Psalms: In Our Suffering, God Is
CoaH member Jonathan Simpson preaches from Psalm 86. Discussion points: The Psalms are full of laments that can help guide our feelings towards suffering and God, we can be poor and needy before God and he will hear us, we tend to either deny or distract from our suffering instead of lamenting before God.
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Scripture reader: [Psalm 86] Incline your ear, O Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. For you, oh Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you. Give ear, oh Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble, I call upon you, for you answer me. There is none like you among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, O Lord, and shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God.
Teach me your way, oh Lord, that I may walk in your truth, unite my heart to fear your name. I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Oh God, insolent men have risen up against me. A band of ruthless men seeks my life, and did not set you before them. But you, oh Lord, are God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Turn to me and be gracious to me. Give your strength to your servant and save the son of your maidservant. Show me a sign of your favor that those who hate me may see and be put to shame because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: All right, good morning. It's a pleasure to be with you this morning and bringing you the word of God. If you've ever read through the whole Bible, then you'll know that it's a beautiful and coherent revelation of God's truth, who he is, who we are, and how he has been working throughout all of history to both reveal his glory and redeem His people in Jesus Christ. But you'll probably also know that there are just some plain strange passages, especially in the Old Testament, that kind of just leave you scratching your head when you read them.
Take for example some of the laws in the book of Leviticus. Leviticus 14:33 to 57, 24 verses on what you had to do if you found mildew in your house. Essentially you had to call the priests and they would come and inspect it. You know, I bet Fletcher is glad that we're not under the Mosaic law anymore and we're not calling them up when we have moldy houses. What about some of the the crazy experiences of the prophets, Jeremiah, for example, having to carry a yoke of iron on his neck or Ezekiel having to cook his food over cow dung. Or Isaiah walking around naked for three years, you know, these are probably not the verses of scripture that you literally want to apply to your life.
Now, I absolutely believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God and agree with the apostle Paul when he says that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof for correction and for training and righteousness. Of course, when understood and applied in its proper context, but it's also true that there are just some passages of scripture that are tough to understand and often hard to relate to immediately. On the other hand, there are large portions of scripture that even though they were written thousands of years ago, are immediately relatable and resonate deeply with our current experience.
And perhaps one of the best examples of this in the Bible is the book of Psalms. You know, if I took a survey in this room to to find out which is the most popular book of the Bible, the one that we read the most, I think it's pretty likely that the Book of Psalms would come out on top. According to Bible Gateway, the Book of Psalms is the most read book on their platform, even more so than any of the New Testament Gospels or epistles.
So why is this collection of ancient Israelite hymns and prayers so popular? Well, it's because the Psalms span the timeless spectrum of human emotions and experiences. It seems that wherever you are in your journey of faith or whatever circumstance you find yourself in, there is a Psalm or Psalms that speak into our situation and and guide us both individually and corporately in praying to God. You know, whether we're experiencing fear, suffering, guilt, discouragement, loneliness, or longing. Or if we just need words to express joy and praise and then or to our God. The Psalms give us words for what our hearts so often cannot find words for.
And I think another reason why the Psalms are so popular is because they're easy to digest and you don't often need the context of the passages of scripture immediately around it to understand. You know, sometimes I think to like, like to think of them as Bible dessert. After waiting through some tough Old Testament narrative or sort of straining my head to get around some New Testament doctrine. I often go to the Psalms to finish my quiet time, and I wonder if some of you also do the same. It's like a little Bible candy after the main course. Not to suggest, of course, that the Psalms of biblical junk food, even if there was such a thing, and I think the opposite is quite true, right? The Psalms are so rich in their truth and theology and just like all scripture, are true food for our souls.
And that's why I'm excited to dive into the Psalm this morning, but you might ask, well, why did I choose Psalm 86? Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first is that I sat down one evening, like a month or two ago and was thinking, oh, what should I preach on? And I recently got this new Bible and you know how when you get a new book, the, the binding is often quite stiff and it just kind of automatically opens to the same page every time. Well, my Bible almost always automatically opened to Psalm 86, so I thought, oh great, I'll just preach on this. You know, when you only preach occasionally and there's 1200 chapters in the Bible, it's sometimes nice to have the decision made for you.
But perhaps on a more meaningful and less arbitrary note. Psalm 86 is one of my go to Psalms. You know, I'm sure many of us have a list of psalms that we go to when we're facing various circumstances. For example, Psalm 23, when we need reminding of Jesus's care and leading as our good shepherd. Psalm 42, when we're walking through a season of darkness or depression. And we need to turn our eyes back on the hope that we have in God. Psalm 51, when our hearts are convicted of sin and we need to cry out to God and seek His forgiveness. Psalm 19 or 145, when we just, our hearts just need to sing God's praises. And then for me, Psalm 86, when my heart and soul are aching in the midst of some suffering and I need to realign my focus on God. Because Psalm 86 teaches us the beautiful truth that in our suffering, God is. In our suffering, God is.
Now some of you might be wondering, did he just make a mistake because that doesn't make sense and you're right, it doesn't make sense, but it's not a mistake, it's just bad grammar, but hopefully this will make more sense as we dive into it and explore this sound. So let's start from verse one.
Psalm 86, the prayer of David. Incline your ear, oh Lord, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life, for I am godly. Save your servant who trusts in you. You are my God. Be gracious to me, oh Lord, for to you do I cry all the day. Gladden the soul of your servant, for to you, oh Lord, do I lift up my soul.
So first off, we read that this is a prayer of David. It's a personal lament to God in the midst of some severe suffering. David asks God to incline his ear to his plea, preserve his life, be gracious to him and gladden his soul. So it's clear that David is experiencing some form of intense trial and suffering that he needs deliverance from. But he doesn't actually explain the exact reason for this and at least in these first few verses. And I think that this is actually a really precious thing about how this psalm and many other Psalms are written. Yes, David was facing unique circumstances. We read later on in verse 14 that a band of ruthless men was out to seek his life. But the fact that we're not told upfront what he was suffering allows us to pray this prayer along with David in the midst of whatever we might be suffering. And that could be anything. It could be physical pain or sickness, mental or emotional distress. Grief over the loss of a loved one. Marital tension, financial struggles, loneliness, rejection by people because of our faith. Or it could be related to the sin in our lives. The exhaustion of some persistent temptation or the bitterness and guilt over some sin we have committed. Or the deep hurt we experience when someone has sinned against us.
You know, you don't have to go long through life before encountering some kind of suffering. And so I think it's such a precious thing that God has given us laments in the Bible like this one to guide our hearts and crying out to him when we are suffering. Now, the first thing that I want to point out here from these verses is not so much about what David is praying, but the very fact that he is praying. And this is an important thing to notice because it shows us that David is not denying his suffering.
You know, we have tendencies as broken people to respond to suffering in various ways, many of which are not in line with our faith. And if, and even though we react in these broken ways to try to alleviate our pain, if they're not in line with God's way, then they're just ultimately going to end up compounding our pain. The way that David prays in this Psalm shows us a proper response to suffering in light of who God is. And as we work through the Psalm, I want to highlight just two ways, two broken ways that we can react to suffering and then point out how the Psalm teaches us to respond based on who God is.
So the first broken way that we tend to react to suffering is to deny. To deny. This is something that Fletcher and Calvin have talked about recently in their sermons and if you went through the Practicing the Way course that we did as part of our CGs then John Mark Comer also mentioned it in that course. But I think it's worth mentioning again because of how pervasive the reaction is, this reaction is when we come up against pain. You know, in our Western culture, the idea that we can just squash our pain by pretending it doesn't exist runs pretty deep. We're told to turn that frown upside down or it could be worse.
Or in New Zealand, we, we say this a different way. Just, just imagine a middle-aged farmer in a black baggy singlet with a bucket hat and short shorts, rubber boots, what we call gumboots, leaning on a fence post, looking across his farm to the other side of the hill where a landslide has just come down after heavy rainfall and taken out half his flock of sheep. What does he say? He says she'll be right. Which, which basically translates, no big deal, it will be OK. And it silly isn't as stereotypical as that is. The idea of bottling up and denying negative emotions and grief in the face of genuine hardship is a very real problem in New Zealand and of course here in the US. It's one of the the reasons why we see such high rates of depression and anxiety in our society. And Christians are certainly not immune to this. In fact, this is probably one of the most common ways that we tend to react to pain in, in church, one of the most common broken ways.
But why is this? You know, why is it that when someone asks me how I'm doing, it's just such an automatic reply to say, oh, I'm, I'm good. When in reality I might have just had a really tough week and really struggling through something. Here at COA we have 10 community commitments that we hold as a church that guide us in creating a gospel culture. You would have seen these if you've attended a membership class. And number 4 on that list reads, it's OK to not be OK. And that's a really beautiful phrase and I've actually had some of you say that to me when I've been struggling through something and it's just a very restful and encouraging thing to hear. It's OK to not be OK.
And if you think about it, it's a statement that comes straight from the gospel. If you've accepted Jesus as your savior, then you've admitted that you are the least OK that you could possibly be. You've agreed with God that you're a sinner before His holiness, rightly deserving death and eternal separation from him. That's the worst possible state that you could be in. But the good news of the gospel is that we can be honest about our guilt before God because we trust in the fact that Jesus has paid the debt for our sin by his death on the cross and has given us eternal life. You know, this is grace. We can be honest about our gift before God because we trust in His grace. And I think a lot of the time we want to deny our pain because we're afraid of resting in God's grace.
Look again here how how David prays. He doesn't hide or downplay his pain, but he cries out to God in his need. In verse one, he acknowledges that he is poor and needy. Now, just to clarify, he's not saying I am poor and needy, so I deserve your deliverance. That's just a recipe for self-pity. Instead, he's just honestly letting God know how much pain he is experiencing and how helpless he feels in the face of it. But at the same time, it's clear that he's appealing to God's grace. Three times in the Psalm, he asks for God to be gracious to him and then in verse 15, he confidently declares that God is gracious.
Now, if you look at verse 2, you might wonder, it says preserve my life, for I am godly. You might look at that and wonder, isn't David appealing to his good character there? But I don't think this is meant to be read so much, I deserve your deliverance because I'm a good person. But more, I am godly because I am yours. I trust in you, you are my God. This is meant to stand in contrast to those who are seeking David's life, who do not set God before them, and who do not trust in him. You see, David is appealing to the fact that God delights to save his people in their time of greatest need. And the same is true for us, of course, we don't have to put up a facade. We don't have to act like we have it all together when we certainly don't. Why? Because we know that God is gracious.
You know, recently I've had this picture in my mind of seeing God's grace as an endless ocean of calm water. Underneath like a beautiful clear blue sky. And this ocean is limitless. It doesn't have any shore, it doesn't have any bottom. And God invites us to float on the ocean of his boundless grace, which holds us up completely. We can float on our backs and enjoy the warmth of his goodness for it radiates down upon us. But what do I find myself so often doing? I find myself furiously trying to tread water to keep my head above the surface in the ocean of God's grace. Like it makes no sense. Why am I trying to tread water in an ocean in which I cannot possibly sink? And as I'm preoccupied with trying to prove that I can keep myself afloat, I'm certainly not enjoying the warmth of God's goodness.
Friends, it's a beautiful thing that we can be poor and needy before our God. We don't have to deny our pain and pretend like we have it all together. He showed us boundless grace when we called out to him for deliverance in our time of greatest need. And so how will he not show us His grace when we experience pain now, now that we are saved? So we see that in our denial, God is gracious. But denial isn't the only broken way that we tend to deal with our pain.
The second way that we try to cope with pain is that is out of step with the truth of who God is, is through distraction. Now, you probably don't need me to convince you that we live in a distracted society. There are a million things vying for our attention and it's so easy, isn't it? Just to turn to our phones or to social media just to escape reality for a little bit. This world is full of distractions that are designed to numb our pain. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm not saying that we should just become like monks when we have a bad day and sit in a dark room praying. We should enjoy the good gifts that God has given to us, you know, a big part of how he shows us grace in our time of need is by enjoying these good things, you know, going for a walk, watching a movie, listening to music, enjoying precious time with family and friends. You know, community is a huge part of the way that we enjoy suffering. And I'm certainly not saying that or suggesting that we turn down things like professional medical help or organizational financial support in our time of need thinking that it's somehow thinking it's a sign of weak faith. You know, I've certainly benefit greatly from professional counseling and especially biblical counseling over the years, and that's something that I'm really grateful for.
But my point with this idea of distraction is that it's so easy in our society to turn to any number of a myriad of things to numb our pain to the neglect of turning to God. You know, I know there's a problem in my heart when I'm facing a stressful situation and I just spend hours or days scrolling on my phone or watching YouTube without ever talking to God about it. And at best this shows that my priorities mixed up, but at worst it reveals that I'm ultimately trusting things other than God to deliver me. Something the Bible calls idolatry. But how does David avoid the pitfall of distraction and the darker undertones of idolatry?
Verses 6 and 7. Give ear, oh Lord, to my prayer. Listen to my plea for grace. In the day of my trouble, I call upon you, for you answer me. David is confidently declaring here, confidently declaring here that he calls upon God in his day of trouble because he knows that God will answer him. The implication here is that he could be calling upon other gods or people to save him, but he doesn't. Why? Because he knows that his gracious God is the only one who can ultimately save him and who will answer him.
But then he goes further. Look at verses 8 to 10. It says, there is none like you among the gods, oh Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, oh Lord, and shall glorify your name, for you are great and do wondrous things. You alone are God. I love this. The tone of the Psalm shifts abruptly at verse 8, where all of a sudden, David switches from asking God for grace and deliverance in this particular circumstance to spontaneously praising God for his great glory.
It's as if David gets distracted by remembering God's greatness. When he says in verse 8 that there are none like you among the gods, oh Lord, nor are there any works like yours, he's not suggesting that there are in fact any other legitimate gods. But highlighting the fact that his God, the God of Israel, is holy. He stands apart from anyone or anything else in the perfection of his nature and the greatness of his works as Creator and as redeemer of his people. But not only that, in verse 9, he goes on to say that all the nations you have made shall come and worship before you, oh Lord, and shall glorify your name.
You see, David knows that God is not only the God of Israel. But the God of all nations, because he created all nations and ultimately has authority over all their leaders and rulers. David here is boldly prophesying that one day in the future, looking forward to Christ and his reign, all the nations will stop running after their counterfeit gods and realize that there is really only one true God. This is a beautiful prophecy that we see fulfilled in Revelation 15 verses 3-4, where the people who conquered Satan are singing the song of the lamb with these very words in it. See, the essence of David's praise here is summed up in verse 10, for you are great and do wondrous things, you alone are God.
You know, it's not difficult to see how this truth about God's greatness is the antidote to distraction. In the midst of our pain and suffering, a high view of who God is and what He has done guards our hearts from turning to other things for deliverance. We can remember that no pain or grief or circumstances outside the sovereign control of our God. He's in control of all things and he alone is worthy of all praise. But we also remember his great works of deliverance that he has accomplished throughout history and for us. He's delivered his people when they called out to him and he has delivered us when we were when we call out to him. So we see that in our distraction, God is great.
Now along with denial and distraction, there are also many other broken ways that we can react to suffering. We can be tempted to doubt God's goodness and character. But in our doubt, God is faithful. We can sink into despair and hopelessness. But in our despair, God is our hope. And we can try to detach ourselves from our emotions and become apathetic. But in our detachment, God is so gentle and compassionate. And this is a theme not only in this Psalm but throughout the whole Bible. God's people endure suffering by remembering the truth about who he is. This is really emphasized for us here in verses 5 and 15, which are essentially the same verse that's repeated. Verse 5 says, for you, oh Lord, a good and forgiving, a bounding and steadfast love to all who call upon you. And then verse 15, But you, oh Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. These two verses act like pillars holding up David's passionate prayer. He remembers that God is good, he's forgiving, he's merciful, he's gracious and faithful. And most of all, David remembers that God abounds in steadfast love toward all who call upon him.
Now if these verses sound familiar, you're not mistaken. This truth about God, who God is, is something that echoes throughout the pages of the Old Testament and originates back in the book of Exodus. Remember back to the burning bush. God appears to Moses in the burning bush and commands him to go back to Egypt to deliver his people out of Egypt and lead them into the promised land. But Moses is worried that the Israelites won't believe him and won't believe that God has sent him. So God tells Moses to say to the Israelites, I am has sent you. God reveals his self-titled name to Moses. I am who I am. Yahweh. And this name certainly conveys, of course, that God is the one transcendent holy God.
But then later on after God has delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, God further reveals to Moses who he is, and if you saw Alexis's newsletter or Alexis's thoughts in the newsletter this week, then she actually sent me up for this perfectly without even knowing, but this happens after the incident of the golden calf. where Moses has come down from Mount Sinai after receiving the 10 Commandments from God, and the people instead of worshiping God are worshiping this idol, this golden calf. And so Moses is understandably very angry, and God says that he will not be with the Israelites as they journey to the promised land. They can go, but God won't be with them. So Moses intercedes for the people and in the midst of this intercession, he asked God to show him his glory. In this crisis of leadership, Moses most wants to see who God is.
And so God says to Moses, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord. I am who I am. And then in Exodus 34:6, God hides Moses in the rock on Mount Sinai and passes before him, proclaiming, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. This is who the Lord is. This is who I am is. A God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness to all who call upon Him.
And then this is the truth that David repeats in the midst of his suffering in Psalm 86. But there's more that we need to see here. You know, it's no coincidence that verse 5 and verse 15 sound like the same thing. Ancient Hebrew poetry is a beautiful thing and there are people in this room who know a lot more about Hebrew poetry and it's it's literary structures than I do. But one literary device that is often used in the Hebrew scriptures is something called a chiasm. Psalm 124:7 is a simple example of this which reads, We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we have escaped. So you have two ideas introduced in this case escaping and the snare, and then those two ideas are repeated or rephrased but in the opposite order. So snare and then escaping and it's meant to act as a way to emphasize the main idea.
Well, it turns out that the whole of Psalm 86 is actually a chiasm that really points to the central idea and it looks like this. And we don't have time to get into all the details here, but I would encourage you to look at it afterwards and see how this pattern emerges, and you can see how verse 5 and 15 are connected. But more than that, the whole Psalm is structured in a way that points to the central idea of verse 11. Teach me your way, oh Lord, that I may walk in your truth. Unite my heart to fear your name. Isn't this amazing? In the midst of his suffering, David is certainly praying for deliverance from what he's facing. But his central request here in verse 11 is that God would teach him more of who he is, so that David's heart would be united to fear God and walk in his truth. Just like Moses wanted to see God's glory in his crisis, David most wants to know who God is in his time of need.
And David is humble and self-aware to know that his heart is divided. Some parts of his heart respond to God in faith and trust. But then at other times he knows that his heart is not set on God. He's denying his suffering or is distracted and turning to other things for deliverance. And isn't the same true for us? No matter how much I know these truths about God and His goodness in my suffering. I know that my heart will still want to go after other things and be divided in its affections. So that's why David's primary prayer is to have a heart united to fearing God and walking in the glorious truth of who he is.
And notice also that this prayer guides us from treating God like a deliverance vending machine. This prayer is not transactional because at its core in verse 11 is a request to more deeply know God Himself, not just get from him, his deliverance. Now David prays that his heart would be united to fear God's name and we don't have time to get into the fear of the Lord. And in fact, it's such a rich and beautiful topic that we could literally spend weeks studying it and if you want to dig more into it, then I can recommend some books that have been really helpful for me. But I think Sinclair Ferguson sums it up nicely when he says, the fear of the Lord is that indefinable mixture of reverence, fear, pleasure, joy, and awe which fills our hearts when we realize who God is and what He has done for us.
And then I love what Edward Welch says. He says, genuine fear of the Lord is reserved for those who know Jesus. This fear of the Lord means reverent submission that leads to obedience, and it is interchangeable with worship of God, reliance on him, trust in him and hope in him. You will find it when you can come to the Lord and are a humble listener to his words. You know, there are many verses about the fear of the Lord in the Bible, but I think one of my favorite ones is found in Isaiah chapter 11 verse 3.
Let's go to Isaiah chapter 11, starting from verse 1. It says, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. The person that this is talking about, of course, is Jesus. Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord. His heart wasn't divided like ours so often is, but he wholly walked in the truth of who God is all the days of his life. But more than that, in Jesus, we see the full array of God's mercy and grace and forgiveness revealed.
You know, God progressively revealed his character to Moses at the burning bush then at Mount Sinai, and then David remembered that this in his time of suffering. But now Jesus completely reveals the character of God. That both Moses and David were proclaiming in their time of need. You know, when Jesus was in the midst of his greatest suffering. He didn't turn to anything else. But he fixed his eyes upon the character of his God and Father. And in doing so, he paid the price for our sin and one eternal life for us. And more than that, Jesus's perfect suffering on our behalf completely reshapes our suffering now. Because we know that this prayer and longing of David to know God, to fear him, to have his heart united, to walk in his way. Is secured for us in Christ. That's why we can now even count it all joy when we meet trials of various kinds, because we know that the testing of our faith produces the character and steadfastness that makes us more like Jesus, the very thing that David is praying here. Perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
And regardless of how well or how poorly we might feel that we walk through suffering, we know that Jesus's perfect suffering on our behalf has all but guaranteed that we will one day stand in his presence, perfect and complete. And so that's why this Psalm teaches us that in our suffering, God is. And who is God? While he's a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness to all who call upon him. And this God, our God has come near to us through the person and work of Jesus, our Savior. Who delivers us and who will deliver us from every trial that we face.
And that's why we can join David when he says in verse 12, I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever, for great is your steadfast love toward me. You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Isn't that good news? That Jesus has delivered us from death and from every trial we may face in this life for His glory and for our good.
Each week we take a sacred meal to remind ourselves of how Jesus suffered for us to accomplish this deliverance and bring us near to God. And we call it communion or the Lord's supper or Eucharist or whatever you might want to call it. Because on the night that he was betrayed, Jesus took a loaf of bread and broke it, and he gave it to his disciples and said, this is my body broken for you. And he also took the cup and said, this is the cup of my blood shed for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And so we take this meal each week to remind ourselves that Jesus is with us all the time, not just here on on Sundays, not just at church, but through the whole week and whatever joy or suffering we might be walking through. So if you're a believer with us with, with us here this morning and trusting Jesus for your salvation, then we invite you to come up and receive this meal. So let's now prepare our hearts to take communion and would you join me and stand as we pray together.
Heavenly Father, we praise you and thank you that you are our God, our God who is merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love toward all who call upon you. We thank you so much, Jesus, that you suffered on our behalf to show us, Lord, that even though you dwell in the high and holy place, you were with Him and you were with them who are of a lowly and contrite heart. And so Father, we just praise you that you have delivered us. Would you help us to walk with suffering without, walk through suffering with our eyes on you, knowing Jesus that you have walked through suffering completely perfectly on our behalf, and would you even give us joy in the midst of our suffering, knowing that we are being made perfect and complete as we fix our eyes upon you. So we praise you for all these things and we love you, Lord, and pray these things in your precious and powerful name, Lord, Amen.