Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the Lord

Daniel Pollorena, Speaker

Psalms 128 | October 30, 2022 - Sunday Evening,

Sunday Evening,
October 30, 2022
Blessed Is Everyone Who Fears the Lord | Psalms 128
Daniel Pollorena, Speaker

Good evening, Christ Covenant Church. It is a pleasure, it is an honor, to be here with this beautiful church family. I really am thankful for this opportunity to preach the Word of the Lord.

I would ask you to open your Bibles in Psalm 128, Psalm 128. I will read.

“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in His ways!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.

The Lord bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life!
May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!”

Let us pray. Our heavenly Father, we thank You for this night. We thank You for Your Word, thank You for this psalm. Oh, Lord, I pray that You will guide my heart, that You will guide my voice, my words, so that I may speak Your truth, that I may speak what is here in the text, what You want me to say, not what I want to say. I pray, Lord, that You may give also receptive ears and hearts to my brothers and sisters gathered here. Please be with us. I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Suppose you could get three wishes, or the typical genie of the lamp kind of story. I assume most of you know the genie of the lamp. For who don’t know, supposedly there’s this myth that there’s a lamp, you rub it, a genie comes out and says, “I’ll grant you three wishes.” Suppose that that would happen to you. Okay, you are walking and then you see a lamp. You grab it, you rub it, and the genie comes out and says, “I will grant you three things.” What would those three things be?

Really, this is a little silly exercise, but what would those things be? I assume, maybe I’m assuming wrong, but I assume that maybe someone around here would have asked the genie, “Hey, I would like a better house” or “I would like my dream house.” Maybe wealth is something that many of us would have asked for, significant wealth. Maybe health if you are more pious, you would say, “Genie, just give me health. That’s something I really want.” Or if you are one of our RTS students, maybe you would ask for a 4.0 GPA, although I don’t think even the genie could be able to do that.

But I do wonder, though, how many of us would have asked maybe just give me a job that is stable and that I can have provision, daily provision? I wonder who here would have asked for kids, or for more kids if you already have kids, except Pastor Kevin, of course, you wouldn’t be allowed to ask that. Or I do wonder who would have asked, “He, you know what? One of my wishes, one of my blessings, is I ask you to bless other people.” Who would have wasted their wish for others?

This is asked within a church. I am sure if we would ask society, non-believers, we would have all types of interesting responses. After all, we live in the West, we live in America, and as someone who is not from here, as you can obviously see, I am from Mexico, if you can tell, as someone who is living here and is actually applying to become an American, I’ve been doing research on what are the things that America values, what are the American values, and I think those values not only extend to Americans, but in all fairness, pretty much all the West. We want to copycat. Except the UK people, you are above everyone. But besides that, everyone wants to copycat.

The interesting thing that I’ve found, and maybe this correlates a little bit with whatever we would have asked those three things, the American values are independence and self-determination, equality, individualism, democracy, nationalism, meritocracy, directness, innovation, blah, blah, blah.

But this interesting because this is a little tied, this is somewhat tied to our passage, Psalm 128. The big idea that I want us to have for this passage, if you just come here and you don’t remember anything else, I just want you to have this big idea in your mind. This is not a point, this is just a big idea, and the big idea for tonight is since God determines what it means to be blessed, we must seek to be blessed according to His terms. I know it’s a little bit long, but I’ll say it again. The big idea for tonight is since God determines what it means to be blessed, we must seek to be blessed according to not our terms but to His terms.

This is again what the psalm talks about. It talks about blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. It talks about the things that God regards as blessings and by implication, if we’re the people of God and God regards some things as blessings, by implication we ought to also regard those things as blessings.

So our first point, this is indeed the first point, is we must seek the Lord first for that is where true blessing is found. This is our first point. We must seek the Lord first for that is where true blessing is found.

Verse 1 – Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.

You know, we have to notice several things here. First, the Bible is affirming, it’s declaring “blessed is,” not “blessed may be” or “blessed could be,” but “blessed is.” This is a fact. This fact, this word for “blessed,” is the same word that is found in other passages of Scripture, like Psalm 1, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked but his light is in the law of the Lord, and on His law he meditates day and night.”

This is also found in Psalm 32, verse 1 – “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.

Psalm 119 – “Blessed are those whose name is blameless.”

And so and so forth. So “blessed,” according to this psalm, “blessed is everyone who fears the Lord.” This is the same type of blessing that is found in other parts of Scripture.

Now, sometimes this word, this Hebrew word, “esher” or here “eshre,” is translated as “happy.” Some people say, well, you know, it’s happy. It can be translated like that. Definitely if you were blessed you can be happy, but it’s much more than being happy. This type of blessing denotes an all-encompassing well-being for the life of the person.

Now how do we know this? That’s it just more than being happy? Well, not only because of the passages that I just read, but also because of the very thing upon which this blessing is built, or contingent on. “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord.” Not just blessed is everyone, but blessed is everyone who fears the Lord.

You see, fearing the Lord is something that surpasses our emotional state. You may fear the Lord and be happy and be blessed, but you may also fear the Lord and be sad and you are still blessed. So it is this spiritual reality so much more than just emotional state, and as a spiritual reality it is not less true and not less important as a physical or material reality.

So now the natural question is, okay, the psalm starts “blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,” but what does “fearing the Lord” mean?

Well, in Scripture we have several definitions. Maybe the most famous one that we all know, they teach them in Sunday school, Proverbs 1:7 – “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” We repeat that as little kids and we don’t even know what that means. Right? But more concretely, in this passage the psalm is connecting the inward reality of fearing the Lord with the outward expression of walking in His ways. You cannot have one without the other.

So what does really “fearing the Lord” mean? It means to walk in His ways, in the context of this psalm.

Now this should not come as a surprise to us. In fact, this fearing the Lord, the inward reality connected with the outward expression of walking in His ways, is nothing new. I already read Psalm 1. Right? “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked but his delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night.” I also read Psalm 119 – “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep His testimonies and who seek Him with their whole heart.”

Even more clearly, Psalm 112 – “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord who greatly delights in His commandments.”

Now many times, as I said, this should not come as a surprise, but many times this does come as a surprise. What does fear of the Lord mean? Well, I’m just not connecting, that is, it has to be reflected, it’s walking in His ways, and that’s many times because we just don’t know our Bibles well enough.

This actually leads me to point something out. Before you walk in His ways, you first have to know His ways. So I ask – Do you know His ways? Even more – Do you know Him?

I am not just talking intellectually. Right? “Yes, Daniel, I come to church every Sunday. I tithe on occasion. I bring my kids to the youth group,” or if you’re a youth, “My dad brings to youth group.” I’m not talking intellectually. No, no, no, no. I’m talking do you actually know the Lord? Do you know Him personally? Have you experienced His sweetness? Or His forgiveness? His discipline? If you haven’t experienced the Lord’s presence, you won’t find the true blessing. Therefore, seek the Lord first and then you shall be blessed. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord who walks in His ways.

This psalm could have completely ended here. This psalm could just could be, “Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord who walks in His ways.” Period. That’s it. We just figure it out. But the Lord knows that we needed specific things to be reminded of, and thus psalm focuses on a few specific things that we’re going to target.

We see spiritual realities. We see that spiritual realities, like the fear of the Lord, have physical an material consequences like walking in His ways. As verse 2, “you shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands, you shall be blessed and it shall be well with you.”

Now a few things to consider here. “You shall eat the fruit.” This type of blessing you will enjoy it. You will reap the results of your work. This is what this psalm speaks into. The Lord has blessed the work of the labor of your hands. The labor, meaning you have to work. We cannot just say, “Okay, Lord, bless me and I won’t do anything.” This psalm is assuming a bunch of things that we’re going to see. You shall eat the fruit of the labor. You’re working. You’re doing something.

Throughout this psalm we’re going to see this complementary thing that is happening, that the Lord is blessing through human action. Yes, He is blessing, He is behind all of those blessings, but the human in this, the people here, are actually doing something. They’re walking in His ways.

So, yes, the labor means you have to work. Like I said, that doesn’t negate our responsibility to do something. Although here we ought to see He is blessing the fruit of the labor of your hand, not the fruit of the labor of others, but of your hands. He is blessing your honest work.

I do pray that the Lord blesses my preaching, but I didn’t steal this preaching from anyone. I pray that the Lord blesses your work, if it’s honest work. We have to do things as well, and the Lord will bless the fruit of the labor of your hands.

Now a commentator points out, yes, this is probably because of the ancient world. They were farmers and all of that. Yeah, even up to these days, maybe farmers can understand this better, but the point stands, the Lord will bless your work.

Now word of clarification, though. What this verse is not saying is that if you fear the Lord and walk in His ways then you’ll be extremely wealthy. In fact, not because you may be doing great financially or succeeding in whatever it is that you’re doing, that doesn’t just automatically mean that the Lord’s actually blessing you. See, unbelievers, they want the blessings but they don’t want God.

So this reality actually alludes and points us back to the Psalm that Pastor Kevin preached last week: Unless the Lord builds the house, right? Those who labor, labor in vain. It is vain that you rise up early and go to bed late, eating the bread of anxious toil.

You see, these two psalms are very connected. They talk about unless the Lord builds the house, they talk about the Lord’s blessing, they talk about kids, about families. But see, in the previous psalm, the phrase “it is vain,” that doesn’t mean that it is vain because you don’t get results, right? “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who labor, labor in vain” doesn’t mean that if the Lord doesn’t build the house, you put one brick, you get the other one and this brick disappears or I just don’t get anything. No. You can get results.

Actually, the other part of the psalm of last week, “it is in vain that you rise up early and go to bed late, eating the bread of anxious toil,” this person is actually getting money. So the fact that unless the Lord builds the house, this phrase “it is in vain,” it doesn’t mean you won’t get results. It means that those results that you are getting are not a blessing from the Lord.

It applies in the same way here, in verse 2 – “You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands.” You can say, “Well, Daniel, you know, I don’t have a relationship with the Lord but I’m doing great.” I would say, “Okay, but that is not blessing from the Lord.”

You could be making your job, your economy grow, but unless you know the Lord, you’re not being blessed. In fact, yeah, you can build a house without fearing the Lord. You can build your wealth. You can even build a church, a church, without the fear of the Lord. But the Lord is not blessing that. So don’t confuse what this psalm is saying. The psalm is not saying if you do “A” then just “B.” No. The psalm is saying that for those who fear the Lord, He will bless the fruit of the labor of their hands.

If not, we would be that man, for what would it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his own soul? If we don’t have the Lord.

However, a word of encouragement as well. The opposite is also true. Not because things may be going south in your life right now, that doesn’t mean that you are not being faithful to the Lord. That’s also what this psalm is not saying. Oh, if you’re struggling financially, it’s probably because you are sinning. No, no, no, no, no. That’s not what this psalm is saying.

You may be experiencing financial hardships which, if you’re a member of the church, if that’s the case, please approach the deacons. We don’t know, as a church, we don’t know your situations, but if you are truly finding yourself in a struggling place, and you’re being faithful with the Lord, what this psalm means is keep trusting the Lord. He will bless you. He will provide. He will bless the fruit of the labor of your hands. You shall be blessed and it shall be well with you.

Thus the question for some of us then is this. We recognize that everything we have comes from the Lord, can we say with David, “O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided comes from your hand and it’s all your own.” Can we say that?

The question or encouragement for some others of us would be to remember Jesus’ words – “Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

So brothers and sisters, let us, we must seek the Lord’s blessing by finding Him, for in Him is where true blessing is found.

Now as we move to verse 3, we come to our second point. Second point is, if you want to write it, we must seek to be blessed by upholding God’s design for the family. I’ll say it again – we must seek to be blessed by upholding God’s design for the family.

Verse 3 and 4 read: “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”

Notice what the psalmist is doing here. Out of the outset, “your wife.” He’s assuming marriage. I told you the psalmist is assuming a bunch of things about the man who fears the Lord. He’s assuming marriage. He’s counting as part of the blessing actually to be married. Your wife. Again, the flip side is yes, that doesn’t mean that if you don’t have a wife you’re not being blessed. No. What this means is this person, the person who fears the Lord, he is proactive. He takes action as well. Namely, the man who fears the Lord and walks in His ways will seek to get married. It’s an assumption here.

Now I’m not saying that marriage is the all in all. No. I’m saying it is part of God’s blessing in this passage. It is.

Now I know that marriage is not for everyone, meaning maybe you do have the gift of celibacy. I think it’s extremely rare. But you may be here and genuinely be celibate and have the gift, and if that’s you, then that’s okay. If you don’t burn with passion, then that is okay. At the same time, I know you may be struggling with maybe same-sex attraction and say, “Look, I want to be celibate for the Lord,” and okay. If you’re being celibate of the cause of the Gospel, then okay.

However, if that is not you, and I assume most of us that is not our case, if you don’t have the gift of celibacy, then marriage is indeed for you. Period. I know this may be a little controversial though, particularly in the time that we live in, but this is actually what Scripture teaches. In fact, the Bible, like I said, assumes in this passage those who fear the Lord, his wife, your wife. Okay, he’s getting married. And now I would ask, or someone could ask, “Well, Daniel, wait, wait, wait. Why are you saying that if I don’t have the gift of celibacy, marriage is for me?”

Well, because, first, this is what God designed from the very beginning. Marriage was instituted by God before the Fall. Remember that. It is an integral part of the cultural mandate, Genesis 1:28, and indeed the cultural mandate is for everyone, unless, like we say, you have the gift of celibacy. But if not, you are actually, you were created to get married. Be fruitful. We read, Pastor Bruce read, be fruitful and multiply. This is a cultural mandate for all of us. Yes, this is established, this in the context, right?

The commandment to marry, to be fruitful, is established in the context in which multiplication, it’s implying marriage because if the Lord says to Adam and Eve, which we know Jesus said, when they asked Him about marriage, well, in the beginning it was man and woman, so marriage is happening there. But then the commandment would be fruitful and multiply. The only way God provides for multiplication to happen in a way that is lawful is in the covenant of marriage. So multiplication assumes marriage.

Not only that, but the only possible way to multiply is between a man and a woman and sadly that is something that we have to be reminded, that marriage is indeed between a man and a woman, and that is what the Scripture teaches and that is what we believe.

Now I do want to address, if you were here, and you have had a terrible experience in marriage. I do want to be sensitive about that. We do want to weep with those who weep and I am sorry if you had terrible experiences in marriage, any type of abuse or abandonment. I mean, these things should not happen. I myself come from a broken home. My father abandoned my mother with three kids. He was a drug addict. So, yes, there are many things that should not happen. So I do feel for you if you say, “Well, Daniel, I know marriage is for everyone, but I have had really bad experiences in marriage.”

I understand. But whether it is the sins of my father who broke his covenant with my mother and abandoned us, or whether it is your experience, I know that behind all of those sins the truth of God stands. My experience does not negate the truth of God and that the truth of God is that marriage is a good thing that is to be desired and that we are meant for marriage. Regardless of the sins of my father or from any other father, the truth of God remains. This is God’s good design for humans.

Even more, it is counted as a blessing in Psalm 128. We read, “your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house.” So once again marriage is assumed. “Your children will be like olive shoots around your table.” See, God has designed His covenantal love to expand to your family, to your spouse and then to your children. Not only your spouse will be blessed, but by using the analogy of the vine, fruitful vine, your children are like olive shoots.

Here I’m going to mention briefly a trend that is taking place in the Western world, I will not get into details that Pastor Kevin got into last week, but it is true that fertility rate is decreasing in the Western world to alarming rates. We are under the 2.1 by far. Some countries more than not, but you know the 2.0 is to maintain it, one for the man, one for the woman, and then you multiply yourself. 2.1 in theory makes it increase, but we’re way below that. Now having children is actually, people are like, “Really? You’re having children? Mmm.”

That is not what Scripture thinks. That is not what Scripture teaches.

Here, just like with marriage, the Bible speaks to all of us as well about reproduction, and once again, just like I was careful about marriage, I want to be careful about here, because I am sure there are people here struggling with infertility and just for the sake of honesty, my wife and I struggled with that up until the Lord blessed us in our first year with our first kid, but before that we couldn’t have kids. So it is a sensitive topic, indeed.

So if your case is infertility, we commend definitely that adoption is a beautiful thing. It reminds us of the Gospel. But if your case is not infertility, then if we’re willfully saying I just don’t want to have children, and I’m not saying just now, no, no, I just never want to have children or I just want to have one, for example, then let me remind you that children have always been part of God’s promises, of God’s blessings from the very beginning.

In fact, from Eden we see the promise of the seed of the woman versus the seed of the serpent. Then Abraham, “I will make your offspring like the stars of heaven.” Right? “And in you all of the nations of the earth shall be blessed.” The promise, the blessing, comes through descendants. Covenant with David is a covenant about a promise, about his son, first Solomon and then ultimately pointing to Christ. But it’s also through descendants.

But have you ever considered that that pattern continues in the new covenant? You see, in the new covenant we have the Great Commission. Right? But have you ever considered that fulfilling the Great Commission is primarily through having children? Just remember what the Great Commission is – Go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Doing what? Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And what? And teaching them to do all that I have commanded you. Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and I will be with you always until the end of the age.

What do we do with our child, with our kids? We baptize them and hopefully we teach them to do what the Lord commanded.

So have you ever considered that actually fulfilling the Great Commission is done through having kids? So, yes, I know there is room for missionaries 100%. I am not even from this country, but the primary way in which actually, up until the 20th century, that the Gospel was spread, was through families. Because we baptize them and we teach them to observe.

So you say, “Daniel, I want to fulfill the Great Commission.” Make disciples, have children. Amen to that.

Once again, I’m not quoting the Westminster Confession, we’re using Scripture. This is what the Scripture teaches, from the very beginning. So we’re not only under the cultural mandate be fruitful and multiply, but if you’re a Christian, baptize and teach them.

Now, of course, that doesn’t mean our babies are regenerate. No. For our Baptist brothers and sisters, friends, that’s not what we teach. But what this does mean is that our children are born within the people of God and they are treated as such until proven otherwise. We teach them to observe and like I say to my Baptist friends, you may not agree with our baptizing thing, you may push it 10-12 years later, but you do agree with teaching them to observe. You are doing that, indeed.

So, yes, we must seek the Lord’s blessing by upholding His design for the family. Marriage and children. And once again this is only saying you are going to be blessed. Your wife is going to be like a fruitful vine. But remember, there is the other part of this psalm in which I am focusing on, the part of the person that is blessed. This person is working in verse 2. This person is seeking to be married and seeking to have kids as well.

So, yes, behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. Let God’s covenantal love spread to your family, to those around you.

This brings us to our last point, and that is that we must seek the Lord’s blessing in order to bless others. We must seek the Lord’s blessing in order to bless others.

You see, in these last verses, the psalmist breaks into a benediction, “The Lord bless you from Zion, may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. May you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel.” It’s such a beautiful benediction. The Lord bless you from Zion.

You know, there is some dispute amongst scholars, amongst also Jewish scholars, if Zion and Jerusalem are the same thing. Some say Zion was probably where the city of David was, so it was technically Jerusalem but then the walls spread and now there is some debate about that. Whatever the case may be, “the Lord bless you from Zion” is pointing, and everyone agrees, that it reminds us that it is the Lord who blesses us from His presence, may the Lord bless you from Zion. The psalmist is reminding you, “Look, yes, you may work, you may seek to be married and have kids, but let me remind you, the blessing comes from the Lord. May the Lord bless you from Zion, may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life.”

You see part of being blessed by the Lord is that we are called to seek the blessing of other Christians. Remember the third point, we must seek the Lord’s blessing in order to bless others. You see, for the Jews that was the early Jerusalem. For us Christians, that applies to the Church. God’s blessing for His people are not to produce envy in us. On the contrary, we have to rejoice when God’s covenantal love is shared with others, with His Church particularly. When others prosper as well.

And you see this is very different from the mindset of the world around us. Right? You’re being called, yes, “May the Lord bless you from Zion and may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem.” That is very radically different than what the world teaches us. Very different. Particularly in our individualistic society. Right? Competition is good but we have such an unhealthy amount of competition. We’re being taught over and over again that you need to stand above the rest. You need to be the very best. Again, there is room for that but we overdo it.

Then if you stand above the rest enough, if you accumulate enough wealth, if you accumulate the best house, then you shall be blessed. That’s what they teach you, that’s what they teach us.

Then on top of that, you add woke ideologies. Right? Dividing people, oppressed/oppressor. The world says, “Oh, you’re doing well, it’s surely because you are an oppressor. Let me take that from you. I want what you have.” Then it’s a little weird because if I take from the oppressor, I become the oppressor and he becomes the oppressed, and it’s a never-ending circle. But none of that is what the Scripture teaches.

You see, the Lord through His Word teaches the opposite. May the Lord not only bless you and I from Zion, but may you see others be blessed by God as well.

Who teaches that? Our Lord, our Lord does.

This overflowing of blessings connects to our last verse, verse 6: May you see your children’s children!

At the outset, this may seem like the psalmist is only saying, “Hey, by the way, may you have a long life.” That’s at the outset, and fair enough, yes, in part that is what he’s saying. It’s true, but let’s not miss the other implication that is there. “May you see your children’s children,” meaning may your children also have children, meaning may your children be blessed in the same way that you were blessed by the Lord.

So it’s also a call not only for longevity, but also may the Lord, may you see your children’s children, may you see that the Lord blesses them in the same way that He blessed you. So God’s blessings do, may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem, may this blessing also extend to your kids. May He bless them in the same way that He has blessed you.

And the ultimate part of that verse, “Peace be upon Israel.” Peace, shalom, we know this word. “Shalom” meaning peace, and yes, peace, the peace that shalom means is not only absence of war, it’s a true state of blessedness. It’s a blessed state where the Lord’s blessing just covers everything. Peace be upon Israel.

So do we see the progression of this psalm here? First it starts in the heart. Right? Blessed is everyone. Remember, blessed is. You are already blessed. Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord. It starts in the heart.

Then it goes to the individual’s life. Right? You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands.

Then it progresses to the family, your wife and kids. Right? This also applies to your husband and kids. Remember the first verse is “blessed is everyone.”

Then it applies to the community, to the Church. “May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem.”

So brothers and sisters, do we trust the process? How can we ask the Lord to bless our nation if our church is corrupted? How can we ask the Lord to bless our church if our families are corrupted? How can we ask the Lord to bless our families if our heart is not right with the Lord? If we don’t even know who the Lord is, if we don’t have fear of the Lord. Don’t despise those small, little baby steps. It starts in the heart.

You want revival. I surely do want revival. You want transformation, you want blessing. Not only for you, but to extend the Lord’s blessing, permeate everything. It starts in the heart, and the heart in which the seed of the kingdom of God is planted is going to grow to be the tree where other birds rest.

So of course it is challenging. As I preach to you, I preach to myself. But remember, blessed is everyone who fears the Lord and who walks in His ways.

Let us pray. Our Father and our God, we thank you for Your Word. We thank You because You have blessed us with far more things than we could have ever asked or imagined. We ask, O Father, that we may grow close to You, that we may come close to You every day, that we may fear You, that we may know You, so that we may walk in Your ways, that we may truly believe what Your Scripture teaches, not only about walking with You, O Lord, but that this may permeate every aspect of our lives. Help us to accommodate our views not to what people say that with should believe, but what Your Word says that we should believe. We want to be blessed, we want to fear You and walk in Your ways. In Jesus’ name we ask. Amen.