Well, if you're visiting this morning, we're glad that you're here. It's great to see you. We have been working through the book of John. We preach through the Bible verse by verse and been working through the book of John for nearly two years. But we're going to take a pause this morning and resume John next week. We're going to look at Psalm 37. I think it's going to be helpful for us to give us perspective in this particular season that we are in. We are in a different season. We are in different times. That is clear, I think, to all of us. I think back to the year 1984. It seems like such a long time ago. But in 1984, Ronald Reagan was running for presidential re-election. And if elected again, he would be the oldest president up to that point ever elected to the presidency. His challenger was 56-year-old Democrat Walter Mondale, the former vice president, to Jimmy Carter. And in the first debate that happened between the two of them, it seemed like maybe there were some chinks in Reagan's armor, possibly due to his age. And so the Mondale campaign decided they were going to capitalize on that and make that a driving part of Mondale's political campaign. And that's at the next debate, the NBC moderator looking at Reagan, said this statement. He said, you know, President Kennedy had to stay up for several days with very little sleep during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And then he kind of barreled down on Reagan and asked him, he said, is there any doubt in your mind that if faced with a similar crisis, you could do the same thing in regard to your age? And Reagan's response was immediate. He was like, not at all. No concerns. And then he went on to explain why. And then he stopped himself and he said this. He says, you know, I refuse to make age an issue in this presidential campaign. And he went on to say, I refuse to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. Like you, the moderator's trap clearly failed as the audience just burst into laughter, and Mondale likewise burst into laughter as well, genuinely laughing at Reagan's wit and quick humor. And there was just nothing said for a minute as Reagan is sitting there smiling and looking around, and the crowd is rolling with laughter, and Mondale is just looking out at them, laughing good-naturedly with them. Those days of American politics are gone. And it is doubtful they will ever return. We now live in a political climate of fear and anger and divisiveness and hatred and attacking. Millions upon millions of dollars spent upon things that voters largely ignore. How are we to think as Christians about these things? The last election revealed how much hope and trust Christians had put in politics and the political systems. It revealed how much faith they had in people. It revealed how they had married faithfulness with God to faith in people. It revealed how much stock they had put in their cultural comforts. It revealed how little Christians thought about eternity. Anger and despair and hopelessness and refusal to accept reality revealed that Christians' hearts had gotten very misaligned with scripture. And so how are we to think about this upcoming election as Christians? Have we learned from four years ago? Or are we slowly slipping once again into putting our hope in politics and politicians? Are we thinking more biblically now than we were four years ago? How can we move towards echoing these words of Habakkuk? When Habakkuk says, though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, though the labor of the olive may fail, and the fields yield no food, though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. So let's turn this morning to Psalm 37. I think it will be helpful for us. Let's turn to Psalm 37. It's a very long psalm. I'm going to read it in its entirety. We'll begin in verse 1. A Psalm of David. Do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the workers of iniquity, for they shall soon be cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him and He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light and your justice as the noonday. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Do not fret because of Him who prospers in His way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret, it only causes harm. for evildoers shall be cut off. But those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. for yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more. Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. The wicked plots against the just and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and the needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct. Their swords shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the upright, and their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied. But the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away. The wicked borrows and does not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and gives. For those blessed by him shall inherit the earth, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delights in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholds him with his hand. I have been young, and now I am old. Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful and lends, and his descendants are blessed. depart from evil and do good, and dwell forevermore. For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell in it forever. The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of justice. The law of God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide. The wicked watches the righteous and seeks to slay him. The Lord will not leave him in his hand nor condemn him when he is judged. Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt you. Just lost my place. Hold on just a second. Sorry, what? Thank you. I just totally lost my place. Okay, verse 34. Wait on the Lord and keep his way, and he shall exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a native green tree. Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more. Indeed, I sought him, but he could not be found. Mark the blameless land, and observe the upright, for the future of that man is peace. but the transgressors shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off, but the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble, and the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them, because they trust in Him. Now, Psalm 37 is classified as a wisdom psalm. It's a proverbial psalm. And so because of that, we're going to look at it a little, normally we would just move through it, straight through it, verse by verse. But rather, we are going to look at this psalm and the wisdom in this psalm that is from the hand of David and is the inspired word of God and pull from it four principal truths that we need to have as we go into another election. And the theme here is how can we live with peace in times of elections? And so we're gonna pull four principles. The first is this one right here, don't fret. Oh, how Christians fretted after and before the last election. Yet three times we are commanded here in this Psalm, don't fret. Look at verse one. Do not fret because of evil doers. Look at verse 7. Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way. Look at verse 8. Do not fret. It only causes harm. As Christians, we who believe in God, we are not to fret at all. The word fret here means to get heated and kind of simmer deep within with anger. That kind of under the surface kind of boiling that just seems to go up within us. It results in anger and can even move us into wrath. It leads to envy, Psalm 37 says. Becoming envious of what another has. This is a natural human response to the prospering of the wicked and we should acknowledge that. We see a politician wallowing in wealth and steak dinners and his private jet rides and yet saying he can identify with a common person who has no idea what that kind of life is like. We see politicians continually lying and manipulating the system and they get elected. We see the media clearly favoring one candidate, ignoring all of the falsehood and blowing up everything else, and we get frustrated. We see a candidate pretending to care about Christians and going to church as if to say that they believe in Christians and they could care less about the Bible. They could care less about Christ. We see politicians saying they value choices and rights while at the same time supporting legislation that kills over a million babies a year in our country, ignoring their rights altogether. And we see candidates supporting things that not only dismantle the things of God, but also seem to war against those who walk with Christ. And not only that, we now live in a political climate that fosters that and breeds it and thrives on it and indeed functions on it and banks on it. Gone are the days of logic and cool, calm thinking. We shouldn't even call them debates anymore. They should be called toddler rants. We live in a day of following your heart, which simply means following your emotions. And everything in the political climate rides that train. We live in a day of extremes and falsehoods, intentionally designed to make you fret. Here are actual campaign slogans that I have heard on TV or read in flyers. If this person gets elected, women will lose their rights. If this person gets elected, we will lose democracy. If this person gets elected, we will lose all of our public lands. If this person gets elected, you will be stripped of all of your First Amendment rights. Now let's just be honest, those are distorted lies and falsehoods. Extremes spoken to make people fret. Our political climate is one of emotional fretting, and we will hear statements like, I have heard statements like, it's time to get mad. I've heard Christian pastors posting things like that. Or something like this, never has there been more at stake. Really? In the history of mankind? And our media works so hard to produce this fretting in you. And yet God says, don't fret. Don't fret. Don't get angry. Don't be anxious. Don't get worked up. Where will it get you? Well, he answers it. Look at verse eight. Don't fret. Do not fret. It only causes harm. When has fretting over politics resulted in your spiritual well-being? I can answer that for you. Never. When has fretting over issues drawn you to love others better? Not very often. When has fretting over the state of our country resulted in you living more faithfully to the Lord? When has fretting over who gets elected increased your faith in God? The answer is never. Fretting only causes harm, results in harm, and harms relationships. So don't do it. If you're fretting, there's two words, really simple. Stop it. Don't do it anymore. Stop fretting. Or you're disobeying God's word. Can't put it any clearer than that. When we are fretting, we are revealing the idols that are in our heart. We are revealing the things that we are clinging to and worshiping in addition to God. We are wanting God plus something else. God plus a Republican president. God plus a Senate majority. God plus a Supreme Court majority. Now it doesn't mean that we become indifferent, nonchalant, or even fatalistic. We live in a country that kills over a million babies a year. Babies made in the image of God. We live in a country that wants our to help our children change their gender, which is an impossibility, a denial of reality and biology. And they want to do it behind the backs of parents and have parents' taxes pay for it. We live in a country that increasingly sees Christians as a hindrance to society. We have a presidential candidate that supports men playing on women's sports teams and sharing the locker room with women, thus absolutely obliterating women's rights. These are real things that should really bother us. They're wicked things. They're deeply contrary to God's word. But Christian, we can acknowledge these things and be genuinely grieved by things without crossing over into fretting. Could be argued that the rest of the psalm is an argument of why we should not fret. But let's jump to the end of the psalm. Look with me at verse 39. We could sum this up in this way. We don't fret. Because verse 39, the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble, and the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him. So another principle that we need to pull from this psalm in an election year is, secondly, live for the Lord. Live for the Lord. Instead of fretting, we should live for the Lord, and we see several ways in this psalm to do this. First, we should trust in the Lord. Look at verse three. Trust in the Lord and do good. The word trust here means to have faith in God. Believing his promises are true, believing that he will keep his word, believing that he is sovereignly in control. It entails submitting to God and surrendering to him. If God gave you the most wicked president in the history of the world, could you surrender to God and submit to him? That's what this word means, to trust him and live in obedience. It means to rest in him and to wait patiently for him. Look at verse seven, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Look at verse 34, wait on the Lord and keep his way. It means to commit our ways to him, look at verse five. Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. This commit your way to the Lord does not mean that, okay, I'm going to make this decision, I'm going to commit it to Him. Rather, this word commit means to roll your concerns over onto. And so instead of fretting, we roll those concerns that we genuinely have, and we roll those onto the Lord, and we trust in Him, as it says right there. Commit your way, roll those things onto the Lord, trust also in Him. Second, we should dwell on the land and feed on the faithfulness of the Lord. So second way we live for the Lord is we dwell in the land. Look at verse three. Trust in the Lord and do good. Dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord and he shall give you the desires of your heart. In other words, live trusting in the Lord Faithful to Him in whatever land He puts you in, whether that's in Russia, whether that's in Uganda, whether that's in Iran, wherever that may be. Dwell in the land and feed on His faithfulness. I cringe, like, inwardly, when Christians act as if the end of the world is coming because of what's happening in the United States. We need to not do that. Things are getting so bad. Jesus is coming at any time. You know, to my knowledge, they are not hanging Christians up and covering them with oil in Karis Park and using them as lanterns to keep the lights on, on Karis Park. That's not happening, right? That was happening during the reign of Nero in 300 and before. God is sovereign over where you are. Dwell in the land, feed on his faithfulness. He will give you what you need. I think here of Kevin and Lavinia. Kevin used to have Jeremy's job until Jeremy stole it from him. No, I'm just kidding. He didn't steal it. But Kevin felt like the Lord was calling him to Israel. And then he met his beautiful bride there, Lavinia, and now they have two children. And they're living in the midst of a war zone. Missiles flying over their house and bombs going off. And yet he says, we choose to live here and minister here and trust the Lord. That's dwelling in the land and feeding on His faithfulness. Third thing in living for the Lord that we see from this psalm is we should do good where God has planted us. We see this in verse 3, trust in the Lord and do good. But we also see different aspects of this throughout the psalm. So for example, verse 21, show mercy and give. Verse 26, be merciful and lend. Verse 27, depart from evil and do good. In other words, we should live obediently and faithfully to the Lord, doing good in whatever land he puts us in. We see elsewhere in Scripture what this looks like as far as the political realm goes. We should submit to the government. Romans 13, 1, Did you know that whoever wins this election is appointed by God? And so we have to submit and we have to trust. We also see from Scripture that we need to pray for our political leaders, whether we like them or not. So we read this in 1 Timothy 2, 1 through 2. Therefore, I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. There's a lot of Christians who are refusing to live quiet, godly lives right now. Let's not be one of them. Next, elsewhere in scripture, we should honor our political leaders regardless of whether or not we like them. 1 Peter 2, 17, honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. And Peter wasn't writing that at a time when there was good and righteous kings all around them. But this also means that we labor for the good in whatever land God plants us in. Jeremiah 29 should be extremely instructive for us, as we've been reading through the Bible, many of us here in the church. We just finished Jeremiah, we just started Ezekiel. And all through Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, God is telling Israel, I am taking you into exile because of your sin, because of your unrighteousness. and Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, a wicked king and an ungodly, wicked, evil empire is going to take them out of their land and take them into exile. They're not going to Hawaii for exile, okay? This is a king who took Israel's king and brought all of his sons before him and killed them all in front of his eyes and then ripped out the king's eyes so that the last thing he ever saw was his sons being murdered. This is the political leader at this time. But notice what God says to them. He says this, so that they may bear sons and daughters, that you may be increased there and not diminished." Now notice what he says next, keeping in mind this is a very wicked king and a very wicked people and wicked land. He says, and seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive and pray to the Lord for it. For in its peace you will have peace. You see the same themes there of Psalm 37? Dwell in the land. Feed on the faithfulness of the Lord. Do good in this land for that wicked land. Do good to them and pray for them. Seek their peace. It's a shocking, astounding text. It should be very instructive to our hearts. Forthing and living through the Lord that we see in this psalm. Speak words that are wise and just and faithful to God's word. Look at verse 30. The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom and his tongue talks of justice. As Christians, our voices should not be ringing out on Facebook or social media, fretting and slandering and mocking those whom we disagree with. Nor should we be going on the attack and running with conspiracy theories. We should have words of wisdom, words of justice. friend of mine who is a pastor recently posted something on Facebook about another evangelical conservative pastor that this pastor had supposedly said we should be voting, the time has come to vote for this liberal candidate. And he had the quote there and then underneath it my friend had posted, I don't know if he actually said this or not. If I can find out whether or not he said it, if he hasn't said it, then I'll pull it down. I just thought, how foolish are you, brother? You don't even know if he said that and you're putting it online and slandering him. It's not wise. Just one thought here under speaking words that are wise and just. We currently, and God did not have to make it this way, but we currently live in a culture where we can, in a very small way, speak words of wisdom through voting. And so I think as Christians, it is our responsibility to vote. And at the same time, if we lived in a culture where that was taken away, we would have to still submit to God. Well, fifth and finally, under this theme of living for God, have the law of God in your heart. Look at verse 31. The law of God, of his God is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide, or that word can also mean to stumble. One of the reasons so many Christians were fretting four years ago is because God's word was just simply not in their hearts. They did not know how to think biblically. They had not read through the Bible and seen how God works through all kinds of political leaders. If you want to avoid fretting and live for the Lord, have God's word hidden in your heart. How can you possibly live faithfully to God if God's word is not in your heart? You can't. God's Word is not in your heart. This verse says, you will slip, you will stumble. Either into despair or fear, or you will stumble into unbiblical positions. So maybe, just maybe, read a little more of the Bible and a little less of the news. Now what's the result of living for the Lord? Well, look at verse 37. Mark the blameless man, and observe the upright, for the future of that man is peace." Do you want to have peace in an election year, regardless of who gets elected? Live for the Lord. Trust in Him. Walk in His way. There's another text that I think Christians would do well to study and think deeply about. It's in Luke chapter 20. Jesus is being questioned by the religious leaders. And they say, should we pay taxes to Caesar or not? Now you need to understand, this was a time in which the Romans had a lot of taxes on the Jews, and the Jews hated it. They despised the taxes. And so they thought, if we ask Jesus this, he's stuck. Because if he says, yes, you should pay taxes, all the Jews are gonna be in an uproar. And if he says, no, don't pay taxes, then we can just simply have Rome sweep him away. It's a perfect trick. And Jesus says, bring me a denarius. And they do, and he says, whose inscription is on that? And they say, Caesar. And what does Jesus say? You know it. Give to Caesar that which is Caesar's, and to God which that is God's. Now think about that for a second point, for a minute. Did Rome use the Jews' taxes to only do good and righteous things? Were the Ten Commandments plastered all over Roman civil buildings? No. Jesus did not say, freak out about what Rome is doing with your taxes. No, he said, give to Caesar what's Caesar's, and to God what's God's. Live for the Lord, dwell in the land, feed on his faithfulness. It's a very instructive text from our Lord and Savior Jesus there. Third principle that we glean from Psalm 37 of how to have peace in elections is this. Trust God's sovereign justice. Trust God's sovereign justice. We shouldn't fret because right now, at this very moment, God is exercising his sovereign justice. When we fret over politics and we fret over elections, we are functioning as if God has ceased to be on the throne and he is no longer exercising sovereign justice. We function as if God is up in heaven just wringing his hands saying, oh my goodness, what in the world happened to the United States? I got them started so good and I just, they slipped in my hand, I don't know what to do now. God is not in heaven doing that. But we function like that. When we fret, we are either saying God is not sovereign and wise or we are saying He is not good and He doesn't do good things. Both positions worthy of a stern rebuke. But it's tempting to fret when we see wicked people thriving. and wickedness thriving. Many of you know my favorite comic strip is Calvin and Hobbes. There's so much instruction. There's great worldview in Calvin and Hobbes. And this one, I used to use it when I taught high school Bible all the time. I always had Calvin and Hobbes on the screen. And this one particular comic strip, in the first, it's a three-panel strip. This one is. And Calvin's on the swings at playground, right? And Moe is the schoolyard bully, if you know Calvin and Hobbes. And Moe comes up, and he says, get off the swing, Twinkie. And Calvin says, wait your turn, Mo, just like everybody else. And the middle panel shows Mo just punching Calvin right off the swings. And the final panel is Calvin's laying there in the dust, and he's all beat up. And he says, you know, it's really hard to be religious when certain people aren't incinerated by bolts of lightning. We feel like that sometimes, don't we? But there's much to see here in this psalm regarding God's sovereign justice. First thing that we need to see here is God is not in any way threatened. Look at verse 12. This 12 through 15 could be a sermon in and of itself. The wicked plots against the just and gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, for he sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword and have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy, to slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart and their bows shall be broken. How concerned is God about the wicked and the threat of the wicked? He laughs at them. Four years ago, I preached through Psalm 2 after the election. Psalm 2 says, Why do the nations rage, and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, that's Christ there, saying, Let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us. They're all united against God, and God sits in the heavens, and He laughs. The Lord shall hold them in derision. Likewise, Psalm 59, 7 through 8. Indeed, they belch with their mouth, swords are in their lips, for they say, who hears? But you, O Lord, shall laugh at them. You shall have all the nations in derision. They are not a threat to God. He laughs. Second. Part of God's sovereign justice, he will destroy the wicked. Look at verse 20. Verse 20, we read this. The wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the Lord, like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away. Look at verse 9. For evildoers shall be cut off. Look at verse 38. The transgressors shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off. The wicked will not last. They may look strong, they may look powerful, they may look influential, and they may look like they can do significant damage, but they will not last. They are temporary. Indeed, this is a sub-theme of this psalm. The wicked and the wickedness that they bring is temporary. It's temporary. Look at verse 10. for yet a little while, and the wicked shall be no more. Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, but it shall be no more. Look over at verse 35. I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a native grain tree. In other words, it just seems like they're taking over everything. Yet he passed away, and behold, he was no more. Indeed, I sought him, but he could not be found. They may flower for a time, but they will be cut off. Where is Stalin now? Where is Hitler now? Where is Nebuchadnezzar now? Where are the Babylonians now? Where are the Assyrians now? Where is Pharaoh now? Gone. God is sovereign over all nations and leaders. earlier Blaine read from Acts 17 and later in Acts 17, we read this in verse 26. He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth and has determined their pre-appointed times and boundaries of their dwellings. You see what that verse is saying? God has appointed boundaries and times of nations. Jonathan Lehman writes this in his book on authority. He says, I believe this is why God determines not merely the boundaries of nations, but their allotted periods or duration. Act 1726. By his common grace, he employs a nation and its government for a season to do their work, yet eventually their denial of him leads to injustices that require their removal. This is the biblical story of nation after nation. Our nation has a timeline in God's history. And He's sovereign over the nations, and He's sovereign over our nation. We read in Psalm 33, the Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, His plans of His heart to all generations. Likewise, Daniel says in Daniel 2.21, and he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings. He raises up kings. Jeremiah 27. Again, a fascinating, instructive text for us. I have made the earth. the man and the beast, God speaking here, that are on the ground, by my great power and by my outstretched arm and have given it to whoever seemed proper to me." Now notice what he goes on to say in this context, next verse, and now, I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, my servant And the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him. Again, not because Nebuchadnezzar was a righteous man. He was a wicked, evil king. But in God's sovereign purposes and plan, he says, I am giving this all to Nebuchadnezzar right now. He is sovereign. And God will execute his sovereign justice in his time. One thing that's really stood out to me as we've been reading Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, is how God takes so seriously justice and righteousness. If God was willing to do to Israel what he did to punish them for their wickedness and unrighteousness, what makes us think that we will escape his sovereign justice for our nation's wickedness and injustices? Do you think God won't respond to a people who deny Him at their very core of gender? Where He has specifically said He has made them, male and female, made Him He did in His image? Do you think that God won't respond to a culture that destroys marriage? You think that God is indifferent to our nation killing over a million babies a year? Estimates are at that in the last 50 years we have killed 65 million babies in our nation alone. And that's a very rough estimate because we actually don't know. Listen, the abortion issue is really pretty simple. Don't be intimidated by it. Three simple things. If the unborn is growing, then it must be alive, right? And if it has human parents, then it must be human, right? And living humans like you and I are valuable, aren't they? Don't they have value? It's a very simple issue. It's our sin and selfishness that has driven us away from simple truth. And sometimes I'm just amazed at how Christians think God should just be pouring out His blessings on our country while we continue as a country in this kind of wickedness. Third thing with God's sovereign justice. God loves justice. Look at verse 28. For the Lord loves justice and does not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked shall be cut off. God loves justice. He will bring justice to the wicked and he will justify the righteous. He will not deliver the wicked. He will deliver the righteous. The wicked will be cut off, but the righteous will be eternally preserved. He loves justice. And finally, in God's sovereign justice, all will be made right. Look with me again at verse 37. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together. The future of the wicked shall be cut off. But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord. He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him. God will make all things right. And friends, your desired politician, your desired elected officials can never make things right. Even if you got all of your political dreams satisfied in a week and a half, they will not make all things right. They can't. They might do some things good, but they can't make it all right. Only God can. And thus we must trust in Him and trust in His sovereign justice if we are going to have peace. Well, the last point that we need to see here, and how do we have peace in time of election, is to know the future. We know the future. Because God has told us some things, even in this psalm. First, three things out of this, knowing the future. First, until the return of Christ, there will be difficulties in this life. Look at verse 19. they shall not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied." The implication there is Christians are going to live in evil times. We need to accept that. And there will be times of famine. There will be times of hardship. We need to accept that. Likewise, look at verse 24. Though he fall, the righteous, the good man, The one who trusts in the Lord, he shall not be utterly cast down, but the Lord upholds him with his hand. But there will be times he will fall. There will be times he will stumble. He will struggle. He will have difficulty. We're not promised heaven right now. And I think one of the reasons Christians have been fretting so much over the last several years is they actually want heaven right now. And they want the blessings of heaven now. And God isn't going to give it to us now, because Christ hasn't returned. The difficulties of life, though, this psalm says, will not destroy us, because God upholds us. Look again at verse 40. The Lord shall help them and deliver them. He shall deliver them from the wicked and save them, because they trust in Him. Second thing we know about the future, just from this psalm. There will be no more wickedness. The wicked will be cut off, and not only will they be cut off, we will see it. Look at verse 9. Look at verse 22. Look at verse 34. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it. There is a day coming when there will be no more suffering because there will be no more sin and no more wickedness. They will be cut off and believers will see it. Those who trust in the Lord Jesus will see it. We read in Revelation 21.8, the cowardly, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. And the only way, if you're in that category right now, the only way to escape that category is trusting in Jesus Christ. Because Jesus alone took your sins. And you can be forgiven and cleansed and made righteous and counted as the righteous when you trust in Christ and the work that Christ has done on the cross. Otherwise, the lake that burns with fire is the future. Third principle we need to know about the future that we see in this psalm, we will inherit the earth. We will inherit the earth. Five times in this psalm we read that God's people inherit the earth. Look at verse 9 again. Those who wait on the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. Verse 11, the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace. Look at verse 22. Those who are blessed by him shall inherit the earth. Verse 29, the righteous shall inherit the land and dwell in it forever. Verse 34, wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt you to inherit the land. Five times he says that. And I don't think David here is simply talking about the land of Israel. I think that's far too short sighted. First, David is writing at a time when Israel already is in their land. Second, Hebrews points us to something greater than a small strip of land in the Middle East. We read in Hebrews 11, 15 through 16. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is a heavenly country. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. Third, Jesus says we will inherit the earth. In Matthew 5, verse 5, blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Peter says, we will inherit the earth. Nevertheless, we, 2 Peter 3.13, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. And lastly, Revelation says we will inherit the earth. Revelation 21 verse 1 and verse 7. The psalmist is driving into our hearts, don't fret about this land. because you're going to inherit the earth. None of us in heaven will be sitting there in the new earth saying, boy, I wish we could go back to 1950 in the United States. That was the best time of our lives. No, the best time in our nation's history would be awful compared to the heavens and new earth. The problem with fretting over elections is having a tiny perspective of eternity. We're going to inherit the earth. So friends, as we face another election, each one seemingly more ramped up than the previous one. Let's face it with confidence in our God, confidence in his promises. We must trust in his sovereign plan without falling prey to fatalism. There are some truly concerning things Christians need to think very carefully about and speak wisely about. That's absolutely true. We must think biblically. We must stand for truth and we must stand against evil. But let's not go forward putting our full and complete hope in an election result or a certain candidate. Our hope has to be in God. You know how much impact this election is going to have on the new heavens and new earth? None. At all. If anything, it will only make the new earth that much sweeter. It won't affect it. And this land God has us in is not our land. Peter writes that you need to think of yourselves as pilgrims and aliens and strangers, because this is not our home. We are but passing through this moment of history, and we have an eternal home where we will inherit the earth and dwell there with no more sin, no more sorrow, nor more wickedness, no more evil, dwelling there with our sovereign Lord Jesus, who is our eternal King. We will dwell there with one another in perfect love and in perfect harmony, and we will dwell there forever with no fear at all. And until that day, let us dwell in the land God has us, feeding on his faithfulness and delighting in him. Remembering verse 34, wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt you to inherit the land. Let's pray. Father God, we are so grateful that we serve a God who is sovereign, who is all. The way in always in control. That you have sovereign plans and none can thwart it. And so, Lord, help us to surrender to you and to submit to you. Help us to remember the things that we've seen from this song as we go into the next. couple weeks here that are just difficult. Help us to not fall prey to fretting. As you command us, don't fret. And thus, when we fret, we're sinning. So help us not to do that. Instead, help us, as we saw, to live for you. To dwell in this land that you've put us in, to do good, to live loving our neighbors. to live in peace and joy, trusting in you. Let us live, demonstrating that our hope is not in this world. I pray that when people look at us, they wouldn't just see another group of religious people fretting and freaking out, but rather that they would see a group of people who clearly trust a good, wise, sovereign, loving God. And Lord, we ask that you'd help us to use words of wisdom and justice. Help us to delight in you. Help us when we're tempted to fret to roll those cares upon you. Help us, Lord, to remember your sovereign justice right now. You are exercising your sovereign justice. We don't know what that is, but you do and we can trust in you. And help us to live, Lord, knowing the future. The fact that there will be evil times, there will be famine, there will be struggles. But we also know the wicked will be cut off and wickedness will be cut off. And we also know. That there is a new heavens and new earth awaiting for those who trust in you. And that that's the kingdom we're to live for. So, Lord God, would you help us in these things? Grow us in our trust in you. We might love you more and love each other better. And Lord, we do pray for this election. We do recognize there are some serious things on the line. And we do pray that righteousness would prevail. We do pray that you would restrain evil. But regardless of what happens, help us to live trusting you. Finding our joy in you, that as we saw, we might have peace. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.