Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, who greatly delights in His commandments!

He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the LORD. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid...

Psalms 112:1, 7-8, ESV

Bad news! We all fear it. When Job learned his bad news, from the loss of his livestock to the death of his children, he said, "What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened". I suppose we all have memories of such days, when news came to us that was almost too much to handle. Those who have lost loved ones unexpectedly will understand, as will those who have received the results of an important medical test that revealed the very thing they had been dreading. Bad news seems to dominate the headlines in the papers and on our favorite channels. Bad news travels fast, hits hard, and lingers on. 

Wouldn't it be nice to live in a world in which we did not have bad news? We have all had times when we wished that were so. Days in which we told our friends and associates that we didn't want to hear one more bad thing - that if we did, we might explode. And that might not have been too far off, for we have all witnessed people who just seemed to come apart at the seams when the bad news had gotten to the point that they could no longer handle it.

Many people turn to drugs and alcohol at times such as this. They get to the point of addiction that they just cannot wait until their workday is through so that they can escape the world's problems with their favorite beverage, or their drugs - prescription or otherwise. Some of these folks just sink farther and farther into this escape until their entire lives are dominated by new fears, those that are associated with the hopeless addictions that have resulted from their bad choices.

Thanks for the cheery news, you might be thinking at this point but hang on for we are getting to the good stuff right now. Or, more accurately, we started with the good part right at the beginning. The inspired writer of the 112th Psalm provided the solution to bad news some three thousand years ago, and it begins with a thankful heart that praises the Lord. He goes on to reveal that the one who fears God and who greatly delights in His commandments is not afraid of bad news. Unlike those unstable people who "crack" at the point of receiving more bad news than the can handle, the Psalmist says that this man is firm - that his heart is steady!

And it is not because he does not feel the weight of the bad news. We read in the book of Job that even this righteous man was affected by the pressure of his bad news. It was just that he was not crushed! At a point of desperation and despair, Job's wife went so far as to suggest that he "curse God and die". Job's answer should provide insight for us all, for his response was the question, "Shall we accept good from God, but not bad?" Of course, Job was to later learn that the source of his troubles was Satan, not God, but his attitude at that point was the correct one, for he realized even in the midst of his grief that God was able to rescue.

It is this attitude that is vital to our being able to survive the hardships of life. Combine that with the other "secret" that the Psalmist revealed, and we have the key to handling bad news. We must delight in God's commandments. And the source of those commands is the Bible, so we need to make sure that we are reading it. How often, you might be wondering? Well, look at it this way: Which of the days of your life would you like to be free from the fear of bad news? I think we would all agree on this answer: We would like to be free from the fear of bad news every day. And that is the solution, isn't it? We need the message of God's Holy Word every single day!

For those who fear God do not have to fear anything else. Those who do not fear God have to be afraid of everything. 

One last important point: The passage above does not say we will not have bad news, simply that we do not have to fear it. What's the difference? The difference is this: Fear hampers our needed response to how we handle bad news. Fear has a way of "freezing" us into inaction. Even worse, into poor reactions that so often result in worse news than the bad news we were afraid of in the first place. But the man and woman of God do not have to fear bad news, for they fear God. They love His commandments; therefore, they seek them out on a daily basis. By doing so, they receive words of hope and comfort and love.

And that's a pretty good trade, don't you think? When we exchange our unreasoned fear of bad news for the pleasant fear of God, it changes our entire lives. Is it any wonder that the writer of this Psalm starts out with these words: "Praise the LORD!"