I'm going to read the word of God this morning from Psalm chapter 119, not the whole chapter, verses 25 to 32. Psalm 119, verses 25 to 32. This is the word of the Lord. My soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your word. When I told of my ways, you answered me. Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. My soul melts away for sorrow. Strengthen me according to your word. Put false ways far from me. And graciously, teach me your law. I have chosen the way of faithfulness. I set your rules before me. I cling to your testimonies, O Lord. Let me not be put to shame. I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. Amen. Let's pray. Our Lord and God, our Father, You are great in your majesty. You are merciful, Lord, in guiding your people. And we pray this morning, now as we've heard your word read and we're to hear it preached, that as we sit under your word, Lord, that it would be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, that you would teach us your way, that you would guide us as we sojourn here in this world awaiting the coming of our King, Lord, that we may indeed know the way of blessedness, that we might walk in the way of Christ. We ask these things in his name, amen. This passage from Psalm 119, I think, even with its first line, my soul clings to the dust, is a vivid and a strong reminder of how often not only the people of God suffer afflictions and hardship, but also in its instruction to us how often the Lord in his great mercies uses those hardships and uses that affliction We say often for our good, but here specifically to lead us to prayer, that his people would be a prayerful people. When we cry out, my soul clings to dust. How quickly does that change posture of our hearts to cry out to the Lord? My soul clings to the dust. Lord, help me. Now you might think as we turn now to Psalm 119.28 that I've cheated a little bit because I've now cherry-picked a passage in Psalm 119. It's like opening up the book into the middle and saying, here, let's just talk about this. Well, in one sense, that might be true. But in another sense, it's not. You see, Psalm 119, it's one psalm. It has a beautiful unity to it. We'll see some of the way the poetry works. But each of the stanzas, each of the eight verses that are dealt with, just have so much meat for us, so much to meditate upon, so much for us to feed upon, that it's quite appropriate to take one section and to meditate upon it. So it's not like opening up into the middle of a textbook and try to just figure out what's going on. It's like opening up to the middle of a pop-up book. I think, where there's a lot going on on each page and you need to take out the details and you need to see the layers and you need to see how everything is constructed. But this, this aspect of Psalm 119 is just a wonderful encouragement for the soul that is downcast as it brings us from clinging to dust to clinging to the testimonies of God. You see, Psalm 119, even as a whole, is so devotional in that it teaches us. It teaches us really two things broadly. It teaches us to pray. And then it teaches us how to pray. Those are two different things, because we need to be reminded sometimes, perhaps oftentimes, to pray. Because we worship a sovereign God, and we need to be reminded sometimes our sovereign God has not only commanded us to pray, but that he's appointed prayer for his people as the means by which we receive so much of his mercies and his grace. James Buchanan wrote this, and I thought it was really helpful, that when a Christian is in the throes of difficulty, when a Christian is in the throes of threats, when the Christian is in the throes of a painful bereavement, the Christian Should he so far forget his duty and his privilege as to omit prayer, that after the event has occurred, he must, if he reflect at all, be distressed by the thought that prayer might have been the appointed means for all he knows of averting that heavy calamity, and that having omitted the use of that means, he is now reaping the bitter fruit of his own negligence? Now I hope you hear that two different ways and when I say I hope you hear that, I sit under this too and need to be reminded so often that prayer is really powerful because God really does answer the prayers of his people. And you can hear it as an admonishment, maybe we do need to hear it as go to the Lord in prayer. Go to the Lord with all things in prayer, but also hear in that. Prayer is a means of grace to you, that God has given to you, that you have a high priest that pleads before the Father for you, that prayer is powerful, and we're reminded even here, my soul clings to thus, in the end, I will run in the way of your commandments. It teaches us to pray, and you see the progression in the psalm. It also teaches us how to pray according to the word of God. You see, we go to the Lord in prayer and we pray according to his word. Well, yes, according to the word because it's true, but not only because it's true, but because it's our guide. Not only because it's true and it's our guide, but God's word here is that his commandments are revitalizing to us. They give us life. They strengthen us. He strengthens us through it. Though we are weak, though we are weary, that we are weeping, that we are wrestling. You see, in this passage, our Savior leads us to pasture. He leads us to pasture to cry out for life because there is life according to God's word. And so, this morning, we need to cling to his testimonies. By the light of his word, he lays bare our own hearts, doesn't he? And as he reveals to us our own ways, right, how many there are, he says, as I told the Lord my ways, we wander to and fro. He tells us to forsake those ways and to learn instead his way. And he graciously teaches it to us. It is the Lord who we look to for help, and it is God. It is the Lord. It is your God who will lift you up, who will give you life, who will strengthen you, who will not put you to shame. See, there is, we read it, there's pain in this psalm. To say my soul melts away for sorrow. There's pain, but there is a magnificent confidence as we come to verse 32. I will run. I will run when you enlarge or when you set my heart free. So we learn to pray and then we are encouraged to then set God's rules before us and choose this day the way of faithfulness. Now Psalm 19 is set up this way just so we know where we stand. The first stanza, you know, it's an acrostic and all that means is that each section, it's tightly knit together because each section begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. So there's Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet. We're in Dalet, we're in the fourth. The first stanza And each line in that begins with that letter. It's a beautiful structure to it. That's why I say it is one psalm, and you can read it all together. But the first stanza in Psalm 119 teaches us that those are blessed whose ways are blameless who walk in the way of the Lord. The second stanza speaks to us, how do we keep our way pure by guarding it according to the word of God? The third section teaches us, it speaks to us of crying out to the Lord as a people who sojourn in this world. As a people who are not of this world, you see, and then here. In Dalit, in 25 to 32, we see that there is life according to the word of God. And really the theme of this section is the way, the way of God. We need to meditate upon it. The word way in Hebrew begins with dalet, da, da, da, da, so it goes all the way down and each line has a heading to it and then it's followed by the way of, the way of, new heading, the way of, the way of, new heading, the way. I will run in the way. But way, it's said five times here in eight short verses and it's always qualified. But that's important to notice. The way is always qualified, not just a way, it's the way. And in verse 26, he talks about laying my ways before the Lord, declaring my ways before the Lord. And he answered me and he asks that the Lord would teach him the way, to understand the way of his precepts. Verses 29 and 30 go together where the psalmist prays that the Lord would put the way of falsehood or the way of lying far from him. and says that he has chosen the way of faithfulness, or the way of truth. And verse 32, he says that he will run, not simply in a way, the way of your commandments. And the headings that they have, verse 25 gives us three postures I think are helpful, because that's how we're gonna look at this psalm this morning. Three postures, in the beginning he says, my soul clings to dust. The first posture is a clinging to dust. The next posture is, my soul melts, or literally the word to be my soul drops. And the third, and that's in verse 28, the third, 31, my soul melts. I cling to your testimonies. There's clinging on both sides of going to the Lord. And he makes seven petitions of the Lord, and we learn here now how to pray. He prays broadly for life and for strength and for the Lord's grace. He says, give me life according to your word, and teach me, because I need to be taught. Teach me your statutes. And here, not only teach me your statutes, make me understand the way of your precepts, and strengthen me. according to your word. The lying way, put it away. Put it away from me, Lord. And then graciously grant me your law. And finally, he prays to the Lord as one who's chosen the way of faith. And he says, Lord, don't put me to shame. Don't put me to shame. So we learn as we are praying, I think it's helpful to learn from Psalm 119, 25 to 32, I think it teaches us a posture of progress for the perseverance through prayer. A posture of progress to the perseverance through prayer. And I worded it that way because I almost said it's a progress of postures. of multiple postures because we worked through, but I think the whole time you see the posture of the prayer, you see the posture of the psalmist before the Lord, it is crying out, it is bending the knee before the Lord, and it is the Lord who is lifting him up. This is the posture of perseverance to progress through is to cling to the word of God. So the first thing that we can learn here comes to us from verses 25 to 27. My soul clings to the dust. Give me life according to your word. When I told of my ways, you answered me. Teach me your statutes. Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wondrous works. First thing we need to know is that when your soul clings to dust, because it will, and perhaps it is this morning, Perhaps your body is up and rolling, and you're able to carry on, or you're in good circumstances, but there are times our soul clings to the dust. When your soul clings to dust, pray for life, because there is life, and it is according to the word of God. It is according to what God has already said, you see. Pray for life. God has promised it. This is the gospel to us, isn't it? Give me life, Lord, according to your word. It's not a naked and a general request for life, you see. We learn even from that. He doesn't cry out simply, give me life. He pleads on account of God's word in accordance with your word, Lord. Give me life according to what you yourself have said. We need to ask ourselves this morning, is this how you go to the Lord? When you pray for life, when you pray for Him to uphold you, is it according to His own word? It's a strong plea. We go to the Lord this way because there is help from the Lord. And you see this image that he gives us of the soul clinging to dust. And I've tried to picture what this would look like. And my first thought was, well, dust blows around. So you kind of are trying to grasp around at dust. And then I thought, I've never seen anybody do that in my life. I don't think that's what clinging to dust looks like. I think when you think of clinging to the dust, you are on your knees. My soul clings to dust is a posture of being downtrodden, is a posture of, nobody wants to be clinging to the dust. Clinging to the dust is grappling along with the ground because you're on the ground. And the image is a deep one because we know that dust, dust is, it recalls to us the curse in the garden. From dust you are to dust you will return and it's an image of despair. All go to one place, all come from dust and to dust return, Ecclesiastes 3.20. And then I thought, well, that's true. Our frames, we thank the Lord because the Lord remembers that our frames are dust. and dust is dried and blown around, and well, maybe we're dusty in that way, but he doesn't say that I am dust here, does he? He says, I'm clinging, my soul is clinging to the dust. It means he's down on the ground, and it could mean, I've heard some say, you know, you think of the dust, he's clinging to worldly things, and that's quite possible. I think however you take it, You need to take it as it is an expression of clinging to the ground because of the curse that is in view. And the posture then is one, when we come to the Lord with a soul that is defeated or overwhelmed or feeling cast down, what is our need? Our need then is, Lord, I tell you of this, but I need you to lift me up because I don't have it in myself to lift myself up. I can't pull my soul up by the soul's bootstraps and make it stand. Lord, give me life because apart from you, I will perish. That's the state that we're brought before the Lord in prayer. We need to think about prayer that way. It's not simply a privilege. It's not simply a benefit. It is an absolute necessity. And it's powerful because the Lord hears the prayers of His people for those who come to Him in Christ Jesus. And He does lift up His people. As Hannah sings in 1 Samuel 2, He raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. Psalm 3, 2 and 3, many say of me, God will not deliver him. Sometimes we fear that ourselves. But you, O Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the one who lifts my head high. Thank God. Now how do we go to the Lord when we feel so downcast though? or we feel like our soul is clinging to the dust, we're asking for life according to the word. Look at this, look at this privilege that we have in verse 26. He says, when I told of my ways, you answered me. Teach me your statutes. You see the timing of that. When I told of my ways, you answered me. So how do you apply that? When you go to the Lord in prayer, when you're feeling, tell the Lord of your ways. Go to Him. Tell Him. Well, I don't wanna say those things. God already knows, but go to him. Tell him of your ways, and you see that it is plural. He's laying his ways before the Lord, and it's compared to him asking the Lord to teach me your statutes, and ultimately to make me understand the singular way of God. Well, what are our ways? Think about it for a minute. The ways that we go down, the ways that we travel, What, confusion, because we don't understand why things are the way they are? Weakness, because we know how little we control in this world. Weary, because we trod on and on. Doubtful, wandering, backbiting for our own protection. Critical, unforgiving, violent, selfish, foolish, unfeeling, checked out. any way but Christ sometimes, any way but the way of the cross, any way but the way of faith, any way but the one where we do not rely upon ourselves, and the list can go on forever, can't it? Our ways, the ways that we are tempted to, the ways that we sometimes find ourselves in, the ways that we repent of, We are to tell God of our ways and ask for life. Tell God, Lord, these are my ways, but I know your way must become my way. Teach me your way, Lord. Teach me your statutes. See the grace in that. It's singular. You're not chasing around the many ways of God. Way of God. And he does teach us. He will show you his way. Teach me your statutes. And that's an important part of the prayer, too. I think it was Calvin that commented this. This one, I think, just, it hit me right between the eyes. Here it is. There are not a few who would make known their desires unto God, but then they would that he would yield to their extravagant passions. And what he's saying, it's a little older English, is there are many people that want to tell God how they feel about things, but to turn around then and say, teach me your statutes, is to say, Lord, I don't just want you to bow to my desires, but what my prayer to you is, is the offering up of my own desires to you. You see, saying, Lord, give me life according to your word, not according to what I think will give me life. Give me life according to your mercies, according to your strength. According to what you have promised, you see, we yield our desires by faith knowing that God's way is perfect and that it is a light unto our path. And that in it alone, we come back to that first verse, is life. Do you want life? It's in the word of God, it's in the way of God, the way that God has offered to us. It's in Christ Jesus. And it comes, this is wonderful, it comes coordinated with this. Teach me your statutes. And you think maybe he's just repeating himself when he says, make me understand the way of your precepts. The way, singular, of your precepts. Many, wait a second. Isn't that, though, if you think about it for a moment, what we long for? In one sense, you can read and you say, I understand this is what God has commanded, and then you go outside and you're like, wait a second, how was I supposed to apply that? How did that have to do with how I was working? How did that have to do with my interaction at the grocery store? How did that have to do with how I was treating my younger brother or my older sister? How did that have to do with how I relate to my parents? How does this have to do with how I relate to my children? Where is that? Lord, make me understand the way of your precepts. How do I apply them? How do I walk by them? Give me wisdom to understand. And we can plead with him as our father. Teach us because we need that kind of wisdom. We need that kind of understanding. And the Lord gives it. Doesn't he give wisdom to those who ask for it? Let's make sure that we are asking for it. And when you read the scriptures, when you are learning the statutes of God, are you praying as you do that? Are you seeking the Lord to light the way? Because you need his help. Pray. and he will answer. And look how he finishes this, he says, he glorifies the Lord, he says, I will meditate, or I will give thanksgiving and praise as I meditate on your wonders. And the wonders, it's a little unclear what it's referring to, whether it's God's works or God's revelation, and I don't see a real reason to divide them. As we understand the way of God, It is to God's own glory, because we will, because they are good. We will meditate upon them. We must meditate upon them. And as we do, we will glorify the Lord. We will give thanksgiving and praise. So when your soul clings to the dust, cry out to the Lord for life according to his word. He will answer. When your soul, this next portion, next posture, melts away for sorrow, pray for strength. Why? There'll be a similar answer. Because there is strength. There is strength to be had and it's not your own. That's why you need to ask for it. There is strength that comes from God. That's why you pray to him for it. My soul melts away for sorrow. Literally, my soul drops or pours out. I think of that, we use in English, my stomach dropped in that moment. Right? My soul drops for sorrow, for regret, for remorse, for guilt, maybe. But also, as he's going to look, he says, put false ways far from me. My soul can drop because of my own self-condemnation when I don't take hold of the gospel and I feel the guilt and I don't look to Christ. Or my soul drops because of hopelessness because I see the situation around me and I don't look to the cross and I don't look to Jesus. Despair, loathing, my soul melts, drops for sorrow. We're reminded when that is happening, cry out to the Lord. Ask for strength because there is strength according to the word of God, according to what he testifies to you about himself and about his relationship to you. And you see here that the view now shifts a little bit more specifically towards sin. He says, first he's presented his ways before the Lord, and now he prays to the Lord. He says, put false ways far from me. And literally what that means, put the lying way, put the lying way away from me. And the first thing that we need to note from that too, excuse me, is that away from me, it literally means make it depart from me. Now you see how that's a little bit different? Because away from me we can think, yes, those lying ways that are outside of me, that will press in on me, those certainly exist. But what he prays is much more nuclear to that. It's much more central. He says, take the lying way and make it depart from me. Make it depart from me. And so we're praying that we'll be strengthened as we confess, strengthened according to the word of God, because there is no help apart from it, but there is help in it. So we're not to be, we will find our ways, I think, in the pilgrim's progress. He writes about the slough of despond, and John Bunyan, he's a master of the image there, and later he comments that many a sermon has been preached into that slough, and it just kind of gets lost, that we can get caught up in that. But who helps, now I've given the answer away, who helps Christian when he falls into it? It's help, that's the name of the character, it's help. What we're learning here is when our soul drops for sorrow, cry out to the Lord for strength. Cry out to him for life because there is strength according to his word. There is help because he's promised to help you. He's promised to do that, and he will lift you up. So we can apply that. We confess, we ask that he put the lying way, the false way, far from us. It means that we confess our sins to God, but also that we acknowledge our own sinfulness to God, that these are ways that creep up from within us. And again, we are praying to him, Lord, make your way my way. Make your faithful ways my way. Make your ways the true way. Make it my way. I need to be changed. and we need to take heart because of the gospel. And here, again, James Buchanan writes, wonderful, let no sufferer be debarred from the throne of grace because he is in doubt as to the spirituality of his affections or feelings or depressed by a sense of guilt. Let him remember that as a sinner, he is invited and that his present affliction is designed to induce him to pray. As a sinner, you are invited to call out for mercy in the name of Jesus. As a child of God, you are being induced to pray, to call out to your Father for help because He will help you. So when you cry out for grace, you're asking for the Lord to put that away from you. And what's He pray positively? He's praying for grace. Graciously, grant it to me. Graciously, teach me your law. You see, he's asking for the grace to learn what is the law of God, that the Lord would take that law, that holy law, he's acknowledged, this is the way of God I need to learn. Lord, write that on my heart. Write that on my heart so that that then dictates who I am, Lord. We long for holiness, and so we pray that the Lord would graciously grant us his law, that we might grow into conformity with him. Third, we need to note on them that we choose very Calvinistic languages. Verse 30, I have chosen the way of faithfulness. I set your rules before me. You see, the activity then shifts. Lord, put the false way from me. I have chosen the way of faithfulness. I have set your rules before me. You see, that part's not simply a request. That is a decision. That's a decision that we must make. That is a commitment that we must live in. Have you chosen the way of faithfulness? Yes, I know that you cannot do that apart from the previous work of grace. That's in God's electing grace. Question is, what evidence is there? Have you done that? Have you chosen the way of faithfulness? Are you setting before yourself the rules of God? Have you owned that? because that is what we're called to do. We set God's rules before them. We hide them in our heart that we might not sin against God because it is God's word that is changing us. The spirit works with the word to change us. Praise the Lord. This is how Psalm 119 tells us we keep our way pure. This is what the psalmist tells us is the light to our path. How will you walk? According to your word, you need to know it. This is the way of blessedness. So we need to walk in it. And finally, in that, you need to then disown. As you are praying to the Lord, we learn to disown the false ways. Some of them we can like sometimes. Some of them are easier. And we need to hold them up to the holiness of the Lord and disown them and say, these are wrong. Lord, make your way my way. Purge me of it and teach me your way. So when your soul drops or melts for sorrow, pray for strength because there is strength according to the word of God. Third, if you cling to God's testimonies, here he says, 31, I cling to your testimonies, you will not be put to shame. Now, isn't that something you need to hear when you're casting yourself upon the promises of God? Lord, I cling to your testimonies. You see, that's a different word too. I cling to the things that you've told me. Don't let me be put to shame because if I'm clinging to those things, what happens if they give way? There's the fear. But God is trustworthy. I think of it in terms, I used to read this children's book, I'm sure none of you have read, it's called Puña and the King of Sharks. I loved it so much I tried to change my name to Puña. But he's a Hawaiian, but he's a lobsterman too, and he's tricking these sharks to get lobsters from their cave, and at one time he's running from a shark, and he has to jump up, and he holds on, he's over the water, holding on to a tree branch. And if that tree branch breaks, he's going to fall right into the jaws of the shark. Well, the tree branch breaks, but that's not the word of God. The word of God isn't a breaking tree branch. It's more like what you think is called the Black Drop Tower somewhere, that they have, you go up stories and stories and stories and stories, and then there's a glass floor, and it's called the Walk of Faith, right? You walk out on it, will it hold you up? And it's something like that, because we cling to the testimonies of God. but you walk out on it and they are firmly secure. They're firmly secure because God's word is true and we're called then not to put one foot but to put our full weight on the promises of God. And the temptation for us is to think that one foot is good because the temptation is to think it's actually a little bit more dangerous to put my full weight on what God has testified to. It's too dangerous for me to do that. I either want to do it halfway or not at all. And what the Lord has testified to us is actually the only dangerous place to stand is anywhere but the promises of God. You stand and you cling to the testimonies of God that what he has testified to you to be your deliverer, to be your God, to be your savior, to be your life, to be your strength. And you stand because that is the only thing you can stand on. And that is the only thing that will stand through everything. It's the power of God. and we're called to walk by faith. That's what we go back and back, but not silence, not to God's silence, but to what he testifies to. Isn't that gracious to us? God proves himself to be true, but here we need to be reminded not only of how we must cling to those testimonies, that third posture that we have here, but the strength of the petition. the strength of the petition to cry out to the Lord. I cling to your testimonies, you see in there he names God. I cling to your testimonies, oh Lord, let me not be put to shame. And it could be translated also, don't put me to shame. In other words, Lord, I'm tied up with what you've said. I'm tied up with what you've said. I bear your name, Lord, don't put me to shame. Don't let me be put to shame. This is, in Numbers 6, this is how the priests were instructed to bless the Israelites, to say, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. We're familiar with that. So they will put my name on the Israelites and I will bless them. When you go before the Lord according to his testimonies, remember, he will not deny you, because he cannot deny himself. You cry out to the Lord to keep his own word, and he will, and he'll give you life, and he'll give you strength, and he'll teach you his way. Fourthly, and finally here, we see When God, love that, when God enlarges your heart, you will run in his commandments. Praise Lord, don't let me be put to shame. And here he ends, I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. When God acts, this soul that was clinging to the dust, this soul will run. He doesn't say, I will then get up and trod along. You see? He says, I'll run. That's uninhibited. I'll run. That's freedom. And that's literally the enlargement of the heart. You can think two different ways about it. The enlargement is the expanding, the Grinch, you know? Grinch stole Christmas. His heart was two sizes too small. Ultimately grows three sizes bigger. Needs to see a cardiologist one way or the other. But when the Lord does something to your heart that was not there before, either enlarging it or setting it free or putting it in wide places. See the confidence too? Not so that I might run, I will run. I will run. So we need to have this hope according to the word of God, what he's testified to, so that we persevere. But we also see that it is the word of God and the work of God that will prove to be our vitality, that will prove to be our life, And we will run wholly unhindered. It shows us, it reminds us of the power of prayer. Remember that when you go to the Almighty God, that is powerful. He does answer. The power of your God. Remember who the God is that you pray to. And his provision for you to persevere is to go before him continually and to pray for life and strength. Because God will lift you up. God, the Lord, is my strength, Habakkuk prays. He makes my feet like the deer's. He makes me tread on high places. What a hope. your soul's clinging to dust, the Lord will lift you up. Pray, pray that he will. And you see also, he says, to run in your commandments. And it comes full circle once again. It's not simply that the Lord lifts us up. You remember, we are learning to pray, Lord, I presented my ways before you, and now, Lord, please put false ways from me. But he also says, teach me your statutes, teach me these things. God will put those false ways from you. He says, I will run in your commandments. You will be holy. You will be if you're trusting in Jesus. He's working in you, and you need to know that. You need to be encouraged in that. Struggling with sin? Go to the Lord. He is working in you. You will be holy. Don't lose heart. For when the Lord does enlarge your heart, you will run in the way of His commandments. So cry out to Him. and choose the way of faithfulness even this day. Cling to his testimony, because this is the progress of, or excuse me, the posture of progress as we persevere through prayer. Our soul does cling to the dust. Cry out to the Lord. Cry out to him for life and strength and sorrow, but trust that the Lord will lift you up according to his power and according to his word. Let us be found looking to him this day, amen. Our Father in heaven, we do give thanks to you for your mercies to us. We do acknowledge, Lord, and we confess how many ways we are prone to wander down, how many ways well up within us. We do ask that you would put these ways far from us, Lord, continue to teach us your law, continue to conform us into the image of Christ. Lord, be with us now as we go. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. If you'll turn with me in your hymnal, as we respond to the Lord in worship, to hymn number 519. Hymn number 519, I ask the Lord that I might grow in faith and love and every grace. Might more of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face. Please stand with me as we sing.