Latest / Reformed Thinking / Blessed Are the People Whose God Is the Lord (Psalm 144) | Charles Spurgeon

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Blessed Are the People Whose God Is the Lord (Psalm 144) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, I want you to imagine,
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just for a second, spending 10,000 hours mastering a
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physical skill. Oh yeah, the classic 10,000
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hours rule. Right.
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Think about callousing your hands, memorizing every single
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tactical maneuver, sacrificing your sleep.
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Pushing your body to its absolute breaking point just to
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become the very best at what you do.
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Yeah, and you finally reach the pinnacle of your field.
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But then imagine realizing that you did not actually do any of
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it. That is a staggering thought.
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It really is like every ounce of that capability, every twitch of
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muscle memory, every brilliant deduction.
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I mean, none of it actually originated with you.
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It completely shatters the illusion of the self-made man,
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does it not? Oh, totally.
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Today on our deep dive, we are looking at a worldview that
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completely dismantles that assumption of human ownership
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over human skill. Yeah, we're examining A
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remarkable exposition by Charles Spurgeon from his work on the
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Treasury of. Right, specifically focusing on
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Psalm 144. Our mission today is to take you
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through the progression of this text.
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We are looking at a new song of David that begins in the
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intense, visceral reality of spiritual warfare.
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It shifts into a striking reflection on the absolute vapor
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of human existence, calls down the actual artillery of heaven,
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and then finishes with a stunning holistic picture of a
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blessed society. It is quite an arc.
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It really is. OK, let's unack this.
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We begin right at the opening verse where David says, Blessed
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be the Lord, my strength which teacheth my hands to war and my
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fingers to fight. It is just, it is a heavy way to
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open because we have to recognize immediately that David
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is not dealing in theological abstractions here.
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Right, he was a literal warrior. Exactly, I mean his daily
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existence involved camps, caves, blood and literal battlefield.
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Yeah, but his first instinct is not to credit his own general.
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No, not at all. He refuses to praise his
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tactical brilliance. He points to God as the active
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sovereign agent in all human success.
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And the Hebrew text uses a really fascinating concept right
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out of the gate. When David says the Lord, my
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strength, the literal Hebrew reads my rock.
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Yes, in that ancient language and geographical context, a rock
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is the supreme symbol of absolute, unyielding security.
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It implies a firm base that cannot be moved, something that
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exists entirely outside of our frail, fluctuating human frame.
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That distinction between the frail human frame and the
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unyielding rock is crucial. But you know, the verse actually
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goes even further than just calling God a stationary rock.
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It says God actually teaches his hands and his fingers to fight.
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Which is incredibly practical. We often think of divine
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instruction as something purely ethereal, right?
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Yeah, we picture a quiet room, an enlightened thought, maybe a
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gentle whisper in the mind. But David is talking about
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literal muscle memory. He's talking about the physical
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deafness of the fingers needed to draw back a heavy bowstring.
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Or to properly grip a massive shield in hand to hand combat.
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Right. And the source text brings up a
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fascinating parallel here. Spurgeon compares this to how
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God taught the ancient artisans who worked in brass for the
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Tabernacle. Yeah, I love that part.
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God did not just give them the blueprint, He gave them the
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physical dexterity. Yes, the actual neural pathways
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to execute the design it forces you to realize is that every
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single ounce of human capability comes directly from the creator.
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That physical reality illustrates a much larger
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theological truth about human inability.
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Absolutely. If even the raw physical skill
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to pull a bowstring or hammer a piece of brass is a direct gift
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of divine grace, how much more is our spiritual survival
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completely dependent on God? Because untrained force is a
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massive liability. Oh for sure, if a person has raw
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might but lacks the divine instruction on how to wield it,
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they will only cause devastation to themselves and to others.
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So David recognizes that the sovereign God must train the
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smallest, most minute members of our frame.
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Even the fingers need divine instruction and.
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Because of this utter dependence, David proceeds in
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the second verse to multiply his descriptions of God.
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Yeah, he lists them out. He calls God but his goodness,
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which can also be translated as mercy, His fortress, his
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Hightower, his deliverer and his shield.
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The multiplication of those terms is so striking, it feels
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like David cannot find a single human concept large enough to
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contain the reality of what God is doing for him.
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You really can't. But there's a historical analogy
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from the source material by Catherine Pena father, that I
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want to bring in here. Oh.
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That is a great. One, Yeah, because it provides
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some serious friction for how we process this kind of divine
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strength. She compares receiving God's
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grace to depositing money into a bank account.
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And then never actually spending a dime of it.
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Right. She observes that we are
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constantly asking God for strength, pleading for help, but
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then we just hoard the grace. We refuse to actually put our
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hands to war. Which is a common pitfall.
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I have to admit I struggle with this idea myself.
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Why do we do that? Why do you think a person would
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beg for divine obstruction and strength, but then sit back in
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total passivity as if the Christian life requires 0
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exertion? Well, the reason we hoard that
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grace often stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of
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how the covered operates. OK, unpack that.
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God's absolute sovereignty over our actions does not negate the
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necessity of those actions. Rather, His sovereignty is the
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very mechanism that makes our action possible.
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So when God provides the strength, He provides it for a
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specific, grueling purpose. Right, the believer is expected
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to actually fight the passivity Pentaphot critiques is usually
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born of fear. Because we know instinctively
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that our own faith shakes at the slightest pressure.
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Exactly. That is precisely why David
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needs all those multiplied metaphors.
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When our faith waivers, a simple shield might not feel like
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enough. We need to know God is also an
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inaccessible fortress. I am glad you brought up the
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fortress metaphor because Spurgeon details the
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geographical reality behind that word and it changes the way you
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read the verse. It really does.
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When David says Fortress, he is likely thinking of physical
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locations like Masada, right? For you listening, Masada is
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this massive isolated rock plateau in the Judean Desert.
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It rises over 1000 feet in the air with sheer Cliff drops on
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every single side. Or, you know, you could picture
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the Heidelberg Castle in Europe position high above the valley.
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These were places that were entirely inaccessible to an
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invading army. You could not scale the wall
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walls with ladders. You were safe because the
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geographical position itself was completely untouchable.
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That is the kind of security God provides.
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And notice how David uses the word my repeatedly.
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My goodness, my fortress, my Hightower.
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It is a radical, aggressive appropriation of the Almighty.
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Yeah, he is taking the infinite, transcending Creator of the
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universe and claiming him as a personal covenantal possession.
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That repetitive claim of my is the pulse of genuine faith.
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It is a desperate clinging to reality.
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David knows he is absolutely nothing without that specific.
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Rock and that realization forces a harsh transition in the text.
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It does. When a person genuinely
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recognizes God as the absolute sovereign source of All Might
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and views Him as an untouchable high tower, it inevitably forces
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them to evaluate the human being hiding behind the walls.
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Right. If God is the colossal fortress,
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what on earth is the creature taking shelter inside?
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The contrast is jarring to say the least.
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Once the sheer magnitude of the Sovereign God comes into focus,
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the fleeting insignificance of humanity becomes impossible to
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ignore. That takes us into verses 3 and
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4 where David asks, Lord, what is man that thou takest
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knowledge of him? We are staring across a massive
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chasm between the infinite Creator who subdues entire
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nations and the total frailty of the human creature.
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Spurgeon highlights a linguistic nuance here that lands like a
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punch. The Hebrew text essentially says
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Adam is as Abel. Adam being the representative
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term for all of mankind. Right, and Abel literally
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translates to vanity or breath. And the concept of vanity here
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is crucial to grasp. It does not refer to vanity in
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our modern colloquial sense of being obsessed with your
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appearance. Oh, not at all.
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It does not mean staring in a mirror in this context, it means
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vapor. It signifies an unsubstantial,
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completely empty thing. What's fascinating here is the
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visual from a Dutch painting in Amsterdam that the source text
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brings up to illustrate. This.
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Oh, the one with the bladder, Yes.
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Yeah, it depicts a man carrying a massive blown up bladder on
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her shoulders, strutting around while another man stands right
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next to him. Quietly holding a pin just ready
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to prick the bladder. It is a hilarious but terrifying
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way to view the human ego, that is the biblical view of human
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existence without God. It is a passing shadow.
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It is a mirage constantly on the verge of melting back into
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absolute nothingness. You have this guy walking around
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with a literal balloon on his back, completely inflated with
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his own self worth. His career plans, his five year
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goals, his wealth. Meanwhile, mortality is just
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standing right behind him with a needle.
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You might be thinking, if I am just a vapor, a bubble waiting
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to pop, why should I even try? Right.
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Does recognizing our own total vanity just lead to depression
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and nihilism? Or does it do something else
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entirely? Because if we are just a puff of
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air, it seems entirely absurd that the creator of the cosmos
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would ever look in our direction.
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It would be completely absurd if not for the electing love of
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God. Yeah, the theologian Gregory
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Natsianzen uses a brilliant analogy to explain this.
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The analogy of the Great Sultan. Imagine the most supreme,
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unapproachable ruler on Earth taking specific intimate notice
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of a lowly, insignificant tankard bearer.
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A water carrier. The water carrier would be
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completely overwhelmed by the unmerited favor.
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Now take that vast disproportion and multiply it to Infinity.
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The realization of our absolute nothingness does not depress the
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believer. Instead, it magnifies the glory
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of divine condescension. Yes.
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God's knowledge of us is not a passive clinical awareness that
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we happen to exist on a spinning rock.
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It is the deliberate electing love he Stoops down to care for
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a creature that is fundamentally incapable of offering anything
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of value in return. That is the core of the matter.
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We are Adam as able. We are completely helpless
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vapors. And because man is so helpless
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and fleeting, he absolutely cannot rely on his own frail
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nature to fight his battles. When a Vapor is faced with foes
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that are stronger and vastly more deceitful, the Vapor has no
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choice but to call on the terrifying, majestic
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intervention of the Creator. And that brings us to a massive
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shift in the text where David basically calls down the
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artillery of heaven. The language in verses 5 through
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8 becomes heavily apocalyptic. He praised, Bow thy heavens the
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Lord, and come down. Touch the mountains and they
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shall smoke. He is pleading for God to bring
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the overwhelming reality of heaven crashing into the earthly
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sphere. In the ancient mindset,
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mountains were viewed as the most permanent, unshakable
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structures in existence. They were the immovable anchors
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of the earth. But David knows that at the mere
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touch of God's finger, those massive peaks will instantly
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ignite and turn to smoke. It is a vivid, terrifying
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picture of what happens when divine wrath meets human
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opposition. He also cries out, cast forth
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lightning and scatter them. And the literal Hebrew behind
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that phrase is wild. It translates to light and
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lightning. Yes, lightning, it's essentially
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saying unleash the very core essence of the storm.
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He wants God to shoot divine arrows and completely route the
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enemy. But here is where it gets really
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interesting. The twist regarding the specific
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nature of the threat. Yeah, when you look closely at
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the enemies David is facing, they're not just massive armies
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with swords and Chariots. Their defining characteristic is
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that they are fundamentally deceptive.
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Right verse 8 describes them as men whose mouth speaketh vanity,
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and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood.
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That specific phrase, a right hand of falsehood, is heavily
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laden with historical meaning. In the ancient world, offering
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the right hand was a solemn, legally binding pledge of good
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faith. The Roman order Cicero actually
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wrote about the right hand as the ultimate witness of trust
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among men. When you shook someone's right
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hand, you are binding yourself to truth.
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You are making a covenant of honesty.
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But these enemies possess a right hand of falsehood.
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They're very active. Making a promise is a weaponized
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lie. Their deception is dexterous.
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They are experts at perjury. How do you even fight that?
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It is an incredibly frustrating scenario.
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Think about it. If you were a believer, fighting
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an enemy whose handshake is a lie is like trying to fight
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smoke. You cannot parry a lie with a
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physical sword. You cannot build a Stonewall to
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protect yourself against slander.
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Exactly if if the environment around you is completely
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polluted with deceit, your physical skill, your logic, your
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carefully crafted arguments are entirely useless.
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You are completely unable to fix the situation yourself.
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And that total inability is precisely why David has to rely
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on the lightning of God. Human courts, human logic and
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human diplomacy all fail catastrophically when the
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opponents core nature is deceit. It is also why David repeats his
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urgent prayer in this Psalm in verses 7 and 11.
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He cries out, Rid me and deliver me.
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Sometimes modern readers assume that repeating a prayer shows a
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lack of faith, like you were trying to nag God into action.
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But here it is not a vain repetition.
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It is an urgent, desperate plea prompted by imminent danger.
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And the suffocating, toxic environment of these strange
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children. Right.
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These are people who are completely alien to God's
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covenant. They operate on a different
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moral frequency entirely. David knows that when God
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finally lays His hand on these boastful, lying men, they will
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be consumed just like that smoking mountain.
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Deliverance from these false right-handed liars is critical,
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but the deliverance is not an end in itself.
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God does not just rescue his people to leave them standing
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around in a vacuum. Clearing the static of all that
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deceit creates the necessary silence for the believer to tune
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their instruments for an entirely new purpose.
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Once the smoke clears, an active response fills the void.
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The text introduces the idea of a new song, bringing us to
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verses 9 and 10. The transition from the chaotic
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noise of battle and the static of lies to the organized harmony
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of music is so striking. David vows to sing a new song
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upon a psaltery and an instrument of 10 strings.
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Historically, this 10 stringed instrument is known as the
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nebulizer. Let us pause and look at what
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that actually was. Yeah, it was a portable harp,
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usually crafted from Firwood. Or sometimes Almag wood, which
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was a highly prized type of red sandalwood from India.
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Playing this physical instrument required a immense discipline
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skill which directly links back to the opening verse about God
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teaching the fingers to move. That detail connects everything
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beautifully. True praise requires both the
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hand and the tongue working together in truthful harmony.
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Think about the massive contrast here.
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The enemies had hands of falsehood and mouths of vanity.
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Their physical gestures and their spoken words were
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perfectly united in deceit. But the Believer uses their
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physical hands on A10 stringed harp and their tongue in song to
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unite in absolute truth and gratitude.
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It is the exact opposite of the enemy's posture.
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But I want to push back on a specific phrase David uses here
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because it feels counterintuitive.
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OK. What is the phrase?
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In verse 10 he says it is he that giveth salvation unto
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kings, and he talks about being delivered from the hurtful
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sword. Yeah, let us be realistic.
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David was a literal monarch. True, he commanded vast armies.
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He had Chariots, he had brilliant generals, he had
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fortified cities. I struggle with this if you work
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60 hours a week to build a business or you spend years
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organizing an army. It feels incredibly dismissive
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of human effort to attribute the survival or the success entirely
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to divine intervention. Exactly how do we reconcile the
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swinging of the human sword with the claim that God did the
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saving? What does this mean for you, the
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listener today who is managing your own daily battles, not a
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nation? This raises an important
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question, And that tension is precisely where the theology of
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human inability meets daily life.
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The source material provides a brilliant quote from the King of
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Aragon to address this. Yes, he noted, victories are not
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gotten by art or subtlety, but given of God.
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If a king who possesses every conceivable earthly advantage
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demands of wealth, impenetrable armor, 10s of thousands of
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trained troops. Must acknowledge that his
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salvation from the sword is a direct unilateral act of divine
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intervention. Then it completely strips away
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all human pride. The resources do not generate
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the victory, they're simply the tools God ordains to use.
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For you listening today, this means that whatever resources
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you have amassed, your savings accounts, your advanced degrees,
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your professional network. Those things are completely
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incapable of saving you on their own.
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Your alliance must be as utter and complete as David's.
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It levels the playing field completely.
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The powerful monarch with a standing army and the peasant
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with nothing are in the exact same position before the
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sovereignty of God. Totally dependent.
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And when a leader, whether a king, a CEO, a father or a
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mother, experiences this kind of divine salvation and rightly
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acknowledges it, the benefits do not stop with them.
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The blessing cascades outward. It waters the roots of the
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entire surrounding society. And that shifts our focus to
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verses 12 through 14, where we see the structural architecture
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of a blessed society. The linguistic shift in this
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section is very telling. Throughout the entire first part
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of the text, David uses the singular pronoun.
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Right. My strength, my fortress, my
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hands. But once the deliverance from
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deceit is secured and the new song is sung, the language
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broadens to the plural. Our sons, our daughters, our
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garners. True covenant blessing is never
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meant to remain isolated. It naturally creates A
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flourishing, interdependent community.
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Let us look at the specific blessings listed here because
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the imagery is incredibly detailed.
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Starting with the sons, David prays that our sons may be as
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plants, grown up in their youth. He is talking about young men
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who are vigorous, straight and strong.
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They are not stunted, they are not dwarfed by their
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environment, they have deep roots and they grow to their
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full potential. And the imagery used for the
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daughters is equally striking and carries massive cultural
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weight. He prays that the Daughters may
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be as cornerstones, polished after the similitude of a
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palace. To understand this, we have to
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look at ancient Grecian architecture.
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Right, you frequently saw caryatids.
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These were magnificent pillars carved in the shape of women.
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Supporting the massive crushing weight of the buildings and
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tablatures, the daughters are seen as the unifying strength
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and the polished grace of the family structure.
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They are load bearing pillars of the society.
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The text points out how this divine value placed on female
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children stood in stark radical opposition to the practices of
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the surrounding heathen nations. Those Pagan cultures frequently
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discarded, ignored, or severely devalued their daughters.
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God's covenant elevates them, polishing them like palace
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stones, placing them at the structural center of a
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flourishing society. That distinction highlights how
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alien the Covenant community looks compared to the world
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around. It the blessing also extends
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massively into the economy. The text describes garners or
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storehouses being full of all manner of store.
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It mentions sheep bringing forth thousands and 10 thousands in
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the streets. We are talking about staggering,
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overwhelming agrarian wealth. The source references Job, who
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possessed 14,000 sheep after his restoration.
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And Meisha, the king of Moab, who paid a massive tribute of
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100,000 lambs. The oxen are described as strong
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to labor or literally translated loaded with flesh.
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Meaning they are exceptionally well fed and capable of pulling
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massive weight. All of this incredible economic
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and familial flourishing is wrapped in an atmosphere of
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total, unbroken peace. Verse 14 says that there be no
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breaking in nor going out. In our modern context, we might
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just think of a burglar alarm. But historically, this meant no
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marauding armies were invading the city walls.
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And no citizens were being forced into exile.
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In the ancient world, conquerors like the Assyrian king Sinatra
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were notorious for their barbaric practice of forcibly
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deporting entire populations. Dragging them away from their
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homelands to distant, hostile territories.
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David is praying for a society completely free from that
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specific terror. Furthermore, he prays there will
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be no complaining in our streets.
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The literal translation implies no public riot, no collective
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cry of sorrow, no secret festering dissatisfaction that
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boils over into rebellion. So what does this all mean?
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We do not live in an agrarian society where we count our
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wealth by checking how much flesh is on our oxen.
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Or how many sheep are in the street?
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But the underlying principle translates perfectly into a
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modern understanding of holistic peace.
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We are looking at a vision of stable homes where children grow
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up strong and inherently valued. We are looking at economic
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security where families have surplus in their storehouses.
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We are looking at cities that are entirely free from the
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terror of violent home invasions and the anguish of public riot.
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It is a picture of total comprehensive societal health.
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The 17th century theologian Richard Holdsworth called this
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specific state the vein of civil happiness.
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It. Proves unequivocally that God
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cares immensely about the physical, temporal realities of
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His people. The material world is not an
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evil illusion to be escaped. It is a physical reality created
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by God, and it is meant to flourish under His active
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blessing. But as beautiful as this picture
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of agricultural and social harmony is, stopping here would
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be a fatal mistake. It is so incredibly easy to read
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those verses, look at a healthy 401 KA secure home and a
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thriving family, and conclude I have arrived.
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This is the ultimate goal. But the psalmist recognizes the
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lethal danger in that specific line of thinking.
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He introduces a massive paradigm shifting correction in the final
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verse. Verse 15, it reads happy as that
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people. That isn't such a case.
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Yeah, happy as that people who's God is the Lord?
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At first glance, reading it quickly, it looks like a simple
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happy continuation of the previous thoughts.
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But there is a massive theological pivot happening
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right on the word yay. That word functions as a
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comparative revocation. It literally means yay rather.
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The psalmist is effectively saying, yes, a people with full
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barns, strong children and safe streets is happy, but rather the
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true overriding happiness belongs only to the people whose
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God is the Lord. Furthermore, the text uses a
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literary device called in gemination.
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Right in gemination is the deliberate repetition of a word
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for intense emphasis. By repeating the word happy, the
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text forces the reader to contrast the lesser temporal
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happiness of full barns with the supreme eternal happiness of
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possessing God Himself. That is the turning point of the
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entire text. It is the stark, terrifying
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difference between clinging desperately to the Gifts and
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actually possessing the Giver. You could have the strongest
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oxen, the fullest bank accounts, the most polished cornerstones
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and the safest streets on earth. But if you do not have the Lord,
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you have absolutely nothing of lasting value.
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The poet John Donne captured this dynamic brilliantly.
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He said that possessing temporal blessings without spiritual
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blessings is like holding counterfeit evidences to a
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property you do not actually own.
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You might look at the fake deed, admire the calligraphy, and feel
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incredibly secure in your wealth.
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But when the time comes to actually claim the land, you
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will be thrown out into the cold.
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If we connect this to the bigger picture, you have to look at the
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specific name used for God in this final verse.
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The text says whose God is Jehovah?
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It does not just use a generic vague word for a higher power.
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Jehovah is the specific name that signifies absolute
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independency. He is the great I am.
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And it is the name most fiercely tied to His covenant
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faithfulness. Having Jehovah as your God is
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the only absolute insurance of happiness.
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Because he is the literal only thing in existence that cannot
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be lost, stolen, or subjected to decay.
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The secular world evaluates happiness entirely by looking at
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the cuisic, which is Latin for in such a case.
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They look at the external circumstances, but the believer
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looks to the QE Dominus, whose God is the Lord.
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The secular world is entirely obsessed with the cuisic we
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constantly measure our lives by in such a case.
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Am I in the case of having a high paying job?
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Am I in the case of having a perfectly healthy body?
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We check our portfolio to see if our retirement is secure.
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We tie our entire emotional stability to whether or not we
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are in such a case. But the biblical framework
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entirely rejects that as the final measure of joy.
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True happiness is found solely in the QE dominus.
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We have traced a massive theological arc today.
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We started by recognizing God as the absolute sovereign source of
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our strength, the Rock who physically teaches our very
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fingers to fight. We looked at the terrifying
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vapor of our own existence and how that absolute nothingness
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magnifies God's electing love. We heard the desperate cry for
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deliverance from the suffocating, dexterous deceit of
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strange children. We saw how that specific
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deliverance clears the static, allowing the believer to tune
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A10 stringed lute for a new song of truth.
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And finally, we saw that while God actively blesses societies
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with temporal peace, true happiness rests entirely in
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possessing Jehovah. It presents a comprehensive view
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of reality. Your man is entirely dependent,
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and God is entirely sovereign. Actively orchestrating
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everything from the physical strength of a warriors hand to
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the architectural piece of a national streets.
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It is a stunning realization I. Want to leave you with one final
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striking idea, drawn directly from the structure of the source
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text. This is a fascinating detail.
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Scholars, including Lord Congleton have pointed out
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something incredible about the architecture of the Book of
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Psalms. Psalm 144 is the very last
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prayer of petition from Jehovah's anointed in the entire
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book. After this Psalm, there are 6
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psalms remaining, and those final six psalms contain
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absolutely no requests. There is no more crying out for
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physical deliverance. No more asking for military
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strength. No more pleading for daily bread
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or safe streets. They're only pure high
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hallelujahs. You to ponder this What if the
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goal of all our spiritual wrestling, our desperate cries
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for deliverance from liars? And our deep desire for earthly
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stability. What if the goal is to finally
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exhaust our need to ask God for anything at all?
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Leaving us with absolutely nothing left to do but spend
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eternity and pure, unadulterated praise.
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Thank you for joining us on this deep dive.
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Keep your eyes fixed on the giver rather than the gifts.