Psa. 27:1 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?
These words had to be going through Jesus’ mind on this night; On this cold, dark, long and desperate night. This couldn’t have been easy for our Lord Jesus. Now we can dismiss any anxiety or fear that Jesus my have had saying, “Jesus is divine, he knew the ultimate outcome, he knew the outcome before the beginning of time”….and yes that is very true, but as true as it is, it does not remove the physical pain and agony that Jesus knew he would endure nor does it remove the larger reality – the burden of sin that Jesus would take upon himself; Nor does it acknowledge the loneliness of complete abandonment that Jesus had to endure. Jesus, like us had real emotions and was not looking forward to what would be coming upon Him that night….
With all this in mind, Jesus still could stand upon this Scripture: Psa. 27:1 “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?”
The Lord Jesus could stand on this Scripture, and we are able to stand on it as well.
Jesus wouldn’t have memorized this Scripture and then quote it as a magic charm, or a mantra, or even as the power of positive thinking and no not even as self encouragement. See all of those things are weak, they are self delusional in nature and Scripture does not lend itself very well to being used in such a way. No, The Word of God is powerful and will not return void: Is. 55:11 “so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”
Jesus could stand upon a Scripture such as this for no other reason than, it is true. It contains truth and, it is truth. That fact right there, truth, lays a strong foundation. Here is a foundation that will not return empty. God’s Word holds strong.
Ahh, but we look at this night that Jesus endured and this night does not appear to correspond to Scripture. There were things to fear. Why even those who promised to stay with Jesus through thick and thin abandoned him…you know if God the Father is Jesus’ stronghold, his light and salvation, if that is so, why didn’t the Father have mercy upon Jesus and eliminate his suffering, his burden; why didn’t he offer Jesus his protection?
You know, we have such a tendency to read into Scripture our American culture don’t we. Our American mindset says, “We know when God is working in our lives, why that’s when everything is going well, working out, moving right along”. That may be the American mindset, but that isn’t the biblical mindset, by a long shot. If it were, we would never experience the deep love, the deep mercy, the honest flat out power of the Holy Spirit in our lives….
Here on this night, Jesus gathers with those who “know” every detail there is to be known about Jesus – or so it seems. They spent over three years of close traveling life with Jesus, experiencing some very intimate moments, and yet when Jesus presents the bread and the cup before them predicting what terrible things would occur in the next few hours – even to the point of pointing out who would betray him – in person no less, they cannot see the significance, they cannot and yet Jesus knowing this, still has the last supper with them. How powerful.
Think of how terrible the disciples must have felt later on when they realized how they had let the Lord Jesus down. How they were there, but they were not there for him. The one time Jesus needed them the most, they weren’t “there”. And yet, Jesus does it anyway. I don’t think he did it out of duty, or simply out an act of fulfilling prophecy, no - he did it out of love. It is not that God is not protecting Jesus. Come on, move beyond that shallow thinking! How shallow are we? What is reported in Scripture about Jesus on this night is not an article from People Magazine, full of speculation and gossip. We look around us and see physical evidence of what is occurring in our lives – and there we stop, and analyze, what fools are we, especially those of us who should know better.
So we take our same analysis, that which we apply to our life and place it upon Scripture. We see Jesus being misunderstood, betrayed, beaten and killed and we conclude: God was not the stronghold, God was not the salvation – because that is what we think in our lives. How we have missed the depth of the love of God if we think that.
You know we may even try to soften it all and say that this all had to happen for us to be saved so somehow it is different, but it is not. The Lord God is Jesus’ salvation, he is his stronghold. He is because there is more there than what we see around us. Jesus understood, there is much more to life than what we see, feel and touch.
Now you know my favorite verses of faith: Dan 3:17-18. Three friends who have served God well, are more righteous than any of us could every hope to be are standing before the crazy king Nebuchadnezzar looking death in the face – they know, without a doubt they know there is no hope for surely they have seen many thrown into the furnace before, but they know a more powerful thing, something that we need to take hold of – just like our Lord Jesus Christ did on this night so many years ago – that even if God does not do what I desperately expect, or desperately want, or even see that I must have…even if God does not, though he can, He is my Lord; He is my God; He is My salvation and my stronghold…this is what these three friends know as they say these words: 17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
Those are some of the most powerful words ever spoken in Scripture: “even if he does not”, “even if he does not”, there is a depth of faith, there is a depth of relationship. Wow. I want that kind of faith don’t you? The faith that says, in spite of what you see going on around you, God is real, he is in control, he is there for me. This is the kind of faith exhibited in our Lord Jesus.
Could God the Father have made things different on that holy night so many years ago? You bet. But even though he did not, even though he did not, even though Jesus went through so much – He is real, able and life changing. Jesus understood that, and so he could stand on the truth of Scripture.
Imagine. Imagine the peace. Imagine the freedom. Imagine the lifting of burdens in our life if we could come before God and be like those three friends, if we could be like Jesus and say;
“Lord, I know you can, I know you are able, I know you can make it happen in a moment, and so I take this burden an place it before you, and you know how much I need this, I know you can….but even if you do not, even if, you, do, not…I will hold strong I my faith in you.”
Then….you will not have to imagine. Then, you will know the depth of the psalm when it says, “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?”
