Psalm 27

January 6, 2014

As I was praying this morning, my devotional reading had me in Psalm 27 where I came across this passage, "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. (v.13)

In the midst of a culture that appears to be coming undone, where the things of God are mocked and neglected as a matter of course, we find this encouraging word from David. He believes, that while he is still alive, the goodness of God is going to have a break out moment and his own eyes will see it. He is not content to resign the residents of this world to live out a temporal hell before an eternal one ensues. Rather, he steadfastly believes that the kingdom will show up and show itself in such a way that all will witness God’s goodness.

Our job is to hold steady that vision - to believe and look past the contrary evidence before us. We have to believe in the goodness of God and the bigness of God to overtake and overcome the machinations, strutting and preening of the evil kingdom. That means we have to believe on behalf of others who have no such inklings. That is quite an assignment. We have to believe not just for ourselves, but for those around who presently resist, mock, scorn, lampoon, despise and disbelieve the goodness of God.

What that means in practical terms is that we humbly contend against the evil of which we hear or encounter, and then speak and act in a way that is just the opposite. Such contending defined Jesus' ministry from the first time he opened the scrolls in the temple and read this passage from Isaiah: "For the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

Jesus was not overcome by evil. He overcame evil with good. In so doing, people saw the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

More to come…


© Patrick Crossing 2015