“I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living” Psalm 27:13
Psalm 27, from which the above passage was taken, was written by King David, Israels greatest King, through whose kingly lineage came the eternal messianic king, the LORD Jesus Christ (Luke 1:32-33) (Revelation 22:16).
David authored at least 73 of the Psalms and likely many more in which the author is not identified. The Psalms are essentially songs, composed for Israel’s (and our) worship of the LORD God as the object of our deepest love and the source of our greatest joy, in whom and from whom we ascribe all goodness, all that will satisfy the deepest needs and desires of our heart and fulfill the most noble longings of our soul (Psalm 16:8-11) (Psalm 96:1-13) (Psalm 16:2) (Psalm 37:4).
Included in David’s Psalms are songs of praise and adoration to the LORD as creator of all things good, wisely ordered and designed for human flourishing and our individual happiness in Him (Genesis 1:31), (Psalm 8:1-9) (Psalm 19:1-11) (Psalm 104:24-30).
They include songs acknowledging and rejoicing in the blessedness of the sovereignty of the LORD, His absolute rule of and control over all that exists in His creation, having the freedom and power to do all that He pleases with and within His creation (Psalm 103:19) (Psalm 115:3) (Psalm 135:5-6) (Psalm 24:7-10).
Most prominently however, they consist of songs of praise, adoration and thanksgiving to the LORD for His inherent goodness and His manifold expressions of His goodness within all of His creation (Psalm 119:68) (Psalm 145:1-21), particularly the goodness He displays toward mankind. This consists of what is referred to as His common grace – His free and spontaneous expression of His goodness to all mankind in the daily providences of life (Matthew 5:44-45), and saving or redeeming grace, displayed most gloriously and eternally in His salvation of those who put their faith and trust in Him as the source and substance of all of their good, which will ultimately have its full expression in the person and work of God the Son, Jesus Christ, revealed in His first coming and in a new heavens and new earth He will establish upon His second coming (Psalm 103:1-18) (Ephesians 2:8-9) (Romans 5:6-11) (Revelation 21:1-4).
And thus, all of David’s Psalms, whether they are songs proclaiming the righteousness of the LORD’s justice and judgment and deliverance from enemies (Psalm 89:14)( Psalm 9:1-20)(Psalm 18:46-50), or prayers of repentance for sin and requests for the LORD’s mercy in forgiveness of sin (Psalm 51:1-17), or prayers for greater intimacy with God (Psalm 27:4), or exhortations to his nation Israel to trust fully in the LORD (Psalm 115:9-15), they are all based upon his knowledge of and faith in the goodness of the LORD.
Thus, I want to look briefly at David’s proclamation in Psalm 27:13, “I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD in the Land of the living”. In the context of the Psalm, David is celebrating the LORD’s personal goodness toward Him in general, and more specifically in His protection and deliverance of David from his innumerable enemies, all of which motivates David to seek a closer and more intimate relationship with the LORD (Psalm 27:8-9).
David begins the Psalm proclaiming the LORD to be his light and his salvation (Psalm 27:1), the one who had enlightened/revealed to him the glory of God’s goodness, the ultimate end of which would be his salvation from God’s judgement for sin, possibly a statement foreshadowing the light and salvation revealed in the gospel of David’s greater son, Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4-6).
David, at around age 17 is chosen by God to be King over His chosen people, Israel. King Saul, Israel’s first king, had failed miserably to obey God, despite all the good that God had shown him in making him king, giving him popularity among the people and granting him as military leader, many victories over Israels surrounding enemies. Thus, God rejected him as king and had the prophet Samuel anoint David as his successor for reasons we will look at more closely in my next post (1 Samuel 15:26) (1 Samuel 16:13).
Before and after becoming king, David faced many profound difficulties, dangers and challenges in his life, many related to his own safety and survival in this world. As a young teenager, prior to being anointed by Samuel to be king of God’s covenant people Israel, David shepherded his family’s flock of sheep. In this position he had multiple challenges related to caring for the sheep, the least not being their protection from predatory lions and bears (1 Samuel 17:34-35). Once anointed as king, but before taking the throne, he engaged in a “mano on mano” battle with Goliath the champion warrior of Israel’s arch enemy the Philistines, whom he defeated in the power of the “name of the LORD of hosts” (1 Samuel 17:45-47).
Now in doing so, David found favor with both the people and King Saul who we are told initially loved David (1 Samuel 16:21). However, as David grew in favor with the people, and as it became clear to Saul that David was anointed by Samuel to be his successor, Saul became obsessed with killing David. And for the next 7-10 years David was on the run, by God’s grace always keeping one step ahead of Saul and his murderous intentions (1 Samuel 19:2). Once Saul died and David assumed the throne at age 3o. David reigned for 40 years, earning the love and praise of the people (1 Samuel 18:16). David would gain victory over Israel’s main enemies at that time, the Philistines, Moabites and the Amalekites and establish Jerusalem as the capital city where the Ark of the Covenant , the symbol of God’s presence with His covenant people would reside, as David provided Israel a measure of peace and prosperity that would not be matched in Israel’s history (1 Chronicles 18:14)
In 2 Samuel 7:18-29, we have David’s great, yet humble prayer of thanksgiving to the LORD for of all of this goodness in his life up until then, and much more that God had promised him (2 Samuel 7:12-17). Yet, as I noted above, David had many struggles and challenges throughout his life, in which by his own admission in Psalm 27:13, he was tempted to “lose heart” to be overwhelmed with despair, unless he believed, that that He would “see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.”
So, since we are all, to various degrees and within a multitude of varying circumstances, tempted to lose heart, to despair of knowing any true joy and happiness in the midst of life in a fallen, sin corrupted world, I want to look more closely at this man David and just exactly what he was believing here, that kept him, and will ultimately keep us from losing heart.
Grace and Peace ×