Please turn to Psalm 4 in your Bibles. Psalm 3 and 4 are joined alongside each other in our Bibles because they have at least traditionally been regarded as the morning and evening prayers of David. And this is a beautiful thing. In Psalm 3, verse 5, David has said, I lay down and slept and I awoke for the Lord sustains me. This is a prayer he's praying in the morning as he awakes and thanks God for bringing him through the night. But Psalm 4 concludes in verse 8 this way. In peace, I will both lie down and sleep for you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. This is an evening prayer. And let me say, it is a prayer that each and every one of us needs. Here's a reality that we must experience by God's grace. Every one of you, this is so practical. I encourage you, before you lie down to sleep tonight, to walk yourself through this thought processes of David and put your trust in the Lord like he endeavored to do. Let's stand together out of respect for the reading of God's word and let's read our text, Psalm 4. It is titled, as for the choir director on stringed instruments, A Psalm of David. Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness. You have relieved me in my distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer. O sons of men, how long will my honor become a reproach? How long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? Selah. But know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. Tremble and do not sin. Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Selah. Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and trust in the Lord. Many are saying, who will show us any good? Lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord. You have put gladness in my heart, more than when grain and new wine abound. In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. That's the word of our Lord. You may be seated. Let's pray. Holy Father, we come to your throne and we need your help. We ask that you would make these words come alive to us, that you would impress upon us the sort of a trust that you desire us to have in you. We know we're supposed to trust you, Lord, but so many times it's hard to know exactly how. And I pray by the power of your Holy Spirit that you would convict us of unbelief, convict us of doubt, bring us to a greater trust in you. For you are worthy, O Lord. This we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. I want you to consider with me a man who is highly respected in his community. He's got an executive position. over many thousands of people. And to this point, he's been well loved, well trusted, having attained significant power. But within his own family, he's completely powerless. In fact, it's a complete scandal. His son is severely rebellious, and this wasn't the typical teenage sort of rebellious phase. After his teenage rebellion, this young man And his attitude became far worse. He's even trying to usurp his father, to usurp his father's executive position. He wants to push his father out of the job. And this boy has cleverly played his cards and utilized his position to his father to this point in such a way that he's been able to turn many of his father's subordinates against his dad. But it gets worse. It gets worse when this poor father realizes that his son has actually been plotting an attempt on his life. Being that he loves his son, the man cannot bear the thought of fighting back and injuring his son, and so rather than choosing to fight his son, he flees. He chooses to leave everything behind. He leaves behind his executive position, his job, his property, his entire estate, everything. And he becomes a fugitive, fleeing from his own son. That is David's story. It's recorded for us in 2 Samuel 14-18, you can read it, and it tells how his son Absalom was attempting to turn the kingdom against his father David. Last week we heard some of the details that gave rise to this most complex and dysfunctional of affairs. But this week I want us to focus once again on the life of David and more specifically on how he responded in this most difficult time of his life. Psalm 4 gives us a window into David's very heart as he's being hunted by his son Absalom. And what we find here is not exactly what we'd expect from someone who's being hunted by like an animal, by their own child. But if you've been a Christian for any amount of time, you know, you know the drill. You know that you're supposed to trust God. You know you're supposed to put your faith in the Lord in difficult times. Isn't the question, though, how exactly am I supposed to do that? Sure, I'm supposed to trust God. How can I trust God when life has driven me into the cave? That's where David is. Life has driven him into the cave. And the main thrust of this psalm, then, is that it shows us how we are to put our trust in God when doing so makes no sense. How we can put our trust in God when doing so goes against our intuition. How can you trust the Lord when it's completely against your instinct to do so. That's what this psalm is about. And in this most difficult period of his life, we're going to see six counterintuitive measures that David takes to put his trust in God. And each of these six measures that David takes to put his trust in God are six measures that we must take if we're also going to exercise trust in God. So notice, first of all, David runs to God. Verses one and two show us he runs to God. Now, both scripture and practical observations show us that when people undergo troubles and when life hands them in and things get difficult and God turns up the heat, the most natural thing to do is people run from God. They get bitter at God. They don't want to think about God. They want to get away from him. But David runs to God, and I dare say he runs because his prayer is passionate. His mind isn't wandering in this prayer. He's praying out his life. He's praying as though his life depended upon it. Ever prayed like that? When was the last time you prayed to God like your life depended on it? David prays, answer me when I call, O God. And he runs to God in his prayer. But why? Why does David run to God? David runs to God because God is his only hope. Answer me, verse 1, when I call, O God of my righteousness. By addressing God as, O God of my righteousness, David acknowledges, I have no righteousness of my own. I have no righteousness to stand upon without you, O God. You are my hope. Christian, the reason that you do not run to God like David is because you run to something else. You have a plan B. You have something or someone else that you look to other than God. Well, David's passed all that. He has no alternative. There is no other recourse. He runs to God because God is his only hope. And David runs to God also because God has helped in past distress. He says, you have relieved me in my distress. You know, when I was translating the psalm from the Hebrew this past week, I realized David describes his distress as literally being pressed into a narrow space. He's describing his distress as being backed into a tight corner. That's the idea. And this fits well with what we know about the context here of David's life as a fugitive. He is surrounded by many tens of thousands. And he has been backed into, literally pressed into the corner of a cave, hiding like a hunted animal. Just imagine yourself there. All right. Maybe it's not tens of thousands of bad guys with swords that are hemming you in. But what about overdue bills? What about all these anxious thoughts about what could happen, what might happen, what you fear will happen? What about discouraging and oppressing physical afflictions? Life hems us in one way or another and David knew what it was like to be hemmed in, to be pressed into a corner. But in the same breath, notice he says to the Lord, you have relieved me in my distress. The idea here is you have expanded or some translations say enlarged me. You have expanded me when I was pressed into the narrowest spaces of life. This is David's poetic way of saying that God, where life would trap and shrink and crush me, you have grown me. Where life would press me in, you have grown me. You have expanded me. Now David knew that it was God who placed him on the throne in the first place. Surely it would have been very easy to think, oh Lord, what are you doing? I have a kingdom to run. You told me I was to do this. You promised I would do this. You promised you would set the sentence upon my throne and continue my line. What are you doing, Lord? I'm just trying to do your will and now this. Ever felt like that? God, I'm just trying to do what you told me I should do. And now this, now you're making things difficult for me. But David runs to God because he knows I've been here before. You have relieved me of my distress. I've been here before. Life has pressed me in before. But in all of that, you have enlarged me. You have grown me. You have expanded me in my trials. I know you will do it again now verse two gives us a little insight into David's distress at this moment when he says this oh sons of men how long will my honor become a reproach David fled from Absalom he didn't stick around to rebuke anybody but here He calls upon, he wasn't present at that time to address Absalom, but yet he calls now to the sons of men that would be Israel's leaders who have joined Absalom in his revolt against his father. And David calls to them and rebukes them. He refuses to compromise or negotiate with his enemies because he knew what they were about, but he rebukes them by saying, how long will you love what is worthless and aim at deception? The word worthless is vainglory. You are pursuing vainglory. You have been so deceitful. You've been playing a game of deception against me. How long will you play this game? What do you do? When people you trust, when people you love, turn around and stab you in the back. And when people you love, you realize they were playing you. They were using you. They were manipulating you to get what they wanted out of you. They didn't really care about you. What do you do in that moment? David runs to God, who is his only hope. And because God has been his help in past distress and David runs to God because he knows God is there. And God is gracious. He is there and he is gracious, so he concludes, verse one, be gracious to me and hear my prayer. Do you hear that? He doesn't say, give me what I deserve. Give justice, O Lord. Oh, we won't dare pray that. He says, just be gracious. I'm not asking for what I deserve. I'm not entitled. And guess what, brother, sister, you aren't entitled. You aren't entitled to a life of ease and luxury and no pain and no suffering. Don't ask God for what you deserve. Ask God for grace. David says, be gracious to me, O Lord. I'm not asking for anything deserved. I'm just asking that you be gracious and take heart, though. He is there and he is gracious and he will hear your prayer if you will run to him. David had to run for his life. But he runs to God and not from him. And if you're going to execute trust in God, you must run to God as well. But in verse 3, we see that to execute trust in God, we must also recall our identity. Here, David, secondly, he recalls his identity as God's child. To his enemies, David says in verse 3, But I know that the Lord has set apart the godly man for himself. The Lord hears when I call to him. But let's just remember, his enemies are not within earshot. They're not going to do anything with David's words. So in a sense, this is really a soliloquy. It's really David. As he addresses his enemies, he's addressing his own soul. He's speaking truth to himself. He's reminding himself of who he is. Know, know this, that the Lord has set apart the godly man for himself. David's describing himself here. Though living in a cave, he still clings to his identity as God's own because he knows God identifies me as his own. Is that you this morning? David is God's man. He knows God has uniquely set apart his people to himself. And the word set apart here appears less frequently in the Old Testament. The four other times it is found in the Old Testament, they all appear in Exodus. And these words are used, this word is used to describe how God sovereignly set apart his people from the Egyptians. He set them apart from other peoples as he poured out plagues. They were not harmed. God's people were not harmed. so that the Egyptians and all the earth may know that God had set apart his people so that they would know that God, the Lord God, was in their midst. The Lord set apart his people from all other people upon the face of the earth. And this concept really isn't foreign to us. You know, no one has to teach you that your children are set apart to you. This is just natural. They are uniquely set apart to you from all other children in the world. And if you bring your children to a playground, there may be a hundred other children on that playground doing the same things. But your eye and your ear is uniquely zeroed in on your children. Brother Dario and I were spending some time earlier this past week, and he was telling me how he kept an eye on his children, always watching them, knowing what they were doing. And if you're a parent, you've been a parent, you know what he's talking about. You understand. Here's why. They are your children. There's this real sense in which they belong to you, and you feel the sacred weight and responsibility to protect them. And you would even, if necessary, give your life for them. Okay, you got the picture? If you have entered into God's covenant by faith through Jesus Christ, you are God's child. God has set you apart to himself. You are his man, his woman. You are his own. You belong to him. That's it. And that's what David falls back on here. It's the fact that he is God's personal and precious possession. He can say, look out world, God Almighty is looking out for me. David has encouragement and if you're one of God's people, God is jealous over you. He doesn't want anyone else to have you. He wants you to himself. Can you say that way, David? Can you say, God identifies me as his own? Even though I'm in the cave, even though this is going on or that's going on in my life. But David also clings to his identity because he identifies God as his own. You get that? David is confident to say, because he knows that he belongs to the Lord, he can say, the Lord hears when I call to him. He's saying, I've got God's number. He's got mine. And he always picks up when I call. God and me, we are connected. We have a relationship here. It's deep, it's genuine. This is David's way of saying because I belong to God, I can count on God. Or because I know He is, I am His, I know He is mine. And when life hands you in on all sides, and it backs you into a cave, and it's so difficult to trust God, let me ask you, what exactly is your relationship to God? Who is God to you? You know, we don't generally trust strangers, do we? We probably shouldn't trust strangers. Who is God to you? Is God a stranger to you? Is he so unknowable and undefined that you don't have confidence, you're uncertain of where you stand with him, where he stands with you? Let me say, brothers and sisters, you won't trust God with your life until you trust that your life belongs to God and that God belongs to you. When you do, you will trust God with your life. When life hems you in on all sides, backs you into the cave, remember God never said that you would always feel like His child. There's no promise in the Bible like that. He never said you would feel like His own, but He said that you would always be His own. There's a difference. Cast aside your doubts then. Repent of unbelief. When you doubt the Lord, that's sin. You are impugning God. You are doubting what he has said. We need to repent of unbelief and lay hold of what God has told us concerning who we are and his relationship to us. And the fact that nothing changes that no amount of suffering or hardship or temptation or life in the cave changes God's relationship with us as our heavenly father. David knew that. He's confident then to run to God and he recalls his identity as God's child. How are you supposed to actually trust God when you are thrust into the cave? Run to God. Recall your identity as his child. But thirdly, we notice that David examines his own heart. David examines his own heart. Look at verse 4. Tremble and do not sin. Meditate in your heart upon your bed and be still. Now there's some difference of opinion as to exactly how we are to understand the first word of verse five. The New American Standard Version has David saying tremble and do not sin. But the word translated tremble can also be translated to tremble with anger. It can be translated be angry. It can be translated to rage, that is to behave violently as if in a state of great anger. If you have the ESV for instance, that's how this is translated. Paul the Apostle in Ephesians 4.26 when he is citing, he is citing from the Septuagint and that's where he cites this. Be angry and sin not. Do not sin. Do not let the sun go down upon your anger. So translations differ here and We don't have all the time to explore all the details, but here's what's most remarkable. Here's what you need to know about verse 5. It's how David redirects our attention. He redirects attention from what is exterior to us to what is interior. And when unfortunate circumstances surround us, what do we naturally do? We get angry, we open our mouths, we lash out, or we tremble and we begin to worry about all the challenges that are around us and on our mind. Not all anger and not all fear is sinful, but David prescribes two counterintuitive actions instead of anger or doubt. The first is, when you're suffering, don't forget to examine yourself. When life drives you into the cave, we examine others. We examine our circumstances and we can so quickly assign blame and excuse ourselves. But David says, meditate in your heart upon your bed. And the NIV says, search your heart. Actually more literally, this phrase translates to speak to your own heart. The word meditate is to speak to, speak to your own heart. Now this is so important because anytime you're looking at life through your own lens, you will see other people and you will see what they are doing to you, how they are treating you, and you will see all the circumstances in life that are afflicting you. But when you are looking at life through the lens, there's someone conspicuously absent from the picture. Every time you're behind the camera, looking at life through your own eyes, you will always be the one that is absent from your own consideration. We always neglect ourselves. We focus on life around us, but forget to examine our own hearts. And it may be that life has backed you into a cave, but rather than blaming and excusing, David literally says, search your own heart. Speak to your own heart upon your bed. You know, much of the anger and frustration that we experience with other people and with life circumstances is ironically traceable back to our anger and frustration with God. because God is sovereign over all those people and what they did to us, whether good or evil, and all the circumstances that happened to us. And so our frustration with other people and our circumstances is really something that in the final analysis goes back to God, who is sovereign over all these things, and we fail to trust Him. And that is the real problem. So long as you're angry, so long as you are doubting God, you won't run to Him. You won't see him as your help and you won't see your own need for change. So when you're suffering, don't forget to examine yourself. And a second counterintuitive action here is to practice is when you're suffering, take time to consider what God is doing. David, notice, calls us to be still. He's saying, search your own heart, speak to our heart upon your bed, but he says, and be still. And the command to be still implies that we are to give God the opportunity to speak to our hearts. You've got to be quiet. You can't listen as long as you're running your mouth. You can't think upon God's truth as long as your mind continues to nonstop run circles around your problems and you try to figure everything out in your own understanding. So just be quiet, David says. Be still. Take time to consider what God is doing in your life. And as I said before, the meditation in the Bible, by the way, is never emptying your brain. It's not contentlessly, okay? Like in the Eastern sense. It is actually filling your mind to think deeply upon God's truth. Be still. Get alone. Stop looking at everybody else. Search your own heart. and let the Lord do work in you. Consider what he may be doing as you ponder upon his truths and give his truth a chance to go to work on you. And after the command to be still, David inserts another pause here with the word selah, that is stop, take a moment, think on this, how appropriate. How are you supposed to actually trust God? When life drives you into the cave, David runs to God. He recalls his identity as God's child. He examines his own heart, but fourthly, he worships God. Counterintuitive. Not very instinctual, but David worships God. Look at what he says, verse 5. The fact David calls for worship during this difficult time suggests two truths. First, there's never an inappropriate time for worshiping God. Some of David's men surely thought, David, this isn't exactly a good time to think about worshiping God. David, we got a lot of problems. We got a lot of things to worry about. And the last thing we should be doing is thinking about worshiping a God who hasn't taken the time to deliver us out of this trial. For verse 6, it appears some of David's companions were talking as though God had abandoned them because they're looking elsewhere for help. Who else will help us? Where are we going to find good? Moreover, their present circumstances prevented them from even visiting the temple in Jerusalem. David couldn't be at the temple to offer the physical sacrifices God commanded. But David didn't care. What mattered most to David was not his dismal circumstances, not the disparaging talk of his companions, or not even the fact that there was little he could do at the present moment for the Lord. He couldn't actually go to Jerusalem and offer anything. That didn't matter to David. What mattered most to David was there is one true God. And whatever our capacity, guys, He is worthy to be worshipped. He is worthy to be praised. And that's why he tells his friends, trust. You trust. Come on, let us trust in the Lord. And he uses that title by which God revealed Himself to His people. His covenant name, Yahweh. Trust not just in any God. Trust in the covenant-keeping God. Trust in the wonder-working God. Trust in the creator almighty and all-caring loving God. That's the one we must trust in, and our worship to him is never inappropriate. But let's be real, brothers. When we're living in the cave, worship to God is the last thing we feel like doing. In fact, I think we could say that when other people are praising the Lord and things are going on in our life that we deem to be terrible, we can very easily despise those other brothers and sisters. Because misery loves company. We feel that they don't feel our pain. They just don't understand. God just doesn't understand. That's why everybody else can praise the Lord. They're just not going through what I'm going through. No one understands. And this is because when we're suffering, we're tempted to be concerned with little more than our suffering. We get tunnel vision. When you're in the cave, if you will, you don't see much other than the walls around you. And you feel so hemmed in. We just want to wallow in self-pity and cynicism, which is really unbelief. And the last thing we feel like doing is prioritizing God above our suffering. But David's call to worship also suggests worship is never more appropriate than when we're suffering. There's never a better time for you to get down on your knees and praise the Lord than when you don't feel like doing it, than when you're going through suffering. Your worship is most deep, it is most sincere, it is most precious to God when you are at least inclined to give it. Beloved, when at the last supper Jesus gave thanks over the bread and the wine that was to represent his body and blood, he was giving thanks to the Father for what was to become his own crucifixion. Jesus was thanking the Father for the agonies of hell he was to endure for sinners. Don't tell God you can't thank him in the face of suffering. No one's saying you have to enjoy living in the cave. But when you remember who God is and how He is worthy of worship, you realize suffering, no suffering ever changes that. There's never a better time to lift our voice and bring the sacrifice of praise in the house of the Lord than when we're suffering. Never a better time to bring thanksgiving to God than when we're suffering. Never a better time to trust and worship Him than when we're suffering. But David, how can you talk of offering sacrifices at a time like this? We're living in a cave. You can't even do that right now, David. Wait till you get back to Jerusalem. But you see, David knew that God desired something more than burnt offerings, than physical sacrifices. And that's why he would say to the Lord in Psalm 51, You, Lord, do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken spirit and a contrite heart you will not despise. You might be in a situation where because of the way life has sent you in, there's a lot of things you can't do for God. There's a lot of things you can't give God, but you can give him yourself. And that's what God wants. That is where worship begins in the heart. And that's what God wants from you. From your heart, he wants a heart of worship. He wants you, all of you. How are you supposed to trust God? Actually trust God. When life has driven you into the cave, look at David. He runs to God. He remembers his identity as God's child. He examines his own heart. He worships God. But a fifth counterintuitive measure he takes is he prays for others. Well, David's just told us, really he's told his companions around him, trust in the Lord. He's talking to his friends who are doubting the Lord. Listen to what his companions are saying in verse six. Many are saying, who will show us any good? Who will show us any good? This is the voice of despair. And notice, because they do not see the good they are seeking, that's why they're despairing. We want to be back in the palace. We want a table spread with food and wine. We want all of our enemies to disappear and so forth. That's the good we need. And that's the way most people think. They judge the condition of their life by the condition of their circumstances. And when their circumstances really aren't so good, they believe their life really isn't all that great. So that they conclude, God has abandoned me. God has set me aside. And who else will show me And he could. This reminds me of a climber who once fell off a cliff. And as he tumbled down, he caught hold of a small branch and he said, help, is there anybody up there? And there was a voice, a majestic voice that boomed through the gorge. I will help you, my son. But first, you must have faith in me. Yes, Lord. Yes, cried the man. I trust you. Let go of the branch, boomed the voice. It was a long pause. The man shouted up again, is there anybody else up there? Anybody else? Anybody else who will show me some good? That's too often how we react. When God doesn't give us the good in the sense that we're seeking, good as we define it, good as we would have it, We immediately look for someone else and we cry, who else will show us some good? But David's not upset at his companions. He prays to God for his friends. At the end of verse six, he says, lift up the light of your countenance upon us, O Lord. And he prays this because he knows, he knows we need God's favor more than anything in this world. More than the good, we have a lot of different things on our minds right now, especially given the trials we're in, that is good to us. It is good as we define it. But more than any of that, understand what you need is the favor of God on your life. You could have all of that, my friend. You could have everything on your wish list. But if God doesn't have favor on your life, you lost it all. You need the favor of God. Is he pleased with you? That's what David wants to know. And while many were crying out in anger, doubt, despair, David cries to God and says, let your face smile upon us, oh Lord. That is a Hebrew expression, an old Hebrew way of imploring God to manifest his favor to his people. David's praying that God would manifest his favor, not just to him, but to us, to his friends, to those who are struggling to believe. It reminds me of 2 Kings 6, where we're told that Elisha's servant gets up one morning, he goes out, and he sees the army of Aram surrounding the city, and he cries and he tells Elisha, Alas, my master, what shall we do? And Elisha answered, Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And then he looks to God, Elisha does, and he says, O Lord, open his eyes that he may see. The Bible tells us the Lord opened his eyes and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. We're so often though like Elisha's servant, aren't we? We're so often like David's companions, aren't we? It's so easy to see the walls of the cave. It's so easy to see the problems and the trials that are around us. But how slow are we to see the Lord is in our midst? The Lord is in the cave with us. Yet while everything doesn't look so good, then David's saying, God, if you're smiling upon us, it's all that matters. So please show yourself not just to me, but to these guys as well. And verse seven, David's prayer then turns to praise. He says to the Lord, you have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and new wine abound. You see, when God's favor means more than life to you, you will find more joy in God than in all this world has to offer. You know, there's only a handful of people in the world, in the history of the world, that have had the opportunity to be king, to be sitting on top of the world as it was. And David, King David, was one of those men. He knew what it was like to be king, to sit on top of the world. But now that king is sitting in a gutter. Now that man who is on top of the world is now a king living in a cave. But he could say, and yet he could say, more than all the things you have stripped from me, you've taken everything from me, God, and yet more than all of that is you. I want you. Let them have that. Let evil men have their grain and wine abounding. You can take everything from me, God. I just need you. And that is at the core, at the heart of what God is doing in our trials. He wants to bring you to the place where you realize you need nothing but Him. How are you supposed to actually trust in God when you're in the cave? Well, look at David. He runs to God. He recalls his identity as God's child. He examines his own heart. He worships God. He prays for others. But sixth and finally, he rests in God. Verse eight, here is the most beautiful statement in the psalm. In peace, I will both lie down and sleep for you alone, oh Lord, make me to dwell in safety. It's hard to sleep when our mind is not at rest. And even if we do lie down, we can't actually sleep. Or even if we sleep, we don't really rest if we aren't at peace. We need peace to truly rest. And most of our anxiety has to do with life's uncertainty. We are anxious because we don't actually know what's going to happen. We don't know what's going to happen with our job, or our relationship, or our family, or the financial situation, or our health. Whatever it is, there's uncertainty surrounding us. And this uncertainty can drive you insane. Because as long as your happiness is sourced in the temporal, unpredictable things of this life, your happiness is unstable. Your happiness is very quickly subject to change when those things that your happiness is set upon change. Whether it's your money, your property, your health, your reputation, your children, your family, someone you love, all of these things lack permanence. And so if you're resting in these things, you will sooner or later find yourself restless. David must have had a million things plaguing his mind. Imagine trying to rest when you're in a cave being hunted by your own son. It doesn't sound like a great setting to lay down and get some rest. But with so much uncertainty, David still lies down in peace and is able to sleep. And he explains why and how. For you alone, O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. David found safety in God. God was his security blanket. God was his security despite his insecurity, despite his uncertainty. What about you? What keeps you up at night? Are you willing to let go of your worries and place your life with all of your expectations in the hand of Almighty God? and leave it there. David could lie down and sleep because he could rest and he could rest in God because he trusted God with his life. And if you're going to exercise trust in the same God at the end of the day, the most spiritual thing you can do is make a decision to pillow your head on the promises of God and to leave it with God and to rest in God and in who He is and in the fact He doesn't change even though all that's uncertain in life does. This psalm shows us how we are to trust God even against our own intuition. Even when it goes against our instinct. We can trust God. Now, since we've been examining David's trust in God, we might be tempted to set him on some sort of a pedestal and think, well, David's just some larger-than-life saint. Of course he can trust God like that. He was David. But dare I remind you, David had his own share of glaring failures. He was just as real, just as sinful as you. And if David could trust God as one of God's own, you can too. You can as well. Where there's disappointment, where there's fear, where there's anger, where your life is so wildly out of control and has hemmed you in and driven you into the cave, let me challenge you from this psalm. Will you trust God? Will you exercise trust in the Lord? How can I, pastor? But how can I trust God? How exactly am I supposed to trust God when I'm living in the cave? Run. No, no, no, not from God, run to God. Recall your identity as his child. Examine your own heart and worship him. Pray for others and at the end of the day, commit your works to God and rest in him. If you're listening now and you've never entered into a relationship with God, by faith in Jesus Christ. You've never entered into a relationship with God through covenant by faith in Jesus Christ. You're still trying to work your own way to heaven. You kind of look at yourself as a good person. Let me tell you, the only righteousness that God will accept is the righteousness of his son, Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus came. He came to offer a sacrifice once and for all for sinners, that whoever believes in him, repents of sin and believes in him, would not perish, but have everlasting life. If that's you, you say, you know what? I don't have this peace. I don't know that I relate to God as his child. Let me tell you, the Bible was written that you may know you have eternal life. If that's you, you have any doubt, any question about that, please don't leave without seeing me, seeing Pastor Kevin and asking us how we can show you from the Bible. Explain from the Bible how you can enter into this kind of a rest, this kind of a peace with God. Let's pray.