God is Our Refuge

We'll be in Psalm 46 this morning. If you want to stand with me, I'm going to read that as we begin. For the choir director, a psalm of the sons of Korah, set to Alamoth, a song. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth should change and though the mountains slip. And to the heart of the sea. And though its waters roar and foam. And though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. The holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her and she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations made an uproar. The kingdoms tottered. He raised his voice.

and the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. Come, behold the works of the Lord, who has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariots with fire. Cease striving and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated this morning. As I was talking to Dave about what to preach about this Sunday, we have been aware, even though I know very few of you, and the few that I know, I know very little of, We are quite aware that you guys, especially the George family, but all of you together as God's family, have been in the midst of a severe, difficult trial. And we have been praying for you. My family has been praying for you. Not just the Georges, but all of you. And so this morning, I hope, I hope to bring some comfort to you.

to remind you of the goodness of our God. And I don't know if Dave chose 2 Corinthians 1 after he knew what I was preaching. I didn't think so. And so it is just God's kindness to us this morning, his kind providence, because 2 Corinthians 1 will be part of what I talk about this morning. A few things to notice as we begin the psalm is that this psalm is not for everyone. our refuge. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. But this psalm is not this broad security blanket for the world. This psalm is the broad security blanket for us, the ones who worship the God of Jacob. And in that, itself is unique. This is not something you give to a bystander on the street.

This is not comfort to ones who are not under God's law and for his son. This is uniquely for us. You see that later in the psalm because he talks about what God does to those who are not his. So be encouraged, first of all, that the word of God is not so broad that it's not particular. And it is particular very much so. We don't know what was happening when this psalm was written, what the sons of Korah are singing about. We do know that it was probably something relevant to the people of Israel at the moment. Whatever they were going through, when the sons of Korah wrote, God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, that it wasn't as though they were singing about what happened to Moses. It's a very present help for us, God's people now. And so even though it's good to remember, what happens and what has happened. It's also good to remember that right now, in the same way, the same God who was there is also here in our midst with us. And we forget it so, so easily. We forget that in the middle of all these things, that God is our refuge if we are his.

And he is our refuge as the body of Christ together. And he is here in the midst of all the things that happen and all the things that go on. Another something that I think is good to remember is that the encouragement that comes to God's people comes in a thousand different ways. It might happen this morning. You may be encouraged. But more likely than not, something else will be the thing that binds the church here in Indy together. I don't know if it's already begun to happen or has happened. But usually a song, and if you think about it, this is a song written to God's people by the sons of Korah. A song binds God's people. This, if you don't know, Psalm 46 is Luther's hymn. A mighty fortress is our God. The binding anthem of the Reformation. Here it is.

Sometimes God binds his people together with a word, even a small word. Years ago, about a decade ago, when my family was leaving a church amidst lots of persecution and difficulty, it was my parents, myself, my siblings, my dad, basically emblazoned on our minds John 14, 6, which is, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Now, we all knew that scripture before going through that trial, but my dad, because of his presence, his leadership, and his constant, constant repeating of those words to assure us that, no, what we were talking about was true and was right and was good, are just implanted in all of our minds who were there. And we can't forget when we read that passage of scripture what was happening 10 years ago in our family and at our church.

And the same sorts of things will happen now in the midst of great trial. That there will be words spoken that no one will forget. There will be passages read that you will no longer be able to read the same way. There will be songs sung that will bring you to tears years from now. Because God is here and he moves on you and he moves on his people. In very real tangent ways. We sometimes I think also read this next statement. Therefore we will not fear. As though we need to be stoic in the midst of things. And even though fear is something that God drives out through his perfect love. It doesn't mean it's instantly gone. And it also doesn't mean there aren't a thousand other things happening at the same time. Notice he does not say we will not grieve.

We will not be sad. We will not feel helpless. We will not be lost. We will not be tired. We will not despair. We will not be weak. We will not be weary. We will not be pained. None of those are present. And all of those, if you read the stories of God's people, are real things experienced by real people. One of them... being the passage in 2 Corinthians this morning. In verse 8, This is the apostle speaking. This is not the modern person on television and Dr. Phil talking about how they lost their cell phone and they couldn't make it through the end of the week. This is a man who suffered greatly for the cause of Christ.

And he's writing not to proclaim his own sufferings. This is why he's writing. If you read back into this. Blessed be the God and Father. This is verse 3 of 2 Corinthians 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Father of mercies. The God of all comforts. Who comforts us in all our afflictions. So that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction. With the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. Just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance. So also is our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted it is for your comfort in salvation. Or if we are comforted it is for your comfort. Which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. The purpose.

of suffering oftentimes is later in your life, you will be able to give comfort to those who need comforting. That even the sufferings that seem so pivotal and raw now, that years or decades later will be useful for the kingdom. Can you imagine what Paul felt like when he was shipwrecked, or when he was beaten, or when he was cast aside, when everyone abandoned him at times? And yet, Here he is, 2,000 years later, comforting us through his afflictions. And then also think of the psalm that we were reading this morning, written thousands of years before Paul, comforting us this morning. This is the unique thing about suffering in God's midst, as God's people. It doesn't disappear.

Something I joke about now having lived in Bloomington for a couple of years and actually just came up, I was up with my family this weekend for a 4th of July celebration is the lack of fish fries that you all have down here. They don't exist. I've been mad about it for almost two years because there are fish fries at least two nights of the week where I'm from and there are two. I think the third one is closed down. There used to be three competing fish fry companies in my town of 6,000 people. That's how many fish fries we have. We have fish fries for everything. Like, if someone gets a cold, you have a fish fry. You know, if someone got in a car accident, you have a fish fry. And you buy them a new car, or you donate to their hospital bills, or whatever it is. And even though that sort of binds my community together, the reality is, it doesn't.

In six months or a year, no one will remember even what they went to that fish fry for. In fact, most of the memories made at fish fries have nothing to do with the causes that we went there for. I couldn't list you five. And I've been to more than one. More than one fish fry. And you never remember. You never remember two or three weeks later why you were there. And yet, we think of that. This morning in Sunday school, Dave was talking about this idea of community. We think of that as community. Binding together the common cause of the people. And yet it's not. We scatter. We don't remember. There are things that we sort of remember, but forget about. And even big causes. You think of in my lifetime, I was 18 when 9-11 happened. I was a senior in high school.

I remember what I was doing, all of that sort of things. And so now, in just a few short months, half of my life will be under the shadow of that event. And even though we remember things like that that happen across the country, day to day, week to week, hour to hour, year to year, they have almost no effect on us. And they don't bind anyone together after the event. And you think even of the unity that was caused by things like the Second World War that my grandparents talked about. My grandpa didn't serve in World War II. He was in the Korean War. But they talk about this unity that the nation had, and yet almost instantly after the war, it disappeared. Community vanished because the unity was bound up in a temporal thing.

the struggle, and the event that's going to bind us together. Even now, we think it's Levi who might bind us together, but it's not Levi who will bind you together. It is God who is in the midst of you, who will be your bond, who will be your unity, who will not let you fall away, who will keep you together and tight. And that is unbelievably important. The middle section of the psalm is this idea. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, and she will not be moved. God is in the midst of you. God is in the midst of you. That is the message of this psalm. You are his people. You are his chosen.

He is not deserted and he will not desert. He is an ever-present help in times of trouble. But in the middle of that, though God is the cause and the holder and the ultimate reason while we are bound together, the moment that the firebrand comes is when we turn and God uses it. When Job's friends came to see him in Job 2, They saw his pain was very great. And so as I was preparing this week, I knew that your pain was very great. And I saw that video. I'm going to cry. Saw that video of Levi, who I don't even know. I've never met Levi. I barely know Dan. We've shook hands like twice. And I couldn't believe how happy I was on Tuesday when I saw that video. He was coming home. And so even though it is not...

this specific thing that is the unity, it will cause unity. God uses the things that he puts us through to bind us together into him. This is a stream and it leads to the river that makes glad the city of God. And he will make you glad. The difficulty that comes is often so pressing that we lose sight of things and the comfort that should be ours in Christ doesn't come. And so one of the things I think that God does for us through his people is to slow us down and to help us to realize that God has not abandoned us and he is with us. And he does this in lots of ways. The verse 10 here, You can read one of two ways. Cease striving or be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. You can read that, and most of us, I think, tend to read that as be still to the people of God and know that I am God. Be quiet, be still. But you can read it another way. You can read it as though He, God, is talking to the things He has put down.

And he says to the nations and to the things he has put to plowshares and he has made wars cease, be still. And I think, to be honest, that is more comforting. I don't know what your fathers were like. I had a good father. Praise God for that. My dad did not raise his voice very often. I don't know how many times, but I would guess less than 10 that I can think of. He rarely ever spanked us. My mom was the spanker of the family. But when my dad raised his voice to quiet us, it was a much different thing. And he did it because we were absolutely raging. The nations were tottering in the home when my dad raised his voice. Breaking of things.

This morning in Sunday school, Dave made mention of slamming of doors. That is one time when my dad did raise his voice. And no one ever slammed the door in my household again. It was just an absolute chaotic moment. Someone, multiple people were slamming doors, running out. And my dad just said, enough! Now at the time, I was on the receiving end of the be still. The stop it. I am in charge here. You are not. And so it wasn't pleasant. I did not enjoy the rebuke then. But then you think of the effect of that sort of thing when someone who has real authority and real power says, enough, I will be exalted here. And how unbelievably comforting that is. Unbelievable comfort.

When you know that someone is actually in control. And someone will not be shaken. Cannot be shaken. This summer I read a biography of Churchill. And in it they talk about Churchill's longing for the United States to come into the war. Because he thought basically if the United States comes in, we can win this thing. It will take three years after they come in. But we will win the war if the United States comes. And so the United States obviously came in, and he came into his next cabinet meeting, and he basically was the most lighthearted man he had been in a year and a half since the bombings had started. Because he knew that with the United States, not necessarily because of FDR, and not necessarily because of the United States in and of itself, but the numbers, the equipment, the manpower, The ability to win the war had arrived. And so even though Churchill had spoke on the radio for a year and a half encouraging the people, we will win this, we have the backbone, we are the British. Now he could say, we will win the war. Because he had the authority to say that now. He knew that they could defeat the Nazis.

That even though it would be a terrible fight and many, many would die, that he had absolute 100% confidence that the war was won. And so as the biography rolled on, you just saw it in the way he spoke about the war. That early on, when it was just them fighting across the channel, that he would grow weary and weary and weary in trying to encourage his people. But afterwards, he never grew weary in saying things to the people. We will win this. And that's what this verse does. So I think that you can read this verse as be still, people of God, and know that I am God. But I think if you want to experience real peace in the midst of real difficulty, that you should realize that God says to the world, who is at enmity with you and with his people, be still, that that will bring you more comfort.

That it is not you who needs to be quiet. It is the world. It is your enemies. And God will quiet them. There will be a day when all is made quiet. When all things are wrapped up like a garment and thrown away. And the enemies are made Christ's footstool. And that is a day that we long for. But in the middle of it, now, he also says to our enemies, Enough. Sit down. No more. We don't know when those days come. We don't know how long it will be before those days come. But they will come. God will not let our enemies forever assault us. He will not let trials overcome us. He will not let wicked things abound. This psalm is specifically probably about some sort of military victory. More than likely, this is about some battle fought.

And we, for that reason, I think, tend to dismiss a lot of the Psalms because a lot of us don't have real battles in the physical sense. We're not out with our swords on a battlefield somewhere. And even some of us don't have enemies that are assaulting us constantly from every angle. Some of us do, but many of us... have fairly comfortable lives. Even now, even in the midst of the changing circumstances in the United States, we still have fairly comfortable lives. And so we think there is no assault happening. There is no war that we need to be worried about. There is nothing to fear. But there is everything to fear. That's why the command is given, do not fear. And what it is, many times for us, it comes...

In a thousand ways, the enemy can attack us. Whether it be through a car accident and a grievous recovery, or whether it be through some sort of illness, the killings with family, dealing with their mother's death, impending. Those sorts of things happen. It could be through sibling antagonism. It could be through difficulties with parents or parents-in-law. It can be with your own sin and the way you don't battle it. And you have no victory. There's lots of reasons to be afraid. And if we give in to that, or we just ignore them like they don't exist, we will have no reason to go to God as our refuge and strength. And that's really what we need to be doing. We cannot rely on the world's hope and the world's wisdom.

the world's science. Though these are good gifts from God, many of them, they are not our hope. They are not our victory. The government is not our victory. The medical staff will not be the victory. God is our refuge. God is our help. He will not be moved. Therefore, we will not be moved because he is in the midst of us. In Deuteronomy, when Moses is giving his last sermon to the people. One of the things that he talks about in there is the fact that they were chosen not because they were a great nation or numerous than other people, but because God loved them. In that section, not at that exact moment, but in Deuteronomy 4-7, Moses says to his people, For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God whenever we call on Him?

The Lord of hosts, the Lord of heaven and earth, the maker, the creator, the sustainer, this God is near to us all the time whenever we call on him. And so I want us to also think in this psalm that we're not talking about some small God, some petty being who has some powers to help us. We need to think of the God that is in this psalm and the God of our Bible and the God of our church as he really is. We make him much too small. Here in verse 6, the nations made an uproar, the kingdoms totter. He raised his voice and the earth melted. Now, I don't know if you have thought about the weirdness of that statement.

But it's nations and kingdoms are fighting. And God doesn't make the nations and kingdoms stop fighting. He melts the earth. That's a different sort of power than we think about. He doesn't go to the peace table with Russia and the United States and China and North Korea and get everyone to get along. He melts the earth. He's done it before. And in the end, he will do it again, and there will be new heavens and new earth. When the kingdoms are fighting, the power of God is not simply, all right, break it up, boys. Separate out, you know. I know you want that toy, but you can't have that toy. This is what we do as dads. This is our power. This is our limited power as dads. Knock it off. Pull it apart.

Give them a spanking, send them to their bed, whatever you got to do. That is not the power of God. That is our power, which in comparison is completely weak. We do not have the power of death and life in our hands. We don't have not just the power of death and life, but complete and total rule and reign of the heavens to where at a word he can make them gone. That. is the God who is in our midst. That is the God who says, cease, be still. That is the God who says to us, I am your refuge. I am your ever-present help. That's a big difference. I love my dad, but he is not that. He cannot do that. Our God can and does do those sorts of things.

all the time for his people. And he will do them again. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The verse 10 that is given, I think, more to the... Oops, knocked the waters over. I don't have powers to make waters cease, but apparently I can kick them over. Verse 10, that I think is to the nations, cease, be still, know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted on the earth. I think it's also a calling to us that in the midst of these things that we exalt the maker, that we don't not acknowledge him in our help. And I think this is the main difference between what happens in my community at Fish Fries, where there is no expectation that the God of the universe is involved at all.

But he's never acknowledged. And if he is, he's done so in a passing way by one of the liberal pastors in my town. You know, a prayer at the beginning and a prayer at the end kind of a thing. We are different. We know that it is not periphery that God is involved. We know that it is absolute and ultimate that God is involved. That's the whole point that God is involved. He is in our midst. He is here. And so we must proclaim it. We must say to others, but God is with us. But God is here. We have called on him and he is helping. And he will help. So I would encourage you as a church here to encourage one another to press on in hope and to press on to the refuge of God and to find ways and things that will be encouraging to one another.

I don't know what those things will be. You might not know what things will be. But don't let that keep you quiet. Don't let fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time keep you quiet. Encourage one another in the Lord. You know, I came this morning a little bit afraid to preach to you on comfort and to do my best to try and comfort you because I don't know you. The only relationship we have is heavenly. And yet, I believe, I believe that the God of heaven and earth is our God. And I believe that he can use any means to comfort his people. And so encourage one another, comfort one another. And remember this time, not as the time of Levi, but as the time that God was your refuge and strength. That God was with you. That God is here with you now.

and he will be with you here in the future. Let me pray for you, and then Dave will lead us in taking the Lord's Supper this morning.