With God We Shall Do Valiantly
Lord, we come to you now as we turn to your Word, not merely because of custom and habit thinking that sermons begin with prayers, but because we need you, I need you to preach your Word thankfully, humbly, powerfully with unction from your spirit and we need your help that we might listen, that we might be effective, we might be changed, we might understand and so give us ears to hear we pray for Jesus’ same and in His name. Amen.
Our text this morning is Psalm 108. We’re doing four weeks in the Psalms 107, 108, 109, and 110, the beginning of Book 5 in the Psalter. Psalm 108. You notice the superscription there in small upper case letters, small capital letters, those are inspired. The superscriptions are inspired, in fact, in the Hebrew Bible they are given verse 1 so it’s always complicated when something is referenced from the Hebrew it’s one verse off because they count that as verse 1. The headings in the ESV, “With God We Shall Do Valiantly,” that’s a nice heading, it’s the same title as my sermon, but those are not inspired, helpful not inspired, but just so you realize these superscriptions are a part of the inerrant Word of God and as we’ll see in just a moment they sometimes are very important for interpreting the Psalm.
A song. A Psalm of David.
My heart is steadfast, O God! I will sing and make melody with all my being! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn! I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your steadfast love is great above the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth! That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer me!
God has promised in his holiness: “With exultation I will divide up Shechem and portion out the Valley of Succoth. Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter. Moab is my washbasin; upon Edom I cast my shoe; over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? Have you not rejected us, O God? You do not go out, O God, with our armies.Oh grant us help against the foe, for vain is the salvation of man! With God we shall do valiantly; it is he who will tread down our foes.
The key to understanding this Psalm is to realize that what makes the Psalm appear forgettable is actually what makes it so amazing and memorable. So, stick with me to the end and I hope and pray that by the end you will be able to say, I am never going to read this Psalm the same way again. They say careful pastor, that’s a lot of hype for this sermon. Well I’m not hyping the sermon, I am hyping this Psalm, God’s Word and the Christ whose Word it is, perhaps we will learn not only how to read this Psalm, but that we might have the eyes to read God’s Word and the Psalter in particular in a way that allows us and encourages us to see Jesus. So, why did I just say that this Psalm at first seems forgettable. Well, it seems forgettable because it seems redundant, and it seems redundant because Psalm 108 repeats almost word for word the halves of two other Psalms. If you were thinking as I read these verses, wow those sound really familiar, these are some of the most familiar lines in the Psalm and in the Bible almost like I heard them before, you’d be right. Wow, they’re so familiar I wonder if they’re in here twice. Well, they are in here twice. Psalm 108 verses 1 through 5, so you have your Bible, look at the verses 1 through 5 are taken almost word for word from Psalm 57:7through 11. Now hold on we’ll go to Psalm 57 in just a moment. And then 108 verses 6 through 13, so the second half of Psalm 108 is taken almost word for word from Psalm 60 verse 5 through 12. Now you notice the superscription says a Psalm of David, it may be that David put these two halves together or that someone later put the two halves together, but those other Psalms are both from David and so it’s given the title of David, but what we’ll see in just a moment is Psalm 108 consists virtually identically with the conclusion of two other Psalms and so we’re left scratching our heads and thinking, why, why have a Psalm that appears to be redundant. We already have all of these words in the conclusion of 57 and the conclusion of 60 and now we mash them together for Psalm 108, as if the editor of the Psalter came to David and said, can you believe we’re at 149, we can’t send this thing out with 149, we need one more and David said, I’ve got a kingdom to run, I’ve got a lot of things going on, I can’t make this deadline, can you give us one more and then he just did a copy and paste and said, fine, you need 150, put these two halves together, somebody come up with some different music, there ya go. That’s not what happened, but why, why is Psalm 108 here, drawing from the two halves. Now you say, well how do you know that those other two didn’t cut in half Psalm 108. Well, Psalm 108 comes later, so that makes us think it probably is pulling from those two, not the other way around, and Book 5 here in the Psalter shows a preference for the divine name Lord or Yahweh or Jehovah, not exclusively, but a preference while Book 2 which is where 57 and 60 come from shows a preference for Elohim, translated God, but here in Psalm 108, mainly, not exclusively, but mainly uses the language of God. So that’s all a complicated way of saying the terms that are used here make us fairly certain that this came from 57 and 60 rather than 57 and 60 cutting in half Psalm 108.
So, turn to Psalm 57 because I want you to see what 57 is about and what 60 is about and then why they come together in 108. Notice the superscription that is the introduction to Psalm 57 there in the small capital letters. You’re there, Psalm 57. To the Choirmaster According to Do Not Destroy. According to, how that’s given by the English translation word according to is supplied thinking that that’s the sense of it, we don’t know for sure, but the idea is do not destroy maybe a tune, maybe a prayer. It’s found in 57, 58, 59, and 75. Maybe a prayer as we’ll see, David is facing difficult circumstances and enemies so this would be a fitting prayer or a tune asking God for deliverance. So do not destroy a Miktam of David, don’t know exactly what a Miktam is, it’s uncertain, but likely a musical or liturgical term, and then we see it’s of David. Now here’s the important part for understanding this Psalm. When he fled from Saul in the cave, David is anointed king, he’s not yet reining as king, Saul likes him for about half a minute and then he is insanely jealous, and he wants to kill David. We see at least two times, one in 1 Samuel 22, David hides out in the cave of Adullam, and then later he flees in the wilderness of Ein Gedi in a cave, so this could refer to either of those, either Adullam or Ein Gedi, or it could be a similar event. But here we have, this is the key, David is in a cave, he is literally in the shadow of death and darkness, shrouded in the earth, wondering if there is any room for escape. Now a cave is a good place to hide in one sense because maybe it’s a bit out of the way and someone has to find you. It’s also a rather dangerous place because you’ve got one way out and you often don’t have any way back out in the other direction. So, he’s hiding out here in a cave. Verses 1 through 3 is his cry for help. You see that, “Be merciful to me, my soul takes refuge in the shadow of your wings I take refuge.” He’s praying that the storm of destruction, Saul’s murderous, vindictive rage will pass by. He cries out to the Most High. So, 1 through 3 a cry for help and in verse 4 here’s the danger that he faces, “My soul is in the midst of lions. I lie down amid fiery beasts”. He’s not literally in a cave with lions, there may be beasts prowling around, but certainly he is facing his enemy, the children of man whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords, so Saul and his men are fierce like lions they have him trapped in this cave.
And then verses 5 and 6, he sings out his deliverance, the exalted O God above the heavens.” Verse 6 they said, “A net for my steps, my soul was bowed down, they dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen in it themselves.” So, we see a cry for deliverance. He describes what he’s facing and now the conclusion of Psalm 57 and this is where we have the exact same language in Psalm 108. You see beginning in verse 7 through verse 11, that’s the same language that starts Psalm 108. So, notice what David does, he sings, “My heart is steadfast O God, my heart is steadfast. I will sing and make melody.” Now it’s Father’s Day, it’s not a Father’s Day sermon, but here’s my one Father’s Day application. We had a few weeks ago a sermon about true manhood and I just want you to see true manhood looks like courage, prudence, godliness, and that can be overlaid a variety of personalities, interests, vocations, hobbies, think about who David is. Is David a manly man, oh yes, he kills animals, he slays giants, he’s a man of courage, he leads out his armies so this is a man who has given great resolve and God has used to defeat His enemies, and notice this warrior who can kill lions, giants, and lead an army, is also a poet, and a musician, and he sings, and he weeps, and he shouts. He is a morning music warrior. Any of you fathers a morning, music warrior. If you are, your children ought to rise up and put up with you. But that’s what David is. See he doesn’t fit all of the stereotypes that we might say, that’s what a manly man looks like. He’s a manly man because he is godly, he is courageous, and he wants to fight against the Lords enemies and he is willing to sacrifice himself for the good of others. So, this morning music warrior says, “I will awake the dawn.” That means, I will begin the day with praise. You can understand the imagery here. He is up so early he has to wake up the instruments, awake O harp, time to get up lyre. Guitar, organ, drums, harmonica, cymbals, time to wake up. It’s still dark, it’s so early, he’s up, he has to wake up his instruments that he might praise, that he might call for even before the break of dawn. David’s up, he calls the instruments up that they might call the sunup and awaken the dawn with praise.
So here is a great Psalm for the morning people among us. Now it’s not everybody. Suppose you could say, well I’m up so late that I’ve outlasted the praise of the sun. Okay good for you, but this is the one for the morning people, as you’re up, it’s a little harder to get up before the sun during the summer, but you think to yourself as you’re there in prayer and you’re having one of those mornings you feel like, does this even really matter, what am I doing, I did the same thing, it feels kind of rote. You have beaten even the sun, to wake up, and to give God the praise that he is due and you can see in part your work in the morning, however feeble and meager and sleepy your prayers and your praise may feel, you are saying, awaken the dawn. Sun, it’s time to get up and give your maker the praise and the glory that He deserves. That’s what David is doing. Now he’s not just up early because he’s a morning person, he is up because he survived the night, remember, he’s in a cave and Saul is hunting him and so he has made it through the night. Remember verse 4, “My soul is in the midst of lions. I lie down among fiery beasts.” And now that he has made it through the night, God has preserved him, he wants to sing so the whole world will hear him.
Verse 9, “I give thanks to you among the peoples, sing your praise among the nations.” In fact, he wants to sign so loud that not only the peoples of the earth can hear him, but his praise will reach the very heavens, “Be exalted O God above the heavens,” That was the refrain in verse 5, he repeats it at the end in verse 11, so trace out what has happened here with David, starting in a cave, facing death, and now ending above the clouds in the heavens with God’s glory over the whole earth. That’s quite a transformation. Psalm 108 takes that exhilarating conclusion; it makes it the first half of its Psalm. 57’s second half becomes the first half of 108. Now what about the other Psalm. Turn just a page to Psalm 60. Notice Psalm 60 has one of the longest introductions in this superscription to the choirmaster, according to Shushan-eduth might be translated something like Lily of Testimony, again probably a musical term or maybe a hymn tune. This is also called a Miktam, also of David for instruction and here’s the setting. When he strove with Aram-Naharaim and with Aram-Zobah, and with Joab on his return struck down 12,000 of Edom in the Valley of Salt. The superscription in Psalm 57 referred to a predicament and here in Psalm 60 we have another predicament and also the provision. So the predicament or the problem is striving there with these two men, but there is also the deliverance that Joab on his return, in this battle with Edom struck down these thousands of men in the Valley of Salt, maybe a valley that’s south of the Dead Sea as you know which has such a high salt concentration, sometimes called the Salt Sea. 1 Chronicles 18 attributes this massive victory against the Edomites to Abishai, this Psalm gives the honor to Joab, and another place gives the honor to David in 2 Samuel 8. So which is it, who had this great victory, was it Abishai, was it Joab, was it David? Well, we’re right, all three of those can cohere because you think about how military chain of command works, it’s likely that Abishai may have been the one right there in the middle with the sword, and the spear, and the javelin, and the shield who was fighting against the Edomites, but his commanding officer is Joab and so you’re right to also give to the general the honor and say that this was Joab’s triumph and you can rightly give the honor to David as the Commander in Chief. So, it’s ascribed to all three men here in Psalm 60 it is said that Joab slew these thousands of Edomites.
We’ll look at verses 1 through 3 again. We start in despair, not just a predicament but despair, “O God you have rejected us, you have broken our defences, you’ve been angry so the Israelites are facing a military defeat”, and they think God is on our side and if we have struggled so mightily it must be that God has left us. You make the land to quake, you have torn it open, repaired its breeches, you have made your people see hard things. Let’s just notice verse 3 right there, have you ever noticed that before and it’s not mainly what this sermon is about, but there’s a verse to give expression to your life. If you don’t need verse 3 right now, live long enough and there will be a time where you need verse 3. “Lord, you have made us to see some hard things.” And so, David is praying very honestly, we suffered defeat, we’re in this mess, seems like you’ve left us, by your providential care you have made us to see hard things. Notice the writers in the Old Testament, when they face difficulty and tragedy and the hardest things in life, they never reach the conclusion that, well God just isn’t sovereign, and I guess this is just what happens because he gives the people free will. That’s not the solution. You remember what Naomi says, “Call me Mara for the Lord has dealt bitterly with me.” Jobe could’ve solved his conundrum, the whole Book of Jobe was about why do these terrible things happen to Jobe when he is the only righteous, the most righteous man on all the earth, and his so-called friends say just curse God and die or they say just admit you’re at fault Jobe, you did something bad that’s why bad things happen to you. Now at no point in there does Jobe say, well you know what, we just live in a random universe and God just sort of lets things happen, he doesn’t micromanage things, he never once reaches that conclusion. In fact, he says at the very beginning, “Though he slay me yet I will trust in Him. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” In other words, David, like Naomi, like Jobe always understand they are dealing with a sovereign God. They say, well that can make the pain more difficult and it can in an existential way, but it’s supposed to mean you run to God, not from Him, that you run to God and you say, God you’re doing something and I don’t know what it is, but you’ve made me to see hard things. You’re in control of this and I don’t understand why I’m seeing such hard things. That’s what David is praying.
Verse 4, “You’ve set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it.” So, he’s anticipating now some deliverance, your beloved ones”, verse 5, “may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand.” He’s going to describe then the victory that comes so the remaining verses 5 through 12, are the conclusion, God’s deliverance, and this is the half that becomes the second half of Psalm 108 and look at how David describes this victory, it is comprehensive, God has spoken in His holiness and then you notice these geographic markers which may not mean much to us, you’d have to hope that your Bible has one of those maps in the back, but He’s going around the circle of geography in Israel. He says with exaltation I will divide Shechem. Notice he lists nine different places and what he is going to say about each one of these is that God is sovereign over, yes, even this place, so he says, “I will divide Shechem”, that’s a prominent city right in the heart of Israel, and the Valley of Succoth that’s also in the heart of Israel over on the east side of the Jordan, both places associated with Jacob so he’s starting right there in the heart and then he says, “Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine”, that’s a reference to the two and a half tribes on the other side of the Jordan. Now you should always think now when you watch Finding Nemo, you have all the birds on the deck, the fish come up, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. Think of this verse, the Lord in holiness, not a bird, looks upon all the peoples of Israel. He’s not intimidated, he’s not afraid, Gilead mine, Manasseh mine, Charlotte mine, New York mine, Israel mine, Iran, Iraq mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. Ephraim is my helmet. There’s a reason he says Ephriam because Ephriam is in the north, he’s thinking of a helmet, a protection from the enemies that would come upon Israel from the north, and then Judah is my scepter. Now this is not just random language, Judah of course, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the promise that David would never fail to have a man to sit on the throne, so of all these places you’ve got helmets, we’re coming to washbasins, but there in Jerusalem, on his holy hill, Mount Zion, Judah is his scepter, that’s where the king reigns from Jerusalem. Moab is my washbasin so now he’s moving around to the south. He says Moab these people you’re so afraid of, this is where I wash my hands before a meal, this is where I wash my dirty dusty feet before I enter someone’s home. Edom, I cast my shoe, I toss my sandal upon Edom, you’re afraid of Edom? Philistia going all the way around now to the west on the coast of the Mediterranean, over Philistia I triumph. Nine places just making a circuit around the people of God every single one of those, Jerusalem, Judah my scepter. All of these other places they’re mine, they’re not scary, they are to you David. I understand that you’ve seen difficult things with your army, but you need to know Gilead’s mine, Manasseh is mine, Moab is just a sink for me, Edom just a foot stool, I just prop up my feet.
And then we see in verses 9 and 10, harkening back to that desperate cry at the beginning of the Psalm, so it’s jubilant, but now it’s echoing some of that language because there’s a struggle, it’s realistic. Who will bring me to the fortified city. The fortified city here in Edom is almost certainly all the scholars I read agree that this is a reference to the ancient city of Petra. If you’ve ever watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, not exactly a true story, but at the very end that’s Petra. Now some of those buildings there date to the first century and wouldn’t have been around here, but Petra is this city that’s built out of the rock, today it’s in modern Jordan, it’s in various movies because it looks this very impressive relief built there and you have to walk through this narrow cavern to get to the City of Petra. That’s why it’s called the fortified city. With only a handful of men you could pull back and push back your enemy because there’s only one way you have to enter through this narrow ravine which just makes you easy pickings. This was a way of saying, this city is virtually unconquerable, how are we going to get to Petra, who will lead me to Edom, but David comes out of his funk, wondering if God has rejected him, and then finally he says at the end, no, no, no God, you can save us, man cannot do it, but with you we can do valiantly. We can triumph over our enemies.
Psalm 108 takes the second half, the exciting conclusion of Psalm 57, and it takes this thrilling conclusion of Psalm 60, and it puts them together. So why, why does Psalm 108, if you turn back there, want to put together these two conclusions, probably a different tune, probably a different feel. Psalm 108 is not redundant. It is taking those familiar words, and I think they would have been familiar to many of the Israelites, some of the most memorable lines in the Psalter, but now putting them together, the same song in a new way because this Psalm is a Psalm of exultation. Last week Psalm 107 is a Psalm that goes in four different cycles of distress, crying out, and deliverance. There are a lot of Psalms that work that way. They start down, there’s despair, there’s distress, and then they go up and there’s rejoicing. There are some Psalms that do a lot of up and down. We saw 107 did that at least four times. There’s distress, there’s a problem, there’s salvation, there’s distress again. There are some Psalms that go down and they mostly stay down because that is what life feels like sometimes. You can remember three of the most wrenching Psalms, 22, 44, and 88. I always remember them because you’re doubling, 22, 44, and then 88. Psalm 88 ends by saying my companions have become darkness or some translate it darkness is my only companion. That’s how Psalm 88 ends. There are some Psalms that you need that sometimes, that’s where you feel, my companions are all darkness, or the only friend I have right now, the only one who is sticking close to me it feels like is darkness itself. So, some Psalms are down and up, up and down, and up and down, some down, this one mostly up and you need Psalms like that too. 57 and 60 was a distress and then deliverance. Putting the two halves together makes Psalm 108 a Psalm of great exhilaration and divine exultation. This Psalm is for those of you, and I don’t wanna say it’s just teenage girls here, but it may be, who like to text with a lot of exclamation points, this is for you. All exclamation points, that’s what this Psalm is, a Psalm that says from start to finish, God your steadfast love is great, be exulted O God above the heavens, you have promised by your holiness you have routed your enemies, you are my salvation, we will march in victory. Sometimes I hope that’s what you feel and even when you don’t feel it, God wants us to sing that way because those are the facts that God has done this, it is a great hymn of worship and a wonderful song of rejoicing.
Alright, at this point you’re saying, that’s interesting pastor, I understand 57, 60, I didn’t know that before, mash it up together, cool, but you hype this up a little bit, you said we were never gonna look at this Psalm the same again, so what’s the big deal here, what’s the twist on this Psalm. Let me back into that with reminding you of some theological categories. You’ve heard me say before that you can look at the life of Christ in two states, the state like North Carolina, South Carolina, but His condition under the law, theologians call them the state of humiliation and the state of exultation. Even if you haven’t learned those terms before almost all of you have repeated the various aspects of the state of humiliation and the state of exultation. You say, how have I done that, because it’s in the Apostles’ Creed that “He was born to the virgin, He was made incarnate, He suffered, died, buried, descended into hell.” All of that is the state of humiliation. The Apostles’ Creed gives his life and ministry as one of humbling and then the creed says, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven, sits at God’s right hand, coming again to judge the living and the dead. That’s the state of exultation, whenever you say the Apostles’ Creed and you go through those familiar lines, you’re retracing Christ in His humiliation and Christ in His exultation. If you don’t have the humiliation He can’t accomplish the work for His people, but if we just leave Christ in His humiliation as someone that we say, well isn’t that really special and we feel sorry for him, then that’s not the accomplishment of His work either. The state of exultation. Now why do I remind us of those theological categories, because this Psalm 108 is a song of Christ’s exultation, it is, it’s a song about Christ. Now we tend not to see Christ where earlier commentators saw him more easily. Now it does take some discernment, it’s not secret hidden Bible code, it’s not trying to scratch through and surprise there’s a Jesus code there, but earlier commentators felt much freer, especially with the Psalms to understand that this is giving to us the life and the work of Christ. Calvin, for example, said David was writing in this Psalm to represent Christ. Augustine said that David in the spirit, “Saw too that all his humiliation and their savagery that this Christ rose again.” He claims that the Psalmist was transported with joy as if he were seeing these things in the life of Christ with his very eyes. Now did David write this down, think to himself, I’m gonna get up and I’m gonna write a Messianic Psalm. He may not have thought in those ways, now I write a prophecy, but did David in writing 57 and 60, was there a sense with so many of the Bible writers as they wrote about these great and extravagant things, moved by the Holy Spirit, a sense that surely there is an even greater fulfillment to come, and that the story of our salvation in our day must find its final resolution in the Messiah who has yet to arrive in Israel.
Romans 15:9, Paul there quotes Psalm 18, which says, “Therefore I will praise you among the gentiles and sing to your name.” Now that’s very similar to Psalm 108:3, “Give thanks to you O Lord among the people, sing your praise among the nation.” Different language, exact same idea. Now why is that important? Because Paul in Romans 15:9 quotes that idea from the Psalms as a way of describing the worldwide rein of Christ. The apostle Paul read the Psalms and came to language like that and said, “This is about Jesus.” Jesus sang the Psalms after all, this was His hymn book, so this is not a fanciful interpretation, the pastor pulls a Jesus rabbit out of the hat, this is how the Psalms were meant to be read and sung. So, let’s look at Psalm 108 again and think about Christ. Only Jesus can perfectly declare verse 1, “My heart is steadfast, O God”, only Jesus can say that absolutely and then Jesus is the one who awakens the dawn, striding forth from the tomb, that’s why I went back to Psalm 57, it’s a cave Psalm, it’s one who is buried in the earth. There’s a reason churches throughout history have often sung Psalm 57 on Easter morning to see that just as David strode forth and the Lord preserved him and gave him resurrected life as it were, so Christ awakens the dawn early on the first day and in verses 1 through 3 our resurrection, well now you have eyes to see verses 4 and 5 are Christs’ ascension, exulted in glory, given a position of authority and honor with all of the enemies placed under His feet and then we can see verses 7, 8, and 9 as the worldwide conquest of the gospel. I want you to see this is not a fanciful reading, you just think, what is David telling us, he’s saying here’s what deliverance looks like for the people of God. Deliverance is like being sealed in the earth as good as dead, and it looks like bursting forth with joy in the morning and then it looks like being raised up to the heavens and then deliverance looks like being given all power and dominion and conquering one’s enemies and then gathering your people to lead them to an everlasting victory. God’s people were meant to sing Psalm 108, rejoicing for what God had done in David’s day, but also welling up within them the question, who can do such a thing, who can do all of this? That might be a question you’re asking this very morning. Wars and rumors of wars in the middle east, war in Ukraine for years now, riots in the street of Los Angeles, assassination in Minnesota yesterday, protests around the country, you may be tempted to think no matter your political persuasion, God has left us, what is happening in this world. You may even ask the question, how can I get to the fortified city, the city that is above. No man can get you there, no man can bring you safely through these many dangerous toils and snares, but by God’s power you can ride out victorious. We can trample down sin, death, and the devil. That’s what we’re meant to see and to celebrate, that Christ alone has done these things and Christ now calling from north and south and east and west, just like we saw from Psalm 107 last week, is calling to himself, his people to give us help against our spiritual foes. You may think you have political foes, you may think they’re international foes and God does not discount those things, but the great foes that we have to consider are sin, flesh, and the devil.
So, you see here what God is doing in this Psalm. It is on the one hand aspirational, leading us to praise God early in the morning. It is also very realistic at times we feel like God, I’ve been on a losing streak, you’re not on my side, what has happened, and above all in Psalm 108 it points us to the finished work of Christ, and it points us to the great triumph that we have in Jesus. That’s why I said I hope that by the end of this sermon you would not read this Psalm the same again, and I hope that this short series on the Psalms helps you not only understand how to interpret the Psalms, and how to interpret the Bible, but how to interpret your life. This is true for you, this is very true for me and I’m a pastor and I get to study the Bible and I have a wonderful job, and yet it is certainly true of everyone in this room that you and I think of Christ too little, we consider His works among us too little, we trust in His goodness too little, we have eyes that are too small to see all that He is doing and we ask of Him too little, and we depend upon Him too lightly. You know that the story of the Bible is Emmanuel, God with us, and you may know that famous turn in Ephesians chapter 2, “We were dead, and our sins and trespasses and we were sons of disobedience by nature and then that great turn, but God.”
Well, we have something similar here in verse 13. You think of all your trials, you think of the discouragement, you think of maybe what is fearful in the world around you, you think of illness in your life or someone that you love or you think of a great task ahead of you or some new venture, you feel like I don’t know if God is going out with this army, I don’t now that I have the strength to do what God is asking me to fight this addiction, to press through another day, to deal with another sleepless night. Look at the wonderful words in verse 13, those two words which ought to be absolutely transformative, with God, not by yourself, with God we shall do valiantly. With God we can tread down our foes. With God we can sing praises among the nations. With God, we can say, "you are exulted above the heavens and your glory over all the earth." Those two little words, with God make all the difference. Let’s pray.
Our heavenly Father, we give thanks for your many mercies in Christ, all of your promises are yes and Amen in Him. Give to our hearts such satisfaction, such confidence that these words would be a great balm to our soul and you would give us such cause to praise you, you have, remind us in the morning to awaken the dawn and lead us we pray as our once and coming king in Jesus’ name. Amen.