Bible Study for the Appointed Psalm, Psalm 27: 1-9, Epiphany 3, Year A

Psalm 27  Of David

The LORD is My Light and My Salvation

Note:  Much of the historical background of the Psalms of David is in the Story of the Two Kings, the rejected King, Saul, and the newly anointed King, David, and the struggle to death of the Two Kings.  This is recorded in 1 Samuel 16: 1-1 Samuel 31: 13.

1. Why do you think this Psalm was chosen for a Sunday after the Epiphany and especially for today, the Third Sunday after the Epiphany?

• There are two Sections in the Psalm: vss. 1-6 and vss. 7-14  There is a difference between the two sections: What is it?

• Vs. 1:  Is this verse Law or Gospel?  Vs. 1b:  What hymn does this Psalm share a similarity?  What other Psalm(s) are similar to this verse?

How is this verse fulfilled in the New Testament? Which NT Bible verses bear witness to the fulfillment?

• Vs. 2:  Do evildoers assail you to “…eat up” your flesh?  What does that expression mean? 

• Vs. 3, see vs. 11-12:  In what ways does the light of the Lord help or prevail in the battle(s) and struggles(s) that David and we go through?  What is the light at the end of the tunnel? 

• Vss. 4-6:  What is David’s ardent desire in the midst of struggle and battle? What is the “beauty of the Lord”?

• Vs.7:  What does the Face of the Lord signify? See Numbers 6:  22-27; 2 Corinthians 4:5-7

• Vs. 5:  What is “the tent”?

• What words does David employ as he correctly understands  his opponents? What do his opponents want to do to him?

1. What is the opposite of trust in the LORD?

From Interpretation—A  Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching:  Psalms by James L. Mays (1994)

“The Psalm in its present form is a text to each and express trust for a way of life whose living will again and again be misrepresented, misunderstood, and put in question in the cultures in which it is undertaken.”

“When trust is kept a private matter, unspoken and unshared, it becomes a personal project and may decay into no more than our own resolution and willpower.  Trust needs the stimulus and renewal  that comes from confronting and contemplating religion’s representation of God in liturgy, architecture, and proclamation.

“In this Psalm, the opposite and counterpart of trust in the LORD is fear of human beings.  They are dangerous because of what they do through language.  By slander and lies they can place the self and the life of the faithful in an environment of falsehood. This psalm is  a refusal to let falsehood become the language world of existence.  In it praise and prayer it evokes the reality in whose life faith choses to live—the salvation of the LORD.”