FELLOWSHIP GROUPS

 – AUTUMN 2002

WALKING WITH GOD - Reflecting on the Psalms

Oct 8/10

(3) PSALM 27: HE’S EVERYTHING TO ME!

INTRODUCTION: This is a Psalm of two distinct and contrasting parts (1-6 and 7-12) with a final conclusion (13-14). The first part of this lovely psalm contains one of the most sublime expressions of spiritual security in the whole Bible. But the second part shows the arising of anxious doubts and fears against which faith wrestles and which drives it to prayer. In this the psalm accurately reflects those changing moods of the soul that sweep over us. But it ends, as it began, with faith’s confidence that (in spite of all) God’s loving goodness will have the last word.

• 1-6: CONFIDENT AFFIRMATION

- the Psalmist’s serene (spiritual) assurance (1-3) and sole (soul!) petition (4-6)

1-3: His serene assurance:

• What is the Psalmist’s assurance:
• How does he express it? How great does he feel it?
• Against what background problems does he feel it?
• What does he mean by describing the LORD as:
• his LIGHT? (See 2 Sam 22.29, Is 2.5, Rev 21.23,22.5)
• his STRONGHOLD?
• Do you understand his experience of the Lord?

How has it been paralleled in your life?

 4-6: His sole petition:

• What is the great thing the Psalmist so intensely seeks?
• What does he mean by it and why is this one thing so important to him?
• Is God’s experienced presence of such importance to you?

(or is your spirituality of a different kind?)

• 7-12: ANXIOUS SUPPLICATION
• The Psalmist’s sudden anxiety and earnest pleading.

Suddenly, all is different and all is difficult.

• In what ways is the spiritual mood of these verses so different to that of the opening verses?
• What anxieties does David seem to be facing now?
• How do you account for such a change?
• What sort of things could have arisen to shake his confidence?
• What sort of things shake ours?
• What is David’s reaction to this onset of anxiety?
• Can we learn from this?

• 13-14: FINAL ASSERTION

Coming through this ‘tunnel of darkness’ David, (in the face of all the fear and fluctuations) takes up a final firm assurance.

• How would you sum up David’s final position?
• What can we learn from it? How should we counteract changing

 ‘moods of the soul’?

CONCLUDING THOUGHT:

 Which half of the Psalm sums up your spiritual position today? Can you, in faith, make the final great assertions of 13-14?