1
00:00:00,600 –> 00:00:04,080
In 2025, I found myself
wrestling with frustration that

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00:00:04,080 –> 00:00:08,520
God was not giving me joy.
And then God very patiently told

3
00:00:08,520 –> 00:00:11,200
me what was actually happening.
It wasn’t that he was

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00:00:11,200 –> 00:00:12,920
withholding joy.
It was that.

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00:00:12,920 –> 00:00:15,400
I was rejecting.
It What followed was an

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00:00:15,400 –> 00:00:19,280
invitation to spend 30 days
looking at 30 passages on Joy

7
00:00:19,480 –> 00:00:22,280
and turning it into a devotional
called Rejecting Joy.

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No longer.
You’d think I would have learned

9
00:00:25,000 –> 00:00:28,160
that coming into 2026, I was
wrestling with hope.

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00:00:28,840 –> 00:00:30,800
God.
Why are you making me?

11
00:00:30,800 –> 00:00:34,600
So hopeless.
And God very patiently let me

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know the reality.
He wasn’t withholding hope, I

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was rejecting it.
And so now here I am, spending

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30 days looking at 30 passages
on hope.

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And my hope is that this
encourages you.

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One thing that’s different this
year is I felt like God was

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00:00:50,560 –> 00:00:54,200
inviting me to be publicly
transparent with my processing.

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To actually go live on social
media, pull out a random verse,

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and then read and process
through it on camera.

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This isn’t me coming to you as
an expert on hope, but me coming

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00:01:06,800 –> 00:01:09,760
to you honestly as someone
wrestling with hope.

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And by witnessing that, some of
you might feel less alone, may

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feel seen and understood, may
end up being encouraged in a way

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that is far deeper than the
best.

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00:01:19,880 –> 00:01:23,240
Platitude.
So join me as I spend 30 days

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00:01:23,440 –> 00:01:26,440
navigating 30 passages on Hope.
This.

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Is day 25 you’re listening to
episode?

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00:01:30,320 –> 00:01:32,640
232.
Of the Where Did You See God

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00:01:32,640 –> 00:01:48,080
podcast?
I got just thinking that you

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were God and you were good and
thank you for the opportunity to

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00:01:51,880 –> 00:01:54,320
just sit in your word and the
process it.

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I thank you that you your word
is living and active and you can

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00:01:58,120 –> 00:01:59,640
speak for you in the shortest
verse.

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So Holy Spirit, we invite you to
move.

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Holy Spirit, give us ears to
hear.

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00:02:05,960 –> 00:02:10,880
Finally, God, we thank you that
you are God of hope and we

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acknowledge that we want to know
what that means.

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Last premise, holy name, Amen.
All righty.

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00:02:18,040 –> 00:02:20,000
We’re just hanging out in
Psalms, folks.

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There’s just a bunch of them.
Day Psalm 7114.

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But I will hope continually, and
we’ll praise you yet more and

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00:02:37,680 –> 00:02:42,320
more.
But I will hope continually, and

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00:02:42,320 –> 00:02:45,400
we’ll praise you yet more and
more.

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Two big qualifiers there.
Continually, non-stop and more

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and more ever increasing.
That’s not really how we

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00:03:02,000 –> 00:03:06,080
operate, is it?
Like when things get hard, when

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things get harder and harder, we
don’t tend to hope continually.

48
00:03:10,800 –> 00:03:14,920
We tend to lean into
hopelessness.

49
00:03:16,200 –> 00:03:21,400
And when God’s not doing what we
want Him to do, we don’t praise

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00:03:21,400 –> 00:03:24,280
Him.
Yet more and more, we tend to

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00:03:24,280 –> 00:03:31,120
interact with Him less and less.
I’m curious, you know, let’s

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00:03:31,120 –> 00:03:32,760
just read the whole Psalm,
folks.

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00:03:33,680 –> 00:03:35,840
This also connects with Psalm
31.

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00:03:36,840 –> 00:03:41,280
I’m opening up my book in
progress, rejecting hope no

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00:03:41,280 –> 00:03:43,600
longer.
I knew it.

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00:03:43,960 –> 00:03:48,520
I was like, I feel like we’ve
been in Psalm 71 and it was 2

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00:03:48,520 –> 00:03:55,320
days ago we read Psalm 71 five,
and now we’re reading 14.

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So let’s just read the Psalm
again.

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00:04:00,560 –> 00:04:02,520
And you, Lord, I have taken
refuge.

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00:04:02,560 –> 00:04:05,240
Let me never be put to shame and
Your righteousness.

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00:04:05,240 –> 00:04:08,400
Rescue me and deliver me.
Turn your ear to me and save me.

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00:04:08,640 –> 00:04:11,280
Be my rock of refuge to which I
can always go.

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00:04:11,640 –> 00:04:14,480
Give the command to save me, for
You are my rock and my fortress.

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00:04:14,680 –> 00:04:17,040
Deliver me, my God, from the
hand of the wicked, from the

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grasp of those who are evil and
cruel.

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00:04:19,760 –> 00:04:22,280
For You have been my confidence
since my youth.

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00:04:22,600 –> 00:04:25,600
That’s the verse that we did.
From birth I’ve relied on You.

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00:04:26,200 –> 00:04:27,960
You brought me forth from my
mother’s womb.

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I will ever praise You.
I have become assigned to many.

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00:04:31,000 –> 00:04:34,040
You are my strong refuge.
My mouth is filled with your

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00:04:34,040 –> 00:04:36,320
praise, declaring your splendor
all day long.

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00:04:37,080 –> 00:04:39,000
Do not cast me away when I’m
old.

73
00:04:39,280 –> 00:04:42,080
Do not forsake me when my
strength is gone, for my enemies

74
00:04:42,080 –> 00:04:43,960
speak against me.
Those who wait to kill me

75
00:04:43,960 –> 00:04:46,880
conspire together.
They say God has forsaken him.

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00:04:47,440 –> 00:04:50,720
Pursue him and seize him, for no
one will rescue him.

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00:04:51,440 –> 00:04:54,840
Do not be far from me, my God.
Come quickly, God, to help me.

78
00:04:55,600 –> 00:04:59,920
May my accusers perish in shame.
May those who want to harm me be

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covered with scorn and disgrace.
As for me, I will always have

80
00:05:05,440 –> 00:05:08,440
hope.
I will praise You more and more.

81
00:05:09,400 –> 00:05:12,120
My mouth will tell of Your
righteous deeds, of Your saving

82
00:05:12,120 –> 00:05:15,360
acts all day long, though I know
not how to relate them all.

83
00:05:16,200 –> 00:05:18,680
I will come and proclaim your
mighty acts, Sovereign Lord, I

84
00:05:18,680 –> 00:05:21,360
will proclaim Your righteous
deeds Yours alone.

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00:05:22,200 –> 00:05:24,600
Since my youth, God, You have
taught me, and to this day I

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00:05:24,600 –> 00:05:27,440
declare Your marvellous deeds
even when I am old and grey.

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00:05:27,680 –> 00:05:31,120
Do not forsake me, my God, till
I declare your power to the next

88
00:05:31,120 –> 00:05:34,000
generation, Your mighty acts to
all who are to come.

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00:05:35,160 –> 00:05:37,160
Your righteousness, God, reaches
to the heavens.

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00:05:37,720 –> 00:05:40,000
You who have done great things,
who is like you.

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00:05:40,000 –> 00:05:44,520
God, though You have made me see
troubles, many and bitter, you

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00:05:44,520 –> 00:05:47,960
will restore my life again from
the depths of the earth.

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00:05:48,320 –> 00:05:51,600
You will again bring me up.
You will increase my honor and

94
00:05:51,600 –> 00:05:55,480
comfort me once more.
I will praise you with the harp

95
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for your faithfulness.
My God, I will sing praise to

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you with the lyre, Holy One of
Israel.

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00:06:00,680 –> 00:06:03,240
My lips will shout for joy when
I sing praise to you.

98
00:06:03,720 –> 00:06:06,400
I whom you have delivered my
tongue will tell of your

99
00:06:06,400 –> 00:06:10,200
righteous acts all day long.
For those who wanted to harm me

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00:06:10,400 –> 00:06:12,400
have been put to shame and
confusion.

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00:06:13,000 –> 00:06:16,440
So the question is, how does he
get to a point where he’s able

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to say?
But I will hope continually and

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00:06:21,160 –> 00:06:23,120
will praise You yet more and
more.

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00:06:24,400 –> 00:06:26,960
By the way, my kids are being
very loud outside.

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It’s happy loud.
So I think we’re OK.

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00:06:31,600 –> 00:06:35,520
I’m curious.
Psalm 31, one through 4.

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So this is a Psalm of David and
you.

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00:06:40,160 –> 00:06:42,520
Lord, I’ve taken refuge.
Let me never be put to shame.

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00:06:43,440 –> 00:06:45,200
Deliver me in your
righteousness.

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00:06:45,200 –> 00:06:47,400
Turn your ear to me.
Come quickly to my rescue.

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00:06:47,400 –> 00:06:51,000
Be my rock and my refuge, a
strong refuge to save me, since

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you are my rock and my fortress.
For the sake of your name, lead

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me and guide me.
Keep me free from the trap that

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is set for me.
For you are my refuge.

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00:07:00,320 –> 00:07:08,040
So David wrote that Psalm 31.
No psalmist is attributed to

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00:07:08,040 –> 00:07:13,120
Psalm 71.
So it’s either David and he’s

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bringing back one of his old
hits, or it’s someone paying

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homage to David.
But it’s the same theme.

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The psalmist is choosing to take
refuge in God, saying let me

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never be put to shame.
The psalmist is in hardship.

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00:07:29,840 –> 00:07:31,120
Otherwise you wouldn’t need
refuge.

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00:07:31,120 –> 00:07:32,720
You wouldn’t need rescuing.
You wouldn’t need to be

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delivered.
Turn your ear to me and save me.

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So one thing we know that the
psalmist resolve to hope and

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praise is not based on things
being good.

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It’s not based on like Moses
song of praise after the Red Sea

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that was the result of them
being freed from Egypt.

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God showing many signs and
wonders including parting a sea

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and destroying the army that was
pursuing them.

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00:08:02,440 –> 00:08:05,440
God doing something amazing can
be a source of hope and praise.

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But for the psalmist that’s not
the case.

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He is still in the hardship, he
still has enemies conspiring

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against him.
His life is perpetually,

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00:08:17,280 –> 00:08:23,200
continually threatened, and so
the absence of hardship is not

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the qualifier for hope and
praise.

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So that’s his context.
But what we see throughout the

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Psalm is his resolve.
I mean, the whole Psalm is him

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just saying, this is what I’m
going to do.

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I’m going to hope, I’m going to
praise, I’m going to sing.

140
00:08:39,240 –> 00:08:42,840
God keep me alive long enough
that I can declare your power to

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the next generation.
That’s why he wants to stay

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alive.
He recognizes since my youth

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00:08:49,280 –> 00:08:53,200
guide, you have taught me.
He recognizes that God has been

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at work his entire life.
He has gotten to a place now

145
00:08:56,320 –> 00:08:58,720
where he recognizes God is the
whole point.

146
00:08:59,040 –> 00:09:01,840
God is the purpose.
Avoiding hardship is no longer

147
00:09:01,840 –> 00:09:04,880
the purpose for him, even as he
still wants to avoid it.

148
00:09:05,320 –> 00:09:10,800
But if avoiding hardship was the
purpose, then he would focus

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00:09:10,800 –> 00:09:16,240
more on crying out for refuge
and less on singing praise.

150
00:09:16,600 –> 00:09:21,240
The fact that he is spending
most of his time here praising

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00:09:21,240 –> 00:09:24,640
and acknowledging God even as
his life is being threatened

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indicates that both are
priorities for him to praise God

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00:09:29,720 –> 00:09:33,120
and to not be killed.
The fact that he is praising God

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00:09:33,120 –> 00:09:35,880
more is indicates to me that
that is a higher priority for

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00:09:35,880 –> 00:09:38,040
him.
Does he want to be freed?

156
00:09:38,040 –> 00:09:39,800
Yeah, absolutely.
He says as much.

157
00:09:40,360 –> 00:09:43,880
But higher priority is for God
to be honored and glorified.

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And that’s how he can then hope
continually even as things get

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worse and praise God yet more
and more, even as God doesn’t

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00:09:52,840 –> 00:09:54,760
answer the prayers he’s put out
there.

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00:09:55,520 –> 00:09:57,920
So that’s the question for us is
how do we get to that point

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where praising and honoring God
is a higher priority than God

163
00:10:03,400 –> 00:10:06,800
saving us, than God freeing us
from our hardship?

164
00:10:09,040 –> 00:10:13,480
One thing we know about David
and a number of other psalmist

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00:10:13,480 –> 00:10:20,200
is they wrote a lot of psalms.
If we look, there are 150 psalms

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and many of these psalms have
instructions for the music

167
00:10:24,600 –> 00:10:27,040
director.
So not only did they wasn’t that

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00:10:27,040 –> 00:10:30,160
they were writing a Psalm and
then like tucking it under their

169
00:10:30,160 –> 00:10:33,640
mattress, it’s their private
thoughts about God.

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00:10:33,640 –> 00:10:38,480
No, they turned it into songs to
be sung not once, but

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00:10:38,480 –> 00:10:41,600
repetitively.
What we know about the psalmist

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00:10:41,600 –> 00:10:45,960
is they were writing these
psalms often and then they were

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00:10:45,960 –> 00:10:49,000
singing them often, and they
were leading others in singing

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00:10:49,000 –> 00:10:51,240
them often.
And why is this important?

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Because the act of praising God,
the act of thinking of words of

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00:10:56,920 –> 00:11:01,400
praise and then saying the words
of praise was a regular part of

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00:11:01,400 –> 00:11:04,720
their lives.
Put another way, our brains are

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00:11:04,720 –> 00:11:06,360
constantly filled with
something.

179
00:11:06,760 –> 00:11:11,520
If the psalmist wasn’t filling
it with that praise, might he

180
00:11:11,520 –> 00:11:15,920
have filled it more with
thoughts of those conspiring to

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00:11:15,920 –> 00:11:19,640
kill him?
Is the act of praising God a

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00:11:19,640 –> 00:11:23,880
gift from God to help deal with
our ruminating minds?

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00:11:24,640 –> 00:11:29,360
So churches will practice this
out by having worship songs.

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00:11:30,000 –> 00:11:34,240
Some people practice this out by
tuning their station to.

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00:11:34,920 –> 00:11:42,200
For us, it’s 90.5 Joy FM.
How can we make praise more a

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00:11:42,200 –> 00:11:46,360
part of our lives, Particularly
for those of us who might not

187
00:11:46,600 –> 00:11:50,880
naturally be drawn to the
singing version of praise.

188
00:11:51,240 –> 00:11:53,880
Like there’s some people that
love worship music and there are

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00:11:53,880 –> 00:11:55,600
others that like.
It’s just not the way they

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00:11:55,600 –> 00:11:58,480
connect with God easily.
So what does it look like for

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00:11:58,480 –> 00:12:02,320
that demographic?
The bottom line here is making

192
00:12:02,320 –> 00:12:08,760
space to name who God is and
then making space to remember by

193
00:12:08,760 –> 00:12:12,040
speaking it who that is could be
a gift from God.

194
00:12:12,040 –> 00:12:15,440
In the midst of our hardship.
We look at it and it’s easy to

195
00:12:15,440 –> 00:12:19,400
read it as it’s a gift we’re
giving to God, but He doesn’t

196
00:12:19,400 –> 00:12:23,240
actually need a heart praise.
What if the reason here comes

197
00:12:23,240 –> 00:12:24,840
the loud kids?
What if the reason He does that

198
00:12:25,360 –> 00:12:29,200
is actually for us, not simply
for Him?

199
00:12:29,640 –> 00:12:33,120
And that can then build the hope
because we’re focusing our minds

200
00:12:33,120 –> 00:12:36,480
on who he is and what he can do
and what he will do.

201
00:12:37,120 –> 00:12:42,440
And here we come.
All right, I’m recording right

202
00:12:42,600 –> 00:12:46,080
now.
It’s a live recording.

203
00:12:46,080 –> 00:12:48,760
By sitting with this phrase, it
can help us to hope.

204
00:12:48,880 –> 00:12:52,080
OK, I’m going to pray.
I’m recording, buddy.

205
00:12:52,120 –> 00:12:54,840
It’s live right now.
People can see it.

206
00:12:55,520 –> 00:13:01,840
Please stay there.
Thank you, Psalm 7114, but I

207
00:13:01,840 –> 00:13:05,400
will hope continually and will
praise you yet more and more.

208
00:13:05,920 –> 00:13:08,160
Father God is thank you that you
are God and you are good and

209
00:13:08,920 –> 00:13:11,200
that you are a God that’s worthy
of praise.

210
00:13:11,280 –> 00:13:13,240
You are a God of hope, and we
acknowledge that.

211
00:13:13,240 –> 00:13:14,600
It is hard for us to remember
that.

212
00:13:14,600 –> 00:13:19,080
So help us to learn how to
praise you yet more and more.

213
00:13:19,320 –> 00:13:22,720
Help us to learn how to hope in
you continually.

214
00:13:23,280 –> 00:13:24,840
Most parents.
Holy name, Amen.