Psalm 27 | Wednesday Bible Study

 

Welcome back to Bible Study Wednesday! We are doing our first Bible study this month. God pressed upon my heart to study the book of Psalms this year. Each Wednesday we take a closer look at a new chapter. Today we are going to chapter 27. If you have not done so, please take the time to read through these 14 verses. I will be sharing some thoughts about today's passage and break down this chapter below. Please pray and ask Holy Spirit to open your spiritual eyes and ears to receive everything He has to teach you in today's passage. Let's begin!

Verse 1

David's psalm begins with a question he asks in two ways. Whom shall I fear, or whom shall I be afraid of? Those questions are in direct comparison to the characteristics of God.

*God is my light.

*God is my salvation.

*God is my life's strength.

Since God is light, salvation, and strength, there is nothing to fear. David cannot fear darkness when he is walking in the Light. David is never lost when he knows his Salvation is in God alone. David does not fear powerful people, because God has all Power, all Strength and He will never fail or lose.

Verses 2-3

David recalls times past when enemies came at him to kill him, but God caused them to stumble and fall. ISAIAH 54:17 No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of Me, saith the LORD. David had this promise. We have it, too.

David said even when a multitude of people surround him to harm him, he will not be afraid. He said he will keep his confidence even if war breaks out against him! HEBREWS 10:35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. We can stand firm on the solid rock of Jesus regardless of how many bad things happen to us or come against us. ROMANS 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? That verse alone is one we can stand on and proclaim with confidence knowing God will prevail over all our enemies.

Verse 4

What was David's greatest desire? What was his heart's longing? What is the biggest thing He asked of God? It is in this verse. David didn't just ask God for this, but he sought for it. He longed to dwell in the house of God for the rest of his life. To see God's beauty and to ask for His help. David didn't have God on an emergency hotline, only to be called on when he wanted something. No, God called David a man after His own heart. He loved David and David loved God. They had a relationship. David delighted in God. This is why ten chapters later we see David pen these words, "Delight thyself also in the LORD; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart." (PSALM 37:4) What are we delighting in?

Verse5

David had nothing to fear. God will hide him in His pavilion, in the secret place of His tabernacle, and set David upon a rock. He had sure footing. He had protection. He had provision. There was nothing that David would face that God couldn't and wouldn't handle! We can have that same confidence.

Verse 6

David said now he can hold his head up high, give joyful sacrifices to God, and sing praise to the LORD. Why? Because everything David needs is found in relationship with God. Everything you and I face in this life is found in the promises of God's Word. All our hope, strength, protection, provision, and blessings are found in God alone. We have nothing to fear or dread and when we get to the point of recognizing that, we will be no match for satan because then we will walk in confidence of who our Father is and what He is doing in our lives. We will be undefeated because Jesus has already overcome the world. These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

Verses 7-8

David says to God, "Hear me when I cry. Have mercy upon me and answer me." Then he says, "When You said to seek Your face God, I did so." Have we been seeking God's face or His hands? Are we more interested in what God can do for us, or are we more concerned about doing something for Him? What does our prayer life look like? Are we using our prayer time to only petition the LORD and never praise or thank Him? What is our heart posture like? Are we like David and we want to seek the face of God? We want to know Him intimately. We want to be in fellowship and communion with God?

Verses 9-10

David understands what it means to be left out and forgotten. He begs God to not hide His face from him. He asks God to not put him away in God's great wrath. Why? Why would David say that? Because God has been His help. He says leave me not, neither forsake me. He needs God. God has always been there for David. When David called, God answered. David could not even get that kind of response from his father and brothers.

When Saul was rejected by God as king over Israel, God sent Samuel to anoint a new king. 1 SAMUEL 16:1 And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, and I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided for me a king among his sons. Samuel tells Jesse to bring all of his sons. Jesse lines up all his children except for David. One by one God rejects each son to be king. Samuel knows what God told him. Something is wrong when none of the sons are the new king. 1 SAMUEL 16:11 And Samuel said unto Jesse, Are here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him: for we will not sit down till he come hither. His father was ashamed of David because he was a keeper of the sheep. His dad counted him out because he was the youngest and was ruddy. He was forgotten and forsaken by his own father at one of the most crucial times in his life. 1 SAMUEL 16:12 And he sent, and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the LORD said, Arise, anoint him: for this is he. Now we can see why David would say when his own father and mother abandoned him, God will choose him. God picked David. God said, "David you are Mine!" at a time when he was being hidden and counted out by his own father. Others will fail us and let us down. Some will be ashamed of us and not want to include us, but God will never forsake us. He will never leave us. He will never abandon us!

Verses 11-12

David is praying that God will show and teach him the way to go. He wants a smooth path when his enemies are against him. Do you know how hard it is to navigate rocky, uneven paths? It slows you down. If you have someone chasing you to kill you, you want the advantage of a smooth path where you can get away faster. David knew he must be taught these things because doing life on our own is a dangerous, foolish adventure that ends in failure. David asks God to protect him from the liars and cruel enemies rushing toward him to harm him. God will give us the protection we need, too.

Verse 13

This is a verse I have outlined in my Bible. It is one of the verses I quote often in 2022 when I look around and see violence, turmoil, division, confusion, chaos, and frustration everywhere I turn. It is on the news, social media, reels, videos, tweets, texts, posts, you name it! Everyone has the freedom online to say and do whatever they please and they take their liberties. It is a wicked, vile world we live in and it is just becoming more wicked and vile as the days go by. I, too, like David would have given up if I had not seen God's goodness all around me. I may see the enemy at work everywhere I turn, but I also see the Mighty hand of God providing, protecting, and uplifting His people. He is our shield, our strength, and our help!

Verse 14

This verse is also underlined in my Bible. This verse is David speaking from experience. He is giving you and me advice. He is telling us what has worked for him over and over again. He is giving us the blueprint to be successful in this journey where it can be discouraging and even depressing to keep going. I want to repeat it here today. This is David's instruction to us; let it bless you.

"Wait on the LORD; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD."

*Wait on God.

*Be of good courage.

*Wait on God.

And the promise? He will strengthen us.

We are not promised He will remove the problem. We are not promised a bed of roses. We are not told we will never have another issue. We are not promised that our loved ones would never die, or our bills would never pile up, or that we would be the most popular person on the planet. We are told God will strengthen our heart.

Why did David say this? Because when our heart is strong, we can keep running. When we get our strength back we can fight. When we have strength we do not have to worry which leads to sickness and disease and sometimes death. God is giving us His power to strengthen us when times are hard. If we feel like we have slowed to a snail's pace, we need to wait on God, be of good courage, and wait! He will get us through!

I hope something in today's study has spoken to you. Feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to me via email, on social media, or text me if you have my phone number. I pray that something I have shared on the blog today has given you strength for your journey and light for you way. God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens

7 Biblical Reasons To Be Thankful | Thankful Thursday

Has life been beating you up lately? Do you feel like you can't really catch a break? I understand how that feels. I get it! Life is hard sometimes. Sometimes it may feel like there are more problems than solutions and more hardships than good times. In these dry seasons it can be hard to count your blessings. After all, we have to really search for the good sometimes. When we lose a loved one, our job ends, the loan does not go through, or our spouse walks out on us, it can be really difficult to find something to be thankful for.

Research has shown that feeling thankful has positive effects on our health: both mental and physical. It can also improve our spiritual health. Choosing to focus on the positive things is not just about looking at the good in our life. When my dad died I did not immediately feel grateful that he was no longer with me. I did look back on the last couple of years of my dad's life and see God's hands all over it. I remembered the miracles and the relief, the breakthroughs that seemed to indicate Dad would not die. I thought about how I was grateful I had those days and months and two full years to spend with him and cherish those last moments together. My sister's birth father was tragically ripped from her life when a drunk driver hit and killed him. It was not easier to watch our dad slip away but there is a big blessing in the gift of that process.

When financial hard times come, it is not the first thing on our minds to write a list of things we are grateful for. We often begin to brainstorm ideas for how to find the ends in an effort to make them meet. We want solutions and when we are faced with a pile of bills and unmet needs, it can be so discouraging and painful. It is in those times that gratitude is so important. Holding on to God's faithfulness in the past, and any glimpses of God's goodness in the here and now only serve to strengthen our faith and reignite our hope that this too shall pass and we will be stronger for it.

Abandonment and rejection leave us feeling vulnerable and scared. Instead of choosing to see the bright side, it is far easier to see the negative effects. Divorce is unfortunately all too common, but the stigma is still there. The brokenness is still there. The unanswered questions of why this happened and how it could have been prevented leave us feeling isolated and alone. If we can somehow choose to see past that to what good there is left, it can help us not sink into despair and depression. There is hope!

How do we know an attitude of gratitude is powerful enough to plunge us out of the darkness back into a few rays of sunshine? We can look at research of course. We can read the studies of thousands of people who were observed and we can see how things changed in their lives. But, is that really helpful to us in the throws of life's lowest valleys? I don't know about you, but when it felt like I was in the pits I did not really care to read about how someone else turned things around by being thankful. I wanted to know what could help me?

The Bible has always been the one source of hope and strength for me. When others shared the Gospel with me it always encouraged me. It never failed to lift me up, if even for a moment. The more I would read the Word of God, the more I would begin to trust God. I learned of His character and His way of thinking. I saw Him as a source of strength and a refuge to hide in. I realized His love would carry me through the darkest of midnights. I did not have to feel forsaken. So, what does the Bible say about being thankful?

1. It is God's Will for us to be thankful. We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:18 "In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." That does not mean to thank God for the divorce, or the death, or the financial hardship, but thank Him that He never abandoned you, He is victorious over death, and He will supply all your needs. This is His will for you because when you look for the good you will find it. When you choose to focus on the reasons you are blessed, you will find more reasons. What you continue to dwell on will get down on the inside of you and it will begin to flourish and grow and it will elevate you out of the dungeon.

2. It is to remember God's holiness. We read in Psalm 30:4 "Sing unto the LORD, O ye saints of His, and give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness." When we start shifting our eyes from our problems onto the Solution, Christ Jesus, we start remembering His holiness. We remember His goodness. We remember He has never failed us. We remember He has always done nothing but good for us. It shifts the mindset to stop dwelling on the problem and the negative parts of the puzzle. We begin to get our courage back. We stop feeling fear. We begin to believe again. Our hearts start to mend.

3. It is a good thing. We read in Psalm 92:1-3 "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto Thy name, O Most High: To shew forth Thy lovingkindness in the morning, and Thy faithfulness every night, Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound." The Bible tells us it is a good thing to give thanks. When we begin to sing praises to God we stop feeling sadness. We no longer feel anxiety, worry, fear, doubt, or defeat. We begin to sing praises to God and something good starts to spring forth on the inside of us. We begin to feel that wellspring of life bubbling over. We feel joy take over and nothing can take it away when we have our mind completely on the goodness of God, day or night.

4. It gives us something to share with others. We read in Psalm 105:1 "O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon His name: make known His deeds among the people." The great things God has done for us is not just for our pleasure. It is not just for our enjoyment; but rather to be shared with others who are hurting. We may see others who are mourning, or discouraged, or feeling abandoned, and when we begin to share what God has done for us it edifies us both. We both gain strength from that. We both increase in faith when we hear an actual account of what God has done in times of great distress and pain. When we see His hand upon others and they tell us what God has done in their lives, it gives us hope that He will do the same thing for us.

5. It enables us to live in His presence. We read in Psalm 140:13 "Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto Thy name: the upright shall dwell in Thy presence." When we meditate on the things God has done for us, it causes us to temporarily leave our current situation and we are fully in His presence. When we recall the times God fed us when we had no money and no food, we begin to feel the oil of gladness fill our souls. As we remember the times the money came out of nowhere just before we lost everything, it will spark hope in our hearts that He will come through again. And as we begin to bask in the love of God and all the many times He came through for us, it changes the chemicals in our bodies. Endorphins, a feel-good hormone, begins to be released throughout our bodies. We begin to feel more joy than stress, more peace than chaos, more love than rejection and our whole countenance lights up. Friends, we can choose to live that way.

6. It brings us victory. We read in 1 Corinthians 15:57 "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." We get our hopes up when we remember the times He came through before and when we are filled with faith and not doubt, God begins to work on our behalf. He begins to rearrange some things. He begins to change our circumstances. We begin to have victory over what once held us bound. That is worth praising God for. That is worth thanking Him for. We are victorious when we keep our eye on the prize and not get distracted by the tricks of the enemy.

7. It is what we will do in eternity. We read in Revelation 11:16-17 "And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God, Saying, We give Thee thanks, O LORD GOD Almighty, Which art, and was, and art to come; because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned." When we come to eternity we will thank Him for what He did for us. We will be so thankful to have overcome every trial, every tribulation, every hardship, every battle that we faced. We will praise Him because He reigns. We will bow before Him like the 24 elders and we will proclaim that He is King and He is LORD and He is God. We will worship Him. He deserves it. He is worthy. It is His! Praise and thankfulness belong to God. We owe it to Him to tell Him how much we appreciate Him; how wonderful He is to us; and how much He means to us.

Friends, we have more than seven reasons to be thankful to God. Count your blessings today and every single day. Do not worry about the worries of this life, the problems and health concerns that arise. We have hope in Jesus Christ who promises us eternal life. We may not have it easy in this life, and bad things will continue to happen to us from time to time, but we have to remember Jesus Christ is King. He is worth every word of praise and adoration; every thankful and grateful sentiment; every appreciative statement we can think of to let Him know how much He means to us.

I am so thankful for Jesus loving me and never giving up on me. I have so much to praise God for. May you be found today with praise on your lips to King Jesus for all that He has done and is doing and will do in your life! God bless you!

~Bridgett Owens