Embrace the Word for Friday, February 20, 2026
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Psalm 27 is the third of four consecutive Psalms that share the simple superscription, “Of David.” Psalm 27 shares several common terms with Psalm 26. Both speak of going to the house of the LORD (26:8; 27:6); both express dependence on the LORD (26:1-2; 27:3-9); both pray for deliverance (26:12; 27:13-14); and both pertain to evildoers (26:5; 27:2). Psalm 27 is both a bold confidence in the LORD’s deliverance, but also an urgent plea for the LORD to deliver. The section of Psalm 27 that declares confidence in the LORD is expressed in third-person (27:1-6); while the the section that is an urgent plea is mostly expressed in the second-person (27:7-14). The shift in person as well as the shift in tone has suggested to many that originally theses were two Psalms, but there is no need to think that, if the experienced realities of the life of faith are understood. Sometimes in life, there is the calm of faith and other times there is the crisis of faith. Sometimes in life we swim in the beauty of the LORD, while at other times, we drown in the ugliness of our enemies. Bold trust in the LORD need not be discounted when we face trauma; in fact, going through trauma can deepen our trust in the LORD.
Psalm 27 opens with a clear awareness of the LORD leading to a confident assurance from the LORD: “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?” (27:1). David celebrates that the LORD is his source of light that shines in the darkness to guide and deliver him. David equally celebrates that the LORD is his place of safety and refuge to protect him. Though there are plenty of human reasons for fear; nevertheless, David is not afraid. No one and nothing can impede the LORD’s guidance and deliverance. No one and nothing can overcome the LORD’s safekeeping and protection.
David acknowledges what he is up against and what could hamper the LORD’s activity in his life: “When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident” (27:2-3). The threats against David are real and terrible. Evildoers aggressively attack like cannibalistic savages. But David is confident that those who oppose the LORD and His king will absolutely fail (Remember Psalm 2). A great war force has laid siege around David and is ready to unleash their violence. But in spite of his fear-filled circumstances, David is confident in the LORD’s faithfulness and thus, fearless.
What accounts for the way that David interprets the frightful circumstances that his enemies have put together against him? Is David in denial of reality? Or perhaps out of touch with reality? Absolutely not! David is zeroed in on what truly is reality: “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” (27:4). David has one desire; his focus is not on the many foes who surround him, but the One True God who is stunningly beautiful. David has his eyes on the LORD. Thus, David’s overarching desire is to be in unbroken fellowship with the LORD. Nothing is more satisfying to David than to be near the LORD. It is this kind of inclination for the LORD that has resulted in the increase of his confidence in the LORD.
David’s desire to be in the presence of the LORD, in fact, colors the way he looks at and assesses his surrounding threat. David is not unaware of his trouble, but his response is determined not by his trouble, but in how the LORD’s presence will protect: “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 lift me high upon a rock” (27:5). Follow how David is explaining why he is responding to his threats with confidence. His burning desire is to “dwell in the house of the LORD” (27:4). Thus, his confidence is that the LORD will hide him, “under the cover of His tent” (27:5). Therefore, David confesses that the LORD would return him back to the place of God’s presence that he might worship the LORD: “And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the LORD” (27:6). David desires rescue, and even anticipates rescue, not merely for the sake of being raised to safety, but so that he could raise a song of praise to His God. Praising God is what he really wants, for he is captivated by the beauty of the LORD. Rescue serves a greater purpose—to sing joyfully before the LORD.
As David steps away from delineating his confidence in the LORD, he now walks us through the shape that his praying takes in the actual difficulties that surrounded him. David switches from explaining the rest that he has in the LORD, to expressing the most urgent rescue he needs from the LORD: “Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me!” (27:7). In the midst of his crisis, David turns to the LORD: “You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek” (27:8). David turns to the LORD in light of what the LORD has told him to do in the midst of his threatening troubles. The LORD has directed David to seek him. David quotes to the LORD what David has heard Him say. David quotes the LORD, when Moses told the Israelites where they were to turn when troubles came: “But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul” (See Deuteronomy 4:29). David trusts that the LORD’s instructions to seek His face in the midst of his troubles, is exactly what he needs to do…so he does.
There is nothing more that David desires than to see the face of the LORD. There is nothing more that David dreads then for God to hide His face from him: “Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help (27:9a). While David’s worst nightmare would be that the LORD would turn from him, he is, nevertheless confident that the LORD would remain faithful: “Cast me not off; forsake me not, O God of my salvation! For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the LORD will take me in” (27:9b-10). David is confident that the LORD would do all that He promises to His people: “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you” (See Deuteronomy 31:6).
And since David most desires to be in God’s presence and dreads being cast off from the presence of the LORD, David prays: “Teach me your way, O LORD, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies” (27:11). David knows that when Adam and Eve disobeyed they were expelled from God’s presence. David is also aware of Israel’s blessings and curses contained in the Mosaic Covenant related to their obedience or disobedience (See Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28-29). Thus, David prays that he would walk in obedience. He prays for the LORD to not only teach him, but also direct him on the path he must walk. David urgently prays for such obedience in light of the imminent threat that was before him: “Give me not up to the will of my adversaries; for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence” (27:12).
David is confident: “I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!” (27:13). His confidence is in the LORD, not himself. David is confident that the LORD would show him His face, and not forsake him, for David was confident that the LORD would teach him and lead him in the way he should walk. David is confident in the LORD’s faithfulness, as he stated in the previous Psalm: “For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness” (See Psalm 26:3). And David concludes with an exhortation for himself, but perhaps as well for all of God’s people—a confidence concerning the LORD’s faithfulness: “Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” (27:14). Waiting for the LORD is not passive resignation; it is active aggression in our hearts that requires strength and courage—strength and courage to trust and obey the LORD until He delivers.
As we reflect on Psalm 27, we should consider David’s singleness of purpose: “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” (27:4). David’s singleness of purpose reflects his preoccupation, his passion, and his pursuit. David saw the LORD’s beauty in what he saw unfolding at the LORD’s house. Among other things that this might consist of, we should consider that David saw how beautiful the LORD is through the sacrifices that the priests offered. David is aware that there on the altar, his guilt from his sin is removed by the blood of a substitute. If David saw the substitutionary atonement of an animal’s blood displaying how beautiful God is, we can see an even brighter beauty in what the writer of Hebrew’s declares: “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God” (See Hebrews 9:13-14). David saw a preview and thought it was beautiful; we can see beauty in its ultimate expression: our perfect Savior offering Himself as a perfect sacrifice to take away our sin and remove our guilt and condemnation. By the Spirit, our eyes can see a beautiful, risen Lord.
That’s all for Embrace the Word for Friday, February 20, 2026. I look forward to being back with you for the Monday, February 23, 2026 episode of Embrace the Word as we take a look at Psalm 28.