Sermon Tone Analysis

Into the Unknown

It was many years ago now, that King George VI, addressed the British Commonwealth on Christmas evening.

He spoke at the turning point of a moment in history, wehre the whole world stood on the brink of a great uncertainty.

You see, the year was 1939 - it was just over 3 months since Great Britain had declared war on Hitler’s Germany and despondency was heavy in the air.

People didn’t know where to turn.

Still, with the war so freshly begun, as the king gclosed his Christmas Eve message, he had no way of knowing that much of the world would be engaged in the bloodiest war of all time.

People from every nation would pay dearly in suffering and blood.

King George sat in front of 2 large microphones, on a table in his palace, dressed in his uniform as Admiral of the British Fleet.

And, with all the uncertainty of a fragile world, stretched out before him, he uttered these memorable words:

“A new year is at hand.

We cannot tell what it will bring.

If it brings peace, how thankful we shall be.

If it brings continued struggle, we shall remain undaunted.

In the meantime ...”

And with this, the sober king concluded:

“… I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light, that I may walk safely into the unknown.”

“Give me a light that I may walk safely into the unknown.”

Who wouldn’t ask for that - a light to illumine the pathway before us?

“… And he said to me: ‘Go out, into the DARKNESS,’ and put your hand into the hand of God … and it shall be to you SAFER than the light and BETTER than the known way.’”

This morning, I want us to look ahead at the New Year that is upon us and the vast uncertainty that stretches out before us.

There is no possible way for us to know what this year has in store for us.

From a strictly human perspective, the next 363 days could unfold exactly as we hope - fresh start, people learn the lessons of the past year and 2022 could be filled with rainbows and unicorns and chocolate ice cream sprinkles.

… Or they could be days of great trial.

At this time, last year - do you remember how social media was buzzing?

People were bidding ‘Good riddance’ to 2020.

Everyone was ready to see 2020 disappear in the rear-view mirror.

People were ready to give 2021 a kiss on the cheek and a big old bear hug.

And then, 2021 happened.

… And it kept happening.

I don’t need to remind you of what we have experienced in the past year, viruses that stripped us of our normal experiences of day to day living, to heat waves, to forest fires, to smoke, to floods, to ….

On more than one occasion, you may have felt that we were living through the book of Revelation.

As we look forward to 2022, who knows who of us will still be here on December 31?

Whatever the case may be, I want to encourage you who are Christians, to move into the unknown with nothing less than hope.

Let’s dig into our Psalm.

If you look at the supercription at the top of the psalm, you see that the authors are the sons of Korah.

Chronicles tells su that they are a sort of singers’ guild, descendants of the tribe of Levi.

Let me remind you that the psalms, in the book of Psalms, were used in Israel’s religious life.

They were written to be sung in worship.

Psalms is a hymnbook for the nation.

And as you read Psalm 46, you can see that the main point of this particular song is that if you are part of the People of God - then for you - no matter where you are at in life, no matter what number of year it is … for you, FEAR IS NEVER LEGITIMATE.

Why?

Because the Almighty God of the universe is always with His People as their Mighty Protector.

We’re going to divide this psalm into 3 parts and look at each part in turn.

1 The PROTECTION WE NEED, vv.

1-3, 6; 2 THE PROTECTION PROMISED, vv.

4-7; 3 AN INVITATION TO SAFETY, vv.

8-11

______________

1 THE PROTECTION WE NEED, vv.

1-3, 6

The psalmist begins by making sure we know that he understands the world we live in.

He lives in the same one.

See that in verse 1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help IN TROUBLE”.

It’s a DANGEROUS world out there, he says.

And it’s dangerous in all sorts of different ways.

First of all, NATURE is dangerous.

Psalm 46:2-3 “Therefore we will not fear 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.

Selah”

Remember back to the beginning of the BIble - how Genesis 1 describes the state of the universe BEFORE God did his creating work?

“Darkness was over the face of the deep.”

Water was everywhere.

To the Hebrew, singing this psalm in worship, the sea symbolizes the forces of chaos, disorder … To the Jew in Jesus day, even - the sea symbolizes everything that’s hostile to life.

It’s no accident that when God brings about His ordered creaion and reigns in the chaos - one of the very FIRST things Genesis mentions is that He sets up boundaries for the sea.

On Day 2 - He separates the waters from the waters - with sky.

Then on Day 3 - God gathers the waters UNDER the heavens together - so that dry land appears.

He doesn’t do away with the sea altogether - He just puts boundaries around it - He makes it obey His command and controls it.

Then, later on in Genesis, we get to Noah’s day - you remember at that time, the sin of humanity is so great - so badly has the human race polluted God’s good creation that He says, “It’s time for a deep clean” - and He pulls up the fences and lets the sea sweep over the earth again - almost destroying His creation.

Genesis 7:19-20, “And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered.

The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits (22 feet) deep.”

Here in verses 2-3 of our text, the psalmist is talking about the worst trouble possible - earth surrendering, mountains crumbling into the heart of the sea, the chaos is taking over.

This is ‘UN-Creation’ ...

I would say this is a pretty timely message for us in BC - especially in Abbotsford, as we start 2022 - We’ve seen what happens when the boundaries of rivers don’t hold - we’ve seen the flooding and destruction - some of you are still putting the pieces back together again.

There are people within the sound of my voice who are living with a sense of dread foreboding about the future of the natural world - Climate Catastrophe is in the headlines ...

So many forces of nature are completely beyond our ability to control - if one big rainstorm can bring a province to its knees - what else is just around the corner that we can’t see yet.

Nature isn’t the only threat we face, though.

Verse 6 points out another kind of threat: the threat of HISTORY:

Psalm 46:6 “The nations rage, the kingdoms totter ...”

As the Israelites sing the words of this song in worship - they’re painfully aware of THIS kind of threat.

Their small nation lies along a major international highway - the route that people travel for business - and for war.

Israel has felt the thunder of armies, trudging across their land, on the way to battle and on the way back home again: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon - the superpowers of history have all fought over this land, trampling its holy soil under their pagan feet.

God’s people have seen the nations rage - they’ve literally felt the breath of angry armies.

Every period of precious peace last for such a short time before warfare erupts and breaks the calm again.

Do you see the relevence of this part of the psalm to us?

If you pay any kind of attention to world politics - how likely do you think it is that 2022 will be a year marked by world peace?

Peace was a great quest in the 20th century - After World War 1, the League of Nations was formed to prevent another tragedy like that from ever happening again.

In 1939, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain came back from a meeting with Hitler, proudly declaring to the British people, “We have achieved PEACE for our time,” only to have war break out within months.

Then after World War 2, the United Nations came into being - how well has that done?

It doesn’t seem to matter what organization we form, what banner we fly - there’s always another war, just around the corner.

And why wouldn’t there be hostility on the global stage, when world leaders are people just like us.

You can’t have peace between nations, if there isn’t peace between individuals.

And how do things look on that front?

If you were to describe the atmosphere on social media - would you use the word, ‘peace’?

I wonder - over the course of Covid - how many of you have lost a relationship because of hostility over different perspectives?

There’s the danger from nature, the danger from history … there’s also the danger from economics.

The news is regularly carrying stories now about inflation - you see the prices at the gas pumps, every time you go to the grocery store, your food gets more and more expensive … there are people who have suddenly found themselves out of work.

Some of you are preparing for a career right now - you’re working hard in your studies - and in the back of your mind, you’re haunted by the reality that you can work as hard as you want - but when you’re done, there’s no guarantee that anyone is going to be looking for your skills.

Danger after danger after danger.

If you are depending, for the stability of your happiness, on your ability to manage and manipulate the circumstances of your life, then I ask you friend … how do you plan to do that in 2022?

In this world of TROUBLE, if you are going to have a firm foundation to stand on - you are going to need strength from the outside.

You need a REFUGE that’s bigger.

___________

2 THE PROTECTION PROMISED, vv.

4-7

Now so far, this hasn’t been a very encouraging way to begin a new year.

“What a party pooper”, you may be thinking.