Psalm 27
Gordon Henry Hayhoe
Table of Contents
Psalm 27
Address by Gordon Hayhoe
Los Angeles, CA
January 1, 1978
Hymn 267: “A fulness resides in Jesus our Head...”
Psalm 27:1 “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion: in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD. Hear; O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek Hide not Thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger: Thou halt been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. Teach me Thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”
We know that in the Psalms, we don’t have the full blessedness of Christian position because we don’t have the truth of the finished work of Christ, the security of the believer, knowing God as Father, our heavenly home. These things are not brought before us in the Psalms because, not until redemption was accomplished could we enter into these wonderful things that are now revealed to us, consequent upon the finished work of Christ. But we can say, brethren, “Israel’s God is ours.” (L.F.#303) As we read a Psalm like this, we can see the resource that the Psalmist found in the Lord and you and I can find the same resource in Him. And in a much fuller way, because, as I say, God has now been fully revealed. There is no longer a veil that hides, but there has been the removal of that. It says, “We all with open face (or unveiled face) beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) So how precious this afternoon that we can look up with unveiled face. The heart of God has been fully revealed and we are privileged to enter into and enjoy these things. In this Psalm, it seems to me that we find the different ways that the Lord is a resource for us in our whole pathway down here. Perhaps you noticed as I read this Psalm how these beautiful thoughts are brought out —light and salvation and strength and confidence, the One from whom we can inquire. The whole Psalm brings before us, I believe, in a most precious way what a resource we have in the Lord. So, with the Lord’s help, I’d just like to speak a little bit of these different points that are brought before us. They’re brought before us in a very precious order too, because, perhaps we could say that it gives us the order in which, in many of our lives, we learn these things. For it says, “The Lord is my light.” Isn’t that the first experience? The soul living in darkness, yea darkness itself, is brought into the light. We can look back, all of us who know the Lord as our Savior, to when we were brought into the light, when the light revealed just what we were. We didn’t believe that we were so bad before. Just like a person in a dark room can hardly believe how dirty his clothes may be, but bring him into a bright room and he immediately knows how dirty they are. The light shines on him and reveals it. So that is what it says here, “The Lord is my light.” That is the experience that our souls had. He brought us into the light. He showed us just what we were and caused our souls to realize that in His sight there was nothing that was good, nothing that was acceptable to Him. If a sinner was called upon to confess all his sins before he was saved, he’d have to remember everything he’d ever done because the Scripture says, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:8) So what did the light do? It just showed us like it says in Isaiah 1, “From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness.” (Isaiah 1:6) If there’s anyone here this afternoon who’s not saved, who’s never been brought into the light, who’s never realized his or her own true condition before God, I do hope that this very afternoon the light of God’s holy presence will shine upon you and discover to you, to your own soul, what you really are in His sight. I tell you, if you find that out you’ll long to have the forgiveness of sins. You’ll never have a sense of peace in your soul again because you’ll realize just what you are in His presence.
But as soon as he tells us, “The Lord is my light”, he immediately says “and my salvation.” Isn’t that most precious to us? The very One who revealed how sinful we are knows about us better than we know ourselves. As it says in Jeremiah 17, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) He throws out the challenge. Who can know how sinful the heart is? It says, “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins.” (Jeremiah 17:10) He looks into the heart. He’s the only One who knows just how evil we are and yet how wonderful, He has become my salvation. He Himself has undertaken the whole question of my state before God as a sinner. He’s taken up the question of all my sins. He’s taken up the question of the nature that’s produced those sins and all was fully met and settled at Calvary’s cross. The whole question of sins and sin was taken up there and settled to God’s glory. God is not only satisfied but God has been glorified about it. In being glorified He has revealed all that was in His heart in love and grace. Perhaps someone might say, “What is the difference between Him being satisfied and Him being glorified?” Well, I often use the little illustration like this, supposing I have a great debt which I am unable to pay and some friend comes along and he pays the debt for me and he hands me the receipt. I know my creditor is satisfied. There’s the receipt with his own handwriting. My mind is at peace, now it’s all paid and I know that he’s satisfied. Now let’s suppose something else. Supposing when I owed this great debt, my creditor himself looks at his books and he sees this large amount on his books and he says to his son, “Would you be willing to pay this great debt so that we can take it off our books?” And his son says, “Well Dad, I’ll have to sell my house and it’ll take all the money that I get from my house to pay that debt. But if you want me to, I’ll be willing to do that.” So his son sells his house. All the money that he receives is taken. The debt is wiped off the account and I receive a receipt in the mail marked “Paid in full through the kindness of my son.” Now isn’t that more than the fact that my creditor is satisfied? Oh, dear friends, I know that God is not only satisfied with the work of his blessed Son, but it was God Himself Who loved me and gave His Son. He was the One who sent Him, and that blessed Savior came in love for you and me. We can say like the Apostle Paul, “The Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20) What are my thoughts now about my creditor? What are my thoughts about his son? Why, I’m full of gratitude because it was his own son that paid the debt. You and I can have this blessed knowledge and enjoyment in our souls. I say again, God is not only satisfied but He’s glorified. All that He is as light and love has been fully manifested and manifested in such a way that He Himself is revealed to my heart. So He is my salvation. What a blessed thing. I not only have salvation, but Christ Himself is my salvation. When Simeon picked up that little babe in his arms he said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace... For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” (Luke 2:29,30) So we have been brought into the light, but the very One who brought us into the light Himself has become our salvation. Would to God that every one of us entered into and enjoyed this. There would not only be peace in our souls, there would be worship in our hearts. We couldn’t help but worship. I couldn’t help but go to that man, my creditor, and say, “Oh I want to tell you what a wonderful son you have. I can’t tell you how fine he is and what I think of him.” And that’s what you and I have the privilege of doing when we come as worshippers. We bring before God the Father all the excellence of His beloved Son. That’s really what worship is—presenting Christ to God in all the excellence of His person and His work. Perhaps we could say too, “The Lord is my light and my salvation” and all the light of His presence is revealed. “We walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) Sometimes a person will say, “Well are you walking in the light?” Let me say this brethren, we have all been brought into the light and that’s where we walk. That’s where grace has brought us. Someone said to Mr. Darby one time, “But what if a Christian turns his back on the light?” “Well,” he said, “The light will shine on his back.” Thank God it’s so. We’re in the light. That’s where we’ve been brought and we’ve been fitted for the light too, because that precious blood has cleansed us from all sin. We can say, “The Lord is my light and my salvation.”
Knowing this he says, “Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?” We have no fear of any charge being laid against us because it is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? But don’t we need strength for our Christian pathway? Don’t we discover how very weak we are even while we know these wonderful things, that we are saved, that our sins are forgiven, that we’ve been brought into favor in God’s beloved Son? Don’t we feel as we face the difficulties and problems of life, “Oh I just don’t have any strength. I just don’t know how I’m going to meet the situations of this year. I may lose my job, things are in an unhappy condition in my work and perhaps in the home and perhaps in the assembly. How am I going to do it?” Oh the same One who is my light and my salvation, he could say of Him, “The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?” Who are we afraid of? We have One who is stronger than all the power of the enemy. It says in John’s Epistle, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4) The beloved Apostle Paul, when he was in prison in Rome wrote in Philippians chapter 4, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13) “Well,” you say, “He was a naturally contented type of person.” No, he wasn’t. He had to say, “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” (Philippians 4:11) That’s the very man who said that the commandment that slew him was, “Thou shalt not covet.” He wasn’t a naturally contented type of person. He was a person who coveted things that other people had. He was an overbearing person. How could he get the victory? The One who was his light, the One who was his salvation, became the strength of his life and in that Roman prison he could say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Brethren, it’s just when we feel weak that we can experience this. He said on another occasion, “When I am weak, then am I strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10) That is, when we come to the end of human resources then, and often not until then, do we rely on the Lord. I remember a brother saying one time, “Isn’t it strange when we get into a difficulty we try every way possible to get out of it, and then we use the expression, ‘The only thing we can do now is pray.’”— It’s just as if, well we tried everything else and now, at last, there’s only one resource left to us. Oh friends, it’s the only thing right from the start. Because before we try to do anything, that’s what we should do. David wouldn’t even go out against the enemy until he had first prayed and asked the Lord how to do it. It’s true that he did have something that he had to do himself, but he prayed before he tried those things. When he had the Lord’s direction, then the Lord’s strength was with him and there was, as we know, a great victory. So isn’t this precious? “The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?” In the 8th chapter of Romans, it says about those things that come into our lives, privation and trial, “For thy sake we are killed all the day long.” (Romans 8:36) Then he immediately says, “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors.” (Romans 8:37) Did you stop to think of the force of that? He said, “We are killed all the day long.” Perhaps that’s the way some of us feel. Everything goes wrong all day long. He says, “No, no that’s not the way it is at all.” He said, “We’re more than conquerors in all these things.” That is, that difficult day that we went through and went through it in company with the Lord and found His strength, is going to have a greater reward in heaven than that easy day when everything went smoothly. He said, “We’re more than conquerors” because to be more than conquerors means that the Lord not only helps us through the day but He makes the day a positive gain in our Christian life. If this year is the hardest year we ever experience, it can be the brightest reward because in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. I’ve often said, when we meet Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego in heaven, if we were to ask them, “Would you tell us what you think was the most wonderful experience in your whole life?” I wouldn’t be at all surprised to hear them say, “It was when we were in that fiery furnace.” “What?” you say, “That experience the best of all?” “Yes, we were more than conquerors. The Lord walked with us in the fire.” So may we experience something of this. He is not only our Light and our Salvation, but also our Strength. And we need strength, because the enemy is closing in upon us with all his forces.
That’s why he goes on to say, “When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though an host should encamp against me my heart shall not fear, though war should rise against me...” Christianity is a conflict. The sixth chapter of Ephesians shows us that we need the whole armor of God. We just can’t escape this conflict if we’re going to go on for the Lord. The enemy knows it and he’s going to come out with all his forces against us. But here, the Psalmist could say the wicked did come. There were enemies. There were foes. They encamped against him. But he said, “My heart shall not fear.” He had confidence in the Lord. He counted upon the Lord and so he could say, “Though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.” In what was he confident?
Was he confident that he had a strong enough character to meet all these things? Oh no, he wasn’t confident in himself. In fact, he finds his own weakness displayed. After putting up with this pressure for a long time he actually came to the point where he said, “I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.” (I Samuel 27:1) He realized how real the conflict was and when, for a few moments, he lost his confidence in the Lord he went down to the Philistines. Perhaps all of us have had this kind of an experience. We just thought we couldn’t face up to it any more and we went down to the Philistines. But I’ve been rather struck by the fact that, that was just the time the Lord had planned to give him the kingdom. That was exactly the time that the Lord planned for him to receive the kingdom when he went down there. And isn’t it so that very often when we think that we’ve just come to the end of all our endurance that the Lord wants us to realize that He’s testing us and that He’s able to come just when we’ve come to the end of our resources. That was the time. Of course, I will say this, that must have made David very humble the rest of his life. I say that because, if any of us look back over our lives the Lord will never let us do any boasting except in Him. David could never say when he was king, “I know the Lord gave me the kingdom because I was so faithful all those years that I was hunted by Saul. I was just so faithful that finally, He did come in and give me the kingdom.” No, I think every time he thought about it, he would say to himself, “Oh, I’m ashamed to even think about it. The very time when the Lord planned to give me the kingdom, there I was down with the Philistines offering my services to the king of Gath.” What a humbling thing it was. How it magnified the grace of God. How it brought out His wondrous grace. As someone has said, “Peter could never boast that he walked on the water.” He’s the only one of the disciples that did but he could never boast about it because, as he was walking he began to sink. He got his eyes off the Lord. Remember this brethren, if you ever have any victory in your Christian life, the Lord will always allow there to be something that keeps you humble so that you won’t be able to do any boasting, except in Him. You can always boast safely in Him. You can always say, “My boast is in the Lord.” “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 10:17) But self-confidence is a sad thing. Peter, again, was very confident another time, so confident that he thought that even if all the other disciples denied the Lord that he would not do that. But Peter had to learn that he was no better than the rest of the disciples. That self-confidence exposed him and he almost seemed to be the worst. There is nothing as sadly recorded about the other disciples as there was of that boasting Peter. Oh, let’s be careful about self-confidence. Self-confidence is such a dangerous thing. Let us never make boasts of what we can do or what we won’t do. All we say is “Lord keep me.” He’s the only One that can. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” (1 Corinthians 10:12) So we’ve noticed light and salvation and strength and confidence. “The Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.” (Proverbs 3:26)
Now here’s another one in the 4th verse, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” Now here was something that David greatly desired. Paul could say, “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth for those things which are before, I press toward the mark.” (Philippians 3:13,14) The Lord could say about Mary, “One thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part.” (Luke 10:42) Here we find that among all the other things that David might have asked the Lord for, there is one particular thing, one great thing in his life that he desired It has been said that this is so important for us. Men, looking on it naturally, who have made a success in life have been men who have applied themselves to one thing. If you and I are going to have a life that God calls successful, we need to have one object before us. David had this one object and this is what he desired. He not only desired it, he sought after it. Sometimes we have good desires, but we don’t have spiritual energy. My father used to use the expression, “Sometimes we have a good wishbone but a poor backbone.” Well, I think that’s true about us. We really have good desires but we just don’t go after those things. We say, “I’d like to follow the Lord but...” Well there needs to be not only the desire there needs to be that energy of faith that seeks after it. Someone asked Mr. Edison, “What is the secret of your success? Is it inspiration?” “No,” he said, “It’s perspiration.” He had to work. He had to keep on and you and I do too. There needs to be an energy. This is what David is talking about. “That will I seek after.” What did he desire? We all know the last verse of the 23rd Psalm, “And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Every saved person in the room knows that verse, I’m quite sure. But what about this? “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” Oh, this is something a little different than the end of the journey when we know that we’re going to be in the Father’s house. The desire of the Psalmist here was something to do with this life, “That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” To my soul it means that you and I might walk like Enoch did, in the Lord’s company. It says that Enoch walked with God three hundred years. That was a habitual thing in his life. He walked with God. May this be our desire too, that we would never lose in our souls the sense of being in company with the Lord Jesus. He said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” (Hebrews 13:5) but on our part sometimes we don’t realize His presence. We’re not conscious of it. We’re like the two on the road to Emmaus. The Lord was in their company but they weren’t aware of it. They didn’t realize that it was the Lord who was walking with them. May this be the desire of our hearts too, to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives. Notice what he adds, “To behold the beauty of the Lord.” He desired also that in doing this he would be occupied with the Lord. We can go on, so to speak, walking in the path, but we can get our eyes on our brethren instead of the Lord. But he says, “That I may behold the beauty of the Lord.” That’s very precious. When we come to the meeting to try (sometimes it takes a little bit of effort) but we need to try to be occupied with the Lord Jesus, to behold the beauty of the Lord. He is the altogether Lovely One. He’s the One who’s the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Sometimes it’s necessary for us to watch that we don’t get our eyes upon others instead of upon the Lord. “To behold the beauty of the Lord.” He is always the chiefest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely One.
Then he adds another thing here. “And to inquire in His temple.” There were decisions that David had to make. There were problems that faced him and instead of trying to settle these things with his own wisdom, he said, “And to inquire in His temple.” Now it’s a lovely thing to seek to walk close enough to the Lord that when a situation arises, we can just turn to Him like to our dearest friend and to inquire of Him. Nehemiah is a lovely example of this. There in the court of the king, immediately he could turn and ask the Lord. (Nehemiah 2:4-5) Saul on the way to Damascus when he was saved said, “Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?” (Acts 9:6) May this be the habit of our lives, that we’re close enough to the Lord that we don’t feel, “Well I’m at a distance from Him, I just can’t turn to Him spontaneously. There’s something that has to be settled between me and the Lord before I can really turn to Him.” No, David’s desire was that he would dwell in the house of the Lord. In other words, he’d always be so close that he could just turn and say, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?” Isn’t this a grand state of soul? Can’t you see why this beautiful little Psalm brings before us the resource we have in the Lord?
Now in the 5th verse, “For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall He hide me.” You know there do come times of trouble in our lives. God has never promised that we’re going to have a life that is free from trouble. Indeed we find that when Paul was exhorting the young believers, he told them that, “We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22) We notice that the Lord Jesus also said to the disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) The Lord allows these times of trouble to come in our lives and He doesn’t necessarily take us out of them, but He hides us in His pavilion. There are things that He sees fit to pass us through in our lives in order to teach us to hide in His pavilion and to find shelter in Him. Like the story of the little girl whose father was a sea captain. They were out at sea and she was down in the room below with her mother and they were sleeping. But the storm got so bad that the boat began to be tossed about and it was very, very rough. It wakened the little girl and she turned to her mother and said, “Mother, is Daddy at the helm?” Her mother said, “Yes, Dear.” And the little girl just turned over and went back to sleep. The storm didn’t stop. What was it that gave her peace? She knew who was at the helm. She knew that her daddy was there and she trusted him. Isn’t that sweet for us too? He is at the helm. He is in control. In the time of trouble, He will hide me in His pavilion. He can give us that sense of peace. I believe that’s what is referred to in Philippians 4:7 when it speaks about the peace that passeth all understanding. How a person can be peaceful when everything goes wrong is not understood by the world, but it is understood by the Christian who knows that my Lord knows the way through the wilderness. What a blessed thing this is. So, “In the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.” I thought that this expression, “And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me” suggests the thought when is the world going to realize that the Christian has something better than what they have? They’ll never realize it as long as they see us in good health, prosperity, and everything going well. They’ll say, “Of course” just like Satan said to the Lord about Job. “Well,” he said, “Of course Job’s happy. Everything comes his way. He’s got a nice family. He’s got wealth. Why shouldn’t he be happy? Anybody would be happy when everything’s going well. But take away those things and then, and then.” So the Lord said, “Well, alright Satan. Take them away and you’ll see.” So these things were taken away and Job was able to say, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21) Then when he lost his health he said, “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10) The proof of what Job had was the fact that when he was in trouble, he was above it in his soul and he was able to take it from the Lord. You know, that’s where the testimony comes to the world. When the world sees the Christian in sickness, when the world sees the Christian in some calamity that comes upon him and they see the peace, then his head is lifted up above his enemies. They say, “I laughed at that fellow’s Christianity but I must say he has something. I can see it now because I’d really be all upset if things like that happened to me, but he seems to have a peace and a joy.” That’s what he means when he says, “Now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me.” So the Lord uses these things. I believe that’s the force of that passage in Peter where it says, “They may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.” (1 Peter 2:12) When troubles come then they realize that you, as a Christian have something they don’t have. So it’s a very blessed thing that even in the time of trouble, the Christian renders a testimony to this world. We see it perfectly in the Lord Jesus. There was always such peace in His soul as He went through all the rejection and misunderstanding of the disciples. I might just add this about Job, that Job accepted the loss of his family, and the loss of his wealth. He seemed to accept that very graciously. He found it a little more difficult to accept the loss of his health. But, you know, what really bothered Job was when his friends turned against him. That really brought out what was in Job’s heart. I just want to add this little thought because, perhaps some of us have had the same experience. Maybe we’ve lost some material things and the Lord seemed to be very near. Perhaps we’ve lost our health and, still, the Lord seemed very near. But how did we react when someone said something unkind, perhaps untrue about us? Maybe that brought out something in us that wasn’t very nice. That’s what happened with Job. Why did God allow things to go from one point to another? Wasn’t it hard enough to lose his possessions? Wasn’t it hard enough to lose his health? Why did the Lord allow the other? Because the Lord was really bringing Job to the point where he would say, “I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:6) You know there’s nothing, brethren, that brings out what we are in ourselves like false accusations. That really hurts. When the Lord allows it—we often learn more about ourselves by false accusations than true ones. We only have to be honest when someone accuses us of something that’s true. We only have to be honest, to hang our heads and say, “I’m sorry, I have to admit it’s true.” But when someone accuses us of something that’s not true, oh the self-righteousness within us rises up. “Imagine, I never did a thing like that and I wouldn’t do a thing like that.” What’s that? That’s the very thing God wants to break down, that self-confidence, that pride. If Job had only said, “Well I could have done those things and I would have done them but for the grace of God. God has allowed these friends to say these things to help me to keep humble.” Job would have gotten a blessing much sooner. So I say again, God allows it to bring us to the end of our resources. What for? That we might learn that we have a full resource, a complete resource in the Lord. He’s sufficient for everything. So he says here, “Therefore will I offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea I will sing praises unto the Lord.” Isn’t it often true when the Lord has brought us to realize that we are nothing, then, there’s praise that comes out of our hearts to Him because we find then what a resource we have in Him. God blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. Job was a happier believer, a more fruitful believer in the end of his life than he had been before. The Lord sees fit sometimes to pass us through these things in order that there would be more of those sacrifices of joy, more praise to Him. Perhaps, some of us have experienced this, when the Lord has passed us through times like this He has enabled us to take it from Him and He has really produced praise. I’ve even noticed in the meeting that a brother who’s been through a great deal in his life, will often have more praise in his heart. He has learned the all-sufficiency of Christ. So you can see the order in this chapter. In the time of trouble, He hides us. He produces something in us that responds in praise.
Then He says in the 8th verse, “When Thou saidst, seek ye my face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face Lord will I seek.” Here he’s talking, not about just the words of the lips, but he’s talking about what the heart says. You know, it’s most important what the heart is saying. Scripture says, “As he (a man) thinketh in his heart so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7) We often say nice words with our lips but the Lord looks on the heart. So it says here, “My heart said unto Thee, Thy face Lord will I seek.” We know that the Lord is looking on our hearts right now. Are we really, from our hearts, seeking His face? Is it really in our hearts, not just on our lips, but in our innermost hearts the desire to live to please the Lord Jesus, to seek His face, to continually seek to walk in the light of His countenance? So when he heard that expression, “Seek ye my face,” his heart responded, “Thy face Lord will I seek.” I hope this will be the desire of my heart and of yours, that we would seek His face, that we would really seek to walk in communion with Him. That’s why the next verse now comes in, “Hide not thy face far from me; put not Thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help; leave not neither forsake me O God of my salvation.” I mentioned at the beginning of the meeting that we don’t have the full blessedness of Christian position brought before us in the Psalms. We can be sure that the Lord will never hide His face and never leave nor forsake us. But, brethren, I believe there is a moral lesson for us in this verse and I believe the lesson is just this, that the thing we ought to fear most of all is getting into the place where His face is, as it were, hidden from us. Like those two that were on the way to Emmaus, there was the Lord and they didn’t know it. Isn’t it possible for us to be just like that, going along from day to day and while the Lord is there in all the loveliness of His grace and of His kindness and of His person, we’re not conscious of His presence. We don’t realize it. There’s something that has come between. If there’s anything that has come between, it’s not on God’s part. There can be however, a veil upon our hearts. The little hymn says,
“Still sweet tis to discover,
If clouds have dimmed my sight,
When past Eternal Lover,
Towards me as e’er Thou’rt bright.”
(L.F.#2A)
So I say again, the Lord is never hiding His face, but sometimes we can let a lot of things come between. We can get caught up in the cares of this life or perhaps, have a little rebellion in our hearts about situations that have arisen. There can be just so many things and they can be just like a cloud between us and the Lord. David said, “I fear that. Lord hide not Thy face far from me.” So may the Lord grant that we might realize that the saddest thing that can happen in our life is not some calamity like happened to Job, but the saddest calamity is to lose sight of the Lord, just to be in a condition where we don’t see Him right beside us. Let a little child be in trouble and what does the child want? Immediately it looks to see, “Is Mother close by?” And the Lord wants that child-like simplicity with us, that we can just look up. May this be the desire of our hearts. To put it very simply, may we fear more than anything else, getting out of communion or fellowship with the Lord. Little foxes can be allowed and they grow into other things and these things come between us and the Lord, so that we don’t enjoy the light of His countenance. Let’s have it out with the Lord. Don’t let it remain there. If there’s anything that any of us have in our hearts that is hindering us from enjoying the Lord, it doesn’t matter what it is, let’s have it out with the Lord. Let’s be like Jacob. He wrestled all night. He said to the angel, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” (Genesis 32:26) No wonder the sun rose upon him. Twenty years before, the sun had set. It is possible to go twenty years out of fellowship with the Lord. But after twenty years the sun rose upon him. Jacob was lame the rest of his life. He halted on his thigh. Every time he took a limp he’d think, “That’s what happened, but I’m restored.” How lovely it is to see how the Lord brought him back. So I just want to say, if there’s anything with any of us that has come between us and the Lord, let’s not rest until we have it out with Him. Let us be like Jacob, let us not be willing to go without the blessing of His presence. For it says, “The Lord bless thee and keep thee: the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” (Numbers 6:24, 26)
Then in the 10th verse he says, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.” Sometimes loyalty to Christ may even mean the breaking of human ties. That is, those that we love so dearly may not quite understand or appreciate our desires to please the Lord. We do love those who are dear to us. It would never be right for us to neglect our responsibilities to them. Just like the Lord Jesus when His mother came and His brethren wanted Him to stop His service to God His father, and to come out and to speak with them. He said, “Who is my mother? And who are my brethren?” (Matthew 12:49) But when He was on the cross and His mother was in need, what did He do? There in the midst of all His own sorrow, He turned and commended her to the care of John. (John 19:26-27) Isn’t that most precious? To see in the life of the Lord Jesus the perfect illustration of this, how He would never allow His mother or His brethren to hinder Him from doing His Father’s will, but He would not neglect them either. Here father and mother may forsake us but the Lord never will. He’s the friend that sticketh closer than a brother. He never fails.
Now he says in the next verse, “Teach me Thy way O Lord and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies.” There are two things in this verse, first teach me and then lead me. Sometimes we might teach people things but we don’t walk in the things ourselves. We can say this is the way it should be, but as the world has the saying, “Your life speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you say.” But it isn’t so here. He desired that the Lord would teach him and lead him. Isn’t that what God does in His word? He’s given us the instruction that we need. There is all the instruction that we need in this precious book. God is able to teach us in the path in which we should go. “Thy way O Lord.” Are we willing to listen to His teaching? Are we willing to be like Mary who sat at Jesus feet and heard His words? Not only does He teach us, but like it says in the 10th chapter of John, “And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice.” (John 10:4) If the Lord directs us into a path, He also goes before us in that path. To me that’s very, very precious. I believe that’s why He’s spoken of as the Captain of our salvation. A captain in the army might send his men into an engagement not realizing what the men are going to have to face. But I’ve often said, the Lord will never send us into any engagement in our Christian life that He hasn’t already gone through before. He’s the Captain. All the path that we tread, He has trodden before. What a wonderful thing it is to have, not only the path marked out, but to have the Lord Himself going before. Let us not be like those in Isaiah 30. It says, “And thine ears shall hear a voice behind thee, saying, ‘This is the way, walk ye in it.’” (Isaiah 30:21) That is, we get ahead of the Lord, then the Lord speaks from behind. He’s still seeking to lead us. He sees us take a wrong turn and He’s behind. We should have let Him go before, but He’s behind us, and He says, “This is the way, walk ye in it.” Out here in this country I often appreciate it that people not only tell me the way to go, but sometimes, if there are a few complications, they say, “Well, I’ll lead you until you get to the throughway and then I’ll put you right on the freeway.” I appreciate that because, I’ve found when people tell me, “You go this way and you turn left and then you turn right,” I can’t always keep track. By the time they’ve said these two or three left and right turns, I’ve forgotten and I get a little confused. I guess they see it on my face and they say, “Well, listen, I’ll just jump in my car and go ahead of you.” They not only told me the way but they went before. That’s the kind of a Savior we have. The Psalmist felt the need to be both taught and led. He says, “Teach me and lead me in a plain path because of mine enemies.”
Then in the 12th verse he says, “Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me and such as breathe out cruelty.” I think this verse is very precious. There are times in our lives when that’s all we can say, “Deliver me.” Notice the occasion in which he said it. False witnesses had risen up against him.
When something false is said about you, it’s very, very difficult to set it right, isn’t it? Often, the harder you try, the worse it gets. So when David thought about these false witnesses, he didn’t try to set these things right. All he did was say, “Lord deliver me.” And brethren, sometimes that’s all you can do. You can’t set a thing right. You just have to leave it with the Lord. But you can always say, “Deliver me.” That’s all the Psalmist said. He said, “Things are being said. I know they’re not true.” He just committed the whole cause to the Lord. We find that most preciously in the Lord when they brought false accusations against Him. It says, “He answered him to never a word,” (Matthew 27:14) and the Scripture tells us why. It says, “When He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.” (1 Peter 2:23) Remember this, brethren, the Lord always has the record down properly. No matter what anybody says, the Lord always has the record down properly and it’s to Him we have to answer. Job argued and argued with his friends and he was never able to set them right with all his arguments. All that he said just seemed to make matters worse and they just kept on piling on to him, if I can use that expression. Poor Job, he tried and tried and then he gave up. He stopped. That’s all we can do sometimes. We just have to say, “Well I’ll leave it with the Lord.” “Deliver me,” that’s what the Psalmist said. That gives peace in the soul, because, I say again, the Lord knows. Those precious words in the letters to the churches in Revelation—in every one of them it says, “I know thy works.” No matter what they said or thought about their works, the Lord said, “I know thy works.” Isn’t that a consolation to the heart that wants to please Him?
Then he says in the 13th verse, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” That is, if you expect to see everything set right in this world, you’re discouraged right now.
That’s what he said. He said, “I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” This is not the land of the living. This is the land of the dying. But we’re going to the land of the living. We’re going to that place where everything is going to be set right, where we’re going to be just like Him. It says, “His servants shall serve Him and they shall see His face and His name shall be in their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:3-4) Then all pain and tears will be wiped away. He said, “I would be discouraged if I didn’t believe that that’s the land that I’m going to, that bright and glorious land to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” Brethren it will be the goodness of the Lord that brings us there. It will be His amazing grace if He finds anything in our lives worth rewarding because it’s all of Himself. So instead of getting occupied with things here, look to Him. I say again, if you’re expecting to see everything set right in this world I know right now that you are discouraged. But, if you are waiting for the land of the living, if you’ve got your eyes on that and you’re trying to live in the present to seek to honor and please the Lord, then you have found what the Psalmist is seeking to bring before us here, the full and blessed resource that we have in the Lord for everything in our pathway.
So he closes the little Psalm with those lovely words, “Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait I say on the Lord.” To me that little expression always makes me think of how something comes up and you don’t know just what to say. And you have a good friend and you say, “Wait, I’d like to talk it over with my friend and I’ll give you my answer tomorrow,” You have such confidence in that friend that you say, “I don’t want to answer this thing quickly. I have a friend and we like to talk things over. When we have talked it over then I’ll give the answer.” So haven’t we got such a wonderful Friend? So let’s not go ahead of Him. Let’s not run before Him. “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) Since we have such a wonderful Friend and since we have, as this little Psalm shows us, such a full and blessed resource in Himself, let’s not run ahead of Him. Let’s wait and this will give courage, this will give strength. We have such a resource in Himself. Well, may the Lord grant that we’ll prove this. We don’t know what’s ahead but we do know the One who has promised not to leave us nor forsake us. May the prayer of our hearts be, “Lead me.” “Teach me and lead me in a plain path.” He wants to lead us. He is the Captain and soon we’re going to hear the shout and He’s going to take us safely home. In the meantime, He knows the way through the wilderness and He’s the only One that does.
Hymn #288
“O Thou Whose mercies far exceed
all we can do or say...”
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