WEBVTT

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 I'll pray for us.

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 God, we have gathered on another Friday evening because we love you,

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 because we want to speak to you and hear from you.

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 So we pray, God, that you would lead us,

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 that you would speak to us from your word during our prayer time,

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 and that as we cry out to you, that you would meet with us in a powerful way.

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 And help us to pray according to your will.

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 In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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 Psalm 77.

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 Subscription of the psalms is to the choir master according to Juditon,

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 a psalm of Asa.

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 I'll read it out loud first.

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 We'll go through it section by section.

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 I cry aloud to God.

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 I cry aloud to God, and he will hear me.

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 In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord.

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 In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearing.

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 My soul refuses to be comforted.

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 When I remember God, I moan.

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 When I meditate, my spirit faints.

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 Selah.

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 You hold my eyelids open.

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 I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

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 I consider the days of all the years long ago.

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 I said, let me remember my song in the night.

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 Let me meditate in my heart.

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 Then my spirit made a diligent search.

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 Will the Lord spurn forever?

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 And never again be favorable?

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 Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

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 Are his promises at an end for all time?

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 Has God forgotten to be gracious?

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 Has he in anger shut up his compassion?

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 Selah.

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 Then I said, I will appeal to this,

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 to the years of the right hand of the Most High.

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 I will remember the deeds of the Lord.

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 Yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

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 I will ponder all your work and meditate on all your mighty deeds.

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 Your way, O God, is holy.

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 What God is great like our God.

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 You are the God who works wonders.

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 You have made known your might among the peoples.

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 You, with your arm, redeemed your people,

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 the children of Jacob and Joseph.

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 Selah.

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 When the waters saw you, O God,

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 when the waters saw you, they were afraid.

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 Indeed, the deep trembled.

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 The clouds poured out water.

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 The skies gave forth thunder.

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 Your arrows flashed on every side.

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 The crash of your thunder was in the whirlwind.

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 Your lightnings lighted up the world.

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 The earth trembled and shook.

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 Your way was through the sea.

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 Your path through the great waters.

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 Yet, your footprints were unseen.

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 You led your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

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 Whether it's during a period of prolonged loneliness or illness or aimlessness,

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 we all face, at times, trouble.

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 And when we face trouble, sometimes we can feel like we've been forgotten by God.

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 And the psalmist is writing this song from that perspective.

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 And in it, he teaches us that when we feel forgotten by God, we should remember how he redeemed us.

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 And we see in the first nine verses the trouble in the present that he's facing.

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 And then in verses 10 to 20, it turns attention to remembering the wonders of the past that God's got this.

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 So trouble in the present, wonders of the past.

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 And in verse 1, he begins,

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 I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and you'll hear me.

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 A more literal translation would be, my voice cries out to God.

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 My voice to God, and he will hear me.

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 So this emphasis on the psalmist's voice is important, as we'll see later.

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 But for now, the repetition communicates the psalmist's distress.

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 He's desperately crying out to God so that he might hear.

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 And then verses 2 to 3 continue.

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 In the day of my trouble, I seek the Lord.

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 In the night, my hand is stretched out without wearing.

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 My soul refuses to be comforted.

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 When I remember God, I moan.

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 When I meditate, my spirit faints.

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 So he uses both the imageries, right?

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 Day and night.

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 So during the day, he's crying out to the Lord.

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 And during the night, he's stretching out his hand.

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 So basically, he's seeking God all the time.

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 He's doing it without getting weary.

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 And yet, he says, my soul refuses to be comforted.

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 Even though remembering God should be a delight,

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 and meditating in God's work should be strengthening,

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 because the psalmist is so enmeshed and entangled in his present trouble,

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 thinking about God instead of filling him with delight makes him moan,

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 and to complain, and for his spirit to faint.

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 So he's always seeking God, but he's never finding him.

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 No matter how hard he tries to make sense of his present situation.

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 And then in verse 4, he adds,

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 You hold my eyelids open.

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 I'm so troubled that I cannot speak.

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 So because of his affliction, he can neither sleep nor speak.

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 And he feels like this is what God's doing to him.

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 And so disillusioned by the present,

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 he tries to turn his attention to the past in verses 5 to 6.

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 But before he's able to do that,

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 he lets out a series of heartfelt, very emotional questions to God in verses 7 to 9.

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 Will the Lord spurn forever and never again be favorable?

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 Has his steadfast love forever ceased?

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 Are his promises at an end for all time?

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 Has God forgotten to be gracious?

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 Has he in anger shut up his compassion?

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 I don't know if you've ever felt this way before.

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 It's just a feeling neglected by God, abandoned by him.

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 Maybe some of you feel like that now.

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 It's the, I feel like the Lord's spurning you,

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 or turning his face away from you.

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 He no longer loves you.

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 That his promises to you have been made void.

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 That he's no longer gracious or compassionate toward you.

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 That rather he's angry at you.

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 And so there may be times in our lives when our troubles are so severe,

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 like the psalmist, that it may seem impossible

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 to square God's goodness and sovereignty with our current situation.

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 And that's the kind of situation that we see here in the first half of the psalm.

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 But then starting in verse 10,

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 the psalmist successfully transitions from his present trouble

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 to the wonders of the past that God did.

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 And he says,

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 Then I said,

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 I will appeal to this,

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 to the years of the right hand of the Most High.

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 I will remember the deeds of the Lord.

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 Yes, I will remember your wonders of old.

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 I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds.

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 The word meditates repeated right here in verse 12.

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 It was twice mentioned already in verses 3 and 6.

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 Same thing with the word remember.

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 It repeated twice in verse 11.

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 It was already mentioned two more times in verses 3 to 6.

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 So remembering and meditating,

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 that's really the main point of this psalm.

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 That's the key to maintain hope when life seems hopeless.

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 And that's scripture's simple but profound answer is we need to remember God

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 and meditate on his works in those times.

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 And when he starts to do this,

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 something remarkable happens in the psalm.

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 Because up to this point,

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 the psalmist has been predominantly using the first person language.

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 I did this.

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 I did that.

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 But as soon as he starts remembering God and his mighty deeds,

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 his focus shifts from pitying himself to exalting God.

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 And so the language shifts from the first person to the second person,

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 verses 13 to 15.

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 He says,

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 Your way, O God, is holy.

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 What God is great like our God.

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 You are the God who works wonders.

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 You have made known your might among the peoples.

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 You, with your arm,

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 redeemed your people,

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 the children of Jacob and Joseph.

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 Selah.

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 It's a powerful repetition.

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 Helpful for us to remember, right?

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 When we feel forgotten by God, right?

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 When we are given to self-pity because of our situations,

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 when our circumstances,

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 our troubles loom larger than God himself, right?

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 We have to remember that God,

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 with his own arm,

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 redeemed us as his own.

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 And he's not going to leave us to our devices

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 because if he took us as his own in that way.

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 So when we feel forgotten by God,

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 we should remember how he redeemed us.

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 And then, finally, in verses 16 and 20,

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 the psalmist remembers the climactic instance

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 of God's redemption in Israel's history up to that point,

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 which is the Exodus.

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 He writes,

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 It says,

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 Because he had mentioned,

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 Remember I said that my voice cries out to you,

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 the psalmist said twice in verse 1.

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 So that his voice is emphasized in the beginning.

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 And it also mentioned his hand, right?

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 He stretched forth his hand to God, right?

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 For help.

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 Now at the end of this psalm,

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 we see the two words voice and hand again, right?

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 And so the word thunder,

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 actually,

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 is just another translation of the word voice.

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 So it's the voice of the sky, right?

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 And then the word crash,

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 again,

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 is the same word,

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 voice.

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 And then you see at the end

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 that God led them out from the sea

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 like a flock

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 by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

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 And then we saw earlier

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 in verse 10

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 that God delivered them

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 with his right hand.

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 And in verse 15,

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 that he redeemed those people

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 with his arm, right?

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 So these are all conveying that.

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 So the cries with which

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 the psalmist cried out,

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 the voice with which

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 the psalmist cried out to God

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 in verse 1,

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 now is answered by the voice of God

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 and how he delivered Israel in the past.

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 And the hand with which

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 he stretched out to God

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 in verse 1

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 is answered at the end of the psalm

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 by God,

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 which is saving them

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 with his own arm

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 and with his own hand.

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 And that's what assures us.

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 And I love that little addition there.

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 It says,

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 yet God's footprints were unseen.

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 It's just,

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 even after this great redemption,

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 it's not like you could see

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 God's footprints there, right?

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 And sometimes his providence,

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 his deliverance

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 may seem hidden to us,

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 and yet God moves

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 in those ways,

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 in powerful ways,

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 he delivers.

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 And as Christians,

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 of course,

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 we have an even greater evidence

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 of that,

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 of what God's,

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 of God's redemption in the past

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 than Israel did,

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 than the psalmist did.

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 Because, you know,

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 Paul compares

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 in 1 Corinthians 10,

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 the exodus

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 to Christian baptism, right?

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 And Christian baptism

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 represents our salvation

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 through Jesus.

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 And so,

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 when we feel forsaken by God,

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 then,

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 like the psalmist is doing here,

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 we can instead remember

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 what Christ did, right?

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 That Christ was forsaken

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 on our behalf

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 so we can be received

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 and restored to God.

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 And when we feel

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 like God doesn't love us

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 or care about us,

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 that we should remember

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 that God cared so much

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 about us

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 that he sent his son

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 to die for us.

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 When we feel that God

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 is angry toward us,

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 we should remember

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 that God's anger

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 was fully satisfied

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 in Jesus

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 who bore our punishment

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 for our sins.

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 And so,

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 because of that,

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 what's left for us

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 is only grace and mercy.

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 And then,

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 when we do that,

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 even though for the psalmist,

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 the situation hasn't changed,

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 likewise for us,

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 even when our circumstances

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 do not change,

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 we can still have faith,

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 we can still have hope

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 and continue to love God.