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Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 27:1 A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1-14 THE hypothesis that two originally distinct psalms or fragments are here blended has much in its favour. The rhythm and style of the latter half ( Psalm 27:7-14 ) are strikingly unlike those of the former part, and the contrast of feeling is equally marked, and is in the opposite direction from that which is usual, since it drops from exultant faith to at least plaintive, if not anxious petition. But while the phenomena are plain and remarkable, they do not seem to demand the separation suggested. Form and rhythm are elastic in the poet’s hands, and change in correspondence with his change of mood. The flowing melody of the earlier part is the natural expression of its sunny confidence, and the harsher strains of the later verses fit no less well their contents. Why may not the key change to a minor, and yet the voice be the same? The fall from jubilant to suppliant faith is not unexampled in other psalms (cf. Psalm 9:1-20 and Psalm 25:1-22 ), nor in itself unnatural. Dangers, which for a moment cease to press, do recur, however real the victory over fear has been, and in this recrudescence of the consciousness of peril, which yet does not loosen, but tighten, the grasp of faith, this ancient singer speaks the universal experience; and his song becomes more precious and more fitted for all lips than if it had been unmingled triumph. One can better understand the original author passing in swift transition from the one to the other tone, than a later editor deliberately appending to a pure burst of joyous faith and aspiration a tag which flattened it. The more unlike the two halves are, the less probable is it that their union is owing to any but the author of both. The fire of the original inspiration could fuse them into homogeneousness; it is scarcely possible that a mechanical patcher should have done so. If, then, we take the psalm as a whole, it gives a picture of the transitions of a trustful soul surrounded by dangers, in which all such souls may recognise their own likeness. The first half ( Psalm 27:1-6 ) is the exultant song of soaring faith. But even in it there sounds an undertone. The very refusal to be afraid glances sideways at outstanding causes for fear. The very names of Jehovah as "Light, Salvation," "the Stronghold of my life," imply darkness, danger, and besetting foes. The resolve to keep alight the fire of courage and confidence in the face of encamping foes and rising wars is much too energetic to be mere hypothetical courage. The hopes of safety in Jehovah’s tent, of a firm standing on a rock, and of the head being lifted above surrounding foes are not the hopes of a man at ease, but of one threatened on all sides, and triumphant only because he clasps Jehovah’s hand. The first words of the psalm carry it all in germ. By a noble dead lift of confidence, the singer turns from foes and fears to stay himself on Jehovah, his light and salvation, and then, in the strength of that assurance, bids back his rising fears to their dens. "I will trust, and not be afraid," confesses the presence of fear, and, like our psalm, unveils the only reasonable counteraction of it in the contemplation of what God is. There is much to fear unless He is our light, and they who will not begin with the psalmist’s confidence have no right to repeat his courage. To a devout man the past is eloquent with reasons for confidence, and in Psalm 27:2 the psalm points to a past fact. The stumbling and falling of former foes, who came open mouthed at him, is not a hypothetical case, but a bit of autobiography, which lives to nourish present confidence. It is worth notice that the language employed has remarkable correspondence with that used in the story of David’s fight with Goliath. There the same word as here is twice employed to describe the Philistine’s advance. { 1 Samuel 17:41 ; 1 Samuel 17:48 } Goliath’s vaunt, "I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field," may have supplied the mould for the expression here, and the fall of the giant, with his face to the earth and the smooth stone in his brain, is narrated with the same word as occurs in the psalm. It might well be that when David was a fugitive before Saul the remembrance of his victory over Goliath should have cheered him, just as that of his earlier prowess against bear and lion heartened him to face the Philistine bully; and such recollections would be all the more natural since jealousy of the fame that came to him from that feat had set the first light to Saul’s hatred. Psalm 27:3 is not to be left swinging in vacuo , a cheap vow of courage in hypothetical danger. The supposed case is actual fact, and the expressions of trust are not only assertions for the future, but statements of the present temper of the psalmist: "I do not fear; I am confident." The confidence of Psalm 27:3 is rested not only on Jehovah’s past acts, but on the psalmist’s past and present set of soul towards Him. That seems to be the connecting link between Psalm 27:1-3 and Psalm 27:4-6 . Such desire, the psalmist is sure, cannot but be answered, and in the answer all safety is included. The purest longing after God as the deepest, most fixed yearning of a heart, was never more nobly expressed. Clearly the terms forbid the limitation of meaning to mere external presence in a material sanctuary. "All the days of my life" points to a continuance inward and capable of accomplishment, wherever the body may be. The exclusiveness and continuity of the longing, as well as the gaze on God which is its true object, are incapable of the lower meaning, while, no doubt, the externals of worship supply the mould into which these longings are poured. But what the psalmist wants is what the devout soul in all ages and stages has wanted: the abiding consciousness of the Divine presence; and the prime good which makes that presence so infinitely and exclusively desirable to him is the good which draws all such souls in yearning, namely the vision of God. The lifelong persistence and exclusiveness of the desire are such as all must cherish if they are to receive its fruition. Blessed are they who are delivered from the misery of multiplied and transient aims which break life into fragments by steadfastly and continually following one great desire, which binds all the days each to each, and in its single simplicity encloses and hallows and unifies the else distracting manifoldness! That life is filled with light, however it may be ringed round with darkness, which has the perpetual vision of God, who is its light. Very beautifully does the psalm describe the occupation of God’s guest as "gazing upon the pleasantness of Jehovah." In that expression the construction of the verb with a preposition implies a steadfast and penetrating contemplation, and the word rendered "beauty" or "pleasantness" may mean "friendliness," but is perhaps better taken in a more general meaning, as equivalent to the whole gathered delightsomeness of the Divine character, the supremely fair and sweet. "To inquire" may be rendered "to consider"; but the rendering "meditate [or contemplate] in" is better, as the palace would scarcely be a worthy object of consideration; and it is natural that the gaze on the goodness of Jehovah should be followed by loving meditation on what that earnest look had seen. The two acts complete the joyful employment of a soul communing with God: first perceiving and then reflecting upon His uncreated beauty of goodness. Such intimacy of communion brings security from external dangers. The guest has a claim for protection. And that is a subsidiary reason for the psalmist’s desire as well as a ground of his confidence. Therefore the assurance of Psalm 27:5 follows the longing of Psalm 27:4 . "A pavilion," as the Hebrew text reads, has been needlessly corrected in the margin into "His pavilion" (A.V.). "It is not God’s dwelling, as the following ‘tent’ is, but a boothas an image of protection from heat and inclemency of weather" { Isaiah 4:6 } (Hupfeld). God’s dwelling is a "tent," where he will shelter His guests. The privilege of asylum is theirs. Then, with a swift change of figure, the psalmist expresses the same idea of security by elevation on a rock, possibly conceiving the tent as pitched there. The reality of all is that communion with God secures from perils and enemies, an eternal truth, if the true meaning of security is grasped. Borne up by such thoughts, the singer feels himself lifted clear above the reach of surrounding foes and with the triumphant "now" of Psalm 27:6 , stretches out his hand to bring future deliverance into the midst of present distress. Faith can blend the seasons, and transport June and its roses into December’s snows. Deliverance suggests thankfulness to a true heart, and its anticipation calls out prophetic "songs in the night." But the very brightness of the prospect recalls the stern reality of present need, and the firmest faith cannot keep on the wing continually. In the first part of the psalm it sings and soars; in the second the note is less jubilant, and it sings and sinks; but in both it is faith. Prayer for deliverance is as really the voice of faith as triumph in the assurance of deliverance is, and he who sees his foes and yet "believes to see the goodness of Jehovah" is not far below him who gazes only on the beauty of the Lord. There is a parallelism between the two halves of the psalm worth nothing. In the former part the psalmist’s confidence reposed on the two facts of past deliverance and of his past and continuous "seeking after" the one good; in the second his prayers repose on the same two grounds, which occur in inverted order. "That will I seek after" ( Psalm 27:4 ), is echoed by "Thy face will I seek" ( Psalm 27:8 ). To seek the face is the same substantially ‘as to desire to,’ gaze on the pleasantness of Jehovah." The past experience of the fall of foes ( Psalm 27:2 ) is repeated in "Thou hast been my help." On these two pleas the prayer in which faith speaks itself founds. The former is urged in Psalm 27:8-9 with some harshness of construction, which is smoothed over, rightly as regards meaning, in the A.V. and R.V. But the very brokenness of the sentence adds to the earnestness of the prayer: "To Thee my heart has said, Seek ye my face; Thy face, Jehovah, will I seek." The answering heart repeats the invitation which gave it courage to seek before it responds with its resolve. The insertion of some such phrase as "in answer to Thy word" before "seek ye" helps the sense in a translation, but mars the vigour of the original. The invitation is not quoted from any Scripture, but is the summary of the meaning of all God’s self-revelation. He is ever saying, "Seek ye my face." Therefore He cannot but show it to a man who takes Him at His word and pleads that word as I have never said the warrant for his petition "to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain." the consistency of the Divine character ensures His satisfying the desires which He has implanted. He will neither stultify Himself nor tantalise men by setting them on quests which end in disappointment. In a similar manner, the psalm urges the familiar argument from God’s past, which reposes on the confidence of unalterable grace and inexhaustible resources. The psalmist bad no cold abstract doctrine of immutability as a Divine attribute. His conception was intensely practical. Since God has helped in the past, He will help in the future, because He is God, and because He is "the God of my salvation." He cannot reverse His action nor stay His hand until His dealings with His servants have vindicated that name by completing the process to which it binds Him. The prayer "Forsake me not" is based upon a remarkable ground in Psalm 27:10 : "For my father and my mother have forsaken me." That seems singular plea for a mature man, who has a considerably varied experience of life behind him, to urge. It is generally explained as a proverbial expression, meaning no more than the frequent complaints in the Psalter of desertion by friends and lovers. Cheyne (Commentary in loc .) sees in it a clear indication that the speaker is the afflicted nation, comparing itself to a sobbing child deserted by its parents. But it is at least noteworthy that, when David was hard pressed at Adullam, he bestowed his father and mother for safety with the king of Moab. { 1 Samuel 21:3-4 } It is objected that this was not their "forsaking" him, but it was, at least, their "leaving" him and might well add an imaginative pang as well as a real loss to the fugitive. So specific a statement as that of the psalm can scarcely be weakened down into proverb or metaphor. The allusion may be undiscoverable, but the words sound uncommonly like the assertion of a fact, and the fact referred to is the only known one which in any degree fits them. The general petitions of Psalm 27:7-10 become more specific as the song nears its close. As in Psalm 25:1-22 , guidance and protection are the psalmist’s needs now. The analogy of other psalms suggests an ethical meaning for "the plain path" of Psalm 27:11 ; and that signification, rather than that safe road, is to be preferred, for the sake of preserving a difference between this and the following prayer for deliverance. The figures of his enemies stand out more threateningly than before ( Psalm 27:12 ). Is that all his gain from his prayer? Is it not a faint-hearted descent from Psalm 27:6 , where, from the height of his Divine security, he looked down on them far below, and unable to reach him? Now they have "risen up," and he has dropped down among them. But such changes of mood are not inconsistent with unchanged faith, if only the gaze which discerns the precipice at either side is not turned away from the goal ahead and above, nor from Him who holds up His servant. The effect of that clearer sight of the enemies is very beautifully given in the abrupt half-sentence of Psalm 27:13 : "If I had not believed to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living!" As he thinks of his foes he breaks into an exclamation, which he leaves unfinished. The omission is easy to supply. He would have been their victim but for his faith. The broken words tell of his recoil from the terrible possibility forced on him by the sight of the formidable enemies. Well for us if we are but driven the closer to God, in conscious helplessness, by the sight of dangers and antagonisms! Faith does not falter, though it is keenly conscious of difficulties. It is not preserved by ignoring facts, but should be by them impelled to clasp God more firmly as its only safety. So the psalm goes back to the major key at last, and in the closing verse prayer passes into self-encouragement. The heart that spoke to God now speaks to itself. Faith exhorts sense and soul to "wait on Jehovah." The self-communing of the psalmist, beginning with exultant confidence and merging into prayer thrilled with consciousness of need and of weakness, closes with bracing him up to courage, which is not presumption, because it is the fruit of waiting on the Lord. He who thus keeps his heart in touch with God will be able to obey the ancient command, which had rung so long before in the ears of Joshua in the plains of Jericho and is never out of date, "Be strong and of a good courage"; and none but those who wait on the Lord will be at once conscious of weakness and filled with strength, aware of the foes and bold to meet them. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

The Lord is my light and my salvation. Psalm 27 Implicit trust C. S. Robinson, D. D. This psalm was written by a man who was at the moment far down in the depths of spiritual conflict, and yet was holding a steady front against his troubles, after all. He prays so passionately, that we should deem him weak even to cowardice, if it were not for the fact that he praises so jubilantly, and lifts his head with a most unsubdued ring in his voice. The psalm is like a summer cloud .just before a storm, in that it reserves an overcharge of power to be driven on by a sort of induction into the very verge of the final verse, from which it explodes with a glorious flash of lightning, which clears the air instantly. What are the conditions of implicit trust in the Lord of our salvation, such trust as will ensure peace and comfort? It is likely that most of God's children, sooner or later, are permitted to journey on wearily over what seemed a highway, only to find, at the last, the sign inscribed, "No thoroughfare here." A grim kind of consolation enters one's heart as he murmurs, "Some one has been here before to put up the guideboard, at any rate!" 1. The main condition of resting in the Lord is found in looking outside of one's self. There is a habit of morbid self-examination which needs to be shunned. Some experiences there are which are too delicate to bear this rude analysis. A woman's love for her husband, a child's confidence in his father, could be disturbed fatally and for ever, if only half as much violence were brought to bear upon it as some Christians are accustomed to exert upon their religious feelings. One can tear himself all to pieces, to no sort of profit, and to every sort of harm. The Lord is the one to look at, not ourselves. 2. The next condition of spiritual repose is found in the avoiding of unwise counsellors. We must learn to trust our trust, and not keep rooting it up. No plant grows which is continually being rooted up. 3. Another condition of rest in God is found in drawing a clear distinction between historic faith and saving faith. What secures to us a perfect salvation is spiritual trust in the Saviour, and this is the gift of the Holy Ghost. It is easy to receive facts, perhaps, but not so easy to understand experiences which lie deeper than any mere outward acts. Historic faith is not necessarily saving faith. 4. We are to cultivate confidence in the slowly reached answers to our prayers for Divine grace. 5. We must distinguish between emotions and religious states. The one may vary, the other is fixed. Faith is a very different thing from the result of faith; and confidence of faith is even a different thing from faith itself; and yet the safety of the soul depends on faith, and on nothing else. We are justified by faith; not by joy or peace or love or hope or zeal. These last are the results of faith, generally, and will depend largely upon temperament and education. 6. This unbroken courage is a condition of rest. David said that he came near to fainting, and should have done it, only be kept on believing to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. We must not think everything is lost when we happen to have become beclouded. ( C. S. Robinson, D. D. ) Confidence in God T. H. Witherspoon, D. D. This psalm is an instance of what an old divine has called "confidence in God the best succour in the worst seasons." I. THE OCCASION OF THIS CONFIDENCE. In David's case we find this confidence — 1. In times of peril. The true children of God are oft in peril, and at such times nothing can stand them in such stead as this assured confidence. Luther felt it at Worms. Armed with it, the Christian may ever look even death calmly in the face. Man without it is in time of peril like a ship without anchor in the fury of the storm. 2. In times of privation. Apparently David was (ver. 4) in exile, and deprived of the privileges of worship in the house of God. But he found his great support in his confidence in God. 3. In times of desertion. When he needed friends most, the ranks were thinnest, his standard most deserted. But he had a Friend who would never forsake him. Happy the man who, amidst general unfaithfulness, has found the great treasure of a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. 4. In times of calumny. A bitter element in David's cup were false witnesses and slanderers. II. SOME OF THE GROUNDS ON WHICH THIS CONFIDENCE RESTS. 1. The nature of God Himself in His personal relation to us: "My Light, my Salvation... the Strength of my life." It is not what we are, but what God is, that affords a solid ground of confidence in time of trouble. There is an emphasis on that pronoun my which speaks of an eternal covenant, an appropriating faith, a mystical union. 2. Previous interpositions of God for our help. Ver. 2 evidently refers to a period in the psalmist's past history when he was delivered from great danger. As the child of God looks back on the way by which the Lord has led him, and sees how Divine strength has been made manifest in his weakness, confident is he that the grace which has brought him thus far will lead him safely home. 3. The religious experiences he has enjoyed (ver. 8). 4. The promises of God received and rested on by faith. III. THE FRUITS OF THIS CONFIDENCE. 1. Complete deliverance from all fear (ver. 1). Fear is unworthy one to whom Jehovah stands in such relations. 2. A positive sense of security from all harm. Jehovah, the Captain of our salvation, takes the timid soul into His own royal tent. 3. A well-spring of happiness. The Christian life has its hosannahs as well as its misereres — its notes of joyous triumph as well as its plaintive "songs in the night." ( T. H. Witherspoon, D. D. ) A psalm for life's storms Homilist. I. COURAGE IN LIFE'S STORMS. 1. This courage is founded on confidence in God. When the soul feels God with it, it becomes invincible. 2. It is heightened by memories of past deliverance. Recollection of past mercies strengthens our faith in future supplies. 3. It defies all future enemies, and faces the mysterious future with a jubilant soul. II. SHELTER IN LIFE'S STORMS. 1. The scene where the shelter is sought. The house of the Lord: the place where He specially manifests Himself to His people. 2. The means by which the shelter is to be secured. Dwelling with God; delighting in God; inquiring after God. 3. The source from which it is to be derived. God Himself. 4. The spirit in which it is accepted. Confidence and praise. III. PRAYER IN LIFE'S STORMS. The prayer is — 1. An earnest appeal to mercy for relief. 2. It expresses ready compliance with the Divine request. God requires us to seek His favour, not because we can induce Him to be more merciful; nor because our prayer can merit His favours; but because earnest prayer qualifies the suppliant to rightly receive, appreciate, and use the blessing sought. 3. It deprecates the disfavour of God as a terrible evil. 4. It recognizes the transcendent character of Divine friendship. Though all forsake, He remains faithful. 4. It indicates the true method of safety. Obedience to Divine law; interposition for Divine help. IV. SELF-EXHORTATION IN LIFE'S STORMS. "I had fainted unless," etc. An admonishment to himself to be strong. 1. Faith in Divine goodness. The vision of Divine goodness is the only moral tonic for the soul. 2. Consecration to the Divine service. To wait upon the Lord is to serve Him lovingly, thoroughly, faithfully, practically; and such service is moral strength. ( Homilist. ) Confidence in God Monday Club Sermons. The Psalms are the outbreathings of the universal heart, a voice for man at all times. We are here reminded of — I. A PROFOUND SENSE OF NEED AND DANGER This psalm is the cry of a soul in distress. David's throne, honour, wealth, did not exempt him from suffering; rather they became occasions of distress. To all, the sky of life is often overcast, its path lies along a toilsome way, with burdens too heavy to be borne. Where find rest and safety? II. THE SECURITY OF TRUSTING IN GOD. God was his Light, and in the consciousness of that light he could see that all things worked together for good to them that love God. The Lord was his Salvation: his safety was assured. Cast into a fiery furnace, One appears with the Christian whose form is like the Son of God. God was the Strength of his life, awakening holy impulses, irradiating his whole spiritual being. III. THE NECESSITY OF APPOINTED MEANS IN COMMUNING WITH GOD. In the sanctuary, in the place and in the way of Divine appointment, the psalmist was filled with a sense of the Divine presence. There God's light, salvation, strength, appeared in a reality and beauty nowhere else displayed. There God appeared not in nature, but in grace; not as a power, but as a Person; not as Creator, but as Redeemer. The psalmist therefore longed for the sanctuary. IV. OBEDIENCE TO GOD IS INDISPENSABLE TO CONFIDING INTERCOURSE WITH HIM. At once he would seek, and actively seek, the Lord's face. There is no real confidence in God without loyalty: obedience is the only atmosphere on which the wing of faith can rise. ( Monday Club Sermons. ) The Christian's boast The Study. David was a boaster, but it was in God; hence it was lawful: "My soul shall make her boast in the Lord." In any other source of confidence it is unlawful and dangerous. I. THE "ONE THING" OF WHICH DAVID HERE SPEAKS. The abiding sense of the Divine presence. The temple, or "house of the Lord," was the place of God's special manifestations. Abiding in this presence will give — 1. Light — the light of His countenance. It is one thing to abide in our own or in other light — as "the Pharisee" and Zaccheus; a different thing to be in the light of God's face or presence. This light does two things: it reveals to us God, and shows us what sin is; it reveals God to us, and shows us what salvation is — making the Lord to be our salvation. 2. Satan may accuse, but, if God acquits, whom shall we fear? If the Law has been satisfied, the debt paid, we need fear neither penalties nor imprisonment. There is a second sense in which the Lord is light and salvation. No longer "afraid" of the condemning power of sin, we are warranted in standing in fear of its ruling power in our hearts. Therefore we are exhorted to "work out our salvation." To do this we need the light to guide us into all truth, the salvation to deliver us from all evil. 3. Strength. "If God be for us" strength is on our side. 4. "The beauty of the Lord." The beauty of His attributes, as they meet and harmonize for our blessing. The beauty, too, reflected in us; for in His light and salvation and strength we are "changed into the same image." 5. Joy and singing. When our joy is dependent on the consciousness of what we are or ought to be to God, it is a very uncertain joy, and will rarely produce singing, but rather sighing. But when it is dependent on the sense of what God is to us, then we can say, "I will offer in His tabernacle sacrifices of joy." To have this joy we must be taken out of self. II. THE CONDITION OF ATTAINING THIS "ONE THING." We must "seek after it." We must "wait on the Lord." To navigate the sea of life we must keep the eye fixed on this one thing, on the one magnet — Christ. Paul did this, which made his bark "press toward" the haven with such grace and nobility. ( The Study. ) The Christian's triumph J. Hassler, D. D. A beautiful affirmation; important possession; glorious triumph. I. THE AFFIRMATION. 1. The Lord is light in nature. "All things were made by Him." All light in nature comes from God's Son, who is emphatically the Light of the world. 2. In the sphere of reason. God made man with a mind to know, a will to obey, a heart to love — elevated far above the rest of creation. By sin the mind is darkened, the will perverse, the heart depraved. Hence — 3. God is light in the sphere of grace. Man, by the Fall, deprived himself and the race of "those divine gifts"; hence the need of a Redeemer. This we have: "the Lord is salvation." Light shows us where and what we are — lost, ruined, dead. Christ, our salvation, brings us from the depths of the Fall, recreates us, imparts to us His Spirit, righteousness and life. II. A MOST IMPORTANT POSSESSION. "My light," "my salvation." The beauty of the Psalms is in the pronouns. Light must be in us, or we walk in darkness; bread be eaten, or we starve; so an unapplied Saviour is no Saviour to man. This possession is ours only as we stand in living union with Christ Jesus our Lord. III. THE GLORIOUS TRIUMPH. "Whom shall I fear?" etc. In possession of Christ's light and life, the Christian need fear neither sickness, death, grave, nor hell. Over all these lie has complete victory ( Romans 8:34-39 ). ( J. Hassler, D. D. ) David's confidence in God T. Pierson. I. WHAT GOD WAS TO DAVID. 1. The fountain of gladness to his heart. 2. The author of safety to his person. 3. The giver of strength and might, for the preservation of his life.Uses — 1. For instruction. (1) God's all-sufficiency in Himself, for all His children. (2) The happy estate of those who are in covenant with God. 2. For admonition. (1) Search and try whether God be that to us which He was to David. (2) If we find defect we must give all diligence thereunto ( 2 Peter 1:5 ). (3) In the fruition of any of these blessings, see whither to return the honour and praise, viz. to God. 3. For comfort. II. WHAT BENEFIT DAVID REAPED THEREBY. Having the Lord for his God, he is armed against all fear of men or other creatures ( Psalm 118:6 ; Psalm 23:1-4 ; Psalm 3:3-6 ). Uses — 1. For instruction.(1) There is great gain in true godliness, and much fruit in religion, to those who attain to true righteousness ( 1 Timothy 6:6 ; Psalm 58:11 ).(2) See here the true ground of the difference between the wicked and the godly, about slavish fear and godly boldness ( Proverbs 28:1 ). The godly have the Lord with them and for them, and that makes them bold; but the wicked have the Lord against them, and that strikes their hearts with fear and dread. 2. For admonition.(1) Unless God be for us, the heart will fail when evils come. And none have the Lord for them but those that stand rightly in covenant with God; 'repenting of their sins, believing in the Lord Jesus, and walking in new obedience.(2) Those who have true courage and comfort in evil times must learn hence to give God all the glory ( Psalm 18:29 ). ( T. Pierson. ) The pathway of power G. M. Mackie, M. A. Light — salvation — strength : three great waves of the sea, telling that the tide can rise no higher. The tide is full. Even so it is with the heart that can say — I. THE LORD IS MY LIGHT. 1. In the natural world God gives us a night between every two days, and in the life beyond we hear of a bow of emerald that breaks the dazzle of the great white throne. Light means truth, and, as it advances in precision and purity, the steps of discovered truth become the songs of degrees with which the tribes go up to the great temple of God. 2. In the spiritual life, both as regards salvation and service, much depends on clearness of vision, and knowledge of how and where to look and what to look for. II. THE LORD IS MY SALVATION. The words "Christ for us" have now a clear and exact meaning, setting forth the condition and character of Salvation. And before Christ was crucified for sinners, the main feature of salvation was the same; it was from the Lord, a gift from His hand. "Blessed is the man whose sin is covered." Sin was then also a transgression, a taint, and a tyranny, and from all the Lord delivered. It was His to deliver the soul from death, the eyes from tears, and the feet from falling. This fact at once humbled and upheld him; it was the Lord's gift, and yet it was his own possession. And so he could say — "Whom shall I fear? The Lord is my salvation." III. THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH. Light for the understanding and its judgment; salvation for the heart, its hardness and anxiety; and strength for action and usefulness. How often we come to the Lord, like James and John, and say "we are able"; but the Lord makes a thorough work of the first and second, the light and salvation, before lie entrusts us with the third, the strength on which He puts His own almighty name. We often bring misery upon ourselves, and darkness upon others, by trying to come into the Lord's service before coming to the Lord Himself. Let us seek the power in the pathway of power: — light, salvation, strength. ( G. M. Mackie, M. A. ) The Divine Light Canon Liddon. I. DAVID SAYS THIS. He is in exile, engaged in some struggle on the frontiers of his kingdom: his foes have received a check: he is closely watched, but is, nevertheless, confident of victory. This is the only occasion in which David speaks of the Lord as his Light: the expression occurs only twice in the Old Testament. Micah says, "the Lord shall be a light unto me." In other places light is spoken of as God's gift — the light of revelation and of conscience. But here David says, "the Lord is my light." David's life was one of great vicissitude, and his temperament was very changeable. Hence he was liable to great depression, especially through the recollection of his awful sins — adulterer and murderer that he was. And yet he was a man after God's own heart, because a man's life is to be judged not by its exceptional acts, but by its governing principles. Nevertheless, David was damaged deeply and permanently by his sins. But they did not destroy, though they did deface his real character, his profound religious sense of God's presence and claims. The leading acts of a man's life may look one way, the governing principles of his life another. Philip II. of Spain encouraged and paid for the publication of the second great polyglot Bible that was ever printed. But how wrong it would be to infer from that one action what manner of man he was. And so with David: his exceptional acts do not reveal him in his real character and mind. Saul had no depth of character: moral levity and indifference to the claims of God are constantly chargeable against him. But David's sins, though terrible, were but temporary, and never became the habit of his life, and they did not extinguish in him his deep love of God. Hence, still he could say, "The Lord is my light." II. Apply the words TO OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. In their deepest sense they can apply to none else. He whom Jesus said was greatest of woman-born — John the Baptist — was yet "not that light, but came to bear witness of that light." Christ alone could say, "I am the light of the world." Some of us may remember that great work of Christian genius, called the "Notre": it is by Correggio, and is reckoned amongst the chief of the art treasures of the Dresden Gallery. In it the Divine infant is represented as with a body almost transparent with light, and from Him all around are illuminated, and in proportion to their nearness to Him. It is a representation on canvas of a great moral and spiritual truth. For Christ is the one light of men. III. To THE CHURCH. Was it not so in the days of persecution? Road the history of the martyrdom of Stephen. IV. To CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. Our text is the motto of the University of Oxford, and expresses the truth that education apart from Him is vain. V. To THE INDIVIDUAL CONSCIENCE. Then refer to Him all teaching, all content. "Lead, kindly Light... lead Thou me on." ( Canon Liddon. ) Facts and arguments I. THE FACTS. 1. "The Lord is my light and my salvation." The soul is assured of it, and therefore declares it boldly. Into the soul at the new birth Divine light is poured as the precursor of salvation. Where there is not enough light to reveal our own darkness, and to make us long for the Lord Jesus, there is no evidence of salvation. After conversion our God is our Joy, Comfort, Guide, Teacher, and, in every sense, our Light: He is light within, light around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Not merely does He give light or salvation; He is light, He is salvation; he, then, who has laid hold upon God has all covenant blessings in his possession. 2. "The Lord is the strength of my life." Here is a third epithet to show the writer's hope was fastened with a threefold cord which could not be broken. We may well accumulate terms of praise where the Lord lavishes deeds of grace. II. THE ARGUMENTS. 1 "Whom shall I fear?" A question which is its own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared; for the Lord, our light, destroys them. The damnation of hell is not to be dreaded; for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different challenge from that of boastful Goliath: that rested on the conceited vigour of an arm of flesh; this on the real power of the omnipotent I AM. 2. "Of whom shall I be afraid?" Our life derives all its strength from God: we cannot be weakened by all the machinations of the enemy. This bold question looks into the future as well as the present. "If God be for us, who can be against us," either now or in time to come? ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Christ the True Light Canon Liddon. In the New Testament, the idea which is hinted at in the language of David is expressly revealed as a truth. God does not merely give us His light. He is light, just as He is love in His own uncreated nature. "God is light," says St. John, "and in Him is no darkness at all." When St. John would teach us our Lord's Godhead as clearly and sharply as possible, he calls Him the "light," moaning to teach us that as such He shares the essential nature of the Deity. He is "light," because lie is what He is — absolute perfection in respect of intellectual truth, absolute perfection in respect of moral beauty. And hence those momentous words, "I am the light of the world"; and hence that confession of the Christian creed, "God of God, Light of Light." Thus the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ was to the spiritual world what the rising of the sun is in the world of nature. It had effects even upon the orders of the heavenly intelligences, of which St. Paul hints in his Epistle to the Ephesians. But, for the human soul, it meant a passing from darkness to light, from warmth to sunshine. And thus a prophet had bidden Zion arise and shine since her Lord was come, and the glory of the Lord had risen upon her; for He was announced as the Sun of Righteousness who should arise with healing in His wings, so that although darkness had covered the earth, and gross darkness the people, yet the Lord should arise upon Zion, and His glory be seen upon her. And, in the Benedictus, Zechariah salutes Him as "the day-star from on high, who hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death." And Simeon, holding the Divine Saviour in his arms, says that He is "a Light to lighten the Gentiles"; and himself felt that the word of prophecy was fulfilled, when the people who walked in darkness had seen a great light; and they that were in the region and shadow of death, on them hath the Gospel light shined. Some of us may remember that great work of Christian genius, the picture of the Nativity — the "Notre," as it is called, of Correggio, which is among the treasures of the Dresden Gallery. In it the Divine Infant is represented as with a body almost transparent with light; and from Him all around are illuminated. His mother, His foster-father, the angels who bend in adoration, they are illuminated in the ratio of their nearness to Him. And this is but a representation on canvas of spiritual and eternal truth. He is the one Light of the intellectual and moral world; and we are in the light just so far, and only so far, as we are near to Him. ( Canon Liddon. ) Light and salvation H. Macmillan, D. D. The combination of the two ideas, "light and salvation," is very suggestive. Light is essential to life, health, and growth. What wonderful medicinal efficacy it possesses! There is no tonic like it. It imparts that green hue by means of which the plant changes inorganic into organic matter, creates and conserves what everything else consumes and destroys, and acts as the mediator between the world of death and the world of life. Take away the light from man, and immediately he becomes a prey to the dead, inert forces of nature. The tissues of his body degenerate, and the powers of his mind decay. It affects the stature, the blood, the hair, the liver, the whole body inwardly and outwardly. Under solar radiation, sickness is more speedily cured, wounds heal more rapidly, and the healthy acquire fresh vigour and elevated vitality. It is difficult even to express the full enjoyment of all the senses, except by metaphors drawn from light. Owing to this healing, life-giving power of natural light, we see how it becomes the salvation of the natural man. And in regard to our souls, the Lord is our salvation because He is our light. The plant instinctively and inevitably turns to the sunlight, wherever it is, because the sunlight is its salvation, its very life. Shut out from the light, it can neither live nor grow. A plant growing in a cellar, where but a feeble ray of light penetrates, is a dwarfed and forced growth, exhausting all there is in its seed or bulb mechanically, but adding no new material of growth, without any sign of inward vitality or promise of perennial production. It is a weak, blanched ghost of a plant, without any sap in its veins, or colour in its leaves, without any power to produce blossoms or fruit. But bring the miserable shadow of life out into the open sunshine, and it recovers itself; its white, brittle stem becomes green and full of sap; its leaves assume their natural vivid hue, and open out their blades in the golden air. The whole plant revives as if by magic, and speedily puts forth its beautiful blossom and fruit. What the sunlight is to the plant, God is to the soul. ( H. Macmillan, D. D. ) Man's True Light Henry Drummond. When we were at New York, Professor Simpson and I went one night to the observatory. We found the astronomer by the light of a small candle, groping about for his instruments, and arranging the telescope. But when he had got the star full in view he blew out his little candle. He had now got the light of the world, and the candle served only to obscure his view. The dim light of your reason is of use only if it brings you to the Great Light. ( Henry Drummond. ) Whom shall I fear? The believer's freedom from fear H. Hyslop. This is not the language of vain presumption, or the boastful utterance of affected boldness, but the confident, yet humble, utterance of Christian assurance. I. SHALL WE BE AFRAID OF GOD? 1. Is He not revealed as a sin-hating God? And are not all men sinners? How comes it, then, that the Christian man, though sensible of many infirmities, shortcomings, and aggravated sins — sins of thought, of word, and of deed — can say that he has no cause to be afraid of God? It is because of the new relation into which he is brought to God by virtue of his union to Christ, and of what Christ has done for him. The work of Christ was to satisfy Divine justice and reconcile us to God. Nor is this all. Every believer in Christ becomes a partaker of the Divine nature, sustaining a relation to him near and dear as that which His own Son sustained. 2. Is not the Christian exposed to temptation? May he not be stripped of the safeguard which Divine grace has thrown around him, and be exposed again to the dread vengeance of an insulted God? No; though he may fall, yet shall he rise again. So long as he is Christ's he has nothing to fear from God, but everything to hope. The love of God dwelling in him, there is no place for fear, for "perfect love casteth out fear." II. SHALL WE FEAR THE LAW? "Cursed is every one that continueth not," etc. "He that offendeth in one point," etc. If a man's life is to be brought to the test of the law, if he is to stand on the footing of his own merits in the eye of the law, then, indeed, is his condition hopeless, for "there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not." "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh living be justified." Now though all this be true, it is no less true that even of the law the Christian has no need to be afraid. To him it is invested with no terrors, on him it never flashes its lightning, against him it never peals its thunders, and why? Why, just because "the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the law of sin and of death." Why? Because "there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." III. SHALL WE FEAR SATAN? When we think of the life he has led us, the misery in which he has involved us, the grinding nature of that servitude be exacts from every one who is led captive by him at his will, we may well tremble at the thought of such an enemy, for unless we are ransomed from his hands by a mightier power than our own, well may we say that he is indeed a power to be feared. But it is only when under his power that this can truly be said of him. It cannot be so said of the believer, for his position is altered to Satan, and Satan's is altered to him. Christ "has taken the prey from the mighty, and spoiled the captive of the terrible one." IV. SHALL WE FEAR AFFLICTION? To fear it would be to mistrust the promises, and to doubt the faithfulness of Him by whom these promises are made. "Fear not, for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God." "When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee," etc. V. SHALL WE FEAR DEATH? Death, which the world calls "the king of terrors," and which wicked men feel to be such! Death, which for six thousand years has lorded it over the human race, and to whose sceptre countless myriads are yet destined to bowl Shall we not be afraid of death? No! To the Christian there is nothing in death to make him afraid. To the Christian all his power is over the material, not over the spiritual; over the body, not over the soul; and even ever the body not long. To the Christian he comes as an angel of mercy, as a messenger of peace. ( H. Hyslop. ) The fearlessness of the good W. Forsyth, M. A. I. SPRINGS FROM PERSONAL FAITH IN GOD. 1. Intelligent. 2. Appropriating. 3. Soul-saving. II. STRENGTHENED BY THE REMEMBRANCE OF PAST DELIVERANCES. Confidence comes of experience. The remedy we have proved we readily try again. The friend we have found faithful we trust to death. The commander under whom we have conquered we follow bravely to other fields. So should we act as to God. III. SUFFICIENT FOR THE GREATEST EMERGENCIES. What terror had Ahab for Micaiah, the man who had seen God? ( 1 Kings 22:19 ). What cared Elisha for "the horses and chariots" at Dothan, whose eyes beheld the angels of God ranged in his defence? ( 2 Kings 6:15 ). "If God be for us, who can be against us?" ( Romans 8:31 ). ( W. Forsyth, M. A. ) David's preventive of fear D. Davies. The heroic man shows us the secret of his heroism. I. THE LORD WAS THE PSALMIST'S LIGHT. Few things man recoils more from than darkness, whether physical, or of ignorance or of sin. This fear was no longer possible to David. He even anticipates John's grand utterance, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." What light was and ever had been to the world, the Lord was to David. II. THE LORD WAS HIS SALVATION. As man dreads darkness, so he dreads captivity and oppression. David rejoices in God as his salvation. This conception of God first found expression in the song of Moses ( Exodus 15:4 ), when God led the children of Israel through the Red Sea into the light and calm of day. The word "salvation" is Jeshua — Joshua — Jesus. So near does David come to the parallel Gospel phrase: "He shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." Thus the psalmist gripped in advance two of the central truths of the Gospel — God as light and as salvation. In face of these assurances he asks, "Whom shall I fear?" This is the question of every reformer, who, in the strength of a mighty conviction, in the inspiration of high aims, goes to the help of the Lord against the mighty. III. THE LORD WAS THE STRENGTH — THE STRONGHOLD — OF HIS LIFE. The word has a more subtle meaning still. David looks upon God as the Life of his life, the Father of his spirit. He thus falls back upon a third Gospel truth: "God is a Spirit." David's life was in possession of a power which needed not to fear any foe. By a mighty faith he drew upon God's omnipotence: be had not only enough obedience to be active, he had enough to be restful; and that power is greater than all other. M

27:1-6 The Lord, who is the believer's light, is the strength of his life; not only by whom, but in whom he lives and moves. In God let us strengthen ourselves. The gracious presence of God, his power, his promise, his readiness to hear prayer, the witness of his Spirit in the hearts of his people; these are the secret of his tabernacle, and in these the saints find cause for that holy security and peace of mind in which they dwell at ease. The psalmist prays for constant communion with God in holy ordinances. All God's children desire to dwell in their Father's house. Not to sojourn there as a wayfaring man, to tarry but for a night; or to dwell there for a time only, as the servant that abides not in the house for ever; but to dwell there all the days of their life, as children with a father. Do we hope that the praising of God will be the blessedness of our eternity? Surely then we ought to make it the business of our time. This he had at heart more than any thing. Whatever the Christian is as to this life, he considers the favour and service of God as the one thing needful. This he desires, prays for and seeks after, and in it he rejoices. 27:7-14 Wherever the believer is, he can find a way to the throne of grace by prayer. God calls us by his Spirit, by his word, by his worship, and by special providences, merciful and afflicting. When we are foolishly making court to lying vanities, God is, in love to us, calling us to seek our own mercies in him. The call is general, Seek ye my face; but we must apply it to ourselves, I will seek it. The word does us no good, when we do not ourselves accept the exhortation: a gracious heart readily answers to the call of a gracious God, being made willing in the day of his power. The psalmist requests the favour of the Lord; the continuance of his presence with him; the benefit of Divine guidance, and the benefit of Divine protection. God's time to help those that trust in him, is, when all other helpers fail. He is a surer and better Friend than earthly parents are, or can be. What was the belief which supported the psalmist? That he should see the goodness of the Lord. There is nothing like the believing hope of eternal life, the foresights of that glory, and foretastes of those pleasures, to keep us from fainting under all calamities. In the mean time he should be strengthened to bear up under his burdens. Let us look unto the suffering Saviour, and pray in faith, not to be delivered into the hands of our enemies. Let us encourage each other to wait on the Lord, with patient expectation, and fervent prayer.