A Mighty Fortress

John Paton was a missionary in the New Hebrides Islands. One night hostile natives surrounded the mission station, intent on burning out the Patons and killing them. Paton and his wife prayed during that terror-filled night that God would deliver them. When daylight came they were amazed to see their attackers leave. A year later, the chief of the tribe was converted to Christ. Remembering what had happened, Paton asked the chief what had kept him from burning down the house and killing them. The chief replied in surprise, "Who were all those men with you there?" Paton knew no men were present--but the chief said he was afraid to attack because he had seen hundreds of big men in shining garments with drawn swords circling the mission station.

What we see here in this illustration is a divine deliverance of John Paton and his family. They were in a situation in which their very lives were in peril, but God provided a way out much like he did in the story we are going to look at tonight! is one of the most popular psalms in scripture and has been the basis for hundreds, if not thousands of songs over the course of the last several hundred years. We sang of several of these songs tonight. This great psalm is thought to be a hymn of celebration, most likely after the defeat of the Assyrian army. This psalm celebrates the city of God, Zion, as the city in which God has pledged Himself and will bless the entire world (a fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant made in ). Furthermore, this psalm contains in it one of the most well-known “memory verses” in the entire Bible- “Be still and know that I am God”.

Tonight, we will be looking into this text as well as the context by which it was most likely written, so please turn in your Bibles to Psalm, chapter 46.

Psalm 46:1–11 ESV

1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. 6 The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts. 7 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire. 10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

:1-

God’s Power over Nature (1-3)

The first point (as designated by the musical notation, “Selah” which means to pause and reflect upon what was previously said) that the psalmist makes is that God has power over the natural things of this world. There was a constant fear of instability in the ancient world. People desired to congregate with people of similar ethnic backgrounds and to be in situations of strength rather than weakness. With that in mind, consider the psalmists illustrations in verses 2 and 3. The earth changes, the mountains slip into the sea, the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake.

Think of the security provided by a mountain in this era.

An army of hundreds could defend itself against a force of thousands. The security provided by a mountain extends beyond the realm of the battlefield, though, as mountains also provide a sense of navigation for travelers as well. People could see a mountain while in the desert and have a better understanding of where they stand in relation to their destination. Mountains also were the place where many civilizations (Greeks and Jews) believed their god/gods to reside! This was due to the fact that the mountains were closer to the “heavens” and the Greeks believed their gods to reside on Mount Olympus while the Jews had a special connection to Yahweh on Mount Sinai as Moses was given the 10 commandments. Mountains were sacred, they were land markers, they were fortresses and they were stable in a chaotic world.

In the Ancient world, Mountains represented stability and the Sea represented chaos

If the world were to lose these peaks, there would be a lack of reference points on the Earth and it would appear as though Chaos had won the day. Furthermore, while these mountains appeared to represent a sense of stability and control, the sea represented chaos. To many nations, chaos was something controlled by a power or god. Similar to the scene found in Egypt with the plagues: The God of Israel proved time and time again to be superior to all other “gods”, however people continued to doubt and believed that chaos still had power. Think about this, with each plague, the God of the Israelites proved to be more powerful than the Egyptian god. The plagues went from Egyptian god to god and eventually led to the defeat of Rah (the Egyptian Sun god) and the Pharaoh (a living god to the Egyptians) with the death of his first-born son. To the normal ancient near east person, this would have given them reason to fear, however for the Christian there is no reason to fear because the God of the Jews is greater than the power/ruler of chaos.

All of these statements regarding chaos illustrate how there is no hope for the individual involved, yet the psalmist states that the believer will “not fear”? How radical is this? What basis would the psalmist have to make such a bold claim? Whenever a natural disaster arises around us, we are often to feel these thoughts of helplessness. However as we will see in the coming verses, we have no reason to fear because the Lord of Hosts is with us through the fire.

The City of God (4-7)

The psalmists second section talks about the City of God and how it differs from the outside world. As impressive and mighty as mountains and the kingdoms of the world are, they pale in comparison to the power and might possessed by the creator, Yahweh. The city of God is only protected because He says so and because His presence is there! We might wonder how this can be because we know that later on, Jerusalem would be captured a few generations after this psalm is penned. This goes to show the covenantal blessing between Yahweh and Israel. Whenever Israel would follow and obey the law, they would be blessed. However, as we know from the law was a shadow and Jesus is the substance itself, likewise, just as God is in the midst of Zion in , He now is inside each and every one of His followers (not strictly in a temple). There is now a heavenly community that gentiles, like us, can be a part of rather than a mere locality on the Earth. This is our call to be a light into the darkness whenever challenges and chaos arises!

As verse 4 proclaims, there is a river that makes glad the city of God. Jerusalem was one of very few ancient cities that was not located on a river. Water, meanwhile, was a highly valued commodity in Palestine at this time (and it remains very precious today) so this led to a problem for the Kings of Judah. Hezekiah at this time had an underground water system that made water readily available, however he knew that God was their river and He provided them with the water of life as bears out. Water is a common metaphor in the Old Testament and Isaiah, during the reign of King Ahaz, compared an incoming Assyrian invasion to an overflowing river – devastating in nature. Yet he said that their God was like a quiet river and would bring them peace as say. God’s people have always depended on spiritual resources that come from God alone (think of Moses and manna coming from heaven or the pillar of fire and cloud of smoke, just to name a few). Jerusalem was the holy city, set apart by God and His sanctuary was located there, however those things did not guarantee Israel a victory! The king and the people had to turn to the Lord in confession and faith. This psalm is written in a chiastic form which means that the climax of the psalm is not found at the end (as is common with modern debate and rhetoric) but rather in the end with a steady build up and a steady decline. Paul uses this structure time and time again in his arguments in books like 1 Corinthians and Ephesians. Because of this use of chiasm, the center or climax of the psalmist’s point is found in verse 7. Verse 7 finalizes this second point by stating that the “Lord of Hosts is with us” – Emmanuel, God is with us. No matter what the circumstances in our lives, we may drink at the river of His joy and blessing and find the peace and strength we need. Listen to the words of Lamentations 3:21-26

“This I recall to my mind

Therefore I have hope.

The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

Lamentations 3:21–26 ESV

21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.” 25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. 26 It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

Therefore I have hope in Him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,

To the person who seeks Him.

It is good that he waits silently

For the salvation of the LORD.”

We have hope because just as God was in the midst of His city and had power over the nations and angels of darkness, God is still with us through His Holy Spirit and He is still in control over all powers, both earthly and heavenly. Now this does not mean that God is some genie that will always be there to rescue you or help you out when you ask Him to. One of the most common arguments used by Atheists is “why do bad things happen to good people if there is a God?” What this text shows is that it is the Lord who is our refuge in the storm! There will be adversity and just because God has “moved mountains” in the past doesn’t make Him obligated to “Do it again” – no, rather what defines a Christian is having joy in the adversity and knowing that God is in control. Even if He doesn’t deliver us from our temporary obstacle, He has delivered us from our rightful destination. Our hope in Christ should not be predicated upon His saving us from our daily worries, it should be predicated in Him saving us from eternal separation from Him in a place called hell. It’s not, “God you have to do it again”, it’s, “I will praise you even if you don’t because I know you are worthy and deserve my praise”. As Paul puts it in , we “boast in our persecution”. Whenever we hear the word “boast”, we immediately assume a negative meaning to the word because our society (generally) frowns upon boasting in ones own accomplishments. However, in Biblical times this was something completely normal! Honor was something so important and identity was found in your “group” so to boast in your identity was to elevate the status of your group. When Paul says to “boast in our persecution”, though, he sets Christianity against the norm of his day. No other religion or ethnic group would boast about their God in their persecution, in fact many Palestinian groups would associate persecution with the wrath of a god (small “g”). To Paul, and to the Psalmist, we are to maintain our hope and to boast in our God even in the face of persecution.

As Christians we boast what? Our Persecution

The Works of the Lord (8-11)

This final passage starts with the psalmist proclaiming, “come behold the works of the Lord”. Come behold the works of the Lord. In order to gain a better perspective of what the psalmist is talking about here, we must turn to . Here what we find is King Hezekiah and the Israelites being surrounded in Jerusalem, having lost many of their other cities to the invading Assyrians. Jerusalem was surrounded by 185,000 of the most fearsome warriors of their day and it was only a matter of time before the Israelites would be forced to surrender. Hezekiah prayed to the Lord of Hosts, however he does not place his own safety first, he focuses on the character of God! Rather than selfishly beg for his life to be spared, he prays that God will reveal Himself to all nations –so that they all might know who the One true God is. This is why God intervenes, not because Hezekiah prayed a special prayer that is vastly different than what we pray today, but because God made Israel living proof of His glory. The Lord hears Hezekiah’s prayer and responds by telling Isaiah that the Assyrians shall not come into the city, shoot an arrow against Israel or cast a siege against Jerusalem. God will defend this city to save it, for His sake and for the sake of David (Davidic Covenant – your seed will reign forever).

If we backtrack into the life of Hezekiah, we see that he was doing some great things in the Kingdom at this time! According to the covenant they had with God, Israel was called to be monotheistic – something unique compared to other nations –but they fell victim to idolatry often and were in a sense polytheistic even though they shouldn’t have been. Think how often we fall victim to this as well. We know Jesus is the only way () yet we try and add other things to Him in the way that we spend our time and value other things higher than Christ. Jesus + anything = nothing. While Israel (the northern kingdom) had fallen into idolatry, Hezekiah had done away with idol worship and had faith in the Lord in a way that no King since David had possessed. You would think that because he was fulfilling the Old Testament law that he would be blessed by God because of his obedience. After all, this was the purpose of the law as states– obey it and have covenantal blessing, disobey and have covenantal cursing. Instead what we see is Assyria invade the land. Likewise there are times whenever we are doing what we are supposed to do, we are confronting sin and glorifying God yet the enemy continues to attack us left and right until we are “surrounded”. Do not fall victim – behold the works of the Lord and have joy! The God we serve sent a single angel to annihilate 185,000 warriors and they didn’t even fire off a single arrow! He is our source of deliverance and He has the “goods to get it done” regardless of the situation around us. Remain faithful to God whenever life’s circumstances are favorable and remain faithful whenever we feel surrounded and have no way out. We serve a mighty God!

In Hezekiah’s prayer, he cries out to the Lord and says, “Unless you come, we will not be saved”. The Lord replies by saying “I will fight the battle for you”. Imagine being faced with an immovable obstacle, such as cancer or the loss of a job. Our immediate instinct is to panic and think of any number of alternative ways to try and minimize the damage or to even deny the problem altogether. What do we see from the Psalmist, though? He says in verse 10 to “Be still and know that I am God”. The NASB puts it like this, “cease striving and know that I am God”. Cease striving refers to the struggle of the righteous person with God as they seek to find God’s will and obey it. It can be extremely difficult to “be still” in a society that prides itself on staying busy and that promotes self-reliance rather than depending on something or someone else. We are called to be still while the storms of life rage on, even as the mountains are thrown into the sea. While the nations of the earth have their entire worlds flipped upside down, the kingdom of God is made right side up and the Christian has the right perspective whenever he is still and acknowledges that God is in control. Just as Israel was called to be a light to the nations, we are to make known the works of the Lord. Notice, we aren’t called to just know that God is in control, we are to make known the works of the Lord to the Nations! Just as God told Abraham in , all the nations of the earth will be blessed. That is a mission that we too are a part of as followers of Christ as Paul hits on in Romans as he talks about how gentiles Christians like you and I are grafted into the seed of Abraham. Furthermore, as John Piper puts it, if it was fitting and good and pleasant for the people of Israel to bless and praise and thank God for his deliverances, it is all the more fitting and good and pleasant for Christians to gather to do the same today!

Just as Israel was called to be a light to the nations, we are to make known the Works of the Lord

Be still and know that I am God. These are easy words to say but how well do we put them into practice? When your mom falls down one morning and can’t remember your name, are you going to be still and know that God is God? When your brother calls you and tells you that your mom has passed away, be still and know that I am God. When your health fails, be still and know that I am God. When you lose your job, be still and know that I am God. When the world rejects you, be still and know that I am God! Think for a moment about the story of Elijah in . When Elijah was on the mountain, the word of the Lord (as makes known, that indicates the Son of God) told Elijah that the Lord was about to pass by, however Elijah could not find God in the wind, earthquake or fire but rather as a gentle whisper that followed. How often do we try and find God in the midst of our chaotic and busy schedules and then wonder aloud, “where are you at, God?” Be still and know – that is what we are called to do.

This doesn’t mean that our world becomes still when we recognize the sovereignty of God, however as we see in , God has everything in control. Temporary suffering exists, yes, however our eternal hope is secured. Be still and know that God is in control, even when the armies of darkness seem to have you surrounded, have faith because the Lord of Hosts is with you. He is with us in the fire! He can relate with us because he came down from heaven and bore our sin on the cross. Christ had to share completely in all that Adam was in order to redeem all that Adam became. He can relate fully with our sufferings and he cares for His children. Paul, in , says that nothing can frustrate the purposes of God. Messianic Suffering must precede Messianic Glory! If we are buried with Christ, we too will be raised like Christ was! Suffering exists and is very real, however the glorification of resurrection is so much greater than the worst that the world can throw at us. Because Christ defeated sin and death, we don’t have to be enslaved to them. Do you know Him? If you do, be still and know that the Lord of Hosts is with you in your suffering. If not, I pray that you come to know the peace that only He can bring upon your life. It is that peace that causes Christians to have hope in the face of certain death. It is that same hope that caused Christianity to explode like wildfire under the blade of persecution and it is that same hope that Christians have that at the very name of Jesus, the darkness trembles.

What must precede Messianic Glory? Messianic Suffering

Do you know Him?

Conclusion

We might not know what it feels like to be surrounded by a massive, unbeatable army, however we do face an enemy that is impossible defeat on our own. The problem with this enemy is that he doesn’t appear to us with weapons of mass destruction or an army of thousands of fierce warriors, no he bombards us daily with deadly lies disguised as lovely truths. Oh, if we truly beheld the mighty works of the Lord and could see how it is He who has power over the chaos that we allow to control our lives then there would be nothing to stop us from unapologetically proclaiming that there is a God in Israel whose power is unlimited, who spoke planets into existence and who defeated death by dying. Even in the most uncertain of times, have faith in God! When the Lord of Hosts is with us, nothing can stand against us. So as we close, ask yourself this question: Is your faith in the mountain – the Earthly place that you keep running back to in order to provide purpose and direction for your life - is that where your strength comes from and where you place your trust? Or is your faith placed in God, the creator of heaven, earth and the mountains? We are called to play a role in proclaiming the name of Jesus among the Nations. The Lord of Hosts is with us, let nothing stand against us from living for Christ.