Let's pray before we hear God's Word this morning. Let's pray. And now, Father, we ask that by the power of Your Spirit You would quiet our hearts that are so often troubled and weighed down with the cares of the world and the worries of this life. We pray that You would give us grace to sit at the feet of Jesus and receive from Him the bread of life. Open our ears to hear His voice as He speaks to us now from Your Word through Your servant. The Word is in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Would you turn with me to Psalm 40 this morning? Psalm 40. I've been preaching through the Psalms in the evening services at Christ URC. I thought I would bring Psalm 40 this morning. Psalm 40. Let us hear the Word of God. For the director of music of David, I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. 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 look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders You have done. The things You planned for us, no one can recount to You. Were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare. Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but my ears You have pierced. Burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not require. Then I said, Here I am. I have come. It is written about me in the scroll. I desire to do Your will, O my God. Your law is within my heart. I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly. I do not seal my lips, as You know, O Lord. I do not hide Your righteousness in my heart. I speak of Your faithfulness and Your salvation. I do not conceal Your love and Your truth from the great assembly. Do not withhold Your mercy from me, O Lord. May Your love and Your truth always protect me. For troubles without number surround me. My sins have overtaken me that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me. Be pleased, O Lord, to save me. O Lord, come quickly to help me. May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion. May all who desire my ruin be turned back in disgrace. May those who say to me, Aha! Aha! be appalled at their own shame. But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation always say, The Lord be exalted. Yet I am poor and needy. May the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer. O my God, do not delay. So for the reading of God's holy word. Last fall, I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. with my son for his 14th birthday. He loves history and museums and that sort of thing, so we made it a father-son trip, went to Washington, did the whole Smithsonian thing, much to the chagrin of my legs and feet. Over about four days, saw them all, and one of them had this display, this exhibit that was new. I think it's only temporary, but it was an exhibit actually at the Smithsonian, the National Museum of Natural History. And it was an exhibit on the Chilean miner tragedy. You know what happened there was actually not so much a tragedy in the end. It was a great story of rescue. But that story that captivated the world in 2010, where those 33 miners were trapped more than 2,000 feet below the Earth's surface in a mine shaft that had collapsed. The winding trails all the way down to the bottom had somehow collapsed, and they were trapped in this small area that was only a little larger than 500 square feet. Thirty-three of them, and they were down there for 17 days before news reached the world that they were alive, and they were trapped 69 days altogether in this small shelter that had only two benches and a little bit of food that they made stretch the whole time. And as you know, if you saw the news, holes were drilled straight down until finally they were able to reach them, and they sent things down to communicate with them and up came some notes and they asked for certain things and one of the things that some of the miners asked for were Bibles. And so at this display, they had many of these things there in the Smithsonian and they had the capsule that was small, was so tiny, that went down and they sent articles and food and different things and Bibles also along with the other things that they kept so that they could stay sane during the time of their captivity in the earth. They wanted to be encouraged. And so they asked for Bibles. And the Bibles that they sent down there, they had one at the Smithsonian. And apparently all of the Bibles had Psalm 40 highlighted. This Psalm. I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. And as we know in that story, not only were those miners greatly encouraged by these words from Psalm 40, but it had a happy ending, thank God, as they were all rescued and brought out to terra firma once again. But this is a psalm that comforts people when they're down a pit. It comforted those Chilean miners as the whole world watched and waited to see if they would come out alive. And it's a psalm that's comforted many people over the years who felt like they've been in a pit. If you feel like you are trapped in a pit of terrible circumstances right now in your life and all you can do is cry out to the Lord and say, rescue me, please help God. I know not what to do in this situation. Well, this psalm is for you. If you need patience while you're in a pit. Maybe you feel like you're in a pit and you're losing it. And even as we heard the reading of the law today, those commands that God gives us from Philippians 4, they sting a little because you know you're not rejoicing. You know you're not having so much patience or bringing your supplications with thanksgiving to the Lord. Well, this psalm is for you. The early church father Athanasius said, the attack as you suffer the afflictions and wish to learn the advantage of steadfast patience, sing Psalm 40. So this is a psalm we can sing when we're in the pit. This is a psalm that we can pray that's very practical. And if you don't feel like you're in a pit right now, well as I look out here I see people with gray hair and some age and you know that it's only a matter of time before you will be in a pit. As one preacher once said, if you've never been in the pit, if you've never been in a slimy pit in life, you're either very rare or very young. In other words, the pit's coming sooner or later. Some sort of pit. And the truth is, when we're stuck there, we need comfort. And this psalm comforts us. It teaches us patience and even supplies us with patience as we receive it in faith and we understand the psalm and make it our prayer to God. And it especially comforts us and strengthens our faith when we see how it points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, as do all of the psalms. And so let's think about this psalm this morning. Let's think about the psalmist's praise, the psalmist's pledge, and the psalmist's prayer. There's basically three parts that we could divide this psalm up into. And so let's think about those things. The psalmist prays his pledge and his prayer. It starts with praise. Notice how it begins. The psalmist doesn't begin by saying, Oh, Lord, help! Now, there's a place for that sometimes in the Christian life, isn't there? There's many psalms that begin that way. Oh, God, help me! But this psalm doesn't begin that way. It actually begins with prayer. This is an interesting psalm because it's, on the one hand, a bit of a psalm of lament, but it's also a psalm of praise. And so here he begins with praise, in much of the same way that the Lord's Prayer begins. You know, the Lord's Prayer doesn't begin, Give us this day our daily bread. But it begins with praise. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And David does the same here. In these first three verses, he praises God for delivering him from a terrible set of circumstances, apparently in the past some time. He describes a slimy pit from which he was unable to escape. I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. What was the slimy pit in which David found himself and that now he's giving praise to God for his deliverance? Well, we can't be sure. You know, many of the Psalms, we can't be entirely sure what the circumstances were. Sometimes they tell you in the beginning there, that introduction, which is part of the Psalm. But other times we don't know. We can't entirely be sure. It sounds very similar to Psalm 69 in which he uses the same metaphor of sinking into a slimy pit. He's describing his feeling of being overwhelmed by his enemies. In Psalm 69, he says, I sink in deep mire where there is no foothold. More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without a cause. Mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies. Deliver me from sinking in the mire. Let me be delivered from my enemies. So in that psalm, he definitely connects the pit to enemies. He seems to do a little bit of that too here in Psalm 40, but we can't be entirely sure what the pit is that he's saying he was delivered from here and giving praise for. Who knows? Maybe it was illness. Maybe it was political turmoil. Maybe it was depression. David went through a lot. As we read his very exciting life in 1 and 2 Samuel, we find that he went through all kinds of things. And maybe he's talking about one of the times he was delivered from Saul, who was trying to kill him. Imagine being chased by a king, a powerful man, and having to hide. Maybe it was when he had to hide from his own son Absalom, who conspired against him. Who knows what it was? We can't be sure, but whatever it was, He uses the metaphors of a miry bog or this slimy pit and he contrasts it with a solid rock. And that's what the Hebrew poets would do. They'd use these great metaphors and contrast. And he's saying, this is what you have done for me, Lord. What kind of pits do we find ourselves in today? What kind of a pit have you been in recently? Maybe a pit of debt financially. Maybe a pit of some terrible circumstances and relationships. Something's gone sour between you and your parents or your children or your spouse. And it's really like a pit. Maybe you feel like there's no escape. Or maybe it's a pit of a downward spiral into sin. And it feels like quicksand. It feels like slime. You can't get out. You just continue to go further down. And maybe it's leading to doubts. And it feels like a mess. It could be something even combined with fear, like the Slav despond in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Remember that? That's a great book. If you've never read that book, read that book. One of the first novels ever written. John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. And it's all an allegory and everything in the story relates to some aspect of the Christian life. And one of the things is this slaw of despond or this swamp of despair. And he says as a Christian, the main character went through this swamp. He says, the miry slaw is such a place as cannot be mended. It is the descent wither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run. And therefore it is called the slav despond. For still, as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears and doubts and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together and settle in this place. And this is the reason of the badness of this ground. Maybe you feel like that. It's basically piled up and you can't get out. David felt that way. David wrote these great Psalms, being in those predicaments. And yet he praises God. Notice what he does. He's praising God for rescuing him out of a pit. He praised God because it was precisely in the pit that God had shown Himself to be trustworthy. That's what He does in our lives at times, doesn't He? He allows us from time to time to experience a pit. It might be a small thing or it might be a big and terrible thing. But He allows us at times. And when we're in those situations, we find ourselves frustrated. We find ourselves sometimes experiencing all sorts of different emotions. Sometimes saying, why, Lord? This one doesn't make any sense. Why? And like Paul, we say, please just remove the thorn. And the Lord says, my grace is sufficient. The Lord is actually answering our prayers. We pray, God sanctify me. Make me more like Christ. And so sometimes He answers our prayers by letting us go into pits. And we say, what are you doing? Well, I'm answering your prayers. I'm allowing you to become more like Christ according to my promise. This is the reason I made you and redeemed you. And yet when we're in them, they're not pleasant. And yet the Lord delivers us out of them so often, doesn't he? Think about it this morning. I challenge you to think about how many times the Lord has rescued you out of some pit, whether it's small or large. Now you think back on your life. The truth is sometimes we forget. The Lord has rescued us many times out of things, hasn't He? Many times, whether they were physical, or relational, or financial, and most of all, spiritual. He has rescued us. And what's the proper response to that rescue? What's the proper response to the God who delivers? Praise. Praise. and thanking Him because it's there in the context of our miry bogs, of our slimy pits, that God is shown to be trustworthy. And He rescues us out. And that's what David praised God for. He inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction out of the miry bog. And notice what he goes on to say. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. New songs are found over and over again throughout Scripture. It's a reference really to a song of thanksgiving for deliverance. They're usually composed after victories in battle. They can be found in shouts of victory. We find them in Psalms 33, Psalm 96, 98. We find them in 144 or 149, over and over again. All the way into the book of Revelation. The new song. The song of thanksgiving and victory. Praising God for bringing us out of a slimy pit. That's what we are to do. Sometimes we forget that. Calvin said, in whatever way God is pleased to help, in whatever way God is pleased to help us. Coming from a man who was in many pits. life. In whatever way God is pleased to help us, He asks nothing else from us in return but that we should be thankful for and remember it. Let us be thankful for and remember the way God has brought us out of pits. The psalm calls us to do that. Do we remember? Do we praise Him? Do we thank Him for it? And notice how he goes on praising God. He even says in verse 4, Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods. He knows the God who delivers. Blessed is the man. He uses language here that's Very similar to Psalm 1, that sort of beatitude language, pronouncing a blessing. The man is blessed who trusts the Lord, who trusts this God who delivers. He had good reason to say that. He knew that he was a blessed man. And loved ones, so do we. We have good reason. If we are in Christ Jesus today, we have good reason to say, you have rescued me out of a pit. And we have good reason even in the common things in life to look in all of God's providential kindness that He has shown us over and over again and to say, you have rescued me out of the mud, out of the mire. And after such a deliverance, well, what offering can a person bring but his heart and his will? And that's what David goes on to express in verses 6 through 8. At first, he gives more praise in verse 5. He says, many, O Lord my God, the word there is multiplied. They're multiplied are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for. No one can recount to you. Were I to speak and tell of them, there would be too many to declare. And now he goes into a pledge of obedience. He gives his praise in verses 1 through 5. And now he says this is the proper response in verses 6 through 8. He pledges his obedience. Notice what he says. Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced. What is that all about? It seems a little strange. Well, this is a bit of a difficult word in the Hebrew. It's actually a Hebrew idiom. Other translations have it. Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but you have given me an open ear. It's in the singular. It's not pierced so much as an open ear. And what is he saying here? Well, there's an idiom that seems to be used that has to do with obedience. Boys and girls, have you ever had your mom say to you, clean out your ears after you maybe didn't listen and do something you were supposed to do? I remember hearing that sometimes. And it's not that your mom means now you need to go over to the bathroom and go get the Q-tips and start digging out your ears. But rather, listen to what I'm saying. Open your ears. Clean out your ears. And he's saying here, sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but my ears, you have given me an open ear. In other words, what he's saying is you've given me a desire to be obedient. he's pledging his obedience to the Lord out of gratitude for his deliverance. God delivers and wants the response. Obedience out of gratitude. He says, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require. Then I said, here I am. I have come. It is written about me in the scroll. What's he talking about there? Well, it seems to be a reference back to Deuteronomy 17, where the scroll, speaking of the Torah, in this case, Deuteronomy, you know, the first five books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, called the Torah, or the Pentateuch, and written about me in the scroll, back in the law, in the great book. There we find in Deuteronomy 17, some commandments given by the Lord to Israel, saying, when you do have a king, this was long before they ever had a king, when you do have a king, this is the kind of man he should be. Israel, this nation that had experienced God's deliverance, and they were to be a people of gratitude, a people who were to pledge their obedience. In fact, they did pledge their obedience in that great covenant at Mount Sinai. And God says, now when you have a king, here's the kind of man he's to be. In Deuteronomy 17, he's to be a man of obedience. He's to be a righteous man. He's to be a man who will listen, have an open ear to the commandments of God. That's the kind of man Israel was to have. Not a man who is always looking for some new sacrifice to make, but an obedient man. And we're to be people who pledge our obedience out of gratitude for God's deliverance. Not always looking for some new sacrifice. It's easy sometimes for us to make New Year's resolutions that we usually don't keep or make some new sacrifice or some new thing we're going to do for the Lord. When the Lord says over and over again in His Word, keep your sacrifice, keep your fast, simply be obedient. Love me and love your neighbor. Do what I've commanded you to do. And here we find David saying, you have given me a desire. It's written about me in the scroll. Your law is within my heart. I have a desire to do your will. And he goes on to say, I will proclaim. I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly. I do not seal my lips as you know, O Lord. I do not hide your righteousness in my heart. I speak of your faithfulness and salvation. I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly. Those are the words of someone who has experienced deliverance. Now remember, he's talking about stuff that had happened in the past. God had delivered him. Now he pledges his obedience. And he says, and part of that is proclaiming your goodness, proclaiming your righteousness, proclaiming your salvation. Bringing the good news of the God who delivers into this world. that's what we're to do with the world around us as those who've been delivered, isn't it? Say, let me tell you the good news of the God who delivers. Have you found God to be a God who delivers? Have you found Him to be good? A God of salvation. Is His salvation good? Have you learned that His testimony is true? That He's faithful to His promises? Let's praise Him. Let's pledge our grateful obedience to Him. And then notice how the psalm continues in verse 11. Now he gets to his prayer. So he's praised God for his deliverance. He's pledged his obedience. And now he begins to ask the Lord. He makes his petition, his prayer. Verse 11. Do not withhold your mercy from me, O Lord. May your love and your truth always protect me for troubles. and now notice, he's in another pit. He's remembering God's deliverance from the past and now he finds himself in another pit. Verse 12, For troubles without number surround me. My sins have overtaken me. He recognizes the responsibility that he plays in this. And I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head. And my heart fails within me. He finds himself in another mess. And yet here he says again, do not withhold your mercy from me, O Lord. And may your love and your truth always protect me. And the word that he uses there speaks of God's faithfulness to his promises. Because he knows what God has done in the past. He knows God's promises. But now I'm asking for that help again. You can just see here how important it is to know good theology, to know the promises of the Lord before you go into the pit. It's part of the reason why we come and we learn the Christian faith. It's part of the reason why we hear God's promises every Lord's Day, every week. Not once a month or once a year, but once a week. Even twice on the Lord's Day. That's why we're catechized. So that we're learning. And so that we know God's promises. so that we're able to proclaim His mercy, His love, His truth that always protects us when we ask Him, now Lord, please help. Please help. This is what He does. He lifts His prayer to the Lord. Be pleased, O Lord, to save me. O Lord, come quickly to help me. Verse 14, May all who seek to take my life be put to shame and confusion. May all who desire my ruin be turned back and disgraced. May those who say to me, Aha! Aha! be appalled at their own shame. That sounds very similar to other psalms that David wrote. Like Psalm 70 where he said, Make haste, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Let them be put to shame and confusion who seek my life. Let them turn back because of their shame who say, aha, aha. People who sought his ruin. People who wanted him to hurt. People who wanted him to feel pain. People who wanted him to be destroyed. People who had surrounded him. And we can only imagine the kind of pressure that David must have been under so many times as a monarch, as a king of Israel. In those situations like the one with Absalom. In political turmoil. And yet in his prayer, notice what he does. He begs God for mercy. But he ends on a note of praise. In verse 16, But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation always say, The Lord be exalted. Now, he's in a pit, and there's no indication here that he had been delivered from this pit. And yet he ends on this note of praise. May all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you. May those who love your salvation always say, the Lord be exalted. Yet I am poor and needy. David, a rich king, had an abundance of wealth, an abundance of material goods. He says, I'm poor and needy. When you're in the pit, you are poor and needy. And David said, may the Lord think of me. You are my help and my deliverer. Oh my God, do not delay. How can David end on such a note of praise, even while he's in the pit? Because he knows the God who delivers. He had confidence that come what may, he knows the God who delivers. Do you know that God? Do you know that God to be good? To be a God who rescues you from the pit? Are you confident that His thoughts toward you, you personally, are many, are multiplied, are good? Do you believe that? I think sometimes we doubt that. We think, well, maybe, I'm sure the Lord has more thoughts about the pastor doing his holy work than he does about me. Not true. Not true. Do you believe that God has good thoughts toward you even when you're suffering in the slimy pit? How can you be sure? How can you be confident that his thoughts to you are many and good even when you feel so poor and needy because of whatever circumstances are crushing you in the mud and in the mire? Well, because of that great pit from which we have been delivered through Jesus Christ. Because of the one of whom ultimately this psalm speaks and the one who ultimately prayed this psalm, The Lord Jesus, He prayed all of these psalms. And all of them ultimately speak of Him. Because He is the one who cried out this psalm. He's the one who was also down a pit, wasn't He? What pit was that? Not a pit like Joseph or Jeremiah. There seems to be a lot of pits in the Old Testament. But the greatest pit of all, we confess it every time we confess the Apostles' Creed. He descended into hell. He went into the pit of God's judgment and wrath for your sin and my sin. He is the blessed man. The blessed one who made the Lord his trust, who did not look to the proud, who never turned aside to false gods. And yet He took our sin upon Him. He had people saying, Aha! Aha! Look at Him! If you're the Son of God, come down from that cross, mocking Him. And all of those sins overtook Him. Not His sins, but ours, so that He could not see. So that He could say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He couldn't even see. He is the one who went down that pit. The rock himself, as our slime was laid upon him. And it's interesting that in the New Testament, we find in the book of Hebrews in chapter 10, verses 5 through 10, if you want to turn there with me, you can. This very psalm is quoted. And so we find the New Testament teaching us how to read this psalm. Because the writer to the Hebrews, after explaining how all the sacrifices of the Mosaic Covenant were inadequate to provide salvation, to rescue us out of the pit of God's judgment for our sins, well, the writer says that Christ came into the world to do the Father's will. In Psalm 40, verses 6-8, they're essentially Christ's loyal words to the Father as He submitted Himself to the conditions that the Father set for Him in that great covenant that He made between the Father and the Son before the foundations of the earth. The writer then says there in chapter 10, verse 5, Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said, sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. With burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, here I am. It is written about me in the scroll. I have come to do your will, O God. Now, if you're looking at that, maybe you say, well, how come it says body there in the New Testament and it says ears in Psalm 40? Well, the writer is quoting from the Greek translation of the Old Testament. Remember, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew and the New Testament is written in Greek. And he's quoting from the Greek translation, as they always did. And this is helpful to know as we want to have confidence in the Word of God. And sometimes we find that words always don't line up perfectly. But nevertheless, we find the same principle, the same truth coming through in these words. Because it was the Son who had an open ear to the will of the Father who said, here I am, I will go. It's spoken of me in the volume of the book and the whole scroll. And He's the one who had a body prepared. The Son who took on human flesh for you so that you today would not be down the pit of God's wrath and God's judgment. Christ came into the world and He said, the writer of the Hebrews says. He said Psalm 40. These are His words to the Father. And then the writer makes the point that by that same will that the Son came to fulfill, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Loved ones, that means Jesus descended into the pit for us. And because Christ fulfilled the will of the Father through His obedience, well, He has saved us and reconciled us to the Father. He satisfied all of the conditions the Father gave Him to do. And He earned the promised reward. And He rescued us from the pit of death. There is no greater pit that we could experience than the pit of death, the grave, and separation from God forever. An eternity under His judgment. Jesus came and went down that pit to pull us out. And He is the one who says, Behold, I have come. In the scroll it is written of Me. The whole Old Testament ultimately is proclaiming Me and My rescue mission for My people. And now our new song is directed to Him. We find that new song again in the book of Revelation, as I mentioned earlier. And they sang a new song, the Apostle John saw in his vision, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. The new song. And we will praise Him in the resurrection, that new song, and say, Thank you, King Jesus, for rescuing us from the pit. For You are the righteous King. You are the One of whom the psalm speaks, the One who spoke the psalm, the One of whom the whole scroll speaks. And the new song we will sing will be to Him. That's the song that God has put on your lips today, loved ones. I don't know what kind of a pit you're in today. And I don't know when God will deliver you. But if you are in Jesus Christ, you've been rescued from the greatest pit. You realize that you could be down the Chilean mine, 2,300 feet underneath the earth's surface, not sure if you're going to live. And if you're in Jesus Christ, you are far, far safer than any person, the richest person, in the most comfortable house up on the surface who's not in Jesus Christ because you've been rescued from the pit of hell. Let us tell others of the good things that God has done for us in Jesus. Let's go from this place today rejoicing and singing the new song. Let us give thanks to God every time He lifts us out of even the smallest pit and look back and say, thank you for rescuing me out of that great miry bog. And know even as you approach death, loved ones, even as you approach that day when body and soul shall be separated, that ultimately you will sing those words that we heard in the call to worship from Isaiah 25. On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well-refined, And He will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever. And the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces and the reproach of His people. He will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. It will be said on that day, Behold, this is our God. We have waited for Him that He might save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him. Let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation. With our eye on that day and on the Lord Jesus Christ, may God give us patience by His Spirit to endure the miry bogs of this present evil age. Amen. Our Father in Heaven, we thank You for Your Word and we thank You for the Lord Jesus who descended into hell for us so that we never would. Lord, help us, we pray, to remember Your great promises when we find ourselves in mud and mire and slimy pits that we want to be delivered from. Lord, we pray that we would cry out to You. And we pray, Lord, that we would always recognize that we are right with You, not because of our pledges of obedience, but because of Jesus' perfect obedience. And Lord, that only causes us to praise You more and to pledge to give ourselves as Your servants, as those who willingly desire to obey Your will. Make us people of praise, Lord, and people of patience as we wait for You in the resurrection and to bring us this great salvation that You have promised. We pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.