Our Help Who Never Changes

Everything seems a little topsy-turvy, doesn’t it? With all the fears, all the cancellations, and even preaching to a mostly empty room today, nothing feels quite right.

I find it pretty amazing how God timed all this out. If you have been at Christiansburg Baptist for a while, you know we have been walking through the Sermon on the Mount.

God had called one unique family to himself, which is the nation of Israel. They were called and set apart to be his people unlike any other nation on earth.

Last week, we said we were taking a break from that passage for a while as we prepared for Easter.

However, they people’s hearts turned away from worshipping the one true God and they began to worship other gods.

They went through cycle after cycle of God warning them, they would get in trouble and turn back, God would deliver them, and then they would go right back to serving other gods.

Interestingly enough, I wasn’t sure exactly what to preach next.

On Tuesday, I started planning out a quick mini-series on Daniel that would point us to how to live as Christians in a culture that didn’t honor God, and we may turn back to it.

Eventually, the nation split into two pieces: the northern tribes of Israel, and the tribes of Judah.

However, by Thursday, it was apparent to me that we needed to look at a passage of Scripture that both challenges and comforts us in the middle of the chaos around us.

Those northern tribes turned their back completely on God, and he allowed them to be carried off into captivity by Assyrians.

Now, the tribes of Judah have even started following after other gods under the influence of a king named Manasseh. Although Manasseh turned back to God late in life, the damage had been done.

Really, as I think about it, it is just like God to shift things around us just at the right time for us to step aside and spend some time remembering who he is.

His son Amon was a terrible king who continued to lead the people away.

To do that today, I want us to turn to a passage that may be familiar to many of us. Go ahead and open your Bible to .

I posted the first few verses of this psalm on my Facebook feed earlier this week, and I believe it is something worth visiting today.

His grandson Josiah tried to turn the people back, and in many ways did, but it was too late.

In days when so many things around us seem to be changing, I want to remind you that God is our help who never changes.

After Josiah’s death, two of his sons were installed as kings.

When his son, who was renamed Jehoiakim, was in power, God sent Nebuchadnezzar, a wicked king from Babylon, to destroy Jerusalem.

Let’s read through these verses together, and then we will make three different observations about who God reveals himself to be in this psalm...

The observations we are going to make are pretty simple and straightforward this morning, which should help us to hold onto them in the days and weeks ahead.

However, as we walk through these observations, I need you to do something with me.

The first observation we make about the God who is our help in this psalm is that...

I know some of you may be having a difficult time trusting God right now. I hope by the end of the message that you will see why we can.

However, as you can tell, the psalm starts out asserting that these things are true without giving you the back story.

Don’t automatically dismiss the first parts of this message because you haven’t yet figured out why they are true.

If it isn’t too bold to ask, could you suspend your disbelief and hold your objections to the end?

I think by the end of this passage we will have made a good case for why this first section is true, so I need you to track with me on it.

The first observation we make about the God who is our help in this psalm is that...

That’s where we pick up in .

1) God is strong.

Right from the very beginning, the sons of Korah who wrote this want to highlight that the God who helps us, the God who we are looking to today with all the change and confusion around us, is unchangingly strong.

Read the first two verses...

II) He Is Able to Save (4-7) - There is some interesting imagery in these verses, and it is somewhat in code. - I always wondered what verse 4 was talking about. Some say this refers to one brook, others another. Some take it completely as allegory, looking at it as the river Ezekiel spoke of (not likely). - I asked my professor in seminary, and he told me that the reference here may be to the tunnel that Hezekiah dug to divert the flow of water back into Jerusalem so they would always have a source of water and would decrease the amount of good water outside of the city, looking towards Sennacherib’s invasion of Judah. "Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah and all his might, and how he made the pool and the conduit and brought water into the city, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?" (, NASB95) "he decided with his officers and his warriors to cut off the supply of water from the springs which were outside the city, and they helped him. So many people assembled and stopped up all the springs and the stream which flowed through the region, saying, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?”" (, NASB95) - The river referred to in this verse, then, would be Hezekiah’s tunnel, spoken of in a cryptic way that wouldn’t let all the enemies of Israel know about it. - Notice the reference to, “…when the morning dawns…” in verse 5. Does anybody remember what happened to Sennacherib’s army? "Then it happened that night that the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh. It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place." (, NASB95) - So this passage is specifically reminding us about the incredible deliverance God brought to Judah from the hands of one of the greatest armies on earth at the time, without them having to engage a single person in battle. - Here’s the principle for us to take from this: He is able to deliver us from every battle we face, even on a daily basis. He can deliver you from that temptation that you struggle with, from the people who rise up to oppose you doing what God wants you to do – He can take care of them, just like He took care of Sennacherib. - Did you see how steadfast He can make you be? “She will not be moved”. - Take note of His timing in verse 5 – “When morning dawns”. Literally, this is “at the turning of the morning”. That is a beautiful picture to me.

There is no hesitation or reservation at all in their words in verse 1.

In rapid succession, they highlight three similar characteristics of God:

III) He Is Sovereign (8-11) - Having shown this specific example of God’s deliverance, the psalmist goes on to speak of God’s sovereignty over all the nations. - Remember that at this time, wars were not simply one nation against another, but rather one god against another. - The psalmist examines all the desolation the Lord has brought against the nations of the earth, showing Him to be greater than any other god. - Verse 10, then, has the beautiful declaration of the Lord - The NASB translates this a little more accurately than the KJV, with almost a little more beautiful meaning to it: He calls us not only to be still, but to cease striving. - The picture I have in my head is that of a child who is so tired that she won’t go to sleep. They fight and wrestle, but once they stop, they just slide right off into sleep. - In a similar sense, we writhe and fight and try to do things our own way. We get busy and worry and agitated, when the Lord is saying, “I’m sovereign, I have it under control. Just stop.” - Since He is in control, He is will be glorified and exalted.

Conclusion

He is our refuge, which is a place we can run to and hide when things aren’t going well.

- What has you on the ropes this week? 10 years ago, it was the state of our country.

Think about little kids when they get scared. What do they do? They turn around and run to their parents for protection.

- Remember that He is strong enough to save, and He is sovereign over it all.

In that moment, their parents represent a safe place that will keep them from being harmed.

In the midst of the challenges we are facing today, we must do the same thing.

Let’s face it: Facebook is full right now of amateur epidemiologists with predictions about what is going to happen next.

We don’t put our trust in them, nor do we put our trust in our ability to hoard enough toilet paper to make it through this.

Instead, our response is to turn to Christ as our refuge.

Here’s what’s great: he isn’t just a place we can turn, he is actually strong enough to protect us!

Sometimes, we run to something for refuge that can’t actually protect us. We may turn to a relationship or our financial security or food or our success or any number of things, only to find out that those things cannot actually keep us safe!

Hasn’t that been painfully obvious this week? I know that the stock market began to rally on Friday, but in a matter of days, we lost years worth of gains.

If you were trusting in your portfolio to keep you safe, you may be in a frightening place today.

That’s why we turn instead to the God who is constant, our refuge and our strength.

They don’t stop there, though. Not only is he a refuge and a strength, he is always there to help!

How many of you have an umbrella at home or in your car?

How many of you have ever been caught in a rainstorm somewhere that your umbrella wasn’t? You didn’t take it into work with you because it wasn’t raining when you got there, and it is now?

An umbrella somewhere else isn’t any good to you when you need it now!

The psalmists highlight here that God is a helper who we find every time we need him.

Isn’t that a bold assumption? Don’t we feel like there are times we need him and God isn’t anywhere in sight?

Guys, this is the time where faith steps in, and we will see it more clearly as we walk through this message.

However, we need to trust that God is always there, whether we realize it or not.

He is always ready to help, so if it doesn’t seem like he is helping, we must be missing what he is doing.

The reality that God is our refuge and strength who is always there to help gives us unshakeable confidence.

Look at how the psalmists expressed that in verses 2-3...

Because God is who he is, we will not be afraid, even if the very ground we stand on were to crumble and fall and slide into the sea.

How many of you have ever felt an earthquake? I have never been through a major one, but just the small tremors I have felt are unsettling.

However, the God we look to for help is so strong, so secure, that even if the earth tears itself apart, we have no cause for fear.

Think back over your reactions to the events of the past few weeks.

How did you respond to the stock market? How about the concerns about the virus?

There is more going on around us than just that—how did you respond to that relationship that is strained, or that project at work that isn’t going well?

Did you respond with a confidence that says, “God is my refuge and strength,” or did your heart reveal that you felt alone, exposed, and afraid?

Guys, listen: I don’t want to downplay the severity of the situations we are facing.

Instead, I want to magnify the God who is still in control. None of the challenges you see today caught God off guard, and none of them are bigger than he is.

Even if the earth below us should shake and fall, we can trust in the Lord our God.

How do we know that?

Well, this psalm seems to be written out of a specific instance where God showed himself strong to his people.

We see that as we make our second observation, which comes from verses 4-7...

2) He is able to save.

Can I be honest enough to say that verse 4 doesn’t seem to make sense at first?

What river are they talking about? Jerusalem doesn’t have a river running through it, but they are talking about the city of God, which seems to be referring to Jerusalem.

Most likely, the writers of this psalm are giving God glory for the way he worked through a king named Hezekiah who dug secret water tunnels so Jerusalem could have water when it was under siege.

The Bible talks about that in:

2 Kings 20:20 CSB

The rest of the events of Hezekiah’s reign, along with all his might and how he made the pool and the tunnel and brought water into the city, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.

You actually can still tour part of that tunnel to this very day.

By digging those tunnels, Hezekiah brought good water into the city and reduced the amount of good water outside it, which made it difficult on the invading army.

That is explained in this passage:

2 Chronicles 32:3–4 CSB

so he consulted with his officials and his warriors about stopping up the water of the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him. Many people gathered and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land; they said, “Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?”

2 chronicles

God worked in miraculous ways during that season, which is alluded to in verse 5…God will help her when the morning dawns.

God did exactly that! The Assyrian king who surrounded the city was named Sennacherib, and he had a massive army. There was no way Hezekiah’s army could have defeated them.

However, their refuge and strength did what they never could have done:

2 Kings 19:35–37 CSB

That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and left. He returned home and lived in Nineveh. One day, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword and escaped to the land of Ararat. Then his son Esar-haddon became king in his place.

Not only did God sustain his people with fresh water during the trial through the tunnels Hezekiah dug, he also destroyed the invading army in a miraculous way.

The Assyrian army was devastated, returned home in defeat, and Sennacherib was killed.

That is why the psalmist could clearly say in verses 6-7 that no matter what army raised itself against them, God was bigger and better.

He is the Lord, the Leader and Ruler of all the armies of heaven, and nothing on heaven and earth could defeat him.

He proved that he was able to save his people from unbelievably powerful enemies.

Here’s what I know: God is able to defeat anything that raises itself against him.

He is bigger than investments, diseases, and fear.

Hear me clearly, though: that does not mean he is always going to win the victory in the way we want him to.

I have no doubt in my mind that if God wanted to, he could cure every case of COVID-19 instantly.

However, perhaps the way he wants to demonstrate his power is by helping us face these challenges with faith instead of fear. Perhaps he is calling us to love our neighbors well by sacrificing our routine and comfort, which is what led us to alter our schedule today.

Perhaps instead of hoarding our supplies, God is calling us to be generous and help those around us who are struggling.

We are looking for ways to be able to demonstrate Christ’s love practically in the days and weeks ahead, even though we may not know what that looks like or what it will cost.

Why? Because we know that the Lord of Armies is with us! Our refuge, strength, and help is our stronghold and able to save us from the greatest struggle we have.

You see, that’s what I know without a shadow of a doubt this morning.

The biggest problem you and I face today is not the coronavirus, the stock market, or shortages on shelves. All of those things are temporary. I don’t deny that they may cause true pain and suffering, and it may not go away quickly. However, all of those things will come to an end some day.

The biggest problem you and I face is that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We have turned our back on what God created us to be and and do, and because of our sin, we are facing an eternity separated from God.

Yet, instead of leaving us this way, Jesus came, took our sin upon himself, and died in our place.

He came to offer us life in exchange for the death we deserved.

You know what is interesting? What did the psalmists say in verse 5?

“He will help her when the morning dawns” - although that is pointing back to the morning when Sennacherib’s army was destroyed, it also should point us forward to another dawn.

If we fast-forward to the book of Luke, we find a man named Zechariah giving a prophecy about the Messiah who was to come:

Luke 1:78–79 CSB

Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Here, Zechariah uses that familiar picture of God bringing the light of dawn to point to the Messiah, Jesus, who came to show us our sin and point us to himself, making the way available for us to be saved.

Today, you can know that no matter what else takes place in life, you are safe and secure in Christ if you will simply come to him, trusting in him completely as the Lord and leader of your life.

Our God is our strong refuge and helper who is able to rescue us and save us from the consequences of our own sin.

With all that in mind, there is one more observation for us to make from this passage:

3) God is sovereign.

Having shown this specific example of God’s deliverance, the psalmist goes on to speak of God’s sovereignty over all the nations.

Remember that at this time, wars were not simply one nation against another, but rather one god against another.

The psalmist examines all the desolation the Lord has brought against the nations of the earth, showing Him to be greater than any other god.

As we read in the New Testament, he is the king of kings and Lord of Lords.

Verse 10, then, has the beautiful declaration of the Lord

It leads up to verse 10, which has God speaking directly for the only time in this psalm.

What does he say?

If you grew up in church, you may have heard this in the KJV that says, “be still...”

I almost prefer the way that this translation puts it. I think it captures the context better…”Stop your fighting, and know that I am God.”

We have seen God delivering his people from battles and wars, and he is showing that he can make wars cease across the world, so he is calling all of us to stop fighting and watch him work.

He is calling those who would oppose his purpose and plan to stop fighting against him and recognize that he is the one who is truly in charge.

It goes a step further, though, because I believe that as believers, we sometimes fight against him as well.

The picture I have in my head is that of a child who is so tired that she won’t go to sleep. They fight and wrestle, but once they stop, they just slide right off into sleep.

In a similar sense, we writhe and fight and try to do things our own way. We get busy and worry and agitated, when the Lord is saying, “I’m sovereign, I have it under control. Just stop.”

That doesn’t mean that we just sit around and do nothing; rather, it means that we seek to do everything he calls us to do for his glory, not out of fear, panic, or self-preservation.

Since He is in control, He is will be glorified and exalted.

So, what are you trusting in today?

Are you hoping that you have enough stored up, enough time before retirement, or are good enough to make it to heaven?

Stop your fighting and surrender to the God who made you, loves you, and died for you.

When you are afraid, run to him for refuge. He is strong enough to take care of you.

He can save you, and he is sovereign and in control.

What do you need to do to surrender to him today?