Psalm 63:1-11

Well good morning, Saylorville! I’m back! I do want to thank those who spoke in this pulpit the last three weeks. It’s been a joy to listen to the exposition of God’s Word. And yet it’s a joy to be back as well.

One of the things I did besides doing a little vacationing was I spoke at the church I first pastored, and they were celebrating their 125th anniversary! And just to clear the air here, I was not their founding pastor, okay? — just to let you know.

But we are going to continue in our series on David, the Man Who Captured the Heart of God. And we told you at the onset that we would be looking into the heart of David from time to time. And the way you do that is you go to the Psalms as he wrote so many of them, and as we do so today. So Psalm 63 is where you need to go in your Bibles. Psalm 63.

The great Puritan John Donne who was also probably… he was a brilliant poet and probably known more as that, but he was also a Bible expositor. He loved the Psalms and he wrote much about the Psalms. In fact, he said this about the 63rd Psalm. He said:

“The spirit and soul of the whole book of Psalms is contracted into this Psalm.”

Puritan, John Donne

That’s an amazing statement! 150 chapters in the Bible compressed into one. He said something else, and I’ll get back to it in a little bit. But let’s just look at the Psalm first, okay? Psalm 63, beginning in verse one.

Psalm 63:1-11

1 “O God, you are my God; earnestly (or early) I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh faints for You, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.

2 So I have looked upon You in the sanctuary, beholding Your power and glory.

3 Because Your steadfast love is better than life (itself), my lips will praise You.

4 So I will bless You as long as I live; in Your name I will lift up my hands.

5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise You with joyful lips,

6 when I remember You upon my bed, and meditate on You in the watches of the night;

7 for You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I will sing for joy.

8 My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. 

9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth;

10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals.

11 But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.”

Let’s pray together, shall we? Our Father in heaven, we come before You having just read this great Psalm that some at least see the whole book of Your songs, Psalms, compressed and contracted into this one. I don’t know if that’s true or not, Lord. I do know it’s a great Psalm, and there’s much we can learn and glean from. Help us to do so, those of us who know You. We are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, Your own special possession. May we declare the praises of You who called us out of darkness and into Your marvelous light, because You deserve all this praise, Lord. And so be with us in a powerful way. May Your Spirit apply Your word as only He can. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So if the Lord’s prayer we’re so familiar with teaches us how to pray, the Psalms teach us the way to pray. They give us not so much the how, but the wow in prayer, because the Psalmist, if you are familiar with the Psalms, incorporate all of our sensories; our hearts, our feelings, our impulses, internal, external sort of gush out from time to time as we read the Psalms. As I said, they’re filled with sensory prayers. And when I say sensory, we’re talking about sight, we’re talking about sound, we’re talking about smell, we’re talking about taste, we’re talking about touch, all those sensory. The Psalms are the kind of prayers that we feel. Don’t you love it when you pray with somebody, you almost feel that prayer? So when you read in Psalm 27 where he says:

Psalm 27:4, ‘I want to gaze upon Your beauty,’

or Psalm 34:8, where he says, “… taste and see that the Lord is good!”

or Psalm 141:2 where David says, ‘Let my prayer come up before You like incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice!’

Those are sensory Psalms, so to speak. There’s feeling, right?

And just the other day in our Community Group, we were wrapping things up, and we didn’t have a lot of time left, just 10 minutes or so. So I assigned one woman who knew the Lord… about half of our Community Group are brand new Christians… and the other one I assigned to pray with specific prayer request was a man who had just come to Christ a few months ago, but he loves the Lord. And I said, “Are you ready to pray?” He goes, “I think so.” And so we went to prayer, and the woman prayed and she prayed her heart out! And when she got done praying, it was his turn to pray. We were all like this… And we stayed all like this… And we waited… like this. And finally we kind of opened up an eye and opened up both eyes. And there he was across from me going (shrugging his shoulders) and we all opened our eyes. He goes, “I… I… don’t know what to say after that!” You know what he was saying? He was saying, ‘I felt that prayer!’ Now, he would pray a wonderful prayer after that. Now I’m not gonna tell you who the woman was that prayed that, but I can tell you this. I took her home with me!

Like many other Psalms, this one is a felt prayer. It’s a felt Psalm. The message is pretty clear, isn’t it? It’s the love that’s like water to a thirsty soul. It’s like food to a hungry heart. The 63rd Psalm is so full of heart for God. There’s not one ask. There’s not one request. There’s not one petition. It’s just an affluence of praise to God.

Now the inscription which I did not… read… says this:

Psalm 63 “A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.“

That is a foreboding area! So he’s on the run, and we have said where we’re at in 1 Samuel that he’s running from Saul and would run from Saul for a decade or more. Now some Bible expositors believe that the running that he’s doing here is not from Saul, but from Absalom. That would take us to 2 Samuel. We’re not there yet. But if you remember Absalom, you know, he rebelled against his own father, and David had to flee the town. And there are many Bible expositors, maybe even most, who think this was written during his run from Absalom, and they base it off one word and one word only. It’s the word “king” found in Psalm 63:11. “…the king shall rejoice in God;” While David over here in first Samuel where we’ve been, he wasn’t king yet. So obviously it’s not this time, but this time when he’s running from Absalom, because he was king then. I’m not so sure. In fact, I think he ran during this time… and I’ll show you why in a little bit. I think it was when he was running from Saul. I think he was already the anointed king, right? And so maybe he was thinking more prophetically. But the bottom line is, it doesn’t really matter, whether it was running from Saul or running from Absalom, the message, the truth from this Psalm is exactly the same either way. Whether you’re in plenty or poverty, whether you are quenched or you’re thirsty, whether you are fruitful or barren, you need God! You need His love. You need to bask in His love. That’s the message of this, because David was in the desert, but the desert wasn’t in David. When he talks about… he uses the expression, “… my soul.” He says it in verse 1, he says it in verse 5, he says it in verse 8… 3 times. It points to the personal intensity of David’s prayer. David, despite his circumstances, is both quenched and fed by God. And that’s where we need to be… despite our circumstances.

So, again, the personal aspect. God is your God when you have, first of all, intimacy with Him in the midst of your circumstances. You see it in verse one, “O God, (what?) You are (what?) my God…” That’s intimacy. That’s personal.

And just the other day, I was conducting a membership class with Pastor Jason. There were up to about 30 people that were in it, and my personal assistant, the office manager, who I also answered to from time to time, she’s looking at the list, and she’s… “Oh, my girl is on there! My girl is coming to the class!” Now, she doesn’t have a girl… or does she? This was her spiritual child. This is the gal she’s totally invested in. She was in the class. That’s the idea here. We’re so intimate with God. We don’t just call Him “God.” He’s “my God.” Is He yours?

He says, “Earnestly, I seek you.” And some of you’ve got the older version that says, “early…” And that’s a good translation as well. It could be translated either way. But actually the Hebrew word referred to “a time before sunrise.” That’s why the old translation says, “Early will I seek You.” It’s speaking of which the early Christians called Psalm 63, “A morning Psalm.” And we’ll come back to that. “Earnestly or early I seek You… ” Reminds us of Jesus that seeks and keep on seeking. We are ‘seekers.’ People say, ‘Well, some people are just seeking God.’ Nobody seeks after God on their own. Amen? — But once you know God, you just keep seekin’ Him. That’s what David did. That’s what we must do.

Now I am going to intentionally camp on the third verse, and I’ll tell you why. It is very precious to me, very personal to me… as it turns out, not me alone. Let’s look at the verse again. He says:

Psalm 63:3, “Because your steadfast love is (say the next word. Say it. Say it louder! One more time!) … better.”

That’s the word you ought to underline there. It’s better than life, or life itself, and the result will be my lips will praise You. My life, obviously, will back it up. John Donne, who gave us… John Donne, by the way, was the one who said:

“No man is an island.” John Donne

That’s what he was famous for. “No man is an island.” He wrote that as a poet, but he’s also the one who said that the 63rd Psalm, The rest of all the whole book of Psalms ‘is contracted into that one chapter.’ You know what else he said? He said that this verse, ‘the whole chapter is contracted into this one verse!’ That’s how powerful this is. He… and I’ll quote him.

“…so the spirit and soul of the whole Psalm is contracted into this verse.” John Donne

So in his mind, while the Psalm is sort of a summary of the entire book of Psalms, the third verse is a summary of the entire Psalm and thus the entire book of Psalms. I don’t know if you’re gonna agree with that or not, but that makes this verse very powerful! As it turns out, it’s not powerful and personal to me alone. It is to him and many others.

In fact one morning in 2011, I was reading it in my devotions, and I cannot describe to you how arrested I was by this verse. Just the very… just contemplating, “Lord, your lovingkindness is better than life itself! Therefore, my lips will praise you.” Better. The word “better,” whenever you see the word “better,” it can’t be alone. It’s always comparing to… It’s a comparison word. It’s a term of comparison. You’re either talking about someone or something, and you’re comparing it, right? (We’re going to sing about this later on, because there’s nothing comparable to God! Amen? But he purposely uses the word “better” here, and I was so gripped by that. So I copied it, I pasted it, and I sent it to a friend, a young man in our church whose wife, whose 20-some-year-old wife was dying, and would die by days end. And I expressed my love for him. I expressed my prayers for him, and I lovingly challenged him to believe that the love of God was better than even the life of his wife. And he took comfort in that. Now I had no idea when I sent that as a pastor and a friend, I had no idea that that verse was going to come back to me. It would roost on me, and it would change my life! This verse changed my life. It literally changed my life… and I’ll tell you about that later on.

The word “love” here is the Hebrew… famous Hebrew word, “hesed.” It’s the undying love, the unconditional love. It’s the love that never quits. It’s the “God so love the world” kind of love. I want that love. Don’t you? It’s God’s covenant keeping, steadfast love that David said was better than life itself, because it was better than life itself. And he says, as a result, verse four:

Psalm 63:4, So, “I lift up my hands.”

That’s intimacy outwardly expressed. Are you intimate with God? Are you intimate with God? You know about God. You’ve studied about God. Do you know Him? And are you intimate with Him? — because when God is your God, you know God is your God when you have intimacy in the midst of your circumstances. And you know the God is your God when you have satisfaction in Him in unsatisfying circumstances.

Remember, David is in the Judean desert. This is not a vacation spot, okay? When your life is on the line, you’re not looking for a hammock. You’re looking for a cave! You’re looking to hide! And yet, look at verse 5 again. This is David:

Psalm 63:5, “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food…”

David isn’t just hiding. He’s feasting! — in THAT! — he’s feasting! He’s feasting on the love of God, the promises of God, everything about God. He’s feasting on it! He sees God as a feast, as a delicacy of sorts.

Now, I was on vacation as I said about a week ago and we were down near the ocean, and our very first night there we went out for seafood with some friends… fish that was just caught in the ocean that day. And I mean… Oh… it was amazing! We were just eating and loving it! We were just… All you heard about it was, ‘Oh, that was amazing!’ ‘That was amazing!” And when we walked out of the restaurant, there was a McDonald’s right across the road, and we finished things off with a Big Mac! (congregation laughing) Now you know we didn’t do that! You know we didn’t do that. I’ve got nothing against Big Mac’s. I like to have one from time to time, like every 10 years. But I was already satisfied, and when you’re satisfied, you don’t have to have more. David was saying, ‘My satisfaction is in the Lord despite my circumstances.’

And I’ve been thinking about the things that we hope to satisfy us, things like our wealth, things like our health, things like our accomplishments. I mean, we love accomplishments, and they bring satisfaction to us. Whenever somebody gets a great accomplishment, you know, a graduation or something, they did something they were trying to do for a long time. I often send them the Proverb that says:

[Proverbs 13:19, KJV] “The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul.“

I love that verse! So there is a kind of temporary satisfaction, but so many of us are just pursuing those things as an end to themselves.

Skip Heitzig, a pastor I appreciate, mostly because we’re the same age and he’s still pastoring. Anyway, but he’s a really good communicator… tall, skinny guy. He said… a couple of weeks ago he was in a gym and he was working out, and this guy next to him was all ripped out! He was all buff… looked like a Greek god, cut out, you know. So he walks up to him and he goes, ‘Man, you’ve really got some impressive muscles!” How’d you like to be this guy now? …The guy says, “Thank you!” He goes, “Hey…” he goes, “What do you do with those?” The guy didn’t know what to say! He goes, “Uh…” He goes like this. He goes, “Uh…” — and he flexed! He didn’t know what else to do, and he sort of sensed the shallowness of the whole thing.

And now if Jesus saw all of your extras and He asked you, ‘What are you doing with all this?’ — what would you say? Kind of feel like that guy in the gym? I think most of us are like that guy in the gym. You just don’t know it. If Jesus saw all of your extras and looked at you and said, ‘What are you doing with all this?’ — how would you respond? I think a lot of us would respond like the dude in the gym. I think most of us, if we were honest, we’re saying, well, we’re looking for satisfaction. And how’s that working for you? Not very well. I mean, Mick Jagger got it right back in the ’60s. “I can’t get no satisfaction,” ’cause it’s only found in God.

James Boice was right when he said:

“Most people do not even know that it is God their souls truly desire.” James Boice

And Augustine at 26 years of age, you know, when he wrote his Confessions, said this:

“You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in You.”

Augustine of Hippo

Now David was at rest, because God was his God. He was intimate with Him. He was satisfied despite his circumstances. And verse six tells us, he says:

[Psalms 63:6] “… when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;“

And listen, David wasn’t suffering insomnia. He slept on thoughts of God. He slept on thoughts of God. It was David who said in the fourth Psalm, he said:

Psalm 4:8 “I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep. For you only, Lord, make me to dwell in safety.”

Have you ever read that? That’s a beautiful verse.

Many years ago, still here, I was told about a widow in our church who was really suffering with fear. This is a widow. Let’s call her Margaret… because that was her name. Anyway, so I went over to Margaret and I sat with her and I said, “What’s going on?” And she said, “She was just filled with fear. She had a fear of dying alone. That’s a legitimate fear for a widow, right? And so we talked about that, and this verse came to my mind. So I went back and I had my secretary, Judy, she did, I don’t know if it’s calligraphy or what… the verse was beautifully written on. We put it in a frame, beautiful frame, and I went back to Margaret, and gave it to her and I said, “Here’s a scripture. I want you to meditate upon it daily. Think upon this: “And I will both lie down in peace and sleep, for you Lord only make me to dwell in safety.” “Oh, thank you so much!” She thanked me, and she put it right up there, you know, on the… right next to where she sat in the living room… and I left. And about three months later, I was asked to go visit Margaret again for the same reason; still fearful, still struggling in fear. So I went over there and I was comforting her in much the same way I did a few months earlier, but I noticed something. I noticed that the framed picture of Psalm 4 verse 8 was not on her shelf right next to her chair where it was when I left her. And I was kind of looking around while we were talking, and she had a stack of magazines, and there it was… stuck right in there. Just stuck in the midst of it, because you can see… you know it just kind of stood out, but it was stuck. I said, “Margaret, is that the framed picture we gave you of Psalm 4 verse 8?” And she was very, you know, embarrassed!

I think that… I think we’re just like Margaret. We hear truth. We hear the truths of God that God will help us to lie down in peace and sleep. He’ll make us a dwell in safety, even if we’re in the barren, foreboding wilderness. He’ll do it. And then we say, ‘That’s so cool! That’s so cool! I love the message! I love the challenge!’ —and then we stick it under a pile of something, and we go right back to our fears, because the promises don’t stick.

The word “meditate” here [Psalm 63:6] literally means “to murmur.” It doesn’t have a negative or positive connotation that the context determines that. And the context here is that I’m murmuring over the goodness of God, the love of God, the lovingkindness of God, the covenant keeping of God, versus murmuring over resentment, or anger, or bitterness, or things you don’t have. He says, “I meditate on You.” I meditate on You.

Just the other day again, I was in a… at our 6 a.m. prayer meeting on Thursday. We come together at 6 a.m. on Thursdays here. You’re welcome to join us. We’d love to see you… I was praying with a man on that morning just last Thursday, and he was really overwhelmed by somebody he loved who had made a profession of faith. And in the midst of his prayer, this is what he said. I was struck by this. He said:

“Lord, I’m concerned he was only adding Jesus to his life.” The prayer of a concerned man

If Jesus is only in addition to your life, you’re no different than a Hindu. He’s just another god on your god shelf. Jesus didn’t come to join other gods. He came to take over your life and to give you that intimacy and satisfaction so that you might continually rely on Him, because when God is your God, He’ll be your satisfaction even in unsatisfying circumstances. And if God is your God, He’ll, it’ll be reflected in the fact that you were, and your reliance on Him in dangerous circumstances.

Remember, David’s in the desert. You just saw that. I mean, this is the same David who wrote the more famous Psalm, Psalm 23, wherein he writes:

Psalm 23:5, “You prepare a table… in the presence of my (what? my) enemies;”

That’s somebody who’s chill. That’s somebody at peace. That’s somebody who knows God, no matter what’s happening in his life. And here in verse seven, he says:

Psalm 63:7, “…for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings…“

I mean, have you seen…? This is the desert that he was in. There aren’t any shadows there! There are no trees to sit under and get relief, and yet he’s finding his relief in God. And notice what he does in the shadows, in the shadow of your wings, look what he says. He doesn’t say, ‘I hide from the danger.’ He says:

Psalm 63:7b, “… I will sing for joy“!

How cool is that? And he’s not just singing. He’s clinging! Look at verse eight. He said:

Psalm 63:8, “My soul clings to you. Your right hand upholds me.”

This is a strong word. In fact, if you’re familiar with the book of Ruth, you know, in the very opening scene, here is Naomi. Everything has gone to pot in their lives and she’s been out of the country in the area of Moab. She’s got a couple of… pagan daughter-in-laws as a result. Her sons are all dead. She’s forelorned. She’s going back to Israel, and she says to her daughters-in-law, ‘You might as well stay here. There’s nothing for you where I’m going.’ And here’s what it says in Ruth 1:14:

Ruth 1:14, “… they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah (That’s the other daughter-in-law. She) kissed her mother-in-law, (It’s as if to say, ‘Good idea. I’m staying here.’) but Ruth (what?) clung to her.“

Exact same word here. Exact same word. “Clung to” her mother-in-law. How much more should we cling to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords? — reliance upon Him in all circumstances, even dangerous ones? And by the way, reliance on God includes trusting Him to deal with your adversaries, which is what versus 9 to 11 or all about.

[Psalm 63:9-11

9 But those who seek to destroy my life shall go down into the depths of the earth;

10 they shall be given over to the power of the sword; they shall be a portion for jackals.

11 But the king shall rejoice in God; all who swear by him shall exult, for the mouths of liars will be stopped.”]

He’s gonna deal with them. He’s gonna deal with our adversaries, with your adversaries.

Here’s the problem, some of you are adversaries with God! If you’re an unbeliever, you’re actually in an adversarial role with God, and one day your life is going to come to an end. The same John Donne who said, “No man is an island,” also said:

“Send not to know For whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” John Donne

… and the bell is about to toll in some of your lives… It might toll in my own… today! Are you ready for it to toll? Are you ready for your life to end? And if it does, and when it does, what will happen then? And what will become of all that you’ve amassed, all that you have trusted, all that you have relied upon, all that you’re intimate with, and finding satisfaction from? Can you say with David, “Your loving kindness is better than life itself, and therefore my lips will praise You”? Can you say that?

Practicing better love… That’s what we want to do. Practice better love. First to… really quickly, by seeking God early and meditating on him late. That’s what you have here, right? First verse 1:

Psalm 63:1, “… early will I seek you…”

Psalm 63:6, “…when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night;”

You bracket your day with God. Bracket your day with God. You know… people say, ‘Well, I study best at night.’ Why would you start your day at night? But even if you do, bracket your day with God.

My wife and I don’t get out of bed until we talk to God. We don’t go to sleep until we talk to God. We bracket our day with God. Doesn’t guarantee our day is going to go better. I talk to you… ‘You know, when I pray, you know, my day goes a lot better.’ I think sometimes when I pray, it goes worse! — but I’ve kept God in there, Amen?

Secondly, open up your lips and raise up your hands! I don’t want to go too overboard on this, okay? — so chill out. But this is a felt Psalm, right? Just the other day and our staff meeting… it could be 25 to 30 people in one of these meetings. And I’d asked, I’d asked… commandeered our worship leader to sing a song. I told him the song we were going to sing and lead us with his guitar, and he did. But before he did, he kind of surprised us. “There’s a line in this song, and I’d like all of you to obey it. “So I lift up my hands and praise you again and again.”” And my heart rejoiced because there are a lot of people… not everybody’s like… It’s nothing for me, right? I mean, I’m giving to that, raising my hands. I love it! It doesn’t bother me at all. I get it. Some of you’re like that. Others like… I get that too. But when our worship is real, when everything about us, every fiber of our being is being taken over, we can’t help but express that. And so I was blessed with that order from one of our pastors. I looked across the table and I saw individuals on our staff… while not given to the practice of raising their hands, they were obedient and raised their hands to God. It was a beautiful act of submission and humility. Okay, enough of that.

Thirdly, and finally, practice better love by believing God’s love is better than everything and anyone else. Hesed, this undying, unconditional, never stop kind of love of God.

[Romans 8:35-39]

‘What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or famine or nakedness or peril, things present, things come, angels, whatever, nothing can separate from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.’

Hallelujah! That’s why David could cry out, “Your loving kindness is better than life itself [Proverbs 63:3] because It is better than life itself. But do you believe that?

I told you earlier, that verse changed my life… and it did. Several years after… just a couple, two or three after I had shared that with the young widower now as an encouragement to him, I was at the end of my tether. My two sons were completely off the chain, so much so that I submitted a resignation to the deacons, and I thank… thankfully, they refused it. Thank you, deacons! But it didn’t help. I was a mess! My sons were a mess, especially my youngest. He’d been arrested and he was out one night. He wasn’t coming back. He’d already been forewarned. If he got caught doing what he was doing, they’d send him to adult jail. And I’m laying in bed. It was Saturday night. I’m preaching the next day! 12 o’clock… 1 o’clock…, 2 o’clock… 3 o’clock… I am crying out to God! My wife is asleep. She doesn’t even know he’s not home. “O God, save him! O save him!” And I tell you, it was like God, Himself, spoke to me that night! And He said, “You’re not trusting me.” And I answered Him back. I said, “God, I am trusting You!” He said, “No, you’re not.” I said, “Lord…” “No, you’re not. You tell everybody else to trust Me. You‘re not trusting Me. In fact, you’ve made an idol out of your son. You love him more than you love Me. You’re more concerned about him, more than the honor of Me.” I’m telling you guys, that broke me! That completely broke me… because it was true! I’d made an idol out of my son. And lying in bed with tears coursing down my cheeks onto the pillow, I kid you not, I cried out to God and I said, “I repent. I believe you. I have made an idol out of him. Please forgive me. I will honor you, I will love you. Your lovingkindness will…” — because this verse came to my mind… “Your lovingkindness IS better than life itself… even his. And if you never save him, God, I’ll honor You the rest of my life.” That was the commitment I made to God that night. And I’m telling you, it’s like I got saved all over again! Don’t worry, my theology hasn’t changed, but I had a peace that I hadn’t had before. And I went right to sleep. And guess what? The kid never came home. It got worse before it got better. But I had something I hadn’t had previously. I had the peace of God that passes all comprehension. And what do you know? God saved him six months later. Hallelujah! But I didn’t make that commitment based on God doing that. I made that commitment based on God doing nothing with him because He is worthy. It changed my life! Will it change yours?

Let’s pray.

Our Father, Your lovingkindness IS better than life itself. We confess that even though we don’t always live it. Oh God, forgive us for not finding our complete satisfaction in the One who satisfied all of Your righteous demands… died for our sins, and rose again, even your Son, the Lord Jesus, and God, I do pray for those in this room, those watching online who don’t know You personally, and if that’s you, dear friend, surrender your heart to Jesus. Confess your sin to Him. Believe He died for you. Believe He rose again for you. Trust Him as your Savior. And God, I pray for those who have, who are Yours, but they struggle with intimacy, and satisfaction, and reliance because they just keep grabbing stuff and people who they trust to bring the satisfaction it can never bring. So help us, Lord, to find our full satisfaction in You as we commit these things to You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.