Um, we're gonna be looking at Psalm 21. Today, I was going to mention I was thinking I was looking at the video about Brother Andrew. I told Matthew this earlier, that I'd seen a quote from him somewhere that he said, if I had to live my life over again, I'd be more radical. That's pretty amazing. But we are continuing this morning with our brief series through several of the Psalms. Today, we're looking at Psalm 21. A couple weeks ago, we looked at Psalm 20. And several years ago, we actually looked at Psalm 22. I mention that because it seems that these three Psalms are placed in order for a purpose. They're related to one another. In Psalm 20, David gives guidance to the people on praying for him as the king. We saw this a couple weeks ago. He wanted them to pray that God would answer him in the day of trouble. He wanted them to pray that the Lord would especially make his presence known to him in his time of need. He wanted them to pray that God would grant him success in the God-honoring things he was trying to accomplish. And then in Psalm 20, verse five, the people sing for joy over the victory the Lord will give to David. And they say, may the Lord fulfill all your petitions. Verse six, this basically reminds us then that that Psalm has significant application to the coming anointed one, to the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, which leads us to consider applications to the Lord Jesus from those prayer requests that were at the beginning of the Psalm. And the most obvious application would be the time when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night just before he was betrayed. This was most definitely a day of trouble for him. He asked his disciples to pray for him, to pray with him, like David asked his people to pray for him. But as you know, the disciples did not join with Jesus in that prayer. Instead, they went to sleep. Jesus was wrestling with the suffering, the separation from the Father, the death that He knew was coming. All of this was part of the Trinity's eternal purpose to save sinners through the Son. A glorious purpose. Well, in the Garden, Jesus acknowledged that in prayer when He said, your will be done, your purpose be done. The last four verses of Psalm 20 have much to say about the Messiah. They actually speak of Him as being exalted. They speak of Him as having saving strength. They speak of boasting in His strong name instead of in the strength of men. And then Psalm 20 ends with this verse. Now again, in David's personal context, his life was being threatened. There was a battle on the horizon that would be a difficult battle, so that would fit in that way as far as answering him in the day that we call. But I believe the Holy Spirit would have us see that there's a number of things here that especially apply to the coming of the Messiah, the promise that the Messiah would come. There are messianic applications in Psalm 20, Psalm 21, which we'll look at today, and then Psalm 22. On your outline, R.H. Ryland briefly points out the connection here. He says, The prayer which the church offers up at the conclusion of the preceding psalm, which was Psalm 20, now issues in a hymn of praise here in Psalm 21, the result of a believing view of the glory which is to follow when Messiah's sufferings are ended. So Psalm 20 is a request for prayer that relates to all that the Christ will encounter regarding the salvation He was sent to purchase. Psalm 21 is a hymn of praise looking ahead to the fact that those prayers were answered. And then in Psalm 22, the suffering that the Messiah would endure is portrayed in some detail. In fact, that Psalm is often called the Psalm of the Cross. The first verse in Psalm 22 says, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And then as you read on through the Psalm, it speaks of how he suffered. It speaks of how he was mocked. It speaks of how he was deserted by his friends. It speaks also of how he was pierced and how the soldiers gambled, cast lots for his garments. Well, Psalm 21 looks beyond all that happened on the cross, to the victory that Christ as the Messianic King in the line of David accomplished. It's very much a psalm of victory. So, let's read Psalm 21. O Lord, in your strength the king will be glad, and your salvation how greatly he will rejoice. You have given him his heart's desire, and you have not withheld the request of his lips. For you meet him with blessings of good things, you set a crown of fine gold on his head. He asked life of you, you gave it to him, length of days forever and ever. His glory is great through your salvation, splendor and majesty you place upon him. For you make him most blessed forever. You make him joyful with gladness in your presence. For the king trusts in the Lord, and through the loving kindness of the Most High, he will not be shaken. Your hand will find out all your enemies. Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger. The Lord will swallow them up in his wrath, and fire will devour them. Their offspring you will destroy from the earth and their descendants from among the sons of men. Though they intended evil against you and devised a plot, they will not succeed. For you will make them turn their back. You will aim with your bowstring at their faces. Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength. We will sing and praise your power. There's two basic sections in this psalm, two paragraphs. Verses 1 to 6 really speak of thanksgiving for the way God answered the prayer of the king, the prayer that was prayed in Psalm 20. Verse 7 to 13 look forward and speak of the king's actions toward his enemies. So, first we see this. Believers have every reason to rejoice. First point. Believers have every reason to rejoice in the glorious victory their king has acquired. I'd like to go ahead and start with verse 13, the last verse in the psalm, which is really just a praise-filled summary of what is said in the preceding verses. It says, So David gives praise to the Lord, saying, Be exalted, O Lord, be exalted in your strength. He delights in the way that the Lord has exalted Himself in answering prayer and in giving such great victory over enemies. It's a prayerful song asking the Lord to continue to exalt Himself, specifically to exalt His strength. Psalm 20 spoke of the need for the strength of the Lord instead of the strength of man. Psalm 21 speaks of the Lord actually showing Himself strong on behalf of the King, especially here on behalf of the Messiah. Well, David continues by saying that he and the Lord's people will sing and praise His power. I mean, there's so much about the Lord that is worthy of our praise. the fact that He is eternal God, self-existing, independent, we can praise His grace, His mercy, His love, His kindness, His justice, His righteousness, His goodness, His wisdom, just to name a few attributes of our God. It is His strength and His power that enable Him to bring to completion the things He has wisely and lovingly decree to take place. Because it's one thing to make a decree, if you don't have the power to bring it about, the decree's not going to amount to anything. Well, if God was not a good God, the power He has would be terrible. Because if He's not a good God, He's not going to do good things with His power. But our God is perfectly good and perfectly wise. So the things He does with His strength and His power are things that are worthy of praise. As I said, that verse is really a prayerful summary of what the rest of the psalm speaks about. Rejoicing in the Lord's work really is a major theme in this psalm. And it's a good reminder to us. We all have lots of things to make us not feel joyful, not feel glad. There's things that make us unjoyful, make us sad, make us concerned. I mean, that's just part of life. There's all kinds of things like that. Oftentimes, we can actually feel quite discouraged. But one of the things this psalm does, it kind of lifts our eyes from just the things that we are personally dealing with to realize there are things to be grateful about and to be glad about that our God has and is continuing to accomplish. So it helps kind of move our eyes that direction while we're still considering what's going on with us. At the same time, we're doing it in the context of his gladness that he gives us. So, there is at least, that I've identified here, five different reasons to rejoice in these first six verses. First, we see that we should rejoice because the Lord has shown Himself strong in acquiring salvation. He's shown Himself strong in acquiring salvation. This is verse 1. Now, from David's personal perspective, he's rejoicing in the fact that the Lord gave him victory in the battle that he was facing. Now, interesting to note, he could have done that just between him and God. I'm sure he did. I'm sure he did give God thanks personally for the victory that was gained. But here he rejoices in the form of a public psalm of praise that all the people of God will sing about together. He wants to lead them to be glad in the Lord and the good works that he does and to do it together. He also wants to make it very clear that the reason for the victory, of course, was not David's own strength. That was what was dealt with in the preceding psalm. It's all due to the strength of the Lord, and he wants everybody to remind themselves it was God's strength that gave our king and the army that victory. David also wants to bring them to see that God's work in bringing him victory had benefits for them, too. So yes, God was good to David, but he was good to them as a nation. He answered their prayers on his behalf that were prayed in Psalm 20. Well, as we've already said, this has implications beyond David's victories as the king of Israel. This is prophetic of the victory that David's descendant, the eternal Messiah, would accomplish. And it's in the salvation that he won that we greatly rejoice. So, why was strength needed as far as salvation is concerned, as far as what the Savior would accomplish for us? Well, think about it. The Son of God humbled Himself and was made in the likeness of man. As a man, He was subject to much humiliation. As a man, Jesus was born with the obligation to perfectly obey the law of God, to obey His own law as a man. As a man, He endured the miseries all connected with human life, which in His case included being born into a family that was very poor, enduring the hypocrisy, the unbelief of those around Him, even the betrayals of those around Him. As a man, Jesus endured the wrath of God when He was a substitute for sinners on the cross. As a man, He endured the cursed and humiliating death on the cross. And as a man, Jesus was buried and He continued under the power of death. The one who was life continued under the power of death for a time. So how could salvation be secured for sinners when the Christ had so much working against Him? so much opposition to what he came to do. He was most definitely a man of sorrows, but it was by the strength of Jehovah God that he accomplished salvation. That's something we should never get tired of rejoicing in. The Lord has shown himself strong in acquiring salvation. Because if that were not true, not a person in this room, not a person in the history of the world would have any hope of salvation. Nobody would, unless this had not been accomplished. We would all be doomed to eternal hell. Well, the second reason to rejoice is because the Lord has given the son his heart's desire, the salvation of sinners. Back in Psalm 20, verse 4, David asked the people to pray that the Lord would grant his heart's desire and fulfill all his counsel. Well, the assumption is that David had a good and godly desire. He wanted to honor the Lord in the battle that he was facing. Well, in Psalm 21, 2, we see that that prayer was answered. It says, you have given him his heart's desire. You have not withheld the request of his lips. So David was able to get the victory over the enemy. But what does this say about the promised Christ? What was His desire? Jesus Christ longed to accomplish redemption for all that the Father had given Him. One of the places that we see that very clearly is what Jesus said when he was preparing to eat the Passover, the last Passover, with his disciples. It's in Luke 22, 14 to 20. Let's know what Jesus says here. It says, when the hour had come, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. He said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I shall never eat it again until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now until the kingdom of God comes. And when he had taken some of the bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, he took the cup, which they had eaten, saying, This cup, which is poured out for you, is the new covenant in my blood. So what the Lord's Supper signifies is what Jesus earnestly desired for his disciples and ultimately for all who would believe. He desired to give His body to be broken on their behalf. He desired that His blood would be spilt to certify the new covenant in His blood. The heart's desire of the Son of God was to accomplish salvation for sinners. His desire was to give Himself as a holy sacrifice to endure the wrath of God that every one of us deserve. His desire was to bring us into a covenant relationship with Him that would ensure we would be a part of His family, part of His kingdom for eternity. And we can rejoice because the Son's desire was given to Him. His desire was that we would be saved, and God granted Him that desire. I mean, this is such a glorious reality here that David places one of his say-laws at the end of that sentence. I mean, there's such an amazing truth here that he calls us to pause and think about how glorious it is that the Messiah had, first off, that he even had this request. And second, that the Father granted that request. He granted the request because it was perfectly in line with the eternal purposes of the triune God. Third reason for us to rejoice is because the Lord has exalted the Christ as the great Savior King. Exalted Him as the great Savior King. Verse 3 says, Now before we get to the crown of fine gold, we see something else at the beginning of that verse. The people are told to be glad because the Lord meets the king with blessings of good things. The older translations say God prevents him with blessings of goodness. Now, we don't use that in most of the newer translations because we don't use the word the same way that's used here. When we use the word prevent, it's the idea of hindering or trying to stop something from happening. Here, it's used of speaking of things that go before. God goes before him in a sense like a pioneer preparing the way. So for David, this speaks of how the Lord goes before him, spontaneously bestowing blessings that were not even asked for. He does the same for us. I mean, we just think about some simple things. Most of us, we don't have to confess whether we did this or didn't do this, most of us probably didn't ask the Lord for safe travel on the way to church this morning, but he gave it to us. Most of us probably didn't ask for sufficient breath for this day, but he's giving it to us. Most of us probably didn't ask to be able to taste our food or drink in the morning, but He gave that to us. Every day, every week, every year, the Lord meets us with the blessings of good things that we don't even ask for. He is a good God. Well, the Father preceded His Son with blessings of good things. Before Jesus came into the world, before He died for sinners and rose again from the dead, before that ever happened, men and women put their faith in the promised Christ and were saved. The Old Testament and the Gospels are full of examples of that. For example, we are told that Abraham saw the day of Christ. and He was glad. He was able to delight in the coming Christ thousands of years before He ever came. Before Christ came into the world, the Father set His love on His church. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. God's love was not caused by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. It wasn't like I've actually heard this at times, where it's like, what Jesus did so moved the Father, giving himself, that the Father then began to express love to people based on what the Son had done to bring that love. That's not the way it happened. God's love for sinners like us took place before the foundation of the world. It was He sent the Son because of love. So God's love and mercy comes to us before we have any desire for it at all. Those kind of things are worth rejoicing about. Things that come to us that we haven't even asked for. We don't even know that we need it and it comes to us. Well, it was through the Lord meeting David with blessings of good things that he became a king. David wasn't looking to be a king. But the Lord brought it about. And then the Lord took it far beyond anything David ever could have imagined. He promised that David's house, David's generation, his kingdom would endure forever. Of course, fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. But before Jesus Christ was given a crown of gold, you know he had to wear a crown of thorns. That was a big part of the humiliation that he endured. But through the good strength and power of God, Christ was resurrected and then exalted to the right hand of the Father as King. And we're told that he's given a crown of fine gold or pure gold. It's not just any crown. It's the best and most lasting crown. It is pure gold because of the excellence of his kingdom and of his dominion. In Ephesians 1, at the Wednesday night group of studying, Paul tells us that God has lavished insight and wisdom on believers. And by this wisdom, He's made known to us the mystery of His will. And then he tells us the mystery is this. It's the summing up of all things in Christ. The summing up of all things in Christ. So, one of the things that speaks to this, as far as summing up of all things in Christ, is the fact that Jesus Christ is King over all. We live in the years of His dominion, of His kingship. One of the church history books, it's actually a series of four volumes that I sometimes use, is called 2,000 Years of Christ Power. It's probably the most descriptive title of a book on church history that I have, and I love that title because it's a bold recognition that a crown of fine gold has been set on the head of the Christ. It's a reminder that our Savior King sits at the right hand of the Father until His enemies are made a footstool for His feet. If you're a Christian, then it's because the Savior King has overcome your resistance to Him and brought you into His kingdom. He's done that for multiplied thousands on top of thousands of people all over the world, and there's more to come. That is reason to rejoice that Christ has been exalted as the great Savior King. The fourth reason for us to rejoice is because the kingdom of the Savior King endures forever and ever. Verse 4 says, Asking life of the Lord is something that is really more suited to what something David would do for one who was such a warrior. David lived a long life. But there is application to Christ as well. On the night that he was betrayed, Be just, Jesus, I'm sorry, Jesus prayed this in John 17. He says, Father, the hour has come, hour for his crucifixion, the hour has come. Glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you. That was a prayer for the strength of the Father in his suffering, but it was also a prayer for life, for resurrection life after death. And, of course, the Father answered that prayer. When it speaks of length of days forever and ever, that's focused on Jesus Christ as God's Son. His kingdom endures forever. It's such a privilege that we are part of that kingdom. And that's something we need to call to mind often. I mean, the reality is presidents, governors, senators, judges come and go, rise and fall. Nations rise and fall. But the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ is forever and ever. We have an obligation before God to be good and godly citizens in our country for sure. But we always seek first the eternal kingdom of our Savior King and what a privilege it is to be a part of His eternal kingdom. When I see all this going on in our nation, when I see so many wicked philosophies and belief systems and so much that is sinful and wrong, I mean, it's important to remember that I'm part of the kingdom of Christ. I live in those days of Christ's power. I need to remember that. And I think we all do. The final exhortation we see here is that we should rejoice in the splendor and majesty and blessedness of the Savior King. Blessedness of the Savior King, verse 5 and 6 says, David was a great king. He is well known in history and thought of really, I think you could easily say, as Israel's greatest king. But his greatness really is a small fraction of the greatness of the Messiah. 2 Peter 1, 17. speaks of the Messiah and talks about that Christ received honor and glory from God the Father. It says this, such an utterance as this was made to him by the majestic glory, speaking of the Father, this is my beloved son, with him I am well pleased. In John 17 5, Jesus prayed this prayer. He says, now Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which I had with you before the world was. The Son of God is eternally God. He has always been perfectly glorious. And this glory that Jesus prays about is a glory that especially pertains to Jesus as the promised Messiah, Jesus as the crucified, risen and reigning King, Jesus as the one mediator between God and man. So in conjunction With all that our Savior accomplished on the cross for all who would believe, splendor and majesty are placed on Him. He is most blessed forever. You're familiar with Philippians chapter 2. I'm going to read those passages because it fits here very well. Philippians chapter 2 verses 9 through 11. It says, For this reason also God highly exalted him, exalted Jesus Christ, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. I came across a quote by Samuel Rutherford. He said this, trying to talk about the greatness of our king. He says, were there 10,000 millions of heavens created above these highest heavens? So take the galaxy we have, the highest heavens. And he said, there's another 10,000 millions of heavens above the highest heavens. and again as many above them, and again as many above them. Till angels were wearied with counting, it were but too low a seat to fix the princely throne of the Lord Jesus above them all." That's too low. And this Savior is our Savior. This King is our King. We're His. Psalm 21 6 speaks of him being most blessed or overflowing with blessedness. The idea is that he is then able to direct that blessedness to others. As such, every believer is given every spiritual blessing. For example, we are blessed with being redeemed by his blood, a price that was paid for our life that we could never pay for ourselves. We are blessed with forgiveness of our sins. Every one of us need that on a daily basis. We are blessed with being adopted as His children. We've been brought into His family. We are blessed with the wisdom that we need to have some understanding of His ways. We are blessed with the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The blessedness of our Savior King spills over onto us. And that makes us joyful with gladness in His presence. But it's interesting, this especially speaks of the gladness of our Lord. As our Savior King, Jesus Christ is full of joy. His joy is pure and right. His joy is divine. His joy is eternal. And His joy as the Savior is directly connected with the joy of those of us who have been saved. From all these things, we can see that every Christian has reason on top of reason to rejoice in the glorious victory that our King has acquired for us. Well, from here, then, David begins to speak of those who persist in being enemies of the Lord. So, verses 7 to 13, we see our second main point, which is this, the enemies of Christ the King have every reason to be fearful. Believers have every reason to be full of joy and glad. Unbelievers have every reason to be full of fear. Once again, I can say, I think there's five reasons here that he gives for this. First is this, Christ and his kingdom will not be cast down no matter how much it's attacked. No matter how much it's attacked. Verse seven says, for the king trust in the Lord and through the loving kindness of the most high, he will not be shaken. So the people of Israel had reason to be glad because David, their king, trusted in the Lord, so they could be confident that the Lord would watch over them as a nation. But once again, this goes beyond what happened with David. Jesus knew he was safe in the care of the Father he trusted until the hour of his suffering and death came. He knew he was safe. He knew that his prayers were always heard. On the cross, he committed his spirit into the hands of the Father. And of course, Jesus trusted that he would be raised from the dead as he regularly promised his followers would happen. We're also assured that by the mercy and loving kindness of the Most High, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ will never ever be shaken. I mean, that's something for us to be glad about, but it's something for his enemies to be completely frustrated about. No matter how many laws that are passed condemning Christian worship, no matter how many anti-Christian laws that might be made, no matter how much the printing of the scripture is forbidden, No matter how much they oppress Christians, no matter how much they persecute those who confess Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, His eternal kingdom will not be shaken. They will never be able to win, no matter how hard they try. Second reason they have to fear is this. Those who persist in being an enemy of Christ and His kingdom will not be able to hide from Him. Verse 8 says, your hand will find out all your enemies, your right hand will find out those who hate you. So this would give David confidence against future enemies that he would have to face. But again, there's much more important application for us here. One of Satan's greatest deceptions about sin and unbelief is that we can get away with it, but we can't. David says that God's hand, more specifically his right hand, will find out those who hate him. The right hand especially emphasizes power and authority that is engaged against his enemies. We read in Hebrews 10.31 that it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Those who reject Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior often seem to feel very confident in their unbelief. Some actively work against Him and even persecute those who believe. But God is just, and as a result, all will be called to account for their sins. Revelation 6 speaks about the response of those who hate Jesus Christ whenever He comes again. It's a terrifying passage for them. I'm sorry, Revelation 6, 15 to 17 says this, says, Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand? So they try to hide in caves, but are unsuccessful. They would rather be crushed to death by stones in an avalanche than have to face the one they rejected. The enemies of Christ the King have every reason to be fearful. Third reason to fear is this. Those who persist in being an enemy of Christ will endure his fiery wrath. Verse 9 takes the end of those who persist in rebellion against Christ and takes it even further. It says, So the anger of the Lord is described as a fiery oven, as fire that will devour them, and that they would be swallowed up by His wrath. I mean, just terrifying descriptions. More specifically, it says that God will make His enemies to be as a fiery oven. Well, this speaks of the fact that they will be their own tormentors. What I mean by that is they will be constantly reflecting on their life, on their sinful disobedience, on the opportunities they had to believe and chose not to for eternity. That will torment them. In Matthew 13, Jesus describes the punishment of those who reject Him. He said, Rebellion against the Lord is a serious thing. God is holy, He's righteous, He's just. Therefore, He cannot tolerate what is evil. His wrath towards sin is righteous and it's just. It's truly a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God. But we also need to take note of something here. It doesn't have to be that way. As the Messiah, Jesus endured that holy, righteous, and just wrath of God when He died on the cross. He endured it so that people like us who deserve it and believe in Him, we can be forgiven. Jesus paid a horrible price for sinners, and sinners will pay a horrible price if they refuse His love. The fourth reason to fear is this. Tragically, the children of the king's enemies often continue in the ways of their parents, and they too will fail and perish. Verse 10, their offspring you will destroy from the earth and their descendants from among the sons of men. First part of verse 10 where it says their offspring can also be translated as fruit. So what he may be saying there is the fruit of their life. So in other words, all their words, their writings, their actions are all going to come to naught and will ultimately be destroyed. But the second part of the verse refers very specifically to the descendants, the children Often the children of those who have rejected the Lord continue to reject the Lord themselves. It doesn't have to be that way, but it often is. We read about this in Exodus 20 in reference to the commandment prohibiting idolatry. Exodus 20 verses 4, 5, and 6, it says, You shall not make for yourself an idol or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them nor serve them. For I, the Lord, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing loving kindness to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. So here we have confirmation of the children of unbelievers often being swept up in the unbelief of their parents. But it also gives great hope to those whose parents are Christians. The Lord's loving kindness reaches to thousands of generations, not just thousands of people, but thousands of generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. We must never forget what a great blessing it is to have parents who love the Lord. Parents who pray for you, parents who teach the scriptures to you, parents who bring you to worship, to church. There is a blessing in that that goes far beyond what we realize. The final reason that those who are enemies of God have reason to fear is this. The king will see to it that the plots of his enemies will not ultimately succeed. Verse 11 and 12. So for David, this is reassurance that God will give him further victories over his enemies. Beyond that, it tells that those who are enemies of the Lord will completely fail in what they are trying to do. We prayed this morning for believers in Afghanistan and North Korea in particular. Authorities in those countries have devised horrible schemes against anyone who would dare to commit themselves to Jesus Christ, or even own a Bible, or even know someone who has a Bible. It's amazing the things that are required. I mean, that's true in some degree in many other nations, as you saw on that list that was in the insert. And those plots seem to be successful for a time, but they will not succeed. They have the desire to do harm to the Lord, to do harm to His people, but they do not have the strength or the power they need to fully carry out what they have in mind to do. So God will cause them to have to turn their backs and change their plan. And then once again, we see the Lord taking aim, it says, even at their faces to stop them in their tracks. They do not have the strength or the power to successfully resist the Lord. Therefore, they will suffer his wrath. But our Lord has all strength and power to carry out all of his good purposes. David reminds us of that as we start the way we started. Verse 13. Be exalted, O Lord, in your strength. We will sing and praise your power. Our God is good and wise and powerful to carry out all his good purposes. The reality is, of course, that we're all God's enemies. That's how we all start. Our hearts are inclined against Him instead of for Him. But thank the Lord in His grace, He can powerfully overcome our resistance and bring us to saving faith by His strength. So if that's happened to you, you have every reason to sing and praise His power for all eternity, and we can be glad in the strength of our King. Lord, I do want to thank You again for Your Word. I thank You for the exalting prayer, psalm that is here, especially speaking of what a glorious Savior, what a glorious King we have. Thank you, Lord, for what you have done, for all that Christ endured for that to take place, which is spoken of in Psalm 22. But Psalm 21 tells us the end result. And Lord, we just thank you so much that you are our exalted king. And we live. We are members. We are citizens of your kingdom, first and foremost. Help us to remember that. Help us to delight in you and be glad in you, even when things around us are very troubling and difficult. So thank you for being our Savior King. If you're one who has never put your faith in Christ, there were grave threats, realities here spoken of those who persist in being his enemy. But it doesn't have to be that way, as we said. I encourage you to put your faith in Christ. A prayer like this will be a way to start. Lord, I realize that I am a sinner. I realize that I have plotted against you and the things I have done and things I've tried to figure out ways to live life without being a Christian. I've done that and I ask you to forgive me. I want to receive Jesus Christ as the one who paid the price that I should have paid. I want to receive him as my Savior and commit my life to him as my King. If you want to talk in more detail about that you can make a note in your tarot or those who are watching can reach out to us through the website. It is in the name of Christ