Psalm 27
6 Then my head will be exalted
above the enemies who surround me;
at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make music to the Lord.
7 Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
be merciful to me and answer me.
David certainly had his share of enemies: Saul, the Philistines, and a long list of the ‘ites’. Reading this Psalm, we find David lifted up on a high rock so his head is higher than his enemies. These words are being said with hope while looking into the future. God will rescue him and his head shall be lifted up. Then “I will” is used repeatedly to project what he, himself, will do as result of God’s deliverance towards him.
Often in life we are in a place surrounded by enemies. We don’t have kings and foreigners looking to “do us in,” but we are surrounded by a multitude of other “things” that are not there to help us with our living, much less our life of faith.
With these things, we need to be a bit stoic and divide our enemies into two groups:
- Self-made enemies.
These are largely in our power to address:
- Attitudes that do not honor our Lord
- Holding resentments towards others because of a real or imagined hurt.
This world offers countless opportunities to be offended. Too often our imagination turns a benign look or word into a hurt we then cherish and nurture.
- Practices that defeat our best intentions.
We all have life practices that are in need of correction, or at least remedial effort. Perhaps we know we should be in the Word more often and do more than just read a passage and say amen.
Do we contemplate on what we just read? Do we meditate to find ways to implement the truth we just discovered? We know we should be growing more in our faith, but we don’t really feed our faith.
- Enemies not of our making.
The Gospel song rightly sings, “This world is not my home, I’m just passing through.” Our culture is not conducive to providing a means of grace. However, we can see hints of grace in godly actions even from those we don’t identify as godly people. More often we battle the frustration of being sojourners in a land that’s becoming more foreign to us. We can moan and curl up to complain and withdraw, or we can listen to David.
David trusted that in spite of all hate and confusion, his God would lift him up over all his enemies. From that high vantage point, he would better understand the reality of his situation. In spite of all his enemies, he would have a melody to sing to his Lord.
Author: Richard Lawson
Other Lenten readings for today:
- Genesis 13:1-7, 14-18
- Philippians 3:2-12
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