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[0:00] Please turn your Bibles to Psalm 146, our sermon text for today. If you need a Bible, you're welcome to take one off the back table as a gift for us to you.

[0:14] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God where I have my being. Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

[0:29] When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is it the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.

[0:54] The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down. The Lord loves the righteous.

[1:06] The Lord watches over the sojourners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless. But the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The Lord will reign forever.

[1:16] The Lord will reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you. All right.

[1:27] Cool work. All right. Morning church. Thanks. For those of you who don't know, like Andrew said, my name is Kyle Spivey. I'm a member here. I'm a husband to Megan, dad to a couple, four boys.

[1:43] I've been going to this church for a while. So it's an honor that I get to come up here this morning to bring these words from Psalm 146, a psalm that the Lord placed on my heart one morning when I was getting ready to lead music and I forgot to pick out a psalm.

[1:58] So I read this one and I said, that's a really good psalm. And then Mike said, Kyle, do you want to preach? Sure. Preach on the psalm I read this morning. So that's what kind of brought us here.

[2:10] So let's pray. We'll dive in a little bit and see what God's doing through this text to us here today in 26. God, you are a good and loving God.

[2:23] Lord, you have done so much in us and for us. God, you sent your son to die for us. And Lord, so we can gather here this morning to read the words of a psalmist from thousands of years ago and see how it applies here in our lives.

[2:43] With words that were written to a people most likely under Babylonian captivity that we can read here in 2026 in southeastern Connecticut, people from all over the world, various walks, backgrounds, occupations, positions.

[3:05] To be here this morning, to hear these words, to think about these things, to praise your name. God, be with me as I bring these words.

[3:16] Work in my heart as you have. Continue to work. Open the ears and the hearts of those that are here this morning. Those that are listening, may their ears hear the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed.

[3:29] God, we love you and thank you. Amen. So, before I get into this, what kind of God's worked in my heart, I'm going to read the introduction that a pastor, Alistair Begg, gave on this exact same psalm in 1986.

[3:51] It was the psalm that he preached the first Sunday of 1986. So, for those of you who are around in there, between 1985 and 1986, maybe this means something a little bit more than it does to me, but it was a good thing for me to hear.

[4:07] And this is how we're going to start it. So, he said, the Bible speaks to our times. We don't have to search for verses or places that need to be relevant. It comes with clarity even as we hasten to the end of the 20th century.

[4:21] So much of the literature, which back then was pretty much just newspapers and magazines, of the last week centers around the change from 1985 to 1986. Against the backdrop of this technological age comes the words of the psalmist this morning.

[4:34] I want the words to be close to our hearts because when we read this stuff, it's possible for us to be moved here and there by all kind of whims. And as I read this kind of literature this week, I recall the words of the president of France 10 years earlier in 1976.

[4:50] The world is not happy because it doesn't know where it's going. It senses that if it knew, it would discover it's headed to disaster. And Alistair continues. And in our present day and age, when the dimensions of time and space have lost their significance, when the possibility of global disintegration looms large on the horizon on many people's minds, there is, I believe, a unique opportunity for the gospel.

[5:14] There is an increasing spiritual hunger for the values it will sustain in certain times of crisis. There is an increased looking around. The cults understand it. Islam does. Buddhism. And it beholds us to name the name of Christ to understand it also.

[5:28] So let's go into this new year proclaiming the gospel of Christ. Honestly, I was kind of taken aback by that introduction because those are some of the same words that I would give here 40 years later.

[5:40] Right? The distractions of the technological age. To me, thinking of 1985 as a technological age doesn't make any sense. The looming destruction of the world.

[5:51] The disintegration, like the goodbye of the world. 1985, 2026. We look around, we see the news. We have more, the accessibility to the news is more than it has ever been.

[6:03] So these words, written by a psalmist thousands of years ago, most likely during like a Babylonian captivity time, written to a people, the Israelites, was preached in 1986, is coming this morning in 2026.

[6:21] So the words from then all the way through history are still relevant and true here today. So let's hear what the psalm is saying as we dive into this.

[6:32] So Psalm 146 is situated at the beginning of the end of the book. So this is 146 to 150 are the psalms of praise.

[6:42] It's the hallelujah psalms. It's the end of the Psalter. Each one of these, if you look in your Bible, starts and ends with praise the Lord. Slightly different kind of directions for each of them, but the idea and the calling from each of the psalmists is to praise the Lord.

[6:57] So if you look at this psalm as a whole, it's clear that praise is the theme. Praise can be defined as to express warm approval, admiration, or honor, or the active ascription of value or worth.

[7:14] It's rooted in the Latin word meaning price or value. So if you look at this psalm, you can see that it's clear praise is the theme. It shows up four times in the first two verses, and then again at the last, which the psalmist is trying to remind us of who God is and that he should be the focus of our lives.

[7:33] It's a PTL sandwich. What's the sandwich got in it? A heavy dose of God. God is the clear subject of the psalm. Reference to God is at least 14 times in these 10 verses, with much of it actually describing who he is and how he acts.

[7:51] We hear in a lot of the psalms, the psalmist is reaching out to God. God, why? God, what are you doing? Thank you, God. But this psalm is written to a congregation to remind them to praise the Lord and defines then who God is, the God that he's calling them to praise.

[8:08] And in this is a clear warning. Multiple names are used for God. The warning we'll get to. So now that we've got our sandwich, I've got two questions for you to chew on.

[8:19] How is your praise life? Who is your trust in? So these questions may seem different, but they get to the same place.

[8:31] And that first question, how is your praise life, is a question that I don't think we ask too much. I think normally the question we hear at Shoreline and around the Christian culture is, Matt, how's your prayer life?

[8:43] Brad, how's your prayer life? Whoever, how is your prayer life? I don't think we ask the question, how is your praise life? But I think it reflects some of the same things. These questions can be asked a little bit differently.

[8:55] How does your praise life reflect your trust life? So I think that provides the backdrop. So we're going to walk through the psalm and see how these two questions play out. I think in the end we'll see that the psalmist called to not trust in princes and to trust in his God.

[9:12] To heed his warning and to trust in his God. We'll break it into four sections here. The outline for today is the call, which is the first two verses, the warning, the next two, the promise, and then the reminder.

[9:27] So let's, next slide. We'll start with the call. And this is the psalmist's call to essentially a lifelong occupation. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.

[9:38] I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. So from a structural and song standpoint, right? This is the psalmist writing a song that he's giving to the congregation in Israel.

[9:52] So from a song standpoint, this is the music leader's encouragement to get their heart in a posture and a place of praise. This is Ethan and Megan this morning calling us into worship by saying, hey, we're going to praise the God.

[10:05] Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. But he has in this, this, this call to do it with your soul. So from the center of who you are.

[10:17] And then as long as I live while I have my being. So we praise from our soul, as long as we live, as long as we have our being. And that's a heavy call. He, I don't know who the psalmist was, we don't have that context, is calling us to praise the Lord no matter what, as long as we live.

[10:37] I can tell you from my own life how difficult that can actually be, right? One of the things Megan and I unfortunately joke about as she leaves because our kid is crying, speaking of difficulty. One of the things Megan and I joke about, which is an ironic joke, is how difficult it can be when you're prepping and preparing to preach.

[10:56] And how Satan tends to just kind of attack little things at a time. And this is no different, right? When I wrote these words, whenever I wrote them, thinking about this, it was true for family life and some work stuff.

[11:11] And then even on the way here this morning, our car decided to do the automatic stop. When I turned it off, or I turned it back on, the car shut off. And Megan just proclaimed, get behind me, Satan.

[11:22] Right? And that's exactly like these little things that we see. But the psalmist is calling us to praise God no matter what. So in the difficult times, we can look to a Lord who we're going to learn about here, who is kind and loving.

[11:36] A God who truly cares about each of us. Who mourns when we mourn. And rejoices when we rejoice. In the difficult, we can still praise Him.

[11:46] So as long as we have our soul, as long as I live, I'll sing praises to my God. And that's the psalmist's call here this morning. The introduction to this psalm and much of the end of the psalms.

[11:59] I'm talking to a friend yesterday who was talking about teaching his kids what it means to walk in times of suffering. Right? There's that discipleship. There's that learning that even we can teach these young kids early on in their lives.

[12:11] Hey, this is what we're going through. This is what's going on in life. But how do we walk and learn what suffering is, and yet turn to God and continue to praise Him? It doesn't mean we're dismissing and ignoring the facts of life.

[12:25] Because the facts are real. Mourning and suffering is true. And we want to go to God with that. But the psalmist here this morning is writing to a people, most likely under Babylonian captivity, and calling them to praise their God.

[12:39] As long as they live, no matter what. So are you praising when it's only going well, when things are clicking? When life is easy? When marriage is going great?

[12:50] When the job is going fantastic? When the kids are listening? Or are you grumbling the way the Israelites did as they walked through the wilderness for 40 years, even though God was providing exactly what they needed?

[13:04] When their sandals didn't wear out over 40 years, which is crazy to think because Owen's shoes have ripped to shreds in less than a year. But God provided exactly what they needed as they were walking through, yet they grumbled.

[13:18] And we'll see in a little bit who God is and what he's done. So the first two verses, this introduction, this call, this lifelong occupation that the psalmist is calling us to, is to praise him, to praise him no matter what.

[13:32] And I could sit kind of in these two verses and we can talk about praise, and what does it mean to praise? How do we praise? Why do we praise? But the psalmist has a bunch of other verses we're going to keep walking through, because he has more to say.

[13:43] So the next part, the warning. So the psalmist continues on here in verses 3 and 4. Put not your trust in the princes, in a son of man in whom there is no salvation.

[13:54] When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish. So a couple questions. Anybody ever hope that the next president would solve whatever issues, but then you were frustrated because he didn't?

[14:11] Or the new job would make life easier? Or the new employee would make life easier? Or that next kid would solve the problems in your life? Anyone hope in all those things, but then to realize that even the best of man is man at best?

[14:29] At the end of the day, man perishes. Princes, you could kind of put that as an idol. Let's use that synonym. But these verses point to a clear warning.

[14:41] And it can be true in any point in history. The psalm written to the Israelites, the psalm preached to a congregation in central and northern Ohio in 1986, and the psalm proclaimed here this morning in southeastern Connecticut.

[14:56] It's true. Put not your trust in princes and the son of man in whom there is no salvation. At the end of the day, we've seen where things fail, where people fail.

[15:07] The next best thing will not fix all your problems. The Israelites in Babylonian captivity were hoping that somebody would come and save them from Babylon.

[15:21] Save them from whoever was holding them hostage. But ultimately, it wasn't them. It wasn't a prince. It wasn't a son of man who came to save them. But it was the son of man.

[15:32] And verse 4 continues to pile this on, right? This warning. When his breath departs, it returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish. There's no salvation in anything other than Christ.

[15:45] When man dies, he's dead. And all of his plans perish. The unrighteous, the ungodly, the prince of this world ultimately fail us. Nothing in this world can satisfy the way that Christ does.

[15:58] The way that God does. So the psalmist's call here this morning is to praise the Lord. There are many princes, idols that we could use. Trust in anything outside of God and Christ, as we'll see here in a minute.

[16:11] For salvation results in utter disappointment and failure. I've failed as a husband, a father, an employee, a friend. Megan, I'm sorry, but as much as I try, I'm probably going to do that again.

[16:28] Right? Right? But thankfully, Megan's hope is not in me, but it's in Christ. And Christ wasn't just a son of man.

[16:39] He was the son of man. And when his breath departed, he went to the earth. But the beautiful thing about that is that the earth did not contain him. When he was put in the earth, the earth shook.

[16:52] It ripped curtains in two. And his plans did not perish. They were complete. So this morning, in 2026, we can look at these verses written to an Israelite nation who was under captivity, who was hoping for salvation.

[17:08] And we can look back and say that this salvation has been given in Christ. When his breath departed, he died. He went to the grave. But he did not stay dead.

[17:19] Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Heed this psalmist's warning. Don't trust in things of this world because they perish. But lean on Christ. Lean on God.

[17:33] And that's what the next thing, the promise, is. This is a single verse, but it's the center point of the entire passage. Blessed is those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is the Lord is God.

[17:44] And again, I could probably just leave this here. And we can talk about who is this God of Jacob. What does it mean to hope in the Lord God? The warning not to trust in this world culminates with an understanding in this verse.

[18:02] It culminates with the promise that those whose help is the God of Jacob, the God of Israel, the Lord, will be blessed. Some of the translations will say happy is the one whose help is the God of Jacob.

[18:15] So that blessing, that happiness is rooted in a true joy. But we also know that life isn't always easy. The blessing of life isn't an easy life.

[18:28] But the blessing of life is Jesus Christ. The blessing comes through the Lord. It's not tied to our actions or effort, but where our heart and our hope is.

[18:39] So is your hope in the Lord God, or is it trusting in something here in this earth? Blessings can be seen everywhere. And what God created is good.

[18:50] We look outside, we can see creation. As Romans says, creation points to who God is and what he's done. So we can look outside and it can be good. Things in this world are needed and necessary.

[19:02] But is our hope in those things or in our hope in the creator of those things? What we praise and how we praise, right? This is a psalm of praise, so we don't want to just lose sight of the, I use the word hope and trust.

[19:16] But ultimately, praise is what we're saying, right? Praise is to ascribe value or worth to something. One pastor said, So in the Old Testament, we see God at work.

[19:42] He blessed Jacob. We see the hope that he gave Jacob for a salvation that was going to come through his people. And Israel failed. They trusted in princes. They trusted in man.

[19:54] That's why the psalmist is writing these words. He's not just writing, praise the Lord, because of all that he's done. But he's writing this because he has to input verses 3 and 4 to warn the people that he's writing to. Praise the Lord.

[20:05] Don't trust in man, but trust in God. Because when he talks about the God of Jacob, the people in Israel are like, Oh yeah, no, I remember that history. I remember when my parents taught me that. The promise that he gave Jacob is the promise of a hope for a future Messiah who's going to take Israel into the Holy Land.

[20:22] In the Old Testament, we see God who does all the things that we're going to talk to in a second. His promise to Jacob was a hope for something greater and next. And we have that same hope and that same God.

[20:33] The God of Jacob is the God that we serve here today. The God that sent his son, Jesus Christ, to live that perfect life. To die the death that we deserve. So that we can spend eternity with Christ.

[20:44] And that's the true blessing, right? The true blessing is the ability to meet here with this body of believers. If you look around the room and you see people that you've never met before. This is the people God has brought to this room at this moment.

[20:56] So that we can be encouraged and edified. That we can hear these words and we can encourage one another. We can talk to one another. We can hold each other accountable. Those are good things. So this is a good thing to meet here and to talk.

[21:12] Because we're serving the God of Jacob. The Lord who we sang about so well. So the Israelites were in captivity. Waiting for redemption.

[21:23] But we know that Christ came thousands of years later. And he redeemed his people. And his people were not just the Israelites, but it's all of us. So, the reminder.

[21:37] This next section. This is the biggest portion of this text. So it's the God, right? So it's the God who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them.

[21:50] Who keeps faith forever. Who executes justice for the oppressed. Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord sets the prisoners free. The Lord opens the eyes of the blind. The Lord lifts up those who are about down.

[22:02] The Lord loves the righteous. The Lord watches over the prisoners. He upholds the widow and the fatherless. But the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. And this is who the psalmist is declaring that we should praise.

[22:14] That we should hold to. These are the verses to make us smile and nod. Because we look at these verses and we can see, yeah, God did that in the Old Testament. We see Jesus did that in the New Testament. And I've seen him do that in my own life.

[22:26] So feel free to any point to give that hallelujah or amen. Because when you read these verses, this is the God that we serve. This is who the psalmist is calling us to put our hope and trust in. And to praise him for all of our days.

[22:39] This is the God that made heaven and earth. The sea and all that's in it. That's what we were reading in Genesis. We studied the creation. And who God is and what he did.

[22:52] Executes justice for the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. That's Exodus. Right? We see Genesis in the creation. We see the Exodus narrative where the Israelites were under the oppression and the slavery within Egypt.

[23:03] And then God brings them out of Egypt into the promised land. Or almost to the promised land. And then they walk around for 40 years. But he provided exactly what they need.

[23:15] He set those prisoners free. This is a God who made promise to Adam and Eve. That the line from them would crush the head of Satan.

[23:26] The promises to Noah, as we've read. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David. Many others. All which we see come true in scripture. In the Old Testament, we see God do all these things for his people.

[23:40] And Isaiah writes about this a little bit. So in Isaiah 61, it says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

[23:53] He has sent me to bind the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives. And opening of the prison to those who are bound. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. The day of vengeance of our God.

[24:03] To comfort all who mourn. Does anybody know where that's quoted? I know Phil does. Because he brought it up in community group this week. Luke 4. Thank you.

[24:14] Exactly. Those are the words that Jesus read. When he was in the synagogue. Picture Jesus walking over to the scrolls. Grabbing a scroll. Rolling it out.

[24:25] Reading this. And then sitting down. But what he says at the end after he reads this. Is what makes it truly shocking. Jesus says in Luke 4. After reading Isaiah 61. Today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

[24:39] That's insane. The psalmist writes that the Lord does these things. Isaiah writes. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. And he's going to bring good news to the poor.

[24:51] Bind the brokenhearted. They're sent me to bind the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives. Opening the prison of those who are bound. And Jesus said. Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

[25:04] We see the gospels that Jesus does all of this. The psalm. Although not necessarily like a messianic psalm. Points to who God is. What God does.

[25:15] Defines who they are serving. This God. But then Christ who is God. Does the exact same thing. Right? God's character is Christ's character. And we see that fulfilled in who Christ is.

[25:27] This is our Savior. This is Jesus Christ. Who came to live a life that we could not live. To die the death we deserve. So in Matthew 9. Jesus opened the eyes of the blind. In Luke 13.

[25:38] Jesus raised those who are bowed down. In Matthew 13. He loved the righteous. Matthew 8. He watched over the sojourners. Luke 7. He blessed the fatherless and the widow. Then in Matthew 21.

[25:51] He brought the way of the wicked to ruin. He flipped the tables. He cared for the oppressed. Promised living water to the woman at the well. Set legion free from the bondage of demonic possession. Opened the eyes of the blind.

[26:02] Picked up those that couldn't walk. This is our God. This is our Savior. This is who the psalmist is calling us to praise. So are you? If not, what's holding you back?

[26:17] We see mercy here. We see justice. And we know that justice and mercy met at Calvary. We may not see it, but we've seen it throughout history.

[26:29] The way of the wicked truly is brought to ruin. It doesn't mean they won't be successful for a time in their endeavors. It doesn't mean that there are famous people who are wealthy.

[26:40] Who seem to be doing well. They may prosper, but their plan, as verse 4 says, the selfish pursuit of riches, fame, or whatever, ultimately dies and rots.

[26:51] But those that trust in the Lord will be renewed. Those who put on faith in Christ and call on his name and seek him in the end will have renewed strength and vigor. The way of the Lord is sweet, but there's no promise that it's easy.

[27:05] So the reminder is this. This is the God that we serve. This is a God who created heaven and earth. The God who opens the eyes of the blind. And we see that in Scripture.

[27:16] We see him physically open the eyes of the blind. Physically set the prisoners free. But I know that I can talk to any one of you who proclaim the name of Christ. And you will say that I was once blind, but now I see.

[27:26] I was once dead in my sin and my trespasses running to the pit of hell, but then Christ, you grabbed me and put me into your kingdom. So we look at these words and we can see that what God did in the Old Testament, what Jesus is saying, doing in the New Testament, is what he continues to do in us here today.

[27:48] Praise the Lord that this is a God that we can serve. Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress says that he stays on the path. At times he gets off and it's bad. Though it gets difficult, the good king is protecting him.

[28:01] God calls us to simply trust and obey. Trust and rely. His call can come at a great price and it's difficult at times. But it promises something so much greater.

[28:17] So church, back to the two questions. Where is your trust and where is your hope? How is your praise life? How does your praise life reflect who you're trusting in? Is it in the prince of the world in which there is no salvation?

[28:30] Who ends up back in the earth? Or is it in the Lord who made all? Who keeps all, protects, provides, sustains, loves, and so much more.

[28:43] In the end, the Lord will reign forever. If you go to the next slide, Jason. The psalm ends the same way that it begins. And it's what I called the call. This is the reminder of the call. It's the repetition of that first verse.

[28:56] The Lord will reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord. It's the phrase at the beginning, at the end. The Lord will reign forever.

[29:07] To all generations and we've seen that. It's why we can read Genesis. We can read the psalms and listen to sermons from Spurgeon or Alistair Begg or whoever else.

[29:20] And it's true. And we can say, yeah, that's a true statement from 1986. And it's 2026. And I still have the exact same fears. And that's exactly what the psalmist was combating when he wrote this to their congregation.

[29:36] This psalm points to Christ. That the Lord will reign. The plans of princes of man come to ruin. But the plans of God do not.

[29:48] This points to Christ. So is it in your trust in God or is it in something else? Is your trust what you're putting your praise in? What you're ascribing value to?

[29:59] That new house? A new relationship? A new job out in Washington? New something? Or is it in the God who created and loves you?

[30:11] The question comes with actions and applications though, right? Do you have people in your life that you can reach out to and have this conversation about what is your hope? Where is your trust? Are you in community groups or discipleship relationships?

[30:29] We serve a God who sent his son to die for our sins and serving him rather than anything else is a proverbial slap in his face. Right? He died so that we can sit here this morning reading this psalm, calling us to praise him.

[30:47] And these psalms are written so that we can hear it. Right? This psalm is calling us to praise him and trust in him. Psalm 62 that Matt preached on two weeks ago was calling us to wait on him. Waiting and trusting are in the same family.

[31:00] And it's not easy. Waiting on the Lord is trusting that he has a better plan than anything we could ever hope or imagine. So am I exalting something to a level of importance that's blocking my view of God?

[31:16] Right? It's not that God is hiding. But am I exalting something to put it in a place that's distracting me from who God is? Is my praise going somewhere else? Right?

[31:28] Praise as we defined it. The active ascription of value or worth. So church, we've talked about praise. We've talked about trust. So what does it mean to praise God?

[31:39] How do we in 2026 praise God? Praise, if we're talking about ascribing value or worth, means that you're spending time with God.

[31:50] It's in self-Bible study. It's in community group Bible study. It's in small groups. It's serving in church. It's Andrew who's serving in kids today as he encouraged all of us.

[32:03] It's greeting. It's showing a smile to those who might need a smile first thing in the morning. It's serving in kids for those that have the ability, the capability.

[32:16] It's a blessing over there. I've served over there. I serve over there. Usually on the first Sunday, but Rob and I switched this week. It's awesome to see the kids' faces light up when they start connecting who God is and what the gospel is.

[32:32] So praising God is ascribing value. It's a gift of time. Are you spending your time thinking about the Lord? And I know life can be busy. It's difficult. But where is our heart?

[32:46] Where is our mind? Where are we spending our money? Are we tithing the way that God calls us to tithe? Did you expect I was going to talk about money when we talk about praising the Lord? But honestly, God has gifted us with finances.

[33:02] Are we trusting him with those things? Are we teaching our kids and our friends and our family that we want to come to church, that church is a joy to come to?

[33:15] Or are we begrudgingly dragging them every Sunday and saying, we have to go to church. We have to. Are we teaching our friends, our family, our kids that we want to be here?

[33:25] We want to serve and worship the Lord. So praise can be a slew of things. So church, how is your praise life? Where is your trust? And for those of you who don't know who Christ is this morning, when I'm saying these things, you're like, yeah, it doesn't make any sense.

[33:44] My car is more important than my faith or a faith or a God. I want you to know that car will get ruined.

[33:57] But Christ will not. I want to ask you, where is your hope? Where is your trust? And what would happen if all of a sudden that thing that you exalt so highly, that thing that you're spending so much time on just disappeared?

[34:09] I'm not saying that that's not a good thing. God has given us gifts that we should spend our time and take good care of. Right? We're called to be stewards of what he has given us.

[34:20] But God reigns supreme forever and ever. The piece of pizza from modern pizza that I want so bad will only last so long.

[34:35] The new house will eventually have a water leak that you have to fix. The new car will eventually need to be replaced. Your mile time that you strive so much to get down will eventually get slower.

[34:46] Remember, God was around before time and will be around after. Right? He created the world. He created the earth.

[34:56] He sent his son so that we can be here this morning and read these words. Read who God is to know scripture and to say, God did that in the Old Testament. Jesus did that in the New Testament.

[35:08] And he's doing that in my life here today. So for those that are here, praise God. Praise the Lord. Blessed is he whose help is in the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.

[35:22] The hope that one day a Savior would come and rescue his people. And church, he did. The psalmist was hoping and calling his people to remember the hope in the God of Jacob.

[35:36] The hope of the promises that were made throughout all of time. In church, we look back and we see that Christ fulfilled what the psalmist was writing about. He came.

[35:47] He lived the perfect life that we can't live and died the death of a sinner that we each deserve to die. Because each of us, every day, put things in front of Christ and worship something else rather than the Savior.

[35:57] So this serves as a reminder to all of us this morning. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord as long as I live. I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

[36:11] Put not your trust in princes and a son of man of whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth. On that very day, his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord as God, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, who executes justice for the oppressed, who gives food to the hungry.

[36:35] And the God that we serve is the Lord that sets the prisoners free, the Lord that opens the eyes of the blind, the Lord who lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord who loves the righteous, the Lord watches over the sojourners.

[36:46] He upholds the widow and the fatherless. The way of the wicked he brings to ruin. And I can tell you, church, from my own experience and knowing so many of you, that God has done those things in your life as well.

[36:59] And remember, the Lord will reign forever. Your God, O Zion, to all generations. Praise the Lord. God, we thank you for this morning. We thank you that you are a God who loves, a God who created the world, a God who spoke it into existence, a God who then gave us the words in Scripture to remind us of those things.

[37:25] To... Thank you.