Altogether Lovely

Read Psalm 27

I thought David was fearless. Even with an army attacking, bloodthirsty men circling him, and liars testifying against him in court, he sounds completely confident because of God. But Rolf Jacobson observes that, in Hebrew, the words for light (ori) and fear (ira) sound similar. The prayer alternates between what scares him and who God is. God's light and the Psalmist's fear are side by side. Even as the ground is sinking beneath his feet, he prays that God will set his feet upon the rock. It points forward to the way Jesus ended his famous sermon: "Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain fell, the rivers rose, and the winds blew and pounded that house. Yet it didn't collapse, because its foundation was on the rock" (Matthew 7:24-25). In both cases, there's a realistic acknowledgement that life comes with overwhelming problems that are outside of our control. He could have said, "My circumstances are bad, so God doesn't care." But instead, he thinks, "God is my protector, so he can handle these problems." Our faith isn't determined by our struggles but by whether we're trusting God when they come. The Sagrada Familia is a basilica in Barcelona designed by Antoni Gaudi. In the morning, the rising sun fills the church with green and blue light. In the late afternoon, the setting sun fills it with orange and red light. Each day, the light inside the church rehearses the story of Jesus' birth to Jesus' death. When I visited, I didn't want to take anything from the gift shop. I just wanted to enjoy God's presence as the light pointed my heart to him. This is how the Psalmist felt about being with God, whether he was in the temple or hiding in a cave. Throughout the prayer, David keeps turning truths about God into relational encounters. God protects, honors, and cares for him. God is the stronghold of his life. He calls God "my" light and "my" salvation. His ultimate desire is to see God face-to-face. It's an appeal to be close to God's love, which is even better than the love of his mother or father. In Matthew 13:44-46, Jesus tells two short parables about the kingdom of heaven. He says it's like a treasure buried in a field or a pearl of great price, so valuable that a man would sell everything he owns to buy it. Sometimes I think that's an unrealistic commitment. But the Psalmist shows us what it looks like in his prayer: "I have asked one thing from the LORD; it is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, gazing on the beauty of the LORD and seeking him in his temple."