The Fears, Terrors, and Anxieties of David

David, a man after God’s own heart, experienced many fears, terrors, and anxieties.

He responded to these unpleasant but normal human emotions like any other human—in a variety of ways!

• Sometimes in his fears, David trusted in his own devices (like in 1 Samuel 21:12-13).

• Other times, in his fears, David trusted in God (like in Psalms 34:4 and Psalms 56:3). But notice that even in Psalms 56:3 in the midst of entrusting himself to God, David still experienced intensely distressing emotions (misery and tears in Psalms 56:8). Trusting in God in the midst of our fears does not vanquish our feelings, for God designed us to be emotional beings who respond to our evil world.

• Sometimes David specifically recognized that feeling, weak, faint, fearful, and in anguish was NOT something God responded to with rebuke, anger, or discipline, but with mercy and healing (like in Psalm 6:1-3).

• Still other times, David need encouragement from others in his fears (like in 1 Samuel 23:15-18).

• Many times, in his very normal, understandable, human fears, David simply needed to lament to His Father (like in Psalm 13; 22; 55; 57).

What Do We Ask in Our Fears? 

The question for any man or woman of God is not,

“Will I feel fears and anxieties in this fallen, dangerous, evil world?”

For God does not promise an emotional health and wealth gospel of freedom from fearful feelings.

The questions are,

“When I feel afraid, will I entrust myself, including my emotions, to God, even if my feelings don’t vanish?”

“While I still am experiencing intense fears, will I entrust myself to God to find His strength to lovingly protect others?”

David’s Fears: A Small Sampler 

Here are just a few examples of David’s rich emotional life and his experiences of fears, anxieties, and terrors…

1 Samuel 21:12-13: “David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. He pretended to be insane in their presence; and while he was in their hands he acted like a madman, making marks on the doors of the gate and letting saliva run down his beard.”

1 Samuel 23:15-18: “David saw that Saul had come out to seek his life. David was in the wilderness he was afraid because Saul had come out to take his life.” And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “My father Saul will not lay a hand on you.

1 Samuel 27:1: “Then David said in his heart, ‘Now I shall perish one day by the hand of Saul.’”

This is anticipatory anxiety…

1 Samuel 30:6: David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him; each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters. But David found strength in the Lord his God.

This is a beautiful example of simultaneously experiencing normal human emotions and finding strength in the Lord. 

Psalm 6:1-3: “Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?”

As I noted above, in his weaknesses and fears, David anticipates the Father’s compassionate mercy and healing help, not the Fathers rebuke.

Psalm 13:1-4: “How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall.” 

Psalm 18:4-6: “The cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help.”

Psalm 22:14–15: “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.”

This is one of hundreds of biblical examples of the embodied-soul nature of emotions.

Psalm 34:4: “I sought the Lord, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears.”

Before we claim this as a promise that God will vanquish all our fears, we should remember the context. This is when “David was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath” (1 Samuel 21:12). David was not delivered from his feelings. God delivered David from what David feared—being killed by Achish.

Calvin explains in detail the emotional turmoil/intense fears that David was experiencing.

“By his fears the Psalmist means, taking the effect for the cause, the dangers which sorely disquieted his mind; yet doubtless he confesses that he had been terrified and agitated by fears. He did not look upon his dangers with a calm and untroubled mind, as if he viewed them at a distance and from some elevated position, but being grievously tormented with innumerable cares, he might justly speak of his fears and terrors. Nay more, by the use of the plural number, he shows that he had been greatly terrified not only in one way, but that he had been distracted by a variety of troubles. On the one hand, he saw a cruel death awaiting him; while on the other, his mind may have been filled with fear, lest Achish should send him to Saul for his gratification, as the ungodly are wont to make sport to themselves of the children of God. And since he had already been detected and betrayed once, he might well conclude, even if he should escape, that the hired assassins of Saul would lay wait for him on all sides. The hatred too which Achish had conceived against him, both for the death of Goliath and the destruction of his own army, might give rise to many fears; especially considering that his enemy might instantly wreak his vengeance upon him, and that he had good reason to think that his cruelty was such as would not be appeased by subjecting him to some mild form of death.”

Notice Calvin’s conclusion:

“Even David, who is known to have surpassed others in heroism and bravery, had not such a heart of iron as to repel all fears and alarms, but was sometimes greatly disquieted and smitten with fear.” 

Psalm 55:2-5: “My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught because of what my enemy is saying, because of the threats of the wicked; for they bring down suffering on me and assail me in their anger. My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen on me. Fear and trembling have beset me; horror has overwhelmed me.”

This passage is a wonderful example of the complexity of life: David’s thoughts (rational) interact with his feelings (emotional) which together interact with his circumstances (situational) which impact him physically (physical).

Psalm 56:3 with 56:8: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record?”

Again, as I mentioned above, this passage teaches that we can have several experiences simultaneously: be fearful + trust in God + experience misery + be tearful. 

Psalm 57:4, 6: “I am in the midst of lions; I am forced to dwell among ravenous beasts—men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. They spread a net for my feet—I was bowed down in distress.”

David, who killed lions and defeated Goliath, David, the man after God’s own heart, is also, David, the man bowed down in distress in the midst of lions and in the midst of slanderous, treacherous men.

Why God Gave Us the Good Gift of Fear 

We do not need to fear our fear.

Fear is our God-given danger-detector designed to warn the wise to take refuge.

Proverbs 27:12 and 22:3 validate this truth, and the commensurate truth that many times it is unwise not to fear—sometimes only the foolish are fearless! “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty” (see also Ecclesiastes 2:14; Matthew 10:16).

The Rest of the Story 

The Greater David—Christ—shows us in the Garden what we do with normal, human, sinless emotions. I’ve been doing an extensive exegetical, lexical, contextual study of the accounts of Jesus in Gethsemane in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These biblical accounts of Jesus’s intense emotional experiences in Gethsemane have much to teach us about the emotional life of Christ—and about our emotions.

Stay tuned…