Psalm 27 - A Toddler Grabbed My Face

Podcast Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Thanks for watching! We are in Psalm 27 today, and I'm really looking forward to diving into this particular passage with you, even just in my brief read through beforehand. I know this is going to be an encouragement to you.

I know it was an encouragement to me. Let's dive right in. Psalm 27 is a Psalm of David where he says this, Yahweh is my light and my salvation.

Whom should I fear? Yahweh is the stronghold of my life. Whom should I dread?

When evildoers came against me to devour my flesh, my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell. Though an army deploys against me, my heart will not be afraid. Though a war breaks out against me, I will still be confident.

I have asked one thing from Yahweh. It is what I desire, to dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of Yahweh and seeking him in his temple. For he will conceal me in his shelter in the day of diversity.

He will hide me under the cover of his tent. He will set me high on a rock. Then, my head will be high above my enemies around me.

I will offer sacrifices in his tent with shouts of joy. I will sing and make music to Yahweh. Yahweh, hear my voice when I call.

Be gracious to me and answer me. My heart says this about you. Seek his face.

Yahweh, I will seek your face. Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger.

You have been my helper. Do not leave me or abandon me, God of my salvation. Even if my father and mother abandon me, Yahweh cares for me.

Because of my adversaries, show me your way, Yahweh, and lead me on a level path. Do not give me over to the will of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing violence.

I am certain that I will see Yahweh's goodness in the land of the living. Wait for Yahweh. Be strong and let your heart be courageous.

Wait for Yahweh. Man, what a great Psalm. This is one, a song that I've known for a couple of years now, written by I believe Keith and Kristin Getty.

Normally, they collaborate with someone else in their writing, but the song, The Lord is My Salvation, so I'm going to be connecting that song to this particular episode, which strongly encourage you to listen to it. It's another one of those ones.

You listen to it and you will learn some scripture. You will be encouraged. Some of the rhymes and the great tune will help you to get to know this particular song a little bit better, but I really love this song.

Starting off in verse number one, David kind of gives the call out to people and he says, God is my light. He's the one that directs my steps. He's the one that provides warmth.

He is the one that allows me to go around and do the things that I do here. A light, we would think of the greatest light, the sun, and David here says, God is my son. He is the one by whom I'm able to do everything that I do in life.

He's not reliant on an actual sun god like many of the nations around Israel would have worshiped. He says, I don't need like the actual sun to be my light. I need God to be my light.

He says, he's my salvation. He's the one who rescues me. He's the one who frees me, who keeps me from the hands of my enemies.

And so because God is his guiding light, God is the one who rescues me. He says, whom should I fear? Who's going to defeat God in what God wants to do?

He says, no one. So I can rely on God knowing that he is undefeatable. The second part of the verse, the Lord is the stronghold of my life.

This would be a fortress. It would be a...

David was often in the rocky outcroppings of the Judean wilderness, where there were lots of forests, there were caves, there were lots of places where him and his men could hide out and they would be completely safe.

Someone would have to really, really search in every single cave and crevice to try and find these men. And David here says, God is my stronghold. He's my safe place.

He's the one I run to, and I'm safe from everything that happens. So he says, because of that, who should I drag? Who am I going to be deeply fearful of if God is the one that I am taking refuge in?

Then he talks about in verse number two, the evil doers. And this initial phrase, especially as we think about it in English, really jumps off the page. We're like, OK, is he fighting cannibals?

Where it says, when evil doers came against me to devour my flesh, my foes and my enemies stumbled and fell.

Here, to devour my flesh, a lot of times what's used to speak about other nations, demonic beings or those that are accomplishing anti-God works are used in the language of animals.

So it's like Satan is a lion walking about seeking whom he may devour.

If you look at the Book of Daniel and the different animals that are mentioned that are typological of those countries and how their actions attempt to devour and to destroy people. Satan is referenced as a snake.

We've already in Book 1 of Psalms read through many different Psalms that talk about David's enemies as being like snakes that want to eat him and devour him. It's destroy him entirely, completely engulfed.

And so here's that's how he's describing the evildoers. He says, but they failed. They stumbled.

They tripped and fell. How foolish are they in light of my great Redeemer and my salvation. Just because of this, if an army deploys against me, he says, my heart won't be afraid.

He says, if a war breaks out against me, I will still be confident. What? Why is he confident?

Is it because he's a great warrior? Is it because he's amazing? No, we can see why in verses 4 through 6.

He says, I've asked one thing from the Lord. It's what I desire, to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple.

What an incredible thought that he says, because I want to be with God, I want to see him, I want to follow him, I want to earnestly go after his type of life.

He says, because of that, I can be confident that no matter what I face in life, I don't have to fear it because I know that God will answer my prayer that I would continue to seek him and that I would see him in his temple, in his house.

For you, is this what you desire? For many of us, we, if we thought there's one thing that I want from God, I don't know that for many of us, it would be God, I want to be with you. I want to spend time with you.

We might think, God, if I could have one thing from you, it would be my health restored. God, if I want one thing from you, it would be a house on an island. God, if I want one thing from you, it would be a million dollars.

I wonder how many of us would want this. God, I want you. I want to spend time with you, and that's what I am seeking with my life.

It should be our desire that we would want to be with God, that we would fellowship with him, that we would enjoy his presence. Verses five and six, he's saying that God will conceal him in his shelter in the day of adversity.

He will hide me under the cover of his tent. He will set me high on a rock. He says, God's going to protect me.

He's going to enclose me and keep me safe so that no one can see, no one can hunt him, that he's going to protect him in that way. He says he's going to set me high on a rock where they can't reach me and that I'm up over the top of them.

And here he's not saying that as a result of God's protection, then he's going to just rain down his fury on to the enemies. Instead, he says in verse six, because of that, I will offer sacrifices in his tent with shouts of joy.

I will sing and make music to the Lord.

What would be your reaction if God gave you the high ground, if God made it so that none of the things that you fear or the people that have really hurt you or downtrodden you, if God gave you victory and a high place over those things or those

people, what would your response be? Would your response be a taunting? Or would your response be like David's where he says, I'll offer sacrifices to God in the tent. In the tent that he's covering me with, I'm going to offer sacrifices.

He says, if I'm high on the rock, safe above all of my enemies, he says, I'm singing and I'm making music to the Lord. Verse number seven, where he says, God, hear my voice. I'm calling out to you.

He says, I'm after your face. I want your blessing. I want your presence.

I want to know what you want from me for the nation. God, I want you. He says, so don't hide your face from me.

Don't run away. Don't turn away from me in anger because of my sin. He says, God, I'm chasing after your face.

It's the little kid that I love when my kids come into Samantha and I's room in the morning. And they're like, dad, or mommy, mommy. It's the cutest thing.

Or maybe when, you know, for some times, if you're a parent, you're reading a book, you're on your phone and your kid grabs your face and turns it and goes, you know, they want to talk to you.

And I can see David here doing that with God, where he's grabbing God's face and he's like, God, please pay attention to me because everything in my life is about you. I'm pursuing you. You are my safety.

You are the one who rescues me. You are the one that I want to be around. Your house, your word is what I want to focus on.

And so, God, I'm getting right in your face. I care about what you have to say. I care about your presence.

I care about your blessing that comes when you speak with people and when you interact with your children. David says, I want all of them. I do want to make note in Psalm 27 and verse 9.

I don't always do this, but I'm going to turn over in my Bible software because I want to take a quick look at Psalm 27 and verse number 9. That is because I want to make sure that this one particular word is what I think it is.

I will say Hebrew is less of my specialty than Greek is.

I've gotten a chance to learn more Greek than I have Hebrew, but thankful for the resources that God has given us in English to be able to have many even free resources to be able to look in the original languages.

Psalm 27, 9, David says to God, You have been my helper. Do not leave me or abandon me. That word helper is the word easer, and we can see it really within the first two chapters of the Bible because it's what God calls Eve, the wife of Adam.

He says that Eve is Adam's easer. It's his helper. And here God is defined as being a helper.

I do want to mention that just because from my background, I've seen a few people that got kind of confused on that particular word in the story in Genesis and took it to mean something that it does not mean from Scripture.

So whatever you think Eve's relationship with Adam was or however you think that that dynamic should be, recall that this is the exact same word that is used of God.

So whatever you think Eve should do for Adam as a result of being called his helper or in some older translations, a help fitting or help suitable or help meet would be the King James word for it.

Whatever you think that that means, it needs to be placed through the lens of the rest of Scripture in what this word means, and it is how God relates to his children. So I wanted to throw that in there that God is our helper.

He is the one that comes alongside of us like a spouse comes alongside of us and helps us out in our life. That is what God does. And what an incredible thought that that is.

He says, Do not leave me or abandon me, God of my salvation. And then I love verse 10. I know many people that have been in these exact circumstances.

I can think even some stories that I've heard from my wife's family, some stories that I've heard from from people that I'm friends with. Verse number 10. Even if my father and mother abandons me, the Lord cares for me.

And man, sometimes those family relationships, even the relationships that are meant to by God's design be forever. Sometimes people fail. Sometimes people abandon us.

Sometimes people reject us because of our faith in Christ. Sometimes when we've done wrong and people cut us off forever, here David says, Even if my father or mother abandons me, the Lord cares for me.

And maybe you're in a season right now where a relationship that really should have been forever or a relationship that should have been steady has been broken by the other person. And you feel as though you have been left and abandoned.

I want you to know that God cares for you. He sees you and He wants to come alongside you every single day and help you to give you the grace and strength and peace and love and patience that you need to get through your day today.

I want to end with verses 13 and 14. He says, I am certain that I will see the Lord's goodness in the land of the living. He says, God, I know you're going to sustain my life.

Verse number 14, wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord.

Here the phrase be strong and let your heart be courageous. No doubt he's thinking back here to Joshua 1, even with the phrase in verse 9, do not leave me or abandon me. This was what God promised Joshua.

I will not leave you or abandon you, forsake you. And then verse 14, we would know the verses. Be strong and have a good courage.

Be strong, be very courageous because the Lord your God is with you wherever you go in the land. And here is David thinks about how God saved Joshua and the people from an incredible walled city of Jericho, how God delivered that into their hands.

As David thinks about the five many nations and their armies that came against young Israel and how God stayed even the sun, that it continued to appear in the sky over the course of a whole day so that Israel could defeat its enemies without the

enemies sneaking off under cover of dark. David here is saying, God, I know that I've seen, I've heard about how you have worked in the past through your people and how you have been there for them. You haven't abandoned them.

And I know that I am one of your people and that you are not going to abandon or fail me. Today, do you have a desire to see God?

Is it the one thing that if you could get God to answer, would it be that you would be in His presence, that you would be spending time with Him? Are you after the face of God?

If you are after the face of God, turn to Him in His word, turn to Him in prayer, turn to Him in joining with His people and worshiping Him. Follow Him as best as you possibly can.

Be that child that is seeking the face of the Father because He is faithful to you. Even if everyone else has abandoned you, God will not. And just as He was faithful to Joshua, just as He was faithful to David, He will be faithful to you.

Thanks for tuning in today. Hope that you would be encouraged from this passage of Scripture, that you would take a look at the song that's attached to this episode and that you would glorify God as a result. Thanks for being here.

We'll see you tomorrow in Psalm 28.