Marveling at our Great Redeemer

encouraged over the last couple weeks about how many people have texted me saying I'm in Mark, read Matthew. I don't know how many of you are reading through the New Testament with me, but it's just encouraging that so many of you are. What I thought we could do is let everybody catch up. So this week, finish Mark, and then next week we can start Luke.

And so catch up and we can be all on the same page. And I think maybe a chapter or two chapters a day is about the pace that suits us well. So we'll get started on Luke starting next week.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear God, we are so grateful to be your children.

Lord, if you would be so kind to us as a heavenly father, help us not to take you for granted. Show us what we have. Give us a little glimpse of the treasures that you have given us in your son. So we don't have to complain and won't complain, which is so shameful, but rather that we might worship you, which is what you deserve.

Give us a heart of worship when we wake up and throughout the day that we praise you nonstop.

The Lord for us to praise you, we have to see you. So we pray that you would be so kind to show us yourself. Lord, we would see Jesus today. This we pray in your son's name. Amen.

Okay. I want you to turn, if you have your Bibles to Psalm chapter 40, for the next several weeks, we're going to just go through some select Psalms and then looking to get back into the new Testament after about five or six, seven Psalms, we'll get back to the new Testament. Maybe the book of acts or maybe first Corinthians.

Psalms 40 · chapter mention

That's what I'm looking at. Two things, as we think about Psalm 40, two things we don't need to forget. Two things we don't need to forget in any point of our life that is easy for us to forget.

One, we forget the great salvation and the great deliverance that God has done for us.

Many of us have been Christians for a good long time and we're focused on the present sufferings and the present difficulties. And we forget where we've come from and we forget how God has done a great work on our behalf. It's easy for us to forget the realities that happened 2000 years ago, what Christ did on our behalf where he secured our salvation, but also for to get our practical experience, those days in which God drew us out of our sins and out of a life of iniquity and depression or hopelessness and put us in a position of joy and happiness. We at one time may have had greater joy. The joy of our salvation was a present reality. I know when the Lord saved me, there was a, there was a time that I just, the joy just over, it just overflowed. It just, I couldn't help but speak about God. I couldn't help but just witness. I couldn't help but just sing. I was the loudest singer in church because I just couldn't help it. I was so happy, you know, but time flies and goes by and we've lost that joy and we need to go back and remember what God has done and not just remember that we've been saved in amazing way that we've been delivered, but we, we forget the God who saved us. You know, it'd be amazing if God sent an angel down to us, wouldn't it? God saved us by an angel. What if Gabriel was the one who saved and delivered us?

That would have been amazing. We would be ever thankful to Gabriel. We go, thank you, Gabriel.

You saved me. You delivered me. I was lost, but you came after me. I was undone, but you put me back together. I was terribly distressed, but you gave me joy. Thank you, Gabriel, for coming into this world and humbling yourself to coming after me. That would have been amazing, wouldn't it?

But we forget it wasn't an angel that came after us. It was God, God of the universe, the all-mighty.

He stooped down. He came for you. He saw where you were at and personally, not, now he didn't send a immediate agent after you. He personally came for you. He personally rescued you. And as we think about God, it's not just the salvation that we rejoice in.

It's the God of our salvation that we rejoice in. It's the fact who saved us. It's his, his humility and his love and his compassion and his gentleness, all these wonderful things about God, that is our joy. That is the, the thing that's given us a new song is seeing God and his riches and his wonderful attributes come after us. And so today what I want to help you and myself do, the objective of the sermon is worship. Let's worship together. Now you don't have to sing a song to worship God. You have to have a heart that marvels at God. And so I want us to marvel in a secondary way over our salvation, marvel at our salvation. But primarily I want us to marvel at our deliverer, our savior, marvel at the one who saved us. Psalm 40 is about our salvation, but it's more about the God of our salvation. Marveling at our deliverer.

I have eight things to marvel about and I know you're going, Jeff, you preach a long time. You get eight points. But so that you'll stay with me, I have purposely kept my sermon now down.

So we should, we should be out in no time. No time. First, let's marvel that God hears us, that hears us. We see in verse one, God may delay. We must, we might have to wait patiently, but it doesn't mean he doesn't hear us. Look at verse one. I waited patiently for the Lord.

He inclined to me and heard my cry. Now David had to wait patiently. Sometimes we cry and you know what it's like. You pray and there's a ceiling and the prayer doesn't get beyond the ceiling. That's what you think. And then the next day you're praying and no answer. And there's not just not a quick answer. There's not a sensation that God's hearing you. You have a feeling that God is not listening because there's a delay. But God has his delays on purpose.

He's got his timing and just because there's a delay, just because God doesn't answer your prayer the moment you pray it doesn't mean he did not hear your prayer.

You see, it says he inclined to me and heard my cry. The Lord's ears are bent in your direction.

Could you imagine that? We're going to worship this God. We're going to think about this mighty God who has established the universe. He's like a new mother who has a newborn and that newborn child is laid in a crib, but that mother's ear is open to any cry.

They're ready to tend to the cry of her newborn. Now the dad is fast asleep.

But not the mother. Her ear is bent inclined towards that baby.

Rest assured, no matter how you feel about your prayers, no matter if you're not a prayer warrior or you don't feel confident that you're, that you can pray effectual fervent prayers, know that God is listening to you. God has bent his ear towards you.

Psalm eight four says, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? How is it that this God listens to everything you say? You know, we know he hears all things and he hears even what the wicked say and think, but that's not what this verse is talking about. He's talking about how he has a special attention upon your cries.

First Peter three 12 says for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. So this is quoting Psalm 34 15. His ears are open to their cry. God's ears are just ever waiting. Uh, you know, he's monitoring you and, and, and as soon as you cry, he's, I'm listening. As soon as you pray, he's all ears. As soon as you pray, his, his attention is on you. He, he focuses upon those who are, who are crying and are in need, who are praying.

Even if there's a great delay, my brother in law, Calvin, uh, was converted several years ago. I was preaching a sermon and, and the Lord converted him out of that sermon. And afterwards I thought to myself, wasn't just that sermon that God used. His parents prayed for him for 20 plus years.

And that first prayer, you know, how it's 20 years, you know, that first prayer was heard.

And you mothers and fathers, you're praying for your children. So well, you hadn't heard that one.

Doesn't mean he, those prayers have been discarded. Think of the accumulation of your prayers.

Every one of them is still in the mind of God. And when God answers, it's going to be answering those first request. He's hearing you. Never think that he's not listening. Never think that his ears are shut up. Isaiah 65, 24 gives us this promise before they call, I will answer. And while they are yet speaking, I will hear. I mean, he's hearing you before, for you're even closing to say, amen. While you're yet speaking, Jeremiah 33 verse three says, call to me and I will answer you. This is your God. This is your deliverer. Marvel that the God of the universe is paying attention to you, listening to you cast your cares upon him. Peter says, for he cares for you.

You are his child and he loves you and his ears bent towards you. That that's the first thing for us to, to marvel at this God who's listening, listening to our cries and our petitions. Secondly, we're to marvel at God because he has past tense delivered us from the Mairi claim. Look at verse two. He drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the Mairi bog.

You know, this, we often forget, we forget the destruction that we were in in the pit that we were held by. We had fallen into this deep pit and there was no way out. We were trapped and there was no hope of survival. Now, some of you who are lost, you're in a pit and you don't recognize it. You don't know, but before you're converted, there is this coming to yourself and coming to the realization I'm lost. I'm undone. I, I have no hope here. I'm hopeless.

You're, you're, you're not just in a hole with no way out of your feet are stuck into mud and mud.

And the more you squirm to get out, the more you sink. It's like quick sin.

You know, you, you who have tried to rescue yourselves from your own iniquities, you know, you, you have addictions as like, I can, I can will myself out of addictions. And you find out that even if you get out of that addiction, you fall into another addiction. And if you get out of that one, you're, you're, you fall into pride and you realize you're so enslaved to sin that there's nothing you can do to clean yourself up. It's not that you're saved because you cleaned yourself up and you pulled yourself out of the pit and you climbed your way up to God and say, look, God, I'm ready to be saved. I hate my sins and I, I've delivered myself from them.

And now I'm ready for your forgiveness. No, it was while you were in the middle of the pit, while you were stuck in the slavery, while you were in the midst of sinning, you know, God showed you mercy and me mercy in the very act of sinning. That's the, the salvation that God has brought to us. He's delivered us from a state of hopelessness.

I can remember being a young man. I can remember being in high school, going into college, and I remember being enslaved to the pride of life. I was slave to it. I remember wanting, I wanted to dress nice and I wanted all the nice things. I could remember coveting vehicles.

I was like, well, I get a job. I'm going to get this and I get a job. I'm going to get that.

I just remember being driven from one passion after another passion, after one thing I coveted to another thing I coveted. And I was enslaved to it.

It was an addiction to me. It wasn't drugs. It was just this world I was addicted to.

I remember being hopeless and miserable.

And God heard our cry. Remember that. Remember when you cried out. Take a moment to go.

I got where I realized I had no other hope and I cried out and look at verse two.

He drew me up from the pit of destruction and now the mary bog and he set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. We've gone from endless sinking to being placed upon a sure foundation.

We've gone from meaninglessness to a meaningful life. We've gone from lost to found, from despair to hope, from a mary clay to a rock. God has greatly delivered us from our sins and our misery and hopelessness. We forget, but take a moment to remember and to thank God that you're no longer in that pit, that you've been delivered. That's no longer your condition. Thirdly, we're to marvel because God has given us a new song. Look at verse three.

He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. We've gone to singing. I have friends in low places to singing as well with my soul. Haven't we? Remember our old songs that we song.

I mean, we look back on those songs that we'd listen on the radio and we play. Some of you're old enough to have eight tracks. For me, it was, I remember tapes, but I remember just these old songs that would capture my affections and listen to them and listen to them.

You look back on those songs, there's no healthy message of hope.

There was no glory in the lyrics. There was nothing in those songs that took our souls out of this world and lifted them up into the third heavens. But now, because of what God has done to us, we have a new song in our hearts. And it's not just common singing with our lips.

We can sing how great thou art and mean it. And the very realities of God being so great that it comes into our heart. That song so overwhelms us. It fills us with joy. And it's not the joy of the world that's perishing. It's not the joy of the pride of life that is empty and vain and leaves us wanting more. The more our hearts is lifted up into the third heavens and upon the person of Jesus Christ and upon his father and the power of the Holy Spirit, more our heart sings these wonderful praises. The more we are filled with glory and joy. This is why David takes this little digression in verse three and verse four. He says, many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the prowl, to those who go astray after a lie. It's like David has to evangelize. He's remembering what God has done for him. Now he's evangelizing to those who have yet experienced what he has experienced. And it's blessed are those who are not looking for Egypt to deliver them or looking for the arm of the flesh to save them. But blessed are those who put their trust in God. And if you're here and you know you're lost, you know that you're in the pit, you know you're miserable, you know that something's missing in your life, you know you're going from one thing after another. You know when you're not happy because your mind is constantly flitting from one desire to the next and it just leaves you empty or you're in some type of sin and the sin has made you feel guilty and you've got this little guilt. You know it's just not right, but you don't want to repent because you don't want to get rid of the sin yet, but you're miserable. What do you do? Trust the Lord and you'll be blessed.

Look to Him. Cry out to Him as He has heard us when we cried, He will also hear you when you cry out to Him. Fourthly, we marvel because God is, He gives us, He gives thought towards us. Look at verse 5.

This is too good to be true.

You have multiplied, O Lord, my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts towards us.

None can compare with you. I will proclaim and tell of them you are more than can be told, yet they are more than can be told. Now, two things here. God has done wondrous deeds for you and He's given thought of you, but both His thinking of you and acting on your behalf are being multiplied. Now, let's be real with ourselves. If God did one kind thing to you and me, we should live the rest of our life in joy. I mean, God took notice of me and blessed me.

God helped me out. He was there for me when I needed Him. He heard my prayers and delivered me.

One answered prayer should cause us to worship Him for all eternity. Amen.

This God, our God, is multiplying His deeds on our behalf.

I look at my life. I was like, how did I get here?

It's been nothing but one blessing after another blessing stacked upon blessings.

And this is the verse is saying He's multiplying those be those deeds. And think of this, you know, you who especially you struggle with feeling insignificant.

You wonder if your husband even remembers you or your grown kids if they ever remember you.

You who come to church and you go away thinking that person didn't talk to me.

Do you know God is constantly thinking about you?

In fact, the psalmist says he thinks about you so much that all the thoughts about you cannot be told that you couldn't have a book big enough to record all the thoughts and deeds that God has for you.

One of the things we all must do, I must do this. You must do this. It will help us out tremendously.

We're so often, especially in the church, we're so often desiring to be to find some form of meaning and acceptance in the church by the fellowship of the saints.

And we should reach out to people. We should care for one another. We should be there for one another. We should pray for one another. We should not be cliquish. We should not.

We should seek to speak to visitors. I encourage all of us to do that.

But let us be reminded that if we're seeking our our meaning, even with the fellowship of the saints, we're going to be disappointed.

If you're looking for the church to be your God, you're going to be disappointed.

If you're looking for your pastors to be your God, you're going to be disappointed.

You know where you're going to find what you're looking for, where you're going to find the joy is not in some man. Thinking about you, helping you, serving you.

What's going to be the thing that sustains you is God almighty thinking about you, helping you.

Therefore you. He's there for you 24 seven. None of us can feel that position.

None of us can be there when you need us at all times. Don't look for the church to be God.

Don't look for your spouse to be God. Don't look for your kids to be God. Only God can give you full attention and be there for you. This is the Lord. He's dwelling on you.

He says Psalm 139 says, Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know, when I sat down, when I rise up, you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down. Even before word is on my tongue. Behold, Oh Lord, you know it all together. You him me in behold behind and before and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's too high. I cannot obtain it. How can we number all God's wondrous deeds and thoughts he has for us? The answer is there are more than can be told. Now that is a God we should worship.

That's the God that we should look to. Let me remind all of us.

Don't be prone to call someone before you pray.

You know how you want a brother or sister to encourage you and you need someone to talk to.

You know that the instinct of needing a word. God has given us the church and given us saints and given us a family to minister to us. But first go to God. He's listening. Fifth, we marvel at this God, our God, because he sent us a deliverer. We see this in verse six through ten. Now in verse six, it says God does not delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices.

It says in sacrifices and offerings you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear, burnt offerings and sin offerings you have not required.

Now in the Old Testament, there's all types of sacrifices. In fact, the priest, they were bringing burnt offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices daily. Every day was a bloody mess. Every day there was offerings being made. You'd almost get the impression that God liked all these animals being killed, that God delighted in their blood. He delighted in these these animals just being slain. And we get this impression. That's the way foreign gods are, are idols. They, they like bloody sacrifices, but not God. God doesn't delight in death.

He didn't delight in the death of his son and nor did he delight in the death of these animals.

It's not like God says, okay, live like you want to live. I got all these animals. We'll sacrifice them. That'll make me happy. That's God's going to satisfy me. No, he doesn't delight in these animals being put to death. That's not the God we serve. What God delights in is obedience.

He delights in obedience. First Samuel 1522, Samuel tells Saul, does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obedience? Behold, obedience is better than sacrifice and attentiveness is better than the fat of Rams. I mean, this is what God delights in. Now, the other night it was real late. I was coming in, my family was coming in. It was time to go to bed and I kind of shut down. When it gets a certain time, when I get home, all I can do is brush my teeth. I'm, I'm ready to crash into bed. And I remember coming home, it was this last past week, we come home to a lot of dishes and a kitchen that wasn't clean.

You know, my instinct is, well, that'll be there in the morning. I looked to Martin, my oldest son, I said, Martin, will you clean up the kitchen and do the dishes?

And I know he had to be just as tired as I was, you know, I'm sure he wanted to go to bed.

And he looked at me and goes, yes, sir.

And I went to bed, woke up to a clean kitchen.

You know, that makes a happy father.

That was delightful. That, that is something like, like that, that's amazing. That was amazing when you're tired and you obey and it's not convenient, but you obey and you have a happy heart.

That's how God feels about obedience. He loves it. You say, how do I delight God? How do I please God?

You believe in obey. You just obey. He takes delight in you. However, because we disobeyed, because of our disobedience, God had to have sacrifices. It's not that he delights in death.

It's our unbelief and our disobedience that led to the sacrifices.

And then we see in verse seven, so because of our disobedience, God sent a savior.

This is a messianic Psalm pointing to the coming of Jesus Christ. We know this because these verses seven and eight are quoted in Hebrews chapter 10, verse seven says, then I said, behold, I have come in the scroll of the book that is written of me. I delight to do your will. Oh my God. Your law is within my heart. Hebrews 10 picks this up and says, consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me and burnt offerings and sin offerings. You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, behold, I've come to do your will. Oh God. It is written of me in the scroll of the book. You see, Jesus Christ understood that this was a word that David spoke about himself, that God doesn't delight in just sacrifices. So he prepared a body for his son, Jesus Christ, so that Jesus Christ, who would have the law written on his heart, who would obey God perfectly and willingly and happily would bring God into a state of pleasure. It appease the wrath of God. You see, we needed more than a sacrifice and offerings to cover our sins. We needed an act of obedience and thus Jesus didn't just come to die as a sacrifice. He came to live. He came to live a holy life, a pure life, obedient life that pleased the father. This is why Jesus says, this is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

Now, I don't know how we can grab this truth and put it in our heart, but you see, our God did not send an angel.

He sent his son. He sent his son to live for you and deliver you to be a sacrifice on your behalf and one who would please the father on your behalf.

And I think we go from this prophetic messianic announcement about coming of Jesus Christ back to David in verse nine and 10. He says in verse nine, I have told the glad news of deliverance and the great congregation. Behold, I have not restrained my lips as you know, Lord. I have not hidden your deliverance from within my heart. I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation.

I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

This is David considering the great salvation being brought out of the pit, being put on a rock, thinking about the coming Messiah, bringing obedience and a sacrifice on his behalf. And he says, now that I've been saved, I have told everyone I have not held back the glories that you have revealed to me. I have not held back, pronouncing and declaring the great salvation. I've spoken of your faithfulness. I have not concealed your steadfast love.

And may we have that heart of worship. May we be so overwhelmed what God has done for us that we cannot help but spread it to others and speak to others what God has done for us.

Six. I told you I was going to move pretty fast. Six. Verse 11. We're to marvel at this God because this God, our God will not abandon us. Look at verse 11. As for you, oh Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me. Your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me. Do you ever feel like God's not going to hear you?

Do you ever feel like you have sinned too much? Ever feel like that you don't, because you're unworthy, you feel like you're unworthy, you know you're unworthy.

And because of the guilt and the shame, even as Christians, even as Christians, you feel like I can't go back to the well. I've gone to the well too many times.

I have taken advantage of God's kindness. I have asked 70 times seven and I've ran out. I don't feel like I can go again.

This verse is telling us that He will not hold back. He will not restrain mercy.

That mercy is so easy to obtain from God. All you do is come to Him as you are and it will overflow upon you.

Bible tells us that the steadfast love over Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.

No matter where you're at today, no matter where you stand, come to the Lord Jesus Christ and He'll forgive you.

You know, I do believe you have to repent to be a Christian.

I do believe you have to forsake your sins to be a Christian.

But this doesn't mean that you clean yourself up before you come.

You come honestly, transparently. You come as you are. The Lord knows your condition.

He knows your heart. He knows your past week. He knows what you've looked at. He knows what you've thought. He knows what you've said. You don't have to make excuses. You don't have to be defensive and explain why you did this and why you did that because you were stressed or because of these unique circumstances and try to explain yourself away. Just be honest. I have sinned.

I'm guilty. I'm undeserving. Come to Him with that heart. Have mercy upon me, a poor sinner.

And God will have mercy upon you before you finish the request. You will leave justified.

You will leave forgiven. This is the promise of the gospel. This is the promise of God's word that there's no reason for any of us, all of us in this room, every one of us, there's no reason for any of us to be condemned. There's no reason. If you understand what I'm saying, you're old enough to be saved and you can be. God will turn not one of you away. Not one will He turn away. Not one of you have sinned too much. Come to Him and the mercy is steadfast.

His love is steadfast. His faithfulness will not only forgive you, but I love what this says. His steadfast love and his faithfulness will keep us. If it was left to us, we would undo our salvation.

If it was left to us, we would go back to the world and our sins post conversion would be enough to sink us down into hell. But it's God's faithfulness, his steadfast love that goes with us. And no matter how we feel throughout the day, God's love is abiding on us. He loves us with a love, the same love that God the father loves Jesus Christ, that same unadulterated perfect love, that same love.

He loves you as a Christian constantly. Paul tells us who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or neckiness or danger or sword.

As it is written for your sake, we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. Know in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else. And all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. We are sure we are standing on a rock that will not sink. We have a solid foundation for our salvation until the very end. Seventh, I got two more and more bringing this to a conclusion. We marvel at God because He delivers us from our sins. We see this in verse 12, for evils have encompassed me beyond number. My iniquities have overtaken me. I cannot see they are more than the hairs of my head. My heart fails me. I think it's a wonderful thing when we get to the position of David, when we come to the end of ourselves, that we see our sins and we're crying out the scary part, the scary thing is when you're in your sins and you can care less. That is a dangerous position to be in is to have more sins than you can number to be unaware of your iniquity, but you don't care. You're, you're, you're unconcerned. You're going to bed and you sleep well at night. I would pray. I would pray that you could not sleep if you're a lost sinner. And if you have unrepentant sin, I would pray that you would be miserable and undone and your sins would weigh on you. They should weigh on us.

Not that they kill us, but that we might go to Christ, that we might not try to deal with our sins, trying to live a better life or deal with our sins by acting like they don't exist or just ignoring them. We should go to the Lord and clean our conscience before Christ. I would charge you and I would beseech all of us. Whatever we're at, no matter if we're a seasoned saint or we're a new child, we're new Christian or we're yet to be a Christian. I, I charge us all before we leave this place, before we do anything else, that we clean our conscience before God and know that he will forgive us. He'll be just and righteous to forgive us of all of our iniquity so that we can leave this place with a joyful song, not living in a state of condemnation and bondage and guilt, but leaving full of joy of being forgiven, full of peace in our hearts. Verse 13, it says, be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me, O Lord, make haste to help me. May that be your cry.

May that be your cry this moment. If you're lost, say these words in your heart and mean it.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.

God will come.

Eighth, we marvel because God will deliver us from all of our enemies. Verse 14 and 15 says, let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether who seek to snatch away my life.

Let those who be turned back and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt, let those be appalled because of their shame who say to me, aha, aha. You see, there's several things that will discourage us and having those who hate us seeking our demise, looking for us to fall, those who go, ha, ha, ha, ha, when we make mistakes. The Lord knows how to take care of those.

What I love about this Psalm is that I can identify with it because here's a man, David, who acknowledges that he has sin. And in one case, he says, I have too many sins to number.

They're more than the hairs on my head. Then another case right after that says, Lord, you've got to deliver me from my enemies. So he's confident that God's going to rescue him, not because of his own righteousness, but because of God's faithfulness and his mercy. Let me bring three things to your mind as we come to a conclusion, three applications. And when they're found in verses 16 and 17, the goal of this text and the goal of my sermon is that we worship God today. Look at verse 16, but may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation say continually, great is the Lord. Now here's the focus is not just focus on our salvation and go great is my salvation. Yes, we're to be thankful for the great deliverance.

We've been set free from bondage and that should cause us to rejoice. But the, the goal here is to rejoice in the God of our salvation, in the deliverer. May we all seek to rejoice and be glad in you. The older I become and the more I walk with the Lord, and this is something I'm learning day by day is that the joy is God. That salvation is God. Life is God. Hope is God. That God is the reward and not the gift, but the giver is what we worship and who we look to. And may we take a moment to say, God, you're so great. How great thou art great is the Lord. I mean, get our minds off those old songs and those old things that used to amaze us and impress us.

What do we have compared to God? Nothing.

So maybe worship God today and every day. Secondly, though we are poor and needy, let's remember God takes thought of us. Look at verse 17. As for me, I am poor and needy.

But the Lord takes thought for me. This is wonderful because this is not a verse says, Hey, you're beautiful and wonderful and you're great and God can't get his mind off of you because you're so swell. This is acknowledgement. Hey, you're poor and needy. You're a poor person.

You have nothing to offer God. You come empty handed. You have empty pockets. You want to worship the Lord and you don't have much to give him. You don't have anything to give him. You're poor. You're like the Lord. You have to give me a Lord. If I'm going to worship you, you're going to have to give to me. You're going to have to serve me. If I'm going to serve you, you're going to have to give me gifts. If I'm going to return a gift back to you, you're going to have to rescue me. If I'm going to be of any value to you, you're going to have to work in me before I can work for you. You're going to have to give before I can give. I'm poor and I'm needy. Oh, if that's all it was, we would be a despair. But the hope here is that he takes thought of us. He remembers us in our poverty and our weakness. God is there for us. What a great God. Lastly, we see at the end of verse 17, may we continuously rely and call out to God. He begins with a past tense. You have delivered me out of the Myre clay, but now he has a present cry for a present deliverance. Though we have been saved, we need constant deliverance from this evil and wicked generation that we live in.

We still struggle with sin. We still struggle with a world that wants to ensnare us.

And so we must continuously cry out, help me, my deliverer, do not delay. Oh my God.

May we go to the God who is our deliver and trust and know that he is going to deliver us. Amen.

Thank you.