Please open your Bibles with me to the book of Second Samuel, chapter 16. We'll be reading from verse 15 in Second Samuel 16, all the way through chapter 17, verse 29. By way of setting and context here, we find ourselves in the midst of the low point of the reign of David, where he has been forced from the city of Jerusalem and Absalom, his son, has made an attempt to usurp the throne. And this particular passage is when Absalom and his counselors are going in for the death kill, if you will, to do away with David and take over for good. It's in the middle of the Absalom narrative as David is in pretty bad shape. And we begin our reading there in verse 15 as Absalom enters Jerusalem. Let us give ear now to the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word, 2 Samuel 16, beginning in verse 15. Now Absalom and all the people, the men of Israel, came to Jerusalem and Ahithophel with him. And when Hushai the archite, David's friend, came to Absalom, Hushai said to Absalom, long live the king, long live the king. And Absalom said to Hushai, is this your loyalty to your friend? Why did you not go with your friend? And Hushai said to Absalom, no, for whom the Lord and this people and all the men of Israel have chosen, his I will be, and with him I will remain. And again, whom should I serve? Should it not be his son? As I have served your father, so I will serve you. Then Absalom said to Ahithophel, give your counsel, what shall we do? Ahithophel said to Absalom, go into your father's concubines whom he has left to keep the house and all Israel will hear that you have made yourself a stench to your father and the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened. So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof and Absalom went into his father's concubines in the sight of all Israel. Now, in those days, the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed, both by David and by Absalom. Moreover, Ahithophel said to Absalom, let me choose 12,000 men and I will arise and pursue David tonight. I will come upon him while he is weary and discouraged and throw him into a panic and all the people who are with him will flee. I will strike down only the king and I will bring all the people back to you as a bride comes home to her husband. You seek the life of only one man and all the people will be at peace. And the advice seemed right in the eyes of Absalom and all the elders of Israel. Then Absalom said, call Hushai the archite also and let us hear what he has to say. And when Hushai came to Absalom, Absalom said to him, thus has Ahithophel spoken, shall we do as he says? If not, you speak. Then Hushai said to Absalom, this time the counsel that Ahithophel has given is not good. Hushai said, you know that your father and his men are mighty men and that they are enraged. like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Besides, your father is expert in war. He will not spend the night with the people. Behold, even now he has hidden himself in one of the pits or in some other place. And as soon as some of the people fall at the first attack, whoever hears it will say, there has been a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom. And then even the valiant man whose heart is like the heart of a lion will utterly melt with fear. For all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, that those who are with him are valiant men. But my counsel is that all Israel be gathered to you from Dan to Beersheba as the sand by the sea for a multitude and that you go to battle in person. So we shall come upon him in some place where he is to be found and we shall light upon him as the dew falls on the ground and of him and all the men with him, not one will be left. If he withdraws into a city, then all Israel will bring ropes to that city and we shall drag it into the valley until not even a pebble is to be found there. And Absalom and all the men of Israel said, the counsel of Hushai the archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel. For the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom. Then Hushai said to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, thus and so did Ahithophel counsel Absalom and the elders of Israel and thus and so have I counseled. Now, therefore, send quickly and tell David, do not stay tonight at the forge of the wilderness, but by all means pass over, lest the king and all the people who are with him be swallowed up. Now Jonathan and Ahimaaz were waiting at En-Rogel, and a female servant was to go and tell them, and they were to go and tell King David, for they were not to be seen entering the city. But a young man saw them and told Absalom, So both of them went away quickly and came to the house of a man at Bahurim who had a well in his courtyard and they went down into it and the woman took and spread a covering over the well's mouth and scattered grain on it and nothing was known of it. When Absalom's servants came to the woman at the house, they said, where are Ahimaaz and Jonathan? And the woman said to them, they have gone over the brook of water. And when they had sought and could not find them, they returned to Jerusalem. After they had gone, the men came up out of the well and went and told King David. They said to David, arise and go quickly over the water for thus and so has Ahithophel counseled against you. And then David arose and all the people who were with him and they crossed the Jordan. By daybreak, not one was left who had not crossed the Jordan. When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he settled his donkey and went off home to his own city. He set his house in order. and hanged himself and he died and was buried in the tomb of his father. Then David came to Mahanaim and Absalom crossed the Jordan with all the men of Israel. Now Absalom had set Amasa over the army instead of Joab. Amasa was the son of a man named Ithra the Ishmaelite who had married Abigail, the daughter of Nahash, sister of Zeruiah, Joab's mother. And Israel and Absalom encamped in the land of Gilead. When David came to Mahanaim, Shobi, the son of Nahash from Rabah of the Ammonites, and Makir, the son of Amiel from Lodibar, and Barzilai, the Gileadite from Rogilim, brought beds, basins, and earthen vessels, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds, and sheep and cheese from the herd for David and the people with him to eat. For they said, the people are hungry and weary. and thirsty in the wilderness. Grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God abides forever and ever. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for revealing to us in your word much about yourself. Help us as we approach this rather strange, dramatic scene in the life of David. that we might understand your care for your people in a better way, and that we might be encouraged, and we might trust you all the more. Help us with your Holy Spirit, we pray, for we require his illuminating strength. We pray all this in Jesus' name, amen. The website of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America features our text this evening, on their website as the first historical instance of a particular type of secret agent that they call the agent of influence. The CIA considers this obscure Old Testament character, Hushai the Archite, to be the first ever example of what the CIA calls the most dangerous agent, the agent of influence. Someone who successfully infiltrates the enemy security and then influences the decisions of the enemy from the inside. This narrative does lead us through all the tension and the drama of palace intrigue, showcasing a seemingly brilliant undercover double agent and a real nail-biter of an escape. But we know that the Holy Spirit did not inspire this portion of scripture for lessons in espionage. The CIA completely misses the central and crucial detail of this entire story in its analysis. And not to mention the ancient reader would have known after the fact that of course Absalom was eventually defeated, David returned to the throne, his son Solomon succeeded him. Why is there so much space developed to this rather exciting tale? It's interesting that this particular narrative from verse 15 and chapter 16 all the way to the end of chapter 17 is the exact literary centerpiece of the entire Absalom narrative. And at the very center of this passage, the center of the center, if you will, is a theological statement. One that you can miss almost if you're reading too quickly. And there it is, though, at the center, flashing like a neon sign. And this statement gives us the proper understanding of the entire Absalom story. Look at chapter 17, verse 14. Absalom receives the counsel of Hushai, surprisingly, and the writer goes on to say, for the Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, so that the Lord might bring harm upon Absalom. It's almost like a little aside by the narrator for the reader's sake. One commentator calls this a theological boulder in the middle of the passage, and it anchors the entire text. This is not political intrigue. This is not Hushai's heroics. It's a story of God at work. It's a story of God at work to protect and preserve his covenant people in the darkest of circumstances. Yes, we know the end, but the important thing here is the how. The important thing here is watching God work, and it's meant to build his people up in faith and trust and hope and good works. In dark and uncertain circumstances, how do you trust in God? How do you persevere? How do you trust God and His promises when everything around you is in shambles? How do you trust God when the mess that we are in might be our own fault? How do we trust the Lord when it appears that He is silent? This is not a passage about spies and traitors. It's a passage about the faithfulness of God and the comforting care of His sovereignty. Is God going to take care of you? Is He going to take care of me? This passage shows us God's sovereign hand of care for His covenant people, and it teaches us to trust Him always. There's three ways this passage teaches us to trust in God's sovereign care. The first one is that we see His sovereign care through great difficulties. His sovereign care through great difficulties. And the first way we see that is that God's sovereign care is here in spite of grave discipline. God preserves and works for his people in spite of grave discipline. In verses 15 through 23 of chapter 16, things have gone from bad to worse for David. Absalom, in his overthrow, has now sought the counsel of Ahithophel, and that official counsel has come in and that counsel is to defile his father's house by going into his concubines in verses 21 and 22. Absalom's coup is now public and it is now irretractable. And by committing this vile offense against his father, Absalom is making it clear in the sight of all Israel, verse 22, just who it is that now occupies Israel's throne. But There's more going on than simply this public debauchery of Absalom and Ahithophel. The writer intends for us to remember something from a previous chapter in 2 Samuel. Long before Absalom and company could devise such a vile plan, the prophet Nathan had pronounced God's judgment upon David's sin with Bathsheba. And in 2 Samuel 12, verses 11 and 12, we read this, behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. And I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. And he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son for you did it secretly. But I will do this thing before all Israel. Absalom and Ahithophel act and think as if they are in control. controlling the narrative, if you will, but behind the scenes, God is holding all of the strings in his hand. They are unwittingly carrying out the very plan of God and his discipline of his son, David. You might ask, well, how is God preserving David here then? David is experiencing the chastening hand of God in what are horrific consequences of his sin. Yet David's sin had been forgiven remarkably. Nathan had also told David back in chapter 11, the Lord has put away your sin. You shall not die. Even when God's chastening hand is upon his children and upon his children, it often is. We know that he will never leave us or forsake us for the Lord disciplines the one he loves. He chastises every son whom he receives. And additionally, what we're seeing here is a literal, direct fulfillment of God's word to David. So even David's discipline is evidence to us that all of God's promises are true and sure to be accomplished. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. And notice the wheels of providence all at work simultaneously. And moreover, look at Absalom putting himself in the crosshairs of God's judgment. According to the Mosaic law, what Absalom has done requires a sentence of death by execution. And that judgment is going to be as certain, just as certain as the fulfillment of David's discipline taking place right here in chapter 16. There is great comfort in the direct, obvious fulfillment of God's word to David because even in the midst of his discipline of his servant, God's promises are sure. Perhaps we're experiencing the Lord's discipline at various points in our life. Maybe the lingering consequences of sins that cannot be taken back. If you're a Christian, do you know that you're subject to the chastening hand of the Lord? But do you also know that God's discipline does not and it cannot nullify His covenant love for you? Do you realize that even in the midst of God's discipline that He loves you and He is for you God's promises are not rendered void by imperfect saints. So what we have here is a clear picture of the sovereignty of God and the life of his people, directly fulfilling his word to bring the rod of discipline while simultaneously setting up his enemies for destruction and saving his people. Listen to John Flavel. when he speaks of the providence of God, set the faithfulness of the Lord before you in the saddest providence. So did David. This is according to his covenant faithfulness. Hence it is that the Lord will not withhold a rod when need requires it, nor will he forsake his people under the rod when he inflicts it. No matter how dark our situation, even when it's my own fault, God's purposes for my life will not fail to be accomplished. Even when my circumstances don't add up, no matter how I do the math. The second way that we see God's sovereign care through great difficulties is that his sovereign care is in the face of overwhelming odds. Things are dark. David is in a, to say the least, a bad situation. Absalom is the new king in Israel and the whole country knows it. David has arrived at the Jordan River exhausted after an arduous 20 mile journey through very difficult terrain. He has zero supplies with him. He has no food. He is discouraged. Literally everything about David's situation is hopeless. His circumstances do not indicate that God is at work. Not only that, look at the very beginning of our passage in verse 15 of chapter 16. When Absalom comes into the city, the writer says, and Ahithophel was with him. This is an intentional and a very ominous statement by the writer. This is David's most trusted counselor who has deserted him and betrayed him. And later in verse 23 we see why this is such bad news. Look at verse 23. In those days the counsel that Ahithophel gave was as if one consulted the word of God. So was all the counsel of Ahithophel esteemed. That's an astounding statement. Ahithophel is a giant in the courts of Israel. His advice to a king was considered authoritative expertise. This is the Pope's word to the Catholics. A king who had Ahithophel as his advisor, if you were to use a sports analogy, it would be like if you got a job for your first job as a head coach and you hired the greatest living football coach in history to be one of your assistants. That's how good Ahithophel was. When he advised the king, the king did what Ahithophel said, period, without exception. And in the first few verses of chapter 17, Ahithophel gives really what amounts to perfect military advice. We read it earlier. I won't read the whole text again, but he goes after David with a precise precision strike where he is, and that's exactly where he is. This would have ended it for David. It's perfect advice. He was 100% correct. David was weak. He was discouraged. And in one fell swoop, he would have been eliminated. Tonight, he is in the crosshairs of a sniper and he's going down. There's no chance for him if Absalom follows this advice. But look at God work. He is not deterred or fazed in the slightest by any foe. Hushai not only fools Absalom into thinking he has switched loyalties in verses 16 through 19 of chapter 16, the fact that Absalom even buys this, that Hushai is now loyal to him, shows us God is at work placing the right people in the right places at the right time. And so even the impeccable reputation and the sound military advice of Ahithophel are merely cogs in the gears of God's plan. Ahithophel's advice is better. But God is bigger. The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. The Lord had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel. Absalom and Ahithophel very much look imposing, but they are God's lackeys. God's sovereign care does not ride upon whether my circumstances are favorable. Don't we catch ourselves thinking that we might be in situations, although we might not say it, situations that are simply too big for God to fix. We talk about trusting God, but sometimes we're thinking Maybe without actually thinking it. Well, he got me through the last crisis, but I don't know about this one. This one might do me in. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Or as the hymn we sang this morning puts it, through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come. It is grace that has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. God preserves his people through difficult circumstances, through grave discipline and in overwhelming odds and over great obstacles. But now I want you to see the second feature of God's sovereign care that gives us tremendous comfort. I want you to see God working behind the scenes unnoticed. His sovereign care works in hidden and unseen ways. God, works through the ordinary events and the interactions of daily life. Notice here he doesn't defeat his enemies with a big, grand, supernatural event. This isn't the parting of the Red Sea. This isn't Elijah calling down fire from heaven on the prophets of Baal. This isn't Samson, empowered by the Spirit, single-handedly slaughtering hundreds of enemies with a dead donkey's jawbone. This isn't Ananias and Sapphira being struck dead on the spot for lying to the Holy Spirit. No, no, no. This is God sovereignly working his plan through ordinary everyday interactions. There's nothing overtly supernatural, nothing obvious. His plan is being simply acted out on the stage of human events by the players on that stage. We don't need the Red Sea crossings and fire from heaven to know that God is sovereign, but know that God is sovereign over the daily events and the interactions in which he places us. Knowing this causes the hiddenness of his providence to be a comfort. Our confession teaches us that God directs, disposes, and governs all creatures and all their actions. And in his ordinary providence, he uses means to do so. He's free to work without means, like parting the Red Sea. But ordinarily, this is exactly how we see God's sovereign decrees being worked out. God works through Absalom's sinful desire for vengeance and a hostile takeover. God works even by providing Hushai with an opportunity to thwart Ahithophel's counsel in chapter 16. You see God work through Hushai's rather brilliant sales pitch to Absalom. Absalom was not coerced against his will to reject Ahithophel's good military advice. This all happens very naturally. Look at Hushai's words in chapter 16, verses 16 through 19. He says, long live the king, long live the king. All of his words are full of double meanings and subterfuge. No, no, I am loyal to the one whom God has anointed. Well, isn't that David? Full of double entendres and deception in his speech. And it works. Watch God work as Absalom even gives Hushai the advantage of knowing what Ahithophel's plan was. when he calls Hushai in to say, well, what do you think we should do? By the way, this is what Ahithophel said. Furthermore, Absalom did not choose Hushai's advice in any sense against his will. He wanted that advice. This plan really legitimately seemed better to him because it appealed to everything that Absalom was about. We don't have time to dissect all of Hushai's rather lengthy speech in chapter 17 in detail. But look at the way he has appealed to Absalom's desires and his fears and his sinfulness. We're going to crush him with everything we have. We're going to take out everyone. And everyone's going to know who you are. Ushai appeals to Absalom's vanity, his paranoia, his lust for vengeance, and his caution, his logic, and his pride. God ordained the defeat of the council of Ahithophel in order that he would bring disaster upon Absalom. And Absalom chose it freely. And it all comes about very organically, very naturally, somewhat dramatically. yet sovereignly no less. If we didn't have verse 14 of chapter 17, then Hushai really would be a hero of legendary status. The CIA would be right in praising Hushai for what one commentator calls his cunning rhetorical contrivance. But this is God's doing. This is God at work for his people. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Look at God work. Just because his sovereignty is sometimes ordinary, hidden, behind the scenes sovereignty, we know that it does not mean it's uneventful sovereignty because it often results in 11th hour drama. Look at how God's sovereign care and his working out in hidden and unseen ways play out in very tense and uncertain crises. God preserves his people in a real nail biter here in chapter 17. We may enjoy reading and seeing God rescue his people in these dramatic last minute ways, but sometimes when it happens with us, it's a little more difficult. I might prefer a little less suspense in my own life. Remember, the narrator has given us a bit of crucial information in verse 14, but those who are involved in the story, the Hushais, the Davids, and all these minor players along the way don't have the luxury of knowing that it's going to work out because God has ordained this. So in chapter 17 from verse 15 all the way through verse 22 we have priests and informants and messengers who are found out and detected. We have a man and a woman who just happen to have an available well to hide in. We have spies hiding, a failed search by the bad guys when they don't find them. We have a narrow escape. We have an eventual successful report that makes its way to David who crosses the very dangerous at this time of year Jordan River in the middle of the night. And all of this is a small sign of God at work for his people in very dramatic circumstances. And it's a reassuring reminder and an example, and it's meant for my good and for your good. Our reaction might be to look at this and say, wow, that was a close call. And we would be right. But do we attribute our providences and our dangers and our close calls to the good sovereign care of our God? Or do we just chalk it up to blind chance and some good luck? Verse 14 is the theological boulder in the middle of this passage amidst all of its uncertainty, amidst all of its drama. And without it, we might be tempted to think, we might be tempted to think that through all this suspense, through all the nail biter, God is not the one who is at work. but oh, he is protecting his people. He is at work keeping his covenant promise. God's kingdom will not fail. And Absalom's henchmen, the betrayal of Ahithophel, this great advisor, and anyone else will not prevent his plan from being accomplished and God preserving his people. When you don't know how it ends, as these folks did not, when you're walking through the valley of uncertainty, in the darkest night of your soul, Do you believe that God is at work preserving his people? God is at work in every micro detail of life, every single conversation and interaction that you have with one another, or is your tendency to act or at least think that God is unaware of what is going on? Psalm 56.3 says, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you. We see God's sovereign hand working out in hidden and unseen ways also play out in the self-destruction of his enemies. The hiddenness of God's providence is even evident in the self-destruction of Ahithophel. Remember, these are not simply David's enemies and Hushai's enemies, usurpers of Jerusalem's throne. These are now scoffers who have set themselves against the Lord's anointed. These are now God's enemies. and look at their end. Again, chapter 17, verse 14, why did the Lord ordain to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel? 17, 14 tells us that God ordained to thwart Ahithophel's excellent military advice because he was going to do literally the evil against Absalom. And if you look at chapter 17, verse 23, Ahithophel wasn't struck dead by the angel of the Lord, This was a very matter-of-fact, almost business-like end. This is very Ahithophel, very military, very matter-of-fact. But this is God destroying those who oppose his king and his kingdom. It's a very planned, very calculated end. There's a rapid fire succession in one verse of eight verbs, and that is all we have left of the greatest advisor in Israelite history. He saw, he saddled, he went, he set, he hanged himself, he died, and he was buried. Farewell, Ahithophel. This is a microcosm of the inevitable end. of everyone who raises their fist against the ultimate anointed one, King Jesus. Ahithophel isn't simply a guy who miscalculated a political loyalty. Ahithophel willfully chose to side himself against God's anointed king and against God's kingdom. And like Ahithophel, everyone who attacks the greater son of David, the son of David, Jesus Christ, will end up in the dustbin of history, awaiting eternal judgment. Revelation 6 puts it this way, then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand? All the ordinary events and the crises and the close calls are simply God's hand of providence at work caring for his people. The last thing I want you to see from this text is thirdly, his sovereign care often appears in very grand and unexpected favor. At the end of this long passage in chapter 17 verses 27 through 29, there's this little vignette that closes out the whole narrative. David is now on the east side of the Jordan River, awaiting who knows what. And then there's these three unlikely folks in a very unlikely place, and they bring David and his people this plethora of supplies. We have this man, Shobi. Most likely, we think he was a pagan. We have Machir, who was a former loyalist to Saul. We have this Barzillai, who we think is probably in his upper 80s. Three very unlikely characters, never really mentioned in scripture, except for here. And they bring David provision above and beyond all that he could ask or think. Look at the list in verses 28 and 29. The writer of 2 Samuel goes to great length to list out this list of provisions for us. Beds, basins, earthen pots, wheat, barley, flour, parched grain, beans, lentils, honey, curds, and sheep and cheese from the herd. This is lavish provision in the midst of the wilderness. God could have easily, he's done it in the past, he could have easily provided just a cave and some rocks for pillows and maybe some bread. It would have gotten him by, but instead he provides beds, pots and pans, pots and pans in the wilderness, he needed those. The way this is written in the text highlights the rich, luxurious, unexpected sustenance of God. Look at the kindness of God here. This is rich provision. Many scholars presume, and I think they're right, I agree with them, that Psalm 23 verse five was written as a result of this particular episode in David's life. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies. My cup runneth over. This is the God we serve. Do we forget that he's kind to his people, often in very unexpected ways? In the most unexpected circumstances, he shows us a glimpse of his kindness in extravagant ways because he loves us and he wants us to remember this. This is a God who delights in providing for his people in often very surprising and often very generous ways. Why do we think that the Lord would begrudge us all the time? Kent Hughes tells the story of Iris Sankey, who was the longtime song leader for the evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Sankey was traveling on a Delaware steamship on Christmas Eve in 1875, and there were some passengers on the steamship who recognized the very well-known song leader. They requested that he come out and sing one of his famous songs, a shelter in the time of storm, or, oh, safe to the rock that is higher than I. Sankey declined, however, choosing instead to sing William Bradbury's hymn, Savior, like a shepherd, lead us. The second stanza of that song begins like this, we are thine, do thou befriend us, be the guardian of our way. And after Sankey finished singing, he was approached by a man who asked him if he had ever served in the Union Army during the War Between the States, which Sankey affirmed he had. He had served 15 years prior to that in the spring of 1860. And the man continued, can you remember a time if you were doing picket duty on a bright, moonlit night in 1862? Well, now Sankey was intrigued and very much surprised at that very particular detailed question. And he said, yes, I was. The man explained, well, so did I, but I was serving for the Confederate Army. And when I saw you standing at your post, I said to myself, that fellow will never get away alive. I raised my musket and I took aim. I was standing in a shadow. I was completely concealed when the full light of the moon was like a spotlight upon you. At that instant, just as a moment of go, you raised your eyes to heaven and you began to sing. And I said, well, let him sing his song to the end. I said to myself, I can shoot him afterward. He's my victim at all events, and my bullet will not miss him. But the song you sang then was the song you sang just now. I heard the words perfectly. We are thine. Do thou befriend us. Be the guardian of our way. And those words stirred up many memories. I began to think of my childhood and my God-fearing mother. She had many times sung that song to me. When you had finished your song, it was impossible for me to take aim again. I thought, the Lord who is able to save that man from certain death must surely be great and mighty. And my arm of its own accord dropped limp at my side. Our God is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. This is the God we serve. The Lord your God is no less quietly, yet no less powerfully preserving his people until the very end. In 2018, the same way he was for David in this very. Difficult situation, the story of David's preservation is for you and it's for me. The question for you and for me. Is are we trusting in his sovereign care over all of our circumstances? When the knots and the crises of life, some of them caused by our own sins, some of them caused by the sins of others when they descend into our life, disrupting everything. Are we trusting in that promised ever presence and sovereign care of almighty God. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? The death of the son of God, his burial and his glorious resurrection mean everything for you and for me. He has not only secured your forgiveness and granted you eternal life, He will never leave you, He will never forsake you, and He is working all of these things for His own glory and for your and my good. Amen. Let us pray. O Lord, our God, we thank you for this marvelous story of your protection of your people. We thank you for the reality that we can trust you in all things. That not even death itself will separate us from your love for us in Christ Jesus. Encourage us with your word even tonight and then as we go off into your world and your week in the days to come. We thank you for your love for us in Jesus name. Amen.