As the Lord may graciously help
me, I would turn your prayerful attention to Psalm 93 and verse
4. Psalm 93 and verse 4. I do want
to go through this precious little psalm and expound the greatness
of God in it. Psalm 93 verse 4. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters. Yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. Well, I was only asked yesterday
morning if I would be able to take the evening service, and
so I had very little time to prepare, particularly before
it. But we were heading to the beach,
to South Lansing, and I'd not seen such a rough sea for some
time. and we had a good time there,
but it was a very rough and rough sea, an interesting sea, but
there was mighty waves. And I want to look then at this
psalm, and I'll come on to our text in a minute, but I want
to first of all paint the background of this psalm, Psalm 93, because
you see in verse one, it sets the scene as the Lord reigneth. The Lord is in control. The Lord
is great. And that's the message, as it
were, I would love to bring to you tonight, is to lay hold on
the greatness of God. You see, if we lose sight of
the greatness of God, everything else becomes quite big. But if
we realize the greatness of God, then everything else relatively
speaking, however great, becomes relatively small. So this is
the great end in this psalm, the Lord reigneth. He is in control. He is the great God. He is clothed
with majesty. You see, there's a beauty, there's
a preciousness in God. There's an honor that he is clothed
with. and he's clothed with majesty,
we read, and the Lord is clothed with strength. So God has strength. That's the great message here,
that God is strong, that God is majestic. And I want to contrast
that with what we're going to look at in verse four about these
mighty waves. They are mighty waves, but they're
not intrinsically mighty. which is what is true of God.
God is intrinsically mighty. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength.
There's a strength about our God, that he is strong and mighty. He hath girded himself. The world
also is established. that it cannot be moved. Here
I believe it's speaking of the fact that he holds all things
by the power of his might. And this universe is sustained
by the word of God. And though the people today think
that it goes just with the laws of gravity and so forth, but
God's word and his power sustains this universe. And when that
command comes, that time will be no longer, this universe will
dissolve, it will self-destruct. But God and his church and his
grace will be the only things then that will be substantial. You see, there's a majesty about
our God and there's a weakness about everything else. The waves
that we saw yesterday, some of us at the beach, the mighty waves,
they're not substantially mighty, they're not intrinsically mighty,
but God is. The world also established that
it cannot be moved, it cannot be removed as it were until the
work is done. What work? The work of redemption,
the work of saving his people from our sins. You see, that's
what Jesus came to do. His name shall be called Jesus
because he shall save his people from their sins. That work has
to be accomplished. And until that work is finished
and every last child of God is brought into the kingdom, then
time will be no longer. There will be no need for this
universe. That will flee away and there
will be one thing remaining. to be with Christ which is far
better for those that have fled for refuge and also those will
come back to life who have died outside of Christ to an existence
of eternal misery. He has girded himself, the world
also established that it cannot be moved. It cannot be removed
until that time from the command of God. that time will be no
longer. This is a view of God, you see.
And we need to contrast that with what we have in verse 4,
which is a view of all the things here below, which in comparison
are small. Thy throne, in verse 2, it says,
is established of old. So this is not a new God. This
is not a God that is some new upstand. This is the God that
has an everlasting origin. He had no beginning. We can't
understand that, can we? Everything in our minds, there
must have been the beginning sometime, but we're told that
God had no beginning. He was from everlasting, and
he will never have an end. We can't understand that, can
we? It's just unbelievable, really, if you think about it, to be
in a state of eternal misery, a state of misery that will never,
never, never, never end. It's pretty serious. Thy throne
is established of old, thou art from everlasting. So in verse
1 and 2 we have set the stage of the greatness of God. But
in verse 3 really we have the observation of the world in which
we live. the difficulties, the floods,
floods of ungodly men, floods that seem to threaten us, floods
that seem to overthrow us. We have the concern raised in
verse 3. The floods have lifted up. Oh
Lord! It seems that the psalmist is
crying out. Look, we've got some problems here. We've got some
floods rising. We've got some things that seem
to be coming strongly against us. Like the disciples you see
in that parable, sorry, the event that happened when they were
on the sea with the Lord. the great storm that they were
in, and these waves, they seem to be gonna overthrow them. And the waves we saw yesterday,
you wouldn't wanna be on a little boat close to those waves, but
soon twist you over and soon destroy you. The floods have
lifted up, oh Lord. The floods have lifted up, their
voice. The floods lifted up. their waves. It's as if we look
down and see the waves tempestuous and the trouble's great. But
you see, verse 4 brings us back to compare these earthly things,
these floods, these waves, and to contrast them with what
we have in verse 1, the Lord reigneth. The Lord on high is
mightier than the noise of many. So we have the Lord, you see,
who is high. And though these waves, God talks
about these things, mightier than the noise of many waters.
And when those waves come crashing against the rocks, they make
a big noise. And of course, it can get a lot rougher than it
did that we saw it yesterday. And when there's a tremendous
storm, the waves can do tremendous damage to the coastline. It can
remove beaches and, yeah, it can do tremendous damage. The
Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters. And we need to remember that,
yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. So here we have a contrast. It's not saying that the waves
are not mighty. It's not saying that they can't
do tremendous damage. but it's putting them in the
context of what the Lord is in comparison to that. And I want
you to think in your life, what waves have you got in your lives?
You see, there's a vast range of waves. I understand if you look at the
wind driven, the wind blows over the water, and it was obviously
a very windy day yesterday, it picks up. It blows over the surface
of the sea and it brings the waves. And there can be a range
of waves having a time between, if you like, the top of one going
past you and the next one coming on the beach, anything from one
second to 20 seconds, a whole range of wave sizes in lengths,
in time, in periods. And they can be a length of about
one and a half meters to 900 meters in that range, just because
the wind blows at the waves as it goes over the surface of the
water. A great range. And when we were looking at the
waves, you look and then you see, well, that one's getting
really big. That's a really big one. And you see, but however
big it is, the Lord on high, is mightier than the noise of
many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." God doesn't
say they're not mighty. God doesn't despise the might
of the waves, but he puts himself, God is above them. And that's
important. You see, we can have very short
waves, I mentioned, because I said they go from one second to about
20 seconds in terms of the period between the trough, as it was
going by you, between one peak and the next, quite a range.
But then you get a different sort of waves, which are the
sort of waves that you have when you have a tsunami, and they
can go from one minute to 20 minutes between the trough, the
time to go from one trough to the next. And they can have a
wavelength of not 900 meters but up to 200 kilometers. So there's a huge spectrum of
waves and of course they have such tremendous, these tsunami
ones, they have such a tremendous devastating effect as you probably
can remember. There's been tsunamis that have
devastated things. But the point is here that the
Lord on high is mightier. than the noise of many waters,
yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." The short ones, the
little ripples, and the greatest ones. In our lives, we have perhaps
little ripples sometimes, perhaps short-term problems that come
and go in a short period of time, but also another aspect of waves
is you get one after the other. That's the danger if you get
swimming at the edge and one wave knocks you over and spins
you around. you need to get up quick because
there's another one coming very shortly afterwards and if you
don't get up and get yourself in a suitable situation the next
one will spin you around again and very quickly you'll be in
a lot of trouble. Well you see and how in our lives
sometimes one thing comes after another wave upon wave Difficulties,
and then a different difficulties, and then another difficulties.
Some waves, short waves. Some waves, very long waves.
Sometimes years of these waves go over our lives. Sometimes
just a matter of days. Sometimes an accident happens,
it's a very short thing. And so, such a vast spectrum
of these waves. But the message here is that
the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters,
yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. But I wanted to observe
this. You might think, well, I saw
a big wave come over, and a child might go up and catch some water
from that wave and put it in his bucket. So you've got a bucket
with some water in. You look at that bucket and you
say, oh, that bucket had water from a wave. Did it have it wave?
Was it a wind-driven wave or was it a tsunami? You say it's
just water in a bucket and it's sitting there very still. You see, the water intrinsically
has no power of its own. You put water in a bucket, it
doesn't have any power to be a wave, does it? It's all the
things that act on it. It hasn't got intrinsic power
of itself. And you see, that's what I want
to contrast with verse one. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. The Lord is clothed with strength.
You look at those waves and you say, they're strong waves, and
they are. They are strong, but they're not intrinsically strong.
The water, if you get that water and put it in a bucket, it's
got no strength in it at all. It hasn't heard a wave of itself.
The H2O, the water, is not intrinsically powerful in itself. It's when
it's worked upon by the wind or earthquakes with a tsunami,
and then it has a great effect. I want to just mention one of
these hymns. Hymn 1113. How watchful is the loving Lord,
how sweet is providential care, hymn 1113 in Gatsby's, to children
that believe. Your very hairs are numbered
all, not one by force or chance can fall without your father's
leave. But verse 3 says this, no cross,
or bliss, or loss, or gain, no health, or sickness, ease, or
pain can give themselves a birth. Now that's powerful. They can't, that bucket of water
in and of itself cannot make a tsunami. Yes, if you put that
bucket in the sea and the forces are worked on it, yes, it can
take part and become part of a tsunami, or part of a wave,
of different frequencies, of different speeds, and all those
things can happen. But intrinsically, it is not
strong. And that's what I want to lay
hold of, and I want you to think about all your trials, all your
waves, and they'll all be different, there'll be some short ones,
some very long ones, some ones that seem to threaten everything,
there's the coronavirus, a great long wave, it has a huge effect,
and it's gone on for a long time, that's got a long period wave,
there's other waves that are very short perhaps, but no cross,
or loss, or bliss or loss or gain, no health or sickness,
ease or pain, can give themselves a birth. The Lord so rules by
his command. No, nor good nor ill can stir
a hand. That bucket of water can do absolutely
nothing on itself. It's only as God gives the power
of the wind working on it, or the earthquake going on under
the sea, and then the tsunami wave takes off and does tremendous
damage as it goes towards the shore, as we know in recent history.
He sent them forth. You see, the sense here is the
Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea,
than the mighty waves of the sea. They may be mighty, but
they're not intrinsically mighty. Can you see the point I'm making?
They're not in themselves mighty. They are just what God has allowed,
but God is in control. Whereas that's contrasted with
verse 1 when it says, the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith
he hath girded himself. The world is established that
it cannot be moved. There's a strength, you see,
and this is knowing our God, and we need to know our God.
We need to know the strength of our God, and we need to trust
him. And this, you see, then is a
comfort to the people of God. In verse 4 of that hymn, so since
thou so kind and watchful art to guide my head and guard my
heart and guide my very hair, teach me with childlike mind
to sit and sing at the dear Saviour's feet without distrust or fear. And you see, if those waves,
you see, it's frightening when something's out of control, isn't
it? When you see something, they say with fire, isn't it? It's
a good servant, but a bad master. If you're in control of the fire,
it can burn your rubbish up in your house or it can heat you.
It can be very useful. But if it's in control and your
house is on fire and your house is burning down, it's a bad master.
But you see, the Lord is in control. And all these things that come
into our lives, if we can see that the Lord on high is mightier
than these things. that he is above them and that
he is in control of them. And that the coronavirus is not
some thing that has gone outside of his control and the Lord can't
stop it. The Lord can't help his people.
The Lord can't keep his people. No, the Lord on high is mightier
than the tsunamis. He's mightier than the coronavirus. He's mightier than all these
things. Though they may affect us and though they in their place
are mighty, but we must put God in that exalted position to say
the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters,
yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. You see, it's all to
do with knowing who's in control, isn't it? In our lives, it's
all to do with knowing who's in control. I remember, I think
it was either in the Friendly Companion or the Cheering Words,
there was an article there regarding a little story of a boy who went up to a pier. And he
went to the end of the pier and he started waving his handkerchief
at the end of the pier. And there was a man, I think
he was fishing or something, at the end of the pier, a man
who lived there and knew the place very well. And he said,
what are you doing waving your handkerchief like that? Because
he was waving, you see, a boat that was coming by. And the man
next door to him, you see, the man that was doing his fishing,
he said, that boat doesn't stop here. I know this region very
well. The boat goes past this pier.
It doesn't stop at this one. But the boy kept on waving his
handkerchief. And soon the boat started slowing down and started
going next to the pier. And this man who knew the area
very well, he said, I don't understand this. I don't understand why
That boat who never stops here is now stopping for you as you're
waving your little handkerchief. And as the boy got on the boat,
he turned round to this man and he said, you see, my father is
the captain. And you see, that makes the entire
difference. And that is so with the people
of God. You see, the Lord on high is mightier than the noise
of many more waters. No, that boat wasn't meant to
stop there normally. The man was right, it didn't
stop there. But you see, for God's people, when God's people
have need, God will find out a way and that boat will stop
there. If there's a wave in the handkerchief by faith, the prayer
goes up, Lord save me, Lord help me. Yes, you don't stop a sea
from all its storm just like that. But we read that the Lord
commanded and the wind stopped and the waves stopped. If you
stop the wind and you've got a great sea with great waves,
if you stop the wind immediately, you won't stop the waves. The
waves will carry on for a long time before they settle down
after the wind stops. We read, you see, Jesus said,
peace be still, and the wind ceased, but the waves were gone
as well. Total miracle. Total miracle. It's not how it
works. You see, my father's the captain. My father's the captain. That's the secret. You see, this
little boy, he knew the captain of that boat. And that captain
of the boat was his father and his father loved him and his
father had agreed that if he needed a lift or something from
some place he would stop the boat and pick him up. You see
and that's what the Lord's people have. A friend there is. heaven and that's why that friend
you see this other man couldn't understand he was a bit cross
with the little boy for being so arrogant that he would carry
on in this way and think himself important enough for a boat like
that to stop for him. You see when the Lord's people
of need his goodness will find out a way and that you see is
the great blessing of of knowing God. Then you see the floods. You have verse 3, and maybe in
your life, you look at the things coming on. The floods have lifted
up. Oh Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods
have lifted up their waves. It's getting bad. It's getting
serious. It's getting dangerous. The disciples are saying, care
is there not that we perish? What's happening? There's nothing
going on and this is going to be our end very quickly. You
see, we read that, and he entered into a ship with his disciples,
followed him, and behold, there arose a great tempest in the
sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves, but he
was asleep. And the disciples came to him
and woke him, saying, Lord, save us, we perish. It's a little
bit like, really, the verse three, the floods have lifted up, O
Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods have
lifted up their waves. Look, what are we going to do?
Well, look up, look up. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of
the sea. The whole spectrum of waves,
the shortest ones, the greatest ones, they're all under his control. None of them are outside of his
control. And there's something to grasp
hold of. It's our Father, you see. The world can do their calculations
but ultimately God is in control and God is able to provide for
his people. He's able to hear their call
and he delights to hear their call and he provides for his
people and he did you see. And he said unto them, why are
ye so fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose and rebuked
the wind and the sea, and there was a great calm immediately.
The wind ceased immediately, the sea was calm. A total miracle. You can't switch off the, if
you switched off the wind mathematically and scientifically, the waves
would carry on for a very long time before the whole thing settled
down, but not so here. Because there's a word of a king
here, you see. And that's the difference. And may we grasp
hold of that in our lives, in our little storms in our lives,
in the waves. And they were real waves. They
were real problems to these disciples. I'm not trying to belittle it,
but look up, look up. You see that the Lord on high
is mightier. They're mighty, these waves.
They're difficulties. We don't know how we're gonna
get through, but may there be that handkerchief, as it were,
Raised up to God, Lord, save. Lord, have mercy. Lord, appear. Lord, we believe thou art mightier. Thou art able to squash all those
enemies that come in like a flood, those things which seem impossible,
those things that seem to overwhelm. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters. Then he arose and rebuked the
winds and the sea. and there was a great calm. But
the men marveled, saying, what manner of man is this, that even
the winds and the sea obey him? They were shocked. This son of
God, well, how much they appreciated he was always the son of God,
but they realized that this was something else, to actually speak
to wind and waves and find that they obey his voice. But it really
comes down to, I love that little account of that boy with his
handkerchief, with his humble confidence that that liner ship
would come and dock at that pier because his father was the captain. And this is why you see, you
children and young people, do you know the captain? Do you
know the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you know the God that's created
this universe? Because if you do, your Father
is the Captain. Your father in heaven has the
cattle upon a thousand hills at his control. He says, give
out of your liberty, give unto me, bring you all the tithes
into the storehouse, pay your tithes, give to the Lord the
glory due to his name. But you say, but I'll be poor.
I won't have so much. I won't have enough to eat. Prove me now herewith. Give what
is to the Lord. Put first. Give him the best
of your lives and God will make sure you have enough. He's able
to provide for you. You might say, well, you know,
obviously, if I give away this money, I won't have so much.
It's really quite obvious. The Lord is able to change things
around so much that you can have a bounty. You see, the Lord's
people ultimately live on the bounty of God. They live upon
the bounty of God. He's able to richly give us all
things to enjoy. And we are to serve Him, we're
to trust Him with those waves coming in, with those fears,
with those things that seem too great for us and they are too
great. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many mortars,
than the mighty waves of the sea. The mightiest, you go on
the internet, you can see some mighty waves with people surfing
on them. Tremendous, where they're like
little matchboxes compared to the size of the waves. Tremendous
waves. You find the biggest wave you
can. Lord on high. is mightier than the noise of
many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea. God is mighty. You see, God uses in his word
so many simple examples. We were subjected to that yesterday
at the beach. Saw the power of the waves as they come crashing
into the stones and the breakwaters. God is mightier. And these are
truths that will give us stability in a time when there's a lot
of instability, a lot of uncertainty. What will Corona do? What will
happen? What will be the economic effects? The Lord on high is mightier,
yeah, mightier than the whitey waves of the sea. Yeah, the ones
with the long the long wavelength, the 200 kilometre waves, as well
as the 1.5 metre waves, the whole range, the whole spectrum. Then
in verse 5, it says, thy testimonies are very sure. The testimonies
of God. There's a surety. there's a stability
in the testimonies of God. To keep God's commandments, to
love his ways, to serve him. There's a blessing there. Thy testimonies are very sure.
The world would say, keep things for yourself. Be selfish. That's
the way to get more, isn't it? Obviously. Twist things around
so you get more. That's the way forward. That's
what the world would say. It's not that You see, Abraham
was a very rich man, but he wouldn't have the riches of the King of
Sodom. He said, I don't need that. He had something far better.
In Genesis 15, God came to him after the King of Sodom had offered
him all the riches of Sodom. And God came to him and said,
I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And that was more
than all the riches of the King of Sodom could give him. You
see, if we have God on our side, we have everything. See, coming
back to that account, if the captain is your father, then
you've everything, haven't you? The whole boat will get turned
around to pick up that little boy, because it's his son. We
are called sons and daughters of the Most High God. He, the
great, the mighty God that created all things, has adopted us into
the family of God. We spoke of that, I think, last
time we were here about the adoption that the people of God have,
that now, beloved, now we are the sons of God. We've been brought
so that we can call Him Father. And He can know us and we can
know Him. We can love Him. And He has saved us in the Lord
with an everlasting salvation. Thy testimonies are very sure. There's a certainty in God's
testimonies, God's Word. Holiness becometh thy house. There's a holiness, you see,
with the things of God. Holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord we read. There's a need for holiness.
And this is the sanctification. We need to be sanctified. If
we're going to become like Christ, conform to the image of Christ,
surely we're going to be holy, because he was holy. So how can
you say, well, I want to be conformed to the image of Christ, but I
want to delight in ungodliness. Well, then you're not conformed
to the image of Christ, are you? Thy testimonies are very sure
holiness becometh thine house. There's a rightness. Now, this
is not self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is obnoxious
to God. He said some hard things, some
strong things against the Pharisees, because they were full of their
own righteousness. But you see, holiness becometh
thine house. We are to be a holy people. and
not self-righteous, but holiness, seeking to walk after God in
his holy ordinances, seeking to serve God from a pure heart,
from right motives, to be his servants, to serve him. Holiness
becometh thy house, O Lord, for ever. as an everlasting effect,
and there's an everlasting safety for the people of God. Well,
may this be precious then to us as we think of this. As I was looking at the sea,
seeing the strength of those waves and swimming in it too,
and getting somewhat thrown about by the mighty waves of the sea,
the Lord on high is mightier than them all. And may that be
a word of comfort to the souls of you people. You've all got
different waves, different intensities, sometimes as little waves, sometimes
as great waves, sometimes as these long waves. But whatever wave you come to
me with, the Bible says the Lord on high is mightier than those
waves. The Lord is able to deal with
them. They're not intrinsically powerful. All they are is water. All they are, as it were, and
in and of itself, it can't do anything. Coming back to what
I said here, no cross or bliss or loss or gain, no health or
sickness, ease or pain can give themselves a birth. They can't do it. But we have
a God that is intrinsically powerful. He doesn't borrow his power from
anybody and anything. You see, we rely on everything
to do what we do. But we're not self-sufficient.
But that's one of the names of God. I am self-existent, requiring
nobody to prop it up. The Lord reigneth. He is clothed
with majesty. I'll just close with this in
Revelation 19 verse 6. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude. This is Revelation 9, verse 6.
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. I'd just say, before I pray,
I had meant to mention one other text. It's in Matthew 10, verse
28. And it says this, 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. And I wanted to mention that
these waves, however great they are, they cannot, they can only
kill the body. But you see, God can give something
much more serious than that. And he says that here, fear him
that is able to destroy both soul and body. And if there was
a tsunami was declared in South Lansing yesterday, everybody
would be out the way. There'd be tremendous fear, but
there's something more to fear than a tsunami. The wrath of
God is much more to be feared than a tsunami. Because a tsunami
can only kill you. It can't put you into everlasting
hell. God can. May we then fear God
and pray. Kind and gracious Lord God, as
we gather together, we thank thee for thy mercies. We pray
that we may realise the greatness of God in all that he has done,
and that we may fear him, for he is to be feared. The waves,
though they are fearful, they ultimately have not the strength
and the power of our God. And help us then to truly fear
God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of
man. Help us to realize we need to be washed in that precious
blood that we have just read of in that rock of ages. And
may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father's love, the
fellowship of the eternal spirit be with and abide with us each,
both now and forevermore. For Christ's sake. Amen.