Psalm 27 | Longing

Intro. Evangelicals coined a phrase: Jesus is a relationship, not a religion.

Responsive Reading: Psalm 27

Pastor: The LORD is my light and my salvation;

Congregation: whom shall I fear?

Pastor: The LORD is the stronghold of my life;

Congregation: of whom shall I be afraid?

Pastor: When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

Congregation: Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

Pastor: One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after:

Congregation: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.

Pastor: For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.

Congregation: And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD.

Pastor: Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, “Seek my face.”

Congregation: My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.” Hide not your face from me.

Pastor: Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help.

Congregation: Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in.

Pastor: Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

Congregation: Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.

Pastor: I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!

Congregation: Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!”

Discipleship 101: Psalm 27 is a map for spiritual transformation

David’s Goal: to experience God’s presence personally

This psalm was written in the furnace of affliction: He is surrounded by many enemies whose goal is to destroy his life.

[David 1] David is surrounded by many enemies whose goal is to destroy his life.

[David 2] “One thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after…”

Illustration: Imagine David and his men are surrounded. Wait here guys, I’m going to ask the Lord for one thing. What is it? Weapons? A superpower (ability to disappear)?

Answer: “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

To dwell means to abide: key for spiritual transformation.

Abide in John 15:1-17.

David longs to have a personal encounter with God. Literally, to seek his face: Psalm 27:8 “You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.””

[David 3] David wants to “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and inquire in his temple.”

[[David 4] This is a language of friendship and fellowship.

[David 5] God’s presence puts everything life in perspective.

How can you do this?

David’s strategy: To seek God’s presence continually

You don’t need to be a Bible scholar to understand what I’m about to tell you: RELATIONSHIPS REQUIRE TIME AND INTENTIONALITY

In order to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord one must realize that this takes intentional slowing down. There are no shortcuts!

The soul must see God’s beauty (who he is) through eyes of the heart: Ephesians 3:16–19 “16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

Luke 10 tells us the story of two sisters.

[Mary 1] Mary is surrounded by life’s demands, distractions, and difficulties (our story)

[Mary 2] She wants to do this “one thing.” (maid, productivity course)

[Mary 3] She wants to “gaze upon the beauty of her Lord.”

Luke 10:39 “Mary sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving..”

[Mary 4] Martha was anxious and troubled about many things.

Mary on the other hand is spending much needed time her soul needs with her Lord and Savior.

[Mary 5] Jesus called this, “One thing is necessary.” “Mary has chosen the good portion.”

We have two different individuals (David & Martha) longing for this “one thing.” They want to experience God’s presence personally.

We too like David, and Mary, can gaze upon the beauty of the Lord by faith through the ministry of the Holy Spirit by having the eyes of our hearts enlighten that we may know and experience his presence (Eph 1:18).

David’s overflow: A transformed heart by God’s presence

t is no secret that you become what you behold. David’s heart was transformed:

He was filled with confidence (v.3). He was surrounded by life’s demands, distractions, and difficulties. Yet he could also say, Psalm 27:5 “For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will lift me high upon a rock.”

He was filled with joy. Psalm 27:6 “And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.”

He was filled with contentment. Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!”

Psalm 131:2 “But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.”

How?

Read

Reflect & Remember

Rejoice

Rest

Conclusion:

This week I learned about Lilias Trotter.

She was a gifted artist and a devoted follower of Jesus with a heart for the loss in the early 1900s.

A famous art instructor saw her potential and offered to train her.

Lilias sensed a calling from the Lord to be a missionary. What to do?

She went to Africa to be a missionary.

She would journal and wrote a devotional based on one of her journal entries.

[slide] It was in a little wood in early morning. The sun was climbing behind a steep cliff in the east, and its light was flooding nearer and nearer and then making pools among the trees. Suddenly, from a dark corner of purple brown stems and tawny moss, there shone out a great golden star. It was just a dandelion, and half withered—but it was full face to the sun, and had caught into its heart all the glory it could hold, and was shining so radiantly that the dew that lay on it still made a perfect aureole round its head. And it seemed to talk, standing there—to talk about the possibility of making the very best of these lives of ours.

[slide] For if the Sun of Righteousness has risen upon our hearts, there is an ocean of grace and love and power lying all around us, an ocean to which all earthly light is but a drop, and it is ready to transfigure us, as the sunshine transfigured the dandelion, and on the same condition—that we stand full face to God.

[slide] Gathered up, focussed lives, intent on one aim—Christ—these are the lives on which God can concentrate blessedness. It is “all for all” by a law as unvarying as any law that governs the material universe.

[slide] We see the principle shadowed in the trend of science; the telephone and the wireless in the realm of sound, the use of radium and the ultra violet rays in the realm of light. All these work by gathering into focus currents and waves that, dispersed, cannot serve us. In every branch of learning and workmanship the tendency of these days is to specialize—to take up one point and follow it to the uttermost.

[slide] And Satan knows well the power of concentration, if a soul is likely to get under the sway of the inspiration, “this one thing I do,” he will turn all his energies to bring in side-interests that will shatter the gathering intensity.

[slide] And they lie all around, these interests. Never has it been so easy to live in half a dozen good harmless worlds at once—art, music, social science, games, motoring, the following of some profession, and so on. And between them we run the risk of drifting about, the “good” hiding the “best” even more effectually than it could be hidden by downright frivolity with its smothered heart-ache at its own emptiness. . . .

[slide] What does this focussing mean? Study the matter and you will see that it means two things—gathering in all that can be gathered, and letting the rest drop. The working of any lens—microscope, telescope, camera—will show you this. The lens of your own eye, in the room where you are sitting, as clearly as any other. Look at the window bars, and the beyond is only a shadow; look through at the distance, and it is the bars that turn into ghosts. You have to choose which you will fix your gaze upon and let the other go. . . .

[slide] How do we bring things to a focus in the world of optics? Not by looking at the things to be dropped, but by looking at the one point that is to be brought out.

[slide] Turn full your soul’s vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him, and the Divine “attrait” [attraction] by which God’s saints are made, even in this 20th century, will lay hold of you. For “He is worthy” to have all there is to be had in the heart that He has died to win.

This devotional ended up on the hands of Helen Lemmel 20 years after its publication which was the inspiration for the hymn, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus.”