Sometimes I wonder why does God give such long stretches of story and ink in the Bible to certain things, and then he gives very brief descriptions of other things. For instance, we have chapter after chapter of David running from Saul. And yet we have seven verses that tell us the birth of our Lord Jesus. And yet that's the most important thing of it all. But all but really, you think about those seven verses are wrapped up in the Old Testament of the Lord coming again and coming for coming to earth as he promised. But God's anointed. We see God had anointed David. And as a result, the forces of hell are against him, even the king. And we see that that we have a man now that these saw the contrast of David, a man who is not fighting David anymore, but really fighting God. And think about it. When people reject God and they come after you, They're not really fighting against you. They're fighting against the God you love. And so if we can look at it that way and realize that we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against spiritual wickedness in high places, that God many times is working in those people, and those people become enemies of God, and so they're enemies of us. But we see that this is what happens with Saul. Saul knew that his kingdom was over, and yet he wasn't backing down. We see that he's still fighting. He's going to try to control it. And the more that he controls it, the more that he tries to, the more that he tries to control it, the more that he loses control of everything. We see him in his kingly manner and by the end of chapter 19 we see him laying naked and embarrassingly in front of a lot of people. The king has no clothes. Or what's that story about the king has no clothes or whatever. But here we see that spiritually he had no clothes and he really becomes an embarrassment to the nation. So we'll begin reading now, and we'll pick up from where we left off last week with Michael in verse 20 of chapter 18. Now Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David, and they told Saul, and the thing pleased him. So Saul said, I will give her to him, that she may be a snare to him, and that the hand of the Philistines may be against him. Then Saul said to David a second time, you shall be my son-in-law today. And Saul commanded the servants to communicate with David secretly and say, look, The king has delight in you and all his servants love you. Now, therefore, become the king's son-in-law." So Saul's servant spoke those words in the hearing of David. And David said, does it seem to you a light thing to be the king's son-in-law, seeing I'm a poor and lightly esteemed man, and the servants told Saul, saying, in this manner David spoke. Then Saul said, Thus you shall say to David, The king does not desire any dowry but one hundred foreskins of the Philistines to take vengeance on your king's enemies. So Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. So when his servants told Saul these things, it pleased David well to become the king's son-in-law. Now the days had not expired. Therefore David arose and went, he and his men, and killed 200 men of the Philistines. And David brought their four skins and gave a full account to the king. that he might become the king's son-in-law. Then Saul gave him Michael, his daughter, as a wife. Thus Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michael, Saul's daughter, loved him. And Saul was still more afraid of David, so Saul became David's enemy continually. Then the princes of the Philistines went out to war. And so it was, whenever they went out, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, so that his name became highly esteemed. Now Saul spoke to Jonathan, his son, and to all the servants that they should kill David, but Jonathan, Saul's son, Delighted greatly in David so Jonathan told David saying my father seeks to kill you Therefore, please be on your guard until morning and stay in a secret place and hide And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where you are and I will speak with my father about you Then you shall observe what I tell you then Solomon Jonathan Spoke well of David to Saul his father and said let not the king sin against his servant Against David because he is not sinned against you and because his words His works have been very good toward you For let for he took his life in his hands and killed the Philistine and the Lord brought about a great deliverance for all of Israel and You saw it and rejoiced. Why then would you sin against innocent blood, kill David without a cause? So Saul heeded the voice of Jonathan and swore, As the Lord lives, he shall not be killed. Then Jonathan called David, and Jonathan told all these things. So Jonathan brought Saul to David, and he was in his presence as in times past. Father, we just pray that you will bless the reading and the preaching of your holy word tonight. Bless us, Lord, as we would seek your face. Lord, you tell us that the entrance of your word gives light. So Lord, enlighten us today, illumine us, empower us to serve you. May we realize the folly of fighting against you. But Lord, may we realize that the folly of those who do fight against you might be expensive to us, that others may take their war against you to us so we pray father your blessings upon us so do we look into your word give us power lord we pray in jesus name amen now this is an ongoing situation all the way to the end of chapter 19 i don't know how far we'll get tonight but we want to look now at this degradation all the way from the time now that saul is uh is fighting against David all the way to the time that he is thoroughly humiliated by the end of chapter 19. God has ways of humiliating people even when they are trying their best to humiliate others and even kill others. But we see that now David, we see that now Michael, and I call her Michael, there's different ways of saying Michelle or whatever her name is. I like it Michael because that's just easier. But Michael and Saul's daughter loved David. As we said, that's the only time in Scripture where we've seen expressly that a woman loved David. Now, Michael is a very, she's going to be a political pawn all of her life. I'm so sad to see that. We hear about princesses and you read about how they meet some hero and they live happily ever after. Well, most of the time, in the ancient times especially, women didn't have a whole lot of say-so except for what favor they can get from the king or from their father. But here we see that Michael loved David. And Saul, notice he doesn't say, oh my, this is great because Michael can marry David and he's a very great warrior, great man. This is a man that I'd like to see in my family. And he'll take care of my daughter. We don't see that at all. We see a guy that's so corrupt that he uses his sibling or his offspring to further his political ambitions. Does that sound familiar? We see that even in in our politics today. So we see that. Saul's daughter loved him and we see that David and then and they told I mean who told The entourage other people would tell Saul about it tells us one thing Saul didn't talk to his daughter a lot. He was a king and But we notice he, Saul has a lot of problems with personal relationships. We see that people have to tell him that, you know, where the seer is. He says, where's the seer? And his servant had to tell him. Later, we'll see in chapter 19, where he says, where's Samuel? And people have to tell him where the seer is again. He has trouble with finding personal relationships our spiritual relationships and here we see that his daughter is being Other people tell him what his daughter says. Why doesn't he have a good father-daughter relationship? but we see that Saul had some major problems in his life when it came to really love for anybody, love of God or whoever else. He was a very narcissistic man. And so we see that it told Saul and it pleased him. So Saul said, I will give her to him that she may be a snare. OK, I'm going to give her, but I'm going to use her. I'm going to use her to get him killed. I'm going to send him out, and I'm going to send him on these raids, and I'm going to demand that he gives 100 forkskins, that he kills 400 men, and like a scalp in more modern times, this would be something, but you can imagine just how horrid that whole situation would be for him to even demand that, but we see that he commanded his servants. Notice how he does this. They go between, and you'll see this time after time with Saul. We notice, therefore David said to himself a second time, you shall be my son-in-law. Okay, so the first time, notice he gave the first daughter away, gave the second daughter, just he's very flippant with his kids even, and even with his own son. And we see that in verse 22, and Samuel and Saul commanded his servants saying, communicate with David secretly. So don't tell him this is all slate of hand. And look, the king has delight in you. and his servants love you." Now, that's half true. The servants did love him. Now, therefore, become the king's son-in-law. And, of course, David responds as the humble man that he was. The servants spoke these things to David, and David says, man, that's not a light thing, guys. Do you realize what he's saying? I'm going to be the king's son-in-law. Now, by this time, David is probably getting up old enough to be the king's son-in-law. He's probably, this is within probably two or three years of Goliath. And now he is saying that he's gonna be the king's son-in-law. Now notice how that Saul is so, now remember that Saul said that whoever kills Goliath will be my son-in-law. But notice what he says here, what he's demanding now, in verse, he changes, he moves the goalposts. In verse 25, then Saul said, thus you shall say to David, the king does not desire a dowry. I mean, that you pay or that you prove that you have the means by which to take care of my daughter. And that's one reason, you know, princesses in these places, you hardly ever see them ever marry some poor guy because the king's going to demand that they have a lot of money. So it's usually nobility with nobility. And so he said, then it doesn't desire dowry, but 104 skins. What a gross thing. And this is, the Bible's pretty frank about all this, but Saul thought, notice Paul, Saul said, but Saul thought, Saul thought he, he was always scheming, always down deep inside, Saul was an evil man. He was becoming more and more evil. But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. So when the servants told David these words that pleased David, he said, okay, So we know that David went out and he didn't kill just 100 Philistines. He killed 200 Philistines. and double the price that Saul had set. And of course, he didn't do it all himself because he took his men with him. So here's these raids going back and forth, just like they are today. You hear about people raiding in Palestine, or the Palestinians raiding Israel, or all kinds of other things. This is nothing new under the sun. This is what's going on. And so David goes on this raiding party. But you can imagine 200 men. That's a lot of people. And so it just shows you the brutality of this going back and forth. You can be sure the Philistines were doing this to Israel. David didn't have any problems doing it back. But I don't want to get too gross about it, but who's counting? I don't want to count that part of anybody's anatomy, let alone if his scalps are bad enough, let alone just, oh, well, we won't say, but you can understand just how gross, how filthy, just, I mean, this is getting, you know, as base as you can become. But then we notice in verse 28, then Saul saw, notice he thought, now he saw, he perceived and knew. that the Lord was with David. He knew it. He sensed it. He knew that God was with David. This is the third time in this chapter where we see that the Lord was with David. Two times that just states it. And then now this time, Saul knew that he was with, that the Lord was with David. Now, the Lord could have been with Saul. All Saul had to say was, Lord, forgive me my sins. I don't know what you want in the future. It looks like you're going to put this man as king or whatever, but whatever you want, Lord, I'm willing for you to do it. But we don't see that. We see the more that he fights against God, the more evil he becomes. And so he becomes vicious, and he becomes, he becomes, he's willing to kill his own son and daughter. And so we see that, and just like Herod later on, Herod became that type of man. And so we see that, and he said that Michael, Saul's daughter, loved him. And so he said, oh, that's great. He saw that, so I'm gonna, but you know, he was afraid, and yet he's scheming. He's afraid and yet he's scheming. People are afraid of God and yet they won't go to him. Isn't it interesting? I mean they're afraid of what God can do to them and he's going to strike me dead or whatever else. But they won't turn to him and say, Lord, forgive me. And I want your protection and not your penalties against me. And so we see that, but we don't see that. We see that he just, the more that he fights, the worse it gets. And the more he becomes, as someone said, Saul became a civil war within himself. Because we see that he knows how to act right, but then inside he's double-minded man. He can look so loving and caring and yet, and say the right things, and yet within his heart was such an evil spirit. And so we see that David, that he loved, that the Lord was with David. And then the princes of the philistines they came up against and so we see at the end of the that this is These writing rating parties you can imagine 200 people getting killed. He said, okay. We're gonna go go to war with uh israel again. So this probably stoked another war and uh, then the princes of the philistines went out to war and so it was whenever they went out that david behaved more wisely, so The more that Saul fought against David, the more that God blessed David. It's kind of interesting. It's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of an angry God. It's a fearful thing for God to turn against you. And so then in chapter 19, as we go on here, we see that it just gets worse. And now Saul spoke to Jonathan. Now notice what he says here. Notice how Jonathan now becomes the interaction. We'll see how that God protects David, first of all, through Jonathan. Then he protects him through David's skill of dodging. We'll see that God protects David through Michael. And then we'll see that God protected him through the prophets and through Samuel even. And so God's anointed. The more that Saul fought against him, the more that Saul was humiliated. and that God protected David. Now, notice in verse one, now Saul spoke to Jonathan and his son. Now, the one thing you'll see here, Jonathan's son, and then he, Jonathan spoke to his father, but then we see third person, the king. So we see that this is a very, this is a family conflict. This is tearing the family apart. Have you ever had that in your family where the Lord said that he didn't send a piece to a family but a sword? Here you want to serve God and yet they hate you for wanting to serve God. They have all kinds of things they want to say about. Now they like the fact that you don't, that you're not in jail and all that kind of stuff. I think of one family that was coming to church and boy they were just growing by leaps and bounds. The kids were loving church and all that. They had met in a bar and gotten saved, and were led to the Lord and baptized. So they were really growing in the Lord. But her mother, who was a supposed Christian, just couldn't stand it that she wasn't going out and dancing with them every Saturday night in all these bars that they would go to and all that. And she tried her best. Now she liked the fact that their lives were cleaning up, they were off of all the drugs and all that kind of stuff, and they were living for the Lord, their kids were doing well. But she liked that, she liked that part of the church, but she didn't like the fact that her daughter was too religious. You ever have people like that? I heard about it recently. where, hey, you're just too much, you're just too tied to that church, or you're just too tied to your holy roller or whatever else. Now, I like the fact that you're not drinking and, you know, running around and crousing and you don't have, you know, kids out of wedlock and all that kind of stuff, but you're too weird. You need to pull back a little bit. And notice here, we have Jonathan, who was a godly man. Remember, we see that he talked, we've established that fact earlier. But we see that he says, Saul spoke to Jonathan, his servant, and to all of his servants, that they should kill David. So now he's just coming out and saying it. I mean, it's gone from thinking and saying and deceiving and trying to get people to do things for him. But now he just says, let's kill him. So he has a council meeting, but Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted greatly in David. Notice Saul the king, Saul's son, and here we have that family situation. The author is really emphasizing there's a family conflict going on mightily within Saul's family. My father, Saul, seeks to kill him. No, she's going to third person. Therefore, please be on... No, my father talking to David. Saul seeks to kill you. Therefore, please be on your guard. So, you know, dad's already talking about killing you. Now, be on your guard because I don't know. I'm caught between this. I don't know what to do myself. He's the king, he's my dad, and yet he's trying to kill you. What do I do? So you can imagine the conflict that Jonathan would have about all this. And so, hide. I'm going to just tell you, stay out of his way. And so, and I will go out with my father and I'll stand out and I'll talk to him for you. And so you stay, you can watch us out there in the field, but then after we have this conversation, I'll tell you what he said. And so Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul, his father. Notice again, his father. And he said to him, let not the king sin against his servant, against David, because don't remember he's done all these things for you. So dad, he didn't say dad, he was talking to him as an official capacity. Hey, you're the king, dad. You're everything that you do, people are watching. And they remember what this, what David did. And why are you trying to kill him? King, you know, you got people loving this guy. You got your servants loving him. Don't you understand what you're doing politically? Don't you realize what you're doing to me? I mean, you're tearing your kingdom apart, dad. Because you hate this guy. You hate him so badly. What's wrong? Can't you back up a little bit? Can't you just, you know, let God have his way? Now, again, we see that Jonathan realized he had already given David his robe and so forth. He had already recognized that he was part of the royal family. And very possibly, he realized that maybe God was with him. If Saul realized that God was with David, you can rest assured that a godly man like Jonathan would have realized that, hey, God's hand's upon him. What does God want here? And yet, God had anointed Jonathan, he might not know at this time that God had specifically anointed him as king, but he realized that something was going on here. And we see that he's caught in the middle, just like his sister is gonna be caught in the middle. And we see that, and the servants are caught in the middle. The whole kingdom is just having all kinds of problems. It's like if you ever worked for somebody and they are relieved of their duties, but they're waiting on the next person to come in. That is a strange situation because they still have a little bit of power, but you know they're on their way out. And I remember in the service, I was on a summer cruise, if you want to call it that, on an aircraft carrier, the Lexington. And right in the middle of that cruise, Our commander, the captain, was being relieved of his command, and another man was coming in. That was some strange feeling, because here you are saluting this guy one day, and everything about him is, you listen to him. Now the next day, you're not sure which way to go, because you're waiting on the next guy to come in. I think David or Saul was having that effect on a lot of people, including Jonathan. Something is happening. Dad is not going to be the king. I already see that Samuel told him that the kingdom is going to be ripped from him. So what does that mean for me? And so he's got a lot of questions himself. He didn't know the future. And so you can imagine, put yourself in David's place, and that's easy because the Bible gives us a lot about, put yourself in Jonathan's place, and all of a sudden you realize that's a very confusing situation. Put yourself in Michael's place, and you've really got to quandary. And then, of course, what about the servants? And they're back and forth, and they're watching all this, and they're wondering, what's next? I mean, we love this guy. He's a military hero. He knows how to win the battles. And yet, we've got to put up with this turkey as king. What do we do? And so there's a very unsettling, you can imagine, the morale that was in the army, and the courts, and everything. But Jonathan spoke well of David. And he, but in verse five, he says, he took his own life in his hands and he, and he defended our nation. And why do you want to kill him? And Saul, he did the voice. Notice he said, he listened to Jonathan for a change in verse six. And notice another thing that he said, but he said it a little stronger than some, he swore. He swore as the Lord lives, he shall not be killed. Okay, he said it, but is that going to be his actions? No, what Saul said and what he did kept conflicting with one another. It's like people, Lord, a pastor, I really want to serve the Lord, but, and they got all kinds of reasons why not. And because they're fighting those battles in their lives. And so we see that he swore he's not gonna be killed. As long as the Lord lives, he's not gonna be killed. And then Jonathan was able to tell these things to David. But then notice in verse eight, and there was war again with David. And David went out and fought against the Philistines and struck them. So he's still a very popular guy. And now the distressing spirit. There's two things in this chapter. The distressing spirit that we really have trouble with from the Lord. And then later on, we'll see that these people prophesied. What they prophesied and how they do it, what does that mean? There's two things there spiritually that are going on. There's a spiritual battle going on. In verse 9, and the distressing prayer from the Lord came upon Saul in his house, and he had a spear in his hand. And David was playing music with his hand. And boy, you've got two hands here. Then Saul sought to pin David against the wall with a spear, but David slipped from his presence. Boy, that takes some skill. Here you got a guy, it's like someone described it as here you have a man that's been fighting God all of his life. He's sitting in front of television brooding about people that he's mad at with a gun in his hand. It's kind of like Saul here, isn't it? He's just sitting there brooding, yeah, I said I wasn't gonna kill him, but I'm gonna kill him. And he's just, he's becoming a morbid creature. He's becoming psychotic. The more that he hates David, the more that he's gonna cling to his kingdom, the more that he's gonna fight God, the worse it gets. And he's willing, and we see that even with his own family, he's willing to sacrifice his family And so we see in verse 9, the stressing prayer, verse 10, then Saul sought to pin David to the wall, but David was smart. But then we see that Saul sent messengers there again to David's house to watch him, to kill him in the morning. And Michael someway finds out that it was told to her, He says, if you do not save your life tonight, tomorrow you'll be killed. I don't know how she found that out, but somebody told her, somebody gave her some inside information. Somebody leaked the information to her. So David said, she let David down through a window. That's some interesting things here. Remember the first person we see being let down through the window? Rahab. Two spikes. You think of another person that was let down in a basket? call. So it's kind of interesting how that God uses other people many times to accomplish his will. Here you have a man, though, that is a fault of a giant, a man who has led thousands of people into battle, and yet he's having to be let down by a woman from the window out of the palace. And so he went out and fled and escaped. And Michael took an image, probably one of her false idols, and laid it in the bed, covered it with hair, and the story goes on. So Saul sent messengers to take David, and she said he was sick. Now, this is an interesting episode because we see over in Psalm 59, The inscription tells us David wrote about his situation there. In Psalm 59, the inscription tells us to the chief musician set to do not destroy, I guess that's the title of the music, that he says, when Saul sent men and they watched the house in order to kill him. And so this is the inscription, then we see the psalm. But, you know, it's one thing, one of the most terrifying things that I've heard that people say is whenever you find out that the government, some agency, especially the CIA or the FBI, that you are under investigation. I mean, that is a scary thing when you realize they're watching everything you're doing. Every telephone call, every voicemail, every movement, every time you go to 7-Eleven, the people you talk to, everything. If they can look in your window with a drone, they will. They'll find out the size of your underwear. I mean, just everything they can about you. And it's downright scary. And the bad thing about it, they got all the lawyers and they got millions of dollars to pay those lawyers. And you'll break your bank account within a month to pay for a little lawyer to represent you. I mean, it can be terrifying. And here we see that David was in that position. How do I protect myself? After all, these people who love me, he sent them to kill me. And later on, we're going to see that Saul says, if you don't want to kill him, just pick up the whole bed and bring him, and I'll kill him. Isn't that interesting? And he says, if you guys won't kill him, then I'll kill him. But we see the third person who helps him, and that is Michael. But over in Psalm 59, we see that David wrote about these problems. What do you do when you're under extreme pressure and it doesn't let up for weeks or years? What do you do if you're the one under investigation? What do you do whenever there's a family member that turns against you or there's some family crisis or breakup or something that just as you realize it's going to affect you the rest of your life? And you know it will never end. I had a good friend that he shared with me one time. He was going through some real deep trouble. He was one of my, you only have two or three real bosom buddies, all your life, men do anyway. And he was one of them. He died back a couple of, well, several years ago now. He had seven kids and died from cancer. But he was telling me about a problem he was going through, and I won't get into it. But he said, you know, I wrote in my diary last night, Lord, when is it going to ever end? You ever been there? I look at some people and I see the problems they have. I even think of sometimes in my own family and I say, Lord, these problems aren't going to go away. When will it end? When will the hurt end? When will the sorrow end? When will there be some type of reconciliation? When can there be fulfillment in this person's life? And we see that David goes through this, and as a result, we see, as a result of David's life, a pattern that God shows that even in the deepest problems, God is with us. For thou art with me, remember? The Lord was with him. And David realized that, Psalm 23, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. And so David found great comfort in the Lord. He's the God of all comfort. In the chapter, or I keep saying chapter, in Psalm 59, we see that David is praying, and if this is what he's writing, was he writing in his diary? We don't know. But he says, deliver me from my enemies, oh my God. Defend me from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from the workers of iniquity and save me from bloodthirsty men. These people outside my door, Lord, I don't know what to do. You tell me I'm gonna be the king, you've anointed me, you tell me you'll never leave me or forsake me, but hey, those guys are out there ready to kill me. What do I do? Where do I go? He says, for look, they lie and wait for my life. The mighty gather against me, not for my transgression, nor for my sin. I mean, I'm an innocent person, and they're trying to kill me. They run and prepare themselves to throw through no fault of mine. I mean, they're preparing to kill me, and I don't, Lord, what have I done? I mean, here you tell me I'm gonna be the king, they're going to kill me. This doesn't make sense, Lord. This just doesn't make sense. He says, Awake to help me, and behold, you therefore, O Lord God, the host, the host, the God of Israel, awake to punish all the nations. Do not be merciful to any of the wicked transgressors. Lord, you take care of them. I can't. I don't even know where they are. But all I know is that I could be stabbed in the back at any moment. And all I can do is trust you. At evening, they return. They growl like a dog. And they go around the city. Indeed, they belch. Boy, they're mean. Verse 8, it says, but you, O Lord, shall laugh at them. OK, Lord, I don't understand this. I'm scared to death. And you're up there laughing about the situation because you're in control. Now, I don't understand it, Lord, but you and I got to have a long talk because we got to reconcile this thing in my mind. And so he goes on, he says, you shall have all the nations in derision. I will wait for you. Oh, you, he said, I will wait for you. Oh, you, my strength. The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? He says that in Psalm 27. He says, for you, for God is my defense. My God of mercy shall come to meet me. So notice how he is in the middle of all this. He's saying, okay, Lord, you're still with me. And he's reminding himself of who God is. In the midst of his problems, he sets the table before me, where? In the presence of my enemies. So I don't understand what you're doing, but I can't worry about them. I'm going to keep my mind on you. I can't control the things I can't control. but I can trust on you who controls all. You're there all in all, as we saw this morning. There's nothing that escapes your notice. And I'm gonna remind myself of that, and no matter what happens, I know that Jesus doeth all things well. I don't understand, but Lord, you know, you told me that I was gonna do certain things, I was gonna be king, and yet it's in your hands. And so notice how David gives himself to God, Where Saul is just the opposite. He fights God tooth and nail. And God works out the situation. He says, we go on from there. He says, in verse 14, he says, it doesn't give up. At evening, they return, and they growl like a dog. He says that again. I mean, they're out there. I mean, it's like that old dog ready to spring on me as soon as I go out the door. I don't know what's going on. But in verse 16, but I will sing of your power. Yes, I will sing aloud of your mercy in the morning, for you have been my defense and refuge in the day of my trouble. To you, oh my strength, I will sing praises for the God is my defense, my God of mercy. So I'm gonna keep my mind on you. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts were fully blessed, finding, as he promised, perfect peace and rest. Now, does that mean that David didn't have other problems? No, the whole book of Psalms shows, and many of those Psalms will go about how that he'll have strong confidence in the Lord, and then he'll have great fear. But isn't that what, how that we get confidence is overcoming fear? And we see that, Lord, I don't know what's going to end, but you are the one who knows the end from the beginning. You're the one, Lord, who can lead me in the paths of righteousness for your name's sake. You're the one. My hope is in the Lord who gave himself for me. There's nothing else. I mean, I don't have anything else to hope. What can I hope in other than you? So, Lord, give me wisdom. I'm gonna have patience, I'm gonna wait on you, and I'm gonna trust you for my deliverance. And so, Lord, what's the worst thing they could do to me? Kill me, but if they kill me, guess what? I'm gonna be with you in the first, anyway. And so, he's running this through his mind. And it begins at a very early age, and you'll see it go all through his life that David was a man, what? After God's own heart. Yes, he had his problems, big time problems. And later on, he's going to stumble and do some crazy things himself. But at the same time, there's a God in heaven that loves us and gave himself for us. Aren't you glad of that? He's our all in all. He's a God of our strength. He's a God who will, who in our weakness, will prove himself strong. Can we trust him? And let's pray. We don't understand what's gonna happen in the coming year. There's a lot of things to fear. There's a lot of uncertainty out there, both personally, as well as the nation, sometimes even this church. But Lord, we don't know the future, but you do. And we pray, Father, that you will sustain us, that we will wait on you, that we will trust you, no matter if everybody is laughing at us or trying to kill us. Lord, we can trust you and we can wait on you. Even when people growl like dogs at us, we can trust you that you can muscle them and that you can turn the fierceness of their wrath into your glory and what you can do through us. So Father, we pray your blessings upon us. May we not be the one with the sinful pride May we be the one who understands that there's a God in heaven and you control the affairs of men. Bless, we pray now in Jesus' name. Amen.