Do you remember the big solar system project that you might have done in elementary school?
Anybody ever do a solar system project for your science fair?
Julie and I were talking about this yesterday.
I don't remember ever doing this, but I remember watching enough sitcoms on TV when I was growing
up to know that this is a common thing, that somewhere around third or fourth grade, there's
a science project assignment typically that the teacher will give and the students are
required to make a 3D model of our solar system.
It's basically craft time.
It's a large craft time that parents are forced into participating in.
And typically what it involves, if you're unfamiliar with this, normally there's some various size
styrofoam balls that the kids get to paint like the individual planets and the sun.
Some long wooden dowels or if it's the night before and the parents forgot, maybe some skewers
from the drawer or from dad's grilling kit.
You stick the balls on there and then you arrange them to make it look like the solar system,
right?
Now, the best I can come up with, there's probably two ways that this typically goes.
A child may choose to place the planets along with the sun in a straight line, beginning with the sun
and then working its way out.
Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune.
And if you're like me, Pluto.
I don't think they get to do Pluto anymore.
We could have done Pluto when I was a kid.
It was still a planet then.
So they might arrange them just in a straight line like that, right?
And you might see them in a straight line.
Another child might choose to do it a bit different.
Instead of putting them in a straight line, they may put the sun in the middle
and they may put the other planets in various positions in relation to the sun,
but at proper distances away.
Does that make sense?
Can you picture it there in your mind?
If you were to have a child that did it in a straight line,
you really get the picture primarily from looking directly at it from the side, right?
You could get it from looking down on it, but really from looking straight at the side,
that's when you're really going to get the best understanding of what they're communicating in the project.
For the other child, though, it's going to be different.
You're not going to get it, really, if you're looking at it from the side.
You have to look at it from the top down, and when you look at it from the top down,
that's when you start to see what all they're communicating in their project
about our solar system and the things that they have learned.
Now, the technique that the child or the parent chooses
will probably depend on what kind of thinker they are.
You're going to hear me out on this.
All of us have a natural way of thinking and communicating.
Linear thinkers learn and communicate best with structured processes and arguments.
Structured processes and arguments.
Those of you who are engineers, I think of Mark Fennin and I think of Shane Nall in particular,
they are most likely linear thinkers as engineers.
They move from point A to point B through a series of logical steps, logical progressions.
And Shane and I have talked about this many times before when we're working on church stuff.
He's used the word, schematics are good for him.
He can see the logical progressions because that's the way that he thinks.
His mind is wired that way.
He's a linear thinker.
Now, not all of you are linear thinkers.
Some of you are non-linear thinkers.
The artistic among us, the creatives among us,
tend to allow for more exploration and creativity
in the way that you learn and problem solve and communicate.
Biblical genres really function the same way, don't they?
Think about this for example.
If you were to go to the New Testament and you were to look at the New Testament epistles,
you'll find that generally speaking,
John's not so much, but generally thinking,
they follow linear thinking.
There is structured, logical progressions and arguments that are being made.
When you go to wisdom literature in the Bible,
it's not anything like that at all.
It's circular thinking.
It's circular reasoning.
So that there is a central truth to the passage
and everything else in the passage just kind of revolves around that one truth.
But the placement of whether it's at the beginning or the end or in the middle
is going to vary.
Because there was a creative type that God used for that passage
and they, using their real personality,
have written God's word in the way that they have.
Paul, the apostle, writes like an engineer or a lawyer.
You can diagram sentences very easily with Paul.
Very long sentences.
But you can diagram his sentences and you can find his argument very easily doing that.
When you come to the Psalms and you look at what David writes,
if you try to diagram it out the way that you would diagram Paul,
you are going to be so frustrated because he just doesn't write that way.
Most of what we see here is non-linear structure.
And it's really important for us to acknowledge this when we come to the Bible, isn't it?
Because if you try to interpret a Psalm as if it is a New Testament epistle,
you're never going to fully grasp the intended meaning.
Vice versa, if you try to interpret a New Testament epistle as if it is a Psalm or a proverb or even a narrative,
you're not going to fully grasp the intended meaning.
We have to care about this, right?
So it's not always helpful when we come to the Psalms
to start at verse 1 and work through to the end.
That's not always going to be the best way for us to approach the passage.
Now, before we move forward with that, can we just appreciate for a moment God's good design in this?
Not only in the way that he has structured his word, but in the way that he has created his world,
in the way that he has created us, in the uniquenesses, the differences that we have,
that maybe sometimes feel a little bit more like iron sharpening iron,
which can be a hard thing.
That sounds really nice.
It's not really nice.
It's really kind of hard to deal with sometimes.
But there is purpose behind that.
Life would be so boring and drab if everything was black and white.
If everything was schematic, it would be boring.
It wouldn't have the same kind of beauty to it that it has now.
Life would be amazingly frustrating, maybe infuriating,
if everything in life was up for individual interpretation.
It would be maddening, chaos.
And so, can we just appreciate that God is a good designer?
That he has designed us well?
That he has designed his world well?
That he's designed his word well?
Now, as you might expect, Psalm 9 follows this non-linear way of thinking.
That doesn't mean that Psalm 9 is without structure.
That's not what it means.
It's just not linear structure.
Like many Psalms, this one is formed using a literary technique called a chiasm.
Now, you don't have to remember that word necessarily,
but it might be helpful for us to at least explain it.
If you remember back a year ago, we did a series through the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3.
If you remember, John wrote that in the form of a chiasm.
We talked about it at that point.
Let me explain to you in this Psalm what that looks like.
Chiasm, the word, it comes from a Greek letter, the Greek letter chi,
which the capital form of it, it looks like a capital X in English.
And so, when this technique is used, the content moves in the shape of one side of that X.
It starts here and it moves in.
The central truth is here.
And then it moves back out.
And the pieces that are moving are parallel to one another.
They link to one another.
Now, I've got a diagram on the screen for you.
If you'll just throw that out there, Carson.
If you can see that, I want you to see this is the way this particular Psalm is structured.
Verses 1 and 2 correspond with verses 19 and 20.
But they don't go in order.
They correspond, but in a unique frame.
Same thing with verses 3 and 4, 17 and 18.
5 and 6, 15 and 16.
7 and 8, 13 and 14.
Now, do you see the movement, right?
You've got half of an X here.
The content in this Psalm is moving into a central truth that's found in verses 9 through 12.
And those central truths, we've just got some bullet points.
It's know God, trust God, seek God, leading to praising God, and then praying to God.
That's the central focus of the Psalm.
Everything that David writes in this prayer and in this song, it's revolving around verses 9 through 12.
And then there's links between the other ones as they move out.
So, this is non-linear thinking.
This is non-linear frameworks of communicating.
But that doesn't mean it isn't without structure.
And the structure is actually quite helpful.
This is creative.
It's beautiful.
It's helpful to us, isn't it?
If we're looking at it the right way.
Now, as you can tell, there's these parallel stanzas moving through.
The first section, verses 1 through 8, focus on passionate praise to God.
In this context, for delivering David from his enemies.
The final section, verses 13 through 20, emphasize fervent prayer that God will continue that deliverance to the very end.
Both of these expressions of devotion.
Praise, prayer are informed and motivated by what David says in the middle.
Okay?
You can't have praise.
In the context of this psalm, you can't have praise without what David says in the middle.
You can't have prayer, or you won't pray, until you've grasped into belief what David says in the middle.
And I think the key verse is verse 10.
Just set your eyes on it there.
Those who know your name put their trust in you.
For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
I think the theme of Psalm 9 is focused on the various implications of knowing God and his saving work.
We're looking at knowing God and his saving work.
And when we know God and his saving work, what it produces in us is passionate praise, fervent prayer.
So what I want to do is I'm going to start with the middle section.
And I'm going to spend most of our time there.
And then once we've got that, I want to look at the two types of expressions that are given here.
Number one, if you want to keep notes in concert with what I have written here, write this down.
Knowing God leads to truly trusting him.
Look at verse 9.
The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
And those who know your name put their trust in you.
For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Sing praises to the Lord, therefore, who sits enthroned in Zion.
Tell among the peoples his deeds.
For he who avenges blood is mindful of them.
He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
There's several affirmations here about God's love and care for the oppressed among his people.
David declares who God is.
He declares how God acts.
And this initiates our faith.
And motivates our prayer and our praise.
And the affirmations begin in verse 9 where David says that God is a stronghold for the oppressed in times of trouble.
He's a stronghold.
That's another image, isn't it?
It's an image of a high fort.
A high fort, a place of refuge when under attack is the picture that David is painting for us here.
This word stronghold, it's akin to the uses of refuge in Psalm 2 verse 12 and in Psalm 7 and verse 1.
But there's an important distinction here.
Refuge in those previous texts refers to an action performed by those who are in trouble.
We take refuge in God.
It's something that we do, right?
Not so as stronghold.
Stronghold is used in a very different way.
Stronghold here is not used as a verb.
It's used as a noun.
Stronghold speaks to what God is.
He is the stronghold.
Do you see this distinction?
There is no human action at this point in Psalm 9.
It is an affirmation of God's saving character and of God's saving work.
Before he tells anybody what to do, at least in this center section, David makes an affirmation, a declaration about God's character.
He says God is a stronghold.
God is a savior.
God is the place of refuge.
Taking refuge on our part involves running to God for shelter.
But the stronghold, however, is what we may run into.
He is the saving one.
Now, this dynamic of God's saving love, it's what sets up what follows.
Verse 10, again, those who know your name, they put their trust in you.
For you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.
It's an amazing promise here.
An amazing promise that the Lord has not and will not ever forsake those who seek him.
Not only is he a capable stronghold of providing true refuge, but to continue with the metaphor here, God does not deny or remove access in his gates.
He is a stronghold that we may find shelter in.
We may find security and safety in.
But there's a qualification here that we have to meditate on, isn't there?
The Lord has not forsaken who?
He has not forsaken those who seek him.
Now, while God's common grace extends to all people, believers, unbelievers alike in this life, that's true.
The Lord's safety and security are only ultimately applied to those who will take refuge in him as the true stronghold.
To put it another way, if you do not seek the Lord, you will have no refuge when the time for judgment arrives.
Now, I was thinking about this a little bit.
Those who seek God, in verse 10, do so because they know his name.
Do you see it there in verse 10?
Those who know your name put their trust in you, and you have not forsaken those who seek you.
Well, why are they seeking him?
Because they know him.
They know his name.
That doesn't mean that they know what to call God.
That's not what David means here.
It means that they actually know him.
They have experienced his personal power and presence in their lives.
And since they know him in that way, since they have experienced God relationally and savingly, spiritually in that way,
they continue then to trust him.
Those who know your name, who have experienced your power and presence, they continue in trusting you, Lord.
They believe that he has not and will not forsake them.
Where we once persisted in sin and rebellion, now we persist in faith.
Not without sin, but never without faith.
Saving faith, that is.
And think about that dynamic.
Before we come to Christ, before the Lord saves us, we are persisting in sin.
We may do good things sometimes.
We may do moral things sometimes.
And that's good.
I think that's common grace.
But our life is characterized by persisting against God.
Persisting in rebellion against him.
Persisting in sinfulness.
But after Christ, after we're redeemed, all of that changes.
Now we may go through a series of doubts and hardships in our lives.
But what is present for those who know God?
A persistent faith.
Maybe a struggling faith at times.
Maybe a sorrowful faith at times.
Maybe you have times since you've been a Christian that you felt like, I don't know that I'm going to continue.
I'm afraid that I'm going to lose hope and that I'm going to turn away.
And then we sing a song like, when I fear my faith will fail, he will hold me fast.
You see, those who seek the Lord do so because they know him.
And what they know about him is that he is a stronghold.
And so even when they're uncertain in their life, they persist in that faith.
And the Lord never forsakes them.
But this entire sequence here, it begins with revelation, doesn't it?
No one can be known unless they reveal themselves in some way.
Fortunately for us, God desires to be known.
He's revealed himself through the power of his Holy Spirit in his word.
So that as one experiences the personal presence and power of God's spirit in the scriptures,
God works in them a heart of persistent trust and seeking after God.
It begins with revelation.
It doesn't begin with human action.
It begins with God stating and revealing who he is in his saving character.
And we encounter that not through epiphany.
We encounter that by the very spirit of God as we come to the word of God.
In preaching, in reading the Bible, in having a conversation with a Christian friend.
The Lord does his work in us.
He frees our hearts.
He puts a new heart in us that we might believe and trust and follow.
He wants to be known.
It begins with revelation.
Isn't this part of the purpose of declaring among the peoples in verse 12 that they may know the Lord themselves?
That they may seek shelter in him?
Such seekers, says David, are never forsaken.
But we have to ask another question now.
Because life experience would force us to.
Is it actually true?
That God has not forsaken those who seek him.
Is that actually true?
Maybe David's excited about it in this moment.
Because perhaps he just came off a wonderful victory.
But doesn't the very first verse of the next psalm indicate that David also had times where he felt God had forsaken him?
Look at verse 1 of Psalm 10.
Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?
That is authentic prayer, isn't it?
Have you ever prayed a prayer like that?
Lord, where are you?
Where are you in my life?
Where are you in this situation?
Where are you in this world conflict?
Where are you in this disaster?
Lord, why are you so far away?
Have you forsaken me?
How are we to understand this?
Is this contradiction?
Is it just emotionalism?
What do we do with this?
I think we need to understand what it actually means to be forsaken.
It doesn't mean that we're free from hardship or trouble.
Indeed, the very context of this psalm is oppression, trouble, affliction.
Those are the words being used by David here.
It is out of affliction, out of trouble, out of hardship, out of suffering, that David recognizes
that God doesn't actually forsake those who seek him.
Indeed, no one can actually grasp this dynamic of God's faithfulness apart from trial and suffering, really.
But those who know the Lord, interestingly enough, continue to trust him because despite how they may feel in the heat of the moment,
they trust that God has not actually forsaken them.
Have you been there before?
I'm sure you have.
If you've been a believer for very long at all, I know that you've experienced this before,
where what you felt seemed to contradict what you read in the Word.
I love what Alistair Begat said.
I heard him say this maybe a few years ago.
When I cannot sense his presence, I can trust his Word because his presence is in the Word.
Your feelings will betray you.
Just ask your wife.
How many conflicts have you had with your spouse that really were probably blown out of proportion by one or the other
because you felt in a way that wasn't actual, wasn't real?
And as you begin to communicate through that frustration, you discover that your feelings maybe were misplaced.
Your emotions will betray you.
How you feel at any given day may not be very close to the Lord.
Doesn't mean that he's forsaken you.
We need to understand that.
Can I give you a couple of passages for that?
Psalm 37, 25.
David again, I have been young, now I'm old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken.
He said.
Now we know David saw the righteous persecuted.
David himself was run out of the kingdom at one point.
We know David witnessed faithful people struggle and suffer.
And yet he still makes this statement.
He still says, out of all my life, I have never, even at one time, seen God forsake the righteous.
How about a New Testament text?
Paul speaking in 2 Corinthians 4.
We are afflicted in every way.
But we're not crushed.
We are perplexed.
Not driven to despair.
Persecuted.
Not forsaken.
You see, forsaken doesn't mean an absence of difficulty.
It doesn't mean an absence of suffering.
It doesn't mean an absence of hardship.
To be forsaken by God in the biblical sins is not to endure trouble.
It is to face his eternal wrath for your sin.
That's what it means to be forsaken in the Bible.
The context of this psalm, the oppressed are not forsaken, though they are genuinely afflicted.
However, the oppressors are ultimately forsaken by God.
Sentenced to death.
Eternal death.
But there's another one who was forsaken by God that we have to note.
Mark chapter 15, verse 34.
At the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani.
Which means, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Jesus doesn't cry to the Father that he's forsaken because things were hard at the moment.
Jesus dealt with hardship as you and I deal with hardship.
Jesus cries that he's forsaken because in that moment, he experienced what we deserve to be experiencing for all of eternity.
Cut off from God.
Judged by him.
Enduring his wrath on the cross.
Jesus experiences the fullness of what it means to be forsaken by God the Father.
Peter says, though he committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.
That we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
By his wounds, we are healed.
He was forsaken so that we could be accepted.
Then God raised him from the dead.
But why?
So that we would know that what Christ did on the cross was sufficient.
That it appeased God's wrath.
It properly propitiated, if you want to use a New Testament word.
It properly, eternally, sufficiently propitiated God's wrath.
So that all who are in Christ will never be forsaken.
Never.
We talked about it in Sunday school this morning.
There's this amazing thing in the New Testament gospel that when a person comes to faith in Christ,
that is a work of the Holy Spirit.
And then the Spirit of God then indwells that believer.
And once he takes up residence, he doesn't leave.
You're secure.
Guaranteed.
What Christ has done is sufficient.
Those who are in him will never be forsaken.
They will never face the wrath of God.
And it's based on these affirmations of verses 9 and 10 that David continues to command in the very next verses
that those who indeed know the Lord should sing their praise to him.
That they should tell among the peoples his deeds.
So follow the progression here.
God is a stronghold.
That's who he is.
That's how he reveals himself to be as a saving God.
And then those who have experienced his saving power and presence continue to trust him.
Even when they feel forsaken.
And then they sing his praise.
They declare his deeds to others.
Why?
So that others may know God.
So that they might take refuge in him as well.
And then those same believers run to that stronghold every single day.
Again and again and again.
Running in affliction.
To the stronghold that our Savior and our God is.
Alright, that's at the heart of the psalm.
Second thing.
Knowing God leads to passionately praising God.
Passionately praising God.
Let's read the first eight verses again.
I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.
I will recount all your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you.
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence.
For you have maintained my just cause.
You have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.
Amen.
You've rebuked the nations.
You've made the wicked perish.
You have blotted out their name forever and ever.
The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins.
Their cities you rooted out.
The very memory of them has perished.
But the Lord sits enthroned forever.
He has established his throne for justice.
And he judges the world with righteousness.
He judges the peoples with uprightness.
Now, after spending so many times in psalms of lament to start this series, it's wonderful to come to a psalm of praise, isn't it?
There's three phases to this praise.
Notice first the I will statements of verses 1 and 2.
First person.
I will give thanks to the Lord, my whole heart.
I will recount all your wonderful deeds.
I will be glad and exult in you.
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
There's nothing superficial here.
There's nothing mundane about this praise.
With his whole heart, David says, all of his focus, all of his affection, he offers his thanksgiving to the Lord.
Is that how your thanksgiving is to the Lord?
Could you say to the Lord, seriously, with my whole heart, with everything that I am,
with all of my affection, I offer my thanksgiving to you, Lord?
If you don't know him, you could never do that.
You can't offer your full affection to a Lord that you don't know.
Even in the service this morning, what's the nature of your praise?
The one hymn that we sing so often, tune my heart to sing your praise.
There's a divine tuning that takes place there.
Prepares us for worship.
You in sync with the Spirit this morning as you sing your praise, as you sing how marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song will ever be, how marvelous, how wonderful is my Savior's love for me.
And in response to that, you offer your full affection to him.
The content of his thanksgiving is the recounting of all God's wonderful deeds.
As the other song says, David counted his blessings, naming them one by one.
Counting his blessings to see what God has done.
When's the last time you recounted all of God's deeds and praise to him?
Then David's glad.
He takes pleasure in singing praise to God.
I will be glad.
I will exult.
That means that in his praise, he's the one that experiences joy.
He exults.
It brings him joy to give God glory.
Sing praise there.
In verse 2, it's the same word for some.
Literally, David says, I will psalm the name of God.
I think this indicates the importance and significance of hymnody and psalmody and song
in our personal and in our corporate worship.
That's what's happening here.
All right, then there's a second phase to the praise.
Notice now it moves from first person to second person in verses 3 through 6.
Notice all the you have statements.
Verse 4, you have maintained my just cause.
Again in 4, you have sat on the throne giving righteous judgment.
Verse 5, you've rebuked the nations.
You've made the wicked perish.
You've blotted out their name forever and ever.
Verse 6, you rooted out their cities.
David recounts the wonderful deeds of the Lord.
And he directs that praise to the Lord.
You have done this.
I praise you for you have done these things.
Grammatically, theologians label these you have statements as what's called prophetic perfects,
which means they're presented in the past tense,
but they refer to something that awaits a future fulfillment.
So confident is David in God's ultimate judgment of the nations and deliverance of the righteous
that he speaks of the final judgment here as if it's already happened.
And he lifts his praise to the Lord.
Third phase is found in verses 7 and 8.
He's first person in the first two verses.
Then he's second person.
He directs it to the Lord you have.
And then in this third phase, he goes to third person.
He now addresses the listener.
Notice the he has statements or things that would relate to that.
Verse 7, the Lord sits enthroned forever.
However, he has established the throne for justice.
He judges the world.
He judges the peoples with righteousness and uprightness.
The purpose of this praise is first to issue a warning to those who persist in sin.
That judgment is coming.
And then it's to encourage those who seek the Lord regarding the fact that judgment's coming.
And for us, it will be a pleasant day, will it?
Joyful day.
David's praise then, it's both evangelistic and edifying, as all of our public praise should be.
As you go through your days, your word should echo your praise so that sinners will be warned and Christians will be edified.
And what's at the heart of this praise?
That God is a stronghold for the oppressed.
And that he does not forsake those who know his name.
Finally, knowing God leads to fervently praying to God.
Knowing God leads to fervently praying to God.
Verses 13 to 20.
Be gracious to me, O Lord.
See my affliction from those who hate me.
O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises.
That in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in your salvation.
The nations have sunk in the pit that they made.
In the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
The Lord has made himself known.
He's executed judgment.
The wicked are snared in the work of their own hands.
The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God.
For the needy shall not always be forgotten.
The hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
Arise, O Lord, let not men prevail.
Let the nations be judged before you.
Put them in fear, O Lord.
Let the nations know that they are but me.
So here David transitions.
He's transitioning from praise to prayer.
His confidence that God will do these things does not prevent him from still asking God to do it.
You see, in the first part, he's confident.
This is faith.
He believes wholeheartedly that God will do these things that he has promised to do.
And yet, when we get to the second half of the psalm, what does he do?
He still asks for God to do it.
I think this is a helpful model for us, isn't it?
Notice how these stanzas now parallel the earlier ones.
Because David knows God to be forever enthroned in righteousness, which he says in verses 7 and 8,
because of that, he asks now for God to treat him graciously,
to see his affliction, and to judge his enemies in verses 13 and 14.
Because of what he believes God to be in 7 and 8,
he pleads with God according to that in verses 13 and 14.
He pleads to God as the righteous judge, even his own judge.
And notice how it's filled with faith.
David knows that the gates of death cannot keep him from the gates of Zion,
so long as the righteous judge brings his grace and mercy.
He expects to receive God's salvation because of God's promises.
He anticipates rejoicing in God's salvation before the throne of God.
Amazing.
The prophetic perfects of verses 3-6 are echoed in David's prayer for judgment against the wicked
in verses 15-18.
Because he believes wholeheartedly that God will judge the wicked, that he will judge sinners,
he prays for God to then do that, to judge righteously in the second part.
You see how they go together?
And like in Psalm 7, he rehearses both a present and future element of their judgment.
The Lord has made himself known as the nations have been betrayed by their own devices.
They have been entangled in their own nets.
That's the doing of God.
But David also recognizes a final judgment,
affirming that those who forget God as opposed to seeking God
will return to Sheol.
They will perish forever.
However, there's coming a day when all oppression will totally cease.
For God will cast all the wicked into eternal hell.
Now on one hand, that should sorrow us.
It should also thrill us.
Because it means righteousness has been carried out.
It means that our God is righteous.
Finally, the summary plea of verses 19 and 20,
they link to the opening declaration of praise in verses 1 and 2.
The judgment of the Lord against the nations amounts to the wonderful deeds
that David and all believers will recount in eternity.
David's confident praise, it doesn't preclude his fervent prayer.
Both elements of worship and devotion must be present in each of us who knows the Lord.
We know that Jesus will return in power.
And we still pray, Lord, come quickly.
We know that God will save all who belong to him in eternity past.
And we should plead with him to bring salvation to more people around us.
We know that God is good and right in all that he does.
And we should fervently pray that he continues to be good and right in all that he does.
Praise.
Prayer.
All centered on what?
That those who know the Lord put their trust in him.
For he has a stronghold for the oppressed.
And he will not ever forsake those who seek him.