And you may be seated. We'll be hearing from God's word from Psalm 27. And if you have a good memory, it may seem a little familiar to you. I preached this sermon several years ago. I hope it'll be, I think there's something that's good in repetition. We need to hear things over and over again. And maybe this is something the Lord can use anew. And I pray the Lord will bless this for you who haven't heard it. So Psalm 27 was written by David, and it appears to have been written when he was in a rather time of trouble. And David was in trouble for significant portions of his life. As a shepherd boy, he dealt with wild animals as he tended the sheep. Then he was threatened by this big guy named Goliath. And David was on the run from King Saul, for some time. And then later, he was on the run from his own son, Absalom, who wanted to claim the throne. So David also had enemies with the Philistines. So this psalm was likely written during one of those times when he was on the run from Saul or Absalom. And in our trials, we can learn from his perspective. So with that introduction, let's read Psalm 27. This is the word of God. Of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing 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. For he 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 above my enemies all around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. O you who have been my help, cast me not off. Forsake me not, O God of my salvation. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Father, we thank you for these words that you have given us. Help us now as we consider your message to us. May it draw us closer to you and help us to know you better. I pray that you will guide my words to be faithful to your word. Amen. What makes you anxious? What wakes you up at 3 a.m.? Job stress? Finances? The neighborhood bully? Having to get up and speak in front of a bunch of people? As you think of these things, where do you find security? Is it in your career? Is it in your parents? Is it in your abilities? Is it in your bank account or retirement fund? Is it in your relationship with your spouse? Are those the things where you look to for your security? I think most of you know there are securities to rest in God alone. But we tend to regress and forget to look at those other things. And when those things fail, we can feel desperate and insecure. Psalm 27 calls you to put your confidence only in God and to set your heart on fellowship with Him. In that hope, we find peace. So with that, let's unpack Psalm 27 and see what it has to say about these things. In Psalm 27, David expresses his confidence in God, and we can look for it in three major parts. In the first three verses, David gives us the basis for his confidence in God. In the second part, verses four through six, David speaks of the motivation or goal for his confidence in God. And then in the last section, we see David pleading for deliverance by God's mercy at the same time speaking of why he can have confidence that God will indeed deliver him. And this is a psalm that we can take on our lips and come to Christ, placing our confidence in him alone. I believe you have outlines and you might help those, those might be helpful to follow along. So our first point, put your confidence only in God because he is worthy of your confidence. In verse one, we see that because of who he is, We need not fear. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? Safety is found in who God is, and particularly in how he relates to us. We talk here not about God in the abstract. We aren't talking about his attributes in some lofty way. Rather, we speak here about the Lord and how he relates to us. He is my light, my salvation, the stronghold of my life. We don't serve a God who just views us from a distance. He knows you personally. He knows you by name. And he cares for you personally in all the details of your life. We find safety in relationship with God. And if you are in Christ, if you are God's child, you have no need to fear. In verse two, we see that God is worthy of your confidence because God has shown his faithfulness in the past. When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. And the reason I say this is looking at the past, the language here appears to have some reference back to David's confrontation with Goliath. When David was still young, probably a teenager, Israel was at war with the Philistines. And the Philistines put forward their champion, Goliath, to fight anyone that Israel would put forward. The nation of the loser would serve the nation of the winner. Now, Goliath was a rather large man, and the men of Israel were afraid to fight him. When no one else would come forward, young David came forward saying, who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God? So David came before Goliath, who laughed that such a lad should come and fight him. He yelled to David, come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field. And you see these words kind of echoed in this psalm. But here David's confident reply. You come to me with a sword and with 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 after saying a few more things, David put a stone in his sling and threw it, and it went right into the forehead of Goliath. And it was Goliath who stumbled and fell dead. So we see David can look back at what God has done in his life, specifically that incident, and see, okay, God can deliver me from this too. David's confidence then and now was in God. So in his present circumstance, David could look to the past and see God's faithfulness. All the odds, humanly speaking, had been against him, but David's confidence was in the Lord, and the Lord was faithful. And as we look through scripture, we can see that through Jesus, the Lord has been faithful to his promises to Adam and Eve, to Abraham, to David, and others, and has redeemed a people for himself. He made all those promises and he was faithful. So we can look back at that history of the people of God and put our confidence in him. And the Lord has shown himself faithful to all who are his, drawing us personally into fellowship with him, working through the Holy Spirit to grant us faith. Brothers and sisters, look back on God's faithfulness to you and put your confidence in him. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Romans 8, 32. So in light of God's faithfulness in the past, we see in verse three that we can be confident that God will continue to be faithful Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. David is likely speaking of his present situation in which he wrote this psalm. He's repeatedly on the run from greater armies. There was reason to fear. His enemy had the upper hand. Yet David knew that he could put his confidence in the Lord. Likewise, we have every reason to put our confidence in God. As God's children, we have nothing to fear. Do you believe this? In the face of today's political environment and the animosity of our society toward the gospel, are you able to put your full confidence in the Lord? What is your relationship to God? Can you say the Lord is your light, your salvation, and the stronghold of your life? Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ? If you do not know him, come to Christ, who alone is worthy of your confidence. And if you are walking with Christ, look back and remember God's faithfulness. We serve a God who has shown his faithfulness to us, and we can be certain that he will continue to be faithful. So we need not fear nor be anxious. So the Lord is completely worthy of your confidence. But what's the point? Where is this going? What is the end goal for your confidence in God? That brings us to our second point. Put your confidence only in God so that you may enjoy his fellowship. One thing, one thing have I asked of the Lord that will I 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. For He 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. The one thing The one thing David wanted more than anything else was to be in the Lord's house, to behold the beauty of the Lord. He wants to be in the Lord's house, in his temple, under the cover of his tent. The same thing is expressed in different terms, with a repetition in the concept emphasizing the idea. Being in the Lord's house is something that we are to seek with all our heart. And this covers the entire psalm, doesn't it? David isn't seeking God's protection just for his physical safety, or because he doesn't want to suffer, but that he may be with God. Now kids, I'd like to ask you a question. Let's say you have a friend. We'll call him Fred. And you're always asking your mom, can I go to Fred's house? Can I go to Fred's house? So, finally, your mom takes you to Fred's house. So, what do you do when you get to Fred's house? Here's something you might do. You might get to his house, and you look at his lawn, and say, wow, that's a nice lawn. And, you know, I love the architecture of this house. You go inside, and you say, oh, what nice paint on the walls. Okay, I've seen the house. Let's go home. No. You're there to see Fred. When we talk of going to God's house, we're going there to see God. We're going there to be with God. And Christians, it is fellowship with God that we are about more than anything else. And in a real sense, I'm getting ahead of myself. So David wanted to go to the temple to be in God's house. Let's think about that. Now the design of the temple points to how we as sinful people can come before a holy God. God's presence was particularly signified in the most holy place in the temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was. Only a high priest could enter the most holy place once a year, and only then, through the blood of a sacrifice, So the whole structure of the temple, there was the labor in which the priests had to cleanse themselves. They had to offer a sacrifice. For instance, finally, once a year, that high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, where the Ark was. Similarly, we can only approach God through the blood of Jesus Christ. We come to Christ through that sacrifice, through his blood, And so, and Christ having offered that sacrifice, made peace between us and God so that we can come into his house and worship him. Where is God's temple today? The New Testament speaks of Jesus as the temple, but other places, it also speaks of the temple as being built from the living stones of his people. So collectively, we are God's temple. And when we come together in the Lord's day to worship him, we're in a special way coming into his presence and we get a taste of heaven. We are called not only to engage in private prayer and the study of God's word, but we are called here to come together faithfully in the worship of the living God. And when we do, we come into his presence in a special way. This is what we are made for. This is what we are all about. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks in the first question, what is the chief end of man? Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Psalm 42, as a deer pants for living streams, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? And Jesus said, this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Being with God is our eternal life. And so as we express our desire to come before the Lord and worship Him, it is the Lord who enables us to do so. In verse 6, we read, Notice that in the phrase, my head shall be lifted up, my head is not lifting itself up, but it is being lifted up. Who is lifting up my head? In context, our best conclusion is that the Lord is lifting up my head. James writes, humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you. We come to the Lord with nothing to offer, putting our confidence only in him, and he lifts us up that we may worship him and have fellowship with him. We come to worship God not by our own strength or piety, but He enables us to worship Him and to enjoy Him. And it's interesting, the word translated and in the middle of this verse is not just forming two thoughts, rather it points us to the design or purpose that comes before it. The goal is that we may praise Him. So what is your heart's desire? What do you daydream about? What is your ultimate goal? We may legitimately have various goals in terms of our family, our careers, our homes, but we must not let those take the primary place in our heart. These lesser desires should serve our primary purpose, to serve God and to glorify him. And in this, we are blessed. In Psalm 16, the writer says to God, in your presence, there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Now this brings us to a transition in the psalm. The first six verses are brimming with confidence as David speaks to us about the Lord and his desire to serve him. But starting in verse seven, we see him pleading with God in the midst of a difficult situation. We can see it in the words, but in the Hebrew, the original language, even the grammatical structure of the psalm is disrupted. The contrast is such that many have concluded there are two different psalms written by two different authors. Rather, I believe that David has spoken what he knows to be true, and then he turns to his current circumstances and he pleads to God for deliverance, still expressing his confidence that God will be faithful. So in this way, we are instructed to put your confidence only in God, even in the worst of circumstances. What are we to do when we are in trouble? I'd like to point out three things from these verses. First of all, when you are troubled, cry out to God for his mercy and deliverance. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. Cry out to God. There's an urgency here. We desperately need for God to hear us and answer us. And it is only by God's grace that we can expect a favorable answer. In this prayer, we ask God to not do what we deserve. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. Oh, you who have been my help. Cast me not off. Forsake me not, oh God of my salvation. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. We deserve to have God hide his face from us, don't we? Do we deserve for him to turn us away? We deserve for him to cast us off, to forsake us. But we pray here that he will not do what we deserve. And how can we possibly make these requests and expect God to grant them? We come as sinners before a holy and a just God. We are by nature objects of God's anger. We can have confidence only in Christ. In the words, forsake me not, we are pointed to Jesus' words on the cross to his father, why have you forsaken me? Jesus willingly took our guilt, our sin, and bore God's wrath. He was cast off. He was forsaken. He was given up to the will of his adversaries. Because of Jesus, we can have complete confidence that God will not withhold his favor toward us. He will not pour out his anger on us. He will not deliver us to enemies. And as we take these words on our lips, we show our utter dependence on the Lord and need for him. Without him, we are doomed. And speaking of deliverance from God, consider verse 13. ESV reads, I believe that I should look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Now if we look at other versions, the New American Standard says, I would have despaired unless I had believed. Or New King James, I would have lost heart unless I had believed. What we have in the original language, Hebrew, is a word similar to unless. So it might be translated to, unless I had believed that I would see God's goodness in the land of the living, unless I had believed that, but it's not, or if I had not, it's an incomplete sentence. So in our English translations, we feel like we have to add to that. Our Psalter actually translated, oh, what if I had not believed? That might be the more accurate translation. And we see in this expression how essential it is to put our confidence in God. It's just unthinkable. What if I had not believed? As we look at the terrible things going on in our world, the seeming triumph of gods and our enemies in places, we might tend to despair. But as we put our confidence in God, we can be assured that we will look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. At times we're in situations that might make us despair. You've lost a job. Perhaps you're struggling in your marriage. Perhaps someone you love is in a difficult place. Find comfort in God's goodness. Find hope knowing that you have a father who loves you and is working all things together for good for his people. and having cried out to God for mercy and deliverance. When you're troubled, seek God's blessing. Hear, O God, when I cry aloud. Be gracious and answer me. We ask here for the good that we don't deserve, that God will hear and answer us, showing us his grace. We don't deserve God's attention, his answer, but as his children, we have his ear. You have said, seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek. God calls us to seek his face. That is, he calls us to seek his grace and his favor. Notice that it is God who takes the initiative. When he calls us to seek his face, when he works that desire through his spirit, will he not grant that request? We have every cause for confidence as we seek him. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. We ask here for God to teach us his way and lead us on a level path. There's repetition here, and a level path is a righteous path. So we ask that in the midst of trial, God will enable us to live rightly before God so that God will be honored before our enemies. The primary concern here is for God's honor, not just personal safety or comfort. May God's honor and glory be the motivating factor in our lives. So when you're in trouble, cry out to the Lord. Seek his blessing. And finally, when you're troubled, remember God's goodness and faithfulness. In verse nine, we say to God that you have been my help. and call Him God of my salvation. We remember God's great works of deliverance for us, and we pray on that basis that He will deliver us yet. For my mother and my father have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Now, growing up, where would you most likely find a sense of security? Most of us would say, I find security in my parents. What little child, when he is scared, doesn't run to his mother? And even as an adult, when you're in trouble, how often is it your parents that bail you out? Unless something is really wrong, our parents are a place of great security. But in these words, we acknowledge that God is even more faithful than our parents. Brothers and sisters, remember God's goodness and His love for you, and put your complete confidence in Him. So, as we put our confidence in God, can we expect a life of ease? And this psalm says an emphatic no. Remember the martyrs throughout history, those who have given their lives for Christ. Remember persecuted Christians today. What can we expect? We are actually promised hardship, even persecution. Jesus said, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. God will be faithful even in the midst of hardship. 1 Peter 5.10 says, and after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Psalm 30, verse five. For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. So in all circumstances, we are called to wait for the Lord. Verse 14 says, wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that you are a God on whom we can rely, with whom we find safety. Thank you for your love for us, your people. We pray that you will work in us to make our hearts desire to be with you, to worship you in your temple. Thank you for drawing us into fellowship with you, redeeming us by the sacrifice of your son. We pray now that you will continue to work in us, help us to put us out of our fear, and to put our confidence only in you. We pray these things only through Jesus Christ. Amen.