphasizes that the psalmist is acknowledging the reality of human vulnerability; what can flesh do, asking rhetorically, to permanently harm one who is grounded in God? This verse moves from fear to confidence, establishing that reliance on God's word transforms one's entire perspective on threat.
Church Fathers on Psalms 56:4
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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