Whom Shall I Fear?

Psalm 27

Of David.

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?

2 When the wicked advance against me
    to devour[a] me,
it is my enemies and my foes
    who will stumble and fall.
3 Though an army besiege me,
    my heart will not fear;
though war break out against me,
    even then I will be confident.

4 One thing I ask from the Lord,
    this only do I seek:
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.
5 For in the day of trouble
    he will keep me safe in his dwelling;
he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent
    and set me high upon a rock.

6 Then my head will be exalted
    above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
    I will sing and make music to the Lord.

7 Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
    be merciful to me and answer me.
8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
    Your face, Lord, I will seek.
9 Do not hide your face from me,
    do not turn your servant away in anger;
    you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
    God my Savior.
10 Though my father and mother forsake me,
    the Lord will receive me.
11 Teach me your way, Lord;
    lead me in a straight path
    because of my oppressors.
12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,
    for false witnesses rise up against me,
    spouting malicious accusations.

13 I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living.
14 Wait for the Lord;
    be strong and take heart
    and wait for the Lord.

I chose this Psalm this morning because of the cycle it follows.  It is broken into three distinct parts.  The Psalm begins with praise in verses 1-6, moves to lament and uncertainty in verses 7-12 and back to praise in verses 13&14.  This cycle seems awfully familiar because it occurs in our lives, most likely every single day.  We often wake up to each day thankful to have another day to love our family and to laugh with friends so we praise God for the opportunities that lay before us.  At the beginning of the day we start out fearless, like we can take on the world.  Whom shall I fear?  Though there is an army against me, I will not fear! Even in the face of war I am confident! God will keep me safe in his dwelling when the day of trouble comes! All of these phrases come from the first 6 verses.  Then something happens through the course of the day and we begin to doubt.  It can be something big like a major illness or loss to something very small like a rude comment or a badly timed joke.  Most days we have some sort of an event that causes us to lament, to worry or to question.  Do not hide your face from me! Do not reject of forsake me! Lead me in a straight path! You can sense the desperation in this person’s voice as they are reaching out to God and seemingly not getting an answer.  Then, when all hope seems lost, we regain our confidence before going to sleep for the night.  A prayer, a song on the radio, a comment or hug of reassurance from a spouse or child, something has helped us to find our confidence in God.  We are able to go to sleep that night having started the day with confidence only to have it shaken by something and then as we are falling asleep we praise God for the day we have had despite whatever difficulty we had to face.  I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  The last two verses of Psalm 27 give us hope for a better future.  The writer has calmed themselves down, faced the challenge that was before them and now realizes that the glory, love, grace and mercy of God helped them get through that trial.  I understand that this may not be an everyday cycle but we probably go through these ups and downs pretty regularly.  We praise, we cry, we praise.  No matter our background or belief, we go through this cycle.  It is who we are.

A couple days ago Cora was standing at the top of the stairs wanting me to carry her down so I came back up the stairs and stopped two steps from the top and asked her to jump.  She looked at me like I was crazy.  I stuck my arms out and encouraged her again.  She was still hesitant.  I took another step, grabbed her hand and asked her again to jump.  This time she did.  She made “the leap of faith.”  She was scared until I got close enough for her to be confident that I would catch her.  She went from fearful to hesitant to elation with she jumped.  Our relationship with God mirrors this process.  So often we are fearful to make the plunge into faith because we are uncertain where it will lead us.  We are uncertain of the process.  We are afraid that we may be dropped or forgotten about.  We are afraid that God may not live up to the standards that we feel He ought to live up to.  Why put so much time and effort into something that could possibly not live up to our expectation?  Despite this fear, God desires to move closer to us.  He closes the gap between Him and us.  Most notably, He did this through his son.  Just as I took one step closer to Cora, God does the same for us.  Cora wanted needed the gap between her and I to be fairly small for her to make that leap just as some of us need to know that God is close to us before we make that leap.  Hopefully, eventually, we get to the point that we feel God’s presence is close enough that we can make the leap, just as Cora did.  The smile on her face after she jumped and I caught her is something you cannot replace.  The happiness she felt in that moment is similar to the way we feel when God catches us and we realize what that means.  No matter the greatness of that moment, we will undoubtedly encounter future moments that will shake that belief to its very core.  

It would be so awesome if we could just live this life with no fears or insecurities.  Truth is, life without fear is not possible.  Just as the psalmist stated to start off this Psalm, “The Lord is my salvation -- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life-- of whom shall I be afraid?”  Aristotle believed that courage was the most important virtue a person could possess as he wrote, “Courage is the first of human virtues because it makes all others possible.”  Think about it.  Every action and emotion requires some sort of courage.  Aristotle went on to say, “You will never do anything in this world without courage.”  So, no matter how much we shouldn’t fear, we are going to.  Therefore, the act of courage is that much more powerful.  I am going to be honest here: every Sunday I am terrified.  From sermon prep and delivery to the clothes I wear to the jokes I attempt to make, my insecurities and fears tell me every week that I am not good enough.  And yet I can pull through all of the garbage not because of some hidden strength that I somehow muster.  My courage comes from the Holy Spirit.  My courage comes from your faith.  I don’t tell you this to say “look at me.”  I tell you this because it is important that we understand that we all have fears and insecurities and God loves us despite them.

“I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  We are living but we are not the land of the living.  I believe the writer of this Psalm didn’t believe he was currently living in the land of the living because death is very much apart of this life.  The land of the living is found with God, in Heaven.  Jennie Koenig had a great post this week on Facebook discussing the shock, surprise and fear of death, “We were made for life, abundant life. We go on living taking for granted the fragile state of our physical existence because it is in our TRUE nature to live eternally without fear of death wrecking our lives. Death seems so shocking and awful because it is as shocking to our system as a fish out of water. Something inside us knows that this was never supposed to be. Death is a virus. It's a foreign invader. It's contrary to our whole self, and actually, it's contrary to our natural world as well. We are all a disaster away from living every day in survival mode. And we scold each other for not realizing that until it happens. But we take it for granted because we are not naturally inclined to think about death or entertain death. We were meant to live. There's truth in that unexpected pain that death rushes us with. "We weren't made for this." "Why did this happen? It shouldn't have happened!" That's right, it shouldn't have. There's hope. Life is waiting to reign fully again. And it will happen. We will be fully alive again. And everything we've lost will be found in Christ. It's already found, actually. And it's on the way.”  

Fear and insecurities exist.  But so does courage and the best example of courage is displayed on a cross and because of that courage all things are possible.  All that is left for us to do is make the leap into the loving and eternal arms of God.  Make this leap and keep making.  The hardest part of faith is not making that leap for the first time, it is the choice to keep making every. single. day.  Amen.