If you would, turn with me in
your Bibles to Mark chapter 4. I know I told you Mark, Psalm
46. We'll come back to that. Mark
chapter 4. And as you're turning, I'd ask
you to answer this question in your heart. How often are you
scared of something? How often are you afraid of something? You might be scared of something
right now. Worried about things going on in this world. Worried
about election we got in like 20 days. Worried about something
at work. Anything and everything we get
so torn up about. If you're anything like me, you
are scared all the time. And you know, we really shouldn't
be. You know, if we're a child of God, we have no reason to
fear. Just a minute ago, we read, fear
not, thou worm, Jacob, fear not. You know, if our Lord says to
us, fear not, why are we afraid? Why should we be afraid? And
this is all too common for us. But read with me in verse 35,
and let's see what happens here with our Lord and his disciples.
Does his disciples become afraid? Verse 35 says, And the same day,
when even was come, he, our Lord, saith unto them, the disciples,
let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent
away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship,
and there were also with him other little ships. And there
arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beaten the ship,
so that it was now full. Now our Lord has told his disciples,
We're right here, and we're gonna go over to the other side of
the sea. That's what we're gonna do. So they get in the ship,
and they start their journey. And just like that, our Lord
sends a storm. He sent the storm. He sends this
storm, and it's a big storm. And that ship is now full of
water, and everybody is scared to death. And I would be, too. That sounds scary. But where's
our Lord in all this? Where's He? Look at verse 38.
And he was in the hindered part of the ship, asleep on a pillow.
And they awake him and say unto him, Master, carest thou not
that we perish? How often do we shoot off at
the mouth when something goes wrong, when we think something
goes wrong? How often do we complain and
get upset and get frustrated when it seems like everything's
going off the rails? I know I do it far too often. Verse 39, our
Lord, and he arose and rebuked the wind and said unto the sea,
peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm. Just like that, just as our Lord
sent this storm, he walked out, he spoke and the storm ceased. Just at his word, it stopped,
just like that. Well, what does our Lord have
to say to his disciples here? Look at verse 40. And he said
unto them, why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?
Couldn't that be said of us? Why are you so fearful? Why am
I so fearful? Why am I so afraid? Do I have
any faith? Do I believe at all? How shameful,
how shameful are we? How shameful am I? But aren't
we thankful that He doesn't leave us just like that? He doesn't
leave us in our fear, that by His grace He comes to us and
He says, fear not, fear not, don't be afraid. Well, I'd like
you to turn with me to Psalm 46. Turn back to Psalm 46. I've
titled our lesson this evening, A Psalm for the Fearful. A Psalm
for the Fearful. Now we've just spent a few minutes
talking about how afraid we are and how scared we get and how
scared I am. And I know something, this is
a psalm for me. If you're afraid, this is a psalm
for you. Our Lord has said the only thing
that he will bless is his word. His word, not my commentary,
not what I think, not what I have to say. His word. That's what
he said. Who bless is his word. His word
is our only hope. It's our only comfort. It's our
only peace. His word, him. And I believe that our Lord has
given us a word from Him tonight, and that's what we need. We need
a word from Him, a word of Him speaking simply, speaking softly,
speaking peacefully to us. Oh, and I pray that He has. Lord,
if you speak, we'll hear. Well, let's look together and
let's see, why shouldn't we be afraid? Or at least when we are
afraid, some comfort when we are. Look at verse one of our
text here in Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble.
Who's our refuge and strength? God is. God is our refuge and
strength. Not me. Not my works. Not my morality. Not my so-called
good deeds. Nothing in me. That's not my
refuge. That's not our refuge. He is
our refuge. God is our refuge. He's our strength. Not anything in this world. He
is. I'm not strong. I'm weak. I'm the opposite of
strength. And so is everyone in this room.
We are not strong. We're weak. We're frail. He's
our strength. He is our strength. He is our
refuge. And then it says he's a very
present help in trouble. That means he's right there with
us. We need him right there with us always, always. He's a very
present help in trouble. How often does it seem like we're
in trouble? I mean, really, how often does it seem like we're
in trouble? I feel like it's all the time. I feel like it's
all the time. We're either going into trouble,
we're in trouble, or we're coming out of trouble. It's one of those
three. We are always in trouble. And
I don't like trouble. I don't. I don't enjoy it. I
don't enjoy one bit of it. And I don't know of anyone that
does. I don't know of a single person that enjoys going through
trouble. But our Lord's promised it. He said, in this world, ye
shall have tribulation. Not you might. You shall. You're
going to go into trouble. And through all of that trouble,
he's with us. He's a very present help. He's
with his people. We read a moment ago in Isaiah
41, fear thou not, for I am with thee. I could close this right
now and we could call it a night. That's enough. Fear thou not.
I am with thee. I am with thee. Doesn't that
cause us to settle down just a little bit, to be still, to
rest in him? He's with us. God is our refuge
and strength, a very present help in trouble. Verse two, therefore,
because of this, because God is our refuge, because God is
our strength, because He's with us in trouble, will not we fear? We will not fear. We will not
be afraid. We've got no reason to be afraid.
Even though, even though the earth be removed, Though the
mountains be carried in the midst of the sea, verse three, though
the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof. Selah. Stop and think. Stop and
think about what we just read. We will not fear. We spend a
good bit of time talking about how afraid we are, how fearful
we get, how worried we become. But listen, we will not fear,
though the earth be removed. Right now, if the earth, this
planet, just blew up, is gone, just like that, we'd have no
reason to fear. We'd have no reason to be worried.
That wouldn't affect us at all. Why? Because God is our refuge. Because God is our strength.
Because he's our help. This earth is not a refuge. This
world is not a refuge. Contrary to what everybody thinks,
I'm going to get everything I can. I want to get as much of this
world as I can. It's not a refuge. Even the things that in this
world we love, our family, we've got a good job, we've got a home,
we've got friends. Those aren't a refuge. They're
not. There's no hope in those things. Our only hope is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. What about our good
works? Everybody wants to talk about
it. You've got to have good works. You've got to work. You've got
to do this. You've got to do that. Are they a refuge? No. The Lord said
those are filthy rags. There's no refuge in works. God
is our refuge. God is our strength. We need
a refuge. We need a refuge. We need a hiding
place. Turn back to Psalm 27. Just a
couple pages. Psalm 27. Look at verse 5. All of these fears, all of these
scary things, I need a refuge. I need a hiding place. Verse 5 of Psalm 27 says, For
in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the
secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me. He shall set me up
upon a rock. When the earth is removed, when
all these things that we had hoped in and tried to put our
all in those other things, He hides us. He's our refuge. He's
our hiding place. Trouble's coming. We need a hiding
place. And I'm not just talking about
trouble in this life. I'm talking about our trouble of sin. We
have sinned against a holy God. Trouble is coming. We need to
be hidden. We need a hiding place. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. I'm a sinner. Everyone in this
room is a sinner. Everyone on this planet has sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And in Romans 6, 23, we
read, for the wages of sin is death. We deserve death, death
for our sin. And that's a scary thought. That
is scary. We are guilty before him. We
need a hiding place. We need to be hidden in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He shall hide me. He shall hide
me. Go back to Psalm 46. Look again at verse two. It says,
therefore, will not we fear though the earth be removed? I want
us to see something here. What does this not say? It doesn't
say the earth might be removed. It's going to be removed. This
is going to happen. The earth is going away. All
this around us, it's fading fast. It's going to be nothing. Just
like that, it's all going to be gone in a blink of an eye.
But listen, God's people have no reason to fear. We have no
reason to fear if we're hidden in Him. If we're in Christ, there's
no reason to fear. He shall hide me. Verse three
says, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though
the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. What about
these roaring waters? Well, me and Clara, we took a
trip out to California this summer. We flew out to Northern California
and we drove, we got a car and we drove down the coast. And
so that whole way, we're looking at the ocean, that whole way.
And I mean, some of the scenery was just incredible. I mean,
like beaches and hills and it was just, it was awesome. But
there were some parts of that road trip that was scary. I'm
telling you, like first couple of days into our trip, we're
like driving through the mountains and like these mountains are
like right next to the ocean. And I remember we were on a cliff,
and I remember Clara's just kind of like, I mean, she turns like
white. And I'm like, oh no, I don't want to look, but I've got to.
And so I look over, and we're on the side of a cliff, and there
is no guardrail. And about a 200-foot drop, there's
these gigantic rocks, and these big old waves are just crashing
into these rocks. There's some roaring waters.
I was, I mean, I gripped that steering wheel real tight. And
I mean, we just, we just crept through that mountain. And listen,
when we go through the troubled waters of this life, there's
a lot of roaring waters. They're big, they're scary. They're
not, they're not a breeze. I don't, I don't know of anyone
in the midst of a great trial just saying, it's great. I'm
just having a blast. That's, that's not the case.
It's hard. It's heavy. But our Lord says
he is our strength and our refuge, even when we go through these
troubled waters. He gives us peace in the time of these storms.
Just as our Lord spoke to the sea, whenever those disciples
were freaking out and scared, our Lord came and he said, peace,
be still. And just like that, it's all
calm. And you know, it's a good thing when our Lord brings us
into trial. We might not think so, and I
guarantee we're not thinking that when we're in the middle
of the trial, but it is, it's for our good. It's the only time
that we truly cry out to the Lord for mercy. When we're in
a deep, heavy trial, that's when we look around and we, there's
nothing. There's nothing I can hold onto. That's when we cry,
Lord, be merciful to me. Lord, help me, I need you. I
can do nothing. And I think of when I was a kid,
I loved being around mom and dad. I did. Mom and dad were
awesome. Still are. But when I was a kid,
I didn't always want to be around them. I mean, I liked them. I liked being around them. But
I wasn't thinking about them 24-7. I had school. I had friends. I had sports. I had stuff I wanted
to do. But you know when I really, really
needed mom and dad, when I was in trouble, when I wanted them
to wrap their arms around me and say, everything's gonna be
okay. That's when I was in trouble. Even now, even now as adults,
we wanna go, anytime something comes up, we wanna go down to
mom and dads and, hey, what do you guys think about this? I'm
not really sure what to do here. How much more, our Heavenly Father,
when we're in the midst of a great trial, do we cry, Lord, help
me, Lord, be with me, Lord, bless me with your presence, I need
you. It's a blessing when our Lord sends us trials. It's when
He puts it in our hearts truly to cry out to Him. Well, we've
read some pretty painful things that a believer's gonna go through.
We're going to go through. But in verse four, our Lord gives
us something sweet. He gives us something that's
peaceful and gentle. We just heard of the earth being
removed and roaring waters, but verse four, look at what it says.
There is a river. There is a 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. This earth,
it's going away. All of this is coming to an end.
And we're concerned about everything that's going on. But right now,
right where you sit, right where we sit, we can have perfect peace. Why? There's a river. There's
a river. I teach history over at the school. I teach 6th grade history. And
we look at a bunch of old stuff. We look at Egypt and China and
India, all these places. And all these ancient cities,
all they had in common was one thing. They had a river that
ran right through the middle of that city. And you know, their
life depended on that river. Think of Egypt, right? That's
just a big desert. That's all like Egypt is. But
there's that Nile River that runs through that place, and
there's life and food and water. Everything that they need came
from that river. How much greater of a river is
our Lord Jesus Christ? Without Him, we have nothing.
The river, it's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the
good news of the gospel. It's our only hope of salvation.
And this river, it's quiet, it's peaceful, it's calm. We just
read of roaring, scary waters a minute ago. Not this river,
okay? Think of what David said in Psalm
23. He said, he leadeth me by the
still waters. That's this river, still waters,
waters of peace. And it's a river for the poor
and the needy. Turn over to Isaiah 41 with me. Look at verse 17 here. This river is for the poor, it's
for the needy, it's for those that are thirsty. Isaiah 41,
look at verse 17. Verse 17 says, When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.
Doesn't that sound nice? Doesn't that sound peaceful?
We're so thirsty and we're in this dry and barren land. Our
Lord said, I'm going to put rivers in high places. I'm going to
put fountains in the midst of the valleys. I'm going to make
the whole wilderness a pool of water. Those dry lands are going
to be springs of water. I'm going to give that water.
Turn back to Psalm 46 again. Verse four says, there is a river,
the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy
place, the tabernacles of the most high. It says the streams
of this river will make glad the city of God. This river makes
the city of God glad. Who's the city of God? His elect. That's not everybody. It's his
sheep, his people. Don't we rejoice? to be here,
to hear His word preached, to gather around His gospel, His
truth. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Aren't we glad when
our Lord is merciful to us and to our brethren? Doesn't that
make us glad? Doesn't that make us rejoice? Aren't we glad that
we get to hear the good news, that we get to hear that man
is dead, that this world is, we're all gonna die, but it pleased
God Almighty to reach down His hand and pluck a few out of that
sinful race, that He gave that remnant to His Son, and that
His Son, He sent His Son to this earth to die for those people,
and that in His time, He brings every last one of them home to
be with Him in glory. Aren't we glad to hear that?
Doesn't that make us happy? That doesn't make everybody happy,
though. It don't, all right? It doesn't. This world hates
that message. Us, by nature, we hate that message. We come into this world hating
that message. And but for the grace of God,
we would still hate that message. Aren't we thankful that he reveals
this truth to some? That he, by the foolishness of
preaching, saved them which that believe. Look at verse five. God is in the midst of her. She
shall not be moved. God shall help her and that right
early. God is in the midst of her. Who? Who is who is her? It's the city
of God. We were just reading about it.
He's in the midst of his people, his bride, his elect. He is with
his people. We just read a little bit ago,
fear thou not, I am with thee. He's reminding us. We need to
be reminded over and over and over again. It's not just good
enough to hear it once. Fear thou not, I'm with thee. I need
to hear that over and over and over again. How often do we forget
that the Lord is with his people? How often do we forget that?
Because God is in the midst of us, his people will not be moved. You know, I feel like I move
all the time. I'm weak. We've already established that,
right? We're weak. We move all the time. Anything can come up. I might stub my toe, and I'm
torn all to pieces for it. I'll hit my head off 40 different
things, and I get so upset. How about a trial? I don't get
this job, or I don't get to do this, or I don't get to do that.
We get so worked up. Oh, I wanted this present. So
what? So what? We get so torn up. We
move all the time. Oh, aren't we thankful he doesn't
move? He doesn't move. I think of a big mountain, like
Mount Everest, right? Biggest mountain in the world,
29,000 feet tall. You think that that mountain
moves with a little bit of rain? You think it moves at all? No,
it stays still just like that. And if you're in that mountain,
you're not gonna move either. The Lord cannot move. And if
we're in him, we can't be moved either. Verse five said, God
shall help her, and that right early. He shall help her. Now, when we hear help, we think
of, well, I need help with this, or I need help with that, or,
you know, I'm cutting my grass. Luke, can you give me a hand
weed eating? That's not what this kind of help is. You know,
it's not a cooperative effort with Jesus, as so many want to
say. That's foolishness. We need help. We need real help because we're
helpless. We can't do anything. We need
Him to do it all for us. We can't do anything. We're helpless.
Think of Peter when our Lord bid Peter to walk out on the
water with him. And Peter saw our Lord and he started walking.
And then he looked every which way and he started to sink just
like that. Did Peter cry out and say, Lord,
I'm gonna swim and just try and tread water for as long as I
can, and then once I've run out of steam, then I'd like you to
give me a hand. No, no, he cried, Lord, save
me. Lord, help me. Lord, be merciful
to me. Oh, I wish that we could do that. I wish that we could cry that.
Look at verse six. Right here in verse six, this
is what man did, and then this is what God did. Verse six, what
man did? The heathen raged. That's us,
that's everything around us, just the heathen raging, raging
away. We look around, we see everything
in this world and it's just rage. But then what does God do? He
uttered his voice and the earth melted. The heathen raged, the
kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice, the earth
melted. All we need him to do is speak.
All he has to do is speak. We raged and rebelled and we
spit in God's face and we said, we will not have this man to
reign over us. And he speaks. He utters his voice and he melts
the stony heart within us. He melts this world. All it takes
is for him to speak. Verse seven, the Lord of hosts
is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Think about that. The
Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
How kind and how merciful is that, that he's with us? That
he's our refuge? Why would he do that? Why would
he look upon us? Is there anything in us that
makes us worthy of his mercy and of his kindness? No, no,
there is nothing in us. Then why? Why is he merciful
to us? Because that river, it's because
there is a river. And our Lord took us and He plunged
us into that river. And He washed us in His blood.
He brought us out clean and perfect in His Son. Instead of crushing
us and destroying us like we, that's what we deserve. He plunged
us in that river. Oh, how that God could be merciful
to us. Aren't we thankful for that river? The Lord of hosts
is with us. The God of Jacob. God of the
sinner is our refuge. The Lord of hosts, that's what
it said, the Lord of hosts is with us. Turn back to 2 Kings
with me, 2 Kings 6. If your Bible's like mine, that's
page 521. 2 Kings 6, at this point, this
is back when the Syrian army, they had come to take Elisha
and that army had completely surrounded this city. And Elisha's
servant went out in the morning, and he walks out that door, and
oh my goodness, he looks around, and that army is everywhere.
And I can imagine that. I mean, that would scare me to
death. I mean, walk out there and see that army? What am I
going to do? And so that's what the servant
does. Elisha's servant, he runs back in, he says, Elisha, what
are we going to do? What are we going to do? Well,
look at verse 16. Elisha answered him, and he answered,
Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them. Oh, if God be for us, who can
be against us? Verse 17 says, And Elisha prayed
and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes that he may see.
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw,
and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of
fire around Elisha. That great host surrounded that
army. Here's Elisha and his servant.
And there's that big, scary Syrian army right around him. And there's
the host that our Lord had put right there surrounding that
entire army. The Lord of hosts is with us.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Back to our text in Psalm 46.
Psalm 46, verse 8. We read, come behold the works
of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth. Come
and behold what he hath destroyed. Come and behold his works. We
are here tonight to behold what he has done. We're not here to
talk about what me and you need to be doing, what we need to
be doing out in the world, this and that, and blah, blah, blah.
No, we're here to behold what he has already done. It's finished. It's finished. We're here to
behold His work, not to add to it, not to take away from it.
We're here to behold Him. Verse 9, He maketh wars to cease
under the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth
the spear and sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. You know what that means? That means He wins. He wins. He gets the victory. And He always
wins. He has won from eternity. I think
of Pharaoh and the Egyptians and the Israelites. The Israelites
were in captivity for all those years, and our Lord sent those
plagues. And finally, after that last
plague, Pharaoh thrusts the Israelites out of Egypt. And then his heart
hardened again. He said, I'm going to go after
him. I'm going to take him. And so Pharaoh and that gigantic
army went chasing after those unarmed slaves. I mean, that's
what they were. They were unarmed slaves. And that whole army went
after him. And you can imagine being the Israelites scared half
to death. And Pharaoh was going to destroy
them where they stood. And they got to the edge of that
Red Sea. You remember what Moses said to the people? He said,
stand still. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. Be still, be still and know that
He is God. And what did our Lord do? He
parted that Red Sea as Israelites went across on dry land. And
what happened to that Egyptian army? Well, our Lord broke their
bows. He cut their spears. He burned
their chariots. He did that all when He closed
that Red Sea right on top of them. He got the victory. He wins. And he went to the war
with our sin. On Calvary's tree, he went to
war with our sin. And he bore our sin in his body
on that tree. And the battle's over. It's finished.
It is finished. Moses said, stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. The Lord will fight for you and
you shall enter into peace. Oh, we need peace. We want peace. God is our refuge and our strength. We have refuge, we have strength,
we have help, and we have peace on all sides in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's not always gonna feel
like that. And aren't we thankful that salvation's
not in a feeling? Feelings come and feelings go.
Oh, but his word, his word shall stand forever. All right, look
at verse 10. We've read all this. We've heard
all this to this point, and now what? Our Lord speaks, and what
does he say? Verse 10 says, be still. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen,
I will be exalted in the earth. Be quiet, be still. Whatever's happened, God is the
first cause in it. God has purposed all things to
happen. If something comes up and you start getting all tore
up, He purposed it, He sent it. Be still, be still and know that
He is God. What a thing to do at all times.
I wish I could just always just be still, be quiet. Isaac, shut
up, just be still, just rest in Him. Cause stuff's coming,
okay, and it's gonna be hard and it's gonna be painful, but
whatever we're thrown in the middle, whatever our Lord brings
us through, be still and know that He is God. I love hearing
that. I think that might be one of
my favorite verses. I need to know that. We need
to know that. Isaac, be still. Gary, be still. Be still and know that He is
God. Be still. He is God and beside
Him there is none else. He is the all-wise God. He is
the all-knowing God. He is the absolute and sovereign
God. He's the good and kind God. He's
the compassionate God, He's the holy and right God, and He's
our God. He is our God. Everything that
happens, it's for our good and His glory. Romans 8, 28, and
we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. It's
for our good and His glory. And He gets all the glory, and
He said, I will be exalted. I will be exalted. He should
be. He gets all the glory. He does
all the work. He does all the saving. Be still,
just be still. All right, verse 11, and we'll
close. In case we missed this the first time, He says it again.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. He is with us. He is on our side. The God of Jacob, the God of
the sinner. I'm a sinner. He's the God of sinners. He's
our refuge. Find refuge, strength, help,
peace in Him. Just be still, be still. What a Psalm for the fearful
this is. What a Psalm for the fearful this is. All right.