Sunday, August 28, 2022 AM

The Lord’s Supper, Church Announcements, and Preparations for Worship

All right, good morning, everyone. It's good to be here to worship together today at Sunnyside Baptist Church. Lovely morning outside. We'll start with a few announcements this morning. Obviously, this morning we have the Lord's Supper, so begin preparing your hearts for that near the end of our service today.

Looking ahead to this afternoon, there will be a wedding shower, bridal shower in the Fellowship Hall for Joel and Nicole. So that will go from 12 .30, I believe, to 2 .30. So probably a lot of guys are responsible for their own lunch today, figuring out what to do there.

Yeah, prayer requests there. And then also this evening, regular evening service at 5 .30, truth group this evening after that service for our young adults. Looking ahead to this Wednesday, again, it's the last Wednesday and last day of the month, so there will not be a meal this Wednesday, but come for devotion and prayer at 6 .30.

Looking ahead to next Sunday, that's gonna be Promotion Sunday for our Sunday school classes. So be sure, if you haven't done so already, if your kids are promoting, thank those teachers who have had those kids for years now and it really poured into them.

They would appreciate that. And then looking ahead to next Wednesday on the 7th, TAG Children's Program resumes. They are still in need of some volunteers. So if you can't volunteer, there's a variety of ways that you can serve for TAG Children's Program there on Wednesdays.

There are some new Bible reading plans on the back table for To the Word, the year-long Bible reading challenge. So feel free to pick one of those up. They're free for you to take, and that will take you through the next roughly nine months or so of Bible reading.

I know a lot of people have participated in that in the past. It's an enjoyable thing to do together. Also, don't forget to check mailboxes. A lot of times people will leave cards of encouragement or sympathy in those.

Check those regularly as well. Any other announcements this morning? This week's fighter verse comes from 1 Peter 4 .16. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

We're gonna prepare our hearts for worship this morning through prayer and just a quiet time. And then at the conclusion of that, dad will come and open us in prayer.

Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. The heavens declare your glory. The sun, the moon, and the stars are all your handiwork. And Lord, when we consider who we are, we are amazed that you would be mindful of us.

How grateful we are for Christ who is our righteousness. Who came to fulfill all righteousness and by his perfect obedience and through faith in him, imputes to us his own righteousness. That we might stand justified, forgiven, and free before your throne.

We thank you for Christ who is our joy and whom we have every blessing because of Christ. We thank you for Jesus who is our peace, who has taken us from being enemies of God to being your sons and daughters.

We praise you for Christ, our salvation, who has redeemed us from the curse of the law and given us hope, given us life. Lord, we pray that as we come this morning, that we would, even as we see your word projected on the screen, even as we see the lyrics of hymns projected on the screen, that those words would stir our hearts to give you praise and glory and honor and blessing for you are good and you do good.

Lord, help us today with one heart, with one mind, with one voice, may we declare that Christ is Lord to the praise of your glorious name, amen.

Would you stand with me for our call to worship this morning? This passage has already spoken to me personally this week, so I'm excited about getting to read this together with you. So if you would read with me together, Psalms 79, eight through 10.

Do not remember against us our former iniquities. Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low. Help us, O God, our salvation, for the glory of your name deliver us and atone for our sins, for your name's sake.

Why should the nation say, where is their God? Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes. So if you would turn to your Psalms for Worship hymnal, page 79B, and we'll sing all three verses, seven, eight, and nine.

Or sing seven verses, seven, eight, and nine. 104, the solid rock.

The solid sinking sand Until the sinking sand

Isaiah 32 and the Promise of a Righteous King

Scripture reading comes again from the book of Isaiah. So if you have your Bibles, open to Isaiah chapter 32 this morning. I'll be reading verses one through eight from the ESV version. This is the word of the Lord.

Behold, a king will reign in righteousness and princes will rule in justice. Each will be like a hiding place from the wind, a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a great rock in a weary land.

Then the eyes of those who see will not be closed and the ears of those who hear will give attention. The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.

The fool will no more be called noble, nor the scoundrel said to be honorable, for the fool speaks folly, and his heart is busy with iniquity, to practice ungodliness, to utter error concerning the Lord, to leave the craving of the hungry unsatisfied, and to deprive the thirsty of drink.

As for the scoundrel, his devices are evil. He plans wicked schemes to ruin the poor with lying words, even when the plea of the needy is right. But he who is noble plans noble things, and on noble things he stands.

Would you pray with me? Our gracious Heavenly Father, we come before you, and our desire is that we might have kings and rulers who are righteous here and now, and yet we know if that doesn't come, while we live here on earth, we have hope that a king is returning who is righteousness, and he rules over all.

All the rulers and the princes of this world, they will bow their knee to him, as will we. Father, as we await his return, the return of our King and our Savior and our Lord Jesus Christ, help us to stand firm in his truth, to love those who are lost, to spread his good news to the world, and in all things to give you glory.

Be with us as we open your word together, as we continue to sing worship songs to you. We love you and we ask all this in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated.

For our next song, there was a handout in the back, hope you were able to pick that up. I appreciate so much the ladies on the worship team. Our heart's desire is truly to worship the Lord in song, and so grateful so much for the ladies as they've used the gifts God has given them to serve him.

And on this song, Haley's gonna start us off.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for the day.

I thank you for the hope that we have in Christ. I thank you for the joys of coming together as brothers and sisters in the love that you have given to us through your Holy Spirit. I thank you for the prospects of thanksgiving and rejoicing today that you have brought about, and ask that here this morning, as we read your word, as we bow the knee to this scepter of your lordship in our lives, that you would have your way among us, that your will, established from heaven, will find a hearty amen in this world and in our lives, that thereby you would be greatly glorified, and you would do us great good.

We pray all of these things, seeking these mercies, in the name of your son, Jesus Christ, the one with whom you are well-pleased, amen. I invite you to open your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 16.

Psalm 16, we will be reading verses one through 11, the whole psalm here in a moment. The connection to the book of Acts is that in Acts chapter two, among other passages that Peter quotes, interprets, and applies is Psalm 16.

And it just so happens that this psalm is rich with the themes of our communion with the Lord. So in the Lord's providence today, we will be looking at this psalm. Recall that Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost.

The Holy Spirit has arrived in that promised and special way, signaling the reality of the new covenant, and signaling, therefore, the end of the old covenant. Now that the new has come, the old is obsolete, and is ready to pass away.

It shall pass away with judgment. However, the promise of the Holy Spirit, the arrival of the Holy Spirit, signals that promise from Joel chapter two, that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Peter does not leave this call ill-defined, and he begins to proclaim who this Lord is by declaring the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

He then begins to clarify even further the importance of this resurrection, and its significance for the rule and reign of Christ, made so manifest by the arrival of the Holy Spirit. He does this by quoting the latter half of Psalm 16, and clarifies that although this was indeed the Psalm of David, that David proclaimed and prophesied by the power of the Holy Spirit, that ultimately David was not speaking of himself in the resurrection from the dead, but ultimately he was declaring Christ who would reign upon the very throne of David.

So in this interest, we turn our attention to Psalm 16, and I invite you to stand with me as we read the text. Here is the word of our Lord Christ by his Holy Spirit, through his prophet David. Preserve me, O God, for in you I put my trust.

O my soul, you have said to the Lord, you are my Lord. My goodness is nothing apart from you. As for the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight. Their sorrows shall be multiplied, who hasten after another God.

Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips. O Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup, you maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places.

Yes, I have a good inheritance. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore, my heart is glad and my glory rejoices. My flesh also will rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to see corruption. You will show me the path of life, and your presence is fullness of joy.

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. My goodness is nothing apart from the Lord. The Lord is the portion of our inheritance and cup.

These themes are also present in Psalm 23, are they not? As we consider that the nearness of the Lord is our good, here we see these very same truths being expressed by David. It's important that we think about the connection of Psalm 16 to Joel 2 and Acts chapter 2, to consider the happy amalgamation of the scriptural truths together in the way in which Peter, having been so blessed by his Lord, having his eyes opened to understand the scriptures, being blessed by the power of the Holy Spirit to proclaim the truths of Jesus Christ from Joel 2 and Psalm 16 and several other passages that he's going to reference here in Acts chapter 2.

We need to understand these connections and to rejoice in them if we too are to grab hold of the meaning of Pentecost and the joys that we now experience in the new covenant. Indeed, as we gather together to partake in communion, what are we doing?

What joys are here set before us? Psalm 16 in light of Acts 2 helps us with that. We are to rejoice in our Savior at all times. We are to rejoice in our Savior at all times. Psalm 16, beginning you see a little note to a mixtum of David, especially quality kind of poem, a skillful poem, and like so many other psalms set in chiasm so that we have several layers that echo one another in their themes.

So we'll look at them in order. We'll look at the bookends and work our way inward until we hit the very heart of David's skillful psalm. We're going to see in verses one through three in verse 11 the call to trust in the Lord.

We'll consider in verses four and 10 that the Lord alone saves. In the meat of the psalm, we'll see in verses five and six and verses eight and nine that we are to rejoice in hope because of who the Lord is and how He saves.

And at the heart of everything in verse seven, we receive the main point that we are to bless the Lord always. Let's begin with verses one through three and verse 11. Consider the prayer of David here, the call of David to his Lord.

Do we remember the life of David, the situation that we often think of him being in, on the run, outlaw, hunted, the things that God had promised him, the anointing that he had placed upon him, the favor he had had in the royal courts, now all of it changed.

On the run from King Saul with his band of 600 fellow outlaws, a triple agent, hiding from Saul amongst the Philistines, pretending like he's doing the Philistines' job of attacking and raiding his own people while actually attacking other enemies besides the Philistines, trying to hold it all together, sometimes his men ready to go to war with one another, sometimes mutinous against him.

Listen to the prayer of David. See how he calls upon the Lord. Acts two, what was just said, the promise of Joel chapter two, whoever will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Peter says, you know who this Lord is?

It's none other than Jesus of Nazareth. That's who the Lord is that you're to call upon. That's the Lord you're supposed to trust in. And then he starts quoting from Psalm 16. Look here at what it looks like to trust the Lord.

Perhaps that phrase is used so often, but what does that look like? Psalm 16, verses one and two. David prays, preserve me, O God, for in you I put my trust. O my soul, you have said to the Lord, you are my Lord.

My goodness is nothing apart from you. What does it mean to trust in the Lord? First he says, preserve me, O God, save me, keep me. I trust in you. He says, I've said to my soul, I addressed, he addresses himself, he upbraids himself.

And he says, soul, you have said to the Lord, you are my Lord. Not only do I look to the Lord to be my savior, please preserve me, please keep me, but I look to the Lord as actually my Lord, my sovereign.

You are my Lord. You are king.

You're in charge.

You have authority over my life. Not only do you keep me, but you also rule over me. And then he says, my goodness is nothing apart from you. My goodness is nothing apart from you. Anything that would be good in my life is absolutely meaningless without foundation, without you.

I've got nothing without you. In other words, David is saying to God, I trust you, what does that look like? It means that in every way possible, David addresses the Lord and says, you are my savior. You are my sovereign.

You are my shepherd. I've got nothing without you. That's what it looks like to trust in the Lord. So much so that David says, everybody else who's in the same boat as I am, I deeply love. The saints, the saints who are on the earth, they are the excellent ones in whom is all my delight.

Those who also know the Lord as their savior and their sovereign and their shepherd in every way possible. Oh, I delight in those. Those are my people. I rejoice in them. To trust in the Lord, you see, is to be drawn to Him and everybody else who trusts in the Lord, drawn to Him.

We come together. We rejoice in one another for we find the same joy in the same Lord, the same savior, the same sovereign, the same shepherd. That's what it looks like to trust in the Lord. Is this not reminiscent of what Jesus described as eternal life?

That eternal life is not some dubious, rusty escape hatch from death. But He said, this is eternal life. That they know you, the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. That this is eternal life.

To trust in the Lord is to live in the Lord. That in every way possible, I look to the Lord as savior and sovereign and shepherd. Then verse 11. Notice the parallel of themes. You will show me the path of life.

It's not Christ told us He is the way, the truth and the life. Eternal life is to know Him, to trust in Him, to live in Him. You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your presence is fullness of joy.

Apart from you, I've got nothing. But in your presence is the fullness, is the everything of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. David has just said in verses nine and 10 that he's got hope.

Even death is not the end. Ultimately, life is in the Lord and there's hope not just for the now, but in the hereafter. There's hope forever. Trust in the Lord. Trust in the Lord. He is our salvation.

He is our authority. He is the one who provides for us and in Him, we are His saints forever. Trust in the Lord and you will rejoice in your Savior at all times. How does the table teach us this? Are we not looking upon the elements that remind us of the Lord's salvation?

It was His broken body, and His shed blood in our place and for our sake. He is our Savior. Has He not risen from the dead and given us this ordinance to proclaim His death until He comes? Does He not show us through this meal that He provides for us?

He sustains us. He's the one who gives us life ever after through His personal provision. And do we not rejoice in one another as the saints as we come together around this table, the table of our Lord?

Trust in the Lord. He alone saves. Now, I want you to look at verses four and 10. Again, thinking of the context of David on the run from King Saul, him and his 600 men trying to stay at least two spear lengths ahead, running around with the Philistines, trying to fool everybody at once.

What does he say in verse four?

In contrast to the saints, he speaks, in contrast to the saints, he speaks of those who hasten after another God. He says, their sorrows shall be multiplied who hasten after another God. Their drink offerings of blood I will not offer, nor take up their names on my lips.

He's running around with the Philistines. They worship false gods. They offer sacrifices to false gods. They invoke the names of their false gods. They offer up blood sacrifices to their false gods. They're worshiping Dagon, the fish god.

There's nothing wrong with a fish.

But a man who worships a fish,.

There's nothing right about him.

And David knows where his hope remains is in the Lord. He is not going to begin to call upon the fish god of the Philistines. He says, their sorrows will be multiplied who hasten after another God. Doesn't David have enough sorrows already?

Doesn't he have enough problems already? It will only be multiplied, exponentially made worse, by worshiping a false conception of the creator, the provider, the ruler, and the savior. David says, there's only one I'm gonna pray to.

Only one name I will put upon my lips and invoke in prayer. It will not be these false gods. Similarly, in verse 10, David knows where his hope lies. He says, for you will not leave my soul in Sheol. You're not gonna leave the life of me in the grave.

Nor will you allow your Holy One, your Messiah, your Christ, to see corruption. Consider, consider. David first considers the hopelessness in prayer of idolaters, and then he considers the hopelessness in peril for those who do not rejoice in the Lord's anointed one.

And both of these things are untrue about David. He knows who to pray to, he knows who to trust, he knows who saves. And ultimately, how many times has David faced death? He knows one thing, God is not going to leave the life of me in the grave.

Why?

Why does David have hope of the resurrection? Because of the way the Lord thinks about, treats, honors his Holy One, his Messiah, his Christ. You're not gonna leave my soul in Sheol because you're not even gonna allow your anointed one to see corruption.

David has hope of the resurrection because of God's anointed. This is what comes to mind for Peter when he's preaching in Acts chapter two. As he's clarifying the good of the new covenant, the joys of the new covenant, the reality of the superiority of the new covenant because we have a new mediator who is Christ.

He has just declared that it was according to the sovereign plan of God that Israel by lawless hands put this Messiah to death but he didn't stay dead. He was raised from the dead and that was made proof positive, not only by the arrival of the Holy Spirit but that he showed himself to so many and this means that he's Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

He sits upon the throne. There was a question about who should be in charge in David's time, wasn't there not? Saul was the Lord's anointed and then all of a sudden David was the Lord's anointed at the same time.

Now that caused some problems, didn't it? The unfaithful anointed one, Saul, was told that the Lord was taking away his kingdom and giving it to another. Saul had been unfaithful. He had broken stewardship with God.

He did not do the right thing and he knew his lineage was coming to an end. His dynasty was going to stop. All of a sudden there's another anointed one and Saul's jealousy begins to burn more and more as he considers David and so he is obsessed with trying to murder the other anointed one, the worthy anointed one who was going to take his place.

That story sounds familiar. It's because you also find it in the New Testament where there was murderous jealousy on the behalf of the unfaithful stewards of the old covenant who were jealous of the son who came as the mediator of the new covenant and they wanted to murder him out of jealousy.

Peter reflects upon David's psalm and his trust in the Lord that he alone saves. There's no other name. There's no other blood. There's no other savior except for the risen Lord and gathering here today we proclaim the Lord's death.

The risen Lord's death we proclaim until he comes. Also we are to rejoice in hope. We see this in verses five and six and in verse eight and nine. It is the very character of our Lord. It is the nature of his salvation that leads us to hope.

Hope is perhaps the most absent of Christian virtues. One would think that given the state of Christianity today that these abide, these three, faith, love, and despair but no, we are a people of hope because of who Christ is, because he's risen from the dead, because he's reigning from the right hand of the Father.

We have hope. We have hope and we are to rejoice in his hope. Now look how David rejoices in the hope of the Lord. Verses five and six, Oh Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot.

The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance. Now David, David's on the run. He's not even in the land of Israel. He's an outlaw. Who knows what his father thought of him and his brothers thought of him.

He's out on the run. He's trying to escape. What land does he have? He's not at home helping to shepherd the flocks on the lands of his father, a portion of which he may inherit.

What does he have?

But he begins to use the language of inheritance. He uses the language of an allotment of land. He speaks of inheritance and lot and lines. These are the words from the second half.

Of the book of Joshua,.

Where the one who succeeds Moses, Yeshua, takes the people into the promised land and lays out their inheritance for them. And they were given lines that apportioned the land and they were called their lot because they cast lots to give out the land.

What does David say about his inheritance? Oh Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance, says the man on the run.

What was the concern of somebody's inheritance? Their land that they were to inherit and to steward through the rest of their lives. Was it good land or was it really bad land? Plus, if it was good land, did it get sold and will the family get it back in the year of Jubilee?

And further, what if someone who was really deceptive and devious comes along and they begin to roll that ancient landmark over the ancient boundary and they begin to move it around and steal some of our land without us knowing?

This land is fragile. What if foreign armies come and take it away from us? What happens to my inheritance then? Notice what David says. Oh Lord, you are the portion of my inheritance and my cup. You maintain my lot.

This is why he says the lines have fallen in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance because he's looking at the Lord and he's saying, you are my inheritance. You are my guarantee. You are the one who maintains my inheritance.

You are the one who sustains this guarantee. He's in a position where there's the potential that there's nothing left. It could be that not even David will be left by the time that Saul gets through with him.

It's possible that David might be in despair and yet look, he is full of hope. He is looking for an inheritance. That is something that is set ahead of us, in front of us, that inexorably draws us forward.

That's hope. And he begins to talk about it in a very specific way. A way that is reaching back to Numbers and Exodus. Numbers 18, in Numbers 18, the Lord's speaking to the Levites. Remember there's the 12 tribes that they all got an allotment.

The 12 tribes got the allotment, but then there was the one tribe, Levi. 12 tribes got their land and then there was that one tribe, in addition to the 12. And what did they get? Here's what the Lord says.

Verse 20, then the Lord said to Aaron, you shall have no inheritance in their land nor own any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the sons of Israel.

What did David just do?

He took up the language that God reserved for the tribe of Levi and David is here praying to the Lord. He grabs hold of that. No matter I'm from the tribe of Judah, I grab onto the promise you made to the tribe of Levi and I make it my own.

And I say to the Lord,.

You are my portion, you are my inheritance. Was that not the Lord's design all along? Had not David looked appropriately into the heart of the old covenant and seen the promise of the new? Exodus. See, we can even go back further.

Exodus chapter 19, verse five. Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant. Notice the conditionality on Israel. Now then, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine.

All right, so God said, I own it all. I own it all. But if you're faithful and keeping covenant with me, you're gonna be my peculiar people, a people for my own possession if you keep covenant with me.

Verse six, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests. A kingdom just chock full of priests. Everywhere a priest and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. And this is the language from Numbers and Exodus that Peter picks up.

And Peter who preaches Pentecost, Peter who quotes Psalm 16, Peter picks it up in his own letter and says, you know, those who were once called not a people are now the people of God. We're a people for his own possession, a peculiar people.

We're a kingdom of priests to the Lord. And guess who is our inheritance? Guess who is our lot? It is none other than the Lord himself. The Lord is the inheritance.

The Lord is the lot.

Why?

Because Christ inherits everything. Hebrews 1, 2 says, Christ is the heir of all things. It all belongs to him. And if you're in Christ, you're a co-heir to everything. Romans 8 says that despite all the suffering that Christians have to undergo, we must understand it from the proper perspective and realize that if we're in Christ, we are co-heirs with Christ.

That we share in this inheritance of everything. Indeed, the lines fall to us in Christ. In pleasant places because we have the Lord as our inheritance. Take away our land, take away our freedom, take away our jobs, take away our finances, take away our stewardship, take away our children,.

Take away our lives.

You'll never take away our inheritance. You'll never take away our lot.

Because we have the Lord. We have Christ.

And he's Lord of lords and he's king of kings. It is absolutely impossible to defeat those who are in Christ. We are overcomers in him. Rejoice in that hope. Rejoice in that hope. Paul rejoiced in that hope so much that think about Paul.

He said, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Think about Paul, who was better known in his earlier days as Saul from Tarsus. Was there anyone who was more esteemed, better positioned in the old covenant to have prestige and inheritance and allotment and wealth and influence?

He was an Israelite of an Israelite. He knew his inheritance. He knew his heritage. He knew his lineage. He was from the tribe of Benjamin. He could trace it all the way back. None were more righteous and law-keeping than him.

He was a standout in zeal among all the other stewards in that old covenant. But you know what he did? He realized that his allotment in that old covenant was placed upon a mountain that would be shaken and destroyed and done away with.

And so he said, I count it all as loss for Christ.

It's all a dunghill.

It's rubbish to me because I have gained Christ. Rejoice in the hope. Peter preaches the hope. Verse eight says, I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand. I shall not be moved.

Consider what he's saying. He just contrasts. He just said, I'm not going to worship another God. How multiplied are the sorrows of those who worship a false God? You know the false gods. The people, if you're not careful, you leave them alone and somebody can pick them up and carry them off.

Those false gods. Nobody's going to pick up the Lord and set him down in front of them.

He's too glorious.

He's too weighty. No, to set the Lord before me means I orient my life on him. Lord's not in orbit around me. I'm in orbit around him. And when that happens, when that happens, because he's at my right hand, because he is at the position of my glory, my glory is attenuated to his, I shall not be moved.

My heart is glad. My glory rejoices.

Look at the shalom.

My flesh will also rest in hope. Rest in hope. You've ever, you've flowed down a river, haven't you? Isn't that great? When you're in the canoe, you're in the kayak, and you're not even paddling, and you're moving.

Resting in hope. Resting in hope. Being drawn along by the gravitational pull of the Lord to love him more, to know him more, to rejoice in him more. Everything at peace in its proper place.

Why?

Because I have set the Lord always before me. He's my inheritance. He's my lot. I rejoice in his hope. And so verse seven, at the heart of everything, I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons.

Bless the Lord always. Rejoice in your Savior at all times. I will bless the Lord who has given me counsel. My heart also instructs me in the night seasons. The Lord gave counsel to David. He says, I'm gonna praise you for it.

It's by your counsel, by your word, by your meaning, by your truth, that I can see how all of this actually fits together. What is required of me and what it all means. But notice, the good counsel of the Lord is good even in the bad times.

Because my heart also instructs me in the night seasons. It's not only in the restful times when I can learn something new and grow in my faith, but it's also in the night seasons. You know what the night seasons are?