kjv@Psalm:27

Today's Text:

Today's Audio Commentary: "Of Whom Shall I Be Afraid?"

Section 1: "One thing have I desired of the LORD"

• Psalm 27 contains some beautiful images today for us to meditate:
  

kjv@Psalms:27:1 @ 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?


kjv@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 enquire in his temple.


kjv@Psalms:27:8 @ When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.


• However, one has to recall the context in which David is making these delightful statements in order to truly meditate on them in the proper perspective.
  
• David is making these statements in the midst of a a tremendous struggle:
  

kjv@Psalms:27:2 @ ...the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh,


kjv@Psalms:27:3 @ Though an host should encamp against me.... though war should rise against me


kjv@Psalms:27:6 @ .. mine enemies round about me


kjv@Psalms:27:10 @ ...my father and my mother forsake me


• Troubles to the point of having to say:
  

kjv@Psalms:27:13 @ I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.


kjv@Psalms:27:9 @ Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.


• You see there is a part of us that wants to escape into the ethereal.
  
• Become the monk or the hermit.
  
• Become the full time student of all that is grand in our ivory tower.
  
• Possess a comfortable form of faith where grace and peace abound without the need or occurrence of trouble.
  
• Ah but, that is not the life of a saint, it is only the life of a dreamer.
  
• The life of David and other Bible patriarchs and Apostles is the living proof of that.
  
• You see the enemy will always be the enemy, they do not disappear simply because we wish not to be troubled, or we wish them to go away.
  
• My enemies are the enemies of my Lord. He has plenty of enemies, violent enemies, though I don't know why.
  

"They have hated ME without cause"


• The question isn't whether there will be enemies, it is whom will the saint revere? The enemy and the danger they put you and your family in? or the Lord and what we know now must be done for He has command and therefore it is right?
  

kjv@Psalms:27:1 @ The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear (Revere)? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid (startled)?


• Historically the saints have often been seen in an awkward light. No one wants to have enemies, therefore every effort was made not to be upsetting or confrontational to those who might rise against them. Take Lutherans of Nazi Germany for example, or the Orthodox of revolutionary Russia.
  
• One might think that the saints are the greatest challenge to the wicked like Hitler or Lennon or Stalin. These wicked however saw us as exactly the opposite, as weak, as peace seeking and conforming, as useful idiots. History, time after time after time proves them mostly correct.
  
• What is it that the modern saint reveres? Peace and everybody getting along? God and integrity and boldly standing out for the righteous and just cause? At times there is a very thin dividing line. At other times it seems there is a cavernous gap to the demands of this reverence.
  
• Yes Psalm 27 contains some beautiful images for us to meditate on today:
  

kjv@Psalms:27:1 @ 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?


kjv@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 enquire in his temple.


kjv@Psalms:27:8 @ When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.


• Are you prepared for the challenge today in our modern culture of getting this meditation right?
  

Section 2: "In the land of the living" kjv@Psalms:27:13

• We have considered 26 Psalms so far in the B2P, each of them giving a glimpse into the land of the living; we should be very familiar with what it looks like from aerial view, the battlefield we have hovered over is not all that pretty:
  
• We have heard of the counsel of the wicked and the way of sinners and the seats of scorners that we supposed to avoid.
  
• We have contemplated nations aging and their people imagining vain things thinking to break their bonds completely, holding it against the LORD and HIS Anointed.
  
• We have seen the increase of troubling people all around the saint.
  
• We have seen the attempt to put God's glory to shame, the love of vanity, those that seek leasing.
  
• We have seen workers of iniquity, the speaking of leasing, bloody and deceitful men, with no faithfulness left in their mouth...
  
• We have seen the saint's soul being sore vexed, grieved to the bone, on a mattress in the night swimming in his tears.
  
• We have seen the saint trusting in the LORD to save and deliver him from those that persecute him.
  
• We have seen the LORD ordaining strength from the mouth of babes and sucklings because of these enemies.
  
• We have seen the LORD maintaining the saints right and just cause through all types of adversities.
  
• We have even profiled the wicked by what they believe, what they are saying, what they are doing, and the effectiveness that they are having with this over the nations.
  
• This view of the land of the living just from the first ten Psalms alone.
  
• We have also profiled the promised Messiah and the requirements stated in advance that HE had to become and be:
  
• As a suffering servant qualifying Him to be King, a valley in the shadows of mortal death that He had to venture through by His Father's tremendous leading much like unto us, a sacrifice of His own life and blood so that He could receive the transferance of our sins onto Him and so that His righteousness could be transferred onto us. THen having accomplished this (and only then) having been raised to the righthand throne of God could He be King of kings, Prince of princes, almighty God.
  
• As a King qualifying Him to be our Pastor, to shepherd us as only the King of all eternity can through this land just as He had been, us having been given to Him by His Father, on His Father's now His land.
  
• As a pastor for the very reason that He from before the foundations of the world was a triune member of a Jehovah godhead.
  
• We came to understand why this was needed and no other religious ideology or notion was going to suffice for our complete salvation. There was no other way God could do this and do it right.
  
• We have talked about just cause and how difficult it is to establish and maintain it.
  
• We have seen the saint down on his knees, relying fully upon the LORD to win his battles, direct his way out, to vindicate him in the eyes of his enemies and his nation. Not once for one pressing situation, but many times for many situations.
  
• We have seen the saint have to get back down on his knees to ask for God's forgiveness, because no saint is completely righteous, no saint does not have issues and troubles within them that don't present themselves at one time or another.
  
• The saint has intended to do what needs to be done without compromise or surrender, but he is also seen hiding in a foreign land trying to protect himself by pretending to be a slobbering lunatic.
  
• It is very rare to see such a leader as this in the land of the living.
  
• David for us became very much a warrior king. Who understood from an early age the righteousness of God that was being warred against, that new the foundations of a nation that were being challenged and at stake, that knew the battle must be fought and was willing/capable of leading others into that battle, knowing all the time that it was not his battle to win - the LORD had already won that battle, it was his victory to go out and possess.
  
• It is much easier we think to seek out and follow this type of leader than becomes this type of leader ourselves. Maybe that is why there is so few of these leaders left to be found.
  
• I recall a question raised by this psalmist previously that asked "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" kjv@Psalms:11:3
  
• There you have what we already know about the land of the living. What is there further that David wants us to consider about it?
  

Section 3: "The LORD is my light and my salvation" kjv@Psalms:27:1

• There are those who would say that I am taking David's example too far.
  
• That David lived within the context of a fledgling nation 1000 years before Christ, a time when the saint had to be more militant.
  
• That we now live in when Christ has completed His work of salvation, blessed are the peacemakers, we are citizens of a new eternal kingdom, that we need not get tied up in the affairs of state and nation.
  
• That I am calling for a much more militant form of Christianity that Christ did not intend for.
  
• I am not calling for a more militant form of Christianity. I am calling for a Christianity that is well versed in standing for what is right, for the righteousness of God, the rights of the poor and oppressed, justice for whom it is due, tested and proven by God and man to be established substantial love and moral integrity, in the light of our risen Savior whose desire for saints is unchanging yesterday/today/tomorrow.
  
• I am not calling for the drawing of swords and arrows. Our's now are the more effective spiritual weapons that have to be girded about, ready to run the race, fight the fight, win the crown.
  
• David's time here is a time identical to our own; the same Lord, the same enemies. He fought for his nation to possess the victory won for them by God. We fight for the new kingdom to possess the victory won for them by Christ.
  
• When David says "Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD" kjv@Psalms:27:14 it is not to mean sit quietly doing nothing, be courageous there until I come back to get you. There would be little need for for courage if we are to sit still and wait. Wait means to gather together/collect/twist and bind into bales or ropes.
  
• When David says "Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies" kjv@Psalms:27:11 it is not to mean while you are sitting there waiting read a few books/listen to a few podcasts and learn how to straighten out your life enough to come join me. Teach me means show me because I do not know how else, enemies are coming from every side. Lead me means to let me follow you through the straight and narrow because my lead is not going to help us. Enemies mean that I am likely doing something for the Lord that others would rather not have me do. What is it that they would not want me to do? Stand in their way armed in our Lord's righteousness not allowing them to do what they have plotted to do to all God's children. Where else can I be doing this but the public fields and arenas they have chose to attack us.
  
• Wasn't it Jesus who said:
  

kjv@Matthew:5:10-11 @ Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' (equity of character or act) sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you (why shall they revile us if we are hidding in our peace loving compromising corner? they should be thanking us), and persecute you (why persecute those that have assisted their cause all along?), and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake (it isn't for His sake, it is for our own sake that we have bowed before them).


• Wasn't it Jesus who said:
  

kjv@Matthew:11:6 @ And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.


• Is it that we are offended by what standing for His righteousness might call for us to do?
  
• Answer me this:
  

kjv@Psalms:27:5-6 @ For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. 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.


• What trouble will it be that He shall hide our inactive/social pacifist generation from?
  
• What enemies will He have this generation to lift their heads above?
  
• What sacrifice will our joy come by and sing praises about?
  
• There you see, there is a problem with the way we have comprehended this meditation. We've been courageous about things there is very little need to be courageous about.
  
• "The LORD _is_ my light and my salvation...." kjv@Psalms:27:1
  
• My light here and now/my light long into the eternal future.
  
• My eternal salvation, my deliverance now surrounded by His enemies
  
• whom shall I fear/revere/tremble before?
  
• ... The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? kjv@Psalms:27:1
  
• He is my strength now because here in this present battle I really need it, I have no strength of my own.
  
• He is my strength, not me and my strong character, not my short nor long sword, not my bow or shield nor helmet, not my horse nor the men on horse beside me, not my commander nor a hundred commanders strategy, not my pastor or church or denomination. He is my strength: Christ alone, He that is embattled, He that wins the final battle.
  
• of whom shall I be startled?
  
• kjv@Psalms:27:14 @ Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
  

Section 4: "In the time of trouble" kjv@Psalms:27:5

kjv@Psalms:27:5-6 @ For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock. 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.

• You will notice "HE shall" "HE shall" "HE shall" "And now shall mine"
  
• It is because of what "HE" God shall do that David feels his head can be lifted above his enemies.
  
• Most of us tend to think in terms of"I shall" and "I shall" and "therefore shall mine"
  
• HIS Pavilion = hut made of boughs (shelter from wind/rain), den or lair, covert
  
• HIS tabernacle = tent/covering. Secret = place within HIS tent hidden or disguised.
  
• Where is this hut/tent and hidden corner? Better yet who is this hut/tent and hidden corner?
  
• Paul once wrote:
  

kjv@Colossians:3:3 @ For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.


• Christ is that secret hidden corner.
  
• There are many people who run to God's covering for shelter, but it is "I shall.. I shall.. therefore shall mine". The enemy could run to that pavilion to find us just the same as could anyone else. "I shall.. I shall.. therefore shall mine" can only get you under that shelter so far. In order to find the saint's hidden strength one has to change their approach to "HE shall.. HE shall.. now shall mine". The bedrock of the saint's unyielding strength is Christ Jesus.
  
• For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God 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?
  

• They do not know Christ, they only know religion. They do not know what dead to self/alive in Christ means, they only know about religious ambition, which they see as something on the same level or beneath ambitions and strengths of their own.
  

• In most cases the enemy view would be exactly right, because most of us do not operate dead to self/alive to Christ yet we call ourselves saints. We are easy prey for them because their ambitions are much more aggressive and they are willing to do things that we consciously would rather not.
  

• They do not know Christ, they surely know of Him but they do not know Him. There plan is to out maneuver us, which is a fairly simple thing to do. What they should be planning though is how they are going to out maneuver Christ.
  

• Indeed they do not know Christ. They do not know what Christ has done for the saint, they do not know how much of Himself He had to give in order to secure this victory, they do not know what Christ shall do for the saint (those that are dead to self and alive in Him). They either don't know, else they can't allow themselves to believe in it. All they can hope for is that the saint (like they) becomes so head strong and cocky that he falls under the weight of his own pride thus resorting back to self.
  

• Who is to say what transpired between him entering that secret hidden place then and the his overwhelming praise and thanksgiving vocalized now. We did act, but it was not our doing. We did follow and guard and stand firm just as commanded, having nothing left of ourselves to loose. We did arm ourselves with His spiritual weapons, but whatever happened, happened because of Him. And now to Him we direct our grateful victorious song.
  

• It doesn't often happen this way, because it is not often that the saint approaches the battle and Christ this way. It happens enough though that each of us can vaguely by our own experience or other saint's testimony reply that it is supposed to be happening this way all the time.
  

• How this victory happened, I do not know, the saint shall say. On my part I was only a foot soldier trying to keep in rank. The rest of the battle field was unseen, and on my part unplanned for. No, this was all Christ. Christ won this battle, just as He did all the battles with Israel in the past, one instructive and mighty deliverance at a time.
  

• Let's not forget the words of Jesus, attested to by the Gospel writers: that the man that hears these sayings of His and does them is like a man who built his house upon a solid rock kjv@Matthew:7:24. We should also remember the context in which this vivid picture was presented:
  

kjv@Matthew:7:21-24 @ Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. _Therefore_ whosoever heareth these sayings of mine...

• and just before that Jesus said:
  

kjv@Matthew:7:20 @ Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

• So therefore it is obvious that in order to be set upon this solid rock one needs to hear and do these sayings, perform the will of Christ's Father, be prepared for the storms and seas to come up against them. What is left for us yet to realize is from where a good many of these storms and raging seas often come from.
  

• Many would take offense to the suggestion of engaging our enemies on the fields of nation and state.
  

• Let me begin this by stating that the true sincere leaders of nation and state should have absolutely no problems with us standing up because we are the God fearing/Law abiding/moral people. These leaders are in fact ordained ministers of God, so that should be no problem. They are not Christ's enemies.
  

• Our beef is with those enemies who assume the roles of leadership by their own volition, who seek to confiscate this nation and state to make it theirs, especially those who are of socialist or Marxist bent, because when they take full control there will be no religion let alone a Christian religion. We will either have been reprogrammed to their liking or sent off to their Gulags (if any of us should be so lucky). Their reign of oppression will be carried out in the name of the very people whom they seek to oppress.
  

• It is more than obvious both then and now that their attack on us and whatever little sanity still remains is an attack on the field of nation and state and therefore the public.
  

• We wage our defense from the pulpit where only we pay close attention to listen. No one else other than us is in the pews so as to listen. What kind of defense is this?
  

• The few that currently man these self depleted ranks, many are not the "He shall, He shall, He shall, and then shall mine" saint. They are the "I shall or we shall or the Church shall and then shall mine" type. Recognized and vocal as they are, they are intellectual and emotional type, else they are the issue driven and combative type... some not all.
  

• There is no longer that public square to preach openly in, it has been replaced by a pair of earbuds listening to whatever entertainment tickles one's ears. There is no longer the colleges, preaching there has become hate speech. There is no longer the temples and the courthouses, truth (what little we'd brave to speak forth there) has been banned.
  

• That leaves us to our friends and neighbors. Neither do they wish to hear a peep of Christ nor religion, not from us. Why is this so? Because we have been so effectively attacked on the fields of nation and state without a valid response, responding only by retreat so as not again to get attacked.
  

• What works now days are they seeing? During the American Revolution they were seeing the "Black Coats", the ministers in the pulpit, on the streets, in the orphanages/schools/higher learning institutions, on the battle lines, some of them even signing the Declaration. Now these were not many militant men, they were mostly men well versed in standing for what is right, for the righteousness of God, the rights of the poor and oppressed, justice for whom it is due, tested and proven by God and man to be established substantial love and moral integrity, in the light of our risen Savior whose desire for saints is unchanging yesterday/today/tomorrow. Who took upon themselves the more effective spiritual weapons having girded these weapons and learned the skill of them, ready to run the race, fight the fight, win the crown for for God's Kingdom as well as their neighbors nation and state.
  

• In the Protestant Reformation the good works were seen same the same. Activists seeking to release the common people from the ill effects of a wayward church that called all the shots, chosing this king and that governor and that knight and land baron over the next for it's own suspicious and imperial objectives and aspirations.
  

• From the time of Constantine and perhaps before, nation and state have been the battle grounds. I say possibly before knowing that even back to the times of the Judges and kings like David, it has been virtually impossible to separate faith from the affairs of state and nation.
  

• True, we are in this world but not of it. True we have made embarrassing shambles of Christianity at times when the "I shall and I shalls" have attempted this. It is a risk that always must be considered. But in reading this psalm I get the sense that David here has fully considered this and that is why he prefers to be "He shall, He shall, He shall, and then shall mine" minded.
  

Section 5: "Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me" kjv@Psalms:27:7

• At times I feel like the modern church thinks of itself as the International Red Cross.
  
• Racing from casualty to casualty, bandaging up the innocent and prisoners. Important work no doubt, but not the only work needing to be done.
  
• Look at the current landscape and you will see, even without this battle, the effects of the ills of mankind written all over it. The ills of mankind are longstanding and considerable. There is an endless amount of work that bold Christians can do on this landscape before ever taking on the battle. (That is the difference largely between us and our enemies, we concern ourselves first with the innocent and injured, they don't have to do anything of the sort but inflame the masses and point the blame on us). It is like snipers wounding a bystander so that they can fire away at her rescuers.
  
• Because of this warfare however, the landscape shows evidence of the enemy's intense canon fire throughout society. You can see it in the streets, in the schools, in the courts, in the prisons, on the internet and television, in government, in the family, in the present, throughout history. Our own damage yes, the damage we inflict upon each other, as if second nature, as if it it is part of life and expected, as if tolerated or part of being human. But add to that the damage of the enemy who stirs all this up, that inflames the masses and takes advantage of it, that turns the masses against their only remedy, their only redemption, their only salvation - Christ.
  
• What we are saying by not becoming further involved in the battle at the actual battle front is that the merciless bombardment of political amplifications of societal problems by Christ's enemies needs not to be addressed, we are only in the business of fixing people, not the business of keeping these people from getting used and further stirred in the first place. We know the root cause to be the sin within us all, but we know the worst sinners of all are those who go about to take political and economic and philosophical advantage of this.
  
• To my way of thinking (thanks in part to my study of David), it is not a matter of there being one battle front or the other, spiritual or political, it is all the same battle. It is about the influence Christ can have over individuals and therefore a nation as a whole. You and I have known this influence on a personal level. Now it is time to experience this influence there where our enemies attack us most, the arenas of nation and state. Christ is not allowed His rightful influence when like cowards you and I hide ourselves and retreat.
  
• Christian soldiers at this level must look different to the public than the soldiers coming against us. We cannot fight this fight by the terms and methods that they fight us.
  
• During His brief time here Christ was not all that political Himself, not overtly, He was not picking one party over the other because He knew of something much better, but His presence and authority and influence became very political all its own. That is why it became politically expedient for His adversaries to try to snuff our Savior out.
  
• I would imagine for us on this battlefield today, the responsibilities would look much the same as it did in Jesus and His disciples. They were following Him and speaking of a superseding kingdom in heaven. A kingdom that posed no threat to the kingdom at hand, a kingdom that sought to heal and restore the souls of it's individual citizens so that they were no longer inflicting the damage they do to these earthly societies which God HIMSELF has ordained. Society should see these redeemed citizens as loving and engaged, not a further burden upon their already burdened society, medics to other's wounds and defenders of what builds up and binds us together, not like the enemy that seeks to rip us apart to tear us and this society down.
  
• No this society is not perfect, we are not defenders of sin or imperfection. Neither are we dreamers like Karl Marx or John Lennon that this lifetime can so easily be fixed without the reunion of our lives back to God.
  
• No the appearance of the saint soldier must differ. It is the clearer image of Christ Jesus that we need now to be learning from and following.
  

kjv@Psalms:27:11-13 @ Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. 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.


• The International Red Cross doesn't have that many sworn enemies, they just go about regardless of troop or nation patching innocent people back up. That is what makes me think that for us there must be something much more. Something that would require this level of involvement from the Lord and this level of prayer and commitment from the saint.
  
• A final thought in closing: I know that this all may seem confrontational and different from what we are currently doing. There are many questions brought forth in this meditation that you will have to prayerfully seek out and decide on your personal answer.
  
• In this regard, the psalms themselves cannot be overlooked when coming to a personal decision. the psalms are full of these kind of snap shots of a revered saint in confrontational action as was David.
  
• David was a king. If he had his druthers I am sure that he would have been quite content being an expert shepherd. Today he probably probably rather set out to be a musician. In a very real sense he died to self and took on appointed life and anointing his Lord's placed upon him. He would rather not have spent several blocks of years of that appointment in exile. He would rather have not had to navigate through the traps and snares men in his own court and family set for him to fall into. He would rather not that thousands would be killed on the account of his occasional indiscretions and slightly rebellious or lacking judgments.
  
• Neither would we. We would rather continue doing faith without the inherent confrontations and un-pleasantries as we have seen best.
  
• Whether you agree with my conclusions or not, I hope that you will at least agree that it is time to re-access what we are doing and for whom we are doing it.
  
• For the current time today is another one of those "times of trouble" David speaks of. Where will the Christian be found? and what will he be seen doing this time of battle? I hope that the consideration of this psalm today will assist your deployment into it correctly and speedily.
  
• All I can ask is that as you consider this meditation of Psalm 27 and all these others that you rely not upon my answers, but the answers that our Lord has for you:
  

kjv@Psalms:27:7 @ Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.


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