Remember

Why is there all this study and preparation by Sunday school teachers and preachers, by small group leaders and devotional speakers? Why set aside all that time? It's hard work. As Keith said at the service review last Sunday afternoon, Psalm 51 was a hard psalm to deal with because it was 19 verses, and that was hard to fit into one sermon. I didn't point out that he had assigned me a psalm with 72 verses. But why set aside men like Keith for full-time preaching? Why do you set aside your time to come and be here every Sunday to hear it? The answer is God's word is truth. That truth needs to be shared so that sinful people may be warned, may learn, and may be led to God and his holy ways. Today in Psalm 78, we will see that we are commanded to teach God's word to remind us of our sin, our need for a savior, and God's provision of a savior. As Keith explained a few weeks ago, the Psalms are divided into five books. He preached from Psalm 3 two weeks ago from Book 1 and from Psalm 51 from Book 2 last week. Today I'm preaching from Psalm 58, which is from Book 3, which is comprised of the Psalms 73 to 89. As Keith noted, the Psalms are put together quite intentionally in the way that they were organized and collected. Psalms 1 and 2 act as a preamble pointing to the themes of the entire Psalter. Psalm 1 focuses on the importance of the believer of God's word, his law, his instruction, what in Hebrew is the Torah. This is symbolically described in Psalm 1 with the believer as a tree with its roots deep in the riches of God's river, which is the source of life. A believer doesn't walk in the way of the wicked, but delights in God's Torah. Psalm 2 describes the coming of a powerful messianic king, a son in the line of David, enthroned in Zion. In addition to these being the themes for the entire collection of the Psalms, the way of Torah as the path of life, and the coming messianic king are the bookend themes for book three as well. Book three starts with Psalm 73, where the psalmist acknowledges the need to adhere to God's law, while admitting to being drawn to the wrong path. Psalm 73 ends with a declaration that faithfulness to God is life, and with the desire to tell of God's great works. Book three ends with Psalm 89, where the psalmist wrestles with the promise of a messianic kingdom in the face of the reality of Judah's destruction, the end of the kingdom of the Davidic line, and the humiliation of exile. Psalm 78 starts and ends with exactly these same themes as well. Teach the truth of God's word and seek the Messiah King, who will be both a servant and a shepherd. In between, however, the psalm is a blistering attack on the people of Israel during and following the exodus from Egypt and their entry into the promised land. There are other accounts of the exodus which focus on God's good works, and there are other accounts of the exodus which talk about the people's failings. But none other uses the kind of repeated, harsh language to describe the utter rebellion, distrust, lack of faith, and treachery of the people of Israel in the face of God's miraculous works of redemption. But the psalm also makes clear that we are to remember that God, even in the face of repeated rebellion by his people, is a promise-keeping redeemer who provides salvation through his anointed one, King Jesus. If you write down only one thing this morning, let it be God, even in the face of repeated rebellion by his people, is a promise-keeping redeemer who provides salvation through his anointed one, King Jesus. This long psalm can be divided into three sections. First, teach the truth, verses one through eight. Second, remember, verses nine through 66. In this second section, these 57 verses will show us three recurring themes. Remember your rebellion, remember God's wrath, and remember the Redeemer. The third and final section is, Seek the Servant Shepherd, verses 67 through 72. Please follow along throughout in your Bible. Given the length of the psalm, we did not set aside time to read the entire psalm in addition to walking through it. I will be paraphrasing sections of it as we go through, but I will be giving you indications of where I am so that you can be following along in your text of scripture. First, teach the truth, verses one through eight. The psalm begins, give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the word of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done. He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. That they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. So in the very first sentence, we hear that theme of the Psalter, give ear to my Torah, my teaching, my law. We hear in verses four through six that we are supposed to tell the coming generation, the children and the children's children, of what we have learned from God's Torah. This is not news to the people of Israel. In Deuteronomy 11, 18, Moses wrote, You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." So it's very clear from scripture that God's people are supposed to teach God's children, and their children, and all the world. But what are they supposed to teach them? According to verses 4 and again in 7 and 8, there are five things that Psalm says we should be teaching. First, God's glorious deeds, his might, and his wonders. Everyone needs to understand what a great and gracious God the Lord is. Secondly, that they should set their hope in God. Your ultimate faith should not be trusted to yourself, for your heart is deceitful and wicked above all things, or to a fallible human leader, but to the God Almighty himself. Third, that they should not forget the works of God. It's important to understand that here in this psalm, forgetting or not remembering is not some sort of lackadaisical omission, but it's act of rebellion against God. As we will see later on in verses 40 and 42, it says the people rebelled, they grieved God, they tested him, they provoked him because they did not remember. Fourth, that they should keep his commandments. God's word always points us to obedience and holiness. Fifth, and this one seems a little bit out of joint here, it says that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God. In our time, we are used to hearing about the failings of our forefathers. But in Israel's traditional society, like most traditional societies today, the elders and the fathers are seen as the source of wisdom. God's word, which is written down to guard us against the introduction of new false teaching, warns us that all people are sinful. They're all stubborn and rebellious against God. And we are to learn from the error of those who came before us. This was not news to the original hearers of this psalm. They well knew Moses' words on preparing to enter the promised land as recorded in Deuteronomy 9. Know therefore that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people. Remember and do not forget how you provoke the Lord, your God, to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the Lord. So what does this section tell us about how we should respond to God's Word? First of all, it tells us that we need to be faithful to preach His Word week in and week out, in season and out of season. We need to preach the sinfulness of man, preach the greatness of God, preach obedience to God's Word. The faithful, accurate, consistent teaching of God's Word will accomplish God's purpose. Its importance cannot be overestimated. I am so thankful for the long time ongoing faithfulness of the men that God has placed in this body to consistently and faithfully preach his word. Secondly, we have a beautiful example in our new children's curriculum. I joked earlier with James Dean that the note he put about the curriculum in the evangel this week preempted the main points of my sermon. It is a clear example of how we as a church and as parents can obey the commands of this psalm. Listen for the words and themes I've already highlighted in James's announcement. This week, we begin a three-year journey through the scriptures with our children in Sunday school as they discover God's grand story of redeeming creation back to himself. Over the next couple of months, our children will learn from Genesis about God's goodness and man's rebellion. Within Genesis, we see the beginning of Jesus' work to draw humanity back to the Father in worship. It is our hope that our children will begin to understand that all throughout the Bible, the testimony of a coming Messiah rings forth. Our teachers will be providing our parents with resources to teach gospel truths to their children throughout the week in our homes. Pray with me that as we begin this new curriculum that we will lay a foundation of truth that will draw our children to Christ and one day send them out into the world to be healthy church members. We are following the command of the scripture as we seek to tell the truth to our children. Second section is remember, verses 9 to 66. Yes, that is 57 verses. As we look through these 57 verses, we will see three recurring sub-themes. Remember your rebellion, remember God's wrath, and remember the Redeemer. In these verses, the psalmist tells the same story twice. Verses 9 through 39 describes God's people failing because they forgot God's work during the wilderness period after they left Egypt and before they arrived in the promised land. Verses 40 to 65 tells of the people rebelling because they did not remember what God did for them during the plagues on Egypt and in shepherding them into the promised land and caring for them until the days of Samuel. Oh, if they had only remembered God's grace and provision and then trusted and believed and obeyed. But they did not. They forgot and they did not remember. Verses 9 through 11 give us a summary of Israel's failing, and it is on the theme of rebellion. beginning in verse 9. The Ephraimites, armed with a bow, turned back on the day of battle. They did not keep God's covenant, but refused to walk according to his law, his Torah. They forgot his works and the wonders that he had shown them. Ephraim here stands in as a representative of the entire people of Israel during this period. This was the tribe that had inherited Joseph's double blessing along with Manasseh and were counted along with Joseph's brothers as tribes of Israel. And even beyond that, Ephraim received the firstborn blessing, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. Joshua, the leader after Moses, was from Ephraim. Shiloh, where the ark was located until the time of Samuel, was in Ephraim. Later, Ephraim came to represent the non-Judah tribes once the kingdom was divided into Israel and Judah. And in the final section of this psalm, we will see there's a reference to God choosing to shift leadership from Ephraim to Judah. How do the people of Israel respond here? They turned back. They didn't trust in God. They did not keep the covenant and refused to walk according to his law. They didn't listen to him. They didn't follow his commandments. They didn't follow his instructions. They forgot his works and his wonders. The psalmist then goes on and in verses 12 through 41 describes the works and wonders of God during the wilderness period. In verses 12 to 16. He talks about God performing wonders in the fields of Zoan. And we'll later see this language regarding the fields of Zoan in verse 43, where the second story picks up. It'll be a marker for us to know that we're going to be hearing the same story again. In this passage, which was alluded to in 1 Corinthians 10, that was read earlier by Pat, the Lord brought them through the sea, led them by a cloud and a pillar of fire. He gave them water, miraculously, from the rocks. But verses 17 through 20 tell us that even though he had performed these great wonders, that the people of Israel rebelled. Verses 17 through 19 tell us, yet they continue to sin against him, test him, speak against him. Verse 20, in response to the miracle of striking the rock, which we were told in 1 Corinthians is Christ, in response to the miracle of striking the rock with life-giving water, rushing out and overflowing, instead of thankfulness and worship, they demand, what about bread and meat? Even when in the midst of them, these miracles are occurring, they forgot God's work. It's happening right in front of them. They don't have to think back. It's right there. And they still ignore it and forget it and don't remember it. They rejected God's gracious salvation while it was staring them in the face. God's response is given in verses 21 through 31, where God exercises his wrath upon them. It's not a mild displeasure, it's full-on wrath. In verses 21 and 22, we see that God, justifiably and with justice, responds with his holy anger. Therefore, when the Lord heard, he was full of wrath. A fire was kindled against Jacob. His anger rose against Israel because they did not believe in God and did not trust in his saving power. In verses 23 to 30, he punishes them by giving them what they demanded, what they thought that they needed. He rained down manna and he rained down meat upon them. And even as they're bombarded with this bread and meat falling from the sky, which they had asked for, God uses it to punish them. Verse 31 says, the anger of God rose against them and he killed the strongest of them and laid low the young men of Israel. They questioned him. And judgment was the response. Ironically, in the New Testament, in the book of John, when Jesus has fed the 5,000, They keep asking for more signs. And Jesus says, what kind of sign are you looking for? And the people say, well, in the Old Testament, God gave us bread from heaven. The irony of it, of course, that the very people who received that bread from heaven ignored the sign that was right in front of them and suffered the judgment of God. In response to this punishment from God, verses 32 and 37 shows that there was further rebellion. Verse 32 says, in spite of all this, despite his wonders, they still sinned. They still did not believe. And so in verses 33 and 34 says, so he killed them. His punishment appeared again. But there seems to be light here. In verses 34 and 35, there seems to be a change. They seem to look to God as a Redeemer. It says they sought Him and repented. It says in verse 35 that they remembered God was their rock and their Redeemer. But even there in the midst of seeking God, in reaching out and beginning to understand what God's message is to them, for many of them it all turned out to be mere words. Their rebellion continued, it says in verse 36, but they flattered him and lied. Their response was not a true response. 37 tells us they were not steadfast and they were not faithful. So of course, being a just God, he calls quits on them and destroys them all and there ends our story. No, in the midst of their rebellion, as they are lying to His face about believing in Him and trusting to Him, God shows that He is a gracious Redeemer. In verses 38-39, right following on their lies and their rebellion, it says, yet He, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity, and did not destroy them. He restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again. So this is God the Redeemer. He's compassionate. He atones for his people. He doesn't destroy them. He restrains his anger. He is slow to punish. He does not stir up his wrath. He remembers that we are his. This first history lesson ends with unearned redemption in the face of active rebellion. They didn't deserve it. They were fighting him every step of the way, but he gave it to them anyway. Beginning in verse 40, we have the second telling of this story. This time, it goes back to the plagues of Egypt and their entrance into the promised land after the years in the wilderness. As with the first retelling, This one starts with rebellion. It tells us in verses 40 and 42, they rebelled. They grieved him. They tested him. They provoked him. They did not remember all that he had done for them in redeeming them during the exodus. In verses 42 through 45, we have a description of what God has done. He called down 10 plagues upon the people of Egypt that were keeping his people enslaved. It tells us in verse 43 that God performed signs and wonders, marvels in the fields of Zoan, the same phrase that we heard back in verse 12 in the first retelling. This time, instead of wrath upon his people, God shows great wrath upon their enemies. We have the 10 plagues that come in, and each one of them punishes the people of Egypt. God redeems his people by letting loose his anger on their enemies. Verse 49 says, he let loose on them his burning anger, wrath, indignation and distress, a company of destroying angels. But for his people, as they enter into the promised land in verses 52 through 55, he is a redeemer. In contrast to the wrath poured out on the Egyptians, God was a shepherd to his people Israel. Beginning in verse 52, it says, to the mountain which his right hand had won. He drove out nations before them. He apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents. He has fulfilled all of his promises. These two historical narratives cover overlapping time periods. Verses 12 through 41 cover the wilderness years and talk about the rebellion that occurs there. Verses 42 to 56 has a wider view. It goes further into the past, to the plagues of Egypt, and further into the future, into them entering into the promised land. I think this structure is very intentional, and it emphasizes how short-sighted the Israelites were in not believing God's promises. even though he had already proven he could do everything he said he could. They didn't look backwards to see his wondrous works during the plagues, which he announced beforehand were going to happen, and then they happened. They did not use that as a lesson to learn that they should believe his promises, that the wilderness period was going to end and they would go into the promised land just as he said they would. In verses 56 through 58, they have settled in the land. If you know Israel's history, you will know that that proceeded to be followed by Joshua, where they didn't fully kick out the current inhabitants, followed by Judges, where human depravity reached about as far down as it could go. And then in the time of Samuel, You have the priesthood collapsing. The priesthood is corrupt and adulterous. Quite literally, the priests are stealing and sleeping with women who are not their wives. The people are rebelling. Verse 56 says, again, they tested him. They rebelled against him. They didn't keep his law. Verse 57 says, they turned away. They acted treacherously. Verse 58, they provoked him to anger with idols. In verses 59 through 64, we have a story that comes from 1 Samuel 4, where the Israelites are going to battle against the Philistines, and they take the ark of God with them into the battle, thinking that that will be sufficient to gain them victory. But God was not with them. God was not with them because they had rebelled. God had decided it was a period for punishment and for wrath. In verse 59 it says, God was full of wrath and he utterly rejected them. Verses 60 and 61 tells us of how the Ark of the Covenant that was housed in Shiloh was taken by the Philistines and carried off to their capital. Verses 62 through 64 talk about how Israel not only lost the battle and lost the ark, but many died, and hope died along with it. Everything seemed hopeless. They thought they had lost their God. They thought that they were left in abject defeat. But God, again, through no merit of the Israelites, at a time when they're in active rebellion and he has had to punish them, God decides he is going to be their redeemer and takes his wrath and turns it away from his people and places it again upon their enemies. In verses 65 through 66, the story comes from 1 Samuel 5. After the ark has been removed and is in the control of the Philistines, a plague breaks out and starts causing illness and killing many among the Philistines. And they have to turn around and return the ark to Israel because it is proving deadly to them. It says in verses 65 and 66, then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine, and he put his adversaries to rout. He put them to everlasting shame. The ark and its capture, which look like a victory for the Philistines, becomes their defeat. In God's sovereignty, even though the people were in Belian, God showed wrath, then without any change in the people, God awoke and put their adversaries to rout. Again, this history lesson ends with unearned redemption in the face of active rebellion. Just as we had wrath on the enemies in 44 to 51 with the plagues on Egypt, we now, in verses 65 and 66, have wrath on enemies in the form of a plague on the Philistines. Verse 65 has two interesting images. First of all, we have the Lord awoke as if from sleep. What's going on here? God doesn't sleep. But he often absences himself from those who are in rebellion against him. and his absence feels like he's not doing what he promised to do in taking care of his people. In Psalm 35, 23, this image is used as a psalmist cries out, awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord. Don't you see that we're suffering here? Why aren't you doing something? And again in Psalm 44, 23, awake, why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself, do not reject us forever. But when you're in active rebellion against the Lord, you need to understand that there will be periods of judgment in your life. But again, Thanks be to God, in his grace, he chose to step in, to wake up, to make his presence known again among his people and save them from their enemies. I was sort of tempted to do an entire sermon on just the second phrase in this sentence, like a strong man shouting because of wine. I spent way too much time looking at the options for that verse as I studied this passage and prepared this sermon. As some of the study Bibles put it, that's an unusual figure of speech. That's a bold image. That's a remarkable simile. That's poetic hyperbole. What does it mean that God is like a mighty man shouting with wine? Well, in one sense it is poetic hyperbole. Just as God doesn't sleep, God also doesn't drink. And even if God did drink, he wouldn't get drunk. But there is this sense of what someone is like in this kind of situation. And there are two basic ways to approach this. One is that God is like a warrior who has been asleep, wakes up, realizes that there is a battle, and takes a drink of wine to refresh himself and to strengthen himself for the battle to come. The other is he's like a drunken warrior who goes raging in an excitable manner, going hither and yon, and you can't see what he's going to be able to do, but he is mad with activity. I think the first of these is probably the main import of the simile. As Charles Spurgeon said, Justly inactive, he had suffered the enemy to triumph, his arc to be captured and his people to be slain. But now he arouses himself. His heart is full of pity for his chosen and anger against the insulting foe. Woe to thee, O Philistia. Now thou shalt feel the weight of his right hand. Waking and putting forth strength like a man who has taken a refreshing draft, the Lord is said to be like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. Strong and full of energy, the Lord dashed upon his foes and made them stagger beneath his blows. Although some Like Calvin have argued that it is intended to be an image of drunkenness, I think it's more accurate to consider that anybody who was drunk and going into battle would not make a very successful warrior. It would not gain the complete victory that someone like God attains for his people. So what do we learn from this very long section with two overlapping stories about the people's rebellion and God's wrath and the Lord as a Redeemer? First, if you are a non-Christian, remember rebellion, remember wrath, remember the Redeemer. You are a sinner in open rebellion against the one true God. You are justifiably under his holy wrath and subject to his holy judgment, leading to eternal death. But, he is a gracious redeemer. Faithful to save unto eternal life those who would believe in his sent savior, his son Jesus. If you have any questions about this, please talk to someone before you leave. Secondly, if you are a Christian, remember rebellion, wrath, and the Redeemer. As a rebellious sinner who has been saved, respond with obedience to God's word and teach it to others, particularly any children with which he has blessed you. Praise God that Jesus took upon himself the wrath that was due you. Praise God that he has graciously redeemed you, even when you were a rebel, dead in your trespasses and sin, and tell the good news of Jesus Christ to others, particularly any children with which he has blessed you. Our third section, Seek the Servant Shepherd, verses 67 through 72. The historical setting for these verses is David and his successors. In verse 67, we see that God has rejected the house of Joseph, represented by Ephraim, but instead, he has chosen Judah, residing in Zion, which he loves. Verse 68 tells us that God built his sanctuary, which is compared to the earth which was founded forever. It's to be an eternal sanctuary. And then in verse 70, we're told that God chose David, his servant, and took him from the sheepfold to shepherd his people. This is a reference here in the Psalm directly to 2 Samuel 7, where Nathan the prophet is told by God that he's going to call out David to build for him a house from his descendants that will be eternal. 2 Samuel 7, 8 starts, now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from him. As I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you, and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. Just as God had been a promise-fulfilling shepherd during the exodus for his people, God promises to provide a shepherd to rule his people as a servant. But there's a problem here. Even the original readers of the Psalm knew that neither David nor his immediate sons were the eternal king that was promised. There's a tension here as the psalm ends with this upright ruler that is going to guide them. But the people know that David was not perfect. We heard last year, excuse me, we heard last week from Psalm 51 about how David had to confess about his multitudes of sin against God, his adultery, and his murder. We know that the kingdom has already been divided by the time that this was written, because we see the distinction between Ephraim and Judah. We know that the Psalms were collected and organized after the exile, and we know that the reason that God's prophets gave for the exile sounds an awful lot like Deuteronomy. It says in 2 Kings 17, beginning in verse seven, and this, meaning the exile, occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and had feared other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel and the customs that the kings of Israel had practiced. Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah by every prophet and every seer saying, turn from your evil ways and keep my commandments and my statutes in accordance with all the law that I commanded your fathers and that I sent to you by my servants the prophets. And then in verse 14, but they would not listen. But they were stubborn. as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the Lord their God. And then in verse 19, Judah also did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the customs that Israel had introduced. The same rebellion and sin that had led to punishment in the wilderness and led to punishment in the land has now occurred again and led to the exile out of the promised land. And you can tell by the organization of Book 3 of the Psalms. that they are looking for this promised Messiah. They are suffering in this time of exile. In Psalm 78, using some of the chapter headings from the ESV, in Psalm 78 we have the telling, the coming generation of the sins of their forefathers. And it ends with that hope for a Messiah, a hope for a king. And then 79, how long, O Lord? 80, restore us, O God. 81, oh that my people would listen to me. 82, rescue the weak and the needy. 83, oh God, do not keep silent. 84, my soul longs for the courts of the Lord. 85, revive us again. 86, great is your steadfast love. 87, glorious things of you are spoken. 88, I cry out day and night before you. And in the last Psalm of book three, Psalm 89, the first 37 verses are about how great God is, about how great his promises to David were, what a great king David was. And in verses 35 through 36, it says, once for all I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me. God's promise to David will not end. His offspring shall endure forever, as long as the sun is before its creator. But beginning in verse 37, The psalmist acknowledges that something's happened. In verses 38 and 39 it says, but now you have cast off and rejected. You are full of wrath against your anointed. You have renounced the covenant with your servant. You have defiled his crown in the dust. The promise of God seems to have failed. But the psalmist doesn't leave it there and closes out Psalm 89 with verses 50 and 51. Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations with which your enemies mock, O Lord, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed. Come, O Lord, Fulfill your promises, take away our humiliation. Unlike the original readers of the Psalms in Old Testament times, we know that God does fulfill this promise. We know that God sends his son to die for us. We know that his son is the ultimate shepherd and the ultimate king. We know from 1 Corinthians that Christ was there in the exodus, that he is the rock of salvation, that he is the one who gives living water, that he is the one who is our savior and will lead us into eternal life and the eternal kingdom. So what are we to do with the lessons of this section? First, we need to let the warnings of Deuteronomy 9, 2 Kings 17, Psalm 78, and 1 Corinthians 10 point us to Christ. In our sin, look to Christ. In our rebellion, look to Christ. When thinking of God's wrath, look to Christ. When searching for a Redeemer, Seek Christ, the suffering servant and the good shepherd that God has provided for his people. Secondly, we are called to look forward to God's faithful fulfillment of his promises based on his past fulfillment of his promises. In sending Jesus to die for his sins, it is one more fulfilled promise that even the old saints didn't know about, yet we have. Let it be a spur to believe and depend on Christ's promise to return again and usher us into the eternal promised land in his presence. As Keith said in week one of this service series on the Psalms, God gave us the Psalms as prayers and songs to teach us how to talk to him. So let us now pray to God with some of the lessons that we have learned from this psalm. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word, which is truth and life to us. Father, we pray that you will give us a spirit to listen to and obey your word. Father, we know that we've been rebellious, we know that you have been gracious, and we know that you have been faithful even while you have judged our sin. Father, we ask for the Spirit's guiding to remember and repent of our rebellion against you, a holy and gracious God. Father, we thank you for your promised Messiah King, Jesus, who bore our judgment and in grace gave us life eternal. Father, we pray that we would seek after Jesus, the Good Shepherd, your chosen one, and look forward to his reign as eternal king. We pray all this in the great and glorious name of our loving Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.