Let's turn to that Psalm now together and read a few sections of it. Psalm 119. Psalm 119. Let's read just three sections of the psalm. We'll read beginning at verse 49 and then read through 72. The text is found in the middle section between those in verse 63. This is God's Word in Psalm 119, verse 49. Remember the Word, unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. This is my comfort and my affliction, for thy Word hath quickened me. The proud have had me greatly in derision, yet have I not declined from Thy law. I remember Thy judgments of old, O Lord, and have comforted myself. Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake Thy law. Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. I remember Thy name, O Lord, in the night. and have kept thy law. This I had, because I kept thy precepts. Thou art my portion, O Lord. I have said that I would keep Thy words. I entreated Thy favor with my whole heart. Be merciful unto me according to Thy word. I thought on my ways and turned my feet unto Thy testimonies. I made haste and delayed not to keep Thy commands. The bands of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten Thy law. At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto You because of Thy righteous judgments. I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts. The earth, O Lord, is full of Thy mercy. Teach me Thy statutes. Thou hast dealt well with Thy servant, O Lord, according unto Thy Word. Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed Thy commandments. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now have I kept Thy Word. Thou art good and doest good. Teach me Thy statutes. The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. Their heart is as fat as grease, but I delight in thy law. It is good for me. that I have been afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes. The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver." I'll read God's Word that far. May He bless the reading of His Word to us this evening. I call your attention tonight to v. 63 of Psalm 119. God says to us this evening, I am a companion of all them that fear Thee, and of them that keep Thy precepts. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, I call your attention to this text tonight using as our theme, God-fearing friends. God-fearing friends. The three points of the sermon are the meaning, in the second place we consider the implications, and then in the third place we consider the ground. God-fearing friends. The meaning, the implications, and the ground. In the text, in Psalm 119, verse 63, we have a positive confession of the psalmist concerning friendship. It is a positive confession concerning the subject of friends. That's in part what makes this particular text on the subject of friendship different than a lot of other texts that we are familiar with on the subject of friendship. There are other passages that we are very well familiar with, but that approach the subject of Christian friendship from a negative point of view and from the perspective of a warning. A couple of examples of that are the following. James 4, verse 4. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. That's a sharp warning concerning whom are our friends. Another example that we're well familiar with is 2 Corinthians 6. Verse 14 and following, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And with what concord hath Christ and Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what follows? In contrast to those types of passages, we have a positive statement in Psalm 119, verse 63. The psalmist says concerning friendship, I am positively a companion of all those who fear God and keep His precepts. That's not to say that the negative is not implied in this particular text. It certainly is. And we're going to have opportunity to talk about that tonight. The clear negative is implied. I'm not a companion to those who do not fear God and who do not keep His commandments. But the form of the text, as we have it explicitly in the Word of God, is positive in nature. And that needs to pervade the sermon tonight. This is confession. This is the confession that these two young ladies made in their confession of faith. I am a companion of all those who fear God and keep His precepts. It is a positive confession of the child of God. Now we can take that for granted when we explain a text like this. It's an obvious point, but it's a point well worth making. One who does not fear God himself or herself, one who does not himself or herself keep God's commandments will never say, I am a companion of all those who do exactly that. It's only the child of God who themselves love God with all of their heart, who themselves are determined in all of their life to keep God's commandments, who say concerning the subject of friendship, My friend, or as it's stated in the text, I am the friend of those who fear God and keep His commandments. So that right at the beginning of the text, in the sermon, we can make this point, if this is not your confession, There is some serious self-examination that needs to be done. If you don't sit here tonight under the reading of God's Word and the preaching of God's Word and say with a confident expression of faith, I am the friend of those who fear God and keep His commandments. If that's not your confession, much less how you live your life, that reflects in a very serious way, your own fear of God, and your own desire to keep God's commandments. And what it says, is that you're not fearing God, as you are called to fear God, and you're not keeping God's commandments, as God calls you to keep His commandments. The child of God. These young ladies, on the basis of what we heard tonight in their confession of faith, say, I am a companion of God-fears and commandment-keepers. The main word in the text is companion. I am a companion of those who fear God and keep His precepts. I have so far in the sermon used what is a good synonym of the word companion in the text, and that's the word friend. That's the word that's used in the theme of the sermon as we have it on the bulletin. God fearing Friends. Companion is the word that we have in the King James Version of the Bible. And the literal idea of that word companion is very graphic and very helpful for understanding the idea of Christian friendship. The word companion in the text literally refers to that which is bound together or that which is tied together. And in that word companion, you really have what is the essence of Christian friendship. Friendship is all about two or more being knit together. It emphasizes the closeness, the bond, the union that is between Christian friends. But that naturally leads to the question of what is that bond? What is that union? What is it that ties two or more together such that they say concerning each other, I am your friend in the deepest sense of the word as a child of God? The answer to that question is not that you have a common interest, for example, in a particular team that you root for in sports. You don't go to a Michigan State football game or basketball game and sit in the stands and put your hands out and say, I have a common interest with all of those who are present. We are here together to cheer on the team that we root for, and therefore, you here are my friends. That's not what we say. It's not the case that you go to work and you say concerning your co-workers, because we have the common interest of the company that we work for and the time that we spend together in the job that we have, these are my friends. You don't go to Grand Valley as young people and sit in your classroom and walk around campus and say, because they have a Grand Valley shirt on, and I have a Grand Valley shirt on, and because we go to the same classes, that makes us friends. And you don't even say that the basis of your friendship from a spiritual and Christian point of view, is the last name that you share with others. What is the bond that unites two together as Christian friends? The answer is found in the text. When the psalmist says, I am a companion of all those who fear God and keep His commandments, in that explanation of those whom he is a friend of, he identifies the very essence of what that bond is. The bond is exactly that. The bond that unites the psalmist with others as his companion is the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments. It's not that I'm a fellow Michigan State fan. It's not that I'm a co-worker. It's not that I'm a fellow student at Grand Valley. It's not even, first and foremost, my last name and the blood physically that I have flowing through my veins that unites me with someone else who has that same blood flowing through their veins, but instead, it's a different blood. It's the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the blood of Christ that unites us together as the church in friendship with one another. It's the blood of Christ. shed on Calvary's cross, the fruit of which inevitably, because God powerfully saves all those whom Christ laid His life down for, will be the fear of God in that man or woman's heart, and the fruit of that fear of God, which is the keeping of His commandments. Friendship is a bond. And that bond is Christ. For as it is expressed in our text, the fear of God, and the keeping of His commandments. I fear God. I love God. I confess God's name. I live in harmony with that confession. And you do too. And that union, Rooted in the cross of Jesus Christ is the bond that unites us as Christian friends. Psalmist refers to two things specifically. He says in the first place, it is those who fear God. The concept of the fear of God is an important one in the Scriptures, and especially in the Old Testament. To fear God is to stand in reverential awe of God's name. It's not first and foremost the idea of being afraid of God. That's not what we mean when we say that we fear God, although there is a healthy of humbleness as we stand before God knowing our sin and knowing the righteousness and the justice and the holiness of our Creator God. But that's not the main idea of the fear of God. The fear of God is to stand before God in awe of His name and to confess that the God of heaven and earth is the one only God of all things and to say with respect to that God, He is an awesome God. And I love that God, and I exalt that God, and I honor that God, and I serve that God with all my heart, all my soul, all my life, with all of my being in everything that I do. I fear Him. That is to say, I love Him. The child of God says, I am the friend of all those who have that fear of God in their hearts. The second thing that he says in the text is that he is the companion of all those who not only fear him, but also keep his commandments. And now, what we have to see here is that there is a very close relationship between those two ideas. The psalmist is not stating two independent points. So that I'm the companion of those who fear God. That's one thing. And then something else has to be true that's not related to that. They also happen to keep the commandments of God. We don't look at these independently from each other. It's a very close relationship between the keeping of God's precepts and the fear of God. This, after all, is a text found in Psalm 119. What we all know about Psalm 119, even the children here, is that Psalm 119 is all about God's law, God's Word, God's commandments, God's precepts. so that every single verse in Psalm 119 has some word used to describe God's Word. In our text, it's the word precept. So in a certain sense, this is the emphasis of the verse in light of the whole of the chapter in which it's found. And the relationship between those two ideas, the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments, is that the keeping of God's commandments is the demonstration of the fear of God. How does the psalmist know whom it is that have in their hearts a genuine fear of God's name? How does he know with whom he is a companion? He knows that because that fear of God which is in their hearts and confessed with their lips inevitably has a fruit, a demonstration, a manifestation, and that manifestation is the fact that they keep God's precepts. Not perfectly, impossible on this side of the grave on account of our sinful flesh that clings to us, but nevertheless, truly and genuinely by the work of God in them. so that they are not under the power and bondage of sin, and so that they truly hear God's Word and strive in all of their life to heed the Word of God. It's the truth expressed in the New Testament, by your fruit you shall be known. It's the idea expressed in James 2. In the context of justification, James 2 is all about how I demonstrate my faith to you and the demonstration of my faith to you, so that you know the genuineness of my faith is the fact that you see in my life the good works that I perform. When one truly fears God on account of God's work in him first, the inevitable fruit, the inevitable result, the demonstration and manifestation of that will be this. A keeping of God's commandments. So the psalmist says, I know those who I am a companion of. I know those who fear God's name. Because I see in their life a genuine keeping of God's commandments. In the remainder of this first point of the sermon, we can add one more point to explain the idea of God fearing friends. Not only does the text identify those with whom a child of God is a friend, that is, those who fear God and keep His commandments, not only does the text Identify what is the bond that unites those two. The fear of God and the keeping of His commandments. We can also say this, that in the text, the very nature of Christian friendship is described. And it's the exact same thing as the bond itself that unites two together. What characterizes godly friendships? What characterizes godly friendships is the very thing that unites them together, which is the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments. And so now we face honestly, the nature of our friendships in our lives. A lot of young people here tonight, young adults here tonight, so that you tonight have to face this question very squarely and honestly before the Word of God, not the Word of a man, before the Word of God. What characterizes my life with my friends. It's not just with whom am I friends, those who fear God and keep His commandments, but also what characterizes the friendships that I have. Because in the text, what's clearly the idea is that what must pervade at every level and at every turn the whole of your friendships with one another is exactly this. We together in our lives as friends fear God. We together in our lives as friends strive to keep God's commandments. And so I say again, honestly tonight, all of us, not just young people and young adults, but all of us have to face the question of what characterizes our friendships And if in light of what I'm going to say, sin is revealed, To your own conscience and heart that is sin that must lead to confession and repentance and change. Your friendship is not characterized by the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments. When what you do together as friends on Friday night and Saturday night is get together to drink. And the whole purpose of your getting together is to fellowship, not in a godly way as we'll get to, but to fellowship in order to feed the pleasure of self by consuming alcohol, whether of age, or underage in high amounts in order to have a certain effect upon the way that you feel. That's not godly friendship in which the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments must be present. If what characterizes the nature of your friendships is sexual promiscuity, it's not godly friendships. where the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments is of paramount importance. The nature of sin today is such that that application is not only just now for those who are dating, So that that's where sexual immorality would be present among young people and young adults. That's not the nature of the application anymore. So sex-driven in the world today. So open. is sexuality today. That it's not just promiscuity and sinfulness in the dating relationship, but in friend groups. So that there can be exploratory things be done in order to feed sinful flesh and pleasure. Outside even the context of dating and that particular relationship. Your friendship is not characterized by the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments when for the events that you go to, it's the concerts at the Van Andel Arena and at the intersection. It's not characterized by the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments when what you talk about has altogether a worldly bent to it. So that simply the words that you use are ungodly words, cursing and swearing, and so that the content of all of your conversations would be no different than the content of the conversations of one who is outside of the walls of this church tonight. all about the movies, all about the actors, all about the actresses, all about pop culture and everything that is filled in this world with sin and filth. And right along with that, the nature of your relationship and friendship is not godly, characterized by the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments, when that's what you do together. Take in before the screens all of the filth of this world. What must characterize godly friendships is that which binds Christians together. The fear of God and the keeping of His commandments. We do have to be positive in nature. Remember what I said at the beginning of the sermon. The text is positive. This is who I am a friend of. And clearly, this is what characterizes the friendship that I have. So we need to think about this in a positive way. What must be true of our friendships positively? In a certain sense, it's very easy to do what I did a moment ago, which is talk about what it's not. You could come up with hundreds of examples of sin and simply import it into the context of friendship and say, that's not what it is according to the Word of God. But what is it? What is it positively? You get together not to drink. You get together to fellowship. You get together to fellowship in edifying, godly, spiritual ways. And I'm not even saying here that all of our fellowship together as Christians must be dedicated to the talking about the Word of God and the things of God's Kingdom. No. But in our fellowship with each other, when we talk about things, it's always characterized by holiness, purity, and godliness. So that we could have this conversation with Christian friends as though Jesus Christ Himself is in this room with us. And we would never have a blush of the face in light of what we just said in light of Jesus. being right there with us. And we all know the reality that God is always watching us and hearing every word that we speak. So that when it's not even about explicitly God's Word and the Kingdom of God, yet the nature of our fellowship is not pleasure by drinking, but pleasure in good fellowship with one another. But that's not to say that there is not a time for those good discussions around the Word of God. And I understand that this is hard, and it may sound idealistic, but why should it be the way that that's how we think about this? Why isn't it the case that when we get together as friends, as young people, and as young adults, We spend a little time talking about the Word of God with our close friends. Why is it that we don't spend time opening our Bibles together and reading those Bibles and talking about the truth together? And even praying together. How many of you have prayed with a close friend? Or a group of friends that you have together? If that's going to be the culture among us, it doesn't start with 18-year-olds just starting to do this together. It starts in the home. It starts in the home with families, where the culture of families is always talking about the Word of God together, and always praying together, and it morphs into our life together as friends. How often would things be different if that element was true in our Christian friendships among young people and young adults? If this is your confession, and you love the Lord as you're called to love the Lord, you spend a little time together reading and praying. Using the means of grace, your friendship will be characterized more and more by the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments. It's a friendship in which the church, positively speaking, is front and center. So that the events that are gone to are not the concerts at the Van Andel or some other arena, but the church events that we take joy in going to together as young people and as young adults. It's godly friendships that have as their fundamental characteristic selflessness and seeking the good of my friend. That's what friendship is. That's Christ who expressed His covenant friendship to His people in laying down His life for His friends. Godly friends are caring and concerned about the good of others. And under that heading, comes the subject of accountability. Think about your friends right now, young people and young adults. And think about it from the point of being selfless. That my role in this relationship as a friend is for the good of those with whom I am friends. And what will that mean? It will mean that you care about their soul. That you care about their life with God. So that if you know that one who is your friend is getting sucked into the party scene, It's getting sucked into the life of sexual promiscuity. It's getting sucked into other things that are explicitly against God's Word. You as a friend are not going to just say, hey, come be with me. But you as a friend, are you going to go to them and say, what you're doing is wrong? In the deepest of humility, And out of deep love that arises out of love for God, what you're doing is wrong and you need to stop. You need to repent. I want to help you. Because I'm concerned about your soul and your life with God. That takes incredible boldness. That takes incredible courage. But friends, godly friends, are not in the relationship for themselves. They're in it for the good and well-being of others. Think hard about positively, what does this look like in your life? There are a few implications that I'd like to draw from this text. Having explained the idea of companion, and the fear of God, and the keeping of His commandments, and how that fits together in a few ways, I want to draw out three implications in particular. Number one, is that the person that makes this confession of the text says this as their confession, I am the companion of those in the church. Notice the word, all, in the text. I am a companion of all them that fear Thee and keep Thy precepts. It's a collective word. It brings a group in mind. And that points us to the church. Where do we find our friends? Where do you young people and young adults find your friends? The answer to that question must be in the church of Jesus Christ. Why? Because your friends are all those who fear God's name and keep His commandments. And the unbeliever outside of the walls of the true church of Jesus Christ does not fear God and does not keep the commandments of God. They may be nice, They may be relatively upright in their life, but they're not operating under the principle of the regenerating work of God in their hearts such that they fear God and keep His commandments. The person who makes this confession says, my friends are my fellow believers in the church of Jesus Christ. All of them. Every child of God who fears His name and keeps His commandments in the true church of Christ are my friends. And my close friends, understanding that there are certain people with whom we spend more time and have a closer relationship, my close friends are those in the church of Jesus Christ. That's a very important word, especially for you young people to hear tonight. Those of you who have graduated from Covenant, and are in college, or in the workplace, all the way up to this point in your life, your parents have said, I'm going to make sure as a mom and as a dad, that you are surrounded with godly people. Which is why you come to church every Sunday. Which is why you go to the good Christian school from kindergarten all the way to twelfth grade. You need to be surrounded by fellow believers day in and day out. And now you young people, all of a sudden, From that day of graduation at Covenant, set foot on the campus of the college. We're set foot in the workplace full-time and are surrounded by the world. And with that comes the temptation of the devil and the world around us. to draw close to those who are unbelievers either on the campuses or in the workplace. It does not mean that they are not your acquaintances. It does not mean that you do not love them as we're called to in the Word of God and are friendly to them. We're talking about companionship and friendship. Those with whom you fellowship on the Friday nights and Saturday nights. Those with whom you are talking in deep ways day in and day out. The temptation is to have one foot in the church on Sunday, and one foot in the world on Friday night. And that's where the Word of God in James 4 must hit home very hard. He who is a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Friends in the church, because in the church God's name is feared and His commandments are kept. The second implication that I want to draw from this text narrows the focus to marriage. Now it's true that the psalmist in the text talks about all them that fear God and keep His commandments. There's a big picture in mind. All believers are the friend of the psalmist. But it's appropriate by means of implication to draw this more specifically to the context of marriage. The word companion in the text, after all, refers to being bound together. And there is one relationship on this side of the grave that is the closest relationship that we describe in just that way of being knit together, glued together, literally according to the early chapters of Genesis. One flesh. The union between a husband and a wife. The young person who is single, but who desires to date and marry, says, I will be the lifelong companion. I will be the husband or I will be the wife of only one who fears God and keeps His commandments. Only one with whom I am completely one in the faith with, and one in a godly walk with. And I'm committed to that, you must say, as young people and young adults, before I enter into a relationship and develop a relationship with anyone else. Criteria number one, before everything else, is am I one in the faith with you? And one in a godly walk with you? And only if you can give an answer to that question, a resounding yes, a confident yes, do you say, ok. Now in a godly way, characterized by the fear of God and the keeping of His commandments, we go forward in a dating relationship with an eye on marriage to the glory of God's name. Amos 3.3 asks the rhetorical question, can two walk together except they are agreed? One of the underlying principles of a text like this. Can two walk together except they are agreed? The answer obviously is no. And walking together is friendship. Can two be friends? In the truest sense of the word, lest they agree. Not agree about what their favorite color is or their favorite food is, but agree about the deep things of life. The spiritual things of life. Who God is. What is the Gospel. What is the truth confessed. How do we live our lives? Only when there is absolute unity. And the answer to those questions, can one walk together in peace, in love? And anything apart from that is only utter misery all life long with a spouse. You cannot marry someone, young people and young adults, with whom you are not completely one in the faith and one in your godly walk. The third implication that I want to make is this, that this confession of the text must characterize the whole of your life. So the whole of your life demonstrates this to be true. I know I have made this application many times, but so important is it that I have no problem speaking about it again tonight. The young person and young adult and child of God says, I am the friend of those who fear God and keep His commandments. That reality must be crystal clear in all of your life, and particularly in the life that you portray on the internet, and on social media. We're talking about confessions tonight. The psalmist makes a confession in the text. These young ladies made a confession in their public confession of faith tonight. All our life long we're making a confession. That confession is by what we speak with our lips. That confession is by how we live in our lives. And what we need to realize as Christians living in the 21st century is that part of our confession is the way we portray ourselves on the internet and on social media. What must be true of every one of you young people and every one of you young adults and every child of God is that every person who sees your social media account can come to no other conclusion than this. That person is a friend of those who fear God and keep His commandments. And not a friend of those who don't fear God and keep His commandments. One of the most powerful witnesses that we can make as Christians today, and right along with that, one of the most damaging witnesses that we can make as Christians today, is how we portray ourselves in our social media accounts online. You can say all you want. I fear God. I keep His commandments. My friends are the children of God. And all of that can be undermined with a simple few clicks on the social media account. When the pictures on the social media account for you young people are pictures at parties where clearly the setting says it all and what's in your hands says it all, it calls into question If you were to say the words of Psalm 119. If the captions that you have underneath your pictures are altogether ungodly, either by the curse words that are used, the asterisks that have to blank out certain words, or by the general, simple, ungodly and worldly content of them, if that's the case, that undermines this confession that you may make with your mouth. If you go to your account and then see everything that you follow, And everyone you follow in some of the accounts, friends, are the actresses, the actors, the musicians, the shows, the movies, and all of the rest. Any unbeliever looking at your account, hearing from your mouth, I am the friend of God, fears and keepers of His commandments, looks at that and says, no you're not. No you're not. You're the friend of him, her, them. And everyone knows they're not God-fearers. They're not keeping God's commandments. They hate God. They hate God's commandments. And so with that, you need to either do two things. You need to completely change the understanding of holiness and godliness. which we can't do. Or you come to the conclusion that all of that is antithetical to this confession of the text. All of us ask the question, how I portray myself in unison with this confession of my mouth. I'm a companion, not of the world. I'm a friend of those who fear God and keep His commandments. And you will do that when you understand what is the ground of this confession. Every section in Psalm 119 has a main theme to it. The main idea of this section in which the text is found begins this way, and I believe that this main idea has to pervade the understanding of all of the verses that come after it. Verse 57 begins, Thou art my portion, O Lord. Why does the psalmist come in verse 63 and say, I am a friend of God-fearers and commandment-keepers? Because he starts and says, God, Jehovah, is my portion. And because He's my portion, this is true. I'm the friend of God-fearers and commandment-keepers. The Lord is my portion. My inheritance. A portion here, often in the Old Testament, points us directly to the land of Canaan. Every Canaanite, every Israelite rather, had his or her portion. Their particular plot of land in the land of Canaan. And that was their portion, their inheritance, which we know from the Old Testament can be identified as God Himself. And the idea with that is, it's their life with God. Jehovah is my portion. My life with God is my inheritance. The one who says, in the beginning of this section, Jehovah is my portion, says, Jesus is my Savior. Because the only way that any one of us could ever make the confession that I have life, covenant life, and am the friend of the living God, is because they make the confession, Jesus is my Savior. He atoned for all of my sins. He delivered me out of the clutches of the devil. He brought me from the kingdom of Satan, whom I was friends of before, and brings me into the kingdom of God, so that now God is my friend in the Lord Jesus Christ. He did alone what He could do, which was deliver me from sin, guilt, and death, and bring me into the life of light of heaven. He's my portion. Because I believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's in Christ that I have this life with God. Which is to say, as I said in the brief comments at the time of the confession, God is my friend. And Jesus is my friend. Every true child of God says that. Through faith in Jesus' name. Every true child of God who says that out of a genuine and heartfelt faith knows that if I am the friend of God, and if Jesus is my friend, only are God's people and those whom Jesus laid down His life for also going to be my friends. Because in my walk with God, I walk with my God with fellow believers. And I need fellow believers in my walk with God. I need fellow believers who are going to encourage me, are going to help me, are going to lead me closer to God in my walk with Him. I need, like Daniel and his three friends, those around me who are going to help in the fight against the ungodliness of this world today. And so I say with the psalmist, those wicked who seek my destruction are not my friends. God's people are my friends. And them alone. Because I am a friend of God. You see how it all starts as everything does in the Christian faith. It starts with God. He loves us in Christ. He saves us through His precious blood. He brings us into His covenant family. And knowing God as our covenant Father, and Jesus Christ as our Savior and Friend, with that first, we live our life with one another. In the church. In marriage. with those who fear God's name and keep His commandments. May that be true among us. May that be true among you young people and young adults who are here tonight for the confession of faith. That you say this word of the text, because you first say, verse 57, God is my portion. He's most important in my life, and therefore, I will be the friend of all who fear His name and keep His commandments. Amen. Our Father which art in heaven, we thank Thee for Thy Word. We pray that Thou will bless the preaching of it. Work in the hearts of all present this evening, such that we are convicted of the necessity of having godly friendships that glorify and honor Thy name. Go with us now in the rest of this evening, and grant us strength for the week to come. For Jesus' sake, Amen. Let's sing together now number 350.