You’re getting old, wrinkly, flabby? Fear not! “Just purchase our wonder cream to help your skin, and you’ll be young again in no time.” You feeling uncertain about finances in the future? Fear not! “Just contact our investment firm, and we will get you ready.” You feeling stressed out by the pressures of life? Fear not! “Download our phone game, and it is so fun and relaxing, you’ll be chilled out in no time.”
Fear is a powerful motivator. David writes about a heart that responds to fear in Psalm 27.
In Psalm 27: 3 he says, “My heart will not fear.” In verse 8, “My heart says…seek his face.” Finally, in verse 14, “Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.”
A heart after God’s heart responds to fear by turning to seek God’s face, to wait for God. There are so many reasons we could allow fear to grip us. Just think about it a moment. What makes you feel feelings of fear?
David experienced loads of fearful situations. Death threats. Enemies. Betrayal. He says that a heart for God faces fear by looking straight at God, and waiting for God. We do this by carving out time in our lives to be with God, seek his face. Then when fear begins to take hold, we redirect our minds to the truths and promises of his word and his character.
And what will we find in God? Look over at the next psalm, Psalm 28:7, “The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him.”
Yet, life is not always like that joyful heart.
David knew that too. He was often deep in the depths. In fact, in Psalm 30, David remembers when he was in a very bad way. The subtitle of Psalm 30 notes that David wrote this for the dedication of the temple. I love that. Think about that scene. In our day, it would be like the dedication of a new church building. Those dedications are totally filled with joy.
But David’s dedication of the temple includes a memory of deep darkness. David did not get to see the building of the temple. He only wrote the song for it. His son Solomon built the temple. I wonder if this song made it into the setlist for that day, because this Psalm is not your typical start to finish rah-rah psalm. Look at what he writes in verses 8–10,
“To you, Lord, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: ‘What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? Hear, Lord, and be merciful to me; Lord, be my help.’”
What David writes about is the emotion of anguish that is quite common in the human experience. I love that a person with a heart after God’s heart is honest, truly crying out to God not just when life is good, but also when life is bad, even ugly.
Of course in the psalm David is remembering a time when he felt horrible and cried a messy cry to God, trying to reason with God to save his life. Even the remembrance of that dark time is a striking inclusion in a song for the dedication of the temple. And for that occasion, therefore, we see how appropriate the song is when we read what David says next.
“You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent. Lord my God, I will praise you forever.”
A heart in line with God’s heart honestly cries out to God in pain, and dances with joyful praise when it remembers God’s deliverance.
Photo by Vadim Bogulov on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 