"Whom Shall I Fear" (Psalm 27:1-14)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/18/2012 9:03:27 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                              Focus:  “Whom Shall I Fear”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  Psalm 27:1-14

 

            Message of the verses:  “1 A Psalm of David: The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? 2 When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. 3 Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident. 4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple. 5 For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. 6 And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

    “7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me. 8 When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, O LORD, I shall seek." 9 Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation! 10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But the LORD will take me up. 11 Teach me Your way, O LORD, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes. 12 Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence. 13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. 14 Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.”

 

            We see in verse four that David speaks of the tabernacle of the Lord, or the house of the Lord and we mentioned yesterday that Psalms 26-28 are psalms that speak of the house of the Lord.  This has been one of my favorite psalms and therefore I am happy to be able to look at it more closely today.

 

            Warren Wiersbe writes that in the Septuagint the title says that this psalm was written before David was anointed and he believes that the psalm was written while David was on the run from King Saul.  He goes on to write:  “In this psalm, David teaches us that when we know the Lord and trust Him, He helps us overcome the fears that can paralyze our lives.”

 

            Fear of Circumstances (vv. 1-6):  “1 A Psalm of David: The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread? 2 When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell. 3 Though a host encamp against me, My heart will not fear; Though war arise against me, In spite of this I shall be confident. 4 One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD And to meditate in His temple. 5 For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; In the secret place of His tent He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock. 6 And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, And I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.”

 

             David’s circumstances were probably hiding out from Saul with his men, perhaps in a cave or some other place, even in a tent, but in these six verses we see that David did not fear his circumstances.  Dr. Wiersbe writes, “The secret of David’s public confidence was his private obedience:  he took times to fellowship with the Lord and get directions from Him.  David knew that the most important part of his life was the part that only God could see, and this was one priority he would not negotiate.”  This statement goes along with the words of verse four “One thing.” 

           

            David was not oblivious to his circumstance, but David chose to look up to the Lord for His help and for His protection from these circumstances.  I remember a song that I have written about in an earlier SD that has the words “he didn’t look down, he didn’t look around he just looked up, up, up. He didn’t look down in deep despair, he didn’t look around to a world of care, he just looked up and God was with him there.”  David could have been singing this song.

           

            David examined his circumstances from heavens point of view:  “1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart (Heb. 12:1-3).”  We see in verse two that Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith, and we remember that chapter eleven was all about faith and so when we read in verse one about the “sin which so easily entangles us” we must conclude that that sin is a lack of faith, and yet we can trust the Lord to perfect that faith, and we can see in Psalm 27 that David had great faith in the Lord to take care of the circumstances that he was facing.

           

            David speaks of the Lord as being his “light” and this is the first time in the Scriptures that light is used of God.  “John 8:12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.’”  This is one of the seven great “I Am” statements in the book of John.  Remember when Moses was on the mountain looking at the bush that was on fire but was not consumed and he ask God what His name was so that he could tell the children of Israel as God was sending him to them, and God said “I Am that I Am tell them that “I Am” is sending you.”  When Jesus was saying “I Am the light of the world” He was saying that He is God.  David knew that God was light so he did not need to fear any darkness.

           

            In verse two we see the confidence that David had in God by saying that when the evildoers came close to him that God would cause them to stumble and fall.

           

            Verse three shows more of David confidence in the Lord and also shows that David did not fear his enemies, but we know that David did fear the Lord.

            We have already looked at verse four but I want to take a moment to focus in on how Dr. Wiersbe describes the word “beauty:”  “The word beauty in verse four means not only the glory of God’s character but also the richness of His goodness and favor to His people (16:11; 90:17; 135:3).” 

           

            Verse five speaks of God concealing David in His temple and in the near east during these times that David was living is when a person came into a tent as a guest of someone the host was responsible to take care of the safety of that person and David knew that God would care for Him for David had in a sense gone into the tent of God even while in the wilderness by meditating on God’s Word and God’s character as we see from the word “beauty.”  David had confidence in the Lord to care for him.

           

            Verse six shows that David could not wait to get back to where the tabernacle was to offer his sacrifices to the Lord.

 

            Fear of Failure (vv. 7-10):  “7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me. 8 When You said, "Seek My face," my heart said to You, "Your face, O LORD, I shall seek." 9  Do not hide Your face from me, Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation! 10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, But the LORD will take me up.”

           

            It is because this section is difficult to understand that I am going to quote what Dr. Wiersbe writes in his commentary from this section:  “David’s confidence in the Lord didn’t prevent him from being concerned about himself, for he knew he was a sinner and a man of clay.  It’s one thing to behold the Lord in the sanctuary and quite something else to see the enemy approaching on the battlefield.  What if there was something wrong in David’s life and the Lord abandoned him in the midst of the battle?  When David cried out, God answered him in his heart and said, ‘Seek my face’ (See 24:6; 105:4; Deut. 4:29; 1Chron. 7:14; Hos. 5:15).  When the Lord’s face ‘shines upon us’ (Num. 6:22-27), it means He is pleased with us and will help us; when His face is turned from us, He is displeased (66:16-18; 14:3-7), and we must search our hearts and confess our sins (139:23-24).  David’s parents never abandoned him (See 1Sam. 21:3-4).  His statement was a familiar proverb.  God cares for us as a father and mother care for their children (Isa. 49:15; 63:16); and though it’s unlikely that parents would abandon their children, it certain that God never forsakes His own (Heb. 13:5-6).”

 

            Fear for the Future (vv. 11-14):  “11 Teach me Your way, O LORD, And lead me in a level path Because of my foes. 12 Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence. 13 I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. 14 Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.”

           

            Perhaps David wrote this section after the battle was won, and yet David still knew that the enemy was out there ready to attack again and so he still needed the goodness of the Lord.  Scottish preacher Andrew Bonar wrote “Let us be as watchful after the victory as before the battle.” These are very wise words, and something to keep in the back of your mind the next time you have a spiritual victory, for it is in that time when the enemy is most likely to attack.  When my son was born he had a bad heart and had to go through several operations, but the most difficult operation was the open heart surgery that he had when he was 18 months old.  I believe it was May 7, 1980 he had the surgery where they cut his heart in to and placed a Teflon patch in his heart and also a patch in a valve.  You can imagine how much prayer was going up for him before, during, and after the surgery.  Seven days later he was home walking around having the time of his life. In five days he is to turn 33 years old and his heart is still working fine, and he and his wife have three children of their own.  My point is telling this story is that the summer following his surgery was probably the worst time spiritually that I have ever had and one thing that I have learned from that is the wise words of Andrew Bonar to be as watchful after the victory as before the battle, and we can see that David knew this too.

           

            David knew that the goodness of the Lord was always with him even after a great victory when he sought the goodness of the Lord He would not leave him but continue with him.  David may have said the words of verse fourteen to his men after the victory was secure in order to prepare them for the next battle. 

           

            I know that perhaps one of the hardest things to do is to wait on the Lord, especially for someone who seems always to be in a hurry, but waiting on the Lord is always best, for the Lord is never in a hurry, but He is always on time.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I write about learning contentment most every day and a large part of learning contentment is waiting on the Lord, something I have also been learning but something that has been difficult for me to learn.  With God’s grace I will continue to learn to wait on the Lord and to continue to learn contentment.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:

 

1.     Continue to lean to wait on the Lord and to learn contentment.

 

1/18/2012 10:24:58 AM

 

5/4/2025 10:29 AM  My son is still doing well and has one son who is ready to graduate from High School.  This Psalm fits into what has just happened with my wife who on this past Tuesday had surgery for cancer.  Her surgery like my son’s 45 years ago went well, and now I must remember to follow the advice of Andrew Bonar so that I don’t have the same kind of trouble that I had 45 years ago.