Let's turn in God's Word to Habakkuk 3. Habakkuk 3. And we'll be reading the whole chapter, verses 1-19. Habakkuk 3, verses 1-19. And God's people, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, thank You for Your Word. We're thankful for Your judgments. We're thankful for Your perfect justice and holiness. We're thankful for Your mercy and Your knowledge and wisdom and Your goodness to us, Your people in Christ Jesus, Your Son, and by the Holy Spirit. Father, help us now as we read Your Word that You have blessed us in our reading and our hearing of it. And then Father, as we hear the word preached, bless us in the hearing of the preached word. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Habakkuk chapter 3 and verse 1. These are God's words. A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet on Shigeonoth. O LORD, I have heard Your speech and was afraid. O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy." God came from Taman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise. His brightness was like the light. He had rays flashing from His hand and there His power was hidden. Before Him went pestilence and fever followed at His feet. He stood and measured the earth. He looked and startled the nations. And the everlasting mountains were scattered. The perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction. The curtains of the land of Midian trembled. O Lord, were You displeased with the rivers? Was Your anger against the rivers? Was Your wrath against the sea that You rode on Your horses, Your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made quite ready. O's were sworn over Your arrows. Selah. You divided the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice and lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. At the light of your arrows, they went at the shining of your glittering spear. You marched through the land in indignation. You trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your anointed. He struck the head from the house of the wicked by laying bare from foundation to neck. Selah. He thrust through with his own arrows the head of his villages. They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing was like feasting on the poor in secret. You walk through the sea with your horses through the heap of great waters. When I heard, my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered my bones, and I trembled in myself that I might rest in a day of trouble. When He comes up to the people, He will invade them with His troops, though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills." To the chief musician with stringed instruments. Those are God's words. We come now to the close of the book of Habakkuk, the prophet, in which we have heard the burden of the prophet. Chapter 1, the idolatry, the blasphemy of Judah. They have turned from the Lord. They've rebelled against Him. And that was such a grievous thing for the prophet. And the Lord responds and says, yes, this is a grievous thing. Judgment is coming. And it's coming through my instrument of Babylon. to destroy Judah, to destroy Jerusalem, and the temple and the peoples will be taken into captivity. But this is a difficult pill to swallow for the prophet. How could the Lord, who is altogether holy and righteous and good, use wicked people, a pagan people, a foreign nation to judge His covenant people? And yet his faith holds on to the character of the Lord we heard there in chapter 1. And he asks for help in what seems contrary, and yet he knows it is not. He asks for help and understands. So the Lord responds in chapter 2 and says, Life is given to the just who live by faith. And judgment comes to the proud. Judgment comes to Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar in five woes. That was the rest of chapter 2. And finally at the end of that chapter, but the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. The final chapter, chapter 3, is a response to that very last verse in chapter 2, and of the whole of chapter 2 as well. But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him. Chapter 3, praise, worship, and joy. No matter how the Lord works in this life, no matter what happens, you could be completely confused about why and how the Lord would be doing something, or permit something, or decree something, sovereignly will something, you don't know the ins and the outs of it, or why it's happening, how it's happening, and it seems horrible, it seems bad, it seems contrary to the Lord's plan, and contrary to His designs, it seems contrary to His promises, And the lesson here is always, always, always remember, beloved, that the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him and worship Him. Remember chapter 2, verse 1, the prophet promised I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He, that is the Lord, what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected." He's been corrected in chapter 2. So chapter 3 is the prophet's answer. And there is promised victory and triumph, we heard last Thursday, in the Lord. And in the end, the Lord will see that His people win, and are victorious in Him. That's the message not only here, but in Revelation. It's the message of the Scriptures as a whole, that in Christ we will always have the victory, that we are like Romans 8, we're more than conquerors through Him who loved us. And so we always are called, always praise the Lord. The first point this evening is really dealing with the context of this chapter, but addressing one of our distinctives in psalm singing. That is, Psalms are written by prophets. Psalms are written by prophets. We've covered this before, but here we find more evidence, and so we'll look at it just for a short time. The songs we find in Scripture by the people of God, the songs we find throughout the Scriptures are all written by prophets. Those who are inspired of the Lord by the Holy Spirit, carrying them along. Well, verse 1 says, chapter 3 is a prayer, just like many psalms also appear to us as prayers, this also is a psalm. It has the form of a psalm, in that we see the musical instrument, verse 1. This is a prayer for the back of the prophet on Shigenoth. That's a musical instrument. We also see the common selah used, referencing a pause or a reminder in this chapter of the theme, verse 2. We see the Selahs in verse 3, 9 and 13. And then we also see another thing in verse 19. In the end, it says, "...to the chief musician with maestrained instruments." Very common to see that in the Psalms as well. And so Habakkuk submitted this to the chief musician, which would have been a Levitical priest for the use by the people of God. And then saying, "...upon maestrained instruments," in which we remember that, again, only Levitical priests. that we learn in Chronicles. Only Levitical priests were those who played instruments, while the singers, who were also Levitical priests, sang like that of Haman, Asaph, and Judithun. So what do we learn from this? What are we reminded of? First, that just as we learned previously, that the Psalms the church sings, the Psalms the church is supposed to sing, must be written by true prophets of God. That we are reminded of, not that this is the point here, but that we learn here that only true prophets make God's songs. And, of course, make His Word. That no other songs can we sing in the church, and no other songs do we find ever encouraged in Scripture are written outside of those who are of the prophets. Another thing we learn is that Psalms are often in the form of prayer. And yet, not all Psalms are prayers. And not all prayers are Psalms. They are not the same thing. We ought not to conflate or confuse or mix them together and say that there is no distinction at all between prayers and Psalms. There is. Just as we would not conflate the reading of the Word from the preaching of the Word. They are not the same thing. Reading of the Word is different from preaching of the Word. So is praying, and so is singing of Psalms. They're two distinct things, so they have different characteristics. And yet, some in our day would say all Psalms are prayers, and therefore, all Psalms have only those characteristics of prayers, and there's nothing distinct. That's false. And in the same way, we also remember here, though this isn't the point of the chapter, nor the issue of songs, but we remember that all instruments used with songs throughout Scripture for the worship of God were performed by Levitical priests and none other. All of which playing of musical instruments in worship in the Old Testament, as we studied, has ceased by the final sacrifice of Christ. They used instruments, but that ceased. in Christ, and yet we keep singing Psalms, because when the offering had finished, the singers kept singing. 2 Chronicles 29. And the New Testament is clear about this as well, as we are continually commanded to sing Psalms. And yet, we're never commanded to use instruments in the New Testament. We also see that language that is used for describing musical instruments is used about what we do when we sing. That is, use our lips and the plucking of the heart strings as we sing. As we sing those psalms according to the New Testament. Now, we also see, while this psalm was written by the prophet, it's not included in the book of Psalms. And that's the question we get when we look at the Song of Solomon, for instance. This is a whole song, the Song of Solomon, and yet that's not included in the Book of Psalms. We ask the question, why isn't it? Because the Book of Psalms is what God has determined in His will, and by revelation, it is His book to sing for the church. And everything outside of that is not to be sung by the church. We have a song book in the Scriptures. And these book of Psalms, the book of Psalms being put together thematically or theologically after the Babylonian exile, that is after this book was written. And so while this psalm could have been sung by the priests at some point in the temple, being inspired of God, it was not in God's plan for it to have a place in the corporate singing of His church, for we don't find it in the Lord's hymn book, the book of Psalms. And that all serves as a reminder to us what we heard in the book of Chronicles. Psalms are written by prophets. They're not written by any Joe Schmoe Christian that we can often find, like heretics, also like Isaac Watts. They're written by true prophets of God. True prophets of God, which we acknowledge, have ceased. And the instruments of Scripture and 1,800 plus years of church history testify to this and practice, attest to this. Instruments in the worship of God have also ceased. With the final sacrifice of Jesus Christ, look through church history, you'll find very little instrumental use in the churches, even though they had them for 1,800 plus years. And now to the text, the second point this evening, the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord. We see this point in verses 2-15. Verse 2 says, O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. You go back to chapter 1, and you hear the Lord's word, the Lord promised judgment upon the people of God, and the shame of being judged through the instrument of Babylon. And this hasn't even happened yet, right? And when we come to chapter 3, it still hasn't happened yet. And it might be similar in many ways to the promised judgment upon the nations today, not only our nation, but the nations today who rebel against the Lord and His anointed, our Mediatorial King Jesus Christ. This is what we heard this morning. Those nations who rebel against the Lord will be judged. No different than the Roman Empire is promised to be judged as it was and will be more fully. They are beastly, because they are beastly and blasphemous as our nation is. The funny thing is, about what we heard this morning, is that any Reformed Christian, any Reformed Christian would agree that our nation deserves judgment. And we do. We are a rebellious nation. We see that in the peoples and in the government. We have turned from the Lord. Daily our idolatries and our blasphemies rise up. We've turned from the Lord. And we've risen up, our nation has, against the Lord and His anointed who sits on the throne, who is holy, holy, holy. Judgment is coming. And you hear the word from the Lord, in some ways you ought to be afraid, as we kind of considered this morning as well, you ought to fear the justice and power and wrath of God. Especially, beloved, as we heard from 1 Peter, judgment comes to the house of God first. And there is in our day a judgment upon the church, not a final one, but a little trickle of a judgment from the Lord. Again, many churches this year, as we consider it, closing their doors for good. Not just for a time, but for good. Many professing Christians being left by the wayside by their elders and their pastors. And some of them have visited us this year. Even more so and worse, professing Christians no longer attending worship at all. Why to attend worship when you can do it on the internet? Just watch on your computer or your phone. Or probably not even doing that at all. There's no longing to worship, leaving completely. we see is judging the church, and how that ought to move us to self-examination and repentance, unless we become like them. But thankfully, the prophet doesn't stop there, as we shouldn't stop there. Just those similar things that were true in history in the past, they're still true today. But we shouldn't stop there. We don't dwell in fear. We don't stay afraid. He says, O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the exile, in the midst of the judgment, the Lord revive us. Make us alive. Shorten the time, if it be your will. Let us not be abandoned completely or cut off fully. Revive us. The second thing it says in verse 2, give us understanding and knowledge in the midst of judgment. Leave us not to ourselves, but make your word known. Let us know your will, Lord. In the midst of the years, make it known, it says. And what is, in the midst of the years, it clarifies at the end of verse 2, in wrath, parallel statement, in wrath, when your wrath has poured out upon us, remember mercy. In the midst of the axon, in the midst of the judgment, remember mercy. It's like what Abraham is pleading this morning from chapter 18 in Genesis. This is our prayer, like Matthew Henry says, though thy church be chastened, let it not be killed, Though it have not its liberty, yet continue its life, save a remnant alive to be a seed of another generation." That's really the theme verse of what he's honing in on. But the rest of the passage through verse 15, we see a remembrance of what the Lord has done to hold us up and remember what the Lord will do in the future. And so it's kind of a rehearsal of what the Lord has done. The same Lord who delivered the people then, in the past, is the same God who will deliver His people today. Verse 3, it says, God came from Taman and the Holy One from Mount Paran, Selah. His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise. Taman and Mount Paran were near Mount Sinai. and referenced in Deuteronomy 33, when the Lord gave His law to the people whom He had redeemed, when He visibly displayed His glory, which was that consuming fire to enforce His law, to remind them of what He said, I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt. His glory, beloved, covered the heavens and the earth, was full of praise. Verse 4, it says, His brightness was like the light, and He had rays flashing from His hand, and there His power was hidden. The brightness of His glory, the rays, the horns, that power, the authority that we talked about this morning a little bit, hidden to the rest of the world, but revealed there at Mount Sinai. Revealed there, verses 5 and 6, before him went pestilence and fever followed at his feet. He stood and measured the earth. He looked and startled the nations. The everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills bowed. His ways are everlasting. You go back to verse 5, He sent the plagues, the pestilences on Egypt in which all the firstborn died, not like a measly virus that we've experienced this year, but true pestilence, humbling Pharaoh, fire mingled with hail and disease, all these came at His command. He sent all those plagues upon Egypt. In Joshua, verse 6, He measured the land. He assigned the inheritance for His people. He drove out the nations from before Him. Verse 6, it talks about the mountains scattering, the hills bowing. He's talking there about civil rulers of Canaan. The civil rulers of Canaan. All those rulers from Canaan, though they seemed strong, right? They went out and spied out the land and they thought, they are giants, right? And they were scared. Those rulers from Canaan seemed strong. They seemed firmly fixed like a mountain. Can't move a mountain. Like a hill. Can't move a hill. Right? That's what it seemed like. They were broke to pieces, those rulers. And those kingdoms were destroyed. They were completely subdued. Everything, beloved, all that happens is according to His eternal counsels. His ways are everlasting. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. His covenant is unchangeable. Mercy, verse 2, mercy endures forever. And then verse 7, I saw the tents of Cushon in affliction, the curtains of the land of Midian trembled. All the inhabitants of the neighboring nations, this is what it's talking about, all those neighboring nations, they feared the Lord. Just like Balak in Numbers 22. You look at the judge, the judges, Othniel, and how the tents of Cushon were afflicted. And so too with Midian in the days of Gideon. Remember? In Judges. And then verse 8, O LORD, were you displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers? Was your wrath against the sea that you rode on your horses, your chariots of salvation? He's speaking there of the dividing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, the sea and the river, right? And when those rivers, that sea, stood in the way of the people of God, was it a wall to them that they couldn't pass through? It seemed like it. But no, the Lord divided them. One might have thought, verse 8, for what river or sea could stand against the Lord? A sea and a river can't stand before the Lord and against the Lord and His people. They can't. He made them give way and flee before Him. As when He rides upon His horse, horses and chariots of salvation as Christ at the end of all, with all His army mighty to save, will ride. nothing will stand in His way. It's language of Isaiah 63, who led them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness, that they might not stumble. As a beast goes down into the valley and the Spirit of the Lord causes him to rest, so you lead your people to make yourself, that is the Lord, make yourself a glorious name. He led them through the sea, led them through the Jordan River unto the land of promise, All around we have promises of judgment. Judgment has come. And we fear, but beloved, the promise of the Lord is His covenant mercy. Verse 2. His covenant mercy is that when the difficulties rise up, salvation will come. When salvation deliverance are up against the wall, it doesn't seem like it will actually happen. It seems like a fortress insurmountable, like as they went into Canaan. It seems insurmountable. The Lord breaks through them easily, makes a way for His people and delivers them. Psalm 93 says, The floods have lifted up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea. The whole creation yields, trembles before the Lord. Verse 9, it says, "...your bow was made quite ready. O's were sworn over your arrows, Selah. You divided the earth with rivers." The Lord's bow, His power, was made ready. His covenant, His O's, were sworn with Abraham in His posterity. Even to us, beloved, you divided the earth with rivers. Psalm 105 verse 41 references there, and helps us understand what's being spoken of here, references Moses striking the rock. In Psalm 105, He opened the rock and water gushed out. It ran into dry places like a river, for He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant. Just as we heard And then verses 10 and 11. and the mountains saw you and trembled. The overflowing of the water passed by. The deep uttered its voice and lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. At the light of your arrows they went at the shining of your glittering spear. Again, when the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, the earth quaked and trembled at His presence. When He spoke, the mountains trembled, thundered down." Right? Remember that from Exodus 19? The overflowing of the waters, speaking of a comet in Joshua 3, verse 15, where it says the Jordan overflows during the harvest. And yet the people of God passed through, even in the midst of the flood. Again, the deep, it says, uttered its voice, lifted up, and Israel passed through on dry ground. Verse 11, the sun and moon stood still. When did that happen? Joshua 10. Son, stand still over Gibeon and Moon in the valley of Ajalon.' So the sun stood still and the moon stopped, so the people had revenge upon their enemies. Is this not written in the book of Jeshur? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven and did not hasten to go down for about a whole day." The rest of verse 11 most likely refers to that same passage in Joshua 10. when He sent down hailstones to the earth, routing the enemy. Language that we see there later on in prophecy and revelation. Verse 12, you marched through the land in indignation and trampled the nations in anger. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your anointed. You struck the head from the house of the wicked by laying bare from foundation to neck." Not only does this passage look back, but shows forth the whole that this looks forward in promise as well, which we too must remember. For this the Lord did trampling the nations in anger. Not only did the Lord do this before the various nations of Canaan, as Psalm 44.2 confirms, we look through Joshua, we see that confirmed there as well, but so too the whole anti-Christian nations of the Roman Empire, just as we heard this morning. That will come about. He tramples them and will trample those nations in His anger. Verse 13, going forth for the salvation of His people, the Lord does for the salvation of for the salvation with your anointed," it says, Jesus Christ is coming to judge. He's sitting on a throne. He will come to judge. He will lead His armies and bring about the full salvation of His people from His enemies and from the wicked. Beloved, there is no salvation in anyone else but Jesus Christ. Again, salvation, deliverance, may be so far from even possible, but all things are possible with God. Look at all these things that happen, and all of us would say if we were there, we're reading the passage as we went along for the first time we ever read it, we'd say, no, this is not possible. But in all of it, they're possible because God was leading them, that Christ is leading us. All things are possible with God, His anointed Son Jesus Christ, our King and our Priest. And so keep trusting in Christ. Keep looking to the Lord. You might fear, but keep looking to the Lord and keep looking to His promises. He says, you struck the head from the house of the wicked, whether in Egypt or in Canaan this happened, but also to the future, the antichrist, the man of sin, the papacy, the pope, who is the head of that wicked family of the earth. Christ will utterly consume and destroy this wicked one. He hasn't yet, beloved, but He will. That's the promise. It says, by laying bare from foundation to neck, This continuing what was just said, ruin and utter destruction, that's the word raised, laid bare, the foundation of wickedness on earth, that antichrist, servant of the devil, he will come down. That's the promise. He will come down. Verse 14, He thrust through with his own arrows the head of his villages. They came out like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing was like feasting on a porn secret. You walk through the sea with your horses through the heap of great waters." So here's saying the Lord used the weapons of those great and or small against themselves, the enemies. They used their enemy's weapons against themselves. They might be mighty against the church. And we've seen that even in the stories we've heard in the Old Testament, that the Lord turned soldiers in the enemy's army against each other. We've seen that before. And He says it here. But they might be, these enemies, might be mighty against the church of Jesus Christ, but not mighty against the Lord. For the Lord can use their own weapons to turn them against each other, to cause them to destroy each other, coming out like a whirlwind to destroy God's people. So Pharaoh and the Egyptians did. So the Canaanites came against Israel. They're rejoicing ones like those who devour the poor secretly. Confident they were, they were proud. And yet, the Lord disappointed them. Their pride made the fall all the more shameful. God cares for the poor people. God cares for His people. The Lord's enemies come after His people. And verse 15, the Lord walks His people through the seas. Right? Red Sea. Jordan River. He walks His people through the seas, through great waters, and disperses His and their enemies with ease, as He did with Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And so it is, beloved, with us. Our God does not change, right? Our God does not change. He will confuse and disperse His and our enemies. They will attack. They will prey on us in secret, but He will destroy them. And all the more, as Christ sits on the throne, our God is coming, the coming of the Lord. He's coming in judgment. And our prayer continues to be verse 2. O Lord, I have heard Your speech and was afraid. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known, and wrath remember mercy. And as the Lord now comes in judgment, a great judgment that is to come as well, so we may be afraid at times. We think of what we heard this morning. We think of many things that He's promised. We're scared. We could be scared, but He will revive us as people. He will make His ways known through the Scriptures. He has done that. And He will in His wrath remember mercy upon all who come to Christ by faith that promises that we will surely be saved. And then the final point this evening, rejoice in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. We can really leave the text to explain itself. Verse 16, just listen in view of the promises of judgment and deliverance as we just heard, we read about through verse 15. In the coming of the Lord, look at the response which should be ours. This should be our response. Verse 16, when I heard, my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness entered my bones and I trembled in myself. that I might rest in a day of trouble. When He comes up to the people, He will invade them with His troops. Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no fruit, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will join the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He will make my feet like deer's feet, and He will make me walk on my high hills. And the days of trouble, beloved, as Zephaniah tells us, the day of wrath and distress, the day of devastation and desolation, the day of darkness and gloominess of clouds and darkness. Isaiah says it's a day of rebuke and blasphemy. Oh, beloved, in the day of trouble, And the day of judgment and wrath, like you see in verse 17, there's no fruit from the fig tree, there's no fruit on the vines, there's no fruit from the olive trees, there's no people even in the field to be able to work, there's no food. The flocks cut off from the fold, there's no herds in the state, we have no animals to feed ourselves. And the day of trouble, and the judgment and wrath, what do we do? The psalmist, who is the prophet, instructs us, yes, we will tremble, verse 16, we will tremble. We'll have fears, even so of us today, we have them. And the great judgment is still yet to come. We tremble, but don't lose heart, don't lose hope, don't cower in fear. That is, don't crouch down in fear. You might fear, but don't crouch down in fear. Don't cower. Fear, but stand tall as one of the soldiers of Christ's army, knowing Christ goes before you. Right? Knowing the Lord will show mercy to you. That's why the prophet here can say, with all trembling and lips quivering, and his body as it described, rottenness under my bones and I've trembled within myself. This is why he can say, verse 18, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength. He'll make my feet like the deer's feet. And He'll make me walk on my high hills. Though there be so great afflictions of things that come, that tremble about and make us tremble, the Lord is on high. Christ is on the throne. Our Savior will save us. He will bring us home at the last. Joy in God is never out of season, beloved. Joy is never out of season. In times of weakness, in times of losses, in times of crosses, joy is always in season. Because our victory and triumph is in Him, and we never lose that victory and triumph. And so we remember even what it says at the end of Romans 8, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Till tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, For your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him, that's Christ, who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, that is the demons and devil himself, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things that come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so on all things, though we might fear and tremble, we rejoice. Christ goes before us and He will win the victory. Let's pray. Our Father, we're thankful as we look in the history of the Old Testament and all the history that we could see as You reference here in this chapter. We're reminded that You're a God who tells us what will happen. and that you're the God who does not change from those ways of the Old Testament. You're still the same God. And that you will, even in wrath, remember mercy. You'll make it known. You've made it known in the Scriptures. That even now, Christ goes before us. That Christ sits on the throne, sovereign over all. And we are thankful for His sacrifice. We're thankful for His session that He's seated on the throne. We're thankful for life in Him and the promise of victory in Him and that we've already been and we already have the victory in Him through His death and resurrection. It is so guaranteed to us that even your church will be victorious, even to the last day. And we give You all praise and we rejoice. Help us to have joy in those times of suffering and times of struggle and distress. Help us to always have joy in the Lord and in our salvation in Christ Jesus, Your Son. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.