God is Faithful
Psalm 27v7-14
1st November 2024
Today we complete our study of Psalm 27. In this Psalm, David has affirmed his confidence that God would keep him alive, even though he was living as a refugee, hiding from the forces of King Saul. He has written of his deep desire to live in God's house and commune with Him there, and he has declared that God would keep him safe in His sanctuary. We've seen that David must have been referring to God's perfect, heavenly sanctuary, which shows that David firmly believed in eternal life for God's people. In the light of all that he's already said, David now enters into prayer:
Psalm 27v7-9
Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, "Seek his face!"
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Saviour.
David was a man after God's own heart. He loved the Lord, and he knew the Lord loved him. He was also a sinner. David knew he didn't deserve God's favour. He knew he needed God's mercy. He knew he deserved God's anger. Many years after he wrote this psalm, he wrote Psalm 51, which begins:
Psalm 51v1-3
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
I'm the same. I love God. I know God loves me. I know I still sin. I know I don't deserve to be saved. I need to be forgiven, again and again. I expect you know the same about yourself. But God is faithful:
1 John 1v8-9
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and
purify us from all unrighteousness.
David's heartfelt prayer was "Do not hide your face from me". Relationship with God in prayer and worship was his deep desire. When we know we've sinned, it can be harder to pray, and we can be tempted to think God will turn His face away from us, because we know that's what we deserve. However, David trusted in God's faithfulness and forgiveness. He knew that:
Psalm 27v10
Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
We've probably all known the pain of rejection at some time in our lives, some of us perhaps even from our parents, and we may experience it in the future. But God will never reject us or forsake us (Hebrews 13v5). He promised this not because we're so wonderful, but because God has chosen us, because the finished work of Jesus Christ, who gave himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, is sufficient to pay for all our wrongdoing, and because the Holy Spirit is able to keep us in the faith. We will always remain saved, always remain God's chosen people. Our future in glory is assured. This is entirely due to His grace and power, not to anything good in us. And because that's true, we can rely on it.
David prays:
Psalm 27v11-12
Teach me your way, Lord;
lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.
David understood that doing things God's way leads to blessing, and doing things contrary to God's way leads to problems. I expect we've all done both. So he prayed for God's wisdom and God's leading. David did sometimes stray a long from God's path, and he paid a heavy price for it. We pray, "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil", but we all choose to succumb to temptation sometimes. So it's good – isn't it? – to pray that God gives us more self-control, and a greater love for His ways. Then we will slowly become more Christlike.
Psalm 27v13
I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living.
David, hiding in caves and deserts and forests, knew some hard times. He also had some great victories and saw God do marvellous things. You and I will know hard times, but we've also seen God do great things, and He will continue to do great things. I pray for the next English revival. I hope you do.
Psalm 27v14
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.
Never give up. Never despair. Never imagine God has deserted you, whatever you've done. Never imagine God has deserted the English church, despite the many errors we've made. Be strong in your determination to trust the God who created the heavens and the earth. Take heart. The Lord is good! Sometimes we have to wait for the Lord. The culture in which we live hates to wait for anything. We know better. It's good to wait for the Lord. He will come.
So, what will you make your top priority? How will you live? Who will you trust – God's strength or yours, God's wisdom or yours? Will you seek first the kingdom of God, or will you allow the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth (Matthew 13v22) to choke the word of God in you? Will you try to sort out your own life, your own problems, your own future by yourself, or will you seek God in the holy place, and wait with confidence for Him to speak and to act? God is faithful and infinitely powerful. He will always love you. He will never reject you.