Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 19 | Date: March 3, 2024 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

General and Special Revelation

Psalm 19. We continue our studies on the psalms. Last time we looked at the first six verses of this psalm. Today we’ll try to make our way through the rest of it. Let’s take time to read through Psalm of David.

“The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, there are no words, whose—that is, heaven’s—voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber and like a strong man runs its course with joy. Its rising is from the end of the heavens and its circuit to the end of them. And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping of them there’s great reward.

Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from my hidden faults. Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and innocent of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”

And then you’ll notice the postscript at the end, “to the choir master.” Let’s bow for prayer.

Our Father, it’s a fascinating thing that 3,000 years later we are still rejoicing in this poem, this psalm written by an Israelite king. We thank you that you have inspired him to write for us. We’re grateful for the subject of it. We are, of this particular psalm, we’re grateful that you have revealed yourself to us, not only in your created order, but in your word. We pray that you would help us this morning to see the massive implications of that and the great treasure that such a thing is to us. We pray that you’ll open it for us, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

The fundamental claim of Christianity—say it again, the fundamental claim of Christianity at the bottom of everything else—is this proposition: God has spoken. The fundamental claim that we make is that what we believe and teach has been divinely revealed. God has spoken. What we know and believe about God, we say God has revealed to us. This is not something that we have reasoned our way up to. This is not something we have imagined. This is not some examination of our feelings and our experience, and we reason up to God and figure that he must be there. At the bottom of our whole religion is this marvelous truth that God has spoken.

The doctrines that we teach, we say, have been divinely revealed. The morals and the ethics that we insist on, we insist on them because God has revealed them to us. It is his word to us. And so at the bottom of our religion, before everything else, is this wonderful truth that God has spoken. That is the subject of Psalm 19.

We saw last time in verses 1 to 6 what we call general revelation, that God has left his impress on the created order. The created order, as it is, says something; without words, it says something about the one who made it. And we saw that last time. Now we come in verse 7 to turn to what we call special revelation—that God has not just revealed himself in a general way in the created order so that we can see that he is there, so that we can see that the world has a maker, and see that the maker is powerful and wise and good and all of that. But now we have some specificity to it all because God has spoken verbally, and that of course is the whole point of the inspired writers of Scripture. And that’s the subject of the psalmist that he takes up beginning in verse 7: special revelation.

The Law of the Lord

And he tells us here that it just has massive implications for us for life. And here he praises the value and the benefits of God’s word, or as he calls it, the law of the Lord. Verse 7 again:

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

Well, you can see then that throughout all of this, it is God’s written revelation that is in view, or God’s Word written. We have six—and you should notice this with the structure of these verses—we have six synonyms that are used for the Word of God. Verse 7: the law of the Lord, the testimony of the Lord. Verse 8: the precepts of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord. Verse 9: the fear of the Lord and the rules of the Lord.

All of this is referring back to the Torah, the law of God that was given. This is a reference to what God has written and his instruction for life; it is authoritative instruction for life. And so to underline the authority of the word that has come, he repeats that phrase, “of the Lord.” This is not just the law, it’s the law of the Lord. This is the testimony of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord. This is the commandment of the Lord. It’s the fear of the Lord, the rules of the Lord, the rules that the Lord has given.

And even the terms, these synonyms themselves, emphasize the authority of the word. So it’s the law. The law of the Lord; it’s authoritative instruction that has been given. It’s precepts, it’s commandments, it’s the rules. These are the explicit imperatives of the word, the demands that it makes. All of this underlines the authority of divine revelation.

And then notice we have not only the six synonyms for divine revelation, but we have seven adjectives that are given to describe the perfections and the excellencies of God’s word. Verse 7: the law of the Lord is perfect. The testimony of the Lord is sure. Verse 8: the precepts of the Lord are right. The commandment of the Lord is pure. Verse 9: the fear of the Lord is clean. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

And then not only does he underline the authority of each and then describe each with its perfections of surety and rightness and purity and all, but then he states explicitly for us the five-fold value or the benefits of divine revelation. Notice again, verse 7: the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple—making simple people wise. Verse 8: the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. There’s the statement of the value or the benefit. Verse 8, the second part: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Verse 9: the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

So there’s kind of an escalation in verses 7 and 8. It revives the soul, it makes simple people wise, it rejoices the heart, it enlightens the eyes. It just keeps getting better. These are the values and the benefits of God’s revelation. So what we’ll do is we’ll work through these verses and we’ll look particularly at verses 7 and 8 that give the title: the law, or the precepts, or the fear of the Lord, or the commandment, whatever. It gives the characteristic of it: it is perfect, it’s sure, and so on. And then we’ll look at the value of it that’s affirmed in these verses as well.

So, verse 7: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” The law—this is the Hebrew word that you’ve all heard, Torah. It does not necessarily mean only the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. It does not necessarily refer only to the so-called book of the law, beginning in Exodus 21. It is a word that’s used for really all of divine revelation throughout the Old Testament, and even in the New, it is referred back to the whole Old Testament in terms of this word, law. The word means simply not just commands, but divine instruction. Torah means instruction. Now it’s authoritative instruction, and so it is rightly translated law.

Now he says the law of the Lord, this divine revelation from God with its authoritative instruction, he says is perfect. That’s quite a claim. The law of the Lord is perfect. The idea there is that it’s complete. It lacks nothing. It’s comprehensive. It entails the idea of inerrancy. It’s perfect after all. But the idea is more of one that’s complete. It can’t be added to, can’t be taken away from. There’s a kind of moral beauty to it because it’s all you need. The idea is that of sufficiency. It’s perfect. It meets the human needs at every point.

“The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” The soul is the person. Reviving here—this word in the Hebrew is a common word that’s used throughout the Old Testament in connotations of repentance. It just simply means to turn or to return. And this is the idea. And this is why the King James translates it, “converting the soul.” It restores the soul; it makes it all that it ought to be. So the law of the Lord is perfect, turning it, converting it, reviving it to all that it is intended to be. In other words, it is completely comprehensive instruction, all-encompassing, sufficient to restore the whole person to everything that he ought to be.

You see the breadth of the claim in this? The law of the Lord is perfect. It has everything that is needed to make the person all in every way that he ought to be. I’ll probably say this another half a dozen times through the message: that’s an audacious claim. We have another claim like that in the New Testament. Very familiar passage, 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction in righteousness, that… the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” The Bible comes with its audacious claim that it can do for you and give you all that you need to live successfully before God. It’s complete, it’s sufficient, it’s perfect in and of itself. This is all you need.

Well then, verse 7 again, the second half of the verse: “The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.” Testimony—that word emphasizes or underlines the idea that scripture is God’s self-revelation; it’s his self-witness, his testimony that he has given. His self-witness regarding himself, his witness or his testimony regarding what we are to do and our responsibility to him. God has spoken to us by means of inspired men that were inspired for just this purpose. It’s the testimony of the Lord. It has come from him.

And he says the testimony of the Lord is sure. That is, it’s entirely trustworthy. It’s reliable, grounded as it is in a God of truth and the God of omniscience. It’s reliable. It’s trustworthy. And again, it entails the idea of inerrancy. When God speaks, of course, it’s never in error. But the point here, I think, is more positive and personal. It’s trustworthy. It’s dependable. It’s firm. It’s reliable. It’ll never fail you. You can always count on it at every point. You shape your life by it with complete confidence. It will never mislead. Never afterwards will you say, “Well, I wish I had found counsel elsewhere.” The testimony of the Lord is sure.

And because the testimony of the Lord is so sure and so firm and so reliable, he says, it does this amazing thing: it makes simple people wise. Now that ought to be an encouragement for all of us. Because it is sure and trustworthy, it can take a man who is clueless about how to live and can make him an expert. How to please God, how to be a good husband, how to be a good wife, father, mother, friend. It can take you in all of those realms and make you an expert. Now, you’ll fail at all of it yourself, but what he’s saying here is that you read and follow God’s instruction, it is sure, and it’ll make simple people wise. So verse 7, then, is the scripture’s ability, comprehensively, to make us all that we ought to be and all that we would want to be.

Verse 8: “The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.” Precepts—that’s the idea of statutes, the idea of commanding, the commanding aspects of God’s revelation, the demands that it makes, the requirements. Precepts. And what he says is that God’s precepts are right. The precepts of the Lord are right. That is, they’ll never mislead; they’re upright. Its counsel is flawless. You can follow God’s precepts with absolute confidence that you’ll never be misled by them. They’re right, always.

And because of that, “the precepts of the Lord are right,” because of that, it rejoices the heart. It makes you glad for it. One of the themes, a related theme in the book of Proverbs, is that of the fool who rejects wisdom. You reject the wisdom of God, you’ll mess up your life, and you find that in Proverbs quite often. You ignore divine commands, you’ll make a mess of your life, you’ll be unhappy, your life will be in turmoil all the time, your relationships will be messed up, your home will be messed up—you ignore divine commands, divine wisdom, you’ll mess up your life. And what he is doing here is emphasizing the flip side of that, or the positive side of that, which of course is always emphasized in Proverbs as well, and that is, following God’s commands rejoices the heart.

It makes you glad for it. That is, there’s a distinct pleasure and joy in hearing and then following God’s commands. We’ve said it before, you’ve all heard it: a well-disciplined child is a happy child. He knows the parameters in which he can work and live and behave, and he’s happy because those things are defined for him. It’s the same thing here. Submission to God’s commands brings its own reward. It pays off in real life. Those who live by it are glad for it because they never find themselves wrong. They never find themselves disappointed, wishing they’d found counsel somewhere else. The commandments of the Lord bring with them a felt sense of stability and confidence for living life. Follow God’s instruction regarding your home, regarding relationships, husband, wife, parenting, and you’ll never regret it. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

The next part of verse 8: “the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Commandment, again, that’s the authoritative demands of scripture. The commandment of the Lord is pure. That is, it’s radiant. And because it’s radiant, it enlightens the eyes. That’s a symbol for understanding, discernment; it clarifies responsibilities, clarifies priorities, gives you a life-shaping perspective. And it all becomes very clear when you chart it by the commandment of the Lord. One of the marks of a biblically informed Christian is that he’s never confused by the passing whims of society, the ever-shifting norms, but always there’s a sure guide in daily life. Decisions are seldom complicated because we have the sure guide. The commandment of the Lord is pure. It enlightens the eyes, it gives discernment, it lightens the path for us, and it makes it all very clear.

Verse 9: “The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.” Now, the fear of the Lord, of course, is a prominent theme in the Old Testament wisdom literature. It has to do with a right estimate of God and a right response to that. It’s the foundational element of learning, it’s the foundational element of wisdom and knowledge. If you don’t have a right estimate of who God is, and if you are not related to him accordingly in fear, then you don’t know anything rightly. All of life is skewed.

Now here we have the idea of the fear of the Lord used in an objective kind of way as a title for scripture. The only time we find it used that way, I think. And it has to do with the human response to what God has said. God speaks and we respond in reverence and fear. One writer has put it this way: the fear of the Lord used as a title for scripture here is “designated the effect for the cause.” So God’s word, God and his word are the cause. Our response to that, the effect, is fear. And here he speaks of those scriptures themselves then objectively as the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord is clean. And it has no impurities. There’s nothing about it that’ll decay. Again, the idea of flawless and trustworthy; it’s clean. And because the fear of the Lord is clean, notice the next: it endures forever. That is, it’s always true, it’s always relevant, it’s always binding. It never needs updating and never can be revoked. It doesn’t need to be edited. It never needs to be tweaked in any kind of way to bring it up to society’s changing norms. It is always true, always right, always binding, always relevant. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

Boy, if there’s anything that our society needs today, it’s that, and our culture. Everything is up for grabs. We don’t know what is true. We don’t even know if there is such a thing as true. Norms and values, they’re all up for grabs and shifting. And what we are told today, oddly enough, is that we then need to adjust our values, Scripture’s values, to the changing norms of society. And what David tells us here is that day will never come when God’s Word is not true and not relevant and not binding. Every day of life we can chart our course by God’s revelation with confidence and we’ll never be left without a sure point of reference. It’s an amazing claim.

The last part of verse 9: “The rules”—or the legislations—”of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.” True. It’s firm. It’s steady. It can be counted on. It can’t be overturned like human judgments can be. It’s never irrelevant. They’re still true always. They never need revision. Human discoveries in the social sciences will never render God’s Word out of date or irrelevant. And now here in verse nine, he doesn’t give us the value, but he states again, expands on the characteristic of scripture. The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. That is, they are always in perfect conformity to God’s character and will. Never in any detail ever will it mislead. It is always—its counsel, its instruction is always precisely right.

So here we have it. It is an absolutely audacious claim. The Bible is true. Look back at verses 7 to 9 again. The Bible is true and right in all of its declarations, all of its affirmations, and all of its commands. It is always completely trustworthy. It will never mislead. It is never out of date. It’ll never become irrelevant. It is always relevant and always true and always binding, and it is altogether sufficient to guide your life and shape your life in such a way that you can live without regrets. That’s quite a claim. Here it is, all you need, and your life will be a success. It’s an amazing claim.

And you get through that, and if you’re thinking at all, you’ve got to say, “Now there’s a book I want to read.” Here’s a book that we can, every time we open it, open it with complete confidence that its instruction is true, it is right, it is trustworthy, it will never lead me astray, and it’ll always shape my life in such a way that I can live without regrets. You realize what a treasure God’s Word is? You realize how foolish we are to neglect it? How foolish you would be to fail to teach your children?

And that’s David’s point. Verse 10 is the climactic thought of the stanza: “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.” This—God’s revelation to us, his instruction to us—is more valuable to me than money. It’s more desirable than candy. What we see here is that David has thought long and hard on the idea that God has spoken. God has given instruction for life. And he’s reasoning that out, and he says, now, if the creator of humanity has written the manual for how we can live successfully, well, what could be more valuable than that? And that’s verse 10. It’s more desirable than gold, sweeter than honey.

Think on it again. Look back through verses seven to nine again. If the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; if the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; if the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; if the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; if the fear of the Lord is clean and enduring forever—then what value can you put on that? Can there be anything of greater value than God’s self-revelation? And David says, this is better than fine gold. And if the Bible offers all of this, what kind of folly is it for us to ignore it? It ought to be the major pursuit of our life.

As I’ve already mentioned, this is a big theme in Proverbs, particularly in those first nine chapters of Proverbs. Remember, we’ve worked through them some time ago. Those first nine chapters of Proverbs, you have the sage giving his counsel to his son, and he’s speaking on the value of wisdom, and he tells him to pursue it. And he stresses over and again the value of wisdom. You won’t regret pursuing divine revelation.

Let me give you a couple of samples of it. Proverbs 2, verses 1 and following: “Treasure up my commandments with you. Make your ear attentive to wisdom. Incline your heart to understanding. Seek it like silver and search for it as hidden treasures.” Proverbs 3, verses 1 and following: “Do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandment; for lengths of days and years of life and peace they will add to you, so you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.” Later in chapter 3: “It will be life for your soul, adornment for your neck. Then you will walk on your way securely and your foot will not stumble. If you lie down, you will not be afraid. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet.”

Pursue God’s instruction and you will have what is of most value. And that is what David is emphasizing here in Psalm 19. Divine revelation is the most valuable possession a man could ever have. Here I have direction for life that is always right. Opens my eyes, gives me discernment, and David says, when I read it, it’s like eating candy. It is so good for me—except for the nutritional aspect of candy. Nutritional candy.

Notice the value; verse 11 is double-sided. “Moreover by them”—that is, by God’s precepts—”is your servant warned, and in keeping of them there’s great reward.” So there’s warning, and if you keep it, there’s reward. That is, it infallibly guides us both how to escape disaster and ruin and how to gain reward. It guides our steps and it counsels us against missteps. Could there be anything more valuable than that? You’ve heard me say it before: a huge bank account can buy you a really nice house, but it can’t buy you a home. A big bank account can buy you fancy foods, put them on the table, but it can’t buy you fellowship around the table. A huge bank account can buy fine things for a woman, but it can’t buy her love and affection. Divine instruction can do it all. It should give you the house and the home, the table and the fellowship, and the love and the affection. Divine revelation can enrich all of life. And David says there’s just nothing to compare to the value of divine revelation.

So David writes in praise of the value of divine revelation. And just to scratch an itch here, and perhaps as a caution in case you hear the same, recent generations have increasingly found it fashionable for professing Christians—even professing evangelicals on the left wing—to question the reliability of scripture, and they speak of its fallibility and such. They claim to be evangelicals and they still push that. And one line that they will often give to bolster their position as they slander the trustworthiness of scripture is they will say that those—they’ll usually use the word “fundamentalist” because that has negative connotations today—those fundamentalists are guilty of bibliolatry. That’s the word they use: bibliolatry. They worship the Bible. It rips me when they say that. There has not been a Christian in the history of Christians who has worshipped his Bible. By definition, a Christian doesn’t worship his Bible.

But when David writes here, as an inspired writer from God, he is not worshipping his Bible, but he is praising God for the treasure that Scripture is. And he recognizes this as the word from God, and he values it accordingly. And because this is God’s instruction to me, this must be central. Central to everything. This, by the way, historically, is why in the Protestant, especially the Reformed tradition, the pulpit is moved to the center. It’s not off to the side. It’s not the altar that’s at the center. We don’t have an altar—that’s another discussion. But it’s the Word of God that is essential and central to our worship and to our life.

A Prayer to God

Well, there’s David’s praise for the value of Scripture. Now we get to verse 11 as we’ve already read it. It’s so subtle you might not have noticed it, but suddenly in verse 11, David is addressing God. “Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping of them there’s great reward.” That’s a transition verse then, because in verses 12 and following, David is offering a prayer to God.

And what we have in verse 12 is a prayer for forgiveness. “Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.” Declare me innocent from hidden faults. Who can discern his errors? Who can keep up with them? Scripture sets the bar so high. Who could possibly keep track of all the ways that we violate it and fall short of it? And David recognizes that, and so he prays for forgiveness. Declare me as one who has never been in violation of your word at any point.

And then verse 13, we have a prayer for protection. And here I think the idea is the protection from the influence of evil men. “Keep back your servant also from”—and our translation has “presumptuous sins.” I think it’s better here to say that—”keep back your servant from the insolent, that is, the evil people; let them not have dominion over me. And then I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.” So in both cases, verse 12 and 13, he’s praying for divine help and he’s recognizing the value of God’s revelation. And with a view to his own weakness, he prays to God for forgiveness on the one hand and protection from evil influence on the other.

And then verse 14, the verse that is very familiar to all of us, he gives a dedicatory prayer. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” That is to say, “Lord, accept my worship. Specifically, accept my worship in this psalm of praise.” Now, the fact that it made its way into the canon of scripture is a pretty strong hint that it was acceptable and accepted by God. And in fact, it seems David anticipated that it would be because he writes in the postscript “to the choir master” for all of us to sing with him.

Now, how do we understand all of this best from our New Testament perspective? Three things, quickly.

Number one, we now have the fullness of revelation in Christ. We have far more revelation than David had. Hebrews 1 is the big passage on this. God, who at various times and various ways has spoken to us by the fathers—Moses, David, Isaiah—he’s spoken to us by the fathers, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son. And now we have the climax of divine revelation in Jesus Christ and a fullness of revelation through him. And we find that explored more fully in the scriptures, that the fullness of revelation that came in Jesus Christ is given to us by his Spirit through the apostles to the church, delivered to the saints once and for all. And we have this full body of revelation. And if we have that, standing on this side of all of that, we ought to have even a greater appreciation and confidence in the revelation that has been given to us.

Two, secondly here, when we read the revelation that we have, and particularly the fuller revelation that we have, it inevitably exposes ways in which we have failed to live up to it. And so we find ourselves praying like David in verse 12, “Declare me innocent from hidden faults.” And yet, with the fullness of revelation that we have in Jesus, we can pray that prayer with so much more confidence. Declare me innocent from my hidden faults. There are ways that I’ve sinned that I didn’t even notice along the way. Declare me innocent from it. How in the world can a just God do that? And of course, the fullness of revelation in Jesus is given just to tell us that. That he doesn’t count them against you; he’s counted them to his Son, passed it all to him, and he’s taken our sin, and his righteousness is counted ours. And by union with Christ by faith, we are joined to the one who saves us from it all. And so when we read this, inevitably, yes, I see the value of scripture, and yes, inevitably, I see the ways that I’ve transgressed it. And we can pray—can I say it? We can pray better than an inspired writer at this point. Because of the revelation that we’ve been given: Lord, declare me righteous, declare me innocent from my hidden faults.

And in fact, thirdly, he takes us further than—we can go further than that. The Bible tells us that in Christ, not only do we have one who’s taken the sin, but he has given us one, his Spirit, who will enable us to live in keeping with the commands that he’s given. The Bible issues commands, but the ironic thing about it is that it frankly tells us you can’t do it. And then it comes along with a new covenant promise. It says, “I’ll give you my Spirit, I’ll put him in you, and I’ll change your heart, and I’ll cause you to walk in my ways.”

How there’s so much more there that we could see that God has enabled us to do that, but there is just a hint of all of this in verse 14 at the very end of the verse. “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.” That is, David’s plea is not simply that his worship would be found acceptable. His plea is that it would be acceptable precisely because God is his rock and his Redeemer. Now both these metaphors, rock and Redeemer, speak of deliverance. But they do it with different connotations. Rock speaks of God’s power and his might. Redeemer—this is the Hebrew word for kinsman redeemer—he redeems not only in power, but he redeems in love.

The New Testament Christian looks at all that and says, “God, accept my worship. Accept my fickle attempts at living in keeping with your instruction for me. Not because I’ve done well enough, but because Jesus Christ is my rock and my Redeemer. And then enable me, as you’ve promised, to follow your word more faithfully for your glory and for my own joy.” Amen.

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for this reminder of the value of your holy word to us. What a treasure it is. Give us, Lord, all you’ve promised. We thank you for Jesus in whom we have forgiveness of sins and in whom we have righteousness before you. We thank you for your Spirit whom you’ve sent to enable us to live as you’ve commanded. Give us, Lord, all that you’ve promised. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.