The Psalms are psalms, most of
them written by David, and some of them written by Solomon, a
few written by Moses, but they're psalms. Every one of them were
psalms. They were commanded to be sung
by our Lord and by David. Moses' song. We're going to sing
in glory, aren't we? We're going to sing Moses' song.
Scripture says that in the Revelation. We're going to sing Moses' song.
These are songs to be sung. Songs help us. They help cheer
us up in times of trouble. It always helps to start singing.
There's a psalm that I remember from way back, Psalm 13, where
it starts out, How long will you forget me, O Lord? How long
shall I have sorrow in my heart? Consider and hear me, lest my
enemy prevail over me. It goes on and on like that.
And finally, he says, it's only six verses long. And down in
verse five, he says, But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart
shall rejoice and I shall bless you. He said, I'll sing. He starts out by saying, have
you forgotten me? I'm sorry for you. Help me, hear me. And he ends
up by saying, just think, I'll start singing. Because the Lord
half dealt bountifully with me. He half dealt bountifully. This
is a psalm for the fearful. Those afraid for our comfort. What time I'm afraid, David said,
in the psalm. I'll trust in thee. This is a
song for the hunted, those who have enemies that are after them. David had many. He was always,
all through the psalms, talking about his enemies chasing him.
But this is for those who are hunted, to tell us about a hiding
place. This is a psalm, a song to sing
for the troubled. And all of God's people go through
troubles. They're always troubled. Constantly beset with troubles. This is to make us glad again
in God our Rept. It's a song. Look at 2 Chronicles
20. It's a story. I just told somebody
to listen to the message on this. It was preached back in August
of 2014. And if you need to hear it, But
this is all Judah standing before the Lord. They had the whole
world against them. And they were standing there,
their little ones, their wives and their children, and they
said, we don't know what to do. We look to you. And God sent
a young preacher named Jehaziel. As far as I know, it's the only
message he preached. But the Lord used it. And look
at verse 15, here's what he said, Hearken Judah, ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and King Jehoshaphat, thus saith the Lord unto you,
be not afraid, nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude.
The battle is not yours, but God's. Tomorrow, go ye down against
them. Go out there, face the world.
Behold, they come up by the cliff of Zius, and you shall find them
at the end of the brook, before the wilderness of Jerusalem.
You shall not need to fight in this battle, Set yourself, stand
still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you. O Judah
and Jerusalem, fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow go out
against them, for the Lord will be with you. And Jehoshaphat
the king bowed his head with his face to the ground. All Judah
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping
the Lord. The Levites, the children of the Kohathites, these were
the singers. The children of Korah stood up
to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. They
rose 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, ye inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord
your God, and so shall you be established. Believe His prophets,
and so shall you prosper. And he consulted with the people,
and he appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise the
beauty of holiness, And as they went out before the army and
to say, praise the Lord for his mercy endureth forever. And when
they began to sing to praise the Lord, the Lord sent ambushments
against the children of Ammon, Moab, Mount Seir, which would
come against Judah. And they were smitten. They didn't
raise a sword. The Lord said, sing. The battle's
not yours, it's the Lord's. They started singing, and their
enemies were defeated. So that's a message in itself.
So this is a song. David was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief, trouble, pride. He went through everything we
go through, if not more. And he wrote this song, and I
would have loved to have heard him sing it. Somebody needs to
put this to music. God is our reptile. God. The Creator. I mean the God who
made everything, the God who owns everything, the God who
controls everything, the God who orders everything, the God
who has ordained everything, the God who predestines all things,
the God who is God, is our reptile. And strength. We need a hiding
place coming. It seems like we're afraid in
storms, we're run from our enemies, and God is our refuge. We need
a place to run and hide. And then He's our strength. We shouldn't run all the time
and let you stand in fire. No, He's our strength. Oftentimes
we should be on the offense with the gospel, shouldn't we? On the offense. God's our strength. He sent these children of Israel
unarmed into the wilderness. Well, who was their strength?
God was their strength. He's a very present help in trouble. Very present. Very near in trouble. And we're always in trouble.
How near is it? Well, he said, he said in Deuteronomy
3, he said, I will never leave thee. He's with us. He's always there. We can't see Him. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, the last words He said to His disciples as He was descending
up into heaven were these, I am with thee even to the ends of
the earth. That's the last word. I am with
you always even to the ends of the earth. That's how present
He is. that we cannot see him, that
we cannot feel his presence, God is with us and God is for
us. I remind you what the scripture
said, if God is for us, who can beg Him? David said,
God is my salvation, of whom shall I fear? What shall I be
afraid of? What's wrong with us? We don't
trust Him, do we? We don't trust Him. We don't
believe Him. He said He's with us, very present, helping trouble,
though He's proved Himself time and time again. David says, therefore
will not we fear. If we really think on this and
consider this and trust Him, we will not fear. We will not
fear. Though the earth be removed,
though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though
the waters of that sea roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof. Now, he's not talking about the
end of the world here. Not at all. Because that would
be a wonderful time. That's what we're waiting on.
No, he's talking about the things of this earth that seem unmovable. The supports, earthly supports,
fleshly supports that we tend to lean on, which we shouldn't.
People of this world who seem to be strong and stalwart, so
they're taken from us. The things of this world, our
job, our finances removed. It may come to that. It has happened
to some of you. It happened to you later in life,
didn't it? You lost your job. Well, what
happened? Never missed a meal, did you?
Never missed a payment. These things are removed from
us. The things of the earth. Things of this earth be removed,
though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Kingdoms
come and kingdoms go. Governments fail. They're not
there. God has erected them. And I know
this is speaking of the church who goes through the deep sea
of this work. The church goes through many
waters. In Hebrews 11 it says they all
pass through the Red Sea. The church, Mount Zion, the church
goes through a world of trouble, doesn't it? It always has. It's always been in the midst
of trouble. But God is in the midst of her. So we won't fear. Scriptures are the best commentary
on scripture. Look at Psalm 66. Oh my, several
scriptures come to mind on these deep waters that we go through,
troubled waters. Psalm 66, tempted to read the
old thing, but it says, well, verse 1, Make a joyful noise
unto God, all ye lands, sing. the honor of his name. Make his
praise glorious. Say unto God, how terrible art
thou in thy works. Through the greatness of thy
power shall thy enemies submit themselves unto thee. All the
earth shall worship thee and shall sing unto thee. They shall
sing to thy name. Verse 5, Come and see the works
of God. He's terrible in his doing toward
the children of men. He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the flood on
foot. And there did we rejoice in Him. Look at down at verse
11. Thou broughtest us into the net. Thou laidest affliction upon
our loin. Ye caused men to ride over our
heads. We went through the fire and
through water, but He brought us out. He always brought them
out. The flame shall not hurt them.
The flood shall not drowned them. So it drowns the Egyptian, this
world, the things of this world, the God of this world, the trials
and afflictions of the deep sea. How many times you speak of the
people of God going through deep waters? Psalm 107, especially
today, they go down to the sea in ships. These do business in
deep waters. These see the works of the Lord.
They go down in the depths and rise up in the mountains of troubles
and trials. And the desire of safe haven
and the Lord sent him to call. He's the one that sends the stormy
winds that blow. Why? Why do we have to go through
trouble? Why do we have to go through
deep seas and sorrows and troubles? Why? Because we'd forget God
if we didn't. That's the only time we really
call on the Lord. is when we're in real deep trouble.
Sad. It's just sad. He knows our pain.
He knows it. So he causes us to go through
these deep waters all the time. Oh my. Psalm 65. Go back. Psalm 65 says in verse By terrible pains and righteousness
wilt thou answer us, O God, of our salvation, who art the confidence
of all the ends of the earth, and them that are far off upon
the sea." You know, David was well acquainted with the sea.
Solomon, all the people from 300 years ago to the beginning
of time. The sea was a vital, it was the
means of sending commerce and things. The Sea of Galilee, the
disciples, it was their source of food and fish, and they were
always around it. The Lord was always upon it.
Because there you really see something of the works of God,
the majesty of God. I told you before that in one
of these fishing shows on TV, if you ever watch them, you see
something of the magnificence of the ocean, how dangerous it
is. One of those old captains, and I don't know if he meant
it or not, but he said, if you don't believe in God, come out
here. Come out here and seek His mighty
hand. There's nothing more helpless.
Nothing. And all the vessels from 400
years ago on back were sailing vessels. They were all completely
and totally in the mercy of God at the mercy of the wind and
the waves. And there's nothing more helpless
than a vessel out on the sea, unless it's a human being, a
pilgrim walking through the wilderness. But God is our help. And he said here, those that
are far off on the sea, look at verse 7, he stills the noise
of the sea, the noise of their way, the tumult. Those that dwell
in the uttermost parts are afraid at that token. Oh, but you make
the outgoings of the morning and the evening to rejoice. It
goes on to talk about visiting the earth and watering it with
the river of God. We've got to read here. Verse
9, you visit the earth and water is filled out greatly and enriches
it with the river of God, which is full of water. What is that? Go to our text. Psalm 46. There is a river. Verse 4. There is a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God. Just the city of God. The people
of God. The holy place. The tabernacles
of the Most High God. There is a river. A river is
the source of everything. A constant, flowing, ever-flowing,
fresh source of water in a river. Years ago, I was mistaken about
whales in the ground. I lived in the city for years.
Came out here and had to drill a well, okay? And I thought there's
big old pools of water down there. Big, deep pools of water. Nope.
Rivers. You know that? Rivers. Because
when we drilled this well out here, it was a 25-gallon-a-minute
well. That's Augusta River, Matt. And
what's happening, that river is flowing and that water comes
out of that ground. There's a river. It is the river
of God, full of water, constant flowing water, fresh water. God is that river. Christ is
that river. Revelation 22, Brother Pruitt.
They've mentioned this in his message. Revelation 22. God is
that river, the source of all things to us. The source of all
grace and mercy and comfort. God is that river. Christ is the river. Brother
Mike Bartram sings that song, doesn't he? I wish he was here
to sing it now. Chapter 22, verse 1. He showed
me a pure river of water of life. That's Christ. Didn't he say,
I'm the water? of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and the Lamb in the midst of the
street of it, either side of the tree of life. It's all Christ
is. Christ is all and in all these
passages. He's the river of water, the
water of life, that river of God. Isn't it clear as crystal
to you that all the blessings of God
are in Christ? Isn't it clear as crystal? Isn't
it the truth clear as crystal? when God makes it known to you
that all the blessings that flow down to us from God, from that
river of source from God, go through Christ. Like Psalm 133,
it's like the precious ointment that comes down on the head,
even to the beard of our great High Priest, and flows to thy
garment of us. All the blessings of God Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ."
They're in Christ. All the blessings of God come
down to the city of God, verse 4. God's people, God's church
is a city. It's a place of habitation. It's
a place of commerce. It's a place of security. It's
a place of safety. It's a place of society, a city. You country people, you say you
don't like the city, then you will. You'll like this one. The
city of God. You do, you should, right now.
Like this city. God's church. The holy place
of the tabernacles of the Most High. Notice the streams that
flow from this one river, the source of this river. They're
little streams that flow. And we were just in West Virginia,
traveling down through those mountains. We'd go by the Guyandot
River, we'd go by the Kanawha River, these big vast rivers. I've always thought I'd like
to live, if not on the ocean, I'd like to live on a river.
Something calm and serene about a river, as long as it's not
raging. But I love on a river, a lot
of times we go floating on the river, paddle down that river. Well, some of us paddle, others
sit. Others paddle. But it's so serene
and calm. I don't know of anything more
relaxing. It's just calming to you. It's
just relaxing to you. As we talk about all the blessings
of our God, the mercies of our God, the comfort from our God,
the peace and the mercy and the love of God that flows through
Christ. And streams. I love streams.
Don't you? The little streams that run through the hills and
water the... Beautiful, isn't it? Beautiful. Little streams. God has blessed every little
church. No matter where you may find
His church, there will be a stream of riches. Streams of mercy never
ceasing. Call for songs. Be loud as brass. Holy place. It's the tabernacles.
It's the holy place. It's God. You know, God loves
the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.
That's where He loves to be. It's His holy place. It's holy
people. Dedicated, consecrated to Him by Him. Sanctified by
Christ under the Lord. That's where He loves to be.
That's where He dwells. It's the tabernacles. Little
tabernacles. of the Most High God, God, is
in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. We just
read that. David, Brother Kelly read it
in Psalm 62. He started out by saying, God
is my rock, I shall not be greatly moved. And then he changed it
and went on down and said, God is my rock, my defense, I shall
not be moved. God's in the midst of her. God's
in the midst of her. Didn't Christ say this? That
where two or three are gathered, I am in the midst of them. And
that's not theoretically. It's true. It's the Spirit of
Christ is who it is. She shall not be moved. Why won't
the church be moved? Because she's on a sure foundation. She's not built on it. She's
built on Christ the solid rock, and you can't move Him. If you
can move Him, you can move her. If you can shake the foundation,
you can shake the building. But God said, I'm going to shake
things in the end, Hebrews 13, Hebrews 12. He said, once more
I'm going to shake everything, everything but things that can't
be shaken. And we may be in for some real traumatic times. We may be, maybe we see some
real desolations that he's going to speak of, but that God's people,
if you're in Christ, if you're on Christ the solid rock, you
shall not be moved. Though the earth is casting God's
in the mystery. Oh God, our help. Look at verse
5. God is her help. He shall help her. And that right
earthly. Oh God, our help in the ages
past. Our hope for years to come. God, our help. We need help all
the time, don't we? You ever need help? Have you
ever needed help with an unbearable burden? Oh my. Ever needed help with an unmovable
object in your way? Great fear or trouble? Have you ever needed help with
an enemy that won't leave you alone? God shall help. He's our very present help. It
says that right early. You know, that troubled me a
little bit because We cry unto the Lord, like David in Psalm
70. Listen to this. David, five verses. He starts
out by saying, Make haste, O God, to deliver me. Make haste to
help me. You ever been in such trouble that you, Lord, please,
I need help. And I need it now. Well, David
did too, and that's what he said, make haste to help me. And he
went on to talk about his troubles, and in the last verse he says,
Oh, God, make haste to help me. You're my help, my deliverer.
Oh, Lord, make no tarry in hurrying. He thought, I'm going to be,
this thing's going to kill me. He worried. He trusted the Lord,
yet he worried. There was a time when Saul was,
the most powerful man on earth was after him. He wanted him
dead. And he said, and that represents
Satan. But the most powerful man on
earth wanted David dead. And he, all of his armies, he
sent after David. And David feared. He said, I'm
going to die at the hands of Saul someday. He forgot what
God said. He forgot the pure mercies that
God gave him. He forgot the word of God. He
didn't remember the word upon which God had caused him to hope.
And he started fearing. Well, did Saul? David later wrote
a song, he said, while enemies came upon me to eat up my flesh,
God destroyed them. Why didn't I believe that? God shall help her in that right
early. What does that mean, preacher? Well, the margin says that. I
love these marginal notes. It says he'll help her when the
morning appears. Now, weeping may endure for a
night, and it does often, doesn't it? David said it, you say it,
we all say it, I've watered my bed with my tears. My tears have
been my meat, day and night, while they say, where's she gone?
All night, maybe sometimes several nights, huh? But then there's
a morning. The sun comes up. And God helps you, doesn't He? He always does. And it wasn't
that long, was it? It just, when you're going through
trouble, it seems like a long time now. It doesn't seem like
you're laboring in the troubles you go through. You think, well,
is this ever going to end? Then when it's over, you think,
well, that didn't last too long. And in light of eternity, people,
my, my, 70 short years. Think of our brethren years ago,
back before the flood, how long they had to go through troubles,
huh? How would you like to live 900 years in trouble? Mercifully,
graciously, the Lord shortened our life to 70. Verse 6, the heathen raged, kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth
melted. Heathens raged. Oh, over and over again. I do
want you to turn to Acts 4 with me. Acts 4, the early church
was always in trouble, always hunted and persecuted. Oh, our Lord said, blessed are
you. That's proof that you belong to me. They persecuted me. He
said, they'll persecute you. Acts chapter 4, Peter. And John
had just preached, you know, and they threatened them. They threatened these men's lives.
Again, the most powerful men on earth. The Roman government
and all of the powers of Judaism or religion that were joined
together against these little fishermen said, if you keep preaching
this, we'll kill you. And Peter and John went back
to the church. It was meeting together. And
they went to their company, verse 23, and reported, all the chief
priests and elders said unto them, when they heard that, they
all started praying. Were they afraid? They sure were.
What did they do? One time I'm afraid, David said,
I'll call on you. They lifted up their voice with
one accord and said, Lord, thou art God. He made the heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, who by the mouth
of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and
the people imagine vain things? Kings of the earth stood up,
and rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against
His Christ, His anointed. And of a truth, Lord, against
thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, Herod, Pontius,
Pilate, the Gentiles, the people of Israel, were gathered together,
to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before
it be done." People, if it be, it need be, or it wouldn't be. Right? If need be, you're going
through heaviness, manifold temptation. Well, if it be, God decided,
God purposed that it need be, or it wouldn't be. That's for
our good. So whatever is done is by his
counsel determined. Now Lord, verse 29, behold their
threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness
they may speak thy word. They didn't say we're all running.
No, no, no. The Lord's our strength. They
took refuge in his Sovereignty and His power, and start calling
on Him. Stretch forth thine hand to heal,
and thy signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy Holy
Child, Jesus. And when they prayed, their place
was shaken where they were assembled together. They were filled with
the Holy Ghost. They all spake the Word of God with boldness.
What were they doing? Just reminding each other, brethren,
God's erecting. Brethren, God's in the midst
of us. These Scriptures started coming round. The Word of God.
Brethren, do you remember what David said? Whom shall we fear? In verse
33, And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart
and one soul, neither said any of them, all of the things that
he possessed were his own. They all had things in common.
And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. Great power, great grace, and
later it says great fear. Through prayer, And the word
of the Lord. And they were no longer afraid.
What happened to them? Many of them were killed. Many of them. They were scattered. But then what happened? The word
went out all over the world. Because they suffered, we had
the gospel. Isn't that good? It's all good,
wasn't it? It's all good. The Lord purposed all that persecution. They couldn't destroy the Word.
All they did was scatter it. They couldn't destroy the church.
All they did was multiply it. Are you hearing it? God did this. He even raged. Lord of hosts, verse 7, is with
us. God of Jacob. The Lord of hosts. I'm running
out of time. I was going to have you turn
to 2 Kings 6. Go back and read it to yourself sometime. Remember?
Elisha and his servant surrounded. The hills were surrounded by
the Syrian army. His servant went out and came
running back in. Look, everybody's against us. They were against one man. And so Elisha prayed. The Lord
opened a young man's eyes, and he opened his eyes, and he said,
the hills were full of chariots of fire, the Lord's host. And Elisha said, they that be
with us are more than they can be, if God be for us. The Lord of hosts, you see, is
with us. The God of Jacob. I wanted to preach from Psalm
146. Happy as he that hath the God
of Jacob preached him. The God of Jacob. Who's that?
That's a sovereign electing God. That's the God of sinners. Jacob
was a sinner. But God chose him. God loved
him. And God wrestled with him. God came to him. And God protected
him. And God kept telling him all his day, day. Fear not, O
Jacob. He didn't say that to himself.
He's the God of Jacob. Jacob run, God bring him back. Back to Bethlehem. Jacob refrained,
God eased his fears. He's the God of Jacob. Selah. Stop and think about that. These
musical pauses are wonderful. I don't know where I've been
going. I don't know. But anyway, these musical pauses. I keep telling everybody, slow
down. Slow down. Sing slower. Play slower. Think
about the words. And it's a blessing. God will
check it. Come, verse 8, behold the works
of the Lord, what desolations He's made in the earth. You know,
half of the Psalms, all of Deuteronomy, Hebrews talking about how God
brought His children, the children of Israel, out through the wilderness
against vast odds against them. Against all these enemies that
were against them. The whole world was against them.
Moabites, the Jebusites, the Egyptians started out against
them. All of Pharaoh's army went running after unarmed slaves. And they were scared, but God
was there. Behold, what desolation, in Exodus
19, God said, remember what I did to Egypt. You need to remember
this, what I did to Egypt. That's the song of Moses, you
know that? That's the song of Moses that we're going to be
singing throughout eternity, what God did to Egypt. the world
and how He brought us through it. He makes wars to cease. Christ said you'll hear wars
and rumors of war. Have you ever thought about the
war within us? That never seems to end? Paul
said, I see another law of war in my memories. Who's going to
deliver me? Well, it's going to cease someday. It's going
to be over someday. He'll break at the bow, you know,
our enemy. He's always shooting at us. The
spear cuts it and so he burns the chariot and the pyre. No
weapon that is formed against thee, he said, shall prosper. Why? God is with us. Verse 10, Be still. Be still my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Wait patiently. on him. Know that I am God. Be still.
One of the writers said this not only means just sit down
and be still and like Isaiah 30 said, their strength is to
sit still. Like Mary, come and sit and be still and know and understand
that God is God overall. He's our God. But one of the writers said this
also means to don't murmur and complain. We all tend to murmur
and complain and voice our displeasure and our worry and our fear. Be
quiet. If you're going to say something,
sing. He said murmur and complain and
find and follow God's providence. If it did, it'd be a big deal,
wouldn't it? Be still. And know that I'm God. I did
this. Whatever it is, I did this. I will be exalted. The heathen
rage. The heathen and the enemies and
so forth plot and plan against you. He said, I will be exalted.
You wait and see. You're going to see my hand.
I will be exalted. I will be exalted among the heathen.
You're going to see this. Like the children of Israel standing
on the other shore and seeing all their pursuers, all their
enemies dead on the seashore. Would you look at that? Ain't
that amazing? He really was with us, wasn't
He? I will be exalted in the earth.
We will see the hand of the Lord in the land of the living. This
land, we will see His hand. Yes, we will. He promised. The
Lord of hosts is with us. God over all. The God of Jacob. He is our refuge. Amen. You are dismissed.