I invite you to turn in your Bibles now to Psalm 18. Psalm selection 18. And as we turn there, I'll remind you that we're continuing and resuming our summer series in the Psalms. We're picking up here at Psalm 18. And if you didn't hear last week's sermon on the introduction to Psalm 18 and really a reintroduction to the Psalter, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to that. And we want to consider, how are the Psalms for us? And in that sermon last week, we saw that the Psalms are for us in Christ. That the Psalms are of Christ. They are of Him, and that they are His Word, and they are of Him, and that they are about Him. They anticipate Him, and they are fulfilled in Him. And we saw last week that we love the Lord, who is our strength, because Christ loved the Lord, because the Lord was Christ's strength. in our place as our mediator, as he stood in our place on the cross and was raised again. And so we are able to love because God first loved us. As we turn here, we're gonna be looking at verses two through 19 as our main focus this morning, and then Lord willing, this evening we'll pick up with verse 20 for our evening sermon. Please give your attention to the reading of God's Holy Word, Psalm 18. I'm going to start at the beginning there, but then we'll stop at verse 19 as our focus for this morning. Psalm 18, to the choir master. A psalm of David, the servant of the Lord, who addressed the words of this psalm to the Lord on the day when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all of his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said, I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from all my enemies. And the cords of death encompassed me. The torrents of destruction assailed me. The cords of Sheol entangled me. The snares of death confronted me. And in my distress I called upon the Lord. To my God I cried for help, and from His temple He heard my voice, and my cry to Him reached His ears. And then the earth reeled and rocked. The foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked because he was angry. Smoke went up from his nostrils and devouring fire from his mouth. Glowing coals flamed forth from him. He bowed to the heavens and came down. Thick darkness was under his feet. He rode on a cherub and He flew. He came swiftly on the wings of the wind. He made darkness His covering, His canopy around Him, thick clouds dark with water. And out of the brightness before Him, hailstones and coals of fire broke through His clouds. And the Lord also thundered in the heavens. And the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire. and he sent out his arrows and he scattered them. He flashed forth lightnings and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils. And he sent from on high, and he took me, and he drew me out of many waters. He rescued me for my strong enemy, and for those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. And they confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support." He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me because He delighted in me. And thus ends the reading of God's Holy Word. May He bless it. To our hearing this morning, please join me in prayer to that end. Father in Heaven, we ask that You would bless us now as we come before Your Word. We ask that You would guard our time together here, that we would be focused on You. that our hearts would be inclined towards you, that we would be devoted to you and out of love for you and a desire to know you and to honor you, that we would seek your will for our lives as we see instruction for us in your Word, as we see this depiction of your saving power, May we, your people who know that salvation, be stirred up with thanksgiving and praise and with hope. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. The psalms of David are directed back to things we considered last week in that subscript, that little section before verse 1, and it roots these things as words of praise in light of very earthly circumstances that David experienced. His life was in trouble. He was in danger. He was suffering. He was going through hard times, but the Lord delivered him. And in response to that deliverance from the hand of Saul and from all of his enemies, David addresses these words to God, inspired by the Holy Spirit. And we too know suffering and danger. We too are weak and needy. And we too know deliverance. As we consider our own lives, we consider the state of our own lives. Maybe you ask yourself, maybe you ought to ask yourself, how can we possibly survive? How can we survive in this broken life? This broken world where there's so much injustice, there's so much wrong and selfishness and wickedness. How can we survive? And not just survive, but how can we thrive? How can we be doing well in the midst of things that are so broken? How is that possible? Well, our world comes up with a number of answers to that question of how you can thrive in this life. We may offer man's ingenuity or fortitude, human will and resolve and effort. Maybe some will turn to nature and finding solace in the creative things in this world. Or maybe by chance. It's all just up to chance. If you listen to interviews of people who have found some sort of success in a certain field, they'll often credit good luck to their success. How did you get where you're at today? Well, it was by a little bit of hard work and a lot of good luck. And you'll hear people say that kind of thing. Or maybe you'll hear or witness the depressing answer that you can't survive. You can't really make it. something eventually will get you. You certainly can't thrive, so you might as well just make the best of it while you can. Live for the moment. And I think this is where many in our world land on that question. What do you believe this morning? What do you think? Do you believe? that you can survive, and more just survive, but be brought to a broad place. That's scriptural language for you're no longer standing teetering on the edge of a cliff, danger honing in on either side, but you're brought to this broad place where you're thriving and established and secure and satisfied. How is that possible? And as you consider that question, you're probably all thinking of the Sunday School answer, well, Jesus makes that possible. But I want you to really examine your heart this morning. Do you believe that? Is that the answer that you're relying on today? Do you believe that you can survive? that you can thrive in this world despite your own sin and the sin of those around you and the hard circumstances in this life and the suffering and the wickedness, do you still have hope? And what is the basis for that hope? Psalm 18, this amazing psalm, is the third longest psalm in the Psalter, full of energy and drama. Psalm 18 provides the answer to that question. And the blessing of this answer given here is that it is full of a richness and a depth with strong foundations. It has provided a proved and certain answer. David testifies here to a saved and thriving life But even more than that, in God's sovereignty, David's life and David's words point forward and find their fulfillment in the Great Messiah, the Great Anointed One, the Great King, in the life of Jesus. fulfillment in Christ gives that answer solid foundations. It is a certain hope. We don't just look back and say, well, that was really nice for David. I hope it kind of happens to me. When we look back to David and we look ahead to Christ, and in looking to Christ, we can say with certainty, it is for us, this answer. God saves. Isn't that reassuring? That 900 years after these words were written by David in God's perfect timing, they find their fulfillment and their complete expression and their most fittingness in the experience of Christ in His earthly ministry, and particularly in His death and His resurrection. And then, amazingly, through Christ, they are offered to us today. that God would be our rock, and our strength, and our salvation. So our main point this morning is that we would praise the Lord, our rock, and our salvation. Praise the Lord, our rock, and our salvation. The first thing we see is that God is our ultimate rest and peace and hope and deliverance. As we open this psalm in verse 2, there's these repeated images of how God is our strength, how God has saved, how God has delivered, all of this poetic imagery, a rock, a fortress, a horn of salvation, a shield, all of these word pictures given here. And we find deliverance and safety in a rock as a repeated theme in Scripture. Deliverance and safety in a rock. And we sang of it in Psalm 62, and we can see it throughout God's Word. What does it mean that the Lord is David's rock? What's the significance of that? Is it mere poetic imagery? Or is there some deep meaning within that? We see over and over again, David on the run, and then he finds shelter in the rock, in caves, in strongholds, in these geographic features that allow him to escape. Evelyn has visited Israel, and maybe some of you have been to Israel, and you've seen some of the caves and the rocks in that area that David likely hid in. And you can ask her about what those look like. Apparently some really good hiding spots. Places that are strong fortifications, strong defenses that even provide springs and water and safety. And so David knows what it means to find a safe place to hide and escape from his enemies. Why does he say that the Lord is his rock? We read in 1 Samuel there, a rock was his rock. He escaped from Saul from a rock. He found this rock of escape. He was able to get away. Why is the Lord his rock? Well, David is showing us that even though he found escape in a rock, the rock is not his Lord. The rock is not his Lord. He has not made a rock his God. He has not looked to a rock as his deliverance and as his safety. The Lord is his rock, but a rock is not his Lord. As you read through those narratives, the main theme, the main emphasis over and over again is that it is God who is saving and delivering David. It's not the rock. It's not the caves. It's not David's own cleverness or strength. It's not David's mighty men. He gathers these men around him. It's God. We see that in 1 Samuel 22, verse 3, David said to the king of Moab, as he was hiding in the strongholds, he said, Please let my father and mother stay with you, till I know what God will do for me. Till I know what God will do for me. 1 Samuel 23, verse 14, David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day. did not give him into his hand. The rocks and the strongholds, the refuge, these real places where David really found safety, they all just pointed to the one who provided these escapes, his true refuge, the Lord. And in the same way, God provides for us But we never want to confuse the provision for the provider or the gift for the giver. David knew that those caves and rocks and strongholds, as helpful as they were, that they could fail him. That it was all up to God. I don't know yet what God is going to do to me. I don't know yet if God is going to deliver me. God has delivered me here. I don't know what's coming next. And we knew that those caves could fail him. Saul could overcome those fortresses in the ground, but Saul could not overcome God. David's victory was ultimately due to God. And so we, too, need to find our ultimate rest and peace and hope in God. And not in better circumstances. God may hear your prayers. He often, in His mercy and grace and kindness, makes our lives better. And He helps us in times of need. But when He does that, we do not want to confuse the better circumstance The gift for the giver. The gift is meant to point us to the giver. Imagine you are struggling financially and the bills are piling up. You're struggling to even have enough money for groceries or for rent and then someone decides to help you out. They decide to give you some money or to pay for your bills for that month. Now, how foolish and ridiculous would it be if you were to thank the gift instead of the giver? Oh, thank you, money, for buying me groceries this week. Thank you, stack of cash, for paying my bills. Money, you are my strength. I love you, money, my deliverer, my stronghold. It's ridiculous, but essentially we do this all the time. We treat the gifts and the provisions as the Lord. As soon as our life improves, we become satisfied in that improvement, rather than directing our satisfaction to be in God. So this psalm is directing us, don't make any mistake. God is gracious and merciful. He gives us many good gifts. But those gifts are not your salvation. The Lord is the true provision and the true deliverer. Look from the gift to the giver. That rock of escape is not ultimately David's rock. The Lord is his rock. Your comforts in this life are not ultimately your comfort. You're at your house, and your kids, and your health, and your work, and your family, and your friends, all of these good gifts and blessings, but they are not ultimates. The Lord is your comfort. Your life is not your life. The Lord is your life. how easily we look to the gifts and forget the Giver, how easily we rob Him of His glory, even when it comes to salvation. Your salvation is not your salvation. The Lord is your salvation. Heaven doesn't save you. The Lord saves you. It's all Him. We have nothing apart from Him. All the good that we have in this life is from Him. And consider all of the ways that God is our refuge and our deliverance. Consider all of His provision for us. He does give us earthly deliverance, and we don't want to diminish that at all. The fact that you're sitting here this morning attests to that God has preserved your life in major ways, and in ways you would never know about, and in ways you can reflect on. He's given you safety. He's given you victory over enemies. He's taken care of your earthly needs. Now, He doesn't always give us everything that we want, but everything that we have is from Him. And He gives us everything that we need. But He also provides for us and gives a refuge in this eternal way, in eternal deliverance. So not just earthly deliverance, but eternal deliverance. And we see that hinted at in the psalm itself with all of this language, and we're going to consider that dramatic language in a moment, how it's pointing to more than just David's earthly experience. But even in the subscripts here, it says, The Lord delivered David from the hand of all of his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. All of his enemies there includes David's eternal salvation. I've tried to draw this out before, and it's worth revisiting, but God is ultimately our refuge. He provides the ultimate refuge for us in Christ as a refuge from God Himself. We see that all throughout scripture. You can see it in the Passover narrative, that it was the blood of the Lamb that protected the Israelites from the wrath of God. God's provision protects God's people from God Himself. God provides that ultimate refuge in Christ, for apart from God's grace, we are God's enemy. And there is nothing more powerful and more certain and more dangerous for sinners than the judge of all creation punishing sin. There is nothing more certain. There is no greater threat than guilty sinners being judged by a holy God. What is your shield against the Almighty God? What shields you from the punishment that you deserve due to your sin? Well, that God would be the just and the justifier. He himself has provided a shield and a refuge and a rock for his people. And the refuge and the rock that he has provided is himself. He has provided himself as a shield from his own judgment. He is providing Himself that when He justly pours out His wrath on our sin, we find safety in Christ, our rock. Christ is the rock of salvation. This evening, Lord willing, we're going to consider these doctrines of justification and sanctification, and that doctrine of justification is, is that truth that Christ's righteousness is a shield for us? and that Christ's sacrifice is a shield for us. That the righteousness of Christ would be declared as ours and that the punishment that we deserve would be placed on Christ on the cross. The Lord is your rock. The Lord is your salvation. There is no other. There is no other God. There is nothing in you. There is nothing in this world. There is nothing else that can save. How can you survive and thrive in this world? How can you survive and thrive in the face of a holy God when you are a sinner? It is only in Christ. Nothing else can deliver you in this life or in the life to come. For who is God but the Lord? V. 31 of Psalm 18. For who is God but the Lord? And who is a rock except our God? We see this imagery proven throughout scripture. The first place that we see this word for rock here in 18.2 is in Numbers 20 verse 8, and that's the account of when the Israelites are in the wilderness and they're thirsty, And so God directs them together around this rock, and Moses here is meant to only speak to the rock. He's already struck the rock back in Exodus. And so here he's meant to speak to the rock, and the rock gushes forth with water. The Israelites, thirsty, needing water to survive, and God provides water from the rock. And then God tells us in 1 Corinthians 10.4 that this earthly provision was a picture of eternal provision. In 1 Corinthians 10.4 we're told Christ was that rock. And so we can even say it's more than a picture. Even there in the desert, the work of Christ was being done for the care of His people. The Rock was Christ. And God's steadfast and covenant love expressed in provision for God's people, that is the work of Christ. Christ is always the source of deliverance for God's people. And Christ provides living water for His people. And apart from that water, we are dead. The Lord is my rock and deliverer. Another image that we see that points forward to Christ, He is our rock, but He is also the horn of our salvation. That image, the word picture there, it's taken from the animal kingdom, and you can imagine animals with horns, with antlers. And you can think of those different animals, and I think, you know, a picture of a mighty with a big rack of antlers. And the strength that that symbolizes. And the Bible picks up that language. It often uses a horn, the imagery of that horn, as signifying power and even kingly rule and governance. And so, God is the horn of my salvation. Now imagine a buck without horns. Imagine a buck with no antlers, this mighty beast of the forest, but with no weapon. And he would be ostracized from the herd. He would have no way to establish his dominance. He would have no way to defend himself. He would have no victory over challengers. He would be needy. And that's what we are like. Like a buck without a horn. helpless, weak, and needy. But God is the horn of our salvation. He is able. He is our victory. And again, we see in Scripture that this is pointing to Christ. In Luke 1, verse 67, we're told that Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he prophesied, and he said, God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in this house of his servant David. Notice what the New Testament adds there, as Zechariah, by the Holy Spirit, is referencing Psalm 18. The New Testament adds, it is salvation for us. In Psalm 18, these are the words of David. The God is a horn of David's salvation. And we want to recognize that these are the words of Christ, that Christ can say that God is the horn of His salvation. And in the New Testament, the horn of David's salvation, or the horn of the King's salvation, becomes a horn of salvation for us. That's what Zechariah says, the horn of salvation for us. The horn of David's salvation. becomes a horn of salvation for us. The God of Psalm 18 is a horn of salvation for His Messiah, His Anointed. And in saving His Anointed, He saves us. He saves His people. Through the Messiah's salvation comes salvation for God's people. We cannot be saved by relying on ourselves. but only by placing our faith in God, calling out to Him. That's what we see in verse 3. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. I call out and I'm saved. That's salvation. The Messiah calls out for salvation and is saved. Now, remember, we want to approach these Psalms, we want to understand them first as the words of David, and then as the words of Christ, and then only in being the words of Christ, we can understand how they are for us. So how is it that Christ would say, I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies? How is Christ saved? Maybe that strikes you as somewhat strange, that Jesus would be saved. Did Jesus have any need of being saved? And I want to focus on that. I want to see Christ here in the Psalms so that we would understand the fullest meaning here. We want to see that the fullest meaning in the Psalms is found in seeing these words as giving expression to Christ and His experience on earth as Messiah. So when we come to the Psalms, we need to keep Christ and His work in focus. You can picture a camera lens, and as you're looking through that lens at the psalm, you can see David in the foreground. And he's there, and it's a little more clear, but then you can adjust the lens, and the foreground becomes more blurry, and then there in crisp focus is Christ. And it's only then in placing Christ in the focus that we can see beyond Christ to us, how we'll fit into this psalm. We could just jump straight to us in the psalm, and I think sometimes we're tempted to do that when we come to the psalms. I just need a quick, kind of sentimental idea of comfort. And so I'm just gonna quickly look here, and we could do that, we could jump straight to us, how these words have meaning for us, and it's not hard to see that. It's true that there is death and enemies and troubles in this life that threaten us. It's true that we know the threat and the shadow of death, this idea of these cords of death encompassing us. And the psalm doesn't diminish that at all, that we do have those experiences. We know misery, and war, and strife, and sickness, and suffering. And we know what it is to be overwhelmed by the brokenness in this life, to feel like we are being pulled down to the grave. We know death in our bodies because of sin. and God delivers us. This is all true. And even this amazing picture that we're about to meditate on here, this picture of God descending down, coming down in might and in power, even that picture is true for us. That God descends in anger at the threats against His people, against those who are His. Those who are threatening His, He descends down upon them and delivers. God truly finds us that precious. That we are worth that to Him, that He would display His might for us in that way. In God's eyes, each individual sheep, the salvation of each one of His children is worth that might and power and response, and He descends in darkness and smoke, causing creation itself to shake, to save us. But how is it that He does that ultimately? It's the how that stirs us up to praise and glorify God. How is it that He saves us out of the misery and death? Amazingly, it is in saving Christ. And I want us to see, this is how Scripture itself intends for us to understand these things. For in a shocking turn, it is not just the anointed King of Israel who experienced this kind of humiliation and suffering and persecution, but even more unimaginable, the Son of God was encompassed by cords of death. The snares of death confronted him. He went down to Sheol, down to the grave. He experienced the curse due to sin, the death and punishment. And how do we know that David was ultimately speaking about Jesus here? Well, the Holy Spirit tells us in Acts 2, verse 24. David was prophesying of Christ, and then it says, God raised Jesus up, loosing the pangs of death, or the cords of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it. This song finds its fulfillment in the resurrection of Christ. And this is what we see unfold in the psalm, that the Messiah dies, and then God descends and raises Him up. And because Christ is raised, all who are united with Christ by faith are raised with Him. Because Christ was saved, we are offered salvation in Him by faith, that His salvation would be our salvation. Christ called out in his distress. He cried out on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He cried out so that we can call out to God. And God hears our cry in Christ who is that true temple. Where does God hear the cry? Verse six, it's from the temple. God hears from the temple from Christ who is our Advocate, our Mediator, our Atonement, the Servant of the Lord, the Messiah for us. He saves us in Christ. God comes down. And that's what we see in verse 7-19. And again, just repeating this theme that God is our rock, that salvation is God's work, and that He is worthy of our praise. We have in these verses this awesome, literally awe-inspiring description of God's saving work, that God would condescend to save sinners. It's amazing enough in itself, but then this description And we see God is angry here, and you're almost reading it and could think that God is somehow angry with the psalmist, that the psalmist cries out and God gets angry and comes down. But what we see is He's coming down to avenge and to deliver. And in that, as we see anger and deliverance held together, we're pointed to the cross. We see how salvation holds together judgment and wrath and grace and deliverance. It's here in the Old Testament. It's here in Psalm 18. These descriptions of judgment against sin and evil result in deliverance for the psalmist. As God descends to earth with nothing possibly standing in His way, His mighty forces and power climax with His strong yet gracious hand reaching out, taking hold, lifting up, raising the psalmist to safety. Some early church fathers see this description of God's descent into darkness connected with Christ's veiled incarnation and humiliation, Christ coming down to earth, And I think we can understand why maybe they would make that jump. When we consider God descending, we should consider the Incarnation. But it's a little bit of a stretch to go straight there. It's not clearly indicated in the psalm that that's what we're meant to think. But the clearer picture is the Almighty Covenant God coming down to rescue His Anointed One. And where does that find its fullest expression but in the resurrection? And now, when we consider that, we're not going to go too in-depth here, but when we think about Christology, we remember that Christ is one person, two natures, fully God and fully man. And according to His human nature, He was too weak. He could not survive what He was undercoming, what He had taken on. According to His human nature, He died. And according to His human nature, the wrath of God would have crushed Him. But because He is fully God, and fully man, He withstood the wrath of God. And the New Testament speaks in this way. It speaks of God, and you can think of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, raising Christ from the dead. Well, it speaks of the Spirit, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is in us. It speaks of Christ defeating death and raising Himself from the dead. And that is according to His divine nature. And so we see God descending here, and we can think of the triune God descending to raise up the person of Christ, fully God and fully man, that we would be saved. as we consider the person and the work of Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, in one undivided person, fully God and fully man. So that as Christopher Ashe says in his commentary, in some extraordinary way we see in him both God coming down to save and the flawless human Messiah who is saved in resurrection and thereby saves us. And isn't Christ's death and resurrection so clearly in view here? These pictures, we can know how this is pointing forward to something more ultimate because this description, it describes real, the language comes from real events in the Old Testament. We can think of the Israelites crossing the Red Sea as God parted the waters. And there was a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud and there was smoke and darkness and the waters parted, the channels were exposed, the foundations of the earth were laid bare. All that language comes from there. We can think of Mount Sinai when the earth shook and the glory of God was manifestly present. But we don't see any of that descriptive language used in David's life. When did David experience this kind of salvation from Saul? It wasn't as if on that rock of escape as they're running around the mountain and Saul's coming this way and David's going this way, that suddenly there was fire and cloud and smoke and earthquakes. We don't see that. So why does David employ this kind of language? Well, what he's doing is he's showing that when salvation is being described and the work of God is being described in scriptures, it is building and pointing forward to an ultimate salvation. an ultimate salvation that can be applied to every individual person that has come to find salvation in God, including David. And so David can apply this language to himself, and we can apply this language to ourselves because of that ultimate salvation that it points forward to. And what is that salvific language pointing forward to? Where do we see these kinds of events happening but in Christ? Christ experienced the fullness of Psalm 18. The Son of God knew what it was to be captured by death and then delivered by God's majestic might. And we see it in the Gospel accounts. In Luke, from the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His Spirit. And later, the Son's light failed. and the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened." With a remark, when the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe. And they said, truly, this was the Son of God. Psalm 18 is a prophecy of the experience of the Son of God in His death. That's where we see the salvific language finding its fulfillment. But not only in His death. In verse 16-20, don't we see the resurrection so clearly? Christ can say that in His resurrection that God took Him in that mighty hand and drew Him up out of the grave, out of Sheol. Jesus was raised from the dead victorious over sin and death and misery. In this evening we'll meditate on the fact that Christ was righteous. And this psalm clearly makes the basis of resurrection in the righteousness of the Messiah. And that will be our meditation for this evening. Jesus was raised up from the dead because the Lord delighted in Him. He was blameless and righteous. As we conclude, we're going to continue to think more about this song, but I want to jump ahead to verse 50. Great salvation he brings to his king. He shows steadfast love to his anointed, to David and to his offspring forever. Who is the offspring of David? who ultimately is that promised seed of the Roman that would crush the head of the serpent, the great prophet, priest, and king, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of David, Son of Man, Son of God, the Christ. And in King Jesus, because of what Jesus did, because He allowed Himself to be in a position where He needed to be saved, by faith in Him, by His work offered to us, great salvation He brings to His kingdom. Because great salvation was brought to the King, great salvation He brings to His kingdom. When we who are spiritually dead in our sin, once enemies of God, guilty before the just judge of all creation, dead in our bodies due to sin, born under the curse, broken and weak and needy, when we, by the Spirit's power, are given breath to cry out to God. And when we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that same majestic and mighty Savior God comes with power and glory and descends into the brokenness of this world, takes you in His gracious, mighty hand, and raises you up where you are secure. And nothing can separate you. from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Applying Christ to us, that the salvation of Christ would be ours. Do you know the salvation this morning? Is that your hope? Is that your answer to how you can survive the brokenness in this world and not just survive, but thrive? If you do not know that salvation, it is not too late. Today is the day of salvation. There is nothing you need to do to prepare to make yourself worthy. There is no other rock. Cry out to the God who is there that you may be saved. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. If you do know the salvation in Christ our Rock, then may your heart be stirred this morning to hope. May you be stirred up with adoration and thanksgiving and praise for the mighty work of God done for you, knowing that if God does this in His might, He does not fail, and you have hope. Whatever earthly difficulties you're experiencing, whatever enemies you're being delivered from, whatever threatens your life, the mighty God of all creation is your rock in your deliverance. This is reason for hope. And the psalm ends calling us to proclaim this good news to a world that needs to hear it, to sing praises with Christ the King among the nations that God saves. May we praise God and may we live in that hope, rousing in Him and seeking in Him and growing in Him, strengthening Him who is our strength. thriving in this life no matter what it brings because our resurrection and our deliverance is certain in Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this beautiful song, a song that you invite us to take on our own lips to describe our experience and we know that we can only know what this song speaks of in Christ. We each person here Know Christ. May we love Jesus. May we believe that He was raised from the dead, that we may be saved. And may that give us a real, certain, strong hope that goes with us from here, that we may have strength for tomorrow. That we may have strength for whatever this life would bring. that we would glorify you and sing your praises among the nations. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.