This morning is the last day of February and the second Sunday of our journey through Lent.  In just 5 more weeks we will celebrate the holiest and most joyful day of the Christian year – Easter.  During these first four weeks of Lent we Christians step back from our busy lives and reflect on our faith, our priorities, our actions, our sinfulness and our redemption.

            Our Jewish sisters and brothers have a similar practice.  No, it is not the time before Passover.  It’s the time – the month - before Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year when Jews reflect on their actions in the past year and try to make amends with each other and God before God closes the book on that year. In synagogue, the shofar is sounded. At home, people munch on apples and honey as an expression of hope.  In their prayers they recite Psalm 27 twice daily.

In the long history of Judiasm, ihis practice is fairly new practice - less than 200 years old - but rabbis believe this is more than a wise practice.  They believe it is essential to their spiritual preparations for Rosh Hashanah[1].

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            Psalm 27 is one of the Psalms attributed to David.  Unlike may other psalms, we do not know when David wrote it or even whether it was written all at once.  Some commentators had said that it was written in 2 parts, that David wrote verses 1 - 6 when life was good. God was answering all his prayers. Perhaps it was after he had killed Goliath – while he was still young and innocent and had not faced some of the terrible things of the world.

            We hear much of that strength of faith in these first few verses:

‘The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  When evildoers assail me to devour my flesh— my adversaries and foes— they shall stumble and fall.  Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.’

            The Lord is a light and stronghold – the enemies stumble and fall.  The world around David may be filled with wars and rumors of wars.  His life – he safety – may be in doubt.  But he does not fear.  He is confident.

            Yet this confidence is not in anything David and do for himself.  His hope is in the Lord rather than in himself. 

            We have to give David a lot of credit here.  It’s easy when we’re young to dismiss God as being wholly irrelevant.  When we’re young we feel invincible.  We’re convinced that we can do anything – be anything.  That there is no limit to what we can be, who we can become, where we can go.

            Then life gets difficult, when armies seem to encamp around us, we may be fearful but we believe that we can simply overcome it all on the power of our own wills.  For David to say that his heart does not fear that he will be confident even if a war should rise up against him is to say that his life is in the hands of the Lord.  That whatever befalls him, the Lord will take care of him.

            He asks only one thing and lists only one goal:

‘to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. 

--- and David knows the reward he will find as he lives in the house of the Lord:

For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.’

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If Psalm was written in two parts, it is believed that David wrote verses 7-12 when life was difficult He thought that God was hiding from him. Perhaps it was when Saul was fighting him – perhaps when he was running, hiding – friendless and in fear of his life.  The tone of the psalm changes so radically it seems like the work of someone else entirely – someone whose faith is lost, who has been cast off by the holy God.

‘Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!  Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me, O God of my salvation! 

            The psalmist restates a faith in God and begs for rescue:

If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up.  Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.  Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence… Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they are breathing out violence.

            Ever been there?  When things go wrong – when up seems like down and down seems like up?  Ever had a time when it seems as though things are so terribly wrong that they can never be right again?

            Ever railed against God? Ever called out to the silence of a God who seems not to answer?  Ever wondered why is it that bad things happen to good people?  Why the road of life cannot run smoothly without roadblocks, potholes of detours?

            Ever complain to God because of jobs, marriages, family, friends, finances, health concerns that didn’t seem fair or just?  David was no stranger to those same feelings.

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Commentators believe that David wrote verses 13-14 when he put the 2 parts together.  Again the tone of the psalm changes dramatically – from one of panic and fear to one of trust and assurance:

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

Things may get bad, but David’s is restored.  Rather than worry, pace about and lose sleep, David can recall the goodness of the Lord and wait for the strength of the Lord to deliver him from his trouble.

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Although some commentators believe Psalm was written in 2 parts or that it was perhaps two psalms that were linked together, other commentators believe that David wrote it all at once.  They point to poetic harmony and the use of the same references to God that occur at the beginning, middle and end of the psalm.

These writers believe that although David could look at his current circumstances and see that things did not seem to be going so well, he could also look to his past and see that God had been good to him.

And so David could – and would - cry out to the Lord: What happened?  Where was God in these difficult times?  Why had God left him when he was most in need?

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Psalm 27 shows us that even for David life had its ups and downs – good times and not-so-good times.  Times of joy and times of sorrow.  Times of confidence and times of fear.

Psalm 27. The ups were the good times. The downs were the difficult times. This happens to us also. When life is difficult we must remember the good times. When we think that God has forgotten us, we must remember the times when the Lord did not forget us. We must be like David in Psalm 27:14. We must wait for the Lord. One day he will give us help. If we believe this, it will make us strong.

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Our Jewish sisters and brothers believe that during the month preceding Rosh Hashanah the reading of Psalm 27 is essential to preparing the human heart for the joy of their most important holiday.  If forces us to admit to ourselves our own wavering between joy and despair, faith and doubt.

In our Old Testament passage from Genesis we read that even Abraham doubted God.  Even father Abraham wavered between faith and doubt, joy and sorrow.

Like Abraham and David we too need to see that the dark times in our lives are not times when God has forsaken us, only times when we need to wait for God’s salvation, God’s holy purpose to be revealed and accomplished.

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Psalm 27 begins and ends with proclamations of trust. Proclamations that reassure and comfort.  That remind us of who God and how much God loves.

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Many say that the opposite of love is hate, but the truth is that the opposite of love is really indifference – because the opposite of caring is not caring.  Likewise, the opposite of faith is not doubt but indifference.  If we doubt, if we are in anguish, we still care about God in our lives and ultimately we can face whatever life brings because we know with certainty that God is for us and has not deserted us.

Faith and doubt are both examples of what the life of faith is all about – and at this time of Lent, as we prepare for the greatest of our holidays we too will do well to recite this psalm as we prepare our hearts for Easter and as we recall that we need merely ‘wait for the Lord’  Amen.