Transcript

During uprisings in the Middle East, Ron and Joke Jones, who serve with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Israel, communicated the following in their prayer letter:

“The result of the fighting and killing has left a profound sense of discouragement that hovers over the country. Several times, we have come into closer contact with this conflict than our comfort zone allowed.

“Yesterday, a friend shared with us something she observed that was a delightful reminder of God’s care for us. She watched a shepherd caring for his flock near the area where guns are fired. Every time the shots rang out, the sheep scattered in fright.

“The shepherd then touched each of them with his staff and spoke calmly to them, and the sheep settled down immediately because they trusted the shepherd.

“And then another shot sounded, and the same routine happened again. Each time, the sheep needed the shepherd to orient them again and to reassure them that they were safe.”

We are very much like those sheep, and during times that jolt us and cause us to fear and be troubled, the Good Shepherd reaches out and touches us, speaking words of calm and comfort through His Word.

We each need the reassurance that God’s Word gives us, which tells us that the Lord is always there for us, that He is our light and strength, and that we are safe in Him.

Psalm 27:1: “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?”

Psalm 27 is a psalm of David. And like many of the psalms, King David wrote this during a season of trouble and difficulty in his life.

We are not told the specific circumstances that prompted this prayer. In the Psalm, David refers to the trouble that he was facing because of the wicked and his enemies (v. 2). In verse 12, he speaks of false witnesses and those who were breathing out cruelty.

David’s experience foreshadows what the Tribulation saints will experience in the future, and it encourages them to have the same type of faith as David at that time.

David was in the midst of intense difficulties, but even with trouble all around him, David did not close his eyes to his circumstances. Instead, he looked by faith to the Lord.

By saying the Lord was his light, David was acknowledging his total confidence in the Lord. And from that confidence and faith, he was able to praise the Lord in his trial. The Lord was everything David needed, and the same is true for us.

Walking through a completely dark room, we have all felt that hesitation, caution, and apprehension because we are fearful of making a wrong turn or walking into something.

It is the same way in life. During troubling, dark times, our fears increase and we become uncertain and disoriented, and we don’t know which way to go or what to do next.

For those times, we need to come to recognize what David did: that the Lord is our light.

Though darkness might have come upon David, the darkness of troubles and spiritual conflict, David said, “The Lord is my light.”

As his light, the Lord drove away the darkness and brightly illuminated David’s darkness, providing him with the light of guidance, comfort, stability, hope, and joy. Light implies the Lord giving David the provision of clarity, understanding, and truth.

And God directs and gives us understanding by the light of His Word. Later, in the Psalms we read, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (119:105).

The Lord is light within us, He is light around us, and He is light to help us know the way in life. As our light, we do not need to fear because of darkness or dark times that come into our lives.

David said that “The Lord is my light and my salvation.” It’s the absolute truth that the Lord is our “salvation” in regard to saving our souls and saving us from all our sins. However, this salvation that David is referring to is physical deliverance.

Though danger was all around him, David knew that the Lord was his “salvation.”  David had enemies that he needed to be delivered from, as will believing Israel in the future Tribulation.  And David knew and trusted that the Lord would save and deliver him from his earthly enemies, and victory was sure through Him.

David does not say that the Lord gives light, but that He is light. And he does not say that the Lord gives salvation, but that He is salvation. And when we trust Him, we trust the One Who is light and Who is salvation.

With the Lord being David’s light and salvation, David asked, “Whom shall I fear?” This is a question that is its own answer. There is no need to fear anyone.

With the Lord being his light and salvation, having such power on his side, David knew he need not be afraid of anyone or anything. David knew that the Lord was much stronger than his enemies and the darkness.

We do not need to fear in the darkness of hard times, because the Lord is our light in them. We do not need to fear the powers of darkness or spiritual enemies, because the Lord, the Light and our salvation, has power over darkness and authority over them.

There are many things to fear and reasons to fear in this world, but called has called us to a life of faith, not of fear. And as we put our faith in the Lord, and we grow to know Him more and trust Him more, our fears can subside more and more.

David added that “the LORD is the strength of my life.” In the original Hebrew, the word “strength” means a defense, fortress, or stronghold.

It refers to military situations in which a well-positioned fortress with strong walls provided safety from enemy assaults.

As the strength, defense, and fortress of his life, David saw the Lord as his protection and security against those who sought to harm him, providing safety from enemy attack. In the Lord, David’s life was hidden and protected as if it were behind a formidable fortress.

The names that David gives the Lord here, as Light, Salvation, the Stronghold of my life, imply darkness, danger, and attacking foes.

But in spite of this, as he trusted the Lord, David asked again, “Of whom shall I be afraid?” This bold question looks at the present, and it also looks into the future. And again, the answer was: no one!

There was no reason for David to fear his enemies or to fear his circumstances; there was no reason for him to fear anything because the Lord was on his side.

The Lord was his light, his salvation, and his strength! When we grasp these truths and trust the Lord like David, we can face any storm, any valley, or any battle in this life.

In times of trouble and fear, our natural impulse is to flee to a place of safety, and Psalm 27 tells us that the Lord is that place. When we run to Him and trust Him, we find true strength and comfort.

As David praised the Lord in Psalm 18:1-2: “I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.”

Psalm 27:2-3: “When the wicked, even mine 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 confident.”

An army was once losing a battle, until they started chucking the tops of kitchen cupboards at the enemy. It was a counter attack.

David spoke here of a time when his enemies had attacked him in the past, and he remembered how God had countered that attack and proven Himself faithful as David’s light and salvation.

There had been a time of great peril in David’s life when the wicked, David’s foes, advanced against him to do him harm.

They came upon David with the intention “to eat up my flesh,” he said. David saw them as advancing to the attack like a ferocious lion attacking its prey.

David pictured his enemies as ravenous beasts who desired to shred his flesh and tear him limb from limb. David’s foes were vicious and sought to consume or destroy him.

David was in imminent danger, but he said that “they stumbled and fell.” One can stumble and not fall, but to stumble AND fall means that David’s enemies suffered a thorough defeat and were overthrown. They failed in their purpose and were driven away. They stumbled and fell because the Lord had in some way defended David.

This reminds you of our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, when those who came into the Garden to arrest Him, John 18:6 says, “As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.”

The glory of Christ deity as the Great I AM shone through in that moment, and His captors were knocked to the ground, as they “stumbled and fell.”

As a result of God’s past deliverance and protection, David’s faith in the Lord was strengthened. Having experienced God’s deliverance and comfort, David’s faith broke out like a flame of fire out of smoke, or as the sun breaks out of the clouds.

As a result, David boldly said that in the future, “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.” The word “encamp” is a military term and this encampment was for the purpose of an imminent and inevitable attack. But David stated that he would not fear even if an entire army were to pitch camp and prepare to attack him.

David was so confident in God and His greatness, that even if he was completely alone, with a huge army in front of him to attack just him, David said, “my heart shall not fear.” Due to God’s character and omnipotence, David knew He is worthy of all our trust.

And he further said, “though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.”

Even if an all-out war was proclaimed against David alone, and though all preparation was made for it, David said, “in this will I be confident.” He would be confident in God, because the Lord was his light, salvation, and strength.

David raised these frightening and daunting prospects to demonstrate that because of the Lord, there is no need to fear even these overwhelming things, and that we can be confident in the face of any daunting scenario in life through Him.

David’s confidence in God had been battle-tested. Psalm 27 was the praise of a man who knew God’s strength firsthand in times of danger, despair, and dark times.

Like David, we can look back on the past times the Lord has helped and comforted us to give us confidence that He will do the same in our present circumstances, and to give us confidence that He will do the same in the future as well.

Ephesians 6:12 reminds us as well, “For 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.”

We are in a spiritual battle today, and though Satan’s host surrounds and attacks us, and though an all-out war is being waged against us by Satan and his forces, we can have the same confidence as David, because the Lord is our light, our salvation, and our defense.

And as we trust Him, “Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.”

Psalm 27:4-6: “One thing have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

“For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

“And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.”

David was singularly focused on one thing. As he said, “One thing have I desired of the Lord.” David had one thing that he especially desired; one thing that was the object of his constant wish.

David had this one desire but it did not end with being merely a desire or a wish, as he added that it was a desire “that will I seek after.”

As David saw and experienced the Lord’s faithfulness to Him in his difficult times, David longed for more of God, to be near Him, to know Him more.

The experience of the goodness and greatness of God made David think about how wonderful it is to experience His presence.

Thus, the one thing that David so intensely desired was to actually “dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

Again, this foreshadows the godly remnant during the Tribulation.  And in those future days, believers in the Tribulation will desire, like David, to actually live in the house of the Lord during the Millennial Kingdom, and to be in the presence of God.  And God’s glory and presence will reside in that temple in the Person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

In the time of David, God’s presence dwelt in the tabernacle in Israel. The temple was not yet built. It would be built later by David’s son, Solomon.

Thus, when David refers to the house of the Lord and the temple in these verses, it refers to the tabernacle, where God’s glory resided.

David longed for the sweetness of the Lord’s presence. He wanted more and a deeper fellowship with them.

From this desire, he wished he could even live in the tabernacle itself, surrounded every single day by the presence and glory of God. To him there was nothing greater than to dwell in the immediate dwelling place of the Most High.

David could think of no greater thing than to fill his mind and heart with the goodness and greatness of God by being in close fellowship with Him.

As David wrote in Psalm 16:11: “in Thy presence is fulness of joy.” And David desired God’s presence and its accompanying joy with all his heart.

It is there at the house of the Lord that David would “behold the beauty of the Lord,” he wrote. David knew there was beauty in the nature and presence of God. There was beauty in the revelation of Himself, the beauty of His goodness, justice, love, and mercy.

And Israel was told to “worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness” (1 Chron. 16:29). Being in the tabernacle, David would behold the beauty of the Lord’s holiness.

It was not the earthly structure of the tabernacle, nor its contents that David longed for. It was the beauty of the Lord that most gripped him and that he wanted to see and know.

And as a result, David then desired to “enquire in His temple.” The word, “enquire” means to inspect, make inquiry, search, seek out.

Thus, this enquiring at the tabernacle was for David to seek greater knowledge, ask questions, and learn more and more about God and His purposes.

David had a desire to gain further light pertaining to God, and he wanted to search and grow in his understanding of God in the place where God was worshipped.

All this makes us think about our hope of heaven. Because in heaven, we will have the comfort and joy of dwelling in the presence of God forever. It is there that we will behold the beauty of the Lord in His Person and character. And in heaven we will have the eternal opportunity and privilege of enquiring and learning more about God.

In verse 5, David added, “For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.”

David returned to his thought about the time of trouble, and he considered how the Lord would keep him safe in that day and establish him securely.

The term “pavilion” is a canopy or a tent made of cloth stretched out on poles for shade or protection. It signifies the Lord’s tabernacle.

And David tells us that the Lord will hide him in His pavilion. Much of what David says in this passage has military meanings and implications.

In David’s time, during times of battle or war, a king’s pavilion was a tent that was set up in an army’s encampment. The tent was surrounded by an army of soldiers.

With all the host of the army camped about it, the king’s pavilion was the safest place on the battlefield. And those who dwelt in the king’s pavilion were protected and secure during the battle.

In the time of trouble that David knew would inevitably come his way, David stated that the Lord would “hide me in His pavilion,” or in His tent, His tabernacle.

Like the king’s pavilion was a protected and the safest place on the field during the battle, so hiding in the Lord’s pavilion pictured the same.

No enemy could penetrate its defenses and it was protected from the enemy. David’s foes would not pursue him into the Lord’s sanctuary.

To hide in the Lord’s pavilion and to be with the Lord was a place of comfort and security for David. The assurance of the Lord’s shelter gave David hope and enabled him to weather the storms of life.

All this portrayed David’s faith in the Lord, as his real security came in seeking refuge in the Lord Himself, which His tabernacle symbolized.

By turning to the Lord, seeking Him, and trusting Him, David would obtain His protection from his enemies and security for his life.

And in our storms of life and in the spiritual battle, we need to do the same as David, and turn to the Lord by faith, and find refuge, defense, comfort, and strength in Him.

David added in verse 5 that “in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.” In running to the Lord and His tabernacle, David said that not only would the Lord hide him in his pavilion, the tabernacle structure as a whole, but because of His love and care, He would even hide him “in the secret of His tabernacle.”

The secret place of God’s tabernacle was the holy of holies. This was the most sacred inner chamber behind the veil, where the ark of the covenant was kept, and where God in His glory resided Himself in the tabernacle.

That place was off limits to all but the High Priest who entered it once every year on the day of Atonement.

As Hebrews 9:7 states, “But into the second [the Holy of holies] went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people.” The penalty for improperly entering the Holy of Holies was death.

David in his faith in the Lord and running to Him for protection, stated that the Lord in His care for him during the troubles of life would take him into His pavilion, and even into His secret place, into the very presence of God.

And as far as a place to hide David, that would be a place that no one could possibly get to him. No enemy would dare to approach David in that sacred place.

God comforts us with His presence, by calling us close, and drawing us near to Him. In Him is everlasting strength, and the closer we are to Him, the more strength and security we gain.

When difficult times comes, God desires that we turn to Him, run to Him in faith, and just hide ourselves in Him. He will be our refuge and strength. David pictured this as running to the tabernacle, and even into the very Holy of holies to be hidden in the Lord’s presence.

We can do this today through prayer and the Word of God, just being alone with the Lord. We have access to the Father at all times. And He invites and desires us to come to Him.

And in those quiet times when you separate yourself and meet with God alone, we can find a profound peace and true comfort in Him.

David pictured the result of Him hiding himself in the Lord’s tabernacle as “He shall set me up upon a rock.” All the things mentioned in verse 5 are the things that the Lord would do for David as a result of his turning to Him in faith.

David wrote that the Lord would set me “up” upon a rock. And the term, “rock” means a cliff. This is talking about getting put on a high cliff. In other words, God would hide David where he could not be found, he would put David out of reach of his enemies.

The battles may rage and the stormy seas of life’s trials may threaten to overtake us, but when we turn to the Lord to be hidden by Him, He takes us and sets upon a rock, a high cliff, and a firm place that is far above the battles below. He lifts us high above the stormy sea that would threaten to overwhelm us.

As Psalm 40:1-2 says, “I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock…”

As a result of God lifting David up high above his troubling circumstances, he wrote, “And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.” The Lord would cause David to be lifted up and be exalted and to triumph over all his foes.

When this happened, David resolved to worship and praise the Lord, His Deliverer, in gratitude for the things the Lord had done for him.

Because the Lord had sheltered and protected him, because the Lord hid him away even in the secret place of His presence, and because He lifted him above the battles and caused him to triumph over his enemies, David would praise His name.

First, David promised that he would “offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy,” and second, he would joyfully “sing praises unto the Lord.”

Our response should be the same for God’s grace and comfort in our times of trouble and when He brings us through the battles. We should be quick to praise and thank Him.

Doing as Hebrews 13:15 says, “let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”