The Essence of Discipleship

Psalm 27

The Lord is my light and my salvation;
    whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the stronghold of my life;
    of whom shall I be afraid?

2 When evildoers assail me
    to eat up my flesh,
my adversaries and foes,
    it is they who stumble and fall.

3 Though an army encamp against me,
    my heart shall not fear;
though war arise against me,
    yet I will be confident.

4 One thing have I asked 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 gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
    and to inquire in his temple.

5 For he will hide me in his shelter
    in the day of trouble;
he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;
    he will lift me high upon a rock.

6 And now my head shall be lifted up
    above my enemies all around me,
and I will offer in his tent
    sacrifices with shouts of joy;
I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud;
    be gracious to me and answer me!
8 You have said, “Seek my face.”
My heart says to you,
    “Your face, Lord, do I seek.”
9     Hide not your face from me.
Turn not your servant away in anger,
    O you who have been my help.
Cast me not off; forsake me not,
    O God of my salvation!
10 For my father and my mother have forsaken me,
    but the Lord will take me in.

11 Teach me your way, O Lord,
    and lead me on a level path
    because of my enemies.
12 Give me not up to the will of my adversaries;
    for false witnesses have risen against me,
    and they breathe out violence.

13 I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord
    in the land of the living!
14 Wait for the Lord;
    be strong, and let your heart take courage;
    wait for the Lord!

In this moment, we ask together that God would open our eyes to behold wondrous things in his word. We ask this in Jesus’s name, Amen.

Psalm 27 is a psalm that clarifies for us the essence of discipleship, which is really important to Cities Church — because the mission of our church is to make disciples of Jesus from all nations ... because that’s what Jesus tells us to do, and we just want to do what Jesus says.

Because Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth, we’re listening to him, and he tells us to make disciples. And so as a church we are devoted to multiplying and maturing men and women, boys and girls, as followers of Jesus who follow him in every aspect of our lives — and that means as a church we are learning together and helping one another

• worship Jesus truly, and

• serve like Jesus generously

• witness for Jesus faithfully.

All that it means to follow Jesus is what we want for each other — and there are a lot of details there. We have a whole Book to show us what that means, and it takes a lifetime to learn it, and therefore sometimes we need help remembering the essence. What is first and foremost in discipleship? What is the first thing that everything else comes after?

It’s wanting God.

Do you long for him? As Christians, do we think and feel and long for God in a way that sounds anything like Psalm 27?

Maybe. Or maybe not. Or maybe you once did, but right now not so much. Either way, wherever you are, this psalm is here to help us. Psalm 27 calls us back to the essence of discipleship, and then it teaches us three things, first, about fear; second, about the way we live, and then third, about our future. And I’m going to put each of these in a sentence, but before we get there, I want to say more about the essence of discipleship.

What Is the Essence of Discipleship?

Now, if you were to bump into me on the street and you were to ask me on a whim, Hey, what’s the essence of discipleship?, I’d say, it’s to be like Jesus. Discipleship is following Jesus. It’s being like him. It’s to lead your life alive in Jesus, in the power of Jesus and in the way of Jesus. That’s what I’d say if you were to ask me.

And if I had Psalm 27 open, I’d say the essence of discipleship is in verse 4: “One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after” — which means what David is about to say is of first importance to him. This is top of the list. This is the “one thing” greater than every other pursuit. What is it?

That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple.

And that statement, in the Book of Psalms, is a Messianic statement. Think about this with me: up to this point in this Book,

• the One who has longed for the presence of God where there is fullness of joy (16:11);

• the One who is glad in the joy of God’s presence (21:6);

• the One who says God’s goodness and mercy has followed him “all the days of his life” (same phrase here in Psalm 27)

• the One who says he will dwell in the house of the LORD forever (23:6), that is the voice of the Messiah, and so ultimately in Psalm 27 that’s who’s speaking here.

We see in this psalm again the theme of wanting to be in God’s dwelling place, in his habitation, in his temple — wherever God is the most, that’s where I most want to be! — and that is the heart of Jesus. That is the upmost desire of the Messiah, and if we’re going to be like him, that’s what we’re going to desire too.

 The most Christlike thing we can do is to pursue God above all else. It’s to be devoted, more than anything, to the glory of God. Jesus lived his life on this earth with the all-consuming pursuit of bringing glory to his Father, and for the disciples of Jesus, that’s Number One.

And so now as we talk more about this all-consuming pursuit of God, the essence of discipleship, I want you to know I’m describing Christlikeness. Psalm 27 is the heart of the Messiah, and it’s chiefly true about him, and it’s true about us if we are in him and like him.

The essence of discipleship is to journey, like Jesus, in the all-consuming pursuit of God

Now, what does that teach us, first, about fear?

1) The all-consuming pursuit of God leads to all-encompassing fearlessness. (verse 1–6)

• Look at this idea of fearlessness repeated in verses 1–3.

  • Verse 1a: Because God is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear?

  • Verse 1b: Because God is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid

  • Verse 2: The attacks of my adversaries will fail.

  • Verse 3a: Even with an army encamped against me, my heart shall not fear.

  • Verse 3b: Even though war targets me, I will be confident (and confidence is another word for faith; it means to trust or believe, which is the opposite of fear).

And that’s the first three verses. David, right from the start, declares his pervasive fearlessness. That’s what the rhetorical questions are doing: Whom shall I fear? Of whom shall I be afraid? The answer is nobody!

 Not even evildoers who want to devour me. Not even armies lined up against me. Not even war that is coming for me. This is an all-encompassing fearlessness.

But how is that? How can David be this fearless?

It’s because God is his light, his salvation, his stronghold and refuge — in verse 1 — and then David elaborates on that in verse 4. There’s a connection between verses 1–3 and verses 4–6, but it’s not immediately clear what is is. There’s not a grammatical link between verse 3 and verse 4. David doesn’t lead into verse 4 saying something like “Because.” He just says: “One thing have I asked of the LORD” — that’s the first sentence. So we as the readers have to sit on this for a minute and meditate on how these are connected, and that’s when we can start to see that verses 4–6 are a window into what’s behind verses 1–3.

David’s one thing — what matters most to him — is being with God. He wants to dwell in God’s dwelling place; he wants to behold God’s glory; he wants to ruminate on God’s presence. That’s his focus. That’s his main ambition. And that’s not a shot in the dark.

David knows there is alignment between his greatest ambition for God and his greatest blessing from God. That’s why David says,

God, I want you more than anything ... for you hide me in your shelter, you conceal me under your tent, you lift me high upon a rock.

Basically, the one thing, the main thing, that David wants from God is for God to be God to him! Another way to say it: What David most wants from God is what God has most promised, and that is himself.

 And now we can see how this leads to fearlessness: David’s greatest desire is also the securest reality in his life — and no enemy, no army, no war can take that away from him.

The connection is between desire and security, and fearlessness. What David most desires is also most secure, and what is most secure is something you’re not afraid of losing.

So come hell or high water ... line the enemy up! let them aim their bows at me! Attack me, okay; lie about me, fine; breathe out violence, whatever —

Whatever you do, I’m not afraid ... because I just want God ... and I will have him.

So my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. I will offer in his presence sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to Yahweh.

The all-consuming pursuit of God in verses 4–6 has led to the all- encompassing fearlessness in verses 1–3.

And this is a place where we should examine ourselves. We can bring some questions to our hearts:

• Do we struggle with constant fear?

• Do we find ourselves routinely in a spirit of worry and insecurity, and if so—might that be an indication that we have prioritized the wrong things?

One reason we live in fear might be because we have placed too much value on the sand we’re trying to hold in our hands. Maybe.

 Christian, I know you care about a thousand things, and they’re all good things, I hope, but I want to call you back to the essence of discipleship. Christian, be like Jesus, and want God more than anything else ... and rest in the truth that you have him.

2) The all-consuming pursuit of God determines the way we live. (verses 7–12)

In verse 7 David launches into a petition, and he pleads with God to hear him. I’m seeking your face, God, just like you said; and then there are four petitions for God’s nearness:

• Hide not your face from me

• Turn not your servant away in anger

• Cast me not off

• Forsake me off

And this reminds me of the urgency we hear in Psalm 51:11, when David begs God “Cast me not away from your presence; take not your Holy Spirit away from me.” He just wants to be close to God. And then here in verse 11 he says, “Teach me your way, O LORD...”

And this is important because it’s another theme we’ve seen in these surrounding psalms. One theme we’ve seen has been dwelling in the presence of God, and this second theme is about learning the ways of God. Back in Psalm 25, verse 4, David prayed,

Make me know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me...

 And then in Psalm 26, David is walking in this way, like the Psalm-1 man, and this altogether echoes a theme we see in the Old Testament about the Messiah.

A prominent theme in Israel’s Messianic hope was that one day Israel and all the nations would return to Jerusalem, to God’s dwelling place, and there they would be taught by God. We see this in places like Isaiah 2 (see also Zechariah 8:20–23). Isaiah 2 speaks of a future day when all the nations will flow to the dwelling place of God and they will say, Isaiah 2:2,

Come, let us go to the mountain of Yahweh, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. (Isaiah 2:2–3)

So there’s a biblical connection between being near to God and walking in the ways of God. And this is almost common sense to us. We get this. We know that being close to God and living in rebellion against God are incompatible. That doesn’t happen. So at one level, this is common sense, but it’s also a deeply biblical concept.

This is one of the central blessings of the New Covenant. It’s that we as Christians have the Spirit of God, and the law of God is written on our hearts, which means we’re not scratching our heads on how we’re supposed to live (see Jeremiah 31:31–34), but we lean on God’s revealed will, and we increasingly bring our lives into conformity to his instruction. We delight in the law of the Lord and on his law we meditate day and night.

See, if we want God more than anything, that shapes what we do. The all- consuming pursuit of God determines the way we live.

 And there are objective measures here. We’re talking about fruit. This is behavior. On the negative side, there are certain actions we can do that evidence we are not close to God. And the only way you can get close to God from that place is to forsake your sin. And that’s an invitation the Holy Spirit extends to you right now.

The sin that keeps you from God is sin that Jesus died to free your from, so Christian, if you’re stuck, repent and come home. Jesus died to free you from both the penalty and the power of that sin.

If you’re not yet a Christian, I want you to know you can be freed from your sin by trusting in Jesus — you can be forgiven, and you can overcome, because Jesus took your sin upon himself and died in your place, and then he was raised from the dead in victory. So trust him.

And we need to get the order right:

• we are made alive in Jesus by grace — grace alone through faith alone, we are saved;

• And we are saved from sin to God, brought into fellowship with God, into the presence of God; filled with his Spirit

• And then we learn how to walk in step with that reality, pursuing God and his ways more and more and more.

Now #3 — first, the all-consuming pursuit of God leads to all-encompassing fearlessness; second, the all-consuming pursuit of God determines the way we live; and now:

3. The all-consuming pursuit of God believes the best is yet to come. (verses 13–14)

I love verse 13. It is a declaration of faith in future grace. David, similar to what he does in Psalm 17:15, looks ahead to the future and declares that he will indeed be with God and look upon the goodness of God. In a way here, this is David doubling down on what he says in verse 4 about gazing upon the beauty of the Lord. David says:

I know that I’m going to see him and all his goodness that has pursued me all the days of my life; one day, the war will be over and I’m going to see all his goodness clearly.

I’m going to see his goodness face to face, not through a glass dimly, not the backside of the tapestry, but I’ll see it all.

“In the land of the living.” That’s an amazing phrase in the Book of Psalms. It’s talking about the resurrection. We can see this in Psalm 116:8–9. There the psalmist says:

For you have delivered my soul from death,

my eyes from tears,

my feet stumbling;

I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

The “land of the living” is the land beyond the grave for those who have been rescued from death to life. And that’s the way the apostle Paul understood Psalm 116. He quotes from it in 2 Corinthians Chapter 4, verses 13–15.

The hope is in the resurrection, and if we today have the “same spirit of faith” that the psalmist had when they hoped in the land of the living it means that we know he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us into his presence! That’s what Paul says.

 Christian, the all-consuming pursuit of God — wanting God more than anything — believes that the best is yet to come, because the “yet to come” is being with him.

Psalm 27, verse 13 is, first, the hope of Jesus, and then it is our hope if we are in him! Christian, we will be with God. We will see the face of Jesus. And like Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4,

We will always be with the Lord, therefore encourage one another with these words” (verses 17–18).

And that’s what I want to do here in closing. I want to encourage you with our future:

• This world is in chaos, but Christian, you will be with God.

• The vulnerability of our species to an unseeable threat has been exposed, but Christian, you will be with God.

• Job security is in shambles; the economy is on the rocks; our finances are so uncertain, but Christian, you will be with God.

• The hostile racialization of our culture is so intense it seems incurable, but Christian, you will be with God.

• Our nation is so severely divided that the polarization is almost unbearable, but Christian, you will be with God.

• Our own Twin Cities ground beneath our feet has been shaken, and going forward it’s going to cost us to make Jesus known, but Christian, you will be with God.

So wait for him. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Wait for the LORD!