Psalm 27; Honest with God: A Psalm for the Afraid

Jason Sterling June 21, 2026 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL 

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Transcript

Psalm 27 Set Up And Reading

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If you have a copy of God's word, turn with me to the book of Psalms. So go to the center of your Bible. If you need a Bible, you'll see one in the pew in front of you, a Black Pew Bible. It can be found, the passage is on page 461. We're going to look at Psalm 27 this morning. We are pausing on our study through Romans, and we will continue that when the fall gets here. We'll pick up with Romans chapter 9. But this summer we've been working through some Psalms, just like we have in the past couple of summers, and this morning we find ourselves looking at Psalm 27. This is God's word. Follow along with me in your bulletin or on the screen or in your Bible. This is the word of the Lord. 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? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamped against me, my heart shall not fear, though war rise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, 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. 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, 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. And then notice here the Psalm shifts, verse 7. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, Seek my face, my heart says to you, Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me, turn not your servant away in anger. O you who have been my help, 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. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. 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. This is God's word. Let's pray and ask for his help this morning. Please bow with me. Father, we're here this morning, and it's not an accident. You have brought us here, every person, to hear this word from Psalm 27. Speak, O Lord, speak. We are

A Prayer For Jesus To Meet Us

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listening. I pray that through your spirit, that you would make us alert, that you would put us on the edge of our seats as you speak to us through this passage. Convict and challenge and change, but more than anything this morning, I'm asking for an encounter with Jesus. I pray that every person here would have a powerful encounter that does not leave them the same. Do that in Jesus' name. Amen. What are you afraid of? What is the thing in your life that makes you fearful and afraid? If we could see inside every person in this room, inside, not outside, we look great on the

Naming The Fears We Carry

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outside. If we could take an x-ray, you know what it would reveal? If we could take an x-ray of every person in this room and see what's going on on the inside, we would, of course, find lots of things going on beneath the surface. But one thing we would find inside every single person is fear. And it's not always a crisis. But all of us, starting with me, have this low-level anxiety that just seems to run underneath everything in our lives. What is it for you? What is that thing this morning? Maybe it's your marriage. Maybe it's your health. Maybe you're afraid of death. Maybe it's your kids and the world that they're growing up in. Maybe it's the future. Maybe it's your finances. We could go on and on with a list of things that make us afraid. Maybe we could go deeper than any of that. Maybe it's the fear inside of you that you're not quite enough and you don't feel like you're enough. Or maybe you don't even know what it is. You just know that something has a grip on you that you just can't quite shake. You're not alone. David wrote this psalm, Afraid. We don't know exactly what threatened him and what he's uh uh fearful of, and I think the specifics of it, and I think that's very intentional. He keeps his enemies nameless so that you and I this morning can insert our own. And that's really the genius of the Psalms, and we've seen it all over the Psalms. They're often emotionally honest without being historically specific, which means that when we read adversaries, we can insert what is closing in on us right now at this moment. Psalm 27 shows us what to do with our fear. In our fear, three things this morning in this Psalm, we need to seek God. Secondly, I'm sorry, first see God, secondly, seek God, and then lastly wait for God. See God, seek God, and then lastly wait for God. Let's look at those in turn this morning with our first heading, uh, see God. Look at verses one through three. David opens up this psalm with three names for God. You see it there, salvation, stronghold, and light, salvation, God rescues us, stronghold, God protects us so that nothing

See God As Light And Stronghold

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can harm us and reach us inside his walls. Light, God orients us so that we can see in the dark when we're disoriented. And so in the dark, with enemies closing in, David does not do what we often do. Notice he doesn't reach for a strategy. Let me figure out how to get out of this. No, David reaches for a name. Three names, actually. Salvation, light, and stronghold. And they hold all of those together, hold him, and they outweigh everything that is coming at him. What's striking about verse one of Psalm twenty-seven is that it is the only place in the Old Testament where God is directly called light. Every other place references, they associate God with light or compare him to the light until here, when David calls him light itself. And then we move to the New Testament, and God takes on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. And you remember John chapter one. The light, Jesus, shines in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it. David didn't know the full picture. He's reaching for something here that would only become visible in the person of Jesus Christ. And so here's what this means for us this morning. When we are afraid, when we are fearful, you are not reaching for a principle or a concept, but you are reaching for a person. Jesus, the one who came into the darkness himself, and the darkness did not win. And so God it says, because he is light, notice verses two and three, because he is salvation and our stronghold, David can face the evildoers in verses two and three, and the army and not completely come apart and crumble in fear. Notice he's not denying the danger. And it's not even close. The character of God completely swallows it up. Think about a child who wakes up maybe with a night terror or a bad dream in the middle of the night, and they're screaming from the other room. The darkness is real, the fear is real. And the parent comes busting through the doors into the room. And maybe they kneel down beside the bed or they sit, they sit at the edge of the bed, and what starts to happen with the child? The child starts to settle. The room is still dark. Nothing changes about the darkness, but something does change about the fear because now there is a presence in the room that is more powerful than the dark, that is more powerful than the fear. That's what David's getting at. God doesn't eliminate the enemies, they're still there, but there's a presence, his presence, that is larger and more powerful. The Lord is my light. Whom shall I fear? Fear tends to be very specific. Fear has a name. And a story. And maybe for you it's a specific situation, or maybe it's a diagnosis. Generic comfort won't touch it. Fear is always specific. And so God's character next to that fear should also always be specific. And here's what I mean. Not just a generic, God is good, He's gonna work all this out. That's true. But how about this? God is my light in this diagnosis. God is my light in this loneliness that I am experiencing. God is my salvation in this marriage. God is my stronghold in the middle of this financial crisis. What is the darkness for you this morning that is disorienting you and making you afraid right now? Name it, name it specifically, and then see Jesus. See God's character and name Him right next to it. Not a concept, not a principle, a person. That is not a formula, that is faith. That is what faith looks like when it's being worked out in your life. Secondly, seek God in the midst of our fear and in the midst of being afraid. Here's the real heart of the psalm, and it's really surprising if you think about uh what David is doing here. He's surrounded by enemies, his life is under threat. And notice his prayer,

Seek God By Gazing At Beauty

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his only request, the single desire of his heart. Here's what it would be probably for me, maybe for you. Destroy my enemies. Lord, change my circumstances and get me out of this mess. Look at David's prayer in verse four. Let me dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Let me gaze. What a powerful word. And I think this is so helpful because it shows us that the antidote to fear isn't courage. It's being preoccupied with God. It's his face. You don't defeat fear by trying harder to be brave. You defeat fear by gazing upon something so beautiful and so powerful and lovely that fear starts to lose its grip in your life. Thomas Chalmers is famous for calling it the expulsive power of a new affection. You don't conquer your fear by fighting it directly, saying, Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, don't be afraid, have courage, have courage. No, you replace it with something greater and more powerful. What does that actually mean to gaze on the beauty of God? I got invited this year for the first time to go to the masters. I've watched it on television my entire life. The Azaleas, Amen Corner, the roars of the crowd moving through the course. I knew about it and I enjoyed it. But everything changed when I walked through those gates and actually stood on the grounds of Augusta. It was completely different. The grass is greener than any green you have ever seen in your life. The Azaleas are way more beautiful than they are on TV. The hills and the greens are steeper than shown on television. You walk in and you feel it, and you smell it and you hear it and you taste the egg salad sandwich on white bread. Watching it gave me information about Augusta, but boy, going to Augusta was something else entirely. I will never watch the Masters the same again on television because I've been there. Because I've tasted it. That's verse four. That's what David is after. You can know about God and all the information and doctrine, and we're really good at that in our denomination, but you can know all of that, and you can still be paralyzed by fear because you have been watching God from a distance. Gazing on the beauty of God is moving from TV to standing on the course. Moving from information about God to actually experiencing Him and tasting His goodness until it gets down into your bones and displaces your fear in a way that information never could. And notice here that David's not asking God to do anything. God, here's what I need. He doesn't do any of that. He just wants to be near God. He just wants to see God's face. He wants his provision, or not his provision, but his presence. He's not seeking his hand, he's seeking his face, and he uses this word gaze. Think about gaze. It's not a glance, it's not a quick check-in before everything gets going in your day. No, this is a gaze is something that's sustained. It's something unhurried. It is beholding something. We see here a man who finds God beautiful, and he just wants to keep looking at him. He wants to stay in his presence and also notice here this is not passive. Did you notice the word seeking? This is pursuit. This is intentional. Your face, Lord, I will seek. And the results of the seeking, look at verses five and six. He hides him, he lifts his head. The one you are seeking at the same time is covering you. And look at the response of David in verse six it's worship before deliverance, because God's presence is actually the refuge. So what does that mean for us? Let's get more specific. Well, let's make a corporate application and then a personal application. First corporate. Notice where David is seeking God. Did you see that in verse 4? The house of God in his temple. This is what we're doing every single Sunday morning. You come into this place and you're carrying something. You're carrying some fear in your

Church Worship And Personal Pursuit

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life. And this is not a place for you to just come and we I of course it is that you bring your fears, but this is not about just receiving advice and receiving more information. We come here to encounter Jesus. We come here to encounter the beauty and the glory of God so completely and powerfully that the fear just dissipates and starts to get displaced in our hearts. That is our prayer every single week in our church. Would you please pray that for our church? When you think of faith church, pray that this would be a place that we encounter God, that He's more beautiful than anything else, and that it takes us to our knees in worship. That's what we're after. Seeking the face of God through the preaching and through the singing and through the Lord's Supper. We don't want to just seek his hand. And ask him for things we want him, not just getting our box checked that we came to weekly worship. And personally, the temptation right here is to say, try harder. Go read your Bible. Go pray. Yes, but that's not the point. And honestly, it won't work. It might for a little bit. You can't willpower your way out of fear. You can't willpower your way to change. And so here's the application. Gaze. Look at Jesus. Look full into his wonderful face. Really look at him. Because when Jesus becomes real to you, he moves from information and moves to something that you can actually taste and experience. And when that happens, it changes everything. Because the Bible then becomes a place where you see his face. And prayer becomes a conversation with someone who actually came and lived for you and died for you in order to bring you home. And you start opening up your Bible. Not because you're supposed to. You start opening up your Bible because Jesus is there. You start opening up your Bible because you're starving and you're hungry. And you've tasted something in Jesus that is so good that you just want to stay. And you just want more and more and more. Friends, the disciplines aren't the point. Jesus is the point. The disciplines are the place where you find Him. Your face, Lord, I will seek. Lord, make that a reality in our church and in each person and family here. Lastly, wait for God. So we have this confidence in these first several verses, and then it shifts in verse 7. The first half, David's confessing all these things that he knows about God. And then the second half, there's a cry, what he feel, what he feels in the actual moment. And I want to suggest

Waiting With Lament And Honesty

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that the distance between those two things is where most of us live most of the time. We believe, we know what we believe, but we don't always feel it. And the thing I love about this, really all the Psalms, or there's several, you see this pattern. David holds both of those together in this psalm, really in the same breath. It's just honest, and I think it's so helpful because we see here that faith and fear are not opposites. And so if you came in here and you were fearful this morning, your faith is not broken. You are human, and it means that you are honest. The question is not are you fearful? The question is what do you do with that fear? Do you let the fear consume you? Do you let it overtake you? Do you let it paralyze you? Does your fear turn you in on yourself? Or, think about the psalm: do you bring it straight to God? David shows us, bring it to God. Look at verse 9. Every honest believer has prayed this prayer. Do not hide your face, do not reject me or forsake me. This is not talking about losing your salvation. This is the language of lament. There's an ache in his soul. He knows God is near. It's the first half of the psalm, but he can't feel it. He prays and hears nothing. He reaches out for God and gets only silence. David is not doubting God's faithfulness. He's being honest about the felt difference or the felt distance, and he's bringing it to God rather than shutting down, which we often do in our fear, and avoiding God. And then notice verse 10. One of the most pastoral lines in the entire psalm. Notice what David is doing here. He's run the gamut. The greatest outward threat that you can have is an army besieging you and coming after you. And then here in verse 10, we have perhaps the greatest inward pain imaginable. The rejection of people who are supposed to love you the most. Your parents. And the answer is the same. David is saying, I've got something that can hold me. I've got something that can sustain me, even if the worst happens to me. For some of you, this is not hypothetical. This is actually your story. You had a dad that was not present. Maybe you had a mom who was checked out. Or maybe you had parents that were so consumed with themselves and so consumed with their own pain that you just felt like you were in the way all the time. And that you were an afterthought and unwanted. God wants you. God will take you in. God is a good father. And he will never leave you behind. Even in the most devastating of human abandonment, you cannot reach the place where God's love ends. Verse 13. Let's keep, we'll finish this up. David plants his flag. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Notice not someday in heaven, here in this life. I mean, think about it. He verse 7 crying out, and he arrives in verse 13 with faith decided. Not circumstances haven't changed.

Choosing Faith Before Circumstances Change

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But he's brought it to God and put it up next to him, not away from him. He's brought it to him. This is not optimism. This is not blind faith. This is not the power of positive thinking. This is faith. He's saying, I don't see it yet, I don't feel it yet, but I believe. And that belief is enough to keep him standing. Verse 14, notice the double command. Wait for the Lord, be strong, and let your heart be courageous. Wait for the Lord. Waiting is hard. That's why he repeats it twice. Waiting is very difficult. If it were easy, he would not need to say it twice. David here is preaching to himself. He's reminding himself, like, God, I know what is true. Help me, because this world is pulling me in another direction towards fear and despair and discouragement. Fear whispers that you are all alone, that you are rejected, that you need to protect yourself, that you need to close yourself off and pull back and stop giving and loving freely. It turns you inward and keeps you from and keeps you isolated from the people around you. But Jesus on the cross is God's way of saying, I will not hide my face from you. I will not reject you. I will not abandon you to the darkness. God went into the darkness himself. He took the full weight of our fear and failure and shame so that you can be hidden in him forever. First John chapter 4, verse 18. Perfect love drives out fear. That perfect love has a name. That perfect love is Jesus. And Jesus in his love says to you this morning, please listen. I know you and I love you completely. Death has been defeated. You have nothing to fear. I have prepared a place for you. You have been bought with a price. And not a hair can fall from your head without your father knowing it. All of those things are true. And because those things are true, think about that. And we could go on and on, couldn't we? Just preaching the gospel. Because they're true, suddenly fear starts to lose its grip. Why? Because there's nothing ultimately for us to be afraid of. Because of Jesus. Gardiner Taylor was a young preacher traveling through Louisiana, and he was preaching everywhere he could, and he was in this old country church in the middle of nowhere. The electricity went out. He could not see his hand in front of his face, couldn't see his Bible, couldn't see his notes, couldn't see the people there. He's young. He has no idea what to do. How am I going to finish this sermon? And so he panics and he

Seeing Jesus In The Dark

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gets really quiet. And then he hears from the back row an old deacon stands up and calls out, preach on, preacher. We can still see Jesus in the dark. See, sometimes you can't see God and feel God, but He is there and the cross proves it. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Take heart. Wait for the Lord. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you are the light, that you are our salvation and our stronghold. And that Jesus walked into the darkness so that we would never have to face it alone. Would you forgive us this morning for letting fear consume us? Would you forgive us for seeking your hands more than seeking your face? Send your spirit now, Lord, to do what we cannot do. Help us to seek after you with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength. Work that into our hearts, work that into our church. In Jesus' name. Amen.