Okay, Psalm 46 this evening,
I've entitled the message from what is said in verse 10. Psalm
46, look at verse 10 one more time. Be still and know, be still
and know that I am God. I will be exalted among all men
everywhere, the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Be still and know God is God. Remember we studied in the book
of Isaiah, we read it so many times where the Lord said, I
am God, beside me there is no other. I am God, beside me there
is no other, the only just God and Savior. So be still and know
that I am God. That was a message in the day
of deliverance when God parted the Red Sea, as we read just
a moment ago in Exodus 14, where Moses declared, Fear ye not,
stand still, and see, the salvation is of the Lord. That's the message
of the Gospel. Salvation is of the Lord. All
of God, all of grace, all in Christ, all accomplished by Him.
It's the gift, His free gift to us. Now this psalm has been
a special blessing to me as well. Verse 1, God is our refuge and
strength of every present help in trouble. Now I've told this
story before and most of you have heard it but maybe some
of you haven't. when we were flooded back in July of 2010,
and the water was very, very deep, much worse than what it
was on New Year's Day this year. And the house that was behind
here that we lived in was a two-story house. And the water got so high
that it was up in the second floor of that house. There was
nine feet of water from the bottom floor up into the second floor.
Well, I was trapped in the house by myself. I'm thankful that
my wife was over in town and could even get here if she wanted.
And as I sat at the top of the stairs and watching that water
come up, I didn't think it was going to stop. I thought I was
going to drown because it came up so fast and so vicious. And
I started to devise ways of climbing up in the attic or climbing out
a back window and trying to escape. And as I sat there on the stairs,
this psalm, verse one, just flooded my heart and gave me such peace.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. It was such a comfort. And I
tell you what, I really thought that I would not get out of that
house alive. I really began to despair of
life. And this Word came to me and
it brought such comfort and assurance and peace. And that's where the
believer finds comfort and help in trouble. It's in God's Word. It's in God's truth. It's in
God Himself. He is our comfort. Knowing that
our Lord does all things well, For His glory and our good, what
we suffer here is just for a little while. Our light afflictions
are but for a moment, and they don't work against us. They work
for us. As I said earlier, this psalm,
46, was a favorite psalm of old Martin Luther, the old reformer.
And when the rage of the enemies came against that faithful servant
of the Lord, He would use these words, and here's a quote from
Martin Luther. We sing this psalm to the praise
of God because God is with us. God is with us, powerfully, miraculously,
preserves and defends us against all the fanatical spirits, the
gates of hell, the hatred of the devil, and the assaults of
the flesh and of sin. That's what he wrote in that
Him we just sang, a mighty fortress is our God. Another old preacher of the past,
Charles Pershing, called this Psalm, the Song of Holy Confidence. Confidence in our God, not in
us, in our God. Now, I like what verse 1 has
to say and we could spend all of our time right here on verse
1. Here's the confidence that the believer has, not in himself.
We have no confidence in the flesh. Our confidence and our
assurance and our comfort is in our God. God is. God is God. He is God. That's a good definition. Our
God is God. God is our refuge. God is our
strength. God is our salvation. He's a
very present right now, very present from everlasting to everlasting. The very present eternal God
right now is our help, our hope. In any trouble that we might
have, man is born of woman few days and full of trouble. Trouble, trouble. God is our
refuge. Now this is not proud presumption.
This is not an arrogant boast. This is the cry of a child of
God. God is our refuge. God is our strength. This is
the cry of faith. Any refuge apart from the one
that God has provided is nothing but a refuge of what Isaiah said
is a refuge of lies. Christ alone is our refuge. Christ alone is our salvation
and our eternal refuge. He is a city of refuge that the
guilty can run into and be saved. God is our refuge. We read in
Scripture that God is good. God is good. Turn back a few
pages. Psalm 34. Psalm 34 verse 8. I remember one time when we were
headed on vacation and traveling out in the middle of Kansas somewhere
out on the Interstate 70 and some big old semi blew by me
and it kind of, when the big old trucks go by, they kind of
just moved me all over the road. And on the back of that truck
was this scripture verse. I've ever forgotten it. Oh, taste
and see. Psalm 34 verse 8. Oh, taste and
see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in him. Oh, fear the Lord, ye his saints,
for there's no want to them that fear the Lord. Well, I just feasted
upon that. I'm glad that guy passed me the
way he did. Because I saw that verse and
I said, oh, taste and see, the Lord is good. And I just thought
about that for days and days and days. The Lord is good. We read in scripture that God
is not only is He good, but God is love. We read in Scripture that God
is light and Him is no darkness at all. We studied recently Isaiah
6 where it says God is holy. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. What does it say holy, holy,
holy? Three times. Not once, not twice,
not four times. Three! Father, Son, Holy Spirit. One God. These three are holy. God is holy. God is love. God is good, but God is holy.
God is our refuge. God is our only foundation. Neither is there salvation in
any other. than our blessed Lord Jesus Christ. So God is our refuge, and He's
the only refuge we have. You remember Psalm 62? Turn over
there. Psalm 62. Look at verse 6. Psalm 62. He only is my rock, my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. And God is my salvation, my glory,
the rock of my strength. And my refuge is in God. Trust
in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before Him.
God is a refuge for us. And again, that word selah. Boy,
think about that a while. He's our refuge. In a time of
storm, He's our refuge. In a time of trouble, He is our
refuge. Now look back to Psalm 46, verse
1. Not only is our God our refuge,
Our righteousness, our salvation, He is our strength. He is our
strength. We have no power or spiritual
strength in ourselves. All flesh is, when Isaiah 40
says, grass. Man and his best date is all
together vanity. We have no strength in ourselves.
I was watching a commercial today. Old Chuck Norris got this exercise
machine and he's bragging about how old he was and how strong
he was and you'll be just like me if you buy one of these. Okay. He's not talking about that kind
of strength. He's talking about our spiritual strength before
God. our spiritual confidence before
God. We have no power or spiritual
strength in ourselves. We are weak, impotent, helpless. All flesh is grass. The Lord
Jesus Christ alone is our strength to justify us from all sin. Christ is our strength to raise
us up to glory. He's all of our salvation. Hold
your place there, find Psalm 27 verse 1. This is the repeated
message of all scripture. The Lord is our strength. The
Lord is our salvation. Psalm 27, look at verse 1. The
Lord is my light and my salvation. But whom shall I fear? The Lord
is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? When
the wicked mine enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my
flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against
me, in this I'll be confident. One thing have a desire of the
Lord, that will I seek after. that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
the Lord, to inquire in his temple, where in time of trouble he shall
hide me in his pavilion, in the secret of his tabernacle shall
he hide me, and he shall set me upon a rock." Well, we know
that rock is Christ, don't we? He's a rock in a weary land.
God is our refuge. God is our strength. The strength
of our Salvation is Christ, the strength of our righteousness,
my soul. What is it? It is the Lord Jesus
Christ who's called the Lord our righteousness. He's the strength
of salvation. He's the strength of redemption.
The strength of His blood, atonement to put away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. He's our refuge. He's our strength.
And then, thirdly, it says in verse 1, a very present help. A very present help. Oh, you
know anything about that next word? T. Capital T. Trouble. Trouble. Trouble. The Lord Jesus Christ is our
very present help from all trouble. From all trouble. Someone rightly
said we're either in trouble, coming out of trouble, or heading
into trouble. My name's Trouble, Trouble, Trouble,
Trouble. But the encouragement of scripture
is this. He said, let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and
find grace to help in our time of need. In the time of trouble,
He is our help. He is our salvation. He is our all and in all. Don't turn. Let me just read
this one to you. I've got this jotted down. In
Psalm 146, Psalm 146 verse 3 says, Put not your trust in princes,
nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. His breath
goeth forth, he returneth to his earth. In that very day his
thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. Now you can turn to this one.
Turn to Psalm 121. David knew something about trouble,
didn't he? Boy, he had trouble. Boy, he
had a lot of trouble. Who sends the trouble? God sends
the trouble. Who sends the comfort in time
of trouble? Who gives us grace in a time
of trouble? It's the same Lord who sends the trouble. Psalm
121, verse 1, I will lift up my eyes unto the hills from whence
cometh my help. Oh, my help cometh from the Lord,
which made heaven and earth. The Lord shall preserve me from
all evil. The Lord shall preserve my soul.
Verse 7. The Lord is our help. He's our
hope. He's all of our salvation. Our Lord said, you remember,
John 1633. These words have I spoken unto
you, that in me ye might have peace. In this world ye shall
have tribulation. Ah, but be of good cheer, I have
overcome. That's our hope, is it not? The
Lord Jesus Christ, He's overcome all our trouble. Christ is the
only remedy for and from trouble. Whatever that trouble may be,
He has the proper help. Himself. He is our help. Look at verse
5. God is in the midst of her. She
shall not be moved. Psalm 46 verse 5. God shall help
her. And that right soon. Right early. God shall. Not maybe. He shall. He shall not be moved. You can't
move the heart of God away from the heart of His people. She
shall not be moved. God shall help her and that right
soon, that right early, that right early. He's our hope. He's our help. Now, Psalm 46
verse two. Therefore, and I love that word,
therefore will not we fear. No need to fear the law. The
law of God has been honored. The Lord Jesus Christ has satisfied
the law of God for us. That which was contrary to us
and against us, He took it out of the way and nailed it to His
cross. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in the Lord Jesus Christ. No need to fear
the law. No need to fear Satan, the devil,
the demons of hell. He defeated every one of them.
You know, the whole message of the book of Revelation is He
wins. That's the message. He wins. He's defeated all of His enemies.
He went forth conquering and to conquer and defeated all of
His enemies and we are more than conquered in Him. Therefore,
will we not fear? Don't need to fear death. Do
you fear death? Do you fear dying? pointing to
the man who wants to die after that judgment. No need for the
believer to fear death. The Lord said, because I live.
You see, he defeated death. He walked into that, I mean,
he walked to Calvary's tree. They put him to death. They took
him down from the cross and put him in the tomb. Delivered for
our offenses, raised again for our justification. And the Lord
said, because I live, you live also. He said, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. You see, for a believer to die,
is gain, not punishment. For me to live is Christ, to
die is gain, to be absent from his body, to be present with
the Lord. So we don't fear the law of God. We don't fear death. We don't
fear our sin. We've sinned against God. We've all sinned to come short
of the glory of God. We have sinned against God this
very day. Every way. The good news of the gospel is
the Lord Jesus Christ has put away all our sin. Past, present,
and future. How many sins had you personally
committed when the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins? They
were all future, weren't they? The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all our sins. No need to fear. No need to fear. He's our strength, our hope,
our help, our salvation. Now, he mentions some things
here. Though the earth be removed,
though the mountains be carried in the midst of the sea, and
boy, this is going to happen. Heaven and earth are going to
pass away. Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled,
though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, Be still
and know that I am God. There is a river. There is a
river. If God be for us, who can be
against us? There is a river. Verse 4. The
streams whereof shall make glad the city of God. The city of
God is the church of God. The church which He purchased
with His own blood. The holy place. The tabernacles
of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. Our
Lord said, where two or three gather together in My name, I'm
in their midst. There is a river that abundantly
flows with the free, full favor of all spiritual blessings from
the throne of God through the Lord Jesus Christ to the heart
of God's people, refreshing and comforting, giving relief to
the weary believer. I, Lord, to all you who are laboring
every laden, come unto me. I'll give you rest. My yoke is
easy, my burden is light. We're going to study about that
river in Revelation 22. He showed me a pure river of
water, of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne
of God and of the Lamb. The Lord Himself is the head,
the fountain of the river, comes from the sovereign throne of
God. The channel which it flows unto us is through the Lord Jesus
Christ. The mouth of that river is God
the Holy Spirit, blessing us with all spiritual blessing in
the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord says to that
woman at the well, you drink of that natural water and you'll
thirst again. You drink of that water that
I give you, it will be a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. I like what she said. Lord, give
me that water. I want that water. And that's
our cry. All the streams of this river,
this river of blessings, a river of grace, make glad the city
of God. That's the church of God. This
river shall never dry up, shall never be diverted away from the
city of God. This is the river of water that
Isaiah talks about. Let me read it to you, don't
turn. Isaiah 32, you remember what he says there? Isaiah 32,
1 and 2, Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes
shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be a hiding place
from the wind, a cover from the tempest, rivers of water in a
dry place, a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. And that
man is the God-man, the Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ. Rivers
of water in a dry place. That's where we are. That's where
we live, in a dry place. But there is a river, there is
a fountain that flows from the throne of God through the Lord
Jesus Christ to the hearts of God's people. Verse 5 says, God's
in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. We can't
be moved away from the Lord. We're in His hands. We're called
the sheep of His hands. We're upon His heart. You can't
remove a child of God from the heart of God. We're in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We can't be moved away from His
love. We can't be moved away from His grace. We can't be moved
away from His mercy. I mean, you can take my body
and move it wherever you want. You can't move it away from the
presence of Almighty God because He's everywhere. In Philippians chapter 4, in
whatever state I'm in, therewith to be content. a state of comfort
or a state of turmoil, whatever state I am in, we have confidence
in our God. We shall not be moved. God shall
help her and that right quick. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Lord, have mercy on me, thee
sinner. Remember that publican cried
out in the temple? Pharisee said, Lord, I thank
you. I'm so pretty. I'm so good. I'm so righteous. And the publican, that old sinner,
would even lift up his eyes. He smote his breast and said,
God, be merciful to me, thee sinner. And you know what the
Lord says of those two men? The Pharisee bragged on himself
and was condemned. The publican condemned himself
and was justified. Our Lord said, that man went
home justified rather than the other. God shall help her in that right
soon. God's in the midst of her. He'll
never leave us. He said, I'll never leave you.
I'll never forsake you. Lo, I'm with you always. Can't
be moved from His hands. No one can pluck him out of his
hand, can't be moved from that one foundation, that one foundation. You see, to move the believer,
you've got to move the foundation. The believer is resting on the
rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. And to move the believer, you've
got to move that foundation. He's fastened to the rock. You're
not going to move that foundation. Isaiah 28, remember? Behold,
I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone, a tri-stone, a precious
cornerstone. He that believeth on him shall
not be moved. Forced to flee. God is our refuge. We cannot be moved from the covenant
of grace. He chose us in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world. He's never going to un-choose
us. Never going to unchoose us. We're chosen unto eternal life. He saved us with everlasting
salvation. We have obtained eternal redemption
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 6.
The heathen may rage, and they do, and they may move some of
the people in the kingdoms Our God who sits in the heavens,
it says in Psalm 2, when the heathen rage, you remember Psalm
2, He'll laugh. He uttered His voice and the
earth melted. Boy, what about the power of
His word? He uttered a word. and part of the Red Sea. He uttered
a word and created this universe. The word of God is quick and
powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. He uttered a word in power
to our heart. Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. Verse 7, the Lord of hosts is
with us. The Lord of hosts. He's the Lord
of His people. The host of God. The elect of
God. He's the Lord. Not by something
we've done. He is our Lord. The same Jesus
whom you crucified, God hath made Him both Lord and Christ. We confess that He is our Lord. We've submitted to His Lordship.
He's the God of Jacob. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Now, how many times are we reading
Scripture about the God of Jacob? God took that old, no good, worthless
son of Isaac and made him Jacob. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. The God of Jacob. He's a God
of sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. came to call sinners to repentance. Thought of this verse here, Isaiah
41. For I, the Lord thy God, will hold thy right hand, saying
unto thee, fear not, I will help thee, fear not thou worm, Jacob,
ye men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel. Now, you remember how Jacob's
name when he met the Lord Jesus Christ in Genesis 32. And the
Lord wrestled with him. And the Lord asked him, what's
your name? What's your name? Now, the Lord
knew his name. My name's Jacob. You know what
that name means? Cheat, supplanter, deceiver.
He cheated his brother. Lied to his father. He lied to
Isaac. God said, your name's no longer
going to be Jacob, but Israel. That's where Israel comes from.
A prince with power, a prince with God. He's a God of Jacob. He takes no good, wretched sinners
like Jacob and makes them Israel, a prince of God. Remember Revelation chapter 1?
He loved us and washed us from our sin in His own blood and
made us kings and priests unto our God. He's made us Israel. Ah, He's a God of sinners. He's
a God of Jacob. Verse 8, Come behold the works
of the Lord. Psalm 46 verse 8, What desolations
He's made in the earth. What desolations He's made in
the earth. Boy, you ain't seen nothing yet. Read 2 Peter 3 sometime. Heaven and earth are going to
melt with a fervent heat. And He's going to make a new
heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. He maketh
wars to cease unto the end of the earth. Thank God for that.
He's merciful. He breaks the bow asunder. He
cuts the spear asunder. He burns the chariot in fire
when it pleases Him to do so. Or as he destroyed Pharaoh and
his 600. Pharaoh thought he had an invincible
army. 600 chariots, all driven with
captains. He's going to wipe out those
people. Well, we know what happened. God said, I'm going to get me
honor. God raided up Pharaoh, hardened his heart to dump his
behind in the Red Sea and kill him all. Kill them all. He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still now. Don't be anxious. It's all going to work out. All
things work together for good to them who love God, to them
who are called according to His purpose. Be still. Wait upon
the Lord. Again, I say, wait upon the Lord,
Psalm 27. And know that I am God. Well, if you know that He is
God, and that He controls and rules all things, all things
are of God, be still. Be still and know, I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. Thank God
for that. I will be exalted in the earth.
Every knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And then he repeats verse seven. This must be the course to this
psalm. The Lord of hosts is with us. He said, I'll never leave
you. I'll never forsake you. The God
of Jacob, the God of Jacob is our refuge. God of Jacob is our
refuge. Stand still and see the salvation
that's of the Lord, all of his grace, grace alone.