Years ago, when I was newlywed, my father
died, and at his funeral, an army chaplain
read from Psalm 27, which, looking back on,
is a strange text for a funeral.
And when the army chaplain got to verse
5, I didn't like that.
Psalm 27 5 reads, A friend, the time
of trouble, he shall hide me in his
pavilion.
In the secret of his tabernacle shall he
hide me.
He shall set me up upon a rock.
And when the chaplain read those words, I
recalled back from them.
I was in a season of my life
where everything I touched turned to gold.
I was even called by my colleagues a
fair-haired boy.
I was living the dream, and all was
well with my life.
I had a beautiful wife and a promising
career.
And the last thing I wanted was to
find myself in a time of trouble.
Because I was a sunny-day Christian, I
followed Jesus for what he could do for
me.
He was the one who opened doors for
me and prospered me and blessed me.
So long as I acknowledged him and tied
to him, he would keep my world a
place of sunshine and roses.
That was my theology back then.
There are a number of sunny-day Christians
who love their Jesus so long as he
keeps them out of a time of trouble.
Unfortunately, the modern gospel has created a lot
of sunny-day Christians whose concept of God
is little more than a jolly Santa Claus
whose only goal is to make us happy.
That if we get hit with bad news
like cancer, he will heal us and take
it away from us, if only we ask
him to, because God exists to make us
happy.
But when the cancer comes back and grows
worse, it shatters our expectations of God, and
our faith becomes like a fighter jet shot
out of the sky and has fallen to
the earth, nose down, engulfed with billowing black
smoke.
The sunny-day Christian will face his or
her time of trouble, because life isn't always
sunshine and roses.
There are black nights and furious storms, times
of trouble, hit every one of us.
Since then, I have been placed in various
times of trouble, and I am thankful for
Psalm 27.
It's got me through some pretty tough times.
And as the troubled seas washed up over
my head, I have clung to verse 13
like a life preserver.
I had fainted, unless I had believed to
see the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living.
Psalm 27 is a psalm of David.
David was in a jam when he penned
it.
He was pursued by his enemies.
He was shut out from the house of
the Lord.
He was on the lam and on the
run.
He writes the psalm with a backward look
after he has come through his trial, and
it is a prayer of praise.
Charles Spurgeon said of Psalm 27, It is
a psalm of cheerful hope, well fitted for
those in trial, who have learned to lean
upon the Almighty Arm.
I have learned to lean on that Almighty
Arm in many occasions.
God is a deliverer, but at times He
doesn't deliver us out of our adverse circumstances
or trial of life.
But He is with us in that trial.
He is there with us in that hospital
bed when things look bleak and the news
is bad.
He is with us at the grave of
a loved one while tears stream down our
cheeks.
Psalm 27 ends with the words, Wait on
the Lord, be of good courage, and He
shall strengthen thine heart.
Wait, I say, on the Lord.
God will give grace to the sunny day
Christian and grow that person over time into
a God-centered Christian who knows that no
matter how bad things get, there is always
a God in heaven who loves us and
hears our prayers.
And though He will sovereignly place us in
our time of trouble, He will make us
more Christ-like as He brings us to
our expected end.
Psalm 27 goes hand in hand with Romans
8.28 And we know that all things
work together for good to them that love
God, to them who are the called according
to His purpose.