Once again we find ourselves in consideration of 2 Sam 4:9 as we deal with this matter set before us in the Word of God.
2 Sam 4:9, And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, "As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress…
	We are engaged with the reality of what David said to these men. He was dealing with them in a righteous anger at the fact that they had taken upon themselves in the course of trying to bring the crown of Israel to David. They had killed the son of Saul who was king of the rest of the nation of Israel. 
David, however, was waiting for the Lord to establish him upon that throne. This would be by the great and Sovereign work of the One Who had maintained and sustained and delivered David. This had been throughout the every day walk of his life on this earth. David had come to know God in that loving and trusting relationship of dependency upon God for everything. 
	So, even while dealing with those who had taken matters into their own hands, David gave verbal declaration to the One Whom he held dear and trusted to do all that was necessary. It was the Lord, Who had continually and faithfully delivered this shepherd who now sat on the throne of Judah, and soon to be put upon the throne of all Israel. 
In the course of that establishment of the reign of David, there had been very much distress from which God had rescued David over and over and over again. We need to realize that distress is not something that we will leave behind when we are brought into the proper relationship with God. We should not be looking for our lives to be easy and without any affliction or tribulation. 
However, with all praise to God, through everything that comes into our lives, we have The Redeemer, The Deliverer, The Faithful One, Who will see us through it all in the course of His working power in our lives. We have traced this tremendous reality into the Psalms. We will pick up this glorious theme with what we read in Ps 34:17-19. 
Ps 34:17-19, The righteous cry and the Lord hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted, And saves those who are crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous; But the Lord delivers him out of them all. 
	Notice the reality that there will be those many times of trouble in our lives. Despite the popularity of the teaching of so called prosperity in some churches of our time, there will be that necessary work of the Lord to bring His people into a place of complete and total submission to His perfect will. This will be in the every detail of our lives. David knew this gracious, yet merciful dealing of Jehovah in his life. We should expect nothing less in our lives.
	The supreme example of this was the crying out of the very Son of God, Jesus, when He was suffering so tremendously on the night of His betrayal, and subsequent crucifixion. He called out to His Heavenly Father, Who sent the angelic presence to comfort Jesus through those hours of His great distress. 
We have this account detailed for us in Luke 22:41-44. We will jump ahead for the urgent importance of this detailing of the distress that we can expect. As well, we will see the response of God that will always be ours as we trust and obey Him. 
Luke 22:41-44, And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done."  Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. 
	Note that there was that heavenly response to Christ. It did not remove Him from the necessity of following the course that God had set from eternity for the salvation of those who would turn to Him. These are those who believe upon the truth that Jesus is the Only Begotten Son of God Who took upon Himself, through all the torment and the scourging and the anguish, even to death on the cross, our sins and our trespasses. Then, in all the glorious splendor of eternal life, He was raised from that undeserved death and is now seated on high at the right hand of the Heavenly Father. He had to suffer and die in order to become, in His death and in His resurrection, the Redeemer of all those who would trust in Him.
	Because we have chosen to become the disciples of Our Risen Lord, we are, as well, joined together with Him in two aspects that will bring suffering and distress. The first is that the world so hated Christ and it so hates and reviles those who are His followers. Christ never hid this truth from any of us. 
	Consider John 16:33. John 16:33, "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world."
We should never expect anything less than the fact that we will face persecution from the powers that hated the wonderful light of the glory of God that Jesus faithfully and perfectly expressed on this earth. Therefore, as we are the witness of Him, as our lives show forth that light of God to our families, our neighborhoods, our places of employment, in fact everywhere we go, we will find ourselves as well demeaned and faced with anger and abuse and rejection. 
 	The second reason that we will face distress and suffering is that we are dealing with the active work of God in our lives to put to death all that is part of that old nature of ours, the one with which we were born. As detailed in 1 John 1:8+9, God works to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and that hurts terribly. It is painful, even unto seeming death as the Holy Spirit works to clean out the every crevice of our heart and mind and soul that is other than Christ Jesus and His perfect obedience unto the Holiness of God. That will take a lifetime of death to self, but it brings forth the fullness of our utter dependency upon Jehovah to see us through it all. 
1 John 1:8+9, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 
		In all of this grief and distress and trial and tribulation, we can absolutely trust that it will all work according to God’s great and divine plan and purpose. We know that He is the One Who determines exactly what is needed, when it is needed, and how it will work in the course of our lives to bring us through it all unto His glory and praise. One of the bedrock promises of our every moment to moment walk on this earth sets us into the correct place of watching the Hand of God in operation to accomplish all that He has ordained for our lives. It is the wonderful passage upon which all our essence finds hope and comfort through it all in Our Lord God Almighty.
	Please always remember and commit to heart the phenomenal reality that God puts before us in Rom 8:28. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
	Having now established the hard fact that we will have distress on several levels of our walk on this earth, we need to earnestly thank God that He will see us through it all! He will bring forth that familial relationship of showing His great Love unto us through every trial, every distress, and every tribulation. Accordingly, we continue our journey in the Old Testament with the great reality of what happens in our hearts as we go through these trials and anguish. 
Returning to the Psalms, we find the great joy of our entire essence expressed in Ps 71:22-24. Herein is the exclamation of triumph with which we are to bless God as He proves Himself over and over again. This reality comforts us, even through the most trying of times that bring forth that death to self, but life to Jesus Christ, in our walk with Him.
	Ps 71:22-24, I will also praise Thee with a harp, Even Thy truth, O my God; To Thee I will sing praises with the lyre, O Thou Holy One of Israel. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to Thee; And my soul, which Thou hast redeemed. My tongue also will utter Thy righteousness all day long;
For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek my hurt. 
	Notice, as we next read Ps 103:2-5, there is that reiteration concerning the fact that we are to bless the Lord for all His wonderful working power. He manifests His plan and purpose through all those elements of distress in our lives. Whether in the dealings with our sinful nature, the healing required for our physical maladies, our eternal redemption, or our need to see His hand in operation to save, God is to be blessed, and blessed with all the focal essence of our beings. 
	Ps 103:2-5, Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits; Who pardons all your iniquities; Who heals all your diseases; Who redeems your life from the pit; Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion; Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle. 
	This wondrous, working, covenantal might of God in action is further detailed in verses 8-12 of this 103rd Psalm. Ps 103:8-12, The Lord is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness. He will not always strive with us; Nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 
	The power of His redemption and salvation transcends all the pain and the distress and the suffering of our lives. As we come through each episode of the hardship of our walk as a disciple of the Living Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we are encouraged, as in Ps 107:1-3, to declare His tremendous loving deliverance from the depths of our beings. 
	Ps 107:1-3, Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary, And gathered from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the south. 
	It is as we go through all the times of distress and hardship and tribulation, that our faith and trust and obedience to God and to His will become more and more solidified in our hearts and minds. The faithfulness of God to see us through everything that this age uses to try to attack and eliminate the testimony of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ becomes a greater and greater bedrock assurance upon which our feet are planted. He proves Himself and His Word again and again and over again to meet every need for our comfort in the distress and our eternal protection. 
	Consider what God, Himself tells us after we come through each dilemma and circumstance that would otherwise destroy and dim His faithful promises to those whom He has so loved unto Himself. This is recorded in Prov 30:5, to stand against any doubt or fear or anxiety that God will not prove true to His abiding Word.
	Prov 30:5, Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. 
	The preacher, in Eccl 12:13+14, sums up the whole of the manner in which we are to view our walk on this earth through all the toil and the distress and the hardships and the pain. 
Eccl 12:13+14, The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.
Within the knowledge that we belong to God, there is that definitive reality in place within us, fueled by the omnipotent working of The Holy Spirit, to honor God to the fullest measure of our beings! We are here in order that God has a witness of the fact that He is exactly Who He says He is! 
God is the Lord and Sovereign over all creation in the course of bringing forth His perfect and omniscient plan of redemption through Jesus Christ, His Only Begotten Son. Every man, woman, and child will be seen in the light of the measure of Christ’s covering of Righteousness, and none of our own. 
	 We bring this immediate consideration of the faithfulness of The Lord’s provision of care and keeping throughout our trials and tribulations on this earth to a conclusion. This is with the declaration of the Apostle Paul to Timothy as recounted in 2 Tim 4:16-18. 
The Apostle was proclaiming that, despite the faithlessness of men, God proved Himself mighty and victorious throughout all that the Apostle Paul had to endure as the witness of the Risen Lord Jesus Christ. No matter what abuse and torment was heaped upon this man of God, he was kept by the divine power of Jehovah to announce, in a most visual and concrete manner, the Good News to the glory of God, Alone! 
	2 Tim 4:16-18, At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me; may it not be counted against them. But the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, in order that through me the proclamation might be fully accomplished, and that all the Gentiles might hear; and I was delivered out of the lion's mouth. The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 
	We will find that when we are truly desirous after the full measure of being a disciple of God, to His Glory, Alone, our lives may become filled with all sorts of trials and tribulations and accusations and torments and distresses. The key to remember and to keep in our hearts is that God will see us through it all! He is the One Who has us well in hand! He is Our Redeemer and Our Savior and Our Lord and Our every hope and stay! This is in the midst of each storm or gale of our walk on this earth. He will see us through as He has so faithfully proven over and over again in the course of the lives of all those who trust in Him and obey Him and His Word, now and evermore. So be it! 
And David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, "As the Lord lives, who has redeemed my life from all distress… Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Ps 71:23. My lips will shout for joy when I sing praises to Thee; And my soul, which Thou hast redeemed. Amen.