Good morning. I'd like to welcome you back to our fourth Anchored in the Word morning reflection for this week. And I hope that you've been having a good week. I know it's been brutally hot this week and getting a little bit of a break from the heat, hopefully, as we go into the weekend, it seems. But I just want to encourage you from this passage of Scripture, Psalm 40. And this morning, the word that we're going to remember is the word perspective. And so we've been talking about how God uses circumstances that are difficult to drive us to himself, to shape us into the image of Christ. Well this morning I want us to focus in on how God uses suffering to shape spiritual maturity and ultimately our perspective. So let's go ahead and turn together to this text. It's Psalm 40 and we'll read the first several verses together. Here's what it says, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside unto lies. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward. that cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Well, this morning, as we look at how God takes suffering and uses it to shape our perspective and mature it, I want us to focus in on this statement, blessed is the man. This is a statement that we find a lot in the Bible. In fact, I think of Psalm 1, where he says, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, or standeth in the way of sinners, or sitteth in the sea of the scornful. Or we think about the Sermon on the Mount, where he says that these particular kinds of people are blessed. So blessed are the poor in spirit, and blessed are the merciful, and blessed are the pure in heart. What is the point of that statement, blessed? Well, that word blessed means happy. And we use that term happy, sometimes we kind of make it a little bit too trite. And we need to understand that this word happy is a very rich term which has the idea of rising above circumstance. A person who lives a rich quality of life that goes above circumstance. So even when things are difficult and painful, they are still living a rich quality of life. That is the sense of it. And this kind of a life, rises above circumstances, can only be found in Christ. So if a person's trying to live life without Christ, without the gospel, without a God-oriented life, an ungodly, without God kind of a life, they are not going to experience this rich quality of life that the text is describing. I want you to notice the way that David speaks of his experience in the terms of being a rich person in his quality of life. He saw himself as a blessed man even though he had suffered and failed miserably in that suffering. In verse four he says, blessed is the man that makes the Lord his trust. Now he has to trust the Lord because his circumstances are challenging, painful, difficult. Yet he still refers to himself as a blessed person. Or in verse five he talks about how he is overwhelmed by the incredible ways, the numerous ways, that God has shown his mercy to him. He says, Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done. Thy thoughts which are to usward, they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. David is describing a rich quality of life where he is overwhelmed by God's goodness. In verse number six, he talks about how his religious practice was not superficial. or some just cold, callous formalism. But it was something that he did with an understanding of the significance of it. And let's remember that the sacrificial system was to point people to Christ. It was to point them to the fact that they were sinners, that their sin separates them from God, that God's wrath against their sin is real, and there's a real consequence for sin, and God was providing a substitute that would come that was pictured in those sacrifices. So in verse number six he says, sacrifice an offering thou didst not desire, mine ears hast thou opened, burn offering and sin offering thou hast not required. Now what's he saying? He's saying what you really want is not a dead animal and a blood sacrifice. What you really want is the heart of a person. God was not providing these substitutes for himself. He was providing it for the people to picture for them what was ultimately coming. And so it's not like God had to see this so that he could be happy with the people. They needed to be reminded that there's a coming Savior and it is God's deference and it's God's forbearance holding back his wrath against sin, waiting for the coming Messiah that is being pictured in those things. We also see that when we talk about this, anybody can enjoy what we call a good life when times are good. but can anyone rise above circumstance? The answer is no. Only the Christian can face life's greatest hardships and rise above them in triumph. And this is an important principle for us to remember. Only the Christian can rest in the redemptive value of all circumstances. Only the Christian can do these things. And so what can we take from the study this morning? Well, what we can take from the study this morning is if we're not a Christian, if we've never placed our faith in the finished work of Christ, there's no way that we can experience life the way that the Bible describes it here. It is found only in Christ. And we also, as believers, can take this great comfort that this kind of a life is available to us because we are God's children. By His grace, through resting in His finished work and drawing from the strength that is provided in Christ, we can live a truly rich and blessed life. I hope that that is your experience today. Even if circumstances are difficult, and the things going around you are harsh, I hope that you're rising above those things, resting in God's goodness, and ultimately the position that you have as a Christian. Have a blessed rest of your morning, and Lord willing, we'll meet again tomorrow for our final thoughts for the week. Bye now.