00:00:00 It\'s good to see you all again. Well, as Pastor JP alluded to many years ago, he asked me to put together a workshop, right? It was on a Sunday, a couple Sundays. And so I went off and did my homework, and it was interesting. There was something that I had learned in preparing for that workshop that I still carry with me to this day, that I still kind of wrestle with. 00:00:30 And for those of you who were there, you may remember this, but I bring it back again, and everything comes full circle sometimes. And that is this, is we\'re in the series of the Psalms. Beautiful literature studied around the world by scholars and religious leaders alike. Just for the beauty of the word structure, the poetry, it\'s been translated into hymns and the like, and you get it on T-shirts. 00:01:05 And as I was preparing for that workshop many years ago, one of the things I was really interested in was the internet technology at the time let you see what people were searching for in terms of the Bible. The online Bibles were collecting, surprise, your searches, and they would compile lists of top verses for the year. And that was really interesting to me, what do people gravitate towards? And so you could find this online. 00:01:44 And what I learned was that the New Testament authors also quote the Old Testament. Jesus, in his teaching, cites, in fact, the Psalms the most. And the other authors, like Paul, cite the Psalms. And you would think, at least in my logic, that what is popular to us, you and I, what we love to memorize, what we love to teach our kids in Sunday school, what we love to put on the T-shirts. 00:02:20 What you would think that what we love and what we\'re interested in and what we remember is also the same thing that Paul and Jesus would have taught as well, you\'d think, right? That kind of makes sense, because wouldn\'t we be inspired by the same things and kind of converge and come together? And what really bothered me at the time, and still bothers me to this day, is this following. Is the slide that I put together, which just shows that actually they don\'t align. 00:02:56 I thought, oh, maybe if you go down the list far enough, top five, top 10, you\'ll have some overlap. And they don\'t. And it\'s very troubling to me. You would think that Jesus, when he was teaching about facing adversity, and fear, and struggle, why would Jesus not cite Psalm 23? I guess, Pastor JP, you preached on that last week, right? And it\'s not to say that he didn\'t, because we don\'t know what he taught outside of what was captured in the Gospels. 00:03:38 So I\'m not saying that he never taught about that. We don\'t know that. But what the Gospel authors wrote about and what the Epistles capture are references to the Psalms that aren\'t really what\'s popular to you and I. And I wrestle with that a lot. And it makes me think maybe there\'s more. 00:04:06 Maybe there\'s more to specifically the Psalms than inspiration to kind of get us aligned with our day and our week when we\'re feeling, in this psalm that we\'re studying today, when we\'re feeling fearful, for example. I need a little inspiration, a little pickup. Ah, I\'ll remember this one, right? There\'s nothing wrong with inspiration. It\'s great when we\'re feeling fearful or down or discouraged. 00:04:42 But I think what I\'ve concluded is we miss out when we don\'t see that there\'s actually another layer that God wants to reveal to us. And so that\'s really the approach I\'m going to take today, and I hope you sit on that and you get bothered too, just like [laughs] I have been all these years. And I still wrestle with that. And it\'s like, that is so interesting. That the things that we are interested in sometimes are not the same things that we\'re being pointed to, to look at. 00:05:22 Here\'s the top, just for what I was saying earlier. Right side is what\'s popular today. Maybe the order changes, but if you can see, those are things that we resonate with. Very popular. And on the left side, those are the top that are referenced in the New Testament by the New Testament authors. The numbers don\'t line up, and you can keep going down. You can go top 10. Eventually, yeah, there\'ll be some connection, but you would think that there\'d be greater overlap. So what\'s going on? 00:05:57 The New Testament authors are trying to point to And make the argument, and proclaim that the King, the Saviour of God\'s people that was promised to in the scriptures, is in fact Jesus. Jesus is that one. Jesus is the Christ, the King, the Christos, the Messiah, Mashiach. And citing the scriptures of old, those are the breadcrumbs, the clues that God has inspired along the way to be written. And looking back, you go, \"Wow, it is true. In fact, he is the one. He is the one.\" 00:06:57 And so when we go through the Psalm today, I\'m going to kind of share with you the thoughts that I was wrestling with, and overlay on top of that, well, how do we view Psalm 27 in light of what Jesus has accomplished? Psalm 27 isn\'t cited, it turns out [chuckles] in the New Testament. There\'s 100 what? 150 Psalms, something like that. So not all of them are referenced. So what do we do with the Psalm 27 besides look at it as inspiration, pointing to God\'s glory, his providence? 00:07:52 How do we apply that to your situation in life when you face fears? As was prayed earlier or as mentioned earlier, yeah, we are in a very interesting time right now of struggle. A lot of struggle, of pain and suffering, and with that comes a lot of fear. So how do we apply this to our situation that is more than just, dare I say, as a poetic. It feels good. We walk away from here and, ah, it feels good. Let\'s go. 00:08:28 And then Monday rolls around, maybe not even Monday, just this afternoon rolls around. You got [chuckles] everything you got to go to, and suddenly you\'re back to whatever it was that we were doing. So let\'s start with Psalm 1. It says, \"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?\" Well, there it is. Sets the tone for this poem, this Psalm. It is proclaiming, David is believed to be the author. 00:09:07 He\'s proclaiming that, if God is on my side, if he is the only God, the creator, why should I be afraid? And that is true. But then how do you apply that to, well, but you don\'t know my boss. [chuckles] You don\'t know my situation. I got so much pressure. You don\'t know my kids. You don\'t know my parents. How do I apply this? Well, it\'s interesting, in John chapter 16. I got to do a bunch of these, so I\'m going to go pretty quickly pretty soon. 00:09:59 John 16, it\'s interesting that Jesus was talking to his disciples. These were devoted followers of him. They were up close and personal. They saw the miracles. If anyone who shouldn\'t be afraid, it would\'ve been them, you would think, right? They would\'ve known about this. About God being the one, he\'s the rock, he\'s the deliverer, he\'s the savior, the light. But Jesus says to them, \"A time is coming, and in fact has come when you will be scattered.\" Scattered why? \"Each to your own home.\" 00:10:38 Why though? \"You will leave me all alone.\" Why? \"Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.\" Why were the disciples going to scatter? They were afraid. Right? Because they had believed, oh, this Jesus, he seems to be the one that God promised. And then suddenly Jesus starts sharing with them kind of plans that didn\'t line up to what they were expecting. Suddenly, uh-oh, the heart starts thinking, [chuckles] \"Did we follow the right guy?\" That kind of idea. The seed of doubt. 00:11:10 And Jesus is calling them out, saying, \"You will be scattered. You\'re going to be afraid.\" So if even the disciples had fear, who am I? I\'m just a guy. Who am I to have that courage? Who am I to have that same courage as David to face Goliath? Well, here\'s the beauty of it. In verse 33, Jesus says, \"I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble.\" Not even a maybe. You will have trouble. \"But take heart, I have overcome the world.\" 00:11:49 And so in facing our fears, what I think the teaching is that it\'s not about our strength. It\'s not about how big of a brave face we put on. It\'s not about how much energy we put into charging the fort. There will be trouble. And if it\'s up to us, we\'re going to be like the disciples. Does that make sense in terms of our strength? We\'re going to be like disciples. Trouble comes, and as much bravado as we have, we\'ll most likely run and scatter. But it is because of what Jesus did. 00:12:26 Because of what he has done, we may have peace. Let\'s move on. Verse two. \"When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall.\" This is the ultimate beautiful comeback story. We love a comeback story. Where we\'re down, but we\'re not out. We\'re hanging in there, and at the very end, something happens. Deliverance. David\'s story was a comeback story. The youngest, the one who just faced Goliath, and victory. 00:13:14 And that would be great in life if that was always the case. We follow God, and we just wait for that [chuckles] comeback. Whatever your situation, where you\'re struggling in, I wish I could tell you, just hang in there, and then in the end, you will be that hero in the movie, and there will be that comeback. I wish I could say that. Because doesn\'t Psalm 27 say, \"When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is they, the enemies and my foes, who will stumble and fall.\" 00:13:51 But I think I cannot say that to you. I cannot make that promise to you, that whatever your individual circumstance is today, that at the end, it will turn out as you wished. I\'m sorry to say that. I wish it could be true for me as well in my struggles. If we overlay the accomplishments of Jesus Christ on top of this, and the revelations that have been given to us since his arrival, here\'s what we can learn. 00:14:32 In Ephesians 6:12 it\'s written, \"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.\" So when we talk about the wicked, a lot of times it\'s easy to think of wicked as good people, bad people. We\'re struggling with good people, bad people. But no, actually, it\'s bigger than that. It\'s a little bit more nuanced than that. 00:15:15 There\'s a spiritual battle going on that we might not see, but it is a big fight. And in the end, wickedness is destroyed. God is triumphant. When Jesus was on the cross and he died, it was initially assumed that, aha, wickedness has triumphed. The devil has won. He has killed the Christ, or this man who claims to be the Christ. That\'s what was believed by those who were in power. But he rises from the dead. He overcomes. Something bigger is at play. 00:16:06 So yes, wickedness is ultimately destroyed, but it is a spiritual battle. Things that are taking place that we don\'t understand, things being put into place. And what is our role in all of this? It\'s to realize that we are here in this season. God has called those of us who believe to proclaim the message of Jesus to everyone, not knowing what God has in plan for them. 00:16:42 Because wasn\'t it even Paul, the one who persecuted the Christians and killed the believers, and somehow, through God\'s [chuckles] mighty hand, turned him into the pillar of proclaiming the gospel, even to the Gentiles? We don\'t know what God has in store. Our job as believers is to continue to ask God, \"God, how can you use me where I am today in my struggle to proclaim your glory, to proclaim your Son to your neighbor, to your boss?\" Ask him what is the right way to do this. 00:17:33 It\'s not a formula. And so in Romans 12, this is how he can write. \"Bless those who persecute you. Bless them. Do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.\" There are those who are suffering and struggling. Love them. You are in that situation. Be with them. God has called you with opportunity. Be bold in that regard. And at the end of this section, he says, \"Leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.\" 00:18:25 It\'s not that wickedness is going to continue forever. There\'s a timeline for this. It will end. But this is the season of redemption, the opportunity for redemption. And we can take heart knowing that that day will come. That is the hope that we have is, okay, well, you have promised this. We might not see it today, we might not see it next week, we might not even see it in our lifetime, but he has promised this. Take heart. 00:19:02 Whatever wrongs have been done to you and your family, whatever wrongs you have suffered, know that God sees it. Know that God sees it. The injustice, God sees it. But the season now is for the opportunity for redemption through what Jesus accomplished on the cross. All right. I move down now to Psalm 27:4. That caught my attention. \"One thing that I ask from the Lord,\" one thing, \"this only do I seek.\" That bothered me a lot, because it\'s like, one thing? The only thing that I seek? 00:19:52 Okay, what is it? \"That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.\" [sighs] I don\'t feel that sometimes. I don\'t know about you, but I don\'t feel that sometimes. One thing? The only thing? How is this even possible? David, okay, good for you. You did it because you\'re David. [laughs] How do I have that heart? 00:20:28 So then we go down this journey of, okay, well, maybe I\'m not praying enough, maybe I\'m not meditating enough, maybe I\'m not reading God\'s word enough. And those are all good things to do, but then at the end of it, it\'s like, still, it\'s not my one thing. I got other things. It\'s one of the things. Is that okay? It\'s one of the things. No, that\'s not what David said. That\'s not what is written there. It\'s one thing, the only thing. Let\'s turn to John 13:36. 00:20:55 Again, one of the disciples, Simon Peter, says to Jesus, \"Lord, where are you going?\" And Jesus answered, \"Where I am going, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.\" And Peter says to Jesus, \"Lord, why can I not follow you right now? I will lay my life down for you!\" He was bold. He was courageous. He stood up. \"I will follow. I will lay down my life for you, Jesus.\" And then what does Jesus say? \"Will you? Will you lay down your life for me? 00:21:32 Truly, truly, I say to you, a rooster will not crow until you deny me three times.\" And we know the story. Every Easter, we hear it. Again, if it\'s up to us and our courage, we may have moments, even moments like Peter, where we will stand up and say, \"I will be devoted. I will die for you. Lay my life down for you.\" But we know what happened. Trouble came. Fear came, and he backed down. And Jesus says in 14:1, \"Do not let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.\" 00:22:22 And he says, \"In my Father\'s house there are many rooms.\" Rooms are places to dwell. He says, \"If that were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you.\" He says, \"And if I go to prepare a place for you, I am coming again and I will take you myself, that where I am, there you will also be.\" So there it is. It\'s not because of us and our own ability to make the situation reveal our devotion and our fearlessness. Believe in Jesus. 00:23:06 That is how you overcome your fear. I can\'t explain it. It\'s a spiritual thing. But Jesus says, believe in God, believe in him. So when we are fearful, what is generating our strength? Is it inspiration? Or is it that we are putting our trust in God? We are turning to the cross and saying, \"Wow, if you were able to overcome death, then use that same power and give me courage in this situation.\" It\'s a different thing. One or two more. Let\'s go to 9, 27:9. \"Do not hide your face from me. 00:23:59 Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Savior.\" Now, David, of all people, would have known the consequences of Being at the top and then falling to the bottom, right? And so he of all... He was at the top, the king, [chuckles] right? And then bad decisions later, he suffers. And he really suffers. He loses his child. 00:24:40 And so he of all understands the consequences of disobedience are grave, and, \"God, I just need you to not turn away from me. Do not reject me or forsake me.\" You know who also said... In verse nine in the beginning, he says, \"You have been my helper.\" So he also recognizes that his strength came from God. So what do we have better because of Jesus? What is better? And in John 14, we are promised better. This is something that we are beneficiaries of as a result of Jesus on the cross. 00:25:42 He says in verse 26, \"The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and remind you of all that I said to you. Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled nor fearful.\" We have the confidence and the certainty through faith that we have a helper. A helper. In David\'s time, where\'d the Spirit of God dwell? Where did it dwell? In the tabernacle, right? 00:26:36 You had to prepare yourself to even approach, right? [chuckles] Because it was so holy. But somehow, the concept is, regardless of how broken you and I are, regardless of how many bad decisions we have made in the past, the one who was forsaken, you know who it was? It was Jesus on the cross. He was rejected. He was forsaken. He took the punishment on the cross. 00:27:23 And somehow, by this miracle of God\'s grace, this gift that if we were to believe in that sacrifice, somehow we are made clean from the inside. I don\'t understand that, but that\'s a big promise. That we are made clean on the inside from all the bad decisions, the sin, the [sighs] darkness in our hearts. So much so, that we become the temple, right? Isn\'t that what the Bible teaches us? That your body becomes a temple. Because a Holy Spirit cannot dwell in an unclean temple. 00:28:08 So it must be that somehow that blood of Jesus Christ was enough to cleanse us from our unrighteousness. So now this Holy Spirit is dwelling in us. This is better. Don\'t you think it\'s better? I think it\'s much more better. I can\'t explain it because it\'s a spiritual thing. But the Holy Spirit maybe is the one who also nudges us to trust God and not be afraid in our situation. So believe in Jesus. Why? There will be peace in your life. 00:28:56 You\'ll still struggle with your circumstances probably, but you will have peace. Because he promises it. \"My peace I give you, not as the world gives do I give to you.\" We go to the end here now. Psalm 27:13. \"I remain confident of this, that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.\" I will see goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. This is one I struggle with as well because what does that mean? I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. 00:29:39 So does that mean that if I trust in God and I\'m not fearful, even with what Jesus gives, that somehow good things will come my way. So what\'s good? This is kind of my logic, right? Good things. My work will be better. My family life will be better. My living situation will be better. Is that the kind of goodness we\'re talking about here? Those all sound good [chuckles] to me. Right? I\'m not saying that God does not bless. I look at my life, and you all knew me when I was by myself. 00:30:22 And those were good times, don\'t get me wrong. But it\'s better now. Right? So I\'m not saying that those things aren\'t good. They are definitely a blessing from God. But I think there\'s more. 2 Corinthians 4:4-6. It says, \"The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.\" I think I talked about seeing the last time I was here. I seem to recall that. 00:31:07 [chuckles] You know what happens through faith in Jesus? Is that God opens your eyes. You see differently. You see things differently, which is kind of an interesting idea. It\'s like everyone, of course, sees what is good and not good, more or less, right? You don\'t have to be a believer to say, \"Oh, hey, I got a raise this week.\" That\'s a good thing. \"Hey, we\'re moving into a bigger house.\" You don\'t need faith to see that as hopefully a good thing. There\'s more work, don\'t get me wrong. 00:31:45 [chuckles] But you know what I mean? Those things are like there\'s no faith required for that. So what is different about goodness when it comes to those who believe? And Paul writes that actually the world without Jesus is blind. They can\'t even see the goodness of God, and that\'s different. Oh, okay. So God help me to see as you see, and you start seeing things differently. You start rejoicing when there\'s an opportunity to manifest God\'s kindness and generosity to your neighbors. Isn\' 00:32:42 [coughs] 00:32:42 Isn\'t that weird? Like, \"God, you gave me an opportunity to demonstrate love. Wow. Look at how this life was transformed from darkness to light. I got to see that and see the miracle of that and realize the miracle of that. And you are glorified.\" In my lifetime, I hope we get to see all that. That\'s better, I would have to say. And I hope that we ask God to help us see, just to open our eyes. Sometimes we\'re just so... I\'m so just, I got stuff to do. 00:33:27 [chuckles] I don\'t have time to look up, look around, and see what the opportunities are. So pray. Pray to God. Maybe I\'m driven by fear right now that I\'m just looking down because I\'m afraid. I don\'t want to look up. [chuckles] I don\'t have time to look up. But ask God, \"Open my eyes. Help me see your goodness.\" And you know what? You know who the beneficiary of that is? It\'s you. You are encouraged. You receive joy. 00:34:04 You get to participate and know that somehow God used you in the fulfillment of His plan in bringing glory to Him. And in a world of struggle and pain and suffering, a moment of joy. Just like, \"Huh, God, thank you.\" So what do we do with all this? The psalmist ends the psalm in a very bizarre way, I have to say. Because I would\'ve thought that the psalm would end, \"Okay, well, don\'t be afraid. You know your mission. Take up your instructions and go.\" [chuckles] That\'s what I would\'ve thought. 00:34:48 You\'re charged up. It\'s like going to a retreat, right? I don\'t know how long the retreat\'s going to be, but at the end of it, you\'re just like, \"Oh my gosh, my batteries are recharged. Let\'s go.\" And then your coworkers will say, \"Oh, what happened to you?\" That\'s kind of the experience that I would\'ve imagined. But you know what is written at the end of this chapter or this psalm? Kind of not what I expected. \"Wait for the Lord. Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.\" 00:35:21 He says it again. In case you didn\'t get it the first time, yes, I really did say, \"Wait for the Lord.\" Wait for the Lord? That\'s what you\'re going to leave me with? Well, I did a double take. What does the word wait mean? Okay. This is where it helps. What does the word wait... Ah. Qavah is the root, for those of you who care about that. Okay? Wait is not just sit around. I usually imagine waiting as like, okay, I\'m waiting for the bus. 00:35:54 But actually, maybe it\'s not that far, because when you\'re waiting for the bus, you\'re expecting the bus to come. [chuckles] Right? So I take that back. But you know what I mean? Waiting, we think sometimes we just wait, we\'re passive, and we\'re hoping. Hoping that it\'ll happen. I don\'t know, so I\'m not going to do anything about it. That kind of waiting. That\'s not the spirit of this word. The spirit of this word is actually waiting with expectation. 00:36:32 With eager anticipation If we know what Jesus has promised, that He is already victorious. If we know that God is able, we\'re looking for it. We\'re positioning ourselves in a way where we\'re ready, ready to go. It\'s not this false strength, but it\'s like, wow, I am encouraged to know, and because I have faith, I will not be afraid. 00:37:18 And so because I have faith, I\'m not going to do the things that are fearful or in response to fear, but I\'m going to do the things that position me because I\'m ready. And then it made sense, all those parables where Jesus talks about folks being ready for the groom to show up. Stories like that, right? Preparing the lamps, getting ready for the night. And in Matthew, the term is, \"Therefore, keep watch.\" Keep watch, like you\'re looking for it. You know it\'s going to happen. 00:38:08 Are we in that position? Are we keeping watch? Are we ready to go? I was thinking, I think I was sharing with, was it JP, just earlier today. We had our second child, and I was saying that when we had our first, it was a false alarm. We went to the hospital, and then they said, \"Oh, no. Go home.\" [laughs] So we went home. But for some strange reason, we were like, \"Okay, we should at least prepare for the second one.\" 00:38:41 So we got the car ready, thinking, \"Oh, we\'ve got all this time in the world.\" But what happened was the baby came early. A week early. And my wife said, \"I think it\'s time for us to go.\" And I\'m thinking, \"Oh, we\'re going to go to the hospital, and they\'re going to send us to come back.\" That\'s what I was thinking. It\'s like, \"Are you sure?\" She\'s like, \"Let\'s go.\" \"Okay.\" But keeping watch, being ready, is like there was an action of being prepared, ready to go. 00:39:13 So ask God, \"God, help me not to do things out of fear. But because of what you accomplished on the cross, please help me see things your way. Help me wait on you and prepare.\"