Pastor Fredo Ramos: For whatever reason, I have always struggled to pray. And so, as this new year begins and as many of you think about new routines that you wanna give yourself to, especially for those of you who follow Jesus, I wanna invite you to learn to pray the Psalms with us. It's a practice I picked up years ago that really saved, my ability to learn to pray, to speak to God honestly about how I was feeling and what I was thinking. And so every single day on sandalschurch.tv on YouTube, we're gonna be releasing, praying the Psalms, a psalm a day. We started in January 1st and every day you're gonna get a new psalm, but the opportunity to read the psalm with us, to reflect on a phrase, and then to respond to God in prayer, how to pray through the psalms.
This has been a gift to me in my own journey with Jesus. I pray that it's a gift to you and so would you join us. Grace and peace.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: As we continue praying the Psalms, we turn to Psalm 21. The king rejoices in your strength, lord. How great is his joy in the victories you give. You have granted him his heart's desire and have not withheld the request of his lips. You came to greet him with rich blessings, and you placed a crown of pure gold on his head.
He asked you for life, and you gave it to him. Length of days forever and ever, and through the victories you gave, his glory is great. You bestowed on him splendor and majesty. Surely, you have granted him unending blessings. Verse 7.
For the king trusts in the Lord through the unfailing love of the Most High. He will not be shaken. Your hand will lay hold on all your enemies. When you appear for battle, you will burn them up as a blazing furnace. The Lord will swallow them up in His wrath and His fire will consume them.
You will destroy their descendants from the earth, their posterity from mankind. Though they plot evil against you and devise wicked schemes, they cannot succeed. You will make them turn turn their backs when You aim at them with drawn bow. Verse 13, our last verse. Be exalted in Your strength, Lord.
We will sing and praise Your might.
Pastor Fredo Ramos: As you might tell, this is
Pastor Fredo Ramos: kind of a a psalm that actually connects back to Psalm 20. Psalm 20 spoke about, this benediction that God would bless the king. Psalm 21 is now on the back end of that realizing that God did bless the king. He did bless David. He did bring victory.
And so there's a celebration, there's a note of joy and excitement as David looks to God to thank him for his victory today. But he also notes that God will deal with the wickedness in the world. Right? So there's a there's a celebration, there's a somberness, but I love there, both in verse 7 by way of reflection, he says the king trusts in the Lord, and through the unfailing love of the most high. In other words, in your day today, through the unfailing love of God, you will not be shaken.
In light of what you face today, it is through God's unfailing love that you will not be shaken. And God will lead you to victory. And then in verse 13, we're reminded as to how this will happen. Be exalted in your strength, Lord. We will sing and praise your might.
Notice the personal victory that David's experienced has not let his celebration off target. In other words, David knows that his victory has come not by his own strength, but by God's strength. He even notes that in verse 1. The king rejoices in your strength, Lord. Right?
It's not the king rejoices in his battle plan, the king rejoices in his strategy, the king does not rejoice in how hard he worked. No. We rejoice in the strength of the Lord. And so today, our song, the the music we make, the rejoicing that we lift up is rooted in the fact that God will be strong for you today. And so maybe even if this note of celebration, if this psalm of celebration doesn't resonate with how you're feeling or what you're working through today, Know that even in your weakness, whether you've come to celebrate today or you've come to lament today, what we sing in and what we take hope in is not our own strength, but the strength that God will provide to us.
Jesus, we now hear you leading us to see that you ultimately are the the King David that we ultimately need. And it's through your suffering, your life, and your your victory over death that we can live today. And so would we find our life and our strength in Your strength and in Your life. Would You would do this work in us now we pray through Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.