Psalm 46 (He Is Already With Us, Jeff Kliewer)

Trusting God in Psalm 46 and the Old, Old Story

Today, after the hearing of your word, and we've ever trusted in you before, we pray, Lord, that you would enlarge the vision of our eyes to see you for the God who you are, that we would not make you small, that we would not make you after our own image, but that we would behold the glory of the God who created all things.

So, Lord, from Psalm 46, would you open our eyes to a bigger view of who you are? In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I was thinking this week and trying to decide how to open this sermon. I always like to begin with a story, and I was drawing a blank.

Who should I talk about that has trust in God the way the psalmist does in Psalm 46? And what I came around to was that the ultimate story to tell is the old, old story. Why not begin this week with the old, old story to remind us of Jesus, because Jesus is God with us.

He is Emmanuel, and the title of my message today is he is already with us. Jesus is not only God with us, he modeled for us how to trust in the Father. The Father was always with him, and he demonstrated for us and modeled for us the perfect faith, the perfect trust in Almighty God.

So let's begin there. Jesus walked with God from the time he was born. In fact, from his mother's womb. You recall that while John the Baptist was in, Jesus was in the womb of Mary, and he leapt for joy.

John the Baptist leapt for joy in the presence of Jesus. From Psalm 22, we learn that Jesus at that time was already trusting in his Father. And as he grew, he trusted perfectly in his Father. When the time of testing came, the time of the cross, Jesus trusted in the Father, and yet he found that for the first time in history, a child of God, one who trusted in God, was forsaken.

Jesus was forsaken at the cross. Psalm chapter 22, the first verse says, "'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'. Jesus then compares his being forsaken to the cross with the fathers who went before, who put their trust in God, and found that they were rescued.

For the first time, the Father turned his face away, and yet Jesus continued to trust in God, even when God did not come to his rescue on the cross. His trust was perfect. Jesus had his mind not on earthly things, but his mind in heavenly places.

When he was told, look, are you a king? Do you claim to be a king? Jesus answered, my kingdom is not of this world. His mind was set on heaven. He knew that although they kill the body, yet he would be rescued.

When Jesus died on the cross, he then rose again from the dead on the third day. Rescued, according to Psalm 22, just as the promise was given, he would be rescued from the wild oxen, from the horns. Although he was killed, yet he rose from the dead.

He is already with us. Jesus provided for us the perfect example of trusting in God. Now, when he had a chance to defend himself, standing before Pontius Pilate and before King Herod, he could have spoken up in his own defense.

Instead, he was still, he was quiet. He didn't answer back or defend himself or plead his case. Rather, like a lamb led to the slaughter, he was silent before the shearers, and he laid down his life as a sacrifice.

In Psalm 46 today, we'll read, be still and know that I am God. Jesus modeled for us that stillness, that perfect trust in God. So I did continue to think about, who have I seen do that? Not in the last couple of years.

Who has been still in the midst of the shaking.

Of the ground?

When you lose someone that you love? And you know who came to mind is our brother, Rich. Rich, in the loss of your son, you have modeled for this church what it means to trust in God. Because I don't know if I've ever seen so much faith in the living God.

In the death of your son, I have seen you, brother, stand and worship the true God. And look to him to be your refuge to run into. And I have seen, Rich, that you have talked again and again about your hope.

Because we grieve, but not as those who have no hope. You say, I will see him again. And he's in the city of the living God. And he's running there, and he's delighting there. And your grief turns to joy when you have that thought.

That's Psalm 46. I praise the Lord for the example that Rich has given to this church of what it means to trust God. And to have the faith of knowing God so deeply that you can walk through a storm and find that he is a refuge, that he is a shelter.

He is the shelter. Let's look to Psalm 46 this morning, recognizing God is with us to secure us and help us to endure evil in this present darkness. And when morning dawns, he will take us to the unshakable city where he already dwells as the absolute sovereign.

God Our Refuge in Trouble

Psalm 46, 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 its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling, Selah.

The first three verses are like the first three verses of a song, and if you look in Psalm 46 before you get into the meat of it, you'll see a title to the choir master of the sons of Korah according to Alamoth, a song.

Remember that the psalms are to be sung. These were for, in this case, for the choir master, the sons of Korah, who are a certain priestly line, have been charged with writing music, just like we have a worship team that comes up here.

These are like sons of Korah. They lead us to worship the true and living God. The sons of Korah wrote this song as a song, and the first three verses are like the first verse. So when you see the word Selah again repeated at the end of verse seven and again at the end of verse 11, Selah is a musical term.

We're not exactly sure what it means, but it's probably a lot like saying amen. However, it's to be sung. So you say amen, you sing Selah, okay? So it's a marker here in the text that there are three major verses to this song.

Notice another thing in the big picture here. In verse one, verse seven, and verse 11, you have repetition, and the repetition tells you, it's the clue to let you know what is the main idea of this psalm.

So my title for the sermon this morning is He is Already With Us. The idea that we need to understand this morning, and I think you already know this, but God is with us. Our God, the name of Jesus is Emmanuel.

That means God with us. When he saved us, he also caused his Holy Spirit to live inside of us as a deposit, guaranteeing the inheritance of all those who are God's possession. Ephesians 1, 13 and 14. So the Holy Spirit is given to live inside of us.

He is in us, and he is always with us. What I think we don't always understand is the implications of that fact. What does it mean for us that the God.

Who created all things is with us, that he's in us?

Well, the first thing we see in the first three verses, he will help us through any trouble. Whatever trouble you're facing, this is where you look. The psalms will remind you that God is with you in that trouble.

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. So in verse one, he's a very present help in trouble. In verse seven, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Now look at verse 11.

Is it pretty close to verse seven?

What do you think?

Yeah, it's exactly the same, right? So it's very close. It's a repetition of this idea that the Lord of hosts is with us. This is what we're talking about this morning. So in verse two, we will not fear though the earth gives way.

Now there's a repetition of this though. So even though these things happen, God is still with us. There's a teaching that is prevalent in evangelicalism in America right now that if you walk with God and he's with you, then you will prosper.

You will prosper financially and you will be healthy and you will be wealthy and you will be wise and everything will fall into place. It will be like the road opens before you and you'll eat off golden plates.

That prosperity theology is a lie because according to my Bible, there's an even though, which describes the circumstances of our lives. It's not all circumstantial. It's not only sunshine and roses. The circumstances according to verses two and three, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling, say la, although we will walk a difficult road.

Now, if you look at the analogies here to a mountain, the mountain in the Bible is a picture of stability. It's solid, it's immovable, it's strong, it's safe. Conversely, the sea, scripturally, often refers to what's dangerous and evil.

It's something to be avoided. It's something to be kept safe from. But if you look in verse two, though, therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way. What if the very ground on which you're standing.

Begins to shake?

Raise your hand if you've ever been through an earthquake. We all lived through one a few years back. I didn't feel it. Some of y 'all felt that shaking. Maybe you're in the house and the very ground underneath you shaking can be very unsettling.

But what about when the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea? Well, this is an analogy of the most stable thing that you could imagine, a mountain. I was once in the Alps and I saw the amazing mountains topped with snow.

Can you imagine a mountain moved into the sea? When that happens, there's nothing stable. There's nothing stable. Sometimes in life, it will feel as if the very mountains that you build your life upon are thrown into the sea.

You never know when that's gonna happen. You're cruising along and things are good and all of a sudden, the very mountains of your life, the very earth beneath you begins to shake and a mountain is thrown into the sea.

Some kind of circumstance happens and it gets worse than that. Though its waters roar and foam, the sea being a picture of evil, when it begins to swell like a tsunami building off the coast and you see that this coming tsunami is about to swallow you up, you now are under attack.

Evil is rising.

You see the fangs of the snake.

And the teeth of the wolf.

And you recognize that you have no defense. Evil is rising against you. The metaphor here is of a person who is very, very vulnerable. You have no defense. Now, it's left, I think, intentionally ambiguous.

We don't know what the problems are. We don't know what the danger is because in life, we will face, according to Jesus, what?

Many troubles. Many troubles.

But take heart, I have overcome the world. So we're told, although the mountains be moved, the waters roar, the mountains tremble at the swelling of the sea, yet we are to remember, verse one, he is a very present help in trouble.

What trouble are you facing this morning? Some of you are in the greatest trouble of all. Nobody likes to be told you're in trouble, right? It brings you back to being a kid.

Like, you are in trouble. Well, what did I do?

Well, let me tell you what you did. You have sinned and offended the holy God of the universe.

You have rebelled.

He's given commands, and you've broken them. Thou shalt not lie, and you've told a lie. And if you tell me you haven't told a lie, I think you're lying right now. Let God be true in every man a liar, according to the scriptures.

Thou shalt not commit adultery. Jesus says if you even look at a woman with lust in your eye you've committed the deeper meaning of thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not murder. And Jesus says if you even hate in your heart you violated the deeper meaning of thou shalt not murder.

And so here we stand together. I'm like you. I'm guilty of sin. And all of us together can affirm that we are guilty of sin. So here is the spiritual danger, the spiritual trouble that people find themselves in.

We have sinned against a holy God. We have sinned against a holy God. And the penalty of sin is death. Adam and Eve ate of the fruit in the Garden of Eden. And what was the penalty? Thou shalt surely die.

Romans 6 .23, the wage of sin is death. And this death that we're talking about is not only the fact that people die physically, that's why everybody dies, but it's something more severe than that. It's when your physical body dies, your spirit, the soul, the innermost part of you, the immaterial part of you does not ascend to God to be in his presence where there is no sin.

No, as a sinner your spirit descends away from God to be separate from God forever. This is the greatest trouble anyone has ever been in. This is spiritual death. This is great danger. This is great trouble.

But according to the scriptures, we are told in 1 Thessalonians 1, four to 10, that God is a very present help in spiritual trouble. The Thessalonians were loved by God and chosen by God. How do we know that?

Because the word of the gospel came to them and not in word only, but with power and with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. And so they received the word, the message of the cross, that Jesus was crucified on a cross and rose from the dead for sinners.

And they put their faith in God and their joy was made complete, so much so that they were willing to endure suffering. And we're told at the end of 1 Thessalonians four, verse 10, that they have been rescued from the coming wrath.

We're in trouble, but there is a rescuer, a savior. His name is Jesus. He has come to rescue rebels like us, that if we would turn away from our sin and believe in him, our sin would be expiated, it would be taken away.

The wrath of God towards sinners would be propitiated. That means his wrath would be satisfied, it would be turned away, and he would no longer have anger and wrath toward a sinner like me. In Sunday school this morning, somebody used the word propitiation.

And they said, that's a good word for you to use in the pulpit, that's what you would say. And so I had to work that in there, brother. Propitiation, the turning away of wrath. Because a sacrifice is made to satisfy the wrath of God.

The first great help that God gives to us, and the most important one, is that he rescues us from the coming wrath of God, 1 Thessalonians 1 .10. Another form of help, emotional distress. God helps us when we are in emotional distress.

2 Corinthians 1, three to five, says that he is the God of all comfort. I think probably the deepest darkness, the most distressed that I've been, the most emotional anguish that I experienced, was when we miscarried.

We were expecting a child, and we found out, went to the hospital, that the baby had died in the womb. And I remember sitting out, when I finally got alone for a minute and just began to contemplate, I remember the waves of distress and emotional anguish come over me.

And I was just weeping and weeping. And it just felt, you guys know this feeling, that your heart was just melting. Just melting inside of you. You're not sure if your heart's gonna survive.

It's just this deep, deep pain.

What do you do when you're in emotional distress? Psalm 46 tells us, you run into the shelter. God is our refuge and strength. I found him to be a shelter at that time. And he lifted me out of that, my wife out of that.

And our son was born after that. We wouldn't have had Timmy if it weren't for that. We don't know how God's plan works together, but we know it works for good. And my point is, he is working all things together for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

He is a shelter to run into when you're in emotional distress. First Corinthians six, sorry, second Corinthians six, we're told what a help God is in physical trouble. We're told working together with him, I have helped you, God says.

And then Paul goes on to describe every kind of physical danger you could imagine. Whatever danger you've been in, there is a fortress in that moment to run into. And then finally, financial trouble. Very often in this life, we will face financial trouble.

I'm sure there's somebody here, I don't know who, is facing financial trouble. I wanna tell you, run into the shelter. Run into the refuge. God is our refuge and strength. Back in 2004, my wife and I, we became missionaries.

And one of the scary things about being a missionary is you rely on people to write a check and put it in the mail to support you. And for 12 years, we would have to wait and see what would show up in the mail each month to fund your mission work.

Do you know for 12 years, we never lacked? God provided the entire time that we were missionaries, everything that we needed. Now sometimes the mission account would move to plentiful and we might have $10 ,000 in the mission account and we were okay for a couple of months for sure.

But then there were times and seasons where it would dwindle down and you didn't have enough to pay. You can't take your salary, you can't pay for anything. But sure enough, just when you think that you've hit the bottom, God would send help.

Here's the point, he is present to those who trust him.

He is with you.

This church I think was in some financial difficulty back in 2016, my first year here. We watched the bank account dwindle to within probably less than $1 ,000 one week. And we saw that happening over time.

But God continued to send strength and help and this year we've finally seen the rising of the giving to the point where, Jeff, we have a chance to balance the budget for the first year probably maybe ever, right, I hear?

We do, we do. Now guys, I wanna tell you this and we're talking about finances. Let me just take an aside. I have found that God blesses giving and I don't mean in the prosperity sense, but when you obey God, he will provide everything that you need for life and godliness.

Create in yourself the habit of bringing the full tithe into God's storehouse. Malachi tells us this, the last book of the Old Testament. It says, bring the full tithe into the storehouse and test me in this, see if I don't bless you and care for you.

In Philippians chapter four, Paul was a missionary. He says, there have been times when I have been in want. I've had nothing, but there have been times when I've had plenty and I have learned the secret of being content in every circumstance, whether having much or little.

And then the all important verse that Steph Curry writes on his shoes that you guys have memorized, Philippians 4 .13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. That's a verse about financial trust, trusting God with your finances.

He goes on to say that he's thankful to the Philippians for sending support, financial support for the ministry. And he promises them at the end that my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches.

In Christ Jesus.

God will help us in every financial trouble. We need to be careful with our money. We need to be wise as good stewards of our money, but trust that as we do that, God will provide all that we need for life and godliness.

The City of God and the Shaking of the Nations

The second section, the second verse of the song, it's a stark change. The transition here is not smooth. It's kind of like my preaching. Okay, we're going over here. The transition from he'll help you in all of this distress and the mountains are shaking and the sea is foaming and it's about to overwhelm you and he's your help and he's your trouble.

All of a sudden you move from this unsure, unsteady place to peace. So your eyes move from the present struggles to the future glory. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. This is where you got to put your mind.

The holy habitation of the most high. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. When morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice.

The earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Notice in verse six, the nations rage, the kingdoms totter. There is a tie to the first three verses. If you look back in verse three, though its waters roar.

See that word roar? That is the same Hebrew word that we use here in verse six. For rage, to roar is to rage. Same word.

Though the mountains tremble.

The same word is used again in verse six. The kingdoms totter. So there's a parallel. We might miss this in the English because we don't speak Hebrew, right? And the translation uses a different word to communicate a slightly different idea.

But it's the same. When the circumstances, when the evil is raging against you. There's a rage and all things are shaky. The nations are raging. That means there's war or there's just an unsettled situation.

The kingdoms totter. It looks like the whole earth is shaking and moving. When that is the case, look at verse six, part B. He utters his voice. The earth melts. Now the melting of earth makes the tottering and the shaking look like nothing.

That's the point. Yes, these circumstantial things, but there is a God in heaven. All he has to do is but speak a word, your servant would be healed. Utters his voice. The earth melts. This is a reminder that the life that we're living now in the shaky circumstances that we live in, he's with us in it, but there's coming a day when he establishes his kingdom in perfection and we are going with him there where there's no longer anything shaky.

Everything that can be shaken will be removed. There was a day when Moses brought the Israelites to the base of a mountain. According to Hebrews chapter 12, it was scary. Darkness descended over the mountain and a cloud and there was loud thunder and peals of thunder and everybody was terrified and God spoke a terrible decree that if anybody so much as touches that mountain, they die.

If even a beast touches the mountain, they die. And the people say it was too much for us. This was the mountain where God descended at Sinai and he said, that's the kind of mountain that scared the people, but you haven't come to that mountain.

You have come to the mountain called Zion and to the city of the living God and to angels and festal assembly and to the father and to the firstborn, to the one who speaks a message better than the message that was spoken to Abel.

You've come to the city of the living God. And he says, but once more, I will shake both heaven and earth and everything that can be shaken will be removed so that only that which cannot be shaken will remain in the city of the living God.

For our God is a consuming, the mountains shake. Everything trembles, but our God is a consuming fire. According to Peter, there is coming a day where God will roll up this world like a scroll and everything will be consumed by fire.

Do not forget that, 2 Peter 3, we're told, the coming of the day of the Lord, all of these things will be consumed with fire and God will create a new heaven and a new earth. And if that be the case, what do we have to fear?

We need to take our eyes off of this world, our minds not on earthly things, but set them on heavenly things, the coming of the city of God. According to Revelation 22, in the coming city of God, in the new heaven and the new earth, there will be a river that flows through it and it will water the land and it will lift the spirits and refresh the spirits of the people and there will be trees growing beside it and the leaves of the trees are for the healing of the nations and there'll be no more tears and no more pain.

All things will be made right in the city of God. So this is the picture. In verse four, there is a river whose streams make glad the city of God. You have to go there in your mind because you're going there one day in the body.

Go there, this is where peace comes from. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. This is the immovable city that cannot be shaken, the city of God. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice, the earth melts.

God is so far sovereign above the circumstances of this earth. He has no fear of them. He is solid and what is coming is sure. The city of God that's coming is certain. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Be Still and Know That I Am God

And now the final verse of the song. This is where we take all of this amazing information, his present help and trouble and the future glory. What are we to do with this? We are to be still and know that he is God.

Know God, know this God, the God of the Bible who is much bigger than the God of American evangelicalism. If anybody has Amazon Prime, there's a movie out right now called American Gospel.

Watch it.

It compares what's being preached on TV and preached even in many mainstream churches to the original gospel as it was declared from the beginning and what was believed during the Reformation. Watch that movie.

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. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God.

Don't you feel we should just pause right now? Be still and know that I am God. One of my favorite preachers is Joe Foch from Calvary, Philly. He has a little joke that this is not referring to sitting there saying, shall I buy a Honda?

Shall I buy a Honda is what people say when they're trying to learn how to speak in tongues. This is not about meditative prayer. This is not about contemplative spirituality. The context, and by the way, Joe Foch believes in the gifts of the spirit.

It's just a joke.

But listen, this verse is very often taken out of context and the important message that it's communicated is completely missed. This is not about contemplative prayer. This verse is about knowing God and knowing that he is absolutely sovereign.

It's when you pause and you know. When your eyes are open to say, my view of God has been way too small. I need to stop and see who it is that we're actually dealing with here. J .I. Packer wrote a book called Knowing God.

K. Arthur says that this book is the classic that God used to launch her into the study of the sovereignty of God and I'll never be the same. Packer opens his book by saying, as clowns yearn to play Hamlet, so I have wanted to write a treatise on God.

I like the humility with which he begins. He's gonna write a treatise on God but he says it's like clowns wanting to play Hamlet. He knows he can't do it but what he can do is keep turning people's eyes to the right side of the telescope.

Churchmen who look at God, so to speak, through the wrong end of the telescope, so reducing him to pygmy proportions, cannot hope to end up as more than pygmy Christians. Now there's probably something politically incorrect in that language but remember he wrote that in 1973.

Those who look at God through the wrong end of a telescope reduce the size of the God that they're looking at. This is what we do. We make God in our little image and we fail to see who it is that we're dealing with here.

This is so powerful. When you look at these verses, look at verse eight. He just says, come behold. In other words, look, look through the telescope.

I wanna show you something.

Look at the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. Ponder that for a moment. All the wars that raged when David was fighting the Philistines, when Israel was running for their lives and then God made the wars cease and David conquered and Israel conquered.

Look at verse nine. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. This is the place from which the sons of Korah are writing. After war, now delighting in peace, he breaks the bow and shatters the spear.

He burns the chariots with fire. In other words, God said go and the enemies advanced and God said stop and the troop was put down. Is that how you view God? Where was God during the killing fields of Cambodia?

Where was God during World War II as Hitler rose? Was God still on his throne? God is sovereign over all. According to Isaiah chapter 10, the Israelites were being rebellious and God sent the Assyrians to punish the Israelites and after punishing them, he then turned and punished the Assyrians because their hearts were haughty as they were being used by God as an instrument.

The whole book of Zephaniah is about the coming day of the Lord. That's a day of war where God sends war to judge his own people and the Babylonian conquest did happen in stages in 605 and 587 and again and again, the Babylonians came, the day of the Lord arrived for Israel and there's coming again a day of the Lord.

So how can these things be? Is God sovereign even over evil? In Acts chapter four, verse 27, evil men conspired against the Lord Jesus.

Didn't they?

Pontius Pilate and Herod, the Jews, the Gentiles, yelling crucify, crucify, they came against him and so here is one of the major points you need to understand. The Bible holds sinful people responsible for sin and not God.

It was Adam and Eve that ate the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and sin came into the world because of human sinfulness, not because of God. God is never called the author of sin and yet he was so sovereign even over the fall of Adam and the killing of his son that we're told in Acts 4 .28 that even that happened according to the predestined plan of God.

So what we're talking about here is a both and. Humans are responsible for sin, but God is sovereign even over evil and suffering. It's a part of his decree. Many of us have a view of God that he is just up in heaven and he spun this world into existence and then he stepped out and he's far away, he's not nearby, he's not involved, he's not with us and he's not at all a part of the wars that happen, that start and stop.

Proverbs 16 .33 says the die is cast into the lap, but it's every decision is from the Lord. Even the seemingly random, the most random thing you can imagine, the casting of a dot which is meant to be random, even that, the decision of that lot is from the Lord.

Why am I stressing this point? The higher your view of God, the more you know him as he is. The higher your view of God, the more you know him as he is. We have shrunk God to our image. We tend to do that.

Rather than what we see in the text, which is right here before us, verse 10, be still and know that I am God. What's he telling us to do? It's not even to just sit there and contemplate, but it's particularly to stop for a moment and contemplate the reality of how big he is, that he is self-existent, he is the I am.

He is in complete control of your life. Absolute control of all things. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.