your copy of God's Word with you this morning. If you will please turn with me to Psalm 90. It's actually what Pastor Roddy is preaching at my church today. As you turn, let us remember that this is the Word of God. It is inerrant and infallible. Let us hear this word with great reverence and lay these truths upon our hearts as we seek to practice them in our lives with great joy. This, as the title tells us, is a prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you formed the earth and the world. From everlasting to everlasting, you are God. You return man to dust, and say, return, O children of man, for a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night. You sweep them away as with a flood. They are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning. In the morning it flourishes, and is renewed. In the evening it fades and withers. We are brought to an end by your anger. By your wrath we are dismayed. You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins, in the light of your presence. For all our days pass away under your wrath. We bring our years to an end like a sigh. The years of our life are seventy, or even, by reason of strength, eighty. Yet their span is but toil and trouble. They are soon gone, and we fly away. who considers the power of your anger and the wrath according to the fear of you. So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. Return, O Lord, how long? Have pity on your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us. for as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be shown to your servants and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Let's go to him and ask his blessing now upon us, his word. Father God, we come to you acknowledging today that this is your word. And while you have caused men to ride it as they were carried along by your Holy Spirit, it is your truth and yours alone. We pray, Father, today that in hearing it read and preached, that you may bring your blessing upon your church now, and that in our hearing of it, we may live. We pray this for Jesus' sake. Amen. You may be seated. Our passage this morning is one that is often preached at the end of a calendar year and sometimes at the beginning. That's because as the oldest of all the Psalms penned by Moses, it helps us to rightly understand and consider the passage of time. But I also want us to see that it also shows us a very excellent example of prayer. We're told in the title again, this is a prayer of Moses, the man of God, meaning that what we are hearing today is the heart of a man of whom it is said in Deuteronomy 34 that the Lord knew him face to face. Mind you, it is not just Moses who knew God, but God very personally and intimately associated with Moses himself. That's because prayer is something that characterized Moses and his communion regularly with his God. And yes, each of us know that prayer is important. We have heard that for years and years. We have read it within Scripture itself telling us, even in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, where we hear the command, pray without ceasing. That idea of engaging in a habitual, unbroken act of prayer that desires to live before God. And I want us to know that because at this time of year, while many may make resolutions and some may even be trying to vow to turn over a new leaf and even with more regular prayer, let us remember today that while we tend to start very well oftentimes, and many of us with our Bible reading will have our plan laid out before us, which is a good thing. If you don't have one so far, I would encourage you to find one. Talk to Pastor Roddy or myself. But also sometimes we have our prayer lists laid out for us. So we'll know and have focus in where we are going and how we are going to pray. But while we do often start well, we always know that there is that moment during the year when we're either distracted from that practice or that practice is derailed altogether. And what we have truly desired to make a priority begins to slip away. And I think in that, we can identify with the Apostle Paul as he tells us in Romans 7, that the things I don't want to do are the things I do, and the things I want to do are the things I don't. And who can deliver me from this body of death? It seems as if I cannot get my hand on the right thing. But dear friends, I want you to see from what we hear from Paul there, is what we are leading it to understand from Moses, is that struggling with prayer is a very common thing. And that's one reason why I chose Psalm 90 this morning. Because in it we find good encouragement to help us prayerfully begin again. Meaning that as with anything in this life that we tend to fall away from, notice here that even with this continuing practice of prayer that the Christian cannot, when he falls away from it, begin to wring his hands and think that this is the end and just throw them up in the air and say, well I give up. But as we see our needs, we are those who simply return to God and begin again where we are. And I want us to note that because in his prayer, Moses is going to show us what we need to have if we are going to make communion with God a priority and continue to be those who prayerfully begin again. When we cease to continue in prayer and even yes, lose heart. And the first thing that Moses will tell us that we need to have of those things as we begin our passage is a right view of God. That we need to look to our God as he is. And yes, there are many attributes that we can find within scripture multitudes that we can consider, but notice that Moses here pinpoints one in particular, the truth that the Lord is our dwelling place. What he is in essence telling us here is that God is one in who we live. And it's easy to understand why Moses is saying these things in this way because if you remember the life of Moses early on when Pharaoh was throwing little Hebrew boys into the Nile River to die, here his mother putting him in a basket and trusting him to God in His good hand. He was led to Pharaoh's daughter, takes him into her house, a house of great opulence and wealth, where he was wanting for nothing, and even goes out and finds a nurse, which providentially, God in His grace, leads him to his mother who nursed him, a faithful Hebrew woman. and who during Israel's bondage and oppression in Egypt began to instruct her son that all of this was part of the Lord's plan. That Israel's struggle was part of the promise even that God had given to Abraham. And that's why Moses, though he was set for life in the house of Pharaoh's daughter, in Hebrews 11 we are told that he left an identifier with the people of God in their struggling and their suffering. And even though they refused to receive him as a deliverer, and he spent 40 years in the Midian, tending to sheep, and then 40 more in the wilderness, tending to the stiff-necked generation who would all perish in the wilderness. And even though his entire life was filled with instability and great change, let us take note of the fact that there was always one constant in his life, and that was his Lord. that the Lord Himself, the great God who has created heaven and earth, the seas and all that is in them, that He was Moses' fixed address, that He was the one He was able to come back to again and again and find the rest that He could not find anywhere else. And mind you, Moses is not the first one who has done this. In fact, it has been true of everyone who ever trusted God before Moses. We see in the genealogy in Genesis chapter 5, we're told of Enoch, that this is a man who walked with God, who was in communion with Him regularly, who made his home with Him. We see the same is true that even in his generation where everyone had gone astray, that Noah was a man who was upright and blameless. We note the same is true for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then also those who came later with David. A man after God's heart, and the prophets, all those who were strangers on earth, that they knew the Lord to be their dwelling place, that He would always be a refuge and comfort for those who would seek Him. And why is that? Notice Moses goes on to just beautifully elaborate on is that our God, eternal. Then Moses always knew where he would be because he had always been the same as he was before. And isn't that something, children, that we know of our great God? Certainly, many of you, if you have not already learned that Westminster Shorter Catechism, question four, and the answer to it, and hopefully will be soon, let me give you a brief beginning on that, is the question asks, what is God? And we know our God is Spirit. that he is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. That's the truth we know of our God. And that is the truth that Moses here begins to expound in verse two, as he begins by comparing the Lord to the mountains. I'm somebody who spent a lot of time out west when I was a kid. I have seen the Cascades, beautiful mountain range. I've seen the Rockies. But I have to tell you, I like our mountains over here better. And the reason is, is because that there is an ancient feel to them. You look at them and you sense that they are as old as the world. That there is something that is unshakable and unmovable and gives you the sense that this is always going to be here because it seems like it's always been here. But notice what Moses tells us in verse 2 that before the mountains were brought forth, Wherever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. And notice here and there in the Hebrew, this word formed that he uses, that he formed the earth and the world, is actually often translated the word birthed. That he gave birth to these things. Now obviously that's metaphorical. But understand the metaphor behind this. is that if something is birthed by someone, it had to be pre-existent before that thing ever was. And he's making that point to show us that our God is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the one who has always been, is, and will continue to be. And that's something that he continues to emphasize in verse 4. For a thousand years in your sight are, but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night, Notice here, he is not using this verse to help us to decipher when it is our Lord Jesus Christ will return, but he's helping us to see from God's point of view. He's helping us to see that as we ourselves think of a thousand years as something that is unfathomably long, and we can't begin to understand what it would have been like to live a life of 969 years like we see with Methuselah, who didn't even live a thousand years, mind you. but who experienced many great changes. Notice here that to the eternal God we are first told that it is like yesterday. I'm sure yesterday you had several important things that you had to do, maybe some things that you spent all of your time on yesterday. Well, now that it's over with, you may actually have a little bit of difficulty trying to remember what the world those things were. But notice here that we also see that he also compares it to a watch in the night. Now, for those who would be, those who would come out and stand there a few hours watching to make sure no enemies attacked during the middle of the night, that these are they who did not even stay out there the entire night, but a watch. It was a long period of time for them as they sat there and tried to keep themselves awake and alert, but it's not even the entire night. And Moses is having us note that so that we will be clear that because of His eternality, because of His unchangeableness, that there is a real stability in our Lord that we do not find anywhere else. And because He has always been our dwelling place personally, we need to establish ourselves in Him, that He is where we belong. And I want us to see that because only in the eternal and almighty Creator and Savior who calls us to come to Him and to find our communion with Him in Christ is it that we find peace and rest and stability in a world that is constantly moving. And I ask us this morning, is that something that we consider? That the eternal life that we have received in our Lord Jesus Christ It's not just from the eternal God, but it is in the eternal God. That we are those who are forever united to Him. That is why we are called His children and He calls Himself our Father. He is our God and in Him we are welcomed to come before Him and to find rest and joy and hope and peace regardless of our situation. This is a privilege that He extends to us. And I want us to understand this and to ask ourselves, are we seeking to make our home in Him? To cling to Him by faith? Jesus tells us in John chapter 15 to abide in Him. Or as we hear in Psalm 92, to plant ourselves. Actually, flip over just a page to the right to Psalm 92. Look at verses 12 through 15. A beautiful picture that ends this. This shows us the song of the Sabbath day. Another good title here. A sermon for another day. But nevertheless, it shows us for those who are in the Lord that the righteous flourish like a palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Why? Because they are planted made stable in the house of the Lord, and they flourish in the courts of our God. And because of that, they still bear fruit. In old age, they are ever full of sap and green. Why? To declare that the Lord is upright, He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." Dear friends, I want us to see that this is a right view of God. This is who He is. And this is where we as believers prayerfully begin again. But I also secondly would like for us to see that from here Moses tells us that we also need to gain a right view of ourselves. And that's a very important thing. Now, many of you might hear that and think, well, that seems kind of backwards, that if the problem was with me and prayerlessness is something that I often fall into, shouldn't I begin with me? Well, it seems so, but let us remember that Mr. Calvin explains exactly Moses' reasoning to us as he says that man never achieves a clear knowledge of himself unless he has first looked upon God's face and then descends from contemplating Him to scrutinizing ourselves. And having seen the eternal God, what is it that we are to specifically see of ourselves? The first thing that we see is that we are finite, that we have a beginning. We also have an expiration date. And again, I want you to note that having established that in verses one and two, that the Lord is our dwelling place in all generations, that he is from everlasting to everlasting, notice that Moses sets up a contrast as he describes man. And in those verses five and six, he shows us or tells us three things about ourselves. The first, that we are naturally prone to be very unstable. That we are helpless against the passage of time, particularly like objects that are tossed around by a flood. But secondly, we are those, despite the importance that we may have of ourselves, that we are those who are easily forgotten. I think of those who, in our world today, who are very great people, just like the great people in the past that we do not remember their names at all, who left what seemed to be a very powerful legacy, who were powerful and shook people at the time, like a dream would shake us. Notice here, he tells us that like a dream. They fade away. No one remembers them at all. But thirdly, he also compares us to the grass or the flowers of grass. And he reminds us that one day, while we are flourishing and vibrant and strong and happy and have no aches and pains as we do when we grow older, well then, all of a sudden, one day, it turns up that we've come to our end. And we see it very clearly. that it passes away fast. And I want you to know that because Moses wants us to see the truth of our nature as the Lord sees it. And that's what we hear in verse 3, You return man to dust, and say, Return, O children of man. Now the point of this is that he's saying that just like Adam, who was created from the dust, so too dust shall all of us return. And why is that? Because honestly, the fundamental difference between us and God is that we are not Him. And nothing more clearly reveals our fleeting and finite nature, brothers and sisters, and secondly, the fact that we are sinners. We are finite and we are sinners. And so I often like to remind our congregation at Harmony, we're not sinners because we do sinful things. We do sinful things. But it's because we're sinners. This is what comes first. This is where our sin flows from as our own hearts as Christ tells us. That we are those who descend from Adam and we experience the effects of the curse that we hear in Genesis chapter 3, 19, that by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for you are dust and to dust you shall return. God is telling us here that as we work, even out in your gardens in the springtime and you come in and you've got dirt under your fingernails, it's kind of staining your hands even. It takes a couple of good washings with some really strong soap to get it off. As we are trying to get that dirt off of our hands, it reminds us, yes, of our humble beginnings. but it also points us back to our humble end and the end of all things. But notice here to emphasize that in verse 3, he also uses the word dust, but understand that it's not the same term that he uses in Genesis chapter 3, but rather this term for dust is referring to something that has been crushed or pulverized by the judgment of God. It's showing us that He is the one who brings us back to this end. It is His anger and His wrath that sweeps us away and makes us to fade. And yes, even our years to end like a sigh. But dear friends, let us see that today. That our finite and transient natures are inseparably linked to our sinful nature. But you may be asking, well, I'm justified by faith. I have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ alone as my Savior. And that we understand being justified by our God that we are no longer seen as sinners. And yes, that is exactly right. Always hold on to that. You're never any less justified than you were when Christ brought you to himself and gave you faith to take hold of him. Dear friends, let us always remember that while the penalty of our sin is removed as we are received by Christ and covered in His righteousness, that the power of our sin does continue. Yes, sanctifying work of God does begin to undo it to some end, but not all of it in this life. In fact, our remaining sin and the fact that we live in a sinful world, that takes a toll on us. is what leads us to die. In fact, I want you to understand that because sin, if it does anything, it kills us. That's not exactly what thing we always want to hear, but that is what he puts before us in verse 8, that you have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence. Notice that these things are not secret to God. They're secret to us oftentimes, even though they should not be, because we want to hold on to them and think that everything's fine. We don't want to look at our sin. We like to have an elevated view of ourselves, but here, notice he tells us, because they are before God, no matter how long we may live in this life, whether it be 70 years or even 80 by strength or even more strength longer than that, that our sin will fill our days with toil and trouble and they will be quickly swept away. Brothers and sisters, this is the right view of man. This is the biblical view of man. And that's what we need to have of ourselves. And it is a warning that Moses is giving to us against diluting ourselves into thinking that we are really more than we are. Brothers and sisters, we are finite. We are sinful. And that is different from our holy and eternal God. And that day-to-day reality with which we have the force is one with which we must come to terms. Because not only by it do we remember that our Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself and became a man taking on our form in order to save finite sinners. Notice how the bad news always here and Christ leads to the good news. But dear friends, if we have this firm conviction of God and of ourselves, It is with this and only with this that we are moved to prayerfully begin again and with finally what we see a right view of prayer. Prayer is not merely just the result of our will or our obligation that we would seek to fulfill. But brothers and sisters, let us understand, as we see in this passage, as we have seen God, as we have seen ourselves, and now as we see Moses, the man of God, pouring out petitions, we see that it is a matter of desperation and dependence that strongly believes that I must seek the face of God. I have nowhere else to go. that I have been sobered in my mind, I have been crushed in my spirit, and I have been driven to the Lord, who alone can give what I truly need, and promises to give that through the mediation of His Son. Dear friends, this is a right view of prayer. And I want you to know, as we conclude today by looking at these final five petitions that come between verses 12 and 17, I want you to note that what we're seeing here is that this is a model prayer. One that, yes, you can take the individual petitions. In fact, I would encourage you to maybe make a habit of learning these throughout the year. It will encourage your prayer, much as we see with the petitions of the Lord's Prayer itself. But notice, not only can we take these individual petitions before the Lord, but we can also, as we see with the Lord's Prayer, expand upon them. Take their meaning and pray them, particularly for ourselves, even though they are quite well for that already. But I want you to note that we hear first Moses praying for wisdom. And that should be something that's a little surprising to us because we see with Moses that he is very much like us, that he understands that even though he has lived 120 years and though he is a very wise and godly man, one who has compared his humility to the Lord Jesus Christ also, that he is one who still has to continue to humble himself because he doesn't have wisdom. and to ask the Lord to give because He knows that He will. And that's what we note in verse 12. This petition is, so teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom. These are saying, literally gather in all of the years, take inventory of these things so that we may better understand ourselves and how we are to live. Because dear friends, when we think on everything that we have seen, we still do not understand. We look at the world as it is and it looks like it should be better. There are a lot of people out there who think it should be, but it's not. It's as if it continues to go on as it has again and again and again, much like we saw in Ecclesiastes chapter three. We see that it goes on, that it seems that our efforts at times are vanity. But dear friends, that's what leads us to ask as we hear in verse 11, who considers the power of your anger and your wrath according to the fear of you? Notice that we heard, even in Ecclesiastes 3, that yes, this is to bring us to our God and have us consider how very seldom we look at our sin in the light of the glory of the God who keeps us and saves us, but also lead us to an understanding of the fear of the Lord. Which is not a frightening fear, like somebody jumps out of the closet at you and you're frightened or you're scared to walk across a busy street because you know you'll probably get run over. The fear that we see here of the Lord, and that the scriptures constantly speak to, is one that flows out of love. One that reverences our God, whose thoughts and ways are higher and greater than ours. And I want us to take note of that because wisdom understands, as we hear in Proverbs 9, 10, that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And I want us to note that our understanding of wisdom, that application, of what we know of God in this life is what makes our hearts yearn for regular communion with our God. Knowing that we do not know what's coming and that we are people who are unwise naturally, it makes us to turn toward the God who himself is only wise, who is infinite, who is immortal and unchangeable. Wisdom teaches us that this is one of the most important things we can pray for. And I ask you today, do you desire wisdom above all things because wisdom seeks God and thrusts us regularly before the throne of grace and prayer? Do we understand this? But let us secondly also see that we are those who need to understand our need for mercy. And that's the second petition that we see here. In fact, if we get a taste of how different we are from God, that our petitions will often mirror what we see of Moses in verse 13. Notice that this is a pure pleading that he gives. Return, O Lord. How long? Have pity on your servants. That that return or relent, O Lord, is to turn again from my failings. Do not account this to me. And I want you to notice that no matter how great Moses was and he was, that this is a man who prays with no confidence in himself. that he prays as someone who is entirely dependent upon Christ and the pity that he has shown in coming and atoning for our sins. He knows his need and he knows he needs mercy. Brothers and sisters, today do we see our need to daily plead for the mercy of God? Is it because we humble ourselves and understand that the eternal God promises to hear and to condescend to us again and again? and to extend His eternal and perfect mercies to we who are frail and finite and fleeting sinners. But for that reason do we also thirdly pray for contentment. Ah, it's that word. The most difficult of all words, it seems, in the Christian life. But let us understand that it's difficult because We know that we're gonna want things to be the way we want them to be in this life, and they're not going to be. And we're very malcontented in that. But that's why in verses 14 to 15, Moses prays that we will be satisfied in the morning, not with a nice warm bed to wake up in. Not that we would actually be able to get out of bed without certain parts of us cracking, us groaning. That we would be able to go to an incredibly satisfying job or that all of our studies in school would just breeze by and we wouldn't have to think at all. Now notice here that Moses, a man with great wisdom, prays each day that he will be satisfied in the morning with the steadfast love of the Lord. that he prays that God's abiding and covenant love for his own people, something that is sure and certain that we have in Christ, that this is all I want, because honestly, this really, when it comes down to it, is all God has promised to us in this life who are in him. And Moses pleads it not only so that he will not desire the things of this earthly life, which are guaranteed to breed discontentment at some point in time, But so he would know that it's important to be satisfying with the Lord, to covet Him, Himself, and as our eternal home. To covet the blessings that He has promised to give us, even as Jesus tells us in Mark chapter 5, pardon me, Matthew chapter 5. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. something intangible, but something that we desperately need because it is with this alone that we will be satisfied as it is given by our God. When we remember all of our affliction and evil that we have seen in our world and in our lives, particularly over this past year as we have seen many things, do we harden our hearts to the Lord and turn to the things of this life that comfort us? Or do we seek contentment in the Lord and in nothing but His grace? Because He is where we are able to truly rejoice and experience the resounding gladness that transcends our day-to-day because our life there would be hidden in Christ. We have Him, and we are able to find that He is enough. And for we who are easily swept away by the flood, as Moses tells us here, Can we say that Christ is truly the anchor that keeps our souls stable day to day? The fourth petition that we see here is that gives us a right view of prayer is fourthly awareness. Notice that that awareness consists of two things that we see in verse 14 and the first of those really is that he We're asking God to give us spiritual understanding. Then he's saying, verse 16, let your work be shown to your servants. Give to us an understanding that your kingdom, the work that you are doing, that is the work of your spirit. The work that you have ordained to do and that you are fulfilling and working out in your own time. Let us see that the work that you are doing to build your kingdom and to build and to grow your church is not something as we tend to think that is our hands and our doing or something that just naturally happens. Let us see that this is God's doing and that you've given it because we've asked of you. Do we take into account that when we are praying that God would give to us awareness, that God would give to us mercy and contentment in prayer and that he would bless his church? Do we understand that these are things that God has sewn into the fabric of all of history, and that He is providentially working them out, not because of our great and glorious deeds, but because of His goodness. Do we see that that's what He's doing? That's why we pray that He will give us a spiritual understanding, but also as we see halfway through verse 16, He knows He slips another one in, give the same understanding to our children. For He tells us here, and your glorious power, to their children. Dear friends, as we have heard in verse 4, that with a thousand years, or as yesterday, let us remember that the work of the kingdom is greater than just one lifetime. That we're not going to see this thing built fast. And it's certainly not going to be built with temporal things that we see in 1 Corinthians, such as hay, and straw, and wood. But I want us to note that because it shows That as we are asking our God to show this truth to those who come after us, that our God is willing to make them aware that as He has us, that He is working this out so that they will not grow weary, so that they will not despair when these things are slow going. That He'll remind them that they are His servants and that He builds His kingdom. Are we praying that for our own children as we pray it for ourselves? At the heart of the final petition, brothers and sisters, we finally hear in verse 17 that he prays for favor of God. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and establish the work of our hands upon us. Yes, establish the work of our hands. Let what we do, the same old, same old, be used to bring about the honor and glory of you and your kingdom. that in this world of sin do with our efforts greater than we ourselves could do with them. But friends, those who believe in this world that it is wrong for us to be praying for God's favor, let us understand that they're wrong. It is not an arrogant thing that we would ask for God to bless, that God to give what He has promised. And these things are in line with His promises. But let us understand this morning that if we are to rightly understand God and ourselves that it is essential for us to ask because the work of our hands are not as significant as we think. And if we understand that, we would be those who pray for his favor more often. In fact, at the end of the book of Nehemiah, the very last words you see there after he has done great work and he has been prayerful through the whole thing and asking God to bless, notice that he even ends by saying, remember, oh my God, this for my good. He knows it's not going to amount to much of anything after he's gone. Only God and His eternality can continue this. And I want us to hear that because do we see that there's nothing in us that makes us favorable to God besides our Lord Jesus Christ? And do we understand that God hears us and answers us because of Jesus' finished work and His continued mediation on our behalf? And is this the reason why we pray for awareness for ourselves and for others? Because we know our need and they need to know theirs too. Do we understand the reason we pray for contentment is because we often seek to rely on things that are far less than Christ instead of Christ himself. It is the reason we pray for mercy because we know our inclinations and our sinful hearts within us that we are told are deceitful above all things and we really don't know them that well. And do we pray for wisdom so that we will continue to remember our need to prayerfully begin again when life is just absolutely frustrating and we just want to quit. Brothers and sisters, my prayer for you this morning is that we may understand that prayer undergirds every single thing we do. And since it does, As we have seen Moses give himself to praying in just a snippet of a prayer that he has put for us in the Psalms. Will we commit to pray like Moses? Because not only we know that it will stir us to a lifetime of coming back to our God and communing with Him and finding joy, but because through our God, He has promised in His work to bring about the glory of God in our eternal good in Christ. Brothers and sisters, prayer must be at the beginning of our year and the end of it. And when we are disrupted, let us take hope that our God, in His mercy, as we come before Him confessing our sins, that He gladly and joyfully brings us in and answers our prayers in accordance with His will, because of His Son, Jesus Christ. Let us go to Him now. Lord, You are gracious and You are righteous and You are our God. And You have shown us again and again that You are merciful. Preserve us, O Heavenly Father, as we end this year and begin the next. And increase our understanding of Your Word today, for we are a simple people. In light of our understanding of you, O Lord, bring us low that we may, O Lord, in our humility be lifted up by the only true God who deals bountifully with his servants. Father, help us, O Lord, today as we seek many things and we have many desires even for the week and the year to come. Help us to find our rest and our joy in you as we make our homes in you. where it's an eternal home, that Christ himself has built for us and is prepared. Bless us now, we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen. If you will please take your hymnals.