As I prepared for this dedication, I kept hearing my own voice in David's words, and found myself thinking I could have written this 116th Psalm. It does have a special significance and application in my life. As a result, some of the words I wrote between these verses will sound like I'm talking to our Lord in the first person, and I am. I feel like singing it out loud, this picture of salvation, but out of respect for your ears and these nice new windows in the church, I'll stick to reading it.

While the warmth is still in this body, I will seek after you Lord. You are so very faithful to hear my sorrowful cry and answer it when no one else will, and it is my reasonable service to align my actions with your will, Lord.

Quite literally, in the Hebrew, the noose was around my neck. The flames of Sheol were burning the soles of my boots, and it looked like the end of the trail for me.

Rescue me from this sorrow and deliver me in a new birth, almighty Father. I called upon His name.

Even though I was a foolish failure, He guarded me, He hearkened unto my cry, and He saved me.

v.7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

Thank you Lord for the unmerited favor you have shown me, and for the peace you have given to my soul.

This word "living" (life) in the Hebrew is "chay". When God was about to smite all the firstborn in Egypt, the children of Israel were instructed to paint the lintel and side posts of their doors with the blood of an unblemished lamb. The angel of death passed over and didn't destroy anyone in the houses that showed their faith in God by following these strange instructions, and so began the tradition of the Passover lamb. What a strange thing, to paint the lintel and side posts of your door with sacrificial blood? Perhaps it seemed so at first, but the next day, as the faithful came out of their houses, amidst the cries of parents who had lost their firstborn, on their own doors they saw the symbol written in blood in their own language. Two legs of the symbol, one on each side post, and across the top, a bar connecting them on the lintel, this is the Hebrew symbol "chay" (life).

This sounds easy: to take a cup and call upon the name of the Lord, but do I really have the courage to take this cup? This is the cup of Jesus, of Yeshua. Drinking of His cup requires that I lay down my life, and present myself a living sacrifice. The blessings that pour from His cup never end. No cup of this world can satisfy like the cup of salvation. Drinking from the cup of material possessions only enslaves me and makes me want more. The cup of relationships has it's ups and downs. The cup of entertainment quickly fades, and so does the cup of social activities. I drink of these worldly cups, but they are like sin, in that they only satisfy me for a season and then they pass away. The cup of Yeshua is the cup of life eternal. Lord, you have delivered me. You have built me up. I believe, I will speak, and I will bear this cup so that others may drink.

You have removed the noose from around my neck. You gently wiped the tears from my eyes. You have removed obstacles from before my feet, my Lord and Savior.