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And feel past your answer with your spirit and feel us with hearts to hear it. In your name I pray. Amen. Man, Psalm 57, the Bible reads in verse number 1, Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me, for my soul trusteth in thee. Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be over past. Now this Psalm continues in the same vein as the last several Psalms. This is kind of a little section in the Book of Psalms where we have all of these Psalms crying out to God for help when one is being attacked by enemies. And if you look at the beginning of Psalm 56 it starts out with the exact same words, Be merciful unto me, O God, for man would swallow me up. He fighting daily oppresseth me. Same thing in 55, 54, whole bunch of Psalms here right in a row dealing with this subject of crying out to God for help in times of persecution, oppression, difficulty. And one of the things that jumped out at me right away in verse number 1 here is it says, In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge until these calamities be over past. And the thing I want to point out here is that David is acknowledging that even though he's going through a really bad time, he's surrounded by enemies, horrible things are going on, he understands that this too shall pass. It's going to be over past. No matter what you're going through, eventually it's going to end. It doesn't always feel that way. A lot of times when we're going through a hard time, we just feel like this is the new normal, you know, and it's always going to be this way. Things are never going to be better. But thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. We typically think about that in a negative sense, like, you know, hey, don't boast yourself of tomorrow because you don't know what a day is going to bring forth, so don't think that things are too good because things can get bad tomorrow, but you could actually flip that over and say, hey, quit being so doom and gloom because for all you know, things could get way better tomorrow. You don't know what a day is going to bring forth, positive or negative. But I guarantee you, no matter what you're going through, eventually it will end. And one of the things that I've noticed with people that are really depressed or they're struggling with hard times is that they start saying things like, I can't do this for the rest of my life or, you know, I just can't imagine the next three months or, you know, man, this year, how am I going to get through the year? And taking that long view is a bad idea. When you're going through a hard time, you've got to just take it one day at a time. The Bible says sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. You have enough evil to deal with today. Don't try to worry about what am I going to do for the next three weeks, what am I going to do for the next year. Just take it one day at a time because for all you know, God can open new doors tomorrow. God can fix things next week. We don't know what a day is going to bring forth. All we know is what's going on today. This is the day which the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it. And if you're going through a bad time, just hang in there for one more day and then revisit and then see what happens. But don't try to think about too much of the future at once. Think about David himself. When he's being chased by Saul, God is always delivering him. He always gets away, he always escapes, everything's fine. But do you remember what David finally says? He says, you know what, I shall someday perish by the hand of Saul. I'm just going to go to the Philistines. But isn't that the wrong attitude? Don't worry about someday, David, just worry about today. Today you're fine, yesterday you were fine, tomorrow you're going to be fine. But he starts thinking about too much of the big picture and he says, you know what, someday I'm going to perish by the hand of Saul, so therefore I give up. And I know people are going through a hard time right now. Maybe you're not going through a hard time, but some people are. And if you're not now, you will be at some point. And one of the best pieces of advice I could give you is just to take it one day at a time. And otherwise you're just going to be overwhelmed with just trying to cope with the next week, month, year, whatever. So take it one day at a time because the calamities are going to be passed. And during that time of calamity, you make the Lord your refuge. You flee to the Lord. The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runneth into it and is safe. He says in verse 2, I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me. God does a lot for us. And David's recognizing, look, God does a lot for me. I'm going to cry out to him. And you'll notice throughout this psalm that as he cries out to God, he has the faith that God is going to hear his prayer and answer him because he makes a lot of statements about what he believes God's going to do. And the Bible says that when we pray, we should ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double minded man's unstable in all his ways. When we pray, we should expect God to answer our prayers. You know, when I go sowing, I expect people to get saved. When I preach sermons, I expect people to listen and learn and be edified. When I pray, I expect God to answer my prayer. Why? Because I have faith that God is working in my life, that he's leading me, that he's going to use me. And so you should have faith when you pray like David here, where he believes that God's going to perform. God's going to do what he has promised that he would do. It says in verse 3, he shall send from heaven and save me. So he believes that. He says, look, God is going to bail me out. He shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up, Selah. What does it mean reproach? Reproach. Well, if you look at how this is used in the Bible, for example, it's famously said of Jesus when Jesus is on the cross that he's being reproached. He's a reproach. Basically, it's something that's shameful, where people would talk bad about you, put you down. That's what it means to reproach someone, to basically criticize them, attack them, tear them down. Jesus when he's on the cross, it says the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell on me. You know, Jesus has taken the rap for everybody's sins when he's on the cross. And so it says he shall send from heaven and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up. So the enemies that are trying to swallow him up, it's not just a physical fight. Because we often read in the book of Psalms about physical battles because we know David's a warrior and he's out there fighting against the Philistines and other enemies. But in this passage, and we saw it in the last few Psalms as well in Psalm 56 and Psalm 55, it's a propaganda war that he's dealing with as well. And so these people who want to swallow him up, their weapon that they're attacking him with is reproach, they're reproaching him. They're verbally attacking him. Look at verse number four and I'll show you what I mean. It says my soul is among lions and I lie even among them that are set on fire. Even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. Notice how their tongue is a sharp sword. And even when it talks about the people being set on fire, that kind of recalls James chapter three when it talks about the tongue being set on fire of hell. The tongue is a world of iniquity set on fire of hell. These people are set on fire. Their tongue is like a sword and they're there to devour him. And if you remember in the previous chapters in Psalm 55 and Psalm 56, it talks about how daily they would rest his words, they would twist his words every day. And obviously anytime there's a battle going on, anytime there's warfare going on, propaganda is a big part of that. The info war, just getting people to agree with one side or the other. If you look at the wars that the United States has been involved in, obviously there were big ideological campaigns and propaganda campaigns. There's a pretty cool museum. I don't remember exactly where it is. Somewhere kind of on that Route 66, Arizona, New Mexico route. Somewhere when you head out that way, I went to this museum of World War II stuff. I don't remember exactly what it was, but you know how there are a lot of roadside attractions like that over there. So we stopped at this museum and they had all of these vintage posters from World War II. And you can actually just go on Google images and look at these, even if you don't go to the museum. We saw a bunch of them that had been preserved in this museum. Like I said, you can look at the images online. But basically they're posters that just demonize and dehumanize Japanese people, Germans, you know, just basically all the enemies and praising the Russians. You know, of course we're going to turn around and be against the Russians next year, but this year we're for the Russians, you know. So basically in World War II, they're teamed up with the Soviet Union, who's obviously a bad person to be teamed up with. So that's, you know, right after World War II, it's like, all right, now we got to fight against the Soviet Union. And then the Cold War ensued. But there's a poster of a communist Russian soldier and it says, this man is your friend. He fights for freedom. That isn't true at all, okay. It's like this Red Army guy. And then there are other posters showing like a Japanese guy creeping into a window in like California and just with a butcher knife, just this random Japanese guy coming in the window with a butcher knife, just ready to just take care of your family. And it says like, hey, we're fighting him so he doesn't come here and do this. You know, I'm paraphrasing. But like I said, you can look up the posters yourself. But the point is, you know, there's an ideological campaign to always, you know, to demonize the enemy. And I'm sure they did the same thing to us. I'm sure they told all kinds of wild stories about how bad Americans were or whatever. Because that's what both sides are always going to do. They want to make out that the other enemy is horrible, everything they do is wrong, they're just wicked, they're the worst people, and we're just the saviors of the world. That's the way it is. Well, do you really think there's anything new under the sun? No. So back in David's day, his enemies, they didn't just attack him, they also would slander him and basically say bad things about him and demonize him and demonize the nation of Israel and even demonize the God of the Bible and even attack the word of God itself. You remember Goliath, you know, he stood up and said, you know, I defy the Lord, basically, to paraphrase. I defy the armies of God. And so there's that element here where David is not only being physically attacked at times, but he's also being slandered. And it's not just when he's fighting against foreign enemies, but what about his very own enemy within, which is King Saul. I mean, King Saul, his fellow countrymen who's supposed to be his ally, who he has fought side by side with in the past, King Saul frequently lies about David. If we study that scripture, Saul is chasing after David and he makes him out to be treacherous and that he's trying to take the throne. Nothing could have been further from the truth. David was a perfectly loyal servant, yet he was attacked and slandered and lied about. So we see here that these people, they want to swallow him up. He's praying that God will rescue him and that God will save him from the reproach. His soul's among lions. And of course we think about the fact that the devil is like a lion. So his minions are like little lions ready to devour whom they may. He said, I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men whose teeth are spears and arrows and their tongue a sharp sword. And you kind of get the helplessness from that verse because of the fact it doesn't say I am among lions or I stand among lions or I sit among lions. I lie among lions. So he's basically just kind of laying there and there's just the dogs and the like growling and circling and just ready to eat his flesh. So he's feeling helpless. He's crying out to the Lord for help. And it says in verse 5, be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. And what I want to point out here is that even in a time when he's laying there, he's suffering. He's surrounded by enemies. He's being physically assaulted. He's being verbally assaulted. His priority is still that God's glory be exalted above the heavens. You know, at the end of the day what we need to realize even when we're going through a bad time is that the world doesn't revolve around us. Life is just not about how successful we can be and how much we can achieve and how we can come through it and be on top. That's not what our life is about. We're servants of the Lord. It's really about him. And John the Baptist said, he must increase, I must decrease. So we need to understand that we are not the star here. We are not the most important character in this story of our lives but rather all of our lives are to be given glory to God. At the end of the day, let's say we go through life and on paper we're a total failure but God's name is glorified and the gospel is preached and people are saved and great things happen for the kingdom of God, then you know what? That's okay. Because at the end of the day it's not about how good we can end up looking or how good our situation can be. At the end of the day it's did the kingdom of God go forward? Were people saved? Were achievements made for the Lord and his glory? Because anything that we achieve for ourselves is just vain anyway. Are we really that important as individuals that we just need to be lifted up and exalted? No, it's God that needs to be lifted up and exalted. And if you stop and think about it, in the long run we're going to go to heaven and we're going to be rewarded for everything that we did for Christ, for all the things that we did that were of eternal value. Those are going to be the gold, silver, and precious stones for which we're rewarded. And then the things that we did for ourselves or the things that we did that didn't have eternal value are going to be the wood, hay, and stubble that matter now, they matter today, but some days are not going to matter because they don't have eternal value. And so we need to understand what has eternal value and what doesn't. And that let's say everyone attacks us, hates us, we lose everything, but Christ is glorified, that's a successful life. I mean look at people who died for Christ. Talk about losing everything, they even died. They're even killed, maybe even young in their life, like Stephen for example. You know, was he a failure? No, he's a big success and God used him greatly and he's got all kinds of rewards up in heaven and I'm sure he doesn't regret a single thing. And so at the end of the day, you know, there's going to be the millennial reign of Christ and then after the millennium there's going to be the new heaven and the new earth. The former things are going to be passed away and a lot of the things that we care so much about right now are going to be totally forgotten. And the only stuff that's going to remain is the stuff that mattered, which was the stuff that's for Christ. And Christ alone is going to be glorified in that day. You know, it's going to be all about him. Whatever laurels we have, whatever crowns we've achieved, we're going to be casting those at his feet and giving him all the glory and him all the praise because at the end of the day, he's the main character of the story. Everything revolves around him. So we need to realize that even when we're going through a bad time, it's really the kingdom of God that takes precedence. That's the number one thing. That's David's priority. He's glorifying God. He said, be thou exalted, O God above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. And then, you know, he jumps right back into talking about what he's going through because obviously what we're going through matters to us. But we need to stop and pause, which is what verse five is. Verse five is just a pause to say, hey, I want God to be glorified. You know, it's his kingdom that matters the most. It's his agenda that is number one. Not my own personal agenda. He must increase. I must decrease. He said in verse six, they prepared a net for my steps. My soul is bowed down again. Just like the lying down imagery. My soul's bowed down. You know, I'm on the ground. I'm on my knees. I've been brought low and they've digged a pit before me into the midst, whereof they are fallen themselves, Selah. So again, David has great faith that although they've digged a pit for him, they're going into that pit themselves. And the Bible says he that leadeth into captivity must go into captivity. He that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. This is the patience and the faith of the saints. The Bible says that if you dig a pit, you will fall therein. If you roll a stone, it's going to roll on you again. And so what goes around comes around. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And so these people that have laid a snare for David, they want to attack him and destroy him. They end up destroying themselves. And what you need to understand is that the only person who can destroy you is you. The only person who can destroy you is you. Many people are constantly trying to destroy me. And I'm sure that there are people out there that would love to destroy you. But just remember, there's only one person that can destroy you and that is you. No one can destroy you. No one can ruin your life. No one can ruin your Christian walk with God. No one can take away your crown from you. It can't happen. Only you can destroy yourself. The people that attack you, when you're doing right and you're serving the Lord, all they're doing is destroying themselves. They cannot destroy you. Because in the end, when you're tried, you'll come forth as gold. All things work together for good to them that love God and to them that are called according to his purpose. Even the attacks. Even when people hate you and despitefully use you and persecute you, if you love God, that will work together for good in your life. I believe that. And so therefore, you've got to keep that in perspective that the people that are attacking you, even though they might seem like they get away with it and the wicked might seem to be prospering, that's only temporary. And eventually they will fall in the exact pit that they dug for you. And I can't even count how many times I've seen this happen in my life. But let alone all the times that it's mentioned in the Bible. The book of Esther is the perfect example of this. When you see Mordecai is being persecuted by Haman and all the plans that Haman has to destroy Mordecai, that's all the same stuff that comes around and gets him. He creates a gallows so that Mordecai can hang from it. He hangs from that gallows. His ten sons hang from that gallows. The pit that he digged, he fell into it. And then all the glory and aggrandizement that he sought for himself, Mordecai receives all that. And everything backfires. Everything happens exactly the opposite of how he wanted it to. Why? Because God was at work there, making sure that everybody gets what's coming to them. And that's the way life works. We might not always see it. It might not always happen on the timeline that we would like to see. We don't always know what's going on behind the scenes, but just take it to the bank that wicked people who persecute godly people will be punished. They will get what's coming to them. And that's why there's no reason for us to take revenge ourselves. And this is why we don't have to be angry and bitter and hateful because vengeance belongs unto the Lord. He will repay. You know, if I didn't think God would repay, I'd be tempted to repay some people myself. But when you know that God's going to repay, it allows you to just, you know, put down the weapon and say, you know what? God's going to take care of it. I'm just going to go on with my life and let God be the judge. And he will judge. And so the pit that they dig, they themselves will fall into it. Verse seven, my heart is fixed, oh, God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise. Now, what does that mean? My heart is fixed. You know, it was a broken. When the Bible says my heart is fixed, a word that we would use in our modern vernacular that's very similar is when we say that someone fixates on something, right? That's something that we would use in our modern vernacular. We would say, you know, if someone is fixated on a certain thing, it basically just means that they're obsessed with it or it's all they think about. They're focused on it. They are just very single minded and they're just like a laser beam on that one thing. They're fixated on whatever the subject or whatever the issue. Well, when David says my heart is fixed, oh, God, the opposite of being fixed would be movable or something like that. Being fixed is you're you're you're found on the rock. You're locked in your steadfast. And so that's what he's saying. My heart is fixed, oh, God. He's saying I'm not that double minded man that's unstable in all his ways. I'm not wavering. I don't lack in faith. Lord, my heart is fixed. Oh, God, my heart is fixed. I will sing and give praise. Awake up my glory. Awake, Psaltery and harp. I myself will awake early. Of course, the Psaltery and the harp are both stringed instruments. And he says, I'll sing and give praise, Psaltery, harp. He's talking about using music to praise and worship the Lord. And this is an important theme throughout the Bible, but especially because we're in the Book of Psalms. This is a song that we're reading. So, of course, in the Book of Psalms, it has a lot to say about musical instruments. And of course, we as Christians believe in singing praise to God. It's important that we are filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord. But we don't just praise God with singing, but also the Bible says praise Him upon an instrument of 10 strings. So actually, you can praise God by playing a musical instrument as well. Now, this isn't to say that any time you're playing an instrument, you're praising God. If you just get out a Congo drum and just start banging it out and there's no spiritual content, obviously you're not praising God. If you just played random music or random songs, obviously when the Bible talks about praising God on an instrument of 10 strings, there has to be some kind of a lyric involved with that that's praising God, not just, I'm just playing music, man, for His glory, and it just kind of has nothing to do with Him. We see that the songs are spiritual songs. Hymns and Psalms and things. That's what glorifies God. But there are some Christian groups today, and I use the word Christian very loosely because these are typically religions that are very far from actually believing the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that believe that musical instruments are sinful. And, you know, obviously musical instruments have nothing to do with salvation, but it's kind of a red flag when people have a doctrine that's just so far from what the Bible teaches, because you just have to wonder how are these people so blind to what the Bible actually teaches? Why are they believing in such weird things? When you see people just believe in weird stuff, it's a red flag. And if you look at the actual religions that are big on this, most of them are pretty far from believing the gospel. Like, for example, Church of Christ, so-called, is one where they believe that to be saved they believe you have to be baptized, you got to speak in tongues, you got to endure faithful to the end, you can lose your salvation. They don't believe in biblical salvation. Biblical salvation is that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Biblical salvation is by grace through faith, not of works lest any man should boast. And so this works-based salvation of the Church of Christ, a false doctrine, and then they have this other bizarre false doctrine that says that, you know, musical instruments are sinful or they don't belong in the New Testament or we shouldn't use them in the New Testament Church. But also I was kind of surprised to find this out, even though I guess this is common knowledge to most people, but I was surprised that I guess there's a large segment of Presbyterians that also don't use musical instruments. And it's just mind-boggling to me because you have so many scriptures about praising God with the trumpet and the psaltery and the harp and all these different things. So how could you throw these out? And they say, well, but I don't see it mentioned in the New Testament. That's because the New Testament is not about music. The New Testament is not a musical. You know, Jesus and the disciples aren't typically just bursting into song. I mean, yeah, at the Last Supper, they sang a hymn. That's it. That's it. I mean, read through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and it's not a musical journey that you're reading. It's not just song after song after song, is it? You know, you pretty much have one mention. They're at the Last Supper. They sang a hymn. They go to the Garden of Gethsemane. Barely even mentioned. You know, even in the Book of Acts, when you see the churches being founded, the missionary journeys, the early days with the apostles and the early deacons and things, you don't see a whole lot of reference to music, do you? Why? Because that's just not the most important part of the story. When you're reading the Book of Acts, the thing that's emphasized is evangelism, church planting, and those type of things. It's not a big musical emphasis. When you read the epistles, there's a little bit of talk about music, but not a whole lot. So here's the thing. Just because something isn't mentioned, that's not evidence. I don't base what I believe on what the Bible doesn't say. I base it on what the Bible does say. And here's a good rule of thumb for reading the Bible. If something's not explicitly changed in the New Testament, you should just assume that God feels the same way about it as he felt in the Old Testament. What gives people the idea that God just radically changes his views from the Old Testament to the New Testament without telling us about it? You know, like all of a sudden he's okay with sodomites or something. It's like, what? And people love to say, well, Jesus never mentioned the sodomites. Well, yeah, that's because Jesus already knew that Moses had already covered it. If he mentioned it, then you could actually try to see what he mentioned and figure out what's different. If he didn't mention it, you know what that tells me? That just falls under where Jesus said, well, hey, think not that I'm come to destroy the law of the prophets, I came not to destroy, but to fulfill. Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Obviously, if Jesus Christ shows up and expounds upon the law, corrects misunderstandings in the law, but in the end he says that he's establishing the law. Even the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 3 says, do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea, we establish the law. If he established the law, if he praised Moses and the word of God and the laws of God, why would we assume that things have changed? It's a crazy way to read the Bible. Like if it didn't get repeated in the New Testament, we throw it out. Well, in that case, you might as well just throw out the Old Testament then and just go New Testament only. But that would make absolutely no sense. Have you ever noticed how much longer the Old Testament is than the New Testament? Do you really? So did God just repeat everything? No, it's already there. It's there. He doesn't have to repeat stuff that he already covered. I mean, do we really need another? I mean, look, Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20 are rough enough. We don't need another one in the New Testament. Those are some rough chapters. We don't need that tucked into 1 Corinthians or something. It's just like, how many times do we need to hear that list? So the point is, it's already been covered. It's already been dealt with. So here's the thing about musical instruments. You've got tons of scripture in the Old Testament about musical instruments. Not even just in Psalms, but in Psalms alone. You have scores of references and even commands commanding you. Praise Him with the trumpet. Praise Him with the harp. Praise Him on the instrument of 10 strings. Okay, over and over again. And then you have all kinds of other books that deal with this. 1 Chronicles has a huge section on music and you'll find this throughout the Old Testament scripture. And then when you get to the New Testament, what does he tell us to sing? Yeah, he tells to sing hymns. He tells to sing spiritual songs, but he also tells to sing Psalms. So what kind of a crazy doctrine would it be? Sing about musical instruments. Sing about using them. Sing commandments to use them, but don't use them. It's bizarre, folks. That's a weird doctrine. Like sing, I mean, imagine going to some Presbyterian church and singing a cappella Psalm 150. Isn't that what we just sung? Isn't it on the red sheet right there? Look at the red, look at the red sheet. Can you imagine singing this a cappella in a Presbyterian church? Like you're just singing about all these musical instruments, but you're like, yeah, but, you know, we don't want to do that. God doesn't want us to do that. And this, the argument from silence is such a bad argument here because how many New Testament Christian song services do we have described in the New Testament? How many song services? How many times do they describe the musical worship in the house of God? Very little, almost, there's almost nothing. So if there's almost nothing about it, then how can you form a conclusion based on silence? What I'd rather do is say, well, the book of Psalms, this is what God wrote. This must be God's view on music. It's not like Jesus dying on the cross saying it is finished. And, you know, the temple veil rents in twain and then like a guitar just breaks in half. You know, the temple, the high priest's guitar is just like, it just like snaps in half. Yeah. Like, like that's what the New Testament's about. It's about destroying musical instruments. It's so weird, but people believe in it. Millions of people believe in it. It's strange what people believe in. People believe some wild things, amen. Wake up, my glory, awake, psaltery and harp. I myself will awake early. I will praise the O Lord among the people. I will sing unto thee among the nations. Now there's something to be said for waking up early, amen? Here's what I, you know, I like to wake up early. Here's one of the good things about waking up early is that bad things happen at night. A lot of sin, a lot of bad things take place at night. You know, going to bed early is a good way to just avoid sin. You just go to bed. And when you're, if you notice at night is when your guard is down, you're more susceptible to temptations. Usually you're, you're more, uh, irritable. So you're, you're probably more likely to get in arguments or, or say dumb things at night, typically. So, you know, it's good to go to bed early and get up early, early to bed, early to rise. I realize that everybody's schedule doesn't allow for that, but I think in general, that's just a smart thing to do. But here's the thing about getting up early. I've noticed that if I get up early, I get so much more done in the day. And you'd think like it's the same amount of hours, but you enter like a time warp when you get up early. It's like a vortex. I'm telling you, man, you wake up early and it's like, you just get so, you get so much work done and you're just like, whoa, it's seven o'clock. And I've already got so much work done today. There's something about getting up early. But not only that, that's just from a practical perspective. But not only that, when you get up early, that's a great time to commune with God because it's a quiet, peaceful time. And so David here is talking about waking up early and praising God. I'm going to wake up early and I'm going to sing praise unto Lord. Now, I'm not saying you should just start singing loudly in your home because, you know, if you live with other people, they might not appreciate your enthusiasm when you just wake up in the morning. It's four a.m. and you're just blessed assurance. Jesus is mine. Everybody's like, what's going on? But, you know, in your heart, you can be praising God and glorifying God. And that, you know, that's the most important thing to do when you first wake up is to acknowledge the Lord immediately. You know, before your feet even touch the ground, you should already be acknowledging God. It should be your first thought when you wake up should be prayer to the Lord. Praise the Lord. Acknowledging God. I used to have this little table right next to my bed. And basically, my wife rearranged the furniture. And that's where my New Testament was, you know, right there. So that I'm just kind of like reach up and first thing, just go for it. But, you know, and now there's just like a shelf there. But here's the thing. I just stuck my Bible on this weird shelf where it's kind of a weird place for it. But it's a but I told my wife and she kept moving. And I told my wife, I was like, that has to be there. I need breakfast in bed with the word of God. You know what I mean? Like, that's just my habit. I like that to be right there because I like to just before. And sometimes I'll catch myself trying to do something else. And I'm starting to do something else. I'm just like, wait a minute. Seek ye first the kingdom of God. You know, I'm going to get more done today. I'm going to be more productive if I start with this. You know, God can can make you more productive if you take that little time out, spend it with the Lord because you think, I don't have time to read my Bible. You don't have time not to read your Bible because God can waste your time whenever he wants to. How many have you ever been on your job and you just have a day where it just seems like everything you do takes way longer than it should. Everything's just dragging out. It's like you keep, you know, I worked a blue collar job for many years doing electrical work and it's like, you know, you keep getting in and realizing that something you needs back at the truck and you're on a roof and it's like, oh, you know, you got to go back and then you get up there. You don't have what you need. You keep having to go back and forth to the supply house. How many trips to Home Depot? You know, there are times when it just seems like you cannot get ahead. But you know what? If you seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, all these things will be added unto you. I guarantee you that if you spent your time reading the Bible in the morning, God will make up that time to you. And if you skip it, God will just find a way to waste more of your time. How much time do we spend just wasting it on dumb things or we make some dumb mistake and waste an hour, waste three hours, waste two hours. I remember before the days of GPS, just missing an exit on the freeway could waste a lot of time. And it's like next exit, 30 miles. You're like, whoa. And then you're like doing one of those little police U-turn roads, you know? No, I would never do that. But the point is that, you know, God can waste your time. And so take the time to read your Bible and pray first thing in the morning. And, you know, a lot of it's just convenience. A lot of it's literally just having it right there. You know, and look, that's why it needs to be right there where I can see it right when I wake up. It's just right there because otherwise there's a chance that I could just get busy and skip it and get into my day. You know, I'd rather just have it right there in front of me. You know, sometimes one of the best ways to make sure you read the Bible is just to plant Bibles in strategic places. Some people's whole spiritual life has been revolutionized by putting the Bible on the back of the toilet. You know, I mean, hey, whatever, whatever it takes for you to read the Bible and just, you know, put it on the coffee table or wherever you end, wherever you're going to see it and grab, put in your lunchbox and then, you know, wherever you're going to see it, grab it, pull it out so that not a day goes by that you didn't read your Bible. Make sure you read it every single day. And you know what? Wake up early thinking about the Lord, praising the Lord and meditating on the things of God. And like I said, first thing in the morning is a great time to do that because it's peaceful. The kids are still asleep a lot of times. Nature is beautiful and it's nice and cool outside. Maybe you can step outside, take a walk, pray, either listen to the Bible on audio or read the Bible, whatever. So he says, I will praise the O Lord among the people. I will sing unto thee among the nations. So not only is he talking about the fact that he wants to worship God and glorify God and praise God, but there's also an element of testifying of the Lord unto other people, preaching the grace of God unto other people because of the fact that he says, I'm going to praise thee among the people. And then he says this, I will sing unto thee among the nations. And again, this is one of the many hundreds of scriptures in the Old Testament that allude to the fact that the children of Israel were supposed to be a light to the Gentiles. It wasn't just God's only dealing with this one group of people and nuts to everybody else. That's not what the Bible teaches. God always cared about all the nations of the world. God so loved the world. God didn't just so love the Jews. God so loved the world. And so therefore, David is singing unto him among the nations. And when the, and the Bible used these terms interchangeably, by the way, nations, Gentiles, those get used interchangeably all the time. That's what the Gentiles are, the nations. And you'll see verses being quoted where those two words get interchanged. So obviously when he says the nations, he's not talking about the nation. Israel's not nations. Israel's nation. He says, no, it's going to be praised among the nations. So again, this is showing that God wants us to preach the gospel to every creature to teach all nations, as the Bible says in Matthew 28, for thy mercy is great under the heavens and thy truth under the clouds. Basically what he's saying is that God's mercy and his truth reaches to those heights. That's what the Bible is saying there when it says thy mercy is great unto the heavens, meaning that basically it stretches to the heavens. That's how high it is. So basically the poetry here is to look up at the sky, which is obviously the highest thing that there is. There's nothing higher than the sky because once you go beyond the sky, things aren't really high anymore because there's no reference point. You're just out in space at some point, right? The highest thing in relation to the earth where you can still talk about height or think about height is the heavens, right? The sky. And so it's just talking about God's mercy being great unto the heavens. Don't you get sick of people talking about how mean the Old Testament God is and how the New Testament God is just this big lovable Santa Claus type figure? That's not true because the meanest book in the Bible is the book of Revelation. It's the last book. So if you think God's softening up over time, then you get to Revelation. It's like, I mean, think about it. That is the meanest book in the whole Bible. God's just pouring out his wrath and he's, he's, he's laughing about it. I mean, that's some pretty intense stuff. And to sit there and say, well, you know, the New Testament that, and it's amazing how these so-called scholars, they think they know so much. Let me tell you something. I would rather listen to the Bible being taught by the most ignorant, born-again, Bible-believing Christian than for the so-called scholars to sit there and tell me about how the Old Testament God is so mean and the New Testament. You haven't even read the New Testament. And you clearly haven't read the Old Testament because there's so much sweetness and light in the Old Testament. The Old Testament's filled with sweetness and light and God being merciful. I mean, look, one of the things that jumps off the page when you're reading the Old Testament is how lenient God is. You know, God's way stricter in the New Testament. You read the Old Testament, you're thinking like, God's letting people get away with murder. Literally, Cain. He lets Cain get away with murder. I mean, you're reading the Old Testament and you're thinking, wow, they sure got away with a lot back then. God is really giving this guy a second chance. God's really going easy on this guy. That's what you see over and over again when you're reading the Old Testament. God's mercy is one of his immutable attributes that he's always had. So before God even created the world, he was already maxed out on mercy all the way to the heavens. All right. He was already filled with grace and mercy and love and compassion and forgiveness. That's who he is. That's who he's always been. And throughout the Old Testament, he's constantly expressing his love, his mercy, his grace, his forgiveness, just like in the New Testament. There is an angry aspect to God and there's a loving, compassionate aspect to God in both Testaments. And to sit there and say that the New Testament is softer, you know what? It's not even close to being true. You could even mathematically sit down and start counting up negative things, positive things, and levels of wrath. And I don't know how you're going to graph that, but you know what? I guarantee you, you're going to walk away saying, stricter and more wrath in the New Testament than in the Old Testament. Anyway, you slice it. He's stricter in the New Testament and there's more talk about wrath, more talk about hell and judgment and things in the New Testament. It just shows people, they talk about things that they don't know anything about. They don't know anything about it and they talk about it anyway. And what it comes down to is they watched a Jesus movie. That's their idea. Well, the New Testament's God is so much more loving. They basically watched a Jesus movie. They watched, and they watched the smiling Jesus movie. Who knows what I'm talking about? The smiling. There was a, there's a Jesus movie that went down in history as the smiling Jesus movie because Jesus smiling the whole time, even when he's chewing out the Pharisees, he's like, you hypocrites, you generation of vipers. How can you escape the damnation of hell? He was just smiling the whole time. That's what they saw. And then they think, oh, okay, well, this long haired hippie is a lot cooler than the Old Testament God. Anytime anybody says that, it just tells me this person knows nothing about the Bible. This person doesn't know the first thing about the Bible. To think that there's some colossal difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. It's nonsense. There's so much about love. Like for example, you know, I praise the Leviticus. Why don't you preach what Christ said? Christ's great commandment that he taught, love thy neighbor as thyself is a quote from Leviticus chapter 19. That's a quote from Leviticus. Jesus taught love thy neighbor as thyself. No, Jesus is quoting Leviticus. All right, so we see here, God's mercy is a subject that comes up over and over again in the Old Testament. And it's not just, oh, God, be merciful to me because I'm David, because I'm one of the chosen ones. He's saying, sing it among the nations because his mercy is great under the heavens for thy mercy. In verse number 10, for means because. So because God's mercy is so great, sing this to the nations. Why? Because there's forgiveness available to the nations. Also, there's mercy available. The Israelites, not of the corner on the market on God's mercy, but his mercy is available for anybody who would call upon him and be saved. That's why throughout the Old Testament, it talks about people hearing about the fame of the Lord and coming from all lands and just flocking to the nation of Israel and worshiping the Lord and seeking God. That happened all throughout the Old Testament. It's predicted that it would happen in the book of Deuteronomy. He says, hey, when people hear about your laws and they hear about your God, they're going to come from all over the place and hear about this, not to mention the missions that happened in the Old Testament where prophets of God traveled throughout the world preaching and that's recorded in the Old Testament. But you got to read the whole book and not just, you know, get the cliff's notes from somebody who has no understanding. If you read the whole book, you'll find lots of verses like this about the nations and reaching out to other people. Thy truth unto the clouds, thy mercy is great under the heavens and thy truth unto the clouds. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let thy glory be above all the earth. God is to be glorified and praised throughout the entire world. The Bible says that someday the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Now, in many ways, that's already been fulfilled in a sense because of the fact that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has gone all over the world and you'd be hard pressed to find a group of people in this world that don't know who Jesus is. You travel all over the world. I don't care if you're in Europe. Well, what about in the jungles of Africa? That's where the most missionaries have gone. You know, Africa, Asia, India, Europe, Australia, you know, Jesus Christ is being preached in all these places. There are Bibles and hymns and all kinds of testaments to Christ in all these places. So, you know, in one sense, that's already been fulfilled, that the Gospel has been preached in all kingdoms of the world and that the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. But then, ultimately, it's going to have a literal fulfillment in the book of, or I'm sorry, not in the book of, in the millennium. It's going to have a literal fulfillment where, actually, the Bible says that nobody's going to have to teach their neighbor or teach their brother saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. It's not going to be like you're going out soul winning and saying, hey, everybody, let me tell you about Jesus. People are going to be like, we know, you know, so soul winning isn't going to be the same in the millennium, is it? You know, that's why you got to do the soul winning now. Now's the time to go soul winning when there are people who don't know much about Christ. Sure, like I said, everybody's heard the name of Christ, so there's a loose fulfillment of that, that the earth is filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. But just because somebody knows who Jesus is or has heard about Jesus, it doesn't mean they've heard a clear presentation of the Gospel. And it's our job to bring them a clear presentation of the Gospel. And not only do I want to just present a clear presentation of the Gospel, you know what I want to do? I want to grab people and drag them into salvation. I want to compel them to come in. I want to persuade them to be saved. I'm not, I'm not meaning that literally. All right, but I want to actually pull people out of the fire, as the Bible says. And so that's what soul winning is about. Now's the time to do the soul winning, because guess what? When the millennium happens, you're not going to be able to say to people, hey, know the Lord. Let me introduce you to Jesus, because everybody's going to know who he is at that point. But does everybody know who he is right now? Well, not as much as they should, and they don't necessarily know what is the way of salvation. They might have had a misconception about who Jesus is or a false teaching about who Jesus is. So we want God to be exalted above the heavens. Let his glory be above all the earth. So look, you're going through a hard time. God cares about your hard time. He devotes many verses to David's hard times. In the book of Psalms, he, all his tears, remember in the last chapter we were in Psalm 56, he gathered up David's tears in a bottle and wrote all of his wanderings and pilgrimages in a book and so forth. So God cares about our struggles. He cares about what we're going through. It matters. We're going to spend a lot of verses here talking about our problems and taking our burdens to Christ and asking for relief and help, and he's going to help. He's going to step in. He cares about our situation. But at the end of the day, what's the most important thing? The work of God. The work of God goes forward. You know, Paul said, if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with you all. He's saying, you know what? Hey, I'll gladly spend and be spent for you. You know, he's willing to sacrifice himself for the work of God. So yes, God cares about us. Obviously, we care about our situation. We want God to help us with what we're going through right now. But you know what? We need to stop every few verses as the song does. Stop every few verses and say, you know what? Let's glorify God and let's make sure the other nations get to hear about God and let's remember his mercy and his truth. And he is the one that matters the most. It's all about him. It's not about us. Let's borrow his name for a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for sending the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us and to be the propitiation for our sins. Thank you for saving us spiritually one time when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior. But Lord, thank you also just for saving us out of other situations that we find ourselves in and bailing us out and and defeating our enemies. Lord, Lord, I just pray that you would please just protect us and and and defeat our enemies. But at the end of the day, Lord, I just pray that your word would go forth to all the nations and that people would be saved, Lord. And if we have to suffer in order for people to be saved, then so be it, Lord. Let your will be done. And in Jesus name we pray. Amen. And let's turn our song books to do one more song. Song number 53. Buhland. Song number 53. Song 53. Song 54. Song 55. Song 56. Song 57. Song 58. Song 59.