Shadows, Sunshine and Song

Turn if you would in your Bibles to Psalm 40. Psalm 40. Just getting everything set up here. All right, Psalm 40, and I'm gonna read this morning from the English Standard Version, not the NIV or King James. Psalm 40, beginning at verse one. To the choir master, a psalm of David. I waited patiently for the Lord. He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.

Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie. You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required. Then I said, behold, I have come. In the scroll of the book it is written of me.

I delight to do your will, oh my God. Your law is within my heart. I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation. I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me.

For evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs on my head. My heart fails me. Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life. Let those be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt. Let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. Make those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer. Do not delay. Oh my God. Let's pray and then we'll look into this portion of scripture together. Father, we are poor and needy.

Your people know their weakness, a sin that does so easily beset us, but we look to you And we look to you this morning expectantly, not because of anything I can come up with, but because we have your word and we have your spirit. And Lord, you delight to show mercy. We pray that you not delay in showing your steadfast love and mercy through the word that we have before us. Help us to see it perhaps beyond some of the shadows and misconceptions that we would see the light of your word in ways that encourage us that we may declare your faithfulness. We pray this for all of the men you have preaching your word today. We pray that you would encourage them and be with them, that you would help the sheep of God to hear what you would have to say to them through the men that you've placed in pulpits. Oh Lord, help us to hear believe and be encouraged and help us to see Christ in all scripture as you would have us to see him. We ask this in his name, amen. Well, when I was much, much younger and I was thinking about this situation and Paula probably remembers the date. She's better on stuff like that than I am, but... I was in the military, much better shape than I am today.

And to get out of work, I thought it would be a great thing to go get involved with what was essentially an obstacle course and mud run. And when I say mud run, I don't mean like a little bit of mud on the ground. I mean ditches full like to your waist with mud. and we were told we were running in our boots and utility pants and shirt, running through that mud and running through the obstacle course. So whenever I've seen this passage, I think of that situation where it talks about the miry clay and about how you have your feet set on the rock And I can tell you, I still remember being so exhausted by the time that run was done. I'm exhausted just thinking about it now to let you know how far I've fallen, but I was so exhausted, but I was so relieved to be on solid ground after running through the muck and the mire that they put on that course. Well, that's an example, I would say, of an analogy. If you press it too far, it doesn't work to illustrate the truths that are there.

And in the same way, we have in scripture, I would say, analogies or shadows or types and anti-types for what's going on, as well as direct prophecies about Christ. So perhaps when you read a passage like this, you see yourself or you think about how it applies to David, or you think about how it applies to Christ. So which is it? Well, the answer is it applies to all of those, but not always in the same way at the same time.

And we don't want to be misrepresenting what scripture has. In fact, if it wasn't for what James read earlier from Hebrews 10, we might have missed the direct connection, and we'll talk about that in a bit. But we need to make that distinction. In some things, scripture is speaking of a historical event. And sure, in the wider context, we can see how it applies to us and how it is referring to Christ, but we want to be careful. We don't want to press a shadow beyond what it is. We don't want to ignore it either. This is an example of David's experience. The Psalms are experiential.

They tell truth in a way that relates to real life. And therefore, because of that, we can relate to them as well. And for a lot of people, that's all the further they go. They don't want to or can't see Christ in them, even when he's directly pointed out elsewhere in scripture.

So we'll look at this, we'll look at the shadows, we'll look at the sun in this verse that drives away the shadows, and then we'll look also to the song. Those are the three lenses. But the psalm itself is arranged, it's poetry, it's arranged in a specific way. So if you think about it in these different sections, if you think of A, B, C, that's a progression that's fairly linear, but what happens in this psalm is it's more like A1, B1, C, B2, and A1.

He's going back to where he started, but he's doing it in a way that the center of this psalm is the emphasis, and not surprising, the center of this psalm is about Christ, and the Holy Spirit inspired David to be able to do this this way. And he does this in a way that is, I would say, very emblematic of the Christian life. He talks about a deliverance that is passed and he's thankful for that deliverance and he talks about what that deliverance meant, how he understood it. Then he petitions God again because his current circumstances are such that he's back down in a valley asking for God's help, and he ends where he starts, waiting on God, needing his help.

So I know that's a lot, but as we go through it, if you can see some of those things, it's helpful to not misunderstand what's going on here. So, first of all, we read in the first four verses, and now I'll read from the NIV and make my explanations based on that.

I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. So these first four verses are David reflecting on a real incident that happened to him using poetic language. I don't know that he was literally thrown into a pit.

And he says that he waited And we have the word patiently here, and when I read that's not the best rendering, I thought, oh well, gets me out of needing to be patient. But if anything, it's more emphatic in the original. He says, I waited and I waited. Or waiting, I waited for the Lord. Oftentimes, when we have trouble in our life, we tend to think along the lines of what I would call a tongue-in-cheek prayer. You know, Lord, give me patience and give it to me right now.

Help me in this situation that I'm in because I do not see one end from the other. I can see in David's situation, and we don't know what it is. try to find a period of time this fits David's life. I think it's obscure so we can apply it to ourselves. So David sees himself and he sees himself in this pit and he waited and waited. And then, as he's waiting, pretty much every translation doesn't get the picture here. NIV says he turned to me. I believe King James and ESV say he inclined, but literally it's he stooped down. He stooped down to me.

And that's a picture of how God has to act to deal with us. We're down in the pit. We're down in the mud and the muck and the mire and the pity and the self-absorption, whatever our pit may be. And God doesn't just go, you know, kind of little look over there and all that. The picture that we want to see is our God bending down and hearing our cry.

And he not only delivers us, it says he lifted us out of the slimy pit and the mud and the mire, he puts us on solid ground. And that rock, we talked about this last time, Psalm 19, it could just be here, a picture obviously of a firm place, and NIV has that here. But certainly we think about Christ being the rock, the foundation of the church. And really, from false religion and false belief, we have to be taken from that muck and mire.

And if we have any foundation at all, he has to take us from where we are and place us on the only foundation that matters, and that foundation is Christ. So you see how David's life, our experience, and not that we can press it to its ultimate end, but certainly we can see how that applies to what Jesus does for his sheep.

And he not only does that, but if you can imagine it, when you think of a pit and being stuck there, Waiting and waiting. I've been told I can be impatient at times. I don't have a lot of patience for a lot of things. The last thing I would think, I mean, in my flesh anyway, somebody takes you, pulls you out of the ditch, you know, it's kind of, you would say, it's about time. Do you know how long I've been down there?

Well, that isn't what the Spirit of God does in the people of God if he rescues them. Maybe they do complain, but what he does is he puts a song in their mouth, and that song is a hymn of praise, not to their patience or their fortitude or their attendance on spiritual disciplines, but it's a hymn of praise to God, because God is the one who pulls them out of that pit. He's the one who sets us on a rock. He's the one who puts the song in our mouth and it's a hymn of praise to our God and the psalm is written for believers but this would apply to those who of God's elect who haven't yet believed as well. It says when that happens And when people praise God for his deliverance, many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

So if you're inclined, when you're in the middle of a bad situation, a trial, when you're in a pit, to say, I can't see. why I'm even here. I don't understand why God has me in this place. It's so he can deliver you and your brothers and sisters and those yet to believe can see God's deliverance, not your cleverness or my cleverness, but God's deliverance and see and fear and trust in God. It's amazing to think about, and I could interject a lot of times where I've seen, especially in retrospect, God's deliverance, and just am amazed by all that he's done. So, One more thing here.

Not only do they put their trust in their Lord, but it says, blessed, and this is kind of the chorus, as it were, of the first three verses, blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust. David wants us to see that, the Holy Spirit wants us to see it's the Lord, Yahweh, who he is putting his trust in, not in the proud, or NIV has here those who turn aside to false god or falseness. It's kind of interesting, I believe the word proud is a noun that's almost every other usage or every other usage is clearly talking about the Egyptians. And I know Joe and some others have talked about Egyptian Christianity, right?

It's kind of a go along to get along performance-based Christianity. And when you put it that way, idolatry works, false gods work. But that's what you have to do. You have to make the Lord your trust. In fact, scratch that, he has to pull you out, he has to set your feet upon a rock, he has to deliver you so that you can see that it's the Lord who is your only trust. It's not the proud, it's not the Egyptian, it's not false gods or false hoods that you put.

So David is thinking about that, and he stops again to talk in verse five about the wonders that God has done. Many, O God, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done. And there's a little bit of debate on exactly how to translate this, but NIV is as good as any here. The things you have planned for us, no one can recount to you. I believe, let's take a look here. I'm on the edge of a sneeze here, sorry about that. In the ESV it has, you have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us. None can compare to you.

I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told. And really, if we think about it, not just our own circumstances, but what God has done as it's recorded in his word or as we talked about last time in creation, all the wonders that God has done in providing for us and taking care of us and keeping us from the recompense of what our errors deserve, No one can fully recount them. They're more than we can tell.

Then what's the center of this passage is also what's cited in Hebrews chapter 10. So we think about what God did for David in all this, and we think about how it magnifies God to see that he and he alone is the one who provides for us and saves us. But then there's this very odd section. And I'm familiar with Psalm 40, and recently I've been listening to some renditions where people are singing through the Psalms, and they're trying to do so word for word, and generally, I would say, are word for word on that. And when I'm listening to it, I'm thinking, whoa, that's in this passage? Because we tend to think about certain portions of scripture, and it seems like a big, rock, and it is a big rock, but I mean more like a rock in your shoe or a rock in your way to understanding, because I can see how other things apply to David and apply to me. I don't entirely see that, and I think that's on purpose. I think, as several men of God have said, that really this section here, verses six through eight, and maybe even a little bit further, only truly and 100% are reflected in Christ.

So in verse six here, sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced. And we'll talk about that in a minute when we turn over to Hebrews 10, because there's a little bit different rendering there. Burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. David, if you're unaware of what's going on here, David is covering every element of Old Testament sacrificial worship. He's naming four different types of sacrifices and offerings that are there.

So he's not just poetically repeating it, although it has that effect as well. He's saying there's nothing that God desires or requires in that. And that causes some people to have some consternations like, well, David couldn't really mean that. Well, I think we have to put it in context.

At the time David wrote this, the old covenant law was still applicable, but it was never the case that God intended for them to look to the outward sacrifices as being enough. Because if you were to go through the motions of that sacrificial system, That would not put you in the right place with God. There is Israel according to the flesh, and there was this worship, air quotes, according to the flesh. It was required of them, and yet it was a shadow, as Hebrews says, and yet it wasn't the only thing that God required.

If you want to, I'll give you the reference, 1 Samuel 15. 1 Samuel 15 and beginning, I'll give you the background. Saul had decided to ignore what Samuel had told him, and he brought about this situation where he would present sacrifice, stepping out of his role as king and not waiting, not being patient. A lot of parallels. I know why people say they think this is part of what David is speaking about. I'll go back to verse 20 on 1 Samuel 15. I did obey the Lord, Saul said. I went on the mission. The Lord assigned me. I completely destroyed the Amalekites and brought back Agag their king. The soldiers took sheep and cattle from the plunder, the best. So he understood that was needed, the best of what was devoted to God, in order to sacrifice them to the Lord your God at Gilgal.

Then verse 22. But Samuel said, does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey Is better than sacrifice and a lot of people tend to harp on the obey, but listen to what's next and to heed Is better than the fat of rams And I'll read the next verse to close the thought. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.

So Saul looked at sacrifice and offering and thought, I did it, I followed the letter of the law. God, put the coin in, push the button, God has to deliver blessing to me. But David here sees beyond that, and he understands that it is not just sacrifice and offering. but my ears you have pierced, or dug. And the idea here, I believe, that David is saying is, I understand, and he'll go on to relate that here in a bit, I understand, Lord, what you want from me is not just to go through these outward motions. You want me from the heart. with all of my being to hear, to heed, and to believe what you say to me. So this does apply to David, but David, by the Spirit, goes beyond it and applies to us.

Then it even gets stranger, and this wasn't immediately apparent to me. Then I said, here I am, and if you remember what James read, we'll go there in a minute, Here I am, I have come, it is written about me in the scroll. And you're like, wait a minute, what is he talking about? Well, we know for us, I'll do the easy part, so somewhat easy part first. It's written about us, we're in the book of life. If we're in God's book of life, it's written about us in the scroll.

But I think originally, what David is thinking about is Deuteronomy 17. And in Deuteronomy 17, verse 14, he talks about the king. Remember, this is before Joshua goes into the land and before the kings were appointed. The book of Deuteronomy says, when you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, you say, let us set a king over us like all the nations around us, right?

Conforming. Be sure to appoint over you the king the Lord your God chooses. He must be from your own brothers. Don't place a foreigner over you. and so on and then verse 18 when he takes the throne of his kingdom he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law taken from that of the priests who are Levites is to be with him and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better and I have to break in here, wouldn't it be great if politicians were like this, and not to consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left.

So when David says here, Then I said, here I am, I have come, it is written about me in the scroll. He's thinking back, I believe it's pretty irrefutable that he's thinking back to Deuteronomy 17. And he says, I desire to do your will back in Psalm 40 verse eight. Oh my God, your law, your word, your instruction is within my heart. I proclaim righteousness.

In the Great Assembly, I do not seal my lips, I do not hide your righteousness in my heart, and so on. What he's saying here is, I understand you pulled me out of this pit, whichever pit it was, doesn't matter. David, like the rest of us, managed to make it into a lot of different pits. You pulled me out of this pit. You put me on a rock. I know what you desire is not just that I go through these outward motions of the old covenant. but that I need to have in me a desire to do what is right, and that is how I need to live.

Well, let's talk about how this applies to Christ. And I knew I was pushing it to try to cover the whole psalm, but I think it really helps to see it all together, even though there's lots of individual things that I'm going over quickly. So James had read from Hebrews chapter 10, and I'll just read verse one, and then we'll skip down to verse five. The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. So somehow David understood and saw how it applied to him, and we should see the word of God alone isn't what we need to look at. Certainly the Mosaic Covenant is not what we need to look at, even though it's God's word. But it points to something greater, and this is the pinnacle of this passage, and one of the main points of the writer of Hebrews' arguments here is that these words from Psalm 40, are what Christ said when he came into the world.

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. Now, if you understood, and some of the older commentators understood of Psalm 40, that he was talking about piercing the ear, right? Piercing the ear, and that symbolically talked about somebody being a servant. But literally, we know that Hebrew means to dig the ear.

And if you think about speaking about another picture, who was made from the dust of the ground, the clay. It's Adam, right? Adam was, and God literally sculpted him, dug out his ear. And when you think about that, again, it's a picture, it's an analogy, it's a shadow.

But we know this is applied to Christ, and here, based on the Greek translation, they substituted the part for the whole. as they understood it, and obviously it fits because it's recounted for us here in Hebrews chapter 10, and instead of saying the ear that God created to hear, we have the body that God prepared for the Lord Jesus Christ. So Christ is ultimately the one who's being spoken of. He's the one who dispels the shadows of the Old Testament and Old Covenant. Tried to say both of those at the same time.

And now when Jesus says, Sacrifice an offering you did not desire with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. He's saying it's done away with. That's what the writer of Hebrews is driving at and why he's using this as a proof text. He sees, and it says in verse eight, first he said, sacrifice and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor you were pleased with them.

And he puts as parenthetical, although the law required them to be made. Then he said, here am I, I have come to do your will. He sets aside the first. So David was beyond what he understood. Elsewhere in scripture, it talks about the prophets looked at words that God had given them and eagerly desired to understand them, this Bernie's paraphrase of that, but understand sometimes in the Old Testament, they were beyond their understanding in what God had given to them. David could apply that to himself and say, I understand you want more than me to go through this outward ritual.

We can say the same. We got our gold star for the day for coming to church. But that isn't what God wants from us ultimately. He wants us to hear. He wants us with our whole being to believe and to follow him. And of course, when we think about Christ here, his mission was to put away all of those shadows, to show what all those sacrifices are pointing to, and that was his once for all sacrifice on behalf of his people. Christ came so that we no longer have to live in the shadows.

Well, turning back to Psalm 40, and we did A1, B1, and C, the pinnacle here. Now we're back to a praise, so B1, the wonders that are too many or too great to count. We have here, and I got ahead of myself a little bit, in verses 9 through 11, another section of praise. Although verse 11 is kind of a transitional verse, but it does fit.

He's remembering back, he's acknowledging God's blessing, he's praising God, he's seeing what God desires. Now he's praising God. He's saying, I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly. I do not seal my lips as you know. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart. I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly. And I'll read verse 11 here. Do not withhold your mercy from me. Oh Lord, may your love and your truth always protect me.

I think we fail to see how important this gathering together is and how important it is to talk to others about what God has done for us. But David points this out, and he's remembering as he's going to God to petition again. He talks about past mercies. He praises God for that. He talks about his imperfect obedience, and we know that that points to Christ's perfect obedience. And now he says, I proclaim God's righteousness, God's faithfulness, God's salvation. Even though he's talking about what he's doing, what he's doing is not talking about what he's done. He's talking about what Christ has done, what Yahweh has done. And he's saying, I don't hide that. There could be a misunderstanding here because we talk about hiding God's word in our heart. What that means is we treasure it. In this case, he's saying, I don't conceal it from others.

Well, one of the ways that you do that is by gathering with other believers. What are you going to do on Sunday? Well, I'm going to church. Oh, so you can get right with the old man upstairs, no? To praise God for condescending himself to the church. stooping down to save a wretch like me.

I've had conversations like that and you know when God places you in situations like that where you can talk about the all-sufficiency of what Christ has done that is there but he's talking about when you gather with other believers part of this is we speak to one another and sing to one another in psalms in hymns and songs when we sing great is thy faithfulness it's an encouragement to me and hopefully it's an encouragement to you of the faithfulness of God as one example but you can see His thoughts are starting to drift here to his current crisis. And I know Joe has said this, and I repeated that Joe has said this, and it's not unique with him. You're either in a trial, coming out of a trial, or about ready to enter into one, and this passage certainly covers that. And I like better how the ESV renders verse 11, He says, as for you, it makes it sound a little bit like he's worried that God won't do it. Do not withhold your mercy from me is what NIV says. But in the ESV it says, as for you, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. I don't look at it as a question.

I might question God's timing. In fact, full honesty here, I remember a sermon, this is an aside to illustrate what I'm saying, but I remember a sermon, I think it was one that Joe preached somewhere else to listen to. He's like, I'm gonna tell you my deepest, darkest sin. Well, you know what his deepest, darkest sin is? It's the same as everyone else who's a believer. It's unbelief. It's unbelief. I sometimes don't believe that God has mercy for me and that he has steadfast love and faithfulness towards me, but it's the truth.

And that's why I like that rendering better. While this may show our uncertainty, in the eyes of God, there's no uncertainty. He will not withhold His mercy from us. He will always protect us with His steadfast love. And then this is part of the reason, the next section is part of the reason why I said we have to be careful not to over-apply, understand it as a shadow or a type here, not directly, because he's talking about his sins here.

Verse 12, for trouble without number surround me, my sins have overtaken me and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head and my heart fails me. He acknowledges that his own sin could be behind his own sin. what's going on, and he confesses it. He says, he doesn't say something different, well, I made a few mistakes, but God overlooked it. No, he first says, God, do not withhold, and you will not withhold or restrain your mercy from me, but I'm a sinner. In fact, I'm not a kind of sinner. I'm good at it in the bad way. It's more than the hairs on my head. It's overtaken me. I can't see. He's back in the pit. He can't see beyond where his sin has taken him.

But then he goes to his God, and we should go to our God in prayer. Be pleased, O Lord, to save me. O Lord, come quickly. Some people say, well, just be patient, don't go too fast. Well, we don't wanna go faster than God does. It doesn't stop us from asking God to go faster. In fact, here and in the end of verse 17, he says, do not delay, come quickly.

He's looking to God, and that's the only place you or I can look. And even Christ looked to, as a man, looked to God to deliver him, not because of his sin, but because of our sin. He bore the full wrath, but God delivered him in the resurrection and the ascension. But when we sin, a lot of times the last thing we think of is praying and asking God for deliverance.

David had learned, and we should learn as well, that we can petition God, and we can petition him in this way, save me, help me, don't delay. I need this and I need it now. I don't know that I can hold on any longer. Then you might find it interesting and we know from David's life that he had a lot of situations where people were out to get him. It wasn't just in his brain. And in some cases for us, it's not just in our brain. People are actually out to get you. I forget how the saying goes exactly.

It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you, but the reality is there are people who hate believers. There are people who call themselves Christians who hate believers. There are people who will go out of their way to try to cause you harm. And in one of the things that is difficult, I think, in our day and age for people to hear is David doesn't have blessings for those sort of people. He says, may all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion. May all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May all those who say to me, aha, aha, be appalled at all, at their own shame.

In other words, somebody who's delighting, whether it's deserved or not, who are delighting that you are down as a believer, God cares about even this. But then he talks about the encouragement of other believers, and he wants to make sure he makes a distinction. There are those who desire bad for him, but then there are those who are fellow worshipers of the king. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation always say, The Lord be exalted, or great is the Lord.

And then he goes back after that word of encouragement and says, yet I am poor and needy, and I know that the way the NIV renders it here, and I'm trying not to be a translation critic, but, May the Lord Think of Me is really just off-putting to me at this point. And they had to make a decision.

I am poor and needing yet The Lord takes thought of me. And I believe Henry Mahan said the gospel is in three letters there, in yet, the Lord takes thought of me. It's not just, he looks over and like, you probably had this happen, you see somebody you haven't seen for a while, that's great, you have some thoughts about them and you move on, you forget about them if you haven't seen them for a while. Just like in the beginning, when he inclines himself, turns himself, it's better stooped down. The Lord continually thinks about us.

He intercedes for us. We're poor and needing. My hope is that the Lord is thinking on me. And that he is my help and my deliverer. We have nothing if he isn't. We have everything because he is our help and deliverer. So he goes from waiting to waiting. He goes from the pit to the pinnacle and back down to the pit. But through it all, God is the song in his heart. Maybe it's a difficult song, and it is a difficult song when you're on the downside, you're wondering where God is, and you see how poor and needy you are.

But take courage in the God of the universe thinks on you, yet he cares for you and he is our help and our deliverer. And we can say and pray, God, do not delay. We're poor and needy and we need you all the more now. Let's pray. Father, words escape me in how great your salvation is. We are just so poor and needy without you, and yet you've not spared saving us. sacrificing us, taking us out of the shadows and out of the mire and the clay. And Lord, we pray that you would help us to sing that new song no matter which season of life we're in. Be with us this week, encourage us along the way. We need you every hour. We ask this in Jesus' name, amen. James.

Shadows, Sunshine and Song

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Shadows, Sunshine and Song

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