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[ Pause ] [MUSIC] He abides with me, He gives me victory. God never fails.

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Just keep the faith, And never cease to pray. Just walk upright, Call Him morning, noon, or night. He'll be there, He'll be there, There's no need to worry. ♪ 'Cause God never fails ♪

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♪ I never worry, I never fret ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty never fail me yet ♪ ♪ I've been built, I've been scorned ♪ ♪ Lord knows I've been reborn ♪

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♪ 'Cause God never fails ♪ ♪ God never fails ♪ ♪ God never fails ♪ ♪ He abides with me ♪

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♪ He gives me peace or relief ♪ ♪ God never fails ♪ ♪ Just keep the faith ♪ ♪ And never cease to pray ♪

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♪ Just walk upright ♪ ♪ Calling morning, noon, and night ♪ ♪ He'll be there, he'll be there ♪ ♪ There's no need to worry ♪

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♪ 'Cause God never cares ♪ ♪ I never worry, I never fret ♪ ♪ Lord God Almighty's never failed me yet ♪ ♪ I've been built, I've been scorned ♪

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♪ Lord knows I've been reborn ♪ ♪ 'Cause God never fails ♪ ♪ God never fails ♪ ♪ God never fails ♪

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♪ He abides with me ♪ ♪ He gives me victory ♪ ♪ God never fails ♪ ♪ Just keep the faith and never cease to pray ♪

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♪ Just walk upright ♪ ♪ Come in morning, noon, and night ♪ ♪ He'll be there, he'll be there ♪ ♪ There's no need to worry ♪

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♪ 'Cause God never fails ♪ - Amen. (audience applauding) Let's just all say amen again.

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Amen. As we continue our sermon series based on the book of Psalms, we come today to Psalm 88. First five verses as the basis of the message.

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Oh Yahweh, my God, my Savior, day and night, I cry to you. May my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry for my soul is full of troubles and my life has reached shield.

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I am reckoned as one gone down to the pit. I have become like a strength less man. The subject of the message, cry in the night, cry in the night.

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The Psalmist cries unto the Lord day and night during the day when the sun is shining, when he is basking in the brilliant sunlight of success, during the day when he is hale and hearty, during the day when one is able to see where one is going, the psalmist cries unto the Lord. He cries during the day but he also

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cries during the night. This psalm is the testimony of a sufferer. The plight of the psalmist is that he has suffered day and night so he cries into the Lord day and night. I remember when our first child, Marva, was born that there were times when the child cried in the day and there were times when she cried in

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the night. The mother was always alert and responsive to the cries. Sometimes I I never did hear the cries. I would continue to sleep, and then there were other times when I felt

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that I was able to hear the cries being somewhat half asleep and half awake, and failed to respond to those cries. But there's something about the tone of the voice

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in an infant's cry that lets you know when it is something of a very serious nature, you can tell by the sound of the cry. It's a difference in a cry that is one of just desiring attention than when there is some pain that is involved. Now the cry of the psalmist is the distressful cry of a sufferer.

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Some people suffer from the time of birth. They are born with certain ailments that often precede their entrance into the world. recently we heard of an infant on whom brain surgery was performed before the babe was born. We are born into a life of suffering so it's natural to cry. We cry

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when we are hurt, we cry because we suffer from disease and injury. There are many persons who have never known a well day in their lives. There are those who are in constant pain, there are others who must depend on some form of medication or drugs to make it in the day, and then at the nighttime, that time when it seems so difficult.

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It seems that pains have a way of increasing during the night, and so there is a desire for something to get us through the night. The psalmist is aware of the numerous human remedies prescribed for his case, but he recognizes the need for divine help. The sufferer needs not only the help of one who is familiar with pharmaceutical prescriptions, but

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there is a need for divine help. There is a need for spiritual resources. The The Psalmist says, "I cried unto the Lord, not only during the day, but I cried during the night." Night, when the pain was so intense.

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Night, the time when the sufferer prays for strength just to make it through the night. The sickness of the Psalmist is prolonged. He is a victim of a protracted illness that has gone from day to day, from week to week, from month to month, and from year to year.

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There is a sickness which we suffer, which is often not known to us. The cause is often not revealed. It's a sickness that we must in many times learn to live with, but we can endure it. We cannot cope with it because of our limited resources as human beings, but we can receive

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help from a higher source. We need spiritual resources. We need the help of the Lord. And the Psalmist says, "Oh Yahweh my God, I cry unto you."

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This cry of the sufferer is a cry of despair and hopelessness. The Psalmist says, "Descended to the depths." This is a cry from the bottom of the pit. He's down as far as he can go.

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It's a cry from the bottom of the well. He feels deserted. The sufferer is in the deep, in the depths of Sheol. That's the abode of the dead, the underworld,

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that which is characterized by shades of night. It's a situation of being overwhelmed by gloom and doom. And he says, "Oh Lord, I call for help. "My soul is full of troubles.

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"I am reckoned among those who go down to the pit. "I have no strength. "I'm like one forsaken among the dead, "like the slain that lie in the grave,

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"like those who are remembered no more, I inhabit the dark regions of the deep. There are times when we wander, when we wander in the depths of depression.

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Every one of us, there have been times, sure in the day when we walk, you know, on the mountain, when we bask, as I said, in the sunlight of success, when everything seems to be going our way.

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You have some experiences maybe like that. But there are also those times when night comes, when we descend to the depths of despair, where we walk in the darkness of depression.

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There are those times when we feel shut in and shut out. There are those times when we feel that there is no escape from the difficult or the conflicts that we face, the contradictions of human existence.

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There are those times. The psalmist says that he has descended to the deep pit of Sheol, and Sheol is just the Hebrew concept of hell.

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He has descended to hell, and so he walks, He abides in the darkness. He is in the darkness. Young Paul Sartre has written a novel entitled "No Exit"

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in which he says hell is being in a situation where there's no exit. And he has characters that are shut in a room and they can't get out.

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And that's what it means to be in hell. To be shut in and there to suffer the misery that's involved of having no outside help. To be in hell, and every one of us has had some experience

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of what it means to have hell even on earth. Under such dire circumstances, the psalmist says, I cry unto the Lord. And in this maze of uncertainty,

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in this difficult situation where he is besieged by doubts and disbelief, he cries unto the Lord. And he says, "Thus thou work wonders for the dead. Do the shades rise up to praise thee? Is thy steadfast love declared in the grave? Are thy faithfulness in Abeddon?

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Are thy wonders known in the darkness? Are thy saving help in the land of forgetfulness? It is a good thing to cry unto the Lord in the night because God reveals his creative power

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by performing wonders in the darkness. You see, when we look at the story of creation that's recorded there in Genesis, when the curtain is lifted,

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and at the very beginning we said that the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep, darkness to begin with. And God spoke and the light grew.

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And so, you see, we begin with darkness. Even within the womb, within the womb, there is darkness. Before we enter the world, there is darkness, and there is that unawareness.

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We are covered by shades of darkness, but some way God, through his creative genius, speaks and light comes. That God has a way of coming into our lives

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and causing the light to shine in the midst of the darkness. The darkness covers the earth, but God puts the moon out there to shine as the queen of the night,

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and he decorates the heavens with the stars. God changes the darkness by causing the light to shine. God performs wonders in the darkness. So the psalmist says, I cry to the Lord.

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Sure, we have our periods of depression. Sure, we have our disappointments. Sure, we have our burdens of discouragement and defeat. Sure, we have the darkness,

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but God works wonders through the darkness. And so the psalmist says, I cry to the Lord. I cried to the Lord. The darkness is our period of suffering. We have our encounter with disease. We have our human weaknesses. It may be physical. It may be

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mental. Whatever may be the condition, we have our encounter with the darkness. But God manifests His creative power. He always comes and does something new in in the darkness. So when the time comes when we must walk in the darkness,

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and sometimes, you know, the darkness seems to cover us so long. Have you ever been in a situation where the night just seems to be so long?

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- Yeah. - Looks like morning is not gonna ever come? And sure, when you have that kind of anxiety, of wondering about the night,

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Isaiah talks about it when he says that, watchmen, what are the night? - Yeah. In other words, how much more night remains for us to live through?

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We've been in this situation a long time. We've been oppressed by the enemy. We've been in slavery. We've suffered.

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Looked like we've suffered long enough. Watchmen, watchmen, rise and tell me what's the hour of the night? And the answer comes, the morning comes. The morning comes as well as the night.

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The psalmist says that I cried, yes, I cried unto the Lord in the night. I cried unto the Lord. So not only do we find that God manifests his creative power, that he works wonders in the darkness. We notice that in the darkest hour, in the darkest hour, God reveals his

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presence in the most powerful way, in the darkest hour. Some people are afraid of the They don't want to be in the house, you know, when it's dark. Some people burn the lights all night because they're afraid of the dark. But there comes a time when you must be in the darkness and there's no light.

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There's no light. The writer describes a situation, he says, "I faced a new year," and he said to God, "Give me light that I might tread safely into the unknown," and the voice replied, "Put your hands in the hands of God, and that shall be better to you than light,

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and safer than a known way. So the main thing about being in the darkness is who's with you in the darkness. The darkest hour, the darkest hour in human history is the hour of the crucifixion. The very Son of God is on the cross, the darkest hour. In fact, the sun refuses to shine and there's no moon, there are no

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stars in the sky it's the darkest hour and the Son of God is on the cross and he cries out my God my God why has thou forsaken me it's the darkest hour so he dies they put him in the tomb and God's a station there it's the darkest hour He stays there all night, all night. And the gods rejoice that we've got him now.

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It's all over. It's the darkest hour. But early, early, early that Sunday morning Jesus got up, walked the streets of Jerusalem again, and the grave is empty, and he's walking in the sunlight of triumph he has come through tragedy. Somehow when you cry unto the Lord in the midst of the darkest night, in the midst of the most

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tragic circumstances that you can ever face in this life, that God works wonders. And his record in creation and his record in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is sufficient evidence to know that he works wonders. But you ought to have some experiences in your own life of crying to the Lord in the darkness

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the hymn writer says I love the Lord he heard my cries and pitted every groan and long as I live and troubles rise I'll hasten to his throne God does wonders in the darkness, does wonders. Shady green pastures so rich and so sweet. God leads his dear children along where the waters cool flow bathe the weary ones

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feet. God leads his dear children along. Sometimes on the mount where the sun shine so bright God leads his dear children along sometimes in the valley in darkest of night God leads his dear children along though sorrows be fall us and Satan opposed, God leaves his dear children alone. Through grace we can

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conquer, defeat all our foes. God leaves his dear children alone. Some, some, some through the valley, some through the fire, but all through the blood, some through great sorrow but God gives a song in the night season and all the day long. That's why we have this song. God gave this man a song in the night. That's why we have it.

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And he has left it here to cheer the weary traveler all along life's way. That when the night seasons come you can join with the psalmist and say I cry unto Lord and the wonderful thing is that he always answers and he always comes to our rescue in the night seasons and all the day long. Pass me not, O gentle Savior.

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It may be night, it's night in our world today in so many ways. It may be night in in your soul today, but cry unto the Lord. He'll not pass you by, we invite you to come. (gentle music)

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[music] ♪ No one can forsake them ♪ ♪ In my own love ♪ ♪ I have found my calling ♪

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♪ No one can take it from me ♪ [Music] ♪ Lay down, lay down ♪ ♪ Here by the fire ♪

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♪ Down, down, down for me ♪ ♪ The Lord ♪ ♪ At last we have ♪ ♪ Land we have ♪

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♪ The home of the brave ♪ ♪ And still ♪ ♪ God is here to lead ♪ ♪ We will inherit the earth's creation ♪

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♪ And I am feeling ♪ ♪ God's grace ♪ ♪ Still in my heart ♪ [Music]

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[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

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[Music] [Music] ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪

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♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO]