The Days of Teshuvah begin tonight at sundown, so we’ll call this post, Day Zero.
Traditionally, Psalm 27 is read each of the forty days. It’s a short 14 verses, so let’s break that down and see how it’s a call to return to God.
Psalm 27
1 By David. YHWH is my light and my salvation, whom do I fear?
YHWH is the strength of my life, of whom am I afraid?
2 When evildoers come near to me to eat my flesh,
my adversaries and my enemies to me,
they have stumbled and fallen.
3 Though a host encamps against me, my heart does not fear,
Though war rises up against me, in this I am confident.
4 One thing I asked of YHWH – It I seek:
My dwelling in the house of YHWH, all the days of my life,
to look on the pleasantness of YHWH, and to inquire in His temple.
5 For He hides me in a dwelling place in the day of evil,
He hides me in a secret place of His tent,
He raises me up on a rock.
6 And now my head is lifted up, above my enemies – my surrounders,
and I sacrifice in His tent sacrifices of shouting,
I sing, indeed, I sing praise to YHWH.
7 Hear, O YHWH, my voice – I call,
and favor me, and answer me.
8 My heart said to You,
“They sought my face, Your face, O YHWH, I seek.”
9 Do not hide your face from me, do not turn Your servant aside in anger,
You have been my help, do not leave me, nor forsake me, O God my salvation.
10 When my father and my mother have forsaken me,
then YHWH gathers me.
11 Show me, O YHWH, Your way, and lead me in a path of uprightness,
for the sake of my beholders (enemies).
12 Do not give me to the will of my adversaries,
for false witnesses have risen against me,
and they breathe out violence to me.
13 I had not believed to look on the goodness of YHWH
in the land of the living!
14 Look to YHWH – be strong, and He strengthens your heart.
Indeed, look to YHWH.
The first six verses sing to YHWH as the strength and salvation of the psalmist’s life. He is not afraid. He will not fear. He is confident that YHWH will hide him and protect him from his enemies. He desires to live all of his days in the tent of YHWH and offer sacrifices of shouting and praise to the Most High. That is the confidence and desire we should have when coming to YHWH with the words of the rest of this psalm.
In verse seven, the psalmist pleads for YHWH to hear his voice. Verse eight speaks of his heart’s desire to seek YHWH’s face. There is a yearning in verse nine for YHWH not to turn aside in anger or forsake the psalmist. This would only happen when God turns from us because of our sins. There is the understanding that the psalmist is asking for forgiveness and a restoration of salvation.
The last four verses cry for YHWH to save the psalmist from his enemies. Verse thirteen appears to say that the psalmist didn’t believe he could look for the goodness of YHWH. What he is really saying is that the violence that his enemies had spoken against him had weakened him to the point of doubting to look for the goodness of God in his life. But through his confidence in YHWH, he tells us in verse fourteen to be strong and look to YHWH to strengthen our hearts.
Verse eleven is the key to these forty days of teshuvah. He says to YHWH, “Show me Your way.” The ways of YHWH are the paths to righteousness. As these forty days progress, we will see what the psalmist has to say about the ways of the Father and how important they are in our return toward Him.
Day 1 begins tonight.