When my father and my mother forsake me,
Then the Lord will take me up (Psa 27.10).
In this unstable world, you need a sure foundation for your life. The storms that batter us all require a certain hope as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. I know, as a Christian, that the Lord is always there for me. Let my fellow believers exult in this with me, and unbelievers be provoked to spiritual jealousy.
Spurgeon wrote of Psalm 27, “It is a song of cheerful hope, well fitted for those in trial who have learned to lean upon the Almighty arm.”1 It contains extravagant expressions of extreme need, more than matched by God’s abundant power, grace, and faithfulness, exercised for my deliverance. The Lord is my light, my strength, and my salvation; whom shall I fear? (v. 1). Even if a vast army should set themselves to destroy me, I remain confident of the Lord’s superiority and of His love to me personally (vv. 2-3).
How can one who is in himself only a sinner be so justifiably confident of such special favor from a holy God? Only by knowing that I am also a son of God by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the blessed portion of David and all other believers.
Psalm 27.10 is a pinnacle of well-founded hope meant to encourage every one of God’s people with our enviable position. Come what may, the Lord is always there for us!
Unthinkable Abandonment
As a rule, nobody loves you like your parents—especially your mother.
A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials, heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine, desert us; when troubles thicken around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts (attributed to Washington Irving).
David implicitly recognizes this truism in his sacred reflection here. His father and mother had not forsaken him, for he speaks of a future contingency. “When” therefore has the sense of “if,” and more than that, of an extremely unlikely and disturbing hypothetical possibility. We can paraphrase, “Even if my father and my mother were to forsake [or, abandon] me (and I seriously doubt that would ever happen)—even then I am still confident that Lord will care for my soul.”
For some people, the unthinkable has happened. Sin has so wrecked society that there really are cases of sons and daughters cruelly and ruthlessly disowned and abandoned by a father or mother. Mothers have even murdered their babies. Paul mentions this as a particularly egregious example of human depravity. Such “parents” are “without natural affection” or “heartless” (Rom 1.31 AV, ESV). The Greek word (ἀστόργους, astorgous) means “lacking in affection for others; especially the natural affection between family members.”2 Our need for the Lord is more than theoretical.
Unshakable Assurance
What sweetness, then, to experience this gospel comfort expressed by the psalmist! David implies that he personally knows the covenant God of Israel (so, “Lord,” Yahweh) as his own heavenly Father—a Father who is unconditionally committed to his welfare and eternal salvation. Moreover, David’s confession exhibits an unshakable assurance of God’s enduring mercy and love for him in the midst of his earthly life, long before he had committed his last sin or appeared before God on Judgment Day.
Apostate Christendom has historically condemned such assurance of salvation. For example,
Every one, when he considers himself and his own weakness and indisposition, may entertain fear and apprehension as to his own grace, since no one can know with the certainty of faith, which cannot be subject to error, that he has obtained the grace of God.3
Contrast the counsel of the apostle John, for example:
He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.4
David’s confidence in the Lord’s future grace to him is tenderly described as a “taking him up.” This “is idiomatic of a father’s lifting up his child with the intent of providing for his needs.”5 “Take me up translates a verb that means ‘to gather,’ here in the sense of to welcome, to receive (as an orphan), almost ‘to adopt.’”6 The ESV renders it, “take me in.”
How can we ever be discouraged, whatever happens to us, when we know that we shall always be God’s “wee bairns,” His own beloved babes in arms, rescued to the praise of His all-sufficient goodness? Ω
Notes:
1 Treasury of David, in loc.
2 Logos Bible Sense Lexicon.
3 The RCC’s Council of Trent 1545-1563, Session VI, Decree on Justification, Chapter 9, “Against the Vain Confidence of Heretics.”
4 1 John 5.12-13 (emphasis mine).
5 VanGemeren, W. A. (1991). Psalms. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs (Vol. 5, p. 246). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.
6 Bratcher, R. G., & Reyburn, W. D. (1991). A Translator’s Handbook on the Book of Psalms (p. 266). New York: United Bible Societies.
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