Then my head will be held high above my enemies around me. At His tabernacle I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the LORD. Sermons I. WE HAVE HERE INDICATED THE FULNESS OF GOD'S SELF-REVELATION TO HIS SAINTS. The revelation of God which is implied in this psalm is one of exceeding tenderness, richness, and glory. 1. God himself had led the way in inviting souls to seek him. (Ver. 8, "When thou saidst, Seek ye my face.") The heart of God desires the friendship and fellowship of man. Our hearts are so made they can rest only in God; God's heart is such that he seeks a rest in us. The fact of his giving an invitation to us to seek him is proof of this (cf. Isaiah 45:19; Iv. 6; 54:6). So also is the complaint of God when men do not seek him (Isaiah 43:23-26). And still more the declared joy of God when souls are at rest in him (Zephaniah 3:17). See this taken over to the New Testament (John 4:23). But the grandest illustration of all is in the fact (Luke 19:10) of which the whole of Luke's fifteenth chapter is the fullest declaration (still further, see Revelation 3:20). In fact, had it not been for this self-manifestation of God's heart, we must all have been agnostics for ever! 2. Wheresoever men open the heart to God's invitation, he proves himself worthy of himself. The student may well luxuriate in the various names which the psalmist delights to apply to God as his God. Note: (1) The terms themselves. (a) Light (ver. 1). "There shines on him [the psalmist] a sun that sets not and knows no eclipse. This sublime, infinitely profound name for God, אורִי, is found only in this passage" (Delitzsch, in loc.). (b) Salvation (ver. 1). Spiritually as well as temporally. (c) The Fortress of his life (ver. 1), in which he was perpetually hidden. (d) Guardian (ver. 10). One who would manifest a tenderer care and love than even parents feel, and who, when they are removed from us, will be our Guardian still. (e) Helper (ver. 9). Coming with timely aid in every emergency. Note: (2) The individualizing care of God. The word "my should be emphasized in each case: my Light;" "my Salvation," etc. The experience of those who fling themselves on God's care and love is that he manages as beautifully and precisely for them as if he had no one else for whom to care. Hence the prophet's rebuke of the unbelieving suggestion to the contrary (Isaiah 40:27). If God were less than infinite, doubts might creep in. As Faber sings - "That greatness which is infinite has room II. THE RESPONSES OF BELIEVING HEARTS TO GOD'S SELF-MANIFESTATION ARE VARIED AS THE EXPERIENCES OF LIFE. The whole psalm is one of responsive faith; though that response may be sometimes a plea, or a sigh, yea, even a groan, and at other times a shout of song as with trumpet-power. We have all these stages in this very psalm. Listen to the varied phases of the psalmist's words. Here is: 1. Faith seeking. (Ver. 8.) It is an infinite mercy to hear the sweet whisper of God to the heart, "Seek me." It is so wonderful that there should be any such sound from God to the sinful heart - any sound so tender and sweet. And what should the response be but this, "Thy face, Lord, will I seek"? We may well seek the acquaintance of God as our God, to be our Leader, Guide, and Sovereign Lord, even unto death. Note: Let the coming sinner never forget that, if he is seeking God, God has sought him first. We may never lose sight of the Divine order, "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). 2. Faith rejoicing in Divine companionship. (Ver. 4.) In the Lord's house, his presence was specially manifested; and those who know the Lord know well that there is no home like being by their Saviour's side, in his house. There they see the "beauty" of the Lord; i.e. his grace, his love, his mercy. There their eyes see "the King in his beauty." They "inquire" in his temple for directions for daily life; or they muse on the glories of the temple as the seat of Jehovah's presence. Yea, God's love and care make them so happy that they must give vent to their joy as with trumpet-song. We often long for greater physical power to praise God in shouting; and the use of trumpet and organ gratifies this longing. We praise God, but the organ gives the voice-power (see ver. 6, Hebrew). 3. Faith watching. (Ver. 2; cf. Psalm 92:11, Authorized Version, but leave out the words in italics; Psalm 37:34-47.) It should be no joy to the righteous to see any one in trouble; yet they cannot but praise God when infamous plots are discovered, and the saints of God are delivered. 4. Faith sheltering. (Vers. 1, 5; Psalm 91.) No one - in earth or hell - can ever forge the dart or weapon that can pierce the saints' stronghold. When the Lord is the Fortress of their life, they are in a citadel that can never be invaded. 5. Faith dreading. (Ver. 9.) The thing most to be dreaded is the hiding of God's face, and being cast off by him. And can faith ever dread this? Yes, indeed; for there are moments when the sins of the past do rise up so terribly into the memory, that for a while they seem to eclipse all besides; and then faith heaves a sigh and drops a tear. There may be as clinging a faith when uttering the wail of the first verse of the twenty-second, as when singing the peaceful song of the twenty-third psalm; for even in the darkest hour, faith says, "My God!" 6. Faith hoping. (Ver. 13; literally, "Had I not believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living...") The sentence is unfinished. The translators have well supplied the blank. The thought is," What would have become of me?" The trials of life are often so repeated and so keen, that were it not for God, his love sustaining the spirit under the weight of the present, and inspiring the heart with hope for the future, reason would give way, and the man be hopelessly crushed. It is God's love which makes life worth living. 7. Faith triumphing. (Ver. 1.) When we realize the glory of him whom we believe, there is no bound to our delight and exultation; and at such times we can laugh in defiance at our foes; yea, "smile at Satan's rage, and face a frowning world." We can, if need be, cherish something of Luther's daring, and "go to Worms, though there were as many devils as there are tiles on the roofs of the houses;" or, better still, we can say with Paul, "I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me." We know that God will not call us to confront an enemy that we cannot lay low, nor to bear a cross which we cannot carry, nor to endure a trial we cannot sustain, nor to do a work which we cannot perform. His grace is sufficient for us. His strength is made perfect in weakness. Hence, in closing the psalm: 8. Faith soliloquizes. (Ver. 14.) It may be supposed to be addressed first to himself, and so, indirectly, to the people of God generally. The words, "He shall strengthen thine heart," are, rather, "Let thine heart be strong;" as if the psalmist would chide himself that he should ever have a moment's misgiving, when he has such a God in whom to trust, and such a stronghold in which to abide (Nahum 1:7). Be it ours to wait upon our God continually! This is the secret of a steady, upward, peaceful, and strong life. What may be before any of us, no human eye can discern, nor where our lot may be cast. But God is all-sufficient. Note: 1. How sinful and, foolish to incur the risks of life ourselves! To each and all of us God says, "Seek ye my face." Let our answer be, "Thy face, Lord, will we seek." And all that God has been to our fathers, he will be to us - our Light, our Salvation, our Helper, our Strength, our All! 2. None need quail before the risks of life, whatever they may be, who put their whole trust in God, and follow him everywhere! "Who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?" 3. Never think to gain anything by paltering with duty. If a plain duty is before you, however difficult, go forward in the strength of the Lord, and fear nothing. He hath said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Wherefore we may boldly say, "The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear; what can man do unto me?" Only trust in the Lord, and do right, and one by one you will see your foes stumble and fall, and you will be left in possession of the field, more than conqueror, through him that loveth you." "Stand but your ground, your ghostly foes will fly, When you are challenged, you may dangers meet, Devote yourself to God, and you will find 1. God's Divine sovereignty, whereby He may do with His own what He will, and dispose of His dearest children to endure both sorrow and great affliction. 2. Because of iniquity. (1) (2) (3) (4) 1. For instruction. See from David's resolution what is the case and condition of all the godly, viz. to be subject to evils and troubles. 2. For admonition.(1) To the wicked of the world, to beware of self-deceit in promising to themselves continued happiness and freedom from evils, because for the present they enjoy peace and prosperity (1 Peter 4:17, 18).(2) To the godly, to bethink themselves with David that troubles may come, and therefore to prepare for them, and to glorify God under afflictions. II. When God shall grant to David to dwell in His house, he doth assure himself of SPECIAL SAFETY, AND PROTECTION IN TIMES OF TROUBLE (Psalm 61:3, 4, 6, 7). 1. He put his trust and hope in God (Psalm 21:7; Psalm 11:1; Psalm 16:1; Psalm 86:2). 2. He testified his trust in God by prayer (Psalm 7:1; Psalm 116:3, 4). 3. He made conscience of a godly and upright life, and thereon grounds his assurance of special protection (Psalm 4:3; Psalm 18:17, 20)Uses — 1. For instruction. See here with David the true and right way of safety in time of trouble. In the days of grace, and times of the New Testament, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He dwells with them (Revelation 21:3). 2. For admonition. As we desire safety and shelter in time of trouble, so we must with David strive to endeavour after a sure place in God's house, become true members of God's Church.(1) Break off the course of all known sin, for that prevents society with God.(2) Labour for true faith in Christ.(3) Walk in new obedience. 3. For comfort;. This makes greatly to all true believers, in times of trouble: for certainly they have right and title to this immunity of God's house.(1) God will not fail them, nor forsake them (Hebrews 13:5, 6).(2) God will cause their troubles to work for their good (Romans 8:28; Hebrews 12:10).(3) God will give an issue with the trial, that they may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13). (T. Pierson.) I. RELIGION PREPARES THE MIND FOR ENCOUNTERING, WITH FORTITUDE, THE MOST SEVERE SHOCKS OF ADVERSITY; WHEREAS VICE, BY ITS NATURAL INFLUENCE ON THE TEMPER, TENDS TO PRODUCE DEJECTION UNDER THE SLIGHTEST TRIALS. In the course of living righteously, soberly, and godly, a good man acquires a steady and well-governed spirit. He has learned firmness and self-command. He is accustomed to look up to that Supreme Providence, which disposes of human affairs, not with reverence only, but with trust and hope. The time of prosperity was to him not merely a season of barren joy, but productive of much useful improvement. He had cultivated his mind. He had stored it with useful knowledge, with good principles, and virtuous dispositions. These resources remain entire, when the days of trouble come. His chief pleasures were always of the calm, innocent, and temperate kind; and over these the changes of the world have the least power. His mind is a kingdom to him; and he can still enjoy it. The world did not bestow upon him all his enjoyments; and therefore it is not in the power of the world, by its most cruel attacks, to carry them all away. II. THE DISTRESSES OF LIFE ARE ALLEVIATED TO GOOD MEN, BY REFLECTIONS ON THEIR PAST CONDUCT; WHILE, BY SUCH REFLECTIONS, THEY ARE HIGHLY AGGRAVATED TO THE BAD. During the gay and active periods of life, sinners elude, in some measure, the force of conscience. Carried round in the world of affairs and pleasures; intent on contrivance, or eager in pursuit; amused by hope, or elated by enjoyment; they are sheltered, by that crowd of trifles which surrounds them, from serious thought. But conscience is too great a power to remain always suppressed. There is in every man's life a period when he shall be made to stand forth as a real object to his own view: and when that period comes, woe to him who is galled by the sight! Whereas, tie who is blessed with a clear conscience, enjoys in the worst conjunctures of human life, a peace, a dignity, an elevation of mind peculiar to virtue. The testimony of a good conscience is indeed to be always distinguished from that presumptuous boast of innocence, which every good Christian totally disclaims. The better he is, he will be more humble, and sensible of his failings. But though tie acknowledge that he can claim nothing from God upon the footing of desert, yet lie can trust in His merciful acceptance through Jesus Christ, according to the terms of the Gospel. He can hope that his prayers and his alms have come up in memorial before God. Tim piety and virtue of his former life were as seeds sown in his prosperous state, of which he reaps the fruits in the season of adversity. III. ILL MEN, IN THE TIME OF TROUBLE, CAN LOOK UP TO NO PROTECTOR, WHILE GOOD MEN COMMIT THEMSELVES, WITH TRUST AND HOPE, TO THE CARE OF HEAVEN. The human mind, naturally feeble, is made to feel all its weakness by the pressure of adversity. Now, whither should the ungodly, in this situation, turn for aid? After having contended with the storms of adverse fortune till their spirits are exhausted, gladly would they retreat at last to the sanctuary of religion. But that sanctuary is shut against them; nay, it is environed with terrors. They behold there, not a Protector to whom they can fly, but a Judge whom they dread; and in those moments when they need His friendship the most, they are reduced to deprecate His wrath. But of all the thoughts which can enter into the mind, in the season of distress, the belief of an interest in His favour who rules the world is the most soothing. Every form of religion has afforded to virtuous men some degree of this consolation. But it was reserved for the Christian revelation to carry it to its highest point. For it is the direct scope of that revelation, to accommodate itself to the circumstances of man, under two main views; as guilty in the sight of God, and as struggling with the evils of the world. Under the former, it discovered to him a Mediator and an atonement; under the latter, it promises him the Spirit of grace and consolation. The same hand which holds out forgiveness to the penitent, and assistance to the frail, dispenses comfort and hope to the afflicted. IV. GOOD MEN ARE COMFORTED UNDER THEIR TROUBLES BY THE HOPE OF HEAVEN; WHILE BAD MEN ARE NOT ONLY DEPRIVED OF THIS HOPE, RUT DISTRESSED WITH FEARS ARISING FROM A FUTURE STATE. How miserable the man, who, under the distractions of calamity, hangs doubtful about an event which so nearly concerns him; who, in the midst of doubts and anxieties, approaching to that awful boundary which separates this world from the next, shudders at the dark prospect before him; wishing to exist after death, and yet afraid of that existence; catching at every feeble hope which superstition can afford him, and trembling, in the same moment, from reflection upon his crimes! But blessed be God who hath brought life and immortality to light; who hath not only brought them to light, but secured them to good men; and, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, hath begotten them unto the lively hope of an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away. Justly is this hope styled in Scripture, the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. For what an anchor is to a ship in a dark night, on an unknown coast, and amidst a boisterous ocean, that is this hope to the soul, when distracted by the confusions of the world. In danger, it gives security; amidst general fluctuation, it affords one fixed point of rest. (H. Blair, D. D.) (S. Sellars.) In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me. American Sunday School Times. Not only are non-Muhammadans forbidden to enter the sacred enclosure at Mecca, but the territory around Mecca — the Beled el-Harem, or district of the sanctuary — is regarded as a sacred asylum. Here, according to the sacred law, no war can be waged, no blood can be shed, no animal can be killed, no tree can be cut down. Not even a fly can be killed in the sacred district; but if any of the insect pests which are so common in the East annoy the pilgrim, it is permitted to him, "if they cannot well be endured any longer, to remove them from one part of the body to another." The idea which underlies these whimsical rules is that the place of God's sanctuary should be open only to true believers, to whom it should always be a safe retreat from peril of their enemies. Burton, in his El Medinah and Mecca, gives several specimens of Muhammadan belief regarding the miraculous safety to be found in Mecca. The Black Stone and the Place of Abraham have been miraculously preserved from their foes; at the time of the deluge, the great fish of the sea did not eat the little fish of the Meccan Sanctuary; ravenous beasts will not destroy their prey in the Beled el-Harem; no one is ever hurt in the Kaabah; ten thousand mercies descend upon it daily; and when men see the sacred building for the first time their hearts are filled with awe and their eyes with tears. The Quran expressly teaches that the Kaabah is a safe place of refuge: "Verily the first house appointed unto men was that which is in Becca (Mecca)... therein are manifest signs, the place where Abraham stood; and whoso entereth therein, shall be safe." This is but the relic of the old sanctuary idea which is seen in the case of the cities of refuge among the Jews, and in the (limited) right of sanctuary at the horns of the altar (1 Kings 2:28-31). In many of the ancient Greek temples criminals were given the right of sanctuary, and protected from their pursuers; and in some of the old English churches a stone seat beside the altar was provided for those fleeing to the safety of the church. In pre-Protestant Scotland, excommunication was the penalty of dragging a fugitive from the sanctuaries of the church. A trace of the sanctuary law still exists in Scotland (or existed until lately) in the sanctuary for debtors in the Abbey of Holyrood.(American Sunday School Times.) Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies. American Sunday School Times. As contrasted with Occidentals, the Orientals seem in many respects to be simply grown-up children. They do not attempt to veil extravagant or unseemly demonstrations of joy or grief, as a European would do, but display their feelings as openly as does a junior schoolboy. Especially is this seen in the conduct of enemies toward one another. Those who were in Egypt after the massacre in Alexandria, and before the bombardment, say that they will not soon forget the change which passed over the bearing of the natives toward the foreign Christians at the time of the massacre. Those who before showed an almost servile respect toward the European residents, now marched proudly through the streets, pushing the hated Franks insolently out of their way, and gibing and jeering at their comparative helplessness. All travellers in the East notice the different bearing of an Oriental when he is in an enemy's country, and when he is in a place where his friends are in a majority. The man who skulks in Medeenah will swagger in Mekkeh. An Oriental seldom cares to conceal his consciousness of power, nor does the ruling party conceal its contempt for the ruled. Let a revolution of the political wheel reverse the position of two parties, and the former serf passes into the braggart, and the former braggart into the serf, without any shamefacedness on either side. The psalmist, therefore, compares the safety which he feels to be his in God, to the confident security of the man whose power is assured, and who can lift up his head without fear in the midst of his cringing enemies.(American Sunday School Times.) People David, PsalmistPlaces JerusalemTopics Enemies, Haters, Higher, Joy, Lifted, Melody, Music, Offer, Offerings, Praise, Praises, Psalms, Round, Sacrifice, Sacrifices, Shouting, Shouts, Sing, Song, Surround, Surrounders, Tabernacle, Tent, Truly, Trumpet-sound, Yea, YesOutline 1. David sustains his faith by prayerDictionary of Bible Themes Psalm 27:6 5157 head Library March 1. "Wait on the Lord" (Ps. xxvii. 14). "Wait on the Lord" (Ps. xxvii. 14). How often this is said in the Bible, how little understood! It is what the old monk calls the "practice of the presence of God." It is the habit of prayer. It is the continued communion that not only asks, but receives. People often ask us to pray for them and we have to say, "Why, God has answered our prayer for you, and you must now take the answer. It is awaiting you, and you must take it by waiting on the Lord." This it is that renews the strength, until we … Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth God's Guests 'Seek Ye' --'I Will Seek' Of the Proving of the True Lover Another Wonderful Record of 25. Prayer in the Unconverted. In his Tabernacle The Habitation of God Seeking the Lord's Face. --Psalm xxvii. The Exile --Continued. Why Should we not Believe These to be Angelic Operations through Dispensation of The... Epistle vi. To Januarius, Bishop of Caralis (Cagliari). The victory of Unarmed Faith Fundamental Oneness of the Dispensations. Concerning Worship. Out of the Deep of Fear and Anxiety. The Acceptable Sacrifice; I Fear, I Say, Greatly for Thee, Lest... Of Faith. The Definition of It. Its Peculiar Properties. Psalms Links Psalm 27:6 NIVPsalm 27:6 NLT Psalm 27:6 ESV Psalm 27:6 NASB Psalm 27:6 KJV Psalm 27:6 Bible Apps Psalm 27:6 Parallel Psalm 27:6 Biblia Paralela Psalm 27:6 Chinese Bible Psalm 27:6 French Bible Psalm 27:6 German Bible Psalm 27:6 Commentaries Bible Hub |
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