The LORD is My Light and My Salvation
Psalm 27
The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
When the wicked came against me
To eat up my flesh,
My enemies and foes,
They stumbled and fell.
Though an army may encamp against me,
My heart shall not fear;
Though war may rise against me,
In this I will be confident.
One thing I have desired of the Lord,
That will I seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord
All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord,
And to inquire in His temple.
For in the time of trouble
He shall hide me in His pavilion;
In the secret place of His tabernacle
He shall hide me;
He shall set me high upon a rock.
And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me;
Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice!
Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”
Do not hide Your face from me;
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not leave me nor forsake me,
O God of my salvation.
When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the Lord will take care of me.
Teach me Your way, O Lord,
And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.
Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries;
For false witnesses have risen against me,
And such as breathe out violence.
I would have lost heart, unless I had believed
That I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord;
Be of good courage,
And He shall strengthen your heart;
Wait, I say, on the Lord!
We come this morning to the third Sunday in the season of Epiphany. As we have noted the word “epiphany” means to reveal or shining. This is the season in which we remember that Jesus, the Light of the World was revealed unto us Gentiles as well it has been and is revealed unto the Jews. Light is a powerful metaphor because physical light is powerful. Without the sun which God created, nothing would grow. All would be icy cold and barren. It is no wonder that the creation of light comes first in the days of creation. Light shows us hazards and dangers in our path and helps us avoid falling into traps. Light also enlightens the beauty of creation and gives us cheer to our existence. The beauties of the LORD leads us to praise the One who made them.
The metaphor of light is also very powerful. There is light beyond physical light. there are beauties that cannot be seen by natural eyes. There are dangers beyond the dangers we can see. Ultimately, there is God who is invisible to the natural eyes save that this Word became flesh and was seen through this veil when He walked on earth. He is the Light of the World, as He said while on earth. He walked on the earth where people could see and hear with the natural senses. They could see and hear dangers. They could sense in a way that there was something behind light and darkness. Many religions have tried to explain this light and darkness, good and evil. Zoroastrianism is one such religion. Even those who bowed before idols of gold and wood believed there was a force beyond these visible objects. they knew thee physical representations could not breathe, move, or eat. But what, or better, who, lay behind these graven images? No earthly image could represent the Creator of all. Only the image of the invisible God could, which is at the core of Christian Doctrine found in the first Chapter of Colossians.
We see a powerful demonstration of the Light of God in the psalm we read this morning. Millions of people have loved this psalm originally written by King David. Majestic songs have been written from the text of this psalm. Let us now look into these words.
David begins with the words “The LORD is my light and my salvation.” This answers the question as to Whom lies behind all reality. It is Yahweh (I AM) who is the reason any of us have life, purpose, and meaning. “The” is a very important word here as it makes the light exclusive. There may be luminaries such as the sun and the stars which give light. But even these are subject to the One God and creator which makes them His servants. Their light can only declare God’s glory (Psalm 19:1). The pronoun “my” makes David’s declaration personal. The LORD is savior of all, in particular to those who believe (on Jesus). Many claim falsely some other light in their life to be their inspiration. However, only the LORD is truly THE light and source of Salvation. When Jesus says “I AM the Light of the World, there is no room for substitutions. “In Him was light, and the light of men.” This is a universal declaration that Jesus the Son lies behind all things in creation. He is the one who created all things. This universal truth does not stand alone. We must believe on Him. We must put our full trust in Him.
Statements of faith have implications. How do we respond in faith to such a powerful declaration? David responded in a number of ways. Here, his response is “Whom shall I fear?” The implication is that David is using this declaration to properly respond to some danger in his path. The psalm does not tell us what this danger was. The Bible records many periods of danger in David’s life. We can read of his facing Goliath. We read of the time that Saul cast a spear at him and other dangers presented by Saul. There were many wars which put David in danger, including one with his own son, Absalom. He also was in danger by his own sins such as with Bathsheba. It is probably good that we do not know this occasion. What is important to know we face many dangers, toils, and snares, even those of our own making. The natural response if to fear. The last of these may be the worst because the one we offend is God Himself. We might think that we can somehow escape danger by our own stratagems. Even David once escaped the Philistines by pretending to be mad. But who can escape the all-powerful, all knowing, and all just God? Of all fears, this is the greatest. This is why the “my salvation” is so important. The very one who has the right to judge all is also the savior of all, to whom we can turn to in our troubles.
The Bible tells us that many trusted in the strength of their armies. The Bible also records that all too often this misplaced trust ended un disaster. The LORD was very displeased with David when he tried to number his army. Deuteronomy tells that the king was not to multiply horses to himself nor to enter into diplomatic marriages (alliances) with other nations. Solomon foolishly did these things to his ruin. But D avid knew the truth. “The LORD is the strength of my life.” David occasionally forgot this truth. We all do. And these missteps led to disaster. But as long as David kept reminding himself as he does here. things went well. The LORD whom David trusted was his source of strength as well as the one who lit his path. This leads to his repeating the idea that he was not to fear.
In the following verses, we see that David was concerned about a certain enemy who was more powerful than himself. We should notice the past tense here which indicates that the LORD had delivered him from this situation. He noticed that the LORD had caused his enemy to stumble and fall. It is implied that another dangerous situation lay ahead. The LORD who had caused the prior enemy to fall would intervene in this situation also. Even if an entire army of enemies arose against him, he would not be afraid, even if this resulted in war. In coming times of danger, he knew the LORD will hide him in some way or another from this danger.
We see an example of David’s courage when he faced off Goliath. He had remembered that the LORD had delivered him from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear. How much more was he confident that the LORD would deliver him from the arrogance of Goliath. And the LORD did. In this case. he used David’s own abilities with a sling to direct the stone that felled Goliath. Sometimes, the LORD used others to save David. And at other times, delivery seemed supernatural. Regardless of the means, the LORD is to be praised as the one who brings deliverance. Likewise, in our times of trouble, we must arm ourselves with this attitude, whether the problem be small or great.
David responded to the LORD with joy and thanksgiving for what the LORD had done. He had lifted up David. But we must remember that David in his latter days lifted himself up and became proud. We, too, can and do fall into traps like these, as we mentioned before. This must always be remembered, that it is the LORD who has lifted us up and placed our feet on solid ground. The Bible says that pride comes before a fall and a proud heart before destruction.
David continues with words of adoration for the protection the LORD offered. He praised Him in the Tabernacle with the sacrifice of joy and sang songs of joy. There are others who would have heard David gush forth praise. Many of them would have known the dangers David faced and could relate his spontaneous outburst in song. The joy of and in the LORD serves as a powerful witness of the goodness of the LORD and caused others to turn and seek HIS face. As David knew that when the next trouble compassed him, he knew that the LORD would deliver him as he did before. Others who saw and hear David’s witness are encouraged to do likewise, even down to us today. This is why we can read the 27th Psalm today and be encouraged and emboldened to act boldly in the faith. whether we are slandered or face violence for the sake of Jesus, we cat turn to the LORD and wait patiently upon Him for deliverance. We shall behold Him in His beauty in the land of the living, even if we die before He returns. In death, we are promised resurrection and eternal life in Him. Earthly sanctuaries might not be safe. In this life, we can be betrayed. We do not know what the immediate future holds, but we do know for certain what our eternal future is. In that day, all shall dwell safely who believe in Jesus. This helps us through the sufferings of the present age. The One who has always been and is now is also the Coming One. Let us take heart.
