Discipleship in the Psalms: Confidence in the Lord
Author: Daniel Owens, PhD
July 12, 2024
Seventh in a series.
Psalm 27
Of David.
1The 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?
2When evildoers assail me
to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
it is they who stumble and fall.
3Though an army encamp against me,
my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
yet I will be confident.
4One 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.
5For 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.
6And 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.
7Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
be gracious to me and answer me!
8You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9Hide 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!
10For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
but the Lord will take me in.
11Teach me your way, O Lord,
and lead me on a level path
because of my enemies.
12Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.
13I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living!
14Wait for the Lord;
be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
Discipleship involves being a learner, and fundamentally this is about a relationship with God. But discipleship in the Psalms is no tranquil exercise. The laboratory in which disciples are tested is less like a scripted episode of Barney and Friends, with children happily joining in with “Clean up, clean up, everybody, everywhere!” and more like The Lord of the Flies, with unrestrained boys fighting to gain the upper hand.
Discipleship takes place amid the din of battle and the confusion of politics and even the complicated family gathering, in which you’re not sure who really loves you and what they are going to say or do that might hurt you. How can we learn to face the chaos of life with confidence? David once again leads us to a surprising place of security in the Lord in Psalm 27.
Psalm 27 gives a few hints about the context surrounding David even as he confesses his confidence in the Lord. Around him are fear-inducing enemies (v. 1), who physically threaten or even attack him (vv. 2–3). These enemies confront David from every side (v. 6). In such times of danger, he cannot even rely on his father and mother to stand by him (v. 10). And in court where he might find justice, David faces slander by false witnesses (v. 12).
David faces a Lord of the Flies moment with otherworldly confidence! David’s responses to the chaos in Psalm 27 are not unique in the Book of Psalms. The psalms of confidence, as scholars call them, include Psalm 23, in which David describes the Lord preparing a meal in the presence of his enemies. Confidence in the Lord is needed and most helps when times are not as they should be.
So where does David turn? In an anxiety-laden moment, how can he be confident? The psalm begins: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” This beginning puts the Lord at the center of David’s concern before he tells us a word about his environment. And the Lord does not disappoint, since it is the adversaries who “stumble and fall” (v. 2). Now, we cannot help but remember David’s first battle in 1 Samuel. With Goliath taunting Israel and nobody ready to answer, David stepped forward with confidence because he could point to particular moments in which the Lord had delivered him from danger (1 Sam. 17:37). He could answer Goliath with confidence that the Lord would deliver him (1 Sam. 17:46). Though the author of the books of Samuel gives us no indication that the Lord did anything particularly special to cause David to prevail, yet David trusts in the Lord and achieves a famous victory.
Of course, Christian soldiers throughout history have fallen in battle. I am reminded of Private Jackson, the sniper played by Barry Pepper in the movie Saving Private Ryan. Perched in a church steeple, he quotes the first verses of Psalm 144 as he picks off German soldiers one by one, leading to the moment a tank raises its gun and silences him. Yes, there is a certain naïveté about these psalms of confidence, but that naïveté is vindicated in the long stretch of history, which will culminate in a final judgment and the New Creation, when all crying and pain will cease (Rev. 21:4).
But as in Revelation 21:3 and the New Jerusalem, when God will make his dwelling with humans to put things to right in his creation, the presence of God is the deciding factor in defeating the world’s chaos. And it is for God’s presence that David longs (v. 4), not as a magical talisman to ward off danger (as when, in 1 Samuel 4, Israel brought the ark into battle against the Philistines) or some kind of impersonal fire insurance. No, for David the presence of God means a relationship.
Ever the romantic, David does indeed seek protection from the Lord in verse 5, but not before he declares his intention “to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple” (v. 4). God is the good we should seek. David seeks fellowship with God through sacrifices (v. 6) and restoration where that fellowship is broken (vv. 7, 9). And he seeks to learn from God’s ways (v. 11). This is holistic discipleship, in which the disciple seeks all the blessings of relationship with a gracious God along with the transformation of life that God desires to achieve in us.
With an election looming, many of us are anxious. But we can trust in the Lord. We can be naïve in the positive sense of the word—that is, living in unaffected simplicity and lack of guile—about the future because God is still beautiful, powerful, and gracious. The short term could indeed bring discomfort or even suffering. We might even be like Private Jackson, who does not survive the final battle in Saving Private Ryan. But the presence of God in the temple of old points us beyond the very short-term victories and defeats of politics or the success or failure of our careers.
The presence of God in the New Creation is what we should seek, because God will one day raise us from the dead to enjoy him there. So for now we should seek relationship with him and all that entails, with hope and confidence that God will see us through life to the beautiful end he has prepared for us.
Daniel Owens, PhD, is NCC’s Pastor of Discipleship. Go to the NCC Blog for the previous posts in this series.
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