We are back in the Psalms of Ascent. And in Psalm 132 specifically, the Psalms are located directly in the middle of your Bible. So if you just split the pages and open them up, you're going to be somewhere in the Psalms. And they're numbered out 1 to 150. And Psalms 120 to 134 have this title. It's a common title, the Psalms of Ascent. We've been doing a series through them. We have three left. We are in Psalm 132. I'm gonna read it for us, and then we'll pray, and we'll have the preaching of God's word. Psalm 132, this is the word of God. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob, I will not enter my house or get into my bed. I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah. We found it in the fields of Jer. Let us go to his dwelling place. Let us worship at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness and let your saints shout for joy. For the sake of your servant David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne. For the Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling place. This is my resting place forever. Here I will dwell, for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provisions. I will satisfy her poor with bread. Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy. There I will make a horn to sprout for David. I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. Grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our Lord endures forever. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your forever enduring word. Truly the grass does wither and the flower fade, but there are things for us in this text that stand eternal. Lord, we pray that you would accomplish your purposes through your word and your people this morning by the power of your spirit among us. And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. God's people should want to do great things for him. We should want to do great things for God. We should want to live lives that honor him. We should want to impact others for him. We should want to be a part of his kingdom's increase. We should want his message known. We should want his glory magnified in all the earth. God's people should want to do great things for him. But we should never think that the essence of the gospel is our doing great things for God. The gospel isn't even something we do at all. The gospel is what God has done for us. Yes, we should want to do great things for God, but the essence of the gospel is that in Christ, God has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. Psalm 132 is a psalm for remembering the essence of the gospel. Wherever you are, wherever you've come from, Whatever you're going through, this is the first and fundamental need that you have today and every day, remembering the essence of the gospel. Psalm 132 is by far the longest of the Psalms of ascent, and it divides into two major parts, both about sworn oaths. First part, verses one through 10, is David's sworn oath to God. David's sworn oath to God. Look at verses 1 through 2. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob. There it is. David's sworn oath to God. But then see the pivot that happens in the text in verse 11. What do we read there? The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. And there begins the second part of our psalm, verses 11 to 18, God's sworn oath to David. So it's David's sworn oath to God, verses one through 10, God's sworn oath to David in verses 11 to 18. This is our main division in the text. So we begin first with David's sworn oath to God in verses 1 through 10. We're going to further break that down into three pieces. And those three pieces are going to be called the call, the content, and the culmination. The call, the content, and the culmination, just working through verses 1 through 10, David's sworn oath to God. So first then, the call. That's how we begin, a call starting in verses 1 through 2. Remember, O Lord, the psalm calls out. In David's favor, all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob. Now, the all-knowing God is not forgetful. But this is common language in scripture. Remember, O Lord. In fact, God himself, when he set that bow in the clouds, after the account of Noah's ark and the floodwater had subsided, that it was set in the clouds. And God said, actually, not when you look at it, you'll remember these things. He said, when I see my bow in the clouds, I will remember my covenantal promise to never again judge the earth through flood. So even God calls himself to remember. When God is called to remember, it is not the reminding of a forgetful deity. It is the cry to an all-knowing God to be faithful to his promises made, to remember them in the sense of accomplishing them, to be the covenant-keeping God. So the text starts, remember, O Lord, and then it quickly adds, for David's sake. Now, David was that man chosen by God and anointed to be the future king. That happened back in 1 Samuel 16, 13. We read, Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. David eventually became that king that he had been anointed to be. He brought the kingdom together, as the text says, through much hardship. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardship he endured. You read of David's life, and there was much hardship between those two events, his anointing and then his actually being coronated. But let's pick up David's story just after he's become king of all Israel. Saul is dead. The kingdom's been united under David after some conflict. And he's actually conquered Jerusalem. It's been conquered from the Jebusites. And now he wants to bring the Ark of the Lord there. Not the boat we just talked about. Don't picture that in your head like a boat trailer or anything like that. No, this is not Noah's Ark. This is the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant was essentially a box, but it was a box with very holy significance. In it were contained the two very tablets of stone with the Ten Commandments written on them by the very finger of God. The Ark of the Covenant, or the Ark of God, represented the holy presence of God with the people. The top of it was specially designed, and it was called the Mercy Seat. It's where the blood of the sacrifices would be sprinkled to make atonement for the people's sin. And it was so holy and significant that it had rings cast into it so you could put long pieces of wood through and you could carry it without touching it because to touch the Ark as a sinful man was to be struck down by the holiness of God. Just ask Uzzah. Uzzah was the man who in 2 Samuel 6 6 As David was leading this procession to bring the ark to Jerusalem, one of the oxen stumbled. I'll just read it. Second Samuel six, six as a put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against as a and God struck him down there because of his error. And he died there beside the ark. God. What was Uzzah's error? Uzzah's error was thinking the dirt of the ground was less clean than his own sin. His own sin, they could only approach the holiness of God represented through that holy ark, through the cleansing of the blood of sacrifice. Eventually, they get the ark to Jerusalem, but It still dwelt there in a tent as it had in the wilderness. Well, David was there living in his royal house. And David knows that's not right. He desires to build a house for the Lord. Returning to the text of Psalm 132, this desire, this intention, it's not just expressed as kind of a suggestion or a maybe or an if I get around to it. It's suggested as a sworn oath or vow. Remember, O Lord, in David's favor, all the hardships he endured, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob. Sworn oaths in scripture are connected to an extremely important biblical concept, the concept of covenant. I've mentioned it several times already. Biblical covenants are sworn oaths, binding relational compacts. They are typically enacted in moments of great ceremony and solemnity. They're often sealed with blood, thus the biblical language of cutting a covenant that we read many times. O. Palmer Robertson called God's covenants bonds in blood, sovereignly administered. What we see, though, in Psalm 132, verses 1 through 2, is David making a sworn oath. Highly covenantal language, and people in the Bible make covenants with one another. David and Jonathan made a covenant of friendship back in 1 Samuel 18. But we have here David making this sworn oath, very covenantal language, to God, how he swore to the Lord and vowed to the mighty one of Jacob. And we know what he vowed because it's very helpfully written out for us in the next section of the psalm. So we then move from the call to the content, the content of David's sworn oath. And we have it in verses 3 to 5. I will not enter my house or get into my bed. I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling place, the mighty one of Jacob. That was David's sworn oath. That was David's good intention to build a dwelling place for God. Now, God, of course, is spiritual. He is omnipresent. But he has revealed his holy presence with his people, in particular, as I said, through that Ark of the Covenant. His glory had descended into the tent to dwell there at the end of the book of Exodus, and David rightly wanted to honor him. Now, if we were just reading the historical narrative of this, rather than the psalm, we would be right now in 2 Samuel 7. 2nd Samuel 7, or in its parallel passage, 1st Chronicles 17, in those texts, we have that good intention made. He says to Nathan, the Lord's prophet, I dwell in a house of cedar. It was like luxury. I mean, cedar's still luxury, but this was like, you know, a very expensive, nice palace. I dwell in a house of cedar. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord dwells under a tent. He doesn't like that. He wants to build a house for God. And in those accounts, 2 Samuel, 1 Chronicles, that's all we read. We don't actually read the content of this vow he made, but we do have it here in Psalm 132, verses three to five, an actual record of David's sworn oath. I don't want to go into my luxurious home of cedar. I don't want to rest. I don't want to get in my bed. I don't want to close my eyes until the Lord is honored with a home fit for his glory. Before continuing the trajectory of the text, I want to pause just briefly to see this. There is much in David's zeal for the glory of the Lord and the purity of his worship we would do very well to emulate. Charles Spurgeon writes, Oh that many more were seized with sleeplessness because the house of the Lord lies in waste. What is to come of those who have no care about divine things? and never give a thought to the claims of their God. There's a question for you. If you don't know where you stand with God, if you don't know you're saved by him, if the incarnation of God in Christ and Christ's perfect life, his death on the cross, his resurrection, if it up to this point in your life has really meant nothing to you. Is that the way you've been living? Our God is holy. So holy, the sins of man make us perish before him like Uzzah, who touched the ark and died. But there is atonement. There is blood upon the mercy seat. Even the blood of Jesus Christ, not upon some earthly ark, but before our God in heaven. Your sins may be forgiven. And so hearing that, would you say, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids until the Lord is honored in my life by repenting of my sin, putting my faith in his gospel, declaring today, Jesus Christ is my Savior, Jesus Christ is my Lord. The content of David's sworn oath has much to commend to us. It's zeal, it's priority, it's urgency. But now continuing to track with the text, We come back here and we find that between verses 5 and 6, there's actually a gap of time. A gap of time between verses 5 and 6. We do in the psalm what they call in the movies a time jump. It's like in Avengers Endgame when after Thanos snaps away half the world, those words appear on the screen at the bottom. What does it say? Five years later. We jump forward in time very quickly. That's in the first five minutes. There's no spoiler alert needed. Okay, so there you go. Well, so too there's a time jump in the psalm and in the timeline of the psalm. What happens during the gap of that timeline is actually going to be picked up in the second half of the psalm. Right now, we just, we jump forward between verses 5 and 6, and we land in a place where there's something going on, and it's very exciting. Something is being heard in the land. Something to come upon and to wonder, like stumbling onto a treasure in a field. Verse 6, We heard it in Ephrathah. We found it in the fields of Jer. We jump forward into this dramatic moment. It's like they're saying, what's that sound we hear coming from Jerusalem? Where are all these pilgrims headed on this road? What are those sounds of celebration we hear? What are those solemn words being spoken? Where are they leading these thousands and thousands of animals? Are they all headed to those altars? Let us go, verse 7. Let us go. We're seeing all this happening. To what? His dwelling place, let us worship at His footstool. You see, we've jumped forward, and God's house being built is not just a hope. It's a reality. There's a dwelling place, a footstool you can go to. We've actually jumped out of the reign of David, and we've landed in the reign of David's son. And in so doing, we jump forward what I'm calling the culmination. The culmination. Now, let me read from another text of scripture. In 1 Chronicles 22, when David was an old man, this is what he said to his son Solomon. David said, my son, I had it in my heart to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. We read about that oath he made, right? I had that in my heart, my son. But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, You have shed much blood and waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth. Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. I will give him rest from all his surrounding enemies, for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. He shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish his royal throne in Israel forever. So you can read the history of it. Solomon built that house. We call it the temple. The ark was brought in and all that celebration and consecration and sacrifice culminated in a key moment of dedication. Solomon praying that now oh my god Let's your eyes be open in your ears attentive to the prayer of this place and then Solomon offers a prayer now I'm gonna read it from 2nd Chronicles 6. I want you to be in Psalm 132 Want you to be in Psalm 132 and be looking at verses 8 through 10, but I'm reading from 2nd Chronicles 6 2nd Chronicles 6 reads and now Arise, O Lord, and go to your resting place, you and the ark of your might. Let your priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salvation and let your saints rejoice in your goodness. O Lord God, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. Remember your steadfast love for David, your servant. Not word for word, but basically like when someone's reading out of a close version of scripture and you're reading another one, you're totally tracking with what I'm saying, aren't you? Obviously, Psalm 132 at this point restates the Solomonic blessing of the temple. So let's just put ourselves in that moment. The ark comes up, the temple is dedicated, and we read that upon Solomon uttering the very words that we have here in Psalm 132, verses 8 through 10. Picking up in Second Chronicles, we read, as soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord's house. When all the people of Israel saw the fire come down and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed down their faces to the ground on the pavement. and worshipped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever. Now, we're doing a lot of Old Testament history here, and this is a marvelous crescendo. The Lord has a house. His glory has descended. There's now in the language of our Psalms, verse five, there is a place for the Lord. There is a dwelling place for the mighty one of Jacob. And so I've called this point the culmination, the culmination even of David's sworn oath. And in many ways it is. But technically, David's own oath didn't come to pass. Remember what he said to Solomon? My son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the name of the Lord, my God. But God said, no, you shall not, David, build a house for my name. David's intentions were good. His zeal and his heart for the Lord were good. But David was ultimately insufficient to keep his own oath. And yet God provided a better way, a son to build his house, but not before something else, not before telling David something even better than that. God said to David, you won't build me the house that you want to build. Instead, I will build a house for you. And he wasn't just talking about a stone temple in Jerusalem. He was talking about something so much better. And in that we pivot to the second half of the Psalm, from David's sworn oath to God, to God's sworn oath to David. We've seen under our first half, David's sworn oath to God, those three sub points. We saw the call, which was really a call to remember David's sworn oath, the content of David's sworn oath, and that culmination of the sworn oath that's taken us through verses 1 through 10. In the second half, we're going to actually answer everything we saw from David, even his best intentions, even that culminating glorious prayer at the dedication of the temple. We're going to answer all of that with something far better from God. And what God has to say transcends the setting of David, Solomon, and even the Psalms of ascent themselves, because there are oaths God swears here to David that are only answerable in one man. So let's go first to the answer to David's call, which we could call a better oath remembered. The answer to David's call, it's a better oath remembered. Rewinding for a moment back to verse 1, what's really being meant in that first word, remember? It addressed in verse 1, it's addressed to the Lord. Remember, O Lord! So immediately we know it's not the way, as I already said, we have to be reminded of things when we're forgetful. God's not forgetful. He's faithful to a thousand generations. But the psalm starts, remember, O Lord, in David's favor, that's a cry for grace, for mercy from the Lord on his servant. Remember the hardships he endured, yes, but more. Remember verse 2, that time he swore a vow, here it is printed out in verses 3 to 5. Here's the culmination of it being accomplished through his son, verses 6 to 10. But Lord, We're still asking you to remember this is all leading somewhere. We're going through all of that to get somewhere. Oh, Lord, remember verse 11, how you, how you, the Lord, swore an oath, how that glorious event with the temple was you fulfilling your promises to David through David's son, and how those promises are of a bigger glory, even than your glory descending into that earthly house that was built for your name. Lord, verse 11. swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. The psalm is remembering that ultimately to the Lord. This is not a psalm beseeching the Lord to just remember David's sworn oath. This is a psalm that remembers David's sworn oath on the way to beseeching God to remember his own sworn oath. And God's is better. Because next we have the answer to David's content. We had the answer to his call, now the answer to David's content. What is it? It's a better house promised. A better house promised. The content of David's intention to build a house to God was good. The content of God's promise to build David a house is far better. That's what happened back in 2 Samuel 7. That was the Lord's response there. The Lord, after telling David, no, you won't build me a house. He said in verse 11 of 2 Samuel 7. Moreover, the Lord declares to you, the Lord will make you a house. key features of what's called the Davidic Covenant, which is there in greater detail again in 2 Samuel 7 and in 1 Chronicles 17. They are summarized for us here in Psalm 132 verses 11 through 12. These are some of the key elements of that covenant of God's better sworn oath to build a better house. It says there, the Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. One of the sons of your body, I will set on your throne. If your sons keep my covenant and my testimonies that I shall teach them, their sons also forever shall sit on your throne. Now, was David's son in that promise Solomon? Was the house that temple that Solomon built? Well, in a sense, from the David direction, yes, Solomon is his son. Solomon did build that house. God's glory did descend. We already read about that. What if this house God was going to build? And what if the fact that Solomon was not a pure king? Read his history. Solomon sinned in many ways. Solomon's sons sinned in many ways. And that house even that they built that from earth up house to God, it was ripped back down to earth and torn apart stone by stone in judgment. In the words of Psalm 132 verse 12, none of David's sons, not Solomon, none of them perfectly kept God's covenant and his testimony. They fell short again, and again, and again. And yet, this is a promise, even though that brought judgment on Israel, even exile, the promise from God, His sworn oath, the God who never lies, included eternal language, 2 Samuel 7, 16. And your house, David, and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me, your throne shall be established forever. So who, Psalm 132 verse 11, from David's own body, could possibly be the true content of God's sworn oath, God's covenant to David? Who is that better king? Who is that better house? Who is the ultimate one in whom the glory of God descended to earth? What is his name? And behold, you will conceive in your womb an embarrassed son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. Listen to this. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there will be no end. That's Luke 1, 31 to 33. I spoke much about anointing earlier. In Psalm 132, verse 10, cried out to God, for the sake of your servant, David, do not turn away the face of your anointed one. The anointed one is Hebrew, is where we get that word Messiah. In the Greek translation of Psalm 132, the Septuagint, the word at the end of verse 10 is Christu, or recognizable as Christos, or the way we say it, Christ. Now, many in the Old Testament were anointed or christened, to use a related modern word. Solomon certainly was, but there is only one who could truly be the final fulfillment of the messianic hope of Israel. Only Jesus Christ is David's son and David's Lord. Romans 1-3 goes to the point of saying he was descended from David according to the flesh. He was a son from his body. Yet we know he was God incarnate as well, born of a virgin descendant of David, called Immanuel, God with us, truly human and truly divine, one Lord Jesus our Christ. He is David's son and David's Lord, who in the language of verse 12 did keep the covenant, did keep all God's testimonies. He never sinned. He is that perfect man able to fulfill all the requirements of God's covenant. Jesus is the one who is able to righteously touch the ark and not die. And yet merciful to die the death the covenant requires for our sins. As Peter preached in Acts 2, 29 to 31, he spoke these words, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch, David, that he both died and was buried and his tomb is with us to this day. Being there for a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection and ascension of Christ was the great coronation on the eternal throne of David. This psalm describes to us the glorious oath sworn by God to David that is only fulfilled finally in Jesus, David's son and David's Lord. One of my teachers, Greg Nichols, systematic theology professor with Reformed Baptist Seminary writes this, The New Testament documents and certifies Christ's descent from David. In Romans 1-3, Paul confirms this. He was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. Jesus himself affirmed that the Messiah was both David's descendant and his Lord. Nathanael testified that Jesus was the Christ, David's heir, the King of Israel, the Son of God. Jesus reigns on David's throne. He builds God's spiritual temple. He rules with justice over God's people. He fights God's enemies. He will continue to reign until he subdues every enemy. He will utterly defeat Satan, sin, and death. He will consummate his reign when he returns to judge all men. Then he will reign forever and ever in fulfillment of this pledge. Now, we have one more answer. to God's sworn oath to David over David's sworn oath to God. We've had the answer to David's call. It was a better oath remembered. We've had the answer to David's content, which was a better house promised. It remains for us to see verses 13 to 18 under the heading of a better blessing granted. If you were to take the prayer of dedication of the temple, the Solomonic blessing of verses eight through 10, and you were to lay it in parallel with verses 13 to 18 of the Psalm, what you would see is alignment and expansion. Alignment and expansion. Verses 13 to 18 answer the prayer of verses 8 to 10 marvelously. And even better, whereas verses 8 to 10 are a petition from man, verses 13 to 18 are a set of promises from God. So we see this, for example, verse eight, we read, arise, oh Lord. It's a petition. Go to your resting place. What do we read in verse 14? God says, this is my resting place forever. Verse nine, the petition. Let your priests be clothed with righteousness. Let your saints shout for joy. Verse 16, corresponding answering promise. For priests, I will clothe with salvation. Saints will shout for joy now Limitations of time as I said, this is the longest psalm of ascent If we were doing multiple weeks, we might come through it differently but as it is we're taking one psalm a week a lot easier when there are three verses but The limitations of time prevent us from examining every detail of this last section. What I want to do is just grab a few statements of this better blessing granted for us to focus upon as we draw to a close. And as we do, I just remind you again, this is a psalm for remembering the essence of the gospel. The essence of the gospel is that in Christ, God has done for us what we could never do for him. We could never keep his covenant. But he has both sent his son Jesus to keep it in our place and also suffer the penalty for our failure to keep it. Jesus lived in our place for our righteousness. Jesus died in our place for our sins. This is the resurrected King who reigns over us even now. So let's pull out a few of these glorious better blessings from the last part of this psalm. Notice with me verse 13. The Lord has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his dwelling place. Zion is that hill of God. It evokes to us Jerusalem and the temple which were upon it. But in the New Testament, we're told Christ is the true temple. Christ is the dwelling place of God with man. So much better than the glory that descended in fire was that more quiet, but much more staggering descent of the actual divine person of the Son to the womb of the Virgin, even to take on true humanity. But Zion represents more than Christ dwelling with us through his incarnation, God dwelling with us. Zion also represents to us the people of God, the church. This is described as Zion. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, yes, but the cornerstone of a spiritual temple made out of people brought together in him. We are the dwelling place he has chosen right now. People of God, be comforted. God is in our midst when we gather together as his church. He has found and is building and will bring in fullness at the end of days a forever house for his name. It's made up of people saved by his grace alone. It's us. Look with me as well at verse 16 from our psalm. It says, her priests I will clothe with salvation and her saints will shout for joy. in the glorious new covenant of God in which we all live, we are described as a kingdom of priests. And so God has clothed us all with this salvation. This clothing is spiritual and being clothed in salvation necessitates something first and necessitates first the removal of something. Something else spiritual. Picture it like this. Our spiritually filthy rags of sin are first removed from us. That's the work of Christ upon the cross, suffering his father's wrath, making atonement for us. And now we, his kingdom of priests, are clothed with salvation. That is the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and us as truly blessed on account of His righteousness, as He was truly crushed on account of our sin. Child of God, this is about you. It doesn't matter how filthy those tattered rags of your sin were. In Christ, they're gone. You are wrapped up in the righteous robes of Jesus forever and ever and ever. And so the text says, for saints will shout for joy. When you rejoice today over such a great salvation, that text is true in you. His priests are clothed with salvation. His people shout for joy. Lastly, notice with me in the final verse, verse 18. His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine. The King has come and declared the kingdom. He has come with the offer of peace. The call to you today is to not be his enemy. Worship the Lord, bow to the King, treasure the Savior. The psalm says, on him his crown will shine. It does. It already does even now. As 2 Corinthians 4, 6 says, God who said, let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is the glorious king of God's shining grace. He himself and what he has done is the essence of the gospel. The gospel declared to you today is not what you must do for him. Even great King David was insufficient to keep his own good intentions. You are insufficient in yours. Thank God that's not the gospel. The gospel is what he has done for you. The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back. Child of God, that is your comfort. That is your hope. You will not turn back because that is your king. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this 132nd psalm. Thank you for the way it takes us on such a marvelous tour of your redemptive dealings with mankind. Lord, we pray that the parts of the psalm that may stir us up towards zeal for your house would do that good work in us by the power of the Spirit. We pray that we would want to serve and to press on in the work of your kingdom and in the mission you've given to your church. But Lord, we pray that we would never confuse the gospel with what we do with you, rather that we would rest in the gospel of what you have done for us. Lord, you have been so good and so kind. You have clothed us with salvation. You have caused us to shout for joy. We confess together that your crown does shine upon the head of Jesus Christ and we worship him together. I pray Lord for any here who do not know Christ as their saving King. I pray that today would be a day of dropping excuse, dropping pretense, dropping delay, and instead dropping to their knees in worship and adoration before the King of who loves to save the souls of sinners. Lord, may this be a day when King Jesus claims back much territory, where the light shines into much darkness, and many more say, truly, the glory of God shines in the face of Christ. I am saved by His work alone. I live for Him alone. I trust in Him alone. He alone is my hope. He alone is my King. Pray these things in the name of our matchless King, Jesus Christ. Amen.