Daleth: A prayer in response to Psalm 119:25-32

When my soul clings to the dust,

Let me cling to Your testimonies!

Your Word is water for my parched soul,

Honeyed bread for my weary heart,

Breath for my fainting spirit.



Lead me in the way of faithfulness,

To love and love and love

And follow

Your glorious Word.

Enlarge my heart to run after You

When You lead the way.



Deliver me from the shame and

Reproach which I dread.

Deliver me from dread of man

And fill me with dread awe of You.



Hold me fast, Lord, to Yourself and Your Word.

Hold me up, that I might not fall away.

Hold me close, for the way is hard,

And only Your love holds my melting soul together.

Joy in Trials

"You rejoice in this, even though now for a short time, if necessary, you suffer grief in various trials so that the proven character of your faith —more valuable than gold which, though perishable, is refined by fire —may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." ‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭1‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭CSB‬‬

Click here to listen to me read this piece.

In these brief verses, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Peter shows us several characteristics of the Christian's trials.

First, they are brief: "now for a short time."

Second, when they happen, they are necessary: "if necessary."

Third, they are painful: "you suffer grief."

Fourth, they are varied: "various trials."

Next, they are purposeful: "so that the proven character of your faith…."

Finally, they are worthwhile and accomplish what will be rewarded: "…may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

Knowing that my painful and varied trials are brief, necessary, purposeful, and worthwhile enables me to rejoice in the midst of them. This is not spiritual bypassing. It is spiritual paradox. Grief, trials, and joy can coexist with none of them cancelling out the others. Sorrow and joy can dance together. Trials can increase rather than extinguish our hope.

If you are enduring sorrowful trials today, beloved child of God, I pray that the Lord would give you living hope that looks back to the real, bodily, historical resurrection of Jesus Christ and forward to our own real, bodily, future resurrection and forever life with Him.

Your pain is not useless or endless. You are not alone in it; the Lord Jesus is with you and lives in you through His Spirit. Hold fast to Him who holds you fast.

Courage, dear hearts. ❤️‍🩹

Psalm 27 and the Hope of Three O’Clock in the Morning

Listen to me read the audio file

To listen in your browser, click here.

 

 

Teach me your way, Lord;

lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.

Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,

for false witnesses rise up against me,

 spouting malicious accusations.

I remain confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

Wait for the Lord;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord."

Psalm 27:11-14 NIV

 

 

Imagine this: you are besieged by wicked enemies and foes; an army has you surrounded; false witnesses are spreading lies about you; you are on the run, hunted by people who want only to do you harm.

 

What would your first response be in that situation? If you are a Christian, I hope it would be to pray.

 

What kind of prayer would rise first from your heart and lips? For me, it might only be the name of Jesus. Or maybe, "Lord, help!" Or perhaps, "Lord, have mercy!"

 

David is in exactly that situation in Psalm 27. Returning to the beginning, we see references to his desperate circumstances all the way through. But his first-response prayer looks quite different from mine. He begins by proclaiming his confidence in God and seeking Him above all things.

 

Context

  

This is the fifth essay in our series reflecting on Psalm 27. In this Psalm, God through David has given us a prayer-song for when we are afraid of the dark: whatever kind of dark, whether literal darkness or emotional and spiritual darkness. David seeks shelter in God's personal presence with confidence borne out of His past rescues, and so can we.

 

In the first post, we consider the themes and structure of the prayer as a whole. In the second post, we see how David describes his experience of God's saving defense (1-3). In the third post (4-6), David expresses his expectant desire for God's sheltering presence, his "one thing": to dwell with and behold his God. In the previous post, we see David shift from talking about God to talking to God directly (7-10). He pleads for the Lord's favor and fellowship, and by the end of the section he has found solace in the assurance that the Lord will receive him, no matter what the people around him might do.

 

In this fourth section (11-13), David continues to plead to God directly, this time for God's protection and direction. As we begin to wrap up the Psalm, he finally arrives where I might have begun.

 

Call

 

After proclaiming God's praise, pursuing His fellowship, and praying for His presence, David now calls out or pleads for help with the immediate earthly problems.

 

·      David seeks direction.
"Teach me your way, Lord;
Lead me in a straight path…" (11).

·      David seeks deliverance.
"Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes" (12).

·      David implies he wants vindication.
"…for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations" (12b).

 

And that is the extent of his practical requests. Pretty simple, given the fraught circumstances.

 

Confidence

 

From those brief prayers, David concludes the section, as with the previous three sections, with a statement of confidence in God:

 

"I remain confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the LORD

In the land of the living" (13).

 

David remains confident. The confidence he had at the beginning of the prayer has not left him. He remains confident. He is convinced that God can do what He promises. He is convinced that he will see the LORD's goodness, benevolence, and favor, that the LORD—no matter what comes—will not mistreat him. Finally, he remains confident of this goodness "in the land of the living."

 

My default interpretation of that final line of the section was that David was speaking spiritually. I assumed that he was referring to the afterlife, that he could stay confident because he knew that even if the worst happened with the present enemies, he would be in heaven with God, so all would be well.

 

And I was wrong.

 

Those ideas weren't wrong, in and of themselves. But they were the wrong interpretation here, in this small swatch of a whole prayer-poem.

 

Why do I say that?

 

That musical lyric, "in the land of the living," which we have heard and sung so many times, is not unique to this Psalm. There are a number of idioms or "stock phrases" which appear unchanged or nearly unchanged across the Old Testament. This phrase is one of those, and in several of the other occurrences, it clearly means, "on earth," in this roller coaster of a journey from conception to the grave.

 

Consider these examples:

·      "For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 116:8-9 ESV).
There death is contrasted with walking in the land of the living.

·      "But God will break you down forever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah" (Psalm 52:5 ESV).

Here death is described as being uprooted from the land of the living.

·      "I said, I shall not see the Lord, the Lord in the land of the living; I shall look on man no more among the inhabitants of the world" (Isaiah 38:11 ESV).
Here again, physical death—no longer looking upon the inhabitants of the world—is the end of life in the land of the living.

·      "By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?" (Isaiah 53:8 ESV).
This predicts the substitutionary death of Messiah, fulfilled in Jesus. At the cross as He breathed His last, he was "cut off out of the land of the living."

·      "Assyria is there, and all her company, its graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit; and her company is all around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living" (Ezekiel 32:22-23 ESV).
The slain enemies of Israel used to spread terror in the land of the living and died as a consequence.

·      "But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me they devised schemes, saying, 'Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.'" (Jeremiah 11:19 ESV).
One more time, the land of the living is a metaphor for the physical, earthly life.

Why did I spend so much time on that point? So that you can see what I saw without simply taking my word for it, because this idea proves important in understanding and applying the Psalm as a whole.

 

If "the land of the living" is David's earthly life and not the afterlife, but he is currently hunted, falsely accused, and surrounded by mortal enemies, how is he so sure that he will see the goodness of God right here and right now? One might suggest that he is confident because God always gives us what we ask if we have enough faith. Without belaboring that point at present, I will say that the rest of Scripture contradicts that interpretation. If you disagree, perhaps we can discuss it another time.

 

The other alternative, which I believe is correct, seamlessly connects to the rest of this prayer. What is David's deepest core desire in all of life? To dwell with his God.

 

"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple."

Psalm 27:4 NIV

 

What, consequently, is David's deepest fear? David's deepest fear is not military defeat or death; it is to lose God's presence, for God to turn away from him in anger.

 

"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" 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 helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior."

Psalm 27:4, 8-9 NIV

 

David has assured himself in the previous sections of this prayer that his greatest desire will be given and his greatest fear will not come to pass. Knowing this, knowing that—no matter what—he will go through it in the companionship of God, he remains confident. We might almost say that this foreshadows Paul's statement in Philippians 3 that knowing Christ in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering was his "one thing." Or that it hints at Romans 8:28, when we read that God causes all things to cooperate for the good of those who love Him…and that "good" is conformity to the image of Christ.

 

Are you encompassed by fears, surrounded by danger, ensnared by troubles? Are the waves much, much too high and threatening to drown you? Is your child far from the Lord? Your marriage imploding and taking the children with it? Mental illness rendering a precious someone unrecognizable? Caregiving or chronic illness wearing you so thin you feel you must rip apart? A dreadful diagnosis quenching your hope and confounding your doctors? The money running out with no clear replenishment in sight? Society turning its back on you and leaving you behind for reasons beyond your control? Healthcare desperately needed but beyond your reach? Your dearest loved one fading away like a rainbow in the sun?

 

These are all real situations facing people I know right now. Or my own family. I do not say this glibly or intend to minimize the pain. Even into those real and great adversities, I must ask this.

 

What is your one thing, beloved? What do you fear most and desire most? (The fear points toward the desire.)

 

If you, like David, most desire communion with God and most fear losing the sunshine of His face, then seek His will and lean into the confidence that you will see His goodness, even here, even now. If you walk through suffering, it will be in fellowship with the suffering Christ; if you walk in resurrection joy and fruitfulness, it will be in the power of the risen Christ. His promises will never fail. He will never, never, never, never leave or forsake His children (Hebrews 13:5).

 

If you recognize that is not your deepest desire and greatest fear, go to Him and ask. Tell Him what you desire more than His presence, confess your fears, and tell Him that you want to want Him more than anything or anyone, but you don't know how. He will hear and answer your cry without shame or condemnation. And He knows anyway.

 

What is more, having given us Himself, would He ever refuse us the lesser gifts of wisdom to walk with Him, help against our foes, or any good thing in the land of the living? We can trust Him. We can place our confidence in Him. He is faithful.

 

Courage in the Lord

 

In the final short section (v. 14), David counsels his own heart to trust the Lord:

Wait for the Lord;

Be strong and take heart [or courage]

And wait for the Lord.

Psalm 27:14 NIV

 

We can know that he is talking to himself here because in the Hebrew, the commands are singular: one "you," not "y'all." David is following the counsel D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones would later give of talking to himself more than he listens to himself.

 

He is, after all, surrounded by enemies.

 

Even though his confidence, rescue, and light are in the Lord his God, it is a three o'clock in the morning in his soul, so he needs to keep reminding himself of what is true.

 

He tells himself to wait for, hope in, or expect the Lord. God's promises are "yes and amen," not "maybe, we'll see." We can expect Him to do what He says He will do.

 

He talks himself into strength and courage, which he can find because the Lord is his light, salvation, and fortress, leaving no reason to fear (verse 1). He can find strength of heart because he dwells with the God he loves and knows that God will not forsake him.

 

And he repeats for emphasis that his soul should expect the Lord.

 

As short as this section is, it offers an important reminder for our own souls' three o'clocks: wait. In overwhelming darkness and difficulty, we do very much need courage to wait. We need courage and strength to believe the sun will rise again and three o'clock will not last forever. We need patience to endure with the expectation that God is faithful and we will see His goodness even now, in the land of the living.

 

In those seasons, the presence of God is the light (maybe the only light) in our darkness. He is the strong, trustworthy person we need in the nightmares. For the Christian, the triune infinite-personal God dwells not only with us but in us, and we are in Him by grace through faith in Christ. The comfort, courage, strength, and peace we need are in our very hearts.

 

He can sustain us and even give us joy and peace in the three o'clocks of our souls' dark nights.

 

Courage, dear hearts.

 

Closing prayer:

Lord of peace and power,

Who gave Abraham confidence to obey

Even to the sacrifice of his son, his only son,

Isaac, whom he loved;

Who named Gideon a "mighty warrior"

When he was still hiding in the wine press threshing wheat;

Who gave confidence to David the shepherd boy

To face the giant Goliath without sword or armor,

Only a handful of stones, a sling, and You:

We come to You today

Overwhelmed with the darkness and distress

Of what Your providence has given us,

Needing stores of courage we don't have

And light we can't see.

Come to us quickly, Lord;

Be the lantern in our dark nights

And the mighty champion who drives away our dread and despair;

Hold us close to Yourself and strengthen our hearts

With Your love and promises.

Grant us audacious faith to live in confidence

Of Your goodness in the land of the living,

For You are good and do good, today and in the life to come.

We ask this in the name of Jesus the true Light of true light,

Very God of very God.

Amen.

If you are reading in your browser and would like to subscribe by email, click here:

http://eepurl.com/hCJ9Z1

Psalm 27 and Saving Light in Our Souls' Dark Nights

    

Listen to me read this post

    

 

Of David.

 

“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? 

When the wicked advance against me 

to devour me, 

it is my enemies and my foes 

who will stumble and fall. 

Though an army besiege me, 

my heart will not fear; 

though war break out against me, 

even then I will be confident.

Psalm 27:1-3 NIV

 

In Psalm 27, God through David has given us a prayer-song for when we are afraid of the dark—whatever kind of dark, whether literal darkness or emotional and spiritual darkness. In this Psalm, David seeks shelter in God’s personal presence with confidence borne out of His past rescues. In the first post, we considered the themes and structure of the Psalm as a whole. In this post, we’re dwelling on the first section of three verses.

 

In this first section (27:1-3), David describes his experience of God’s saving defense. The Psalm begins with a pair of parallel couplets: David says something true of God, then asks a rhetorical question brimming with confidence. And he does this twice.

 

He has known the Lord as his light, his salvation, his stronghold, and his defense.

 

Light at night gives us guidance and security. City girls like me are rather insulated against real darkness, apart from a blackout during a storm, but we might think of a flashlight when there is no power or a nightlight in a dark bedroom for comfort and vision. Or perhaps we think of the comforting familiarity of the lights given by God to mark the days and seasons, the constellations and moonlight that guided and kept David company during the long nights with his flocks.

 

Without light at night, we so easily lose our way. In college, I had to drive down a dark, two-lane country road to go to an evening Bible study. Looking for an unlit gate and driveway in the absence of streetlights or even house lights visible from the highway always gave me anxiety. The void of a dark world beyond the small puddle of light from my headlamps felt ominous and insecure. I wanted brighter, better light to lead me to my destination. Continuing the theme, we might think of the pillar of God’s glory-fire which led and also guarded the Israelites during their wilderness wanderings for 40 years:

 

“The Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to lead them on their way during the day and in a pillar of fire to give them light at night, so that they could travel day or night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night never left its place in front of the people.”

Exodus 13:21-22 CSB

 

That light showed God’s people God’s way and provided a visible reminder of the security of God’s presence. God also displayed His presence in a bright shekinah glory cloud descending on Solomon’s temple at its dedication:

 

“When the priests came out of the holy place, the cloud filled the Lord’s temple, and because of the cloud, the priests were not able to continue ministering, for the glory of the Lord filled the temple.”

1 Kings 8:10-11 CSB

 

In these two examples, the presence of God manifests as light, glorious light. In the new Jerusalem to come, the apostle John foresaw:

 

“The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. Its gates will never close by day because it will never be night there.”

Revelation 21:23-25 CSB

 

The Lord is not only David’s light: He is also his salvation. Salvation, in its simplest sense, means rescue. In Hebrew, it could also be translated “room to breathe” (Thomas Nelson Study Bible, note on Psalm 3:8). “Light” and “salvation” in combination convey the single concept of “saving light.” The most intense darkness I remember was the darkness outside our tent on a camping trip early in our marriage. My mini Maglite flashlight could not budge the weighed blanket of darkness pressing in on me. Darkness like that feels alive and threatening, even predatory. Every noise is freighted with awful possibility and unseen dangers.  In that darkness, a trusted person bearing a stronger light would have felt like rescue and security.  (The related names Joshua and Jesus mean “Yahweh saves,” or in the simplest sense, “Savior.”) It is possible that the salvation in this verse has a near-term meaning of God’s miraculous rescue from human enemies and physical danger, of which David knew plenty; at the same time, it is possible that the shadow of the cross marks this verse with the spiritual sense of rescue from sin and death in the person of the Savior, Jesus Christ. In any case, David celebrates God as his Rescuer, even though in the moment he is surrounded by enemies who want to eat him alive (verse 2).

 

The word “stronghold”  or “refuge” conveys the image of a fortress or castle. Tolkien fans may think of Helm’s Deep; or in a more modern image, one might imagine a nuclear bunker deep beneath the earth or a panic room. This fortress is such a sure and well-defended one that the wicked advancing against David will themselves be defeated. David has confidence because God is his impenetrable fortress, a castle no enemy can breach without His permission.

 

Where does this confidence come from? Surrounded by enemies, threatened by the wicked, war declared against him, even so David is confident in victory. David can take courage despite overwhelming foes and difficulties because, as strong and powerful as they are, his God is even mightier. 

 

This confidence does not imply that trusting God means health, wealth, and prosperity. Nor does it guarantee every battle will go our way or no hurt come to us. It does, however, mean that for the child of God, all things weave together for our good and God’s glory. It means God is with us and for us in all things. It means that, when the last page of our life is written, all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well (Julian of Norwich).

 

As a whole, David testifies that God is his light in the darkness, his comforting Guide, his Rescuer, his secure fortress, his unconquerable defense. This first section of Psalm 27 starts and ends with David’s declaration of trust: even if an entire army has him surrounded and declares war, his heart will not fear but will instead be confident. So strong is his experience of God’s protection.

 

An echo of David’s confidence sounds a millennium later at the end of Romans 8:

 

“What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.”

Romans 8:31-37 CSB

 

What about you? Can you remember a time in your life when the Lord showed Himself to be your light and your salvation? Have you experienced God’s rescue from enemies who were too strong for you? If so, spend some time remembering and perhaps journaling God’s work in your past as a way to encourage trust in Him now. If not, I encourage you to borrow courage from the experiences of people in the Bible and Christian history: people like Joseph and Joshua, David and Elijah, Daniel and Peter and Paul; people like Corrie ten Boom, Darlene Deibler Rose, John Newton, John Bunyan, Jane Grey, Ridley and Latimer, and Charles Spurgeon.

 

Are you overwhelmed and outnumbered by enemies and battles today? Are you besieged by trials and squeezed by difficulties? Does it feel like human helpers have failed and comforts fled, leaving you alone and scared in the dark? If so, my heart is with yours. Your troubles do not mean God’s absence. He will never leave or abandon you. The battles you’ve lost and sins you’ve committed do not mean you have lost the war or forfeited God’s love. In the darkness, I encourage you to dwell on the greatness and power of God more than you contemplate the strength of your enemies and the size of your challenges. In the darkness, the stars seem brighter. Look for the light in the darkness; ask for His light. Look for the promises of God. Look at His faithfulness over the millennia of human history. Hope against hope that He will be for you what He has been for others.

 

The God who has rescued, led, defended, and comforted in the dark nights and desperate battles of others still does so today. We can trust Him with our souls’ three o’clocks.

 

Lord, in our darkness shine Your light.

In our tribulations, be our Rescuer.

When we are under attack from enemies without and fears within, be our strong refuge, our safe place.

All our hope and confidence are in You. We believe; help our unbelief, in Jesus’ name. Amen. 

The Apex of Hope

"The apex of all hope and happiness can be stated in four words: God is with us....

"The Bible is about the subject of intimacy with God. What does it look like? What are his purposes? He can and will meet you, and me, and those to whom we minister. God has not left us groping to understand his ways. He has not left us afloat in the ambiguous ecstasies and despairs of both experience and circumstance. He has revealed his ways. He has revealed himself. The living faith that listens to the living Word of the living God will experience the sort of living intimacy that gives foretastes of heaven."

~David Powlison, Take Heart

The Year of Joy {Looking Back}

 

In this my year of joy, I have relearned that the Lord Himself is the only sure and certain joy; that joy must be fought for by seeking His face in the Scriptures and prayer, in Christian friendships and in Creation. He has kindly sent me tokens of joy and providence in some of the hardest moments of 2022, and there were many. (Books, birds, and butterflies provided some of them, as you may expect.)

Below are some of the best quotes I’ve collected on joy or which felt adjacent to it. (It has been my habit for some years to watch for and gather up occurrences of my year’s focal word in my reading.) As you will see, Christian joy is often discovered in the midst of sorrow and through sorrow (not in opposition to it).

A Meal in Six Words

"LORD, my Lord, my strong Savior, you shield my head on the day of battle."

Psalms 140:7 CSB

Morning summer sky, July 2022

Some days I read 5 chapters of daily bread only to find in 6 words the sustaining crumbs I need to bear me up: "LORD, my Lord, my strong Savior."

LORD: Yahweh, You are the eternal, self-existent, self-determining God, the I AM who brought such a one as I into covenant union that will never be broken, because it depends wholly on Your grace.

Thee I adore. 

My Lord: Adonai, my Lord and Master, ruler of all that is, seen or unseen. You alone have the right to lead, guide, direct, and discipline me. You provide all I need. I trust You even when what I need is affliction. You are good and do good. Teach me Your statutes.

Into Thy hands. Yes, I will.

My strong Savior: What comfort these words contain. You are "my" strong Savior, not in some general sense but mine personally. You are a "strong" Savior, because I am a great sinner, prone to wander and leave the God I love. If my rescue depended on my fortitude and strength, all would be lost. Hallelujah that it doesn't! I would need to be a much stronger sinner than even I am to wrest myself out of Your strong hand. You are a Savior, willing and able to rescue from the deepest, darkest pit of destruction and sin and death. You bore my sin and clothed me in Your righteousness that I might be reconciled to the Father and filled with the Spirit of holiness.

Lord, have mercy. 

LORD, my Lord,  my strong Savior, thank You. I worship You. May I worship You more fully, in spirit and in truth, in all my days and all my ways. Amen.