Psalm 27

This evening’s Psalm, Psalm 27, is my favourite. It’s not the best known of the psalms, but it is one that I think expresses our need to give thanks to God for things which sometimes we can’t really even express properly in words. And I just want to think this evening of a couple of verses of that Psalm.

It begins with the verse, ‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear: the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then shall I be afraid.’ As David writes we get the sense of him being threatened by some sort of evil. He seems to be writing almost as someone in need of reassuring himself or reminding himself of the power of God, and the fact that God, in whatever circumstances is going to look after him.

The Lord is my light expresses hope within a dark and troubled place. The sort of place where we have all been to a greater or lesser extent in our own lives. The place where there really doesn’t seem to be much going right. It may be the loss of a job, a big family argument, a death of someone close, or a serious illness. For others it may be the misery of being caught up in poverty or in war.

Often in the Bible we find the image of light and dark representing good and evil being used, and it’s the sort of image that we can easily pick up on simply because it is a feeling that we know. But this psalm reminds us that our hope is in God. He is the light shining in the middle of any darkness that may come about in our lives. He is the one to whom we can turn in any situation.

The readings in our morning services recently have concentrated on Jesus being the Bread of Life, and we have recognised in those readings the need to rely on him as our most important diet of each day. He is the bread of life, he is life itself – he is the light shining in the darkness of our world.

And David goes on to say that the Lord is my salvation. Many people say that we should not celebrate salvation, simply because none of us actually know whether we will be saved in the end… It is down to the judgement of God to save of course, but I think that not to celebrate salvation is to ignore the normal behaviour of God. He is merciful, he is just, he loves us and has sent his Son to die for us, promising that if we believe in him we will have eternal life… We can never judge each other, but we must make a decision on where we stand with God, and if we decide for him, he will keep his promise, I have no doubt, of leading us to salvation.

The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom then shall I be afraid? Faced with whatever danger David was facing he knew that he could only turn to God. There were no earthly armies that could provide the kind of freedom and strength that God could provide. Though we will inevitably face many challenges in our lives, we have the support, the power and the strength of a God who is immeasurably more powerful than anyone or anything we can ever imagine !

With God on our side, we have no enemies that can defeat us !

And so in this first verse, David is reminding himself of what God means to him, and from time to time, I think it’s good for all of us to just sit down and reflect on what God means to us. When was the last time we seriously put aside any sort of time at all for God outside of coming to Church ? So often we take him for granted, trusting him to be there whenever we need him, and he always is, but as we dedicate a bit more time to him, we become even more confident in his love, and grow ever closer to him.

As David realises this, a little later in the Psalm he writes of his desire to spend more time with the Lord, and this is the second verse I want to think about. He writes, ‘one thing have I desired of the Lord, one thing that I long for, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.’ In doing that he is offering a plea to God to take him away from the trials and tribulations of life into a presence greater than our understanding. It’s a natural thought as we look for the promised life of no mourning, no pain or tears, but it’s not the life we are called to live yet.

As David knows as he writes this psalm life will throw complications at us. In this psalm he is preparing to face complications by firstly reminding himself of the power of God that is with him. God equips us to live in this world to serve him, and others. He equips us to get our hands dirty as we share a message of love and peace, and fight for justice and righteousness, and these are not just empty words.

As I was writing this I thought of how often we use words like that in Church, but don’t actually work out what they really mean for us. Love means love – it means a commitment of devotion and care for people, whoever they are and whatever they have done. Peace is something so desperately needed in the world today – not just an end to the various conflicts going on, but the sort of peace in a person’s heart which gives them a real reason for living.

We are called to share that peace, the peace of God, through our words and through our actions. And what about justice and righteousness – even today, even in this country many people are suffering unjustly, many people are failing to get the right benefits, or get the right treatment in courts, and many are fighting for those things for themselves and for others…. Jesus, I think, wants us to be part of that fight. He wants his people to have a voice.

So words such as love, peace, justice, righteousness and many others are words which must lead us beyond the spoken word into action. As David reassured himself of the support and protection of God, we can do the same as we go out to serve him in whatever way we are called.

And that is what this Psalm is about – being ready, being determined and being given the ability to serve for the glory of God and for the extension of his kingdom. David offers these words almost as a prayer for God to be with him in whatever circumstances, and these are words that we too can repeat, and assure ourselves of as we leave this Church and go out into the world ready to make a difference for Jesus.

I’ll end with the final verse which says, ‘Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage : and put your trust in the Lord.’ AMEN