My Times Are In God's Hands - Psalms 31:13-17a

Terror on every side is not the end of the story. We open Psalm 31 and follow its echo through time to see how real people faced lions, emperors, prisons, furnaces, and fog with a steady, surrendered trust. David’s confession, “My times are in your hands,” becomes a spine for courage as we connect scripture’s heartbeat with lives that refused to bow to fear.

We start with the Psalms as Israel’s prayerbook and trace how Psalm 31 surfaces at crucial moments—from Jesus’ final words to Paul’s testimony before Nero. Then we move through history: John Wycliffe insisting the Bible belongs in plain English, William Tyndale translating from the original languages and sealing his work with prayer and blood, and Jonathan Edwards calling hearts to deep conversion during the Great Awakening. Each story shows how faith navigates changing seasons without losing its center.

Courage gets personal with Harriet Tubman, who memorized scripture and trusted God’s guidance to lead hundreds to freedom, and with George Müller, who funded orphan care through prayer rather than appeals, expecting specific answers from a faithful Father. Along the way, we revisit the three Hebrew boys’ “even if” stance and Isaiah’s assurance during Assyria’s siege to remind us that deliverance belongs to God and obedience belongs to us. We close with a clear invitation to follow Jesus, practical steps for discipleship, and spoken declarations rooted in God’s promises.

If you need renewed courage, a stronger prayer life, or a fresh reason to trust when the headlines howl, this conversation will steady your heart. Listen, share with a friend who’s in a hard season, and if the message meets you today, follow the show, leave a review, and tell us: where are you placing your times—in your hands, or His?

Chapters

• 0:07 Welcome And Purpose
• 1:04 Prayer Of Invitation
• 1:24 Psalm 31 Focus And Theme
• 1:36 What The Psalms Are
• 3:43 Psalm 31 Quoted Across Scripture
• 5:02 Paul Before Nero And Persecution
• 9:06 Wycliffe And Scripture In English
• 12:31 Tyndale’s Translation And Martyrdom
• 16:10 Trust Like David, Job, And Paul
• 17:14 Harriet Tubman’s Courage And Faith
• 19:44 My Times Are In Your Hands
• 21:12 The Three Hebrew Boys
• 23:14 Jonathan Edwards And Awakening
• 26:30 Prayer, Deliverance, And Isaiah
• 30:06 George Müller And Radical Prayer
• 34:56 Discipleship And Salvation Appeal
• 36:15 Declaration Of Faith And Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:07

Hi and welcome to Catch on Fire Podcast. I am Dr. Novella Springett. I've been a follower of Jesus Christ since I was a child. Over the years, I have spent considerable time studying the Bible and the history of the Christian religion. Catch on Fire Podcast will be conducting in-depth studies of scripture with the goal of encouraging us all to grow in Christian discipleship. This podcast is for all those who have an interest in knowing more about Jesus and what it means to live for Christ in today's pluralistic society. We pray that this podcast will positively impact all of our lives and enable us to become more like Jesus. Please like, follow, and subscribe to Catch and Fire podcast on the varying platforms that we are featured on. Let's pray. Heavenly Father and God, we invite your presence. We know that you're here with us. We pray that your anointing will be on this podcast, that lives will be touched, lives will be changed, and that we'll all become more like you. We ask that it'll be all of you and none of me. In your name. Amen. Amen. Today we're going to be looking at Psalms 31, verses 13 to 17A. And we are speaking on my times are in your hands. When you look at the background to Psalms, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Songs of Solomon's and Lamentations are collectively known as the poetic books of the Old Testament. The Psalms are a book of Israel's prayer and praise. There are 150 individual psalms or compositions based on titles, the headings of the Psalms. We know the authors of about two-thirds of the Psalms. Probably the most prolific writer is David, who wrote 73 of the 100 Psalms that we know the authors of. It is believed that he also wrote some of the other 50 Psalms, and we're not quite clear who wrote them. The historical setting of the headings of the Psalms have enabled us to map out the information as to when the Psalms were composed. The Psalms come from a period covering a thousand years of Israel history. All the way from Moses, who was around in the 15th century BC and who wrote Psalms 90 up to post-exile times, the 5th century BC, Psalms 126. The Psalms have a distinct structure and unity. They're divided into five books, which mirror the five books of Moses, and each of these psalms ends, each of these sections rather ends with a doxology. The psalms were the worship material of the Jews. They were sung in the temple. They're about worship and they encompass different backgrounds and experiences of life. Their poetry set to music. And as a result, we find that we say Psalms 110 rather than Psalms chapter 110, just as we say hymn number 250, because these were songs written to music and written to be sung by worshippers as they were in the temple. Psalms 31 fits into the book one of the Psalms, and it was written by David. One of the most interesting features of the Psalms is that it is often quoted in other passages of scripture. Psalm 71 was probably written by David, and it starts off, he quotes the first three verses of Psalms 31 as it begins. Jeremiah quoted Psalms 31 six different times over the course of his writings. Jonah from the belly of the whale as he prayed also quoted Psalms 31. We find the Apostle Paul quoting Psalms 31 in 1 Corinthians as he says, Be strong and take heart, all of you who hope in God. In Acts 7, as Stephen, the first math of the Christian church, is being dying, he says, Lord, into your hands and commit, I commit your spirit. And perhaps the most striking and the most impressive of all of the quotations of Psalms 31 is that which is given by Jesus Christ. As he lay dying on the cross, he quoted Psalms 31, Into your hands I commit my spirit. And this brings us to what we're working with today, which is Psalms 31, verses 13 to 17a. And we hear David writing, For I hear many whispering, terror on every side. No one is quite sure what particular episode David was referenced here. He was hunted by King Saul for many years. We find that when the apostle Paul was waiting to appear before Nero, he too prayed that he would not be ashamed. Paul was writing that he didn't want to become afraid and begin to think that this life that he was living here on earth was more worth more than following Jesus. Paul had appeared before King Agrippa and before the Roman governors Felix and Festus. To all of these people he had witnessed, they were held positions of power, but he had spoken about the truth of Jesus to them. King Agrippa was so touched that he told him that he was almost, but not quite persuaded to become a Christian. The Roman governor Felix put him off and said he would speak to him more about Jesus when it was convenient. And we have no record that he ever did find a convenient time. But Nero, Emperor Nero, who Paul was getting ready to appear before, could take his life. None of the others could just arbitrarily say take him out and kill him. And when he wrote this letter, he did not know yet. He was writing to the church at Philippi that he would be released. During Paul's appearance before Nero, he undoubtedly witnessed about Jesus to Nero and gave him an opportunity that was obviously rejected to serve Jesus as Lord and Savior. History records that up to that point in history, that is before Paul appeared to Nero on trial, Nero had been a fairly decent ruler. However, documents show that after Paul's appearance before Nero, Nero changed dramatically. He became almost like a madman. He acted like a demon-possessed person, and he began to persecute the Christian church in an extremely diabolical manner. His servants would tie Christians to put to posts in the garden, cover them with tar, and then set them on fire. Then Nero would get in his chariot and race through his garden to look at the Christians as they burned to death. Some years later, Rome started to burn. And Nero was incredibly indifferent. This is where we get the story, the expression that Nero fiddled while Rome burned. And when Nero was brought to task for his indolence, for his lack of duty, he decided to change the topic. He just told them that it's not him that is to blame. The Christians were the ones to blame because they had started falling a false god, and so the real gods, which were the false ones, were punishing Rome. And so he ordered that all Christians be rounded up everywhere and be and brought to Rome to be killed at his pleasure. And it was in this during this period of persecution that Paul was brought back to Rome and eventually beheaded. He did not give up on God. He kept his testimony in his first appearance. And then we read about John Wycliffe, who also spoke truth to power. John Wycliffe was an educated man. He had a position at Oxford. And he believed that the Bible, which was currently then only written in Latin, should be made available to people in English so that everyone could be able to read it. It was larger to his efforts that the Latin Vulgate, which was then the Bible in Latin, was translated from Latin into common English. Unfortunately, there was no printing presses yet. So copies could only be done by hand. So these copies were not widely disseminated. But the Wycliffe went around and he stressed the importance of preaching. And so he was charged with heresy, kicked out of the church, and forced to resign from his prestigious position as a lecturer at Oxford. He was during his life, he was never brought to trial. And he continued to write and preach until he actually died in 1384. However, while he wasn't burned at the stake while he was alive, after he was dead, I guess they got really angry about him. They dug up his body and burnt it along with all of his writings. And to prevent the spreading of the scripture in the common language in English, Parliament actually passed a law in 1408 which forbade anyone from translating or reading any part of the Bible in English without permission from the authorities. Permission that was never granted. Men and women were even burnt at the stake for teaching their children the Lord's Prayer and the Ten Commandments in English. Possession of the Bible in England in English continued to be illegal for many years. And then over 100 years later, Wycliffe came along. After Wycliffe had already translated the Bible from Latin into English, rather, William Tyndale came along. He was educated at Oxford and Cambridge. And the fact that we have a Bible in English today owes much to his hard work. 90% of the English Bible, of the King James Version, is was done by William Tyndale. And a full 75% of the revised Standard Version was also done by William Tyndale. And this, without this permission, anything he did would be considered illegal and he could be killed. But he never got the approval, but that didn't stop him. What he did, he decided he was going to go into hiding in Europe. And he got support from some British merchants. And he had to be careful when he was out there to avoid English spies and informers because and European opponents of the Reformation because they would have turned him over. And in 1525, he published an edition of the New Testament, which was printed in English and smuggled back to England. It was the first translation of the Bible from the original Greek into English. In fact, it was the first translation ever of a Greek book into English. Six thousand copies were printed and smuggled into England. And the bishops of the church did everything they could to destroy these Bibles. Bishop Tinsdale had copies ceremoniously burned at St. Paul's Cathedral. The Archbishop of Canterbought copies so that he could destroy them. Tyndale used this money that he obtained to print even more editions. King Henry VIII, the one who famously killed most of his wives, the majority of his wife, was impressed with Tyndale and he offered him safe passage if he come back and work for him as a writer and scholar. And Tyndale refused. He said he wouldn't come back until the Bible could be legally translated into English. And in hiding, he continued to work. He was translating the Old Testament into English while the king's agents were all over England and Europe looking for him. It wasn't until 1534 that they finally found him, when someone playing the part of Judas, pretending to be his friend, found him and turned him over to the authorities. He was then thrown into prison, and after a year and a half in prison, he was brought to trial. He believed among many other things that there was forgiveness of sins, that the mercy offered in the gospel was enough for salvation, and that fate alone was what justified a man or anyone in coming to know Jesus. He was found guilty of these three what we consider standard beliefs today, and he was condemned to be killed. He was strangled in 1536 and his body was burnt at the stake. His last prayer was, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. And three years later, King Henry the Eighth required that every parish church in England was to make have a copy of the English Bible and ensure that the parishioners could read it. God heard and answered his prayer. Oh Lord Jesus suffered while he was here on earth. Persecution is part of it. The servant is not above the master. Whatever we may face in the course of a life, may we too be completely committed, like Tyndale was, to serving Jesus no matter what the cause, no matter what it may bring. David went on to say, But I trust in you, Lord. I say, You are my God. David, the great psalmist, he's saying that he doesn't care who's trying to kill him. He doesn't care who he had to go in hiding and on the run from. His trust is in God. This is a God that who he went up against Goliath and brought him out. This is a God Jehovah, the existing one, the God who is from everlasting to everlasting, who rolled out the heavens, the universe, and created man out of the dust of the earth. David is not trusting in his intellect, his wealth, or his family connections. Rather, he is trusting in God Himself. Are we here Job saying, I know that my Redeemer lives? Job had lost everything: his land, his wealth, his children. His wife told him, Why don't you just curse God and die? And Job told her, You are speaking as a foolish woman. Because I know that my redeemer lives. Ah, we hear Paul and he's locked up in a Roman prison, knowing that he will never walk free again, saying that the Lord is with him. Ah, he said everyone might have forsaken him, but the Lord is standing at his side. David, Paul, they knew who their faith was in. Harriet Tubman was also a woman who knew how to trust in the Lord. She was a short woman. She was only five feet three inches, but she was strong and courageous. And she was a devout Christian. She grew up or was raised in the Methodist church. Her owner's son was a Methodist minister, and he would allow the Tubman's family to attend his son's services. And while Tubman never learned to read or write, from a young age she memorized the Bible stories and long passages of scripture. And she would often recite the scripture in her public talks and conversations with people. When Harriet Tubman was only 13 years old, an overseer threw a two-pound metal weight at a young boy. And this weight missed the boy but hit Harriet and broke her skull. And for the rest of her life, Harriet suffered from seizures and headaches. She also stated that she began to see visions of God as a result of this injury. It is said that while she was taking the slaves to freedom on the Underground Railway, because of this injury to her head, she would often just fall down in a coma. And the slaves would just sit there next to her until she woke up. When she freed hundreds of slaves and came to be known as Moses, because she delivered people from slavery. She was never captured. It is said that they put a bounty on her head of$40,000, which in our money now is a bounty of about$1.2 million. And the plantation owners refused to believe that she was a woman, as they couldn't believe that a woman could be capable of outsmarting them like Harriet did. Parriot wasn't putting her faith in her physical strength. She didn't look at her shortcomings, that she often fainted, or that she had a crack in her skull. But she trusted in God. And she was able to do great exploits for God. And we too can do great exploits for God if we keep the faith as Harriet did, as David did, as Paul did. He said, David goes on to say, My times are in your hands. And it is said that David was referring to the seasons of his life. In his youth, David had hunted down a lion and a bear who came to attack his sheep, and in the strength of the Lord, he had killed these animals. Again, in his youth, as a young teenage boy, he went up against and killed the great giant Goliath with just a slingshot. As a mature man, he reigned over Israel. He had many conquests. He built up Jerusalem, made it the capital of Israel. In old age, he slowed down. The captains of his army told him not to come out because he didn't want anyone to kill him and boast that they had killed the great King David. But David always knew that through all the changing seasons of his life, no matter what the circumstances were, he was kept by the power of God. That's why he could say, My times are in your hands. We look at the three Hebrew boys, Shadrach, Mesheb, and Abednego. Nebuchadnezzar brought them captive from Jerusalem, took them down into Babylon, and they showed their faith in God. Even years after they had been taken into captivity. And Nebuchadnezzar was arrogant. He built a great idol and he said, Everybody bow down and worship this idol. When you hear the music, bow down. And Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego weren't bowing down. And as always, the uh people like to carry informants, people like to carry information. And they came and said, Nabuchad, these three boys aren't doing what you say. They're not worshiping. And Nebuchadnezzar had a punishment. That's why everyone was worshiping so happily that if he didn't worship, he's gonna throw you into a furnace. And he called the three Hebrew boys and said, What's going on here? And they told him, you know, the God we serve is well able to deliver us. But even if he doesn't deliver us, we don't care. We know that this is a false God, that we are not going to bow down and worship it just because you said so. Which enraged Nebuchadnezzar, of course. So he told them, make the furnace seven times hotter, and told the gods, throw them in. In fact, the furnace was so hot that the gods could fell down dead in front of the furnace. And so that the three Hebrew boys tumbled into the furnace, but they didn't die. Instead, the cords that they were burnt with were burnt off of them, and they were joined by a fourth person, the Son of God, Jesus, and they were just hanging out in the fire. Just and Nabuchanazar was so amazed. He had to go and ask them to come out because they were comfortable. And when they came out, he told everyone, that you need to observe and worship this God, because this is a real God. He's able to save, able to keep, able to satisfy. We read about Jonathan Edwards, and he too knew God throughout all the changing seasons of his life. He was one of eleven children and the only boy. It is said that each of his ten sisters was more than six feet tall. And he was raised in a Christian home. His father was a pastor. And when he was 13 years old, he went to Yale to study. He did a four year undergraduate degree. And then he did two years of graduate study in theology. He went to from there, he went to a Presbyterian church in New York for eight months. He went back to Yale, spent a couple years, and then he joined his grandfather, Solomon, as an assistant pastor. Solomon studded, and when his grandfather died in 1729, he took over the church. And when he took over the church, he emphasized that people needed to repent in order to walk with Christ. By 1735, about six years after he had taken over the church, the church had approximately 620 members. He's noteworthy because along with John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield, he was one of the most recognized ministers of the First Great Awakening. The First Great Awakening occurred in England and Britain and North America in the colonies in the 1730s and 1740s. And the main leaders are John and Charles Wesley, George Whitfield and Jonathan Edwards. And they were committed to stating that Christianity was not about just an intellectual consent. You had to be a new creature. You had to experience a change in the heart. And as a result of this great awakening, in England we got Methodism and in America, the awakening caused the congressional and Presbyterian church. They split, but it strengthened the Methodist and Baptist denominations. During this period of the wake of the awakening, John Jonathan Edwards that we're speaking about preach a sermon that is still being published by Amazon today. And it's called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. And it changed so many gold photos revival in the area and in the community where he was. Some years later, after the Great Awakening, the church where he had been all these years decided to get rid of him. And this might seem it was in 1750, like it was a low point. When he moved to Massachusetts in 1751, he became a missionary to the Indians. And he said he was really very happy. And he published some of his greatest works then as he had more time to write. Not only that, they made him president of the College of New Jersey, what is now known as Princeton University. Throughout all the changing seasons of his life, not all of it was good, not all of it was low. God stayed with Jonathan Edwards, stayed with David, stayed with Paul. Similarly, we can truly say our times are in God's hands. In the good times, in the bad times, as with song says, all of the good times outweigh the bad times. We can't complain. We won't complain. And the God of the mountain is still God in the valley. We may not know what tomorrow holds, but we know who holds tomorrow. And he's holding our hands. And the songs, the psalmist says, Deliver me from the hands of my enemies, from those who pursue me. Let your face shine on your servant. Save me in your unfailing love. Let me not be put to shame, Lord, for I've cried out to you. David knew Abba Father, the conquering line of the tribe of Judah. And he's making his petition plain. He's telling God what his needs are. Ah David said some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. David is pleading that he will not be put to shame because he is crying out to God. God, I'm calling on you. I know you're able, and I've proven you before, and you're more than enough. You find in Isaiah 8:18, we find Isaiah saying, Here am I, and the children God has given me. In 722 BC, Assyria, who was the superpower of the day, had come up to the northern tribes of Israel and had taken them into exile in Assyria. These ten tribes of Israel are known as the lost tribes, because they never came back. They just disappeared off the face of the earth. So when Isaiah was writing this verse, what he was prophesying, he knew was going to happen. Assyria would come back for the other two tribes. And 20 years later, this is exactly what happened. Sennacherib drove up and he came to take down Judah, the southern kingdom of Judah. But in the midst of all of that that was going on, Isaiah declared that God would be with Judah. You know, and the people were, of course, terrified. They were shaken. And Isaiah told them, your focus is not to be on the Assyrian army. He's saying you must prepare by focusing on God instead of concentrating on the enemy. It's not how powerful the enemy looks, it's how powerful our God is. And King Hezekiah and Isaiah cried out to God in prayer. And the Lord sent an angel, and he just destroyed all the fighting men, commanders, and officers. They didn't even have to go out and fight in the camp of the Assyrian king Sennacharib. And he went back to his country in disgrace, and he was assassinated by his own sons while he was in the temple of his false god. And the other nations all around, when they saw God had delivered Judah from the hand of the Assyrian king, King. Came and paid tribute to Hezekiah because they had seen what God could do. You know, George Mueller lived in England in the year 1805 to 1898. He was actually born in Germany, and but he lived in England and he was a Christian evangelist and the director of an orphanage in Bristol, England. He was one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren, and they became the Open Brethren. And it is said that when he was young, he was actually quite a character. He was into holy living. He said he was known as a thief, a lion, a gambler from a very early age. At the age of 10, he used to steal money from his father. At 14 years of age, his mother was lying, dying, and he was out there playing cards with friends and drinking. And out of all the things that he could have chosen to do, he decided to study to become a pastor. So while he was in seminary, Mueller says he was just indulging in wicked behavior and being an unrepentant spirit. But God stepped in. In 1825, Mueller attended a prayer meeting which changed his life and was in a private home. He wasn't even in church. And as he grew in God, he became a man of committed prayer. He prayed about everything and he expected each prayer to be answered. Once he was crossing the Atlantic and the ship ran into a thick fog. And the captain slowed the ship because he couldn't see what was happening. And he Mueller told the captain, Well, I need to be in Quebec by tomorrow. And the captain said, I don't care. There's too much fog out there. So Mueller asked for a room to go and pray to in so that the fog could be lifted. And the captain said, We could go down here to the chat room. So Mueller went down, prayed a short prayer, and the captain tried to pray and told him, You don't need to pray. My prayer has already been answered. And when they went upstairs back to the bridge, the fog was completely gone. And the captain became a Christian. So much so that he got the nickname Holy Joe. And over the course of his lifetime, Mueller cared for more than 10,000 orphans. He gave and provided educational opportunity for these orphans. He established schools with offered Christian education to more than 120,000 persons. But in the midst of these charities, these orphanages that Mueller built, there was an interesting element. He never asked for financial support and he never went into debt. There's one famous event where he had all the children. It was breakfast time, there was no food in the orphanage, and he had them sit down at the table and give God thanks for a breakfast that wasn't there. And while they were praying, when they finished giving their thanks, the baker stopped by and brought enough bread for breakfast. And the milkman came in and said his cart had broken down outside the orphanage and he wouldn't be able to deliver his milk. So he was going to donate the milk to the orphanage. A stunning and spectacular answer to prayer. And this work is still going on today. The George Miller Foundation in Bristol is now renamed the George Miller Charitable Trust. And it maintains this key principle of looking for financial support through prayer alone. And it works with local churches in the Bristol community to care for people who are in need, physically, emotionally, socially, or spiritually. God longs to answer our prayers, just like he answers the prayers of those who have gone before us. James said we have not because we ask not. John Wesley said, God does nothing on earth except in response to prayer. And when we pray, our requests must be in keeping with God's will so that they may be heard and granted. God is longing to do a great work in all of our lives. We have to lift up holy hands and ask God for assistance. As David said, the word is that there's terror on every side. We've come to the pandemic, we are dealing with what looks like strange and difficult times in our lives, but God is on our side. As we trust in the Most High God, the God who sits on high and looks low. He's longing to do the great work in all of our lives. However, for God to work in us, we must follow Him in the part of discipleship. Today, if we do not know Jesus as a personal Lord and Savior, He's knocking at the door of your heart. Will you please let Jesus in? There's eternal life after this earth. And we have to make a choice where we will spend eternity: hell or heaven. Hell is real. Jesus spoke more about hell than he did about heaven. There's only one way to heaven, and that is by confessing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and believing in our hearts. If anyone listening wishes to come to know the joy, peace, and love that can be found in Jesus, please feel free, free to repeat after me. Jesus, please come into my heart and be Lord of my life. Wash me and make me clean. Teach me to live for you. Amen. If you have prayed this prayer, congratulations. You are now officially one of Jesus' believers. Please find a Christian church to go to fellowship with other believers so that you can learn how to be a disciple of Jesus. Amen. Amen. And amen. We are now going to go into our declaration as we close out this podcast. We declare words over our life that will lead us to live lives of victory. Walking in the footsteps of what Jesus has declared, that we are being made more than conquerors through the blood of Jesus Christ. Please feel free to repeat with me or to speak these words with me. We decree and declare in the name of Jesus that we are still holding on to God's unchanging hand. We are still in God's holy plan. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that we are the head and not the tail. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that from the crown of our head to the soles of our feet we have received healing, as by his stripes we are healed. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that God is ordering our steps, that no weapon formed against us shall prosper, and every tongue that rises up against us in judgment we will refute. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that we have been made more than conquerors through the blood of Jesus. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that angels are watching over us, our family, our children, our grandchildren. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that we are financially in line with God's words, and as such, we are lenders and not borrowers. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that all of our debts have been paid and are forgiven. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that the enemy of our souls has no authority over our finances and our funds, and that we are good stewards of the money that God has placed in our keeping. We declare and decree in the name of Jesus that doors are being opened and that blessings and answers to prayers are being manifested in the spiritual and the physical in our lives. Let's say the 21st Psalms, Together the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restored my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk to the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace. Amen.