Bad News Good News
This summer, I stumbled across a verse that I had never noticed
before. The passage is from Psalm 112:6-7, and it describes a righteous man like this:
“For he will never be shaken;
The righteous will
be remembered forever.
He will not fear evil tidings; His heart
is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.”
There’s no doubt that 2020 will go down as the year of evil tidings! However,
as I read this verse, it teaches me that a righteous person does not need to be
afraid to hear bad news. This is not because bad news never comes to Christians
(as some would suppose). On the contrary, Job heard the news that his children had
perished, John the Baptist heard the news that he would lose his life, Paul
heard the news that he would be sent to jail, and you and I receive news that
can, at times, be devastating. The point of this verse is not
that Christians are somehow immune from receiving bad news. The point is that
they do not need to fear it when it comes! When you think about it, that really
is quite amazing! You can walk through life and not be afraid of the bad news
that inevitably comes.
How is this possible?
How is this possible? After all, every human inevitably receives bad (and sometimes devastating) news. How can we walk through life and yet not be afraid of the inevitable? This verse gives the answer. Trust in the Lord. When you trust in the Lord, the result is that your heart becomes “steadfast.” What does it mean to have a steadfast heart? A person with a steadfast heart is a person who is secure. They are durable, they are established, they stand firm when a storm hits, or as verse 6 says…they “will never be shaken.” This is the kind of person who endures when they receive evil tidings or bad news.
The sign of a secure Christian is that bad things happen to them, and yet they believe that God is still good and still does good by them. Believing that God is worthy of your trust – even if the worst should happen – is what produces a steadfast heart. Trusting God is not a path that avoids receiving bad news – trusting God is a path that guides you through the valley of evil tidings.
So, if you are a Christian, you do not need to be worried about the day that you receive bad news. God is a good God. God does what is right. So trust in Him, and your heart will become steadfast.