Sunday
Morning Bible Study
October 19, 2003
Psalm 27 - Answers for Fearful Times
Though the title doesn’t tell us specifically when this Psalm was written,
there are a couple of clues in the Psalm that give us some ideas.
David is being pursued by his enemies.
He is being shut out from the Tabernacle. There’s a parting from his parents. He is being troubled by slander.
I’d suggest that it seems to fit the circumstances of 1Sam. 19-22. After
David’s latest victory over the Philistines, David’s father-in-law and boss,
Saul becomes so jealous and angry that David winds up being a man on the
run. Saul is out to kill David. David tries
running to the Tabernacle of God and gets some help there, but only for a few
days before he has to get back on the road.
He tries hiding with the Philistines for awhile, but that proves to be
too risky. He hides for awhile in a
cave, where he begins to collect his ragtag bunch of losers and forms them into
his famous Mighty Men. He has to take
his parents to the land of Moab
so they aren’t killed by Saul and even the priests are attacked and killed for
having helped David.
Things are horrible for David. He’s
being pursued. He’s being
slandered. His life doesn’t make sense.
It’s in a context like this that David gives us some wonderful counsel on
what to do when we are going through fearful times.
:1-3 The LORD is my light and my
salvation; whom shall I fear?
David lists three things in this verse that are his reasons to not be
afraid
He mentions salvation, which speaks of deliverance from enemies. He mentions God being his strength or refuge,
which is a protection from impending attack.
The one I want to pick out is the light.
Lesson
Turn on your night Light
light – ‘owr – light;
day-break, morning light; light of lamp
The times that we don’t understand, the times we are fearful, these are the
times of darkness. And for David, God
was his light.
The Bible tells us that
(1 John 1:5 KJV) …God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
David tells us that God wasn’t just “a light” or even “the
light”. He says that God was “my
light”.
Illustration
Charles Colson and several other Christian leaders once met with President
Borja of Ecuador
to discuss Prison Fellowship International’s ministry in Ecuadorian
penitentiaries. They had no sooner been seated in luxurious leather chairs when
the President interrupted the conversation with the story of his own
imprisonment years before being elected to the presidency.
He had been involved in the struggle for democracy in Ecuador.
The military cracked down, and he was arrested. Without trial, they threw him
into a cold dungeon with no light and no window. For three days he endured the
solitary fear and darkness that can drive a person mad.
Just when the situation seemed unbearable, the huge steel door opened, and
someone crept into the darkness. Borja heard the person working on something in
the opposite corner. Then the figure crept out, closed the door, and
disappeared.
Minutes later the room suddenly blazed with light. Someone, perhaps taking
his life into his hands, had connected electricity to the broken light fixture.
“From that moment,” explained President Borja, “my imprisonment had meaning
because at least I could see.”
What are you doing about the darkness?
How are you lighting up your prison cell?
David found that the answer to his fears was to let the Lord be his light.
Go to God with your questions. Ask
and trust Him to guide you.
:4-6 to behold the beauty of the LORD
beauty – no‘am – kindness,
pleasantness, delightfulness, beauty, favour
Lesson
Real beauty
We live in a society obsessed with the search for beauty.
Our hair is never quite right so we either add to it, remove it, color it, grease
it, cut it, grow it or blow-dry it. We make the mistake of looking at the
models in the magazines who are slim, buff, half our age, and most certainly digitally
altered. We look in the mirror and
decide we’re either too tall, too short, too fat, or too skinny. We get Botox treatments and work on our
tans. We diet. We workout.
We get liposuction in one spot and implant silicone in another. And that’s just what guys do.
Peter writes to wives and talks about a different kind of beauty, but I
can’t help but think that this applies to all of us, guys included:
(1 Pet 3:3-4 NASB) And let not your adornment be merely
external-- braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses;
{4} but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality
of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
God is more concerned about the shape of your heart than
the shape of your body.
Jesus’ beauty is not quite like the beauty of Madison Avenue.
(Isa 53:1-3 KJV) Who hath believed our report? and to whom is
the arm of the LORD revealed? {2} For he shall grow up before him as a tender
plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and
when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. {3} He is
despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and
we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Illustration
Some years ago on a hot summer day in south Florida
a little boy decided to go for a swim in the old swimming hole behind his
house. In a hurry to dive into the cool water, he ran out the back door,
leaving behind shoes, socks, and shirt as he went. He flew into the water, not
realizing that as he swam toward the middle of the lake, an alligator was
swimming toward the shore. His mother in the house was looking out the window
saw the two as they got closer and closer together. In utter fear, she ran
toward the water, yelling to her son as loudly as she could. Hearing her voice,
the little boy became alarmed and made a U-turn to swim to his mother. It was
too late. Just as he reached her, the alligator reached him. From the dock, the
mother grabbed her little boy by the arms just as the alligator snatched his
legs. That began an incredible tug-of-war between the two. The alligator was
much stronger than the mother, but the mother was much too passionate to let
go. A farmer happened to drive by, heard her screams, raced from his truck,
took aim and shot the alligator. Remarkably, after weeks and weeks in the
hospital, the little boy survived. His legs were extremely scarred by the
vicious attack of the animal, and on his arms, were deep scratches where his
mother’s fingernails dug into his flesh in her effort to hang on to the son she
loved. The newspaper reporter who interviewed the boy after the trauma, asked
if he would show him his scars. The boy lifted his pant legs. And then, with
obvious pride, he said to the reporter, “But look at my arms. I have great
scars on my arms, too. I have them because my Mom wouldn’t let go.”
The little boy wasn’t ashamed of his scars.
His scars were a reminder of the love His mother had for him, a love
strong enough not to let go.
It’s just like Jesus, except He’s not only the one who has
saved us, He’s the one with the scars as well.
In a way, Jesus’ scars, the nailprints in His hands, His
wounded side, the scars on His feet – these are the most beautiful things in
the world. Some would say that they are
marks of disfigurement. Yet they remind
us that He wouldn’t let go of us. He was
willing to pay the ultimate price for us, to even take our place in death, all
to pay for our sins.
If you’re looking to put beauty into your life, perhaps you ought to start
by looking to Jesus.
:4 One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after…
Lesson
One desire: God
What do you desire in your time of trouble?
Ice-cream? Candy bars?
David has only one thing in mind, to be with God.
Illustration
J. Vernon McGee wrote, “What is your ambition in life today? Is it to get
rich? Is it to make a name for yourself? Is it even to do some wonderful thing
for God? Listen to me, beloved. The highest desire that can possess any human
heart is a longing to see God.”
Why do you come to church?
Is it to be noticed by others? Is it
to be entertained by the music? I
certainly hope it isn’t to be impressed by the message.
David wanted to see the beauty of the Lord.
:7-14 Prayer of Deliverance
:8 When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face,
LORD, will I seek.
When God said, “Seek ye my face”, the “ye” is plural. God was speaking to a group, to a
congregation. Yet David took it
personally. He wasn’t thinking about how
the message applied to the other people around him, he was thinking about what
he was going to do.
Lesson
Respond when God prompts
Jesus said,
(John 3:8 NIV) The wind
blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it
comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the
Spirit."
I think that at least part of what Jesus is talking about
is how a person who has been born by God’s Spirit will learn to follow the
prompting of God’s Spirit.
The Greek word for “wind” is the same Greek word that is
translated “Spirit”. Just as the wind
blows where it wants to, the Spirit also moves where it wants to. Those who have been given life by the Spirit
will be moved by the Spirit.
Seeing God take you through tough times involves learning to respond when
God prompts you.
When God prompts you to worship, worship. When God prompts you to pray, pray.
Don’t put it off.
Illustration
Pray remember what I have recommended to you, which is to think often on
God, by day, by night, in your business, and even in your diversions. He is
always near you and with you; leave Him not alone. You would think it rude to
leave a friend alone who came to visit you; why, then, must God be neglected?
Do not, then, forget Him, but think on Him often, adore Him continually, live
and die with Him; this is the glorious employment of a Christian. In a word,
this is our profession; if we do not know it, we must learn it.
-- Brother Lawrence,
The Practice of the Presence of God.
:10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.
Lesson
Count on Him alone
The last people you ever expect to let you down are your own parents. Yet …
Illustration
Students involved in a research project at the University
of Illinois called 2000 homes at
random between midnight and 2 A.M. on a Friday night in the city of Chicago
to see if parents knew where their children were. In 75% of the homes called, a child answered
and didn’t know where the parents were.
-- Dr. David L.
Hocking
People will let you down. Don’t be surprised when it happens.
Sometimes we think even God is against us.
Illustration
A speeding motorist was caught by radar from a police
helicopter in the sky. An officer pulled him over and began to issue a traffic
ticket. “It seems everyone is out to get me lately. How did you know I was
speeding?” the frustrated driver asked. The police officer pointed somberly
toward the sky. “You mean,” asked the motorist, “that I’m not just being
paranoid? Even He is trying to get me?”
It’s not true. God isn’t against you;
He’s on your side.
(Rom 8:31-32 NLT) What can
we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be
against us? {32} Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for
us all, won't God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else?
:11-13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Another Psalmist will say much the same thing, perhaps quoting David here.
(Psa 116:9-10 KJV) I will walk before the LORD in the land of the
living. {10} I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:
There is a spirit of trust here, trusting that God will preserve his life. The
psalmist believed the Lord would help him.
Paul then quotes Psalm 116, as
(2 Cor 4:13
KJV) We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is
written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and
therefore speak;
It was this same faith that God was at work that kept Paul going:
(2 Cor 4:16 KJV)
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the
inward man is renewed day by day.
Lesson
God isn’t finished with me yet
This is one of the answers to fear, trusting that God has more for me. Paul
also wrote,
(Phil 1:6 KJV) Being confident of this very thing, that he which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
God wants you to know that He has good things ahead for you.
:14 Wait on the LORD
Lesson
Wait
Sometimes God’s timing isn’t like mine.
Sometimes I’m moving along too fast and am going to mess things up
because I get to the destination before it’s ready for me.
Illustration
A year ago I went to the Cingular store and got myself a
new cell phone. The gal in the store
didn’t have some of the models I wanted, but she did a great job selling me on
this one phone made by Siemens. She told
me it had this voice dialing thing where you speak into the phone and it dials
for you. She told me it would
synchronize with Outlook so I could not only put my phone numbers on the phone,
but my calendar as well. I took the
phone and thought I got a great deal.
Except when I got home I was kind of disappointed to find out that it
didn’t have the voice dialing feature. I
had to order software and cables to get the phone connected to my computer, and
after a couple of weeks found out that I could put all my contacts and calendar
stuff on my phone, except my phone would ring for every entry in my
calendar. My phone was ringing all the
time and driving us crazy. Even worse,
by the time I found all this out, it was too late and Cingular wouldn’t let me
exchange for a better phone. Then last month
I found out something new about my phone.
It turns out that it is one of the few phones that Cingular has that
works in Russia. I think I really like my phone now. Really.
God’s timing isn’t always like ours. His is always better.
Sometimes God is more concerned about the things He’s doing in me than me
getting the things I want from Him.
Sometimes that means that He’s going to go slower than me.
Waiting on Him is God’s way of giving me the strength to keep from
quitting.
(Isa 40:31 KJV) But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew
their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and
not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Sometimes we wait on the Lord and find that we can fly through our
circumstances. But sometimes flying
isn’t the thing. It’s just enough to
keep moving. Sometimes we can fly,
sometimes we run, but sometimes we can only walk. But the strength comes by waiting on Him.