Psalm 86, and I'll read from the opening verse. This is a prayer of David. Bow down your ear, O Lord, hear me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am holy. You are my God, save your servant who trusts in you. Be merciful to me, O Lord, for I cry to you all day long. Rejoice the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul. For you, Lord, are good and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you. Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer, and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble, I will call upon you, for you will answer me. Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, nor are there any works like your works. All nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God. Let's bow in prayer once more. O God most gracious, most kind, most merciful, O God who is good and ready to forgive and abundant in mercy, will you hear us now as we pray to you that the preaching of your word may go with power into all of our souls. Lord, may the warmth of the day not distract us. May the things taking place around us not divert our minds. May your glory take up our souls, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. God's people will go through seasons of tribulation and affliction. We're not referring now to the ebbs and the flows of normal life in a sinful world. Those are things that each one suffers. I'm talking more here about spiritual troubles. There'll be seasons of accusation and seasons of conviction, perhaps where people assault us and accuse us of things that are not right and true, or it may be that our souls are brought into distress because we recognize the sins that we have committed. There are times of confusion. when we can't trace what God is doing in our lives or in this world, where we're struggling to believe that God is in control, times of persecution, when it does seem as if, again, either individually or institutionally, the wrath of Satan comes against the Church of Jesus Christ in particular ways, either to undermine or to tear down. There are seasons when our souls are deeply distressed because of sin in us and around us. Times when we grieve because godlessness is rampant, and if we're not so grieving, then we need to ask whether or not we have a proper sensitivity to what is taking place in our world. Times when evil seems to be powerful, and we know that it's not all powerful, but the tide seems to be sweeping everything before it. Times when, as saints, we are bewildered and distressed. The language of Psalm 86 might help to describe those situations. Verse one, I am poor and needy. Verse seven, in the day of my trouble. Some of this is personally, well all of it is personally felt. Some of it is more personally experienced. Some of it is by virtue of our communion or fellowship with God's people more generally. I am poor and I am needy. I have no resources of my own and I cannot help myself. I am in a day of trouble. The balance seems to have shifted. There is more darkness than there is light. There is more sorrow than there is joy. There is more trouble than there is peace. How does a poor and needy child of God respond in the day of trouble? while the focus that I want us to have this morning is one that rests upon revelation. My friends, the only response we'll ever really be able to make when we feel our poverty and our need in the day of trouble must have its foundation in what God himself has made known. And what's interesting is that the response that David makes in this psalm is not, if you will, on one level a matter of immediate direct revelation to him, although we believe that he is under the influence of the Holy Spirit when he writes this psalm. But under the influence of the Holy Spirit, what David weaves together is a testament drawn from things that God has already spoken. So this, if you like, is not new revelation, but it is certainly fresh and it is sweet. in Exodus and chapter 15. And in one sense, it won't surprise you because Exodus chapter 15 contains a declaration of God that is used over and over again throughout the scriptures. It's not gonna be Exodus 15 now. What am I thinking of? probably, it may even be the Shema that I have in mind. The Lord your God is one. Let me see, see if I can remember what I have in mind here. It is Exodus 15. Sorry, I'm just running through it. Exodus 15, it's verse 11. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? I was thinking there of what God had revealed to Moses on the mountain. I was thinking that's not it, but it is that. This is the Song of Moses. Moses is drawing on what he has spoken, what he heard God speak on the mountain. He is declaring in this song, Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness? And then in Deuteronomy and chapter 3, Again, David has this in mind when he is speaking these things. Verse 24, O Lord God, you have begun to show your servant your greatness and your mighty hand. For what God is there in heaven or on earth who can do anything like your works and your mighty deeds? So you have David here now thinking of what Moses has already said. The song of Moses in Exodus and chapter 15, who is like you, O Lord, among the gods, and the testimony of Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 3 and verse 24, both of which are now reflected in the eighth verse of Psalm 86. Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, nor are there any works like your works. So David is resting his confidence on the things that God had revealed to Moses. And David is expecting us, like those who would have heard this psalm originally, to rest our confidence on the same truths. For God has not changed. He is still the God who is supreme among the gods, and neither are there any works like his works. So in our poverty and in our need and in our day of trouble, the God to whom we turn is a God who is supreme in his being and supreme in his acting. Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord. Here is God supreme in his being. Now, you might immediately say, well hang on a minute, I thought, especially if you've learnt your catechism, there is only one living and true God, why then is our God being compared to other gods? The language that is used here speaks sometimes of strength and sometimes of divine strength. So you might almost translate it, not quite, among the mighty ones there is none like you, O Lord. And that language is used in at least two different ways. In Psalm 82, it's used of powers on earth. God stands in the congregation of the mighty, he judges among the gods, how long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? And the sense there is God stands and takes account of the mighty ones on earth who are abusing their authority, who are indulging their power. The same language is also used of powers in the heavenly places. In Psalm 89 and verse 6, for example. Who in the heavens can be compared to the Lord? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the Lord? Or again in Psalm 97 and verse 7. Let all be put to shame who serve carved images, who boast of idols. Worship him, all you gods. Now our translators help us in this by putting this word, gods, with a lowercase g. You notice how that can be abused as well. Allah always gets a capital A, doesn't he? But increasingly on a lot of the new media, and sometimes even the legacy media, the true God is always put with a small g. It's a way of communicating identity, and in this case, a way of trying to downgrade the Lord God. But it's used here, among the gods, among these mighty ones, those who have some kind of power. And I think the emphasis here, while there's some comfort in knowing that even the mighty powers on Earth are subject to God, the emphasis here seems to be on the false gods. And they're not just an ancient phenomenon. There are as many today as there ever were. Some of them have been forgotten. Some of them are resurgent. There are pagan gods. There are the classical pagan gods. And this would include everyone and everything, every idol, every satanic force and influence, from Zeus to Buddha, from Odin to Vishnu, from Allah to Baal, from wealth to fame, to beauty, to celebrity, to Arsenal, or Chelsea, or Tottenham, or Manchester United, and all the others, if you came past Three Bridges, all wearing our uniforms of worship on our way to the temples because they're opening again after their summer break. My friends, the world is full of idols. Some of them have names with capital letters. Some of them are proper nouns. Some of them just describe the things that are more important to you than anything else. Some of you worship idols of respectable religion. If I ask you, what is your confidence? You might say, well, my vicar confirmed me. I was sprinkled as a baby. I was baptized as an adult. There are people who worship the idol of national religion. There are people who are marching the streets at the moment and actually what you've got is not truth against lies but idols against idols. This is the ugliness of our world and among those gods Among everything that is hellishly inspired and that is against, apart from and contrary to the living God, there is none like the Lord, the covenant God of his people. Everything about them is hateful and feeble in comparison with the glory and the infinity of the one true and living God. There is none like him in the conception or imagination of men. When men create their gods, when they crank the handle of their idol factory and churn out something, have you noticed what happens? They project out and up. something that lies in them. And therefore, every false god is a twisted reflection of man fallen from the worship of the true God. The gods of this world are gods that answer to our own appetites and desires. They're gods who allow us to be and do what we would like to be and to do. They allow us to get away with our sins. They practice our sins. in such a way that we ourselves can excuse ourselves that we're not even doing what the gods of this world are doing. They're marked by indulgence, by selfishness, by anger, by lust, by pride. These projections of sinful men, outwards and upwards, always produce gods made in the image of sinful men. Everything that man can dream, everything that man thinks he sees, falls short of the glory of God. But it's not just man's imagination. This is a true statement in itself. These false gods, these empty, worthless, vain things, as the Apostle Paul describes them, they're not ultimately real like God is real. He is the true God. Do you remember how Jeremiah speaks of him in chapter 10? Remember again, this isn't the first time these words were spoken. Jeremiah 10, especially verses 15 and 16. Speaking of the idols of the earth, they are futile, a work of errors, futility, hard work and nothing to show for it. Futile, a work of errors, in the time of their punishment they shall perish, the portion of Jacob. The God who belongs to the people of God is not like them, for he is the maker of all things. Jeremiah can't go very far talking about God's being before he comes to God's acting. And Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name. Or you have that, you could think of Isaiah chapter 40, with Isaiah making fun of the fact that somebody goes into the forest and they cut down a tree. Half of it they burn for fire, the rest of it they make into a carved image which has to be tied down so it doesn't fall over or get stolen away. Psalm 115, our God is in heaven. He does whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes they have, but they do not see. Ears, but they don't hear. Noses without smelling. Hands without handling. Feet without walking. They cannot even mutter through their throat. Why? Because they're dead. They're worthless, they're futile, they are empty and the portion of Jacob is not like them. Now there's a sense of spiritual reality here. There's a demonic force behind false religion. And there's a sense of unreality that these things, they have no substance of themselves. Behind them lies the malice of the evil one. But they themselves have no substance. They cannot truly help and they cannot bring down. It is ultimately God and God who stands alone and supreme. Now do you actually believe that? Is there perhaps even amongst God's people here a little whisper at the back of your mind this morning when you hear me speak about false gods? from Europe and America and Asia and Africa and wherever else it may be in the world. Kind of goes, whoa, that's a bit strong, isn't it? A demonic activity? We're meant to live and let live. We're Christians, we're meant to love everybody, aren't we? My friends, we're not meant to love idolatry. We're not meant to endorse false religion. We're not meant to pretend that lies are true and that truth is lies. Do you believe that among the gods there is none like the Lord God? That he lives, he is true, and he reigns supreme. Ask yourself perhaps, what are you afraid of? What do you hope? What do you trust in? Where is your confidence? What governs your convictions? What grips your affections? What directs your reactions? Not just in the day when you feel you're poor and needy, in the day of your trouble. What are the things that are informing your thoughts? Are you sure this morning that among the gods of this world, among the forces and the mighty ones on earth and in the heavenly places, that God is supreme in his being? glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, infinite in his power, in his goodness, in his mercy, in his justice, in his truth, that there is no rival in heaven or on earth to the only living and true God. My friends, God is supreme in his being. There is none like him and we cannot allow the pressures and the currents of this fallen world to erode that conviction. I'm not talking about disrespect. I'm not talking about unholy aggression. I am talking about dealing with men made in the image of God and being absolutely assured that they are wrong to worship anyone and anything other than the God of the Scriptures, the God of revelation, the God who has made himself known, and that that God is the God to whom you and I turn in the day of our trouble. God's supreme being is laid forth very plainly, but so is God's supreme acting. Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, nor are there any works like your works. Now that's logical, isn't it? If there's no god like God, then it stands to reason that there would be no works like the works of the God who alone is the living and true God amongst the mighty ones of the earth and the heavenly places. God stands alone, not just in who he is, but in what he does. And again, this comparison is being made. And the gods of this world are being left in the dust. First of all, there's creation, works of creation. You can go back here again. We can use the Psalms to fuel our understanding of what David has in mind. Here's Psalm 8 and verse 3. My friend, do you ever consider the heavens? Gods, heavens, you know the way David speaks here, your heavens. You made them, they belong to you. This is the same kind of language that our Lord uses when he's speaking to Job, and we'll come to that in due course in our evening readings. The moon and the stars which you have ordained, you've called them into being. You've put them where they belong. Do you love those star maps? Do you like those colorized pictures that are taken by telescopes of whatever size they are that are sent into what we think of as the furthest reaches of space? And here are these pillars, and here are these holes, nebulae out in the furthest reaches that our human eyes can penetrate by means of all the technology developed at our disposal. What is the Bible called? Oh, those are gods. He did that, He made that, that all belongs to Him. Verse 6, you have made Him to have dominion over what? The works of your hands, this creature man that you have made. You have put all things under His feet. Why is mankind in the position that mankind is in, in the world that God has made? It's because our God made this world and he made us in this world as the crown of his creation and he established us to have dominion over the creatures. But they're under us because God made them and us and established the relationship between us with all it means for our stewardship of the world that God has made. Think then of the origin of this world and everything that is in it. Have you read any of the creation myths? They're childish. The God that you and I serve, he is the God who spoke and things came into being. Our God created ex nihilo, out of nothing. Let there be light, and there was light. God has created in a way that the imaginations and conceptions of men have never attained to. So many of the other creation myths, including, it should be said, evolution, has to start with something. And it's strange and it's ugly. I won't go into detail. What about the goodness? What about the goodness of creation? Have you thought about how that reflects upon God? When he made what he made, he made it good, and good, and good, and good, and good. And when he'd finished everything, it was very good. And God rested and took delight in the world that he had made, framed for the blessing of the creatures that he had formed in it. Everything else, darkness and light, seems to be locked in some kind of eternal combat. That's what your Star Wars films are. It's mysticism reborn with lightsabers and blasters. Yin and Yang, darkness and light, two great forces forever opposed, seeking balance. No, my friends, God made a good world and it reflects the goodness of the God who made it. And there are no works like his works. What about its grandeur? What about its beauty? When you reach out to the furthest extremes, And you realise that the scientists at their best are saying, well, those little videos you get where you start with somebody on their phone in the middle of a park, and by the time you've got out as far as the human exploration has taken us, you've been zooming for five minutes of sped-up film, and you've just got these vague representations of size and space and scope. Think of the beauty of it. Some of you have been on holiday. Seen some of your photos, Facebook or Instagram or whatever it is. I hope you've just been enjoying some of it. Do you like looking into sunflowers? We saw fields of sunflowers where we were. Go up close to a sunflower. Look at the pattern that those seeds make. Stand back and see the flowers of the field. Watch the clouds rolling across the skies. See them when there seems to be more sky than land. See them as they come over the mountains and the hills. Look at those mountains as they rise up like the bones of the earth. And remember that before those hills were, God was from everlasting. to everlasting, all the things that make you feel small and puny, all of the things that send a thrill of delight down your soul because of their size and because of their beauty. God did that. There are no works like his works. There's only one God who can make, and he makes out of nothing. There's one God who sets up and one God who brings down. There's one God who is before all beginnings and one God who ends what he ends when he ends it without ever ending. There are no works like the works of our God. That's creation. Now what of providence? We sing about it. Some of our Providence hymns have fairly childish phrases in them, winging a sparrow, clothing a flower, but it's true. You breathe because God is in control. You enjoy what you enjoy because God is in control. The sun is shining today because God is in control. The rains will come because God is in control. The seasons will turn because God governs everything in the grandest sense. Think of the range of his providential government across all of time and all of space. Go back to those stars in their courses to use the scriptures language. Why did the stars and the planets have the orbits that they have? Do you know the man who discovered that the planets don't move in circles, but in ellipses? Do you have any sense of the physics of that? I'm not claiming that I do. I think it was Johannes Kepler who discovered that. And the way that they move? And you know what we're reduced to? Did you know that in the last couple of weeks, I can't remember the technical phrase of it, but there's a point in a certain period where the Earth catches up with Mars, and Mars, I think, Mars becomes retrograde. Now that should send a shudder down your spine, because when Mars goes retrograde, bad things happen, especially if you're born under this star sign. Really? Our God is not like that. God rules in the heavens, and God rules on Earth. He does what he pleases in every place. His wisdom is manifest. Your God, Christian, is the God who can look at the evil that men do and weave from it such good as to move us to adoring wonder. A man like Joseph can look back on his imprisonments, his false accusations, his slavery, his sufferings, and say to his brothers, humanly speaking, you were the root of all that. And you actively sought my harm. You meant it for evil. But God, God was overruling. God worked that for good. That's not just wisdom, my friends, that's power. That's magnificent strength. When you look at the Son of God incarnate, suffering and dying on a cross, what but infinite wisdom and power can make what looks like the triumph of darkness the conqueror in his glory? kindness of God. Have you thought about the kindness of God? In our twisted little hearts we are complainers by nature, aren't we? Things don't work out the way that they should for a man like me, a woman like me. Have you considered what you deserve as a rebel against God? And yet even here this morning, with whatever may or may not be true of any one of us, You have your life, you have your breath and you have everything else that you enjoy in this world because God is merciful and kind toward you. The sinful heart says, God doesn't treat me the way I deserve. The humble heart says, God does not treat me the way that I deserve. Same words, completely different meaning. God has been good to me. God has been kind to me. Though this world which he made very good has been twisted and broken in the fall. Yet God still so governs that blessing comes, not just to his people, but to all his creatures. That same sun that warms your bones this morning, that's shining on everybody. That same rain that waters the earth, that's falling on the just and on the unjust. Does that mean that Christians have got nothing particular to celebrate in this respect? Not at all. No, God is good to all. but he loves his people. And the purpose of all his providential dealings, both in what we might say the natural realm and in things spiritual, all of them are designed at every point and in every way to secure your increasing and ultimate likeness to your God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to bring you at last to him. ripe and fit for the glory that God has purposed for you. The works of providence are past finding out, they are unsearchable. Then one of God's works of grace. To whom can you compare God among the gods when it comes to his mercy in choosing? A few years ago now, it might be 10 or 15, I think it may have been the series of interviews that, I think it was John Humphreys, said it provoked more correspondence than anything else. He interviewed three religious characters. One of them was a Jewish rabbi, one of them was a Muslim imam, and one of them was the then Archbishop of Canterbury, an allegedly Christian man. And when he asked each of them about hope and about how they knew that their God loved them, the conclusion that each of those men spoke out of their false religions was that maybe, just maybe, at the end, if we'd been good enough, things will work out all right for us. but among the gods there's none like him, and neither are there any works like his works. There's mercy in choosing. I have not been chosen, and neither have you, my brother, my sister, because you are good, but though you are bad. God did not predict your goodness. God did not see coming down the line somebody of unusual virtue and merit and said, well, all right, have them, at least they're better than the rest. No, God set his love upon a people from before the foundation of the world. When it comes to his work of mercy in choosing sinners for salvation, there are no works like his works. Then there's his goodness in giving. He didn't just send an envoy, he sent his son. God himself came in order to save his people from their sins. There was love in that sending. God loved the world. That ought to make you stop in stunned, this world? This rebellious world, this fallen world, this world that is now living with its fists raised against God and has been since Adam sinned, yes, God so loved this world that he sent, he gave his only begotten son. There is no love in the heart of any of the powers of earth or the heavenly places like the love of the one living and true God. there is wisdom in the working. We've already mentioned it, but it's one thing to look at the world and science has at least given us the language of natural processes, which we might sometimes sort of take into account and recognize that God works by causes and second causes and all those kinds of things. And we're not denying some of those things, but who looking at the world and its workings would have dared without revelation to look at the Son of God in the flesh hanging on the cross of Calvary and said, that's the way God will conquer sin and Satan, death and hell, and save the people for himself. Who would have brought together those strands? Who would have woven together the events of history so that at God's appointed time and at God's appointed hour, The champion of mankind should come forth and should conquer by crucifixion. What about his justice in securing this? The gods of this world, it's all unfair, it's arbitrary, it's capricious. God is just when he is the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. His uprightness never wavers. His purity never alters. The glory of his holiness is unsullied from beginning to the end of the work of salvation. Think of his kindness in pardoning. The gods of this world always demand something, don't they? There's always a payoff, a trade-off. Do this and then this. Look to me and be saved. Come to the fountain, open for sin and for uncleanness. My friends, if you want to see pardoning grace, you'll find it in God and in God only. What of his power and keeping? God will not lose any of his people. They're in the hand of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. They're in the hands of the eternal God. We are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Think of the one who is unrivaled amongst the powers of this world and the world unseen, who has exerted his power in keeping you to the end. Think of his favour in blessing you. Not now just, if you will, the natural providential blessings, but the way your God has guided you every step of the way. In youth through to old age, as single or as married, as children or as parents, as rich or as poor, in days of joy and in days of trouble. He has blessed you. He has blessed you in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The religions of this world, they bring everything down to the carnal. This is about as high as they can think. What does good look like? It looks like being rich. It looks like sexual indulgence. It looks like having everything that this world offers, but actually having it. When the Bible uses the imagery of wealth and peace and joy, it does so to symbolise the riches in the heavenly places which are ours in Christ Jesus. When the Lord says, in my father's palace there are many rooms, the Christian doesn't go, hey, I'm getting a big place in the world to come. The Christian says, I will dwell with God. That's what he's saying. That's what it means. Where are your treasures? Don't store up your treasures on earth where moth and rust corrupt and where thieves break in and steal. You have heavenly treasures. And by definition, they're not like earthly treasures. They're beyond corruption. They cannot be taken away. And what God, with a small g, has ever shown his glory in completing the work the way the living and true God has done? It is all to the praise of the glory of his grace. He is great. He is greatly to be praised. I wonder if the reason why so many of the gods of this world don't quite have the The arrogance to say that it's all for them is because somewhere in the fallen heart of fallen men, we know that that's nonsense. We've still got a conscience, twisted, perverted, darkened, yes. But we know, we know that it's not about us. God is glorified in the work of creation. My friends, do you trace the works of God in creation, in providence and in grace? Do you love to stop and look and meditate upon what God's works are? they are a proper reflection of his very nature and character. Among the gods, there is none like you, O Lord. You are supreme in being. And therefore, and quite properly and understandably, neither are there any works like your works. My friends, to trace the hands of your God in the day of your trouble relieves the soul. Not even so much in the trouble itself. I'm going to look away. I'm going to look at something else. And I will remind myself of how my God has worked. Perhaps I will read history. Perhaps I will study nature. Perhaps I will consider providence. And I will remind myself that though I am poor and needy and this is the day of my trouble, Yet there is no God like our Lord among the gods, nor are there any works like his works. Very briefly, just four lines of application by way of our humble responding to God's supreme being and God's supreme acting. And we could spend months, couldn't we, saying, how does one respond to such things? But let's be at least restricted to some extent by the text itself and take four simple directions for our response to the supreme being and supreme acting of God. The first is recognition. Acknowledgement. Understanding. Embrace. Do you see and believe that among the gods there is none like you, O Lord, nor are there any works like your works? This is not just poetry. This is theology. It's poetic theology, but this is true. Do you see that there is no god like God? But do you see that there are no works like God's works, and do you trust this God accordingly? You could say something here a little like what Peter did when the Lord Jesus asked his disciples whether or not they were going to go away like all the others who had gathered around him simply because of what they seemed to be able to obtain in this world. Will you also go away? Do you remember what Peter asked? Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. There is none like you in heaven or on earth. The same Peter declared that, did he not? When he was forbidden to preach anymore in the name of Jesus, there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Do you recognize the supremacy of the true and living God in his being and in his acting? Have you grasped this as the Spirit of God opened your eyes to see his singular glory? Recognition. Expectation. All nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and you do wondrous things. You alone are God. My friends, that is messianic expectation. That's gospel hope. You see the surgence and the resurgence of false gods. You see the secular powers bowing to the idols of this world, whether they're outwardly religious idols or seem to be more secular idols. I heard somebody boasting on the news the other day about how Islam will win. Because Islam is absolute, it demands everything. And I thought, respect for your honesty, but you're very badly mistaken. Do you think of the people who've been marching this week? all of them with their faces wrapped up, all of them tooled up for combat, all of them waving one kind of flag or another and think, well, there's no way the gospel will ever touch them. Really? Do you believe that the God who is above all gods, whose works are not like the works of any other, is somehow going to be restricted when it comes to the accomplishment of his saving purposes? Did you read what we were looking at? It's going to come up again in Revelation and chapter 15. Fear God and give glory to him for the hour of judgment has come and worship him who made heaven and earth the sea and springs of water. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. And from among those who are now worshipping false gods and following the futilities of this fallen world, God will have a people for his praise. That's your expectation, my friends, because there's no God like our God, and there are no works like his works. You should expect to see the progress of God's kingdom in this dark world. You should expect sinners to be saved, and those saved sinners to be kept and to be blessed. There's expectation because among the gods there is none like our Lord and neither are there any works like his. There's adoration. Teach me your way, O Lord, I will walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. Isn't that what we might need in the day of trouble when we feel that we're poor? Unite my heart. Bind me all up in one, O God, to fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord, my God, with all my heart, and I will glorify your name forevermore, for great is your mercy toward me, for you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. My friends, God has delivered us from hell and from the grave. God has shown his mercy toward us. Isn't it time that we began to pray, Lord, take my eyes off all these troubles and griefs and unite my heart to fear your name. Who is the man or woman who walks through this world in calmness and with confidence? It is the man whose heart is united to fear the name of the true and living God. What can man do to me? What can the idols of this world do to me? What can the followers of these idols do? Have you got no idea? They can make you suffer, they can attack you, they can torment you, they can torture you, they can imprison you, they can kill you. Is that all? I have a God who can keep me through all such sufferings and sorrows and bring me safely at last to glory. I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart, because it's united to fear your name. You have shown me mercy. My friends, praise and wonder ought to be the testimony of the hearts and the lips of those who know that there is none like the Lord among the gods, nor any works like his. And then, not just recognition, not just expectation, and not just adoration, but supplication or petition. This trust is practical. They have ears, but they don't hear. Your God hears when you cry. They have hands, but they cannot work. Your God works in answer to the needs of his children. Do you remember the prophets of Baal when they wanted their God to hear them? How they raged and danced and cut themselves, calling upon the name of the Lord? And Elijah? Try harder. Shout louder. Cut deeper. Dance more furiously. Maybe he's using the toilet. Maybe he's having a nap. Maybe he's getting a meal. It was nonsense. Bale couldn't hear. And Bale couldn't answer. So Elijah went up. And he poured jars of water on the altar and on the wood and on the sacrifice. And men looked and said, that will never go up. But the God who answered by fire, he was God. My friends, this trust is practical. If we believe what we say we believe about our God and his works, we will call upon him in the day of trouble. We will lay our poverty and our neediness before him and we will ask him to do what he alone can and will do. Are you poor and needy? Are you even here this morning as a sinner who has not yet recognized the greatness and the graciousness of a saving God? Call upon him. He will save you. And out of his mercy, you shall praise him. In the day of trouble, brother, sister, call upon the living Lord. This God is supreme. His works are great. He does wondrous things. He alone is God. Amen.