So I guess we can go ahead and begin. Good evening. It's a joy to see you this evening. They say it's officially spring. I'm not quite sure. The message got across, but. So. Well, it is what it is. So we're thankful that the Lord has given us this day. be it cold, be it warm, and it's the name the Lord has given us, and it has been full of mercy, full of grace, full of God's goodness. We do have community outreach this coming Sunday, so we're looking forward to that. I pray that we will be able to get out and actually contact folks that would pursue the word of God and perhaps come to Christ as well. Will we come to it? Well, I'm thinking we should probably stay close by just because we don't want people to freeze on the way out. So, I'm thinking probably close by. So, that's what we're thinking after this one. Of course, Third Sunday, as always, is our fellowship meal. We're looking forward to that as well. Well, you see on the table in the back we've got our cams and our notes. We're going to sing the song of number 182 and we have a beat. Let's go ahead and stand and sing. We've got four verses here so we'll sing off of that. ♪ And interest in the Savior's word. ♪ ♪ The need for me was till today. ♪ ♪ When you promise you will not let me be ♪ ♪ And now I come to tell you the truth ♪ ♪ I'll raise you up from the dead ♪ ♪ The son of Abraham ♪ ♪ He can restore the soul of the fallen ♪ ♪ To peace on earth ♪ ♪ And his righteousness ♪ ♪ Can keep his child for evermore ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, ♪ It was so sweet to play ♪ ♪ At the beach scene when we first met ♪ ♪ And I believed my dream would come true ♪ Oh, what a place we are. Thy heart was free. Thy heart was free. ♪ I want you to stand before me ♪ ♪ Oh, can you hear the sound of my heart beating? ♪ ♪ The sound of the beating of this heart of mine ♪ ♪ That has died in me, died in me ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Amen. Good singing. Here, Charles Wesley marvels over the wonder of his salvation. And he invites us to marvel with him that fourth verse, which speaks of Jesus Christ. We are aligned in him, our living head, and we're clothed in righteousness. So, you know, it's the cold of winter. One day, hopefully, we'll head into the warmth of spring. We do well to remember that God is with us in the dark, in the cold, when we feel alone. God never promises a season free from trouble, but He does promise His presence. and ultimate deliverance to those who trust in him. As you know, as he turns to Psalm 27, David, the author of our song, was a man who well knew danger. He knew despair. He knew his own heart's deprived. He dealt with the opposition from what you might call his employer, Saul the king, His siblings, you remember before the battle with Goliath, they mocked him. His own family, from his wife to his children, didn't always appreciate him. There are notes he mentioned that his wife did not care for his kids, but whatever. His sons, like the prodigal in Jesus' story, were eager to gain their inheritance, even to the point that they were willing to topple dead or prone to get that inheritance. David knew the chastening of the Lord's righteous hand upon Asia, the time when he numbered the people in the census, which showed his pride and perhaps his unbelief in God's Abrahamic covenant. His lustfulness was punished by the dissolvespray, whose sexual sins exceeded their father's. He followed one son, raised his daughter to a monk. Another son killed the rapist. The man after God's own heart left his vile, inexcusable son unpunished. After Absalom's death, yet another son rose to unclone David before he installed Solomon as his heir in the peoples of the world. That's the background. That's the backstory behind the man who wrote this song, David. So as we look here at Psalm 27, We're going to spend the next three weeks this week in Tulum looking at the sun. What we're going to see today, we're going to see David's delight in his divine deliverance from the depths of darkness. Next week, Lord willing, we will see in verses 7 through 10 how he depended upon the divine presence when he was alone in solitary circumstance. And then finally, two weeks out, we will look at verses 11 through 14, and we will see that we, as scholar-believers, can expect divine goodness as we courageously wait for God to give His promise. So that's where we're going. I'll go ahead and start this evening by turning to Psalm 27. I'm reading the traditional King James today. It's more familiar to many of us. And I will read the entire Psalm, Psalm 27 and Psalm 38. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Who shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. The war should rise against me. In this will I be confident. One thing about the Messiah is the Lord. That will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in this temple. For in the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle, he shall hide me. He shall set me upon a cross. And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies, round about me. Therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord. Here, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, have mercy upon me and answer me. When thou saidst, seek ye my face, My heart said unto thee, Thy face, O Lord, will I see. Hide not thy face far from me. Put not thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Lead me not, neither forsake me. O God, my salvation. First him, then my father, then my mother. Forsake me, then, O Lord, forsake me not. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path because of my enemies. Deliver me not over unto the will of my enemies. For false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I have waited, unless I had believed, to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thy heart. Wait on the Lord. Father, we pray that you would use your Word this evening to encourage our hearts to rest, to trust, to look to, to honor our Jesus. We pray that you would do this for us. We pray that you would do this for Jesus. As we examine the first six verses of Psalm 27 this evening, we're seeing that we must, we really should, we ought to delight ourselves in the fact that we have been delivered by the hand of deity, by God himself, from our darkness. We see David proclaiming with faith The Lord is my light and my salvation. You know, as you think about this concept of light and darkness, we know that in the beginning there was great darkness. There was no light. In Genesis 1, we find that God's first act of creation was that He spoke and He said, let there be light. We know that in Him is no darkness at all. God, our God, is all that is good, all that is clean, all that is pure and right. There is in our God no iniquity, nothing to mar the light, to put a spot or a blur upon the awesome holiness of our great and glorious God. God's light has shone into our lives in Jesus Christ, for He is, as He so often said, John 8, 12, I am the light of the world. So where the world was in darkness and depravity and without direction and blind, the light of the world came to speak truth. He is the truth. And to direct our steps. So he came to his own. He came to those who were in darkness who rejected him. He was the Word that spoke, the Word that directs. He was the Word who came to bring light, direction, to direct our way. And yet, for those of us who have trusted in Jesus Christ, not only is the Lord our light and our salvation, we too are called to reflect that light. Because we, too, know that Christ is on the right hand of God. Father, we are now called upon to be His life in this world that is so dark. And so what I want to see here, as you have that first line, in verse 2, we see that David had darkness. He had fear. He could be delivered from break darkness. And so he says, what shall I be afraid of? Who shall I be afraid? So number one here, I want us to understand that the Lord is the one who delivers from the fear of darkness. Now, do you remember when you were a child? Do you remember sometimes being alone in the dark, in your bed, and no one else was around, and you heard things start to creep? The sound of things about you. And if you were someone who had a lot of children's stories, you might have remembered monsters under the bed, and there might have been fear about the man in the closet, or such and such a beard. There are times when the darkness makes us fear because we know that all kinds of wickedness tend to take place in the darkness. When we are in the dark, we are exposed. We are not able to see the danger coming our way. This is a cause of great fear for me. And we see here that David says, you know, I will not be afraid. He had all kinds of things that, as we talked about earlier, were things that Dark has going on in his own life, in his own soul, in his brother spawning him, you know, baby brother David. You know, who does he think he is, you know, daring to challenge this title, you know. He's just a braggart, you know, he should have stayed out there with the sheep. And he had all this opposition, all this darkness. And what he asks himself is, shall I be afraid? He says, of whom shall I be afraid? And so that first paragraph there, spoken by God, not darkness, but God. But David doesn't believe God out there as a general sign for good. He says the Lord is my refuge. This is a personal claim that God has become my refuge. He is my shield. He is my fortress. And so his testimony is that he will not fear. Of whom shall I be afraid? Verse three says, my heart shall not fear. So the Lord does deliver us from the fear of men, number two, as well as the fear of darkness. And so he says, I'm not going to be afraid of this overwhelming host of enemies. And he says, I noticed when he was speaking, when he wigged my fingers, my fingers, came upon me. You know, they were going to eat me alive, this cannibalistic rage that would rend him asunder and would tear him apart like a lion. And they were after him, and it was not looking good. And it was a Wile E. Coyote kind of situation. Those of you who grew up in America, as I did, watching Hubspan, you know that. You know that Wile E. Coyote always had a plan. And it was always a nefarious, clever plan that somehow always backfired. Whether it was dynamite or a rock or looking for a light at the end of the tunnel, the light at the end of the tunnel was always a train, right? This was Wile E. Coyote's universal experience. He was trying to get that Roadrunner and his success rate was zero. And that's what it is like for God's people. We've got all these rocks being hurled at us. We've got our reputation being assailed. We've got people planning, plotting, placing snares, traps. There's a host of references there. Job speaks of the snares and the rocks being set for him. The trap set, the rocks thrown, and yet there is escape. what you expect to have great fatalities of righteousness instead rebounds upon the enemy. And this is actually something that is common in the scriptures. In the Psalms, in the Proverbs, we have these people laying snares, putting out nets, and they're all tangled up in the nets. And so we have no need to fear men Because the fear of men will work a snare. We will get ourselves in more trouble fearing people than the people will actually be able to do to us. The Lord is able to fear us and fear what they think. I'm going to fear what they will do to me. And both of these are dangerous for us. If we try to put our finger into one of them, what do people want from us? Politicians, populators. We seek that? We won't be going that way. We are seeking the approval of the world. For a loving world. The pride of the world. The ambitions. The way people may be very sleuth. Very violent. Amen. God is more subtle than we seem to realize. People often take great pride in their thoughts. Prophets speak of those who were laid away by their parents making evil plans. Psalm 142, verse 3, we see some of this thought on the heart of David. Psalm 142, verse 3. We see, when my spirit was overwhelmed with anger, then thou knewest my power. In the way wherein I walked, So here is a man trying to do the right thing. And what did he do? What did he do? Had they clearly laid out the scenario? They put out a trap. They hid in it. Verse 4, I look on my right hand. There was no one at the door. Rent and children. No one cared for my son. So, the Lord delivers us from the fear of darkness. He delivers us from the fear of man. but he also delivers us not only from the fear of men, but he actually delivers us, number three there, from the might of men. Because we do see there in verse three, in Psalms 27, Psalm 27.3, that there is a host. There's more of them than there are of us. There are these armies. And so, Sennacherib brings down his host against Hezekiah. The cities of Judah all lined up. Boom, boom, boom. Crash, crash, crash. And there's a little person with an army of 180-plus thousand people. And Sennacherib is already mocked. He's boasting about his victory, boasting about victories over other nations, laughing and just carrying on. There is once again an argument about the liberal government. And he sees that it's not just a person, you know, So the Lord will deliver us from the might of man. There are multitudes in that first book. As we continue on, we're looking at verses 4 and 5, as we see that the Lord is David's light, the Lord is his salvation, and now the thing that David is just longing for is for the salvation. And so what we have in 1.4 is that the Lord delivered sanctuary. He shelters us in the place of the Virgin. You know, there's a song, a good song, about loving to be with God's wonderful people. What joy to be with God's wonderful people. And that song echoes And so we find refuge. for our souls in our worship. Now you know from the history that David did not find sanctuary in Tabernacle. In the very Tabernacle where he sought refuge, where he found the sword of Goliath, was a man observing him. And yet, it was the Lord who blessed David. And it was the Lord who protected David even when there was a traitor in the midst. One of Saul's servants. All right, so we find refuge in fellowship with God as we go to the Lord in prayer, fellowshiping with Him. We find our souls strengthened and encouraged by exhortation from the Word of God. And I hope that's not the messages here. We do that on occasion. David delighted to be in the temple, in the tabernacle. And so he says, you know, of all the things I could have in this world, the one thing I want, the one thing I desire is for is to, I'm seeking out for this, is to dwell in the house of the Lord. Not on a, you know, hour-by-hour basis, not on, you know, a few minutes, or five minutes, seven minutes. No, you want to be there all the days of your life, abiding there, dwelling there, enjoying that, that worship, that fellowship, that presence of the Lord. Where two or three are gathered in my midst, I'm in their midst. And so here is David just saying, oh, let me dwell here. Let me abide here. Let me just soak in the presence of my God, of my Redeemer. I want to see his beauty. Moses desired to see his glory. David wanted to see his beauty. David is the artist, the sweet psalmist. He's a musician, and he is going to do all he can to evoke and to magnify the glorious beauty of the creator who is the master artist. Oh my God, I see the beauty. Oh my God, I'm not used to it. I used to look to the choir in this temple, so not only did the beauty of God's sanctuary, and God Himself refreshed David's soul by the wisdom of God. He would inquire of the Lord and be led and directed and delivered Not because you asked not. David asks for wisdom. He asks for direction. You know the occasion. He was out there. He had delivered the city. Wonderful. He's a hero, a rescuer. Very popular for a season, I'm sure. This is Ziklag. And Ziklag, you know, solves, once again, chasing for David. And he says, you know, I'd be nice to, you know, have a house over my heads. And he said, hey man, why don't, is it okay to go to Ziplack? And I said, it might not be a good idea. And he goes, sure. You rescued them and you saved their lives. Never mind. Don't worry about it. Not even in the safety room, not even in the woods. He goes, sure. You can't always trust people. There are faithful people that still look up to you. So the wisdom of that, you're asking. And that wisdom, the wisdom you need to be David's son-in-law, is wisdom that you will give to people in the past. If you want the Lord to direct your ways, seek his direction. Seek his guidance. Do good. Do his duty. His rod and staff will bear you. That is the promise. That is who He is. He's your God. This is God. We look at verse 6. Yes, David has found safety in worshiping his Father. He's hidden in the pavilion in verse 6. Quite a contrast to And he tried to hide out in another place. And he said, I will set thee upon a rock. Now shall my hand be lifted up upon my knees, and I will Therefore will I offer in his time of sacrifices of joy, I will sing, I will sing praises to the Lord. He is the Lord. Amen. I bow my head in praise of him. Blessed is he who comes in the name of Jesus, the Lord be with us. The Lord delivers his people by the human soul. Because God is not just our lives, he is our salvation. He has saved us not just our physical lives, but he has given us his will in Jesus Christ our Lord. Yes. Sacrifices, healing, shouts of joy. Same with you. What matters most is that your heart is healed. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you that you are our light and our salvation. Lord, it is upon you alone that we meet. And you alone will never fail us. We do thank you for the fellowship of saints. We thank you for friends. We thank you, Father, for those who are going with us on the road to heaven. But Lord, you are our shepherd. You are our comforter. You are our mystery. You are our strength. Thank you for being here. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you for being impressed, secure. You do not fear the dark. You do not.