Thank you for that. We're turning to Psalm 129 this morning or this morning, this evening, Psalm 129. We are now two-thirds of the way through our series on the Pilgrim Psalms. And for those who have now just been joining us, the Pilgrim Psalms are a group of 15 short psalms, often referred to as the Psalms of Ascent, grouped together in your Bibles. And you can see they're grouping just by virtue of the inspired heading that's at the beginning of these psalms. Some of you probably say the Psalms of Ascent or a Song of Degrees. Now, as you're turning there, you'll remember that these Psalms began in Psalm 120. And I draw your attention to that now because you'll remember Psalm 119 is right before that. I don't know if you did remember that. Maybe you got your cup of coffee before, maybe not. I heard from Dave, he makes eight of those pots of coffee every Sunday. That is a lot of coffee, all right? So I know you guys are coffee drinkers, but Psalm 119 goes before Psalm 120. I hope you're paying attention to that. I hope you realize that. And Psalm 119 is distinct because it's the longest psalm in the Bible. Psalm 119, though, is followed immediately by this collection of what are actually very short psalms. I find that very fascinating. These 15 psalms of ascent are essentially like a chorus book stuck next to the longest hymn in the hymn book. That's what they are. Some commentators think that they are given in a specific order, coordinated with specific steps or ways, stations on an upward journey. Others would argue that they are given a specific steps moving towards the temple. I would take that to be spectacularly unlikely, and there's a reason for that. I'm not so sure that's easy to prove. They definitely don't seem to be arranged to follow a consistent upward progression. And I draw your attention to that now as we turn to Psalm 129. The last Psalm we looked at was Psalm 128. That was a triumphant psalm. It was a psalm of blessing of the prosperous family. It was a wonderful psalm. We even talked about the crown of grandparents seeing their children's children, and that is a glorious psalm. It is worth rejoicing about. Psalm 129, then, if it was always upward, you would imagine it must also be glorious, and that is certainly not the case. Psalm 129 talks about the pains of persecution. And it includes an imprecatory curse. Not exactly the most glorious of pleasant psalms. So it doesn't naturally evoke a step up or even a step forward. Whatever the arrangement might have been intended to signify, these Psalms clearly constitute a singular collection of short songs for the road that they would sing as they gather. On this evening we find ourselves in Psalm 129, and of all of the Psalms of ascent, of all the 15 Psalms, this is certainly not one you'll hear quoted often. You'll hear many of the others quoted often, but this one unlikely to be one that you've heard often quoted or even preached. There's not really a cheerful note in this entire psalm we're about to read. The first half is a dirge about the scorn and affliction heaped upon the heads of the righteous by those who hate God and His ways. It bewails the injustice of suffering and at the hands of the wicked. It is very minor key, if you will. And the second half is an imprecatory prayer of divine vengeance against wicked oppressors. In fact, the psalm is a psalm about evil men. And some of the imagery that is used in this psalm is painful to the point of being grotesque. It says in verse three, the plowers plowed upon my back, they made long their furrows. So while this psalm, it deals with heavy topics, it isn't doing so, however, in a sense of despair, but with a sense of a healthy dose of realism. And it's the kind of realism that is real in the world, but seldom sadly discussed in the church. And this is the reality. Our world is filled with wicked abusers. Our world is filled with those who hate God so much that they will strip away innocency to plow further their evil courses. That's what this Psalm is talking about. And it picks up in Psalm 129, verse one, when it says, many a time they have afflicted me from my youth. May Israel now say, many a time they have afflicted me from my youth, yet they have not prevailed against me. The plowers plowed upon my back. They made long their furrows. The Lord is righteous. He hath cut asunder the cords of the wicked. Let them all be confounded and turn back that hate Zion. Let them be as grass upon the housetops, which wherewith therewith afore it groweth up, wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. Neither do they go by, say, the blessing of the Lord be upon you, we bless you in the name of the Lord. This is the psalm for the abused. Today's Psalms of Ascent is difficult, private, and personal for the pain of many. This evening we're talking about real pain, not the pain of some physical illness or monetary loss, but the pain as a result of wicked abuse caused on people as a result of others. And friend, you need to understand as we turn here that all communities are scarred by the destructive abuses of evil men. And the statistics about abuse in America are stunningly sad. One in three women and one in four men have been victims of some kind of physical violence by a close relative within their lifetime. One in four women and one in six men have been sexually abused as a child. On average, nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by a close partner in the United States. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million men and women. On a typical day, there are more than 200,000 phone calls placed to domestic violence hotlines nationwide. Studies indicate that there is a clear connection between abuse, violence, depression, and suicidal behavior. Victims of such abuse have a higher risk of developing addictions to alcohol, tobacco, drugs, and even eventually self-mutilation to the point of even at times taking their own lives. That is a heavy topic to talk about. Our nation and our world is desperately asking, how do you deal with wicked abusers? And there are two ways we could look at this psalm. Some have taken this psalm to refer to the affliction and persecution that Christians will face in this world, and while that is a fair application, I believe the tenor of this psalm suggests it goes much deeper. Psalm 129 speaks eloquently about God's hostility to oppression, which is a frequent theme in scripture. And the emotion from start to finish of this psalm is full of deep resentment and righteous indignation against wicked abuse. And yet at the end of the day, the song highlights a triumphant truth that is worth highlighting at the beginning of our expose into this psalm. And verse two sums this highlight up with a single statement celebrating the fact that the enemy has not and will not and cannot prevail. The Lord is righteous. He has cut us under the cords of the wicked. But taken in context, we see that the tone of these verses is more defiant than it is even joyous. The psalmist is reminiscent of the Apostle Paul, who would say in 2 Corinthians, we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed. And that's the spirit of this psalm too. It's an eulogy about, or really an elegy about the sovereignty of our God who will not and cannot be defeated. As we study this psalm, I want you to know something. God hates abusive men even more than we do. If you are one of the millions that has suffered under the wicked hand of abusers, this psalm is for you. And I trust by studying it this evening, you will learn how to deal with abuse and evil men in a way that honors God. And a word structure of this psalm really divides perfectly into two stanzas. And I like that, it helps me outline it. In Psalm 129, we have two stanzas before us. Psalm 129, stanza one, verses one through four, deal all about the relentless suffering at the hands of abusive men. That's all that they're talking about in those first four verses. And verses five through eight, in stanza two, it deals all about the inevitable doom of the abuser, and then it abruptly ends. Did you notice that? That's it. God has said his peace and that is it. And by looking at these two stanzas, we gain a better grasp of how to deal with abuse with a truth. God hates abuse more than we do. And so again, although this is not a sunny song, it is a triumphant song. And although it is not one that frequently is preached, it is one that is necessarily preached. The Apostle Paul gave this admonition to Timothy as a young preacher to preach the whole counsel of God, all of it. Many preachers will structure their whole sermon series around a cleverly devised 10 points on how to build a better happy life, or whatever it may be. But that is not a good way to feed a congregation, and it's not a good way to feed yourself either. If all you preach about and all you focus on is what you want to talk about, you won't get the full counsel of God, will you? And we each have our own intricacies and our things that we like to study more than the next person, but if we will be ones who are careful in our exposition of the word of God, we will also be ones that will come across even difficult passages and we will go through them verse by verse knowing this too is inspired from God, this too is God's word to us. This psalm, heavy as it may be, is necessary for the same reason that you may love every other favorite verse. It is God's inspired word. And as it is God's inspired word, it is for us today. And so the psalmist says, number one, be honest about your pain. Our creator doesn't want you to live pretending that abuse never happens. And in verses one and two, it gives us a short rehearsal of Israel's history, and the psalmist doesn't sugarcoat the past. The history of Israel is rife with the abuse at the hands of evil ones. There have been various threats, incursions, assaults, captivity, interrupted by periods of brief peace, all to go right back to everything I just described. The Egyptians, the Canaanites, the surrounding nations, virtually every world empire tried at one point or another to destroy the people of Israel. And what this psalm calls for is a sense of realism. This has happened. When you suffer at the abuse of hands of evil men, it really does hurt. And psalmist says be honest. Paul says we are afflicted in every way, he told the Corinthian church. What is it like? Well, wicked abuse is often frequent. Repetition is important in this psalm, like it was in many of the other psalms of ascent. It's how the psalmist gets his point across, often through repetition. And it's important to realize the repetition that starts in verses one, that is called out for the people to sing back and repeat in verse two. Do you see it there? In verse one, many a time they afflicted me from my youth. Now, let everybody say that. May Israel now say, many a time they have afflicted me from my youth. The psalmist recalls the long years of suffering Israel has experienced and stretched back even to their earliest days as a nation. And the word many times could be translated greatly. In other words, he's saying greatly. This is no small amount of abuse. And the emphasis of the great waves of persecution have come, and the repetition tells us this has come not just once, but over and over. And Israel's history of persecution repeats itself. David notes this fact in frequency and fervency about the persecution as he writes in the Psalms. He'll say in Psalm three, verse one, Lord, they have increased who trouble me. Or Psalm 7 verse 1, save me from all those who persecute me. Or Psalm 56 verse 1, be merciful to me, O God, for a man would swallow me up. He's very honest about what's taking out. Right from the beginning of the Bible, there has been a message that there are forces of darkness that have come to overthrow God's people. And one of the greatest forces that they can is they just won't quit. Do you know that persistent water drops, I'm sure you do, eventually penetrate rocks? Look at any canyon or geography that's created or just place a smooth stone out there. Even a flood will eventually cause something. Abuse of the wicked can feel a lot like just never quitting water droplets at some time. It's persistent, it's deadly. And the abuser tries to change the very structure of your life and his force might start small, but over time he is working a new pathway into your life. It is frequent, be honest. Not only is it frequent, but it's frightening. I cannot help but dwell on the childlike innocence that is being ripped away by the hands of the abusers that's repeated here. Many a times have they afflicted me from my youth. And this reference to youth is referring to the times of Israel's Egyptian bondage and her exodus from Egypt. And the idea is that from the very beginning they were forced into maturity almost immediately when they weren't prepared for it at the hands of evil men. And now they have every reason to fear these wicked men for it is part of the fabric of their upbringing. They have from their youth been trained this way. They have been pushed this way. And the repetition of that phrase highlights that point, and the psalmist is being very honest. Abuse is scary, but especially for children. Can we take a moment to highlight the fact that God hates the abuse of a child? He hates to see their innocence ripped from them. Jesus would say this in Luke 17, verse two, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and he cast into the sea, then he should offend one of these little ones. All communities are scarred by the destructive evils of child abuse. And the rate of child abuse in the United States today is 10 times the rate of cancer. Most people recognize that we can't haphazardly remove a cancerous tumor and then just send you home. there's treatment that goes on afterwards. Lest the cancerous growth be still present, there needs to be study, and even after, post-surgery, there are more things that need to take place, and there are more treatments for days, months, even years, until that cancer can finally be completely eradicated from the body. Too often, friends, those within the Christian community are ill-equipped to acknowledge the problem, let alone address the problem. And sadly, the church at large has a storied history of ignoring physical, sexual, and emotional child abuse, not being honest about it, and then even if they are, say, well, just get over it. But that's not how childlike innocency gets restored if it's been stripped away. There are 60 million child abuse survivors in the US alone, and many of them grew up in professing Christian homes. That means that the average church today has 20.5% of its congregation that are survivors of some form of child abuse. If we are going to address the problem, what I'm telling you is we must first address the problem. Be honest. It is frightening and it is frequent and it does produce these furrowing scars. And two agricultural metaphors are used in verse three that I've already alluded to, and the attention is fixed on the tearing open and the turning over of the land. It says in verse three, the plowers plowed upon my back. This appears to describe the deep scars from the scourging hands of abusers. It says, again, they made long their furrows. This describes how the abusers lengthened their torment. They were unrelenting in their evil. And the strong, almost grotesque metaphor, which does not appear anywhere else in scripture, by the way, carries the idea that the Israelites were being taken into cruel captivity by the evil enslavement of abusive men. And this abuse stayed present with them, even as they've been ripped free from that abuse. They are no longer slaves, but the scars are still there. Abuse at the hands of evil men, the Bible says, leaves scars. It may be a severe loss sustained. It may be the consequent loneliness that comes. It may be great disappointment or shattered trust, which is impossible at times to rebuild. It may be the peril in which your life is threatened. It may be the sad sense of personal unworthiness. Scripture makes it clear and we should too. Abuse hurts. And it's okay to be honest about that. Because as I'm honest about that in a psalm for the abused, I recognize that while our world is full of evil abusers, God hates abusive men more than I do. And in this psalm, we see an honesty on full display that is seldom communicated. He cried out to the Lord. He told him his pain. He let him know that the abuse was altogether frequent and fearful and produced scars. He struggled in prayer. I think maybe we've missed prayer and we've so sugarcoated it that we've relegated prayer only to the times when we bless the food for our body, which is a funny thing to say. We don't bless food, we bless God. Just think about that for a moment. But we have so relegated prayer times to just happy prayers that we don't forget the frequency of broken hearts before the Lord. Crying out to God. And God wants you as your good father and you his child, he wants you to run to him just like any parent, any good parent would want their child when they're hurting to run to mom and dad. That's where we want you to come. I don't want you to be hurt, but when you're hurt, I want you to come to me, right? Be honest. And as I'm honest, I can be hungry in my plea for justice. The psalmist now pleads for justice to be brought against these abusers. But sad to say many find fault with the prayer found in verses five through eight. Even though this kind of prayer is common in the Psalms, there are about 36 other Psalms that we could put in this one category we would call imprecatory prayers. And these prayers are not limited to the Old Testament alone. Paul would say this in 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 6, it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that are trouble. That's an imprecatory prayer from Paul. There is a proper time and there is a proper place and a proper way to plead with God for justice. And we see one such example right here in our text. And in Psalm 129, the writer prays that God's justice would be exacted upon wicked abuse. That's his prayer. It's an appropriate inspired prayer. He says, pray that your abusers be turned back in their shame. The second stanza of this psalm is defiantly not a soft and gentle prayer for blessing. It is worded in a way that befits the ruthlessness of the abusers we studied in verses one and two. He says in verse five, let all be confounded and turn back that hate Zion. What he's saying is let all those who hate Zion be put to shame and turn back. That's exactly what he's saying. That's what the wicked abusers need, to be put to shame. But notice that this imprecatory prayer also has a glimpse of grace. The psalmist prays that they not only be put to shame, but that they would turn back. That they would feel the justice of God, yes, and that they would also run to the God of justice. That's appropriate. I'm sure you've heard the name Rachel Donholder. Mitchell Donaholder had 40 minutes to address the court and her abuser during the sentencing of Larry Nacer, the former Team USA gymnastics doster who abused her when she was only 16 years of age at the Michigan State University Clinic. She was the first to boldly come forward before that man was locked away. And what she said to that wicked man left an incredible testimony of the grace and justice of Christ, and it's really very reminiscent of what we just studied. At the 25-minute mark in her speech, she addressed Larry Nasser, her abuser, directly and powerfully, and she spoke the gospel in that courtroom into his life, and here's what she said, and I'll quote her. She said, you have become a man ruled by selfish and perverted desires. a man defined by his daily choices repeatedly to feed that selfishness and perversion. In our early hearings, you brought your Bible into the courtroom. The Bible you carry speaks of a final judgment where all of God's wrath and eternal terror is poured out on men like you. Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing, And that is what makes the gospel of Christ so sweet, because it extends grace and hope and mercy where none can be found, and it will be there for you. I pray that you experience the soul crushing weight of guilt, so that you may someday experience the true repentance and forgiveness from God, which you need for far more than any forgiveness from me, end quote. Friend, by calling evil, evil, that is grace. By ignoring it, that is not the hand of gospel grace. By saying that is wrong, and it is only when we see our sin as an open shame that we can truly experience the open arms of God. And what she did in that day was commented and repeated, and repeating really what we just read, that they would be turned back in their shame. That is appropriate to pray. And pray that your abusers would be stopped in their tracks. I know it's on the screen, but that's verses six and seven. Dr. F.B. Meyer comments on this passage and says, therefore, faith concludes that however proudly the enemy may bear himself, God will certainly visit him with utter ruin. And the agricultural imagery of this psalm is once again at play here. He says in verse six, let them be as grass upon the housetops, which wherewith afore it groweth up, and wherewith the mower filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom. Now the cultural setting here is the flat room, or flat roof rather, of biblical times where grass seed blown by the wind would settle in a thin layer of soil on that flat rooftop. And so the grass would wither away before it ever had a chance to grow. There wasn't enough soil there for it to really take root. You would see it, and then it would go away. And this is a contrast to the rich harvest fields that might be outside in front of that house, with all of the rich nutrients necessary in the soil for that grass to really take root and to really grow. But on a flat roof, there wasn't even enough growth to fill your hands. So if you were gonna pick it, there's just not even hardly enough there to fill your hands with it. And what the psalmist is saying is that abusers may get to an artificially elevated position. They may be up there, and they may even look green, leafy, and luxuriant, like the grass of the field at times. But there is no possibility for that grass that looks luxurious in a moment to really last. There will never be real fruit there. There's hardly enough to fill your hands with it. And in the same way, it is right and just to pray for wicked abusers to be stopped in their tracks, to wither away like grass, to pray that none of their plans might come to fruition, that their elevated position would be seen for the grotesque hypocrisy of what they claim to be, that history would know none of them. Proverb would put it this way, though the wicked spring up like grass and evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed, Psalm 92 verse seven. God's word is very clear. James 2 verse 13 says, judgment is without mercy to them who show no mercy. What is he saying? God hates abusers more than we hate abusers. We've already seen that in the face of wicked abuse, it is appropriate and right to be honest. It is appropriate and right to be hungry. But there's a message of hope in this psalm that we still have not seen that is worthy of our ending. Be humbly clinging to God's path. If you have been abused in the past, I have news for you today. You don't have to be trapped or defined by your past. There's a most memorable phrase in this psalm that ought to be the mantra and echo of every victim, yet they have not prevailed against me. And the truth of scripture remains, you can choose to be a victim or a victor depending on who you're clinging to. And God's word says that may have been the evil abuse of others may have come to you, but I am also hateful of abuse, but I love you. And there is a proclamation, a pronouncement from the Almighty. There is a repetition in these beginning verses that is placed there for emphasis. And the phrase repeated is, many a time have they afflicted me from our youth. And this is a canticle of sorts that begins with a priest or leader who cries the phrase out before inviting everybody, let Israel may say. So he starts it. "'He may sing it to start it. "'Many a times have they afflicted me from my youth. "'Let Israel now say, and now the canticle is repeated, "'but when it's repeated, there's an addition.'" Did you notice that? When he says, he just ends it, they have afflicted me from my youth, but when the crowd sings, did you notice what they sing? Yet they have not prevailed against me. All of us can say, whatever our source of pain, they have not gained victory over me. Sadly and tragically, there are many a testimony of those who have come forward and recognized the abuse at the hands of abusers, only to have churchmen, actual churchmen, ignore, push away, or belittle what they are saying. But God has declared to those who have been abused, you do not have to be who you are. You can be who I have made you to be. And there is a deliverance that is promised from that same Almighty. Abusers try to enslave you. The word afflicted again is repeated in verses one and two. It literally means to bind tightly or to constrain. It's the action of an enemy keeping you under his control, but notice the promise of deliverance that reverberates through the psalm. The repetition is, they have bound me. The promise of deliverance is verse four, the Lord is righteous. He hath caught asunder the cords of the wicked. In Christ, the bondage doesn't need to control your life. You have been set free. You are not defined by your abuse. You can be defined by the blood of Christ. The Apostle Paul knew what it meant to suffer for Christ, and in some ways, some of the most encouraging, inspiring words of scripture, he testified, as I quoted already, we are hard-pressed on every side. We are not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck now, not destroyed. As one preacher wrote in his commentary notes, the person of faith outlasts all his oppressors. That's the principle of perseverance. You can suffer pain without suffering defeat. Jeremiah 119 says, they will fight against you, but I will overcome you, for I am with you. I will rescue you. John 16 verse 33 says, in the world you will have tribulation. Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And though you may or may have been abused by wicked men, Christ has already conquered the powers that ruled the world. And in the words of this Psalm, he has cut the cords of the wicked. Although you may suffer, you are safe in the arms of him who will hold you fast. Be humbly clinging. Our world is filled with wicked abusers. There is little doubt that our world is profoundly affected by abuse. Any statistic you look at and anywhere you turn, you realize that in any crowd, a large portion of that crowd has been affected, even millions, from their youth. The abuse is all around us, regardless of religion, regardless of race, regardless of gender, regardless of upbringing, regardless of anything. We live in a fallen, broken, sin-cursed planet filled with evil men. And people are coming in droves to the church and they are hurting and they are asking, how do you deal with this? And all too often, church pulpits are mute on the topic. Psalm 129 is a psalm to the abused. It's a psalm about evil men. It is speaking about those who have been so united their hearts against the work of God that they are best called the children of the devil. And everything they do and imagine is for the purpose of destroying the image of God, but if we take the psalm seriously, we know what God would have us to do. Be honest. I want you to know as a pastor of this church that you should have a church that allows you to talk about pain and then points you to God's word. When we say we wanna pray for you, I want you to know we're not just praying for the good, we wanna pray with you through the bad, we do. And I want, I'm sure many in this room would echo the same thing, I wanna be a part of a community of faith that so loves one another, that we can have brothers and sisters in Christ from a diverse background, a very diverse background, united around the blood of Christ, who can be honest in their conversations and say, you know, truthfully, it is hard in this world. I can't wait to get to heaven. Be honest and be hungry in your plea for justice. If the church is not the place that can call evil evil, who can? If the church is not the place that can call what is immoral, immoral, and what is moral, moral, based on the word of God, then we will be left in a culture that continues to redefine morality. We have to define evil for what it is. We have to call sin, sin. And it is not unloving to call sin, sin. It is loving to call sin, sin. We want the sinner to face the open shame of their sin, that they may be turned back to God. And far more important than your forgiveness is God's eternal forgiveness. And there may be some in this room who need to be honest in their own lives about sin. and call sin, sin. And actually stop hiding in the closet what God already knows is in the closet. Spurgeon called the guy who tries to cover up his sin, the man with a volcano in his soul. Where the idea is, it's just, nobody else can see it, but it is rumbling beneath the surface. And there are some people like that, that just sit at church and they just kind of wait for the preacher not to talk about what you know will convict you. And then every Sunday by Sunday, you kind of maybe, you're like thankful that he didn't cover the topic that you know would be convicting. We just need to be honest before the Lord and say like the psalmist, search me and know me. Try me, see if there be any wicked way in me. And we also need to be humbly clinging to God's path. God does have a plan. Romans would say, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. I will repay. No matter what this justice of this world will be, and at times, sadly, because of a broken planet, there will be men and women who in their wicked abuse will die, never facing the justice of this earth. But I've got news for you. they will face the holy justice of God. I'm actually very thankful that vengeance belongs to God because if vengeance belongs to us, we would get it wrong. Vengeance belongs to God because God hates abuse and God hates sin more than we do. Martin Luther summed it up best, I think, when he said, the faithful in suffering always prevail and overcome. but the wicked who oppress them are overthrown and they miserably perish. Luther also pointed out that in all the histories of all times and in all ages bears witness to that fact. It's an interesting and a difficult psalm to consider this evening, but it is a necessary one if we would preach the full counsel of God's word. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word, even the troubling and hard passages. Lord, we come to a topic that is so often foreboding of talk, but it is an important one. It's an inspired one. And if statistics bear out, as they say they do, that in this room, Lord, there are many who come with broken hearts because of past abuse done, not because of what they've done, but because of what other evil men and women have done to them. Lord, may we be the kind of church that can point to God's word as hope and help and grace and strength. Lord, the sad reality is if those statistics are true, then those statistics also indicate that in this room there may be some who have sinned that they have sought to hide. Lord, may you make it plain. Would you put the conviction in their spirit even now that they would be put to shame, that they may turn to you Lord, it would be a great deliverance for them to run to a God who can save. And finally, Lord, we pray that we would be strengthened through your Word even during this invitation time. Instruments are going to begin to play with our heads bowed and our eyes closed. Let's take a moment. God has spoken to your soul. We want to be, as we've already preached, a church that you can come and talk to. Pastor Stockard's down here. He'll direct you, someone that you can speak with. Would you take a moment and respond to God? Lord, we thank you for the comfort of your word. We also thank you, Lord, for the challenge of your word. May we come to it as our only source of hope and help. We pray this.