This Week's Focus Passage

This Week’s Focus Passage: Psalm 27 ‘Jehovah is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?’

This Week’s Focus Passage: Psalm 27

‘Jehovah is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?’

    Psalm twenty-seven is yet another Psalm of David. In spite of the reality that Psalm twenty-three is, arguably, and that, without any doubt, the most well-known psalm in the beautiful catalogue of songs by David, as well as others employed by God’s gracious activity, to pen the book of one hundred and fifty psalms, the majority of which were penned by David, the shepherd-king; the wonderful blessed type of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only True King and Shepherd of His flock. Yes, we say that, in spite of the beauty and popularity of the twenty-third psalm, this psalm twenty-seven; we are emboldened to assert, is one of the most beautiful of all. There are exceedingly wonderful truths set down among the fourteen verses which make up this particular psalm; this psalm which begins with the affirmation, that:

Jehovah is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 

Indeed, David bolsters his grand assertion with glorious argumentations, such as when he says in the next verse; that,

When evil-doers came upon me to eat up my flesh, Even mine adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell. 

David employs here just what many of us ought, probably, to do more often than we ever have; that is, to recall the many past deliverances; the many occasions that our God has surely heard our cries, and come to our aid, in His marvelous, absolutely unmatched faithfulness to us, through His absolute faithfulness to us. We may often recall His happy promises to us; telling us that He would never leave us, nor ever forsake us. We are so terribly prone to allow ourselves to react to hardships, or oppositions, or dangers, with anxiety, or fear, or trembling, rather than embracing our God given faith in all matters. This is what the “three Hebrew children” did, as recorded for us in the book of the prophet, Daniel, in the third chapter. We are informed that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had made (more likely, had his minions make it), upon which, he commanded that all and every person should make obeisance to this image of gold; so that we read in the fourth verse of chapter three:

Then the herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O peoples, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar hath set up; and whoso falleth not down and worshippeth, shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 

Now these three Hebrew children refused to do so, and when this was reported to the king, he flew into rage, and demanded that the three be brought to him; and he spoke:

Is it of purpose, O Shadrach, Meshach, and A-bed-nego, that ye serve not my god, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 

Shadrach, Meshach, and A-bed-nego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy hand. O king.

These three may have been supporting their faith in Jehovah through remembrance of past deliveries granted to them. They may have been bringing to their memories, the recent answer to the prayers of Daniel himself, when these ‘children of Israel’ were in danger of Nebuchadnezzar’s wrath, along with all his ‘wise men’ because none could tell him the dream that he had dreamed, which himself had forgotten. On hearing of this from Arioch, the captain of the king’s guard who were come to slay all the magicians because they could not tell the king his dream. Daniel asked of this Arioch; could he have more time. 

Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions: [Shadrach, Meshach, and A-bed-nego, renamed by his captors] that they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his companions should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a vision of the night.

In other words, they prayed for deliverance from this impending execution. Daniel prayed unto their God, and was heard. Surely, this event was fresh in the minds of each of these ‘children of Israel,’ for their individual encouragements. We would even expect that, as they had prayed for deliverance, at the same time they prayed for an increase of faith. Every child of God should be asking daily for increased faith.

He may bring us to remember other times when great deliverances were given to us.

    This seems to be, clearly, just what David is doing here in Psalm 27, as he recalls what became of those evil-doers that came upon him to eat his flesh. Actually, they stumbled and fell. He is, therefore emboldened to assert, in the very next verse:

Though a host should encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war should rise against me, Even then will I be confident.

Above, and beyond, what we might call, his temporal confidence, is what we shall call, to be his eternal confidence, through faith as always; faith in Jehovah of hosts, in the following glorious and beautiful words ever penned by our Psalm-singer:

One thing have I asked of Jehovah, that will I seek after: That I may dwell in the house of Jehovah all the days of my life, To behold the beauty of Jehovah, and to inquire in his temple. 

Through the grace of our God, and the merit of our Savior, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, may we not begin that blessed life now in Him?

 

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church

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