0:00 Psalm 46 was Martin Luther's favorite Psalm. The reformer during those dark days of the reformation took great comfort in these lines. He often with his friends when they were weathering the persecution that was coming their way, he would often say, let us sing Psalms 46, and let the devil do his worst. Let us sing Psalms 46 and let them do their worst. And it is that famous hymn that has been sung for hundreds of years, a mighty fortress is our God, that was inspired by this very Psalm.
0:38 And we're gonna just draw some comforting truths. It's a very beautifully structured Psalm because if you look in your bibles, at the end of verse three, you see a word there, Selah. Then you come down at verse seven, you see the same word at the end, Selah. Then you come to the last verse of the Psalm and you see the same word, Selah. What does that mean?
0:58 Well, majority believe that Selah is simply a term that calls for those who are joining in the singing of the Psalm to pause, to just stop with the instruments and even the singing, and to simply reflect on what was just said. To just sit back and comprehend the words that were just uttered from their lips. The words that were spoken over the congregation. Now, you know, if that word is true, that says a lot about the Holy Spirit. He really wants us to care and to think and to meditate upon what we say.
1:36 He's not interested in rushing. He's not interested in us just passing by for the sake of passing by. He really wants these words to seep into our soul and to saturate our inner man so that we would be embedded with these truths. Because this transaction, what we just did a few moments ago and what we're about to do right now is an investment in your soul so that when you come to the point where, like Martin Luther, you are enduring dark days, you will have something in you to prepare you. And so this can't be a cheap experience.
2:10 Singing is not a cheap experience. That's why we have to be careful of the words that we sing because we're making an investment in the soul. Same with sermons. And so as we read this, realize that it's beautifully structured in three stanzas. And those three groupings have a main point in each of them.
2:28 But every word in this Psalm has power. Every word in this song has something for us to meditate upon. And as we're breaking bread this morning, we're we're gonna just take the time to realize and hopefully, prayerfully be encouraged by these words and realize who our God is. I believe that this Psalm is very appropriate for what we're facing today. And if it's only gonna get worse, as some are predicting, we need this all the more.
2:52 And so let's read this together and draw from the Holy Spirit's wisdom and and truth. Psalm 46, to the choirmaster of the sons of Korah, according to Alemoth, a song. Verse one. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
3:28 Selah. You know, what makes this Psalm so special is not just the words, but the author behind these words, and we're gonna discover why in a moment. But in verse one alone, we are given three descriptions of who God is that is worthy of our contemplation. God is our refuge. God is strength.
3:49 God is our help in trouble. God is our refuge to say that he is a shelter. He is something that we run into. He is something that covers us. He is something that shields us from outside threats or influences that would harm us if we did not have this refuge.
4:09 He helps us weather storms. He keeps us from unnecessary dangers and evils, and he, as a canopy, continually hovers over us from every side. Now for us, we understand that a refuge seems like some kind of a fortress, something that we can again hide in, but for the Jewish ear, this was something even more specific. The Jewish ear would have heard the word refuge and their minds surely would have went into their understanding of how God in the the first stages of this nation, Israel being established, called for the people to build what? These cities of refuge.
4:48 These places around, sprinkled around Israel where if a man committed murder by accident, he would be able to run to the city because the avenger of that victim would have the right to take him out. But God in his wisdom, and even in prophetic fashion says, I'm gonna put these cities of refuge around Israel. And you, in your faith, you have to run to this city, and as long as you are within those walls for the rest of your life, you will not be harmed, you will not be attacked. And this is another facet of this, that when he would go into that city, he would trust that the elders of that city would not give him up, would not throw him out to be devoured by the avenger. And so there is a sense in which God is identifying himself as that city of refuge where you and I can flee, where you and I can go and hide and be kept and know, rest assured that God will never forfeit us.
5:45 He'll never give up on us. He'll never look at us and change his mind one day and say, You know what? You do deserve to go out there. And as long as we remain in him, as long as we are abiding within the holy habitation of his presence, his will, his truth, we will know protection for all of our days. And so no matter how the enemy lurks around our lives, as long as we are in in him as our refuge, we have nothing to fear.
6:13 Nothing to fear. And so you can imagine the joy, the the excitement to hear that God is our refuge. He's like the city of refuge where I can hide. He's like those walls. He's like those leaders that I can trust in.
6:26 Yes. He is our refuge. But more than that, he is our strength. God is our strength. There's nothing within us that we draw strength from.
6:39 He is the source of our power. He is our source of our endurance. He's a he's a source of our sanity. And for God to be our strength in the new covenant is even more precious to understand because Paul, when he really, really, really needed strength, prayed three times for this thorn that many debate what it is to be removed from his flesh. And he got a direct answer from the lips of the savior himself, And Jesus said very clearly, my grace is sufficient for you.
7:14 My grace is sufficient for you. And then he goes on to say, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. You know, when we think of God being our strength and when we wanna tap into that strength or ask God to intervene in the arm of his strength, we tend to think, and we've narrowed it down to this, For God to show himself strong is for him to remove the evil or the trouble or the trial from my life. That's where our prayers go. Right?
7:43 God, I need strength because I'm facing something that's really, really gnawing at my soul and be a great help if you can come and intervene because this is beyond me and I need you to help. And this is how we imagine that God would blow some kind of an east wind and it would just move everything away like when the plagues came in Egypt, and in a moment God would just remove those afflictions. That's how we believe that God manifests his strength, and he can do that. And that is a display of his power. And in a moment, he can change the scene of our circumstance.
8:11 He can. But please do not fail to consider that God has another way of manifesting his strength, and it is not removing the evil from your life. It is giving you the strength in your shoulders to endure it and to bear it and to be able to move forward and advance in life, despise it. You and I can know a strength and oftentimes God makes his strength known in this way where he doesn't remove it, he just gives you the power to move forward in it. No matter what it is.
8:45 No matter what it is. And I'm sure that if we open up this microphone to testify, people can come up here and say, I don't know what it is. Even maybe in your life right now, but you almost can step outside of yourself because you know that this is so heavy on your soul, your emotions, your mind, your thoughts, the tossing and turning, but you seem to be able to get up another day, and another day, and another day, and not just get up and move forward that you can come to the house of God and you have the strength to sing and to pray, and even in the midst of all that, to even witness of the goodness of God though you're waiting for an intervention of his mercy. Why? Because you are being carried by a source of strength that is supernatural.
9:31 And if you were left to yourself, you know very well that you would have crumbled a long time ago. But see, the psalmist understood something. God is our strength. Paul understood something that the strength that I get to taste from Jesus Christ is not in him moving all my troubles. It's in giving me that Holy Spirit energy to be able to move forward in it, to be able to perform the will of God continually.
9:58 That's your inheritance and that's mine. And I could tell you this, I can testify freely that oftentimes, yes, I've seen God move in a way where he was he can flick evil, he can flick persecution persecutors off the scene in scary ways, terrifying ways. But more than anything, I've known something of his power when I've been the weakest mentally, emotionally, physically. And Paul was so familiar with the power of Christ. He was so enjoying the power of Christ that he says, I'm not afraid of weakness.
10:39 In fact, I boast in it. This man has tapped into a source of strength, in which when weakness came, he invited it, knowing that Christ was going to intervene with his power, which comes to the next third thing that the psalmist describes God as. He's not just our refuge. He's not just our strength. He is a very present help in trouble.
11:05 Didn't say help in trouble. He said a very present help in trouble. And what that implies, that he is near to you and he's closer to you than you can think. And as real as that trouble is in your life, Jesus' help is way more real, whether you perceive it in the moment or not. That word trouble is open for you to include anything in life that causes any level of fear to be experienced in your heart.
11:43 Any type of anxiety, worry, concern for the future, anything that would produce fear, which is unique to each and every one of us, fits in this word trouble. There's no little trouble, and there's no too great of a trouble. Any level of trouble invites the very present help of the person of Jesus Christ all the time. And what we have to understand, what the Holy Spirit is trying to say is that as soon as trouble visits us, Christ makes it his obligation to magnetize himself to us. See, when you and I experience trouble or turmoil, for other people around us, we almost become a burden.
12:24 We almost shoo people away from us when we're experiencing turmoil and we become this this wreck almost. And people it's too messy for people to deal with. You can often you can often see who your real friends are when trouble comes into your life. And so what what might repel people and make them avoid you until you get past this is the very thing that draws Jesus to us. He's attracted to it.
12:52 He's attracted to us. He's eager. He has made it a holy obligation that when we experience any level of trouble that he would say, I must be near him, and I will help her. I will. It's a promise.
13:08 It's a guarantee. And what's so comforting about this is that Christ pledges himself to us in all seasons of life. We think Jesus is near to us when we're doing well. There is an aspect of experiential fellowship, yes, when we are walking in obedience, but there is something about trouble that moves his compassionate heart to assist us and to walk with us through that season. But do not misinterpret this promise, this truth.
13:44 It says a very present help in trouble. It does not say immediate relief or healing from that trouble. It does not say an automatic deliverance from that trial. Because if that was the case, then all of us would say, I I don't think I've experienced that. But it says help.
14:07 It's as though to say, whether you realize it or not, I am I am doing something through this. I am doing something in you and through you. I'm shielding you more than you know. There are many things that we can learn from the book of Job, and here's one of those things. That whole book is about a dialogue between three friends who are attempting to comfort their suffering friend, and they did a terrible job at it.
14:28 Wherever they got their counseling degree from, they should go and get a refund. Because all they did was make the matter worse and trying to dig up some sin from him because surely suffering only comes from sin. Wrong. And what we see is that they come and they are in silence for several days and then they open their mouths and they were better off being silent than opening their mouths. But the point beyond that is that you and I get a heavenly perspective on the whole scene.
14:59 As much as those friends were near to him and spent time to be with him, and failing to, yes, comfort him but attempting nonetheless, there is a God who is with Job before the trauma. There is a God who is with him during the trauma, and there is a God who saw him through the trauma. And Job didn't know it yet, but he would find out that it was God who allowed every inch of suffering through his sovereign will, and not one sliver of his personhood or his possessions were touched apart from his wisdom, apart from his knowledge and his protection. See, Job didn't feel it. Job was pleading for it to be able to meet with a redeemer, to be able to meet with his God and say, can you explain this?
15:48 But you and I understand from this amazing book that he is there. And if you're his, then he knows how much evil can touch you. And it's only for one thing to make you all the more glorious and lovely, and beautiful in the sight of Christ, and even in the sight of this world. He's a very present help in trouble. Don't doubt it.
16:15 You may not sense it. You may not realize it. But listen, Christ can make himself known in that trouble. But oftentimes, he wants you and I to trust in the truth more than search for the feeling. And that's why we have a Psalm like this.
16:31 So that like Luther, you can sing to your soul or sing with your friends. Let us sing Psalm 46, and let the devil do his worst. Let the enemy do his worst, because the truth is what anchors us and what guides us. Now, though we may not know immediate relief and trouble, listen, there is something that is immediately affected if you believe this truth enough. There is something experiential that you can understand through verse one.
17:07 Though some things may remain in your trouble, there is one thing that will be evaporated by the light of this truth, and it is in verse two. Therefore, as a result of who God is in these three things, as a consequence of believing this by faith, therefore, we will not fear. It's illogical. It makes no sense. There's no reason to fear if you believe those three things about who God is.
17:33 That's what he's trying to say. You know, what's amazing about this powerful Psalm is that it is not exempt from reason. There is thought behind this. There is a logic behind this. It's not just emotion.
17:44 God is love and God is this and he cares for me. No. If God is like this, there is no reason to fear. There's no reason to fear. And the trouble, again, can be anything, but what the psalmist is about to do now is place before us not just financial crises, not just fractured relationships that wound you emotionally, not news of some potential disease that may may make your life shorter, though all those things can be included, he begins to now magnify and bring before us a catastrophe with enormous effects.
18:30 We will not fear. And then he begins to go now into this, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though the waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling, even though we are facing a terrifying tsunami, even though there is volcanic eruptions, even though there is a shift in the very thing that we are standing on, yeah, we're not gonna fear. It's not gonna bother us one bit. We're not gonna tremble, though the mountains tremble. We're not gonna run, though the mountains dive into the heart of the ocean.
19:13 Fill in the blank with a natural disaster. We will not move. Now that is true here in the physical sense, but we can apply it to anything because the shifts that he is describing here, we are experiencing in the physical. There's a disease floating around now that's putting people into their homes and causing you to wear what you're wearing on your face right now. But the shift is not only in the physical.
19:36 We're seeing it in the political. We're seeing it. We saw it for a moment in the economy. We're seeing it in society. I can't receive another video of some stomach turning incident that happens on the street.
19:51 People are boiling over with hatred and confusion. They don't know what to stand for. They don't know what to do. They don't know how to handle themselves. They don't know how to have communication.
20:01 They don't know what's happening to them. And there's a trembling in hearts and in minds. There's a crashing of reason and logic, and you and I are standing in the midst of it. But you and I are invited to be like the psalmist and say, yeah, we're not gonna fear though. I'm not gonna fear about my children being raised up in this kind of a generation.
20:24 I'm not gonna fear that's gonna happen to the church. I'm not gonna worry what's gonna happen to my health. We will not be moved. Why? Because you understand who God is.
20:36 And as close as that mask is to your face, the presence of Jesus Christ is near. But I wonder if, again, because the author of these truths gives us an insight because the sons of Korah were not just speaking outside of experience. Their history, their lineage was not free from calamity, was not free from disaster. These are the sons of Korah. David is not writing the Psalms.
21:01 There's a group of people who are descendants of a man named Korah, and Korah did not have the best reputation in your bibles and mine. Korah is associated with rebellion. Korah was a man who walked with Moses and Aaron during the wilderness journey. And at one point, Korah, with others, had envy in their hearts, looked at Moses and Aaron and says, who gave you the right to have authority over us? You're no better than us.
21:27 And they begin to cause an uprising. And God steps on the scene, and he says, we're gonna settle this once and for all, and we're gonna find out who I chose to be in the level of authority that I have commissioned. So, Moses, I want you once and for all to ask every person who has pledged allegiance to Korah to now move away from him in his tent because I'm about to do something catastrophic. So Moses obeys and he says, if you want to take the opportunity now to move away from Korah and the others that are rebelling, now's your chance because God is about to step in. And we don't have any insight of who moved away.
22:09 All we know, listen to this, in number 16 verse thirty one and thirty two. And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart, And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and all the people who belong to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. Talk about terrifying. God does a unique thing.
22:54 We're here. Korah and his family members and others around him that chose to stand against Moses with perhaps their arms crossing, give us what you got because we're not changing our minds. And what does God do? He splits open the earth underneath their feet. They fall into blackness, only for God to zip up the earth again over them alive.
23:18 And they all watched as this happened. And you think, well, Korah and his household, how do we have sons of Korah in Psalm 46? Well, you just have to read on in numbers, in a few chapters later after number 16. Go to numbers 26. And as there is a census recorded concerning the generation of the Israelites, there's a little verse in there that is so needed to understand how powerful this psalm is.
23:45 And it's in numbers 26 verse 11. Look what it says. But the sons of Korah did not die. You know what people use this verse to say? Well, God is merciful.
24:00 He destroyed Korah, but he let the sons live. That's not what it says in numbers 26, rather number 16. It says Korah and all his household and all his possessions went down into Sheol. So how is it that in numbers 26, you and I read that the sons of Korah did not die? Well, it gives us insight to the scene that when Moses said, whoever wants to separate from Korah and his rebellion, do it now.
24:23 And you know who shifted from the tent? The very sons of Korah. Dad, we love you. Mom, we love you, but we love God more. And they stepped away.
24:36 And they witnessed their own parents. They witnessed their cousins, their uncles, their aunts fall into the center of the earth as an act of God's judgment. And then you and I come to Psalm 46 and we read, we will not fear though the earth gives way, Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea. There's a whole different way to this text now, isn't there? Because I'm sure the sons of Korah reflected on that historical moment that has been imprinted in the word of God.
25:12 Every generation would read about Korah's rebellion including their descendants. And yet inspired by the Holy Spirit, they chose to wrote this and I'm sure they had it in mind when they said, we're not gonna fear. Not just when catastrophe happens on a global scale, even when that catastrophe comes and attacks the home, even when it affects our family members, even when it is a result of God's judgment upon our own, we will not be shaken, and we will not be moved. It's a whole different thing to experience an earthquake. It's another experience to know that your earthquake, an earthquake took out your family.
25:48 This is more personal than we think. This is near to their hearts than we can imagine, yet they're still proving confidence and trust, not just that and love towards God. We trust in God. We will pledge allegiance to God even if our family doesn't. And even if the world falls falls apart, even if my home falls apart, even if I have to witness something as tragic as that, God is still my help.
26:22 He's my strength. He's my refuge. This gives hope, not just for general disaster, for personal disaster. No wonder Martin Luther drew so much hope. It goes on to now say, Selah, Just reflect on that truth.
26:48 Doesn't matter what's happening around me, around my home. Doesn't matter what's happening in my home, even if in my home there's an earthquake. I'm gonna trust in him, and and there's a reflection and a contemplation and a realization that outside or inside, within, before me, behind me, he is with me. And all for a sudden in the second stanza in verse four, there's a shift in the scene. There is a river, the psalmist says.
27:19 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. So after this corporate break, the singers now point people to a different picture. What a contrast. Here's the waters roaring and foaming and earthquakes and tsunamis and waves clashing and darkness within the seas. Chaos.
27:41 And all for a sudden, the psalmist says, but there's a river. This river was not affected by these outside sources and influences. This river was untouched. And what a contrast to the chaos, here is a peaceful, flowing, life giving, calming river. And the river is found in a certain location in the city of God, which is a picture of the dwelling place of God, which is a picture of where the people of God are represented, which is a picture of, very clearly, the presence of God.
28:26 There is a river when peace like a river. There is a river that's untouched, unmoved, unshaken, and it has one purpose for those who drink from it. For those who are led by the shepherd by it, gladness. It makes the people of God glad. And we should not for a moment doubt that this is describing the river of the presence of God.
28:56 You know why? Because go back in Psalm 36, and look at the description of the house of God in verse eight of Psalm 36. The psalmist says, they, the people of God, feast on the abundance of your house. If you ever leave church feeling full, it's because of this. They feast on the abundance of your house, and you, God, give them drink from the river of your delights.
29:25 What What does the house of God represent? It is not the beautifully adorned structure. It was not the priest that were ministering. It was not the incense of certain altars. No.
29:40 It was the presence of God. It was the revelation of the person of God so that when those pilgrims would walk in, they would feel full when they come in. And when the pilgrims would come in, when the people of God would come to where God dwelt, they would feel satisfied because there's a river of delights, plural. There's satisfaction. There's a soul.
30:04 There's an experiential reality that comes when you tap into walking with the Lord in obedience and humility and hunger. And what an offering that is given to us in the midst of all of the craziness that you and I can know this river. And we don't have to go to a specific location. We don't have to get on a plane and travel to a certain place. No.
30:26 God has made us home with you and me. We are his holy habitation. We are the very address of where God dwells, so to speak. And if that is the case, then the city of God, the house of God is right here, so to speak. And you know what that means?
30:40 That river is here. And it never runs dry. And it's always available. And it's something that God can lead me to even though it's in here, we still need God to lead us into those truths that make us quenched in our thirst. Can I ask you something?
31:04 I need to just ask it very plainly. Can you describe can you really describe that your relationship with the Lord actually makes you glad and actually makes you feel delighted? Because a lot of people agree with the first stanza. God is my refuge and my strength, the very present help in trouble, as though God is limited to simply being a divine tour guide through life, helping me do what I wanna do as safely as possible. You'll find most professing believers say, yeah, God is my strength, he's my help.
31:43 But then when it comes to him being the very thing that makes me glad and where I draw my delight from, like it's incomparable. When I drink from this river, any other fountain that's presented to me is a lesser delight, no matter how pure, no matter how good it is. This river gives me joy. That language is very foreign to many people, not to the psalmist. In the old covenant?
32:10 In the old covenant, where they had to walk through deserts to get to this house. And in the new covenant, when we walk, we are his house. These very feet host the house of God, so to speak. A river of delight. Is he speaking mystically?
32:29 Is he speaking just theoretically? Is he just being poetic so that we can say, well, that's very beautiful. I I like the structure and it makes me think. No. With present real troubles, we cannot afford theory.
32:44 We need to experience God. We need to know these truths or we're sunk. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the most high. Here's one reason to be glad, here's one reason to be delighted. Look at verse five.
33:04 The second part, God will help her when morning dawns. You know what that means? That every single day as the sun rises, the second time the psalmist mentions help in this song, God will make sure to help you the moment you open your eyes. If we're honest, we know that, and we pray for, and we strive for God to be our first thoughts in the morning. Right?
33:32 But if we're honest, often mornings, he is not. Oftentimes, our Instagram becomes our first thought. Our breakfast becomes our first, whatever. And that's true for all of us. And unless we strive and discipline ourselves to make it so, it won't happen as frequently.
33:52 Discouraging, isn't it? Be encouraged by this. As much as you and I might be absent minded of God in the morning, God's heart and God's mind is for us the morning that you and I wake up every single day. When you think about your love for God, trust me, you'll be more discouraged than encouraged. Think about his love for you, and that will change.
34:14 God, every morning, again, makes it his holy obligation and joyful responsibility to look at you and me when we wake up and wipe the crust off our eyes to say, I will help him. I will help her. Until when? Until you lay your head back down on that same pillow only for him to repeat his faithfulness the next morning. I'm glad.
34:41 I'm delighted. And the more I believe that truth, the more I will awaken to that truth day by day. I want to get there. Because when you get there, you'll wake up with a song on your heart. When you get there, you'll have a different step to your day.
35:01 And we need that especially in light of verse six. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. There are seasons in history when troubles reach national levels. There are moments in history where governments and kingdoms and leaders with so much power topple only to crash into pieces.
35:29 But even while cities and countries are crumbling, even when the general population as we are even experiencing it today are enraged to the point of boiling over, you and I can know gladness. You and I can know delight because there's a river that's untouched, not polluted, not contaminated, always available, never exhausted. And even in the midst of nations raging and kingdoms tottering, God still every morning looks at his people and says, I will help him. I will help her. Can you imagine the sight?
36:13 Here's everything crumbling all around, and yet God has this heart for his people in the midst of it. As he's sovereignly moving in all those things and those affairs, there's one thing that he does not forget about, and that's you and I and the very cares that we have on a daily basis. As he is bringing kingdoms down and raising kings up, he's concerned about how you wake up. He's concerned about how you go about your day. In the midst of all of that, what an amazing God we serve.
36:44 And now we see in this last stanza, we're not just told about the reality of God in the present. We're not just told about how we can know a present experience of who he is right now, morning by morning. If that wasn't comfort enough, now the Holy Spirit wants to take it beyond that and say, you know, you have present access to this river, but I want you to know that you can draw comfort from what God has done in the past and what God will do in the future. Just add more comfort on top of that comfort. And so what does he say in verse eight after Selah?
37:26 Says come. Come. I'm inviting you to look at something. Come join me. Just pause on what you're doing right now.
37:39 I know the world is falling apart as we see it. I know everything seems to be failing. Your government is failing. Your generation is failing. Your school system is failing.
37:50 I know, but come. I want you to look at something. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bone, shatters the spear.
38:08 He burns the chariots with fire. You know what he's saying? Look back in your bibles, more importantly, And I want you to see how God sovereignly decreed desolations to happen on the earth. How like what Daniel prayed and prophesied that he's the one who raises kings up, he's the one who brings them down. He's the one that brings up world empires, and at his will, they come down.
38:36 He's the one that elects politicians, and he's the one who fires politicians. He is the sovereign one who determines history and who stands for how long. And he knows the timeline for this nation, by the way. He knows the timeline for this nation. Go look at what God has allowed, because God is sovereign over all affairs.
39:02 But don't just look at what he allowed in terms of desolations. Look at what he's able to do. He makes war cease. You know what's amazing? We're looking to politicians to bring world peace.
39:13 You'll never gonna get it. Because there's only one who can make war cease, and that's him. By one word, every nation can mind their own business, every weapon can be dropped, And as it will be in the millennial reign, God will decree that weapons will be made into farming equipment because people won't be able to go to war anymore. He makes war cease to the ends of the earth. So this whole thing right here right now, God knows every detail about it.
39:47 We get breaking news, God doesn't get breaking news. He doesn't. He's well aware. He sees it coming. He's not surprised.
39:58 And not only is this a past work, this making worse to cease is a future work. This world peace is a future reality. Because all for a sudden now, right? We've been hearing from the sons of Korah. These guys who've experienced firsthand the earth quaking, mountains trembling, supernatural phenomena.
40:20 They've they've known it. They've known disaster, and yet they've known a strength that doesn't make sense. All for a sudden, they're cut off, and the speaker, the writer is no longer a man. It's God. God steps into the Psalm.
40:36 God takes over to end this Psalm, and he declares a very familiar phrase that is harder to practice than it is to sing, be still. Be still and know that I am God. Now Now we read that and we go, amen. No. Listen.
40:54 Consider the context. Let me do this now and pay attention. Though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and form, though the mountains tremble at its swelling, though you got the news from the doctor that you have a sickness that might kill you, though you lost your job at the worst moment possible, though your kids are wayward and it seems like they're only going deeper into darkness, though it seems like things in the ministry are not going well because Satan is attacking with everything within him, be still, and know that I am God. Why would God have to command that? Because all of those things provoke everything except stillness.
41:40 Panic, pacing, planning, turning, tossing, hair pulling, arguing, fist raising. God says, be still. Make a conscious effort to just pause. Because oftentimes, our access to the knowledge of God is limited because we refuse to be still and give him the necessary attention. Be still.
42:13 Just stop. Selah times 10, And contemplate on what was just said about the sovereign authority and the unshakable planning that God has for you and for this nation and for this world. And just sit there. Because when you are still and you give yourself to the knowledge of God, that knowledge of God will prolong that stillness. When you give him that initial stillness and you give yourself to the knowledge of God as you have invested in your heart and through this word, the result of that is a prolonged stillness in the soul through all these things that might repeat themselves as we are expecting in the months to come.
43:05 Be still and know that I am God. And I love this. This is a promise. This is a decree. This is something that's going to come to pass, and maybe even in our lifetime if God chooses.
43:18 Be still and know that I am God. I will, not I might, not maybe, I will be exalted among the nations. All these roads, all these events, all these experiences, your life and mine is leading to one thing, the sovereign rule of Jesus Christ. That's all it's leading to. I want you to see history like a funnel.
43:51 Okay? Maybe it started like this, but it's coming to this point and you can't escape it and you can't crawl out of it. The world as we know it, every generation as we know it, is funneling to one reality, every knee bowing to the lordship of Christ, and it's never gonna change. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
44:12 No matter how much the world is falling apart, I'm coming to clean it up. I'm coming to clean it up. And I love that he's gonna be exalted, and I love that he's gonna be exalted in all the earth because all the blasphemy and all the unbelief and all the disgrace and all the tarnishing of the name of Christ is gonna be recycled to this reality. Whether people wanna do it or not, their tongues are gonna feel the weight of the glory of God to declare he is Lord. That's what we have to look forward to.
44:49 And so no matter what rumors we hear of nations, what's happening in China, is there something else coming up, what's happening with this elect no matter what, I filter it through this. Be still and know that I am God. Here's some breaking news. Be still and know that I am God. More breaking news.
45:06 Be still personal breaking news. Be still and know that I am God. I will clean everything up, and I will guide you to know an experiential reality if you just understand who I am. That's why he goes on to say in verse 11, the Lord of hosts is with us. Though he will be exalted, he's with us now.
45:30 Though there is a future plan to conquer and to rule and to reign, he can know something about conquering and ruling and reigning in your heart right now, over your emotions, over your mind, over your anxiety, your fears. You can know it now. There is a physical throne that Jesus Christ will sit on one day, but there is a throne on each of our hearts that we have to give him the permission to sit on. And it's truth, it's faith that allows him to step onto that throne and sit and to govern our lives accordingly. And that's what you and I have the chance to do today.
46:04 This is the inheritance of those who are part of the city of God, symbolic of those who are the people of God, but this is not your inheritance if you have not pledged yourself to this king today. But I call you today to do that. I call you today. You need this. You know you need this.
46:23 And it's not just some chemical thing that happens where you know peace and assurance. No. It starts with the first step and that is giving your life to Christ, Understanding that he what? Saved your soul from sin and saved your soul from judgment, the judgment of God. And when you make that first step of surrender, you now walk on this path where no matter what's thrown at you, your inheritance is peace, not just for your eternal standing before God, but in the midst of circumstances.
46:56 Salvation goes beyond as glorious as it is as a future experience, as a present daily work that happens. It's yours. I'm saying it because perhaps there's even one in here that has not made this surrender to the Lord. And if you haven't, is the world not giving you a strong enough alarm to consider it? You'll be amazed to know what God uses to get people's attention or what God uses to get people convicted.
47:22 You know what it took for Peter? A rooster. God used a rooster to convict a backslidden man, and God will use a global global pandemic to do the same for you and me. He'll use a corrupt government. He'll use this and that.
47:36 All these different things, these craziness that's going on, like a rooster to sound the alarm to the soul. And I wonder if you've made that choice today. If you've given yourself to him. If you have, know that this is a truth that we have to grow in. But if you haven't, he's inviting you to experience what we just described today.
