September 5/9-11, 2017
Worship: Psalm 27 (One Thing) by Shane & Shane
The Lord is my light
And my salvation
And whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
The Lord is my strength
The stronghold of my life
And whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
And you said, "Seek my face"
Your face oh God I seek
One thing I ask and I will seek
To dwell in the house of the Lord all my days
To gaze upon Your beauty, worship at Your feet
Oh, one thing I seek
The Lord is my light
And my salvation
And whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
The Lord is my strength
The stronghold of my life
And whom shall I fear
Whom shall I fear
And You said, "Seek my face"
Your face oh God I seek
One thing I ask and I will seek
To dwell in the house of the Lord all my days
To gaze upon Your beauty, worship at Your feet
Oh, one thing I seek
Holy Fire
Abba Father
My Redeemer
My Delight
Holy, Holy
God Almighty
You're the one thing
That I desire
One thing I ask and I will seek
To dwell in the house of the Lord all my days
To gaze upon Your beauty, worship at Your feet
Oh, one thing I seek
Only one thing
Video: https://youtu.be/ndZsEDuCVAQ
Witness:
Daily I am reminded of my imperfections. It may be an evil thought about someone or an unkind word to a family member. It may be a judgemental attitude or a lustful look. Thankfully, the Holy Spirit points them out to me quickly… usually. Sometimes I may act rudely or coldly to a customer at work which I have judged to be ignorant or annoying. It may also be as a result of impatience because I am trying to get a task done and they are “interrupting” me. Sometimes the Spirit of God allows me to move on to something else and then… BAM!!! He reminds me of something that I did which was not glorifying to the Lord nor was it a good witness to the recipient of my poor behavior.
What got me thinking about this tonight was my search for lyrics and a video for the chosen song for worship. I love Shane & Shane, both their lyrics, music, and voices. One thing (irony or pun noted), one thing I have noticed is the imperfections when it comes to lyric websites. I also have observed the errors made when people design their own video and use a song they like by an Artist. There seems to be at least one typo or incorrect word in them. Now on these lyric websites, one may be able to send in corrections and leave it to the administrator to fix it. I do not see how the video can be corrected except by notifying the producer in the comments below the video. I don’t know if they have ever made the corrections, however, I remember reading a while back of someone making the correction and asking people to subscribe to their channel to see the corrected video.
I delight in the fact that God is at work in me to perfect and conform me to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). I rejoice in the fact that my sins are forgiven and washed away by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7). I exult in the fact that the sins I commit as a believer are cleansed by the same blood (1 John1:7-9)!
Betwixt and Between
(His Pain/Our Gain)
Betwixt and between
The sublime and obscene
We live our life
With serenity and strife
As Abel and Cain
With peace and with pain
For the now and not yet
The present and future fret
In the bright and the hazy
Working hard, being lazy
Amidst our gain and loss
Stands the old rugged cross
Bringing joy and gladness
To a world full of sadness
The Lion became a Lamb
The God provided Ram
Offering forgiveness of sin
And abiding peace within
To all who call on His name
Who bore our guilt and shame
WORD:
|
Ps 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation —
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life —
of whom shall I be afraid?
NIV
|
Ps 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation—
so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
so why should I tremble?
Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
|
|
Ps 27:1
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?
KJV
|
Ps 27:1
The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
of whom shall I be afraid?
ESV
|
David begins with three certainties
The LORD is:
1. Light
2. Salvation
3. Stronghold/strength
Let us look at each word for their meaning and how they are used in scripture concerning God.
OT:216 'owr —
light
a) the light of day
b) the light of heavenly luminaries (the moon, the sun, the stars)
c) daybreak, dawn, the morning light
d) daylight
e) lightning
f) the light of a lamp
g) the light of life
h) the light of prosperity
i) the light of instruction
j) the light of one's face (figuratively)
k) Yahweh as Israel's Light
(from The Online Bible Thayer's Greek Lexicon and Brown Driver & Briggs Hebrew Lexicon, Copyright © 1993, Woodside Bible Fellowship, Ontario, Canada. Licensed from the Institute for Creation Research.)
This word is used both literally, and figuratively as noted above. Because light is a fundamental source for seeing, sustaining, and warmth (I could have said “sweating” to keep the alliteration, but that would be limiting and ludicrous 😊) it lends itself quite adequately to metaphorical uses.
Vines puts it succinctly:
"light." This noun appears about 120 times and is clearly a poetic term.(from Vine's Expository Dictionary of Biblical Words, Copyright © 1985, Thomas NelsonPublishers.)
And TWOT says:
It refers to the shining of the sun, but its metaphorical usages are more common.(from Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Copyright © 1980 by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. All rights reserved. Used by permission.)
When I think of light, I immediately think of its opposite – darkness. Light overcomes darkness (John 1:5 ESV). Light scatters the vermin that come out more in the dark. Light reveals what a thing really is or looks like, both its perfections and imperfections. Light clarifies, exposes, informs, purifies, and comforts. Darkness clouds, hides, obscures, spoils, and depresses.
Furthermore, I am reminded of what the Apostle John relays from the Lord about God in 1 John 1:5.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
NIV
I could divert this study into all sorts of tangents when it comes to light and how it relates to us, but that would not be germane to this study which is focussed on God as light. Not only is He light, but He dwells in inaccessible light, that is a light of such intensity that no creature is able to approach Him.
1 Tim 6:16Who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
NIV He alone can never die, and he lives in light so brilliant that no human can approach him. No human eye has ever seen him, nor ever will. All honor and power to him forever! Amen.NLT - Holy Bible, New Living Translation ®, copyright © 1996, 2004 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
Not only is He light. Not only does He dwell in light. He also clothes Himself with light!
Ps 104:1-2aO Lord my God, you are very great;you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
He wraps himself in light as with a garment…NIV
So what does it mean to say God is light?
Barnes commenting on 1 John 1:5 says this:
[That God is light] Light, in the Scriptures, is the emblem of purity, truth, knowledge, prosperity, and happiness-as darkness is of the opposite. John here says that "God is light" - foos - not the light, or a light, but light itself; that is, he is himself all light, and is the source and fountain of light in all worlds. He is perfectly pure, without any admixture of sin. He has all knowledge, with no admixture of ignorance on any subject. He is infinitely happy, with nothing to make him miserable. He is infinitely true, never stating or countenancing error; he is blessed in all his ways, never knowing the darkness of disappointment and adversity.(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database Copyright © 1997, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Having said all this the objection has assuredly arisen in some minds. A crucial word, which changes the meaning of the passage vastly, has been ignored. A personal pronoun has been looked over, the word “my.” David is not speaking of God as light, but God as his light. This is very true, but the foundation of that trust and declaration is the more fundamental understanding that God Himself is light. If that is not understood first than the latter becomes meaningless or vague. In other words, knowing what it means to say “God is light,” sheds light on what David means by saying God was his light and why he should not fear anyone or anything.
It’s late. So I will pause here to reflect more on this and come back and deal with the second word, “salvation.” When I am through with the study of the meaning of each of these three words, I will sum it all up and demonstrate from my meager meditations and the substantial aid of others why these lead David to the conclusion that fear was a contradiction and a concession.
No comments:
Post a Comment