Please turn with me in your Bibles here this evening then to Psalm 46. We're guided in God's word and are looking at our catechism as well and understanding better what we confess when we pray that first section of the Lord's prayer, our Father who art in heaven. The psalmist is, in essence, as I hope we'll see by the end of the message tonight, confessing that same thing. that God is his refuge and his strength. Psalm 46, a short psalm, we read the entire psalm here this evening. Congregation, hear the word of the Lord as it is read for you tonight. 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. 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 and 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 end 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. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. May his Holy Spirit bless it to our hearts as we consider it together this evening. I draw your attention to our text, which is verse 1. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Let's ask God's guiding hand upon his word as it's brought forth this evening. Heavenly Father, indeed, we pray that you would remove any and all distractions from us as we focus this next little while upon these wonderful truths that we confess both in prayer and in this psalm. Lord, we pray that indeed you would make us even more your people, that we might understand better you, our heavenly Father. Grant this blessing to us through the power and work of your Holy Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' most precious name. Amen. Beloved congregation of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the most famous of the hymns to come out of the Protestant Reformation is undoubtedly Martin Luther's well-known A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. We'll be singing at the end of the service tonight. Not as well known, however, is the fact that Luther composed that hymn based especially upon the truths found in Psalm 46, our passage this evening, and especially the truth proclaimed in that very first verse of our passage tonight. Psalm 46 was indeed Luther's favorite psalm. Historians relate the fact that in the dark and dangerous and uncertain times when there was a large price on Luther's head and in the turbulent times of the Reformation, that price placed upon Luther's head by the Church of Rome, times when Luther was not sure he would even live to see another day, Historians tell us that in those times, Luther would often turn to his coworker and close friend, Philip Melanchthon, and say, come, Philip, let us sing the 46th Psalm. The great reformer felt compelled to do this, you see, because those truths confessed about God in this Psalm brought such peace and comfort to Luther's troubled and discouraged soul. Listen to those truths again. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear. You see, Luther's confession of dependence upon God is what brought hope from God for his troubled soul. And this is exactly why our Lord, in teaching his disciples about prayer, starts out his model prayer the way that he does, with this confession, our Father who art in heaven. You see, with these first words of the Lord's Prayer, we're making a confession of dependence upon God, which then brings us true hope from God. And this is our study for tonight, beloved. So turn with me first this evening to the Heidelberg Catechism in Lord's Day 46. In your Psalms and Forms and Prayers book, that's found on page 253. It's also found in the back of your Trinity Psalter hymnals if you wish to Look at it there, page 894. But look first with me at question 120. As you look that up, let me say to you that our Lord's Prayer is truly an international prayer. Around the world, wherever our Christian faith has gone, this prayer has gone right along with it. And as such then, this prayer is said around the world by countless millions, perhaps even billions of people every week. But beloved, we must also realize that while many, many people might well say this prayer, it is only the true child of God who can truly and honestly pray this prayer. I hope you heard that. Many might say this prayer, but only the true child of God can pray this prayer. So the first thing that we learn tonight from this introductory phrase of the Lord's Prayer is God's place as our Father. Our Father, this is the first point of the message. And notice how this is brought out in question and answer 120. Why has Christ commanded us to address God as our Father? And the answer, to awaken in us at the very beginning of our prayer what should be basic to our prayer, a childlike reverence and trust that through Christ, God has become our father and will much less refuse to give us what we ask in faith than will our parents refuse us the things of this life. Now, beloved, understand and realize that what our catechism is here teaching us is that without true faith in Jesus as the Christ of God, it is impossible for us to truly pray to God. Can you understand this? This is because Jesus is the only mediator between sinful people like us and a holy God in heaven. You know, Roman Catholics can pray to their saints all that they want. Muslims can cry out Allah Akbar. God, Allah is great over and over. Hindus can pray to their deceased ancestors all they want. Buddhists can chant all day long, but none of that is heard by God because you see none of that is true prayer. This is because without true faith in Jesus, it is impossible to truly pray to our Heavenly Father. And so the very first word of this prayer that our Lord teaches us is essential, our, our Father. In fact, that word our, I would contend, can and should be brought down to an even more personal and individual and internal level to my Father, my Father who art in heaven. That very personal confession is needed because you see, Holy Scripture teaches us that Christ saves individuals, not whole groups, does he? Jesus does not save whole countries at once, or whole cities, or even whole churches. No, Jesus, through the indwelling, regenerating work of His Holy Spirit, saves individual souls, one by one by one. And those redeemed individual people then join up with other redeemed individual people in order to make up churches who then live in cities and who then become good citizens of various countries around the world. And so you see the greatest, the most personal relationship that one can ever have is not with your spouse, Not with belonging to a family, rather the most intimate relationship a person can have is with your heavenly Father. And that relationship only comes, the Bible tells us, through a personal saving faith in Jesus as the Christ of God. That phrase found in the very middle of answer 120 confirms all of this. Take notice, right there in the middle of answer 120, we confess that through Christ, God has become our father, through Christ. Now, unfortunately, beloved, it is very common today for people all around us to think that everyone is just born a child of God. that God is the father of all people, and as our father, then God should really take care of us and give us whatever we want, just like any good father is supposed to do. Well, beloved, while that idea may be very common in our culture today, understand it is not biblical. Now, biblically, it is correct to say that God is the creator of all people, No one would be here without the Father willing it to happen. But it is not biblical to say that God is the Father of all people. In fact, just the opposite of this is true. For what does the Bible speak of and teach? That man in his fallen state is a child of wrath. Remember what Jesus calls the Pharisees? Sons of the devil? Children of Satan? They're not children of God. You see, only when we are in Christ by grace, through faith, do we become children of our heavenly Father and then can pray, our Father who art in heaven. And so our Lord is reminding us with this very first phrase of the prayer. That true prayer begins only with a true relationship to the true God of all heaven and earth through Jesus Christ our Lord. Another thing to notice from answer 120 is that once we have that true relationship with God because of Jesus, that we then will also have, notice, a childlike reverence and trust of God as our heavenly Father. In other words, once we are redeemed by Christ, we will now have a high and holy respect for and an honor of our Father in heaven. In other words, in Christ, we will see God as we should. We will realize that God is not our cosmic bowling buddy who we can kid around with. God is not the man upstairs who we can flippantly joke about. Beloved, such ideas, such talk is blasphemy of God's high and holy name, and as such, it should never even cross our lips. And yet neither is God so transcendent, so far above us, so unlike us, far away from us, that he then is totally unknown by us. And that we then are totally forgotten by him. No, because of Jesus' great work, we are God's children. And he is our heavenly father. and a more perfect father no one has ever had. For our Heavenly Father, you see, knows exactly what we need and what is best for us in life. Your earthly father may have taken very good care of you, or he may have totally failed you. And while a failed earthly father greatly pains us, understand that that does not apply to God ever. Because in Christ, you have a heavenly Father who always has and always will do what is best for you, always. And that is really what question and answer 121 teaches us. So look at that with me now, question and answer 121. Why the words, who is in heaven? And the answer comes back, these words teach us not to think of God's heavenly majesty in an earthly way and to expect from his almighty power everything needed for body and soul. This brings us to the second point of the message tonight, God's power in our world. Answer 121 teaches us two things, basically, two main facts. First of all, that we are not to drag God down to our level. He's not one of us. Neither is he our divine vending machine in the sky to be called out upon only when we need something. And secondly, we are to learn from this, that as our heavenly father, he will bring to us and do for us what is ultimately, he knows, is best for us in the long run. This is an important point. Now, this does not mean that God will give us everything that we think we need. Remember, he's not a bending machine. Rather, but he will give us everything that he knows we need. There's often a big difference, isn't there? Our heavenly father, because he is almighty God, can see the beginning and the end of our life. And so he knows our hearts better than we know ourselves. And so he will give us exactly what he knows is most needed by us day by day and with each passing moment. to develop us into the people that he wants us to be. And in order to do this, God may well give us limitations in this life. Or God may bring chastisement to us. There may be unanswered prayers or long delays to answers to our prayers. But all of this is for our ultimate good, and it develops us far more properly than would lavish indulgence on God's part shown to us. Now, when we are going through those hard times, those valleys in life, and we're given these limitations in what we are able to do, that is exactly when our childlike reverence and trust in God is put to the test. Does my heavenly Father really have my good in mind? Because what I'm feeling now sure doesn't feel very good at all. That's exactly when we need to cry out in faith to our heavenly Father. It's at those times our catechism tells us that we must remember the who art in heaven part. of this introductory phrase of the Lord's Prayer. Because our Father who is in heaven really does know what is best for us. God's heavenly majesty and his almighty power, as our catechism puts it, ensures that nothing befalls us by chance in this world. Only that which is for our ultimate good is what God brings to us in our life. God's sovereign power ensures this. Beloved, rest in that truth when you're going through a hardship or a trial. Remember what we confess in question and answer one of our catechism, that great childlike confession that we make when we say he watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my father in heaven. In fact, all things must work together for my salvation. That's why I wanted to have us read and hear and confess again from Romans 8 tonight. It is exactly this childlike confession of trust and hope that the psalmist is making then in Psalm 46. Turn to that in your scriptures now. You may put your catechisms away as we're done with them now. We want to focus for the remainder of our time on this psalm. So this brings us to the third point of the sermon tonight, where the psalmist confesses God's great plan for our life. And notice how the psalmist in our text in verse one confesses exactly what our Lord teaches us in the introductory words of his prayer. Namely, both God's transcendence, his heavenliness, if you will, his glory, majesty, and power, but also God's eminence, his fatherliness, his closeness, his care, his love for us. And both of these elements are confessed in verse one of Psalm 46. Notice that. Verse one, God is our refuge and strength. Recognize, beloved, that with this first line, God's greatness is confessed. His mighty sovereignty. How he is, in fact, almighty and strong. The only safe place for our souls. And yet notice as well, the second line of verse one, he is a very present help in trouble, a very present help. Notice how this great and almighty and transcendent God is also present right here next to us, with us, holding us, carrying us. It's interesting to note, you can see the footnote in our ESV Bibles there. It's interesting to note that that phrase can also be translated, he's a well-proven help. One translation has this phrase, an abundantly available help in trouble. Think on that beloved. What a proclamation we're making. That the God who is running this universe, who himself is high and holy and so far beyond us, unlike us, far away from us, yet also we confess is abundantly available to us as our Father. Isn't that a beautiful thought? Beloved, what condescension on God's part shown to us as his people, what love on the part of God for us. So yes, the true God of all heaven and earth is indeed heavenly, far beyond us, transcendent is the word theologians use, but he is also our father. abundantly available to us and ever-present help in trouble. In other words, he's personally imminent, as theologians put it, right there next to us. Now, how can this be, beloved? How can this happen? How can a high and holy God come and dwell with such helpless and sinful people? Well, beloved, in our text for this evening, there is an Old Testament hint of how this can happen. A hint of the great theological doctrine of justification. Now this doctrine is of course laid out much more clearly in the New Testament in the person and work of our Savior Jesus Christ. And I want to give proper credit to Derek Kidner, the Old Testament theologian, who brought this truth out in his commentary on Psalm 46. I had never noticed it before, and so I thank him for it. But this hint is found in the two ways that God is described in that very first line of verse one. The two ways that he's described. Look at that with me again. Notice first, we confess God is our refuge. Our refuge, now think on that for just a moment. A refuge is a defensive position, a protective position. God is our shield, in other words, we're confessing. He's our safe place. to which we run and hide, for only he can keep us safe when the storm of judgment rains down upon us. So that is a defensive aspect of what God does for us. But next in that first line, we also confess that God is our strength. Notice, our strength. This refers to an offensive position. This implies the dynamic nature of God, that God is in fact the doer in this relationship between him and us. He's the one who acts. He is the power and the ability behind our salvation. So those two aspects, we confess, God is our refuge, protecting us, our strength, going forth, fighting for us. So both the passive nature of God's care for us and the active nature of God's care for us can be seen in these two words, refuge and strength. The defensive and the offensive work of God on our behalf. Now this truth, beloved, this truth can then be coordinated with the passive and active obedience of Christ done on our behalf to win for us our justification. You're familiar with these two phrases, I hope. You must commit them to memory. They are extremely important. Through the working of God the Holy Spirit on our heart, we come through faith to Jesus to find our refuge, our safe place. Jesus is our defensive shield, protecting us from God's just wrath and punishment against us because of our sin. Jesus passively allows the eternal punishment of God, which we deserve to be poured out upon himself on the cross of Calvary, like a lamb led to the slaughter who opens not his mouth. The passive work of Christ, the Father's wrath will burn against Jesus instead of consuming us. So we hide, we find our refuge in the blood of the lamb. But Jesus Christ also, we confess, is our strength in that he goes on the offensive for us. He actively goes and lives out all of the righteous requirements of God's holy law, which were expected of us, but we could never fulfill. So Jesus becomes our righteousness by doing for us what we could never do. That's his active work. And so through both of these means, Jesus' active and passive obedience, he fulfills our text and becomes our very present, well-proved help in trouble. Jesus is abundantly available for us in both of these critical aspects of our justification, where we stumble and fall, Our Lord Jesus Christ faithfully fulfills and does. And what is the result of us knowing all of this? Why is this important? Why am I stressing this to you? It's because of the truth found in verse two. Look at that next verse. Therefore, we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea." Now, stop there congregation. Here is a tremendous word picture given to us and set before us in this verse. Notice that both this earth and the mountains are used as analogies for us to ponder, word pictures for us to contemplate. The two things that from our human perspective are immovable, unchangeable, impregnable, the earth and the mountains. And yet what happens to them? The earth is removed. It's gone. It's cast away like a pebble. And the mountains, they crumble into the heart of the sea. In other words, you see, events take place in our life that are so life-altering, so overwhelming, so world-changing that it looks as if there's no hope at all. And beloved, this is a call to faith. If your life right now feels just like that, that the world is coming apart, that not even the mountains could help you now. It's the Lord working in your life, calling for your attention. That's Jesus Christ saying, trust in me, repent of your sin, walk with me, trust in me, live for me, and I will lead you every step of the way. And for those who do know Jesus as their Savior and their Lord, who have indeed this God as their Heavenly Father, what do we confess? The very beginning of verse 2, therefore we will not fear. Nothing can separate us. from the love of God that is found in Jesus Christ, our Lord. Beloved, as we close here tonight, understand that we have all confidence and all hope, all and only because of Jesus' perfect work done on our behalf, which makes us children of the Heavenly Father. Oh, the world may fall apart. The bottom may well drop out of our life, but because of Jesus, we will not fear. So beloved. Never forget that because God is indeed our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble, you can go out through those doors, go out into the world this week, whatever it is the Lord has planned for you, whatever it is that he has in store for you, you can indeed walk in all confidence because of Jesus Christ. Look to him. Walk by faith and not by sight. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we do give thanks that you give us these comforting passages of Holy Scripture. For indeed, the world around us cries out. It is groaning. And we groan right along with it at times. Father, I pray for anyone gathered here this night who is indeed groaning, who's hurting, who has trials and troubles in their life and they feel overwhelmed and they cannot take another step. Father, indeed, may you be their very present help in trouble, abundantly available to them through the Lord Jesus Christ. May they give up on themselves and trust in the only Savior who can sanctify them. Grant such a blessing to each and every one of us. Give us Your grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.