"What can man do to me?"

“The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6).

This is a good question: “What can man do to me?” Let’s not get the psalmist wrong in his point he is trying to make. Man does have the ability to make us suffer in more ways than one. He can inflict pain whether it is to the body or to the mind. He can do a lot of damage physically but this is all he can do. Compared to God, what man can do to us is very little. Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Man can’t do this -- only God!

So is the Lord on your side? If He is we shouldn’t be afraid of what man can do to us because in the end, if we suffer by the hand of man God will heal us and give us everlasting life which will make those afflictions seem very small (2 Corinthians 4:17). However if the Lord is not on your side, you need to join His side today! Then it will not matter what happens to us in this life. If we are living for God we can have the hope of eternal life that God will give to us in the end. It’s just something else man can’t do.

Jonathan Glaesemann