Strength in Our Faith- Waiting on God: Psalm 27

Show Notes

Episode 511: 
In this episode, we delve into Psalm 27, a poignant reflection of David's heart during his time of distress. We explore the context of this Psalm, noting that David, despite being a warrior, was also a deeply artistic soul who poured his emotions into music and prayer. The Psalm serves as both a pep talk and a prayer, illustrating David's unwavering confidence in God as his fortress and protector. His declaration, "The Lord is my light and my salvation," serves as a powerful reminder of the strength we can find in our faith, even when surrounded by adversity.

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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, good morning, everybody. We're back. We are back better than ever. Hopefully. My brain always goes to than ever. Yeah, the movie in a world where two Bible guys are sitting in the studio. Okay, that's that's just a weird way to start there. Better than ever, that's right, Okay and improved. Hey, well, we have a great, uh, we have a great Bible Guys session. And actually we're in the middle of a series called the Milestones of the Old Testament, where we're walking through the Old Testament chronologically, and we're at the place where David is running from King Saul and he feels lonely, right, and he's writing a bunch of songs. That's correct. But before we do that, we have a male segment that Desiree has picked out for us from Marisa L. In this segments called well, oh, it's called mail bags. You know what. I was actually pausing because you always say when I say it's from Melissa Marissa L, I would say, yes, yes, we skip mail bags. Yes, my bad. I mean this is their only it's our only segment that has its own right, that's right. Yeah, so I was feeling like we were missing it. Yeah, well, maybe I'm off my game because I started weird too. So with the whole movie thing, I liked it. And speaking of movies, how about that segment. Oh there you go. Here's great segue. Here here's the mail bag question. Or actually, yes, it is a question. I love when you guys recommend new books for me to read. What's a movie or a book that you think everyone should see or read at least once? Okay? Uh, you want to do like three? Oh yeah, sure, three each? Yeah I do. So if I'm going to do three, then I definitely have to throw in my favorite movie because I because I rarely get to tell why it's my favorite movie. So if I say favorite movie is The Count of Monte Cristo, but here's the reason why, Because you have a man crushed on Jim Caviezel. Oh no, no, no, wrong, no, no, okay, wrong, okay, the the uh it contains everything. It's like remember at the beginning of Princess Bride when he says it has everything it has fans in fighting Romance, Remember it's sort of that way. It's Colombo describing this is a kissing book. So it's me saying like this movie has everything and and and almost most of all. I say almost because it's a thread that that is, it starts and begins with God, and so it's a it's a it's really a book about faith, but it's like I want to say, it's almost all about it, but it's really not. It's like this undertow right, and then it has everything else. It has all the advents of everything else. I think it is unbelievable. The story is beautiful, and it has everything that a guy wants, which is like adventure, and it's got like you know, like he gets all this money and then revenge and battling and all these kind of things plots and intelligent twists and all this kind of stuff. But I would also say, I'm going to give you two more answers. I guess I got two more. Okay, I'm going to do this. We can go every other one? Oh yeah, go ahead? Does that sound good? I'm off my game today. Does every other one sound good? I'm off my game? Go ahead. Now you're not off your game? It no, you are on it. You are so excited to pass on this, Yes, go ahead, wisdom. I was going to say, so, if you're doing favorites, my favorite books novels of any kind would be The Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit of all those things. But I think maybe more approachable if you haven't read that kind of stuff, because those are real slogs. You got to really work through them. So maybe more approachable would be I really loved the Chronicles and Ournia. I knew you gonna say bye bye. C. S. Less which, by the way, they were writing at the same time. They were inventing that whole genre, and they were buddies. They met in a pub every week in a writer's group to talk about how to invent this this kind of thing. And that's a C. S. Lewis, I think, is one who led. J. R. R. Tolkien to Christ. It's one or the other, whichever one was Christian first, led the other one to Christ while they were writing their books. That awes Okay, all right, here's my second one, and I'm going had. A heavy influence on coming to faith. Yeah, I'm going on a limb on this one. But she said a movie or book that everyone should see or read at least once once. Yes, And I'm going to actually say that everybody should see a classic war movie. I can't decide whether it should be like Pearl Harbor or or it should be like Saving Private Ryan. But I'm gonna go with Saving Private Ryan. And here's the reason why. Because it seems to me that people have forgotten the price paid for the American flag. Oh wow, it seems it seems to me like the value of patriot patriotisms is almost like somehow something to be embarrassed of. You know, it seems like on social media in some cases. And I think this next generation especially, And I'm not going to get into politics here, but i just want to say that America is a great country, and if everybody were to take a moment and watch a movie like Saving Private Ryan, you could at least walk away appreciating what has been handed to you, the sacrifice, the sacrifice may for you. Wow, that's great, really really good. Okay, I was going to say the next one. I think of all of the leadership or business books or self help books or you know, make yourself better, grab life by the horns kind of books, I think Stephen Covey's book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People probably is the one that's had the biggest impact on me. The seven habits are be proactive, So do something, man have a predisposition towards action. Don't wait, you know, do something. Begin with the end in mind. You always have to try to figure out if I do this, what's going to happen. That's really important. Not what you're dreaming would happen, but really knowing what's going to happen. There's some work involved with that. Putting the first things first. It's all about priorities, duties, and never conflict. I think that that's incredibly important and difficult to really master. And then think win win. Most people are always thinking, especially in our culture today, that if somebody wins, somebody else has to lose. Right. I was in a conversation not long ago with some young young adults and they were complaining that Elon Musk had just made sixteen billion dollars that week, and I was like, why is that a problem, right, right? And they were like, you know, nobody needs sixty so it don't matter. I said, did his ability to make sixteen billion dollars affect your ability to make a thousand right. What he did has no effect on your ability to do a thing. But we tend to think zero sum. Somebody wins, somebody else has to lose, as opposed to or in a negotiation, I have to dominate you and win, as opposed to working for a win win. I think that's incredibly important. And then seek first to understand, then to be understood. Oh that's great, I think is incredibly important. And then the idea of synergy combining strengths for teamwork I think is really important. And then sharpening the saw that means just keep getting better and better. Those seven habits. I think if you never read another self helper leadership book, those seven things could help you just launch you into success. Agreed. Yeah, And then I'm going to say my last book is or my last movie. I'm gonna choose a movie surprise, and it's extremely underrated. But have you ever seen Castaway with Tom Hanks? Oh? Yeah, yeah, Okay, So people somehow think that that's a movie about survival on an island. It's not. It's a movie about somebody. Who spends his volleyball. He was, I'm sorry, isn't that what it is? Nosot it's a movie about someone who needs to take advantage of the moments that are right in front of him. It's a movie about time, taking advantage of time because you know, before you know, he like he couldn't bring himself to actually say the words to the guy about his dying wife. And at the end he looks right in the eye and he's like, I'm so sorry for the passing of your wife Mary. You can see that like he's now learned after being on the island for four years to uh, you know, actually take advantage of every moment that's in front of him. And then the end is so unbelievably artistic because it's like the Crossroads. It ends with him standing there and there's like this woman that interacts when she drives away, and he looks and he has and he's faced with a choice, and so that it fades away and then you realize, wait a minute, this whole movie is about that. It's so beautiful, but actually it's just a reminder for you and I to take advantage of every moment that we've been given. Okay, wow, And then I would say I have I have two It depends. I would say, if you only had one apart from the Bible, one book to really help you wrap your head around what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus? Right, I'm not saying preparing for ministry or whatever, but just what does it mean to be a follower of Jesus. I think one of the best books for me personally was Rick Warren's purpose driven life book. Oh sure, I think it's it's just a it's a forty day opus on what it means to be a follower of Jesus. And it starts off the very first sentence says it's not about you. So there's that if on the other side you're trying to figure out, you know, you're struggling with the ideas of faith. I think Lee Strobel's books, the whole series, The Case for the Case for Christ, the Case for the Resurrection, the Case for Creator, they create, Case for the Real Jesus, all of the least Strobels books, the Case for They just had a huge impact on me too. So I slipped in two answers there at the end. Oh yeah you did, Yeah, great? Where to go? Well, really good question, Marissa. That's great And thank you Marsa for even caring about our opinions and for writing in and we encourage everybody to give us an email, shoot us a text, a comment on YouTube, do something where you can interact or correspond with us so that we can consider perhaps putting your comment answer questions on future segments. So King David, well, yeah, he's not King yet. He's still running from Saul as far as we know. So the provenance for Psalm twenty seven, what are the exact circumstances that was written around. We're not exactly sure, nope, but these are the kinds of psalms. He wrote a bunch of psalms during the time when he was running from Saul. That sounds similar to this one, right, and so so. This sort of represents a category of psalms. Yes, because he wrote different. David was really an amazing guy. So he's a warrior. I mean, he cuts the head off of the giant. So there's that and the other side, he's this incredible musician and he writes these psalms. They're really there's songs that are prayers, the prayers that are then put to music, and he writes over a hundred of them, and so he's this artistic warrior he's kind of this warrior poet kind of a guy. Do you hear the phrase I'm a lover not a fighter? Y David was both. He was both yea, he was both yes and sort of what we would think of today maybe as a renaissance man, right, like a da Vinci kind of guy. He was into science and art and all these kinds of things. Well, for him it was it was war leadership. He was a great leader when he finally became king and then an artist. And so here he is a teenager pouring out yeah, pouring out his heart to go God, and really really a beautiful writing. He says this in Psalm twenty seven. The Lord is my light and my salvation, So why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger? So why should I tremble when evil people come to devour me? When my enemies and foes attack me, they will stumble and fall though a mighty army surrounds me. My heart will not be afraid. Even if I am attacked, I will remain confident. The one thing I ask of the Lord, the thing I seek most, is to live in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord's perfections and meditating in his temple, For he will conceal me there when troubles come, and he will hide me in his sanctuary. He will place me out of reach on a high rock. Then I will hold my head high above my enemies who surround me. At his sanctuary. I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy, singing and praising Lord with music. Hear me as I pray, O, Lord, be merciful and answer me. My heart has heard you say, come and talk with me, and my heart responds, Lord, I'm coming. Do not turn your back on me. Do not reject your servant anger. You've always been my helper. Don't leave me now. Don't abandon me, Oh God of my salvation. Even if my father and mother abandoned me. The Lord will hold me close. Teach me how to live, Oh Lord, lead me along the right path from my enemies are waiting for me. Do not let me fall into their hands, for they accuse me of things I've never done. With every breath, they've threatened me with violence. Yet I'm confident I will see the Lord's goodness while I'm here in the land of the living, wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. That last part he's writing to himself, right, it's right the of verse fourteen. Well, it seems like he starts with a pep talk to himself, and then he shifts to prayer, a prayer to the Lord, and then goes back to the pep talk right at the very end. And you know what, the pep talk is incredibly inspiring because we need to remind ourselves of the promises of God. So how can David be able to say, even though my enemies attack me, I will not be afraid because the Lord is with me. And then and he says, you know, even even when they attack, I'm still going to remain confident. I'm going to remain strong. The Lord is my fortress. Why should I be afraid because he's with me? And so, you know, a mighty army surrounds me. Well, you and I may never be the what is that the main object of hunting of an army and a whole army is looking for him. So I'm trying to say, is like you may not be the focus of an entire army. Right, a man hunt a manhunt. Yeah, the focus of a man hunt. However, you know, you can compare that to almost anything. It seems like, you know, if you ever felt like you're at work and it seems like because the leadership has turned against you all of a sudden, you know, you've got a bad rap, and all of a sudden, it's like me against the world at work for some reason, until you finally nestle your way out of it, hopefully, or you know, or maybe perhaps a friend group. Have you ever been on the receiving end of all of a sudden, like how did how the world did all these friends turn against me? Or my reputation at school for students, or you know, perhaps like an adult friend group, whatever it is. You know, the army can represent anything from big to small. But you know, here he is saying, Hey, I'm an island. I'm a one man band, but I'm not because God is with me. And if God's with me, I need to pep talk myself by saying I won't be afraid of anything. Yeah, yeah, it's great, that's so good. You know. One thing just really strikes me is and there's a note for verse seven. But in the Life Application study, Bible that kind of spurred this thought. This isn't the first psalm David wrote. Right, So he's not just suddenly going, oh man, I've got troubles. God help me, help me, help me. Right, He's he's not suddenly starting a relationship with God because he's in trouble. He's leaning into a relationship he's been in in for a long time. So when he says there in verse four, the one thing I ask the Lord, the thing I seek the mostes live in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, he's not saying to start living in the house alone. Oh. He's not about ending, right, He's about faithful n Yeah. And he's saying, I want every day of my life to be centered on God in God's ways. I'm not just suddenly looking for God to be my good luck charm to get me out of this trouble. I'm not suddenly looking for somebody to bail me out. He's saying, when the struggles of life happened, which, by the way, for every one of us, we have struggles, right, every one of us. We get bad news, we have hurts happen, we have betrayals happen. Every one of us have those things happen. But David's not saying I'm looking for an answer now. David's leaning into the answer he already found, right, He's leaning into this relationship that he has with God. And this is one of the reasons why it's so important for you to spend time every day in God's Word. It's why it's so important for you to choose to share what you're learning in God's Word with other people. That's why it's so important to invest in godly relationships and to spend daily time in God's Word like you are right now with the podcast and and and all these things. Is that you grow day by day to day and you just keep filling that reservoir. You just keep filling that reservoir, and then when the troubles come, you have something substantial to lean into, right. Yeah, And so I just told you before that we started shooting that. By the way, let me let me say this before I forget Yeah, let me let me say that in verse number eight. The reason why we know that David has not just begun his relationship is because when he prays to the Lord, he says, you have always been my helper. Yes, You've always been my helper, That's what he tells gotten right. So there's there's the indicator, right. There was that verse number nine, verse nine, I've always been my helper, yep, and so don't leave me. Now, right. So what I was going to say is I told you before we started shooting the podcast that I ran into a couple last night at a restaurant who just went through a major tragedy, a loss of a newborn baby, and one of the most difficult things to ever go through, right in terms of a funeral. And had they not had a grounded faith before this tragedy came upon them, how do you think you know they would react. So I was with a guy, a friend of mine, and he had met them for the first time. They had walked, you know, he'd well it was him. He walked over and he said hi and recognize both of us and said, hey, you're my pastor. I was telling my cousin you're my pastor. And so anyway, we talked for you know, fifteen minutes or so. Anyway, he leaves and the guy with me looks at me and says, you do realize the statistic that eighty percent of marriages do not make it after a tragedy like that eighty percent. And and yet never in my mind did I ever doubt that they would make it because of their faith. Yeah, right, so so you know their faith is strong. So even when I went in there and prayed with them at the hospital after right after it happened, you know, he says, no, he said, we don't. We don't doubt God. We don't. We don't question him, We don't. You know, it's more about facing like I can't believe this has happened to us, and how are we going to deal with it? But it was just amazing to me, and that's what that's what sort. Of came to They have a real anchor. David talks about this refuge. Right, that's one of the ways you think of a refuge is is like a fortress on top of a hill, or a safe harbor that's outside of the prevailing winds of the storm, those kinds of things. David uses many of those kind of analogies to talk about his relationship with God. Right, you're my shield, you're my refuge, you're my safe harbor, you're my protection, and it's you know, he like you pointed out there, You've always been my helper. This is a long term relationshi. A lot of times people feel like, you know, oh man, me reading my Bible today, it's just I don't even want to take in. I don't even want to listen to what God has to say to I don't want any of those words. I'm too depressed, I'm struggling or whatever. But you need to have filled that reservoir every single day. It matters. You just keep pouring in and pouring in and pouring in, and then when the storms of life come, you have a strong refuge, you have a strong anchor. You've got this rock to high behind. And then I think it's amazing. So he on the front end, he's saying, God, it needs to protect me, right. So in verse one, the Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger. Right. So there's that. At the end, he goes, wait patiently for the Lord. Be brave and courageous. Yes, wait patiently for the Lord. And the note in Life Application Study Bible is fantastic. It says David knew from experience what it meant to wait for the Lord. He'd been anointed in king at age sixteen, but didn't become king until he was thirty. During the interim, he'd been chased through the wilderness by jealous King Saul. David had to wait on God for the fulfillment of his promise to Later, after becoming king, he was chased by his rebellious son Absalom. Waiting for God is not easy. Often it seems that He isn't answering our prayers or doesn't understand the urgency of our situation. That kind of thinking implies that God is not in control or is not fair. But God is worth waiting for. In Lamentations, chapter three, verse twenty four through twenty six calls us to hope in and wait for the Lord because often God uses times of waiting to refresh, renew and teach us. Make good use of your waiting times by discovering what God may be trying to teach you in them. You know, I've mentioned that phrase a couple times. That it's in hidden valleys where shepherds become kings. David waited and waited, and waited and waited. He just served his father. He took care of the sheep. During that time, he learned how to use a sling on a world class level. He learned how to fight bears and lions. He learned how to write prayers to God that he could turn into music as he's learning how to play his harp. All these things that carried through his faith, his skill sets, all those things were developed while he was waiting, seemingly doing nothing. Most boys would have felt like they were wasting their life right, And it was in those moments that he waited on God. God prepared him to be the king. So as you were talking about David, was you know no stranger to waiting on God? I thought about Isaiah forty thirty thirty one. Oh yeah. And it says, and this is from the NLT version, but it says even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion, but those who trust in the Lord. And another version would say, wait in the Lord. But those who wait upon the Lord will find new their strength. They were sore, high on wings like eagles, they were run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. But it says those who trust in the Lord. But the other version says wait. And I remember hearing a sermon one time that said, you know, wait upon the Lord, and he show knew your strength, and he goes, you know, there's two kinds of ways to wait. And I'm not sure this is like a root where or a Greek word or an intention that whatever, but it was an application more so. And he says, you can wait upon the Lord, meaning like you wait on his timing, but you could also wait upon the Lord as a waitress would wait on somebody. He says, So serve the Lord and be patient. Serve the Lord and be patient. I remember thinking, wow, that's really good. You know, hey, one thing I was going to say real quick, I know we're at our time, but and that is verse nouver ten. David says, even if my mother and father abandoned me, the Lord will hold me close. And here David is expressing like like, even if the closest people of my life were turned against me, it doesn't matter who's going to tell me to run away from you. God, you win right above everything in this earth. That's incredible. And then verse number eleven shows us that he is a student, because then he says, teach me how to live, a Lord, lead me along the right paths, and so, you know, just to just to say, God, I'm constantly awaiting your direct I'm constantly waiting your wisdom. I need your guidance. And so there's this dependence on God constantly that David demonstrates started his whole life. And you can see here that he doesn't want to get sucked into fighting on his enemies level. Yeah, he still wants to be a moral man, right, he still wants to do the right thing. God, teach me how to live, leave me along the right path. I want to do this the right way. I don't want to get I don't want to go down to their level. Elevate me up to yours, is what he's what he's saying, right, I want to do the right thing the right way. Yeah. Well, hey, that's just about our time. So we'll pick up on the story of David, hopefully tomorrow, and we'll see then on the Bibble guys,