I have a fond memory of a sermon I once heard about the value and comfort of “home.” The pastor described a particularly harrowing day when he was called to a busy hospital Emergency Room to be with a church family whose son had just been killed in a car accident. The son had been riding with another teenager from our church who was in emergency surgery, so the pastor had to do double duty in the waiting room, trying to console the inconsolable parents of the dead boy while attempting to shore up the hope of the parents of the boy in surgery. Many hours into the night later, the surgeons finally came out to tell the hopeful parents that their son had survived and was in recovery. And then the unthinkable happened. It turned out that in the urgency of getting both boys extracted from the car and rushed to the hospital, their identities had been switched. The hopeful parents who had been told their boy was in surgery were now told that it was their boy who lay freezing in the hospital morgue.

I don’t know how anyone gets through nights like those.

The pastor continued in his sermon to talk about the following days and how they unfolded for both families. A funeral was held, the one boy recovered, and everyone was changed by the experience. In his final remarks, the pastor shifted gears and began to talk about the comfort of coming home to his family every night of those gut wrenching days. I recall him saying that as his headlights hit the garage doors when he pulled into his driveway, he felt the release of everything terrible and was able to walk into the warmth of his house, fragrant with the smells of a home cooked meal, and find his equilibrium. He could enjoy the excitement of his kids and his dog running to greet him at the door and felt soothed by the peaceful smile of his wife as she did what she could to unburden him from his heaviness. Home was an instant cure to what ailed him.

Where is home to you? What place or experience enables you to let go of the weight of the day and find shelter, protection, and security? Is home a physical location or a relationship?

For King David, it was the temple. In our psalm today, he expressed his deep longing to be in the house of the Lord where he felt protected and sheltered. We looked at this psalm a few days ago, so let us re-read it with a different focus today.

Psalm 27 (Common English Bible)

The Lord is my light and my salvation.
        Should I fear anyone?
    The Lord is a fortress protecting my life.
        Should I be frightened of anything?

It is unusual to see the word “light” in a direct application to God in the Old Testament. We see so many applications of light directly pointing to Jesus in the New Testament, especially in the book of John. Here, David prophetically perceives the light, salvation, and strength of God which will be made manifest in the life of Jesus. Jesus is our true home, our one light, and our forever fortress.

⁴     I have asked one thing from the Lord—
    it’s all I seek:
        to live in the Lord’s house all the days of my life,
        seeing the Lord’s beauty
        and constantly adoring his temple.
⁵ Because he will shelter me in his own dwelling
    during troubling times;
    he will hide me in a secret place in his own tent;
        he will set me up high, safe on a rock.

This visual picture of being set up high on a rock is especially fitting for Israel and the rocky hills that surround the desert. During pilgrimages to the Temple, bandits would wait atop the rocks to jump down and rob the pilgrims. Being set higher than those outcroppings meant that nobody could assault David from a hidden precipice. David could see everything from his safe perch on the highest rock.

⁶ Now my head is higher than the enemies surrounding me,
    and I will offer sacrifices in God’s tent—
        sacrifices with shouts of joy!
    I will sing and praise the Lord.

Responding to God’s safe haven with shouts of joy and songs of praise is the least we can do. Has God ever saved you from something terrible? Does he keep your chin lifted up in times of trouble? Sing praises!

⁷ Lord, listen to my voice when I cry out—
    have mercy on me and answer me!
⁸ Come, my heart says, seek God’s face.
    Lord, I do seek your face!
⁹ Please don’t hide it from me!
    Don’t push your servant aside angrily—
        you have been my help!
    God who saves me,
        don’t neglect me!
        Don’t leave me all alone!

This last section is a call to seek God’s face in every season of life. David sought God and spent a great deal of time in his presence. He never felt left alone because he knew all he had to do was seek God and God would be present. Those who seek God will be the beneficiaries of his special blessing and protection.

Like coming home, God is always there, waiting to console and comfort. Won’t you come home to Jesus today?

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