Shane Idleman emphasizes the importance of turning to God during life's storms, using David's cries in Psalms 11-13 as a model for expressing our struggles and frustrations. He encourages believers to pour their hearts out to God, reminding them that it's essential to seek divine comfort rather than succumbing to bitterness or idleness. Idleman highlights that God tests the righteous, and through resistance, we can build our faith and character. He concludes with a call to rejoice in God's mercy and to maintain a heart of worship, even amidst trials, as a testament to God's faithfulness.

Kind of, you know, like a family dinner, sitting down, talking through the book of Psalms. And it's interesting about the Psalms. They were written, actually, as five books. You'd have to ask Jewish scholars why that is. Nobody really has a clear indication. But it was broken down into five books. And then about 500 years ago, we put, you know, not Americans, but Christians put the Psalms into chapter and verses, just like they did with the entire Bible. So where we find ourselves now is if you want to go along, I'm going to be in chapters 11, 12, and 13. You're not going to be able to follow along verse by verse. Many times the Psalms is not a verse by verse expository type of preaching. It's a heart cry. It's like, it reminds me of journaling as I read this this week. And what you see in Psalms chapters 11 through 13 is a cry of David. And what's happening? David is under persecution from Saul. Anybody feel persecuted out there? And the title of this message is, when the storm doesn't cease, when the storm doesn't cease, what do you do when the storm doesn't calm down, when the waters don't subside, when the waves don't keep, don't stop bashing you against the rocks? What do you do when you're in that storm? And I like what Charles Simeon said. He's a commentator. He said, the Psalms are a rich repository of experimental knowledge. David at different periods of his life was placed in almost every situation in which a believer, whether rich or poor, can be placed. We see David as the shepherd. We see him as the king. We see him as the adulterer. We see him as the murderer. We see him as the husband, worshiping God and caring for his wife. And then we see him cheating on his wives. And we see his sons rebelling in the heart cry of a father, watching his family be destroyed. So the Psalms, primarily written by David, are a rich repository of knowledge for us and a lot of biblical truth as well. And I like what he said. I'm going to actually skip ahead to Psalm 13. Psalm 13. Okay, you ready for this? How long? Does this sound familiar? Anybody out there can say this? How long, Lord? How long, Lord? I'm saying that right now. I've been saying that for a couple weeks. How long, oh Lord, are we going to remain locked up? I know that's a harsh word, but let me just say, stay at home. How long, Lord, are we going to be closed down? How long? And then he cries out, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrows in my heart daily? So David's, this is a, he's feeling pretty bad. If you've been there, Lord, how long do I have to go through this? How long with my child being sick? How long with my own mental or health issues or physical issues? How long with these financial issues? And then we see David say, how long will my enemy be exalted over me? And isn't that difficult when you see somebody, especially we see now in the political arena, people we don't disagree or we disagree with and people that should not be in office, and we see them trying to hurt our economy. We see them trying to hurt America, hurt our families. And we ask, how long will my enemy be exalted over me? What he means by that is, how long will my enemy be preferred before me? How long will my enemy be blessed financially? And I'm not. How long will my enemy have their agenda pushed? And my cry for biblical truth is not being pushed. Lord, how long? And then he said, consider God and hear me, oh my God. Enlighten my eyes. In other words, he's saying, show me, God, show me, lest I sleep the sleep of death. In other words, you need to show me because the direction I'm going is not healthy. The sleep of death, it's leading me into a dark place mentally. And then my enemy will say, I have prevailed against him. So in other words, David's crying out to God. And this, I think, fits America perfectly. Lord, how long will this happen? How long is this going to keep happening where our enemies have the upper hand? And I don't want to drift away and then my enemies can prevail against me. So the first point we can get here from overcoming the storm, and a lot of these things I've talked to you in the past about, we've mentioned before, but this first point is so important. You can pour your heart out to God. This is what David did as he's going through a storm. Now, why is that so important? Because pouring your heart out to God means that you are not gossiping to others. You're not being bitter and angry. See, it's one thing if I were to go to others and say, oh, look at what God is doing. Can you believe it? I'm so disgruntled. I'm so discouraged. Versus going to God himself, pouring out your heart to God. So that's the first way. The only way that we can get through a storm is we don't become bitter and negative Nelly and a gossiper and just some of people don't want to be around and we're bringing fear into our families. We have to pour your heart out to God. So tomorrow morning or tonight, I want to encourage you, get into your prayer closet, go somewhere where you can pour your heart out to God. And what happens is as you're releasing that anger or that bitterness or that confusion, as you're releasing it, and you begin to also repent and say, God, help me. I need direction. My enemies surround me. How long, God? I'm hurting financially. I'm becoming angry and irritable. And that crying out becomes a form of repentance. That's why it's so important. It becomes a form of repenting to God, asking God for help. You're taking everything to him. So to get through a storm, when that storm does not cease and you see no end in sight, you see no light at the end of the tunnel. Don't run to the drink or to the drugstore or to pornography or any other thing. Run to God and pour your heart out to him and tell him how you feel. That is so important because you can't bottle up anger. You can't bottle up being irritable and you can't just hold all this in together or you're going to explode at some point. And you also want to, I'm going to talk to parents for a minute. You want to show your kids and others how you got through this. See, I want to look back or even now, and I want to show my kids how we got through this. I don't want them to look back and say, oh, dad really panicked. Dad was a whiner, or mom was. And I want to look back and hold my head up high because I directed my family and hopefully directed this church through this storm. But I do pour out my heart to God. I will tell you, let me just be honest with you. In the morning sometimes, I've been getting up early. God's been waking me up early and I have been fasting. Many of you are following my YouTube channel and I've been fasting today, day four with water fasting. And there's a point of just, there's a hunger, but there's a hunger for God. And I'm crying out saying, God, what is the answer? Lord, what are churches supposed to do? God, what is going on? When do we obey the government? And when do we begin to be the church that you've called us to be? God, we need direction on how this looks like. And I cry, God, this doesn't make sense. I don't understand what's going on. The churches should be your voice of truth. And I pour out my heart to God. And at the end of that, I feel that God has held me. And he's held me spiritually and said, son, I'm going to get you through this. I'm going to get all the Christians through this. I'm going to weed out. I'm going to, I think there's churches going to be closing that shouldn't be churches. This is where the rubber meets the road. What God is purifying his church from the inside out, as well as all the other things that are happening. He's shutting down all of our idols. He's closed all of our doors. So we have to seek him. There has to be a desperation for him. And there's a, there's a hunger for him. And that's the key is pour out your heart to God. And then earlier, he said in chapter 11, he said in the Lord, I put my trust. So it's the reason I did it from chapter 13 back to 11, because you see chapter 11, starting out good. I put my trust in the Lord. Everything's going good. And then in chapter 12, I'm a mess again in chapter 13, I'm a mess again. And so you see David having, cause we don't know exactly when these were written, how far apart this could be like journaling, just a flow of his heart going back and forth. And he said in the Lord, I put my trust. Why would he say that? Cause he had to remind himself in the Lord, I put my trust. And that's why, why aren't you, why aren't many of you reading the Bible more? This would be a wonderful time to, to turn off the TV and open the Bible and open to Psalms. And you read, this is the time I put my trust in the Lord, not CNN, not what the CDC is saying, not in Fosse, not in Bill Gates, not in, I put my trust in the Lord. And you turn off all that so you can turn on the heartbeat of God. And he said, how can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to the mountains? Well, let me give you the setting here that I believe. He's, David's reminding himself, I put my trust in the Lord. How can you say to my soul, flee as a bird to your mountain? So in other words, it's almost like David's talking to my enemy saying, Hey, I put my trust in the Lord and you're telling me to flee as a bird, as a bird to the mountain, like Saul is after this man, David, Saul with the whole kingdom. Saul had the army. Saul had the strength. Saul had the revenue. Saul had the money. Saul had the experience and they were chasing David. And he said, I'm going to flee. You want me to flee like a bird to the mountain? No, I will stand here because I stand on the solid rock of my relationship with Jesus Christ. I am allowing God to control my life. I'm trusting in God, not what my enemies say. And then he says for look, the wicked bend their bow. They're getting ready to shoot me. They make ready their arrows on the string. So you can see as David, this is such a wonderful illustration. You can see when the enemy is getting ready, they're pulling the bow. We can even see now in our nation, we can see how the enemy is. They're strategizing when so many different areas we, we can see their plans that they have, that they may shoot secretly at the upright in heart. They want to shoot at the righteous. They want to remove the good things. And then that's the famous verse that some of you have heard in verse three. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? And then he answers, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is, is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids test the sons of men. In other words, he reminds us who God is. But here's a good reminder here. The enemy will harass you. The enemy works through people. Remember our greatest battle is spiritual. The enemy works through people, through policies, through procedures. And the one of the goals of the enemy, your enemy, my enemy is to harass you. If you're not being harassed, things are going good. You can keep that course. But I think it was in the pilgrim's progress. They give this great analogy of, of Christian walking through where God's called him to do walking on each side. Each side is a lion right, right there, ready to devour him, but they're on chains. They can't reach. They can't, they can't get to Christian as long as he keeps that path. So he's keeping his eye focused on the narrow path. He's keeping his eye focused on Christ and he walks through and here comes that lion attacking, but that chain is stopping him. And that's the image we have as a Christian. The enemy is looking to attack. He's looking to discourage. He's looking to defeat. And how often he will do that is he will get you emotionally worked up and emotionally out of control. He'll get you angry and irritable and anxious. And you begin to react and do things you normally wouldn't do. And that's what David is encountering here. The enemy is harassing him. And they boast, the enemy boast. We have destroyed the foundations. We have destroyed the foundations. And if we have destroyed the foundations, what can the righteous do? Now I did pull out a commentary on this verse. It's very interesting here. It's a, it's a, it's not a word for word translation of the Bible. They call that a formal, I'm sorry, they call that dynamic equivalence or formal, I'm sorry, formal equivalence and dynamic equivalence would be more like a thought for thought. So this is a commentary on the Bible on this verse. If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? It said this, the bottom has dropped out of the country. Good people don't have a chance. That was written quite decades ago. Isn't that funny how that relates now? The bottom has dropped out of the country. Good people don't have a chance. But God hasn't moved to the mountains. His holy address has not changed. I don't know if that's exactly hermeneutically correct in regard to Bible translations and, and the Hebrew and all that. But I love, I love that concept. It sounds like it matches this scripture. Yes, the bottom has dropped out of the country. Yes, good people have not got a chance. Yes, things are getting, getting difficult, but God hasn't moved to the mountains. His holy address has not changed. In other words, God is not on vacation. He's not distant. He doesn't know what's going on. He's not wringing his hands. He's not covering his eyes. He's not worrying that God is the God that David takes us back to. And he says, the Lord tests the righteous. The Lord judges the righteous of heart. He looks to men who are following after him regardless of their situations. So that's the second point here. Encourage yourself in the Lord. How many times have I told you that if you've been listening, you've got to strengthen yourself in the Lord. And sometimes I'll get home from preaching. It's funny, my wife will say, you've talked about that before. And I'll say I have, but we have a whole new audience now. We have thousands and thousands and thousands of people who have not heard a lot of what we've discussed here before. But whether you've heard it before or whether this is your first time hearing it, I want to really get this point across because I think this can help you. A lot of people become mad at the church or mad at pastors or mad at Christians or mad at parents because you're not encouraging me. You're not helping me. You let me down. And men will let you down. I've learned many years ago when I didn't have anyone to turn to 20 years ago coming back to the God. I mean, there are people there, don't get me wrong. But I had to encourage myself in the Lord. I had to strengthen myself in the Lord. What does that look like? I say I don't trust in anyone else to lift me up. I've got to have you lift me up, Lord. I've got to look to you and you alone. And that's a God who will never leave you, never forsake you. I put my trust in the Lord, David said. So that's the second point. The first point was pour your heart out to God. Give him your emotions. Give him your anger. Give him your frustration. And then the second point, encourage yourself in the Lord. David said, in the Lord I put my trust. And you have to remind yourself often, okay, tomorrow morning I'm going to get up and I'm not going to turn on my phone. I'm not going to turn on the media. It's hard. I have to fight it. I get up early. They say 4 a.m. and I'm just going to say, Lord, I need you to encourage me today. In the Lord I put my trust. And then verse four, the Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold, his eyelids test the son of men. In other words, he's saying like he said earlier or possibly later, where can I go to flee from the presence of God? Where can I go? If I go to heaven, he is there. Behold, if I go into the depths of Sheol, if I go into the depths of hell, he is there. If I take up the wings of the morning and I go to the other most parts of the sea, even you are there, Lord. You are there to uphold me, to hold me by your right hand, to strengthen me, to encourage me. So I will flee as a bird, not to the mountain, but to the Lord, my God. So you have to encourage yourself in the Lord. You have to build yourself up in the Lord. And that's exactly what you're doing right now, listening to this. It's encouraging me. I'm encouraged just looking at God's word and reminding myself of who God is. And then chapter 11, still verse 5, the Lord tests the righteous. The Lord tests the righteous. Let me stop right there. I didn't write this down, but I thought of this earlier this week and I just haven't written it down because I wanted to see if it would just stick in my heart and it has. The Lord is testing us right now. He's testing many people. Now in God's sovereignty, a lot of things happen. I wouldn't say this is just happening to purify the church. This is just happening because China wanted to destroy the economy. You have a lot of things happening and God in his sovereignty works out all these things. I'm confident we're going to hear so many testimonies of when this is over, of marriages being restored. I just talked to two people today on that, prodigal sons coming home, people fully giving their lives to Christ. So God in his sovereignty, but it's clear here, the Lord tests the righteous. Now this kind of test is not where you take a pencil and take a test. This is a character test. Anytime God tests the heart, he tests the character of the person. He says, you're going to go through this storm. Will you still look to me? Will you still trust me? Will you still have your confidence in me? He's testing how do you test a righteous person? How do you test a righteous person? You put them through hell. You put them through difficulties. You put them through situations where it says, I believe, I don't know if it's here or what I'm teaching. Maybe it is here or Saturday's message, but it's that refiner's fire. It's putting the silver into fire and watching the dross, which they call the impurities go away. I don't know if you've ever seen pure silver, pure gold. Once it's came out of being purified, it's gorgeous. It's beautiful. All the impurities are removed and it's pure silver, pure gold. And so God says, I test the righteous, not a test you take on paper, not a test you take on paper, but a test of your character of remaining steadfast. Will you continue to seek God with all your heart, with all your strength? Will you follow me? Will you stay on the narrow road and not go on the path of destruction? Will you become a servant even when you're feeling the pressure? Will you become a follower of God regardless of what he gives you? And that's why I have a concern for the American gospel, the American gospel that says, Jesus will always heal you. Jesus wants you to be wealthy. Jesus is going to get you that job. He's going to get you that blessing. He's going to get you that promotion. And then so many people fall away because they're like, this is what I signed up to. What you sign up to is dying to self, carrying the cross and following him. God, no matter what comes, you take my life, you take my health, you take a child, you take whatever. I will follow you like Job said, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. That's the furnace of affliction where you come out like pure gold. That's how he tests the righteous. So we have to make sure we have the right faith, a faith that believes in God regardless of what happens to me. Because if not, we'll get upset. When things don't start to go our way. And I have not mastered that yet. I get upset when things don't go my way sometimes. And when things don't work out in my, I mean, I thought we'd be back to church on May 1st. I got a rude wake up call about a month ago saying that's not happening. And we don't know when these things are going. So we're going to start up again. So it is challenging. So the Lord tests the righteous. Now I can move on to the rest of the verse because I got that out. I just want to let you know, he does test us. He tests us by our character. And when you go through these difficulties, I've talked to so many people, they've ran back to the bottle. They've ran back to alcohol. And now pornography sites are showing a huge increase. We see an increase in spousal abuse. We see a increase in child abuse. And so what happens when this difficulty comes? It's a test of character. It tests your character. But the wicked, he says, and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. And I know that's strong language, but God does hate certain things. The Bible's crystal clear on them. I believe he said, the Bible says in the Old Testament, if we had time, we could go there, that he hates. He hates abortion. He hates the hands that shed innocent blood. He hates a proud look. He hates feet that are swift to running to evil. He hates one who sows discord among the brethren. He hates a false witness. And he hates here a lying tongue. He hates also the wicked who loves violence. So it's interesting. For God so loved the world, loved the sinners, loved the depravity of who we are. It just loved us so much that he gave his son that whosoever believes shall not perish, but have eternal life. So he loves the world, but he hates the thing that is destroying the world. I can say, I hate that sin in you and still love the person. I say that often to myself mainly, but I hate the sin I see in that person. I hate so much that's going on in our nation right now. In some individuals, I hate it, but I pray that God would save them. I pray that God would say, I love them enough to hate the sin that's in them. And that's why you get that old saying, hate, hate the sin, love the sinner. You know, people make fun of it, but it's, it's kind of true. You're supposed to love the sinner, love that person, but hate the sin. And then he says, upon the wicked, upon the wicked, he will rain coals, fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. Well, now, in other words, I don't think in all cases, coals are going to fall from heaven, fire and brimstone is going to fall, a burning wind. These are all, and if you understand old Testament imagery, you'd actually even understand the new Testament better, primarily revelation. If you understood old Testament imagery of clouds and judgment and darkness and different things, but that's what he's saying here. He will rain coals of fire and brimstone and a burning wind, a burning wind shall be their portion, shall be the cup. In other words, they will get what they deserve. God is the God of justice. They will eventually look at, look at all these people. What, what's, what was that guy's name? Epstein. I don't know if I pronounced it right. That, uh, ended up in New York and, um, somehow killed himself. Right. Okay. Don't give me a going on that one. But that guy had this billionaire who had this, this Island and, and you see, uh, uh, in, in, in, that's in the, the, you see Harvey Weinstein in Hollywood was a, was, was the top of his game. Look, Oh, how the, how they have fallen. You look at when I was a young, younger man, not too, not too much younger, but 20 years ago, you know, back before I came to the Lord, listening to, you know, all kinds of from country music to R Kelly, even you can believe that my, my black friends were like that R Kelly and sparkle, you know, they're singing those songs. And now look, what's happened with him. He just got arrested for, for child, uh, sexual assault on children, young, young girls when he was many times that he did that. And, and see, see that sin looks good for a season. Oh, some of you could grasp this, hit the share button, hit the share button, get this message to people, let them know sin feels good for a season. It always feels good for a season, but there is hell to play pay. You are reaping the world when you have sown to the wind and you are reaping the world. When the Bible says, God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap. So if you're enjoying your sin, now I can say by the authority of God's word, there is a judgment coming. There's a reckoning coming. There's a falling coming. And you must turn to God today and say, God, I repent. And I confess my sin. Would you save me and set me free? It's kind of easy preaching to an empty church because nobody gives you any looks. You have to, what are they thinking? What are they thinking? What's the balcony thinking? Just share my heart to you. It's interesting though. He said, and I told you the Lord tests, it means to prove, to show the value of something. And I don't know, but you can imagine if Saul is chasing David. I think Spurgeon talks about this in his commentary on the book of Psalms, but this could be the time where, when the priest, for those of you know, the story, the priest actually helped David when he was fleeing and Saul came and he killed the priests, many priests with an S at the end. He killed those priests. He slaughtered those priests for helping David. And I can imagine saying, Oh, can you, could you imagine people being killed because they helped you? So David is this, that's why I don't know why more people aren't reading the Bible. More people aren't reading the Psalms. You can hear the heart cry of a God follower going through difficulties. And that just cry that just builds you up spiritually. So the next point is this use resistance to build faith, use resistance to build faith. Just like you, how do you build muscle? So I told you before you build it's resist. See, if there's no resistance, if there's no resistance, there's no building. So your faith use this time. Use resistance, use the challenges to build and strengthen and fortify your faith. Some of the weak Christian, the weakest Christians you will ever meet. There's no, there's, it's no secret why they are in America. The weakest Christians you will ever meet. Many of them are in America. Why? Because there has been no resistance to their faith, no resistance to their faith. Raised in a Christian home. Mommy and daddy put them through college. Here's 50,000 in your bank account for when you get out a good job. There's, there's, there's just nothing. So when a storm hits their week, there's no foundation for the foundations be destroyed. What can the righteous do? There has to be a foundation that is built. So through this, that's where you build up the resistance. Did you know that trees get stronger because of the wind, the wind begins to rock the tree and it bends and those roots go deep to hold that tree. The resistance can help anything stay together if it becomes stronger. So again, pour your heart out to God, encourage yourself in the Lord and use resistance to build your faith. And then I'm going to close with chapter 12. David says, help Lord, help Lord for the godly man ceases. In other words, where are the godly men? Where are the godly women? Do you ever feel like that? Help Lord for the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. They speak idly. They speak idly everyone with his neighbor. Now this is key. He's saying godly men are no longer the, those who used to be faithful for you have disappeared, but what are they doing now? They haven't disappeared like vanished. They've changed their character. So they used to be godly men and women faithful, but they have disappeared. Now, what are they doing? They become, they're becoming idle. They're, they're speaking with every, they're speaking idle words to their neighbor with flattering lips and double hearts. They speak. So it used to be these godly men and we see this now godly men, godly women, the faithful, they seem to disappear when they become idle. In other words, gossiping, slandering. I don't know about you, but lifeless words make me antsy and bored. It's hard for me to talk to people who are just idle. There's no God hunger in them. It's just complaining about the government, complaining about this, complaining about this, but then they elevate sports. And this, it's just idle chat that goes nowhere. I can't stand much of that. I need to speak words and hear words that are life giving, not lifeless. So he's talking here about unproductive speech is reflected in their heart. So what is coming out as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. So he speaks. So what is coming out in our hearts? And then he says, friends who are united in sin and their hearts are evil. So it's kind of sad here. He says, the godly man has ceased. The faithful person has disappeared from among the sons of men. Now they speak idly to their neighbor. They flatter their double tongue. It reminds me. I saw a pilot for The Bachelor. Don't watch that movie or television show or anything. This reminded me of this pilot. I saw this little two minute commercial. There's all these people sitting around and people, you're watching them just sit around, you know, just talking about things that are unproductive, talking about sexual things, getting drunk. And we sit there and we watch these reality shows that do no benefit to you spiritually whatsoever. Actually, they will hurt you spiritually. So that's the same image. How many homes, how many Christian homes that used to be on fire for God, they used to go to church and now they've been sucked into Netflix and all these things they shouldn't be watching and idly going by and talking to their friends and complaining instead of getting out and doing what God has called them to do. This might be a good plug for a podcast I just mentioned earlier that me and Luke did earlier today on how do you be the church? How do you be the church in a time of a pandemic or a time of crisis? And we talked about, you still go out into the community, go out where you're getting groceries, where you're getting water, people needing things. You can still go out and be the church. I had an idea, so I guess I'll share with you now. You could send your 10 neighbors, just send them a letter saying, hey, I'm a neighbor down your street. If you need prayer, if you need anything, let me know. You'd be amazed at what kind of door that might open up that you've never had that door open up before. If we can get 500 people doing that at 10 letters going out, that's 5,000 people we're going to contact with. I'm already working on it on my end to reach out to those. This is perfect soil right now. So we have instead of sitting at home, you see what I'm saying? Sitting at home watching garbage, we need to go out and be the church or even if we're at home, be the church somehow reaching those close to us. So I want to add this fourth point. Again, pour your heart out to God. Encourage yourself in the Lord. Use resistance to build your faith and don't become idle. I could say this as well. Don't become idle and bored. Anytime you're going through a storm, let me tell you, that is not the time to become idle because what happens when a boat becomes idle in a storm? It goes wherever the storm is taking it. You've got to turn that motor on. Turn that 40 horsepower motor on and get out of there. You've got to be moving. God direction you're moving. But idle hands are the devil's playpen. Idle hands are the devil's tools. You've heard all those things and it's so true. You cannot be idle in a storm because you will go the direction that the storm is going. So you have to be active and alert. And then verse three, may the Lord cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things. Who have said with our tongue we will prevail? Our lips are our own. Who is the Lord over us? For the oppression of the poor? For the sighing of the needy? Now I will arise, says the Lord. This is so, man, this is this is motivating for me. I read this week. Eventually, the Lord is going to have the final word. He's going to cut off all flattering lips. He will silence the voice of the gossip and he will silence the voice that speaks proud things. I don't know about you, but now more than ever, arrogant people drive me crazy. Those who are arrogant and hot, especially in the church and modern day Pharisees, they drive me crazy. He will silence the tongue of the proud and he will silence those who said with our tongue we will prevail. We will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? You can say that. You can see many of our governing officials now are saying that. We will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is God? Who is the Lord? The governor of New York recently said that God didn't help COVID-19. We did. You see, you have these self-exaltation, exalting self. And then but God says, I've heard the oppression of the poor and I've heard the cries of the needy. Now I will arise. I love that about God. He's not handcuffed. He's not waiting because he can't get out of something. He's not gone. He says, when the time's right, now I will arise. So could it be that this is a testing period to build strength, to build endurance, to clean the church, to clean our nation, to purge our nation? And God says, when it's right, now I will arise, says the Lord. I will set him in the safety for which he yearns. I will put you, and I believe this, I believe there is persecution. You see in China, you see what's happening in Africa right now, people being beheaded and killed for their faith. There are difficult times. These aren't blanket statements that fits every single Christian on the planet, but these are internal truths. When God says, I will set those in safety, those who yearn for me. In other words, those who seek me, those who cry out for me. So I will leave you with this and encourage you. The storm will cease. The storm will cease. And God says, now I will arise, now I will arise, sayeth the Lord, and I will set them on safety. And he said, the words of the Lord are pure words. Listen, some of you need to hear this. The words of the Lord are pure words. God's word is not something to be debated or compromised or looked at as just like another good book. The words of the Lord are pure words. They're like silver. Ah, here it is. I knew it was somewhere. They're like silver tried in a furnace. In other words, when you try that silver, again, the impurities leave and the silver is pure. And he says, the reason they say things like this is they couldn't think of anything purer than silver and gold. They're giving image. How can you explain God? How can you explain God's word? So he says, it's like silver. It's been tried in the furnace. Try it. Taste, God says, taste and see that I am good. It's been purified, not just once. It's been purified seven times, a number of completion. And you shall keep them. Oh, Lord, you shall keep them. You shall preserve them from this generation forevermore. In other words, who are you trusting and who's going to preserve us? God, his word is like pure silver. He lifts us up and God will see us through. And then he says, but I have trusted in your mercy. But, but, but I have trusted in your mercy. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt bountifully with me. There's so much here, but I'm going to leave you with this closing thought. When it's all said and done, David reminds us and I'm reminding you, but, but God, we always remember that there's not usually a period somewhere. Oh no, oh no, this is getting bad. No, but God, we're not going to make it. No, but God, this is challenging. I'm going to lose my mind. No, but God. And that's what he says. But I have trusted in your mercy. And here's what happens. My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. See, you got to get back church. We got to get back to that rejoicing heart who told us we need to sit around bitter and discontent and angry. God said, rejoice and rejoice in your salvation for your name is written in the book of life. Great are you among the sons of men because you are a son of God. Rejoice in that. And we get our hearts back on focusing on God. And then David said, I will sing to the Lord. Did you know, let me tell you as a man who would have never said this 25 years ago, it's good to sing to the Lord. It's good to have a heart of worship. And if you're not a worshiper of God, if you don't sing to God, if there's, if there's not a heartbeat of worship in your heart, I want to challenge you during this message. There's something wrong in your heart because it cries, Abba, father, not get away from me, father. There with a true spirit filled believer. There's a, there's a yearning. It's like you can't do all these things, but never worship. It's a whole package. It's a lifestyle worship. Yes, but it's also a heart singing unto the Lord. You don't have to sing perfectly and you don't have to see. It's just, it's a heart that's rejoicing and excited about God. And, and, and see, once you start to do all this and you realize like David said, God has dealt bountifully with me. In other words, God has been a blessing to me. God has blessed me. And it's right. It's all about getting your heart right back with God. So turn off the media for a season. Stop watching junk that is pulling you down and start getting your mind focused again on who