Book of Psalms - Psa. 21, Vs. 1-6

Got an exciting day today. It's gonna be pretty fun. We're gonna miss a lot of our church family members slash family members

Because we've got some of them out on a cruise And so it's gonna be

Me for Sunday school and Ben Mitchell for the preaching today Which will be

Which will be awesome, I think We're in Psalm 21

Now if you'll recall in Psalm 20 we were we were going through a prayer for a king by a king and the prayer was

It was interesting because it was all about Hold on a second. I thought I put my computer.

I do not disturb, but I'm getting these weird little Noises, I'm gonna mute my computer. That'll help.

Okay, so It's a prayer in Psalm 20, it's a prayer for a king and by a king and While David is praying to to his king the the

Lord it is also a prayer that he would hope that his servants would pray for him and certainly, they do they pray that he would be protected and that he he would have his heart's desire granted for him and we were looking at what was the

Bible not talking about in That chapter like what did it not say?

But it still meant and that is well if the Lord's gonna grant you the desires of your heart There's other scriptures that indicate you you got a line

Yourself with his will right like you've got to delight yourself in the Lord and he will grant you the desires of your heart

The The prayer that the Lord would hear his call Would mean that he would have to cry out to God and so we went through and saw

God's response to something that is implied throughout the entire chapter, which is man's responsibility and so we looked at all the different responsibilities man has and So if you'll recall that there were a lot of them and ultimately

The prayer was that he would be protected in battle. This was a prayer prior to battle that the

Lord would Recognize his gifts and accept his gifts and accept his sacrifices we talked a little bit about the

Tabernacle and how it pictured aligning ourselves and being sanctified in Christ and being a little bit more like God and it was a picture of the

Christian walk and When you got to the Holy of Holies you were in the presence of God And it was a really fun chapter to study for me

I really enjoyed it Chapter 21 is cool because it's like a sequel. This is like the the result of chapter 20

Chapter 21 shows us After the battle. All right, and so in fact, this is often considered a companion

Psalm to chapter 20 David is speaking of himself in This chapter, but he's also he's praising

God and Remember while David is speaking from the perspective of a king who's praising his

God He is also a picture of Christ He's often used as a picture of Christ So while these this prayer may have come from David's lips

It is certainly the words of Jesus. It is the words of the Messiah who is pictured by David it's interesting that I Always just love it when the

Bible Has a continuation of a previous concept and you get so much out of Psalm chapter 20.

It's like wow, this was awesome And you feel like all right, I learned it. That's cool But then to show the result of aligning yourself with God's will that's really cool

So if you go and use Psalm chapter 20 as like an instruction manual be like this when you're praying

You might find that your prayers will end up sounding like this in Psalm chapter 21

All right, so we'll start off verse 1 to the chief musician a Psalm of David remember the last

Chapter was also to the chief musician. This is a very important prayer. We're about to go into battle

We're gonna make some sacrifices we're hoping that the Lord will hear our call that he will provide protection that he will give us victory that he will accept our gifts and our sacrifices and That we will have his hand on us when going into battle.

Well now we've won the battle and Often what happens with man is that we go?

All right. Yay life is good But it's very important that we become intentional about praising

God for the victory in the battle, which is why it's so important of A psalm that David sends it again to the chief musician

Here here it goes the king shall joy in thy strength. Oh Lord All right, the king

David is the king. He's very much rejoicing that he has received the benefit of God's strength

That's what he had prayed for in chapter 20 that he would be

Defended by the name of the Lord that he would receive strength from the Lord and we talked about how the strength that comes from the

Lord is activated in our Sanctification like it's activated in our walk.

We become stronger when we align ourselves with God's Word and when we

Sanctify ourselves and we tried try to walk Experientially righteous walk not just a positionally righteous walk, but it's really neat that he says

Shall joy the king shall joy and that kind of an interesting way to put it like he's one

He's received what he asked for so why is it shall joy you'd think you'd be like I I am joyful.

The king is joyful That's Kind of what it means

This is what you call an imperfect verb and yet it is perfect to describe how he'll be rejoicing

So what I did there a little bit of a pun for The the concept of imperfect in this sense means it's open -ended

All right, so it is not a single event, but a continual process so think about that like we typically think of Thinking as a single event

Like somebody gives something to you. What do you do? You say? Thank you and the exchange is over at that point, right?

It's like I'm so thankful that you did this for me. Maybe you you do it a Little bit longer you really go on about how great the person is and stuff

But at some point it's expected really that you're gonna just say, okay. Well, let's go on about life, right?

David makes it a point to say you're gonna be praised forever for this. I'm not gonna stop praising Think about that like that's a commitment there

We Do we tend to take

God's blessings for granted and it we might be thankful in the moment But we we forget like the blessings

God gives us Often are continual blessings like even just think about this Like I'm trying to grow some stuff in my in my yard, right?

I've got some trees and if they take I'm gonna be very thankful like awesome.

I've got trees But those are a blessing that if they take and they produce fruit that's going to produce maybe for the rest of my life

Lord willing right, but it has the potential to do that. Certainly Even just Something that would seem like a

One -time thing like maybe you receive a bonus check at work or something. Well, that's great

It's a one -time thing but that bonus check may have unbeknownst to you started some kind of chain reaction of now that I didn't have to pay

Money for this thing I had the money to do this other thing Which gave me the money to do that other thing which gave me the money to do that other that could be something that actually produces in some strange form for the rest of your life and you just don't even realize it because it felt like a one -time thing and So every blessing that comes from God who is an eternal being actually has an eternal concept to her an eternal

I don't know what the Dynamic maybe is the word I'm looking for An aspect

I like that. That's what I was looking at. It has a an eternal aspect to it. Thank you, Ben All right

So the way that David says I shut the king shall joy It's almost like saying

Instead of saying hey this person ran. It's almost like saying he will be running, right?

So in other words David is saying I will be praising you continually. I'm praising you now, but I'll be praising you continually and This is certainly the heart of Jesus toward his father, right?

It's not just the words of David These are it may be coming from David's lips, but these are the words of Jesus Who received strength?

continually to endure Quite a few things first his

I don't know if this is a word Descension from heaven like he came down from heaven to earth that Had to have required a thankful heart because that thankful heart

You can't really get through something unless you are thankful for what you have. You can't get through something hard unless you're thankful for Even the heart itself

Because maybe it's very difficult to understand what's going for you in the times when things seem like that everything's going wrong but if you are thankful for the process of going through something hard Recognizing that it doesn't happen to you.

It happens for you. It actually makes the process of that hard thing the thing

That you are looking forward to in a sense, right like you it's very hard to get into that mindset and it's why we're called to Try to get into that mindset

Our entire lives. It's something that we're supposed to practice be thankful Let us glory in diverse temptations, right?

The whole idea of it is Don't just be thankful for the good things while the bad things are happening be thankful for the bad thing that's happening and I imagine that just the idea that God coming to earth an infinite

Non -created being the one who created earth for him to be able to come to earth and dwell within his creation

In and of itself is just a miracle if you think about it, like how did he even make that work?

Like it doesn't even make much sense Logically that he would be able To be in Time which he created, right?

That's what's so cool about the the triune nature of God the father if he came in to time if he stepped into time

It would make sense that time would just explode, you know, but because he manifests as the

Sun he is able to do that and And be on earth like that in and of itself.

Not only was it difficult for him But it's a miraculous thing that gave him the

Capability, it's weird to say it gave him the capability. He always had the capability, right? But it is the mechanism by which he's able to come and save his fallen creation

So Jesus going through the very difficult task of living a perfect life on earth first had to go through the very difficult task of going from heaven to earth and Somehow with his thankful heart is thankful that he was able to do that you know and then while he's here, he lives a perfect life for 33 plus years and Then he he dies a very difficult death on the cross and it's all

Just to save us I'm gonna tell you Ben that this recording is not gonna work on my computer because my

My phone keeps trying to become the The microphone and so it keeps stopping the recording

I keep catching it, but I'm it's gonna be a messed -up recording Unfortunately, you know what? I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna turn my phone off. So it will stop trying to do that I don't know why it does that it just tries to turn my phone into my microphone.

It's so strange So anyway, maybe that'll help I'm keeping me on my toes.

Yeah, it's really messing with my with my brain making it hard to get through my lesson here All right so It says and in thy salvation

How greatly shall he rejoice? All right, so that whole verse together what's it say? It says the King shall join thy strength.

Oh Lord and In thy salvation How greatly shall he rejoice?

So Let's imagine you are about to be

Maybe you've taped been taken captive. We have been my sin right at some point in our lives here, but physically

Let's imagine somebody came in and took us all captive What would you want to have happen?

You'd want to be freed right? We're being held at gunpoint, right? Let's assume something like that happened.

What would you want to see? Okay, you might want to see somebody fight to stop it, right

Somebody okay. There it has been some you would hope that somebody sets you free What if the cops started surrounding the place would that be at least a somewhat comforting thought?

Like oh, thank goodness. They're here, right? Maybe they haven't even come to save us yet, but they're here they are the the deliverers and And Seeing them bust through the door, right?

It might be a terrifying experience But if they came through the door, you would be glorying in that right?

Like oh, thank goodness here They are right. So seeing the power of your protector on display is a joyous thing

But it's even more joyous once They have obtained

You right like they have grabbed you They've gotten you out you're safe.

That's when it becomes like oh, thank goodness We're okay, because it would be terrifying still you'd be thankful that they're busting through the door

But then it's the battle between the good guys and the bad guys and you're hoping that you're not caught in the crossfire, right?

so like You would greatly rejoice in the salvation of your protector you would you would joy in their strength, right?

They're coming through the door. Yes, but you would greatly rejoice in the salvation that they provide if if we were

That's good, I like that Jack that's a good that was a really good no, you should keep him in here.

I love it On the way, he's greatly rejoicing

On the way up here. We had only up here. We had Winston. He was he was very talkative in the car, too

I loved it okay, so The Kings going to greatly rejoice in the salvation of the

Lord, what is the salvation of the Lord? actions on the cross, right so Jesus If this was

Jesus's prayer, which it is right like it's David's prayer to his Lord But it's also Jesus's prayer to his father

Because David is a picture of Jesus He certainly would rejoice in The strength of his father right, but he greatly rejoiced in the salvation of his father.

What does that mean? Well was Jesus saved? What was he saved from? Saved from death right and so the father

Raised him up from death It's not that's the that's the power of God right like that's the strength of God is in His ability

To to love right first and foremost, but it was manifest on the cross

Love is the most powerful force known to man It's the most powerful part of God, I believe

It's why it everything centers around that like his omnipotence his

Omniscience his omnipresence It's everything revolves around God's love and that's why

Everything points to it The whole book of the Bible points to his work on the cross, which is the ultimate display of God's love

And it's such a powerful concept that even heathens like people who don't know

God Even people that may never know God they understand that love is a powerful force.

I Mean you've got people who they may have never been introduced to the Lord right and they sing songs about it

Love is all you need, right? God is love and is there therefore the concept of salvation which is the greatest example of that love

That power is rooted in the very physical blood of Christ the

God -man So salvation you might would say is

Jesus Right, so when the King glories in the salvation of the

Lord or greatly rejoices in the salvation of the Lord You could say he greatly rejoices in the person of Jesus Think of what

David is doing First he's saying I Rejoice in thy strength the

King rejoices in the shall joy in thy strength and he shall greatly rejoice in thy salvation

When the when the cops come busting through They are the cops.

Yes, they're here to save us and We would glory in that right we we shall joy in their strength

But it's at the moment that they deliver us that they become our deliverers

So then it's the identity or the person of the deliverer Not just the strength that they have but the the identity they have in relation to us that we would greatly rejoice

So with Jesus, it's the same thing. We rejoice in his strength. We greatly rejoice in the fact that he is strength itself

He is deliverance he is salvation Verse 2 thou hast given him his heart's desire now remember when we did chapter 20

We talked about that was part of the prayer that he would get you have the desires of his heart granted

Which meant he needed to align with his will well here we see he has been given the desires of his heart

So what has happened? He's aligned with God's will And he says and has not withholding the request of his lips

Salah, that's my favorite Word in the whole Bible is Salah. So David prays for victory and he receives it

Jesus prayed that we would be one with him even as he was one with the father and he receives his requests as well his requests were in complete alignment with the will of God and While being in that perfect alignment or agreement

Jesus could only ask of The things that the father already wanted him to have same for David like when you're in alignment with him

You're going to ask for something. You're gonna get granted period Well, if you want 100 % of your prayers to be answered, yes

Be in perfect alignment with God's will that's gonna take some doing right?

I Think we we sometimes fear Aligning ourselves with God's will because we fear that we won't receive what we want

All right, like for instance, we might say well, I want to ask for more money But God wants me to be content.

So if I go and be content Then I wouldn't ask for more money. So I'm not gonna get what

I want I want to ask for better health, but I'm also way better off than other people.

So I should just be thankful That line of thinking comes from the programming that we receive from the world right serving

God means living without serving God means poverty serving God means Not having the desires of our heart.

We tend to think of it that way because that's the way the world programs us to think Yeah, yeah Comment Yeah, we don't ask for more because he might require more of us right

I'm not gonna submit to A calling in the ministry because God's going to take me off to Africa or something

You know, I got he's he's gonna make me move away or something So That kind of thing can can really plague us from Aligning with God's will but why should we align with God's will it's not just because he knows what we need better than we what?

We know It's because he knows what we want better than what we know like we we might think ah,

I don't want this and You might be wrong that you don't want this you might want it and not even realize it yet David was not restrained that this is what's interesting

Notice how this is written thou has given him his heart's desire and has not withholding the request of his lips

Right, so David wasn't restrained from asking for what he wanted It wasn't like okay now that you've aligned with God's will you can't ask for what you want?

That's how we tend to think of it He received what he wanted and He received what he asked for and he wasn't restrained from asking for it.

So just Focus on that for just a moment and recognize just how incredibly awesome that is submit to God because he

He wants you to understand what you want more Like you think

I don't want it But maybe you do and you just don't understand why you want it

Has that ever happened? Like have you ever gone like oh, this is gonna be the worst thing that's ever happened to me

I can't believe this is happening in my life. And then when you look back, you're like I am so thankful that happened.

I Would never have wanted that but now that I know why it happened. I If I'd have known that beforehand,

I wanted that to happen, right? Um, my favorite example in life ever that that's ever happened to is to Katie Because she she well, yes, she wanted to date this guy that her dad ran off And he ran her off and she did not want that and she it was like the worst thing ever when you should hear her

Describe it like she was so mad, but she submitted to her dad's will and Looking back.

She says I I'm so glad he did it right? I'm so glad that I Like I didn't even know what

I wanted. She wanted me And she didn't even know it

That's my absolute favorite example So this is why my favorite word in the entire

Bible follows this verse, right So, let's read it again Thou has given him his heart's desire and has not withhold in the request of his lips

Not only did you give him what he wanted you you were fine with and gave to him

The things he continually asked for like it wasn't just a one -and -done thing. All right,

I've aligned with you and now yes I want what you want God, okay, but Can I also have this sure can

I also have that? Yeah, can I also have this you bet? Because I'm asking for all the things

That perfectly align with your will I'm gonna get yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, and I can keep asking

You've not withhold in the request of his lips when you understand just how incredible that is

That's when this word Salah comes into play and if you've not heard me teach about this before there's no meaning to the word

Salah, it's a musical connotation which is a pause for dramatic effect

It's almost like going Yeah, like whoa, it's almost like like a

Mic drop that might be the best description of what? Salah is it's the mic drop moment in the

Bible. Sometimes it can be like this harrowing mic drop like You know you obey me or die that kind of thing, right?

Salah like this is yikes, you know You can find that through the

Psalms where David describes the heathen and how like they're gonna be just destroyed and then he says

Salah like, oh Oh like oh man, they're gonna be destroyed or now has heard me from thy holy hill

Salah, you know that kind of thing like whoa, you listened to me And so this is like that might drop moment.

Not only did you give me? The ability to want what you want But you kept letting me ask for what

I wanted Whoa And so It's like David is saying wow,

I aligned myself with God He still allowed me to ask for what I wanted and then he granted my request

It's like the Almighty God said sure here you go kid go for it I mean it'd be kind like this if you were to ask a powerful billionaire

For anything someone, you know, just like let's say Elon Musk. All right, and you asked

Elon Musk for something What if Elon Musk if all he did was he just commented on something on your social media?

What would you do if Elon Musk got on your Facebook and commented on social media? You'd be like telling everybody guess what the

Elon Musk he just commented on my Facebook Wow right

So there would be this sense of awe that somebody who is like powerful Took the time to just comment

But what if he was like ask me anything you want and I'll give it to you. You'd be like, whoa, really

Elon? That's awesome, but we're talking about the guy who created Elon We're talking about the guy who like owns all of Elon's stuff and all of Warren Buffett stuff and all of Jeff Bezos's stuff and all of the stuff that exists that is stuff it belongs to God and he took the time to not only comment

He wrote an entire book to you and then he said just follow these instructions align with me and Ask me for what you want and you get it

Salah Right like whoa Now if you were

Elon Musk's cousin People will be like, oh, well, that's because he's your cousin, right?

Guess what? You're God's child You you belong to him you are like his little baby

Like that like don't you want to give that anything it asks for little

Jack He's like That's what

God hears when we're talking. He's like, oh, I just love the sound Ask me for more kid

So think about what Jesus requested of the the father He asked for the for the an immortal immaculate and infinite creator to become one with a fallen flawed and finite creation

That seems impossible literally to become one like the same as remember when we talked about what love was in chapter 20 how

The Hebrew definition of love literally if you look at the letters in the word, it literally means one

Gives to two until you can't tell the difference between one and two

There's no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me, right? Jesus prayed father that they would be one and that we would be one even as as you and I are one

I and them and them and me like He want this

Infinite creator wanted to become one with a finite creation. That's wild And he went all -in on Everything That was not what he is.

It's just it's the whole idea of it is an impossible ill illogical concept

You've heard of opposites attract Like even that is a picture of what Jesus did for us because we are the complete polar opposite of what he is

And he goes and changes us and makes us different And that's a picture there too in marriage because like Katie and I you would have said opposites attract

Right, like when it comes to I was thinking of this yesterday Was eaten dim sum with pop and uncle

Jeff. We went to this Chinese restaurant and I was talking with them about Katie and how like you never would have caught her dead in a place like this before right, but now

Like she would probably really enjoy that place Right, so like things have changed a little bit.

We were completely opposite and in that respect. We're a little bit more the same and There has been a change the other way as well, you know, like You never would have caught me dead in anything that came from someplace other than Walmart or Salvation Army probably like That's where all my clothes came from and now she's got me wearing

Banana Republic. I've got Banana Republic pants on right now Yeah Like she like she's changed me and I've changed her like the two opposites come together and we start to Mesh we sometimes like just a moment ago when

I said my favorite example She I she already knew which one I was going to come up with I could see it all over her face

She was already laughing about it. My favorite example of you know her aligning with her dad's will and stuff

So like we become more like one person That's what Jesus wanted for us to be more like him, even though we were completely opposite of him

Verse 3 for thou preventest him with the blessings of goodness now the word prevent here means it goes before it proceeds

So what a blessing to have the goodness of the Lord prevent you it goes in front of you before you

But it it's not just It's I love the way the King James Version says prevent because what do we think of when we say prevent?

stopped us Yeah won't allow right and so when we look at this we we go

Oh, it means won't allow it stops us. But what it actually means is that it it walks in front of us, right?

It doesn't when you think of it that way. It doesn't feel like it's stopping us, but it actually is doing that too

Christ Was prevented from sin by the blessing of goodness from God That goodness was set before him every step of the way

For David God's blessing of goodness directed his steps For us.

It's the same when we recognize that the goodness of God is before us at all times

As it was for Jesus Then we have the ability to walk toward that goodness and it will prevent us from sin

So if you just think about it's right there in front of you goodness is in front of you so when you see a

Temptation you're not looking forward. You're looking to the side, right and recognize that right just a

Degree over to the left or to the right from that sin is the goodness of God follow it

Thou set us to crown of pure gold on his head victory. That's what that pictures when the king

When the rightful king to the throne wins the battle, what do they do they sit him on the throne they crown him, right?

David when he reclaimed his throne was crowned king

Right when David was anointed King first, he ran from Saul But once he became the king

Crown of glory on his head Jesus when he defeated sin on the cross he reclaimed his rightful place of Earth right like that.

He's gonna come back and we're gonna see that in a very physical picture But like when he overcame sin

It was like David when he was anointed King like he is now the king

Jesus is now King. He's on the throne in heaven. He's gonna come and rule on earth as well

David returns to the throne Jesus ascended unto the Father They receive a crown of the greatest physical substance known to man gold

But not just gold pure and perfect gold Without blemish now remember in chapter 20

We mentioned the lampstand and how it's made of gold and it's supposed to picture the divine nature of God this crown

Surrounds the mind right The divine nature of God it's a picture of the divine nature of God surrounding the mind with God's perfect nature and Every single scenario will be thought about first from the blessing of goodness

Now we will receive a crown When we go to heaven won't we?

but we'll cast that crown at his feet because We put we put a crown of thorns on his head and he returned it with a crown of glory or gold on ours

We'll be like mmm. Nope Let's let's let's change yeah, let's let's swap that I like the way you said that man.

Yeah, let's swap He asked Verse 4 he asked life of thee the king asked life of thee and thou gavest it him

Even length of days forever and ever God spared the life of David from his enemies

But he eventually slept with his father's he did eventually die, right? He lives on eternally in heaven with God But there was like a finality to his death

Here on earth it happened David no longer walks this earth God also spared the life of Jesus indefinitely

But he did it on Earth like Jesus Jesus didn't have a final death on earth

The earthly death that held him only held him for a moment And it lost his grip on him verse 5 his glory is

Great in thy salvation honor and majesty has thou laid upon him glory honor

Majesty these are terms of royalty Terms used to describe the king that's what happens when they when he sits on the throne after winning the battle

They put the crown on him all Hail the king right and they start talking about this most glorious majesty, right?

When the king is victorious Those are the kind of terms they start talking him about Talking about him with David had victory over every one of his enemies

Every single one of his enemies he had victory of another picture of Christ, right? Jesus had victory over every enemy and over life and death itself.

He conquered it all Our sins were laid upon him

But they were soon replaced with glory and honor and majesty, which he shares with us

So we gave him the crown of thorns. He gave us a crown of glory. We gave him sins He gave us glory honor majesty

His best deal ever right Verse 6 for thou hast made him most blessed forever

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ This is Ephesians 1 3 blessed be the

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ So Jesus was blessed by God Therefore he blessed others

That's the whole point of receiving a blessing It's so that you can be a blessing

Paul told the church at Ephesus that he heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the

Saints Did you hear it? Paul was like Paul told the church of Ephesus in Ephesians.

He said that he had heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus and their love toward all the

Saints their faith which Came from the Lord. There's the blessing in The blessing that they were towards the

Saints the love that they had for others. So we are blessed to be a blessing When God's blessing of goodness goes before you

When you're practicing true worship in the secret chambers of your mind By subjecting the flesh to the will of God in Thought and indeed when you're walking as a victorious

King clothed in honor and glory and majesty You will be a blessing to those around you

You'll be blessed to be a blessing. And by the way, that is what true worship is true worship

We think of worship as the the the worship service right singing and And Praising God through song it can manifest that way, but that's kind of like an

Outburst of what true worship is true worship starts in the heart and that is the aligning with God's will that's worship it is

Overcoming temptation that's worship it's when you have an opportunity to do wrong and you disconnect from The the old

Fallen man and you connect with the spirit. Boom. You're an instant worship. And so when you worship that way

And you walk sanctified you receive these these superpowers of Majesty glory honor you have them positionally but like when you walk experientially in them

You'll start to see that the blessings that you receive begin to affect the people around you and So like in the rest of verse 6 you will be made exceedingly glad With the countenance of God which is to say his face will be toward you

His attention will be on you and his presence will be with you thou has made him exceedingly glad with thy countenance

That's what that means the countenance of God You're experiencing his blessing.

All right, so I think what we will do is we will stop there and we will continue

The rest of this chapter next week We'll finish up chapter 21.

Sorry. I was a little choppy today. I was having issues with my With my phone trying to become the

I have a new phone and now it has this cool feature I guess it's cool where it tries to become the microphone for my computer and every time it does that it stops my recording.

So Sorry, Ben, you're gonna have a choppy recording from up here But anyway, well, we'll get it fixed

Okay, it was coming through pretty clear oh good so y 'all have any thoughts that you want to share we have a little bit of time

Okay So Ben says it really it kind of frees you up to just go all -in because You understand that like it's only going to be good

And we think no, it's not like the world wants us to focus on the persecution side

But if you have the right kind of mentality aligning yourself with God's will And being thankful Like continuously thankful then you recognize that the parts that the world says, ooh, that's bad persecution evil yucky

You don't want that. We're supposed to glory in diverse temptations, right? We're supposed to count it all joy and So even the parts that the world says, ooh, that's bad persecution

That's good It's hard to think of it as good But we're gonna receive special blessings when we when we go through that blessed are those who are

What's the word that the King James uses who are reviled for my sake, right? and So even that part is good

And if you recognize that and you trust that like there is an element of trust that has to come

You have to have faith that that's really how it works. But if you will lean into it like okay, whatever

Hardships come my way. I'm gonna go for it because in that hardship. There's a blessing and And The harder it is the bigger the blessing may be so go looking for the blessing in the hardship now

It just frees you up to go all in like Ben said like all right now. There's really nothing to fear Who shall

I fear right if God is for us who can be against us? That's a good thought there Ben. I like that any other thoughts

I love it when Caleb has lengthy notes fire away. Let's hear Caleb's lengthy note Oh Good Okay Okay So Caleb I like I like your thoughts

They're being thankful in the hard times is a good way to kind of start getting through the hard times being intentional

And I want to say it this way because he mentioned how it's intentional that you're going through the hard times

Right. So if God is being intentional at bringing you through the hard times Shouldn't we then be intentional about looking for why he's intentionally bringing us through it, right?

So if we would be intentional at looking at why is God making and we tend to say that why are you doing this

God? But it's more from a complaining standpoint. Why are you letting me go through this?

What if we were like, hey Let's get curious about that. Why is he making me go through this?

Why is he willing that I'm gonna have to go through this persecution or through this? Hardship or through this trial like why am

I having to go through this time of poor health or this time of rough finances?

There's something here I got to figure it out What am I supposed to learn? What am I supposed to do?

What am I supposed to? exemplify and then Search out his word for the answers on that and if you do you just might end up getting a huge blessing out of it

All right, great thoughts there Caleb thank you for that. What else?

We got a very vocal Jack in the back. I like it All right, well

Yeah Yes, Allah Salah, it's one of my favorite words

It is it's a musical term to denote a dramatic pause or Like or almost like a crescendo type thing it would often be used at like the part of the

The song where it starts to get like building building building building and then just a pause before the

The music kind of gets quiet again, you know, it's a it's a really cool word used to bug me

I was like, what does this even mean and I couldn't find a a Definition to it.

So then when I started really digging into why was it used? It's a it's a musical term and that's the best they can come up with but it actually makes it pretty cool

All right, let's pray Heavenly Father we thank you for your word We thank you for the concept of thankfulness like we we can't even be thankful without you giving us the concept of thankfulness

So we thank you for thankfulness Lord help us to be continually thankful help us to look for reasons to be thankful help us to Look for the blessings in the hardships

And then help us to recognize that those blessings are continually giving to us. It's not a one -and -done thing.

It's something that happens And changes us it should change us help us to be changed by the blessings help us to be changed by the trials

And help us to make sure that those changes are in alignment with you Lord, we love you.

We thank you for everything that you've shown us in Psalm chapter 21 so far. We can't wait to see what you show us next.