“Fear not” is a common command in the Bible although it does NOT occur 365 times as some allege. Sounds good: “One for each day in the year,” but someone made that up. (Isn’t that called lying?) Anyway, it’s a common theme that if we trust God, we need not be afraid.

It’s the theme of Psalm 56 where once again, David is in a tight spot:

To the Chief Musician. Set to “The Silent Dove in Distant Lands.” A Michtam of David When the Philistines Captured Him in Gath. (Psalm 56, Introduction, NKJV)

And, as always, David resorts to prayer:

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. (Psalm 56.1, 2, NKJV)

And then the theme. What to do when we’re in a tight spot and afraid?

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? (Psalm 56.3 – 4, NKJV)

A good word. “I will not fear.” I wrote about that from Psalm 46 recently.

It repeats…don’t miss it!

…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? (Psalm 56.9 – 11, NKJV)

Can life be lived that way? YES! It’s worthwhile to review what I quoted from the Russian democracy advocate Alexei Navalny:

Are you a disciple of the religion whose founder sacrificed himself for others, paying the price for their sins? Do you believe in the immortality of the soul and the rest of that cool stuff? If you can honestly answer yes, what is there left for you to worry about? 

I’ve always loved Psalm 55 even though the subject is unpleasant: Persecution from one’s “friends.”

For it is not an enemy who reproaches me; Then I could bear it. Nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me; Then I could hide from him. But it was you, a man my equal, My companion and my acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, And walked to the house of God in the throng. (Psalm 55.12 – 14, NKJV)

It’s the proposed solution that always grabs my attention. Have you ever felt like this?

So I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander far off, And remain in the wilderness. Selah  (Psalm 55.6, 7, NKJV)

But the real solution is, as always, prayer:

As for me, I will call upon God, And the LORD shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, And He shall hear my voice. He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, For there were many against me. God will hear, and afflict them, Even He who abides from of old.

Selah (Psalm 55.16 – 19, NKJV)

And there’s a solution, one I memorized decades ago along with verse 6:

Cast your burden on the LORD, And He shall sustain you; He shall never permit the righteous to be moved. (Psalm 55.22, NKJV)

There’s a new Pope, as I wrote last week. He goes by Leo although I think of him as “Pope Bob” since we share the same first name as well as a common interest in mathematics! (He was born Robert “Bob” Prevost in Chicago and has a BS in mathematics from Villanova.)

I prefer not to set up an adversarial relationship with either Roman Catholics or their Pope. He’s shared some powerful truth already, applicable to us all. Here’s a sample:

• We are often preoccupied with teaching doctrine. We risk forgetting that our first task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ and to bear witness to our closeness to the Lord. This comes first: to communicate the beauty of the faith, the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus. It means that we ourselves are living it and sharing this experience. (Christianity Today, May 9, 2025)
• It is the holiness of the church’s members, not its grand chapels and monuments, that sheds this light on the world by declaring the Lord’s wonderful deeds. (World Magazine, May 9, 2025)
• There are many settings in which the Christian faith is considered absurd, meant for the weak and unintelligent. Settings where other securities are preferred, like technology, money, success, power, or pleasure. They are the places where our missionary outreach is desperately needed. (Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2025)
• Christians must bear witness to Christ in the world God entrusted to us. One needs a personal relationship and daily conversation with the Lord to do this. (World Magazine, May 9, 2025)

You are the light of the world… (Matthew 5.14, ESV)

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…that I may know him… (Philippians 3.8, 10, ESV)

O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice… (Psalm 5.3, ESV)

Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God. (Psalm 20.7, ESV)

If I have made gold my trust or called fine gold my confidence… (Job 31.24, ESV)

As we began to read the Psalms, I reminded us not to miss the inspired introductions, which are actually part of the text. There’s a lesson to be learned from the successive introductions in Psalms 51 and 52.

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David When Nathan the Prophet Went to Him, After He Had Gone in to Bathsheba.

Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. (Psalm 51.0 – 2, NKJV)

To the Chief Musician. A Contemplation of David When Doeg the Edomite Went and Told Saul, and Said to Him, “David Has Gone to the House of Ahimelech.”

Why do you boast in evil, O mighty man? The goodness of God endures continually. Your tongue devises destruction, Like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. You love evil more than good, Lying rather than speaking righteousness. Selah (Psalm 52.0 -3, NKJV)

A simple lesson:

David prays or “contemplates” in every circumstance.

In Psalm 51, David is confronted with his sin, and his response is to pray – confess. In Psalm 52, David is betrayed by Doeg the Edomite, and his response is to pray and contemplate the existence of evil in men.

…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit… (Ephesians 6.18, NKJV)

Psalm 51 is the classic passage on David’s confession after being confronted by Nathan. The inspired introduction is clear:

To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David When Nathan the Prophet Went to Him, After He Had Gone in to Bathsheba. (Psalm 51, introduction, NKJV)

The psalm is worth the read in its entirety, of course, and I encourage you do so: Psalm 51. I want to focus on what I’ve come to believe is an often misunderstood text:

Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. (Psalm 51.5, NKJV)

The verse is most often thought of as a confirmation of Biblical teaching on original sin:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned. (Romans 5.12, NKJV)

But it’s possible, perhaps even more likely, that David is speaking of being a product of an adulterous relationship:

Pastor Ed Rowell presented evidence in a sermon back in 2013 that King David was likely the product of an affair. That would explain why his brothers didn’t like him and why he was relegated to tending sheep (a low-status position). Look it up: David had two sisters, Abigail and Zeruiah (1 Chronicles 2.13 – 17), whose father was Nahash (2 Samuel 17.25, 26). Ed believes that Jesse had an affair with Nahash’s wife, producing David. Later, Jesse must have married her, and she brought her two daughters into the mix. (You can’t make this stuff up!)

Ed believed that we wrongly tend to spiritualize Psalm 51.5. “Sure, we’re all born in sin, ever since the Fall.” But the language is plain, and David is saying something about himself.

And he’s saying something very important: it doesn’t matter what our background is. God can and does use any of us. For that, we can be thankful.

I first wrote about this back on May 11, 2020. I am the product of an out of wedlock relationship. My mother was a 40-year-old unmarried Army nurse, who gave me up for adoption. My pastor friend, Bob Kaylor, now serving a church in Pennsylvania, also adopted, was the product of an adulterous relationship between two officers, not in the US army, but in the Salvation Army!

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead… (Philippians 3.13, ESV)

So we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together to fit into God’s perfect plan of bringing good into our lives, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose. For he knew all about us before we were born and he destined us from the beginning to share the likeness of his Son. This means the Son is the oldest among a vast family of brothers and sisters who will become just like him. (Romans 8.28, 29, Passion Translation)

Happy Mother’s Day! Your work is important…

Household management:

She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her: “Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.” Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, And let her own works praise her in the gates. (Proverbs 31.27 – 31, NKJV)

Teaching:

Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. (Titus 2.3 – 5, ESV)

Raising the next generation of Christian leaders. Paul wrote to Timothy:

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. (2 Timothy 1.5 – 7, ESV)

Thank you!

PS The high view of women and mothers, as presented in the Bible, is not universally held. I just finished a novel by the late Michael Crichton, The Great Train Robbery, inspired by events in Victorian England in the 1850s. The book gives us glimpses into London society, where, as the teaser for the book starts:

London, 1855, when lavish wealth and appalling poverty exist side by side…

Another theme is the station of women at that time. They were considered to be emotional creatures with no intellect put on earth solely to serve men. Michael Crichton points out the absurdity of that position:

The belief in a biologically determined personality in both men and women was accepted to some extent by nearly everyone at all levels of Victorian society, and that belief was held in the face of all sorts of incongruities. A businessman could go off to work each day, leaving his “unreasoning” wife to run an enormous household, a businesslike task of formidable proportions; yet the husband never viewed his wife’s activities in that way. (Page 323)

Again, thank all you mothers for your work. It’s important AND difficult!

Psalm 49 warns us about not trusting in wealth, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t wealthy people who are also generous. Job comes to mind! (Please see the blog on Job 31.)

Last Saturday, the Denver Nuggets basketball team played the Los Angeles Clippers in Denver in a winner-take-all game 7. (Nuggets won handily and have advanced to the next round.)

That’s not what this blog is about. It’s about Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft and owner of the Clippers. Here’s the headline and sub headline from a surprising Denver Post article:

Clippers owner Steve Ballmer flies 125 L.A. fans to build ‘The Wall’ at Ball Arena

Before crucial Saturday Game 7, Nuggets met with a shock: 125 Clippers fans, sitting behind baseline, flown out on a charter by owner Steve Ballmer

The article starts:

On Friday, Los Angeles season-ticket holders David Evans and Paul Boulos — and 123 other bastions of “The Wall,” the Intuit Dome’s famed baseline section that specializes in free-throw distraction — had an email pop into their inbox from the Clippers. It stated, as they recounted roughly, that owner Steve Ballmer had selected them to fly out to Denver to invade enemy turf for Game 7.

Ballmer, they said, chartered a bus. Chartered a plane. Paid for 125 tickets. And so 125 Los Angeles agents met for a secret mission Saturday at the West Garage of the Intuit Dome, fan Mason Cook said and headed for LAX, where a jet awaited to bring a special dash of L.A. mania to Denver on Saturday.

Amazing. One of the recipients observed:

That’s unheard of, first off, for an owner of an NBA team to even recognize his fans like this. Second, who do you call to say, “I want 125 tickets, a charter plane, and three charter buses to get these people to the arena?“

“I’ll tell you who,” Boulos interjected, standing beside him. “Steve Ballmer does it. ‘Cause ain’t nobody else in the world can do that.”

There aren’t many who could have done that. In the secondary market, tickets in that section for Game 3 of the upcoming series with Oklahoma are going for around $250 (Game 7 would be much higher). But 125 tickets at $250 each would come to more than $30,000. Plus three charter buses, plus a plane.

I’m impressed.

Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely, who conducts his affairs with justice. (Psalm 112.3 – 5, NIV1984)

There aren’t many passages that point to the futility of making wealth a life goal any better than Psalm 49…

Hear this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world, Both low and high, Rich and poor together…Why should I fear in the days of evil, When the iniquity at my heels surrounds me? Those who trust in their wealth And boast in the multitude of their riches, None of them can by any means redeem his brother, Nor give to God a ransom for him… (Psalm 49.1, 2, 5 – 7, NKJV)

The message is for everyone, how and high, rich and poor. What message?

For he sees wise men die; Likewise the fool and the senseless person perish, And leave their wealth to others. Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever, Their dwelling places to all generations; They call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man, though in honor, does not remain; He is like the beasts that perish. (Psalm 49.10 – 12, NKJV)

Didn’t get it the first time? The psalm closes…

Do not be afraid when one becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he shall carry nothing away; His glory shall not descend after him. Though while he lives he blesses himself (For men will praise you when you do well for yourself), He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They shall never see light. A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, Is like the beasts that perish. (Psalm 49.16 – 20, NKJV)

I had just gotten off the phone with a friend, encouraging him to watch Conclave, when I checked email and there was a news update:

News Alert: White smoke signals a new pope elected   White smoke has risen above the Sistine Chapel, the signal that cardinals have chosen a new pope on the second day of the conclave. His identity, and the name he will take as pontiff, will be revealed soon.

I turned on the TV and for the first time in my life saw the first appearance of a newly elected pope: Cardinal Robert Prevost, born in Chicago, the first American pope in history.

I immediately went to one of the articles I had saved of who the ten most likely cardinals to be selected were, and he is on that list at #6, a “dark horse.” ABC had Father James Martin, SJ, a well-published author, some of whose books we have read. Father Martin said over and over things like:

…humble, soft-spoken, but firm, forthright, kind

Not bad characteristics for a spiritual leader!

I like that he is a math major, same as I am!

Robert Prevost was born in Chicago in on September 14, 1955. He completed his secondary studies at the minor seminary of the Order of St. Augustine in 1973. Prevost earned a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics at Villanova University in 1977. – Wikipedia

He served as a missionary in Peru.

A Roman Catholic friend of mine wrote:

Jesus is the head of the Catholic Church, not the pope. He’s the vicar, but I put my trust in Jesus first.

Amen. May he serve well.

And [Jesus] is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. (Colossians 1.17, 18, ESV)

If you haven’t read Conclave by Robert Harris or seen the movie, now is the time to do so. I saw the movie advertised on television, read the book, listened to the book with June, and then we watched the movie. All good experiences which helped prepare us for the real Conclave, which begins today, May 7.

All the intrigue of the novel and the movie are there, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal: Real-Life Conclave Rivals Drama of Movie Version, May 4, 2025. It opens:

The scene opens with a cleric turning up uninvited to a secret meeting of cardinals, declaring his right to join the conclave to elect the next pope. Infighting among cardinals ensues, and dormant scandals are dredged up for political aims.

Wait, you might say, haven’t I seen this movie? It sounds like the intrigue-laden, Oscar-winning film “Conclave,” starring Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal who oversees a papal election beset by rivalries.

Except this is the real-life version. It, too, has an Anglophone prelate, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, an American steering the factious assembly.

There have been whispering campaigns against the front-runners—Cardinal Pietro Parolin, a 70-year-old Italian and career diplomat, and Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, 67, of the Philippines. The aim is to make them living proof of a conclave adage: He who enters a pope, leaves a cardinal. 

The article, worth the read in its entirety, goes on:

“Each scene is worth a thousand words,” said Cardinal Michael Czerny, a senior Vatican official…“It supplies everyone else with a whole lot of images, feelings and expressions to appreciate the conclave, which no amount of talking, reading can supply.”…The film’s portrayal of how cardinals go about the business of electing a pope—from the mundane details of cardinals’ dorm life to the Machiavellian maneuverings of conclave factions—isn’t entirely off base. 

Aside from the intrigue and drama inherent in a secret, elaborately choreographed process, why should we care? Carl Trueman, writing for World, the Christian, conservative, news magazine, explains:

The death of Pope Francis has captured the imagination of the wider world and perhaps inevitably raised the question of how Protestants should think about the papacy and the pending election of his successor.  In a sense, the pope has no direct significance for Protestant churches. Our churches have no analogous leadership position...

But the papacy should still be of interest to Protestants and the outcome of this election will have repercussions even for non-Catholics…

Protestantism benefits in several ways from strong and clear papal leadership. First, a vigorously Catholic pope, such as John Paul II or Benedict XVI, makes it easier to see where the points of alignment and the points of disagreement between Catholics and Protestants lie. On things such as the doctrine of God and, given our current sexual and gender chaos, the moral significance of the human body, Protestants have much to learn from Rome. And yet we must not lose sight of the serious differences on things such as the sacraments and the nature of justification that cannot be swept aside as trivia. A pope with a knowledge of, and commitment to, his own church’s theology, will make Protestants think more clearly about the importance of these similarities and differences.

Second, we must remember that the non-Christian world, whether that of the international stage or of our non-Christian neighbor, does not see the importance of doctrinal and ecclesiastical differences as we do. And that means that when they see the head of the largest church body in the world, they see a microcosm of what they consider Christians to be. A pope who is at least clear on basic issues such as gender and human sexuality—indeed, on what it means to be a creature made in God’s image—will benefit us all. Francis spoke with clarity on gender, but his mixed signals on sexuality and equivocal actions on child abuse served to weaken Christian witness across the spectrum.

That leads to a third reason for hoping that the next pope is a man of clear convictions. If the Roman Catholic Church squanders its legacy on questions of ethics, of what it means to be human, and of religious freedom, all churches, including Protestant ones, will suffer. Rome with its public profile and its power, intellectual and financial, provides cover for us all in wider society.

“Rome with its public profile and its power…provides cover for us all in wider society.” That’s why we should care, and therefore pray for the papal selection process.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. (1 Timothy 2.1, 2, ESV)

ALL in high positions, as I wrote on March 21, 2021.

PS Another World Magazine editorial, this one by Andrew T. Walker, makes the same point, closing with:

So yes, Protestants care who the next pope is. Not because we’re returning to Rome but because the West—our shared civilization—desperately needs a moral compass with courage and clarity. We pray, then, not for a pope who flatters the world, but for one who will stand against it in the name of truth. For the good of the shared moral witness. And for the good of the world.