Good morning. Please turn with me to 2 Samuel 5. It's nice when we had a scripture reading from 1 Chronicles 12 that records a different angle, perhaps a different record of the same events that are happening. 1 Chronicles 12 talks about what happens in 2 Samuel 5. And I don't know about you, but when we heard that, I was immediately thinking to myself, I remember the day not too long ago when David was by himself, fleeing for his life, couldn't find a place to be, living in a cave by himself. And then God added 600 men to his side, if you will. And then as we read that chapter where thousands from one tribe and thousands from another tribe and there was a day when David had one sword, in fact he didn't have a sword, he had to go look for a sword and now he's got all these people coming with one heart to make him king and all of them are carrying weapons of war. In our lives we experience certain times of real lows and real highs as well. That is to say we don't go along at a consistent emotional level all the time. Sometimes we're facing periods of stress and trouble with problems occurring that truly challenge our ability to cope. We wonder if we can even make it through. And yet at other times we have periods of less stress, of less trouble, maybe a little bit more peace in our lives. And we can find a time to relax, maybe let our hair down a little bit and really enjoy the life that God has allowed us to have. It seems that David's life, through most of the book of 1 Samuel that we read, was in a more or less constant state of stress. Beginning with the day he was pulled from the fields and was anointed to be Israel's next king, things just didn't go well for David. Not particularly because of anything in David per se, it seems that he faced danger and threats to his life and homelessness and hunger and weighty responsibilities and death and loneliness and the loss of dear people to him and it goes on and on and on. Indeed, his life was really one trouble after another and yet God sustains David and upholds this one who is his follower. We usually encourage with one another with that kind of truth from the scripture, don't we? that God sustains us through those hard times. That's true, and so the next time we face hard things, we often hunker down and expect that God will get us through this, but we usually don't go very deep enough in our thinking and think about what's really happening here. That is, we don't acknowledge and find comfort in the fact that God has a significant purpose in all of our troubles. God brought us into those for a purpose. Today we have the blessing of a biblical perspective, a revelatory perspective, to help us understand God's purposes in his dealings with David. In the passage, the sun begins to shine again for David. The dark clouds seem to part and David can breathe some fresh air again. David begins to see things going his way. People's opinion and so on of him are changing. His enemies have been removed for now, and the tide of public opinion all seems to be turning in his favor. That initial promise that he had gotten, that he would be the next king of Israel, begins to look almost likely now, whereas before it seemed so far away. And now I'm gonna give away the punchline, even before we read the passage. And that's because there's a verse in our passage today that really summarizes the whole point. And I'm going to read it to you ahead of time. It's from verse 12. You can look at it. It says this, David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people Israel. Spoilers, I know. We're going to read that David becomes king of Israel. Sorry about that. But David gets to be king in this chapter. Even more than that, though, David gets to see why God has made him king and why he has allowed him to go through all that he's gone through. It's because God reveals deep down what he's doing with David for the sake of his people, Israel. God has got this in mind in all that we read through 1 Samuel. All that you could, if you wanted to go back, you could go all the way to Genesis and say, this is what God has been doing on behalf of his people. And if you want, you can go ahead and you can begin to look at what he's doing and has been doing through all of human history, even in the person of the second David, David's son, King Jesus, what he is doing. And it is for the sake of his people. Now there's a deeper picture behind that of his working glory unto himself, but God has seen fit to do these things for the sake of his people, Israel. I want us to be encouraged today. I hope you have been already by the reading of scripture, just to hear the encouragements of what's going on here. But let's read this passage of scripture and see what God is doing, beginning in chapter five, verse one. Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, behold, we are your bone and flesh. In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, you shall be shepherd of my people, Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. David was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 40 years. At Hebron, he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and at Jerusalem, he reigned over all Israel and Judah 33 years. And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off, thinking David cannot come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion. That is, the city of David. And David said on that day, whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack the lame and the blind, who are hated by David's soul. Therefore, it is said, the blind and the lame shall not come into the house. And David lived in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built the city all around from the millow inward. The millow is the strongholds of the fortresses on the side of the walls, if you will. Verse 10, and David became greater and greater for the Lord, the God of hosts, was with him. And Hiram, the king of Tyre, sent messengers to David and cedar trees, also carpenters and masons who built David a house. And David knew that the Lord had established him king over Israel and that he had exalted his kingdom for the sake of his people, Israel. And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem after he came from Hebron and more sons and daughters were born to David. And these are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem, Shemua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Eibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Shaphia, Elishma, Eliada, and Eliphelit. When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David, but David heard of it and went down to the stronghold. Now, the Philistines had come and spread out in the Valley of Rephaim. And David inquired of the Lord, shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand? And the Lord said to David, go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand. And David came to Baal-perazim, and David defeated them there. And he said, the Lord has broken through my enemies before me like a breaking flood. Therefore, the name of that place is called Baal-perazim. And the Philistines left their idols there, and David and his men carried them away. Let me just stop right there for a moment. He carried them away and burned them. That's what it says in First Chronicles. Just so you know, he's not like taking them and taking them to be his own. Moving on. Verse 22, and the Philistines came up yet again and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. And when David inquired of the Lord, he said, you shall not go up, go around to their rear and come against them opposite the balsam trees. And when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then arouse yourself. For then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the armies of the Philistines. And David did as the Lord commanded him and struck down the Philistines from Geba to Gezer. You may remember that in the scriptures way back when Israel's family consisted really only of 12 brothers and a few sisters, their father Jacob before he died blessed his sons and were given hint there of particularly that the tribe of Judah was going to be the one that carried the scepter, they were going to be the kingly tribe. And in that blessing we get actually a little hint of the purpose that God has for his king over his people. In Genesis chapter 49 verse 10 that's where it's recorded that Jacob blesses his son and he does this with Judah particularly and this is what he says in the blessing. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. The archers, and I'm jumping down to verse 23, the archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob. And then it says, from there is the shepherd. the stone of Israel, by the God of your father who will help you, by the almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above. The idea there is that someone from the line of Judah will carry a scepter, and he will be the king, and he will have God as his strength. But what's more than that, God will shepherd his people through this king. and he will be known as the stone or the rock of Israel. Those are remarkably prophetic words about what's coming. The main point of this whole passage, it seems to me, is that the Lord will exalt his king, will support and strengthen and lift up this king, subdue the nations under this king on behalf of his people. It's the Lord who raises one up and subdues another. That's clearly something we see in the scriptures elsewhere. Psalm 75 verse 7 says that explicitly. But it is God who exalts, I'm sorry, executes judgment and he puts down one and he lifts up another. So the premise that we read as we come to this particular text of what's God doing in history as he deals with King David. is that David was raised up to the position of king, both of Judah and of Israel, by God himself, and he's doing this work of strengthening David and his kingdom on behalf of his people, his covenant people. Indeed, God's raising up, as the people say in verse 2, a shepherd of his people, Israel. He's going to be a prince, he's going to be a deliverer, a savior to the nation of Israel from their foes. And as we read the first few verses of chapter five, it's pretty clear that the people of Israel were ready now, because God had done this remarkable work in their hearts, to let this happen, to make it happen if they can. The historic record there that we read in 1 Chronicles chapter 12, particularly verse 38, says this. All these men of war arrived in battle order, came to Hebron with a whole heart to make David king over Israel. That's quite a change. But God has worked this work in their hearts. Likewise, all the rest of Israel were of a single mind to make David their king. That's miraculous work. To have that many people, all of them, come under the idea of one man. All the tribes assemble before David and Hebron saying, you should be our king. And they have three reasons for doing that. First of all, David, you are a kinsman to us. You are one of us. You are one of our people. Secondly, you've already proved yourself, David, under Saul. You were a military leader and deliverer for us there. But thirdly, and most importantly, God told us you're to be the king. You must be the king because God revealed that. You have divine approval. Well, the Lord is the one who has done this work in their hearts. He subdues the nations under this king's feet. He has subjected the people, whether friends, you'll notice that some of them were former enemies. These were people from the Benjamites, for example, who were from Saul's tribe. They are now wholeheartedly coming and saying, we want to serve David. David's gonna later write a psalm about God doing the same work. This thing for a nation as a whole, Psalm 47, verses two and three. For the Lord, the most high, is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. He's the king, David recognizes. And then he says, he subdued peoples under us. He subdued the nations under our feet. Well, in this passage, we have three battles where God subdues the feet of enemies. under David's feet. And we see God doing that subduing. Clearly it's God's doing, right? The first battle is one that David takes on. He has moved from his headquarters where he has been the king of Judah, has now become the king of Israel and he says, we need a headquarters. We're going to have to have a capital for the nation of Israel. And he takes on this battle. He attacks a city that actually belonged to Benjamin. And it's sort of right next door to Judah. He picks this city which is right on the border of Benjamin and Judah, the city of Zion particularly. And it's, though it belongs to Benjamin in the distribution of the area and so on, though it's right there next door to Judah, unfortunately it's still inhabited by the enemy. It has Jebusites living in it. It's embarrassing that this foreign land is occupying God's promised land and it was so well fortified that you get these taunts from the Jebusites against David. You will not come in here but the blind and the lame could ward you off. That's how well fortified our city is. Now the likelihood is that the city walls were built, again it's on a very steep hillside in such a way that in order to access the gate to the city, you have to come between two sets of walls. You have to make your way to the gate and on either side of the walls, you could have people up there easily able to throw artillery at you or rocks or whatever it takes to stop you. So there's only one access to the city through these gates, you might think. Well, I picture Minas Tirith in Gondor if you're a Lord of the Rings fan. It's kind of these terraces so that you can easily attack from above. Well, the prospect of trying to take a fortified city like this is menacing, and the people who are living there say, you can't get in here. There's no way. In fact, the blind and the lame could stand up there and throw rocks at you, and we'd still be able to defend you. And it may well be that they actually, as they say this to David, have set the blind and the lame up there so that they can taunt them even further. But when David goes up to the city that is eventually going to be his capital, Jerusalem, we read only this. This is how the text records this fortified city that can't be taken. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion. That's how the scripture records how easy it is for one who has God fighting on his side. And then it says, for the Lord God of hosts was with him. That's why he was able to take the stronghold. God has repeatedly proven that he can do with man what is absolutely impossible in man's eyes. Now this impregnable city held by the Jebusites had a fortified area that's set on a steep hillside that's encircled a citadel. Now the spring that provided the water to this city was outside the city walls. And so there's this idea of, it's a remarkable military idea of going up the shaft of water, climbing through that shaft of water to get to the city. And it seems like that's what David's, his men do. It's kind of like a challenge that our Navy SEALs would kind of love to do, right? And yet there's no fierce battle described here against this mighty city. David simply took the stronghold. Opposition cannot stand, doesn't matter how well fortified the enemy is. The scriptures say that Jerusalem was given to his people. And there's a reason attached to why God gave the city to David. It's so that God could make his name known there in Jerusalem. When God has the purpose of making his name known, there's no enemy that can stop that. And when God has a purpose for something, he brings it about. And we should not then downplay in our lives this idea of the Immanuel principle. Immanuel being God with us. When God is with us, who could be against us? If God is fighting for your cause, there is nothing too difficult to overcome. That's why David was so successful. It's not that he didn't have to pick up his own sword and actually fight. That he didn't have to go to battle. He did have to do that. He was an active participant, but God is the one who had gone before him. And friends, as we think about ministry in the life of the church, how do we go about our ministry if we don't have that principle in mind, the Emmanuel principle, we are missing the boat. We are all about laboring with no strength. The key in all of this is having the favor of God. the presence of God on your side. Psalm 41, 11, David writes this, by this I know that you delight in me. In other words, that I experience your favor. My enemy will not shout and triumph over me. I know because you are showing your favor in that way. Now, that was the first battle. He takes the city of Zion, no big problem. But there are two more battles that come, and these are at his own initiative. Now the enemy is attacking. What is it like in the church when the enemy attacks the church? Don't we all panic in some ways and think, oh man, this is too much. But the Philistines are coming. These are ones who likely, they had come against Saul in the same way not too long before. They had mustered their full army strength. Remember, they got their captains together and they brought all of their forces to bear against Saul. That's what they're doing now to David. They attacked at the valley of Rephaim, southwest of Jerusalem a little bit, presumably Israel's weakest point, which is smart strategically. A place David had not had time yet because he had just become king to fortify that area. It's one that Saul never could hold against the Philistines. And though David knew he had been called of God, remember that the king, his purpose was to fight off the Philistines and to bring deliverance. God's purpose revealed to David was that. And so David might have just thought, well, I've got God's blessing, I'm going to go do this. But he doesn't do that right away. He inquires of God. He doesn't presume that he knows the when God will bring deliverance. He doesn't presume upon God thinking, I know how you're going to bring deliverance. He asks God. He inquires of God. God, please show me how you would have this done. And when the Philistines attack, having inquired of God, he resolves to wait, to watch, to see what God would have him do. That was not Saul's MO, was it? Saul didn't like to wait. He wanted to go. He wanted to move. I think there's a great lesson for us here in that we have many promises that God has made to us, which which we hope to claim and we should want to claim, but it's essential, it seems to me, that like David, we first inquire, we stand watchful to see what indicators God would give us of the when it's going to happen or of the how he will do it. We mustn't presume. We must know that God would have his name be known throughout the earth, but we must set out keenly aware that his favor alone is what will bring the success in that. So in the first attack of the Philistines, God directed David to confront the enemy head on. Just go out there into the valley and face them. But though the second attack comes almost immediately after this, it seems like they fled, they were defeated largely, and what little strength they had left, they left and went away. The next thing we read is that they came back again into the same valley in the same way they spread out, which means that they were filling the valley. It's still a large army. It's interesting to me that though it's exactly the same thing of what just happened, David doesn't just say, okay, we'll go do exactly what God said the first time. Instead, he pauses and says, God, let's inquire of you again. Let's find out how you would do it, when you would have me do it and so on. That's the pattern. He's to wait and go around this time. He's not to go out and face them head on. He's to go around behind them and then wait for a signal that God is moving. that God is moving ahead of him, and that is a pattern that we must learn. Inquire of God, wait upon his word in answer to us, wait also to see him making a way forward, and then in obedience, once he is seen to be moving, then we act in obedience with great courage and faith. In that second instance, David is called to wait for the sound of marching in the treetops, And I'm convinced this is not, as some would suggest to you, the hearing of the marching of the Philistines. We might think of it physically, if I could say it that way. In other words, you're going to hear the sound of the Philistines starting to move, and that's when you're to attack. I don't think that's what the passage is saying. He was to hear the sound of God moving. God on the move, verse 24. The idea is that the wind is rustling up the leaves of the balsam trees, and that's a sign that God has gone out before you to victory. And I don't think you can miss the symbolism there, the idea of what blows leaves. But the wind, which is the same idea, at least in the Greek culture, in the New Testament, the idea of the Holy Spirit, it's the same word in Greek. We must wait upon God's spirit to move before we go into action. Again, an application as we consider fighting spiritual battles. You see the need to discern what God has said, and then wait for indications that he is moving by his spirit. How has God prepared the way? How has he cultivated the area? And then rise up in obedience to claim the promises. You know how we often do this, though, and that's too many times we hear the promises made, and we don't want to wait for the indicators that God is already doing the work, but we jump right in. We want to go out there and want to see the things going on before we are ready for this. We haven't seen God do the work. Well, the point of all this is that we absolutely need Emmanuel. You need God with you as we live life and seek to serve the kingdom by fighting spiritual battles. And that's our first aim, isn't it? Seek ye first the kingdom of God. That's what we're about. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, that's what your life is to be. Spiritual battle, winning the cause of Christ, moving his kingdom forward. How do we do that? As we live and seek to serve that kingdom, his kingdom coming and his will being done, we have to allow God to be the one who raises up one and subdues another. God is the one who does this, and so we follow his effectual lead. For we don't fight against an enemy that we can do a thing about. We cannot have any victory apart from his working. He is the Lord. He is the sovereign. He is our savior. We bow to him. We follow God's lead. We rejoice that he subdues the enemies under our feet. Now I want us to see that the Lord raised David up in this way, provided all that support, all that strength for David, the unifying of the people under David, just in a similar way to how he does it with Christ. and how he has exalted Christ to the kingly position and how he has subdued the nations under his feet and is continuing to do that. And you see this parallel all the way through. Both are to be shepherds of God's people, right? You see that clearly as we go through the passage. We sang Psalm 23, that most famous probably of all Psalms. And what does it say? But Yahweh, Jehovah, is my shepherd. I shall not want. That's the understanding of the people of God of Israel. Their thinking is that Jehovah who leads us is our shepherd. But then they wanted a king and they have to understand, I think they did understand, that if a human king is to serve Yahweh in ruling over God's people, it's understood that he will have to do so in the same shepherding care that Yahweh did. And that explains in part why David is so different a king than so many kings in the earth. David enters into a covenant with all the tribes who come to him at Hebron. He's covenanting what? He's covenanting to rule them according to God's ways, according to God's model, his shepherding care. And that would stand in stark contrast to the self-seeking ways of so many of the world's kings. He is to feed God's people. That's what a shepherd does. He guides the flock to good pastures. He's to feed them, not fleece them. Again, not take advantage of them. He is to reign in such a way that the people are built up, that they're nourished, that they're strengthened. Not in such a way that he took advantage of them. The idea is that the king serves the people remarkably, not the other way around. And in this sense, David is a type of Christ again. The people acknowledge that God himself had called David to shepherd the people of Israel. and to be a king or a prince over them. Now we know that Jesus, when he came, he didn't come in the form of a king, the earthly king. He came and he emptied himself. And though he was the king of kings, the Lord of lords, he took on the role of a servant to advance the cause of his subjects. That is how David is to take that role. So David begins shepherding Israel. Interestingly, he does that at the age of 30. That's about the time when Jesus began his public ministry. And like David, he was attacked by his enemies immediately, right? That's what Jesus did as he began his ministry. The first thing we learn at the age of 30 is he goes out and he's attacked. It's not surprising that the moment the Philistines learned that David is going to be the king, they say, this one, he used to kill tens of thousands of us. We have to stop him. We have to stop him early. So they sought to take him down in the same way as Jesus was baptized and began his public ministry. The devil began tempting him to give up the plan with a promise of an easy kingdom. Let me give it to you this way. Well, I want you to see also that God subdues people under the feet because he's with him. We said that God does this if and when God is decidedly with you. And listen to a short compilation of the verses. I just want to go through 1st and 2nd Samuel and hear that phrase, how God was with David. And then I'm going to do the same thing with what God says about Jesus, how he was with him. Now we know Jesus is God, but in his humanity, there's often that description of God being with Jesus. So listen to these lines. First with David. This is early on in David's career. One of the young men answered, behold, I have seen a son of Jesse. the Bethlehemite who is skillful in playing. He's a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him. It was acknowledged early on. David was one who had the Lord with him. Chapter 18, verse 12, Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and had departed from Saul. Chapter 18, verse 14, David had success in all of his undertakings for the Lord was with him. Second Samuel chapter three, there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David and David grew stronger and stronger while the house of Saul became weaker and weaker. And we read in today's chapter, chapter five, verse 10, and David became greater and greater for the Lord, the God of hosts was with him. It's the Emmanuel principle and we've got to get this. We have to understand it, but I want you to see that it's not just David. God does this with his son, Jesus. At Jesus' birth, people recognized the same thing about him. Luke chapter 1 verse 66, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts saying, what then will this child be? For the hand of the Lord is with him. Chapter 5 verse 17 of Luke speaks of God going with Jesus in his ministry. On one of those days as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judah, from Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was with him to heal. John chapter 3, verse 2, Nicodemus recognized this about Jesus. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Peter preached to the Gentiles. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil because... Suggestions? God is with him. God exalts his king. He goes with him to accomplish these things, and he does it for the sake of his people. God is with his people, isn't he? You, if you're in Christ, are one of his people. Follow the logic with me. God is with you. He raises his king for the sake of his people. The point is to say that David points us to Christ in his kingly office, and like Christ, all of his strength is God's strength, and all of this strength is given for the sake, remarkably, of his people. Romans 13, four. In that passage that we know speaks about governments and so on and it's talking there about the governing authorities, what are they there for? It says that those governing authorities are there for our good. The king then would be a governing authority for the good of the people. David recognizes that God was not doing all of this in his life, allowing him to go through all that hardship and then now bringing people under him for himself. It wasn't so that he could exalt himself. He realized that God was doing this for the sake of his people, that he would rule. And then in verse 12, again, David knew that the Lord had established him as king over Israel and that he had exalted that kingdom for the sake of his people. All the things that we've said that God has done both for David, for Jesus, are done with the purpose of blessing his covenant people as they serve him. Now, of course, Behind this, as I said, all of it is for the advancement of God's glory. It's not as if man were the center of all things. God's glory throughout creation. But God's people are blessed beyond measure in the process, because God is not only with David, and he's not only with Jesus, he's with us. Think of the New Testament's declaration of that same truth. 1 Corinthians 6, 17, but he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Actually, that closeness, we are one with him. Ephesians 2, 4 through 6, I think this is the one that jumps off the page to me. God being rich in his mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Even while we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised up with him, and he has seated us with him in the heavenly realms. Closeness, Emmanuel. 2 Timothy 2.12, if we endure, we shall also reign with him. Ephesians 1.22 and 23, he put all things under Jesus' feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him who fills all in all. In these battles that we see in our passage, chapter 5 here, verses 17 to 25, they demonstrate that God was, David, because God was with him, was invincible. We certainly know that Jesus as God himself is invincible from the enemy. And you and I have to know that as his children, with him, who has promised never to leave us or to forsake us. He is always with us. We too, when we're carrying out God's purposes, are invincible. Now, when we're serving the king, God goes with us. We must, of course, be attentive to God's directives. We need to be patient when things don't go in the speed that we want them to go. We need to be discerning to see what God's spirit is doing in the preparing of the way. And then, of course, we need to be faithful, to leap, as it were, to service with courage and with confidence in the Lord. Now, one lesson I want us to get, that's the overarching lesson, one of the things behind it that I want you to see is that sometimes it's the attack of the enemy that proves the very thing God uses to advance his kingdom. Note that carefully because when we see attacks on us, we just think it's all over, everything's going badly, it's the end. This is an opportunity that God gives each time there is an attack to bring about the advancement of the kingdom. You can be sure that when the Philistines attacked David, initially his thoughts would have seemed like this is a threat to the kingdom, we're in danger. When all of this is said and done, David gains victory over his enemies, and that enemy no longer seems to come back to trouble him. We often see challenges to our faith, to our ministry, as great setbacks. But we need to remember that often these setbacks and complications are the very tool that God uses to see us grow, to see his kingdom move forward, to see the kingdom of God come right in here, As we're challenged and respond in faith, what happens? We gain ground. We grow in our faith. God is glorified. His kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. I suggest that you and I are not that different than David in the sense that we serve God. We serve him in the context of the covenant people of God. We are a priesthood of all believers and we all care for the flock of God in some ways. Let me simply close with a word spoken of David, but which are true for us as well in Psalm 89, verses 17 to 24. These are words spoken by the covenant people regarding their God as he deals with them, and I think this applies to us. Psalm 89, for you are the glory of their strength. By your favor, our horn, our strength is exalted. For our shield belongs to the Lord, our king, to the Holy One of Israel. Of old, you spoke in a vision to your godly one, and you said, I have granted help to one who is mighty. I have exalted one chosen from the people. I have found David my servant with my holy oil. I have anointed him so that my hand shall be established with him. My arm also shall strengthen him. The enemy shall not outwit him. The wicked shall not humble him. I will crush his foes before him. and strike down those who hate him. My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him. And in my name shall his horn be exalted. Friends who love this king, be joyful today. He has done all of this remarkably for your sake. Let's pray. Oh God, how we are encouraged There are times when we are very discouraged, when all things seem to be going wrong. I pray, Lord, that you would help us remember that our God, Emmanuel, goes with us, that Jesus has promised as King over all things to rule on behalf of his church. We pray that, Lord, we might be ones who Don't think of ourselves as the end result or the end of the whole purpose, but indeed that we would then live in obedience, in thankfulness, in a way that glorifies our God. Thank you for being so faithful. Thank you for being one who lifts us up. I pray for all who are perhaps in the midst of great trial in their life. Lord, some of us face really, really hard things. Today, I pray that they will recognize that in Christ, they are supported. They have the strength to face whatever challenges come. And indeed, through the challenge, they have opportunity to glorify their King. Lord, through these things, encourage us and lift us up, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.