We'll go to Psalm 27. As I mentioned when we looked at Psalm 46, it's been requested that we speak occasionally on how to meditate. And so about once a month we will do that for a while here. I think meditation is something that there's a lot of interest in out there. And in Wednesday nights at six o'clock, we talk about how to meditate on scriptures. And we started in Psalm 27, so I thought I'd share with you a few comments that we developed then on Wednesday. So let's read together these first three verses of Psalm 27, and we'll go from there. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be calm. Father, we pray that You would bless our study of Thy Word. In Christ's name, amen. I'd like to stress again, and bear with me, for I have stressed this several times, that in Psalm 1 and in Joshua 1, Joshua 1.8, We are told that the way for your soul to prosper, the way to find good success, is in meditation. Meditation, in other words, there's no way around it. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein, how frequently? Day and night. Listen, thou shalt meditate therein day and night, all through the season. It has to become part of our lives. You develop new habits. I remember a fellow who had made an entry in his journal for something like 40 straight years every day. And he was a professor back at a school I went to. And he was asked about it, and he said he'd just been doing it so often for so long, he just can't imagine what a day would be like not writing. Always wrote in his journal every day for some 40 years. And meditation needs to get to be that way for you and me. where it's just habit, it's reflex, it's ingrained with who you are. I tell you, you will not succeed spiritually as God wants you and me to, unless we meditate on the Word of God. That's the way where we go from general truths to specific applications and soul transformations. God blesses meditation. You know, he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, yields its fruit in the sea and leaves shall not wither. All that he does, he prospers. And those who don't meditate in the Word of God are like in the chaff which the wind drives away. And so, just commit to it. Every one of us must commit to it. We want to have a successful church, Spirit of God here, power, transformation. It involves meditation on the Word. And that means several things. We notice, first of all, in Psalm 27, a very familiar Psalm of David, how intimate God is expressed to be in his relationship to David. I mean, it is really something to say, the Lord is my life, my salvation. The Lord is the strength of my life. Whom shall I be afraid? Think on this, on who God is, to have this fellowship. And one of the tools is the need to develop an understanding of the text. I was sharing with a class on Wednesday nights that I grew up in a tradition where we said this memorized prayer before meals. And, blessed is the Lord in these, I guess, which we are about to receive from thy body, through Christ the Lord, amen. And as a young person, I was asked to pray that one day at our family dinner. My dad sort of laughed at me because I just had never paid attention to the words. And I said, blessed is the Lord in these, I guess, which we're about to receive from thy body. And the word is bounty. but not body, and I just hadn't paid attention to the words. Perhaps you've been that way with some songs. There's songs growing up that I remember singing, hadn't really ever paid attention to what the words were, and then I thought one day about what the words were, and I didn't agree with them at all. But I wasn't a word-attentive person. Every word of God is true, and God selected this word and not that word for a particular reason. And so when we read here, the Lord is my light. Don't go beyond until you understand what it means for Him to be your light. Is God your light? And if so, what? What is being expressed there? Go from the general statement to know what the idea is. This is what we call a simile. There are metaphors, excuse me, metaphor, not a simile. Two kinds of comparisons. Simile is less direct. It uses words like as or like. Like, he's as strong as a brick wall. That's a simile. To say he is a brick wall, that's a metaphor. It's even more direct. This is a very direct statement here. The Lord is my light. Not he's like a light. He is my light. What does a light do? Let's start there. I had a whiteboard I'd write, but it's hard for you all to see, so I didn't bring it out today. Is he your light? What does light do? What do you mean when the Lord is light? Penetrates darkness. Okay, penetrates darkness. Darkness represents what? Ignorance, okay? So, a light is something that illumines, shows something for its true nature. We're stumbling here in the dark, somebody gets a flashlight, and now you know what is around you. Now you see what things are. So, the Lord is, give me some other words, synonyms for my light. The Lord is my, like, revealer. Okay? Illuminator. Exposure. Enlightener or educator. He's the one who shows me the true nature of things. It's dark and you hear some noise. Get a light. You see it was a mouse or it was a thief or it was a window rattling in the wind. But it's the light that shows you the true nature. Is God that for you? And at what levels? I can think about four levels right off the bat, different ways that God is a revealer. Think, when you get to a word like light, then you should think through, what other scripture do I know of that has the word light in it? Can you give me some examples? The God of this world hath blinded them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, should shine into them. So one way that God is a light is that at the time of my salvation, I'd still be in darkness, except the Lord is my light. He opened up my eyes to see Christ before I was in darkness concerning Him. The God of this world had blinded mine eyes, lest I would believe. But God caused my eyes to see. And so He opened my eyes to the nature of Jesus Christ. That's one way He's my light in salvation. What other verses can you think of that talk about God being light or the Word? Thy word, O Lord, is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. So another way that God is a light is by revealing where to go. As I was sharing with the class, I had some decisions to make the other day. And well, in this case, I got quite a deal. It was going to work out great to get this grand piano. And finally, I kind of was able to work up through selling something, buying something, the kind of piano I've wanted for all these years. And then we go to get it, and it turns out that the movers tried to pick it up by the lid and broke it in half. Now, what do you do? I mean, I don't know if you can ever get it back to the way it was before the break. Do you say, no deal? Do you try to fix it? But what I did was pray, Lord, lead me. You are the light. And the way that he leads us is primarily through the word of God. Think what scripture tells you how to handle these kind of situations. and allow the Lord to direct you through the Word of God. And also He gives you impressions, I believe, sometimes. Don't you? Try the spirits, whether they be of God, the Scriptures say. He that is spiritual judgeth all things. The Lord can reveal to you the spiritual nature of things, because we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So is the Lord that kind of, we're talking here, He's the revealer. We're saying, I am as ignorant as the day is long. I wouldn't have known who Christ was. I wouldn't have had wisdom to know how to deal with practical affairs. I wouldn't be able to pick up on the spirit of things. All of these things God has illumined My world. But not just that. Otherwise, that would be the end of the psalm. The Lord is my light. But he's also something else that complements it. What is salvation about? The Lord is my light and my salvation. What does that add to this sentence? What does it mean to be saved? Give me another word for to be saved. Rescued, right. So, I'm in the dark. And there's a growling, awful, mean dog over there, but I can't see it. He not only shines the light on it so I see it's a dog and he's not chained, but he also delivers me from the mean dog. He rescues me. Can you relate to that? Has God done this? Otherwise this psalm isn't personalized. And that's something we're going to get to next. It's David's light and David's salvation. Is he your light and salvation? And if you can't think of a single instance where God has revealed something to you and delivered you from it, then we got a way to go here yet. Because this is what meditation is. It is comprehending the message and then personalizing it. The Bible says that a wise man foresees trouble and hideth himself, but the foolish walk on and are punished, destroyed, harmed because of it. Has the Lord not revealed to you a bad situation? Answer not a fool according to his folly. The scriptures say that. So if a fool starts talking to you in folly, he delivers you from it. He shows you a fool and he says, get out of there. Those are just a few examples, and I think we all ought to have testimony of that. And that's what he gets to here. What he does in verse 1 is make a topic sentence. Jehovah is this, this, and this to me. What does that mean, David? Well, verse 2 tells you. And verse 3 tells you who I am as a result. But think on this. What is a light? And is he your light? What is salvation? And is he yours? Light is a revealer of reality. Salvation is a deliverer from all dangerous things that are part of that reality. But he's something more. But if that's true, if the Lord shows you the true nature of things and saves you from the dangers, who are you going to fear? See, he's being rational here. You and I find ourselves falling into the devil's temptation to be fearful. But if we really think on our relationship with the providential Lord who made the universe, then what am I doing fearing? Either my relationship is bogus, or I haven't thought through the benefits thereof. I'm telling you, meditation is a calibrating system. It causes one to think on the truth of the Word of God, how it applies to us very practically. So the Lord's my light and my salvation. He doesn't just show me the bad deal and say, now you're on your own, what are you going to do with it? But He's our Deliverer. And you should think of instances, I think of instances in the Scripture where the Lord delivered. Daniel, was the Lord able to deliver thee? right from the lion's mouth. The three compatriots of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they say, our Lord is able to deliver us from that fiery furnace. But even if something else happens, we are not going to bow the knee to this God. So you think of where has God given deliverance? Does not Jonathan, the son of King Saul, say the Lord is able to deliver by many or by few? Did not Jesus say, if the Father didn't want me to be in your hands and be taking the cross, He could have called legions of angels. And you're helpless because the Father delivers you. This is all in His providence. Well, what's true of Peter? What's true of Paul? Help us, Lord. We sink. We're perishing in this ship. The Lord calms the sea. The Lord calms the wind. It's all within his capability. You think through Bible history, the Lord showed what the nature of something was and delivered from all that was dangerous. That's who he is. That's his pedigree. That's his MO. Is he yours? And this is true. What am I doing fearing? Then also, the Lord is the strength of my life, the defense, the shield. What am I doing trusting in the strength of my arm or in my legs or in my horses or chariots? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? See, he's tempted to be afraid. That's what number one is about. So understand the metaphors is what I'm saying. Understand them as far as what's communicated in the topic sentence. Understand how it applied to people in Bible history. Understand how it applies to you. Which leads us to the idea of replacement. I'm just talking about various tools. And when you meditate on it, you may go yourself a different direction than I do. The Holy Spirit leads each of us as long as it's accordance to truth. There are many insights that different people can be led to. But when I say replacement, I don't know if that's the best word, but what is meant by light? Sometimes the way to comprehend it more clearly is not just to give synonyms, meaning other words that mean the same thing, like illuminator, revealer, but go to the opposite. If he's not my light, the Lord is my darkness and my destruction. Is that who He is? You understand what we mean when we say He's light by going to the opposite word? The Lord is the weakness of my life? See that? Then you start thinking about how the world thinks about this stuff. To the lost person, what is their light and their salvation? You know, they couldn't say this, but the Lord is, because they don't believe in the Lord. Well, what is their light and their salvation? Replace the word Lord with what would be their word. The government. or my mind. I do what seems best to me. I trust in education, right? What's going to deliver me from this and from that and so on? I have trust in myself, trust in my intuition, or the way I've been taught, or government will do it, or some other entity. So it helps to replace words. And where it says, my light, insert your name. Replace it to make it more personal. Psalm 23 is that way. The Lord is Rick's. Rick shall not want. You know, just do those little things to personalize and comprehend this truth is about you. It's a primary statement of David, but the Lord is these things. And if he is for David because he's got a personal relationship, he is it for you and me. And the issue here is fear. So, replacement. And then, application. Okay? Has the Lord ever served as light and salvation for your life? Has the Lord ever been the strength of your life? We should be able to listen. If we can't come up with a single time, either we have a really weak relationship with God, or we haven't done what the Lord calls us to do, which is to lay out and remember Book of Remembrance. Testimonies. Has the Lord answered specific prayers? I hope you're keeping a record of them and make it a heritage to pass on to your sons and daughters and to profess before the public and encourage the congregation. Because our assertion as fundamental Christians is that God is real, and God is engaged, and we can give testimony how He's labored in our lives. And how does He do that? One principle way is by revealing truth and then delivering us from all the danger. And being the one who gives us the strength, the boldness, the means of defense, sending about us a hedge of protection, all the things necessary to put on the whole armor of God, that's how He's my strength. The Helm of the Salvation. Oh, now the free Shad Gaspis. The whole works. Think on it. Think on it. And it's not just a matter of, well, I'm not smart enough. It's not that. Lie in bed as you're going to sleep, and let the Holy Spirit take the word. And just, here comes an insight here, and here comes one over there. And this is so obvious. Why didn't I think of that? But the Lord leads you. And the more you think on it. Again, day and night. Day and night. Stay on Psalm 27 for a week. Stay on it for a month. Just roll it over and over, day and night, and see how much this is the way that you may grow thereby. That's the means. So you've got to make application. Now the issue here is time. You all catch that? Three verses, they're all in three different time zones. Very important. Verse one is what tense? Present. Ongoing present. Is is present tense. This is what he is right now. There are those who talk in terms of the Lord and I used to be able to do it. That's past tense. One day the Lord and I are going to have this relationship. But God is a God of now. Where are you in your relationship to God today? The Lord is this for me. Well, I haven't quite attained it. Well, attain it! God meets you in two places. He doesn't meet you in the past. He doesn't meet you in the future. He meets you in the present, and He meets you in the eternity. And this is the present. And so the first verse is a very strong assertion of who God is in my life now. Now, He supports it by verse 2, which is not present tense, but what? Past. You're saying he is not for you, David? Are you just thinking theologically? Pontificating? No! He says, this has been my history. Let me give you a little history report. In the past, when the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell now for the sake of the Psalms he doesn't go into it was in such and so a city and the battle occurred on such and such a date but I think he has something specific in mind here the Lord is these things to me and I can bolster that truth by what has happened historically when I was in trouble and look at the enemies they are like a nun to what They came upon me to eat up my flesh. They're like a nun to wild animals. Okay? Many times, look, Psalm 22, which is prophetic of the crucifixion of Christ. Piercing the hands and feet. Who's doing the piercing in Psalm 22? Like dogs. Those who are circled about Christ on the cross prophetically are like a nun to wild dogs. and then the lions and other animals. You look in the eyes of a vicious animal and there's no reserve. There's no, well, I'm going to lay off you a little bit. There's a sort of an untempered wildness, bestiality. And people can be that when they're your enemies and they come to destroy you. And so this is a fearful situation. His enemies, the wicked, they're like they have degenerated. It's a statement on who humanity is. And what it's saying is people can degenerate into being like wild animals without a soulful compassion about them. You can see it in their eyes. You can see it in their teeth. You're not talking cannibals here. You're talking like, I mean, haven't you seen this? Cat catches a mouse, bites off its head, and walks off. I'm sorry, it's kind of a gross image. Totally unapologetically, right? The cat doesn't go, oh, that was kind of a gross thing to do. He didn't care. He's just an animal killing another animal. And that's the way it is in the animal world. And human beings can degenerate to that. But even though they were like that, they were not going to show him any mercy. God caused them to stumble and fall. And we can think, again, you go to Bible illustrations, many times when the enemy was going to attack the people of God, they stumbled and fell. God puts an ambushment on them, confuses their minds. He sends the angel of death to go and destroy them, or they cause them to confuse, they destroy each other. They stumble and fall. Look at when they came to arrest Jesus. They stumbled and fell back. Has the enemy ever stumbled and fallen back when it looked like you were dead duck, look like you are in trouble and you watch to happen. You say, you know, it really works. I mean, have you gotten to that point where you say, prayer really works? I was put, this was a dangerous, I was, I was about cooked. I was in big problem here. But God delivered me. Remember that. Cherish that. That was the interface of eternity with the finite. It was God with man. That was a junction there where God, who is your light, who is your salvation, who is your strength, who is round about, whither shall I go to flee from you? I go here, I go there. There you are right in front of me. Yes, my thoughts toward you are more numerous than there are grains of sand in the sea. I'm ever about you. Nothing will ever hurt you. Nothing will ever destroy you. You worry you're going to add one foot to the length of your journey. Trust in me to be your refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble. So we're looking at the time element in the book of Psalms, and we see often it goes this way. present, past, future, present, past, future, present, past, future. Watch for it as you meditate on the Psalms. God is this, present tense. Past tense, this is how He's shown He is this. Future, now look ahead and trust me, this is what is going to happen. And so verse three is future, right? Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. The Lord is this. Why? How do you know this? Because in the past, besides what the scriptures say, in my experience, He has delivered me. So now I can project into the future, what am I supposed to fear? People? Are you serious? People? Well, what if it's a bunch of people? You don't understand. We're talking the Lord. The Lord is one who doesn't need any resources. So the Lord is one who says, well, I can muster up 100 troops, but don't press me for 5,000 or 1,000. The Lord could produce a billion angels right now. He could do that every second, couldn't he? He doesn't need any resources to make anything. So numbers are irrelevant to God. You're going to have a whole world converging on Israel here pretty soon. Is it too much for Israel because there's 200 million of these people? It's nothing to God. It's nothing to Him. We have to learn that about who God is. So, David, what he does is he projects into the greatest evil that he can anticipate, the worst sort of trouble. And if there's less than that, you know, I thought you were going to come after me and sue me for a million bucks, instead we got in a small claims court. Well, sometimes that happens, but you are ready for the big one, because that's who God is. Though a host should encamp against me, no fear. The war, not just camp, but here, it rises against me. In this will I be confident. I'm telling you, that's one of the most important approaches to time we can understand. It's biblical. Present, past, future. Present, past, future. Time. Another element of understanding the Psalms and meditation is what does the Bible say humanity is like? I mean, really, once you've been in the scriptures for a certain length of time, you're still surprised when men mistreat you? I mean, you hope for the best and there are good lost people out there and all those things that we can say, of course, and some saved people don't do the right thing. I'm not trying to overgeneralize, but over and over in the scriptures, man is likened unto beasts. I mean, the whole study on beasts. And the idea is that here's angels and here's fallen man, and down here are dogs and cats and pigs and on down to other sorts of created lower forms of life. And man is ever ascending or descending. And he can become more and more like the Lord Jesus if he has the grace of God working in him. And that's how everyone here should be. More and more to higher ground, higher ground, more like Christ, conformed to his image. But if you're not moving up, you're moving down. And moving down is becoming more like soulless beasts. where you just couldn't control it. And you act on instincts and visceral interests. And here you have the enemies likened unto beasts. And you think of many other places where they acted beast-like. They don't care. Do we not have an enemy? I'm sorry, our president doesn't seem to recognize it. But do we not have an enemy? that is beast-like and they don't seem to have normal, soulful compassion and decency in certain crimes which they are committing. Another theme here is the nearness of God. This is, God could seem so distant. You can sometimes think it's mano-a-mano, just me fighting the other guy, me against the world, and these people are doing these things. But when that piano busted, I mean, you can get upset. Where's that going to get you? Okay, I believe that God is providential except when it comes to breaking the piano. And so I believe that God does cause all things to work together for good for those who love the Lord, for those who are called according to His purpose. And so He was engaged in this. Either He allowed it or He caused it, but in any case, I can be more than conqueror through it. Because this is who God is. I've seen what He's done in the past, so I project myself to the future in this way. It's going to be alright. It's going to work out. Why? Because God is near. God is very near. God is our refuge and strength. He's near the brokenhearted, saves the crushed in spirit. So the Lord is this. He's right here engaged. Now I know that because you transition into verse four, and we'll have to stop here. I'm sure we've had enough for today. But in verse four, how can that be, David? I mean, a lot of people talk religion. Our whole mission here as a church is not just to talk this, but we know this God we're talking about. We know Him, and everybody here can give testimonies of how God has done this in your life, with your family, in your situation, finances, health, whatever else it might be. That's the whole point here, to go from the theoretical to the actual. And He's just as accessible to any person in this room as to any other person in this room who has come through Christ. We're the sons of God. Behold, we are the sons of God. And Jesus said, I'll never leave you nor forsake you. God is at work in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. and all these other verses we could go to. So, when he says, the Lord is this for me personally, it's like the Lord's walking right along, and I'm in darkness, and the Lord's showing me, and boom, he points out, see that man? See this situation? Feel that demonic presence? That's the Lord. He's like right next to me, the hand on the shoulder, and pointing things out. Not only does he point it out, but he saves me from them. Not only does that, but he's my whole defense system, and the strength of my offense. He's everything. Oh, come on. No, really. Let me give you some testimonies of how this has happened. So when I look to the future, you ask me why I'm not fearful. Well, the degree I am, it's because I'm still weak in the flesh, but I tell you what, I don't have to fear, shouldn't fear, because the Lord is the strength of my life. So come what may, okay, now verse four is gonna answer this. How did you get there, David? Then that's where he says, one thing have I asked of the Lord, right? One thing. And that shall I seek after. And it's, oh, you're the one thing guy. Well, actually, there have been three of them in the Bible. Who are the other two that are listed as one thing people? David. Not that I have yet attained, but this one thing I do. Who says that? Paul. Paul was a one-thing guy. He let everything else fall aside. This one thing I do, I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus my Lord. I am a single-minded man. One thing. Third one-thing person was Mary, who anointed Jesus before his burial. She said, this one thing which he does shall not be taken from her. She did the right, she was a one-thing person. Then there's one person who was not a one-thing person in the scriptures. Who's that? One thing yet thou lackest. What did Jesus say that to? The rich young ruler, right? What have you done? Well, I've kept this law, kept that law, kept all those laws. Jesus said, one thing yet thou lackest. He lacked being a one-thing person. But here in verse 4, David's going to go on and say, this is my pursuit. I want to inquire in his temple. I want to behold the beauty of the Lord. All the days of my life, this is what I want. I want fellowship with God. That's how he came to this reality. See how meditating on these things just gets richer and richer? And you don't leave it until you have an assignment, until you have a fire in the belly, until you have a passion, until you have a sense of direction. And that's successful meditation. And when you add a layer on top of that the next morning when you get up, and add a layer on that again when you go to bed at night, you're going to grow in wisdom. This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. God give us grace to that end. Incline every one of us, Lord, to be meditators on the Word of God, not for our own benefit primarily, but rather for the benefit, for the blessing, for the testimony that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. In Christ's name, amen.