Before we sing together our psalm for the day, consider the story behind the words.
This psalm, attributed to David, speaks of vulnerability and fear.
Powerful enemies are at hand and the songwriter feels abandoned, alone, in need of refuge.
Trembling and afraid, he claims that false witnesses have spoken against him.
The psalmist’s enemies have broken the 10th commandment by bearing false witness.
He has been misunderstood and misrepresented. His whole life and future
have been put in question and he has found himself in significant distress.
(James Mays, Interpretation Bible Commentary)
Even so, even in the midst of this difficult time,
the psalmist proclaims confidence in the goodness of God. Trust is intertwined with lament.
Even though his own father and mother may have forsaken him,
and deserted him in his time of need, still he trusts in the Lord.
Even though loved ones and friends have proved faithless,
still he knows that God will be faithful.
God’s love will be more reliable than that of even father and mother,
and the psalmist will trust, or at least hope, that God will rescue him once again.
(Arnold Rhodes, Layman’s Bible Commentary)
Psalm 27
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 evildoers assail me to devour my flesh—
my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear;
though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.
One 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.
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 set me high on a rock.
Now 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.
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, do I seek. Do 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!
If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.
Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence.
I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage;
wait for the Lord!
Vulnerability and fear are a part of our human condition.
A friend posted on Facebook a few days ago that human fear and trust in God
are closely related. For the person who desires faith, humble grasping for God’s goodness
tends to follow closely the desperate prayer for help.
When a person of faith becomes aware of one’s own vulnerability,
trust, or at least the desire for trust, becomes reactivated.
When one reaches the end of one’s own resources, anxiety is transformed into prayer.
Someone once wrote that the opposite of trust in God is fear of human beings.
Many people in our world know fear and vulnerability for good reason.
Human beings are dangerous to one another,
not simply by the acts of physical violence we perpetrate upon one another,
but by the words we say, by the slander and lies that we tell about each other.
But falsehood will not be the last word, the psalmist proclaims.
A world of lies will not be the world in which we ultimately dwell.
Jesus proclaimed, “I am the truth…”
“If you continue in my word, you will be my disciples;
and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32¬)
The members of the church in Corinth were not free.
There were significant divisions among them. Factions had developed.
Put any group of people together and ultimately someone is going to start making alliances.
In Corinth, some said, “I belong to Apollos,” one of the local leaders in the church.
Others claimed, “I belong to Paul”, the one who founded the church.
Paul wrote – do not we all belong to Jesus Christ!?
Hear the Word of God from I Corinthians 1:10-18:
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you,
but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose.
For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you,
my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’,
or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’
Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius,
so that no one can say that you were baptized in my name.
(I did baptize also the household of Stephanas;
beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.)
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to proclaim the gospel, and not with eloquent wisdom,
so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its power.
For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing,
but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are caught up in quarrelling and divisions,
but to those who are being saved it is the power of God.
The message of the cross – that Christ has come to tear down the walls between human beings –
is foolishness to some.
The message of the cross – that Christ has come to reconcile us to God
and to reconcile all the factions with one another – this is the power of God.
We have heard much about the great divisions in our nation.
There were throngs of people who attended the inauguration and the fancy balls on Friday.
There were other throngs of people who marched on Saturday.
Some are saying “I belong to Trump”; others were crying out “I belong to Obama”;
still others hold signs that say, “I still belong to Hillary”…
Yes, we are a nation divided over certain social issues, or economic policies,
or direction of foreign trade agreements, but ultimately, we are very fortunate people.
We live in a nation that held yet another peaceful transition of power
from one President to the next.
We live in a nation where hundreds of thousands could march yesterday in peace
with no one becoming violent, with only a few, if any, being harassed or arrested.
The USA is still a wonderful experiment in democracy. We are a light to the world.
We are a place of hope for the hopeless, a stronghold and refuge for those yearning to be free.
On Wednesday morning this past week, our dear friend and church member Nestorine Lakas,
a refugee from the war-torn Central African Republic,
was sworn in as a citizen of the United States of America.
Nestorine had to flee from her village because warfare came to her doorstep.
She delivered her beautiful son by the side of the road as she and others escaped violence.
She then spent years in a refugee camp hoping for some door to open to her.
She arrived in the Atlanta airport with her two young children
and little more than the clothes on their backs.
Today, she stands proud as a citizen of a free and peaceful nation
and she joins us in our pledge of allegiance to our republic,
“One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
What pulls against trust in the Lord is fear of human beings.
Nestorine, more than most of us, knows the fear of human beings.
She has witnessed humankind’s inhumanities. She has suffered want and need and violence.
And yet, when arriving in this country, she told an aid worker that she wanted to go to church.
Nestorine was raised in the church, a Presbyterian church,
and wanted to find a Presbyterian church for worship in her new country.
In the midst of fear and vulnerability, she wanted to renew and encourage her trust in the Lord.
Yesterday, there were more than 600 marches across the globe in support of civil liberties
and human rights. Millions of women and men took to the streets to march in peace.
Some of you are aware that I participated with some 60,000 others
in the Atlanta Women’s March. Someone asked me why I marched.
I am not typically a protestor. I am not overly political.
I generally seek to understand both sides of a political argument,
to examine any particular issue or platform through the lens of faith,
and then vote my conscience.
I realized why I marched when I saw my favorite sign.
There were many interesting and some humorous signs on the streets of Atlanta yesterday.
To be honest, I did not really like the signs that were against anyone or anything.
What I did like were the signs that were for…
for people, for women, for biblical mandates of justice and righteousness.
My favorite was a sign held high by a tall gentleman in a poncho.
The sign had a dozen arrows pointing in all directions toward the women all around him.
In the middle, the sign read: “I’m with her”.
It was not a campaign sign for one person;
it was a sign proclaiming support for all women, for all who may feel vulnerable and afraid.
Ultimately, that is why I decided to join my wife and our associate pastors yesterday,
to show my support for all who may feel vulnerable and afraid.
One of the news shows last night asked: why are they afraid?
What rights do they not have?
Throughout human history, who can argue that the female gender and people of color
and people who are attracted to the same gender have had many good reasons
to feel vulnerable and afraid, to feel as if their rights are constantly in danger?
I marched yesterday because I am with those who could feel vulnerable and afraid.
I am with my wife, with my sisters, and with my female coworkers.
They each deserve respect in the way that they are treated,
equal pay for equal work, access to affordable health care,
and the opportunity to fulfill their life’s calling.
I am with those vulnerable and fearful women who knock on our church door,
who come to Threshold Ministry for help and hope.
I am with Nestorine and the women who supported her efforts to find stability
and gain citizenship.
I am with our Global Village girls who know that getting an education
is critical for combatting poverty and gaining independence from government programs.
I am not against our new President; I am praying for him every day.
I am not against his ardent supporters, who felt the need for a new direction.
But I am most certainly with any human being who is made to feel vulnerable and afraid,
including those rural blue collar workers who are economically afraid,
who drove the results of the election because they fear for their future.
Are you afraid? Who or what is it that you fear?
Fear will ultimately drive people apart and create divisions.
Faith and worship and peaceful demonstration can bring people together for the common good.
The Lord is our light and our salvation; whom shall we fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of our life; of whom shall we be afraid?
Even in midst of songs of praise, even in midst of God’s holy place,
still fears creep in…the psalmist cries:
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
‘Come,’ my heart says, ‘seek his face!’
Your face, Lord, do I seek. Do 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!
The greatest fear for the person of faith is the absence of God.
The greatest fear is that we would be judged according to our deeds
and not according to God’s mercy.
The greatest fear is that we will call out in our time of need and no one will answer.
The exercise of religion has received a bad rap over the past decades.
“I am spiritual but not religious”, people say.
In some ways, that may be a sign of an affluent and mostly untroubled people.
In the time of trouble, the psalmist asks for one thing alone – to be in the temple,
to be in the place where God’s beauty and grace are more likely to be known,
to find hope in the place where God’s guidance often comes,
through words of holy scripture or the comforting presence of a friend.
One of the key verbs is our psalm for today is “seek” or “seek after”.
The psalmist cries out, I will seek your face, O Lord.
What is it that we are seeking in our daily lives?
Are we seeking the face of the Lord?
Are we seeking first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness?
Or are we seeking to secure ourselves, or seeking the satisfaction of our desires?
Are we seeking God’s will? Are we seeking to be faithful disciples?
Or are we seeking after money and possessions or after social place and position?
One thing I seek after, the psalmist claims – to live, to dwell, to abide in the house of the Lord.
This is not musings of a child who has not lived much life,
but the musings of a mature adult who has been through the miry bog and the desolate pit.
This is the faith claim of the one who has put their trust in princes and mortals,
only to be disappointed,
who has gone astray following their own desire, only to find themselves lost and alone.
Hide me, O Lord, protect me, teach me;
do not reject me or hide from me or cast me off.
I will seek your face. I will dwell in your holy place.
I will delight in and meditate on your Word.
Whatever fear may creep into your soul,
whomever or whatever may cause you to feel vulnerable…
Be strong, O my soul. Take courage. Wait for the Lord.
Rev. Dr. Todd Speed
Decatur Presbyterian Church
Decatur, Georgia
January 22, 2017
