Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 139, that we've just sung most of. For the director of music of David, a psalm. O Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, You know it completely, O Lord. You hem me in behind and before. You have laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Where can I go from Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to the heavens, You are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there, your hand will guide me. Your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me, even the darkness will not be dark to you. The night will shine like the day, For darkness is as light to you. For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. If only you would slay the wicked, O God! Away from me, you bloodthirsty men! They speak of you with evil intent. Your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you? I have nothing but hatred for them. I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. This is God's holy Word. Dear brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas is past. The gifts have been given and the presents have been opened. The dinners have been eaten. The celebrations held with family. Most of them are done. It's been a time in which many of us have been reminded of the things that really matter. Our families, our friends, And the salvation that God gave to us in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. But now as those joyful days pass, many of us begin to look forward to the new year. The decorations for Christmas begin to come down and we wonder, what does the Lord have in store for me? For my family? Many of us are excited. Excited about our plans. Excited about what we think will happen to us. What might happen to us. And we're ready with our new year's resolutions. But many of us are also fearful. Some among our number have learned that they have deadly illnesses. That they may not have long to live. And they do not know what the coming year will bring. Some of us have faced significant financial hardship in the past months. And we wonder, how will I be able to provide for my family? Some of us have had a difficult year. And we wonder if the new year will be different. And the fact is, whether we're excited or fearful, whether we're generally optimistic or pessimistic, none of us know what this year will bring. And we all know that nothing, ultimately, is under our control. And the question is, what is our anchor in the midst of this uncertainty? David, the anointed king of Israel, was a man like us. And he faced tremendous struggles and trials and uncertainties. He was attacked by foes, both outside of Israel and inside of Israel. Outside of his family and even inside his family. Close friends betrayed him. He lost children in infancy. He saw the effects that his sins had as they tore his family apart. And yet, Psalm 139 is David's recognition that despite all the uncertainties of life, God has all knowledge. He's always present with His people. And He has sovereign control over every aspect of our life every day. And because of what Christ has done, David's prayer, recognizing these things, is our prayer too. And my hope is that as we look at this psalm, each one of us would be able to say that despite all my anxieties, despite all my uncertainties, God knows me. He's with me. He's planned the way for me. How precious to me are Your thoughts, O Lord! For in them I know I am secure. I know that you will lead me in the way everlasting. In short, the message of the psalm I hope we are able to pray with David is, God is with us. And therein we have complete security and hope. I'm going to work through the psalm just verse by verse in order, really. But you can roughly divide it into two parts. In the first 16 verses, David meditates on God's thoughts in terms of God's knowledge of him, God's presence with him, and God's providential control of his life. And in the last part of the psalm, we get David's reaction to that, his zeal, and his awe, and his prayer. But to begin with, David meditates on God's immense knowledge. He writes, O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up. You discern my thoughts from afar. Now David uses this language of searching, but we know that God doesn't really have to search. It's not as if God is a human and has to get tools and data together to understand. But it's as if God was like someone who had the ability, the power to search every single thing about you. Inside and outside. Your mind, your body. Everything you've ever done. Everything you ever will do. As if he had taken all the care to search that out, God knows all of that. He knows exactly when you wake up in the morning. He knows how many times you hit the snooze button before you stumble out of bed. He knows how many steps you take to the refrigerator when you don't even know that you are moving in that direction. He knows your thoughts when you are too sleepy to know that you are thinking them. When I was about to work for a government job, I had to take a polygraph. And it was probably one of the most humiliating experiences of my life because I felt like they could see right through me and they hook you up to a machine and they can tell every flutter of your heart. And I thought to myself, this is the closest thing I've ever seen or experienced to what the Day of Judgment must be like. Because I felt like there was nothing I could hide. And that's how well God knows us. Now, if we were not believers, that's terrifying. Because God's our judge. And if He knows everything, we're all doomed. But if you are a believer and God is on your side, it is highly encouraging to know that God knows you better than you know yourself. He knows you better than your dearest loved one knows you. And He thinks about you personally. David goes on, you search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, you know it all together. Even when you have that thought of an angry retort against your spouse or back-talking to your parents, God knows it. But on the other hand, even when your heart wells up with joy or love or gratitude to God and you don't know the words to say, or when your heart cries out for help and you don't know the words to say, God knows it. And He cares. Even more than that, David says, you hem me in or you enclose me behind and before and you lay your hand upon me. In other words, wherever you go, God has put His hand on you in such a way that you cannot go where He doesn't want you to go, where it's not safe for you to go. You cannot go outside of His love. And even if you have a major decision before you, and you fear that you will make the wrong one, and maybe it will hurt you forever, God has hemmed you in. And you cannot, if you are His, move outside of His sovereign love. So have you made plans for the coming year? God knows them. He knows how they will work out. Do you have fears? God knows whether they're legitimate or not. Do you have love? God knows whom you love. It might be hard for us to appreciate how incredible it is that David says these things because we've heard so much about God. We all know God knows everything. But when he wrote this, this was an incredible claim. Because most of the gods of the nations around them were petty gods. Maybe there was a god who was concerned about agriculture and another god who was concerned about the weather. But for a god to know everything and to care about everything? Many of the Eastern religions, gods don't even have thoughts. let alone thoughts about specific people. And of course, the gods of the Romans and the Greeks are too busy with their own pleasure to care about human beings and the petty details of life. But the Jewish God, Yahweh, He's a God that has every hair of our head numbered. And David knows that this God is with him and has hemmed him in everywhere he goes. And that's why the Psalms of Israel, with that unique God are full of words like, who is man that you are mindful of Him? He's like the grass that withers, and yet your steadfast love is upon Him forever. And David is so overwhelmed. Not just that God cares about him, but that God's thoughts are so deep. He knows so much that David can only cry out, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it. And I ask you right now to try. I mean, let's limit this very much and just think about yourself. Forget all the other people in the world, all the other things, and try to know your own thoughts just that you've had today. Can you remember everything you've thought? Can you even remember everything you've said? And yet, God knows that about each one of us our whole lives. He knows what we could have said, what we wanted to say. He knows everything. He knows you better than you know yourself. Well, perhaps it makes sense that after meditating on God's knowledge in this way, David's first thought is whether he can escape it. He says, where can I go from your spirit? And now he moves to think about the presence of God everywhere. Where shall I go from your spirit or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, the land of the dead, you are there. And now again, at first glance, if our trust is not in Christ, if God is not on our side, that is terrifying. And if there is anyone here who doesn't know the Lord, I urge you to think about this. You cannot escape. You can stay out of church. You can stay away from the Word. But even when you die, God follows you. None of us can flee from His presence. But David's point is not to scare us. Because for the believer, for those who are on the Lord's side, this is awesome comfort. No matter where you travel, no matter what you do, no matter what happens to you, God is present with you. And that means that no matter what you face in the year or the years to come, God is with you. He is with you. Alongside you. David says, If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there, your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. And the image that he's giving is of coming up with the sun in the east, the wings of the morning. As far to the east as you can see and then going all the way to the west where the sea was, to the farthest parts of the sea. No matter where he goes, God will lead him by His hand. And that means nothing is an accident. God actually leads you, even in the midst of the most catastrophic or the most glorious things. And God guides all things, such as they work together for the good of those who love Him. And don't miss the imagery of this. The image we're given is of our Heavenly Father holding our hands as if we were little children and guiding us along. And as many of you as have had children, would you lead your child astray? Would you walk him into a ditch? Would you hurt Him in any way? Of course you wouldn't. And even if you had to take Him somewhere dangerous and He was afraid, He would say, don't worry, I'm with you. I'm holding your hand. Well, God too leads us by His hand. Of course, God doesn't literally have a hand, but this is meant by the psalmist to show us how much He cares, how directly He cares for each one of us. And in John 10, 28 and 29, Jesus says of His people, I give them eternal life and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. You cannot be snatched from the hand of our Father. So as Romans 8, 38 and 39 says, I am sure that neither death nor life nor angels nor rulers nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why? Because His hand, His personal hand is with you. So think of what you fear most in the coming year. What is it that you dread? And how does that bring you to despair and anxiety? Do you fear that you won't have the strength? Or that you'll be alone? David says, if I say, surely the darkness shall cover me and the light of only be night. Even the darkness is not dark to you. Things that are absolutely dark to us are not dark to God. To the One who's holding our hand. The night is as bright as the day, for darkness is as light to you. So let's add to the image. It's not just that God's guiding our hand, but it's as if we were blindfolded. And we could not see a thing. But God sees perfectly. Where we cannot see our hand in front of our face, where we cannot see the day or the hour in front of us, God still guides us and He sees perfectly. So whether you face the uncertainties of aging, of not knowing what the next year will bring, or an illness, or perhaps the prospect of loneliness, perhaps a major decision, and you don't know what the implications of that decision will be. Remember, God sees the implications perfectly. He knows everything perfectly. And He's hemmed you in so that you cannot take a step outside of His care for you. But it's not just that David knows that God knows everything. It's not just that God guides you. It's not as if God's just ready to react to anything. As if He's a superhero beside you. But David goes on to focus. It's even more than that. It's that God created you and He's actually planned every day of your life. He's the one controlling it. So David says, focusing on creation first, for you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. And again, don't miss the imagery. He knitted, he carefully knitted us together. And probably this isn't what David was thinking of, but I can't help but think with the care that my own grandmother shows when she knits something for her grandchildren. The care. And that's the care that God took when He created each one of us. Parents, think of the work that you did in bringing your children into this world or in raising them. And think how much you loved them and how that was a motivation for all that you did. But of course, God was far more involved in creating us than any of us are with our children. My wife and I just had the opportunity to see an MRI and see our baby. And it's amazing when you see how small it is and how little the parts and the fingers and the bones and the arms and everything working perfectly and you see the baby rub his eye and you think, we had nothing to do with that. God is doing that with the care and the precision that no human being could ever do. And now remember that that was the attention that God showed in creating each one of you. So David says, I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. The only response to such care is praise. Wonderful are your works. My soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. And think of what it takes just to move your fingers. Think of how complex the eye is or the brain that no scientist can fathom and the pictures that God intricately wove each of those things together. And the only fitting response is praise. That the God of the universe who created everything so far out that our telescopes don't know how far it goes, that He also cares about each person and each part and each little intricate part of each person, that deserves unending praise and unending gratitude. And surely that calls us to trust a God that cares so much. David says, I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Fearfully because of the awesome power that it takes for anyone to have that knowledge and that intricate care. But also because again, if you are not a believer, think of the accountability to such a God who devoted so much care to you. But if you are a believer, think of the encouragement just in your creation of the care that God shows for you. And David also says wonderfully, wonderfully because of how it works. We don't even know. We don't even understand what we're saying when we talk about these things. We don't understand the intricacies. And it's an incredible gift that makes us marvel. The gift of life. But David knows it's not just himself. He says, all your works are wonderful. My soul knows it very well. And just in reflecting on God's knowledge and God's care, He cannot help but burst forth in praise at this wonderful God. But the love of God and the care of God is more than just creating us. He says, Your eyes saw my unformed substance. In your book were written every one of them the days that were formed for me when as yet there were none of them. God has written in a book as it were. Not really again, of course, but He knows them so well as if they were written in a book. And it gives us great comfort if we have faith in Jesus because we know that in love, as Ephesians 1 verse 5 says, in love He predestined us before adoption through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will to the praise of His glorious grace. And that means that even before we were created, even before we ever sinned, in love God chose those who are His. And He put His hand on us and He said, You are mine. I will stand by you. I will guide you. I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. And if you sin, I will send my Son and I will pour all my wrath on Him instead of you because I want you to be with me and you will be with me. And I will take care to work out the details of every day of your life to make sure that you never leave my love. If this is how God thinks of us, if these are God's thoughts, is this not the most immeasurable security for us in the world? But even more than that, does not this show how glorious and good and worthy of praise is our God? If we look anywhere besides God for help, if we trust in men, if we trust in our own skills and ingenuity, or our ability to respond to the unexpected, we're going to be disappointed. The most powerful nation on earth has been humbled this past year because of things outside of our control. But if our hope is in God, we need not fear anything. And we know how glorious He is. And for this reason, David ends that first section of the psalm by exclaiming, how precious to me are Your thoughts, O God. How precious the thoughts of the eternal sovereign God. Now, if you can imagine a young man or a young lady, I remember this time in the past for myself, And there's a young lady that you love and you want her attention. But you don't know if she's going to return that favor. And then you find out that she's, somehow, who knows how, but you find out that she has thought of you. That she's been thinking about you. And that can put a smile on your face and make you so ecstatic that it doesn't really matter. You're just happy to know she thought of you, someone you love so much. And God thinks of you by name. How precious is that to us? Oh God, how precious are your thoughts. This isn't just speculation. In John 10, again, Jesus says, I know my sheep and I call them by name. And that means every one of you who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, on that last day when you come, He will see you with familiarity. And He'll know you. Because He's thought of you and He knows your name and He will say your name. And that's the God to whom we are going and who guides us in the coming year. But it's not just that God's thoughts are precious. David's overwhelmed with just the magnitude of them, the power this shows of God. He says, how vast the sum of them. If I would count them, they are more than the sand. And again, that means that God's thoughts to you aren't just general. It's not just like your husband or your wife knows you, or your parents know you, or your children know you. It's a perfect knowledge. You couldn't even imagine all the thoughts He has of you. And then, it sort of seems odd at first glance. David says, I awake and I am still with you. And it's puzzling. What does this phrase mean? But it's as if David has fallen asleep and he doesn't even know when you're sleeping. You often don't know what you're thinking about. You're subconscious. You're practically unconscious. And he wakes up and he's still with God. So even when we fall asleep and don't even know ourselves, God's still thinking of us. And we're still with God. Brothers and sisters, I want you to stop and think about how if this is all the case and it is how should this shape the way you think about your life in the world how should this shape the way you approach a new day or new uncertainties how should this shape the way you make decisions when you're young or face death when you're old when you think of god and when you think of these things from his perspective god becomes the measure of how you think about everything and there's a sense in which at that point, all that matters is, am I on the side of the Lord? Can I be confident that the Lord guides me this way? Or am I among those who oppose Him? And when you think of God's power and the wonder and the preciousness of His thoughts, should I not respond in utter gratitude and joy and adoration and worship? But yet, how many of us do? Looking in the world, looking at sinful human nature. Who responds to God the way He deserves for His intricate care for us? Romans 1 describes that though God has made Himself very well known to us so that we can see Him in the creation, nevertheless, we've all turned aside. Our hearts have been darkened. We've suppressed the truth. And we do not give thanks to Him. But we worship the creation. The things He's made instead of Him. And the direct result of that, Paul says in Romans 1, is that we begin to lust. And we begin to slide into all kinds of sins. And he lists those sins in a way that describes the human race perfectly, including, unfortunately, believers. Many of those sins describe us too. And think of what the human race has done in response to this Creator, God. Murder, rape, child abuse, broken families, the Holocaust, racism, abortion, hatred, jealousy. That's the response of the human race as a whole towards God. And worse than that, really worse even than all of that, the utter refusal to joyfully thank and worship Him. Aren't we, you can't really put it into words, aren't we so sinful to respond to such a God in this way? Aren't we utterly wretched people? And now think of it this way, if there were perfectly good people, or think perhaps of angels, Would it not make sense if those angels saw the way we respond to God and the way we hurt one another and kill one another, would it not make sense if those angels hated us? Because we hate God. And if they saw God's beauty and glory to be so great, and then they saw what we do, and they said, I hate them that hate you, O God. How can these people be like this? And you say, well, why do you bring such a horrifying thought into such a psalm? It was so nice up to this point. And now you say this. But that's exactly where David goes. David himself says, Oh, that you would slay the wicked, O God. O man of blood, depart from me. And it's as if in having these glorious thoughts of God, and these worshipful thoughts of God, all of a sudden he remembers the way people treat God. And the way they treat one another made in the image of God. And the contrast is so stark. That he says, God, with all your knowledge, with all your power, why don't you just destroy them all? And end all that suffering and wickedness and those who misuse your name. But we still struggle to think how David can think this way. What about the commands to love your neighbor as yourself? Has David forgotten these things? It's a difficult thing. A difficult passage. But there's a reason why this makes sense coming after verses 1-16. On the one hand, it makes sense that David's hate is a righteous hate. This isn't the only place we see it. God says in Romans 9 and Malachi 1, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. So this is not just our problem with David. Psalm 11, verse 5 says, The Lord hates the wicked and the one who loves violence. But on the other hand, Matthew 5 makes it clear that God calls us to love our enemies. And not just us, but He says, Love them so that you might be like your Father. so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. And the implication is that we are to love our enemies, and so becoming like God who loves His enemies. And so there's a temptation for us to say, well, maybe it's just an Old Testament, New Testament thing. Maybe in the Old Testament they could hate, and in the New Testament now we have to love. But the Old Testament itself, in Ezekiel, it says that God does not desire the death of the wicked, but that all might come to repentance. And it is in the New Testament that Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16, let everyone who does not love the Lord Jesus be accursed. So another temptation is that we try to explain away one text or fit them together in some way, and we say, well, you're supposed to hate the sin and love the sinner. But again, that's not how the Scripture puts it. David says very clearly that he hates the wicked. The wicked has people, and God says the same when he says, Esau, have I hated? And the real idea in Psalm 139, it's not nothing but hatred. A better translation would be the extremity of hatred or complete hatred. for these wicked people. And so there has to be a sense in which we both hate and love the wicked at the same time, just as God both hates and loves the wicked at the same time. And of course, really, we all know that this is possible. We all know there's such a thing as a love-hate relationship. The best way to understand this is to think of it in light of verses 1 through 18. That David's love for God is so great that when he sees wicked people alongside of that, he cannot help but say, I hate people that would be opposed to such a God. It's not a personal hatred. It's not David's vendetta. And this is not an excuse for us to personally hate our enemies. Note carefully what David's problem with them is. It's not that they did something to him. He says, they speak against you with malicious intent. Your enemies take your name in vain. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with complete hatred. I count them my enemies. And notice that he says, I count your enemies to be my enemies, not vice versa. This is the kind of hatred that is perfect because it's motivated out of love for God. And brothers and sisters, I would suggest to you that if you have understood the first 18 verses of this psalm and if you have seen how glorious God is and how glorious His care for you is, you'll understand why that leads you to hate those who literally hate God and destroy His honor. what david's doing is simply identifying in his zeal with god's justice and how god will judge the wicked and of course david is god's anointed king it's his job to represent god in judging the wicked and ultimately david's a type of christ who will come who will hate the wicked with perfect hatred and will punish them and we're to identify with this god and we're to identify with him as he Judges the wicked. But let me remind you, this is a hatred for what's evil. And as soon as you think of you who are evil and me who am evil, hating those who are evil, you know that you also hate that part of yourself that's evil. You hate your old man. And so this is not some ability to puff ourselves up with pride and hate the wicked out there. We hate all those who hate God and we hate it in ourselves when we see our own sinful nature as it turns against God. And if anything, this text reminds us that God treats us not as our sins deserve, but by sheer grace because we deserve the same hatred. But perhaps it's David's uncomfortability with this very thought, this sobering thought that makes him move away from thinking of the wicked and concern for himself. Perhaps he suddenly realized that he wasn't even worthy of thinking of the wicked that way in his own strength. And so he falls to humble pleading with God and he says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. He knows that without God leading him and trying him and leading him in the way everlasting, he is the same as the wicked. And so his desperate plea is that God would try him not to judge him, but to refine him, To lead him in faith towards God. And this should be our attitude too. As we come into the coming year, it shouldn't be a presumption that, oh, well, God cares about me because He should and He's going to watch over me in the coming year. That's not the attitude at all. It's a sense that God rightly hates the wicked, but crying out to the Lord, knowing that He is merciful, Lord, lead me in the way everlasting. I know if I look to you, you will guide me in these ways. Do not lead me in the way of the wicked, but lead me in the way everlasting. but david's prayer and ours should also be a prayer of confidence he knew numerous psalms show that david knew that he was forgiven that he was righteous because of what god did for him and so we can pray this prayer knowing that god views us in christ jesus so you say well the first part of the psalm seems so wonderful i was so encouraged and now i'm afraid well what if I'm one of the wicked? What if I can't take comfort from the first part? How do I know it's for me? Well, the answer for us as it was for David is through Christ. David couldn't pray this prayer in his own strength either. Only Christ, God's true anointed king, could come and pray every line of this psalm knowing that God's love for him was deserved and true. And so Christ knew that God loved him before the foundation of the world, that he was with him in all his glory. Christ knew that God knit him together in the womb of Mary in a way even more miraculous than any of us because he had no human father. Christ knew that God had planned every step of his life all the way to Sheol and death and that God's hand stayed with him and vindicated him after that. And Christ knew that he was the judge who would come to judge the living and the dead and who hated his enemies perfectly. the beauty of the gospel is that god says because christ has gone this way for you if you put your faith in him i view you through christ the time to judge the wicked is not today today is the day of salvation and thus christ cried out on the cross father forgive them for they know not what they do there is still time to pray the prayer of the psalm to pray these last few verses and say search me oh god and know my heart test me and know my anxious thoughts see if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. And if you pray this, looking to God in strength, you can be absolutely sure that all the precious thoughts of this psalm are God's thoughts towards you. All you need to do is look towards Christ in faith and repentance. And this God is your God. And this comfort is your comfort. And these precious thoughts are of each one of you. I began this sermon reflecting on the hopes and fears for the coming year. And these hopes and fears reflect very real possibilities. For some of us, joyful abundance perhaps. For some of us, terrible suffering. We don't know who will receive what. Some of us will receive both. We do not know whether God will prosper us or whether He will try us. But we do know that He loves us and that He will guide us and never leave us. And I urge you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to meditate on the love that God has shown for you through Jesus Christ, but as this psalm describes it. Because the love of God this psalm is describing is the same love that sent Him to the cross for you. The same God who thinks of you is the one who took on human flesh and died for you. And you know and believe, I trust, that Christ died, that your sins are forgiven, that you are in Him. But if that is the case, do you have any doubt that He knows you, that He's with you, and that He plans every day of your life? It is the God who died for you in the flesh at Calvary who knows you intimately. It is the One who cried out, My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me, who never forsakes you in the darkest time? It is the One who died for you, who created you intricately and has planned every day of your life. If you meditate on these things, you will be overwhelmed with a sense of the preciousness and wonder and the worthiness of praise that is our God's. But be warned because it will also bring you face to face with His holiness. And the more you reflect on God, the more you will see how evil sin is and how evil wickedness is. And you will yearn that God's kingdom may come, that you may be with Him. But for now, don't dwell on that day of judgment. That is not today. With the psalmist, pray confidently. that God will search you and try you knowing your heart. Pray that He will lead you in the way everlasting. And knowing how much He loves you and cares for you personally, rest confident that He hears that prayer. You have nothing to fear in the year to come. God is with you. Jesus, who calls you by name, has said, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. Amen.