Psalm 27 is one of the best known and most comforting psalms in the Psalter. But it is hard to know whether it is chiefly a psalm of confidence, written against the dark background of David's many enemies, or whether it is chiefly a lament in which David cries out for help against implacable foes. The reason for the confusion is obvious. The first half of the psalm (vv. 1-6) exudes confidence. The second half (vv. 7-14) is a very moving prayer.
During World War II a young soldier from a very wealthy and sophisticated Philadelphia family became a Christian, and when his time of service was over and he was about to go home he expressed concern that his old acquaintances would soon draw him back into the immoral life he had led before entering the army. His pastor advised him to give a testimony concerning his conversion to the first ten of his old friends he should meet. "If you speak about Jesus, either they will become converted themselves or they will drop you; you will not have to drop them,” he was told.
Well, the problem of separating from evildoers may be both difficult and delicate, but it is obviously not unsolvable since there is a kind of separation recommended in this psalm. What is it? Like every other similar passage in Scripture, it is a separation based, not on a sense of our being better than others but of not being good enough to survive in such company. Jesus had no trouble in his associations with sinners, because he was not one of them. We are sinners and do have trouble. So, although we will be in the world and will associate with sinners daily for the gospel's sake (we can hardly avoid it), we will not "consort with" or otherwise appear to condone those whose lives are openly opposed to God's truth or morality.
The way of the righteous, which David claims to have been following, is outlined in verses 3-8. But verse 2 has something important to contribute to it. In that verse David asks God to examine both his "heart" and his "mind." In other words, in order to walk in a right way David must be both instructed in God's truth and be born again, which is the only way anyone ever acquires a heart that wants to go in God's paths. He needs to know the way, but he also needs to want to follow it. These two ideas carry over into verse 3, for the idea of heart desire is preserved in the word "love," and the idea of mind instruction is echoed in the word "truth”: “for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.”
At first glance the word "vindicate" suggests a desire to be shown to be right over against other people. But as I read this psalm I sense that it is not David's reputation in the eyes of other people that concerns him but rather God's vindication of the rightness of a devout and moral life. In other words, it is not his own reputation but God's reputation that he covets. He has been trying to obey God. He is surrounded by many who think that he is foolish, just as we are surrounded by similar mockers of righteousness today. What he is asking is that God will show by the quality and steadiness of his life that a moral life is always best—for the sake of God's own honor and for the good of those who may be looking on.
