Psalm 27

This psalm is one of my favorites in the book. Some of the verses like vs. 4 and vs. 14 I have used as "verse of the year" at certain times.

Very little has changed in David's circumstances, but the tone of this psalm is much more positive than that of the previous one. David still finds himself in a world of evil people, and enemies who are after his life. The contrast between the darkness that surrounds him, and the light that God made shine in his soul, gives to this psalm a delightful glow and beauty.

The Apostle John wrote "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."¹ David makes this into a subjective experience when he says: "The LORD is my light and my salvation." In saying "The Lord is my salvation," he not only indicates that God saved him, but that salvation cannot be separated from the person of God, and can only be experienced in fellowship with Him. An illustration that remotely approaches this truth is the marriage of the British writer C. S. Lewis to an American lady. Lewis was a bachelor who had no intention of ever getting married, but married Joy Davidman in order to save her from being expelled from England. God saves us by entering into a vital relationship with us. The deep meaning of the opening statement of this psalm is light and salvation, which are used as synonyms. David is saved by God's light.

YHWH makes His light shine upon man. This means that without God, man lives in darkness. There is a strong suggestion of a parallel with the first day of creation. The Apostle Paul draws this parallel by saying: "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ."² Man usually reacts to this light with an initial shock, because the light discovers our darkness. Light only becomes salvation if there is a confession of sin. In the prologue to his Gospel, the Apostle John connects life with light when he says: "In him [Christ] was life, and that life was the light of men."³ We see a greater perspective as David's words are placed against the background of darkness, more specifically, the powers of darkness. And David was, obviously, quite aware of the presence of demonic powers. Light and salvation, therefore, take on proportions of a power encounter. Over against the awful threat of the devil stands the power of the light and the salvation in Jesus Christ.

For David, this meant victory over fear. We ought not to underestimate the importance of David's reaction. A man, who overcomes his fear because he is aware of the fact that God's presence is greater than all the threats of Satan, is a man who experiences healing and rehabilitation. In New Testament terms, man has become "a new creation."⁴ So light and salvation are more than just elements of forgiveness of sin; they provide an impenetrable protection against everything that is out to destroy man.

"Light" and "salvation," therefore, are also parallel terms with "the stronghold of my life." At another place David expresses the same thought by saying: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble."⁵ Where the NIV says: "The LORD is the stronghold of my life," the KJV has: "The LORD is the strength of my life." "Stronghold of my life" sounds more defensive than the progressive "strength of my life." It is true that our standing means that we have to maintain the position that is given us in Christ, but the phrase "strength of my life" has a more joyful sound to me than "stronghold of my life." The Apostle Paul interprets the thought "The LORD is the strength of my life" with the words: "I can do everything through him who gives me strength."⁶

If God were not the stronghold and strength of our lives, we would have all reason to fear. We live in a demon-possessed world, but God is on our side. Fear is not only a complex of psychological phenomena that we can overcome; it is the reaction of our whole being, spirit, soul, and body, to real dangers and to powers that are bent on our destruction. Only in God's presence can those powers be identified and conquered. As in most places in the Book of Psalms, the struggle is not against flesh and blood, although demonic attacks often reach us via our fellowmen.

The important word in the opening verses of this psalm is "confidence." God's presence is not verifiable by any of the five senses. Faith makes light and salvation into a spiritual reality. We should not forget that light also has a judgmental quality in that it exposes sin. Light becomes salvation only through confession of sin, and thus the enemy is denied any foothold he may have had in our lives. Knowledge of salvation always comes through forgiveness of sin. A man whose sins are forgiven has no reason anymore to fear the devil.

When we enter into a new relationship with God, we are also freed of peer pressure. When we realize that we are no longer obliged to please men, the fear of men also disappears. Paul said: "If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ."⁷

In the second stanza, (vs. 4-6), David goes beyond salvation through fellowship with God, which is the theme of the first verses. He discovers that fellowship with God is not only important as a means to achieve a goal, but that it is desirable for its own sake. Even if the result were not deliverance and victory, it would be worth everything to know God. It is true, of course, that our relationship with God and our salvation can never be separated, but a bond of intimacy with God would be of the utmost importance, even if it meant our own defeat. In Jesus' life this was true in a sense; His fellowship with the Father led to His suffering and death on the cross. But, at the end, this became the greatest victory and deliverance of all.

We live in a complex world. Some people simplify their existence by ignoring life's complications. This may be the result of a lack of understanding or of intelligence. It is, however, a great victory and a depth of wisdom if we can reduce life's complexity to its basic factors, as David does here. He says: "One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek…" The greatest discovery man can make in life is understanding what is basic. Jesus said to Martha: "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."⁸ The merchant who was looking for fine pearls understood this; that is the reason he went away and sold everything he had and bought the pearl of great value.⁹ Moses grasped this when he prayed God to show him His glory.¹⁰ Seeking one thing means to be willing to give up everything else. Blessed is the man who stakes everything on one throw to gain this one thing. I admit that the expression is not biblical, and to compare David's excitement with a gamble is, probably, not proper, but there is something in the excitement of gambling that approaches David's passion.

The one thing David seeks is "to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." The word "beauty" is surprising in this context. It is the translation of the Hebrew word no` am, which is defined by Strong's as: "agreeableness, i.e. delight, suitableness, splendor or grace." The condition necessary to satisfy David's longing is to "dwell in the house of the LORD," and "to seek him in his temple." This entails a lifelong fellowship with God and a systematic search of discovery. That is the essence of David's prayer. He realizes that human determination is not sufficient, but that God will grant this in answer to prayer. God makes it possible for us to live a life in His presence, if we ask Him for it, and if we make this our highest priority. Jesus must have had this verse in mind when He stayed behind in the temple as a twelve-year-old boy, because He "had to be in [His] Father's house."¹¹

If we want to live a life in God's presence, we must make prayer our priority. No one can do this in his own strength; it is the result of God's grace and human determination working together. It is a healthy thing if we can reduce our prayer life to the basic factors.

David wants to "gaze upon the beauty of the Lord." God is beautiful; He is the source of all beauty. The term "beauty" is nowhere given to God in the Bible, but it is understood. In his vision of God upon His throne, the Apostle John writes: "And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian. A rainbow, resembling an emerald, encircled the throne."¹² Nothing more beautiful and colorful can be imagined. God's beauty is the expression of His holiness, His character. God has given man the capacity to appreciate glory and beauty, and also to understand why things are beautiful. We understand beauty if we see the relationship with what we observe in God's love and majesty.

We also have the privilege to observe, or, as David says, to gaze upon beauty. That is why God created light. God's beauty is fully expressed and demonstrated in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the New Testament presents Him to us, and also as we learn to know Him in our daily walk with Him. As long as we live on earth, we will not have perfect vision. Once we are in Heaven we will experience God's beauty in all its fullness, when we see His face, as John describes this in Revelation: "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads."

It is hard to grasp how David, who lived in a time when divine revelation was still veiled, could reach so far and bring those truths home. The Holy Spirit must have worked in his soul in a very deep way.

The experience of God's beauty was the result of David's search. The word which the NIV renders with "seek" is in Hebrew uwlbaqeer, which is a form of baqar, defined by Strong's as "to plough, or (generally) break forth, i.e. (figuratively) to inspect, admire, care for, consider." The KJV translates it variously as: "inquire, search, seek out." David's search involved a systematic occupation with God's attributes, which we could qualify as scientific. Science, however, is limited to that which is observable, and David's search was spiritual. The five senses surely played a role in this search, but they did not determine the outcome. Scientific research may be seen as an image of the spiritual search. God has called us as human beings to learn to know and understand Him. The essence of eternal life is the knowledge of God. Jesus said in His prayer: "Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."¹³

The place of research is the place of God's revelation. We cannot find God just anywhere. For David this was "His temple," for us, as New Testament Christians it means knowing God in Jesus Christ. The beauty of God and the harmony of His attributes, the aesthetic greatness of His holiness are fully expressed in the Man Jesus Christ. It is this blinding glory that caused the Apostle John to fall at His feet as though dead.¹⁴ The essence of this beauty was in Christ before and after His resurrection. It ought to be the passion of our lives to know as much as possible of this beauty; it should be basic to all our experiences.

The verses 5 and 6 prove that David does not flee from reality. David's fellowship with God takes place in a world that swarms with enemies. In this surrounding of cruelty and violence, he feels safe and secure in the presence of the Lord. God's throne is above the cherubim in palaces of glory, but for David the Almighty is like a shelter on a rock, a place of protection in the storm. God helps us where we need to be helped, and in a way that fits our needs. "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."¹⁵ When God becomes our shelter, He has come down to our human level.

A shelter is often a temporary structure without too much comfort or ornamentation. God became like one of the poorest of all human beings in order to save us.

Evil is always nigh to us, but there are days that are called "days of trouble." Jesus said to the people who arrested Him in Gethsemane: "This is your hour-- when darkness reigns."¹⁶ God wants us to feel safe in fellowship with Him at those moments when we are put to the test. The KJV uses the phrase "the secret of his tabernacle," which suggests that there is intimacy in the way God's gives us shelter; it is a place where others cannot come. David probably had the Holy of Holies in mind, the place where the ark stood, and where common men could not enter. It is the place of God's glory. In the image of the shelter God identifies Himself with our misery, which signifies our salvation; in the image of the inner sanctuary He draws us into His glory. There is no better protection than to be covered with the glory of God.

"His dwelling," "the shelter of his tabernacle," and the place "high upon a rock" are three aspects of the same experience David has. They do not necessarily indicate a sequence. As we saw in previous psalms, David sometimes had the feeling of being lifted up above everything.¹⁷ The fact that God has descended to our level, and that we become partakers of His glory, lifts us up far above our surroundings. We have to remember that the enemies in vs. 6 are, in the first place, demonic powers. The protection we enjoy because of God's presence with us gives us authority over the devil.

In the middle of the nineteenth century, a German pastor, Johan Christoph Blumhardt, was confronted with a demon-possessed girl, named Gottliebin Dietus. Blumhardt was very reluctant to enter into this confrontation, but finally realized that God wanted him to. For about one-and-a-half year he prayed for her, assisted by elders of his church, until finally the demon left the girls, shouting: "Jesus is Victor." A stream of victory and revival followed in which many were saved and healed in the village of Möttlingen. Jesus is Victor through us, as John states in Revelation: "The accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."¹⁸

It is this awareness of victory that causes David to burst out with shouts of joy, and makes him decide to make music to the Lord at the tabernacle. This probably means that the sacrifices he brings are accompanied by trumpet blasts.

Every sacrifice is an image of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. The sacrifices David mentions are, probably, the burnt offering, the grain offering and the fellowship offering. But this does in no way change the fact that our Lord had to suffer, and that His blood was shed, so that we could present our praise and gratitude to God. It sounds incongruent that one would sound the trumpet at such an occasion; yet, it remains true that at this deepest point of all human experiences, the greatest victory ever was won. We should never get used to the pain of the cross, and we may always glory in it also!

The tent at which David brings his sacrifices is almost a parody of the heavenly glory, and the sacrifice of the Lord of glory is the greatest foolishness man can see but this divine irony is our salvation and honor. David may shout for joy and sing and make music to the Lord, because in all this, the enemy who wanted to take our life is defeated; death is conquered, the night is passed and the light of day has broken upon us.

In vs. 7 David seems to take a step back. It seems as if the victory and assurance of the previous verses have slipped away from him. It certainly indicates a case of changing moods, which proves that it is common to man to be inconsistent in his feelings. But there is no sign of despair or even of doubt. We can say, though, that David's vision becomes less clear. He wanted to have the subjective experience that God answered him. But even a ship that is tied to an anchor is not immune to the waves. The victory our Lord Jesus Christ has won for us does not necessarily protect us against "ups-and downs." We may be sure, however, that God answers, and His grace is not to be doubted. If we were conscious of the fact that we were perfect there would be no need for grace, and God's answer is an answer of grace; which means forgiveness of sin, healing, and restoration.

The seeking of God's face verse 8 speaks about is the experience of God's presence. The Holy Spirit inspires man's desire for God: "My heart says of you, 'Seek his face!' Your face, LORD, I will seek." The KJV renders the verse with: "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek." TLB puts it even more beautifully with: "My heart has heard you say, 'Come and talk with me, O my people.' And my heart responds, 'Lord, I am coming.' " The command "Seek My face," evidently, is in the plural. God makes a general appeal to the world to seek Him. David takes this personally. If our hearts are set upon pure fellowship with God, we hear as a personal call, that which God addresses to every one of His creatures. It is a wonderful fact that we can experience God's love for the whole world, as if we were the only recipients and the only inhabitants of this planet. This also is part of God's initiative; He pulls us up out of the mass of people in order for us to experience His massive love personally.

It seems quite inconsistent and impossible that God would, on the one hand, inspire us to seek His face, and on the other hand, hide His face from us. Yet, David does not imagine things when he says: "Turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior." First of all, God wants to test us. It is easy to say: "One thing I ask of the LORD," and, at the same time, busy ourselves with one hundred other things. Our determination has to be put to the test, and God, therefore, draws us out of ourselves by, purposely, denying us the experience of His presence. We should not try to analyze this feeling of rejection too much. There are guilt feelings, which will heal as we begin to live in fellowship with God. There are also guilt feelings that have to be awakened in us, to make us realize that we are responsible for our sinful acts. God's anger plays a useful part in the lives of God's children.

Then there is the fact that we live in a sinful world. Our natural relationships are often out of alignment. Parents can neglect their children, and this can cause a profound damage to a child's concept of God. The natural way in which the experience of God's love to a human being should come is via the love parents show to their children. When that channel is plugged, the image of God as a loving father can become a caricature to a child. When David says: "Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me," he indicates that he had found inner healing in a sick world in which he lived.

The last verses of this psalm place us again among oppressors, foes, false witnesses, and violent men. Those terms describe the tactics of the devil quite well. In many cases the enemy hides himself. We do not notice him until we stumble over him. He has no power over us, as long as we are in the Lord's will. That is the reason David prays: "Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors." Our obedience to the guidance of the Holy Spirit places us effectively under the protection of the Lord.

In the phrase: "Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes," we may see a prayer by David for protection against himself. There is always something of "the desire of [our] foes" in our own heart. There may be areas in our lives upon which the enemy rightfully can lay claim. It is hard for us to imagine the inner motives of the devil. He enjoys cruelty and finds sadistic pleasure in human misery. With some of us, those features may have been present before we came to know the love of the Lord. We sometimes become a prey of evil men because we cannot imagine that they would really commit a crime. Hitler succeeded in coming to power in Germany because nobody took his evil proclamations seriously. If "it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God,"¹⁹ how much worse it is to become the prey of evil men and demonic powers!

The verses contain, of course, a clear prophecy about the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ. Especially the phrase "false witnesses rise up against me," surely must have been in the Lord's mind as He stood before the Sanhedrin, and was accused of things He never did.²⁰ The Lord was very much aware of the presence of the powers of darkness at that moment. He had said to them: "This is your hour-- when darkness reigns."²¹

As we said above, these verses show us the tactics of the devil. He takes on an air of justice and appeals to God's holiness in order to play on our guilt feelings. That is why the Bible calls him "the accuser of our brothers."²² We have seen disgusting performances in communist countries where the state would base its witch-hunts on the law, thus giving injustice a resemblance of justice. Justice, however, is one of God's attributes, and if the devil begins to handle justice and to pervert it, he will hasten his own destruction. One illustration of the kind of "justice" we are talking about is the process Jezebel initiated against Naboth, in which she writes letters to the elders and nobles of the city in which Naboth lived, saying: "Proclaim a day of fasting and seat Naboth in a prominent place among the people. But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify that he has cursed both God and the king. Then take him out and stone him to death."²³ But in God's judgment, King Ahab was declared to be a murderer and a thief.²⁴ Injustice under the cover of justice is more disgusting than open sin. This is, however, the world we live in. There are some periods in world history that are darker than others, but it is the same enemy who tries to influence every age. The climax will be when the Antichrist, who will push the parody of justice to its very limits appears.

It is against this background that we have to see David's exclamation in vs. 13: "I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living." The KJV renders this with: "I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living." Theologians have debated whether David meant Heaven, or the earth with the phrase "in the land of the living." The context seems to require that he speaks about the world in which he lived. In the Dutch Psalter the lines read: "O, had I not believed that I in this life, my soul would enjoy God's favor and help! My God, where would my hope and courage have gone...?" This diminishes in no way our hope of glory to come. We should, however, not leave this world in the hands of the devil without a strong voice of protest. God is the God of our today!

Waiting for the Lord, or waiting on the Lord, as the KJV puts it, is a way of life; it is an attitude of faith and confidence. When we wait for the Lord we express the conviction that the appearance of things visible is deceptive. God will change this visible world. The Apostle John wrote: "He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!' "²⁵ This promise casts its shadow ahead upon our lives. Waiting for the Lord and being strong are synonymous. We tend to weaken and lose courage and we easily become depressed under the pressure the enemy puts upon us, if we lose sight of the fact that God has, so to speak, gone out, and will be back any moment.

One missionary in Irian Jaya, Indonesia, had taken his wife and young boy on a trek of several days in the jungle. For several days they had had no contact with the outside world, for they had no two-way radio they could take on the trail. The mission leadership was unaware of the fact that they were making this trip, and they became concerned when for several days there was no answer to the radio roll call. So a mission airplane was dispatched to see what had happened. When the missionary and his wife approached their mission station, their young boy ran ahead and was just in time to see the Mission plane land on the airstrip. The pilot asked the boy where his parents were. "They are in the jungle," he said. "Are you here alone?" "Yes," answered the boy. This started a rumor around the mission stations that this family had taken off to the jungle and left their little boy alone at home. Had the young boy understood the situation, he would have said that the parents were coming along on the trail and he had just run ahead. He should have said: "They are on the way; they will be right here!" The Lord is nigh, even if it does not look that way.

² II Cor. 4:6

³ John 1:4

⁴ See II Cor. 5:17

⁵ Ps. 46:1

⁶ Phil. 4:13

⁷ Gal. 1:10

⁸ Luke 10:41,42

⁹ See Matt. 13:45,46

¹⁰ See Ex. 33:18-23

¹¹ See Luke 2:49

¹² Rev. 4:3

¹³ John 17:3

¹⁴ See Rev. 1:17^a

¹⁵ John 1:14

¹⁶ Luke 22:53

¹⁷ See Ps. 18:16-18, 29-36

¹⁸ Rev. 12:10,11

¹⁹ Heb. 10:31

²⁰ See Matt. 26:59-61

²¹ Luke 22:53^b

²² See Zech. 3:1; Rev. 12:10

²³ I Kings 21:7-14

²⁴ See I Kings 21:19

²⁵ Rev. 21:5

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