BE STRONG IN THE LORD

Psalm 27

Sunday, 25 April 2021

“Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD!” - Psalm 27:14

This Psalm declares that as long as we are firm in faith, hope and our eyes are fixed on the Lord, we will be without failure and despair no matter how strong and big our enemy is. The first part of the Psalm shows assurance (1-6) and in the next we see the supplications by the Psalmist.

The third verse says, “even if an army comes against me…” a situation of battle is fearful to any one and some soldiers may be frightened even before the war starts but as the saying goes, ‘the fearful die many times but the courageous die once.’ But those who believe on the Lord, in their adverse circumstances or as the Psalmist says, even before the battle starts, in faith they declare that the victory is theirs! The Bible says “For the battle is not yours, but God's” (2 Chronicles 20:15). Here the context is battle with human enemies but for us believers it is not against any humans but against the world forces of darkness and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). In such battles we have the unbreakable promise of our Lord that He will hide us in His secret places and He will lift us up on the rock— that is the Rock of Ages, Jesus Christ!

In V.4 we see that Psalmist’s fervent payer in faith is not asking for riches or glory but seeking the Lord, yearning to see the glory of the Lord and meditating on the word of God at His feet. Then we will have our minds illuminated by the vision of God and our doubts will be cleared away and we will experience divine peace. In other words, we get our prayers answered, and it becomes the true kind of prayer in which the two-way communication occurs and God answers our prayers. Here we see the true prayer warrior who is really blessed by the Lord. In the case of blind Bartimaeus, he cried to Jesus and He stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you” (Mark 10: 49) and Bartimaeus regained his sight, and followed Jesus and his spiritual eyes were also opened. Likewise we will have the eyes of our heart enlightened by our prayer to the Lord.

For a believer to sustain in faith it is essential that, he should depend on God for grace and experience the goodness of the Lord. But there may be trials and tribulations in every believer’s life, but as long as our eyes are fixed on our Master, it is impossible for anything to be a hindrance for our hope in the Lord or love towards Him. Apostle Paul also talks about the same in Romans 8:35 – “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”

Like most of the Psalms, this one also ends with our ultimate hope in the Lord and the Psalmist reiterates that our hearts shall be firm in the Lord, no matter what may come our way. And we will be like Mount Zion which cannot be moved (Psalm 125:1).

“Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who hope in the LORD.” (Psalm 31:24)