Now then, let's essentially pick up where we left off this morning, turning to Daniel chapter 1 on page 1018 and verse 8. Daniel 1 verse 8, but Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank. Therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." So in the opening part of verse 8, Daniel purposed in his heart. In the latter part of the verse, he requested of the Chief Eunuchs. He purposed and now he requested. Now we were looking this morning at how Daniel responded to the third test that's presented before him in Chapter 1. It was different from the other two. It put him to the test as to whether he would keep God's law or whether he would break it. So it was a test of faithfulness. Of course, as we saw, the commandment wasn't the biggest commandment in God's word by any manner of means. It was a food law. But nonetheless, faithfulness to God is faithfulness to God, period. And Daniel resolved, of course, that he would not break God's command. And in looking at the response, we saw really that you could see the response in a two-fold way. First of all, there is the inward response, the response of his heart. We're told that he purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself. Or literally in the Hebrew, he laid it on his heart. So he took God's word and used it to discipline his heart. As we saw in the morning, the command center of your being. He took it under the word of God and he resolved to live his life in obedience to that word. And I think that that would have given him peace. I made a reference in the morning to how Christ prayed himself into peace in the Garden of Gethsemane, through a determination to do his Father's will, even if a part of him would desire that the cup would pass away from him. But his sheer determination to do his Father's will eventually took his heart into peace. And I believe that Daniel had great peace about the course of action that he was going to take, even if it would lead to his death. But I reminded you in the morning of that children's chorus, dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose firm, and dare to make it known. And of course, that leads us to this. It's one thing to resolve a thing in your heart, a course of action, but of course he's got to follow it through. He has to do that. And so the question arises, how is he going to carry it through? What's he going to do about it? He's made a decision. How is he going to reveal it? How is he going to implement it? Now, can I say, first of all, that the text says nothing about prayer as such. It's not mentioned. But I think we can assume that Daniel prayed over the matter. I'm sure he asked guidance in connection with what to do. No, I don't think he asked any guidance in connection with whether he should eat the food or not. The reason for that is that God's word told him that he shouldn't eat the food. And you should never waste your time praying about what God has clearly revealed. Some people do that. Especially if they want to break a command, they find a reason to pray about it, and suddenly they feel that God has laid it on their heart to go against what the Bible actually teaches. I see that quite often. So he wouldn't have prayed for any guidance about that. He had God's word to direct him. But he would have asked guidance about how to take his stand and what course of action to take, how to go about it. He would also have prayed for strength to follow through what he knows to be right. I mean, knowing something to be right and being determined to do it and actually doing it are different things. He needs strength to carry it through, especially if he meets opposition. He needs wisdom to know how to speak, to whom to speak, and what way to speak. After all, although he's prepared to be a martyr, martyrdom isn't his first option. It's nobody's. Nobody should want that to be a first option. God made us to live, and God made us to enjoy life. It's not right to wish your days away. We're here for a purpose. And part of that purpose is living to the glory of God. And he would rather live to the glory of God in Babylon than die a martyr. Although he's prepared to die a martyr, so martyrdom's not his first option. What does he do then? Well, we're told simply at the end of verse eight that he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. He requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Two things, very basic. First of all, he makes a request. He doesn't make a demand. He doesn't make a big noise. And he doesn't bang on about his rights, minority rights, minority liberties, which Christians should not be talking about. We should never be wanting our own rights and liberties as a minority group. That's never our business. Daniel doesn't do that either. He simply asks for something. He recognises that the people above him probably don't even know the food laws. And that's quite important, is it not? If the issue was something to do with thou shalt not kill or thou shalt not commit adultery, he could at least expect that the people would know these things because the law of God is written in their own hearts and they have a conscience. They've heard of the law of God. It's in their conscience. But they're not likely to have heard about what food was appropriate to eat, what food was legal to eat and illegal. So he respects that. And it's good, basically, to respect the ignorance of other people. I mean, to respect it in a certain way. There's one way in which we should never respect ignorance, but there's another way in which we must respect it, in the sense that it's there, and there's sometimes a reason for it being there. He also recognizes the relationship in which he stands to the chief of the eunuchs. The chief of the eunuchs in God's providence has been placed over him. He is accountable to him and he's going to acknowledge that. He's going to be respectful in the way in which he treats the chief of the eunuchs. The chief of the eunuchs interestingly notices that and we're told in verse nine that God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs. I think that only happens because Daniel is kind and courteous, careful and considerate. What Christians should be, even when we take our stand. When we're in Babylon, when we take our stand in Babylon, let's take it like that. Now it doesn't guarantee that the chief of the eunuchs will always be nice to you. but we should always conduct ourselves in a way that would encourage them to be like that. So he asks. Now if you find yourself confronted with something that you can't do, just ask. Don't make a noise, ask. You'll notice also very simply that he doesn't simply ask, but that he offers an explanation too. Because we're told that he requested, again this is the end of verse 8, that he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself. Now that tells us that he told the chief of the eunuchs the reason why he couldn't take the food. He didn't just request that he might not eat it, but that he might not defile himself. So he explained that we worship the Lord, Jehovah, who we believe is the great creator of the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. And that he has given us a law, and part of that law involves eating certain foods and not eating others. And if I eat this food, I am breaking God's command. He's honest about it. And there's surely a basic lesson there for ourselves, too. I mean, it might be tempting if you were in this situation to say, look, let's say you followed the first part of it and you made a simple request and you said, well, can I please be excused from eating the king's food? And then your courage wilts a bit and you say, because it's a bit rich and it tends to come back on me. Well, that's not really the issue, is it? He explains that it defiles him as a believer in God. So he's honest about that. And again, you see, there's something in that that commends itself too. I mean, the person you're speaking to might not really be sympathetic or might not really understand your religious position, but again, they may respect your willingness to articulate it peacefully. and to make a request on the basis of it. And you'll notice, you see, that God has gone before Daniel here and put someone in a position who is actually favorable towards him. That's the kind of thing God can do. We see him doing it elsewhere, too. I mean, some of you may remember immediately how Joseph ended up being bought as a slave in Egypt and being bought by someone in Potiphar's household who was high up in Pharaoh's administration. And we're told that when Joseph was taken to Potiphar's house that immediately Potiphar favored him. He was attracted again to the integrity and the, it's an old word, but it's a good word, to the winsome godliness. which is inclined to win some, too, for God. He was inclined to the winsome godliness of this man. Even when the situation went very badly wrong in Potiphar's house and Joseph ended up being falsely accused of trying to sleep with Potiphar's wife, when Joseph found himself in the dungeon, again we're told that God put him in the favor of the keeper of the dungeon. It's remarkable, you see, how God puts people into position. We sang there in Psalm 75, and we sing it quite often, but we don't think about it often enough, how God raises one up and casts another down. He puts someone in your office here. He puts someone above you there. He puts someone beside you there. And you get tokens here and there. Even when things go against you, I bet you get tokens that God's with you. Because that particular chapter, which tells us twice emphatically that God put people into position that were favorable to Joseph, also tells us in the same verses that the Lord was with Joseph. So you get tokens of God with you by who he puts where and how they respond. And sometimes we're surprised, but we ought not to be. So it's a good model, I think, to follow in Babylon. Make your request and offer an explanation. Now, I don't know to what extent Daniel expected his request to be granted. I'm sure he hoped that the chief eunuch would accept his request. I'm certainly sure that he prayed that the chief eunuch would accept his request. But it's also very plain that he was disappointed. The chief eunuch essentially said no. He says it very apologetically. He says, look, I fear my lord the king. I suppose, in a way, that's where the difference comes out between this man and Daniel, who's in his charge. Daniel, in his charge, could easily be, in a few moments of time, hacked to pieces for his disobedience, but Daniel fears the Lord, the King. He has sanctified the Lord God in his heart, and he is able to give a reason to anyone who asks for the hope that is in him. On the other hand, this man, kind as he is, ultimately fears the king. It's Nebuchadnezzar that matters to him. He is the supreme authority. We read a passage in the morning where Jesus said, well, he said effectively, it's all about who you fear in this world. It's all about who you ultimately fear and who you ultimately respect. Jesus said, don't be afraid of people who can just kill your body. And when they kill your body, they've got nothing else they can do. Rather, he says, fear him who, after he has killed the body, has power to cast both body and soul into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear him. I've come across more than one person who explained that this way, that Christ was telling us to fear the devil. That's not what he's telling us to do at all. He's telling us to fear God. He is the one who has the power to cast both body and soul into hell. It's all about who you fear in life. Who do you fear? Whose opinion do you respect the most? Whose judgment do you respect the most? Whose judgment and sentence do you fear? Is it the assessment of the world? Your superiors, your bosses, your peers? Is it their opinion that matters? Is that what's really guiding your life? No. Don't fear men. Fear God. But the fact of the matter is, that the chief eunuch said no. And I don't want you to pass that by without understanding that that was a crushing disappointment to Daniel. After all, the fact that God had put him in favor with the chief eunuch would have encouraged Daniel to think that the chief eunuch would grant the request, really. Sometimes we can reason like that. We can say, well, God has given me favor in the eyes of such a person. Surely his reason for doing that is to allow this. And so we make a prayer and an earnest prayer, and God doesn't answer it. He doesn't grant its crave. He says, no, I believe Daniel would be cast down and discouraged. It's a bit like this, we sometimes say to God, well, I took a stand for you and I really needed your help and intervention at this point and I haven't got it. Do you ever feel yourself that God has let you down after you stood for him? You expected him to do something for you because you did something for him. But I want you to note what Daniel does and what he doesn't do. First of all, he doesn't make a public fuss about this. Again, had he done so, I've no doubt it would have been recorded. I'm quite sure he's sympathetic to the Chief Eunuch's position. He knows he's in a difficult situation, he can understand that. He doesn't agree with his decision, he leaves it be. He's not interested in making the chief eunuch's position difficult. He just accepts it as God's will that this isn't the way out. But you'll notice that he does try something else. He approaches his group tutor. who's a step lower in the authority scale. In fact, we're told that he has direct responsibility for these four young men, probably not exclusively these four, but inclusively these four. A small group tutor who's responsible immediately for their diet, and he proposes this famous 10-day trial, a control test, the first recorded control test in history. Just let us, he says, go 10 days on pulse. And the expression here in Hebrew is that, really. It's a pulse diet. And judge for yourself, he says, after the 10 days. I just leave it to you. Just give us 10 days. Now, I think it's probably fair to ask where this idea came from. You may say, well, he probably got it directly from God. in a dream or vision of some kind. But we should never suppose that, really. Dreams and visions are things that have their own time and their own place, but they're very rare things. And really, if God had revealed this to him in a dream or a vision, again, we would expect the Bible to say so, that God told him that he should go to this person and do such and such a thing. But it doesn't say that the Lord told him. Where then does he get the idea? Well, I think it comes from what we would call simply prayerful and spiritual reflection. Prayerful and spiritual reflection. In other words, he thinks about his situation and he takes it prayerfully to God. The taking it prayerfully to God part is important because our own thinking and reflection is rubbish. It's just our own wisdom. And sometimes when people say that they act according to sanctified common sense, you've heard that phrase. I understand it, but to be honest, I don't like it really all that much. The reason I don't particularly like it all that much is because people often use it as a way of saying, well, I didn't really ask any particular guidance about it at all. I just did what I thought best. Well, Prayerful reflection is far better. It's not what you think is a good way out of a situation, but take it to God. Say to God, I really don't know how to move forward in this situation. You've shut the door. Please show me how it opens. But my point is that God usually shows us these things through the process of our reasoning. Just through thinking and reflecting. Doesn't require a dream or a vision or a text, but it's more than sanctified common sense. It is a prayerful reflection upon the situation. And he suggests this trial. What does he think the trial is going to reveal? Well, I don't know. I don't know if he knows. What was his expectation? I think it's something like this. If God wants me to live and to witness in Babylon, he's got to intervene. He's got to help. He's got to show himself somehow in this situation. If he blesses this trial, fine. If he makes me appear at least as good and healthy as the rest of the people in this course in Babylon in the university, fine. If not, I'm in God's hands. I'm going to be cut to bits. Fine. That's God's will. It's a bit like his three friends in chapter three. We'll come to this, but you know the story well anyway. When they were about to be cast into the fiery furnace, Nebuchadnezzar has a kind of affection for them. He's certainly got a respect for them. And, you know, he can't believe that they're refusing to bow down in front of the image. And he's giving them every opportunity just to bow down in front of the image. And Nebuchadnezzar is effectively saying, look, I've got the power to cast you into the furnace. Do you not understand that? I've got the power of life and death over you. Notice, that's exactly what Jesus says, fearing man who has the power to kill the body, sometimes to kill it very violently and painfully. How did the three men answer Nebuchadnezzar? We'll come to it in due season. But they said, God is able to deliver us from this furnace. And he will deliver us from your hand. But listen, God is able to deliver us from this furnace. But if not, we will not bow down. In other words, that's it. And I think that's the way Daniel was. If God wishes to bless this experiment, so be it. But either way, I'm not eating the food from the king's table. That's the kind of attitude God wants from you. That's the kind of commitment that's needed from Christians in the 21st century. Not compromise, but resolve. But quiet, determined, honest, respectful resolve. This time, you'll notice he gets a favorable response. God opens the door, and this subordinate official decides to agree. Now, in a way, it's hard to account for why he agrees. I mean, if that was yourself, you might say, well, I'm not risking this. If they look terrible, and if I'm asked what the reason is, am I going to explain that I gave him pulse for 10 days? But you see the heart. of the king is in the hand of the Lord like a river of water, and he turns it." See, God can turn hearts. He can make people well disposed to you who have not been well disposed to you. We're not told that this man had a particular affection for Daniel, but yet he gave what Daniel asked for. The other man did have an affection, but he didn't give it. You see, we can be wrong in these matters. And maybe that's why God shows such sovereignty. In other words, he's telling us just not to be bound by these things, not to try and prejudge every situation. Don't say, well, I'm not going to ask this because this person isn't in favor of me. Don't think like that. Just lay it before the person and see what God does. So the 10-day experiment takes place. And what happens? In verse 15, famously at the end of 10 days, their features appeared better, healthier, better looking, and fatter in flesh than all the young men who ate the portion of the king's delicacies. Is that a miracle? Well, I don't know. I suppose in some ways it depends what you mean by a miracle. Even if it is a miracle, perhaps it's not the kind of miracle you think it is. When we eat our food, we say, or at least I hope we say, grace. That word grace can also mean thanks. That emphasizes the fact that we give thanks when we eat food. That's one emphasis in our prayer. We thank God that we receive it. Our graces can sometimes maybe be just a bit perfunctory and just done for the sake of doing it. I hope not. We should always, for however brief a time, be genuinely thankful that we have what's in front of us. But thanking God is only one part of the grace. Most of you will possibly use a form of words that emphasizes another part of the grace. For example, you will ask God to bless the food to the needs of our bodies. Do you use that phrase, or are you familiar with such a phrase? Bless it to our body's needs. What are you saying when you say that? At least when you think about it, what are you saying? Well, you're not taking it for granted that it will be used for the nourishment and benefit of your body. You're asking that God would create a correspondence there between what you really need and what that food is able to provide. God might not bless your food to you. You could take the good and the best and the richest food and it may not be blessed for your body's good. What happens clearly here is that God blesses that vegetable diet to them, and he doesn't bless the diet in the same way to the rest. Why? Because he chooses so to do. The rest have not thanked him properly. They've not sought his will. Why should he bless the food to them? Why should God bless the food to you? Why should he bless the food to you who never ask him for a blessing? Why should he make something nourish your body when you've never really thanked him for what he's given you? Sometimes, I mean, we accuse God. Well, I don't. But people accuse God of unrighteousness, unfairness in all his dealings. And yet we receive so much from God. You receive it and you expect him to bless your body, to nourish you, to make you well. But you never thanked him really. You never asked him properly to bless it to your body's needs. But this is what he does here. He just blesses the food to them. And at the end of the program, at the end of the 10 days, they actually look healthier. than the other. Now this isn't a vegetarian's charter. This isn't meant to be some kind of proof that it's better to be a vegetarian than a meat-eater. In fact, some of us were discussing around some of these issues today after lunch. God gave meat for a purpose. When the fall had ravaged the world, when God recreated the earth after the flood, he entered into a covenant with the earth, which is to last until the second coming. And part of the covenant with the earth is that meat was given to eat. Clearly, vegetables were the diet at the beginning, that's true. But the meat that was given to eat was given for a purpose. It was obviously given to man in his new condition as a fallen man struggling in a fallen world. There was something to be found now in meat, some kind of nourishment that was good for him. So the Lord gave that permission. So this is not about it's better to eat vegetables than meat. I mean, Daniel would have been very happy to eat meat if it hadn't been defiled. It's always the motive that matters. Why do you eat what you eat? In what spirit do you eat it? Are you thankful for what you eat? That's the point, you see. And God blessed it to him, but he did not bless it to the rest. Because God's making a point. God's making a point. The point he's making is that he is honoring those who are honoring him. And God will always make that point. He makes that point in a different way sometimes. But he always makes the point that them that honor me, I will honor. And interestingly, on the basis of the trial, the junior steward simply reassigns the food. He takes the dietary portion away, the delicacies away, and he gives them vegetables to eat. And one way or another, God certainly will honor them that honor him. And a godly resolve To keep God's commandments in difficulty will bring a special favor from the Lord. And I want you to notice that here. Notice first that God blessed their studies. In verse 17, we're told that as for these four young men, God gave them knowledge and skill in literature and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams. Now, I mentioned in the morning that the last verse of the chapter seems misplaced. We're told there that Daniel continued until he was in his early 80s, the first year of King Cyrus. But I explained why it only seems misplaced. It's not actually misplaced. There was a reason for that verse being there. Now here's another verse that seems a bit misplaced. Why are we told in the middle of this particular narrative at verse 17 that God gave them knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom, especially when it goes on to emphasize that kind of thing a little bit later on in verse 20? Well, I think the reason is that there's something of a reward in verse 17. There's something of a reward. This verse is tied into the refusal as a way of saying that God has heard their refusal. God has noted their stand for himself. And God gave them special knowledge and skill in literature and wisdom. That simply means that they were good students. in the course that they were given. They learned the language well, which I mentioned already is a near-impossible language to learn. It takes people years and years and years to learn it. And they learned the literature. They learned the studies, the astrology, everything that there was to learn. You'll notice it's God-given. None of it is what you would call miraculous as such, but it's God-given nonetheless. You should be thankful for any ability and aptitude that God has given to yourself to prosper in your studies. You shouldn't divorce that from God. Keep honoring God in your studies. Keep giving the Sabbath its rightful place. Keep giving the worship of God its rightful place. God his rightful place. And God will bless you too, certainly with wisdom and understanding. I don't know what God will open and shut for you in terms of doors of no idea, but he will certainly bless you with wisdom and understanding. Daniel, you'll notice, is given a special gift of understanding in visions and dreams. That is a miraculous thing. It's not ordinary intellect that God gave to Daniel. He actually gave him the gift of interpreting dreams. Not just any old dream. We'll come to that in chapter two. But dreams that are sent by God himself with a particular meaning. Visions and dreams had their place in God's revelation. And Daniel was given the spirit to interpret them. Now I think there again you see that in this verse that's something in the way of a reward. It's an acknowledgement that Daniel led the way in this. that Daniel was the one who was most involved in taking this stand and was the greatest encouragement to the rest. God acknowledged that. He always has his own way of doing that. And you'll notice that after three years, Nebuchadnezzar personally examines them. Now, this reminds us that this is an elite group in the Babylonian University. They are personally examined by the king, who was himself a very able man, and they are found to be ten times better, not just than the other students, but than the other astrologers and wise men in the land. Now, ten times better is just an idiomatic expression. You're not meant to take from expressions like that that they are exactly ten times better than all the rest. That's a foolish way of interpreting scripture. It's simply a proverbial way of saying that they are miles ahead of everybody else. head and shoulders above them. God has stamped them like that. First class honors they've got. They would say in America, magna cum laude, with great honor, great praise. And therefore, at verse 19, we're told that they served before the king. The king took them into his administration, into his government. God's at work here, you see. Strange the way sometimes God just goes into enemy territory, right to the bowels, right to the heart, and starts a process that begins to undermine from the inside. He took Moses, you see, and put him right into Pharaoh's household in a way that you would never expect. And there the movement begins that will liberate the people of God. ready to serve the king. Now, before I leave this, I want to emphasize something to you. I said that this kind of resolution, which lies at the heart of this course of action, I mean, what lies at the heart of the course of action is the resolution of the heart that we looked at in the morning, the importance of resolving in your heart. I mentioned that this resolution is vital at the beginning of the Christian life, and it's vital at every kind of trial that comes, that you lay it upon your heart that you will obey God. And I mentioned Jonathan Edwards as somebody who made resolutions. He made 70 of them before he was 20, and he kept revisiting them every single week of his life. But there is, of course, another Jonathan Edwards, is there not? Some of you will know this one better than you know the other one. And what I've got to say about him, I say with sorrow. I say it with sorrow. He is, of course, a man who is currently active, a man very much alive, a sports presenter, a well-known sports presenter, still holds the world record for the triple jump, set it in 1995. There aren't many athletic records that last that long. He was a world champion and Olympic champion, and he was once famous for his resolve as an evangelical Christian. In fact, he pulled out of the world championships in 1991 because of the Lord's Day, which was a great resolve to have and a great stand to make. And I'm quite sure, in fairness, that there were a hundred Christian sportsmen who told him he was a fool for doing so. But sadly, Just a couple of years after that, in 1993, now I can't remember this, and I couldn't get to the bottom of it, I can't remember if it was himself who had the dream or if a friend had a dream in which he was being told to compete and to compete on the Lord's Day. Again, you see, the argument is a bit like the one that we looked at last week, you see. It's a small issue. In the grand scheme of things, it's a small issue. And the doors that'll open are, of course, far greater if you just do the thing, if you just do it. Now, I've no doubt that maybe somebody did see a dream, whether it was himself or the person who told him. But what you really need to be discriminating about is who's the author of the dream. Dreams can arise, as the book of Ecclesiastes tells us, just through a strained nature, if you're under stress and so on. But the devil is as able to give a dream as the Lord. Well, I shouldn't say as able, but you understand what I mean. He's quite able, I should say, quite able to give a dream, too. We're told, too, that he can be an angel of light. Should Jonathan Edwards have not really asked, what this dream meant, if it happened at all. Because here you go, you see, you don't ask guidance, and you don't accept guidance from something that cuts across the word of God. That's the first principle. That's what I said at the beginning. Daniel does not need to ask guidance about whether he eats food from the king's table. It doesn't matter how many Christians, so-called, are telling him to eat it. He doesn't need to ask guidance. Jonathan Edwards decided that the dream was God's voice. And so he began to compete on the Lord's Day. What happened then? Well, most of you know that famously in 2007, he renounced his faith very publicly. And he says that it is highly improbable in his eyes that there is a God. Now when I say that I say that with sorrow, I mean I genuinely mean it. It's a grievous thing that really. It's a grievous thing to find that in somebody who had actually stood, who had actually stood. But that's my point, you see. Much as it's true, as I said this morning, much as it's true that an early resolve like Daniel made is the best kind of resolution to get your life in a straight line and going in a straight direction, it doesn't really guarantee anything. The resolve has to be made in the right way for the right reasons. And at the end of the day, only time reveals that. Time and the trials and the testings of this life, they reveal that. You've got to resolve and you've got to keep resolving and not give in to the spirit of compromise. Daniel resolved, these young men resolved, and God honored that. So he's taken them into the circle of government. And it will be interesting to see what God does from there. Let us pray. Lord, our gracious God, we pray for grace to resolve and to resolve well. And we pray to be those who keep on. We are not of those who draw back and to perdition. but of those who press on to the saving of the soul. We pray to learn the example of these four godly young men. And we pray to remember that in one way or another, you will always honor those who honor you. And you will bring to nothing those who deny you. We ask your blessing on our meditation on these things. praying for grace to apply them to our own lives. For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. And it is as relevant to us today as it was to those to whom it was first spoken. Bless us, then, we ask in Christ's name. Amen. Our last singing from God's Word is in Psalm 31 on page 243. And we sing to the tune St. Lawrence. Psalm 31, page 243. And at verse 21, All praise and thanks be to the Lord, for he has magnified his wondrous love to me within a city fortified. Now Babylon was certainly a fortified city, but God can display his love even there. For from thine eyes cut off I am, I in my haste had said. We sometimes feel that and we need to check ourselves. Cities like that are not beyond God's reach. My voice yet heardst thou when to thee with cries my moan I made. O love the Lord, all ye his saints, because the Lord doth guard the faithful, and he plenteously proud doers doth reward. Be of good courage, and his strength unto your heart shall send. All ye whose hope and confidence doth on the Lord depend. So these four stanzas, let's stand to sing them. All praise and thanks be to the Lord, for he hath magnified, its wondrous love to be within the city fortified. For from my eyes out of I am, I in my haste abstain. My voice yet hurts that went to Thee, with pride my moan I make. O love the Lord, all ye his saints, because the Lord doth guide the faithful, and he plenteously produres doth reward. Be of good courage and descend, until your heart shall send. All ye whose hope and confidence doth love the Lord depend. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.