Psalm 12, and we'll be looking
at verse 5 this morning. Psalm 12, and verse 5. The title of the message is,
The Safety of the Poor and Needy. The safety of the poor and needy. Let's read this together. for
the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy. Now
will I arise, saith the Lord, I will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him." Safety for the poor and needy. Now here the psalmist, he begins
this psalm with a good prayer. A good prayer. Look at that prayer.
First two words. Help, Lord. Is that not a good
prayer? Help, Lord. If you can't say
anything else, if you can't muster any eloquent words, If you can't
figure out even what it is that's causing your pain or grief, here's
two words, help Lord. Help Lord. A good prayer, and
David begins with this prayer. Help! And he gives the cause
for his need. He says this, "...for the godly
man ceaseth, for the faithful fail from among the children
of men." David looked about his generation, looked about where
he was, and saw this. There were not many believers.
There were not many godly people around. There were not many who
were faithful to serve and worship the Lord. What were they doing?
They speak vanity, every one with his neighbor, with flattering
lips, and with a double heart do they speak. These people went
about speaking in vain conversation, light and frivolous things. They
were polite. They flattered one another. They
built each other up in their wickedness, but their hearts
were not set on the good of their neighbor, but rather their own
pride, their own pride. This surely is the cry of every
believer now, isn't it? Help, Lord! Why? We live in such
a crooked and perverse generation as this. The same generation
David lived in, we live in right now. There are few godly men. There are few Christians. There are few who believe on
the Christ of Holy Scripture. And there are fewer that worship
faithfully and attend to the preaching of the gospel of Christ. There are few. Look around. How many? Few. This wicked generation only
desire to speak vain and empty things. They see wickedness in
their neighbor and will not condemn it. Not because they care for
their neighbor, but rather because they want to keep their own wickedness.
They don't want to be judged of their own vileness. So they don't condemn. They're
like those idol makers. You know, in Isaiah, this is
what God says, I've displayed myself to them and they began
to fear. And listen to what happens when
this happens to the world. The isles saw it and they feared.
The ends of the earth were afraid and drew near and came. They
helped every one his neighbor and every one his brother. Be
of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the
goldsmith. And he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote
with the anvil, saying, It is ready to be soldering. And he
fastened it with nails, and it should not be moved." You see, when they hear of the
gospel, what do they do? They encourage each other in their
idolatry. When the gospel is preached,
what do the religious do? They speak vanity. They encourage
one another in their vanity. in their empty religion. But
thou, Israel, art my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham my friend." God has declared and proven His sovereignty
over all creation, providence, and especially in the salvation
of His elect. He is Lord for the first and
the last. God has shown that He has chosen
His people before the foundation of the world. And the Lord swore
that He would send Christ to save His people from their sins. And Jesus, having accomplished
this work of salvation upon the cross, is now ascended to the
throne of God, and Jesus is now moving all providence All time
and eternity for this single purpose, to save His people. He said, Thou hast given Him
power over all flesh, for what purpose? That He should give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. And so then the Holy Spirit will
come and give life to all the elect of God, to Israel. Yet
now all the idol-makers will gather together. When they hear
that, they will be afraid. You know, when man hears of the
sovereignty of God, he fears. Why do you think he runs about
to make a God of his own making? Because he's afraid! He has no
desire to serve an absolutely sovereign God. So the world and
its religion band together against the Lord and against His anointed.
The free will, idolater, encourages the babbling Pentecostal. They
go together. They'll sit together. They'll
fellowship together. The Catholic will sit down and
fellowship with the baptismal regeneration people. They will
encourage one another when they hear this gospel. They will encourage
one another not to believe it, but to be against it. They will set their hearts in
hatred. Outwardly, they will unite against
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. I don't care
what differences they have, they will always unite against this
gospel. But what is the Lord going to
do with these people? And it doesn't matter how much
they confederate, no matter how much they cooperate together,
God's going to do this with all false freewill works religion.
Here it is, verse 3, "...the Lord shall cut off all the flattering
lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things, who have said,
With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are our own, who is
the Lord over us?" Now listen, is this not the heart
of this wicked generation? that says with our tongues we
will prevail and with our lips, our own lips, who is Lord over
us? This generation that we live
in believes if they say it enough, it's true. If they just say it, then it's
got to be true. I heard this said this last week,
you need to believe your own truth. as though truth were subjective
to your own personal thoughts. Now, you laugh because it is
silly, but make no mistake, that's all this world is doing right
now. A man now says he's a woman,
so he's automatically a woman. That's what they say. Man says,
there's no God, so there's their truth, there's no God. That's
what they think. They say, well, Jesus died for
all men. God loves all men. Jesus died for every man without
exception. So it automatically must be true. Man has a free
will. So I said it, it must be true. Is it? How many people believe that
man has a free will? Where'd this come from? Well,
they said it, so it must be true. A million people believe it,
so it must be true. No. Well, who are you then to oppose
my truth? Well, I'm nobody. But listen,
God opposes your truth. If your truth is not His truth,
it's not truth. I don't care what your lips say.
You can say whatever you want to, it doesn't make it true.
God help us. Isn't that a good prayer in this
generation? God help us. Help true believers. Help your church. There are few
who believe on Christ. There are few who are faithful
to the worship of God. And the world and its religion
are set against us and its gospel. Yet we must be encouraged and
strengthened by the word here given to us of the Lord. Here
we have a word of victory and comfort. Here is a word to all
of God's weak and feeble children who are in constant need of strength
and help. Who is in need of help? Among
God's people, who needs help? Every one of us. So this message
speaks to every one of us. Every one of us. And since we know this, that
only God's people will be helped, the question is, which one are
you? Are you one of these that flatter
with the lips, whose heart is far from God, or are you a true
Christian, a true believer in Christ? Are you one of God's
elect? Because only the elect are redeemed. Only the elect are saved. So how then should we know our
election? In this text, we are given the
character of every elect child of God. Every elect God. In every generation, the elect
of God, all of us. Every one of us bear the same
character traits, and I could trace out my own character in
this book. If you can't trace your character,
and your character does not match that of the elect, then you are
not one of them. You're not one of them. I'm so
glad God gave us many characteristics of the elect. They're like sheep,
aren't they? Stupid. I raise my hand. I understand
that characteristic. We're weak and timid and feeble,
defenseless. It gives us characteristics of
true believers. Here's one for you in our text.
Look at this. Two characteristics mentioned
in verse 5 that God will help. First of all, for the oppression
of the poor. There's a characteristic of God's
elect, poor. And the sighing of the needy. The needy. Two characteristics
here given. Poor and needy. And what will God do for his
poor and needy? He says this, Now I will arise,
saith the Lord, I will set them in safety from him that puffeth at him. So let's look at these characteristics
and the result of these characteristics.
There's something that always goes along with these characteristics.
Notice this, the oppression of who? The poor. So the poor are
what? They're always oppressed. And the needy, what do they do?
They're always sighing. So we want to see the character
and the result of that character. So first of all, let's look at
the poor. The character here is not only of a few of God's
saints. So when we say the poor, we're
not talking carnally poor. We're not talking about monetary
wealth. Now, I'll tell you, most of God's
saints are poor. But some of them are not, so
this is not poor outwardly. But this trait is stamped on
every one of God's elect, every one that is quickened by the
Holy Spirit, not poor in money, but spiritually poor, spiritually bankrupt, spiritually
empty of all goodness and righteousness. We, by nature, were born in poverty. We were born poor. We were born
poor. We owed at our birth a debt to
God we could not pay. This debt was incurred by our
father, Adam, when he sinned in the garden as our representative,
our father, sin and The debt he owed was death
death by sin Whereas by one man sin entered into the world and
death by sin so death passed upon all men for all have sinned
and what is death but the judgment of God and It was the judgment
of God was passed upon us. Therefore our debt that we owe
is to the justice of God. The justice of God. But here's
a light. Here's a light of hope. Jesus
said this, blessed are the poor in spirit. for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven." Since God has chosen a people and purposed to give
them the kingdom of heaven, and seeing that they are all born
of Adam's race, dead in sins, they are all born without righteousness,
God sent His Son to provide what they, in their poverty, could
never provide. Righteousness. Righteousness. is what we're lacking and righteousness
is what christ provides sold that we may inherit the kingdom
of heaven now man all men are truly poured spirits and i write
and just said that death passed on all men all men are indebted
to the justice of god well then how then is this a characteristic
of just the elect If all men are in poverty, spiritual poverty,
then how is this a characteristic of the elect? Here it is, because
only the elect know their poverty. Only the elect are exposed to
see, able to see and know and listen, feel their poverty. None of Adam's race could know
or feel their poverty, except the Holy Spirit opened their
eyes to see their poverty. It is only by the regenerating
power of God and the new birth can we see the deep poverty of
our souls, that we are made to feel the utter destitution and
complete bankruptcy of our souls. When the Lord opens the eyes
of our blind soul to see the riches of God's holiness, it
is only then you begin to understand. And I say begin to understand,
because as we grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, do we
not see more of our poverty? But we begin then to understand
our great need, our poverty. Now the sinner by no means ever
Enjoy or desire the riches of God's grace except he first be
stripped of his goodness I Like this I can't remember
where it was found It was it just came to me that the Lord
shall shall bark their tree The fig tree shall bark their fig
tree in other words gonna scrape all the bark off their fig tree
business what God does when he saves us he first must strip
us of everything and If He's ever going to show you the riches
of Christ, He must strip you of all your strength, all your
wisdom, and all your vain hope and false religion. He must do
it. If you are one of God's elect, He will do it. He will do it. Sinner, what are you holding
to? Now, that's important. What are
you holding to for salvation? What are you hoping in? If you die, what are you hoping
in? Now, it's not just a matter of if you're going to die, it's
just when. But what are you holding on to? What is it? What treasure do you suppose
to give to God for the salvation of your soul? What are you hoping
to give? Well, do you suppose any of your
works, or your will, or your religious service, you suppose
that should satisfy God? Some in the Church of Galatia
thought that. You remember the Church of Grace, Galatians? They
supposed that you should believe in Christ. They understood the
doctrine of salvation, justification by faith. They said, oh, well,
you must believe in the Son of God. You must believe in His
blood and His righteousness. But you must also be circumcised. You've got to obey that one commandment. And you know what the Apostle
said? He said, they're removed from Christ to another gospel,
which is not another. He said, all that preach that
gospel, let them be accursed. He said in Galatians 5 verse
2, if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. And
so it is with all who are not stripped of all their righteousness
and goodness. They will suppose that one work
of either religious exercise or one work of the volition of
their will should be added to faith in Christ. And by doing
that they defile the whole sacrifice and is of none effect to them.
Do you not see the danger then of free will works religion that
the decisional regeneration is just adding one thing to the
work of Christ? And then Christ will profit them
nothing. Why? Because they have not known their
spiritual poverty. If man believes he has a free
will, you mark it down, he has no idea of his spiritual poverty. He still believes he has something
to give. He still believes he has some
power in himself. He's not been stripped of the
bark. He's not made to see his poverty. Let me show you one
that has. Go over to Hosea. This is a good
example of one who's been stripped, shown their poverty. Hosea chapter
2 and verse 9. You remember the
prophet was sent out to marry that harlot woman, and she had
had children with him, and then she left and went back to her
whoredoms. And then he kept giving her stuff and giving her stuff,
and she thought it was her lover's. And he says, I'm going to show
you it's not. And he goes in verse 9, he says, Therefore I
will return and take away my corn and the time thereof, my
wine and the season thereof, and recover my wool and my flax,
given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of
my hand. I will also cause her mirth to cease, her feast days,
her new moons, her sabbaths, her religion. That's what he
says. I'm going to cut off her religion. I will destroy her
vines, her fig trees, wherever she has said, these are rewards
that my lovers have given me. And I will make them a forest,
and the beast of the field shall devour them. And I will visit
upon her the days of Balaam." In other words, I'm going to
bring to her remembrance all of her vileness and her sin of
worshiping other gods. "...Wherein she burned incense
to them, and decked herself with earrings and jewels. And she
went after her lovers and forgot me, saith the Lord." That's a
picture of what God does to His people. His people are like Gomer. They're harlots by nature, thinking
that our sins and our lusts fulfill us. And all the while we have
everything that is given of God, and one day God says, No, I'm
going to take it away. I'm going to show you. And He
strips us. He brings us down to nothing.
For what purpose? Verse 14, ìTherefore, behold,
I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness.î For what
purpose? ìAnd speak comfortably to her.î You see, what God makes
a man feel is poverty, so that he might speak comfortably to
you, so that he might give you Christ, the vineyards, the vine,
Christ. If God will ever speak comfortably
to you, He must first strip you and show you your poverty. Your
conscience will not be quieted by your vain religion. Your past
sins will arise in the mind and the glittering sword of God's
justice will hang over your head. The sin of your flesh will become
ashes in your mouth. This is when God strips a man. In the midst of our guilt of
conscience, it cannot be quenched. God sends His Word concerning
Christ. In the midst of your poverty,
He shows you some rich people. He shows you the elect. And He
says, Behold the joy of the elect. Behold the righteousness of the
elect. Behold, they have everything you don't. So then we begin to
compare our poverty to their riches. We begin to see that our poverty,
by the light of God's Word, and we are made to see the riches
of righteousness that are given to the people of Christ. They
begin to see the miserable poverty of sin, And that if they are
to be saved, God must do it. That's a man who surely knows
his poverty. That if I am to be saved, God
Himself must do it. I have nothing with which to
bargain. I have nothing to pay or to move
God to come and save me. So then if God is to save me,
if I am to be like these elect, then He Himself must come and
do it for me. Because I have nothing. I have
nothing. I am empty. We begin to see our miserable
poverty of sin. And God's got to save us. If
there is to be any joy and peace and mercy and pardon for sin,
God must do it. We have not a penny of righteousness
to pay the justice of God. Have you ever felt this? Do you know this? This spiritual poverty surely
is the nature of all men, but listen, here's hope. Only the
elect know it. Only the elect are made to see
it. Now then, secondly, what comes to those in poverty? Look at that, verse 5 again in
our text. For the oppression of the poor,
this is the result of everyone who's poor, they're oppressed.
Physical poverty always gives occasion to oppression, doesn't
it? Now, the rich are not so concerned about oppression, are
they? Why? They can always buy their way
out of it. You see a man on trial there, and he's rich, and he's
being oppressed. You know what he does? He can
hold out all day long. He can stretch that out all day
long, and the man suing him, if he's not as rich as he is,
he can't continue to fight. The rich, they can buy their
way out of oppression. How much more spiritually speaking,
those that are rich in self-righteousness are not opposed to their conscience.
They're not opposed in their conscience. They're not oppressed
by the thoughts of eternity, death, or hell. I thought of
this this morning, but I didn't write it down. Psalm 73, He says this about the wicked.
He says there's no bands in their death. Their strength is firm.
They're not in trouble as other men. They're not plagued. You
know why? They don't think of eternity. They don't think of
God and justice and righteousness. They don't know their poverty.
They think themselves to be rich. But once a man is stripped, once
God strips his people of all their supposed wealth, in spiritual
things, instantly they are oppressed. What oppresses us? Number one,
the Law of God. That is the greatest oppressor
to us, is the Law of God. If you lay the Law of God upon
a dead soul, he feels nothing. He feels no weight, but once
the soul is enlightened to his poverty, the law begins to sink
him down into despair. Oppression is the weight and
burden that is added to poverty. So once a man knows his poverty,
it is then he begins to sink in oppression. And the law of
God sinks a man's soul to hell because he cannot obey it. You
remember the Sinai's fiery mount I flew. Indignant justice stood in view. This mountain is no hiding place. The spiritually dead feel nothing
of the weight of the law of God's justice. They are at ease with
the fleshly religion. They may at times have a twinge
of conscience. I remember a man came to me early
when I first got here. He was bound up in great trouble,
great difficulties. He was bound up in his addictions. He was bound up in losing his
family, losing his possessions. He was in great turmoil. And
he came to me, and I said, Believe. Believe on the Son of God. You
have a greater need than all these things. Believe on the
Son of God. Trust in Him, and He will save you. And for a time,
he seemed to believe that. Until when? Until all of his
earthly troubles were better. And then where'd he go? He's
gone. Why? He didn't know his poverty.
And he certainly wasn't oppressed in spiritual matters. But the
inward work of the Spirit in revealing our poverty moves us
to groan under the oppression of the law and our conscience.
And we're made to wrestle with the Savior, and He will not give
us rest until we close with Him. And what is the result, then,
of this knowledge and understanding of poverty and oppression? What
does that lead to? It leads us to the next characteristic,
which is needy. Not only are we poor and oppressed,
we are a needy people. needy people. The expression poor has a negative
meaning. It reveals the absence or lack
of money. But the expression of needy is
a positive meaning. It implies the presence of want,
desire, or craving. Now some men understand in their
mind spiritual poverty. They understand in their mind
spiritual poverty. Look at that. You can kind of
see it. Some in our society. You see a man out there under
the bridge and he's poor. He's not in his right mind. He's
clothed in filth. And he knows that there's more
out there, but he has no desire to gain any of it. He has no
desire to leave his poverty. He's poor, but he has no need,
no craving to elevate himself from his impoverished state. even so some spiritual fools
clothed in the rags of their sin, begging God for their carnal
lusts and wants, have no desire or craving or need of spiritual
righteousness." Spiritual righteousness that only God can provide in
Christ. So then those who are quickened
by the Holy Spirit know our nakedness and poverty We are oppressed
by the law, and no, then, we are made to need the righteousness
of God. You see, the righteousness of
God is not an option. I have to have it. I need it. Otherwise, I cannot be saved.
I cannot be saved without the righteousness of God. You see,
then, it's not enough to know of my depravity. Such knowledge
will not quench the fires of my conscience until god himself
speaks to me i was needy of god's own hand
to touch my soul and without that i could my conscience could
be quiet no matter what i did no matter what i i'd tried to
fill it with the couldn't be quieted until i heard from god
Until God touched me, until God fulfilled the need, I couldn't
be quiet, I couldn't be still. And so then, what do those who
have a need, what is the outpouring of the needy? It says this, for
the sighing of the needy. Isn't that what we do? When you
come to the end of yourself and you understand you have a need
and you're impoverished, you can't provide, and you have a
need that only God can give, what do you do? You sigh, because
you have no strength or power to get it. You know what you
need, but you have not the ability to get it. Are you such a poor sinner? Are
you oppressed, and do you sigh under the weight of your need?
Good! Good! Then rejoice! For only
the Holy Spirit can perform this work inside of a man. These are
the characteristics of only the elect of God. Oh, how the soul
does pant after Christ, as the deer panteth after the waterbrook!
so does my soul pant after god that's a needy person that's
one who needs christ it's then by the power and grace
of god we hear of jesus christ you see all that you are in poverty
all your poverty all your need is fulfilled only by one man
He can be fulfilled by only one man, Jesus Christ. His perfect
work of redemption upon the cross, His perfect righteousness, He
gives to everyone who believes on Him. So in our poverty and
in our need, what do we do? We flee to Him. We come to Him
to supply all that we lack and all that we need. Now believer,
have you ever stopped coming? Do you not feel now more of your
poverty and need of Him today than you did yesterday? The believer is always impoverished
in himself, always needy in himself, yet we find all we need and all
our riches in Christ Jesus. That's where our riches and treasure
lie. And so, are you poor and needy?
Do you sigh for salvation? Then listen to what God says
He'll do for you. Verse 5 again. Here's the response of the Lord
to the poor and needy. Now will I rise, saith the Lord. I will set him in safety from
him that puffeth at him. The Word of the Lord implies
that he is sitting still. He says, Now I will arise. What
was he doing before? He was sitting still. This implies
that he was sitting. That He was not looking or taking
notice of them until they had need of Him. Illustrate this, you're a parent,
you see your kid out there playing in the yard, and your eye is
on them, isn't it? You're watching them. But you
pretend as though you're not. If they knew you were watching
them, then they would act differently, wouldn't they? They would put
on an act in front of you. So you watch them. Out of the
corner of your eye, you have your eye on them, but you act
like you pay no attention to them. But let them get into trouble
and have need of you, and what do you do? You arise, and you
fly to their need. You see them in danger, and you
arise, and you jump to their rescue. So it is with the Lord. He said, Now will I arise, as
though he was sitting by, appearing to have no interest in his child.
But once the soul is made to see his poverty and need, as
oppressed by the law, to see his need of mercy and grace,
it is then, and only then, the Lord says, Now I will arise. Behold, the Lord has chosen his
sons, and at first appears to take no interest. Isn't that
right? We were just like everyone else. There were no difference
between us and the rest of humanity. It is though God had forsaken
them and us. But all the while His eye was
on you. His heart was for you. And yet God sent His Son to redeem
all of His children, to provide righteousness, and surely at
the appointed time of God's grace He will send His Spirit to convince
them of their poverty, to show them of their need, and it is
at that time alone He will come to them. He will arise and arrest
them. and reveal the riches not of
this world, not in their works, but all the riches of righteousness
and peace that are found in Christ. And His God will set forth each
of His elect into a safe place. At this time I will arise. When? When you're poor and needy. Any poor and needy. I mean bankrupt. Do you need the righteousness
of God? I'm not talking about, eh, I'll
take it or leave it. No. Do you need it? It is only
then the Lord will arise and give it and put you in safety. What is this? He will put you
in Christ. Is that not the place of safety?
Christ. It's the place of riches. It's
the place of fulfillment of all your needs. It's in Christ. Remember, what oppresses you?
It is the law of God that oppresses you. What is the remedy for that? It's Christ who fulfilled the
law, who satisfied the justice of God. We who are in Christ
are as safe as Noah was in the ark. The justice of God was pouring
out on the outside of the ark. Where was he? Noah was in there
safe. So it is if you are in Christ.
God has arisen and put you in a safe place. We are just as
safe as the Hebrew children in the midst of the fire. Why? Because
Christ was walking with them in the midst of it. Why are you
safe in the midst of the flames of your conscience, in the flames
of the law of God, in the flames of the hatred of men, in the
flames of Satan's vengeance? How are you safe? Because Christ
walked with me. They can't touch me. I'm safe. just as safe as Daniel in the
lion's den. Why? Because the angel of the
Lord came. Christ came and was present with
them. The Satan walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom
he may devour, and he may not devour you. Why? You're safe. You're safe. Safe in the arms
of Jesus. Safe on His gentle breast. There by His love, or shaded,
Sweetly shall my soul find rest." Safe. Safe. In Christ we are safe. Proverbs
18, 10, the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord. Christ
is our strong tower. A righteous man runneth in it
and is safe. Safe. Poor, needy sinner. Cry to God. Christ has paid the debt you
cannot pay, and provided with you more abundantly the righteousness
that only God will accept. And all who have fled to Him
shall be saved. All who are poor and needy This
is the character of all God's elect. For them God will arise
and deliver them. And listen, from whom He delivers
is from them that puffeth at Him. What is this? This word puff, it does have
several variations and different meanings. Ensnare. somebody's trying to
seek to ensnare you somebody mocking or or ridiculing or it's
nothing more than a puff of air and they're promising all kinds
of evil things but god said he's just puffing he's just blowing
hot air i'm going to keep you safe from them that huff and
puff and try to blow your ass down you're safe from satan that
puffeth at you trying to accuse you, you are safe. For Christ
intercedes. The world puffs at you, seeks
to flatter you and allure you. We surely are weak in the flesh
and prone to such flattery, but the Lord arises in our time of
need and reveals that all our treasures are in Christ. And
we have no need of the treasures of the world. The flesh puffs
at you and tempts you to doubt and fear, to cry out for help. And then God arises and sets
you in a safe place from your own flesh when He reminds you
of His great love and offering for your sin. Believer, you will
never escape such puffing. I want you to understand that.
You will never escape, in this life, you will never escape such
temptations and trials and troubles. We are in the middle of all Trouble abounds to the poor and
needy. This only is my hope. God will
arise and set me in safety. When? When I know my poverty
and my needs. Just like He did when He saved
me the first time. This is what He's doing today. If I recognize
and understand my poverty and need, I will seek Him and He
will arise and come and deliver me. And He always shows me where
He sets me. I like that passage that said,
He set me in a large place. There's nothing worse than being
in a confined space, is it? I can't stand it. But there's nothing more resting. in being in a large place. Christ is that large place. There's
no edge to fall off of. It's a large place. You won't find an end of it.
It's a large place. It's a place that is protected
before and behind, on either side and overhead. And underneath are the everlasting
arms. You're safe. Who? Poor and needy sinners. May God give us comfort in the
midst of this wicked and perverse generation. Help us. Help us. How is he going to help us? Showing
us our poverty and our need and showing us Christ is our safety.
That's our help. Every day. That will be our help.
I pray God will show us this continually. This stand be dismissed
in prayer.