Amen. I invite you to take your copy of scripture this morning and turn to Psalm 114. As you're turning there, I just want to mention again, I know it's been mentioned a couple of times in our service already, but I just want to join the chorus and encourage you as we will be approaching Easter in the weeks to come, to use these outreach cards to invite folks to come and be a part of our Good Friday service. our Easter service on that Sunday morning, April 20th. So great way to invite neighbors and friends and others that you know to come and be a part of what the Lord is doing here at Crawford and to hear the gospel. As you're turning to Psalm 114, we have been in a series in the psalms, and we're just working through the psalms consecutively. I do maybe five to ten psalms at a time, and I'll do maybe a series once a year. Over the years, we've just been kind of working through, and right now we're in a series where we've been working through the psalms for several weeks, and we come to Psalm 114. I'll begin reading for us in verse one. I'll read the psalm in its entirety, and then we'll consider God's word together. Psalm 114, beginning in verse 1. When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a place of strange language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea looked and fled. Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Amen. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, Your Word is always full of fresh insights and new things for us to see. And Lord, we thank You that we are able this morning as Your people to turn to Your Word again. And we thank You that there are new and fresh things for us to see in this passage this morning. And Father, we praise you that as we turn to your word, that it is in fact you speaking to us. That you reveal yourself to us, that you speak to us through your word. And we pray that you would do that now. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen. Well, is there anything in your life right now that seems to be overwhelming? Impossible? insurmountable. I see smiles on some faces. Perhaps it is a health issue or a broken relationship. Maybe it's a financial difficulty. or family trouble, perhaps it's a personal sin that you've been battling for some time. And maybe there's a little smile on your face right now because you're just thinking about that. It hit, it struck. Yes, that thing seems impossible. When Pharaoh enslaved the people of God in Egypt, Israel found themselves in such a situation. They found themselves in a situation that seemed beyond repair and hopeless. But Psalm 114, which I just read, is a psalm of praise. It's a psalm of praise celebrating God's deliverance of His people. Years ago, Ed Welch wrote a book entitled, When People are Big and God is Small. Maybe you've heard of that book before, When People are Big and God is Small. It's a book about the fear of man, and the title describes that experience that we've probably all known in our lives, when other people's opinions of us seem in our own minds and hearts really, really big. And what God thinks about us seems small or tiny. And that's not a good place to be. And so Ed Welch was writing that book to address that issue. What we see here in Psalm 114, though, is that Psalm 114 is written for any time that we might experience when a trial seems big and huge and large and gigantic in our own minds and hearts. And God seems small and tiny and inconsequential. Psalm 114 wants to reverse that perspective in our own minds, so that God and His saving presence grows larger and larger in our own minds and hearts, and our trials and our difficulties shrink. I've entitled our message this morning, Our Happy Confidence in the Saving Presence of the Lord. our happy confidence in the saving presence of the Lord. You see, there is this theme that consistently is repeated and emerges in Psalm 114, and it is the theme of the awesome and saving presence of the Lord. And as this theme is repeated and as it builds throughout the psalm, the psalmist intends for our own confidence in the Lord to build, to grow, and for us to join Him in trusting and praising the Lord. As we turn to our psalm, I do want to say just a brief word about the structure of the psalm. So the psalm possesses here a really nice and satisfying symmetry. So there are actually four stanzas in Psalm 114. If you look at your English Bibles and if your English Bibles break up the psalm according to its poetic structure, you can see those four stanzas in your English Bibles. Each stanza is represented in two verses, and each stanza includes four lines. So, the first stanza is verses one and two, which has four lines. The second stanza is verses three and four, which has four lines. The third stanza is verses five and six, which has four lines. And the fourth and final stanza is verses 7 and 8, which also includes four lines. And so this structure provides us with a really nice outline for our sermon this morning. First, we will consider God's exodus in verses 1 and 2. Secondly, creation described in verses 3 and 4. Third, creation taunted in verses 5 and 6. And fourth, creation trembles in verses 7 and 8. First of all, consider God's exodus in verses one and two. Look there in the text. The psalmist writes, when Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. Now, Psalm 114 is actually the second psalm in what is known as the Egyptian Hillel Psalms. I mentioned this last week. The Egyptian Hillel Psalms span from Psalm 113 to Psalm 118. And these songs were sung during the Passover. The Passover, of course, was a celebration of God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt, in particular from Egyptian bondage and slavery. And so they would sing two of these psalms before Passover, and then four of the psalms would be sung after Passover. Strangely enough, though, in the Egyptian Hillel Psalms, there is actually only one psalm that explicitly makes reference to the Exodus. And it's here in Psalm 114. We just read it in verse 1. when Israel went out from Egypt. Now the word Exodus actually means going out. It means to depart. And here we have a specific reference to the Exodus in verse 1, when Israel went out from Egypt. And then you notice in the second line we read, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language. Now the house of Jacob here is just another reference to Israel. You may know this, but Jacob was the father of Israel, and God changed his name from Jacob to Israel. So this is just another reference to Israel here. The house of Jacob from a people of strange language. And who are the people of a strange language? That's the Egyptians, because they didn't speak the language of God's people. They didn't speak Hebrew. So this, again, is a reference to the Exodus. Now, the Exodus occurred about 1500 BC, so about 1500 years before Christ was born. Of course, there are some people who question whether the Exodus ever occurred. They question the biblical account, whether it was true or not. But we know from the scriptures that it did occur. And actually, last fall, the Gospel Coalition wrote an article, or there was someone who wrote an article for the Gospel Coalition, and the article was entitled, Is the Exodus a Myth? In the article, this scholar, Titus Kennedy, who's a biblical archaeologist, briefly shared some of the archaeological evidence that supports the Bible's account of the Exodus. He mentions things like the fact that there's archaeological evidence that a people identified as Hebrews did, in fact, reside in Egypt prior to the Exodus. He also mentions evidence of widespread enslavement of a Semitic people during this time, and the Hebrews were a Semitic people. He mentions archeological evidence that refers to a pharaoh of a Hebrew exodus. He also mentions historical references to the wanderings of these people after they left Egypt, and references to their later settlement in the land of Canaan, which all coincides with the biblical account of the Exodus. I'm not going to get into this much further at this time or really pursue this anymore at this time, but if you're interested in this subject, you can go online to the Gospel Coalition and look up this article entitled, Is the Exodus a Myth? But notice there in verse 2, the psalmist goes on to speak after the exodus, the psalmist goes on to speak of the unique relationship that God established with His redeemed people. You see it there in verse 2. Judah became His sanctuary. Israel, His dominion. Now again, Judah, and this is poetic, right? He's changing terms to refer to the same people because he's doing poetic things here. And so Judah here is actually another reference to Israel, to the people of God. Judah was one of the 12 tribes of Israel, and the city of Jerusalem was located in Judah. And of course, it was eventually the city of Jerusalem where God's temple would dwell. where God would specifically dwell with His people in His temple. And it was in the city of Jerusalem that God would rule over His people through King David and through King David's line. But notice here what the psalmist is saying. God's people became God's sanctuary. That is, the place where God would dwell. And God's people became God's dominion. That is, the place where God would rule and He would reign. And this is exactly what the Lord said of His people after He delivered them from Egypt. When they were delivered from Egypt, they made their way to Mount Sinai. And the first thing that God said to Moses when they came to Mount Sinai is recorded in Exodus chapter 19. And this is what God says to Moses in reference to his people at Mount Sinai. He says of his people, you shall be to me a kingdom of priests. That is a sanctuary, right? Priests minister and serve in a sanctuary, in a temple. And a holy nation. That is, they shall be his dominion. These are the people over which he will rule and reign. So this is the story of the Exodus. This is what the psalmist is celebrating here. The story of God delivering His people from Egypt and making these former oppressed slaves His sanctuary, His dominion, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Now you may say to yourself, well wow, that's amazing that God would take this enslaved and oppressed people that He would miraculously deliver them and save them. And then, of all things, He would choose to dwell among them. He would choose them to be His people and dwell among them and rule and reign over them. And if that's your response, that's a good response. That's an appropriate response. But my friends, understand, if you're a Christian this morning, if you've trusted in the Lord Jesus, then God has done a similar and even greater work of redemption in your own life and for us as his people. Listen to the words of Peter in 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10. But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood. There it is. A holy nation, there it is again, a people for His own possession that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. See, what Peter is saying to us there in these verses, he's speaking to Christians, he's speaking to the church. And what he's saying to us is, you have been delivered from sin and death by the act of God's saving power. And in Christ, you are His sanctuary. You are a royal priesthood. In other words, God dwells in us and He dwells among us by His Spirit. And not only that, but in Christ we are His dominion. We are a holy nation so that God now rules and reigns over us in the person of His Son, the Lord Jesus. This is our story of redemption. This is our story of salvation. God has redeemed us and saved us. He has chosen to dwell in us and among us by His Spirit. He's chosen to rule over us in Christ. We are His sanctuary, His dominion, His people. Now notice that the psalmist goes on then after he speaks of this act of salvation and deliverance through the exodus. Notice that the psalmist goes on there in verses 3 and 4 to our second point, which is creation described. Look there in verses 3 and 4. The sea looked and fled. Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. So let's just follow the psalmist's flow of thought here. So in verse 1, we have a reference to the Exodus. Then in verse 2, we have a reference to God taking up residence with His people and dwelling among them and ruling over them. And now in verse 3, we have a reference to God halting the waters of the Jordan River. Now, this is distinct from the exodus. If you're using the exodus in broader, general terms, you can maybe think of it as all of these things kind of together as one big event. But if you think about it more specifically, the exodus happens, and then what's being referred to here takes place about 40 years later. So when the exodus happens, you might remember Pharaoh and his army are chasing the people of God as they're going out from Egypt, and the Red Sea is before them, and God parted the Red Sea so that they could pass through on dry ground. But then it was about 40 years later, and we read of this in Joshua chapter 4, when the people of God are ready to enter into the promised land, the land of Canaan, that God parts the Jordan River. and they go through on dry ground. And that's what's being referred to here. You see it there in the text in verse 3, the sea looked and fled, Jordan turned back. And then in verse 4, where he speaks of the mountains and the hills, this may be a general reference to the response of mountains and hills, a poetic way to speak of this, of the mountains and the hills responding at the time of the Exodus or the time of the crossing of the Jordan. Or it may be a more specific reference to Israel's experience at Mount Sinai. The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like rams. And many people believe it is more of a specific reference to Mount Sinai because we read things like this in Exodus chapter 19, verses 18 and 19. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. Referring to the same event, the author of Hebrews records, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I tremble with fear. Now, what should go without saying, but needs to clearly be acknowledged here as we consider these verses, is that seas and rivers and mountains and hills are not easily moved. But what we see in our text is that at the decisive moment of God's deliverance, the seas flee. The rivers turn back. The mountains and the hills skip. It's as though all of creation is falling over itself to make way for the Lord and for His salvation. And what the psalmist wants us to get here, kind of the idea that's being conveyed, is that when God determines to deliver His people, nothing will stand in His way. Creation will bow. The waters will give way. The mountains and the hills will surrender. God will move all of heaven and earth, if necessary, to redeem His people. And the remarkable thing is that He has, not only in the exodus, not only in the conquest of Canaan, but, my friends, in the greater redemptive work of His Son, the Lord Jesus. What we see in the Old Testament is that these major events of God's salvation and deliverance where He intervenes to save His people, there is an effect upon creation. So that the seas part, the Jordan halts, Mount Sinai shakes. And then when we come to the greatest of God's acts of redemption, The death of his son on the cross and his resurrection from the dead, we see a similar effect upon creation. When Jesus was crucified, Matthew records in Matthew chapter 27 that there was an earthquake and that the rocks split and tombs were opened, which makes sense because many of the tombs in that day were covered by rocks or by stones. And it was in the middle of the day and Matthew tells us that darkness fell upon the whole land for three hours. And then in Matthew chapter 28, the next chapter when Matthew records the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, he records again that there was an earthquake on the day of His resurrection. In other words, it was again as though creation was falling all over itself. As the Lord moved to redeem his people by the atoning death of his son and his glorious resurrection from the dead. This is what the psalmist is describing here in verses 3 and 4. Creation's response to the awesome and saving presence of the Lord. Now notice third, as we move to the third stanza, notice that creation is taunted, creation taunted. So we've seen God's redemption or God's exodus, then we've seen creation described, and now creation taunted. Look there in verses five and six. What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like lambs, or rams? O hills, like lambs? Now, if you look at verses 3 and 4, which we just considered a few moments ago, and you look at verses 5 and 6, you'll notice that there are a number of parallels between the two. So in verses 3 and 4, we have the sea, the Jordan, the mountains, and the hills. And we are told by the psalmist that they fled, they turned back, and they skipped. Now as you look at the verses that we're considering on this point, verses 5 and 6, again you see repeated the sea, the Jordan, the mountains, and the hills. But the obvious distinction between verses 3 and 4 and verses 5 and 6 is that in 3 and 4 you have declarations describing how creation responded to the saving presence of the Lord. And now in verses 5 and 6, those declarations are turned into questions. And it's as though the psalmist is having a good tease. He's poking at creation. He's taunting creation. In fact, the opening words of verse 5, which is translated in my English translation of the ESV, the English Standard Version of the Bible, is translated, what ails you? Literally it reads, what to you? Or we could translate it as, what's up with you? What's up with you, creation? What's up with you that you are backing off, that you are running away, that you are tripping over yourself and skipping like little farm animals? It's as though the psalmist is having a tease with creation. He's taunting creation. and her response to God's awesome saving power. We've all heard children tease one another after they won a close victory, or perhaps we've all seen as well a collegiate or professional athlete celebrate a hard-fought victory over a rival. And hopefully these celebrations are done in good taste and with respect. As I was thinking about this point this last week, I came across an example. I'm not a soccer fan in particular, but soccer fans are known, and I respect soccer fans for their great love and passion for the sport. And as I understand it, one of the most well-known and memorable celebrations of a soccer victory took place in 2017 when the famous soccer player Lionel Messi scored a goal for Barcelona to beat Real Madrid 3 to 2. And it was like at the very end of the game. And the announcer Ray Hudson was caught up in the moment and he began to rave. And I won't do it as long as he did, because it was kind of long. Again, the menacing man arrives and sinks his flaming spear into the hearts of the real Madrid. Astonishing from Messi. Beautiful counterattack. All the pieces falling into place. Messi, born in the crossfire hurricane, and he is jumping Jack Flash right here. Amazing football. Messi, you could put a tarantula into his shorts and he'd still be cool. Messi catapults it home. Majestic football in the end to pull this out of the fire. I didn't do it justice. But he got carried away. And that's what we do, don't we? That's how an amazing, surprising, astonishing victory affects us. And that's what we see happening in Psalm 114. In a similar way, the psalmist is gloating over the Lord's great salvation and victory and how it has affected creation. As even heaven and earth flees from the presence of the Lord so that he might redeem his people. And as I've pointed out before as we've been walking through the Psalm, this is not even, as we think of the Exodus, the greatest of the Lord's victories for His people. God, again, has won even a greater victory through the death and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus. And we see a similar response from the Apostle Paul as he reflects upon God's salvation in Christ. So when we turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul is considering God's victory over death in Christ. And Paul does not taunt creation, but he turns to death, our ultimate and final enemy. And Paul taunts death. Paul taunts death. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? My friends, I am convinced Then in our battle against Satan, and in our battle against sin, there is a godly place for faith-filled, Spirit-empowered taunting. Martin Luther, the great Protestant reformer, actually sets us an example. He knew well the joys and the benefits of godly taunting. Luther advised, actually, at one point, that when we are tempted by Satan, we should respond, quote, be gone, foul devil. I have been baptized. I have God's word and command on my side. I will not listen to your suggestions, but will trust in what God has said, end of quote. At other times, Luther scoffed at the devil, refusing to take him too seriously because he is a defeated foe. Luther would sneer, quote, why do you plague me, you loathsome spirit? Go eat dung, end of quote. Or, when Satan accuses us of sin and causes us to question God's love for us, Luther suggests, quote, when the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus. I admit that I deserve a death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means, for I know one who suffered and made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also." Friends, from the example of the psalmist, from the example of the apostle Paul, from the example of Luther, the Protestant reformer, I believe we have something to learn about walking with a fresh joyfulness and boldness in the victory that Christ has won for us. Sometimes it would do us well rather than to cower before our temptations and Satan's rather than to cower before our daily trials and discouragements, to rather treat them as the defeated foes that they are, and even to taunt and ridicule them. What's up with you, you defeated foe? I have been crucified with Christ. My old man is dead and gone. I've been given the Spirit. I'm a new man in Christ. And God loves me and is committed to me eternally so that nothing will stand against me ultimately in the end. But either He will see me through or He will see me over, but He will deliver me in the end. The psalmist here, with great joyful confidence in the Lord and boldness, celebrates the victory of the Lord and taunts creation, which stood at the moment, stood in the way of God's redemption, a sea before them, a river before them, but had to flee at the saving and awesome presence of the Lord. Fourth and finally, we see that creation trembles. Creation trembles. Look there in verses 7 and 8. This is the only command given in the text, and it's directed to the earth. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Now, as we think about the verses that we just looked at, verses 5 and 6, We said that verses 5 and 6 are a taunt. The psalmist is taunting creation. And at the same time, we need to recognize that the questions that are asked in verses 5 and 6 are legitimate questions. I mean, for real, why did the Red Sea part? Why did the Jordan halt and cease to flow? Why did Mount Sinai shake? This is abnormal phenomenon. These are questions that should be answered, and the psalmist provides us with the answer in verse 7. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. The psalmist asks the questions in verses 5 and 6. Why did you flee? Why did you stop? Why did you part? Why did you shake or tremble? And the answer is found in verse 7. And he says it twice, right, so that we won't miss it. It's the presence of the Lord. It's the presence of the God of Jacob, which is, again, another way of saying the presence of the God of Israel. And do you know that this is actually the first direct reference that is made to the Lord in the psalm? So there is, if you go back to verse 2, there is a reference to His sanctuary and His dominion. But even there, the psalmist chooses to use a pronoun rather than make a direct reference to God or to the Lord. Now this is quite a contrast to the psalm that we looked at last week. Because last week we looked at Psalm 113. And if you remember, Psalm 113 is filled with references to the Lord and to the name of the Lord. In fact, in Psalm 113, the name of the Lord, Yahweh, is used eight times. It's over and over and over again. But here in Psalm 114, we're almost to the end of the psalm, and we're basically, we've got just a little bit more to go. And all the way up to this point, the Lord's name has not been specifically used. Not until now. It's like the psalmist has been building this tension. The psalmist has described the salvation that Israel experienced. The psalmist described the effect that that salvation had on creation, but he's not yet directly revealed the source of Israel's salvation until now. And the source of Israel's salvation, the cause of creation fleeing and retreating and skipping when God worked his salvation, is the presence of the Lord, the presence of the God of Jacob. And now the psalmist instructs all of creation to tremble, to quake, to writhe before his awesome and saving presence. And as much as the psalmist desires for creation, that creation would sense the awesome and saving presence of the Lord, and that creation as a result would tremble before his presence, as much as the psalmist desires that, he desires that we, the redeemed people of God, would sense the awesome and saving presence of the Lord. And we would trust him. And we would praise him. And we would recognize that there is nothing too difficult or impossible or hard for Him. That there is no water that is too deep. There is no mountain that is too high. It sounds like a song, doesn't it? There are no obstacles that are too great. There is no sin that's too entangling. There is no path that is too difficult, that God cannot either deliver us out of it or see us through it. And notice that not only is He able to deliver us, but this is where the psalmist ends. He is able to sustain us and provide for us along the journey. You see it there in verse 8, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Now, of course, this provision is miraculous. God is making a pool of water out of a rock, a spring of water from a flint, which a flint is just a particularly brittle or hard rock. And so what the psalmist does here in Psalm 114 is he starts with the exodus, and God's deliverance of his people from Egypt, and he ends with the Lord's miraculous provision of water for his people in the wilderness as they're journeying through the wilderness. Now this is important because we need to understand that when God delivers us, when he saves us, that's not the end of the story. When He delivers us and He saves us, He puts us on a path, on a way. And we must journey that path. We must journey that way. And here the psalmist is promising that in that path and on that journey, God is able to provide. He's able to sustain. In the same way that He's saved and delivered by His awesome saving presence, He is able to sustain and provide for you as you follow Him by His awesome saving presence. I suspect there are some here this morning who are weary, who are thirsty, who are discouraged or who are tired. And the psalmist would have us know this morning that the saving presence of the Lord not only redeems and delivers, but the saving presence of the Lord is able to provide and sustain. Augustine, one of the early church fathers, he goes on to remind us that as we think about this psalm and as we think about the saving presence of the Lord, it should not only cause us to look back and to rejoice, It should not only cause us to trust God's saving presence for our present trials, but it should also cause us to look forward to God's saving presence as our hope for eternal redemption. Listen to the words of Augustine. He writes, and this is in reference to Psalm 114, quote, When we hear these words, we should not suppose that past events only are being related to us, but rather understand that the future is being foretold." So what Augustine is saying is that there's a pattern here in Psalm 114. God works and redeems. He moves in decisive ways to save and redeem his people. It affects creation in physical and demonstrable ways as God's saving presence intervenes to redeem his people. And that this is a pattern that we see in the Bible that is then ultimately will be fulfilled. in our eternal redemption and when God finally saves us. Now what is he referring to? What is this future that is being foretold? The author of Hebrews speaks of it in Hebrews chapter 12, verses 26 to 29. The author of Hebrews says, at that time, and he's looking back, at that time his voice shook the earth. And he's referring to Mount Sinai. But now he has promised, yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens. The phrase yet once more indicates the removal of things that are shaken, that is, the things that have been made in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship and reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. So what the author of Hebrews is saying is that there is coming a day when the Lord will shake not only the earth, He will shake the heavens, and He will establish His eternal kingdom forever. And we read of this in Revelation chapter 20 verse 11. John writes, then I saw a great white throne, and Him who was seated on it. From His presence, earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them." In other words, once again, creation will tremble before the awesome and saving presence of the Lord. Even Heaven and earth will flee from his presence when the Lord comes to save his people. And there will be a new heavens and there will be a new earth and our redemption will be full and complete. Such is the saving power of the presence of the Lord, the presence of the God of Jacob. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we thank you and praise you that you are able to redeem and save and that you have done so in history. Lord, we thank you that your love for us is so great that you have acted in ways that have changed history, that has even been reflected in creation. And Lord, we thank you that your salvation and redemption is not final, that you will come again one day and you will make our redemption complete. Lord, I pray that in whatever trials or difficulties we might be experiencing at this time, that You would help us, Lord, to be filled with this sense of joy and confidence that the psalmist communicates to us here in Psalm 114. I pray, Father, that we would be able to move forward, even if it's with tears in our eyes that we would be able to move forward looking to you and to your saving power and presence with a fresh sense of hope and confidence and joy. And Lord, I pray that we would be renewed and refreshed. Lord, we thank you for your grace. We pray that you would take your word now and apply it to our hearts. And it's through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.