This Sunday I return to St Mary’s Collingbourne Kingston and St Andrew’s Collingbourne Ducis. You will be very welcome to join me.

It is not often that the Psalms gain prominence in our sermons. Traditionally a Psalm would be read or chanted or sung at Mattins, Evensong, and Compline, but these are less popular services now. I understand the need to be able to worship in our common parlance: we don’t use ‘thee’s, ‘thou’s, and ‘thy’s in our daily language so we should we use them to trip ourselves up in worship?

Removing the Psalms from our worship seems like a bad case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The lectionary does still select a psalm for each Sunday, as preachers it is there if we choose to focus upon it, and so I will. This Sunday we are offered Psalm 27 which calls us to have faith in our faith as theologian Beth L Tanner writes.

This psalm invites us to believe again that our faith in God will never desert us, no matter what happens. Life without fear is not possible, but faith can call us to live into God’s will for our life instead of reducing our lives because of our fears and insecurities.

Beth l tanner

It is believed that this Psalm was written by David during a difficult and scary time. Either David was in exile being persecuted by his father-in-law and best friend’s dad, King Saul; or hiding from his own son Absolom who fancied the crown for himself. Both times David was in fear for his life, it doesn’t get much scarier than that!

As with most of the Psalms the reader is taken on a journey, in this case from fear and despair to hope and resilience. David ends the Psalm

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord
in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and he shall comfort your heart;
wait patiently for the Lord.

psalm 27: 16-17

We are currently living in fearful and dangerous times. We may not personally be in a position of danger, but it does seem to surround us. Simply watching the news feels like an extreme sport; the Gaza conflict continues, Syria is ‘unsettled’ once again, the powers that be in the USA seem to have sided with the wrong side of the war in Ukraine. Christians are being massacred, women are being denied reproduction rights, gay and transgender people would be denied any rights if some had their way.

I shouldn’t get political in church I am told, yet all the great prophets (and minor ones too) were.

If we turn to the gospel passage for today, we get yet another glimpse into how political Jesus was. So political that the Pharisees, those who most often pit themselves against Jesus, come to warn him that Herod wants him dead. He is advised to run away, to go into exile as his earthly forefather David did, to protect himself. Instead he calls Herod a fox, and says ‘nope’.

Despite everything going on around him Jesus is determined to continue bringing light and hope to those who recognise him for who he is. He will continue casting out demons and he will continue performing cures until it is time to ‘finish his work’. Instead of running away from Jerusalem and Herod’s murderous threats, he sets his face towards it. Jesus knows that he has to die in order to finish his work, and that is where he will have to happen. This is perhaps one of the saddest things, that the holy city is known for killing prophets. Jesus himself despairs, his heart breaks as he yearns to ‘gather the children of Jerusalem as a hen gathers her brood under her wings’ knowing that there is nothing they want less.

So Jesus sets his heart towards Jerusalem and all that will follow. Through lent as Christians we seek to walk some of that path with him. We strive to dig deeper with God, to fast from the frivolous and focus on prayer and good deeds. We seek to restore our faith in faith.

David claims that the Lord is his strength and his salvation, the strength of his life. Can we claim that too? When hope itself seems to be drowned out by powerful men can we stand strong in our faith? Will we find our refuge in Social Media, in overeating and drinking, in our own wealth, or will we seek refuge in the secret place of God’s dwelling, will we shelter under his wings? Will we seek God’s face? Will we hold onto the words of David?

The Lord of my light and my salvation, the strength of my life.’

Because if we do, even in the darkest of times we will see the goodness of the Lord.

You can read the gospel passage here.