Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

-We could say that for the past month to month-and-a-half our world has literally been rocked.

And you might feel like there is no stability, safety, or security in your life.

~We now face an unknown future.

There are health scares and economic scares.

For most generations now alive, nothing has shaken the entire world like this virus has.

~Not that bigger things haven’t happened in history—obviously there have been greater world problems and disasters—but most generations now alive have never experienced them.

-So, a lot of people are looking for a place of safety and security.

And maybe that’s you—you are looking for some solid ground that will stop your world from reeling back and forth.

-It makes me think of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is the world’s tallest building.

It rises more than 2,700 feet—over half a mile tall.

It has 160 floors and is twice as tall as the Empire State Building in New York City.

It is home to the world’s fastest elevator that travels at 40 miles per hour.

The Burj Khalifa also hosts the world’s highest outdoor observation deck (on the 124th floor) and the world’s highest swimming pool (on the 76th floor).

~Now, me personally, I would never visit that place, because, first, I don’t like heights.

But, second, you would think that such a place would sway and tilt—that since it is so big it would have no stability to it.

Kind of like the world we seem to be living in now—big problems that take away from our stability.

~But the secret to the stability of this massive building is found underground.

Before construction began to rise up, workers spent a year digging and pouring the massive foundation that supports the building.

The foundation contains some 58,900 cubic yards of concrete weighing more than 110,000 tons.

The building is safe because the foundation is solid.

-And that is what you and I need now—we need a solid foundation.

We need to feel some security where there doesn’t seem to be any.

And the Bible points us in that direction.

-In the psalm that we are looking at today, the psalmist points his readers to the one and only place of security in times of trouble—a solid foundation to stand on through our trials.

-And yes, right now there seems to be constant flex and change and upheavals that bring with it a sense of insecurity—but nevertheless, we can find security in the Lord.

I) The habitation of our security

-The psalmist begins by talking about the one WHO DWELLS IN THE SHELTER OF THE MOST HIGH

~Here he talks about habitation—the place where we ought to place our roots and stay

-You notice that the psalmist says that we are to dwell—that word means we are to remain, we are to stay, we are to linger

-This isn’t talking about a place where we visit for just a short time, but it is where we are to go and remain and stay there.

We are to dwell, stay, remain, and linger—we are to inhabit.

Because if we don’t stay and linger in this habitation, we take ourselves out from under the protection and security that is offered.

-Imagine, if you will, that this area of Alabama once again was hit with storms that brought with it numerous tornadoes and other destructive forces as has happened here in the past.

And let’s say that you go to a friend’s house who has a storm shelter and you enter the shelter.

As long as you stay in the shelter you are safe from the storm.

But you get antsy, or maybe you stop trusting the shelter, so after about 2 minutes of being there you run out of the shelter.

You don’t stay, dwell, linger, or inhabit, but you leave.

~Well, now you are back outside in the storm with the danger of hail and lightning and flying debris, not to mention the tornado itself.

You are now exposed to danger.

But then you go into another friend’s storm shelter.

And you are safe for a while.

But then you get antsy again and don’t trust it again, so after another 2 minutes you leave and go out into the storm and are exposed to all those dangers again.

So, you go into a third shelter and leave again, a fourth shelter and leave again.

-What I am trying to illustrate here is that in order to have the benefits of safety and security from the shelter, you can’t keep leaving it.

You have to stop leaving the place of safety and exposing yourself to the danger or trouble.

Once you are in that place of security, you need to linger there, stay there, remain there, dwell there—you need to inhabit.

-The psalmist is saying that the one who receives the benefit of security is the one who dwells and stays and lingers and doesn’t leave the security that the Lord God offers.

~We make the Lord God our place of habitation, our place of residence, our dwelling place, and then we find safety and security when we stay there.

~But if we only run to the Lord at certain times of trouble, and then run away from the Lord when everything seem to be going fine because we think we have it under control, and then run back to the Lord when things get difficult, and then run away from the Lord again

~All that back and forth isn’t dwelling.

God is not some sort of hotel or inn where you go to visit for a time and then leave.

-Now, when we talk about dwelling with God, we are talking about seeking and being in His presence.

We are talking about revolving our lives around Him in every area of our life.

We are talking about constant cultivation of relationship.

There is a desire to be with Him, to sit ourselves down in His presence and stay there.

~The psalmist expressed this:

Psalm 84:1–2 (ESV)

1 How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!

2 My soul longs, yes, faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God.

-How do we come into God’s presence?

There isn’t a centralized temple or tabernacle.

~It’s when we seek God’s presence in His Word, in prayer, in quiet meditation.

~The psalmist again said:

-Jesus described it:

-When God through His Word and presence becomes our dwelling place, where we constantly linger with the Lord, we find our foundation, our stability, our security in His habitation.

-But there is something else that I want you to notice in this psalm:

II) The host of our security

-The Lord God is the host of the habitation we dwell in, and our psalmist uses some very specific descriptions about God.

-In fact, you will notice that the psalmist uses four different words or names to describe the God to whom he runs for habitation—he wants to make sure that the readers don’t think of any other God or being or entity to host the habitation of his or her security.

-You see, Allah and Muhammed will never be the place where you can dwell in security.

Buddha will never be the place where you can dwell in security.

Confucius will never be the place where you can dwell in security.

The Brahma of Hinduism or any of the other emanations of gods in Hinduism will never be the place where you can dwell in security.

~No other religion or philosophy offers you a habitation of security that is hosted by the ultimate, all-powerful, eternal God who loves His people enough to offer this security.

-The first name that he uses is MOST HIGH—ELYON.

The Hebrew word used in this name refers to something that is topmost or uppermost.

And it refers to the fact that the God of the Bible, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only exalted God.

~Sure, there are a lot of religions that call their idols “gods,” but they are nothing but manmade travesties.

There is only One God, and He is the highest, uppermost, most exalted Being that there is in existence.

All other beings are lower.

-The prophet Jeremiah recognized:

-And so, the question we have to ask ourselves is: Why would we try to find safety and security in a lower being—be it a different god or be it in ourselves or in another human.

There is no god above our God.

-Then the psalmist calls Him the Almighty.

This involves the Hebrew word SHADDAI.

There is a little more speculation about what this exactly refers to.

Some see this as coming from a word referring to mountain dwellers or highlanders.

Speaking again of the majesty of exaltation.

~But others see this as coming from a word meaning DESTROYER or OVERCOMER.

-When we use the English word Almighty, it obviously combines two words: ALL and MIGHTY, meaning that there is none more mighty then He.

If we bring all this together, the psalmist is saying that our God is high and lifted up and is able to overcome and destroy the enemies.

There is none more powerful than He.

-When you think of the enemies that come our way, be it a microscopic virus, a radical terrorist, or even Satan himself, none of them has any power in comparison to our God.

There is not one thing that exists that can overcome or overpower our God.

Even if you took all the power of everything that exists and combine it, it would still pale in comparison to the power and might of our ALMIGHTY GOD.

~Therefore, if we dwell and abide with the Almighty, nothing can get to us.

Nothing can break through God’s power to ultimately get to us—to ruin us for eternity.

We are secure in the Almighty.

-Then in v. 2 the psalmist uses God’s revealed name to Israel: YAHWEH / JEHOVAH / THE LORD.