CHAPTER 27

A PSALM OF DAVID: TRUST AND COMMITMENT TO GOD

¹The 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? (This portrays Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane and on His Way to Calvary. As He looked through the darkness, seeing the lanterns and torches held by those who were coming to seize Him, His heart sang of the quiet confidence of an assured Faith.)

²When the wicked, even My enemies and My foes, came upon Me to eat up My flesh, they stumbled and fell (this pertains to the scores who came to arrest Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; Jesus asked them, Whom do you seek? They answered, Jesus of Nazareth. He then answered, I am He, and, when He said that, the Scripture says, They went backward and fell to the ground, thereby fulfilling this statement by David a thousand years earlier [Jn. 18:6]).

³Though an host should encamp against Me, My heart shall not fear: though war should rise against Me, in this will I be confident (there is torment in fear, but Jesus had no torment at all, simply because there was no fear).

⁴One thing have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in His Temple (the doctrine of this Psalm is that the Messiah is an all-sufficient High Priest for His People, and that He can, by His example, by His Ministry, and by His Spirit in us, carry us triumphantly through the sharpest trials and through death itself [Heb. 4:14]).

⁵For in the time of trouble He shall hide Me in His Pavilion: in the secret of His Tabernacle shall He hide Me; He shall set Me up upon a rock.

⁶And now shall My head be lifted up above My enemies round about Me: therefore will I offer in His Tabernacle Sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises unto the LORD. (As David cried these words, little did he realize that He was saying what the Messiah would say. Verses 56 reveal the unshakable confidence of Christ in His Father, and His conviction as to Resurrection, and He consequently pledges Himself to sing loud praises in the Heavenly Temple. These were among the joys that the Father set before Him, because of which He endured the Cross, despising its shame [Heb. 12:2].)

⁷Hear, O LORD, when I cry with My voice: have mercy also upon Me, and answer Me. (Verses 710 belong to the moment of His arrest and the abandonment of His Disciples.)

⁸When You said, Seek you My Face; My Heart said unto You, Your Face, LORD, will I seek (Christ looked to the Heavenly Father Alone, for none other could help; it is the same presently with all Believers!).

⁹Hide not Your Face far from Me; put not Your Servant away in anger: You have been My Help; leave Me not, neither forsake Me, O God of My Salvation (a petition of Christ to the Father, which was fully answered).

¹⁰When My father and My mother forsake Me, then the LORD will take Me up (in fact, at the Crucifixion, all forsook Christ, all except the Lord!).

¹¹Teach Me Your Way, O LORD, and lead Me in a plain path, because of My enemies (that path was Calvary; it is the same path presently, that which the Lord teaches [Lk. 9:2324]).

¹²Deliver Me not over unto the will of My enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against Me, and such as breathe out cruelty (this speaks of the trial of Christ, when the religious leaders of Israel sentenced Him to die).

¹³I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living (He believed that though crucified, yet would He be raised from the dead, and, on the way to Pilates judgment hall, He addressed the words of the next Verse to His Own Heart).

¹⁴Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD. (The word courage means be encouraged. What a statement to make when on the way to Calvary! Due to the agony of the Garden and Satans efforts to kill Him, He was strengthened in His Heart by waiting on the LORD. What a lesson for us!)