Song: Psalm 37:1-8

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Anno Domini podcast. My name is Joe Stout and as you may have heard during our last episode, the Anno Domini podcast is shifting from its normal format starting today.

Today is the last Sunday of the Church Year. This means that next week we will be beginning the Advent season and the cyclical life of the Christian will begin all over again.

This is truly a blessing and one we should never take for granted. The gospel marches forth in spite of the thrashing to and fro of the ungodly world around us. Those without Christ must look to other Kings for their comfort. They look to the government for their protection. Social media for their vindication and sanctification. Spreading and enforcing petty and tyrannical rules are their sacraments.

When we began this podcast last year, the world looked a very different place. Now with nothing more than a threat of sickness, the equivalent of God saying “Boo!,” the unbelieving world with all of its pride and vanity has collapsed in upon itself. Cities burned, elections defrauded, civil liberties destroyed, and the worship of God experiencing the greatest attack witnessed in living memory. All this has been done in the name of the god of the age which is ironically called Rationalism.

Since the one true God will not share glory He has toppled our idols of self sufficiency and knowledge which has only puffed us up. He has brought us low and delivered us over to our own sins.

For the Christian, it can be tempting to feel helpless, afraid, and alone. As wicked men and women exercise their ungodliness with seeming immunity, we can feel as though the Lord has forgotten us, His people, among the wicked.

We may not turn to this feeling of defeat. The gospel will continue to march on and our job as Christians remains to bring the kingdom of heaven right here to the people on earth. We are to heavenize the world and the destruction of our idols as a people does not change these marching order.

So we do we need? We need encouragement. The Lord has not forgotten us nor should we think that those workers of iniquity shall prosper. They will soon be cut down like the grass.

Listen to the words of Psalm 37 verses 1 - 8

Do not fret because of evildoers,

Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity.

For they shall soon be cut down like the grass,

And wither as the green herb.

Trust in the LORD, and do good;

Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.

Delight yourself also in the LORD,

And He shall give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD,

Trust also in Him,

And He shall bring it to pass.

He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light,

And your justice as the noonday.

Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for Him;

Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,

Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass.

Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;

Do not fret—it only causes harm.

I have set these words, directly from the New King James Version, to music. This is not a metrical psalm. I haven’t rearranged the words to rhyme or to be set in a meter or as a poem. It is the very words of God as translated in the NKJV set to music. This makes the song harder to learn quickly but in the long run, when you learn to sing the psalms this way, you are storing, not a paraphrase, but the actual Word of God in your heart.

Take courage Christian. Trust in the Lord. Delight yourself in Him. Commit your way to the Lord. Rest in the Lord.

As we enter another Church Calendar year in this wonderful world God has given to His people, a world meant for Christians to fill, rejoice in, and take dominion of, remember to Trust in Christ, Delight in Christ, Commit your way to Christ, and always Rest in Christ. While the world tears itself apart for lack of a firm foundation we have been founded upon the Rock of Christ. May we Trust, Delight, Commit ourselves, and Rest in that Rock this year.