This Sunday we will take a close look at Psalm 27. This particular Psalm speaks to the reality of life, recognizing how often we fear and what to do with it. In this Psalm, David speaks of enemies, armies, even his parents abandoning him. Listen to him:

Evil doers assail me to devour my flesh.

And army in camps about me.

Do not catch me off, do not forsake me.

Do not give me up to the wheel of my adversary

Who are through illness, direct attack, misfortune, relational issues, abandonment, and many other causes, we will find ourselves in these kinds of situations from time to time. One writer causes the “terror of creation“.

David is saying we can take the terror, the evil and the panic seriously. He’s not asking necessarily to change the circumstances or to defeat the army. It’s not wrong to pray that. But rather he seeks to focus his gaze on the Lord, simply looking into the reality of who God is. Notice in the Lord’s  prayer, we don’t get to the daily bread and to deliverance, etc., until we have spent a lot of time looking at God in the prayer. “Our father, who art in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done.“

We naturally set our hearts on things that can frustrate us, hurt us, or come against us whether that's family, job, finances, etc. The focus of this song is to remind us not to love our children or our career less, but to love God more. As Malcolm said on Ash Wednesday, the focus and purpose of fasting is not to deny ourselves something as much as it is to hunger for God.

The gospel lesson, from Luke 13, speaks of a God in Christ, who laments over Jerusalem to do just what David recommends in Psalm 27. They have forsaken God in Jerusalem, in Israel and often in the church. Yet, like a hen covering her chicks, Jesus uses that comparison to indicate his love and continual wooing of the people to him. It is an incredible metaphor, feminine in nature, that shows even in all circumstances, God seeks to cover, to be with and to transform us.

Looking forward to seeing how this operates in your life on Sunday.

Come and see,

+Philip