START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Psalm 27
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM
OBSERVE:
This Psalm of David is the kind of prayer that a deeply devout warrior might pray in times of adversity.
He begins with a declaration of faith in the face of danger:
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?
These are metaphors and descriptions of the Lord as the clear source of guidance (light), salvation, and as the fortress in whom David, the man of war, finds refuge.
He is convinced that his enemies, whom he describes as ravenous beasts, will stumble and fall; he is not fearful even in the face of a mighty army, or when war arises.
Like his descendant, Jesus, David has learned to focus his priorities like a spear point:
One thing I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after:
to live in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
to behold the beauty of the Lord,
and to inquire in his temple.
He seems to be saying metaphorically the same thing that Jesus says in his Sermon on the Mount:
But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33).
Presumably, the terms for temple and tent are interchangeable. Of course the temple wasn’t built until Solomon’s reign in the 10th century B.C. Worship was centered in the tent (or, tabernacle) that the Lord had instructed Moses to construct.
And for David this is a powerful metaphor. The temple becomes not merely the physical place, but his own heart where he seeks the presence of the Lord:
“Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, do I seek.
The Lord’s face is the Hebrew word panayim, which is also interchangeable with presence. To seek God’s face is to seek his presence.
Not only may the Psalmist search for the Lord in the exterior temple, but also in the interior temple.
There is a change in tone that begins in verse 9. David has previously affirmed his confidence in God but now he pleads with the Lord to abide with him:
Do not hide your face from me.
Do not turn your servant away in anger,
you who have been my help.
Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,
O God of my salvation!
There is a kind of pathos in this plea, that even if he begins to feel forsaken by those closest to him, he remains hopeful that the Lord will remain faithful to him:
If my father and mother forsake me,
the Lord will take me up.
David asks to be taught God’s ways, and to be led along a level path. This is a metaphor common to Scripture.
And David returns to the theme of deliverance, asking to be saved from his adversaries, and to his supreme confidence that he:
shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Finally, there is a kind of “self-talk” that David speaks to his own heart which suggests his inner attitude of dependence on God:
Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
Ultimately, his response to adversity and his yearning to dwell constantly in God’s presence is expressed by his complete trust in God.
APPLY:
All of us will likely feel “besieged” at times in our lives by stress, crisis, difficult relationships. We may even feel that we are at war. This Psalm is a source of comfort and strength as we, like the Psalmist, look to God for help.
The key point here is to seek to dwell in the presence of God in the temple of our hearts. We obviously can’t spend all day every day in church — we’d never get our work done or our families cared for — but we can spend time with God constantly in the interior temple of the heart.
Paul helps us to make that connection:
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
(1 Corinthians 3:16).
RESPOND:
This Psalm has personal meaning for me. When I was very young in the ministry, I was extremely lacking in self-confidence, and very fearful.
Almost every day, when I approached the door of the church office, and every Sunday morning, I recited the opening words of this Psalm in my heart:
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?
But even now, in my more “mature” years, I find this Psalm to be a comfort and a challenge. I continue to seek the presence and the beauty of the Lord, every day, always. And I also know that the “day of trouble” can come at any time. I’ve been around life and ministry enough to have seen plenty of trouble.
The only strength that I have found is in the Lord. And my prayer is that I may dwell in his presence every day, and that my very heart may become his dwelling place!
I also recognize that there is risk, just as the Psalmist does. I am not so much afraid that the Lord will turn his face away from me in anger, but that I will turn my face away from him in doubt. So, I find it necessary to pray as the Psalmist does, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, and that he may dwell in my house; and that I may seek his face constantly.
May the prayer of the Psalmist be mine, Lord! May I dwell in your presence, seek your face, and may you fill my heart! May I never turn away from you, which would cause you to turn away from me. Cleanse the temple of my heart so that it may be a suitable dwelling place for you. Amen.
PHOTOS:
"Psalm 27-1-2" by New Life Church Collingwood is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
SOAR Lectionary Bible Study 