This morning's script reading is going to be found in the 116th Psalm, and it will be performing double duty as it's also going to be the text of our study for the next couple of weeks or so. During that time, we're going to be looking at Psalm 116 down through verse 15, a verse I hope to spend a little extra time on as it has a message that is more than what is usually brought.

Not sure when we will get there because we will be working our way down there during these next three weeks while Brother Norm is away and hopefully we will get there by then. But there is a lot to see as we journey that way.

For some time long ago, I don't remember the details as to why this psalm attracted my attention, but I saw it as something at that time, just kind of like a funeral passage. Especially when you focus on verse 15, which says precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints

But then one day a few few years back I was looking for a scripture to read for the morning scripture reading and I came across this psalm again And when I read it, it was like reading it for the very first time Because there's so much more than a funeral verse here a funeral passage

As I was reading through at that time. I saw a message of salvation a message of praising God for his wondrous grace and mercy, a message of deliverance, a message of preservation of the saints. And if there's any death happening in all this passage of scripture, it's mostly one of dying to our old self, our old sinful nature, and being born again to our new selves in Christ.

And the psalm starts off by clearly depicting a man in desperate, helpless, fearful place without the strength or ability to change the condition that he's in. But then the story quickly pivots into that message of hope and deliverance, salvation, and then full of recognition of how merciful our God truly is. So we are presented with a wonderful song of praise for the Lord and his bountiful mercies.

The actual author, other than God himself, is not known. up in the air with a lot of the so-called scholars, but that authorship is not what matters. It's the message that matters. And in that regard, this psalm checks all the boxes that need to be checked. I believe it's David. So that's who I'll be referring to most of the time when a name is called for. But again, it's the message that matters. And as usual, that's what we focus on.

So we'll start our scripture reading this morning in the first verse of Psalm 116.

I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call upon him as long as I live.

The pains of death surrounded me and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord. Oh Lord, I implore you, deliver my soul.

Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he saved me. Return to your rest, oh my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you. For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

I believed, therefore I spoke. I am greatly afflicted. I said in my haste, all men are liars. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

Let's start with a word of prayer. Father, we come before you just thankful for this passage of scripture that we're reading and truly, Father, we just truly appreciate the message of your grace and your mercy and the deliverance that you've given us through your Son, Jesus Christ. So we pray, Father, as we look at this message today, that's who we focus on, that's who we see, that we see our Savior. We pray, Father, for those who are away, and we just pray that you bless them, keep them safe in their travels. Father, those who are ill or working, we just pray that you'd be with them. And we just thank you, Father, once again, for this opportunity to gather together in your fellowship and praise our Savior, Jesus Christ, and it's his name that we pray, amen.

So this is a study I've been wanting to do for a while, probably since that last, two or three years ago that I read the scripture and kind of saw it as something different. But whenever I would think about tackling it, I would see the enormity of what is in this passage of scripture. During my study, I found a lot of commentators, looked at many scripture references, and listening to other messages from some pastors that kind of shared the same thoughts that I had with this. So I feel confident in the message, and it comes down as to how our Lord truly loves, protects, and sees his saints as precious in all our walks of life. It's been that way since before the foundation of this world was ever laid. And we'll be looking at that several times throughout the study.

As I mentioned, this psalm, particularly verse 15, is pretty much known and used as a funeral message, as well as it should be. because that is an appropriate application for the psalm, but I see so much more in all 15 verses that I hope to bring out in this study in a way that you are able to find even more comfort and hope than maybe you already have. Even a quick reading of Psalm 116 should leave you with that feeling, as the overall message is very comfortable.

As somewhat of an intro to this study, I want to share with you how this psalm, notably the first few verses, reminds me of a hymn from my youth that we would sing quite often in a church that I grew up in. I have always liked the hymn, and since we're not at an elders meeting or deacons meeting, I can confess to you that I still like this hymn a lot. Enough so that it's on my song list on my phone, and I only have songs on my phone that I really like to listen to. For the most part, it's a very nice hymn, except for some wording in the last verse, which unfortunately goes very much to the work side, so many people falsely depend on. And from this pulpit, we pretty much avoid. But the first couple of verses, they are doctrinally sound, and verse one goes right along with the opening verses of our text, as it goes like this.

I was sinking deep in sin and far from the peaceful shore, very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry and from the waters lifted me. Now safe am I. And the chorus goes on, love lifted me, love lifted me when nothing else could help, love lifted me. So you might guess that the name of the hymn is Love Lifted Me, and I'm sure many of you are familiar with it.

But Psalm 116, from the beginning, is a story of salvation, a story of a man who at the very beginning is in deep distress. He's in the middle of those waters, far from shore, and he is sinking fast. He has lost his way. He is without hope. It's all around bad news for him. And I see him as being right there, just about to give up.

But in a last gasp of desperation, he cries out in verse four. Oh, Lord, I implore you, deliver my soul. And what happens? Love does lift him. And it's not long after this that the man is proclaiming for all to hear, I love the Lord because he has heard my voice. The Lord heard his despairing cry, his supplications, those desperate pleas for help. As the first verse of our text and the hymn both declare, love lifted him from those troubling waters. The Lord heard his voice, bringing the psalmist to declare, I love the Lord.

So this man, he loved the Lord, and this Lord was not a God of man's imagination made by man's hands, but it was the real eternal loving God, the loving God who reigns and rules, the very Lord who heard his cries. David continues with his praise as he goes on verse six to proclaim, the Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low and he saved me.

Along the way, when there were some real problems going on in Israel, there were some Gentiles who boldly asked of the psalmist, David, where is your God? Let's turn back one chapter to Psalm 115, and let's see how the psalmist answers that question. The Gentiles were serving gods of their own making, their own imagination, made out of silver and gold. These gods, they couldn't see, they couldn't hear, they couldn't speak, couldn't walk. Their hands, if they had any, they couldn't make anything. No one could turn to these little G-gods, as Mike Baker referred to them in his last message here, no one could turn to these little G-gods for refuge because they couldn't provide any.

But still, these mockers would ask, well, where is your god? And the answer, verse two of Psalm 115, why do the nations say, where is their God? Now this is a rhetorical question that tells us how the enemies, the non-believers, would make a mockery of Israel's worship of an invisible God. They had their gods right there with them. So where is your God? The 115th Psalm is contrasting the living God of Israel with the powerless man-made idols of other nations. And these Gentile idolaters, they foolishly are mocking Israel's trust in God, His sovereignty, power, and faithfulness. He is a God unseen, contrasted to their gods who could see, they could touch.

So what was the answer that was given to this mocking? The psalmist replies to them in verse three, our God is in heaven, and he does whatsoever pleases him. I want to turn now to Psalm 135. Here we will see how David goes even further in his declaration of where his sovereign God resides. The psalmist truly recognizes that the God he loves is an omnipresent God with no bounds limiting him as to where it is that he can be. As I mentioned, Once in a message I brought some time ago, so I'll be quoting myself, God is transcendent. He exists in his own time and his own space, yet he is at the same time eminent, existing also in our time and space. He's not confined by human-like body. He is a spirit, and that means he can be in heaven, sitting on his throne, and also at the same time be on earth, dwelling with men. So yes, he is omnipresent. He is over where everywhere as we turn to one someone 35 And several places throughout scripture. We are told the same thing. There is no height nor depth No width nor length no hiding place where our god is not there We see this in reading verses 5 and 6 of psalm 135 I know that the lord is great that our Lord is greater than all gods. The Lord does whatsoever pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas, in all their depths.

So if you're following along, turn in your Bibles now to Psalm 139. We'll be looking at verses 7 through 12 where the psalmist continues on with this theme. The psalmist emphasizes his omnipresence by stating that he is present anywhere and everywhere. This is his creation from highest heavens and to the lowest depths in the darkest night and on the brightest days. No matter what the location, whether ascending to heaven or descending on the realm of the dead or traveling to the ends of the earth, God's hand, his presence is always there. There is no escaping it, even the darkness is as clear as day.

Reading now, starting with verse seven,
where can I go from your spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there.
If I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there, your hand will guide me.
Your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become light around me. Even the darkness will not be dark to you.
The night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

So, will the mockers dare persist with their mocking question? Where does your Lord reside? Wherever he pleases. And for those who love the Lord, we find comfort in the Lord's presence and what a glorious blessing to know that he is omnipresent. The Lord is pleased to rule over his creation as he sees fit. He had a purpose for his creation, and that was to redeem from there a people for himself. It pleases the Lord to reveal his redeeming son to those whose names are written down in the Lamb's book of life and kept in heaven for all eternity.

And that brings us back to this man that we've been speaking of, who recognized what all his sin was doing to him. As we again read in verse three of our text, the pains of death surrounded me and the pains of Sheol laid hold of me, I found trouble and sorrow. From all appearances, this man was about to experience what the Apostle Paul had experienced when the Lord came to him. Paul describes this experience in the first chapter of the book of Galatians where he says, but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his son in me so that I could preach him among the Gentiles.

He is referencing when he, Paul, or Saul at the time was on the road to Damascus and there for the first time he came face to face with the one voice that he then immediately recognized as the Lord's voice. Christ spoke in a voice that only Saul could hear. Saul, why are you persecuting me? And Saul responded, who are you, Lord? Saul is soon to realize that while he thought he was defending God's honor, He was actually attacking God's people. The people that God had called for him to go, instead of persecuting them, he would become a preacher of the gospel to them. A reality that came to be because the father had chosen that time, that place, to reveal the son to Saul. Saul had heard the shepherd's voice, and from that point, he followed him. The story is much the same for the psalmist. As we read, where he cried out in desperation and the Lord heard his voice and delivered his saint, the Lord revealed his son to him. And the psalmist goes on to say, therefore, I will call upon him as long as I live. He says later in the text, I will take up the cup of salvation and I will walk before the Lord. In other words, I will follow him.

And as we read in Psalm 135, we can see where David believed God. So he was fully able then to declare to the Gentiles that his Lord God resides in heaven and proclaiming, which I'm going to paraphrase here, that is my God and I love him. I love the sovereign, omnipotent, Almighty God, the God who, unlike their gods, does all things after the counsel of his own will, who does his good pleasure in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and it gives to whosoever he will, none can stay his hand or say unto him, what have you done? That is God that the David had come to know.

You may have noticed that last little bit I just quoted is just some of many times that this message of God's love toward his people is found throughout scripture. I say some because I just combined some verses from the fourth chapter of the book of Daniel. referencing Nebuchadnezzar's change of heart and stunning testimony after his being brought low, you might say, and perhaps one of the biggest understatements in the Bible. But then combine that with a verse from the first chapter of the book of Ephesians, where the apostle Paul speaks of God and his sovereignty, that he does all things after the counsel of his own will.

But those two passages together formed a very concise cohesive message even though they are from completely different covenant periods of time. But that is exactly what God's word is. It is concise, cohesive and eternal message of Christ and Him crucified. As to this story, the Psalms of the Old Covenant are full of David's declaration of love and appreciation for his Lord God, the same Lord God we love and appreciate today under the new covenant. It is an eternal message.

So now as we go back to our text, and we continue to look at these first several verses of Psalm 116, and we read in verse four, the psalmist was having the same type of experience as Paul as he recognized his need for deliverance. So he calls out to the only one who could help him. Then I called upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I implore you, deliver my soul. And it pleased the Lord to do so. And as it says in verse one, he heard the voice calling out to him. God then spiritually speaking, revealed the son to him.

So you might ask, and how do we know that? The opening verses of Psalm 116 are very much a confession of love, a very personal love from David towards God. He loves the Lord who reigns and rules. He loves the Lord Jesus who redeems, the Holy Spirit who regenerates, the sovereign King who reigns, the Christ who died and rose again on the third day. I love the Lord. Notice he doesn't say, I love my Lord. He said, I love the Lord. He is not speaking of those gods created by man. No, he is speaking of the God who in love lifted him. He had no question in his mind that it was the God of creation who reached down and saved him from the rising tide, that troubling sea that represented his sin and his evil and wicked ways, the pangs of Sheol. Sheol, which means words like the grave, the pit of death, looking off over the edge.

One of the favorite verses of every true lover of God's saving grace is, oh, wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death? thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

That very much is what David is feeling as he is facing death in the grave, that shield, but he praises God through Christ while expressing a love towards God that only a true believer would be able to do.

A couple weeks ago, we sang a hymn that we don't sing often. At the time we sang it, I had already started my study for this message, and I said to myself, self, you need to include the last two verses of this hymn as part of your study.

So I could see how it would fit right here, because it sounds like David could have sung this very hymn. It's from the hymn, Majestic Sweetness Sits Enthroned.

And the first or last two verses, I believe it was, he saw me plunged in deep distress and flew to my relief. For me, he bore the shameful cross and carried all my grief.

To him, I owe my life and breath and all the joys I have. He makes me triumph over death and saves me from the grave.

That hymn was written in 1787, but I believe David was singing a song that had every bit of sentiment, as that song proclaims.

Because David knows that it was the Lord who triumphed for him over death and saved him from the grave. Physical or spiritual, he was saved from the grave by the Lord.

And this hymn's relevance, this message can be seen throughout scripture and certainly will be seen throughout this study.

Now we'll take a look at verse two of our text. Because he has inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call upon him as long as I live.

So we have a continuation of what the psalmist says in verse one, I love the Lord because he heard my voice, because he inclined his ear to me, I will call upon him as long as I live.

Verse two says that. And one thing we know from scripture and our own personal experiences is that even in the psalmist times of deep distress or ours, there was a reason he would call out to the Lord.

David, being one of the saints of God, was loved by God before the creation of the world, before David had ever committed any sin.

What does he say to start this psalm? I love the Lord. So where did that love come from?

Well, we went through the study in 1 John here, we're all back with Brother Mike. 1 John 4.19 tells us the writer John states, we love him because he first loved us. and we can add before the world began. That's when the Lord loved us. That is the root of our love for God, our praise for God.

We love him because he first loved us. So therefore, we call on the Lord in complete confidence, knowing he hears us because of that love.

In John chapter 15, verse 16, Christ says, you did not choose me, but I chose you. He chose us through that love of the Father before the world began.

That love that keeps us, protects us, and guards us from the evil forces of the world by the hedge of the love that he wraps around us.

An attribute that results from God's love is that faith which Paul speaks to in Galatians 5, 6 when he tells us, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail.

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. God's love and his faith gifted to us all in a package and all by grace, not one tittle of works.

Earlier in chapter five, Paul says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith working through love, that love God has for the psalmist, That love contains saving faith, which works in all of us to believe. The psalmist didn't call out to any of those gods that were made by man out of silver, gold or brass. He had no love for them, no confidence or faith in them. There was nothing they could do for him. But by the God given gift of faith and the resulting belief, he called out to the Lord. He then declares he will call on the Lord for the rest of his life. What he is saying is, I love the Lord and I will continue to love him. He is saying, I believe the Lord and I will continue to believe him. He is saying, I've called upon the Lord and I will continue to call upon the Lord.

So it is with all who have the spirit of Christ abiding in them. We love the Lord and we'll always love the Lord. Those who say they love the Lord and then fall away, while scripture says they were never one of us. We will always love the Lord. We believe the Lord because of that faith of Christ that was gifted to us. And we will continue to call upon the Lord because he hears us. And who better to love, believe, and call upon than the sovereign Lord of all creation? One who never changes, one who never leaves you, and one whose promise you can stand on forever.

And in John chapter six, the Lord is speaking to his disciples after a whole multitude of people had been listening to him. And they departed from him angry. They were angry over what he had said to them about him being the man from heaven and how they must eat the flesh of his body, which the man represented, and drink his blood, proclaiming anybody doing so would live forever. They left saying, this is a hard saying you are giving. Who can hear it? Who can believe it? Many of his disciples also turned and walked away. And it says that they will serve him no more. Jesus then said to the 12 remaining disciples, do you also want to go away? Peter responded to him by saying, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life that we have come to believe. and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

This is an example of the faith that we are talking about. Those men's hearts were fully connected to a person, Christ Jesus. This was not a way or an organization or a system. It was a person. The salvation is not a system, a profession or a program. It is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. When we come to truly know Him, know Christ and fully abide in Him, we continue in the faith, the same faith and love that David is demonstrating when he says, I will call upon the Lord as long as I live. He never leaves that person and that person will never leave him. It's a declaration by the psalmist that he will never walk away from God, and we know from God himself that he will never walk away from his people.

So as we move on to verses three, four, and five in Psalm 116, we will get a glimpse of the pain, and quite literally, the fear David is expressing here. But we also see how God, when God hears, he inclines his ear, as we read in verse one, and the psalmist sees that God is a God of grace and mercy.

Let's read again, verses three through five.

The pains of death surrounded me, and the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of the Lord, O Lord, I implore you, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful. This is one place that has me pretty much convinced that David is the writer of this psalm, and the others that are very similar, yet authorship is in question, because of the many times throughout the history of David that we find him in near-death circumstances, especially in his relationship with King Saul, and then even with his own son Absalom, who they were both out trying to keep him away from the throne.

But there are many things, many circumstances that will bring us to a feeling of near death, physically or emotionally, with no hope but lots of fear. Again, shio is basically a Hebrew term used to refer to the grave, the pit or the tomb. David is obviously feeling like that death, both physically and emotionally, was there to claim him as he was facing shio himself. So in desperation, he called upon the name of the Lord.

And I see here in a story which we have all experienced in one way or another, maybe not to the point of seeing or hearing death knocking at our door, but spiritually, that's what it's like. We are all sinners saved by grace. And at one point in our lives, we were awoken by that very saving grace. I have said before something I heard a preacher in Georgia say once, and that is, There's no way you can ever understand the good news of the gospel until you know how bad the bad news before we heard the gospel.

Ezekiel 36 brings out that very point when it describes how after God does his work of salvation in you, cleansing you, giving you a new heart, a new spirit, it's only after those things that you'll be able to look back and remember all your evil ways and wicked deeds. So this from Ezekiel 36 verse 31, then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. It's after God reveals his son in you that you can then begin to understand how bad the bad news was.

Even though we may not be having a near-death experience, it is so safe to assume that our lives were not hunky-dory. We weren't happier than a lark. We weren't free from all the cares of the world, free of all burdens, both real and made up. We weren't complete in life. At best, we felt like something is missing. Something isn't right. Whatever it was, the Lord called your name. You heard his voice and you followed him.

You remember when the Lord called out to Saul, he definitely heard it, but no one else did. Well, that Lord willing was the same or will be the same when the shepherd calls your name. My sheep, only the sheep hear my voice and they will follow me.

Now, if we know that God saving us does not mean we will live in a life full of health, happiness and prosperity, that's a message that some preachers preach. but is a false message that Paul would identify as dumb. God has never promised an easy road, not in the Old Testament days and not in the New Testament days. Our Lord plainly said, in the world, you shall have trials and tribulation. But we now have a God to call on, and he is a gracious and merciful God.

And as we are told in Romans 8, And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. What a difference that makes in a person's life who has been made able to believe. So before we move on from dealing with David's distress, especially the part in verse three that says, I found trouble and sorrow, there is another person that we read about in scripture that had to face sorrow, trouble, and fear, and that is the Lord himself.

Three times it is mentioned where he cries because of sorrow and fear. He wept over Jerusalem as he looked over the city and felt great sadness because of the coming destruction of the city. He wept with compassion for those that were grieving the death of Lazarus. And then he wept in the Garden of Gethsemane in fear and sadness as he faced what was coming, the fear, pain, and death by the crucifixion, and on top of that, the fear of being separated from the Father.

These are all glimpses, examples of Christ's humanity that he took upon himself so as to be like those, those that he would be laying his life down for.

So I want to take a little closer look at this humanity of Christ because in a sense, you can see a real similarity between what Jesus is suffering and the suffering that the psalmist writes of at the beginning of Psalm 116.

Not right now, but we will be going to Matthew 26 and the story of Jesus at Gethsemane as our main focus But I'd like to first look at a couple passages in Hebrews, we'll be starting there in the second chapter, that I believe are very important to know and to understand as they convey the importance of why Christ came into this world and why he came in the form of a man and why he was made to be just like his brothers.

So in Hebrews chapter two, we'll be reading verses nine and 10 first, we will get at least a small view, a look-see, into that humanity of Jesus, our high priest, as a preview to what we will see when we look into his experience at Gethsemane.

Hebrews 2, verses 9 and 10, but we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings

when Christ came down from heaven to this world he had an assignment a reason for incarnation This assignment was to redeem all that God had given him. To do that, he would necessarily have to suffer death. But it was a death that would lead to eternal life for all of his elect. His humanity was necessary in order to be that perfect substitute for sinful man. And by that, becoming the perfect sacrifice for all the elect the father had given him.

The perfect Savior had to be made the perfect man in order to be that perfect sacrifice, in order to satisfy God's perfect justice. It was by His perfect obedience to the Father that He became the only acceptable sacrifice.

Acts 4.12 says, salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

And then a quick reading, a quote here from Hebrews 4.15. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin.

The founder of our salvation was no stranger to all of our weaknesses and our temptations as he faced them all himself. Yet, he did so without falling into sin. He was in all ways made perfectly obedient to the Father and therefore he was made the perfect sacrifice for our sins. All that is very important to know and understand when looking to the crucifixion and the Father's ultimate acceptance of the sacrifice. And that brings us to verse 10 of Hebrews 2, for it was fitting for him for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

So in reading these verses nine and 10, we see an explanation as to how this Jesus was made perfect as the sacrificial substitute for humanity which humanity required. All humanity is tempted, and so was Christ. We read that in Hebrews 4.15. Humanity faces death, and so did Christ, as verse 9 brought out.

In these verses, we are able to see one of the main points of all the gospel, that I wanted to bring out before we go on to Matthew 26, and that is that Christ, the founder, the captain of our salvation, as some versions of the Bible put it, he also faced temptations, he faced pain, he faced sorrow, anguish, all the things that his brothers and sisters, us, faced. He, though unlike us, did so without falling into sin.

As we have read here in Hebrews, He came to be a sacrifice for us, and He died by the shedding of His blood, covering our sin. Our sins are oh so deep, but His blood is thicker than all our sin, and that blood completely obliterated all our sin, all of it. As we just read, the captain of our salvation was clearly up to that task. His sacrifice redeemed us and has bought eternal life for us.

And just like David said in verse 5 of our text, gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yes, Our God is merciful.

So looking at the clock, I see time is short as we are going to be moving on next to Jesus in Gethsemane. There's just not enough time to cover all that needs to be said, and I don't want to shorten or just skim over it. So we will take a look next time at his time in Gethsemane, and we will see how David's sufferings point to the sufferings Jesus deals with while he is in the garden.

look into the crucifixion and the resurrection. As is very typical, the picture falls short of the reality. that God put them there to help teach us and help give us an understanding of how his plan of salvation will be completed in his only beloved son.

I came across a posting on Sovereign Grace Believers Facebook group that I belong to where this person made a post about all this, which he put it so well. He stated that the garden, the cross, and the resurrection are not disconnected events, but chapters and one divine narrative that began in Christ and shall end in his glory.

We will look at this connection next week as we continue our study in Psalm 116.

So, Brother Mike, if you would come up and lead us in a closing hymn, and thank you all for your time and attention.