Good evening, everyone. Thank you for coming to the Lord's house this evening. And our lesson in Psalms this evening is from Psalm number 42, which is the basis of the song which we just sang. So please open your Bible there to Psalm number 42. And we'll have a word of prayer and we'll get right into it in the few minutes that we have left this evening. Let's bow for prayer then. Dear Father, we come before you tonight. Thank you for the time in your house this evening. Father, we pray that your word would minister to each person's heart here tonight. and that you would draw us near to you, Lord, and that we would follow the example that we see here in this psalm of knowing how to encourage ourselves in the Lord. how to draw near to you whenever the circumstances of our life seem to pull us away from you. So we ask your blessing on the time now, and on each person that's here, and we thank you for them, and we pray in Jesus's name, amen. Well, sometimes life is difficult, isn't it? Sometimes life is difficult sometimes it's it's difficult because we've made foolish decisions and We're experiencing the consequences of those decisions Sometimes the difficulty comes from if we if we truly know Christ is our Savior sometimes we have difficulties because well, we've we're disobeying God and we've turned away from him and and and we're experiencing his chastening in different ways, and the Lord does have different ways that he chastens his own. Sometimes there are physical chastenings, and sometimes there are, again, the consequences of our own actions, and sometimes it's conviction of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, where we just can't have peace because we know that we're holding an attitude or we've said or done things that are contrary to the Lord, and He's not releasing us. He's not allowing us to experience the joy of the Lord and the peace that passes understanding because we're under His chastening hand. Sometimes life is difficult because of loss. We've had loss, maybe it's financial loss or the loss of a loved one. And sometimes our difficulties are just the result of tribulation, difficult circumstances that come into our life that are not our fault. You know, it's not a chastening thing. It's just that, well, like the Lord said, he sends his rain on the just and on the unjust. And sometimes, you know, whenever you've got the crops in the field, you want that rain. And the Lord sends the rain on the just and on the unjust. And sometimes, You want to have a nice sunny day, but the Lord is sending the rain on the just and on the unjust. So there are just circumstances of life that come our way that cause us to, well, they cause heartaches and difficulties in our lives. This psalm, I have to tell you that whenever I was beginning preparation for this song, I was thinking about the song that we just sang. and how that song talks about our relationship with the Lord. But this psalm does not really go that direction. The song that we sang, As the Deer, that's a wonderful song, and the things that it says are true. You are my friend and you are my brother, even though you are a king. and I love you more than any other. Those things are true, but that's not where this Psalm goes. So what the writer of our song did was took the first couple of verses here and wrote a song that was really cool, a really good song, but it doesn't really follow the direction of this Psalm. So we're gonna take a look at this Psalm. First of all, I want us to notice that it says, The note here to the chief musician, Maskil, for the sons of Korah. Maskil, of course, means instruction. This is an instructional psalm. The sons of Korah. You all remember Korah, don't you? Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Do you remember hearing about those guys? Whenever Moses was leading the children of Israel through the wilderness, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram felt like Moses was taking too much upon himself. They felt like Moses was taking his leadership over the children of Israel, being God's spokesman, they said, like, Moses, you are taking too much upon you. The whole congregation is holy. Who do you think you are? And so they said, we have as much right to speak the word of God and to be in charge as you do. And so the Moses, the Lord told Moses that if these men die the natural death of all people, then you'll know that I did not send Moses. And the next day, those people did not die the death of normal people. The earth opened up and swallowed them and their families down, and then it closed up on them. So the Lord made it really clear that that was contrary to his will. Aren't you glad that the Lord doesn't open up the ground and swallow up everybody who rebels against God's leadership? Husbands, aren't you glad that the Lord doesn't do that to your wife? Don't answer that, I'm joking. But you know, children, aren't you glad the Lord doesn't do that when you're disobedient to your parents? And of course, in the church, probably the only person that would be here tonight would be Brother Brian if the Lord opened up the ground and swallowed those that had tendencies to rebel from time to time. So, but what the Lord did in that case with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram was that he made it unmistakably clear that he sets up leadership and he wants people to respect that leadership. And so he set forth that example there early on in those days. But Numbers chapter 26 verse 11 tells us that there were sons of Korah who survived. Not all of the sons of Korah died whenever the ground was opened up and it swallowed Korah and his house and family. There were some of the sons of Korah who survived and they went on. And they continued, they were Levites. And whenever David established the temple and established the people that were going to have different responsibilities in the temple, those sons of Korah turned out to be the choir. Turned out to be some of the lead men in the choir. And so that's why we have a song of instruction for the sons of Korah. They were the ones that were gonna take this and make a musical arrangement out of it. This psalm, Let's look at verse 1. As the heart, or as the deer, as we would say, panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. You know, for those of us that have learned the basic concepts of the scripture here, this is a scripture that takes us immediately to body, soul, and spirit, isn't it? This is a passage that shows the human design. Here's my soul, and our soul has desire for physical things. Our soul has a hunger and thirst for spiritual things and for physical things. And so what he's talking about here is the desire and the need of our soul for God. And he's comparing our need for God to getting a drink. In the gospel of John chapter 6, Jesus told the people that were with him, that whenever he fed the multitude, he said, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, he that believeth on me shall never thirst. And of course the Lord was not talking about physical thirst there, He's talking about spiritual thirst. And John chapter 4, wasn't the Lord's discussion with the woman at the well all about her spiritual need to quench her thirst? So let's go there quickly for just a moment and reference that. John chapter 4. He says here that he went and sat on the well there by the city of Sychar. And he came to the city, Jacob's well was there, and in verse seven, there cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith to her, give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God. And who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. See, he's talking about the same thing with this woman that David was talking about there in Psalm number 42, the living water. the living water. And then the woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. The well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. You know, there's a road out here I don't remember which one it is, but it's one of the roads that goes off of old Highway 71, and if you turn off to the left there, I wish I could remember exactly where it is, but there's a spring there beside the road off on the left, and somebody put a sign up there that says, whoever drinks of this water shall thirst again. So I thought that was pretty good. But anyway, verse 14, Jesus said, But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. And the woman said, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. And of course, she needed to realize he was talking about her spiritual thirst. And she did eventually catch on to what he was talking about. We do have a thirst for God. And those that have come to know the Lord, as we drift away from the Lord in our life, or we come into different circumstances, sometimes we get so preoccupied with those circumstances that we lose sight of our relationship with the Lord. And if I had a penny, I would show you this, but if you have a penny in your pocket or a coin of some sort, did you know that you can completely cover me with a penny? 6 feet tall, at least for the time being. It may be 5'11 in the next few years. I don't know. I just feel like I'm getting shorter. But you know, with a penny, you can completely cover somebody that's 6 feet tall, can't you? How do you do it? just get so focused on that penny that you don't even see something that's bigger. And sometimes the circumstances of our life do that between us and God, don't they? We can get so focused on something that's really small that we can miss out on the greatness and the wonderfulness of the Lord. Well, David was capable of doing that. And so we, in our life, go through those times that we become thirsty for the Lord. Not in the sense that we need to be saved, but in the sense that we need to renew and refresh and reconnect with the Lord. So David had circumstances like that where David was discouraged by his circumstances. And I'd like to take a look at that and then we'll see the Psalm here. We have an example. in David's life of how David encouraged himself in the Lord. And this song is an example of a man who is feeling distant from God, encouraging himself in the Lord. But let's take a look at the story in which David encouraged himself in the Lord. Come with me to 1 Samuel chapter 27. First Samuel 27. Now, of course, we know that the children of Israel had asked God for a king and he gave them Saul. And Saul turned out to be self-willed, rebellious against the Lord. Samuel told Saul once that rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. So Saul turned out to be a rebellious person. The Lord chose David, a man after his own heart. to become the king. But what happened was that Saul chased David around wanting to kill David because he knew that David was ultimately going to be the king. First Samuel chapter 27. So David went among the Philistines to live because Saul was hunting him down to kill him. First Samuel chapter 27. Verse one says this, and we'll look here at verses one through seven. David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines, and Saul shall despair of me. To seek me anymore in any coast of Israel, so shall I escape out of his hand. And David arose, and he passed over with 600 men that were with him unto Achish. the son of Maok, king of Gath. And David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man of his household, even David, with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath, and he sought no more again for him. And David said unto Achish, if I have now found grace in thine eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country that I may dwell there. For why should thy servant dwell in the royal city with thee? Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Wherefore, Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day." So there's David. He's safe from Saul. He's found a place of comfort and security there. among the Philistines. They gave him the village of Ziklag for he and his men to live in. And there he is. But then the Philistines went to war against the nation of Israel. And as they were prone to do, and as they are still prone to do. And what we found was that David, because he was among the Philistines, took his 600 men and wanted to join himself to the philistines to fight against the enemies of the philistines because now they were living among the philistines and some of the lords of the philistines said this is not a good idea so come with me to first samuel chapter 29 first samuel 29 verse 9 it says Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight as an angel of God. Notwithstanding, the princes of the Philistines have said he shall not go up with us to the battle. Wherefore now, rise up early in the morning with thy master's servants that are come with thee, and as soon as ye be up early in the morning and have light, depart. So David and his men rose up early to depart, in the morning to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel, chapter 30. And it came to pass when David and his men were come to Ziklag, okay, now they've gone back home, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south and Ziklag and smitten Ziklag and burned it with fire. So while David and his men were away, the marauding Amalekites came through and pillaged the city and took off all of their families captive, and had taken the women captives that were therein, and slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away and went on their way. So David and his men came to the city, and behold, it was burned with fire, and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives. Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken captive, Zahinoam the Jezreelitess and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him. because the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters." So here's one of those times when David is in distress, great difficulty, great loss has come upon him. And not only that, but the men that are with him, they're blaming David for the fact that their families were left vulnerable to the Amalekites and the Amalekites have taken them all captive and this is it. We need to get rid of David. David was greatly distressed. The people spake of stoning him because the soul of the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters, but David encouraged himself in the Lord, his God. And David said to Abiathar the priest, Abimelech's son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought hither the ephod to David. And David inquired at the Lord, saying, shall I pursue after this troop? Shall I overtake them? And he answered him, pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail, recover all. So David, in his distress, encouraged himself in the Lord, and then he turned to the Lord to seek the Lord for guidance. So this is just an example of how David came into a distressful situation. And rather than just going off into the depths of despair, David knew how to do something. And that is, David knew how to encourage himself in the Lord. And that's something that we all need to learn. how to encourage ourselves in the Lord, because we all come into these difficult, horrible, grievous circumstances. What do we do about it? What do we do about it? Psalm number 42. As the heart panteth after the water brooks, So panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me, for I had gone with the multitude. I went with them to the house of God with a voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy day. So I want you to notice here, David is experiencing a hunger and thirst for the Lord, isn't he? But what hunger is, or what thirst is he experiencing for the Lord? He's experiencing the thirst to be in the house of God. Notice what he says, when shall I come and appear before God? He wanted to go to a place where the Lord was present. My tears have been my meat, et cetera. Verse four, when I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me for I had gone with the multitude. See, he has a thirst to be with the multitude that's going to the house of the Lord, to worship the Lord in the Lord's house. So whenever we read Psalm number 42, we're prone to think, yes, I have that hunger and thirst for the Lord in my own personal relationship with him. I want you to know that in the context of it, The thirst that David had for the Lord was the thirst for the presence of God in God's house. There's a special presence of the Lord in the Lord's house. And that's what David was thirsting for. And the same way that a deer pants for the waters. For my soul had gone with the multitude. I went to the house of God, notice, with a voice of joy and praise. with the multitude on the holy day. Whenever the multitude lifted up the voice of joy and praise, what were they doing? They were singing. They were singing. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Right? Be thankful unto him. And come before him with singing. Come before him with singing. David was looking forward to going to the house of the Lord and singing and praising the Lord and experiencing the presence of God. Worshipping the Lord in song with the multitude that went to the house of the Lord. But David was in a circumstance where he wasn't near the house of the Lord. For instance, whenever Saul was chasing David around. David couldn't go to the house of the Lord then. At that time, as we read there in Samuel, he was among the Philistines, and the scripture tells us he was there for a year and four months. So he was away from the house of the Lord then. Of course, the house of the Lord at that time was the tabernacle that was in Shiloh, but David worshiped the Lord there. And then, of course, David was given the plans for building the temple, and he passed those plans on to Solomon, and Solomon built the temple. And so the people of Israel that followed David's example had that hunger and thirst to go to the house of the Lord. Do you think there's an application for us? The church is the Lord's plan. The church is the Lord's plan. And you all know, we're not referencing the building here. We've got, I think we have a pretty nice building actually. I like it, but you know, the church is the assembly of the people. And what does the Lord instruct us to do when we come into the assembly? You know, he instructs us to receive the Word of God, right? He instructs us to sing praise to the Lord, you know, in the Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs as we come into the house of God. In Ephesians, he says to encourage one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and in Colossians he says to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. So there's an application of both. But we're instructed in the Lord's instructions to the churches to make singing a part of our assembly. So there is that, and there is coming in to receive the prophecy. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 that those who prophesy speak to exhortation, edification, and comfort. And when we come and we get a message from our pastor, Brother Brian, or one of the other guys here, Somebody that's sharing a testimony, that's exhortation, edification, and comfort in the house of God. That's God's plan. We should hunger and thirst for that, for all those things. So there is an application. We're not going to the house of God, the temple, but we want to come to the house of God to assemble with our brethren in the church. So David wasn't able to do that. And he was thirsty for it. He was thirsty for it. And then in verses five through six, Although he's removed from the house of God, he has hope and remembrance of it. He says, why aren't thou cast down, O my soul? Why aren't thou disquiet in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. Oh my soul, oh my God, my soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, from the Hermonites, from the hill of Mizar. So although I'm physically separated from you, Lord, from your house, I remember you and I am committed to yet praise you and to honor you. So even if I'm not in your house, I'm going to praise and honor you where I am. Verse seven, this is an interesting statement here. He says, and let's look here at verses seven and eight. And this really goes to the heart of the issue here. Deep calleth unto deep. at the noise of thy water spouts. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me in my prayer unto the God of my life. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts. What is odd? figure of speech. What an odd picture that brings to mind. It brings almost nothing to mind. You know, as we think about that, deep calling unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. Looking up that term waterspouts, that's an interesting word. It occurs right here. And it occurs over in First Samuel where David makes an announcement to his men whenever he is trying to conquer the city of Jebus or where the Jebusites were. He said, I'm going to reward anybody that goes up against the Jebusites and kills certain people among the Jebusites that are there by the gutter of the city of Jebus. Gutter, that's the other place, that's the other word that's translated from this word waterspout. Whenever we think of waterspout, we tend to think of a tornado on the ocean, right? You all know what I'm talking about. Do you know? Okay, so out there on the ocean, if the conditions are right, you'll see a column of water going up, and it's spinning around. I had the privilege to actually see one of those one time. It was pretty neat, and if you get close to it, you can get some of the spray, but you don't want to get too close. But anyway, we call that a water spout, but that's not what this is. That's not what this is. This is the place where the water comes gushing out like a gutter, you know, like on the back of the building here. We have what we call a faucet. It's a water spout. The water comes out of it. Actually, whenever they translated this word in the Septuagint, the word that's translated water spout here in the Greek word is actually cataract. Now it's not cataract in our eyes, but the cataract in our eyes is named after the cataract waterfalls. The place where water runs rapidly down the side of a hill is a cataract. And so that's what we're looking at here. Deep calleth unto deep. Sometimes the deeps in the scriptures is a reference to troubles, a reference to troubles. So come with me to Psalm number 71. I'll show you what I'm talking about. Psalm number 71 refers to the depths as troubles. Psalm 71 verse 20 says this, thou which has showed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again and shalt bring me up again from the depths. of the earth. So here the depths is a reference to the depths of the earth, but the depths are troubles. Psalm 107 verse 26 has a similar idea. I'm sorry, Psalm 107. Did I say Psalm 127? Okay, Psalm 107 verse 26 says, well, let's go to verse 24 to begin, 23. They that go down to the sea in ships that do business in great waters, they see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble going down to the depths. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wits end. So the idea of deep calleth unto deep is the idea that one trouble calls another trouble. The troubles are coming one after another. I am experiencing the depths of trouble, one after the other. And at the noise of thy waterspouts, at the noise of your pouring out the difficulties of life, the stresses of life, the one trouble or one deep comes after another. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy water spouts, and all thy waves, and thy waves, and thy billows are gone over me. Does that sound familiar? Do you remember anybody else that talked about God's billows going over him? Jonah. Jonah, let's go there to the book of Jonah. It's Jonah chapter two, verses one, two, and three. Now Jonah, of course, the Lord told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to Nineveh that the Lord was going to bring judgment to them and to give them an opportunity to repent. Jonah didn't want them to repent. Jonah wanted them to experience the judgment of God. But nevertheless, the Lord sent Jonah to Fish University, and Jonah graduated with his degree, and got out, and he learned to go ahead and obey God. But listen to what it says here, Jonah chapter 2. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly, and said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. Out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about, and all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. So Jonah said those very words that David says here. Yet, in spite of the distress, in spite of the difficulty, in spite of the sorrow, in spite of the trouble, yet the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime. And In the night, his song shall be with me in my prayer unto the God of my life. So in spite of the fact of all of these troubles and difficulties, I have God's promise of his loving kindness. And of course, loving kindness sometimes is translated mercy in the scripture. I think about Psalm number 28, verse 13, where David says that, whoever covers his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. And so God commands His loving kindness in the daytime. If we will turn our hearts toward Him and get things right with Him, God commands His loving kindness and His mercy toward us. In spite of the difficulties and problems that we have, we have His promise of forgiveness and restoration. He commands His loving kindness. in the daytimes, and in the night his song shall be with me." You know, the scripture teaches us that the Lord gives us a new song. Here we are in Psalm 42. Would you come with me to Psalm number 40, verse 3? He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it in fear and shall trust in the Lord. Did you ever come to a time in your life where the Lord put a new song in your mouth, a new song in your heart? I know I could just, I don't want to talk about myself, but I will tell you that as a young teenager that was growing up in the 60s with the Beatles and all these other kinds of groups, you know, an unsaved person out there in the stresses of life, man, music was my great escape. from everything that was going on, and just really enjoying all this different kind of stuff. But do you know, after I got saved, the Lord gave me a new song. And within a few months, all of those songs were gone. I literally just got rid of them. Because you just come to a point where you say, okay, I'm either gonna go with the Lord and his truth, or I'm gonna keep listening to this rebellion and all, you know, nastiness and all of that. And the Lord gives you a new song. Has the Lord given you a new song? A new song. So the Lord gives us a new frame of reference, a new joy, new things to bring happiness into our life. And that even can translate into music. And then what he says here is that Here in verse eight, the Lord will command his loving kindness in the daytime and in the night, his song shall be with me. That new song from the Lord will be with me and my prayer will be unto the God of my life. Of course, David here is expressing that he has the perception that he's been forsaken, but he actually hasn't been. Come with me here, let's look at verses nine and 10. I will say unto God, my rock. Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me while they say daily unto me, where is thy God? See, David felt like he was reproached. People were making fun of him. People had no respect for him. And they were berating him because he felt that he was distant from the Lord, but he was not forsaken. by the Lord. Remember Hebrews chapter 13 verse 5, the Lord says to be content with such things as you have because he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So what David is doing here is he's pouring out to God his complaint about how he feels. Aren't you glad that the Lord wants us to be real with him? and not just come before the Lord with the book of prayer. Okay, let's see, I'm gonna read prayer number 982 today, and then, and then just say words, right? Yeah, no, the Lord wants our heart. What the Lord wants in our prayer life is he wants us to be honest with him. And if we feel like the Lord has turned away from us, the Lord wants to hear that. He wants us to be honest with Him because it's only in honest relationships that things can be truly resolved. Isn't that right? Even between people. Even between people. But between us and the Lord, the Lord wants us to pour out our complaint. And when we do that, that's when the Lord can show us his mercy, and he can remind us of his promises. And he can cause us to remember all the wonderful and great things that he's done for us throughout the years. So we come and we can look in the mirror, so to speak, and see ourselves and see what we're actually saying and just realize, oh, Lord, how foolish of me to be feeling this way and to be saying these things. Well, for the sake of time, we'll have to cut this a little bit short. So I'm just going to rather than look up some scriptures here, I just want to point out some things. David learned to hope in the Lord in his circumstances, as we see here. Right. But listen. There are times that we go through the chastening of the Lord, and whenever we go through the chastening of the Lord, we can draw near to the Lord in that time. We need to remember that whenever we're going through difficulty, sometimes it's because the Lord is chasing us. The chastening is for our good and for our benefit. Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 through 13 talks about that. First Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 13, the Apostle Paul tells the Thessalonians that I do not want you to sorrow as those who have no hope. See, we lose family members, we lose friends, we lose fellow church members, right? And it's a grief to us when we lose anybody in our life, to whatever cause it may be. But we need to listen to the exhortation of the Lord here that we sorrow not, even as those who have no hope. See, the bottom line in this psalm is, Lord, you are my hope. You are my hope. And then, of course, tribulations. We'll just read one passage here. We know Romans chapter five, right? We glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation works patience, right? We do have tribulations, but we can rejoice in those knowing that God is using them to mature us. They're not just happening, right? They're happening, tribulations come our way because the Lord will use them to help us to grow and become more like Christ. But I'd like for us to read, 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 and 4, in reference to going through tribulations and difficulties that we do in our life. Because we need to read these promises of God, be aware of these promises of God, so that they will become our hope, our confidence that we're going to come out on the other side of this thing. 2 Corinthians 1, verse 3. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. Do you see, the Lord lets us go through tribulation or actually puts us in a situation to experience tribulation so we can experience His comfort. And then, because we've experienced God's comfort, we can share that comfort with someone else that's going through tribulation. Well, let's close our time here with Psalm number 42. We'll read the last verse. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance and my God. Amen. We're glad you joined us for our services here at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church. We look forward to having you join us again online, but you are always welcome to personally attend any of our services at the Mission Boulevard Baptist Church here in Fayetteville, Arkansas.