These verses are quite familiar for me because at many funerals they end up being words to focus on at the beginning of the service. At the top of the bulletin these words sit as people gather to mourn and to celebrate.
These words remind us of the support, care, and love that we find in our relationship with God, especially in those hardest of times in our lives. Whom shall we fear? When we have the light of God to chase away the darkness of our lives, when we have the salvation found in Christ to bring us back even when we go over the edge, whom shall we fear? These words remind us that even when we have lost so much, when we feel that all has been taken away from us, we still have the light that shines in and through us, a light that warms and guides.
So often we carry the weight of our grief or our struggles on our own, forgetting that God offers us relief. We forget that Christ walks beside us, offering to share our burdens. Let us turn to our God, the one who never let’s darkness have the final word, even unto and beyond death.
Let us pray
Psalm 27:1, 4
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.
Protecting God, walk with us in days that are filled with uncertainty and loss. Shed your light and reveal the way before us, and in those times when the fog and darkness persists, speak to us, call us on, remind us that you are near, that even in uncertainty, we have nothing to fear. We offer this and all our prayers in the name of Christ, our light and our way. AMEN
Blessings,
Rev. Richard