Amen. Let's turn to a confessional reading for this evening, Belgic Confession, Article 1, page 153. We won't make reference to it as we work through Psalm 46, but what Belgic Confession 1 and Psalm 46 have in common is they both take us to the character of God, to the being of God. and to think upon the character of God, who God is. And so I'll give the title of the article here, and then let's say it together. Belgian Confession, Article 1, page 153, in the Forms and Prayers. Article 1, The Only God. We all believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being whom we call God, eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty, completely wise, just, and good, and the overflowing source of all good. That's the confession we hold in common. Let us read now the very Word of God, Psalm 46, right near the middle of our Bibles, page 598, and the Bibles under the seats. This is a psalm to the choir master of the Sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song. We'll read and consider this Psalm, it's 11 verses. Psalm 46, beginning at verse 1, 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. 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." So far the reading, the grass withers, the flower fades, the Word of our Lord endures forever. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live in fast-paced, multi-tasking culture. The fast-paced is such that our days can quickly fill, the demands can quickly come, and even when we're not doing anything, we have all kinds of work and leisure right there, often at our fingertips in the form of a cell phone. And so, if we want, we can go through a whole week and we don't ever have to slow down. We don't ever have to stop. We can always have something right there. The psalmists are ever directing us to think upon God. It starts with the first psalm with the language of the man of God who meditates on the law of God day and night. And certainly here is a psalm that takes us to God, who God is and to slow down and to think upon, to dwell upon the truth of who God is. Our theme this morning is this then, to dwell on the truth that God is our fortress. Look first at God's presence and second our privilege and third God's power and forth our peace. This psalm is not just about any time or any type of day in our life. It's especially for days of trouble. Now we know that we are to know the nearness of God and to be serving God in all days and in all seasons. And there's plenty of psalms about that. But this psalm is especially about the time of trouble. And so the very language that the psalmist uses is language that reminds us of times of trouble. Look at the very opening words. God is our refuge. And then the very closing words. The God of Jacob is our fortress. When do you need a fortress? When do you need a refuge? In times of trouble. And so the first verse ends. A very present help in trouble. This psalm is especially about the times of trouble. So those images, refuge at the beginning, fortress at the end, those are things that we need, that we go to when we're in trouble. We can think of this on a smaller scale if we think about heavy rain and about a canopy that protects you from rain. If it's a light rain, then you say, well, I can just go out and I can endure it and that's no problem. Maybe you're even like my children and you like to put on your rain boots and grab your umbrella and not really use your umbrella and just kind of go splash around when it's a light rain falling down. But when it's a heavy rain, going from the illustration to the time of trouble, when there are heavy things falling upon us, We need what? We need a refuge. Nobody goes out to play in the rain when it's a heavy rain pouring down. Maybe in your life you've been caught in a heavy rain. What do you do? You get out as soon as possible. You run to the refuge. I remember a specific time in my life going out on a hike as part of a camping trip with my brother and a couple of our friends. We miscalculated the arrival of the storm. Thankfully we didn't miscalculate it too bad. We were close to the end of the trail when the rain started to come heavy. But here it is, and it's coming, and it's getting very heavy. We don't want to be out there anymore. We run for the shelter, for the refuge. We literally run. And when we get there, we don't move. Our car is just a little ways away, but we're not even moving from the refuge to the car. We got to the refuge first. That's where we're going to stay until the heavy rain is over. When do you go to the refuge? It is especially the picture of protection of the protecting canopy in the time of trouble. The picture of the fortress is the same way. From the very first to the very last words of the psalm, the God of Jacob is our fortress. This one we need to kind of step back into ancient times a little bit because We don't have castles. We don't have fortresses. If we lived in Europe, then there'd be a few of them around, but they're just for tourists' sake. You don't use them practically anymore. But when people had the fortress and the castle, you didn't usually live in the fortress or the castle. A few people did, a few servants and a couple others or whatever, but most people what? Most people lived in the village or villages that surrounded the castle. When did you go to the castle? You went to the castle when the warning came that the invading army was near and that's when everybody gathered up their their most valuable essentials and fled into the fortress to be guarded and to guard it together. This psalm is not just about any time. It's about the time of trouble. So it gives us the pictures of who God is. When the circumstances of life are coming down like the heavy storm. When the enemy is like an invading army crashing down upon us. God is our refuge. God is our fortress. God is our very present help in times of trouble. This is the language of the Psalms, the language of God's protection. God is always our protector. God always gives us peace. But this psalm also does give us, and now I'm moving to verses 4 to 5, this psalm does also give us a more particular promise. It gives us some language about perfect peace. 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. Here's an image that takes us to the river of peace, the river of perfect peace, to the holy habitation. Where is that? Where is there a holy habitation of God's people? Well, that's when all of our sins are removed and we dwell with God. And when there's no longer the raging of the nations or storms or anything else, there is only the river of peace and life and perfect peace without our own sins staining anything in the holy habitation of God. And brothers and sisters, sometimes in the storms of life and in the face of the invading armies of this world, we need the reminders of the peace that is beyond this world. We need the reminders of the perfect peace which is yet to come. So that's part of what's sprinkled into this psalm of comfort for times of trouble. There is finally the river of perfect peace. And this is also the place where we dwell with God. It is the holy habitation, end of verse 4, of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. It's all part of the promises of God that are yes and amen in Jesus Christ, who came to dwell among us in the flesh, who brings us into the presence of God through His sacrifice and salvation accomplished. And so that brings us into our second point, our privilege. When we look and we see who God is and we think also about his promises of eternal and perfect peace, what do we say? What is our response when we consider who God is? We move from verse 1, God is our refuge and strength. We'll think especially about God's strength and power in our third point. God is our refuge and strength. Therefore, we will not fear. Therefore, we will not fear. Brothers and sisters, sometimes we are called to face, or you know, brothers and sisters, who face what we might call earth-shaking trials. You know the phrase. My whole world has been turned upside down. What's the language of this psalm for troubled times? Therefore we will not fear, verse 2, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea. Even when our whole world is turned upside down, and the very mountains are shaking. Even then, we will not fear, because God is our help in any circumstance, including the time of trouble. God is a very present help in trouble. And this is, brothers and sisters, privilege. The language of Psalm 46 is both inclusive and exclusive. Throughout this psalm we have plural language. God is our refuge, verse 1. And then the repeated refrain of verse 7 and 11. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. This is inclusive language. These are promises for every one of God's people who have ever lived at any time of trouble, any earth-shaking circumstances they have ever gone through. God is our refuge. God is your refuge, your fortress. It is inclusive language, but it's also exclusive language. Look again at the repeated refrain of verse 7 and verse 11. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress. Who is the God of Jacob? Well, Jacob worshipped the one true God and God never changes. He is eternal, incomprehensible, almighty. God never changes. God worshipped the one true God, the one true God that we are all called to worship. And so it's inclusive language. God is our God. But it's exclusive language. Anyone who does not serve the God of Jacob cannot say this. Cannot take the comfort of this psalm into their heart in their times of trouble. The psalm is for God's people. The psalm is for all of God's people. But this psalm is only for God's people, for those who know the God of Jacob, for those who know the God of Jacob who sent his son to dwell among us and to save us. Well, let's look now at the second attribute of God emphasized in this psalm. First, God's protection is emphasized. God is our refuge. And then also God's power is emphasized in this psalm. God is our refuge. and strength. And we're going to look at especially at two ways God's power is shown. Verse 6 mentions both of them. God has power over nature. God has power over the nations. We'll begin with God's power over nature. Again, both of these are in verse 6, but verses 2 and 3 emphasize that power of God over nature. It's a picture of earth-shaking events that we might go through, but verses 2 and 3 is also language of the power that God has over all of these things. God is the one who can make the mountains tremble if he so wishes. Put verse 3 together with verse 2. put verse 3 together with the end of verse 6. He utters his voice, the earth melts. God is in control of all these things. He's in control of even the earth shaking events in our life. For God rules sovereignly over all things and God is the one who made this earth. God is the one who can shake this earth. The psalmist may be intentionally using language of the mountains as one of the many ways that the false gods of Canaan are attacked all throughout the Bible. Because what was the belief in that time? Well, the belief in that time was that our false gods live in the mountains. And that's where they are. And that's where they dwell from. And that's where their power is especially evident in all these kinds of things. And the people of God because it's always tempting to believe the lies that surround us. We need to be constantly reminded, no, we serve the God who is everywhere. We do not serve the God on the mountains, we serve the God who has power over the mountains and over everything else. He is everywhere present. He is everywhere all-powerful. Now today, our Creator God's power over nature is denied in different ways. And so today it's denied through theories of evolution and all these kinds of things and those who say, not, well, my God lives on the mountains and I'm going to worship one of these false gods or because everybody worships many gods, I'm going to worship the true God but I'm also going to worship these false gods just to cover all my bases. No, today the lies usually take the shape of, well, I'm not going to believe that God has full power over nature. I'm going to believe that nature itself gave rise to life. So the declarative word, thus says the Lord, is replaced with, thus says science. Science says this, science says that. But whatever way or whatever place the world is telling us to look for strength, for comfort, God's Word, time and time again with so many pictures, and with these pictures especially for troubled times in Psalm 46, God's Word takes us to God. God has power over this, His creation. And God has power also over the nations. The nations rage, the kingdom totters, but God has control over all things. Move not only from that language at the start of verse 6, but even especially to verse 9. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. People of God, the times of trouble that so many have faced from one generation and one place to the next, we are so blessed that there has not been warfare in the state of Wisconsin for so long, but the trouble that so many have faced is the trouble of warfare. It's the trouble of wars and rumors of wars and of the weapons of warfare surrounding them. God has control over these things too. And God finally will shatter these things. So it's not only verses 4 and 5 that take us beyond the troubles of this world and into God's perfect and eternal, holy habitation and river of peace. It's also verse 9 that takes us beyond the troubles of this world and reminds us that all of these weapons of war, God not only breaks them now, but He'll finally break them forever. There will be a time when there is no bow and spear and chariot When there is no missile or tank or fighter jet, it will all be put away. And so we look for God's victory, God's strength, God's power in times of trouble and to the time when all the troubles will cease. But I want us to see one more thing before we move to our fourth point. because it's not just language of victory over the nations. It's not just that rebellion against God will be punished. No, there's also victory over the nations which brings the nations in to celebrate that victory. Look at the movement from verse 9 to verse 10. Be still and know that I am God, And who is this call to faith, to dwell upon who God is, to be still and know God? Who is this call for? Is it just for the people of Israel? No, it is for all people. Verse 10 continues, I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. And so the psalm is not just about God's power over the nations, and that we should not let the nations trouble us. The psalm is also one of many places where the Old Testament, time and time again, takes us to gospel language. The nations will celebrate this victory with you. We know that for those who do not repent, then it's a different end. But this psalm emphasizes as a word of comfort into our time of trouble, they will rejoice with you. Why? Because there will be converts, there will be those who will be stilled and know that God is God among all the peoples of the earth. Jesus gives the Great Commission. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And so part of the language of comfort and peace in this psalm for troubled times is that God will make converts even in midst of times of trouble. Let's just give one specific example of how this happens. There are many accounts, not only in the Bible when the Apostle Paul talks about preaching to his prison guards. But there are many accounts. I just read one this week from China of the people of God being thrown into prison because of their faith. And then, in that trouble, God uses their witness to bring prison guards and or fellow prisoners to faith. God says, I am with you in the time of trouble. I have power over nature and over the nations. And the nations will exult in me. And so what a comfort it is. And this was a Chinese pastor who was able anonymously to give this testimony after his release. what a comfort that while being imprisoned God gives opportunity for special witness to people that you would never otherwise meet and you see those who were rebelling against God come to praise in God in that time of trouble and that's just that's just one kind of example brothers and sisters but that's something that has happened time and time again in the history of God's people. The nations are raging. Our earth is being turned upside down. I'm put into prison. That turns my whole world upside down. I can't do any... But what happens there? God gives me opportunity to witness. And there are many accounts just like that. And then we know there are There are other accounts of other ways that in times of trouble God brings the nations to Himself. Be still and know that I am God. It's a call to all of God's people and it's a gospel call to all the nations because we do have peace in God. That's our last point. Behold the works of the Lord, verse 8, how He has brought desolations on the earth. Dwell upon the truth of who God is, His power, His protection, the privilege that we have being in Him. Think on our peace in Him. Be still and know that I am God. Do we slow down, brothers and sisters, not just to hear the Word, but also to meditate on the Word? If I think in terms of my own personal devotions, I know where I am weaker. I'll open the Bible often, but outside of my work meditation, how often do I personally meditate on, slow down, to dwell my mind upon the truths of who God is and what God has done. Do we slow down? Not to do nothing. Verse 10 is not, be still and do nothing. No, be still, slow down, and think upon who God is. Be still and know that I am God. An example which has challenged me in my life is that account of Mary and Martha in Luke 10. Mary's sitting at the feet of Jesus. Martha is all distracted. That's the language of the text. Luke 10, verses 40-42. She's distracted. It's the very way Luke describes her. starting in Luke 10, verse 42. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she went up to him, that is, Jesus, and said, Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me. But the Lord answered her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. And I appreciate greatly how Pastor Kevin DeYoung uses this account of Mary and Martha to ask an important question or to answer an important question. When is busy too busy? We are too busy when we are too busy to sit at the feet of Jesus. And again, it's not It's not just the opening of the Word, it's the dwelling upon the truth of God's Word. Dwelling upon the truth of who God is. We can never do that too much. God is inexhaustible. He is immeasurable. We can never think upon God too much or we can never think upon God to a point where we've known Him in any kind of full sense. and God is good. He is refuge, He is strength, even in times of trouble. He is a very present help in times of trouble. Brothers and sisters, may the truth of who God is sink deeply into our hearts, and may we hear the call to faith, the gospel call to the nations, and the call to every one of us to grow in faith. The command at the start of verse 10 functions in both ways. Be still and know that I am God. Think upon, dwell upon the truth of who God is for every circumstance of our lives. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God, Almighty and everywhere present, help us to be still and know You.