in this 31st Psalm. I'm not going
to go through every verse. It's just better for me and easier
for me to kind of outline it and deal with it. Sometimes you
can't help but go verse by verse, but in this particular one I
won't. But as you read this Psalm and
it says it to the chief musician. Now this is a song that David
gave and you can go and find out how many musicians there
were and how many singers there were and how many people there
were that sang and how great a crowd there was and he had
the chief musician and he would give him a psalm and they would
sing that psalm when they would meet and so David wrote the psalm
and gave it to the chief musician and they sang it in the worship
of God but when you read this psalm you see the life, life's
ups and downs I mean, you see, he's really up and he's down.
He talks about how God saved him from trouble, then he turns
around and says, I'm in trouble. He talks about how that God is
refuge and then, Lord, please, save me from the nests of my
enemies. And so you see, and we see how life's full of blessings
and burdens. Full of friends and foes. Full
of people that love us and full of adversaries. And he's like
all of us. When we read the Psalms, that's
one thing about reading the Scriptures. We can find ourselves, we can
find our experience in the Scriptures. We don't have our experience
fit the Scriptures. When we read them, we say, well,
that's me. That's me. That's what's going on with me.
I recognize myself right there. And that's why he's like all
of us. Though he is the king of Israel, but still he's a man. He said, blessed is the man.
So he's a man. And he's chosen of God, just
like we are, elect of God. He was used to the Lord, and
he was tried severely by the Lord. And the title of my message
this evening is Confidence, Commitment, and Confession. Confidence, Commitment,
and Confession. And let's look first at his confidence.
Look here at verse 1. In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Anyplace else, what else needs
to be said about that? In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust. Oh my. You know, the confidence
he had was not in himself. He didn't say, Lord, me and you
got our own thing going. He said, Lord, I thank you that
you've helped me to live a good life and a godly life and a sincere
life. No, no. He said, O Lord, in thee
do I put my trust. I put all my confidence All my
trust I put in you. I find nobody I don't put no
trust in being a king. I don't put no trust in my election.
I don't put no trust in you saying I'm a man after your own heart.
I don't put no trust in anything Lord but you. And I tell you
that's what Paul said, you know, he says, we are the circumcision
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. And he said, I know that within
me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. And since he's
the source of our life, he's the source of our pain, he's
the source of everything that we have. And our Lord said, the
flesh profits nothing. So he said, who else can I trust? I can't trust anybody. But I
can trust you. You know, our Lord Jesus, He
said, it's my familiar friend that lifted up His hand against
me. It's the one who knew me that lifted up His hand against
me. And that's why David said, oh Lord, and listen, who else
can we put our trust in? But Him. I mean, you know, Paul
said this, he said, I know whom I have believed, and I've persuaded
that whatsoever I've committed unto him, he's able to keep it.
I have this confidence that he which hath started a good work
in us, he will continue it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And
oh Lord, I tell you, I put my trust, that's his confidence.
Then look what else he says, let me never be ashamed. Oh, let me never be ashamed.
Don't let me be ashamed to ever put my trust in you. Do you reckon
anybody ever be ashamed who put their trust in the Lord? That's
why Paul says, you know, whosoever believeth on the Lord shall never
be ashamed. And you've got two places in
the Old Testament. They'll never be brought to shame.
They'll never be confounded. Those who trust in the Lord will
never be brought to shame, will never be confounded. And twice,
God said He's not ashamed to be called our God. And Christ
said He's not ashamed to call us His brethren. So you see,
so don't let me be put to shame. Now he thought maybe that I may
do some things, but Lord when I do it, don't put me to shame
for my trust in you. And then look what else he says,
deliver me in thy righteousness. And what he said, Lord don't
change your character, don't change your nature, don't change
your way of dealing with men. If you deal with men in righteousness,
and deal with me in righteousness. You made me righteous. You are
righteous. I wouldn't change you for nothing.
That's the God I trust. The God that won't let me be
ashamed and saves me righteously. Do you know we're as much saved
by the righteousness of God as we are the grace of God? We're
as much saved by the justice of God as the mercy of God. And
that's why when God saves us, He saves us on the basis of a
righteousness that Christ brought out. bless his name and I'll
have you deal with me as you made me and as you are and look
what else he says down here now in the last part of verse 2 talking
about his confidence now he said be thou my strong rock Now look what it says down in
verse 3. For thou art my rock. Be my strong rock. Then he turns
around and says you are my rock. So when we say Lord we want you
to be this. Turn around and say that's what
you are. Be my rock. Lord you are my rock. Look what
else he says. For a house of defense to save
me. You know, let you be a house that I can go in and you be my
defense around me. You put the walls around me.
You put the bulwarks around me. You fence me in. And then look
what he says, down in verse 3. Not only am I a rock in my defense
to save me, but you're my fortress. He says, save me and be a defense
for me. And then he says, you are my rock and you are my fortress.
How in the world do you know he says one thing is what God
wants you to be to him, and he turns around and says, that's
what I want you to be to me, and that's what you are. Want
you to be my rock? You are. Want you to be my defense? You're my fortress. Oh my, ain't
that the way he is for us? Whatever we want him to be to
us, and God even reveals himself in the scriptures to us, that's
what he is to us. And then look what he says there
in verse last part of verse 3 therefore therefore for therefore since
I put my trust in you therefore since you are my strong rock
therefore since you are my fortress therefore for thy name's sake
lead me and guide me I trust you And so what he's saying is,
you be my director, you be my leader, you be my guide. Now
when you look at lead and guide, there's not a whole lot of difference
between the words. Lead me, guide me. Maybe just a little bit of
difference, meaning just a shade of a difference in them, and
I want to deal with the shade of difference in the two tonight
if I can. We require, we really, as the way we are, we need double
direction. We need double direction. You
know why? Because we're foolish, and because
the way is rough, and just as sure as we try to find it ourselves,
we're gonna mess up. But listen to this, I got this
from C.H. Spurgeon. Got this from Mr. Spurgeon.
He said, lead me as a soldier, guide me as a traveler, a stranger
and a pilgrim. Lead me as a baby, guide me as
a man. Lead me when you're with me and
guide me when you're absent. Lead me by the hand and guide
me by your word. And then he says, lead me and
guide me for your name's sake. There ain't nothing in me to
cause you to do it, but for your name's sake. Lead me and guide
me. Go ahead and lead me like a baby
and then as a man guide me. Lead me by the hand and guide
me by your word. Oh my, I need leading and I need
guiding. You know a lot of places go and
they hire guides to take them places. And a guide, you know,
he knows where he's going. And I need somebody who knows
where they're going. And Christ knows where you're going. He
knows where I need to go. And guide me that way. For thy
name's sake. For thy name's sake. Here's the
second. That was his confidence. Look
at his commitment. Look at his commitment. Down
here in verse 5. Now these are the... He says,
Into thy hand I commit my spirit. Thine is redeemed me, O Lord
God of truth. These are Christ's dying words. Remember our Lord Jesus on the
cross after He said in His finish, He said, Father, into Thy hands
I commit my spirit. I commit my soul into Thy hands.
I commit myself to You. These are our Lord's dying words.
They're blessed words, precious words. And I tell you one thing,
we ought to, every one of us, say right now, and every one
of us, as we live tomorrow and especially on our dying bed,
Say, Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit. Right now. Right now. I commit my spirit, my soul,
my all to you. Right now. And when I'm laying
on my dying bed, drawing my last breath, Lord, in your hands,
and there I am. I'm in your hands. Not a safer
place to be. Not a safer person to commit
yourself to. Not a blessed, more blessed place to place your soul
and your spirit in than into the hands of God. Into the hands
of Christ. Is that not right? Now listen,
now you keep this, look with me in 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter
chapter 4. Oh my. Lord, my life, my soul,
my all is in your hands. I commit it to you. Not a safer
place of our soul to be than in the hands of God. Would you
all mind just... Look what he said here in 1 Peter
4.19. Wherefore let them that suffer
according to the will of God commit the keeping of the souls
to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Will He well
do your soul when you commit it to Him? Will He do well by
you when you commit yourself to Him? Will He do well by you?
He's always done well by me. He's always done well by people
in the Scriptures. He's done well by everybody I
know so far. And oh, beloved, look what He
says. He says, In the right hands I commit Thy spirit for Thou
hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth. You know why we commit
our souls into His hands? It's because we've been redeemed.
Only the redeemed, those who have been bought with the blood
of Christ, those who have been paid and bought and their sins
put away by the blood of Christ, only them, them alone can commit
their spirit to the Lord God. Only them and them alone, the
redeemed. Man can't put his soul in God's
hands or his spirit in God's hands unless he's been redeemed.
He's got to be bought, his sins paid for. He's got to be ransomed
from sin. He's got to be ransomed from
death. He's got to be set free from God's justice. And beloved,
the redeemed, they commit their souls to Him. That's why Paul
said, I'm in the strait between two, having a desire to part
and be with Christ. And then he says, my departure.
He said, my departure is at hand. I've fought a good fight, I've
kept the faith, and now I'm done. What are you going to do, Paul? I'm going to commit myself to
the Lord. I'm ready for my departure. Ready for my departure. And oh
my, what commitment. Commitment into thy hands I commit
my spirit. Look what he says here in verse
6. And he said he's the God of truth. Oh Lord, God of truth. He said, I have hated them that
regard lying vanities. What is lying vanities that he
says he hates? And when people come across these
words hate in the scriptures, you know, they just say, well,
God loves everybody. Well, here, David said, he said,
in one place, I hate them with a perfect hatred that hates you.
God himself said, Jacob, have I loved, and Esau, have I hated?
I hate them, workers of iniquity. That means, beloved, he has such
a distaste for them that he regards them as something that just absolutely
cannot be in his presence. And when David said, I've hated
them that regard lying vanities, he means them that have lying
idols, that set up idols, that set up statues and idols and
things, lying vanities. He said an idol is a lying vanity.
What can an idol do to save a soul? What can an idol do to bless
a man? What can an idol do to save a man? What can an idol
do to strengthen him? What can an idol do to encourage
him? What can an idol do to give him sight? What can an idol do
when he's in trouble? That's why David said, I hate
them. Anything that men set up in Israel, any place that I go
where men set up something that robs God of His glory, he said,
I hate them. I hate them. That's what he said.
And I was reading the fellow today, and he says, you know,
he started trying to backpedal on, you know, how God said you
both didn't love your enemies. Well, I tell you, that's our
enemies. That's not God's enemies. I mean,
you got enemies. But I tell you what, people that's
against God, they're against us. And that's what David says. You set up your idols and said,
I despise every single one of them. I hate them lying vanities. I hate them. I hate your idols. Anything, but he said, look what
I do, but I trust the Lord. You go and set up your idols.
And then look what he says in verse 7, talking about his commitment. I will be glad and rejoice in
thy mercy. Oh, I don't like him. I hate
them lying vanities, but I'm going to be glad and rejoice
in the mercy of God. I'm going to be glad about it.
I'm going to rejoice in it. What are you glad about, David? And what are you rejoicing in?
Your mercy. Them blind banners ain't got
no mercy. Them blind banners don't even
know what it is. But he says, I will rejoice in thy mercy,
for your mercy's passed. Oh, how many mercies. Mercies,
has God said. Mercies upon mercies. Tender
mercies, they call them, but tender mercies of the Lord. And
then look what he said down here, he said, not only for my mercies
past, but my mercies future. We've got mercies, beloved, that
God's never yet bust bags on in glory, as old John Bunyan
said. Mercies future that's going to come our way. And look what
he says, for thou hast considered my trouble, What does he mean
he considered his trouble? That means, Lord, you weighed
my trouble. You weighed it out. For him to
consider us at all, that's something. But to consider us in our troubles,
consider us when we're in trouble, he says, you weighed it, you've
seen it, you've directed it, and you set the balance of it.
Because you see my trouble. You weigh how much trouble I'm
going to bear. You've seen the trouble that I have? You're the
one that directed the trouble to me? And you said, how long
I won't be in trouble? He said, oh, you considered me
in my trouble. And then he says, I have known
my soul in adversities. Now, I'll tell you what this
means. This means that when we go through things of our own,
with all of our ways, ups and downs, stumbles and falls, weakness
and failings, Ins and outs. He says, you know my soul's adversities,
things that goes on in me. All the troubles that I bring
on myself, things that goes in my soul, all my adversities that
I bring. And you know, fears, fighting
within, fears within, fighting without, and all the things that
goes on, my stumbles and falls. And you know what he says, you've
known my soul. And what he said mean is that
you know me. You know my ups and my downs,
my ends and my outs, my stumbles, my falls, my sins, my failures.
You know everything about me. And you know why? You're not
ashamed of me. You're not ashamed of me. You
still, he says, you know me. That's what he's saying. You
know me. You know me. You know me. You're not ashamed
of me. You'll never, never leave me alone. And then look what
else he says there. Down in Verse 8, and then he
says, You have not shut me up into the hand of mine enemy.
And look what he said, And you set my feet in a large room.
You know what he said to me? He set my foot in a large room.
That means that you've made it great. You've set me free from
all these troubles. Set me free. You've set me free. You've enlarged my troubles.
You've made a large room for me. You've set me in liberty. You've set me free when in troubles
and trials in my greatest strength. You come and set my feet in a
large room. You gave me space to move. You
gave me freedom to move. Liberty to move. Nothing constrains
me. And even when we're in great
troubles, in great trials, in great griefs, and David talks
about that down here. Life's been in grief and sorrows
and all these things, and that's talking about our cost, but he
says when our souls are in the greatest need and greatest troubles,
that's when he comes and picks our souls up and enlarges our
souls and makes our hearts to jump and makes our hearts to
leap and fills us with joy and rejoicing and mercies. He never
leaves us very long in trouble. Never. And oh listen, so you
set my feet in a large place and in a large room. He set my
feet in a large room. I'm free. Oh my, I'm not in a little old
bitty space. What kind of room is this? It's as big as God can
make it. It's free as God can make it.
And then not only did we see his confidence in his commitment,
now look at his confession. Look at his confession down in
verse 9. Have mercy upon me, O Lord, for
I am in trouble. My mind is consumed with grief,
my soul and my belly even. My life is spent with grief,
my years with sighing, my strength fails because of my iniquity,
my bones are consumed. Talking about our Lord so much
of this and I was reproached among all my enemies but especially
among my neighbors and a fear to my acquaintance and they that
did see me without fled from me. I am forgotten as a dead
man out of mind. The fellow been dead long enough
that you don't even think of him anymore. I'm like a broken
vessel. And David, what he's doing is
he's confessing, have mercy on me Lord, because what? I'm in
trouble. Just got through saying the Lord's
hurt him and he's in trouble. My strength fails me. I'm forgotten
as a dead man, I'm like a broken vessel. Now what child of God
doesn't feel this way? When he comes in, when you commit
yourself to Christ and you get an understanding, to God, and
if God is yourself in light of Him, you're like Isaiah when
he saw the glory of the Lord, woe is me, I'm undone. Like Job when he says, I heard
of you with the hearing of the ear, but when I see you, now
I have abhorred myself, and repent and dust and ashes. Abraham said,
Lord, I want to ask you one more thing. Then he said, oh, I'm
but dust and ashes, and why in the world am I asking you anything?
And that's what David said here. He says, Lord, my strength is
gone. You know, when we first start
out, we think, boy, we got all this strength, we got all this
power, we got all this, but listen, as we go on, we understand we're
weak, with no strength, we feel worthless, we feel like a broken
vessel, we feel like sometimes a soul, it's a painful discovery
that instead of strength and fullness, we have weakness and
emptiness. Instead of feeling like, have
you ever felt like a broken vessel, just feel like you've just been
shattered? Just, you know, you just feel like, and sometimes
you say, Lord, just do, break me over and start over again
with me. Just break me and shatter me
and start all over again with me. I've made such a mess out
of things. And He said, we're like dead men. Sometimes we feel
like dead men, like somebody's just like you put us out of your
mind. Like we're a broken vessel and nobody can put us back together.
Isn't that what Paul said over in 1 Corinthians? He says, you
know, he said, I'm persecuted, forsaken, in distress and despair
and all these things yet, but he said, but I'm not forsaken. He said, I mean, of all these
things happened to me, but God never forsook me. He talked about
how empty he was, how nothing he was, and what he went through.
And I tell you what, just assures you a believer very long, you're
going to find out that you're empty, no strength. I mean, we ain't, oh my, what
did he say down the last part of that, that God will plentifully
reward the proud doer? You let a fellow be forgotten
or rewarded according to his pride. But I tell you he's got
to empty a man and he only puts something in a man that's empty.
And that's how we felt like this. How many times have we been like
this? So I sat here this very evening remembering back when
I was 22, 23 years old, a particular place, a particular act, a particular
thing. And I was in Pentecostalism back
in those days and I had an old van, an old Ford van, an old
78 or something like that. No, no, it was a 60, 65, 62,
59 maybe even. And I painted this old blue van
and I put big old red signs on the side of it. Victory in Jesus.
Run all over the country witnessing people. wouldn't know God from
a goat. And that's why I can so vividly,
when he says, my iniquities are like in my bones. Back there
and lying on God, deceiving men, and proud, and arrogant, and
self-righteous. In all of mine. And God had mercy
on me. That's why David said, Oh Lord,
have mercy upon my Lord, for I'm in trouble. What's wrong with you? I ain't
got no strength. What else is wrong with you? I've got grief. What else is
wrong with you? I've been reproached among my
enemies. They ain't got nothing nice to
say about me. People forget me. He says, so have mercy on me.
So that's his confession. I ain't got nothing. So have
mercy on me, Lord. Have mercy on me. Look at his
petition down here now in verse 15. Oh my, listen to this now. There's two or three messages
in here that a person ought to just take the messages and maybe
I will later. Just like this one right here.
My times are in thy hand. Deliver me from the hand of my
enemies and from them that persecute me. Make thy face to shine upon
thy servants. Save me for thy mercy's sake. What a petition. My times are
in thy hand. Deliver me. Now you think about
your times. How many times have you had in
your lifetime? How many times have you had in
your lifetime? You've had good times, bad times,
weak times, sick times, poor times? You can just go on and on about
your times. Times when I was here, times
when I was there, times when I did this, times when I did
that. Times that I forgot, times that I wished I could make up.
Mary and I talk about our lifetimes. We've had a lot of lifetimes
together in our lifetime. We can go back to when we got
married, that's another lifetime. Raised kids, that's another lifetime.
Grandkids, that's another lifetime. All the traveling and things
we've done, that's a lifetime. All these lifetimes, times that
the whole life was wrapped up in those times. And you go back
and that's what David says, all my times, whatever my times are,
Good times, bad times, weak times, frail times, sick times, poor
times. Whatever times I have in my life,
they're yours. My times, whether I'm
an idiot or whether I'm not, whether you save me, whatever
happens, my times are in your hands. The time I'm born, the
time I live, the time I die. The time of sickness, the time
of everything, and that happens in this world. Lord, my times
are in your hand. And how many times? Tomorrow
you're going to have another time. I never heard the word
until I got down here and people said, Oh, my time. Did anybody
use that just as a proverb? Oh, help my time. Help my time. Well, there ain't but one person
that can help your time. That's God. And ain't you grateful they're
in His hands? Our souls we reach Him in, our
souls enter Him in our times. Our souls enter times. Oh, I
wouldn't want my times to be in anybody else's. I wouldn't
want my times today. My times tomorrow. Times of distress. Times of sadness. Times of tears, times of rejoicing. Times of living, times of dying. Times of laughing, times of weeping.
Times, times, times, and times, and times. The Lord does your hands. In
your hands. And then He says, look here,
and deliver me from the hands of
my enemies. and from them that persecute me. And I'll tell you
what else I'd love for you to do for me, Lord. You know how
your face shined when Moses met you on the mountain and you saw
your glory? And you know how that the Lord's face shone when
He was there on the Mount of Transfiguration? Would you cause
your face to shine on me like that? Would you just light up
like the sun and make your face just shine right down on me?
Would you do that for me? Would you cause your face to
shine on me? Look what David said over here
in Psalm 4, in verse 6. Oh my. My times, my times. Cause your face to shine on me,
Lord. Look what David said here in Psalm 4 and verse 6. There
be many that say, who will show us any good? Well, Lord, lift
up the light of thy countenance upon us. Let us see the glory
of your face. Let us see your glory. That's
your kind of glory. Fill that temple. That's your
kind of glory that when there's face shine on us and make us
feel like we're in your favor and in your grace and in your
blessings. Feel the warmth, feel the favor, feel the grace. And
let it be, look what he says, upon thy servant. And then, oh
my, look in verse 19. Look how he adores God, how he
adores God. How he adores Him. Listen to
what he says here. Oh, how great is thy goodness. Listen to this. which you laid
up for them that feared you. Got a shelf up there. Got a place up there. I'm just
talking to somebody who's a good preacher. He's got something
up here with goodness on it. And he's got it laid up for us.
He said, Oh, how great is your goodness. And then when that's
done, he said, you got some more laid up for us and you'll give
us some more. How great is your goodness. Let me ask you, how
great is His goodness? How far does His goodness reach? How far does the goodness of
God reach? How high does it reach? How low
does it reach? How wide is it? And you know
our souls only find satisfaction in God? Because His goodness
absolutely knows no bounds, absolutely has no bounds whatsoever. And
I've told you this a hundred times, if not more, that I don't
know of a soul on this earth that God has shown goodness to
and been good to more than me and Mary. I just don't know of
anybody that He's been as good to as us. I can't tell you, anybody
that I know. Now, I know He's been good to
you, but He's been better to me. Yeah. No, listen. And here's how good,
you know, you know where His goodness was seen at clearly
and better than any place else? In His blessed Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, the goodness and mercy of
God shown us in His blessed Son. Oh, how great is thy goodness,
isn't it? Look what he says down in verse
21. Blessed be the Lord. Blessed
be the Lord. We want to bless you, Lord. Why? For what we want to bless you
for? For you have showed me, He has showed me His marvelous
kindness in a strong city, in a city fenced in. And we're that
city, right here, we sit here tonight, a city fenced in. And
God shows us his marvelous kindness. And David's praising, he said,
oh, blessed be the Lord. Oh, wow, he showed me his marvelous,
marvelous kindness. And he put me in this city that's
fenced in. Can we praise him enough? Can
we bless him enough? Can we bless him enough for his
love, for his mercy, for his kindness? And I tell you, we're
going to bless Him one last time. And you know when that's going
to be? And we'll do it forever. We'll sing that new and everlasting
song. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
and has redeemed us to God. Worthy is the Lamb. And then
let me close out with these two verses, 23 and 24. Now He tells,
He's the King now and He's telling us what to do. He's telling us,
He said, Oh, love the Lord, all ye His saints. I don't want just
me to love Him. I want all of you to love Him.
I want everybody that knows Him to love Him. Hear, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one, and thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your
mind, with all your strength. He said, The Lord preserveth
the faithful, And I tell you why they're faithful,
because He preserves them to be faithful. And then look what
He says, He will plentifully reward the proud doer. Hear that
man, that Pharisee, those people that are too proud to be a sinner?
Too proud to be nothing? Too proud to be anything? Too proud to bow down before
the Lord? God said, I'll reward you. I'll
give you just exactly what you've got coming to you. But look what
he said here now. But you be of good courage. Be
of good courage. You that love the Lord, all ye
his saints, you be of good courage. Oh my. Be of good courage. Why? Well, he's going to strengthen
your heart. You know what a heart is? Hearts
where faith dwells. Hearts where love dwells. Hearts
where Christ dwells. The heart's who we are. The heart's
us. And he said, he'll strengthen
your heart. He'll strengthen that heart that
trusts Christ. With the heart we believe. With
the heart we trust. And he said, you know, you be
of good courage, he'll strengthen your heart. And look what he
says. All ye that hope in the Lord. All ye that hope in the Lord. All other ground is sinking sand. On Christ the solid rock I stand.
It starts out trusting. Oh Lord, in thee do I trust.
Goes through all of his ups and downs. And it ends up by saying,
be of good courage. I start out trusting him. Be
of good courage. It's going to be alright. Oh, God won't fail you. He knows
the need of your heart. He said he'll strengthen your
heart. Oh, what a wonderful Savior is Jesus our Lord. Our blessed, blessed Savior,
thank you for meeting with us tonight. Thank you for your wondrous
mercy and grace given us in Christ before the world ever began.
Thank you for your Word, so strengthening, so encouraging, so uplifting. Thank you for answering our prayers
and seeing our brothers and sisters safely home. for strengthening
our bodies, strengthening our minds, strengthening our faith,
and giving us courage to face every day. And face it, gladly
rejoicing in Your mercy. Father, we thank You, and Lord,
we bless You, for You have showed us Your marvelous, marvelous
kindness and great goodness in Christ our Lord. Amen. Amen. I am.