Morning Light – June 1st, 2016: When Mother and Father Forsake You

Morning Light – June 1st, 2016
[Today] Psalm Twenty-Seven/Eight. When Mother and Father Forsake You. In these two psalms we see David surrounded by enemies and struggling at times to feel the presence of God in his life. He faces rejection from his family members and even his parents have withdrawn themselves from him. Through the experience David has with God’s faithfulness he endures the pressure of the hard time and comes out with his testimony and victory intact.
[Psa 27:1-14 KJV] 1 [[[A Psalm] of David.]] The LORD [is] my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD [is] the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? 2 When the wicked, [even] mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. 3 Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this [will] I [be] confident.
David declares in this verse that the Lord is his light and his salvation. He has nothing to fear for the Lord is his strength in the time when his enemies come to devour him. He then makes an observation based not only on the promises of scripture but on a contemporary testimony. He says when his enemies came against him they stumbled and fell. This may have been quite literal because David was a warrior and frequently led his troops out to war. It may be that he was in hand to hand combat with an adversary and saw an angel trip his fellow combatant before his face. Whatever the case may be David knows that God is with him and that his successes are not brought about by his own doing.
You may find yourself metaphorically or perhaps even literally at times in a time of struggle and warfare. Like David there may be those who are camped against you and putting their attention upon your every move, hoping to catch you in a moment of weakness and bring you down. If you intend to do anything other than coast through life till Jesus comes, you will be criticized and you will be come against. Have no fear.
Do not allow yourself to become over occupied with what your critics are saying or what your enemies are doing because God Himself takes it personally when you are come against. God will defend. He will be your light. What does this mean? That means that God will illuminate to you what is going on around you. Have you noticed how people tell on themselves? We have found that those who come around us with impure motives will always expose themselves if you will take the time to listen and know that God will provoke them to tell you their plans and opinions in spite of themselves. God is your light. He will always make sure you know what you need to know in a time of struggle. When you are in a time of warfare let your first response not be despair but confidence because you have been here before and you know God is going to see you through.
4 One [thing] have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple. 5 For in 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. 6 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.
David goes on to say that his greatest desire is to be in God’s house. In other words, he isn’t preoccupied with warfare and strife. Some people find their greatest fulfillment in being at odds with and in warfare with other people. David was a man of war but he didn’t allow warfare and struggle to define him. He greatest desire was to spend time in God’s presents. When David speaks of the pavilion of the Lord and the tabernacle of the Lord he is speaking literally because the ark of the Covenant was kept at his residence.
David also understood that sacrifice and offering was a celebration not a funeral dirge. He offered up to God sacrifices of joy and sacrifices of celebration in singing and in worship. In our culture there is so much song and music that doesn’t originate in worship to God. The enemy knows the power of music and has stolen it as a resource to keep people distracted from God and pulled away from worshipping God. In the beginning we notice that it was the line of Cain that first experimented with musical instruments. Jewish myth suggests it was disobedient angels who taught these things to man so we know that music originated in heaven and was perverted by the angels who came down an copulated with the daughters of men. The purpose of music as David declares is to worship and praise and extol the presence of God. The basic purpose of music is worship. All music worships something – either God or something else.
7 Hear, O LORD, [when] I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me. 8 [When thou saidst], Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek. 9 Hide not thy face [far] from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation. 10 When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. 11 Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. 12 Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. 13 [I had fainted], unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. 14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
In verse 7 we see that when David prays, he invokes the mercy of God. We also see the intimate compliance David has in his relationship with God in verse 8. When God said to David “seek My face” David’s reply was “thy face will I seek”. What a picture of intimacy and relationship between David and his God. Let that be our personal testimony – when God says “seek My face” that our response is mirrored back “thy face Lord will I seek…”
In verse 10 we see an indication that David had family troubles. He speaks of mother and father forsaking him. Throughout David’s reign he took care of his parents making sure they were protected and provided for. Apparently they didn’t always respect what God was doing in David’s life. He declares that though mother and father forsake him – God will take him up. We need to learn to allow our relationship with God to heal the wounds and fractures provoked by mistakes and failures on our parent’s part. When David felt the sting of family rejection he turned to God as his father to heal the wounds. David concludes the psalm asking the Father to lead him in a plain path and declares that having made his cry known to God that he will wait upon the Lord for an answer. Here is an understanding of waiting on the Lord. David prayed – and then he waited. There is no true waiting on the Lord without first praying.
[Psa 28:1-9 KJV] 1 [[[A Psalm] of David.]] Unto thee will I cry, O LORD my rock; be not silent to me: lest, [if] thou be silent to me, I become like them that go down into the pit. 2 Hear the voice of my supplications, when I cry unto thee, when I lift up my hands toward thy holy oracle. 3 Draw me not away with the wicked, and with the workers of iniquity, which speak peace to their neighbours, but mischief [is] in their hearts. 4 Give them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their endeavours: give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. 5 Because they regard not the works of the LORD, nor the operation of his hands, he shall destroy them, and not build them up.
In this psalm we see that there were times that David cried out to God and it seems that God was silent. This is a common occurrence for us in our own relationship with God. I remember spending 1 whole year in total silence from God. For me it was because He told Me to resign a church I was pastoring and I didn’t want to do it. I took a letter that called me to another church to pastor and I tore it up and threw it on the ground. From that moment on I entered into a very difficult year of having to preach and minister and be a pastor without any sense of God’s presence or God’s leading in my life. At the end of the year the call came again to go and pastor this church. I obeyed this time having learned my lesson.
6 Blessed [be] the LORD, because he hath heard the voice of my supplications. 7 The LORD [is] my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him. 8 The LORD [is] their strength, and he [is] the saving strength of his anointed. 9 Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance: feed them also, and lift them up for ever.
When you come through the time of silence there will be breakthrough at the other end. Even though at times it seems that God is distant, even absent from your life just keep on trusting. If you will keep trusting in the end you will as David realize that God was listening all along and will answer every prayer of your heart. Again David breaks forth into song and rejoices in the deliverance and strength of God that was working in his life even though he didn’t always see it until afterward. Finally David doesn’t keep this blessing all to himself. He asks the Father to save the people around him as well. David was always seeking to see reproduced in his people the life and love of God that he himself enjoyed.