Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

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!

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:

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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!”