Well, good morning. What a joy it is to be in the house of the Lord again this morning. I'm like the psalmist. I was glad when they said, let us go into the house of the Lord. So again, it's a joy. I think we've had enough rain now for the past few days. We're from Virginia, so we've had enough rain for the rest of our winter season just in the past few days in Oregon. But man, what beautiful country. Do you guys ever just get tired of looking around and seeing the beauty and the mountains and all the things that you have in Oregon? It's an amazingly beautiful place to live, I'm sure, and we love coming every opportunity that we get. I was here actually a couple of years ago, and so I met some of you then, but I am so glad to be back. And I so love your pastor and his family, Pastor Caleb. You know, often I get discouraged with what I see going on in the church, especially in America. But when I look at young men who are committed to be expositors of God's Word and have made that the focus of their ministry, I'm so much more encouraged. And so, just let me say, Lewis and Clark Bible Church, that I feel like you are in really, really good hands. God has been good to you. God has blessed you with someone who is a faithful shepherd, faithful expositor of God's Word. And so, what a joy it is to know Caleb. And it's a joy to be with you again this morning. I would like to introduce my family to you. My wife and I, Allison, will be married this December, 28 years. I know it's hard to believe that I look that old to have been married 28 years, but I have been, and so my wife is sitting in the back there, and my daughter, Carissa, is with us as well, and in two weeks, she'll be 17, so I'm glad to have my girls with me on this trip, and we are enjoying our time together. Well, how many are ready for God's Word this morning? How many of us, while we've gathered here, is to hear from God? So, I'd like for you, if you will, to turn with me to the 46th Psalm. The 46th Psalm. Now, I don't know if you have this tradition in your church or not. We do it in my church. I have been pastoring for the past 27 years in three different churches. In fact, I've just resigned my current pastorate in Virginia and will be headed full-time January 1st with ITEM. So I'm looking forward to that. And by the way, while I'm on that, thank you so much for your support of ITEM through the years. We can't do what we do in training pastors across Africa and around the world without folks like you who see the need, who invest in that vision. So thank you so much for all that you do. But in our church, we have a tradition. We believe that we have a high view of Scripture, that when Scripture speaks, God is speaking, and so that we want to honor God's Word and stand together as the text is read. So if you would humor me this morning and let's honor God's Word as we stand together and read The 46th Psalm, and Caleb said, I can take as much time as I want to, but I'm still gonna set my little clock here just in case, and that will help me to know when I'm past an hour and a half. It won't be that long, I promise. Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, and though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah. 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, and 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. Selah. 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. Selah. Let's pray, shall we? Father, we thank you this morning for the power of your word. The Word of God that is able to transform our hearts and our lives. So I pray this morning that You would give us eyes to see wonderful things in Your Word. That You would give us ears to hear what the Spirit says to the church. that you would give us a heart to receive what it is that you have for us today. Come and do what only you can do. Speak through these lips of clay, we pray in Jesus' name. And everyone said, Amen. You may be seated this morning. The title of the message is, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. It was December the 26th, 2004, the day after Christmas. The Beachside Resort in Phuket, Thailand, which is a gorgeous coastal city that sits on the Indian Ocean, was filled with hundreds of vacationers from around the world, spending the morning relaxing, eating their breakfast leisurely, and playing in the sand and the surf. Unbeknownst to them, an earthquake that measured 9.1 on the Richter scale had touched off a massive tsunami in the middle of the Indian Ocean. causing there to be a wall of water some 30 feet high. And as that wall of water began to come ashore, those that were on the shoreline saw it and began to run, but alas, it was too late. That 30-foot wall of water crashed down upon them, carrying in its current buildings and people and trees and vehicles and everything that you could possibly imagine. When the carnage was all said and done, over 300,000 people in 14 different countries had been killed by the tsunami. One minute, it was a beautiful, lazy Sunday morning, and the next, buildings were floating by like Styrofoam toys in a pool. Everything can change in a minute. So the question I want to pose to you this morning is this. What do we do when suddenly life turns tragic? What happens when, metaphorically speaking, the floodwaters begin to rise and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea? Well, the psalmist has an answer for us in our text today. As we look at this 46th psalm, this psalm is really a psalm of celebration. Scholars aren't sure about the context, but we're given a key to the context here in the superscript of the psalm. And notice that it says to the choir masters of the sons of Korah. The sons of Korah were actually a branch of musicians and singers, of choir in Israel, and one of the places that they're mentioned is in 2 Chronicles, the 20th chapter. And it's interesting because in 2 Chronicles, the 20th chapter, we have a story of God's miraculous deliverance of His people. The context of 2 Chronicles 20, actually, is that of Sennacherib, who was the ruler of Assyria, who had just conquered Babylon, and now had set his eyes, or sights, on Syria-Palestine. And he began to methodically conquer all of the lands of Palestine until he came to Judah. He began to systematically take town by town until the Judean king, Hezekiah, realized that there was nothing that he could do to withstand the onslaught. And so he simply surrendered. And when he surrendered to Sennacherib, Sennacherib began to enforce tribute. Well, sometime later, Hezekiah rebelled against the tribute and thought it was a time that the yoke from Assyria should be lifted off of Judah's back. And so when Sennacherib heard that Hezekiah had rebelled, he sent his messengers Hezekiah and said, don't trust in this God of yours. Don't think that your God is any different than any of the other gods of the lands that we have conquered. But we're the mightiest nation on earth and we will destroy you. We're going to lay siege to Jerusalem unless you give us the tribute that we demand of you. Well, Hezekiah then called to Isaiah the prophet, what should we do with this great crisis? And Isaiah just simply says, Hezekiah, don't be afraid. of what the king of Assyria says, but look to the Lord. Once again, Sennacherib sent his messengers to Hezekiah, this time with a stern warning, the siege of Jerusalem is coming unless you unconditionally surrender. As the messengers went back home to Assyria, Hezekiah took that letter that the messengers had brought him, laid it out before the Lord in the temple, and prayed over it. That very night, an angel of the Lord went throughout the camp of the Assyrians and slew 185,000 of them, so that when morning came, God had wrought a great victory for Israel. And so many scholars believe that that is the context of this psalm, that it was a great psalm of celebration, it was a great psalm that depicted God's victory over His enemies. But it's important for us here to understand that the psalmist is writing about a time of great concern, a time of great shaking. And simply here is the big idea of the psalm, is that when everything around you is shaken, and shaking, God is your refuge. How many has ever noticed that to be the case? When everything around you is not on solid ground, God is your refuge. In fact, this psalm is that lion-hearted reformer Martin Luther's favorite. It is the psalm in which he wrote that great hymn, Ein Festberg, or as we might know it in English, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. So what I'd like for us to do this morning is to follow the text and the psalmist is going to give us three ways that we can respond to the crises of life when we know that God is our refuge. So I'd like to share them with you up front and then we'll go back through each one and we'll flesh them out. So since God is my refuge, I will not fear. Since God is my refuge, I will be glad. And thirdly, since God is my refuge, I will relax. So let's look at this first one, shall we? Since God is my refuge, I will not fear. And go back with me to those first two words that you see in this psalm. And the psalmist just simply declares, God is. I want you to notice that the psalmist doesn't begin with his trouble. The psalmist doesn't begin with the national calamity that is occurring. The psalmist merely expresses his confidence in his God. The psalmist merely expresses the one fixed immovable reality in all of this world that God is. Isn't that good to know this morning? That when everything around you is shaking, when that which is right has been turned upside down, when 2 plus 2 equals 5, we still come back to this one immovable reality that God is. And I know that we are living in a time, especially in this time of COVID, it seems like it might never end. That we're wondering what in the world is going to happen? All of us have been thrown off of our game. We've had all kinds of issues. Church has become complicated. Our jobs have become complicated. Politics have become complicated. And it seems like everything that can be shaken is being shaken. And what do we do in those times and those seasons when we feel fear gripping us? We just simply remind ourselves of the fact that there is one reality that will not change in this world, and that reality is that God is. God is. I find it interesting that several years ago, there was a psychological study that was released that said that when you find yourself lost or disoriented, the best way to find your orientation again is for you to close your eyes, find true north, close your eyes and then visualize the map. Why is that? Because finding true north is essential for accurate navigation. Western maps are actually written in a way that are oriented toward the north. And our spatial memory does the same. Our spatial memory automatically kind of orients us north. So that when we feel lost or disoriented, find true north, close your eyes, And the map will become visible to you. And I love that because it really expresses what the heart of faith and trust in God, isn't it? That when we become lost and disoriented in life, that all we need to do is look to God who is our true north. And when we look to Him, the map becomes clear. All the other things that we're so focused on, all the peripheral issues in life that we're looking for, that we hope to find, all we have to do is focus on the true north, and then those things come into clarity. That's why Jesus was able to say in Matthew 6.33, Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. When we seek God first, God adds all the peripheral things that we tend to worry about. But how many of you are like me? We tend to seek the peripheral things, hoping that God will somewhere get in there. Let's invert that equation this morning and search, seek that true north. Notice what the psalmist says about God. God is my refuge and strength. And then in verse 7, he says that he is my fortress. These three synonymous terms, refuge, strength, and fortress, all tell us something about who God is. In fact, the psalmist describes God as a refuge some 40 different times throughout the Psalms. It's interesting because here the psalmist describes God's strength as a refuge. What is a refuge? A refuge is a place of shelter. And then he describes God as a fortress in verse 7. What is a fortress? It's an elevated, impregnable place. It's a place, again, of protection. So the psalmist, by way of giving us these synonymous terms, is emphasizing something that he wants us to understand. And it is simply this, that when life is shaking all around, that we can find shelter, that we can find hope, that we can find stability, and something that never changes in our God. How many know He is the same yesterday, today, and forever? He never changes. Aren't you glad that God never has a bad hair day? Aren't you glad that God never wakes up on the wrong side of the bed? Aren't you glad that God doesn't say when we come to Him in prayer and we are in need, God doesn't say, you know, I'm having a bad day, just come back tomorrow. No, God is always a refuge. He is always our strength. He is always our fortress. It's interesting here also because There's a specific name for God that the psalmist uses. The most common name for God throughout the Old Testament is Yahweh. It is God's covenant name that he uses with his people. It describes the Lord as the agency and resource of everything that is possible. However, that's not what the psalmist says here. Here the psalmist uses the term Elohim, which means God of gods. Now why does the psalmist use the term Elohim? Because this is the very first name by which God is mentioned in Genesis chapter 1. In the beginning Elohim. So the psalmist is telling us something central here. He's telling us that God not only is a refuge and a help, and a fortress, but that God from the very beginning has always been a fortress and a refuge and a protection for His people. What does that say to us? It simply says that we don't have to try to twist God's arm into helping us. We don't have to try to manipulate or cajole God into doing something that is not His nature. From the very beginning of creation, the psalmist is telling us that it has always been God's nature to be a shelter for His people, to be a refuge, to be a strength, to be a help for His people. And I want to encourage you today. How many know that we can't find our help in politics? I mean, if we're looking for help from Washington, D.C., if we're looking for help from our local governments, but we're going to be sorely disappointed because they're subject to change. And that's why also getting in this whole political mode where we try to vote in our own party is just a never-ending game. Because while we might get in our own party that gets our agenda, You know, we might get ten yards down the field, and then the next party comes in, and then they take it right back to where it was previously. And so, this whole political thing is a never-ending game. But if we understand this morning that God is, that He never changes, that He's always been, that He is now, and that He will always be. We're reminded that we can have confidence in Him, that no matter what happens in this world, that no matter how COVID turns out, that no matter how politics turns out, that God will have His way. God is, He is Elohim from the very beginning. He has always been a shelter and a fortress. Notice also that the psalmist tells us that he is, the last clause in verse one, a very present help in trouble. A very present help in trouble. Aren't you glad that when you are in the middle of a crisis that you don't have to track down Pastor Caleb? that Pastor Caleb is not the end all and the be all or maybe even the answer to your crisis aren't you glad that when you're in the middle of a crisis you don't have to get online and dial a prayer aren't you glad that when you're in the middle of the crisis that God is a very present help in time of trouble I love this word trouble because it's actually a Hebrew word that describes a very tight or a narrow place If we were to translate this literally, it might be, in straits, a present aid. What is a strait? A strait is a narrow body of water that connects to larger bodies of water. It's interesting that in Greek mythology, when Odysseus and his men returned home from the Trojan War, they had to pass through the Straits of Messina, which were located between Italy and Sicily. However, this was a very dangerous straits because of two mythical sea monsters. On the one side of the Straits of Messina was Scylla, a six-headed sea monster that lived under a rock. On the other side was Carbatus, who was depicted as a great whirlpool that would submerge ships in its current, so that whenever you were in the Straits of Messina, you were between a rock and a hard place. That's actually where we get the English expression, between a rock and a hard place. so essentially what this almost a saying here is that when you are between a rock and a hard place god is a very present help between a rock and a hard place. Some of you find yourself there this morning. Some of you are struggling, marriages struggling, and families struggling with temptation. Struggling just with life, maybe struggling with what's going on in your career, your jobs. I want you to understand this morning, if we can find our true north, just simply looking to Him, that everything becomes clear. He is our present help in time of trouble. I'm reminded of what Moses said when God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush. And Moses said, Who shall I say sent me? God said, Tell him I am sent you. I am. Not I was, not I will be, even though God is both of those things, but I am. In other words, Moses, whatever you need me to be, I am. If you need me to be your protector, I am. If you need me to be your deliverer, I am. If you need me to be your hope, I am. If you need me to be your strength, I am. He is the great, I am. Now notice what the psalmist says here in verse 2, because of these things, because God is our refuge and strength, because He is a very present help in trouble, the psalmist says, we will not fear. There are scientists have said or have identified about little more than 500 fears and phobias that people have. Many of us can be seized by fear. If you want to see people in fear walk into a business without a mask on, you'll see people seized right up with fear, won't we? It seems like we're living in a day more than I can ever remember in which the media frenzy feeds on fear. Politics feeds on fear. Fear is the one thing in common that seems to get things done and to get programs and agendas passed through. But we as the people of God respond to fear differently than the world does. Why? Because we serve the one who said, fear not for I am with you. Because we serve the one who says that I am. So we have no reason to fear. And the psalmist says, because God is our shelter, because God is our refuge, we have no reason to fear. Isn't it interesting that whenever God says fear not, it's usually because there's a human reason to fear. But if we know who God is and we're confident in Him, then His people have no reason to fear. I will not fear. Then in verse 7, notice, verses 4 through 7, the psalmist says, Because God is my refuge, I will be glad. Now here in verses 4 through 7, the psalmist is speaking by way of metaphor. Now he may have some present physical illusion But ultimately, he is speaking of metaphor, and I'm going to share with you why. But notice what the psalmist says here to begin with. He says, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. It's interesting here that this river that the psalmist speaks of is contrasted with The waves crashing, with the floodwaters rising, with the mountains falling into the heart of the sea, in verses 1 and 2. And here is the contrast. It is a perfect, peaceful, tranquil picture of God blessing His people. water was the most precious commodity in the ancient world when you were laying siege to a city if you wanted the city to surrender the first thing that you did was to cut off the water supply because if there is no water available ultimately everybody within those walls will die here the psalmist presents the river of life that is flowing into the city of God that makes its inhabitants glad. Whereas the world is facing chaos, whereas outside the church there are all these problems and all this chaos, within the church we are well nourished. water. How do we know this is speaking of the people of God? Because notice in verse 5 it tells us that God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. Now again, we know that Jerusalem has been moved many times. Jerusalem, the physical location of Jerusalem, has been conquered and rebuilt hundreds of times over thousands of years. So the psalmist cannot be merely referring only to the physical location of Jerusalem, but instead he is referring to Zion, the spiritual city of God, the people of God. Or as everything that is happening on the outside, yet on the inside there is a river of life that is flowing to the people of God that makes all things new. Notice this, when we think of water, especially in the Old Testament, and we think of a river, it has several allusions that help us to understand what the psalmist is saying. Because if we go back to Genesis chapter 1, we see that there is a four-branched river that is proceeding out of Eden. It speaks of new life. In Ezekiel's eschatological vision of the temple, he sees a river that is going out from the temple and it is making all things new. It is making all things clean. It is healing the nations. And so it is by way of metaphor that the psalmist is reminding us here that we serve a God who makes everything new. I love this why the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians, all things have passed away. If you are in Christ, all things have passed away and all things have become brand new. I can't tell you how often that verse has been such an encouragement to my life. When I'm tempted, when I fall, when I am reminded of how corrupt my heart is, when I'm reminded of how corrupt our society is, when someone wants to judge me on my worst day, I'm so grateful that old things have passed away and all things have become new. Can I tell you that that's what God is doing in our world? He is writing a story of redemption from Genesis to Revelation. It is God's story of redemption and Christ at the center who is making all things new. No matter where you've been and no matter what you've done, God can make all things new in your life today. Your sin doesn't have the final word. Your corruption doesn't have the final word. we repent and place our faith in Christ, then all things can be made new. I love what Jesus said to the woman at the well, Samaria. And he said, if you drink of this water, you will never thirst again. Oh, give me this water. She's thinking he's talking about some kind of miracle water that televangelists might kind of promulgate. No, Jesus was not talking about a physical water. He was talking about a spiritual water, a river of life that would flow in her, through her, springing up to eternal life. And that is the river of life that God promises each one of us this morning. It's a river of life that cleanses us from our sins. It's a river of life that renews our minds. It's a river of life that empowers us that we might be able to live the life of a disciple of Jesus. The very last day on the Feast of Tabernacles, it was the traditional practice of the priest to form a long line from the pool of Salome and they would take they would take buckets and dip out of the pool of Salome and they would come back to the altar and they would pour the buckets of water over the altar it was a reminder of God's provision of water in the wilderness and it also anticipated the messianic blessings and it was this day that Jesus stood up at the end day of the feast when they were pouring the water over the altar and said If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Can I say this morning that invitation is still being given? If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever you are, Republican, Democrat, black, white, red, yellow, purple, polka dot, no matter what socioeconomic background you come from, no matter what kind of condition you find yourself in this morning, here is the great promise of the gospel, that anyone who is thirsty, let him come and drink. And you will be satisfied. Notice again, in verse 5, that God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. When everything is shaking, God's kingdom will never be shaken. It's what Hebrews 12 says. There will come a day when everything that can be shaken, will be shaken. And only that which cannot be shaken will remain. And what is that which cannot be shaken and shall remain? It is the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so we can be confident this morning that no matter what assails us, that no matter what attacks the enemy may seek to foist against God's people, His church, that it shall not succeed. It shall not prevail. Jesus said, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. How many of you really believe that promise? That God is able to build His church right here in Astoria, Oregon. That Jesus is able to do something here, right here in Astoria, Oregon, through this church, that can capture the imagination of this community. I will be glad. Notice this also. The last clause in verse five, God will help her when the morning dawns. Another reason for joy, because we know that trouble has an expiration limit. In the ancient world, nighttime was the time when troops would move and poise themselves and get ready to attack when they were camped outside of a city. And so nighttime was a time of terror. In fact, the psalmist tells us in Psalm 91, he talks about the terror by night. Here, the psalmist tells us that even at night, that the Lord of hosts will be with us and that God will help us when morning dawns. In other words, night has an expiration limit. Trouble, trials, tribulation, catastrophe, all those things that we're faced with in life has an expiration limit. Aren't you glad that trouble will not go on forever? Aren't you grateful that our trials and tribulations, as Paul says, they are but for a moment. Now, I realize that they don't feel like they're for a moment. They feel like they are interminable. They feel like they are forever. They feel like they are never going to end. But they are just, in the grand scheme of things, when you think about eternity, they are merely for a moment. But the glory that is to come, will cause all of our trials and tribulations to pale in comparison. Hallelujah. One of my favorite Bible passages, and maybe this is yours too, is simply, it came to pass. How many has ever read that before? It came to pass. It didn't come to stay. It came to pass. And then finally, I want you to notice verse 6. The nation's rage, the kingdom's totter, all this trouble, all the machinations and the plots of men, yet the Lord merely utters His voice and the earth melts. In other words, God's Word is what He guides and governs and rules by. And so when we hear God speak in his word this morning, we know that it is the way that God is governing his creation for he upholds all things by the power of his word. And then we are reminded here again in verse seven that the Lord of hosts is with us. Lord of hosts. This is God's warrior name. This is God's military name throughout the Old Testament. We see it describes God as a warrior, as one who is fighting on behalf of his people. I realize that we live in a day and age in which we don't like to think of these metaphors that the Bible uses that are really anti PC, that are anti woke. But can I tell you this morning that the Bible describes the Lord as our warrior, as the one who goes before us, as the one who wields the sword on our behalf, as the one who battles on our behalf, so that we might be able to say that the battle belongs to the Lord. He is the Lord of hosts. But this is not my favorite name that the psalmist gives us of God. Personally, I prefer the next one. Notice what the next name that the psalmist gives God. He calls Him the God of Jacob. Now, wait a minute. I'm going to scratch my head for a minute. The God of Jacob. Really? Have you ever read about Jacob? Anybody? Now, if the psalmist would have said that He is the God of Abraham, the founder of the three great monotheistic faith. I would say, yeah, that's good. Maybe he should have said that he is the God of Moses. That great miracle worker who led Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. Maybe he should have said, I am the God of Joshua. That great conqueror who conquered the Canaanites and all of the other ites and let Israel in to the promised land. Or I am the God of Paul, the apostle who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament. But Jacob? The trickster and the deceiver Jacob? yet this reminds me that God calls his name, this is a personal name that God gives glory that's why he's able to say Esau have I hated and Jacob have I loved not because Jacob was more righteous than Esau not because Jacob was more holy than Esau not because God saw in Jacob anything that was worth anything but simply God said that through this fool I might be able to display my glory in a way that I would never be able to display it in any other way and aren't you glad this morning to be a fool for Christ I will not fear. I will be glad. And finally, I will relax. Notice what the psalmist says in verses 8 through 11. Come. He's inviting Israel. He's inviting God's people. Come behold the works of the Lord. And then he's going to give Israel a quick history lesson. Because how many know that a lot of us have short-term memories? Right? Am I only speaking to myself? I have a short-term memory. Many times I put down my wallet and keys and I can't remember where I put them. I don't know if that's just, you know, me in my early fifties now and that's a product of age or if there's something deeper going on, but I find myself often forgetting things that I should remember. And so spiritually, we have a problem often with short-term memory, don't we? We get into the middle of a crisis, we get into the middle of a problem or a trial or a tribulation, and suddenly we can't remember past yesterday. We can't remember the long history that God has proven Himself to be faithful time and time and time again. And so God gives Israel a history lesson. 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, shatters the spear. And he burns the chariots with fire. Oh, what a great God we serve this morning. Psalm 77 echoes this same thought going back and the psalmist says, I almost slipped when I saw the wicked prosper and I saw the righteous suffer. But then I called to mind the goodness of the Lord and the rest of that psalm is just a recounting of the many ways in which God has shown up and God has provided and God has blessed time and time and time again and for those of us who've been saved for any number of years We have a whole track record of God's faithfulness in our lives, don't we? And so we really don't have any excuse not to be joyful even in the most dire of circumstances because we have proven time and again that God is able and not only that He's able but that He is willing and that He is faithful. I could regale you with many stories of my own life of how God has been so faithful to my family and I. But yet I find myself with that long track record of faithfulness where God has shown up time and time and time again. And yet there is a new problem that arises. Yet there is a new crisis that comes to the fore. And I find myself being tempted to doubt. I find myself being tempted to be desperate. I find myself being tempted to ask the question, what if? when God has always been so faithful. And so the psalmist wants to remind us that if we're going to relax, then we've got to remember all that God has previously done for us. And then, when we know, when we have a good understanding and a recollection of what God has done for us, notice what the psalmist says next. Be still and know that I am God. This word be still is interesting because in the Hebrew the word literally means to sink or relax. Now when my daughter was a baby, how many of you remember if you have had children, how many of your infants loved to go to sleep when they were supposed to? Now what do we do as parents when it's bedtime and when you're exhausted and that child needs to go to sleep, you're going to do everything in the world you can to get them to sleep. So I would hold my daughter and she would fight against me and she would yell and she would scream and she would arch her back but I would hold her so tight that eventually she just gave out and I always knew that she was asleep because the fighting would cease and she would just sink into my arms. That's the same language that the psalmist is using here. And that's what's happening spiritually for many of you in your lives today. God is promising you His rest. God is promising you His peace. God is promising you His joy. But yet we're like that little mad infant who doesn't want to go to sleep. We're fighting, we're arching our back, we're yelling, we're screaming, when all we have to do is fall into the arms of the Savior. and find rest and find peace and find comfort. Yet we're so rigid. We want to solve the problems ourselves. We want to sit on the throne and make the decisions instead of just relaxing and sinking into the goodness. The faithfulness, confidence in our God. Do you notice how the psalmist associates be still with knowing God? In other words, you can't be still. In other words, you can't sink into God's arms. In other words, you can't find peace and shelter until you know God. But when you know God, you're able to sink deep into his arms. While the world around you is filled with chaos, while the waves are crashing, we can simply sink into the arms of our God. Be still and know that I am God. This morning I want to encourage you. The Lord has spoken through His psalmist and His message to us is simply this, that I am your shelter. I am your refuge. You don't have to fear. You can be filled with joy. You can relax, but it only comes as we are confident in Him. And if there's ever been a day, church, that we must be confident in our God, it is this day. The world is watching. Are we going to be confident in our God? Or are we going to be confident in some kind of makeshift political systems? Are we going to be confident in our God? Are we going to be confident in some kind of man-made Messiah that we think is going to ride in on a white horse somehow and save us? Can I tell you, there is only one Messiah that has been sent to save, and His name is Jesus. And He shall save His people from their sins. Look to God this morning and everything else will become clear. Amen. Shall we pray together this morning? Our Father, we thank you for. For your word, we thank you that you have declared yourself to be a refuge. A strength. A fortress of very present help in trouble. Lord, I pray that our hearts would turn to You. I pray that our eyes would look upon You, the author and the finisher of our faith. That our eyes would not be on, Lord, what others are doing. That our eyes would not be on what the world is doing. But Lord, that as our eyes are locked on you, that we might be able to find that peace that you promise. Lord, that we might be able to withstand the temptation to live in fear. Lord, that our hearts might always be joyful. Lord, that we might be able to sit back and relax and enjoy the glory and the beauty and the thrill, the satisfaction of your great salvation that's been provided to us so richly and freely today. Lord, we can't do it on our own. We need your help. Holy Spirit, would you come? Would you make Jesus real to us this morning? We ask it in your name. And everyone said Amen. Amen.