The Mountain Is Not Yet Ascended: The King And His People As The Nations Rage In Psalms 25–33 (Part 4)—Psalm 27 And The Place Of Peace

by on September 26, 2026 | Comment

A few people at my high school really did not like me. One day in biology class, two students started throwing scissors at me. The teacher decided not to do anything, so they continued until class ended. You might imagine that this moment was disheartening. Though I had not yet come to take my faith seriously enough at that point in life, I did know even then that God’s Word was where we need to turn for help from the Lord. So on the break between classes, I went to my locker, where I had a Bible.

The trouble was that I did not know my Bible well enough. Although I am not recommending this practice, I prayed and acknowledged that I should have known Scripture better but also asked God to help me find a passage that would encourage me in a hard moment. I opened my Bible to Psalm 27, which, in fact, was a great help in that moment.

God’s provision then has stuck with me for many years. It has reminded me that God uses his word powerfully to protect and to encourage us. It reminds me how God comes through for us even when we have far from prepared ourselves to warrant his help. It reminds me of countless reasons why, when God came through in such an unexpected and undeserved way, I should be confident that he will continue to do so.

Psalm 27 is about confidence in God as we face new challenges. Why do we depend on God and know that we should go to him? Because he has long been dependable. Why do we not have to cower in fear when new difficulties arise? Because God has long been dependable.

After the high point of ascending God’s mountain in Psalms 15–24, Psalms 25–34 drop us back into the experience of the world where we live with the tension of God’s promise set against the challenges and difficulties of this life. We know the ultimate promises, but we also need to know how to live on the pathway until we possess the benefits of those promises in full and complete measure. Psalms 25–34 teach us about the king again as he defeats the powers of this age and how to respond to the king in all his saving work. This post argues that God’s faithfulness moves us to seek his help.

Crisis

Although we do not know the specific background for why David wrote this psalm, Psalms 25–28 seem to have been written around the same time in response to an undeserved accusation by enemies.1 Psalm 27 develops the requests David offered in Psalms 25 and 26 about not being put to shame and being vindicated by stating absolute confidence.2 In Psalm 27, David adds the perspective of great confidence despite great threats.3 Even though there is a shift in emphasis midway through, confidence remains the main theme.4

The tone here is mixed as the psalm begins with confidence and shifts to lament.4 At verse 7, David changes from a strong stance of confident trust to crying out to God for help. In this respect, the structure of Psalm 27 is that verses 1–6 are about God, verses 7–12 are to God, and verses 13–14 are a conclusion.6

The surprise in Psalm 27 is the shift from confidence to crisis. Some have found the contrast of confidence and crisis to be in such tension that they conjecture Psalm 27 was originally two separate psalms. With mere human perspective in mind, they do not understand the psychology for a how a person can hold to two things at the same time that seem in tension with each other.

From a Christian perspective, we can absolutely resolve this tension, or at least understand how we hold both sides together. We can rightly recognize that things in the world are bad, perhaps even realizing that our own situation is in the midst of crisis. When we see that reality, we know we need help and rescue.

On the other hand, we also know that God is faithful and able to help. God’s sovereign provision for his people does not erase the real experience of challenge, trial, and crisis. Those troubles still remain part of our life. God’s sovereign provision does give us confidence that in crisis we do not lose all hope.

The whole point of the tone shift in Psalm 27 is that our confidence based on what God has done is why we go to him when a new crisis comes.7 Why would a believer first speak of his confidence in God before bringing urgent prayer? We remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness and ability.8 Why would a believer speak of our need in crisis after planting ourselves so firmly in God’s amazing provision? We remind ourselves that the God who is able wants to hear and handle our needs. Crisis never undoes God’s ability to provide for us.

Congregation

One of the surprise moments in Psalm 27 is verse 4.9 It serves as kind of a stop-the-presses moment in the stream of thought. In verse 1 the psalm begins,

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?

This note of confidence shows why all who find refuge in God need not be afraid when the crisis of verses 7–12 comes. It starts the psalm with praise for God for how he has been the point of rescue and security. It anchors the whole reflection in this truth about the Lord as the place of safety and the one who has taken care of the psalmist.

There are a few mentors in my life whom I just want to be around. I know that spending time with them makes me better. Two or three in particular leave me not only encouraged but also coming away consciously sanctified and ready to do more and do better because of my time with them. It strengthens me to be in their presence. Their presence is good for me.

We see something of that in verse 4:

One thing have I asked 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 gaze upon the beauty of the Lord

and to inquire in his temple.

This hope settled on one spiritual desire is striking against the backdrop of need.10 Still, this verse is not a weird detour from the main thought to turn from personal safety to corporate worship. Rather, David knows where safety is and wants to be there. He was not dodging the point to drift into spiritual platitudes. Rather, he recognized that God’s presence is the true need of every hour.

God is our sure help, so we want to be in his presence.11 As David continues in verse 5, he reminds us that time spent with the true God is never wasted.12 Then, verse 6 is the center of Psalm 27, bringing us to its main point.13 We are back at the opening note of confidence. Still, this confidence comes from being with God in his house. It comes from encountering God in worship.

The place of God’s special dwelling in the new covenant is the assembly of his people in worship. We saw this truth back in Psalm 22:3: “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” It is the point of Hebrews 10:24–25, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

The takeaway is to learn what gives us the confidence of verses 1–6 to face well the crisis of verses 7–12. We learn that this confidence comes from time with God in his house to gaze on his beauty. How do we see God’s beauty? Paul says in Galatians 3:1, “It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.” Yet, how did they see Christ crucified? In the preaching of the gospel.

If we want confidence and hope for life in this world, no matter how bad it may seem, we need to have our eyes on what is truly beautiful. Why do we focus on God rather than cultural laments? Because we need our head lifted high to our light and salvation, the stronghold for life, so that we do not have to be afraid. We encounter God in his grace and beauty in his house, in the congregation of his people.

Confidence

God’s presence in worship then was the place of peace for his people, and it still is. Whatever life may throw at us, however vigorously we may need to plead for rescue, we know that we have peace in God’s presence.

Psalm 27 ends on the same note where it began, with strong confidence:

I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living!

Wait for the Lord;

be strong, and let your heart take courage;

wait for the Lord! (vv. 13–14)

This conclusion tells us both how Christ, as the ultimate king of God’s people, could pray this psalm and how we can find great confidence in light of Christ as this king.

The ending exhorts us to have courage as we wait for the Lord because of our confidence that we will look on the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living. Christ had this prayer on his lips and in his heart as he faced down his crisis of obedience even unto death on the cross. He knew that his Father was his light, rescue, and stronghold as evildoers surrounded him and would put him to death. Like in verses 8–9, he sought the Lord’s face, even though it meant enduring the Father’s anger and being forsaken by him.

Still, Christ knew he would see his Father’s goodness in the land of the living because he trusted in his own coming resurrection. His crisis would not hold him because God the Father would pull him out of the grave and exalt him to exceeding glory.

We can have confidence because Christ faced that crisis for us. First, we have the obvious sense in which Christ is the reason we have confidence that we can dwell in the Lord’s house to see his beauty. He is the reason that we are welcomed into God’s presence. After a life of perfect obedience to open the doors of God’s kingdom for us, his obedience unto death was to deal with the consequences of our sin. His sacrifice on the cross purifies everyone who believes in him so that we can be accepted to inquire in his holy temple. We are made clean by his saving death.

But Christ did look on God’s goodness in the land of the living as he rose from death. In his resurrection, he obtained indestructible life for all who trust in him. Christ looking on the Father’s glory in the land of the living is the promise that we will do so too when he returns to raise us to glorified life with him.

Yet our confidence goes further too. The whole reason we can pray this psalm with confidence for any crisis we face is also because of what God has already done in Christ. He has already loved us enough to provide for our deepest need. We know that his great love for us in Christ will never fail. We too will gaze on his beauty in the land of the living. We will know his provision. He will always come through, whether we know it on this side of glory or the next.

Notes

  1. James M. Hamilton Jr., Psalms, Evangelical Biblical Theology Commentary (Lexham Academic, 2021), 1:322.
  2. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:329.
  3. Allen P. Ross, A Commentary on the Psalms (Kregel Academic, 2011–16), 1:608, 625.
  4. Ross, Psalms, 1:634–35.
  5. Bruce K. Waltke and Fred G. Zaspel, How to Read and Understand the Psalms (Crossway, 2023), 253; Dale Ralph Davis, In the Presence of my Enemies: Psalms 25–37 (Christian Focus, 2020), 53–54; Christopher Ash, The Psalms: A Christ-Centered Commentary (Crossway, 2024), 2:317; and Ross, Psalms, 1:624.
  6. Davis, Presence of My Enemies, 54.
  7. Davis, Presence of My Enemies, 60–62.
  8. Ash, Psalms, 2:317.
  9. Davis, Presence of My Enemies, 41–50.
  10. Ash, Psalms, 2:321.
  11. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:330.
  12. Davis, Presence of My Enemies, 57.
  13. Hamilton, Psalms, 1:327.

© Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

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