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[0:00] I want to extend a very warm welcome to everybody this morning on behalf of Stornway Free Church and we pray that as we come under God's word today that he will indeed be blessed to us.

[0:12] Before we begin, I have an intimation that we have to read as a congregation and it's this. The Kirk Session has called a congregational meeting to take place by Zoom on Monday 29th March at half past seven.

[0:25] The purpose of the meeting is to examine and approve a cessation schedule relating to the renewal of the post of Assistant Minister in the congregation.

[0:36] This is required whenever an assistant retires or accepts a call to another congregation. The schedule will accompany a petition to the General Assembly requesting the renewal of the post.

[0:48] It is important that there be sufficient attendance at the meeting to make approval of the schedule realistic, so your cooperation in this will be much appreciated.

[0:59] If you already join the Wednesday evening Zoom meetings, Zoom login details will be emailed to you. Otherwise, please contact Marianne for this.

[1:10] Let us now worship God and we're going to begin by singing from Psalm 17. This is from Sing Psalms. We only have a limited number of pre-recorded singing, so sometimes we find that we sometimes have to use the same singings over and over.

[1:33] But anyway, we begin with Psalm 17 and we sing verses 1 to 4, Sing Psalms. Psalm 17 and verse 1 to 5.

[2:09] Those who practice violence I have kept far away. These verses of Psalm 17 from Sing Psalms. Lord, hear my righteous plea and listen to my cry.

[2:33] It does not rise deceitfully or come from lips that lie.

[2:49] Declare me innocent. And indicate my name.

[3:03] Lord, may you die. Say what is right. And free me from all blame.

[3:19] Though you examine me and probe my heart and mind.

[3:34] None though you test me in the night. Yet nothing you find.

[3:51] I said I will not sin. In anything I sin.

[4:05] From those who practice violence I have kept far away.

[4:20] Let us now bow in prayer. Lord and God, we come to you today and we give thanks again for another time of worship.

[4:32] We give thanks to you. We give thanks to you. Lord, that we are able to call upon your name and that we can come to you irrespective of how we feel. Some days we can feel on top of the world.

[4:44] We feel strong in body and in mind. We feel vibrant in spirit. In other days we find that life is a burden. We might have pain and we might feel troubled.

[4:56] We might feel weak. We might feel that all natural energy is gone. We may feel that life has become such that it's hard going.

[5:08] So we come to you today with all the different ways that we can be. And we ask, O Lord, that you would hear us. And we give thanks, Lord, that how we are in ourselves has no bearing upon you at one level.

[5:24] Yes, sin is a barrier between us and you. But we give thanks, O Lord, that your ear is open to the chi of all those who diligently and truly and honestly seek you.

[5:37] And if we come with a true heart, if we come, Lord, just calling upon you and asking you to help, that you have promised to hear and to help.

[5:49] And we give thanks, Lord, that you are able to help in a way that nobody else can. You can get right into us. You can deal with us in the inner passion. We're in the places that nobody else sees, the places that nobody else knows, places sometimes that we don't even know ourselves.

[6:08] But you are able to equip us and to deal with us and to lift us up and to do us good. And we pray that you will help us, that you will be with us all the time.

[6:18] And we pray that as we come unto your word, that that word may be a source of light and understanding to us, that it may gladden our heart, that it may strengthen us, because your word is, it's a food.

[6:32] Just as we have the food for our natural body, so we have the food for our soul. And we pray that today your word will be a source of nourishment and strength to our soul, and that we will be able to go on in strength of God the Lord.

[6:49] That's what the psalmist said, I will constantly go on in strength of God the Lord. And we pray that that might be our cry, that that might be where we find ourselves, looking to you and leaning upon you.

[7:02] It was, Lord, not to lean on our own understanding. We're so prone to do so. We're so prone, Lord, to be masters or try to be masters of our own destiny.

[7:15] You're always calling us up short. You're always showing us that we do not know the way. Man of himself does not know the way to go.

[7:25] It is the Lord alone who can direct the steps. And so we pray that you will help us each and every day to look to you. We pray to bless our young people. We give thanks for our Sunday school and for the wonderful work that has been done online.

[7:41] And we pray that you will bless our Sunday school teachers and bless parents and all that has been done throughout this whole lockdown for now about a year. We give thanks, O Lord, for the provision that you have made.

[7:56] Although at one level we are in a famine where we're not able to attend your house, yet you have made provision in that famine and you have blessed us. Help us to acknowledge that, that we might not complain before you, but that we might realise that you have given to us what many people don't have.

[8:16] And so we ask, Lord, that we will be delivered from the complaining spirit and that we might have indeed the spirit of thankfulness and the spirit of joy.

[8:28] And so we pray for our young people as they grow up in very difficult times. We pray, Lord, as they will once again over the time readjust in school and just in life in general that you'll be with them because it's been hard for them.

[8:46] Young people, it is so much part of life of just integrating together, of being together, of growing up together. And this has been a difficult time for them.

[8:56] It's been difficult for parents as well. And so we pray that you will bless parents at this time. We ask, Lord, that you will watch over the elderly and remember those confined to homes who haven't been able to interact with loved ones.

[9:14] It's been very hard for families and there's been so much pain and sorrow, heartache over this last year. And so we pray that little by little that these doors will open and that the virus will be brought under control.

[9:30] And we're already beginning to see the very encouraging signs. And we pray that it might continue to be so. Although we may have to live with this virus, we pray that it will be manageable so that year by year, if it calls for a vaccine, then so be it.

[9:49] But we pray, Lord, that you will help us and that you will take us through this and that you will take us through it in a way where we will thank you and that we will honour you and that we will glorify your great and holy name.

[10:04] Pray to bless those who mourn whose hearts are heavy and sore. And we know there are so many people their hearts are heavy and broken. But we give thanks to your great promises for the broken heart, those that are broken in their hearts and grieved in their minds, their painful wounds he tenderly abides.

[10:21] And we pray that that might be through today, that as a great physician, that the great heavenly surgeon, the great heavenly doctor, that you will administer the oil and the balm of your healing and of your comfort and that you will raise up the cast down.

[10:39] And we ask, Lord, that you will be with those who are struggling with mental issues, with those, Lord, who really are in a dark place. We ask, Lord, that you will bring light into their situation, that they will be able to see you and to see more clearly that the darkness and the doubts and the fears and the anxieties and the depressions may indeed live like a morning mist.

[11:04] We ask that that might be through in their experience. Pray for those who are unwell, those, Lord, who are struggling with pain, with illness, with so many various illnesses about.

[11:17] We ask, Lord, for every person who has been, who has laid aside. And we know that life has become so restrictive, even in hospitals. And we pray, Lord, that there are many who maybe have been missing out on treatments and they're longing to get back onto that.

[11:36] We pray that you will open doors that people will be able to get medically what is required. We ask that you will be with us at the time that we wait upon you and that we will seek to honour you in our worship.

[11:51] It's so easy to be distracted when we worship at home because there are so many other things that can take away from our focus. So we pray, Lord, for that focus so that all the time that we may be fixed upon you.

[12:05] Help us then, Lord, to hear what you have to say to us and take away from us our every sin, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. Right.

[12:18] Just a wee word to the young folk. Have you ever put something down somewhere and you just can't find it?

[12:29] And you say to yourself, I don't understand this. I just put it down and it's not there. And you say, this is ridiculous. Well, if as a young person, you have found that that is happening to you, do you know the bad news?

[12:46] The bad news is that sort of thing gets worse and worse and worse. The older you get, see, the older you get, the more things you have. The more things you have, the more things you lose and the more things you forget where you put them.

[13:00] The older you get, your memory gets worse. So I'm sorry to be bringing bad news like that. But I'm sure, even though you're young and fit and clear minds, that sometimes you say, you know, I just put that tele-remote down.

[13:14] Where is it? I need to change the channel. You're looking left, you're looking right. And very often, of course, it slides down the back of the cushion or the chair or whatever.

[13:27] But often, there might be other things. You might say, I need my book, my school book. I'm just going to do this. I've got a lesson I'm going to do. It was here a minute ago. Where has it gone?

[13:39] We do that sort of thing all the time. Where do you start driving? Where do you have car keys? You know, I think car keys have the ability to hide themselves. And even if you have a spare set, they're able to hide themselves.

[13:53] You put those car keys down there and they're not there. You put them in your pocket and they're not there. There's something in car keys that I don't know what it is.

[14:08] But often in life, when we lose something, we end up having to retrace our steps. We need to go back to where we were.

[14:19] That happened to me the other day. I was looking for my mobile because a text had come through. I was busy at the time when I got it and I saw I have to phone about this.

[14:33] And I said, I need to read that message again in order to phone. And the thing was, I could not find my mobile anywhere. And I searched everywhere.

[14:44] I went through all my pockets. I looked at all the surfaces. I went through all the drawers in the study. I looked in the living room, in the kitchen. In the end, I was beat. And I thought, right, where was I? Where was I?

[14:54] And then I was being to think, I can't remember where I was. Then I got to think, right, where was I? And then I remembered, about half an hour before, I had been at the dump. A lot of rubbish to get rid of.

[15:06] So to the recycling place, that's where I was. So I thought, I wonder, I hope I didn't drop it at the dump. But anyway, I went to the car and surely enough, it was lying in the car.

[15:19] So I got my phone. Anyway, everything was fine. But what I had to do was, to retrace my steps, I had to think, right, where was I? What was I doing?

[15:30] And go back to there. And we often have to do that in life. There's a story in the Bible that tells us that very thing. It was when Mary and Joseph and Jesus went up to Jerusalem to the Passover and Jesus was just a boy.

[15:44] He was 12. And crowds of people went up. All the families. So everybody went up. Grannies and grandpas and mums and dads and sons and daughters and cousins and uncles and aunties.

[15:58] Everybody went up for the Passover. And it was a long journey back and they walked back. And when Mary and Joseph were on the way, they'd all about suddenly found they couldn't find Jesus.

[16:11] And then they were sure that Jesus would have been with some of the relatives. And they searched amongst all the relatives and there was no sign because they thought whether they weren't seeing him that he would be with somebody else.

[16:23] But he wasn't with anybody else. And so Mary and Joseph had to retrace their steps. They had to go back to where they were.

[16:34] They had been in the temple in Jerusalem and they said, we'll have to go back here and start our search from here again. So they made all the way back. And when they reached the temple, they found Jesus.

[16:46] And he was sitting with the leaders, the chief, with the priests and with the clever people who used to work in the Bible, the Pharisees and the people who studied the law, the doctors of the law.

[17:04] And he was talking with them and debating with them. And they couldn't get over how clever he was as a young boy of 12. But Mary and Joseph weren't happy. And they said to him, what have you done to us?

[17:18] And of course, Jesus said, do you not realise I have to be about my father's business? Of course, his father was his father in heaven. And he was doing the work of his father in heaven.

[17:30] And so, the thing was that they, Mary and Joseph had to get all the way back and it was in God's house that they found Jesus when they made their way back.

[17:41] It's a lesson for you and for me there. Because sometimes, maybe this week, you've kind of lost sight of Jesus. Maybe there's been, maybe you had a very busy week and lots of things have come in the way and you're kind of, you're kind of losing your way quite a bit and you're saying to her, you know this, I have really lost sight of Jesus.

[18:03] What do you do? You go back to where you last saw Jesus. Where did you find him? You find Jesus in prayer. You find Jesus in the word. You find Jesus, although we can't go to his house as such, this is the equivalent of being in his house, is coming round his word and worship us we're doing just now.

[18:23] We come back to where we would find him. We retrace our steps to there. And it's important, it doesn't matter how old or young you are. Get back with Jesus. Go back to where you were.

[18:34] Remember how there was a period where it was really good. Well, get back there. Because, although, if you come to trust Jesus, you will never lose him at one level.

[18:46] But sometimes, we lose sight of him. You ask Jesus today to make himself clear to you and that you today will have him very clearly in your heart and in your life.

[18:59] Let's say the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

[19:15] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen. I'm going to read now God's Word.

[19:26] I'm going to read from the book of Psalms and this is now from Psalm 33. Psalm 33. The title given to this psalm is the steadfast love of the Lord.

[19:38] Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with a lyre. Make melody to him with a harp of ten strings.

[19:51] Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice.

[20:04] The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord. By the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their host. He gathers the water of the sea as a heap.

[20:21] He puts the deeps in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke and it came to be.

[20:34] He commanded and it stood firm. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever.

[20:46] The plans of his heart to all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord. The people whom he has chosen as his heritage. The Lord looks down from heaven.

[21:00] He sees all the children of man. From where he is sits enthroned. He looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth. He who fashions the hearts of them all and observes all their deeds.

[21:14] The king is not saved by his great army. A warrior is not delivered by his great strength. The war horse is a false hope for salvation. And by his great might it cannot rescue.

[21:28] Behold the eye of the Lord as of those who fear him. On those who hope in his steadfast love. That he may deliver their soul from death. And keep them alive in famine.

[21:41] Our soul waits for the Lord. For he is our help and our shield. For our heart is glad in him. Because we trust in his holy name. Let your steadfast love O Lord be upon us even as we hope in you.

[21:57] Amen. And may God bless to us the reading of this holy word. Now I want us today to consider the verses that we have verses 18 and 19.

[22:09] Behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him. On those who hope in his steadfast love. That he may deliver their soul from death. And keep them alive in famine.

[22:24] What a marvelous thing the eye is. Because you can be here and in a moment you can be working away on something that is so intricate and you're focused on something that is so minute and that you're really concentrating on it.

[22:43] And then all of a sudden you lift up your eyes and you can focus on something that's miles away. You know it's quite a quite a remarkable thing that you can one of a just be focused down and concentrating on something that's just a foot in front of you and then you lift up your eyes and you can see quite clearly something that's a couple of miles away.

[23:05] It really is quite a remarkable thing. And while it's marvelous the way that our eyes focus and adjust what we do know is that we can't see anything but that really which is in front of us.

[23:22] Unless we have a mirror we're not able to see around a corner or behind us. We can only see what is there in front of us so to speak or even just a wee bit to the side but beyond that we cannot see what's behind.

[23:38] But of course God is completely different. And God doesn't just see what's in front of us and what's behind us but he also has x-ray eyes so to speak because he sees right into us.

[23:50] Not just physically but right into our heart into our mind into our soul into what we're thinking into what is motivating us in life what we're all about.

[24:01] God sees everything there's not a thing hidden from us at all. And as we know as we spoke before about God's eye and God's ear we know that God does not have eyes and ears like we have the scripture uses physical language of God in order to convey how God deals with us and how God acts towards us and reacts towards us so that the hearing and seeing although he doesn't have ears and eyes he sees us far better than we can ever see anything and he hears us far better than anyone can possibly hear.

[24:42] Of course we know that the Son of God in our nature Jesus Christ he took a body to himself exactly like ourselves with eyes with ears and Jesus has continued in our nature to have the eyes and the ears to have the physicality that he took to the human nature.

[25:05] And as we saw before in Hebrews it tells us there no creature is hidden from his sight but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we have to give an account.

[25:18] So I saw before there that God is watching over everything taking note of everything seeing everything there's no hiding place in this world there's nothing done in the dark but God sees it there is nothing done in secret but God sees it and one day it will all be brought out into the open.

[25:37] That's quite a thought but that's what the word of God tells us and we must all give an account we all have to appear before the judgment seat of Christ and give an account of all that we have done in the body whether good or bad the day of no excuses and of course as we know our only hope on that day is sheltering under the blood.

[25:58] When you think about it the person who is to examine us is Jesus Christ we stand before the judgment seat of Christ and what have we done with Jesus Christ well if we have accepted Jesus Christ who will be our judge then he's going to say come blessed of my father inherit the kingdom but if you've rejected Jesus if you turn your back and say I don't want you Jesus it's going to be an awful day standing before the Jesus you have rejected this is an appointment you and I have to meet now when we're coming to our verse here we find that God's eye here is spoken of in a specific way with regard to his people as we said sometimes God's eyes are on people by way of judgment but that's not the case here because God is looking at his people in love and there's a special mention given here of two qualifications given of

[27:03] God's people with regard to how God looks in them behold the eye of the Lord is on those the first thing is on those who fear him now the fear of God is one of the defining marks or evidences of the Christian this fear is not the kind of fear that is an absolute terror where you would take flight where you would run away because you are so afraid the kind of fear that Adam had when God came calling for him after the fall because remember Adam ran away he was absolutely afraid of God well that's not this kind of fear but that's the kind of fear that came into this world when sin entered into the world and when Adam and Eve disobeyed God they were filled with this fear that wanted to run from God and that fear is still an operation in people's hearts that is why people will do everything possible to suppress the knowledge of God because of that fear they might not realise it but you see the moment you own up to

[28:21] God and the moment you own up to what God is saying of himself and what God requires of us it produces and brings an accountability on our part before God and the moment that we face up to all that then it forces us to do something about it and so it means there's going to have to be a radical change within us and it means that we have to find out how we are made right with God and people don't want to go down that road so the easiest thing that they think is to suppress the knowledge of the truth and to make out that there is no God and live their lives as if there is no God and that's the way so many people do and they have suppressed the knowledge of God underneath that's what the Bible tells us that people do but what they're doing is they're trying to suppress the actual fear that exists that fear that came into the heart of man and woman and the fall is still there and that's part of what introduces all the unrest and distress and anxiety and everything that's going on in this world rather than face up to it and to deal with it in the God given way but that's not the fear that is spoken about here because this fear that we have here is a fear that yes this fear has a sense of the power and the awesome power of God and this realisation that he could destroy you in a moment yes it's there but this fear produces a drawing towards God this fear is the kind of fear that Moses had going to the moment of God where there was a sense of awe and almost a sense of trepidation but also a sense of love and a sense of wanting to get closer and closer and that's that's how it is where we have this it's like this huge sense of respect and awe of drawing near to God we recognise that God is the creator and that we are the created he is the master and we are the servants he is the father and we are the children and so we have this huge respect for God and as a result of that then we want to know what God says because we when we have this fear of God within our heart it inclines us to God's word that's what we want to do we want to get to God's word and we want to read and to hear what God is saying because this

[30:58] God that we fear is precious to us we love him we respect him we have him in awe he is at the centre of our lives it's who we look forward to being with forever it is part of who we are our lives have changed because our God consciousness has grown within our heart within our life he is there is a sense of his presence with us so this is all part of this fear that is there and this fear makes us want to walk in his ways we want to obey him because we love him see this this fear produces love within our heart and so we want to that's what love does love wants to please if you love somebody you want to please that person and that's what the Christian wants to do the Christian wants to please God and in order to please God we need to know what God is saying to us and so we want that's why we look to what the word of God is saying and we want to obey what the word of God says that's a question I have to ask you today and ask myself is do you fear the Lord is that fear part and partial of your life because if you have the fear of God in your heart you will you won't want to offend him and you and I know that we offend him when we disobey him when we go aside and turn to our own way and do our own thing and when we trample his word underfoot and we know that that's an offence to him but when we fear him we don't want to be doing that to be going down that way again when we fear him we don't want to be straying off the path that he has set for us because God has set out a particular the Christian walk is there and he says walk and this is a way walk he in it and sometimes as we find in the Pilgrim's

[33:10] Progress about Christian that he ended up in Bypath Meadow goes on the Bypath and sometimes we do we go off and sometimes we wander this way and we wander that way just like sheep all we like sheep have gone astray the sheep are so prone to stray and so when the fear of God is really operational in our heart we don't want to stray off the path that he has set before us we want to follow him we want to walk in the right way although there's so many forces and powers within us and without trying to take us off track when the fear of God is there there is a real desire that we will follow him in the right way and we will want to go where he wants us to go and we will want to do what he wants us to do so that's the first thing that we see here is that the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him and the second thing that we see is on those who fear in a steadfast love or those who hope

[34:14] I should say in a steadfast love that's what we call those who hope in a steadfast love sometimes a steadfast love can be sometimes you'll find it's translated as mercy but underneath we understand this steadfast love and this hope that's in the Christian is a firm fixed persuasion that all that God promises in his word and all that God has promised to be to us is true and so this hope is fixed in the steadfast love of God that this love that word steadfast is beautiful it's a never change a never changing love you and I know that lovers can fall out lovers can fall out badly you see lovers sometimes walk away from each other never again to be reconciled it's sad but it happens but this is a love that will never happen

[35:17] God will never walk away from someone on whom he has set his steadfast love it is impossible because God cannot change he can't change his mind he can't change his love he is the same yesterday today and forever always the same so this steadfast love is that which gives us this hope and today you you're basing your life your future your everything the hope of your life and future is based upon the steadfast love of God this mercy that is always there imagine we came to a discovery that we weren't too sure whether God's mercy still existed or what if a word came from heaven that his mercy had run out he had become exhausted but the wonderful thing is it cannot his love can never be exhausted his mercy can never be exhausted it's new every morning every morning you get up this morning his mercy is new isn't that a wonderful thing people say any news today well here's great news

[36:27] God's mercies are new today they're new for your experience and that gives us this great hope that if we cry to him like the public and cry Lord be merciful to me a sinner that he went down to his house justified on the back of God having heard and justified him as he cried to him for mercy you do the same for you and for me because of his steadfast love and so this is at the very hope the very centre of our lives giving us this stability and this assurance and so our hope is fixed in the promises of God because we trust in the God of the promise you know a promise really is only as good as the person who gives it if you know somebody and you say you know I can't really believe a word that that person says and that person promises you something you can say to yourself I'm not going to hold my breath about that because I know what he's like

[37:31] I know what she's like but that's not that's the beauty of God's promises is because is because is because we know who he is and the more you know him and the more you fear him the more you will be persuaded in his promises as being absolutely and all together true and so in every tear and every trial and in every temptation and in every trauma and everything that will come into our lives he will be to you a God who cares because his eyes on you he's what you know supposing your son or daughter or some some relative they're young right and they're going away they're going to the city or they're going somewhere and you have a friend in the city or a friend in this place that they're going to and you tell them you know my son my daughter is going to do something he's going to university he's going to study he's going to go to college there he's going to go to sea he's going to work but he's going to be there keep an eye out for him and you know the wonderful thing is to hear your friend say oh don't worry

[38:48] I'll keep an eye out for him okay in that great city this person and he might only see you now and again but just to know that there's somebody there that's going to keep an eye out just to be there that maybe if there's a problem he can get in touch with that gives you a kind of a peace in your heart well how much more the God of heaven is keeping an eye out for you and it's more than keeping an eye out for you because when you keep an eye out it means that you're kind of looking out for an eye maybe not looking all the time while the God of heaven isn't just keeping an eye out his eye is on you all the time for good for your protection for your help for your care all the time and his eye has to be because his presence we are told is there all the time his presence is constantly with us so this is the wonderful thing and in a sense we could say that all those who look to the Lord all those today who look to the

[39:56] Lord will find that the Lord is looking on them that's how it works they look to him and light and wear not shame into their faces this poor man cried God heard and saved him from all his faces but you know when we begin to look to the Lord do you know why we begin to look to the Lord it's because the Lord has begun to look to us and when you look to the Lord count on it the Lord is already looking on you isn't that wonderful and once the Lord begins to look on you he look on you all the time and he looks on you in love with a steadfast love and he delights in the fact that you fear him he delights in the fact that you have hope in your heart because of him because you know that nothing else and nobody else will do and can do for you in this life because we're told then very briefly that he may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive and fun now the previous verses shows us the things that we that we're naturally likely to put our trust in for instance verse 16 there it talks about the king is not saved by his great army a warrior is not delivered by his great strength the war horses have false hope for salvation and its great might it cannot rescue you see these things at the end of the day are false hopes these things although they're powerful and mighty they cannot save you they cannot deliver you they cannot they cannot free you from death they can't do anything from you in death there is no one no system no power that can deliver the soul from death but the lord alone and you know

[41:57] I have to ask here is it do you put your trust in anybody or in anything other than the lord so there there is no system there is no force there is no power in this world that is able to deliver us from the terrible enemy of death death entered into this world through sin the wages of sin is death but the gift of god is through the lord jesus christ and there is no other way no other anybody else has come up with this remedy saying I can deliver you from death I'll deliver your soul from death only the lord jesus christ is able to do that and so this is what we have here the wonderful promise that is given to us where the eye of the lord is upon his people all the time now this psalm although it doesn't tell us was written by david it's very davidic in its style and its content and you could see i could see david writing this and david knew more than anybody else all about kings and armies and horses and david knew the power of the king david knew the strength of an army david knew the amazing strength also of the war these were things he was familiar with he understood them like few other people did and he knew that armies could win by the power the strategy of a king warrior like himself but david knew that when all was said and done that supposing you had the wisest most powerful king and the biggest most awesome army on earth and you had the greatest number of war horses without the lord it meant nothing david was a prime example of just that with a great giant philistine goliath remember how goliath taunted israel and israel were petrified they were terrified the whole army from saul all the way down were petrified of this giant goliath armed to the teeth you remember the story david with a sling and a few stones that's all he had he went out but he went out with everything he went out with the strength of god the lord and he told goliath your strength is in other things i'll tell you where my strength is i come to you he said in the name of the lord god of heaven and earth of whom you are defied and he knocked that giant down just with one shot that is what the psalm here is talking about this is what the whole thing is highlighting that these things that we put so much trust in these things that we depend for our life for our future on they're nothing they don't work they collapse they will bring everything into ruin the only thing is to trust in the living and in the true god that that is the only thing we can do nothing or nobody else so god is looking down upon you and upon me today and love and just in the same way as a parent is looking at their children in the same way as a bridegroom is looking at the bride eyes full of love and he also says here and they will deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine so we know famines were part of what Israel

[45:58] suffered under the chastising hand of god it was frequent and all the people would suffer under it but god has promised to keep his people alive and god will keep his people alive in the difficult times as well when there are times of famine spiritually we live in such a time where the atmosphere of the day is so anti-christian where there is so much opposed to god and there is a spiritual apathy about but god will give his people his portion every day you mark on it but think about this also for this last year we have been locked down it's a year just now since we were last able to get to church and at one level we can see that's a real famine where the churches have been closed and yet throughout that period of time god has fed us he has enabled he's given us the provision we have the provision that we're using just now so that although it's not what we want it to be he's still giving us our food although there is a famine in the churches in the sense that we can't meet together we're still able to meet in this way and still to get his word god is faithful to his promises and this is the god that you and i must rest our all upon that we must look to because he alone can deliver our soul and death and that's the beauty of it nobody else can no prime minister no governor no president no general has ever said you know i can deliver your soul from death no political system no no nobody even the those with the greatest technology and the greatest ideas of medicine and science are able to say i can deliver your soul from death no only the lord can do that why look anywhere else it's madness to look anywhere else look to him and to whom alone because not only is he going to deliver your soul from death which means that when you die because you won't die i'll die but the lord will deliver our soul he will take our soul with him to glory and while our body will remain under the power of death for a time it's not forever it might appear that way but it's not because there's a resurrection morning coming and god will also deliver our body from death to be reunited with our souls and as there's better news in the whole wide world than that i can't think of it that is the news the news that's where the gospel is good news i hope today that you will put your whole trust in this god the god of heaven and earth so that you will fear him and that you will hope in his steadfast love and that you will account on his eye being upon you for good let us pray lord of god we pray to bless us we pray lord that you will do us good and that you will cleanse us from our every sin wash away then your sins in your blood for jesus sake we ask it all amen let us conclude our service singing from psalm 31 verses 21 to the end all praise and thanks be to the lord for he has magnified as wonders love to be within a city fortified for from thine eyes cut off i am i in my haste had said my voice yet heard thou went to thee with cries my moan i made sometimes when we go down read it into the depths we say things like the psalm said for from thine eyes cut off i am we're never cut off from the lord's eyes sometimes we feel that we are oh love the lord all ye his saints because the lord doth guard the faithful and he

[49:59] plenteously proud doers doth reward be of good courage and his strength unto your heart shall sin all you whose hope and confidence on the lord depend there's there's 21 to the end there's psalm 31 that it took god's praise all praise and thanks be to the lord for he hath magnified his wondrous love to be within a city fortified for from thine eyes cut off I am I in my knees have said said my voice yet turns the wind to thee with

[51:18] Christ my moon I made O love the Lord all he is saved be his saints be close the Lord of God the faithful and he plent just the proud doers doers done reward be of good courage and strength unto your heart shall send all who your heart shall send all he whose hope and confident the thought the

[52:29] Lord he bend now may the grace, mercy and peace of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest and abide upon each one of you now and forevermore. Amen.

[52:45] Thank you very much for joining in our worship today and we pray that the Lord will continue to watch over you and bless you. Please join again for the evening service at half past six and that service will be conducted by the Reverend James McKeever.

[53:04]  Thank you very much for joining us today and we will see you in the next video. famous