Well, I invite you to turn tonight to Psalm 46. As you know, we have been working for some time through the book of Joshua. We got near the end, and I haven't completed that yet. I plan to do that. I plan to do that in May as I have some time to run there. I need about three or four more weeks, and then we'll complete Joshua. But until then, we're going to be looking at a few different passages, and Psalm 46 tonight is one I'd like to consider with you. This is found on page 557 in your Bibles. To the choir master of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song. This is the word of the Lord. God is our refuge and strength, the 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's 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. 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 war 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. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word tonight. As you know, this was a precious psalm to Martin Luther. Martin Luther, when he would face great moments of depression, believe it or not, Martin Luther struggled with that at times, and great moments of depression and discouragement, he would say to his fellow laborer Melanchthon, come Philip, let's sing the 46th psalm, and they would sing what we have come to know here is this wonderful, wonderful psalm, mighty fortress is our God. We'll look at this stronghold, he say, a sure stronghold our God is he, a timely shield and weapon. Our help he'll be, and set us free from every ill can happen. So they would sing Psalm 46 as one of the great, and think of all the things that Luther had to face, and all the opposition for the gospel. It was Psalm 46 that gave him a great amount of comfort, and that's what my goal is tonight. It's probably the go-to psalm whenever you are afraid, whenever there is fear. We are sheep, and that is something that sheep do well. We fear. We're scared. We face many different fears in life, and fear is everywhere right now. I remember years ago, my children were very little. We were in South Dakota, and it was late at night, and we were driving, and somebody said a big storm's coming, and I thought, ah, from California. What's that? You know, I don't know what that is. We went out into something that I couldn't see, and we were scared to death. The sheets of rain came down so hard we could see nothing. I was convinced we were in the middle of a tornado, and I remember singing together. I don't know if my children remember this, but I remember singing, and as a family, we sang Psalm 46. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. And as we sang this song, not making this up, in God's providence, everything calmed. So, you know, it was a providential moment, and I was overwhelmed by that, God's power over creation. Well, Psalm 46 is telling us about this. Psalm 46 is helping us with this, God's power over all other earthly powers. That's the emphasis of this particular psalm. And the power, this power is most observed and appreciated in our lives when everything else is giving way. You won't appreciate God's power until you see and face the real fears of this life. And this psalm's helping us to think through those things. It is most revealed when our hands are open before him, and we feel despondent, and we feel desperate, and we cry out to him for help when we are facing very difficult times. Now you think of that family that we prayed for this morning, lost 11-year-old son last week. Psalm 46 is a psalm for them. Situations where we find ourselves where even the enemy of death has come at us, and everything around us is too strong for us. This is a psalm that calls us to raise our hearts to God, to the God of heaven and earth, as the only source of our power and our strength to deliver us in the valley of the shadow of death. Wonderful psalm. So I want, maybe you'll be able, like me, to make this a psalm when you're afraid to go to, to think about. It is a psalm that is intended to calm the heart. It is a psalm that is intended to give peace. It is a psalm that is intended to aid you in all kinds of fears that you have. And so that's what he's helping us with tonight. The psalm, the sons of Korah here are calling us to consider certain things about God, consider his ways to us, consider his power. And that's what we're looking at tonight. First is his help, and then his presence, and then his power. It's the note the psalm ends on tonight to encourage us. The psalmist here is in some kind of despair. He is like Luther at the threshold of an awful tragedy. The situation is dark. There is no apparent answer. And it's one of those situations that if the outcome happens the way that it possibly could happen, everything will change in life as they knew it, as he knew it. I don't know if you've ever been in that kind of situation or circumstance. a state of worry. The scenario turns out as it could. How in the world would you ever recover? Before us, the psalmist has come to this kind of point. The sons of Korah are describing this. It's precisely in the midst of horror and tragedy and difficulty and sorrow that the sons of Korah breathe one of the most beautiful expressions of confidence and trust in the Lord that diffuses this confidence that God is our help who stands above all the creation, all the tumults of the nations, and all the problems of this life. Think of verse 1. God is our refuge and strength, the very present help in trouble. The deist said God wound things up and left. The psalm says differently. God is a very present help to us. God is present with his people, but it focuses here that emphasis on the first part of his help to his people. The almighty God of heaven and earth is a source of help and protection and confidence in a foundationless world. The psalms constantly raise this question. If the foundations are destroyed, what will the righteous do? Foundations are often destroyed and we're left helpless. The psalmist highlights things that he learned about the Lord. The first is that God is a refuge. I love how Luther coined it. God is a bulwark. It means stronghold. A safe haven. A place of safety. A place of fortification. A sanctuary. An embankment. A bulwark for you. The Lord is presented here as the very place that we can run to in all kinds of trouble. that we can flee to for help in the kinds of awful tragedies and difficulties and hardships, even of dark providences of life. And this is a beautiful thing that he's encouraging us to. I don't know if you ever saw that famous picture. It was during the time, I wasn't alive at this time, but I've seen this picture. It was during the time of the Vietnam War, and there was a little girl in the picture running with a few boys. It's a famous, it was one of the most famous photos of the 20th century. Three children in the picture. One was a little girl. Her name was Ken Phuc, and there were two other boys. She's in the picture that the horror on their faces from the Vietnam War is captured. She's without clothes. She had been badly burned. Her parents had probably been killed in the war, and I always thought when I saw that picture, I wonder what happened to her. I wonder what happened to her. Can you imagine being a young girl ripped away from your parents to the atrocities and the horrors of war? Nixon questioned even the legitimacy and the authenticity of the photo. But it was a real picture of capturing the horrors of war. And as her story goes, she considered suicide. She grew older. And in 1982, she found a New Testament in a library. She read it from cover to cover. And she heard the gospel, and she became a Christian. And the psalmist, it's just beautifully capturing something like this, that even in the midst of that horrible moment, God had his hand on her. The psalmist wants us to know we're never alone. There's never a time when God has not called us to come to him for shelter. The psalmist connects this, you'll notice here, to the fact that God is a refuge and our strength. He's not only a refuge that we can run to in all the difficulties of life, but He also provides us shelter and protection, but also gives us strength. He actually gives us inner strength to face the calamities that come, the difficulties. That's why people, it's amazingly remarkable when believers go through some tragedy and the power of the Lord that rests upon them, how He strengthens them through it. He adds a help in all kinds of troubles, whatever the troubles. He doesn't want to be too specific here. Whatever the troubles might be, in all kinds of troubles, you don't have to limit it. He is before us as our refuge and strength and help in all troubles. Look at the fears before us today. You know, we've come through COVID and really, whatever, all the political talk with COVID, think of something that happened years ago called the bubonic plague. I'm going to talk about plague. Wiped out a third of Europe's population. You never know if something like that's coming again. we have wars we're on the brink of some major changes in society that we're about to see in the next 10 years with things that are happening that are moving wait i mean we are truly in a tower of babel moment with artificial intelligence it's going to get weird technology things are happening. Nuclear threats. Earthquakes can wipe out thousands in a moment. Serious stuff is happening on the earth. Crops are in danger. The complete collapse of economies are before us. The horrors of wars are before us. They say one bomb now in a suitcase can wipe out a city. Who can prevent these things? We lock our doors at night. We arm ourselves with weapons telling us, you know, our teeth are on the edge and we are on quicksand in this world. What is firm? What is sure? From an earthly point of view, there is nothing certain here. From an earthly point of view, it's a marvel that we continue every day to have any kind of good go of it. Who does that come from? What if you didn't have the Lord? Think of all these people who go through life with all of these threats breathing down their neck and they have no one to run to. The psalmist had come to learn in these things. The God of heaven and earth has offered himself to us as our defense, help in all kinds of distresses. So the psalmist says, let's stop for a minute and think about this. Let's reason together, if you will, says the Lord. What is the worst thing that could happen? Just imagine it with me for a moment from the psalmist's perspective. Let's pick something. What if, hypothetically, the mountains were picked up and you watched them be picked up and thrown into the sea? What if Mount Palomar was picked up and hurled into the ocean in front of you, causing a tidal wave that would wipe out millions? What if the sea foamed and roared? What are the most secure things you can think of in this life, he's saying, that you think are secure. Where are your securities? What if those all tumbled tomorrow? These are the things you live in fear about. What if? What if? What if? What a perspective he's trying to give us here in a perspective-less and crumbling world. He says, even if the mountains are picked up and hurled in the midst of the sea and the sea roars at us with the big tidal waves, imagine if everything in life fell apart as you knew it. Imagine the worst atrocities that you could think of. There's one that cannot be shaken. There is one who cannot be shaken. He's the Lord of creation, and he's the Lord of history. Elizabeth Elliot, you know, lost two husbands in commenting on this psalm. She said, everything that seemed most dependable has given way for me. Mountains are falling, earth is reeling. In such a time, it's a profound comfort to know that although all things seem shaken, one thing is not. God is not shaken. God is not shaken. See, the psalmist wants us to see that he is the one we run to, the one who is the source of stability, our foundation, our strength, our help, our rock, our fortress, our bulwark, our shelter. And there's no time when you cannot call to him. There's no time when you cannot come to him. When you're on your beds in the night and lonely and distressed, you can call to him. He is a shelter to you. So he says, consider this. Consider his presence for you. Verse 4, there's a river whose streams make glad the city of God. It's a beautiful thing he's saying to us. 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. He's thinking of his church. The nations rage. The kingdoms totter. He uttered his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. What a comfort. If there is a background of this psalm, the most received background of this psalm is when the nations were raging against the city of God, this earthly city of Jerusalem. And the background is probably 2 Kings 19. When Sennacherib came, the great king of the Assyrian army, and commanded his army to surround Jerusalem. And you remember when Jerusalem was surrounded and this great wicked tyrant threatened Hezekiah and he boasted against the Lord, what's the Lord going to do for you? What's the Lord going to do for you? And Hezekiah took his letter of threat. It's really beautiful imagery. He took the letter of threat. It's almost like, thank you for the letter. I'm going to set this right in front of the Lord. And this is what he prayed. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God. You alone of all the kingdoms of the earth, you've made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord God, you alone. And what happened to Assyria? And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000. When the people arose early in the morning, there were corpses all dead. And Kherib, the king of Assyria, departed and went away, returned home and remained at Nineveh. The earthly city of Jerusalem was always under attack. 586, remember it collapsed by Nebuchadnezzar. The psalmist described something else for us. What if the earthly cities of this world collapse? What if the United States collapses? Not so far off a proposition, is it? What if all this collapses tomorrow? What if all the retirements and money collapses tomorrow? Here's the best news for you. Not only is he a refuge and a bulwark and a strength and a fortress and a shield for you. But here's what we have. You belong, he says, to the heavenly city. See, that's what's emphasized here. 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 will not be moved. The city you belong to can't be touched, he says. And he wants to encourage us with the imagery that in the city that we belong to, there is abundant supply of everything that you ever need. There's a river whose streams make glad the city of God. The only natural water supply in Jerusalem was a small stream called the stream of Siloam. The nations are compared to the roaring seas here. The true place of safety is around the true Temple Mount where God is. And there a stream flows for you. The Lord is a shield and a protection. Even when he feels distant, your feelings don't determine the reality of his care and his protection. God is in the midst of the city, the city to which you're going, the city to which you belong. And notice this second stanza says here, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. We come to the third stanza tonight. It's a powerful stanza. Consider his help. Consider his presence. And then he says, consider his power. Look at verse 8. Come behold the works of the Lord, how He has brought desolations on the earth. Who has? See, we look at everything wrongly at times. He makes war cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and He shatters the spear. He burns the chariot in the fire. What is described for us in these last verses is the attitude and action of the Lord toward those who disrupt his kingdom and his people. I think this is the most fascinating section here in terms of how it corrects our thinking. In other words, if I could say this very plainly, maybe to the boys and girls tonight, they don't know who they're messing with. They don't know who they're messing with. He's pictured in verse 5 as up at the break of dawn. He's ready to fight. He's ready to defend. He's ready to defend all those who have come to him as their refuge and strength. So in verse 8, this is what he's calling us to consider. And I think this is what is intended to put down fear in life. It's intended to quell fear. It's intended to calm the heart. Consider his works. He makes desolations. He makes wars cease. He breaks the bow. All the human strength, all the areas of human power are all subject to him. This is not a language of a treaty. God is here using the language of imposing peace through destruction. That's how zealous he is for you. That's how ready he is to fight for you. It has nothing to do with negotiation. It has a sense of dropping the atomic bomb on those who mess with us. He who is in the heaven shall laugh. He shall hold them in derision. See, he shall speak to them in his wrath. The nations are but a drop in the bucket. You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel, he said to his son installed on Zion. That's the reality. That's the danger they're in. That's his message to the wicked. And I think that little verse that we have made a contemplative thing, be still and know that I'm God. Be still and know that I'm God is not the way it should be read, at least in the way that we're understanding it. It's not a contemplative thing that we just need to stop worrying and calm down. That's indeed true. That's not the point he's making here. What he's saying is literally, desist and know that it is I. I am God. He's saying that to the nations. He's saying that to those who trouble us. He's saying that to those who want to harm us. Stop troubling my people before it's too late and you find yourself consumed. Stop pursuing your own will. Bow the knee to the king and recognize that I am the one who is victorious overall this is a psalm of power this is a psalm of strength um to our our view of god is is at times so weak so pathetic he's this strong and all will bow to him all will bow to his son the beauty of the psalm is i think also is what we're left with notice how the the psalm ends 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 refuge. Jehovah Sabaoth, the Lord of the armies of Israel, the Lord of the entire angelic realm, all the ranks of the armies in heaven is with us. And indeed, he is. When Jesus came to us, there was a great announcement, wasn't there? Emmanuel, God is with us. It's the fulfillment of this. Jesus came to us, the King. Jesus came as our refuge and strength. Jesus came as our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who rose again triumphant, and every knee is bowing, and every tongue will confess that he's Lord. God has come and helped us just at the break of dawn. He is ready and eager to help us. While the nations rage, though these things happen on the earth, he is ruling with a rod of iron. And so the people should be still and know that Jesus is God. The great encouragement here of all the people that he could have chosen at the end. And, you know, who would you put there to say the God of so-and-so is our fortress to end the song? Well, you might say Abraham. You know, you might say Moses. Who would you consider in the Old Testament as righteous? You might say the God of Job. The God of Jacob. He was the biggest scoundrel of them all. The God of Jacob, the God of the schemer whom he redeemed. That's what gets me, I think, the most in the psalm. Is that God has chosen us. God has saved us. And if you know what you are, you know that is a marvel. You know that is a work of his grace. And that God has so started that project. God will complete that project. God has his eye on his sheep the whole way through. You're never alone. Understand that. You're never alone. And he doesn't want you to live in fear. Because he indeed cares this much for us. The God of Jacob gives us rest. And he has a city for us that he's prepared, whose streams make glad this city where the throne of God is that can never be moved. You belong there, he says. You belong there. You're going there. We're living in the most uncertain of times. I don't know how I've never, I don't think I've ever preached the psalm in this church, but I think I preached this once or twice in Linden. and I'm sure I preached it quite a bit different, the times have changed so radically in just a short amount of time. In the turbulent world in which we find ourselves, you know, I pray that you have the same sort of confidence the psalm has. He wants you to be able, like Luther, in every distressing moment, in every difficulty, to be able to open up Psalm 46 and say, God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, period. Of everything else he said, you could stop there. We will not fear because that is true. A mighty fortress, said Luther, is our God a bulwark, never failing. May we go out this week and live believing that for our God is with us and never leaves us nor forsakes us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for an encouraging word to us tonight. Thank you for blessing us with this psalm. Thank you for giving us hope and certainty and help. Sinners that we are like Jacob. But may we, Lord, not be like the nations who fight against you and who refuse to bow the knee. May we be a people, O Lord, our whole lives who are glad to come to the Lord and express our trust and faith and to live by faith that we belong to a better city and that you will defend us. You will shield us. You will be with us. And whatever fears come upon us in this life, we can cry out to the Lord who is our defense, our security, our bulwark, never failing us. Thank you, O Lord, for Psalm 46. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.