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[0:00] Unto seven, O thou my soul, bless God the Lord. To magnify and bless.

[0:39] Bless, O my soul, the Lord thy God. And love forgetfully of all his creation's heaven.

[1:04] He shall be stored on thee. O thine iniquity, sir, the most it shall be forgiven.

[1:28] O thy deceitful lump in the heavenly relief.

[1:46] Who thou leading my life, O thou, to death may thou go down.

[2:04] Hurting will all be kind as all. Amen.

[2:14] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Come, who will abandon the earth thee, Doth satisfy thy mouth, So thou nearest the eagency, Renew it is thy youth, God's righteous judgment executes, For all, O blessed ones, As with to Moses,

[3:18] In the years I made known to Israel's sons.

[3:31] Let us bow in prayer. Lord, as we bow before you this morning, we pray that you will bless us. We give thanks that we are able to sing your word, and that through that word we are reminded so much of who you are and what you have done for us.

[3:51] You have filled our lives with many gracious benefits. You have provided for us and done for us, often in ways that we don't even realize.

[4:04] And it is good for us to stop and to reflect and to think just what it is that the Lord has done. And there's the old chorus that says that when we count our blessings and we name them one by one, it will surprise or amaze us what the Lord has done and how true that is.

[4:23] Because so often our eye is not focused upon you in the way that it should be. And we don't think about what you have done for us, what you have brought into our lives, what you have gifted us.

[4:37] Of course, we give thanks today for the greatest gift of all, the greatest gift that this world has ever known or seen, and that is the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour.

[4:48] We pray for any in here today who may not yet know you personally. They know all about you, they know the great news of salvation, but so far they have not come to that place where Jesus has become Lord and Saviour.

[5:04] And we pray that even today that whatever is holding back, whatever obstacles are in the way, that these things might be overcome by your Spirit, by your power, and that eyes that so far have remained closed may see, and ears that have so far remained closed may hear, and that you will indeed work a great work in any soul that is still distant from you.

[5:31] Lord, we pray that you will bless us in our time together, and that we may focus more and more upon who you are. Forgive us, Lord, for how selfish we often are in our thinking, and of how slow we are to focus upon your majesty, and glory, and greatness, your authority, your sovereignty, your power, your providential leading, and for your grace, and for your kindness, and for your patience, and for your love, and for your justice.

[6:05] O Lord, our God, there is so much that we ought to reflect upon, and we ought to praise you and thank you for. Lord, as we wait upon you, we pray that we will hear what God the Lord will speak, knowing that to his folk he speaks peace.

[6:20] We give thanks, O Lord, for the fact that that is one of the great blessings that comes into the life of the Christian, is the life of peace. As your word says, it's the peace that passes knowledge, or the peace that passes understanding.

[6:36] We know it, but it's very hard to explain it to somebody else. But we give thanks that even in the midst of trouble, and in the midst of difficulties, that your people can know a settled peace.

[6:49] We pray, Lord, for everybody here today, from the youngest to the oldest. Pray your blessing upon the young people. We ask that you will be with them as they are underway with a new term in school.

[7:05] We ask that you will be with them and undertake for them. We pray for teachers. We pray for parents. We ask, Lord, that you will grant wisdom and guidance in the young years of life.

[7:17] Lord, we pray for all those who are taking the serious responsibility of bringing up their children in the way of the Lord. And it is a great privilege, but it's also a huge responsibility.

[7:30] We pray to bless them. Pray for those, maybe you are too young for school. We ask that you will be with them. And we pray for all the different stages of life. We pray for our young who maybe have just gone away to start somewhere else.

[7:44] Lord, be with them and the great transition that takes place when they leave the security and the comfort of home and go out into this world. We ask that you will bless them and watch over them.

[7:57] Lord, our God, we pray for us as a nation in times of great uncertainty as we are so aware of the implications of the war in Ukraine, the impact that it is having globally, the impact that it is having upon ourselves, the uncertainty it brings and the financial restraints that are coming up upon us more and more.

[8:22] We pray, Lord, that you will help us and bless us. We pray, Lord, that it might please you to bring an end to that war and that we may indeed be able to look to you in the midst of these things.

[8:37] Lord our God, we pray to bless us as a nation at this time as we mourn the passing of the Queen who has been such a presence over us over all these last 70 years.

[8:53] And we know that things will change. We give thanks for the stability that she brought and the consistency of her life. And we give thanks, Lord, as a nation reflects that one of the things that they do see is somebody who bore testimony to Jesus Christ and was never afraid to mention you.

[9:16] And we pray that that might continue to be true. We ask, Lord, for the King that is now set over us and that he will indeed embrace the Christ that his mother embraced and that he will indeed speak of you.

[9:33] Oh, Lord, we want our leaders to have a thought of God in their hearts, to have more than a thought that their minds might be turned towards heaven, realizing that the responsibility that they have is awesome and that one day they, like us, are all accountable to you.

[9:53] And so we pray, Lord, that we may pray for those in authority. We are commanded to do so, whatever people's political allegiances might be, whatever we may think about this and that.

[10:06] Your word tells us that we are to pray for kings and those in authority over us. And so we do that right now and ask, Lord, that you will grant wisdom and guidance to King Charles and also to all who are in authority, all who have the rule over us.

[10:26] Lord our God, we pray that you will help us. So often in the islands here we feel marginalized and we ask, Lord, that you will provide for us and that you will do us good.

[10:37] Oh, grant us the grace to look to you at all times and to appreciate all that you have done. It's so easy for us to see what we don't have, but help us, Lord, to see what we do have.

[10:49] We ask, Lord, that you will bless everybody here. Pray again for our young people. We pray for the elderly. We pray, Lord, for those who are maybe struggling in life, old age is catching up.

[11:04] Pray for those who are no longer able to come out, but their prayers are here with us today. Lord our God, we ask that you will bless them in their own homes or wherever they are. And we give thanks that distance does not separate, doesn't even count with you.

[11:21] You're as much in one place as in another. Draw close then. Be with those who mourn, those whose hearts are heavy and sore. Comfort the bereaved. Give strength to the weak.

[11:33] And we ask, Lord, that your blessing may be upon us now as we wait upon you. We confess our sin. That's something that we're never not aware of, that there is within us so much deceit and so much uncleanness.

[11:49] There is so much that defiles, and yet we give thanks for the great promise that your word gives that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. We pray today that you will indeed cleanse us from all our sin.

[12:05] Watch over us and we pray and take away our sin in Jesus' name. Amen. I'm just going to say a wee word before we sing to the young folk.

[12:17] I suppose in your house maybe it's not something you think about, but I'm sure that there is a cupboard or a drawer or a wee cabinet somewhere that's full of medicines.

[12:33] There's pills and there's maybe ointments and there's drops. Maybe you're not allowed into that. Maybe there's a lock in the cupboard so that you can't get to it. But it's important in houses to have things like that because sometimes for instance if we get a sting from a wasp some people are allergic to that and maybe they have to put something onto it or take a sort of a wee pill for it.

[13:03] Sometimes people have very sore heads and they'll take a pill for the sore head. Some people have sore stomachs so they'll take a pill for the sore stomachs. Some people might have problems with their eyes and they have to put drops in their eyes.

[13:19] And there's all kinds of I'm sure in most houses if you were to find there's a cupboard somewhere or a drawer somewhere and it's full of pills and medicines and things like that.

[13:31] And you'd say to yourself something it wouldn't be great if there's just one pill. One pill could sort it out for everybody. So you didn't need to have all this big pile of pills. One pill would do the job.

[13:43] But you know sometimes it's not like a pain in the head or a pain in the eye or a pain in the tummy or all like that. Sometimes we have other pains within us as well because say for instance if somebody that you love is really ill supposing there's somebody in your family some granny or a grandpa or an uncle or an auntie or a mama or somebody is ill you worry about them.

[14:12] And that's it's difficult sometimes when we worry about things like that or that somebody dies and your heart is sore. Sometimes I hope it doesn't happen but sometimes in school sometimes it's difficult.

[14:29] Sometimes you have trouble with your work and you're not understanding properly. And you're maybe the teacher's getting annoyed with you because you're not able to do the I remember like that used to happen to me sometimes I wasn't very good with sums and the teacher used to get annoyed with me and I was like oh I can't do it.

[14:50] Maybe you feel like that and it's difficult you know. Or maybe somebody's not very nice to you in school and all these things worry you. But you know you'd say to yourself wouldn't it be great if there was a pill that you could get for all these things.

[15:07] Well in a funny way and this is playing on the word a wee bit in a sense there is. And it's a different kind of pill it's a gospel which is really that's not the right spelling of it but the gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest if we can say pill in the world because the gospel means good news.

[15:34] And we live in a world where there's often an awful lot of bad news. But here is the good news. And this good news that we have is that Jesus who made this world the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God who made the world and who has all power the Bible tells us he cares for you.

[15:57] Isn't that wonderful? Today Jesus Christ cares for you. And he doesn't just care for you and saying well I think about you. he tells you to do something.

[16:09] He says whatever burdens whatever things are worrying you whatever's weighing you down give them to me. That's what it says cast your burden on the Lord.

[16:23] Isn't that beautiful? Jesus is saying come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest. Don't be struggling with all these things yourself.

[16:34] Come to me give them to me and I'll help you. What a wonderful gospel that is. Isn't that wonderful good news? So you go to Jesus and whatever is worrying you whatever is bothering you you tell him and say Lord I'm giving it to you.

[16:54] You help me. We're going to sing now again in Psalm 48 the 48th Psalm and we're going to sing from the middle of the verse Psalm 48 from the middle of the verse verse 8 Psalm 48 middle of verse 8 In our God's city which is hand forever establish will we of thy loving kindness thought Lord in thy temple still O Lord according to thy name through all the earth thy praise and thy right hand O Lord is full of righteousness always because thy judgments are made known let Zion mount rejoice of Judah let the daughters all send forth a cheerful voice walk about Zion and go round the high towers thereof tell consider ye her palaces and mark her bulwarks well that you may tell posterity for this

[17:55] God doth abide our God forever more he will even unto death as guide from the middle of verse 8 in our God's city which is hand forever establish will nations how will no anymoreée in our cadre and for their star is well we all thy longing can I live alone, dark in thy temple still.

[18:44] O Lord, according to thy name, through all the earth's life is, and thy right hand, O Lord, is full of righteousness in heaven always.

[19:21] Bejoice thy church, and shall we move.

[19:32] Let Zion now rejoice, O Judah, let the God of God, and shall we hold.

[19:52] Let the Lord, according to thy name, through all the earth's life is, and shall we be with you, O Judah, let the Lord, the light of heaven, consider ye our promises, and thy wildest purge of heaven.

[20:38] That ye may tell my sternity, For this God of the mind Our God of the earth That more He will Give none to death the stride Let us turn now to read God's word In the book of the Psalms And in Psalm number 73 The book of Psalms, Psalm number 73 Psalm 73 in the book of Psalms

[21:43] Truly God is good to Israel Even to such as of a clean heart But as for me, my feet were almost gone My steps had well nigh slipped For I was envious of the foolish When I saw the prosperity of the wicked For there are no bands in their death But their strength is firm They are not in trouble as other men Neither are they plagued like other men Therefore pride compasseth them About as a chain Violence covereth them as a garment Their eyes stand out with fatness They have more than heart could wish They are corrupt and speak wickedly Concerning oppression They speak loftily They set their mouth against the heavens And their tongue walketh through the earth Therefore His people return hither

[22:46] And waters of a full cup Are wrung out to them And they say How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly Who prosper in the world They increase in riches Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain And washed my hands in innocency For all the day long have I been plagued And chastened every morning If I say I will speak thus Behold, I should offend Against the generation of thy children When I thought to know this It was too painful for me Until I went into the sanctuary of God Then understood I their end Surely thou didst set them in slippery places Thou castedst them down into destruction How are they brought into desolation As in a moment

[23:46] They are utterly consumed with terror As a dream when one awaketh So, O Lord, when thou awakest Thou shalt despise their image Thus my heart was grieved And I was pricked in my reins So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before thee Nevertheless I am continually with thee Thou hast holden me by my right hand Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel And afterward receive me to glory Whom have I in heaven but thee And there is none upon earth That I desire beside thee My flesh and my heart faileth But God is the strength of my heart And my portion forever For lo, they that are far from thee They that are far from thee shall perish Thou hast destroyed all them That go ahoring from thee But it is good for me

[24:48] To draw near to God I have put my trust in the Lord God That I may declare all thy works Amen And may God bless to us This reading of his own holy word We're going to sing again in Psalm 37 The 37th Psalm We sing verses 1 to 7 Psalm 37 from the beginning For evildoers fret thou not thyself unquietly Nor do thou envy bear to those that work iniquity For even like unto the grass soon be cut down shall they And like the green and tender herb They wither shall away Set thou thy trust upon the Lord And be thou doing good And so thou in the land shall dwell And verily have food Delight thyself in God He'll give thine heart's desire to thee Thy way to God commit Him trust

[25:49] It bring to pass shall he And like unto the light He shall thy righteousness display And he thy judgment shall bring forth Like noontide of the day Rest in the Lord And patiently wait for him Do not fret for him Who prospering in his way Success in sin doth get Psalm 37 1 to 7 For evildoers fret thou not Lord, even be the beauty of the day Thou art God Thyself unquietly Nor do thou envy bear to those Thou art iniquity

[26:50] For even like unto the gods Soon be the love shall live And there shall Home And there shall be plenty of shining out And there shall be prejudices of honour And there shall have been With the love shall And there shall have been contributors to the DEGOPt To the Gy postersכ's Mr. David For even like to acknowledge And there shall exist I'm free to do in good.

[27:45] I'm so high in that I shall go. I'm ready to be my good.

[28:03] Divine life's health and all you care. Thy heart's desire to be.

[28:22] Thy will to all come in and last. Living to God shall be.

[28:42] Alive unto the light is found. Thy right shall send stills me.

[29:00] And me thy children's coming forth. Night, noon, night, all the day.

[29:18] Let him, that Lord, my patient leads. We call him, do not fail.

[29:38] For heaven, who will continue his ways.am...

[29:52] Porque the Adam will send further all the guessing results. Amen. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.

[30:32] Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

[30:47] Now as we know, this psalm is so full of Christian experience. We see in it the person's weakness. We see them losing sight of God altogether.

[31:02] They lose a sense of their identity, a sense of God's purposes for them. They've reached the psalmist, has reached a place where he's envying the ungodly, the person who has no thought of God at all. He's come to that place where he's envying that person.

[31:22] But again, the psalm works right round until there is a rediscovery of who God actually is to him. And we've got to say that, although sometimes when you're reading through that psalm, you say to yourself, well, thankfully I'm not there.

[31:39] I can follow the latter part of it, but some of that goes on before. But I don't know. It is, this whole psalmist has in it the experience of God's people.

[31:51] Because we see here the psalmist that he, although he soars to the heights later on, he also plumbs the depth. But at no point has he ceased to be a believer.

[32:06] And the great problem for the psalmist was that he had lost his sense of God's purpose for him.

[32:17] He had lost his sense of assurance. And you know, it's a very difficult place to be where we lose our sense of belonging to God when we begin to look at things purely from a human point of view, where faith, as it were, takes a back seat and we look out at the world, we look out at our situation, we look out at all that's happening to us purely with the eyes of our senses.

[32:43] And we begin to just focus on everything that's going on round about without our eyes also looking to the Lord. And if we do that, then we'll end up in the same kind of way as Asaph did.

[32:57] And what was the, how was it that Asaph got back on track? Well, very simply by going to God's house. Because when he came to God's house, again his eyes were lifted up.

[33:10] And when his eyes were lifted up, his focus was restored. And he began to see things by faith again. And the way that he had been looking at things totally changed.

[33:23] And you know, that's one of the important things about coming to God's house. Because when we come to God's house, we all come, we're all individuals, and we come in with all our own needs and our concerns, our worries.

[33:36] We come in with different attitudes. We come in with all the baggage of the last week, of the last month, of this year. We come in with our disappointments. We come in with our sorrows, our sadnesses.

[33:49] We come in with all our hopes and our fears. Just such a variety of things. But you know, when we come into God's house, God has a wonderful way of restoring to us a right view, a right perspective, a right judgment on things.

[34:08] I'm sure there have been times, and you're aware of it, you come into, you can come into God's house, as it were, on your high horse about something. And you know, when you're there, God begins very gradually to speak to you.

[34:24] And you find yourself coming down and coming down and coming down. God has a wonderful way of humbling us in his house. He has a wonderful way of guiding us in his house, of giving us just that word that we need.

[34:38] You know, sometimes you come and you're just not too sure what to do. There's something really worrying you. And as you come to the word, whether it's in the singing or in the reading or in the preaching, then all of a sudden you seem to say, Ah, the Lord is making this clear to me now.

[34:53] Now I see. And that's one of the wonderful things about God's word and God's house, is that when we come, God has an opportunity in our lives to sort of restore the vision.

[35:07] We talk about 2020 vision. Well, there is something about God's house that spiritually will give us that vision, where we're able to look out and able to see things. Even as we look out in the world just now, so many people are, I'm not saying where there's a good reason to be perplexed and worried about how things are.

[35:28] But there's a different perspective when we have the eye of faith, because we always remember that God is in control, that he is sovereign, that nothing is happening out of his control or out of his knowledge, that he remains sovereign over all.

[35:45] And that's one of the great things that coming to God's house does. So that's what it did for the psalmist. It changed everything. And this is a place where God teaches us and instructs us and guides us and helps us.

[35:59] And he draws in close to us. You know, there's times we've come to God's house and we're maybe a bit distant and cold. And then maybe we're there for a while and gradually it's like a warmth begins to come into our hearts.

[36:16] And we shouldn't be surprised because the Lord is here with us. It's like the disciples on the Emmaus Road and they said, Did not our hearts burn within us? You see, Jesus was with them.

[36:27] And yes, he opened up the word and they began to get this glow inward warmth of soul. And God does that in his house.

[36:39] It's just like when you come in a cold night and you're not too long in the room with the sapphire on and gradually that warmth begins to get right into you and you begin to feel warm again.

[36:51] Well, God is able to do that and he does that in his house spiritually with us as well. Now, verse 23 begins and it says, Nevertheless, I am continually with you and that you hold me by the right hand.

[37:09] And I love that because in the previous verse or two, the psalmist tells us how he was. And that's in a sense amazing that God has still got a hold of him.

[37:19] Because in verse 21 and 22, it says, Thus my heart was grieved and I was pricked in my reins.

[37:31] So foolish was I and ignorant I was as a beast before. I was brutish in my behavior. And the word that we have here as grieved in verse 21 is literally bitter.

[37:46] Or your heart is bitter or your heart is sour. And that's how the psalmist was before God. He had become absolutely bitter.

[37:57] There was a bitterness that ran right through his whole being. He was sour. That's how he felt that. And it's an awful thing when you would say to yourself as a Christian, Surely a Christian can't be bitter towards God.

[38:14] Surely a Christian cannot be the possessor of a sour heart. Well, that's exactly what it tells us here. Thus was my heart bitter or sour.

[38:25] That's what it is literally. And I was pricked in my reins. And because of that, his attitude before God was like a brute beast. He said, I was no better than a beast before you.

[38:38] That's the way I was, Lord. And you know, sometimes if we're honest, our attitude can be like that as well. The way we think of God.

[38:49] We'd be ashamed. Do you ever catch yourself and you think, You see, I can't believe I'm thinking in this way. Well, that's exactly how Asaph was. When he came to God's house and his vision was restored, He can't believe the way he was thinking before.

[39:05] And sometimes that's the way it is for God's people. And that's, as we say, the beauty of coming to God's house. But the wonderful thing is that despite the ranting and raving of the psalmist beforehand, And despite all the terrible attitude, the bitter, sour attitude he had before God, Where he was looking at himself as a believer and he was saying, Waste of time.

[39:31] And he's looking around at the unbelievers, all the ungodly, And he's saying, look at them. Their lives are going so smoothly. Since I've become a believer, it's nothing but problems and troubles.

[39:43] It's been a waste of time. Washed my hand. It's vain for this. And he was envying the godless. He was looking at their lives and saying, Pah, their lives are a piece of cake.

[39:55] Mine's nothing but trouble. Of course, he went to God's house. Then his vision was restored. And he saw that those that he was envying were actually standing on a slippery slope, Ready to slide into destruction.

[40:10] And he realized, when his vision was restored, that he had everything. And that's why it's so important that we come to God's word and to God's house, So that our vision is restored.

[40:24] But that's what I was saying. That's the wonderful thing about God's unconditional love. Is despite the ranting and raving of the psalmist, Despite his terrible attitude of heart, God hasn't turned his back on him.

[40:38] God hasn't abandoned him. God is still with him. That's the beauty of it. Because that's what he says. Nevertheless, In other words, despite all I've been, All I've said, All I've thought, Lord, despite all that, You are continually with me.

[41:00] Isn't that amazing? Still there all the time. And, How thankful we are, That God's love is unchanging.

[41:12] God doesn't think that, God isn't like, We're so unpredictable. We're forever changing. We're so emotional. We're so, Governed often by our feelings, And governed by our circumstances, And governed by so many things.

[41:28] God is always consistently who he is. And his love never changes. His love to you never changes. That's a beautiful thing, Is it?

[41:39] And so, The psalmist is saying, You're still there. And even though I'm a brute, You're holding me by the hand. By my right hand.

[41:50] The hand that we normally use, That's the hand that would be, That we use to greet people. The hand that is normally, Some people are ambidextrous, Some people, The left hand is, But normally it's a right hand.

[42:04] And so, He's there saying, Lord, You still hold me, By my right hand. Isn't that beautiful? And then he says in verse 24, Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, And afterward receive me to glory.

[42:18] And here's the, The psalmist has vision restored, And he's seeing what God is doing. And he says, You guide me with thy counsel. Now this word counsel, Can mean two things.

[42:31] It can mean, The counsel of God, Can often mean, His purposes, His plans, For the world, But particularly, In the psalmist situation, For the psalmist, And for you today.

[42:47] When you say that the Lord would guide you, By his counsel, You can think there of, His plans, His purposes for you. You see, The Lord has a predetermined purpose and plan, For every single person.

[43:03] And, We read about that in the New Testament, About running the Christian race, And it's put down like this, Let us run the race, That is set before us. God has set out a course.

[43:16] And, Sometimes we might feel our lives are quite random. They're never random. God has a purpose. He has a plan, For your life. And the plan that He has for your life, May be very different.

[43:29] And it will be different, To the plan and purpose, That He has for other people's lives. Sometimes, We look at our own life, And if we lose our focus on the Lord a bit, We wish that our, That the purpose that God had for us, Was the one that He has for somebody else.

[43:46] And we look at somebody else's life, And we say, I wish these were the plans, God had for my life. But you see, God has a purpose and a plan, For everybody's life.

[43:57] And there are times, Along that course, The race that is set before us, Where we feel that everything's going against us. But you know, If you're a believer, It's not. And there's many a good believer, Whoever has thought that.

[44:11] David, David, Had been promised the kingdom, And yet, For years, He was hunted, Like the deer, Out in the moor. And for years, He was saying, You'd hear him sometimes say, Surely one day, I'm going to die, By the hand of Saul.

[44:27] He thought, Oh no, That's not going to work. You look at Joseph, And he had, He had, He believed promises from God. And yet, He ended for that great future.

[44:39] And he spent years, In a dungeon in Egypt. And he'd be saying, Lord, What on earth is going on here? You look at Jacob, Jacob was another person.

[44:51] Remember Jacob, What did he say at one time? All these things are against me. My whole life, That's what Jacob is saying. Everything's against me.

[45:04] My family, Every single thing, Everything that is happening in my life, It's all going against me. No, Jacob, You got that one wrong. Everything that's happening in your life, God is actually working, Not only for your good, But also for the good of society, For the good of his people.

[45:23] And you see, Sometimes we've got to see beyond just our shelf. Because God is often working, Yes, Through us, For other people. It's not just about us.

[45:36] Sometimes we think it is. But it's not just about us. God involves your life with other people's lives, In all the purposes and plans. But everything is working together for good, To those who love the Lord Jesus Christ.

[45:51] And sometimes it's hard for us to take hold of that, Particularly if things are tough. And maybe today you're having a, Maybe you have a bad day, Bad week, Bad month, Bad year, Bad years.

[46:04] You're still following the Lord, But you can't understand, Lord, Why? This doesn't, Sometimes this doesn't make sense to me. But God always has a purpose in it, Even though we cannot see it.

[46:17] It might not wait till we get to glory, That we'll then say, Oh man, Now I see the pattern, The purpose. God could have taken Israel, Out of Egypt, And taken them to the promised land, In a very short time.

[46:33] But it took 40 years. But throughout these 40 years, God was at work in them. He was molding them, And shaping them, And preparing them, For the land he was going to give them.

[46:45] The land flowing with milk and honey. If they had gone straight there, They wouldn't have been ready for it. It would have been an absolute disaster. God had to break them, And to mold them, And to shape them, And prepare them, For what he had prepared for them.

[47:03] And that's what God is doing in your life, And in my life as well. He's molding us, He's shaping us, He's breaking us, And be quite, You and I know, It's a horrible thing, If anything is broken.

[47:15] If you break something, It's painful. And so it is spiritually, When God is breaking us, It's painful as well. But he has always a goal in view, An end in view.

[47:28] So that's one meaning of the counsel. You'll guide me by your counsel, By the purpose you have for me. Another word for meaning of counsel, Is simply instruction.

[47:40] And of course we know that that's, What God does, That God instructs us, Through the word. That every day, When we come to the word, That we ask the Lord, Lord, Open my eyes, That I might behold wonderful things, Out of your law.

[47:57] Lord, Teach me in the way, That I should go. Guide me, With your eye. And, I think it's a great evidence, Of being a Christian, If it is your desire, That your life, Will be directed by God.

[48:14] Lord. You see, A non-Christian, Never thinks like that. A non-Christian will say, Look, This is my life, And I call the shots in my life. Don't want anybody else, Calling the shots.

[48:26] But a Christian, Their attitude changes. And they say, Lord, I know that you know, What's best. Lord, Will you guide me, In the right way.

[48:37] In the way that's good for myself. The way that's good for my home, For my family, For my community, But above all, The way that is right, For your glory. And if that's what you're thinking is, I would say that only a believer, Can think that way.

[48:53] A non-Christian, Doesn't think that way. So that's, That's what the psalmist, Is here talking about, That he will be guided, By the Lord's counsel.

[49:05] And then, Afterward, Receive me to glory. And you know, That's what it's all been about, Is the preparation, For this glory. And, This word, That we have here, To receive me to glory, Is the same word, That is used for the translation, Of Enoch, To heaven.

[49:25] Remember how it uses that word, That Enoch was translated. Well, Basically, He was received, To glory. Enoch was the man, Who walked with God.

[49:36] One day he wasn't there. People couldn't find him, Didn't know what had happened to Enoch. But God just took him. Body and soul, Took him to glory. And as people often highlight, That there are, The three great stages, In the world's history.

[49:52] Pre-flood, And from the flood, To the time of Christ, And into where we are today. That we have Enoch, From before the, From, Before the flood, And he's, He's taken to glory, Body and soul.

[50:09] And then we have Elijah, In this period, From the flood, To the time of Christ, And he's in glory, Body and soul. He didn't die. And then of course, We have our Lord and Saviour, In our body, Resurrected body, And he also is in glory.

[50:27] And so, We know that, For everybody, There will come the time, When every individual, That has fallen asleep, In Jesus, Or, Rises up to meet him, When he returns, Will be there, Body and soul as well.

[50:43] So, Taken to glory. And, The wonderful thing, About glory, Is that it touches, Every aspect of, Of our being, And of, Our environment.

[50:53] You see, Glory, Glory, Will affect, When we arrive in glory, It will affect everything, About who we are. We will become glorious. It's hard to believe. But our whole being, Will be right, And pure, And perfect.

[51:09] Our understanding, Our thinking, Our motive, Everything, Will be glorious. It's hard for us, To grasp that. But also, The environment, That we'll be in, Will be glorious.

[51:23] There won't be any cloud, Of darkness, On the horizon. Anything to threaten us. There will be no sign, Or hint of sin, Or temptation, Or any of these things.

[51:38] Altogether glorious. We'll be glorious within. Because we will fully, Resemble, The risen, Saviour. Isn't that incredible? That version of scripture, One of the most amazing, Verses, Tells us often, Glory, We shall be like him.

[51:56] Isn't that incredible? Like him? Who, People often say, Oh, you look like so, And so, You look like so, Well, Every believer, Is going to look like Jesus. We're going to be like him, Resemble him, In his perfect, Being, As, As, Our saviour, Resembling, Our mediator.

[52:18] And so, Glory is this, Amazing place. People sometimes wonder, Why doesn't the scripture, If that's where we're going to spend, All eternity, Why doesn't the scripture, Tell us more, About glory?

[52:29] Well, It, It tells us a lot about glory. But, We've also got to remember, We can only, Understand a little, Because, Our understanding, Is so limited.

[52:40] We're governed, By time, We are finite beings, And, We cannot grasp, What it's like, To be in a sinless, Pure environment.

[52:51] And we ourselves, To be utterly, And altogether, Sinless, And pure. These things, We read about them, We believe them, That's what faith does, That's the beauty of faith, Faith lays hold upon that, And says, You know what, I don't understand it, But I know it's true, As sure as I'm sitting here, As sure as I'm standing here, As sure as I am here today, I believe it to be true, Even although, I cannot understand, I read about it, I lay hold upon it, And I am absolutely persuaded, That everything it says, Is true, And will be fulfilled, In my own experience, That's what faith does, It brings what's, What you can't see with the eye, It brings it into vision, It brings the experiences, That you can't lay hold upon, To know, That this is, This is reality, That this is true, So that's, That's what faith does, Big question I have to ask today,

[53:51] Do you want to go to glory? Because glory is being with Christ, To be with Christ, Of course we're told, Is far better, And the psalmist goes on to say, Whom have I in heaven, But thee, And there is none on earth, That I desire besides thee, Just in a word, We'd say nobody, But a believer can say that, Because that's, That's an amazing statement, Of faith, Whom have I in heaven, But thee, And there is none upon earth, That I desire, Besides thee, See this is, Isn't that, Hasn't the psalmist come a long way, From where he's saying, Verse 2, But as for me, My feet were almost gone, My steps had well nigh slipped, I was envious of the foolish, When I saw the prosperity of the wicked, Verse 13, Saying, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, And washed my hands in innocency,

[54:54] Here we are, Verse 25, Whom have I in heaven, But thee, And there is none upon earth, That I desire beside thee, My word, How his vision has been restored, He stopped envying the wicked, He stopped looking at all the other things, And his focus is now upon, The true gold, The gold that never perishes, And this is where his vision is, And I have to ask you, Where is your vision today, What are you looking at, Who are you looking at, Of course we're caught up in this world, And it's only right that we are, We work, We live, We interact, We share, We're involved in all sort of different things, And, But in it all, And through it all, Where's our focus, Is the Lord at the heart of it, Because if not, Then we're going to get bogged down, And this world will become difficult for us, But you know, If our focus is upon the Lord, It changes everything,

[55:55] And so that's what we see here, With this man, And, So then, So many things that we could say, With time, As we move on, Verse 26, My flesh and my heart faileth, But God is the strength of my heart, And my portion forever, Well the one thing the psalmist has discovered, And we have as well, That the arm of flesh, Is always going to fail, You see the flesh and the spirit, Are contrary one to the other, One works against the other, And we know the, We know all the influences, And the power of the spirit, And the psalmist knows, How powerful it is, You and I know as well, You and I know how easily it is, How easy it is to be dragged down, Dragged down spiritually, We know what it's like, To trust ourselves, We know what it's like, To trust others, We know what it's like, To trust systems, We know what it's like, Not to trust God,

[56:56] As we should, You know there's one thing, Where we come, And every believer, Has trusted the Lord, And it's something, That has happened, It's a once and for all, When we come to faith, But that daily trust, That's something else, Where every day, You know what the Lord says to us, Trust in the Lord, With all your heart, And lean not, To your own understanding, In all your ways, Acknowledge him, He will direct your paths, And you know, That's something we need to, Remember and learn, Every day, Because sometimes, It's hard for us, To trust the Lord, That's what the psalmist, Has come to discover, That he cannot, Trust himself, And I hope that you and I, Have come to that place as well, Because the only one, That he can trust, Is the Lord, And then he says, My flesh and my heart faileth, But God is the strength of my heart, And my portion forever,

[57:57] That word, Strength of my heart, God is the rock of my heart, That which is, Unmovable, That which is unbreakable, That which is fixed, God is the rock of my heart, You can have all the wounds of this world, And all the fires of this world, And all the pressures of this world, Blowing and raging, But if God is the rock of my heart, I'll stay fixed, Because God will keep me fixed, I can't keep myself fixed, But God will keep me fixed, And that's so important, Because, It won't be long until, We have to face death, That's one of the inevitables of life, That we face death, And you know, The beauty is, That if the Lord is the rock of our heart, If the Lord is the one that, As the psalmist is saying, Who has hold of my right hand, The one who is guiding me, By his counsel, Then we don't need to fear death,

[59:00] Because, The immovable Lord, Has a hold of us, In fact it says, The psalmist finishes by saying, But God is the strength of my heart, And my portion forever, And do you know what's, Very interesting, When the psalmist says, The Lord is the portion of my heart, If we could go somewhere else in scripture, You know what it tells us?

[59:22] That God's people, Are his portion, In this world, Isn't that amazing? God looks out over this whole world, And when you think of, All the resources, That are in this world, If you were to sum up, And gather the value, Of all the gold, And silver, And all the oil, And gas, And all the, Talking today of great global prices, Of these energy, And bring all the resources, Of this world together, I don't know if there would be a calculator, To work out how much, How many billions, Trillions of worth it would be, That's not the Lord's portion, It's not the wealth of palaces, Kings, It's his people, My people are my portion, In this world, That's what he says, Isn't that a wonderful thought, Today, As a believer, You are God's portion, In this world, And the psalmist here is saying,

[60:24] Lord, And you're my portion, Isn't that wonderful, And that's how it is in this world, And that's how it will be forever, You make sure today, That the Lord is your portion, In this world, And that he is the rock, Of your life, Let's pray, Lord our God, We again give thanks, For coming around your word, Reflecting on it, Thinking about it, Thinking about who you are, Help us Lord, To rejoice, In what your truth tells us, About yourself, And about your relationship, To us, About who we are, In your sight, Watch over us then, We pray, And cleanse us from our sin, Take us all home safely, Do us good, And forgive us for Jesus' sake, Amen.