FRIDAY 5th
Psalm 27
NIV (v14) – ‘Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.’
ESV (v14) – ‘Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!’
This is one of those psalms that I can recall being read on a very regular basis while growing up in the local Church as a child, teenager. Notice a link to yesterday’s chapter about the habitation of the house of the LORD and that David also expresses the same desire in this chapter, v4 ‘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.’ It is not my intention to continue the same theme today, but to go to the final verse, v14. (see above)
There are 3 instructions here:
Wait for the LORD. (Two times)
Be strong.
Let your heart take courage.
In verse 13 David had declared that he believed that he would look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living! He was in a situation which was life threatening in that his enemies were coming against him, perhaps in the circumstances everything looked hopeless, no way out, death a certainty, but he had a confident trust in the LORD God that he would survive the crisis and see the goodness of God again. Notice what he says in this psalm, ‘The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?’ here the LORD was not only his light and salvation spiritually, but also his light and salvation from his enemies, for he continues in verses 2 ‘The LORD is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?’ the enemy looked strong, but his LORD was stronger, he was going to be David’s strength against the enemy, therefore why be afraid? He was so confident in his trust in the LORD coming to deliver him that he states in verse 3 that when the enemy comes to destroy him, it is they themselves who will be destroyed. And he makes the declaration that he believed that he would look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living, he was confident that God would come through for him and to use a modern phrase he would live to see another day. But how long would it be before God would rescue him, how far through this trial would God allow him to go before stepping in in a miraculous way? And he speaks to himself, ‘Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage: wait for the LORD!’
We as God’s people will go through many different circumstances, ofttimes they may be difficult circumstances or even dangerous circumstances, maybe even what we may consider to be dark circumstances, things that cause us to waver, fear, and even question ‘where is God in all of this’ and the longer the trial or difficulty, the more we begin to struggle or debate as to what is going on, why do I need to be going through this, and does God even care. And if at these times we have been already trusting God in the ordinary, we will need to have the same confidence and trust in God in those things which we will call extra-ordinary. For the God who is with us when we are on the mountain top is also with us when we are down in the valley, he is alongside us when we are rejoicing and also when we are in despair, and although God is able to stop things from happening, or able to come to our aid quickly as it were, sometimes he needs to allow us to go through them because he has something deeper than what we understand at the time, a purpose behind it, for we can be confident that God always works for the good of those he has called. And sometimes that good is to be found because of a circumstance that we have gone through. This is where David’s advice to himself is good advice for us also. ‘Wait for the LORD, be strong, let your heart take courage, wait for the LORD’ – God will come through.
‘Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.’ Joshua 1:9
‘Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you.’ Psalm 33:20–22
‘I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning.’ Psalm 130:5–6