Text: Psalm 27
You know when I was a kid I struggled with confidence. Even today at time I struggle with my confidence. But when I was a kid that lack of confidence created this fear in me. I always feared that I would do something wrong or that what I did wasn’t going to be good enough. No one told me those things It was just me in my head. It was just me telling myself that I wasn’t able to do it. My confidence was very low. I would constantly try to find the confidence in myself, but the more I looked at myself for confidence the less I would find it. Actually I found that I would have less confidence, because I would just go in circles and searching and not finding and searching and not finding. One specific time was when I was in football in Jr. High. At that time I played wide receiver so I spent most of my time just catching the ball. Well one day at practice they were looking for a back up quarterback, because our quarterback had gotten hurt. So I thought I should try it. I had always wanted to be a quarterback and be behind the center and call plays. So I volunteered. We lined up for the play and I began to get nervous. Through my nervousness I began to tell myself I wasn’t good enough. That I was going to mess up. I tried to be positive and tell myself I could do it, but I just couldn’t get myself to believe it. I called hike and dropped back to pass and I saw my friend who was wide open and I went to pass the ball and instead of going where I wanted it to it went nowhere close to its intended target. I had spent so much time tearing down my confidence that when it came time I did exactly what I said I was going to do. Fail. Everyone got a good chuckle and I just walked back to my place as a wide receiver and that's where I would stay.
Have you ever have times where your confidence is just at an all time low. You are going through something in your life, or you are struggling with sin, and you don’t believe in anything, you have no faith. I think we can all say that at some point in our life we have gone through that valley. We have all gone through points where our confidence is so low that we don’t think it will ever build back up. And you know a lot of the writers of the Psalms felt like that. If you have ever read through the Psalms you get a mix of all kinds of emotions by the authors. They are going through different things in their life and they just let it all out on their paper. All of them at times lacked confidence. Lacked faith that they would ever get out. That they would ever be delivered from what they are fighting through. But sometimes the author gives us a glimpse of hope. Sometimes they encourage us and tell us that there is still one place that we can find our confidence. The place that we should have been going all along. You see we are starting a sermon series called O, My Soul and we are going to be walking through some of the Psalms and taking a look at what the authors are going through and what they have to tell us today. And the first Psalm we are going to be looking at is Psalm 27. So this Psalm is really broken down into four sections here. The first benign verse 1-3 where David talks about having confidence in God’s presence. Then 4-6 where David prays for God’s presence. Next is verses 7-12 with continued prayer for God’s presence. And then he finishes up with verses 13-14 talking about having confidence in God’s presence. Its really complicated. But lets look at these four sections. You see the Author of this Psalm, David, is going to tell us a little something about confidence. So lets read together.
So David here is obviously going through something. From reading this we can assume that it seems like there are people coming after David, maybe in some battle or war or it may also be in reference to when David was being chased by Saul trying to kill him. But the point is that David is facing something that's huge and scary. Something that seems insurmountable to most. Maybe this battle doesn’t seem winnable or the war may seem lost. But David here finds his confidence in two things. In the first three verses he talks about The Lord being the light and a stronghold. You see David's confidence isn't with his own abilities or in the strength he has, its in God. He puts His confidence in God being His light or His salvation. David knows that God has promised victory to His people. God has always watched over His people and promised to deliver them. He can find his confidence in that. He also puts his confidence in God being his stronghold or his refuge. God is the strength for His people and He provides a place of refuge a place of rest and protection against those who come against His people. David says that even though there are enemies at his doorstep its the enemies who are going to lose not David. Fear won’t rule his heart. Because his confidence isn’t in himself, its in God.
You know we all go through different things in our lives. You know maybe were going though something right now and it seems the enemies of Satan are surrounding us. Maybe we are going through a battle right now and to us it may seem like we are not going to win. We try and try to find the confidence that we are going to make it through this season, but the more we look inward to ourselves the less we find the confidence. Maybe right now you are battling addiction. You fight everyday and it seems like a losing battle. Your confidence in beating your addiction is at an all time low. The enemies are surrounding you and you’re out numbered well let me tell you that in God you can find confidence to continue on. God is your light. God is your stronghold. He will deliver you and be your salvation through this and when you are weary and when you need rest He will be there for you to give you peace and rest. Maybe right now you are battling doubt. Things have happened in your life one after another and this doubt is piling up in you about God. You’re asking yourself why would God let this happen. Has God left me? Your confidence in God is at an all time low. Well let me tell you don’t lose confidence in God because He is the one who is going to get you out. He is the salvation and refuge for you. Those things that hit from every angle in life we can get through those things because of God. Because He is there to deliver us and make us stronger and He is there to give us rest. Maybe you’re fighting a long battle with sin in your life. Every time you take a step forward you take three steps back. And you find that your confidence in beating this sin in your life is at an all time low. Look to God who is our salvation and our stronghold. He can deliver us from sin if we just go to Him and when we are weary from battling sin He is there to give us rest.
David in the midst of his enemies in the midst of his struggles could find his confidence in His salvation and stronghold. God. David knows the power of the presence of God. So he prays that He could be forever in God’s presence and that should be our prayer too. We find our confidence in the light and stronghold and we pray that we can be forever in His presence. The things David is going through he says are insignificant in comparison with the desire to experience more fully the presence of God. Because in God’s presence fear is banished. Because in God’s presence fear no longer has a foothold. Because in God’s presence we can be confident in our walk with Him. David knew the power of the presence of God and knew that when God is with Him no one could be against Him. Not in the sense of no one would ever try to come after him, but in the sense that David no matter what would be the ultimate victor because God is bigger. Did anyone else here watch veggie tales? One of the movies there is this little guy named jr and he is scared of monsters under his bed. Then 2 guys come in Bob and Larry and they sing this song called God is bigger than the boogey man. It’s a children song, but God is bigger than the monster that lay in your life. The things that haunt you the things that are waiting at your door, the sin in your life, the evil that comes to bring us down. God is bigger. In His presence all fear is washed away because how can you be in fear when God is on your side. Our prayer should be that we can be in the presence of God everyday. That God would be with us everyday. Because the power of the presence of God is greater than any fear.
David wraps up his psalm with a reminder. God will deliver. God will deliver if we are patient. Because lets be honest God’s timing is not our timing. We want everything when we want it and not a second later. But that’s not how God operates. There will be times where we will go through struggles for what seems like a long time, but don’t lose your confidence. God will be there at the end God will be there for you and He has been there for you the whole time fighting for you. David shows us that faith is the power that enables those who are faithful to endure their present struggles and look forward to the deliverance that God will bring from those struggles. Do not lose your confidence in God. we can look to ourselves to find the confidence we are looking for but honestly we are not going to find it. TO be able to endure and fight back against our struggles and sins we have to have confidence in God and who he is. Our salvation and our stronghold. Our light and our refuge.
There are going to be battles in our life that may seem unwinnable. Wars that may seem lost. Struggles that seem insurmountable. But in God we can find our confidence to push through. In God we can find rest. In God we can find deliverance. In God we can find our salvation.
