Psalm 118, and we're going to read it antiphonally. I go from left to right. I'm going to join with the little few, little flock over here, and give them some vocal support as they read, and then I'd like for you here on the right side of the sanctuary to, that is directionally speaking, to respond with the verses in bold print. Let us read together. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever. Let Israel say, His love endures forever. Let the house of Aaron say, His love endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord say, His love endures forever. In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and He answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me. He is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies. 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 the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They swarmed around me like bees. but they died out as quickly as burning thorns. In the name of the Lord I cut them off. I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous. The Lord's right hand has done my bidding. The Lord's right hand is lifted high. I will not die but live and will proclaim what the Lord has done. Open for me the gates of righteousness. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. This is the day the Lord has made. O Lord, save us. O Lord, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With bows in hand, join in the faithful procession up to the morning of the altar. You are my God, and I will give you thanks. You are my God, and I will exalt you. Amen. Let us turn in our Bible to Psalm 118. While you're turning there, I'll tell you that a few years ago, there was a family who visited our church, and they were interested in moving to Austin from California. And they, they had heard of our church, and it was recommended to them. So they visited and afterwards, we were all out at lunch together. And the A teenage girl had remarked that she had never heard congregational reading, responsive reading by the congregation of a psalm before. She told us it sounded like a cult. And as a matter of fact, if you want to use the term cult as related to cult us, the Latin word, and go all the way back to Israel with it, then yes, it is like the cultus of worship in the nation of Israel. But of course what she meant is that it sounded faintly sinister and she was apparently afraid that at any moment we would do something Catholic. She asked me if we rehearsed because it was so good as if we had Tuesday night responsive reading rehearsals. And I told her no, but It has amazed me, in fact, how well this congregation does at that, because I have visited other churches where everybody's doing his own thing and going at his own pace and they're not together. And I can only conclude that we do have respect on a basic level for the rhythm of the sentence, we have respect for the sense of the sentence and we most of all have respect for each other and then finally above all that I think the Holy Spirit leads us. And so it is a pleasure to engage with you as we begin in a bit of liturgy, the L word which is so despised by Baptists. One of the great little rhymes that was said in Victorian England about Charles Spurgeon was, There once was a preacher named Spurgey, who cordially despised our liturgy, but his sermons were fine, and I used them for mine, and so did the rest of the clergy. I'm afraid most Baptists cordially despise liturgy, and I am very grateful to pastor a church that does not, that recognizes that There are Psalms that have liturgy written all over them. This is a highly liturgical Psalm. It switches from I to we as leaders speaking and then the congregation is speaking and there's an exhortation. Let Israel now say his mercy endures forever. Let the house of Aaron now say his mercy endures forever. Let those who fear the Lord now say his mercy endures forever. And it's generally agreed that this is a liturgical psalm. We frequently use liturgy here at Dayspring, not only in the responsive readings, but also on very special occasions. We used it the night of September the 11th to go through a specific service where we wanted to say specific things and make sure specific psalms got sung. And there was freedom within that for the different prayers that we prayed for the various needs of that horrible evening. We also use it, of course, in our watch night service on New Year's Eve. It is a way of making sure that a tradition is carried over from year to year or from occasion to occasion and that certain things specifically get said, and that's the context of this psalm. This psalm is the last psalm in the series of psalms called the Egyptian Hallel. The psalms are Psalm 113 through this 118th psalm, and so this would be very likely the hymn that Jesus and the disciples sang. at the end of the Last Supper. But you can also recognize some other characteristics in it. You can recognize that embedded in the psalm are the very phrases of Palm Sunday, the very phrases of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus entered Jerusalem on the Lord's Day, what would become the Lord's Day. He entered Jerusalem the first day of the week. at the same hour that lambs were being gathered into the temple courts. The lambs were being brought into Jerusalem. The families were bringing in their lambs and setting them apart for several days before they were slain, what we would call Thursday evening of that week. Now, this psalm was probably intended to celebrate a Passover. Some scholars think that it was intended to celebrate the Passover in the year 516 BC, which was the first Passover after the Jews had returned from exile and had rebuilt the temple. There is a prophecy about singing phrases in this psalm in the prophet Jeremiah. You'll turn over there to Jeremiah 33 for just a moment. In Jeremiah 33 10, when Jeremiah is predicting that the nation will be restored after captivity, he says, thus says the Lord, Again, there shall be heard in this place of which you say, it is desolate without man and without beast. In the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast, the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say, praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his mercy endures forever. and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord, for I will cause the captives of the land to return, as at first says the Lord." What they couldn't have possibly known at that time would have been that the house that they knew as the house of the Lord would be utterly destroyed, but another one would replace it. And apparently this psalm came into the practice of being sung at Passover time after that happened. So what we have here in the psalm is a lone speaker, a leader, and a congregation. And in that sense, the saying of this psalm is very much like the type of piece of music that we know as a concerto. What's a concerto? Anybody know? Yes there. That's right. It's an orchestral work with a solo instrument that spotlighted the piano or the cello or the violin or whatever solo instrument gets highlighted and has a lot of specific parts that are played by that instrument, but it's against the background of accompaniment by an orchestra. So you have something like that here. You have a leader who is giving a call to worship. Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. It may well have been that when he said, let Israel now say, that the whole congregation, which consisted of Israelites, would say together, his mercy endures forever. In verse 3, he may have then said, let the house of Aaron now say, and then all the priests would have said, his mercy endures forever. And then when he said, let those who fear the Lord now say, and they replied, his mercy endures forever, who would he have meant? I mean, it'd have to be something internal rather than an identity to mark. The house of Israel knows who they are. The priests know who they are, and those that fear the Lord know who they are because it's inside, it's internal. Yes, that has been suggested as one of the answers to this question. Anybody have another one? Yes? Converted Gentiles? Yeah, converted Gentiles. The people who were proselytes to the Jewish faith. People who were like Cornelius, who feared God and were not ethnic Israelites but had subscribed to the faith of Israel and came to worship at the temple. So there have been several suggestions as to who group C was here. Some have said, you know, it's Jews who have specifically repented of certain sins and put aside the association that they have had with the world. And therefore, it would be a particular group of genuine Israelites, as has been suggested, or it would have been those who, like Ruth, had said to mother-in-law Naomi, your God will be my God, and had subscribed to the faith of Israel. The interesting thing about the psalm, and we'll only look at the first half of it tonight, But the interesting thing about the psalm is that there are all kinds of great verses in it that just leap out at you. So many great concepts in it. It was a psalm that Martin Luther put on the wall of his study because he said it was his favorite psalm. This is what he said about it. This is my own beloved psalm. Although the entire Psalter and all of Holy Scripture are dear to me as my only comfort and source of life, I fell in love with this psalm especially. Therefore, I call it my own. When emperors and kings, the wise and the learned, and even saints could not aid me, this psalm proved a friend and helped me out of many great troubles. As a result, it is dearer to me than all the wealth, honor, and power of the Pope, the Turk, and the Emperor. I would be most unwilling to trade this psalm for all of it." Do you feel that way about either the psalm itself or any parts of it? Are there verses here in this psalm that have meant a lot to you? Scan verses 5 through 9. Anything in there that particularly speaks to you or that you think might be worth memorizing? Well, how many of you have had the experience of verse 5? I called on the Lord in distress, the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place. That doesn't just mean those of you who have moved to Texas. We're glad to have you in this broad place. But you remember that David said the same kind of thing. As a matter of fact, whoever's leading this psalm is probably using a lot of words and phrases of David. But the words and phrases of David, of course, apply to so many of us in so many different circumstances. In Psalm 18, verse 19, you remember that David said, he also brought me out into a broad place. He delivered me because he delighted in me. What's the significance of the term broad place? We're not talking about Broadway here. We're talking about a broad place. He set me free. The idea of the broad place is room to maneuver. Have you ever felt like you were just absolutely hemmed in and pressured and cramped and you didn't know what you were going to do? April 15th is coming up. You may feel that way in the next few days. You were just in a desperate situation and you called on the Lord in your distress and suddenly the circumstances changed and You had some wiggle room. Suddenly things were broader. He set you free. You weren't cramped and imprisoned in this seeming no-win situation. It's very much the picture of the sinner, isn't it? There you are, dead in trespasses and sins and without hope in the world, and you're on your way to hell. And you call on the Lord in your distress and he answers you and sets you free. He sets you free and puts you in a broad place where you have a different perspective and where you're no longer bound by whatever has been encroaching upon you. Anything else in these, in verses 5 through 9? I've certainly used verse 6 many times and quoted verse 6, and mostly I've quoted from the New Testament version of it. It's quoted in Hebrews 13, 6. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? I have quoted that to those who were about to undergo surgery. those who, to people who were facing difficult situations. You ask the question, I will not fear, what can man do to me? And Satan comes to you and whispers, plenty, plenty. He can torture you, he can take your job away, he can slander you, he can kill you, he can do plenty to you. And what's your answer to that as a Christian? Don't you remember that Jesus sent those disciples out and said, do not fear those who are able to kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Were you thinking of that? Yes. Okay. Matthew 10. Let's turn over there. Matthew 10, 26 through 31. Yeah, let's look there. That's a good thing to remember. Therefore, do not fear them. There's nothing covered that will not be revealed and hidden that will not be known. And he says, Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light. And what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. That's God. That's the Lord. Destroy means bring to ruin, not annihilate. Bring to nothing. He's able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin, and not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father's will? But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear, therefore. You're of more value than many sparrows. What a wonderful passage of scripture, isn't it? Because it speaks of how Man can do things to us, but the ultimate thing that man can't do is separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is the same idea in this verse 6 of Psalm 118 that Paul so wonderfully expands in that 8th chapter of Romans. You remember he says, if God is for us, who can be against us? And we read that so quickly. We read that just quickly and glibly because we want to get on with the entire passage. But really, just think about this idea in Psalm 118, verse 6, and in Romans 8, verse 31. God is for you. God is for you. The Lord is on my side. The Lord is on my side. Think of that. I can't read Psalm 118.6 being a Texas history buff without remembering the letter of William Barrett Travis that he sent out to all the citizens of Texas and all the citizens of the world on February 23rd, 1836. It says, we are besieged by an army of the Mexicans under General Santa Anna. Wrote it from the Alamo. And as a P.S. he wrote, the Lord is on our side. And he wrote about all the nice cattle that the Lord had provided for them to eat along with the corn that they had. Well, on March the 6th, they were all slaughtered. So poor Travis, the deluded, lying fool, because he said the Lord is on our side. No. No. You see, the Lord is on your side, whether we live, whether we die, we are the Lord's. If God be for us, who can be against us? And nothing, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to 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. What a wonderful thing to know that God is for you, that the Lord is on your side. So there are several things obviously, but the verse doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that the Lord will always keep you from dying. The martyrs have historically loved Psalm 118. If they thought that Psalm 118 meant that the Lord was on their side and keep them from death, then it's not the psalm of choice to turn to when you're about to be burnt at the stake. But the French Huguenots loved this psalm. They just thought it was wonderful. It's a great martyr's psalm to them. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? He can only kill your body. But he can't destroy your soul. He can't destroy that which God has saved and is now in union with Christ. Another thing about the verse that we've got to be real careful about is, does the phrase, the Lord is on my side, or its Romans 8 equivalent, if God is for us, does that imply complete agreement between you and God? Does that mean God agrees with your every little thought? No, it doesn't. It does not mean that. It does not mean that God is on your side because you and He are tight like this, and He approves of every opinion and every whim of yours. And you know what? That's grace, isn't it? He's still on your side. He's still on your side. And all those things about you He doesn't approve of? Well, guess what? They've all been paid for. Jesus has died for every single one of them. He's on your side, even though you are not perfect yet, and even though you are not in full agreement with Him. He is on your side. This is an amazing thing, and like I say, the words are so simple and we've said them so frequently, it's very hard to take them for granted. But think about Think about a husband and wife having an argument. They have a conflict. They have a disagreement. And during that argument, obviously, they just cannot agree. But how helpful it sometimes is when one of them breaks through and says, look, I'm on your side. I'm on your side. I'm for you. I'm not your enemy. We're talking about what's the best course of action for our family, or we're talking about our opinion about something. Let's try to attack this problem together, but I'm on your side even though we're disagreeing. Brothers and sisters, I am so grateful that the Lord was on my side when I disagreed with him and sinned against him and brought me back to repentance for that sin. I'm so grateful that the Lord has been on my side and brought me through so many dangers, toils, and snares. that as you grow older in the Lord you will learn to not fear. Do not fear because what can man do to you after all? He can't do anything that truly matters in terms of your relationship to God. The Lord is for me in verse 7. The Lord is for me among those who help me. Therefore I shall see my desire on those who hate me. Verses 8 and 9 are interesting. They're mostly interesting, of course, with what they say, but they're interesting on a technical level as well. Does anybody happen to know how many verses there are in the Bible? Do you know, Coach? Do you know? 1118. 1118. Verses? Okay. Okay. That's better. Yes. There are 31,174 verses in the Bible. Why? We've been wondering that lately, why they divide these things where they do. That was actually done more at the time of the Reformation. That was done by Robert Stephanus, who divided scripture into verses. He certainly did the New Testament. I'm not sure if he did the Old as well, but I think he did the Old as well. And it's a way, of course, of having a ready-made reference at hand. What's interesting, and we do wonder why some of the verses were divided like they were, but what's interesting is that these are the two middle verses of the Bible. We're right smack dab, not in the middle of the Psalter. We've passed the middle of the Psalter. We are right now in the middle between Genesis 1-1 and the end of the book of Revelation. We are looking at verses 15,587 and 15,588 tonight. They probably are going to be significant. Are these verses significant? You bet they are. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. These two middle verses of the Bible bring us right back to faith in God, the one in whom we trust, whom we trust above and beyond every living soul. We sang in our first hymn tonight, put no confidence in princes. It's better to trust in the Lord. Now look at the next section, 10-14. These are the words of a leader. These are the words of either King David or Ezra or Nehemiah or Zerubbabel. I think that probably that they are to be taken in the sense of the great strength and power that the Lord provides. All nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. And there's a big question there, as you can tell from your translations, about how the Hebrew should be translated. Is it a future or is it a past? Has he destroyed them already? I cut them off, or is it I will destroy them? And the commentators are divided. The argument for the past tense, I cut them off, is the fact that the surrounding, is mentioned in the past tense. All nations surrounded me, and three to four times that's mentioned as past. They were quenched like a fire of thorns. Verse 13, you pushed me violently that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. So you find the New King James Version translating, I will destroy them. You find the the great scholar Stuart Perone saying that that's the way it should be translated too. But so many of the more recent translations in IV, English Standard Version and so on say, I cut them off. The great point of the future tense, I will destroy them, is simply what Paul says in Philippians 4.13. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. I will destroy them. In the name of the Lord, I will destroy them. The argument for I cut them off is that it's not only a legitimate translation, but it fits in with the past tense and the song of victory that this section seems to be. So whether these are words of King David that have just been borrowed, or whether they are, in fact, simply hypothetical sorts of words that are describing the events of the exodus and the events of the exile and how the Lord has conquered enemies, I think we can all relate to them if we have been delivered from a situation where we had enemies. All nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I will destroy them. I cut them off. They surrounded me, yes they surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They surrounded me like bees. They were quenched like a fire of thorns, for in the name of the Lord I cut them off. You pushed me violently that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation." What's that a quote from? The Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. Yeah, the Song of Miriam, actually, after the Exodus. She's playing a tambourine and she sings that, do you remember? It's the victory at the time of the Exodus. Then, we don't know if 15 and 16 might be a response of the congregation. Some people think it is. That the leader who's leading the worship of the Lord here has spoken. And in verses 15 and 16, the congregation says, the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents 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. That is perhaps the congregation responding. The important thing as we read the psalm, though, is not the mechanism of the psalm. It's not who's saying what so much as it is what's being said. The voice of rejoicing in salvation is in the tents of the righteous. No matter who says that, that has a very important application to all of us, especially to those of us who have houses in which more than one person lives. The homes tonight that you'll go to where at least two of you live, this is extremely important, but it's also important for you singles too. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. What does that verse tell you about what should characterize a Christian home? your tent. It should be a place of rejoicing where our salvation is never forgotten, where the deliverances of the Lord are always noted, where the blessings of God are always given thanks for, where God's working in our lives is always perceived, where the Lord is King. Isn't that what home life should be like? Sure it should be. You don't want to have a Christian home where things are so tense or so dour or so gloomy that it's a relief to leave home and go to church. Because there's where the joy and the righteousness is and the rejoicing over God. And then you come home to your Christian family and the gloom and mist settles in again. You know there's something wrong with that home. You know? Life before the Lord should be a continual feast. And we should have much mention of the Lord in our homes. The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. If people lived with you, spent some time in your house, would they be able to tell that this is a home full of rejoicing Christians who are constantly giving God the glory and bringing him into conversation and mentioning what he's done? Or would they say, huh, the devil's got a foothold in this tent. Brothers and sisters, the voice of rejoicing and salvation should characterize the tents where the Lord's people live. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right hand of the Lord does valiantly. We should always remember these things and remember how much God has helped us. And what's the purpose, by the way, of remembering how much God has helped us? We've talked about this over and over in the Psalms. Why should we be constantly remembering that? It helps us trust in the future. It helps us trust in the future. Here I raise mine Ebenezer. Hitherto hath the Lord helped me. He will help me again. He's helped me in the past. He's brought us this far. As Amazing Grace says, there are many dangers, toils and snares. Not only I personally, but you as families have already come. His grace has brought you safe thus far, and grace will lead you home. So the great thing about remembering what God has done is that it leads you to put the trust in the Lord, to put the confidence in the Lord, to rejoice and remember again your salvation. That's the one that says, the wrath and the war does valiantly, and he says that over and over again. Yes. There's a big difference between, you know, saying that as just sort of a fake saying and actually being a witness to the Lord. I think we ought to be real witnesses of that kind of triumph. Why do you think we tend not to do? I don't know. I don't know. I know it's kind of a cultural imperative not to be too enthusiastic, you know. But I think that has part to do with it. We're just not supposed to act that way. But I think we ought to be able to be honest. Well, we should, and the point is we ought to see it because he is at work. So often we don't stop and think, now what might the Lord be doing in this situation? How can we see his hand in this situation? We need to see what has been good about his ordering of events. Haven't you seen situations just in your own life personally in your own family life and your life at work where he ordered events and they looked so bleak and you just thought why did that happen and then all of a sudden you were able to see the bright side you were able to see the plan of God you were able to say that if you hadn't been late for church you wouldn't have passed by that person who had the flat tire or whatever you've seen some good thing that the Lord is bringing out of this. And you realize that he works everything together for the good of those he loves. He's working all the time. He's working constantly. And we need to perhaps pray for more faith to be able to see that. I think too that we need to pray a little more boldly than we do. To pray for the Lord. take us through all kinds of situations. The New Testament says to pray without ceasing. Well, what does that mean? Well, obviously it doesn't mean we're making formal prayers constantly, but it has to mean that we're praying about virtually every situation. We're praying frequently throughout the day and really speaking to the Lord as if we were aware that He is with us constantly. These are things that if we put into practice an awareness of God, certainly reading the scripture and responding to him there and praying to him with greater frequency throughout the day rather than just at our stated prayer times, we'll not only be aware of him with us as he's promised to be, but we will be more aware spiritually. Our spiritual eyes will be opened to what he is doing. Well now we come to the last two verses we're going to look at tonight and they are wonderful verses indeed. I remember shortly after my mother passed away after many, many years of sickness, various kinds of sickness and just never quite being completely well for the last 15 or so years of her life. was looking through her Bible and saw Psalm 118, and she had marked 17 and 18, had highlighted them. I shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. What do those verses say to you? Because you are going to die. So do you have an issue with the first four words? I shall not die. That's not true. You shall. What do you mean by spiritual? OK. Yeah. The Lord Jesus said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead yet, shall he live. And him that lives and believes in me shall never die." And he asked Mary, do you believe this? With her brother in the tomb. Do you believe this? You see, this is talking about, first of all, you as a human being that will never be annihilated. You will never be destroyed. Your being will never end. Yes, you will die physically, but you will continue to live. What is your mission during that time? To declare the works of the Lord. To declare the works of the Lord. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. Furthermore, if you want to narrow it down, What I'm just giving you is a wider application of it. If you want to narrow it down, what David or the leader of this liturgy was saying was this. It looks like I'm not going to die after all. I've dodged an arrow. I've dodged a spear. Or as we would say, I dodged a bullet. I'm not going to die. or I had this terrible sickness and I thought I was going to die, and praise God, it looks like I'm not going to die. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death." So, on the basic fundamental level, this is a little sigh of relief. It's someone who suffered much, he thought he was going to die, now he's turned the corner, And the battle's over and he says, I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely but he has not given me over to death. So that's the minimal level that it's talking about. But spiritually it's talking about you as an immortal person that is never going to die regardless of what happens to your body. And so in this life You're not only going to be declaring the works of the Lord, but you're going to have real bad trouble. Jesus said in this world you'll have tribulation. So, Christians have adverse things that happen to them. And Christians get cancer. And Christians die in car wrecks. And Christians have all kinds of great sorrows and setbacks. What are we supposed to make of those sorrows and setbacks? Are they punishments for our sins? No, they're not punishments for our sins. Jesus has paid the price for our sins. What happens to us is that sometimes the Lord chastens us. He allows us to go through something. And is that always bad? No. Sometimes it's a good thing. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, said the psalmist. But now, if I kept thy word, Sure. Haven't you become stronger in your faith sometimes because you were going through great difficulty? Hasn't your sickness or hasn't the adversity turned you to the Lord in desperation? And in that sense, it has been a good thing? Who does the Lord chasten anyway? Oh, those whom he loves. Yes. Hebrews 12 is the great chapter on this. He chastens those whom he loves. And as a matter of fact, it says, that if you're a child of his, you can expect it. He chastens those whom he loves. He scourges every son whom he receives. But this is not necessarily a punishment for sin. Read the book of Job. This is not a punishment for sin, and furthermore, it certainly doesn't mean loss of salvation or anything like that. It simply means that the Lord has a plan for you and you are always in his hands even when adversity comes. And as far as you're dying, only your body will die and eventually you will be rejoined with it. And while you live, which is forever, what's your job description? I will declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Those of you who know of one of the earliest English reformers, John Wycliffe, will enjoy the story of how he was visited on his deathbed, not by his friends, but by the friars that he had preached against. He was sick. And a group of friars learned that their old enemy was finally dying. So they came to his bedside. And they thought that he would surely repent for his anti-Catholic teaching and all of his heresies. So they gathered around his bedside. There were four major orders of friars who came. And they started by wishing him health and being very large of heart to their enemy. And then they began to urge him to confess his sins and repent of his sins, since he would soon have to account of himself to God. So Wycliffe waited until the last friar had ended his last appeal, and there was silence. And then Wycliffe asked his servant to raise him up a little bit. He looked at them and he said in a commanding voice, I shall not die but live and proclaim the evil deeds of the friars. He kept right on, declaring the works of the Lord, good, bad for the Lord's enemies, soothing and comforting, and also challenging and convicting. But verses 17 and 18 remind us of the biblical truth that until the Lord gets ready to take you, you cannot be killed and even if he takes you, you will not die because Jesus said, him who believes in me will never die. I shall not die but live and declare the works of the Lord. The Lord has chastened me severely and we don't always know why, we just simply know from Hebrews chapter 12 that chastening is for our benefit that we might be partakers of his holiness. He does it for our good. He's no sadistic father doing it out of cruelty or for enjoyment or just because he thinks, oh, we need a little chastening today. He's not that way at all. He does it to make us more like Jesus, to humble us more. Barbara and I were talking today a little bit about sins of the saints. And of course we don't talk about sins of the saints without thinking of sins in ourselves. But we both agreed that what we like to see in sins of the saints, including ourselves, is our attitude after we sin. Isn't that the most important thing? Yes, you all sin. The question is, what's your attitude after Are you deeply convicted by the Holy Spirit, and do you repent, and do you cry out to God for forgiveness, indicating that the life of the Spirit is in you? That's what's important. You know, we certainly remember the sin of David with Bathsheba, and in the death of her husband Uriah. But what good came out of that in the writing of Psalm 51 for us all? expression of sorrow and repentance is what we remember more about David. So that when we think about David and that sin, it's not like when we think of other saints, other ministers and their sins, ministers who sinned and were absolutely brazen about it and heart of heart about it and never repented of it and justified it. We don't think the same way about David, do we? We think, here was a man who was crushed and humiliated by God, and who prayed for God to create in him a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within him. There was David being chastened by the Lord. He was chastened by the Lord, and there, there was a specific sin involved. But sometimes, there is no specific sin. The question is always, how do we respond? to every situation. How do we respond when we sin? How do we respond when the doctor gives us the bad report? How do we respond when we find out that we owe more income tax money than we thought anybody could ever owe? What do we do when we find out to our sorrow that something has happened? What's our response as Christians to continue on and declare the works of the Lord? to go back to his word and say what's God's perspective on this. To rejoice in the Lord always and to know always that even though you may be going through trouble that brings great pain, God is for you. God is for us. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Amen.