Text: Psalm 27:7-14
Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me, and answer me. When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the Lord will take care of me. Teach me Your way, O Lord, And lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries; For false witnesses have risen against me, And such as breathe out violence. I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the Lord In the land of the living. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!
Devotion
It is a great mercy that the Lord has given us His promises of salvation and said we should hold these up before Him when we cry to Him in our need. He wants to be persuaded with His own Word. When Jacob traveled to Mesopotamia, God promised him: “I will bring you back to this land and do what I have spoken.” But on the way back God came in the night as a man and wrestled with him and would not let him go, until Jacob held the Lord’s promises up before Him and won (Gen 32:24-32). “You have said, Lord, that You will lead me back to Canaan. If You kill me now, then Your promise will not be true. You must do as You have said! Do this, Lord, for Your mercy and Your truth’s sake!” He wept and prayed and won the victory, so instead of being killed, he was blessed by the Lord. So did Moses and David and all who were guided by God’s Spirit. The heart should seek the Lord’s face, hold to what He has spoken and done, for He said: “Seek My face” (Psa 27:8). He said: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” (Psa 50:15). We should hold His promises before Him. Then He can do nothing but help us. These are not empty words, but unfailing truth. He is the God of our salvation, the God who has helped against all evil and has bound Himself to save all who seek Him. Human help does not avail against the devil and death. The love of father and mother may not endure, but His mercy is everlasting. When I stand abandoned, like a poor orphan child, the Lord will take me up and care for me.
But shall God’s people always be in danger among enemies and false brethren? Certainly always here on earth. The weeds sown by the enemy do not die. And in suffering we learn obedience. God’s Church thrives best under persecution. Christians are sanctified in suffering and through tribulations. Gold is refined by fire. Be perfectly certain that your way of tribulation is good and leads to the land of life, if you only seek the Lord’s face, always appear before Him with your heart.
But our tribulation shall have an end. If we didn’t believe that we would “see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living,” then we would have to doubt. But now we believe in His power and grace and see His face, and He Himself puts the sure Word of hope in our mouth: “Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the Lord!”
Closing Prayer
You have said, Lord Jesus, that we should believe and hope in You alone. O give us grace to do this by Your good Holy Spirit. We have no faith. We cannot pray, but we come to You: O do with us as You have said. We will not let You go unless You bless us. Let Your Word be proclaimed in the power of the Spirit, and accomplish that to which You send it. Amen.
Hymn
And when my soul is lying
Weak, trembling, and oppressed,
He pleads with groans and sighing
That cannot be expressed;
But God’s quick eye discerns them
Although they give no sound,
And into language turns them,
E’en in the heart’s deep ground.
To mine His Spirit speaketh
Sweet words of holy cheer,
How God to him that seeketh
For rest, is always near:
And how He hath erected
A city fair and new,
Where what our faith expected
We evermore shall view.
Gerhardt: If God Himself be for me L 225:7-8 ELH 517:8-9 tr. R. Massie;
tune: Ist Gott für mich