He Rules The Earth

Tonight, we’re going to pause our study in Jonah for a week and park out in Psalm 46 to examine an often neglected attribute of God: His Sovereignty. This simply means that our God rules as the unrivaled King over His Creation and how He He brings things to work together for His good pleasure. We live in a world where people are trying to not only find purpose but they’re trying to find power. Where does the power reside? Who is truly in control? Some will argue that karma is in control. Others will argue that luck is in control. Some say that another person is in control. Some might believe that Satan is in control and many believe the lie that we are in control. During an election week like the one we are beginning, it is so important for us as Christians to remember the truth of God’s Word: Our God Reigns!

John Newton, the writer of Amazing Grace, once shared this, “There is one political maxim which comforts me: ‘The Lord reigns.’ His hand guides the storm; and He knows them that are His, how to protect, support, and deliver them… Men have one thing in view; He has another, and His counsel shall stand.”

it is a blessing to live in a country where we are able to vote and exercise our freedom to do so! And this is a freedom that we should not take lightly, as many countries and Christian brothers and sisters do not have this wonderful opportunity. But, whatever happens this week - our God reigns. If things don’t go the way we’d like - our God reigns. If gas prices soar - our God reigns. If people panic - our God reigns. If we’re upset - our God reigns. If we’re happy - our God reigns. This is a maxim in Scripture that should lead us to rejoice - not be confused. Look at these passages of Scripture:

Job 42:2 CSB

2 I know that you can do anything and no plan of yours can be thwarted.

Psalm 115:3 CSB

3 Our God is in heaven and does whatever he pleases.

Isaiah 46:10 CSB

10 I declare the end from the beginning, and from long ago what is not yet done, saying: my plan will take place, and I will do all my will.

Daniel 2:21 CSB

21 He changes the times and seasons; he removes kings and establishes kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.

1 Timothy 6:15 CSB

15 God will bring this about in his own time. He is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords,

Church, our God rules and reigns. He has a perfect plan that might not make sense to us but it will come to pass and His plan is for our ultimate good of becoming more like Christ. In a world that thinks that we’re in charge, the doctrine of God being in control might not sound like good news to our prideful heart but it is exactly the news that our sinful hearts need to hear. There are lots of passages we could look at to see this truth, but given this time of the year it is more than appropriate to look at Psalm 46 as this psalm led to the writing of one of the most wellknown hymns in history, A Mighty Fortress, by Martin Luther who every Christian should know about due to Reformation Day.

How does Psalm 46 remind us of God ruling over this earth? In Jonah’s ministry as we’ve been looking at in October, the Assyrians were the major power of the region and the capital of Nineveh was a place of evil and wickedness. Jonah went to Nineveh in the mid 700s BC and called on the people to repent and the people do for a period of time but fast forward about 20 years and they’re back to their wickedness and in 722 BC they capture the northern Kingdom of Israel due to their failure to worship God alone. The Assyrians aren’t content with just Israel, though, and they turn their eyes to the southern kingdom of Judah and its capital, Jerusalem. The Assyrians would usually surround a city and send messengers inside to taunt the leadership and encourage the citizens to simply surrender. If you failed to surrender, they’d capture your city, burn your homes, imprison your men, take the women as their wives, and even kill the children. Hezekiah, the king, has already been given a message to surrender and no nation had survived against the Assyrians to this point. What does Hezekiah do in this moment of decision? Does he bend the knee to a pagan power or does he pray for God to provide? Isaiah 37:15-20

Isaiah 37:15–20 CSB

15 Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord: 16 Lord of Armies, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim, you are God—you alone—of all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. 17 Listen closely, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see. Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God. 18 Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated all these countries and their lands. 19 They have thrown their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but made from wood and stone by human hands. So they have destroyed them. 20 Now, Lord our God, save us from his power so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, Lord, are God—you alone.

When he was tempted to believe Sennacherib was sovereign. When he was tempted to believe that he himself was sovereign. Hezekiah trusts in the Lord and begs the sovereign God for help. What happens after this prayer? Isaiah 37:36

Isaiah 37:36 CSB

36 Then the angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning, there were all the dead bodies!

I ask you, who is in control? It’s not karma. It’s not Satan. It’s not even you or me. It’s the King of Kings and Lord of Lords - He’s seated on His throne today just as He was then! Our God is our fortress against our greatest fears and foes. When it feels like the enemy is about to prevail or things are turning in a confusing manner, we know that our God is our fortress and there is hope and purpose in Him alone. Psalm 46 provides us with our response to God’s sovereign rule - let’s read this incredible Psalm of joy.

Psalm 46 CSB

For the choir director. A song of the sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. 1 God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble. 2 Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas, 3 though its water roars and foams and the mountains quake with its turmoil. Selah 4 There is a river— its streams delight the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High. 5 God is within her; she will not be toppled. God will help her when the morning dawns. 6 Nations rage, kingdoms topple; the earth melts when he lifts his voice. 7 The Lord of Armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah 8 Come, see the works of the Lord, who brings devastation on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease throughout the earth. He shatters bows and cuts spears to pieces; he sets wagons ablaze. 10 “Stop fighting, and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” 11 The Lord of Armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah

Overview

Tonight I want to spend our time looking at 3 exhortations from this text for us to apply to our lives each and every day. 1 negative and 2 positive. My prayer for us is that as we better understand that God is our refuge and in control, that we would better learn to trust in Him and exalt Him rather than trusting in ourselves and being afraid of what is happening or what could happen.

Because God is in Control… Don’t Be Afraid (1-3)

Again, the context of Psalm 46 is one that many people are not aware of. This Psalm is likely a Psalm of celebration after the Israelite defeat of the Assyrian army. The Assyrians were very powerful and to be feared in the ancient world. They were ruthless, cruel, and to be feared. As the northern nation of Israel was captured by Assyria in 722 BC, the southern kingdom of Judah was set to be next.

What was happening in Jerusalem at this time? Hezekiah was the king and he was doing some great things. He was one of the few good kings the nation had after Solomon! He had helped restore the nation’s worship of God rather than false idols and he destroyed places of false worship. You would think that because he was doing good things and because the nation was now back to worshipping God that they would experience good things! Yet, we see in context here that they are surrounded by the Assyrian horde and not just a few thousand, 185,000 such soldiers.

We learn more about this from Isaiah 37 and Hezekiah prays to the Lord about the situation. The Assyrian leader, Sennacherib, was an evil man and Hezekiah told the Lord that unless He intervened, they would be absolutely destroyed. Hezekiah, reminiscent of what we read in Daniel 3:16-18, has faith in the Lord even in the face of this difficult situation. This is the Lord’s answer in Isaiah 37

Isaiah 37:33–35 CSB

33 “Therefore, this is what the Lord says about the king of Assyria: He will not enter this city, shoot an arrow here, come before it with a shield, or build up a siege ramp against it. 34 He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city. This is the Lord’s declaration. 35 I will defend this city and rescue it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.”

This is what God tells Hezekiah through the prophet Isaiah. Because of this, Psalm 46 celebrates that God is our refuge and strength. There is no reason to be afraid about a natural disaster or a foreign army because it is the Lord who is in control!

Think about the places that we look whenever things don’t go our way or whenever there is an obstacle before us. It can be easy to run to our peaceful places or to consult another person. These things aren’t bad by any stretch! Whenever I’m stressed out, there are people that I go to. Whenever I need to relax, there are some places that I do like to go. But, first and foremost, where should we look? We should look to our God because He is our strength. He is our strong tower. Nothing should calm our souls as much as the most common command in God’s Word: Fear Not! Why do we not fear? Because our God rules and reigns. He is our fortress. Not even the gates of hell will prevail against our God and His church. He will provide protection. And as we studied this morning, He is faithful to His promises!

Because God is in Control… Trust in Him (4-7)

Because He is faithful, we know that we can trust in Him completely.

The middle of this Psalm speaks to the amount of change that takes place all around us. The Psalmist says that the nations rage, kingdoms topple, the earth melts. Things aren’t exactly going according to plan - and in this moment, it’s ok because the Psalmist has his trust placed in the Lord of Hosts. The Psalmist has hope in the Lord and we read of this hope in Lamentations 3

Lamentations 3:22–24 CSB

22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for his mercies never end. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness! 24 I say, “The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in him.”

As one commentator put it, “God’s people will never fall. They will be assured of His readiness to help them.”

The follower of God is able to have hope in difficult times because they trust in the reality that God is in control and that He is to be trusted even in tough times. Because of God’s power and promise, we can have peace even in the midst of turmoil and we can rest assured that nothing catches our God by surprise! He is with us and He holds all things together, therefore our confidence can be the same as that of Paul in Romans 8

Romans 8:31 CSB

31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

Romans 8:38–39 CSB

38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Our hops is not that bad things will not happen, rather our hope is that even in the midst of the bad thing, even as the nations rage, even as the suffering comes, even as the persecution happens, even as we lose loved ones, even as we experience heartbreak, we can have hope because we are in Christ - because He is with us through the fire. Even if He doesn’t save and rescue us from our temporary obstacle, He has already saved us from our ultimate problem: our sin.

Because God is in Control… Exalt His Name (8-11)

Because of what God has done, namely we look to the cross, we know that we must exalt and praise Him accordingly! The Psalmist concludes this Psalm by calling on Israel to come behold the works of the Lord. As one commentator put it, “Since God’s people have reason to be glad in distress because of God’s presence, how much greater will be their joy when the causes of distress are no more!” We see in these final few verses that God makes the wars to cease and cuts spears to pieces. Just as He brings devastation and judgment, He also brings about peace. Therefore, He is to be praised.

We are to cease striving, stop fighting, be still - and know that God is God. We do ok with the stop fighting part sometimes, but it can be hard to trust fully in God’s plan and praise Him throughout our day, much less our life. The reminder for us in the text is simply to know that God is God. As we understand and meditate on that truth, we are reminded as well that we are not God. Because of this, we exalt God for being God and for everything that He does for us on a regular basis. He is with us. He is our strength. He is our fortress. Therefore, He must be exalted by His Church because He will one day be exalted by every individual as we are told that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord - don’t wait until it’s too late to do that - do it boldly today!

See, Psalm 46:10 is a call to action just as it is a call to inaction. For non-Christians, this is a call to act and stop rebelling against the Lord and to align themselves with God’s Kingdom through repentance and faith… but for God’s people Psalm 46:10 is a call to stop worrying and fretting. It is a call to stop and know… We belong to the King of Kings… He is exalted. Nothing can thwart His plans. He is at work

Romans 8:28 CSB

28 We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

What is keeping you from being still and worshipping God today? We are busy people, whether we admit it or not. It can be difficult to be still. As one friend put it a few weeks ago, we get so involved in a routine or we look ahead to something coming up that we blink our eyes and days turn into weeks and weeks turn into months and before we know it, we have gone through a long amount of time without exalting and thanking God for all that He has done. If we are not careful to make a habit of it, we will fail to exalt His name as often as we should. If we fail to be still, we will be busy. If we are busy, we will leave out important things such as worship.

Psalm 46 was written before the birth of Jesus, cross, and resurrection… but its true fulfillment depends completely on Jesus Christ. Because of Jesus, we don’t have to fear. Because of Jesus, we don’t have to be afraid. Because of Jesus, we can exalt the name of Jesus. Because of Jesus, we know that our God rules. Because of Jesus, we don’t have to fear the results of a human contest… Our God rules. He appoints leaders for a season. He brings them crashing down. He puts death to death. He defeats our enemy. He crushes the serpents head. Because of Jesus, you can be still and trust in God’s timing and plan.

Conclusion

Where is your peace? Many people try to find peace or look for peace in all the wrong places. Maybe they find peace for a season of life but lasting peace is only found in Christ who is our refuge and strength while the rest of the world topples and finds itself in despair. As you trust that God is in control, think of how you can help others learn to do the same. Certainly, we can’t make anyone see the truth as only the Holy Spirit can do that, but we can lead by example. We can trust in God whenever we’re surrounded by enemies as Hezekiah was. We can lift up a song of praise even whenever we face suffering and tragedy. We can pray for others whenever God impresses them on our heart.

Don’t think of being still in verse 10 as doing nothing. What we see is that we are called to rest confidently in the finished work of God. We not only acknowledge that God is God, we know it. We have faith in Him. We trust in what the Bible teaches. God is in control. Be still and know that He is at work today.