Psalm 27
THE TURN TO SUPERNATURAL REALITY
By Dr. J. Michael Strawn
PART 1: THE CONFUSION BETWEEN THE SPIRITUAL & THE ABSTRACT.
#1. Some who deny the reality of God, often mistake that which is SPIRITUAL FOR THAT WHICH IS ABSTRACT. Those are not identical.
#2. The idea is that any turn to God is in fact, they say, a turn inward. It has to be that way because, in that perspective, the Almighty is not really there!
#3. Here, then, is the case for psychologization. For example, FEAR IS THE PSYCHOLOGIZATION OF TIME. The reason why the Israelites refused battle with the Canaanites at Kadesh-Barnea, Numbers 13, 14. “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defense of my life; whom shall I dread”, V.1.
#4. This world is the place of time, threats & dangers. Yet the Psalmist professes that he carries no “fear” & no “dread”.
#5. The writer is telling us that he had rejected the INWARD TURN TO PSYCHOLOGIZATION OF TIME & EXPERIENCE.
#6. Quite the opposite, the psalmist did not turn inward, rather, he turned to the supreme external reality!
#7. And that is the ANTI-PSYCHOLOGY. God is the “light”, his “salvation” & his “defense”. That language refers to SUPERNATURAL OBJECTIVE REALITY. It was to that REALITY that the writer turned in his duress.
#8. “When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh, my adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell”, V.2.
#9. “Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arises against me, in spite of this I shall be confident”, V.2. #10. The psalmist’s confidence is in heaven & discontinuous with his historical conditions! His hope is dislocated from time & circumstance & consciously attached to the eternal spiritual reality & there is nothing abstract about that!
PART 2: POWER RATIOS.
#1. “Though a host encamp against me, my heart will not fear; though war arise against me, in spite of this I shall be confident. One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: 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 meditate in His temple”, V.3, 4.
#2. Believers are always, in this world, up against a certain POWER RATIO. A “host” is more powerful than the single individual. This is to be expected & is inherently a PERSONAL TEST OF FAITH.
#3. A believer will usually be the one who is outnumbered & faced with built-in disadvantages! David & Goliath is the useful Model!
#4. It might be a BAD DIAGNOSIS. One that pits the body against, what we now call, CATASTROPHIC ILLNESS.
#.5. In spite of such odds against him the writer remains bold & without “fear” & “confident”. #6. The phenomenon of such difficult POWER RATIOS holds no undue challenge to the mind of this Psalmist! His heart & soul rises above PERSONAL EXPERIENCE & any current STATE OF SOCIOLOGY (PUBLIC OPINION).
#7. This psalmist shows the way to deal with the “normal” array of force spread before him or her. His great motive in all that he faces is to pursue FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.
#8. The “beauty of the Lord is more captivating than the enormous imbalance of the POWER RATIO standing against him!
#9. Before the arrival of the PERSONAL CATASTROPHE, such a man, had already picked his/her priorities. To such a believer the priority is to “…dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life…”. His mind & soul had been positioned in advance of the forthcoming trouble! The SUPERNATURAL REALITY is the focus & not the contours of the trouble.
#10. The EFFECTIVE METHODOLOGY IS MEDITATION ON THE WORD OF GOD. In consequence, then, this believer will not resort to PSYCHOLOGIZATION (the inward turn to the self).
#11. He is living outside of his mind & therefore, within the embrace of REVEALED TRUTH. From that he will not move! There are two kinds of faith: 1) the one that surmounts the inherent intimidation of POWER RATIOS & 2) the one that collapses under such intimidations!
PART 3: THE DAY OF TROUBLE.
#1. “For in the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle; in the secret place of His tent, He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock”, V.5.
#2. The writer feels safe in the presence of the Almighty. One must presume that his expressed sentiments are not just emotion. What the psalmist reports must be a sense of REPOSITIONALITY.
#.3. He had ceded his well-being over to the direct care of the Lord! The psalmist’s sense of protection was not just “wishful thinking”; no, rather it was the result of a profound trust in the character of God!
#4. This psalm expresses belief in another PHASE OF REALITY: THE ETERNAL & INVISIBLE. There is no inward turn here.
#.5. “And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord”, V.6.
#6. Demonstrated here is one’s trust in something that one cannot see nor touch. Still the writer’s conviction is maintained!
#7. “THE DAY OF TROUBLE” is stocked with tangible, quantifiable realities all of which can be dangerous, even lethal!
#8. Yet because of the belief in the goodness of the Lord the author reassigns protection to the invisible God. He looks forward to a future of redemption & personal praise of the Almighty. This man does not believe that God will permit him to be drowned in a flood tide of adversity.
#9. He sweeps aside any PERSONAL PSYCHOLOGIZATION of events, situations & circumstances. Fears, worry & second guessing were overridden. His belief is that ultimately & finally he would be vindicated in his confidence in the Lord & the Lord’s power over the temporal realm.
PART 4: CONDENSED REALITY.
#1. “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer”, V.7.
#2. The petitioner calls for CONDENSED REALITY. That is a HISTORICAL CONDITION WHERE GOD COMES INTO VERY CLOSE RELATION TO US & THEN, DIRECTLY AFFECTS OUR MATERIAL CIRCUMSTANCES.
#3. THAT IS A FORM OF REALITY MUCH MORE DENSE & POWERFUL. INVISIBILITY (that of God) is, inherently, a test of faith!
#4. Two dimensions of reality have become conjoined!!
#5. There is TIME (1) & all that goes with it. And (2) there is God, the invisible & the supernatural.
#6. This psalmist is looking beyond the rational world—>& to the spiritual. He was seeking the face of God.
#7. “When You said, ‘Seek My face’, my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O Lord, I shall seek’, V.8.
#8. Seeking the face of God is not a turn inward. The writer’s personal focus had been permanently altered.
#9. The INVISIBLE REALITY had captured the intense interest of that REALITY beyond the reach of the CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM.
#10. Faith had eclipsed materiality & there would be no going back! David had “cast the die”. All barriers to greater belief had melted away!
PART 5: NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR.
#1. “Do not hide Your face from me, do not turn Your Servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not abandon me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation”, V.9.
#2. This is a peculiar language indeed. In the author’s address to the Almighty, he beseeches the Lord NOT TO EXHIBIT A NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR TOWARD HIM.
#3. Why does he think that that is a real possibility? The only reason that comes to mind is the past sins of the psalmist!
#4. Or does this man refer to his conception of the character of God? But that seems unlikely because he further states: “For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me up”, V.10.
#5. Clearly the psalmist is anxious to secure the good will of God. He fears any potential NEGATIVE BEHAVIOR FROM THE LORD. For that only exacerbates any situation.
#6. The advantage that the author seeks is the PARTICIPATION OF GOD IN HIS EFFORTS. The writer does not want to find himself isolated from the consciousness of God!
#7. Being shut off from the “help” of God is unthinkable to this man. The approval of the Lord is the MAJOR ISSUE! He does not have any intention of UNDERSTATING THE APPROVAL OF GOD.
#8. This is an appeal to the One he calls the “God of my salvation”. The life of this psalmist has a SUPERNATURAL AXIS. His consciousness cannot abandon the Supreme Final Reality! #9. There is a principle here: any significant distance between the individual—>& God can eventuate in GRAND DISAPPOINTMENT. And that is not on the author’s agenda!
#10. That is the lesson; any NEGATIVE RESPONSE FROM GOD, represents an UNACCEPTABLE SHORTFALL IN ADVANTAGES necessary to the fulfillment of one’s purposes, as evidenced in James 4.
PART 6: THE CLOUD OF DANGER.
#1. “Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a level path because of my foes”, V.11.
#2. The psalmist conjures up what we may call, “A CLOUD OF DANGER”. In other words, a temporal structure of events, situations & circumstances that appears to have engulfed us! #3. Although one’s foes have laid siege the CLOUD OF DANGER still does not serve as a controlling context.
#4. This believer petitions the Lord to put or to cut a level pathway through the cloud of danger!
#5. Along with all of that, the believer stipulates his willingness to learn the way of God.
#6. This means that when THE CLOUD OF DANGER appears that no matter its temporal dimensions, it is still no match for the power, nor the will of the Almighty.
#7. CHAOS, DANGER & UNCERTAINTY are nothing but subject to the POWERS OF SUPERNATURAL LEVELING.
#8. Of course, this tells us that the Lord had previously surveyed the terrain & will contract the constituent parts unto His own purposes.
#9. Inevitably, great pressure is exerted upon PERSONAL FAITH.
#10. “Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence”, V.12. The author does not deny the gravity of the circumstance; but he consistently holds to the PREVENTATIVE BEHAVIOR OF THE ALMIGHTY.
#11. CONTRAVENTION OF THE SUPERNATURAL KIND IS AN UNAVOIDABLE FACTOR in the reasoning of this man! He expects the Lord to bulldoze his violent enemies out of the way! ONLY THE ALMIGHTY CAN DO THAT.
PART 7: TRUTH BELIEVER.
#1. “I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, V.13.
#2. Being gifted by the Lord with eternal Life & the full release it yields from the stresses of temporal existence is the finality. But the psalmist was expecting something in advance. He looked for the redemptive action of God in the middle of the immediate temporal difficulty, in which he was embroiled!
#3. So, he did not conclude that he would have to wait for heaven to receive any affirmation or relief.
#4. That was a temporal reality & hope! That was the author’s belief. That tells us TRUE BELIEF IS THE ANTI-DESPAIR.
#5. This is a form of belief that covers the eternal future & the immediacy of everyday temporal life!
#6. “Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord”, V.14.
#7. HOW? The answer is in believing that it is within the will of God to grant you eternal rest & as well, THIS WORLD HELP & PROTECTION.
#8. . Certainly, this puts a kind of emphasis upon TRUST IN THE INVISIBLE GOD OF REDEMPTION. In consequence, this requires strength of soul & courage, primarily, one might think that is because one cannot see the outcome!
#9. Each of us lives here on earth within the parentheses of THE EDGE OF SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. God is outside of & beyond the reach of SITUATIONAL AWARENESS. But that has nothing to do with outcomes!
#10. The only determinacy over outcomes is that INVISIBLE SUPERNATURAL REALITY DWELLING BEYOND THE MATERIAL.
#11. “How are things going to work out, one often asks? We don’t know! This limitation we face signals the abandonment of PERSONAL SOVEREIGNTY OVER LIFE & therefore, “Yes, (we) wait for the Lord”!
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