Song of Trust

Introduction

At 7:37 a.m. on December 1, 1997, Mike Carneal arrived at his high school where a prayer meeting was occurring. About thirty-five students were singing songs, holding hands, saying prayers. When they said “Amen,” Mike pulled out a gun and began shooting. Nicole Hadley, a popular fourteen year old freshman basketball player, took a bullet, crumpled to the floor, and later died. Mike pulled the trigger ten more times, hitting several students—seriously wounding some, and murdering two others. Senior Ben Strong, leader of the school prayer service, kept yelling: “Mike, what are you doing? Put the gun down!” Just as Mike took aim at the school principal, Ben stepped in front of Mike and demanded that he stop—he did!

Ben Strong is a young man of great courage. He would say he was just an ordinary person with great faith in God. Asked about his reactions during the moments of the shooting, Ben Strong says that he was just reacting. “You don’t know why stuff like this happens, but it does. And you can’t really do anything to change that. You can change how you react to it, but you can’t change the past.” You can change how you react. This is the lesson of Psalm 27—you can face life with trust instead of trepidation.

Today’s lesson is not about suffering although we will mention suffering. Today’s lesson is about trust. It is about learning to trust God when the world is crashing down. I’ve been there and so have you. Where do you go? Where do you turn? The psalmist tells us. God is my light, my salvation and my stronghold. When our world tumbles in, turning to God is the only answer which can bring us confidence. Let’s sing about our trust in God.

Text

We don’t know what is happening in David’s life which produced this song. He is in obvious distress. The use of the word ‘temple’ in verse 4 should not lead us to conclude that this is Solomon’s temple. The word is used for a royal palace. Verses 1–6 present bold statements of trust and confidence. Verses 7–14 are more of a lament. The different tones of the writing have led some to believe that this is not one psalm but two which are brought together. But such a view does not take into account that the psalms are written from the human experience and are filled with an emotional outpouring. The writer could indeed be declaring his trust in God and then the reality of his difficult situation dampens his emotional spirit. But as the psalm ends there is no doubt that his trust is in God. He is willing to wait on God to act on his behalf. His confidence is still intact. He may be burdened but he is not in despair and he is confident that in His time, God will act.

The Lord is my light, salvation, and stronghold. God is light. He gives us insight in difficult times. When our fears and doubts are prominent, God provides hope, joy, and victory. God is salvation. He sets us free from injustice and evil. God is our stronghold. He is our refuge. He provides strength when attacks come and provides strength when doubts arise. Notice carefully, that the writer does not say that attacks will not come. The protection of God is not to keep us out of the battles of life. The promise is to be available during those battles. There is great confidence when we know that God is present even when danger and doubts are present.

In verse 4 the writer declares his intense commitment and focus. David has one single-minded desire, and this one desire will not fade for as long as he lives. What is it? He describes this desire in three phases: to dwell in God’s house; to behold and gaze upon the Lord’s beauty; and to seek the Lord in His dwelling place. What David means by this is that he wants to have a constant communion with God. He wants to spend a lot of time being alone with God in prayer and with His Word. He wants to be close to God. David longed to always have a close fellowship between him and God.

According to verses 5 and 6, David knew that troubles would come. He wasn’t surprised by the difficulties of life, but when those difficulties came, he knew that God would be the one who would provide what he needed at the time. David says he has the confidence that when he is in trouble, God will conceal him and hide him and protect him and give him peace, even in the midst of turmoil. God is his refuge and fortress who will keep him safe from his enemies. It is this confidence which allows David to praise God while surrounded by his enemies. Like Paul and Silas singing at midnight, there is a confidence that God will provide although the future is uncertain. Like Stephen who looked up to heaven and prayed for his attackers to be forgiven as he was being murdered, there is an assurance that God is aware of what is happening and will in his time respond in justice.

Truth

But the truth is finding that kind of trust and fearlessness is difficult. When the difficult times come, our hearts want to trust, but our emotions are overwhelmed. How do we find that kind of trust? How do we find the fearlessness that David proclaims to have? How do we learn to be unafraid when our enemies surround us; when others speak against us; when our world seems to be falling apart? In verses 7–12, David appears to be searching for the fearlessness that he has proclaimed to have in verse 1.

He pleads for God to hear him. He begs God not to hide his presence from him. He implores God not to forsake him. With great intensity, David is seeking assurances that his trust is not misplaced. Isn’t that the way we feel during turmoil. Don’t we trust God, but find it difficult to say the words with great conviction? Don’t we trust, but our hearts falter?

The answer is found in prayer. Not a perfunctory prayer; not a prayer which trickles off our lips with such ease that the words are meaningless. But doesn’t David demonstrate to us a prayer of the heart. A prayer which speaks from emotions. A prayer that knows that only God’s intervention can make the difference. Isn’t this the sign of trust? One of the young victims of the shooting that took place at the high school in West Paducah, Kentucky was Missy Jenkins. Missy remembers getting shot and falling to the floor. Her twin sister, Mandy, bent over her and cried, “Be strong!” Missy thought she was going to die. She realized she couldn’t feel anything in her legs. A teacher tried to reassure Missy that she was just in shock. Today Missy is in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors do not think that Missy will ever be able to walk again. Missy is determined that she will. “I’m going to be able to walk again. I really, really, really, really want to walk again!” Missy declares. And perhaps she will. Because of her strong faith in God, she has been able to forgive Mike Carneal, her assailant, and she has started to move her foot!

What has Missy Jenkins learned? Like David the words and the emotions do not always agree, but the truth is that where else can we go but to the Lord. David says in verses 13–14, that although his emotions leave him begging for God’s intervention, his confidence is unshaken that God is going to act. “I will see God act” David says. So as a result I will wait for the Lord. I will wait for him to act. I will wait for his time. That’s trust.

In the beginning of his book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Steve Covey tells about a subway ride in New York one Sunday morning. He and his fellow travelers were sitting quietly, reading newspapers, lost in thought, resting their eyes. It was a calm, peaceful scene. A man and his children entered the car. The children were soon yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s papers. But the father, who sat next to Covey, did nothing. Covey started to get irritated. He couldn’t believe the father could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild and do nothing about it. So finally, with what Covey felt was unusual patience, he said, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more?” The father lifted his gaze as if coming to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what to think, and I guess they don’t know how to handle it either.”

Perhaps this is the hardest part of the entire psalm. Learning to wait on God to act. But waiting on God demonstrates our trust. Learning to be patient with others and with God while we wait for his deliverance, his strength, and his activity may be the most difficult part of it all. Ben Strong says that his faith was made stronger through this tragedy: “God is the only one who got us through this. God is always there for us, no matter what. If I wasn’t a Christian, I don’t know how I would react to something like this. It would be easy to just go nuts. But when you have God in your life, something like this forces you to lean on him even more.” If we are going to develop the fearlessness of verse 1 not only will we pray but we will learn to wait. And in the process we learn that God will act in his time.

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