Why Have You Forsaken Me? - Part 3 (Psalm 22:22-31)

Announcements

Showing a free movie, Sabina on May 20th at 7pm in the Auditorium. Free admittance, snacks, and drinks for anyone who would care to join us.

On May 28th, we’ll have an outreach opportunity as we canvas the Chester Hill neighborhood. We’ll start canvassing that neighborhood at 10:30am, please contact Natalie if you want more details about it.

On June 4th, we need a handful of volunteers to help us with a quick workday at the church—we plan on deep cleaning the whole building, touching-up paint, and cleaning up the alley behind the church building, for sure. And if the funding comes in, we’re going to need some help hanging two doors in the activity room.

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Sermon

Introduction

Please turn in your Bibles to Psalm 22:22-31.

As you know, we’ve been working through the book of Psalms every Wednesday for quite some time and for the past few weeks, we’ve been working through Psalm 22 itself because it’s a bit longer of a psalm. Over the past three weeks, we’ve taken each section of Psalm 22 and worked line-by-line and phrase-by-phrase through the text and we’re now in the last third of the text, which almost completely changes gears.

Remember with me the previous two-thirds of the text before we read the last bit of Psalm 22.

In Psalm 22:1-11, David cries out to God to express how he feels during a time of great distress.

David explains that he feels as if God had forsaken him and that God hasn’t been responding to him. He makes the statement that day and night he cries out to the Lord, but the Lord doesn’t answer him.

He expresses the sentiment that he feels as if he is completely worthless—like a worm and not a man. He states that people mock him.

But in the midst of all this, he does continually remind himself of the Lord. He reminds himself that God is holy and faithful; and that God is the one who cared for him while he was yet in the mother’s womb—God is the one who led him and directed him to genuine belief,

In Psalm 22:12-21, we then see David give some specificity to what has caused such great distress in his life. Why does he feel as if God has forsaken him, that he’s all alone, and that God isn’t listening to his prayers?

Because his enemies are surrounding him, ready to attack him, and ready to harm him.

His enemies are near him, ready to hurt him, and they’ve already hurt him.

It’s no wonder that the psalmist feels as if he’s alone and that God isn’t listening to his prayers.

Nevertheless, he prays again, “Lord, do not be far off,” “come quickly,” “deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog! Save me.”

We’ve spoken at length through the first two sections about it is perfectly acceptable and expected for Christians to have times in life that are discouraging, depressing, and distressing especially in times of great difficulty in life, but my exhortation and encouragement has been consistent through each section, to keep in mind how David responds to those hardships in life. This evening, is no different because the context remains the same. Psalm 22 ends with David praising the Lord, but he’s still physically in a situation in which he’s concerned that his enemies will kill him or at the very least hurt him; and he’s still in a situation in which he feels as if God has forsaken him and is refusing to hear him; and yet, again, he ends the psalm by praising the Lord.

Keep this in mind as we read Psalm 22:22-31 together.

Psalm 22:22–31 ESV

22 I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: 23 You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! 24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. 25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. 26 The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever! 27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

As we study the remaining verses in Psalm 22, we’re going to break it into two parts: (1) vv. 22-26, The Congregation’s Praise for the Lord and (2) vv. 27-31, The World’s Praise for the Lord. Now that David has expressed the pain and suffering that he had focused on in vv. 1-11 and now that he’s prayed for deliverance in vv. 12-21, there’s nothing left for him to do but praise the Lord. In doing so, he praises the Lord, he calls the congregation of Israel to praise the Lord, and then he reminds us that in the end, everyone will praise the Lord. This evening’s message will provoke us to praise and it will convict us for our lack of praise.

The Congregation’s Praise for the Lord (22-26)

After expressing all the pain and suffering that David is going through, he starts to end his psalm and he ends his psalm in a way that might seem surprising after reading all the struggles that he chooses to talk about in vv 1-21.

If we’re being honest with ourselves, we might think of David’s struggle like our own struggles and when we struggle in a manner similar to David’s, we typically don’t end by praising the Lord.

Rather, we typically choose to focus on the negatives at hand and like I mentioned last week, we tend to sulk in despair, be discouraged, and stay in our depression, but David doesn’t do that.

Now, clearly, David recognizes that there are significant issues at hand; and I’ve already mentioned this evening that it is acceptable for believers to experience great hardship and express their discouragement, despair, and depression to the Lord.

But David doesn’t stay in his discouragement. We do see glimmers of hope in his prayers through the text:

In v. 3 despite feeling forsaken, David reminds himself of God’s character, “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” It was God who his forefathers trusted in and it was God who delivered them.

In vv. 6-8, David speaks of how he feels as if he’s worthless, but in vv. 9-10, he reminds himself that God is the one who “took [him] from the womb” and God is the one who led him to genuine belief.

We see David describe his enemies who surround him and explain how he physically feels, but in vv. 19-21, while praying for deliverance, we see both David’s desperation and his absolute confidence in the Lord. Because he has such confidence, he has hope in God.

V. 22, continues that trend of having hope in the Lord, by David focusing on his own praise of the Lord. Despite all the pain, suffering, and hardship that he’s described in vv. 1-21, he says “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:”

V. 22 is the thesis statement for the rest of the psalm; or in other words, now that David has expressed his emotional state, his pain, suffering, and hardship; he’s making a declaration or proclamation of what he’s going to do in light of or maybe even despite everything in vv. 1-21.

Despite all the hardship, pain, and suffering, David says, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”

This declaration or proclamation of David is very literally a vow for him to praise God and it does beg the question, what does it mean to praise the Lord?

The book of psalms includes a plethora of statements concerning the idea of praise: Psalm 9:2 “2 I will rejoice and be jubilant in You; I will sing praise to Your name.” Psalm 18:3 “3 I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised.” Psalm 21:13 “13 Be exalted, Lord, in Your strength; We will sing and praise Your power.”

The Bible speaks at length about the need to praise God and even in the New Testament, we see believers praising Jesus, but what does it mean to praise?

If you were to look the word praise up in the dictionary, you would see multiple definitions, but the definition meant by the biblical authors is usually the second definition. The American Heritage Dictionary says that praise is “the extolling or exaltation of a deity, ruler, or hero.” To praise means “to express a feeling of veneration or gratitude to; worship or glorify.”

If you want to be more specific, you might want to look it up in a Bible dictionary or wordbook. The Lexham Theological Wordbook combines praise and thanksgiving and says, “Praising God is the activity of God’s creatures in honoring God because of the acts and the nature of God. Thanksgiving is an expression of gratitude to God for his care and concern, especially as shown through his redemptive acts.” (John Frederick, “Praise and Thanksgiving,” Lexham Theological Wordbook.)

We can really sum it up by saying that praising God involves the idea of glorifying or extolling God. It’s a means of veneration to show gratitude because of who God is and what he has done.

With that in mind, what David is essentially stating in v. 22 is that despite the hardships that he’s facing, he’s still going to worship the Lord, he’s still going to glorify God, he’s still going to show gratitude to the Lord. He’s still going to be thankful and he’s still going to praise the Lord. Why?

Because he knows who God is and he knows the character of God; and he recognizes that even in the midst of such despair, that God is still a good God who works all things to conform him into his image.

He knows that God is still able to save him, that God is still able to give him aid, and that God can still answer his prayers. How does he know this? Because that’s what God did for him previously in his life and that’s what God has done for his forefathers, and that’s simply who God is.

Because he knows who God is, he vows to praise the Lord in the midst of the congregation. He promises to tell the people about the Lord.

And then he does, starting in the very next verse to the end of the psalm. Vv. 23-24, “You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.”

David vows to praise the Lord in v. 22 and then he calls on the whole congregation to praise the Lord with him. Notice first of all, that he’s speaking specifically to the believers in Israel first. “You who fear the Lord” clearly speaks of the reverential awe that all believers are to have.

Those who don’t fear the Lord don’t believe—consider Proverbs 9:10 “10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” and Proverbs 1:7 “7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

He’s calling on all who believe to praise the Lord—give him thanks, extol him; and then he gets very specific in v. 23, “All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him, and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel.”

David calls them all to praise the Lord and to glorify the Lord.

And the reason for this is made clear in v. 24, “For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him.

Which when taken with everything that David had said earlier in the text, what we see is very clear. The statements of feeling as if he was rejected by God, ignored by God, worthless, and without hope are just that; they were his feelings.

But what David says in v. 24 is factual reality. God hasn’t actually despised him or rejected him. God hasn’t actually left him alone, but God has heard him and God has revealed himself to him.

We see, clearly in this text, how David felt, but the reality is that David knew better because he knew who God was, he knew God’s character, and he knew what God has done in the past.

Was it wrong for David to express the pain and suffering that he was going through? Absolutely not, but even in the midst of expressing those hardships, he kept his mind on the truth of who God is revealed through God’s Word. It’s no wonder why Jesus would pray for his people to be sanctified in the truth and then immediately say that God’s Word is the truth.

What is the reasoning for David’s praise? Why does he tell everyone to cry out to the Lord? Because the Lord cares for the afflicted and the Lord has revealed himself to the afflicted and hears his prayers.

Vv. 25-26, end this section with a restatement of his praise to the Lord and what God’s care for the afflicted means. “From you [God] comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will perform before those who fear him. The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord! May your hearts live forever!”

Note that David is clear that the praise that he offers to God is praise that is directed by God.

Or put differently, the praise that any of us offers to the Lord comes first from the Lord and David has already explained how that happens in Psalm 22.

In his prayer, he mentions in vv. 9-10, “Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you . . . on you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.”

How does God give David the praise that he is to offer to the Lord? God through leading David and calling him to repentance, has brought him to the point where he believes.

God through working in the life of David has sanctified David in such a way that David wants to praise and worship the Lord.

God through working in the life of David—protecting him, caring for him, and leading him, compels praise for himself.

So, David can rightly say that his praise for God comes from the Lord.

Note also, that David praises the Lord “in the great congregation” and he performs his vows amongst those who genuinely believe.

We live in a culture that seeks to be very individualistic, but the Bible shows us a Christianity that needs the community of the saints.

Often, we hear people state that you don’t need to attend church to be a Christian; and that’s absolutely true, but let me remind you that Jesus loves the church. He died for the church, he cared for the church; and both the author of Hebrews and Paul himself recognized the need of the body of Christ to be together.

David’s praise for the Lord in Psalm 22:25 is within the context of the body, not apart from the body. David’s keeping of his vow will be done within the context of those who fear the Lord—not apart from the body of believers.

David makes these claims and then reiterates his direct reason for the praise of the Lord. We can sum it up with the concept that God cares for those who are afflicted and those who genuinely seek the Lord will praise God.

The last phrase in this section, v. 26, states “May your hearts live forever!” Which is a little bit of an odd statement, but let me simply explain what it means.

When someone today is struggling with a great hardship, you may have heard someone make the exhortation for them to “take heart,” which is just an encouragement for them to have courage or be confident.

“May your hearts live forever” is a similar encouragement to take heart. To have courage or be confidence and the reasoning for that courage or confidence is found in the very same verse, “the afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord!” Take heart, have courage, be confident, “may your hearts live forever!” Why? Because God cares for his people even when they’re afflicted and they feel as if God has abandoned them. Take heart, have courage, be confident, “may your hearts live forever” not because of you or who you are or what you’ve done, but rather because of God and who he is and what he has done.

Now David has a tendency when he starts to praise the Lord, that he goes further than what we would expect him to. What he has said in vv. 22-26 to us might be all that we need to understand the point that he’s driving at, but David continues anyways. Let’s re-read vv. 27-31.

The World’s Praise for the Lord (27-31)

Psalm 22:27–31 ESV

27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. 28 For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. 29 All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

David ends his psalm by looking at all people regardless of if they believe in God or not. And in the remaining few verses he speaks of how the people will praise the Lord because of their remembrance of what happened.

So, David in his present situation is hiding from his enemies who are surrounding him. He expresses grave concern that he’s about to die and he feels as if God has abandoned him; and yet, because he knows who God is, he prays and he hopes for God to rescue him.

In the previous verses, vv. 22-26 he starts speaking of this great praise that he will praise the Lord with and the praise that he’s encouraging the people of Israel to praise the Lord with.

And you might hear all this and think, “why is David encouraging such praise of the Lord when he’s still in dire situations?” But let me remind you of one of the last points that I made last week concerning v. 21, that the last phrase, “you have rescued me” is spoken in such a way that it’s clear that David believed God would save him so much that he writes as if God has already saved him.

With that in mind, it’s clear then that what David is doing in vv. 22-31 is that he’s praising the Lord despite the present situation because he knows that God will save him soon.

So, he praises God and he calls his brothers and the congregation of Israel to praise the Lord and in these final five verses he speaks of how everyone will praise the Lord when they remember what God had done for David.

That despite the present situation of hardship, David is so confident that God is about to save him that he writes vv. 27-31 with the idea that in the future, when people think about how God rescued David, they’re going to praise God for doing so.

David’s statement in vv. 27-28 is “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the Lord.”

I do want to clarify one issue, that this is not a universalist statement. We live in a culture that pushes a post-modern, universalist agenda (that any and all religious beliefs are perfectly acceptable and that it doesn’t really matter if you believe in Jesus just as long as you claim to believe something), but that’s not what David is saying here.

Our modern-day world teaches us to be accepting of whatever anyone believes, which is why we have an ecumenical movement and why that ecumenical movement has even been accepting of false religious beliefs, but that universalistic mindset isn’t what David is speaking of.

He’s speaking of a very specific context, that those who will remind themselves of what God does for David in this situation will worship the Lord.

Or in other words, only those who already fear the LORD and believe, when they remind themselves of what God did for David as he rescued David from the hands of his enemies, they will turn to the LORD and worship God.

And those who don’t already fear the LORD and believe might themselves come and worship the LORD as well based off what this account with David teaches them.

Why would the world turn to worship the Lord? Because according to v. 28 “kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.”

Or in other words, the people will worship the LORD because they’ll remind themselves of what all God did for David in David’s time of need and they’ll recognize that God himself, is the eternal King who rules over all the nations.

God himself, is the sovereign king and thus, the sovereign king deserves all the worship and all the praise.

David then reiterates who should worship the LORD in the remaining three verses, “All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive. Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.”

In the last few verses, David explains the extent of all who will praise and worship the Lord. That even those who are prosperous will eat and worship.

You might ask, “why does David emphasize those who are prosperous” and I think you’ll hear the reasoning for it and realize that the reasoning is quite simple.

Those who are prosperous tend to think of themselves as completely self-sufficient. There is the misconception amongst those who are prosperous that they don’t need anything whatsoever and that includes whether they believe in God.

Thus, David’s statement that even those who are prosperous will worship the LORD just emphasizes that people of all walks of life will worship the LORD when they hear about what God did for David.

The Psalmist says that “all who go down to the dust, even the one who could not keep himself alive” will worship the LORD when they realize who God is and what God has done for David.

Again, this isn’t a universalist statement, just a reflection of the great things that God did for David and what that must mean of the God who did these great things for David.

The last two verses, then tells us of the coming generations coming to worship the LORD because of what God did for David in rescuing him, “Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.”

What David states in vv. 27-31 is that what God will do for him—in rescuing him from his enemies; is such a tremendous feat, that it’s going to cause those around him, those that aren’t from Israel, and those that aren’t even born yet to come to belief in God and to worship him.

Again, I want to reiterate the fact that this is not a universalist statement, David is by no means stating that everyone is going to believe; only that those who do from this point will remember what God did for David and worship the Lord for doing it.

What David is stating in Psalm 22 is that God, who is the sovereign King who rules over all the earth, is worthy of our trust because of who he is and what he has done—including the fact that he will save David; and from our perspective, he has saved David.

Which ends the psalm in such a way that we can look at the entirety of the text to determine that overarching application for us as we close off the psalm as well. What we see in Psalm 22 is a psalm filled with hardship, pain, and suffering, but interspersed within that expression of hardship, pain, and suffering is hope, confidence, and trust in the Lord. As we take the remaining few minutes to discuss specific application, we’re going to look at that application in two ways: (1) Application for vv. 22-31 and (2) Application for Psalm 22.

Application

Application for vv. 22-31—in the last ten verses of Psalm 22, we see David ending his psalm in praise. And as he closes off his psalm, we can’t help but remind ourselves of the hardship that he’s facing; and yet, he’s still compelled to praise the Lord. We spoke about what exactly it meant to praise the Lord—to give thanks, to glorify, to show veneration for who God is and what he has done. He praised the Lord even though he was (at that time) surrounded by enemies who sought to do him harm. I think there are really two applications that we should make from this:

Seek to praise God even in times of distress:

Our sinful tendency is for us to forget about worship and praise during times of great distress in life. We tend to allow our circumstances to get in the way of our spiritual life.

The reality is that when we allow our circumstances to stop us from praising the Lord, we act in sin because God and who he is demands that we continually praise him. 1 Thess 5:18 “18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.”

It is God’s will for us to give thanks, which is closely tied to the idea of praising him.

To not praise God, even in times of great distress is sin.

Now, you might ask, “how do I praise God even when life is filled with hardship?”

I think David gives us a pretty decent example of what that’s like—he’s clearly in great distress and yet, he still praises God.

And I’m only going to briefly mention this now, because I’m going to emphasize it again when we speak about the application for the whole text of Psalm 22—when David finds himself in hardship he still praises God because he reminds himself of who God is, he reminds himself of the truth, and he relies on who God is.

He’s able to praise the Lord because he realizes that despite his present circumstances, God is still God and God is good, and God cares for him.

Even in life’s hardest times, you need to seek to praise God in all that you say, do, and think.

Seek to praise God even in times of distress.

And then seek to praise God with those who seek to praise God:

David starts this psalm by expressing the feeling that he’s all alone—that God abandoned him, God isn’t hearing him, and he has no one to turn to.

David ends this psalm by speaking of praising God with all the great congregation, all of Israel, and even people outside of Israel.

David ends this psalm by expressing a desire to praise God with all who believe.

We live in a very individualist society and in our society, we tend to only think of ourselves—we do whatever’s best for me.

Christianity is very much a faith that eschews individualism. Now, that doesn’t mean that we’re all exactly the same, but it does mean that we aren’t to seek to separate ourselves from other believers; we are to seek the fellowship of the saints.

Hebrews 10:25 “25 [Let us not abandon] our own meeting together, as is the habit of some people, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

David expresses this great desire to praise God amongst all who believe.

We very much need to praise and worship God together; in the local assembly as Ephesians 5:19 “19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord;”

Despite our individualistic society and despite how we can sometimes feel as if we’re all alone and abandoned, the reality is that Scripture teaches us that we need to be a part of a covenant community of believers that seek to praise, worship, and honor the Lord together.

That looks different depending on the context—some churches are much larger than ours, sometimes in places in need of a Gospel witness, it may only be a handful of people.

That might look like a group of people singing and praising the Lord with a piano and organ, or it might be a group of people being led by a team of musicians.

Apart from musical worship, our praise of the Lord even in the midst of preaching and teaching might look different; our praise of the Lord in prayer might differ depending on the context.

However, Scripture is clear, regardless of the context, regardless of the stylistic choices, praise of the Lord is not an option—it is expected by all who believe; and while praise of the Lord can be done alone, there is great power in praising the Lord within a group of believers.

And just like David, we need to seek to praise the Lord with others who seek to praise the Lord.

And finally, our application for Psalm 22. The psalm itself is rather lengthy, but I think you’d agree that we divided the text up in a way that makes sense. Vv. 1-11, David expresses his suffering and hardship, vv. 12-21, David explains what’s causing the suffering and hardship, and throughout vv. 1-21, he shares his confidence in the Lord and the hope that he has in God. Vss. 22-31, he ends the psalm giving praise because he knows that God will indeed rescue him. What we learn from this psalm is a pattern for how we should deal with hardship in our own life.

You’ve heard me say it multiple times throughout the past few years. Life is hard—part of that is from our own mistakes and sinfulness, part of that is because of others who make our lives difficult, and part of that is simply because we live in a sin-cursed world.

Life is hard, there’s a reason why James 1:2 says “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds’ instead of if you meet trials of various kinds. Hardship in life isn’t a possibility, it is assured.

In the case of David, his hardship involved a very real militaristic threat of people seeking to end his life.

Your hardship might be different—it could be a health issue or it could be emotional. It could be caused by sin or it could be because we live in a sin-cursed world.

It’s not a question of whether life will be hard, it’s a question of what will you do when life is hard?

Many turn to vices to numb their pain and satiate their sinful desire—they turn to drinking or to other substances to mask the way that they feel.

Or they might turn to inappropriate relationships and seek satisfaction out of people.

It could even be that they turn to things that in and of themselves aren’t wrong things, but when turned to in this manner, makes it an idol.

The issue is that anytime you turn to anything or anyone other than God, you’ve created an idol and no idol of your heart can satisfy you the way that you’re looking to be satisfied.

The reality is, David’s response to his hardship is the only proper response to hardship in life.

When life is hard, the only proper response is to turn to God and do precisely what David does:

Cry out to the Lord.

Express your feelings and explain what makes you think that way.

Remind yourself of the truth.

Remind yourself of who God is and what God has already done for you.

Praise Jesus for what he has done and what he has promised to do.

We serve an amazingly good God and just like what David says in v. 26, we can take heart, we can be confident in the Lord, we can trust him, because he is good even when we experience hardship, suffering, and pain.

Put simply, what we learn from Psalm 22:22-31 is that we need to actively be seeking to praise the Lord even in times of distress and we need to seek to praise the Lord together with other like-minded believers.

And what we learn from Psalm 22 as a whole, is that life is hard, but we can cry out to the Lord, and we can remind ourselves of the truth, and we can praise Jesus for who he is and what he has promised to do for us.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Requests

Deane Herbst—continued healing from COVID.

Caleb Miller - Medical Issues

Alan Wisor - Medical Issues

Missionaries Mikael and Zuzanna Romer sent us an update from Krakow, Poland. They were able to find an apartment in Krakow and has started working with Team Lviv and the refugees that fled from Ukraine. They have a handful of specific requests that they’ve asked us to pray for: (1) they still have some legal issues concerning immigration to deal with, (2) Mikael’s grandfather passed shortly after they arrived in Poland (Mikael flew to Finland to visit him before his passing); please pray for their family, (3) pray for wisdom for Team Lviv as they figure out what exactly they should be doing, and (4) pray for the Ukrainian-Russian war to end and for civilians to be protected in the midst of war. They did express a praise, that they were able to find a local church to worship with in Krakow, Kościól Chrystusa Zbawiciela and on their first Sunday, Mikael was blessed to baptize two people and administer the Lord’s Supper.

With the weather warming up, we want to pray for different outreach ministries that are planned, that we can reach our communities with the Gospel.

By September, I’m hoping that we can start a small group hour at 9:15am on Sundays. What this would include (for now) is an adult group in the auditorium and a children’s group in the activity room. There are a number of issues that need resolved before we can do this, but I want us to just start praying for it now. In addition, if you have any interest in helping with the children’s group, we’ll need to start training for it soon, so be aware that there will be some training for those that want to help with it (I’ll keep you updated as to when that is).