Healing Rays of Righteousness

Psalm 27:1-6, 11-14

All sorts of human troubles, despair and fears are recounted throughout the book of Psalms, nevertheless, the psalms also keep coming back to affirming the sure confidence we can have in knowing that God is with us through all the frightening dark valleys of life.  Repeatedly we hear the psalms declaring that because of God’s presence and power, we have no need to be afraid.

Medical science confirms FEAR to be the greatest threat to mental, physical and spiritual health – first we think it, then we feel it, and slowly our trust in God weakens and we believe our fears to be true.  And so, it would seem logical to conclude that the remedy for quieting our fears begins with deliberate action toward strengthening our spiritual relationship with God.

Psalm 27 was written by King David, and is a declaration of faith by which he has learned how to deal with his fears.  Verse 1 opens with an exuberant “the Lord is” and his intensely personal faith is reflected in the use of the possessive pronoun “my”.

“The Lord is my light and salvation – whom shall I fear?                                                                The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?”                                     …….    “Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear;                                                                              though war break out against me, even then will I be confident.”

The Hebrew word for “confident” means to “feel secure, be unconcerned.”  For King David, this sense of security comes from the Lord, which he declares to be his “light and salvation.”  His confidence is that “…in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle.” (27:5).

King David had discovered through his many difficult and frightening life experiences that, even though God does not always remove the causes of fear, he always does give us the inward resources to confront and deal with them. Too often we are tempted to become so focused on the fear-causing threat that we forget about the power available to us in confronting and calming our fear.  We so easily forget that God is bigger – much bigger than any difficulty or threatening situation facing us.

The psalmist’s opening question, “of whom shall I be afraid?”  is echoed in Apostle Paul’s question “If God is for us, who can be against us?”  Paul’s answer declares that no one and no thing in all creation “will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 8:31).

This is the essence of our faith, and such faith makes it possible to quiet our fears, not because we “have faith” or the threats we face aren’t real, but because faith connects us with a much greater reality – a sovereign, all-powerful God who is much bigger than any and all of our fears.

We choose either faith or fear.  These are our only two options in response to difficult and threatening circumstances.  Either we can know and relate to the living God as our “light, salvation, and stronghold,” or we are destined to live in worry, anguish, and fear through every troublesome situation.

The psalmist then closes with this encouragement, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”  The ability to calm the soul and wait before God is most likely one of the most difficult tasks in a Christian’s life.  At least I find it so, as I tend to be impatient, wanting God to act now.  I frequently need to reclaim for myself the confidence in God as expressed by the psalmist in this and the following scriptures.

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone, my hope comes from him.  He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.  My salvation and my honor depend on God, he is my mighty rock, my refuge.  Trust in him at all times, O People; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.  Selah.”  (Ps. 62:5-8).

And so we say with the psalmist, “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?