Every so often in life, we find ourselves in a really tricky spot because we've picked up an enemy, for one reason or another. Someone has it out for you. Sometimes, the reasons for that enemy are almost entirely your fault. You picked a fight. You offended someone. You wronged someone. And now, someone actively dislikes you, and is looking for reasons to harm you.
Other times, you might find that you've picked up an enemy, and it wasn't your fault at all. Someone is envious of you, or of something you have, and they want to bring you down. I know a guy who lives in the corporate world, who once worked for a company that designed software as part of a larger team. This guy was much better at his job than everyone else, including his boss. He understood faster ways to do things, so that what would take everyone else 8 hours, would take him 30 minutes, and the end result was the exact same. You'd think that this would result in him being celebrated, and promoted, and being given a raise. You'd think he would be invited to lead a workshop, so that the whole team could become 10 times more efficient. None of that happened.
Everyone was insecure about him. People told him he did things the wrong way, and he shouldn't do that. He was hated. People looked for reasons to get rid of him. He was treated so poorly for being efficient, that you'd expect he worked for the government. But that's how life sometimes works, even in the private sector, inside cubicle world. People sometimes come to hate you, for all manner of reasons: because of your skills, and giftings. Because of what you own. Because of your successful business, your happy marriage. They will hate you, sometimes, because you seem content and happy, in a way that they are not.
This psalm talks about a third reason why we sometimes pick up an enemy. In one single line, all the way down in verse 9, David acknowledges that God is angry with him (with Artur Weiser here, against Goldingay). David has done something to set God off, and make God view him with some hostility. And what God seems to have done, as a result, is to send human enemies against David. So David finds himself in a tough spot, because God has put him in that tough spot.
So in this psalm, David is able to put 2 and 2 together. He knows that his human enemies are the result of God disciplining him, judging him. And when God disciplines you in this way, the question becomes, "What next?" The immediate concern, depending on how bloodthirsty your enemy is, might seem to revolve around the question of what your fate will be. Is this something you'll even survive? Or will you be rejected like King Saul, and find that this is the end of the line for you? But somehow, the bigger concern, the more important concern, revolves around your relationship to God. When you find yourself being disciplined by God because of something you've done, what's next? Is this something, where your relationship with God can be patched up, or is this the end of the line for you with God, at least on this earth?
So that's the situation our psalm describes. What we see in this psalm, is that David starts his song, by singing about his situation. In the first six verses, he sings about his enemies, and God, and about what his response will be to all of this. Then, starting in verse 7 (Hebrew numbering, sorry, may or may not line up perfectly), David turns to God directly, and sings to God. He then wraps up in verse 14, by offering some advice. Maybe he's talking to himself. Or maybe, he's talking to you, for when you find yourself in that same spot. Maybe David's situation, is something you can learn something from.
Let's start by reading the first verse:
(1) Of/for David.
Yahweh [is] my light and my salvation/deliverance;
from whom shall I fear?
Yahweh [is] the stronghold/fortress (Isaiah 17:9) of my life,
from whom shall I be afraid?
David finds himself in a really tricky spot, but he doesn't start by addressing it directly. Instead, he sings about who God is for him. God is David's light. God is the one who makes it so that you're never really in the dark, uncertain about what lies in the shadows. In the daylight, there's no real surprises about what's coming to you. There's no uncertainty about what you're facing. In the daylight, you always have a chance. So God is the one who gives him light.
God is also his salvation. When we hear salvation, we tend to think immediately about Jesus, and that's fair and true. But we can also talk about salvation, and Jesus, in a way that misses half the point. In the psalms, when people sing about God's salvation, that word really means something more like, "his rescuing you from really bad situations." It's not just about being rescued from Sin, and slavery, and Satan, and death. God rescuing you, is God coming through for you in the really hard times in life, when everything falls apart, and by human standards, you look doomed. God is the one who rescues you from a boss who has all the power over you, who is actively looking for reasons to fire you. God is the one who rescues you from an enemy who is looking to commit fraud against you, and falsely accuse you. God is the one who rescues you from false accusations of abuse. Or if you're actively trying to free people from their slavery in the sex trade, God is the one who rescues you from all the violent pimps. Any time you hear language about God being my salvation, that's the kind of thing that the psalmist has in mind.
So David says, God is my light, and my salvation. God is my fortress-- my place of refuge, where I can't be defeated. And if God is all those things for you, why be scared?
Verses 2-3:
(2) When evil doers drew near against me to devour my flesh--
my opponents, and my enemies, toward me--
they stumbled,
and they fell.
(3) If an army encamps against me, my heart shall not fear;
if war rises up against me, in this I trust/remain confident.
In verse 2, David recalls his past history with enemies (qatal, past tense. Here, with Goldingay, LXX, Jerome, against many English versions). There have been moments in the past, where God came through in a big way for David. His enemies had every intention of eating David, but on their way to breakfast, they stumbled, and fell.
Was that random? Was that a stroke of good luck? David knows, that was God. And David knows that what God did once, God can be trusted to do again. So even if an army sets up opposite David, David isn't going to fear. He will remain confident, because of his past history with enemies, and with God.
Verse 4:
(4) One thing I have asked from Yahweh,
it I shall seek: ["it" is focused]
that I would dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life,
seeing the kindness of Yahweh,
reflecting (Prov. 20:25)/looking after (Ezek. 34:11, 12)/seeking after (2 Kings 16:15) his temple.
Most of your Bibles are going to translate verse 4 differently. They will talk about wanting to see the beauty of the Lord. And this idea, that God is beautiful, and that we seek God's beauty, has honestly kind of bothered me for years. I really actively dislike all the worship songs that are based on this verse, and on the similar verse in Psalm 90:17. But even if I was wrong, and it's just a pet peeve that I need to be quiet about, the idea is also a shocking one. The idea that what David is seeking, is to enter into God's most holy place, and see God's form, and look on his beauty, as part of an ordinary part of his life, would be an idea not found anywhere else in the OT. It would be something possible, really, only in God's heavenly house, in the place where even seraphim cover their eyes. What David asks for here, seems weird. And it seems impossible.
Is the KJV right, in saying that God beautiful? Are all the translations that basically follow the KJV here right? This, I think, is probably the rabbit trail we can most profitably chase this morning. Or, at least, this is the rabbit trail you'll have to let me chase. Maybe I should apologize in advance. But let's look at a few other places where we find this Hebrew word "noam," which I've translated "kindness," and English Bibles tend to translate as "beauty."
Proverbs 15:26 (NRSV updated):
26 Evil plans are an abomination to the LORD,
but "gracious" words are pure.
Proverbs 16:24 (NRSV updated):
24 "Pleasant" words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body.
NLT here has, "Kind" words are like honey.
Zechariah 11:4-10. In this story, God tells the prophet Zechariah to perform a prophetic sign act. Basically, God tells Zechariah to become a terrible, horrible shepherd. To be the kind of shepherd who fails to shepherd, and who lets his sheep die.
4 “Thus says the LORD my God: Be a shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. 5 Those who buy them kill them and go unpunished, and those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich,’ and their own shepherds have no pity on them. 6 For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the earth, says the LORD. I will cause them, every one, to fall each into the hand of a neighbor and each into the hand of the king, and they shall devastate the earth, and I will deliver no one from their hand.”
7 So on behalf of the sheep merchants,[a] I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter. I took two staffs; one I named "Favor," the other I named Unity, and I tended the sheep. 8 In one month I disposed of the three shepherds, for I had become impatient with them, and they also detested me. 9 So I said, “I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another!” 10 I took my staff "Favor" and broke it, annulling the covenant that I had made with all the peoples. 11 So it was annulled on that day, and the sheep merchants[b] who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD. 12 I then said to them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages, but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver. 13 Then the LORD said to me, “Throw it into the treasury”[c]—this lordly price at which I was valued by them. So I took the thirty shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury[d] in the house of the LORD. 14 Then I broke my second staff Unity, annulling the family ties between Judah and Israel.
In this passage, we see two walking staffs, one named Unity, and the other named "Favor." This word, "favor," is the same one we see in Psalm 27. That second staff, "Favor," Zechariah breaks, and this symbolizes the breaking of the covenant God made with all the peoples. That staff isn't a symbol of God's beauty. It's a symbol of something like, His "favor," or his "kindness." The days of God keeping his covenant with the nations, and doing good for all nations, are over. That covenant of favor, of kindness, is broken.
So in these passages, we see this Hebrew word "noam" translated as "favor," "gracious," "kindness," and "pleasant." The word describes a way to act toward people, and talk to people, that is favorable, and gracious, and kind, and pleasant. That's the what the word means, something along those lines. I kind of like the translation, "kindness," which is how one of my other translations handles it (Christo van der Mere, Hebrew interlinear). Words of kindness are like a honeycomb. And David wants to see God's kindness.
Hebrew does have a word for beauty. In the book of Esther, Queen Vashti is a stunning beauty, and the king drunkenly summons his queen to show off her beauty before a large group of nobles, and the people, and she refuses (Esther 1:11). And in Psalm 45:11, the wife of the king is described as being beautiful. The hope is expressed that the king would crave her beauty, and basically, that it would be a great marriage. But that's a very different word, and it's one that seems to be used exclusively for women, as we'd expect. [Although maybe an Israelite would use that word to describe his fishing boat or sports car :) ]
All of this, again, maybe seems like a really silly pet peeve on my part. But it strikes me as a really flawed way to talk about God. Dudes instinctively know that to call God beautiful sounds a bit off. It doesn't sit quite right. God is glorious. He's so bright, you can't even look at him. God is a warrior God, with a strong right hand, who chucks hail stones so big, and so hard, at his enemies that they die (book of Joshua). God opens his mouth to speak, and his word surgically dissects people, cutting them apart, leaving them open and exposed before him (Hebrews 4:12-- not about the Bible). That's the God I worship, and serve, and think about. There are plenty of other (female) gods who people worship in the OT and NT times who were considered beautiful, who wore jewelry, who had voluptuous bodies, and who were praised for their beauty. Maybe you could seek their beauty. But that's not our God.
And on a really practical note, I think this language about God's beauty also harms the church. In most churches, the majority of the congregation is female. Somehow along the way, we've lost the men. I don't think it's because Jesus came more for women than men. I don't think women are more open to the gospel, and to God, than men. I think there's something about the way we "do" church, and the appeals we make, and the songs we sing, that women find more attractive, so to speak. And I wonder if this language is a small part of a much larger puzzle.
At any rate, what David wants, is the chance to spend time in God's house, in God's temple, and see God's kindness. Now, we maybe catch ourselves at this point, and ask ourselves, "I thought the temple didn't exist when David was king. I thought his son Solomon built it." But there are other structures in the OT that are called the temple, before David (1 Samuel 1:9). Any building where God was worshipped could be called a temple (although 1 Samuel 1:9 is the only reference that predates David).
So what David wants, is to be able to slow down, and live there, with God. What he wants to see, is God's kindness. Words of kindness are like a honeycomb. And God perhaps shows his kindness above all else, by living with his people. It's a good thing, when God lives among us. It's an act of kindness, on God's part. And if David had his way, everything else in life would just be allowed to fade away, with the only thing left is God, and God's house, and David. That's the one thing David seeks of God.
Now, I think everyone singing this psalm understands that life doesn't ever quite seem to work out like this. We all have responsibilities, and things we have to do. I doubt King David could successfully delegate everything. But our responsibilities are not the reason we live. They aren't what we live for. And in our lives, the thing we look forward to the most, are those times when we can slow down, and reflect on God's kindness, and seek his presence. The only difference for us, when we sing this psalm, is that we have become God's house, as a church, and as individuals. We seek God's presence, and his closeness, not by journeying to Jerusalem, but by inviting God to come close. We can do this in the midst of a very busy life, while we do all the things we are responsible to do. But we also do this when we slow down, and welcome God into our secret rooms, and our secret places, where we fellowship with God.
With this, we come to verses 5-6. Here, David speaks confidently about what will happen to him next:
(5) Surely, He will conceal me in his dwelling place,
on the day of evil/disaster He will hide me in the hiding place of his tent,
on a rock He will set me on high,
(6) and so then, it shall be lifted up-- my head-- against my enemies surrounding me,
and I will sacrifice in his tent the sacrifices of shouts of joyful acclaim.
I will sing,
and I will make music to Yahweh.
That's how all of this will end for David. The one thing he's asked for from God, God will give him. David uses a couple different metaphors, or images, to describe this. God will hide David, so that his enemies can't find him. God will raise David up into a high place, so that his enemies can't reach him. And this lifting up, will lift David above his enemies. He will safe. And all of this will end with David getting to sacrifice, and sing, and make music to God, a song about the kindness-- not the beauty-- of the Lord.
So David is confident that this is how it will all play out. But none of that has actually happened yet. At the moment, David is still surrounded by enemies, and things look bad, and he's a long way from being able to slow down, and spend time in God's house.
How do move from being surrounded by enemies, to worshipping God in his house?
You cry out to God, until He answers.
Verse 7-13:
(7) Hear, O Yahweh, my voice,
I call out,
and be gracious to me,
and answer me.
(8) Of you, my heart has said,
"Seek my face/presence!" ["seeking," same word as verse 4]
Your face/presence, O Yahweh, I am seeking.
(9) May you not hide your face ["hide" same verb as line 2 of v. 5] from me;
may you not turn away in anger-- your servant.
My help, you have been;
may you not reject me,
and may you not abandon me, O God of my salvation/deliverance.
(10) When/if my father and my mother reject me, Yahweh will receive me.
(11) Teach me, O Yahweh, your way/road,
and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
(12) May you not give me to the desire (lit: "soul"; an interesting use) of my adversaries,
because they have risen against me-- false witnesses, and breathers of violence.
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On "receiving" me, verse 10, the verb often means "to gather," but sometimes, as here, it describes an act of compassion. Rahab's family is "received" in her house. Fugitives are "received" in the cities of refuge. Lost animals are "received." God will "receive" David, even if the 2 people who never reject you, your parents, do in fact do so.
HALOT:
3. to receive: to take home a woman 2S 11:27, the family Jos 2:18, the fugitives in the city Jos 20:4, lost animal Dt 22:2; God receives the orphans Ps 27:10, the king Ps 2:7
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In the world of the OT, everyone praying to God knows that what you really need, above all else, is to get God's attention. You want him to turn his face toward you, so that He sees you. You want him to listen. And if you get God to look upon you, and listen to you, you will be ok. There's never any worry that God is paying attention, but that He says "no." The expectation is always that if God turns, that God says "yes."
And the concern, if there is one, is that God will do something different. In verse 9, the other possibility is that God will hide. He will refuse to turn to you. Instead, He will turn away.
Christians tend to pray to God from a different starting place. They assume that God is always turned toward you, looking on you, listening to you. But that sometimes, God simply says "no." We start from the story about Paul, three times asking God to remove the thorn from his flesh, the messenger of Satan, and "the Lord" saying no. We take from that, that God has a habit of saying "no" to his people. That this is a normal thing, to be expected. And that God has this habit of doing this, when things are otherwise okay between us and God. And when we pray, if nothing changes, we tend to decide pretty quickly that God is listening, but that He said "no."
Paul was in an unusual situation, where God gave him incredible access to himself, and an incredible anointing on his life. Paul entered into the third heaven. He saw amazing things in the unseen realm. And God allowed that messenger to afflict him, so that Paul would maintain that sense that God is strong in his weakness.
Paul's situation, isn't our situation. So let me just encourage you, the goal in prayer is to get God's attention. And once you've done that, you can rest easy, knowing that God has heard.
Now, if that's the case, what gives you confidence that God has heard? How do you know?
For me, it's two things. First, is when I see at least a partial answer to my prayer. When I pray for someone who is suffering physically, if they get somewhat better, especially if it's pretty quickly after, I'll know that God has heard. God said "yes." That healing might only be partial. It might be mostly that the pain has gone down. But God did something, so that I can be confident, and I can encourage that person by letting them know God listened. If I'm struggling financially, and I ask God for help, if I receive some bit of good news financially in the near future, I'll take that as a sign that God has said "yes." If my boss hates me, and I cry out to God for help, and one day my boss recognizes my hard work, and says something kind to me, it's not that everything is necessarily peachy. But that's a sign that God has said "yes," and that God is softening my enemy's heart toward me. One of the most valuable things I've learned in the last five years, has to been to look for partial answers to prayer, and to recognize those partial answers as evidence that the total answer to that prayer is on the way, because God has said "yes."
The second thing that gives me confidence that God has heard, is when I feel the Holy Spirit during prayer, or after praying. That feeling is an act of kindness on God's part, letting me know He's heard.
Maybe for you, you tell in a very different way when God has heard your prayer. But that's what I base it on.
In verse 13, David sings an unfinished thought:
(13) If I hadn't trusted that I would see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living...
When you find yourself surrounded by enemies, and when life falls apart, there is a different way to respond. When King Ahab found himself surrounded by enemies, facing the armies of the world's superpower, he turned to Egypt. Other kings, turned to different gods. Whenever we find ourselves dealing with an enemy, we always have other options. Sometimes, maybe Egypt is able to save you. Sometimes, you'll get out of the jam, and things will just work out.
But when David looks at his situation, and how it very easily could've ended, he can't even finish his thought. He knows it would've ended in death. And so I think David looks back on those past times when God came through for him, in order to remind himself one last time that it's a good decision, to trust in God's goodness. God is kind, and powerful, and trustworthy. God, when you call on him, can be trusted to pay attention, and say "yes."
So that's our psalm, almost in its entirety.
When we take a step back, and look at it as a whole, we see an invitation from God, to seek him at all times. You seek God's face in hard situations. You seek God's face in the midst of his discipline, when you know you've done wrong, and He's angry. You seek God's face when He's rescued you.
In the moment, it's hard to trust in God's goodness. It's easier to trust in something or someone else. But God is our reliable source of light and salvation and refuge. And it's not so much that God is beautiful, and seek to see his beauty. God is kind, and we seek to see God's kindness.
And the other thing this psalm shows, is that this lifestyle of trusting God in hard times, is something that gets easier over time. When God develops a history of showing his kindness, and being the one who hides you, and rescues you, that history becomes a solid basis for the future. And that's part of the reason it's important that we tell our stories about what God has done for us, because we can learn not only from what God has done for us, but also from what God has done for others.
What then should we do, as we leave today? David finishes his song with what's probably some self-talk. He tells himself what he should do next, while he waits for God to rescue. And we can hear this, as David's advice, and as God's advice, to us as well:
(14) Wait for Yahweh.
Be strong,
and may your heart be courageous,
and wait for Yahweh.
Translation:
(1) Of/for David.
Yahweh [is] my light and my salvation/deliverance;
from whom shall I fear?
Yahweh [is] the stronghold/fortress (Isaiah 17:9) of my life,
from whom shall I be afraid?
(2) When evil doers drew near against me to devour my flesh--
my opponents, and my enemies, toward me--
they stumbled,
and they fell.
(3) If an army encamps against me, my heart shall not fear;
if war rises up against me, in this I am trusting.
(4) One thing I have asked from Yahweh,
it I shall seek: ["it" is focused]
that I would dwell in the house of Yahweh all the days of my life,
seeing the kindness of Yahweh,
reflecting (Prov. 20:25)/looking after (Ezek. 34:11, 12)/seeking after (2 Kings 16:15) his temple.
(5) Surely, He will conceal me in his dwelling place,
on the day of evil/disaster He will hide me in the hiding place of his tent,
on a rock He will set me on high,
(6) and so then, it shall be lifted up-- my head-- against my enemies surrounding me,
and I will sacrifice in his tent the sacrifices of shouts of joyful acclaim.
I will sing,
and I will make music to Yahweh.
(7) Hear, O Yahweh, my voice,
I call out,
and be gracious to me,
and answer me.
(8) Of you, my heart has said,
"Seek my face/presence!" ["seeking," same word as verse 4]
Your face/presence, O Yahweh, I am seeking.
(9) May you not hide your face ["hide" same verb as line 2 of v. 5] from me;
may you not turn away in anger-- your servant.
My help, you have been;
may you not reject me,
and may you not abandon me, O God of my salvation/deliverance.
(10) When/if my father and my mother reject me, Yahweh will receive me.
(11) Teach me, O Yahweh, your way/road,
and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
(12) May you not give me to the desire (lit: "soul"; an interesting use) of my adversaries,
because they have risen against me-- false witnesses, and breathers of violence.
(13) If I hadn't trusted that I would see the goodness of Yahweh in the land of the living...
(14) Wait for Yahweh.
Be strong,
and may your heart be courageous,
and wait for Yahweh.
