The famous verse of this Psalm is verse 4 and some of us have even memorized it by heart, “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.”

By merely looking at the verse, one may assume that the context in which it appears can be anything but negative in nature. However, when we read Ps 27, we can be taken back by surprise that the background of this Psalm is filled with despair and desperation. Besides the key characters of God and the Psalter, the third character is the enemy that the Psalmist encounters. Various synonyms of enemy or forms of obstacles are being used throughout the Psalm, such as evildoers, my adversaries and foes (verse 2); army and war (verse 3); trouble (verse 5); enemies (verse 6); “father and mother have forsaken me” (verse 10); enemies (verse 11); and adversaries and false witnesses (verse 12). Two expressions that the Psalmist uses concerning the attack of these enemies are “eat up my flesh” (verse 2) and breathe out violence (verse 12).

Moreover, the Psalmist does not hide the fact that because of certain reason not mentioned, God is also angry with him that He has turned His face away from him. He plea before the God of his salvation is to neither cast nor forsake him (verse 9). However, for such situation, the Psalter knows that he can come back to God for His help (verse 9) and to seek His face (verse 8).

In the midst of this unfavorable circumstance, four beautiful expressions of how God comes to the Psalmist’s help are “the Lord is my light and salvation” (verse 1), “the Lord is the stronghold of my life” (verse 1), “he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble,” (verse 5) and “he will conceal me under the cover of his tent” (verse 5).

Dear brothers and sisters, like the Psalmist, let us remember and call upon our Lord when we are in any kind of trouble or distress (verse 13 and 14).

Prayer

Dear Lord, in the midst of any kind of trouble and distress in my life, I can turn to You who is my life, my salvation and the stronghold of my life. In so doing, I can still gaze upon your beauty and inquire in your temple whenever I am in those unfavorable circumstances. I pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.