Psalms 33:1

Hey, Cross Connection! It's me, Pastor Garrett. We're back for some more announcements. Just kidding! If you guys are new or visiting this morning, I've been able to serve here at Cross Connection Church for a number of years now, and it's been my privilege. Mostly, you see me doing announcements over the screens, but today I get the privilege of bringing the Word of God to you.

We're going to be in the book of Psalms, chapter 33. So if you want to go ahead and flip to Psalms, chapter 33, it should be relatively easy to find, right in the middle of your Bible. As you're turning there, a couple of notes: If you haven't heard Pastor Miles yet, and if it's your first time tuning in, I encourage you to tune in again next week and hear from our senior pastor. We are very blessed here at Cross Connection Church with Pastor Miles and the teaching that he gives us. Check out next week, and we'd love for you to see Miles.

Second, because we're still meeting virtually, you have the benefit and the blessing of what I call the pause button. So right now, I want to encourage you guys to hit pause, stop me wherever I'm at, and share this message with a friend, family member, or coworker—somebody who you think might need to be encouraged today. My goal with this message is that you will leave encouraged. If you know anybody that needs some encouragement today, maybe they've lost their sense of purpose or meaning, this is going to be a great message for them. I would love for you to share that with them.

Now, let's go ahead and read Psalm 33 together. I'll be reading in the ESV translation. It says, "The steadfast love of the Lord. Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise benefits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. Make a melody to him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all of his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth, all of their hosts. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap, and he puts the deeps in the storehouses. Let all of the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples."

The council of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom He has chosen as His heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven, and He sees all the children of man. From where He sits enthroned, He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all observes all of their deeds.

The king is not saved by his great army; a warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The warhorse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might, it cannot rescue. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love, that He may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord, for He is our help and our shield. Our heart is glad in Him because we trust in His holy name. Let Your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in You.

Well, that's my prayer right now. Lord, let Your steadfast love be upon us as we hope in You. The truth is, we all love a good camping story, and I just happened to find a good one. Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend, Watson, decided to go out camping one week. Out in the mountains, in the evening, they had just finished their dinner and were getting ready for bed. They got into their tent, and sometime later, as they were sleeping, Holmes woke up and nudged his faithful friend, Watson.

"Look up at the sky and tell me what you see," he said. Watson replied, "I see millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?" asked Holmes. Watson pondered for a minute. "Astronomically, it tells me there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that the star is in Leo. Theologically, I can see that God is all-powerful and that we are small and insignificant. Meteorologically, I suspect we'll have a beautiful day tomorrow. What does it tell you, Holmes?"

Holmes was silent for a minute. Then he spoke. "Watson, you idiot, someone has stolen our tent."

You see, we can sound very sophisticated and be experts in all theologies and yet miss what's right in front of us. We can miss what's not right in front of us as well.

You see, it's easy to miss the big picture, and I think that today, many of us have missed it. We have experts in all theologies trying to tell us how to get out of the mess that we're in. They are trying to tell us how to think, how to respond, and how to act, yet I believe they have all missed the big picture. They have failed to see that the tent is gone. Ultimately, who is providentially in control of what is happening in our world today?

To say that 2020 has been a chaotic year would be an understatement. I believe many of you would agree with me. And yet, here I am, looking forward to sometime this month in September, having my first child. In my plans, would I want to bring a child into this world in the middle of a pandemic and with everything that's going on? No, ideally not. However, it's a blessing, and it's in God's providence and His plan that this is all happening. We are going to be talking about that today.

I think that we have discovered in our generation, over the last five or six months, just how fragile humanity is. I believe that God has an answer to what we are seeing happening right now, as people are coping with stress and the tension of our time in different ways. The top ways that people deal with stress, anxiety, and depression include drug use, alcoholism, sex, and spending money. These four different ways are how people cope with the tension and chaos around us, and we are seeing that everywhere.

Just go to Home Depot, and you'll see people spending money like crazy. The Amazon trucks are busy. I am good friends with my UPS driver at my second job, and he is slammed, working ten-hour days every single day delivering packages. Then there is drug use, alcohol, and sex, which are other ways to cover up the pain that we are feeling inside. Of course, that is not a good way to deal with the pain.

The CDC actually reported last month that a staggering 40% of U.S. adults were struggling with mental health or depression. Not only that, but 31% admitted that they were experiencing anxiety and depression related to this COVID pandemic.

Twenty-six percent had trauma or other stress-related symptoms. Thirteen percent said that they were increasing their substance abuse, and eleven percent of people in this poll considered suicide within the last 30 days. I bring this to our attention to show that there is a problem, and there has to be a solution for this problem. It's not something that's good. In fact, most of these people who were considering suicide within the last 30 days were young adults ages 18 to 24. Sixty-two percent of young adults in that age group responded that they were dealing with higher anxiety and depression. It is affecting everyone.

We have a problem, and I believe all the experts in theologies have missed the big picture. I am convinced that this is a spiritual battle that we are in the middle of. Just as the writer of Ecclesiastes says, nothing is new under the sun. Let me read to you real quick an excerpt from John Wesley. This happened in 1755. I am a fan of church history, so whenever something significant happens in the church currently, I always like to look back at history and see if something like this has happened before and how it played out. How did God use that providentially for His kingdom?

Let me just tell you, church, many times throughout history, not only the church and the people of God but also the secular world have thought that the end of the world was near. Many times, the church has thought that it was the end, that God was coming back soon. Yet here we are, 2,000 years from the ascension of Christ. I believe yes, every day is one day closer to the return of our Lord and Savior. However, let me read to you what John Wesley had to say in 1755, as I believe you will think, "Wow, that sounds like it could have been written today."

He says this: "Thinking men generally believe that the greater part of modern Christians are not more virtuous than ancient heathens, perhaps less so, since public spirit, love of our country, generous honesty, and simple truth are scarce anywhere to be found. On the contrary, covetousness, ambition, various injustices, luxury, and falsehood of every kind have infected every rank and denomination of people, the clergy themselves not excepted. Now they who believe that there is a God are apt to believe that He is not well pleased with this. Nay, they think that He has intimated it very plainly in many parts of the Christian world."

How many hundreds of thousands of men have been swept away by war in Europe only within...

Half a century? How many thousands, within little more than this, had the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up? Never sank at Port Royal and rose no more. Many thousands went quickly into the pit at Lima, and the whole city of Cantonia and Sicily, with every inhabitant of it, perished together. Nothing but heaps of ashes and cinders rose where it stood. Not so much as one lot escaped out of Sodom.

Now, this is an interesting point to be made here. It sounds almost like it could have been written today. We're seeing a lot of the same things. In response, this was John Wesley's reaction to an event that happened on November 1st, a Saturday, a religious holiday called All Saints Day, in 1755. It was one of the deadliest earthquakes to be recorded in history. The epicenter of this earthquake was Lisbon, Portugal, and it lasted about six minutes in duration.

This earthquake caused about 16-foot fissures throughout the city center in Lisbon. Everybody in the city that survived that crazy earthquake rushed to the port, where they felt safe at the docks. However, as they rushed to the port, they watched in 40 minutes as the water receded, leaving just mud all around the port. Shipwrecks were visible at the bottom of where there should have been water. At that time, they didn't realize that this was a sure sign of a tsunami. Sure enough, 30 minutes later, the tsunami came crashing back into the city. It was estimated that that day alone, 30,000 to 40,000 people perished in one day, Church, in just one city.

Now, this earthquake had devastating effects in other places as well. However, the devastation didn't stop there. When the water returned and the tsunami hit, many candles lit for the holiday of All Saints Day were knocked over, creating a firestorm in the city that consumed the rest of it in a terrible way. On top of that, it was recorded that many people were caught looting and even setting more fires in the city amidst all that chaos.

I find myself wondering, has humanity really changed? Is there really anything new under the sun? Are we not seeing similar events happen today? It was so bad then that the Portuguese army had to be sent in, and they set up gallows in the city. It was recorded that about 30 people were publicly executed there for looting and causing fires.

Out of this chaos, there was indeed a fresh openness to God. You can read about this revival that was led by Charles and John Wesley, their brothers. God brought many people to a saving knowledge of Himself and saved many souls through that.

When I see crazy things happening in this world, something that universally affects everybody, I recognize that this is a spiritual thing. This is a spiritual battle that we are in. Every time the church has been confronted with a spiritual battle, there has always been a great revival in the midst of it because God is softening hearts. There is pain that cannot be answered in this world. There are questions that simply cannot be answered by social or racial justice. It has to be, you have to go back to God.

Polls are showing that many people today are depressed. Let me ask a question: What is the opposite of depression? What do you think? I don't believe it's happiness. I think the opposite of depression is purpose. Today, many people have lost their sense of purpose. We've forgotten who we are, and we've lost our way.

Psalm 33 is a good starting place for us because it is rich in theology. It paints a great picture of a God who spoke and the world was created, who told the stars where to go and named them all, who created every plant and animal on this earth. He separated the land from the sea and everything that is in them. This same God, who created all of that power, created you. Not only that, but He created you specifically and intentionally, with all the little intricacies that make you, you. He cares for you and understands you better than anyone else.

It is this God who says His plans cannot be thwarted. He comes into the picture and says, "Here, you have a purpose. You have meaning in life, in good times and in total chaos." He will keep you grounded in truth, hope, and love.

In this psalm, we find a God who is both creator and sovereign in human history. Verse one says, "Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise benefits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre and make melody to Him with a harp of ten strings. Sing to Him a new song and play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts." In this first stanza of the psalm, we find that the righteous are exhorted.

to praise God. It's interesting to acknowledge that God intentionally created humanity and made them in His likeness and image. The Bible says that we are also intentionally created to worship something. We are beings of worship. I shouldn't need to convince you of this because you will see whatever you care the most about. You spend your time, your talents, and your assets on that.

We all are going to praise and worship something. Here's what God is trying to remind us of, though. When God's people begin to rejoice and worship anything other than God, they will ultimately become less cheerful, less joyful, and more depressed. We lose our sense of purpose. We're commanded to praise God not just corporately but also individually, even when nobody is watching.

We are declared righteous not by our actions or ability but through Christ, who died for us so that we might have a way to become righteous and inherit the righteousness of God. It's just as important to note that God appreciates your praise. He likes your praise. He says that praise actually benefits the upright.

So, who is the upright in this situation? An upright person is one without deception; it's someone who has a full heart of integrity. Now, how many people can you name today that are upright, without deception, and full of integrity? I think and I pray that we have more people like that today. The only way we can have more upright people is by having more people surrender their lives to the plans and purposes of God.

Verses four and five say this: "For the word of the Lord is upright, and all of His work is done in faithfulness," as some of your translations may say, "truth." He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. Here, we are called to praise God because of His excellent character. The word of the Lord is upright, and all of His work is done in faithfulness or truth.

You see, the truth of God's word is the further reason to praise Him. The first point on your outlines is this: point number one. All of the Lord's work in creation and history, none of it happened outside of the providence of God. I'll repeat that: all of the Lord's work in creation and in history, none of it happened outside the providence.

of God. There are no anomalies in God's universe except what sin has made. You might be asking, "Well, Pastor Garrett, what's providence?" When I think of providence, I think of Proverbs 16:9, which tells us that while we make plans, the Lord determines our steps. I believe that God's providence is always one step ahead of us, actually.

What do I mean by that? The best scriptural example I can find for the providence of God would be the story of Joseph, who was sold as a slave at a young age by his own brothers. In Egypt, as a slave, he ends up rising through the ranks. He excels, he is promoted, and then he is accused of something he didn't do and thrown in jail. Just to eventually be in just the right place at just the right time, he becomes the right-hand man of the king, the Pharaoh at the time. Providentially, God placed Joseph in a position that enabled him not only to be at the right hand of the ruler of Egypt, one of the most powerful men in the world, but also to save the world from a devastating seven-year famine. This also happened to save all of Joseph's family—his brothers, his father, and all that the Lord was doing in that family.

You see, all of the works of the Lord are done in faithfulness or truth. What I find interesting today is that when we talk about the Lord loving righteousness and justice, the whole earth is full of His love. We have righteousness, justice, love, and faithfulness or truth—all of these things. Yet one of those concepts seems to be something that our culture today is really grappling with: the idea of justice.

We can't have real justice unless we also have righteousness, truth, and love. Those are three things that I don't think we have right now. We want justice, but we want to throw out the rest, and this is where God is trying to teach us something, I believe. Truth, I've heard it said, is the most powerful weapon in the world, and God says that He is truth. Love is the most supreme ethic.

We find both the truth of God and His great love; He is both truth and love together. In God, we find the most powerful weapon in the world and the most supreme ethic. I think that the greatest challenge facing the church today is that we need to be upholders of these principles.

In a world that has devalued truth so much that anyone can have their own truth—whatever is true for you is true for you, and it doesn't have to be true for everybody—we, as the church and as the body of Christ, have the Word of God. We have the truth of God. We have the love of God. We need to uphold these things, and we need to be able to have an apologetic for our faith. We need to have a reason for why we believe these things, and we need to be able to live that out for the world to see.

G.K. Chesterton made a great point when he said that when a man stops believing in God, it doesn't mean that he then believes in nothing; it means that he can then believe in anything. I believe that in our culture and in our generation, we are seeing a rise in what many people have called the "nuns." I'm not talking about Catholic nuns; I'm referring to people who have disassociated themselves from any particular religion or God. The nuns no longer follow a God or a religion, and there is a rise in this phenomenon right now in our culture.

The challenge is that when a generation stops believing in God, it doesn't mean they start believing in nothing; it means they can believe in anything. Anything can go. There is no longer any moral high ground or low ground. This is the danger and the challenge facing the church today.

In the garden, God had one rule for mankind: not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When God gave that rule, He did so for a reason. Every rule we have in the Bible has a reason behind it. The reason for that rule is that God knew if we were to eat of that fruit, we would, like God, want to define the difference between good and evil for ourselves. God was warning us that if we eat of that fruit, we will start trying to define good and evil on our own.

God is saying, "I am the definer of good and evil, not you." We need to trust Him. He is the definer of truth, good, and evil. As fallen humans, we cannot determine what is true or what is good. God loves truth, righteousness, justice, and mercy.

Verses six through nine say this: "By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth, all of their hosts. He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap, and He puts the deep in storehouses."

Let all the earth fear the Lord, and let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm. We are to praise God for His sovereignty over creation. We should have this reverence for God, who out of chaos brought order. He is the one who separated the land and the sea. He is the one who formed the world out of nothing.

Here we also find a reference to the triune nature of God: the Word and the breath, His Spirit. In verse 10, it says, "The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He frustrates the plans of the people. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations." Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord and the people whom He has chosen as His heritage. Is this not true today?

I love how verse 10 opens up: "The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He frustrates the plans of the people." Here, between verses 9 and 10, we see a different aspect of God. We see a God who is both sovereign and providential over all of creation, who powerfully created all that exists. This transition from praising God in creation to praising God for His control over human history is significant. The same God who is in control over creation is also in control over the nations, and that should be encouraging to you today.

Point number two on your outline is this: Creation rests upon God's divine Word, and history rests upon His divine plan. I'll say that again: Creation rests upon God's divine Word; history rests upon His divine plan. When have human plans ever lasted for generations? Let me ask, when have they not changed?

In America, we have the Constitution of the United States, but that Constitution was created to be amended, to be changed. We, as believers, have the Word of God, the true Word of God. This is the Word of God that is never to be changed; it is never changing. God's plan and His purposes have never changed from the beginning.

We have had this 200-plus-year experiment of what it could be like following one document that does change, but it ultimately grounds us in some sort of union. However, we are called to remind ourselves that the same power that brought the universe...

The same power that brought this universe into existence now holds it together. God overrules evil and brings good out of it. We learn that there is a national blessing when we worship God. However, when we turn from Him, when we turn from His laws and His ways, we must expect chaos, destruction, and judgment. Miles has talked about this for weeks; in fact, it's something we should have been expecting.

Romans 1:18 says it very plainly: "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." Would you agree with me that the truth is being suppressed today? Where can you turn for the truth today, where you are confident that what you're hearing or reading is actually the truth? This is a problem in our generation, and it needs to be addressed. As the late Billy Graham said, if the Lord doesn't judge America, He would have to apologize for Sodom and Gomorrah. The truth is that God is a God who judges when we turn away from His laws.

We can look throughout all of the Old Testament and find the same cycle: the people of God follow Him and are blessed, then turn from Him and ultimately experience His wrath, being handed over into the hands of another nation where they are judged for that.

However, here's where it gets encouraging. In verses 13 through 17, we find hope for those who believe. The Lord looks down from heaven; He sees all the children of man. From where He sits enthroned, He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army, nor is a warrior delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and its great might cannot rescue.

The God we worship is omnipotent, all-powerful, and omniscient, all-knowing. In verses 18 and 19, we learn that this same God, who is all-powerful and all-knowing, cares for His people. This is a cause for great praise and celebration. This God, who fashions the hearts of both kings, also fashions the hearts of beggars.

I think back to about eight months ago when we learned that my wife, Grace, was pregnant. We were super excited, of course; this was going to be our first child, and we went...

To the doctor to get the first ultrasound, I learned that at that point, she was only about six weeks pregnant. Yet, even at six weeks, I could physically see a heartbeat in my child, and I could hear it. Now, that changes a person. It’s amazing to me that God can develop a child that early on to have a heartbeat. God is in control of all of that. I have absolutely no control over the creation of that child's heart.

You see, God fashioned the hearts of everyone, and just like God fashioned us, He also made us in His own likeness and in His own image. The encouragement here is that God is not just the God of the cosmos—this is point number three on your outlines—but He is also the God of the individual. The God who is the God of creation, of history, of everything that's going on, of the nations, is also the God of the individual. He doesn't just rule and reign from His throne up in heaven, where He hands off and lets the nations go. No, He is providentially in control of everything, and He has a plan for your life.

When I think about it this way, I remember looking down from an airplane as I was flying, I believe this time it was when I was going to Africa. It was a long flight, and we had a stretch where we were over land. Looking down, I believe it was over the United States at this point at night, all I could see was darkness, and then cities where light would come into focus. From 30,000 feet, you could see little movements and flickers of light where people were driving on the roads. It made me realize how many people there are in this world.

When you fly over so many hours in an airplane, and you see so many different people and countries, it just amazed me that from my vantage point, I could see only little specks. From God's vantage point, He sees a heart in every single one of those people that He fashioned intentionally.

Do you see where I'm going with this? God has a plan for you. He sees each person individually, and He created you in His own image. Does that not give you the greatest value in life? Nothing else can give you value as much as being made in the image of God. I think that's also the greatest compliment that God can give you—being made in His image.

In His image, you see, I have no right to tell you necessarily what to do because God made you in His image. That's a right that you have because of that. He gave you the right and the privilege of free will, of free choice, although all of our choices ultimately have consequences.

The nature of God, seeing everything and understanding everything, should be a great encouragement to the believer because He sees you where you're at. When you're at home in the pandemic and you feel lonely, know that God sees you. Know that He understands the hurt and the pain, whatever you're feeling inside. He understands your emotions. He understands what buttons push you and all of the things going on in your head, all the things in your heart. He understands them better than anybody else because He intentionally created you. He placed you where you are today for a reason, for a plan. The God who commands history made you. He placed you in history today for a purpose. He has a plan in all of this, and it was no mistake that today breath fills your lungs.

It's no mistake that you are alive today, in 2020, during a pandemic. God is still in control. What joy it is to know that the God of the universe, whose plans cannot be stopped, placed me into His plan. That's the great encouragement today. I believe this should be the greatest encouragement to every believer, and yet the greatest terror to all those who don't believe. Why? Because they see, if there's a God that sees everything, then He sees all of these things that I've done, and that's why a lot of people feel guilty.

We're going to talk about that in just a minute. I once read something from Andrew Murray that really struck a chord with me, and it was about this concept of us being made in the image of God. I'd like to share it with you as a quote here. It says, "God's highest glory is His holiness, in virtue of which He hates and destroys the evil, loves and works the good. In man, conscience has the same work. It condemns sin and approves the right. Conscience is the remains of God's image in man, the nearest preach to the divine in Him, the guardian of God's honor amid the ruin of the fall. As a consequence, God's work of redemption must always begin with the conscience."

You see, the conscience is what makes us feel guilty for disobedience to the law of God.

It makes us feel depressed. It makes us feel deep fear, anxiety, and so on. God gives us this so we don't continually destroy our souls. You see, the conscience is ultimately the work of God in us. Yet, perhaps the scariest thing that I see today is the silence of the conscience in our generation.

What do I mean by that? I mean that we, as a generation, have essentially silenced our conscience nationally. We allow millions of babies to be aborted every single year. We permit so much wickedness and evil, and I think a lot of that happens because we have silenced the conscience inside of us. When we turn to God and completely surrender our lives to Him, He opens up the conscience in us and lets His heart beat inside of us. We start to see other people, other sinners, other fallen individuals around us as He sees them—with love and mercy. We begin to act with patience and integrity because God's heart is now beating inside of us.

God becomes aware of the sin that we commit, and we repent of it. When we silence the conscience, that is exactly what is happening in this generation. What we're seeing is the idea that you shouldn't have to be blamed for what you do or the decisions you make. Nationally, we are witnessing a movement that suggests you shouldn't be held accountable. But no, that is what the conscience does in us. It will hold us accountable no matter what, whether the government does or not. Our conscience will, and ultimately, it will tear you apart. That is why God offers us freedom. He offers us salvation.

It shouldn't be any surprise that the conscience has been silenced in our generation. This has happened before, and not that long ago. In Hitler's own words, inscribed over the gas chambers in Auschwitz, he expressed a desire to raise a generation of young people devoid of a conscience—imperious, relentless, and cruel.

However, what we have here today in the psalm is a message of truth and hope. We should be grounded in the truth, and our hope should remain only in Christ, our Savior. At the end of the psalm, verses 18 through 19 say, "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him." This is the third time God has mentioned that He sees you. In this psalm, He not only states that He sees us—every single person—and watches everything that is going on, but He also says, "From His throne, He sees the nations."

The workings of people are often complex. In verse 18, we read, "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love." Some translations may say "mercy," and I believe that's a good translation as well. The verse continues, "That he may deliver their soul from death, keep them alive in famine."

In verse 20, we find, "Our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield." Our hearts are glad in Him because we trust in His holy name. "Let your steadfast love or mercy, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you." God is merciful, and His plans never fail. If He created you as part of His plan, let me tell you, no matter how chaotic your life is right now, His plan has not failed. If you have surrendered your life to Him, you are part of His plan. You become part of His workings in creation.

He gives us a purpose, and that is to go out and share this gospel, this good news, with everybody who is hurting, depressed, lonely, or in need of hope. Not only does He give you a plan, but you also become part of His unstoppable plan, and now you have a purpose in your life.

The phrase "God is our help and our shield" references back to Exodus when Egypt had enslaved the Jews. Moses came in, and we remember the story: "Let my people go." Eventually, they do leave. Pharaoh allows them to go after many plagues, but he changes his mind as the Jews are leaving.

As the Jews approach the great body of water, the Red Sea, they find themselves stopped. They look back and see that the Egyptian army is chasing them down. Pharaoh did not want to let them go; he had changed his mind. However, Moses trusted God, and God spoke to him, saying to put his staff in the water. What did God do? He parted the seas.

This psalm reminds us of the God who is in control of creation. He parts the seas so much so that His people cross through this huge body of water on dry ground—not mud, not slush, but dry ground. As soon as His people have crossed to safety, the enemy, chasing after them, tries to go through the water as the people of God did. God allows the water to come crashing down. The war horse could not save them; the mighty warrior's strength could not save him.

You see, we serve a God who can save us. He can save us from our sins and from eternal destruction, from eternal separation.

The psalm ends with an important prayer because we need to acknowledge that we require the help and protection of God in every aspect of our lives. This prayer asks the Lord for His mercy. We receive the Lord's mercy when we enter into a covenant relationship with Him.

In Romans chapter 10, verse 9, it says, "If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." In Matthew 11, verse 28, it states, "Come to me, all who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." That is the God who offers to save you. He says it is as simple as declaring with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believing in your heart that God raised Him from the dead.

Come to Him if you are weary and heavy laden with whatever burden, stress, depression, or anxiety weighs on your shoulders today. Come to the Lord, and He will lift that burden from you. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This means you do not need to try to become a righteous person before you come to Christ. Whatever you have done, whatever mistakes you have made in your past, God is saying, "I am going to wash that all away. My Son has paid that price." His body on the cross and His blood poured out for us paid the price for all of your sins. There is no sin too great for you to come to God.

So I beg you today to consider this. I believe there are many people who are weary and burdened with heavy loads, and we need to come to Christ. This includes people in the church. We are sinners, but God is our Savior. He has adopted us as His sons and daughters, which guarantees us an inheritance of eternal life with God in heaven.

I will close with this quote, as I believe it summarizes what we have learned in point number four of your outline. It is a quote from St. Augustine, which reads, "Trust the past to God's mercy, the present to God's love, and the future to God's providence."

Let's pray. Lord, I do pray, as Your psalm says and writes, "Let Your steadfast love or mercy, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in You." Lord, we do indeed hope in You today. Would You forgive any of us who have forgotten to hope in You, who have turned away?

Our hope is in something in this world, Lord. We've looked for some other way to cover up the pain that we're feeling inside. Lord, we turn to You and we ask that You would take our burdens. We repent of our sins and we want to follow You, Lord. So, would You help us follow You all the way to Heaven until we see You face to face?

We pray all of these things in Jesus' name. Amen.