[0:00] Good evening, it's good for us to be able to come together and worship again in this way.
[0:25] And we begin this time of worship by singing to God's praise from Psalm 138, we'll sing verses 1 to 5. Psalm 138, verses 1 to 5.
[0:37] Thee will I praise with all my heart. I will sing praise to thee before the gods and worship will toward thy sanctuary. I'll praise thy name even for thy truth and kindness of thy love.
[0:50] For thy word has magnified all thy great name above. Down to the end of verse 5 and after we've sung this Psalm, Gordon MacLeod will lead us in prayer.
[1:00] Thee will I praise with all my heart. I will sing praise to thee before the gods.
[1:26] And worship will toward thy sanctuary.
[1:38] I'll praise thy name even for thy truth and kindness of thy love.
[1:59] For thou thy word has magnified all thy great name above.
[2:17] Thou didst me answer in the day when I to thee did cry.
[2:37] And thou my fainting soul with strength did strengthen inwardly.
[2:55] All kings upon the earth that are shall give thee praise, O Lord.
[3:15] When as they from thy mouth shall hear thy true and faithful word.
[3:35] Yea, in the righteous ways of God.
[3:46] With gladness they shall sing. For great's the glory of the Lord who doth forever reign.
[4:16] Let us bow in prayer. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you that we can come before you this night. And we can come, Heavenly Father, and we can sing your praise.
[4:30] For you are indeed a God that is worthy of all glory, honour and praise. And we thank you that we can sing your praise.
[5:04] Jesus. So as we come and as we listen to your word this night. As we come into your presence. As we come and as we still our hearts before you.
[5:16] We pray that we would indeed meditate on that truth this night. That we come before a God of love. We come before a God that gave up his only son.
[5:27] That our sins that are red as crimson. That our sins that are red as crimson. Can be washed as white as snow in the blood of the Lamb. So we pray that each one of us.
[5:39] Whatever situation that we face at this time. That we would indeed be still before you. And that we would listen to your still small voice.
[5:50] Speaking to us through your word. That as your word is broken down to us. That each one of us, Heavenly Father, would listen for your word of encouragement.
[6:03] Your word of correction. Your word of direction. That, Heavenly Father, but most of all that we would hear. Your word to our heart this night.
[6:16] To come unto you. That your arms are open. And you seek, Heavenly Father, to take our burdens. So whatever our burdens are this night.
[6:29] Help us to take them to you. And to leave them with you. That, Heavenly Father, all that troubles our heart. That we would not seek to carry it on our own.
[6:39] Lord, Heavenly Father, that we would come before you as a God of love. A God that hears and answers prayer. A God that seeks to minister to the needs of each and every one of us.
[6:57] So, Heavenly Father, if we are sick this night. May we come before you and know your hand of healing. Your hand stayed upon us. If we are mourning, may we know your hand of comfort.
[7:12] And, Heavenly Father, if we are feeling lost and lonely. May we come to the one that offers the greatest love. The greatest love that man lay down his life for his friends.
[7:27] And that promise that you will never leave us. That you will never forsake us. That you have given us a comforter in the Holy Spirit. To walk with us.
[7:40] And, Heavenly Father, as the psalmist said. That even through the valley of the shadow of death. That you are there and your rod and your staff, the guide and the comfort. That you are there and your heart.
[7:51] That you are there and your heart. That you are there and your heart. So, we come before you this night. And we cast all before you. Crying out to you that we would know your help.
[8:05] Heavenly Father, we thank you that we have once again been able to open up the church. And, even as we gathered here this morning and heard your word.
[8:16] Both in song and in reading and in proclamation. We pray, Heavenly Father, that each one of us. Would indeed rejoice. In knowing that we can come to you.
[8:30] No matter what our situation is this night. So, as we come into your presence once again. Heavenly Father, may we indeed.
[8:42] Listen to what the psalmist said to us. And, what now you have laid upon the heart of David. To speak to us this night. And, that each and every one of us would apply it to our own hearts.
[8:57] To our own situation. And, Heavenly Father, that your word speaks to us all as individuals. And, your word is indeed timely. And, your word goes forth and it will accomplish all that you have predestined for it to do.
[9:17] But, your call to each one of us. Is to come unto me. Oh, Heavenly Father, we pray that we would indeed come to you. And, that we would know the blessing of gathering together this night.
[9:31] Worshipping you. Of singing your praise. But, most of all, of hearing from you. In Jesus' precious name. Amen.
[9:42] Well, let's turn now to the psalm that we sang. Psalm 138. And, we'll read the whole of this psalm. This is God's word. The psalm of David.
[9:53] I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart. Before the gods, I will sing your praise. I will bow down towards your holy temple. And, will praise your name.
[10:04] For your love and your faithfulness. For you have exalted above all things your name and your word. When I called, you answered me. You made me bold and stout-hearted.
[10:16] May all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord. When they hear the words of your mouth. May they sing the ways of the Lord. For the glory of the Lord is great. Though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly.
[10:29] But the proud he knows from afar. Though I walk in the midst of trouble. You preserve my life. You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes. With your right hand you save me.
[10:42] The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Your love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not abandon the works of your hands. And we'll pray as we come back to this passage.
[10:56] Lord God, we do thank you once more for your word which we have sung. And which we have read. And which we now seek your help as we meditate upon. May we know the help of the Holy Spirit.
[11:08] May he be our teacher. May our hearts be stirred, we pray. May our eyes open to see the truth of all that you reveal to us of yourself. And of who we are in our need in this passage.
[11:21] May our ears be unblocked. May our minds be cleared of all that would distract us. In order that we may focus on the person of Christ.
[11:32] And the word of God. So help us, Lord, we pray. And what we pray for ourselves. We pray for the congregations around us. Who have met and who do meet in the course of the day.
[11:43] Here and across the nation. Across all nations. Wherever Christ crucified is preached. We ask, Lord, that you would be at work. And we pray on for our young people as well.
[11:54] Those who will meet at the YF later this evening. We ask, Lord, that you would be working in their midst. And that many of our young people in their early days would come to know the Saviour.
[12:08] And walk close with you all the days of their lives. So hear our prayers and help us, we ask. For Jesus' sake. Amen. Ministry is a very varied life and job.
[12:21] And you meet all kinds of people. And sometimes people say slightly unusual things to you. Odd things to you when you're a minister.
[12:32] And as I was preparing this psalm. My mind went back to a conversation with a woman at a church service in Torridon. I can't remember her name.
[12:46] But I remember she was a very warm, outgoing, cheerful African woman. Who'd come visiting to a service. And she'd come from a charismatic church.
[12:57] And after the service and the conversation, we talked about various things. And as it was coming towards an end, she said to me, You know, you need to become a bit more like a fruit salad bowl.
[13:10] And I looked at her and I just had no idea what she was talking about. She says, you know, fruit salad bowl. The glass ones, transparent.
[13:22] You can look into them and you can see all the way through. You need to become a bit more like that. Show people what's on the inside.
[13:34] Don't be afraid to show your emotions. Tell us what you're thinking. And so I moved away at high speed very uncomfortably. But I suppose what she was saying was, Be more open.
[13:49] Tell us. Tell us what's going on inside. And that's what David does in the psalm. Psalm 138. The first thing we see in the psalm is it's a personal psalm.
[14:04] And if you look at verses 1 to 3, that's the first main section that we find within the psalm. And if you just glance down these verses, just note how many times David the psalmist says, I and me.
[14:22] It's very personal. It's very personal.
[14:48] Now when we say I and when we talk about me, very often we have the wrong focus. We're focusing on ourselves.
[15:00] But not David in the psalm. As he uses the word I and as he speaks about himself, his focus is not on himself. His focus is on God.
[15:11] He's sharing with us something of his walk with God. And that's both an encouragement to us, and I think it's a right thing for him and for us to do.
[15:25] We often confuse personal with private, which tends to make us clam up rather than share with each other what God is saying to us and what God is doing in our own lives.
[15:42] Even if we go back to a few decades and years gone by, it wouldn't be unusual for somebody to come to you and to say, how's your soul?
[15:55] And there would be a readiness to answer questions like that. But today I think if somebody came and asked you, how's your soul? Are you growing in grace?
[16:07] The response would tend to be more along the lines of, I beg your pardon? That's a very intrusive question.
[16:20] Not sure I want to answer that. But actually these questions are not intrusive questions. Jesus, as we look in on his time with the disciples, Jesus asked the disciples repeatedly very personal questions.
[16:38] Think about what he said to Peter, Jesus. He said, who do you say that I am? And the disciples, as they related to each other, they asked each other very personal questions.
[16:53] That's the nature of discipleship. We're to encourage each other, we're told. But we'll encourage each other best when we are open enough with each other to see when there's a need for encouragement.
[17:09] We're told elsewhere in Scripture that we're to keep each other sharp and accountable like iron sharpens iron. But for that to actually work, there needs to be a willingness to be open with each other.
[17:22] And the psalmist, David, here, he models that. He opens up a page in his spiritual diary, his spiritual journal for us. And so I want to look in this opening section, which is our longest section within the psalm.
[17:37] I want us to look at what we see in terms of David's walk with God. And the first thing that we see in this personal section of this psalm is that there's a determination in David's walk with God.
[17:53] He says in verse 1, I will praise you, O Lord. And so we see right from the beginning here that David, in praising God, he engages the will.
[18:06] He doesn't wait for a movement in his emotions. He says in this psalm, and he says in numerous other occasions through the psalter, I will praise you.
[18:17] There's a determination in these words. And if we look into this psalm, and if we try to think into David's life, we can see that this was not an easy time in David's life.
[18:30] He's very aware of his enemies. We get that sense as the psalm progresses. The commentators think he's likely on the run from King Saul at this point in his life.
[18:41] His life is under attack. He's not on a spiritual mountaintop. He's not in a place of comfort and safety. He may not have felt, as he is on the run for his life, he may not have felt very emotionally driven to praise.
[18:58] But he knows God. And he knows that this God is worthy of praise. And so he says, in part to his own heart, he says, I will praise you, O Lord.
[19:18] There's a determination about his walk with God and his praise of God. And the application here is very predictable. The application here is we're to be like David.
[19:33] We're to praise God, not only when we feel like it, but also when we may not feel like it. We're to engage our will day by day. We're to determine with the psalmist to praise the Lord.
[19:49] So that's the first thing we see in this personal psalm, in this personal walk, there's a determination. The second thing we see here is that there's a devotion in David's walk with God.
[20:01] He says, I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart. There's no reserve about what David says. It's with all my heart that he's praising the Lord.
[20:12] Calvin says, David's thanksgiving will not be with his lips only, but with his whole heart, meaning with a sincere, undivided heart.
[20:26] Last weekend, late on, on Saturday night, we had a pipe burst. And so we began to see water in the ceiling, the damp patch in the ceiling, and then starting to come down the wall.
[20:38] And so a plumber was called in. There was nothing obvious to see at first, but he brought out some kind of device, and he was holding it up against the wall, and he was holding it up against the ceiling, and it was giving him a picture of where there was heat behind the walls and under the floorboards as he was trying to find where the pipes were and where the leak might be.
[21:01] This device enabled him to see behind the walls that we couldn't see through. And I wonder, as the Lord looks into our lives and into our hearts, is there that heat of genuine, wholehearted praise that can be seen under the surface of an outward appearance?
[21:26] Remember, man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And in David's heart, there was a devotion. He was praising the Lord with all his heart.
[21:43] Another picture of what that looks like could be found in John chapter 12. Remember, the woman who anoints Jesus with the nard, the expensive perfume.
[21:55] It's worth a year's wages, we're told. Very expensive family heirloom, likely. And yet she comes in to Jesus, and she pours it.
[22:06] She anoints Jesus. She pours it over Jesus. All of it. Not a few grudging drops. But she pours out the whole thing. Which spoke about the devotion of her heart.
[22:21] David, he is determined in his walk with God to praise the Lord. He is devoted. He's praising the Lord with all his heart. The third thing we see in David's personal walk with God is that there's a defiance as he looks in the direction of other gods.
[22:40] He says in verse 1 still, Before the gods, I will sing your praise. Before the gods, small g, false gods. I will sing your praise.
[22:52] The praise of the one true God. And it reminds me of that scene that we can think of in 1 Kings 18.
[23:03] Elijah versus the prophets of Baal. There's a battle going on. And in one corner, we have the false god, Baal.
[23:14] And 450 of his prophets. And in the other corner, there's the one true God, Jehovah. And Elijah. And there is this contest.
[23:26] Almost between the one true God and the false God with his army of prophets. And I'll just read a few verses from that chapter.
[23:37] 1 Kings 18. And in verse 26, we have this picture of these false prophets. And they're calling on the name of Baal from morning till noon.
[23:48] Baal, answer us, they shouted. But there was no response. No one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. They're calling down fire. At noon, Elijah began to taunt them.
[24:01] Shout louder, he said. Surely he, says Baal, is a god? Perhaps he is deep in thought. Or busy. Or traveling. Maybe he's sleeping and must be awakened.
[24:13] So they shouted louder. And slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until the blood flowed. Midday passed. And they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice.
[24:28] But there was no response. No one answered. No one paid attention. Because the god that these prophets were calling out to was a small g-god.
[24:45] A god that wasn't a god at all. Elijah's god was the one true god. And in that account, you can read it yourselves afterwards, where the name of the one true god has been called into question.
[25:00] And the name of the false god Baal is being proclaimed. Elijah, he's defiant. He doesn't go into some kind of multi-faith mode.
[25:12] He doesn't say, well, you know, we all worship the one god after all, don't we? Because he knows that's not true. He doesn't say, well, let's just hold hands and have a big prayer that goes up somewhere.
[25:27] No, he defies the false gods. And he praises the one true god before them all. There's something of that in this psalm.
[25:39] David is defiant. Before the gods, I will sing your praise, he says. I think we have a great technique there.
[25:51] to import into our own lives when we're dealing with idolatry. Because we all have to deal with idolatry. We don't have the false god Baal to deal with, but we are all aware of the draw of idols.
[26:08] Whether it's money, or whether it's that want to be popular, whether it's our work, or whether it's looking for approval from other people, whether it's possessions, material things.
[26:25] And these are some of the false gods of our day. And we feel the pull towards them. So what are we to do when we feel the pull and we're aware of these false gods? Well, looking at this psalm, we're to sing praises to the one true God before them.
[26:44] We're not just to look away from false gods, but we're to look in worship and sing praise to the one true God.
[26:58] The hymn puts it well. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth, the small gods, the false gods of earth, will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.
[27:19] So there's a defiance of other gods as David walks with the one true God. There's that devotion, that wholehearted praise. There's that determination. I will praise, he says.
[27:31] The fourth thing here in David's walk with God is there's a discipline in his walk with God. He says in verse 2, I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.
[27:53] I will bow down, says David, towards your holy temple and praise your name for your love and your faithfulness.
[28:03] Now it takes discipline to bow down when our self wants always to be rising up. It takes discipline to praise God's name when we like our name to be praised.
[28:20] It takes discipline to have God's name and God's word exalted above all things in our lives, including our personal interests and ambitions.
[28:35] And if we get very practical and even think about the mundane daily things, it takes discipline to lift up the Bible rather than lifting up our devices.
[28:47] It takes discipline to speak to God in prayer rather than speaking to six other people on WhatsApp. And yet, that's what David models in this psalm.
[29:02] There's a fierce discipline that we see in his walk with God. The final thing we see in David's walk with God here is he's aware of his deliverance by God from many troubles over the years.
[29:25] He reflects back on his past experiences and he says in verse 3, When I called, you answered me. You made me bold and stout-hearted.
[29:38] And as we've gone through this altar over a couple of years now, I think, we can think about many, many occasions when David was in trouble and he called out to God and God answered him, God delivered him.
[29:55] David speaks about encountering bears and lions, wild animals when he's on the hill as a shepherd. He calls out to God when he's in the midst of a battle and God helps him to overpower them.
[30:10] He'd faced Goliath, the Philistine giant. The odds stacked against little David, against this giant of a man. But with God's help, Goliath fell.
[30:26] And then as David was on the run from Saul and his army, there was time after time, occasion after occasion, where the Lord delivered him. So David could look back and he could see many, many reasons to praise God.
[30:43] He could think of many, many tokens of the love of God for him and the faithfulness of God to him. And as he reflects on that, these deliverances, he praises the Lord in this, in this psalm.
[31:02] But if we apply this to ourselves, and if we think back through our own lives, we have many occasions that we can think back to, I expect, when we can remember how we called out to the Lord and he answered us.
[31:21] Occasions in our circumstances when we were in trouble and we prayed, God heard and God answered. it. But then, if we think beyond our own lives and all the way back 2,000 years, we're taken to a cross.
[31:42] And at that cross, we see that the enemies of sin and Satan and death and hell, enemies that we had no hope of overcoming in our own strength, God overcame for us.
[31:56] God sent his son because he saw the trouble, the danger that we were in and the deliverance that was needed and so he sent his son, Jesus, to be our saviour, to be our deliverer.
[32:16] That's the message of Christmas that we will hopefully meditate upon through this month and we call upon the name of the Lord as the psalmist did we are promised.
[32:28] Everyone who calls in the name of the Lord will be saved, will be delivered through the finished work of Christ on the cross. And when we think upon that, when we meditate upon that, when we look back as David the psalmist looked back, then surely we can have at least as many reasons as the psalmist had to want to praise the Lord.
[32:57] Surely as we look back to the cross and to the empty tomb, we can know something of the boldness and the stout-heartedness of David.
[33:10] Romans 8 31. If God is for us, who can be against us? I think it was Ligon Duncan who said regarding this psalm, when we see the cross that David could not see, surely we're not going to let David outpraise us.
[33:34] So there's something of David's walk with God. This is a personal psalm, where he shares something in his own testimony of his walk with God.
[33:48] But the second thing we see here is that this is a universal psalm. In the first three verses, David, he opens up his spiritual diary, he shares his own experiences, he gives us a snapshot of his testimony.
[34:06] But some people might ask, well, why does he do that? I mean, is this really relevant to us? Why is he sharing these personal things? They may be sincere, they may be things that he went through, but why does he share that with us today?
[34:23] Are they relevant to us? And that's a fair question for us to ask, because we see things being shared today constantly that have very little relevance to us.
[34:36] We see on social media a constant feed of things that are being shared with us. people share photos with us almost day by day of what they ate for their lunch.
[34:50] People share their opinions with us on what they think about politics and current affairs and whatever is the talk of the day. People share pictures with us of what they're wearing that day.
[35:03] They tell us what they're thinking. And much of what we see on social media actually is of no great interest and has no great relevance to our lives. but this psalm and these experiences that David shares with us, this is relevant to us.
[35:22] Not just us, it's relevant to everyone, everywhere at every time, even the kings, those in authority, it's relevant to them. Verse 4, David says, May all the kings of the earth praise you, O Lord, when they hear the words of your mouth.
[35:40] earth. May they sing of the ways of the Lord, for the glory of the Lord is great. Derek Kidner says, David is shown the implication of what he has found in his own dark hour.
[35:56] The true God, and so wonderful a God, cannot be forever hidden, known only to a few. Every tongue must confess him, and his words must be spread throughout the earth.
[36:13] And that was David's conviction. He wants the God that he knows to be known, and heard, and worshipped by everyone, everywhere.
[36:28] And that's not simply David's present conviction. It's also his future assurance. he says in verse 4, the second half of verse 4, he talks about when they, the kings of the earth, when they hear the words of your mouth.
[36:46] There's a future focus to this. David has this awareness that everyone will ultimately hear the voice of God. He's fast forwarding to the judgment.
[37:01] He's thinking about this scene where every person will stand before God, even the kings of the earth. Everyone will give an account.
[37:17] So this psalm, it's a universal psalm. These truths that David shares, they're not simply his own personal experiences, they're of universal importance.
[37:33] think about cameras. We've seen cameras more than we wanted to in these past few months, but these cameras, they have different settings.
[37:45] You can zoom in and have a very narrow focus, or you can zoom out and have a wide, even a panoramic view.
[37:58] And this psalm has both. David zooms in and he shares with us that up-close vision of his own personal God, his personal walk with God.
[38:11] And then he zooms right out to show us that this God that he is in personal relationship with is the God of the universe. He's the God who is over every one of us.
[38:27] And what David begins to teach here in the Old Testament, the Apostle Paul continues with in the New Testament.
[38:39] Philippians chapter 2 verses 10 and 11, Paul says, At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.
[38:57] to the glory of God the Father. What we must see as we think about this psalm is that what we do with Jesus is actually the only thing that is universally relevant and crucial to every one of us.
[39:36] Because every one of us will stand before God and be asked that question, what did you do with my son? did you trust him? Did you bow before him?
[39:51] And the psalmist, he sees that in some measure in the psalm. He sees the universal importance of being right with God. And so he shares this not only with his close friends but he shares his experience, his walk with God with everybody throughout the ages.
[40:14] The question I want us to think about is do we see this as David saw it? Do we understand that this psalm and indeed the gospel of Jesus Christ, do we understand that this is a message, yes for North Harris but it's also a message for South America?
[40:34] It's a message for North Korea, it's a message for South Locks, it's a message for Romania, it's a message for Malawi and Iran and everywhere there's nowhere, there is no one that does not need to hear this message.
[40:57] And so do we follow the example of David and do we share testimony? Do we tell people about the God that we know?
[41:09] the God who so loved the world that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life? Do we encourage people?
[41:20] Do we point people? Do we challenge people on the subject of what they will do with Jesus? God is this prayer?
[41:32] Is this our prayer? Is this our prayer? Is this our purpose? it's a personal psalm?
[41:44] It is a universal psalm? And finally, briefly, it's a theological psalm? Or in other words, it's a psalm where God reveals himself to us.
[42:01] And the first thing that we see about God as he reveals himself to us through the psalmist here is that God is the God who watches us. Verse 6, though the Lord is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.
[42:24] And there's that very real sense in that verse that God is the God who watches us. So what's the application there?
[42:35] As we think about that, well, I think there's first of all, there's an encouragement in that truth, the fact that God watches us. There's an encouragement for the lowly to know that God, he doesn't overlook us, but he sees us.
[42:56] Warren Weerspey says to look upon the lowly means to pay attention to them and regard them with favor. The ultimate proof of this is the incarnation of Jesus Christ.
[43:10] For he became poor that we might become rich. He became a servant that we might be set free. He was lowly in his life and also in his death.
[43:22] For he who was perfect was treated like a criminal and nailed to a cross. And on that cross he became sin for us. our God he watches over the lowly.
[43:40] Those who know that we are poor, that we are sinful, that we are needy. He watches over, he sees, he cares for those who bow before him in reverence and in faith.
[43:54] There's encouragement in that if we are in that posture. But there's another side to this, isn't there? There's encouragement for the lowly but there's also a warning for those who are proud.
[44:09] And the warning there is the same warning, it's that warning that God sees us. God sees you. Yes, he may be on high but the proud he knows, he watches from afar.
[44:32] He knows the words that the proud speak. He sees their movements. He understands their schemes and even the motivation behind these schemes.
[44:45] Sometimes we look at the world and we think that evil men, proud men, they get away with whatever they want to get away with. No one sees, no one's watching. But God is watching from afar and every one will stand before him and give an account.
[45:05] So we see that God is the God who watches us. The second thing we see here is that God is the God who walks with us.
[45:16] Verse 7, though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life, you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes, with your right hand you save me.
[45:29] And this, as we've said already, this was David's past experience on many occasions God had preserved his life. And this was still David's present confidence.
[45:41] He's still in trouble, he still has lots of things that he could be worried about, but he anticipates, he believes, that God will save him. Eveson, the commentator, says, while walking through trouble and feeling the heat from the wrath of his enemies, he is assured that God will preserve his life.
[46:05] Calvin says, though in the world believers are exposed to enemies, David knows God will keep him safe, as his invisible right hand is always victorious.
[46:17] We must learn, says Calvin, in life's alarms, to hide under his wings, and there rest in tranquility. We have a God who walks with us, and that should be of great comfort to us, to know that we have a God who walks through this life with us, and he's honest with us, he doesn't tell us there will be no trouble.
[46:45] in fact, Jesus promises, John 16 verse 33, in this world you will have trouble, but he walks with us in it, and Jesus is the one who has overcome the world.
[47:05] God, we have a God who walks with us in life, and there's comfort in that, and yet perhaps there's even more comfort in knowing that we have a God who walks with us, not only in life, but in death, and through death.
[47:28] It's the message of Psalm 23, which we'll have at the end. even in death's dark veil, our God is able to stretch out his hand against the angry foe of death and save us in Christ.
[47:50] The God who walks with us, the God who watches over us, and finally, the God who works in us.
[48:01] Verse 8, The Lord will fulfill his purpose for me. Your love, O Lord, endures forever. Do not abandon the work of your hands.
[48:15] As we look at that verse, we ask the question, what is God's purpose for us? Does he have a purpose for us? Well, we know from the breadth of scripture that he has a purpose for us, and God's purpose for us is that we will know him.
[48:36] That we will know and feel and receive and benefit from his enduring love. And this psalm is a psalm that points us throughout the psalm to the work of salvation.
[48:53] And that saving work of enduring love, God, he did not abandon it. But we see Jesus coming from glory to this sin broken world.
[49:09] We see him persevering right to the cross. And on that cross, remember what he cried out?
[49:21] It is finished. the work of salvation was not abandoned. It was finished for us. We simply have to believe.
[49:35] And then the work of sanctification, making us more like Jesus, refining us, molding us and conforming us to the image of Jesus the Son.
[49:47] That's a work that goes on. it's a lifelong work. Sometimes it moves at pace. God works in us in an accelerated way for a season.
[49:59] And sometimes it slows right down. But I think the encouragement for us to know is that the work God is doing in us, he will not abandon.
[50:16] John Newton said, His love in times past forbids me to think, he'll leave me at last in trouble to sink. His love in times past forbids me to think, he'll leave me at last in trouble to sink.
[50:38] Philippians chapter 1 verse 6, the Apostle Paul says, He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion. until the day of Christ Jesus.
[50:52] So we see here that our God is a God who works in us. We see that our God is a God who walks with us. We see that he's a God who watches over us.
[51:07] He's the God whom everyone, everywhere, universally, will stand before. God. And he's the God who calls us into that personal, saving, sanctifying relationship with him that has been made possible in and through Jesus.
[51:27] God. Let's pray for a moment. Lord God, we thank you for this psalm. We thank you for the psalmist and how he shared with us of his walk with you.
[51:41] And we pray that each one of us would know the assurance that we are walking with you, that you are walking with us in life, through death, into life that is everlasting.
[51:53] we thank you that that walk with God is made possible in and through Jesus. And we pray that each one of us would know the assurance of that.
[52:05] And we pray this in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Amen. Amen. 여기 있는 Sheol Như
[53:08] Thank you.
[53:38] Thank you.
[54:08] Thank you. Thank you.
[54:40] Thank you. Thank you.
[55:12] Thank you. And I may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all, both now and forevermore.
[56:04] Amen