If you would have turned with me and your Bibles to Psalm 46, we will be looking at the Psalms these next few months. We have left the meals with Jesus and now we're going to be in a series called God with us. Through the Psalms, we see every human emotion and experience expressed with the poet believing that God is with them. How can we live in this world and be honest about what we're going through believing that God is with us, dealing with things like temptation and fear and worry, even joy and God's direction, living believing that God is with us. This morning we begin in Psalm 46 and this is God with us when things fall apart. Being in verse 1, Psalm 46, God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help and trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the most high dwells. God is within her, she will not fall. God will help her at break of day, nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall, he lifts his voice the earth melts, the Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress. Amen, see the works of the Lord, the desolation he has brought on the earth, he makes wars to cease to the ends of the earth, he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire, be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord Almighty is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress, it's great, Lord Almighty we need you to be with us this morning, God of Jacob we need for you to be our fortress this morning, it is hard for us to believe the things that you tell us, because we are plagued with unbelief and we are plagued by sin and our hearts run away from you. Would you help us be still this morning, we ask, we beg that you would help us be still and know that you are God, that you will be exalted in this church, in this place this morning, we will give you the glory for it in Jesus' name, amen. How are we to live in a world where things fall apart? This is not just true of Christians, it's true of non-Christians as well, people outside the faith that Job 5 tells us that man is born to trouble, just as sparks fly upward, that we are attacked, we are discouraged, we are struggling in our relationships, our relationship with God, our relationship with other people, we have made mistakes, we get sick, the people that we love get sick and they die, we live in a violent world, in a violent city, how do Christians live and be honest about it? We can do one of two errors, we can make one or two errors, one of two errors and that is to go to either extreme and one is to sort of throw up your hands and sort of move away from all that's going on with all of the fear and destruction and try to move, but you can move as far as you want to from this city and you bring the city with you, I promise you that, the city is within us, we can try to run away from the problem or we can be polyanna or like the little orphan any of the sun will come out tomorrow and there are no problems in life, it will be okay, we can deceive ourselves, but we know better than that, how do we live in a world where things are falling apart? Well, we are actually supposed to be like baby birds, the Bible often compares God to a great mother bird, an eagle, like in Deuteronomy 32, an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, we are called to be like baby birds, the people of God and run beneath God's wings and find safety beneath his wings, we're called to do that, but that's not all that we're called to do, run and find refuge beneath the wings of God, but also if you've ever been around a mother bird, she doesn't just hide her young beneath her wings, she comes after you and God not only covers us and hides us in his sanctuary, in his fortress forever because he's unchangeable, but he also goes after and he is the victor against all that assaults us, that the battle one day will be over. That's what his psalm is about. This was Martin Luther's favorite psalm. This was the psalm that Martin Luther would sing with his partner Melanchthon during the intense days of the Reformation, when many people wanted his head on a platter, when he would stand up for the truth and scripture and the truth of the gospel, he would look to his friend and he would say, fill up, we need to sing Psalm 46 together. And I think that we, us collectively, don't sing Psalm 46 together enough. We're kind of wimpy Christians compared to other generations. We're kind of bullied and pushed around. And the reason we are pushed around and the reason we're so wimpy a lot of the time is because we're so self-confident. We're saying this morning, did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing? We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. You ask who that may be. Christ Jesus, it is he, he wins the battle. We need to be a people that sing Psalm 46, that believe Psalm 46 that we run to God's refuge, point number one. And that we rest in God's victory. That we believe that we run to God's refuge and find safety there. And that we rest in God's victory so that we can live in a world where things fall apart. Let's look at the first point, running to God's refuge. Keep your bibles open, if you will. The first thing I'm going to look at is what we're running from. Look at verse two. The earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea. It's water's roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. The psalmist is describing utter chaos. The mountains in the ancient world as much as in the modern world symbolize stability. The unchangeable mountains, you've heard people described as rocks. That person is a rock. I've seen people be rocks to a family in crisis. That person that doesn't seem to change, though the family's falling apart, they take care of things as the world is unraveling around them. They were these mountains of people. I was recently in North Carolina last weekend and I was looking at these mountains and as the cities would come and go as people would move and people would live and die, these mountains would say the same. The mountains are a picture of stability and confidence and here is why it's chaotic. The psalmist is saying the mountains, stability, they're falling into the sea. He's giving us the worst-case scenario, all stability, all bets are off. Even though the mountains, the pillars of stability are falling into the sea of chaos and in the ancient world, that's what the sea symbolized, chaos. It was over the chaos that the spirit hovered in Genesis 1. Things are falling apart. The sea is foaming and swallowing up the mountains. What does this mean? It's the way we felt on September 11, 2001. You've seen the footage. When you see those buildings come down, right there in New York City, on our soil, it's the way you feel when you get that phone call in the middle of the night, she's been in a car wreck. It's the way you feel when your boss walks into your office and says today is your last day. When she says that she can't be married to you anymore or he can't be married to you anymore. When it seems our worlds are turned upside down and I haven't been in the ministry very long but I can promise you this, not a week goes by that in someone's life the mountains are falling into the sea because things fall apart. Do you know what I mean? Do you know, even if you're not experiencing it now, do you know the fear of that? Sometimes just the fear of the worst-case scenario, what's waiting around the corner? Do you know that just underlying fear of what might happen? Now keep that chaos in your mind. That's what we run from. Here's what we run too. God is our refuge and strength and ever-present help and trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way, literally move, though the earth move and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. It's in times like that that we find out whether we actually believe in God. Do we actually believe in a sovereign God when things fall apart? Picture here is a God who is not moving. That's what he means by refuge. Something that's not moving and he uses this word for moving. The Hebrew word for moving is literally a pole that would totter. You hold something on a pole. It's something that's unstable. Verse two, the mountains fall. Verse six, the kingdoms fall. But look at the comparison at verse four. Look at the peace in Jerusalem. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, as Jerusalem, the holy place where the most high dwells. God is within her. Look at this. She will not fall. Same word. I will she not fall because God doesn't fall, period. This is really hard for us to believe because in the moment when things are falling apart in the scary moments that we find ourselves, when the rugs have been pulled out from underneath us, when the buildings are crashing to the ground, here's what the psalmist is saying. God doesn't budge one inch, even if the mountains were to fall into the sea. You see, he's making the worst case scenario and he says, even if that happens, we will not fear because God is not moving. But in the midst of what you're going through, and what you've gone through, and what you will go through, God is not surprised by it, and he has not changed by it. He is the rock that never, ever moves. Even when friends are gone.
That's why we need to hear that this morning. We need to believe that. You know, we need faith to believe that, because when we feel tossed around, we don't know where to run, and regardless of what's going on in your world, God cannot fall. God cannot fall, a bulwark, never failing, but he's also an ever present help. He's a refuge and a strength, he gives us strength because he doesn't move, he doesn't fall, and we're like baby birds, and we run underneath him, but he's also an ever present help. I was recently in a big store, because I had broken something in our house, or I didn't break it, it was broken, and I had to find this piece, and you walk around the store with this piece, and it's one of these large stores and you're walking around and you're trying to find this piece on the aisle, and that kind of looks like it, but you don't really know, and no one is working there, apparently. And I must have this look on my forehead, this thing written on my forehead that says, this is going to be a difficult customer, walk away from him, because I know I saw a few people with the employee name tag, and they would look really busy walking down the aisle. There was no ever present help for me in my time of trouble, but the picture of God here, we think God is like that, the picture of God here is that he is someone who's willing to help us, you've been in those stores, you know, the person who really loves their job, and they follow you down every aisle, I'm going to help you with that, sir, that's the picture of God, what is an ever present help, it literally means he's findable, that's what the language is, he's able to be found. He's not ducking down some other row acting like he's busy, he is able to be found, he is like the 3AM friend, you know the 3AM friend, help I have been arrested, don't tell anyone, I need you to come bail me out of jail at 3AM in the morning, the 3AM friend, you know that one that you can call, you know, have very many of those, but you can call them and you know that they're going to be there, look, an ever present help in time of trouble, the one who doesn't move is waiting to help you, and the lie that we believe, here's the lie that we believe in the moment, I can promise you, here's what Satan's lie is, boy, you've really done it this time, this is much too big for God, you've really gone out on your own here, there's no way that God is with you now, there's no way that God is available now, don't even try to call him, he's really busy, but the lie from hell, but we believe the lie from hell, so in the midst of our crisis when things are falling apart we don't run to him because we don't think he wants to hear from us, we're being told to come boldly, come under my wings, I'm not going to budge, I will protect you, I'm not afraid of what you are afraid of,
doesn't it sound like Jesus? And John 16, I've told you these things, he says to his disciples,
so that you may have peace in me, in this world you will have trouble, Christians, we need to change our expectations of life, the American dream Christianity, let's get rid of it, sell it, get rid of it, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome your worry, do you realize how strong and powerful and fierce Jesus, the great eagle, the lion of Judah is, do you know it, and that's why we need to sing it because we forget it, do you know how fierce he is, that one day in a synagogue there was a man who was possessed by demons, not one demon demons, and I've seen some scary things in my life, but they've all been on TV, this is real demon possession folks, and you will know what the demon says to Jesus, the demon's scary and everybody else, when you were demon possessed they basically want to put you in a cave and forget that they knew you, but here's what the demon cries out through this man, Jesus of Nazareth, have you come to destroy us? Ha, I know who you are, you are the holy one of God, and do you know what Jesus says to him? Be quiet, come out of him, and immediately the demons run, the one who doesn't move, the one who is our refuge, the one who is an ever-present help and time of trouble tells demons to shut their mouths. He's the one when the winds and the waves are crashing over the sides of the boat, Jesus wakes up because he had been asleep and he says, be still, and immediately, not after a little while, immediately the wind and the waves obey him, and he's calling us, he's calling us, you hear this, he's calling us, you need to trust me, don't believe the lie that you can't find me, because you can find me, and I am a rock, and I'll never move, I'm not afraid. What's the point of application? It means that we need to be like baby birds. Hot shots are not safe in this world. You see our bravado, our self-confidence, that's the reason Jesus is always denouncing and calling out self-confidence and self-confidence and self-dependence, the reason he's always saying, don't do that is because one day you are going to be rattled to your core, and the only safe place to be is underneath his wings, and that's humbling, isn't it? It's very counter-cultural, too. Come on, nin, you can go to your next staff meeting and say I'm a baby bird, there'll be so impressed, the bravest Christians have always been the meekest Christians,
not the ones that were most confident in the selves, and the call for us independent Presbyterian church here in Memphis is for us to cultivate humility, to pray for it, because it's only under the wings of God that were safe. One day I can promise you this because the word of God tells me he is going to rattle the rafters. He's going to turn the whole place over, but you and I will be safe,
safe. It also means that it's not just in the moments of crisis that we find this safety. It means that we have to find this safety moment by moment by moment. It's not a one-time thing. I'm constantly amazed at how God is so persistent in my life. He doesn't want me to just learn a lesson, take the exam, and then just sort of think I have it. He wants to teach me on Monday morning, and Wednesday evening, and Thursday at three, how I don't trust him, because our lives are moving a million miles a minute, aren't they? But sometimes all that we have the energy for is to just fall down on the couch, but it's in the moment, in your car, in carpool, walking from one meeting to the next meeting that you tell yourself the Lord Almighty is with me, the God of Jacob is my fortress. It's almost like we need an alarm on our watches that goes off to remind us because we forget it so easily, an alarm or something to remind us that God is our fortress, that God is not moving no matter how fast this day is moving, moment by moment by moment, we run to his refuge, but we also rest in his victory. Look at verse six, please, with me, nations are in an uproar. He lifts kingdoms fall, he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolation he has brought to the earth. He makes war cease to the ends of the earth, he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted in the earth. I will be exalted among the nations. The Lord Almighty is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Do you see this self-talk that's going on here?
The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms are falling, he lifts his voice, the earth melts. Let's know what Derek Kidner, commentator, said about this passage, is so good. He said the Lord's voice will be as decisive in dissolving the world as it was in creating the world. Nations are in an uproar. People are fighting against other people. They're raising up against other people and here God lifts his voice and the earth melts. You can imagine why Martin Luther would want to sing this song to himself, no matter how scary things God. No matter how hard Rome pressed against him, the earth melts at the voice of God. We're called to rest in his victory. That's what's verses 7-11 are. God wins the war. I don't know that's not a politically correct way of looking at God. It's a really unpopular way of looking at God as the warrior. We want a God that's sort of like a little Santa clause, right, a little touchy feeling at the same time, but the Bible talks about God as a warrior. He is loving and compassionate. He is a mother bird, but he also is a warrior and we take comfort in him ending the wars. The Lord Almighty is with us. That's what this means, the Lord of hosts. The general is with us. Why are we stopped singing that when we go out into the world to share the gospel with people? We need to remember that the general is with us and the God of Jacob is our fortress. This reminds us that this relationship, this covenant relationship is not based on how good we are. No, it's based on his grace. He made the relationship. He keeps the vows. He's kept it through Jesus Christ. And Jacob, we know Jacob. Aren't you glad they mentioned Jacob? Jacob is a scheming turkey most of his life. The God of Jacob is our fortress that we're called to look out at the world from a different lens and to not see ourselves and the people of the covenant of grace as just another group that's trying to have power and that's getting pushed around. No, we need to look back on the mountain, the rock that doesn't move because he wins the battle decisively. He ends it. And one day he will break the bow and he will shatter the spear. We need to sing that to ourselves. The one day the struggle that you're going through right this minute, Jesus will end that struggle.
He'll also show us how foolish we looked. How foolish the nations in vain plot. There reminds me of being a junior high. I don't like to think about junior high very much. Not great memories. But there would always be a fight, at least once a week. And these boys would want to fight. I was never someone that would want to fight because I would be beaten up. But you could hear the rumblings in the hallways in our private school that I went to. Josh and Scott are going to get a fight. They're going to fight this afternoon. Have you heard about it? And everyone's talking about it all day. And they're Josh and Scott are giving each other the evil eye at the lunchroom. It's going to be really intense. And so finally the final bell rings and Josh and Scott are out there and they're bowed up and they're ready to fight. They're ready to brawl. And then Mr. Hughes, the headmaster, walks upon the children. And Josh and Scott and the rest of us and all of our fury have been revealed. We've been uncovered that we're actually brace faced. 13 year old boys trying to be tough. And it all seems so silly in that moment. And I really believe that that's what the Psalmist is saying. That one day God will raise his voice and each nation that wants to blow up every other nation and every family that's fighting against family and every person in a church that's fighting against another person in the church and all the wars. His voice will raise and he will say stop this silliness. And he'll end it all. That Isaiah 2 tells us that they will beat their swords into plow shares. The great warriors will become farmers. One day the wars will end because the great general is with us. That's why we're called to be still and to know that he is God, that he will be exalted among the nations. He will be exalted in the earth. But this stillness is not a passive stillness.
This stillness is a rest in Christ, a confidence that we are called to go out and promote peace, not make war in our city and our places of work. That we need this church to be a church of Psalm 46. God is calling us. Do you hear him calling us to be a safe place for people to run? Because God is most glorified when people come in from the outside world who are hounded by this life where things are falling apart. Well, they find refuge among the people of God and they sing Psalm 46 together and they take joy and comfort in his victory. The question I leave you with this morning is where are you running? You're running somewhere because life is hard. I can promise you you're running somewhere and God is calling us to humble ourselves to be like a baby bird that is fierce, to be bold and meek at the same time. The reason where we're in the Christians is because we've let the world push us around because we're so self-confident. The bravest Christians in history, as I've said, were the meekest ones because they run to God for refuge and they rest in his victory. Let's pray. Lord, be glorified this morning. We preach an unpopular word to this world, but it is the word of life because you are the general. You are the winner. You are the commander. And we rest in you and your son's name. I'm in.