The Amazing Confidence of a Soul under Siege

For the message, today, just a little bit of background on this. This isn't what I had planned for. This Sunday, but the day before we left for the cruise, I, I looked at our summer through the Psalms reading schedule and I noted that the Psalm that would be on the assigned reading for today. is Psalm 49.

And I resolved before we left on the trip that I would make Psalm 49, the meditation of my heart over the length of our time away. And so while we were away, I read this Psalm each day and I pondered it as opportunities presented themselves and I did this with the thought that I would at least read this Psalm to you on this Sunday, July 2nd. When we returned home, I didn't bring my commentaries with me on the cruise. Donna, did not let me do that.

but when we returned from our time away, I, I felt reluctant to let the Psalm go. I wanted to study it further and so I did as I came back to work this week and as I did so I felt the desire to preach it and so that's what I wanna do, this morning. So let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Psalm 49. And we'll look at the entirety of the Psalm today and if you wanna give a title to the message, it would be the Amazing confidence of a Soul Under Siege.

The Amazing confidence of a soul. Under siege in this Psalm, the psalmist is actually going to pose a riddle. that he has no answer for. Which is unusual because most riddles have answers, right?

in fact, as an example, here's a riddle that I read this past week. Why is it that in the state of California, you can't take a picture of a man with a wooden leg? Do that? Why?

The answer is because you can't take a photo with a wooden leg. You need a camera to do that. And I am so glad my daughter, Brianna is here today from out of town to hear. Let me share that and I can see the pained expression.

On her face. OK, so maybe it's not the best riddle or the best answer to a riddle. But in our Psalm today, the psalmist is actually going to pose a riddle that he personally can't find an answer to. And we'll get to that in just a moment.

As we come into the Psalm, the first thing that we see is that it is addressed to everybody on the planet. Whoever the psalmist is and whatever his message is, he wants everyone in the world to listen to what he has to say in this Psalm. Look at what he says in verse one. Hear this, all peoples, give ear, all inhabitants of the world.

If you live anywhere on planet Earth, This Psalm and the message of it is for you. The message of the Psalm is also for people of every social and economic class as well. The psalmist says, hear this, give ear, and then in verse two, he says both low and high, rich and poor together. In other words, wherever you are on the spectrum of status and wealth and well-being, from the low to the high, from the rich to the poor, the psalmist is saying to you, the message of this Psalm is for you.

Why should everyone listen to what the psalmist has to say? Look what he says in verse 3, he says, my mouth will speak wisdom and the meditation of my heart will be understanding. And interestingly enough, in the Hebrew text, the word wisdom and the word understanding are both in the plural form. Which is what Hebrew grammarians call the plural of amplitude.

we can translate verse 3 in this way. It's like the superlative plural. My mouth will speak great wisdom. Weighty wisdom.

Heavy wisdom and the meditation of my heart will be weighty and heavy understanding as well. To his credit, the psalmist does more than want everyone else to listen to what he has to say. He himself is listening to God as he writes, and he's going to tell us what it is that he is hearing from God. In verse 4, he says, I will incline my ear to a proverb.

I will express my riddle on the harp. Notice the verbs, I will incline my ear and I will express. One writer says that this language points us to the mystery of inspiration. The psalmist here is tuning his ear toward God and receiving revelation from God and now he's prepared to pass along to All of us, the revelation that God has given to him.

At the end of verse 4, the psalmist tells us that he intends to express a riddle, and we come to that riddle in verses 5 and 6. And as with many riddles, this riddle is presented in the form of a question that actually gathers in certain aspects of the psalmist circumstances. And here's the riddle that he poses in verses 5 and 6. Why should I fear in days of adversity when the iniquity of my foes surrounds me, even those who trust in their wealth and boast in the abundance of their riches?

Why should I be afraid of them? he asked. It's obvious that the psalmist is going through some personal hardship. He's experiencing adversity and this is not just any adversity like falling down and breaking your arm.

This is adversity that is brought upon him by foes. The Hebrew word translated foes is the word for conniving tricksters who grab you by the heel to trip you up. On top of that, these foes are people who commit iniquity, which means that they engage in ethical crookedness and moral perversion. And we observe in the text that their perversions and crookedness are not just in front of the psalmist for him to see, but they surround him on every side to the point where he is besieged by their iniquities.

On top of that, these enemies are described as people who trust in their wealth, and they boast in the abundance of their riches. They have a lot of resources on their side that make them powerful enemies to reckon with. The implication is they have many more resources on their side than the psalmist does. And they're very smug and confident as a result, and they don't blink at committing whatever iniquity is necessary to humiliate.

Or marginalize or destroy their enemies among whom is the Psalmist. They're confident, they're unafraid, they are sure of victory, they've won every other battle it seems, and they're confident that they're gonna win this battle against the Psalmist. Imagine Being surrounded by such people coming against you. That's the situation of the psalmist in Psalm 49.

And here's the deal. Most people in this exact situation. would not write a riddle like what you see on the screen. They would actually be writing a riddle that goes like this.

Why should I not be afraid? When surrounded by such people. They would be scared and would be demanding some reason to persuade them to stop being afraid. But that's not the riddle that the psalmist poses.

The psalmist is the one in the very middle of these circumstances and he sings a riddle here, basically saying, why should I fear when I find myself being besieged by such people? That's the riddle. And I ask you this morning, how would you answer That riddle Would you even be asking this question if you were in these circumstances that the psalmist finds himself? Would you be writing a song in the middle of such circumstances and singing it for global consumption?

If this was your circumstance, or would you be cowering in the corner? Somewhere looking for some reason to not be afraid. You see, in a way, the real riddle of this Psalm is the psalmist himself. How in the world can he have such a fearless perspective?

In the midst of his circumstances. Where does his confidence come from in the face of the assault that he's being subjected to? This is a relevant question. For us as believers.

Some of what it's like to be besieged by the iniquity of people who have more power than you do. Some of you have experienced the hardship of being taken to court and your opponents at law have had more money and more connections than you have had, and they have parlayed their advantages to bring about a decision in their favor and leaving you without what is justly yours. This has happened to people in our church, some in our congregation have lost jobs in the workplace because of conniving people who have used their connections, their prerogatives in the workplace to get them fired.

Some of you in the workplace or other environments have stood up for justice.

You've called for righteousness to be done and not only was your call not heeded, but people began to treat you like you're the problem. To be opposed Some of you have been lied to and cheated out of money that was rightfully yours. Beyond that, all of us. Live in a wicked generation of growing perversity.

And we sometimes feel surrounded and besieged. By the iniquity. Of the wicked on every side. Do you ever feel that way?

My thinking may not be totally right on what I'm about to share, but I'm just gonna share it here. There may be ways I need to mature, but when my wife and I were in Seattle, we, we fell in love with the city. And so much about it, but one of the things that we noticed. On both the front and the back end of our trip was that just about everywhere we turned, we were seeing a rainbow flag hanging from some business establishment.

We once walked into a department store and were immediately greeted with a rainbow display that said #take pride. Right when we entered the door. When we came back to Seattle at the end of the cruise, we arrived just in time, literally, we came into the city about 10 minutes before a gay pride parade. was taking place featuring over 200 groups parading their wickedness through downtown Seattle.

We ended up skipping the parade and going to church instead. But the affirmation of iniquity was represented everywhere. And at some points, there was this, this feeling of being surrounded by powerful people, powerful business establishments, and advocacy groups publicly advocating for what God calls iniquity. And this isn't limited to Seattle, as.

Back in 2014. A gay rights activist placed an order with a Christian-owned bakery in Northern Ireland. His order asked for a cake that would feature the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie together as a couple, along with the words support gay marriage. Basically what you see there on the screen.

And the evangelical Christian manager of the store, Daniel McArthur and his wife Amy politely refused to provide such a cake with that message. So the Equality Commission of Northern Ireland filed a suit against them and won. The MacArthur's appealed the decision to a higher court, and this past October, they lost. Last October, Daniel MacArthur, the manager of the store said this has never been about the customer.

It has been about a message promoting a cause that contradicts the Bible. And he's like, we don't want to use our artistic talents to communicate that message. Yet thus far they've been losing in court and fined by the powers that be. Regardless of the outcome of their case and regardless of the outcome of even a similar case that is going to be before our Supreme Court during this coming term.

What is undeniable is that there are people in our society who believe that Christians should have to use their artistic talents to craft messages that celebrate and advocate what God calls iniquity. And if such Christians refuse, there are people who believe that. These Christians should be fined and forced to change, and if they don't change, Then they should get out of the public square and get out of business. And such advocates for iniquity are willing to use whatever means, whatever wealth, whatever power they have at their disposal to accomplish this agenda.

And it seems that they have a lot of power and big money on their side. Along with the power to intimidate people into submission. When states across our country, you guys have been reading the news, when states across our country even try to consider legislation that protects the rights of Christians to refuse to use their artistic talents to advocate for iniquity, the power brokers of this world seem to just come out in force to influence things in the direction that they want them to go.

Whether it's Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, writing an editorial against the religious freedom bill that was being considered by the state of Indiana a couple of years ago, or more recently, the executives of Apple and Google and Facebook and 9 other companies writing a public letter against the bill.

That is right now being considered. In the state of Texas. Anymore, it seems that if a state passes a law that in any way doesn't square with the LGBTQ agenda, they run the risk of losing business in their state. Or the privilege of hosting the World Series or Super Bowl or the NCAA basketball finals, or they get added to the list of states included in the state of California's ever-growing travel ban.

My point is that we have power brokers in our world today who are not content to just sit on their wealth. They wanna put their power and wealth and prestige to use in order to advance an agenda that the Bible calls iniquity and to shape legislation in the days to come. In such a way that will encourage the flourishing of iniquity and end up impinging on our legal freedoms as Christians to simply live out our faith in the public square. It's the world we live in.

Just as Christians in centuries passed. So yeah, it's of great interest to us. To see the psalmist being surrounded by Such wealthy foes who love iniquity and hear him say, Why should I fear? When besieged by the iniquity of wealthy and powerful foes.

That catches our attention, doesn't it? We're riveted. Part of the riddle for us is why would he even ask this question? Some of us could give the psalmist 100 reasons why he should be afraid.

But he can't seem to solve his own riddle. He can't seem to come up with one good reason to actually be afraid. And we begin to understand why in the following verses. After posing his question in verses 5 and 6, the psalmist spends the rest of the Psalm expressing 5 meditations that serve to explain why he can find no good reason to actually be afraid.

Even while besieged by the iniquity of evil and powerful enemies, and he says, I want the whole world to listen to what I have to say. 5 truths we'll look at this morning. That the psalmist ponders that leave him unable to find a reason to be afraid even though besieged by the iniquity of powerful enemies. And his first truth that he shares is this, my enemies are powerless to deliver themselves from death.

My enemies are powerless to deliver or to redeem themselves from death. This is totally fascinating to me. Most people would look at this situation that the psalmist is in and think that the psalmist is actually the one in jeopardy, but his first reply to his riddle is to point out that all men, including his enemies, stand in jeopardy of a great danger and that is death. From which there is no escape.

And to show the folly of his enemies trusting in their riches, he speaks in verse 7 and says, no man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him. And we could translate it this way, no man can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for himself. For the redemption of his soul is costly, and he should cease trying forever that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay. The psalmist is saying here that all men are trapped in a fate that will end in death.

And there is no human being rich enough to pay to God a sufficient ransom of money to deliver another person or to deliver their own soul from the fate of death that awaits them. Part of the reason for this is that he says the redemption of a soul is costly. It costs too much. No one has enough money to redeem their soul from death.

Mark Zuckerberg can cash in all of his wealth and offer $40 billion of his wealth to God, and that will not be enough money. To ransom a single soul. From death. Much less his own soul.

The redemption of a single soul from death is much more costly than what all of the wealth. Of the world could purchase People who have great wealth might be able to afford facelifts. And medical procedures that make them look A few years younger, they might be powerful enough to fight off their enemies to live another day. They might be able to use their money to gain access to the best healthcare that money can buy, and they might thereby extend their lives for a few extra months or years.

But in the end they will not be able to redeem themselves from the fate of death. That awaits all people. Regarding any such person, the psalmist says in verse 8, and he should cease trying forever. In other words, trying to make it happen that he should live on eternally, that he should not undergo decay.

Give it up, the psalmist says. Your efforts at immortality are hopeless. The wicked rich should know this to be true by just looking around. There's enough evidence.

Look at verse 10, describing what the wicked rich see. He says, for he sees that even wise men die, the stupid and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others. This is what people see. What we all see when we look around.

And what happens in our world today. But the wicked rich respond by pretending that it won't happen to them. As Mike Barry said in his sermon last week, They avoid at all costs making eye contact with death. Regarding them, the psalmist speaks in verse 11 and says their inner thought is that their houses are forever and their dwelling places to all generations.

They have called their lands after their own names just in their quest to achieve some immortality. They pretend they're going to live forever. They don't think about death. But what results from all of this pretentiousness?

Look at verse 12, but man in his pomp will not endure. He is like the beasts that perish. This is the way of those who are foolish and of those after them who approve their words. Sela.

Whenever the word Sela occurs in the Psalms, the amplified. Bible Translates it with the words pause and calmly think about that. And that's not a bad translation. It's probably at this point of the psalm where we see the word Sela that the psalmist would break out into a flourish of instrumental music while you, the audience, ponders the truth of what he just said.

So he's right now playing his instrument while you're thinking. About what he's just said. And there is a lot for us to ponder here. Keep in mind that these are the thoughts that the psalmist is thinking about while he is surrounded and being attacked by wicked enemies who are seeking to destroy him, and he's thinking about this.

Instead of pondering his own dire straits, he's actually taking time to ponder the dire straits that his enemies are in. The day is coming when every one of his enemies will breed their last and die like an animal. In verse 14, he says, as sheep, they are appointed for shiel, which is the Hebrew word for grave. Death shall be their shepherd.

He's looking at his enemies and he's feeling pity for them. Death is their shepherd, shepherding them toward their grave, and in the latter part of verse 14, he says, their form shall be for the grave to consume them so that they have no habitation. His point is that not only will there end up not being a place for them in the land of the living. But eventually the grave itself, once they're buried, if enough time goes by, the grave itself will consume their physical form, leaving them.

Again, without any earthly habitation at all. And this psalmist who's under siege by the wicked rich is pitying them who are opposing him. Far from being intimidated by their wealth, he's struck by the utter impotence of their money to deliver them from the same fate that actually befalls an animal. That's their fate, but what is the fate of the psalmist?

In the middle of the dark declarations that we see in verse 14, there's a gem of a truth regarding the fate of the righteous that serves as the second truth that the psalmist ponders. In this psalm, which serves to explain why he can't seem to find a reason to actually be afraid. Truth number 2 is this, the upright will rule over the wicked when morning comes. The upright will rule over the wicked when morning comes.

Let me read verse 14. Again, he says as sheep, they are appointed for Shiel, death shall be their shepherd, and the upright shall rule over them in the morning. The Hebrew word translated upright is the Hebrew word that means straight. The upright are those who live right and who walk in straight paths that are ordained by God.

They do not embrace forbidden paths. And call those paths good. They do not find God's ways to be stifling. They find His ways to be truest liberty.

And the psalmist says, the upright will rule over the wicked in the morning. The psalmist says that while the wicked will die and rot in the grave, the upright shall rule over them in the morning. The mourning that he's speaking about here, according to a number of commentators, is he's speaking about the resurrection morning or the mourning that greets the upright on the other side of the grave. The psalmist is saying it may be nighttime right now.

But there is a new day coming and when the morning of that day arrives, the upright will be found to be not only living but ruling, and not just ruling, but ruling in a kingdom that is above where those who trusted in their riches will be. We see this language used in the book of Revelation, in Revelation 5:10. It speaks about those whom Christ has purchased with his blood and it says that God has made them to be a kingdom, and priest to our God and they will reign upon the earth.

They will rule upon the earth.

When we put the words of the psalmist here in Psalm 49 under the light of New Testament Revelation, we see that the morning that the psalmist is speaking about is the millennial kingdom. When Christ reigns upon the earth for 1000 years, and his people we're told, will rule with Him. And then even beyond that, we will live as kings forever with Jesus Christ and the eternal state. And when that day comes, it will be evident to everybody.

That those who were upright in heart. Those who believed in Jesus and confessed him as Lord, they were the ones who were on the right side of history. That's not all that will happen to the upright in heart. This brings us to the next answer to the riddle of verse 5, which serves to explain why the psalmist is so confident even while being besieged by the wicked power brokers of his day.

And that is this. Here's truth number 3, God will redeem me from the power of the grave. Look at the Psalmist statement in verse 15, but God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. I would encourage you to underline the words, but God.

Those words that begin his statement in verse 15 is one of the mountain peak moments of the whole Old Testament. Yes, all men die. Yes, all people are destined for the grave. Yes, the wicked are appointed for the grave and death is their shepherd.

Yes, their physical form will be consumed by the grave, so that they will have no earthly habitation. Yes, it is true that no man Including me, the psalmist, can pay any ransom to God to deliver our soul from the fate of death, but God. will redeem my soul from the power of the grave. And making the statement, the psalmist isn't saying that God is going to keep his soul from dying.

What he's saying is that God will redeem his soul from the power of the grave on the other side of dying. In other words, his dead body may go to the grave, but the grave will not have holding power. The grave will not be able to hold him in its grasp. And this deliverance will come not because the psalmist paid some ransom that was sufficient.

To experience that redemption. But because God Himself will pay the ransom. That will deliver him from the clutches of the grave. This statement itself is a riddle.

That will only be fully understood in the light of New Testament revelation. The price God paid to redeem the psalmist from the grave will end up being God sending His Son Jesus Christ into the world to die on the cross, and after that death to go into the grave himself. Yet we know from New Testament Revelation. That God did not, after Christ was buried, abandon Christ's soul.

To Shiel or to the grave. Nor did he allow his Holy one to undergo decay. God raised Jesus up again since it was impossible for Jesus to be held by death. Through the death of Christ, the ransom for our redemption from death has been paid, and through the resurrection of Christ, the trail was blazed from the grave to the very right hand of God, where we will end up one day in Christ.

The psalmist obviously doesn't know the details of all of this, but he does know a few things to be true, which is remarkable. He knows, 1, no man can redeem himself from the power of death. Number 2, he knows God alone can accomplish this redemption. And number 3, this Old Testament saint knows that one day, somehow, some way, God will accomplish this redemption.

And redeem his soul. From the power of the grave. The psalmist Respects the grave. He understands it has power.

But he also understands that God is more powerful than the grave. And that God will redeem him. So the psalmist says no need to fear death. And if you're not afraid of death, you have no reason to fear what the wicked might do to you.

He's not afraid of those who could kill his body. He knows that whether he's killed or not, death is going to come to him sooner or later. He will end up in the grave, yet he knows that the grave for him is not the end. Because God will deliver him, redeem him from the grave.

And God will do more than merely deliver him from the grave. This brings us to the next truth that the psalmist ponders, that serves to explain why he can't seem to find a reason to be afraid. Though besieged by powerful and wicked enemies, 4. Truth number 4, God will receive me to Himself on the other side of death.

Look at what he says in verse 15. He says, for he will receive me. Sela. Let me play some music while you think on that.

This is the language of relationship. He's saying at my resurrection, God won't just raise me, he will receive me. Into his house and into his arms forever. Totally the language of relationship.

One commentator says that this statement alone expresses the calm certainty that communion with Yahweh cannot for the Christian or for the saint be ended by death. Think about similar language of receiving that Jesus uses in John 14 when he speaks to his disciples and he says to them, in my father's house are many dwelling places, and I go to prepare a place for you. Keep in mind he's saying this to them with their hearts troubled, and they have a sense they're gonna lose him.

Jesus is being besieged by the wicked who are going to kill him.

And yet he speaks to them. In their troubled hearts and says, in my father's house are many dwelling places, and I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. So that where I am, there, you may be also.

It's the language Of reception And here in Psalm 49 is an Old Testament saint who's relishing the same truth. God will redeem his soul from death. In a future day when morning comes, God will cause him to rule, but even more than that, God will receive him. Unto himself to enjoy a relationship with him forever.

And this is why the psalmist is not afraid of the wealthy workers of iniquity who besiege him. Because in a future day he's going to have something that their money can't buy. He will have something that they're not powerful enough to obtain for themselves. He will have immortality.

He, the psalmist will have authority in God's kingdom. And he will have eternal relationship with the God who receives him. On the other side of death. So he relishes his fate.

And he pities the wicked, far from being afraid for himself. They're the ones in his mind who should be afraid. And this leads us to the 5th truth and the final truth that the psalmist ponders, which serves to explain why he can't seem to find a reason to be afraid. In his circumstances, though besieged by his wicked enemies, 5.

The truth is the wicked rich will end up completely poor when they die. The wicked rich will end up completely, utterly poor when they die. Look at what he says in verse 16. Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich.

When the glory of his house is increased. Clearly, guys, the rich man that he's talking about is the rich man that you would be inclined to fear. Which is why he has to tell you not to fear that rich man. The rich man he's talking about in verse 16 is clearly among the rich workers of iniquity.

That he was speaking about earlier. This is the wicked rich man of iniquity who uses his power to fight against the upright, and he's becoming richer and richer, and the psalmist says, don't be afraid of him. Why should we not fear him even though he seems to be prospering and gaining in power and wealth at the present time? Look at verse 17.

For when he dies, he will carry nothing away. His glory will not descend after him. Guys, a person cannot carry a single penny. With him from this life into the next.

Not a single possession. And that's true of the wicked rich. So don't be fooled, the psalmist says. Look at verse 18.

Though while he lives, he congratulates himself, and though men praise you, when you do well for yourself in this life, he shall go to the generation of his fathers. And they will never see the light. One of the worst things about the fate of the wicked. It's not simply that they will lose everything that they had in this life, but that they will never see the light.

This is consistent with the language of the New Testament. Guys, 3 times in Matthew's Gospel, Jesus uses the words outer darkness to describe the eternal environment. In which the wicked will find themselves in the afterlife. Jude speaks of those who go the way of Cain.

For whom the black darkness has been reserved forever. And 2 Peter, Peter speaks of false teachers and says, for whom? The black darkness has been reserved. This is the fate of the wicked in the life to come.

They lose everything they had in this life, and they will never see the light. So don't be fooled by the arrogant bluster of the wicked rich who use their power to fight against God's purposes and marginalize or try to destroy God's people. The fate of the wicked rich is sure. In verse 20 the psalmist says, man, In his pomp.

In other words, man with all of his costly possessions and all the prestige and the power that goes with that. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding is like. The beasts. That perish Consider the big picture of the Psalm for a second.

We see the psalmist in dire straits surrounded by powerful, wicked enemies on every side. They're boastful in their wealth, they think they have the upper hand. They think they're the ones who are on the right side of history. Yet as they look upon the psalmist thinking surely he's trembling.

They hear him singing a song. And they see I'm struggling to find any reason to be afraid. On top of that, they hear him singing. Their funeral dirge.

Speaking of them with pity, while at the same time singing a song of his own personal triumph in God. And we've seen 5 of the truths that he ponders in This psalm, while surrounded by the oppression of the wicked seeking to destroy him. And these 5 truths serve as the reasons that the psalmist cannot answer his own riddle. In verses 5 and 6, they serve as the reasons why try as hard as he might, he can't find a single reason to be afraid.

And these truths will help us. In our circumstances today, if we internalize these truths, they'll have two effects on us. Number 1, they will keep us from being afraid. And number 2, They'll Leave us concerned for the wicked who oppose us.

Perhaps concerned enough to feel afraid for them. To such a degree that we would pray for them and seek to speak God's wisdom to them so that they will gain understanding and cry out to God for wisdom, asking him to redeem them from the power of the grave and make them upright of heart. Guys, that's actually a part of why the psalmist writes this Psalm. That's why he starts off the psalm by calling upon all mankind to hear his message, including the rich and the high, the wicked rich.

And the high who are coming against him. He wants them to listen to these truths. His hope is that they will hear the message of this Psalm and be saved and avoid the fate of dying without understanding. And perhaps come to experience the same redemption.

that he has experienced from God. Guys, when we are besieged, and we, many of you are, and we will be, Brace yourself with truth, be fearless. Hold your head high as if you actually know something to be true. Think of the long game.

The endgame. And behave accordingly and then speak what, to your own heart, to your brothers and sisters in Christ, and speak it to all the world in the hope that they will hear the truth you speak. And be drawn to the same redeemer. That you have been drawn to.

Let's pray together and ask God to help us to do that this morning. Lord, I think of When I read this psalm, I think of Jesus who besieged on every side while hanging upon a cross. He was not afraid for himself, but he actually prayed for his enemies and said, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. And many of them a couple of months later are getting saved on the day of Pentecost.

Stephen, while being stoned. Fears for his enemies who are stoning him and says, Father, don't hold this sin against them. And one of the men gathered there, postured against Steven was a guy named Saul. Who you ended up saving in answer to Steven's prayer.

Give us that same holy courage when besieged by those who oppose you and your ways. That we are not afraid for ourselves. We are afraid for Our enemies and your enemies. And we have confidence in you.

And a boldness to speak your truth. In the face. Of all those who may come against us in the hopes that they might be saved by your grace just as we have been. We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you this morning, receive these funds, do much.

With everything that is given in this offering, Lord, for the spread of this message. of salvation and redemption. Eternally through Jesus. It's in His name we pray, and all God's people said, Amen.