Be Still and know God
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Be still and know God
Be still and know God
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
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Question 1 - How have you seen God be a Refuge and strength in your life?
Question 1 - How have you seen God be a Refuge and strength in your life?
Question 2 - In what ways are you tempted to fear because of what you see happening in the earth?
Question 2 - In what ways are you tempted to fear because of what you see happening in the earth?
Question 3 - What does it mean to ‘Be still and Know God’?
Question 3 - What does it mean to ‘Be still and Know God’?
The Psalm we have before us today is one that many have found to be a reassurance for confidence in God. Some think that the authors, the Sons of Korah, wrote this after a mighty battle that King David won for Israel, and so it was a song for God’s people to celebrate the confidence they can have in their God.
Many Christians through the ages have seen it as a word of real encouragement in who God is, some have claimed it as their own psalm and used it to fuel movements of God’s people to again put their strength in him… And Some today use it as a kitchy platitude for their coffee mugs and christian t-shirts design, it is a life verse for them… And while it is not wrong for people to memorize single verses that bring them more confidence in God, it is actually a good thing and I encourage it, I would be remiss if those who treat psalm 46 this way didn’t have a chance to hear it in a more robust way, so that like others the whole psalm becomes their psalm.
If thats you today, please don’t be offended but rather seek to hear God speak through this Psalm as he has through the ages, for he is faithful, to do and be, exactly what psalm 46 declares, as he himself is the true author of all scripture.
We should take the precious words we find in scripture and hold fast to them when faced with trials and attack of the enemy. For that is what those before have done...
In fact, a young man who was influential to our modern understanding of scripture, once turned to his companions on his way into the assembly or Diet of Worms on April 16, 1521, and said let us sing
“Ein feste burg ist unser Gott”
A Mighty Fortress is our God, written by Martin Luther based off of the encouragement found in , which is known as Luther’s Psalm. For those of you new to the church Martin Luther was the father of the Reformation as God used him to bring the true church out of the Catholic church that had no longer believed the Gospel. He is one of the many reformers that have helped shape our modern expression of worship to this day. today we will look at the Psalm that he sang with others in kindling theirs heart to burn bright for Christ in leading the reformation and reclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ for us to receive and pass on to the next generation. Let’s look at this Psalm now.
1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
psalm46
It would be possible to preach for an hour on just this one verse alone. Why? Because it tells us who God is!
Yet if you are not in trouble and trials and turmoil today you may skip right over some of the most important encouragement we can get from God’s word.
First things first, the Bible is not about us… It is not a book written about us, but it is written by God as his Spirit carried men along and inspired them to write about God. So God is writing about himself to us so we can know him. The bible is how God truly speaks to us. We believe that the original autographs as it was written is actually truly inspired by God, they are God-breathed truths about himself, that he authored through the hands of men.
And if you are to believe that, then when we come to a passage that tells us who God is, we ought to listen.
Look at verse 1… “God is our...” In the original Hebrew language this was to be read more like, “God is for us”...
The very first encouragement is very clear
God “IS”
God “IS”
Could such a small word really be worth the preachers time to pause and wax eloquently about???
Well, what it if this word was replaced with anything other than “is”?
Is- is the present tense plural of “be” , yet we wouldn’t say, “God BE for us...”
This little word is powerful here because it excludes other words that would change the meaning of understanding God. Here is what I mean… this verse doesn’t say, “God WAS our refuge and strength”, it doesn’t say, “God CAN be our refuge and strength”, or even, “God WILL BE our refuge and strength”.
God IS our refuge and strength… Do you hear the difference in that?
What about now… He IS! What about a moment a ago, Yep then too… how about in the next moment, he IS then as well...
Our actively present self sustaining God who IS all powerful, IS Light and IS Love… IS Ours!!!
For me personally… If God is anything other than the God who IS, I am sunk and have no hope at all. This little word has encourages me today, gives me hope for tomorrow and humbles my every thought of the past. This so impacted my devotional reading of the text that I can move no further today if “IS” isn't inspired by God himself for us to know him.
Even the next part of this, that fact that God is OURS or FOR US, would not be a source of strength for God’s people if “IS” wasn’t true.
If God WAS ours, or he only COULD BE for us, we would despair and be crushed. Yet God IS!!!
I want to submit to you that the entire rest of this Psalm should be read in light of the fact that God IS!
He is ours, as his people, he is for us as his children, and yet the Psalmist and the Lord himself would further define exactly what he IS...
Refuge and Strength
Refuge and Strength
Let us start with the word Strength, since there is very little variation in understanding the meaning of this word.
God IS Strength… God IS Powerful. Which means he is not weak or inept or impotent. He is OUR Strength. So when we are weak, when we are unable to finish, when we are exhausted He IS not! Seems pretty straight forward, there is nothing more powerful in all the universe and nothing more that his people need, He is our strength, he is Mighty, yet whats more he is Almighty!
But the word Refuge… that has more meaning than whatever we may think. For the Hebrews who first read this and learned to sing this, all the way up to Luther and beyond, the idea of Refuge meant a Shelter. Refuge meant security from foes and enemies, from weather and chaos, from political uprising, and assurance against peril and disaster. Is it any wonder how Luther sang of God as a Mighty Fortress, a Bulwark never failing… A bulwark by the way is a shield…
Spurgeon said this about our refuge here...
“While others boast about their impregnable castles, placed on inaccessible rocks and secured with gates of iron… Our God is a far better refuge than all of these. When time comes to carry the war to the territories of the enemy, the Lord stands his people in a better stead than all the valor of legions or all the boasted strength of chariots and horses. Soldiers of the cross remember this, count yourself safe, and make yourself strong in God. All other refuges are lies, all other strength is weakness, for power belongs to God!”
And as the God who IS our refuge and strength, listen to great encouragement and draw strength from God through it...
VERY present help in trouble
VERY present help in trouble
If God “IS” was not enough to convince your heart of how near our God is, then look at this!
God IS VERY Present Help… I love the Hebrew original language here because it translates to this… HE IS ACCESSIBLE!
As Spurgeon puts it, the word VERY is emphasized here because, “he is more present than friend or relative, and even the trouble itself.” This means that if you feel the weight of trouble then how much more accessible and present is God? IF God is writing this through his people, then he himself is telling us that he is there in a very real way. God has been tried and proven time and time again, he never withdraws from His afflicted, but rather is there by their side especially in the midst of danger and trouble, as our only true comfort in this life!
GOD IS!!!! VERY PRESENT, ACCESSIBLE… especially when we need him.
It was at this point in preparing for this sermon I had to switch gears… The common way to preach this text is to see a natural break down in 3 parts… vs 1-3 Natural chaos / vs 4-7 Political chaos / vs 8-11 a call to worship. I mention it because I want it in your mind as we look at the rest of this, but instead I need to focus on the words we often skip and never think much of… words like “IS”… there are a couple more and yet God IS needs to be the response to all of this psalm...
psalm46.
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
Therefore… This word simply mean… Because of this, or in light of that… The way I remember it is this… the information I am about to read is THERE FOR the reasons I just read...
Therefore is a conjunction or a word that connects what may seem like two separate thoughts. In this Psalm it literally means that everything we learn from here on in is only Because of what we just learned… and what did we just learn?
GOD IS! God IS therefore we will not fear!
Because God IS we don’t needs to be afraid
Because God IS we don’t needs to be afraid
Everything that the rest of the Psalm will talk about is subject to this one thought… Because God IS we do need to be afraid.
Now some of us hear that and say, “ok, I wont be afraid”, and it is settled. But for some people that is just not how they are wired. Some people are just more anxious, some people are more prone to worry. Some of us are more extreme and fatalistic, we throw caution to the wind and go as fast as we can because God said it so “what’s the big deal”… And then there are some who have analysis paralysis and always need m ore information before they can feel secure enough to proceed with caution.
Well, the best part of all this, is the fact that the truth of who God IS will always produce the same results. Why??? Because it is not about the person who believes it as much as it is the one in whom we believe.
And if it seems like I am making much of the small words here… I am. And there is more… Look at the word that follows next...
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
THOUGH the earth gives way… THOUGH the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea… THOUGH its waters roar and foam… THOUGH the mountains tremble at its swelling...
So what??? What is the big deal about that? Again the Hebrew translation is better because it says WHEN the earth gives way… WHEN the Mountains… When the waters roar… WHEN...
Though and When are basically declaring the same thing. These things WILL happen… It is not saying IF there is chaos in the natural world… God is telling us that WHEN it happens, because it will happen… we will not fear because He IS accessible to us!
Let’s read it like this… We will not fear though the earth gives way - BECAUSE GOD (congregation) IS
We will not fear Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea - BECAUSE GOD (congregation) IS
We will not fear Though its waters roar and foam - BECAUSE GOD (congregation) IS
We will not fear Though the mountains tremble at its swelling - BECAUSE GOD (congregation) IS
This whole earth will experience Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Landslides, Hurricanes, Tornados, and shaking and breaking until the ground beneath us is literally falling apart. And this is not new… Ever since the fall of man in the garden in when the Lord pronounced judgement on the land until now, the whole earth has been Groaning
22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Until the time of fulfillment comes when all the sons and daughters of God are revealed, this earth shall continue to shake and quake around us but we will not fear because God IS our refuge and strength!
psalm46.
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
It would be so easy to talk at length about what this river is and where the city of God is… Suffice it to say, for those original hearers they were referring to Jerusalem and the streams that flowed through the city. An actual place was the setting, but it is more.
In comparison to the raging earth that would cause its inhabitants to fear, the place where God dwells is safe and secure and watered by streams that make its dwelling glad.
As it was true for them to feel secure in Israel at that time, when nations around them would try to fight God’s people and he delivered them, How much more is it true for us in Christ now, as God by his Spirit has come to dwell inside of his people. Church we are the gathering of people that make up the true Zion or city of God where his holy habitation is. Church we are the city of God as a collection of His people, we are Zion realized in the earth, we are the beneficiaries of the first Israel who failed God and turned away in sin, and now in Christ we have been welcomed in and been forgiven of Sin to be the true spiritual Israel.
And like a secret aqueduct to besieged city, in a world that is being torn apart, God’s grace convinces the church that we will not only survive but thrive in joy. And that river whose streams make glad the city… well Jesus specifically revealed that the Holy Spirit is that means of grace who causes “rivers of living water” to flow from the believers.
37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
For us, the Spirit has been given now that Jesus has ascended and been glorified at the right hand of the Father in heaven. And in us as his church and his children in Christ, his holy habitation by his Spirit, there is a river of Living Water, whose streams make glad this city of God!
No matter the political rage or nations that would fight with us, no matter the current events of our day or the threats of their day, God by his Spirit flow through us and make us glad in the face of pure chaos.
And as amazing as all that is… Please read this again and see how God IS...
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
DO you hear it??? God IS with us God IS our Fortress, he IS in our midst, He shall not be move, He WILL help...
God has covenanted himself to his people and is their mighty fortress! He comes to their aid in times of trouble and not even earthquakes and landslides can pluck his people from his hand!
Because god has chosen his people as his dwelling place he protects them from raging nations.
How confident should be to repeat what they did… The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress… Have congregation repeat
The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
He IS, God IS… Oh how happy are those who know this God who IS their and IS there!
Now look how the psalmist points them to remember the work of the Lord on their behalf as a mean of encouragement.
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.
These people have certainly seen and heard of the history of Gods people being victorious in battle because of the great deliverances God gave them.
The Psalmist declares by the inspiration of God’s Spirit, “Come, BEHOLD the works of the Lord...”
Imagine what they would be thinking of… Behold God delivering His people from Egypt… Behold the mighty Pharaohs defeat at the Red Sea… Behold his peoples deliverance from oppressive regimes… Behold how God humbled the powerful Nebuchadnezzar…
Hear the psalmist declare to us an invitation to come and behold… As we look back to the Cross where God accomplish an eternal victory through the Son that sustains us to this day and on through eternity.
Hear the Lord speak through the psalmist and the corridors of church history and Behold the Lord raising up men who would stand in the face of enemies of the Gospel only to be martyred… Behold the Reformation and the rediscovering of the Gospel… Behold the Bride of Christ his church enduring throughout ages and never seeing the gates of Hell prevail against her…
And for us… Behold the salvation of our souls and the triumph over all our enemies… For truly God is with us and the God of Jacob is our fortress.
And for those who first heard this they would easily be able to think of the desolation the Lord has brought upon all the nations that disregarded his name and his people… The ruined cities of Assyria, Babylon, Petra, Bashan, and Canaan are all fresh in the minds of God’s people at the time of this psalms writing.
And yet, God will bring Peace, he will cause wars to cease, and all the military strength that man can muster up will be nothing more than broken weapons and a bonfire fueled by the vehicles of war.
And in these verse we have God people being encouraged to remember these works but also a harsh warning to those nations that would dare rage against the Lord. And it is with this thought in mind that we often miss the depth of the next verse, even though it is the most popular part of this whole psalm.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
I love what Sam Storms say about this verse here...
“The “nations” that formerly raged (in vs 6) and the “earth” that once gave way (in vs 2), are now the platform on which God makes known his glory and power… Whatever threat they once posed, they are now harnessed and subdued and brought into the service of God who is Lord over all.”
The Lord would say to a rebellious people, “Be still and know that I am God and I will be exalted...”
And this stern warning is seen even better when we look at the original Hebrew translation… The word for “Be still” is also translated to the word DESIST… Desist and know the I am God...
Desist from what? From raging against the Lord and his people, Desist from your wars in which God will bring to an end and utterly destroy in the end of all things…
But what of God people… if this verse warns outsiders of the Great Holy God Jehovah, then what does it do for us who belong to him? We desist from fear and worry when we see this earth in chaos, we desist from vain strivings when nations oppose each other and our hearts sink within us, we will not fear Because we Know God “IS” with us and he WILL BE exalted among the nations and in the Earth.
Listen to Spurgeon handle both side, believers and unbelievers...
“Hold off, you enemies! Sit and wait in patience, you believers! Acknowledge that Jehovah is God, you who feel the terrors of his wrath! Adore him, and him only, you who partake in the protection of His Grace. Since none can worthily proclaim his nature, let ‘expressive silence ponder His praise.’ The boast of the ungodly and the timid fear of the saints should certainly be hushed by the sight of what the Lord has done in the past.”
Be still and know God “IS” the “I am”… That he will be exalted among the nations, so leave behind your idols and do not allow your sense of national patriotism to over rule your zeal for the God who IS with you and has saved you!
And hear the psalmist one more time drive this into our hearts until we believe it so passionately...
11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah
Can you hear your Lord call out to you today by his word and through the broken vessel that stands before you, For God IS with us, God IS our Fortress!
But brothers and sisters, where do we see his fortress surround us and when do we feel the safety and security of our God who IS!?!?
In Jesus, that is where… In our great Immanuel, God with us, that is when and where we see it and feel it. Jesus is the personification of this psalm. For he himself is our present refuge and future victory!
And if the earth beneath our feet should crumble and buckle, we will not fear, because we are in Christ. And if nations should take up the fight and rage against our nation, and if markets should totter and stability be in jeopardy, we will come and behold the wonder of the cross and hear the deep proclamation of this Gospel, that God IS with us and we are IN Christ.
And so our confidence is even more sure because Jesus promised to be with us
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
And when there are “wars and rumors of wars, and nation is rising against nation” just like Jesus warned us in we will be strengthened with confidence that the kingdoms of this world will one day belong to him...
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
rev
And so, as we ponder the depth of our God that IS with us, and as we keep our eyes on our King Jesus, we will have the ability to ‘be still and know God!’
The question we must answer would be, is there a covenant between us and the God of Jacob? Is Jesus, Immanuel, God with us, your redeemer???
If not, Call upon his name and be saved, forsake your sins and repent of your wicked ways, put your faith in the God who IS with his people. Submit to Christ as your king and behold the glory of God that no nation can subdue.
And when you can testify to that dear friend, then hear me when i say, This God is our God and he IS with you… This God our God IS your Fortress.
And when you are tempted to fear, remember that not even Martin Luther was immune to depression and frustration. When he would come face to face with his enemies, he would turn to his friend Phillip and say: ‘Phillip, let us sing the 46th Psalm.’ What they sang became a song we have sung for 500 years now, and today we respond by joining a chorus of voices through the history of the church that declares, “A mighty Fortress is our God.”