The Truly Blessed Nation

[0:00] Our scripture lesson today is taken from Psalms chapter 33 in its entirety.! Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord! Make melody to him with the harp of ten strings. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright, and his works is done in faithfulness.

[0:34] He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord, the heavens were made. By the breath of his mouth, all their host.

[0:49] He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap. He puts the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came to be. He commanded, and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing.

[1:13] He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nations whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of man. From where he sits, he enthroned, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all, and observes all their deeds. The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation, and by its great might it cannot rescue.

[1:59] Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the Lord, for he is our help and our shield, for our heart is glad in him. Because we trust in his holy name, let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you. Amen.

[2:34] Thank you very much, Michelle. Well, happy independence, everyone. And the decorations, beautiful. Amen. Let's give Demetria and Michelle a round of applause for a wonderful job. Amen. They did a great job. And those of you who have all your colors on, the fashion conscious among us, you look wonderful as well.

[3:01] This is the best I could do. We can fix that next year. My friends are going to help me out next year.

[3:14] Well, in approximately 12 hours, our nation will mark 50 years of independence. And it's a wonderful And it's a wonderful And it's a wonderful And it's a wonderful milestone.

[3:31] And as we celebrate and commemorate 50 years of independence, I think it's natural for us to reflect and to think back to the day when our nation was born on the 10th of July, 1973.

[3:47] And I think naturally, as we think back on the birth of our nation, we think back to what were the aspirations of the founding fathers of our nation, what they envisioned our nation would be and eventually become.

[4:10] And I think the best place for us to look to see what those aspirations are are in the preamble to our nation's constitution and in the last line of our national anthem.

[4:25] The preamble of our constitution, written by Arthur Folks, reads as follows. Whereas 481 years ago, the rediscovery of this family of islands, rocks and keys, heralded the rebirth of the new world.

[4:44] And whereas the people of this family of islands, recognizing that the preservation of their freedom will be guaranteed by a national commitment to self-discipline, industry, loyalty, unity, and an abiding respect for Christian values and the rule of law.

[5:08] Now know ye, therefore, we, the inheritors of and successors to this family of islands, recognizing the supremacy of God, and believing in the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual, do hereby proclaim in solemn praise the establishment of a free and democratic, sovereign nation founded on spiritual values in which no man, woman, or child shall ever be slave or bondsman to anyone or their labor exploited or their lives frustrated by deprivation.

[5:49] and do hereby provide by these articles for the indivisible unity and creation under God of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

[6:05] It's very clear from our Constitution's preamble that our founding fathers envisioned the Commonwealth of the Bahamas as a nation under God and a nation that recognizes the supremacy of God.

[6:21] In our national anthem, March on Bahamaland, we have this last line which again captures, I believe, what our founding fathers envisioned for our nation, what they wanted us to aspire to.

[6:38] And it's this line, till the road you trod lead unto your God. And the God that Timothy Gibson had in mind was the true and the living God of Scripture, the God of the Bible.

[6:55] And so this was the national vision 50 years ago for our nation that the Commonwealth of the Bahamas would be a nation under God recognizing His supremacy and marching on a road that would ultimately lead us to God.

[7:16] And so 50 years later, I think it's appropriate for us to reflect and consider whether we are indeed a nation under God that recognizes His supremacy and is marching on a road that leads us to Him.

[7:33] If I were to summarize biblically the national vision of the Bahamas contained in our Constitution and the last line of our national anthem, I would do so using the words of verse 12 of this psalm that is before us that's just been read.

[7:52] Verse 12 says, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. Our founding fathers envisioned a nation that would be blessed because its people would recognize God's supremacy, submit themselves under His authority and nationally march on a road that would lead to Him.

[8:17] And so 50 years later, I think, as we reflect on this, we should ask ourselves the question, is the Bahamas a nation under God that recognizes His supremacy and that is marching on a road that leads to Him?

[8:37] This is a question that I think we all need to reflect upon, all of us, we need to consider. And it requires humility and it requires honesty to contemplate and answer this question.

[8:51] And this morning, I want to help us to do this by looking at Psalm 33 as we reflect on this question. But first, let me pray for us.

[9:03] Father, we bow our hearts before you this morning. We thank you, Lord, that in your good and wise providence you caused the Commonwealth of the Bahamas to come to be.

[9:18] And Lord, you caused each of us to be born in it and to be residents in it. And Lord, as we come to this milestone of 50 years, I pray that you would help us as a people to pause, to reflect, and to consider where we are in light of what the aspirations were of those who founded this nation.

[9:48] Lord, I pray most of all you'd help us gathered in this place in this moment to consider these things in the light of your word. I pray you'd grant me grace to faithfully proclaim your word, grant us all the grace to hear it and to respond to it.

[10:05] We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. One of the very important principles of interpreting scripture is that we should always bear in mind that when we read the Bible, most of it is written to God's people.

[10:25] To those whom he has brought to himself, those whom he loves, and those who serve him. but some parts of the Bible are written or addressed to all people in all nations.

[10:43] And this one, we have come to a part of God's word in Psalm 33 that addresses all people in all nations. nations. You see that Psalm 33 addresses all the inhabitants of the world and all the nations of the earth.

[11:04] And in addressing all the inhabitants of the world and all the nations of the earth, the psalmist, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, provides us with three convictions that mark truly blessed nations and nations whose God is the Lord, or the nation whose God is the Lord.

[11:27] And in our remaining time, I want us to consider these three convictions. First, the truly blessed nation recognizes and serves God as creator.

[11:44] This is the first point that the psalmist makes in Psalm 33 about the truly blessed nation. We find it in verses 6 and 9. And after calling the righteous to praise and thank God with music and with singing in verses 1 to 3, the psalmist goes on and he tells us why we should do so in verses 4 and 5.

[12:12] It tells us, for the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

[12:26] These are the reasons that God's people should praise him and sing to him. His word is perfect. He is faithful in all that he does.

[12:39] He loves righteousness and justice. And despite the fact that our world is fallen and broken, the witness of scripture is that it is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.

[12:53] God is still displaying his steadfast love in our broken and fallen world. Notice that the first activity that the psalmist raises is in verses 6 and 7.

[13:13] And it is that God is creator. He created the heavens and the earth. The heavens and the earth didn't just appear from a big bang.

[13:25] They didn't just evolve over billions of years. We read in verse 6, by the word of the Lord the heavens were made. And by the breath of his mouth all their hosts.

[13:41] Notice that the psalmist is highlighting the power of God in creation. He simply spoke and created the heavens in all of its vastness.

[13:52] The billions of galaxies that are beyond human comprehension. The fullness of the heavens, the psalmist says, which is the witness of Genesis chapter 1, God spoke and they came into being.

[14:08] In verse 7, he says that the Lord gathers the waters of the sea as a heap and he puts the deeps in storehouses. And here he is again reflecting back in Genesis chapter 1, recounting what God did, where the earth was a watery mass.

[14:26] And the Bible says that God separated waters above and the waters below, waters in the heavens and the waters down on the earth. And then God moved waters into specific places so that the earth would come forth and there would be dry land.

[14:47] God did this. God did all of this because God is the creator of heaven and earth. And in verse 8, the psalmist calls us, the inhabitants of the earth, all the inhabitants of the earth, to stand in awe of him because of this.

[15:05] Stand in awe of him because we are in the earth that he created by his powerful word. His point is that God is the creator of the world and all the inhabitants of the world who occupy his world should stand in awe of him and his great and powerful act of creation.

[15:33] And those who truly recognize God as creator, they do stand in awe of him. They stand in awe of his power.

[15:46] They stand in awe of his wisdom in designing the world as he has. goodness in filling the world with the many good gifts that he has given to us, like oxygen and food and all the things that are necessary to live life on this earth.

[16:06] All of creation displays this. And the psalmist says that the inhabitants of the earth who recognize this, they stand in awe of this God who did it all.

[16:19] the nation that is truly blessed is a nation that recognizes God as creator.

[16:33] But what does that mean? What does it mean to recognize God as creator? It means more than mental agreement. It means more than accepting it as information that we just won't argue with.

[16:49] it means accepting God as creator as a matter of conviction of heart. And the way that we know and accept that God is the creator as a matter of conviction of heart rather than by mental agreement is by the way we live.

[17:10] By the way we live in God's world, recognizing that this is his world and all all that we see and all that we enjoy have come from his gracious hands and we recognize by conviction that God is the creator of it all by how we live in his world.

[17:32] Whether we ignore him in his world or we serve him in his world. God is the world.

[17:42] God is the creator of the world and everyone in it, then naturally it follows that we should recognize that God is the creator of the world and everyone in it, God is the creator of the world and everyone in it, then naturally it follows that we should recognize him as the ruler of the world and everyone in it.

[18:13] The two flow together. We come from recognizing him as the creator of the world and it follows that if we do we will recognize him as the rightful ruler of the world, of everything and everyone because he is the creator of them all.

[18:32] And this brings me to my second point, the blessed nation recognizes God as ruler. Recognize God as creator, recognize God as ruler.

[18:47] If God indeed is creator of everything and everyone, then he has every right to rule everything and everyone. And this is the point that we see in verses 10 to 15.

[19:02] Let's hear these verses again. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples.

[19:17] The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

[19:31] The Lord looks down from heaven, he sees all the inhabitants of man. From where he sits enthroned, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

[19:42] He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds. I think the first thing that must be clear is that God has not left the nations to themselves to do as they wish.

[20:01] God didn't just create and then go off into the darkness and into the distance and leave the world and those in the world to live as they wish.

[20:13] In verse 10, we're told that the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing and he frustrates the plans of the people. And instead, as we see in verse 11, it is the counsel of the Lord that stands forever.

[20:31] It is the plan of his heart that endures to all generations. This is God's world and it should be no other way.

[20:43] And the reason is that he is the ruler of the nations. And despite what our world looks like today, despite the fact that it seems like nations are doing their own thing and going their own way, despite all of that, God's plans and purposes are coming to pass.

[21:07] Even when nations go astray and look like they are sovereign and God's God's judgment and even in their rebellion, it is part of God's judgment against them in accordance of the counsel of his sovereign will.

[21:31] They call it freedom. God calls it slavery and he judges them by allowing them to do what ought not be done. And what we should see, brothers and sisters, is that God's mercy is seen in his restraint and discipline.

[21:50] rather than letting nations and people go their own way and do their own thing, God in mercy would bring restraint.

[22:03] That is a kindness. It's an expression of the goodness of the Lord. And this is why the psalmist says in verse 12 that the nation whose God is the Lord is blessed.

[22:20] it is because that nation and their people are obedient to the Lord and they follow him as their God seeking to follow in his ways.

[22:37] They submit to him in his ways. And therefore he doesn't have to resist them. He doesn't have to bring their counsel to nothing. He doesn't have to frustrate their plans because God is the ruler.

[22:50] and they submit to him. The nation and people whose God is the Lord obey his law. They don't disobey it and make their own.

[23:04] And so brothers and sisters, having God as Lord is more than having him on our lips. God is the God and the God is the God.

[23:29] And this is the point that the psalmist is helping us to see. He tells us that God is the one who knows all and he sees all.

[23:40] Look again at verses 13 to 15. The Lord looks down from heaven. He sees all the children of men. From where he sits, he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth.

[23:55] He who fashions the heart of them all and observes all their deeds. He is the all-seeing, all-knowing God.

[24:06] Nothing escapes his gaze. All of life is lived under his gaze. He has the nations under his gaze. He has all the inhabitants of the earth under his gaze.

[24:18] And he's not snooping on us. He's not just looking at us to look at us. No, God is observing everyone and everything because he is our judge and because he is the ruler of the nations and of all the people.

[24:39] And friends, his creator, it is his right to be the ruler and the judge of everyone and everything. On the 9th of July 1973, as part of the prepared program to lead into Independence Day that would happen midnight on July 10th, 1973, there was a sermon preached by the then president of the Bahamas Christian Council, the late Dr.

[25:13] Ari Cooper. Providentially, a clip from this sermon just came to me yesterday in a WhatsApp group that I'm a part of.

[25:24] Somebody posted it. I was aware of it. I'd heard Rex Major talk about it, but I'd never heard any part of the sermon, but this part of the sermon came through in this audio clip that was posted.

[25:40] He preached from 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 9. He preached from these words, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

[26:06] And Dr. Cooper proceeded to apply this verse to our soon-to-be-born nation, saying that we in the Bahamas are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession to show to the world, he said, what independence through God looks like.

[26:33] But with the greatest respect, and there's a lot of respect for men like Dr. Ari Cooper, who are men of substance and character and conviction, this verse was misapplied to the Bahamas.

[26:53] Indeed, this verse would be misapplied to any nation because God does not have in view any earthly nation in this verse. And let me try to explain why that is.

[27:08] As we've been saying from the sermon series that we've been working through in the book of Genesis, after Adam and Eve fell, God began his plan of redemption by calling a man Abraham.

[27:24] And God gave him a promise that through him he was going to bring salvation to all the nations. That through him all the nations would be blessed. And then God continued that promise through his son, Isaac, Isaac, and further continued it through Isaac's son, Jacob, whose name was later changed to Israel.

[27:48] And the Lord told Abraham, when he called him, he said that your offspring will be enslaved in a foreign land, which turned out to be Egypt, for 400 years.

[28:00] And as God prophesied it, it did happen, but after 400 years the Lord intervened, delivered, and set them free.

[28:15] And as the Lord was taking them out of Egypt into the promised land, he brought them to Mount Sinai, and he had them to gather around the mountain, and he told Moses to come up into the mountain, and the Lord spoke to Moses and said, I want you to tell the children of Israel these words.

[28:34] Found in Exodus chapter 19 verses 4 to 6, he said to Moses, Exodus 19 4 to 6, this is what you have to say to them, you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

[28:52] Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine.

[29:06] And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you are to speak to the people of Israel.

[29:17] This is the first time that God chose a group of people to be his own people, his special people, above all the other nations of the earth.

[29:30] And then as scripture unfolds, as this plan of redemption unfolds, we see in Genesis 20, God gives them the Ten Commandments. He didn't give it to the whole world, he gave it to them to make them special among all the nations.

[29:44] And he goes on, he gives them additional laws and statutes and an elaborate system of worship with priests and with sacrifices. And long story short, with all of that, with all of that, Israel strayed and rebelled against God.

[30:07] They failed to be the kingdom of priests and the holy nation that God had called them to be to all the other nations of the world. And those of you who were here last Sunday would recall, as we consider Genesis 17 in light of Romans 9, we saw that the people of Israel to whom this promise of salvation was made was not based on physical descent.

[30:32] It was not based on physical ancestry from Abraham. Instead, it was based on divine election by God. It was based on God's sovereign choice.

[30:45] And this is why Peter says what he says in 1 Peter 2 verse 9. Peter is speaking to God's New Testament people, the church, which is comprised of Jews and Gentiles, and he applies that promise back in Exodus to God's people.

[31:08] And that's what he's doing in 1 Peter 2 9. He's taking that ancient promise which God gave to Israel when he said to them, you're going to be my special people.

[31:21] You're going to be my treasured possession. Peter says, you're the ones who are the fulfillment of that promise. Now to understand how Peter does this, we need to look at 1 Peter 2 9 again, but also in conjunction with verse 10.

[31:38] This is what it says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

[31:55] Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

[32:06] The new people of God are Jews and Gentiles whom he has redeemed from every nation for himself.

[32:17] God is not a group of people who belong to one nation like the Bahamas, indeed to any nation. Instead, it is God's holy nation which is comprised of people whom he has chosen, whom he has redeemed by his blood, the blood of his son, whom he called out of darkness into his marvelous light.

[32:42] And they are this holy nation, this uncountable number of people, of Jews and Gentiles, from every kindred and tongue and tribe and nation, and they belong to God.

[33:01] Peter's point is in the same way that God brought Old Testament Israel out of the land of slavery, he has brought you out of slavery in the world, and he's made you into that people.

[33:14] You are the holy people, you are the royal priesthood, you are the chosen race. You're the ones by God's choice, not because of who your father was, not because you can mark your ancestry back to Abram, but because you have been chosen by God to be this holy nation, to be this royal priesthood, to be a people for his own possession.

[33:49] What we see in Psalm 33 is, Psalm 33 verse 12 is referring to this nation, to this special nation, to this holy priesthood, to this blessed nation, whom God himself has redeemed.

[34:10] nation. They are the chosen race, they are the royal priesthood, they are the holy nation, and they all have a shared precious faith.

[34:21] And so, Psalm 33, 12 is predicting the work of Jesus Christ that is going to make this possible. The psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, when he talks about this blessed nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.

[34:46] The psalmist is predicting the work of Christ, his perfect life that he lived, his sacrificial death that he died.

[34:57] He's predicting that so that it would bring to pass, it would make possible this new people, this redeemed people who belong to God, who are the Lord's.

[35:15] And these are the blessed ones. It is this nation that God has put together, that God has chosen, that is the blessed nation.

[35:28] And so, this nation that God has chosen is dispersed among the nations. nations. It's not just one single nation based on ethnicity or based on politics.

[35:43] It is a nation that is dispersed among the nations. And so, like other nations, the more believers we have here in the Bahamas, the more people we have living in obedience to God as his people and serving him, the better we will fear as a nation.

[36:05] The more we function as salt and light, the better our nation will be in all aspects of society. But we don't become the blessed nation just because we put some words in our constitution, or because we pen some words in our national anthem.

[36:22] Those are inspirational. Those are wonderful. Those are great to aspire to. But we don't become that just because we write that. The blessed nation is the nation that God himself chooses and he chooses them from every kindred and tongue and tribe.

[36:48] They are the redeemed community. They are the blessed ones. Our political leaders will continue to quote scripture and then go into parliament and pass laws that offend the Lord and rebel against his word and his way.

[37:07] They will continue to do that. And we will continue to be a land that's filled with churches and it will continue to be where it is very evident where many who profess Christ do not truly possess Christ.

[37:29] That will all continue. But God has his people. God has in this nation those who belong to his holy nation as he does in all the nations of the earth.

[37:45] And he will one day bring them all to himself as an expression of the success of his son's sacrifice on the cross that he redeems our people for himself out of all the nations of the earth.

[38:03] And so brothers and sisters as aspirational and inspirational as our constitution's preamble is that declares that we are a nation under God and recognizing his supremacy that vision will only be realized to the extent that men women boys and girls come to saving faith in Christ and live their lives in obedience to Christ.

[38:29] And this must include our political leaders as well. It won't happen just because we have these lofty words and God talk in our constitutions preamble and in our national anthem.

[38:46] And so the truly blessed nation is the nation that recognizes and serves God as creator, recognizes and submits to him as ruler. And third and finally, the truly blessed nation is the nation that recognizes and looks to God as savior.

[39:05] We see this in verses 16 to 22. Let's word to the nations in verses 16 and 17 is that the king is not saved by his great army and the warrior is not delivered by his great strength and the war horse is a false hope for salvation and it cannot rescue.

[39:29] The point is that whatever a nation trusts in, be it a great army and military might, be it a strong economy, be it strategic geography, be it rich natural resources, be it environmental beauty and advantages, whatever it is, the psalmist says it can't save.

[39:51] This is true of all the nations. It's true of the great nations like the United States. It is true of the small nations like the Bahamas. Military might and economic power cannot save.

[40:06] They are a false hope for salvation, both from sin and from adversity. They cannot rescue the day of trouble. And yet many in our country, starting with our political leaders, believe that the salvation of our nation comes from a strong economy for more tourist arrivals, new projections.

[40:30] We're looking at 8 million tourists very soon, more foreign direct investment, and these are good things. These are not bad things. These are things we should all welcome, but they cannot save us.

[40:43] They are a false hope for salvation, and we should remember that. And indeed, the painful lesson of Hurricane Dorian and of the COVID-19 pandemic is that there are things that will come our way that doesn't matter how strong our economy is.

[41:01] It doesn't matter what we think we can achieve with our own power. Those things cannot deliver us. Those things cannot save us.

[41:12] So let's thank God for a strong economy. Let's thank God for the way of life that we have come to enjoy because of it.

[41:24] But let us not put our hope in it, brothers and sisters. Let us not hope in it. And the reason that God's people don't need to put their hope in the false saviors of the world, like military might, like economic power, is found in verses 18 and 19.

[41:44] Look again at what the psalmist says. Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his steadfast love, that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.

[41:59] What a wonderful promise that is. We, brothers and sisters, will face danger and difficulty and famine and threat of loss as long as we live in this broken and fallen world.

[42:17] And our only true hope in the face of it all is the Lord. And he promises to keep his eye on those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love.

[42:33] love. He's not glancing on us every now and then. No, he says he will keep his eye on those who fear him and those who hope in his steadfast love.

[42:46] This is a glorious promise. That the eye of the Lord is forever upon those who fear him and who hope in his steadfast love.

[42:58] And if you belong to Christ this morning, whatever your circumstances may be and some of you may be walking through hardship and difficulty and trial, here's what you know. The eye of the Lord is upon you.

[43:11] The one who created you is watching over you and he knows your frame and he knows that you are dust and he knows what you're able to bear.

[43:23] And the fact that he has allowed it to come your way is proof that you are able to bear under it and you have the consolation of knowing that he is watching. His eye is upon you.

[43:40] He keeps his eye on all those who fear him and hope in his steadfast love. In verses 20 to 22, we find what should be the response.

[43:59] of all of God's people to these things. The psalmist writes, our soul waits for the Lord.

[44:12] He is our help and our shield for our heart is glad in him because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us even as we hope in you.

[44:31] Brothers and sisters, this ought to be our response. This ought to be the response of all of God's people in all of the uncertainty. We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring.

[44:43] We don't know what the rest of this year will bring. We don't know what the rest of days in front of us will bring. But here's what we know. we know that we serve a sovereign God in whom we can trust, in whom our souls can wait because he is our help, not our jobs, not our economy, not our geography, the fact that we live outside of the largest economy in the world.

[45:15] No, God is our help. And our true shield is not the United States in their military might. God is the shield of his people.

[45:31] And so let us be glad in him, brothers and sisters. Let us hope in him. Again, yes, let's celebrate 50 years, let's thank God for this nation, but those of us who belong to Christ, let us not forget the true nation that we are part of, the ultimate nation that we are part of, and that is God's holy nation.

[45:50] A nation we belong to, not based on ancestry, but a nation we belong to based on the sovereign, gracious choice of a mighty God.

[46:04] as we consider these closing words of Psalm 33, wouldn't it be wonderful if truly we embraced this as a nation?

[46:26] Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were able to say this, not every single person in the nation, but broadly enough that it would be identified as what we believe and what we hold on to as a nation?

[46:47] That'd be wonderful, but God never intended it. God never intended it. God never intended for the Bahamas us to lay claim to the comfort and the blessings that we find in these closing words of Psalm 33.

[47:06] He intended that it would be for his people. And so those of us who belong to Christ, let us remember that we are pilgrims on this earth. We are passing through.

[47:18] We are in it, but not of it. And God calls us as his people, his royal priesthood, his holy nation, those whom he has redeemed out of darkness.

[47:33] He calls us to embrace this promise and wait and trust in him, wait for him and to trust in him.

[47:46] And one day he will return and he will gather to himself all those whom he has redeemed. and he will reward the righteous, he will punish the wicked, and he will usher in a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

[48:07] And may all of us who love the Lord and who look forward to his appearing join the apostle John and say, come, even so, Lord Jesus.

[48:20] Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that you've watched over and you have preserved and we're able to hear and receive this morning.

[48:38] Thank you, Lord, that you have chosen a people to be your people, a people who are part of your holy nation, your royal priesthood, a people who are able to show forth your praises and your excellencies in a dark world.

[49:03] Oh, Lord, I pray that you would help us to renew our hearts and our hope in you and all that you've planned for your people.

[49:15] And Lord, as we live life on this earth, may we do so remembering that we belong to you and we are your holy people. We pray and ask these things in Jesus' name.

[49:29] Amen. Let's stand for our closing song.