All right, good morning, welcome. So good to have all you here. So a little different weather change this week than last. So a little warmer. So let's start with a word of prayer and we'll get into our Bible Sunday school lesson this morning. Thank you, Lord, that we have this time to worship and fellowship with you. Thank you for your word. Thank you for how much we can enjoy and love it more and more each day as we read it, study it, and meditate upon it, and make it a part of our lives. Thankful this time today as we look at Psalms. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, well, we're picking up where we left off last week. Psalm chapter 20. Psalm chapter 20, and I hope you're... using the emails each week to read those chapters and study them. But Psalm chapter 20, we start off with verse 1 as one of the key verses. There are several key verses that I've found here that I think are beneficial for us. But starting with Psalm 20, verse 1, may the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even look at that part this morning. It's running a little late here with the different things here. There we go. All right. That should help you, I think. All right. May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob defend you. Now, as a divine title, the God of Jacob occurs 18 times in the Old Testament, 12 of them in the Book of Psalms. It's associated with the name Yahweh or Jehovah. And the great illustration we have is Exodus 3, verses 16 through 15. And I am reminded here again of that section of God's Word here where it says, moreover, he said in Exodus 3, I am the God of your father, the God of, excuse me, I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face as he was afraid to look upon God. And God said, I have surely seen the oppression of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrow. And it goes on down to verse 14, where he reiterates here, and God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you. Moreover, God said to Moses, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. And this is my memorial to all generations. Think of that. The God Jehovah is the memorial to all generations. We look at God, not just as God, but the God Jehovah, the God of the universe, the God I am. So it's a great start here to the lesson this morning. Then Psalm chapter 20, verse six. Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed. He will answer him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. And then Psalm 20, verse 9. Save, Lord, may the king answer us when we call. Now remember in Psalm chapter 12, verse 1, it said, Lord, help me. And I think this is another illustration here of a prayer that we can call out to him any time and ask him, save me, Lord. Help me. Because the king answers us when we call. He listens. He hears us. So in the outline here, it's a great theme, confidence prayer. We can be confident when we pray. We may not receive the answer right away, but God hears us and he's faithful. Psalm 20 is the prayer of the king's victory in battle, praying for the king's victory in battle, and Psalm 21 is the prayer of thanksgiving for that victory. So those two kind of coincide together. Even though we aren't looking at Psalm 21 today, it might be something for you to go back to and look and compare those two simultaneously. For victory in the battle in Psalm 20, but the thanksgiving for that victory in Psalm 21. So as we look at Psalm 20, Believers ought always to pray for government authorities. I don't know about you. It gets tough. It gets tough sometimes. But that just gave me more encouragement this week that I need to pray even more. We always pray for things like that when we're in the deepest straits. But yet we don't think about it. when we feel like we don't really have any control. But that's when we do have control, is when we need to bring those requests, those petitions to the Lord in prayer. Think of 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 3, therefore I exhort first of all, and we're talking about prayer, supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks, those components of prayer be made to all men. But not just all men, for kings who are, all who are in authority, that we, may lead a quiet and peaceable life. So we need to pray for them because the reason we pray for them that we can live a quiet and peaceable life, when I think of the children of Israel, ultimately I think this is their prayer. They just want to be left alone. They want to live a quiet and peaceable life. They want to be able to live and worship God. And it just, I'm just looking at the news more and more and I'm saying, Leave these people alone, you know, just because God is with them. But it goes on, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Pray for our authorities. And not only that. Pray for our church. Pray for our pastor. Pray for our church family. That's where the rubber meets the road, right here at home. Pray for our church family. Take that directory. Use it. Pray for those people. It helps me, and I hope it helps you. Going on, trust in the God of the armies. Trusting the God of the armies is better than trusting in the armies. God is in control. And we don't have to worry about what others do. We need to trust in him that he's going to take care of it. Psalm 20, verse 4, may he grant you according to your heart's desire. And if you look at the psalm here, it starts off, to you I will cry, to the Lord my rock, do not be silent to me. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your holy sanctuary. It's his prayer here for victory in battle. But then in verse 4, it says, May he grant you according to your heart's desire." Now, we need to take some caution here regarding to our heart's desire. You know, our heart's desire may not be his desire. That doesn't mean he's going to answer our heart's desire. Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? And then 1 Kings 11 verse 4, So our heart may not be God's heart. And when God wants to answer the desires of our heart, I think we need to look at Philippians 2.13. God is able to work in our hearts because He causes us in our hearts to cause us to desire what is consistent with His will. Philippians 2.13, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. We need to be trusting in Him and looking to Him to be consistent, for us to be consistent in our lives, to follow and to have our hearts' desire match what He has for us. Thoughts here of Psalm 20. Yep. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I like that. The first part, the first five verses, I believe, is the basic prayer of his. And the last four verses here are his basic thanksgiving, his thanking God for what he has done. If you look at verses six through nine there, it says, blessed be the Lord, because he has heard us. The Lord is my strength. He's my shield. My heart trusted in him. I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices, and my heart greatly rejoices. Not only that my heart rejoices, but it greatly rejoices. And with my song, I will praise him. The Lord is their strength. He is the saving refuge of his anointed. And then he cries out, save your people and bless your inheritance, shepherd them, and bear them up forever. I mean, it's a powerful song. I mean, it really hits it here. So other thoughts here on Psalm 20? Yeah, Wayne. Last night, Ruth and I watched a video of a Netflix war room. Oh, yeah. And the acting is not the greatest. And the storyline is a little cheesy. And there are some things that are unrealistic. What? The aspect that we need to go through Jesus, or that we depend on Jesus for our answers, God for our answers, rather than trying to work them on our own, was really brought out in that film. Right. And Kay and I watched that here about two weeks ago, just before Ashley went back to college. She wanted to watch it. And it just, it hit me hard when I started just this section of victory, because our victory comes from God. And if we can't rely upon him in our prayer life, where can we rely upon him? That's where our faith comes from, is going to him in prayer. And it's a great illustration of we do need to stay fervent in prayer. Yeah, I really like the movie. I mean, I just think it hits home, that I am not doing what I need to do. And to me, the great illustration was the cup of coffee. Do you like lukewarm coffee or hot coffee? Now, I don't like coffee at all, but it's talking about your prayer life. Do you have a lukewarm prayer life, or is your prayer life hot? Are you really hitting the nail on the head with your prayer life? And it gave me just that exhortation that I need to pray more. Hopefully I am, so. Other thoughts? Great thoughts here. All right. Well, we'll go on to Psalm 28. Psalm 28. The key verse I have here is Psalm 28, verse 7. As we study these Psalms on victory, so often we're seeing the shield, the strength, of characteristics in these Psalms. But that's where our victory comes from. The Lord is my strength and my shield. My heart trusted in him, and I am helped. Therefore, my heart greatly rejoices. And with my song, I will praise him. Again, from Psalm 22, we see that my heart greatly rejoices. Here again in Psalm 28, my heart greatly rejoices. So rejoicing in answered prayer, How often do we thank God and tell others about and rejoice about answered prayer? You know, many times we're praying and we get answers to prayer and we say, thank you, Lord, for answered prayer. But that's the time we need to tell other people about it. God has answered my prayer. God is working. You know, you think about different times in your life. You're going through struggles, you're going through trials. God answers prayer in how much that uplifts you in that moment and spurs you and stirs you on to do more. Those trials come, you don't realize, why would God take me out of this ministry? He has something better for you. Ministries change. Your service can change. But God needs to hear our rejoicing. in our outline, sweet hour of prayer. Be persistent in prayer, in verses one and two. Look at that. To you I will cry, to the Lord my rock. Do not be silent to me. And verse two, hear the voice of my supplications when I cry to you, when I lift up my hands toward your holy sanctuary. It's his prayer here in verses one and two, excuse me, in verses one and two. But in prayer, bringing those knees to the Lord, do not take me away with the wicked, with the workers of iniquity who speak peace to the neighbors. There's a whole checklist of things that have happened. But the evil in their hearts, give them according to their deeds, according to their wickedness, according to the works of their hands. Render to them what they deserve, because they do not regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of his hands. He shall destroy them and not build them up. It's his supplication, it's his begging, it's his prayer to the Lord. But then in verse 6, blessed be the Lord. It's his praise. And it goes on through verse 9 here, because he has heard the voice of my supplication. And then verse 7, my strength, my shield, I trust in him, rejoiced, I will praise him. The Lord is their strength, He's their refuge, Savior. Did I copy something? No, that's right. I was looking at Psalm 20 and it's like it's almost the same thing here. But, I don't know, I did something wrong. All right, so praise the Lord for answered prayer. Now, when I think of sweet hour of prayer, I had to look at it. Sweet hour of prayer. Just the two verses. Now, the history here with Sweet Hour of Prayer, William Walford, 1845. I mean, we're not talking about a new hymn here. This appeared in the New York Observer, September 1845. He was born long before this. But he was a blind preacher from Coleskill, Warwickshire, England. Now, I'm thinking about blind songwriters. Fanny Crosby. And here's another one. And think about what this blind preacher wrote. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my father's throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, my soul has often found relief and oft escaped the tempter's snare by thy return, sweet hour of prayer. And then verse two, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, thy wings shall my petition bear to him whose truth and faithfulness engage the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids me seek his face, believe his word, trust his grace, I'll cast on him my every care and wait for thee, sweet hour of prayer. You know, when you're, hurting, think about those words. Blessed, sweet hour of prayer that you can come to him and pray. You know, this song could have not even been published. I was reading about this psalm, and this blind pastor, the only way that he had this song written down is he had it in his mind. He had it memorized. And someone came and talked to him, and he wrote it down. from the pastor's memory of what he had written this psalm. It could have gone forever without being published. But he wrote it down and published it here in the New York Observer. Wow. So themes of Psalm 28. We ought to be persistent in prayer even when the Lord remains silent. You ever feel like giving up when you pray because the Lord hasn't answered your prayer? It's happened to me. But are you persistent? Are you continually going to Him in prayer? We are not called to escape suffering. You know, trials come. The Lord never said we're gonna escape trials, we're never gonna escape suffering. But look at Romans 5, verses three through five. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulation. knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now, hope does not disappoint. Aren't you glad we have hope? Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given to us. We have hope. Even though we're going through the trials, we're going through suffering, we have hope. He's the victor. Victory comes through Him. God will judge us and all mankind for the works that we have done. What are we doing? Are we trying to make this place better in serving Him, in pointing people to Him? You know, it encourages me for those people that I know that probably aren't saved to really be a witness and really to help guide them to who Jesus is. You know, I have unsaved family. You know, thank the Lord I have a lot of saved family, but there's still unsaved family members, that we need to be that witness, we need to be that lighthouse, and victory will come through him. He'll answer, but we need to be persistent, even if we don't feel like he's answering, he's working. And the Lord's worked in the hearts, I was telling some folks last night, the Lord's been working in the heart of my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, they've had to go through at least four funerals this year, three of them saved family members, and those three funerals, they've heard the gospel. Now, my brother-in-law may be saved, I don't know, but they've heard the gospel, and it's actually, I think, softened their heart. The Lord's working on them. What's he gonna do with it? I don't know, but it's a witness, and the Lord brings those trials, that suffering, for a purpose and a reason. Would I want that? No, but the Lord, he's good. Thoughts here on Psalm 28. If you look at verses one and two, the emphasis there is on prayer. I call, do not be deaf, answer me. Hear the voice of my supplications when I cry. Verses three through five, emphasis on work and our endeavors, our deeds. And verse seven through eight, strength. How does it affect us at home with our family? How does it affect us at work, in our lives? How does it affect our marriages, our marriage relationships? How does it affect us at church? You know, it's a good illustration here that God needs to have first place. Needs to be our prayer. All right, let's go on then. Chapter 44. Chapter 44. The key verse I have here is verses 17 and 18. All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten you, nor have we dealt falsely with your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way. What word could we use to describe this verse? We have not forgotten you, nor have we dealt falsely with your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor our steps departed from your way. Can you think of a word that would be synonymous with these two verses? What's that? Steadfast, good word. Anyone else? Perseverance, good. What's that? Faithful. I thought of faithfulness myself. In the outline here, it's remember what God has done, remember what God is doing, and remember what God will do. Past, present, and future. The last hope, the last hope of a faithful is the faithfulness of God. Is the faithfulness of God. 2, verse 13, if we are faithless, he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself. He is faithful. And Romans 8, 38 through 39, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which we have in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is faithful. Nothing can separate us from Him. He saved us. We can save ourselves. He's my King. I need to obey Him and serve Him. Examine your heart because He knows its secrets. And Lord, teach me how to suffer for your sake. That's a tough one. Teach me how to suffer for your sake. Many times we feel like we're all alone when we suffer. But we're suffering for his sake. He is making us better. We need to realize that. Not only God is the author and finisher of our faith, but God's people may at times suffer for his sake. And I love this part. He remains faithful in his love for us. Look at chapter 44. It's a longer one. but you are my king in verse four. And then it says in verse eight, Selah, we kind of have that break there of that additional prayer here. But verse nine starts off, but you have cast us off. You do not go out with our armies. You make us turn back. Those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. You have given us up. You have scattered us, you sell your people. Verse 13, you make us a reproach, a scorn and a derision. You make us a byword, a shaking of the head, my dishonor and the shame in verse 15. But you know, those times where we feel like he's left us, verse 17 starts it. All this has come to us, but we have not forgotten you. When we feel like he's given up on us and we're all alone, we're reproached, we're scorned for what we believe in, we have not forgotten you, we have not dealt falsely with your covenant. Our heart is not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way. Verse 20, if I had forgotten the name of the Lord or stretched out our hands to a foreign God, would not God search us out? For he knows the secret of our heart. Teach me to suffer there. And verses 23 through 26, awake. Why do you sleep, O Lord? Arise, do not cast us off forever. And then this is his fervent prayer. For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the ground. Arise for our help and redeem us for your mercy's sake. A fervent prayer that the Lord will take care of him. We need to come humbly before him. So thoughts here on chapter 44. Yeah, Wayne. Everything that we have is because of what God, because of the character of God, not anything we have. So praise the Lord for that. And you know, I hope that's kind of what we're looking at here when we do this kind of topical study, is that we're seeing the theme throughout Psalms. And I'm seeing it over and over. And I hope you are too as you study these, because it really hits me harder. Because as you read them through, and yeah, there's great, great emphasis in reading through them sequentially. But I think in this topical, it's given us a little different perspective. And I'm really enjoying it myself. So other thoughts? Yeah, Chuck. Right. Amen. You know, it's a great encouragement for us that whatever we may go through, He's with us, He's faithful. Other thoughts here? Psalm 44. You know, that might be something to do, is read Psalm, this week, read Psalm 44 and Romans 8 together, and actually see that combined together. You know, there's, there's a lot of extra study we can keep doing, you know, and that's an encouragement for us, you know, that we don't, we don't rely upon just one chapter, that it all works together. So, you know. All right, let's look at Psalm 46. Psalm 46. A couple of key verses here. Again, we have that theme. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. He's our refuge, He's our strength. That's where our victory lies. And the familiar section here of Psalm 46, verses 10 and 11. Be still and know that I am God. He will be exalted among the nations. He will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob, the God of gods, the M that I am, is our fortress. Our fortress. I was thinking of Hamilton's song that he wrote, Be still and know that I am God. In the stillness of this moment, in the darkness of this night, I can hear a voice so tender, I can see a wondrous light. In the stillness of this moment, heaven's glory I can see. Shining forth in brilliant splendor, God's creation speaks to me. And then the chorus, be still and know that I am God. Be still and know I am God. Come find your strength in a quiet place. Be still and know. You know, we just need to listen to him. Do you find solitude in the quiet places? You know, with our lives, so many times, we're too busy to just stop and slow down and listen. Kay and I were talking this morning here about Hawaii. Her doctor's coming back from Hawaii, and Kay spent, her birthday's this week, by the way, she spent 20 birthdays, 20 birthdays in Hawaii through her doctor's meetings, and she was able to go. That was a blessing in that. But you know, he said, man, we were busy back then. Well, we're busy now. But we need to just slow down and listen and hear what he has for us. In the stillness of that moment, quietness, listen to what God has for us. Read his word, study. Go into that prayer closet. Pray, read his word. That's where we find it. So thoughts here. I still have more, but thoughts. A mighty fortress is our God is the theme here of this chapter here that I have in the outline. God's protection. He's our refuge and our strength. Well, with a mighty fortress is our God, I couldn't stop without looking at that. Now, remember, a mighty fortress is our God. It was written in German. written in German. So there's two different translations that I found here for just that hymn. This is just the first verse. But of course, we're familiar with, a mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing, a helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing. For still our ancient foe does seek to work us woe, his craft and power of great, an arm with cruel hate on earth is not as equal. The alternate translation, a mighty fortress is our God, a trusty shield and weapon. He helps us free from every need that hath us now o'ertaken. The old evil foe now means deadly woe, deep guile and great mighty. are his dreaded arms in flight on earth is not as equal. And, you know, there are other things, you know, if I didn't have time to print out the whole thing and put it on the screen, you know, we could spend all day looking at that part of it. But, you know, take some time and look at those types of things because, you know, our hymns that we sing, they're not only based on God's word, but they have, they're not old. We're talking the 1800s, 1850s, where these hymns were written. Some in English, some in German, some... But God has worked over the years to bring us songs that really have deep meaning. Great, a mighty fortress is our God. We can find confidence in the Lord even when all creation is in upheaval. we can find confidence in him. Think about that, a very present help in trouble, in verse one. He's a very present help in trouble. He can be found when he's needed. Thank you for being our help when you're needed. We praise you for being with us and for us. Look at verse seven. The Lord of hosts is with us. Uh-oh. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Verse 11. The Lord of hosts is with us. Oh, did you hear that before? Look at verse seven, verse nine, verse 11. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. The M that I am. Help me to know him. Help me to know that you are God. Verse 10, be still and know. and be exalted, O God, in verse 10. God is with us. He is our true security at all times. He's with us. Do we remember that? Going through the trials, are we trying to do it on our own? I was listening to Charles Stanley, and I don't turn Charles Stanley on too often in the morning. I'm usually busy working on my Sunday school lesson, but I just happened to turn him on this morning. And he's talking about that somebody interviewed for a job there with him. He said, I am the man you need. I can do anything. Whatever task you have, I can do it. And he used to say he didn't hire him. Because this guy was so proud that he needed to realize that he needs to trust the Lord. He can't do it all. His hope needs to be in him. And so I thought that was a neat illustration. Then, of course, I got that and I turned off the TV and just happened to catch that. And I'm going, you know, we need to be humble before the Lord. We can't do it all. We need to trust in Him. It's those times when we think that we can do it all that we aren't trusting in Him, that I can do it on my own. Thoughts here on Psalm 46. Be still and know that I am God. Thoughts? All right. Well, we'll get into Psalm 59. Got just a few minutes. I don't know how far we'll get into this one. We may have to pick up with this one next week. But Psalm 59. Verse 16, but I will sing of your power. Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning. For you have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. We have that theme again with his refuge, the stronghold, the strength. But look at that verse, the middle of this verse. Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy. Wayne, what does your Bible have for mercy there? What word? Verse 16? You know, think about just between two verses, I mean, the same theme is throughout. The stronghold, loving kindness, mercy, refuge, strength, power. That's what God is. But yet we don't rely upon Him. Victory comes through that power. You know, all these psalms we're looking at, and we've got more next week, and we'll probably have two more weeks here of just looking at victory-type psalms. But His strength is what we need to rely upon. He's our stronghold, He's our refuge. And we don't go to Him. How much more power could we have if we trusted in Him? So the theme here, God is my stronghold, interesting outline, who let the dogs out here, from 1 Samuel 19, if we go back to 1 Samuel 19, speaks of the dogs, in that particular chapter coming after him. But let's look at the actual keys here. Verses 1 and 2. Deliver me from my enemies, O my God. Defend me from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloodthirsty men. You know, we need to pray that God keeps us safe from criminals and those who want to harm me and my family. You know, they're out there. You know, are we praying for safety? I don't know if you do this, but every time we go on a trip, we always pray to the Lord to ask for safety. You know, it's astounding all the things that could happen, but the Lord protects us. Now, we have a flat tire on the way. Does that mean the Lord isn't protecting us? No, He may just be delaying us enough to keep us out of a worse accident. Who knows? The Lord's in control. We need to thank Him for those hardships. Thank Him for the things that come our way. You can stop at a gas station, that little extra minute that the wife has to take to go to the restroom. Let me tell you, I've stopped many times. But the blessings come there because the Lord may be preventing something further down the road. You don't know. Thank Him for what He does. Keep you safe from criminals. You know, there are people out there that want to hurt us. And if you do any driving in Chicago, there are some streets you don't want to drive down, just because it could happen right in broad daylight. But the Lord will keep us safe. Come quickly to bring a final judgment upon the nations. Look at verse five. You therefore, O Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations. Do not be merciful to any wicked transgressors. Give them what they deserve. That's the theme here many times, is that the Lord, we want him to protect us, but those that are out to hurt us, Lord, give them what they deserve. Thank you for being steadfast and loving and loyal to me. Verse 10, my God of mercy shall come out to meet me. He shall let us see my desire on my enemies. He's steadfast, he's loyal. Then look at verse 13. Oh Lord, may all the earth know that you are king. Consume me from the wrath, consume them that they may not be and let them know that God rules in Jacob to the ends of the earth. And then verse 17, oh God, how I praise you for being my strength and my refuge. To you, oh my strength, I will sing praises. For God is my defense, my God of mercy, loving kindness, steadfastness. Thoughts here on Psalm 59. Gives us great admonition that victory comes through Him. And we need to know where that lies and go to Him. The answer may not come right away, He may be silent. But we need to be persistent and pray and seek His face, because He's merciful and steadfast and loving and kind. Any thoughts? All right, well, we'll pick up here next week. I think we start off Psalm 61, I think, is the next one that we look at. Thank you, folks. Appreciate everything, all the comments. And I hope you're enjoying and really getting a lot from Psalms. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, that you are our rock, our shield, our fortress. Thank you for the mighty fortress that we have in you. And Lord, thank you for a sweet hour of prayer. Lord, help us to be more diligent in our prayer life. Help us to come before you with our not only needs, but thankfulness and petitions and love and thank you for everything that you do. Just pray that you'll be with the morning service and our time of worship together. As pastor brings forth your word, help us to love you and glean from it the principles and precepts that you'd have for us this morning. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.