Trusting God ... no matter what
Psalm 27
This psalm is by David. Unlike some of the other psalms, we get no other information. Some psalms say what kind of a song they are, or what instruments are used, or what David was going through when he wrote it. We get none of that. In that sense, it is a general idea. God can be trusted ... no matter what.
David speaks in generalities of battle, worship, repentance and confidence.
• When my life is like this / God is like that.
• When my life is in need / God can be trusted
• no matter what
1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?
2 When evil men advance against me
to devour my flesh,
when my enemies and my foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
even then will I be confident.
4 One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek him in his temple.
5 For in the day of trouble
he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle
and set me high upon a rock.
6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his tabernacle will I sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the LORD.
7 Hear my voice when I call, O LORD;
be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
O God my Savior.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
the LORD will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, O LORD;
lead me in a straight path
because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me,
breathing out violence.
13 I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:1-14 (NIV)
The degree to which God can be trusted, no enemy can shake David’s confidence in Him
The LORD is my Light and my salvation
An experiment was recommended to me. It is a way of training your mind to solve new problems. Walk through your house in the dark with your eyes closed.
Without light, you use your other senses to avoid obstacles. In the dark, what will deliver you from tripping? Probably your sense of touch.
In treacherous times, David found that God was what helped him feel his way through. This Psalm is not an abstraction. David is not speaking theoretically or spiritually. He is speaking of real, military enemies, people who have the potential of killing him. He is describing situations he has experienced and can reasonably expect to experience again. God has protected him in battle in the past and David is certain that this will continue.
• God was with him against Goliath
• God was with him against the Philistines
• God was with him against Saul
• God was with him against the Jebusites
• God was with him against his own son Absalom
The main subject of this tirade is his confidence that God will be with him throughout even the most threatening situations. God is His protector and He can be trusted.
That is the essence of verse 3. KJV translates the last part of the verse very literally, it says "In this I will be confident." This refers back to verse 1, thus becoming something of a motto for David in times of danger:
• The LORD is my light and my salvation!
• I will trust that
• No matter what
Remind yourself that God is your protector
The quickest way to burnout is refusing to trust others for their own responsibility. When we fall into this trap, we try to do what others should be doing.
This is especially true when the job is too big for us. God is our protector. We cannot do this job, because we do not see all the forces rallied against us. God does. We are not powerful enough to confront these forces. God is.
Just look at the forces standing against us every day:
• evil people
• good, but misguided people
• the supernatural forces of evil
• natural circumstances
• our own weaknesses
This is only a short thumbnail sketch. When we try, in our own strength to protect ourselves from problems from these various sources we wear ourselves out, because we cannot even always recognize them.
One thing we probably do not give enough attention to is that God is there when people oppose us. It is our inclination to ask why God does not prevent it.
I remember when I was a kid, we lived across the street from the school. One day at lunch I was out in the playground and I got into a fight. A teacher came out and broke it up. I learned later, that my mother had seen the problem and called it in. She did not do anything about it personally, because it was a school problem that the school needed to deal with.
God does not come rushing in to solve all our problems as they are happening, but He is there and we can be confident that He has our best interests at heart. We may not understand the reasons He allows something to happen, but we can be confident that He is our ultimate protection, and ultimate protection goes beyond the moment. Verse 2 acknowledges that God will deal with trouble makers in His own way, in His own time.
• He is light
• Salvation
• A stronghold
So we must trust God. He sees everything.
No matter what
David’s greatest joy and source of hope is worship
Like battle, for David, dwelling in the Tabernacle of God was not an abstract, it was a fact. 2 Samuel 6 tells the story of David bringing the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem from a private home where it had been kept. After this, according the Psalms especially, David deeply valued the time he could spend at the Tabernacle where God was said to live. This was the place of prayer and sacrifice. It was a place where a person made things right. It was the ancient way of spending time with God.
During the days of king Solomon, David’s son, the Temple filled this need. It was still the place of worship in Jesus’ day, but Jesus told us that His coming began a time when location would no longer be important. We could approach God anywhere, in our own spirits.
Remember that your relationship with God is key to your confidence
We come here to worship corporately, to pray, and to find encouragement. We come to help others in our own areas of strength and to combine our efforts for those in need. But in the long run, the Temple of God is not in this building, it is in His people. Our worship happens all the time, with every thing we think, say and do, we are expressing our worship of God.
The safety, joy and music that David experienced at the Tabernacle is now available in our own hearts.
How is this possible? The same way it was possible for David.
We still must intentionally seek the LORD’s presence. David did it by changing location, we do it by quieting our busy minds and focusing.
We must be persistent and regular in our focus
Do whatever you need to do. Get alone with God. Or get with your husband or wife and focus together. Take the time to quiet your heart. That may mean going outside to get away from noise and distraction. That may mean going to a park or to your own room. This is a discipline we should all cultivate regularly.
Remember, the average person in David’s time would have had to go to the Tabernacle and wait in line. He might have to spend all day to get to speak with the priest and present his sacrifice or ask his question. It is easy in our busy lives to shortchange God on time. But we should take it where we can and spend it in His word and in prayer with Him, getting to know Him and pouring out our hearts to Him.
David calls out to God when he feels his own guilt has turned God away
In verses 7-12 David recognized that some of his actions might anger God and cause Him to withdraw His blessing. We call those kinds of actions sin. Sin is not a terminal condition, but David knew that it was only God’s mercy that could overcome it.
I like David’s approach in verse 8
My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
David knew when he had done something wrong. His own heart would try to steer him right. Sometimes we too are moved to look into God’s word, but business, stubbornness, or fatigue keeps us from doing it.
In verse 10 David speaks more about the closeness of God. Though God may seem far away, He is closer and more faithful than our parents. After all, our parents train us in the hopes that some day we will be able to leave them. God wants perpetual closeness.
David also knew that from God, he could not only receive mercy, but he could find guidance in the right moral paths in the future and avoid his current crisis.
David realized that God could be trusted. One time, when David was faced with a choice of discipline from God, he rejected attacks from enemies, because he knew that he would rather be in the hands of God than in the hands of people. God is merciful.
Seek God for forgiveness and peace
• Just as David wanted to spend time with God his king to strengthen that relationship, we should
also seek to spend time with God
• Just as David called out for God’s forgiveness and direction, we too should seek His forgiveness and protection
Our hearts sometimes speak to us ... we call it conscience, but it is sometimes something more than our own voices. Sometimes it is God telling us that we need to fix a problem. We ignore that voice at times and in doing so, we damage our own hearts.
We have a stereotype of a wild looking man on a street corner, possibly in need of a bath or a new suit. His hair is in the wind and he is holding a Bible over his head and pointing with hatred at the crowd screaming the word
Repent!
Of course, this is not a word we use every day, so even if we don’t know what it means we make a decision. If that guy is repenting, he needs to try something different. And I don’t want any.
In fact, David paints a picture of repentance for us:
• He asks for God’s mercy (v.7)
• He asks for God’s kindness (v.9)
• He asks for God’s correction (v.11)
When we have done something that goes against God’s word, we need to follow that same procedure.
• We have done something wrong, In God’s mercy He will forgive
• We have done something worthy of punishment, In God’s kindness, He will withhold punishment
• We have done something in ignorance, God will correct us through His word and inner voice
So we don’t have to make the same mistake again. That is repentance. Acknowledging something we have done wrong, admitting and rejecting that sin, and determining to do right next time.
• God forgives our wrong doing when we ask Him to
• Our relationship with Him lays the groundwork for continued strength in the face of temptation
• His forgiveness ultimately frees us from guilt
• No matter what
David is confident that God will hear and answer
At the end of the psalm, David indicates that even though he may have done things that are wrong, and even though some people falsely accuse him of wrongdoing, God will still be good to him.
He expresses his confidence in extreme terms. He, specifically knows that God will not punish him with death. He will see God’s goodness "in the land of the living." This is important. David knew that when he did wrong things, it deteriorated him in some way:
• Neglect destroyed his family
• Violence lead to danger
• Stealing a man’s wife lead to murder
• Personal pride led to the ravaging of his country
David was not a perfect man, but he understood that God was good and would forgive.
• No matter what!
• He had confidence in that fact.
He also understood that God worked in his own time. This required David to be patient, courageous and strong. And he had to trust God. These qualities were David’s responsibility and he had to develop them.
Acknowledge that all things happen in God’s time
God is good. We’ve heard that all our lives.
Sometimes, even I find that concept hard to buy. When things go wrong I want to know what God is doing while my life is falling apart. But He is there and He is at work:
• When I was fired from one job, God had two more waiting for me
• When my next place of employment burned down, Lancaster Bible College began a masters program
• When my BIC conference did not have a church for me, the Lancaster Conference Mennonites did
This was God’s doing every time.
David had the key and we need to learn to grasp it. In our age of instant gratification, we sometimes lose patience with God. We want everything now. The example I used of being out of work
• By being fired
• By burning fires
• By unavailable ministry
never feels good. Some have noted that especially for a man, his self worth, right or wrong, is tied to his work. Being out of work means you are out of worth. It is difficult to work at finding work because that means rejection.
• However, God is at work
• No matter what
He is bending the path before you, whether you are looking for work or you are struggling with other problems. The path will lead to a place that reflects His goodness, if we are looking for it.
• Patience
• Trust
• Strength
• Courage
We need to develop these virtues and know that God is there to lead and help. When our path seems dark
He is our light and out Salvation ... No matter what!
