SERMONS

Psalm 27 – A Psalm of David
Sermon by Reverend Angela Ying
February 28, 2010

“The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom then, will I fear.”

Sometimes, just getting a glimpse of the LIGHT is enough.

Enough to get you through the Day.

As when you arise early in the morning — look out and catch a glimpse of the sun rising brightly over the mountains.

Sometimes, getting a glimpse of the LIGHT is enough.

Enough to get you through the Night.

I remember as a young girl, my two sisters and I, who all shared one bedroom, would insist that the light in the hallway be left on until all three of us had fallen asleep. Mom and Dad would leave our bedroom door ajar so that the light could shine through.

I wonder whether it was more because we wanted to be close to the light or afraid of being left in the dark.

Sometimes, getting a glimpse of the LIGHT is enough

Enough to give you courage to continue walking in faith — even when you are not quite sure of the next step.

As when you go for a hike on an unknown trail. The sign at the starting point tells you roughly how many miles the journey will be.

What it does not tell you is how many steps uphill you will take nor how many twists and turns and combinations of going uphill and downhill you will encounter.

It must have been something like that for David in Psalm 27, our scripture passage for this morning.

Notice that David is looking to the Light.

But it is not just any light.

David sees and believes in God as the Light.

We do not know when David wrote Psalm 27.Some believe that David wrote Psalm 27 in two parts.

He wrote the first part when life was good.

David sensed God answering his prayers, even when David had to face the giant Goliath and the Philistine army.

We hear it in David’s words of confidence and courage:

“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?

Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not be afraid.”

David is called to keep the faith and not lose courage.

In having young David face Goliath, King Saul and others try to fit David into their image, their standard uniform, their way of doing things — instead of letting David be David, one created in the image of God.

David graciously puts on someone else’s tunic, another’s bronze helmet, another’s breastplate, and another’s sword to prepare to meet Goliath.

Fit for the journey? Hardly!

For you see, wearing things that fit someone else and not you, David found he could not even walk straight.

Thankfully, David took off the masks and the costumes and the army uniform the people had placed on him. And by faith – went as David,

— with a staff, five stones and a sling in his shepherd’s bag.

David is called to live by faith and not by fear.

This is not easy. For to live by faith and not by fear is a life long journey.

It is much easier to hide behind someone else’s shadow than to stand in the light, where we are vulnerable and capable of making mistakes.

It is more comfortable to wear what other people think you should — to wear and to look and to act as you think you should — than it is to look in the mirror and like what you see. To be bamboozled rather than be who God created you to be.

To live by faith and not in fear is to live with the risks and still go on. To trust that it is not all up to us – for God is faithful, working in and through God’s people, even if you do not know exactly where God is leading you.

When many saw the great, big, powerful Goliath – you fill in the blank for the Goliaths of the world – for there are many – the people were filled with great fear. They felt threatened, small and powerless.

What can we do? He is so big! So, the people could do nothing.

And yet, David, the shepherd boy, saw it differently.

David took one look at the great, big, powerful Goliath.

Now David probably scratched his head several times as he looked to God as his Light in prayer for wisdom and insight. And instead of letting his fear overcome him, David let God use his fear to humble him enough to see with a new perspective — with an open heart.

Yes, Goliath is big. No doubt about that. But if Goliath is so big, David thought to himself, “How can I miss!”

Live by faith and not by fear.

David may have written the second part of Psalm 27 when David was struggling and life was difficult. A very different situation than before.

In times of trouble, this same David thought God was hiding from him.

In the past, God had been good to him. Where was God now?

In living by faith and not fear — David must also learn to live by grace and not by greed.

“Hear, O God, my cry, be gracious to me and answer me.

Your face, God, do I seek — Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn away from me who has been my help. Do not forsake me.”

Here, in the same Psalm, we see a David learning to live by grace as he chooses to stay with God.

For as we know, it is far easier to leave and walk away than it is to stay through thick and thin and be here for all of life’s trials and tribulations.

For David, who has faith in what God has faith in, — it is no different. Life still has its ups and downs.

In faith, it is not that clear cut — when you are faithful, all is good — and when you are faithless, all is difficult.

More often than not, it is actually when you are trying to be faithful following the ways of God — that trouble, real trouble in life may come.

Ever notice that it is when you have a daily exercise plan to stay in shape, that you can get sore muscles or find losing weight comes slowly.

Or when you are trying to get out the door, there is one more call or that is the moment the child chooses to have a meltdown.

Or when you finally have the spiritual disciplines to pray and be generous — there seem to come all kinds of distractions to keep you from your practice.

When we think that God has forgotten us, we must re-member the times when God did not forget or abandon us.

In the call of David in First Samuel,

The prophet Samuel watches as the people line up

Seeing all these nice people in line — the prophet thinks to himself

“Surely God’s anointed are now before God”

One after the other the people pass by

Not this one

Not that one

Neither has he been chosen.

I don’t think so.

Nope. Sorry.

When the line dwindles and no one is left, the prophet Samuel looks to God a bit anxious – and though living by faith says, perhaps, “Uh, now what do I do?”

Amidst the uncomfortable silence, someone reminds God of you.

Yes, you!

The one out in the field, in the garden, in the mud, dirt and soil, the one struggling, the one lost, the one talking to sheep! — and God says:

Send and Bring him or her here!

For God does not see as human beings see – they look on the outward appearance or on one’s stature – but God – God sees into the heart.

God moves us to live in grace and not in greed.

The last two verses of the Psalm has no beginning. In Hebrew it is “… (dot,dot,dot) —

I believe I will see the goodness of God in the land of the living.

This is not a mistake, as some people think.

It means that everyone that reads the psalm will put their own words in as to how they have found faith in what God has faith in.

Glimpses of the light to live by faith and not by fear. Glimpses of the light to live by grace and not by greed.

Sometimes this is all we are given in life.

There is a story of a pastor who began working at a church whose buildings were very run down and needed much work. Trust me, I can relate.

Then one winter night a severe rainstorm swept through the city causing a huge chunk of plaster to fall leaving a large hole in the sanctuary. What to do?

After cleaning up the mess, the pastor and people found in the closet a handsome lace tablecloth nearly 15 feet long. Though dated, it would do well in covering the gapping hole.

Days later, as the pastor was heading out of the church, he saw a woman standing in the cold at the bus stop. “The bus will not be here for another 40 minutes!” he said as he invited the older woman into the church to get warm.

As the woman was sitting in the church, she noticed the beautiful cloth that the pastor was adjusting across the hole. “How strange. Looks like the one I had years ago.”

She told the pastor that her husband had a cloth made especially for her. There could not be another like it. She went over and lifted up a corner and saw her initials monogrammed on it.

For the next few minutes, the woman shared that she was originally from Vienna, that she and her husband had opposed the Nazis and had decided to leave the country.

They were advised to go separately. Her husband had put her on a train for Switzerland. They planned that he would join her as soon as he could arrange to ship their household goods across the border.

She never saw him again. Later she heard that perhaps, he had died in a concentration camp. The pastor listened, tried to comfort her and urged her to take the cloth with her. She refused to take the lacecloth given to her by her husband and went away.

The following Sunday, after the church service as the pastor stood at the doorway greeting people, a gentle-faced older man from the community who had come to church looked rather puzzled. It is strange, he said in his soft accent.

Many years ago my wife – God rest her – and I owned such a cloth in our home in Vienna. The pastor could not believe it and started telling the man about the woman who had been in the church earlier. It was only time before the two were reunited —- only because of the Light in a hole in the wall – by the grace of God.

Are you open to receive the light — God as Light — as to have it change us!

As the words in Nelson Mandela’s inaugural speech after decades of horrendous apartheid in South Africa call us not only to the light, but to be as the light :

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure
It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God
Your playing small doesn’t serve the world
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t
feel insecure about you
We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us
It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone of us —
And as we let the light shine, we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same
As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically
liberates others”

….For you see, sometimes in life, a glimpse of the light is all you get.

But by the grace of God — getting a glimpse of God as Your Light is enough to be changed forever.

God is my light and my salvation. Whom then shall I be afraid?