³ As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
    in whom is all my delight.^[b]

⁴ The sorrows of those who run after^[c] another god shall multiply;
    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
    or take their names on my lips.

⁵ The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
⁶ The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

⁷ I bless the Lord who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.^[d]
8 I have set the Lord always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being^[e] rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
¹⁰ For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.^[f]

¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Transcript:

Dr. Stewart
Do you remember what the series we are in is titled? When God is Big. I was thinking, when did God become big to me? I was young believer, maybe baby or toddler stage and I came across this verse, Isaiah 55:9, “For the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts”. I went out into my backyard and I looked up at a starry sky. I saw the stars way, way up there and little old me way, way down here. But I was pre med. And I was the radiologic technologist. And the heavens replied back, it doesn’t matter. In the scope of the universe, you’re small and insignificant. It reminds me of a movie, I get a lot of inspiration from animated movies. The movie “Ants”, in the beginning, there’s an ant lying on a couch and he’s talking to his therapist. And the ant says, You know, I feel small and insignificant. And the therapist says to him, You are small and insignificant, you are an ant! That’s what I felt like, like an ant, at that moment, as I’m looking up in the sky. I felt dependent. But that was okay, it’s a good place to

be. This Being, who was infinitely above me, was not an ogre or a tyrannical dictator. No, He was and is my Lord and my Master and my Savior. I have a Father in heaven. With this world, as messed up as it is, it’s good to know that you have a Father that is omniscient. He doesn’t only know everything, he knows what is best for us, just as Matt pointed out just a few minutes ago. One who is not far off, but who is close enough to me for me to speak to him, and he will listen and even respond. Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open”, this speaks of this infinite Being. I would later grapple with some difficult teachings in the Bible, teachings primarily God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility. I would study about several neat and tidy human systems that try to put that in a box. It made it sound like the answers work but they didn’t work. In the end, you always came back to those two gray truths, which could not be reconciled. They run through the whole Bible. And the Bible never brings them together. It simply explains those truths. Men have argued for centuries about them. And in the end, there are the great truths of election and predestination and human responsibility. And those truths are beyond our puny little minds to comprehend. We can go as far as the Bible goes, though, right? No farther, but as far as the Bible goes. In the end, we look up and see that God’s ways are higher than our ways, as the heavens are high above the earth. There are many, many things that I will never understand in this life. In the future, with a glorified body and a mind that’s glorified, I think we’re going to understand more. I don’t think we’ll understand at all. So we must choose, like little children, to trust our Heavenly Father. That’s what happens in Psalm 16. David chooses God and he does it over and over throughout the Psalm and throughout his life. He goes back to choosing God. The result is joy.

Psalm 16. Let’s read it together. “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.’ As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips. The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. I bless the LORD, who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” “A Miktam of David”, it is titled here. There are a few Psalms that are spoken of this way. The word, Miktam, means to hide. So here The Omniscient God hides a precious secret for us. Spurgeon calls it the golden Psalm. Henry calls it a golden Psalm, a precious one more to be valued than gold, even much fine gold. But it speaks so plainly of Christ in his resurrection. Both Peter and Paul quote this psalm regarding Jesus death and resurrection. And there is a verse in the Psalm that could never apply to us, or to David, only to Jesus. And that’s verse 10. We’ll talk about that. So this is a messianic Psalm. We will see Jesus often in these verses, we will see the writer David and we will see how this applies to them and to us.

“Preserve me, O God”, verse 1. In Hebrew it means to guard me, like the actions of the one who watches over another, like a shepherd watching over his flock or like Secret Service agents that surround and watch over our president. David doesn’t ask for God’s help in any particular emergency. This is more of a blanket statement. He does ask for particular help in other psalms, like in the last psalm that I did, he does that. But this includes his whole life, his life and his death, all of it. Only God can provide this kind of protection for David and for us, too. So did Jesus need protection? In a way no, but yet, we see him as a small baby, right? And was there a plot, in that time of this small baby, Jesus? Yeah. And what did Heron do? He had all the newborn babies killed to try and get rid of him. He was after Jesus. Then in the wilderness, we see Jesus, he’s fasted 40 days and he’s out there and he’s in the elements. I’m sure there are wild animals that are there as well. God took care of him. And in the wilderness, was there a spiritual challenge? Yeah, God led him into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. So Satan comes to him and God stood with him. If you remember, this Spirit led him there, he was with him. Throughout his ministry, at various points, they wanted to stone, him to capture him, to throw him over a cliff. (Luke 4:29). God protected him from any harm and he kept him until the time was right, to fulfill his plan. His plan, though, did include harm to Jesus. But it was done for the redemption of men and women, at the cross. Notice, Jesus looks outside of himself. You can see him saying these words, “Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.” If Jesus has to look outside of himself for protection, how much more should we. Spurgeon says the word for God here, O God, in verse 1 is El or Elohim, The Mighty God, the omnipotent helper of his people. Whenever we’re in danger, we can come to El with the confidence that he who heard the strong crying and tears of our faithful high priests is both able and willing to bless when we come. For in you, do I put my trust, we take refuge in Him, we choose God. Like a chick under the wings of the mother hen, there is overshadowing protection from our mighty God.

Verse 2, “I say to the LORD, ‘You are my Lord.” Notice, again in verse one and two, we’ve seen Elohim and we see, in the first part of verse two, Yahweh, The Great I AM. God doesn’t need anything. We live under the misconception that God lives and is there for us. But in actuality, if the world cease to exist, would He be okay? He would be perfect, and content without us. He’d still be good and glorious and complete without us. But He’s chosen us in His love. I don’t understand it. In verse two, middle of the verse, the third name for God is used, “You are my Lord”, Adonai, my stayer, the strength of my heart. We should worship him for including us in his plan, for because of our sins, we deserve death and eternal judgment. But God loved us enough, even when we were dead in our sins, the last part of verse 2, “I have no good apart from you.” That’s human depravity. We see it all over the Bible like in Jeremiah 17:9, it says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure, who can understand it?” Paul says in Romans 7:18, “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. But I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out”. God, on the other hand, is completely and thoroughly good. Perfect in all of His ways. Henry says, God is infinitely above us and happy without us and whatever good we do is all from him. So we’re indebted to him, not he to us. Any idea of us paying him back is ludicrous. Every good thing that we do, every truly good thing that you have, is from him only, every good thing. You’re the reason for every good thing, that’s a song that I really like. It’s by The Afters. Every good thing.

Verse 3, “As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.” Saints are people who have put their faith in Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for their sins. They are believers having been created by God in His image and He loves them. In the great commandment, God calls us to love people, especially those of the household of faith. Calvin says, Because our good deeds can’t extend to God. He puts the saints in his place. So we’re to love them and serve them like we would him. That is what the church is about. That’s why gathering together is so important. As a body of believers, it’s essential to do that. So we can practice the one another’s, the acts of service to one another. That’s still going on in the pandemic but blunted right, it’s not as it should be. We need to shine as the excellent ones, the ones who David’s soul delights in. Christ also delights in his people and we should delight in one another. Are you glad to be here? Amen. It’s a blessing to be with God’s people, isn’t it? It’s an encouragement. It’s good for our hearts. Psalm 133:1 says, “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity.” And sisters, too. Calvin says, Nothing is of greater importance than to connect ourselves with this society, meaning the church.

So I’ll tell you a story. There’s a king named Com-Ingo, an ancient king of the Draves. And he had a stately feast. And he appointed his nobles at the time, they were pagans, to sit in the hall below. So we have the place above that’s with the king and the hall below that’s beneath, and he tells us nobles, go down there. And then he commanded certain poor Christians to be brought into his presence, to sit at his table, to eat and drink, which many wondered why he would do that. He said, he counted the Christians, though very poor, as highly honored guests at his table, and they were more worthy of its company than the greatest of his unconverted peers. This is why. He said, these pagans are going to be thrown down into hell one day. And I’m going to be with these Christians, in their comforts, and be fellow princes in heaven. So I need to be with them now. Although you see the stars, reflectioned in a puddle, in the bottom of a well, or in a stinking ditch, yet the stars speak of heaven, the reality of heaven. So although you see a godly man in a poor, miserable, despised low condition on earth, yet he is fixed in heaven. Paul says, In Ephesians 2:6, Who has raised us up and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That’s written by Charles Bradbury in 1785. It’s called Cabinet of Jewels. He treated believers with great care and respect though they were poor, because God has highly regarded them. It is wise for us to do the same. Get together with his people. Serve the body

Verse 4a, “The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply.” What do we call those who run after other gods? Pagans or idolaters or lost? Yes, those are who would replace God with an idol. Now, as we read this, it’s easy to be critical of people who might have worshipped gods of wood and stone. But do we struggle with idolatry today? Yeah, there’s idols that are alive and well today that we grapple with, like greed and lust and people pleasing and perfectionism and addictions. There’s many other modern idols that we chase after. And the result is straight up sorrows that will multiply when you do this. Proverbs puts it this way, The way of the sinner is hard. Life will become more difficult. Hebrews 12 talks about sin weighing us down. It’s more than hard for many, it can be painful, physically and emotionally. As relationships are strained or end, physical health can be affected. Notice verse 4 says they run after other gods. They’re rushing, running to get their idols, their enthusiasm actually puts us to shame. Some of them are more excited about their idols than we are about our faith. In David’s time, there were plenty of pagan sacrifices. Tony Evans says, Now their sorrows are many, even in their worship, by cutting their bodies with knives and lancets, as the worshippers of Baal did, and by sacrificing their own children, which, notwithstanding their zeal, could not fail of giving them pain and uneasiness. And besides temporal punishments inflicted on them for their idolatry by God, and stings of conscience which must sometimes attend them. The wrath of God lies upon them and they will have their portion in the lake of fire and the smoke of their torment will ascend forever and ever. Because they rejected God. Verse 4b, “their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out.” At God’s alter, the blood of animal sacrifices made atonement for the people. And drink offerings were wine, not blood. The law prohibited drinking blood. But this was common in many pagan circles. Henry says, The devil taught his worshipers to drink the blood of sacrifices to teach them cruelty. David says he kept himself totally uncontaminated from these things, he wouldn’t have any part of this. And in verse 4c, “I will not take their name on my lips.” He won’t even speak of these idols.

Verse 5, “The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.” In contrast to the idolatrous cup of blood, there’s the Lord’s cup, that he speaks up here. There’s tremendous confidence and joy in this intentional choice. He is my portion, his inheritance in the world to come. His cup supplies all the necessities of this life and the life to come. Henry says concerning choosing the Lord as his portion and happiness, “Most men take the world for their chief good, and place their happiness in the enjoyments of it. But this I say, The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and my cup, the portion I choose and will gladly take up with, no matter how poor my condition is in this world. Let me have the love and favor of God and be accepted of him. Let me have the comfort of communion with God and satisfaction in the communications of his graces and comforts. Let me have an interest in his promises and a title by promise to everlasting life and happiness in the future. And I have enough, I need no more. I desire no more, to complete my happiness.” Heaven is an inheritance. God Himself is the inheritance of the saints, those whose everlasting happiness is to enjoy him. So notice, once again, this recurring theme, joy in choosing God. I don’t know if I gave you the title of the message. But the title of the message is “Choosing God is Joy, Full and Forever”.

Now verse 6, “The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places, indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.” This sounds like a boundary line. Like we’re going to get some property. Are we going to get some property? Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, right? And if he’s done that, he’s going to come back for us, we’re going to be with him. But the emphasis doesn’t seem to be on the place. But the emphasis is on the person, on Jesus Christ. That’s what makes our inheritance incredibly beautiful. That makes it a pleasant place. It’s crucial that we are satisfied with our lives and our hope of future blessing, but often we’re not. Do you ever get discontent? Like you want things, sometimes you want things that aren’t good for you. Discontent is like a cancer, it affects my heart often. We find satisfaction in our God, if we choose to look to him.

Verse 7a, “I will bless the LORD”. I will magnify your way. He, “who gives me counsel”. Jesus spent much time with his Father looking for direction and he received it and he thanked his Father for the guidance. If the Son of God takes this lowly position, shouldn’t we? We should not lean on our own understanding but go to God for help. Certainly in our lives we have benefited from instruction and encouragement and guidance through Scripture. We should thank God for this and choose to be with Him more and more. You know, seems to be a parallel there. Verse 7b, “in the night also my heart instructs me.” David’s spent many nights praying in the night watches. I find as I get older, I find more times when it’s hard to sleep. I wake up and there’s an opportunity to pray. I got a phone call this morning, an hour before I was supposed to get up. And it was my daughter and she’s in labor. And my wife says, Yeah, go back to bed and go to sleep. Like that’s gonna happen. So I’m laying there with my eyes closed, but my mind is reeling, this is a good opportunity to pray for Carli and for Karen. God gives us those opportunities. David, it seems, finds many of those here in the book of Psalms. It’s a good thing for us to do. Jesus spent many nights in prayer to his Father. Spurgeon comments, “Our Redeemer spent many nights alone upon the mountain. And we may readily conceive that together with his fellowship with heaven, he carried on a profitable commerce with himself, reviewing his experience, forecasting his work, considering his position. Great generals fight their battles in their own mind long before the trumpet sounds. And so did our Lord win our battle on his knees before he gained it on the cross.” I thought that was a really cool picture. Jesus was on his knees, knowing what was ahead. He prayed and depend on his Father, well ahead of that time. We see the great drops of blood in the garden.

Verse 8, “I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” David demonstrates the stability of his faith. I have set Yahweh always before me. Calvin says this, “David set his mind so intently on God’s providence as to be fully persuaded, that whenever any difficulty or distress should happen, God would always be at hand to assist him.” He is secure on the immovable rock. He can trust in any circumstance because his God does not change. He’s immutable. Certainly in the dark hours, the Lord Jesus could have confidence. He had set the Lord continually before himself. He can ever be moved from the divine plan, until on the cross he could say, “it is finished”. What an infinite mercy this was for us, that he stayed the course even with satanic and human opposition that was great. He was not moved in the middle of his suffering, he did not retaliate or lash out. He had simple faith in God. He entrusted himself to God. Jesus is our example, in the worst circumstances of our lives. When someone we love dies, when we have gone through a divorce, or sickness or job loss, or so many other things, in any adversity we can set the Lord always be for us. He is in the position of power and authority at the right hand, and we shall not be moved. Unshakable in Christ, as Jesus, David, and we have chosen God.

We come to these last three verses, the fruit of that choice. We see it in these verses. In verse 9, the word “therefore” indicates because we’ve chosen, because we’ve set him continually before us, because we’ve trusted him, there’s joy, joy in trusting. This joy carries with it the idea of tranquility, peace of the conscience and mind. This reminds me of a passage in the New Testament. Philippians 4:4-7, “Rejoice in the Lord; again I say rejoice.” There is the joy. “Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God”, there’s the peace, the tranquility that goes with this, “which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”. There’s God’s protection that we saw earlier in this psalm. It’s all there. In life’s circumstances, we pray to God, giving them to him, trusting him to handle them and we receive this peace. In verse 9, there is security in giving it to God. Even Jesus had this joy while in the worst circumstances, he would endure as he went to the cross for us.

Verse 10, the first part could apply to Jesus or David or to us. For God “will not abandon” us to the grave. Do you agree? Amen. Right. He’s not gonna abandon us, he has conquered death. But the last part of the verse can only apply to Jesus, “or let your holy one see corruption”. For David and us when we die, what’s going to happen to our bodies? They’re going to be decaying, right? They’re going to be corrupted. And Peter quotes verse eight through 11 of the psalm in Acts 2:26-28. He points out that David died and was buried. Paul also quotes this in Acts 13:35, he quotes verse 10. And then he tells us in no uncertain terms, David’s body saw corruption, just like ours will. What is the corruption? It’s that deterioration which occurs after death, it eventually ends in us turning into dust after months and years. Genesis 3:19 said that was coming, as part of the curse, “for dust you are and to dust you shall return.” It’s a sure thing. It wasn’t meant to be this way. But after the curse, after man sinned, that brought it about, that’s in the cards for all of us. Hebrews tells us that right? Its appointed unto men once to die, all of us. But this verse can only speak of Jesus in His death, the miraculous preservation of his body. It did not see corruption, no corruption until he is resurrected on the third day. Verse 10 speaks of the grave, Sheol. And if you read many church fathers, there are various interpretations of what happens to Jesus after he dies. The Nicene Creed, if you remember we read that awhile ago. Athanasius was one of the authors of that. Sorry, Athanasius, they said that Christ descended into hell. Well, we don’t exactly know that, we don’t know that for sure from this psalm. And I don’t believe we know that from Scripture. But it may have happened. But it’s the grave he speaks about here. Some say that it was part of his suffering and his sacrifice that he had to do that, other set that he led a victory parade out of hell. I’ve heard some commentators I respect that have said that. Byfield has this view. He says Jesus suffered hell during his passion. When he struggled with God and Satan in the garden and he sweat rate drops of blood. When he said, “Father if you’re willing to remove this cup for me”. And what was in the cup? He was thinking of the future, what was coming. There was torture, rejection. What would God the Father do when Jesus was on the cross, when sin was placed upon him? He turned his back on his son. And the wrath of God came upon his soul as he had become an offering for sin. He knew all that was coming. He didn’t want to do this. But he said, “nevertheless, not my will but yours be done”. He trusted God, he trusted God’s will and God’s plan, even though it meant he must endure the cross. In spite of his feelings, he did what was right He went according to God’s plan. We’re told and Hebrews 12:2 that he did this, “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the cross despising the shame.” So Jesus, in the middle of all this turmoil, finds joy as he trusted his heavenly Father. And you know what the joy was that was set before him? The redemption of mankind. It was us, it was the payment for our sins. He found joy in doing that for us. His body and soul were secure. Verse 9 and 10 says, “Therefore my heart is glad, my whole being rejoices, my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to the grave, or let your holy one see corruption.” God protected Jesus, even through the cross and through death.

Verse 11, the last verse, and as I’m reading through my commentaries to get to the last verse, thinking you’re almost there, right? Well, this is a popular verse. People love this verse. And in the Spurgeon commentary, for example, there’s five pages or comments about this verse! It’s intimidating! It took a while to get through that, I’ll share a few things with you, I won’t give you five pages worth. Verse 11a, “You make known to me the path of life.” For David, he will be in heaven, even though his body decayed. For Jesus, he was resurrected from the grave, his body was not corrupted in any way. He was dead and he is alive again. The resurrection makes it possible for everyone who is trusted Jesus Christ, his death on the cross for our sins, to have life that’s not limited but eternal life. True for David and true for us. But wait a minute. David didn’t get to hear the gospel, did he? How did David get there if he couldn’t know the gospel or even who Jesus Christ was? He trusted in God’s plan. And in fact, there’s an everlasting covenant that God made with David. So I think he’s pretty secure. He’s going to be in heaven. He trusted in God’s plan. He had faith. That’s in 2 Samuel 7, if you want to read about that. It’s a great chapter. Jesus resurrection is God’s seal of approval that all who follow his plan, to those who listened and obey the gospel, that they’ll have life with God forever.

Verse 11b, “in your presence, there is fullness of joy”. It’s impossible to comprehend this joy because there’s so much that we experience in our life that takes away from joy. Let me give you an example. My daughter is getting ready to deliver a baby. And my wife read a book about painless childbirth. But I don’t know how you feel about that. She’s kind of mad about that. Because it seemed to her to be a lie. So there’s usually is pain that goes with childbirth. But there is this joy as you see the baby’s face and you forget, well not completely, about the pain that you went through. It’s a mixed joy. Let’s say you have a child who’s lost and then he’s found. It’s a joy, you find them. What a joy! But then you think, what if I hadn’t found them? What if they were injured or even worse, killed. And so there’s fear mixed with joy. Our sin, the fact that we sin in this life, it takes away from us fully enjoying God, doesn’t it? It hinders us. It trips us up. There’s many many subtractors here in this life that won’t be there in heaven. There will be no more crying, no more tears, no more sin, no more death, no fears in heaven. Fullness of joy and being with God the Father and Jesus and the Spirit, with a sinless glorified heart. Thomas Watson says this about the fullness of joy, “Yet when you come to the ocean, and are with Christ, you shall never complain that you left your cistern….” You know what a cistern is? It’s an outside water storage tank. Do you think you’d go to the ocean and be sad because you didn’t have your cistern?! You’re at the ocean. Really? You’re not going to do that. Rats, I forgot my cictern! Not at the ocean. There’ll be nothing to breed sorrow in heaven. Enter into the joy of your Lord. The joys we have with Christ are immeasurable. That’s our joy. Let’s think for a moment in a little different way. Let’s think about Jesus. The Lord Jesus is going to have joy in heaven. Steven Charnock has this to say, “This is a part of the joy of the soul of Christ. He has now a fullness of joy, a satisfying delight instead of an overwhelming sorrow.” Now, what was Jesus called when he was on earth? He was the man of sorrows. But now he has fullness of joy. His soul is fed and nourished with a perpetual vision of God, in whose face he beholds no more frowns. There’s no turning of God’s back to him. There’s no more designs of treating him as a servant, but smiles that shall give him a continuous joy, and fill his soul with fresh and pure flames. Pleasures, when compared to the greatest joys in this life, are mixed with anguish and anxiety. Jesus soul in heaven has unlimited joy, pleasures without number, a fullness without want, a constancy without interruption. And the joys will be without end.

Verse 11c, “at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Jesus place in heaven after the resurrection. Do know where he’s gonna go in heaven? He’s got a particular position, you know where he’s gonna be? He’s gonna be sitting at the right hand of the throne of God. That’s right. A position of power and authority. Jesus found great joy in that place, this exalted position, next to his Father. For us, we find pleasures forevermore, right there. Because that’s where the lamb is. The Lamb who was slain for us is right there. We’re gonna find joy in him, as eternally we will celebrate the redemption of our souls, by the lamb, who’s paid for our sins, paid the terrible price for us. Revelation 5:13-14 says, “and I heard every creature in heaven and on earth…” For the sake of time, I didn’t include other verses. I left out the 10 million angels that are doing this too. “And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them saying, ‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory in might forever and ever!’ And the four living creature said, ‘Amen!’ And the elders fell down and worshiped.” We will have pleasures forevermore.

Let’s pray. Lord, we’re thankful that eternity, millions and millions of years will be like a moment. We’re thankful for your Son, for what he’s done for us. God, we deserve hell. Yet, we know by your grace and your kindness through Jesus sacrifice, you’ve redeemed us and brought us to yourself and your family. We have hope. A fullness of joy, pleasures forevermore in you. Oh, we’re so thankful for your kindness towards us. We know we can’t comprehend what this will be like, but we try. We thank you for Jesus. We thank you that he has full joy in heaven in you. We thank you that he is our advocate that argues our case before God as Satan comes to accuse us even today. We’re thankful he’s active for us. We’re thankful that you love us and have chosen us. In Jesus name, amen.