Go with me back to Psalm 46.
Psalm 46. I want us to look at this whole
Psalm, 11 verses, the whole Psalm, but I want us to first have a
moment with verse 10. Psalm 46, verse 10 says, be still
and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. Be still. Be still. That means relax. That's what it means. It means let down, let it go. That's what it means. It means be restful. Be quiet, be quiet. As our Lord Jesus Christ said
it, He said, let not your heart be troubled. Don't let your heart be troubled. Don't let your heart be troubled.
He said right here in verse 10, be still and know. Be still and know, that means
perceive. It means behold, be convinced
of. Be settled on. Acknowledge to
your own self. Confirm to your own heart. Be
still and know that I am God. That's a wonderful line. Be still and know that I am God,
the true God. Did you know that there is a
God? There's a God over all of this. The true God, the great God,
the all knowing, all wise, all controlling God. He said, know
who is in control. Be still and know who is ordering. Know who has predestinated everything. From the steps of your feet to
the hairs of your head. Verse 10 says, be still and know
that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen. Not might
be, not could be, I will be because I am. I am. Exalted, raised up high and lofty,
men say, make him Lord now, make sure you make him Lord. He already
is. He exalted, raised up high and
lofty, the highest set on high. I will be exalted among the heathen. That means among the nations,
among the people. I will be exalted in the earth. He said, in whatever happens
in the earth, the earth that I created, The earth that I control,
the earth that I rule over, be still and know that I am God. In a few places in this Psalm is
the word Silah. And that deserves Selah. I believe
three times in this Psalm is the word Selah. That means just
pause right there for a minute. Just dwell on that for a minute.
That takes us to a higher place. That's what it means. Being still and entering in and
knowing, really knowing. That he is God. You know, we
have these moments where the word, we hear the word, we gather
together and the spirit helps us and we focus for a moment
and our hearts say, yes, he is God. Does that give. Does that give true, true comfort
to your heart? And does that allow you to settle
down and to be still and to find rest? Because it does to mine.
It honestly brings such quietness inside me. Just hearing and being reminded
again from the Word of God that God truly is God. Not just the
God over you, but the God over all the earth, who has his hand in and his hand
on everything that's happening, everything. That brings so much
peace to me. So much peace. It brings peace
in the heart. It brings peace in the soul,
just the entire being. It brings peace in a world where
there is no peace. There's just not any. Being reminded of this right
here again is what will still us. Being reminded of this right
here, this is what will still us. Hold your place and turn
to Romans 8. Romans 8 verse 28, it says, and
we know, be still and know, be still and know, and 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, And let's enter into this as we're reading down through
there. Who he loved and who he chose. Who he loved and who he chose. Whom he did foreknow. He also
did predestinate. Start to finish. And He predestinated all that
He foreknew to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called by the Word of His truth, by the Spirit of
His power. And whom He called, them He also
justified in His own blood. Justified, whenever a man or
a woman is justified, it means the judge looks at them and says,
you are right. You're right, you are right in
what you've done. No sin, no wrongdoing, Justified
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. As justified and right
as He is, that's how justified and right we are in Him. Perfect. Verse 30 says, moreover whom
he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Raised him up with him, prepared
a place. He said, let not your heart be
troubled. I'm going to prepare a place for you. And if you see me go, I'll come again
and receive you to myself. Verse 31 says, what shall we
say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son, gave his own son. He spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Every person he
foreknew, every person he called, How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? That means we're joint heirs
with him. Whatever he gets, we get. But
it also means if he gave us his own son, if he did not spare
his own son, what else is there? If we get him, we get everything. Verse 33 says, Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justify
it. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. He is daily making intercessions
for us. And that is a beautiful thought.
Every sin we haven't done yet, He paid for all of our sins,
the ones we haven't done yet. And as we do them, He says, I paid for that. My
blood was poured on that. Verse 35 says, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword,
anything that could happen. As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter, but we're not. Verse 37 says, "'Nay, in all
these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved
us. For I am 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.'" Just be still. He covered everything there, everything seen, not seen. Nothing has any power to remove
us from His hand, nothing. Just be still and know that He
is God. He will be exalted among the
heathen. He will be exalted in the earth. Thank God. Thank God. Amen. Thank God. His authority
will not be overrun. He will not be overruled. Never. In Christ our God and
our King, everything is settled, it's ordered, it's sure. Everything,
everything. Now with that being established,
let's go back to Psalm 46 and look at verse one. It says, God is our refuge and
strength A very present help in trouble. A refuge is a shelter. The word means hope. That's what the word means. It
means hope. It means trust. And that's what
we get every time we flee to Him. And it is the truth. Every
time we flee to Him, we get hope. We get trust. We get a refuge,
a shelter of hope and trust in Him. Verse one says, God is our
refuge and strength. The word means might. He is our
might and He's almighty. He's our might and He's almighty. The almighty God is our refuge. And He is a very present help
in trouble. That means He is exceedingly
close. That's what it means, a very
present help. He is exceedingly close to you
right now. He is exceedingly close to you
right now. At times, we may feel far from
Him. Do you ever feel far from Him? Far from Him in mind, far from
Him in heart, far from Him in every way possible, just far. There are times that we may feel
far from Him, but He is never far from us, never. He said, I will never leave you. I'll never leave you. I'll never
leave your side. I'll never leave your side. Hold
your place again and look at Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41 verse 10, it says,
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. Behold, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou
shalt seek them and shalt not find them, even them that contended
with thee, they that war against thee shall be as nothing and
as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord thy God, will
hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, fear not, I will help thee. Fear not, thou worm Jacob, and
you men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. He is exceedingly
close to you right now. Exceedingly. Back in our text,
Psalm 46, verse 1 says, God is our refuge and strength, a very
present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear. We won't fear. David said in
Psalm 23, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, I will fear no evil, because you're so near to me.
Thou art with me at all times, in all places. You are present
with me, very, very present. Verse two says, therefore, will
not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains
be carried into the midst of the sea. He's referring to everything
that supports us on this earth. All of our comforts, all of our
security, everything that we rely on and lean on here on the
earth. And we have a lot of things that
we rely on and lean on our families. our homes, our jobs, our money,
our health, the happiness and the stability
that we have from the things in this earth. He said, though
all of it were stripped away, He said, we won't fear because
of the refuge and the strength that our God has given to us,
though everything was taken away. That precious old believer that
I keep reminding you of, I brought him up quite a few times recently,
but he couldn't stand up straight. He'd bent over and he voluntarily
checked himself into a nursing home so that his wife, with all the strength she had
left, could take care of their daughter. And the brethren went
by to see him and they said, Brother Hubert, are you all alone?
And he said, no, brother, the Lord is with me. Sometimes you get to the place
where that's all you have. Are you all alone? Nope. The Lord is with me. Brother
Hubert, have you lost it all? Is life over? Have you lost it
all? Family, home, health? Have you
lost everything? No, brother. The Lord is with
me. Brother Hubert, are you sad? Are you depressed? Are you overcome
with heartache? No, brother. The Lord is with
me. Verse one says, God is our refuge
and strength, a 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, though everything this earth has to offer me falls
apart, though it all falls apart, Verse four, he said, there is
a river. Though everything fall apart,
there's a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the
most high. Though all of that may happen,
he said, there's a river. That river is our God, God himself. Verse five says, God is in the
midst of her. He is the river in the midst
of the city that supplies and satisfies and nourishes all of
his people. Our Lord said, he that believeth
on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water. Whoever believes on me, rivers
of living water. He said, whoever I give my water
to, will never thirst again. He said it will be a well of
water springing up into everlasting life. That's Christ Himself. Verse 4 says, There is a river,
the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. That city
is the people of God. He said, I will dwell in them. They are the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. Wherever He is, that's a holy
place. And He said, I'm gonna dwell
in them. Right there in them. And they're made so glad by that
river. That city is made so glad. And
the reason is because the cry constantly goes out to them,
constantly. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
Come ye to the waters." Our Lord said, if any man thirst,
let him or her come unto me and drink. Let him come. Verse four
says, there's a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city
of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall
help her and that right early. I love, is, shall not, shall,
and right early. He said, God is in the midst
of her. Not was and not will be, is. She shall not be moved. God shall help her. And that right early. Right now. First thing. There's a margin
in my Bible and it says, when the morning appeareth. Right
early, when the morning appears. First thing in the morning, that's
when he will help. First thing in the morning. Which
morning? Every morning. Brand new every
morning. Verse six, it says, the heathen
raged, the kingdoms were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth
melted. That's what man did and what
God did. The heathen raged, the kingdoms
were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth melted. Now let's see if we can get ahold
of this. The writer of this Psalm, which is the Holy Spirit, whatever
man he used to pen this, he wanted us to get ahold of this because
he said it twice. Verses seven and 11 are the same
verses. I'll just repeat it. Verse seven
says, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. The God of Jacob, the God of
the sinner, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his
help, the help of the sinner. And then it ends with the word
Selah. And that does mean pause for
a moment. Just pause on that. Dwell on
that. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Verse 8 says, come behold the
works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth. If
we could get a hold of that, we could see all of these desolations
that we see with a right view. We would see them in a right
view. Verse 8 says, come behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made
in the earth. That's saying He has done all
these things. He kills. He kills. He makes alive. He wounds. He heals. He, the Lord, does
all these things. Verse eight says, come behold
the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He
maketh wars to cease until the end of the earth. He breaketh
the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot
in the fire. Be still. That's the title of this message.
Be still. Be still. And know that I am
God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. When all this is over, And I
mean all of this world, earth, everything that we're in, everything
we will be in, the things that are, the things that are coming.
When all this is over and the dust finally settles, our God
is the one who will be exalted in the end. He's the one who
will be standing. He is right now and he will forever
be. And all who are standing on Him
will be standing on Him. And the thing that will cause
us to honestly be still and will give us true rest and true peace
and quietness in the soul is knowing this right here, verse
11. It says, the Lord of hosts is
with us. All who He's given faith to see
Christ as all, and His blood to be all, and salvation to be
totally in His hands. Salvation is totally of the Lord.
All who are looking to Him and hoping in Him and trusting in
Him and need for Him alone to be their refuge. The Lord is
with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Let's just dwell on that for
a while. The news has us dwelling on everything else. I would encourage
you to just don't turn on the news for a while. I've already voted, I cast my
vote, now we'll see what the Lord does. The lot was cast into
my lap, but the whole disposing's of the Lord. And everything that's
going on, just let's dwell on this for a while. Let's sela
right here for just a little while. The Lord is with us. The
God of Jacob is our refuge. Be still and know that He's God. Who's gonna be standing in the
end? He is. He will be exalted among the
heathen. He will be exalted in the earth.
All right, let's all stand together.