Today’s reading is Psalm 27.
I grew up in the Lutheran Church attending Confirmation classes in junior high which ends the Spring of your 8th grade year with taking your first Communion. As a part of this we picked our own personal Confirmation verse. By the time the sheet with possible options and a sort of “greatest hits” of Bible verses reached me, the ones I mostly knew at the time were gone.
Psalm 27:1 is what I ultimately selected…
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?
Many of us in born in the early to mid-80s probably remember the many “No Fear” shirts and stickers. While I didn’t have any myself, they were very popular, and I think is the reason I picked this verse. I had a great Aunt Naomi who was very close to our family being that she had no children of her own. When my Confirmation day came, I remember her telling me this was also her Confirmation verse, so I always think of her when I hear it again.
I read in the past few days something which said to the effect of that God did not keep Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from being thrown into the fire, but it was the fact that He put Jesus in their with them to protect them that mattered. God doesn’t promise us in this chapter that trials and bad things won’t happen.
In Psalm 27:2, “When evildoers assail me,.…”
In Psalm 27:3, “Though an army encamp against me,..”
In Psalm 27:5 it discusses, “in the day of trouble..”
The chapter indicates bad things will happen, but the Psalmist has peace in who will be with him and where his focus will be.
In Psalm 27:4, he seeks after being able to “dwell in the house of the Lord” and to “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.”
In Psalm 27:8, he says, “’Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
In Psalm 27:11 he asks God to “Teach me your way O Lord.”
Lastly, in Psalm 27:13, “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!”
As we reflect on current troubles, let us ask ourselves where our focus is…is it on our problems or Him?
Maybe we don’t have many troubles at this very moment but let us pray for wisdom that when we do, because Psalm 27 and John 16:33 says we will have them, our focus will be on Jesus. Let us pray that we will seek Him and His face and presence in these times.
Psalm 27:3 tells us when we do so we can live with confidence.
Though an army encamp against me,
My hear shall not fear;
Though ware rise against me,
yet I can be confident.”
