Michael Crosswhite // Psalm 59 // David prays for God’s deliverance and vengeance in the midst of persecution.
Emmanuel Tuscaloosa
When the Dogs Howl: A Psalm for Deliverance from Enemies
The following audio is brought to you by Immanuel Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. More information about our church can be found at ImmanuelTuscaloosa.org. Psalm 59 says this, "To the choir master, according to do not destroy, a victim of David, when Saul sent men to watch his house in order to kill him." Deliver me from my enemies, oh my God. Protect me from those who rise up against me. Deliver me from those who work evil and save me from bloodthirsty men. For behold, they lie and wait for my life. Fierce men stir up strife against me. For no transgression or sin of mine, oh Lord, for no fault of mine, they run and make ready. Awake, come to meet me and see, you, Lord God of hosts, are God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish all the nations, spare none of those who treacherously plot evil, say la. Each evening they come back, howling like dogs, and prowling about the city. There they are, bellowing with their mouths, with swords in their lips, for who, they think, will hear us, but you, oh Lord, laugh at them. You hold all the nations in derision, oh my strength, I will watch for you, for you, oh God, on my fortress, my God in his steadfast love will meet me. God will let me look and triumph on my enemies. Kill them not, lest my people forget, make them totter by your power and bring them down, oh Lord, our shield. For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride, for the cursing and lies that they utter consume them in wrath, consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth, say la. Each evening they come back, howling like dogs, and prowling about the city. They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill, but I will sing of your strength. I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress, oh my strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, oh God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love. In college I worked at a summer camp and the cooks in our kitchen were a husband and wife team that were Christian immigrants from Iran. They had fled their home country due to persecution. From the tips of their fingers to their elbows, they had scars all over, a sign of persecution. The tyrannical regime of their homeland had held their arms in the fire, attempting to get them to recant their faith, and they never would. At that point I had of course heard of persecuted people. I had read about it in textbooks of persecution that had happened throughout history. But these were the first people that I had ever met personally, heard their story, talked to them, shook their hands, who had faced that level of brutality. They were a joyful couple. They had a sweet Christian spirit. But every time they served food or washed dishes or looked at their hands in any way, they were reminded of the hostility that they faced on behalf of Christ from their own country. They had joy on their faces, but sorrow behind their eyes. They were the embodiment of what the description from the Apostle Paul says, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. According to open doors, it's a Christian organization that raises awareness of persecution around the world. More than 365 million Christians suffer high levels of persecution or discrimination for their faith. One in seven Christians are persecuted worldwide. One in five Christians are persecuted on the continent of Africa. Two in five on the continent of Asia. Psalm 59 is consolation to those who may be fearing such persecution. We see David here on the run from Saul who sent men to his house in order to kill him. We see the story in 1 Samuel 19, where by God's providence, Michael, who is Saul's daughter and David's wife, warned him of her dad's plans so that David could escape ahead of time. David, we see time and again in the scriptures, is on the run from Saul precisely because he is anointed by God to be king over Israel when Saul dies. For no other reason. Not because of things that he does. He's called into comfort Saul actually. He's not trying to overthrow his government. He's actually trying to support the nation of Israel. And for that, he is rewarded with having to run for his life. Why? Only because he is anointed by God for no other reason. The connection to Christian persecution is, I think, obvious. Those who bear the mark as a child of God have always faced the threat of the sword. What you and I live in right now in America is an anomaly in world history. It does not happen. Almost anywhere outside the borders of this country and historically. This is not just for those who are facing persecution, this text. Most of us in this room are American citizens. And most, I emphasize most, have yet to face threat of life for what we believe. We've not had our necks put to the edge of the sword. Although some of us have faced things like viewpoint discrimination, other forms of philosophical persecution, which is persecution nonetheless. But for all of us, the time to prepare for persecution is not when you're in the middle of it. It's actually before you ever go into it. It's actually setting your mind now before you go into it. So whether you're being persecuted or perhaps you have yet have not yet been persecuted, this passage should be helpful for you to hear the perspective of a persecuted man on the run from a brutal dictator and soul. As we've seen many times in the Psalms, our first instinct as we read the Psalms is to locate the chorus. Not every Psalm has a chorus, but it'll be that repeated refrain in the Psalms. So if you can find it in there, if it is in there, even a repeated phrase or short little line that can be helpful. And so in this case, you can see the chorus. It's there in verses 6 and 14. And the verses right after that, verse 7 and verse 15, extend the metaphor a little bit more in the chorus. So those count as part of the chorus as well. But verses 6 and 14 form the main chorus. It's a repeated line. It says this, "Each evening, they come back howling like dogs and prowling about the city." And then in verse 70 extends the metaphor, but he says, there they are bellowing with their mouths, with their mouths, with swords in their lips for who they think will hear us. It's nighttime, they think. No one pays attention. Little do they know God hears. In verse 15, he extends the metaphor again. He says, they wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill. If anyone stands in between them and the one they've come to kill, they'll kill him too. In other words, in the chorus of the psalm, David calls his pursuers, howling dogs. And the picture is like those who wait until nightfall. They go about hunting their prey in a pack. He calls these persecutors blood thirsty men in verse 2. In this case, they're hunting the righteous and future king of Israel in David. Now don't picture here, golden retrievers, as I'm sure you're probably not, but wild dogs. Not even dogs you might have in your backyard. Maybe some of you do have this kind of dog in your backyard. These are wild dogs. Dogs that are not tame. No Jew kept dogs as pets. They were unclean animals. They're not dogs. They're not kind of the kind of things that you kept in your home. They roam the city streets in packs. They surrounded their prey. They mauled the defenseless. They tore them apart. They're ruthless scavengers. They're pit bulls. Don't write me letters. I'm sure you've got the nice one. All right. But they're ferocious. Now once you've seen the chorus in the psalm, the reason that's helpful is because then you can identify the verses outside the chorus. And you can see how the psalm progresses through the stanzas before and after the chorus. In this case, there are three stanzas and each of them conveniently for our sakes this morning, end in the words "salah." So you can see easily where the stanzas are in this passage. And what we're going to see is the fullness of the kind of hope for the child of God in the midst of persecution. And it evolves through this psalm in each of the stanzas. First, the first point that we see there is that the Lord is the deliverer of the persecuted. The Lord is the one that delivers the persecuted. You may recall last week in Psalm 58, we saw the rulers of the earth are blind. He says they're wicked from birth. They're twisted from the moment they are conceived. And because of that, what happens? Because they're wicked from birth. What do they do? Back in Psalm 58, they devise wrongs, he says. Their hands deal out violence on the earth. So the ones who are after David will call them the persecutor. They're in a similar position. You can see how they've been described already. They're workers of evil. They're blood thirsty in verse two. They lie in wait for his life. They stir up strife against him in verse three. They are the embodiment of handing out violence on the earth. That's exactly what they've come to do. But what are the reasons that they want to destroy the child of God? Why? What's on their list of crimes so that they can kill David? Well, the reason isn't so obvious. Look at verse three. He says, "For no transgression or sin of mine, O Lord, for no fault of mine, they run and make ready." David is clear-eyed about the reason for Saul's pursuit of him. He knows it has nothing to do with any sin that he has committed against Saul. Now, if you remember the story from first Samuel, Michael, remember that's David's wife, that's also Saul's daughter. So that makes David Saul's son-in-law. Not the first son-in-law, I'm sure that a father has wanted to kill, but the point is he's his son-in-law. Well, Michael lets him know about Saul's plan ahead of time and tells David and David runs. And Michael, David's wife, stuffs things under the sheets, takes some goat hair, puts it coming out the top, and says, "David's sick." She makes a little fake body there with pillows underneath the sheets to try to fool Saul's men. And Saul, when he discovers what has happened, he's mad at her. How dare you? Why would you do that? And Saul wants David, whom he thinks is sick at the time, to be brought to his own house in his sick bed so that he can kill him. He's not going to go, "Well, I'll wait till he gets better and we can talk it out." No, he's bloodthirsty. He wants to kill him. David's not going to stand trial. He's not going to be proven guilty of a transgression. He doesn't have any that they're hunting him for. He's simply going to be put to death even if he's in the most vulnerable position possible. There's no hope of rescue. The common trick of the persecutor is to trump up charges against the righteous one as if it were because of sins that he has committed that he deserves to be persecuted. You asked for this. He brought this upon himself, the Roman Empire in the early days of Christianity charged Christians with incest because they were marrying those whom they called brother and sister. They charged them with atheism because they rejected a pantheon of gods that the Romans celebrated and worship. They charged them with cannibalism because after all they gather together on Sunday and they eat the body and drink the blood of Christ. Many Muslim cultures around the world today charge Christian with insurrection against the government. They charge them with infidelity to their God. We cannot forget the worst case of persecution that will ever be seen and that is the case brought against Jesus of Nazareth. For the Jews, he's charged with blasphemy by a Jewish kangaroo court. The problem, of course, being that he actually was God. So how you square that circle, I don't know, but they tried. Then he was brought before the Roman governor and there the charge against him miraculously changed where he instead of being charged with blasphemy, he was charged with insurrection against Rome because he claimed to be a king of the Jews. We have no king but Caesar, they say. To this day, persecution of Christians continues a pace around the world and it's usually accompanied by reasons that on the surface are made to sound as if the godly person is the scourge of the earth. There couldn't be a worse person than this. Don't you all agree? How often do we see Christians being falsely accused in our world today? If you're keeping score at home, I think the common claims against Christians in America today are that we are judgmental, misogynistic, homophobes, who want to control women's bodies, charged with being judgmental because we believe in moral absolutes. Oh, don't forget science denying, charged with science denying because we believe in a creator, misogynistic because we believe God created us male and female, equal in value, but distinct in form and function. Homophobes because we believe he ordained marriage to be between one man and one woman for a lifetime, who want to control women's bodies because we believe everyone, even the unborn, have the right to life. But of course these charges are scurrilous. They're meant to make the persecuted appear worthy of persecution, much like an abuser might make his spouse feel like she deserved it. When it comes down to it, the persecutor isn't coming after the righteous because of any sin that he has committed. The persecutor is coming after the righteous because he is righteous. That is the reason that they're persecuted. Jesus is the one that reminds us in Matthew 10, 24 and 25, a disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If they called the master of the house beelzable, how much more will they malign those of his household? The reason that the persecutor pursues the righteous is not because of what they've done but because of who they belong to. This is the reason that David appeals to God as his deliverer because the problem that David is facing is not merely a problem of physical persecution, one running after just a kill because of a disagreement on earth. It's a problem, as we saw even in the last Psalm, of spiritual blindness. They cannot see. So he appeals to the Lord in verse 4, "Awake, come to meet me and see you, Lord, God of hosts, our God of Israel, rouse yourself to punish all the nations, spare none of those who treacherously plot evil." It's one thing for the enemy to be physically conquered and defeated for David to take matters into his own hands and form an army and fight against Saul. In David's case it would mean putting Saul's men to death who weighed outside his home. But David turns this Psalm from only his immediate problem to the problem across all the nations. You understand? This is not just my problem. Lord, this is a problem across all the nations. They are bloodthirsty from top to bottom. They need to be brought to give an account for their bloodlust. David is praying for ultimate deliverance. That's what he wants. It's not enough to just beat his enemies in a battle. He wants ultimate deliverance. He wants peace across the world from bloodlust, something that even to this day we still don't experience in the fullest. He wants God's kingdom to come in the full where there are no people left who plot evil. He says spare none. Brothers and sisters, I want you to see that nothing short of this kind of deliverance will suffice. This is the kind of deliverance we want. It is not enough to merely have even our nation give a reprieve to Christianity for a while. To ease up on philosophical persecution. It's not enough to merely pray that foreign countries relent for the time being, for their persecution of Christians, and let the freedom of religion go. Deliverance that we really want is for God's kingdom to come in the full for the to be no persecutors whatsoever. That is what we're hoping for and only that is true deliverance. We may live in a country where we now enjoy certain freedoms of religion and worship, but our brothers and sisters around the world who have their hands put in the fire because they follow Christ do not. Kind of deliverance that we long for is this kind of deliverance. David is crying out for here. It's the only kind that will suffice where the righteous stand before the throne of God in his kingdom and they're free from all forces of tyranny and persecution for eternity. Anything less than that is only temporary. It's only a band-aid. We pray for our brothers and sisters. We should in Iran and Turkey and India and China and many other areas around the world, where Christians are surrounded by the howling dogs that prowl the city day and night. But you understand that the kind of deliverance that we're praying for is only the kind that the Lord can provide and he can do that one of two ways. He can do that in the time being not by simply having governments relent, but by opening their eyes to their sin and repenting and trusting in Christ. You and I have a part to play in that and sharing the gospel near and far, even if it brings about our persecution. But second, he can bring his kingdom in the fullest when Christ returns where the persecutor is no more and the persecuted are forever in safety, which brings me to the next point. The Lord is the avenger of the persecuted. The Lord is the avenger of the persecuted. Look at verses 8 to 13, but you, oh Lord, laugh at them. You hold all the nations in derision. Oh my strength, I will watch for you. For you, oh God, are my fortress. My God in his steadfast love will meet me. God will let me look in triumph on my enemies, kill them not lest my people forget, make them totter by your power and bring them down, oh Lord, our shield. For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter consume them in wrath, consume them till they are no more, that they may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth, say law. When the first stanza, David is pleading for a rescue to save him from the enemy's advances. But in the second stanza, he's pleading that the Lord would now do his fighting for him. You would bring your justice, kill these people. Well, first make them suck. It's important to remember when you're reading a psalm, especially in particular a psalm of David. This is helpful anytime we read the psalm, to think about what's being said here. Remember that David has been anointed by God as God's chosen king, and his line will be the line that brings about the Messiah. So many of the psalms of David are about David being under the threat of surrounding enemies. And you see this all the time, and sometimes it gets really hard when you're reading because you're like, well, David, I'm not surrounded by a ton of enemies. I have a lot of friends, actually. And you know, we all just get it from time to time. And I just don't experience the same kind of problems it seems that David does. But remember that when he's describing people that are surrounding him in a threat to him, it's not just a threat to him. It is actually a threat to you as well. Because a threat to God's anointed king is a threat to God's promise of bringing about the Messiah, right? If the Messiah is going to be from David's line, then what is a threat to the Messiah's great, great, great, great, great, many times over grandfather? But a threat to the Messiah himself, if God has promised that he's going to bring about the Messiah through David, then what is a threat that somebody's going to kill him, but a threat to the very promise of God's salvation to God's people. So David pulls out this familiar line from Psalm 2 where the nations rage against the Lord and against his anointed king. But he says, God who sits in the heavens, laughs. And here he is again seen as laughing at them. You, oh Lord, laugh at them and quoting straight from Psalm 2, you hold all the nations in derision. He laughs at their plans and he holds them in derision, meaning he mocks them and their feeble attempts to change God's plans by killing his king. But of course, that's not going to happen. The reason that David is confident in the Lord is because of the promise that God has made to him in this case, he has the confidence of his anointing. God has called him his own. He has called him his king. He has called him the father of the Messiah. God has anointed David as king to be by the prophet Samuel. And so God is not only going to protect David, but he's going to do the fighting for him. But in this case, David doesn't want, just want the enemy to be defeated. He wants them to be left alive actually. He wants them to be tortured so that his people don't forget what happens when you mess with God. He wants them to be an example. It sounds cruel and unusual on this side. But have you ever read Revelation? It gets much cooler. It gets much more vicious for the one who tries to conquer God. He wants them to be openly mocked. He wants to be brought down from their places of power and trapped by their own pride. He wants them to fall on their own sword. Then and only then, Lord, after you have made them an open mockery, then it's okay to kill them. Then take them down. And the reason that God fights and avenges David is not because of David. But what does he say? So that all may know that God rules over Jacob to the ends of the earth. Here's what you got to understand about the Psalms. That while you can see God's protection of David through David's life, you understand that David is merely a foreshadowing of the Messiah to come. He's setting the kind of precedent that will ultimately take place for Jesus. God's ultimate and true king. There's no greater depiction of God's vengeance and bringing shame on his enemies than in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now you'll remember this maybe in Colossians chapter 2 verse 15. This is what the way Paul describes the resurrection, the crucifixion and the resurrection. Listen to this. He that is God disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to, what's that? What's the word? Open shame by triumphing over them in him that is in Christ. The crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus Christ was not only God protecting his son and true king, the greater David, but it was him putting his enemies to open shame. He disgraced them. He embarrassed them publicly. You see Jesus, according to Paul, becomes the answer to David's prayer back in Psalm 59. But this is where the beauty of the gospel shines through because God didn't just avenge Jesus in the resurrection. He actually avenged all those who benefited from Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. If you look at that verse Colossians 2 15 and you just back up a couple of verses into verse 13, this is the point Paul is making. Listen to this. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. So you understand what Paul is saying? He's saying that there is your dead body laying down on the ground. Dead in trespasses and sins and all the principalities and powers, the rulers of darkness, all of those who are either physical people in the world or spiritual enemies, blind to the truth of God, are standing their guard over your dead body feasting. Tearing you limb from limb. You were dead, he says, they stood over your dead body arm. These are ours. In other words, just like those dogs prowling around the city. But when Christ was crucified and the record of debt with all of its legal demands that stood against you and the punishment that would result from that record of death was canceled in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, the demonic forces who thought it was a great idea to put Jesus to death. Now that he's out of the way, we can have our feasts of all these dead bodies. They were put to open shame because in putting Christ to death, our record of death against God was canceled. And we were released, delivered, you might say, from their clutch. So now because of the atoning work of Christ who is the true and better David, the persecutor is not coming after you for your sin. Your record of debt against God has been canceled as David said. You are precisely the beneficiary of this psalm because of the new and greater David. They're not coming after you for your sin. Your record of debt has been canceled because of Jesus. The Christian understands that God has become his or her deliverer. His avenger. But more than that, the atonement of Christ did more than deliver you from the clutches of the dog. It places you under the protection of God himself who has promised to avenge your blood and the blood of all his saints. I want you to see this in the book of Revelation. Revelation, it starts in chapter six, verse nine. We see the fifth seal is open and I want you to see this. This is not going to be one of those sermons where we argue about what's happening here in Revelation. All right, we're not going to do that. It says in verse nine, "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth." Then they were given a white robe and told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. So here are the souls of those who have been persecuted, who have been chased after by the dogs in the streets and had been torn apart and they're there with God in heaven under his altar saying how long until you avenge our blood on the earth and he says wait, there's still more to join you just a little while longer, just wait. He doesn't say it's not going to happen. He says just wait, the time is not yet. And then if you read all the way through, you get a couple of chapters in and what you find is that the prayers of the saints that are going up to the Lord and persecution are collected by him in a bowl and he's going to pour that out on the earth in judgment because the prayers of the saints. But then we flash forward all the way toward the end of the book when it's nearly coming to a close in Revelation chapter 19 starting in verse 1 he says this, he has just judged the earth and it says this after this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven crying out hallelujah salvation and glory and power belong to our God for his judgments are true and just for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her the blood of his servants. Once more they cried out hallelujah the smoke from her goes up forever and ever. In other words burned for all of eternity. You see the persecution of the saints fuels the judgment to come. It's repayment when God says to his church vengeance is mine he follows it with I will repay. Not I might not if things go my way I will repay. See in Christ God is not only your deliverer for eternity but also your avenger he has delivered you from sin and death and into eternal life this is life that lasts forever it's eternal bliss. Now that doesn't make persecution happier doesn't when you know that life to come is eternal it doesn't make persecution happier it doesn't make it even you know easier to go through and to endure it doesn't make having your hands placed in fire until you recant your faith any more joyful of an experience but it does make it worth it it does make it worth this is precisely the point that the Apostle Paul makes he says I don't think the suffering we now face is worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed. Keep in mind Christian what we're talking about here we're talking about 80 years 90 years if you're lucky compared to eternity to come. What is your life right now compared to eternity but a vapor it's the blink of an eye when you're standing on the other side of death and if eternal bliss is what awaits then it does make any suffering I might endure now that might bring me to that place worth it. Christian you can sing Psalm 59 and the whole time your mind is on Jesus who is the one that applies this whole Psalm to you which leads to the final point very briefly the persecuted must only trust in God David trusts that God's going to do this look at verse 16 he says but I will sing of your strength I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning for you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress oh my strength I will sing praises to you for you oh God are my fortress the God who shows me steadfast love see David is looking into the future and he's thinking what that day will be like when he is rescued delivered from his adversary when the persecution stops when his blood and the blood of his brothers is avenged on the earth. The brothers and sisters consider the position that you are in as far greater compared to David you don't have to look forward you can look back in history and see that God has brought these things about for you he has delivered you from sin and certain death he has already put enemies to public shame in the in the resurrection of Christ he has anointed you with the blood of Christ he has called you his child so now what we must trust is that he's going to continue to be faithful to the promises that he's already established in Christ and that what awaits us is not only eternal life but is also judgment wherever evil deed done to any one of his children will be fully and totally rectify so what are we to do with this as I said the time to prepare for persecution is not when you're in it but before it happens and as unfortunate as it is persecution remains a very effective tool in the hands of the enemy for continually blinding people to the truth of the gospel now in most places there is little to no earthly advantage to being a Christian and there is every disadvantage that being the case if you would claim Christ how must you respond to persecution and the Bible is sure Jesus warns his disciples you need to decide now how you're going to respond then this is what he says to his disciples in Matthew 26 verse 33 remember he has just told them if they called me the devil how much more are they going to malign you this is what he says right after that so have no fear of them for nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known what I tell you in the dark say in the light and what you hear whispered proclaim on the housetops and do not fear those who killed the body but cannot kill the soul rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell are not too sparrows sold for a penny and not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father but even the hairs on your head are all numbered fear not therefore you are of more value than many sparrows so everyone who acknowledges me before men I also will acknowledge before my father who is in heaven but whoever denies me before men I also will deny before my father who is in heaven friends perhaps there may be some who might be thinking I would follow Jesus but you know I'll do so secretly because honestly there's just so much of a social price to pay for being a Christian what my friends or my family think if they knew they know what I've done in my past what what will that regime think if I become a Christian because what would they do to me that happened my family the message of the song the message of Jesus is to trust what I declare to you in secret scream from the rooftops don't keep it under wraps well yeah but what are they gonna do to me don't fear who him who kills the body but has no power after that he can't do anything fear him who keeps who can kill both body and soul and health the message of the song the message of Jesus is to trust trust the one who is your deliverer and your avenger put your faith in him and know that if there is deliverance or vengeance to be had it's his and he will repay or maybe you might be fearful of that day when your hands are put in the fire for your faith when you're told to recant maybe that day might come in this country remember not only is he your deliverer and your avenger but he's the one in whom we trust trust that on the other side after death we'll see that it wasn't easy but it was worth it let's pray heavenly father we are grateful for your word we're grateful for the truth of your scriptures we pray for our hearts hearts of courage hearts like David who might in the midst of persecution yell from the rooftops of our faith in Christ not hide it but fully disclose it not be ashamed but be proud of the God that we serve and to trust that it is you who will avenge the blood of the righteous we pray for our brothers and sisters around the world who are right now meeting behind closed doors whispering songs with no instruments so they wouldn't be heard giving each other signs that they believe encouraging one another in the way that they can being wise as serpents and innocent as does evangelizing the lost and taking great risk of their own life to do so we pray for them give them endurance give them perseverance and should the day come where they face the sword allow them to maintain their faith to the end we pray the same for us that your spirit would work in us a spirit of boldness that we might forever trust in the one who is our deliverer and avenger in Jesus name amen thanks for listening if you live in the tuskalusa area and are looking for a church we'd love for you to visit our service times are sunday mornings at 10 30 and wednesday nights at 6 15 [ Silence ]