Psalm 27:1-9
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 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.
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.
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.
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!
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The psalm for Sunday, September 24, is Psalm 27, verses one through nine. This is a Psalm of David. 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 evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes It is day who stumble and fall, though in army and camp against me, my heart shall not fear, the war arise against me yet I will be confident. One thing have I asked of the Lord that I will 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, 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. Here, oh, 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 I not your face from me? Turn not your servant away in anger, Oh, you who have been my help. Cast me not off. forsake me not, oh God of my salvation. Here ends the reading. This is a pretty famous Psalm, The Lord is my light. And my salvation reminds me of a song that I would sing with with kids in in the chapel. You're my light and my salvation, I won't be afraid. You're the stronghold of my life by you all things were made, I'm not gonna sing the whole thing. Don't worry. It big begins with a note of competence. You are my salvation, you are my stronghold. There is nothing that I can fear. And it continues, listing a number of things when evildoers assail me. adverset adversaries when an army wore all of these things, I will be confident. David is saying that no matter what is going against him, he can be confident in God's promise. And David had it in a very specific way. When Samuel came to David and anointed him as the next king. That was sort of like, David, you're immortal until you become king. Like if David really, truly believed that promise. When he went up against Goliath, he didn't have to worry because God had promised that he would become king. When David went out to battle, he went out into war, all the time before he became king. He had no fear because God was the stronghold of his life. This also can be true for us, though it's not quite in the same way. We don't have the promise that we're going to be king so that we can't die until that happens. But we do know that our life is safe in the stronghold of our Savior, because he lived and died for us and then rose from the dead to give us eternal life. So our life is safe with Christ in heaven. And St. Paul tells us that in Ephesians, that we are our life is in Christ who is seated at the right hand of God, it continues. One thing I've asked the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell on 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. Now, David is writing this before that temple is actually built, though he did write psalms in preparation for when that temple was being built. He says that he wants to be in the house of the Lord. We have to remember that the temple was a special place where God put His presence in a way that he didn't place His presence elsewhere. same thing was true for the tabernacle, which is where were the moveable temple before they built the permanent one, right? God placed his presence there. And so if you're going into the house of the Lord, you're going to where God's presence is in a special way. This isn't a metaphorical entering into His presence, or a ritual that he did to make him feel the presence of God. He was literally walking into the temple, literally going to the tabernacle where God promised his presence would be. And we have to remember that that when we're applying this, it is different for us because we don't have a physical building where God says His presence is, but we do have where God promises to be present in a similar way, through the holy body and blood of Jesus Christ. Right? God comes down and places himself Jesus Christ places himself in the bread and the line in a way that he does not anywhere else. So when we gather for the divine service, we hear Christ's word, we receive His Body and Blood, we are in the house of the Lord, in a way that is different from the rest of our time. David continues with with more confidence that God he will hide me in a shelter, he enemies are taken out. And then we get this last section it says, Here, oh, 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 out your servant away and anger, Oh, you who have been my help, Cast me not off. forsake me not, Oh, God of my salvation. This is the sincere desire of David, to seek God's face. Not Not literally, but his face meant his presence, right. Which is again, for David, going to the temple, offering appropriate worship and sacrifice and prayer. We have to remember, the temple was a special place of God's presence. This is not a spiritual discipline, to feel the presence of God. And many Christians today, when they see this, they say, Ah, I have to seek the face of God. And to do that I have to do all sorts of particular things. I have to pray in a certain way I have to devote certain amounts of time I have to do all of this stuff, to show that I am seeking God's face. And it's not really true. That's not how it works. God's face God's presence is located where he promises it to be. And for us, when we gather together on Sunday, around his word, and Sacraments, God says I am, there were two or three are gathered in my name, there I am among them, or when we have Holy Communion, the body of Christ is there and then the angels and archangels, and all the company of Heaven gathered together to be in that place in Christ. We don't have to, we don't have to do anything to seek God's face. God is where he promises to be. And that is there in the divine service. And all of the confidence that we have can come from this amazing gift of just being where Christ says, I am here. This is my body. This is my blood. So we don't have to struggle. We don't have to work hard to seek God's face. It's just be there and receive from God, his amazing blessings. That's all I have for the reading today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai