Why should we be of good courage (Psalm 27:14)?

Two lessons, drawn from what he had passed through, conclude the Psalm. It will be seen that the words "I had fainted" have been added, to make out the sense of verse 13. The verse is really an exclamation, and runs thus: "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. And then he tells us, from his own experience, that the only resource for the soul, tried and in adversities, is to wait on the Lord. "Be," moreover, he exhorts, "of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart"; and, lastly, he repeats, as containing the sum of all he has to say, "Wait, I say, on the Lord." And Jehovah Himself has said, "They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me." (Isaiah 49:23.)

Oppressors are still there, false witnesses, those whose panting eagerness breathes out violence: these the suppliant points out to the Guide and Guard with whom He goes. But he walks firmly, if humbly, counting on deliverance. And the pressure felt in the soul is only made known in the outburst which at the same time reveals the confidence which supports it, — "If I had not believed" — but then I do! — "to see Jehovah's goodness in the land of the living!"

And now a lesson of experience fitly closes the fifth section of this psalm. It is a very brief and a very simple one; yet it is a lesson of perfection, declared in the Word to be that: for "let patience have her perfect work," and we shall be "perfect and entire, wanting nothing." (James 1:4.) What a glorious result of so simple a matter! "Wait on Jehovah!" wait, and not weakly and timidly, for the call to patience is no cause for fear: "be strong, and let thy heart take courage!" Such, thank God, is the wisdom derived from an "experience" that "worketh hope." (Rom. 5:4.) This harvest is assured to him that quietly will sleep and rise, and let it grow. Test it, prove it, whoever will! who is there that may not prove it for himself? there is none! Let the glad, sure hope cheer the darkest hours with its comfort: "Wait — wait — on Jehovah."

In God's path too we shall be preserved from the vicious wills of adversaries (v. 12), many of whom had risen up against David, false in their accusations, and virtually breathing out violence. Thus, Satan attempts to put us in fear, and the believer must be on guard continually, to seek the presence and blessing of the Lord. We too, just as David, may easily lose heart if our faith wavers, rather than remembering 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.

How needful and precious is the message with which the psalm closes, "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord!" (v. 14). A spirit of quiet confidence is of vital importance in genuinely waiting on the Lord. Good courage is really only normal for one who waits on the Lord. And thus too the Lord strengthens our hearts when we are naturally weak and helpless. But it was necessary also to repeat the words, "Wait, I say, on the Lord." We shall never lose by obeyimg this injunction.

Therefore, the word is, "Wait on the Lord." All that we have to face on the way can be met with "good courage", for the Lord will support us if walking in His way. He will strengthen the heart. So, whether it be for grace in the way, or the final mercy that delivers us from a world of death and brings us into the goodness of the land of the living, let us "Wait on the Lord", with the single eye that leads us to say, "One thing have I desired 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 behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his temple."

The Apostle Paul bowed his knees before the Father on behalf of the saints at Ephesus. He asked that they might be strengthened (Eph. 3:14-16). He had told them in chapter 1:3, that they were blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ; but they needed strength to enter into this, and to be for God’s glory here. We are blessed up there; but we need strength down here. We know where to find it. Strength belongeth unto God! What then is to be done? “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” Pray? Yes: only we must WAIT UPON GOD!

The solemn question that needs to be pressed home again and again upon the hearts of the children of God is, What is the secret of our weakness? We have been born again; we have received the indwelling Spirit; we have much knowledge of Scripture, of God's dispensations and ways, and yet weakness - spiritual weakness - is our prevailing characteristic. There are few who would not assent to this statement. Let us speak boldly, and challenge the consciences of the saints if it be not so. Let us ask whether the sense of it is not often painfully present to our souls? In our contact with the world, are we not often made to feel it? Beholding our fellow-believers entangled in the snares of the world, or in evil associations, do we not often pass them by, because we are conscious of our powerlessness to extricate them? If others are overtaken in a fault, how many of us are "spiritual" enough to restore them in the spirit of meekness? Have we not often to confess that we know not how to meet the difficulties that arise in the Church? Nay, is not our weakness expressed in every direction of our spiritual life? In walk and in service, in private and in public? If this be so, why is it? It is quite true our blessed Lord said, "Without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:5.) But it is equally true that His servant Paul said, "I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4:13); and the same apostle reminds Timothy that "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Tim. 1:7.) If indeed we are taught that we are not "sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves," we are also told that "our sufficiency is of God." (2 Cor. 3:3.) Again therefore we ask, Whence our weakness? There is reason to fear that it all springs FROM WANT OF WAITING UPON GOD. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isa. 40:31.) This scripture is conclusive, and assures us that spiritual strength is the direct consequence of waiting upon God. It is so of necessity; for in so doing we confess our weakness, and express our dependence, and it is only when we are dependent that the Lord can display through us His almighty power. It is here therefore that the recovery must begin. Let us then, individually, and when we meet together, seek for a larger spirit of patient, persevering waiting upon God. The effect of this would soon be manifest in every department of spiritual life. Ministry, worship, prayer meetings, testimony, and walk would all be in the power of the Holy Ghost. We should then fear no difficulty, be afraid of no opposition; but conscious of our utter weakness in ourselves, we should yet continually rejoice in the all-sufficient and omnipotent resources of our God. "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: WAIT, I SAY, ON THE LORD." (Ps. 27:14.)

(Verses 13, 14). 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. All around we see the evil of man in a world of sin and death, but faith walks in the confidence that very soon we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

For this we must with quiet patience wait the Lord's own time.

A rich and truly blessed utterance of the spirit of faith, which, while estimating to the full the power of the enemy, finds boldness and triumphant assurance in the name of Jehovah, as the pledged security to the believer of the blessings of goodness in the land of the living. Resurrection shines brightly and distinctly 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). Jehovah is known and rejoiced in by His believing worshipper as his light, his salvation, and his life (verse 1). Upon this knowledge is based a confidence which derides the power of all adversaries. The soul, once joined by faith to the living God, is evermore above the enemy (Rom. 8:31-39). God is trusted. His name is the bond of His eternal faithfulness and truth. Hence the presence of danger only stimulates faith to a more energetic defiance of things contrary, because the battle is felt to be the Lord's.

53 Psalm 27 shows the heart confident in Jehovah, yet exercised before Him in the presence of the outward manifestations of evil. What would create fear more than distress of spirit? The connection of confidence in thinking of the enemies, and exercise of heart when looking to God, I think instructive, though at first sight it seems strange in this psalm. Confidence is not indifference or insensibility; but true exercises of heart with God, even when fear accompanies those exercises, shew themselves in confidence and boldness in presence of the hostile action of evil. Man would have spoken of fear when in presence of the enemy and confidence when with God. Whereas grace, working in true exercises of heart with God, gives boldness with the enemy. There is a real power of evil. The rightly taught heart feels it in its inward sources and reality (more or less spiritually), but feels it with God, and then is at peace in the midst of, and as to, the conflict itself. So Christ sweat, as it were, great drops of blood in exercise of soul before God, and was of perfect calmness in the presence of His enemies, yea, they fell to the ground at the mention of His name. This is full of instruction as to the difficulties and pains of Christian life. Where the heart, conscious of the power of evil, is exercised with and before God as to it, the evil itself, whatever its power, is powerless when it comes, assuming the exercise to be complete. "This is your hour," said Christ, "and the power of darkness." But He had felt all that with God, and took the cup, as to the fact, out of the Father's, not the enemy's hand, who had as to Christ no such power.

From the seventh verse things are otherwise. It is not his state, as thinking of the Lord in faith; distress is there, and he cries. Here he appeals, not to his integrity, but that Jehovah had said, Seek my face. Was He going after that to turn it away? He looks to be guided in a straight path. There is integrity, but he looks to the call of God. Finally, he looks for, and trusts for temporal deliverance in the land of the living; meanwhile he must wait on Jehovah. He would interfere at the right time; He would strengthen the heart meanwhile. It is an additional and instructive picture of the state of the faithful remnant; their abstract confidence and their ground of hope in distress when Jehovah must be waited for.