NEW Sermon/Bible Study on Psalm 27

Sermon/Bible Study based on Psalm 27

Sermon originally delivered September 27, 2023

Psalm 27 is the psalm assigned for worship this past Sunday - but since we use a Divine Service at all of our regular worship, there isn’t a specific place for a psalm. Psalms are good to listen to and study, though, because they are written by real people, just like us, with their joys and struggles and challenges. Psalm 27 is a good example, with David as the author.

If you know much about David, you know that he was the youngest child in his family and not always respected or thought much of, until he, as a young person, defeated the mighty giant, Goliath, with a sling-shot.

David had many other dangers and challenges in his life, too. You get a sense of that in verses 2 and 3 of the psalm. We hear David speaking:

• “Evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh.”
• I have “adversaries” and “foes.”
• “An army encamps against me” and “war arises against me.”

David faced all of that and more. King Saul tried to kill him more than once. When David finally became king, he had to fight many battles against many people to try to secure the land for the Israelites, and to set up a capitol city in Jerusalem, as a place for the tabernacle and later the temple to be built. His own son, Absalom, later on overthrew him as King and tried to capture and do away with him. Yet David says, again and again, in this psalm: “Whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid? I will be confident!”

How about us and how we are doing, these days? On a smaller scale, do we face many of the same challenges and fears?

• We live in a pretty safe community, but we sometimes hear of “evildoers” and bad things happening pretty close to where we are, right now. That’s why our church and school have to be locked up much of the time, especially for the sake of our children and staff at our school.
• Do we still have “adversaries and foes?” We hear and read almost every day of people attacking the Christian faith and important things that we believe.
• What about armies and wars? We wonder what will happen between and Russia and Ukraine. What about the threats of China with Taiwan and other nations, too? 

Some say that reading the news these days is “doom scrolling,” because there is so much doom and gloom described. This all leaves us perplexed and worried and feeling helpless - at least at times - as if we were in-the-dark in life.

How did David cope with all this? He said in verse 1, “The Lord is my Light.” This sinful, fallen world has always been full of darkness, but as David wrote in another psalm, “With You, O Lord, is the fountain of life; in Your Light do we see light” and hope, too (Psalm 36:9). And another psalmist also wrote: “Send out Your Light and Your Truth, O God; let them lead me; let them bring me to Your holy hill and to Your dwelling. Then I will go to the altar of the Lord, to God my exceeding joy, and I will praise You” (Psalm 43:3-4).

The reality is that David was not always so confident in his Lord when tough times came. He wondered, at times, where the Lord was and what He was doing. We get a glimpse of that in verses 7-10 of Psalm 25, where David prays that the Lord will “hear” him  and “not turn away” and “not hide His face” from him, or “cast him off” or “forsake him.”

David even thinks of his parents and how they have “forsaken” him, in v.10. He probably simply means that they have died (which they could not control), and he greatly misses them and their presence and their encouragement, as we all do when our loved ones and other family die. That can be a very dark time for us, too.

Yet, then, David bounces back to his trust in the Lord, as v.10 ends: “but the Lord will take me in,” even if family and friends are gone. He asks the Lord to teach him His ways and lead him on a “level, stable path.” That is what David had prayed for in v.3 - that he would be able to be often in the Lord’s house and talk and inquire of Him. For the Lord and His Word were a continual “lamp to his feet and a light to his path” (Psalm 119:105) and would point him again to what he also mentioned in v. 1 - “the Lord’s salvation,” which would ultimately come in Jesus.

The name “Jesus” means “Savior” - the Lord saves - and Jesus was “the Light of the world” (John 8:12) and “the true Light who enlightens every person” and “the Light that no darkness can ever overcome” (John 1:5,9). Jesus Himself said, “Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of Life” (John 8:12). That Light and that eternal victory, that salvation, was won for us by Jesus by His death and resurrection.

We are here today at worship for the same reason that David wanted to be in God’s House. We have days of strong faith, but also darker days of worry and struggle. We need to be reminded again and again of the Lord’s forgiveness and His promises, especially in Christ our Savior. And they are always there for us, too, in God’s Word and the gift of the Lord’s Supper.

One commentator on this psalm says that people sometimes “whistle in the dark.” It’s a coping mechanism that helps them feel a little better when by themselves on a dark night - but it doesn’t help very much. We have so much more, in our Lord. As David said in verses 5-6 in this psalm: “The Lord will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble; He will conceal me under the cover of His tent; He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up… and I will sing and make melody to the Lord.”

David had his psalms to sing, and we have our hymns, which also reflect God’s Word to us and encourage us, so that we can say with David, as he says in v.1, “The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the Stronghold, the Defense of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

And we can also say with David what some call his “Amen,” his “This is most certainly true” of this psalm, in v.13-14: “I believe, (I truly believe!) that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” - (strength in this life and eternal life to come.) Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

We pray: “Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds safe, only where they can be safe, in Christ Jesus” our Lord (Philippians 4:7). Amen.