Sermon Tone Analysis

Be still and know God

psalm46.1-11

Question 1 - How have you seen God be a Refuge and strength in your life?

Question 2 - In what ways are you tempted to fear because of what you see happening in the earth?

Question 3 - What does it mean to ‘Be still and Know God’?

The Psalm we have before us today is one that many have found to be a reassurance for confidence in God.

Some think that the authors, the Sons of Korah, wrote this after a mighty battle that King David won for Israel, and so it was a song for God’s people to celebrate the confidence they can have in their God.

Many Christians through the ages have seen it as a word of real encouragement in who God is, some have claimed it as their own psalm and used it to fuel movements of God’s people to again put their strength in him… And Some today use it as a kitchy platitude for their coffee mugs and christian t-shirts design, it is a life verse for them… And while it is not wrong for people to memorize single verses that bring them more confidence in God, it is actually a good thing and I encourage it, I would be remiss if those who treat psalm 46 this way didn’t have a chance to hear it in a more robust way, so that like others the whole psalm becomes their psalm.

If thats you today, please don’t be offended but rather seek to hear God speak through this Psalm as he has through the ages, for he is faithful, to do and be, exactly what psalm 46 declares, as he himself is the true author of all scripture.

We should take the precious words we find in scripture and hold fast to them when faced with trials and attack of the enemy.

For that is what those before have done...

In fact, a young man who was influential to our modern understanding of scripture, once turned to his companions on his way into the assembly or Diet of Worms on April 16, 1521, and said let us sing

“Ein feste burg ist unser Gott”

A Mighty Fortress is our God, written by Martin Luther based off of the encouragement found in , which is known as Luther’s Psalm.

For those of you new to the church Martin Luther was the father of the Reformation as God used him to bring the true church out of the Catholic church that had no longer believed the Gospel.

He is one of the many reformers that have helped shape our modern expression of worship to this day.

today we will look at the Psalm that he sang with others in kindling theirs heart to burn bright for Christ in leading the reformation and reclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ for us to receive and pass on to the next generation.

Let’s look at this Psalm now.

psalm46

It would be possible to preach for an hour on just this one verse alone.

Why?

Because it tells us who God is!

Yet if you are not in trouble and trials and turmoil today you may skip right over some of the most important encouragement we can get from God’s word.

First things first, the Bible is not about us… It is not a book written about us, but it is written by God as his Spirit carried men along and inspired them to write about God.

So God is writing about himself to us so we can know him.

The bible is how God truly speaks to us.

We believe that the original autographs as it was written is actually truly inspired by God, they are God-breathed truths about himself, that he authored through the hands of men.

And if you are to believe that, then when we come to a passage that tells us who God is, we ought to listen.

Look at verse 1… “God is our...” In the original Hebrew language this was to be read more like, “God is for us”...

The very first encouragement is very clear

God “IS”

Could such a small word really be worth the preachers time to pause and wax eloquently about???

Well, what it if this word was replaced with anything other than “is”?

Is- is the present tense plural of “be” , yet we wouldn’t say, “God BE for us...”

This little word is powerful here because it excludes other words that would change the meaning of understanding God.

Here is what I mean… this verse doesn’t say, “God WAS our refuge and strength”, it doesn’t say, “God CAN be our refuge and strength”, or even, “God WILL BE our refuge and strength”.

God IS our refuge and strength… Do you hear the difference in that?

What about now… He IS! What about a moment a ago, Yep then too… how about in the next moment, he IS then as well...

Our actively present self sustaining God who IS all powerful, IS Light and IS Love… IS Ours!!!

For me personally… If God is anything other than the God who IS, I am sunk and have no hope at all.

This little word has encourages me today, gives me hope for tomorrow and humbles my every thought of the past.

This so impacted my devotional reading of the text that I can move no further today if “IS” isn't inspired by God himself for us to know him.

Even the next part of this, that fact that God is OURS or FOR US, would not be a source of strength for God’s people if “IS” wasn’t true.

If God WAS ours, or he only COULD BE for us, we would despair and be crushed.

Yet God IS!!!

I want to submit to you that the entire rest of this Psalm should be read in light of the fact that God IS!

He is ours, as his people, he is for us as his children, and yet the Psalmist and the Lord himself would further define exactly what he IS...

Refuge and Strength

Let us start with the word Strength, since there is very little variation in understanding the meaning of this word.

God IS Strength… God IS Powerful.

Which means he is not weak or inept or impotent.

He is OUR Strength.

So when we are weak, when we are unable to finish, when we are exhausted He IS not!

Seems pretty straight forward, there is nothing more powerful in all the universe and nothing more that his people need, He is our strength, he is Mighty, yet whats more he is Almighty!

But the word Refuge… that has more meaning than whatever we may think.

For the Hebrews who first read this and learned to sing this, all the way up to Luther and beyond, the idea of Refuge meant a Shelter.

Refuge meant security from foes and enemies, from weather and chaos, from political uprising, and assurance against peril and disaster.

Is it any wonder how Luther sang of God as a Mighty Fortress, a Bulwark never failing… A bulwark by the way is a shield…

Spurgeon said this about our refuge here...

“While others boast about their impregnable castles, placed on inaccessible rocks and secured with gates of iron… Our God is a far better refuge than all of these.

When time comes to carry the war to the territories of the enemy, the Lord stands his people in a better stead than all the valor of legions or all the boasted strength of chariots and horses.

Soldiers of the cross remember this, count yourself safe, and make yourself strong in God.

All other refuges are lies, all other strength is weakness, for power belongs to God!”

And as the God who IS our refuge and strength, listen to great encouragement and draw strength from God through it...

VERY present help in trouble

If God “IS” was not enough to convince your heart of how near our God is, then look at this!

God IS VERY Present Help… I love the Hebrew original language here because it translates to this… HE IS ACCESSIBLE!

As Spurgeon puts it, the word VERY is emphasized here because, “he is more present than friend or relative, and even the trouble itself.”

This means that if you feel the weight of trouble then how much more accessible and present is God?

IF God is writing this through his people, then he himself is telling us that he is there in a very real way.

God has been tried and proven time and time again, he never withdraws from His afflicted, but rather is there by their side especially in the midst of danger and trouble, as our only true comfort in this life!

GOD IS!!!! VERY PRESENT, ACCESSIBLE… especially when we need him.

It was at this point in preparing for this sermon I had to switch gears… The common way to preach this text is to see a natural break down in 3 parts… vs 1-3 Natural chaos / vs 4-7 Political chaos / vs 8-11 a call to worship.

I mention it because I want it in your mind as we look at the rest of this, but instead I need to focus on the words we often skip and never think much of… words like “IS”… there are a couple more and yet God IS needs to be the response to all of this psalm...

psalm46.

Therefore… This word simply mean… Because of this, or in light of that… The way I remember it is this… the information I am about to read is THERE FOR the reasons I just read...

Therefore is a conjunction or a word that connects what may seem like two separate thoughts.

In this Psalm it literally means that everything we learn from here on in is only Because of what we just learned… and what did we just learn?

GOD IS! God IS therefore we will not fear!

Because God IS we don’t needs to be afraid

Everything that the rest of the Psalm will talk about is subject to this one thought… Because God IS we do need to be afraid.

Now some of us hear that and say, “ok, I wont be afraid”, and it is settled.

But for some people that is just not how they are wired.

Some people are just more anxious, some people are more prone to worry.

Some of us are more extreme and fatalistic, we throw caution to the wind and go as fast as we can because God said it so “what’s the big deal”… And then there are some who have analysis paralysis and always need m ore information before they can feel secure enough to proceed with caution.

Well, the best part of all this, is the fact that the truth of who God IS will always produce the same results.

Why???

Because it is not about the person who believes it as much as it is the one in whom we believe.

And if it seems like I am making much of the small words here… I am.

And there is more… Look at the word that follows next...

THOUGH the earth gives way… THOUGH the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea… THOUGH its waters roar and foam… THOUGH the mountains tremble at its swelling...

So what??? What is the big deal about that?

Again the Hebrew translation is better because it says WHEN the earth gives way… WHEN the Mountains… When the waters roar… WHEN...

Though and When are basically declaring the same thing.

These things WILL happen… It is not saying IF there is chaos in the natural world… God is telling us that WHEN it happens, because it will happen… we will not fear because He IS accessible to us!

Let’s read it like this… We will not fear though the earth gives way - BECAUSE GOD (congregation) IS

We will not fear Though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea - BECAUSE GOD (congregation) IS

We will not fear Though its waters roar and foam - BECAUSE GOD (congregation) IS

We will not fear Though the mountains tremble at its swelling - BECAUSE GOD (congregation) IS

This whole earth will experience Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Landslides, Hurricanes, Tornados, and shaking and breaking until the ground beneath us is literally falling apart.