The Scripture reading this morning is Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Therein is our reading of God's Word this morning. The theme of Psalm 46 is found in the text that we consider this morning. That theme is that God is the refuge and strength of His people. And therefore, the people of God are safe and secure even in the midst of the greatest troubles that they face during their lives here on this earth. This theme is confessed by the people of God, by the church of God, in the text that we consider this morning. This is the confession of the church that God is her refuge and strength. This isn't the confession of an individual, as many of the Psalms are, but this is the confession of the people of God together and the confession that they make in their worship of God. The title indicates that this psalm was written for the sons of Korah. They were Levites. And they led the people of God in the singing of the praises of God in worship. Notice in verse 1-2 that the psalm does not say, God is my refuge. God is our refuge and strength. Thus, this is the confession of God's church. This is the confession that God's church sings. That we sing. That we sing as we did in Psalter number 128. And our confession this morning is that God is our refuge and strength. Therefore, we are safe and secure. Notice our confession is not that we are at peace. That everything is going fine. That there is only joy and happiness for us in this life. That's not what the psalm indicates either. The text speaks of trouble. And in verse 8 of Psalm 46, we read that the Lord had made desolations in the earth. And verse 9 says that He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth. And so, even though the wars had ceased, that implies that there was war and that the people of God were doing battle. And so, our experience too is that we have troubles. Many troubles. And great troubles. The psalm doesn't tell us that we won't have trouble. But the text does teach us that despite all of the great troubles that we go through in this life, we may be sure of this. God is our refuge and our strength. And as long as we confess that, then we know that our troubles will not overwhelm us. We know that we are safe. And we know that we are safe not simply because of what God does for us, but because of who He is. He must be God. And He must be something in order for Him to be able to help us. And the name of God used in the text emphasizes that He is the independent, sovereign, almighty God. He has no need of any creature. The creature depends upon Him. But He is independent. That God, the independent, sovereign, almighty God, is the God of the church. The church's refuge and strength. And when the church confesses that, then the only conclusion that the church can come to is that no matter what troubles she faces, she will not fear. because God is her refuge and strength. Let's consider that a little further this morning as we look at this text under the theme, God, Our Refuge and Strength. Let's notice in the first place that He is a refuge that is needed. We need a refuge. Secondly, let us notice that He is a refuge that is strong. He is a strong and sure refuge. And thirdly, let us notice He is a refuge that removes all fear and gives us confidence. This psalm was written at a time when the people of God in the Old Testament needed a refuge. This psalm was written either in the midst of great trouble or immediately after the trouble had ended. And that this psalm speaks of the need for a refuge indicates that there was danger for the people of God. A refuge is a shelter. A shelter that keeps one safe from the danger that is threatening. And so, the implication of the text is that there is trouble. There is danger for the people of God. And notice that verses 2 and 3 give us a picture of that danger. It speaks of the earth being removed. We can think of a great earthquake. And it speaks of the waters of the sea roaring and foaming. Maybe we can think there of a great hurricane. There's great trouble and the people need refuge. And you children can understand what refuge is, what a shelter is. That's what your homes are. Your homes are shelters in times when there are storms. Maybe there isn't a great danger. Maybe there's just a little bit of rain falling. And you go into the house in order to stay dry. Sometimes there's great danger. Maybe there's a tornado. And your moms and dads call you into the house and bring you in the basement. And there, in the basement of the house, you find refuge, shelter from the tornado. Well, that's the picture in the text of the trouble that the people in the Old Testament faced. There was great danger. Not just a little storm, but a great storm that doesn't just cover Hudsonville, but covers the whole earth. The whole earth is being moved. And the whole earth is being covered by the seas. There's a danger that makes Judah seek refuge in God. But that storm is just a picture. It's a picture of the real trouble that the people in the Old Testament were facing. That real trouble was the threat or the attack that the people of God faced from their enemies. That the people were being attacked by their enemies is evident in the context. In verse 6. Verse 6 says, The heathen raged. The kingdoms were moved. Now, the heathen were the enemies of the people of God. And the text here is speaking of one of the great enemies of the people. A mighty kingdom that was establishing itself as the dominant kingdom in the earth. It was throwing down other kingdoms and moving them. This occurred throughout the Old Testament period. The people of Israel and Judah were often attacked by their enemies. But likely, the text is making reference to the time when Hezekiah was the king of Judah. Hezekiah was a godly king. And he reigned during the time when Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, attacked the city of Jerusalem. The history is recorded in 2 Kings 18 and 19. Perhaps you remember that history. Sennacherib was a mighty king. Assyria was a mighty nation. The most powerful nation on the earth. And all of the other nations paid tribute, paid taxes to Assyria. And even Judah, under Hezekiah's father Ahaz, paid tribute to the king of Assyria. But Hezekiah rebelled. He stopped paying tribute. So, Sennacherib sent his army under the general Rabshakeh to subdue and to defeat the people of Judah. He sent his general, Rabshakeh, and he destroyed all of the other cities of Judah. All of the cities except Jerusalem. And all the people of God fled into the city. and were surrounded by that mighty army of Assyria. And Rabshakeh the general spoke to the people as they sat upon the walls of the city. And he sought to frighten them. He said to them that they had two options. The first option was that they could surrender. If they surrendered, they would not be killed, but would be carried off into captivity and could live in another land. a land that was not the land that God gave the people in Canaan. The other option, which wasn't a good option either for the people, was that if they did not surrender, they would be destroyed. The army of Assyria would overrun the city and kill all of the people. One of the servants of Hezekiah heard that speech And he went to Hezekiah and reported what Rabshakeh had said. And in 2 Kings 19 verse 3, we read Hezekiah's response. 2 Kings 19 verse 3, Hezekiah said, This day is a day of trouble and of rebuke and blasphemy. That's the trouble the psalmist is writing about here in this particular psalm. And the text here describes the nature of this trouble that Judah faced. That word trouble refers to something that is being pressed, that is being squeezed. Therefore, refers to the distress that one feels when he is being pressed and squeezed. This refers to the distress of the people of God as they are being pressed by their enemies. That storm then gives a good picture of the trouble that the people are facing. The picture in the storm is of the sea closing in upon the people so that as they seek high ground in order to be safe from the sea, they go up higher and higher on the mountains, and even the mountains are being closed in upon by the sea. That's what's happening to the people. As the mighty army of Assyria closes in on the city of Jerusalem, the people feel as though they are going to be flooded over and squeezed out of existence. They're in the city of Jerusalem behind the walls of the city, but those walls seem as though they are going to be overflowed by the armies of Assyria. That's the trouble. The trouble that the people of God are facing. They're being squeezed, pressed, and they're under distress. We notice two things about this trouble. In the first place, this is no minor trouble. This is a great trouble. The people are threatened with being wiped out. And secondly, we notice the powerlessness of the people of Judah in the midst of this trouble. There's nothing they can do to withstand the Assyrian army. Hezekiah knows that the armies of Judah cannot stand up to the Assyrians. And that General Rabshakeh pointed that out to the people. Maybe you recall that. He said to the people, don't trust in Hezekiah for deliverance. And don't trust in any of the other kings of the world. If you look to Egypt, Egypt was the other great nation in that day. If you look to Egypt, you will find no help, he said. There's no one who can help you. The best thing that you can do is surrender. If we keep in mind then that this is a great trouble that the people face and that there is nothing they can do to save themselves, then we can see They need refuge from someone else. They need help from God. Judah was in trouble. And it's important that we understand Judah's trouble, because Judah's trouble is a picture of the trouble that God's people face today. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the word here in the text that speaks of trouble has the same meaning of a word used in the New Testament. And in the New Testament, it speaks of the trouble that the people of God in the church today face. We must expect trouble. And Jesus teaches us that we will face trouble in Matthew 24. The word used in the New Testament is often translated as tribulation or affliction. In Matthew 24 verse 9, Jesus uses that word to describe the troubles that the church will face. There as He's speaking to His disciples, Jesus said, Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted. That's the word that means to be pressed. And then Jesus describes what that affliction will be like when He says, And shall kill you, and ye shall be hated of all nations, for My name's sake." And the Apostle Paul, likewise, uses that same word to describe the troubles of the people of God in Acts 14. On his first missionary journey, the Apostle established the churches in Asia Minor. And then he went back and spoke to the members of those churches and he said in Acts 14 verse 22, We must, through much tribulation, enter into the Kingdom of God. There's much tribulation and trouble for the people of God in the New Testament. That's what God's Word teaches us to expect. That's what we experience every day, too, in our lives. There are great troubles. Troubles that seem as though they will swallow us up. And certainly one of the greatest troubles that we face in the church today is persecution. And that's really what was happening to Judah in the Old Testament too. The church was being persecuted by the enemies of God. Satan was working there through the nation of Assyria trying to destroy God's people. And that continues today. Satan through the ungodly today tries to destroy the church through persecution. And there is persecution taking place in the world today, physical persecution. Maybe not in this nation, but in other nations, there are Christians who are killed and tortured and beaten for their confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Even though we don't face that kind of persecution here today, we know from what Jesus said in Matthew 24 that those days are coming. that that persecution will only increase. But even though we aren't beaten and killed here, we certainly are persecuted. Just as Jesus said they will kill the disciples, He also said there in Matthew 24 verse 9 that they will be hated for His name's sake. That's what we find today too, that we are hated, that we are ridiculed and scorned. Because of the truth that we confess. The truth of Scripture. The world wants nothing to do with our confession of faith in God and Jesus Christ. We're ridiculed for believing that God is the Creator. That He must be served. We're ridiculed for believing that salvation is found in Jesus Christ and in Him alone. The world wants nothing to do with the confession of the truth that we make in God and in Jesus Christ. But not only that, the world attacks us because of our desire and our emphasis upon living in holiness before God. Especially the young people feel that attack in the church today. The world says, Live according to the Word of God in holiness. And why not follow after us in all of our sins? And in all of the immorality and sins of the world? More and more, we feel like we are on our own. In our confession of the truth and in our walk in holiness. More and more of the church is giving up the truth and giving up the way of holiness. So that we as Judah will seem, as the people of Jerusalem that is, will seem as though, or feel as though we are on our own. That the world is increasingly encroaching upon us, stamping the Church of God out of existence. Persecution is one of the forms of trouble that the tax is speaking about. Certainly, the text is broader than that. The troubles that we face are not limited to persecution, but there are other troubles. There are the minor troubles that we face in our daily lives, but there are also the great troubles and tragedies. And that's the emphasis here in the text. The text is speaking of the troubles that seem to overwhelm us flood us over with grief and trouble. That's the kind of trouble that the text is speaking of is when the diagnosis is given. The doctor says he has found cancer. We wonder how are we going to cope with that disease or other diseases. And those troubles, Great troubles come in the sudden death of a loved one. When a grandfather dies, there's some trouble, some grief. But maybe a father or a mother with children in the home. Or maybe even a child or an infant. Then the seas, the waves of the seas seem as though they will overwhelm us with grief and despair. Many great troubles we face in this life. And those troubles, too, bring great danger. Because Satan not only works in times of persecution, but he's working on us when we are weak because of the trials that we face. That's when he comes to us and tries to shake us. To turn us away from God and to tell us there's no hope. There's no help for you. And so, the troubles seem sometimes to overwhelm us. How can we continue on living? How can we cope with these great troubles? Those are the questions that we face. Where can we go for help and for safety? We need refuge. We have refuge. We have refuge because God is our refuge and our strength. And He is a sure refuge. The text emphasizes that God is a sure and a strong refuge. A refuge, as I mentioned earlier, is a shelter. Something that protects the people of God from the trouble that is threatening them. But He's not only our refuge, He is our strength. And the relationship between those two words is that the strength describes the kind of refuge that God is. He is a strong, mighty, and powerful refuge. And even though the psalmist here doesn't speak of a tower, that's likely the picture that he is painting for us here in the text. In Psalm 61, verse 3, the psalmist speaks of a refuge or a shelter that is a strong tower. He says in Psalm 61, verse 3, for thou hast been a shelter. That's the same word that is in our text that means refuge. For thou hast been a shelter for me and a strong tower from the enemy. What a beautiful picture. then. We can picture a tower made out of stone that is founded on a solid rock on a mountain, a foundation that cannot be shaken. And the stones are thick, and they extend high into the sky, so that even though the storm is great, this tower provides sure protection from the storm. The waves No matter how mighty they are, cannot crash in the walls of this tower. And no matter how high the seas rise, they cannot rise above the walls of this tower. And the text underscores how great this shelter is when it says that God is a very present help in trouble. We should read that this way. He is an exceeding superabundant help in a time of trouble. So, God is pictured here as being mightier than the storm. He doesn't just try to give a little help in the midst of this storm. He doesn't provide a shelter for a couple of hours and then finally become overcome by the storm. He gives a sure help in the midst of this trouble. When the storm is at its greatest, He is at its strongest. But not only is God pictured here as being mightier than the storm, He has all power, all sovereign power over the storm so that the storm is controlled by God. Verse 8 indicates this when it says, Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth. The storm had made desolations. But now the psalm can say that the Lord made those desolations because He is the One who controlled the storm. We can understand this More clearly when we look at Psalm 107. Psalm 107 calls our attention to the wonders of the Lord in the deep, in the sea. And in verse 25, the psalmist says, For He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind which lifteth the waves thereof. So the Lord makes the storm. He causes the waves and the winds. But then, notice what the psalmist says in verse 29. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. God is the one who is in control of the storm. He lifts up the storm and He calms the storm. And again, that's a picture of the reality The reality is that God sovereignly controls all of the troubles that His people face. God was in control when Jerusalem was under attack by the Assyrians. God was in control of the Assyrians themselves. You can read of that in Isaiah 10. There the prophet Isaiah describes the Assyrians as an instrument in the hand of God. An instrument that God wielded, that God moved according to His own good pleasure, so that Assyria went and attacked when God said go and attack, and Assyria retreated when God told Assyria to retreat. So even though, if we just look At Assyria and Judah, Assyria appears to be much mightier than the people of Judah. When we see that God is the refuge of Judah, then we see that the people of Judah are safe because God controls the enemy. He controls the Assyrians. And so, God controls all of our troubles. The persecution that we read about. in the New Testament is a great persecution. But that persecution too is controlled by God. Satan and all of the ungodly that he controls can only attack when God says they may attack. They're not independent from God. God is in control. And all the other troubles, the diseases, the cancer, the heart disease, the deaths of loved ones, All of those things are sovereignly and completely controlled by God. He sends trials to His people according to His will. Troubles never come to us by accident. They're controlled by God. That's the strong refuge that we have. God who is in control of all of our troubles. But that's not all that the text means to say when it says that God is our refuge and strength. Not only that God is strong in the sense that He controls everything, but He is our strength. That's what the text says. That is, He is the strength within us. He works in us so that we can stand strong in the midst of troubles. If we are left to ourselves, we would be overwhelmed by our troubles. Surely, that was the case with Judah. What would the people of God have done when they faced that danger if they were left to themselves? Surely, Hezekiah would have looked out over that great army and he would have said, let's surrender. There's nothing we can do to fight against this army. Let's surrender and save ourselves. And if we were left to ourselves, too, our troubles would overwhelm us, wouldn't they? They would. We would want to give up. We would see that there's nothing we can do to stand strong in the time of trouble. But it's God who works in us by His grace and gives us the power to stand so that we remain steadfast, patient, and endure the trouble. God's grace is a power that works within us. It is. We can see that in the wonder work of God in regeneration and conversion. Regeneration is that work of God in us where He gives us new life. And conversion is the work of God in which He draws us to Himself so that we live for Him and walk after Him. So that even In the time of great trouble and temptation, we don't forsake Him and turn away from Him. It's God who keeps us strong and steadfast in the time of trouble. He is our refuge and strength. But now, ultimately, we must see that God is our refuge and strength in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. is the one who has accomplished our salvation and who guarantees our safety and security. He took care of our greatest need, our greatest trouble on the cross. The greatest trouble for us is not that we are persecuted. It's not that we are stricken with a disease that may lead to death, our greatest trouble stems from our sinfulness. What do we deserve because of our sins? We deserve hell. We deserve the infinite and eternal wrath of God. And Jesus has saved us from that trouble. He took that wrath that we deserve. And the punishment we deserve for our sins. And He satisfied the justice of God. So that that trouble does not need to be faced by us anymore. But not only did Jesus Christ take away the punishment we deserve for our sins, but He has earned the fullness of our salvation. So that if He has seen us through that trouble, then He guarantees He will see us through all of our trouble. He's always with His people, protecting and preserving them. And thus, even in the Old Testament, it was Jesus Christ who preserved the people of Judah as they were in the midst of that trouble they faced from the Assyrians. Hezekiah and the people of Judah were not on their own. If they were, they would have been overwhelmed. But they didn't have to do anything to turn away the Assyrian army. Hezekiah and his armies never lifted one weapon. Remember the history? What happened? The angel of the Lord went out in the middle of the night and destroyed 185,000 of the Assyrians. And when the Assyrians woke up in the morning and saw all of the death and the destruction, they fled away. They ran in terror from the city of Jerusalem. And that angel of the Lord pointed ahead to Jesus Christ, the One who delivers His people from their troubles. And so, Jesus is our refuge today. He died on the cross for us. Now He has ascended into Heaven and continues to care for us in our every need. He has the victory. The victory over our sins, but also the victory over Satan and all of his hosts, so that the enemies cannot destroy us, but are under his control. The Bible teaches us that God is placing all of his enemies under his feet for a footstool. He rules sovereignly over Satan and all who seek to oppose us. And He is our refuge in the midst of all of the other troubles. Hebrews 7 verse 25 assures us that Jesus is able to save us completely. It says, He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make intercession for His people. Right now, at the right hand of God, Jesus is pleading our cause before the Father, so that the Father knows about every one of your troubles and of my troubles. And Jesus asks the Father to give us help. And the Father will surely hear Him and give help to the people of Jesus Christ. And so right now, we can be sure that as God helped His people in the past, and we have the testimony of that, don't we? In the Old Testament, God was always a refuge and strength of His people, so He is our refuge and strength today. But even more than that, because of the work of Jesus Christ, we know that we have a refuge now, but that in the future, All of our troubles will be taken away. Right now, we don't have perfect peace and happiness. One day, we will. Because Jesus is coming again, and He will make all things new. God is our refuge and strength. A sure refuge and strength in Jesus Christ. And if that's true, If that's the confession that we make, then we can ask that question. What will we fear? You see, God doesn't want us to be afraid. He doesn't want us to have any fear. He wants us to have confidence and to be sure of His help and refuge. It's not proper for God's people to be afraid because fear is sinful. It is. In this context, fear is the sense that the trouble is going to overwhelm us. It will overtake us. Because God is not able to help us. He's not able to help us and maybe He doesn't want to help us. After all, isn't He the One who allowed us to have this trouble? Hasn't He really forgotten about me?" That's what one who is afraid says. So we can see that fear is unbelief about God, about what He can do, and about His faithfulness. And even though here the text does not give a command, elsewhere in Scripture, God gives the command, fear not, to His people. So that fear is really disobedience to God. God does not want us to be afraid. And we can understand that. Why doesn't God want us to be afraid? Well, look what fear leads to. Fear leads to ever greater and more sin. What characterizes one who is afraid? What characterizes one who is afraid is surrender. He's afraid so he's going to give up. He doesn't dare to confess God or to live for God because he's afraid what will happen. He's afraid that he will be destroyed. One who is afraid then, who doesn't look to God for help, will look in other places. He'll look to himself or he will look to other men. So that he's moving further and further away from God. And it's no wonder then that fear is so displeasing to God. Because fear does not honor God, but rather dishonors Him. God does not want us to be afraid. Because when His people have confidence, when His people trust in Him, then God is honored and exalted. And we can see that when we look at Judah in the Old Testament. What happened? The people were delivered from that mighty army of Assyria. So that all of the people around about Jerusalem had to ask the question, how could this be? How could this happen that the people of Jerusalem turned back the Assyrians? And the only answer that the people in that day could give was that the God of Jerusalem gave the people deliverance. So, God was honored by the courage and the fearlessness of Hezekiah, who didn't hesitate, didn't surrender, but went directly to God and asked God for help. And so, God is honored when we are fearless And when we are steadfast in the time of trouble, think of the testimony that is given when one of God's people in a time of illness is not shaken, but shows that he trusts steadfastly in God. And people often ask the question, how? How can they be so sure in this time of trouble? How come they don't despair? Where do they get their patience? and their endurance in this time of trouble? And the only answer is, they get that strength, that patience from God. So, God wants us to be fearless in the time of trouble. To be faithful to Him and to honor Him. And the only way that we can have this fearlessness is if we look to God in faith. We have to look to Him and trust in Him, believing in Him. The text stresses the need to rely upon God in verse 1. That doesn't come out in the King James translation. The King James says that God is a very present help in trouble. And that stresses who God is. He is a help. But we could read that this way. God is found a very help in trouble. And if we read it that way, then the emphasis is on our activity of finding God. And we find Him when we look to Him in faith. That's our calling and that's the way then that we are assured of God's help and strength. This does not mean that our believing upon God is the condition for our finding help and safety. Our safety depends only upon God's work. And this does not mean that when we are faced with troubles that we will not feel them, that we will become insensitive to them, and that's why we won't fear in the midst of troubles. No, we don't become stoics. We feel pain in the time of trouble. And God wants us to feel pain in the time of trouble. He wants to capture our attention and to show us then that we need Him so that we rely upon Him. And when we rely upon Him with true faith, believing upon Him, then we are safe. And we can understand how this works if we go again to the figure. The figure is of that great storm. And if you can imagine the people of God in the midst of that storm, if they were standing even on the tallest mountain and they saw the seas closing in upon them, how afraid they must have been. But then, they go to the tower. And they climb up. to the highest point of the tower, and they look out the window, and as they look down, all they see are little waves. And inside the tower, they do not hear the wind or the waves, but they feel safe and secure. And maybe they even turn around and go into the middle of the tower and forget that there is a storm outside. That's the way it works with us too. When we run to God in faith, then we are safe. If we don't look to Him and we only see our trouble, then we must be afraid because then we don't have any help. But if we look to God first and see who He is, that He is the independent, Almighty and Sovereign God, all-powerful over all things. And then we look at our troubles. We see they are truly insignificant. They are nothing before God. And then we can know we are safe. We can ask the question, with God as our refuge and strength, What will we be afraid of? And the answer is nothing. Nothing. No matter what the trouble may be, now, forevermore, we will not be afraid because we know we are safe in God and in Jesus Christ. And so, in the midst of troubles, we will sing fearlessly God is our refuge and our strength. Therefore, we will not fear. Amen. O Lord God, we are often overwhelmed with trials and afflictions. We thank Thee for the sure safety that Thou hast given to us in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, not only, but also for the assurance of safety, perfect safety on our way here in this earth, knowing that nothing will ever remove us from thy love and from the salvation that is stored up for us in heaven. Forgive now our sins and bless us as we depart, we pray in Jesus name. Amen.