The Source of Confidence

Psalm 27 starts off with a burst of confidence in God:  

“The 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? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell, Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise up against me, in this will I be confident.”

Upon what does this great confidence rest?

The psalmist who penned Psalm 27 had a single-minded focus, a goal that superseded all others, which also formed the foundation of the confidence he voices in the first two verses:

“One 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.” (Psalm 27:4)

I must admit, I have tended to skim past this verse, since so many of the other verses in this psalm are more familiar to me and have become like old friends. However, all Scripture is both valuable and useful (2 Tim. 3:16-17), and I have noticed that this verse holds an interesting progression.

The psalmist’s desire was to dwell with the Lord, to behold His beauty and to enquire in His temple.  This is exactly what each of us ought to strive for in our walk with the Lord, and I think you’ll find it is a natural progression, as the psalmist indicates.

Dwell 

Another word for dwell is abide. Jesus said, “Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.” (John 15:4)

We can do nothing if we are not abiding in Christ. 1 John 2:6 says,

“He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself so to walk, even as He walked.”  

When we live in constant fellowship with Christ, living our lives in continual recognition of His presence with us, we will begin to act as He would act. We become more like Him as we spend more time in His presence.

Behold

When we are living in God’s presence, we will begin to recognize His beauty. Apart from His presence, the beauty of God’s holiness jars us.

It’s like waking up.

I hate waking up in winter. There I am, wrapped in warm blankets in the cozy darkness, and then the alarm rings. That’s bad enough, but then I have to turn on the light. The blinding glare is painfully bright compared to the darkness my eyes have become accustomed to while I slept.

That is what happens when we abide with the world; when we choose to dwell in the darkness of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. (1 John 2:16)

We get used to the darkness, it becomes comfortable. Then when we are confronted with the complete purity of the holiness of God, it is painful to us, even blinding us to the fact that His holiness is, in fact, beautiful.

A quick survey of the verses in the Bible containing the world beautiful reveals that God’s holiness is the only attribute directly linked with beauty. We are instructed to “worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.” (Psalm 29:2)

When the cherubim are in the presence of God, they cry,

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts” (Isaiah 6:3),

and the four beasts before His throne cry out,

“Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.” (Revelation 4:8)

When we dwell with God, our spiritual sight becomes adjusted to see God as He is, and to behold God is to behold the beauty of His holiness.

Enquire

When God’s children in the Old Testament went to the temple or the tabernacle to enquire of God, they were invariably seeking His guidance. David is perhaps the best or at least the most prolific example of this. During the time he was fleeing from Saul, David continually enquired of the Lord as to what he should do next.

As children of God in the New Testament era, we are still to seek God’s guidance.

When we are dwelling in the me-centered environment of the world and our own fleshly inclinations, our prayers become superficial, and our walk with God becomes all about us. Our prayers are all about what we want from God.

When we are dwelling in the presence of God, our eyes turn from ourselves and fix upon the beauty of holiness. It is then that our prayers become God-centered; all about what He wants from us.

The place of delighting in the will of God is the place in which we have complete confidence in Him, the place where we can boldly declare with the psalmist:

“For 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.” (Psalm 27:5)

As A.W. Tozer once said, “Outside the will of God, there’s nothing I want, and in the will of God there’s nothing I fear”*

*Ron Eggert. Tozer on Christian Leadership (Zur Ltd. 2001)