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[0:00] Good morning. I think I'm on. Yeah, right. Thanks, brother. Good morning. My name is Jim. I'm going to remember here for Shoreline about a year and a half now, or actually less than!

[0:11] than a year, but we've been attending here for a year and a half, and it is an absolute privilege and pleasure to get to share God's Word with you this morning. We're going to be looking at, as Brother Tyler said, we're going to be looking at God's might and strength as he displays it in the Scriptures here in Psalm 46.

[0:27] And so I'm just going to say a quick prayer. I know we've been praying this morning, but how can we not talk to God more? Amen. So just a quick prayer over this as we read this specific psalm. God, may you be honored and glorified this morning.

[0:38] Lord, as we read this psalm that was written centuries ago, it applies today because you are unchanging, Lord. As we talked about your attributes and who you are, it is so high and far above us, God, and we are so small that you are still mindful of man, and you sent Christ Jesus to die for us on our behalf.

[0:55] Lord, please open our hearts and minds to receive your Word this morning. And would you be glorified and would we be less magnified? Would we be brought low and you be brought high? We pray this in Christ's perfect name.

[1:06] Amen. So if you have a Bible, I would encourage you to bust it out. We're going to go to the book of Psalms. It's in the middle of the Bible, if you're not familiar with that. And we're going to specifically Psalm 46.

[1:18] Give you a little time to open that up. This is a popular song. I'm sure you've heard it. We just sung it, right? That was Martin Luther's hit hymn, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. And I'm sure they had hits back then, Top 40.

[1:30] That had to be up there. But it's a powerful message of God's strength, of his omnipotence. There's a cool word. If you don't know it already, you can bring that home. Omnipotence. Omnipotence.

[1:40] All-powerful. That is who God is. He is all-powerful. No man, not even Satan, can even come close to how powerful our God is. So let's read this. It's going to be up on the screen. I'm going to read this, Psalm 46.

[1:53] To the choir master of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a song. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way.

[2:06] 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. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High.

[2:20] God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when the morning dawns. The nations rage. The kingdoms totter. He utters his voice. The earth melts.

[2:31] The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.

[2:44] He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.

[2:57] The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Powerful, powerful psalm. Amen? A lot of powerful words there and a lot of even chaotic words.

[3:09] And that is the psalmist's intent. We'll get to dive into that a little deeper. Remember, this psalm is commonly read during times of grief, tribulation, trouble, trial, because it brings comfort for the believer.

[3:21] It is also, though, a picture of the end times. It is a picture of God's day, the day of the Lord, as Isaiah says it. One time that this psalm was used, for example, was in 2011.

[3:35] Former President Obama had read this to the nation in recalling the memorial of September 11th. Again, a time of grief, a time of trouble. Someone who's used this psalm, it's kind of a funny story, is Pastor John Piper.

[3:50] He shares that in his first year or so in ministry, he was brought into the hospital to visit with someone of his church who was sick, and they said, you know, John, could you bring a word?

[4:01] And he said, I froze. He goes, I had nothing. He goes, here's this guy who had just left seminary, and has been spending so much time in the Lord's Word and studying the Greek and Hebrew, and he had nothing at that moment. And so what he said, in turn, was he vowed to never let that happen again.

[4:15] But Lord willing. And so he went home and year after year after year has continued to practice and memorize, specifically, Psalm 46. He said, that's a beautiful psalm that's like a bomb to a wound or to a cut.

[4:27] And so I just think that's interesting. What a beautiful psalm. What an encouragement, too, that we ought to be in the Word. Of course, Peter talks about being ready in every season, in and out of season. Of course, to give an account of the hope that is within us.

[4:38] And that also means to give an account to our brothers and sisters in Christ when there is a time of grief. Being able to bring God's Word like that and recall it from mind is a beautiful thing. It's something we should absolutely do.

[4:49] And I don't know about you all. I've got to work on my memorization. So here, this is a commitment for all of us. Let's work on our scripture memorization. Now, something interesting about this psalm. In the beginning is what's called the superscript.

[5:02] And I know a lot of other guys have already talked about in their psalms what a superscript is. Right? For this one, it says, To the choir master of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth a song. That is part of the original manuscripts.

[5:14] The reason I just wanted to highlight that is sometimes in your Bible, it might be like italicized or a much smaller font. Kind of like when you read in maybe the epistles, you see a header. And you're like, oh, that wasn't really originally there, but that was the thought.

[5:26] Right? This was part of the original word. In fact, there's some translations that have the superscript start as verse 1. Now, why am I yapping on about a superscript? Well, because we can kind of gather a bit from this, a little bit of context in history.

[5:38] And we see that it's written by the sons of Korah. Much like genealogies, we can gloss over those at times. Anyone ever read the gospel? And maybe Matthew? And it starts off with this long list of names that are like so many consonants.

[5:51] And you can't pronounce them. And you're like, oh, okay, God. Yep. Hey, Jesus is born. All right, here we go. There's actually power there. Of course there's power there. Right? This is God's word. Every word he has written is perfect and powerful.

[6:05] And unlike the grass which withers and fades, this will not. This lasts forever. And so there's something to be drawn from his word, even to us in our finite and fallible state. So with the superscript here, again, with looking at who the sons of Korah are, first thing we'd have to ask is, well, okay, who's Korah?

[6:20] If we're going to learn about his sons since they've written this. So Korah, according to scripture, he was the cousin of Moses and Aaron. He is the great-grandson of Levi. Levi.

[6:31] So you know Levi, one of the 12 sons in the 12 tribes of Israel. So we know that Korah was in the line of Levi. He would have been one of the priests of that lineage. And we learn about in Numbers 16.

[6:43] Numbers. There's a book. That's a tough read, is it not? Right? Numbers is a tough read. That's speaking of genealogies. But there's power there again. God's power.

[6:54] God's word. And so in Numbers 16, unfortunately, we see that he is in contrast with Moses and Aaron. He actually rebels against them and says, essentially, I'm challenging your authority.

[7:04] Why are you having us, you know, whether it's carrying, you know, the holy of holies, you know, carrying, basically doing the work of a priest. Why are you guys mandating and not doing all the work?

[7:15] Why are we doing the work? You guys get to sit up there. And so he challenged him. And he rebelled against him. And what was the response? Well, if anyone knows, pretty brutal. The Lord told everyone to step away from Korah and his followers, his companions who were rebelling, and some of his family.

[7:31] And he opened up the earth and swallowed him, and he was no more. So, wow. That's serious. Again, speaking of God's power, the Lord can control the opening of the earth.

[7:42] Naturally, it's his creation. And he swallowed up Korah. Now, what about the sons? I think it's kind of funny. Of course, you know, there's the tradition of being known as your forefathers, right? The Korah Heights would have been what they were called.

[7:53] But to be called the sons of Korah, well, first off, they did survive. That was an interesting thing. It says in Numbers 26, 11, that the Lord spared the line of Korah. Not all had died.

[8:04] In fact, so much so that the prophet Samuel was in the line and lineage of Korah. That's cool. Samuel, the one who helped anoint David. Samuel, the one who said, here I am, Lord.

[8:16] You know, that is cool. You know, these are the little things you can easily miss. Like, I don't know about you. I sure would, right? We need to be taught. We need brothers and sisters to come along and help to teach us. We need his word to study and to get to understand in a better way.

[8:29] But here in the 21st century, man, we do stand without excuse, right? We have it all available to us. But anyway, so that's a short little thing there about the line of Korah. So these sons of Korah, imagine going around being called that.

[8:41] The sons of Korah. I don't know. I feel like there's a mini lesson here of a reclamation of their name, of that. This is almost like, I don't know, sons of Mussolini. Sons of Darth Vader, right?

[8:53] That's kind of a, you know, goofy. But at the same time, realize that that's kind of the, what's going on here. That they are having a name that's unpopular and known for something terrible.

[9:05] Rebelling against God. But they're reclaiming it because they are worshipers of God. They are the ones who are true to him. And we see that in 2 Chronicles. Again, I know this is a little bit long of an intro. But the reason why is to comprehend where they're coming from.

[9:18] It kind of gives us a cool little insight. This psalm is broken up into three stanzas, as you saw. They're separated by a selah. And we're going to go to the first one. The first one here, verses 1 through 3.

[9:29] And this is going to talk a little bit about that. God is our help amid natural catastrophe. And we will not fear. So give me one sec. Let's read that.

[9:39] God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way. Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea. Though the waters roar in foam. Though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

[9:52] Interesting. Powerful words here. Lyrics as well. It opens up with describing the same thing that Brother Tyler did. Which is just hallelujah to the Holy Spirit doing this.

[10:05] It talks about the attributes of God. How cool is that? We didn't chat beforehand. That was the king, right? Amen. It opens up with talking about the attributes of God here. Look what the psalmist says with me.

[10:17] God is our refuge and our strength. Remember that word omnipotent. It's speaking of God's power. A very present help in trouble. It's alluding to his omnipresence.

[10:27] Meaning that he is present all where. He's all where. Very present is what that psalm says. And his goodness. It would be one thing if he was present and strong. And perhaps chose to be distant from us.

[10:38] That's deism. And the idea that God is so far away. He had created us and abandoned us. But we don't see that in God's word, do we? We see a God that is very interpersonal. Very close and near. And as a refuge.

[10:49] And so we see his goodness on display. This is a foundation. This mentality of how great and powerful God is. And using the attributes here. The psalmist has set a foundation of looking at God.

[11:02] Now the sons of Korah would be acquainted with that verse too. We just talked about what happened to Korah, right? And it says, Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way. Interesting. That's really neat that they could tie that in there.

[11:13] But look at the perspective. The sons of Korah who are obedient to God. Who are followers of the Lord. Who look at him as their refuge and strength. See that and they speak of that time of old in a different way.

[11:25] In a way of clinging to God. Not rebelling against him. There's some chaotic language here, right? In verse 2. The earth gives way. The mountains are moved into the sea. The waters are roaring.

[11:35] And there's foam. And the mountains tremble at its swelling. This language gets used elsewhere in this psalm. And it sets a stage of the chaotic nature on earth, quite frankly.

[11:47] On earth naturally, right? Natural disasters. But also in man. And how in our sin we have rebelled against God. And we have caused war and hate and sin to just roll ramp in like a snowball, right?

[12:00] So this chaotic language is also a metaphor, right? Of course, it's not just for the physical, natural disasters. But of course, it's also a metaphor for what I just said, right? We live in a world, and they lived in a world, of times of war and anger and hatred and division amongst humanity.

[12:18] So in the same way, this is kind of what the psalmist is describing. But it takes a supernatural kind of confidence. My brother said that in our Thursday Bible study, that there's a certain kind of boldness and confidence that a Christian, a believer has.

[12:33] To basically withstand that, because their confidence and hope is not founded in ourselves, but in God. In God, who is the rock of our salvation. And so where do we see this confidence?

[12:43] We see it in the very opening of the psalm when they say that God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Despite these natural disasters happening here, things that quite frankly are the calamities we see in Revelation.

[12:56] They know that they have a present, ever-present refuge to cling to. And so do we. Have we had a natural disaster or calamity like this in our recent past?

[13:07] I think we can think of a few. You know, if we rack our brains, it might seem like, Jim, I don't remember the last time I'm out. First off, we're in Connecticut, Jim. There ain't no mountains. But let's think, you know, what have we witnessed that is something like this that we can relate to in our own lives and hearts?

[13:21] Well, I think two years ago, this virus swept through the nation. Do you guys remember that? Not really? No? Yeah, I know. Kind of wicked quick. Barely anything happened. Of course, right? COVID-19, the coronavirus came through.

[13:32] And if that wasn't a time of uncertainty, I don't really know what was. The world kind of stopped, didn't it? Right? There was a ceasing of companies to be running. People were unemployed.

[13:42] There was fear running rampant. Am I going to get this? Is this going to cause, you know, is this going to affect me and my family? This doesn't sound like your average flu, perhaps. A lot of unknown things. Killer bees made their way onto the scene, too.

[13:53] You know, like, this is a weird time. I think during that time, we have an opportunity to almost inspect ourselves like a fruit inspector, to see the work of God within us in the form of how did we react?

[14:07] Were we able to, and I don't mean this as condemnation, not at all, but is it possible that there were times where we did trust in God's holy plan, despite what seems to be radical around us? Or perhaps maybe we didn't.

[14:18] Did we pray as much or more fervently and earnestly? Or was it more, I trust the CDC, you know? And that's not a put down on CDC. I'm just saying, this is kind of where our minds can go, especially as finite, fallible creatures, right?

[14:31] But we can join in with the psalmist here and look instead to God and say, you are my refuge and my strength, and you are an ever-present help in trouble. I don't know what's happening here, Lord. I don't know what's going to happen.

[14:42] I can't see in the future. But you exist outside of time, and I trust in you that you have what's good for me and for your glory. So that's a reminder that we can have here and join with the psalmist here.

[14:53] This portion then gets separated by a selah. Now, I love it. I've heard, I'm sure you have too. What does selah mean? Some have said, it's a musical term. Some have said it means to stop and pause and reflect.

[15:05] I'd love to think that all of those apply. And I'd really love to think that it means to pause and reflect, because then we can tie it into be still and know that I am God. We're getting there. We're getting there. But that's a cool thing. It breaks up these stanzas for an opportunity to either change the direction of the story or the psalm, or to change the opportunity of our heart set.

[15:24] Where we're at here, let's take a moment to reflect and chew and divide his word as it applies to us. Let's move on to verses 4 through 7. We just saw this natural catastrophe that God is ever in control of and present, and he is with us.

[15:38] And now we move to that God is with us, and he is our fortress against the enemy. Verses 4 through 7. Again, we see some beautiful poetic words.

[16:09] I mean, that's just a joy about reading the psalms, isn't it? They're so beautiful. There's so much beauty here, especially in the language. And one of the specific parts of the language is this language that speaks of a time or place that doesn't appear to be present.

[16:24] Now, this psalm, as Bible scholars have called it, falls into the genre of a psalm of Zion, meaning it points to heaven and the new heaven and the new earth. And that's kind of present here.

[16:35] But to understand that, we're going to dissect it a little bit more. There's also talking here about a time from moving from natural disasters to heaven, right? We see that here in this, the city of the Most High of God, and also a time of judgment.

[16:50] Now, where can we start to dissect that? Well, we're going to look again at God's word. This is systematic theology, the idea of what does the Bible say about the Bible. And so in doing so, we're going to check out Revelation in a second.

[17:03] I'm sorry, brother, one minute. This opens up in verse 4. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. Now, this is a different kind of example of water. But again, in the previous verse, we saw this raging, foaming water that was brutal, right?

[17:18] It was swelling even. But here we've got this river whose streams make glad the city of God. So it's got this symbol of gladness, of life, a symbol of regeneration.

[17:31] Many times water is used as that symbol, right? Like with baptism, right? Being buried with Christ in his death, raised to the newness of life. Kind of have a picture here also of like the Garden of Eden, right?

[17:42] We see that God is present. It's said there in verse 5, he's in the midst of her. That's the city of God. There is this river here. So in the past, perhaps the Israelites and Jewish folks who would be seeing this psalm would be thinking of, ah, man, that's reminiscent of, Lord, when you created humanity.

[18:02] They wouldn't be reminded, though, of what present-day Jerusalem was like at that time. For there was no river there. There was no river in Jerusalem that this would be speaking about. So here we're starting to be able to conclude, all right, God, it would appear, since Garden of Eden did not stay unshaken because of sin, right?

[18:19] It would appear, Lord, that you were talking about something far in the future, somewhere where perfection is reigning true again because of who you are and what you've done. And so it's talking about the new Jerusalem.

[18:30] And we're going to read and take a look at Revelation 22, verses 1 through 5. That gives us this cool picture, the same picture we got here in the Psalms. I'll read this out loud. The angel showed me, this is John, the river of the water of life, bright as a crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, through the middle of the street of the city.

[18:50] Also on either side of the river, excuse me, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it.

[19:06] And his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.

[19:18] And they will reign forever and ever. Man, amen. Can I get amen? How beautiful is that, you guys? This is a foretaste of getting to see what the new heaven and new earth will be.

[19:32] Where God is with us, it says that the Lamb is the light, God is the light. There's no need for a sun anymore. This is where we as believers in Christ Jesus will be. This should stir up emotion and excitement.

[19:45] You know, I just pray that it does. You know, if it doesn't now, read it at home and be encouraged by that. Father, this is the place that you, Jesus, when you left and said, I go to prepare a place for you. This is it. This is it where he will be reigning forever, and we will get to be worshiping him.

[19:59] Wow, what a difference compared to our life here. Now, in this psalm, what is keeping the city of the Most High God from being moved? It's not the worshipers.

[20:11] It's not the river. It's God. God is in the midst of her. God is in the midst of the city and brings stability. That's really cool considering we just talked about the natural catastrophes, but the Israelites, the psalmist realizes that God is the one that brings peace, stability, refuge.

[20:30] So in the same way, God is in the midst here in this new city, and the same language, remember we talked about that chaotic language in the first, talk about tottering and swaying and swelling.

[20:40] That's the same word used for God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. She shall not sway. She shall not be tottered and swell. Hallelujah that God can do that because we can, right?

[20:54] I have no, I'm sure I have no personal examples of this because my parents are here and I can't say that, but who's ever been to a chaotic Thanksgiving, right? I know no man who can bring peace and stability to some of those type of moments, right?

[21:08] I'm kidding, guys. You know, love you. But God brings that stability here and to the nations of all people groups, of all languages and tongues. Hallelujah. Right after that, God will help her.

[21:21] Once again, God being a helper, will help her when the morning dawns. This is an interesting metaphor that the psalmist is using here. Many times in scripture, when we see a dawning or the beginning of a new day, it is a reference to hope, right?

[21:38] We hope for the dawn. We hope for the new day. You know, the darkness is surrounding me. God, I know in the morning your light will rise and will shine and all will be well. It is also a deeper one, specifically because we're talking about the new heaven and new earth.

[21:50] It is a symbol for the resurrection. The resurrection that is brought to us and imparted on us by Christ Jesus. The resurrection that they, the psalmists and the Israelites who would sing this, would be hoping in because it was made by a covenant to them that God said, you will be my people and you are mine and I am yours and I will dwell with you and I give you this promised land.

[22:11] And we know that that's just a small foretaste of the promised land that we've looked at here in Revelation. So that's what we've got here with that morning dawning is we've got the powerful image of the new heaven and the new earth.

[22:24] The chaotic language, though, picks right back up again in verse 6. It's a, it's, this is dumb, but it reminds me, I'm not a fan of horror movies. I hope you're not either. But if you are, I'm just kidding.

[22:36] But here's what I want to say about this and it'll make sense in a second. You know, there's a joke from an Office episode where someone goes, oh, I love the horror movies, you know, in the beginning when everyone's happy and doing well. But not after that.

[22:46] It almost seems like that's what's going on here in these verses, right? You have this beautiful city of God that's not moved. There's a stream of life. And then it goes into the nations raging and the kingdoms tottering. It's kind of like a, oh man, back to this garbage.

[22:59] Oh boy. And you know, that's really what's going on here now, though, isn't it? But in our, in our earth, in our time, there is so much chaos, division amongst our nation, political disasters.

[23:15] But what does God do? Verse 6. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice and the earth melts. Wow. He utters his voice.

[23:26] It's utter. It's used oftentimes as like softly spoken. This is the same voice that spoke the earth into his existence. That spoke the universe to be. Here is bringing judgment and punishment on those who would rebel against him.

[23:42] Irony there, right? Irony. Korah rebelled against God. Here are the sons of Korah recognizing that the Lord is still going to bring that punishment and judgment for rebelling against him, for not being his people and bringing chaos and destruction and war.

[23:57] Now, in the first scene, there's two scenes here, right? We just said that. The first scene, those first two verses, is this nearness of God. With his people. I think we get a powerful example here as Christians in the 22nd, 21st century.

[24:11] They're 20... 2022. No, here in the 21st century, we get a neat opportunity to get to witness this same thing in God's word. See, we know that the Israelites back then when this psalm was written did not have the opportunity to have the books of the Bible or, you know, they had their, the Torah, of course.

[24:29] But we have the, hallelujah, we have the incarnate Christ Jesus to look at and to learn from. And so, he gives us an example of him being amidst the city, making it glad, the calmness, the stillness.

[24:43] And it's in the parable, excuse me, not the parable, the story of the raging sea. Who remembers that story, right? Jesus is on the boat, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He's on the boat with the disciples, they're crossing, and they're in the water, and this storm starts coming, and there's, and it's raging and tormenting.

[24:59] One could say that it was foaming, right? And they come to Jesus, and they go, hey, do you see what's happening? Can you help us out? Obviously, I'm paraphrasing. Can you help, you know, Lord, what's going on? We're going to perish.

[25:10] And so he, I love this, this is beautiful. It brings tears to your eyes. As he looks out to the, to the ocean, to the sea, to the sea that's raging and foaming, he goes, peace, be still. Peace and be still.

[25:22] And it was. And it was so. Because only God's word can do that. Only God has the power to command the wind and the waves. And to use the same words that later in this psalm will be used, be still.

[25:33] Now, the disciples, perhaps when they witnessed that, we know that right after that, in Mark, they say, like, could he be, is this God? Is this the Son of God? Perhaps they would recall Psalm 46.

[25:44] Perhaps they'd look at this and be like, you know, I remember we'd sing this song about how we would not be, we would not be moved. And here he is, shining in all his glory, commanding the wind and waves to obey.

[25:55] Hallelujah. He is near. That, for us, should be a reminder of, thank you, God. You are with us. You went to heaven and you sent your Holy Spirit who is with us as believers in Christ Jesus.

[26:06] The Comforter. Now, there's another scene. We have the first scene, the nearness of God, bringing peace and stillness. And there's a second scene in verse 6, which we talked about wrath and judgment to those who stood in rebellion.

[26:20] And it's neat that these brothers, or these psalmists, who would know that God is their refuge and strength, they said so in verse 1, would then bring to mind, in concluding this stanza, that the Lord of hosts is with us.

[26:34] Now, hosts means angel armies. Armies of angels. Have you heard the song, Whom Shall I Fear? Chris Tomlin, right? The God of angel armies is always by my side.

[26:44] What a beautiful reminder. That's exactly what they're singing here. That the Lord of hosts is with us. The commander in chief, but so much higher than that title. The God. And the God of Jacob is our fortress.

[26:56] These are military powerful words, right? We just talked about, or the psalm just talked about that the nations and kingdoms are raging and tottering. And so in response to that, God and his heavenly armies, and him being the fortress, they find their refuge and peace.

[27:09] We can do the same thing. We can have a confidence that even though the attacks are going to come, and they have, anyone not suffering out there? Anyone not dealing with dismay and trouble? I didn't think so, right?

[27:21] This is a psalm that we can cling to, words that are truths and that we can stand on. Our world is no doubt in turmoil. We look around, we see the war in Ukraine.

[27:32] We see mass shootings in the United States. These are deadly sad things to see that mankind hates ourselves, hates our brother, hates the creation that was made in God's image.

[27:44] We hate each other. But the Lord promises in this psalm and elsewhere in scripture that there will be a day when all war is ceased. And that, as one Bible scholar put it, there will be a permanent sabbatical put on war.

[27:58] That's a cool reminder. Dave, don't get any ideas. No permanent sabbaticals. That we know also when we look around that there's a divisiveness in our nation, right? I don't know about you all, and I'm being obviously super general.

[28:09] I'm not an economist or a political person that much, but I don't feel like I've seen this much division in my small amount of years on earth. Does anyone else agree? Whether that's political parties or interests, man, the most vile place you can go is the comment section of anything, right?

[28:26] You go on Yahoo and you're like, bro, you said that to someone. You called this person that, you know? Like, shame on you, right? It's so sad. But this is kind of what the state of our people groups are, but even our nation, you know?

[28:39] Like when we see advertisements, let's say, for political opponents, you know, the slander, the crudeness, it's a shaming. It honestly is shaming. And the Lord promises, both here in this verse and elsewhere in Scripture, that there is a kingdom that will not be moved, that cannot be moved, that shall not be moved because of him.

[28:58] So there's going to be a non-teetering and swelling kingdom where Christ Jesus is in charge. He is the judge. There's hate and discontent. I talked about that. Well, look at that water that brings gladness.

[29:10] What a juxtaposition of two different places. The new heaven and the new earth where there will be peace and joy and gladness and God. Vice what we live through this day.

[29:21] But God loves us and he had sent his Holy Spirit for us. So I guess what I want to encourage is, while we can look forward to and have a hope as we look into the new heaven and new earth and say, God, it's going to be teeming with life.

[29:32] It says that your leaves will be healing the nations. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know if you do. But like, God, what does that look like? Does that mean a maple leaf pops down on Ukraine? I'm kidding. But God, what does that look like?

[29:43] This is neat. This is something that we can have hope in. And in a personal way, we can have hope that God is our fortress too. As Andrew said, because of Christ Jesus, the promises and truths of Scripture are imparted to us.

[29:57] Hallelujah. That means the OT. All those promises we get to have imparted onto us. We get to read that and go, yes. Yes and amen because of Christ. Yes and amen.

[30:08] Amen. So what fortress are you running to? Let's ask ourselves that question. Is there, in times of trouble and doubt, is there a fortress you find solitude in? That might have been a poor choice of words.

[30:18] Superman. Where are we going? I love that last week, my brother Brad gave an awesome sermon. Great job, Brad. Yeah. And he asked the question, who is your go-to person?

[30:31] Who is your, who is on your speed dial for help? Right? This is a continuation of that message. Who is your fortress? Who is your rock? You know, he said, you know, who is your rock that is higher than I? Right, Brad?

[30:42] Well, that word fortress means high point. It's the same message, you guys, that the psalmist is bringing here. That we look to the one who is higher than us, who is greater than us, the one who can withstand all this pain, trouble, and turmoil.

[30:56] The God of the angel armies, as we've said. And the God who, as it says, God of Jacob. Why God of Jacob? You know, I love that. Speaking of my brother Brad, I keep picking on you, man. I'm sorry, dude. My brother Brad and Kent, I have the joy of getting together with them occasionally, and I would encourage you all to get together with your brothers and sisters in Christ.

[31:11] Spend that time praying, reading God's word, shooting the breeze, quoting the office, all that good stuff, you know? He caught that. So, but seriously, I love it. When we were talking about this psalm, they both were like, why did it say God of Jacob?

[31:24] And I was like, I will look that up. I will look that up. I love that. That kind of conviction, well, maybe conviction's hardcore, but like that kind of encouragement and sharpening of blades to dive deeper.

[31:36] Why does it say that? Well, what did God do with Jacob? And it's already been said today that those promises of God to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, those are imparted to us through Christ, and they would be imparted here to the Israelites as they sing this psalm.

[31:51] So, what they're saying here, the God of Jacob, is essentially the God of the covenant with Israel. The covenant that, if you check it out, it actually says, and it reminds, that I will be with you, God says.

[32:01] I will be with you. And that this land will be yours. Now, granted, that was about the promised land, but can it not also be a foretaste for the promised, eternal land with God in the new heaven and the new earth?

[32:13] All right, we're coming to a conclusion. Let's go to the last stanza. Verses 8 through 11, the peace of God will be established, shall be established. It says, come and behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth.

[32:28] He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.

[32:39] I will be exalted in the earth. And then there's that refrain repeated again. The Lord of hosts is with us and the God of Jacob is our fortress. The psalmist has moved from the looking to the future or actually, we're going to continue looking to the future here but he's now turning back to us, to the Israelites who are singing this song, the choir, and says, hey, come.

[33:00] Come and behold the works of God. See how he's about to dismantle, completely take down the nature of man. He's about to stop the sinful nature of war and hatred.

[33:12] He's about to stop it just by simply speaking. That's cool. Now, not only the psalmist was declaring God's attributes, remember that in verse 1 we looked at him being a strength, refuge, ever present, so omnipotence, omniscience, goodness.

[33:25] He's about to display God's attributes. The first is he destroys the instruments of warfare. No one can do that. No man can do that. I don't care if you have an EMP.

[33:36] That's not going to destroy today's instruments of man. Right? Now granted, he's talking about shattering of bows and spears and chariots of fire fire, but he will stop it. He shall stop it.

[33:47] It speaks of a future for the believer who comes to behold that the evildoers will be perished. They will perish. It says here that all wars will cease.

[33:59] In the previous passage, it talked about how the earth is melting. That melt word, by the way, is another word for trembling and tottering. There will be a punishment, but only those who by faith believe in the one true God are the ones who recognize him as the God of hosts and the God of Jacob and as a fortress.

[34:18] Now, I love what the psalmist does here. He's continuing with this chaotic nature. Now we're going from, you know, initially we were with the physical, natural disasters. We moved to man and kingdom at the global level.

[34:32] Now here we are with man fighting, with kingdoms, nations raging, and the Lord simply speaks and says, be still and know that I am God.

[34:42] I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted among the earth. Now depending on the lens of reading this, it means two totally different things, doesn't it? The lens of the believer says, hallelujah, my God is telling me to be still.

[34:55] I need but to be still. It almost kind of brings to mind the idea of Ezekiel, remember the still small voice? I'm sorry, Elijah. It kind of reminds you of that, the stillness, this quietness and just being there with God, recognizing him, thinking of his attributes, thinking of who he is and what he's done and so it's a nearness and it's a joy to exalt him.

[35:14] But there's the other lens and that's the lens of the rebel, the one who is apart from God, who has sinned, all of us apart from Christ ultimately and that is a rebuke and punishment. Sorry about that, that was gross.

[35:26] There is a cool image in the series of Chronicles of Narnia. Anyone ever read that? Yeah? Yeah, buddy.

[35:38] All right. I like seeing that. All right. One of the books is The Magician's Nephew and it was written later but it's about the beginning and creation of Narnia, right? If you've read it, you know what I'm talking about.

[35:49] So there's the group gathered there. You've got the cabbie, Diggory, Polly, Uncle Andrew and Jadis and they are hearing this sound. They're in this black void and they hear this sound and it's starting to brighten up, right?

[35:59] You guys know what I'm talking about? Right? And it's the creation of Narnia. The trees are growing and sprouting and what's crazy is the reaction, the response to that sound differs greatly depending on the persons in the party.

[36:13] So to Diggory and the cabbie and Polly, they hear this and they're like, I wrote down the word specifically, they want to be here for eternity listening to this. It brings such pleasure. Right? I think that, as a believer, that's absolutely where we want to be, right?

[36:26] We want to be in the presence of God whose forever song is constantly creating and he's bringing new things, new life, new body, new world. Hallelujah! But what is the response of Uncle Andrew and Jadis?

[36:39] Well, C.S. Lewis writes, they could barely stand before it. All seemed as if they wanted to do was run and hide in a hole in the ground and get away from it. I can't help but think we've got that same kind of juxtaposition here in this psalm where you have totally different lenses of hearing, be still and know that I am God.

[36:59] Hallelujah! Through Christ, we have the view of being able to bow now and say, Lord, thank you. This is a joy to recognize and exalt you and to do your will. But as an unbeliever, this is judgment.

[37:09] Now, he is patient, but he is not eternally patient. Right? His word says that there will be a day of the Lord. There will be a time of punishment. And I just pray, and I think we all do, we pray that all would come to a saving faith and knowing in Christ Jesus.

[37:23] Would come to a faith of knowing in this God who is a strength and fortress that he desires for none to perish, but he is just and cannot have and will not have those who would rebel against him.

[37:37] That is a promise here. What does the Lord say? We're going to chuck here to, chuck, I don't know where that came from. We're going to go to Isaiah chapter 2 to see an example of what will happen in that day of the Lord because ultimately we can either bow now in submission, in humility, in love and adoration for the God, the King, or we can bow with our necks broken from stiffness, bow in humility, in rebuke, in the just-filled response of what the Lord says here.

[38:07] This is Isaiah 2, 11 through 17. It says, The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up, and it shall be brought low, against the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, and against the oaks of Bashan, against all the lofty mountains, and against the uplifted hills.

[38:30] Man, you see the similar language here? That's pretty cool. Against every high tower, and against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarshish, against all the beautiful craft, and the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.

[38:48] I mean, that is a promise, and this is a nerdy thing for my engineering buddies, right, if any of you are out there. You guys know that the word will many times means intent, but shall means it's required, right, anyone agree?

[39:03] Yeah, I see some nodding heads. Thank you, brother and sister-in-law. Why I bring this up, all right, that's stupid, and it's an off point, but I bring this up because only God can have wills and shalls be a guarantee, okay?

[39:17] I used to work at, oh, I gotta be careful with that, I'm not gonna say that. Where I used to work, sometimes a will will be treated as, if I want to, and that's not true with God, right? Will is a message of intent.

[39:28] It will happen. It shall happen. You can have a guarantee of promise that these will happen with the Lord, and for us, it's a joy to think that we get to be part of exalting him, right? We're those worshipers that we read about in Revelation 22.

[39:40] So finally, the conclusion of this psalm is the repeat of that refrain, that verse 11, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress. Hammering home again that point that we recognize that regardless of what is going on in the world, that God, the King of Angel Armies, the Lord of Angel Armies is not only with us, but he has promised us through that covenant with Jacob that he will be with us into the end of the age.

[40:05] This has all been a beautiful example of God's sovereignty. Do you guys agree? You see how he is in control and command and supreme over all? In response to this psalm specifically, I wanted to share a quote and then talk about the application of that from John Piper.

[40:20] Again, the guy made it twice into this sermon. There's the quote, and think about this. Chew on this one. What that text says is that the life-revolutionizing impact of God's supremacy in the world and his inevitable triumph over the nations and the coming of his glorious kingdom of righteousness and peace, the impact of this awesome reality doesn't hit us and hold us and shape us unless we become still and quiet before God.

[40:49] God hits home in the stillness. A lot of $10 words in there. I love that. This is so true, though. For us as a believer, the ones who can look at the lens of the be still and know that I am God as a command from our Master that we desire to please and to love and to be with.

[41:06] This means we have an eternal hope. We have an eternal hope in God. It means that we can share this hope with others. So brothers and sisters, we have all been called by the Great Commission to go, therefore, and preach the gospel to all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[41:22] So this is a reminder that we have the gospel to share, ultimately, for us in this present age. For that at that time, they knew that this gospel was coming. They knew that the offspring, singular, Jesus Christ, was coming.

[41:36] That was the promise to our brothers and sisters of old. But to us now, we know who that is. We've gotten to see him. He is reigning on high sitting next to the, in the throne of the Father.

[41:47] And so how can we spend this stillness, this time, meditating, listening, soaking, mesmerizing, breathing God's word? Amen?

[41:58] Amen? I don't know about y'all, I'm never at the point where I want to be. And it's because I'm broken, I'm sure, like yourselves, right? We're all broken, finite, infallible men, but we're never at the point where we want to be about scripture reading and memorization.

[42:11] But hallelujah, we will have eternity with the word, capital W, with Christ Jesus. But that means here on earth, since eternity has already started for the believer, let's dive deep.

[42:23] Let's go. Let's look through these psalms and say, Father, where is Christ present? Father, where are you being glorified? Where can I learn more about you? And that's what these sermons have been all about.

[42:33] I don't know if y'all have been loving these psalm sermons. Have you too? What a blessing, what a refreshment. Because these are songs of worship, you know? I love that. Now all of us are in different, completely different places today.

[42:46] And I recognize that. And I just want to send a word of encouragement. We may be in places of needing comfort. Perhaps you've gone through and struggled with a moment of time where a dear loved one has passed away.

[42:58] Know that Christ walked that path when Lazarus passed. He knows what it feels like to lose someone close. Maybe you're in a moment where you go, God, I have no strength. I am feeling weak and I'm afraid of the future.

[43:09] Christ knows what that was like. When he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane and was in so much stress and what have you, literally sweating and tearing but blood, Christ walked that walk with you and he overcame it.

[43:22] He overcame it by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony. We can also share in that overcoming. So I pray this morning, wherever you are, whether it's struggling with sin or temptation, would you return to this psalm as a, much like Pastor John Piper has, memorize it, spend time on it and realize that it has an impact and a gospel message for you individually and on the whole as a church.

[43:48] You can't help but look at this and just really be excited about the unity that's going to be coming here. Right now, you know, we are here sat in this church unified, here to worship God and to praise him and to read his word but we know that there are thousands of other people groups across the world who are praising him and one day we will be together singing, Holy, Holy, Holy is our Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come.

[44:13] Ah, God, you are so good. Let's pray in conclusion and thank God for his word that he brought this morning. God, may we be low, low, low, low that you are made higher, Lord.

[44:28] Lord, we praise you for the word that you've given us, the word incarnate in Christ Jesus and the word that we get to read and meditate on, God. Father, I pray as believers here this morning we would pray these words that the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of angel armies.

[44:45] You are with us in spite of our fear or panic, our troubles, even the wars of today, even the natural disasters. Whatever may come, you say to cast our cares upon you because you care for us.

[44:58] God, you are our fortress, the one who has made covenant through Christ, the new covenant and that is in his blood. Father, I pray for anyone here, Lord, that does not have a personal relationship, have the saving faith in you.

[45:11] I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would move them and that they know that they are welcome to come alongside anyone here, whether that's a deacon, an elder, or a member, to get to know who is Christ, to come into a saving faith and relationship with him.

[45:25] Father, we ultimately pray that you are glorified in all of this, God, that we would be made small and would find comfort in your hand as small men and women, but knowing that you are the ultimate, omnipotent, omniscient, good God who loves us and cares for us, who knows the very hairs on our head, who has said that the number of which will be more than the grains of sand on the earth and the stars in the sky.

[45:53] Thank you for these promises, God. We pray all in this name of Christ Jesus, our Savior. Amen. Amen, amen.

[46:05]  Amen. Let's stand and sing.