Good evening, if you would take your Bibles and open them to Psalm 27, we continue our study in the Psalms, the first book of Psalms this evening, by looking at this one in Psalm 27. Now if you've got a note sheet with you, there's plenty of room to write on. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to do this however you want. There's two things I want you to write on the note sheet as we move through this. First is this phrase, renew our confidence in the Lord. So write that somewhere and we're going to be filling in what I mean by that. That's one of the points I'm going to make, one of the two. Renew our confidence in the Lord. And the second one is, revive our cry unto the Lord. Renew our confidence in the Lord, revive our cry unto the Lord. We should be good to go. But question, have you ever been stunned by something? Not taste, but stunned, and not odd, but just silenced, shocked in the face of something. What's that like? For those of you who have had that experience, what's that like? It's jarring, it can be core shaking, it can be disorienting, it can be even incapacitating. Each Sunday we ask you to fill out the prayer cards in front of you. And those come to the staff and the officers, and we pray through those often. And many of those get rolled up on this one sheet, double-sided. And so we get to see snapshot of the praises and the prayer requests. Many of the things on this sheet are jarring. Here's just a sample. Recovery from a fall. Cancer's surgery. Son who has run away. Loss of life companion. A battle with cancer. Finding a job. Loss of a mother. Major loss from flooding. Serious bacterial infection. Many of the things on this sheet, they represent other things in our lives just jarring. And this is why I think we love heaven. We love heaven because of course Jesus has gone to repair a place for us. I think we also love heaven because of what we get to leave behind. Not people, but pain. I find it very interesting that among the things that John writes in the revelation, concerning the new heavens and the new earth, the new Jerusalem, he says this, he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore. For the former things have passed away. And he who has seated on the throne said, behold, I am making all things new. It gets important for us to understand that there will be a time with no more burdens, no more weakness, no more wickedness. But while we wait so often, it feels like our lives are seasons of suffering with moments of peace and then seasons of suffering and then moments of peace. Does know what it seems like when you're confronted with something that's jarring, it's hard to make heads or tails of it. Of course it's not all bad all the time. Of course, Jesus has said those who follow him, he will reward a hundredfold in this life. An eternal life and the life to come. Paul even says in Romans 8, you know Romans 8. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who gave us his own son, did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him graciously give us all things? It's not all bad all the time. But I think John and Jesus and Paul had to say these things. We have to be reminded. The good because so much in this fallen world is jarring. It's shocking. Now we know this though, we know that there are afflictions of Christ for the church to fill up. But what amazes me about you and about me is that when the thick trouble of life just washes over us, the cancer and the job loss and the disobedient children and the financial pressure, we lose our minds. We act in ways that are not becoming followers of Christ. We are vengeful, fearful, anxious, we dabble in drink and sex and entertainment. We do almost anything to deal with our day of trouble. Beloved, you know as I do that it ought not to be this way. Paul says to us, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. So let me put it this way, the Christian life is a walk, a long walk, and not a walk like on Macalpine Greenway, right? It's like Mount Mitchell, okay, for those of you who've done that. Some days with God are joyful and walking is easy. Other days are jarring and walking worthy seems impossible. So we open up Psalm 27 and we step into a world that's very much like ours. We don't know the details, but we know there's a man very much like you and me, working very hard not to lose his mind in his jarring circumstances. He is having to live in a day of trouble. So that's what this Psalm is about and that's what this sermon is about. Christian living in our days of trouble. Now that trouble can be health trouble, it can be job trouble, it can be marriage trouble, it can be parenting trouble, school trouble, legal trouble. But you and I still have the obligation to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. Psalm 27 is a guide for the walk. It's a guide for the walk. Now it is an unusual Psalm in that the first few verses seem very different than the next few. But the backdrop of both halves of this Psalm is a day of trouble. So the question is, the question for us, the question in this Psalm is designed to answer is, how do we live in our day of trouble? Two parts. In the day of trouble, the Christian must renew his confidence in the Lord and then revive his cry out to the Lord. Now first, this day of trouble doesn't create confidence. It creates its opposite, right? Days of trouble create fear, uncertainty. It can't be avoided, but these things come to us from the Lord that we would lift our eyes first to him to renew our confidence. So let's read Psalm 27 beginning in verse 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? When evil doers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army and camp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord that I will 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. The Psalmist renews his confidence in the Lord first by focusing on the covenant keeping Lord. We see it in the very words. You see the word Lord. That's the ESV is helpful for us. It capitalizes it. That is God's covenant name. His personal relational name of promise. 13 times in this Psalm. In the day of trouble, the Psalmist does not forget. Works hard not to forget that the covenant Lord is with him. It brings us back to the God of Abraham and Moses and David who made unbreakable promises. To be God to them at all times in all circumstances. Genesis 17 verse 5. I that as God will establish my covenant between me and you, Stalk in Abraham and your offspring after you. Throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant. To be God to you and your offspring after you. Beloved in our days of trouble, what are we usually seeking from the Lord? Power. We most often look to the Lord for power. Power that he would use to change our circumstances. The Psalmist goes to God first on the basis of the promise. The Lord, he knows, exercises his great power on behalf of those he's promised to love. It's against the backdrop of God's promises that the Psalmist speaks of the Lord as his light, his salvation, his refuge. So, in verse 1, that's where he calls the Lord. The Lord is my light and my salvation. These two things intimately connected. Where there is light, there is no more confusion. A day of trouble brings darkness. It brings uncertainty. It brings things we can't control, things we can't describe. But the Lord is the light. You see clearly what was them before. But he is our salvation. In the day of trouble and the darkness you walk and you don't know what's beyond your next step. But the Lord has saved us. There is no destruction. You see the real end of things. Rather than what you feel will be the end of things. No matter the trouble, the Lord will find him and rescue him, redeem him and care for him. This confidence the Psalmist is explaining is similar to what Micah writes about in Micah chapter 7. Rejoice not over me, O my enemy. When I fall, I shall rise. When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. Not just a light and a salvation, but a stronghold or a refuge. To be found, to be rescued by the Lord means to be made safe. To be out of the trouble of the Lord. See the Psalmist believes that in the care of his covenant Lord, his light, his salvation, his refuge, fear makes no sense. Look at it. Whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid? In the light of the covenant Lord, fear has no home. There is no room for fear. But there is more. Verse two, when evil doers assail me to eat of my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army and camp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war rises against me, yet will I be confident? The Psalmist makes several statements of fact. Evil doers, adversaries and foes, they stumble and fall. In our day of trouble, we need divine facts like that. God's management of the universe, evil, adversaries, foes, they fall. It's that simple. Now their fall might be their destruction before our eyes, or it might be condemnation of the judgment seed, but fall they will. So why am I afraid? In your day of trouble, why are you afraid? He even says great armies. In fact, even the greatest of threats pose no real threat. No real threat to those who are in covenant with the one true and living God. No legitimate reason for fear, or reason to lose confidence in the Lord. In fact, in these verses of Psalmist says no matter how great and threatening a danger is, I refuse to be afraid I am confident in the Lord. Since all this is true, that in reality, because of the covenant Lord, I have no reason to fear, then beloved, our greatest need, our most urgent request, should have nothing to do with our day of trouble. Our most urgent need, greatest need, urgent request, should have really nothing to do with our day of trouble. It has nothing to do with God acting in His power to change my circumstances. Look at verse 4, and here's what I mean. One thing have I asked of the Lord that I will 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. The one thing He asks is to be ever in the presence of the Lord, to dwell in His house, to have an intimate nearness, to close with the Lord. He knows there He can gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. He can be awed at the character of God, the power of God, the love of God, the strength of God, the holiness of God. It's all found there. There He can inquire or meditate upon the precepts of the Lord. In the presence of the Lord, the day of trouble screams at us. In the presence of the Lord, we listen to the Lord.
Don't forget, He is in the midst of this day of evil. We would expect that His request would be something about that, but His confidence in the Lord, even in His day of trouble, is so great that He wants nothing but to close with the Lord and to be in His presence, gaze upon His glory and His holiness, and listen to the wisdom of His Word. Beloved, do we pray like that in our days of trouble? Do we gaze? Do we long to gaze upon the greatness of God? Or are you and I so caught up in the pettiness of our days of trouble that we would lose confidence in the Lord who is made and kept covenant with us? Verse 5, why would He make this prayer? For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble. He would conceal me under the cover of His tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. In the presence of the Lord, there He will be truly protected from the danger of His trouble. That trouble will break upon the Lord like waves on a strong wall, but it will not touch Him there in the presence of the Lord. He will be truly concealed from all of those who desire evil against Him. He will be hidden from them out of their sight, out of their aim. There He will be truly set upon the firmness of the kingdom of God. And what would that be like? Look at verse 6, 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. In the presence of the Lord, it's as if the psalmist has completely forgotten the day of trouble. And instead, He lifts up His head. Instead of being beaten down by His enemies, He lifts up His head in confidence. He offers sacrifices of joy in His tent. No more groans of complaint He will sing to the Lord. Instead of wailing on the day of trouble. So two points of application here. Beloved in a day of trouble, a Christian can find His confidence renewed in the certainty of the covenant. Because in relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, we belong to God. This confidence of psalmist has is for Christians. No person who lives for his own pleasures most of the time and pitles in church a little bit over here need have this confidence. Can have this confidence. Inside the tent, inside the covenant, the promises of God abound. Beloved all who repent of their sins, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, life, death and resurrection, are joined to God in this covenant and have free and open access to all of the sights and sounds of God. Peter says, repent therefor and turn back that your sins may be blotted out that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. If you, if you've trusted in Jesus Christ, you have this access. You can have this confidence in your day of trouble. It doesn't come any other way but through Christ. But in Christ, it flows freely. All you must do is lift your eyes from your trouble and onto Him in prayer. Secondly, second application here. Lifting our eyes to the Lord as our first response and our day of trouble gives us a shot at having hope and hope leads to confidence. The psalmist never forgets his trouble. Have you noticed that? He's never forgets his trouble. He just looked instead to the riches of the Lord. He lost sight of the power of the trouble in face of the promises of God. He counted all the ways the Lord is superior to his trouble. Beloved in your day of trouble, it's so easy to focus on the minutia of the trouble. We inspect it, we dissect it, we pull it apart, we turn it over, we put it back together. Any way that we can find to deal with the stay of trouble. But you know why don't we do the same things with the covenant Lord? Why don't we inspect the promises of God? Why don't we lift up Jesus Christ and see that in His shadow, in the shadow of the cross, there is no reason for fear. He is our light. He is our salvation. He is our stronghold. You see how much confidence is found in this song. When he looked to the Lord, he saw the light of the Lord, the salvation of the Lord, the refuge of the Lord, the victory of the Lord. And you know what, the more he looked, the more he saw. Did you notice how that flowed from whom shall I fear to? Great armies encamped around me, and now will not lose confidence. Remember what will become of those who cause us trouble, Beloved. It is they who stumble and fall. Remember what will become of the one who trusts in the Lord during his time of trouble. His head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around. Renewing our confidence in the Lord is the first step in living in our day of trouble. But you know, in my own life, and I know in many of yours, the temptation in my day of trouble is silence. My favorite animal in this way would be a turtle. You tap the turtle, what happens to the turtle. Everything goes in. That is like me. In my day of trouble, I am like a turtle getting bopped on the head, and I just drag it all in the shell man. It is all in now. I retreat, silence, pouting, introspective consternationism. I just made that up. When I am in the shell, there is usually nothing going on in there either. Communication is quiet, prayers quiet. The only thing that is happening to me is me grinding my teeth about something. And that is you, not all of you. Renewed confidence in the character and the work of the Lord is the beginning of how we can live in this day of trouble. Because the presence of the Lord fills us. And then orient us, properly prepares us to step out of the tent of God. Because beloved, all of what I read to you on this prayer sheet, these things still remain. Many of them, and they will. God expects us to walk in our day of trouble, but when our first thoughts are of him, then we can rightly revive our cry out to him, which is our second point. Now, I mentioned that the psalm is cut in two pieces. These next verses read very differently than the previous ones. Somethings happened to the psalmist. Somethings happened that has made him desperate, demanding. God has sent him out of the tent, non-punishment, but in order to live in his day of trouble. Let's begin at verse 7. Here, 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 mother and my father have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord. Lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. First false witnesses have arisen against me, and they breathe out violence. What happens to the psalmist is a poetic version of what I think happened to the Apostle Paul. Paul wrote of this in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Let me read just a little bit. I know a man. This is Paul now. I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise. Any heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. So to keep me from becoming conceded because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh. A messenger of Satan to harass me. To keep me from becoming conceded. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me, but he said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power has made perfect in weakness. Doesn't this sound like our psalmist experience? He was just ushered into the third heaven, the dwelling place of the Lord. He saw the Lord and his confidence was renewed, and then he was sent out again. Just like Paul was. A messenger of Satan, you could call that a day of trouble for Paul. He pleaded with the Lord to remove it, but God did not. If you read verses 7-12 of our Psalm, you might think that the psalmist knew nothing of the covenant keeping more. The language is so raw, it's so desperate, even demanding. And it's because, beloved, our days of trouble, our days of trouble. Cancer is scary, divorce, rips apart what God had put together. Death brings great grief, job loss, uncertainty and fear. It all feels overwhelming. Beginning in verse 7, we have to see that even in the day of trouble, the psalmist recognized the Lord. He says, here, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. He remembers God's gracious responses in the past. He still believes God will hear and answer him. Look at verses 9 and 10, I'll read them for you. In verse 12, hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. Cast me not off, forsake me not. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. Does this sound like the psalmist of the first few verses? It sounds like many of you have sounded when I visited you in the hospital or at the funeral home. Or after your spouses walked out or after you've lost your job or after you've found a child in sin or sounds like me. So, hide not your face from me. You see the psalmist, he leans into cry out. He has the confidence of the Lord being his light and his salvation and his stronghold. And so, he leans in and he says, hide not your face from me. Don't act as if I'm a stranger. Turn not your servant away in anger. Don't send me away empty handed. Cast me not off, don't throw me outside of your promises. forsake me not. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. Don't let my adversaries be vindicated in their evil. The day of trouble is jarring like that. It becomes raw like that. The psalmist is not sin as he utters these pleas to the Lord. He doesn't attribute malice or evil to the province of God. He is utterly jared by his day of trouble. He leans in again in verse 11, teach me your way, O Lord. Lead me on a level path because of my enemies. He cries out for guidance. Our days of trouble are not easily understood. When some terrible event happens and some without reasonable explanation, we need wisdom. We need insight. We need a perspective that transcends our own. The psalmist demonstrates his inability to interpret. I know that your day of trouble brings that same confusion to you as it does to me. Lead me on a level path he says. Some 5 verse 8 says, lead me, O Lord, in your righteousness because of my enemies. Make your way straight before me. The psalmist believes that God is still true to his promises. Such that he will lead him up out of the valley of this day of trouble. Three points, the application here, the first. Don't be surprised by being shattered in your day of trouble. Don't be alarmed about how jarring it can be. The psalmist, like the apostle Paul, lived on the high heights of praise one moment and then the depths of desperation the next. The day of trouble can do that. He went from statements of victory and shout songs of joy to begging the Lord not to turn him away in anger. Is this some flaw in the psalmist, some lack of faith? Beloved, what if our days of trouble are just sometimes so earth-shaking that were shattered by them? This psalm gives us permission to be shattered. It doesn't allow us to stay that way without hope you see. Because even the psalmist clings to the Lord even though his trouble is great. But we in the church, we don't make much room in our lives for days of trouble. We mistakenly believe that once we are converted our days of trouble are behind us. You might know that's not true. But our response is often betray our real belief that that shouldn't be true. Secondly, there are no turtles allowed in the day of trouble. The psalmist cried out in desperate pleas to the Lord. He didn't stay inside his shell. He leaned out of it to beg and to plead with the Lord. His prayers were raw and they were basic and they were full of expectation. There's a lexical hint, a word hint. Look at verse 8. The ESP picks this up in a footnote. Seek. Seek. It's a plural. It's addressed to the community. In your day of trouble, when you are losing your mind, as I like to say, others in the church are not. You think everyone is losing your mind just like you. Everyone is troubled just like you. But it's not true. In fact, there are those in your midst who have walked down the very same path, been ministered to by the Lord and now stand just waiting to minister to you in your day of trouble. Paul says so. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted by God. Perhaps your wife is not losing her mind. Perhaps a men in your men's group is not. Perhaps Pastor Creswell is not. Maybe John Haynes is not. Your anchor leader is not. Someone is always above the fray of your day of trouble. Someone in here, someone in the church, someone will remind you of Jesus' words, come to me all who labor and have you laid and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. Someone will point you to the peaceful presence of the Holy Spirit. Someone will look back at the history of your life with God and show you that he's faithful to his promises. He didn't hide his face from you. He didn't turn you away in anger. He didn't forsake you. He didn't cast you away. Someone will do this for you as long as your seeking of the Lord is not a secret. Thirdly, do not fear that God will reject your shattered response in your day of trouble. Don't be afraid that by you being jarred by your trouble, that God will reject you. That he will look away from you until you fix yourself. God's severity in your life is not a sign of his hatred. You understand that. When you were in Jesus Christ, God's severity in your life is not a sign of his hatred. My son does not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord. Nor be wary when we're proved by him for the Lord disciplines the one he loves. Chastises every son whom he receives. It's for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating his sons for what son is there whom his father does not discipline. All who follow Christ, we don't suffer so that God can weed out those he really doesn't want in heaven. Are you afraid to grieve because you believe your shakiness is unacceptable to the Lord? Being utterly jarred by a day of trouble makes perfect sense because we belong to Jesus Christ. It's profoundly confusing to be troubled and to hold to the promises. But God has delivered both. He understands this. The day of trouble makes us wonder about God's disposition so we have to cry out to him. Insist that he not forget his promises to us. I know it sounds strange but we must insist to the Lord that he not forget. Because all the promises of God find there yes in Christ. That's why it's through him that we utter our amen to the glory of God. The Psalmist almost demanded that the Lord act consistently with his promises. In your day of trouble you must do also because you know what will happen. You plead with the Lord to attend to his promises. The Psalmist says this in Psalm 40. He waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me. He heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction. Out of the Mari Bog, set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth. A song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in him. God will rise up in love and in power and he will either pluck you out of your day of trouble or fill you with his Holy Spirit with great strength so that you can have confidence to take those steps in it. Verse 13. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord and the land of the living. The confidence of the Psalmist comes back and it comes back thunderously. The goodness of the Lord and the land of the living. He believes he shall see the end of his day of trouble in his own time. Psalm 23. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell on the house of the Lord forever. The Psalmist, we don't hold to this courage as a fool. We know the covenant keeping Lord. It's very consistent with him to resurrect his goodness in the land of the living. Verse 14. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. The goodness of the Lord and the land of the living. It's coming but we must wait for it. This goodness will come to us in time. It's particularly difficult when our days of trouble become weeks of trouble, months of trouble, years of trouble. Psalm is a prayer. It's an informed prayer. It's filled with the history of the Lord's faithfulness. It's an earnest prayer pleading and even begging. But as a prayer, it ends with no visible action often. It's not as if prayers are ineffective, but prayers most often take time to complete. In other words, answers aren't usually swift as they come from the Lord in his perfect timing. In their slowness, we can lose heart and sometimes lose our minds, which is why again is so important for us to see the one thing the Psalm has prayed for. He may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, gaze upon the beauty of the Lord to inquire in his temple. Beloved, while our days of trouble run their course, sometimes in our lifetimes, sometimes beyond, our confidence comes in the Lord of the covenant, renew your confidence in Him. He is your light, your salvation, your stronghold. And let that renewed confidence revive your cry out to the Lord. And our great high priest, Jesus Christ, who stands in session with the Father will deliver the prayers of his own people to God. The God of promise and the Lord promise will act. Let's pray. Our Father and our God, again, you have reoriented our hearts even in the darkest times. Lord, among us there are men and women, boys and girls in days of trouble. And I pray, O Lord, that you would use this word and buy your Holy Spirit, that they, that we would have our confidence renewed because it is the covenant keeping God who overwatches our lives. It is the Holy Spirit who groans in prayers that make them acceptable. It is our Lord Jesus who stands beside you, Father. So we pray, O Lord, that in our day of trouble you would embrace us with the Spirit and the Word and the Church. That many will see and fear and put their trust in you forever. Amen.