Unless I had believed to see the goodness of Jehovah in the land of the living ...!
Psalm 27 moves from confidence to an urgent cry for help. At verse 13 the psalmist breaks off mid-sentence: what held him up, and what was he expecting to see?
The verse never finishes. Translators complete the thought in different ways. The ESV supplies "I believe that"; older versions, which the writers quoted below follow, supply "I had fainted".
You will see that the words "I had fainted" have been added, to fill out the sense of verse 13. The verse is really an exclamation. It runs like this: "If I had not believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!" That is, believing he would see this goodness had been his stay and support.
He never spells out the disaster. What breaks out instead is the confidence underneath.
The pressure felt in the soul only comes out in the outburst. That outburst at the same time reveals the confidence supporting it — "If I had not believed" — but then I do! — "to see Jehovah's goodness in the land of the living!"
One thing alone stood between him and giving up.
Left to himself this godly man would have fainted. What sustained him? Faith in the goodness of the Lord that would bring him into the land of the living. The Christian can say the grace that brings salvation to me on earth will bring me to the glory in heaven.
For the psalmist the phrase named a real hope of rescue in this world, at God's timing.
In the end, he looks for and trusts God for rescue in this present life, in the land of the living. Meanwhile he must wait on Jehovah. He would step in at the right time; He would strengthen the heart meanwhile.
For the Christian the ground has shifted. Another writer sets the two side by side: what this world was to the Jew, and what it is now.
To the Jew, this world was the land of the living. It was the place of his blessing... But to the Christian, we may say, it is the land of the dying. "I protest," says Paul … "I die daily." It is also the land of death — the death of the Lord Jesus Christ... And where, it may be asked, is the place of the Christian's joy and blessing? In heavenly places in Christ.
The psalm rests on resurrection ground. The confidence here is not hope of survival. It is a stand taken in God Himself.
Resurrection shines brightly and clearly throughout this Psalm. The soul takes and keeps its stand in God, who owns as His people not the dead but the living (Matt. 22:32)... The soul, once joined by faith to the living God, is forever above the enemy (Rom. 8:31-39).
Commentators differ over the timing. One writer looks on to glory; another insists the goodness is seen even now:
We too, just as David, may easily lose heart if our faith wavers. Instead we should remember that we shall "see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (v. 13), not only in heavenly glory, but even now with enemies surrounding us.
Verse 13 does not stand alone. It leads straight into the closing instruction of the psalm.
All that we have to face on the way can be met with "good courage", for the Lord will support us if we walk in His way. He will strengthen the heart. There is grace along the way. There is also the final mercy that delivers us from a world of death and brings us into the goodness of the land of the living. For both, let us "Wait on the Lord."
- Pressure. Left to himself, this godly man would have fainted. He speaks from the edge of collapse, not from above the trouble.
- Belief. Believing he would see God's goodness was his stay and support. The sentence breaks off because faith cuts in before the fear can finish.
- Sight. He expects to see God's goodness in the land of the living: rescue in God's own timing. Commentators differ over how much is seen now and how much waits for glory.
- Ground. The confidence rests on the living God, who owns as His people not the dead but the living. The soul joined to Him is forever above the enemy.
- Waiting. The psalm leaves one instruction: wait on the Lord, with good courage. He strengthens the heart in the meantime.
Wait for Jehovah; be strong and let thy heart take courage yea, wait for Jehovah.
The psalm ends with an instruction, not an ask. It comes from a man who has just described enemies, false witnesses, and the fear that God had left him. Having told God his trouble, he turns and tells someone else what to do with theirs.
The final words are the conclusion of an experience, not advice offered from a safe distance. One writer draws two lessons out of what the psalmist went through, and the last verse is where they land:
Two lessons, drawn from what he had been through, close the Psalm... Believing he would see this goodness had held him up. Then he tells us, from his own experience, that the only resource for a soul under trial is to wait for the LORD. Then he urges them: be strong, and He will strengthen your heart. Last of all he repeats the sum of everything he has to say: wait for the LORD. And the LORD Himself has said, "Those who wait for me shall not be put to shame." (Isaiah 49:23.)
What makes this verse striking is what the psalm never mentions. There is no ally, no plan, no human help anywhere in it.
The goodness of the LORD — no human means — is the resource of the heart... The result is, wait on the LORD. He strengthens the heart. "Wait, I say, on the LORD." This, indeed, is the secret of strength in the time of evil. There is, then, nothing to fear... It is remarkable how completely the thought of any other resource or help than the LORD is missing. And this is what keeps a person honest, because the LORD only helps in a way that keeps the heart true.
The call to wait sits right beside the call to courage, which rules out the idea that waiting is quiet defeat.
And now a lesson from experience brings this part of the psalm to a fitting close. It is a very brief and a very simple one; yet it is a lesson of perfection... "Wait for the LORD!" Wait — but not in weakness or fear. The call to patience is no reason to be afraid: "be strong, and let your heart take courage!"... Test it, prove it, anyone who will! Who is there who cannot prove it for himself? No one!
If waiting were easy, the psalm would not need to say it twice. The pressure comes from inside us — from being sure we must do something right now.
"Strengthened unto all patience." You will find there is nothing that tests the strength of your soul like waiting for God. We think we must do the things we believe are right. Instead, we must learn to wait. Take Saul, for example, in 1 Samuel 13. He ought to have waited, and said, I can do nothing.
Saul was a king of Israel. He was told to wait, ran out of patience, and acted on his own instead.
The verse does not promise that the situation will change. It promises that the person will be held up in it. Christians pray for that same strength.
The Apostle Paul bowed his knees before the Father for the believers in Ephesus. He asked that they might be strengthened (Eph. 3:14-16). In chapter 1:3 he had told them that God blessed them with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. But they needed strength to take hold of that, and to live for God's glory here. We are blessed up there; but we need strength down here. We know where to find it. Strength belongs to God!
Up to this point the psalm has been one man speaking about himself. At the close he turns to others.
This confidence in God will not make a man impractical... The man who can rejoice in knowing God from experience will strengthen frightened believers around him by his own quiet, joyful faith. He will be able to say to them with real weight, "Wait for the LORD; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!"
- Waiting is the lesson. The command closes a psalm of enemies and fear — it is what one man learned by going through trouble, not a theory.
- Waiting is the only resource. No human help appears anywhere in the psalm; that absence is the point, and it keeps the heart honest.
- Waiting is strength, not passivity. "Be strong, let your heart take courage" stands in the same breath — patience is never a reason to be afraid.
- Waiting is the hardest test. Nothing tests a soul like it; the impulse to act, as with Saul, is what the doubled "wait, I say" is guarding against.
- Waiting is passed on. The person God strengthens turns outward and says the same words to someone still afraid.