Psalm 46. I titled this psalm, A Very Present
Help in Trouble. God has proven to His church,
to every individual in His church, the body of Christ, to be a very
present help in time of trouble. Now, it's evident to me as I
read this psalm over and over, it was not written by a novice,
but by an old tried believer. It doesn't give us the name of
who wrote it, It just says, to the chief musician for the Sons
of Korah, a song upon Alamoth. And I think that has to do with
those singers who were like sopranos. It was to be put into a higher
pitch. And they were to sing this song. It'd be nice to hear a tune to
it, wouldn't it? Somebody write a tune to it.
I don't know if anybody ever has or not. I don't know. Is
there one in that? It would be good to sing this
psalm. They said Martin Luther, when
he was facing any trouble, he would sing this psalm, Psalm
46. It's like what Paul wrote to
Timothy. It's a psalm of confidence, the
psalm of faith that God will take care. Paul wrote to Timothy
in 2 Timothy 1.12, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able
to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day as
confidence. And that's what true faith brings. True faith brings confidence. Confidence in God. It's a psalm that the redeemed
have sung many times over the years as the church has gone
through many trials and troubles. There have been many over the
years who have tried to stamp out the name of Christ and to
destroy the church. You know, all the things that
go on, I don't even pretend to have any knowledge behind the
scenes. God knows. God knows what's going
on. But I know this, in all the workings
of Satan among the children of men, all his workings, It's always
to bring down the church. It's always to bring down the
children of God. Always. And all that we see going
on throughout the world, Satan who's behind the scene, he's
always working to bring down the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I know that. I know that. That's
his own purpose. He doesn't care about People
getting drunk and drunk. He don't care about that. I'll
tell you what he cares about. That no man stands in a pulpit
and declares the gospel of God's glory. That's what he doesn't
want to happen. However, however, God is on the throne,
and God assures us that His church will endure from one generation
to the next. From one generation to the next,
He'll have a seed that will proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ and believe
on Him. And then this psalm is for the
troubled and tried. Sooner or later, And I've learned
this, and Henry used to say it so many times over the years,
and I'd listen to him preach, if it hasn't happened to you
now, it will, sooner or later. And I've learned this over the
years. Sooner or later, you'll need this. Sooner or later, I'll
need it. I'll need it again, and again,
and again. It's a psalm for the troubled
and tried. Others can boast of whatever they want, But as for
the church, her boast is in the Lord, the Lord her God." Now
listen, it says here, and it starts out with God, Elohim.
God Almighty is our refuge and strength. In His person, He said,
I am God, and there is none beside Me. I do not have to be concerned
with my God and fight with another God. There is no other God for
Him to fight with. He's conquered. He's conquered
death, hell, and the grave. He's conquered Satan. There is
none above Him. There is none equal to Him. There
is no one equal to the power of God. No demon ever refused
to come out when Christ had come out. None of them ever refused
it. When the Lord spoke, they had
to do exactly what He said. They even had to get permission
to go into the swine. They had to get permission from
Him to even go into those swine. They know who rules heaven and
earth. They know. They know. God is
God. He has no competitor. He is God
all-sufficient. In every area, God is sufficient
to be a refuge. Now that's what makes for a good
refuge. Is it sufficient? Will it hold
up under the storm? Will it protect me? Can I find
real shelter in this refuge? In God, we can. In anything else,
it's going to fail. Anything else or anyone else,
it's going to be like the house built on sand, it's going to
sink. It's going to fall. This is what's going to happen.
And then God is our refuge and strength and His power. Our Lord
said this, Is there anything too hard for the Lord? Is there
any matter concerning me and you that's too hard for God to
deal with? None. None. and that He's our refuge and
strength in His redemptive work, I thought of this, I thought,
we have been cleared and cleansed, justified, justified and cleansed
from all our sins. Now to you who know what sin
is, you know something of the guilt of it, you know something
of the filth of it, and you can rejoice in the fact that you've
been cleared and cleansed, justified in Christ and cleansed in Christ. But God is our refuge, has reference
here, I think, also to the cities of refuge. Remember those cities
of refuge that were set up in the Old Testament? They were
a place of safety. A place where a man, if he had
accidentally killed someone, he could go to that city of refuge
and the manslayer could not touch him. He was protected there. He couldn't do it. A place to
hide from the manslayer was the city of refuge. It was a place
appointed by the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is appointed
of God to be a refuge for sinners. He's a hiding place. A hiding
place. Jesus Christ is our refuge. He
is God and He is a man appointed of God to be a refuge. Listen,
in Isaiah 32.2, a man shall be a hiding place from the wind.
A man. Who is that man? That man is
Jesus Christ. He is our hiding place. He is
our refuge. A refuge. And his help is very
present, a very present help in trouble. This shows his omnipresence. Now, if Vicki gets in trouble,
the best thing she can do right now is call 911. I'm 400 miles
away. I can't do anything. I'm like,
you can call 911, then call me. Because I'm 400 miles away and
there's not a thing I can do. God is omnipresent. He's not
400 miles away. He's not a million miles away.
He's with us. You know, this is something that
I want to grow in myself personally. I want to grow in the awareness
and the consciousness that God is with me. I'm not praying to
someone way out there somewhere. He's with me. Christ in you. I'm looking at a people in whom
God dwells. I know that's hard to comprehend,
especially when you are aware of your own sinfulness. God is
in you. By His Spirit, He dwells in you.
He's a very present help. This shows His nearness to us. It's help when we need it. It's
very present. It's help when we need it. He is a very present help. Therefore,
truth has reasoning with it. Therefore, because of this truth,
because we have a refuge, and God is that refuge, and He's
a very present help in trouble, because of this, we will not
fear. We will not be ruled by fear. I don't want to be ruled by fear.
I don't want to live in fear. Fear will shut you down. Fear
will absolutely shut you down. I don't want to live in fear.
And I sure don't want to live and say that I believe God and
then on the other hand, I'm scared to death all the time. Those
two don't go together. Faith and fear, now I'm not talking
about the fear of God or right fear of God, but faith and just
fear. Fear of events, fear of getting sick, you know, fear
of something going to happen to the family. Faith and that
kind of fear, they don't go together. They're two opposites. We will not fear because God's
our refuge. He's very present to help. He's
with us. We will not be overcome by fear. Fear, listen, fear is
not the response of faith. Confidence is the response of
faith. And we will not run when trouble
comes. He says, He is our strength.
You know, there's a time, listen, there's a time to run. You know,
there was a time Paul got out of town. There's a time to stand
and fight. There's a time to defend the
faith. There's a time. He's our refuge. There's a time
to hide. He's our strength. There's a
time to stand and fight. So we will not run when trouble
comes over the gospel. We will not run. Even in the face of the worst
events of life that you can imagine, We will not run. We will not
be overcome with fear. We will not submit to fear. He
says here in verse 2, Therefore will not we fear, though the
earth be removed, though the mountains be carried to the midst
of the sea. Earth removed. That's everything, isn't it?
As far as this life's concerned, if the earth were removed, that's
it. But he's not talking here about the end of the world, because
that would be a great blessing to every believer here. There's
no greater blessing than for God to come right now, Christ
to come right now and put an end to all this and take us home. But this is the removal of someone
you've depended on, a spouse, you know, a child, one of your
children, a job. Though the earth be removed,
you know, the job you had and made your living with, it's gone.
I lost three jobs. I lost them when my boys were
at their youngest. They went out of business. You're
like, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? Loss of a job? Loss of our health? Loss of our health? You know,
if we live long enough, that's going to happen. That's going
to happen. But we are not going to fear,
though the earth be removed, though the things we have held
on to and looked to and found some security in it, God removes
it. Sometimes He doesn't do it as
drastically to some of His children as He does to others. Someone
was telling me one time that they had a desire to be a pastor. Oh boy, you don't have any clue
what you're talking about. Because if God really truly,
if God's going to make a man a pastor, He's going to try that
man, because the only way he can be a pastor of a flock is
for God to put him through the furnace. It's for God to make
a leader out of him. Look, before God put David on
the throne, he had to run and hide in caves. He had to run
for his life. I mean, they was after him all
the time. Saul was trying to kill him all the time. But what
was God doing? He was making a leader out of
him. He was molding the King of Israel. Even our Lord, look
what they did to Him. Look how they went after Him.
You know, the Scripture says this,
Luke 12, 15. Your life, and the Lord teaches
us this, but your life consists not in the abundance of the things
which you possess. If your life consists of those
things, you are going to be very disappointed in just a little
while, because God's going to remove them. Sooner or later,
He'll remove them. But the believer's life does
not consist in the things which he or she possesses. Immaterial
things, what he's talking about. Not at all. And he speaks here
of the mountains being removed. Well, mountains are used like
landmarks, aren't they? And they're used like guides.
I mean, I think that's what he's talking about here. And I think
here he's speaking about, you know, your pastors, your teachers,
and if God removes those, we're going to fall apart? We're going to fall apart? Here's something we've got to
keep in front of us. Pastors and teachers will be
removed. I'll be removed. Everyone who stands here eventually
will be removed. But God is never removed. God
is never removed. He's our rock, and that rock
is never removed. Something we count on to be unmovable
is gone. It's gone. And then he speaks
there in verse 3 of the waters and the mountains being shaken. These are troubles, I mean deep
troubles, deep, deep troubles. Turn over to Psalm 69 too. In Psalm 69.2, listen, he says
in verse 1, "'Save me, O God, for the waters are coming unto
my soul, the floods of trouble is coming to my soul. I sink
in deep mire, where there is no standing. I am come into deep
waters, where the floods overflow me.'" He says in verse 3, "'I
am weary of my crying, deep, deep waters.'" Turn over to Psalm
73. In verse 10 it says, "...therefore
his people return hither, and waters of a full cup are wrung
out to them." Troubles, troubles, heart troubles, afflictions. But remember this, remember this,
"...though the waters thereof roar and be troubled." Remember
the one who walked on water. He walked on water. The waters
that come into my soul, the trials and the troubles that just come
like a wave over me, the Lord Jesus Christ is standing on top
of them. He controls the measure of them. I was reading this the other
day, and it just hit me when I was reading about the disciples. They were in the boat. Remember
the storm came up? And the Lord was in the back
of the boat, asleep. And the water came in and it
said it was full. It was full. It was filling up.
And that's when they went back there to get Him. God... Every trial has its measure.
The trials that God sends, every one of them have their measure.
They have their full mark. Just like that glass has a full
mark. Every trial God sends has its full mark. It has its measure. And when it's reached its measure,
then He'll command the wind and the waves to be still. Our Lord walked on water, and
the mountains shake." And here I think he's also speaking of
a national disturbance. Israel was always in trouble.
The churches, she has her period. You look in history, she has
her periods in time where it just looks like she's going to
be swallowed up. Just be swallowed up. But these disturbances have been
going on since the fall. And God's people are still here.
We are still here. Selah. Pause and give thought
to this. Read this over and over. Give
thought to it. Then he says here, he switches.
He switches, he says that there is a river. He's going to give
us an imaginary, well it's not imaginary, it's real, for us
to imagine. to get a hold of this. There
is a river, a deep river, the streams whereof shall make glad
the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most
High." There's a river, and its waters are not disturbed. Its
waters are not roaring. It's calm. It's calm. Ralph Erskine said this, this
river is the triune God. It is God the Father, you can
see that over in Jeremiah 2.13. It is God the Son, you can see
that in Zechariah 13.1. And it's God the Holy Spirit,
you can see that in John 7.38. He said, We have in this river
the perfections of God, the fullness of Christ, and the operations
of the Holy Spirit of God. He's the river. He's the river. And the streams, and here's something
interesting, the streams make up this river. The streams, he
says, thereof. There's a river, and the streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God. Streams usually make up the river.
Here, the river makes up the streams, because the river is
above, and it flows down to us. It flows down to us in Christ.
Flows down to us in the covenant of grace. Flows down to us in
mercy and grace. The streams come from that river.
And that river comes from where? The throne of God. Turn over
to Revelations 22. Revelations 22. Verse 1, And he showed me a pure
river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of
the throne of God and of the Lamb. They are one and the same.
This river flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flows
out from them. And the streams of it make us
glad. They make glad the city of God,
the church He's speaking of. The church. There's nothing that
makes us more glad than to hear the gospel. Than to hear of the
Lord Jesus Christ. To hear of what we have in Christ.
To hear of what's coming for us in Christ. That makes us glad. That makes glad the city of God,
the church of God. We find no real lasting happiness
in the things of this life apart from Christ. You ever wonder
how people make it? Since you've known the Lord,
you've known the Lord, you know the gospel, you know the truth.
And I look at people and I say, how do they keep from going mad?
It's no wonder people commit suicide. It's no wonder people
are drugged up. It's no wonder people are about
half out of their minds. They have no refuge. They have
no real, abiding, lasting refuge. What refuge they do have is a
refuge of lies. But we don't. We have a sure
refuge, an abiding refuge, strong refuge. And verse 5 tells us
where God is to be found and why the church has endured the
test of time. God, He says, God is in the midst
of her. This is why He's a very present
help. He's in the midst of her. God is in the midst of her, Christ
in you and you in Christ. We have God's Word that He is
in His church, that He is with us. And to attack her is to attack
God. Our Lord said to Saul of Tarsus,
which was Paul, he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Paul was persecuting the church,
which is the very real body of Christ, spiritually. It's the body of Christ. And
he said, why are you attacking me? Why are you persecuting me? And here, let me give you three
promises in this verse 5. First of all, God's in the midst
of her, she shall not be moved. She cannot be plucked out of
the hand of Christ. He said, My Father which gave
to Me is stronger than I. Listen, the church cannot be
plucked out of His hand, no believer. From the first one God saved
to the last one God saved, no believer can be plucked from
the hands of Jesus Christ. It's not possible. She shall
not be moved. She cannot be plucked away from
God. She can't be plucked from the love of God. Who shall separate
us from the love of God? And Paul gives that list over
there in Romans 8, 35-39. Tribulation, trial, I mean, nothing
can. Nothing can pluck us from His
love. And here's the second promise.
God shall help her. He will defend her honor. God
has promised to help us. God can't break His Word and
be God. If He's God, He's going to keep His Word. God cannot
lie. He will defend her honor. He
will defend her faith. She will not be put to shame.
You and I will not be put to shame over the gospel we believe. Not at all. And thirdly, and
he says here, and that right early, that means it's a crack
of dawn. That's what that means. It's
a crack of dawn. Even before she knows that He's helping her.
He's helping her. You know God's helping you before
you ever pray and ask Him to. The very fact that you're moved
to pray and ask Him to is evidence He's already helping you. Early daybreak. You know, we have an example
of this every morning. Every morning, the sun comes
up and the night time flees away. Every morning, God gives us an
example how He makes the darkness flee away when He brings the
sun up every morning. How many times we watch that
sun come up, we never think of God. We never think of Him driving
away the darkness. You ever notice At least it's
this way with me. When I'm sick, I feel worse at
night than I do in the day. I always do. I feel worse at
night. If I'm going to have a fever,
I'm going to usually have it at night. There's something about the daytime
when it comes around, I feel better. There's something about that
nighttime. But God, he's going to drive that away early, daybreak. He says here in verse 6, "...the
heathen raged..." They always do and always will. You know,
man is born in madness, he lives in madness, and he dies in madness.
Unless God saves him, that's the way he's going to spend eternity,
in madness. "...the heathen raged..." They
raged at Christ. They've always raged at God.
You know, the rage of the human race since the fall has always
been against God. It's always a rejection of God.
At the root of it, somewhere, somewhere at the root of it,
it's rejection of God. Man made in the image of God,
and though sin has marred that image, that image is there, and
when natural man looks at each other, and they get a little
bit of glimpse of that image, they hate each other, because
they're made in the image of God. Can't stand it. Kingdoms moved. They joined together. Those kingdoms couldn't stand
each other, they got together. The Jews and the Romans couldn't
stand each other, but they got together over destroying Christ. The heathen
raged, the kings were moved, but I'll tell you what, when
God speaks, when He utters His voice, He says, the earth melts. He brings them to their knees.
Just look at history. All these kingdoms that have
been brought to their knees, God did it. God did it. He lifts up and He brings down. There is no kingdom that He didn't
raise up and there's no kingdom that He didn't bring down. God
did it. He uses means, He's a God of
means, but He did it. What we see here is the power
of God's Word. He uttered His voice. He uttered His voice. You know,
when John heard Him speak, He said, it sounded like the voice
of many waters, rushing waters. When He spoke in creation, it
stood forth. In providence, He commands all
things to work together for our good. In salvation, He commands
the prisoner to be set free. And in death, He commands the
grave to turn its loose at His voice." When He speaks, things
happen. Things happen. Now it says, "...the
earth melts at His voice. What can men do when He speaks? If the earth melts at His voice,
how can a man who is full of sin stand before God? Then verse 7, here is where confidence
comes from. Here is our confidence. Here
is the church's confidence. And here is our confidence individually
as believers. The Lord of hosts, the Lord of
armies, is with us. If God be for us, who can be
against us? The God of Jacob, the God of election, the God
who saves sinners, is our refuge. He's our hiding
place. He's the God of Jacob, my God,
I ask myself this question today. Is the God of Jacob my God? And if I can answer that yes,
then I'm safe. I have a real refuge. Selah. Pause and think about it. Give
some thought to this. And then last of all, verses
8 through 11, something to behold. First of all, His power. His
power in the desolations made in the earth. He says, Come behold
the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made
in the earth, not the works of men. You know, we stand in awe. You know, you go up to Biltmore
and you're like, Oh, look what He did. We look at monuments,
you know, But behold the works of the Lord. Go stand and look
at the Grand Canyon. Look at the Grand Canyon. Look
at that awesome big crevice in the ground. That's nothing more than the
finger of God plowing through. It's just like God taking his
finger and plowing through there, making a water course. Look at
the desolations God's made in the earth. Look at the flood
that He sent in Noah's day. He covered the highest mountain,
I think, by 20 feet. The highest mountain was covered,
I think, by 20 feet. There wasn't one thing on this
earth left dry except inside the ark. It was dry. It was covered
with pitch. That word is atonement. It had
to do with atonement. Behold and notice what God has
done in the earth. Don't ever look at the earth
and stand in awe of what any man has done. It's God's earth. Look what He has done. But here's something also strange,
I think. is that what men would find a
fearful matter, a fearful thing to behold the desolations that
God's made in the earth, the child of God can find comfort
in it. Why? Because we see His power. We see His power. that God can
do that. Our God can do that. And He makes
wars to cease. He makes wars to come to an end. There's an end to every war for
a while. When it's served His purpose,
He brings it to an end. And when He's done, He destroys
their weapons, He makes them serve His purpose, then He burns
them up when they're out of service, not needed anymore. There is
something to be here. Be still. Be still. Be quiet. Be quiet. You know, children of Israel
couldn't be quiet. They murmured. Man, they murmured and murmured.
Send them free food. They can go out in the morning
and just gather it up. And they murmured. They called it light
bread. Send them quail. It just flew into the camp. It
just flew into the camp. And they murmured. They murmured. Water out of a rock. Followed
them everywhere and gave them water to drink. It's amazing. Be still. Be still. I wish I had the time.
I had it written down here to read 2 Chronicles chapter 20.
In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, Jehoshaphat, there's a war coming up on him.
He can't handle it, there's too many. I'm just going to paraphrase
this. There's too many. And he goes before the Lord and
prays, and the Lord sends him a prophet, and the Lord tells
him, this is the Lord's battle, it's not yours. You're not going
to have to fight it. Jehoshaphat, they're standing before the Lord
with the women and the children, and they're like, we don't know
what to do. And the Lord said, you're not going to have to fight
this battle. This battle is mine. You're going to just watch it.
You're going to see it, basically. And the one thing that He had
them to do, He had them to take His army and go to this one place,
and you know what they were to do? Sing. They were to sing. I've got to read it to you. I've
got it marked down, but I'm not going to read very much. In 2 Chronicles
chapter 20, I just gave you what it is. It
says in verse 12, "...O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For
we have no might against this great company that comes against
us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon it." We
don't know what to do. You ever been there? Don't know what to do.
And all Judah stood before the Lord with their little ones,
their wives and their children. They're all standing there just
like, we don't know what to do. Then the Lord tells them in verse
15, and He said, Hearken ye all Judah and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you,
Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude,
for the battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow go ye down
against them, take your army, go with them. Behold, they come
up by the cliff of Ziz. You'll find them at the end of
the brook, before the wilderness of Jeruel. You shall not need
to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand still,
Stand still, be still, and see the salvation of the Lord with
you. Oh, Judah and Jerusalem, fear not, don't be dismayed.
Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord will be with you.
He says in verse 20, And they arose early in the morning, and
went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth,
Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God,
so shall you be established. Believe His prophets, so shall
you prosper. Now look over in... well, let me see here. And when
he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the
Lord, that should praise the beauty of His holiness. And they
went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord for His
mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and
to praise the Lord, the Lord set ambushments against the children
of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah,
and they were smitten." And you know what happened? If you're
going down and read the rest of that, I might have to go preach
from that. But what happened is the two armies, three armies,
two of them, Moab, the Moabites, they came against Seir. They
thought that Seir had lined up with Jehoshaphat, so they went
and killed them, and then they turned around and started killing
each other. And at the end of the day, every one of them was
dead, and they killed each other while Jehoshaphat and them sang
and watched it. Be still. and know that I am
God." Be still. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen
just as He is right now. Right now He's being exalted.
I'll be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The God of Jacob is our refuge. He repeats it again. Just in
case we didn't get it the first time. The Lord of hosts is with
us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Pause and meditate upon
what we have just read. All right.