Amen. Turning to Psalm 119 please. Psalm 119. And we're coming to the final section of the Psalm tonight. So verse 169. And we'll read from verse 169 to verse 176 while you're looking that up. Again, can I welcome you? Thank you for coming along tonight. And just by way of announcements, there is the church bulletin. The only extra thing that I would remind you of is the vehicle show on Saturday at 4 p.m. It's a great outreach opportunity. Come along and don't worry about the weather. There will be plenty of provision there for you anyway. I think there's even maybe some indoor provision as far as I understand, so come along and invite others that they might hear the gospel. Do pray for Nigel as well as he prepares to come and to share that the Lord will undertake for him in all of that. So, Psalm 119 and verse 169. The word of God says, let my cry come near before thee, O Lord, Give me understanding according to thy word. Let my supplication come before thee. Deliver me according to thy word. My lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes. My tongue shall speak of thy word for all thy commandments are righteousness. Let thine hand help me. for I have chosen thy precepts. I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord, and thy law is my delight. Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee, and let thy judgments help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments. Amen. We'll finish there. At the end of the Psalm, and God will bless his word to our hearts. We know that. So as I say, we've come to the final study. In Psalm 119, we've worked our way through each of the 22. Well, we will have after tonight, worked our way through each of the 22. sections representing the complete Hebrew alphabet. And as we have gone through that, I trust that we have learned many things about the significance of God's word, the importance of God's word, the value of God's word to us as believers, the truth of God's word, and that it addresses every aspect of life for those who follow the Lord. Last week when we looked at the previous section, we looked at the Hebrew letter Shin, and the letter has the picture of pointing upwards. and we noted how that directs us and directs our thoughts and our attention in a particular way. And in that section of the psalm, there were five steps to the full Christian experience. As we turned our thoughts towards the word of God and then turn our thoughts upwards, away from ourselves, away from our circumstances, and we look to the Lord and we look to the one who has given us all of these great promises and these great truths in Scripture. We looked last week, we noticed that we can, as we look upwards, we can rejoice, we can say I love, we can say I praise, I have peace, and I hope And that broke down in that section of the Psalm. One of the things that we noted in that section as well was the use of the Hebrew word Yeshua in verse 166, where it says, Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation. The word's translated as salvation. It's used four times in the Psalm. All four occasions come in the second half of the Psalm. and twice it appears in the last two sections of the Psalms. So we had it last week in verse 166 and we have it again this week in verse 174. And as I said last week, that word, Yeshua, is the Hebrew word for the name Jesus, and it's translated as salvation, and there's a lovely picture for us about all of these blessings that we have when we turn our eyes upwards and we look to the one who is our savior, the one who is our redeemer. come to the final letter, it's the Hebrew letter Tau. As we think about that letter and the thought that within this section it contains this picture of longing for the salvation of God, there's a lovely little picture. that we see whenever we think about this letter. All of the letters, as you remember, have a picture or represent something pictorially, and this Hebrew letter has a thought associated with it as being similar to a cross. Isn't it lovely to think that at the end of it all, when we go through all of this, that we're still brought to the cross? One commentator made a point about this fact. He says, as tau is the final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, So God's last word to men in the revelation of himself is at the cross. The work of redemption by blood is finished at the cross. I think we have to acknowledge whenever we consider all that we have looked at over these past 21 studies, that in light of the one who has, by his Holy Spirit, inspired the writing of these words, the one who has created all things, who has designed all things, including language, that it's no mistake that this comes to its culmination at the cross. The psalmist is coming to this conclusion now, and as you read this section of the psalm, there's pieces of it that it might appear that there's a note of sadness in some of the verses, that there's a note of concern in the heart and in the words of the psalmist. As I was studying this, I'll be honest with you, it took me a bit of time to get my head around what was actually happening in this section, but the primary truth that comes through in this section of the psalm is that the salvation provided by God is the central point. of everything. And it's in knowing that, and as the psalmist gathers that thought in his mind, that he once again comes to the Lord, and he comes and he pours out his heart, and he pours out the heaviness that he's feeling, that heavy burden that he's carrying, and we all carry burdens and concerns and issues at times, and he also pours out his praise and his rejoicing. So we have both sides of that, both of those Emotions, if you want to put it like that, a sadness and yet a joy and a happiness come through in this section. We come now to break it down. I want to note that the psalmist, he wants to experience nearness to the Lord. Even when that nearness at times perhaps brings a sense of his own inadequacy and reminds him of his weakness and reminds him of his failures, yet he still wants to be near to the Lord. And we should all want to be near to the Lord. We should all want to have that closeness to the Lord, even if at times it convicts us, even if at times it causes us to question things that are going on in our lives, we should always want that nearness because as we get closer to the Lord, as we get near to the Lord, and as we understand his vastness, we understand his greatness, we understand his promises that he has given to us, how it lifts us, and how it brings us from that place where things are difficult, it brings us to the place of joy and rejoicing. So there's four things that we see from these concluding words in this last section this evening. I want you to see first of all that the psalmist speaks about his supplication. We could say our supplication. Verse 169 and verse 170. He's talking about supplication here. He says, let my cry come near before thee, O Lord. Give me understanding according to thy word. Let my supplication come before thee. Deliver me according to thy word. Now, in previous studies, we have touched on this thought as we've worked through this psalm. But again, we see the psalmist, I believe it's Daniel, we see the desire of his heart as he seeks to call to the Lord in whatever circumstance he's in. at this particular moment in time. And while I have called this supplication, and we have that word supplication in verse 170, in verse 169 the psalmist says, let my cry come near before thee. And the Hebrew word that's translated as my cry there, it has exactly the same implication as the word that's translated as supplication in verse 170. The word that's translated as cry in verse 169 is first used by King Solomon. in 1 Kings chapter 8 and verse 28. And there in that verse it has the thought of entreaty. He's pleading with the Lord. He's calling out to the Lord. And the psalmist here is doing the same thing. He's crying unto the Lord and he says, let my supplication come near before thee in the midst of whatever this experience is, whatever it is he's going through. And maybe even in light of the theme of this section, we can see the psalmist here is crying out for deliverance from whatever the problem is in verse 170. Deliver me according to thy word. There's a hint of something going on here. some trouble, some problem, something that is causing him difficulty at this particular time. And he's bringing it to the Lord and he wants to know that as he brings it to the Lord, as he comes with this supplication, with this cry, he wants to know not just that God is near to him, but that God hears his cries. Because look what it is that he wants to come before the Lord. Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord. Let my supplication come before thee. He wants to know that God hears his prayers. That God is attentive to him. And twice in two verses he makes that request that these things would come before the Lord. And the picture there, in that little phrase before they speaks about the presence of God. It's the same word that's used in Genesis chapter 3 and verse 8 and we know the story there how Adam and Eve were in the garden and God had placed them there and he'd given them dominion over all of the creatures and they had a responsibility for tending the garden and then the devil comes and he deceives them. And in Genesis chapter 3 it tells us about how God comes and walks in the garden in the cool of the day. It says when Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God, it's the same word. It's the presence of God. And that gives us this picture of what God's salvation brings to us if we bring it back into the context here. The communion that was broken by the fall, where Adam and Eve hid themselves in the presence of God, and ultimately they were removed from the garden and from that unrestricted communion with God, that has been restored for those who are redeemed, for those who have called out for God's salvation. And the way has been opened up for us as we have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. We think of the words in Ephesians 2, verse 13 and 14. It says, The implication of that statement, he is our peace, is seen in the tense that's used in the original language in the Greek. It's a demonstrative pronoun. And the idea there is that he himself is our peace. Christ is our peace. That's what Jesus Christ has done. That's who he is. He is our peace and he is peace and he's made peace for us and therefore because he's done all of that and as we see how this fits into this section of the psalm where the psalmist knows the salvation that he has received from God and he's longed for the salvation of God and so he knows that he can cry out to God and say let my cry come near. before they are let my cry come into thy presence, O God. The psalmist was looking forward by faith to the promise of the Messiah. And as he was doing that, and as he was, he knew that the promise had been given, that the Savior would come and he was trusting in the promises of God and trusting in what the Messiah would do. And as he does that, he takes to himself all of the blessings of that. He takes to himself this blessing of fellowship, this blessing of access to God that he can lift his voice to the Lord. And of course, that has been the case throughout this whole psalm. This whole idea that he can come to the Lord because he knows that he can do that according to God's word. That's what he says here twice. Give me understanding according to thy word. Deliver me according to thy word. That little phrase, according to thy word, which is found here in these two verses, whenever you begin to study what is being said here, it opens up another thought. Because while it's translated in exactly the same way in both verses, it's two completely different Hebrew words. In verse 169, it's the Hebrew word Dabar. In verse 170, it's the Hebrew word Imrah. And the phrase is found in the Psalm 12 times. Six times it's translated as Dabar, and six times it's translated as Imrah, or it's translated from Dabar and Imrah. Dabar refers to the written word of God. So he knows what God has said, and he has read the word of God, and he knows the promises of God. Emrah refers to the revealed will of God, spoken to Daniel in times of direct revelation, where God has spoken directly to him. And whenever you put those two things together, for the psalmist here, as he's contemplating how he needs to call upon the Lord, together these two phrases bring us the complete authority of the Word of God. You see, when the child of God is seeking for understanding, or when he's seeking for deliverance, what we have in this book that we have, the Word of God, it is absolutely sufficient. We don't need anything else. We just need God's Word. And it's the case that those who know the Lord, and we're here tonight and we're saved, we can depend upon the Word of God. We can depend upon God's Word when we need direction. We can depend upon it when we need deliverance. We can depend upon it when we need understanding. The Word of God is there for us. The Word of God is a comfort in trouble. The Word of God is a shelter in a storm. The Word of God has instruction, it has direction, at times it has exhortation, at times it even has admonishment and rebuke. Our problem so often today is that we only want the things from the word of God that suit us, but we don't want it all. We don't come seeking for God to move and speak into our lives through his word. The psalmist knew the power of God's word. He knew the promises of God's word. And because he knew those things, he knew that he could come to the Lord. He knew he could seek for God's help. He knew he could cry out to the Lord. And he knew that God would hear his cry in all of his circumstances. So we see first of all supplication. But then in verse 171 and verse 172, we have our song. Psalmist says, my lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes. My tongue shall speak of thy word for all thy commandments are righteousness. Whenever I was studying this passage earlier on in the week, I was interested in how John Phillips, one of the Bible commentators, spoke about the progressive learning approach of the student of the Bible. And when you first come to know the Lord and you first begin to read his word and you have these very early stages of trying to understand what's being said in a very basic level. And then as your understanding begins to grow and you want to really know what God is saying and you start to study further and you want it to be consistent and understand that as you're reading the word of God there has to be a pattern to it, there has to be a consistency to it. It's called a hermeneutic. so that we would study the word of God properly. So that if we read a book or we read a psalm and we interpret it literally, which I believe we should do with scripture, unless scripture tells us that it's very clearly pointing to something else, scripture should be read literally. You can't decide halfway through a book that this bit's literal, but now I've got to hear, I'm not sure what this means, so I'm gonna make that mean something else. You can't do that. That's not how you would read any other book. You can't make it literal and then allegory and then literal again. There has to be a consistent approach. The psalmist here talks about how he has been taught God's word. And he's been taught it by God himself. He says, my lips shall utter praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes. That's the work of the Holy Spirit, speaking through the word of God. How God speaks through his word into our lives. And that's going to come as we have that consistent walk with the Lord, as we're crying out to the Lord, as we're consistently seeking God to speak to our hearts through his word. You're not going to get that in any consistent pattern if you can just take or leave scripture. If you can just set it aside and then think you can pick it up and open it on a page. You know the way there's the old story about people looking for God's will and they lift their Bible and they just flick it open and they read the first verse that comes to them. God can work like that, by the way. But it doesn't mean that that is the consistent pattern for studying Scripture or knowing Scripture. The Spirit of God will speak through the consistent study of the Word of God. Sometimes whenever I'm in the study, I might see something that I've never seen before and never truly grasped it before, maybe never really noticed it before. You know how you read a passage of Scripture, you can read it 100 times and you come to it the 101st time and you see something you've never seen before. God's speaking through his word and showing us things from his word. And sometimes I'm in the study and then when that happens to me and it's something that really grabs me, I'll come out and I'll find the first person that I can find in the house to tell what it is that I've been studying. And what it is that I've come to understand or come to realize that I've never realized or never really understood before. And to see when that happens, it's a joy to my heart. I love it when God's Word is speaking. The Word of God is a ready teacher as we seek to be taught by the Holy Spirit. And in light of that, the psalmist here says, when thou hast taught me thy statutes, let's turn this verse 171 around. When thou hast taught me thy statutes, my lips shall utter praise. As God's speaking through His Word, how we will praise Him. And the Word of God should lead us to praise. The Word of God should cause us to lift our voices and to sing. The word that's translated as utter there in verse 171, it literally means to pour forth. It's like a fountain. We were on holiday last summer, and we were in Gdansk, and there's a fountain on the main street of the old town of Gdansk, it's called Neptune's Fountain, and it's a replica of one that's found, I think it's in Milan in Italy, I think it's Milan, can't remember, but anyway, it's a replica. But when the water's flowing out of that fountain, the water just pours out, it just flows out. And this picture here of my lip shall utter praise, it's the thought of a fountain that's in view. that we overflow with praise to our God. We overflow as he's teaching us from his word and as we learn more and more to hear him speak through his word and to depend upon his word. And as we're doing that, we'll speak of his word. My tongue shall speak of thy word. And we'll declare the righteousness of God for all thy commandments are righteousness. Psalmists in difficulty here. Seems to be anyway, as you put the whole passage together. And while he's in difficulty, he's still finding something to praise the Lord about. He's still finding something to rejoice in. He's still finding something that causes him to speak of God's word. See, it's Spurgeon writing about this section says, God's tender mercies are such that they may be either said or sung. When the tongue speaks of God's word, it has its most fruitful subject. It's true that we can talk about many things. We can talk about all sorts of things, can't we? We most like to talk about the things that interest us. Sometimes we talk about things that we shouldn't. And sometimes we use the gift of speech that God has given to us and we use it to grumble, we use it to complain, we use it to criticise, we use it to gossip. The psalmist here is in difficulty, but the psalmist says, my lips shall utter praise. My tongue shall speak of thy word. I wonder, in light of what we have learned from God's word, as we have studied God's word, and even as we've gone through this whole psalm, and as we know how the commandments of God are righteous, and how his statutes teach us and his word delivers us and his word leads us, I wonder, how we employ our words in our daily lives. Now we can set this back and we must set this back into the context of salvation. And of course we have so much to praise the Lord for there, don't we? His delivering power because he's redeemed us. We have so much then to tell others about. We are those who have the gospel at work in our lives. It's worked out our salvation, but it's still working in our lives as we've been saved. Our lips should pour forth with his praise. Tell what he has done for us. We sometimes sing that hymn, tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord. The last verse of that hymn finishes by speaking about the glories of his word. Tell out my soul the glories of his word. Are we telling out the glories of his word? The glories of his salvation, the greatness of what he has done. We have a great savior and we have opportunity each and every day to tell others about him. My lips shall utter praise and my tongue shall speak of thy word. We have our supplication, we have our song. I want you to see then in the next three verses our salvation. Verse 173. Let thine hand help me for I have chosen thy precepts. I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord, and thy law is my delight. Let my soul live and it shall praise thee and let thy judgments help me. You see the psalmist here first of all call out for help. Let thine hand help me. Just cast your eye across. It might be on the same page, or it might be on the next page in your Bible, but if you look across to Psalm 121, and we know this verse so well. I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. Psalm is there in Psalm 121. Many believe that the Psalm is there is Hezekiah and he's in the city of Jerusalem. And of course, Jerusalem is on an elevated site in the Judean mountains. And it's believed that this Psalm, Psalm 121 was written in response to the invasion of the Assyrians under the command of Sennacherib. Hezekiah, sometimes we misunderstand this. Hezekiah wasn't looking for help from the hills or from the mountains. He was lifting his eyes beyond the mountains. There was mountains and hills surrounding all around the city of Jerusalem. But he was lifting his eyes beyond the mountains. He's saying, is my help gonna come from the hills? He says, no, my help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth, which made heaven and earth. He's lifting his eyes up beyond the mountains. He's elevating his view to the one who his help would come from. He's looking to the Lord. He's looking up and he's calling out for help. So we have the psalmist here in Psalm 119 verse 173. And he knows his help comes from God. He says, let thine hand help me. for I have chosen thy precepts. He's placed his trust, his dependence, and his faith upon the word of God and upon the hand of God. And so that's why in verse 174 then he calls out, I have longed for thy salvation. That word longed, we know what it is to long for something. He's speaking about an intense desire And that salvation that he's desiring, it only comes from God. I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord. And then in verse 175, we see a call for life. He says, let my soul live and it shall praise thee. So let's put those three verses together now. To get an understanding of what the psalmist is saying in this little section, he says, Lord, I need your help. I call out for your salvation. That's where I find life. That's what these three verses say. Lord, I need your help. I'm longing for your salvation. Let my soul live. That's where life is. Do we see in this little section here a picture of the work of the cross that we called out for help because we had an enemy who was mighty, an enemy that was too strong for us, that was our sin, we were held captive by our sin, we can't do anything about it ourselves, and so we call out to the one who can give the help, the one who is our God, and we came for help to him. And God had already made provision at the cross. He had already made provision for those who cry out for help through the cross of Calvary, through the work of His Son, and through that redemptive plan whereby we experience that forgiveness of sins. That's our experience tonight. We're saved. Our sin has been dealt with. That ought to be the experience of all of us, that when we acknowledge, we recognize that we were helpless ourselves, and we needed the help of God, and we called to the Lord, and we sought His salvation, and when we got His salvation, we received life. Eternal life. Let my soul live. We can say with assurance tonight that our soul will live. And we can say that because we trust in the promises of God. We trust in the assurance of what God's word says, not because we brought anything to this. Not because we brought anything into this transaction at all. We are simply saved by faith in the finished work of the cross. We simply called out by faith to the one who could save us. And so because that's our experience, There's a response that we see here. The psalmist says, thy law is my delight. Verse 174. He says, my soul shall praise thee. And then he says, let thy judgments help me. Thy law is my delight. My soul shall praise thee. let thy judgments help me. Do we truly delight in God's word. Do we see it as something that's necessary, that it's our necessary food for living? Are we those who are seeking to constantly and consistently learn from it and to live according to it? And in light of that, in light of the fact that the law, the word of God is our delight, and in light of the fact that we have received the salvation, we have the psalmist here, in all of this trouble that he's in, he has confidence. And he can continue with this attitude of praise. Let my soul live and it shall praise thee. That's a perpetual praise. That's an ongoing praise. It's something that should be evident in our lives at all times. Charles Bridges was a contemporary preacher shortly before the time really of Charles Spurgeon. Charles Bridges wrote a commentary on Psalm 119. Spurgeon. commented on it that it was worth its weight in gold. And in regard to that final clause of verse 175, let thy judgments help me, Bridges wrote these words. He says, give me such an enlightened apprehension of your word, of your character and your perfections as the God of my salvation, so that my daily exercise may be giving thanks always for all things. unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Is that our desire? That we would give thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's our supplication, there's our song, there's our salvation. But then we come to verse 176, and the psalmist just brings it all together. We can all see ourselves here. We see our shepherd. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant, for I do not forget thy commandments. You know, as we come to this concluding verse, and as I say, I believe the psalmist is Daniel, we could do A whistle-stop character review of Daniel, just to finish off here. A man that we read of in the Bible, whose life was generally marked by faithfulness. Whenever you read the life of Daniel, even in the most difficult of circumstances, his life is marked by faithfulness. He's taken into captivity as a young man, and his response was faithfulness to God. Then when he faced death regarding the interpretation of the dream in Daniel chapter two, because Nebuchadnezzar was so angry that no one could interpret the dream, that he had given a command that all the wise men be killed and Daniel was counted with them. But even in the face of that, Daniel, as he sought the Lord, demonstrated faithfulness and God honored that. Then we come on a few chapters and we see him brought before Belshazzar many years later. He's really been forgotten about. Belshazzar has his own advisors, and the armies of the Medo-Persian Empire are outside the walls of Babylon, and Daniel is inside there, and the empire's about to fall. And Daniel doesn't shrink away from telling Belshazzar the truth. Faithfulness in the face of opposition. And then he's tested by Darius or by the princes actually regarding his testimony and his faithfulness in terms of prayer because the writing was signed. And the pattern of his life was faithfulness. And then because he was faithful in that, then he's taken and he's cast into the den of lions. And yet the pattern of his life was still faithfulness. And we could be forgiven for thinking that Daniel never had a moment of weakness, never had a moment of doubt, and never failed. We could be forgiven for thinking that because of what we learn from the stories, even as children, from our scriptures. But yet we know that he was just a man. And we know that he was therefore not perfect. And he clearly had times of weak faith and weakness in his walk. And I think this closing verse of Psalm 119 tells us that. I have, it's in the past tense, by the way, in the original. It's talking about the past. I have gone astray like a lost sheep. There's an acknowledgement of this reality that he could easily wander away from the Lord. He's done it in the past. And he's looking back at a time or perhaps times when this was his real experience. As I say, it's in the past tense. It's not where he presently is. I believe it's here as a warning to the reader. Even in light of all the dependence upon the word of God, which he has sought, which he has studied, which he has lived out throughout his life. He has failed at times. But in the time of failure, the one who was his saviour was also the shepherd. He says, I've gone astray like a lost sheep. And then he calls out, he says, seek thy servant. He's the good shepherd. It's a lovely picture for all of us to remember. We know that we can all fail. We know we can all fall. Paul reminded the believers in Corinth of that truth. He says, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed. lest he fall. And then he went on, he said, there hath no temptation taken you, but such is common to men. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tested or tempted above that you are able. We're reminded in this final verse of the psalm of the assurance that we can have that the Lord is our shepherd, that he will seek after his own. that he will seek his servant. The story of the lost sheep reminds us of the love of the shepherd for the sheep. I think sometimes when we think of the story of the lost sheep, we use it in the gospel, and we probably can use it in the gospel, but it's a sheep that has gone astray. It's gone off out into the mountains, and the shepherd sought after the sheep. And here we have the Psalmist saying, I have gone astray like a lost sheep. Seek thy servant. In Psalm 95 in verse seven, there are words which remind us of this truth. The Psalmist says, for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. And that's repeated again in Psalm 100 in verse three. Know ye that the Lord, he is God. It is he that hath made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. He's our shepherd. And that's a comfort to the believer. There's a final reminder here of how it all works for the follower of God. Because the psalmist has emphasised through this psalm on at least 169 of the 176 verses the word of God is mentioned in some form. And the psalmist doesn't forget that at the very end. He concludes this psalm with a final declaration about what the sheep are to do with the word of God. I do not forget thy commandments. Do not forget thy commandments. Thomas Brooks said, there's a great difference between the sheep that by weakness falls into the mire and the swine that delights to wallow in the mire. We're sheep. Sometimes we fall into the mire. We have a shepherd who lifts us out, who keeps us, who guards us. And according to his word, he guides us We are shaped by promise of a sovereign God. And we are assured of that because of his precious word, which is truth. And so, that's why we hold on to this truth. That's why this book is so precious. And that's how it all fits together. We do not forget his commandments. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Father in heaven, we do thank you tonight once again for your precious word. We thank you, Father, for all that your word teaches us. Help us not to forget it. Lord, help us to build our lives upon how you have instructed us to live as believers. Or we think of those words that we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter five that we will consider on Sunday morning as believers who know that we are saved, that we are to rejoice evermore. We are to be a prayerful people. Lord, we are to be a people who give thanks in everything. We have so much to give thanks for. Lord, we have so much to rejoice over because you have redeemed us. You have saved us. You're keeping us. You're leading us. You've given us your word. And Lord, you will take us safe home. And the sheep will one day be in the fold. with the Great Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd. And Father, we rejoice in that truth. Bless us now as we come to our season of prayer and undertake for us we ask in our Savior's precious name. Amen.