“Our farming business has never felt more vulnerable.”
Photo: Hannah Shedrow via Unsplash.
I heard these words from a young lady as she reflected on high diesel costs, lack of fertiliser, rising interest rates and uncertain rainfall. People in every part of the country have their own version of the same fears. In fact, every era and each generation feels perilous. There are always threats and fears — personal and global. For lots of us, uncertainty and apprehension are a dominant experience.
Psychologists report an epidemic of anxiety. Jonathan Haidt’s hypothesis is that the online life generates anxiety for young people. He argues that young people have lost unstructured play and face-to-face friendship, replaced by curated social comparison, cyberbullying, and experiences of exclusion. The result, he contends, is the most anxious generation in history.
Gen-Z is not the only fearful demographic. Economic threats, continued war, the employment impacts of AI, rising social tensions, apparently ineffective political leadership … we can quickly produce a long list of reasons to be afraid.
Psalm 27 speaks to our anxiety, showing how the gospel calms our fears. David wrote facing fears. He was surrounded by bloodthirsty enemies (v2), besieged by an army and facing war (v3), betrayed by false witnesses (v12). We do not have David’s exact fears, but we understand his apprehension.
Knowing the Lord is the answer to fear. David opens the Psalm with confidence — the Lord is his light, his salvation and his secure stronghold. So, he tells himself, there is no need to be afraid (vv1-3). In himself, he cannot deal with the threats, but they do not overwhelm his God. The Lord is the light of life and blessing, the one who brings salvation for his people. In the history of Israel, in David’s own life, and fully in Christ, God gives his people the fullness of blessing, despite their circumstances. He saves them from all that threatens them. He is the stronghold, the safe place of security.
David’s confidence in God is expressed powerfully in the possessive pronoun my. he is confident because the Lord is “my light” and “my salvation”. Like David, we face life with the sure promise from the God of the universe who says “I will be your God, and you shall be my people” (2Cor. 6:16). God claims us as his own, so he is ours. Later in the Psalm, David contemplates that even in the possibility his parents forsake him, the Lord will gather him in (v10).
While David knows that he is safe with the Lord, he longs to know him more fully and directly in his sanctuary (vv4-6) and to be reassured of his security. There he will dwell with the Lord and gaze on his beauty and sing his praise. One of the striking themes of Psalm 27 is David’s desire to know and see God more fully (vv4,8). Immediately, this is David’s desire to worship the Lord in the tabernacle; yet his confidence that he “will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” (v13), suggests a greater reality than this life. As in other times in the Psalms, David expects to know and serve God in his presence forever (Ps 16:10; 17:15; 23:6; 73:24).
Because David knows the Lord and his promises, and draws near to him in worship, then he also prays. He lays his fears before his Lord and pleads that the Lord will keep him secure (vv7,9,11-12). David’s prayer is not wishful thinking; it is confident faith addressing real fear.
We have the same hope, even more secure, in Christ. Now we know God and enjoy his presence as he has dwelt with us in the incarnation and by his Spirit (Matt. 28:20; John 14:17). The spiritual reality for Christians is that Christ is always with us. He does not leave us nor forsake us (Heb. 13:5).
Like David, we know God’s presence as we worship him, particularly as we gather with God’s people. Worship is an important remedy for anxiety. It reminds us of who God is, assures us of his covenant commitment to us and promises our worship in the new creation. Even more than David’s experience in the tabernacle, we gaze on the beauty of the Lord in the gospel of Christ (2Cor. 4:4-6). As we worship, we can lay before God our fears.
Revelation 7:15-17 echoes the confidence of Psalm 27. After the apocalyptic threats of Revelation 6, we hear of the security of God’s people. We are sheltered in God’s presence, provided for and protected, for the Lamb is the shepherd who leads us to living water. “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” While this is a glimpse of heavenly security, it is also a description of the security of God’s people in Christ, now!
The gospel is the answer to insecurity and fear. It assures us that God is for us and holds us, that Christ keeps us safe and promises our future. It points us away from ourselves and our fears and directs us to our God who is our light, our salvation, our stronghold.