fun psalms, I think. And that is, I've had the congregation at times, you read one, you read the first sentence of each verse, and then the congregation comes back with His mercy endures forever. And this is what they would do back in the time of Ezra, probably when this was written, whenever they would have these feasts. And this is one of the great Halil psalms, that the rabbi shall, the Halil psalm, or praise psalms. What's that? You want to try that? Okay. As we start reading this. And so I read one, I'll read the section and then you can repeat it back to me. But so, well, let's go ahead and do it. Then we'll explain from there. Psalm 136. Okay. Oh, get thanks to the Lord for he is good. For his mercy endures forever. O give thanks to the Lord, God of gods, for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endureth forever. To him who alone does great wonders, for his mercy endures forever. To him who by wisdom made the heavens, for his mercy endureth forever. To him who laid out the earth above the waters, For his mercy endures forever. To him who made the great lights, for his mercy endures forever. The sun to rule by day, for his mercy endures forever. The moon and stars to rule by night, for his mercy endures forever. To him who struck Egypt in their firstborn, for his mercy endures forever. And brought out Israel among them, for His mercy endures forever. With strong hand and with an outstretched arm, for His mercy endures forever. To Him who divided the Red Sea in two, for His mercy endures forever. And made Israel pass through it, through the midst of it. His mercy endures forever. But overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea, for his mercy endures forever. To him who led his people through the wilderness, for his mercy endures forever. To him who struck down great kings, for his mercy endures forever, and slew famous kings for his mercy endures forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his mercy endures forever. Enag, king of Bashan, for his mercy endures forever, and gave their land as an heritage for his mercy endures forever. A heritage to Israel, his servant, for his mercy endures forever. who remembered us in our lowly estate, for His mercy endures forever, and rescued us from our enemies, for His mercy endures forever, who gives food to all flesh, for His mercy endures forever, Oh, give thanks to the God of heaven for his mercy endures forever. And so you can imagine I in one time I did that earlier in my ministry and I had someone thinking we were turning Pentecostal or whatever. But no, this is this is the way they would do. And of course, this was a responsive reading, if you want to call it that, where the priest that these these feasts would stand and they would read such as this. And of course, this was used at Solomon's dedication of the temple, at least this phrase for his mercy endures forever. It was used at other times. But we see now that we think because of that last verse where it says, oh, give thanks to the God of heaven. That was a common phrase that Ezra and Nehemiah used during the time of the rebuilding of the temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the walls. And of course, Daniel was a contemporary or close to a contemporary of those people, and he also used it. In your notes there, you'll see that I put most of, if not all of the references, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel. But the word mercy, as it's used here, some translations will say love, but the word hesed, it's used 248 times in the Old Testament. It means, it's translated mercy, loving kindness, kindness, tender mercies, faithfulness. It's difficult to know how exactly how to, there's no one word, let's put it that way, that will translate this word. Some people call it covenant love, which is, in other words, when God says he loves you, he loves you forever. Well, that's true, but too many people get into the covenant and they make it almost like God's legally bound to love you. Well, no, it carries a great emotion to it also. God has tender mercies. He has loyal love. God cares for his creation. And so as a result of that, we see that it's, as we said, it's one of the most prominent words in all the Old Testament, mercy of God. It's different than agape, which is he loves and he gives. But the idea of the tender mercies is that yes, God is great and God is good. We'll see that in a moment. But he could, in his greatness, decide to really hurt you. but because of his great love for you, he overlooks many things, or at least he withholds his wrath for many things. Again, I'll use that illustration, the best one I've ever had in my ministry, was I used this word as a word study, one Wednesday night, as we're almost doing here, and I had a lady come up to me later on And we were talking about how that you love people and you love children in spite of what they do. It's not that you're holding back wrath, which does have a tinge of that in here, but it's the idea of that you love them in spite of that. And even when you punish them, it's because you love them. And you remember the story I've given several times, but it's the best one I have. And that is a lady come up to me later on and she had almost tears in her eyes. And she said, last week you were talking about this loyal love. And I went home. And my little boy left his socks and his underwear and everything else on the middle of his bedroom and he was at school. And I went in and I picked him up and started crying. I said, I don't care how many times this little booger, she said, this little booger disobeys me, I love him. And so she got the idea of mercy, loyal love, the idea that no matter how many times she had to tell him, no matter what she did, She loved her son. Well, that's the idea of mercy. It's yes, you might have to punish. Yes, there's whatever God does is always good. It's always in love. And that's what, as we said, Sunday morning. We see in the New Testament that God is spirit and that you that worship him must worship in spirit and truth. He is, God is light. And as a result, there's no darkness at all. He's perfect. God is love. And so we know that's ultimate agape love it gives. And then, of course, God is consuming fire. He's strong. And yes, he loves, but he is also firm. And so we see that in the New Testament. Here we see, of course, we'll see God is great. God is good. And these passages that we're looking at now tonight. And so in the Old Testament, God is, you know, we must believe that he is. He is who he says he is in the Bible and is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. And so we see now, as we begin, that the rabbis call this a haleel song. That means praise. It's important. And you'll see in this that it's important for God's people to know their history, to know what God has done for them, for their church, for their family, for their nation and for their heritage in the gospel. And we look back at Israel as our, and of course what God did in the Bible. That's our great heritage, those Bible stories and all the things where we saw God doing things in other people's lives. Some of our missionary heroes and preacher heroes, Christian heroes that we've had in the past. And we realize just as in the Bible, no one's perfect, but they are heritage to us. They really teach us a lot about if God did it before, he can do it again. And this is what the Lord told Moses, or Moses told the people, back in chapter six through eight of Deuteronomy. He says, here, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one God, and thou shalt love him with all thy heart, soul, mind, and spirit. But then he said that you shall teach these things to your children and to your children's children when you wake up, when you go down. So this is very important that you get this across. How many times do we see in the book of Joshua where they would make memorials and you would say, when your kids ask, why do you have these stones out here? then you're to tell them, this is what God did. And so landmarks are very important in our lives. The stories of what God did for us in the past. Oh God, our help in ages past. Well, we don't know what he did unless somebody teaches us. And so we see that it's very important that we ingrain within our children and our grandchildren the great love of God and what he's done for people in the past as a heritage of our country. You know, we are there for years, all the way up until the 60s and 70s, unfortunately, where we realize there's a manifest something that God's doing in our country, a manifest destiny, it's been called. But God has shed his grace on us. Of course, we sing that as a song. America the Beautiful and other things. We see that God has blessed this country greatly. And the history that we have. Back in the 50s and 60s, I've read a book by a Pulitzer historian. She won a Pulitzer Prize. She called it the miracle of Philadelphia. And she was writing about all the things that went into the Constitution, and how that it was just a miracle that something that was so foreign, never had been done before, became our government. And how that God used a lot of foible, or a lot of men that had their foibles, to make this country what it is today. And oh, how sad it is to see that that has been purposely been removed from our schools, removed from our churches, and we don't look at this country, and we're raising two generations of kids now, that think this country is just nothing but bad. It was founded by a bunch of old white slave owners and all the rest. They don't see all the blessings that God poured upon this country in spite of its foibles. And this country has always had foibles, just like all of Israel always had their foibles. And yet we see that he doesn't get into the foibles. He gets into the blessings of God in spite of what went on. We'll see. that he talks about them being led through the wilderness. Well, how many times in the wilderness do we see that they betrayed God? And so we'll see that God blessed these people in spite of who they were. He had a loyal love for them. As we saw earlier, he chose them. They didn't choose him. We love him. Why? Because he first loved us. And so it was a God who chose us. It's God who before the foundation of the world had us in mind before we were ever known by man or woman. And so we see that God does everything in love. And so as we look at this passage, I've broken it down. First of all, we have the introduction and we see in this introduction, our God is great. Now we see, you'll see in this passage that we really echoes back several things in the previous Psalm, Psalm 135. And we see that he says, oh, give thanks to the Lord for he is good. Well, that's exactly what he said in Psalm 135, verse three, and also that he's great in verse five. And so he's kind of echoing the things that happened or that we see that were already written. And now this is a psalm, which is, again, kind of a compilation of other phrases in the book of Psalms, because it is something that carries a broad spectrum as these people would come together. And now he's reminding them of their heritage and us all praise God for what he has done and what he is doing. And so, oh, God, our help in ages past, I guess, is one of the best songs we could sing and then be able to go back and look at some of the helps that God has given in the past. And so we see now in the first three verses as the introduction that he gives us three names of God. Notice, first of all, in verse one, oh, give thanks to the Lord, and you'll notice that the Lord is in all caps, for he is good. And that's the translator's way of saying this is the term that means Yahweh or Jehovah, the covenant God. It was a God that Elohim, which is the second one, but Elohim was used as God's power. In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth. He created out of nothing. That is a lot of power. That's Elohim. But when he comes to dealing with men in Genesis chapter 2, he turns it to Jehovah. It's the relationship name for God, the name how that God communicates with man. Now when he talks about his creation and his power outside of just his relationship with man, it's Elohim. But when he talks about his relationship with human beings, he uses the word Jehovah. But we see that Jehovah is good. And we saw that back in chapter or in Psalm 135. But Elohim is superior to all gods. He's the God of gods. And so the word God there is Elohim. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And so we see that he is expressing God's power over the spiritual world. And of course, we look back in Psalm 135 and what he says about idols. But also we have the word Adonai, which means master. my master and my God, as Thomas would say, or my Lord and my God. And this is, he's superior to all authority. And of course, he's the Lord of Lord, King of Kings. And so we see that he is the ultimate authority. He is the ultimate good. We've looked at that word, of course, which means the very essence of God. Everything that he did was good back in Genesis chapter one and two. We see that, again, the rich young ruler that comes and says, good master. And the Lord said to him, why call you me good, seeing there's only one good in heaven. And that's when that rich young ruler pulled back and said, well, I'm not ready to call you God, so I'll just say master. And so we see that the Jew realized when you were talking about good, when God is good, that means the ultimate good. There's nothing that could be any better. He's perfectly good. And so Jehovah is good. Jehovah is God of gods. Jehovah is God of God, Elohim is God of Gods, and Adonai, Master, is He's King of Kings, Lord of Lords. And so he begins with that, and now the next phrase gives us the key to the rest of the book. And that is, to him who alone does great wonders. to him alone who does great wonders. Now, the rest of the psalm, he's going to be talking about these historical wonders that God has done with the nation of Israel. He's reminding them of their spiritual heritage, of their national heritage, and the pride that they could have in knowing the God of heaven. And so we look at this and we see, first of all, in Psalm 136 verses five through nine, he talks about the creation. And the creation is talked about over a hundred times in the Old Testament. And so again, folks, it's gonna be difficult with the other doctrines of the Bible, if you don't believe that God created the heavens and earth out of nothing with his voice. because you get into many passages and like the key one that I keep stressing because I want you to know it is Romans chapter five, verse 12. And then the rest of that chapter, he says, for as by one man, sin entered into the world. Who was that man? Adam. And so death passed upon all men and all people for all have sinned. Now, that takes care of evolution, because when did death come? Before or after the creation of man? If it came before man, then okay, then we could talk about evolution. but death didn't come until after man had sinned. And you go into chapters four and five, and by chapter five, he gives us a long list of people all the way to Noah, and every one of them died. He died, he died. Every major character in the book of Genesis died. And even at the end of the book of Genesis, the last phrase in the book of Genesis is in a coffin in Egypt, of course, where Joseph died. And so we see that men died, they died, they died. When I start reading the Old Testament, I get into, by the time you get to the book of Joshua, millions of people have died. I mean, just one after another, after another. You know, the 4,000 people died here, 50 or whatever. And so a whole army died, of course, with Pharaoh. And all these people died, they died, they died, because the wages of sin is death. Now, you read the rest of, Romans, chapter five, and he talks about the first Adam who was created. And then you had the second Adam who was miraculously created. Of course, the virgin birth. And he talks about the first Adam all die. The second Adam all live through Jesus Christ, of course. Now, you have a hard time with that passage if you don't believe that God created heavens and the earth and that God made man in his own image out of nothing on one day, in one day. And so, because it really gets into, okay, if it was, okay, let's say there's no, that there was death before Adam. Okay, well, tell me when Adam came along. I mean, tell me, okay, there was a monkey that turned into an ape and it turned into a whatever. Well, when did God say, oh, wait a minute, man, I left them all, I forgot about that, here's Adam. No, that's not what happened. And so, and I'm not doubting anybody, I'm just saying, try to reason that out. And you don't have to do it scientifically, you can do it biblically. By faith, we understand that the worlds were made. And without faith, it's impossible to please him. That's all Hebrews chapter 11. And so we see that God said it and the Bible says it, and that's all we can believe it. And so notice what he says here. He says, by wisdom, he made the heavens. Now, wisdom is, in other words, he set everything in motion. Nothing bangs into each other. Everything had its purpose. God was a genius when he made the heavens. And so not only that, of course, he made the heavens and earth. And notice the second thing there in verse six, he tells us that he says, and he laid out, that means he planned, he designed. He had it all in his head. He laid out the earth above the waters. And so we see he made the land and the seas. We know he did that back in Genesis chapter two or chapter one. I'm sorry. And so we see that he did that. And we're told by his wisdom or scientists tell us today that if the ocean was one inch lower than it is ocean level, then the air on earth would be too thin to breathe. If it was one inch higher, it would be too thick and other problems would be caused if the ocean levels. That's just the ocean. Just think about all the life and everything else, the ecosystems. And as we said, God is a God of timing and systems. And think about all the systems that we have on earth. Your body has how many systems? You have your blood system, nervous system, all kinds of systems within. And then you have your subsystems within the systems. And so God designed it. We are fearfully made. We're wonderfully and fearfully made just like the earth is. And so he laid out the earth above the waters. And then he made the great lights. for his mercy endures forever. And even in his mercy, you look up at the stars at night, the great lights. And of course, you think about the sun that rules by day and the moon by night, and think of all the design there. What the benefits of the sun and solar energy and vitamin D and all the things that come from the sun. And then you think about the effect that the moon has over the tides and a lot of other things. They're discovering, or at least there's theories about how that it changes our moods and everything else as far as the moon is concerned. There's, what is it, there's more, Problems, emergency rooms fill up a lot faster during full moons. I don't understand all that, but there again, there's just so many things that you can branch off into and studying all that. But just amazing how that God made them and then they have an effect on us. And so we see that God did these things and he made the great wonders that he did, our creator. But then, of course, in chapters 10, verses 10 through 15, remember that the picture of the children of Israel being delivered out of Egypt is a picture of redemption. They were in bondage. They were miraculous delivered and taken to the promised land by Almighty God. And of course, that's a picture of salvation where we were enslaved to sin and God destroyed. He broke the power of canceled sin. and he set us free. And of course, now he leads us in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. And one day we'll see him face to face. So it was a beautiful picture of redemption. And again, this is the story of redemption or the Red Sea Crossing is mentioned over a hundred times in the Old Testament. I mean, some reference to it. And so again, you're gonna have a hard time with the Bible if you don't believe in creation and you let someone tell you that the Exodus story was maybe just a fairy tale. No, these are bedrock pillars or pillars on bedrock that are so important because creation And then the greatest miracle in all the Old Testament was the picture of redemption, the Red Sea Crossing. That is mentioned, like I said, about 100 times in the Old Testament. And then, of course, in the New, the greatest miracle in all the world was then the fullness of time God sent forth His Son. Of course, that was Jesus Christ, who died on the cross. for our sins. And so those are three major times that are so important in our history, as well as Israel's. And so we see that he's a creator, but he's a redeemer. And notice how he goes through that. They struck, he struck Israel. I like this again with about his power. He says, he struck Israel in their first board. And we know that was the gods of Egypt, all 10 of those, um, miracles were a direct attack on the gods of Egypt. And he brought Israel out from among them with a strong hand and with an outstretched arm. Of course, that's an anthropomorphism. In other words, it gives God, who is spirit, something that we can kind of latch on to visibly in our minds. And so we see that he struck Egypt with his hand. And then notice in verse 14, to him who divided the Red Sea in two and made Israel pass through the midst of it. Now, again, that's one of those interesting terms. He divided the Red Sea in two. He didn't blow it back or whatever like he did with possibly the Jordan. But he had the word there divided. It's one of those words that means I mean, it's it's used very carefully in the Old Testament. Remember when Solomon had the two ladies who came to him with the baby, and he took a sword, and he was going to divide them into, now he wasn't probably gonna do it, but at the same time, you remember the story about how one of them said, go ahead, and the other one begged for mercy there. That's the picture. And then we have it with Abraham that he divided, he cut the sacrifices into their separate parts. The Lord, divided the ocean with a sword or with the sword of a spirit or whatever we understand. The idea of very definite action. And it wasn't something where the river stopped up or there was a great wind, although there was a wind. But that had to be very specific wind because he divided into both sides. And the children of Israel went through the Red Sea with water on both sides. That's a phenomenal miracle. He didn't back it up or dam it up or whatever. No, they went through, he divided the waters. And so we see that he divided the Red Sea. And then of course, in verse 15, he broke the power of canceled sin. We see that Pharaoh and his army, they were going through the Red Sea to catch up with him. And all of a sudden their wheels fell off or bogged down. And they couldn't get to the children of Israel. And then the Lord allowed those mountains of water to crash down on Pharaoh's army and destroy the most powerful army in the world at that time. that if you remember, as we've looked at in 1 Samuel now, we see that even though that was several hundred years before, the Philistines still remembered that. You just don't have the strongest army in the world being totally destroyed with its Pharaoh, and people don't get to know about that. Rahab knew about it. Remember, she said, we know, we've heard what happened to the Egyptians. whenever, of course, the two spies went into Jericho. And so that was a phenomenal landmark in history that people, hundreds of years later, even people that didn't believe in Jehovah God. Remember in 1 Samuel, as we looked at last Sunday, they called him the gods of Israel. No, it was the God of Israel. And so we see that that was a phenomenal thing that probably shook the ancient world in that area, especially at that time. And so we see that he divided the Red Sea. He overthrew Pharaoh and his army. So he was the redeemer. But then in verses 16 through 22, we see that he was the sustainer because he led his people. He led his people through the wilderness. He led them in the paths of righteousness. And whatever God does is righteous. And so he led them through the wilderness. Now think about that. Two million people going through a barren land with very little rivers and water and springs. A few oases out there, no food, and yet God led them. And how did he do it? Of course, we know a pillar of fire by day, a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. But also he had to feed them. And he had to water them. He had to take care of them. And we see that again in chapter eight of Deuteronomy. He says that you've had shoes that have lasted 40 years. They haven't worn out. Your feet never swelled. You never went hungry. God always took care of you because he led you in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And when God leads us along, we can always expect his provision. And as we've seen with Elijah and others, when his provision dries up, it's not because he wants to starve you, but because he's trying to move you on to something else. And so we see that God leads by many times his own provision. And so that he led his people through the wilderness. And then of course, these kings were very well known. We just read about them, but they were great kings in that area. He struck down great kings in verse 17, Sion and Og of the Amorites, of the King of Bashan. I remember one of those kings had a bed that was phenomenal. It was well known that the king wasn't made out of brass or something. I mean it was something, it was one of those things that that people said, my, this king, he's really got it. It was made into a tree or made out of whatever. Anyway, my mind is escaping, I hope not, but the passenger is escaping me right now. But it was one of those phenomenal things where even the bed he slept on was phenomenal for people around him. And so we see that he led his people through the wilderness and he conquered great kings. And then in verses 21 and 22, and he gave their land as a heritage. God gave Israel the land. And if you listen to conservative Jews, liberal Jews, and we got a lot of them in our country today, and many of the politicians, they're Jews by race and by politics, But I had a conservative Jew talk about this. He said, but as far as anything else, they want to be known. I mean, they've got all their family connections, but they don't even believe the Bible. Many of them are atheists. Now, not all of them. I mean, that's the liberal Jew. Then you have the conservative Jew who practices the Passover and other things. And of course, I met a rabbi out at the fair this past week. And we got into a discussion and I started talking about the Messiah. And he likes to bring up the King James Version and say, can you read it? And of course he's talking about the 1611. He says, and he, because I guess he's had a lot of people come to him and talk about the King James Version. And he's got the original King James Version. And so it's one of those things where I'm saying, hey, listen, I don't get into that. Let's talk about the Messiah, you know. And so but of course, he was he was there to to confuse Gentiles more than anything else. But talk with him about the Lord and told him he needed him. And so. But there again, at least he believes the Old Testament. I wish he believed the Messiah that is pointed to in the New Testament. But the conservative Jews, at least the Judeo-Christian ethic, they believe the Old Testament. and then you have the Hasidic Jews or let's see what they're called. You have the conservative and then Anyway, the guys that still wear the long beards with that orthodox view, there's the term, and they're the ones that you see with the black hats and so forth that many of them are in Detroit as well as New York. New York has probably the greatest concentration of them in any place in the world. But they are the Orthodox Jew. And of course, they take the Old Testament literally even when it comes to how to dress and so forth. So it's unfortunate, though, that they don't know the Lord. And as Paul said, he would go to hell himself if it would save his people. And so we see, though, that this land was given to them. The reason I said all that I was listening to a conservative Jew on the radio. He was a television host or a radio host. Whenever there's Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement, or Passover, he's not there because that's the high and holy days there. And as a result, but whenever he starts talking about this land is God's, God gave this land to Israel. And I mean, and the conservative and Orthodox Jew, they're willing to die for that principle. This land is mine, God gave this land to me. And so we see that this is very important to the conservative and Orthodox Jew. And of course, it's so sad because that type of Jew is pro-Israel. And there's so many of the liberal Jews that are anti-Israel. It's just amazing. Some of the politicians that will support even Yilin Omar, and they will back up Tlaib there in Detroit, because all they see is the politics of it all, and it keeps them in power, so what? And many of them will even vote to withhold arms from Israel. I don't understand that. I don't understand the mind of a Jew, especially a liberal one. But there again, this is something that a conservative Jew who believes the Bible will drill into his children. That land is ours. And of course, the prophecy is that that land will become Israel's as far as the full extent of it during the tribulation, especially the millennium, where God is going to rule and reign on this earth for a thousand years from Israel and from Jerusalem. And so this was this is our heritage. This is our promise. These are the things that God says he would do. And if this was a psalm that was written during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah, the book of Isaiah and Jeremiah and Micah and all the rest of those prophetic books, almost all of them, were written during that time and it pointed to the fact that Israel was gonna be restored in its glory one day. And the millennium has just mentioned chapter after chapter. The lion shall lay down by the lamb and the child shall play by the snake pit and all those terms where one day God is gonna rule and reign from the land of Israel. and all the nations of the world are going to come and worship in Jerusalem. And so that's the promise that is still, that Israel still looks forward to. And so again, notice how he's drilling it into him or the psalmist and the rabbis are, or the priests are singing this and it gets, the song gets into their minds, the song gets into their hearts and it becomes almost like a national anthem to them. And then we see then our God in ages past, but then in verses 23 through 25, it's always good to bring it to the present. And this is where God is our present help. In verse 23, who remembered us, notice he's personalizing it now. He is not talking about just Israel, but he remembered us in our lowly estate. So again, God remembers us. He remembers, as David said, He remembers our frame that were but dust. God remembers our weakness. God knows all about our sorrows. He will guide till the day is done. And so He remembers us in our lowly state. And not only that, He has rescued us from our enemies. Again, he's done it before. He did it with Sion and Og, and he can and he will. And no good thing will he withhold from them who walk uprightly. We are more than conquerors through him who loved us so. So he delivers us from sin and Satan and the world. And so God is good. And he rescued us from our enemies and he will. He breaks the power of canceled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood atones for all of our race. His blood atones for me. And of course, he's talking about the human race there. And so we see that God is good. And as he has delivered us in the past, he will deliver us in the future. And he delivered our fathers, faith of our fathers. And we sing songs like that. And we look back at what God has done. And Lord, if you did it for David, you can do it for me. Lord, if you did it for Paul, you can do it for me. Lord, if you did it for, you named the person in your past that you really, a hero that you have. Lord, if you did it for them, you can do it for me. So he remembers our lowly estate. He remembers and he rescues us from our enemies. And notice in verse 25, who gives food to all flesh. How did you eat today? Oh, I didn't even think about it. I just went to the refrigerator and got something. Do you realize all the systems that had to work in order for you to have that? I think we had some ground beef with other things in it today. And all the systems that had to work for us to have food on the table. You had to have the farmers. You had to have the cattle. You had to have the crops. You had to have all those ways of getting it to the processing centers, the meat place, the grain elevators, the middlemen, the mills. Then you had to have the transportation, all those things. Any one of those things, any part of that chain that breaks down, and you don't eat. But God has been so good to us and he feeds and he feeds all flesh. I, you know, I don't know why I think I need to find out how to get so much of this stuff off my Facebook that all these reels and everything. But I guess they know I'm a sucker for nature and so forth. But there's always they'll come on, they'll show you a tiger and how that he chases his food, you know, and then he'll show you some other animal that's about ready to be eaten and how that they protect themselves and yet one wins the other loses. He had showed us a water buffalo and how they protect themselves, but one of them got alone. And so the pride of lions were coming after him, but he kept putting his horns down and they didn't want to approach him. But he kept backing up into the water, then a crocodile got him. You know, you know, poor guy. But you know, you say nature is cruel. Yes, it is because of sin. That didn't happen before sin. But one day, the crocodile and the water buffalo got along just fine. And the lion and the lamb will lay down together. But we see that, but because of sin, God had to alter the way that he feeds all flesh. But I don't know of anybody, I haven't seen anybody starving in years now. I mean, yes, there's a lot of people around and we have a food box outside, that's what they call that. Anyway, in fact, I put some food in it today and people will walk by, what's it called? What is it called? There's a Boy Scout that put it out there, but we help supply it. The blessing box, that's what it is. And they put it out there and I took several cans there and put in the blessing box today because that's part of the system. You know, people walk by and we'll get it. But there again, God has ways of feeding all flesh. And so we see his great omnipotence, his omniscience, his behind the scenes blessing to even unsaved people. Whatever God does, he does good. He reigns on the just and the unjust alike. And so that farmer who defies God, he still has loyal love. He has mercy on him and he eats the same food and sometimes better than I do. But God's good. His mercy. And the word endures. And that's the one thing I left out. But the word endures. Notice every time, 26 times, that you see that His mercy endures forever. Every one of those endures is in italics. What does that mean? Of course, we know that whenever the translators would translate a passage, if it didn't have the exact word to put in there, like hesed, then they would put a word in there to help you understand what the Hebrew or Greek said. And you see that both in the Old and New Testament. And so those were words supplied by the translators. And so, really, the passage says, His mercy forever. His mercy forever. And when you think of God's mercy, His mercy before, started many millennia before Christianity. creation, and it'll go on forever. In fact, His mercy, that's part of God. That's His loyal love. I don't understand. It never started because He's eternal. He's forever one way in the past and forever in the future. And so His mercy endures, His mercy forever. That word endures to me makes it sound like, man, God really has a trouble with that mercy. And boy, sometimes He just wants to, no. The idea of His mercy's forever. He doesn't change. Nothing rattles Him. His mercy forever. And so God loves you with an everlasting love. And He calls you. In anyone within the sound of my voice tonight, God loves you. And in his mercy, if you're listening to us this evening, he loved you enough to die on the cross for your sins. And he has your name written on his hand. And he's not willing that you should perish. You decide whether you want to go to hell or not. And so his mercy endures. He wants to save you. But even in his mercy, we know that we understand that even in his mercy, there's a wrath. And of course, if in his mercy, that eternal son of God who died for us on the cross, if you don't accept that precious gift, the only way that you could pay for it is through infinite time. And so his mercy, God wants to save you. God will save you if you come to him. And he wants you to be called a child of God. And so we see that he says his mercy endures forever. And then we get, oh, give thanks to the God of heaven. Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar, there's a God in heaven, Ezra. who said, there's a God in heaven. Nehemiah said, oh God of heaven, whenever he prayed, he would pray to him and say, Lord, I'm in a mess here. I don't know how to put this wall up, but I prayed to the God of heaven. And so folks, there's a God of heaven, God in heaven, who has come to earth and loves you with a loyal love, a love that is past understanding. God's good, isn't he? God's good, God's great. And of course we get into the idols and we didn't get into that. But if you, he's King of Kings, Lord of Lord. And if you look back in chapter 135 and verses 16 through 18, he talks about, you know, he's superior to the idols. So these two Psalms really went together in praise to the Lord. Okay, any questions or anything anybody might have?