...whom shall I fear?

"The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is
the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"-Psalm 27:1

"The Lord is my light and my salvation." Here is personal interest, "my
light," "my salvation"; the soul is assured of it, and therefore
declares it boldly. Into the soul at the new birth divine light is poured as
the precursor of salvation; where there is not enough light to reveal
our own darkness and to make us long for the Lord Jesus, there is no
evidence of salvation. After conversion our God is our joy, comfort,
guide, teacher, and in every sense our light: He is light within, light
around, light reflected from us, and light to be revealed to us. Note, it
is not said merely that the Lord gives light, but that He is light; nor
that He gives salvation, but that He is salvation; he, then, who by
faith has laid hold upon God, has all covenant blessings in his
possession. This being made sure as a fact, the argument drawn from it is put in
the form of a question, "Whom shall I fear?" A question which is its
own answer. The powers of darkness are not to be feared, for the L!
ord, our light, destroys them; and the damnation of hell is not to be
dreaded by us, for the Lord is our salvation. This is a very different
challenge from that of boastful Goliath, for it rests, not upon the
conceited vigour of an arm of flesh, but upon the real power of the
omnipotent I AM. "The Lord is the strength of my life." Here is a third
glowing epithet, to show that the writer's hope was fastened with a
threefold cord which could not be broken. We may well accumulate terms of
praise where the Lord lavishes deeds of grace. Our life derives all its
strength from God; and if He deigns to make us strong, we cannot be
weakened by all the machinations of the adversary. "Of whom shall I be
afraid?" The bold question looks into the future as well as the present. "If
God be for us," who can be against us, either now or in time to come?