Psalms 103: Savoring God

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All right, let me just pray for us. But Lord Jesus, we just thank you, God, for this morning. Thank you for everyone here this morning. I just pray that again you speak to us. Lord, just open our eyes and ears, God, that we hear from the living creator, our reigning king. We thank you, Jesus. Amen. Well, good morning. And last week we started a new series. I'm calling it Treasury of Devotion, Seven Weeks Through the Psalms. And if you remember, we talked about Psalms being the school of prayer, the great school of prayer. Andrew Murray, many others called it the great school of prayer. And I gave us three ways that it teaches us to pray. If anybody remembers, first, we know and feel the heart of Jesus. We know and feel the heart of Jesus, right? We look at the life of Jesus through the Gospels. Jesus is identifying himself with certain psalms that he's saying, this is his prayer. There's others within the Psalms that we all pretty much think that this is reflecting the heart of Jesus. So in the Psalms, we all want to know how did Jesus pray? What was his heart? What was his emotion? What was his struggle with God? No, he we can look to the Psalm to see how he depended on the Father entirely. Secondly, we can discover more of God and ourselves. Mentioned Calvin's quote, where he starts the institutes. Nearly all wisdom that we possessed, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts. Does anybody remember the two parts? Knowledge of God and knowledge of ourselves. So Calvin thought it was mutually together. We're learning both ourselves and who we are in light of God and who God is. And we're growing both in the knowledge of ourselves and the knowledge of God together. So the Psalms reveal where we can discover more of God and more of ourselves. And thirdly, we commune with God. We commune with God. We talked about koinania. Koinea means fellowship, right? If you remember from the first week we were here, it's fellowship. And we commune with God. We have fellowship with God in two ways. We know God, we experience God, we encounter God, we we feel God, we sense God, we hear from God, and we also participate with him in his mission. Jesus has a mission. God has a will that he is accomplishing. And through the Psalms, we can align with his mission by praying his heart, praying his will, knowing what he's wanting to do. We're communing with God. So the Psalms is our great school of prayer. Everyone wants to learn to pray, right? We're all learning to pray in different ways. How can we go to be taught to pray? We can pray in the Psalms. So we're in this week will be in chapter 103, Psalms chapter 103. If you also remember from last week, we talked about Psalms being the great seedbed for the Reformation, the Protestant Reformation. It was Luther for two years reflecting, praying, experiencing, teaching the Psalms that day after day, steadily studying, meditating, reflecting, he revealed both this desperate need for God as well as the amazing grace of God. And I made the suggestion that the Psalms potentially could be the seedbed for our reformation as well. Many of us, we want to be revived. We want to be refreshed. We want to be renewed in God, encouraged, strengthened. We want to be closer to God. We want to find intimacy with God. There's a desperation. I want that intimacy with God. We want a personal revival where we hear from Him and know Him. I made the proposal that the Psalms can potentially be that personal reformation, similar to it being the seed bed for the Protestant Reformation. So this summer we'll be in the Psalms for seven weeks. There's seven Sundays we'll teach through the Psalms. I'm almost also encouraging us to read three Psalms per day. Read three Psalms per day. When I first thought of this, I thought, well, that seems just kind of a neat thing. And this last week, I was telling Barry, this has been life-giving to me. This is what I needed. I needed to be refreshed, revived, excited, thankful, moved in gratitude and desperation and nearness and closeness to God. I needed a personal reformation. I just didn't fully know it until I started moving through it. I'm like, wow, God is so good. Um, so somewhere in the Psalms, reading three Psalms per day. I've been in church for a long time, right? And pastors always love to give us homework, right? Of let's do this Bible reading plan, let's do three Psalms per day. And generally I would treat these things kind of like unused gym equipment. Well, if you're like me, we're good at buying all the weights. We're good at buying the treadmills, we're good at at whatever little trinket they have on some infomercial on TV that tells us we're gonna get big and in shape, right? We're gonna buy that, right? And we we fill our house with all this stuff, but it's different to actually use it, right? It's different to actually use the weight. Just buying or just having the weights is not gonna get you very far. There was a series, like you many years ago, I worked out pretty regularly. And then I went to Chad for two months and I came back and I was like, I just don't feel like working out. I'm gonna start next week. I'm gonna start next week. And next week came, oh, I'm gonna start next week. Next week came, oh, I'm gonna start next week. The gym owner started calling me. Vernon, where you been? What's happening? Are you stuck in Africa? Like, did you get lost? I'm like, oh, don't worry, I'll be there next week. For probably three years, I continued to pay $200 a month for a gym membership that I went to zero times. Zero times. And why did I keep paying? I was like, well, if I if I just cancel it, then I've I've forever given up. It's been clear. I know I'm giving up, but no, I'm going next week, right? And I kept pushing next week for years, and that just continued. Eventually I did cancel it and just gave up. But the point is, like, things like this, I think a lot of times, can't just be treated as unused gym equipment, right? We're given the gyms, the the gym is opened, the weights might be laid out, but it's up to us to pick it up and actually do it. I think a lot of times for me, at least personally, I like to think of revival or a personal revival. I want it just to strike me like lightning, right? Strike me like lightning, lightning. Here I am, God, rather than requiring my participation, requiring my work, requiring my effort. No, I just want to be struck by God. Sometimes that does happen, where we are struck by God, but I found that more often than not, it requires our participation. It requires us walking with God. I liken it to the way we treat inner healing. I was in charismatic church for a very long time, and mostly for inner healing, whether it's addictions or any kind of inner healing, emotional traumas, we would we would go through prayer, right? We're gonna pray for this to be healed. And I believe that, and sometimes it does happen, right? People are healed of addiction, they're never walking in alcoholism again. And and we continue to pray for those inner healing. It's the contrast that to something like regeneration, where it requires your active participation. You got to pick up the work, the work, you got to work with God, walk with God, not just in an easy, okay, God strike me with lightning. No, I'm gonna participate with you in the inner healing, and it is hard work. And I found especially with with any kind of inner healing or addictions, most of the time it requisites to participate with them. It takes hard work. That's why one of the verses I really like for men's groups comes from 2 Peter. For this very reason, what is this reason he's talking about? He's saying earlier he said his divine power, God's divine power has already given to us, given to you, absolutely everything you need for a godly life. You have, right at this moment, everything you need for a godly life. For that reason, because of that, because you already have absolutely everything you need for a godly life. He goes on. Make every effort, make every effort. The Greek is clear, it's diligence, it's eagerness, it's quick and hard work, it's making it happen quickly. In the Greek, it's kind of like sprinting. Sprinting in every is all. It's giving everything that you are, everything that you have, leaving it all on the court. It's requiring work. There was this there were seasons in my life where I believed it. I didn't necessarily want to provide the effort, right? Like a young newlywed couple. Effort feels vain and unauthentic. Effort with God, working in relationship, doesn't feel like real, right? And so, no, I want it just to be authentic. I want it to be real. I don't want to have to work in relationship. Work is not a word that we like in relationship, whether it's God or friends or a spouse, because work for some reason in our generation equals no fun, and fun equals no work. And relationships should only be fun. But I give this that even Peter is telling us we've been given everything for godliness, but it requires us picking up the weights, right? And we're making every effort to add to our faith goodness and to our goodness knowledge, and to our knowledge self-control, and to our self-control perseverance, to perseverance, godliness, to godliness, mutual affection, to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in the knowledge of Jesus. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. Therefore, my brothers and sisters, he says it again, make every effort, everything that you are, sprinting with all that you have to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. I give that as, again, I've been on that side where the preacher gives me homework. I'm saying, oh, okay, I don't need to do another Bible reading plan. I just want God to strike me with lightning so that I'm encouraged and strengthened in the in the knowledge of God. But I in a lot of ways, through through life, especially through seminary, I learned that God is often inviting us to participate with them. The weights are laid out, he's given us everything we need for the divine for all the divine life in Christ, right? But we have to make every effort. And so I know it's a little bit of work to sit with the Psalms each day. It takes a little bit of effort just to process with God, but it is worth it why we're wanting a personal reformation, a personal renewal, a personal revival. Contrary to what we often think about God, it be the even being still ceasing striving, I found takes every effort. So my encouragement to us is that we're spending daily time just in the psalms, and then we'll come together just on Sundays to work through Psalms together. Each week I thought I would give just a little bit of background of different Psalms, as well as just kind of the whole of the book. Today I just wanted to share that there are different genres of psalms. For a long time, I just thought all psalms were psalms. Uh, most people will say no, especially in Jewish traditions. No, there's actually different genres and they're accomplishing different things. We looked at the wisdom psalms last week with Psalms 1. And wisdom psalms are instructional, they're Torah, they're teaching us how God desires us to live. They're often contrasted with righteousness and wicked. We talked about it last week, right? There's two paths with two outcomes in life. Wisdom psalms are throughout. There's also praise psalms that we'll look out to look at today. It's calling us to worship God. They're descriptions that He is praiseworthy, um, His descriptions of His works, His attributes, calling us to celebrate His goodness, knowing God for what He who He is and what He has done. I was surprised to find out the most common Psalms are laments. It's one-third of the Psalms. They're laments crying out to God for help during times of danger, pain, sorrow, appealing to God for assistance amid unfairness, trials, honestly expressing true feelings when God may seem distant or unfair. And they generally follow a similar pattern where they open with a cry to God, they present a complaint, they include a confession of trust, they plead for divine intervention, and the most importantly, I think with lament, they're concluding mostly, except maybe one or two, with a vow or expression of praise. So you're lamenting, not just to stay in your wallowing. No, you're lamenting, expressing, walking with God that ends with a place of praise. But I believe you, I trust you, I follow you, I know you are good. Psalms of lament. There's also psalms of thanksgiving. Generally, they're more than just simply expressions of gratitude. They're typically represent a response to an answered lament. And rather than describe describing suffering as current in the moment, it's looking back on a past suffering to have hope in the present going forward into the future. Psalms of thanksgiving for God's deliverance. There's also psalms of confidence. It's expressing trust in God, stirring our hearts to believe in God, rely on God, expressing trust in his protection, care, faithfulness, especially in times of uncertainty. Then there's psalms of remembrance, most famously Psalms 23, recalling, or no, the actually no, Psalms 23 is confidence, recalling pivotal moments by remembering God's past acts. The psalmist gains confidence for the present and hope for the future. And finally, there's several messianic songs. People also call them royal songs, where they're celebrating the king that God has placed on Israel throne, pointing forward to Jesus, his reign, revealing his purpose, person, his mission, his suffering, his kingship, his victory. Different genres of songs. Oftentimes in church, I've been in church for again many years, everyone kind of has a tendency toward one genre of song of what they personally like. And if you're in a worship band, generally it's like, well, we need to do more songs of praise. We need to do more songs of gratitude. We need to do less songs that are lamenting, right? We need to not do any lamenting songs. The point is throughout the Psalms, there's a mix. So it's okay for us on a Sunday morning to also mix our songs as we're worshiping, both in remembering, gaining confidence in God, thanking Him, lamenting, praising, teaching. They can be instructional, especially a lot of old hymns. They're incredibly instructional. There's a lot of wisdom in them. You have to actually sit there and read them sometimes to understand what it's saying. But it was in it was a part of through music, we can we grow in our worship of God. And we see that in the Psalms. As I was thinking through this series, I thought, you know, I have sat again, there are so many times where pastors tell me to read the Bible, but I can't remember one sermon where someone told me how to do it. I can't remember one time. Not saying it doesn't happen, but I just never, never, never have experienced someone telling me, well, how do I read the Bible? But I hear it often of like, okay, you want me to read the Bible? Well, how do I do that? Where do I start? What do I do? How do I read the Bible? I'll give you three things today in reading your Bible. I think are personally gold. If you can just hear these things, begin doing these things, your Bible reading will grow exponentially. First one is just posturing your heart. Posturing your heart, orienting your heart toward heaven, setting your gaze, your mind, things above where Christ is. For a lot of us, when we sit down to read the Bible, we're immediately going into whatever we need to do. I need to read this, I need to study this, I need to think about this. We don't sit to posture of realizing, recognizing what am I about to do? And it's actually an ancient practice with their before the Bible reading. Many, many great scholars through the centuries, before the Bible reading, they would sit in silence. Why to posture their heart? To know, okay, I'm setting my mind on things above where Christ is. Why I want to know Christ, I want to see Christ. I'm not just reading information, I'm posturing myself before I encounter the living God through the scripture. Posturing your heart is, I think, a critical part of how we read the Bible. We pause, we wait on God. Wait on God. Andrew Murray was very, very passionate about waiting on God. What is the whole point of waiting on God? We're coming to a place of dependency. God, I can't figure this out. I can't calculate this. I can't study this enough. God, I need you. So I'm I'm sitting in silence, posturing myself in quiet to let you, God, speak to me. I'm dependent, I'm needy, I'm believing that you will come and reveal our hearts, reveal truth. There's an ancient prayer that came from the first fourth-century bishop of Constantinople that in the Orthodox Church today is still prayed when you sit down to read the Bible. Illumine our hearts with the pure light of your divine knowledge. Open the eyes of my mind to understand your gospel. The point isn't a prayer or a formula before you're reading the Bible, but it is a posture that is right. God, I need you to lumine your light, illumine my heart with your light. Open my eyes to your understanding. How do we read the Bible? First point. If you just begin as you sit down, posturing yourself before God, believing that He is present to speak, believing that He can shine light in our hearts to reveal truth as we're studying through through or reading through the Bible. It is a huge step in learning to commune with God through the Bible. We can't figure it out on our own. We can't arrive on our own. We are dependent on God to reveal, to speak, to encourage, to convict. How do we read the Bible? I think the most underrated thing and just the process is the beginning with posture of God. Okay, I'm no, I'm about to encounter and commune with the living creator. This isn't just a book that I'm gonna find some facts about, but no, I want God, you to speak to me. I want you to move here, and I'm gonna sit here posturing myself before I even begin to read. Secondly, meditate the words. Meditate on the words. We learned last week that the word in Hebrew for meditate means, does anybody remember? Mutter, right? It's a muttering. The men's groups will tell you that the word is actually literally chewing the cut, chewing the cut. Seth will tell you that apparently the cows, when they eat grass, they chew it, they swallow it, then they regurgitate it, regurgitate it, they chew it some more, then they swallow it, they regurgitate it, they chew it some more, so they can get all the nutrients out of it. Um it's called chewing the cut, apparently. And that's basically what the Hebrew word is describing. That you're continually regurgitating, continually going back to gain the nutrients, chewing on this information. Meditation is not just sitting in silence, no, it is continually reflecting on a passage. So we were reading through Psalms 5 this last week. When we're reading, after we postured our heart, oh Lord, in the morning you hear my voice. We don't just continue going, we we we can meditate again. Okay, yes, Lord, in the morning you will hear my voice. We're becoming the Psalms as we're meditating. In the morning, God, you hear my voice. In the morning, I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch. I meditate on it. In this morning, God, I prepare this sacrifice every morning, and I watch. What is my sacrifice? The broken and contrite spirit. Our sacrifice is our worship, the the fruit of lips that profess his name. And we're reflecting, we're meditating, we're not moving so quickly. I think in this, it's just important to mention the Bible is not about us, it is actually about. Jesus. It's his story. It's God's story and how humanity interacts with God. So it's not all written about us, right? But there is instruction to you in it. There is correction to you in it. There is rebuking to you in it. There is encouragement in it. And in Psalms, we can learn to pray the heart of the Psalms. They can be our heart as we meditate through them. Through the abundance of your steadfast love, I will enter your house. We're declaring it, internalizing. I will enter your house, bowing down toward your holy temple in fear of you. As we're reflecting, what does it mean to be in fear of you, God? I'm meditating, regurgitating, repeatedly chewing on the word of God. It's two things. How are we reading the Bible? Posturing your hearts before you jump into it. Secondly, meditating on the words. The point isn't just to get through the words as quickly as possible and go on to the next chapter. I do that sometimes. I ain't gonna lie. I gotta read. You know, I'm like, I gotta move through this. Meditating on the words, it eternalizes into our heart. Third, we savor God. Savor God. I feel like again, this is far underrated. Oftentimes for me, I don't know if uh for you, it could be a matter of duty, right? That we sit down to read the Bible, not a matter of delight. That God, I am delighting. Like the the the my sole satisfaction is in this moment to know you, to enjoy you, to be with you, to experience you. I I'm genuinely satisfied. I'm savoring you. I used to have an old old pastor that that he used to pretty much every week, he would call us, everyone needs unhurried time with God. Unhurried time with God. And it never really struck me until much later. I what he was getting at is that in our hurrying often, it's hard for us to savor. It's hard for us to savor, right? We're trying to move from one chapter to the next and figure out, okay, now I gotta memorize like who are these names and how do they connect, or whatever the story is, instead of no, actually, I'm here to be with God. I want I'm in unhurried time with God, to connect with God, to enjoy God. Savoring means to enjoy slowly, deeply, attentively, allowing its goodness to fill your mind and heart. It's more than simply experiencing something, it's lingering over it with delight. I think the best kind of picture in scripture regarding this is Mary and Martha. Martha's in the kitchen preparing everything. Mary's just at the feet of Jesus. Oftentimes I find when we're when I'm sitting down to read the Bible, I'm more like the Martha of like, I gotta do these things, I'm gonna read these commentaries, I gotta see what other people think about this, what it what preachers have preached on this. I'm running around, you know, trying to get it all organized. Instead of just the Mary sitting at the feet of Jesus, savoring the goodness of God. If you learn these three things, I really think that you will never find Bible time, reading the Bible, a waste of time or a chore. It will become a joy, a delight, a transformation. How do we read the Bible? Posturing your hearts, meditating on the word, savoring God. These three things I really think you can learn, especially through the Psalms, especially through the Psalms, of how to meditate and internalize the Word of God, enjoying God, savoring God. This is not a comprehensive list. I might add to it if we go to the Gospels or an epistle of other things of how to read the Bible, but through Psalms. If you begin learning these, I'm convinced like there will never be a day where you're like, I've got to read my Bible. It's like, praise God. I get to savor the goodness of God today and meditate, and my heart is changed as we read through the word of God. So just wanted to give that as an intro, the savoring of God. I really think the savoring of God is can be summarized also in praise. So we'll look at Psalm 103 today, um, which is is known as a psalm of praise. Psalm of praise. It starts, Psalm 103 of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Oh my soul, it's the inmost being, the inner parts, not just the minds, the whole inward soul. David is commanding himself to bless the Lord and all that is with me in me, his entire being, everything that he is, our whole heart and passion. Bless his holy name. I went to Texas AM and we founded the tradition of 12th man. 12th man. And they brainwash us when we come as little freshmen, when they tell us the 11 guys down on the field, they're giving it their all. They are given everything that they have, everything within them. They are playing with their whole heart out, right? The rest of us in the stands, the 12th man, we're the 12th person. We have to equally give it all if we're gonna win this game. If we don't give everything that we are, we're not gonna win. So we stand there, literally the whole game, standing there, screaming as loud as we possibly can for the whole game, with everything that is within us, right? Because we're wanting to win. We're wanting to win. It's our inmost being, our entire being screaming for a football team. David is saying, No, I want that to be my expression toward God with all that is within me. I'm not just singing a song, I'm not just kind of regurgitating some uh some words I memorize. No, everything in me. I want to bless the Lord, oh my soul, all that is within me. I'm commanding my soul, bless him, praise him. Continues, bless the Lord, oh my soul. Blessing is expressing words, it's praise that show respect, appreciation, gratitude. It is savoring God, and forget not all his benefits. The opposite of praise is forgetfulness. It's it's losing sight of something. It's often not rejection. Often we're not rejecting God, we're just forgetting. Yeah, we're losing sight of his goodness, we forget who he is, what he does. So David is commanding his soul as we're meditating through this song. We're commanding our soul. Bless the Lord with everything in you. Don't forget, because forgetting is the opposite of praising. Give us three ways that we we we savor God through praise. First, we praise his provision or his tangible practical work, his practical work. What does that practical work look like? Verse three, he forgives all your iniquity, he heals all your diseases, he redeems your life from the pit. He crowns you with steadfast love and mercy. He satisfies you with good so that your root you your youth is renewed like the eagles. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. We're praising his provision, his work. He he's actually doing something. It's not just in theory, there's real tangible work that he's doing, he's forgiving, he's healing, he's redeeming, he's crowning, he's satisfying, equaling his he's working righteousness and justice. We don't seek his hand, but we do praise his works because he is working, his work is good. Secondly, we savor God in praising his person. It's not just that he of what he is doing, it's also who he is. He continues, he made known his ways to Moses, his way is his character, his who he is, and that defines and dictates how he acts. He made known his ways, his character to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. What is his person? What is his ways, his character? It says the Lord is merciful, he is gracious, he's slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast, his ongoing, continual love toward those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him, for he knows our frame, he remembers we are dust. But as for man, his days are like grass, we flourish like a flower of the field, for the wind passes over it, and it we are gone. Its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him and his righteousness to his children's children, to those who keep his covenant and remember his commandments. We're savoring God and praising his person. He is merciful, he's gracious, he's slow to anger, he's abounding in steadfast love. It says it over and over. He we praise his person because he is good, he is beautiful. Throughout the book of John, I kept repeating a phrase Jesus is the fullness and the foundation of all beauty, he's the source and he's the summation of all beauty, he is the creator and the perfection of all beauty. What I was getting at is that he is beauty, he defines all that is beautiful, and when and I also define beauty is that which causes us to feel or experience admiration or desire or affection or love. It's what moves us to praise, it's what causes us to savor. So we savor God in knowing the beauty of his person, his character, his ways. As we're as the beauty of God is revealed to us, our heart is moved with love, affection, desire, admiration, praise, worship. We're savoring the beauty of God. Why? Because He's, wow, you're merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, all-powerful but forgiving, strong but compassionate, wise and gentle, tender. We're gazing, worshiping, savoring the beauty of God. We praise his person. Finally, we praise his position. How do we savor God? We're praising his position. Uh, verse 19: the Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all. He is ruling over everything. The entire universe is in the palm of his hands. He is all-powerful, all-knowing. He there is nothing like him in the universe. We're savoring his position as Lord, as King, as ruler, as all-powerful. We're praising him as a result. Blessing the Lord, oh you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the verse voice of his word. Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will. Bless the Lord, all his works, and all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, commanding his soul. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. We savor God and praising his provision, his works, he's actively doing things, but we're also savoring, praising his person. Who he is is good, is beautiful, is awesome, is worthy of our praise. We're praising his position, he is ruler of it all. Literally everything is submitted to his feet, and we're in the process of that becoming the universal reality. We he is worthy of all worship, supremely beautiful, perfectly worthy. Worship is described as ascribing worth, recognizing and declaring beauty, glory, majesty, or it's paying homage or reverence or venerating and worship or worship is an act of firm of affirming God's worth. It's honoring him, treasuring him. It is savoring him. We savor God as we praise who he is and what he's done in his position as ruler over the universe. So my encouragement to us again, we're gonna go through Psalms this summer. This is a simple request, simple opportunity, really. Just reading three Psalms per day. Not that we're just gonna run through them, okay, to get through my three psalms, but no, we're gonna posture our heart before we sit with God. We're going to meditate on the words, regurgitate them, reflect on them, internalize them. Um, and we are going to savor God, praising Him for His provision, his person, his position. So that my simple question, it's over in the Psalms. Oftentimes, you know, I've thought that this of like, well, I want the preacher to work out for me. You know, preacher, you work out for me. You know, I don't want to put in the every effort. Every effort must be for the preacher, not for the not for the pulp, not for the people in the pews, right? But the every effort in Peter was given to the to the community. The most fascinating thing about to me about 2 Peter, more than likely is written to the same group as 1 Peter. 1 Peter was written to a very people troubled people. They were in a very difficult situation, persecuted, probably in poverty. They're getting, you know, there's injustice. It was a very difficult people, uh situation that 1 Peter was writing to encourage them through their persecution. He wrote 2 Peter to the same group of people, right? Of people that were struggling, right? And poverty and pain and injustice. And he tells them, hey, you people, make every effort still to add to your faith goodness and continue. So my question to us today: will we savor God this summer? Will you savor God this summer in your own, on your own time, savoring God? Will you pick up the weights laid out for you and participate with God in your personal reformation? We all want a personal revival, personal reformation. Will we pick up the weights to be with God? Will you wait on him, learning to be still before him? Will you meditate with him, reshaping who you are, how you pray? Will you slow down long enough to behold the beauty of Christ, pursuing his presence more than his presence or gifts? A lot of times, you know, summers pass us by, at least for me. We don't even know what happened, right? We plan our thing, but on my encouragement to you, will you make this summer count and growing in your personal devotion with Jesus? Just growing in your heart with God as you savor him, praising his provision, his person, his position. But Jesus, we just thank you, God, for Lord, just yeah, the gift of your son. Lord, I thank you that, Lord, we can savor you through communion and remembrance, Lord, that our psalm of remembrance of what you have done. It is um not just who you are, but it's also what you do and in your act and your works. And so, Lord, we just celebrate and praise and um just reflect and remember just your goodness as demonstrated on the cross and what you have done. We thank you, Lord. Amen.