No fear of bad news

Psalm 112:7 says, "They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord."

I've been thinking a lot about this verse lately, as the past two weeks have been riddled with news of tragedy. A co-worker and father of three young children comes closer to the end of his battle with cancer; a Hope Professor dies giving birth to her first child; a guy from my hometown who graduated from Hope with me is killed instantly when his car hits the median driving home from work; a second cousin is found dead in his off-campus apartment of an apparent suicide. As I have heard each one of these stories I find myself thinking most of the family left behind, those that receive the phone calls, that deal with the aftermath, the lifetime of grief.

And my mind has kept coming back to Psalm 112, grappling to understand how we are to have no fear of bad news in the face of such bad news- every one of the families affected by these events are Christians. I think somehow, the key to the verse is the second half, the steadfast trust in the Lord that allows us to not fear, even in the midst of bad news, and in the following verse. The next verse, verse 8, says "Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes." Our trust and security do not come because we know that we will never be touched by tragedy, that we will never receive 'that phone call' or never experience the pain of sorrow and death. We have no fear because in the end, we have the victory in Jesus Christ. We have no fear because of the promise of eternal life. Psalm 112 doesn't say that we have no sorrow or pain, that immeasurable grief won't come our way. As Pa Tuck said in Tuck Everlasting, dying is a part of living, without it we are like rocks at the side of the road.

This weekend we remember and celebrate Jesus' death and resurrection, his sacrifice that allows us to live victorious over the grave: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 1 Corinthians 15:55. In the face of such grief and tough news, I cling to the hope we have in Christ, that he walks with us, never leaving us alone.