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in your Bibles to Psalm 94. Psalm 94. I do apologize if any 
of those hymns were unfamiliar to you. I think there were some 
new ones in there for some of us, but it's good to get out 
of our comfort zone sometimes too, so. Excuse me, so Psalm 94. I'll 
read, we'll read the Psalm. Psalm 94, O Lord God to whom 
vengeance belongs, O God to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth. 
Rise up, O judge of the earth, render punishment to the proud. 
Lord, how long will the wicked triumph? They utter speech and 
speak insolent things. All the workers of iniquity boast 
in themselves. They break in pieces your people, 
O Lord, and afflict your heritage. They slay the widow and the stranger 
and murder the fatherless. Yet, they say, the Lord does 
not see, nor does the God of Jacob understand. Understand, 
you senseless among the people, and you fools, when will you 
be wise? He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed 
the eye, shall he not see? He who instructs the nation, 
shall he not correct? He who teaches man knowledge, 
the Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are futile. Blessed 
is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your 
law, that you may give him rest from the days of adversity until 
the pit is dug for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast off 
his people, nor will he forsake his inheritance, but judgment 
will return to righteousness, and all the upright in heart 
will follow it. Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? 
Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless 
the Lord had been my help, my soul would soon have settled 
in silence. If I say, my foot slips, your mercy, O Lord, will 
hold me up. In the multitude of my anxieties 
within me, your comforts delight my soul. Shall the throne of 
iniquity, which devises evil by law, have fellowship with 
you? They gather together against the life of the righteous and 
condemn innocent blood. But the Lord has been my defense, 
and my God the rock of my refuge, and he has brought on them their 
own iniquity, and shall cut them off in their own wickedness. 
The Lord our God shall cut them off. Amen. Now let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we do come 
before you now, and Lord, we ask your blessing upon us as 
we look at this passage of scripture. Lord, we do pray that your spirit 
be here among us to open our hearts, to see the beauties of 
the truths contained in your word as we have just sung to 
admire the beauty of Jehovah. And Lord, we do desire this evening 
that your people here would be edified as we look at these truths 
here, that they would be be strengthened in our faith as we find ourselves 
with the psalmist here in such similar situations. And Lord, 
we just thank You for the comfort that Your Word affords us. And 
Lord, I pray that You would bless us now, that You would open our 
hearts to receive these things. Lord, we pray Your blessing in 
the administering of the Word, that You would fill with Your 
Holy Spirit to rightly proclaim the truth as it is in Your Word. 
So Lord, we pray all this in the name of our Savior, Your 
Son, the Lord Jesus. Amen. So Psalm 94 is, if you're 
familiar at all with the Hebrew language in any way, not necessarily 
limited to the Hebrew, but there's a poetry form, what they call 
a chiasm. Now, a chiasm is a structure 
in which you sort of have a, it's typically drawn out in a 
descending order, and then it goes back the other way, in the 
sense that the first section then parallels the last, and 
it works towards a fulcrum. You have the first section in 
our psalm here in verses 1 to 3. We have a cry for justice, 
and then it parallels the last section of verses 20 to 23, justice 
administered. So, first I'll give the outline 
of the psalm here, but just see if you can see the chiasm here, 
how as the descending points, they sort of mirror one another. 
So, we have verse 1 to 3, we have a cry for justice. Verses 
4 through 7, we have the oppressors of the people of God. Verses 
8 through 11, we have the folly of the deniers of God. So now 
we sort of come to the fulcrum. Verse 11 gives us the fulcrum. 
And then in verses 12 to 13, we have the wisdom of the people 
of God. And verses 14 to 19, the defender 
of the people of God. And then verse 20 to 23, justice 
administered. So you can see how they go together. 
Cry for justice with justice administered. Opening and closing 
we have the oppressors of the people of God And and and then 
counter to that we have the defender of the people of God We have 
the folly of the deniers of God and we have the wisdom of the 
people of God now Of course when we look at the wisdom of the 
people of God, we're gonna see how that's a divinely given wisdom There 
but but you can see how that is that that's the structure 
of this psalm here. We call it a chiasm so as we 
as we go through then we can we'll we will note how how these 
things are mirroring how they're how they're they're yeah a reflection 
of Of them of the points here. There's the sections So this 
song is is often attributed to David. We don't know for sure 
the Septuagint attributes it to David Others think it may 
be written by someone who was in exile in Babylon, perhaps. Again, we don't really know. 
We see that definitely the oppression of the people of God by tyrants, 
the wicked, those who are oppressing God's people. But again, we don't 
know exactly who the author is, but we understand the situation 
here of the people of God being oppressed by wicked men. in uh 
in in verses one to three then we have this the the cry for 
the cry for justice so so he begins here oh lord god to whom 
justice belongs oh god to him or to him sorry vengeance belongs 
oh god to him vengeance belong shine shine forth so so so so 
literally he's he's um he's saying oh oh god of vengeance oh yahweh 
god of vengeance shine shine forth so he's he's calling him 
the the god of vengeance. He's appealing to Yahweh, to 
the God of Israel. He knows Yahweh is a righteous 
judge. He understands that God judges justly and that he will 
not let sin go unpunished. So now he's calling out to Yahweh 
to come and to shine forth, he says here. So he's crying out 
to God. He looks around at the situation. 
And it looks like the wicked are triumphing, we see in verse 
3 there. And it's, you know, where are 
you, God? Why do the wicked prosper? We 
see that elsewhere in the scriptures as well. Why are the wicked prospering? 
So he cries out, Lord, show your face, we could say, maybe, you 
know, shine forth, display your justice. And again, in verse 
2 again, rise up, O judge of the earth. So, he's saying, you 
know, where is God now? Why are the wicked prospering? 
Isn't God the, you know, he's the righteous judge of all the 
earth. What's, you know, calling God to come, arise, O Lord. How long, Yahweh, will the wicked 
triumph, he says here in verse 3. So, you know, he looks around 
at his current situation. You know, the wicked are in control. They're, you know, they're in 
power and they, They are making life miserable for the people 
of God. We'll see that in a minute, once he gets into the description 
of these oppressors. But they're making life miserable, 
they're oppressing the people of God. And so, again, he's crying 
out, where are you, Lord? Rise up, shine forth, administer 
your perfect justice, where you judge justly upon these men. And then his request here is 
that he renders punishment to the proud. The idea of rendering 
punishment there is one of turning back, the word literally means 
to turn back upon them their evil deeds that they are doing. 
So render recompense for their wickedness. And again, we see, 
it's not hard to to see the parallel with where 
we find ourselves today. We find ourselves in a very similar 
situation. Those who are in power, by and 
large, are against God, against His laws. They're against those 
who want to uphold God's laws and stand for those laws. You 
know, like the psalmist, we ought to be crying out with the same 
cry. How long, O Lord? How long will 
you let this go on? Rise up, shine forth in your 
righteous justice and render punishment to the proud, recompense 
for them, you know, turn back their deeds upon themselves. 
And again, I want to... I looked at Spurgeon, read a 
lot of Spurgeon on this psalm, and Spurgeon was excellent, as 
he always is, but on this psalm, now, I didn't fully understand 
the political climate that Spurgeon was in, but you could really 
tell that whatever political climate was for Spurgeon at the 
time, this spoke a lot to him there, that he was, you know, 
there seemed to be, you know, the wicked were triumphing, the 
wicked were in power of some sort, And Spurgeon was, you could 
really see that there. But he says here, and again, 
remember Spurgeon, this is 160 plus years ago. Spurgeon says, 
truly in these evil days, we need a manifest display of his 
power for the ancient enemies of God and man are again struggling 
for the mastery. And if they gain it, woe unto 
the saints of God. So that's, we don't necessarily 
have the physical persecution like they do in many places in 
the world, obviously. We still have quite relative 
safety and peace, the ability to come and worship together 
here generally. We've seen that infringed upon, 
of course, in the last couple of years. But yeah, we still 
need, like Spurgeon says here, we ought to be crying out to 
God for a manifestation of this power before it comes to that. We can be praying to God for 
that. And again, this is not just limited to wicked rulers 
and political powers. This is, you know, this is anyone 
who is oppressing God's people, you know, be it individually 
oppressing you, be it, you know, we see that in, you know, often 
in our prayer meetings, just rogue people. And Nigeria is 
a prime example of that. These rogue Thalani herdsmen 
that are oppressing the people of God. in a great way there. 
So it's not just limited to political powers. That's not the point 
of the psalm, that's not the point of my sermon here, where 
we're just limiting it to those who are the powers that be at 
this point in time. But again, as Spurgeon says, 
we should be crying out for this justice of the Lord God, that 
He would take vengeance on these people, the wicked rulers, those 
who oppress the people of God, before it gets worse. And again, we cry out to God 
for vengeance and God to rule in justice and take vengeance 
upon those who afflict his people. But again, we often think, as 
our brother prayed this evening, that when we pray for those wicked 
leaders, we do pray for their redemption as well. We don't 
just simply pray that God would just come and just strike them 
dead. We pray for their redemption, that God would come and God would 
save them. But yet, we also can pray, like 
the psalmist here and elsewhere prays, for their restraint, restrain 
them in their wickedness or where they would be hindered, prohibited 
from carrying out their wickedness upon the people of God. And then 
we also pray for their removal, that God would remove them from 
the power, be it a political power, and also whether it's 
politically or whether it's just the ability for them to carry 
out their wickedness. And we pray that God would, as 
the psalmist prays here, that God would turn their own wickedness 
back on themselves. So the wickedness that they are 
propagating becomes the means for their very demise. And they're 
falling from power and falling from the ability to harm the 
people of God. So that is the plea for justice, 
the cry for justice, for God's vengeance. And then we have now 
in verse 7 this description of these oppressors of the people 
of God. Here in verses 4 through 7. So 
he says they He's basically, what he's doing 
is saying, look at what they're doing to your people, Lord. Not that 
the Lord doesn't know, but yet again, he's bringing it before 
God and saying, look at what they're doing here, Lord. He 
says, they utter speech and they speak insolent things in verse 
four. So, uttering speech, it's literally, 
it's a pouring forth. That's kind of the word there. It's a relentless pouring forth 
of this insolent speech against the people of God, this arrogant, 
Insulting speech against the people of God and it's just it's 
you know It's it's a you know rather than just leaving them 
alone leaving them to be like we you know We we would we would 
request our pastor off and says we just want to be left alone 
That's you know, but rather, you know, they these these wicked 
there, you know They're just pouring forth this insolent speech against 
the against the people of God there and again I think you know, 
I don't want to I don't want to constantly go back to our 
political our political situation. But, you know, we find right 
now ourselves in a political situation where our leader, our 
prime minister, says that Christians are the worst part of society, 
I think is how it went. And there's this constant attack 
against those who would seek to uphold God's laws, seek to, 
in terms of marriage, in terms of sexual and gender, all those 
types of things, those who want to hold a biblical Biblical understanding 
of those things. There's just this relentless 
attack upon upon that, you know So and then we have the the you 
know, and then he says all the workers of iniquity boast in 
themselves I think that's you know, that's again is just so 
so typical it doesn't it doesn't really need much explanation 
or just that that pride that the arrogance the the the hubris 
of the Of these these wicked ones who you know as they as 
they dare to to afflict dare to oppress dare to attack the 
people It takes a very, it takes a pretty proud person to go up 
against, you know, Yahweh, the Creator. And then, this is the psalmist's 
appeal, then, in verse 5 here. He says, they break in pieces 
your people, O Lord, and afflict your heritage. So, he's appealing 
to Yahweh, and he says, They're afflicting your people, your 
heritage. So we have to, again, we look 
at this as an old covenant setting here. We saw that very clearly 
this morning in the book of 1 Peter. These old covenant realities 
of the Israelites belonging to the people of God is directly 
applied in the book of 1 Peter to the church. So we can, you 
know, we see the parallel. We take these same things for 
ourself now as the people of God. But in the old covenant, 
we understand the nation of Israel was chosen by God to to be his 
own special people. This goes all the way back to 
Abraham in Genesis 12 and Genesis 11, I would say, hand in hand 
there with the nations, the dispersion of the nations at the Tower of 
Babel. And then in Genesis 12, we have God taking a nation and 
making for himself a nation, his own special people that he 
calls his inheritance. And in Deuteronomy 32, Moses 
is singing his song and he says that Yahweh's portion is his 
people and Jacob is the place of his inheritance. So God takes 
the nation of Israel as his inheritance, not that somebody gave the people 
to God in the sense that we think of inheritance that our father 
or whoever it may be gives us an inheritance. In this situation, 
it's God taking that and giving it to himself, his people. He's 
taken Israel and made them his own special people, and one above 
all the nations of the earth. That's the connection with the 
Tower of Babel there, is that we have all these nations and 
God chooses Israel for himself there. And he says very often 
in the Old Testament, in the Pentateuch, we find often there 
that in Exodus 19 verse 5, for one example, you shall be a special 
treasure to me above all people. So God has taken them and he's 
made them his special treasure, his inheritance, his people, 
the ones he has for his own special possession. And again, like I 
said, we saw that very clearly this morning in the book of 1 
Peter. Next week, Lord willing, we hope 
to look at that again, the second half of that there as the church, 
as the new covenant, people of God, the people of God. So we, 
that we are as believers in Christ, the true people of God, the God's 
special people. The same thing can be said to 
us, not just that God takes us, not God taking a nation and prospering 
them and protecting them and giving them a promised land, 
but God taking fallen sinful humans and men and women, boys 
and girls from every tribe, every tongue, people and nation and 
making them into his own special people that, again, He protects, 
He cares for, and they're not getting a promised land in terms 
of a plot of land in the Middle East, but they're getting an 
inheritance in heaven, in the new heavens, in the new earth. 
That's undefiled, uncorrupted, and will not fade away, as Peter 
says in chapter 1 of 1 Peter. So that is the psalmist's plea 
then here. As he cries out to Yahweh, he 
says, remember, we are your special people, Lord. And look what they're 
doing to us. We're the people that you have 
chosen to be yours. You promised you would never 
leave us or forsake us. You would always be there. And 
now look, they're oppressing us. So is this going to be enough 
to provoke your justice upon them? How long are these attacks 
going to go on against your people? And then we see in verse 6, he 
continues to explain what they're doing. They're slaying the widow 
and the stranger and murder the fatherless. So again, they're 
attacking the weak and the helpless. And the ones that are the most 
in need of compassion, the most obvious ones who we would have 
compassion on, they're the ones that they are attacking. And 
I think, again, it's just so clear. We see this so clear in 
our society. It is this relentless attack upon the pre-born children 
in the womb, on the elderly, now the infirm, now those with 
mental illnesses. They're the ones that are being 
attacked. They're the ones that we should 
be having the most compassion on and the most care for, the 
most protection over. Now they've become the target 
of these ungodly, wicked people. And again, in our society, it's 
all done under the guise of women's health and pro-choice, whatever, 
medical assistance and dying. These nice names that they couch 
it in to make it look like they're being very helpful and caring 
and all of this. But really, it's through all 
of history, We see that attack upon the children, 
upon the needy, upon the poor. And again, there's nothing new 
in our society as well. We find ourselves in the same 
situation. And again, I think we can look 
at this here where he says that they slay the widow and the stranger, 
stranger meaning foreigner, sojourner, one who's not part of the people 
of God, of the Israelites there. And I think we can apply that 
to our situation as well here, where it might not be that the 
wicked are oppressing Simply the church and only the Christians 
but but you know, we can we can cry out for justice in terms 
of you know The the innocent the the strangers the foreigners 
in terms of those who may not be Christians But yet are the 
weak of in society and and you know, the the elderly the the 
infirm the the unborn Those ones there so I think we can we can 
see that we can see that clearly here where he's the the psalmist 
is is crying out to God that's another reason for these for 
these wicked men to be to for God to to inflict his justice 
upon them. So, then we come to verse 7, and 
as we move on here, he says, yet they say, so this is their 
attitude as they do these things, these wicked men, they say, the 
Lord does not see, nor does the God of Jacob understand. So they, 
you know, this is what they're telling themselves as they carry 
out this wickedness. You know, God doesn't see, What 
I'm doing, he's not paying any attention to this. And then when 
they, when they, that, and that's what, that's in, in, at the end 
there, it says the God of Jacob does not understand. The idea 
is there is that, not that he's, he doesn't know, understand, 
comprehend, but he doesn't pay attention. He doesn't, he's not, 
he's not paying any attention to what is, what is, what is 
going on. God doesn't care. He's not concerned 
with them. So that's the lie that they're 
telling themselves. And then when they, when they tell themselves 
this lie, there's no restraint anymore to, to their wickedness. 
If God doesn't see what they're doing, then so they think, there's 
going to be no repercussions for their actions. And they obviously 
miss what the prophet said to King Asa in 2 Chronicles, that 
the eyes of Yahweh run to and fro throughout the whole earth. 
So they've missed that. They've told themselves otherwise 
there. And again, they're saying, They're 
saying here, you know, that Yahweh does not care for these people. 
He has no regard for them. You know, this God of the Israelites, 
you know, today we would say the God of the Christians, you 
know, He doesn't pay any attention to them. He's not concerned for 
them. He's probably just a figment 
of their imagination, whatever it may be, that they're saying, 
you know, if He is real, He's just a distant force out there 
somewhere. you know, these people are just 
pretending that they have this connection with Him, you know, 
but in reality, He's not interested in them. And again, that's where 
we find ourselves today. That's the lie out there, you 
know, that Yahweh, or God, you know, if He's real, maybe, but 
He's probably just a force somewhere out there. You know, if you think 
that you're having any sort of connection with Him, that's simply 
your imagination, whatever it may be. But there's no God. There's 
no God that pays attention to you or cares for you. Let's look 
at what the psalmist says here. He says, you have no idea who 
this God is, if that's how you think. So verses 8 to 11, we 
have the folly then of the deniers of God. So he says in verse 8, 
understand you senseless among the people. We might say that 
you most senseless of all people is what he's trying to say there. Just like the psalmist says in 
Psalm 14, Psalm 53, It's the fool who says that there's no 
God. So he's saying here, you fools, you senseless ones, when 
are you going to get it? Just think about it for a minute, 
he says here. He who planted the ear, shall he not hear? He's saying, look at your ears 
for a minute. Where do you think your ears 
came from? They didn't come from nothing, 
of course. Yahweh created those ears. So then do you not think 
that the one who can create ears and create hearing and the ability 
to hear, do you not think that he himself is not able then to, 
is not able to hear? Of course, of course not. Of 
course he can hear. Spurgeon says, he who fashioned 
that marvelous organ and fixed it in the most convenient place 
near to the brain, I like that, He fashioned that marvelous organ 
and fixed it in the most convenient place near to the brain. Is he 
deaf himself?" You know, so, so, so the psalmist is saying, 
you know, maybe use those organs, you know, for a minute, both 
of those organs, and realize that, you know, of course Yahweh 
hears your insolent speech, you know, towards his people. Of 
course he hears your, and sees the oppression that you are carrying 
out upon his people. And the same thing for your eyes. 
What, you know, What about your eyes? The one who gave you sight, 
obviously he's able to see all things as well. If you were talking 
about one of the gods of the nations, then your folly might 
be understandable here. If you think that Yahweh is like 
one of those gods, You know, that would be understandable, 
but he's saying, you know, we're not talking about one of the 
gods of the nations here. We're talking about Yahweh of 
Israel, Yahweh the Creator here. Of course, you know, He's the 
one who created you, the one who gave you ears, eyes. You know, of course He sees and 
knows all things, and knows what you're doing to His people. And 
again, do you really... think that you're going to get 
away with this is the psalmist's question to these men. So, and 
then in verse 10 he says, he who instructs the nation, shall 
he not correct? Now, instructs, if you look in 
your margin, perhaps you'll see it says disciplines or chastises, 
and I think that's the concept here. It's not so much of teaching 
information, but it's one of chastising, disciplining. So, if he chastises, Nations 
and and and here chastising and disciplining entire nations, 
you know will then of course he He not chastise, you know 
wicked individuals there if you Excuse me. You look at in in 
history, you know in the psalmist says, you know, you see in you 
see in history how God destroyed God destroyed entire wicked nations 
entire people groups because of their of their wickedness 
and and especially when they afflicted the people of God and So we think of, you know, Egypt 
would have been a prime example for these wicked men in this 
context here. You know, that the psalmist says, 
look at Egypt. You know, that was the talk of 
all the nations at that time and after that even, that how 
God had delivered them out of the land of Egypt, just a miraculous 
deliverance there from the bondage in Egypt. You know, he had dried 
up the Red Sea or split it apart. They went through on dry ground. 
And then Pharaoh and all his armies were drowned in the middle 
of that sea. After that, that went out through the lands and 
the people trembled in fear because of that. Because God had judged 
that entire nation for their wickedness and for their oppression 
of the people of God. That was what Rahab said to the spies 
when the spies went to go into Jericho and spy out the land. 
Rahab says, how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea for 
you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings 
of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon 
and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. So that was what God had done 
in the protection of his people and the destruction of the nation 
of Israel, plus Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites. That 
was enough for them to tremble and and to fear those in Jericho. And the same thing, the Gibeonites, 
they came to Joshua. If you remember, the Gibeonites 
were the ones who tricked Joshua into saying, we came from a very far 
land, so please make a covenant with us to not destroy us. But 
that was their same argument. And the argument was valid. That 
was why they were so worried. He says, we came from a very 
far country. Your servants have come. That 
part was a lie. But the next part is true, because 
of the name of the Lord your God, for we have heard of his 
fame, and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to 
the two kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan, to 
Sihon, king of Heshbon, and Og, king of Bashan, who is at Ashtoreth. 
So, the psalmist says here, that he says, think about it, you 
wicked men. If Yahweh could do that to to 
them, and will he not, again, take vengeance upon his people? You know, so, and then he says 
here, you know, so that's the reminder for these wicked men. And then he says here, he who 
teaches man knowledge. Now, the King James supplies, 
will he not know, in italics there, the old King James. That's 
not in the original. It could be that, you know, the 
one who teaches man knowledge could be Just more, again, explanation 
of, you know, the one who instructs the nations or the one who teaches 
man knowledge. Will he not correct? But it's 
almost like when you read it, it's almost like, it's almost 
like this almost is just, he's exasperated almost here and he 
just sort of leaves it, leaves the question hanging there without 
giving, you know, without giving the answer. You know, will not 
the one who created you as a rational thinking creature you know, in 
giving you knowledge, knowledge where you can interact with your 
environment and these types of things, you know, it's just obvious. Of course, He knows what you're 
doing. If He's given you that ability 
to know, that ability to think, to learn, you know, that comes 
from God. Obviously, God is He knows all things. He's paying 
attention to what's going on here. So we almost find this 
sort of, he just leaves it. He doesn't even finish it, because 
it's just so obvious to him. You know, that God knows everything, 
and he even knows your thoughts. And then we come to verse 11, 
where he says that. The Lord knows the thoughts of 
man, that they are futile. Again, this is, part of this, 
again, is an indictment against the haters of God that, you know, 
as they, you know, for them to understand, you know, of course 
God knows your thoughts, they're futile, they're hopeless, but 
they're empty. But there's more here, because 
this is the, this is sort of the pivot point in the psalm 
there, because now the psalmist realizes here that the thoughts 
of all men are futile, not just these wicked men, that he's, 
you know, crying out to God for vengeance upon and trying to 
get them to, you know, think about this God whose people you're 
afflicting there. But now suddenly it's this, you 
know, all men, their thoughts are futile until they are taught 
by God the things of his word. So far, We've seen the focus 
here in this psalm, that the focus has been on the wicked, 
on their denial. Ultimately, it's a denial of 
the sovereignty of God, is what it is. And then, of course, with 
that comes the attack upon the people of God. So now he comes 
to this point, all men, the thoughts of all men are futile. And then 
the focus shifts down to those who are God's people. and who 
understand the sovereignty of God as they are taught by God 
from His law. So we see this transition here 
now in verse 11 that takes place. Then we come to verse 12 and 
13, we have the wisdom of the people of God. Blessed is the 
man whom you instruct, O Lord, and teach out of your law. So 
again, the word instruct there, the same word that we found in 
verse 10, in terms of chastising, disciplining. So first, in the 
first part, then, is that this chastisement upon the nations 
was destruction as a punishment for rejecting God and for harming 
his people. But now here, this chastising 
of the people of God, it's not punitive, it's not a punishment, 
but rather it's instructive. And as God uses it together with 
his law to draw his people closer to them and to teach them more 
of himself. So that means then as the psalmist 
understands here and wants us to understand is these things, 
this chastising, this disciplining, this correcting of the Lord for 
his people is It often is the affliction by the wicked people 
upon them. So this affliction that these 
wicked men are carrying out is ultimately the means that God 
is using to chastise His people. but with the purpose of bringing 
them into a closer union with Him. So He says, happy is the 
one that you chastise. Blessed is the man whom you chastise 
or you instruct, O Lord. So again, we see the happiness. Again, it's one of these things 
that often we look at that and we think, how is that possible? 
Why are we rejoicing in this chastising, this discipline that's 
happened? Because it's this trial, it's 
something that I don't like that's happening to me. But yet, he 
says, you're blessed is that man, happy is that man. And we've 
seen that in 1 Peter as we've gone through that. I know it's 
been quite some time since we've looked at that passage in 1 Peter 
there, but that we can where Peter says we can greatly rejoice 
in the midst of trials because we know that the trials are there 
for the purpose of strengthening our faith, testing our faith, 
and proving it, and making it a stronger faith. In James, we 
find the same thing as well. My brethren, he says, count it 
all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing 
of your faith produces patience, but let patience have its perfect 
work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing." 
So we understand the purpose of the trials there, that the 
Lord is using that to strengthen our faith, to strengthen our 
faith in Him and His sovereignty, and knowing that He is our God, 
we are His people, and that He draws us closer to Him in these 
afflictions. But now, look at how the chastising 
here and the word being taught out of the law of God. They go 
hand in hand in the verse here. They go together. So we have, 
again, this is where we should realize here that affliction 
should drive us to the word of God. As we go through trials, 
be it, you know, whatever it may be, but in this context here, 
being oppressed by the wicked, you know, it ought to drive us 
to the Word of God, and in the Word of God, that's where we 
find these truths, these glorious truths of the sovereignty of 
God, these truths that we grasp hold of, and the truths that 
draw us closer to Him when we understand these things. We understand, 
like I said, His sovereignty, His purposes, in the trials, 
the fact that He never leaves us, He never forsakes us. These 
are the things that we find in the Word. So when we're in affliction, 
in trials and difficulties, being chastised by the Lord, it ought 
to drive us to His Word. We should never forsake the Word 
of God. you know, when we're struggling. But, you know, we 
come there, we find, we go to a psalm like this, and we find 
these amazing truths in here about who our God is and who 
we are as his people that still our hearts and strengthen our 
faith. And that's what the psalmist 
goes on to say then in verse 13, that you may give him rest 
from the days of adversity. So that there be rest to him in the day of adversity is more 
of a wooden reading of that, but that you may give him rest, 
or you may give him, that there be no trouble. It's the idea 
of peace or being free from anxiety. There's no anxiousness happening 
here to these people in the day of adversity. So he's not saying, 
we see how the psalmist is not Asking the Lord for the trial 
to just be taken away and and and that's that he understands 
the purpose of these things It's okay to pray that the Lord would 
take away our trials to be sure we don't you know That is that 
is we're most definitely called to do that and and and it's and 
and the Lord asks us tells us that we should do that but yet 
we see here he understands the purpose of this trial and and 
that in and he says here that you know when he understands 
us when he knows these things then He'll have rest in the day 
of adversity there, as in the days of these trials. So the 
days of adversity, it's not necessarily going to go away, but he's not 
going to be disturbed by these things there. He's not going 
to be this anxiety, this worry, this forgetting of who his God 
is as these bad things are happening to him. And then he gives this, 
he gives sort of a, it's almost like a parenthetical remark at 
the end of verse 13, where he says, until the pit is dug for 
the wicked, or we might say while the pit is being dug for the 
wicked. So it's this, it's the pit here, 
the pit of Sheol, we might say, the place of the dead. So it's 
indicating death, that while death is being prepared, maybe 
we could say that way, for the wicked. while these things are happening, 
there's the consolation that he finds in this, and that this 
last sentence here gives us, that even though the Lord is 
holding off in His just judgment against the wicked, against these 
evildoers, even though He's allowing His people to suffer, to be afflicted 
by them, to know that God is currently digging their grave, 
you know, so to speak, you know, that their punishment is certain, 
that God's justice will be meted out, be it, you know, and if 
they remain unrepentant and remain in their wickedness, you know, 
the pit is being dug for them, their grave is, God is digging 
their grave, their punishment is certain. So he takes this 
consolation in that, And again, we can have that same consolation 
as these things happen to us in life, as we see the wicked 
seemingly prosper, the wicked propagating their wickedness 
against against the people of God, against the innocent of 
societally innocent people, there we can know that these things 
will not be left unpunished. God is digging their graves, 
so to speak. But again, we want to keep from 
a gloating attitude. We don't want to be gloating 
about this, that we just can't wait for the absolute destruction 
of the wicked in hellfire. But yet, we can be comforted 
that God's justice will be carried out. So then we come now in verse 
14, then we come now to the defender of the people of God. So we saw 
back in verses 4 through 6, we saw the oppressors of the people 
of God and what they were doing. And now we come, this is the 
part that mirrors that in the chiastic structure. Now we have 
the defender of the people of God, starting in verse 14. So 
it says, For the Lord will not cast off his people, nor will 
he forsake his inheritance. So now, first of all, we can 
see how this is so counter to what the wicked were saying in 
verse 7. They said, Yahweh does not see, 
nor does the God of Jacob understand. But the psalmist reminds himself 
of that reality that, you know, God indeed does see, you know, 
God will not cast off, He will not abandon His people, and He 
will not forsake His inheritance. So, even in the fierce persecution, 
the most fierce persecution, the most difficult trials, the 
Lord never leaves His people. And again, it's that same reminder 
that they are His Inheritance that that he has taken them. 
He was not given them by some someone other but god as as creator 
has taken Taken his his people taken israel here taken us in 
in as as believers in christ Taken us out of darkness made 
us his special people And therefore, you know, he is going to, he 
will protect them. He will not leave them. He will 
not abandon them. We understand God is, you know, 
God is the God of all in a general sense, that God is over all the 
wicked, you know, and the wicked will not escape his judgment. 
There's, you know, God is sovereign over all things. He's God of 
all people in a broad sense. But the psalmist is reminding 
himself here of that, you know, that special way that the people 
of God that they are his special people. He has chosen them and 
he protects them. He protects them from evil. God 
has redeemed his people through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. 
He's redeemed them from his own justice through his son and made 
them his special people. And then therefore, of course, 
he will never leave them. He will never abandon his people. He will vindicate them. He will judge those who have 
afflicted and oppressed his people. So, and that's where the psalmist 
moves then. Knowing that God will not leave 
his people, God will not abandon them. If they're being afflicted, 
God will avenge them. He will vindicate his people. 
He will take vengeance on those who oppress his people. And that's 
where he comes to now in verse 15. Then he says, but judgment 
will return to righteousness. and all the upright in heart 
will follow it. So judgment will return to righteousness. So this 
doesn't mean that justice has left righteousness, as in the 
fact that God is currently judging unjustly, and then now he's going 
to return to judging rightly again in some way, some day. But rather, he's saying right 
now, God is allowing the wicked to go this wickedness to go unpunished, 
but because he's using it for his purposes, but ultimately 
justice will prevail. That's what the psalmist is consoling 
himself there with. Justice will prevail. God will 
render justice according to their evil deeds. And again, he doesn't 
know when it's going to happen, but he knows that it will happen. to certainly that God will will 
Will avenge his people and then he says and God will judge justly 
and in righteousness and then he says here that and the the 
the upright in heart will follow it so You know, I think Again, 
Spurgeon is is the one who can say it in such a such such a 
great way Spurgeon says here that the chariot of righteousness 
will be drawn in triumph through our streets and all the upright 
in heart shall follow it in a happy procession so it's the It's the 
upright. Again, it's those whom God has 
made upright, whom God has made his people. The psalmist doesn't 
really get into that in terms of regeneration, those types 
of concepts, but that's who we're talking about here, of course, 
that those whom God has taken, has made his people, has made 
them upright. because of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
what he has done, those whom God has made upright, they will 
follow happily after justice as God rules righteously upon 
the wicked. And again, as I said earlier, 
this is not in a gloating sort of way. This is not a gloating in the justice or the 
judgment upon the wicked, but it's a praising God for for his 
justice for for that that um, you know the way that our confession 
says it, you know that um that that the For the for their praising 
god for their for their just condemnation to the praise of 
his glorious justice. So that is the that is the um, 
the you know, how how the the the upright will will follow 
after god, you know, god's god justice ruling in in righteousness 
again, not in a gloating way, but in a in a praising god for 
his perfect judgment and his perfect justice, that God is 
the just judge, as the psalmist says. So now we're still on the 
theme here of the defender of the people of God. Then we're 
in verse 16 now. So he says, who will rise up 
for me against evildoers? Who will stand up for me against 
the workers of iniquity? So he looks around and he sees, 
you know, if he's looking If he's looking for a man, he realizes 
here that there is no help in man. And that's a good reminder 
for us, I think, especially in our climates. We might put all 
our hope in a certain political figure that we think, like, oh, 
maybe this is the one. He's going to come, and all our hope is 
in him. Now, we understand God uses means, 
to be sure. a political figure to come and 
to unseat wicked rulers, and that is the means that God can 
use, does use, but we don't want to have our hope in man. Our 
hope ought to be in the Lord. So this is a good reminder here. 
Like the psalmist in Psalm 20 says, some trust in chariots 
and some in horses, but we will remember the name of Yahweh, 
our God. So it's a good reminder for us, you know, we're tended 
to put our hope so quickly, we're tended to put our hope in man. 
But again, we need to, our hope ought to be always in God, you 
know, we don't want to look to man to rise up for us against 
evildoers. So in verse 17 here, he understands 
this, he tells us this, unless Yahweh had been my help, my soul 
would soon have settled in silence. So unless the Lord is there for 
him, unless Yahweh is the one protecting him, his soul would 
have settled in silence. Now silence here, it could mean 
death outright, without the protection of Yahweh, 
these wicked oppressors could have killed him. It could be 
that, it could be in a sense of silence in that way, but it's 
probably more, you know, it's an anxious, you know, being overcome, 
kind of despairing of life kind of silence that he's referencing 
here, a desperation. You know, so without understanding 
Yahweh, without understanding his protection over his people, 
you know, he would have come to this just being completely 
overwhelmed, desperate in this here. But we find then in in 
that exact concept here in verse 18, he says, if I say my foot 
slips, I'm slipping, he says, your mercy, oh Lord, will hold 
me up. That's his comfort, that's his 
consolation in there, is the mercy of the Lord, this covenant 
faithfulness of the Lord, the caring, protecting, love of a 
covenant-keeping God. If there's one Hebrew word that 
you should know, it's that word that it's hard to know unless 
you can read the Hebrew, because it's translated very differently. 
Sometimes it's translated as mercy, sometimes loyal love, 
sometimes faithful love, steadfast love, but it's the Hebrew word 
chesed. And that word chesed has a very deep meaning. It was 
a comfort to the Israelites that Yahweh's Chesed was was on them this covenant 
faithfulness of the Lord that he would he would protect them 
this was the the comfort of the Israelites and this is the comfort 
of Us as the as the people of God the true the true Israel 
the true people of God that that you know God's God's chesed Has 
not changed his covenant faithfulness his his protection his love over 
his people That has not that has not changed and that is what 
that is what comforts the the anxious soul as we see in in 
verse 19 in the multitude of my anxieties within me your comforts 
delight my soul so you know he says as my as my as my anxious 
thoughts my anxieties multiply multiply within me your comforts delight my soul. And that is what stills our anxious 
hearts. I think so often we can look 
out at the world out there, the political climate, the nations 
of the earth seem just collectively to be shaking their fists at 
God, the persecution that's out there, the persecution that's 
coming closer. we can become anxious, we can 
become worried, we can start to feel like the psalmist, my 
foot is slipping, you know, that feeling. But yet, he says, you 
know, your covenant faithfulness, Lord, will hold me up. As my 
anxieties are multiplying within me, you know, your comforts delight 
my soul. And that is what steals our anxious 
hearts, that our God is, He is a faithful God. He's chosen us 
to be His people. That's one of the, the most amazing 
things about the doctrine of election. So many people want 
to kick against it, and they don't want to accept it, but 
it's one of the most glorious truths that there ever could 
be, that Yahweh, the Creator, has chosen us to be His people. What a comfort that that affords 
the people of God. Of course He will never abandon 
us. When God chooses you and when 
God calls you out of darkness, of course He will never abandon. So these things, they still our 
hearts. When trials, difficulties, and 
afflictions come our way, when these things happen to us, that's 
not Yahweh abandoning us, that's not our God abandoning us and 
leaving us, but rather it's Him disciplining us, perhaps, whatever 
it may be, but it's chastising us, as the psalmist says here, 
but the purpose, it's drawing us nearer to Him. He never, he 
never, he never leaves you. You know, it may, it may, it 
may feel like that at sometimes if we forget these things. We, 
we forget the, we forget these truths. We feel like Yahweh has 
abandoned us. But then we need to come back 
to the scriptures, to come back to these truths, to, to passages 
like this that make it abundantly clear that, that he is, he is, 
he, that God is there. God is with us in the trial. 
He's with us in, in the storm, that he will not allow our foot 
to slip. One one man says I don't I don't 
I have to ask pastor Butler who who this where this quote is 
from because I wrote it down in a sermon once that he that he was That 
he was preaching but he's the quote says the evidence that 
God has not deserted you in the storm is not that the storm is 
behind you but that you are still on your feet in the midst of 
the storm and That is a that's a good reminder for us here these 
trials that that that come our way that's not God deserting 
us but that's but the fact that We are still there. Our foot 
has not slipped like the psalmist feels like it's about to slip, 
but it's not because these mercies, these truths, these glorious 
truths, they comfort our souls. They keep us on our feet in the 
midst of the storm. And then we have justice administered 
in verse 20 to 23 as we come to the end of the psalm here. 
So again, we see the wicked oppressing the people of God and the innocent 
people. They're judging unjustly here. So he says, now he says, shall 
the throne of iniquity, which devises evil by law, have fellowship 
with you? So first look at this. Look at 
this, the throne of iniquity, and they're devising evil by 
law. They're legislating evil is what 
he's saying there, devising evil by law or by decree. And again, 
that is hard to make the connection. Here we are in society legislating 
evil. So it's either putting into place 
laws and decrees that are evil within themselves, or it's the 
opposite where there's no laws where there should be laws that 
would protect excuse me, and prevent evil. I think abortion 
is obviously the one that comes to mind first and foremost there. 
There's no laws that protect these innocent lives. When I 
say innocent, of course, we mean societally innocent, innocent 
lives of these unborn children in the womb. There's no laws. 
It's the same thing here, this legislating of evil and calling 
evil good. and good evil. That's where we 
are in our society right now. There's, you know, the attack 
upon just marriage, prime example, you know, that a good, you know, 
one man, one woman marriage is not really a good thing anymore. 
You know, the attack on the family that we see there, you know, 
calling good evil and evil good. It's completely warping and twisting 
God's ways and legislating and promoting the counter to these 
ways and evil things. But look at what the psalmist 
says, though, in this verse there. He says, will this throne of 
iniquity, will it have fellowship with you? He said, is there any 
fellowship between our God and a system like this? Not at all. They're Spurgeon, again. What 
evil times are in store for us is not for us to prophesy. So 
whatever his political climate was there, it seemed to be on 
the verge of something potentially could be quite evil in terms 
of for the people of God. So what evil times are in store 
for us is not for us to prophesy. It is ours to leave the matter 
in the hands of him who cannot be in fellowship with an oppressive 
system. So if we can do that, brethren, 
then happy are we. Our anxious thoughts You know, 
our anxious thoughts will be comforted, knowing that our God 
has no fellowship with a system like that, a system that would 
legislate evil. But rather, look at verse 22. 
We see in verse 21 there, again, this attack upon innocent life 
and against the people of God and the innocent people, innocent 
of society, this attack on there. But then His comfort in verse 
22, But the Lord has been my defense and my God, the rock 
of my refuge." So our God is solid as a rock. The psalmist 
says here, unmovable, unchangeable, forever faithful. to His people. That is what stills our heart, 
is the immutability of God, the unchangeableness of God, that 
He is faithful to His covenants. In Jeremiah we find, thus says 
the Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not 
the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in 
his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands 
and knows me, that I am the Lord, exercising loving kindness, judgment, 
and righteousness in all the earth. For in these I delight, 
says the Lord. And again, that is our comfort, 
that we don't glory in wisdom. We don't try to come up with 
creative ways to deal with the wicked. We don't glory in our 
might. We don't glory in our riches. 
We're glorying in Yahweh, understanding and knowing who He is, that He 
is the Lord. He's exercising loving kindness. 
There's that word again, chesed, faithfulness. and judgment and 
righteousness in the earth. That is our comfort, that the 
Lord will vindicate His people, the Lord will judge righteously. 
And then in verse 23, He has brought on them their own iniquity, 
and He shall cut them off in their own wickedness. The Lord 
our God shall cut them off. So again, there is a day coming, 
be it in our lifetime or not, we don't know. But we can be 
sure there is a day coming when the Lord will bring back the 
iniquity on the heads of the wicked, the wicked who rule unjustly, 
who oppress His people. And again, so we can be comforted, 
we can be encouraged, we can know that our God is protecting 
His people and our God is going to judge the wicked one day, 
whether it be, like I said, whether it be in our lifetime or whether 
it be, you know, whenever it may be, it is certain. And again, 
so we can, we ought to pray with the psalmist here that, you know, 
that God does it now in our lifetime on this earth. That is okay to 
pray for these things, you know. We're not just praying for the 
judgment, the final judgment on evildoers, but even right 
now that God would that God would bring about their demise, that 
he would cut them off in their wicked ways and cut them off 
in their ability to oppress the people of God. So we pray to 
that. As I said earlier, we pray for 
their redemption, but we also pray for their restraint and 
for their removal from power. And again, this doesn't just 
apply to political leaders. It's very easy to apply that 
now, and I think it is very applicable in our current situation, but 
it's not just to political leaders, but it's to all evildoers You 
know who would who would oppress the people of God and and also 
those who would oppress the innocent of society As well and and we 
can trust you know as the as the as the psalmist You know 
closes the psalm here at the end of verse 23 without again 
You know one day whether whether now whether the the at the last 
judgment God God will cut them off God will judge them justly 
so So that brings us then to the end of the of the psalm here 
the end of the exposition I think the application is very simple, 
it's very easy. I think it's, you know, it's 
very easy to apply to our life, to our current situation there 
in terms of political situation, not only in our nation, in the 
nation to the south, and quite frankly around the world right 
now. You know, I think it was last week that Steve said it's 
the It seems to be all those who 
are in power are the ones who are oppressing the people of 
God the most, and that seems to be our situation right now. But we can know, first and foremost, 
that God will vindicate His people, God will rule in justice, that 
just judgment is coming upon the people of God, or upon those 
who afflict the people of God, and of course those who remain 
unrepentant. in that and remain in their wickedness. 
So we can take great comfort in that, but again, we need to 
guard ourselves. We're not gloating. This isn't a gloating spirit 
when we think of these things, but we're taking comfort in it 
because we know it glorifies God and His perfect justice, 
God as the righteous judge. And then secondly, and again, 
this is where we take our comfort from in the here and now, and 
gives us that hope of glory that we have is that God will never 
abandon his people. That he has chosen you as his 
special people. He's covenanted with you through 
his son, the Lord Jesus. Remember that hesed, that covenant 
faithfulness of our God. He has covenanted with you through 
the Lord Jesus Christ that you are his and he is yours. We can 
now call him Abba Father, as Christ said. We are His special 
people. That is a wonderful reality to 
think about that, that the Creator of heaven and earth and all things 
therein has chosen man, man who has rebelled against Him, man 
who shakes their fist at God, but yet God has chosen from that 
depraved mass of humanity people that he would call out of that 
redeem out of that and bring into it through his son the Lord 
Jesus bring into Relationship with him as his special people 
by their union in in Christ and therefore he will never Abandon 
you God will always will always be with her and that with you 
and that is a comfort we can take from this and we can we 
can always have that in in our In our hearts, when we look out 
over the world, we look out at the wickedness so often. We saw 
that last week as well when we looked at Psalm 29 there. We 
saw the sovereignty of God over Baal. And all that we see, you 
know, it's the same thing. We see so much evil, so much 
wickedness out there. in the world, and it's just propagated, 
it's promoted by those who are in high places, in power, but 
yet we can become discouraged until we remind ourselves of 
these truths that we find in the Word here, that our God is 
sovereign over all these things, and that our God has made us 
His people, and He will never leave us, will never forsake 
us, And what a joy that brings. And I do want to close with the 
reminder, maybe it's not the right word, but the fact that 
if you are not in Christ, you are out of Christ. There's no 
middle ground. You can't be saying, well, I'm 
not oppressing the Christians, and I'm not doing these wicked 
things. and whatever it may be, I'm a pretty good person, I'm 
here in church tonight, look at me, I'm not wicked. Well, you're on the same side 
as the wicked who are oppressing the people of God, because like 
I said, you are either, you are the people of God, you are in 
Christ, or you are out. There's no middle ground in that. So think about these things, 
and again, and know that the way of salvation is not is not 
come to church more, it's not try a bit harder, it's not clean 
up your act a little bit better or a little bit more, try to 
be presentable to God. No, the answer is believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. There's no other 
way. We saw that this morning in 1 
Peter and as we looked at the kingdom that Christ is building 
is the one where he's saving people from their sins. And Peter 
said in Acts 4, there's no other name under heaven given among 
men by which you must be saved. There's no way. You are for him 
or you are against him. So if you are not for him, if 
you are not believing in Christ, you are against him. As much 
as you might not want to hear that tonight, that is the truth. 
That is the reality. So the answer is believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ. Repent and believe. Yes, we understand. The doctrine of election, we 
understand that God is rescuing sinners out of darkness in salvation, 
but that is God's perspective. We find that in the Bible, that 
is what's happening, that's what God is doing. But from our perspective, 
the Bible says, repent and believe the gospel and you will be saved. 
Do not remain in disobedience to that. We saw that in 1 Peter. 
He says, there's those who believe and there's those who are disobedient. 
He's contrasting the two. So do not be disobedient to God's 
to God calling you to repent and to believe the gospel, and 
you will be saved. So let us close in a word of 
prayer. Our Father in heaven, we do thank 
you, Lord, for these glorious truths of scripture, that you 
have chosen a special people, and that you have made for yourself 
a kingdom from every tribe, every tongue, and every people and 
nation. It was not just the nation of Israel, Lord, but it's from 
all nations that you have chosen people that you whom you would 
call your own special people your inheritance Lord the one 
that the one that you have chosen and given to yourself to be your 
people to to the to To the praise of your glorious grace your glorious 
mercy and Lord how we thank you for that those truths Lord that 
that still our hearts and as we as we go through difficult 
waters as we go through trials and and tribulations in this 
life as we As we feel afflicted and oppressed by evildoers, Lord, 
these things still are hard to know that you, the creator of 
heaven and earth, you are not a created being, Lord, like any 
other. Lord, you are holy, you are uncreated, 
you are the creator, and you are sovereign over all things. 
And Lord, you have made us your people. we rejoice in that and 
how that stills our hearts and lord i pray i pray that this 
would be a blessing for your people here this evening that 
they would leave here encouraged by the these truths of your word 
and lord and knowing that and knowing the the the the great 
god that you are and and as as jeremiah said as you said in 
jeremiah that that uh glorying not in ourselves in any way, 
not in our riches, not in our might, not in our wisdom, but 
glorying in that we know you, Lord. And so I pray that that 
would be the case for your people here. And Lord, if there are 
any here this evening who are not in Christ, who are on the 
same side as these wicked oppressors, Lord, there's no comfort for 
those people. There's no comfort of being the 
people of God, Lord, for they are against you. But Lord, I 
pray that they would come. in faith, in repentance, in repentance 
of their sin, turning from their sin and turning in faith to Christ, 
coming, as the hymn writer says, nothing in my hand I bring, simply 
to thy cross I cling, Lord, that today would be the day of salvation, 
that you would shine the light in the hearts of men, women, 
boys and girls here this evening who do not know you, that they 
would see the Savior, that they would see Christ as the one who 
has earned salvation for them, that it's not up to them to try 
and make themselves favorable with you, Lord, for that is impossible. 
But Christ is the one who has earned eternal life for us, and 
that He offers that freely, as Paul says in Romans, freely by 
His grace. Lord, that righteousness that 
is worthy of eternal life, that we can have and we can receive 
through faith in Him. So Lord, I pray that You would 
make these things clear, and that sinners would repent, sinners 
would be saved, and that Your people be edified this evening, 
Lord. We pray Your blessing on us as 
we go out into this week. I pray that we would be lights 
shining in the midst of this crooked and perverse generation, 
that we would strive to live peaceably with all men as far 
as we are able, and that we would seek to bring honor and glory 
to you in all that we do. So Father, I pray your blessing 
on us now. We pray this in Christ's name. 
Amen.