Psalm 27
September 5, 2021
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“When fear rules your theology, God is nowhere to be found in your paradigm, no matter how many Bible verses you tack onto it.”

~ Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

~ Julius Caesar, by William Shakespeare

“Adolescence introduces the fear of being deceived, the fear of being caught believing what others have ceased believing in. To be naive, to be gullible–these are the humiliations of adolescence… Those who will never be fooled can never be delighted, because without self-forgetfulness there can be no delight, and this is a great and grievous loss.”

~ Alan Jacobs, The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C.S. Lewis

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

~ Dune, by Frank Herbert

“If the promises made to me by Christ are genuine; and if divine providence takes me in hand as an individual, however humble, then my immortality will also, in turn, be personal. In which case, death itself is finally overcome, and not merely the fears it arouses in me…. I find the Christian proposition infinitely more tempting—except for the fact that I do not believe in it. But were it to be true I would certainly be a taker.”

~ Luc Ferry, A Brief History of Thought

Sermon Passage

Psalm 27 (NASB)

¹  The Lord is my light and my salvation;
Whom should I fear?
The Lord is the defense of my life;
Whom should I dread?
²  When evildoers came upon me to devour my flesh,
My adversaries and my enemies, they stumbled and fell.
³  If an army encamps against me,
My heart will not fear;
If war arises against me,
In spite of this I am confident.
⁴  One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
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 meditate in His temple.
⁵  For on the day of trouble He will conceal me in His tabernacle;
He will hide me in the secret place of His tent;
He will lift me up on a rock.
⁶  And now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me,
And I will offer sacrifices in His tent with shouts of joy;
I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.
⁷  Hear, Lord, when I cry with my voice,
And be gracious to me and answer me.
⁸  When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You,
“I shall seek Your face, Lord.”
⁹  Do not hide Your face from me,
Do not turn Your servant away in anger;
You have been my help;
Do not abandon me nor forsake me,
God of my salvation!
¹⁰ For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
But the Lord will take me up.
¹¹ Teach me Your way, Lord,
And lead me on a level path because of my enemies.
¹² Do not turn me over to the desire of my enemies,
For false witnesses have risen against me, and the violent witness.
¹³ I certainly believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord
In the land of the living.
¹⁴ Wait for the Lord;
Be strong and let your heart take courage;
Yes, wait for the Lord.