Good morning. Well, on the second day of Advent, we're going to give attention to the 74th Psalm, which is a lament, a song of longing and heartbreak, which is made all the more interesting by the fact that we live in a culture that has completely substituted Christmas for Advent. And the reason, if we're honest, is clear. Songs of Advent, songs of longing, and sometimes pain, and waiting, and yearning, and saying, how long, oh Lord? Well, it just doesn't sell merchandise. In a culture where everything is move the product, Advent just doesn't have much sense for us. But in a Christian culture also, that sees itself largely as just kind of falling out of the sky and appearing out of thin air, Advent also doesn't make much sense. But there is historical and there are very good reasons, biblical reasons, why we ought to celebrate Advent. But I believe, as I said, that our parents, they knew better than us. When they arranged our calendar, and these four Sundays before Christmas. They knew from reading their Bibles that there is great power in rehearsing each year the story of our faith. We are taught by the Old Testament calendar itself, the value of this, because most of the Israelites themselves did not watch the 10 plagues. They didn't see that. They did not eat the Passover. the first Passover, and they did not themselves walk through the Red Sea. But God brought all his people along with those first redeemed slaves and said, this is your story. Each time that they keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread and Passover, this is your story. And the Israelites in the land were not those who stood at the base of Mount Sinai and received the law. But they are sharers in that history when they keep Pentecost. God says again to them, this is your story. These are your people. These are your laws. And the Israelites in David's day did not wander in the wilderness for 40 years, living in booths, eating manna and quail. But they would join with their fathers in keeping the feast of booths. And God says again to them, this is who you are. This is what I have done with you. Three times a year, they would gather together and rehearse their gospel story, how they came together to be a people redeemed from slavery, covenanted to God. And when they were disobedient, they forgot these things. They failed to keep the feast. They failed to remember these things. They forgot what God had asked of them, what he said about them, and the meaning in their lives drifted. So we do well, I think, to remember during Advent how our fathers longed for the consolation of Israel. And we do well to enter into their struggles. Among other things, it makes Christmas all the more meaningful and sweet. This is what the Feast of Booths itself would have been like, if you think about it. We love camping. This was a great celebration in Israel, but it wasn't because camping is so fun. The booths you see reminded them that they don't live in booths anymore. They live in homes in the Promised Land. They would go out and live in booths to remember their people who traveled in the wilderness and how God preserved them through those difficult times. And so in that spirit, we, in the spirit of Advent, we will read Psalm 74 and enter into the suffering of our fathers in the faith. So I would invite you to stand in attendance to God's word and We're gonna read the entire Psalm. Hear the word of the Lord. Psalm 74. Oh God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old. which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage. Remember Mount Zion where you have dwelt. Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins. The enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place. They have set up their own signs for signs. They were like those who swing axes in the forest of trees. And all of its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set your sanctuary on fire. They profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground. They said to themselves, we will utterly subdue them. They burned all the meeting places of God in the land. We do not see our signs. There is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long. How long, O God, is the foe to scoff? Is the enemy to revile your name forever? Why do you hold back your hand and your right hand, take it from the fold of your garment and destroy them? Yet God, my King, is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your might. You broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan. You gave them as food for the creatures of the wilderness. You split open springs and brooks. You dried up ever-flowing streams. Yours is the day, yours also the night. You have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter. Remember this, O Lord, how the enemy scoffs, and a foolish people reviles your name. Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beasts. Do not forget the life of your poor forever. Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame. Let the poor and needy praise your name. Arise, O God, defend your cause. Remember how the foolish scoff at you all the day. Do not forget the clamor of your foes, the uproar of those who rise against you, which goes up continually. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Psalm 74, like many of the Psalms of Asaph, is somewhat difficult. You probably sense this. It's difficult to place this exactly in history. You probably felt that tension a bit. You probably detected it sounds like the Babylonian invasion because it's describing what appears to be the destruction of the temple. But first of all, let's just look at a few of the elements here, see if we can place it a little more specifically in time. As Bo pointed out last week, this is ascribed to Aesop, but of course this is almost certainly not the Aesop that lived during the time David in the worship of the temple. It's much more likely a poem in the Asaphic tradition. There were several Asaphs in the Bible. It could be one of them. Or it's simply for this post, this category of Levitical song leaders, the Asaphic workers. It could be one of those. So that's not all that much help to us. But it does speak of Mount Zion and the dwelling place of God. So we know that it's talking about the time of the temple, and not, as some commentators suppose, perhaps maybe an earlier time when the Philistines, for instance, ransacked the tabernacle during the time of the judges. This is probably during the time of the temple, and what they are looking at are the ruined ashes of that temple. The destruction appears to be complete. The complaint is that the enemy has been allowed to continue their roaring and their reviling and their scoffing and their clamor and their uproar for so long, for so long. That is a phrase, that is an expression that's repeated a number of times. This is a lament of time. Why so long, Lord? Why so long? And so this is probably not immediately after the destruction of the temple, but this worship leader is looking out over the ruins of the temple and he still sees imperial powers and their signs still raised above it. And so he says, why is it still this way? Why is this taking so long, oh Lord, for this to be repaired? We're going to look at not every element of this poem, it's quite a long poem, but I want to draw your attention to, first of all, it's just the simple logic of this poem and how the psalmist laments and expresses his grieving to the Lord. As is typical in laments in the Bible, there is a kind of logical progression. The person lamenting will lay out all of the problems before them. So we want to look specifically at the cause and the reason why the psalmist is lamenting. What is it that's driving him to lament? And then as is often the case, in almost every single case in the Psalms, there's a turn. There's a moment of reflection when the psalmist considers the reasons why God He trusts is going to fix this situation. God is not going to leave this situation in this way. First, he considers what God has done in the past, the nature of God's character and who he is. So we'll look at that. And then we see this cry at the end, the series of pleas before the Lord on the basis of what we've just said, Lord, fix this situation. But what exactly is it that is the problem here? As we've already said, the temple is in ruins. Babylon has come in and has destroyed the land. But there is, in this passage, a very specific concern of this poet. He has lost meaning and he is disoriented in his time. You see, there is chaos everywhere. What is described is the results of an army that has come through and it says they swung their axes like they're in a forest, just swinging wildly around them and have destroyed the things around them. But it is specifically the chaos that has resulted in terms of the worship of God's people That is what matters most to the psalmist, what has come of the worship of the Lord. Notice how he lays this out again and again throughout this psalm. Verse two, remember Mount Zion where you have dwelt. Verse three, direct your steps to the perpetual ruins. The enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary. Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting places, verse four. They have set your sanctuary on fire. They have profaned your dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground, verse seven. They said to themselves, we will utterly subdue them. They burned all the meeting places of God in the land, verse eight. So undoubtedly, there are many tragic elements of the Babylonian invasion. Many tragic elements, many broken things, many dead people, family members and friends. Tragic stories everywhere you look. Houses that are in ruin. Places that were very special to people. Places that were a part of their inheritance are gone. But all of that is of secondary concern relative to the worship of the Lord. Because the worship of the Lord has ceased in this place. The worship of the Lord has ceased. The places of worship are no more. And literally, now the Septuagint and the Vulgate, Vulgate is the Latin translation, Septuagint is the Greek translation of this, they draw out another nuance of meaning in this that doesn't come out in our translation. The word that is translated in verse four and in verse eight as meeting places can also, and is frequently in the Bible, a reference to the festivals of the Lord. So it's not just the places where they meet, but it's the activity that is going on there. So it's probably, and I don't believe that's the better translation. There's a reason why almost all the English translations translate it as meeting places, but I believe that's an important shade of meaning. It's not just that, hey, those were some places where important things happened. What is lamented here is the loss of that festival keeping of time. This is the place where we would go up and celebrate before the Lord, where we would bring our sacrifices to the Lord, where we would offer our praise to the Lord, where we would sing to the Lord together, where we would congregate together. They were places of worship. And it's more than a building that is now ash. It is their whole way of life that has now been disrupted. The rhythms, the activities, the time and seasons of their life. Those things which gave meaning to their lives have been purposely destroyed. Purposely destroyed. You notice that it said, they have sought to completely subvert us, completely undo us. And I want you to notice this comparison. These are some of the things that you might not pick up the first time you read, but it's very, very clear in the original that he's setting up a contrast. In verse four, he says, they have set up their own signs for signs. Talking about this conquering army that have come in. They have leveled the place, but they have built. They have set up their own signs for signs. Now these are probably, it's probably simply a reference to their battle standards. You can think of this as kind of like a pirate flag that has gone up over it, declaring to the people of the land, we are now sovereign over this space. And whereas the people of God would have once looked around them for the things of God to give meaning and purpose to life, now they see simply the signs of their enemy. And in contrast, then in verse nine, it says, we do not see our signs. And there's no one to repair this situation. He says, there's no longer any prophet. Jeremiah apparently has already been taken off into captivity. And I want you to imagine what it would be like to be left without a prophetic voice entirely. To be left there without That's shepherding care. We do not see our signs. There's nothing around us to orient ourselves except the signs that they have raised up. The signposts of meaning in Israel were festivals, new moons, Sabbaths, the prophetic guidance, they're all gone. and the memory is fading. And what's worse, the memory is now being crowded out by the enemy's propaganda. I think we know something of this. I'm not saying to this extent, but we know something of this. This is an activity of enemies at all times. A person can suffer, but still live with dignity and hope, but he cannot survive without meaning. And purpose, meaning is what we run on. Truth, purpose, intention. Who am I? To whom do I belong? What is my name? What does life mean? What is my part in that? Without that, we crumble. And the enemy knows this. He knows that this is the most effective way to overcome your enemy. It's not to crush them physically. but it's to destroy their spirits. You see, the secular, in our day and age, have borrowed meaning from our Christian worldview and corrupted it and tried to pervert it. They've borrowed concepts of justice and equality and creation. principles from Scripture which we celebrate, by which we orient ourselves and understand what it is that we're called to do and how we're supposed to live in this world, but divorced from God and the story of redemption, they are perverted into pseudo-justice, false equity, and extreme environmentalism. So what was once good becomes a Christian heresy, a disorienting Christian heresy, And the church wavers back and forth and struggles to find its purpose under these matters. Or take our calendar. It's not difficult to see and feel the chaos of our calendar being rewritten. This is intentional. It's very much intentional. I'm not just talking about, my kids have this app that they'll pull up, hey, today is burrito day, international burrito day of all things. And tomorrow's international put the hat on your cat day or something like that. It's just like endless. That's chaotic in and of itself, but that's not what I'm talking about. In the more egregious form, we have the intentional naming of months and days and weeks in an effort to indoctrinate the people of this land in secularism and secular values. The powers and principalities which have risen up against the Lord know that they will not win in a direct confrontation, but rather by subversion of meaning in people's lives. And that's what had happened. in Israel. It's true. He looked around them and he saw lots of just raw human suffering. But what was the most disturbing is the silence of worship. It's not there anymore. And in its place, the banners of our enemies. The banners of our enemies. But God is strong to repair these situations. and he has done so before. And in true biblical fashion, the lamenter turns in remembrance what God has done before as an indication of the kinds of things he will continue to do in the future. How has he cared for his people in the past? The best indication of his steadfast love to us in the future. Listen again to verses 12 through 15. They're a little strange, I understand. We're gonna explore them a little bit. Yet God, my King, is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. You divided the sea by your might. You broke the heads of the sea monsters on the waters. You crushed the heads of Leviathan. You gave him as food for the creatures of the wilderness. You split open springs and brooks. You dried up ever-flowing streams. So we want to acknowledge, first and foremost, that is a little bit strange language. You're probably thinking, I don't remember a battle between God and Leviathan in the Old Testament before this time. But I do, you can hear something in this resembles the Exodus story, which is Israel's first story of redemption. God here divides the sea. He defeats an enemy. He makes water to spring out of a rock and he dries up water so that Israel can pass through the water into the promised land. I don't remember any Leviathan in that story. Well, I believe that the author is doing something very interesting here. First of all, we have to just simply identify what he means here by Leviathan. It's a biblical word. It actually appears a number of times in scripture. So let's look at a number of those places. The first one we're gonna read is not all that much help to us, but I just want you to see this. In Psalm 104, oh Lord, how manifold are your works. In wisdom you've made them all. The earth is full of all your creatures. Here is the sea. great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it." And this is a similar description as we find in Job 41, where Leviathan is described as the greatest of all God's works, some giant sea creature. that man cannot tame. And so, for instance, the Net Bible will translate here in Psalm 104, they'll just translate it a whale. It's possible that that's what is intended here. But that doesn't seem to fit our passage. In this passage, Leviathan has multiple heads. You crush the heads of Leviathan. And he's an enemy of God. And I don't think God hates whales. I think he likes whales. He created them, like it says, to play in the ocean. But here God is doing battle with this Leviathan. So sometimes, sometimes in the psalmist's imagination, Leviathan takes on another deeper meaning, another meaning which kind of comes to symbolize some kind of an enemy. that rises up against God, rises up against God's people. We see this in, for instance, Isaiah 27. In that day, the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent. Leviathan, the twisting serpent. He will slay the dragon that is in the sea. So at least in this instance, Leviathan appears to be a sea dragon. And most commentators believe that what Isaiah is referring to here is Babylon. It's Babylon. And all of the demonic and the spiritual forces that are at work behind it, he understands that, he signifies that with Leviathan. It's like Leviathan. So this word Leviathan, this biblical word, can refer, I believe, to literal sea creatures. They're out on the ocean, they're on their boats, they see this giant thing come up over the water. Leviathan, that's a Leviathan. But also something more. something sinister, something troubling, something from the sea. And I believe that the sea, the background of the sea is very important. It is the sea beast, which is not called Leviathan in Revelation, but it's this beast that comes out of the sea in Revelation with multiple heads to make war against the people of God, a kind of Leviathan, a beast from the sea. You see, in the ancient world, they obviously did not have submarines. They did not know everything that was down there. It was full of mystery. The sea was not just this beautiful place you went to have a vacation, or you went out on for a pleasure cruise. Never understood it to be that way. If you had to cross the sea in the ancient world, especially in the Iron Age, when this was probably written, It is a high likelihood you're not going to survive. The sea was filled with danger. And it's a place filled with mysterious creatures. It is inhospitable to human life. And of course, what is a good Israelite who knows his Bible? What does he see when he looks out at the sea? He sees the remnants of the flood and a reminder of what God did to that ancient and violent world filled with Nephilim and violent men. It was a place in which civilization was covered and de-created. And so when the biblical authors wanted to describe the chaotic Gentile powers, these overpowering forces that would come in and sometimes trouble God's people, they described them in terms of the sea or as coming out of the sea, they used flood imagery. sometimes sea monster imagery to do this. Now they were not alone in the ancient world because frankly, they were not the only people that had problems with the sea. The sea was a problem for everybody in the ancient world. The ancient pagans frequently had some kind of a myth or a story in which they had a great, powerful god who fought against some kind of a, like a dragon that came out of the sea. There's an ancient Canaanite poem We call it today the Baal Cycle, which Baal battles against a sea monster called Lotan. And in that battling, it's not just a cool story. It is the way in which they, in their pagan, unbelieving way, explained how the world came to be ordered. Because immediately after this, there's a Babylonian version with Marduk and Tiamat. There's a Norse mythology with Thor and a serpent called the Midgard Serpent. There's a number of these where the god fights against the serpent out in the sea. But what follows after that is arrangement. You see, he has defeated this being that represents chaos and disorder. and so brings order to his people, to their world. Now, we don't know if these people believe that these are real fights or these things really happen, but it's one of the ways that they explained how the world came to be ordered. There are a number of times in the Bible where there are references to things that are believed out there in the world, and yet they're not being borrowed as if, hey, that's a good idea. They're being corrected. They're being corrected. There are flood stories all over the world. They're all wrong. They're all wrong. In every one of those cases, the gods are nitpicking beings that are troubled by humans. And in some instances, they can't stand the sound of these loud humans. There's some instances where, well, and on and on and on go. The gods are not the good guys in those stories. And God through Moses, through the prophet says, no, that's not how that went. Let me explain to you what really happened here. And that's what I believe is going on here. Borrowing some imagery for the purpose of showing where real order came from. How real chaos was destroyed and subdued. The Bible corrects all those stories. It is the God of the Bible who brings order out of the midst of chaos, not Thor, not Baal, not Marduk. And I do believe though that this is referring to the Exodus, which was a chaotic time in their lives. And it was a disorienting time in their lives. As slaves, they had lost their identity as God's people. They were not free. We read all throughout the Exodus. We simply want to go out into the wilderness and worship. They were not allowed to mark their own days. A slave does not get to take days off and Sabbath rest. And so their lives were subdued and in chaos. And God comes in and rescues his people and saves them. And remember, Pharaoh was throwing the baby boys into the Nile. God rises up and throws him into the Red Sea. And immediately, and immediately he begins to order their lives. Verses 16 and 17, notice this. In Psalm 74, we're back in Psalm 74. Yours is the day, yours also the night. You have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You fixed all the boundaries of the earth. You've made summer and winter. Well, what does all this have to do with Leviathan or Egypt? But I want you to remember that the very first thing, as they cross through the Red Sea and they sing their songs of praise, God begins to order their months and days and years. The very first commandment that he gives to them as a people, as Israel, the people of God, this shall be your first month. This is how you will tell time. This is how you will orient yourselves. This is how time will make sense to you. The beginning of months, the plagues were a tearing down of a world and a dismembering of their gods. It was a literal tearing down of the worldview of the Egyptians and God begins again to rebuild it. The psalmist remembers that God is a God of order. He created the world. He recreates the world in times of chaos. He sets the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky. And I want you to remember, what is that word? For signs. It's the same word as in Genesis 1. God arranged the sky as a calendar for us, as a pointer for us to keep track of time. to orient us for signs and for seasons, for days and years. That's his way of arranging things. He has done it before. He will bring order out of chaos for this people. He can do this. He can do this, and so having remembered now the horrible situation that they are in, with this lack of meaning and purpose in their lives, the worship of God destroyed, and remembering who God is and what he has done before to order his people's lives and to bring meaning to their lives, he finishes with a series of pleas. And of course, we just don't have time to go into all the details here. He ends with a series of petitions that basically covers the whole gamut of their problems, violence and troubles and the trials, the lack of justice. These Babylonian tormentors are inflicting upon them. Remember the covenant. Uphold your cause in your name. But I want to draw your attention to two interesting juxtapositions. Things which on the surface appear backwards. This is not the way these are supposed to be. I think these are helpful for us to remember what's going on here. First of all, there's a cry for justice to begin to flow the right way. There's a cry for vengeance. There's a cry for vindication and deliverance from these people. The psalmist feels as though they are being fed to a wild beast. Look at verse 19. Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beast. A dove is how he sees God's people. Helpless. helpless to resist the power of the wild beast. Do not deliver the soul of your dove to the wild beast. Israel is weak in this poem. Verse one, they are the sheep of your pasture. And here, verse 19, doves, sheep and doves, in facing wild beasts. They're defenseless. God has promised to protect and defend his people. And it ought not to be this way, that these people triumph over them and ruin them and destroy them. And so instead of Israel being delivered over to the wild beasts, He pleas with God that the Leviathan would become as food for the creatures of the wilderness, for the oppressor to become the oppressed. God, don't deliver us over to be food for the wild beast, deliver Leviathan over to be food for the wild sea creatures as you had before. Flip this around in the right way. The second juxtaposition is this, is a cry for the meeting places of God to be filled with the right noise. To be filled with the right noise. In the very place where David and Asaph of old once sang songs, played instruments, and offered sacrifices and praises to the Lord, there is now all that the psalmist hears, there's another sound. There's another sound, it's in verse four, your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place. Verse 22, it's the enemy's clamor that can be heard, and their uproar of those who rise up against God. And just imagine what it would be like if we could horrifically imagine this room filled with blasphemous evildoers. singing violent songs, blaspheming God. That's what he sees all the day long. The places where there ought to be praise, instead there's just blasphemy and clamor and raging. This is not what holy places of God are supposed to sound like. There to be a glory and a praise. And so the psalmist petitions God, let the poor and needy, verse 21, praise your name. Praise your name. Replace the sound of clamor with praise. Give them peace and worship, deliverance and praise. Restore the things that gave meaning and purpose to their lives. In his words, restore your cause, oh Lord. And so in conclusion, on this second Sunday of Advent, it's good to ask how does this cry of lament fit into the broader story of redemption, which we celebrate today. Now, if we just step back and look at this whole scene, I think we can understand it better. There are some villains in this story that have troubled the people of God. They want something and it's harming the people of God. And what they want is directly contrary to the blessedness of God's people. I know that goes without saying. But the reason why the psalmist is lamenting is because there's people in the land that are keeping them from worshiping the way that they want to worship. Now, God is powerful enough to restrain them from doing this. Now, he can do this a number of ways. He has done this before through external constraints. as he did in the Red Sea. He literally constrained Pharaoh with a flood of water and stopped him. And immediately God's people burst out into song. The enemies of God can be stopped. And we understand that. And they will be stopped. We know this. God will bring order. in all lands, that there's something more glorious that we remember in Advent, in Christmas, in our calendar, more than just that physical constraint that can happen. Through the gospel and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, God is also constraining the peoples, the raging of the peoples and the nations internally, internally. As it says in Romans 15, if you remember, Romans is a story of the gospel, but we often turn it into the story of my own little private salvation story with Jesus. That's not the whole story of the gospel, and it doesn't end there with me forgiven, waiting for heaven. Instead, the way that it ends, the true climax of the story, which began in Romans 1 with the Gentile, all the unbelieving peoples of God, they have suppressed the truth of God, they've turned to idols, they've turned to every false way, and Paul concludes, all men have gone astray. They've all gone astray. But it ends, the climax of the story, in Romans 15, he says this, for I tell you that Christ became a servant, it's Christmas and Easter right there, he became a servant to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. This is the answer to the cry of Psalm 74, there's no sound of glory in their voices. There's blasphemy and clamor and mockery. But Paul goes on, as it is written, therefore, I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. And again, it is said, rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people. And again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. Let all the peoples extol him. And again, you see his, he's trying to be emphatic. And again, Isaiah says, the root of Jesse will come, even he who arises to rule the Gentiles. In him will the Gentiles hope. This is the first answer of Christmas to the advent longings of Psalm 74. God has promised that Jesus will fill the mouths of Gentiles with praise. They will no more be full of uproar and clamor, but praise. One day through Christ, all nations of the earth will gather themselves before Zion. And instead of planting their own signs for signs, for their own glory, to make their own meaning, they will kneel joyfully before the signs and standards of the Lord. Amen. That's our Christmas answer. But what about right now? Because we're still waiting for the fullness of that to happen, aren't we? Is there to be no hope until then? Is the answer of Christmas still just a far off thing? Even for us who have seen the Lord come in his first advent, not at all. Jesus taught his people two things about the raging sea that we need to remember. One, as we already mentioned, in the new heavens and the new earth, there would be no more raging sea. That is, I understand it in the book of Revelation, that the Gentiles will be fully converted to the Lord. There will no more be this raging Leviathan rising up out of the sea. It will be done away with. All nations will stream to Zion. That is the first answer that we find in Jesus. But Jesus also taught his people something else about the raging sea, didn't he? The sea of Galilee was one of his favorite teaching tools, and he loved it when there was a storm. Here's an opportunity to teach my disciples something that they need to know. He is the one who overcomes the rage of the nations in the present day. Jesus, when he heard of the death of John the Baptist, that he had been beheaded by Herod, that very moment he heads out into the wilderness to be by himself to pray. And of course, as often happens, a crowd follows him. And he ministers to them all day. This is one of the stories, Feeding 5,000. And he ministers to them, they break bread, and he sends his disciples out on the water, but he himself stays back to dismiss the crowds, and stays there until late in the night to do what he originally went out to be with his father, to commune with his father, and to seek his face. But when the time came, he walked out on the raging sea. walking right on top. He has overcome the world. He has overcome Leviathan. He has conquered the powers of this age, including Herod and all of the beasts that rose up after him. But then he does the most remarkable thing. He invites Peter to walk on the water with him. So long as Peter's gaze rests upon Jesus, which is a picture of faith, of course, right? Faith in Christ, Peter himself overcomes the raging sea in the present age. So while we wait, while we wait for the end of all raging, he gives us power right now to walk upon the sea. We do not need to fear the raging of beasts in this world. He has overcome, and he invites us to as well. We have two reasons to celebrate this morning. Christ has conquered the nations of the world and will soon fill their raging mouths with praise. But he is also able to make us overcome and stand upon the raging sea. Amen. Soli Deo Gloria. May God be glorified in the preaching of his good news.