WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.799 Psalm 88. It's not one that many people are familiar with, but it's a great psalm. 00:00:09.140 --> 00:00:11.359 The subtitle of the psalm says, 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:18.839 A Psalm of the Sons of Korah to the Choir Master according to Mahalath Leonath, the Maskell of Heman the Ezraite. 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:23.940 It's obviously a song that they wrote for worship. 00:00:26.339 --> 00:00:28.019 Let me read it out loud for us. 00:00:30.000 --> 00:00:36.240 O Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. 00:00:37.000 --> 00:00:38.980 Let my prayer come before you. 00:00:40.120 --> 00:00:41.659 Incline your ear to my cry. 00:00:42.679 --> 00:00:46.200 For my soul is full of troubles and my life draws near to Sheol. 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:49.120 I am counted among those who go down to the pit. 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:51.379 I am a man who has no strength. 00:00:51.980 --> 00:00:56.740 Like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, 00:00:57.060 --> 00:00:59.439 like those whom you remember no more. 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:01.479 For they are cut off from your hand. 00:01:02.759 --> 00:01:06.439 You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:11.120 Your wrath lies heavy upon me and you overwhelm me with all your waves. 00:01:11.659 --> 00:01:12.019 Selah. 00:01:12.019 --> 00:01:17.079 You have caused my companions to shun me. 00:01:17.079 --> 00:01:19.019 You have made me a horror to them. 00:01:19.340 --> 00:01:21.500 I am shut in so that I cannot escape. 00:01:21.979 --> 00:01:24.759 My eye grows dim through sorrow. 00:01:24.760 --> 00:01:28.180 Every day I call upon you, O Lord. 00:01:28.320 --> 00:01:30.520 I spread out my hands to you. 00:01:30.920 --> 00:01:32.980 Do you work wonders for the dead? 00:01:33.520 --> 00:01:36.340 Do the departed rise up to praise you, Selah? 00:01:37.660 --> 00:01:40.140 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave? 00:01:40.140 --> 00:01:42.820 Or your faithfulness in Abaddon? 00:01:43.460 --> 00:01:45.780 Are your wonders known in the darkness? 00:01:46.420 --> 00:01:49.140 Or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 00:01:50.019 --> 00:01:51.640 But I, O Lord, cry to you. 00:01:51.700 --> 00:01:53.780 In the morning my prayer comes before you. 00:01:54.099 --> 00:01:56.980 O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? 00:01:56.980 --> 00:01:59.719 Why do you hide your face from me? 00:02:00.579 --> 00:02:03.180 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up. 00:02:03.340 --> 00:02:04.680 I suffer your terrors. 00:02:04.780 --> 00:02:05.520 I am helpless. 00:02:06.460 --> 00:02:08.080 Your wrath has swept over me. 00:02:08.480 --> 00:02:10.360 Your dreadful assaults destroy me. 00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:12.860 They surround me like a flood all day long. 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:14.400 They close in on me together. 00:02:15.539 --> 00:02:18.699 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. 00:02:19.300 --> 00:02:22.099 My companions have become darkness. 00:02:24.580 --> 00:02:25.980 Isn't that a... 00:02:26.979 --> 00:02:28.280 It's quite dark, right? 00:02:28.659 --> 00:02:31.239 And some of the people who have studied this psalm 00:02:31.239 --> 00:02:33.219 have had these things to say about it. 00:02:33.239 --> 00:02:33.959 One person says, 00:02:34.459 --> 00:02:36.259 It's the saddest psalm in the whole Psalter. 00:02:37.199 --> 00:02:38.399 Another person says, 00:02:39.199 --> 00:02:42.959 It's unrelieved by a single ray of comfort or hope. 00:02:44.179 --> 00:02:47.239 It's stark and lonely and pain-riddled. 00:02:48.579 --> 00:02:52.339 The psalmist is writing from a very dark place. 00:02:53.079 --> 00:02:55.199 And it teaches us that 00:02:55.199 --> 00:02:58.979 amidst kind of the distress and darkness of our lives 00:02:58.979 --> 00:03:01.919 that we must cry out to the God of our salvation. 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:05.019 And it's really divided into two main parts. 00:03:05.819 --> 00:03:07.199 You could divide it in multiple ways, 00:03:07.339 --> 00:03:08.879 but I'd like to divide it. 00:03:08.959 --> 00:03:10.459 So verses 1 through 9a, 00:03:11.379 --> 00:03:13.819 and then in my eyes grow dim through sorrow. 00:03:14.379 --> 00:03:16.939 And then verses 9b to 18. 00:03:16.939 --> 00:03:19.919 And they kind of parallel each other. 00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:21.979 So it's got two halves that mirror each other. 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:24.659 And in verses 1 to 2, 00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:26.599 the psalmist begins his prayer this way, 00:03:26.659 --> 00:03:28.039 Oh Lord God of my salvation, 00:03:28.159 --> 00:03:29.819 I cry out day and night before you. 00:03:29.900 --> 00:03:31.120 Let my prayer come before you. 00:03:31.199 --> 00:03:32.659 Incline your ear to my cry. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:34.719 And the last word in verse 2, 00:03:34.860 --> 00:03:35.180 cry, 00:03:35.319 --> 00:03:37.639 is it's not just kind of this, 00:03:37.740 --> 00:03:38.000 you know, 00:03:38.020 --> 00:03:40.860 formal kind of prayer petitioning God 00:03:40.860 --> 00:03:42.439 or in a dignified way. 00:03:42.539 --> 00:03:43.800 It refers to wailing. 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:44.280 You know, 00:03:44.320 --> 00:03:46.040 imagine someone wailing at a funeral. 00:03:46.420 --> 00:03:48.040 Or it's that kind of crying out, 00:03:48.200 --> 00:03:50.400 desperate cry to God. 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:52.219 And that's how he's crying out. 00:03:52.340 --> 00:03:52.740 And that's, 00:03:53.300 --> 00:03:54.640 and he's not praying for, 00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:54.880 you know, 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:57.219 like two minutes a day 00:03:57.219 --> 00:03:58.620 and then going about his business. 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:01.920 He says he's praying day and night, right? 00:04:01.980 --> 00:04:03.100 And that's not, 00:04:03.320 --> 00:04:04.620 that doesn't mean that he's praying, 00:04:04.720 --> 00:04:04.960 you know, 00:04:05.160 --> 00:04:06.520 once during the day 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:07.400 and then once during the night. 00:04:07.620 --> 00:04:09.280 Day and night is a literary device 00:04:09.280 --> 00:04:09.980 called merism, 00:04:10.160 --> 00:04:12.260 which includes everything in between. 00:04:12.420 --> 00:04:13.460 So when you say heaven and earth, 00:04:13.460 --> 00:04:14.460 it doesn't mean that God created 00:04:14.460 --> 00:04:15.219 just the heaven and earth. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:17.120 It means he created the whole world, right? 00:04:17.420 --> 00:04:18.980 So here when he says day and night, 00:04:19.019 --> 00:04:20.600 that means he's crying out all day long. 00:04:21.160 --> 00:04:21.319 He's, 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:22.480 that's how desperate he is. 00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:23.439 He's crying out to God. 00:04:23.840 --> 00:04:25.060 And that's paralleled 00:04:25.060 --> 00:04:26.220 in the second half of the Psalm 00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:28.199 by verses 9b to c, 00:04:28.300 --> 00:04:28.600 basically, 00:04:28.600 --> 00:04:29.139 where he says, 00:04:29.540 --> 00:04:31.480 every day I call upon you, O Lord. 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:33.360 I spread out my hands to you. 00:04:33.420 --> 00:04:34.379 So not only is the Psalmist 00:04:34.379 --> 00:04:35.579 crying out all day long, 00:04:35.579 --> 00:04:38.100 he's also calling upon God every day, right? 00:04:38.819 --> 00:04:40.199 And then in verses 3 to 4, 00:04:40.280 --> 00:04:40.900 the Psalmist explains 00:04:40.900 --> 00:04:41.980 why he's crying out 00:04:41.980 --> 00:04:43.259 so desperately and persistently. 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:44.339 He says, 00:04:44.739 --> 00:04:47.159 for my soul is full of troubles 00:04:47.159 --> 00:04:49.139 and my life draws near to Sheol. 00:04:49.359 --> 00:04:50.639 I am counted among those 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:51.879 who go down to the pit. 00:04:52.019 --> 00:04:53.599 I am a man who has no strength. 00:04:53.719 --> 00:04:55.839 So his soul is full, right? 00:04:55.919 --> 00:04:57.639 Not of blessings from God, 00:04:57.719 --> 00:04:59.399 but of troubles. 00:04:59.699 --> 00:05:01.599 And his life is drawing near to Sheol, 00:05:01.699 --> 00:05:02.839 which is the realm of the dead, 00:05:02.919 --> 00:05:04.500 a name for the realm of the dead 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:05.959 that parallels the pit. 00:05:06.679 --> 00:05:07.599 And we don't know exactly 00:05:07.599 --> 00:05:08.620 what the situation is. 00:05:08.620 --> 00:05:09.959 Maybe he's ravaged by war, 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:11.079 being pursued by an enemy, 00:05:11.220 --> 00:05:11.899 or he's ill, 00:05:12.240 --> 00:05:15.620 has contracted maybe a potentially fatal illness. 00:05:16.060 --> 00:05:16.639 We don't know. 00:05:16.800 --> 00:05:18.620 I think the Psalmist doesn't tell us 00:05:18.620 --> 00:05:20.280 because then it makes the application 00:05:20.280 --> 00:05:21.040 much more broader. 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:24.620 But he is like a man who has no strength, 00:05:24.860 --> 00:05:26.420 like a valiant man in the battlefield 00:05:26.420 --> 00:05:27.819 who's totally spent. 00:05:28.100 --> 00:05:29.439 He can't even raise his weapon. 00:05:29.620 --> 00:05:30.740 He can't take another step. 00:05:30.800 --> 00:05:33.720 He's just awaiting his inevitable death. 00:05:33.720 --> 00:05:36.500 That's the kind of image that's pictured here. 00:05:36.780 --> 00:05:37.480 Painted here is, 00:05:37.520 --> 00:05:38.740 I'm a man who has no strength. 00:05:39.400 --> 00:05:41.320 And that near-death experience of the Psalmist 00:05:41.320 --> 00:05:43.680 is paralleled by verses 10 to 11. 00:05:44.400 --> 00:05:44.520 It says, 00:05:44.640 --> 00:05:46.360 Do you work wonders for the dead? 00:05:46.760 --> 00:05:49.520 Do the departed rise up to praise you, Selah? 00:05:50.020 --> 00:05:52.320 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave 00:05:52.320 --> 00:05:54.060 or your faithfulness in Abaddon? 00:05:54.400 --> 00:05:56.280 Abaddon is another name for the realm of the dead. 00:05:56.340 --> 00:05:57.540 So this parallel Sheol. 00:05:58.140 --> 00:05:59.600 And the Psalmist already knows 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:01.140 the answer to this rhetorical question 00:06:01.140 --> 00:06:03.080 because in Psalm 115, 17, 00:06:03.080 --> 00:06:03.580 it says, 00:06:03.720 --> 00:06:05.540 The dead do not praise the Lord, 00:06:05.960 --> 00:06:08.080 nor do any who go down into silence. 00:06:08.200 --> 00:06:10.160 So this is not a statement about 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:12.040 whether or not there's life after death 00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:13.160 or whether, you know, 00:06:13.460 --> 00:06:15.140 it's, for example, right, 00:06:15.180 --> 00:06:18.080 even Jesus used the Old Testament 00:06:18.080 --> 00:06:20.300 in Exodus 3, 6, 00:06:20.360 --> 00:06:20.780 where he says, 00:06:20.940 --> 00:06:21.960 God says to Moses, 00:06:22.080 --> 00:06:23.760 I am the God of your fathers. 00:06:23.860 --> 00:06:25.880 I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? 00:06:26.000 --> 00:06:28.720 And he used that in Matthew 22 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:30.820 to prove to the Sadducees that, 00:06:31.020 --> 00:06:32.620 yes, there is a resurrection of the dead 00:06:32.620 --> 00:06:34.240 because God is not the God of the dead 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:35.040 but God of the living. 00:06:35.459 --> 00:06:36.939 So what he's referring to here 00:06:36.939 --> 00:06:40.480 is that God is the God of the living. 00:06:40.840 --> 00:06:42.860 It's those who are living who praise the Lord. 00:06:43.259 --> 00:06:44.639 It's those who, it's not the dead, 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:46.620 they're not the ones that are praising God. 00:06:46.699 --> 00:06:48.079 So he's saying here, 00:06:48.199 --> 00:06:50.459 well, do you work wonders for the dead? 00:06:50.579 --> 00:06:51.439 Do they praise you? 00:06:51.759 --> 00:06:52.439 The answer is no. 00:06:52.439 --> 00:06:53.579 So then why, God, 00:06:53.699 --> 00:06:56.339 are you letting me go down to the grave like this? 00:06:56.579 --> 00:06:57.879 Why are you driving me to death? 00:06:58.259 --> 00:07:00.040 Because that's not where I can praise you. 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:01.560 That's not, you're not the God of the dead, 00:07:01.620 --> 00:07:02.379 you're the God of the living. 00:07:04.060 --> 00:07:07.540 And so he's experiencing this really death, 00:07:07.699 --> 00:07:08.800 but not just death, 00:07:08.879 --> 00:07:10.439 but he's experiencing darkness 00:07:10.439 --> 00:07:12.459 and forsakenness as well. 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:14.339 Because he says in verses 5 to 6, 00:07:14.339 --> 00:07:27.959 So he feels like a wounded soldier 00:07:27.959 --> 00:07:29.799 that's been deserted in the field of battle, 00:07:29.939 --> 00:07:30.120 right? 00:07:30.659 --> 00:07:32.379 Or like a corpse in the grave. 00:07:32.779 --> 00:07:35.120 Like those whom God remembers no more 00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:37.259 in the region dark and deep. 00:07:37.859 --> 00:07:40.039 And that sense of forsakenness and darkness 00:07:40.039 --> 00:07:41.379 is paralleled in the second half 00:07:41.379 --> 00:07:42.659 by verses 12 to 14. 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:45.360 Are your wonders known in the darkness 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:48.200 or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? 00:07:48.980 --> 00:07:50.800 But I, O Lord, cry to you in the morning. 00:07:50.880 --> 00:07:52.380 My prayer comes before you, O Lord. 00:07:52.500 --> 00:07:54.140 Why do you cast my soul away? 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:55.980 Why do you hide your face from me? 00:07:55.980 --> 00:07:58.040 So he feels like God has totally abandoned him 00:07:58.040 --> 00:07:59.440 and has forgotten him, 00:07:59.520 --> 00:08:00.760 has left him to the dark. 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:03.020 He's in the place of darkness and forsakenness. 00:08:03.540 --> 00:08:05.360 And he believes that this is because 00:08:05.360 --> 00:08:06.680 of God's wrath upon him. 00:08:07.320 --> 00:08:08.320 And so in verse 8, he says, 00:08:08.400 --> 00:08:10.060 Your wrath lies heavy upon me 00:08:10.060 --> 00:08:11.840 and you overwhelm me with all your waves. 00:08:11.839 --> 00:08:15.599 And then that's paralleled by verses 15 to 17. 00:08:15.819 --> 00:08:18.039 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up. 00:08:18.359 --> 00:08:19.659 I suffer your terrors. 00:08:19.739 --> 00:08:20.359 I am helpless. 00:08:20.959 --> 00:08:22.839 Your wrath has swept over me. 00:08:22.939 --> 00:08:24.639 Your dreadful assaults destroy me. 00:08:25.079 --> 00:08:26.919 They surround me like a flood all day long. 00:08:26.979 --> 00:08:28.219 They close in on me together. 00:08:28.439 --> 00:08:30.439 So he's comparing the wrath of God 00:08:30.439 --> 00:08:31.379 that's coming upon him 00:08:31.379 --> 00:08:32.839 like this overwhelming waves, 00:08:32.879 --> 00:08:34.980 like the flood water that surrounds him. 00:08:34.980 --> 00:08:37.039 And obviously here, you know, 00:08:37.139 --> 00:08:39.759 we haven't been as affected by Hurricane Florence. 00:08:39.920 --> 00:08:41.240 But even here, we've kind of seen 00:08:41.240 --> 00:08:43.460 some of the devastating effects of it. 00:08:43.480 --> 00:08:44.940 It was reduced to a tropical storm 00:08:44.940 --> 00:08:45.779 by the time it got here. 00:08:45.899 --> 00:08:47.360 But one of our sister churches, 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:48.779 King of Grace, was still flooded. 00:08:48.920 --> 00:08:50.879 Their basement was flooded by the rain. 00:08:51.960 --> 00:08:52.539 And so it's just, 00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:55.240 that's how the psalmist feels. 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:57.120 That sense of suffocating dread 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:00.519 and helplessness of water just closing in on you 00:09:00.519 --> 00:09:01.659 and you know you're going to drown. 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:03.000 That kind of feeling, 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:05.259 that's how he feels like God himself 00:09:05.259 --> 00:09:07.879 is overwhelming him and attacking him. 00:09:08.519 --> 00:09:10.679 And not only does he feel abandoned by God, 00:09:10.860 --> 00:09:14.179 he's rejected by his closest friends and companions. 00:09:14.740 --> 00:09:15.720 So verses eight to nine, 00:09:15.819 --> 00:09:16.039 it says, 00:09:16.159 --> 00:09:18.299 you have caused my companions to shun me. 00:09:18.699 --> 00:09:19.960 You have made me a horror to them. 00:09:20.019 --> 00:09:21.639 I'm shut in so that I cannot escape. 00:09:21.720 --> 00:09:23.299 My eyes grow dim through sorrow. 00:09:23.840 --> 00:09:25.379 Eyes growing dim represents 00:09:25.379 --> 00:09:26.919 not just the vision, losing vision, 00:09:26.919 --> 00:09:29.259 but the whole vitality and health of the body 00:09:29.259 --> 00:09:30.399 declining. 00:09:30.679 --> 00:09:33.799 Usually it represents the health 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:35.519 throughout scripture of the whole body. 00:09:36.120 --> 00:09:38.919 And that sense of being shunned 00:09:38.919 --> 00:09:40.500 is paralleled by verse 18. 00:09:40.980 --> 00:09:43.840 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. 00:09:44.139 --> 00:09:46.220 My companions have become darkness. 00:09:47.600 --> 00:09:50.779 So usually at the end of a psalm of lament like this, 00:09:51.319 --> 00:09:52.439 there is, as we've seen, 00:09:52.580 --> 00:09:55.580 there's been going through the psalm for a while now, 00:09:55.580 --> 00:09:55.840 right? 00:09:55.960 --> 00:09:56.679 Now we're in Psalm 88. 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:59.479 Usually at the end of a psalm like this, 00:09:59.659 --> 00:10:03.099 there's an expression of faith and confidence. 00:10:03.639 --> 00:10:04.879 But I will trust in God. 00:10:05.259 --> 00:10:06.120 But this will happen. 00:10:06.899 --> 00:10:08.620 But in this psalm, 00:10:08.779 --> 00:10:09.919 it's really unique 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:12.219 because there's nothing like that. 00:10:12.919 --> 00:10:15.599 It ends with the psalmist being shunned by his friends 00:10:15.599 --> 00:10:17.439 and feeling engulfed by the darkness. 00:10:18.239 --> 00:10:19.959 It's a really depressing psalm. 00:10:19.960 --> 00:10:23.580 But isn't that how life is sometimes, right? 00:10:24.540 --> 00:10:26.780 Sometimes we don't see the silver lining 00:10:26.780 --> 00:10:30.360 when the clouds of our lives are looming over us, right? 00:10:31.000 --> 00:10:33.519 Sometimes we don't see the light at the end of the tunnel. 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:36.480 Life in this sinful, broken world 00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:38.780 does not always end with a happy ending. 00:10:39.340 --> 00:10:41.519 Sometimes suffering is followed by more suffering, 00:10:41.740 --> 00:10:43.019 one loss after another loss. 00:10:43.019 --> 00:10:45.600 Sometimes the world adds insult to injury 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:48.019 and we feel hopelessly broken down 00:10:48.019 --> 00:10:48.720 and want to give up. 00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:50.939 That's how a lot of people in this world feel. 00:10:51.019 --> 00:10:52.240 I think most of us in our church, 00:10:52.340 --> 00:10:53.600 we're more privileged than that. 00:10:53.699 --> 00:10:55.019 We don't live in that kind of reality, 00:10:55.120 --> 00:10:56.360 but a lot of people in this world do. 00:10:56.939 --> 00:10:58.899 And to people who are living in such reality, 00:10:59.100 --> 00:11:00.159 this psalm, 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:01.659 maybe even more than the psalms 00:11:01.659 --> 00:11:03.399 that offer those kinds of expressions of hope, 00:11:03.819 --> 00:11:06.039 has a powerful message, right, for them. 00:11:06.399 --> 00:11:07.919 Because what it's teaching us is 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.379 that it doesn't give us theological pat answers, 00:11:10.539 --> 00:11:12.759 but it does tell us not to give up, right? 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:15.899 Because as long as you're praying, right, 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:17.679 as long as you're still crying out to God, 00:11:17.719 --> 00:11:19.259 you haven't given up all your hope. 00:11:19.519 --> 00:11:21.459 You haven't given up all of your faith. 00:11:22.000 --> 00:11:24.519 Even though the entirety of the psalm is somber and dark, 00:11:24.599 --> 00:11:26.639 in the first verse, the psalmist still says, 00:11:27.179 --> 00:11:29.719 O Lord, God of my salvation, 00:11:30.379 --> 00:11:33.099 I cry out day and night before you, right? 00:11:33.539 --> 00:11:35.079 He hasn't been saved yet, 00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:36.800 but he's nevertheless crying out 00:11:36.800 --> 00:11:38.560 to the God of my salvation. 00:11:38.700 --> 00:11:39.480 He still has hope. 00:11:39.840 --> 00:11:40.860 He still has faith. 00:11:41.139 --> 00:11:42.940 And his faith has been stretched, 00:11:43.220 --> 00:11:45.720 but hasn't been broken. 00:11:46.360 --> 00:11:48.000 So even though he can't praise God 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:49.200 for his circumstances right now, 00:11:49.240 --> 00:11:50.360 he still prays to God 00:11:50.360 --> 00:11:52.000 in the midst of his distress. 00:11:52.700 --> 00:11:53.940 And that really should teach us 00:11:53.940 --> 00:11:55.879 that even in the midst of darkness 00:11:55.879 --> 00:11:57.080 and distress in our lives, 00:11:57.160 --> 00:11:58.320 we should cry out to God 00:11:58.320 --> 00:12:00.660 and pray to Him and trust in Him. 00:12:01.360 --> 00:12:04.400 And for us, obviously, as Christians, right, 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:06.560 who have seen the fulfillment 00:12:06.560 --> 00:12:09.080 of God's salvation promise in Jesus Christ, 00:12:09.560 --> 00:12:10.879 we have all the more reason 00:12:10.879 --> 00:12:12.860 to keep the faith and trust God 00:12:12.860 --> 00:12:15.240 amidst the distress and darkness of our lives, right? 00:12:15.680 --> 00:12:17.100 As John 1, 5, right, 00:12:17.180 --> 00:12:18.540 said about the coming of Jesus, 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:20.540 the light shines in the darkness, 00:12:20.960 --> 00:12:23.120 and the darkness has not overcome it, right? 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:25.560 Jesus is the light that has come into the world, 00:12:25.600 --> 00:12:26.400 into a dark world, 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:28.200 and the darkness has not overcome Him. 00:12:28.200 --> 00:12:31.879 And then 1 Corinthians 15, 56-57 says, 00:12:32.280 --> 00:12:33.640 the sting of death is sin, 00:12:33.700 --> 00:12:35.240 and the power of sin is the law. 00:12:35.620 --> 00:12:37.860 But thanks be to God who gives us the victory 00:12:37.860 --> 00:12:39.560 through our Lord Jesus Christ, right? 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:41.840 That shows us, Jesus assures us 00:12:41.840 --> 00:12:43.740 that darkness will not ultimately prevail. 00:12:44.300 --> 00:12:47.580 The death will not have the final say in our lives. 00:12:48.000 --> 00:12:50.520 And we know this because Christ has died for our sins, 00:12:50.640 --> 00:12:51.400 paid for our sins, 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:53.360 and He was raised from the dead victoriously, 00:12:53.360 --> 00:12:55.019 and then the defeated sin 00:12:55.019 --> 00:12:57.180 that He imparts to us eternal life 00:12:57.180 --> 00:12:58.300 and resurrection life. 00:12:58.539 --> 00:12:59.399 So even after that, 00:12:59.480 --> 00:13:00.379 that's not the final say, 00:13:00.399 --> 00:13:02.620 but we'll be raised with Him in the end. 00:13:03.220 --> 00:13:04.840 And because of that, 00:13:04.899 --> 00:13:06.060 I think we have much more, 00:13:07.740 --> 00:13:10.159 a much stronger basis for hope and faith 00:13:10.159 --> 00:13:12.019 than this psalmist did as we were praying. 00:13:12.399 --> 00:13:15.560 And this is the hope that we can offer 00:13:15.560 --> 00:13:18.139 to people who are in the midst of distress and darkness. 00:13:18.940 --> 00:13:20.800 And really, it should be a motivator 00:13:20.800 --> 00:13:22.300 for us to evangelize as well 00:13:22.299 --> 00:13:24.379 because people who do not yet know Jesus, 00:13:24.620 --> 00:13:25.779 this is their world, 00:13:26.120 --> 00:13:27.039 whether they know it or not. 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:30.299 They're living in death and darkness. 00:13:31.319 --> 00:13:32.099 They're dead to sin. 00:13:32.299 --> 00:13:33.359 They're dead in sin. 00:13:33.699 --> 00:13:34.740 They're trespassed in sin. 00:13:34.959 --> 00:13:37.839 So let's keep that in mind. 00:13:38.039 --> 00:13:39.319 And then we're going to sing one more.