So Lord, may you graciously help
me. I'll turn your prayerful attention to Psalm 93 and verse
4. Psalm 93 and verse 4. Though I do want to go through
this psalm, precious psalm. Psalm 93 verse 4. The Lord on
high is mightier than the noise of many waters. yea, than the
mighty waves of the sea. Psalm 93 and verse four. This Psalm begins with this opening
statement of the Lord reigneth. This is a statement showing that
the Lord is ultimately in control and he is reigning. He is, we're told, he is clothed
with majesty. So this Lord God is majestic. He's reigning, he's majestic
and we're told that the Lord is clothed with strength. So
he's a powerful God, a strong God. Wherewith he hath girded
himself the world also established that it cannot be moved. So he
set, you see, the bounds of our habitation And this world has
been set in place for that time, until time will be declared to
be no longer. And when will that happen? When
the work of redemption is complete. And may we then be concerned
to be ready. When will that last trump sound?
And time will be no longer, when this world will cease to exist
and be burned up. as we read in Peter. But the
Lord reigneth. The Lord's in control. We look
around and we hear the media and we see all that goes on around
us and so often it's portrayed that humans are in control and
nations are in control and superpowers are in control. But you see the
psalmist here says the Lord reigneth. This is something for us. a comfort,
a true deep comfort for the people of God. In verse two it says,
thy throne is established of old, thou art from everlasting. So here we have the eternal nature
of God. You think of a kingdom and you
think, well, it's been running for this many years. It's very
well established, but yeah, God's kingdom, God's throne is established
of old. Thou art from everlasting. This
is not just so many years ago, a hundred years or 200 years.
This is from eternity past. The Lord reigns. It's a stable
kingdom. It's an eternal kingdom. And do we, have we come to know
that King? and his kingdom. Have we come
to embrace it? Have we come to love it? Have
we come to realise that we need to come and confess our sins
to this great and mighty God? The Lord reigneth. He's clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength.
Well, you see, then we have in verse three, as it were, those
things that rise up and seem to threaten and to question the
power of God. The floods have lifted up. Oh Lord, the floods have lifted
up their voice. The floods lift up their waves. So we have the Lord reigns and
yet the floods are rising. Yet the troubles are getting
greater. And the question is then, who
is going to be ultimately in control? The floods have lifted
up, O Lord. The floods have lifted up their
voice. And in our little lives, there sometimes is that time
when the troubles rise and the difficulties increase, and our
little boat seems to be very, very unstable. We read of that
account when the Lord Jesus was with his disciples on the boat.
And they were in that Sea of Galilee. And there we read, and
there, behold, Behold, there arose a great tempest in the
sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves. But he
was asleep. The floods have lifted up, O
Lord. The floods have lifted up their voice. The floods have
lifted up their waves. What's going to happen? What's
going to be the verdict? Who's ultimately going to win? Well, in our text, you see, in
verse four, we have really the answer. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. So here we have the majesticness
of God. Yes, there's the floods. Yes,
there's the troubles. Yes, there's the heathen. You see, in Psalm 2, we have
that very clearly set forwards, the powers that are against God
and against his anointed. In Psalm 2 it says, Why do the
heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the
earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against his anointed. And what unity
there is amongst the nations in many ways to bring in those
things which are contrary to God's law, to promote those things
which are evil and against the commandments of our God. Verse
three says it in Psalm two, let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heaven
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in division. You see the God, the Lord on
high is mightier than the noise of many waters. And what a tremendous
noise sometimes the waters can make. If you've been by the seaside
on a rough A rough stormy sea. The noise can be very great as
those waves come crashing against the breakwaters, against the
coastline. Tremendous noise. Tremendous
power. And they can, of course, do tremendous
damage. And you see, the Lord is not,
the Psalmist is not diminishing the power of these waves. but
he's putting them in their place. He's putting them in their place.
And that's what we need to, in our lives, as the storms arise
and the troubles rise, that we put everything in its right place.
Yes, he's not belittling these waves. He's not saying that they're
not strong. He's not saying they're not mighty
waves. He's saying they are. But then he's saying the Lord
on high. is mightier than the noise of
many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." Mighty waves
of the sea. Comfort that is for the Lord's
people. And you think of the waves that come into our lives.
And of course, if you think of the waves of the sea, there's
such a variety of waves, isn't there? If you think of the way
a wave gets formed generally with the wind blowing over the
surface of the water and that causes the waves to form over
a distance and if you were to stand on a pier, let's say, jutting
out into the sea, there's a whole range of wave sizes that would
when they're driven by the wind, they might go from one second
between the top of one wave going past you to the top of the next
wave, could be just one second apart, or it could be up to 20
seconds. And the distance between the peaks could be from one meter
to one and a half meters to 900 meters. A vast range of waves,
small ones, big ones. And of course, as we've had In
not too distant history, we've had those tsunami waves, and
they're a different category again. They have a time period
between one peak and another of between one minute and 20
minutes. Huge time period between the
waves, the peaks of these waves, and a length of 200 kilometers. Huge waves, and of course, we
know the destructive power that they can do, they can produce. But think of all those spectrum
of the waves. And this word in the Psalms still
stands. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters. You have the short waves. And
in our lives, sometimes we have a short, sharp wave, as it were. Something comes into our life
suddenly and makes a big problem very quickly. But perhaps it's
soon over. And you get other things, very
long waves. You think we've had the COVID recently. that pandemic
and what a big long wave that has been and all the implications
that that's been in our lives. A big long wave or a short wave,
the whole spectrum. But the thing that we need to
lay hold on is the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of
many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. You take your
waves, you think of the waves in your life, the ups and the
downs, the difficulties, the short ones, the long ones, the
ones that last for years, perhaps, and the ones that last for a
short sickness, as it were, much shorter, or a moment trouble. The whole spectrum. The Lord
on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than
the mighty waves of the sea. because God is in control, he's
mightier, he is above them. The floods have lifted up, oh
Lord, it seems like the disciples were crying out, carest thou
not that we perish? Lord, the waves are coming in
the boat, the boat's soon gonna be sunk, our lives are soon gonna
be over. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters. And of course, you see, In that
what we read, and the disciples came to him and awoke him saying,
Lord, save us, we perish. And he said unto them, why are
you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked the
winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. was mightier
than them, you see. Yes, they were strong. They were
sinking the ship that the disciples were on. There was a real problem
they were in. This wasn't imagined. This was
reality. And yet here he demonstrates
that he had power. He was mightier than those mighty
waves, mightier than the strength that they have. And you see, you think of all the different
range of waves If a child goes into the sea
and goes at the sea's edge and gathers up in their bucket, a
bucket full of water, and you put that on the beach, and you
say, well, is this water from a tsunami, or is it from a big
wave, a small wave, or what is it? You say, well, it could be
any of them. But in the bucket, it just lays
there still. It doesn't seem dangerous at
all. Because really, In a sense, that water itself, it can't cause
the problem. It's when the wind works upon
it, or the earthquake goes under the sea, and these things happen
to it, then this water becomes then so very, very destructive,
you see. But in itself, the water in a
bucket is powerless, really, to do you any harm, is it? But
it's when it when it has those things worked on it, then it
causes all the problems. I just turn to hymn 1113, a precious
hymn. How watchful is the loving Lord,
how sweet his providential word to children that believe. Your
very hairs are numbered all, not one by force or chance can
fall without your father's leave. But then in verse three it says,
no cross or bliss, no loss or gain, nor health or sickness,
ease or pain, can give themselves a birth. You think of like that
water in a bucket, that child's bucket at the edge of the sea. It can't make itself into a wave,
can it? It can't be destructive on its
own. Other things working on it causes it to be destructive,
but on its own it's not. And this is different, you see.
The first verse of our text, or the psalm says, the Lord reigneth. He's clothed with majesty. The
Lord is clothed with strength. The Lord is strong. Intrinsically
strong. He is strong. The water in itself
is not. When it's worked upon and a great
mass of water and the wind blowing on it, then it masses together
as a great wave and then it can do Tremendous destruction, but
that water in the bucket on its own, it can't do anything, can
it? Not really, it's not frightening in that sense. No cross or loss
or loss or gain, no health or sickness, ease or pain can give
themselves a birth. The Lord so rules by his command. No good nor ill can stir a hand
unless he send them forth. You see, God's in control of
that water. The water is not powerful in
itself. It's other things that act on it, that make it either
destructive, that turn it into a tsunami, or a short wave, or
a long wave. It's all in what happens to that. It hasn't got a strength of itself. But the Lord reigns. He has strength himself. He is powerful. He is almighty. And you see, the precious thing
is, is do we know him? Do we know this one who is above
the waves, above the storms, above the tsunamis, above all
the threats that we hear of atomic warfare and I understand there's
threats from Russia that they could drop something near the
British Isles and produce a tsunami 500 meters tall that they claim
would wipe out the British Isles. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. We have a God that is mighty.
Yes, these waves are big. We don't doubt that. We don't
doubt the ability they have to ruin things and to wipe things
out. We've seen that in history of
the damaging power of these tsunamis, tremendous power Tremendous damage
just by that water worked upon, but it's not intrinsically strong.
It's just water. But God is strong. God is mighty
and God is in control. We need to know him then. That's
the one we need to fear. I thought of a little story that
I think it appeared in the Friendly Companion some years ago of a little boy that was standing
on a pier. And there was a man fishing there,
and he knew the area very well. And a steamer ship came past
on its journey, and it regularly went up by this pier. But it
didn't stop at that pier. It was not on its route. And
the boy at the end of the pier started waving his handkerchief
at the ship. And the man who was fishing said,
that ship doesn't stop here. It doesn't stop here. There's no point in you waving
that handkerchief at it. Well, anyway, the boy carried
on waving. And sure enough, the boat slowed down and docked at
that point. at that pier. And this fisherman
was stunned. It never does that. I know that
that ship doesn't stop here. And he was a bit cross with the
boy, the arrogance of this boy to think that he could control
things like that. But anyway, when the boy, the
ship docked and the boy got on the boat, And he turned around,
you see, at the end, just as he got on the boat, and said
to this fisherman, he said, you see, my father is captain. And you see, that made all the
difference. No, that boat wasn't meant to stop at that pier, but
there was that handkerchief held out. And we think of that as
the prayers of God's people. We pray, do we have? the Lord
reigneth in control. Yes, in all the circumstances,
we may say science says that this wouldn't happen and that
wouldn't happen, and this is impossible, and this is the way
it always happens. But you see, when the hand of
faith rises up, as it were, with that handkerchief and waves it,
you see, this boy's father was the captain. And that whole ship
was turned around because his father was the captain. And so
it is for God's people. If we know God, we know the captain. We know the one that's in control
of the greatest waves, the greatest waves, the greatest tsunamis,
the greatest threats. Yes, we look at these threats
from Russia and we think, well, how will we ever get around them?
What will we do? We'll be overwhelmed. Well, the Lord reigneth, the
Lord reigns. He's clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength. You see, this is a comfort, isn't
it, to God's people? A comfort that we have. We have
one that is mighty and one that is in control and in control
of the things that are totally out of
our control. We think of that, if Russia decided
to do something like that and if their threats were not just
idle words, what would we do? How would we continue? Well, we have a God to go to.
And that's the difference between the world and the people of God.
They have a God to go to. They have one that is in control,
one that is above the ragings of the sea, those huge tsunamis
that can do so much tremendous damage. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters. How the Lord uses again so much
of the Bible is describing God in physical things that we understand. We spoke this morning of that. When my spirit, my heart is overwhelmed,
lead me to the rock. that is higher than I, a similar
image, thinking of nearly drowning and you have a rock, a place
of safety from the storm. But here you see we have great
waves, the mighty waves of the sea, those things that seem to
overwhelm us, those things which will drown us. But the psalmist
here recognises the Lord reigneth. there's a place of security,
there's a place of majesty, there's a place of rest, isn't there? There's rest. You see that little
boy on the pier, he had faith that that big steamer boat would
turn round and come and stop at that pier because he knew
the captain, because he's captain, because the captain was his father.
And you see, If we are sons and daughters of the Most High God,
we have a Father in heaven, a Father that cares for His people, a
Father that loves His people, the Father that sustains this
universe until all His children are gathered from every kindred,
nation, tribe and tongue, have been taught to flee for refuge,
to lay hold upon the hope set before them in the Gospel, And
as that last vessel of mercy has obtained mercy, as has laid
hold upon the hope set before them in the gospel, then time
will be no longer. And the earth has lost its need
of its purpose. The elements are going to melt
with fervent heat. And all these things that this
world calls good and great will pass away. But what will not
pass away is this king and his kingdom. This one who is mighty,
this one who is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea,
than the mighty waves of the sea. And in what other way you
see is the Lord so mightier than these mighty waves of the sea? Well, Jesus spoke in Matthew's
gospel, chapter 10 and verse 28. and said this, and fear not
them which kill the body, but are not able, this is Matthew
10, verse 28, and fear not them which kill the body, but are
not able to kill the soul, but rather fear him which is able
to destroy both soul and body in hell. We might think, well,
if a tsunami comes and destroys If it was to destroy this nation,
obviously it's exceedingly serious. But ultimately, it can only kill
the body, can't it? It's serious, but it can only
kill the body. But you see, the Lord reigneth. The Lord is on
highs mightier than the noise of many waters, even if that
water was allowed to wipe all of those people out. It could
only take them from time into eternity. It could not. It could
not send them to eternal punishment. But we have a God. The Lord reigneth,
the Lord on high is mighty and he is able to not just to kill
the body, but to kill the soul, that is to to send them into
everlasting separation from the mercy and favor of God in Christ,
so that they're without hope and without Christ forever and
ever. You see, that's the one that
we're to fear. And so as we come in our lives and we see great
powerful forces working, the great powerful forces that there
are of turning the nations away from God and ridiculing his kingdom
and his ways and his power, and his creation ability and his
sustaining ability of upholding all nature with his power, all
those things which are being despised in our day. But it doesn't
change the truth. It doesn't change the truth one
iota, does it? If all the people stand there
and believe that evolution, that we all came from nothing, that
nothing has been created by our God, it doesn't change the facts,
does it? it sadly does detract from God's
glory in the sense that they praise the creature rather than
the creator. They don't give glory to God
when they look at the complexity of creatures and the complexity
of our bodies instead of coming and responding with worship to
the creator. They put it down to mother nature.
They put it down to random chance and God's name and his glory
is diminished in that sense. But ultimately the Lord reigns.
The Lord is reigning. He's in control. He's not lost
control. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. The majestic nature of our God,
with all the difficulties, with all the sadnesses, with all the
disappointments, with the short waves, the long waves, all the
different waves that come into our lives. And what are they?
the afflictions, the difficulties, and our spiritual pathway too. The things that would seem to
overwhelm us, the things that would seem to threaten us, and
how those things that come into our life and we think, well,
this is going to finish it off, this is going to stop it altogether.
But you see, the Lord is, the Lord on high is mightier than
the noise of many waters. yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. You see that precious chapter
in Romans 8 where it says that we know that all things work
together for good. My father's the captain. He's
in control. Yes, this doesn't stop at this
pier, normally this boat, but my father's in control. He's
the captain. And that's why we come to our
Father in heaven and pray. But somebody will say, well,
that doesn't work like that. There's no point praying for
that. It doesn't stop at this pier. We're to pray in faith. And our God is able to do everything. Nothing is impossible with him. But in Romans 8, verse 28, we
read, we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God. to them who are the called, according
to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of his son. This is what he has
in mind for his children. You see, he's adopted his children
into the family. They've come to confess their
sins. They've come to hate their sins. They've come to flee to Christ
for refuge. They've come to be washed in
his precious sin-atoning blood. and he's brought them into his
family. His banner over them is love. They've been adopted
into this family. And you see, it's a precious
thing when you see family adoption and you see the adopted children
taking on the likeness, acting in a way of the family likeness
of the family that they've been adopted into. Something very
precious about that. When you see the same is for
Christians. We've been adopted into a family and it's a precious
thing when we start to exhibit the family traits, the family
likeness. And what is that great family
likeness to be conformed to the image of his son? That's the
great family likeness. And you see, that's the great
end in view that the Lord who reigns has in mind to do for
his people. Yes, the floods have lifted up.
Oh Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift
up their waves. And as we see things come into
our pathway and we hear the troubles that come into our pathway at
times, it seems that it's going to overwhelm us. But then we're
given this beautiful truth, the Lord on high is mightier than
the noise of many waters. You think of all those waves.
You see some of these pictures of people skiing or surfing on these waves and these
huge waves and the people look like just little matchboxes compared
to the size of those huge waves that they're surfing on. But
you find the biggest wave. And this text still stands true. The Lord on high is mightier.
than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. He's mightier. But you see in
Romans 8 at the end, Paul comes and challenges what is able to
overturn these truths. And in verse 37 of Romans 8,
it says, nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. It's because the captain Our
captain, our father is in control. For I am persuaded. You think
of these waves that would naturally separate a believer. You might think this will separate
them from being a Christian. This will separate them from
continuing. For I am persuaded that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come. What a lot of waves.
And you see, one of the nature of waves is that it's not just,
a wave is not just a single wave, is it? If you're on the beach
and if you're swimming in the surf and a wave catches you and
throws you on the ground, you need to get up quick because
very soon there's another wave that comes along and another
and another and they keep coming. It's the nature of the waves,
isn't it? It's not just a single event. Wave upon wave comes over
us. But here you see I'm persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us. from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. What a persuasion Paul had. What a list of things, what a
list of things which would be, it could be classed in verse
3 of Psalm 93, that the floods have lifted up O Lord, the floods
have lifted up their voice, the floods have lifted up their waves,
All this list, the death, the life, the angels, the principalities,
the bowers, the things present, the things to come, height, depth,
any other creature, all these things seem to have lifted up
their voice and threatened to overthrow and to stop that work
of grace and to stop that safety that there is in Christ. But Paul is saying that nothing
shall separate us. from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus, because the Lord reigneth. And that's the difference. That's
how the difference is totally to do with who's in control.
The psalmist is not disputing that the waves are not strong.
He's not disputing that they can't do tremendous damage. And
we would be foolish to say that all the powers and forces against
us are weak because they're not, they're strong. But we need to
put everything in proportion, don't we? We need to look at
them and see their greatness and then look up and realise
the Lord reigneth, the Lord on high is mightier. The noise of
many waters, all these things which would seem to overwhelm
us and take us off track and stop us and end the life of grace
in us, it would seem. The psalmist said, no, the Lord on
high is mightier than the noise of many waters. The short waves,
the long waves, the very long tsunamis that have
such destructive power. The psalmist said, thy testimonies
are very sure. See here we have, the word of
God will stand. We read, heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my word shall not pass away. These mighty waves
and all their destructive power, they will pass away. Thy testimonies
are very sure. There's a certainty you see in
the word of God. A certainty, I know that it will
be well with them that fear God. It will be well. You see in that hymn that I was
speaking of in 1113, since thou so kind, this is verse four,
and watchful art to guard my head and guard my heart and guard
my very hair, teach me with childlike mind to sit and sing at their
dear Saviour's feet without distrust. or fear that boy waving his handkerchief
my father is the captain that's why that's why i don't have to
fear i don't have to fear whether the boat's gonna stop because
my father's in control so like a pilgrim let me wait contented
well in every state till all my warfare ends, all the floods,
the floods that are lifting up, the floods that are seeking to
overwhelm us, the floods that threaten everything. Live in
a calm and cheerful mood and find that all things work for
good, which Jesus kindly sends. What a blessing it is then to
to know that the Lord reigns. It's a comfort to the people
of God. It's a comfort because then it's well. It's well with them that fear
God. Those that have fled for refuge, those that have not trusting
in their own righteousness but have declared their bankruptcy
in themselves and they've come and sought the Lord Jesus for
his righteousness, that he would clothe them with his righteousness
and wash them in his precious blood. It's well with them. The storm comes, and the trouble
comes, and the difficulty comes, but it will be well with those
that fear God. Those that have laid hold upon
the Lord, and can rest as a child does. It's a lovely thing to
see the contentedness of a child, just trusting that their mum
and dad are there, and it's well, because their mum and dad are
there. Their father is there. They're
happy, they're secure. They weren't before, but they
know he's there and they believe that he will care for them. Well,
may that be a picture of us spiritually. Our father is the captain. This
world is not a world of random chance, like the scientists or
some of the scientists would try and tell us it is. It's not
a world of random chance. It's a world that's ordered.
in all things and sure. It's an ordered world. It has
a destination. It has a purpose. And our lives
have a purpose. And if we are truly the children
of God, we have a purpose. We are not living here for ourself.
We're not just living so many years to enjoy ourselves. We're
living to the glory of God. Because everything else is passing
away. May we be part of that kingdom. that kingdom of grace,
that kingdom of immense delight, that kingdom that are looking
for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great
God, those people that know the joyful sound. You see, then the
floods and all the things that make the world totally fearful,
and I'm not saying they're not frightening things, but what
a Beautiful thing, if we can lay hold of that, the Lord reigns.
And the floods have lifted up their voice, and yet the Lord
on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than
the mighty waves of the sea. I just read from Revelation 19,
verse six, and I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude. and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thunder, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. You see, there will be a number
that no man can number, every kindred, nation, tribe, and tongue,
which shall be worshipping the Lamb. And that shall be, that's
the everlasting kingdom. That's what we really need to
be concerned, to have our place there, to have our names secure
there, and how can we do that? We fled for refuge, we've confessed
our sins, we've confessed our sinnership before God, and we've
said, Lord, save me. Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord, save me with an everlasting
salvation. Wash me in thy precious blood.
And we've come to As a dying thief who said, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom, he received that precious
reply. Today, shalt thou be with me
in paradise. Well, may we know the mightiness
of our garden as we are overwhelmed sometimes with so many powers
around us. Remember the Lord on high is
mightier than the noise of many waters. yea than the mighty waves
of the sea. Amen.