Psalm 75 "God's Cup of Judgement"

[0:00] Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah. It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah, either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?

[0:32] The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian, we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things that you're really struggling with. So God bless.

[1:07] Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, you say things to us that go against our grain, and you say things to us that go against the grain of our culture. But we know, Father, that even though we might be reluctant to think about it, that these are words that are true, words that we desperately need, words that are good for us to hear and learn and mark and inwardly digest and live out of.

[1:43] So we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would do a gentle but powerful work in our lives this morning, and that in light of the gospel of Christ, that your word would come deeply into our hearts, and that it would form us. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, your Son, and our Savior.

[2:00] Amen. Please be seated. It's good to be back after four weeks of holidays. I'm looking forward to listening to Steve's sermons.

[2:14] I've heard he did a really, really excellent job. So this week, I actually just started my first day of work back officially on Friday, but every day, it was sort of how I work it to try to get most of my holidays in. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, every day, I went in and did a bit of sermon work in preparation. And I think it was on either the first or the second day, I bumped into somebody that's a friend of mine that I haven't seen for quite a while. And he launched into this long diatribe rant about, I guess what provoked it is he had, for the very first time in a couple of years, driven down King Edward Avenue, and just saw what you see when you drive down King Edward Avenue nowadays, right by Ottawa Little Theatre in St. Albans and the Shepherds. He'd been a volunteer at the Shepherds for quite a few years. And it just launched him onto this rant about how things in our country are just falling apart. And, you know, I'm listening to him, I had been starting to study, obviously, Psalm 75. And I know that actually, Psalm 75 spoke to his rant. And I didn't know what to say,

[3:27] I just listened. And afterwards, I was thinking, you know, sometimes, when we're dealing with people, it's not about what we say, but about the fact that we listen. That's maybe all that I had to do that time. It wouldn't have been very helpful if I'd actually said, oh, you know, actually, Psalm 75 speaks to that concern. But Psalm 75 actually does really speak to that concern. And in an age where it's easily to be outraged, which is part of what our age is, it's an increasingly an age of outrage, and an age where many people, for contradictory reasons on opposite ends of the political spectrum, think that things are falling apart. The message of Psalm 75 is an important one for us to hear. And so I invite you to turn in your Bibles with me to Psalm 75. And we're going to look at it. We took a break from going to the Psalms with Steve doing his sermon series on the difference between real Christianity and progressive Christianity. And now we're back to the Psalms for a couple of weeks. And then we're going to go back into the book of Acts. So it's Psalm 75. And let's look and see what it is that it speaks to in an age of outrage. And here's how it goes. Actually, it's...

[4:38] Anyway, let's get... Let's go into... It begins with the postscript, which I don't think is up on the screen, which I'll have to remember to keep putting up there because the postscript isn't something which is added. It's not added by the editors. It's actually part of the Bible. And it says to the choir master, according to, do not destroy. In other words, that's the tune. This was originally meant to be sung in Hebrew. And it had a... It would have had a tune, do not destroy. And it's a Psalm of Asaph, a song. And Asaph, we would call him the Jono of King David's time, or the Deborah of King David's time, the sort of the worship leader, the song leader. And this is something that he wrote.

[5:21] And here's how it goes. Verse one. We give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. Now, just sort of pause. First of all, when it says your name is near, that's sort of an odd way of speaking. It's sort of like a figure of speech. And it means that God's name being near means it's near their lips. It's almost as if, you know, if... I know they're very old-fashioned, but, you know, some people, they still use business cards, you know. And if I was to give somebody my business card, and on the back of it, I was to write my private mobile number, and in a sense, I'm giving them not only my name, but I'm giving them the permission to give me a call, to be in contact with me.

[6:09] It's my private thing. And so this is the same type of image with name. It's God saying, this is me. I'm close to you. I want to speak to you. You can speak to me. And at the same time, it reveals a little bit of his character and his person. So it begins, we give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks, for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. And it's actually really important to notice, because there's very important psychological advice in this one little verse.

[6:36] It doesn't tell me to be thankful. And that's good, because frankly, I don't always feel thankful. And as we all know, telling somebody to feel something, that always works, right? No, never works. You know, you should feel this. I don't feel that. You know, you wake up, you feel crappy.

[6:55] And so it's not saying you should feel thankful. What it's telling you to do is something that you can do, even if you feel crappy, which is to give thanks, to recount the wonderful things that God has done.

[7:08] And if you think about it for a second, that's actually one of the main aspects of a church service, is in a church service, we give thanks, and we remember the things that God has done. We're going to be celebrating the Lord's Supper a little bit. And we remember what Jesus said. And that's an important part of the church service. So on one level, this all begins very, very simple and uncontroversial. And actually, to tell you the truth, you know, probably one of the things that we need to curb the outrage that we might feel at different times, you know, you get something in Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or Twitter or X, I guess they call it now, and just fuels your outrage.

[7:54] Maybe one of the things we need at that point in time is just to pause and give some thanks, to try to dial down some of the outrage which the world wants to form within us. But it goes from this to talking about something which is profoundly controversial in Canada.

[8:10] And I'm very Canadian. One of the Sundays that we were on holidays, we were at a church.

[8:21] And, you know, it was in many ways, it was a very, very Canadian sermon. It was really a sermon on the power of positive thinking. And the thing about that sermon was at the end of that sermon, like, nobody gets convicted of sin. They don't say anything that goes against the grain politically or culturally or anything like that. It's just a, you know, do this, feel good type of sermon. And part of me wishes that I would just do feel good, you know, those types of sermons. But it's going to talk about something now which is a bit, a couple of things which are actually quite controversial and go against the grain of our culture. But this is what God speaks to us and we really need to hear it.

[9:06] And so I don't pick texts like this. In fact, towards the end of the sermon, you'll see why I picked this psalm to read today. I picked it because it helps us to understand Jesus and see how wonderful he is, actually, and what he's actually done for us. But to get there, we need to look at some things which are a bit controversial. So what happens? Verses two to five, the way this psalm is set up is Asaph says something, and then God says something. That's verses two to five. And then verses six to nine, Asaph says something. And then verse 10, the last verse is God having the final word. So what is it that God says? Look at verse two. I'm going to read two to five and then we'll circle back and look at it.

[9:52] At the set time that I appoint, I will judge with equity. When the earth totters and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars, say la. I say to the boastful, do not boast. And to the wicked, do not lift up your horn. Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with haughty neck.

[10:18] Now here's the first thing. Verse two, if you go back to it. At the set time that I appoint, I will judge with equity. Now here's a problem with this Bible translation. I checked it at the eight o'clock service. This Bible translation is from 2002. Actually 2001. It's from 2001. And so what's happened is that word equity isn't the right word for today because equity doesn't mean now what it meant in 2001. In fact, what the Bible talks about is the opposite of what Canadians mean by equity today.

[10:52] So if you go to any of the DEI statements at the University of Ottawa, McGill, University of Toronto, they'll tell you that they're practicing diversity, equity, and inclusion. And you'll define what equity means. And what they mean by equity is the opposite of what the psalm means by equity. What they mean by equity is basically equity of results. So basically what they're saying is we're going to treat people differently. We're going to treat them by different standards. We're going to give them different number of resources or withhold resources to get the results that we desire. And that's what people mean by equity today.

[11:30] That is not what the text means by equity. What the text means by equity is that God is actually the complete opposite, that God treats everybody the same. Doesn't have any favorites. Doesn't give anybody a pass and not a pass to other people. He doesn't treat Jews one way by one standard and Amorites or Philistines or Canadians or something like that in a different manner. He treats everybody exactly the same by the same standards.

[11:59] And that's what it's saying. So it's saying we give thanks to you, O God. We give you, sorry, at the set time that I appoint, I will judge with equity. He's going to judge everybody by the same standard. There's not going to be any differential treatment in terms of the standards by which he judges. And note that there's this claim that when he says it's going to happen, he will judge every human being and nobody can escape it.

[12:30] One of Canada's most favorite topics. I don't want to make fun of it. It's, in fact, the whole psalm is going to return to this, the fact that God judges, God judges, God judges, God will judge, and it's inescapable. This summer, one of the things that we did on our holidays is we went to Camp Iowa. And I don't know how many of you have been to Camp Iowa. It's a really nice camp. But if you go to Camp Iowa, Camp Iowa is sort of near Westport.

[12:57] In fact, if you're going there from Ottawa, you go through Westport to get to Camp Iowa. And about, I don't know, half a kilometer, three quarters of a kilometer before you leave the paved road to go into unpaved roads to get to the camp. You know, there's one of those road signs that has a sharp arrow and says you have to slow down. And in fact, in this one, it says 20. And in this, so, okay, I'm a fast driver. A lot of those arrow things, you know, you have to take the sharp turn. I know they're not that sharp for me. I probably go a little bit over what they recommend. That may be sometimes way over what they recommend. But this time, when it says slow down to 20, you really need to slow down to 20. Because you're going straight, and all of a sudden, you do a tight, basically a tight U-turn.

[13:43] You're going like this, and you go almost immediately to a sharp U-turn, and then almost to another complete U-turn the opposite direction. And if you don't slow down to 20, or maybe even less, you're going to get into trouble. And the fact is that if the people who live there, the province of Ontario, the city, if they didn't put up a guardrail and that type of sign, they wouldn't be very loving to us, because I would go right into the river. And so would you. Like, you need that sign to warn you that you've got to really slow down. In fact, in this case, you've got to do a U-turn.

[14:16] And so that's how we have to understand when God says things like this about his judgment. He doesn't just, I mean, it's really one of two things. If this is not true, then the text is cruel.

[14:30] It's cruel to tell people of something that's going to happen that's bad if it's never going to happen. It would be cruel, you know? But on the other hand, if it's actually going to happen, it's the most loving thing in the world you can do to warn people, you need to do a U-turn because God is actually going to judge. And he's not going to say, he's not going to give you a pass because you're a Canadian. He's not going to give you a pass because you sat in a church service. He's not going to give you a pass because you think you're a good person. He's going to judge you by these standards. And as you're going to see, it means that unless, well, we'll see what the rest of the psalm says.

[15:07] But it's a very, very stark warning that he's going to judge. But here's the other thing about it. Look at verse 3. When the earth totters and all its inhabitants, it is I who keep steady its pillars. Now, here's part of the thing that I could have said to my friend. It's part of the Christian hope. Christians should be realists. Like, we should be able to look at what goes on in King Edward.

[15:37] And many of the things that are going on in the city, that there are, in fact, lots of things in this city that are broken or that seem to be falling apart. And we should be realistic about that. We shouldn't be seeing the world through rose-colored glasses. But at the same time, for we as Christians, there should be at least more than a little bit of Christian hope as we look at things. Because what this text is saying is that there's always going to be a limit to how much God allows things or for how long God will allow things to go completely off the rails. That there is a measure of common grace that God extends to the human race in terms of trying to limit the results of human evil. And obviously, there can be times of great tragedy. You know, we think of, you know, the Holodore in Ukraine and other times like that, the slavery, chattel slavery in the U.S. South for many decades.

[16:30] And they can go on for a while. But we can look at it knowing that no evildoer ultimately gets away with what they do, that there is a God who will judge. That means that right and wrong and justice and injustice still matters. And also that there is a God who uses his common grace to try to restrain it. And on one hand, that's a profound hope. It's also a profound challenge for a Christian, by the way, because it's this text isn't telling us this. So it says, okay, well, it's all right. God's just going to get rid of all the really terrible people in the province, in the country, in the world, and in the city. And he's going to hold things together. So I'm just going to go to my man cave and just gorge myself on sports and all sorts of poutine and stuff like that. And let the world just, you know, God's going to handle the world. No, no. See, the powerful thing for us who end up calling ourselves followers of Christ is that this is an incentive to confront evil, because God's not going to give any evil a pass. And it's an incentive to try to be salt and light in our culture, to try to fix the broken things so that they work better. Why? Because when we do that, we're working in the same direction as to what God's trying to do. It's the same thing. It's worth a while for a Christian to be a doctor.

[17:45] Why? Because God heals. Right? And so that's actually a profound encouragement to us. And it was some of that that I wished I could say to my friend. But afterwards, as I said, it probably was the thing that he really needed at that point in time was just somebody who would listen to him and not accuse him of being politically incorrect or anything like that. But it's a profound hope. And now after, so the first thing that God does when he speaks is that he reveals this. He's going to judge. He's a God of grace is introduced with this idea of common grace that he does hold things together. And now there's a warning to those of us who do evil. Look at what he says in verses four and five. I say to the boastful, do not boast. And to the wicked, do not lift up your horn.

[18:36] Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with a haughty neck. That's a weird phrase, eh? An arrogant neck, an insolent neck, a prideful neck. And so the horn here is an image of dignity. And it's an image of power. And so what he's saying is there is a way to be human that God's will be able to to have to have too great a concern about your own dignity. It goes beyond your own dignity to thinking that you're far better than other people, that the rules don't apply to you, that what God has to say about how God calls you to live does not apply to you. Thank you very much.

[19:29] You can have that opinion, God, but thank you. I actually don't think what you say matters. I'm to do what I want, that are full of, whether it's out public in terms of promoting themselves, or just inwardly in terms of the way that you have a sense of superiority, even while you're silent, and you can have that superior smirk on your face, even if you don't say anything in a meeting, and that God sees all of these things, and he warns that these things are the types of things that he's going to judge. And we might think that this describes other people, but it doesn't describe us, but it describes the people we see on King Edward Avenue, and the people we see on the other side of King Edward Avenue, who live in the expensive houses, and live in the expensive condos. It describes anybody who's far from God. And we might not think it applies to us, but it does apply to us if all of a sudden we were to be confronted with what God says about sex.

[20:24] I mean, we just entered Pride Week this week. I mean, it's Pride Week. And they're proud about everything that God says is wrong. Okay, you talked about that. Let's get more personal.

[20:43] God's Word says you need to be financially generous to the point of actually having it hurt you. That you need to be financially generous in such a way that it might mean that rather than getting a new car every 10 years, you're going to have to get a new car every 15 years, or a new car every five years, you're going to have to get it seven or eight years, because in fact you're financially generous. And then you think, well, why on earth would God say anything about my money? My money is my money. How dare he say something about my money? How dare he say something about my time, that I should be part of a small group or come to worship on a Sunday morning? My time is my time.

[21:17] Like, see, if all of a sudden we could confront it about money or about how you deal with, or forgiveness, that God calls us to forgive that other person. Well, God has no right to say something like that.

[21:30] He doesn't know my husband. He doesn't know my wife. He doesn't know my boss. He doesn't know my kids. And that's just the wrong... No. Well, that's what's being described.

[21:45] And we might all nod because of just the crowd that we are when I mention the Pride Week, but we don't nod when we mention money or generosity or forgiveness or a whole range of other aspects, compassion to the poor, which is an important biblical virtue and practice.

[22:08] But it all reveals a heart which is boastful, a neck which does not want to acknowledge God, that doesn't want to bend to him, that doesn't want to receive his yoke.

[22:20] And those of us who are described by this, we're warned. We're warned. Now, actually, you know, it's really funny. Pascal, Blaise Pascal, a Christian philosopher, has this wonderful section in some of his writings that just really tries to tweak us because it's very easy for those of us who are smart or powerful, who have high positions, and even those who don't but are trying to work towards it. And there's many, many people, and they can sit down and they can think they understand economics, and then a couple of minutes later they can display how they know things about biology in the cells, at the cell, and then they'll talk about politics, and then they'll talk about culture, and then they'll talk about astronomy, and then they'll talk about relationships, and they just think they can encompass everything.

[23:10] They can encompass, they have this type of mind, and this type of will, and this type of education that can encompass this knowledge, and we're great, and we think that these are all things that we've accomplished, and we can be filled with our own greatness, and all of these things which we can do and rule and how things should be set up, and we die because we receive a microscopic virus.

[23:33] We're in the midst of our thinking about how great we are.

[23:46] We can't concentrate because a two-year-old is making a noise in the other room. And we never stop to think, really?

[23:57] Am I really so godlike with my knowledge and power that a microscopic virus will kill me, or that the sound of a two-year-old will upset me, and I can't even think or...

[24:09] Like, we don't even puzzle about that. We just get mad. We have a haughty neck. We boast. But now grace comes back in a very, very unusual way.

[24:27] Asaph, in verses 6 to 9, talk about this journey of grace, and it's a bit of a mystery and a riddle that only Christ will have to make clear. Look what happens, verse 6. So Asaph speaks in verse 1, God speaks, verses 2 to 5, and then from 6 to 9, Asaph speaks, and then verse 10 is God having the final word.

[24:49] And here's... Look what he says in verse 6. It's a warning now to the boastful. If your heart's maybe been pricked by this, he said, well, you know, maybe that is me, you know? Maybe... I wonder why I've never thought about the fact that I think my...

[25:02] I can encompass everything with almost godlike powers, you know, microscopic virus will kill me. Verse 6, For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up.

[25:17] But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. Now, it's that's a, you know, it's not that complicated to understand that. It's just saying, well, listen, uh, George, if you're now looking for something to deal with this, you can go all the way to the east, you can go all the way to the west, you can go to the wilderness, people who claimed have had mystical experiences, but if you go to other people and all that, you're just going to meet other people who have the same exact problem with you as you do, and that's... You're not going to actually get a solution from them. You can get some insights and all, but you're not going to actually get anything from them. And that, in fact, the reason is that it's God who executes judgment, and he puts down and lifts up. And by putting down here, it doesn't mean like putting you down, like, you know, calling you a name or something like that. It's actually a sort of a... It's an image of ruin.

[26:15] I mean, none of us wants to see if... Not if, when I die, if I die before Jesus returns and you see me unembalmed, just left out in the wild for a month, you see a ruined being at the end of the month.

[26:37] I might have been strong at one point in time. I believe it or not, I didn't always have hair this color. It used to be dark. But God puts down. And then this very wonderful issue, image of redemption and salvation, God lifts up.

[26:59] And then we have this very pregnant phrase in verse 8. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

[27:24] Now, this is an image of God's judgment. And it's an image which is also found in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Lamentations.

[27:35] And, well actually, you know, here, before I say anything about it, most of us maybe don't notice this, but all four Gospels refer to a cup just before Jesus dies on the cross. If you look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all three of them recount that after Jesus is instituted the Lord's Supper, they go out to a place to pray, and Jesus goes off by himself, and all three of the Gospel writers record part of what Jesus says to the Father. If you look it up, I'll just give you one of them. It's Luke 22, verse 42. You'll hear what he says. And all of them basically record the same thing.

[28:21] Luke 22, verse 42. And in Luke 22, verse 42, Jesus says this, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

[28:39] And Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this. And this takes place just shortly before the soldiers come and arrest Jesus. And of course, then he's tried, he's whipped, he's crucified, he dies on a cross. John records something that happens after this, after Jesus is captured by the soldiers.

[28:58] So he doesn't have that particular incident, but even after the soldiers come, in John chapter 18, verse 11, we have this, the soldiers come, Peter takes out a sword, he's going to fight the soldiers off, and Jesus says to Peter, put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? So Jesus prays this prayer that God says no to. Jesus says, could you take this cup from me? And God says no to Jesus. Jesus heard, the Father heard Jesus' prayer, he just said no.

[29:37] Jesus doesn't sin in asking the cup to be taken away. But God doesn't take the cup away. And now as the soldiers have come and his going to the cross has begun, Jesus says to Peter, shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me? And that is the cup, if we go back to Psalm 75, verse 8, that's the cup that's being referred to here. And so what is the cup? Those of you who have a love for fantasy novels have an advantage over the rest of us when it comes to this image. And if you like fantasy novels or fantasy movies, you can easily picture up the some type of, there's often some type of, you know, image of blackness and evil and power going into a cup. And this is a sort of a twisted, a slight version of that. And it's as if every time George does something wrong,

[30:39] God takes that in all of its evil and he takes a little bit out of it. It's still within me, but he takes a little bit about it and he puts it in a cup. And not only the things that I do that are wrong, but the things I should do that I didn't do, that's also wrong. He takes it out, he puts it in a cup. It begins from the time I can make moral choices. And so you can just imagine by the time you get to my age, which is a little bit like I'm past the teenager years and the early twenties, I have a long, I have decades worth of stuff that's gone into that cup.

[31:11] And it's gotten really concentrated. And it's not just that, it's also that what goes into the cup, and this is what makes it a cup of judgment, is that we actually experience the revulsion, how toxic my wrongdoing. I will experience in a sense, or in that cup is the me experiencing how toxic and revolting my wrongdoing is in all of its fullness.

[31:44] Those of you who have read the book, The Silver Chair and the Narnia Chronicles, there's a very powerful scene. This isn't a spoiler alert, but there's a scene late in the book or middle of the book or something like that, where Puddleglum, one of the characters, he's eaten a meal, and then he realizes that the meat that he ate came from a talking animal. And in the Narnia world, there's like dumb beasts, like the cows and dogs and all that we have around us. But there's also, in a sense, animals which talk, which are persons. And he realizes that because he has done things against what Aslan has desired, he has, in a sense, experienced this punishment, and he actually eats a talking beast. So it would be the exact same thing as if I was to eat something, and then afterwards, I realized that the person, I ate another, I ate a human being.

[32:41] That that hamburger that I had that I thought was sort of tasty was actually, the person who made it for me was a very evil person. And in the story with Puddleglum is like retching, just as we would retch if we thought that we'd actually eaten another human being. And what goes into the cup is that God's clarity, God's judgment. And so verse 8 says, for the hand of the Lord, in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup with foaming wine well mixed. And he pours it out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drink it down to its dregs. You know, quite a few years ago, I had a person that I'd share the gospel with quite a few times. And then one day he asked me, do you think I'm going to hell out of the blue?

[33:37] And I gave a bit of an answer, probably not as good an answer as I wish I could have given, but I did give a bit of an answer. It would have been wrong for me to say no, by the way. But what I really should have said is this. Actually, could you put the point up, Claire? Jesus drank the cup of wrath that you deserve, and in its place offers you the cup of the new covenant as a pure gift of grace.

[34:11] See, this is the powerful, if you think about it, it's really interesting that in all of the gospels, the three gospels, not because John's gospel doesn't recount the institution of the Lord's Supper, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, before Jesus goes to the garden, and before he's going to be crucified, he institutes the Lord's Supper, and he says that this cup is a new covenant in my blood which is offered for people who put their trust in him. And so in the whole flow of the gospel, we have this profound image, the cup of God's judgment and wrath that I deserve. When I see Jesus dying on the cross, what I am seeing is Jesus taking the cup that I deserve to drink, and he drinks it for me.

[34:54] And he doesn't just drink it for me, and then I just have to go. He, before that, he offers me this cup of the cup of the Lord's Supper, a cup saying, I have, I have, what I am about to do, I'm going to drink the cup that you deserve, and because of that, I can offer you this cup of the new covenant. You can come into a new relationship with me. You can come into a new relationship with your creator, and it's a relationship of peace. You're reconciled to him. Your guilt has been dealt with. The punishment that you deserve, it's been dealt with. I'm going to drink that cup for you so that you can enter into this new covenant where I, you can drink this new covenant. I drink your cup. I give you mine.

[35:40] Who wouldn't want to take that deal? See, that's what's so wonderful about Jesus. You see, what I guess I should have said to that person is, you know what? You and I have a cup that we need to drink, and the only thing that separates you and me is that God's Holy Spirit has led me to the point where I'll accept that Jesus drinks that cup that I deserve to drink, and in its stead, I will accept this cup of the new covenant.

[36:17] And I should have said, you have that cup, and he'd like to drink yours for you too, and offer you the new cup. Would you do it? And I was too tongue-tied and too caught by surprise to say it. I still pray for the person, by the way.

[36:35] And that's why in verse 9, you see, so this whole psalm isn't about that there's somehow wicked people and righteous people, and that I'm somehow more righteous than other people. No, no, no, no.

[36:48] My cup is very foul, and it would have unmade me to have drunk it. And look at what verse 9. But I will declare it forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob, right? It begins with saying, I'm going to recount what you've done. I'm going to give you thanks. And now it says, I'm going to sing praises to the God of Jacob. That's the God of the covenant. And then God has the final word. All the horns of the wicked I will cut off, but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. See, that's the wonderful thing. The horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. In other words, you know, I, in a sense, have a proper type of power. I have a proper type of dignity. And it isn't as if when I give my life to Christ that all of a sudden I'm going to become a doormat. No! What happens is when I enter into this new relationship with Christ, he starts to restore to me a proper dignity. He helps me to understand my proper power under him. He starts to put into my heart the things that I can do and look around it. Maybe you're in the civil service and you can do something about some, sorry, some of the legislation. Maybe he's put you in business and you can do something about fair, sort of fair employment or full employment. You know, maybe he's made you in a neighbor and you can do something about trying to keep your street clean or, or, or, or being a person who can be a listening ear. But he, he gives you power, he gives you a type of dignity. He doesn't remove you and make you a doormat.

[38:05] But he, the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. That's the promise of the gospel. I'm going to ask you all to stand.

[38:17] And I'm going to, I'm going to read a prayer. And don't put it up on the screen yet, Claire. I'm going to read a prayer. I have to find it first. Sorry about that.

[38:33] This is a, it's called, those of you who have been Anglicans for a long time, it's called the prayer of general thanksgiving. And I'm going to invite you to pray it with me. And I'm going to read it before you so you don't start to pray it and then come up upon something you don't like. And for some of us, this, this song, this general thanksgiving powerfully captures the message of this thing, that it's good for my soul to recount what Jesus has done for me and other things that God has done for me. It is good for my soul to give thanks for what God has done. It is good for my soul to praise him. And, and so I'm going to invite us in a moment to pray this prayer with me. And for some of us, this is just something that we just really want to do. For some of us, you know, maybe we've been gotten weighed down by the world or we've wandered far from God, or we've started to doubt whether we should be Christians. And this can, in a sense, be a recommitment to Christ. And, and for some who've never given their lives to Christ, this can be your conversion prayer. You're giving yourself to Christ.

[39:47] And I'll read it and then we'll pray it together. And it goes like this. It's a many, many, many, many, many centuries old prayer, deeply biblical. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, your unworthy servants, do give you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life.

[40:15] But above all, for your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. By the way, the means of grace, that means like Bible reading, it means the Lord's Supper, it means small groups, it means church, it means Christian books, it means the Lord's Supper, it means the Lord's Supper, it means the Lord's Supper, it means the Lord's Supper.

[40:45] Give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory world without end. Amen. For some, this can be a recommitment. For some, it's just so glad I have a chance to say it, and for some it can be your conversion prayer. And so would you pray it with me now? Together.

[41:27] Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we, your unworthy servants, do give you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all people. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life, but above all for your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace and for the hope of glory. And we beseech you, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful, and that we show forth your praise not only with our lips, but in our lives, our hearts may be unfeigned by giving up ourselves to your service, and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory world without end. Amen. Father, we ask that this prayer that we've just prayed together, that it would be a prayer that we would grow into, that we would, Father, be mindful of what your

[42:43] Son has done for us, that we would be mindful that he has called us into this new covenant, that we would remember that he will never let us go, that it is in fact good for our souls that we give thanks and praise and recount what you have done. And Father, we ask that you would put your yoke, your gentle yoke upon our necks, that we might truly learn from you. And all these things we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.