Song for the Wilderness

[00:00:04] Amen. [00:00:06] Let's pray. [00:00:08] Our heavenly Father, we thank you for your faithfulness and for the character which so far surpasses our own. The consistency that is between your words and your actions, spanning, spanning generation after generation, ever since the world was made. Lord, we ask that you would continue to be faithful to us because it's in your faithfulness that we are steadied in the midst of our trials and difficulties. [00:00:42] You are there working in us and through us, for us, before us. Lord, we ask that you would bless us now as we come to the reading and preaching of your word. Continue to strengthen us in understanding and grow us in the knowledge of your grace that your praise might be on our lips, and that we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:01:10] Remain standing if you're able, and let's turn our attention to psalm 63. [00:01:36] Psalm 63, this is has the title, a psalm of David when he was in the wilderness of Judah. [00:01:58] O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. [00:02:11] So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory, because your steadfast love is better than life. [00:02:22] My lips will praise you, so I will bless you as long as I live. In your name I will lift up my hands. [00:02:31] My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. And my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember you on my bed and meditate on you in the watches of the night. For you have been my help. [00:02:46] And in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me. [00:02:56] But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth. They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be apportioned for jackals. [00:03:07] But the king shall rejoice in God. All who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped. [00:03:18] Praise God. You may be seated. [00:03:50] As I read through different commentaries and sermons on this psalm this last week, twice I came upon reporting that chrysostom, one of our church fathers from the fourth century, said this about psalm 63. [00:04:12] Chrysostom said, it was decreed and ordained by the primitive fathers. So there's people in his mind. Who are you old guys? Right? Gives us perspective. Right. [00:04:26] So chrysostom, writing the fourth century, says, it was decreed and ordained by the primitive fathers that no day should pass without the public singing of this psalm. [00:04:38] So assuming Chrysostom is telling the truth, and we have no reason to think he's not. That's an amazing thing to say, isn't it? That in the daily worship of God's people, psalm 63 would be sung in other places? [00:04:57] I read of various preachers and theologians using psalm 63 as the way to begin every day on their own and personally coming back again and again. [00:05:12] So if you heard this psalm and you're feeling a little bit of a disconnect between yourself and chrysostom, thinking, it wasn't bad, but I don't know if I would ordain it for use every single day. [00:05:28] I would encourage you to be curious this morning to ask yourself, what is it that he was seeing and that the people before him saw and others have seen was so special to them? [00:05:43] It's not to say that psalm 63 is the most important psalm of all the psalms. It's okay if you have a different favorite psalm. God's word does not say, this is the one and only or anything like that, but to be curious, right, to wonder and to perhaps put yourself in other people's shoes, you might get to see something that you didn't see initially. [00:06:10] Psalm 63 is an amazing psalm. David, as we read here, it's composed regarding this time when he was in the wilderness of Judah, similar to the one we thought about last time. David is in a tough spot. These are troubling times. [00:06:27] There's two possibilities. [00:06:30] This could either be when he was on the run from Saul, or it could be a time when he was on the run from Absalom, his own son, who was trying to take over. [00:06:46] Either way, a very difficult and challenging time. And as we thought about last time, and as we know from our own experiences in the wilderness and desert, wild places, the wilderness is, well, it's called wild for a reason, right? It is a place that is difficult, a place that is challenging, a place that is scary at times, especially when you are being pursued, especially when people are lying about you, trying to kill you, destroy you. [00:07:20] The wilderness can be a difficult place all on its own. [00:07:24] But David talks not only about the physical wilderness that he experiences, but a kind of spiritual one as well. [00:07:33] He notices. He compares his. In verse one, he compares his flesh as fainting for the Lord, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. [00:07:46] The person of David and the place that he's in, he kind of pulls them together. [00:07:53] The weariness, the desperation, the thirst of the land that he sees around him and is in some ways, causing him to experience what he's experienced. He says, this is going on in my own heart, in my own soul. [00:08:11] He's thirsty, he's needy, but very interestingly he's not. Although we see at the end, for example, that he's in trouble, there are people who want to kill him, liars who are lying about him. [00:08:28] The primary thing he wants is the Lord. [00:08:33] It's not a cup of water, it's not a more comfortable bed, it's not being out of the wilderness. It's not even the end of his enemies, which is something he wants. [00:08:45] But the main thing he wants is what his God, our God. And that's how he begins. [00:08:55] O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh faints for you as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. [00:09:10] David is desperate and he is no atheist. He is no speculative, curious wanderer about religion. [00:09:20] He knows where his help is and he's running to him. [00:09:25] O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you. And he describes the state of his soul as being desperate for the Lord, even and above all of his circumstances. [00:09:39] Throughout the psalm we see the suffering king here, seeking and finding God, praising him, hoping in him, having encouragement. [00:09:51] We also see our glorious God, powerful, mighty, effective, preserving and watching over David, his king, his son. [00:10:08] Well, David turns from the beginning of his prayer in verse one to verse two, where he says, so I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory, because my soul is the way it is. I do this thing, I look upon you in your sanctuary. And why? And how? By beholding your power and glory. [00:10:34] In some ways these two words, power and glory, answer the need that he has. He's fainting, he's frustrated, he's at a loss. And the Lord causes him to see, to know the power of God when he comes into the sanctuary. [00:10:53] And glory as well. The glory of the Lord is something David also needs, right? He is suffering under the lies of other people. He is suffering as the rightful king, not living in a palace, not having glory of his own. He seeks, he looks for it in the Lord. [00:11:17] When we come to verse three, we see, he says this because your steadfast love is better than life. My lips will praise you. [00:11:26] And now here David introduces a theme in the psalm that is so important and we see throughout the psalter, throughout the Bible, the state of our souls often has consequences in the things that we say, the words that are in our mouths and the words that are not in our mouths, right? When we are clinging on to our passions and our pleasures and we're covetousness and we're angry, our words tend to match those things. [00:11:59] And similarly, when our souls are filled with the Lord, when we have beheld him in his power and his glory, when we have looked on him in his holiness, when we consider the way, as we will see in verse five, he satisfies us, there's something else that happens. A change of heart produces a change in speech. And so David says, because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. My lips will praise you. [00:12:31] Notice how David compares the steadfast love of the Lord? Better than life. Better than life. [00:12:39] He's willing to let it all go in order to have the steadfast love of the Lord. This is someone who knows God, right? This is someone who has experienced the salvation of the Lord. This is someone who has been satisfied with the fat and rich food of the Lord in his soul. [00:13:00] He knows what the steadfast love of the Lord is. It's worth asking yourself, do I know what the steadfast love of the Lord is? Am I able and willing to confess with David that it's better than life, that I'd be willing to give up in all of my circumstances, all of my possessions? I'd happily go live and die in the wilderness in order to have the steadfast love of the Lord? [00:13:29] This is a great faith, and it's something we ought to aspire to, because the steadfast love of the Lord is that good. [00:13:38] It is that good. We see it in David's life. We see it throughout the scriptures, and we see it most clearly in Christ, who comes as both the suffering king and the glorious God to bring to pass all of the promises that God had made ever since Adam and Eve. [00:14:00] The steadfast love of the Lord has preserved everything and will bring all things to an end in a glorious and wonderful way. [00:14:12] The steadfast love of the Lord is better than life because it leads to eternal life, because in the Lord himself, there is life. The things that we call life, the things that David has in his mind here when he talks about life, are transitory. [00:14:31] They come, they go. [00:14:33] The scriptures say, for example, the grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of the Lord stands forever. It also compares the withering grass and the flower fading to our lives that are but a breath of vapor here and then gone. [00:14:50] So different than the steadfast love of the Lord. Rock solid foundation on. A foundation on which we can build all of our lives. It is how we live because of who he is and what he's done. No wonder David's lips will praise the Lord. [00:15:12] No wonder he will praise him. And as he adds in verse four, so I will bless you as long as I live. In your name, I lift up my hands in prayer, and praise in your name is such an important line, right? An important way in which he's lifting up his hands. It's the reason we can say for which he raises his hands in prayer and prays. [00:15:38] It's the reason. It's also the strength. It's how he lifts his hands. It's why he lifts his hands. It's the source. It's the subject of his worship. A lot is going on there. In that little phrase, in your name, I will lift up my hands. [00:15:55] When we do things in the name of other people, we often do them as their representatives, which is an interesting thing to say if that's what he means. Here we in some ways are representing God as we praise God. [00:16:10] How could that be? [00:16:12] Well, it's this way because when we represent, when we lift up our hands to the Lord in prayer, when we lift up our hands to the Lord in praise, we don't come in our own strength. We don't come in our own way. It's not like we're coming from our castle and then we go to God's castle and we say something to him. [00:16:35] No, we already abide in him. We're already there. The only reason we can praise him, the only way we can pray to him is in his name, in Jesus name, because of who he is, because of what he's done. We are who we are as christians, and that's why we are baptized in his name. That's why we pray in his name. That's why we do everything that we do to the glory of God in his name. [00:17:07] He's the source of our strength. He's the reason why we exist. He's the subject of our praise. [00:17:14] May his name be praised by us and in us through his own work. [00:17:22] So David's a happy guy. He's going to praise the Lord with his lips. He keeps going. In verse five, he says, my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. [00:17:35] These are not the meager praises of a guy who is worn out and doesn't know what else to do, although we find those kinds of words as well. And we saw that in our last psalm here, though, David recognizes as he meditates on the work of the Lord, how? [00:17:55] Well, I'll use the word that the scriptures use. Satisfied he is. He doesn't need anything. And it's not a bare satisfaction, right? Verse five. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. My mouth will praise you with joyful lips. [00:18:19] The Lord calls us to ask a God to pray and petition the Lord for our daily bread. [00:18:28] And if we have enough to eat, that is enough, and we should be content, right? But what does the Lord so often do for us? [00:18:38] Does he give us a meager piece of bread? [00:18:43] No. We have chimichangas and rice bowls and breakfast cereals and all kinds of wonderful things all the time, right. [00:18:56] Even in the most desperate situations, people frequently find more than bread. And the Lord supplies so richly and so graciously. [00:19:07] This is an important thing to remember, and it's all the more true when it comes to our souls. The Lord doesn't drip, feed us, right? Like this little drop. And that little drop, he pours out his spirit on us. [00:19:27] He washes us in regeneration and grace. [00:19:34] He sanctifies us as with a flood. [00:19:40] And when it comes to the metaphors of food, we can say with David, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. As the Lord prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies, using language from psalm 23, right. It's a good feast. [00:19:56] Our souls will be, can be satisfied by the Lord. [00:20:02] And when you think about things like his eternity, when you think about how incomprehensible he is, when you think about the various aspects of his infinitude, he's not finite, he's not limited. [00:20:18] The Lord knows how to set a good table. [00:20:21] We could say that the Lord is a good table in a way. When we say things like, or when Jesus says things like, if you eat of my flesh, right. If you drink of this water, it is a well welling up into what kind of life? [00:20:39] Eternal life, my soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food. [00:20:47] My mouth will praise you as with joyful lips. [00:20:51] Whenever we go to the Lord, we may not always feel it, we may not always know it, but the fact is that whenever we go to the Lord, it is like we're going to the biggest feast you have ever seen, a table stretching miles long with every kind of wonderful food you could ever imagine. This is our Lord, right? And when you look at a table like that, who can help but have joyful lips? Thank you, Lord, for the food. Thank you for the satisfaction of my soul. [00:21:32] And David is wise, and he knows that we often forget how wonderful the Lord is. How wonderful the bread of heaven is the bread of life. The water welling up into eternal life. [00:21:47] And so he notices, and I think there's a helpful application here, that the satisfaction comes, as he says in verse six, in part, when he remembers the Lord. When he meditates on the Lord, right. The struggle of our souls often comes from not remembering, from not looking, from not seeing, from not beholding. Right. David says, so I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, and there he beholds the power and glory of God. [00:22:23] But if we don't go to the Lord's sanctuary, if we don't remember him on our beds, if we're not meditating on him, if we don't think about him, if we don't listen to him, if we're not near him, it shouldn't shock us that we are forgetful of him, that we find ourselves hungry and needy more perhaps, than usual. [00:22:50] We are always in need of the Lord. And this is another thing that we remember when we meditate on him. [00:22:56] But the Lord brings satisfaction himself. [00:23:00] So David says, verse six. When I remember you on my bed and I meditate on you in the watches of the night, there is a time for seeking the Lord. [00:23:12] And in that seeking there is remembering and meditating. [00:23:17] A kind of darkness happens now in the psalm that I think is worth paying attention to. [00:23:22] So if you're following along, we have not really had any kind of. [00:23:28] Not too strong anyway, a light and dark imagery. But now something happens. He brings our attention in verse six to his bed and to the nighttime, the watches of the night, these hours that go by. [00:23:44] And then we have a more darkness. In a way, he says, you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy. [00:23:56] Shadow is a kind of darkness, isn't it? I think this is a very powerful image, and it's one that David uses in other places in the psalms. [00:24:04] The wings of the Lord. Right? Like a bird. [00:24:08] We have the great blessing of having this, a dove. [00:24:15] These morning doves that we've been watching, they just keep having more and more babies. I keep thinking, like, okay, we're done. I have more babies. But so we've had, over the summer, we've gotten to watch this cycle over and over again. The eggs are laid. [00:24:29] The chicks, I guess they'd be called something like that, they hatch. [00:24:34] And over the monsoon season, right, the rains sometimes come down and the winds blow. And in our particular instance, we're watching them. They're on this grapevine vine. It's not even a tree. It's a vine. And they make this crazy little nest on these branches that are the size of your finger. I mean, these are not, you know, this is not, you know, an eagle's nest, you know, up in some giant tree, right? These. These tiny little branches, barely, somehow they assemble this crazy thing of sticks. And then they have these babies in them. And. [00:25:09] And then when the rains come and when the sun is there beating down and when the wind is blowing, that mother dove, she just stretches out her wings. And these giant chicks, you'd almost think they were doves, like fully grown. Anyway, you think they're ready to go, but anyway, there's mom holding them. I have this. [00:25:34] I have a picture I took, too, of the rain that was coming down. And she does this thing. I'm not entirely sure why. They all kind of do it a little bit of. They kind of bravely sort of stick their beaks up in the wind and the rain's sort of coming down again. Maybe somebody can tell me why they do this. But they look courageous. She in particular, she looks so bold. And she holds those babies under her. And the thing that I've been reflecting on is at that time, right? Those chicks are in a place of darkness, right? [00:26:07] It's dark under there, but it's safe. [00:26:12] It's a darkness that's a place of safety. It's a darkness that's a place of refuge. [00:26:18] In the shadow of your wings, I will sing for joy. [00:26:23] I think this is an important image to impress on our hearts because there are times when metaphorical darknesses come into our lives. [00:26:36] Moral darknesses, physical challenges, evil people that seek to do us harm. And we feel like that darkness is all that there is. Like those rains pouring down on us. But we must remember that the steadfast love of the Lord is steadfast and that the darkness that we may find ourselves in and are truly in is not the only, only darkness there is. [00:27:05] We are also being protected. We are also in the shadow of the wings of our Lord. [00:27:12] We might find ourselves, like David does, in places of the wilderness where it's wild and difficult and bitter. [00:27:20] But the Lord provides us his shade. [00:27:24] He provides us a place of protection. [00:27:29] And so David naturally says, naturally, as in, it follows, my soul clings to you, right? Like those babies. They're not. Well, let's wander out and see what we can do. And. No, they're in there. Sometimes it's even hard to see them. I'm not even sure how she's able to get them all protected, but there they are, safe and protected. And so also we, when we realize that we're not just sort of out in the wind and the storms of life, but that the Lord has us and holds us, there's a call here to cling to him, to hold him, to draw close, to get as close and as tight as you possibly can. [00:28:16] How foolish we are when we say, well, I'll pray later, how foolish we are when we just don't even think about the Lord. When in the watches of the night, we get up and we worry and we walk around in anxiety and we stress out about things, when we could be clinging to the Lord, when we could be meditating on the works that he has done, and we could be remembering who he is and the promises that are right here in this psalm. [00:28:48] The night time, as David meditates here, is, it's an interesting time, right? It's a transition time. On the one hand, it's sort of, you have the things behind you, but you also have the things in front of you. There are things coming the morning and the mercies of the Lord, which are new every morning. [00:29:14] David brings up this imagery of up and down in verse eight. Then when he says, your right hand upholds me, connect that with verse four, friends. [00:29:25] In your name I will lift up my hands, or. Sorry, yes, right. In your name I will lift up my hands. And then in verse eight, your right hand upholds me. [00:29:36] It's what I was getting at earlier. How is it that David can raise his hands in the praise of the Lord? Because the Lord is holding him. Because the Lord is holding him. [00:29:47] Then we have finally, as we come to the end of the psalm, a strong transition where David recognizes that the fears that are in his life, the darknesses, the challenges, specifically those who seek to destroy his life, will not be upheld by the hand of the Lord, but shall go down into the depths of the earth, swallowed up. [00:30:16] The image of darkness again is here as we think about the grave. A darkness not of protection, but a darkness of isolation, a darkness of death, a darkness of judgment. To be even clearer, David adds in verse ten, they shall be given over to the power of the sword. [00:30:34] Given over here. [00:30:37] The literal, the word is something like poured out, like poured out on the hand or the power of the sword, a dark image. [00:30:47] They shall be apportioned for jackals, another wilderness image. Right. Beasts consuming these animals that eat dead things and carry on. Right. [00:31:02] They arrive instead of one living and lifting hands in prayer and praise on those who seek to destroy the life of the Lord's anointed one, the Lord's Messiah will be destroyed. [00:31:20] Verse eleven. I think, as we come to the end, here is perhaps a good summary of the whole psalm. [00:31:28] The king shall rejoice in God, and all who swear by him shall exalt, for the mouths of liars will be stopped. [00:31:40] David's soul clings to the Lord, and God upholds him. [00:31:45] Those who run away from the Lord or seek to destroy the Lord and his people and his servants will be destroyed. They will not be upheld, but they will be put down. [00:31:58] The king will open his mouth in praise with life. [00:32:04] Liars mouths will be stopped in death. [00:32:09] And of course, the very personal and very intimate nature of this psalm becomes an invitation in verse eleven when it says, all who swear by him shall exalt. That means you. [00:32:25] It means that you have an opportunity not just to listen in to the inner life of David and say, wow, if only I could have that kind of life. If only I could be that close to God. No, he invites us as well to swear by the Lord, to put our trust in the Lord. And he says, if we do, we too shall exalt. Instead of our mouths being stopped in death, they will be opened up in life. Those who cling to the Lord, who pray to the Lord, who earnestly seek and thirst and hunger for the Lord, you will be satisfied. [00:33:07] And so I want to end with three questions or exhortations. [00:33:17] First, the exhortation is know him. [00:33:21] Know the Lord. [00:33:23] We know him best through Jesus, who is the glorious goddess who is spoken of here. Jesus, who is glorious and powerful. Jesus, who is holy and found in the sanctuary of the Lord. Jesus, who satisfies us with fat and rich food. [00:33:42] Jesus, who deserves all of our praise. He is the glorious God that David prays to, the glorious God that David worships. [00:33:55] Jesus is also the suffering king that David foreshadows. He is, as the scriptures call Jesus, David's greater son. [00:34:06] He is the anointed one whom the Lord promised would come through David and would establish a kingdom. [00:34:16] And he is our representative. He's our king. [00:34:21] He came into this world, as we confessed earlier in the creed, as man. And he came and he suffered in the wild places. He suffered lying mouths. He ultimately suffered death itself, but a death which was transitory, not just because it led to an eternity of the soul, either in judgment or in eternal life. But for Jesus, death was transitory because he conquered it. [00:34:52] He finished it once and for all. [00:34:57] The reason we have eternal life is because the Lord gives it to us because the Lord earned it. Because the Lord, our savior, Jesus, clung to God. [00:35:09] When the Pharisees and the scribes and other people. Were arguing about God. And using God as a pretense for their own sin. Jesus clung to him. [00:35:21] Even when he says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He clings to God now. Understand what I'm saying? Jesus is, of course, is God. And in that sense, he doesn't cling to God. He is God. There is no sort of putting together of God. God just is. [00:35:44] But in his humanity, in the way that every human being, you and me, and Jesus as well, needs to cling to God. In that sense, he did. And he did so perfectly. In every way, in every moment. Nothing ever distracted him. Nothing pulled him off course. [00:36:04] No threat, no darkness ever took him away from his mission of creation. Clinging to the Lord, which in a big measure meant saving you. [00:36:15] That's what he came to do. [00:36:18] He came, he became man to save man, to save mankind. In our place, he clung to God. When we're off wandering around doing our own foolish things. In our place, he clung to God so that all who exalt in him, all who swear in his name, will be saved. [00:36:40] We come under the refuge of the wings of God, through the cross. [00:36:45] And he leads us now in our praise. He's the one who upholds us. And the scriptures say nothing can separate us from the love of God. In Christ Jesus, our Lord. [00:36:57] Do you know him? [00:36:59] Have you heard of him? Do you recognize what I'm saying? And if you know him, then trust him. [00:37:07] Remember him. Meditate on him. [00:37:11] We ought never to wait to seek the Lord. [00:37:17] Whether it's in the sanctuary of Sunday worship. [00:37:23] Whether it's being caught up into the heavenly places to worship with the angels and those who have gone before us. Or whether it's here in the wilderness or in our bedrooms, public or private. [00:37:39] We can find satisfaction and peace for our souls. And we all need satisfaction and peace for our souls. [00:37:49] So remember him. Meditate on him. Find time in your day to come again and again to the truths of the word. And if you're having trouble remembering the word, you can read it. [00:38:07] This is one of the major reasons why christians teach their children to read. So that they can read the Bible. So that we can read the Bible. [00:38:18] I forget all the time I preach a sermon. I spend all week thinking about something. And then somebody will ask me about such and such a thing that I just preached on. And I forget. It's frustrating. [00:38:33] But praise God. We have the word. And we have brothers and sisters to remind us, to tell us over and over again, to help us to remember, to help us to meditate, to help us to come into the presence of the Lord to find satisfaction and peace and thirst quenching flesh strengthening power of our heavenly Father. So seek him, seek his help. Seek his help and reflect on his help in your daily activities over history. And do not give up until you find him. [00:39:13] Seek and ye shall find. [00:39:16] That's the Lord's promise to you. Finally, praise him when your soul is satisfied, when you are healed by Goddesse, do you just walk away and forget about it? [00:39:30] Do you forget like some have done, to go thank the Lord for filling you up, for giving you all that he's given you. [00:39:40] Let's not let that happen anymore. [00:39:44] When the Lord satisfies us, when the Lord heals us, when the Lord regenerates us and sanctifies us, let us be people whose lips start moving, telling others, praising God and praying to him, talking to him for the things that we need and the things that we're thankful for and the ways in which we want to bless his name. [00:40:09] Lift up your hands, let your lips move, that you might praise him, worship him, thank him for all that he is and does for you. [00:40:21] Let's pray even now. [00:40:23] Our heavenly Father, we thank you for revealing yourself to us in Christ. [00:40:29] We thank you that we have in his example throughout all the stories and the gospels a time and time again of people coming to Jesus and finding everything that they need. [00:40:40] People coming to Jesus, following Jesus and finding everything that they need. [00:40:46] Lord, we also have the warnings and the examples of those who did not follow him, of those who betrayed him, of those who sought to destroy him. And what did they do but destroy their own lives? [00:40:59] They destroyed their own hopes. They burned their own houses. They dug their own graves. [00:41:05] Lord, may this not be true of any soul in here. Lord, this morning we ask that you would be at work in every single heart, that we might not turn away from you, that we might not dig our own graves, but that we might find ourselves already dead and alive again in Christ, crucified and raised for us. Lord, let us be many kings and queens in Christ Jesus who in his name raise our hands and rejoice in God. Let our lips be moving joyfully in confession, in prayer and in the sharing of this word, word in the quiet times, Lord, in the moments when we are awake in the middle of the night, whether it's our dreams that have awoken us, a noise, a baby lord, we ask that you would help us to meditate on you, to remember you and the things that you have done and the things that you promised to do. [00:42:07] We ask that you would help us to find these many, many moments that we have every day for rest in you, to praise you, to thank you. [00:42:22] Lord, we ask that through your grace, you would fill our hearts with gratitude. [00:42:27] We also ask, Lord, that this message would be not only in our lives, but would be strengthened in other places here in Arizona. Lord, we ask that you would bring this satisfaction, this soul feeding nourishment to the people in Levine, where we have our new mission work. We ask that you would be there, that you would be with Pastor Johnson as he seeks to establish a new church in this community. [00:42:57] And, Lord, the phoenix area is so big, so many souls. There are so many people who are lost and in need of you. We ask that you would help the saints that are committed there to your work, to helping this, to grow, that you would encourage them not only in their own spiritual lives, but through the work that you are doing in others. [00:43:23] We also pray, Lord, for those brothers and sisters across the world in East Asia and for our missionaries there, for Mike and for Sam and for their families. We ask that you would bless them, encourage and strengthen them. Let the work that they are doing be the work of your hands. Lord, we ask that you would bring help and strength and boldness for the gospel there as well. [00:43:51] Lord, we ask that you would be with us in all of the places that we find ourselves right now in our own lives, in the difficulties and the trials. We ask that you would help us to see that it's not just darkness and evil that surrounds us, but it is also the shadow of your wings that protect us. Lord, we praise you and bless your name. In Jesus name, amen.