[0:00] We'll sing again to God's praise, this time in Psalm 142, 142, that's on page 186. The tune is Before the Throne. We'll sing the whole psalm.
[0:15] I cry for mercy to the Lord, to him I lift my voice in prayer. Before the Lord I bring my plea, to him my trouble I declare. Each time my spirit faints in me, you are the one who knows my way.
[0:30] For in the path on which I walk, a hidden snare for me they lay. We're trying to make our psalms this evening, as we always seek to do, to try and fit in with the main theme of our service this evening, of our sermon, which is God's greatness for our good, the God who comes to exercise his all-mightiness in the support of us in our weakness.
[0:56] Psalm 142, we'll sing the whole psalm. I cry for mercy to the Lord. I cry for mercy to the Lord.
[1:13] To him I lift my voice in prayer. Before the Lord I bring my plea.
[1:24] To him my trouble I declare. Each time my spirit faints in me.
[1:36] Here I, the one who knows my way. For in the path on which I walk.
[1:46] A hidden snare for me they lay. A hidden snare for me they lay.
[1:58] Look to my right hand and take note. There is not one concern for me.
[2:09] I have no refuge. I have no refuge. No one cares. For me in my adversity. I cry aloud to you, Lord.
[2:26] Lord, you are my hiding place in strife. You are the one sustaining me.
[2:37] You keep me in the land of life. You keep me in the land of life.
[2:48] Lord, listen to my cry for help. For I am in extremity.
[2:59] Save me from those who seek my life. Because they are too strong for me.
[3:10] So that I may give thanks to you. From prison's darkness set me free.
[3:21] The righteous then will gather round. Because you've shown your love to me.
[3:32] Because you've shown your love to me. Now we come to read God's word. And we're reading this evening in the book of Psalms.
[3:45] In the Old Testament in the book of Psalms. And Psalm 147. We'll just read through the psalm from the beginning. Psalm 147.
[3:57] Psalm 147 at the beginning.
[4:17] Praise the Lord. For it is good to sing praises to our God. For it is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting. The Lord builds up Jerusalem.
[4:28] He gathers the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars. He gives to all of them their names.
[4:40] Great is our Lord and abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. The Lord lifts up the humble. He casts the wicked to the ground.
[4:51] Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving. Make melody to our God on the lyre. He covers the heavens with clouds. He prepares rain for the earth. He makes grass grow on the hills.
[5:03] He gives to the beasts their food. And to the young ravens that cry. His delight is not in the strength of the horse. Nor his pleasure in the legs of a man.
[5:15] But the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him. In those who hope in his steadfast love. Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem. Praise your God, O Zion.
[5:26] For he strengthens the bars of your gates. He blesses your children within you. He makes peace in your borders. He fills you with the finest of the wheat.
[5:37] He sends out his command to the earth. His word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool. He scatters hoarfrost like ashes. He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs.
[5:50] Who can stand before his cold? He sends out his word and melts them. He makes his wind blow and the waters flow. He declares his word to Jacob.
[6:02] His statutes and rules to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation. They do not know his rules. Praise the Lord.
[6:14] And again we pray for God's blessing to follow. A reading of his word. And we'll come back in a moment to look at the first part of this psalm. But let's sing first of all again this time in Psalm 34.
[6:28] Psalm 34 from the Scottish Psalter page 248. Singing to the tune St. Kilda. We're singing from verse 17. And through to the end of the psalm.
[6:40] Psalm 34 and verse 17. That's on page 248. The righteous cry unto the Lord. He unto them gives ear. And they out of their troubles all by him delivered are.
[6:53] The Lord is ever nigh to them that be of broken spirit. To them his safety doth afford. And that are in heart contrite. And so on through to the end of the psalm.
[7:04] We'll stand again to sing these five verses. The righteous cry unto the Lord.
[7:19] He unto them is here. And the Lord is ever nigh to them.
[7:46] to them that they all broken stood to them he said he held out for that I in heart contrite the troubles that I with the just in number many be but yet hath left at all them all the Lord hath set him free he cared for in his bones doth keep whatever can be fall that not so much as one of them can broken be at all hell hell shall the wicked slaving ways shall be who hate the droughts the
[9:23] Lord redeems his servant souls and perished that him trust that him trust well let's turn now to the book of Psalms where we read in Psalm 147 we can read again from the beginning of the Psalm because we're going to look at mainly at verses 1 to 6 of the Psalm so let's just read through these verses again praise the Lord for it is good to sing praises to our God for it is pleasant and a song of praise is fitting the Lord builds up Jerusalem he gathers the outcasts of Israel he heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds he determines the number of the stars he gives to all of them their names greatest our Lord and abundant in power his understanding is beyond measure the Lord lifts up the humble he casts the wicked to the ground we're told by those who know such details such data that as our earth revolves around the sun that our sun is 1.3 million times the volume of earth and there are many more bigger stars than our sun some a million times brighter than our sun and there are around a hundred billion stars it's estimated in our galaxy and in our galaxy itself the size of it across the way its dimension is we're told a hundred thousand light years across a light year is around six trillion miles so a hundred thousand light years with each light year six trillion miles is the breadth of our galaxy and then we're told that there are millions of other galaxies in the created universe and these are impressive figures that data is impressive but then that all depends on what you compare it with would God be impressed by those figures by this data well no because as we find out in the psalm
[12:09] God already knows the data far more perfectly than we do he set it when he created the universe in the beginning and in this psalm we find verses four and five especially really to be the epicenter certainly of this first part of it where God determines the number of the stars he gives to all of them their names great is our Lord and abundant in power his understanding is beyond measure so the psalm is really dealing with the greatness of God and the greatness of God as demonstrated in the fact that he created this universe the universe that fills us with amazement but that's the work of his hand he's not amazed by it he's its creator he brought it into being and what is really remarkable and follows through in our study of these first six verses tonight what is really remarkable and hugely precious to us as human beings especially in our hurt and in our sufferings is that this great God in his greatness exercises his greatness for our good for our benefit so that he comes to touch our lives in his own power and understanding in the way that we seek his help through life that's the setting for the power and the understanding for the greatness of God in this psalm that's its setting its setting is in relation to helping the weak to comforting those who are sorrowing to lifting up those who have fallen down and to guide those who need his guidance and that greatness of God is related tonight to four things from this passage itself it's first of all a greatness which gathers the homeless it's a greatness which gathers the homeless you see what he says in verse 2 there the Lord builds up
[14:25] Jerusalem this God in his greatness he exercises his greatness how in building up Jerusalem he gathers the outcasts of Israel commentators reckon that the psalm was a psalm related is a psalm related to the people of Israel and Judah when they came back from their long exile in Babylon the 70 years that they spent there in consequence of their disobedience against God but God brought them back and there are psalms that seem particularly related to and fitting for that return to Jerusalem to rebuild the community there as Ezra Nehemiah these books tell us about that time and the psalm as you link it to the greatness of God in rebuilding and gathering together reminds us that that is really a feature a very prominent feature of God's work in our lives too he is the God who gathers he is the God who gathers what sin has dissipated the fractures that sin has caused it's God's work to mend those to bring together what has been dissipated and fractured and separated not only in terms of our relationships one with another but the very faculties of our souls as they become fractured and no longer working in relation to each other as they used to our mind our conscience our emotions our will sin has damaged not only each of those in turn but damaged the relation between them they are no longer the way they were created by God that is why the Bible talks about renewal
[16:06] God's recreation of us in Christ God's renewal involves a gathering together a fitting together a putting together of what sin has broken but if you turn briefly with me to Isaiah you can see chapter 40 of Isaiah I want to just refer to a few verses there just to bulk up this point from Psalm 147 that is very close to Psalm 147 the emphasis in Isaiah chapter 40 you will know yourselves that Isaiah 40 has to do with the greatness of God and it goes through most of the chapter in dealing with how God in his greatness has revealed himself and how the greatness of God is set forth there and usually it's in a series of questions like for example in verse 12 who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hands or who has weighed the mountains in the scales who has measured the spirit of God or what man shows him his counsel and yet the chapter begins comfort comfort my people says your
[17:14] God speak tenderly to Jerusalem and then it goes into this wonderful sustained emphasis of God and his greatness you see the two things brought together again this wonderful gentle emphasis on comforting and speaking tenderly but it's accompanied by an emphasis on the power the almightiness the greatness of God and as you go through the chapter and you see these verses that one after another for example verses 26 and 28 lift up your eyes on high and see who created these these objects in the universe very like psalm 147 he who brings out a host by number calling them all by name by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power not one is missing see the vastness of all the galaxies in the universe they have been set as they are by God and his creating of them he knows them he calls them by name he brings out their host by number and then if you cast your eye back to verse 11 he will tend his flock like a shepherd he will gather the lambs in his arms he will carry them in his bosom and gently lead those that are with young what a wonderful emphasis in the middle of all this talk about the greatness of God the strength of God the almightiness of God the way in which
[18:49] God has demonstrated his might in creating the universe and sustaining it and setting it and yet here he is what does he do he comes to tend to his flock like a shepherd he's the gathering God the God of comfort the God who gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them in his bosom what is a more wonderful picture than that of gentle care on the part of a shepherd carrying lambs that can't stand or have something wrong with them or need to be sheltered from the storm or rescued what does the shepherd do he carries them in his arms he carries them in his bosom he holds them tightly to his chest he makes sure that they're brought to safety he gathers them in that's what God is doing he builds up and gathers as the psalm puts it he gathers the outcasts of Israel and you see the same emphasis in verse five great is our
[19:53] Lord and abundant in power his understanding is beyond measure now then there you are tonight and I am without burdens with our lives and all the circumstances of life that we have to go through you have your own burdens tonight you have your own concerns you have your personal concerns you have your own hurts and your own experiences all of us have them from day to day from time to time and God doesn't just say bring them to me and I will deal with them and I will carry them and I will carry you with them what the Lord is saying is yes bring them to me and come to me with them but come to me as who I am come to me conscious of my greatness that is for your benefit that my greatness is addressed by me towards the detail of your need to gather to break to mend what is broken we'll see in a minute how that is with reference to the wounded but come back again to the idea of
[20:58] God bringing his people back from exile having been scattered and sent to Babylon we are very conscious on our TV screens and other news items as well of refugees in these days and it's a sad sight to see their plight and to remember them before God as we seek to do it's a dreadful sight when you see so many many thousands or hundreds of thousands of people carrying children and some children having been born on the way from when since they left their own homes and no homes to go back to having been gone up in flames and being hounded out of them what a sight that is and really the best they have for the moment are tented cities massive large gatherings but very flimsy dwellings and rations as best they can and as best they can be provided for your heart goes out to them and it's a pitiful sight but you know that is without being in any way seeking to use that inappropriately as an illustration it nevertheless is an illustration and the bible uses such things in human experience as an illustration to bring before us our plight and our sinfulness because that's exactly what we are we are without a home we are refugees we don't actually have a home that we can say is our final dwelling place a home that we can be happy in and content in and secure in because sin has damaged our relationship with God and we were driven out of our home in Eden but then this is the great emphasis in the gospel the Lord gathers the outcasts of
[22:52] Israel the gospel message that you and I are so familiar with is a gathering message a message for gathering it's God gathering his people it's God gathering in from the wastelands of sin and our lostness and bringing us back to home where we should be with himself and you could follow out that in further expansion of that point I won't do that this evening but you could follow that out for yourselves it isn't just that God gathers and God gathers together when he changes our lives individually what does he do he places us in a family he places us in a spiritual family he gathers people to form his church in this world he gathers his people together to form a body a spiritual body what a privilege it is to belong to that body to have the benefits of that body to have everything that accompanies the gospel so that we come no longer to be refugees but we come to be adopted children of
[24:03] God gathered in by himself to be his family and given a home at last with God himself in heaven a home that's better if you can use these words better than the first one we had because we will never be driven out of that one again of this one this heaven that Christ by his death has purchased and you know the God who gathers the homeless that emphasis is seen most clearly not in the likes of the psalm which clearly sets it forth the greatness of God his power and understanding used by him in looking at the situation where his people need to be gathered and that's what he said it's about doing but you see it best don't you in the Lord Jesus Christ himself remember what he said just before he fed that great gathering of five thousand men in addition to women and children he looked out on them and he saw them they had been following him for some time they were hungry they were destitute of food they were out in the desert and Matthew tells us and Mark tells us
[25:22] Mark 6 verse 34 he looked out on them and saw them as sheep without a shepherd his mind went back to the likes of Isaiah chapter 40 the gathering God that's what he had come into the world to reveal and that's what he had come into the world to do to gather lost sinners back to the fold to bring them back to give them a home and you see he didn't just say Mark didn't just say that he looked and saw them as sheep without a shepherd Mark uses a very strong word to say he had compassion on them and that means his heart was moved and tonight you can say without any fear of contradiction or any fear of bad theology that the heart of God this almighty God this God and his greatness is moved by the plight of sinful human beings that need a home otherwise he wouldn't have sent his son into this world to die for them whatever we may say of our greatness and very often human greatness is demonstrated sadly by standing aloof and detached from those who are in need but you can never think of the greatness of God as that kind of greatness it's a greatness that gathers the homeless do you have a home tonight do you know this home do you feel at home with God's people do you have
[27:13] God himself as your refuge is Jesus your resting place that's really what the psalm is saying to us here is this great God here is our knowledge of this great God here is this emphasis of God building up Jerusalem gathering the outcasts of Israel but what if I'm not yet there amongst them what if I'm yet not willing to be gathered by him what if my will is standing out against the overtures and the emphases of the gospel don't spend if you're not yet in Christ if you don't yet have Jesus for yourself if you haven't taken him to be your savior this is the word of the psalmist to you the word of God to you don't remain homeless anymore don't continue as a refugee without a home take the shepherd himself as your god as your savior then you can have the words of psalm 23 to sing over and over again where not only is the lord his shepherd but he says surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and
[28:21] I will dwell in the house of the lord forever first thing greatness which gathers the homeless secondly it's a greatness which heals the wounded you find that in verse three he heals the broken hearted and binds up their wounds now that's an emphasis that you come across very often in the bible an emphasis that regards the wounded or the broken hearted in different ways the broken hearted and the wounded in the bible are often those who are poor and outcast and can't defend themselves and are exploited and just don't have any means to resist that but of course you extend that to include broken hearted literally those who have broken hearts and sorrowing hearts those who have the sorrow of losing loved ones sorrow of serious illness the anxiety of all of these difficult conditions and circumstances and events in life and there are many tonight in this audience who have or have had broken hearts and wounds you know what it is to be wounded what the difficulties of life produce in our souls and let me say there's nothing wrong with grieving and with showing grief and with crying and with weeping
[29:54] God measures all our tears he holds them in his bottle as the psalmist puts it elsewhere he takes an account of every single one of them so that he can apply his own greatness to our comfort to our healing that's what the psalmist is really saying this great God you see the greatness is an emphasis again that continues into the way that he actually heals the broken hearted and again that is proved for us in the Lord Jesus Christ where else do you have such clear evidence anywhere else as you find in the Lord Jesus Christ the evidence that God is pleased and takes delight in healing the wounded in healing the broken hearted in mending their wounds in attending to them after all that's what Jesus became that's what God became in Jesus Christ he became the man of sorrows acquainted with grief how do we know that God is concerned to heal our wounds to comfort our broken hearts because he took our discomfort and our wounds to himself
[31:11] I often like to think of Jesus coming to the likes of Thomas where he had expressed doubt over the fact that Christ was risen from the dead and he says except I see for myself the mark of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe and then a week later here comes Jesus into the gathering knowing what Thomas has said and it's as if Jesus is saying Thomas look at my hands look at my side what does it show you doesn't it show you that I came to heal the broken hearted to deal with the wounded don't I have the scars Jesus is saying to you tonight didn't I show the scars of my suffering just to demonstrate if it needed to be proved that God heals the broken hearted and those who need to have their wounds bound up and it's interesting isn't it that he deals here with binding up the wounds that's the business of the skilled surgeon or nurse or consultant isn't it when you find something we are so thankful for of course but not as thankful as we should be that when we need such attendance to our illnesses and our surgical procedures we have expertise dealing with that and here's the
[32:43] Lord pictured as the great surgeon or the great consultant in his greatness with his understanding and with his knowledge and with his power and with his ability what's he doing he's sewing up the wounds he's actually dealing with the sutures that these people need when they need their wounds to be bound up we're talking of course spiritually and morally and psychologically not just physically we're talking especially as the psalmist of spiritual wounds of wounds that need God's comfort but as God is attending to them even through the gospel you're not depending on whoever's in the pulpit now to actually deal with your wounds to mollify your wounds that's just a voice that's a human being that's an instrument of God but it is God who comes himself through the gospel through his spirit through his word to actually sew up our wounds to dress them and then he does his rounds doesn't he the committed consultant or surgeon or nursing staff as well they'll do the rounds they'll check up on the patients just to make sure they're okay but
[33:56] God you see does that all the time even the very best of consultants can't be there all the time sometimes if an emergency comes up well they have to page them and then they come but God is there all the time he doesn't take a holiday he doesn't need leave he never gets tired he's never disinterested he never loses attention his commitment to healing his wounded people never changes you see you're God tonight how are the hurts and the difficulties and the trials of your life attended to you're trying to suture them up yourself are you depending on your own skill or the skill of somebody else in the church no surely it's the Lord that you're looking to heal your broken heart what a great benefit friends it is when our heart is broken that we already know there's
[35:05] God as to who he is and what he does and what he's capable of what he'll do for us yet and how true he is to his promises and what does God want in return well you see if you go forward a bit in the psalm you come to verses 10 and 11 his delight is not in the strength of the horse nor is pleasured in the legs of a man that's a bit of a mysterious reference it seems to be a reference to soldiers who needed to be very fit for military campaigns and were chosen specially because of their prowess well the Lord doesn't do these things to us he doesn't gather us in he doesn't heal our wounds he doesn't deal with our broken hearts so that he can then boast in our prowess what does he require of us what does he look for in return well he looks for our humble trust the Lord takes pleasure in verse 11 in those who fear him in those who hope in his steadfast that's what he that's all he asks for in return that we will be his humble servants that we will commit ourselves to serving him humbly thankfully dependently for all that he has done and is doing it's a greatness which gathers the homeless it's a greatness which heals the wounded it's thirdly a greatness which lifts up the fallen you see then verse six the word fallen there actually literally means the afflicted maybe that's in the margin of your bibles if you have a margin maybe the word afflicted is there as another possible rendering of the word that's there humble the
[36:58] Lord lifts up the humble the afflicted but cast the wicked to the ground and afflicted really literally mean those who are bowed down or bent under the weight of their circumstances the weight of their sorrows the weight of their difficulties and trials in life what does the Lord do does he ignore them does he pass by on the other side does he say I'm too great to actually attend to that what's wrong with these people why can't they do something to lift themselves up no the Lord he lifts up he afflicted and cast the wicked to the ground in other words God bends down to set us back on our feet spiritually whenever we need that lifting up whether it's by way of encouragement or refocus or recommitment or return to him in repentance whatever way it is that we need to be lifted up spiritually by
[38:06] God it is to God that we must look for the ability but that's the promise and that's the great emphasis and you see it's following through in the emphasis of the greatness God and his greatness as not just God in any sort of way it's God emphasizing I in my greatness I use my greatness to lift up the afflicted to ordinary human life where greatness sometimes just passes by those who are in need and says well somebody else can take the responsibility I have enough to do God doesn't do that he bends down he lifts up those who are afflicted those who are bowed down those who are humbled to set them up again we know we admire I mentioned nursing staff and doctors and consultants earlier but another group of people that you really admire surely are physiotherapists when you get physiotherapy you really begin to appreciate the skills they have the training they have the knowledge they have and you could say in a sense that
[39:26] God is the great physiotherapist if we can use that word with respect and reverence about him that's really what he's doing here he's taking those who are in need of being lifted up who need to be strengthened set back on their feet and it's God who does it now when you come to a physiotherapist and perhaps it's whether it's your joints or muscles or whatever else need to be built up again sometimes physiotherapists sometimes can feel pretty ruthless to us sorry for any physios who are in here it's not that we in any way disparage your work or your skills but when you're actually in need of the physiotherapy sometimes it really hurts when you carry out what your physio is trying to get you to do whether it's breathing up something that's clogging up your lungs if you've had a surgery to your chest or to your back it really hurts whether it's a joint that needs to be exercised or whatever physios tend to have very strong hands don't they and when they take hold of you and say right this is what I'm going to do this is what needs to be done it hurts and sometimes
[40:32] God needs to hurt us sometimes it's our own fault that we've fallen down sometimes we've brought it on ourselves God is not going to leave those who trust in him and in setting them back on their feet this is what the psalmist is saying he acts as the great physio he lifts up the humble you see just imagine and picture if you will this great God I know that God doesn't have hands physically yet the Bible speaks in that way so that we can understand something about God speaks about the Lord's hand and the Lord's hands having fashioned the heavens and so on well think of God as the great physio whose hands have already set all of these great objects in the creation in the universe to the furthest reaches of the universe it's his hands that have done that what's he doing now with his hands he's attending to our broken bones our broken needs our broken hearts he's lifting up the fallen he's applying his understanding and his strength and his greatness to help us to set us back where we should be for his support is it any wonder that the apostle
[41:54] Paul when he wrote to the Corinthians in the second letter you remember how he describes whatever exactly it was we're not told this thorn in the flesh that was given him by God to keep him from being over exalted following his vision as being lifted up but then he said he asked the Lord three times that this might be taken away from him and the Lord three times said no my grace is sufficient for you for my strength is made perfect in our weakness now there's something quite remarkable in that statement many things quite remarkable in it and Paul goes on to say therefore he says I will glory in my infirmities so that the power of Christ may rest upon me and when you think about it this is really what Paul was saying something as unique as the almightiness of God which is not our property yet it's applied to something which God doesn't have but which we have that's our weakness and so the almightiness of God and the weakness that we have they come together in a special way as
[43:15] God comes to lift up those who are afflicted those who are cast down because what God is saying is my strength is made perfect in your weakness in other words you can go as far as to say this God's greatness God's almightiness weakness in itself has a special design I can only put it that way that comes into its own when it meets with our human weakness and that's a remarkable thing that God should have created us in such a way that we can come in our weakness weakness to have his strength come to its own in that weakness and that's our God a greatness which gathers the homeless a greatness which heals the wounded a greatness which lifts up the fallen
[44:21] I said there were four points and this is the last one just in briefly it's a greatness worthy of praise because that's what the psalm really is you notice these psalms 146 to 150 you can check this out later on if you have no time to do just now but each of them begins with praise the Lord and each of them ends with the same words praise the Lord and in Hebrew you well know I'm sure in Hebrew that's just one word and in some ways we we would really have loved if the translators had just left it as it is in Hebrew that one word hallelujah hallelujah the psalm begins hallelujah which means praise the Lord it's all built into that one word in Hebrew and the psalm ends the same word hallelujah in other words the greatness of God gathering the outcasts healing the wounded and lifting up the fallen is a greatness worthy of praise because the psalm as it begins is saying it is good to sing praises to our
[45:36] God for it is pleasant and it is fitting you know in other words before the psalm even goes into dealing with the greatness of God and how it's used it talks it gives us a little lecture about praise about worship about how beneficial and how good and how wholesome worshipping God is this God this great God for it is pleasant the word for really means has a sense of surely surely it's pleasant what else could we put in its place when we think of this God in his greatness and what he does and you know for many God is not someone they want to come to know and we face daily calls to seek to draw us away from this God and from this Christian faith that it's no longer relevant that it's no longer beneficial that it's time certainly as far as public life is concerned that time that we just got rid of it and that this
[46:49] God we worship really doesn't care he's a distant God he's an unkind God he's a tyrant God all these unwish words are used to describe the God of our Christian faith well for everybody who knows him they know that that's not true because he's a God who exercises his greatness in gathering the homeless and healing the wounded and in lifting up the fallen and that's why instead of being very restrictive praising God is exciting and liberating it doesn't just put you into a narrow constrained way of life there's nothing more liberating than knowing Jesus and praising
[47:50] God that his greatness is for our good let's pray Lord our God help us to further praise you that your greatness has not only been made known to us but is exercised by you in relation to our need we thank you that your greatness has been especially revealed to us in this word and especially in the word that became flesh in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ Lord our God impress upon us we pray your concern even for the detail of our lives in the fact of you sending him into this world to become the man of sorrows acquainted with our grief that he took to himself and so we ask that you bless us now and bless the message of your word to us and help us in this week that we have entered to come to lean all the more upon your greatness for
[48:51] Jesus sake amen well let's conclude our worship this evening singing in Psalm 9 Psalm number 9 that's in the Sing Psalms version of Psalm 9 on page number 9 we're singing from verse 7 to 11 and the tune is base of Harris the Lord forever reigns on high his throne for judgment stands you judge the world in righteousness with justice rule the lands and these verses 7 to 11 in conclusion the Lord forever reigns on high his throne for judgment stands he'll judge the world in righteousness with justice through the lands the
[50:08] Lord will be a hiding place for those who are oppressed and he will be a strong defense for those who are dispensed to know to know your name O Lord in you their trust will place for you do not abandon the love who see your gracious face sing praises to the
[51:21] Lord who sits in Zion on his throne among the nations of the world proclaim what he has done please allow me to go to the main door after the benediction now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and evermore Amen