"Shadow of Wings" Psalm 57 Sunday Evening Worship Service

Well, good evening.

If you're like me, perhaps you have suffered an off-repeated dream or nightmare or perhaps a flashback where you're being chased by someone or a group of people that seem to want to harm you.

It can be really terrifying to say the least.

I can tell you that in real life, I have actually been on the run before, and my situation didn't work out anywhere near as good as the main character in our text tonight.

Back then I was young.

I was foolish, and I was in SEER school.

The Navy's training designed to repair young naval aviators and Navy SEALs.

Should you ever be taken as a POW, a prisoner of war?

SEER stands for survival, evasion, resistance, and escape.

And we spent a few days in the survival mode down in San Diego, where we had no food, no water, no sleep, and basically no hope.

But after that, we were shuttled a few hours north to the desert foothills of Southern California, where we took place in the last three exercises of SEER school, beginning with the evasion portion.

And during the evasion portion, you're dropped off at one point on a desolate training range, and you have to make it to a designated safe area without getting caught, captured, or shot by the enemy, which are the Sear School instructors.

And we were told that we had a few hours to make it to the safe area while the instructors with guns would hunt after us.

A loud siren would eventually sound, signaling the end of the evasion exercise, and at that point you had to surrender if you hadn't already been captured, shot, or made it to the safe area.

Well, frankly, I was quite exhausted from the lack of food and sleep during the survival phase, and I decided that I would take it easy during the evasion phase.

And as the exercise began, I did run for my life a bit just to get away from the instructors, but then I found a small alcove to hide out with, and I thought I would just get some sleep for a little bit of time, wait for the siren, come out and surrender.

Well, what seemed like just a few seconds later, after I fell hard asleep, I did hear a siren and gunshots all surrounding me, and I came out with my hands up, and I was immediately captured, beaten, tortured, and eventually waterboarded by the instructors who were just as shocked as I was that I gave up.

You see, the siren that I heard was actually a passing ambulance on his way to a medical facility.

And there were at least three or four hours left in the exercise.

Did I mention that I was young and I was foolish?

But I can tell you it's never fun being pursued by those who seek to do you harm.

If you have a Bible with you, and I hope that you do, open with me to the 57th Psalm, Psalm 57, page 477 on your Bible and your Pew rack.

This Psalm of David that we will study today is gritty and it is suspenseful.

And it did not take place in a desolate training range in Southern California.

Pursued by King Saul, who was bent on not only capturing but actually killing David, David must have wondered, God, why are you allowing me to go through this?

You are the one that anointed me as king.

I didn't ask for that position.

Why don't you just eliminate Saul, put me in his place?

Why must I endure this?

You can just imagine what David was thinking.

And perhaps you've come today with a very similar question.

Why must I endure this?

This being what you personally are going through.

Certainly you're not threatened by a king who's seeking you out to destroy you, but there perhaps is things in your life going on right now that you would just rather not go through.

Only you know what you're going through.

But I hope that the reflections of David here in this psalm will bring us all comfort and the direction in the midst of whatever the storm is surrounding us.

Thus, with all fear and urgency aside, as this Psalm 57 plays out, we see that David must have truly understood that something deeper was taking place.

Though his near-death dilemma was surrounding him, he may not have realized why God was allowing this, but he did seem to understand what God was doing and what God wanted from David in the midst of his suffering.

For by the end of this psalm, we see that David understood that to ask the question why God is probably the wrong question to ask.

The real question we should be asking is, God, what?

What are you trying to teach me in the midst of my suffering?

And so, a spoiler alert, let me tell you, we can already see in this psalm that we know the answer to the what question is we know that God wants to be glorified.

And so I submit in this psalm here the theme of Psalm 57, and take note of the well-placed and repeated refrains in verses 5 and 11, where David says, Be exalted above the heavens, O God.

I would add, especially in times of trial and testing.

And so our Psalm 57 text reads as follows.

For the choir director said to Al-Tashkit, a mikam of David, when he fled from Saul in the cave.

Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me.

For my soul takes refuge in you.

In the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by.

Yes, I will sing praises.

Awake, my glory, awake, harp and lyre.

I will awaken the dawn.

I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples.

I will sing praises to you among the nations.

For your loving kindness is great to the heavens, and your truth to the clouds.

Be exalted above the heavens, O God.

Let your glory be above all the earth.

You know, we're reminded as we unpack this psalm, at the preamble of this psalm, the introduction that I read, that is inspired text.

And so we'll address that first before we unpack the meat of the psalm.

David says right from the start, right at the top in the introduction, he says, this is for the choir director.

The psalm was appointed by David to be sung in the house of God and led by the chief musician.

This is the pastor of music David is speaking to to write this psalm and to be able to lead it in front of the congregation.

He says it's set to Altashkit.

This word in Hebrew means do not destroy.

It was probably a song that they had sung frequently back to God about their desire and God's protection for them so they would not be destroyed.

Sing this psalm to that tune, is what David says.

And then he says it's a miktum of David.

A mikem means the most precious, the golden composition of David.

There's only a few that are named the mikum of David.

These are the things that he really deeply felt.

This is one of them here in Psalm 57.

And it says he wrote this when he fled from Saul in the cave.

This phrase attributes this psalm to David, his experience of hiding from Saul in a cave, we don't know which cave.

When David thought that he was actually going to die, he's writing a note, make sure the pastor of music sings this song.

I may not survive.

Sing it to this tune.

This is one of my most important things I'm writing.

I may not make it through.

I'm about to die.

Saul has me cornered.

So as we can tell after reading the preamble and the introduction of this text, David's circumstances have nothing to encourage him here.

He was in a cave, and though a cave may appear to be shelter, it could also be a trap.

Yes, it has huge boulders and deep crevices and where you can hide, but you can't get out.

And David knew that.

So David's trust here as he's writing this psalm is not in finding a good place to hide, but his trust is in a good God to hide with and to take shelter under his God's wings.

So if you're familiar with this psalm, it resembles a psalm just prior to that, Psalm 56, which also speaks about circumstances that David found himself where things were severe.

But this psalm here is much more triumphant, much more victorious.

David will triumph over the enemy.

God will see him through.

Well, let's break it down and look a little bit more carefully.

We'll start here in verse 1, where we see David knows that he is sought, but not caught.

He says right here in verse 1, Be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge in you, and in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge until destruction passes by.

When David had fled from Saul into the cave, as Psalm 56 records part of this, he had already been through several near-death terrors.

David came to the cave here alone, discouraged, and he was in great danger.

And his immediate need was so urgent that David repeated his request to God.

Look what it says in verse 1.

Be gracious to me, O God.

He repeats it.

Be gracious to me, O God.

David had nowhere else to turn.

Though his experience, David trusted that God would provide for his immediate needs.

David had been in difficult circumstances before, and he knew God would help him.

So let's just pause just for a second here and lay the circumstance of David over our lives, whatever we may be struggling with.

The level of difficulty is not important, but the fact that we may be struggling with some things in life, we've got to understand how David responded.

His go-to response was to seek out the Lord.

And the question is, where do we turn, each one of us, when we have difficulty?

We have so much at our exposure.

We think, can I possibly buy myself out of my situation?

Can I go to YouTube and find a do-it-yourselfer who will help me learn what I need to do?

Can I medicate myself?

Can I phone a friend?

What should I do to get myself out of this difficult situation?

David describes his contingency.

His contingency, his go-to in any situation was go to the Lord.

And he says, Be gracious to me, O Lord, be gracious to me.

He's begging God.

He's begging God here for help.

Because his experience had told him that God was merciful, that God was trustworthy, that God was gracious, that God was compassionate, that God was faithful.

God was the one who could help him.

Picture in your mind some baby chicks who are being attacked by the predator.

All they can hope for is the wings of their mother who would come and spread the wings over them and protect them.

That's the thinking in David's mind.

Be gracious to me, spread your wings over me, God.

You've done this before.

I have come to you before.

How do we respond?

What is the first go-to position?

Have we disciplined ourselves to go to God in the same way that David has?

Because when we rely upon God, we know we cannot rely upon, first of all, human merit.

We don't rely on human merit.

God's grace or mercy refers to his undeserved favor in our lives and not our ability, our skills, our degrees, our financial acumen, any possessions we have, any reputation or occupation.

We can't rely on human merit.

The only way to approach God is through his grace towards us.

We can't rely on human merit.

We can't rely on human means.

Here David is hiding in a cave.

He didn't see the cave as his refuge, but he saw God as his refuge.

God was his only hope.

He saw beyond the cave straight to the Lord.

He was not trusting in anything but God alone.

His past accomplishments or his abilities meant nothing to him here.

He was trusting in God.

And remember, the scripture tells us this is a man, David is a man who killed a bear and a lion with his bare hands.

This is a man who was chosen to be the king, the leader of a nation.

This is a man who faced a nine foot six uncircumcised Philistine giant in the valley of Allah with a single stone.

And yet David comes, as skilled and decorated and respected as he was, he comes at this point of his life, he concluded that he needed to trust in the Lord.

As if David was confessing, I'm a dependent person.

I know I don't have the ability.

I'm not self-sufficient.

I can't handle this.

I can only rely on your strength, Lord.

How many of us are able to admit that before God?

That we don't have the strength.

We don't have the ability.

It's not an easy thing to do, but that's exactly what David did.

David was sought, but he was not caught.

And he put all of his trust in God.

Because of God's unlimited, caring, compassionate attributes, David knew that God would deliver him from the hot pursuit of King Saul.

Well, secondly, not only was David sought and not caught, but he understood his most high God was a God that was not far.

Look what it says in verses 2 and 3.

David says, I will cry to the most high God.

I will cry to God most high, to God who accomplishes all things for me.

He, God, will send from heaven and save me.

He reproaches him who tramples upon me.

Selah.

God will send forth his loving kindness and his truth.

In these verses, David reminds himself and us that our God is the most high God, but he is not far.

God is infinitely higher than the calamities, the dailiness, all of the things of our lives.

He's well above that, but still connected to all of it as well.

God's most highness does not mean that he is far away and distance.

He is close.

He is available.

He is capable.

There's nothing he cannot transcend to get to us.

Though he is holy and most high, he also is connected to us as well.

And the scripture says in verse 3 that if God needed to, he would dispatch all of the angels required to get to us to help us.

He's connected to us that much.

There's nothing that would keep God from getting to us.

Have you ever seen a mother who views her child in need?

Don't stand between that mother and that child.

She is focused on the need of that child.

That's the closeness and willingness of our Most High God.

But let me pause for a second to be very clear.

I believe what David is telling us here is more descriptive than prescriptive.

By that I mean that God does not always swoop in and rescue people from their calamity and danger.

God does not always swoop in and rescue you and me from you filling the blank.

God can do it, but there's no guarantee that He will.

Nevertheless, I believe that you and I should respond to our trials as if the only true way we had hope was to put our faith and trust in our great God.

Our hope in God is not in favorable circumstances, good luck, positive thinking, money, power of people.

God may use money, power, and people to help us, but that is not where we place our hope.

We place our hope, as Psalm 121 says, we place our hope, our trust and help is in the Lord.

Because here's on his resume, he made heaven and earth.

That's where we put our faith and trust.

Our hope must be in the great God who accomplishes all things for us.

And David writes about that here.

Our God is the God of the details, and he's aware of all the things and cares about and oversees all of the details in our lives.

He knows the number of hairs on our heads, he knows the day that we were born, he wove us together in our mother's womb, and he knows the day that we will die.

Hebrews 9 27.

It's already appointed.

While God is most high, he's not a far God.

And this begs the question, I think.

And it's appropriate time to ask in the middle of this discussion about God being most high, yet very capable and very interactive with us.

It's a very personal question, I'll ask you.

Would you say that God is prominent in your life or preeminent in your life?

Would you say that God is just prominent in your life?

In other words, He makes your calendar.

Think about a Sunday coming up, and the weather's great for skiing, or in the in the summer.

The beach looks really good.

And so I got to make a decision.

God is prominent in my life.

He's on my calendar.

Church is important to me, but then there's Great Wolf Lodge.

And there's the beach and skiing.

God's prominent.

We pray every once in a while over a meal.

I have read through the scriptures a few years ago.

Is he prominent in your life?

As in David says, the Most High God.

Is he prominent in your life or is he completely preeminent?

And preeminence is when God is the centerpiece of your life and he's the complete focus and has all of our attention and every other little thing we do spokes out of the centerpiece of God being preeminent in our lives.

Skiing, the beach, golf, all these other things are secondary, tertiary, well behind the centerpiece of our lives, the preeminence of our God.

Is God prominent or is he preeminent in your life?

And I would submit that in David's life, God was preeminent.

And David was drawn in this relationship with God.

He knew God so well, he pursued and chased after God so well that when he was in a difficult place, he knew God so well that God would come for him.

Is he prominent or is he preeminent in your life?

And notice what David also says here in verse 3 that God reproaches those who trample upon him.

David's confident with these things about God, that God is going to judge those who trample on him.

You and I know that Jesus said in John chapter 16, in this world you will have trouble.

John 16 · chapter mention

Jesus also said, But be encouraged, because I have overcome the world.

This world is not our friend.

And David says, The things of this world that come against me, God will judge them.

They will not go untouched.

He ends that verse there with Selah.

And Selah is a pause.

It's almost in this case kind of a mic drop.

David makes a point about what God is and what God will do, and he's saying to the enemy, Your day is coming.

Selah, in other words, here it comes, gotcha, in a very respectful way, of course.

Then at the end of verse 3, he says, God will send forth his loving kindness and his truth.

This is God's loyal love, the Hasid and His truth, they're often paired, demonstrating that a troubled soul, your soul, my soul, a troubled soul, needs both restoration through God's loyal love, and that we need the protection of God's truth as well.

David continues in verses four through six.

Having said that he sought but not caught, the Most High God is before him.

He knows that he's trapped, but he's still trusting.

Here in verses four through six, David lays out the specifics of the difficulty he finds himself.

Look what it says.

Things that want to destroy him.

He says, I must lie among those who breathe forth fire.

These are some kind of fire-breathing beasts that want to devour him.

And he says, their teeth and their tongues were like military weapons as they slandered and blaspheme David.

He deplored being surrounded by taunting, bloodthirsty men.

But in the middle of that, he stops and says, Be exalted above the heavens, O God.

Let your glory be above all the earth.

You know, sometimes it seems like it takes an environment where we are really put up against stress to be able to understand it takes intense trials to get us to look to the Lord and discover just how trustworthy He is.

Think of how the Israelites must have viewed God as they stood before the Red Sea, looking over their shoulders as the approaching Pharaoh with all of his chariots and army to watch the Red Sea open.

Did they not trust their God?

Think of Joshua standing in front of these massive walls in Jericho, knowing that he had been given a job to do by God.

Think of David in his battle against Goliath.

For the dignity of the nation of Israel, he stood against this giant.

No, he was greatly outnumbered by not only the army, but the nine foot six man that stood before him.

Oftentimes it takes a great trial, intense trials, where we look to the Lord and discover just how trustworthy our God is.

We know this truth.

The bigger our problem, the more opportunity there is for God to be glorified.

And then we trust Him with all of our problems.

Can you think of anything too difficult for the Lord that the Lord cannot handle?

Thus, when David came to this verse 5, when he says, Be exalted above the heavens, let your glory be above all of the earth.

Spurgeon says that at this point in the Psalm, it seems as David makes his way to the opening of the cave to tape a large breath to fill his lungs with fresh air and to think victory is coming.

Yes, I'm surrounded by lions and those that would seek to kill me, they're slandering me, they're blaspheming me.

But be exalted, O God.

Let your glory be above all the earth.

In the trial that I am in, I'm not asking why, God.

The answer to what is you want to be glorified.

I'm here to glorify you.

He's still in danger, but he also knows he's under the shadow of God's wings.

And yet, after this great refrain at verse 6, that verse 6 seems to be kind of a letdown.

Look what he says.

Speaking of the enemy, he said, They have prepared a net for my steps.

My soul is bowed down.

They dug a pit before me.

Ah, but, but, but, but, but.

They themselves have fallen into the midst of it.

Reminds me of what we read about Haman and the story of Esther, who built the gallows to hang not only Mordecai, but all of the Jews.

And Haman winds up falling into the trap and being hung on those gallows himself.

And David writes, Selah, gotcha.

God will protect me.

Yes, they have a plan against me, but they have foiled the plan.

God has foiled their plan.

And then lastly, in the last five verses, seven through eleven, we see that King David here is shaken, but he's still singing.

He writes in verse 7, My heart is steadfast, O God.

My heart is steadfast.

He says, I will sing, yes, I will sing praises.

And then he starts to sing, Awake, my glory.

He wishes he has his instruments with him.

Awake, harp, lyre.

I wish I had them.

I will awaken the dawn.

He's so excited to be able to sing about the victory that he knows God is going to give him.

He says, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples.

I will sing praises to you among the nations.

Not only the people near me, but the people far away will hear of your glory and what you have done.

Your loving kindness is great to the heavens, and your truth to the clouds.

And then he ends as he began.

He ends with, Be exalted above the heavens, O God.

Let your glory be above all the earth.

So much we can tell at this point of the narrative, David is still in the cave.

Stahl is still pursuing him and wants to kill him.

Not much has changed for David other than his attitude, his heart attitude.

Instead of self-pity and complaining, David breaks forth in praise to God.

And he teaches us here about some things about praise.

I can't speak for you, but I know that praise for me is not my go-to response all the time in time of trial.

Sometimes our natural response, my natural response, is to complain, to withdraw, to wonder why?

Ask that question, why, why, why, why, God?

But David had fixed his heart.

He was focusing on the Lord.

He said, I will sing.

Verse 7.

Yes, I will sing.

It's intentional.

Paul hasn't read it yet.

He hasn't met him.

But he's saying the same thing that the apostle, David has not met the apostle Paul, but he's saying the same thing the Apostle Paul tells us in 1 Timothy chapter 4.

1 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

Bodily discipline is good for this world.

Spiritual discipline is good for this world and the next.

David is committing to that.

He says, I will sing.

He's committing himself to that.

I will sing, yes, I will sing praises.

With a long view in mind, in light of certain destruction of the wicked, David vowed to sing a song of victory.

He even wished for his instruments.

Oh, that I had my harp here.

Oh, that I had my lyre.

To enrich his worship.

And my friends, this is the heart attitude of a victorious believer.

We can't keep quiet about the deliverance that we receive from God.

And we want to even let the nations know of our deliverance.

David started in verse 1 with, Be gracious to me.

He says it again, be gracious to me, O God, be gracious to me.

And by verse 7, he's saying, My heart is steadfast.

My heart is steadfast.

When we're under pressure, we might have expected David to say, My heart is wavering.

But that was not the case.

He was calm, he was firm, he was happy, he was resolute, he was established.

He was in a stormy sea, but he was anchored in the God on high.

And because his heart was fixed, his heart was prepared for what lie before him.

That's why he was able to end it here in verse 11, where he says, Be exalted above the heavens.

Oh God, let your glory be above all the earth.

Not why is this happening to me?

God, what do you want me to learn in the trial?

God, I know you want me to understand that you are to be exalted.

You are to be praised.

He says, Be exalted above the heavens, O God.

Let your glory be above the earth.

David didn't wait for his circumstances to change before he praised God above the heavens.

Friends, when we look at a psalm like this, we have to put ourselves in the place of David and say, what are the things that I'm struggling with right now?

How do I make the application for my own life?

What am I to do with the mess that I find myself in?

I'm not lying with lions.

There's nobody with long teeth chasing after me.

God, what would you have me to do?

Anytime we look at the scriptures, especially something like this, where it's a struggle, we all go through struggle.

I think we need to make strong application, very strong application.

And anytime I think we look at the scripture, we make application both for the believer and the non-believer.

The believer is obvious.

God calls us to obey all the things that Jesus has commanded, that just had the Great Commission.

So we need to know where those things are so we can be obedient to them.

But for the non-believer, perhaps it's not so obvious.

And yet the scripture says, like in Romans chapter 1, what Paul writes, that the non-believer, they understand the truth.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

They understand the things of God.

It's placed within them, but they suppress the truth and unrighteousness.

But even though they suppress the truth, we need to address the gospel, we need to address the scriptures to the life of the unbeliever and at least let them know.

Truth and advertising, this is what the scripture says.

This is what you're going to be held accountable, whether or not you read it, understand it, or disregard it.

This is the truth.

And so I make application of this text here, first of all, for the non-believer.

And my sense about those who do not know Christ is that when trials come, things like anger, resentment, despair, and loneliness usually probably follow close behind.

Frankly, I can't imagine what it's like to go through a very difficult trial and tribulations of life without a relationship with Christ.

Because if you're a non-believer and you're relying on your money, eventually your money will run out.

If you're relying on your Ivy League education, trust me, Satan will outsmart you seven days a week.

If you're relying on your friends who don't know Christ, if you're relying on your own ability, your own experience, the scriptures, Proverbs 26, we'll get to it in a few Sunday nights.

Says you're a fool.

Wise in your own eyes, scripture says you're a fool.

And so you, unfortunately, as a non-believer, if you're listening to this psalm and you're wondering what's in it for me, but you don't know Christ, you don't have a relationship with God.

Friend, you're in a cave, but there's no way out for you.

Somebody is pressing you in the cave after you.

The trials come one after another, another, another, another, but there's no hope, there's no God you can cry out to because you don't believe in Him.

As one writer said, you've reached the bottom of the pit, you've begun to dig.

You're only getting deeper and deeper in your lostness.

Let me tell you that God has indeed made a way for you to escape the evils of this world and the complete utter destruction that waits those who don't know God in the next world.

There's a way out.

These are not my words, but the words of Jesus in the 14th chapter of John's gospel.

When asked the question by one of his disciples, how do we know the way?

Jesus was telling them, I go to prepare a place for you.

Thomas said, How do we know the way?

Jesus said in verse 6, it's very simple, I am the way.

And the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me.

It's not through your job, it's not through your education.

You can't buy your way in.

It's not through Islam, it's not through Catholicism, it's not through any denominational connection that you may have, or that you got baptized as an infant, or you memorize all the Iwana verses.

It has nothing to do with that.

It's just that you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Apart from that, you're lost for all of eternity.

And I tell you that not to hurt you, not to make you feel bad.

If I didn't tell you, it would be pastoral malpractice, it really would be.

If I gave you the feeling that somehow just because you came to a church and sat in a pew, that somehow you became a believer.

It's no better than going sitting in your garage and calling yourself a car.

I don't mean to make little of it.

Friend, if you do not know Christ, you have no hope.

But God does offer a way, and Jesus is the way.

For the believer in Jesus Christ, I have three very pointed questions to leave us with, to wrestle with.

I want to ask for a show of hands.

I don't even care if you write them down, but I feel compelled to ask these questions in light of what David writes here in this psalm.

The first question we've already covered, I told you was very personal, but I'll repeat it again because I think it's important.

Is God prominent or preeminent in your life?

Does he barely make your calendar?

Or is he everything in your life?

Let me let you in on a little secret.

He wants to be everything in our lives.

Is God prominent or preeminent in our lives?

Second question is are we disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness?

Are we disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness?

Is praise our first response?

Have we stopped asking God why and ask him humbly, God, what do you want me to learn from the trial that you have me walking through now?

Are we disciplining ourselves for the purpose of godliness?

The last question is under the shadow of which set of wings do we seek shelter?

Under the shadow of which set of wings do we seek shelter?

Is it money?

Is it power?

Is it medication, ability, occupation, reputation, education?

What is the thing that you find shelter under?

Under which shadow of wings do we seek shelter?

David writes in the first two verses of this psalm.

In the shadow of your wings, I will seek refuge until destruction passes by.

That our praise would be towards you.

That we understand your holiness and that you are indeed a most high God, but we know you're not distant.

We know you're accessible, we know you care about the details in our lives.

Would we would we trust in you for those things?

Also pray too, Lord, for those that may be here who don't know you.

And Lord, I I I'm not going to ask for any relief of their trial, for that would be foolish.

It would appear as the world had helped them.

But I pray that you bring them to a point in their trial and in their life where they, like David, cry out to you with, Be gracious to me, O God.

Be gracious to me.

And that they would accept you, accept the gift that Christ offers by way of his death on the cross.

Would you draw those who don't know you to yourself?

Father, thank you that we were together tonight to sing your praises, to enjoy the fellowship of one another.

We're eternally grateful for the shed blood of Christ.

That's the common bond that we have within the room here.

Where would we be without Christ?

And so we indeed, corporately, individually, we praise you tonight and thank you for our time together in your word.

In Christ's name.

Amen.

And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with boldness.