Psalm 27 is a glorious passage in which we find the servant of the Lord, David, in a posture of confidence, a posture of worshipful response, a posture of pleading for mercy, and a posture of patient resolve. So please turn with me, if you will, in your Bibles, and I'd encourage you to keep it open during the sermon so as to not take my word for it, but that you may be able to see it for yourself. There's nothing supernatural or super spiritual as to why I chose this passage. To be honest, in many ways, when looking through the Psalms, I was like Jodine a few weeks ago in a Lindor chocolate store. I had so many options to choose from, how do I choose just one? I couldn't just get a grab bag of 15 for $12. I had to choose just one. So my focus was directed to this text due to a faithful brother in Christ who sends out daily scripture verses via text. His simple morning Bible verse text, which he faithfully does day in and day out, has inspired me to preach through Psalm 27. Every psalm is beneficial to the believer. For in the psalms, we are able to find almost every emotion we ourselves, at one time or another, have experienced. We find ourselves relating to the circumstances of many of the psalmists, David in particular. The psalms often put emotions we feel but do not know how to express into words. Many of us here use the Psalms as a daily devotional, as a supplementary passage that is added to our daily scripture reading. We as a body here at Grace Community use the Psalms in sequential order for our weekly prayer meetings and as our call to worship. Oh, how a blessing it has been in the middle of the week to meditate upon the Word and to pray with brothers and sisters in Christ. As versatile and beneficial as the Psalms are, often to lift a believer out of a circumstance in life, We must not forget that the Psalms preach Jesus Christ. Like the disciples on the road to Emmaus, our hearts should burn within us when we come to the Psalms. For in them, we find the life and light of men. As much as the Psalms should pick us up and set us on a level path, so too must the Psalms direct our gaze to the cross and to Christ. So if you found Psalm 27, please stand for the reading of God's word. Psalm 27, a psalm of David. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp around me, against me, my heart shall not fear. The war rise against me, yet I will be confident. One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I will seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices of joy, shouts of joy. I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious to me and answer me. You have said, seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, O Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger, O you who have been my help. Cast me not off, forsake me not, O God of my salvation. For my father and mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord, and lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. This is the word of our Lord. Shall we just pray for a moment? Gracious Heavenly Father, your word is a lamp to our feet, a light into our path. Lord, as I preach through Psalm 27, may I become less and may Christ become more. May your Holy Spirit apply this text to our hearts. We pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Please be seated. So I've not broken this text down into any fancy alliterated points. What I've done is broken this text up into bite-sized portions, Lindor chocolates, if you will. Except this passage is much more than a chocolate treat that will rot your teeth out and leave you with a stomachache. God's Word is much more sustaining than a sugar rush from a few church candies. God's Word is like a full course meal in which we can enjoy it in portions, savouring and feasting on each word to eventually leave with our spiritual bellies full. Again, not forgetting that if we haven't tasted Christ, we have missed the main course. So this morning, brothers and sisters, as the deer pants for water, so must our soul pant for our God. This morning, my hope and my prayer is that we will all taste and see, that we will all know and experience that the Lord is good. My three points are these. The life of a believer is marked by, number one, confidence in their God. Number two, fear of their God. And lastly, patience in their God. Please keep in mind what is true of Christ is true of David, and what is true of David is true for us as we are in Christ. Although this psalm was written some 3,000 years ago, the feelings and emotions conveyed by the psalmist David resonate deep within our being and to the very core as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are those that say that the Bible is irrelevant, that it's an ancient book and it's out of touch. I would argue quite the opposite. I would argue from Hebrews 4, 12, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the vision of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Like the sword that Ehud thrust into Eglon, let the word of the Lord pierce you this morning, and may it never leave you, so that all the filth you've been filled with will be poured out. Please look with me to verses 1 through 6, in which we find the life of a believer is marked by confidence in their God. Here we find the psalmist David attributing to the Lord Jehovah three glorious characteristics. We see that Jehovah is David's light, David's salvation, and David's stronghold. Along with these three glorious characteristics of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David pairs them with two rhetorical questions. Of whom shall I fear? And of whom shall I be afraid? He's not asking the questions in the Psalms as if he doesn't know the answer. But he asks these questions to instill in himself and those who would read, pray, and sing the Psalm, surety. That the God of their forefathers, Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, conquers all fear and conquers all doubt. The first two lines of the psalm are synonymous. They state the same thing, but by saying it differently. You'll find in the psalms, in this psalm in particular, a lot of parallelism and chiastic structure. Most of us here know what that is, but for those who do not, parallelism is when you find statements within the text echoing each other. And in chiastic structure, you'll find the structure of the verses in which they seem to repeat each other, but in reverse order with a common theme. Like a valley or chasm where you go down one side and come to a point, you only find yourself going up the similar side on the other way. And you might be saying to yourself, how does Hebrew parallelism and chiastic structure help someone who is struggling in life or is going through a season of despair or suffering? And I would respond, great. Chiasm and parallelism are perfect for you. The reason the Psalms, for the most part, were written with this structure was for the ability for the hearer to recount and to memorize the words of their God. God's people of the Old Testament did not have the 66 books of the Bible like you and I do today. They would find themselves only able to recount and uplift themselves by God's word through singing, memorizing, and repeating the Psalms. Just like my girls are able to recite almost every hip-hop song on the radio, word for word, either because it has a catchy tune or repeated line, God's people were able to recount the words of their Lord through the Psalms. So, turning back to the Psalm, let's look at how the Lord is our light, our salvation, and our stronghold. So, most of us as children have battled with a crippling fear of darkness. From my firsthand experience of being a kid once, I can attest to how the darkness of my bedroom has often left me paralyzed, crippled at times while trying my best to fall asleep. From monsters in the closet, to under my bed, to creaks and groans in the house, and to what sounded like a chainsaw coming from my parents' bedroom, as a kid, the struggle was real. My parents were gracious enough to leave me with a dimly lit nightlight, which did not help at all, and if anything, made the situation worse. It would cast ominous shadows upon my bedroom walls. With just my nose protruding through the monster-proof blankets, I would eventually fall asleep, only to have to fight the battle all over again. And if you're a kid who struggles with that this morning, know that you're not alone. What David realized early on in his life, either as he battled formidable foes or fled from his pursuers, is that there were things outside of his control and things within the darkness that put him in harm's way. both physical and spiritual. In order for him to understand what he needed to be saved from, he needed a light to shine brightly into the darkness that surrounded him. Not with just some dimly lit nightlight to light up his darkness, but David needed the brightest light there was, the light of Christ. Are you someone here this morning who needs a light shone into your darkness? Verses 2 and 3 show us that David knew what he was surrounded by, for the Lord had revealed it to him by his light. A note from the Gospel Transformation Bible says this, to have light in the impenetrable darkness in the ancient Near East was salvation, because it exposed one's enemies and one's resources. Although surrounded and encamped by evildoers who assail him to eat up his flesh and to raise up war against David, he was confident. For David knew that with the Lord as his light, he was able to see that which stood against him and surrounded him. Now with the ability to see, with the light emanating from the Lord, he could clearly see what the Lord was saving him from. Think to Psalm 23. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Death is the greatest enemy of David and of man. But in order for there to be a shadow of something, there needs to be something illuminating it. For David and for us who are in Jesus Christ, death is but a shadow. Shadows themselves are harmless, and even with death all around him, death is simply that, a shadow. I hope you see how closely linked the Psalms are We don't see David running through the valley of the shadow of death. We don't see him jogging. We don't even see him doing a brisk saunter. We see him walking. The light of Christ exposes death, and in doing so, shows both David and us what it is we are being saved from. David's heart and ours can confidently cry out, whom shall I fear? If we do not fear death as the psalmist, what is there to fear? Throughout David's life, he encountered evildoers that sought to eat up his flesh. Goliath, one of David's more well-known adversaries, calls out to David before battle with disdain, speaking the words, come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field. I hope you're able to see this. But the account of David and Goliath is not a story about how you must face and conquer your giants. It's much more than a cute Sunday school story and song, as fun as they are. Only a boy named David. In reality, it's more like this. Only the God-man, Jesus. The account of David and Goliath is but a small glimpse of the spiritual reality in the battle of Jesus Christ and crushing the serpent's head. David is but a type of the reality that is found in Jesus Christ. David was referred to as the lamp of Israel in 2 Samuel 21 verse 17. As Matthew Henry puts it, he indeed was the light of Israel. But David knew that he shone as the moon does. What shone upon David was borrowed light. What light God darted upon David was reflected upon his people. The people of Israel looked to David, their king, for light and salvation. whereas David looked to the Lord for his. When David knew what it truly was that the Lord was saving him from, he could then boldly lead his people and rhetorically ask, whom shall I fear? If God was for David, who could be against him? As a faithful brother in Christ once pointed out to me, David was a New Testament Christian living in an Old Testament time. It's almost like David had the book of Romans 8 inscribed upon his heart. If God is for us, who can be against us? Yes, Psalm 27 is a personal expression of a reality in David's life. But we can be confident as David is confident. The Lord to David is the stronghold of his life. Of whom shall he be afraid? I hope you caught that. The Lord is the stronghold of David's life. Not just his circumstance, not just his present predicament, not just when David wanted God to be his stronghold. No, the Lord God was the stronghold of David's life. Every portion of David's life and existence found shelter and deliverance in God. David found the Lord God to be his ultimate refuge and his ultimate resting place, a place in which he could be delivered from his greatest enemy, the greatest war raised against him, death and sin. Could you say confidently, as David does, that the Lord is the stronghold of your life? I ask that question because oftentimes I think we see ourselves as our own light, our own savior, our own stronghold. How's that working out for you? Thinking back to how the Word of God is like a full course meal, let's have but a small taste of the main course. Looking back through these first three verses, we see glimpses of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ as our light. In Isaiah 42, the prophet exclaims in verse 6 and 7 that the Lord will give his people a light for the nations that will open the eyes of the blind and bring forth prisoners who sit in darkness. My friends, that is speaking of the light and salvation that is our Lord Jesus Christ. Recall Luke 2, where Jesus is presented at the temple. There was a devout man named Simeon who waited for the consolation of Israel. Upon seeing and holding the child Jesus, Simeon exclaims that his eyes have seen the Lord's salvation and that the child Jesus he was holding would be a light of revelation to the Gentiles. Jesus is the light and the salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ proclaims these words himself in John 8 verse 12, saying, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jesus is the light and the salvation. If you turn a little farther forward in your Bible, we come to the account and betrayal of Jesus in John 18. We see evildoers have come to assail our Lord, gnashing their teeth, seeking to eat up his flesh. When his adversaries arise against him, Jesus confidently speaks, answering them with the words spoken to Moses in the burning bush, I am he. When Jesus speaks these simple words, it's as if a bomb is dropped that sends out shockwaves rippling from his presence, causing his foes to stumble and fall. We see the Lord Jesus Christ, even though he knew he was being betrayed by his own, his heart did not fear. And he was confident that the war that was about to take place was all part of a bigger plan. God's perfect plan of redemption. There's so much more to be said yet on just the first three verses, but our time is limited and I still have 11 verses to go. So let's move forward. Now, if you find yourself reading through the Psalms, you know for a fact that David has asked the Lord for many things. David cries out to the Lord and inquires of him often. He asks for forgiveness. He asks for wisdom. He asks that God would destroy the wicked. He asks, he asks, he asks. But in verse four, David makes it abundantly clear. The only thing, the one thing he asks of the Lord, the only thing that he desires, despite all his other requests is, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. Is that not the crying groaning of every believer's heart? Is that not what we ask of the Lord and our true desire? Let's sit here for a moment and look at the one line in verse four. to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. Beauty is often what attracts us to things, causing us for but a brief moment to have a sense of awe as a thing that is beautiful, has an ability to get our heart pumping and our minds racing. For a moment, the beauty we have come to look upon causes us to forget everything else around us. How often have you stopped to look at the beauty of a sunset, the beauty of a mountainous landscape, the beauty of a starlit night, the beauty of a spouse, the beauty of a newborn baby? We have all looked upon those things one time or another and have felt and or said, that is beautiful. Yes, those things in themselves have but a bit of beauty in the drop of the ocean of the beauty that is found in its creator. We must not fall prey to our sinful human nature to only look upon and worship the creation, but we must seek to look upon our God who has created the beauty we behold and worship Him. Our Lord is beautiful to behold, and the word beauty in its original language means grace, favor, kindness, and goodness. This, my friends, is what we find in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the manifestation of this beauty. Even though we had no former majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him, we must not forget the most beautiful thing that there was to behold of Jesus. The cross in Calvary. How beautiful his stripes and scars. How beautiful the crown of thorns that pierced his blood-stained brow. How beautiful the nails that pierced his hands. How beautiful is the rock in which the cross was lifted up, raising our wounded sacred head over all his enemies. How beautiful is the spear that pierced his side. How beautiful is the punishment that was reserved for us, being poured out of the Father from His own only unto His beloved Son. How beautiful is our God, who shows His love for us, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. How beautiful it is to behold the cross where they crucified our Lord. Well, brothers and sisters, the beauty does not stop there. How beautiful is the empty tomb in which they laid Him. How beautiful are the scars on His hands and side. How beautiful is the veil that was torn in the temple. How beautiful is the cornerstone of the true and living temple that is our Lord Jesus Christ. How beautiful is it that we as living stones are being built up into a temple not made with hands. God has not and does not live in structures made by the hands of man. David knew this from 2 Samuel 7. But rather, God dwells above his creation and in his creation. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. Does not the perfect sacrifice of Jesus cause you to want to present your body as a holy living sacrifice to the Lord in order to sing and make melody to Him? David speaks as one who longs for perfect, unending, unadulterated communion with his God. To be ever present with the Lord and to gaze upon His beauty. It's as if David did not want to look away. As the beauty that he was beholding was of such immense power that if he was to blink for a moment, he would be tormented. The confident language throughout this psalm does not stop at verse 3, but continues into verse 4 through 6. Look at the words used by David in 5 and 6. He will, shall be, I will. We know from Psalm 23, verse 6, that David knows that he shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. We can't read Psalm 27, 4 in a vacuum. That would be a doing a disservice to the inspired words of David. When David says that I may, he's not asking nicely. He's boldly stating that may is a competent may. Moving into verses 7 to 12, we see the life of a believer is marked with the fear of their God. As believers, we cry out to the God of mercy and the God of grace because we fear him, desiring that his face would be turned towards us. We desire that his face would ever be towards us because of the confidence we just touched on, the reality that Christ our light, salvation, and stronghold and that he has not been held at the grave, knowing that the ultimate enemy of our souls, which is death, has been defeated, gives way to the desire to seek the Lord our Savior and to have sweet face-to-face fellowship with him. Confidence in our God gives way to fear of our God. I know I just went through my first point on how we have confidence and we do not live in fear, but there are two different types of fear, wrong fear and right fear. Stay with me here. The fear we no longer have is the fear of sin and death because Christ has conquered them through his perfect atoning sacrifice on the cross. But the right fear we have is a fear we express as a holy reverence to our almighty God who could in an instant strike us down where we stand because he is perfectly holy, perfectly just, and perfectly righteous. We rightly fear God because of his holiness. And the father who turns his face away on his only begotten son on the cross will do that to those who do not seek the Lord. I don't know if we truly understand the implication of the father hiding his face from us or how that even comes about. The Lord Jesus Christ may have very well been crying out these words in verses 7 through 12 on Golgotha. You must understand that the relationship of Jesus and his father had been from eternity past, and Jesus has always been in face-to-face fellowship with his father. We read this in John 1. Being face-to-face with the father is considered to be the greatest blessing God can bestow to his beloved. But when we understand that he who knew no sin became sin for us, the Father could not bear to look towards him, for God cannot look upon sin with approval. Having the Father turn his face away from us should be our deepest fear, because that, my friends, that in itself is hell. When God's face is turned away from us, he instead turns his hand of wrathful judgment. Words spoken by Jesus in Matthew 10, do not fear those who can kill the body and cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. There is a wrong fear and a right fear. What is it you seek? What is it that you desire? What is it that your heart says to you? Without the Lord placing within us His Holy Spirit, our seeking and our desiring always falls short. We, in our fallen human nature, do not seek after God. It is first and foremost Him that does the seeking. The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. The Lord comes to us first and tells us to seek Him. And then, and only then, does our heart say to Him, Your face, Lord, do I seek. There's some crazy chiastic structure going on through verses 7 to 9. Here we have David beginning with his cry to the Lord to be gracious to him and to answer him. The center or the common theme of this chiasm is at the beginning of verse 8. You have said, seek my face. David repeats verse 7 in verse 9 in reverse order with his reply. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Cast me not off, forsake me not. Be gracious to me and answer me. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away in anger. David's response to the heart of this chiasm is, your face, Lord, do I seek. It is always God who seeks first. David can only respond to God in that manner because God has told him to do so. No one out of their own intellect or own reasoning will ever seek God unless he seeks them first. God seeks us. He shows us his beauty. We respond by seeking him and crying out that the Lord would not turn his face away from us, not even an inch. If you come here this morning seeking the Lord, know that it is God who has brought you here. God has called you here and has granted you, but a mustard seed of faith to sprout within you as you seek his face. If it is salvation you are looking for, God will not cast you off or forsake you. God delights in saving sinners. Look to verse 10 with me. For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in. God is not like anyone of this world. Because even sometimes the people we think we can depend on the most will not be there when you want them to be. Even your own flesh and blood may abandon you. Those who think you would never do so. God is not like an earthly father. Earthly fathers who have contributed to our conception are but a fractured image of the true father who is in heaven. Think back to the idea of how David reflected the light of God as the moon does. Now think of earthly fathers as if they are a mirror. Now take that mirror and smash it. Whatever light or glory of God that an earthly father may reflect upon his children is exactly like that mirror, ugly and broken. Do not look to your parents to call upon them and call upon them to save you. They are in the same predicament you are. Look to Christ. Seek his face and call upon his name so that you may be saved from that which lurks in the darkness. Call upon the Lord in repentance and faith, asking that he would teach you his ways and lead you on a level path. Your greatest enemy is your sin, which leads to death, for the wages of sin is death. Call upon the Lord that he would not give you up to your greatest adversary. Call upon the Lord and ask him to be saved. The Lord will take you in. He will hide you in his shelter. He will conceal you under the cover of his tent. He will lift you high upon a rock. He will clothe you in his robes of righteousness and sprinkle you with his blood. So when the Father looks upon you in judgment, you will be clean, made whiter than snow. Do not believe the lie of the world that has been passed down through the ages, which is that you can somehow save yourself. Salvation solely belongs to our God. He is the light that casts out all darkness. He is salvation. He is the stronghold you can flee to and rescue in your time of desperate escape from sin and death. This news is not only for the unbeliever. This is a wonderful reminder to the faithful follower of Christ to continue fearing their God. It is a wonderful reminder that we were once that individual who was far off, lost in sin and darkness. This portion of the psalm is a praiseworthy reminder that God was gracious enough to seek after us and to shine his light of salvation upon us. We remember the grace we were afforded despite our unworthiness. We fear God because of his holiness, knowing that we can only approach him and are only able to continue in sweet fellowship with him, being face to face with him because of the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ poured out at Calvary. Jesus took our place, bearing our sin, our guilt, our shame. He took our place on the cross so that we can take our place in his kingdom. We were forgiven and Christ was forsaken. And by doing so, we live in confidence, knowing that our God will never leave us nor forsake us. And we live with holy fear towards him, knowing that what was poured out on his son should have been poured out on us. Turning to the last two verses, let's look to 13 and 14, in which we find the life of a believer is marked by patience in their God. David ends the psalm with more confident language. And when you think of the characteristic of patience, it is only achieved because of surety and confidence for something that is going to happen. When David exclaimed the words, I believe I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, many believe he is speaking on how he believed that God would hear his cries and answer his prayer before his death in this present world in which he lived. It almost seems odd to call this present world in which he lived as the land of the living. In many ways, I would argue that the land in which we are living is more like the land of the dead and of dying. Despite what side of eternity the land of the living is, David had come through his trial with confidence and fear in his God that he would see him through it. The world in which we live has succumbed to the spirit of the age, which is instant gratification. Patience is no longer a virtue in which many people find value. How quickly we become accustomed to having everything right away. In many ways, this world is moving at breakneck speeds. Whereas the call to a Christian is one marked with patience and of waiting. David himself was no stranger of waiting, and in particular, waiting for the Lord. From being anointed as king at a young age, David had to wait for Saul to stop pursuing him before he could take his rightful place as king. It is the habit of many, even Christians, to lack the virtue of patience and even patience in our God. Sometimes we fall prey to the spirit of the age and begin to apply it to our walk with the Lord, We become impatient with the pace in which the Lord works and very often become frustrated when he doesn't have the same sense of urgency as us in our situation. It is the habit of many to run out ahead of the Lord when they think his timing is too slow. What a foolish thing that is to think that the Lord is slow in what he does. I'm just as guilty as the rest of you. I've lost count of the times in which I thought my timing is better than God's timing. The Lord keeps directing my eyes to 2 Peter 3, verse 9. Every time I run out ahead of him. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Patience and an ability to wait is what God has granted his people from the beginning of creation to the end. God didn't use the specific words wait or be patient, but every time God created a covenant with his people, patience was implied. God could have treated Adam and Eve like an etch-a-sketch immediately the moment they fell into sin and said, start over. But instead he said, wait for a promised seed. I'm just going to spitfire names of those in scripture who've had to wait on the Lord. And again, their waiting in the many covenants they have are rooted in the same greater covenant as Adam and Eve, the coming of a needed Messiah. We have Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Naomi, Hannah, Israel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Mary, Simeon, the 12 disciples. These are but a few of God's people who've had to wait patiently. Most importantly, we see the Lord Jesus Christ himself waiting patiently. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ that we see true patience reveals true power. If our Lord can wait patiently, we can too. It is often in times of waiting on the Lord that he wishes to teach us, renew us, and refresh us. I was encouraged by a comment that was shared with me from a fellow brother and sister in this congregation. They've had their fair share of trials and times of waiting lately. It encouraged me when instead of cursing God and walking the other way, they said, we can't wait to see how God is going to teach us something. That comment in itself sums it up. Wait for the Lord. God's timing is perfect in all things. We must have the patient resolve that David does. believing that we too will one day look upon the goodness of the Lord. If there was a word for God's people today so that they would be strong and let their heart take courage, it would be, wait for the Lord. There are those within this body who could benefit from those four simple words, wait for the Lord. The life of a believer is marked by patience in their God, knowing that he will deliver on his promises. Like those waiting patiently for Christ to come, the first time we wait patiently for Christ to come again. This is why we gather each Lord's Day, not so that we can just catch up with friends and shoot the breeze. But we gather as fellow saints and believers to cry out to our God, praises unto his name, pleading that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Crying out, Maranatha, come Lord Jesus. Come and ransom your bride. Come and rescue your people. Christ has come. Christ will come again. Oh, what a joy it will be once again to behold the beauty of the Lord, to once again be face to face with him. The world says good things come to those who wait, but God says, wait for the Lord and my goodness will come. My friends, when we wait for the Lord, he will never disappoint. In closing, I'd like to direct our eyes to Lamentations 3, 24 to 26, to close out this psalm as a prayer. It pairs quite nicely. The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him, the soul who seeks him. It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord." And all God's people said, Amen.