Sunny Day Christian

Years ago, when I was newlywed, my father died, and at his funeral, an army chaplain read from Psalm 27, which, looking back on, is a strange text for a funeral. And when the army chaplain got to verse 5, I didn't like that. Psalm 27 5 reads, A friend, the time of trouble, he shall hide me in his pavilion.

In the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon a rock. And when the chaplain read those words, I recalled back from them.

I was in a season of my life where everything I touched turned to gold. I was even called by my colleagues a fair-haired boy. I was living the dream, and all was well with my life.

I had a beautiful wife and a promising career. And the last thing I wanted was to find myself in a time of trouble. Because I was a sunny-day Christian, I followed Jesus for what he could do for me.

He was the one who opened doors for me and prospered me and blessed me. So long as I acknowledged him and tied to him, he would keep my world a place of sunshine and roses. That was my theology back then.

There are a number of sunny-day Christians who love their Jesus so long as he keeps them out of a time of trouble. Unfortunately, the modern gospel has created a lot of sunny-day Christians whose concept of God is little more than a jolly Santa Claus whose only goal is to make us happy. That if we get hit with bad news like cancer, he will heal us and take it away from us, if only we ask him to, because God exists to make us happy.

But when the cancer comes back and grows worse, it shatters our expectations of God, and our faith becomes like a fighter jet shot out of the sky and has fallen to the earth, nose down, engulfed with billowing black smoke. The sunny-day Christian will face his or her time of trouble, because life isn't always sunshine and roses. There are black nights and furious storms, times of trouble, hit every one of us.

Since then, I have been placed in various times of trouble, and I am thankful for Psalm 27. It's got me through some pretty tough times. And as the troubled seas washed up over my head, I have clung to verse 13 like a life preserver.

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalm 27 is a psalm of David. David was in a jam when he penned it.

He was pursued by his enemies. He was shut out from the house of the Lord. He was on the lam and on the run.

He writes the psalm with a backward look after he has come through his trial, and it is a prayer of praise. Charles Spurgeon said of Psalm 27, It is a psalm of cheerful hope, well fitted for those in trial, who have learned to lean upon the Almighty Arm. I have learned to lean on that Almighty Arm in many occasions.

God is a deliverer, but at times He doesn't deliver us out of our adverse circumstances or trial of life. But He is with us in that trial. He is there with us in that hospital bed when things look bleak and the news is bad.

He is with us at the grave of a loved one while tears stream down our cheeks. Psalm 27 ends with the words, Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord.

God will give grace to the sunny day Christian and grow that person over time into a God-centered Christian who knows that no matter how bad things get, there is always a God in heaven who loves us and hears our prayers. And though He will sovereignly place us in our time of trouble, He will make us more Christ-like as He brings us to our expected end. Psalm 27 goes hand in hand with Romans 8.28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.