The wonderful thing about the book of Psalms is that it meets us where we live.  It tells about good times and mountaintop experiences, but it also speaks to trials and disappointments, times that don’t make sense, times where God seems silent or absent.  In a word, the Psalms talk about life – real life as lived by flawed humans in a fallen world.

There’s a Psalm for just about everything.  If it exists in this life, there’s a Psalm that addresses it.  By speaking to us through Psalms of every type, God shows that He not only wants to instruct us but that He fully understands what we face in a fallen world.  When we study the Psalms, we come away with the confidence that we aren’t alone, we aren’t misunderstood, and we aren’t following a God who’s put off by our emotional, sometimes irrational approach to life.

Psalm 27 is a great example of this.  In it, David writes of victory and confidence but also of desperation and crisis.  The Psalm is so – for lack of a better word – schizophrenic, that some have suggested that it’s actually two separate Psalms joined together.  What it really is, however, is a picture of a man preparing for times of trial and then facing the trials while leaning on his preparation.  He prepares his heart by rehearsing truths about God and then desperately prays while trusting in those truths.  What this Psalm becomes for us is a picture of how to stand in crisis.

PREPARE
Rehearse
1
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?

The first verse of the Psalm is essentially its thesis and summary.  It’s the baseline and the conclusion.  Everything else stands on this foundation.  After all is said and done,  God is my light, my salvation.  He’s my stronghold.  And since that’s true, I have nothing to fear.  God is my light in darkness, my salvation in times of trouble.  He’s the fortress I run to when I’m in danger.  In the mess and confusion of life, God leads me and protects me; His ways are perfect; He’s all powerful, and His protection impregnable. 

And notice the ‘Mys’.  This is personal.  He’s MY light, MY salvation.  He’s MY stronghold.  He may be these things for others, but what counts is that He’s these things for ME.

This is the claim of a God-follower confident in his Lord.  To summarize what he says in verse 1 we can paraphrase Paul – if God is for me, who can be against me? (Rom 8:31).

2-3
When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.
Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

The bold confidence in verse 1 is a product of experience and knowledge.  David first looks backward and notes that God took care of him in the past.  Evildoers who wanted to eat up his flesh – wanted to kill him or destroy his way of life – weren’t successful.  They stumbled and fell.  And since that’s true, he knows that if an army were to encamp against him or if war arose against him, he wouldn’t fear.  He would approach both in confidence.

It’s interesting to compare David’s idea of trials with our own, isn’t it?  Probably not too many of us worry about someone trying to kill us or that an army might encamp against us on our front yard.  But that’s what makes this verse so encouraging.  If David can feel protected in the face of war, then we can feel protected and guided in the face of trials at work, difficult relationships, health issues, or family problems.

Delight
4-5
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon 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 lift me high upon a rock.

Pay attention to the first two words of verse 4.  ONE THING.  Celebrating his light and salvation and stronghold evokes in David a longing that’s stronger than all others – he wants to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.  The reason he wants to dwell there is so he can gaze on God’s beauty and pray.  It’s an amazing statement.  Of all the things David could wish for, what he chooses is to be in God’s presence and simply experience Him and meditate on Him and inquire after His will.

There are several aspects of this verse that we need to consider.  The first is to ask ourselves if this would be our longing too.  If we had the chance to ask God for just one thing, would our single-minded desire above all other desires be to dwell in God’s presence and simply delight in Him?  Would that be our top prayer request above all others?  More than physical needs, concerns for our families, and protection?  If we were limited to just one request from God, would this be it?

The second aspect to consider is what does gazing on God’s beauty mean?  It’s a great piece of scripture and it sounds really good (and challenging), but is it just one of those Psalmy things to say in church that has no practical application?  How do we gaze on God’s beauty?  What it likely means is to fill our minds with His glory and His great works and His attributes.  David has just called God his light and salvation and fortress – that’s an example of gazing on His beauty.  It’s pondering God and His mercy and love and provision and sovereignty.  It’s filling our mind with all that He is in how He loves and saves.

And that brings up another element to this.  The best way to gaze on God’s beauty is to fill our minds with the gospel – something David couldn’t do.  David wants nothing more than to gaze on God’s beauty and he doesn’t have nearly the full picture of God’s beauty that we do.  We have much more to gaze on than he does.  There is nothing that expresses the beauty of God to be pondered more than the gospel.  If we want to delight in our God, we must meditate continually on His grace, love, and forgiveness expressed in the gospel.

Gazing on God’s beauty in His house (and it’s interesting to consider if David means an actual place or simply the presence of God – for our purposes it makes sense to assume both – especially since we have the indwelling Holy Spirit) fills David with a sense of God’s protection.  As long as he’s in God’s presence he’s safe.  In the day of trouble and in the midst of his enemies, God will protect him.

When our daughter was very young, she was scared to death of storms.  If there were thunder and lightning, it scared her to tears.  Unless I was there.  If I was there, she was fine because dad was invincible and dad would protect her.  Now me being there didn’t change the storms – they were still just as noisy.  But her perspective on the storms was totally different because I was with her.  And something like that is what David talks about here.  The trouble and the enemies don’t go away.  But he can endure them because he’s in God’s presence and God won’t allow those enemies to overcome him.

Worship
6
And now my head shall be 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.

God’s protection and beauty cause David to worship.  He will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy and sing songs to God.  That’s the appropriate response to all that God is and does.  When we ponder and enjoy and experience God, our hearts will explode in worship.  It’s the only rational response.  Gaze on God’s beauty, remember all that He’s done for us, consider all that He is, and sing and make melody to the Lord.

PRAY
Pray for help
7-10
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!
You have said, “Seek my face.”  My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
Hide not your face from me.  Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help.  Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation!
For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

The Psalm takes a totally different direction starting in verse 7.  What had been a treatise on God now becomes a prayer to God.  David talked about God in verses 1-6; now he cries out directly to God in verses 7-12.  He talked about crisis in 1-6; now he’s in crisis in 7-12.  And what had been a confident rehearsal of God’s protection and provision now becomes a desperate plea for that same protection and provision.

There’s something irrational in the change from 1-6 to 7-12.  And that should greatly encourage us.  We’re all irrational and David lets us know that it’s okay to bring our irrational selves to the throne of God.  God made us with emotions and finite perspectives.  He isn’t surprised when we show up at His feet with a less-than-balanced take on our circumstances.

He first cries out to God and makes Him know he’s in trouble.  “Listen to me and answer!”  He reminds God that God has invited His people to seek Him.  And David tells him, “I’m seeking, believe me!  If you want a seeker, I’m your guy!”  Then in verse 9 he says some things that don’t seem to go with what he’s already said about God in the first six verses.  He pleads with God not to hide His face, not to turn David away in anger, not to cast off and forsake him.  It sounds odd because he just got through saying that God won’t do any of these things.  The answer is that he’s not worrying about God doing these things as much as he pleads with God not to act like the others in his life.  “Don’t turn me away in anger like others do.  Don’t forsake me like others do.”  It’s a plea for God to be the God he knows.

He also rehearses truths about God.  Notice the contrasts in verses 9 and 10. Turn not your servant away in anger, O YOU WHO HAVE BEEN MY HELP.  Cast me not off; forsake me not, O GOD OF MY SALVATION!  For my father and my mother have forsaken me, BUT THE LORD WILL TAKE ME IN.  Even in the midst of his desperation, He comes back to what he knows.  “Yes my circumstances are awful, but God is my help and my salvation.”  David hasn’t forgotten what he rehearsed in the first half of the Psalm.

The example for us is that we can pray truths about God back to Him.  We can claim His attributes and His promises as we ask for His help. 

Pray for wisdom
11
Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

In the midst of the crisis, David prays for guidance.  Verse 11 is a prayer for wisdom, and it seems to be wisdom on two levels.  Notice he first asks for God to teach him God’s way.  This is a plea to see the crisis as God wants him to see it.  To see it with God’s eyes.  It’s similar to what James tells us to do in James 1:5 where he says if we can’t consider trials to be joy, we must ask God for the wisdom to do so.  This is the wisdom to see trials as opportunities for growth, not just awful times to endure.  We know a sovereign God doesn’t just randomly bring hard times into our life.  God doesn’t just decide one day, “Let’s have Bob lose his job and see what happens.”  Any difficulty in life exists to make us more like Jesus (Rom 8:28-29), so we must ask for the wisdom to remember that becoming more like Jesus is the best thing that can happen to us (regardless of the means).

The second level of wisdom is the level path.  This is simply practical wisdom.  We’re in the middle of difficulties and we don’t know what to do, so we pray for wisdom and guidance.  What’s the best way out of this mess?  Trials so often bring with them uncertainty; this is a plea for direction (which is typically answered subtly rather than miraculously – we usually see God’s works and guiding hand more clearly through the rearview mirror than through the windshield).

Pray for protection
12
Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.

In verse 12 he asks for protection.  In David’s case he doesn’t want his adversaries who make up lies about him to prevail.  In our case, it’s a plea that the Enemy who wants us to fall into sin won’t prevail.  Trials make fertile ground for sin to grow.  We must pray for God’s protection not to let the Enemy lead us away by painting sin as an escape from the awful times we’re in.  The shiny things of this world glow brightly in times of disappointment.  It’s only through God’s protection that we can keep our eyes on the light and salvation that only He provides.

WAIT
13-14
I believe that I shall look upon 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!

Two exclamations finish the Psalm.  The first – in verse 13 – shows David preaching to himself.  He’s in crisis, he doesn’t know when or how it’s going to end, but he takes a stand on what he knows based on his experience.  Notice two words – goodness and living.  He knows when all is said and done that God’s goodness will prove itself and that he will still be living when the desperate times are over.  He knows this even though his circumstances argue against both.  “Nothing looks good right now and nothing about my circumstances offers hope, but I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  There’s another translation of this verse that adds a clause to the beginning of the verse – “I would have despaired unless I believed that I shall look upon…”  Either way, the message is the same.  It’s a man in crisis reminding himself of what he knows when everything he sees screams out the opposite.  “God has been my light and my salvation so I know that I can stand on Him and He will ultimately carry me through this because of His goodness.  I will live to gaze on God’s beauty again.”

If David preaches to himself in crisis, it’s probably a good idea for us to do the same.  Trials are discouraging and disheartening.  It’s how we’re wired.  But through the Holy Spirit’s help and through preparing our hearts in good times by meditating and delighting in God, we can walk based on what we know, not what we see (walk by faith, not by sight).  And the perfect way to do this is to preach to ourselves in those times of discouragement.  Our hearts will go astray if we don’t continually remind them of the truths we know.

David preaches to himself in verse 13 and teaches us in verse 14.  The final lesson, the final action we must take to stand in crisis is to wait.  He begins and ends the verse with the same admonition – wait for the Lord.  Waiting by definition means the crisis isn’t over and we don’t know when it will be (desperate times wouldn’t be nearly as desperate if they came with a known end date) – there are still loose ends and no resolution.  So we wait.  We don’t try to escape, we don’t try to distract ourselves, we wait.

Waiting presupposes three things – trust, presence, and sovereignty.  We wait when we trust that the one we wait for will come through – will do what he says.  The same is true of presence and sovereignty.  We know God is with us (we never go through hard times alone) and that He is sovereign over all things.  Thus, we can wait for Him to act (or finish acting).  Nothing is outside of His control and He’s with me in all things and I trust that He loves me and always has my best as His ultimate goal, so I wait for Him.

Do I hate what I’m going through?  Absolutely.  Do I wish it were over?  Desperately.  Would I choose to go through this if it were up to me?  No way.  But thankfully I’m NOT in charge and God is doing a work in my life and He loves me and is good and sovereign and worthy of my waiting; so I wait.

This verse is the best resource we can have to encourage ourselves and others during times of trial.  Do we want to stand in crisis and help others stand also?  Go to verse 14.  Do we want to have something to say when there’s nothing to say?  Go to verse 14.  This is the best Spirit-infused counsel we can give.    

Note that while I wait, I can be strong and take courage.  This is different than just hanging in there or turning a frown upside down.  I can endure confidently knowing that God is with me and is worthy of my trust and is in control.  He and His work in my life are worth my endurance.

Finally, verse 14 stands on the foundation of verse 1.  The reason I wait for the Lord and the reason I am strong and courageous in the midst of trial is because 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?

Blueprint for Standing in Crisis
Prepare by rehearsing God’s goodness.
Prepare by delighting in God.
Prepare by worshiping God.
Pray for help.
Pray for wisdom.
Pray for protection.
Wait.