A Study in Psalms - Psalm 27

Good evening and welcome back to our second week of the Summer of Psalms. I'm Bruce McLean, if anybody doesn't know me And one of the areas I'm responsible here is missions So before we get into Psalms 27, if you want to turn there, the next seven weeks, I want to take five minutes to talk about the seven countries that Christ Community Church is currently doing some type of missions work in So just a couple minutes And the first one is, of course, Argentina

So if you don't have a prayer card of Pastor Eduardo and Gloria Bulladine, they are in the back, one of the three national pastors that Christ Community Church supports We've been going to Argentina since 1997. I think we've gone 18 times, over 200 people have gone from Christ Community Church And in just a little over two months, we have 20 more people going to Argentina And that's so many that we're actually going to split the team when we get to Buenos Aires And 12 people will work in Buenos Aires and eight people will go about six hour van ride to the north

So we're really going to have two campaigns going on simultaneously Argentina is 90% Catholic The Pope who just died was originally from Argentina So we're going to go and work in Vila Maria in the north with a pastor that just planted a church about six months to a year ago and work with him and do door-to-door evangelism, whatever the church needs And then in Buenos Aires, we'll work with two or three churches, strengthening them So if you'll pray for us, it's just about two months away There are about 10 people still raising funds and some of them have more than one member going

So that's a lot of money to go And we want to buy tickets next week But if you'd pray for Argentina and pray for Eduardo and Gloria Boledain, our national pastor If you have any questions about Argentina, and then we'll talk about the other countries next week So a little bit of Bible trivia to start off tonight. I think everybody here knows that the Bible has 66 books, right? Everybody here knows that there are 1,189 chapters in the Bible

So that's 39 books in the Old Testament with 929 chapters and 27 books in the New Testament with 260 chapters. I won't go into the verses because different translations depend on the verses, but the shortest book in the Old Testament is Obadiah, which is 21 verses And the shortest book in the New Testament is 2 John with 13 verses So the question is tonight, what is the middle verse in the Bible? Because it has to do with our message tonight Anybody know what the middle verse in the Bible is? There are different ways of looking at it, but Psalm 118 verse 8 is one way Yeah

Psalm 118 is the middle chapter in the entire Bible So Psalm 118 is preceded by Psalm 117, which is the shortest chapter in the Bible And Psalm 118 is followed by Psalm 119, which is the longest chapter in the Bible So Psalm 118 has 594 chapters before it and 594 chapters after it So it's the middle chapter So if you take Psalm 118 verse 8, that is one way of trying to determine the middle chapter in the Bible And what does Psalm 118 verse 8 say? I'm going to read from the New King James here It says it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men

That kind of summarizes our Psalm tonight It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men David was experiencing a time of crisis, but his trust and confidence in the Lord was strong So he would write this wonderful Psalm 27 It's one of the best known Psalms It's one of the most comforting, encouraging Psalms Stacy reminded me that when we had Lucy's celebration service, that it was one of Lucy's favorite verses, and they put Psalm 27 on it So I know a lot of you love this Psalm, and it's taken me about five years to get the courage up to preach on it

But I don't know what you're going through tonight, but this Psalm has helped, encouraged, and strengthened many Christians for thousands of years So if you turn in your Bible, I'm going to do something a little different tonight Now, I have an English Standard Version I study out of, but I'm going to read the Psalm out of the Legacy Standard Bible, which is, in case you don't know, the new translation from the Master's Seminary Some of you have it, and I think you'll see why I'm going to read it

But as we're reading it, why don't you notate how many times it says, I, I, I, in my translation, 11 times Why don't you notice how many times it says, me, me, me, 18 times And then you have the adjective, my, my, my, another 17 times So that's a very, very personal Psalm And then the other thing to look for is the name of God And I'm going to read it in the Legacy Standard Bible because they have taken Jehovah, capital L-O-R-D, and translated with the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh And I think it's listed 13 times in the 14 verses that we will read

Psalms 27 of David, Yahweh is my light and my salvation Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strong defense of my life Whom shall I dread? When evil doers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear Though war arise against me, in this I trust One thing I have asked from Yahweh is that I shall seek that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life to behold the beauty of Yahweh and to inquire in his temple For in the day of calamity, he will conceal me in his shelter

In the secret place of his tent, he will hide me He will lift me up on a rock, and now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with loud shouts of joy. I will sing, and I will sing praises to Yahweh Hear, oh Yahweh, when I call with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me On your behalf, my heart says, seek my face Your face, oh Yahweh, I shall seek Do not hide your face from me Do not turn your slave away in anger You have been my help Do not abandon me, and do not forsake me, oh God of my salvation

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but Yahweh will take me up Instruct me in your way, oh Yahweh, and lead me in a level path Because of my foes, do not give me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, and such as breathe out violence. I would have despised unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living Hope in Yahweh Be strong and let your heart take courage Hope in Yahweh Let's pray

Father, I don't know what the people of Christ Community Church, the people who have come out tonight are undergoing, but I pray tonight that you would erase our fears, our anxieties, our worries, our doubts, our uncertainties, our troubles Psalms 27 is the prescription that you've given us, and we need to follow it and obey it So may we leave here tonight encouraged, strengthened, not showing any fear, and walking in the Lord In Jesus' name, amen There is a superscription in your Bible, and it probably says of David

But if you get the Septuagint Bible, Greek translation, which was written 200 years before Christ was born, the Septuagint has extra words that say of David before he was anointed So if that's true, remember the superscriptions are not inspired words of God, but they do teach us a lot about the Psalms So if that's true, that means this Psalm was probably written when David was expelled from his home and hunted by Saul We don't know exactly the crisis that David has in his Psalms, but it was probably written when Saul was pursuing him, perhaps as long as those 13 years

The type of Psalm tonight, we had a lament Psalm last week, Psalm 5 Tonight's Psalm is called the Song of Trust, and that's why I've entitled it My Song of Trust There are 10 such Psalms like these, and if you want to know these Psalms, because they may encourage you, Psalms 11, Psalm 16, Psalms 23, you all know that one, Psalms 27, of course tonight, Psalm 62, Psalm 63, Psalm 91, which we call the Dial 9-1-1 Psalm, Psalm 121, Psalm 125, and Psalm 131

So there's at least 10 of these Songs of Trust Psalms. I don't usually quote my father, but as most of you know, my father kept journals on many of the Psalms, not all of them, but about 50 of them And I like what he said about Psalm 27 in his journal, and I have those journals in one of my tribe's possessions And he said about this, our Psalmist is David His life was one of trusting the Lord As we look at the experience of David in this Psalm, we can learn how to face certain situations in life He had been tried and tested by some experience in life

As the Psalm closes, David has confidence and rest One of the most paralyzing problems of life is fear We fear in so many ways, fear of the unknown, fear of an accident, fear of sickness, fear of cancer, fear of death, fear of people, fear of losing our jobs, fear of the enemy attacks, fear of being misunderstood or rejected or criticized or mistreated And many times these things happen And our fears are realized Sometimes it is worse than we anticipated Sometimes we can come completely paralyzed with feelings of fear And as fear gets a firm grip on us, we become its victim

So Psalms 27 is going to be the Psalm that will help us overcome that Last week I said Psalms 5 was very difficult to outline the way the paragraphs went One minute was prayer One minute David's talking about his enemies But tonight it's very easy And if you have the outline, when you leave tonight, I hope you'll attach four words to Psalm 27, confidence, communion, cry, and comfort, which is your outline, your four main points So let's look at main point number one, confidence in God And there are three sub points there that you have in your outline And first one is deliver

God will deliver my life is what David's going to say in verse one Here we have a powerful and jubilant stanza of praise of confidence in the Lord Even though David was experiencing conflict, some type of crisis, he pens three pillars of truth in this first verse God is light God is my salvation And God is my strength or God is my stronghold, as maybe some of your translations have So as we look at this point, deliver, let's look at God is light It says the Lord is my light You know, when we think of God, or we try to visualize him, the best we can do is to think of God as light

Here in Psalm 27 verse one is the only direct reference in which God is directly called light in the Old Testament And it's the first time in the Bible that light is used as a metaphor for light Job 38 19 says heaven is the abode of light Psalms 104 to says God wraps himself in light as a garment But Psalms 27 one is the first and only Old Testament verse that God is directly called light

Now we have a New Testament that David doesn't have at didn't have and first Timothy 616 says it's talking about God who alone has immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, who no one has ever seen or can see God is often associated with light in the Bible The meaning of light, light gives life Light means purity Light means sinlessness Light provides knowledge and understanding and dispels fear John one nine says the true light, which gives light to everyone was coming in the world Jesus Christ is light

First John one five says this is the message that we have heard from him and proclaim to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness One verse that if you have Jesus Christ in your heart tonight that you can treasure is Colossians one 13 to 14 which says he that's God or Jesus has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins So if you have the forgiveness of sins Jesus Christ in your heart you're in the light and you know God is the light

If you're a child of God redeemed by the blood of Jesus healed of your sins restored to a right relationship with God and all your sins have been forgiven The problem is most of our world has forgotten forgotten about God or blocks him out What we need to do is what David did immediately right here in verse one He says the Lord is my life David uses the name Yahweh and we read it 13 times in the 14 verses There's only two other Psalms where it's mentioned more Psalms 29 It's mentioned 18 times in Psalms 118 It's is a symbol for God Jesus came into the world in John 8 12

He said I am the light of the world and first John 1 5 says God is light The opposite of light is darkness and darkness is a symbol of fear distress trouble perplexity Light is the complete opposite of those God was David's light God provided the light and the darkness disappeared One commentator said the psalmist is affirming that even in the darkest this of the terrible threat of war David has no fear for God is the light that can dispel such fearful darkness and then God is my salvation The second part in first one the word for salvation here in the Old Testament means deliverance

Okay deliverance from some type of trouble in Psalm 27 It's used twice once here once in verse nine and once in verse one verse nine says oh God of my salvation Psalm 60 verse 11 says oh give us help against the adversary for salvation by man is worthless So it's always used in a time of trouble for God delivering David was confident of God's salvation from from God not from man Now in the New Testament we use salvation which means delivery from the penalty the power and the punishment and presence of sin Romans 1 16 says I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it's the power of God

Salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and to the Greek So God was David's light God was David's salvation And number three the last part of verse one the Lord is the stronghold of my life The legacy stranded Bible says strong defense This is a theme that runs all through the Bible referring to the power of God God is omnipotent Life can have its troubles and sorrows but as long as God is our source of strength there is nothing to fear Proverbs 18 10 says the name of the Lord is a strong tower

The righteous man runs into it and is safe because God is light because God is my salvation because God is my stronghold. I do not need to be afraid of anything including Satan himself You know it says there whom shall I fear in verse 1 and of whom shall I be afraid or dread in verse 1 You know David didn't fear Goliath while Saul and the Israeli army were there for 42 days it says Goliath would march out You know this story Lance has preached on it extensively but I wanted you to turn to first Samuel 17 and look at verse 44 You all know what David did right He killed Goliath

But do you remember what David said And when I read it it's so amazing because this is just a teenage boy This is a teenage boy who grew courage when he fought a lion when he fought a bear when he protected his sheep But we all know what David did to Goliath But in verse 44 of first Samuel 17 the Philistine said to David come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field Then David said to the Philistine you come to me with a sword and a spear and with a javelin

But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will strike you down and cut off your head and I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel

And I just love verse 47 and that all this assembly that would be the Philistines and that would be the unbelieving Israeli army including Saul that all this assembly may know that the Lord saves not with the sword and the spear for the battle is the Lord and he will give you into our hand That's a teenager saying that So you can see why I'm assuming much later in life David would have written Psalm 27 where he gets his confidence where he gets his courage where he can say God is my light God is my salvation God is my strength

You've heard the same from Oswald Chambers many times from this pulpit The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else Let's look at some point B defeat some point B and a point one defeat God will defeat my enemies is what David says He says when the evil doers assail me they want to eat up my flesh my adversaries and my foes they will stumble and fall That phrase eat up my flesh it's a metaphor for some dangerous ferocious animal that would try to eat you or kill you

But David's confidence is in God because David spoke often with the Lord And I want to read another text about David and that's in first Samuel 30 If you turn with me to first Samuel 30 this is a this is after first Samuel 17 And David is not quite king yet he's king over Hebron but Saul is still around But in first Samuel 30 I'll just read verses 1 to 8 first It says now when David and his men came to Ziglag on the third day the Amalekites had made a raid against Nigreb and against Ziglag

They had overcome Ziglag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it both small and great They killed no one but carried them off and went on their way And when David and his men came to the city remember if you go to the preceding chapters David wanted to go fight Israel and the Philistines said no he's not going with us So David and his men went back and when they get back there the Amalekites have taken Ziglag And when David and his men came to the city they found it burned with fire their wives sons and daughters taken captive

And David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep David's two wives also had been taken captive Ahinnonom of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel And David was greatly distressed for the people this is David's own men spoke of stoning him because all the people were bitter in soul each for his sons and daughters But notice the next few words I have these underlined in my Bible But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God So we have this crisis here how does David handle it? His men want to kill him

So when it says David strengthened himself in the Lord what does that mean? Well what do we do today? Today we call our friends and we tell them our troubles right? We post it on social media and say hey I'm having a bad day pray for me Or we take a vacation day or something like that But what does David do? Well we can read into it that David remembers the Lord Says he strengthened himself in the Lord

David knows that God has helped him in the past and he's going to trust him in the present and in the future. I believe David remembers scripture and maybe one of those scriptures he remembered that he wrote as a young shepherd boy was Psalms 23 for that says even though I walk through the valley of shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me your rod and staff comfort me David is in the valley of the shadow of death here because his own men want to stone him And I believe that David remembers I got to obey God So he remembers the Lord he remembers scripture and remembers to obey

In Acts 13 the apostle Paul is preaching in Antioch and he talks about David and what Paul says about David he says God says I have found David the son of Jesse a man after my heart who will do all my will So no matter how bad the crisis was David is going to remember to obey And lastly David remembers to pray So in verse seven David said to Abathar the priest the son of Amalek bring me the epod So Abathar brought the epod to David and verse eight says and David inquired of the Lord shall I pursue after this man shall I overtake them

God answered him pursue for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue So we just read one of the nine times in first and second Samuel where it says David inquired of the Lord So I believe when David strengthened himself it teaches us that we got to remember the Lord's promises We got to remember scripture and that's why I'm going to tell everybody here tonight you need to have Psalms 27 at least verses one to six memorized And you got to remember to obey what the scripture says and then you got to remember to pray

David had confidence in God to strengthen himself in God and then he inquires in God David could say in another Psalm Psalm 20 which David wrote verse seven some trust in chariots and some trust in horses but we trust in the name of the Lord our God Psalm 33 17 we don't know who wrote that it says the war horse is a false hope for salvation but by its great might it cannot rescue So we looked at sub point one God will deliver me Sub point two God will defeat my enemies Let's look at sub point C defend God will defend my safety Though it says an army and camp against me my heart shall not fear

The war arise against me I will be confident That's why I the point number one is confidence in God Verse two says there are evildoers and adversaries and foes that are out for David Verse three says there's an army and war out to get David Verse five says it's a day of trouble Verse six mentions enemies It's obvious to say that David is in a crisis here and he's under attack

If the Septuagint version of the Bible and that superscription where it says of David before he was anointed is true then we know that this psalm was probably written while Saul was fleeing while Saul was trying to chase David for those in 13 years But it's absolutely incredible testimony of David's confidence in the Lord Though an army is going to camp against me Saul at one point had three thousand like a delta force chasing David Other time he had ten twenty thousand people out looking for David But as David said in first Samuel 1747 the battle is the Lord David would write in another psalm

Psalm 25 Oh my God in you I trust If God is for us he is able to protect us and we have reason to trust in him There's no better security against fear than the assurance that God is your friend Now many of you might be thinking David was a man of war You know he won every battle he ever fought David shed much bloodshed and it's hard to relate to him at times But I don't know what your problem is But maybe you have an army an army of cancer cells that has attacked your body And then maybe chemo and radiation are attacking your body

Maybe you have a rebellion in your family. A wayward teenager or a loved one that's gone astray Or maybe you have a war going on in the workplace Being a Christian today in the workplace cannot be easy Or maybe you're troubled by the conflict with our government passing laws against God's laws. I don't know what your experience in your life but Psalms 27 should be helpful for you It's been described as my song of trust That's why I gave it that title And it's designed to take away pain, dread and give you a new song to sing. A song of deliverance

So maybe you're having some discouragement tonight Depression, anxiety, worry, doubt and fear And like a doctor who gives a prescription one of the names of Jehovah is Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals God gives us a prescription in Psalm 27 You have the prescription in your hand in your Bible but you need to take that prescription and obey it It doesn't do any good if you get the prescription from the doctor and you don't take the medicine But this Psalm gives us confidence that no matter what's going on in our life that God is our confidence

And as I said before you need to have at least the first six verses memorized If David can trust the Lord and not fear when an enemy army is surrounding him cannot we say the same if God is for us who can be against us We can have confidence in our great God and Savior In the New Testament 2nd Timothy 1 7 says for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control Hebrews 13 6 which is actually a quote from Psalms 1 18 6 says the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what can man do to me What was the source of David's great confidence? God was his light God was his salvation

God was his strength And God will deliver me God will defeat my enemies and God will defend me Let's move on to point number two Communion with God verses four to six. I'm not talking about holy communion when you partake of the bread and the cup. I'm talking about when you commune with God when you have intimacy with God when you spend time with the Lord See if you don't have confidence in the Lord it's probably because point two you're not communing with God Last week's message was all about prayer and communing with God

David was always confident because he communed with God. I mentioned nine times he inquired of God in first and second Samuel David learned to meditate upon God as a shepherd boy and that would give him strength and confidence to lead the nation of Israel David here is living in the wilderness of Judea He's away from the sanctuary but he longed for two things And here you probably have one of the most beautiful poetic verses in all of Psalms He says two things dwell and delight. I'm going to dwell in God's house and I'm going to delight in God's house

So first off I'm going to dwell in God's house One thing I have asked of the Lord this is what I seek that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life Verse four you've heard from this pulpit many many times as Lance has preached the last 30 years And it was back in December 28 2003 when I got the cassette or the CD I can't remember when I was in India that Lance preached a message called One Thing. I brought this up before and you can get the tape but Lance preached that message

And of all the sermons I've heard over the past 30 years this is probably the one sermon called One Thing that I never forgot One of my favorite sermons But the Bible says one thing five times And you can get that message if you want from December 28 2003 called One Thing from our tape library But in Mark 10 21 Jesus looked at this would be the rich young ruler and he said you lack one thing Go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven and come follow me Then in Luke 10 42 Jesus said to Martha but one thing is necessary

Mary has chosen the good portion which shall not be taken away from her And in John 9 25 the blind man who had been healed he answered the Pharisees saying whether he is a sinner or not I do not know One thing I know that I was blind but now I see And the apostle Paul would say in Philippians 4 13 brothers I do not consider that I have made it on my own but one thing I do forgetting what lies behind me and straining forward to what lies ahead

And number five of course is our Psalm 27 for one thing that I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after 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 inquire in his temple That is just absolutely one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible But what is the one thing it's a preoccupation with God with God's person God's will David is saying I have confidence in God because I commune with God It's like Moses in Exodus 33 when he shouted out please show me your glory God

It's David in those days one commentator said David in those days was truly a man after God's own heart But David wanted the impossible He was God's man He was a great leader of men He was a warrior He was courageous He was a compassionate man He was a prince He was a poet He was a prophet But what he was not was a priest It was a tribe of Levi that had the privilege of serving in the tabernacle David longed for a life like that of the Levites who spent their whole lives in constant service for God David wanted to live for the glory of God

He desperately wanted to build God a temple later on in life But God said no your son Solomon would So he wanted and let's move on to number two delight. I will delight in God's house That's the last part of verse 4b to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire his temple Did you come excited tonight to church to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord David did David couldn't wait to go to the temple Now there's a little controversy here between liberal scholars because they say well there's no temple here This is Psalms 27 There's no temple It's a tabernacle

So I'll just try to quickly tell you that in Psalms verse 8 it says oh Lord I love the habitation of your house In Psalms 27 here it says temple If you go to Psalms 28 verse 2 it calls it the most holy sanctuary So we have the word house temple sanctuary And these words are interchangeable So just because the temple has not been built if you go to first Samuel 1 9 it calls the tabernacle the temple So I'm not going to get into that controversy The words are interchangeable So it's a tabernacle but you can call it a house of the Lord or the temple of the Lord

He says to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord Dr Martin Lloyd Jones says what he really means by this is that I belong to the household of God That I'm ever in communion with God In fellowship with God In touch with God In effect what the psalmist is saying what I want above everything else in the world is always to be in that close relationship with God so that whatever happens I am with him and he is with me This is the one thing I want The noun for beauty means delightness pleasantness

Tragically today there are many who come to church and they dwell in the house of the Lord but they fail to behold its beauty The thoughts of having a close relationship with God continue Subpoint C. I will deepen in the house of God Verses five and six So in verse five it's what will God do? And in verse six is what will David do? So first off verse five what will God do? He's going to do three things He says he will he will he will three times in verse five He will hide me Well we know at least two times David hid in a cave right? He says he will conceal me

We know twice David avoided the spear that Saul threw at him And thirdly he says he will lift me up Lift me up means victory It means to raise you up spiritually physically or emotionally from a difficult situation or state of despair David's saying I have confidence in God. I communion with God and I trust him to do these three things David believes in God So in verse six what will I do? So David says two things I will do here after the three things that he says God will do He says I will offer sacrifice with shouts of joy and I will sing and make melody in my heart

Last week when we looked at Psalm 5 we saw at the end of Psalm 5 that when we finish praying we should be filled with joy because we've given God our troubles our sorrows our petitions Here in Psalms 27 David says that when God gives him the victories he sings with joy We saw the confidence of David in God in the first point and that's because David had a special communion with God And even if their enemies are all around him David's confidence and communion with God are so special that despite having enemies wanting to attack him it makes him sing for joy

Again I don't know what troubles you're in today what crisis you're going through what suffering you're experiencing but Psalms 127 6 may be the strongest most powerful statement of trust and confidence in the Lord in the entire Bible But you have to have confidence in God and you must be in communion with God Psalms 27 verses 4 to 6 is the Old Testament equivalent of where it says in the New Testament abiding in Christ You find that in John 15 In John 15 1 to 17 11 times it says abiding in Christ

So Psalms 27 is the Old Testament equivalent of abiding New Testament equivalent of abiding in Christ Let's move on to point number three cry to God David here is going to cry out for five things and I'll go through them really quickly that only a loving kind and compassionate God can give Number one in verse seven he says hear me O Lord Notice in this section what David is seeking from God is exactly what a child will seek from his parents All five of these things a child seeks from his parent and the first thing that a child seeks from his parents is to be heard

Our children can talk a lot and you know sometimes as parents we get tired of listening because they can talk non-stop But God is never tired of hearing There's no crisis mode There's no 9-1-1 for God He's always there to hear us and we have confidence that God is never too busy to hear us Matthew 7 7 says ask and it will be given to you Seek and you will find Knock it will be open to you Then we move on to help me in verses 8 to 10 and you notice he's going to say it depends on your translation He's going to say for do not do not hide your face from me Do not turn your slave away

Do not abandon me and do not forsake me David's crying out for help saying you helped me in the past Help me now So the second thing that a child seeks from his parents is help David is in a crisis seeking God's help Now verse 10 We don't know what prompted David to say verse 10 for my father and my mother have forsaken me but the Lord will take me in If you go to first Samuel 22 verse 3 to 4 David takes his parents to Moab to the king of Moab and says I'm going to leave my parents with you and we don't hear anything more about his parents So the Bible is silent about it So maybe they died

You know maybe they did forsaken We don't know But the point here is that when all earthly pillars all earthly supports everything you trusted in in earth gives way the Lord can still be dependent upon God cannot abandon us like earthly sinful parents can or like your friends can The third point here is teach me in verses 11 8 He says teach me your way The third thing a child seeks from his parents is to be taught maybe something as simple as tying your shoes or we've been trying to teach my daughter how to hold a spoon for many years Things like that. I don't think David wrote Psalm 119

Some people do think say David wrote Psalm 119 Other people think Daniel did or Ezra did But Psalm 119 it depends on your translations But in the ESV in all of Psalms in 150 Psalms 27 times it says teach me your statutes teach me your law But in Psalms 119 the greatest Psalm with 176 verses 11 times in 176 verses it says in Psalms 119 verse 12 Blessed are you O Lord teach me your statutes In Psalms 119 26 when I was told of my ways you answered me teach me your statutes Psalms 119 29 put false ways far from me and graciously teach me your law

Psalms 119 33 teach me O Lord the way of your statutes and I will keep them to the end Psalms 119 64 the earth O Lord is full of your steadfast love teach me your statutes Psalms 119 66 teach me good judgment and knowledge for I believe in your commandments Psalms 119 68 you are good and do good teach me your statutes Psalms 119 108 accept my free will offerings of praise O Lord and teach me your rules Psalms 119 24 deal with your servant according to your steadfast love and teach me your statutes Psalms 119 135 make your face shine upon your servant and teach me your statutes

And lastly Psalms 119 verse 171 my lips will pour forth praise for you teach me your statutes You know if you truly love the Lord there's going to be a constant desire to learn from the Lord You never stop growing in the Lord. A. W Tozer said that Satan's greatest weapon is man's ignorance of God's word If you want to have confidence in God you got to commune with God and that means spending time in his word

And I think most of you know 2 Timothy 2 15 that says do your best not your average not your worst do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who has no need to be shamed who correctly or rightly handles the word of truth Number four he says lead me in the in the last part of verse 11 lead me on a level path because of my enemies Okay he doesn't want to go to the right you don't go to the left because he might run into his enemies The fourth thing a child seeks from his parents is to be led on a smooth or straight path

David danger is lurking in every corner and we need to be led How are we to be led well David asks God to lead him God's word guides us to keep us on a straight path Psalms 119 105 says God's word is a lamp in my feet and a light in my path And number five or e protect me in verse 12 The fifth thing that a child seeks from his parents is protection David says in verse 12 and here's the petition of the psalm give me not up to the will of my adversaries for there's false witnesses have risen up against me and they breathe out violence

These are violent men you know Dove the Edomite slaughtered all the priests of David So these are some wicked men that are chasing David David as we mentioned earlier he knows he's in danger and his children children need their parents protection David needed God's protection Wicked men wanted to kill him as described by liars and violent men So far we have seen that David had confidence in God He had a special communion with God He could cry out to God and lastly he would receive comfort from God Point number four And there's two points here support and strength

Now this verse in verse 13 is a verse that has been translated in different ways And so in my Bible it's hard to understand in my in the ESV it says I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord It's hard to understand that So the new King James and the legacy standard Bible if you have that Bible out here tonight you notice there's some words in italics Anybody see that So the translators have tried to make this verse for us to understand

So those words are not in the original Greek but the new King James says I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of living The legacy standard Bible says I would have despaired unless italics that I had believed that I would see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of living So you can see that it's an easier translation We see the confidence of God that David has in God Time and time again God rescued him from Saul's plots to kill him And even though I may undergo some trial we all know that God we will see God someday

There's a verse that we turn to quite often You don't have to turn there but you probably turn to it many times and it's Isaiah 43 verse 2 And you remember that it says when you pass through the waters It does not say if you pass through the waters It says when you pass through the waters I will be with you and through the rivers they shall not overwhelm you And when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned and the flames shall not consume you for I am the Lord your God the Holy One of Israel your Savior You know we live in a very safe country to be a Christian don't we

And there's a there's a quote by someone that says God doesn't ask many of us to die for him But he asks all of us to live for him And you know this week I read from the voice of the martyrs sent me an email And I lived in India for about eight years There's a state called Maya Pradesh And this week or last week in Maya Pradesh in the Senate Now understand in India the states have more power than the federal government The village leaders probably have more power than the president

But in this state Maya Pradesh they introduced a bill that if you convert from Hinduism to Christianity you get the death penalty. OK Now I don't know if the law is going to pass but that just shows you what's out there You'd be a Christian in India in Iran maybe in China You could die for the Lord God doesn't ask many of us to be a martyr for him But he does ask all of us to live for him So the second point is strength And that's the last verse Verse 14 And this is a very familiar verse Wait for the Lord Be strong Let your heart take courage and wait for the Lord So God gives us strength

And this phraseology here is a very favorite combination of the Old Testament And we have looked at it before at Christ Community Church It says in Deuteronomy 31 6 be strong and courageous Deuteronomy 23 23 says in the Lord commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said be strong and courageous In Joshua 1 6 and verse 7 it says be strong and courageous Only be strong and very courageous Joshua 1 18 says only be strong and courageous Three times in chapter 1 of Joshua

Then in 1 Chronicles 22 13 it says then you will prosper if you're careful to obey the statutes and rules that the Lord commanded Moses for Israel Be strong and courageous. 1 Chronicles 28 20 David said to his son Solomon be strong and courageous and do it And Psalms 31 verse 24 says be strong and let your heart take courage All of you who wait for the Lord So at least seven times there it says be strong and courageous in addition to Psalms 27 verse 14

And one of the most difficult aspects of being a Christian life is waiting for the Lord isn't it? It's especially difficult when you're in the middle of a trial or suffering But understand that's when God strengthens you That's when God builds upon your faith When you wait upon the Lord When you read your Bible When you pray When you meditate upon him You don't stay at one church You don't put the Bible away You dig into it David says we must be strong and courageous There's a verse in Job 23 10

If you were with us last year when Lance taught us he said there were three great confession statements by Job in the book of Job Three great And Job 23 10 is the third of those great confessions And I love this verse Job 23 10 says but he knows the way that I take and when he has tried me I shall come out as gold That's the goal of us today That no matter what the trial is No matter what's going on we will pass that test and we will come out as gold The thing David is praying for and for which we pray does not always come to us at once God has his timings which are not ours

And therefore what we pray for and need sometime is delayed What then? Are we to despair of having answers to lose confidence? Not at all We simply need to wait God wants us to be with him and we will someday be with him But sometimes we have to wait So I don't know the situations you're in today but we can have we can have confidence in God in difficult times because we commune with God and because we can cry out to God we will receive comfort from God We live in an evil world

You all know the verse 1 John 5 19 says we know that we are from God that's us believers and the whole world relies in the power of the evil one You all know that verse right? The whole world lies in the power of the evil one Satan Do you know what the verse preceding that says before that in verse 18? It says that we know that everyone who is born of God does not keep on sinning but he was born of God protects him and the evil one does not touch him James 4 7 says submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you

And Romans 8 31 says if God is for us who can be against us? In closing Dwight L Moody's favorite verse You know what his favorite verse was from Dwight L Moody who founded Moody Bible Institute? His favorite verse was Isaiah chapter 12 verse 2 You might want to just jot that down sometime because it kind of summarizes Psalms 27 But Dwight L Moody's favorite verse was Isaiah 12 2 which says behold God is my salvation. I will trust and I will not be afraid for the Lord God is my strength and my song and he has become my salvation That's Dwight L Moody's favorite verse What a beautiful verse

And Dwight L Moody used to say you can travel first class or you can travel second class to heaven When I first read that I said wait a minute there's only one way to heaven Salvation is found in no one else and Jesus says I am the way There's only one way to heaven But he's talking about the time that we're waiting to go to heaven Now I don't know about you but I have flown probably two three hundred flights being a missionary for 18 years and done like 30 short-term trips to one time Tom Mason took us Uganda and we had six flights to get to Uganda and six flights back

So I've flown hundreds of flights but only one time did I ever get bumped to first class And it wasn't a long flight it was from Bangkok to Calcutta and me and my wife and I was in short pants and a t-shirt Didn't deserve it but they bumped us and that was really sweet Really sweet You know we had all the orange juice we could drink while everybody else is drinking the alcohol We had steak for dinner and when they brought the desserts it wasn't one dessert it was three desserts And they gave you all these headphones and slippers and amenities all these things

So I wish I could fly first class all the time Fortunately in two months we'll be in cattle class when we go to Argentina Call it cattle class But so there is only one way to go to heaven but while we wait there's a first class waiting and there's a second class waiting And he says second class is what time I am afraid I will trust It's a little confusing What he's saying is that when I'm afraid I'm going to trust That's second class First class is I will trust and not be afraid Second class is for Christians they have their ticket to heaven

They have Jesus Christ in their heart but they worry they doubt they're anxious they're full of fear And the Bible says in Matthew 6 25 don't be anxious The Bible says in Luke 12 29 don't worry The Bible says in James 1 5 to 6 that we are not to doubt if we have faith And the Bible says in Romans 8 15 that we have not received the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received a spirit as adoption of sons who by we cry have a father So that's second class But first class is for Christians who will trust who say I'm not going to fear. I will trust and not be afraid

So my prayer for you tonight as you leave here tonight is that Psalms 27 is a prescription from Jehovah Rapha that you will memorize it that you will quote it And I know many of you know it Many of you know it and it's one of your favorites. I know that's first class You're going to experience some trials some suffering some tribulations but no fear Psalms 27 is that And I'll close with a man called Stuart Hamblin. I didn't know this man but he wrote a hymn kind of a country Christian guy singer But he wrote a hymn called Known Only to Him Now Google it and you can listen to it

Stuart H-A-M-B-L-I-N And the hymn is called Known Only to Him Now Elvis Presley sang it so don't look at his one but look for Stuart Hamblin's But the last verse says known only to him are the great hidden secrets. I fear not the darkness when my flame shall dim. I know not what the future holds but I know who holds the future It's a secret known only to him And the words that I want to emphasize are those. I know not what the future holds but I know who holds the future Our lives are in God's hands May Psalm 27 be your song of trust that it is my song of trust for all of us Let's pray

Dear Heavenly Father I don't know what is going on in the lives of our people tonight but we know there are people here who are going to undergo operations There are people here who are recovering from cancer and then they have to deal with the chemo and the side effects and all that Father I know there are people who are struggling with family, people struggling with work, people struggling with our government But Father may we not fear You are our source of salvation You are our light You are our defense And we will trust you and not fear Help us to memorize this psalm Help us to read it

Help us Father to obey it so when those trials come we will not fear And Lord Jesus we pray for your return that any day, any time, today, tonight we'll hear the loud command, we'll hear the voice of the archangel, we'll hear the trumpet call and you will take us home But till that great day, till that time, help us to tarry with no fear Thank you for Psalm 27 In Jesus name Amen.