Amen. Amen. You're welcome. On behalf of the Jung family, we extend a very hearty welcome to you all. We are very thankful for your support and comfort at this time, both yesterday and this morning as well, being present here in our midst. We also extend a warm welcome to those who are connected to our service via live stream. We would also like to thank the family in the Netherlands, who are also connected to the service here. We welcome you warmly. We hope you will be comforted, while your life is given a special price by the family here. Welcome. As we enter upon this service, we also confess that our help is in the name of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Amen. Let us seek the Lord in his throne of grace in prayer. Almighty God, Father in Heaven, we come before your throne of grace in prayer to thank you that we may know that you are here with us and for us. We thank you that we may be still before you, knowing that you are our fortress, the source of our strength in days of trouble, the source, also, of the rich comfort that we have, thanks to the work of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Father, we want to give thanks, first and foremost, for what you have given in Him to us. For He is the only name given under heaven by which we can be saved. And in your sovereign grace and love, you have saved Thibodeon. And you are coming to us as well with that word of salvation, that word of life, that word by which we can continue to live as also it is the word that was lived by in the past. It was central in the life of Chibbe and Ake. And so, their entire family, the extended family, also knows that word and can resort to that word. to find comfort, to find encouragement, to find strength. Father in heaven, we thank you for being there for your children, and having been there also for Chibbe and Akke in those years of their marriage, almost 65 years, and in the entire life of Chibbe de Jong for 88 years. You are our God, and we trust in you. You are the giver of all good. And therefore, this is an opportunity for thanksgiving, first and foremost. Thanksgiving, not only for what you have granted the family in these past years, in which the life of Chibbe was changed so much, mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, but not spiritually. for you were there all along, and any acknowledgment of faith or prayer or love, it was always agreed upon. Father, we thank you for having been there in these years, but at this time, we also thank you for what you have been all those years. Yes, indeed, you were so good as to provide PSWs to provide Genevieve an apron, to coordinate the care. You filled the children with love. Hendrik, from day to day, being there beside his father and mother, but also the girls taking turns, being there with all the love and affection of children for Haid and Mem. Father in heaven, this is your work. We acknowledge that it is your spirit who fills us with love, with affection, and who establishes the bond between parents and children, between grandparents and grandchildren, to the extent of great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren. For through the generations, you are the God who is faithful. And therefore, we give thanks to you for all that we may remember on a day like this. Memories that will also come along in the years to come. Memories in which we may remember Chibbe as a husband, as Haid, as Bake, as a man of vision, as a man of decision, as a man of leadership, as a man also who showed his affection to children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren alike. And we are thankful that you have worked this in his heart, that you have renewed his life, and that you have continued to be with him throughout all those years, as he now is with you and in the presence of our Savior. For whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's. And that's what fills us with thankfulness. For ultimately, it is all thanks to the Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ, that we have this life, that we have our faith, and that we share in all his benefits and merits. because we do not seek anything in ourselves, but we find it all in him, our savior. So it is also through him that we give thanks and praise to you and bless your holy name. Father in heaven, will you strengthen us and be with us. and bless us by your word and spirit. Also, as grandson Chibu will bring that word, and we pray that we may all receive that word in faith and unto repentance, that we may seek to honour and glorify your name more and more. In thanksgiving and praise, we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. In this service, we also take our focal point in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. "'Then we who are alive, who are left, "'will be caught up together with them in the clouds "'to meet the Lord in the air, "'and so we will always be with the Lord. "'Therefore, encourage one another with these words.'" That's our focal point. That's the purpose for this service, that we may be comforted and encouraged and find it outside of ourselves in Jesus Christ. Let us together sing from Psalm 84. O God of hosts, O God of grace, how lovely is thy holy place, how good and pleasant is thy dwelling. You find the text of this psalm in your bulletin. Oh, what a voice! Oh, what a grace! How lovely is thy holy face! How good and pleasant is thy flavor! May grace thy holy courts receive, With blessed palms and gifts excelling, Thy heart and hands cry out to God, To him I spend my ends of life. I'll strengthen, strengthen my children dear. Go forward till they all are free. ♪ In science for God's holy mountains ♪ ♪ O how delightful the praise ♪ ♪ The praises of those that sing thy praise ♪ ♪ Lenient for all to hear ♪ God our love will still give, O take us not in mercy here. O God, our shield and praise be thine, have redeemed. Holiness in thy house of grace is better than thy conciliation. Oh, Texas, sing with joy so great. O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, ♪ Now let souls that seek thy peace ♪ ♪ Now in this world, in truth and faith ♪ ♪ In goodness, faith, and faith alone ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, We will now together read Psalm 103 upon the request of Sister Aker de Jong. Psalm 103, which will also be the focal point for Chibbe Jr. to have his address afterwards. Psalm 103 of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pits, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. Bless the Lord, O you his angels, You mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. Bless the Lord, all His hosts, His ministers who do His will. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let us also together sing from Psalm 103, the stanzas 1, 5, and 6. You find it in the Trinity Psalter hymnal in the pew. Psalm 103c, stanza 1, 5, and 6. Come, my soul, and bless the Lord. ♪ Come, my soul, and bless the Lord. All within me bless his name. Come, my soul, and bless the Lord. All her sins the Lord forgives, all her sicknesses He heals. He redeems you from the pain, His compassion He reveals. The Father shows His love unto all His children dear. So the Lord displays His love to those trusting Him in fear. He remembers we are God's, and our people freely goes, as for him his wings are high, tender, rest, and fairly grows. ♪ Like a growing meadow flower ♪ ♪ When the wind blows it is gone ♪ ♪ And its place is no more ♪ ♪ But the steadfast love of God ♪ ♪ Strong to those who fear his name ♪ to eternity the same. I'd like to read those verses that we just sang one more time. Psalm 103 verses 13 through 19. This is the word of God. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. As for man, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. And its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. Let's pray for a moment. Our Father, you tell us that your Word is a living Word, that it is an active Word. And so we ask you that as your Word is proclaimed this morning, that it would do work, that it would demonstrate the power that you have imbued it with, that in your Word we may see our need our mortality, our weakness, our sin, but that in your word we might also see our Savior. And having seen the King in all his beauty, Father, may we be drawn to him, to Christ our Savior. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, Bepa asked that I Preach on Psalm 103, which begins with these words, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Now, this might, in a way, seem strange. We are gathered here this morning to lay to rest a man who was dear to all of us. This is a sad day because death has interrupted life, and this is not the way it's supposed to be. Death is a stranger. Death does not belong. Death is wrong. It's not good. It's not a friend. And yet, We come here and we sing and we read, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Even here. With a casket in front of us, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. And this is not some kind of wishful thinking as though by the power of enough positive thoughts and positive words, we could drive the negativity out of our hearts and out of our lives. No, it's nothing like that at all. David says, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. We don't praise the Lord and rejoice in the Lord because we are naive or because we deny that evil things have happened. We bless the Lord because, as David says, we know his benefits. The Psalms, almost more than any other book in the Bible, the Psalms are honest. They are honest. They are not naive. They don't color over the evil in the world. The psalms are honest, but they're not just honest about the negatives, about the state of the world, they're also honest about the positives, about the God who is making all things right and good and new once more. And so this psalm begins, if you will, with a digest of benefits rooted in who God is. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. My soul, you have iniquity. The psalm doesn't deny it. We are sinful people living in a sinful world. My soul, you have iniquity, but the Lord forgives all your iniquity. My soul, you have diseases. But the Lord heals all your diseases. My soul, you are dangling, as it were, above the pit. Above hell itself. But from there as well, God redeems your life from the pit. My soul, you are hungry and weak. You are helpless, you are empty and the world cannot fill you, but he, the Lord, he satisfies you with good. My soul, you grow old and weak. You cannot sustain yourself, you cannot help yourself, you cannot restore yourself, but he satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. See, the world sees people grow old. And the world says they proceed from weakness to weakness until each approaches their their end, but Psalm 84, which we also sang, tells us that they go from strength to strength. They go not from weakness to weakness, but from strength to strength until each appears before God in Zion. He satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed, like the soaring eagle. So that's how David introduces This psalm, this is who your Lord is. And because this is who he is, you can bless the Lord. But David doesn't just tell us who God is, David also tells us what it is that God does. In the face of our waywardness in verses 6 through 14, in the face of our waywardness, our Father pursues. And then in verses 15 through 19, in the face of our fading life, in the face of our mortality, his love endures, his love pursues, and his love endures. So David begins the body of this psalm by saying, the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. Again, David's not denying the brokenness of this world. David is saying, you live in a world in which there is a great deal of oppression, in which there is a great deal of injustice. There are spiritual forces and physical forces who hate your soul, who hate your Lord Jesus, who hate your soul as well. There is oppression in this world, but the Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. And then he gives us a historical example. He tells us he made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. And here he's referring to the Exodus, when God saw a people who were oppressed, a people who were enslaved, people who were downcast, a people who were helpless. With his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, he worked righteousness and justice. And then verse 7, he made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. You see, if you know the story of the Exodus, you'll know that once Israel came to Mount Sinai and began to receive God's law, immediately they turned to serving other gods. They were like a bride who on her wedding night goes home with another man. They demonstrated the inherent rebelliousness of their hearts. And yet, and yet, when Moses goes up the mountain again to plead with God for the sake of Israel, what does God do? God reveals His glory to Moses. He appears before Moses in His glory and He says to Moses, I am the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Israel's beginning as a nation. It was messy. It was idolatrous. And yet, in the face of that, their father pursues them. Israel ran from God to other gods, but he ran after them. And the same is true for all of us. David goes on, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love. He will not always chide. Nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. See, we run like Israel. We run. We are sinful. We are iniquitous, David says. Sure, we've got problems out there, but our biggest problems are the problems in here. We are sinful. We are iniquitous. But he does not deal with us according to our sins. He does not repay us according to our iniquities. But how can that be? See, verse six says God works justice. God repays evil in a just manner. Those who break his law are punished as lawbreakers, and yet, and yet, he will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins. He does not repay us according to our iniquities. God's already been described as just, but here we see him not demanding justice, but handing out mercy. running after his wayward children and handing out mercy. How can this be? Well, the only way it can be true is if God, the God of justice, dealt with someone else according to our sins and repaid someone else according to our iniquities. You see, in Christ, both the justice and the mercy of God are put on full display. And these two attributes of God meet And both these statements in this psalm are true. The justice of God is displayed as Christ dies for the sins of the world. The mercy of God is displayed when the world does not die for its own sins, when we do not die for our own sins. And so it is that Christ transforms death. Though death is still a stranger, though death still does not belong, Christ transforms death from a punishment for sin. to a ceasing from sin and an entrance into the bliss of eternal life. For as high, David says, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. We see this happen at the cross. where the full fury of God against our sin is vented on Christ. And he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me so that we would never be forsaken, even in the hour of death? Even in the hour of death. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him, as far as the east is from the west. So far does he remove our transgressions from us, and having dealt with our sins once, he never again visits them upon us. He does not remember our sins any longer. He puts them out of his mind. They have been dealt with. They are done. As a father shows compassion, David continues to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. This justification of God, it's not mechanistic. It's not just a series of propositional truths, equations about justification and justice and mercy. It's something, David says, that flows from the heart of God itself. Because who has more compassion for his children than a father does? Who knows the weaknesses of a child more than a father? Who feels for his children's hurts more than a father does? This is the Lord's heart toward you, a heart of compassion. He is not impassive when it comes to the pain of his children. When he sees your struggle, when he hears your cries, when he sees your oppression, he is not unmoved. But he hears, and he remembers, and he sees, and he knows. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust. He made us. That means that we're his. That means that we're made for him, to live with him, to worship him, to serve him, to love him, to learn from him. But it also means that he knows us. He's got the blueprints. He knows the limitations of our human frame. He knows the limits of our bodies. He knows that our bodies wear out, that they slowly give in over time, that they don't last forever. He remembers creating us from dust, and our mortality is not lost on him. But it doesn't occasion his contempt. He doesn't look at us and say, would you pick yourself up? You look pathetic. What are you doing in the dust? No. Do that. Like the psalmist says elsewhere, he raises the needy from the dust heap. He makes them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. And even when we have returned to the dust from which we were made, the Lord exalts his children and gives them greater glory than they ever imagined was possible. And that's what we see in the next few verses. Though our life fades, and it fades, it does, his love flourishes eternally. As for man, David says, his days are like grass. He flourishes like a flower of the field. For the wind passes over it and it is gone. and its place knows it no more. God raises the poor from the dust heap, and that's a good thing because that's us. We are the poor in the dust heap. See, we flourish for a moment. We're honoring a man this morning who, for many of us, was larger than life. He was no mere man, he was Paca. He bloomed, as a psalmist says, like a flower of the field. We knew him as a strong man, as a wise man, a godly man, a farmer, a counselor, a friend, a wise man, a father, a father-in-law, a paka, a husband. And he flourished. And to our eyes, he bloomed, as it were, with deeper hues than most. He was larger than life. But like all men, he flourished like a flower of the field in human glory and wisdom and strength, but his days were still like grass. And herein, as Moses says in Psalm 90, herein is the heart of wisdom, knowing the number of our days, or at least knowing that our days are numbered. And Pachan knew it. He knew as the years went on that his years and days were numbered, When his mind began to fog in the midst of difficulties and decline, he made it clear that his time was nearly up and that whatever remained was in the hands of the Lord. Chippa is done, he said to Beba. Chippa is done, but we will wait for God's time. And in time, as we all witnessed, those of us who were near during the last years of his life, in time his words were proved true. Psalm 103 says that man is like grass, which, when blown and blighted by the wind, is forgotten by all around it. But the particular cruelty of dementia meant that long before he was forgotten by anyone else, Arpaka forgot himself. But he was not forgotten by the Lord. He was not forgotten by the Lord. The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him. And his righteousness is displayed to children's children, to grandchildren, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commands. And even when every thought has vanished from our minds, we rest in the fact, not the wish, not the hope, not the expectation, but we rest in the fact that our salvation never depends on us, on our ability to hold on to Christ, but it always rested on Christ's ability to hold on to His own. As the psalmist says elsewhere, as for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought of me. And even when mind and memory fail, the Lord's thoughts are on His saints. He doesn't forget us. They're dying, His precious in his sight. And even as Arpaka's death dwindled at the door and he faded gradually, bit by bit, losing first this and then that, waiting for the time that he would be called to join the celestial choruses, yet his Lord never ceased to be faithful to him. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. And so, as the clock chimed in a new day at Pauk and Bebba's house this past Monday, the Lord's mercies, which had followed him every day of his life, greeted him now anew in the never-ending day of Emmanuel's land. Christ says, all that the Father has given me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. Christ says, be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life. And this crown is his to give. Verse 19, the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom rules over all. Not only does he desire to be kind, but he is able to be kind. See, at creation, the Lord God established his thrones in the heaven. By right of creation, he is Lord of everything that he has made. But at Calvary, and when he emptied and conquered the tomb, Christ, by right of conquest, became Lord once more of heaven and earth and everything. As the risen Christ said to his disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. And to all who likewise conquer the world by their faith, Christ promises the same crown. Blessed is the man, Christ says, who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. See, we perish like grass. The winds of this world blow over us and we are gone. all of our glory diminishes and then vanishes. But the Lord who has established his throne in the heavens, the Lord Jesus who has conquered Satan, sin, the world, and even death itself, he whose kingdom rules over all, he demonstrates his power not only in great works of judgment and righteousness and power, but in great works of salvation. lifting up those who are weak, and when they are weakest, and they succumb to their mortality, he lifts them higher than they have ever been lifted before. For he has said, has he not, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. See, by nature we are dust and ashes. But our Jesus, who was born of the same nature, raises us from our low estate. He raises us from under those burdens that we were never strong enough to carry. He takes pity on us in our weakness, in our brokenness. And the King of Heaven, He stoops to help us. So yes, even in our brokenness, bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. But the praise of a single soul is not enough. No, even when all of its powers and wills and faculties are summoned together to bless the Lord, it just isn't enough. The angels need to join in too, David says. Bless the Lord, O you His angels, you mighty ones who do His word, obeying the voice of His word. But even the angels aren't enough. No, the hosts of heaven, the spirits of the righteous made perfect, they need to join in too. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, all his heavenly armies, his ministers who do his will. But even that's not enough. Even that's not enough. Every glorious angel and every glorified saint raising the chorus cannot match the greatness of his mercy and grace. So all of creation needs to join in. Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that our Lord Jesus has conquered death, that it is an enemy, an enemy still, but a conquered enemy. Its teeth have been ripped out. It's been defanged. And though we are greatly saddened by it, as is right, we rest in the fact that Christ has indeed conquered it, that he has spoiled the grave, that he will return on the clouds of heaven to raise our mortal bodies to be like his glorious immortal body. Father, rest our hearts on this hope, on this hope which stands as a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Jesus lives, and so shall I death. Thy sting is gone forever. Hymn 512, the stanzas 1, 2, and 5 is our song of response. 512, 1, 2, and 5. Jesus, risen, soon shall I, let thy skin be torn for ever. He shall raise me from the dust, Jesus is my hope and trust. Jesus lives and reigns supreme, and His kingdom still remaineth. I shall also be with Him ever living, God has promised me a past. Jesus is my hope and trust. Jesus lives and death is hell, but my entrance ♪ Where'er it may my soul for thou ♪ ♪ Pass the crown of life before thee ♪ ♪ Thou shalt find thy hopes were just ♪ ♪ Jesus is thy Christmas Christ ♪ Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, to you alone the glory. We thank and praise you for your steadfast love and mercy. For your mercy that is new indeed every morning. For we need you every hour. That's why also in this service and in our life, we need to walk with you prayerfully all the time. And every step we make in our lives and every decision we come to and every challenge we meet, we need your help, your guidance, the strength, the power of your spirit. We thank you that we may know our Savior to be our intercessor, our mediator, who loves us, who knows us, who sympathizes with us, and grants us his grace to help us in times of need. Therefore, as we proceed from this service to the cemetery, we need you very much. Will you come with us? Will you help us also to do this in the light of your word. For that word is a light on our path and a lamp for our feet, also when we set it on the cemetery. Come with us, Father. Give us your word and spirit and help us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Jerusalem, the golden, with milk and honey blessed, beneath your contemplation, sing heart and voice oppressed. 468, all stanzas, is our closing song in this service. The roots of heaven are golden, with milk and honey blest. Beneath your contemplation, sing heart and voice oppressed. I know not, oh, I know not what joy so great does dare, what radiancy of glory, what bliss beyond compare. of Zion, all to the land resound. And right within an angel and all the martyrs The Prince is ever in them, the daylight is serene. The masters of the blessing are decked in glorious sheen. from their release, the song of them that triumph, the shout of them that feast. And they who with their leader can conquer in the fight, forever and always. ♪ Our flag it loves so high ♪ ♪ O sweet and blessed country ♪ ♪ The home of the brave ♪ O sweet and blessed country, that eager hearts extend! Jesus, in mercy bring us, to Thy pure land of rest. ♪ Who are with God the Father ♪ ♪ And spirit everlasting ♪ May the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort grant us His grace and His peace as we make our way to the cemetery. ♪ ♪