That is such a beautiful psalm. All I want to do this afternoon is just talk a little bit about what these words mean.
The psalm starts with a wonderful statement of faith. The psalmist says the Lord is his light and his salvation, the stronghold of his life. Because of that, he does not have to be afraid of anyone. Evildoers, adversaries, foes; even if an army camps around him and goes to war against him, he’s not going to be afraid. In fact, he’s going to be confident.
That’s a pretty amazing faith, is it not? Some of you have loved ones who’ve been to war or who are there now. I’ll bet those words have extra meaning for you. I’ve never known what it’s like to have an army actually camped around you and ready to go to war against you, and I hope I never do, but I’m sure it has to be a pretty scary feeling. It takes a lot to be confident in that situation.
But you know, we have a lot of reasons to fear other than actually being at war. We fear losing our health. We fear our loved ones losing their health. We fear not feeling needed. We fear not being able to help the people who are closest to us. Those and lots of other fears can prey on our minds. When they do, it can feel like our adversaries and foes have surrounded us. In fact, in some ways, it can feel worse, because there’s no tangible enemy we can fight. There’s nobody we can hit and nobody we can get mad at. It can be a really frustrating situation.
How do we get rid of that fear and frustration? By putting our trust in God. That’s what the psalmist did. He said that the only thing he wants is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of his life. All he wants is to see the beauty of the Lord and be able to find out more about God.
The psalmist knows what we need to know: that God will take care of us. When we have troubles, even serious troubles, God will not leave us to face those things by ourselves. God will protect us.
What makes that hard to do is that nothing God does ever comes on our time schedule. When we’re in trouble, we want help now, not later. When we’re afraid, we want God to come to our rescue today, not tomorrow or next week or next month. When we ask for God’s protection, we want to see something happen right away.
The psalmist wants that, too. He pleads with God to not hide God’s face from him. He begs God not to cast him off or forsake him. The psalmist understands our impatience, because he feels it, too.
Look, though, at what the psalmist ultimately says. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to get God to help. He’s going to “seek God’s face.” In other words, he’s going to look for God. He’s going to try to find God. He’s going to do whatever he has to do, and go wherever he has to go, to find God so he can get God’s protection and help.
Then look at what the psalmist asks God for. He asks God to “teach me your way, O Lord.”
Let’s talk about that, because it seems to me it’s another incredible statement of faith. To be in a state of fear, to feel surrounded by enemies, and yet be able to go to God and simply say, “God, teach me your way.”
What that says is that when we’re in trouble, when we feel fear, we should not run away. Instead, we should run to God. Instead of asking God to bail us out, though, we should simply submit ourselves to God’s will. “Teach me your way, O Lord.” God, show me where you want me to go. Show me what you want me to do. Then, God, give me the ability to do it.
Then, God, please do something else. Two things, actually. One, give me the courage to do what you want me to do, and two, give me the patience and the trust to know that if I do what I’m supposed to do, you’ll do what you’re supposed to do. “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord.”
Life can be hard sometimes. It can give us lots of reasons to be afraid. That’s true when we’re eight, when we’re forty-eight, and when we’re eighty-eight. The things we’re afraid of change, but we never run out of them. We always have adversaries and foes of one kind or another.
God does not promise to keep us from trouble. God does, however, promise to be with us through those troubles. If we run to God, if we submit ourselves to God’s will, if we trust both in God’s power and in God’s timing, we can be confident, just like the psalmist was. We can be strong. We can take courage. And we can wait for the Lord.
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