Wait, with purpose

Psalms 27

Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

We start with a very familiar Psalm written by David.

David begins with a truth. The Lord is my light .

Psalm 27:1 “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?”

Confidence in God, just like David we have evidence that God is our light and our refuge. Most of the time this is not an easy truth to claim. This message is not about those times. Today we are talking about the times that truth is overshadowed by feelings and circumstance. We know that David is a “man after God’s own heart” 1 Samuel 13:14 but why did he write Psalms like this one?

Vs. 2 Surrounded by enemies

Vs. 3 Overwhelming Odds

Vs. 4 Priority of worship

Vs. 7 Concern over Unanswered Prayer

Vs. 8 -9 Fear of being forsaken

Vs. 10 Forsaken by Family

Vs. 12 Folks are fibbing

Psalm 27:13–14 “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

Joshua charges the leaders of Israel : Joshua 23:6 “Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left,”

Gideon: Judges 7:11 “And you shall hear what they say, and afterward your hands shall be strengthened to go down against the camp.” Then he went down with Purah his servant to the outposts of the armed men who were in the camp.”

Michael: Daniel 10:19 “And he said, “O man greatly loved, fear not, peace be with you; be strong and of good courage.” And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, “Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me.”

and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

Strength:

So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

It takes courage to stand up and be counted, but it takes more courage to keep standing up after you have been counted.

Anonymous

(Heb 6:17-18)

COURAGE:

Act_23:11  The following night the Lord stood by him and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in Rome.”