Series: Psalms, #13
May 9, 2010
GOD IS OUR REFUGE AND STRENGTH
Psalm 46
Psalm 46 NIV
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see the works of the Lord,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Psalm 46 was written to people who are in trouble. Is anybody here in trouble today? Have you ever been in trouble? Do you think you will ever be in trouble again? Jesus said, “In the world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). We know some who have recently lost a spouse, one of the most devastating personal disasters that can happen to someone. Some of our people are still out of work, after a year or more. What does that do to a person’s ego, not to mention their financial picture? Some are facing cancer, that horrible word that strikes fear in the heart of everyone when we learn we have it. Some have marriages that are crumbling, and the prospect terrifies them. Others are just stuck in dead, dry, cold marriages that are barely a shadow of the vibrant love that took them to the altar. Regardless of what kind of trouble you are facing—or may face in the future—remember this: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
I. God Is Our Refuge and Strength v.1,7,11; Revelation 19:11-16
1 God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
This is the theme of Psalm 46, and it is repeated again in vss. 7 and 11, where the wording is exactly the same in each case:
7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
The words refuge and fortress suggest a safe place to hide from the trouble facing us. It’s the defensive, external aspect of God’s protection. The word strength is more the internal dynamic aspect—God within us to empower and strengthen us for action. This is important, because we will almost always have to do something to help ourselves out of the trouble
In the refrain in vss.7 and 11, God is called the Lord Almighty. Literally, it says, “Yahweh of hosts”. The word “hosts” refers to an army, so the picture here is of a general, the Supreme Commander of the armies of heaven. There’s a great picture of this in Revelation 19:11-16, “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. …He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.” That’s quite a picture, and that Jesus is the one who is our refuge, our fortress, and our strength in times of trouble.
And He is always there. An ever-present help in trouble. You remember that Jesus said just before He left the earth, “I am with you to the end of the age.” Every Christmas we remind ourselves that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. And He is—in every situation of life. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Nothing.
But sometimes, we wonder. Sometimes it feels like we have been abandoned in the midst of great suffering. Here’s an interesting little exercise: Get alone with God, and when your heart is settled in Him, think back to some extremely painful situation in your past, something that really hurt you. Then ask Jesus where He was during that time, and just listen and see what He says. If He is an ever-present help in trouble, where was He then? You might be surprised at what He says.
Then the psalm describes three different scenarios where we might need to remember that the Lord is our refuge and strength. The first is
A. In the face of natural disaster v.2,3; Isaiah 8:12
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
Barbie and I were in a fairly small earthquake in southern California in 1970. I woke up one morning with my bunk bed banging against the wall, the light in the hallway of the dormitory was swinging, plaster was falling off the walls, book shelves toppled over, the neighbor’s brick chimney was in our driveway, freeways were cut like ribbons, and at Barbie’s house, the water sloshed out of their pool. It was exciting, to say the least. We have had devastating earthquakes in Haiti, Chile, and China recently, and they are terrifying for the people in them. Now we have the disaster in the Gulf with that massive oil spill. These sorts of natural disasters happen all the time all over the world.
The wording here in Psalm 46 actually pictures something more like the
movie, “2012”—the end of the world, with whole cities sliding into the
sea. Sort of reversing the original creation—uncreating the world.
That’s what the prophets of doom are forecasting if the climate changes
too much—melting of the polar ice cap, coastal cities flooded, world
weather patterns completely disrupted, agriculture destroyed, mass
starvation, etc. That’s the kind of picture the author is painting
here.
And what does he say we should do in the face of that? “Not fear.” “Therefore, we will ‘not fear.’” If you read the Bible, you get the impression that fear is a major factor for a lot of people. The phrase, “do not be afraid” or “do not fear” appears over 85 times in the NIV. No matter what the disaster—earthquake, economic meltdown, the rise of socialism, moral disintegration of society, global conflict with radical Islam, the end of the world’s oil supply, earth being struck by an asteroid—there is no end to the possibilities we could fret over. No matter what it is, we should not fear.
Our security is in God, not in a political party, or a particular leader, or an economic theory, or, if you are a survivalist, in your guns and canned goods! It is inappropriate for God’s people to panic in times like these. I am really put out at the Christian fear-mongerers who delight in making people scared and nervous by talking about all the horrible things that are going to happen. Read Isaiah 8:12, "Do not call conspiracy everything that these people call conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.” As Christians, we shouldn’t even listen to that drivel, because God is our refuge and strength. Because of who God is, we will “not fear,” no matter what happens.
I don’t think that means we don’t get an extra shot of adrenaline when some disaster strikes, but we don’t panic. When our attention is focused on the presence and the protection of the Lord, we can face all sorts of things without panic. And we don’t let our fears about what might happen control or dominate our lives because we know the Lord All-mighty is with us to protect us.
Secondly, God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in the face of opposition.
B. In the face of opposition v.4,5
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall;
God will help her at break of day.
1. The City of God Ezekiel 33:13; cf. 1 Pet 2:4,5
At the time this psalm was written, the city of God was Jerusalem, the place where the Ark of the Covenant was located. There, above the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies was the presence of God on earth.
Where does God live now? The New Testament tells us we believers are living stones, built together into a temple in which God lives. But we are still under attack. Many Christians I know feel like the government and the culture in general are opposed to us. We sense a great divide between the values that guide our lives and the values that seem to be directing the rest of our country, and it’s scary. A few decades ago we heard a lot about the “culture wars”, and the Moral Majority. We don’t hear much about that any more, but the conflict is still there. The public schools are still promoting things they have no business promoting, or they leave out large portions of our country’s history that would show the solid religious underpinnings to our country. The values of popular culture are diametrically opposed to the values of the Kingdom: money, material possessions, power, sex, physical beauty, physical pleasure, athletic prowess, entertainment, leisure, etc. There are a whole host of idols that our culture worships which compete in the hearts and minds of men with the one true God, the Lord Almighty. We are very much under attack.
The psalmist was thinking about physical attacks on Jerusalem, the city of God, and his confidence was that because the presence of God lived in that city, “she will not fall.” Now we, the Church of God, the Temple in which He lives by His Spirit, are under a different kind of attack. But we can be equally confident that we will not fall, but that God will help us “at break of day”, meaning soon, in plenty of time.
But if you know your biblical history, you know that Jerusalem did fall—not once but twice. In 586 B.C., the Babylonians destroyed it, and then in 70 A.D. the Romans did it again. So how do we understand this promise that the city of God will not fall because God is in her? And what does that say to us today?
Do not miss this point: every promise of God has a condition on it, whether it is articulated or not. God spelled it out in Ezekiel 33:13, “If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but then he trusts in his righteousness and does evil, none of the righteous things he has done will be remembered; he will die for the evil he has done.”[1] The promise to defend Jerusalem was contingent on the people following the Lord. They didn’t and He let their enemies ride over them.
The lesson for us should be clear. We should repent of the many ways that we have adapted to the culture so that now we are virtually indistinguishable from the world around us. We should re-commit ourselves to God, and try to get as close to Him as we possibly can. We should take seriously the biblical commands to teach our children to fear the Lord. We should get serious about following Him in every area of our lives. Because if we don’t, we could end up much like Jerusalem, or like Europe: a post-Christian nation. Our country is currently running on the spiritual inertia of previous generations, but we are not putting much energy into keeping it going in that direction. Eventually, the values that devout Christians of previous generations lived by and that made this country great will fade, and we as a nation will become even more thoroughly secularized than we are now. To change the image, already, the city of God that is the Church in this country is in danger of being boiled alive, like the frog in the kettle. Folks, we need to wake up!
2. The river
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, If a walled city was to be a secure defense, it had to have a water supply. Jerusalem did, thanks to the efforts of King Hezekiah who had a tunnel dug under the city wall to bring water into the city from the Gihon spring and store it in the Pool of Siloam. But the psalmist is also thinking of another river—the river of God’s presence and blessing. All through the Bible, water is an image for the source of life and health and refreshment. Jesus said He Himself was the living water, and that if we drink from Him, we will have not just a refreshed life here, but eternal life. He lives in each of us individually, and is especially present when we gather in His name. And isn’t it true that when we gather as the city or the people of God, the river of the Spirit makes us glad? That’s one of the great things about corporate worship: we come in from the frustrations and pain and annoyances of life, and the River of God brings joy to our hearts and we are strengthened to go back into the world and fight the good fight.
Third, God is our refuge and strength in the face of even international conflict.
C. In the face of international conflict v.6-9; Jer 32:27
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see the works of the Lord,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shields with fire.
I was unsuccessful at trying to find out how many wars are going on in the world at the moment—different web sites estimated anywhere from eighteen to over one hundred. But we are certainly aware of the war in Iraq, which thankfully seems to be winding down, and the one in Afghanistan, which is heating up. There is major unrest in Thailand; we have some friends who lived there for years, and the wife, who was born in Thailand, thinks that country is headed for civil war. There is the war going on between the Mexican government and the drug lords, and many other conflicts all over the world. If you watch the evening news, or online news, it’s enough to keep you awake at night.
This passage says that God is the one who ends wars. He is the God of peace. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God. Here’s how God puts an end to war: when people who were formerly on opposite sides of a conflict come to faith in Christ, He makes them brothers and sisters in the family of God, and that brings peace between them. If we are troubled by the reports of wars in different parts of the world, we should pray for the God of peace to “make wars cease to the ends of the earth.” And we should pray for the missionaries who are there, that God will prosper their efforts to bring people into the family of God. In the end, that will do a whole lot more good to accomplish peace than anything the State Department can do.
Verse 6 is one of my favorite verses in the whole Bible. Look at the contrast here: “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall.” We see that happening all the time. It is the summary statement for the political history of the world. In the back of your Bible, you probably have maps that show you the various great empires of the Middle East over several centuries: the Medes and Persians, then the Babylonians, then the Greeks, then the Romans, etc. We have wars and world wars, and the result is that leaders and empires change.
Nations are in uproar à kingdoms fall
But all God has to do is to utter His voice, and the earth will melt.
He lifts his voice à the earth melts
As surely as He could create the heavens and the earth by simply saying, “let there be…” He can also destroy it all with a word. (Just parenthetically, it is interesting in light of this verse that Peter says that the next time the world will be destroyed not by a flood, but by fire, 2 Peter 3:10.) The point is that God certainly has the power to stop wars and to protect His people in the midst of them.
I’ve been reading a great book that Jon Pennington recommended to me recently called Wild Goose Chase. It’s all about getting out of our cages and following the Holy Spirit, whom the ancient Celts called the Wild Goose. One of the cages that keeps us from following the Spirit is the assumptions we make about what can and cannot be done. These assumptions become 8-foot ceilings that limit God, and keep us from following Him with complete abandon. The author doesn’t quote Ps 46:6, but his thoughts are very consistent with this. If God can make the earth melt simply by speaking, we should never underestimate what He can do. As God said through Jeremiah 32:27, "I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” No, Lord, I guess when I think about it, nothing is too hard for you. So we will trust you, even when the whole world is at war.
The application is in verse 10, and it’s a familiar one to us.
II. Therefore, Be Still and Know God v.10
10 "Be still, and know that I am God”
The context is the chaos of battle. “Be still” means “cease and desist”—stop what you have been doing and be still. Let go of your anxiety and stress and fear and relax in God. This is not talking about withdrawing from the craziness of the world, but in the midst of that chaos, making room for God. We can do some things to address our problems, and we should—that’s why God is our strength. But we can’t do everything necessary, and shouldn’t try to. To be still is to trust God, to let Him do what only He can do. No matter whether you are a harassed mother with small children crying and hanging on you all day; or a busy businessman with important decisions to be made; or a teacher in a classroom of uncontrollable students; or a worker in a noisy plant; or a missionary in a hostile culture—we need to slow down, stop, and be still before God.
Only when we stop our own frantic activity can we begin to experience God acting on our behalf, and really know, in our experience, that He is God. Not a head-knowledge, but a deep realization that gives us peace in the midst of the chaos of a world gone crazy. Worry is a sure sign that we are not trusting God. Only as we admit our limitations and stop trying to fight all the battles ourselves will we see God’s power at work in our lives. “When we fail to pray, the best we can do is the best we can do. But when we pray, the best we can do is the best God can do.” That’s entirely different, isn’t it? When we are besieged by natural disasters, or opposition from other individuals or our entire culture, or when we are threatened by international conflict—or whatever it is that you are facing today—we need to pray. It’s so amazing that many Christians don’t pray in times like that—they just fret. Or if they do pray, they pray shaking in their boots, rather than in confidence that the Lord All-mighty is their fortress.
But folks, it does require us to stop. To be still. To sit before the Lord, or to walk before Him in His creation, or to prostrate ourselves before Him. Remember, what your body does affects how your soul is. Get to a place, and take a position, where you can experience the presence of your refuge, your fortress, the Lord Almighty. When will you do that? Don’t walk out of here saying, “That was a great sermon.” Plan now when you will “be still” so that you can know in your heart that He is God.
III. God’s Passion to Be Known v.10
The last half of v. 10 says,
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."
God invites us to slow down, to cease and desist from our frantic activity so that we can know Him. But that’s not where it stops. He wants to be known all over the world. God is not just interested in protecting His people from disasters or opposition; He intends to extend His kingdom and His glory over all the earth, to every nation, every people group.
This changes the posture of the psalm from one of defense to one of offense. Jesus said He was going to build His kingdom, and the gates of hell would not be able to stand against that onslaught of love and truth. Barbie and I spent a few days recently at a conference on caring for missionaries, and we were with people who focused exclusively on the Muslims. Let me tell you, folks, we heard some stories that would curl your hair. There is a battle going on out there—an all-out battle for the hearts and minds of men, women, and children. And the enemy, who has had control of those cultures for thousands of years, is not about to let go of them easily. He is fighting back, often in devastating ways. Some of our own sent-ones from this church bear the scars of that battle, and are now home, healing, so they can go back into the fray.
But be assured of this: God will be exalted among the nations; He will be exalted in the earth. For the earth will be filled with the glory of God as the waters cover the sea (Is 11:9; Hab 2:14).
11 The Lord Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
--so that we can tell others of how great He is, and spread His fame to every nation on earth.