Psalm 27
Year C
Second Sunday in Lent
Do you remember playing hide-and-seek as a kid? Was it fun?
10…9…8… I remember bolting off to hide, fretfully searching for the perfect spot while the seeker counted down. In the bathtub behind the shower curtain? The corner of the musty closet? Or the narrow, dust-bunnied space under the bed? My heart beat wildly while I tried to control my nervous breathing so as not to make a sound. (Maybe this wasn’t the best game for a claustrophobic child with a yet-to-be-diagnosed anxiety disorder.) And then the anticipation of waiting for the seeker to find and root me out felt like I was in that uncomfortable location forever. (Side note: If you’re playing the game with your older sibling, check to make sure he’s not just sitting on the couch, eating chips, watching TV, and enjoying the trick he’s played on you.)
Why is this fun?
It’s no wonder youth groups prefer to play sardines, the opposite of hide-n-seek, where one person hides, everyone seeks, and when someone finds you in the organ loft, they join you, until that loft is packed with the giggling, wriggling silliness of friends-packed-like-sardines together.
Psalm 27 has been called a “Triumphant Song of Confidence,” but its references to hiding might make us doubt this title.
In the first six verses, the speaker professes trust and confidence in the God who is his “light” and “salvation.” But the psalmist himself is not confident. He needs God to hide him (v. 5) from evildoers and enemies and the trouble in which he finds himself. In verse 7, the psalm shifts: the speaker has lost confidence in God, believing God has gone missing from his life as he fearfully cries, “Do not hide your face from me” (v. 9).
I appreciate the psalms for their honest portrayals of our full spectrum of human emotions, the way we lurch between faith and doubt depending on the day, or the hour. The ways we hide in anxiety and fear, the ways we fail to trust God, would be a fruitful study in this second week of Lent, in this season of “self-examination and penitence” as the Book of Common Worship invites us to observe — because following Jesus is particularly difficult if you’re cowering behind the shower curtain in your empty bathtub.
How and why do we hide?
- We hide to protect ourselves from difficult people, difficult emotions, difficult situations.
- We hide from hard things — bleak truths, complicated problems, people or concepts or cultures difficult to understand, anything requiring more energy, more commitment, or more self-awareness than we might be willing to give.
- We hide from opportunities — from God’s call to step forward on the stage of life, to be and become more, to risk going on the record, speaking up, accepting new challenges and responsibilities.
We hide and we pray like the psalmist, “Conceal me, O God, hide me under the cover of your tent.” And then we wonder why God, too, feels lost from our lives.
Another shift occurs at the end of Psalm 27. The psalmist has once again changed his tune, lurching from fearful hiding to faithful courage. Maybe he got a good night’s sleep and woke up with renewed faith and energy. Or maybe he recognized how small his life was getting there under his bed with all those dust bunnies. Maybe some injustice lit him up with such rage he just couldn’t stay silent any longer. Whatever the inspiration, here he is at the end, now seeking out the rest of us still in hiding, singing “Come out, come out, wherever you are!,” encouraging us to step out, together, and professing his faith in the God who steps out with us; the God whose “goodness” is seen in the “land of the living,” not the land of the hiding.
Be strong. Take Courage. Wait for the Lord. The psalmist calls, as he, and our God, waits for our faithful answer.
Questions for reflection on Psalm 27
- When have you hidden from an uncomfortable truth or a painful responsibility?
- How does it feel in your body – in your shoulders, in your stomach – when you realize you’re avoiding a heavy challenge?
- Read Psalm 27 aloud, boldly. Can you feel the moments of lurching from hiding to stepping out in faith? When do you feel these lurches in your own life?
View the corresponding Order of Worship for the Second Sunday in Lent
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