Psalm 27
Our God is my light and my deliverance, whom will I fear?
Our God is the refuge of my life, who will startle me?
When bad folks come near me to eat my flesh –
my enemies and foes – they stumble and fall.
When an army encamps against me, my heart will not fear.
When fighting arises against me, I will be confident.
One thing I asked of our God, that I will seek:
to dwell in the house of our God all the days of my life,
to see the kindness of our God and to examine God’s temple.
For God will shelter me in God’s refuge in the day of misfortune.
God will hide me by the cover of the tent, on a rock God will lift me high.
Teach me, O God, your way,
and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Do not give me over to the desire of my adversaries.
For false witnesses have arisen against me and they are blowing out violence.
I am convinced I will see the goodness of our God in the land of the living.
Wait for our God; have courage; let your heart show strength; wait for our God. (Psalm 27: 1-5, 11-14)
Faith as Trust and…
Have you ever done one of those trust fall activities? Perhaps you have seen it illustrated. People stand behind you in two lines, and you fall backward, looking forward, and you TRUST them to catch you. TRUST.
Our psalm this morning, Psalm 27 expresses trust in God.
It is a Psalm that expresses confidence in a God who will be present no matter the trials and tribulations of life and faith. We are encouraged to trust God.
Let's be clear about what we mean by trusting in God. Because it’s a pretty common phrase we throw around. In God We Trust. In fact, it’s printed on our money. It was adopted in 1956 by Congress as the official motto of the U.S. Here in Kentucky, in 2019, a bill was passed that required Kentucky public schools to display the motto "in a prominent location.”
In God We Trust. What do we mean by trusting God?
As a child in my childhood faith, we would sing a song from our modern hymnbook.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey
(Lyrics: John Henry Sammis)
In our faith, we linked together trust and obey. And the subtle message was that we weren’t just to trust and obey God. But that we were to trust our male leaders. Trust and obey the hierarchy that has been set up. So, the only way to be happy in Jesus was to know your place in the hierarchy, in the system, and to trust that that was where you were supposed to be.
That is not the kind of trust that Psalm 27 is interested in. You will notice in Psalm 27 that there is recognition of evil doers, or adversaries, of enemies. It’s a common theme in the psalms – these enemies – perhaps they can be taken literally as people but it can also be metaphorical to talk about the trials of our life. Psalm 27 insists that there will be difficult moments. There are in fact people or systems out there that want to do us harm. If I can translate it into the language of today, there are oppressive structures that are discriminatory, that are prejudice.
But the Psalmist insists that trust is to be placed in God. God is our light and deliverance. Trust in God recognizes that people are not always fair and that obedience to human systems is not always a form of trust.
That hymn from my childhood also includes this verse:
Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies
But His smile quickly drives it away
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear
Can abide while we trust and obey
(Lyrics: John Henry Sammis)
This modern hymn suggests that things like doubt, fear, and sadness are not a part of trust. The hymn suggests they cannot abide when we trust and obey. It even uses the image “not a cloud in the skies.” I’m afraid this has not been my experience of faith or of trust. And I think the psalms would agree that trust is not the opposite of doubt and fear. Trust is a companion to sadness and fear.
Psalm 27 names various adversities faced in life. Other psalms make clear that the life of faith is one of struggle, that answers are not always forthcoming, and that injustice prevails too often. In fact, that honesty about life and the full range of life is what makes the declaration of trust so incredible.
Psalm 27 concludes with trust. but not the inexperienced trust. Not the naive trust. Not the trust of platitudes. The end says, wait for our God, hope for our God. The psalm concludes by talking about courage and waiting. Trust includes both praises of our God who is our light and salvation through the difficulties of life and says to us still that Trust also includes courage and hope.
It strikes me as odd and unfortunate that the biblical notion of faith as one of trust and doubt and fear has been transformed today in many Christian circles to a message of unquestioning trust. Certainty has a way of replacing curiosity when it comes to faith. Trust and questioning have become unquestioning trust. And we are not better people of faith because of this transformation.
In God We Trust – not as a magical motto that makes all the difficulties of life simply disappear. In God We Trust – not as a way to avoid pain and loss.
We trust instead in God’s presence to be with us all our days, all our moments, even the difficult ones. We trust as we wait and hope for more justice, more freedom. We trust as we have the courage to work for a just world for all.
The Psalms testify to a way of faith that includes both trust and fear. Both trust and doubt. Faith is both.
A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)
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