The Psalm 46 to 9. Psalm 46. This is a song that is going to be at least somewhat familiar. You're going to recognize some of the themes, some of the particularly the opening verse of this song, and so I'm thankful that we can go through it together and hope it would be a blessing. Psalm 46. Starting in verse one, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not fear though the earth be removed and of the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. Though the waters therefore roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, say law, there is a river. The streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made on the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear and sunder. He burneth the chariot and the fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. And so as we come to Psalm 46 and we, um, kind of try to get just an overview, uh, of how we break this Psalm up and, and, uh, get an idea of where the structure of this Psalm, um, uh, how it, how it, is put together for us. This one's fairly easy, and the reason it's fairly easy is because we have three markers to break it up into three sections, and that's the three times that the psalmist says selah. So if you remember, whenever we're reading the Psalms and we come across, after a stanza, we come across the word selah, that's there for a reason. Anybody remember what that means whenever we come across that word? Yeah, meditate, pause, pause and ponder. It's just kind of what the two P's there, pause and ponder. So the psalmist is working his way down. He is, this is poetry, so he is making a point, he's painting a picture, and then he comes to a place to where he lets us know as the reader, it would be very helpful for you to just stop right here to pause and to ponder on what I've just said. So, we have three of those, end of verse three, the end of verse six, and then the end of verse 11. And so we're gonna break this psalm up into three different chunks. And so what we have is the refuge, that's verses one through three. We have the river, verses four through seven. 7, and then we have the ruler, verses 8 through 11. So if you just want to write that down, if you're taking notes to kind of help you think through Psalm 46, you have a refuge, a river, and a ruler. And then we'll put the meat on the skeleton here in a second. So he starts out, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Maybe you know this, but if you don't, it'll, it'll, I think it'll be a blessing. It'll help you as you think through it. This is the song that inspired Martin Luther to write the hymn, a mighty fortress is our God. So if you look at that hymn that Martin Luther wrote, It's kind of his little mini commentary on Psalm 46, and it's pretty helpful if you just look through the words of that hymn as you reflect on Psalm 46. So he begins the song this way. Our God is a refuge or God is our refuge and strength. So it's important for us to stop as we come across this type of imagery. in a Psalm, which is a poetry or a hymn, or maybe a mixture of both here and ask ourselves, what does this mean? What does it mean that God is a refuge? What does it mean that our God is a refuge? What is a refuge? Well, a refuge is a safe place. It's a shelter. It's a place of safety where you can run. You may remember back in Psalm 11, David started the Psalm out very similar to this, where he just said, that the Lord was a refuge or the Lord was his refuge. And then in the second verse of Psalm 11, he says, so why will you say to me, flee like a bird to your mountain now? In Psalm 11, when David is thinking about God being a refuge, he's kind of contrasting the refuge that God is with the refuge that the mountains might be. So back in David's day, the mountains were a strategic place to go for shelter if you were in war, they would provide safety, they would provide covering, they would provide elevation, they would provide some strategic advantages for wartime back in David's day. And so when his counselors in Psalm 11 say, flee as a bird to a mountain, the kind of refuge they're thinking about is a refuge of physical safety for David. He could go to the mountains and he could find a safe place for himself physically. And while God, many times, many times that we won't even know about until, uh, maybe after we're, we're dead. And, and, and if the Lord unfolds these kinds of things to us in heaven, It's obvious that many times the Lord providentially does protect us physically, that he is that sort of a refuge in a providential way. His invisible hand does guide us. It does protect us. And there's certainly an element of that here. But as we think about what it means to run to God as our refuge, as we think about what it means for us to actively seek God as a present help and time of trouble, Uh, then I think it's helpful for us to realize that the kind of refuge that God provides for his people outside of his Providence is that he is a refuge for our hearts and our minds. Okay. Think about verse two. Our God is a refuge, very present help in time of need. So what? So we will not fear, right? Therefore, will we not fear? That's not verse two. That's the end of, uh, Well, hang on, I'm, I'm lost here. Yeah, it is verse two. Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. So the waters thereof roar and be troubled though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Essentially what the psalmist, the sons of Cora here, it's essentially what they're saying is Though the world fall apart and fall into complete and utter chaos, the mountains carried into the midst of the sea, the waters chaotically crashing, shaking the mountains. Though all these things happen, we will not fear. Okay, so fear is really what the psalmist is thinking about here. So think about this in light of passages like Isaiah 26 three. You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon the why? Because he trusts in the because he's trusting in you. Well, God is a refuge for that man. That woman's heart. God is a refuge for that man. That woman's mind. Or think about it this way. And Philippians chapter four. Philippians chapter four. Verse six. Paul says, be careful for nothing. You know this, but the word careful there is the, our word for anxious or worry. So be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication. With thanksgiving, let your request be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Now the word keep there is a word that means to guard, to protect or to keep safe. Okay. So what's David's or I'm sorry, what's, what's Paul saying? Paul saying, be anxious for nothing, but instead rather, this is what you do by prayer. Okay. That's just, there's a fourfold prayer here. This is just a general, general prayer. By prayer and supplication that is coming to God with the needs that we have with the burdens that are on our hearts. With thanksgiving. That is just giving thanks to the Lord, not just for what God has done in general, but what God has specifically done in our lives and how God maybe in the past has blessed us, delivered us in similar type circumstances. And then making our request known unto God that is asking God specifically for what it is that we need in the circumstance. And so as we interact with God, as we take our anxieties to the Lord, he says, as you do it this way, the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your heart and minds through Christ Jesus. You kind of get a little more of a of a literal look at a figure of speech that we find in the Psalms. What does it mean to run to God as your refuge? Well, one way that you can do that is by casting your cares on him because you know that he cares for you. OK, that's one way. When Isaiah talks about. The Lord keeping this individual in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon him. The word keep there in the Hebrew is also the word that means to guard to keep safe. And what is it that's keeping this individual's mind and heart. Safe. Guarded. Well, it's the fact that his mind is stayed on the Lord. It's the fact that he is trusting in. In the Lord so. We think about Psalm 46. God is our refuge. And strength, a very present help and trouble. we should immediately think about, try to discern as far as our own interaction with the Lord. What does that mean? How do I run to that refuge? And then we should make a plan really to be able to do that. Think about how powerful fear can be in the life of an individual. Think about how powerful fear can be in the life of a nation or a world. Look at 2020, and one of the headings that ought to go over 2020 in the history books is, it was the year of fear, right? It was the year of fear. It was the year of fear of sickness. It was the year of fear of election fraud. It was the year of fear of chaos. It was the year of fear of all kinds of stuff. And then think about how that has. Has affected. Individuals. Think about how it's affected you. Right, we're not insulated from that. We may not be falling apart in front of everybody, but we're not insulated from fear. So what's the refuge? How do we find this refuge in the Lord? And I would say this that we run to God and we find our refuge in him. As our hearts and our minds are guarded. By the character and promises of God. As they're rooted and grounded in the truth of who God is and what God is promised. So really, the question is, what truths do you speak to yourself when you're tempted to fear? What truths do you speak to yourself when you're tempted to fear? Maybe the better question would be, what do you speak to yourself, period, when you're tempted to fear? Is truth even in the equation? Because scripture really does set us up here in all kinds of ways, and some of these are going to be pretty familiar, and that's good. They should be familiar. But some of the truths that we ought to be reminding ourselves during times of trouble Our crews like this and I'm going to kind of rapid fire, but you can write these down and if you don't get them all, you can get them after the service. Romans 8 one, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Right, there is no condemnation for those who walk after the spirit and not after the flesh. That's a helpful truth for us to remind ourselves of whenever we are fearful that maybe we are experiencing a difficult situation because God's mad at us because of something or because God is punishing us for something. Brothers and sisters, it is a vital truth for us to understand From the day that we are born again until the day that we die, that all of the punishment for all of the sin that we will ever commit was poured out on Jesus Christ on the cross. And while we may be disciplined and while that may be painful, it's going to bring forth those fruits of righteousness. We never have to wonder what our relationship status is with God. There's no condemnation for those. who are in Christ Jesus, Romans 839. There's no separation. You cannot be separated from the love of Christ. There's nothing that could ever separate you from that. What if the country were to fall apart? What if the mountains were to topple over? What if the waters were to chaotically throw the world into turmoil? What if we could continue to fill in the blanks with all the what ifs, whether we think about that poetically or we think about it in reality? What if? Well, there's two things we know for sure. If you're filling the blank happens, there's still no condemnation and there's still no separation. That's enough to sustain us. Just those two. What about this Romans 831? If God before us who can be against us? If God before us who can be against us? God is for you if you're his. Now that's a refuge, isn't it? That's a refuge. When we when we go through difficult times and we wonder how am I ever going to make it? And the answer is I'm going to make it because Christ is for me. He loves me and there's no condemnation left. In me or waiting on me. When it comes to the father's wrath. Hebrews 13 five, I will never leave you and I will never forsake you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. What if Kamala Harris is president? Does that still apply? Does it? Yeah. Yeah. Turns out that it does, but we don't think about it like that, do we? Psalm 23, six, surely, right? That's the first word in the text. Surely, you know what that means? It means if I don't know anything else, I know this goodness and mercy will violently hunt me down all the days of my life. Okay, he's a refuge. He's a strength in times of trouble. What about lamentation three, 22 through 23? His mercies and his compassions never fail. They are new every day. Mercies and compassions never fail. They're new every day. Well, when you're trying to figure out and interpret what's going on in your life, These will give you the strength and these will provide you the mental stability and the strength that you need in your heart to have the courage to continue to move forward knowing that the Lord is with you. He's a refuge. He's a strength. He's a what? He's a present help in time of need. Present help. in time of need. That means right now today. At 645 or whatever, 715 right now. And so he's a refuge. Secondly, in Psalm 46. Verse four. There is a river. The streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her and that right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Now, I should have said this earlier at the end of verse three, I think one of the reasons why the psalmist puts those say laws strategically where he puts those is because there is no power in just glossing over these kinds of truths. You've got to let your heart and mind marinate in these. So you might hear me say, you know, Romans eight one, Romans eight 39. Romans 8.31, Hebrews 13.5, Psalm 26.3, and Lamentations 3.22-23, and that's fine, and that may give you some comfort in the moment. But in order for you to be able to retrieve those when you need those, you're gonna have to pause and ponder, okay? In order for those to be meaningful whenever you are in your own chaos, you're gonna have to pause and ponder. Scripture is not a Tylenol. You can't just pop it and hope it works real quick. It just does not work that way. The condition of our heart. Has to be changed, has to be softened, has to be strengthened, and that's a process that happens not like that. Maybe sometimes God might bless you with that, but more than likely not like that. But it's as our minds are what fixed fixed on him. That's where the peace comes from. So pause and ponder because just glossing over this is not going to work. All right. The river in, in, um, in David's day and really in biblical times, um, all the way through the, uh, water, the picture of a river, the, the, the figurative, um, um, imagery there, uh, is imagery of provision and protection. Provision and protection. One of the things that a city had to have in order to function was some sort of a source of water. And if the water source dried up, then the city dried up. If an opposing army could surround a city and cut off water, it wouldn't be long and there wouldn't be much of a fight by the time they got in if they could cut that source out. And so provision, and protection. Think about think about this. Think about Psalm 46 four and then turn over to Revelation 22 one. Revelation 22 one. Picking up somebody's TV. Revelation 22 1 it says and he showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb and the midst of the street of it and on either side of the river was there the tree of life which bear 12 manners of fruits and he goes on there to give a description. But there's this river that is flowing this river of life that is flowing proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Now without Getting in and try to try to get too specific. It's I think it's obvious by looking at the text that this river of water of life that's proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb. Is that it's very least the picture of continual blessings, continual blessings, continual provisions coming from the throne room of God, the throne of God and the Lamb. And so back in Psalm 46, as we think about these provisions, these protections, what this sustenance of this water is, he says, there's a river. It makes glad the city of God. That's verse four, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. God is in the midst of her and she shall not be moved. God shall help her and that right early. God is in the midst. He will help. He goes on in verse 7 and says the Lord of Hosts is with us. He's with us. So if the first part of this Psalm is picturing God as a refuge, a place of safety, a place of protection. The imagery here in the second half or the second part of this river of God's provision of God's protection. It's just another way of us saying that God has given us himself. He is with you. How has he done that? How has he done that? Well, look at verse 7 where it says the Lord of hosts is with us with us. The Hebrew word that's translated with us. Is the word a man you a man you anybody want to guess what word comes from that? Yeah, Emmanuel. God is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. And so while the writers of Psalm 46. Knew that they believed that. They had far less reason to claim that than we do on this side of the cross. Because we know that Christ. Humbled himself and he came and he took upon himself the form of a servant. and he went to the cross and he took our sins there and made propitiation for us. And when we think about what it means that God is with us, we think about that in a few ways. Number one, God is with us because Jesus Christ is our mediator. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He loves us. He's redeemed us and he's interceding for us. Number two. God is with us. Because every born again believer. Has the Holy Spirit of God living in them? One commentator said it this way. We have a marvelous river within the Holy Spirit has come down from the throne of God to fill our hearts and provide us with a deep unfailing reservoir of spiritual supply. No enemy can stop him from flowing into us and through us. Think about the beauty of that last sentence. If the Holy Spirit of God is living in your heart, There's not an enemy on the planet. That can stop the supply of spiritual blessings. From God to you. Sounds a whole lot like Psalm 23 verse 5. You set a table for me what in the presence of my enemies? Right, not even my enemies can prevent you or can prevent me from receiving your blessing. And so God is our refuge. God is the river here who provides who protects. And then we get. To the last part before we do. We want to stop for a second, say law, right? Pause and ponder. It's important that we realize when we're dealing with the Psalms that. There. General enough. To apply to everybody. And they're begging you to pour your specific details into him. OK. So we need to be asking ourselves how has God been a refuge and strength for me, my heart, my mind. Or more to the point in the second part. How is it that in? Even in the face of my enemies, In the face of spiritual enemies in the space, in the face of discouragements and all these kinds of things. How have I experienced the ongoing supply of spiritual blessings? Through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. We can all fill in the blanks on that, but we've got to pause and ponder and think about it. OK, last verse 8. Come. Behold the works of the Lord. What desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease into the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear and sunder. He burneth the chariots in the fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. So we said we have the refuge, the river, and then we have the ruler. He says, behold, come and behold the works of the Lord, the desolations that he's made. So the first really command here is just to look. Behold, consider what the Lord has done. We can think back in the narratives that we have in scripture and we can see the desolations that the Lord has made in the earth. We can see the wars that the Lord has overturned that he's caused to cease. We can see the victories that he's won for his people. We think about the exodus and how God delivered his people miraculously from Egypt. You know how he did it? with flies and frogs. Lice. He killed the firstborn at the end, but. A lot of times we look at our own resources and we think. What in the world can we do? How can we be victorious here? How can we remain faithful here? Or what is it, how in the world can we go through where we are and make it to the other end? And the truth is, God uses whatever God wants to use. If I were gonna go to war with someone, as a matter of fact, if I had a family feud with someone, the last thing I would think to use to help advance my agenda would be a bag of frogs, right? And yet God had the most powerful nation on the planet in turmoil because they couldn't get rid of frogs for a little while. Come behold the works of the Lord. Now again, we could think about this, whether we're thinking from back in the Old Testament, whether we're thinking in history, or even if we're thinking in our own day, Think about consider what the Lord has. Done. Verse 10. Really, verse 10 is an exhortation not just to behold, but to believe. Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know. That I am God. You know, there are all kinds of. Thoughts all kinds of. I don't know the exact word to use. I don't know if people's the right word, but we have all these different idols that are just fighting for the God position in our hearts on a regular basis. And the Lord tells us in Psalm 46 to be still. To know. that he is God, he is the one who is in control, he is the one who is your refuge, he is the one who provides your sustenance. And then he reminds us of this, I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth. You know, one of the real blessings for a Christian is that we know how it ends. We know how all this ends. We're not exactly sure what things are going to be like in the middle, and we're not exactly sure what the journey's going to look like in every detail, but we know how it ends. It always ends well for the believer. Why? Because God will be exalted in the earth. We learn this from Psalm 2 already. Turn back to Psalm 2 just for a reminder. In Psalm 2, verse 2, The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. And he that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Verse 6, Yet have I set my king on my holy hill in Zion. And so the Lord will be exalted. We don't have to wonder about that. He's not banking on us to bring that to pass. He's not even banking on us to help that come to pass. The Lord will be exalted. What does that do for us? How do we respond to that? How are we supposed to respond to that? And brothers and sisters, I would say that that's there for the purpose that we would we would trust, or at least that it would strengthen our trust. Again, in this reality that we know how it ends. He's our refuge. He's our river from the aspect of providing and protecting. He's our ruler from the aspect that he is God that he has proven himself in his works. He has declared what he will do. And then. He's promised that he would be with us. He's promised that he would be with us. Verse 11, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Say law. The God of Jacob. One of the most undeserving characters in the Old Testament, right? When you think about Jacob, you don't think of the sterling character of someone, do you? In other places, whenever Jacob would be referred to, he would be referred to as that worm, Jacob, right? Jacob is the deceiver. He's the one who God took and made a prince of, right? The God of Jacob is with us. He's a covenant God and his covenant is not based upon the character of the of the individual or the group of individuals that he makes that covenant with, but his covenant is based upon his own faithfulness, his own love for his people, and he is with us. The Lord of Hosts. Is with us. Remember the story in the Old Testament when. Sennacherib came and. Told the Lord's people that he was. Going to take over. He told him they needed to go ahead and surrender that there was not another God in any other place that had been able to withstand his army. And the people feared. And the people prayed. And that night, as they slept, the Lord sent one angel, one angel into the camp and devastated the Assyrian army. Devastated. So that when they got up the next morning, they went home. The Lord of hosts, it's not just the Lord of one angel. The Lord of hosts is with us. whose resources are infinite. Whose power, whose strength is unrivaled. And whose love is placed upon his people. And so God is our refuge, very present help and time of need. He is our river as it were. He is continuing to provide and to protect. And he is our ruler. He will be exalted and he is with us. And so. Pause and ponder. Pause and ponder. Pause and ponder. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that You have made Yourself a refuge to Your people, that we have the privilege to be able to come to You, claiming Your promises and knowing that all of the kindnesses that You have revealed about Yourself are open for us. Lord, we can trust You because You're faithful, and You've always been faithful. We can trust you father, because you are one who provides for your people. You protect your people and Lord, you are unfolding your plan in the earth to exalt yourself. And so we thank you that in your mercy, you've set your love upon us. And I pray that that love would be enough for us to trust you and for us to flee to you as our refuge. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.