"Rejoice" Psalm 97 Sunday Morning Worship Service

This morning of text of scripture we're looking at is Psalm 97.

Let me begin our time by reading from God's Word.

Would you follow with me as I read Psalm 97?

And I'll read the entirety of this Psalm.

Psalm 97 and verse 1.

God's Word says this.

Yahweh reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the many coastlands be glad.

Clouds and thick darkness are all around him.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around.

His lightnings light up the world, the earth sees and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before Yahweh, before the Lord of all the earth.

The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.

All worshippers of images are put to shame, who make their boasts in worthless idols.

Worship him, all you gods.

Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Yahweh, for you, O Yahweh, are most high over all the earth.

You are exalted far above all gods.

O you who love Yahweh, hate evil.

He preserves the lives of his saints, he delivers them from the hand of the wicked.

Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.

Rejoice in Yahweh, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name.

This is the word of the Lord.

If you are under 30 years old, let me explain.

In a period of the distant past, shrouded in mystery before the existence of smartphones and streaming devices, people actually used to purchase physical devices on which to play music.

Some of them were circular, some of them were rectangular.

And in this era of distant history, the music industry came up with a real slick, very successful way of repackaging old music and making even more profit on it.

They would take the best hits of a given artist's career and they would sell it as a new album, the Greatest Hits album.

Well, as soon as music began to pass into streaming services, uh that's fallen by the wayside because now consumers can curate their own personal Greatest Hits playlists on their phones and their Alexas.

Whenever I say the word Alexa, I pause and wait to see if there's a response.

And you may bemoan the death of the Greatest Hits album, or you may, as a kid's i uh because I'm a person who works with Gen Zers all day, I know that most Gen Zers have never heard of a Greatest Hits album, and if I were to bemoan its death, they would shrug and say, what ev?

But there is one greatest hits album that will never die, and it's sitting in your lap.

It is our Psalter.

And I am consciously aware that this is a bit of a cheesy way of introducing the Psalter, but there is a there's a sense in which there is a parallel here.

The Psalter is a greatest hits album, because there are 150 Psalms in our Psalter in our Bibles.

They are written by many composers over the course of many centuries, but in that time period there were many more than 150 songs written in ancient Israel.

I mean, 1 Kings chapter 4, verse 32 says Solomon alone wrote a thousand and five songs, and yet these are the hundred and fifty songs that the Spirit curated for his church through the ages.

1 Kings 4:32

These are the hundred and fifty greatest hits that God has elected to put in our Bibles to teach us how to live a life of worship.

And at our peril, we would create a canon within a canon in this Psalter.

We would curate this Psalter to our select favorite Psalms and resign ourselves merely to those few songs.

Certainly, there are certain psalms that impact us greatly in different seasons of our life.

And all of us have our favorite songs to be sure.

But the truth is that God put 150 songs in the Psalter for a reason.

We need the whole Psalter to live a whole life of worship.

And this morning, I hope that we'll take one more step in growing on our understanding of what it is to live a life of worship before the holy God that made us by studying together Psalm 97.

This particular Psalm has some features in its language that indicate it was probably written after the exile and Israel's return to the land of Israel.

So you remember the Babylonian exile, where Israel was destroyed and the people were exiled to the city of Babylon years later, they returned, and we learned, as Pastor Jesse taught through the books of Ezra and Nehemiah last year, that this was a period of great turmoil in Israel's history in which there was a new reality.

They'd moved back into the land, but they were merely a shadow of their previous selves.

There were enemies all around, they were a fledgling new beginning nation.

And there was this great reality that had to be adjusted for.

There no longer was a king on the throne of Israel.

This is a reality that would remain through the centuries.

There would be no more king on the throne in Israel.

And Psalm 97 speaks into that historical reality with this great truth: that though there's no king on Israel's throne, there is still a king on heaven's throne.

God is still on his throne.

And that great reality enables his people to rejoice in all the circumstances of life.

The theme of that Psalm is shown to us in verse 1.

If you notice it's verse 1 in Psalm 97, this is really the title of the whole Psalm.

Verse 1 says, Yahweh reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the many coastlands be glad.

You notice that it begins with this proclamation, this announcement of a universal reality, that Yahweh reigns.

God is the King of the universe, and he is on the throne of heaven, reigning over his creation.

This universal reality.

And that's repeated again throughout the rest of the Psalm.

The world in verse 4, the heavens in verse 6.

This is a universal proclamation of God's reign.

And that's even further emphasized by the repetition of the word all throughout the Psalm, as we'll see as we study it.

Six times we're told that God is a king over all the earth, all people, all worshippers, all spiritual beings, all angels and other gods.

God is a universal king.

And this universal proclamation in this psalm is paired with a universal summons.

A summons for all the earth to rejoice in the God who reigns.

That's the very first thing we're introduced to.

Notice in the, again, in the title of the Psalm, Yahweh reigns, let the earth rejoice.

Let the many coastlands, the far-flung corners of the earth, be glad.

And again and again, that's the theme of this psalm.

You notice in verse 8, Zion is told to be glad, and the daughters of Judah will rejoice.

In verse 11, light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart, and the psalm concludes in verse 12, with rejoicing in Yahweh and giving thanks to his holy name.

That's the theme of this Psalm.

A universal announcement that Yahweh reigns over the whole earth, and a universal summons for all people to rejoice and to be glad in this great truth, that God is on his throne.

And he's ordering the universe, according to his dec eternal decrees, to work all things together for his glory and his people's good.

And that's in verses two through six of the Psalm.

One of the first things that you'll notice in the Psalm is, as we go walk through verses two through six, is that there really aren't any direct descriptions of God Himself or any direct descriptions of his actions.

They're kind of indirect.

God is here so transcendent that he's mysterious.

He's absolutely holy and powerful and magnificent, but he's beyond comprehension.

His transcendence is really on display in these verses.

That's the God who's on the throne, is a transcendent God wrapped in mystery.

Look at the way he's described in verse 2.

Clouds and thick darkness are all around him.

Verse 3, fire goes before him.

Verse 4 is lightnings light up the world.

The earth sees and trembles.

That kind of magnificent description of God in his mystery is really consistent with the way the Bible describes God when he reveals himself to human beings.

When God reveals himself to people, there is a sense in which there is distance, in which there is mystery, in which there is transcendence.

Whenever you encounter what we call a theophany, a revelation of God to human beings, you get something of this distance between God and man.

One of the classic examples of this, maybe the most famous example of a theophany in the Old Testament, is when God reveals himself to the people of Israel, Mount Sinai, when he gives the law through Moses.

That text in Exodus chapter 19 reads like this There were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled.

Exodus 19 · chapter mention

Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain.

Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because Yahweh had descended on it in fire.

The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder.

That's the way God reveals himself, in overwhelming magnitude, when he reveals himself to his people.

And this is not just the way God reveals himself in some great corporate display before the nation, but it's also the way, this is also the effect God has on people and reveals himself individually.

For example, the Prophet Habakkuk, when God reveals himself individually to Habakkuk, responds like this I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound, decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.

God's self-revelation is overwhelming.

The God who exists, the God who is there, is a God who is so beyond you.

Who is so incomprehensible in his greatness and his magnitude, and the weight of his glory is so beyond our comprehension, there is always a distance between us and God.

The closer you get to him and the clearer he comes into view, the more and more you see that this God who is there is a God of overwhelming glory.

And it's not just human beings who quake in his presence.

Psalm 97 says that his glory is even overwhelming for the created world.

So the verse 4 says that the lightnings light up the world, and the earth sees, and the earth trembles.

And the word tremble there is the Hebrew word for birth pains.

It's sometimes in some translations rendered writhing.

It's a graphic description.

It's the word for giving birth.

It's a graphic description for the kind of shattering experience that heaven, earth, and human beings have in the presence of this overwhelming God.

And it just goes further in verse 5.

This is even further emphasized.

Verse 5 says the mountains melt like wax before Yahweh, before the Lord of all the earth.

This is basic reality that in many countries, mountains, whatever your highest mountain is, ends up being something of a kind of immemorial landmark.

It's for people vacation to.

You put it on postcards.

It is a staple of the greatness of your country, of your history.

You carve things on it, you climb it.

But in the presence of God's overwhelming glory, Mount Everest is merely a giant white hallmark candle melting before him.

What Psalm 97 is depicting for us is the truth about the God who is there.

That to know this God is to be utterly overwhelmed, swept up and consumed by him, to have your whole life shaped and molded in his presence, to be utterly captivated by the truth that I live my life in the presence of God.

And in reading this depiction of the God who is there, we might ask ourselves a logical question.

How come so often my experience is very different?

God feels not so overwhelming, but I have a very different experience of God.

And a simple answer would be well, the answer is distance.

We're too distant from God to recognize his glory.

A number of years ago I had opportunity to stand a weekend in the Ozark Mountains in southern Missouri and we were in a condo, and one night there was a lightning storm.

It was very distant from us, but our view of it was was pretty cool.

We we spent part of the night sitting on the deck of the condo where we were staying, and we could see across the valley on the other side of the mountain ridge adjacent to us, across from us, we could see the lightning just snaking across the night sky, lighting up the night sky.

And at this safe distance, we watched the lightning light up the sky, and it was pretty cool.

Watched for a little while, and then we went back to whatever we were doing.

It was interesting, but that was about all.

But if you were to have dropped me right in the middle of that storm, where there would have been thunder that would have shook my bones, my experience of that storm would have been utterly different.

And so it is with God.

When we are distant from him, our view of him is so small, our view of him is so inaccurate of the reality of what he is that we aren't captivated.

And then the question that should follow that is, well, then what is it that keeps us distant from God?

And it's pretty basic.

It's a basic theological axiom that what separates us from God is our sin.

Isaiah 59, verse 2, your iniquities have made a separation from you and God.

Isaiah 59:2

That's basic theological 101.

The basic biblical truth that our sin separates us from God.

And as long as we are cultivating an affection for sin in our hearts, we will be cultivating a blindness to the glory of God.

But as we repent of sin and we put our eyes on the truth of who God is, as he's revealed himself in his word, more and more the Spirit will draw us closer and closer and closer to this God.

And that's what he's calling us to do in this text is to see God as he is, and to see God as he is, is to be consumed by a God of overwhelming glory, righteousness, goodness, and strength.

God who reveals himself in the scriptures, the God who reigns over the earth is a God of overwhelming glory.

And then the question then comes, how are you going to respond to that glory?

That's the second thing we see in the text.

Is the response of God's creatures to his overwhelming glory.

Verse 6 really forms kind of a bridge into our response.

Verse 6 says the heavens proclaim his righteousness.

People see his glory.

And there's two responses to this God.

One is in verse 7.

Verse 7 reads, All the worshippers of images are put to shame, who make their boasts in worthless idols.

Worship Him, all you gods.

This is the description of the default factory setting of the human heart.

All human beings come into the world, preset to love creation rather than the creator, to put our hopes and our trust, to bank our security for our understanding of identity, for pleasure, for satisfaction, for meaning, for significance in the things of the world rather than the God who made the world.

And this verse, verse 7, focuses on the outcome of such a life.

A life that is not a life of right worship, approaching God as he has called us to approach him, that's laid out for us in the Psalms, but uh instead a life of worshiping creature rather than the creator, the outcome of that life, verse 7.

All worshippers of images will be put to shame.

Because in the end, when this king arrives to judge the world, all the things in this world in which we put our hopes will be exposed as the bankrupt objects that they are.

Isaiah 49, verse 23, God says, Only those who hope in me shall not be put to shame.

Isaiah 49:23

Only those who put their hope in Yahweh will not be put to shame, because He alone can provide all that we need.

And that's the response it's shown in verse 8.

Verse 8, here's the right response.

The response that God is summoning us to is verse 8, Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Yahweh.

The right response is to see the truth of who God is and to love him, to acknowledge your sin before him, to come before him in trembling and in worship, to believe his word, to approach him in holiness, to love him and adore him.

It's to say, Yes, Lord, your judgments are true.

Judgments is the word Mishpat, it's the word for the authoritative judgments of a of a judge.

When a judge enacts justice rightly and with authority, and when a believer looks at God and sees his character and sees the way he governs the world and sees the way he treats me and sees the way he punishes sin and he exalts the humble and puts down the proud and says, Yes, Lord, all that you do is good, and I trust entirely in you.

That's the response that God calls us to.

Now, in contrasting verse 7 and verse 8, I think there's another question we might ask of the text.

And that is, what are some additional confidences that I might have that in the end, if I trust in the God of the Bible who reigns over the earth and put all my hope in him and not in this world, that in the end I'll be vindicated.

That in the end my joy will be made complete.

But how can I know that I know that if I put my hope in anything in this world, in the end I'll be exposed and ashamed?

How can I know that I know?

And well, one of the answers is just by tracing a thread in this text as it goes through the rest of the scriptures.

And that thread really starts in at the end of verse 7, a little line that I had kind of skipped over.

The end of verse 7 has this simple little insertion.

Worship him, all you gods.

And that almost seems like a strange little insertion.

What?

Worship him, all you gods?

What does that mean?

And the answer to that question is found in the text that we read for our scripture reading, Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

I want you to turn to Hebrews chapter 1.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

You can keep your finger in Psalm 97, because we will be back.

But it is worth turning in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 1 so we see the New Testament interpretation of this text.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

One of the ways you could interpret that little insertion, worship him, all you gods, is it could be kind of an elliptical way of saying, Worship him, all of you who worship the false gods.

Worship the true God instead.

But I think a better understanding of that is to recognize this word, Gods, Elohim, is a word that usually in the Bible refers to the true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but is sometimes just used to refer to spiritual beings, angels in common parlance.

And that's exactly how the writer of Hebrews understands it.

Look at Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 6.

Hebrews 1 · chapter mention

Speaking of Jesus, Hebrews 1 6 says again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, Let all God's angels worship him.

That's a quotation of Psalm 97.

It's combining the thought of Psalm 97 and another Old Testament text, Deuteronomy 32, verse 43.

Deuteronomy 32:43

He's putting those two texts together and he's describing the ministry of Jesus.

Notice verse 6 it says, When he brings the firstborn, the firstborn, that's Jesus Christ.

He's the preeminent one.

Colossians chapter 1, verse 16, he's the firstborn of all creation.

Colossians 1:16

For by him all things were created, whether in heaven and on earth or under the earth, all things were created through him and for him.

Jesus is the preeminent one over all the creation because he is himself the creator.

Then verse 6 says, When he brings this firstborn, his son Jesus, into the world.

And we should stop and ask what w what is this talking about?

Bringing the Creator into the world.

At first glance, it probably looks a bit like this is talking about.

About when Jesus, the eternal Son of God, came into the world in his advent, when he became a man, and when he lived a perfect, sinless life, and then he died as a substitutionary atonement for sinners and resurrected from the dead.

But actually, if you look a little bit closer, this word world, it's a particular word that the writer of Hebrews is using this context for a specific world.

It's not the normal Greek word kosmos for the just the world in general, but it's a particular more particular word, ikumene.

It's a word that means the inhabited world.

And in Hebrews chapter 2, verse 5, he picks it up again.

Hebrews 2:5

And in chapter 2, verse 5, he says, it was not to the angels that God subjected this inhabited world to come.

Notice that to come.

So here the writer of Hebrews has his eye on a particular world, an inhabited world that is yet to come.

But the firstborn has already entered that world.

You see what he's getting at?

The writer of Hebrews is talking not about Jesus coming into the world, incarnate in Mary, living a sinless life.

He's talking about his entrance into the heavenly realm, upon his resurrection and ascension into the heavenly realm, where he is this day, seated at the right hand of God.

When Jesus entered that realm, the heavenly realm, that world that is to come, that is inhabited by all of the spirits of those made perfect, that's inhabited by all of the angels in their festival garments, as Hebrews chapter 12 says, when Jesus entered into that realm, then Hebrews 1.6, God said, Let all his angels worship him.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Let all the spiritual beings, let anybody who has sense worship this Son, who is so infinitely worthy of your worship, who's the only one who can fulfill your hopes.

This is the one for whom you were made.

He's the firstborn, the creator.

For him all things were made.

Worship him.

Notice down in verse eight.

I picked this up right at the end of this little quotation of another psalm.

The writer of Hebrews in chapter two, verse eight, says, Now in putting everything in subjection to him, that's Jesus, he left nothing outside his control.

At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.

But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus.

Now he's crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering and death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

You see the point he's making?

This Jesus, the creator of the angels, for a little while in his incarnation, was made lower than the angels, so that he might become a redeemer by tasting death for sinners.

But now he has resurrected, and he has ascended, and he has vindicated all of his claims, and he is in this heavenly inhabited world, and one day he is going to come again and subject all things to his universal reign.

One day he is going to come and unite his heavenly world with this world on earth, and he will reign directly over his entire creation with his feet on the Mount of Olives and establish his reign in Jerusalem.

That day is coming, and so the call is going out now.

Everyone, worship this God.

Worship Jesus Christ.

But if I put my hope in Jesus, if I put my hope in the God of the Bible, I'll be fulfilled.

The answer that how you can know that is the resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ validates the gospel.

It validates that all people who put their hope in Him will have their hopes fulfilled.

It validates that all other gods are nothing.

That in Jesus alone can your hopes be fulfilled because He's the firstborn to whom the entire inhabited realm will be subjected because Jesus is the King of this world.

Not only as the King of the world, but is the savior of those who would put their trust in him.

And if you recognize that and you trust in this king, this Jesus, then there's a response required of you.

That's the last thing we see in Psalm 97.

There's a requirement for those who want to live a life of worship, who want to worship the God who's on his throne.

If you want to worship Jesus, Psalm 97 says, there's a requirement for you.

It says, Oh you who love Yahweh, hate evil.

Oh you who love Yahweh, hate evil.

You see, there's a uh an assumption that you will love Yahweh, and then there's a command that if you love Yahweh, you're going to do the opposite too.

You're going to hate evil.

These are two sides of one coin.

And this coin is invalid if one side is scratched off.

You can be a self-righteous person who just loves to point out flaws in others, or you can say, Oh, I love Jesus, but I also love all of the things that Jesus hates.

In either case, your confession is invalid according to the scriptures.

A genuine confession is a confession that loves Jesus Christ, and because you love Jesus, you will hate the evil that put him on the cross.

It's just this is just coherence.

This is just the way relationships work.

I have four little kids, and if I genuinely love them, I will not hate the evil that opposes them.

Excuse me, I know, will not likewise love or tolerate the evil that opposes them.

I won't tolerate things that harm them, that are against them, that oppose them.

If I love them, I'm gonna hate the evil that challenges them.

So if you love Christ, you will hate evil.

Anything that is contrary to his goodness and perfections and law, you'll hate.

You'll hate evil.

And what does that look like?

Well, it will look much like God's hatred of evil.

It won't be mere random outburst.

It will be a settled, resolute objection to the nature and character of what is evil.

A settled, objective, resolute opposition to all that opposes God.

And the nature of this hatred is much like the hatred of anything else.

It's in some ways a condition on proximity.

What I mean is anybody who genuinely hates snakes is most going to hate the snake in their own shirt.

Likewise, anyone who genuinely hates evil is most going to hate the evil they find in their own heart.

And they will do everything to tear it out.

Because that basic reality that we quoted earlier, Psalm, excuse me, Isaiah 59, verse 2, that iniquity separates you from God is true, and you'll see it, and you will want to take out the sin that would keep you from knowing the overwhelming glory of the God who can satisfy your soul for eternity.

Isaiah 59:2

Oh, you lovers of Yahweh, hate evil.

That's the call, that's the response to this God.

Now that is going to be difficult, and it's going to be costly, and it's going to mean that there's going to be intentionality and intensity to the way you live your life.

And it will probably mean that there'll be times where you come up against external opposition from the world and the culture.

So you need a promise that you're going to be protected in the midst of this pursuit.

And that's what this text follows up with.

The rest of verse 10 says that he preserves the lives of his saints.

What Paul says to the Philippians, that he who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it at the day of Jesus Christ.

He'll preserve you from the possibility of you losing the war against your internal sin.

But he'll also protect you from external opposition, delivering you from the hand of the wicked.

It's the same little phrase that's used in Daniel chapter 3, where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say, O King, we know that God is able to deliver us out of your hand, and indeed he is, and he will.

Daniel 3 · chapter mention

This God, for all those who love him and hate evil, will preserve their lives.

And this promise of your preservation is even amplified in verse 11.

Look at the verse 11.

It says, Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart.

Now some of your translations may say something like, Light dawns for the righteous.

There's a a textual variant, the details of which I won't bore you with, but I think there is good evidence in the Hebrew manuscripts to tilt the balance in favor of the reading.

Light is sown, light is planted.

And I think that's a very, very helpful metaphor.

The word planted, to plant seed, is used as a metaphor often in the scriptures.

And here the idea of light being planted is the idea that because God is the one who plants things, it's going to grow, but it's not going to grow necessarily when you want it.

The light of God, the light that represents salvation, vindication, joy, satisfaction, has been planted by your Lord, and it is going to grow, and you will experience it.

You will eat from the fruit of the tree of life.

You will live in a land where there is joy and righteousness forevermore, but it will come in God's time.

The final outcome of God's people is going to be light and joy.

Weeping may tarry for the night, Psalm 30, verse 5 says, but joy comes with the morning.

Psalms 30:5

That's the final outcome for all those who are lovers of Yahweh and haters of evil.

So because your destiny is secured, Psalm 97 ends with this resounding note, verse 12.

Rejoice in Yahweh, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name.

Because your destiny is secured, because God's reign, his sovereign power is securing the outcome of your faith, you can rejoice knowing that your God is on his throne.

And the God who is on the throne is a God who has already got off his throne to come into this world to bear the wrath that you deserve for your sins against him.

And upon his ascension, he has proved that hope in any idols of this world will expose you and leave you ashamed.

But if you hope in this God, in this Lord, in this king, you will never be put to shame.

Just one final little note about Psalm 97.

It's in verse 12.

The last little word.

The last line says, Give thanks to his holy name.

Some of your translations, though, will will render that something like, give thanks to his holy memorial.

It's kind of an odd choice for speaking of God's name, but it's used in one very, very important passage in the Old Testament.

Whoever wrote Psalm 97 knew his Bible very well.

The first time that this word for memorial or memory is used for God's name is in Exodus chapter 3, when God is revealing himself to Moses, sending him into Egypt.

Exodus 3 · chapter mention

Remember when God reveals himself to Moses in the burning bush and says, Go to Pharaoh, and Moses says, If I go, who am I to say sent me?

And God replies, I am who I am.

Say to the people of Israel, I am, has sent me to you.

And God said to Moses, Say this to the people Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.

This is my name forever.

This is my memorial through all generations.

And then that little line is what this writer of the Psalmist picks up on.

Give thanks to his holy memorial.

That is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, that God, the God of Israel, the God of the ages, the God who's on his throne from eternity past to eternity future, that God has become your God if you have placed your faith in his Son Jesus.

And this God will never get off his throne again, then until he comes to unite his heavenly world with this world, where we will live with him forever and ever and ever.

And if that is your God, then you can rejoice, knowing that his sovereign rule has secured for you your everlasting joy.

This is the God of the Bible who has revealed himself to us and calls us, if we understand his reign rightly, to rejoice that this God is for us.

Amen.

Father, thank you for the truth that you have revealed yourself.

And the revelation that you have given us is a revelation of your goodness through your Son Jesus.

Father, we ask that having studied your word, you would give us your spirit now to apply to our heart, to open our eyes to the hope and inheritance and power that is ours as elected saints in Christ Jesus.

We pray that you would give us power to live in a manner worthy of you, to live in a manner worthy of the gospel, of the call that you put on our lives.

So that we would put all of our hopes in you.

Not in this world.

We would put our mind on things above, for our life is hidden with you.

Or we ask that you would send us on our way and that you would bless us in the name of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

Thank you for joining us today.

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

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

Our service times and church information are on our website at 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 of Jesus Christ with boldness.

May the Lord bless you.