Psalm 27, when I began preparing
for this message, when I was confident that this is where
God would have me bring the message from, I first thought to just
take verse 14, the last verse, as my text and we'll still do
that, but rather than beginning there, we'll work our way to
that place. I rarely do this, but expound
each verse, all 14 verses as we go. And if I bite off more
than you can chew, I'll keep my eye on the clock. If we don't
get through the psalm, I don't want to wear you out. I think
it will be evident not just from watching the clock, but watching
you. If you begin to get tired, I know it's time. to wrap this
up. Notice the heading at the top
of the psalm. A psalm of David. That's all
it says. A psalm of David. He give us psalms in the night
because David at the time he wrote this psalm or speaks the
time that he speaks of in the psalm was a time of darkness
and sorrow for him. His enemies were many and mighty
And they had taken dead aim at David. We'll get him. We'll get
him. We're gonna bring him down. They
wanted to destroy him. But, but, he finds his comfort
where every believer finds their comfort. In his God. In his God. Did you notice that?
And that's true of all the Psalms. I think the best way to introduce
this psalm, or as an introduction, to read a portion of another
of David's psalms, 121. I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from
the Lord. That's exactly what he told us
here. My help cometh from the Lord
which made heaven and earth. He will not. God help us to hear
that. He will not suffer thy feet to
be moved. He that keepeth thee will not
slumber. I wonder how much went on last
night while we slept. How much crime was committed. Houses broken into. We slept
right through it. We're not even aware of what
happened until we hear about it the next day. But he that
keepeth Israel, he was awake. He was awake. He'll never slumber
in his sleep. Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall not slumber. And then this most familiar verse,
or rather from the Psalm that is most familiar to everyone,
Psalm 23, verse 6, David says, Surely, goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life, and I will. Was David being
cocky? Was he being prideful or boastful? No, not at all. He was just trusting
God. Whom shall I fear? If the Lord
is my God, whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid? Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and
I will. I will. If God's true, if Christ
has told me the truth, If the covenant of God's grace can't
be made void, then I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David, did that really happen?
Did that really happen? Was that the outcome for you?
Will that be the outcome for me? Listen to one more passage
before we come to Psalm 27. 2 Samuel chapter 23. You know
it well. Verse 1. Now these be the last words of
David, his dying breath. David the son of Jesse said,
and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the
God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist, the sweet singer of Israel said,
verse 5 of that same chapter, 2nd Samuel 23, although my house
be not so with God, and we can all say that, can't we? Things
are not as I would want them to be. Oh, what rebels some of
his children became. Yet, yet he had made with me
an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things in short, for this
is all my salvation and all my desire. Oh, what a sweet singer
of God's praise David was. And very much, very much of the
language that David uses in relating his own experience can apply
to you and I, to every child of God. Let's consider the psalm,
verse 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? First comes light, then salvation. We're not saved in ignorance.
Not when God sheds his light upon us. We're ignorant before.
We don't know God. We don't know our need. We don't
know Christ. But when God turns the light
on, we learn some things. He teaches us some things. And
in that light that brings salvation, that is prior to salvation, a
part of salvation, the knowledge of our simpleness is revealed
to us. And we discover, God discovers
to us what we really are. He gets us lost. He gets us lost. If he doesn't do that, we'll
never be saved. And then we perceive the mercy
and the love of God. We see first the light and then
the fullness of his salvation. Everlasting salvation is not
just the past that David speaks of, but his present circumstances
and for time to come. You remember what Paul said In
Romans 11 verse 36, after considering God's mercy and grace, the wonder
of it, the beauty of it, and he said, oh, of him and through
him and by to him are all things. You see that circle? Can you
tell me where it starts, where it stops? And God's great salvation,
just like himself, is everlasting. From everlasting to everlasting,
the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear, David asked.
Whom shall I fear? There's nobody in reality, in
truth. I don't say that we don't, but
there's no reason to. There's nobody that I really
need to fear except God, standing in awe of Him. I need not fear
the powers of darkness. They've been overcome by my elder
brother. The Lord is my light. I don't
need to fear damnation. The Lord is my salvation. Think
about that as David did. Whom shall I fear? The second
part of verse 1, the Lord is the strength of my life. Is that
not a wonderful expression? The Lord is the strength of my
life. Ordinarily, usually, a man lives
by his own strength. his own constitution. But the
spiritual life lives by the strength of God within his soul. That's
what salvation is. Christ in you. Christ told his disciples that
night just before he was betrayed, when he said, let not your heart
be troubled. In that same chapter he said,
because I live, because I live, You shall live also. You ever
thought about that? The same life that's in our head
is in every one of his members. How can I die? How can I die? And David asked again, of whom
shall I be afraid? The Lord is my light and my salvation. Who can stand against God? The
Lord, Moses told the trembling children of Israel at the Red
Sea, as Pharaoh and his army and mighty chariots came up behind
him. And they began to cry out, O
Moses, this is all your fault. Remember what God said? Moses,
tell them to stand still. The Lord shall fight for you.
What are we going to do? Just shut up. Be quiet and watch. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Of whom should I be afraid? What
strength can resist His strength? What darkness can baffle His
light? What foes can prevent His salvation? If God Almighty before us, who
can be against us? He's the Almighty God. That means
nothing is mightier than He is. so to speak, and I like this.
He leaves the broken cisterns of the earth, which can hold
no water, and he goes directly to the divine fountainhead. He drinks there, and he's refreshed. Jehovah is my light. Candles
soon burn out. Even that sun that's beating
down out there will soon turn to darkness. But Jehovah, God,
the Father, the Father of lights, with whom is no wearableness,
neither shadow of turning, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? If a man has
a light that can never go out, a son which will never set, a
salvation which must always save everlastingly, and his God is
all that and more to overcome, to everyone rather who trusts
him, then what possible grounds can I have to be afraid? That's
just so, isn't it? Really, my fear is groundless. The Lord is the strength of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid? If we live, if we live in him,
he lives in us. Who can kill me? I mean spiritually. Martha, our Lord said to Lazarus'
sister, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die, shall
never die. Who can hurt a child of God?
If He is my strength, what will be impossible for me to do that
He commands me to do? Of whom shall I be afraid? Isn't that just exactly what
Paul said when he wrote, I can do all things? He didn't stop
there. I can do all things through Christ
that strengtheneth me. Verse 2. Verse 2. When the wicked,
even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh,
they stumbled and fell." Well, how about that? They stumbled
and fell. They were wicked and fierce. They hated David like they hated
the son of David. They had resolved to destroy
David as wild beasts would tear and devour their prey. And they
were successful, if you can call it that, as far as they were
permitted to go. Because notice what he says there,
they came upon me. God permitted that. They couldn't
do that much had God not allowed it, yet they couldn't do any
real harm. David didn't have to reach for
a sword or a spear against him, for they just stumbled and fell. They just stumbled and failed.
How fortunate. No, no, no, no. How providential. How godlike. It's just like him
to protect the apple of his eye. Why wouldn't it? Such is the
power of God. Our enemies may be able to make
attacks. They come upon us. The verse
says, but just at the moment when they think they'll be able
to swallow us up, our God interposes and says, you'll go no further. You'll go no further. I permitted
you to go this far for the good of my child, to teach him, to
instruct him. to increase his faith. Now you're
going to go no further. They stumble and fail. He's God's
devil. I just, it upsets me to hear
people, and many of them profess to know God, talk about the devil
as though he's God's equal. As though they're in some kind
of contest and the outcome is uncertain. Well that's utter
nonsense. Have they never read the Word of God? Oh no, they
stumble and fail. It's marvelous though, isn't
it? Isn't it marvelous? How that God will sometimes seem
to bring us to the very edge of the precipice, to the cliff,
but we don't fall off. He delivers us just at the right
moment and at the same time causes all our enemies to stumble and
fall. Again, This is much like what
David said in the 23rd Psalm, verse 6. Thou prepares the table
before me. How does the rest of it go? In
the presence of my enemies. Wow! Thou prepares the table for me. Well, isn't that enough? Oh yes,
but... God does it right in front of
my enemies. They don't like it, but there's
nothing they can do about it. What do the young people say?
In your face. In your face. That's what David
says. Right in the presence of my enemies. God, as it were, rubs their noses
in it. You can't do nothing. You can't
stop God. If he wills the blessed, the
recipient will be blessed. If he shows mercy, there will
be mercy shown. Nobody can control him. Nobody
can stop him. It's when we are the most fearful,
is it not? When our enemies are just coming
up on us. The battle's not even started
yet. And that's when our imagination, Imagine all kinds of things.
All those boogeymen, we used to call them when I was a kid,
begin to attack us. We imagine the worst. And the
enemy is just, he's not attacked us yet. He's encamped against
us. He's not come upon us yet. But
we imagine the worst. I've heard, I don't know, I've
not experienced it, but that's the hardest part of war. Anticipating
the battle. Oh, just waiting, waiting. You
know, it's almost, go ahead and talk. Let's get this over with.
Let's get this started. But it's at those times that,
oh, we imagine the worst. What's going to happen if I don't
do this? What's going to happen if I don't
do this? What's going to happen? Uncertainty
often brings a dread. And yet the psalmist said, my
heart My heart shall not fear. The latter part of verse 3. Though war should rise against
me, in this will I be confident. Now, I know you're aware, you're
noticing how this honors God. I'm confident. He's confident
not because he's leaning up on the arm of flesh. He's confident
in his God. He's honoring God. Give me grace
to do the same. I'm confident, David says, the
very opposite of fear. Let my enemies begin the battle.
Let the noise and the smoke and the dust of the fight surround
me. I will still be confident in
my God. Calm. Oh, that's a good witness,
isn't it? Just be calm. Revelation chapter
17 verse 14, These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb
shall overcome them. I don't know everything about
who they are, but they're not very smart trying to make war
with the Lamb. And the Lamb shall overcome them,
for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with
Him are called and chosen and faithful. Greater is he that
be with us than they that be with them. Verse four, one thing,
one thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after. One thing. It's good, it's good. It's a good thing to get your
heart so focused that it has but one thing, one desire. And then to be aroused to the
practical pursuit of that one thing. I desire it, I'll seek
after it. Again, that's exactly what Paul
said. He agrees with David. Brethren,
I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those
things which are before I pressed toward the mark for the prize,
singular, prize, for the one prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. And we all remember well, or
perhaps not well enough, what our Lord said to Martha when
she came out of the kitchen after she was rattling her pots and
pans and got all in a fuss, got all in a tizzy, And our Lord
said, Martha, Martha, you're careful, you're anxious, you're
worried and troubled about many things, but one thing, just as
David, just as Paul, one thing is needful. One thing is needful.
We often think, oh, when I was younger, I was much worse than
I am now. I hope I'm not as bad now as
I was then, Oh, I've got to have that. Lester, I just got to have
that. I mean, look at that new car. I just got to have it. I got
to have it. No, no I didn't. I didn't get
it. And everything worked out fine
without it. Oh, but this one thing, I can't do without. One
thing is needful, not the many. And our Lord said, Mary hath
chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. And David says, that one thing
that I desire, verse 4, that I may dwell in the house of the
Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord.
What a sight! Is there a greater attraction
in this world than to keep our eyes up on the Lord Jesus Christ?
to behold the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. What David is saying is this,
that I may gaze upon the mystery of God in Christ. For is not
Christ the beauty of the Lord? Is not Jesus Christ himself that
pearl of great price? He's rightly called the brightness
of the Father's glory. and the express image of his
person so that all we need on earth or in heaven is a perpetual
vision of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've tried to preach several
times in different places, never felt like I did anything but
make a feeble attempt on that verse in Revelation 22 verse
4, the first part of it, they shall see his face. How do you illustrate that? To
behold the beauty of the Lord. One hymn writer put it this way,
Father my soul would fain abide within thy temple, near thy side. But if my feet must hence depart,
still keep thy dwelling in my heart. Is it possible, as David
said, his desire was to live in God's house all his days,
where we can Always be in church, but that's not what he meant.
To be like a child at home, with God, wherever you are, wherever
you may be, to live in Him and with Him wherever you go. Is
that not what Christ said? I'm with you always, go, go.
I'm sending you into a world that hated me and they're gonna
hate you. They'll persecute you, they'll despise you, but go. And take this with you. Let this
be your comfort, your hope. Take this with you. Let this
fortify you. I'm with you always, even until
the end of the world, wherever you may go. Someone once said, we're in the
temple of God now. We're in the lower house. We're
on the first floor. But soon we'll move up. We'll
move up like the elder told John, come up hither and we will ascend
to the upper room where the glorified dwell with their king forever. Mr. Toplady, the one who wrote, oh, what's that hymn everybody
knows so well but Toplady that I can't think of at the moment?
Rock of Ages. He said this, when a believer
dies, he just moves from the church below to the church above. Richard Baxter said, in our first
paradise in Eden, there was a way to go out, but no way to come
back in. But as for the heavenly paradise,
there's a way to go in, but no way to go out. Verse 5, for in
a time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. He shall
hide me in his pavilion. The pavilion was the tent of
the king. It was easy to identify because
it was embroidered with rich needlework and furnished. It
was always placed in the center of the camp. So that if there
was an attack at night, the enemy must first break through all
the soldiers before they get to the camp where the king was. So the Christian, a believer,
is put into the very center of our Lord's host. God's sovereignty
closes him in. Who's going to get to that? And
God's angels, we're told, surround us. And the enemy must first
break through that and overcome all the heavenly powers before
any believer can be destroyed. That's just impossible. Billy,
that's impossible. And God give us grace to think
otherwise. No, no. God give me grace to
believe Him and to live like I believe Him. Not to go all
to pieces every time something unexpected comes up. I like the
story in 2 Kings chapter 6. The king of Syria, Israel's enemy,
have surrounded the place where Elisha and his servant are staying. They're going to come upon them,
like David said his enemies wanted to do to him, but they stumbled
and failed. But in 2nd Kings 6 and 15, the
army of Sirius surrounds the place where Elisha is. Elisha is asleep. His servant wakes up first, early,
early, and he looks out. And when the servant of the man
of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, a host come past
the city, both with horses and chariots. And his servant said
unto him--" I can just see him shaking Elisha. Wake up. Wake
up. Master, don't you care that we
perish? And the servant said, alas, my master, what shall we
do? You ever been there? What am
I going to do? I've been there. Oh, I've been
there. Walking the floor, walking the floor pacing, what am I going
to do? And there's one occasion, especially
comes to my mind now. Oh, my soul. I was beside myself. What am I going to do? I don't
know what to do. I don't know what direction to
go. Nobody can help me. That's the state of mind I was
in. Oh, my Bible, the John 6. And he asked Philip, where are
we going to buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to
prove him, because Jesus knew what he would do. Oh, I can't tell you how that
blessed my soul. I thought, well, I don't need
to know. He knows. He knows what he's
going to do, and he did. He did. And as he always does
for his children, he brought me out. Alas, my master, what
shall we do? And Elisha answered and said,
fear not, fear not, for they that be with us are more than
they that be with him. There was just two of them, Billy.
There was Elisha and his cowardly little servant. And around him,
they were surrounded with an army. And they that be with us
are more than they that be with him. And Elisha prayed and said,
Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see. And the Lord
opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold,
behold, the mountains were full of horses and chariots of fire
round about Elisha. The second part of the verse,
in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me, verse 5. The
secret of his tabernacle, that's the holy of holies, into which
only one man can go, the high priest. And only he could go
once a year, all but the believer. The Christian is admitted into
the holiest place all the time. Through the sacrifice of Jesus
Christ, we have boldness to approach God. And Christ's atonement and
the sovereignty of God join together to make the Christian's position
absolutely safe forever. He shall set me upon a rock. Oh, I'm sure you can think of
your own illustrations for that, can't you? He shall set me upon
a rock. The Rock of Ages. Clever man. The Rock of Ages is immovable. Now we are tossed to and fro.
But the rock on which we're built never budges. There's not a storm
big enough. That hurricane that's been going
up the coast, I think it's out to sea now. Oh, the destruction. I saw what it did in the Bahamas.
My soul looked like an atomic bomb dropped on that place. Sad,
sad. Oh, but the rock of ages on which
you and I, believers, are standing hasn't budged. Can't be affected. Can't even be fazed by anything. It's immutable. It doesn't stir
in the most severe and fiercest storm. I don't mean the literal
storm. I mean the storm we passed through.
We're on the rock. God is immutable. He abides the
same forever. So that we have three firm grounds
of confidence that David tells us about here. God's sovereignty,
Christ's sacrifice, and God's immutability. I am the Lord. I change not. So, so this. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. There's an article in your bulletin.
Our unchanging Savior. Our God, our Lord, that never
changes. Jesus Christ the same yesterday
and today and forever. Let's get to verse 6 and then
we probably will. Verse 6 or 7, come back to this
another time the Lord willing. Verse 6, 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." Well, that's just right. I mean,
what kind of ungrateful wretch would I be? After all God's blessings
and mercies and grace and faithfulness, I didn't at least offer praise.
I will sing praises unto the Lord. I heard a story, I read
it years ago, God in his mercy saved a poor man, uneducated
man, and I think his name was Billy Bray. And after God saved
Billy, every time you saw him, he was just singing praises to
God. Just singing God's praises. To God be the glory, great things
he hath done. Matchless mercy, free grace. It kind of annoyed other people.
because Billy didn't have the best voice. He was kind of like
me, Delilah, I guess. And they said, Billy, don't you
think you're overdoing it? I mean, come on, Billy. You're
not a nightingale. We don't really like to hear
you. And Billy said, well, that's
true. But God not only made the nightingale,
he made the crow. And if I can't praise my God
with the voice of the nightingale, I will praise him with the voice
of a crow. But I'm going to praise him no
matter what you say. And that's exactly David's determination. I will sing praises unto the
Lord. David always comes back to his God, doesn't he? Again
and again. As Peter did. As Peter said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? As they watched the multitudes
walk away. the multitude just like they
do today. Oh, they'll go back to religion
for sure. But walk away from he only who
has the words of eternal life. And our Lord said, as the multitudes
depart, you want to join them. Do you want to join them? If you can, you will. I used
to not understand that. I do now. If you can leave Christ,
you'll leave him. Oh, thank God for that grace
that enables us to answer, though it be through tears. Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou only has the words of eternal
life. We've got nowhere else to go.
Thank God. Trusting Him, praising Him, adoring
Him. This is the very life of the
psalm, and it should be a picture of our own life. The psalmist
says, I will sing. But in the very next verse he
says, verse 7, hear O Lord when I cry with my voice. Have mercy upon me and answer
me. One moment he's praising God
and the next moment he prays. That's not unusual. That's how
it is for a believer. We live, someone said, we live
by breathing in and breathing out. We breathe in the atmosphere
of heaven in prayer, and we breathe out again by praise to our God
who gave us that breath, who gave us life. Prayer and praise
make up the essentials of the Christian's life. Oh, for more
of both. Prayer and praise. It makes our
life run smoothly and swiftly to God's honor and glory. We're
going to stop there. Verse 7, that's midway through
the psalm. The Lord willing, perhaps we'll
pick it up next Sunday or at another time. God bless you.
Thank you for your time.