I think you would agree with me. Actually, if you want to take your Bible and go to Psalm 118, but as you're turning there, I think you would agree with me that there is a problem that is ravaging our nation. It is everywhere. It's no surprise to you. It's no surprise to me. Approximately one in five Americans, that is 20% succumb to deep problems of this area. It is absolutely overwhelming biblical counselors. It is overwhelming even the secular world as well, the therapists and the psychologists and psychiatrists. And that is the sin of anxiety. Anxiety. The numbers are staggering in America. I mean, the millions and millions and millions of people who battle anxiety and, believe it or not, the numbers are staggeringly high in terms of young people. Young people in part perhaps due to their social media and the influence of wanting to be accepted and popular and known. What do we do and where do we go? And where do we as believers go while living in a world that is really wrestling with the difficulty of anxiety, but so many people don't know where to go for hope and help. And I just want to tell you in my own study, that was like my intro to my intro, but Psalm 118 is a great place to go if you or if you know someone who is going through anxiety. It's like the psalm of the day for giving God given comfort in going through this difficulty. In fact, let me just read it. Follow with me. Psalm 118. I'm going to read all the verses, and then I'll preach through it briefly, and then we'll pray through it as well a little later. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His loving kindness is everlasting. Oh, let Israel say, His loving kindness is everlasting. Oh, let the house of Aaron say, His loving kindness is everlasting. Oh, let those who fear the Lord say, His loving kindness is everlasting. from my distress, I called upon the Lord, and the Lord answered me, and he set me in a large place. The Lord is for me, I will not fear. What can man do to me? The Lord is for me among those who help me, therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. All nations surrounded me. In the name of the Lord, I will surely cut them off. They surrounded me. Yes, they surrounded me. In the name of the Lord, I will surely cut them off. They surrounded me like bees. They were extinguished as a fire of thorns. In the name of the Lord, I will surely cut them off. You pushed me violently so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tense of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. I will not die, but live, and I will tell of the works of the Lord. The Lord has disciplined me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open to me the gates of righteousness. I will enter through them. I shall give thanks to the Lord for this is the gate of the Lord. The righteous will enter through it. I shall give thanks to you for you have answered me and you have become my salvation. The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, do save, we beseech you. O Lord, we beseech you, do send prosperity. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God and he has given us light. Bind the festival sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I give thanks to you. You are my God, I extol you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. If you and I were to think about church history, and we were rewinding time to the 1500s, shortly after the time of John Calvin, you and I would come to know and learn of the Calvinistic Huguenots. They were greatly persecuted by the authorities in France for their biblical beliefs, for their love for the scriptural authority. And they had an unstoppable proclamation of the Lordship of Christ over everything. They believed that Christ was God and that he humbled himself and he came to earth to die. And then, and then when he died, he was buried and God raised him up and God exalted him as head over all. And therefore men and women everywhere must worship him. The time wasn't easy for them. Persecution was thick. They were murdered in cold-blooded massacres by the tens of thousands in France and Switzerland and England in the 15 and 1600s. The Huguenots were Calvinistic, big God, theology believers. They believe that salvation was of the Lord. They believe that Christ is the head of the church. They believe that salvation is all a gift of God's grace, that you cannot get to God by your own doing. It is all of grace. One Huguenot was a man by the name of Jacques Roger. He loved Psalm 118. He was 70 years old. He escaped from his enemies, that is, his enemies from 40 years who pursued him. And the last days of his life he spent in jail when he was finally caught. And while he was in jail, he was encouraging other Huguenots and other pastors to remain true to the faith and not deny their Lord. He was led to his very tough and bloody execution. And while he was going to the place of his death, he was singing Psalm 118. That's the kind of courage That's the kind of reality and the kind of stability that this psalm gives to those of us going through difficulty in life, in trial, in tribulation, in hardship, in anxiety. This is a psalm that will guide you. It'll help you to think rightly through life. In fact, I have come to believe that Psalm 118 was probably most at the forefront of our Lord's mind during the entirety of the Passion Week, from the triumphal entry all the way until Thursday night when he sang this song in the upper room. Now, Psalm 118 is an individual psalm. It's also a national psalm for Israel, and then it's also a prophetic psalm. It's a very complex psalm. I acknowledge that, and commentators all agree on that. One writer said, nothing can surpass the force and the majesty and the beauty of this psalm. I want to teach you a word. Maybe you know it, but maybe it might be new to some of you. It's a word called antiphony. If I were to take you to Psalm 136, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, you would say, for his love endures forever. The next verse, give thanks to the God of gods, and you'd say, for his love endures forever. It's kind of a back and forth, kind of a call to worship, back and forth. Did you notice a lot of the repetition in our psalm? There's a lot of that in the psalm. This is meant for, for worship. It's meant for a back-and-forth responsive praise in the assembly. Verses 1 to 3 says it four times, the loving kindness of God is everlasting. In verses 6 and 7, we read that the Lord is for me. We see that twice. In verses 8 and 9, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than anything else. Back and forth repetition. And then in verse 16 and 17, we read about the right hand of the Lord that does valiantly. This is meant to be a psalm of repetition. Why? To make it memorable. So that you memorize it. So that we are drawn to greater worship. between the worship leader and the congregation, giving our praises to God. Perhaps, other than Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, Psalm 118 is probably the most quoted Psalm in the Old Testament from the lips of our Savior. It is all over the place. The Lord talks about himself being the stone which the builders rejected. Hosanna, we read that in the gospel accounts. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Our Lord Jesus loved and knew Psalm 118, and he applied it to himself. So we do well to read the psalm tonight with a prophetic eye toward the glory of Christ as well. So I want to give you sort of the big picture of the psalm and then we'll kind of fly through it together. The whole psalm gives us one main point and it's this, God is calling you and he's calling me to Thanksgiving. That's really the psalm. And you see it from the beginning to the end. Verse one to verse 29, give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever. You say, Jeff, why should I give thanks to God? Why should I give thanks to God? And our psalm is going to lay out for us three reasons. We ought to give thanks for God's love. Number two, for his protection. And then number three, for his salvation, his love, his protection, and his salvation. There's a lot here. By the way, if you want a great commentary, this was Martin Luther's favorite Psalm. And it's easy to Google Martin Luther Psalm 118 PDF, and you'll get all the information that you want to read from Martin Luther and his love and devotional reflections from Psalm 118. So let's give thanks to God. Number one, you see in your outline, for his love. We want to thank God for his love. Do you see the familiar chorus in verse one? You probably know it by heart. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, for his loving kindness is everlasting. And that's how the Psalm ends. as well. It ends that way in verse 29. It is reminding the people of God that we ought to be thankful. We ought to be thankful people, for the love of God is unfailing. Mark that. When everything in your life changes, and there might be temptation to worry and fear and anxiety and so on, God's love never, ever changes. Notice the response in verses 1 to 4. Give thanks to God. Verse 2, Israel should recognize his love is everlasting. The house of Aaron, the priests, should recognize his love is everlasting. Verse 4, all the God-fearers know that God's love is everlasting. Don't miss simple grammar. It's a command. God is commanding all of us to thank the Lord, to be thankful people, to begin our day with thanksgiving, to continue our day with thanksgiving, and to close our day with thanksgiving for the covenant-keeping love of God is everlasting. When we think about this idea of God's love in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament here, it has to do with covenant loyalty. God is a covenantally loyal God. God is a faithful God to his own word. God has given you every blessing that flows from the spring of his covenant love. Every good thing that you have in life. flows from the covenant love of God. What do you have that you didn't receive? What do you have in the gospel that has not been given to you by sovereign love? Not that we loved God, but that He loved us. This is who our God is. He is the God of love. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. What a God that he would demonstrate such a great love by giving his own son to die for covenant breakers like me and you. Thank God for his love. Thank him for his eternal love. Thank him back and forth, the psalmist is saying. Let the corporate worship resound when we meet together by saying our God's love is everlasting. We thank him for his love. Maybe as you're driving home, maybe a little thing for you to apply with your spouse, perhaps, or if you have children riding with you in the car, or maybe if you're driving alone, you can do it out loud with the Lord. Reflect and rehearse on reasons to thank the Lord. What do we have to thank God for today? What do we have to thank God for, for His love? How has God shown His love? And let the children answer and go back and forth and ponder the glorious love of God. Number one, we thank God for His love, most perfectly revealed at the cross of Christ. What a great God of eternal covenant-keeping, saving love. Let us never get tired of hearing of the saving love of Jesus Christ. But not only do we thank him for his love, number two, we thank him for his protection. For his protection. Now, let me tell you where the psalmist is. I think the psalmist is David. It's anonymous, but I think because of the language of the psalm, it has Davidic just dripping all over it from beginning to end. I think the situation is David in great need. He's in great trouble. I'm gonna show you that in a minute. He's in a difficult hardship. The life is being squeezed out of him. He has every reason to be anxious from a fleshly perspective. He knows that God is powerful and he knows that God is protector. And even in the difficulty, he's praising God. Now, the way that I've formatted this second section here in your psalm, you see it there in your notes, I think I put it there, is I want to give you a template for biblical counseling your own heart or someone else through difficulty. Look at verse five. It all begins with the distressing situation. From my distress. It's hard to bring out the color of this Hebrew word. I'm being afflicted on every side. I have nothing left, we might say. All of my energy is drained. I feel squeezed. I feel like my life juices are being sucked out of me. That's the idea of this word. This is not just a difficult situation. This is a tough moment and season of life. I'm in distress. What do you do in that situation? Notice what David does. Number one, where I go, I go to prayer. I called upon the Lord, verse five, and the Lord answered me and he set me in a large place in the troubling situation. Never forget, number one, here's where I go. Take it to the Lord. You know the hymn in prayer. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Cast all your burdens upon the Lord because He cares for you. So you go to God, number one. Number two, here's what I know. Here's what I know. Verse six, the Lord is for me. The Lord is for me, I will not fear. What can man do to me? You and I know. that Paul loved this because Paul said this in Romans 8.31, if God is for us, who can be against us? The apostle Paul quoted that. If God is for me, I don't need to fear. What can man do to me? Verse seven, the Lord is for me. Among those who help me, I will look upon my enemies. You know where I go? I go to prayer. You know what I know? God is for me. God is for me. God is not against me. God is not my enemy. God is not my adversary. God is for me in covenant love. Third, what's best? What is best? Now, there's a little bit of debate about this, but it's kind of an interesting little anecdotal point. Out of all of the, I think it's 15,000 verses from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, here are the middle two verses in the entire Bible. It's right here, verses 8 and 9. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. Verse 9, it is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man or in princes. This is best. I've got to take refuge in God. That's biblical counseling your own heart. Wait, wait, wait. The situation is tough. What does David do? He goes to God in prayer. What does he know? God is for me. And what is best? I take refuge in God. I can't take refuge in my army. I can't take refuge in my money. I can't take refuge in my leaders. I can't take refuge in my mighty men. I can't take refuge in my health. It's better to take refuge in the Lord. Fourth, what do I do? So what do I do if the trouble and the difficulty is there? This is such good counsel. Boys and girls, I wish I could tell you life would always be easy, but it's gonna be tough. So what do you do when the hard times come? Look what David does in verse 10. All the nations surround me. In the name of the Lord, I will cut them off. They surrounded me. They surrounded me. In the name of the Lord, I will cut them off. They surround me like bees. They're extinguished as a fire of thorns. In the name of the Lord, I will cut them off. The enemies pushed me violently, so I was falling, but the Lord helped me. You want to know what you do in a difficult situation of life? What do you have to do? Keep persevering and keep walking on the path straight ahead knowing that God is the one who is your helper. He is your helper. You know what God will do? God will grow you. He will grow you. He will grow you as you persevere, as you endure. God will see you through it. Verses 15 to 18 talks about the right hand of God. The mighty power of God will help me. He will help me. Let your eye skim to verse 17. I just want to highlight this for a minute because in David's life, this is like his personal testimony. I will not die but live. In other words, in this situation right here that I'm in, I've not died. God has spared my life. Why? Verse 17. In order to tell. Let me give you a better translation from the Hebrew. I will lay them out one by one in consecutive order. I will tell you all the great things that God has done. I love that. The reason why I highlight that, maybe you know the hymn writer William Cooper. He wrote, there is a fountain filled with blood. He battled depression nearly all of his Christian life. This was one of his favorite verses. Martin Luther had this verse inscribed on the wall of his study. I will not die, but live. And I will tell the works of the Lord. You know, John Wycliffe, the man who translated the Bible, he was surrounded by many of his enemies who tried to harass him and call him to renounce the faith, even on his sickbed. But this was his favorite verse, and he would not renounce the faith. Why? Because we thank God for his protection. Christian, what about you today? How can you thank God for his protection? How can you counsel your own heart? Maybe your thinking has been a little bit off course. Maybe you've been living, succumbing to your feelings. And maybe you've been forgetting that God is for you. Maybe you've forgotten that God is your refuge. Come back to it. God is your protection. He's your protection. And you remember those great verses in Romans 8, if God is for us, who can be against us? For God, who did not spare his own son, but if he delivered him over for us all, how will God not also with him freely give us all things? What a great deliverer we have. Well, third, we want to thank God. Number one, for his love. Number two, for his protection. And then number three, for his salvation. Now, much, much could be said on this. In fact, this is the part of the Psalter that we sang earlier this evening. In verses 19 to 29, hear this very carefully. All of these verses are pointing to Jesus. They are all about Christ. They are written a thousand years before Jesus ever was born by David, I believe. And they are prophetic to the detailed point. Jesus. is the cornerstone? He was rejected by men, but he's exalted as the chief cornerstone above all? Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord? There was a large crowd that took palm branches. In John chapter 12, it was on that Palm Sunday, a week before our Lord would be crucified, And the people of Israel gathering in Jerusalem for that Passover season, they quoted Psalm 118, and they said in verse 25 from the Hebrew, O Lord, Hosanna, save us. Here's the Messianic king riding on a donkey. Save us, O Messiah. He is truly the one who comes. Amazingly and shockingly in verse 22, he is described as being the stone which the builders rejected. What a prophecy of the humiliation of Christ that he would actually die, that he would be the stone that is needed, but he's rejected, kicked out, unwanted, unloved. and he was murdered. But this one became the chief cornerstone. He's the exalted one. Every living stone, every believer in the church built upon him as the cornerstone. Amazing truth. How could all of this be? You say, how could a prophecy like this happen? If you look at verse 23, there's an answer. This is the Lord's doing, and it is a miracle, the Hebrew says. It's marvelous, but it's a miracle. Only God could do this. This is the day which the Lord has made. Every day is a gift from God, but the day spoken of here is the day when Messiah entered through the gates of Jerusalem riding on a donkey. As He came as the Messianic King. This is the day that the Lord has made. We will be glad and we will rejoice in it. What a God. What a Savior. He is the salvation. He is the deliverer. He is the one who can save. Just a question. For all of us here tonight, have you put yourself in this psalm? And have you cried out with the worshipers on that Jerusalem road? Hosanna, save us. Have you cried out to the Lord, recognizing your need and said, Lord, I need you to save me. I need you to deliver me, verse 25. Save us, we beseech you. We beseech you, save us. We need that deliverer. We need the one who was rejected by men so that you could be received by God. You need the one who was put upon the cross and took the wrath of God so you might escape that punishment and be reconciled to this God. I want to draw this to a close. But I want to ask you to turn with me in your Bible to Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4. And as you're turning there, let me paint the scene for you. Peter and John, two apostles of our Lord, are in Jerusalem after our Lord has been killed, and he was raised, and then he went to heaven. And Peter and John are preaching. And the rulers gather together, and they are filled with rage, and they're filled with anger. Peter and John are preaching. I want you to hear what they say in verse 10, Acts 4, verse 10. Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ, the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name, this man stands here before you in good health. That was the guy healed in chapter three. Verse 11, well, who is Jesus? He is the stone which was rejected by you. That's Peter preaching. Quoting Psalm 118, saying to the leaders, you killed him. You killed him. But verse 11, he became the chief cornerstone. He's exalted. He has been raised from the dead. And then keep reading verse 12. There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. That's our Savior. And the psalm that we are looking at this evening is the very psalm that Peter preached in Acts chapter 4. And Peter applied it to Jesus and he said, you killed him. but God raised him from the dead. And there is salvation in no other name, no other name, no other way to get to God, but through faith in the name of Christ, in him alone. Is he your king? Is he your savior? Is he your God? Have you cried out to him to save you? He is merciful. He is inviting. He is willing to save. His arms are stretched out, and of course he can because he is the king over all. The gates of Jerusalem, the gates that the righteous entered, opened for him as he presented himself as the king of Israel, riding on that donkey. Do you trust in him tonight? Have you put all of your confidence in him alone? He doesn't want you to just know about Him. He wants you to put all of your faith in Him and receive Him as your own, as my God and my Savior and my Lord and my King. That's what Psalm 118 does. When you know this God and you thank this God for His love and protection and salvation, and you know this God, it gives steel to your spine. That's what the Word of God does. It gives you encouragement in your life. I want to end with this before we pray. We began by mentioning and talking about the Huguenots. The Huguenots. Those in Europe in the 15 and 1600s. I want to tell you about another Huguenot. He was a godly man named Louis Rang. He was condemned at Grenoble in 1745. He was offered life. His life would be spared. The only thing he would have to do is simply renounce his faith. Turn your back on your Jesus. Turn your back on the Lordship of Christ over the church. But of course, Louis Rang said, I can't do that. He rejected that offer. The story is found in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. He went to the scaffold, like those before him, singing one of his favorite psalms. And that was Psalm 118. You know, when you're going through difficulty of life, when you have hardship and you have persecution and you've got trials and you've got afflictions, Sometimes the affliction seems so big that we lose sight of the fact that God is so steady. Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. His covenant love endures forever. Let's thank our God for his love, for his protection, and for his salvation. Amen. Our Father, thank you that you have given your word. Thank you that we can gather and pray. We thank you for your Son.