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Psalm 27:1-9 - This week’s Psalm is David’s triumphant prayer to God to
deliver him from all those who conspire to bring him down. The prayer
presupposes the Lord’s covenant with David. It is faith which publicly
testifies to the Psalmist’s confident reliance on the Lord.
When
it got dark in biblical times, they lit lamps -- not the brilliant LED lanterns
you can purchase today, but simple pottery lamps, with a single wick and flame,
casting just enough light to see a short ways ahead. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet, a light to
my path.” If we follow God’s will, we do not know what the road will look
like in a few miles or years. God gives us just a pottery lamp’s worth of
light, just enough to take a few more steps. You have to trust God with that
kind of light.
“The Lord is my light; whom shall I fear?”
We fear the future -- but with God as our light, that small flicker banishes
the darkness, and we are not alone.
“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” (verse 4) is one of
the Bible’s most eloquent, emotionally powerful, visionary verses, well worth
memorizing, or installing as your life’s mission statement, etching it into the
core of your soul.
So
many pregnant phrases in Psalm 27 beg for reflection.
“Now my head is lifted up” (verse 6) --
that we do not hang our heads any longer, but look forward, with dignity,
because of God's salvation.
“Your face, Lord, do I seek” (verse 8) -- for we do not seek some vague, ephemeral deity, but a God with a human face, the compassionate, strong face of Jesus, God become like us.
“I believe I shall see the goodness of the
Lord in the land of the living,” (verse 13) -- that faith is not merely
about the pledge of eternal life in another world, but it is in this world, not
merely some spiritual realm, but the real, physical world, in my body, in my
neighborhood, in politics, in economics, everywhere that is anywhere now.[1]
Prayer
for Psalm 27 – Gracious Father,
protector of those who hope in you, You heard the cry of your Son and kept him
safe in your shelter in the day of evil. Grant that your servants who seek your
face in times of trouble may see your goodness in the land of he living;
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. [2]
[2] Collect
for Psalm 27, For All the Saints A Prayer Book for and by the Church Vol.2 ©
1995 American Lutheran Publicity Bureau, Delhi, NY
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