Psalm 27 (ESV) — Of David. 1 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? 2 When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. 3 Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.
4 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. 5 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. 6 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.
7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! 8 You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” 9 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! 10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. 11 Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. 12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence.
13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! 14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!
You can eat a strawberry whenever you want—and that’s not normal. Even though a strawberry plant naturally produces its main crop in late spring or early summer, we’ve engineered our way around that limitation. California is a big state with lots of different climates, so we grow strawberries at lots of different times here. Beyond that, modern cultivation methods, strategic import schedules, and refrigerated transportation all work together in a global system meaning that long after our local season ends, strawberries are available. The result: we can go to the store and get strawberries pretty much any time we want.
I’m not complaining, I only mention this to illustrate a modern truth: we are not a people accustomed to waiting.
Given our aversion to waiting, I’m fairly confident a sermon titled “Wait for the Lord” has a chance to become the least-streamed message in our church’s archive. Who willingly clicks on a topic like that?
My hope, however, is to convince you of the goodness of waiting for the Lord. This is precisely where our psalm for today concludes. It ends with a powerful, double exhortation from David: “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (27:14). We don’t know if this was the psalmist speaking to himself, the psalmist speaking to the reader, or the Lord interjecting and speaking to both. But this is where Psalm 27 lands: with a deep conviction to wait for the Lord.
In this, the psalm reflects a core truth of our faith. Christianity is a waiting religion. The King came, lived, died, rose, and ascended—and now his followers await his return. While theologians sometimes call this an interregnum—a time between rulers—it’s perhaps more accurate to say we are living in a time of “already and not yet.” Christ is already reigning in our hearts and in his church, but his reign is not yet made fully visible over all creation. We are waiting for that day, looking forward to Christ’s return.
This is the posture of the Christian life. We are a waiting people. Are we active? Yes. Advancing the kingdom? Yes. Doing the works of Jesus? Absolutely. But our action is framed by patience. As the apostle James encourages us:
“Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.” (James 5:7–8)
This waiting extends into so much of our everyday life with God, where we live on what we know to be true about him, even during uncertain, complicated, or difficult times. Much of life is like the moment before a bride enters the church; the guests know the bride will arrive precisely when she is ready. In like manner, we know the Lord is coming again, but we don’t know when; and we know he is going to help us in our daily lives, but we often don’t know when. So, while we may not have to wait for strawberries, we are called to wait for the Lord.
To help us understand the concept of waiting for the Lord from this psalm, we’ll use the sun as a metaphor. You can feel the sun’s warmth on your skin (its effect), you can study the beams of light that carry it to earth, and you can contemplate the sun itself (the source). In our time today, we will follow that same path:
- First, we will feel the warmth by looking at the effects of waiting in the psalmist’s life.
- Second, we will follow the light by considering the knowledge that sustained the psalmist.
- Finally, we will go to the source—the Lord himself, the one the psalmist pursued.
1. Feel the Warmth: The Effects of Waiting
The main effect of waiting for (or on) the Lord—the warmth on the psalmist’s skin—is an unshakeable confidence. The psalmist was not arrogant or cavalier, but he had profound assurance filled with joy, hope, and strength, rooted entirely in the Lord.
Near the beginning of the passage, the psalmist announced that he was fearless in the face of his enemies. He was confident that when evildoers assailed him and attempted to devour his life, they would be the ones to stumble and fall (27:2). Picture a lion chasing down an antelope, only to trip and take a fatal fall from a high cliff. This is how David saw his enemies’ pursuit—doomed to fail. He felt that even if a massive army encamped against him and war broke out, he would remain confident (27:3).
And of course, the psalm ends with two exhortations to wait for the Lord in order to become strong and have a heart filled with courage (27:14). This was not the false courage of human bravado but a humble spirit centered upon the Lord. David said he would offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, meaning he felt he was a blessed man with much to celebrate, able to sing and make melody to the LORD (27:6). All this confidence made him sure that he would look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living (27:13). In the Old Testament era, this wasn’t a reference to eternal life, as we might read it today, but to experiencing God’s goodness in this life. His confidence and courage were joyful, hopeful, and believing.
Now, we don’t know the exact setting in which David penned this psalm. If you are new to the life of David, you need to know that in his younger years, and again in his older years, he was betrayed by family and driven into the wilderness to run for his life. War also littered the pages of David’s story. Because of this, some suggest David wrote this psalm while fleeing a jealous and murderous King Saul, who was his father-in-law. Others place it during the rebellion of his own grown son, Absalom. Some even wonder if it refers to a late-in-life battle he had with a Philistine giant.
While we might want to venture a guess and place this psalm in its context, silence about its historical setting is for our benefit. Because the background story is ambiguous and the entire psalm transcends any specific tumult, it becomes a timeless model for how any of us can approach God in the midst of trouble. What you have here is a man brimming and overflowing with assurance and confidence in the Lord. This is a portrait of a man filled with courage—not because of himself, but because of his God.
I’m sure each of us is impressed when we encounter believers who display the rugged confidence in the Lord that this psalm portrays. It reminds us of the confidence of our Lord himself.
- We see it in the garden of Gethsemane where, despite the agony of the cup of suffering he was about to drink, he submitted to the Father with, “Not as I will, but as you will,” and was then strengthened to charge out of the garden and toward the cross (Matt. 26:36-46).
- We see it in the boat where he slumbered through a storm, rising to rebuke the wind and waves before asking his terrified disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (Mark 4:35-41).
- And we recognize it before Pontius Pilate when, after being beaten and interrogated by Pilate’s men, he announced, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11).
This is true power, true confidence, and true hope—the effects of waiting on the Lord.
2. Follow the Light: The Knowledge We Need
Our next task is to consider what caused that great effect on the psalmist. What beams of truth awakened such confidence in David? The psalm makes it clear: David knew, and clung to, specific truths about God. The core of his knowledge was a foundational triad from the opening statement of the psalm: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; the LORD is the stronghold of my life” (27:1). These weren’t abstract doctrines for David; they were the pillars of his reality in the midst of crisis, and they are meant to be the same for us.
God as Light: While Isaiah and Micah foresaw a day when God would be an everlasting light, Psalm 27:1 is the only place in the Old Testament where God is explicitly given the title of “light.” In Scripture, light is a natural figure for almost anything positive—from truth and goodness to joy and vitality. But here, it is an answer to the darkness brought on by forces of evil in David’s life. In the chaos of family brokenness and the fog of war, David needed light, and he found it in God.
This theme explodes in the New Testament, where John said that in Jesus was life, and “the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). He went on to say that this light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it (John 1:5), and that Jesus is the “true light, which gives light to everyone” (John 1:9). Unfortunately, as Jesus himself said, “the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). But he held out the possibility that we could do what is true and come into the light (John 3:21), saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).
To John, Christ is light because he reveals truth, because he overcomes darkness, and because he takes us to eternal life in the Father’s presence.
God as Salvation: David also knew of God as his salvation. This is not merely a statement that God provides salvation, but that he is salvation. David and all the biblical authors would have inevitably thought of the great deliverance God wrought for Israel when he set them free from captivity in Egypt. After the waters of the Red Sea crashed onto their slave masters, the people sang, “The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation” (Exodus 15:2).
As believers in Christ, we understand the Lord as our salvation in an even more potent way. The name Jesus means “the Lord saves.” We agree with the old prophet Simeon, who held baby Jesus in his arms in the temple and exclaimed to God, “my eyes have seen your salvation” (Luke 2:30).
It’s important, however, that we build a robust consciousness of the salvation Christ has provided, lest we have a small view that only celebrates the forgiveness of sin and an eventual forever with God. The Bible teaches that God’s salvation releases us from guilt and condemnation, separating our sin as far as the east is from the west (Ps. 103:12), a true blotting out our transgressions (Is. 44:22). It also teaches that we are saved from the power of sin, knowing our old self was crucified with Christ so we would no longer be enslaved (Rom. 6:6-7). Salvation includes bringing us into relationship with God, a remedy to the alienation we experienced through sin, for we who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Eph. 2:12-13). Our salvation is also a deliverance from the domain of darkness (Col. 1:13) and from the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14). Add to this that we have been saved from our shame, from God’s wrath, from the taskmaster of the law, from the world as an evil system, from an empty way of life, and from the legacy of Adam, and we are on our way to building a more robust vision for the salvation that is ours in Christ Jesus.
God as Stronghold: Finally, David knew God as his stronghold. As a man often on the run, he understood the security of a natural fortress. For him, God was an absolutely secure, impregnable protector.
Every saint who has walked with the Lord has sensed this strengthening power. The apostle Paul, who knew what it was to be in chains or free, to have much or to be in need, said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). To the Corinthians, after pleading with the Lord three times to remove a “thorn in the flesh,” Paul heard the Lord decline and say, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul responded by saying, “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (2 Cor. 12:9). And we, as modern believers, trust that our Lord is able to strengthen us in the same way.
What a robust picture David had of the Lord. It was as if every conceivable human vulnerability could be answered by God, who is light, salvation, and strength. I am suggesting today that David became the courageous man we examined earlier by considering and wrestling with these concepts and truths about the Lord.
In C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series there is a moment when Lucy Pevensie sees the great lion Aslan—the Christ figure of the book—after a long time and exclaims, “Aslan, you’re bigger.” He replies, “That is because you are older, little one… every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
This leaves us with a question for ourselves: Is our God getting bigger to us? Is our understanding of his light, salvation, and stronghold expanding as we walk with him? Lucy’s physical growth was guaranteed, but our spiritual growth is not automatic over time. We are called to learn of him as we walk with him and, as we do, the truths of who he is will make him seem “bigger” to us. The statement “the Lord is my light, my salvation, and my stronghold” meant one thing to me at twenty—a quarter-century later, its scope has widened immensely, and if I continue to meditate on his nature and walk with him, I expect it will continue to grow.
We see this in the lives of some of God’s key figures.
- Job knew God well at the beginning of his story, but he knew God’s attributes exponentially more by the end.
- Jacob, who clawed his way through his early life, grew over the years to understand the God who called him and rescued him time and again.
- Moses, who argued with God at the burning bush, grew to become a man who met with God day after day and was transformed by his glory.
- Peter slowly began to realize that the good news of Christ was meant for people far beyond Jerusalem.
All of these characters knew great truths about God, but those truths became louder, bolder, and clearer as their lives progressed. And as David felt himself thrust into the furnace of life, pursued by his enemies, he was confronted afresh with the glorious truths of who God is.
3. Go to the Source: The Lord Himself
We’ve considered the effect of waiting on the Lord and the knowledge gained through it. But now, we must consider the source. Where had the psalmist gone?
Return to our sun metaphor: the sun is the ultimate source of sunlight and the warmth it produces. David is certainly pictured as a man intensely interested in the source—the Lord himself.
It is here we must consider the central and most famous statement of this entire psalm. He said:
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. (Psalm 27:4)
In other words, there was one thing David wanted above everything else. While the author of Ecclesiastes tried everything—work, pleasure, money, fame—to find satisfaction, David went to a different well. He found his satisfaction in seeking the Lord’s face at his house. He confessed that he would love to dwell there all his life to simply reflect on, meditate on, or contemplate the Lord—a beautiful description of a personal, relational connection with God.
And don’t get distracted by this temple talk. David is not announcing that he wants to be a priest or a Levite, but simply that he wants a strong relationship with the living God. The temple was where God’s presence was uniquely found in that Old Testament era, but this concept is radically reinterpreted and fulfilled in the New Testament. God himself came and “dwelt” (or tabernacled) among us in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14). Now, through the Holy Spirit, God’s temple is the church (1 Cor. 3:16, Eph. 2:19-22). This applies to individual believers (1 Cor. 6:19—your body) and the corporate congregation (1 Cor. 3:16-17—entire Corinthian church). When you place your faith in Christ, you are regenerated and individually become the temple of the Holy Spirit, and you are also placed into a church family where, collectively, we are God’s dwelling place.
And David’s desire—to spend his entire life in God’s presence—is the destination the entire cosmos is moving toward. As Revelation puts it: “The dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Rev. 21:3). The passage goes on to announce that there is no temple in the heavenly city, “for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb” (Rev. 21:22). God will quite literally be living with us, and we will be living within God. What David hoped for, we have received in part through the cross and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and we will one day experience in finality with him in glory.
It was this singular desire and practice that exposed David to the truths of who God is, making him into the man of confidence portrayed in this psalm. Because young David had spent time enjoying the living God while shepherding his father’s flock, he became valiant in battle against Goliath. Over and over again, David went back to this well to drink deeply of God. As he did, the age-old truths of who God is reverberated within his heart, and he was perpetually transformed. Where he had been and where he continued to go made him who he was. His unshakable confidence was not manufactured on his own or stirred up through positive self-talk; it was a direct response to an external source. That’s why he began this psalm by declaring, “The Lord is my light” (Psalm 27:1).
In another Lucy Pevensie story, from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, she goes to Narnia for the first time and returns to tell her siblings all about it. Of course, they don’t believe her, but she insists, “I’ve been there, I tell you. It was all just as I said.” She had gone somewhere that changed her. Let us be a people who are continually going through that wardrobe door to experience our Lord. It changes everything. I know for many of you, through difficult and various disappointments of life, you have discovered this “one thing” and have committed yourself to experiencing him.
This is not to say that a simple commitment to seek the Lord amid attacks will always immediately produce quiet confidence. Even within this psalm, there is a massive shift in tone about half way through. David cries out, “Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!” (27:7). He reminds God, “You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lord, do I seek’” (27:8). He is trying to walk with God. He pleads, “Hide not your face from me… When my father and my mother forsake me, the Lord will take me in” (27:9-10).
With rapid-fire intensity, David delivers a series of imperative petitions to God: Hear me! Be gracious to me! Answer me! (v. 7). Don’t hide from me! Don’t turn away from me! Don’t forsake me! (v. 9). Teach me! Lead me! Don’t give me up! (vv. 11-12).
Where is this coming from? What happened to the man who said, “One thing have I desired of the Lord”? To me, the “one thing” perspective is the final cut, but these raw cries are the rough takes. You know how it is—you’re in process before God, emoting before him, raw, uncut, but eventually, you land. You land on the “one thing.”
Conclusion
I remember when Redbox kiosks first appeared. Renting a movie for a dollar was a great deal, and I used the service often. But then streaming gained traction, and I faced a new kind of tension. I could make the seven-minute round-trip drive for a one-dollar rental, or I could simply pay four dollars to watch the same movie from my couch. It astounded me how often the four-dollar option won. We simply do not like to wait. As one author put it, “waiting is what you do when you can’t do what you want.”
But this psalm concludes with a double exhortation to wait for the Lord. To wait for the Lord is to seek His face. It’s an active state of prayer, humility, and expectancy.
In our world, waiting on the Lord, taking time out of your busy life to do so, might feel like a waste, like you are going back in time to before streaming, before Redbox, before DVD Netflix, before Blockbuster, before home movies of any kind! Slow. Impractical. No time for that. But this is the good life. Amid all the noise, this is the life we need—focused on him, in worship of him, dependent and waiting, trusting his process. Wait for the Lord. Wait for the Lord!
Be like the farmer. He cannot make the crop grow faster by worrying. He must trust the process and wait patiently for the harvest. So too, we must wait for the Lord.
Study Questions
Head (Knowledge & Understanding)
- The sermon explains that David’s confidence was based on knowing God as his “light,” “salvation,” and “stronghold” (Psalm 27:1). How does the teaching define each of these three terms, and how does the New Testament expand on their meaning?
- According to the teaching, what is the “one thing” David desires in Psalm 27:4? How is this Old Testament idea of dwelling in God’s house “radically reinterpreted and fulfilled” in Christ, the church, and the individual believer?
- The introduction states that Christianity is a “waiting religion,” and we live in a time of the “already and not yet.” What does this mean, and how does the farmer analogy from James 5:7-8 help illustrate the kind of active patience Christians are called to have?
Heart (Feelings & Impressions)
- Psalm 27 begins with bold confidence but shifts to a heartfelt plea in verse 7. The sermon calls this the difference between the “final cut” and the “rough takes” in our walk with God. Can you share about a time when you have felt this tension between confident faith and desperate prayer?
- Reflecting on the C.S. Lewis quote—”every year you grow, you will find me bigger”—how have your personal experiences changed your view of God? In what seasons of life has God felt bigger to you, and why?
- The sermon begins by noting our modern aversion to waiting, using examples like year-round strawberries and on-demand movies. What is your honest, initial emotional reaction to the command to “Wait for the Lord”? Does it feel frustrating, comforting, or something else entirely?
Hands (Actions & Commitments)
- The sermon concludes by defining “waiting for the Lord” as an active process involving four key elements (active choice, adoration, dependent prayer, and trust). Which of these four postures is most challenging for you right now, and what is one practical step you can take this week to grow in that area?
- David’s confidence wasn’t a vague feeling; it was a “direct response to an external source” rooted in specific truths about God. Identify a specific area of “darkness,” “danger,” or “weakness” in your life and consciously apply the truth that God is your Light, Salvation, and Stronghold to that situation this week.
- David sought one thing above all else: to “gaze upon the beauty of the Lord.” What worldly things or anxieties compete to be the “one thing” in your life? What is one specific, intentional choice you can make this week to reorient your heart’s primary desire back toward him?
