Psalm 27
“One Thing: I Believe”
by Pastor Jason Van Bemmel
Of David.
1 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?
2 When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
3 Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
4 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.
5 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.
6 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.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9 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!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.
11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
Does our Theology Hold Up Under Testing?
Contrary to a popular myth, neither the designer or the Titanic nor its captain ever said that God Himself couldn’t sink it. However, Bruce Ismay, the Chairman and Managing Director of the White Star Line, did describe the ship as “unsinkable,” reflecting a widespread belief that the engineering, technology, and shipbuilding of the Titanic were so advanced that it would not sink, no matter what. Ismay himself survived the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage, getting into one of the limited number of lifeboats. But he would never live down his claims or his actions that night.
It's easy to make bold claims and strong predictions before times of trial and testing come. Before this baseball season began, many people picked the Orioles to win the AL East and even to make it to the World Series. But as the King of Israel said to Ben-Hadad, King of Syria, in 1 Kings 20: ‘Let not him who straps on his armor boast himself as he who takes it off.’
So, let’s begin our look at Psalm 27 by asking this question: Does our theology hold up under testing? When I was in South Carolina, I was friends with a charismatic pastor who used to hold to a prosperity Gospel, name-it-and-claim-it theology – until his daughter got cancer and died. As he watched his daughter suffer from cancer and heard people say, “You just need to have enough faith, just believe God for her healing. Tell her she needs to believe God,” he realized how hollow and cruel this theology is.
But sound doctrine and true, saving faith hold up under testing. They are like Roman Concrete – the more it is hit by the water of storms or the tossing waves of the sea, the stronger it becomes. We see this kind of true faith in David in Psalm 27.
The main body of Psalm 27 breaks down into two halves, followed by a powerful conclusion:
Each of the two halves of the main body of Psalm 27 has a hinge verse in the middle, a key turning point. In the first half, it comes at the end of verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4. In the second half, it comes at the beginning of verse 10.
Oh, and if you’re looking for HESED in Psalm 27, you may not see it. The word itself is not used in this prayer of David, but the whole Psalm is a powerful portrait of the steadfast love of the LORD, which we will see more clearly in the conclusion of our message this morning.
David opens Psalm 27 by making a strong confession of faith. He declares three things about God:
The LORD is my light and my salvation and the LORD is the stronghold of my life
So, the LORD is David’s illumination, deliverance, and fortification. Importantly, David doesn’t just say, “The LORD is the light and the salvation and the stronghold” – but the key word is “MY” – This is David’s confession.
On the basis of these three things he confesses about God, he asks: Whom shall I fear? And Of whom shall I be afraid?
If the LORD is your light, is there any darkness that can put out the light of the LORD? Of course not!
If the LORD is your salvation, is there any enemy He cannot deliver or rescue you from? Absolutely not!
If the LORD is the stronghold of your life, is anyone mighty enough to break into and assault you while you are in this stronghold? No way!
After asking this rhetorical question twice, David then suggests three categories of people who might seek to make him afraid: evildoers, enemies, and an army. None of these can make David afraid or shake his confidence in the LORD, not only because of who the LORD is for David but also because of where David’s heart is focused.
And this brings us to the hinge of this first half of Psalm 27: David says he will be confident, and then he states that he has asked only one thing of God. One thing. Think about that and let it sink in for a moment: “One thing I have asked of the LORD.” How many times have you had only one thing you were asking of the Lord, and if you did, was it this one thing?
“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.”
Did you notice that David’s “one thing” is really three things in one? He wants to dwell in the house of the LORD. But that’s not enough. He wants to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD. But that’s not enough. He wants to inquire of the LORD in His Temple. In other words, David wants God and more God and more God. He wants the presence of God, the beauty of God, and the wisdom of God.
Is David’s one thing our one thing? Or is our prayer list crowded with so many other things and maybe having God Himself and all that He is for us is just overlooked or relegated to a footnote.
Sometimes when we think of making God our “one thing” focus in prayer, we can be tempted to think that’s not very practical. We have all sorts of other needs. But David is not unaware of his other needs, nor is his single-minded focused pursuit of the Lord separated from his other needs. In fact, David tells us very clearly in verses 5-6 part of his motivation for his single-minded, whole-hearted pursuit of the LORD:
5 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.
6 And now my head shall be lifted up
above my enemies all around me,
Jesus Himself said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” David is confident God will take care of him and protect him from his enemies. He also declares how he will respond to the Lord’s care for him –
and I will offer in his tent
sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.
And so, here is a clear pattern for us: We must trust the Lord, focus on Him, seek Him, delight our souls with His worship and fill our minds with His truth. We must trust Him to take care of our needs, and when He does, give Him thanks with joy!
What happens to our confident confession of faith when it’s tested by fire and flood?
Verse 7 brings us from David’s confident confession to his cry in crisis:
Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me.
And then, what is His cry in crisis? Well, we get David’s plea in five negatives –
These are the negative side of David’s positive “one thing.” He wants the LORD above all else, and so he does not want the Lord to hide from him or turn him away or cast him off or forsake him or give him up. The same passion that drives David to seek the LORD also drives him to cry out to the LORD in this way in crisis. It’s not primarily a plea for safety or for deliverance from difficulty, but a plea not to be abandoned by God.
Does David think God is going to abandon him? No.
In verse 8, he says, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.” – so David knows his seeking of the LORD is a response to the Lord’s work in David’s life, to the Lord’s call to David’s heart.
Then, in verse 10, David makes it even clearer: “for my father and mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.” This verse, which is the hinge of this second part of Psalm 27, is a beautiful picture of HESED – it is the steadfast love of the LORD that takes us in when all earthly loves fail.
Murray Wilson told me the touching story of ministering to a man in his church who was dying, and Murray was sharing Psalm 27 with him and his son. When Murray got to verse 10, the man stopped Murray and looked at his son and said, “Son, I am forsaking you. I am leaving you, but the Lord will take care of you.”
At the same time, David knows that if the LORD were to abandon him, he would lose all hope. And so this is what he pleads with the LORD – the same “one thing” he sought in verse 4 – the presence and beauty and wisdom and power of God to be with him and for him.
Jesus sought the face of His Father in this same determined way. He inquired of His Father for wisdom all night before selecting His twelve disciples, knowing one of them would betray Him. He rose early in the morning and sought the presence of His Father before teaching and touching people with the power of God. And then, in the longest, darkest night of His life, He desperately sought His Father in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was terrified by the same thing that terrified David: the thought of being abandoned by the LORD.
And here’s the reality: God never forsook David. He never hid His face from him. He never turned him away in anger. He never cast him off nor did he ever give him up to his enemies. But God the Father did forsake His one and only Son, the Son He loved. He did turn His face from Him. He did cast Him off, as Jesus was cut off from the presence and favor and protection of His Father on the cross. He did give Jesus up to the will of His adversaries, who brutally tortured, mocked, and murdered Him. All that David feared and pleaded with the LORD to spare him, Jesus willingly faced, when He prayed in agony, “Not my will but Yours be done.”
And why? So that we would never have to face that harsh reality, which we deserve. God so loved us – each and all of us – that He gave His one and only Son to be forsaken, cast off, and given up so that we NEVER would be. Jesus took all the rejection, all the abandonment our sins deserve on the cross and He drank the cup of God’s wrath to the very bottom. Now, we do not need to fear. Now, we can know the steadfast love of the LORD that takes us in and shines His beautiful face of love on us forever!
How can we know this for sure? Because after Jesus was cast off and given up, He was raised up in power, vindicated, raised up to heaven, and seated at the right hand of the Father, crowned as King of kings and Lord of lords forever! Because we have a Savior who was not only cut off for the atonement of our sins but who was also raised again for our vindication and is seated in the presence of the Father interceding for us, we can know that His payment satisfied God’s justice and His intercession for us will not fail.
And so, what do we do when we’re facing our own crises – whether cancer or depression or loneliness or marital conflict or prodigal children or something else? Well, David concludes with a confident proclamation and stirring call –
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
“I believe” – I trust, I confidently expect, based on the LORD’s promises – that when this crisis has passed, I shall indeed look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. That’s a confidence in God’s promise for this life and for eternity. When David’s infant son died after his adultery with Bathsheba, he put off the sackcloth and weeping with which he had been desperately seeking the Lord, asking for Him to spare his son’s life, and he got up, cleaned himself up, and went in to the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then, he came back home and ate. His servants were confused:
his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.” 22 He said, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me.” – 2 Samuel 12:21-23, ESV
David believed he would look upon the goodness of the LORD in the face of his son in the land of the living. And so, we should have confidence that, when all the battles, struggles, and crises of this life are concluded, we will look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. While it is appropriate to refer to this life as the land of the living, it is also in another sense the land of the dying. The world to come – the new heavens and the new earth where we will enjoy resurrected life – is truly the land of the living!
And so, we are called to wait on the LORD. This is not a passive waiting, which we can see by the call to be strong and let your heart take courage. Waiting requires trusting and obeying, which are really hard when things aren’t going the way we want them to. But also, this word “wait” means to look eagerly for, to expect, even to lie in wait for. Its root is the word for binding together by twisting, like a rope.
This puts a picture in my mind, drawn from Hebrews 6 –
when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf – Hebrews 6:17-20, ESV
The anchor of our soul is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, seated at the right hand of the Father in majesty and glory, the firstborn from the dead, and our faithful High Priest. The Holy Spirit has given us faith, which is the rope that ties us to the anchor. To wait is to hold on firmly to that rope, to let it be twisted and bound ever more tightly to our souls, to eagerly and expectantly look for Christ’s return or our going home to be with Him, whichever comes first.
Will we wait on the LORD and live strong and courageous in that living and powerful hope today?
Held and Upheld by the HESED of the LORD
As we do so, it is not just us holding onto the rope secured to the anchor in heaven. We do so held and upheld by the HESED of the LORD, by His steadfast love. It is His steadfast love that has made Him our light and our salvation, the stronghold of our life, and our God. It is His steadfast love that has drawn our hearts to seek Him as the One Thing we truly need. It is His steadfast love that has called us to seek His face and has promised us that we do not seek in vain. It is His steadfast love that brings us into His eternal family when all earthly loves fall short and disappoint us.
And so, as we are indeed held and upheld by the HESED of the LORD, will we pray and sing and live Psalm 27, waiting on Him, until we get our deepest heart’s desire and are face-to-face with Him forever?