Nahum 1:6-7: The Lord is Good

So, we're going to be going through chapter 1, verses 6 -7 this morning. So, Nahum 1, verses 1 -8.

The Oracle of Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkishite, a jealous and avenging god is the

Lord. The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserves wrath for his enemies.

The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

In whirlwind and storm is his way, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet.

He rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up the rivers. Bashun and Carmel wither. The blossoms of Lebanon wither.

Mountains quake because of him, and the hills dissolve. Indeed, the earth is upheaved by his presence, the world and all the inhabitants in it.

Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the burning of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken up by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who take refuge in him.

But with an overflowing flood, he will make a complete end of its sight, and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

Once again, these are strong words from the prophet Nahum, and they're designed to get us to take account of where we are with God, and exactly who

God is. This is not a God to be trifled with. This is not a God to play games with.

This is a God who means what he says, and says what he means. So, let's just take a quick look at what we went over last week.

Verse 4, he rebukes the sea and makes it dry. He dries up all the rivers. Bashun and Carmel wither.

The bloom of Lebanon withers. So we realize that God is sovereign over the natural order.

He has complete control over all things natural. He's a supernatural

God. He created the universe. We are his creation, and he is sovereign over every inch of it.

Jesus also rebuked the sea, showing his sovereignty over it also.

We have to remember, when Jesus was in the boat, and the disciples were with him, the same way God rebukes the sea and the mountains,

Jesus does the same thing. This is going to identify him with the sovereign

God of the universe. All that glitters is not gold. God will destroy seemingly beautiful things.

When you recognize that Bashun and Carmel and Lebanon were places of plush beauty, places where things grew, and God's going to come in and tear those things down, there's a reason for that.

Sometimes things look very beautiful on the outside, but on the inside they're corrupt.

They're not good for us. We have to recognize the symbolism in this, in the world we live in now, and look at the things that seemingly look good, but could corrupt our souls.

Even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. Just because something looks good doesn't mean it is good.

Yes, Steve? Yeah, God sees the heart.

People look at that and say, oh, that's good, God sees my heart. That's really not good, because when

God sees your heart, he sees all the corruption that goes with it. The heart is deceitful above all things.

Who can know it? Unfortunately, we're self -deceived, we're born into this world as sinners, and we think we're good.

When God says, I can see your heart, that should cause us to tremble. Next verse.

The mountains quake because of him, and the hills dissolve. Indeed, the earth is upheaved by his presence, the world, and all its inhabitants in it.

So mountains, we learned, are symbols of temples, governments, and kingdoms.

The mountain of the Lord is going to grow and fill the earth. That's not a physical mountain.

That's a spiritual mountain. It is a mountain in a real sense, in a spiritual sense, and God's kingdom is going to cover the entire earth.

Assyria is going to be judged and removed. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

The presence of God will bring them and us to our knees. When God comes in judgment, it's not a pretty sight.

We're all going to tremble. Even though, as Christians, we are his children, it's still going to cause us to tremble.

I remember when I was little, my father came in the room and he was angry. I was trembling. I mean,

I wasn't going to die. He wasn't going to kill me. Even though he's Italian. But you know that he means business.

So when God comes in his presence in judgment, the church is going to be affected by it. Thankfully, we're going to be preserved, but we will be affected by it.

The church is the temple of God and will biblically fear the Lord. One of the things that separates

God's people from the rest of the world is that God's people fear him. Biblically. Not in a

Freddy Krueger type of sense. But a reverential fear of God.

So let's get into this morning's verse. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the burning of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken up by him. The conclusion that Nineveh and all who read

Nahum's prophecy should have come to is found in verse 6. Who can stand before God's indignation?

Who can endure the fierceness of his anger? The answer is no one.

In fact, Malachi repeats the same question in chapter 3 verse 2 of his letter. No matter how brazen and defiant

Nineveh was, no one can maintain such an impotent posture in the face of the terrifying presence and power of God's fierce anger.

So hot would God's fury be that the Ninevites would be utterly consumed even in the attempt to resist him.

God would be as unstoppable as a raging fire and as shattering as splitting of rocks depicted the smashing of what appeared to be durable and fixed.

So when the scripture says the rocks are going to be shattered, this is a picture of God coming in judgment and even rocks that are heavy and meant to be solid and not broken, he'll shatter them.

We have to recognize we're talking about God and he's coming in judgment.

Yes, judgment would come to Nineveh because the zeal of the Lord would execute it. The Lord's power to effect what he said he would do was unlimited while his zeal was regulated by his absolute holiness and consistency to his own character.

God doesn't come in judgment upon Nineveh because he had an outburst of anger.

He's coming because he's righteous and just and he has allotted that this is the time that Assyria is now going to receive its punishment.

He's extended them grace. This is not him flying off the handle. We use that term, oh, he flew off the handle.

God doesn't fly off the handle. He's coming for a reason, for a purpose. Malachi 3 .2

says, But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he's like a refiner's fire and like fuller's soap.

Right? Who can endure that day? Thankfully, because of who

God is, his people will endure that day. For I, the Lord, do not change.

Therefore, O children of Jacob, you are not consumed. God doesn't change his mind.

He doesn't say, I'm going to set my love on you. You are going to be in my covenant.

And then, boom, I don't want to do that anymore. God is not like us. Thank God.

That's why this is a very, very comforting verse. I do not change. Therefore, you are not consumed.

If it was based on a changing God and your behavior, we're all in trouble. Right? And then

God would have outbursts because he doesn't change. He's steady, self -control.

All right. So, verses four and five prepare the reader for the rhetorical questions of verse six, where four

Hebrew words expresses wrath, which pours out like fire and shatters rocks. Indignation, anger, wrath, broken.

Okay? Together with other Old Testament writers, Deuteronomy, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Amos.

Nahum makes the red flames an apt picture of God's consuming wrath. Even the rocks, typical of that which is hardest and strongest, crack into pieces.

Here's what Deuteronomy says. So, God goes out as a consuming fire.

Jeremiah, So, here you have a consuming fire.

Now it will burn with no quenching. Ezekiel, See the imagery?

Okay? This is not a good situation for God's enemies. Amos 7.

This is what the Lord God showed me. The Lord God was calling for a judgment by fire. And it devoured the great deep and was eating up the land.

So, when God comes in judgment, in fire upon his enemies, this is vivid language to show the severity of what

God is doing. Okay? This rhetorical question reminds me of Job.

Right? Remember when God questioned Job? I'm going to take a minute to go through this because this is heavy.

Job 38, 1 -11, Then the Lord answered Job, out of the whirlwind. As I look this up,

I saw the word whirlwind. Where do we see that in the book of Nahum? Verse 3.

He's going to come in the whirlwind. The whirlwind is a term of judgment. Okay?

He's going to come now and he's going to confront Job. Now, obviously Job is one of God's children.

So, it's different when God confronts one of his children versus somebody who's his enemy.

God disciplines those he loves. So, this is going to be disciplinary for Job. Now watch what he says. Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Dress for action like a man, Job. I will question you, and you make it known to me.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

Who determined its measurement? Surely you know. Or who stretched out the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone? When the morning stars sang together and all the suns of glory shouted for joy.

Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb? When I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors and said, thus far you shall come and no farther.

And here you shall your proud waves be stayed. Have you commanded the morning since your days began,

Job? And caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it?

It changed like clay under the seal and its features stand out like a garment. From the wicked their light is withheld and their uplifted arm is broken.

Have you entered into the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?

Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the gates of deep darkness? Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?

Declare, if you know all this, where is the way of the dwelling of light and where is the place of darkness that you may take it to its territory and that you may discern the path to its home?

You know, for you were born then and the number of your days is great, right, Job? Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or have you seen the storehouses of the hall which

I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? What is the way to place where the light is distributed or where the east wind is scattered upon the earth?

Who has cleft a channel for the torrents of rain and a way for the thunderbolt to bring rain on a land where no man is, on the desert in which there is no man, to satisfy the waste and desolate land and to make the ground sprout with grass?

Has the rain a father? Or who has begotten the drops of dew? From whose womb did ice come forth and who has given birth to the frost of heaven?

The water has become hard like stone and the face of the deep is frozen. Can you bind the chains of Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion?

Can you lead forth the Mazaroth in their season or can you guide the bear with its children?

Do you know the ordinances of heaven? Can you establish their rule on the earth? Could you imagine standing in front of God, hearing

Him ask questions of you like this? Can you lift up your voice to the clouds that a flood of waters may cover you?

Can you send forth lightnings that they may go and say to you, here we are? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind?

Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the water skins of the heavens when the dust runs into a mass and the clouds stick fast together?

Can you hunt the prey for the lion or satisfy the appetite of the young lions when they crouch in their den or lie in wait in their thicket?

Who provides for the raven its prey when its young ones cry to God for help and wander about for lack of food?

That was just all the verses in chapter 39. At the end,

Job says, then Job answered the Lord and said, Behold, I am of small account.

What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth, I have spoken once and will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further.

But God didn't stop. For another 52 verses,

God continues to question Job. You think standing up in front of Johnny Cochran was bad?

Standing in front of God and having to answer these questions after opening your mouth presumptuously? And finally,

Job in chapter 42, then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Who is it that hides counsel without knowledge? That's what Job asked God. Therefore, I have uttered what

I did not understand and things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. Here and I will speak,

I will question you and you make it known to me. I have heard of you by the hearing of my ear, but now my eyes see you.

Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. When God questions

Job, when God questions the Assyrians, this is not someone to be trifled with.

God means business. Could you picture yourself hearing those questions after opening your mouth?

Sometimes we open our mouths. Well, why did God do this? Why is this happening this way? Why doesn't he do this?

No purpose of his can be thwarted. He has a purpose for everything. The function of all this imagery is to underscore the awesomeness of Yahweh in order to prepare the way for the prophet's announcement of judgment on the

Assyrian enemy who indeed can stand before the wrath of the Lord. If the

Lord rebukes the sea, drives up Carmel and strikes fear into all the world, what can the wicked do?

His very presence makes the mountains quake and the hills melt away. Those who have seen the power of God know that no one can stand before this awesome

God. If oceans, torrents, plateau countries and mountain ranges can be wiped out, should

Yahweh choose to remove them, what coalition of conquerors, even Assyria itself, can hope to thwart his purposes?

Now again, Assyria came in, conquered the northern tribes of Israel. They went too far.

Now this is God who's going to rebuke Assyria for what they've done. They're coming down into the southern tribes.

Before that happens, Babylon's going to take Assyria out. But God is the one who's doing all this.

These verses remind the modern reader of the book of Nahum that nothing can stand before the

Lord. We tend to think that our technology can save us, that our scientific research will deliver us from all this evil.

Nahum knew that the mighty army of Assyria could not stand before God. Our progress and technology stand impotent before the presence of God.

So we look out at the world and we see there's a lot of evil happening out there right now. All the enemies of God are going to be punished righteously for what they've done.

Nahum's questions demand a negative answer. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure before his anger?

No one. None can survive the burning anger of God's wrath, which will be poured out like fire.

The word indignation is a synonym for anger in this context and is sometimes translated wrath in the

NIV. Even huge boulders are shattered before God. Again, look at the imagery of that.

Nahum's admonitions are a warning to Nineveh to repent in order to avoid the wrath of Israel's powerful

God. It is futile to resist. The prophet describes God burning with rage.

However, this is no vengeful God breathing destruction for destruction's sake.

This is not a God who flies off the handle. Here's why. Rather, Nahum is quick to point out that the

Lord is good. He's a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knows those who take refuge in him.

Again, when judgment comes upon the earth, the church will feel it. There's going to be consequences for the church, but we will not be destroyed.

Judgment issues from the wellness of God's goodness. Because God is good, he punishes sin.

Thus, God will not let injustice prevail. With all of nature at God's behest, no one can withstand

God's fierce power. Nothing can frustrate his divine purpose. Every wall of resistance tumbles before God, who is the only true refuge.

God's protection in the midst of what's going on is squarely rooted in the assurance of God's judgment.

And I want to... So, what we know about the enemies of... We know that the enemies of God are going to get what they deserve.

But what about the people of God? What happens to us? I want to go through Psalm 46, which he referenced in the commentary.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though mountains tremble at its swelling.

We talked about mountains being symbolic of governments, temples, governments, all right?

Cast into the heart of the sea, that's chaos. Okay, do you look at the world right now?

Do you think that mountains are being cast into the sea? Is the world not in chaos right now?

What does it say for the people of God? We will not fear, though the earth gives way. We stand in a kingdom that can't be shaken.

We walk by faith, not by sight. We must remember who our Father is and who's in control.

We have to remember, question Job, do we want to sit in that seat?

Judgment begins with the house of God, right? And when we hear statements about God like this, it should cause us to reflect inward.

Where do I stand with God? Am I walking in faithfulness towards Him?

Am I taking advantage of His grace? Right, getting what I don't deserve, right?

Am I just being flippant about that? Am I just, oh,

God loves me, I can do whatever I want? Or am I in reverential fear of God and who

He truly is, okay? This psalm is gonna help us. And we get to that word selah, which no one knows exactly what that word means, but most commentators take it to be a pause or like an amen.

So when you're reading through a psalm, you get to that word selah, just pause. Look at the verses that we just read, that you just read, and then we'll go on to the next.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her.

She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter.

He utters His voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.

In the midst of what they were gonna go through in Judah, okay,

God coming in and taking the Assyrians out, they're gonna see destruction happening before their eyes.

And they're gonna, there's consequences for being in that position, okay? They're gonna need to cling to God.

Look at what it says. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. Where do we hear about rivers in the

New Testament? What does Jesus say about rivers of living water?

If you believe on me, as the Scriptures have said, rivers of living water will flow from your inner parts.

This, okay, in our context, as we see what's going on in the world, the people of God are the ones who have the

Spirit of God in us, and that should flow out of us. We should not be afraid of what's happening in the world.

This must happen. The fact that this is a purification, okay, it's punishment for the

Assyrians, but it's purification for Israel. Good point. Come behold the works of the

Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes war cease to the end of the earth.

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am

God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. That is incredibly comforting for Nahum.

That should be incredibly comforting for us. As we go through this stuff that's going on in the world today, if you are a

Christian, God is with you. The Lord of hosts is with us.

Lord of hosts, what does that name mean? The Lord of the armies, right?

This is the God who trains our hands for war. When we go to worship, it's warfare.

When we pray, it's warfare. The people of God have to get serious and use the weapons that he's given us in order to war against the other nations around us.

Now, we war against them, okay, but we plead for mercy that God would save them.

Yes, John? The God of Jacob.

He's the God who... Jacob, I loved. Esau, I hated. He's the God who brings forth his people and his promise for them, right?

It's Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Right, right, so...

Yes, and think about it. You're right. Jacob was the deceiver, okay? Esau was a man's man, the hunter, right?

If you evaluated them, you'd be like, Esau is the better candidate, right?

That's why when we read in Romans 9, Jacob I loved and Esau I hated, everybody concentrates on the fact, he hates

Esau. What should amaze us is that he loves Jacob. The very fact that he loves

Jacob despite his inadequacies is proof that God is merciful and gracious to his people.

Yes, yes.

He wrestled with God, right? Right, so the name

Israel means wrestles with God. So sometimes when you're reading the

Scriptures and you're like, you're wrestling with what the Word says about God, that's a good thing.

Because in your prior condition, you wouldn't have wrestled with it. You would have been like, who cares?

The very fact that it means something to you means that God is doing something in your heart or has regenerated you already and you're wrestling with these things so that you now be conformed to the image of God, not the image of yourself.

Okay? Alright, let's move on. Psalm 59,

But I, the church, will sing of your strength, I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning, for you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress.

As the things that are happening in this world continue on, we have to find our refuge and our strength in God.

This is going to draw God's people closer to Him, not further away. The people who walk further away are people who were not

Christians to begin with. Right? I think the pastor said it, he says as judgment comes on the earth right now,

God's separating the believers from the make -believers. The believers are going to draw closer to God.

Psalm 94, But the Lord has become my stronghold and my God, the rock of my refuge. Psalm 142,

I cry to you, O Lord, you are my refuge, my portion, in the land of the living. This may sound paradoxical, but Nahum would no doubt add to the title of the popular hymn,

There is a wilderness in God's mercy, the line, There is a refuge in God's judgment. This is what

I was talking about. It is the kind of protection that was at work when the Israelite slaves were shielded from the final plague against Egypt.

Though a loud cry of lament was heard throughout Egypt, not even a dog growled against the

Israelites as they prepared to make their exodus. To take refuge in God is to acknowledge absolute reliance upon the

Lord of history, particularly amid chaos and crisis. Security that is self -generated is by contrast finite and fleeting, like a house built on sinking sand.

When we take our refuge and find our strength in God, it's permanent. He does not move.

He does not change. That is security. By the end of this lesson, they're going to be out with the iPhone 44, right?

And a couple hours later, 45. It's always going to change. Everything's going to be changing. The only thing that doesn't change in this world is

God. Yeah, I think every situation that we look at from one situation, from one sense, from one perspective, it's bad.

From another perspective, it's good. God's accomplishing his purpose in the midst of this. So yes, build on. Grow roots.

Build a church. That's what God's doing here. We have to build a church. We have to transform the community.

We have to set up a classical Christian school. There's all these different things that we have to do and laying a ground for next generation and the generation after that and the generation after that.

We got to think incrementally. Small, small steps. We start thinking small steps and start making those small steps and expanding the kingdom here on earth.

We're going to see change. We're going to see change. Okay, got to move a little quicker.

Okay. So here we go. And he knows those who take refuge in him. This is important.

That word to know is yadah in Hebrew. And the simple meaning to know is its most common translation out of the 800 or more uses.

One of the primary uses means to know relationally and experientially. So when

God knows you, he knows you relationally and experientially. It refers to knowing or not knowing persons.

The word also refers to knowing a person intimately. Especially signifies knowing what to do or think in general, especially with respect to God.

Now, I used the illustration a couple weeks ago. If Derek Jeter walked into the room, I'd say, oh, look, there's Derek Jeter. But he would not look and say, oh, there's

Anthony. He doesn't know me. He shouldn't know me. I'm not on any baseball courts. All right.

Anyway, one of its most important uses is depicting God's knowledge of people.

The Lord knows their hearts entirely. God knows the suffering of his people. Very important.

Genesis chapter four. Now Adam knew Eve, and she conceived and bore

Cain, saying, I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord. When it means Adam knew Eve, it was he was intimate with her.

It's the way God knows us, his children, intimately. Amos 3 .2.

You only have I known of all the families of the earth. Now, God has knowledge of every single person on the planet.

Yet, to Israel, he says, you only have I known. What's he talking about? He's talking about that covenantal love, the love that a husband has for his wife.

Love your wife like Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. Now, I know many women in the church.

I know my wife in a much different way than I know the women. I have a special covenantal love with my wife, the same way

God has a special covenantal love with his bride. In that verse, you only have

I known of all the families of the earth. It finishes, and so I'm going to punish you, because you should know better.

But that's a different topic for a different day. Deuteronomy 7, 6, and 8.

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possessions, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth.

It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord has set his love on you and chose you.

For you are the fewest of all peoples. The Lord loves you and is keeping an oath he swore to your fathers. Know, therefore, that the

Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him.

We are to know God in that way, and then know him intimately.

The Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them. You, above all peoples, as you are to this day.

Now, again, everybody likes to quote John 3, 16. For God so loved the world. But here it says he set his love on Israel.

It's that covenantal, marital love, intimate love. God has a general love for all mankind, for sure.

But he's got a special, covenantal love for his bride. Hosea 2, 19.

And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and mercy.

I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. Again, there's that intimacy.

We're going to know him in an experiential and relational way, as father. How does this apply in the

New Testament? Right? Jesus in John 10. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in another way, that man is a thief and a robber.

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he's brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee for him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. Okay? As members of the

New Covenant, we too know the Lord, and Jesus knows us, and we recognize his voice, and we're not going to follow strangers.

So as all different kinds of things are happening in the church today, and you hear these different voices and people being pulled, homosexuality is okay, and abortion is okay, and all these things are okay, that's not the voice of our shepherd.

We don't follow that. Right? We follow the true voice of God.

We obey his commandments. John 10, I'm the good shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me.

Watch this. Just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. How well does the

Father know Jesus? How well does the Father love Jesus, and how well does Jesus love the Father? Perfectly?

That's how he knows us. I know my own. Right? My own know me. We're working on that side of love.

We're trying to love him more. Right? But we're faithful to him. Right? This should bring great comfort to us now, as we see what's going on in the world.

We recognize that it's judgment, but he is our stronghold in the day of trouble. This should push us closer to God, not further away from him.

My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. Right? What is salvation?

This is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent.

So when it says he knows those who take refuge in him, he knows us intimately.

It's his bride. We are his children. This should bring us great comfort. Doesn't mean we should sit on our hands and not do anything.

This should spur us to love and good works all the more. So God is not only a

God of judgment. There's another side to his nature. He's also the God of mercy. In the midst of all this language about the vengeance of God upon his enemies,

Nahum utters this wonderful statement. The Lord is good. It is for this reason that we can have hope.

We have all been born with a sinful nature. We live in a corrupt world, and we find it difficult to know what pure goodness is.

However, we can see genuine goodness in God, and only in him. When you see what he's done on the cross for his people, sending his son to die in this world, and have the evil come upon him and not us.

Like Michael Kruger uses this illustration, when you look at Jesus on the cross, that is God's certified check.

That's money in the bank. He's paid for the sins of his people. You cling to that.

You find your refuge and your strength in that. How many times in the

Bible we read the Lord described like this? According to your love. Remember me for your good.

Oh, Lord. Good and upright is the Lord. Therefore, he instructs sinners in his way. OK, as we work these things out in the world today, we should be reading our scriptures, recognizing that the

Lord is good. And this is even these things are being worked together for our good.

All right. We learned that on Wednesday nights. OK, I'm coming to a close, I promise. Now we can see a fuller picture of God.

He is as ready and able to protect his friends as he is ready and able to punish his enemies.

Just as he shows wrath to those who oppose him, even so does he show goodness to those who trust in him.

Just as his strength is used against his enemies, even so his great strength is used on behalf of his friends.

Psalm to kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way. His wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all those who take refuge in him. Right. With the things going on in the world today, where else are you going to go for refuge?

Right. Don't do what the world doesn't find refuge in all different kinds of things. As God's people, we find refuge in him.

Proverbs 18 .10, The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous man runs into it and is safe.

Take refuge in the Lord. Any questions? Thoughts?