Alright, I’ll now read our text which is taken from Psalm 56. Psalm 56. So, I’m reading here from the New King James Version. Some of you are using the ESV, so there’ll be some variation or differences. So, Psalm 56, now let me just first read the superscription or the title of the Psalm. “To the Chief Musician” (or the choirmaster) set to the tune “The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath”.

Now verse 1: “Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; Fighting all day he oppresses me. My enemies would hound me all day, for there are many who fight against me, O Most High. Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me? All day they twist my words; All their thoughts are against me for evil. They gather together, they hide, they mark my steps, when they lie in wait for my life. Shall they escape by iniquity? In anger cast down the peoples, O God!

You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle; Are they not in Your book? When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; This I know, because God is for me. In God (I will praise His word), In the LORD (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? Vows made to You are binding upon me, O God; I will render praises to You, For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?”

Alright, this is the text that we are going to look at this morning. Let me just first comment on the title which I have given to this exaltation. My title is: “What Can “Virus” Do to Me?”. Now I’ve taken the title from verse 4 and verse 11, and you can see in verse 4, the end there: “What can flesh do to me?”. The word ‘flesh’ there means mortal. Now, what can mortals do to me? And that is repeated in verse 11. The end of verse 11, it says: “What can men do to me?”. So, I’ve replaced the word ‘flesh’ and ‘men’ with the word ‘virus. Perhaps that is in many of our minds today: What can “virus” do to me?

In fact, you can replace that word with anything that threatens your life. Perhaps you can word it like what can “cancer” do to me, or what can “my boss” do to me, or anything that you fear. Now let me first perhaps begin by qualifying what David is not saying- what David is not saying. Now what David is not saying is this. He’s not saying that men or diseases cannot do anything to him. In other words, David is not here acting in kind of a bravado, kind of when we say “gangho” alright, or taunting his enemies. He is not taunting flesh and men or the dangers in his life. He’s not taunting the viruses. He is not saying: “Come lah! I’m not afraid of you. I’m not scared of you.”.

Now I have in recent weeks heard preachers saying something like this. One of the preachers I’ve heard exhorted his church members saying that we Christians should not be afraid of Covid-19. The virus can do nothing to us, and we can just trust because we are Christians. He said that this is the time to trust, not a time to run away. And with that, he encouraged his congregation to continue to congregate as a church every Sunday, not fearing the virus. Now to me, that is foolishness. That is not what the Bible is teaching here, and that is not what David is saying. He’s not taunting at the viruses or at his enemies here. And so, what is he saying here? Well, what he is saying here is kind of summed up in verse 3.

And so, verse 3 is in a sense the key verse of this chapter. Verse 3 is a summary of what the psalmist is trying to say. In verse 3, he says: “When I am afraid, I will trust in You”. In other words, he says he is afraid. But when he is afraid, what did he do? Now that is the important question. That is the more important question here: When you are afraid, what do you do? Now, aren’t we afraid in some sense? If not, why are you in lockdown? Why are you keeping a distance from people? Why are you wearing face masks? Why are you using hand sanitizer? Why do you buy lots of toilet paper? Now all this is just an indication that, perhaps in some ways or to some degree, we are afraid.

And so, I have two points here in this passage, in this chapter here. Now first, it’s to underscore the point that David was afraid. David was afraid. That is point number one. And we can see here in this psalm. So, he tells us that he was afraid. And then point number two, he tells us what did he do. So, the first thing is he was afraid, but the question is: Why was he afraid? Why was David afraid? Now to understand why he was in fear and why he was afraid, we need to understand the context. The superscription gives us a hint or tells us the context for this psalm. Now we can actually cross-reference back to First Samuel chapter 20 to see that context. So, let us now turn to First Samuel and chapter 20.

Now let me first of all read verse 1. 1 Samuel 20:1. Now we are told here: “Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and went and said to Jonathan, “What have I done? What is my iniquity, and what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?”. So, David is fleeing. He is running away from danger, and that danger is Jonathan’s father, Saul, who sought to kill David. And David understood the real danger. He understood his life was in real danger because we read in verse 3. 1 Samuel 20:3- “Then David took an oath again, and said, “Your father certainly knows that I have found favour in your eyes, and he has said, ‘Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.’ But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.”.

By saying that there is a step between me and death, now David is underscoring the danger that he was in. He was so near to death that many people today perhaps are sensing that danger. They are so near to death. Perhaps in the sense every day in our life we ought to sense and know of that danger, that life is so fragile and it’s so easy for us to die. But at perhaps certain times in our life, now that is particularly impressed upon us. Perhaps at this time in our life when we have a pandemic like this that this reality, this truth is impressed upon our life that is but a step between me and death. And so, David understood the danger that he was in. And so, he was running away.

And then in the following chapter, First Samuel chapter 21, we find him running to what he thought would be a place of safety, to the town of the priests. So, in chapter 21 of First Samuel and verse 1, we are told here that David came to Nob, to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech was afraid when he met David, and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one is with you?”. Everybody knows that David was in danger and that Saul wanted to kill him. And here, the priest knew about that. And so, he was wondering. He was afraid when David came to him. And when David was in this town of Nob, the town of the priests, now he was also put in further danger when there was a spy in the town, for we read the same chapter, chapter 21 and verse 7.

Verse 7, we are told here that “a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the LORD. And his name was Doeg, an Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belonged to Saul.”. Here is one of Saul’s spies, perhaps, or in a sense, and he was there, and he witnessed the whole thing. He saw David hiding in this town of the priests. And we know later on in the following chapter, in chapter 22 what happened when Saul learned of that, learned of David going to Ahimelech. And so, in chapter 22 and verse 9, the spy reported to the king. Verse 9 of chapter 22: “Then answered Doeg the Edomite, who was set over the servants of Saul, and said, “I saw the son of Jesse going to Nob, to Ahimelech the son of Ahitub.”.

So, he reported to Saul, and Saul sought to kill David by eliminating the priests. So, in verses 18 and 19, the same chapter (chapter 22). Verse 18: “And the king said to Doeg, “You turn and kill the priests!” So Doeg the Edomite turned and struck the priests, and killed on that day eighty-five men who wore the linen ephod.” Verse 19: “Also Nob, the city of the priests, he struck with the edge of the sword, both men and women, children and nursing infants, oxen and donkeys and sheep—with the edge of the sword.” We know that this man, Doeg, was a merciless man. He did perhaps more than what he was asked to do. He killed everybody, in a sense, in the city of Nob. Now that was David. His life was in danger, trying to run away from Saul, but was discovered.

And so, he knew that he had to continue to run, he knew that his life is in great danger. But where could he run to? Now sometimes that is our question. We are in danger, but where can we run to? So David, in his desperation, we are told. Now we look back to the previous chapter, chapter 21 of First Samuel. Now we learned that David, now in panic and in a state of fear, he ran to a city called Gath. Verse 10 of chapter 21 of First Samuel says this: “Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish the king of Gath.”.

Verse 11: And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is this not David the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying: ‘Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands’?”. We know that that saying or song was sung because David defeated the enemies of Israel, the Philistines, by killing their hero Goliath. And therefore, the Israelites praised him. And the servants of Achish, the king of Gath, saw that. They recognised David. They recognized that David was that man who killed their hero, and that man is now in their land. And so, in verse 12, 1 Samuel 21:12. Now when David realises that; when he realised that the enemies actually recognised him, we are told in verse 12: “Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath.”.

So here is David in Gath. Here he is running away from Saul. Here he is in a state of panic and fear. And in desperation, having nowhere to run to, he runs to the enemy’s land. Now back to Psalm 56. Psalm 56. Now it is in that context that we should see Psalm 56, and that is spelled out in the superscriptions of this psalm or the title of this psalm. And therefore, let me just read the title again: “To the chief musician set to the tune “The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A Michtam of David when the Philistines captured him in Gath”. He was in Gath. He was surrounded by his enemies or seized by his enemies, and David was afraid.

Now we see why David was afraid, why he was in deep fear. He was afraid because he knew what men could do to him. He knew what Saul could do to him. He knew that Saul could kill him. He knew what Achish, the king of Gath could do to him. Now you see, David saw the danger as they really were. And perhaps today we should say the same. We should say that men can do a lot to us. We should understand that a virus can do a lot to us. A virus can cause breathing difficulty. It can cause muscle ache and it can kill. It can kill, and that is what we are seeing every day. The virus is killing people every day. And so, David was afraid. But how afraid was he? How afraid was he?

Now he tells us in the first two verses of Psalm 56. He is trying to use words to describe his fears. I’m not sure what words would you use to describe your fear, but these are the words of David. Look at verse 1. He says: “Be merciful (or be gracious to me), O God, for man would swallow me up”. He sees the enemies around him. He sees the king of Gath. He sees his commanders. He sees his soldiers, and he understands that they can swallow him up. And then he says in verse 2: “My enemies would hound me (or tremble upon me) all day”. Like it is a constant danger every day. Every moment, he senses danger around him. These people are pressing on him. And then he also says in verse 2: “For there are many who fight against me”.

So, his enemies are not few but many. It’s not just one single danger, but all around him are dangerous. And then in verse 6, he says: “They gather together, they hide, they mark my steps, They lie in wait for my life.”. Now he says that they lie in wait for my life. They are always around him. They are gathering, they are scheming, and they are constantly trying to take his life. Now that is the way David described his fear. He wants us to understand the great danger that he was in. I think there is perhaps no need for us to help people understand the great danger perhaps we are in. And that, in some ways, should make us understand our fear. David did not deny his fear, he was not in a state of denial.

Now sometimes we can be in a state of denial. We can just say: “No. No. No. I’m okay. There’s no danger.”. Now David is not doing that. David is saying that there is danger all around me. I’m so close to death. I’m in enemy territory. It’s almost like what we see here. He is jumping from the frying pan into the fire. It is an act of desperation. We know that there are people today are doing desperate things to try to save themselves. But just, perhaps, two more things to note about the danger or the fear that David finds himself, or David is having here. I think, together with all these, we find that he was alone. When he went to Nob, remember the priests, Ahimelech, asked him: Where are your people? Why are you alone?

You see, he fled from Saul without soldiers, without weapon, and without food. And that’s the reason why he went to Nob- to ask Ahimelech for help. Being alone in the time of trouble is terrible. Now I can think of perhaps people today in times of trouble, and they are facing those troubles alone. And that’s what we find David’s situation here. But not only he was alone in this terrible time of trouble, but he was also trapped. There’s no way to escape. There was nowhere to run to. Could he run back to his own country? Could he run to the city of Nob? There was a spy there. Could he run to the enemy land, Gath? There was nowhere to run to, and that’s the reason why he found himself in Gath.

Is there a place we perhaps could run to today? Maybe over to Singapore, to the Philippines, to Italy, to Spain, to France, to England? Where could we run to? And that is the situation of David here. And now, we understand why he was afraid. Now we understand why, in a sense, he was in desperation. He was in a state of perhaps panic. And that’s the reason why, if you continue reading on in First Samuel 21, you read him of pretending to be a madman, to act as deranged. Perhaps that’s the only thing people can do, to act as mad, as deranged. But that is David in the state of fear. Now that leads to the question. As I said, perhaps it’s not difficult for us at this time to not just sympathise but empathise with David, to understand the fear that he was in.

But that leads us to the all-important question that this psalm is addressing. The all-important question that this psalm is answering, and that is: What did David do when he was afraid? What did David do when he was afraid? What do you do when you are afraid? Now I said, verse 3 kind of sums up David’s point here. He says: “When I am afraid, I will trust in You”. When I am afraid, I will trust in you. You see, when in fear, David did not trust in men. When in fear, he did not trust in some circumstances, nor did he trust in his cleverness to overcome his own problem. He was at the end of himself. He, in all his brilliance, in all his cleverness, he could not get out of this situation. Now that is what he understood here.

And David’s confidence, therefore, is not in all these things- man, in circumstances, or in his cleverness. His confidence, he tells us is in God and God alone. His confidence, he tells us in verse 4. In verse 4: “In God (I will praise His word), In God I trust”. He tells us again; he repeats that in verse 11: In God I trust; I will not be afraid.”. In God, in God, in God, and that is what he is saying here in this psalm. Are you in fear? Are you afraid? Then he says there is a place to run to. Not Nob, not Gath, but God. Now that begs the question: Why? What is the basis of David’s trust? David says I trust in God, but what is the basis of his trust?

In other words, what makes him trust in God, or why did he trust in God at a time like this? Now there are three reasons of the basis of David’s trust or confidence in God, and and they are these. Number one, it’s because of God’s Word- because of God’s Word. In verse 4, he says: “In God”. In the ESV, it translates as “whose word I praise”. In God, whose word I praise. And the word there refers to the revelation of God. David, he had the revelation of God in his days, perhaps not like we. We have the complete revelation of God. David perhaps had the Torah. He had the book of Moses, but he had the Word of God. And that is what he understands. Again, he repeats that in verse 10: “In God (whose word I praise), in the LORD (whose word I praise)”.

Can you see his constant emphasis in the Word of God? He says, in other words, that we can trust God because of His revelation, because of what He has revealed to us. What has God revealed to us? What has God said to us, that we can trust in Him? Have you never read the Scriptures? Don’t you remember any portion of Scripture that can bring you comfort, give you encouragement at a time like this? And David is saying here I can. I can trust in God because I remember what He said. Now let’s perhaps look at one or two passages in the Scripture. Look, for example, to Genesis chapter 15. Genesis 15:1. What has God said to us? In Genesis 15:1, now listen to these precious words of God.

Verse 1 of Genesis 15 says: “After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”. And David remembers this. David is a man of God’s Word. He understood. He has read the revelation of God. And perhaps, this is a time when we should do this especially. We should always be reading the Word of God. But perhaps at a time like this, we should especially be reading the Word of God because it is in the Word of God we have such an assurance. Now listen to what God said to Abram. He said I am your shield, so do not be afraid. God is the One who will shield us. In other words, He is our protector. If God is our protector, what else do we need?

We don’t need all the, I mean, not just the other things to protect us, but most of all, we need God to be our shield and to be our protector. And as David reads the Word of God, he gains comfort and encouragement, knowing that God is his protector when his life was being pursued, when he was just but a step between life and death. But there is another portion of Scripture. I say we have more than the Old Testament. We also have the New Testament. Now turn with me now to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew, in chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10, and I want to read here the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in verse 29. Matthew 10:29.

Now listen to what Jesus said: “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.” Verse 30: “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore, do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows.”. It’s worth reading this again, is it not? Jesus said: “Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” If God cares for one little sparrow, will He not care for us, His children, because we are of more value of not just one, but of many, many sparrows?

David remembers the revelation of God. David has the Word of God. And when he reads the Word of God, he gains comfort and encouragement by the fact that God is his shield and protector, and the fact that God cares for us because we are of value to Him. We are precious to God. So that is the basis of David’s confidence in God. It is His Word. It is what God has said to us. But there is another basis, another reason why David was confident in God, why he trusts in God. And the second reason is this, it is His love. It is not only His Word but also His love. His love. Now back to Psalm 56. Psalm 56. And when I was reading this psalm just now, I hope you did not miss these words in verse 8- these words in verse 8.

Note what the psalmist says here when he says I will trust in God because of His Word. Then he says I would trust in God because “You numbered my wonderings” and “You put my tears into Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?” In other words, David is saying here God is not absent at times like these. It is not that God doesn’t know or doesn’t care. In fact, this verse is underscoring the fact that God cares. God takes note of every suffering of ours. Every danger that we are in, God knows, and He cares. He knows the pain that you suffer. He knows your tears. And we are told here that He bottled up all those tears, and He keeps them. He says I know when you’re in pain.

In other words, David is saying I can trust in God because He loves me. He cares for me. Perhaps at this point, you might be reminded of another psalm- Psalm 23, and that is what David is basically saying. “The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.” The Lord is the One who keeps me. The Lord is the One who guides me. The Lord is the One who provides for me. The Lord is the One who preserves and protects me. That’s what Psalm 23 is saying, and David knows that. Do you know something of this, about your God, that He loves you? Do you know that? Now, look at verse 9 what verse 9 says here as David continues: “When I cry out to You, then my enemies will turn back; this I know”.

Now that is the confidence that David had. When he was in fear, he said I know something that will bring comfort to me. What is that that David knows? He says: “and this I know, because God is for me”. God is for me. Now do you know what David knew here? And that is so very important for people to go through a time like this. And only for the people of God because for people who do not know God, they have not this assurance. So, if you do not know this God, perhaps you might want to spend some time today and to ponder about this. Do you know God? Do you know that He cares? Do you have a relationship with Him? Can you say like David that God is for you?

Now the Apostle Paul echoes the same truth in his letter to the Romans. And so, please turn with me to what Paul says in his epistle to the Romans and chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, and here is basically what David is also saying. And Paul, as I said, Romans 8 is also in the context of suffering because Paul says in verse 18: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”. He’s thinking of suffering. The whole creation is groaning, he tells us. But then he says in this context of sufferings, what do we know? Verse 28, he says: “and we know”. There is something that a Christian knows that a non-Christian doesn’t.

He says we know. “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God”. Yes, only to those who love God, “to those who are called according to His purpose”. You see, Christians are people who have been called by God, and we are called according to His purpose. And everything that happens to us has a reason, has a purpose. It is to fulfil that purpose of His calling. And so today we know that there is a purpose for what is happening to our lives. So, I want to ask again. Paul says: “and we know”. Do you know? Do you know verse 31? Do you know that “what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Do you know that truth that if God is for us, who can be against us?

Do you know what Paul says in verse 35: “Who shall separate?” “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Do you know something of what Paul says in verse 38: “For I am persuaded”? I know, he says. I’m convinced “that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”. Do you know anything about the love of God? Now you might say: How do I know that God loves me? How do you know that God loves me? Now Paul says this is how we know. This is how we know that God loves you.

Verse 32, same chapter. Verse 32: “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”. Paul said this is how we know that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. God has given His own Son. He has delivered Him up for us all. Now how can we say that God does not love us? And so, the basis of David’s confidence is first of all the Word of God. And secondly, the love of God. But there is a third reason why David trusts in God and why we should too. And the third reason. Back to Psalm 56, and I now draw your attention to verse 13, the last verse of the psalm.

Psalm 56:13. Now listen. David says: “For You have delivered my soul from death. Have You not kept my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?”. What is David saying here? Now David is saying that I can trust in God because of my experience of past deliverances- my experience of past deliverances. You have delivered my soul from death. If you have been a Christian for any period of time, I’m sure you can say this of yourself that you have experienced God’s goodness in the past. You have experienced His deliverance. Now listen to what David writes in Psalm 37 concerning the same thing when he reflects on God’s goodness in the past. He says in Psalm 37:25.

Psalm 37:25- “I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.”. Now David said this is my testimony. This is my experience with my God. He says I’m now an old man, but I can tell you this that all through my years as a Christian, as a child of God, I have not seen the righteous forsaken. I have not seen the righteous forsaken. Now that is what David is saying. I can trust in God because He has been good to me, and I know that. I have experienced the goodness of God in my life. Again, Paul. Now I can constantly refer to Paul as I studied David because he has such similar experiences in his own life.

Paul can say the same thing because when he wrote to the Corinthians in Second Corinthians and chapter 1. 2 Corinthians 1:8-10. Verses 8 through 10. Now listen to what Paul says. 2 Corinthians 1:8- “For we do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, of our trouble which came to us in Asia: that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life. Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us, you also helping together in prayer for us, that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the gift granted to us through many.”.

Did you hear what Paul is saying here? Do you hear what he says in verses 9 and 10? He says that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead. And verse 10: “who delivered us from so great a death, and does deliver us; in whom we trust that He will still deliver us.”. He delivered us in the past, He does deliver us in the present, and He will still deliver us in the future. God is a deliverer. He is the One who will save us. Now perhaps you might ask: What are, perhaps, some of the past experiences that one may have? Can you not think of one? I can think of many. I can think, most of all, that God had delivered my soul from eternal damnation.

There was a day many, many years ago. I was still a teenager. Now, someone came to me and preached the gospel to me, and God delivered me. He opened up my eyes to see the state of my soul. He helped me see the wondrous truth about the Saviour. He put that faith in me to trust in Him. He has delivered me from the greatest of all danger. And all through my life, in fact, I can remember many how He has delivered me from physical danger. I remember once, I was swimming in the river with some of my friends, and the current was flowing. I was kind of losing grip, about to be carried by the currents. Somehow, I managed to scramble to safety.

God had delivered me. God had delivered me from hunger, from starvation because it is God who provided for me every day of my life. Every day that I survive, it is because of God’s deliverance. Now is it not true also for you that every day that you survive, it’s not because of yourself, it’s not because of people around us, it’s not because of our circumstances? It’s because God has delivered us. Now that is what David is saying here that when I am afraid, I will trust in God. I will trust in God. Why? Because He is trustworthy, because of His Word, because of His love, and because of His past deliverances. And so, let me come to the end of this exaltation by asking again: What can men do to me? What can a virus do to us?

Let me tell you, they can do a lot to us and cause us to have a fever, as I say, muscle aches, breathing difficulty, and even death. Men can hurt us. Men can maim us. Men can kill us. In a sense- in a certain sense, we should fear. But there is something that we should even fear more. And so, I want to end with the words of our Lord Jesus here when He speaks of fear. I wanna end with the Gospel of Luke, and chapter 12. The Gospel of Luke and chapter 12, and I draw your attention to what the Lord Jesus said in verses 4 and the first part of verse 5. Verses 4 and the first part of verse 5.

Verse 4, Jesus said: “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who can kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him”. Fear Him. Now I say, it’s not that men cannot kill us or a virus cannot kill us, and Jesus acknowledges that here. He says that they can kill us, but He says that is all that they can do. That is all that they can do to kill us physically. But Jesus says in verse 5 but I will show you whom you should fear more. You should fear God. You should fear God. Why?

Because He says in the second part of verse 5, you should “fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!”. It is amazing to see people today in a state of panic and fear because of a virus, because of perhaps war, because of physical danger around us, and yet they have not recognised that they are in greater danger than just physical harm, than just physical death. Jesus says we should perhaps have experienced fear at this period of time to remember that there is a far greater danger that we are faced with, and that is eternal damnation.

And Jesus does not shy away from using the word ‘hell’. He says fear Him who after He has killed has power to cast into hell. Now hell is a terrible place. It’s a worse suffering than all the sufferings that we see in the world today. It’s far, far worse, and Jesus is reminding us of that. Perhaps, today, that is what we should be reminded of as we face danger all around us, to be reminded of a far greater danger that all humanity is in danger of. And that perhaps in a spiritual sense, we should be all in a spiritual lockdown to take stock of our lives and to turn back to God in repentance.

May the Lord bless all of you. And I hope that you can later break up again in your families to pray, perhaps over this passage of Scripture, and perhaps to pray that God will help us to use this to share of the gospel with people around us who are in deep fear, to turn their attention to God.

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.