Josh Edmundson explores Psalm 27 and David's longing for God's presence, tracing the journey from humanity's original design for fellowship with God in Eden, through the separation caused by sin, to the restored access we now have through Christ. Discover how David's ancient prayer points to a relationship with God that's remarkably personal, deeply satisfying, and available to all of us today.
01Finding Confidence in God's Presence
What does it actually mean to have a personal relationship with God? Not the religious version where you tick boxes and follow rules, but something that feels real, tangible, like talking with someone who genuinely knows you?
Josh Edmundson explores Psalm 27, one of David's most personal prayers, and what stands out isn't the poetry or the theology. It's how David speaks to God like an old friend, someone who knows him inside and out. This isn't formal religious language. It's honest, vulnerable, and deeply personal. And it raises a question worth exploring: how did David develop such a profound relationship with God, and is it available to us?
02**The Original Design**
Before we can understand what David longed for in Psalm 27, we must go back to the beginning. The Genesis account shows something remarkable about how we were made.
When God created humanity, He didn't just speak us into existence like He did with the rest of creation. Genesis 2:7 tells us He formed us from the dust and breathed His own life into us. This detail matters. It's the only time in the creation narrative where God does this. Every other created thing was spoken into being, but with humanity, God took a personal interest.
This breath of life isn't just about biology. It's about a relationship. We were made in the image of the divine, set apart from the rest of creation as His offspring and His masterpiece. We were created to bring Him glory, yes, but also so that we and He might delight in a relationship together.
The Genesis account describes God walking in the garden, looking for Adam and Eve. Now, God is God. He knew exactly where they were. But He went looking anyway. Why? Because it suggests a familiar pattern, a routine of meeting with them, of strolling through the scenery He'd made, not just as their Creator but as their companion.
We were made to walk with the divine.
03**When Things Fell Apart**
Then came what theologians call "the fall", but what we might simply describe as humanity's first massive mistake. Adam and Eve had one rule, and they broke it, choosing to be their own masters rather than walking with God.
This decision introduced something called sin into an otherwise perfect world. And sin, at its core, is simply our failure to meet God's standard. It's when we miss the mark He's set. More importantly, it cuts us off from fellowship with Him, putting distance between God and His creation that didn't exist before.
That distance is what the rest of the Bible is about overcoming. From Genesis 3 onwards, Scripture details God's plan to remove the barrier that sin created, so we might have fellowship with Him again, as we were designed to.
04**Living in the In-Between**
Fast forward to King David's time. God's plan to redeem His people had been set in motion through Abraham and his descendants, founding a nation that would act as God's representatives. Despite their continual disobedience, God was merciful. He came and dwelt among them so His presence might bless them.
But here's the thing: the way He dwelt among them was vastly different from how He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden.
Because of sin's barrier, the people had restricted access to God. His presence was confined to designated holy spaces. First, there was the Tabernacle, a tent that David references in verse 5 when he speaks of "the Lord's holy tent." Later, Solomon built the temple. These physical locations were where God's presence was believed to reside.
Not only that, but God established the priesthood, an entire organisation responsible for leading the people before Him through a complex system of sacrifices. People could only enter God's presence briefly, at set moments, under very controlled conditions.
This is the context for David's longing in Psalm 27:4-6: "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."
David wasn't making a random camping reference. He expressed a deep desire for unrestricted access to God's presence, something that was simply not available in his time.
05**The Game Changer**
Our restricted accessibility to God's presence was removed with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christ is entirely God and fully human, wholly perfect and without sin. He died in our place, paying the debt that our sin created. When we chose to walk away from God, who is all things good and who is life itself, we naturally ended up walking down the path of death. Christ's death removed this wage of death. His resurrection offered us a return to new life, with unrestricted access to God's presence.
It's a return to before the fall, back to that companionship and fellowship with God.
To accept this invitation requires two things: repentance and belief. Repentance means turning away from our wrongdoing and choosing to walk with Christ. Belief means accepting Him as Saviour. When we do this, Scripture says we're sealed with the Holy Spirit.
God's presence shifts from being an external phenomenon confined to holy spaces to being an internal dwelling. We can now dwell in the presence of God all the days of our lives because He lives within us.
David's ardent wish in Psalm 27 points towards this relationship now available to all of us because of Christ.
06**What This Actually Means**
Beyond salvation, beyond being brought back into life with God, what are the practical consequences?
One of the most significant is confidence in prayer. Because of this return to fellowship with God, we can share with Him the joys and sorrows of our daily lives. You don't have to come to God with earth-shattering requests. You can simply spend time with Him, as Adam and Eve did in the garden.
If you're celebrating, you can celebrate with Him. If you're hurting, you can hurt with Him. All with the confidence that God hears us, and when we cry out, He can and will respond.
We see this confidence throughout Psalm 27. In verses 1-3, David praises God for His faithfulness in the past. In verses 9-14, he asks for deliverance again in the future. Both his praise and his request stem from his confidence in God's character.
Throughout 1 and 2 Samuel, we see God delivering David from his enemies time and time again when he cries out for help. How much more can we have confidence in prayer now that we can approach God's presence as friends, thanks to the cross?
07**Your Next Step**
If you're just beginning your journey with God, or if you're a new believer starting on the rest of your life, the encouragement is simple: pray. It's challenging to overestimate God's grace and the effect that constantly entering His presence has on your character and life.
If you've never met this God before, He has a vested interest in getting to know you. The invitation to join with Him in new life through repentance and acceptance of Him as Saviour is sitting there, waiting.
08**The Personal God**
What makes Psalm 27 so compelling is its personal nature. It reads like a conversation between David and an old good friend, someone who knows David inside and out. This isn't a religious performance. It's a genuine relationship.
The truth David discovered, and what's now available to us through Christ, is that God isn't distant or disinterested. He's personal. He's dependable. And He's walking through life with us, not as a distant deity to be appeased, but as a companion to be known.
The question isn't whether God wants a relationship with us. Scripture makes that abundantly clear. The question is whether we'll accept the invitation to walk with Him, to know Him, and to be known by Him.
That's what Psalm 27 is really about. Not a religious duty, but genuine friendship with the divine.
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Josh Psalm 27
Matt Edmundson: [00:00:00] Welcome to Crowd Church, my name's Matt Edmundson. It's great that you are here with us on this final Sunday here in the month of August. Today we have got Josh Edmundson, who is a relation, uh, talking, I think it's Psalm 27. I could have got that wrong. But he's definitely picking out one of his favorite songs, talking about what it means to have a relationship with God.
As for the rest of us, if you're usual to crowds, you will know that this looks a little bit different to the studio, uh, which I normally sit in. Um, but we are doing our non live live stream month, which basically means we take August off. Uh, the leadership team have a sabbatical during August. I'm actually here in Jersey.
You can hear the beach and the sea behind us. We're having a great time by the way. Um, and so. Next week in September we'll be back to our normal live streams where you get hosts, we come in, we answer your questions [00:01:00] and your comments and all that sort of stuff in the live stream. Today You've just got Josh, who is an absolute legend, super proud of him and he's got a great story and well, a great talk to share with us today.
So do, uh, do like, subscribe, all of that good stuff. If you want to know more about Crowd Church, just go to www. crowd. church, you'll find all the information you need there. Write in the comments any questions, any thoughts, anything that you have, if you want to get in touch with us, do so through the website.
I think I've covered all my points. I think I've rambled enough. Enough of me. Here's Josh.
Josh Edmundson: Today, I have the privilege of sharing a reflection on Psalm 27, which is one of my personal favorite psalms. I figure the best way to kick this off would actually just be to read the psalm, and then we'll dive in to what I want to pull out of it.
So, Psalm 27, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom [00:02:00] shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked advance against me to devour me, it is my enemies and my foes who will stumble and fall. Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear. Though war break out against me, even then I will be confident.
One thing, I ask of the Lord, one thing do I seek, That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, To gaze on the beauty of the Lord, and to seek Him in His temple. For in the day of trouble He will keep me safe in His dwelling. He will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me. At his sacred tent I will sacrifice. With shouts of joy I will sing and make music to the Lord. Hear my [00:03:00] voice when I call, Lord. Be merciful to me and answer me. My heart says of you, seek his face, your face, Lord. I will seek his face. Do not hide your face from me.
Do not turn your servant away in anger. You have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, God my Saviour. Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me. Teach me your way, Lord. Lead me in a straight path, because of my oppressors. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, spouting malicious accusations.
I remain confident of this. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait for the Lord. There is a lot in this psalm that we could look at, and I would really encourage you to [00:04:00] just go away and read it on your own time. Because, honestly, there's, there's some incredible points in here.
But, one of the key things that I love about this is how personal this whole thing is. It reads like a very personal prayer between David and the Lord, almost as if David is just chatting to an old friend of his, but not just an old friend, an old good friend who knows David inside and out. And we're going to explore this theme of what it means to have a personal relationship with the Lord.
What does it, what does it mean to speak to the relationship, to speak to the Lord like this? How could David do it? By looking at this theme, we're going to touch on Two key points, the second of which builds off of the first, and the first is that the [00:05:00] Lord is a personal God. The second point which builds off of that is the Lord is dependable.
So, exploring this theme then of, of this very personal interaction with the Lord. One of the first things I want to look at in this psalm is actually something that occurs about halfway through. So we're not going to start at the start, but rather, we're going to start with this theme. And we see, um, how David speaks of the Lord's presence as though it's something Tangible.
So going back to verses 4 to 6, we see David writes this, One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek, That I may dwell in the house of the Lord, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple, for in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling and he will hide me in the shelter of his [00:06:00] sacred tent and set me high upon a rock.
Now there's a whole lot in this psalm, there's a whole lot in just this one section that we might talk about but the thing that I really want to pick on actually is how this section Really connects in to the personal story between God and his people and particularly where that story was at, at the time David was alive.
So, to do this, we need to go right back to the start, right back to the creation of mankind in the book of Genesis. Where we see that mankind was actually created Um, Intimately and Intentionally, when I use the word intimate in this whole talk I'm speaking of kind of the intimacy between good friends, between parents and their kids, that sort of depth of knowledge between the two parties involved that speaks of years of knowing each other and of knowing each other to their cause.
So in the book [00:07:00] of Genesis, the first book of the Bible, we see the Lord form mankind In His image, Genesis 1 26, and from the dust of the earth, and breathe life into Him. And this breathe life language is used specifically in verses 2, sorry, in chapter 2, verse 7. And I want to point this out as something quite remarkable, because the Lord isn't detailed as doing this with anything else in creation.
Mankind is the only thing He made that has life. His breath of life in it. And this gift of divine life is reminiscent of the life given to a child by their parents, right? Part of the parent is within the child. We are given breath from the Lord, setting us apart from the rest of creation as his offspring.
As well as his craftsmanship. And this is one of those themes that kind of pops up time and time again in scripture. So why did the [00:08:00] Lord make us with an imprint of the divine? I think it was for two key points. It was to bring Him glory, and so that we and He might delight in the relationship between us.
And I, I put this case forward from verses in Isaiah and Zephaniah. We were created for relationship with God. We were Now, what this looked like, and the relationship we were made to have, and the relationship we ended up having, all changed with an event called The Fall, The Fall of Mankind, which was an event where man became a Christian.
Turned its back on the God that had created them in favour of being their own masters. And this is not an unfamiliar refrain in human history, is it? We see this all the time. Despots and rulers set themselves up in the image of God. They make themselves as God and it never, [00:09:00] ever ends well. And this is what happened right at the beginning.
And the whole event of the fall is detailed in Genesis chapter 3. Now, you might have heard specifically of the story itself, of Adam and Eve breaking the one rule that they had been set in order that they might be like God. And this is the first time we see something called sin enter the otherwise perfect world the Lord had created, where sin simply is our failure to meet God's standard.
It's when we miss the mark he has set. This sin, this spurning of God. Cuts us off from fellowship with him, from the friendship with God that we enjoyed in the Garden of Eden. It puts a distance between God and his creation that didn't exist before. Now what do I mean by this distance, and what do I mean by fellowship with God?
Because this is all slightly crazy if you [00:10:00] think about it, the fact that I'm putting forward that we were made to walk with God as his friends and companions as well as his creation. The reason I think this is because after the fall of man, um, and again detailed in the Genesis account, we see the Lord searching.
for Adam and Eve, the first of mankind in the garden he had created for them to tend and look after. Genesis specifically uses this language of the Lord walking in the garden looking for Adam and Eve. Now, the Lord is the Lord. He's God. He knew exactly where they were. He didn't need to go play hide and seek with Adam and Eve in the garden, but he did it.
Anyway, why, why is this an important detail? Well, because it suggests a familiar pattern of meeting with Adam and Eve, of strolling through the beautiful scenery he had made with them, not only as their creator, but also as their companion. We were made to walk with the [00:11:00] divine. The whole rest of the Bible, from the full account in Genesis 3 onward, details the Lord's plan to overcome the barrier that sin put between us, so that we might be able to have fellowship with him.
Again, as we were made to.
Going back to the psalm, briefly as kind of a touch point, we've looked at what happened at the start, what we were made for, and how we put a spanner in that works. We fast forward to King David, who is the author of the psalm. of this psalm. Up until that point, up until the time of King David, the Lord's plan to redeem his people, to bring them back into fellowship with him, had been put into motion by partnering with a man called Abraham and his descendants to found a nation of people who would act as the Lord's representatives in the world and through whom his plan of [00:12:00] salvation would come to fruition.
Now, despite The continual and frustrating disobedience of his people, and the constant chances they were taking to break this deal, the Lord was merciful. Not only was he merciful, he came and dwelt among them so that they might be blessed by his presence. But the way he dwelt among them was very different to how he walked with Adam and Eve in the garden.
Because of the barrier of sin, the people had restricted access to the Lord. He confined his presence amongst them to designated holy spaces. A far cry from the relationship we had with him in Eden. Now, up until the time of David and the kings of this nation of Israel, the presence of God had resided in a tent that was the designated holy place, and this tent was known as the Tabernacle, and you can read all about this in the book.
in Genesis, oh sorry not Genesis, Exodus [00:13:00] 25. And this tent is what David is referring to in verse 5 where he speaks of the Lord's holy tent. It's not a random camping reference, it's because this would have been one of the key Touchstones of the Lord's presence among his people in the time of David. And so any reference to the Lord's presence in David's head is fixed to these physical locations.
The second of which was the temple, and David refers to this in verse 6. Um, though that was built a little bit later on by his son Solomon. In verses 4 and 5 of this psalm, we see David longing for the presence of the Lord and to be in those holy spaces with him. He longs for the fellowship we had with the Lord in the beginning, that was now restricted because of sin.
Not only was the Lord's presence restricted to physical holy spaces, but the Lord set up a whole organisation among the [00:14:00] nation called the Priesthood, and their responsibility was to lead the people of Israel before the Lord by following a system of sacrifices, so that the people might enter the Lord's presence briefly at set moments in time and under very controlled conditions.
Our restricted accessibility to the Lord's presence was removed. with the death and resurrection of a person called Jesus Christ. And this Christ is, is He's kind of a big deal. He's the center point of Christianity. It's where the name of this people comes from. So who was, or more accurately, who is this person of Christ?
I believe that Christ is the physical incarnation of God, fully man and fully God, completely perfect and without sin. He died [00:15:00] in our place. Which was the cost of our sin when we chose to walk away from God, who's all things good and who is life. We naturally end up walking down the path of death. By dying, Christ removed this wage of death that we should be dealt.
He paid our debt and removed the sin that brought us out of fellowship with the Lord. And in his resurrection, in his raising to life again, we get to join with him in that new life, a life with unrestricted access. To the presence of God, it's a return to before the fall, it's a return to that companionship and fellowship with God.
To accept this incredible invitation to be the Lord's friend as well as his [00:16:00] creation. Scripture says that you must repent of your sin and believe in Christ. As Your Saviour. It says this in 1 John 1 9. Now this word repent means to renounce, to turn away from our sinful behaviour, to turn away from our wrongdoing and to walk with Christ as we once did in the garden, in obedience and fellowship with Him.
When we repent and we believe, It says that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit being one of the three persons that make up the Trinity, the single Godhead. This Holy Spirit, this presence of God, moves from being an external phenomenon restricted to holy spaces to being an internal, Dwelling of the Lord.
We can dwell in the presence of the Lord all the days of our lives because he [00:17:00] lives within us. Now the ardent wish of David that we saw in the middle of this psalm points towards this relationship now available to all of us because of Christ. David dreamt of a day where he would dwell in the house of the Lord and we can do that all the days of our life because of what the Lord has done for us.
What are some of the consequences then of this, beyond salvation, beyond being brought back into life with the Lord? Well, one of the things, and one of my favourite things, I think, that comes with this indwelling of God within us is our confidence, the confidence that we can place in prayer. Because of this return to fellowship with the Lord, we get to share with Him the joy and sadness of our daily lives.
You don't have to come to the Lord with a big request, an earth shattering ask. You can come before the Lord [00:18:00] and just spend time with him, as Adam and Eve did in the garden. If we are celebrating, we can do it with him, and if we're hurting, we can hurt. All with the confidence that the Lord hears us, and when we cry out to him, not only that he hears us, but he can and will respond to our cries.
We see confidence in the Lord's provision in the first and last sections of this psalm. In verses 1 to 3, we see David praising the Lord for his faithfulness in the past, and in verses 9 to 14, asking him to provide such deliverance again in the future. Both, both David's praise and request stem from his confidence in the character of God.
And we see all throughout the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, the Lord delivering David from his enemies time and time again when he cries out for help. How much more [00:19:00] can we have confidence in prayer now that we can approach the Lord's presence as friend thanks to the cross. If you are just beginning your journey with the Lord, if you're a new believer, if you have just met Christ and are getting started with every day of the rest of your life, I encourage you to pray.
It's impossible, in my humble opinion, to overestimate God's grace and the effect constantly entering his presence has on your character and on your life. If you've never met this God before, if you've never met this person of Christ, He has a vested interest in meeting you, and that invitation I spoke of earlier to join with him in new life through repentance and acceptance of him as your Lord and Saviour, that's sitting there waiting.
