Psalm 27:1, 4-9 (NRSV)
Read Psalm 27:1, 4-9 on biblegateway.com
Verse 1The 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?
Verse 4One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live 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.
Verse 5For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.
Verse 6Now my head is 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.
Verse 7Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
Verse 8"Come," my heart says, "seek his face!" Your face, Lord, do I seek.
Verse 9Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation!
Devotion
The psalms often engage God's prophetic imagination by speaking into existence a reality that has not yet been realized. When the writer asks, "Whom shall I fear?" he could likely compose a very long list of answers to that question. Enemies are surrounding him and there is a healthy fear that God has left him altogether. But in the middle of his desperate situation his question becomes a rhetorical sign of a rebellious hope. In spite of all evidence to the contrary he believes that he will see the face of God and that there is nothing to fear. "Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase" (Martin Luther King, Jr.).
How many of you are seeing no evidence of a way out? How many of you are in the "day of trouble?" Do you have the faith to take God to task for God's yet-to-be-fulfilled promises? Do you have the psalmist's audacity to cry out to God loudly, "Do not hide your face from me!"? Speak it loud. Speak it again and again until it is so. God hears our cries and shines light on our darkness.
Prayer
Do not hide your face from me.
Do not hide your face from me.
Do not hide your face from me.
Hear my voice when I call.
Hear my voice when I call.
Hear my voice when I call.
Do not reject or forsake me.
Do not reject or forsake me.
Do not reject or forsake me. Amen.