Wait For Light From Inside the Stronghold

Whether I’m facing stress, whether I’m facing difficulty, whether I’m facing disappointment, or whether I’m just working to still and quiet my soul, I return to the first two phrases of 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?

No matter what season I’m in, I go back to this truth: The Lord is my light and my salvation. He’s the stronghold of my life. I can see whatever I need to see because of the light that He sheds — through wisdom given by His Spirit, His word, His Church. Next is the idea that the Lord is a stronghold, a building that you can go into and have shelter from whatever life’s storms are throwing at us. The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run into it and are saved (Proverbs 18:10). Of course, in Christ, he is our salvation. 

When I was in college, I memorized this psalm, and lately I've thought that I should go back and memorize it again. It covers every kind of adversity a person can experience, starting in verses 2 and 3 with individual adversity. 

When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.
Though war rise against me, yet I will be confident.

All of these things are against King David, the songwriter here. It is very personal and individual. He’s saying, “Though they rise up against me” — not up against us. He’s saying, “There’s a whole army out there, and it’s just coming after me. But I’m not afraid because I have God.” Sometimes you can feel like the whole world is against you, and you alone. Whether or not that is actually true, God is with you in the midst of that adversity.

The next verse I recently saw on TV. The reference was scrawled on a baseball relief pitcher’s glove. 

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.

Pitching in the MLB is a stressful job, even though it is a game. Imagine your work being on public display in front of thousands of people live, and also recorded and broadcast across the world. Beyond that, you have to do that work on a moment's notice when you are called up. 

The adversity I'm describing here is pressure. How do you deal with immense pressure? This man used Psalm 27:4: Whenever he is on the mound, he also knows he is in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. I read an interview that said he viewed his pitching as a form of worship. 

He doesn't worship the ball or the act of pitching, but as the verse seems to imply, he can see the beauty of the Lord in the midst of what he is doing. The creation is a theatre for God's glory. So said John Calvin. Instead of baseball, or anything else we participate in publicly as a theatre for our glory, we can look for God's beauty on display.

Our work can be an act of worship. David knows this, but he does not confuse "all-of-life" worship with the distinct worship that God commands from his people. That's clear in the next two verses.

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.

These verses show how worship is formative. It shapes us over time as we participate. It is as if David is saying, "When I’m facing adversity of any kind, the thing that forms me and keeps me in the right place is sacrifice — is being in His tent and offering the sacrifice and the shouts of joy, and singing and making melody to the Lord.” 

Worship on this side of the cross is different than worship was on that side of the cross. Then sacrifice was offered over and over, pointing forward to an ultimate sacrifice made by Christ. But then and now worship is formative. It is coming again and again into the presence of God to be shaped by his grace toward us.

So we have seen how the Psalm answers both personal and public adversity. There is yet a third kind of adversity. I'll call it loneliness. 

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.

You could label this as something else, but loneliness captures it for me. Calling out. Waiting for a response. Being met by silence. What do we do when we've sought the Lord, but we don't seem to hear a response? David reminds himself that earthly loneliness is different than loneliness in prayer when he pens the next verse.

 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

That is the loneliest of all circumstances imaginable. The ones who made me have forgotten me. This is one reason why the Bible has so much to say about showing compassion to the orphan. When God is silent, we don't need to fear that he has orphaned us. Christians especially can know that, united to God's Son, Jesus Christ, we become children who can never be orphaned.

Yet one of the most common ways to break someone in battle or in life is to get them to believe that they are alone, forsaken, and left with no one to care. In the midst of this struggle, David calls out to God for insight.

Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Give me not up to the ways of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence.

If the truth of this psalm can permeate our hearts and minds, then it can defend us against the adversity of loneliness, however we experience it. O Lord, teach us!

He closes with the kind of poetic line that is worth writing on an index card and taping on the bathroom mirror. It's the kind of line you want to repeat as you brush your teeth each day.

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!

David's former "boss" and later nemesis, King Saul, failed in life because he could not wait. David saw this up close. Saul's first mistake was not waiting for Samuel to perform the priestly duties (see 1 Samuel 13:8-14). He disobeyed God in this failure to wait. Saul's last mistake was similar. Rather than waiting to hear from God, or repenting of his sin while waiting, he rushed to find a medium to consult with the dead. That was an abomination. David doesn't want to make that mistake, and neither do we. 

In every kind of adversity, let us be people who wait on the Lord, because he is our light and our stronghold.