Psalm 49: Everything Sad will become Untrue

Amen. Father, I ask that you would gently but deeply pour out the Holy Spirit upon us

as we reflect upon your word. Help us, Father, to hear not so much that it's a word for other

people, but that it's a word from your heart and your lips to each of us at the very depths of our

heart. And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen. Please be seated.

Amen. It's a long time ago, oh, I better start my timer. It's a long time ago, right close to the

start of my ministry, that I was preaching. In fact, I think the rector of the church was on holidays,

and I got to preach that Sunday. And in the course of my sermon, I made a reference to,

you know, sort of like losing your heart. And I, you know, I just went and did it. Afterwards,

an older woman came up to me where I was changing out of my robes. In that church, I wore robes.

And she just lay a strip into me because she said, didn't you know that that couple that was sitting

right there, that their daughter is waiting for a heart transplant, and if she doesn't get it,

she's going to die. And she just ripped a strip off me, and I just sat there gobsmacked,

stood there gobsmacked. And I was, you know, so thankful that there was a very old minister who'd

been assisting me that morning, and he gave me some words of comfort. Amongst other things,

is I didn't know that. How would I know that? The psalm that we're going to talk about today

does something which is very, very, very countercultural. And it might be upsetting to

some of you here. Maybe you've gotten some type of a terrible diagnosis that I don't know of, and I'm

not here to trigger anything or anything like that. But the psalm here today is going to talk about

something which is profoundly countercultural in Canada. The psalm wants you and me to think about

death. And not just death in general, but your death. The text wants me to think about my death.

Death. And as we all know, that's very, very countercultural. Maybe, it's interesting, I was in a

coffee shop this morning, and the guy ahead of me in the lineup was covered in tattoos. And all of the

tattoos had death, like skulls, and obviously dead hands. So maybe he thinks about death all the time. I

don't know. But from what I understand, generally, in most places, if you were to go up to somebody in

a party and say, what do you think you're going to die? And what's it going to be like when you die?

Like, do you think about dying very much? That wouldn't be the way that you get into a good

conversation with people, probably not in most situations in Canada. But that's what the psalm

wants us to do. So let's look at it. It begins sort of in a, in a, actually it begins in a way which is

very interesting. Look how it begins. First chapter, Psalm 49, the superscript or the subscript is to the

choir master. In other words, originally this was something that you could sing, a psalm of the

sons of Korah. And it begins sort of in a very cheery way. It says, hear this all peoples, give

ear all inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom,

the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will incline my ear to a proverb. I will solve my

riddle to the music of the lyre. And so basically it's saying, the psalmist is saying, I think there's

something that everybody needs to think about. It doesn't matter what country you're in. It doesn't

matter how educated you are, uneducated you are. It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. It doesn't

matter if you have lots of power, very little power. It doesn't matter if you're young and old.

I think there's something that we all need to think about. And that's how the psalm begins. I

think there's something we all need to think about. And he's really saying as well that if you want to

be wise, this is something that you need to, and if you want to be wise and understanding, this is

something you need to consider. And here, of course, he's talking about something which Canadians can relate

to because, as we all know, that if you're to tell somebody that they're not wise, they're foolish,

or that they don't understand something, that's a way to insult Canadians. Canadians don't like to

think of them being, we don't like to think that we're not wise. We don't like to think that we lack

understanding. So on one level, this is a, you know, fair enough. Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not.

There's something the psalmist thinks everybody should think about. And if they want to be wise and

understanding, they need to think about it. And it's interesting. It's also very Canadian because he

says, and I'm not going to use cold logic, and I'm not going to use sociology or psychology or political

science or statistics. I'm not going to use anything like that. I'm going to use music, riddles,

and proverbs. And proverbs in particular are, well, they're sort of little insights into how life is and

what life is like. And that's how we're going to examine this question. So what is the question?

Well, at first, in fact, I have to confess that I, when I first saw the question, I puzzled over it

most of the week. Because it didn't really seem, I'll be very honest, I didn't see it at first as

something that applied to me per se, at least right now. Maybe sometimes it's applied to me, but

like not right now. And then I realized that it actually does apply to me. But here's how it is.

It's a bit misleading at first, I think, to a lot of our ears, at least in Canada. Verse five,

why should I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of those who cheat me or deceive me,

surround me, those who trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches?

Now, we in Ottawa are very blessed. We don't meet today. No Christians in Pakistan, if they're

meeting, they have to worry about whether there's a mob that will come and attack them. If you're

meeting in northern Nigeria, you worry about whether there's a mob that will attack you. If you're

Christians potentially meeting in places, some places in China, you'd worry about whether the

police are going to break in and arrest you. And then there's other places of the world that are

involved in wars or have just violent gangs. It's not so much persecution as just the war might engulf

you. So for many Christians in the world, this is going to be a text which they'll instantly see

applying to themselves. But for us, maybe not so much until I thought of this.

So I'm not on social media. I don't watch, I don't really, I'm not, I mean, technically I'm,

I have a Facebook account and Instagram. And if you've sent me a friend request and I haven't

responded, don't take it personally. I had a ministry intern that told me I should get an Instagram

account and he wanted to run it for a little while. And he actually, like in no time at all,

got me up to a thousand, almost a thousand followers, but then he moved on and I don't

post anything. And I had to be on a committee that wanted everybody to be on Facebook until some people

said no, but I registered for it. So I don't take any friend requests. I'm virtually never on them.

But I do glance at Instagram sometimes, especially probably when I'm procrastinating and I should be

doing something more practical, but I do look at it and I'm aware of lots of others who do.

I probably wouldn't want to post my holidays on Instagram because from an Instagram world,

my holidays were lame. What did I do during most of my holidays? Sat around in my at-home shorts,

in my at-home t-shirt, which are ugly, right? They're comfortable and old and ugly. And I read books.

That's not going to really make it very much on Instagram. Now, you know, I also saw lots of

grandkids and let me tell you, you know, if in Instagram people show you their designer house,

let me tell you, after you've had my three grandsons, three, five, and seven, who, they're sort of like,

I really love them to bits. They're sort of like squirrels that have just consumed a lot of chocolate

and Red Bull. And they're able to demolish a tidy house in a matter of seconds. And then you add some

other grandchildren in. That's not very Instagram worthy. Okay. And, you know, maybe when I was young,

you know, maybe there was a time when I was very buff and I want to, you know, show my beach body or

something like that. That's not something I would want to do today. And so, you know what I mean? So,

why is it that on one hand, a lot of us would want to be afraid to post certain things on Instagram

and Facebook, you know, because in fact, you know, some of you might say, George, you could post that

on Instagram. I'm like, you actually read a book. All I did was sit around in my pajamas, scratching my

stomach, binging on Netflix. Or, you know, at least you have grandkids. Like, you know, you could take a

few pictures of them. I don't even have grandkids. Like, you know what I mean? Like, George, you're sort of,

for some of us, you're sort of boasting saying about those types of things. But we all get it,

right? And this is actually, so why is it, and this is especially true when we're feeling a bit down.

And if that, what happens with the social media is we'll feel even more down. So you go and look

on Facebook and, oh, they just climbed a mountain. Oh, they're in Bangkok. Oh, they're lining up for a

play in Manhattan. Oh, they're showing off their beach body. Oh, and we like those things. And we

think about our own body or our own finances or our own things, and we feel anxious. That's a type

of fear, anxiety. We feel anxious. We feel intimidated by them. And we feel that we couldn't post anything

about our own lame life. And so on one hand, things like Instagram and Facebook often make us feel more

fearful and anxious, and they definitely would make us feel more fearful and anxious if we wanted to

try to start posting on it. Now, I'm sure you folks are all way more successful and hip and

beach body ready than I am, but so maybe that's just something only I can relate to and you can't,

you know. But, you know, here's the thing. It's very interesting. If you go back and look at verse

six of the, you know, verse, so here, why, and the question is, why am I anxious? Why am I fearful

when I'm in trouble? Like, and then the word iniquity here, and then the word deceiving in the next part,

it's, well, here's the thing. You know, most of us know two things when we watch Instagram.

We know that probably the people are exaggerating and lying a bit. Not any of you folks, by the way.

But we know we're not getting the whole story. Like, nobody after they've posted their pictures then

post their bank balances and credit rating or their debts and how long it takes them to get

themselves out of debt after they've had their glorious holiday or shows you that immediately

after their picture with their friends, they got into a big fight and now you're not even seeing

your friends. Like, people, we know that there's some deception going on there, a type of cheating,

because the word can be translated as cheating or deception. There's not that everything which,

is shown in there is sinful and, like, it's not like they show you, you know, here I am going to,

you know, here I am going to, you know, kill people or something like that. But a lot of it is actually

sins of omission. It's, you know, by showing our conspicuous consumption,

like we're feeding our vanity, we're feeding our pride, we're intentionally trying to make people

other, intentionally or unintentionally trying to make other people feel jealous of us.

We're, you know, we can afford this particular holiday because we actually didn't give any

money to support the work of the church or help the poor. And that's why we have the money to do this.

But, but you see, here's the other thing about the text. You know, when I was talking about all

this thing, the beach body, et cetera, the word wealth in verse six, and the word riches,

word riches mean riches, by the way. It means the fact that you have a big bank balance and,

and a great stock portfolio and all of that type of stuff. But the word wealth is very general.

It means anything which is socially advantageous. So it literally means it would cover the word wealth

would, would cover the fact that some people are just very, very attractive, or very, very fit,

or have very, very high IQs, or are, you have a very, very good career, or have a very high position

in business or government or entertainment, or are very, very popular, or anything like that. So it's not

just talking about wealth. It's talking about any other type of advantageous thing that we have, that

we trust in, that we, we trust in our looks, we trust in our wit, we trust in our, our, our high IQ,

we trust in those things. And what this psalm is saying is he's asking himself a rhetorical question.

When I'm, you know, having a bad time, why am I anxious? Why is it that when I think about

the people who surround me, and even though I sort of know that they're deceiving me, and, and they,

but they, they trust in their wealth, and, and all of their abilities, and all of their accomplishments,

and all of their abundance, and, and, and when I, why, why is it that I'm anxious?

Why is it that I'm anxious and fearful at times like this? That's the question.

That's the question that he, the psalmist, says everybody should think about. Why are we anxious?

Why are we fearful? Now, his answer is going to take us in the direction of his profoundly

un-Canadian. His answer is, we need to start thinking about our death. Look what he says in verse 7.

And he says something more, more telling. Verse 7. Truly no man or woman can ransom another

or give to God the price of his or her life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never

suffice that he or she should live on forever and never see the pit. So, actually, it's not just,

because, you see, you could go to a party and say, you know, I don't, have you ever think about death? And

we get in a bit of a discussion. Well, I don't know about death. You know, it's like this, or I think

it's like that. And, and then somebody can talk about the stages of grieving, and you can talk about

some psychology and, and all of that type of stuff. But, but the, the point is the, the psalmist isn't

just saying that you need to think about death in some type of generic way. The psalmist is saying,

George, you need to think about your death. George, think about your death. In a sense, it's saying,

any one of us, if we want to try to start to feel through this anxiety and have some type of a wisdom

in face of the anxiety, while we, others and, and their accomplishments and their, and, and their,

just their accomplishments and their success and how it makes us feel. So, part of what you need to do,

George, in a sense, is go and look at the mirror and say, George,

you're going to die. Now, that's not something that normally Canadians would give us advice to do.

And he's going to help us to think about three things about death, more than three, but three

things at first. The first thing is this, that nobody, no matter how rich they are, can pay off

God so they won't die. I don't know how many billions of dollars Bill Gates is worth right now. I don't even

know if he's the richest guy. I think he's way north of 50 billion, but who knows, maybe 50 billion

doesn't even make you in the top 10 anymore for the richest people in the world. But if we were to,

if, if, if, if Bill Gates was to announce on social media that he, in fact, had arranged a deal with

God, and he's giving 50 billion of his dollars away, and he's not going to die. Well, like nobody,

we'd think it was a hoax, we'd think it was a joke. If he really was insistent upon it, we'd think he'd

been, he was deluded, maybe early stages of Alzheimer's, and some con man or con woman had

ripped him out of 50 billion dollars, and we'd all just know that Bill Gates is still going to die.

And so, in a sense, if you remember that you're going to die, I need to remember I'm going to die,

and the first thing I need to remember about my own death is no matter how rich I am, no matter how

wealthy I am, I can't pay God so that I won't die. And, and then the second thing is, is a, another type

of thing that we tend to value. Look at verse 10, for he sees, that's a person who's thinking about it,

if you think about it, that even the wise die. The fool and the stupid alike must perish. The literal

word is brutish, uh, and I, they've used stupid, uh, because I guess a lot of people know, down days

wouldn't know what brutish meant. And, and that's just saying this as well, that, you know, George,

doesn't matter how wise you are, it doesn't matter, not that people with PhDs are necessarily wise.

In fact, I increasingly think I'd probably rather be ruled in this country by, you know, the next,

just a random selection of 300 working class people than the people who are being ruled by now.

I'd probably be ruled better if you just picked the bakers and the mechanics of the world to,

to run the country. But anyway, but you know what I mean? Like, if I look in the mirror,

I, I can become as wise and as understanding, as educated I possibly can, and the fact is,

I'm still going to die. And, and then he goes to a third thing, a very popular thing of rich and,

and, and successful people. Uh, it look at verse 11, their graves are their homes forever,

their dwelling place to all generations, though they called lands by their own names.

So it doesn't matter if, if, uh, you know, I'm, I'm so completely and utterly brilliant that they

name a school of theology after me, or if, if one of you is such a brilliant social scientist that they

name their school of sociology or political science after you. It doesn't matter if one of you is so

particularly rich that you can donate a big whack of cash to the university of Ottawa. So they name

a building after you and put a statue in front of you, you're still going to die. And in fact,

we in Canadians right now, we definitely know that it doesn't matter if you're the founding prime

minister of Canada, they're going to get rid of your statue and they're going to rename the streets

that were named after you and get rid of you that you don't even last. Even in memory,

you're all going to die. You're going to die. And then he sums it all up very powerfully in verse 12,

man or woman in his pomp will not remain. He is like the beasts that perish.

It's very, very powerful. Um, when I look at this room, every one of you is going to die. When you look

at me, I know as a Christian, we can say maybe Jesus will come back before we die, but just take

that out of the equation for a second. That's going to come up in a sense in a moment, but I'm going to

die. And, and all of the things that intimidate me about not wanting to post on Instagram, all of those

things in the face of death are irrelevant. And then it says, verse 13, uh, the path of those who

pursue all of these things and, and the path of those who don't want to even think about death

is, is this verse 13. This is the path of those who have foolish confidence yet after them, people

approve of their boasts. So what, what's this saying? It's actually really, it's, it's almost as if,

um, you know, if you were to talk to the average Canadian about, uh, say we, you know, have you

thought about your own death? And, uh, the average Canadian, if they didn't just sort of smack you down,

would just say, listen, don't think about your death. That's going to get you nowhere. Listen,

what you need to do is you need to seize life by the lapels. You need to get on life and you need

to ride life as hard as you can. You need to suck everything you can out of life for as long as you

can. That's what you should be thinking about, how you can be powerful, how you can be successful,

how you can just really grab hold of life and let life grab hold of you. And you got to ride that

baby as long as you can and don't think about dying. And in a sense, I got this out of order.

Verse 13 anticipates that. It anticipates that. It's, it's really saying people who think this way,

it's a foolish type of confidence, even though that's in fact what people trust in. That's what

boasts means, what you trust in, because you're still going to die.

And then the psalmist, verses 14 and 15, it sort of goes A, B, A, B. It gives you two different

types of paths or destinies, but it gives you one, then another, then one, then the first one,

then the second one, sort of in a more intensified way. Look, look what it says, like sheep. And the

first one is sort of like would something that would come from, who's that guy that he does a lot of

horror type things or very dark type things, Del Toro, Guillemero Del Toro. It's sort of like what a Tim

Burton might do if he was really unleashed. It's something like what Stephen King would write.

He gives this very macabre image. Verse 14, like sheep, they are appointed for Sheol.

Death shall be their shepherd. So in other words, for you and I who say, listen, don't think about your

death. Don't think about anything like that. Just think about life. Just think about grabbing life,

sucking as much life as you can, as long as you can. It's all you think about. Just, you know,

grab life, ride life. Don't think about your death. But, you know, and the psalmist is saying,

the fact of the matter is, they're going to die, you're going to die, and death will be your shepherd.

Death will lead you around. And then it says, and the upright shall rule over them in the

morning of triumph. And that's the ABAB part. And I'll talk about that in a moment. But look at the

next thing it says about those who died. It's the last part of verse 14. Their form shall be consumed

in Sheol with no place to dwell. So here's the Tim Burton, Guillemero Del Toro, Stephen King image.

It says, George, when you go to the place of the dead, death will be your shepherd.

And you know how right now on earth, if you go and see sheep, the shepherd taking the sheep and the

sheep breeding the grass, and as the sheep eat the grass, they get more plump. Well, in death,

death is your shepherd. And the shepherd death takes you out like a sheep to the pasture. As you are in

the grass, the grass eats you. The grass eats you. And you wither. You become less and less and less

as the grass consumes you. Like I said, a very type of macabre image.

Now, here's where we would expect, you know, like that bit just before this about the upright

triumphant thing, and this is now where you'd think in the world of religion and our normal

religious imagination, that the psalmist would say, you know, but it's different for us because,

why? Well, it's because we go to church, because we are good people. Why? Because, you know, we're

sexually faithful. Why? Well, because we are generous and we tithe. Why? Because, well, we, you know, in

another culture, it's different for us. Why? Well, because we do yoga. Why? Well, because, you know, we

learn how to chant. Why? Well, because we've made our trek to Mecca. Why? Well, because, you know, we say the

rosary, and we'd come up with a religious type of answer, but the psalmist surprises us, and one of

the commentators that I read said, this is one of the Everest moments in the entire Old Testament

in terms of hope. Look what it says in verse 15. But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,

for He will receive me. What is my hope in the face of my death?

It's not that I'm a good person, not that I'm a nice person, not that I ever had a beach body,

not that I ever had lots of money, not that I've been married, not that I've had kids, not that I've

had any type of worldly accomplishment, not because maybe if I was to die suddenly, tragically, right now,

maybe you'd have to have the Met for my funeral. I don't know. Like, not for any of those. My only hope,

my only hope is that God will ransom me,

that God will deliver me, that God will atone, do the atoning work for me, that He will rescue me.

That's my only hope. I have no other hope. I have no other hope.

You see,

in a sense, the religious imagination

is the same thing as that, just another form of the wealth imagination,

that somehow it's because I do the rosary so many times,

it's because I go to church so many times, that's my type of wealth,

and so therefore I have this hope,

but the psalm has undercut that as a whole possibility for me.

And

it's removed

all type of pride and presumption

from me

of my religious accomplishments

or spiritual accomplishments, as opposed

to material accomplishments, because all

of that accomplishments are types of wealth

and none of them work.

That's what the psalmist is saying,

is that your only hope, George,

in the face of death, is that God will ransom you.

It's your only hope.

Otherwise, death will be your shepherd,

and when he takes you out to graze,

when death, he or she, death, takes you out to graze,

that environment will only consume you and make you less.

You see, Spurgeon once famously said that

the Christian life is not about pride and presumption.

It is one beggar telling another beggar where to find free bread.

And that's my message for you

and anybody who's watching,

is your only hope in life and death

is if God ransoms you.

Now we're going to circle back.

Let's just sort of finish the psalm.

The rest of the psalm sort of emphasizes this truth

and goes back to the original question.

Verse 16,

Be not afraid when a man becomes rich

or a woman becomes rich

when the glory of their house increases.

That goes back to the question of verse 5,

like why am I in fact so anxious

at the success of others relative to my own success?

And it says,

Be not afraid when people become rich

when the glory of their house increases,

for when they die,

they will carry nothing away.

Their glory will not go down after them,

for though while he lives,

he counts himself blessed,

and though you get praise

when you do well for yourself,

his soul will go to the generation of his fathers,

and he will never again see the light.

And then it ends,

Man and his pomp,

yet without understanding,

that's this understanding,

that you need God to ransom you.

It's like the beasts that perish.

So here's a couple of things.

You know,

one of the reasons I think,

well here,

if you go put up the first point,

Claire,

that would be very helpful.

There's this wonderful line

in The Lord of the Rings,

and I don't want to spoil it for you

if you're going to read it one day,

but there's a character

who you're not sure

whether they die or not,

but this character wakes up in a bed

a little bit later.

He's been asleep for a while

because he's been very sick,

and before this had happened to the character,

he believed that one of his very,

very, very, very best friends had died,

and he wakes up in this room

and is filled with light,

and he's in wonderful sheets,

not at all where he was

when he thought he was about to die,

and to his huge delight,

he sees his best friend there smiling at him,

and he asks his best friend if he's dead,

and his best friend says,

no, you're alive,

and they have this very powerful scene

where they just breaks out,

they just both break out in laughter and joy,

and the character says,

I feel,

as he hears about all the things

that have happened,

I feel as if everything sad

has become untrue,

and in a sense,

what this text is telling us about

is that in Christ,

everything sad,

that's in Christ,

everything sad

will become untrue.

There's a hymn that says,

a contemporary worship song that says,

earth has no sorrow

that heaven can't heal,

and that's a very good line.

In Christ,

everything sad

will become untrue.

Out of Christ,

or outside of Christ,

everything glad

will become untrue.

You see,

I think for many people

in our culture,

it's like this.

Why do you not want

to think about death?

I don't want to think

about death, George,

because there is no light

at the end of the tunnel.

When I look down the line,

there's only darkness,

and if you were to get,

I think a lot of people

in our culture

to talk very honestly

about themselves,

maybe the type of honesty

you only get

when alcohol is loose

in their tongue,

and it's late at night,

and they'll say,

you know, George,

the problem with life

is that there is no light

at the end of the tunnel.

There's only darkness,

when I look down,

if you were to ask me

to think of my death,

all I see is darkness,

and I want to be very honest

with you, George.

Not only is there only darkness

at the end of the tunnel,

but while I'm in the tunnel,

I just have this tiny little flashlight

that doesn't illumine very much,

and all around me

in the tunnel,

the end is dark,

everything around me

is dark,

and the darkness

has a type of weight,

and a substance,

and a creepiness to it,

so all I want to do

is just grab hold

of my little flashlight

and hope it lasts

as long as it can

before the darkness

swallows me.

I'm just going to hold

that flashlight.

I'll sacrifice everything

to hold onto that flashlight,

and we all know

that,

you know,

if it's only darkness

at the end

and all the gladness

that I've had in this life,

it really becomes

not really that glad,

because it just ends

in darkness,

and the psalm

wants me to understand

that there's this possibility

that God will redeem you,

that he will ransom you,

and I didn't talk about it,

but in that line

in verse 15

where it says,

where it says,

but God will ransom my soul

from the power of Sheol

for he will receive me,

that he will receive me

is very powerful,

it means that

God doesn't sort of

save you or ransom you

as a result of some

impersonal algorithm,

but he will receive me

is that this ransoming

is something profoundly personal,

it is a face-to-face encounter,

and that it's a face-to-face encounter

for him to ransom you,

and it implies

that when he ransoms you,

he receives you,

he receives me,

and so it is

that even there are times

in my life

when I will feel very sad,

and I might feel

very, very depressed,

and life might feel

very, very happy,

I mean very, very heavy,

and I'm not conscious

of the fact

that Jesus is beside me,

is that when the end comes

and I die,

when I close my eyes

in death,

that is the moment

that my eyes, in fact,

become open

for the first time,

and what I see

is not just the light,

I see him

looking at me

with a smile

and welcome,

and in that bigger

and greater world

of the new heaven

and the new earth,

I will also begin

to learn how he has been

with me at every moment

in my life,

even those times

in my life

when I have been

most sad,

most frightened,

most depressed,

feeling most alone,

most abandoned,

because when he ransoms me,

he receives me

and he will not

let me go.

So in Christ,

everything sad

will become untrue,

out of Christ,

everything glad

will become true.

Why is this the case?

Because you see,

the end of the story

changes the story.

This is another way

of saying,

there's a great,

if you could wrap

the second point,

this is just a quote

from Jim Elliot,

it's a great quote,

it's not the Bible,

but it's a great quote,

he is no fool

who gives what he cannot keep

to gain what he cannot lose.

See, that's what comes

when you give your life

to Christ.

Why should you give

your life to Christ?

Well, you're not going

to keep your life anyway.

Are you?

Like, you can't keep it.

Like, if you don't give

your life to Christ,

if you keep it for yourself,

death will be your shepherd

and the grass

will consume you.

But if you give your life

to Christ,

well, he gives you

this new life

that you cannot

ever possibly lose.

He is no fool

who gives

what he cannot keep

to gain in Christ

what he cannot lose.

And just in the final point,

here's sort of

a takeaway prayer.

And I,

I,

now if I could go back

and rewrite it,

I'd say not just,

I wouldn't say give me,

I'd say grow in me.

Father, please grow

in me

a humble,

walking,

trusting,

knowing

that I have been

ransomed by Christ,

that I am never alone,

and that my death

is an entrance

into full life

with you

and your people

and your world.

that's,

that's what the text

is reminding us.

It's,

in a sense,

it's saying,

you know,

the troubles,

you're going to have

troubles in your life.

You're going to have

times which are

very,

very hard.

You're going to have

those.

The psalm isn't saying

just trust in God

and you will never

have hard times,

that you will never

have a heavy heart,

that you will never

feel afraid.

The psalm isn't saying

that.

The psalm is saying,

listen,

you're going to have

heavy hearts.

You're going to have

troubles.

You're going to have

hard times.

And one of the things

that you desperately

need is to understand how the things that everybody else is putting their confidence in,

they're all just going to fail them. And there's only one thing that will not fail you, and that

is that if you allow him, God will ransom you. He will redeem you. He will atone you. He will do it

personally. He will receive you. He will never let you go. And the end of your story will be to wake

up finally at that moment of your greatest defeat and the loss of all things, which is death,

and you will discover that in your case, because you have allowed him to ransom you, it is not

the loss of all things, that the sadness is becoming untrue. And you see his face, and you're in the

light, and you're in his world, and it's a really big world, and you can go farther up and higher up

and farther in for all eternity. Father, please grow in me a humble, walking, trusting, knowing that I

have been ransomed by Christ, that I am never alone, that my death is an entrance into full life with

you and your people in your world. And knowing the end of the story, and knowing who walks with me,

let us face our troubles. And let us face our anxieties. And let us interrogate our anxieties.

And ask the Father to grow such a hope within us. I invite you to stand.

Father, your word isn't pop psychology. It challenges us with truth. It challenges us where we really are.

It challenges us with the things that we don't want to think about. And Father, we confess before you

that your word is true, that your word is truer than the best wisdom that Canada has to offer,

that your word is true. And Father, we ask that you grow within us.

Grow within us a humble, trusting, walking, knowing that each of us has been ransomed by Christ,

and that he is always with us, so we are never alone.

And at the very end of the end of the end of the end is really the true beginning,

because our death is but a waking up to see you face to face,

and entering into your new heaven and your new earth with you and your people

forever.

So Father, make us more heavenly minded

as we face the challenges of each day.

And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior.

Amen.

Amen.

Peace.