Let's open our Bibles again to
Psalm 18. The title of the message is, The Lord Worthy to be Praised. I took the title from verse 3
where David says, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to
be praised. He's worthy to be praised. That
statement made me think about this other Jesus that's preached
today, the Apostle Paul warned us about, the different gods
that are preached today. And you know, they're all idols.
And here's a good way to tell an idol. None of them are worthy
to be praised. They're not worthy. They promise
salvation. If you'll let them, they promise
salvation. If you'll decide for Jesus, if
you'll accept them, you've got to receive him. Well, then you
should get to praise. If that's the case, you should
get to praise, not God. And that's exactly what happens
when someone makes this decision for Jesus. Everybody's praising
them, aren't they? We're so glad you decided you've
made this decision. All the credit goes to them.
And under their theology, it should. Their idol is not worthy
of praise. And their idol certainly isn't
worthy of praise. When someone's dead in sin and
cannot and will not seek mercy, seek salvation, That idol is
not able to save them, is he? He's not worthy of praise. Then
they promised material wealth and health. But you know, their
message does not present a God worthy to be praised. They don't
have any good news for those who are poverty stricken, those
who are poor in spirit. They can't say what our Savior
himself said, blessed are the poor in spirit. for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. They can't say that because they
don't believe it. Their idol is worthy to be praised, I reckon,
if you've got a big house and you've got a big car and you've
just got a promotion at work and your bank account's full,
you know, I reckon you could say their idol's worthy to be
praised. But their idol's not worthy to
be praised when all earthly support is taken away. And you wander
around like our brethren of old in deserts and in mountains and
in dens caves of the earth wearing goat skins. Their idol is not
worthy to be praised then, is he? Their idol is not worthy
to be praised if you don't have your health. You know, they preach
a health and wealth. Well, I reckon you can praise him if you're
healthy. You feel like you've been healed and you've got the
strength of youth. But their idol is not worthy
to be praised when your health is gone. When you're laying there
and your pain wracks your body or you're laying there in your
deathbed. Their idol's not worthy to be praised. How can you praise
that idol when you go home alone after a funeral for the death
of a dear loved one? Why did my loved one die? Apparently
their idol didn't do his job, did he? He's not worthy to be
praised. Well, who's the God David's talking about here? What
about the true and living God, the God of the Bible? Listen
to what our brother Job said about that. Job said, I don't
care what happens. Yes, all this has happened to
me. And God did it. But though He slayed me, yet
will I trust Him. I think maybe the best way that
we can really praise God is to trust Him. You know, if you tell
somebody, I'll take care of this for you, trust me. Well, if they
don't trust you, What are they saying about your character?
But if you say, don't worry about it, I'll take care of this, trust
me. And they don't think another thing about it because they believe
that you'll do what you said you'd do. That's honoring your
character in it. That's what Job said. Though
he slay me, I'll trust him. Job said, the Lord gave, and
the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Both things. When we say that, Everybody can
say blessed be the name of the Lord when the Lord gives, huh?
How about when the Lord has taken away? The name of the Lord is
still blessed, still He's worthy of our praise. David said, when
my soul is disquieted within me and I'm cast down, I shall
yet praise Him because the Lord is worthy to be praised simply
for who He is. for who he is to his people,
for what he's done for his people. In these three verses, David
gives us eight reasons that the Lord is worthy to be praised.
Now this psalm is a psalm that was meant to be sung. David wrote
it to be sung to the Lord. It was to be sung to the Lord.
And he begins his song with love. Love for the Lord. True praise
has got to begin with love. It's got to begin with a heart
of love. David says, I will love thee. I will love you, Lord,
because I can't help it. The believer can't help but love
the Lord. I love him because he first loved
me. I can't help but love him. He's
given me a heart of love. I love the Lord. because he condescended
to reveal himself to me. What a miracle. I love him for
that. And I'll tell you what, the more
I know about him, the more he teaches me of himself from his
word, the more I love him. I love everything about the Lord. Every believer does. I love his
holiness, the beauty of his holiness. He can't do anything wrong. He's
perfectly beautiful, holy. I love his sovereignty. I love
the fact that God rules over everything. And you know, he
should rule over everything. He's God. He's got all wisdom. He's holy. He's just, he should
rule over everything. I'm so glad he does. I love his
mercy. I love God who's merciful. That's
the only way he could have mercy on a sinner like me, is it's
God's immeasurable mercy. I love God's justice. I love
the fact that He's just. Because you know, God is just. So He'll never take away the
salvation He gave me in Christ. Christ satisfied justice for
me. He earned salvation for me. It's only just that God give
it to me. He'll never take it away because
He's just. I love that. I love the Lord's
love. I love that the Lord loves sinners. Yet, he condemned their sin in
the person of their substitute. I love the Lord. And that love
makes me cling to the Lord. Like a child clings to its mother.
Like a wife clings to her husband. This word love that David uses
here, it means a deep abiding love that's just got to bubble
out. That's just got to come out.
Now this psalm was meant to be sung Well, song is a good way
for us to express love. I mean, people make millions
and millions and millions of dollars on love songs. This is
a love song. Just song is a good way for the
love, our love that we feel for the Lord to come out. And then
David here gives us eight reasons that the Lord is worthy to be
praised. Number one, the Lord is worthy
to be praised because the Lord is my strength. I will love thee,
O Lord, my strength. Now, the Lord himself is my strength. He's my spiritual strength. He's
the strength of my salvation. He is become my salvation, so
he's the strength of it. And salvation is strong and can
never be broken because of who our salvation is, because of
who accomplished it. Look over at 1 Peter 1. Salvation
in Christ can never be lost. because we're kept. We can't
fall away from him because we're kept by the power of God. Not our power, but his power.
1 Peter 1, verse 4. To an inheritance, incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you who are kept. How are you kept? By the power
of God, through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. That's how we're kept by the
power of God. The Lord is the strength of my
salvation. He's my spiritual strength. He's
my physical strength. David said, the Lord is the strength
of my life. Then who am I going to be afraid
of? Who shall I fear? If the Lord is the strength of
my life. And I'm so glad David wrote that. I'm so glad the spirit
put that in God's word because I am so weak. I mean, this life,
is so frail and fleeting. I mean, you can think you just
have everything and just at the turn of a dime, it's all gone.
I can't do anything in this life without the Lord. I can't take
a breath without Him. I mean, how is it your body,
you just keep breathing? I mean, normally you don't think
about it. I can't take a breath without Him. I'm so frail and
weak, but I don't have anything to fear. if Christ is my life. He's the strength of my life.
And I need the Lord to be my strength. Because I'm so weak,
I can't handle anything myself. I mean, there's nothing I think,
well, I can take care of that, and I'll wait and call on the
Lord for these bigger things. No, there's nothing I can do
by myself. I need Him to do everything for
me. But when I'm weak, when I recognize my own weakness, when I recognize
my own need, That's when I'm strong, because when I recognize
my utter weakness, then I depend upon Christ, who is my strength. And that's how I'm strong, when
I rest in Him. And since the Lord is my strength,
I'll trust Him. David mentions strength here
twice. Look here at the middle of verse two. He says, my strength
in whom I will trust. The Lord's my strength. By God's
grace, I'm going to trust I'm going to trust Him at all times.
His strength is sufficient to take care of anything that needs
to be done for me. I'll trust the Lord at all times. And if
we can say especially, especially in times of trouble, I'm going
to trust the Lord. Who else can I trust? Who else
can take care of this situation? In the time of trouble and trial
and heartache, when I think This thing's gonna crush me. It's
more than I can bear. Go back to what I said a minute
ago. Of course it's more than we can bear. Everything is. Then why haven't I been crushed?
Look at Psalm 37. I haven't been crushed because
the Lord is my strength. Psalm 37 verse 39. Well, look at verse 38. Here's
the transgressors. Here's those that don't have
Christ. But the transgressor shall be destroyed together.
They shall be crushed. The end of the wicked should
be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord.
He is their strength in time of trouble. That's why we haven't
been crushed, because the Lord is my strength. He's worthy to
be praised, isn't he? Second, the Lord is worthy to
be praised because the Lord is my rock. Verse 2, David says,
the Lord is my rock. This word rock David uses here
means a rock, a specific rock that's high up in the mountains,
very difficult to get to. And a person up there on that
rock would be safe from all their enemies. They could see the enemy
coming from a long way off because they're high up there in the
mountain. They have plenty of time to defend themselves because
it's so difficult to climb up to that rock. That's what we
need, isn't it? Don't we need protection? That's
what we need. And David said the believer has
that. We're hidden safe from all of our enemies in Christ,
the rock of ages. Scripture has a lot to say about
a rock. Often scripture compares Christ
our Savior to a rock. In Christ our rock, we are safe
from every enemy. Just think of In Christ, we're
safe from every enemy. Even we're safe from the wrath
of almighty God against our sin. Remember, God told Moses, Moses
asked the Lord, show me your glory. God told Moses, all right,
I will. But Moses, you can't see my face
and live. So I'll tell you what I'm going
to do. Moses, I'm going to hide you in the cleft of the rock.
I'll put my hand over when I pass. You can't see my face. And as
I pass by, you'll see the back part of me. Moses was safe in
the cleft of the rock. That rock is Christ. As God passes
by in His fury against our sin, the sin of His people, We're
safe, although it would crush us outside of Christ, but if
He puts us in Christ, in the cleft of the rock, we're safe
in Him. Christ is our rock. And then
rocks are used for foundations. One of the songs our children
loved, our little children loved to sing, is about the foolish
man and the wise man. The wise man built his house
on a rock. The rock is the foundation. And
the foundation is solid. The foundation is immovable.
the building is going to be immovable too. Well, Christ is that rock. He's the rock that the whole
church is built upon. Peter's not that rock. Peter's
confession of Christ, who Christ is. That's the rock, the foundation
that the whole church is built upon. Look in Isaiah chapter
28. Christ is our rock. In case we
don't know this, Let's see if we might not get this through
our head and into our heart. Christ, our Savior, cannot be
moved. He cannot be moved. Then none
of his people can be moved either. Isaiah 28, verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone, a dried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. He that believeth
shall not make haste. He that believes on him cannot
be moved because Christ can't be moved. Then one more illustration
from scripture. Our redemption. The redemption
of God's elect comes from a rock smitten. Remember when the children
of Israel were out in the wilderness, they didn't have any water. God
told Moses, take your rod and strike the rock. And Moses did. life-giving water just gushed
out of that rock, enough for three million people and all
their animals. Paul had water, that smitten
rock. And Paul removed all doubt. 1
Corinthians 10, verse 4, he said, that rock was Christ. That was Christ. When Christ
was smitten for the sin of His people, the Father took His rod
of justice and smote His Son. He took the sword of justice
and plunged it into His Son. And when He did, out flowed life-giving
water, blood and water, blood to justify, water to sanctify. So we're redeemed in Christ's
smitten, Christ our rock. Oh, He's worthy to be praised,
isn't He? There isn't another rock like our rock. No, there's
not. No other rock can be compared
to this rock. Christ is our rock. Oh, lead
me, David said, to the rock that's higher than I. Lead me to you.
He's our rock. And thirdly, the Lord is worthy
to be praised because the Lord is my fortress. The Lord's my
rock and my fortress. Now a fortress is a fort or it's
a well defended castle. And that's what we need. That's
what the believer needs. We need a refuge to hide in. Enemies
are attacking from every direction. We need a well defended fortress. Well, the Lord himself is our
fortress. We're surrounded by impenetrable
walls on every side, the walls of his attributes, the wall of
his holiness on one side, the wall of his faithfulness on the
other, the wall of his sovereignty over here, and the wall of his
omnipresence. We're surrounded on every side
by his attributes. And on the corners of the walls
are towers They're towers of God's mercy. Towers of His grace. Towers of His love. Towers of
His justice. Believers are safe in that fortress.
What can get through that to touch us in that fortress? Not
one of them. The Lord is our defense from
every enemy on every side. Just rest in Him. Just rest.
The Lord's worthy to be praised. What a blessing to have a place
where you could just rest. Though the battle rages outside,
a place you can just come to rest. The best illustration of
that fortress I could think of is now, but especially when our
girls were little. Janet made our house an emotional
fortress. No matter what happened out there,
you could come in here And it's safe. You're protected. You're
taken care of. You're loved. Every need is met
here. You're safe here. That's what
it is to rest in Christ. Whatever is going on out there,
you're taken care of in him. You're made righteous. You're
forgiven. You're loved. You're every need taken care
of. He's a fortress. He's worthy
to be praised. And fourthly, David says the
Lord's worthy to be praised. He's my deliverer. The Lord delivered
His people from everything that held them captive. And He did
it personally. Personally. It's not like you're
the president sending a team of army seals. No. He went personally. And at great personal expense,
at great personal effort, He personally delivered His people
from all those that held them captive. He came where His people
were. and he rescued them and set them
free. But now listen, he didn't orchestrate
a prison break. You know, these prisoners that
tunnel out from under the prison and come up over here and try
to, that's not what he did. He didn't come in and get a big
truck and bash the doors in and tell everybody run. No, when
Christ delivers his people, they walk out. not guilty. They're not rushing. They walk
out in broad daylight. Everybody's saying they should
go free. They're not guilty because Christ
delivered his people. He delivered them by satisfying
justice for them. Christ set his people free from
sin that held us captive by being made sin for us. Christ set his
people free from the worry of God's wrath against our sins.
by suffering that wrath as our substitute. Christ set his people
free from death by dying for them. He set his people free
from shame by suffering their shame for them and clothing them
in his righteousness so they'll never be ashamed. He set his
people free from Satan by crushing his head at Calvary with his
wounded heel. He's delivered his people. He
delivered us from living in the darkness of our own sin and our
own rebellion and unbelief. He delivered us from the kingdom
of darkness and he's translated us in the kingdom of his dear
son. Look at 2nd Corinthians, excuse me, 2nd Corinthians chapter
one. The Lord's always been in the business of delivering his
people. He delivered them out of every
trial, every trouble that they've ever been in. And he's going
to keep right on doing it. 2nd Corinthians chapter one,
verse eight. For we would not, brethren, have
you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia, that
we were oppressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch we despaired
even of life. But when we had the sentence
of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves.
That's why I was telling you, the Lord's got to bring us to
the place we see we don't have any strength. We can't trust in ourselves.
We've got to depend upon Him. That's where we're strong. That
we should not trust in ourselves, but trust in God. which raiseth
the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver,
in whom we trust that he will yet deliver." Nothing can hold
the captive, God's people captive against His will. He has already
delivered us. He doth deliver us. He's delivering
us right now, and we can trust Him. He'll yet deliver us. Nothing
can hold His people captive against His will. He's the Deliverer.
Well, He's worthy to be praised, isn't He? He's worthy to be praised.
Then fifthly, David says, the Lord's worthy to be praised because
the Lord is my God. He's my God. God's my strength. He's my rock. He's my fortress.
He's my Deliverer. You know why He is all those
things to His people? Because God the Almighty made
Himself our God. He's my God. God is my covenant
God. He's my God because God promised
to save me. That's what a covenant is, a
promise. God entered into a covenant, a promise of grace. He'd save
His people from their sins. And that's exactly what He did.
He kept His promise. He's my God because He's the
covenant God. He promised to save me. The Father
made Himself my God when He chose me to be His. Not because there's
any good in me, but because He's good. He chose sinners to save
and put them in His Son. The Father made Himself to be
my God. The Son made Himself to be my
God when He came and He bought me with His blood. He bought
me lock, stock, and barrel. The Spirit made Himself my God
when He came and dwelt in my heart, made me the temple of
the living God. He's my God. I belong to Him
and He's mine. I am His and He is mine. Now,
He's my God. Yes, He's my friend. He's the
friend of sinners. Yes, He's my husband in whom
I depend. But now let's get this straight.
He's my God. He's my King. He's God. and I
bow to Him. I bow to Him as God in all things. I bow to worship Him. No matter
what's going on with me and mine, no matter what's going on in
my life, God hadn't changed. Was He worthy to be worshipped
when everything was just wonderful? God hadn't changed. What's changed?
My circumstances. Then He's still worthy of my
worship. I bow and worship Him. I bow to His will. He's God. I bow to Him. I bow to how He
arranges the events of this life. When I don't understand, I can
still bow. I bow. He's God. He's my God. I bow to Him. He's my God. So
I bow to Him. I can trust Him to supply everything
I need. He's my God. And you know, that's
a good place to be. Bowing at the feet of God. Bowing
at His throne. because nobody ever bowed before
God and wanted nobody. The Lord's worthy to be praised. Now we already dealt with the
Lord, our strength. So the sixth thing here, David
says, the Lord's worthy to be praised because he's my buckler. Now a buckler, is a small shield,
just about 18 inches in diameter, and they would have a thing,
they'd hold it, you know, and it would be worn across the forearm.
That's a buckler. And a warrior would use a buckler,
not for, you know, when they're shooting arrows at them and long
distance fighting. They would use a buckler for
hand-to-hand combat. When that combat got up close
and personal, that's when the buckler would be used. And you
could use a buckler in many different ways. You could use it for defense
to, you know, ward off them trying to hit you with their axe or
something, you know. But you can also use it for offense.
You can just whack them, you know, with that thing. It's very
versatile to a buckler. It's both for offense and defense.
And it's used when the fighting is up close and personal. Can
you think of a time you need a buckler? Sunday, or the past
couple Sundays, we've been looking In Romans chapter 7 and 8, that
civil war that the believer fights, that war with that old man and
the new man. Buddy, it's up close and personal.
I mean, it's right in there. It's so close, it is me. That
fighting, up close and personal, that's when I need a buckler.
The Lord is my buckler. In Ephesians chapter 6, Paul
told us the believer's shield, our shield of faith, our buckler.
is the Lord. It's the shield of faith. It's
the faith in Christ. That's how we fight this civil
war that's going on inside us. It's by faith. It's by looking
to Christ. Christ is our buckler. We lay
hold of Him by faith. Now Christ Himself is my buckler. It's not just some weapon He
gave me. He is my buckler. So no matter what accusation
is thrown against me, I'm well defended. If I hold up my buck
where if I hold up Christ to defend me, I'm well defended. Nothing can get through him.
He's all the defense I need. And when it's time to go on the
attack. In a way, that's what I'm doing
right now. I'm going on the attack. I'm attacking. I'm going on the
trail of God's sheep. I'm trying to tear down that
wall of unbelief and rebellion and sin and the insistence on
doing it my way, have my own righteousness. I'm trying to
tear that down and just tear down every defense, strip you
completely, utterly naked in front of God and everybody for
this purpose so that you'll see there's no hope in you and you'll
run to Christ. We're on the offense. What's
our offensive weapon? Simply holding up Christ. Just
preaching Him. If you find out who He is, you'll
come running. He's the only offense we need.
The Lord is our buckler. And no matter what situations
that I'm going through in my life, really and truly, Christ
is all I need, both for offense and for defense. Christ is all
I need to have eternal life. Christ is all I need to be secure.
He's worthy to be praised. Then seventh, the Lord is worthy
to be praised because the Lord is the horn of my salvation.
This word horn, it means it's a symbol of power. But what's
the horn? The power of our salvation. Well,
it's Christ. It's Christ. Now there's a couple of things
here about these horns. First thing that came to mind
is the horns on the four corners of the brazen altar. That was
the altar where they offered the sin offering, the burnt offering.
It was a gigantic piece of, I forget how I should have looked this
up, how big it was, a gigantic piece of furniture made out of
the incorruptible wood covered with brass. And it had those
horns on all four corners of it. They kept a fire burning
that thing constantly, constantly offering sacrifices. It's a place
of bloody slaughter, slaughtering those animals and putting their
bodies on that altar. And they had those horns on there
and they tie the sacrifice down to the altar. That's a picture
of Christ and His power to save. Those nails did not hold our
Savior to the cross. You know what held Him to the
cross? His power to save. It was His power. Remember that
ram caught in the thicket by its horns. Abraham's getting
ready to kill his son Isaac. And God told him, Abraham, stop.
When you look behind him, there was a ram caught in a thicket
by its horns. We'll get to a ram in a minute,
but caught by his horns. That's his power. That ram was
caught by his power. And Abraham took him and offered
him up as a substitute, as a sacrifice in the stead of his son Isaac.
That's our Lord Jesus Christ, constrained by his power to save,
constrained by his love to save his people. He was the only one
that could save him. That's why he didn't come down
from the cross. He was there to save his people from their
sins, and he did in his power. A Jewish tradition held that
if a person was in trouble, they ran to that altar and grabbed
hold of those horns, the horns of the altar. They were safe. They were safe because what they
were pleading is they're pleading for mercy through the power of
the sacrifice, that sacrifice that was offered to pay for their
sins. That's the way a sinner comes to Christ. to find salvation. We come to Him for mercy, pleading
for mercy through the power of His sacrifice, through the power
of His blood to cleanse me from my sin. Now this clinging to
the horns of an altar was just a tradition of the Jews. Solomon had a fellow taken off
there and killed. It was a tradition. But you bank
on this. No one clinging to Christ will
ever lose their salvation. No one clinging to Christ will
ever find out he don't have mercy for them. You cling to Christ. He got the power to save you,
and he will. Here's the second thing about
a horn. They're a symbol of power. A rhinoceros just got one horn. Boy, it's powerful, isn't it?
You want to get in the way of that thing? A big horn ram, those
big horns that they've got, you know, that's their power. They
can push any enemy away with that horn. What's the believer's
power? The power of our salvation. How
can we push through the difficulties of this life? There's just one
way. Just one way. In Christ, the
horn of our salvation. Monday evening, I went over to
the hospital over at Cabell to see Novi Sparks. Well, I'm telling
you, she looked a sight. I mean, she was sitting there
just white as a sheet. She was sitting up. She had all
this stuff on her, you know. And I came up to her and said,
Novi, how you doing? And she's done like that. And went over, sat by Ed, and
we were talking. And Ed looked over at her, and she just completely
listless. Just, oh, I mean, I don't know
how the kid's sitting there. And Ed said, I don't know how.
anybody gets through this life without the Lord. I don't either. Aren't you glad
you don't have to? He's the power of our life. He's
the strength of our life. He's the horn of our salvation.
He's worthy to be praised. He won't leave you alone. Then
last, the Lord's worthy to be praised because He's my high
tower. A high tower, it's a high fort, a watchtower that they
build, you know, the watchmen would be up there so they could
see for miles away. But this is interesting. The
word here indicates that this is not a man-made place. It's
like a cliff. Well, how's that different from
the Lord being my rock? Well, I did some research on
this. A high tower just like a rock. It's a place where my
enemy can't get to me. I can see him coming from a long
way away. I've got plenty of time to run
away or defend myself or whatever, you know. And I'm way up high
so I can see everything the enemy's doing. I don't have to be alarmed
by him because he can't get to me. But one of the writers I
read said that Dave is talking about a specific place. A place,
it may have been a Moab, but a place he could get up high
on this rock. There his enemies were down below
him. But he took his eyes off of his enemies and looked out
there. You know what he saw? He saw
the River Jordan. And beyond that is Jesus. That's Christ, our Hightower. And everyone who believes in
him is saved. Your enemies can't assail you.
They're just like the rock. Christ our rock. They can't get
up there and get to you there. They can't kill you. They can't
take you off of Him. But Christ is our high tower.
We can sit up and look down over our enemies. They can't get to
us. We're not too concerned, really,
with what they're doing. Lord, you can panel them. But
lift up your eyes a little bit and look past them. Look past
them to the River Jordan. Look past this life. Look past
it to the other side. We're going to cross that river
soon and be with the Lord. And there's no harm there. There's
no sin. There's no enemies. Just look
past this life and you can do it with a good hope if Christ
is your all. See, he's worthy to be praised
in So since the Lord's my strength, since the Lord's my rock and
my fortress, since Christ is my deliverer, since the Lord's
my God and my strength, he's my buckler, he's the horn of
my salvation, since he's my high tower, I'm determined, I'm gonna
praise him. I'll tell you what else, I'm
gonna call on him. David says in verse three, I
will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised. So shall
I be saved from mine enemies. Call on the Lord. Just call on
him. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Why don't you call on him? Call
on him. Call on whatever it is you need. He's that. David just gave us
this list of eight things he is. What else do you need? Whatever
you can think of. He is. He fits the need. Call
on him. Call on him to save you. Call
on him to forgive you. Call on him to deliver you. Call
on him to comfort your heart. Call on him to give you the strength
to get through. He'll do it. He promised he would. He didn't tell us call on him
in vain. Call on him. This is our relationship, the
believer's relationship with the Lord. We call, he hears. We call, he answers. He's worthy to be prayed in,
worthy to be praised. God give us a heart that would
praise him. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this precious portion of your word. Father, cause it to
be applied to our hearts that we would get some idea by faith
that Christ is all. He's everything we need. Father,
give us a heart that would praise him. Give us a heart to praise
you simply for who you are, for all the countless blessings you
so freely bestowed upon us. And Father, we ask your forgiveness
for the times that we do not praise you as you are. Deliver
us from this thought of only praising You when this flesh
feels good and everything in this flesh is going well. Cause
us to, Father, praise You for who You are, for salvation that's
sure and certain in our Lord Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness
of our sin in Him, in His blood. Father, how we thank You. Cause
us to praise Your name. It's in the precious name of
our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks.