Psalm 27:14

David’s confidence is what sends him to prayer. The first six verses (Psalm 27:1–6) declare that his heart will stay unafraid even if an army camps against him (Psalm 27:1–3), and that the one thing he desires is to dwell in the house of the LORD, to behold his beauty and to enquire in his temple (Psalm 27:4). Then the same man cries, “Hear, O LORD.” He trusts the LORD, so he turns to him, and he moves from what is true of God at all times to what he needs from God today. Faith and earnest asking belong together. The strongest believer, secure in God’s care, still cries for his mercy in a present trial, because every kind of help comes from him.

The Psalms often set trust and fear side by side in this way, as in Psalm 13:1–2. David is honest before God about his fears, and that honesty is part of his faith. God welcomes it, and he is great enough to hold our fears along with our confidence. By the last two verses (Psalm 27:13–14) the prayer has come round to hope again.

The psalm leaves its occasion unnamed. Its army, its enemies and its false witnesses (Psalm 27:2–3, 27:12) fit the crises of David’s life, such as his flight from Saul (1 Samuel 23) or the rebellion of his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15). From the day he faced Goliath (1 Samuel 17), danger was a real part of his life, and the host of verse 3 was something he knew at first hand.

“Hear” is shâmaʻ, to hear with understanding and attention. When God hears in this way he takes up the plea and acts on it, so David is asking for God’s attentive ear and for the help that follows. He calls on the LORD by his covenant name, Yᵉhôvâh, the self-existent and eternal one, who keeps faith with his people.

“I cry with my voice” joins the verb qârâʼ, to call out, with qôwl, voice. David prays aloud, out of urgent need, the way a child calls out to a parent in distress. The KJV supplies the word “when” to make the sense clear in English. Silent prayer is right and biblical too, and this phrase shows the worth of bringing our need to God in words, with the whole of our being.

“Have mercy also upon me” uses chânan, to be gracious and show favour, whose root idea is to bend or stoop in kindness to someone lower. David appeals to God’s grace and asks for favour freely given, owning that any help he receives will come from God’s kindness. He leans on who God is: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy” (Psalm 103:8).

“Answer me” is ʻânâh, to answer or respond, whether to words or to a situation. The same verb lies behind two lines of Psalm 22, the cry that is still waiting, “thou hearest not” (Psalm 22:2), and the answer when it comes, “thou hast heard me” (Psalm 22:21). David expects God to respond with real help, whether rescue, guidance or comfort. The same prayer opens Psalm 4:1, “Hear me when I call”, and rises from the depths in Psalm 130:1–2. We are told to come boldly unto the throne of grace with the same needs (Hebrews 4:16).

God speaks first, “Seek ye my face”, and David’s heart answers, “Thy face, LORD, will I seek.” The Hebrew is very compact, and the KJV supplies “When thou saidst” to show that the first words are God’s. The command is plural (“ye”), a call to all God’s people, and David takes it up for himself. In the Hebrew order he puts “Thy face” first, and his answer repeats God’s own words, “face” and “seek”, which shows how fully he means it.

The verb bâqash means to search out, seek or require. The noun pânîym is the face itself. It is plural in form but always used as a singular, and its senses of “front”, “surface” and “presence” grow out of the face. To seek someone’s face (baqash panim) was a common Hebrew way of speaking about going before a king to gain an audience, his favour or an answer to a petition. Said of God, it means seeking his presence and his favour, his guidance and close fellowship with him. In David’s day the tabernacle, and later the temple, was where God’s presence was known among his people, so the desire of verse 4 to dwell in the house of the LORD is this same longing for his face.

The faithful are known by this seeking: “This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob” (Psalm 24:6). Another psalm says, “Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore” (Psalm 105:4), and David knew what is found there: “in thy presence is fulness of joy” (Psalm 16:11).

David answers with his heart. The Hebrew lêb is the centre of the person, the seat of mind, will and character as well as feeling, so “my heart said” means that the whole inner man agreed to God’s call. Moses promised Israel that they would find the LORD if they sought him with all their heart (Deuteronomy 4:29), Jeremiah says the same (Jeremiah 29:13), and James writes, “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8).

The order matters. God calls first, and our seeking answers his call. Jesus said, “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him” (John 6:44). Our longing for God is an echo of his drawing, and that makes seeking him a glad response to his love.

Having promised to seek God’s face, David asks God to keep it turned toward him. “Hide” is çâthar, to hide or conceal. When a king hid his face from someone, it was a sign of displeasure, and when God hides his face his favour and protection seem withdrawn. That was a fearful prospect for David, the very opposite of the light and salvation he sang of in verse 1. The word “far” is supplied in the KJV and carries the sense of a full withdrawal.

David calls himself God’s “servant”, which speaks of the covenant bond between them. He appeals to that bond and asks God for mercy, fearing that some offence might lead God to cast him off in anger.

“Thou hast been my help” is the ground of the whole plea. God has helped David before, and that history is his reason to hope now. The psalms often reason this way, as when one psalm resolves to remember the works of the LORD (Psalm 77:11).

“Leave me not, neither forsake me” uses two verbs. nâṭash is to leave, and ʻâzab is to loosen or let go, and so to relinquish and abandon. Together they make one urgent plea, and they echo God’s covenant word to his people, “he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (Deuteronomy 31:6). The same thirst for God’s presence fills Psalm 42:2, and Isaiah speaks of God’s everlasting love and compassion for his people (Isaiah 54:7–8).

“O God of my salvation” uses yeshaʻ, from yāšaʿ, the same word as “my salvation” in Psalm 27:1. It means deliverance, safety, liberty and saving. With this title David owns God as the source of all his rescue, from enemies and danger and in his life before God as well. God has saved, saves now and will save, and the whole plea rests on that.

In Israel parents were the first source of identity, security and teaching, and the fifth commandment set their honour at the centre of the people’s life (Exodus 20:12). The word for father, ʼâb, can also mean a chief or an ancestor, the one who protects and provides. To be forsaken by both father and mother is the deepest loss of belonging a person could know. The verb is ʻâzab, the same “forsake” David has just prayed against, and here he answers his own fear.

David knew family trouble. In his flight from Saul he left his father and mother in the care of the king of Moab (1 Samuel 22:3–4), and later his own son Absalom rose against him.

“Take me up” is ʼâçaph, to gather, receive or take in. When every human support is gone, the LORD himself gathers his child in and gives him a place. He is “a father of the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5). Through Isaiah he asks, “Can a woman forget her sucking child?”, and his love for his people holds even where a mother’s could fail (Isaiah 49:15). Paul is sure that God’s love in Christ holds us against every power in heaven and earth (Romans 8:38–39).

The verb for “teach”, yârâh, means to flow as water or rain, to throw or shoot, and so to point out or teach, as when someone points the way with a finger. David asks God to show him the road. That road is derek, a road worn by walking, and so a course of life or a way of acting. “Thy way” is God’s way, the life that matches his own character and will, and David asks for it in order to live it. He prays the same in Psalm 25:4.

“Lead” is nâchâh, to lead, guide or bring. “A plain path” is ʼôrach mîyshôwr. The word mîyshôwr means level ground or a plain, and figuratively straightness, concord, equity and justice. In rugged country, where ambushes waited on rough roads, a level path meant safety. The word carries that over into the moral life, so a plain path is level, straight and upright, a life of integrity where a man walks without stumbling into compromise. Wisdom leads in right paths (Proverbs 4:11–12), and God’s word is “a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105).

“Because of mine enemies” uses an unusual word for enemies, shârar, found in only five verses, which the KJV margin reads as “observers”. These are foes who watch for David to stumble. Psalm 5:8 has the same word and the same plea. An upright walk leaves such watchers without grounds to accuse him or to mock his God. David needed God’s guidance to stay alive, to govern rightly and to be vindicated. God keeps his own with their enemies looking on, as when he prepares a table for his servant in their presence (Psalm 23:5).

“Deliver” is nâthan, the everyday verb “to give”, used very widely, and here it means to hand over. “The will of mine enemies” uses nephesh, which comes from a verb meaning to breathe and means a breathing creature, life, soul, self or appetite. Here it is their desire, what they long to do to him. David asks God to keep him from being handed over to their wishes. The same phrase stands in a promise of Psalm 41:2: “thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.”

“False witnesses” are ʻēḏê šeqer. The word sheqer means falsehood, a lie, deception or a sham, and it can also mean “in vain” or “without cause”. The testimony against David is untrue. False witness is forbidden in the ninth commandment (Exodus 20:16), and a false witness is among the things the LORD hates (Proverbs 6:16–19). In Israel a person’s standing rested on the testimony of others, and false witness could bring wrongful conviction, the loss of property or even death. “Are risen up against me” is qāmû bî, from qûwm, to rise up. It pictures an active, organised attack on David’s name and life, likely in a public or legal setting.

“Such as breathe out cruelty” is yāp̄êaḥ ḥāmās. The word yâphêach, breathing out, is found only here in the Bible, and châmâç means violence, wrong and unjust gain. Violence is in their very breath, so that their words and their plans are full of it, and their aim is David’s destruction.

God’s people have suffered this way before and since. Joseph was falsely accused and put in prison (Genesis 39:19–20), Jeremiah was persecuted (Jeremiah 20:10), and other psalms tell of false witnesses rising up (Psalm 35:11) and of deceitful and wicked mouths (Psalm 109:2). God hates such injustice, and through Amos he called for judgment to run down as waters (Amos 5:24). Behind all lying stands the devil, of whom Jesus said, “he is a liar, and the father of it” (John 8:44). David brings his case to the God who defends the innocent when human justice has been corrupted.

The words “I had fainted” are supplied by the KJV. The Hebrew opens with lûwlêʼ, “unless” or “were it not that”, and leaves the outcome unsaid, so that we feel how near David came to collapse. His faith kept him standing, and it carries him into the call to wait in the last verse.

“Believed” is ʼâman, the verb behind our word “Amen”, “so be it”. David trusted God’s character and promises. What he believed he would see is the ṭûwb, the goodness, of the LORD: his kindness and favour and every good and pleasant thing that comes from his hand, which another psalm celebrates as great (Psalm 31:19). To “see” it is to experience it, to witness God’s goodness made plain in real acts of rescue and blessing.

“The land of the living” (‘erets chayyim) uses chay, living, alive or fresh. The phrase means this present life, set against death and Sheol, the realm of the dead. Another psalm uses it the same way: “Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living” (Psalm 142:5). David expected to see God’s goodness in his own lifetime, in protection, provision, vindication against his enemies and God’s promises kept. His hope reached to the here and now.

This is the faith that perseveres. It is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1), an ongoing trust that holds through long difficulty. Paul writes of the same endurance (2 Corinthians 4:16–18), Jesus tells his disciples to be of good cheer because he has overcome the world (John 16:33), and Peter speaks of believers rejoicing in a Christ still unseen (1 Peter 1:8–9).

The psalm ends with a word to the reader, and to David himself. “Wait” is qâvâh, to wait for, look for and hope for. It is active, hopeful expectation, a steady looking to God for his help in his own time. The call comes at the start of the verse and again at the end, and the KJV supplies “I say” to carry the emphasis into English. Between the two calls stands the promise, “he shall strengthen thine heart.”

“Be of good courage” is châzaq, to be strong, firm and resolute, to hold fast. “Strengthen” is ʼâmats, to be strong or alert, to confirm and fortify. The same two verbs make the charge to Joshua, “Be strong and of a good courage” (Joshua 1:9), given before he led Israel into the land. Psalm 31:24 repeats this line almost word for word: “Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.” The heart is lêb again, the whole inner person, so God’s strengthening reaches mind, will and feeling.

Isaiah promises renewed strength to those who wait on the LORD, so that they mount up as eagles (Isaiah 40:31). Jeremiah’s Lamentations say that the LORD is good unto them that wait for him (Lamentations 3:25–26), and Paul speaks of waiting with patience for what we hope for (Romans 8:25).

David’s cry to be heard was prayed most fully by Jesus, who in the days of his flesh “offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared” (Hebrews 5:7). Because he is our great High Priest, we may come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:14–16). We pray in his name, for he is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and through him we have “access by one Spirit unto the Father” (Ephesians 2:18).

The face David sought has been shown to us in the Son: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15) and “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). To seek God’s face today is to seek Christ, and as we behold the glory of the Lord we are changed into his image by the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).

David prayed to be kept from being forsaken, and Jesus was forsaken for us. On the cross he cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46), the words of Psalm 22:1, where “forsaken” is the same verb ʻâzab as in verses 9 and 10. He bore the sin of the world, and God raised him from the dead (Acts 2:24). So those who believe are taken up into God’s family and cry “Abba, Father” by the Spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15), and God’s promise stands: “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus promised the Comforter to abide with his people (John 14:16–18) and his own presence “alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).

David asked to be taught God’s way, and Jesus is that way. His life was a plain path of perfect righteousness (Matthew 3:15). He triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15) and through death destroyed him that had the power of death (Hebrews 2:14–15), and those who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God (Romans 8:14).

David faced false witnesses, and so did Jesus, when many false witnesses came against him (Matthew 26:59–60) and the crowd cried, “Crucify him” (Luke 23:21). He was handed over to the will of his enemies, and by that very death he broke the devil’s power (Hebrews 2:14). His people still meet hostility, for “The servant is not greater than his lord” (John 15:20). Yet God has delivered them from the power of darkness and brought them into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:13), and with Paul they can say, “the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18).

The goodness of the LORD that David believed he would see has come to us in Christ, the light of the world (John 8:12), the resurrection and the life (John 11:25), and the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep (John 10:11) and came that they might have life more abundantly (John 10:10). God has begotten us again unto a lively hope by his resurrection (1 Peter 1:3), and his people will see his goodness for ever in the world to come, where God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (Revelation 21:4). In Gethsemane Jesus waited on his Father in prayer (Matthew 26:36–46) and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). We wait on the LORD looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).

This prayer gives words to everyone who trusts God and still needs him today. You can ask him plainly to hear and answer, because he is gracious. When he calls you to seek his face, you can answer as David did, and when he seems far away you can remind yourself how he has helped you before. If people you counted on have let you down, the LORD takes in those whom others leave. When others watch for you to fall or speak falsely about you, ask him to teach you his way and keep your path straight, and leave your defence with him. And when the answer is slow, wait on the LORD. He has promised to strengthen your heart while you wait.