On my side

So much daily anxiety is social at the root — what people can do to us, take from us, think of us. The opinion forming in a colleague’s head. The decision sitting on someone else’s desk. The psalmist answers that whole category of fear with one settled fact: the LORD is on my side.

On my side is covenant language, not luck language. It does not mean every human outcome will fall your way today; it means the deepest allegiance in the universe is already decided, and it is for you. With that settled, the psalmist can ask his question honestly: what can man do unto me? Real things, yes — disappoint, delay, misjudge. But nothing final. No person holds the pen that writes your ending.

Say the fact before you enter the rooms where the fears live: the LORD is on my side. It has a way of resizing everyone else in the building.