whenever Christians face difficulty we almost  always turned to the Psalms here in the Psalms   we find words to describe what we’re feeling here  we understand that we’re not alone in our trouble   here here in the Psalms we find that there is hope  in the midst of the storm we read the Psalms and   we find our story is written before it ever  occurred I mean still wonder the first book   published by the Puritans was the bay psalm  book printed in 1640 it was not possible for   them to print the whole Bible so they printed the  Psalms and asked why they printed that portion of

the scripture instead of other portions one author  replied because there was no other collection that   so encompasses the range of human experience  and the wonder of God’s response to that   experience the Puritans needed such arming not the  hardship imposed on them in those early years not   the harshness of the elements the scarcity of  provisions the regular visitation of sickness   and death the attacks of enemies and betrayal of  friends or the weakness of sinfulness in their   own hearts and minds none of this surprised them  or left them defenseless because they had already

read it all right there in the Psalms and that’s  why when we did this new book that I told you   about this whole book is about the Psalms it’s the  sheltering Psalms and the Psalms are what we turn   to when we’re going through difficult times and  just the reading of the Psalms brings blessing   without comment without messages or lessons but  when we go behind these Psalms and we research   the reason behind there having been written  the blessing is doubled and we will never again   be able to read the Psalms without remembering  all that was going on to cause it to be written

well such is the case with our psalm today to  understand it we must go back to a period in the   history of Israel when things look mighty black  for the people of God it was the year 701 and   Sennacherib was king of Assyria now Sennacherib  was at expansionist and was leading the dreaded   Assyrian army through Syria into Israel and on  South to Judah at the time of Sennacherib rampage   Hezekiah was king over Judah he was assisted by  the prophets Micah and Isiah who taught him to   trust God and do right and King Hezekiah led the  people of Judah in a great revival he reinstated