Psalms 27:1. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
If all your light comes from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning, you need not be afraid of losing your light. «The Lord is my light and my salvation.» If your salvation comes from the God of salvation, if it is wrought out by the Saviour, our Lord Jesus Christ, you need not be afraid that you will ever be robbed of that salvation, and you may confidently sing, «Jehovah is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?»
Psalms 27:1. The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
«He puts his own force into me; and if he who is omnipotent is the strength of my life, who can stand against me? If my strength were in myself, I might well be afraid; but if it be in God alone, if ‘the Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?'» Dismiss your fears, then, whatever may be the cause of them, all ye who are trusting in the Lord Jehovah. The causes of fear are many; but the cure of fear is one, namely, faith in the living God.
Psalms 27:2. When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.
This is the record of the psalmist's past experience. David was a soldier, and he had a soldier's dangers and a soldier's deliverance's; and here he writes the history of his battles. These are dispatches from the field. When the psalmist's enemies rushed upon him, like hungry lions, seeking to eat him up, they stumbled and fell; he had not to fight, or even to sound a trumpet, for the Lord fought for him.
Psalms 27:3. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.
The past gives him confidence both for the present and for the future. Happy is the man who can fall back upon his past experience, not to make of it a bed to lie upon, but to make of it a lever with which to lift his soul out of the slough of despond. I think I have sometimes said that we may use our past experiences as the bargemen use their oars when they push backward to drive the boat forward. You must never lie down upon past mercies, and say, «I am satisfied with all that has happened;» but use the past to help you in the present and the future.
Psalms 27:4. One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; 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.
David wanted to spend his days in the house of his God, and we also may do the same, not only in the place that is used for public worship, but wherever we may be. The great house of God is everywhere, and his children can always be at home with him. That is the ideal of a Christian's life, to be always in God's house,-«No more a stranger or a guest, But like a child at home.» David desired not only that he might dwell in God's house, but that he might spend his time in adoring contemplation of the beauty of his God: «to behold the beauty of the Lord.» Did you ever think of the wonderful beauties that there are in the character of the Most High? If you want to see them, behold him who is altogether lovely, in whom the Father is to be most clearly seen, though veiled in human flesh. This should also be our lifelong work, to study, to understand, and to enjoy the beauty of the Lord, «and to inquire in his temple;» not only to see him, but to speak with him, and to hear him speak. A Christian is one who makes enquiries of his God; he is an enquirer when he begins, and he should be an enquirer till he ends.
The apostle Peter tells us that the angels belong to the honourable company of enquirers concerning «things that accompany salvation»: «Which things the angels desire to look into.» Christian men should go to God with their enquiries; and when they come to public worship, this should be one great end of it, «to inquire in his temple.»
Psalms 27:5. For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion:
«For»-and this is a reason for dismissing all our fear,-«in the time of trouble he shall hide me.» «I am so little that I may easily be hidden away by one so great as God is. ‘He shall hide me in his pavilion,' in his own royal tent; and beneath the majesty of his sovereignty my soul shall find perfect security.»
Psalms 27:5. In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me;
«In that most holy place, where none can come and live but those whom God brings there, in the sacred spot where the security must be absolute, in the tabernacle of sacrifice besprinkled with the blood of atonement, shall he hide me.» Oh, what a hiding-place is this for one who is in trouble!
Psalms 27:6. He shall set me up upon a rock.
What perfect security the child of God has; first, in the pavilion of sovereignty; next, in the secrecy of sacrifice; and thirdly, on the rock of immutability! «He shall set me up upon a rock.»
Psalms 27:6. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.
If an ungodly man's head were lifted up above his enemies, he would begin to denounce them, and to curse them; but when a believer's head is thus lifted up, he begins to praise his God. Then are his songs louder and sweeter than ever they were before; «I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.»
Psalms 27:7. Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.
I thought you were going to sing, David; but you are at prayer, I see. This is how we live spiritually; we breathe in the air by prayer, and we breathe it out by praise; this is the holy respiration of a Christian's life. Prayer and praise must be mingled in a divinely wise proportion, and then they make a sweet incense, acceptable to God. I hope we can say that we have never done praying but that we feel we must begin singing, and that we have never done singing but that we must begin praying. What a blessed interchange this makes for the whole of life! «I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.»
Psalms 27:8. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.
The child of God knows his Father's voice, and responds to it. God's Word is like a seal, and we should be like the wax, ready to take the impress of it. «Seek ye my face.» «Thy face, Lord, will I seek.» It is the same expression reversed, just as it is when the seal makes an impression.
Psalms 27:9. Hide not thy face far from me;
I do not know why the translators put in that word «far.» It is printed in Italics, but it should not be there at all. «Hide not thy face from me at all, my Lord. I do not ask thee not to hide it far from me, but I pray thee not to hide it at all. Make no break in my sunlight. Let me always see thee; this is all I ask. hide not thy face from me.»
Psalms 27:9. Put not thy servant away in anger:
«Put not thy servant away.» God will not put away his children; but he does sometimes put his servants away. I know that this is often a prayer of mine, I wonder whether it is yours also,-«Dismiss me not thy service, Lord.» We may remain his children, and yet we may scarcely be fit to be employed any longer in his service. Let this be your prayer as well as David's, «Put not thy servant away in anger.»
Psalms 27:9. Thou hast been my help;
«Ay, that thou hast, O Lord! Thou hast been my help.»
Psalms 27:9-10. Leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
There is a poor child, and his father and mother have both gone away and left him; but the Divine Father comes along, picks the child up, and clasps him to his bosom: «Then the Lord will take me up.» It is a wonderful thing to be taken up by God. A man prospers in business, and people say, «Oh, yes, he may very well get on, for such and such a great man has taken him up!» But how much better shall you and I prosper who can say, «The Lord will take me up»! If he has taken us up, what a wonderful Patron we have! There is no other like the Lord.
Psalms 27:11. Teach me thy way, O LORD,
«I am only a child; teach me, Lord. I am fatherless and motherless; take me into thine orphanage, and teach me thy way, O Lord!»
Psalms 27:11. And lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
«Make my way to he very straightforward! May my life be such that I never have to apologize for it! May there be no places in it about which unpleasant questions can be asked! Lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. If they can find fault with me, they will do so; and if they cannot rightly find fault with me, they will make up some accusation against me, therefore, O Lord, lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.
Psalms 27:12-13. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
Men say that» seeing is believing,» but that is not true; but believing is seeing. So David says, «I had fainted, unless I had believed to see.» It is by believing that we see «the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.»
Psalms 27:14. Wait on the LORD:
I think I hear David say this short sentence to each one in this great assembly tonight, «Wait on the Lord.»
Psalms 27:14. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say,
David says it from his own experience, and thus, as it were, puts his name and seal at the end of the Psalm: «Wait, I say,»-
Psalms 27:14. On the LORD.
Everyone who has ever proved the power of prayer may use the same words as David did; the preacher certainly does so, and with the psalmist he exclaims, «Wait, I say, on the Lord.»