I would ask you to turn in your Bibles to the 116th Psalm, Psalm 116. We've read this Psalm in our worship earlier, and now we turn to expound it. This is the fourth of the six Psalms that are designated as the Egyptian Hallel Psalms by the Jews who traditionally sing these songs at the feasts. These are the feasts that celebrate some form of deliverance from tyranny and oppression. Hence, Passover and tabernacles, these psalms are sung commemorating redemption from Egyptian bondage. Hence, the Egyptian holiday, or the Egyptian praise psalms, psalms praising God for redemption from Egyptian bondage. The Purim also is a Jewish holiday that we read about beginning in the Book of Esther, celebrating deliverance from the plot of Haman to destroy the Jewish people. Then Hanukkah, which is a postal testament, of course, in the period of the Greeks' hegemony, the Greeks' government or empire, when the Syrian portion of the Greek empire, under Antiochus Epiphanes, oppressed the people of Israel, taking over their temple, defiling it, and then the wars that the Maccabees that brought deliverance and the rededication of the temple that we call Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a Hebrew word for dedication. They dedicated the temple, rededicated it to the worship and service of God. Hanukkah became that yearly celebration, and these were the deliverance songs that were sung even at that holiday itself. They were the songs that Jesus sang at the Passover, likely the very ones that are noted when it says in the Gospels that they sung a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. These Psalms remind us of who the God of the Exodus is. We saw that in the 113th Psalm. We saw the God of transcendent majesty looks down upon the things that are done on the earth to raise up the poor and the needy. to make the barren fruitful. We saw in the 114th Psalm something of a purpose of the Exodus that Judah and Israel would be his sanctuary and his kingdom, the place of his presence, the place of his rule. And then we saw last Lord's Day in the 115th Psalm the peril and the folly of idolatry. That's what led to the Babylonian destruction. The people had given themselves over to the worship of the God of the nations. They forsake and they forsook the living and the true God. Jeremiah says, my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have viewed out for themselves broken cisterns in the form of pagan idolatry. that can hold no water, idols that have no real existence, idols that cannot do anything to help you, can't hear, can't see, can't move, can't feel, can't touch. That's what they were worshiping, instead of worshiping the God who can do all those things and more for his believing people. Now these final Psalms, Psalm 116, 117, 118, that concludes the Egyptian Parallel seem to me that these are psalms that address not so much the exodus itself or the situation that the people had experienced, as much as it expresses now the quality of life of a redeemed people, the quality of life of the people of the exodus. When God brings them out of bondage, when he brings them into their inheritance, how are they to live? What is their quality of life? to be like? And the answer to those questions is that, in the first place, their lives are to be characterized by persevering faith. That's Psalm 116. Persevering faith is, I believe, the key to understand what's going on in this very complex Psalm 116. And then the very simple Psalm 117 that follows, just two verses, and verses we're familiar with from many other parts of the Psalter, are yet something of a praise to God for His steadfast love, His faithfulness to His people, all of which we have seen before since Psalm 115 and so many other Psalms. But the praise goes out not only to Israel, not only to Judah, but praise to all the nations, extol Him, all the peoples. And so the quality of life of the redeemed people that enter into the inheritance of God is that they're to be a people that propagate their faith, that bring others in, that impact the world for the God they worship and serve. It's becoming a blessing to the nations, that the nations become the people of the living God. And so along with persevering faith and propagating praise, there's also empowering hope. which I think is the heart and substance of the 118th Psalm. I don't give you these titles of these Psalms for simplicity's sake, but I think each of these titles do capture something, at least of the ethos of the Psalms, and something of the quality of the life that a redeemed people ought to be characterized by. What's our life? Is the people of God to be characterized by? Well, persevering faith. propagating praise. It should impact the world as the light of the world, the salt of the earth, and empowering hope. We should be a people from the world that asks the reason for the hope that is within us. So those are things that are qualities of the people who are redeemed by God, saved from the dangers and rescued from the bondage they were in, brought into liberty and freedom and joy. in the land of Thomas. Well, having said something about the Egyptian Hallel and where we've been, where we're going, our focus this morning is upon the first of these three, the 116th Psalm, the Psalm of Persevering Faith. Now, Psalm 16, if you read the commentaries, it's notoriously difficult to outline. Many commentaries don't even try to do it, some do, But what they do is pretty much different from the other. Many different ways in which commentators look to set out what this psalm is saying. The psalm will say, well, it's a Thanksgiving praise psalm, but it doesn't fit the typical form of the usual Thanksgiving praise psalm. See, he moves back and forth from accounts of danger, to accounts of deliverance, to hymns of praise, to confession of faith, In almost every commentary, as I said, it takes a different approach. It's not only true in terms of the different approaches of commentators, but even translations. Even translations. The Greek Old Testament is called the Septuagint. It divides Psalm 116 into two separate psalms. Not one psalm, it's two psalms. Verses 1 to 9 is one psalm. Verses 10 to 19 is an entirely different psalm. And though you have all these changes going on in the content of the psalm, and though you have differences that would make at least the Septuagint translators divide it up into two separate psalms, there really are indications of remarkable unity. There are phrases that repeat again and again throughout the psalms. One of the most often repeated phrases is the phrase, a call upon the name of the Lord, of calling on the name of the Lord. Verse 1. I'm sorry, it's verse 2. Because the inclined is here to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. Verse 4. Then I called on the name of the Lord. O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul. You have verse 13. I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. Verse 17, I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord at least four times. In these 19 verses, the phrase to call upon the name of the Lord is present. And of course, the calling upon the name of the Lord is to pray that he's offering unto the Lord. And I call on the name of the Lord, verse four, O Lord, I pray. deliver my soul. What is it to call upon the name of the Lord? It's to pray, it's to seek Him for the needs, the pleas, for mercy, the sense of obligation we have to be a people that offer to Him the sacrifice of our praise and our prayers and our thanksgivings. Consequent upon His salvation, we're to be a people to seek Him, to call upon the name of the Lord. So that's one unifying praise found again and again in the psalm. Also the theme of death is mentioned over and over again. It's mentioned in verse 3, the snares of death encompass me. It's mentioned in verse 8, you've delivered my soul from death. It's mentioned in the words of verse 14, I'm sorry, verse 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. So death is a matter of constant mention in the psalm, also the sense of obligation to pay our vows, to do this in the presence of his people. You have that in verse 14, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of his people. You have it in verse 18, I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of his people. And so again and again, you're seeing phrases repeat. And again, it testifies to the fact that there is an essential unity in the midst of all these diverse movements that the Psalm makes. I think there's other things, but I'm not going to get into it now. It'll take me more time to prove that those, in fact, are similar phrases, so I'll just move on from there. For me to understand this psalm, and I've worked on it hard, some of you know, I've talked to you about it, is that there's three issues that are key to unlock the sense of the psalm and to see its structure. So I got three things just to tell you what this psalm is about, even before we go into picking it apart to show what it is saying. But before we go into content, we need to see the form. We need to see the form of the thing before we enter into the content. So three things to see the form or structure of the psalm. And the first of it is this, that verse 10 occupies a central place in the psalm. Again, the Greek translators divided it up 1-9 and then 10-19, and I think that was the reason for that. There's clearly a difference in focus in 1-9 and, well, 10-19, or 11-19, both before and after the 10th verse. Before the 10th verse, you have the emphasis upon the Lord's actions, what the Lord does. Now, the psalmist mentions himself. He says, I love to begin this psalm, but I love because the Lord has heard. It's what the Lord has done. He has heard—my love is responsive to what God has done. He has heard my voice. He has heard my pleas for mercy. He has inclined his ear to me. Therefore, I will call on him as long as I live." All the references to he and to him, the personal pronouns that refer to the Lord, or the very mention of the name of the Lord, and I called on the name of the Lord. I pray, deliver my soul. God is central. Gracious is the Lord. Righteous, verse 5. The Lord preserves the simple, verse 6. You have delivered my soul. from death, verse 8, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. This mentions of what the psalmist does, but it's responsive to what God does. What the predominant theme is, is the actions of God. He has heard. He has inclined His ear. He is gracious. He is righteous. He is merciful. He preserves the simple. He saved me. He has dealt bountifully with me. You have delivered my soul from these evils. Very few eyes. There's some, but it's mostly the eyes are really eclipsed by the Lord. He's the present focus and factor and actor in those first nine verses. When you come to the other side of verse 10, leaving verse 10 itself, I believed. I'm greatly afflicted. I said in my alarm, what shall I render to the Lord? I will lift up the cup of salvation, call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord. You see? I, I, I, I, I is the actions of the psalmist. It's the responsive actions of the psalmist. And so, verse 10, in my estimation, is the pivot from the actions of God for the psalmist to the focus upon the response of the psalmist to the actions of God, what the psalmist then is seeking to do. And the interesting thing is, of course, you have 19 verses, right? Verse 10 is smack in the middle of those 19 verses. You have nine verses before and nine verses after. And then oftentimes, as I pointed out, becomes a teaching method in the Psalms. Right in the middle is this matter of, I believe even when I spoke. We'll have some things to say about the meaning of verse 10. I don't think it's translated properly or well by the ESV, but I'll say more about that probably not this week, but next week. But the first thing you need to see is verse 10 central, prior to verse 10, God is the actor. From verse 11 to verse 19, the psalmist acts in response to the actions of God. The second thing that we need to see about the way this psalm is to be understood in terms of its meaning and structure is that the language of the psalmist's circumstances may well be pointing to the time of the exodus It's then that God heard the pleas for mercy through the covenant mediator's intercession, Moses. It was then that this matter of the snares of death encompassed me. You want to ask yourself, what's the situation in the life of the psalmist? Do I have to pray these things? He doesn't give us anything specific. But certainly the circumstances that he's speaking about were the circumstances that the people of Israel experienced at the time of the Exodus. Think of their rebellions. Think of the anguish and the distress that were the constant experience of a nation experiencing repeated judgments from sin. Think the language even in verse 7, return all my soul to your rest. I've yet to read a commentator that can explain to me what this rest is. And as I look at the Bible in terms of how it speaks of the rest of God, Psalm 95 and others, is speaking about the rest of Canaan. It shall not enter into my rest, meaning they'll perish in the wilderness, for their rebellion, for their sin, for their disobedience. It's the rest of Canaan, when the land was given rest, when Israel was given rest, that is the mark of God's fulfillment of His promise to the nation for their inheritance. That's the place where they would keep their sabbaths with God. They would know the rest of God. They would know the joyful bounty of divine presence, the Lord having dealt bountifully with me. And then in the words of verse 9, I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. What would be the land of the living? Well, it would be the contrast to the land of dying, which was the wilderness, which was Egypt. Coming into Canaan, they were in the land of God, the land of divine presence, the land of the tabernacle and the temple, and the presence of God, the living God, living with Him in the land of the living, the land of the inheritance. So surrounded by death and suffering. It's also probably the covenant mediator, it may be the mute is speaking here, Moses, you've got a greater covenant mediator than we've experienced. death-encompassing Him. Tags of Sheol, laying hold on Him. And, of course, that's our Lord Jesus Himself. The language is actually suitable upon His lips as well. Being surrounded by death and suffering, He vicariously suffers judgment and deliverance for us through His death and resurrection from the wilderness of sin, the wilderness of this world, to the inheritance in which he purges our sin. He sits down at the right hand of God, having obtained eternal redemption for us. I think there's a definite Christological focus in the words of the psalm when rightly understood. So we want to incorporate that and factor that into our reading of the psalm and our understanding of the psalm. So we have the fact that verse 10 is the pivot from actions of God to the actions in response of the psalmist. We have the Egyptian background of the wilderness wanderings, the place of death, the place of suffering, the place of disobedience. The whole nation fell in the wilderness, the whole generation. And you read the book of Numbers, you see 607,000 men capable of waging a war. They all died in a 40-year span. And God blessed the nation with an equal number to go into the land when the second census was taken later on in the Book of Numbers, when they numbered the people a second time. So God blessed the people, but in the midst of the judgment, or through the judgment of death, they came upon the nation for their sin. God brings life from the midst of death and brings them into the land of life from the dead. of the wilderness. I think also referring to Jesus' death and resurrection for us, the place of dying leading to the place of life, the resurrection life. And then the final thing is that this is a psalm that Paul uses in the book of 2 Corinthians. And as you read 2 Corinthians and you read Psalm 116, you find many parallels between the psalmist and the apostle. We mentioned that Thomas is surrounded by death. Paul himself speaks that we have, as it were, the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead. The psalmist speaks of the great afflictions that he experiences. Paul speaks of being afflicted in every way. Death is a common theme. Affliction is a common theme. And verse 10 is a common theme. Paul quotes the words of the 116th Psalm. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what is written. And he quotes Psalm 116. So Paul is seeing in Psalm 16 something of the spirit of faith that he shares with the psalmist. Since we have the same spirit of faith that the psalmist possessed when he said these things, we ourselves have the same spirit of faith. according to what has been written. He saw that in himself. And it's in the context of Paul speaking about continuance in ministry, not losing heart, not quitting. According to what has been written, Paul, like the psalmist, believed and was strengthened in his faith to persevere and not to lose heart. So these three considerations need to guide our approach to Psalm 116. I'm hoping none of you are thinking, well, passage is complicated stuff. Why don't you just read what's there and talk about it? I'd like to read what's there and talk about it, but I think to do so would be also understanding you're talking about God's actions, Psalm's response. God's actions, first half. Psalm's response, second half. He's speaking about language that's referring to the time of the wilderness, the time of death, the time of life in the land. We're looking at things that Paul says he shares in common with the words of this psalm, because he has the same spirit of faith that's here in this psalm. So I think it's legitimate to state those things at the outset. So what is this psalm about? Well, to express something of the Egyptian influence, express something of Paul's influence, and say something about the things you actually see in the psalm. I think what we have in the psalm is what I'm going to be calling reasons and resolves. Reasons and resolutions not to lose heart in the wilderness of life. I think that's exactly what the psalmist is talking about. He's talking about the ways God's people continue in faith and faithfulness when everything around us is discouraging, when everything around us would simply grip our hearts and say, what's the use? How can I do this in distress and anguish? How can I do this in the midst of affliction and trouble? How can I do this in the midst of lies? All men are liars, I set on my alarm. We're not honest people around. the man everywhere he turns is looking at things that are discouraging, looking at things that are depleting his soul, his heart of strength, of resolve. For what reasons should he continue? Well, listen to him. He'll tell you. He'll tell you. This is giving us here in this time the reasons and resolves not to lose heart in the wilderness of life. Where do we begin? Well, I think you begin with the power of prayer in the wilderness of life. The power of prayer in the wilderness of life. Now, Paul doesn't begin with the matter of prayer. He begins with the matter of his love. He says, I love, I love. But what is it about this love in the heart of the apostle? Why love and not fear, trembling, despair, sense of loss. Why love? Well, because whatever's against him, he has this one thing for him. He has an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God who hears his prayers. I love because the Lord has heard. Whatever I don't have, this thing I have, I have a prayer answering God. I have a God who cares about me, a God who listens to the voice of my cry. He heard, hears, he's heard of experiences again and again and again. He hears my voice and my pleas for mercy. Certainly the nation has experienced this after the Golden Path incident in the wilderness when, sorry, or in Mount Sinai. There's Moses in his intercessory prayers pleading for the mercy of God to his people that led the Lord not to completely cut them off, but to continue to go with them on their journey. They continue to rebel, and they continue to rebel, and they continue to rebel. But the fact is, God hears the prayers of his people who call on his name. They do not call on his name in vain. And the fact that he hears our prayers, the fact that he works in response to our prayers, the fact that we can know the power of prayer and the willingness of life is a reality that deepens our relationship to him. I love the Lord because he hears my voice, because he hears my plea for mercy. It's no fun to need mercy. It's no fun to be in need. It's not a joy to be surrounded by death, distress, and anguish. But when those very times of desperation drive us out of ourselves and drive us to the conclusion that we have no resources of our own to handle the difficulties and the complexities of life, that there is an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God who is an endless resource of ability and strength, that we're invited to call on his name. And the fact that he calls on his name is something that's not without warrant, not something you just said, well, I guess I should call on his name. with no real hope of God answering, the reality is God gives to us in his Word multiple calls to do this very thing, to call on his name and to receive reactions and responses from the Lord himself. Earlier on in the book of the Psalms, we have Psalm 50. So where did the Psalms get this idea to call on the name of the Lord? Well, again, That's God's revelation to his people that when we call on his name, we're not sent on a fool's errand. We're not sent to do something that is going to be futile and vain. But he hears the prayers of the people who call on his name. Listen to the words of verse 14. And again, you see the language is similar to Psalm 116. Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving. perform your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble." In the day of trouble. Now, the Lord's not advocating the kind of faith that only calls upon Him in the day of trouble. We never pray at any other point than when you're in the foxhole, and the old saying is, there's no atheists in foxholes. When you're in the war, When the fear of death comes upon you, everybody's crying out to God for deliverance from death, that God will preserve them. Prayer is something that is to be offered continually to Him. But yet we must not think a day of trouble is a day that is too hard for God to respond to our concerns and our needs. It's in the very day of trouble. It's in the very day that everything seems to be against us. God says, call on me. that very day I will deliver you and you shall glorify me." Read the account of Hezekiah's prayer in the temple when the Assyrians are at the gates of Jerusalem. They have no defense at all. Yet they have their God. They have a prayer-hearing God. Without a single Arrow from an archer in Israel defeats the armies of the Assyrians. Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. Psalm 107, the very section of this psalm, 116, very simple. of this psalm, Psalm book five, you have this psalm that focuses in upon several conditions and circumstances in life in which trouble arises and need is present and danger is there, and desperation is right at the psalmist's door. Look at what we read. Look at verse four. Some wandered in desert places. They were back in the wilderness. finding no way to his city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty. And the people of Israel were in a wilderness. Their soul fainted within them. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way till they reached the city to dwell in. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of Mentor. He satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul. with good things. God hears the prayers of his desperate people, of his needy people, his people existing in a time of trouble. Jeremiah chapter 29. This is the letter that Jeremiah wrote to the exiles when they were taken into captivity in Babylon. We all have heard parts of this put on coffee cups and bumper stickers. But the context is good to read to get a sense of what's going on here. And people take the words that I have planned for you in the future for you, and celebrate that as just a wonderful reality, but remember where they were. They were in exile. Is that God's plan for us? Is that God's future for us? Well, for a while anyway, for 70 years anyway. But here in the midst of the trouble of losing their land, the trauma of seeing death and devastation all around them, the trauma of dislocation, of being exiles on a strange land. You see in chapter 29, thus says the Lord, when seven hundred years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you. I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. It's in this context, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. But it is a distant future, it's not a near future. Troubles continue for years, decades. For 70 years I've completed for Babylon. When I visit you, when I fulfill my promises to you, you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. I will restore your fortunes, gather you from the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord. I'll bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." Again, it's not just a promise that God gives. It's the fact that people hear His promise, respond in faith to His promise, believe His promise that brings God to fulfill the work of His promise. You see, when the time for the 70 years prophesied by Jeremiah becomes a completion in the book of Daniel, Daniel prays, chapter 9, that great prayer of chapter 9 comes into the context of Daniel seeing by the words of Jeremiah that 70 years were about to be completed. He doesn't just say, well, the Word of God says they're going home, so no need for prayer. No. The Word of God says they're going home. Let's pray. Let's plead the Word of God. Let's plead the promises of God with the confidence that God hears the prayers of His people that reflect the fact that it's His will to do us good. So we have the promise. that brings us to plead. He said, you call on my name in a day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you will glorify me. There's other examples, other places that scripture can look. There's two more I'll turn your attention to. The others I have in my notes book. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, Book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 20. You have an incident recorded—I don't think it's in the Kings. There's a version of it in the Book of Kings, but not the prayer. In the Book of 2 Chronicles, chapter 20, you have, during the reign of King Jehoshaphat, a conglomeration of enemies—actually, they should have been friends, Moabites and Ammonites— I've told you a lot. And within, some of the menunites, they came against Jehoshaphat for battle. And some men came and told Jehoshaphat, a great multitude is coming against you from Edom. I'm sorry, well, Edom is, Edom, of course, is Esau. Esau is the sentence, the loss of sentence, Esau is the sentence, cousins, brothers, which should have been friendly, but they were not. They're coming from beyond the sea. Behold, they're in, well, a long name for Getty. And Jehoshaphat was afraid. What did he do? He set his face to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast. Let all Judah and Judah assemble to seek help from the Lord. And all the cities of Judah, they came to seek help. And you read the prayers while they pray. about what God did in the past. God drove out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, to give it forever to the descendants of Abraham, your friend. That's in verse 7. They've lived in it, they've built for you a sanctuary for your name. They built a temple. And now he says in verse 10, these men of Ammon, Moab, Mount Seir, that's Esau's territory, Edom, whom you would not let invade Israel when they came from the land of Egypt, whom they avoided and did not destroy. Behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you've given us to inherit. Many preachers say, O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great force that is coming against us. We do not know what to do. in our eyes are on you. What a great place to be in as a Christian. To come to the end of your own resources, to come to the realization I have no power in myself to do anything against the enemies of my soul, against this great horde that has come against us. But I do not lose heart. Don't lose heart, Christian. You have a God who hears your cries, who hears your prayers. Call upon his name in the day of trouble, and he will answer you, and you will glorify him. John the sculptor, who has heard your voice, who has heard your pleas for mercy, who inclines his ear to you. That knowledge of a God who hears prayer, brings resolution to his soul. It is therefore, therefore, in the light of that revealed reality, in the light of that revealed fact of a prayer-hearing, prayer-answering God who does not leave his people without mercy, who does not leave his people without good comfort, who does not leave his people without his help and without hope. It is therefore, I will hope on him as long as I live. I'll do it in the midst of the snares of death encompassing me. I will do it in the midst of suffering and distress. I will do it in the midst of the reality of my alarm that all mankind are liars. And you put all those negatives up against you with the realization you have something greater to thank you for, someone greater who will meet with you and loves you. He cares for you and ministers to you and will not leave you without His help and without His resources. Don't lose heart, Christian. Don't turn inward. Don't turn to Babylon or Syria or Egypt or any of the alliances that Israel's kings sought to make with the kings of nations. Don't put your confidence in strict princes, nor for help on man depend. Look to the Lord. He hears and answers your prayers. Live in dependence upon him. And you will see the light at the end of the darkness. You will see his life giving power that will meet you in a time that you feel that you're just out of strength and firelight and can go no further. You will meet him in his grace, in his preserving power, and you will be brought to the rest of his inheritance, to the joy of his salvation from his heart. There are more that are with us than are against us. Greater is he that is in you than is he that is in the world. It's all the perspectives of Scripture that bring us to the realization The Lord we serve is an adequate God, adequate to meet us in the depths of life circumstances, to meet us in the wilderness, to bring us to the desired city. Don't lose heart. Persevere in faith and faithfulness, because you do worship and serve the God to meet you in the wilderness with his blessings that enable us to be more than conquerors to him who loved us. May God be pleased to bless his word. Let's go to him in prayer. Father, we are thankful for the resources that you give to your children, Even in a wilderness place, we're thankful that in the midst of all the dangers that seem to surround us, that we ought not to lose heart. We ought not to be hopeless. We ought to thrive with the knowledge that you mean business when you call us to continue on, to trust you, to look to you. We're thankful for the power of prayer. that you bring us to experience the reality of in a wilderness place, the reality that it does deepen our love for you, our relationship to you, when we call on your name and know the comforts of your grace that lead us through prayer. Be pleased to bless your people. Be pleased to make us to be a people that abound in hope and never have the sense of the reality that we are no losers to follow after Jesus. We are more than conquerors. We are those who will not lose our reward. We are those whose labor is not in vain in you. To give us grace, we pray, to be steadfast, to be immovable, to be always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labors are not in vain. Hear our prayers, As we ask these mercies coming, in Jesus' name, amen.