whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life--
of whom shall I be afraid?
...
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.
...
8 My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, LORD, I will seek.
...
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. Psalms27:1-14
In Psalm 27 David faces treacherous enemies. He finds himself in "a day of trouble." He describes it as "enemies trying to devour him" and "an army besieging him."
There's a lovely cartoon of Garfield where he's looking all bedraggled and over-run and the caption says: "I normally deal with one day at a time, but a couple have jumped on me at once!"
Sometimes we find ourselves in the kind of place where there is chaos on every side and it seems like trouble will never end. David had his fair share of those and in this psalm he formulates the way through it.
Here are the key thoughts:
1. I will only get through with God's help. "The Lord is my light, my stronghold, my salvation"
2. David doesn't want to lose his sense of connection with God in times of trouble. This is what he means about the temple of the Lord. (Elsewhere he uses other words like house / dwelling / tabernacle.) It's about experiencing God's presence at all times.
3. There is the crystal clear hope that brokenness and darkness do not have the final say. He will see God's goodness "in the land of the living" i.e. not pie-in-the-sky-one-day-when-you-die, but real peace that defies circumstances here and now.
4. But patience is needed. We must "be strong and take heart and wait for God." We have to surrender our desire to be in control and courageously hang in there for God's answers. Someone once said: "God isn't always there when I want Him, but He's always right on time."
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
