God Wins

Introduction

Everyone who has ever raised a toddler knows the feeling when your toddler says something that you don’t at first understand, and sounds like they are saying something very odd at first until you figure out what they are saying. For example, there was a time when Owen started singing a song that sounded an awful lot like he was singing the words “bleeding, bleeding” at the end of every line. This seemed very strange to my wife and I until we realized from the rest of what he was singing that the song was “Stand Up” from the VeggieTales episode “Rack, Shack and Benny,” in which the chorus repeats the line “Stand up, stand up, for what you believe in, believe in,” much to Katie and I’s mutual relief.

You see it was a case in which knowing the context shed light on Owen’s meaning. The same is true of the Bible. Sometimes a verse may seem to say one thing, or may just plain seem confusing until you zoom out and look at the context and shed light on what it means. In some cases a lack of context can lead to dangerous theologies like the Prosperity Gospel which uses verses like Jeremiah 29:11

Jeremiah 29:11 CSB

For I know the plans I have for you”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

to teach that God gives prosperity and success to all His true followers, when in reality this is God’s word specifically to Israel in order to reassure them that their deportation to Babylon wouldn’t be permanent. In other cases like today’s verse, we learn that a verse doesn’t mean what you initially thought it meant, but the concept you thought it taught is one that’s found elsewhere in Scripture.

It may seem for that reason to some like the exercise of correcting the misunderstood meaning of the text is a bit of a pointless exercise, but the principle remains the same in both cases. We want to be true to what the Bible is actually teaching consistently so that we are not misled into false doctrines. It’s about principle and consistency.

So what verse in particular are we talking about? Well today’s submitted sermon topic was

“Be still and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10)” Finding God in the midst of Chaos

As is my common practice, when I sat down to prepare this sermon I zoomed out a bit to look at the further context of this verse, so I studied the entirety of Psalm 46, which is only 11 verses, to get a better idea of what God is teaching us in this verse.

The way I often hear this verse being used is based on a misconception built on the most popular translation of this verse by the KJV, NIV and a few others, usually quoting only the first half of the verse

“Be Still, and know that I am God...” - Psalm 46:10a KJV

The idea being that we need to unplug from our lives and meditate on who God is. This seems to be implied in the subtitle provided by today’s suggestion “finding God in the midst of Chaos,” though I might be mistaken. I feel compelled however to point out that that this isn’t actually what Psalm 46:10 is saying. To be fair, the idea that we should take time apart from our daily lives to meditate on who God is is very Biblical and good, but you won’t find support for it in this verse. You can instead look to Jesus’ persistant habit of leaving the crowds to pray, and other verses like Joshua 1:8

Joshua 1:8 CSB

This book of instruction must not depart from your mouth; you are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it. For then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.

and Psalm 63:5-6

Psalm 63:5–6 CSB

You satisfy me as with rich food; my mouth will praise you with joyful lips. When I think of you as I lie on my bed, I meditate on you during the night watches

and others.

So then Josh, if this verse isn’t calling us to take quiet time to reflect on God, what is it asking us to do? Well instead of answering that question right away, I have decided to walk through the entire Psalm and let the meaning of the verse unfold naturally in the process. So first let us read the entirety of Psalm 46

Psalm 46 CSB

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

So here we seem to have a Psalm that in general is written about the power of God, and the response that evokes both in His people and in the nations. This Psalm wasn’t written by David, but was instead written by the sons of Korah, who also wrote quite a few other Psalms. It was written “according to Alamath” which is a word that we don’t actually know the meaning of but probably refers to a musical instrument or a melody or something else of a musical nature. Like all Psalms it was written as a song of praise for the people of Israel to sing together. Some contend that this Psalm was likely written in response to a particular miraculous intervention by God, the most popular suggestion being 2 Kings 19:35

2 Kings 19:35 CSB

That night 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!

But this Psalm doesn’t give a particular historical context so these are just guesses. Like every Psalm the language is kept vague in order to preserve the timeless nature of their use as worship songs for Israel.

This Psalm has three distinct stanzas. The second and third stanza both end with the same refrain “The LORD of Armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold” and it seems likely that the first one also should end with this refrain, as it would not only preserve the parallel between the other two stanzas and make all three the same length. The first stanza is in general about God being a constantly present helper even in dire trouble, the second is about the security of knowing that God is on your side, and the third about God’s victory over every enemy.

Basically the knowing who God is and how powerful He is has implications that are shown by this Psalm. It should give His people confidence even in the midst of disaster, hope in the endurance of God’s people and it should give the enemies of God ample reason to lay down their weapons and give up fighting a war they can’t win.

This Psalm is written seemingly in response to the tendancy among the Israelites and by every other human being to focus their eyes on the troubles and dangers of this world and lose hope. On the habit of focusing on the negative, and being anxious about the uncertain. This Psalm answers those worries by turning our eyes to the God we serve, and calling us to recognize that if God is with us nothing can stand against us. What matters isn’t our present circumstance, but our relationship with God. Sadly the Israelites turned away from God and lost the city of Jerusalem when God’s presence left the city.

Jesus is God, and all that this psalm says of God is true of Jesus. He has given us ultimate victory through His death and resurrection that should reassure us knowing that a new Jerusalem is coming which will never fail and fall because we will be made perfect and Holy and maintain our relationship with God indefinetely. No wonder this Psalm inspired Martin Luther to write the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

Now that we have that overview in mind we will look at the three stanzas of this Psalm in more detail and explore how they teach us in turn that:

God is our Everpresent Help

God’s Presence Will Preserve Us Forever

God’ Victory will Be Complete

1. God is Our Everpresent Help

Many of you probably know that my wife and I recently purchased our first home out in the ‘gornish. One of the conditions of being approved for a mortgage in some cases is that you have to have valid home insurance. So as a part of the process of buying our home I called my insurance company and applied for some coverage. One of the many questions they asked about our new home is its proximity to the nearest fire department and fire hydrant. Your answer to these questions impacts the rate you pay for insurance for obvious reasons. The closer you are to a fire department and/or fire hydrant the faster the fire fighters can intervene if your house is one fire, thus reducing the damage and the likelyhood of the total loss of your home. There’s a lot of peace of mind involved in knowing that you have help nearby if something goes wrong.

It’s for this reason that the first stanza of this Psalm should be a great comfort to those of us who follow God. Let’s read Psalm 46:1-3

Psalm 46:1–3 CSB

God is our refuge and strength, a helper who is always found in times of trouble. Therefore we will not be afraid, though the earth trembles and the mountains topple into the depths of the seas, though its water roars and foams and the mountains quake with its turmoil. Selah

“God is our refuge and strength,” already a great comfort to know that we are protected and strengthened by an all-powerful God, but add in that he is “a helper who is always found in times of trouble” and it just takes this over the top. Knowing that God is both omnipotent and omnipresent means that we know that God is both capable of doing anything and is present anywhere. That means that no matter what is going on in your life, God is right beside you through the whole thing.

Knowing this inspires the Psalmist, which is what the “therefore” is there for. Knowing that God is always on our side means that anything can happen and we need not be afraid. Even if the whole earth trembled, even if the highest mountains suddenly got up and leapt into the sea and the waves crashed all around us, we need not be afraid. Of course these are all hyperbolic metaphorical descriptions. The earth, the mountains and the sea representing the most constant parts of the world around us. The earth and its mountains are unmoving (relatively speaking) and the sea has defined boundries it does not cross. So they represent everything in our lives that seems to be constant like the people we love our routines, the resources we have. Even when we lose those very things can we say that God is our refuge and our strength.

Of course this is all very easy to say when life is good and everything is according to plan. It’s when everything starts to fall apart that our trust in these truths is tested. When the diagnosis comes, when a sudden accident occurs, when you find yourself jobless and lost, do you still believe verse 1?

This is why it’s so important to remind ourselves constantly of how God has been with us every day. This is why the Israelites constantly sang about how God had delivered them in the past. We should meditate on how God redeemed us, and the ways that He has answered our prayers in the past. This is why we give thanks in all seasons for everything that God has provided. So that we will have a foundation to rest upon when (not if) things go bad in life. The assurance that God is our refuge and our strength.

2. God's Presence Will Preserve Us Forever

Have you ever noticed that nearly every major city seems to be on a body of water? Though not especially large Fredericton is divided in half by a river, Halifax is on the bay of Fundy, Montreal is an island, Toronto is right on Lake Ontario. Why? Because water is an essential resource for human survival. We need it to live. This has been true for thousands of years, and if you look at a visual map of where human settlements are you’ll find the population hugging bodies of water all over the globe. While less of a factor today, one of the reasons why ancient cities were always founded by water were because it was a key factor in how defensible a city would be under seige. Other factors included the strength and height of the city’s walls, what natural obstacles prevented the city from being attacked and wether the inhabitants had access to food. Living in a city that checked all of these boxes meant living in relative security against outside attacks.

One notable exception to cities being founded on major bodies of water? Jerusalem. Which may at first be confusing when you read the next stanza of Psalm 46, which is Psalm 46:4-7

Psalm 46:4–7 CSB

There is a river— its streams delight the city of God, the holy dwelling place of the Most High. God is within her; she will not be toppled. God will help her when the morning dawns. Nations rage, kingdoms topple; the earth melts when he lifts his voice. The Lord of Armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah

So if there is no literal river in Jerusalem, what does the Psalmist mean when he says that there is a river whose streams delight the city of God? Well if it can’t be literal than it must be a metaphorical river. What is it a metaphor for? Well the context of this verse supplies part of the answer, because the following verses put us in mind of a military siege like we have been talking about. Other cities when they were under seige could look to their strong flowing river for confidence knowing that it was a source of fresh water and potentially even resupplied food from ships if they could get them through. Without a river, what could the inhabitants of Jerusalem count on for reassurance in siege? God Himself. God is the river of blessing that flows in the city of Jerusalem. This explains why the following verses so naturally flow to talking about how God prevents the city from being destroyed. He is their stronghold in times of trouble as the previous stanza has established.

In fact the psalmist emphasizes the connection to the previous stanza by using the same two verbs he used before. Just as the waters raged, the nations rage, just as the mountains topples kingdoms topple. So we have the more literal picture of the confidence of having God in the midst of the city. It was God’s presence that made Jerusalem impenetrable, and as long as God’s presence remained in the city it could never fall.

Tragically, God’s special presence didn’t stay with the city. Now obviously since God is omnipresent He was still always present in the city, but there was a clear description in scripture of the special presence of God descending on the temple in Jerusalem. There is also a heartbreaking description of the presence of God leaving the temple in Ezekiel 10 because the people of the city were worshipping other Gods, which was breaking rule number one by the way.

This however is not the end of Jerusalem’s story. There are countless promises in Scripture that Jerusalem will be preserved, and we know now in further light of revelation that when Jesus returns and the New Heavens and New Earth are ushered in that there will be a New Jerusalem, the perfectly realized vision of what the City of God was always meant to be. We see this picture in Revelation 21:1-4

Revelation 21:1–4 CSB

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

So God will again be present in Jerusalem in an even fuller special way than He was in the Old Testament. This is our eternal hope. When we know the power and authority of God than we can rest assured that like Jerusalem if we have God with us we will never fall. Even if the storms come and everything falls apart God has promised eternal life in paradise to those who believe in and follow Jesus. That’s the powerful reassurance we are reminded of in this Psalm.

3. God's Victory Will Be Complete

In all that talk before about the factors that make a city seige-proof you may have noticed that things have changed over the years. You’ll note that the city of Fredericton has no walls to protect it from a seige. That’s because advances in military technology can often render previous battle strategies pointless. The moment aerial attack became a common military tactic walls were no longer of any use. Even smaller advances have hugely changed the face of war. Thousands of years ago the invention of the bow and arrow changed the face of warfare by granting soldiers the ability to kill from a distance, and entire civilizations were conquered with bows and arrows.

In fact many a war has been won by a group that had some key technology in their favor, and many a less advanced people group decimated if they ever come into conflict with an enemy that is far more technologically advanced then they are, proven by the colonialization of the world by more advanced European nations. Imagine if you will the largest gulf in military technology that you can. A civilization that hasn’t even mastered forging swords facing a modern civilization with drones and nuclear weapons. They wouldn’t really stand a chance would they?

This gulf in odds is completely dwarfed by the contest between God and the armies of the world. No one can stand up to the might of God, and yet we find that they often try. Hence the final stanza of this Psalm, Psalm 46:8-11

Psalm 46:8–11 CSB

Come, see the works of the Lord, who brings devastation on the earth. He makes wars cease throughout the earth. He shatters bows and cuts spears to pieces; he sets wagons ablaze. “Stop fighting, and know that I am God, exalted among the nations, exalted on the earth.” The Lord of Armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah

This section starts with a call to “see the works of the Lord,” and a description of His power to devastate even the strongest of armies and nations. Those bows that dominated ancient warfare? Shattered. Spears? Cut to pieces. Wagons? Set ablaze.

And this is where the verse in question comes in. Translated sometimes as “be still” the CSB translates the verse as “Stop fighting, and know that I am God.” The Hebrew verb translated as Be Still or Stop Fighting is Raphah, which means to let go or desist or release, and the reason the CSB translates it as stop fighting is because of the contextual significance of its following a declaration that God destroys the weapons of His enemies, and seems to be God’s words to His enemies and the enemies of Jerusalem. So telling His enemies to let go is basically telling them to stop fighting.

This was backed up in my study of this verse by virtually every commentary that I read. The verse is not a call to believers to meditate on who God is, but a call to the enemies of God to lay down their weapons in awe of God’s power. It’s a statement about the usulessness of opposing God.

This is because He is the Lord of Armies, and ultimate victory belongs only to Him. This applies of course not just to earthly armies that besieged the city of Jerusalem, but equally to the forces of Satan that try to oppose the Kingdom of God. He has no hope. He’s already lost. In fact the book of revelation tells us that Satan is doomed to be cast into the lake of fire.

So the question we all need to answer is whose side are we on? The Bible makes it clear that anyone who isn’t actively on God’s side is an enemy of God. Romans 5:10 implies that before salvation we were enemies of God

Romans 5:10 CSB

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.

And James 4:4

James 4:4 CSB

You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.

The world meaning pretty much everything outside of Jesus’ Kingdom.

It’s pretty clear to me which side we should want to be on. To side with God is to side with victory and eternal security, and to side with the world is to lose. End of story. So Be Still and Know that I am God is a call to drop our weapons and turn to God’s side of the fight.

Conclusion

There is a real beauty to the continued refrain of this Psalm, “The Lord of Armies is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.” The fact that it is repeated is an emphasis on its importance. The first line, “The Lord of armies is with us” which should read by the way “Yahweh of armies is with us” is a reminder of the power of God. He commands the armies of the heavens, and nothing can stand against Him. The second half of the verse “the God of Jacob is our stronghold” is the other side, God of our ancestors, God who make a covenant with Jacob to bless us, his descendants. It stresses God’s relationship with Israel, and by extension those of us who were grafted into Israel in the New Covenant. So in turn this one phrase emphasizes both the power of God and His immenance to us as His people. In the words of John Calvin as translated by James Anderson,

That our faith may rest truly and firmly in God, we must take into consideration at the same time these two parts of his character—his immeasurable power, by which he is able to subdue the whole world under him; and his fatherly love which he has manifested in his word. When these two things are joined together, there is nothing which can hinder our faith from defying all the enemies which may rise up against us, nor must we doubt that God will succour us, since he has promised to do it; and as to power, he is sufficiently able also to fulfil his promise, for he is the God of armies.

John Calvin and James Anderson, Commentary on the Book of Psalms, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 202.

So as often happens the application of this Psalm is quite simple, even if at times really difficult to do consistently. Confident faith in God through Jesus Christ His son. Knowing who God is should set our feet more firmly on the rock, knowing that He is powerful and that He will win in the end. What have we to fear when the very God above all things is literally in our corner?

The answer is: Nothing.