Protection

Our topic this morning, as we look to Psalm 3, is trouble. Trouble. That's what we think about most of our morning, in light of God's Word. And before I do this, I think some self-reflection and self-diagnosis would be helpful to make sure we're ready to think about trouble well. Typically, there's two responses that we all have to trouble. It's fight or flee. We've probably heard this in thinking through how we respond. Some people fight, right? Whenever there's hardship, difficulty, you feel attacked, you punch back or verbally respond. And sadly, this kind of response to trouble just increases trouble. We escalate the problem. It seems more and more respond by fleeing. Now there's different kinds of fleeing, right? There's trying to actually remove ourselves location-wise, get away, the idea of changing our latitude might actually change the problem. Seems promising. The problem with that is we're usually taking the most difficult part, that is our own heart, with us. There's another way of fleeing, that is to find some kind of numbing mechanism. Drugs, food, sleep, maybe even work. Trying to flee the problem by getting rid of it in our own minds. Some flee to internal combustion. Just internally processing to the point of letting the anger and the hurt itself be its own weird felt remedy, but only really causing more problems. It's important we realize today that there is trouble. We are a people full of trouble. We are in a world full of trouble. We ourselves cause trouble. We live in a fallen world. It was amazing and so clear, which is good about God's Word, is that it directs us in the midst of trouble. It gives us guidance and wisdom and goodness. And so this morning in our psalm, Psalm 3, it's a psalm of lament. It's a psalm that helps us model for us how to turn to God in trouble. It's really, I believe, an invitation to pray to God so that we can trust Him in trouble. If you're looking for the one-sentence declaration for the whole sermon to kind of organize your own thoughts or the sermon notes, it's trust God in trouble. That is the main focus of Psalm 3. We just finished the Gospel of Mark. We tried to go through books in a series. We're going to begin 1 Samuel in quite a few weeks. But we have five weeks here, and I wanted to look at the Psalms. We're going to have five sermons in the book of Psalms. And the reason we're doing that is there was five weeks that we needed to fill. And then it just so happens there's five books in the book we call Psalms. Psalms is divided into what we call the books of Psalms. If you look through, I'll try to organize this and highlight it for you pretty quickly. Psalm 1 and 2, that's kind of a preamble. It begins with a wisdom psalm about how important it is to be grounded in the Word of God, to have your roots dug deep into the riches of God's river, the source of life. Psalm 2 is a royal psalm that talks about how He is powerful and mighty to win the victory. And then we actually begin the first book, one we're studying this morning. The first book is Psalm 3 to 41. The next is 42 to 72, 3 to 41, 42 to 72, 73 to 89, 90 to 106, and then 107 to 145. The order of these is actually helpfully clear because whoever organized it or edited it in the United and organized all these Psalms in the order they are, each book ends with a doxology. Psalm 41, ending the first book, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting, amen and amen. Psalm 32, the end of the second book, blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things, blessed be the glorious name forever, May the whole earth be filled with his glory. Amen and amen. Psalm 90, the end of the third book. The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended. Blessed be the Lord forever. Amen and amen. Psalm 106, the end of the fourth book. Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. And let all the people say amen. Praise the Lord. And then the entire ending of all the Psalms, Psalm 150, praise the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary. We can see there's somebody intentionally organized the books to have that similar doxology ending them. Now people have tried to figure out what is the uniting theme. Are they each connected to one of the books of the Pentateuch, the first five books? Genesis, Exodus, and so on. There's a good reason to think that. Some say, believe the Psalms are organized according to David's life, because he's one of the primary authors. First conflict was solved in his kingship, and then the Syrian crisis later. A helpful way of looking at the Psalms of these five books, relationship with God. God beside us, book one. God before us, book two. God around us, book three. God above us, book four. God among us, book five. We're gonna walk through these Psalms. There's different kinds of Psalms in the different books. May that help us see there's an order here. God has given us these prayers, these songs, to know how to talk with Him. Trust God in trouble. Verses one and two, point number one. First, confess your trouble. confess your trouble. O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me. Many are saying of my soul, there's no salvation for him in God." What stands out in these first two verses? Many. Many are my foes. Many are rising against me. Many are saying, there's no salvation. You can feel David's just being overwhelmed with the obstacle before him and really the obstacle against him. How many Now, a quick side note on the Psalms. Most of them are written fairly generically without a lot of context because they're intended for us today to pick up where the Psalm is in our own context and pray it for ourselves. If we just look at the Psalm as it is, we can pray this regardless of what the trouble is. There's a way of applying this passage to our own lives when we feel like someone is against us. This psalm does have a clear context though. It's, it's not in the words of the psalm. It's in the subscript. It's in the, the heading. The psalm of David when he fled from Absalom, his son. So we can actually think about this context to really get a feel for what David is going through a little bit more. If you want to go back and look at the bigger context, it's 2 Samuel 13 to 17. You can read that after the service. What do we know about Absalom? He is one of David's sons. He's the third son, technically. His name means father of peace. He doesn't have any sons, and he is not a peaceful man. 2 Samuel 14.25 describes him as the most attractive of the sons of Israel. So he's got that going for him. He is the brother of Amnon and the brother of Tamar. Amnon, his brother, loved his sister Tamar, not like a brother should love a woman, his sister. Amnon is a wicked man who tricks David to send Tamar into his bedroom so he can rape her. Absalom is furious. He therefore plots the murder Amnon. In response to murdering his own brother, another one of David's sons, Absalom flees. He removes himself out of fear of what would happen. And then Joab, one of the governors, one of the rulers, one of the generals rather, the generals of David's army, he tells David, you long for Absalom. You love Absalom. Bring him back and restore him. David brings him back, but there's no restoration. They don't talk for two years. Then Absalom, when he comes back, he decides to start campaigning. He goes around to the people of Israel. You have good and right claims. Why hasn't the king sent anyone to listen to your good and right claims? If I were king, you would have justice. If I were king, I would listen and I would help. He's going around shaking hands, kissing babies, and it's not just campaigning for himself. He's doing it in an insubordinate way. He's undermining David, like we know our politicians do, right? You've got to make someone look bad to make yourself look good. Why is that the necessary case? But that is how it works. You've got to make somebody else look bad to make yourself look good. He's undermining his own father, the king appointed by God, so that he himself can become ruler. The outcome is in 2 Samuel 15, the conspiracy grows strong, the people following Absalom increase, and then we read in verse 13, and a messenger came to David saying, the hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom. Then David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, arise and let us flee, or else there will be no escape from us from Absalom. Go quickly, lest he overtake us. Quickly, and bring down ruin on us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword. David flees his home, his city, his throne, his calling, because his own son has risen up against him and got his own people to follow after him, against David. I believe we can actually picture this in the first night. Oh Lord, how many are my foes. I had to flee. The king. I have city walls and there's somebody against me. I have to flee. So many are rising actively up against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no God. There's no salvation for him in God. There's two things I think make this especially difficult for David. It's first, what they're saying. If we were to ever let this truth penetrate our hearts, it's devastating. This is the heart of hopelessness. There is no salvation for him and God. Sticks and stones will break my bones and your hurt, your words are gonna hurt much more. These words. If we let the enemy's words penetrate our own minds, our own hearts, they're going to lead to hopelessness. This is the worst thought or the greatest fear. No matter what else could be against you, if God is against you, that is the most terrifying. Doomed in the place of judgment to die. David hears that. And he's, he's grieving. He's, he's, he's, he's mourning. He's lamenting. They're against me and this is what they're saying about me. The second thing is, sometimes it's not how many, it's who. He speaks here of the many, but we know from the subscript it's his own son. His own son has led this rebellion. His own son is leading a coup against him, and he has now had to flee in embarrassment and shame and fear for his own life because of his own son. We can hopefully hear someone understand the weight of this crying out. He's overwhelmed. Okay, so we really just looked at how many, how many, how many. There's no salvation. But I want us to draw our attention to the two most important words in this section. Oh, Lord. Two most important words. Oh, Lord. It's important that he does not merely internalize his trouble. It is important here that he does not just simply take counsel with his own hurt, with his own pain, and his own wisdom. That would only lead to hopelessness and bitterness. He looks up. He doesn't look in to try to find help from his own strength. He looks, he looks up. Oh Lord. We're going to see, oh Lord, that unites this entire psalm. Look at verse 3. But you, oh Lord, are a shield. And verse 7. Arise, oh Lord. And verse 8. Salvation belongs to the Lord. But here we, we actually see David in a, in real problems. Real trouble. Looking to the only one who can truly help. Oh Lord. Here we have, brothers and sisters, a model for us and an invitation for us to see that in the mid of whatever our trouble is, we can call out to God. So if you're prone to depression, this is for you. If you're prone to a sense of hopelessness, that everyone seems to be against you, and you don't know if there's any hope, there's no salvation, you're hearing what others say about you, what you think they think about you, this is for you. How to talk to God. If you're prone to victimization, and you constantly feel like it's just you against the world, that everyone's against you, this is for you. Cry out to God. Pretty simply put, if you're a human being living in this world, this is for you. This world is full of nothing but, not anything but, but a lot of disappointments, discouragements, difficulties. Either we close our eyes and try to pretend these things don't exist, or we, we try to live in a way in which we, we remove ourselves from any kind of suffering, or we, we really see that we can face this world as it is, crying out, Oh Lord. There's a great assurance here. God cares. God's listening. We can call out to Him. Christian, there's even more assurance for us. Last week we entered the book of Mark. There we, we got to see the, we read about the angel talking to the women who are the first witnesses that Christ was risen. And he, he declares he's not here. Again I have to ask the question, where is he? Where is Jesus right now? He's the right hand of the Father, with all power, with all authority, with all love. Representing anyone who calls on Him. Representing, there before the Father, the throne of all power. Saying, come to God, call Him Dad, ask for anything in my name. That's the invitation. It's even more clear and powerful than the invitation in Psalm 3. Jesus says, I have come. I have cleansed your guilt. I have claimed you as I own. I'm going before my Father. And in my name, you can make every request known. What an invitation that we so often ignore. The second section of Psalm. We see David confessing his trouble. Then we see, I believe, David remembering God. Second, remember God. Notice here the significant shift. One and two are despair, turmoil, tribulation, lamenting, oh my trouble, oh Lord, look at my trouble. And then, but you. This is a significant turning point in the psalm. But you, O Lord. Notice there's three things he says about the Lord. You are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. The shield here, it's protection. And notice this is an unusual shield. It's a shield that surrounds you. It's a shield about you. Right? And it's not us holding a shield in front of us. It's, it's, it's God himself being a protection all around us. It's not denying there's a problem. It's not trying to defend ourselves when there's a problem. It's trusting God who is the true and right shield. My glory. This one's a little more abstract. We can get the picture of in the middle of fearing for his life. You are a shield about me. My glory. What does this mean? You know, David is no longer a king in a castle on a throne with servants. He no longer has the trappings of a king. He's, he's running away into the mountains. He's going to live in a pit. He's gonna have to eat differently, live differently. And you can see here, he's recognizing what true glory is. He's recognizing God himself is the one who has given him any glory that's worth having. He himself is his honor and glory. God is the one who gives life meaning and purpose in a way that has given it glory and honor. And the thing about this, I think it's helpful to ask, where is our glory? One of the ways to really identify what you really glory in, or your faith is really, what upsets you the most when it's taken away? What upsets you the most when you lose it? Are we prioritizing more God's glory, or our own self-made glory? The third thing we see here is, He lifts my head. The lifter of my, again, I think this is just a real, tangible, visual expression. Sadly, we haven't really confessed this yet, but our church softball team lost the championship game. And as I reflected on that, I put my head down. When you lose, you just naturally put your head down. That's why every coach, after a football game or a loss of a game, pick your heads up, kids, right? You always say that. Because when you lose, when you've been defeated, the natural kind of thing to do is slump. Notice David doesn't say, I can now lift my head. You lifted my head. God is the one who gives him confidence. He hasn't dug down deeper to figure out how to get more grit. No, he's remembered, you're the one who brings victory. You are the champion. You are the one that changes. It's a universal expression. You put your head down and, but here we see he's declaring, God you lift up my head. There's three declarations. And notice what they provide. Defense, honor, joy. These are three things God promises to his people. Security, joy, and honor. Now, if we're honest with ourselves, we really feel most secure? We really feel the most glory? And we really feel the most joy or head lifting up when we're in control? If we're honest enough, I think we're gonna say, whenever I'm in control and I'm holding the shield and I feel confident, or when I know that my glory is intact that I want, or I've got my defense up, David's had all that stripped away and now he can see the true defense, the true honor and the true joy, it comes from God who does not fail. Look at verse four. I cried aloud to the Lord, we see that, oh Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. Help comes from outside. That is one of the most important truths that we as Christians have to constantly remember help comes from outside. Our biggest problem comes from inside our own heart. True help always comes from outside. And the Holy Hill, God is not part of this world. He's not part of the problem. He's on His Holy Hill, and here we're, we're, We're thinking of Jerusalem. We're thinking of Zion. We're thinking of, of where He reigns with goodness and power and might and glory. I call upon you. He's not so distant that He cannot hear. He's not so distant that He will not help. But He is other than this world and He hears and He helps. Help comes from the outside. This is a challenge for us because we like to be in control. The one who's going to worry about all these things, you're not in control. God is. The one who arrogantly thinks he's got everything under control. God is in control. We can call upon Him, and He helps. Before we go on to the third section, I just want to really just focus in here. Trouble is real. Disappointments are hard. Discouragement can plague the conscience and the mind. We can get into a sense of hopelessness. We have to avoid pretending there's not trouble. Right? There's a way in which we just want to numb ourselves with trouble, or live a life that just ignores all the trouble. There's also the world that the worst of it is all you're consumed by it. I believe what we see here is a model of how to be buoyant in trouble. Not how to ignore it. Not overcoming ourselves, but to rise above it. Right? This world is full of the quicksands that intend to pull you down. It's full of toxic people that want to make your life miserable for their own joy for some reason. Buoyancy. It's a joy that does not depend on circumstances. Buoyancy. We see this in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Rejoice always. Right now God? Yes. Always. Pray without ceasing. There's the power. Give thanks in all circumstances. But why God? This is the will of God in Christ Jesus. God's will is that he will help me in my circumstances. There's a buoyant joy that's supposed to mark a Christian. Our last point. Confess confidence. There's confidence in God. We've confessed our trouble, we remembered God, and now there's a confession of confidence. Notice how simply the response is. I lay down and I slept. I woke again for the Lord sustained me." When there's real trouble, you really start appreciating the small things. A good night's sleep. He's had to flee his kingdom. And I really do, I picture this as the first night where he's wondering, am I going to die by the hand of my own son? And he's able to respond now, I lay down and I slept. That's the first blessing. I slept. Second, woke up again. The Lord sustained me. All the worry, all the fear, how many my foes, how, how, what they're saying about me. The Lord, He was assured about me. He kept me. It isn't that he didn't have anything to be afraid of. It's, it's that he knew God was with him. In all circumstances God is sovereign. Notice he, let's just make it very clear, David goes from complaining in verses one and two to rejoicing in verse five. And in between there is verses three and four where he remembers who God is and what he does. God's not afraid of us complaining to him. He welcomes it. That's the kind of complaining we should be doing. God, this is what's wrong. And what we'll usually do is not fix the problem, but fix our own hearts. Fix how we pursue him. He goes from worrying about these things to declaring salvation belongs to our God. What a change, not in his circumstances, but what a change we see in David. The fear and the anguish took to the confidence. Arise O Lord and save me. Salvation belongs to the Lord our God. We need to learn how to do this. We need to learn how to go from the complaining in the midst of circumstances to rejoicing in confidence that God is good. We can't confidently pray like this. I'm going to encourage you to do something. I need you to hear it out. Church, we've got to actually start naming it and claiming it. Now I use that phrase because we usually think of someone who says, you name that Lamborghini and it's yours. The gospel is a prosperity promise. But we gotta actually look at what God promises. He doesn't promise you that you'll never be without suffering. He doesn't promise you you're always gonna have perfect health. He doesn't promise you you're gonna have lots of wealth. He's not gonna promise you you're gonna be popular or liked or befriended by everyone. He promises, I am with you. I am for you. I will be a shield about you. I will love you. I have not withheld my own son. I will not withhold any good thing from you." I think we need to stop being so, so trepid about, you know, praying confidently, saying, God, this is what you've promised. Let me know it. Let me experience it. Let me feel it. Let me, let me live it out. In Jesus' last words, I am with you always. And yet we walk around just wondering, where is God? Not asking him. Show us where you are. Reveal your presence. Reveal your power. The Gospel does promise a certain prosperity. Notice David prays very boldly. I will not be afraid of the many thousands. You see fear turning to a confidence, not in himself but in God. And then verse seven, arise, save me, oh my God. Okay, this next verse we're gonna have to take some time and really think about. Because salvation, in this instance, in this passage, includes the end of verse seven. For you strike all my enemies on the cheek, you break the teeth of the wicked. You save, in this instance, and David is able to recount all the many ways in which God has saved him in battle after battle, real battle, real death of his enemy time and time again. He's able to confidently remember, you are the God who saves me and the way you have saved me is you strike my enemies on the cheek and you break the teeth of the wicked. Should Christians pray this way? Let's go into the depths of this here. Should Christians pray for this kind of action? And let's be very clear, when there's a fight and somebody breaks teeth, that person's done. Right? We're talking about this absolute victory. A death blow by God is what David is remembering here, and it's part of his prayer. So my question is, how does this align with Jesus' teaching, love your enemy? Right? What does this mean in the midst of the context of Jesus telling Peter to put away the sword, and one of those basic Christian truths? If you want to know what's unique about Christianity, love your enemy. All right? So how do we reconcile this? First, I want us to see that there's a little bit more going on than just what's on the front, you know, this page. David is going to have generals summon his army. They're going to go up to battle with Absalom. Absalom is going to get hung up on an oak tree. Kind of an interesting way to get caught. And before the battle, David summons all of his generals and he declares in 2 Samuel 18, deal gently with my son. deal gently with my son. The son who has murdered his other son, the son who has been insubordinate, the son who has raised up an army against him, the son who has caused him to flee his kingdom, the son who now has an army seeking to destroy David, David says, deal gently. So we can see there's something a little bit more behind this breaking the teeth. David has some mercy. David wants God's justice. David wants God's enemies to be put down. But we see a mercy. Well, the story goes on, Absalom dies. Verse 32 of chapter 18. David said to the Cushite, Is it well with a young man, Absalom? And the Cushat answered, May the enemies of my lord, the king, and all who rise up against you for evil be like that young man. And the king was deeply moved and went up to the chamber of the gate and wept. And as he went, he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would I have died instead of you Oh Absalom, my son, my son. I read that to make sure we, we don't just see this kind of like pure declaration, all enemies be destroyed. There's a desire for mercy. There's a love for his own son who's rising up against him. There's a tension that we need to feel here. So if we look at this, we should desire justice. We should desire God to bring about His perfect justice. But there's a concern that if we're to pray this, there's a challenge I wanna make, we need to be thinking, are we praying this upon those that we feel are enemies that are less deserving than God's grace than we are? Is there a way in which we would pray, God, bring your vengeance down on this person who deserves it? Are we recognizing? that we ourselves deserve punishment. Because if we think we're more deserving of grace, we're not really getting grace at all. You know, there's been times where I've felt like David in verses 1 and 2, and I've felt, all right, I'm going to pray through this. I'm going to try to wrestle through this. God, bring about your goodness. Bring about your blessing. Bring about restoration. And Lord, may your justice be served in bringing vengeance. But wait a second, if they get what they deserve, what am I praying for myself? There's a point in which the gospel forces you to think, you know what? I don't always want justice. Actually, what we're getting at here is the gospel. Jesus died on the cross for my sins so that I don't have to. There's a way in which we can recognize that, that, that I, that God will always bring justice. God will always bring an absolute punishment for all sin. But we ourselves have, have, have avoided that. We've been freed from that. Jesus took the punishment. And so as we, we approach this, I just want to say it's, there's a different approach, I think, than what David's saying. Let me ask another question here. Who is your enemy that you would pray this on? If you were to think, I want to pray this on a person. Is it a fellow member of the church who's upset with you? Christ died for that sin. Realize what you're asking there is God to punish someone for sinning against you when Christ has already died for their punishment. Maybe it's your spouse that frustrates you. You're one flesh. You're not enemies. Maybe it's just somebody who disappoints you. My basic tension I want to grasp here is, it's hard to fulfill the command to love your enemy when you're praying for God to break their teeth. Just feel that tension. It's hard to pray that God would judge those who you think have done you wrong, but when you yourself cry out, Christ, show mercy on me for my sin. I do believe it's impossible to hold on to a desire to see justice done for our wrongs and rejoice in the grace of Jesus Christ. Verse 8. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be on your people. This goes from the remembering, and reciting, and restating the, the truths of God's salvation. Remember he, he, there's doubt here. Some people are saying there's no salvation for me God, but now in verse 8 there's a confidence. Verse 7. Arise and save me. Salvation belongs to you. If there's one person or there's one object that we can pray struck by enemy in the cheek and crush it, if there's one, I want to say it's our own sin. Paul tells us, put sin to death. If we're going to pray for something to be destroyed, it's our own sin. It's, it's Satan who's, who's tempting us. It's their own sin that comes within us. If you want to pray this, it's, it's God. My own sin that entangles me. Crush it. Break its teeth. So that I no longer have to keep losing these battles. Give me strength and hope that you will win that day. If you're not a believer, If you're not a Christian this morning, we're thankful you're here. I don't know if you feel there's the same kind of trouble that we experience as Christians. I assume you recognize there's tribulation, and there's difficulties, and there's something wrong with this world. Look at the obituary. People die. It's not the way it's supposed to be. The only real cure, the only real healing that anyone can find in this world comes from above, that comes from outside of it. God Himself came into the world that He created, that we have turned upside down with our sin. Jesus is God, who came to be like us humans, made in His image. After we sin, He came to be like us in a way yet without sin, so that when He dies on the cross, He dies in our place. He's sinless, and He pays the penalty for all our sin. That's the cure for what's wrong most of all. It's, it's us. It's, it's my sin. It's your sin. That's the, the biggest problem you have. Because you're going to face a God who is a just God, and He will have perfect justice. It will be worse than breaking of teeth. be an eternity of feeling the weight of his glory and holy judgment on your sin. Unless you believe in Jesus, who himself took the punishment of your sin on himself, you must believe. Salvation alone belongs to God. He grants it. You must seek it. Christian, today, let this be a psalm that reminds you. Turn to the Lord in prayer. In the midst of trouble, do not turn inward. Don't even first talk to your friends. Look up! You're not alone. Christ is with you. You're not without help. The God on the holy hill who has sent his Son to die for you, you're not without help. You're not without hope. He's conquered sin and death. He can help you. He is not without His own Son. He will not withhold anything good from you. I want us to see here also there's a call to be a people of hope. Never say of another believer, they're hopeless. never say amongst one another that they can't change. That's, that's denying the power of God. That's denying the Gospel. I mean just think about if we as Christians would go around saying the thing in verse 2. Too far gone. Can't be helped. There's no salvation for him in God. We have to be hopeful that God can help us. We have to be hopeful that God can help each other, and those outside the church. There's no one too far gone for God to save them. If you want to think about this Psalm, verses 1 and 2, that's the cry for help. We see verses 5 and 8. That's where we want to live. Right? We want to live in 5 and 8. We want to live in that kind of confidence. God is with me. He'll save me. He'll, He'll, He'll win the battle. If you wanna live there, you gotta meditate in verse three and four. That's the hinge. He remembers God, my defender, my glory, my victor, my comfort. There are going to be difficult times. There are difficult times right now among us. Remember, the Lord is your shield. The Lord is your glory. And he lifts up the head. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you, Lord, for your kindness. You have not left us alone in our trouble, the trouble we cause. You've not left us alone to try to figure things out in our own strength, in our own foolishness, our own weakness. You've given us your Word that invites us to speak to you, Lord. Thank you. I come before you and we confess there are many among us that are in the middle of difficult trouble. Trouble that is illogical. It makes no sense as to what's happening to them in their own world, in their own life, in their own home, in their own work, their own school. It doesn't make sense. But as we wrestle with how to pursue you, help us to look up with confidence that you know all things, understand all things, and have power over all things. Lord, help us to not be a hopeless people. Help us, Lord, to not believe we're a hopeless people. Help us to trust you so they have a great confidence in who you are and what you can do. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.