Tonight, I'm going to teach from a favorite psalm, Psalm 27. As I was working on this psalm, I remembered what a strength it was to me as a young believer when I was starting college. Deanne and I were talking right before, and she was talking about a strength it was to her in what, sixth grade or seventh grade, you said? Seventh grade. When she had to go off to school, her parents were missionaries in Africa, so they often went off to school away from the family, which would have been very difficult. And this psalm was a help to her then, so I hope it will be to you tonight. It is considered by some to be a twin psalm with Psalm 26. We'll start by reading them together. I'll just read one right after the other. We have, I believe, three stanzas in Psalm 26, although some see five. And then we have four stanzas, and I'll mention them to you. in Psalm 27. It's kind of like two sides of the same coin. In Psalm 26, we have David speaking of his covenant faithfulness or his faithfulness to the covenant he was part of as an Israelite and, of course, the covenant that Yahweh made with him as a king, but then when you get to Psalm 27, he's showing his complete dependence upon Yahweh's faithfulness to the covenant. Psalm 26, the Psalm of David. First stanza, I vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Lord. I shall not slip. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me. Try my mind and my heart. For your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in your truth. I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, nor will I go in with hypocrites. I have hated the assembly of evildoers, and will not sit with the wicked. Second stanza, I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, O Lord, that I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and tell of all your wondrous works. Lord, I have loved the habitation of your house and the place where your glory dwells. Do not gather my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloodthirsty men, in whose hands is a sinister scheme, and whose right hand is full of bribes. Third stanza, but as for me, I will walk in my integrity. Redeem me and be merciful to me. My foot stands in an even place in the congregation. I will bless the Lord." Now you'll notice a lot of similarities, even while there are differences here. Psalm 27, the Psalm of David, first stanza. 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 came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear. Though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident. The second stanza. One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek. That I may dwell 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 For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle he shall hide me. He shall set me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. I will sing. Yes, I will sing praises to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer me. When you said, Seek my face, my heart said to you, Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take care of me. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth path because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. Fourth stanza and last. I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Let's pray. Our dear Father in heaven, we are very thankful that we have the privilege of reading your word. of having good translations in our own language, how can we thank you and praise you enough for this great privilege? To have your revelation ready to be read, to have people who've studied languages so it could be translated properly into our own, to have those who've studied so it can be taught to us, we thank you and we bless you, Father. And we ask you as we read and think about Psalm 27 tonight and as I teach, Father, I pray that your Spirit would be present to teach us, to give us understanding, to cause our faith to be strengthened. and our knowledge of you to be increased and strengthened as well, that we might see more the display of you, our great God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Well, in both of those Psalms, David expressed confidence, and I think that's one of the main themes of both of the Psalms, a faith in, a rest in the Lord, or Yahweh, and in his covenant promises that were made to David as the king, which would have been the strength of Old Testament believers. Now, when you think about that kind of statement, You can see how important faith in God's Word is. David, although sinful, although a very sinful man at times, represented something much bigger than himself. And so as Old Testament believers came to understand the covenant better and saw the working of the covenant and understood the covenant that was made with David as a king, their faith would have been strengthened as they looked to the Lord. Let me talk just a moment then to some explanation of the names of God that David used here. He only used two of the names of God that we're familiar with. The first is simply that phrase, the Lord, that you see right there in verse one of Psalm 27. That's simply the word Yahweh. You've heard us say that many times. It's probably best translated, I am who I am. He uses this name for God, this very personal name for God, 13 times in this one Psalm. It was first used by Moses in Genesis chapter 2, 4. You've heard this more recently if you're in the adult Sunday school class. In Genesis 2-4, this is the history or genealogy of the heavens and the earth when they were created. In the day that the Lord God made the heavens and the earth. And that's our word, Yahweh. Coupled with the second word that we're going to look at in just a moment, Elohim. So Yahweh Elohim becomes a very important name for our God that we need to pay attention to, we need to look for anytime we're reading or hear the scriptures taught. The definition that we are working with comes from Exodus chapter 3 in verse 14. There we read, and God said to Moses, and that's just simply Elohim said to Moses. I am who I am. And he used the term twice that refers to being or to be in the Hebrew language. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am, there's our word Yahweh, has sent me to you. Moreover, Elohim said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, Yahweh Elohim of your fathers, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac, and the Elohim of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations." So the Lord God put very strong emphasis on this name Yahweh. Yahweh is a name that's in some ways difficult to define. Here's my feeble attempt at that. Yahweh is the one God who is spirit, simple, independent, immutable, impassable. Simply, He is. He is. So when you see David using this name of God, we want to think about what that name means and what that word means. And then we have the word simply capital G-O-D, God. You see it in verse 9 here in Psalm 27. That is simply the word Elohim. I define that based on reading lexicons, the majestic sovereign It's used at times seemingly as both a name and a title for Yahweh. It's a plural word which communicates the idea of intense majesty. He has something no other being has. He is eventually revealed in the scriptures as triune. We think that's inherent in that word. Elohim. The idea is that he's absolute in purpose, in power, and in judgment. And we see that, don't we? Very easily when we read Genesis 1-1. In the beginning, Elohim, God, created the heavens and the earth. Another text that helps us with this is Psalm 115-3. Our God, or our Elohim, is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. So when we think about who our God is, we use these names of God to help us understand him and help us increase our knowledge of his revelation to us. And it'll always do you well if as you read the scriptures, especially when you're in the Old Testament, if you'll pay attention to these different names that are used, and you'll get a shorthand definition in your own mind for these different names of God. Well, when we get to Psalm 27, we realize David wrote as a prophet, who knew the character, covenant, and promises of Yahweh, and as a king, who enjoyed Yahweh's covenantal ordination and covenantal care. This was what David wrote of here. This was on his mind. Yahweh is Israel's Elohim, the Lord God, or Yahweh is David's Elohim. And for all who are in Christ, Yahweh is our Elohim. And that's a good thought. That's a comforting and encouraging thought. Of course, David worked from 2 Samuel, chapter 7, verse 11, when he received the word from Nathan, that Yahweh tells you that he will make you a house. We read in verse 16, your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever. And of course, we know that that is fulfilled in our own Savior, the Lord Jesus. Well, let's take a brief look tonight then at this psalm. First, consider the structure of this psalm. This psalm, we believe, is composed of four stanzas. I've adapted this somewhat from the commentator, and I always have trouble saying his name, Van Gameron? Huh? Van Gameron, there we go. Okay, and I'm gonna get it wrong every time, but we'll keep working on it, all right? The apostrophe that you see there on your notes indicates the second of a repeating concept. that's repeated, that's worded differently. Let's look at these stanzas once again here in our text, and let's read them again. I'm going to read the first stanza, verses 1 through 3, and this time I'm going to use the more particular pronunciation for the name of our Lord. Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, my enemies and foes, they stumbled and fell, though an army may encamp against me. My heart shall not fear, though war may rise against me. In this I will be confident." There's our first stanza. Now we have three more stanzas that follow. You see I've given them each a title here. Confidence in Yahweh's Presence, in the first stanza. And really what we mean by that is confidence in His covenantal faithfulness. He will do what He has said. And with covenantal faithfulness, we are assured of His presence and His power put to work in our behalf." And that's the whole concept of David's psalm here, that he's writing. The second stanza, I won't read it just yet, is designated with a capital B, Prayer for Yahweh's Presence. or prayer in light of his covenant faithfulness in verses 4 through 6. Then a repeating stanza, verses 7 through 12, is again prayer for Yahweh's presence. And there's a change in perspective a little bit with this second prayer that you'll see, where it's very much like when we pray, this third stanza is very similar to our petition Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. It can sound as if, and you'll see that when we get to it, that David is full of doubt, and it's really not. He's just praying in light of the covenant, in light of his vulnerability, in light of his need. And then the last stanza, that capital A with an apostrophe, repeating of the same concept, confidence in Yahweh's presence, his covenantal faithfulness. So we remember in Hebrew poetry, which Psalms are, we don't look for a rhyming scheme like we do with English. It is mainly concerned with structure, using structure and concepts, vocabulary and grammar to communicate and instruct us. So we have those things in mind as we'll begin then to look at this text before us. In this Psalm, David expressed firm confidence in Yahweh's ordained nation, ordained king, ordained purpose, and preservation that followed from his covenant to Abraham, to Israel, and to David. All of those covenants pointed to Christ's New Covenant. So we know there's going to be fulfillment in this, in the New Covenant. But we see David's confidence. We see his firm confidence. We read the expression of that firm confidence in Yahweh's covenant. This is an important progression of Yahweh's saving and covenantal work between Genesis 3-15. And Matthew 28, in Genesis 3.15, we have the promise, don't we? That God, that Yahweh gave to Adam that he, I meant to look that up, and I didn't do it. So let me do it so I read it properly. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his hill." We know that's the first promise of the gospel work of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. And then when we think about Matthew 28.18, that word of Christ right before the Great Commission, all authority and heaven and earth has been given to me." It's a wonderful summary for, I have finished the work the Father has given me to do, right after his resurrection and right prior to his ascension back into heaven. So we see this, this kind of text here in Psalm 27 is an important progression in looking at Yahweh's covenantal work in between those two texts. While we do not know the occasion of this particular psalm, David's confidence in Yahweh and His covenant is clear throughout this psalm. So let's think about that as we go through this text. Verses 1 through 3. David stated here in this first stanza his confidence in Yahweh's covenantal faithfulness. He uses that term, Yahweh is my light, Yahweh is my salvation, Yahweh is my strength. These are the outworking of Yahweh's covenantal faithfulness, and therefore, they are David's confidence and David's confession. It's very much a man who is expressing his faith. in what he has heard taught and what he has read, what he has heard preached. Yahweh's covenant assured his presence to David and assured his power to David. We look at this text Yahweh is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? He's not asking this as a question that's looking necessarily for an answer because he's going to answer it as he goes, it's a rhetorical question. Yahweh is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? And then he begins to list out the particular circumstance. When the wicked came against me to eat up my flesh, My enemies and my foes, they stumbled and fell. Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war may rise against me in this, I will be confident." Yahweh's help to David removed fear, removed fear of the wicked that opposed him, removed fear of his enemies. remove fear of his foes, remove fear even of an army. Of course, we know David literally faced an army. That's something that we won't experience, most of us. They had come against him. He mentions here, they came against me, they encamped, they warred against me, they rise against David and against Israel. This meant that salvation and deliverance from oppression was personal and national. Personal and national. William Plummer has a brief way of addressing this particular text in which he said this, One Almighty is mightier than all mighties. That's a good thought to keep in your mind. One Almighty is mightier than all mighties. There are many mighties out there, aren't there? David faced them, and David explained in this particular first stanza here his confidence that Yahweh would be present and he would exercise his power in David's behalf. David was confident in the prophetic word that established him as Israel's king, as the one with whom Yahweh made covenant. He's very bold. Whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid? In this, confident. You notice those two words, will be, are supplied there. In this, I, confident. What's he confident? He's confident in what he said in verse one, that Yahweh is his light and salvation, that Yahweh is the strength of his light, that Yahweh is the one who will deal successfully with his enemies. Well, let's go on then to stanza two, beginning in verse four through verse six. One thing I have desired of Yahweh, that I will seek, will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of Yahweh, to inquire in his temple, For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion, in the secret place of his tabernacle. He shall hide me, he shall set me high upon a rock, and now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh." Well, in this second paragraph, or second stanza, David stated his wish that Yahweh will keep him safely in his presence. That Yahweh will keep him safely in his presence. This conforms with Yahweh's covenant. I'll talk a little bit more about that later on. Did David here desire a place, a location? Well, at best, I would say only secondarily. He wasn't so much interested in a location as an ideal, a wish, which only Yahweh fulfills. to see, to behold, to look upon the beauty of Yahweh. These are all different ways of saying that very thing. Yahweh, in David's thinking, in David's belief, in David's working out of his place in the covenant and his belief in the covenant, sees Yahweh as the most pleasant the most acceptable one. We might think of Yahweh's beauty as somewhat of a synonym for his goodness. It's also similar to what we read and studied in Psalm 145, where David said, I will meditate on the glorious splendor of your majesty. He wants to behold the beauty, the goodness, the majesty of Yahweh. This is his great desire, his great concern. This is what he is praying for. Now, for him in the Old Covenant, the tabernacle was a particular place where that would be beheld in the system that had been set up there. David sought to be housed, so to speak, with Yahweh, to be in his house, to be in his temple, to be in his pavilion, to be in his tabernacle. We might put it this way, in his presence. He sought to fully employ the ordained means of grace. He wanted to be in the tabernacle. His great desire was to build the temple. God said, you're not going to build a temple. So he lays all these things aside for Solomon to build a temple. But there's his heart. As he's there in the tabernacle and he saw the Levitical priests carrying out their duties, he saw the sacrifices work, he heard the singers, he heard the preaching of the word. He knew that Yahweh's presence is wrapped up in the ordained means of grace, and he desired to, by them, be taken into Yahweh's very presence. That's his great pavilion, tabernacle, house, the place of safety, the secret place of his tabernacle, where he can hide and where he is set high upon a rock. David knew of a dimension to this type of relationship between a god and its servant that was unknown in the other nations. It was unknown in the other nations. Molech didn't have any kind of presence of comfort and benefit and protection and hiding with his servants. Yahweh Very different. My head shall be lifted up above all my enemies all around me, and I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. David knew in the covenant with Yahweh was God's very presence, and he wanted to be present with God. David prayed for Yahweh's fellowship or communion, we might say. This is what he desired. This is what he sought. This is what he wanted to behold. This is what he inquired about. We have 150 Psalms that go into this, don't we? We have the Pentateuch and the history and the prophets, major and minor, that unfold this to us. Our God is very complex, at least to us in our understanding, even though he's very simple. He's simple himself. But this is the thing that pulls for David and his thinking and his soul. That will I seek, he says. Surrounded by Yahweh's presence, what enemy can effectively reach God's anointed king? Or where better for him to be? What could be more pleasant? What could be more safe than being set high upon this rock of the presence of Yahweh? It's a beautiful picture that David has written here. I have to admit that as I read the Psalms, I'm astounded at times at the words that this man used and employed and the concepts he unfolds in the Psalms. And this is one of those Psalms that does that for us. Surrounded by Yahweh's presence, the most pleasant place to be. Therefore, Yahweh's King, confident of Yahweh's deliverance and fellowship, worshipped. He worshipped. Verse six. And now my head should be lifted up above my enemies all around me. Therefore, I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. He's not intruding into the rightful place of the Levites, but he brought sacrifices to them to be made in his behalf and behalf of the nation, behalf of his family. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to Yahweh. When he meditated upon the covenant that Yahweh had made with the nation and with him, and we saw the work that Yahweh did, his wonderful works, his amazing and awesome acts, his mighty acts, he's moved. to worship God. He knew that God was the one who delivered them from their enemies. And so that turned him to being one who worshipped God. And set high on a rock, there he was, bowing before Yahweh. Well, I'm going to stop here tonight because I'm not going to have time to finish these next two stanzas. But that leaves us right where we need to be in thinking about as God works with us, And as He proves His gracious covenant to us over and over again, it ought to move us to be a worshiping people. I hope you'll read this psalm. I hope you'll reread it. I hope you'll think about it. I hope you'll pray through it and let it work in you a renewal of mind and heart that it did with David.