A Goal Worth Pursuing - Psalm 119:137-144 (Psalms 119:137-144)

1:11Well, we're picking up, making our way through this wonderful Psalm. Last time we met, or last time I a couple weeks ago, anyway, was I looked at the pay stanza, verses 129 and following. The theme there was light. Your testimonies are wonderful. And verse 130, the unfolding of your words give light. It gives understanding to the simple. That light, through the unfolding of God's word, he gives light. And that light translates into understanding. And the Saadi stanza, which we are looking at today, ends in verse 144 with this, on this same note, give me understanding that I may live. Light is given for the purpose of understanding, and understanding is given for the purpose of life. Light and life together in these.

2:14And of course, that life is built upon the righteousness of God. The theme going through this stanza, righteousness. Look in verse 137, righteousness, righteous are you, O God. Verse 138, your testimonies you have commanded in righteousness. Look down at verse 142, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Verse 144, your testimonies are righteous forever. You get this sense of the righteousness of God and how that impacts everything about the psalmist and about us. So we'll be looking at this. Question, you've probably heard before and asked yourself on many occasions. What shall I do with the rest of my life? You ever asked that question? What shall I do with the rest of my life? What shall I do? Of course, many of you students, right? And that's the question your parents ask you. What are you going to do with the rest of your life? You know? What are you going to do with your life? It's a question. It's kind of an ongoing question in life. And the older you get, it doesn't necessarily mean it goes away, right? What am I going to do with the rest of my life? Well, we have goals. We set goals. We know we have a fixed amount of time. And so we begin to set goals about what we think is truly valuable. And goals come in all shapes and sizes, right?

3:42There's lifelong goals, the big picture goals. There's short-term goals. There's daily goals, momentary goals. Goals come in all shapes and sizes. Some of the goals we set are for success. We want to have success. Whether it's success in our work, success in our school, or success in our relationships. Success is something we... It's a goal. Some of us may have the noble goal of leaving the world a better place than we found it. It's a good goal.

4:24Some of us, it's the goal of when I die, I want to go to heaven. It's a great, great. Goal. I heard one preacher say it like this: My goal is to depopulate hell and populate heaven. It's great. It's a great goal. But oftentimes, we let secondary goals become primary goals, and that's when we get in trouble. All of those that I just mentioned are great goals, if they're in their right place. But when those secondary goals become your primary goal, life will become vain because there is one goal, one primary goal that God desires for all of us. If you do not get this primary goal of yours right, everything else in your life is going to suffer.

5:19And so I want you to understand this morning a goal that is worth pursuing. We'll come to it in a moment. But first, I want to walk through what the psalmist walked through so that you will be prepared to understand this goal in its context and why it is so important. So I want you to see five key relationships that our psalmist understood in one prayer he made. Five key relationships. We'll just walk through this. This passage will unfold very simply in that sense, looking at five key relationships that he understood. And then he makes a prayer at the end. And I want to look at all this so that you will be able to realize and articulate what your primary goal in life should be. I want you to be able to realize it if you don't already realize it. And I want you to be able to articulate it if you can't already articulate it. What should be your primary goal in life? Let's look at this. First, I want you to see this relationship between God and His Word. This is something that the Psalmist was very aware of. Look in verse 137. Righteous are you, O Lord, and upright are your judgments. You have commanded your testimonies in righteousness and exceeding faithfulness. There is a connection between God and His Word that you must understand, that the Psalmist understood. Word for verse 37, righteous. It's a quality of being right, of doing right, a quality of being beyond reproach righteous, a quality that no one can justly level any accusation against you because all actions are just right.

7:13And this is a characteristic. Look back. Righteous are you. The psalmist is talking about Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. You, O Lord, are righteous. As a core characteristic, Of your inside person, you are righteous. And out of this inside person comes everything you say and do. Righteousness. And God's righteousness manifests itself in different ways and in different circumstances. For instance, there's the justice of God that manifests itself in issues of life that demand decision. Certainly in the rewarding of faithfulness and the punishing of wickedness, justice, judicial righteousness. If a righteous judge makes the right call, Psalm 11:5 says, The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, and the one who loves violence, his soul hates. And upon the wicked, he will rain snares. Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be their portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous and he loves righteousness, and the upright will behold his face. As righteousness, he makes the right call. He doesn't let sin go unpunished. He rewards faithfulness and he punishes transgression. That's what a righteous person does in the face of injustice and in the face of faithfulness. But also, God's righteousness. Manifests itself by giving help to the needy. Mercy. See this throughout Scripture, but in Psalm 145, 17, the psalmist says, The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his deeds. The Lord is near to all who call upon him. Do you believe that? Stop there. He is near to all who call upon him. I can assure you this morning that many prayers have already been lifted up, calling upon the Lord to be here, to be present.

9:36He's here. Do you believe that? That's what the text says. He is near to all who call upon him, to all who call on him in truth, and he will fulfill the desire of those who fear him, and he will also hear their cry and will save them. This is mercy. Righteousness manifests itself in justice and manifests itself in mercy. You see, because God is righteous, it naturally follows that everything he does will show this quality of righteousness.

10:17Justice and mercy. Look back at the text. This is true of his judgments. Look at 137. Righteous are you, O Lord, and upright are your judgments. And of his testimonies. Look at verse 138. You have commanded your testimonies in righteousness and exceeding faithfulness. Your judgments and your testimonies come specifically into focus of the psalmist. Your righteousness shows up in all of your judgments and in all of your testimonies. You know, it's a good verse, right? Especially at a time for political wrangling and a nation deciding who is going to lead us.

11:03It's important that as we understand and as we go and we play our civic duties in this country that we have to bring in new leadership, that this leadership that we seek reflect the character and righteousness of God. It is right for a people to expect that righteousness would be reflected in its laws because our laws are nothing more than a reflection of who we are. And we want our laws and our policies and our people leading us to reflect the righteousness that is intrinsic in God Himself, so that all judgments and all testimonies would be that of which is right. And it is right for a new Nation to be built upon these two principles, justice and mercy, righteousness, an overflow of righteousness. And this is true of God's judgments, God's testimonies. Look back. Judgments. What is a judgment? A judgment is a decision, a judicial decision. And it refers to everything God does.

12:30And his judgments are upright. That is, they're straight. They're morally excellent. They're pleasing. Upright are your judgments. Everything that God has done, whether it's been revealed in Scripture or whether it is he is doing in your life, is morally excellent. That's what the psalmist is saying. Your judgments. And he is in a hard position in life. And he is saying, righteous are you, God, and upright are all your judgments. Every decision that you have made, morally excellent. Do you believe that about God? Do you believe that all of the decisions that are revealed in Scripture and all of the things that he has allowed to come into your life are morally beautiful? That's what the psalmist says. Upright are all your judgments, all your decisions. Look in verse 138. You have commanded your testimonies. You have commanded. They have been sent your testimonies. And the testimony is God's witness to the truth. So his judgment is a reference to everything he does. His testimony is a witness to everything he says.

13:48And look what the psalmist says about God's testimonies. You have commanded your testimonies in righteousness and exceeding faithfulness. Those commandments, those testimonies, God's witness to the truth that he has given us comes from his inner being. His word proceeds from him. And he has commanded his speech, his witness to the truth in righteousness. It comes out of who he is. It cannot be anything but righteous because of its place of origin. It comes from him. It's an extension of him.

14:32And it is exceeding faithfulness. Look at that. This is an incredible statement. It's fidelity and great strength. His word is fidelity and great strength. What are he saying? Every word that proceeds from God is faithful. It is a faithful testimony to reality. And so it's important to understand this relationship between God. And his word. His word that we hold in our hands is a reflection of who he is. You see, it would be impossible to know God if his word was not a true reflection of himself, right? You know me through my word. We communicate with one another through our words. And if our word isn't any good, we really can't know a person, right? Or maybe it is. If it isn't good, it tells more about who you are. I was told growing up that if your word isn't good, there isn't anything about you that's good. Because it's through your word and through the way you communicate that people get a window into who you are.

15:46And so we must approach God's Word in a way that honors it for what it is. It is an indissoluble link to his being. His word and his being are connected. And so what has proceeded from him is commanded in righteousness and exceeding faithfulness. If there's a perceived problem with the word, it's with the receiver, not the sender. Sometimes I get an electronic message that comes to me and it says, dear Tom, and then all of a sudden there's just all this garbage that comes out, like all kinds of aspects. Text and all, I don't know what all it is. It doesn't make any sense to me. And I can't imagine that somebody sent it that way, right? You've probably received something like that. It's like, wait a minute, I know this didn't look like this when you sent it. I think the same is true as we, we, because of our sinfulness, we can jumble God's Word. We don't receive what He has because we're not, because we're fallen and because we're not open to His Spirit, many times, and many times it'll come to us as something we can't understand. But the problem is not with the Word, it's with us.

17:11You know, your Word is the most important thing about you. Let your Word reflect the righteousness of God. And I think what Jesus was saying to those hypocritical leaders when He was saying, clean the inside of the cup, and then good things will flow out from you. Same with us. We must embrace God's righteousness. Clean the inside of the cup because there is a close connection between God and His Word, between us and what flows out of us. So the psalmist understood this relationship between God and His Word. Second, I want you to see this relationship between zeal and Love, this relationship between zeal and love. The psalmist understood the connection and the difference. Look in verse 139. My zeal has consumed me because my adversaries have forgotten your words. Now, the word for zeal means to be in exclusive devotion or enthusiastic devotion. But it is the same word that is translated as jealousy. Zeal and jealousy, same word, many times.

18:35And jealousy shows up in Scripture in a number of places. It spoken of a husband towards his wife. Listen to what Proverbs 6:32 says. The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense. You know, well, yeah, let me tell you why. There's a lot of reasons, but he goes on to say, he who would destroy himself does it. Wounds and disgrace he will find, and his reproach will not be blotted out. For jealousy enrages a man. Okay, this is why it's not wise. There's a thing called jealousy. There may be a husband out there. For jealousy enrages a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not accept any ransom, nor will he be satisfied, though you give many gifts.

19:28Proverbs 27, 14. It says, Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood, but who can stand before jealousy? Song of Solomon and 8:6. We had this verse on our wedding. Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death. Jealousy as severe as sheol. It flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the Lord. Get the sense that jealousy is a strong, strong passion, a strong disposition.

20:08Scripture speaks about how God was jealous, is jealous for Jerusalem. Zechariah 8:2 says, The Lord, thus says the Lord of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Zion. Yes, with great wrath I am zealous for her, jealous for her. Thus says the Lord, I will return to Zion and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called a city of truth, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts will be called the Holy Mountain. Let me tell you why there's a future for Jerusalem, a beautiful one. Because of God's jealousy, that it should not be any other way.

20:49Remember Jesus coming into the temple, right? What consumed him? When he found the temple, those who were selling oxen and sheep, what did he do? He drove them. Out in a display of great fury. And his disciples remembered, zeal for your house will consume me. See, zeal is a desire to make things right. It's a passion. It's when things go wrong, when things ought not be, then zeal raises up to make things that ought not be ought not.

21:28But look back. My zeal has consumed me. Literally, it has exhausted me. It has worn me out. My zeal has consumed me. Because, verse 139, my adversaries have forgotten your words. They have forgotten your words. If you look back at 136, remember he says, My eyes shed streams of water because they do not keep your law. And here in 139, he's saying, Because my adversaries have forgotten your law. So it was his tears in 136. It's his zeal that has consumed him in verse 139 because of their willful suppression of God's word. And it is hard to stand and watch and live in a society where you see day after day things that ought not be.

22:25And it's hard as we go through our own lives before we look at the society. Around us to look in our own hearts and say, There are things that ought not be. And that should drive us in a zeal, a holy zeal, to render to the things, to render to God the things that are His, starting with us. Well, God's words are exceedingly faithful, verse 139, but the psalmist's adversaries are exceedingly unfaithful, and this causes a zeal. But also going on to 140, there is a love. Look at this relationship: there is zeal and love. Your word is very pure, therefore, your servant loves it. Your word is very pure. That is, it is refined to a very high degree. It's interesting, he loves it because it's so pure. It's so beautiful, it's so perfect, and it has in itself an intrinsic quality that demands love, that is worthy of love.

23:36And so, the psalmist, his love for the word, is based upon the word's purity. It's not based upon some pragmatic benefit that the word can give him, but simply because it is so beautiful, it is so perfect, it is so pure, it is so refined. That alone is why I love it, said the Psalmist. I love what Barnes says about this. Therefore, I love it, says the psalmist. I love it because it is pure, holy, true, not merely because it will save me. Apart from all references to myself, I love thy truth as truth. I love purity as purity. I love law as law. I love holiness as holiness. So it goes beyond what the word can do for us, but a simple love because of its beauty. And there is a close relationship between love and zeal. We feel a love for that which is pure and are jealous for it when it is violated. You see the difference, and yet you see the connection. So let us, like our psalmist, let us love that which is pure and be zealous to carry out God's ways in our own lives. Let us be zealous for God's Word in our own hearts. May we love it.

25:11And this is exactly what grace does. Titus 2:11 speaks about why the grace of God appeared. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present. Age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. That's why grace appeared. It's so that you and I would come face to face with the kindness and the goodness of God, and that we would come to love Him supremely and come to be jealous that His ways would become manifest in our lives, and that we would love His ways simply because they are pure and they are beautiful, and we would utterly despise any hint in our own lives that would chase after something else. Let us be zealous for good deeds, and let us hate the thought of doing anything else in life.

26:37It's a relationship between zeal and love. Third, there's a relationship between insignificance and significant insignificance. I want you to see there's a relationship between insignificance and significance. Look at this statement of insignificance in verse 141. I am small and Despised. Small, I am little, I am least. It's what Saul said when Samuel came looking for him to anoint him king. 1 Samuel 9:21, Saul replied, Am I not a Benjamin, a Benjamite, of the smallest of the tribes of Israel? Am my family the least of all the families? Why do you speak to me this way? Small, I'm small. Micah, remember, Micah speaks about Bethlehem. Oh, you Bethlehem, too little among the clans of Judah to even be named, right? But from you will go forth the ruler in Israel. It's the idea, I'm small, I am little, I am least. And this is a right perspective of self.

27:47We don't know who the psalmist is, but all candidates were very significant people. Whether it was David, Daniel, or Ezra, all of these were very significant people. Yet, this individual viewed himself as very insignificant. I am small. Not only am I small, I am despised. It's a verb, I am being despised. I am regarded with contempt by those around me. I am regarded with contempt, despised. Language is a striking parallel with that of Isaiah 53, 3, the suffering servant. He was despised and forsaken of God. Men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Whatever this psalmist was going through, he was feeling the contempt of those around him, and probably because of his alliance with God's Word. I would fact say most certainly because of his connection to God's Word. So he makes this incredible statement of insignificance, but then he makes this incredible statement of significance. Look back at the second part of verse 441. I am small and despised, yet I do not forget your precepts. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth. He says, I do not forget, I do not deliberately abandon your precepts like my adversaries do.

29:32I do not abandon your procedures for my life, your precepts, your specifications for humanity. I do not abandon them. And then he makes a comment about God's righteousness, your righteousness, in verse 42, 142, your quality of being and doing right, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. That is, it's a righteousness to eternity. It's an everlasting. Everlasting righteousness. Your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. It's never going to change. In fact, the only other time you see these two words in Scripture together is in Daniel 9:24, where Daniel hearing the words: 70 weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness. A righteousness that goes on and never changes. That's the solidness. And look back. Verse 142. And your righteousness, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness, and your law is truth. I would change that conjunction from and to so. It's the same word, but it's more of a therefore.

31:03So your law is truth. Therefore, your law, your Torah, your direction for humanity is stable, it is firm, it is certain, it is fixed. That's the idea of truth. Something that's steady, reliable. Your righteousness, because of who you are, God, your righteousness is an everlasting righteousness. Therefore, that which has come forth from you is certain. Certain and stable and fixed forever because it is a reflection of who you are forever. You see, the psalmist, though he was small and insignificant in his own right, attached himself to that which was profoundly significant.

31:52We're small and insignificant, aren't we? I get this feeling every time I get on an airplane, and especially at night or even in the day, and you're flying over a big city like Dallas or Los Angeles or something, you just look down, and just what do you see? You just see humanity sprawled out everywhere. And you get this sense of, man, I'm pretty small. I'm pretty small. And we are, right? We have a beginning point, an end point. We're all very insignificant in number and in stature. But by believing in God's Word, we are attached to that which is profoundly significant. You see, the marriage between the insignificant and the significant. When we believe that which is eternally righteous and everlasting righteous, when we are attached to that which is profoundly significant, we become significant. Ourselves.

33:02Not because there's anything in us, but by virtue of what we are attached to. Here's a math equation for you, all you math students. Even a little number times infinity equals what? Infinity. Even a small. What about 0.5? Like half of infinity. What is half of infinity? It's infinity. What's a tenth of infinity? What's a hundredth of infinity? Okay, you get the math equation. Even if you don't. Now, let's suppose if you take a large number, like, and then another large number, like, like, let's suppose you're really significant and you impact a lot of people in this world. That's a large number. And let's suppose that lasts for your whole lifetime. So a large number times a large number. What does that equal?

33:57Less than infinity. Pitifully less than. I got a real math instead. Okay, you get the picture, right? I don't care if you're one of the great nobles of the earth whose name gets written and spoken about generation after generation after generation. That's just a large number from our perspective multiplied by another large number, which is just a finite number. And then when you put that into the scope of infinity, it's nothing. And so that's the point. Yes. Though we Are insignificant. When we believe God's word, we are attached to that which is eternally significant.

34:39You see, the word of God in the heart of man is very significant. And when this union occurs, we begin to operate as true image-bearers of God. And that into eternity. And that is how God is going to dwell with us. Profound. Man operating as God intended it to be. Very significant. So let's, like the psalmist, let's not forget his precepts because there is a profound relationship between insignificance and significance. Let's go on. There's a relationship between temporal anguish and eternal delight. I put up here trouble and delight. Okay, I'll go with that. There's a relationship between trouble and delight. Look at verse 143. Trouble and anguish have come upon me, yet your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever. So this anguish, this temporal anguish is described by two terms. Trouble. Trouble, it's a word for a narrow strait. You can think of it as a ship going into a very dangerous strait. I can think of it going back to school as a bully one time was bullying me around, and he stood in a door, and I had to go through that door to get to my next class. Now, that was a narrow straight, and I remember thinking, oh boy, here it comes. Had to walk right through. Well, that's the idea of trouble, okay? It's a narrow straight.

36:25It's the picture of distress and anguish to press upon, to bring into straits. So distress, or trouble, and anguish. Trouble and distress both speak of the same reality: to press to the point of paralysis, to where a person cannot move to the right or to the left. Trouble and anguish have come upon me. They have found me out. This is what the psalmist is saying. They have found me. It's upon me, seized me. And this great external pressure had come upon him. We don't know why, but probably because of his adversaries' hatred of God's word and the psalmist's fidelity to it. But in the midst of that, and Jesus told us, we're going to have this kind of trial, tribulation in this world, right? In John 16:33.

37:19In this world, you will have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. What a promise. But in the midst of this temporal anguish, we see this. Psalmist's eternal delight, his extreme pleasure. Look back. Yet, your commandments are my delight. Your testimonies are righteous forever. Your commandments, your authoritative directions for my life are my extreme pleasure, even in the midst of this difficult time that has come upon me. Your testimonies, your witness to the truth, are righteous forever, righteous into eternity. And so he is able to take upon himself and to partake in this eternal delight even now, as he is facing some very temporal difficulties, a relationship between trouble and delight. Fifth relationship I want you to see is a relationship between understanding and life. Look at the last sentence, verse 144, the second part. Give me understanding that I may live. Give me understanding that I may live. Word for understanding is the word to separate in the mind, to distinguish. We would probably say it something like, Lord, help me get my mind around this. Help me understand. Help me get my mind around this. Cause me to understand. It's that, and this is his. Prayer. This is his prayer. Give me understanding. It's one word. Give me understanding. Cause me to get it. Cause me to get my mind around it so that I may live, that I may truly live, that I may thrive. That's the way you intended me to live. Connected to your word, thriving in the midst of all kinds of trouble, all kinds of anguish, and in the very fallen world, you have put me here. You have given me your word so that it will give me understanding, so that it will give me life, and I will thrive. Isn't it wonderful? God has put us here so that we might thrive.

39:49No matter who you are. But when you take these two stanzas together, the Pei and the Saadi stanzas, you look back, in verse 130, the unfolding of your words gives light. It gives understanding to the simple. You see this progression? The word, it gives light. The light in turn gives understanding. And understanding, in turn, gives life. See the connect the parallels here. It's profound how John opens up his gospel. John 1:1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

40:59But some did. But you see, this connection between not only the written word, it is light and life, and the incarnate Word, the more perfect exposition of God comes, who is light to give us understanding, and by understanding, we may have life. Therefore, pray. Look at this, pray. This is the one prayer in this stanza: give me understanding. What should be your primary goal in life? To understand God. To understand God. Yeah, maintain all those secondary goals, but never lose this primary goal. To understand God, to seek Him, to find Him. Yes. Success in relationships is important. Success, godly success in your profession and in your school is a noble endeavor to leave this world a better place, to take the message of salvation to the lost, to go to heaven when all this is said and done, to stand before him, complete all that noble.

42:25But understanding God through it all is what you're called to do. You're to understand God, and by understanding, you are in union. Your relationship, your ability to glorify him and enjoy him just goes up. Jeremiah 9:23 said it like this: Thus saith the Lord, Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boasts of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares the Lord.

43:15God wants you to understand him. That's why he sends this word to us. That's why he left this word for us, so that the unfolding of these words would give us light and would give us understanding that God desires relationship with us, that he loves you intensely, so that. You would understand that, and by understanding that, you would have life with him. If you do not know Christ today, you can simply call upon his name and say, God, I want to know you. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my life. I'll come.

43:50You know, I learned something about hide-and-seek growing up. When you found a really good hiding place, it wasn't that fun anymore. I remember picture with me, let me just take your mind with me back to a rural setting in the south: farmhouse, barn, silos, fields, garden, pump house, all that, corral, little house, big porch. I want you to picture a handful of kids in the bright light of day playing hide and seek. Picture one with shorts with very bright white legs hiding.

44:40Picture him behind this porch. No one could find him. After a while, getting kind of tired of being hidden, because half the fun is being found, right? So picture a little white leg sticking out over the porch. And kind of shaking. What was he trying to do? He wanted to be found. Let me tell you something about God. God has put you here and he calls you to seek him because he wants you to find him.

45:25He wants you to understand him. He's going to take you through a whole lot of things in life, but the primary goal is for you to understand him through it all. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you, Father, that you have desired to know us and you have desired that we should know you, that we would seek you and find you. Father, we thank you for that. We thank you that you want us to understand you. Father, and that's why you have given us light to open our understanding, and you've given us understanding that we might have life and union with you.

46:08Father, we just thank you. Let us live today. Let us live all days. Father, in whatever circumstances that you take us through, understanding that you have placed us here with the primary goal of knowing and understanding you. You are the God who exercises loving kindness. Justice and righteousness in the earth. Father, to this we rejoice and we desire to know you. Draw us, we ask. In Jesus' name, amen.