WWUTT 984 The Lord is My Light and My Salvation?

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In Romans 8 .31 we read, If God is for us, who can be against us?

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At the start of Psalm 27, David prays, The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall

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I be afraid? When we understand the text. This is

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When We Understand The Text, a daily Bible commentary to help encourage your time in the Word. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we feature

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New Testament Study, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

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Now here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. I aired in the publication of last week's broadcast when we were doing our lesson in the

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Psalms. In the description of that particular episode I said that we were reading through Psalms 24, 26, and 27.

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That was a typo. What we looked at last week was actually 24, 25, and 26.

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That's since been corrected. Today we're going to start in Psalm 27, and we'll probably be able to knock out three more

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Psalms here today. Psalm 27 starting in verse 1. The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall

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I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?

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When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

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Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

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One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the

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Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple.

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For He will hide me in His shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of His tent.

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He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in His tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.

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I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud.

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Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face. My heart says to You, Your face,

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Lord, do I seek. Hide not Your face from me. Turn not Your servant away in anger.

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O You who have been my help, cast me not off, forsake me not, O God of my salvation.

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For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

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Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

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Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have arisen against me and they breathe out violence.

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I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the

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Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the

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Lord. I used to have a thin line NIV Bible the last couple of years that I worked at the

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Christian radio station that I worked at. It was a gift from them. I think it was when I moved to this new station.

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I was helping them transfer studios from one building to another and somewhere in there I was gifted with this

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NIV Bible. I had a sticky note on the inside flap and I had written on there

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Psalm 2714. The whole time that I had that Bible, that sticky note was on the inside flap.

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I know exactly where I left it. I don't have it anymore. It was in a trip that I had taken down to Hutchinson, Kansas and was teaching in a church down there.

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I left that Bible there and I had called the church and said, I think I left my

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Bible. Can you find it? No one was able to find it. I don't know if somebody picked it up and walked off with it or what ended up happening there, but I never saw that Bible again.

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However, the whole time I had it, it was Psalm 2714 on a sticky note that was stuck right on the inside flap.

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Wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the

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Lord. Let's go back to verse one. The Lord is my light and my salvation.

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Whom shall I fear? As we've been going through a study of the gospel of John, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, right at the start of John, Jesus is described as the light.

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Well, of course, he's first described as the word in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

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God. But it's in verse four where it says in him was life and the life was the light of men.

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The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.

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The Lord is my light and he is my salvation. As we go throughout this life, we are we're really without seeing if it was not for God.

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We have no idea why we're here, what we're doing here or where we're going.

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No clue. Nobody has any idea except that the Lord God has shown it to them through his word.

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That's the light. We come to see in darkness because God's light has shown upon us.

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The Lord is my light. He is the one who reveals to me the purpose for living, how

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I am to live and where I am going. He is my light and my salvation.

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This world is sin sick and it is perishing. It is evident that it is perishing, that all things are wasting away and will come to nothing.

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What will become of me? The Lord has forgiven me of my sins and he has promised me an inheritance in an eternal imperishable kingdom.

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Though many enemies will come against me and though even circumstances in this world will not go my way, yet the

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Lord is my salvation, who's forgiven me of my sins and rescued me from his wrath, his judgment that is coming upon this wretched world and has given me an eternal inheritance in his imperishable kingdom.

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He is my light. He is my salvation. Whom shall I fear knowing that God is for me, who shall be against me?

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As the Apostle Paul asks in Romans chapter 8, the

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Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall

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I be afraid? He lifts me up. He sustains me and even if my body should perish,

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I will go and be with him. So what do I have to fear of anyone or anything in this world?

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When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

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As the scriptures tell us, be sure your sin will find you out. In Galatians chapter 6,

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God will not be mocked for what one sows. That is what he will also reap.

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A wicked man who sows wickedness is going to reap for himself judgment for his wickedness.

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He may not experience a total judgment in this lifetime. Maybe he gets caught by the police, you know, something like that.

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Maybe he gets away with his evil and no one is ever able to catch him for the afflictions that he has imposed upon others.

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But we know by what is said to us in the scriptures, eventually it is going to catch up with them. They are going to face

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God in judgment. A person will have to answer for the wrongs that they have done and the only one who can cleanse us from all of our sinfulness is

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Jesus Christ and faith in him. I enjoy true crime. I can't say that I watch a lot of it, but I enjoy a good true crime documentary.

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A good documentary. There are some pretty terrible ones out there too. Just turned out to be a waste of my time.

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Anyway, I remember in one of these true crime documentaries that I was watching, there was this statistic. Only six out of every ten murders get solved and in the last 50 years, there's something like 200 to 250 ,000 murders that have gone unsolved.

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You would think in this day and age with like DNA testing and forensics and when a person has been in a crime, they leave a little bit of themselves behind and then through the advancements in technology that we have now and through science, we're able to tie that person to the scene of the crime and they're not able to get away with it as easily anymore.

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No, only 60 % of murders get solved. If somebody gets killed, there's about a one in three chance that their murderer will never be found and maybe justice will not be served on that individual now, but he will stand before God and God knows everything that you have done.

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He knows every thought that you have thunk. And so we must know that it is only through Christ that we receive the forgiveness of our sins.

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He justifies us. We're actually declared innocent in his presence because Christ has paid the price for our sins with his death on the cross.

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Therefore, when we ask forgiveness, according to first John one nine, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, just because Jesus has taken the price for us.

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He is our salvation. Those who do evil, though they may not get caught now, they will stumble and fall ultimately in the end.

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No one gets away with the evil that they have done. Verse three, though an army in camp against me, my heart shall not fear the war arise against me, yet I will be confident.

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See, David's even applying war language in this, though an entire nation of people may come against me.

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I have confidence knowing that they could destroy my body, but my soul is kept alive forever with God through his

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Lord Jesus Christ. Verse four, one thing I have asked of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the

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Lord all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.

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One thing that I've asked, the only thing that I want, it's not more kingdoms, it's not more power, it's not even the ability to destroy my enemies.

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It's that I may dwell in the house of the Lord, that I may be there with him and gaze upon his beauty and acquire, inquire in his temple.

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This is the prayer of a man who is fully satisfied in God. He needs nothing else in this life.

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Nothing else will make him happy. Nothing else will fulfill him. It is only

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Christ. Remember what David prayed at the start of Psalm 23, the

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Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Verse five, for he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble.

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He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock.

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Going back again to the understanding that people perpetrate evil in this lifetime and sometimes they're not even caught for their evil, but they will stand before God.

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Things are getting progressively more evil in the world today, in the culture in which we live.

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Speaking specifically of Western culture, because I think that that's the majority of my listeners hearing my voice in English here.

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Things are just getting worse and worse, further and further into depravity, more and more into moral decay.

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And though we're going to see abortion rampant, widely accepted,

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LGBTQ flags flying all over and people rejoicing in their sexual depravity, liars and thieves and the greedy and hustlers and swindlers and all these people just seem to be getting away with all kinds of evil.

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Is any justice going to be done against these wicked men? And yes, yes, it will.

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Justice will come, though it seems like the powerful just continue to gain power and through their power, they sow more and more corruption.

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Yet the Lord God is still their judge and they will still have to stand before him on judgment day.

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The wicked will perish in the eternal fire with the devil and his angels, having done those things that were the works of the devil.

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But those who were in Christ Jesus carried out his righteousness and they will be richly rewarded with an eternal inheritance with God forever.

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We should desire people to want to enter into that kingdom instead of perish in fire.

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And so we go with the gospel that they may be saved. The good news that Jesus died for sins, rose again from the grave and whoever believes in him will not perish under the judgment of God that is to come.

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For all of us who are in Christ, he has lifted us high upon a rock. We will not be moved, though the culture may change, though the direction of right and wrong may even shift with the relativity that is the mindfulness of our culture.

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Yet we remain firm upon Christ Jesus and we will not be moved by all the shifting winds of teaching that blow to and fro.

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Verse six. And now my head shall be lifted up above all my enemies all around me.

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And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.

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I will sing and make melody to the Lord here, O Lord.

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When I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face.

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My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek? The Lord has said, do this and the heart that is for God will listen and will obey.

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So when in in Mark chapter one, when Jesus begins preaching, he says, repent and believe the gospel.

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The one who has a heart for God will repent and believe the gospel will turn from sin and believe in the words of our

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Lord Christ. Hide not your face from me. Verse nine. Turn not your servant away in anger.

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Oh, you who have been my help, cast me not off. Forsake me not. Oh, God of my salvation.

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Coming back once again to refer to God as his savior, who is the lifter of heads for my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the

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Lord will take me in. Even the people whom we are closest to in this life may betray us.

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Those whom we thought were our friends may turn and strike us unexpectedly, and we will feel stabbed in the back.

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Sometimes we might even feel stabbed right in the face. I mean, there wasn't even any sneakiness about it. They just come straight on at us and we feel betrayed.

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But those that we are closest to may turn their backs on us, may ridicule us and attempt to strike us down.

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The Lord is always with us and he will not forsake us. The one who is our salvation.

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Verse 11. Teach me your way, oh Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies.

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Give me not up to the will of my adversaries for false witnesses have risen against me and they breathe out violence.

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Lies are violence, lies. They destroy the man that has been made in the image of God.

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God who is truth. And when we speak slander about another person, we are slandering

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God himself. We represent God as a slanderer instead of one who gives and speaks truth.

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Lies destroy. They break down and kill. And so David says those who are false witnesses who have said lies about me, they're breathing out violence.

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So lead me in your ways that I not be led by their words, but the word of God.

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Verse 13. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

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Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the

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Lord. And of course, this instruction to wait for God doesn't mean you just sit and wait for him to do something.

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But rather to wait for the Lord is to look to him with dependence and trust, not sitting around twiddling your thumbs.

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But you but to wait on the Lord is actually to do for it is to believe what it is that he has said.

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It enables one to be strong and courageous because it is the word of God that guides us.

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We do not walk aimlessly blind in darkness. Therefore, this psalm wraps up the way that it began.

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The Lord is my light and my salvation. The Lord is my strength and my courage.

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I will wait on the Lord, not going about my own way, but going about the way of God.

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Well, we won't be able to get through three psalms today, like I hoped, but we'll still look at Psalm 28 here to you,

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O Lord, I call my rock. Be not deaf to me, lest if you be silent to me,

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I become like those who go down to the pit here, the voice of my pleas for mercy.

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When I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary, do not drag me off with the wicked, with the workers of evil who speak peace with their neighbors while evil is in their hearts.

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So they will use certain words with their neighbors, maybe words of flattery, maybe to try to earn their trust.

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But really, what is in their heart is in their own self -interest, whatever it is they have to do to get their way, to do what they need to do in order to profit themselves.

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And maybe it's not even profit themselves with money. It's just to profit themselves with validation.

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I think you see that on social media, somebody putting down someone else. And that's not necessarily done because they would somehow gain materially from that in some way.

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But they validate their own ideas, their own ideology, because they can strike somebody and put them down with their words.

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If I could make this person feel less and other people would even applaud me and hit like or retweet or share, then

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I know that what I have said is therefore worthy and validates my own worldview. So somebody may speak flattery to others in one sense just to gain validation to themselves.

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And then evil is in their hearts toward others again to out of out of self -righteousness, out of self -interest.

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Give to them according to their work, David says, and according to the evil of their deeds, give to them according to the work of their hands, render them their due reward.

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Jesus had said that out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks the same as what you post on the

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Internet. It's not just what comes out of your mouth, even what comes out of your fingers when you're typing on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram or any of these other things.

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Be sure that every word that you say, you're going to have to give an account for you're going to have to give an account of those words before God because they do not regard the works of the

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Lord or the work of his hands. He will tear them down and build them up no more. Verse six, blessed be the

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Lord, for he has heard the voice of my pleas for mercy. The Lord is my strength and my shield in him.

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My heart trusts and I am helped. My heart exalts and with my song, I give thanks to him.

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The Lord is the strength of his people. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. O save your people and bless your heritage.

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Be their shepherd and carry them forever. Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers and offering commentary on the church and social issues.

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You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com. Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's word when we understand the text.