Oh yeah? Yeah. All right. Hey, don't you ever cry again. Yeah. Oh shit. Come on. Come on. Come on. I don't know what else to do. I don't know what else to do. Okay. You know, there's a lot that we do off the grid. Okay. It's so good to have you back. I really appreciate it. You know, it's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. Well, it's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have you back. It's good to have I'm going to try and put the lid on it and see if it works. Good. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So, Alright, we need another orange fruit. I'm happy to have the opportunity to do this. So obviously we've got fruit being gone, we're going to do it a little differently tonight. But we'll still just kind of open it up to favorite requests. And we'll sit down for 15 minutes before we start. So anybody got one to begin with? 116C. 116C. Can we get the 1, 2, and 5? 1, 2, and 5. 1, 2, 3, C. 1, 2, and 5. ♪ How shall I know that grace will be shown ♪ ♪ When all things are good to me ♪ ♪ Selfishness, love, love, mercy, love ♪ ♪ I do know, love, love, mercy, love ♪ We are in Shaitan, Illinois, Illinois, Illinois, Illinois, Illinois, Illinois, And on His face His face He wept, And His mouth His mouth He spoke. Uh, let's sing just the first verse of that. 2.45, the first verse. He is living in my heart ♪ Where'er thou art and thou wilt remain with me ♪ ♪ Blessed is the fruit of thy wisdom in the land ♪ ♪ Blessed is the fruit of thy wisdom in the land ♪ ♪ Praise thy goodness, praise thy goodness ♪ Edward? 44. 44? Number 484, let's sing One and Three. One, two, three, four, five, We lay our peace at His foot, and sing of His love. Sing of His healing, and of His care. With us by His waters, we know His care. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Where is the land of the free and the home of the brave? Let's do 509. 509. 509. We'll do 1385 of 509. 1385. ♪ O'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ And the home of the brave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free ♪ ♪ And the home of the brave ♪ ♪ For years we have danced in the dancing gale ♪ ♪ In the halls of New Brunswick ♪ ♪ Where we gave our praise to the brave and free ♪ ♪ For our God, our God, our God, our God, our God, our God ♪ Six, four, three, four and three. 3, 4, 8, 3. You must sing 1 and 4. 3, 4, 8, 3, 1 and 4. ♪ My soul ♪ ♪ My soul ♪ ♪ My soul ♪ ♪ And on earth peace shall prevail ♪ ♪ And on earth peace shall prevail ♪ ♪ And on earth peace shall prevail ♪ I think it's 308. 308? Yes. Okay. 308. Let's sing again, 1, 2, 3. It's the day of our lives, the day of our lives ♪ He is in the middle ground ♪ ♪ Christ is born today ♪ ♪ Christ is born today ♪ ♪ Rich in marriage and wars ♪ ♪ God is strong and wise ♪ ♪ How did he not give away ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ, the Lord himself ♪ I think we got time for maybe four or two more. Three to nineteen. Three to nineteen? Okay. 319. Let's sing 1 and 3. 1 and 3 of 319. You are the light of my life You are the light of my life ♪ We ever will love you forevermore ♪ ♪ Oh, when we awoken ♪ ♪ For the beginning and the end of time ♪ ♪ Our God made us adore him ♪ ♪ Oh, God made us adore him ♪ ♪ Our God made us adore him Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Sing all ye nations, sing in exultation ♪ ♪ Sing all ye citizens of heaven above ♪ ♪ Glory to God, all glory in the highest ♪ ♪ God the best adored, God the most high ♪ Okay, and I decided that I would pick the last one. So, let's start to 42, and we'll say 7C. 42C. Now let's sing just the 1st and the 4th, 42 C vs. 1 and 1. Where art thou living, that we may see? Where art thou living, that we may see? For I am your eyes and your soul, And why so troubled shouldst thou be? Hope thou may guide me, my soul, Who gives His saving help to me? Who gives His saving help to me? so so Well, good evening. It's very much a blessing and a privilege to be with you all again on this Lord's Day evening to worship our great God together. And let's stand as he calls us to worship from his word in Psalm 95, verse 6. Psalm 95, 6. Oh, come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord, our maker. And let's go before our Father in prayer this evening. Our God and Father in heaven, truly how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have made all things and redeemed your people. You who are eternal, immortal, invisible, infinite in power, wisdom, and goodness, dwelling in unapproachable light. To you belong honor and eternal dominion. May we honor you with our lips and our hearts as we answer your call to worship you this evening. Hear us, Father, for we gather together in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, your only begotten well-beloved Son and our only mediator. Truly our help is in your name, you who made heaven and earth. For to you, Father, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, one God from all eternity and to all eternity, be glory, wisdom, power, and dominion both now and forevermore. Amen. Well, people of God, our God greets us this evening from His Word in 1 Timothy 1, saying, Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father in Jesus Christ our Lord. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, amen. Our psalm of praise is 103E. O come, my soul, bless thou the Lord. 103, setting E. O come, my soul, bless Thou the Lord, Thy Maker, and all within me bless His holy name. Bless Thou the Lord, forget not all His mercies, His pardoning grace and saving love proclaim. Bless Him, ye angels, wondrous in might. Bless His servants who in His will delight. Good is the Lord, and full of kind compassion, most low to anger, plenteous in love. Rich is His grace to all that humbly seek Him, Boundless and endless as the heavens above. Bless Him, ye angels, wondrous in might, Bless Him, His servants, who in His will delight. His love is like a father's to his children, tender and kind to all who fear his name. For well he knows our weakness and our frailty, He knows that we are dust, He knows our frame. Bless Him, ye angels, wondrous in might. Bless Him, His servants, who in His will delight. We fade and die like flowers that grow in beauty, like tender grass that soon will disappear. But evermore the love of God has changed us, still shown to those who look to Him in fear. Bless Him, ye angels, wondrous in might. Bless Him, His servants, who in His will delight. High in the heavens, His throne is fixed forever, His kingdom rules for all people to know. Bless ye the Lord, through all His wide dominion, Bless His most holy name, O Thou my soul. Bless him, ye angels, wondrous in might. Bless him, his servants, who in his will delight. Amen. Well, we now have the opportunity to confess our faith using the words of the Apostles' Creed, which can be found on page 851 in the back of the Trinity Psalter hymnal, should you need it. 851. Church of Christ, what is it that you believe? I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified dead and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From there he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. Please be seated. We come now to our responsive reading, which this evening will be in the third psalm, Psalm 3. So turn with me, if you would, to Psalm 3 in your Bibles. I will begin by reading the odd-numbered verses, if you would respond with the even-numbered in Psalm 3. Psalm 3 is a Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son. O Lord, how many are my foes? Many are rising against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory and the lifter of my head. I cried aloud to the Lord, and he answered me from his holy hill. I lay down and slept. I woke again, for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of many thousands of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord. Save me, O my God. For you strike all my enemies on the cheek. You break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be on your people. Amen. Well, our corresponding psalm is the setting of Psalm 3. Oh, Lord, how many are my foes? Number three here in the Trinity Psalter hymnal. And we'll stay seated to sing. ♪ O come, O come, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ O come, let us adore Him ♪ ♪ To God, my Sheol, and Holy Lord ♪ ♪ The King of all my world ♪ ♪ My God, your God, who art on this earth ♪ ♪ Is ever to be said ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? ♪ And pray with healing voice ♪ ♪ We make thanks to the Lord, dear Lord ♪ ♪ Now age after age of old ♪ ♪ For the Savior, the King and Lord of all ♪ Amen. Well, we have the opportunity once again now to go to our God and Father in a time of prayer. So please pray with me. Our Father in heaven, you are the one deserving of praise from all your creation. You made the heavens, the angels, the sun, the moon, and the stars, and they proclaim your glory every day and every night. Even the storms themselves fulfill your command. You rule over all nations, and the rulers of the nations owe you praise and honor. We praise you, Lord, tonight, not only for your great power and majesty, but also because you have redeemed a people for your great name. We praise you that we can come before you and address you as Father through Christ, you who are the creator and Lord of creation. Father of the fatherless and protector of widows are you, O Lord, in your holy habitation. We confess our sins to you, Father, and we know that every day we have failed to keep your law in many different ways. We often fail to love you with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and we often fail to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And so we repent of this and ask that you would forgive us our sins for Jesus' sake. We thank you, Lord, for the good news of the gospel that we hear proclaimed to us week in and week out. We thank you for what Christ has done for us on our behalf while we were yet sinners. We thank you also for the comfort and assurance that this brings to us as we come more and more to realize that all of your promises and sure-o's find their yes in Him. We praise and thank you that we can come before you and address you as Father, even as we're doing this very minute through Christ. And so we ask that you would be with our governing officials at the local, at the state, and at the federal levels. May you give them wisdom to govern well in truth and justice, and may we be able to live quietly to mind our own affairs and to work diligently so that we may walk properly before outsiders. We pray that your spirit would enable us to pay to all what is owed to them. Taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, and honor to whom honor is owed. We ask that you would grant us economic stability here in our country now so that we can continue to support our families. And we also pray for those around the world. We especially think right now of Ukraine. Would you give health, rest, and the ability to continue to those who are working with and making arrangements for the refugees? We ask, Father, that the war would cease and that evil would be defeated. We also lift up to you those recovering from the earthquake in Japan. We thank you for this local church here in Kalamazoo that has been faithful in the proclamation of your gospel, the administration of your sacraments, and the exercise of church discipline. We thank you, Lord, that this has been true of this church for so many years now, and we ask that it would continue for generations into the future. We praise you and thank you for the officers you have set up in this congregation and for their faithfulness and work. And we thank you that we can take part in this dialogue of worship each and every Lord's Day, to receive from you through your word and sacraments, and to be able to respond to you in gratitude through prayer, song, and offerings through our only mediator, Jesus Christ. Please be with us again tonight as your word is proclaimed. We ask that you would give me clarity of mind and speech, and that you would be with all of us as we actively listen. May your Holy Spirit illumine the word to us this evening. And we ask, Lord, not only for this local congregation, but for your church all over the country and all over the world. We pray specifically tonight for Emmanuel OPC in Ontario. We praise you, Lord, that a church began sharing their building with EOPC. And we ask that you would continue to lead them, as you have over these past months and years, to a long-term location. We also praise you for the temporary pulpit supply you have given to them, and ask that you would give them a full-time minister soon. We also pray for Pastor Marcus' work in Battle Creek. May you raise up a large, strong, ministry-minded Bible study group. that he can lead that will soon become a new congregation of Christ. We pray for the missionary families as well that are supported through the HUB spokes program, for the Westervelds in Quebec, for the Hopps in Haiti, and for the Johnsons in Thailand. We also thank Lord of all the seminaries here and abroad, and we pray for them that they would, as they seek to train ministers of your word, that you would give them strength, that you would give them the funds that they need, and that you would give them protection and strength. We pray that you would give discernment, courage, and protection to the faithful pastors in Eastern Europe and Russia and all the old Soviet bloc countries where things are getting worse and worse now. We also lift up, Lord, the church in Canada, as they are facing these intense political pressures and have been for some time now, now backed by legal sanctions, not to preach biblical sexual ethic. We ask that you would strengthen them and give them wisdom moving forward. And finally, Father, we ask that you would watch over us and keep us this coming week and bring us back again next Lord's Day to hear from you and to respond to you again. For it's in Christ's name that we pray by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Well, we have an opportunity once again to respond to our God and his great mercy that he's shown to us, his great grace to us with our tithes and offerings, which this evening are designated for the hub spokes missionaries, the hub spokes missionaries that invite the deacons to come forward. so so Yeah. Yeah. Well, please stand with me as we sing our hymn of preparation, 255, Day by Day, 255. StSq3 3.30 (-0.99") Day by day, and with each passing moment, Strength I find to meet my trials here. Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear. He whose heart is kind beyond all measure gives unto each day what he thinks best, lovingly as part of pain and pleasure, mingling toile with peace and rest. Every day the Lord himself is near me, With a special mercy for each hour. For my cares he fain would bear and cheer me, He whose name is counselor and power. The protection of His child and treasure Is a charge that on Himself He laid. As Your days, Your strength shall be in measure Is the pledge to me He made. Even in every tribulation, So to trust your promises, O Lord, That I lose not face we consolation. offered me within your holy word. Help me, Lord, with trial and trouble meeting, there to take us from all father's sin. One by one, the days of moments fleeting, till I've reached the promised land. Amen. Well, let's go to our God and Father one more time this evening and ask for His help. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word, and specifically tonight, we thank You for Psalm 77. We pray that Your Spirit would illumine us to understand Your Scriptures tonight. And we know, Lord, that all of Your Word in the Old and New Testaments points to Christ. We pray that we would be able to see Him even better in the Old Testament this evening. For it is in His name that we pray. Amen. We'll turn with me, if you would, to the 77th Psalm. The 77th Psalm is perhaps not the most well-known in all the Psalter, but God's people have found a lot of comfort through it. It's been a blessing to many people, especially in days of trouble that we go through. And hopefully, I trust the Spirit will impress this upon our heart this evening. Psalm 77, I'll begin reading in verse 1 all the way through the end of the psalm, all 20 verses. This is to the choir master, according to Jeduthun, a psalm of Asaph. I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me. In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord. In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearying. My soul refuses to be comforted. When I remember God, I moan. When I meditate, my spirit faints. You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. I consider the days of old, the years long ago. I said, let me remember my song in the night. Let me meditate in my heart. Then my spirit made a diligent search. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? Then I said, I will appeal to this, to the ears of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What God is great like our God. You are the God who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples. You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid. Indeed, the deep trembled. The clouds poured out water. The skies gave forth thunder. Your arrows flashed on every side. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind. Your lightnings lighted up the world. The earth trembled and shook. Your way was through the sea. Your path through the great waters. Yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron. This ends the reading of God's holy word. May he bless it to us this evening. Well, I'm sure each and every single one of us here have experienced frustration of some kind in our lives. There's a lot of different types, of course, that we could look at. A lot of different things that can happen that can make us frustrated. Sometimes it's little things. It's getting stuck in traffic when you're already running behind. Sometimes, though, There are big frustrations. Sometimes things in life don't go the way that we thought they would, and they don't go the way that we think they should. And this can be a number of different ways. Perhaps a loved one has died unexpectedly, or we ourselves have received a terminal diagnosis that we did not see coming, or perhaps a grown child walks away from the faith. There are any number of things that we could list of the deep frustrations and grievances of life. And we can ask where God is during these times. It can cause us to take a step back and to think, what is going on? How is it that this is possible? How can this happen to one of God's children? It can make us begin to wonder, perhaps even begin to doubt. Well, Psalm 77 can help us here. Psalm 77 is the kind of psalm that we know as a psalm of lament or psalm of lamentation. It's very personal and profound, it's very deep, and it's a psalm that was written by the psalmist in the midst of a terrible situation. We don't know exactly what it was. We don't know quite why Asaph was led to read, or rather to write, this psalm that we read. But we do know he was suffering. Suffering quite profoundly. And we'll see what we normally see in Psalms of the Lament. We'll see really two sections here. That the psalmist will begin in these kinds of psalms by crying out to God, asking Him for help in the midst of this situation, whatever it may be that's causing him so much pain and grief and suffering. And then usually about halfway through the psalm, there's this pivot, there's this change, there's this turn to praise. Suddenly the psalmist begins to understand who God is once again, even if he can't see exactly what it is that God is doing. And so Psalm 77 follows this method. It gives us the prescription on the one hand of what's wrong, or the diagnosis of what's wrong, and the prescription of how to think about it, how to pray to God through the midst of it, what to take comfort in, and what God has done for His people. So we'll see two things, especially this evening. First of all, we see the day of trouble. Secondly, we see the deeds of the Lord, the day of trouble and the deeds of the Lord. So the day of trouble is in verses one through nine. And as we read through these verses, perhaps as we read through it just a minute ago, you were struck by how honest Asaph was. That he wasn't holding back anything. He wasn't doing what we tend to do and sweep things under the rug here. He was bearing his heart, bearing his soul to his creator. He was crying out in all of his pain and grief and wondering and even doubt. He's saying things that perhaps make us feel a little bit uncomfortable because these are the thoughts and prayers of one of God's children when it seems like to him that God has abandoned him. We see suffering and frustration and disorientation. He's lost. Life doesn't make sense to him. As sometimes happens to us, this is not how he thought things would be, and even worse, this is not how he thought things should be. And so he's crying out to God in the midst of this. We see ourselves here perhaps as he's shockingly honest about how he does not understand what it is that God is doing or even where God is as he's in pain. Perhaps Psalm 77 is one of the most helpful psalms in the entire Psalter in helping us to understand what to do with our doubts and our wondering. Many psalms are honest. But few Psalms, perhaps, are as deeply, profoundly open about the things that go through Asaph's mind when he is going through these terrible times, about the prayers and the questions, as we'll see in just a few moments, that he asks God when he's in the midst of his situation. He starts out in here in the first few verses by crying aloud to God, we read. Whatever it is that's striking Asaph is so intense that he is audibly crying out to God in his anguish. He's trying to call out to God with his voice. And this doesn't seem to be a recent situation either as we take a look at some of the language that he uses. It seems that this is not something that just happened overnight. As with many psalms, we don't know exactly what it is that Asaph is going through, we don't know exactly what led to the writing of this psalm, but we know it's intense, we know it's painful, and we know that it seems to be going for quite some time. This is biting and gnawing within him until he cannot help but cry out to God, because he has nowhere else to turn. And you see, Asaph was part of the covenant people of God. He had faith in God's promises. He was a descendant of Abraham, not only naturally, according to the flesh, but also spiritually as one who had faith in the same promises that Abraham had. But clearly, this does not mean that Asaph's life was free of trouble and of wonder and of doubt. It didn't lead to a pain-free existence for the psalmist. And perhaps that's something that we should stop and think about. Maybe the sheer number of lament psalms in the Psalter can help us to realize something. That life is hard. It is full of troubles and pains and trials and tribulations. And that the Bible faces this head on. It doesn't sweep it under the rug. Especially the psalms show life as it is. Warts and all. Pains and trials and tribulations and all. And do we ever think, perhaps we've heard this, perhaps we've even said it, come to Jesus for an easy life free of troubles. Maybe we don't say it as explicitly as that, we aren't as brash as that. But perhaps in our minds there's some understanding, there's something that we think that, yeah, you come to Jesus and he's the answer to all of your troubles. And ultimately that's true, but that doesn't mean it's going to be an easy life. It doesn't mean things are going to go well for us at all times. The Psalms show us this, and we see Asaph desperate. In verse 2, we see him stretching out his hand in prayer. It's almost as if he's reaching out, trying to grab a hold of God, and he's wondering where he is. He's trying to see if God even hears him. This is his day of trouble, as he writes, and he can't seem to get relief, yet he knows that if relief does come, it will only be from God. He knows in verse one that God will hear him, yet he is not comforted. He remembers God, yet he moans and his spirit faints, as he says. Notice with me again verse four. You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I cannot speak. He is so troubled that he cannot sleep. In fact, more than that, it's as if he's saying to God, you yourself are reaching down from heaven and opening up my eyelids, keeping me from getting the sleep that I need. Whatever this trouble was, whatever this situation was that he found himself in, it was causing severe insomnia for him. And we know this, of course, don't we? Anyone who's gone through significant troubles, often one of the first things to go is sleep. And of course that makes everything spiral out of control more, doesn't it? The more tired you get, the more sleep you miss. When it rains, it pours, it seems for Asaph. That everything is falling apart for him, that everything is going the exact opposite of what he would hope and dream. So he begins to think of God's promises in the past. And then he compares them to his present situation, what he is experiencing right now here in the present, in the here and the now. He begins to wonder. It makes him even more disoriented. He's even more lost after he does this, because he knows his God, the God in whom he believes, has made these promises to his people. He has done these things in the past. And yet here is Asaph, a child of this very same God, suffering in the present without any seeming relief in sight, without anything seemingly on the horizon that's going to change his situation. And so what does he do? He begins to ask deep questions, which is exactly what we should do in situations like this. He doesn't sweep his suffering under the rug. He doesn't pretend it isn't that bad. He doesn't try to man up, as we might say, and keep plugging away. He asks specific questions of God, these specific rhetorical questions as we see in verses 7 through 9. Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion? We begin to see as we read through these rhetorical questions that whatever is afflicting Asaph, whatever trouble he is in, seems to be trouble for the nation of Israel as a whole. And these questions are full of covenantal terms, whether it's maybe some kind of famine or disease or defeat in war, whatever it may be, it seems to be afflicting all of God's covenant people. And Asaph is asking, have you forgotten your promises? Have you turned your back on us? Have you abandoned us? Are you no longer our God? Will you ever again be gracious or will you spurn us forever? Perhaps we can identify with the psalmist here in some of our wonderings. He's going to God with these deep questions. He's going to his covenant Lord asking these questions about his covenant faithfulness to his promise. Are you going to be faithful to what you have said? He isn't pretending that he's not hurting. He's being quite open. Shockingly open, perhaps. Shockingly honest compared to maybe what we would expect. And he cannot yet see what he's looking for, but at least he's looking in the right direction. He's looking to God, the only one who can save him, the only one who can deliver him from whatever this is that's going on in his life. And he does not turn inward. He doesn't follow the advice, perhaps, that we're tempted to follow from our day and age. Now follow your heart or look inside yourself to find answers. Asaph knows what's in himself and it's not helping. His help will come from the Lord, his help will come from the sovereign God of Israel, or his help will not come at all. And as he's asking these questions, as he's wrestling with the deep things of God, as he's truly trying to figure out what is going on here and who is God as he's acting in the world, Finally, answers begin to come to him. Finally, he begins to see things as they truly are. This brings us to our second point this evening, the deeds of the Lord in verses 10 through 20. Here is where we see this great pivot that we come to expect as we read different psalms of lamentation, where the psalmist goes from crying out to God in his pain and discomfort, his doubts and his wonderings, to praising God for who he is, perhaps even in the midst of this suffering situation that is still going on. We notice in verses 10 and 11 that this is where the shift in thinking occurs. You might notice a little note in your Bible, at least in the ESV, there's a little 2 at the end of verse 10, and basically all that means is we're a little bit unsure about what this particular word could mean, whether it could mean years or changing. But really, the only difference this makes is whether or not he changes his mind in verse 10 or verse 11, because this is the point where he begins to really understand who God is and what God does. He's beginning to think differently. Suddenly, he begins to remember the deeds of God on behalf of his people, and not just to remember, oh yeah, God did that, but to really think about them, to meditate on them, to realize what their importance truly and really is. He remembers your wonders of old, as he says in verse 11. He remembers, he realizes that no God is great like his God. And this God redeemed and rescued his people in the past. So what Asaph is doing is suddenly he's taking comfort in what God has done for his people in history. Now this Psalm, Psalm 77, became my favorite Psalm at a particular point in my life. It was a A tough time. I was away at seminary my first year there, and my parents were getting divorced back home, and all these things were happening. My theology was changing. I was becoming more and more reformed from a Baptist background. All these things seemed to be swirling in life, and I was beginning to wonder, where can I look to for comfort? What should my foundation truly be? Is it just going to be uncertainty and doubt and wondering and pain the rest of my life? And so I began to look at Psalm 77. I really began to understand what it is that Asaph is saying here under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I began to look not to how I felt, not to how things seemed to be to me at the time, but to what God has done in history for His people, what God had done in history for me. You see, what Asaph does here is he does not go to the old cards that perhaps were tempted to play to say, well, I know that this is true because it just feels right to me. Or we could say, perhaps Christianity is true because it's made such a positive difference in my life. Now, those things may be true for you. I hope that you can say that Christianity just seems right to you and that it has made a positive difference in your life. But in the midst of suffering and doubt, when the trials and tribulations come upon you, Is this what you should be banking on? Is that your foundation and your hope and your comfort and your assurance? Is that where your hope should lie? And the answer certainly is no. Could Asaph, the psalmist, as he's lying awake at night feeling like God himself is holding open his eyelids, as he's crying out to God, as he's reaching his hand out for comfort, can he say, well, at least this feels right to me? And certainly the answer is no. Life didn't make any sense to him at that point, as life often doesn't make any sense to us as we go through trials. Could he take comfort in the fact that this has made such a positive difference in my life? And clearly the answer is no, he was still struggling, he was still suffering and doubting. In fact, perhaps it was worse for Asaph than for someone who didn't believe in the Lord, because Asaph had this understanding of who God is, that he is the all-powerful one, he is the good one, he is the one who takes care of his people, yet he was suffering. You couldn't make these things fit together. Boys and girls, I don't know if you've ever played with those building blocks like Legos or Duplos before. Maybe you've seen a younger sibling first begin to understand how these things work and sometimes you'll watch a very young child try to put the blocks together and it doesn't work for him. They try to connect things that aren't supposed to connect. They try to put things together backwards or side by side. And you can begin to see the frustration mount, can't you? These things go together somehow, the child just can't figure out how. And that's what ASAPH is doing right here. That's often what we experience as Christians, because we know that our God is in control. Particularly as Reformed and Presbyterian Christians, we know He is sovereign in all things. We know that He is great, we know that He is good, and we also know that we suffer. Making those two things fit together can be difficult. Sometimes it almost seems impossible to our eyes. But Asaph doesn't look to what he knows in his own life. He doesn't look to how he feels, whether this seems right to him or whether it's made a positive difference in his life. Instead, he looks at and remembers what God has done for his people in history. Specifically, what he looks at is the exodus of Israel from Egypt. Let's read these last several verses again, because this is very important, not only for this psalm, but really for the Bible as a whole. Look with me again at verses 15 through 20. You with your arm redeemed your people, the children of Jacob and Joseph. When the waters saw you, O God, when the waters saw you, they were afraid. Indeed, the deep trembled. The clouds poured out water. The skies gave forth thunder. Your arrows flashed on every side. The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind. Your lightnings lighted up the world. The earth trembled and shook. Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron." Asaph goes back in his mind to the Exodus, and we can ask, what was the Exodus for him? What was the Exodus for all the people of Israel? Well, to put it quite shortly and quite simply, the Exodus for them was salvation. It was redemption in their minds. And the rest of the Bible often uses language and imagery from the Exodus when it describes how God is going to redeem and save his people in the future. The Exodus was not just the salvation of the Hebrew slaves from their bondage in Egypt. It wasn't just the plagues that God brought upon their oppressors. It wasn't just the fact that they were able to plunder the Egyptians as they left. It wasn't just walking through the Red Sea on dry ground as the waters closed in on their enemies who followed them. Yes, this included a lot until Israel even eventually came into the Promised Land. It included the wilderness wanderings. It included coming to God at Mount Sinai and meeting with Him. It included the conquest. It included coming into this Promised Land. It's a dwelling in God's promised place where He would dwell with them as their God. and they would dwell with Him as His people. Really, this is the reversal of what we see as the problem in the Bible from Genesis 3 onwards, isn't it? Boys and girls, what happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell, when they sinned? Well, they were in God's holy presence, we know. In His garden, really in the first temple, as we could think about it, which Ezekiel 28 tells us was a mountain garden. And when they sinned, they could no longer be in His presence. So they were driven off that mountain, driven out of his temple, driven away from his presence. What we see in the Exodus is a reversal of this. Here we see the people of God brought through judgment of the sea, unscathed, alive. They are brought out of their oppression and they are brought directly to the mountain of God once again. Now, this was big in and of itself. This was the destruction, at least for a while, of one of the greatest powers of that age, of ancient Egypt. It was the delivery of thousands upon thousands of men, women, and children who were formerly slaves walking through the midst of a body of water that was divided for them. This would have been breaking headline news if they had such a thing in those days, but it was always meant to point to something bigger. Nexus was always meant to point to something better. We see that the Old Testament and the New Testament itself speak about the redemption that Christ won for his people through the lens of the exodus. They use the same terminology and language and figures of speech and mental word pictures from the exodus. This is the greatest exodus, the greater exodus, not merely the redemption of Hebrew slaves from Egypt, but the redemption of a people for God's great name. We begin to see here, don't we, that all the parts of our salvation are here in the story of the redemption from Egypt. The Hebrew slaves were rescued from the oppression of Pharaoh. We are rescued from the dominion of sin and the devil. The Hebrew slaves are brought into the presence of God at Sinai, and we are brought, as Hebrews 12 tells us, to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. The Hebrews are brought through their wilderness wanderings in the desert to Canaan, the promised land of God. And we are brought through our wanderings on this fallen, sinful, often painful, tribulation-filled earth into the ultimate Canaan, the ultimate promised land, into heaven. So what we see here, what ASAP does is what we should do when doubts begin to creep in our minds, when pain is threatening to overwhelm us, when we're beginning to question God and His promises because of our intense suffering. Notice what we haven't read here in the second half of Exodus 77. ASAP's situation itself has not changed, but his perspective has. Life is still chaos to him. His situation is chaotic in his mind as he looks around and sees everything happening. But now he remembers God's control over the chaotic waters of the Red Sea. Much of the language from this psalm, from Psalm 77, is taken from the song of the sea in Exodus 15. It's that song that the children of Israel sang to God after he had delivered them. The Israelites, we have to understand, were terrified of the sea. Although the promised land was on the coast of the Mediterranean, the Israelites, for most of their history, wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. They loved the land. They loved the farms and the vineyards and that sort of thing. The sea was terrifying. The sea was uncontrollable, untamable chaos. That's one of the reasons why it's so shocking that Jonah got on a boat to avoid God's call to go to Nineveh. because Israelites were supposed to avoid boats. It could only lead to trouble, it could only lead to death and destruction because you can't control what's happening on the sea, you can't control the waves, you can't control the wind, you cannot control the storms, you cannot control the beasts in the sea. It was chaos, pure chaos. But God delivered His people, we read in Psalm 77, from the raging waters, even in the midst of the raging waters. And that brought great comfort to Asaph in the midst of his own chaos, in the midst of his own uncertainty. He begins to remember and realize that the Hebrews in Egypt couldn't see their salvation coming any more than he could, yet it came just the same. He begins to understand that God is free. He's not operating according to our schedule. He's not doing things exactly in the same way, in the same order that we want, but he is still great and he is still good. He finds comfort not in his feelings, but in what God has done outside of him in history, as should we. This is where we should go and look in the midst of our suffering. Notice again with me verse 19. Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters, yet your footprints were unseen. In the words of one scholar, that God delivers his people without visible footprints is of great significance for the psalmist, whose suffering arises from the perceived absence of God. God's presence need not always be detectable for His deliverance to be certain. God's presence need not always be detectable for His deliverance to be certain. So when we come to church on the Lord's Day, when we gather one day out of seven, we hear in some way the message of our own exodus, led not by Moses, but by Christ Himself. This is where we hear the message and the promise of deliverance proclaimed to us week in and week out. This is where God has promised to come and meet with us, to strengthen us through the proclamation of his word and the administration of his sacraments. And maybe you're here this evening and you do not have faith in Christ. You're not trusting in him for your salvation, for your standing before a holy God. And you're wondering, how can I be part of this ultimate exodus? How can I know that I will be truly redeemed, not from physical slavery, but totally and completely? Well, the message to you is a very simple one. To repent of your sins and to believe the gospel, to trust in this Christ who came to deliver His people, to throw yourself on His mercy and grace and know that He will redeem you just as He has promised. Only those who are in Christ can have this hope. And if you're here tonight and you're trusting in Christ, even if you're going through the midst of a terrible situation, even if the pain is overwhelming you, This is not a promise that God will take you out of that situation. It's not a promise that everything will change as we think about it. But it is a promise that just as God went through the chaotic waters of the Red Sea with Israel and protected them, so He is with you. Even in the midst of your chaos. And so Christian, I don't know why you are suffering. And most likely neither do you. I don't know when your suffering will end, and I can probably say that neither do you. But we can both know this, that God has acted in history to save his people, in the Exodus and ultimately in Jesus Christ. So when suffering comes, and it will, don't sweep it under the rug, don't try to press on through it. Don't pretend Like it's not that bad or that you're doing okay when you really aren't. Instead, cry out to God with the psalmist. Cry out to God with Asaph. Wrestle with the deep questions while keeping your eye on the Lord as he did. And ultimately, Christian, remember the exodus. Remember that God delivered his people from slavery in Egypt. That he brought them through the waters that killed their oppressors. That he brought them to the foot of his holy mountain and eventually he brought them into his own land where he dwelt with them and they dwelt with him. You remember also, Christian, that God, through Christ, has redeemed you. That Jesus has paid the penalty for your sin. He obeyed perfectly in your place. He rose again for your justification. He is even seated now at God's right hand, ruling over all things. That He is your High Priest, interceding for you with God forever. And that you who have faith in Him, have been rescued from the tyranny of sin and the devil. You have been brought unscathed through the judgment. You have come to the very mountain of God, and you will one day dwell in the ultimate promised land forever. And so let's close with a description of that promised land in Revelation 21. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Remember, Christian, that God has acted in history to save you. And because of that, you can know that this land will one day be your land, no matter the suffering that you are experiencing in this life right now. Because God has redeemed his people in history, because Christ has come and led a greater exodus than Moses led. And we can have hope even in the midst of suffering. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we praise you for your sovereignty over all things. We praise you for your mercy and grace to your people, whether undeserving Hebrew slaves in Egypt or undeserving sinners in Michigan. Thank you, Lord, for the salvation that has been won for us in Christ. We pray that as we make our way through this life that is often full of pain and tears, that you would keep our eyes fixed upon this redemption and the hope that we have in Christ. For we pray all these things in his name. Amen. Well, please stand with me as we sing our psalm of response, number 222, O God, our help in ages past, number 222. O God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. ♪ And our eternal home ♪ Under the shadow of your throne ♪ Your saints have dwelt secure ♪ Subdition is your arm alone ♪ And our defense is sure ♪ Before the hills in order received her frame. From everlasting you are God, through endless years the same. A thousand ages are like an evening dawn. Short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun. The busy tribes of flesh and blood Lived all their lives in tears. Carried downward by your flow And lost in falling years. Time, like an ever-rolling stream, Clears all its sons away. They fly, forgotten airs of dream, Rise at the opening day. Though far our help in ages past, Our hope for years to come, Well, I will pray a prayer of blessing for us as we leave this place. Our Father in heaven, may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. We pray this in Christ's holy name by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ ♪ Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light ♪ ♪ What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming ♪ ♪ Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight ♪ ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming ♪ No, I didn't think that was the best time. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. It was a very different time for me. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. We're going to start with feedback, and then we're going to move to progress. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. No. Yeah. So, I will have myself, but, uh, I don't know what I'm going to do about it. Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, you're, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And then the next one. Woo! Woo! Woo! So that's how I described it up there. So I'm going to take a description of how I came up with that idea. And I'm going to give you guys a little bit of a guess as to how I came up with that idea. Yeah, so my voice kind of died. I don't know why that happened. I don't know what someone did. So I realized I was trying to be more self-conscious than he was. I made a mistake in one place, and I'm ashamed. Yeah, it's funny. I mean, you suck at everything else, but that's how I do this. So, yeah. I don't know. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Please. Yeah. I've never seen her in a long period of time. And every time we get exposed to people, Margaret is constantly on her phone, asking if there's anything she can do to help fix some of the things that are wrong with her. This morning, she was found dead in the kitchen by the attorney on the street doing medicine. And during all of that time, she turned to Margaret and asked, how's your daughter doing? Yeah. Yeah.