In D. A. Carson’s wonderful memoir of his Dad – (Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson) – he mentions something his Dad wrote in one of his journals; the entry reads: “Keep me from the sins of old men”—some of which he details: a tendency to gravitate toward watching television, the temptation to look backward instead of forward, sliding toward self-pity, easy resentment of young men.” ^{D. A. Carson, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008), 144.}

Those are excellent words, and not surprisingly, in principle, demonstrating pitfalls alluded to in Scripture. Among those references I think we can rightly look at Proverbs 3:25-26. For it references one of the other sins of old age – the tendency to give into various fears. As weakness and frailty begin to make their way in our bodies, so neither are our minds and hearts immune to new places of weakness and frailty. Things which we used not give a passing thought to now take center stage in our minds.

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes 12 calls old age the “days of adversity”. When the eyes don’t see as well, the hands tremble, the ears lose their acuity, sleep patterns shift and even things like climbing steps engender fears we never had before.

Growing old is not for the faint of heart!

Now while all of these are natural processes in these years before resurrection, most, if not all of these and more, spark a raft of new fears. Fears which are then exacerbated by a society and media machine that blares constant predictions of doom at every turn. Nature gone wild, politics gone wild, nations gone wild, movements of all kinds threaten us at every turn. And then we read this: “Do not fear sudden danger or the ruin that overtakes the wicked, for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from the snare.” ^{Prov. 3:25-26}

Is ruin at hand, that overtakes the wicked? Yep. And how are we to respond to it? Young or old? By confidence in the Lord. For the one who is bought with the blood of Christ – keeping our hearts and minds fixed on the love of God that sent Jesus to die for us, and will raise us up in the resurrection to rule and reign with him – that love, drives out fear. (1 John 4:18) In fact, nothing else will. Not the right party in office; the end of religious radicalism; not a better economy; not the absence of war; not the eradication of diseases and other existential threats. Nothing but the privilege of the Believer, to rest in the love of the triune God.

Let me apply this to the time we find ourselves in America today, with the shifting sands of everything we once thought stable, by way of example in Israel’s history.

When Israel and Judah were judged for their sin as nations, the righteous among them went into exile with them. They too endured invasion, war and captivity. But the righteous could cling to the Lord and have confidence in His keeping, while those actually being chastened could not.

It is not far fetched to think America soon to fall under more severe judgments than are already ours for our national sins.

But the Christian, the child of God need not be afraid of the sudden terror and the ruin of the wicked when it comes. The Lord remains our confidence, and He will keep our foot from being caught up in it. We remain His.

Mature saint – let us take up the mantle of living this way – so that we can pass it on to a younger generation who – surveys tell us – are living under more and more fear of existential threats reinforced by social media and magnified on every hand.

There is security from the fear that something unseen, unknown, unstoppable will suddenly come upon us. It is the steadfast love of the Lord.

Let not the younger ones around us grow faint because we have caved to a panicked dread. But let them see our calm resolve in the faithfulness of our Christ and King and his sovereign hand over all – in love.