Summer in the Psalms 2024
Psalm 27
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church?07-21–2024
Hola
When I first finished seminary, I worked in a large psychiatric hospital's needs assessment call center. I would take calls, set up assessments, and answer questions from patients, family members, and doctors.
?Every once in a while, we would receive a “mystery call.” This was a fake call from someone at the corporate office to evaluate our skills. Most of the time, they were so bad that we knew right away that they weren’t real.
We were told what day a mystery call would come in but not the time. I had worked most of the afternoon and night and all the calls were legit so we assumed the call would come the next morning.
Five minutes before I ended my shift a call came from one of the units, in-house. I had a friend who worked on that unit so when I answered I said, “Hola! It’s time to party!” Then I heard, “My mother has been hearing voices. What should I do?” It was the mystery call!
I went home that night and told Maxine that I was going to be fired the next morning. I tossed and turned all night wondering how I could be so stupid to answer a call that way. I came very close to having an anxiety attack.
The next morning, a woman walked into our office and asked to see Jefferson. I took a deep breath and started to apologize.
She cut me off and said that they were going to have to work on the system to transfer calls because she didn’t actually hear my greeting but she gave me a 5/5 because I did such a good job on the call.
I spent 15 hours worried about something that God had already taken care of. Has anyone else ever experienced that?
Psalm 27
We know that David wrote this psalm. But we don’t know why he wrote these words in his journal.
As you read the psalm, it’s clear that he has experienced attacks from enemies and God has been faithful to protect and guide him through these crises.
Was it written during the time Saul was trying to kill him? Or when he fought Goliath? Or when we fought the Philistines? Or when his son led a coup against him?
We don’t know but David celebrates his confidence and trust in God in times of trouble and distress. This morning, I pray that we will learn to take our eyes off our circumstances and troubles and focus on the God who promises to be our stronghold.
Charles Spurgeon wrote: “…half of our fears rest in ignorance of God. The more we know of God the more we are bold as lions.”
That doesn’t mean that we will never be afraid. It just means in times of great trouble, we will not be ruled by fear.
This is a confidence based on the character of God.
“The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.” (Hebrews 13:6)
Please turn to Psalm 27.
Prayer.
Be Confident in the Lord’s Protection
* The Lord will deliver you
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?
David begins this psalm with three descriptions of God, Yahweh, the promise-keeping, and covenant-making God.
The Lord is my light
Have you ever been in a cave when they turned out the lights? Recently, I was in a cave with Rich Maier and Beth and Ken in Branson. They warned us before they doused the lights.
You couldn’t see your hand in front of your face. There was some nervous laughter and then relief once the lights came back on.
There is something about darkness that makes us uneasy.
In the Bible, darkness represents trouble, danger, confusion, and sorrow.
But the Bible begins with God speaking light into the darkness and it ends with God Himself being the radiance that lights heaven.
John wrote:
“This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him, there is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:5)
David knew that light provided security as he guarded the sheep at night in the open country.
David knew it was easier to fight the enemy in the light than in the darkness.
By His light, God has guided David through some tough times.
“Send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.” (Psalm 43:3)
When things looked bad and David started to lose hope, God “turned his darkness into light.” (Psalm 18:28)
The Lord is my salvation
David understood that he could not be good enough to earn God’s love. He knew where to look if he was in a situation that required deliverance or rescue.
He had confidence that God would come through for him, even when things weren’t going his way.
“Truly he is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.” (Psalm 62:2)
The Lord is my stronghold
The word stronghold can also mean fortress or strength. When David’s life was threatened, which happened a lot, he knew where he could run to and hide in safety.
When God delivered David from Saul and all of his enemies, he wrote a song that begins:
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me.” (I Sam 22:3)
Notice the word “my.” David is not talking about God generally. He calls God my light, my salvation, my stronghold.
Is God your light? Do you follow where He leads?
Is God your salvation? In times of trouble, do you depend on your strength or your wits win the day? Or can you say with David:
"Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” (Psalm 20:7)
Is God your stronghold that you can run to and be safe?
“The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.” (Psalm 18:10)
This confidence and trust lead to fearlessness. David did not fear, tremble, or dread before his enemies because he knew God would fight the battles for him.
Notice, he doesn’t say what shall I fear but whom? That leads us to the second thing God does.
* The Lord will defend you
When the wicked advance against me to devour me,?it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.
Have you ever been scared of someone? In eighth grade, I had a bully named Kenny. He beat me up a couple of times and I was scared to walk down the hall.
I asked my dad to teach me how to defend myself. He took me to Don, a friend of ours who grew up in a gang.
Don took me into the garage and taught me two things. First, if you can get a finger in the corner of an opponent’s eye, you can pull the eyeball out. Second, if you get a good enough grip on an ear, you can rip it off their head.
I was horrified. I just wanted to defend myself and not be scared. I didn’t want to maim this kid for life.
No one in my life could teach me the truths of Psalm 27. Not one person told me that God could be my stronghold when I was afraid. And that when enemies came against me, I could trust Him to help me.
David fought many battles when the odds were overwhelmingly against him. There were many times he was outmanned.
Many times his enemies sought to devour him. This is a figure of speech that means “to slander.”
When that happened, David trusted God to defend him.
He is so confident of this that he writes that his foes stumbled and fell, past tense.
He may have been remembering his showdown with Goliath when he rocked the giant to sleep with a sling and stone.
Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.
Even if he were surrounded by enemy armies, his heart would be at peace because of his trust in God’s deliverance.
“You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” (Psalm 32:7)
David constantly had to choose between faith and fear. He thought back to the times when God was faithful and rescued him and that fueled his trust in God anew.
Paul said it this way to the Roman Christians:
“If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans (8:31)
Bertrand Russell, the famous author, philosopher, Nobel laureate, and atheist, said, “The older I get, the more anxious I become.”
When the great preacher/theologian Jonathan Edwards was dying, his last words were said to be, “Trust in God and you need not fear.”
Song: Battle Belongs (YT)
Be Confident in the Presence of the Lord
* Seek the Lord
One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.
Have you ever known someone who was obsessed with something or someone?
I love Barry Manilow but I don’t qualify as a “fanilow.”
Lori is a 50-something second-grade teacher from Long Island, New York. She’s married and has one son. And she has one love - Barry.
She has seen Barry Manilow in concert more than 300 times, including every night of his Broadway run. That’s $350 per ticket!
Her classroom is covered in pictures of Barry and her students wear Barry Manilow shirts on her birthday.
She says there are three magical days in her life - her wedding, the birth of her son, and the day she got to meet Barry.
I’m a fan. She’s a “fanilow.” There’s a big difference.
People get obsessed with sports and movie stars.
Carrie Fisher, Princess Lea in Star Wars, once thanked George Lucas for giving her a gift she never asked for - an entire legion of stalkers that hounded her day and night.
David thinks about God’s temple, where His presence is manifest, and cries out that he wishes he could live there every day of his life.
It’s the most precious thing and it is worth more than anything in the world.
Did you hear about the wedding of the century this week? Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchan, children of two of the richest people in the world got married in India. The cost Is over $600m!
He says something very similar in Psalm 84:
“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” (Psalm 84:10)
David longs to see God’s beauty and his heart yearns to seek Him.
“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.” (Psalm 63:1-3)
If we seek God, can he be found? Jeremiah answers this for us in his words of encouragement to the Jewish people as they went into exile in Babylon:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer 29:11-13)
When we seek God for who He is, we often find ourselves humbled and seeing Him in a new light.
Corrie Ten Boom, who suffered so greatly in the concentration camps, wrote these haunting words:
“I asked the Lord, that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace.
Might more of His salvation know,
and seek more earnestly His face.
I hoped that in some favored hour
at once He’d answer my request,
And by His love’s constraining power
subdue my sins, and give me rest.
Instead of this, He made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
assault my soul; in every part.
Yea, more with His own hand He
seemed intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed
blasted my gourds and laid me low.
“Lord, why is this?” I trembled cried, “
Will you pursue your worm to death?”
“Tis in this way,” the Lord replied,
“I answer prayer for grace and faith.”
These inward trials I employ
from self and pride to set you free
And break your schemes of earthly joys,
so you may seek your all in me.”
Is the Lord your “one thing?”
One commentator wrote that seeking God is “better, bigger, greater, grander, more satisfying, more dependable, more fun, and more rewarding” than anything else you can pursue.”
* Trust the Lord
For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling, he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
David had many “days of trouble” to learn the faithfulness of the Lord.
He lists three blessings that come from trusting God through the hard times.
Keep me safe in his dwelling
Hide me in the shelter of His sacred tent
Set me high upon a rock
The first two are word pictures of hospitality in David’s culture. Once you enter someone’s dwelling, the host would protect you as if you were part of his family.
David puts all these ideas together in Psalm 18:
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” (Psalm 18:2)
God will set him high upon a rock above his enemies. This rock is the high ground. It is stable and safe.
?“From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.” (Psalm 61:2-3)
Edward Mote puts these thoughts into a hymn:
On Christ the solid Rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand
* Worship the Lord
Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.
What is David’s response? Worship! Not timid, quiet worship. But with shouts of joy!
We read the same command in Psalm 68:
“Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth, sing praise to the Lord, to him who rides across the highest heavens, the ancient heavens, who thunders with mighty voice. Proclaim the power of God, whose majesty is over Israel, whose power is in the heavens. You, God, are awesome in your sanctuary; the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people. Praise be to God! (Psalm 68:32-25)
The praise that is commanded in Scripture should be visible:
Clapping: Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. (Psalm 47:1)
Lifting hands: Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord who minister by night in the house of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. (Psalm 134:1-2)
Dancing: Wearing a linen ephod, David was dancing before the Lord with all his might, while he and all Israel were bringing up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets. (2 Sam 6:14
You may already be feeling a little uncomfortable.
Maxine grew up in a very conservative church, Coral Ridge Presbyterian, the frozen chosen, and she isn’t going to dance in church. But she worships in her own quiet way.
You may say, “Pastor Jeff, I really don’t have a very good voice. When I sing, I sound like a cat in a dryer.”
The command is to make a joyful noise -to shout. Everyone here can do that. A pastor I listened to this week said that you could actually help others to sing louder…to drown you out!
Or you may say to me that you just aren’t “the emotional type.”
Imagine you are standing at a par three tee you hit perfectly and watch in amazement as it goes in the hole for a hole-in-one.
Will you stand there arms crossed and say, “Well I’m not the emotional type.”
Maxine and I have started watching soccer and when our team scores, I run all around the house screaming, “Goal!!!!!”
Psalm 95 begins in the same way:
“Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.” (Psalm 95:1-2)
Sometimes, our praise should be subdued, quiet, even somber. But many times we miss out on the chance to shout to the Lord for the incredible things He has done, He is doing right now, and will do in the future.
When the Israelites finished building the wall in Nehemiah, they celebrated:
And on that day they offered great sacrifices, rejoicing because God had given them great joy. The women and children also rejoiced. The sound of rejoicing in Jerusalem could be heard far away.( Neh 12:43-44)
Let’s be like a church in Detroit that was cited for a noise ordinance violation due to their worship being “too loud!”
Let’s not just talk about it. Let’s do it!
House of the Lord
Shout to the Lord
You are My All in All
Be Confident in the Lord’s Promises
The Lord will hear you
The tone of the entire psalm changes with verse seven. Some commentators think Psalm 27 may be two different psalms joined together.
But it’s clear to me that David can be as honest as he is in the second part of the psalm because of what he knows about God from the first part.
Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do you believe that God hears you when you pray? Sometimes it feels like your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling.
We know from David’s journal that he felt that way at times. But he didn’t let his feelings lead his heart.
"In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.” (Psalm 18:6)
As a shepherd and king, David made it a habit to seek God’s face in prayer, especially in times of great trouble.
“During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord.” (I Sam 21:5)
The Lord will care for you
The Lord will not only hear you but David knew that God will also care for us.
Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior.
There are times when God seems absent. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever been afraid that God would reject you forsake you?
If so, the next verse is beautiful and good news for your heart.
Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
I heard a student give her testimony and said that she was standing in the bathroom combing her long, blonde hair. Her mother stood in the doorway and was staring at her in the mirror.
Kate thought her mother was admiring her hair. Her mother finally broke the silence by saying, “I never wanted you. You ruined my life.” And then she turned and walked away.
I’m so thankful that she understood the truth of Isaiah 49:15:
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” (Isaiah 9:15)
In Psalm 68, David calls God the “father to the fatherless.” (Psalm 68:5)
If there is a refrigerator in heaven, your picture is on it!
The Lord will guide you
Not only will God hear you and care for you but He will guide you into situations that can work out for your good and His glory.
Teach me your way, Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
This is a constant plea of David throughout the Psalms.
“Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (Psalm 25:4-5)
David envisioned himself as a pilgrim who needs a guide to make sure he makes steady progress toward his goal.
Eamonn Keaveney set a world record this week by riding his unicycle across Ireland. The 308 miles took 5 days, 5 hours, 23 minutes. He raised money for a homeless shelter. When he got tired, or his bum went numb, he just remembered that Ireland isn’t that big and he needed to just keep moving toward the finish.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.
Have you ever been lied about? Has anyone ever spread a malicious rumor about you?
What should you do? Get on social media and put them on blast? Confront them in Dollar General and throw a can of soup at their head?
We know exactly what to do, we just don’t want to do it.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you…But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:11-12, 44-45)
The way we respond to those who spout malicious accusations, like what happened to David, has the ability to show a lost and dying world that we are children of the Most His God.
Be Confident in the Lord’s Power
David ends this psalm with a call to take courage, to be strong, and to wait on the Lord.
* Let the Lord sustain you
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Despite all the hardships that David has dealt with, he has not lost hope. His trust in God is stronger than it was when he was younger.
Is that true of you and me? Have you seen God do so many amazing things in your life that you are more confident in His goodness today than you were twenty years ago?
He knows that God will come through for him.
The Hebrew reads, “I would have lost heart unless I believed I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
He was just echoing the trust that Job displayed after everything that happened to him:
“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!” (Job 19:25-27)
* Let the Lord strengthen you
Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
This is another theme in David’s writings:
"Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.” (Psalm 31:24)
David ends with waiting and as Tom Petty sang, “The Waiting is the Hardest Part.”
We are a microwave society who get road rage when we have to wait in traffic. We get annoyed at the workers and fellow customers when we have to wait in line. We get furious when we have to wait on hold forever.
Waiting is often part of God’s program. But waiting is not the same as inactivity. It is an active expectation of God keeping his promises.
“I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him.” (Psalm 40:1-3)
Abraham waited 25 years for the child that God had promised.
Jacob waited for 14 years to marry Rachel.
Joseph waited two years in prison.
Job waited for God to reply to his cries of confusion.
Paul waited 14 years before he went to Jerusalem to tell the other apostles what he had been preaching.
Jeremiah wrote these words when surveying the ruins of his beloved Jerusalem:
“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:25-26)
And Isaiah promises that:
“…but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:341)
For the last three years, I’ve been waiting and praying for God to resolve a situation in my life that caused great pain. My friend Milt, encouraged me to be quiet and wait for God to His work in both of our lives. On Tuesday, I got to experience the fruit of that waiting and it made my heart soar with joy!
Adrian Rogers said, “God is not so much concerned with time but timing. He is never late but rarely early. But He is also right on time.”
Charles Spurgeon once said,
“Wait at his door with prayer; wait at his foot with humility; wait at his table with service; wait at his window with expectancy.”
Where is Jesus in Psalm 27?
Each night of the festival of Tabernacles, four huge candelabras 75 feet high were lit. It took 60 pounds of oil to fill the bowls on top. The light from these menorahs would explode out of the Temple and reflect off the limestone streets of Jerusalem. This was called the illumination of the temple.
It was time that musicians played and people danced around with torches.
This entire ceremony pointed back to the wilderness wanderings as well. Specifically when they left Egypt and God led them:
“By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.” (Ex 14:21-22)
While teaching in the Temples courts where the offerings were gathered.
Jesus stood up and cried out:
“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)
Jesus points to the smoldering menorahs and says, “Surely you get this, right? Isaiah said this would happen.
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness, a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:1-2)
John begins his Gospel with this description of Jesus:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)
God is light and Jesus is God’s light of salvation in a dark and dying world.
Jesus, as the light, exposes darkness:
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” (John 3:19-21)
God exposes our sins. This is a hard thing but necessary to convict us of our need for saving from the darkness.
That’s what Jesus does - He turns on the lights of our hearts to respond to Him:
After appearing to Paul on the Damascus Road, Jesus told Paul that He was sending Him to the Gentiles:
“…to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’” (Acts 26:18)
Jesus gives an invitation to follow Him and if we follow Him we will never walk in darkness.
We follow Him - not a church, not a pastor, not a cause. Steve Lawson writes this involves “commitment, obedience, submission, passion, walking with him, following His Word, serving, and loving what loves and hating what He hates.”
When we follow Him, place our full faith and trust in Him, we can praise him for rescuing us from the darkness of sins’ dominion.
“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:13-14)
Peter wrote that this should lead to worship:
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (I Peter 2:9)
Jesus offers us the light of life. Once you’ve seen the light, you are never the same again.
Jesus says that once He “enlightens” you, everything changes. You are on a new path, a new direction, a new destiny. You have a new life.
Paul described it this way:
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. (Ephesians 5:8-13)
John wrote in his first letter that this light changes the way we walk in this world:
“ If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” (I John 1:5-7)
It changes the way we love people:
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.” (I John 2:9-11)
Is it dark right now? Yes. Will it get darker? Yes. But we are called to be the light in the darkness. Paul encouraged the Philippians to shine like Jesus our “bright morning star.” (Rev 22:16)
“Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.” (Phil 2:14-16)
Warren Wiersbe wrote:
“Christ is our light and we trust Him. He is our leader and we follow Him. He is our life and we grow in Him and reveal Him to a dark world.”
And it changes the way we shine in this world:
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matt 5:14-16)
The moon has no light of its own. It simply reflects the sun.
I heard Christine Caine, the director of A21 (rescuing sex slaves), tell the story of her little girl who was obsessed with flashlights. They went to Walmart and she bought her a flashlight she turned it on and said, “Mummy, I’ve got a flashlight. Let’s go find some darkness!”
Ending Song: Good and Gracious King
