Refuge
Refuge
Psalm 46
By Pastor Jordan Hines
I'll be reading psalm 46. You can follow along on the screen or in your bibles if you'd like. God is our refuge and strength, a very pleasant help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed. And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling make there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high. God is in the midst of her.
She shall not be moved. God shall help her. Just at the break of dawn, the nations rage.
The kingdoms were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth melted.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come.
Behold the works of the Lord who has made desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two.
He burns the chariot in the 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 refuge.
Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we're just thankful for your faithfulness to be with us. We're just thankful that you've allowed us this great building to worship you in.
We're just thankful for Pastor Jordan to his faithfulness to teach us from your word. I just pray that you'd allow him to have a clear mind as he presents your word this morning and allow us to be focused on you. I just pray that you'd allow us to worship you with a pure heart and to just be focused on you.
In Jesus name. Amen. Focus a little bit on the Lord's table.
In our song service, we remember that we can rejoice only because of great sorrow and that everything costs something. Our salvation costs a great deal. Today we are going to take a little bit of a break from our regular service after I stopped throwing my notes around and we have been discussing what a deacon is and what a church should function like.
Today we're going to take a little break into a passage that's always been a great encouragement to me. Psalm 46 is one of those psalms that when you're in trouble, when you're stressed, when there's a lot of things going on, lot of changes in your life, perhaps you might run to a psalm like 46 or psalm 62 or psalm 42 or proverbs three, five and six. You go to these texts when you need just some perspective.
And that's sort of where we're at today. We're at a place where, at least in my life, personally, I'll be very vulnerable here. This week has been very stressful because we have been moving from a house and I that needed a little bit of tender loving care and into a house and needed a lot of tender loving care.
And a lot of moving has happened. And it's been a time of just a little bit of stress. And I'm sure you've also been in that place where there's a bit of a little storm in your life.
In my mind, I'm going back to, I think it was a few months ago, where the Hammels were singing at the Joy Singers concert over at Grace, and there was a tornado in the area while the concert was going on. In fact, they weren't able to finish the concert. And I was at the concert, and we had to duck into the gym, and we had to take refuge and be secure in that building.
That's kind of what we're talking about today. When the storms of life come upon us, when we need refuge, where do we go? The psalmist today runs to God. And as we look at our passage today, as Nathan read it, we are going to see that God's a refuge in all circumstances.
He is our refuge. And I think you can understand that just from your own personal life. But also think through going forward.
How can I have a perspective of running to God? How can I make it a practice to run to God, to make it just a regular thing that when I'm stressed, I don't freak out, I don't worry, I don't run to what can I do to fix the problem? What can I do to fix the situation? But how can I put this on God? How can I trust God in the circumstance? What might he be trying to teach me or challenge me with through this? So let's ask the Lord for help before we get into the text today. Let's pray. God indeed.
We are in great need of wisdom, especially in the storms of life, especially when we are crying out for refuge and God. We know this world is crying out for solutions to problems that they don't even understand. The greatest problem is the sin problem in the world, and the greatest solution is salvation and God.
We ask that, number one, that the people around us would find that salvation and find that in the testimony that we share and in God's word and your word. I also pray that as believers, that we would rest in the confidence that we can have in the gospel. Rest in who you are in your faithful, undying character.
Help us as we expound upon your word. Help us as we see what you say about being a refuge. What does it mean to run to this goddess? And why do we run to you, God? Indeed, we pray this in your son's name.
Amen. I want to begin by reading an excerpt from the book, a treasury of hymn stories by Amos Wells. This is about Martin Luther's famous hymn, a mighty fortress is our God again talking about a refuge.
The first printed hymn book was published in Wittenberg in 1524. Eight hymns with tunes, four of them by Luther. Since that beginning, it is said that Germans have written more than 100,000 hymns.
And the greatest of all of this hymn of Luther's. Luther wrote some 36 hymns in all, but this is his noblest. Some say that the strong tune to which the hymn is always sung was composed by Luther, but he probably merely adapted a tune already in existence.
The hymn was written about in about 1528, and though many attempts have been made to associate it with various stirring other events, there's little to no basis for that. We do have basis for the fact that this hymn was based on the 46th psalm that was read previously and that we'll read again. We have the idea here that Martin Luther was clinging so tightly to God that his.
In his heart, he wanted to bring people to his God. A mighty fortress. You can go back in time and you can think historically to castles and towers where it was a mighty fortress to live.
High on a tower, this tower of a God. This mighty fortress of our God. And you can even see pictures of maybe like a seashore that's being crashed upon by waves that is strong because its rooted foundation is a rock.
It is a God. Allow me to read just a few verses of a mighty fortress is our God. A mighty fortress is our God.
A bulwark never failing our helper, he amid the flood of mortal life, ills prevailing, for still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate on earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing were not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus. It is he, Lord Sabaoth. His name from age to age the same.
He must win the battle. We're talking about a refuge today, and we're going to see in three sections here and you can even see in your bible that it's really obviously laid out with an outline of a couple verses. And then the word selah.
And then a couple more verses and the word selah. So that's our outline today. We're going to think about those three verses.
We're going to stop and contemplate what that means for us, then move on. So first we're going to see in verses one through three that God is our refuge in natural calamities. Verses one through three say God is our refuge in strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear. Even though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, our God is a refuge in extreme circumstances. I think that to begin with, sometimes we as Christians can put God in our own little categories of what he is able to do and what he is not able to do.
And I believe that the older people get sometimes, the more they think that they can handle everything because they've seen everything, and yet God is still in control. The natural calamities in here are drastic. They're very drastic.
Though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though its waters roar and be troubled, will the mountains shake in its swelling? I'm sure many of you have been to mountains and seen mountains. We don't have a lot of them in Iowa, but we have them elsewhere in the country. And you've probably seen them where you think of a mountain as something that's strong or sturdy.
In fact, in the end times, people will run to the mountains for safety, but they will not be safe, because even the mountains will shake and tremble at the fury of God. But in this context, we can really understand just how powerful God is. That even though the mountains be carried in the midst of the sea, they'll be broken up and destroyed by the sea, crashing that we are safe.
That is how strong and powerful our God is. He is a shelter. He is strength.
When I think of strength, you can think of Exodus 15 two. This passage comes immediately following the Israelites being delivered from the Egyptians after crossing the Jordan river. Exodus 15 two says, the Lord is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation.
He is my God, and I will prepare him a habitation, and I will exalt him. See, both Moses song in Exodus 15 and the psalmist today speaks of Yahweh, and it exalts and extols him. He is strength.
And you can look back in your own life. And see, God has strengthened you for times when you didn't feel like you could do enough, when it was a God thing that you were delivered. He is a help in trouble.
Deuteronomy four speaks of him helping people. Moses reminded the people of Israel that their God was near, unlike the gods of the nations around them. Deuteronomy four, starting in verse seven, for what nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him? For? See, Moses reminds the people that God is near, that God is strong, that God is close.
And I think this calming presence can be echoed even in the context of, like, a family relationship or a protector, like the husband to a wife or the father to children, or even a security guard to just a regular citizen. The presence of that person helps you have peace of mind. Because we know our God is great, we can have peace of mind.
And our response in verses two and three is that we will not fear. We won't fear. Why? Because God is still good.
God is still strong. And even in extreme circumstances, though the earth gives way, though mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, as ESV puts it, though its waters roar and foam, the waters are being personified here, almost actually, in a literary sense, they're being personified as these monstrous monsters almost, that are raging against the mountains. These mountains are trembling and swelling, and they are being destroyed.
And yet God is still the same. And this is not just a word picture. This is real, that this earth will be destroyed, and God will still be good.
God will still reign, and he will make a new earth. God here is our refuge. He was before creation.
He is during creation, and he will be for all of eternity in new creation. He is our refuge from this natural calamity that we could never even fathom. Secondly, verses four through seven speak of God being our refuge from political calamity.
He speaks in verses four through seven, sort of in contrast to the politics of this current day, in the context of a city, verse four says, there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the most high. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.
God shall help her. Just at the break of dawn, the nations raged. The kingdoms were moved.
He uttered his voice, and the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.
See, this is a very opposite view of politics than we have. We think of politics. We think of something that's negative, something that people are arguing constantly.
This is the political context of eternal glory, of eternal uniformity to the purposes and glory of God. This is the kingdom of God fulfilling its purpose, and it is beautiful. Sort of the backdrop here for this kingdom is that we are currently not in this eternal kingdom.
We're currently not experiencing this joy. Yet we will. But until then, Ephesians six gives us encouragement to fight a good fight.
And that text is Ephesians chapter six, verses ten to 13. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Why? Verse twelve? For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore this is the application of the text. Take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.
See, we don't experience this river in this city of God yet, and yet we are called today in this context of the church age, to stand strong and wrestle against these principalities and powers in high places with the power of God, with the word of God. We also see sort of a contrast here, that God's kingdom is supreme. It's way better.
He starts talking about a river which kind of jumps out of nowhere. But the river here is described as a beautiful place. The streams thereof shall make glad the kingdom of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the highest God.
God is in the midst of her, and as God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God shall help her when the morning dawns. This river speaks of an eternal kingdom, of a heaven that we only dream of, and we have faith in now.
And we will have this faith realized eventually, but not currently. This is spoken of in revelation 22, one when it says, and he showed me a pure river of water, of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the lamb in the midst of the street of it. And on either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curses, but the throne of God and the lamb shall be on it, and the servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face and his name shall be on their foreheads, and there shall be no more night there and no more candle, neither light of the sun. For the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign there forever and ever.
These are promises given to people in the church age to reign and rule with God for all of eternity. We have a powerful promise that should transform the way that we see life even today. Our response here again, because these things are true, is that we will not fear.
Though the earth gives way, though even the strongest things on this planet, firmest of foundations, be removed, nothing on this planet can thwart the plans of our God. God is our refuge from the natural calamities and from the political calamities of this present age. See, we live in a world that is questioning everything.
And as Christians, we are to have this confidence in God that even though this is changing and that's changing and relationships are changing and finances are changing and everything is changing in society, and yet our God is not. Our God is the same. God is also really intimate in this passage.
He is the Lord of hosts. He is the God of Jacob, the Lord of hosts. That's the God of angel armies, the God who is powerful, but he is also the God of Jacob.
That's personal to Israel in the context. And as dispensationalists, we understand that the promises of God in the New Testament extend to us, and they are interwoven in a beautiful tapestry of grace in the church age mixed with promises to Israel. Now the church is not Israel, but God has given promises to us as well.
God is intimately involved with his church, just as he was with Israel. See, we see that the steadfast actions of God help us understand how to live without anxiety. If I know that I am safe, I know I'm secure.
I should live as if I am secure. I shouldn't be panicky, I shouldn't be running away. I shouldn't be scared, because God is my refuge.
God is our refuge. The next text is verses eight through eleven. Let's look at that.
And that's really talking about the physical calamities, the physical things that will happen to the earth in the end times. Come. Behold the works of the Lord who has made desolations in the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariot in the 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 refuge. The end of this psalm really brings us home to the idea that God is in control, that the works of the Lord here are great.
Not all of them are. It's a. It's not all a shiny, happy, smiley faced type of verse.
Right? Right. It's. It's the kind of verse where if you're on the opposite end of this, the wrong end of the desolation and the cutting and the.
The destroy the destruction, it's terrifying. So the world that will be destroyed, the people who do not turn to God and are destroyed ought to be terrified of this action. He makes the earth desolate.
It's empty. It's like a desert. He makes war cease.
Until the end of the earth, he is in control. He breaks the bow, he shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire.
These instruments of war he has complete control over. He's not thwarted by an army or a power. He is God. selah.
And the response to the work of God here is to be still. Now it seems like, okay, God's going to do all these great things. He's going to destroy your enemies.
It's not really a pep rally because when you get to this verse, he says, just stop and cast your care upon him, for he cares for you. This God that is all powerful, all knowing, that will destroy this earth and make a new one, a new heaven and a new earth and exist eternally with us, loves you, and he wants to have a relationship with you. And if you have a relationship with him, you can have this peace.
But if you don't know this God, you can't know this peace. That's where it gets hard. That's where we have to really press pause and say, am I at peace with this God? Romans talks about having peace with God because of the work that he has done, not because of what I can do.
There's no condemnation of those who are in Christ Jesus. We now have peace. We have access.
Romans five eight, you can look it up. It's in there. We have peace with God, this same God who is able to destroy with merely a breath, with merely a thought or intention.
We are the people of God who have this kind of hope. And as Christians, we should be learning something from this situation, from who we are in Christ. I reference Romans eight.
I want to read a couple verses from Romans eight, verses 35 to 39. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Did you know that this text is talking about the same God that's destroying the world? Isn't that crazy? A lot of people in today's culture, across all different church landscapes, are going to say, well, this is a God of justice and judgment, not of love and grace.
The world around us is going to say, well, your God is angry. And I would say, yes, he is. He's very angry at sin.
I but he loves every single person on this planet. This God, if you are in relationship with him and love him and follow him, wants to have a kind of relationship with you that causes you to be still and know that he is God and not be worried about what's going to happen to you. See, God is our strength.
Two Corinthians twelve nine says, and he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore I will rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproach, in necessities and persecutions, in distress for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. So you ask, why did you read that passage, pastor? Because the strength of God that's in this text, working against people who are not in relationship with him, people who are not following him, people who are enemies of God, is the same strength that we are equipped with as believers.
God will strengthen you, so be encouraged, if you are a believer, that the same God who is able to destroy the mountains with the seas and destroy them and crush them just like that, is the one who strengthens. You know that God is a present help in trouble. Matthew 28 is the great commission, and it talks about Jesus being with us.
Eleven, it says, starting in verse 16 of chapter 28. Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshiped him.
But some doubted, and Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, all power is given to me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. This is the key part.
And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. Amen. He is with us.
His kingdom is superior to the earthly kingdom that we currently reside in. God is sovereign over all of these circumstances, even if the sea be removed and the mountains be destroyed. We ought to be learning something about ourselves here.
That this God who loves us wants us to know that we are in desperate need of him as a refuge. We are in desperate need of his strength. We are in desperate need of his righteousness, as without his righteousness we are condemned.
We are ever reliant on God for the details of our daily life. It's not just the end of life. Calamity of death.
It's not just the end of life. Problems of getting sick and feeling pain. It is not even just eternal life.
It is also the little details of your life this week. That God is the one who allowed you to breathe this week. It's as if you need to have an oxygen tank with you at all times.
And God is the one providing the oxygen tank. And without that oxygen tank, you will die. God is our oxygen.
He is the one who gives us refuge. He is our refuge from physical calamities, from political calamities, from military movements. He's our refuge in all things.
And as this text rightly points us in verse ten, I want to leave us with a very simple point of application. It's not going to be overly complicated, and I think you probably already know what it is. It's two things.
Be still and know that I'm God. So what is it in your life that you're worried about? I know there's something because we're people and we like to worry about things. What have you not given over to God? And I trust that many of you in this room are believers.
And you say, I confess. Jesus Christ is Lord and I trust him. And I walk with him daily.
But there's this thing in my life. I'm wondering, how am I going to fix it? And maybe you need to say, God, I'm giving it to you because you're good, because you're strong, because you're faithful. And after you do that, and after you meditate on who God is, that he is the triune, the father, son, holy spirit.
He is perfectly just. He is righteous, he is loving. He is all powerful, all knowing, ever present.
The creator God, Emmanuel, God with us. He is our great high priest. Do you meditate on this, God? See how your troubles feel.
See how your troubles. See how you deal with your troubles after that. See how your anxiety level drops.
See how you are able to walk through that circumstance a little bit calmer. Not that everything will go exactly how you would like it to, but that you'll be able to walk through it with a still confidence that God is going to take care of the circumstance, that God is going to walk with you, and that maybe God will use this in your life to grow you, even if it means taking something away from you. He might be adding to you spiritually.
And for those of you who are maybe just blatantly not trusting God, maybe God allowed something to happen in your life that just seems so unspeakable that you think, how could I ever trust this God ever again? Well, allow me to say that there was a man who, God allowed the devil to take everything away from him, and a man named Job. In fact, God was doting over this man because he walked by faith and because he pursued him. And yet, nothing in this physical world, nothing that could be taken away from him outside of God, was really of any value to him.
There's nothing that can be taken away from you or destroyed or removed from your life outside of God that is really catastrophic. Because with God we have hope, even in the darkest of circumstances. And it may even be a circumstance where nobody in this room can relate to you.
But God knows your pain, God knows your struggles. God is with you. And I would pray that you would not allow the problems of this world, this sinful, cursed world, to dissuade you from trusting a faithful God.
If that is you, seek this God today. Ask questions, get those questions answered. Let's thank the Lord for a faithful goddess.
God, we are grateful that you are a firm refuge, a rock of our salvation. As psalm 62 puts it, you are the one we can truly depend upon. And as we consider your ways, as we consider the works of your hand, we can't help but be in shock how good you are to love sinners like us, even enough to send your son to die on a cross for us to suffer unspeakable torture and punishment.
God, thank you for your goodness to us. Thank you for giving us a church where we can come together and worship you. Thank you for being our refuge.
Help us to run to you in all circumstances. In your son's name we pray. Amen.
The men would come forward for communion. As you come to communion, we come to a picture. The bread and the cup that is passed today is not going to give you any kind of special standing before God or any kind of special grace.
And yet, just as is taught in scripture, as we'll read in a moment, we come to remember, we come to see a picture of what Jesus Christ has done for us. And we the hope is that as we remind ourselves of this, it would change our actions, it would change our heart condition, that when you look at sin, you don't just see something that's incidental in this world. You see something that your savior died for.
You do not have to be a member of this church, but you need to be a faithful member of a bible believing church, need to be baptized a member of Christ's church. And as we follow in communion, we come to a place of seriousness. Paul warns in one Corinthians eleven of the seriousness of communion.
He says in one Corinthians 1127, therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks, judgment on himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
For this reason, many are weak and sick, and many sleep. So as believers, let's take a few moments to confess sin, prepare our hearts, and remind ourselves that this is a serious, a serious thing we are about to do. Let's pray.
God, as we come to this table, we come in all seriousness, knowing that you have paid the price. You've sent your son Jesus Christ to die on a cross for our sins. And the punishment that he bore for us is what allows us to be free from sin, allows us to walk with you.
It allows us to walk in newness of life and to not walk as people who have no hope, but people who stand on the refuge that is God. I pray that the picture would not be lost on us, that we would see the goodness of you. Help us to be change going forward this month, as we remind ourselves that the sin that is so easily besetting us, the sin that is so easily tempting us to walk away every single day, costs something.
Help us to come to this table worthy and to come in a way that would honor and glorify you. In your son's name. We pray this.
Amen. Paul also says in that same text, for I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread.
Thomas, would you thank the Lord for his body that was broken for us. Thank you.
I pray that as we remember it now, we want to take out lightly and that we would live our lives. Paul continues and says, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. Let us eat in the same manner. He also took the cup.
Lynn, would you thank the Lord for his blood that was spilt for us? Send the truth always. Thank you for his oneness that I had a cross and shed his blood crossed.
Paul continues in the same manner, he also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood. This do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Let us drink, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Allow me to pray one more time and then dismiss us to Sunday school at 11:00 God, thank you so much for your blood and your body that was broken for us. You have truly challenged us to count the cost of sin and see that it cost your life. It costs the life of a perfect, holy sacrifice.
It is truly a serious thing to sin and God. As we look back, we look back with mournful joy. Joy that is serious because we have relationship with the God of the universe who loves us and loved us enough to send his son for us.
I pray as a church that we would take this seriously, we would take our christian walks seriously, that we would be growing in Christ every single day, that we would be reminded of who we are and that because we are yours, we would live for you this month. In your son's name, we pray this amen.