Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 58. I titled the message this evening,
Watching the Trial of the Wicked. I want us to sit back as we read
through this Psalm and in our mind's eye, watch a trial going
on. I want us to watch with some
interest because this trial will take place. And there's comfort
here right off the bat for God's people. Knowing that Christ our
Savior is our advocate before the Father, that is such a comfort
to the hearts of God's people. The Apostle John said, if any
man sin, anybody qualify today, if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And here's the
reason for our comfort. John said, and he is the propitiation
for our sin. Christ is the sacrifice for the
sins of His people. And He is the advocate who lives
to plead His blood for the forgiveness of the sin of His people. Now
I find that so comforting. If Christ is both my sacrifice
and my advocate, I must be found not guilty. Because He, the one
who's pleading for me, is the one who made me not guilty. But
on the day of judgment, Christ our Savior will also be the judge.
He'll be the judge of all men. The father has given all judgment
into the hand of the son. Now, no believer has to fear
that judgment. No believer has to fear that judge because the
judge is our savior. Well, nobody knows better than
our substitute that the debt's already been paid. He paid it.
So he knows very well the debt's been paid. He knows he's made
his people innocent, but he will be the judge. And Christ will
also be the prosecuting attorney. against the unbeliever. In Matthew
chapter 25, those who thought they were righteous, thought
they did all these wonderful works. Christ is the one who
listed all the charges against them, all the things that they
did not do. He's the prosecuting attorney and he'll be the judge
to give sentence to cast them into hell. So Christ is the defense
attorney for his people. He's the prosecuting attorney.
He's the judge and he's the executioner. And here in our text this evening,
it's Christ who begins to speak as the prosecuting attorney.
And I have three points. The first one is this. I want
us to listen and watch as the indictment is being read. The
charges are being read against the wicked. First, Christ, the
prosecuting attorney, charges them with perjury. Verse one.
Do you indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? Do you judge
uprightly, O you sons of men? Now, you know, the religious
claim of righteousness, everybody who's religious claims a righteousness
from somewhere. But their claim of righteousness
is their own self-righteousness. That's their claim. The problem
with that is God says all of our righteousness, all of our
good works are filthy rags. They're rags that are defiled
with sin. But since they think that they're
righteous, they think that they're qualified to sit in judgment
on others. And this is what the Lord asked him, do you judge
righteously? Are you, are you judging these
matters truly? You have you ever noticed how often people who
are self-righteous think when they judge other, they always
are judging other people and they never think somebody else
is righteous, do they? But I guess they just think they're
the only one. And the self-righteous, you know, they, they think that
they, they're the ones capable of judging and they're the ones
who are the most critical of others. And the prosecutor asked
him, is that an upright judgment? Are you judging that truly and
honestly and upright, both when you judge yourself and them?
And what he's telling them is no, no, you're not. No, you do
not speak uprightly. You're guilty of perjury. You're
guilty of lying to God. You're guilty of lying to yourself
and guilty of lying to others. And he makes that charge stick
with the next charge. Second, the wicked are charged
with enjoying violent crimes, verse two. He says, yea, in heart
ye work wickedness. Ye weigh the violence of your
hands in the earth. He charges them with enjoying
the plan, their violence, and they're planning it in their
heart. Sin is a heart problem. Where is it that he says that
you're doing violence? It's in the heart. That's where
the problem is. The wicked are cold, calculating
murderers. And all they're doing is carrying
out what they've already purposed in their heart, what they've
weighed to do in their heart and said, this is what we should
do. They weigh wickedness in their heart. They weigh it and
say, yeah, this is what we should do. Just like a just judge weighs
justice in his heart before he gives a sentence. They weigh
out this wickedness and determined to do it. And then they deliberately
carry it out. Isn't that exactly what the Pharisees
did to our Lord Jesus? They weighed that violence in
their heart. Even though he's righteousness
itself, he's righteousness personified. They couldn't find anybody to
bring any charge against him, yet they hated him in their heart.
And that's why they pursued him unto death. And false prophets
do the same thing to this day. They know exactly what they're
doing. They know exactly what they're
doing. They carefully plan out in their heart, their wicked
plan, how they can deceive the hearts of the simple, and then
they go about carrying it out with a message of lies. They
know exactly what they're doing, and it starts with the wickedness
in their heart. And nothing can be more violent,
more destructive to men's souls than a false gospel. And that's
what the prosecutor is exposing here, the wickedness that they
plan in their heart. Thirdly, he charges them with
an unholy, unrighteous nature. Verse 3. The wicked are estranged
from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
be born, speaking lies. Now right here is the root of
the problem. It's our nature. We do what we
do because of what we are. We sin because we're sinners. We sin because our nature is
a nature of sin. And the only thing a sin nature
can produce is sin. Now this is the total depravity
of man, the total depravity of every one of us here. And the
psalmist deals with what we think is the sweetest and the best,
our babies. You know, it's not like we're
born good when we're babies. And then we learn to be bad as
we get older. I mean, I know that's kind of
what we think, but now that's not what God's word says, is
it? We come forth from the womb speaking lies. because of our
nature. We're conceived in sin. We're
shapen in iniquity. A baby comes out and mama changes
its diaper and powders it and pampers it and puts it down,
you know, for a nap and that baby starts to cry and there's
nothing wrong with that baby. That baby just wants to be picked
up. So it cries trying to make mama think something's wrong.
So she comes and picks it up. It lies. That sweet, innocent-looking
baby, who when we look at it, we just think our heart's gonna
burst, it's so cute. It's a sinner. It's got the nature
of its daddy. And that's the sin nature every
one of us is born with. David says that nature is estranged
from God. It means that it's turned aside
from God. from the womb, from the very
moment we're conceived, our nature is to turn aside from God. And
the only thing that changes after we're born is we try to go further
and further and further away from God if we can. Because our
nature is estranged from God. It hates God. And that nature
cannot be changed. It can't be improved. That nature
can't be made to love God. It can't be made to start acting
better and obey God and quit sinning. The only thing that
nature is good for is to be put in a grave. That's the only thing
it's good for. And that's why the prosecutors
bring it up here. That sin nature will always be
a danger to us and to others until it's put in the ground.
So this is a pretty serious charge. It's our nature that's unholy.
All right, fourth frame. The wicked are charged with refusing
to repent and refusing to submit to Christ. Verse four. Their
poison is like the poison of a serpent. They're like the death
adder that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the
voice of charmers, charming never so wisely. Now our babies come
forth from the womb, showing us that they're sinners. Cause
sin is already coursing through their little bodies. It's just
like a poisonous snake is a poisonous snake. Even if it's a baby, it's
a poisonous snake. You know, a snake is a snake
is a snake. I don't care how big it is. I
don't care what color it is. A snake is a snake is a snake.
Well, a sinner is a sinner is a sinner. I don't care how big
they are or how little they are. I don't care what color they
are. I don't care where they come from. A sinner is a sinner
is a sinner. But here's the thing about snakes.
You can't charm and tame our sin nature. But the thing about
snakes is, or at least some of them, is they can be charmed
by music. Now, that music puts them into
some sort of a calm trance or something. I read this week where
people like, well, they'll watch the eyes of the snake if somebody
starts playing that music or playing the flute or whatever,
and you see this calmness coming over the eyes of the snake. Now,
that's something Frank Tate's never going to see. I'm never
going to get close enough to a snake to see its eyes, to see
if it's you know, being charmed by this music or not, but they
tell me that that happens. And then when we think of snakes,
we think of an animal that's wise and crafty. Our Lord told
us, be wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. So snakes
can be charmed by music and they seem wise to us. Listen to what
Spurgeon said about that. Man, in his natural corruption,
appears to have all the ill points of a serpent without any of its
excellences." Our nature can't be charmed, can it? It can't
be tamed, and it cannot be wise. Now there are some snakes who
are hard of hearing, like some of us get hard of hearing and
they can't hear that charmer. But this is also, now I've never
seen this, but I've read about this, and this is what Dave is
talking about here. But some of these snakes, they hear that
music. They don't want to be charmed. And they try to put their ear
to the ground and plug up their other ear with their tail. I
don't know how that works, but that's what David's talking about
here. They're trying to stop up their ear so they don't hear
that music, so they don't get that meanness charmed out of
them. But some of them are hard of
hearing and can't hear. Well, those ones who can't hear
and those ones who won't hear the charmer's music, they can't
be charmed. They can't be calmed down and
tamed. That is exactly the nature of man. That's our nature. By nature, we cannot hear the
gospel. Because of that, we cannot hear
it. But we're also rebellious, and
by nature we stop up our ears so we cannot hear the gospel. Now, you hear it, you almost
can't stop yourself from hearing it. But we won't believe it. We refuse to bow to it. And I'll
show you an illustration of that in Matthew chapter 11. We've
heard the music of the gospel. And what sweeter music is there
than the gospel of forgiveness of sin and salvation in our Lord
Jesus Christ. What a sweet music. But by nature,
we won't hear it. We won't believe it. Matthew
11 verse 15. He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. But whereunto shall I liken this
generation? It's like unto children sitting
in the markets and calling unto their fellows and saying, we've
piped unto you and you've not danced. We've mourned unto you
and you've not lamented. For John came neither eating
nor drinking, and they say he hath a devil. The son of man
came eating and drinking, and they say, behold, a man gluttonous
and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. But wisdom
is justified of her children. See, it doesn't matter what tones
you play it in. You can play the music in a serious,
somber tone. You can play it in an upbeat,
happy tone. But it won't matter. People won't
mourn and they won't dance. They just refuse to hear the
music, the good news of the gospel. And the great charge against
men in the judgment will be this. We've heard the gospel. We've
heard of Christ. We've heard, but we refuse to
hear. We refuse to believe we've heard
of Christ, but we refuse to come to him begging for mercy. We've
heard a good report and the preacher is going to say, but who had
believed our report? Well, by nature, no one will. No one will. Apart from God's grace, no one
will. Because by nature we cannot hear
and we also refuse to hear. All right. That's the charges
brought against the wicked. We start the penalty phase. Here's
the second point. Here's the punishment that the
prosecutor asked for. First, he asked to make the wicked
powerless to hurt anybody ever again. Verse six. Break their
teeth, oh God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of
the young lions, oh Lord. Now look over Job chapter four.
Here's, Job kind of gives us a little bit of commentary on
this. This is what the psalmist is asking, or what the prosecutor's
asking. Make them powerless. to hurt
anybody ever again and make them perish. Job 4 verse 9. By the blast of God, they perish
and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed. The roaring
of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion and the teeth
of the young lions are broken. The old lion perisheth for lack
of prey and the stout lion's whelps are scattered abroad. That's what he's saying. Just
break their teeth out so they can't hurt anybody ever again
and they just die of starvation. They can't devour anybody. Now the first thing we think
of, we think of this old powerful line being destroyed. We think
of that line Satan, don't we? And certainly that will happen.
Christ already crushed his head. He took his power away at Calvary
and he's going to be put out of business one day. He's going
to be put where he can't hurt anybody ever again. But you know,
that's going to happen to everybody who follows Satan too. And it's pretty serious business.
If we're not following Christ, we're following Satan. There's
only one of two ways. There's no other option, one
or the other. And those who are not following
Christ will be destroyed. Christ asks here that the wicked
be made so they can't hurt his people ever again. Now, they
would now if they could, wouldn't they? They'd devour you who believed
if they could. But the son here asked, Father,
just break their teeth out of their mouth and put them where
they can't hurt my people ever again. And this I can tell you,
the son always gets what he asked for of his father. So this judgment
will happen. Don't be too awful worried about
those enemies of the gospel right now. One day they're going to
be put where they can't hurt anybody ever again. Second, he
asked, make the wicked to not even be seen anymore. Verse seven,
let them melt away as waters which run continually. When he
bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in
pieces. This is what he's saying. Let
them be no more like water than just running down a stream. And
eventually the stream runs dry and all the water's gone. You
can't see it anymore. It all just ran away. That's what he's
asking. They used to be here, but just
put them away. Let them run away, not be seen
anymore. Let them be put to death and
never be seen again. Lord, draw back your bow. These
are the arrows of God's justice. Let them fly. Let them fly. Right
now, justice is being held back, but in this day, He's saying,
let justice go forth, send out your arrows of justice and cut
them in pieces till they die the second death and are not
even seen anymore. You know, our enemies look great,
look insurmountable to us now, don't they? One day you won't
even be able to see them anymore. That's what he's asking for.
He's going to get it. All right. Thirdly, he asked that they be
destroyed by their own nature. Verse eight, as a snail, which
melted, Let every one of them pass away like the untimely birth
of a woman that they may not see the sun. Now, from what I
read this week about snails, they make their way in their
own slime. I don't know how that works.
They produce slime and somehow they, Maggie might know, I don't
know, but they make this slime and they go in a slime. But if
they go too far at a time, they'll dissolve themselves. I don't
know if that's true or not, but that's the way David understood
it. I did read that that can happen. So this is what he's
asking. Let the wicked be destroyed and
devoured by their own nature, by their own sin. Just give them
what they deserve. Just give them what justice demands. And let them not be seen anymore. Just let them dissolve and not
be seen anymore. Like a baby who died at birth. Now this is serious, serious,
serious business. This is what David's saying here.
It's better to have not been born at all than to be born and
die in our sin. I mean, that's serious, isn't
it? I can show you that's what he's saying. Look over Ecclesiastes
chapter six. This is what this untimely death
is referring to. It's a baby being stillborn and
dying at birth. And he said that's better than
living a long life and dying in your sin. Ecclesiastes chapter six, verse
three. If a man began in a hundred children
and lived many years, so that the days of his years be many,
and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no
burial, I say that an untimely birth is better than It's better
to die at birth than to live many years and have 100 children,
but die in your sin. Die without God's grace. It's
better to never be born than to not know Christ. That's what
he's saying there. All right, fourthly, this is
the fourth thing he asked for, is that they be taken away in
justice, in the holy wrath of God. Verse nine. Before your
pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with
a whirlwind, both living and in his wrath. Sweep them away
in the whirlwind of your holy wrath. And that's going to be
the end of everyone who dies in their sin, because the curse
of sin is death. And this is the eternal death,
the second death. And the thorns here represent
the curse of sin. That's why thorns grow in the
ground, because the ground is cursed for Adam's sake. Thorns
and thistles should bring forth unto you. Well, the thorns of
our sin can't produce anything life-giving. I guess in the desert
sometimes they get those little thorny bushes and they try to
get them together and burn them under a pot to cook some stew
or something. Well, those thorns can't produce
any warmth. They can't produce anything to
heat up any spiritual food in the pot. Everything's going to
be swept away suddenly by the whirlwind of God's wrath and
it shall be no more. That's the judgment coming to
the wicked. All right, here's my third point. Now I want us to listen to the
hope and the rejoicing of the righteous. We listened to some
pretty serious charges, haven't we? Listened to serious, serious
punishment. Well, now let's listen to the
hope and the rejoicing of the righteous. You know, like I said
a minute ago, this justice, this judgment will be carried out. And it's hard for us to imagine
right now, but when it happens, the righteous are going to rejoice
about it. Verse 10. The righteous shall rejoice when
he seeth the vengeance. The righteous are going to rejoice,
but not with a feeling of revenge. It's not like, well, I bet you'd
listen to me now. I bet you wish you didn't hate me now. It's
not like a feeling of revenge. They're going to rejoice because
Christ their Savior has been vindicated. He's been vindicated
in front of all of creation. Now our Savior is seen as triumphant
over every enemy. He's triumphant over every enemy
now, isn't he? But we don't see every enemy
put under him yet. Not yet, but then we will. And the righteous will rejoice.
And to think of these judgments coming on those that we know,
those that we love after the flesh, that makes us sad now. If it doesn't make you sad, something's
wrong with you. Now, I mean, that makes us sad now. And I'd say that's a good thing,
wouldn't you? Wouldn't you say it's a good thing that it makes
us sad? It makes us want to preach the gospel more faithfully, more
powerfully. It makes us want to seek God's
will and seek his spirit that enable us to preach the gospel,
send the gospel out in life-giving power. It makes us feel urgent
about this matter of preaching and worship. It makes us sad
now. But in that day, There will be
no sympathy for traitors against our God. There'll be none. All
of our allegiance will be with Christ our Savior. We will say
amen to everything he does. The damnation of sinners is not
going to mar the happiness of the saints in glory. Nothing
will mar your happiness there. Even this, even the judgment
of the wicked. The righteous are going to be
rejoicing. They will rejoice to see Christ, the captain of
our salvation, returning from the battle after he has destroyed
every enemy. Look over at Isaiah chapter 63.
Here when David says he shall wash his feet in the blood of
the wicked, Isaiah 63 tells us what he's talking about there.
It's when Christ our Savior returns from destroying every enemy.
Isaiah 63 verse one. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
I the speak in righteousness, mighty to say that's Christ our
savior. He speaks in righteousness. He's
mighty to say. And the church asking, wherefore
art thou red in thine apparel and thy garments like him that
treadeth in the wine fast. I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none with me, for I will
tread them in mine anger, and trample them in my fury, and
their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will
stain all my raiment." This is Christ going in and stomping
out his enemies, just like they go in and stomp the grapes to
make the juice, to make wine. This is the Savior going in and
stomping out, just obliterating every enemy. and their blood
has stained his raiment. That's him washing his feet in
the blood of those that he's crushed. And you might want to
mark your place there, because we'll come back to this in just
a minute. And when the church sees our
Savior finally victorious over every enemy, we will rejoice
forever. Now, that's what the righteous
will do. Now, I can see that from Scripture. Doctrinally,
I can see that must happen. Here's my problem. Am I one of them? Am I one of
these righteous? You're hearing the charges brought
and the damnation of the wicked. That gives me cause to fear. This is what I know. I'm guilty
of all those charges, same as they are. I'm just as guilty.
I've got the same sin nature that they have. How is it that
I can think that I'm going to be spared this damnation? I mean,
I don't want to just be fooling myself. Is there a way I can
know that I will be spared from this damnation? There is. You might remember that last
week we looked at Psalm 57 was called an Altucheth Psalm. Psalm
58 is the same thing as an Altucheth Psalm. It's a destroy me not
Psalm. How can I not be destroyed? I'm
guilty of the very same sin. I've got the very same nature.
How can I not be destroyed in that day? Just one way. In the Lord Jesus Christ, our
substitute. Verse 11. So that a man shall say, verily,
there is a reward for the righteous. Verily, he is a God that judgeth
in the earth. Now there is a reward for the
righteous and the reward for the righteous is righteousness
in Christ. It's innocence in Christ. It's
forgiveness of sin in Christ. It's having our sin paid for
by the blood of Christ's sacrifice. That's the reward of the righteous. It's eternal life in our Lord
Jesus Christ. The righteous are born guilty
of all the very same sins that destroyed the wicked. But there's
only one reason the righteous are not destroyed. This is a
destroy me not Psalm. Why are they not destroyed? It's
because the Lord Jesus Christ for all of their sin and all
of their guilt at Calvary. And he died there under the wrath
of his father to satisfy justice for those people. See, by nature,
you and I are guilty of claiming a righteousness that we don't
have. We have a sin nature. All it is is sin. Same as them,
same as the wicked. But Christ, our substitute, is
our righteousness. See, that's not lying for the
righteous to say we're righteous. No, we are righteous. If Christ
has made you righteous, you're righteous. You're innocent. You're
holy. Because Christ our Savior allowed
himself to be made sin for his people. He took all of the sin
of his people, that mountain of sin, and took it in his body
on the tree and put it away once and for all by his sacrifice.
He was made sin satisfied every accusation against his people.
Let's just consider the accusations, the indictment that was read
here against the wicked. Christ was made guilty of every
one of those sins. He was accused of plotting violent
crime, wasn't he? He was accused of plotting to
overthrow the Roman government. Now he's a king. He's got a kingdom,
but it's not of this world. He didn't come here trying to
overthrow the Roman government. He was already in control of
the Roman government. But he kept his mouth shut when his
accusation was made to me because he'd been made guilty of our
sin. He was accused of lying. He was accused of blasphemy.
Now that's impossible. He is the truth. It's impossible
for him to lie. There was no guile found in his
mouth. But when this charge was made against him, he kept his
mouth shut because he'd been already been made guilty of the
sin of his people. He was accused of having an unholy nature. They
said he came in league with the devil. But that's not true, is
it? Not at all. He came to destroy
the power of the devil. But when that accusation was
made, he kept his mouth shut. Because he'd been made guilty
of the sin of his people. He'd been made guilty of what
we're guilty of. And then they said his message is a poisonous
message. He's got the poison of Aspen in his message. They
said, why? He contradicts Moses. He contradicts
the law of Moses. He healed somebody on the Sabbath
day. What a sin. When in fact, he never contradicted
Moses, did he? No, he's the only one who, not
only did he keep the law, he honored it and magnified it.
He healed on the Sabbath because he is our Sabbath. He's the Lord
of the Sabbath. He never contradicted Moses.
His message was not a message had the poison of ass. His message
was a message of life. But when that accusation was
made, he kept his mouth shut because he'd been made guilty
of what we're guilty of. And he took all of that sin.
He took all those accusations, was made guilty of them and took
all of that sin and with one sacrifice, one sacrifice, threw
it away. so that it's gone. And all of
his people were made righteous. That is the reward of the righteous. Being made righteous in Christ
because he took our sin and put it away as our substance. What a reward. That is the reward
of the righteous. If we get just a glimpse of that
here on earth, That's the last time we ever mentioned rewards
in this life or rewards in heaven, either one. This is our exceeding
great reward. And when Christ comes again to
judge the earth, he's going to do it in righteous judgment. And when he comes, everyone without
exception will receive exactly what they deserve. Exactly. The
wicked will receive the exact wages of their sin. All their
works will receive an exact wage, eternal debt. Now, some will
receive greater damnation. Some will receive greater punishment
because they sinned against greater light, a greater revelation,
but they'll receive exactly what they deserve. And the righteous,
they'll receive exactly what they deserve too. But now there
are degrees of hell. Some will receive greater damnation,
but there'll be no degrees of glory. One won't receive greater
reward in heaven than another. Everyone there will receive the
exact same reward. That reward is being made just
like Christ. It's being with him for eternity.
He comes to judge the earth. You ever watch these, I watch
these, uh, like on 20-20, and there's another show I like.
You can always roll your eyes out now and watch it. But they're
trying to, oh, here's a mystery. Who did this crime? And they get somebody up there.
And it's a true story. And they get somebody up before
the judge. And you wait a whole hour. And finally, they could
have told the story in 10 minutes. Finally, they get the person
up before the judge. They're getting ready to announce
the verdict. And they're just always. Cause we don't know what's
coming and they're just worried. And if they get, if they, if
they're guilty and if they're innocent, they're just so relieved
because they don't know what the verdict is going to be. For the righteous, there'll be
none of that. It's not an unknown verdict. All our Lord, our Savior, the
judge, all he's going to pronounce is what really is. He's just
going to reveal what it really is. Righteous in him. Now back to
Isaiah 63. That day of awful judgment for
the wicked is the very same day of glory for the redeemed. This
is why the, verse four, this is why the redeemed rejoice.
For the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my
redeemed is come. That day when the wicked are
damned is the day that the righteous will be glorified. And they will
rejoice. No worry. No worry what the verdict's
going to be. No worry that the judge will
punish them. Justice has already been satisfied. All that's remaining. All that's remaining for the
righteous is for them to be glorified with Christ. So there's no fear
of that day. All there is for the righteous
is to anticipate, look forward to that day with great delight.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. How we thank you for your justice, that salvation,
the salvation of your people is accomplished in justice. So
there's nothing left for your people to fear. You've satisfied
justice by the death, by the suffering, the sacrifice, the
blood of your son. And all that's left for your
people is glory. Father, I pray that you would
give us the grace to believe the gospel that we've heard preached,
to right now, right at this moment, believe the gospel, to believe
the Christ that we've heard preached and have our rest and joy and
peace in Father, how we thank you for your mercy, how we thank
you for your grace. We know that there's nothing
we could do to ever earn deliverance, but that you'll deliver your
people. You will destroy not your people because you destroyed
Christ, our substitute and our blesser and gave us his life,
his righteousness and peace with you and in you. Oh, how we thank
you. Cause your word to take root
in our hearts, to comfort us and encourage us as we go back
home Go back out in the world tomorrow. Let us take your word
with us to comfort and encourage and feed us along the way. It's
in Christ's name we pray, for his glory we pray.