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German playwright, Bertolt Brecht, writes in one of his immortal tunes that "magic fear puts the world at your command." Writing, as he did, in Germany during and after WWII, Brecht knew something of fear. He knew also how fear was used to manipulate people into doing things that they would not normally consider doing at all. The Nazis made effective use of propaganda to make people afraid of the Jews and were thus able to gain their permission -- and at times full cooperation -- in the extermination of more than eight million human beings.

Fear is a powerful tool, indeed. Advertisers use it to get people to buy things. Governments use it to control populations, and yes, even religion has used it. But the truth is that as a people of faith we are called out of fear and into faith. As this psalm opens it makes clear to us that the antidote to fear is not armaments, protection, or aggression, but faith. "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?"

For most people, a life free of fear is difficult to imagine. If you are a parent, there are a host of fears centered around raising children. Will they get hurt? Will they be taken advantage of? Will they succeed? Will they be happy? Most parents pour their lives into their children out of love, it's true. Yet, it is also true that this love is mixed with fear. Fear stalks us as we walk the streets, navigate through our careers, or even as we watch the evening news.

Yet here, in these powerful ancient words, liberation from the paralysis of fear is offered. Faith, which in most New Testament translations actually is rendered more accurately as "trust," is the thing that can conquer our fear. A wise preacher once said that "Jesus conquered fear before he conquered death." It's not that Jesus, fully human, was unafraid, it was that he chose trust over fear.

This same option is open to people of faith today. As individuals, we can choose to trust in God and God's way of love rather than give in to the vagaries of fear. In our relationships, too, faith in God can conquer our fear and drive us deeper into love and new beginnings. The same call to trust and faith follows us into life in Christian community and even into our lives as citizens.

"If the Lord is the stronghold" of life, what can possibly make us afraid? If the Lord is our light, we will see hope, love, courage -- not fear.