But thinking realistically, have you had parts of your life where you have faced "hard testing"? Jesus was certainly saying that we don't ask to be tested. But the reality is that we do face testing from time to time. At those times, our prayer is (to quote the Good News again) "Keep us safe from the evil one."
Peter speaks of the experiences of testing as proving the genuineness of our faith, making our faith stronger and deepening our experience of the goodness and love of God throughout our lives.
Many of our hymns have a story behind them. For instance, George Matheson's fiancée had broken off their engagement because she couldn't face married life with a blind man. In that time of hard testing, he wrote the hymn, "O Love, that wilt not let me go." The hymn book doesn't give us that piece of information. We have to find it somewhere else.
The Psalms were the hymn book of Israel. The Hebrew title on very few occasions gives us a clue to the circumstances in which particular Psalms were written.
For Psalm 27, it simply says, "By David." We don't really know when or why it was written. But we do know that it was at a time of "hard testing," and David suffered many such times - when King Saul was hunting him before he became king and afterwards in the course of his reign.
The Psalm itself gives us these clues. Notice verse 2 - "When evil men attack me and try to kill me…" Verse 3 - "Even if a whole army surrounds me…" Verse 5 - "In times of trouble he will shelter me…" Verse 6 - "I will triumph over my enemies around me…" Verses 11 and 12 - "… I have many enemies… my enemies … attack me with lies and threats."
I like the honest realism of the Psalms. They remind us that we can be totally honest before God. Whatever the situation - and whatever our emotional response to it - there should be no pretence in God's presence. Real comfort and help come to us when we come to God with openness, not with denial.
It is in this reality that David expresses his confidence in God. "The Lord is my light and my salvation; I will fear no one. The Lord protects me from all danger; I will never be afraid."
Fear no one? Never be afraid? We have already noted the evidence for the reality of his fear. Yet fear is not his final experience. In the presence of the Lord he has a new perspective that is dominant. The Lord is a light to dispel the dark uncertainties that would cause fear. The Lord is his salvation, assuring both rescue and victory. The Lord is his stronghold (NIV), the place of safety in the midst of his circumstances.
In verse 3 he says that even if the enemy seems about to overwhelm him - in spite of his adverse circumstances - he will still be confident. His security is in the Lord.
And David had every reason to be confident. He didn't live for himself and then expect the Lord to "bail him out" of the sticky situation. No! His life was truly focused on the Lord all the time.
Verse 4 - "I have asked the Lord for one thing; one thing only do I want: to live in the Lord's house all my life, to marvel there at his goodness, and to ask for his guidance."
The legendary King Midas was given one wish and he wanted everything he touched to turn to gold. This turned out to be far more of a problem than the greedy king had realised.
If you had only one request to make, what would it be? For David it was to "live in the Lord's house all my life." He was not just thinking of the protection of the Temple as a building and the blessing of living in such a place. He wants to know God better, to know him personally - "to marvel at his goodness and to ask for his guidance." Living in the Lord's house doesn't remove the decisions of the life "out there." He expects to be safe and secure. He plans to offer sacrifices to the Lord with shouts of joy and singing. But he will "ask for his guidance."
Yet even as he makes his one request and frames his plans, the reality of his situation sweeps upon him. We sense his desperate plight as he asks, "Hear me, Lord, when I call to you! Be merciful and answer me!" He wants an answer and he wants it now! Is it a kind of bargaining with the Lord? You have called me to come to you. Well… that's just what I want to do, Lord! Please don't be so hard to find! "Don't hide yourself from me!"
But perhaps it is worse than that. Perhaps, for reasons unknown to me, God is angry with me. Perhaps he is not just hard to find, but has actually left me, abandoned me. There may have been times of deep despair in our own lives where we have said, Where are you, God? Are you really there? I have known your help in the past, you have been my saviour, but where are you now?
David experienced a number of occasions or being cut off from help. On one of the occasions when he was fleeing from Saul, hiding in a cave, his brothers and the rest of the family joined him. Perhaps because of the difficulty of living conditions, David arranged for his parents to stay with the King of Moab (1 Sam.22.3-4). We don't know of a time when his mother and father actually abandoned him. But he knew that increasingly his life could no longer be lived under their protection. How deeply he needed to know with confident faith that "the Lord will take care of me."
Yet even as he makes his plea for the Lord's help and protection, he comes back to his basic need for the Lord's guidance. "Teach me, Lord, what you want me to do, and lead me along a safe path…" And doesn't that need to be the earnest prayer of our life! We can expect the Lord to help and protect us when we are walking in his will.
David has brought the reality of his hard testing to the Lord. He has laid before the Lord his one deep desire to know God and to be guided by him in the way he lives. He has prayed with urgency for the Lord's help and guidance. Now he speaks with confidence. "I know that I will live to see the Lord's goodness in this present life." Someone has said that we aren't always delivered out of our circumstances, but we are always delivered in our circumstances. At the end of Psalm 23, he said, "I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life." Paul put it this way, "We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose" (Rom.8.28). Paul knew that no circumstances - not even death itself - "can separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord" (vv.38-39).
We become so anxious for instant solutions to our problems. We want the Lord to "push a few buttons" and fix it up at once. But it isn't always as straightforward as that whether the problem is within us or involving some other person or circumstance. That is why David sets out for his own benefit (and for ours) the important principle of life, "Trust in the Lord. Have faith, do not despair. Trust in the Lord." This trust is (literally) a waiting for the Lord, a confident expectation in him, a dependence on him.
"The Lord is my light and my salvation; I will fear no one. The Lord protects me from all danger; I will never be afraid."
"Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope, and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away. They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God's power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time. Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer…" (1 Peter 1.3-6)
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