And we will end as we began with Psalm 46, so go ahead and turn there with me. Psalm 46. Get your place there. Let's ask the Lord's help. Father, indeed, You are King and Lord. You are the One who holds fast that child that belongs to You. You are abundant in mercy, and yet, Father, also sovereign King and Judge. And we could not withstand Your judgment, we could not face Your justice, were it not for the mercy that is displayed, not only in Christ Himself, but in Christ's crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection. For there is our hope, there is our refuge, there is our all. And so now give us, Lord, alert minds for these next few minutes. Help us hear undistractedly and gain from the truth of your word in Jesus. Amen. So what does it take to keep your balance when the world around you is simply falling apart? I hope you have a ready answer to that. It's the one we've been looking at all weekend. As our speakers have all told us in one way or another, it is in knowing that you have a God you can trust and learning how faithful He is. Psalm 25 verse 10 says, All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. We trust in Him. Trust can be defined as the confidence we have in God that He is in charge and that He knows what He's doing. That He controls all things and will always do what is right and always has the best intentions and plans and interest in mind for those who trust Him through Christ. So that resting in Him, we really do believe. that He works all things together for good to those who love Him, to those who are called according to His purpose. The writer of Psalm 46, though he has not heard these words that Paul will write centuries later, he has this same kind of confidence in God, and that's what he's giving us a picture of here in Psalm 46. He gives us a picture of the God we can trust. So let's hear this one more time together. Psalm 46, hear the word of the Lord. God is our refuge and strength. a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give 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. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage. The kingdoms totter. He utters His voice. The earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how He has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress." Church, we have a God we can trust. Aren't you glad of that? We have a God specifically here, He's telling us, who can be trusted through times of trouble. Martin Luther turned to this psalm during the most troubling time of his life. If you know the story, he had just faced off against the combined forces of the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy Roman Empire. He had been officially declared a heretic, ordered to stop preaching, condemned to be captured and burned at the stake. Only the grace of God and the quick action of friends saved his life and he was whisked away to Wartburg Castle for a time. And there in that castle seclusion, while translating the Bible into German, which would revolutionize everything, he was reading Psalm 46 and he wrote that great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, a bulwark never failing. For those who are at war, God is a mighty fortress of refuge and strength. A faithful, faithful friend. You been at war lately? You seen any battles? Do you need a place of refuge? Maybe some extra strength? Let me point out, three great sources of confidence in God's faithfulness, all found here in this first verse. That's where we'll start anyway. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. First of all, God is our refuge. We've looked at that in each of the messages this weekend. This idea of a refuge finds part of its roots in the cities of refuge in the Old Testament. There were, you may remember, six of these cities that God set aside for the protection of those who were fleeing from their enemies, according to Joshua 20 and other places. And it would work out like this. Let's say that Kyle and I were out in the woods. Where's Kyle? There you are. Kyle and I are out in the woods. We're chopping wood together. There's nobody else around. And while we're chopping the wood together, the axe handle flies off my axe, beans him in the head, and Kyle is dead. I'm so sorry, brother. Now, the two of us there, nobody saw it happen. Was it murder or was it an accident? Well, Kyle's family is not gonna wait around for the answer to that question. Owen is coming after me. And Owen, you got any big, strong cousins? Well, let's just pretend you do. Lots of them, right? And Owen and his brothers and his cousins, they're gonna get a posse together. They are coming after me, and they're going to apply a little backwoods justice. It was called blood vengeance. And my only hope at that point is to run to the city of refuge. And when I get to the city of refuge and present myself to the priests who run that city, I am given a place of safety until a trial can be held and they can determine whether or not it was murder, in which case I'll still pay, or whether or not I'm innocent and I then have a safety place there within that city. But the point of it is there was a place of refuge. When we say that God is our refuge, though, we're not just talking about a place we can run for safety, we're talking about a person who is our safety. Wherever God is, there is our safe place. He is our refuge and protection, and all we must do is run to Him. And isn't that good to know? But how do you run to Him? There's no location you can go to. Well, for the Christian, that is the place of prayer. Listen, for instance, to Psalm 142, verses 1 to 5. Psalm 142, verse 1. With my voice, I cry out to the Lord. With my voice, I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before Him. I tell my trouble before Him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way. In the path where I walk, they, His enemies, have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see. There is none who takes notice of me. No refuge remains for me. No one cares for my soul. The whole world is against me. There's not a single place I can go, not a single person I can turn to. I'm in trouble here. What can I do? The next verse says, I cry to You, O Lord. I say, You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living. No one else may be listening. No one else may seem to care, but God does. Hey, those of you who are believers, those of you who walk with Christ, haven't you found that to be true these past few months? Whatever it is you've been going through, and lots of you have been going through all kinds of different things, haven't you found that indeed Christ is a refuge for those who trust in Him? Have you prayed? when you're in that place? And if not, why not? And here I mean earnestly praying, not just a little toss up into the air and, oh well, it didn't come through, God didn't help, but I mean turning to Him in faith and crying out with that hopeful confidence of the Christian that indeed you will be heard. 1 John 5, 14 assures us this is the confidence that we have toward Him if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. It is in crying out to God in our trouble that we find Him to be a place of refuge. And I'm convinced He often lets us be in that place of trouble so we will cry out to Him and find Him a place of refuge. So the first point here is simply this, cry out to Him. That's how you get the help you need. And it's then that you find, this is the second thing, that God is our strength. We sing that little children's song. Jesus loves me, this I know. You don't want me to do this by myself? For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong. They are weak, but what? He is strong. He is strong. And so if a refuge is a place of protection from the enemy, strength is the ability to face this war with confidence. In other words, while a refuge is a place to hide, and sometimes you need a place to hide, strength is power to fight and prevail. This Hebrew phrase can mean that God is the one who emboldens me with strength. And so when I say that God is my strength, I am confessing to Him, Lord, You are the one who emboldens my soul to stand. You are the one who puts strength in my legs and courage in my heart when otherwise I would not have them. You give me that firmness I need in order to face the world's daily assaults." The world talks about coping. when bad things happen, and will send us off to find a human counselor who can listen to our troubles and perhaps offer some advice. And that's okay. Sometimes you need that. Sometimes you need to find someone who can listen to you and advise you, and we're even commanded to do that for one another, so that's part of it. But no matter how good the counselor is, no matter how godly the counselor is, it's still not enough because the most The most apt Christian counselor is still powerless to do the thing you really need to do, and that is to give you the strength to actually follow through with the advice, to actually do the thing that you need to do. They can tell you what you should do, but they cannot give you strength to do it. But God is our strength in times of weakness. When we turn to Him, we find that His power meets our needs. He has strength to spare and the willingness to give it to the one who trusts in Him. Even the Apostle Paul found this. You remember in 2 Corinthians 12 where Paul speaks of his own weakness and he says, as he's praying, asking God to remove this thorn in the flesh, asking God to help him through this thing that is too much for him, he says the answer he received was this, my grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in what? Therefore, Paul says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me for the sake of Christ. Then I'm content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I'm weak, then what? Then I am strong. I'm strong. Why? Because of Him. At my weakest, I can trust Him to be faithful to give what I need." So whether we like to admit it or not, and we usually don't, we are weak. We need God's strength for these battles. I mean, you've found this to be true. You've lived long enough to face this in yourself. When you fight, whatever the battles are, when you fight with earthly weapons of flesh and mere human ability, you begin to wear out. You begin to get weaker and weaker because there is a limit to your own supply of strength. You begin to get spent and beat up because the enemy that you're facing is a spiritual enemy with spiritual power that far exceeds your own. But When you arm yourself with the full armor of God, Ephesians chapter 6, and go out like David in the strength of God, you can slay giants. Not because you're the giant slayer. Right? Let's not mess that passage up. The whole scene with David and Goliath, that's not about you. It's about Jesus. It's telling you who He is, but it's telling you that so that you are leaning upon Him for strength because He is indeed the one who slays Goliath. So it's not because you're the giant slayer, but because Christ is the great giant slayer. Psalm 108 verse 13 says, "...through our God we will do valiantly. It is He who shall tread down our enemies." Or to put it another way, I am weak and powerless on my own, but I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Again, not because of me, don't mess that one up either, but because of Him. And by the way, the things he's strengthening you for aren't some great prowess on your part, but he's strengthening you for suffering, for pain, for going through huge disappointments and things that are too much for you, but you can do all things through Christ, whether it's hunger or thirst or whatever it is that Paul mentions there. Why? Because when I'm strength, he's what? I'm sorry, I said it backwards, didn't I? When I'm weak, he is what? Strong, I gave it away. So it's not a self-strength, it's not my power, it's His power that so powerfully works within me, Colossians 1.26. And it's not just me alone, by the way, it's us together. He not only gives me the strength that I need through my relationship with Him, but bringing me in a relationship to Him brings me in a relationship with you, and He gives me brothers and sisters to stand with me. Philippians 1.27, only let your, all of you together, y'all's manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see all of you or I'm absent, I may hear of all of you that you are all standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel. And that's how, third, God is our very present help. in trouble." Don't you love the way He says that there in verse 1? Our very present help, literally what He says is, in the midst of trouble, He is found to be an abundant help. The idea is this, wherever trouble finds the child of God, it finds God thereto working in the child for strength. And when God is at work in us, He is more than enough for every situation. You will never lack what you need to stand wherever He places you. You may not always see Him, there with your eyes or your ears. You may not always sense His presence like you wish you could, but He's there working for your good. I think it was Ryan that quoted Romans 8, 35. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. So it is that confidence in God's faithful working that the psalmist is talking about here as he goes on to verse 2 and 3. Therefore, because He's ever-present, 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. So even if everything is falling apart and being shaken to the core, we will not fear. Because God stands firm and those who stand in Him are secure, we will not fear." Just say that with me. We will not fear. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Now it's the thought of those swirling waters, I think Warren mentioned this, the thought of those swirling troubled waters in verse 1, in verse 3, gives way to this picture of an abundant peace in verses 4 and 5. So just picture in your mind, rivers raging, mountains falling, everything crashing, verse 4, but there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. The holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. Second major point here is simply this. God can be trusted to be our help now and forever. He mentions a city and he says there is a river in this city, verse 4. Now the city of God that he mentions, of course, that has to be Jerusalem, but as mentioned in one of the messages, earthly Jerusalem has no river running through it. So what on earth is he talking about here? Well, prophetically, both Ezekiel 47 and Revelation 22 tell us that there is a river that runs through the New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem. There is this refreshing river of life that flows down from the throne of God to give life to everything it touches. And that is a picture for us of the life-giving presence of God Himself as He gives stability and security to all who come and drink freely of the waters of life. It's a picture of the people of God who find eternal satisfaction and security in Him. But read on, verse 5. God is in the midst of her. That's the point. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. God is there, as Warren reminded us, and so He's there, and because He's there, unlike the rattled world where He's not there, we're not going to be shaken. We're not going to be pulled apart. He will help us, it says, when morning dawns. You know what that's reference to? The Bible's so full of these little just offhanded references. Jeff was reminding us, if you know the big story, then you begin to see them. That morning dawns help is a reference to Exodus 14, 27, when God saves Israel at dawn at the Red Sea. You remember the scene, right? They're there at the edge of the Red Sea, and they are helpless before the armies of Pharaoh that are bearing down upon them. And yet, at the break of day, and there's a big emphasis on that fact, at the break of day, just as morning began to dawn, God stepped in. and rescued them, Exodus 14, 27. So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea which had parted previously returned to its normal course when morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea. And then Ephesians tells us we, who were without hope and without God in the world, now have in Christ a God who has come to our rescue. Verse 6, the nations rage, the kingdoms totter, he utters his voice, the earth melts. picture of the world outside of the protective presence of God. There you have nations and temporary rulers who rise up and thrash about and are constantly in turmoil and disarray. We've seen that in living color this year with riots and confusion and all kinds of warring and fighting. But here is the good news. In the midst of all of this, our God stands faithful. He will end the confusion of this world just as He began the world with a word. And all the proud rulers of this age will rule no more, and all these petty kingdoms and philosophies will fall to dust. Hitler, you remember him? Hitler claimed the Third Reich would rule for a thousand years. Where is that proud Nazi empire now? How long did it last? A decade? Rome said it was eternal. Khrushchev, some of you don't even know who that is, Khrushchev claimed that the Soviet Union would bury the West and then roll on to consume the whole world. And the very fact that some of you don't even know who Khrushchev was or the Soviet Union tells you how that turned out. Every one of these arrogant men who raised a fist to God and claimed power to rule the world failed. And more will come, more will come, but guess what? They will fail as well. The dust and ashes of fallen empires lies thick across this world. But what does verse 7 say? The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob. is our fortress. The Lord of hosts, that means the God of armies, the God who holds all powers and all beings over His hands, the God that rules all, He's with us, the God of Jacob, That's the God who graciously chose a sinner called Jacob, protected him even from himself, used him despite his many sins and failures, and now that same God of grace that showed His mercy to Jacob is with us, showing us His mercy to us, choosing sinners like us to work through us and to be in our lives. This one is our fortress. He is our place of safety, and nothing can snatch us out of His hand. Listen, it does not matter what the world does or how the election goes, our hope is in the Lord. As Paul says in Romans 8, verse 31, if God is for us, who can be against us? Or I always like to add, why does it even matter who's against us? For our God reigns and He can be trusted to handle every bit of our future. Bringing us then to this third thing to see here. That is that God can be trusted because He is the all-faithful God of His people. Several years ago, a man named J.B. Phillips wrote a little book called, Your God is Too Small. Maybe you've not ever read the book, but you've got the title and that's pretty much, that's the best part of it. And his point in that book was, the reason we so often don't trust God is because in our minds, He's just not up to the challenge. He's too far away stuck up there in heaven, or He's too busy running the universe, or maybe He's just too small. That is not the God of the Bible, by the way. Nevertheless, the problem with our perspective is that the problem or the trouble that we are face-to-face with there in the moment, that problem that is right in front of you, so often looks bigger to you than the God who is up in heaven. It's like taking your thumb and holding it up to your eye. Kids do that. All the kids in here, just give me your attention. Hold up your thumb. Show me that you've got a thumb. Now, take that thumb, close one eye, and hold that thumb right up against your eye. Now, isn't it cool that all of a sudden you can't see me at all? You can blot me out with your thumb. Now, I promise you, I'm a lot bigger than your thumb. If you doubt that, when we're finished, you come up here, hold up your thumb, and we'll do a comparison. But you can blot me out by your thumb when your thumb is so close. Now you can quit doing it right now. I don't have to look at him. You can do the same thing with the moon, or a car, or a minivan, or don't do this one, even the sun. You can blot out things that are magnificently huge by pulling your thumb very close to your eye. But it's all an illusion. Earthly problems can seem so much bigger than God when they're all we're looking at. They look huge. He looks small. And that's why you and I have to step back and get a clear perspective on them, and the Bible helps us do that. This psalm writer knows how we tend to shrink God down in our minds, and so he shouts to us in verse 8-11, come, come here, let's get a better look at things. Come, behold the works of the Lord. how He has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars. What's bigger and more scary than a war? He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the power of the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I'm God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted upon the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. These verses are like we're on an airplane flying low over the earth two minutes after God has unleashed his final judgment upon the earth. And as we're flying over this world that was such chaos moments before, what do we see? We see all the mighty works of mankind, all His armies, all His power, all that He put His hope in, devastated, burned, and lying in the dust. God's judgment has brought an end to every war, every petty squabble, every selfish act, all bloodshed and riots have ended. All of our weapons and technology, the source of our great pride, lies broken and useless on the scorched ground. And God alone stands there unquestioned in power and victory. What a day that will be! That's the picture as we hear these words in verse 10. Be still and know that I am God. Be still, you! You know, we tend to quote these words. When we quote them, we tend to quote them in a soft, soothing voice like we're trying to put a baby to sleep. Be still and know that I am God. That is not what's being said here. God is not hushing a baby to sleep here. God is rebuking the fitful, arrogant world of rebellion. He's shouting at them, Hush now! Be still! And know that I am God. I've unleashed my wrath. My wrath is cunning against all unrighteousness and ungodliness. It is flowing down, but I'm a refuge. to those who trust Me. So quit your striving. Both you who are trying to work your way into My good grace, it's not going to work. Just trust Me. And you who think you can oppose Me, are you kidding? Shut your mouth and sit down. I'm here. That's what's being said here. That's what's happening. To a turbulent, noisy world of rebellion, God thunders, shut up and know who I am. Right? Be still. Stop your whining. Stop your thrashing about and realize, I am the God who reigns. I am your refuge and only hope. You better get a look at me. You remember that scene in Mark 4, when Jesus is with His disciples in the boat. A storm comes up. They're terrified. Hey listen, if you're in the boat with a bunch of fishermen who've lived their whole lives on the sea and they're afraid, you should be afraid too. They're terrified. And yet, where is Jesus? Where's Jesus in the middle of that? He's asleep in the bow of the boat or the stern. I don't know which one. I don't know boats. But it looks to them like a hopeless situation. The storm is so big. They are so small. What do they do? They wake Jesus up screaming, Lord, don't you even care that we're going to die? What does Jesus do? He looks at the wind and the waves and he shouts, peace be still. Hush now and know who I am. And immediately the water and the storm abate. The water goes glass clear. And then it's, I love this in Mark. Then it says, and then the disciples were really afraid. And they ask the question, who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Or throughout the ministry of Jesus, whenever demons would show up and throw people into convulsions and confusions, do you remember what Jesus would do? He would say to those demons, hush! You know who I am. Now get out. And the people would say, who is this? that even the demons obey Him. Who is this? Hey, that's the right question. If you know who He is, there is no reason for you to be afraid of anything but not knowing Him. Not the wind, not the waves, not an army of demons or any created thing. There's no reason to fret or fear or be full of anxiety about anything except being on the wrong side of Him. Because if you know Him, you have a refuge. You have a God who is strong. You have a God who is near. You have a God who is love. You have a God who is faithful. You have a God. And He's your God. He is your refuge, even from the storm that hangs over your sin and will fall on the day of judgment. But if you know Him, He is the refuge, because Christ took that very judgment upon Himself, bore it in His own body upon the tree, that it might not fall upon you. He is the refuge from wrath. He is the refuge from sin. He is the refuge from all that stands against you, because if you have Him, you have all that you need. So here's what I want you to do today as we prepare to leave and you get back in your cars and you go back to whatever's awaiting you at home and maybe troubles and frustrations and news feeds that you probably ought to silence and all that stuff. Here's what I want you to do before we get back into all of that. I want you to stop and look up and to see Jesus as Lord reigning right now. I want you to see Him standing firm above all the chaos of this hectic world with all of its trauma and commotion. And I want you to hear Him saying what He says here, Hush now, get still, and know who I am. Understand that I can be trusted whatever is being unleashed. That I hold all power in My hand. That I am your shelter from the storm. I am your shelter from the wrath to come. I will do what is right for My people as they trust in Me. I am faithful and filled with unchanging love. Psalm 36 verse 5, Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds. So dear one, if you are one of His people by grace through faith in Christ, this is your confidence. And if you're not one of His people, this can be your confidence. Bowing the knee. repenting and trusting what He has done, and then you discover that He reigns, and that's good news if you're His, that He is a refuge from all that we may fear, that you do have all that you need in Him, and all that you must do is go to Him, and by the way, keep going to Him daily. It is in doing that, I closed my Bible too early, I had one more verse, the last verse of this passage. It is in trusting Him that you know, verse 11, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Let's pray. Father, we are people who need a fortress. We are people who need to know that God He's not just the lawgiver God that we see portrayed as He thunders from Mount Sinai, though He is, you are that God, but we find that you are the God of Jacob. Oh Lord, we miss the graciousness in that. Jacob was a mess, and yet you call yourself His God. You are a God of grace to sinners who trust in you. You are a God who takes the broken and heals them. You are a God who takes the wicked and turns them. You are a God who takes the sinful and cleanses them. You are a God who shows yourself mighty to the one who trusts in you, not because we've earned it by our good behavior, but because resting in you, we have found a shelter of strength and grace and cleansing and life. And I ask that you would be that cleansing, strengthening, always near God to the one here who cries to you. We pray in Jesus. Amen.