like to turn your Bibles to Psalm
46. Psalm 46. The Lord our God has a gracious
way of teaching us to know how frail we are, and it is the blessing
of His grace that He does so, isn't it? We need to be reminded
of how frail we are physically, and mentally and spiritually
and how utterly dependent we are upon God for all things. And Psalm 46 is a great encouragement
to place all our hope and all our trust in God, in his power
and in his providence. So let's begin reading from verse
one, and I'll make some brief comments along the way. This psalm, like so many psalms,
is a song. It's a song of the Church. It's
a song that sings of the confidence of God. in time of trouble. What a remarkable
thing to be able to say. God is our refuge. God has given his people a place
of refuge. God himself is our refuge, hidden
in Christ in the covenant of grace that covered, it is in Christ.
Christ is the mediator of that covering. And God himself is
our refuge. God is our strength. The scripture says it is God
that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
That's God's work. Any motivation we have, It is God that worketh in you,
both to will and to do, of his good pleasure. And he is our
strength. He is our very present help in
trouble, ever present with his church. He never sleeps nor slumbers,
and he cares for all these people all the times in ways beyond
our understanding. He is a very present help in
trouble. In Psalm 118, verse 6, the Lord
says, the Lord is, the psalmist says, the Lord is on my side.
I will fear not. What can man do unto me? Now believers have every reason
to be confident in the ability of In verse 2 we have that word,
therefore, therefore, therefore because God is our refuge, because
God is our strength, because God is our very present help
in trouble. Therefore will not we fear. Though the earth be removed and
though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though
the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof, sealer. Pause and contemplate
these things. This world is a troubling place. this life. All our earthly props
will eventually fail and fall away, every single one of them. And the foundations of our life
are often shaken. And then we're reminded, aren't
we, of our frailty. Yet such things are used by our
God to increase our reliance on him, to drive us back to him. I love that scripture from 1
Peter 5. Cast all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Cast all your care upon the Lord
Jesus Christ because he cares, he does care. Listen to what
the Lord promises his people through the prophet Isaiah in
Isaiah 41. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. For I, the Lord thy God, will
hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, Verse 4 of our Psalm says, There
is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God,
the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. The Lord Jesus
said, If any man thirsts, let him come to me and drink. In
John we read, He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath
said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. And Lord Jesus is called the
fountain opened in Zechariah. There is a river, the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God. Here's that stream of
living water that makes the church of God glad. God is in the midst of her. She
shall not be moved. promises from our God. He has promised to be with his
people. In Matthew 18 we read where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I That's His promise to us and
that's why we meet here. We come to hear His words and
we come to see Him with spiritual eyes. May He grant us that. And
God's people want to be where He is. Where his gospel is preached
and where God's people meet together, there he is also. And she shall not be moved. No
believer will be moved from the gospel. If a man can be moved
from the gospel, he's not a believer. Believers cannot be plucked from
the hands of Christ. They cannot be removed from the
covenant of grace. Of course, God shall help her
and that right early. Verse six, the heathen raged,
the kingdoms were moved. He huddled his voice, the earth
melted. The unbelieving have always raged
against God. But the scripture says, even
the wrath of man shall praise thee. Do you think God is troubled
by these things? Do you think God is troubled
when This world rages against him and his gospel and his Christ,
a mere word from God, and it's done. He speaks, and things are. It's impossible, isn't it, for
his will not to be done. It's impossible. He uttered his
voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge,
Siva. Jacob I have loved, Esau have
I hated. Jacob was a deceiver and a swindler,
a sinful man. How is it that God loved Jacob? Well, he loved Jacob in the same
way he loves us. God's people know they're no
better than Jacob, but they know they're saved by grace. God of
Jacob is our God. By the same mechanism of grace,
God of Jacob is our refuge. Come behold the works of the
Lord, his works of providence, his works in our salvation. Believers know that salvation
is entirely the work of the Lord. He does the saving, and He does
it all by Himself, and He doesn't need any help from us. And in
doing so, He gets all the glory. Verse 8, Come, behold the works
of the Lord. what desolations he hath made
in the earth. He maketh wars cease unto the
end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth
the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. The Old Testament scriptures
have many records of the Lord's victories over the heathen. against
the enemies of his people. These things are emblematic of
the victories of our Lord Jesus Christ and his great work of
redemption. In Isaiah 40, we have a word of comfort from our
God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto We were once alienated and enemies
in our mind by wicked works. But now hath he reconciled us. He blotted out the handwriting
of ordinances that reconciled us. He took it away, and he nailed
it to his cross, and he made peace for us through the blood
of his cross. He destroyed the works of the
devil, for Lord Jesus has made our Our God and Savior did it all. And so our next verse is so appropriate,
isn't it? Verse 10. Be still and know that
I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. Be still. where people always seem to be
so, so busy. It seems to me that this exhortation
to be still is opposite of what much of modern religion is these
days, which seems to be more about what the sinner can do
for Christ, instead of what Christ has done for the sinner. We do
what must be done, don't we? We do what's necessary in order
to then for us to be still. We try to make the meetings we
have here, meetings of the brethren, simple and as uncomplicated as
we possibly can. And then we come and sit, and
sit still, and we contemplate the wonderful works of God, peaceful
and settled in our God, because he's God. He's done it all, and
we get to enjoy the fruits of his mighty work. But our flesh,
isn't it? Our flesh is programmed, I believe,
for activity. It's programmed for works. Recall that when the Lord went
to Martha's house to abide there a while, that Martha was cumbered
about. She was running around, tending
to everything. while her sister Mary sat at
the feet of the Lord Jesus. And she went and complained to
the Lord, didn't she? And she said that she should
get up and help her. And Jesus answered her, Martha,
Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but
one thing is needful. Mary hath chosen that good part
which shall not be taken away from her. Be still and know that I am God. This is the one needful thing. We have nothing to murmur about. We raise no objections with God. We still our mouths and we stay
our hands and we still our hearts before him. Perhaps, I thought,
for some, God must take us to a place of utter hopelessness
in order for us to be still. Of course, we know that story
of Pharaoh and the Egyptian army that pursued the Israelites to
the sea and there was absolutely nowhere for them to escape. And
what did Moses say unto the people? He said, fear not. Stand still,
fear not. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. The Israelites had nowhere to
run, they had nowhere to hide, they had nowhere to go. And they
couldn't do anything except be still and witness the glory of
God in their salvation. And what did God do? Well, God
does what he always does. He does wonderful things. He
did the impossible. He opened that sea before them.
Impossible for men to contemplate these things, isn't it? The most
dire of circumstances of our lives are in the Lord's capable
hands. And when we think things are
impossible, everything's possible with the Lord. When we have no
power, when we have no power to anything, to do anything,
We have no alternative but to trust him, whatever the outcome,
whatever he decides. But whatever he decides is right,
isn't it? Because he always does what's best for his people. He
always does what is right and always what he does is good for
us. And therein, our God gets all
the glory, doesn't he? His name is exalted in the earth. Be still and know that I am God. Know that if he doesn't save
us, then we won't be saved. But he's willing, isn't he? He's
willing, and he's able, able to the utmost, able to save.
And he calms his people in the exercise of his might. I just
love, love those miracles. I love the glorious works of
our Lord. These are things which would
inspire our confidence. I love to read those things.
I'm reminded of that time when the Lord Jesus and his disciples
went out in that little ship and there came a great storm
and the Lord, you remember, was in the hinder part of the ship.
What was he doing? sleep on a pillow. And the disciples
went and woke him up and said, master, master, don't you care
that we perish? And he arose and he rebuked the wind and he
said unto the sea, peace, be still. And the wind ceased and
there was a great calm. Be calm, be still and know that
I am God. And if we know that he controls
and rules all things, then we rest in that, don't we? We rest
in that. Be still. There is a rest involved
here. There is a rest for the people
of God. We rest in the knowledge that
he is good. We rest in the knowledge. He
is our rest. He's the cause of our stillness.
He's the reason for the calm. The Lord Jesus Christ calmed
the wrath of God against our sins. What an amazing work our
Lord did. Believers ought to be the calmest
people on the face of this planet. And we cease from those works,
don't we? We cease from dead works which
have no merit and we rest in the finished work of God. The scripture bids us to enter
into his rest. He that has entered into his
rest has also ceased from his own works as God did from his. And I love finally that story
of the demoniac. You remember the Lord went across
the sea, and that demoniac was there running around the cemetery
with no clothes on, completely out of his mind, and no one could
restrain him. He was filled with devils. And
you recall the Lord cast those devils out, and they entered
the swine, and the swine ran down the hill into that lake,
and they drowned. And then the men who were attending And when they went out to see
what was done, they came to Jesus and found a man out of whom the
devils would depart. What did they find? They found
the man sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right
mind. Is that not what we are doing
right now, sitting at his feet? clothed with his righteousness
and in our right mind. Our most lucid thoughts are when
our thoughts are on him. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess, won't they, that
Jesus Christ is Lord. Be still and know that I am God. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. See you later. May these words
be a blessing to us.