These are my notes for a lesson I taught on Psalm 46 at a nursing home in Raleigh, NC on December 11, 2016.

To the choirmaster. 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, 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.

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her 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. 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; 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!”

The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah

  1. God is our refuge.
    • What things do you trust? Where do you put your hope?
      • Your spouse?
      • Your job?
      • Your investment accounts?
      • Your family?
      • Your government?
      • Our very creation?
    • What do we comprise Christ’s church put our hope in?
      • Our pastors?
      • Our buildings?
      • Our denomination?
    • How would you respond if these things were shaken?
      • Would you crumble and fall?
      • Would you give up hope?
      • Would you lose all your comfort?
    • Here’s the bad news:
      • All the things in this creation will fail you.
      • Your body will fail.
      • Your spouse’s body will fail.
      • Your money will not last forever.
      • Buildings will crumble: how vividly many of us remember the World Trade Centers coming down.
      • Mountains fall into the sea!
    • Knowing this, how do we not fall into despair?
      • How do we keep ourselves from hopelessness?
    • Psalm 46 answers that for us.
      • Though the things we most expect to remain unshaken (mountains) be subject to chaos and distrubtion (the sea), God is unmoved.
      • Thus we, we who are found in Him, will not be moved.
      • Thus we, we who are found in Him, need not fear.
    • Psalm 46 echos clearly what is present throughout all of Scripture:
      • God saves His people.
      • Hardship will come, but God saves His people.
      • Nations will cease, but God saves His people.
      • Spouses will die, but God saves His people
    • God is not shaken.
      • God was neither shaken nor surprised when the World Trade Centers fell
      • God was neither shaken nor surprised when the Roman empire fell
      • God was neither shaken nor surprised when Donald Trump was elected presdient
      • God was neither shaken nor surprised when Barack Obama was elected president
      • God was neither shaken nor surprised when your husband died or your wife died.
      • God was neither shaken nor surprised when you were diagnosed with terminal cancer.
      • No, friend, there is nothing to fear when your hope is in the One who made all things.
    • Where do we turn for comfort, when the world is uncertain? Where do we turn when everything seems to let us down?
      • He is our very present help.
      • My friend, if your have put your hope in Christ, if you have trusted in Him for the forgiveness of your sins…
      • …then you are united to Christ and have His Father as your father.
      • God who made all things and sovereignly reigns over all of your creation is able and ready to help you.
    • This leads us to…
  2. God is in our midst.
    • So often after disasters strike, many people ask “Where is God?”
    • Where is God? Scripture answers that question for us. Psalm 46 answers that question for us.
    • God is in the midst of her: His city, His holy habitation.
      • Where does God dwell? In His temple.
      • Where is His temple?
        • “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Cor. 3)
        • The church is “built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2)
    • God dwells in His temple, and we are His temple.
      • The bible teaches that each of us individually, and Christians corporately are both His temple.
      • Thus God dwells among you and me, dear friend, if our hope is in Him.
    • What promise do we have for those among whom God dwells?
      • “She shall not be moved.”
      • Not only will God not be moved, but for those who are found in Him, we will not be moved.
    • What song do we sing this season, “Oh come, oh come Emmanuel.”
      • Let us not forget that Emmanuel has come. Christ took on flesh and came down.
      • What does Emmanuel mean? God with us.
      • So we understand God’s presense with use so much more than this Psalmist did.
      • We know that God so loved the world that He sent his only begotten Son to die and be raised for us.
      • We know that God so loved the world that He sends his holy spirit out into our hearts to comfort us.
      • We know that even now God dwells with us, by His Spirit and through our union with his Son.
    • God’s help is with us as each new day dawns.
      • When you rise each morning, remember that God is with you and you will not be shaken!
    • God often speaks with the still, small voice of a gentle river. Yet He will still the waves of the ocean.
  3. God is sovereign over all things.
    • Why can we be sure that God will not be moved?
      • He made all things and all things are His.
    • Destruction comes only by His word.
      • Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth.
    • The mountains will not fall into the sea except that He should permit it.
    • Remember God’s word to Job:

      Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that a flood of waters may cover you? Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go and say to you, ‘Here we are’? Who has put wisdom in the inward parts or given understanding to the mind? Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can tilt the waterskins of the heavens, when the dust runs into a mass and the clods stick fast together?

    • Though the nations rage, they plot in vain. For God utters His voice, and they will be destroyed.
    • Yet we remain confident, for God is our fortress, and we will not be moved.
      • It is He that will cause wars to cease.
    • God who has the power to destroy all of Creation by His word is not a capricious God.
      • No, He is the God who promises to use all of this for all good!
      • He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose.
  4. God is with us.
    • The nations will rage. The earth will shake. Yet, those who trust in the Lord will not be shaken.
    • The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
    • The question for you, dear friend, is where you will put your hope, your trust? What will you make your treasure? Where where you put your heart?
      • The things of this earth are passing away.
      • Your so-called treasures of this earth are subject to decay. “Moth and rust destroy, theaves break in and steal.”
      • The people of this earth won’t live forever.
      • The friends of this earth betray us and move away.
    • But God is with us! The Lord of Hosts! The one who reigns and rules over all of creation.
      • He offers for us to build up treasures in His kingdom that will not be shaken, that will not be destroyed.
    • Put your hope in him, dear friends. Make him your treasure.
    • On March 2, 1791, John Wesley died at age 88 after a lifetime of preaching the Gospel. His friends gathered around him as he laid on his deathbed. He gathered the last of his strength and said “The best of all is, God is with us.” He used his remaining strength to lift his arms and again said, “The best of all is, God is with us.”