Faith Over Fear: Insights from Psalm 112:7-8

He will not be afraid of evil tidings;
His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

His heart is established;
He will not be afraid,
Until he sees his desire upon his enemies.

My Thoughts

The content reflects on Psalm 112:7-8, highlighting a steadfast heart that trusts in the Lord amidst adversity. The individual is portrayed as unafraid of bad news and evildoers, maintaining confidence in God’s ultimate justice and support. The commentaries below emphasize that true strength comes from reliance on God, which fosters courage and calmness in the face of life’s challenges. From this section, we understand that we will face difficulties in this life, but can rest assured knowing that the victory is the Lord’s and He will bring it to pass. Such faith assures believers that they will eventually overcome their enemies, finding peace and security through God’s promises……Bill

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Commentaries:

Charles Spurgeon

“He shall not be afraid of evil tidings.” He shall have no dread that evil tidings will come, and he shall not be alarmed when they do come. Rumors and reports he despises; prophecies of evil, vented by fanatical mouths, he ridicules; actual and verified information of loss and distress he bears with equanimity, resigning everything into the hands of God.

“His heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” He is neither fickle nor cowardly; when he is undecided as to his course he is still fixed in heart: he may change his plan, but not the purpose of his soul. His heart being fixed in solid reliance upon God, a change in his circumstances but slightly affects him; faith has made him firm and steadfast, and therefore if the worst should come to the worst, he would remain quiet and patient, waiting for the salvation of God.

“His heart is established.” His love to God is deep and true, his confidence in God is firm and unmoved; his courage has a firm foundation, and is supported by Omnipotence. He has become settled by experience, and confirmed by years. He is not a rolling stone, but a pillar in the house of the Lord.

“He shall not be afraid.” He is ready to face any adversary—a holy heart gives a brave face. “Until he see his desire upon his enemies.” All through the conflict, even till he seizes the victory, he is devoid of fear. When the battle wavers, and the result seems doubtful, he nevertheless believes in God and is a stranger to dismay. Grace makes him desire his enemies’ good: though nature leads him to wish to see justice done to his cause, he does not desire for those who injure him anything by way of private revenge.

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Enduring Word

He will not be afraid of evil tidings: Evil tidings are all around us, and come to us every day. Evil tidings may come to us from our family, from our health, from business, from the unfaithful, from the culture around us, or from politics. Yet the one who fears the LORD will not be afraid. (Guzik)

i. “There cannot be evil tidings to the soul which has fixed its trust in the Lord…. If tidings were to come to you today of disease, loss, bereavement, or death, they could not be evil if your heart dares to maintain a fixed trust in God; for such trust robs death of its sting and the grave of its victory. I cannot understand, but I can trust Him.” (Meyer)

ii. His heart is established: “‘His heart is propped up;’ he is buttressed up by the strength of his Maker.” (Clarke)

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Albert Barnes

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings – Of bad news; of reverses and losses; of the destruction of his ship at sea, or his property by land; of disaster by flood, by famine, by war. His heart will so fully confide in God that he can commit all calmly into his hands. He will feel assured that all will be well; that nothing occurs but that which the wisest and the best Being in the universe sees it best should occur; and that in all which “does” take place he is able to sustain the sufferer. There is nothing so well suited to make the mind calm as trust in God. What has a man to be afraid of who does trust in him? Compare Psalms 27:3; Psalms 46:2; Psalms 56:3-4; Hebrews 13:6; Proverbs 1:33.

His heart is fixed – Is firm; is established. See the notes at Psalms 57:7.

Trusting in the Lord – This is the reason “why” his heart is “fixed” or firm. It is not any native courage or resolution; it is not any firmness of his own; it is simply because he has confidence in God, and feels assured that all things will be well.

His heart is established – Sustained; upheld. This is the same idea, though somewhat varied in form. The word means to sustain; to support; and the idea is, that there is some basis of support – some strength – which is not his own.

He shall not be afraid – When he is assailed by enemies.

Until he see his desire upon his enemies – This implies that he had nothing really to fear. He would certainly overcome his foes; and in the meantime, he might look calmly on all their efforts to destroy him, for those efforts would be vain. So the believer now looks calmly on all his spiritual foes. He has nothing to fear, for he will overcome them all; he will certainly triumph; he will trample them all under his feet. He may well, therefore, endure these conflicts for a brief period, for the issue is certain, and the conflict will soon come to an end.

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John Gill

He shall not be afraid of evil tidings,…. Either respecting things temporal; the death of friends, loss of substance, public calamities, wars and rumors of wars, commotions, confusions, convulsions, and revolutions in states, kingdoms, and nations, Psalm 46:1 or things spiritual; such as are brought to him by Satan; that he is a hypocrite, and the root of the matter is not in him; for he knows him to be a liar, and the father of lies; or by his own unbelieving heart: or what will befall the churches of Christ, and the interest of religion, in the latter day; as that the outward court shall be given to the Gentiles; that the witnesses shall be slain, and an hour of temptation shall come upon all the earth, and such a time of tribulation as has not yet been; for he knows that the saints, will be kept in it, and carried through it, and glorious times will follow. Or, “he shall not be afraid of an evil hearing”; of an ill report raised of himself; for he knows he must go through good report and bad report; and especially when it is a false one, and for the sake of truth and righteousness, it gives him no uneasiness: nor is he afraid of hearing the report of the law, which in some sense may be called an evil hearing or report, in opposition to the hearing of faith, or the good report of the Gospel; he is not afraid of it, when it curses, those that are under it, seeing he is redeemed by Christ from the curse of it; and therefore is not afraid of its menaces and threatenings, its curse and condemnation: nor is a good man afraid of or terrified at the tidings of death; nor will he be dismayed when the last trumpet sounds and the dead are raised; when the heavens shall melt away with a great noise; when all shall be summoned to the judgment seat, and the wicked will hear, “Go ye cursed,” he will be under no fears of hearing such a sentence.

Trusting in the Lord; in his covenant God and Father, who will never leave him nor forsake him; in his grace, which is sufficient for him in the worst of times; and who will supply all his wants: in his strength, to enable him to do his duty; to bear up under trials and exercises, and to do and suffer his will and pleasure; and in his power, to protect and preserve him, and keep him unto salvation; and in his faithfulness, to perform his promises, trusting in him for things temporal, spiritual, and eternal. The Targum is, “trusting in the Word of the Lord;” in Christ, the essential Word; looking to him as the author and finisher of faith; leaning upon him, laying the whole stress of his salvation on him; trusting in his person for acceptance, in his righteousness for justification, in his blood for pardon and cleansing, in his sacrifice for atonement, in his fulness for supply, and in his strength and power for assistance and protection; all which give him peace, and secure him from fear of evil tidings; see Isaiah 26:3.

His heart is established,…. With the doctrine of grace; which is food unto it, and by which it is strengthened and nourished; it is established in the faith of Christ, both in the grace of faith, and in the doctrine of faith, even in all the doctrines of the Gospel; so that he is not as a child, tossed to and fro with every wind; his heart is established in the exercise of grace, and he is steadfast and immovable in the discharge of duty.

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Matthew Henry

A good man shall have a settled spirit, and that is a much greater satisfaction than the former; for so shall a man have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. Surely he shall not be moved, whatever happens, not moved either from his duty or from his comfort; for he shall not be afraid; his heart is established, v. 7, 8. This is a part both of the character and of the comfort of good people. It is their endeavor to keep their minds stayed upon God, and so to keep them calm, and easy, and undisturbed, and God has promised them both cause to do so and grace to do so. Observe,

(1.) It is the duty and interest of the people of God not to be afraid of evil tidings, not to be afraid of hearing bad news; and, when they do, not to be put into confusion by it and into an amazing expectation of worse and worse, but whatever happens, whatever threatens, to be able to say, with blessed Paul, None of these things move me, neither will I fear, though the earth be removed, Ps. 46:2.

(2.) The fixedness of the heart is a sovereign remedy against the disquieting fear of evil tidings. If we keep our thoughts composed, and ourselves masters of them, our wills resigned to the holy will of God, our temper sedate, and our spirits even, under all the unevenness of Providence, we are well fortified against the agitations of the timorous.

(3.) Trusting in the Lord is the best and surest way of fixing and establishing the heart. By faith we must cast anchor in the promise, in the word of God, and so return to him and repose in him as our rest. The heart of man cannot fix anywhere, to its satisfaction, but in the truth of God, and there it finds firm footing.

(4.) Those whose hearts are established by faith will patiently wait till they have gained their point: He shall not be afraid, till he see his desire upon his enemies, that is, till he come to heaven, where he shall see Satan, and all his spiritual enemies, trodden under his feet, and, as Israel saw the Egyptians, dead on the sea-shore. Till he look upon his oppressors (so Dr. Hammond), till he behold them securely, and look boldly in their faces, as being now no longer under their power. It will complete the satisfaction of the saints, when they shall look back upon their troubles and pressures, and be able to say with St. Paul, when he had recounted the persecutions he endured (2 Tim. 3:11), But out of them all the Lord delivered me.

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The Pulpit Commentaries

His heart is established. Almost a repetition of the phrase in Psalms 112:7, “his heart is fixed”—seemingly, therefore, superfluous, but really emphasizing the point, which is of great moment (see the comment of Hengstenberg, and compare the “just man” of Horace, ‘Od.,’ 3.3, 2. 1-8).

He shall not be afraid. “Perfect love casteth out fear” (1 John 4:18). He who feels himself always and altogether in the hands of a loving Father cannot be afraid of what is about to befall him.

Until he see his desire upon his enemies. He knows that his enemies have no real power to harm him, and that ultimately he will “see his desire upon them;” i.e. will triumph over them (see Psalms 54:7; Psalms 59:10, etc.).

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Cross References

Proverbs 1:33 (KJV )

³³But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely,

And shall be quiet from fear of evil.

Psalm 57:7 (KJV )

⁷ My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed:

I will sing and give praise.

Psalm 91:8 (KJV )

⁸ Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold

And see the reward of the wicked.

Hebrews 13:9 (KJV )

⁹Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.

Isaiah 12:2 (KJV )

² Behold, God is my salvation;

I will trust, and not be afraid:

For the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song;

He also is become my salvation.

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KJV W/Strongs Bible

112:7 He shall not be afraid 3372 8799 of evil 7451 tidings 8052: his heart 3820 is fixed 3559 8737, trusting 982 8803 in the LORD 3068.

112:8 His heart 3820 [is] established 5564 8803, he shall not be afraid 3372 8799, until he see 7200 8799 [his desire] upon his enemies 6862.

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Geneva Bible 1560

Psalm 112:7-8

7 He wil not be afraid of evil tidings: for his heart is fixed, and beleveth in the Lord.

8 His heart is stablished: therefore he wil not fear, until he se his desire upon his enemies.

Closing Thought:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; Phil 4:6 NKJV