Experiencing God's Refuge

Psalm 46

Welcome to our summer in the Psalms series. Last week we got to learn about Psalm 77 and the power of remembering. You will find that this element of remembering is a very important feature throughout Scripture, especially in the Psalms. Last week, the Psalm was a lament. This week, we are going to move into a Psalm of confidence. My goal today is to present this Psalm in a way that will help us to experience it in the way that the author’s intended it to be experienced way back in ancient times.

To start today, we can bring up that first slide. This is actually a slide from like a 3rd or 4th grade English lesson. I want to introduce an interesting topic that comes up often in Scripture. This is the concept of the metaphor. The slide reminds us that we can explain one thing by helping people picture another thing.

Today we speak in metaphors all the time. It is a normal part of communication. Life becomes “a roller coaster,” time “flies,” ideas “catch fire,” and worries “weigh us down.” We say our hearts are “heavy,” our minds “race,” and our relationships “hit rough waters.” A difficult season is “a storm,” a new opportunity “a door opening,” and a trusted friend is “a rock.” We describe busy days as “juggling plates,” stressful days or relationships in terms of “walking on eggshells,” and confusing times as “being in a fog.” Leaders “set the tone,” communities “build bridges,” and churches “shine a light.” Metaphors are everywhere because they help us grasp the invisible, name the emotional, and make sense of the complex—turning abstract experiences into images we can see, feel, and remember.

And it makes sense that there would be a lot of metaphors in Scripture as well. What is more abstract to our human mind than the spiritual concepts of God and Bible? Our mind translates and interprets our world based on the inputs that we see, hear, touch, and taste and we need comparable inputs for us to understand the spiritual realm that we cannot see. Today we are going to consider the meaning of the metaphors that we read in Psalm 46 as we consider what this Psalm reveals to us about our God. But first, let’s dig into a bit of background.

Psalm 46, written by the Sons of Korah is full of metaphors and shows a striking parallel to another story in Israel’s history that we will look at as we walk through this Psalm. First, who are the Sons of Korah? Korah was a man who led a rebellion against Moses and the priests in Numbers 16 and so he and his followers with their families were “swallowed up by the earth”. In Numbers 26:10–11, Moses refers back to this saying, “The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them with Korah, when his followers died and the fire consumed 250 men. They serve as a warning sign. The sons of Korah, however, did not die.” Korah was a Levite. Levites were the people who guarded and transported the temple, assisted the priests (who were Aaron’s family), were musicians and worship leaders by the time of David, and taught and enforced the law. Well, Korah didn’t think that Moses was the best leader or that Aaron and his family were the best choice for priests. So he tried to make himself the leader of the people of Israel. And that did not go well for Korah. However, his sons became a guild of Levites that were known for their musical talent and ability to lead Israel in worship throughout the history of Israel. This guild wrote Psalms that were known for deep emotional honesty, a strong trust or confidence in God, and the use of vivid imagery and metaphors. It is no wonder that this developed for them as they reflected on their own history when the earth swallowing up their ancestors.

Well, the story that the sons of Korah are likely reflecting on here in Psalm 46 is the story of King Hezekiah and academic sources speculate that it was written not too long after the story occurred and before Judah went into exile.

Who all remembers the story of King Hezekiah? I love Storytime and I hope you do to because today we are going to remember Hezekiah’s story of faith. Go ahead and bring up our map on the next slide.

Our story is found in 2 Kings 18-19, 2 Chronicles 32, and Isaiah 36-39. Here’s the situation, it is the 14th year of King Hezekiah, year 701 BC. 10 years earlier, Hezekiah had watched as Hoshea, the king of northern Israel, had played politics with the Assyrian king and gotten defeated and taken into exile. So when Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, decided to conquer Judah, both king Hezekiah and the people of Judah had reason to be afraid.

The Assyrians marched on Jerusalem, conquering the rest of Judah as they advanced. Eventually, the Assyrian army had Jerusalem surrounded and they all had to listen to what the royal spokesman yelled over the ramparts (go ahead and bring up the next slide)… In these Scriptures, I want us to listen for how Satan was twisting reality to manipulate the Jewish emotions.

Isaiah 36:4–10 CSB

The royal spokesman said to them, “Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on? You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. (he starts by sewing doubt) Who are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me? (tells them that they deserve this) Look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him. (questioning their motives) Suppose you say to me, ‘We rely on the Lord our God.’ Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You are to worship at this altar’? (twisting the truth) “Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you’re able to supply riders for them! (twisted motivation) How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants? (belittling them) How can you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen? Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the Lord’s approval? The Lord said to me, ‘Attack this land and destroy it.’” (an obvious lie)

Go ahead and move the slide forward - Eliakim , Shebna y, and Joah - representatives of Hezekiah - went out to them. The Assyrians spoke loudly in Hebrew so those on the walls could hear them, ‘You say you are ready for war but you speak empty words. On whom are you depending, that you rebel against me?’ Hezekiah’s men asked them not to speak in Hebrew so that those in Jerusalem could hear them, but the Assyrians refused. (why? because they were preying on the emotions and fear of the people). Go ahead to the next slide...

Isaiah 36:13–21 CSB

Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! This is what the king says: [now he’s speaking to all the people] “Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot rescue you. Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will certainly rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’ ” Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says: “Make peace with me and surrender to me. [They know they cannot serve him and God right?] Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cistern until I come and take you away to a land like your own land—a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. [isn’t this just how the devil tries to tempt us into his surrender, with half truths and flowery words] Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying, ‘The Lord will rescue us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my power? Who among all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my power? So will the Lord rescue Jerusalem from my power?” But they kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was, “Don’t answer him.”

Hezekiah’s men went to him and reported all that was said.

Imagine the setting. He’s closed in on all sides and humanly speaking there’s no escaping what is coming.

the Sons of Korah reflect on this setting with 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

Michael Heiser taught that mountains, when used as metaphor in Scripture, are divine realms, the dwelling place of God, and a representative of cosmic stability. When we refer to things in the cosmic sense, this is a reference to the spiritual realm. Others have said that this is the place where the ancient people met with God. When the sons of Korah tell us that the mountains topple, they are describing cosmic upheaval, they are seeing the potential loss of the ability to meet with and identify with their God, they probably were sensing the potential collapse of life in the spiritual realm in the way that Hezekiah knew it. Now everything was off.

When we see references to the sea in biblical metaphor, we are seeing pictures of chaos and cosmic disorder. This is a reference to the spiritual realm that is opposed to God ruling.

The Sons of Korah were describing the trouble as they generalized Hezekiah’s experience. They were saying, the Assyrian god seems to be winning and so our safe place seems to be crumbling while chaos takes over, but they also recognized that this is the view because of what the enemy had spewed, so they declared that even though the world around them seems to be in trouble, they did not have to fear because God would help.

Have you ever been in this space of feeling spiritually surrounded by dark forces? Maybe someone hurt you, or another person’s bad decisions changed you, maybe you thought you were going the right direction with your plans and they all stopped or were denied, like all the previously open doors of opportunity just closed to you. Maybe every morning when you wake up, you feel like you are slogging through a psychological battle for your peace or over your addiction. These are just a few, vague descriptions of how we can feel spiritually surrounded like Hezekiah and Jerusalem were, but Hezekiah knew something of his God that we can also know. God is faithful.

And so in the face of the Assyrian army, he had told all his army to stay silent and not answer the Assyrians. When Hezekiah heard all that was said, he went to Isaiah. Isaiah replied that God was going to essentially distract Sennacherib from Jerusalem but the Assyrian king did not go as he was supposed to. Instead he sent a letter to Hezekiah saying: Isaiah 37:10-13

Isaiah 37:10–13 CSB

‘Don’t let your God, on whom you rely, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem won’t be handed over to the king of Assyria. Look, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the countries: they completely destroyed them. Will you be rescued? Did the gods of the nations that my predecessors destroyed rescue them—Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the Edenites in Telassar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, or Ivvah?’ ”

And Hezekiah went and laid the letter he had received before the Lord and prayed this: Isaiah 37:16-20

Isaiah 37:16–20 CSB

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. Listen closely, Lord, and hear; open your eyes, Lord, and see. Hear all the words that Sennacherib has sent to mock the living God. Lord, it is true that the kings of Assyria have devastated all these countries and their lands. 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. 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 the situation looks grim, and your world is falling apart, there is help in God. Psalm 46:1-3, Isaiah 36-37

OK, we have set up the situation, let’s move to the next refrain of the Psalm and make some connections.

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

Historically, archeologists think in the year that Hezekiah was put under siege by Sennacherib, Hezekiah did this really smart thing. He built a tunnel called the Siloam Tunnel. Here is a picture from inside this tunnel, still strong today nearly 3000 years later. This tunnel, considered an engineering marvel because it was carved into solid bedrock, channeled water from the Gihon Spring into the Pool of Siloam and became Jerusalem’s secret provision during the siege.

We can move to the next slide, this map shows a new path through the rock was made from the outside of the city to the pool on the inside where the water could be for public access. - Who remembers when Pastor Elise spoke to us about the the Pool of Siloam and the blind man healed there from John 9? So that story in John happened at the end of a week called the Feast of Tabernacles or Feast of Booths. And starting in the second temple period, on the seventh day of the feast, there was a big celebration and parade as the priests would walk from the temple down to the Pool of Siloam. They would fill a gold pitcher with water from the pool and take it back to the temple where they poured the water out as an offering. Their tradition said that they were drawing from the well of salvation (a reference from Zechariah). And while the priests of that time were likely simply praying for rain for their crops, Jesus took this living water and salvation idea very seriously as he sent the blind man there to wash and be healed. This is the same pool as referenced in Psalm 46. The sons of Korah took the physical reality of the provision of life giving water as a key point to survival in the midst of the trial and turned it into the theological point that John made about the water of life and rivers in the Gospel of John and the Book of Revelation. What is that point? In the very moment when nations raged and mountains seemed to fall, when disaster seems to be at hand, Jerusalem had a river that could not be cut off because it was cut in the bedrock, and which represented God Himself being in her midst. The tunnel Hezekiah built in crisis became the backdrop for the psalm’s confidence.

Does anyone else find it interesting that the City of God is referred to as “her” in verse 5. If you continue this line of reasoning that the Sons of Korah have started in metaphor, the city of God is not a place in the same way that church is not a building. In personifying the city, the Sons of Korah identified the city as God’s people. And God’s people are always referred to as bride or wife throughout Scripture.

Here’s another connection for you. In John 4, Jesus told the Samaritan woman that he would give her what kind of water? (living water). And what did he say that living water represents in metaphor? (the holy Spirit). So, in Revelation 22:1, John tells us “Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” What John is saying at the end of Revelation is the same thing that the Sons of Korah are saying here in Psalm 46,

God’s help, God’s provision, God’s presence, is already with us in our time of trouble. [because it is flowing right into the midst of us through the Holy Spirit] Psalm 46:4-7; John 4 & 9; Revelation 22:1

Jesus sent the Holy Spirit, did you remember that Siloam means sent?, so that in Hezekiah’s time, the water was sent through the tunnel to provide for the people, in Jesus’s time, the blind man was sent to receive his healing in John 9, and for our time Jesus sent the Holy Spirit (John 14) so that God is with us always. Hezekiah knew this, so instead of making a battle plan, he went to God asked God to deliver them.

And the sons of Korah record God’s answer this way, 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

Let’s finish the parallel story. After God responded to Sennacherib, Here is what he said to Hezekiah and what he did. Isaiah 37:33–37

Isaiah 37:33–37 CSB

“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. He will go back the way he came, and he will not enter this city. This is the Lord’s declaration. I will defend this city and rescue it for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.” Then the angel of the Lord (we know him as the pre-incarnate Jesus) 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! So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh.

When we look back at the Psalm, we realize that regardless of the nations and their intentions, God is still on the throne. We call that God’s sovereignty. He told Sennacherib what to do, if you go back and read the story carefully, but Sennacherib didn’t listen, so God made him do it.

What do the songwriters mean when they say that He shatters bows and cuts spears to pieces; that he sets wagons ablaze? Well, it seems fairly obvious that the way that God fights literally stops violence from happening. It is like anti-violence. For example, Jesus defeated Satan not by meeting him in a dark alley in heaven and battling it out to see who was stronger. No, Jesus took all of Satan’s violence onto himself and resolved it. And wagons were part of every war because they were used to carry the large seige equipment to the battle and to carry away the spoils of war, including people. But Jesus work on the cross disabled the violence and freed those captives.

So, in the same way that Jesus resolved violence rather than fight, the sons of Korah tell the nation of Israel to Be Still (in most of your versions) or in this version, stop fighting. A more literal translation might be, put down your weapons. Why, because as people of God, we don’t do battle in our own strength. We submit to God rather than continuing in our frantic, busy self-reliance that distracts us from God and we settle into a surrendered life that acknowledges God’s sovereignty. In the same way that Hezekiah did not even have an emotional response to all that vitriol that was being spewed towards him, he did not debate the lies or explain the misunderstandings. He simply took the evidence and laid it out before the Lord. He said, God either you rescue us or we perish, because this little city cannot fight the biggest army in the world. We don’t know if Hezekiah stayed up all night praying or if he told God the situation, surrendered it to Him and then went to bed. But this certainly feels like the implication in the story, does it not.

The point is:

Be still means to stop fighting! Psalm 46:8-11; Isaiah 37:33-37

I want to bring this home for you from this story and these abstract thoughts to a very practical application. First, we need to understand that surrender to God is a very practical concept. If you have have not ever surrendered your life to God, this is just like Hezekiah laid his battle before the Lord. Today might be your day. Romans 5:1 says “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” One of Paul’s biggest points every time that he expressed the Gospel was that we don’t have to earn our way to God, we don’t have to be good enough, or strong enough, or have our life in order to approach God. We just have to approach the throne of God with surrender and give God the right and the space to fight for us. That is how we find peace with God. Paul also described exactly how to become justified or said another way how to become part of God’s people. In Romans 10:9–10, Paul wrote, “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.”

Often, however, even after we have been justified and have surrendered our life to Christ, we choose to pick up our battle and start fighting again, do we not. Today is a reminder to everyone here that either God is in control or you are. Our job is not to win our battles, our job is to obey God from within that space and stay surrendered, so that God can work.

The second application is to take intentional time away from the business of life to sit before God. I cannot stress enough the great lengths that God went to in order to be with us. He created us for relationship with Him! the fact that we find things to fill our time, in fact every moment of our day, is an attack from the enemy because it distracts us from this relationship with God. When we have peace with God as Romans 5:1 told us, we should also reap peace from God because he is our source of peace. Ephesians 2:13–15 “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both groups (the Jews and Gentiles) one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations (meaning that it is not God’s intention that we have to follow a bunch of rules but that we will follow Him in relationship), so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.” Take time to sit before God. What do you do during that time? it’s good to just be in quiet reflection, but if you have difficulty focusing your mind on God, it is great to read Scripture with the intention to learn how God is speaking to you, to spend time working through a prayer list of both praises and requests, or to spend time worshipping either through journaling or music. Essentially, God is jealous for your surrender in a regular way.

The third application is to name your battles and then lay them before the Lord.

This sounds like a psychological counseling piece of advice, but let me give you a practical example of when God showed up for me. Way back in the summer of 2006, I was a young mother of a 4 year old, a 6 year old, and an 8 year old. I was working, volunteering, trying to keep up the house, trying to make my husband happy, and trying to keep track of all our finances. And nothing seemed to be working out. One day, I figured up our debt situation and with the skills that I had from my accounting degree I factored in our bills, our needed spending, our taxes, and my husbands typically spending habits. The number that I found I needed for an annual salary, just to not go bankrupt was 6 figures. That was a lot of money to me in 2006. I remember taking the paper that I wrote up all my figuring on, and right in the middle of my day, that Saturday afternoon, with my children running around me and dishes waiting for me in the sink, I laid that paper before the Lord. I literally stopped everything and said to God, I’ve got nothing. Without your help, God, I’m going under. I can’t work my way out of this, if I ask someone else for money, it will just get spent and we’ll be back in the same place. God, I don’t know the answer to this situation, but I trust you. And if I go down, God you take me out, not the drinking, or the fighting, or any scheme of the enemy. The very next day, a job posted on the Grant PUD website. It was a union position that paid the exact amount, to the dollar, that I had written on that paper. I have never applied for a position before that was based only on that number. I had not the experience or the exact education that they were asking for, but I had this nudge from the Holy Spirit that said to apply. That was 20 years ago. And this story is why, if you have ever heard me talk about finances, I have always said that all my money belongs to God. Because in a very real way, God used this job that I still work to save me and my family from ruin.

Name your battles and then lay them before the Lord. This is not a magic formula, it is surrender to God’s will and God’s weaving in our lives.

Finally, anchor your emotions in God’s presence. We learned during our series about the Armor of God that one of the biggest attacks of the enemy to believers is the attack on the mind. The enemy likes to play with our emotions through fear, accusation, and lies. He likes to mess with our hearts through temptation, pride, and unforgiveness. And then he tries to reinforce those emotional triggers by adding a bit of circumstantial pressure to us like suffering, hardship, or others trying to fight against us. So this is why I think that all our Christian weapons are defensive with only the word of God for offense. The battle for our mind and thus our emotions is won through the renewing of our mind as we sit in the presence of God. Romans 12:1–2 says, “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.” As we anchor our emotions each day in the presence of God, we put on our armor, we build relationship with God, and we daily give our lives over to God.

My goal today was that we would see how to experience this Psalm as the sons of Korah wrote it to be experienced and remembered. But I think that we have also learned some tools that will help us to more fully experience other Scripture as we sit with Jesus. If you have been listening to this message today and the Holy Spirit has been tugging at your heart. Maybe you have never asked Jesus to be Lord in your life and put him in charge. Or maybe, as happens with all of us as some point or another, you realize that you have been taking control back from God and expecting to do life on your own? If either of these situations is yours, please come up and talk with Me, or Mike, or anyone that you have seen up here today. We would be so happy to pray with you. Let’s close in prayer.

Let’s sing one more song before we go today.

Application

Either God is in control or you are - just obey

Take intentional time away from the business of life to sit before God.

Name your battles and then lay them before the Lord.

Anchor your emotions in God’s presence.

Benediction 2 Thessalonians 3:16

2 Thessalonians 3:16 CSB

May the Lord of peace himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with all of you.