03/22/2026 - Psalm 27, Fifth Sunday of Lent

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

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.
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.

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.

Hear my voice when I call, Lord; be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
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.
Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.
Teach me your way, Lord; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors.
Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.

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

~

For the past few weeks we’ve talked about Psalms that we could, for the most part, stick neat labels onto and put on the shelf next to the other Psalms in their category. But there are Psalms that resist easy categorization, and Psalm 27 is one of them.

From the first few verses of boldness and determination, to seeking shelter and refuge, to crying out in lament, to declaring God’s goodness in just fourteen verses, it’s quite the roller coaster. But it’s a roller coaster that we all instinctively recognize, because we live through that roller coaster every single day - although in some seasons of life, the hills, drops, and loop-de-loops are a little sharper than others.

As some of you may know, Noah and I got married a few years ago in September. When we initially picked that date, the idea was to try and space out some big life events that were all happening pretty close to each other. I was set to graduate seminary that May, and I wanted some time between graduating and getting married to finish planning the wedding. I was also hoping to find a full-time ministry job in Texas, so we could start our married life with two full-time incomes. And while we knew that it was likely that eventually we would have to move away from Dallas, we did think that we were going to be staying in Dallas for at least a few more years.

What we weren’t expecting was for me to get accepted into a pastoral residency in Missouri right before I graduated.

What started out as a good wedding date to space out some of our big life events ended up being a mad rush to finish planning the wedding, find housing, get married, and then move so I could start the residency two weeks after our wedding. So much for trying to avoid the roller coaster!

And while all of those life events happening at the same time was stressful, they were all good things that were happening. When all was said and done, the highs outweighed the lows.

But that’s not the case with our Psalmist today. Instead, we’re pretty sure that our Psalmist find themselves in a moment of crisis, because well, their life was full of crisis after crisis after crisis. Because traditionally this Psalm is attributed to David, considered to be the greatest king of Israel, ancestor to Jesus, and yes, musician and songwriter.

Scholars think there’s a few likely points in his life where he could’ve written this Psalm. But to me the time I like the best is before he became king. For years David was on the run from King Saul, who was trying to kill him since he’d been anointed the next King of Israel instead of one of his sons. But we aren’t entirely sure if that’s true - there’s plenty of crises in David’s life that he could’ve written this during. And David doesn’t start out this Psalm by saying exactly what’s going on. Instead he asks, seemingly rhetorically, “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?”

He goes on to proclaim that his enemies should be the ones who are afraid, that they will trip and fall, and no matter what comes his way David will remain confident that he will prevail. It’s all the hallmarks of a psalm of trust or praise, one full of determination and strength.

But once we reach verse four, we have our first tone shift. David is not asking for courage or strength to stand on the battlefield, as we might’ve first thought, but instead is seeking God’s shelter and protection. He wishes that he could return to the Temple, for its safety, beauty, and comfort. It almost sounds like a pilgrimage Psalm or a psalm of exile, with its focus on the Temple and the wish to be able to go back to it. And if this was written when David was on the run from King Saul, I have to wonder if it’s not also an expression of wishing things would go back to normal.

But David has to know that there’s no going back to how things were. Even if he’s able to go back to the Temple, able to play his lyre and sing again, it’s not going to be the same. Because there are times in life where we step across a line that we can never uncross. We make decisions or commit to actions that even if we regret it later, the damage has already been done. And sometimes it isn’t even our fault! We end up in the crossfire of other’s decisions, and end up having to make decisions of our own where there is no right answer.

Which is really where David’s at here. David did not ask to be king; God told Samuel to anoint him out of all of his brothers when he was very young. For most of his life he’s had a target placed on his back by King Saul, and when he hasn’t had that, he’s been leading the king’s forces into battle on the front lines. But throughout all of it, Scripture tells us that one thing has remained the same: God’s favor rests on David, and God is with him.

And here David hopes that it will continue to stay the same, that God will continue to be with him and protect him.

But then we see another tone shift, from confidence to something that sounds more like lament rather than praise.

Because the confidence that was here just a few verses ago has disappeared. It’s been replaced by anxiety and fear, but the determination found in the first verses is still carrying through as David says: “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek. 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.”

He is demanding that God continue to be with him, like God has been up until now. But his current circumstances are such that he feels the need to remind God of that. It’s a long way from the questions David asked at the beginning of the Psalm, just eight verses earlier. But throughout it all, God is still David’s savior, even as he’s asking God not to reject him or forsake him.

And I think we can all relate to this sometimes. We can know that God is with us, we can trust that we aren’t alone, but at the same time feel like we need to remind God that we expect God to be there.

Or even ask where God is, while fully trusting that God is still there, listening to us as we ask the question.

And if there’s one thing that the Psalms tell us over and over again, it’s that we are not bad Christians for asking God where God is. The Psalms are full of poets and writers and musicians who asked the same questions. And their questions and doubts and laments ended up as part of our Scriptures, right alongside the songs of praise and trust.

And Psalm 27 is a psalm of trust and praise and lament all rolled into one. It’s inherently a contradiction in poetic form. And nowhere in the Psalm does David do anything to try and resolve the tension between trust and doubt. Instead the verses sing alongside each other.

In the same song where David trusts God to hide him away and set him on a high rock out of the grasp of his enemies, he also asks God to be his fortress.

In the same song where he declares that though he is besieged by an army, he will remain strong and confident, he also asks God to keep him away from the desires of his foes.

In the same song where David declares that God will one day lead him back to the Temple where he will sing and make music, he also asks God to teach him the paths he needs to take in order to get back there.

All of those questions and demands and promises and beliefs exist right alongside each other, just as they do in our lives today.

Because there are times where we are thankful for what God has given us while we also grieve what we have lost.

There are times when we rejoice in the blessings of graduations, weddings, new children, while also mourning the people we wish could be there too.

And there are times where we are horrified by the war and violence we see both here at home and around the world, yet find hope in the courage and strength of our neighbors and in the love and care that our communities share.

And at the end of the contradictions found in Psalm 27, we also find that hope. David says: “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Because ultimately, David’s faith in God still holds, even as he questions God, and works to reassure himself that God is still with him. And our faith can still hold through our questions and our doubts too. We can question why evil exists and why violence and wars still rage, while also having hope in God’s ultimate goodness and love overcoming evil. With David, we have this hope that we will not have to wait until Heaven in order to experience the goodness of God.

We have this hope because we and so many others are more than able to bring God’s goodness into the world, through what we say and what we do.

We speak God’s goodness into the world when we speak out against the injustice we see, while also speaking peace and comfort to those who are most affected by it.

We show God’s goodness by making sure our neighbors are fed, clothed, and have a warm place to sleep.

And we live out God’s goodness in ways big and small throughout our lives, from giving a smile to someone who needs it in the checkout line, to showing up in the middle of the night when we get a phone call from someone with nowhere else to turn.

There are so many ways we have already seen the goodness of the Lord among us. But that does not mean we can’t be the ones to bring more of it into the world.

So be strong, take heart, and while we wait for the Lord, let us be some of the people who share the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.