Psalm 46, let's just first read
through this Psalm together. In verse one it 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, Selah. There is 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. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge,
Selah. Come, behold the works of the
Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh
wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow
and cutteth the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among
the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Now, this Psalm can be
divided up, as we've just read through it, into sections that
are pretty clear. The first three verses, which
begins with, God is our refuge and strength, and ends with,
though the waters thereof, the waters of the sea, roar and be
troubled, and the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Those
three verses is one section that I see, and it's all that God
is to his people, and how though creation itself collapses, and
nature and the world that's against God's people are there, and the
fact that the mountains are removed, the sea is boiling, as it were,
with everything that's collapsing and being thrown into it, yet
God is our refuge and strength. Okay, so that's the first three
verses. And then in the next two verses, what we see is God's
comfort to his people. He says, there is a river, the
streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. The city of
God is God's dwelling place. And it says here that it is the
holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. That's where
God dwells, the temples. And that God is in the midst
of her, calls the city of God by a female name, her. She shall
not be moved. But God shall help her and that
right early. So God is the help of this city
where his tabernacles are, where he dwells. And so that's the
second section I see here, those two verses, verses four and five. So if we look back, then we see
that God is our refuge and strength. Everything will be in upheaval,
the earth will collapse, and yet there's a river, like a river,
there's streams that make glad the city of God. So God is with
his people and he is their help, an early help. And then the next
two verses, verses six through seven, the heathen raged, the
kingdoms were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth melted,
the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Here what we see is the opposition of the ungodly against God's
people. The city that's mentioned in
verses four and five is the attack of the hostilities of the nations
of the earth, the unbelieving nations of the earth. So this
is really throughout time, but especially true at the cross,
where this particular phrase, the heathen raged, is quoted
in Acts chapter four to show that all those who were gathered
against Christ to crucify him fulfilled that prophecy. But
it also is true throughout the end of time from the resurrection
of Christ to the end of time where the church comes under
persecution and the nations of the world and the kingdom of
Satan is against her. And yet it says in verse seven,
the Lord of hosts is with us. So that's the third section I
see here. And then in verse 8 it says,
"...come behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He
has made. He makes wars to cease to the
end of the earth. He breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder,
and burns the chariots with fire." Here, what we see is that God
is utterly destroying all of the weapons and the enemies of
His people. And then in verse 10, we have
this verse that's probably very familiar to you, where it says,
be still and know that I am God, I will be exalted among the heathen,
I will be exalted in the earth. Now, if you just take that particular
verse, and you take it in the context of this psalm, where
the psalm begins with God being our refuge in trouble, our strength,
our very present help in trouble, that you see here that God's
instruction to his people is for us to be still. In other
words, like if you had, I know whenever we had a dog with us
we would always tell our dog sit or be still or stay you know
always trying to calm the dog down and on the fourth of July
when the dog heard all kinds of explosions, the dog would
become very agitated, and we would try to get the dog calmed
down, and sometimes you would have to scold the dog in order
to get them back into their right senses. So the Lord here is instructing
us, you, in the context of all this upheaval, the collapse,
it seems, of creation itself, the earth, the opposition of
the ungodly against the church and all that they experience
and all that. God is with her. God is her help. God is her refuge,
God is her strength. So therefore, taking verse 10,
you be still and know, know this, and this will be your comfort,
this will be your joy, that I am God, I will be exalted among
the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. And that reminds
us, doesn't it, of what God did in the land of Egypt in the time
of Pharaoh when he brought his people out of Egypt and he destroyed
all of Egypt. Remember that? Over and over
again, God, through Moses, told Pharaoh, I've lifted you up,
I've raised you up, I've put you in this position, and I've
hardened your heart in order that I might show my power over
you. and my name might be declared
throughout all the earth." It's the same theme, isn't it? So
we, the people of God, who trust Christ, are to be still and know
that God is our God, and God is God over all. And then the
last verse, which is the last section that I see here, is bringing
us back to the general admonition through the fact that the Lord
is the Lord of hosts. Our God is the Lord of all, all
the armies of heaven, He's the Lord of all of His people. And
He's the Lord over everything, really, not just the good, but
over the evil. It says in Amos 3, verse 6, I
think it says in Amos 3, verse 6, that is there evil in the
city and the Lord has not done it? And that evil He's referring
to is the destruction of the ungodly who were opposed to His
people. Remember, in Egypt, God redeemed
Israel out of Egypt and brought them out with a mighty and strong
and high hand." Okay. So if you see these sections
here, I think it helps us to understand the psalm in a way
where it's clearer to me, at least, that in the first three
verses, God is declaring to the comfort of his people that like
a cave where we seek refuge or something in a storm, we seek
shelter from the terrible storm that's coming upon us in the
southwest part of, I mean, the southeast and different parts
of the United States. They have hurricanes, they have
tornadoes and other kinds of storms that rip buildings apart
and and cast cars and big trucks and things like that all over
the place. It seems like that there's no defense against it.
What they do is they get underground in a shelter. They seek refuge
from the storm. God is our refuge. That's what
he's saying here. And because he is our refuge,
what can harm us? Now, let me take you to a few
scriptures along this line. Look at Hebrews chapter 13. at
the end of the book of Hebrews, chapter 13, he says this, let
your conversation be without covetousness. In other words,
don't always be striving to get things and wanting things that
God hasn't given you. Be content with such things as
you have. For he has said, now this is
the ultimate of all possessions, right? You don't need to covet,
you don't need to be without contentment, because God has
said, our Lord Jesus Christ, in fact, because that's who he's
writing about here, he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake
thee. so that we may boldly say, the
Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man shall do to me."
Doesn't that correspond to what we see here in Psalm 46 verse
1? God is our refuge. Who can harm
that one who is folded in the sheepfold of Christ's own bosom,
in God himself? God is our refuge. No one can come into God and hurt or take
away his people. Remember, Jesus said in John
chapter 10, my father is greater than all. No one can take my
sheep out of his hand. And Jesus said, no one can take
them out of my hand. So this is our God. He is our
refuge. He's our strength. He's a very
present help in trouble. And what time is there when we're
not in trouble? While we're in this life, The
one thing that is with us, it seems like, without ceasing,
is trouble in some form. And that trouble is never greater
than when we find it in ourselves, in our own sinful corruptions.
That's the trouble that troubles us most, doesn't it? What troubles
me most is when I have no trouble and I feel cold-hearted towards
the Lord and towards the things of Christ. That troubles me. When trouble comes, of course
it troubles us, whether it be health or finances or political
or whatever it is. Those kinds of things trouble
us, but it's easier for us to see that when we're troubled
in those ways, it's God's way of bringing his word to our mind
and causing us to hope in him so that we expect him to bring
us through that trouble, and not only to bring us through,
but to bring us through and to show his great salvation of us
out of that trouble. Let me read another text of scripture
with you in Isaiah chapter 43. Listen to this in Isaiah chapter
43, in the first seven or so verses of Isaiah 43. Gotta get there. He says, but
now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he
that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. If the Lord has redeemed us,
we have nothing to fear. It's very similar to what it
says in Romans 5.10. If when we were enemies, We were
reconciled to God by the death of his son. If God did that when
we were enemies, much more, much more now being reconciled, we
shall be saved by Christ's own life. He died to reconcile us. He lives to bring us to God and
save us to the uttermost. And so the same thing here. I've
redeemed thee, don't fear. I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. Remember how Jesus called his
disciples? You are Peter, he told Peter,
and you shall be called Cephas. And so he was naming his disciples
because he knew them. He knew them in love. He knew
them in his purpose of grace. He knew them. They were written
on his heart. He redeemed them. He knew them
and he redeemed them. Verse 2 of Isaiah 43 says, When
thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. And through
the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. You're going to go through
waters. It's not if, but when. When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. Rivers can be a scary thing. I don't know. I used to go fishing
when I was in my early 20s, and we would go out into the Yuba
River, which is not a great river, it's pretty good, but when it's
rushing fast, we would get up into it, up to our chest, and
with our fishing poles, and we'd try to kind of bob down with
our tennis shoes on, on the rocks, and float down as we found a
place to fish, and it was kind of fun, but there were times
where you felt like you were out of control because the river
was stronger. He says, when you pass through
the rivers, they will not overflow thee. Rivers, that's the nature
of a river, is to overflow. God says they're not going to
overflow you. When you walk through the fire, what's the nature of
fire? To burn and to consume. He says,
the fire shall not be, you shall not be burned. Neither shall
the flame kindle upon you. For, here's why, I am the Lord
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for
thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee. Here's a reference
again. Historically, God delivered Israel from Egypt And it was
after 400 and some years, and he did it in order to show his
power. over the heathen and his love and redeeming, distinguishing
grace over Israel. And that's exactly the same theme
that's taught throughout time and will be fulfilled in God's
purpose. Reading on further in Isaiah 43, it says in verse four,
since thou was precious in my sight, thou has been honorable
and I have loved thee. Therefore, will I give men for
thee and people for thy life. Fear not, I am with thee. I will
bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west.
I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, keep not
back. Bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends
of the earth, even everyone that is called by my name." You see
how God calls us, He knows us by name, but the name He's identifying
us is His own name, Christ. We're the children of God, the
brethren of Christ, we're His people. For I have created him,
for my glory I have formed him, yea, I have made him. Okay, so
you see that in Isaiah 43. It corresponds, it's just one
of those places in scripture. It's really throughout scripture.
So Psalm 46 is another one of those places where God is comforting
his people. He gives them the highest possible
consolation and comfort and security, doesn't he? The place of greatest
safety is where? In God. God is our refuge. God, look at Psalm chapter 90,
Psalm chapter 90, so that you see this. about God. He says here in Psalm 90 verse
1 and 2, Lord, this is Moses, Moses wrote this psalm, Lord
thou has been our dwelling place, notice, dwelling place, our refuge,
our strength. Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling
place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever Thou hast formed the earth and the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God. So God is our dwelling,
and from everlasting to everlasting, He is God. He doesn't change.
He doesn't fail. He doesn't cease to be God. In
other words, He is the ultimate, unmovable, uninfluencible, unassailable
safety for his people. There's nothing greater. When
God swore by himself, he swore by the highest possible reference,
the highest possible integrity, God's own person. And so we see
that here. God is our refuge and strength.
He's the place we hide. He's the strength we have. We
have no ability to defend ourselves. God does. We have no strength. God is our strength. We have
no help in ourselves. God is our help in every trouble. It doesn't matter how small or
how great. We should always be dependent. in our thoughts and
in our prayers upon Him for everything, for life and breath and all things,
especially for our salvation and our expectation, our hope.
So the faith we have is going to be given to us from Him. The
hope we have, the love we have, His Spirit, Everything comes
from Him, our sight, our spiritual sight, even our physical sight,
but especially our spiritual sight. Alright, Psalm 46 verse
2, 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? Selah. Selah means pause. It means to consider. And so
we're pausing here to consider this thought. God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble. And then he
says, all right, let's go to the very greatest imaginable
trouble, the mountains. go into the sea. The sea itself
is boiling and troubled. And what does it say here? The mountains shake with the
swelling of the sea. Everything is collapsing. The
creation is imploding. We hear about the possibility
of wars in these foreign lands. Those people are experiencing
them. Think about what it would be
like to be a citizen of one of those countries. And we have
pretty much, we get up, we go to bed, we get up, we go to bed,
nobody breaks in and molests us, and we're pretty safe, aren't
we? It won't always be that way. God is talking about trouble
here of the greatest possible kind. The greatest possible kind. Let me read this to you in Matthew
chapter 24, what Jesus said. He told this to his disciples
and all of his people, really. He says in Matthew 25, heaven
and earth shall pass away. It's gonna happen. They shall
pass away, but my words shall not pass away. In Hebrews chapter
one, I'll read this to you also. Hebrews chapter 1, where he's
talking about the divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ, he
says, And thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation
of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.
They shall perish, but thou remainest. And they all shall wax old as
doth a garment, and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and
they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy
years shall not fail. All right, so isn't it important
that we're in the safest possible place of refuge and shelter?
And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking in Hebrews chapter
one about Christ, the son of God, our creator, and our savior,
our refuge, our strength, our everything. So going back to
Psalm 46 now, in these first three verses, what we're seeing
is that all that God is, He is to his people. He's their refuge. He's their strength. He's their
help in trouble. And even though creation crumbles,
creation is not our trust. Creation isn't our hope. God
is our hope. God is our help. God is our salvation. He's our strength, our refuge.
So in all of the troubles of life, what are we to do? As the
second to the last verse says in verse 11 of this chapter,
be still and know that I am God, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in
verse 10. Be still and know that I am God.
That's what we're to do. Stop striving. Stop trying to
get things fixed because you're not going to fix trouble. You
can't fix the mountains collapsing and going into the sea. You can't
fix the world government problems. You can't fix the war problems,
can you? Can you uphold the economy? Can
you keep anything that you have reserved for food or shelter? Can you preserve it? Well, you
might be able to maintain it a little bit, cut the grass,
plant the garden, paint the house, those kinds of things. But really,
as soon as God sends a little tornado or any kind of trouble,
it just all crumbles. So we have to have something
secure, something that's unmovable, and that is Christ alone, the
Lord Jesus Christ. All that He is, all that God
is, He is to His people, and all that He is, He is to them
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he is especially theirs in
the matter of salvation. Because you see, all these things
have to do with our great need to be saved from the destruction
of things, the collapse, the ruin, all the trouble. Okay? And this trouble is never greater
than the trouble of sin, because sin is the reason that this creation
was subjected to vanity. Remember in Romans chapter 8?
All the creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until
now, and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. because
we're saved in hope. And hope that is seen is not
hope, for what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for it? So you
can see that all of scripture is written so to get our eyes
off of things we see and to fix them on Christ, whom we only
see by faith, but seeing him by faith, we know all things.
All right. Now in verse four, he says, after he has given us
this exhortation, he begins with God, God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and now he's going to continue
with God. Notice in verse four, there is
a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God." Imagine a big, big river flowing strong,
wide, and deep. The current is great, and it
has other streams that flow off from this river. He 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 first thing
you see here is that God provides for his people, the city of God,
the place where God dwells, the tabernacles. A tabernacle of
God means God dwells there. God dwells in that city. He dwells
in that tabernacle, that temple, if you will. Verse five, God
is in the midst of her. That's the same thing. He's with
her and in her. She shall not be moved. Nothing
is going to happen now. We just read in Isaiah 43, even
though the water and the river and the fire come, you won't
be burned. The river's not going to overflow
you. He says, God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.
God shall help her. And that, right early. He's not
going to wait. He's going to come right away.
Now, first thing we see here is that the river here refers
to God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. In Jeremiah chapter 2 verse 13,
God the Father is described as the fountain of living waters. The same thing is said in Jeremiah
17 verse 13. God is the fountain of living waters. And then, remember
in Zechariah 13 verse 1, it says, in that day there shall be a
fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. And that's that
fountain of Christ's precious blood, isn't it? Because it's
only by His blood that we're washed from our sins. So we have
God the Father, the fountain of living waters, Christ the
Lamb, the fountain for cleansing and uncleanness, and then in
John chapter 7, Jesus says, if any man thirsts, let him come
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. That's, he said, of the Spirit
of God. He hadn't been given when Jesus
spoke those words, but he would be given when Christ was glorified
after his resurrection. God the Father, the fountain
of living waters. Christ the Lamb, the fountain
for sin and uncleanness. The Spirit of Christ, given to
his people from Christ. from the Father by Christ. So
we see here the streams, the river, the streams were of make
glad the city of God. The river, the fountain is God. All that flows to us comes to
us from God, just like the psalm opens up here. God is the beginning.
Christ is the Alpha and the Omega. If you remember what Todd said
in that first sermon he preached, the divine order. And he was
spot on. God is always at the beginning,
at the end of everything in scripture and in our life and everything.
So here, everything we have that comes to us, comes to us from
God himself. through Christ, given to us from
Christ by His Spirit. His own blood that washes us
is made known to us through the Spirit of God in His Word. And
that's why it's so important we see all these things. We lift
up our eyes to behold the Lord who is our refuge and strength
and help in trouble, even though the world collapses and the kingdoms
of this world are opposed to us and everything inside of us
is opposed to God unless God overcomes it. And so we find
we have to have a savior outside of us in terms of our own ability,
our own strength and our own refuge, it has to be in Christ.
And we find that in him. All right. So there's a river,
the streams whereof make glad the city of God. The second thing
we see here is that God is a stream, a river to his people, to the
elect, to his bride. In fact, the city of God in the
in the book of Revelation, chapter 21, it's revealed that that is
the bride, the wife of the Lamb of God. And she's beautiful in
the beauty of Christ. And this is the whole purpose
of all of history revealed in the Word of God. It begins in
Genesis, it ends in Revelation, and it comes to consummation
there in Revelation 21, where the Lamb's wife is a beautiful
city arrayed in all these precious jewels, with the foundations
and the walls and everything so clear there, and the purity
of it and the beauty of it, because this is the Lamb's wife. That's
the city. That's where God dwells. God
dwells in us. We dwell in God. Notice verse
1. God is our refuge. We dwell in
God. He dwells in us here in verse 4 and 5. God is in the midst of her. And
isn't that what Jesus said? Look at John chapter 6. in the
New Testament, John chapter 6. I want to read this, a couple
of verses to you in the book of John to show you this, the
glory of this, that God is in us, we are in Him, in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let me separate these pages. He says in John chapter 6 in
verse 56, notice these words. He that eats my flesh and drinks
my blood, which is just a way of saying living by faith upon
Christ crucified as my all, constantly depending upon him, coming to
God through his precious blood, taking in his death as my life,
right? That's what he's saying here.
That's living upon him by faith. He that eats my flesh and drinks
my blood, What? Dwells in me and I in Him. All right. So who are the city
of God? Those who live upon Christ and
Him crucified by faith. Does that make sense? Absolutely. This is what it's talking about.
Look at John chapter 14. Another place where there's our dwelling
in Him and He in us is brought out. And surprising, the intimacy
of our relationship with the Son of God in our own nature
by His Spirit. He says in John 14 and verse
19, He tells His disciples, well, in fact, I'll read verse 18.
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you. I'm not gonna
leave you as orphans. As sheep without a shepherd,
I'm coming to you. As soon as he goes to the cross,
he's gonna go to heaven and he's gonna send his spirit, the spirit
of Christ. I will not leave you comfortless,
I will come to you. Verse 19, yet a little while and the world
seeth me no more. But you see me, by faith we do,
don't we? He says, because I live, you
shall live also. Because we're connected to him,
We're so connected, we're so united to the Lord Jesus Christ
that because He lives, we also live. Remember what Jesus told
the Sadducees? You greatly err because you don't
know the scriptures. When God said, I am the God of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, He's not the God of the dead, He's the God
of the living. If He is their God, then because He lives, they
live. and everything that he is, he
is to them. That's what he's saying here. Christ's life is
our life because we're one with him. He goes on, because I live,
you shall live also. At that day, you shall know that
I am in my father, you in me. There you have it. We dwell in
God. and I in you." Now we could go
throughout the New Testament and see how our bodies are the
temple of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 16,
and that Christ purchased us with His own blood, therefore
our body, the members of our body are His members. that were
joined to Him, were members of His body, of His bones, of His
flesh and of His bones, in Ephesians chapter 5. Or in Galatians 2.20
where He says, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, the
Lord Jesus Christ lives in us. Or Colossians 1.27, the hope
of glory is Christ in you. So all these things show us that
Christ is in every believer. Romans 8 verse 9 through 11 says,
if we don't have the Spirit of Christ, we're not His. But because
of righteousness, though our body is dead, we live and He
lives in us by His Spirit. And because He lives in us by
His Spirit, when our body dies, our body will be made alive because
He's our life. So these are tremendously wonderful
revelations of God concerning our relationship, our intimate
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as the city of God, his
bride, his wife, his people. All right, back in Psalm 46,
it says in verse 6. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted." All right. Overlay what is said in Psalm
2 and Acts chapter 4 with this. I'll read to you what it says
in Acts chapter 4 so you hear it. It quotes Psalm 2 in Acts
chapter 4, and the situation that we're beginning to pick
up the reading here in Acts chapter 4 was that Peter and John were
taken and exhorted and warned not to speak about Christ. They
were beaten and they were let go. And then, after this, it
says that in verse 23, being let go, they went to their own
company and reported all that the chief priests and elders
had said to them. This is Acts 4, verse 23, now
verse 24. When they heard that, they lifted
up their voice. These are the people that Peter and John were
speaking to, the believers. When they heard what they said,
they lifted up their voice with one accord and said, Lord, thou
art God. Notice how it always starts with
God, which hath made heaven and earth and the sea and all that
in them is. This is common. God always declares
who he is, declares his great power and his work. And then
he says in verse 25, who by the mouth of thy servant David has
said, why did the heathen rage? and the people imagined vain
things. The kings of the earth stood
up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord. and
against his Christ for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus
whom thou hast anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with
the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together
for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
to be done." Now back at Psalm 46 it says the heathen raged,
the kingdoms were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth melted.
That's a summary of history. All of history has been the opposition
of the kingdom of Satan, which is called this world. This world
and kingdom of Satan are one and the same. Satan is the prince
of the power of the air. He's the prince of this world.
As it says in John chapter 12 verse 31, Jesus said, the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out." So he's naming Satan as the prince of this world
in John 12, verse 31. And he's going to be cast out
at the cross. And here he's saying, the heathen
raged, the kingdoms were moved, he uttered his voice, the earth
melted. This is Satan being cast out.
This is Christ being victorious. This is the triumph of our Savior,
our God and Savior for his people. He's talking about God as our
refuge and strength, how he's in his people and with his people
and no one can harm them. And now he refers to the rage
of the heathen, the rage of Satan's kingdom against his people. This
is the way history is. The church is the object of scorn
and hatred and hostility. And the world hates the gospel. They hate Christ and His truth,
even though there's a lot of religions. If you ask any of
them, how will they be after death or what will they say to
God? They'll refer to their God. They'll express their trust in
God, but their God is not the God. And only those who eat and
drink of His flesh and blood are in Him and He in them. So
we can't be the Lord, we can't be Christ unless we're believing
on Him. We're one with Him and He's our
life. Everyone else who has another
Savior, another hope, has a hope in this world and that's going
to fail. That's what he's talking about
here. The Lord of hosts uttered His voice, the earth melted.
God has spoken. He spoke in His Son. Christ overcame
the world." John 16, 33. Revelation 12 talks about how
Satan was cast out of heaven, and he had no more place, and
he went to the earth, and they overcame him. And not only did
Christ overcome him in heaven, but they who were on the earth,
his people, the woman and her seed, all overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and because
they didn't love their life even to death. So we see that here. Now, Psalm 46, verse 7. The Lord of hosts is with us.
Notice, the God of Jacob is our refuge. Why does God call himself
the God of Jacob? Well, first of all, it identifies
God's people as being like Jacob. Remember Jacob? He was the youngest
of the twins Esau and Jacob. God said, Jacob have I loved. Jacob's name is great because
God loved him, isn't he? Not because in himself he was
anything great. Jacob was a scoundrel, a cheat,
a liar. He was fearful. Even when the
Lord appeared to him, he tried to bargain with God. Well, if
you'll do this, then I'll do that. He was not a character
that you would find qualities in that would be a reason for
God to love him. But God loved him before he was
even born because God's love is eternal. It doesn't begin
in time. It doesn't depend on us. It depends
on God alone. All right. The Lord of hosts
is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
God loved us in Christ with an everlasting love. And he is our
refuge. And what can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord? If God
be for us, who can be against us? Right. Romans chapter eight. So here he refers to Jacob. God is the God of Jacob. He so
identifies with his people. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. If you look
throughout the Old Testament, he's always referring to his
name. It begins in Genesis 22. Jaira, God provides, God sees
to it, God is seen in it. That's what Abraham's sacrifice
of Isaac was all about. God sees to it, God will provide
himself, the Lamb. And God will be seen in that.
And then in Exodus chapter 15, God, the God who heals you. He's
our healer. He heals us from our sin. And
then in Exodus 17, the banner, the banner of victory. God is
our Jehovah Nisi, our banner. And so you can go through all
the scripture. In Judges chapter six, verse 24, Gideon calls him
the God Jehovah Shalom, God our peace. Christ is our peace. He
made peace with his, for us with God in His own blood. Christ
our shepherd, Psalm 23 and John chapter 10. Christ our righteousness,
Jeremiah 23 verse 5 and 6. And in Ezekiel chapter 48 verse
35, God, the God who is there, He's always with His people.
And in Exodus 31 and verse 13, God who sanctified thee. All
these names of God are given to His people to show us all
that God is, He is, for his people and to his people
in the Lord Jesus Christ. To me, that's the big message,
that's the big lesson here, that God is the God of Jacob, the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's fully known in Christ. Okay. And then, just to kind
of get through these last few verses here, he says, come behold
the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. He
makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaks the
bow, he cuts the spear in two, and he burns the chariot in the
fire. God destroys all of our enemies and all the weapons of
our enemies. Isn't that what it's saying here?
Everything. In Isaiah 54, verse 17, no weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper. And everyone that rises against
thee in judgment, you will condemn and your righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord. That's God's message. And then
he says in Isaiah 54, same chapter, verse 10, that the earth Let
me see what it says there. I've got to have my ability to
recall it. It just failed me. Isaiah 54,
listen to this. In verse 10 he says, For the
mountains shall depart, the hills shall be removed, but my kindness
shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace
be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. You see? Unchanging, unfailing. Our God
is to us. He will not allow our enemies
to prosper. They will be destroyed. Can we
see it? Does it seem like our enemies
are being destroyed right now? No. It doesn't seem like it. To all appearances, if you watch
the news, The world is winning. The world of ungodliness is winning,
and all the corruptions, and our own nature, we experience
it day by day. But God's word has spoken. God has spoken. He staked himself
to this. He cannot lie. He will not change. He can't change. He's God. And
this is our God, our refuge, our shelter, our strength, our
help in trouble, very present help. Okay, and so verse 10,
just to recapitulate. Be still and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the heathen. In all trouble, stop trying to
manipulate things. Sit still and behold the work
of God. That's what he's saying here
in these last couple of verses. And then he promises, the Lord
of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
Think about this. Don't let this pass. Let this
be our constant meditation. The Lord Jesus Christ, our triune
God, is our refuge and strength and help in trouble. Everything
might dissolve and be destroyed, He won't change. He's going to
fold everything up, but He Himself remains the same, and we are
in Him who trust Him. If our trust is the God of the
Mohammeds, or the God of the Arminian, or the God of the Catholics,
then we're going to fail. It doesn't matter how strong
our subjective trust is. What matters is, is the one we
trust God? Is Christ the Lord? Is He able
to save us to the uttermost? I am fully persuaded that He
is. Therefore, we trust in Him. Let's
pray. Lord, thank you that you are the Lord. You are the savior
of your people. Your word will prevail. And you've
promised us that trouble will come. But you have overcome all
for us, even death. and all of our sin, and the answer
to your law, death itself, the punishment you bring against
sinners for their sin against you, and Satan and his kingdom,
all those who are in the bondage and blindness of their sin, their
own sin, receiving what they deserve for their sin, and yet
you've delivered us, you've saved us by your mercy at the cost
of the blood of your own dear son, Help us to be forever grateful
and to praise your holy name and to worship you because you've
revealed yourself to be our God and refuge and strength in all
things. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.