Good morning. Our public scripture reading this morning is from Psalm 120. We have moved out of Psalm 119, in which we spent a number of months, and have moved into a few shorter psalms, but no less inspired. This psalm here is a prayer, a believing prayer, in distress. You'll see here at the beginning, he starts by saying, in my trouble, I cried to the Lord. And perhaps sometimes we feel a bit guilty when we find ourselves especially coming to the Lord in times of distress. Maybe we're going through some sorrow or affliction, some struggle, and we find that now we're coming to the Lord even more frequently in prayer, with more urgency, with more unction. If you're like me, it can be tempting in those moments to feel a bit guilty because when things are going well, we tend not to pray as much. And there's some truth to that. There's some legitimacy to that guilt. We ought not avoid or be slow to prayer when times are good. We still need help from the Lord every day with every breath and we must depend on him completely. But there's also a legitimacy to coming to the Lord when we're in distress. It should be our first instinct. It should be our Christian response to suffering, whether it's with circumstances outside of our control, whether we're suffering from our own sin, our gut reaction should be to go to the Lord. We see that all the times in the Psalms. We see it here in Psalm 120, Christ himself prays to the Lord before he goes to the cross. we see a constant theme in scripture of praying while in distress. That is the Christian response to distress, to suffering, to sorrow, is to pray. Another thing I wanna mention here about this first verse, when he says, in my trouble I cried to the Lord, isn't it so true that sometimes we can fail to do this? We can have some trouble, perhaps it's petty, it's something small and trivial, and we don't think to go to the Lord about it, right? We have some difficulty, and immediately our first thought is to solve it, to fix the problem. And we do what we can to fix it. And it's not wrong to try and fix problems within our means. But it is wrong to address the struggles and the difficulties of this world without prayer. Our Christian response ought to be prayer. So let us ask whenever we're struggling or sorrowful, working through things, have we gone to the Lord about this? Have we laid this before him? Have we brought this to him? Sometimes we can go days enduring something and realize I haven't even gone to the Lord about this. He says, we do not receive because we haven't asked. So have we asked the Lord? Have we brought this to him? Have you been faithful to pray to him and request his need? So, first we see a believer praying in distress, and let's look a little bit at how he prays. Continuing on here in verse two, he says, deliver my soul, oh Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. First he says, deliver my soul, not deliver my flesh, not deliver just my heart, but my soul. It's an all-encompassing word, his entire being. Deliver me, all of me. from this trial, from this struggle. Deliver my soul from falling prey to it, right? Because so many times temptations can tempt not only our flesh as it were, can be a struggle not only for our flesh, but also for our soul. Can cause us to grow bitter, can cause us to sin against God, can cause us to grow even bitter against the Lord himself. So he says, deliver my soul. That's how a Christian prays in distress. He prays for his entire being. Deliver my soul, oh God, from this distress. And what is the distress? Specifically, it's a deceitful tongue, slander. It seems the psalmist is being slandered for this, for something that either he's done or hasn't done. He's being misrepresented and slandered outwardly. And one thing I want to point out here is that oftentimes in our distress, we can look, not all the time, but most times we can look at the life of the Lord Jesus Christ and realize he too has suffered the same things that we're going through. He too has suffered, in this instance, slandering unjustly. He too has endured the trials and tribulations of this world, yet without sin. So we should learn in our distress to meditate on the fact that we have a great high priest and he can sympathize with us. Truly and deeply he can sympathize with us. Continuing on in verse three here, what shall be given to you? And what more shall be done to you? So he transitions here into a sentencing of sorts for the slanderer. He says, what shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? The answer, sharp arrows of the warrior with the burning coals of the broom tree. That is to say, with charcoal. That is to say, the slanderer will be severely punished. And punished by whom? Well, we know the scripture answer is by God. You know, fire and brimstone, the phrase gets a bad rap because people abuse it, right? The street preachers contend to abuse the truth. But don't let that abuse of the truth cause you to devalue that in your mind because the truth itself is scriptural. Fire and brimstone is a scriptural phrase. The concept is present here in verse four. There is nothing pleasant or comfortable about what will happen to those outside of Christ. They will endure severe and harsh punishment for their sins. And any of us here who are found not in Christ are not immune to it. Being within the four corners of this church does not make you immune to it. Being found within Jesus Christ makes you immune to it. The final brimstone is a very real concept. The psalmist here announces that sentencing on the slanderer. Continuing on in verse five, he says, woe is me for I sojourn in Meshech. So he turns from this sentencing to lament, to sorrow. He says, woe is me for I sojourn in Meshach, for I dwell in the tents of Keter. Those are two lands that are adjacent and outside of Israel. And we know that in this time of redemptive history, there was a temple where God's worship was to be held. So to be in a circumstance where you are removed from the lands of Israel was to be seen as a judgment and a severe trial and a difficulty. And the psalmist is rightly lamenting because he wants to be on his homeland, worshiping his God. But he can't do that in Meshech. He can't do that in Keter to the degree that he would like to. And so he says, woe is me. He pronounces a woe upon himself. He continues on, he says, too long, my soul has had its dwelling with those who hate peace. And can't we relate to that? Beloved, isn't it a comfort to see that the things we struggle with, the Psalmist, thousands of years ago, also struggled with. Do we get bogged down and are constantly afflicted by the temptations and trials and evil of this world? Don't you just sigh and say, Lord Jesus, come, come quickly. The psalmist felt the same way. He's exacerbated by all the evil he constantly sees and the evil he's constantly around. It reminds me of the New Testament's description of Lot being worn down. by Sodom around him. Certainly Christ felt the same way. Perfect Christ in our world. Certainly he was oppressed, as it were, by the evil around him. Constantly afflicted by seeing such evil and brokenness and wickedness all around him. And we, to a lesser degree, experience the same thing. It's to a lesser degree because we ourselves are not perfect. So we become jaded to the evil around us. But the psalmist felt the same thing here. Too long, his soul had been dwelling with those who hate peace, and he's afflicted by it. He's worn down, he's exhausted, and he's tired. And then the Psalm ends here on a bit of a unresolved note. Verse seven, it says, I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. And what's so interesting here is that if you remember in verse one, the psalmist says, in my trouble, I cried to the Lord, and he answered me." So maybe we expect a more nice and buttoned up conclusion to the psalm. Maybe we expect to hear some triumphant end to the psalm, but it actually ends unresolved. There's tension. It's like a cliffhanger in a movie. There's unresolved tension. You don't know how it ends. And I would suggest that that's instructive for us in our distress, beloved. Isn't it so often that we feel discouraged about our prayer life? We pray to the Lord and we feel, why am I not being heard? It feels like I'm not being heard. It feels like nothing's changing, like nothing is getting answered. Isn't it so instructive that the psalmist, though we don't see any change here throughout the Psalm, he says, my prayer was answered. I prayed to the Lord and he heard me. My prayer was answered. So can I suggest to you that we might need to learn to trust the Lord that he has answered our prayer even when we don't see it. It's not our prayers that are the problem necessarily, right? When we think, why isn't the Lord answering me? It's not our prayers necessarily that are the problem. Maybe the problem is our interpretation of our circumstances. we should learn to roll our burdens onto the Lord and to trust Him, to deal with it in His time and in His way. And the last thought I'll leave us on here, it's an exhortation to me, this last point, to wait on the Lord. An exhortation that is found constantly throughout scripture. This idea of waiting on the Lord. It's unpleasant, isn't it? It's unpleasant to have this unresolved tension in our lives when we are praying and praying and praying and we don't see things changing. It's uncomfortable. It can be frustrating. It can tempt us to be impatient. But I wanna end here on Isaiah 40, verses 28 through 31. So I would suggest to you, this is an exhortation of how we pray in distress. When we lay our petitions bare before the Lord, when we make our requests known to Him, we must learn to trust in the Lord and trust in His answers and to wait on Him. So listen to Isaiah 40, 28 through 31, and then we'll read the whole Psalm together. Do you not know? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. So let's learn as we pray for the Lord to wait on him, to wait for his answer. Please stand with me as we read together Psalm 120. This is the word of the Lord. Psalm 120, a song of ascents. In my trouble, I cried to the Lord and he answered me. Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the warrior with burning coals of the broom tree. Woe is me, for I sojourn in Meshech, for I dwell among the tents of Keter. Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war. This is the inspired word of God. You may be seated.