Now this morning we have I think quite a number of you who are back here for the first time after a long while. I think the longest is Amir alright. He’s been somewhere in the world alright. Good that you’re back with us. Alright, we shall continue to look at the Psalms this morning in this series called “Selected Psalms”. We’re not looking at all the psalms. I think that if we look through all the psalms, it will probably take us three years alright to go through a hundred and fifty psalms. Alright, today we shall look at Psalm 46. Psalm 46, now this is not an unfamiliar psalm I suppose, in fact, one of a famous reformation psalm. And I think it is a psalm that is very appropriate for today. Psalm 46, so again let me first read the psalm.

“To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of the sons of Korah. A Song for Alamoth.” Beginning in verse 1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted.

The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the LORD, who has made 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 chariot in the 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 refuge.”

Alright so this is Psalm 46, and this morning of course we ask the same question every time we look at the Bible and to ask: What is this passage of Scripture teaching us? So what is this psalm teaching? Now there are three things we want to look at as we look at this psalm. First, to point out that the psalm here (the psalmist here) is teaching us that Christians can be struck by troubles. Christians can be struck by troubles, and then he tells us how we should respond in times of trouble, and then we end with some implications.

So first the psalmist here teaches that Christians can be struck by troubles. Now I say this kind of slowly and repeatedly because this is not what a lot of people teach. When I say people, I mean many Christians teach. Sometimes when we hear the teaching of many so-called Christians, we get the impression that Christians are free from troubles. But that’s never the impression in the Bible. If you read the Bible, you will realise that what the psalmist says here is true. And so the psalmist and therefore saying in a word that I have kind of coined that a Christian can be struck by a “heartquake”- be struck by a “heartquake”. Now a heartquake is like the earthquake, and we are familiar with what an earthquake is. Now an earthquake is when the earth trembles or shaken; Heartquake is when the heart trembles.

And so you look at verse 2, we see a picture presented by the psalmist here as he tries to help us understand something of the kind of troubles that a Christian can go through- a child of God can go through. So in verse 2, he says: “Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed”. In the other translation, it is be “shaken” or “trembles”. Now I think that is the picture here. The psalmist is having here a picture of the earthquake where the earth is shattered or torn apart or shaken. And using that, he is saying that that can happen to a Christian that there might be times that our heart can be so torn apart, be shaken, be shattered like the earthquake.

And so the kind of troubles that the psalmist is trying to help us see that a true child of God can go through is not some little problems that we face in life. But as Christians, we can face big problems and they can come upon us suddenly. We’re not prepared for it, just like generally we are not prepared for an earthquake. But it just strikes and it brings upon you know calamities. It brings upon damages alright destructions. And that is the picture alright, and that is what the psalmist wants us to see.

So the abundant life that Jesus promised is not a trouble-free life. In this world, Jesus says, you shall have tribulations. And so we see in verse 1 the psalmist begins and say: “God is our refuge and strength”. Then he says: “a very present help in trouble”. Now that is how he begins. Now don’t miss what the psalmist is trying to point out here that God is a very present or an ever-present help in trouble, not from trouble alright. So we are in trouble, and God comes and helps us.

As I say, we can face all kinds of troubles as Christians. So don’t be surprised. Don’t say why is it that now that I’m a Christian I still got car accident or I got food poisoning or my internet connection is down alright? What do you expect? What do you think? Now you think that just because you’re a Christian you will not face all these problems, then probably you have not got the right teaching from the Scripture or you have not read your Bible correctly. As I say, the psalmist here is thinking of big troubles. In fact, we might say that the psalmist is thinking of a worst-case scenario. A worst-case scenario, but we can face that. And therefore in trying to create that big problem that is seen for us, he uses pictures here.

First, he uses the picture of the earthquake- the earth being torn apart. And you see here in verse 2 again alright- in verse 2, now, first of all, he kind of thinks of the two most stable things. The two most stable things. What are they? What? Here he says he thinks of the earth. Now we look at the world, the earth that we live in, it seems so stable. Now of course for us who live in Malaysia, if we have not seen pictures alright of earthquakes and destructions elsewhere in the world, we can never imagine how. How is it possible that the road that I’m walking on alright and the land that my house is built upon that can one day be torn apart and my house being swallowed up?

You see, we can’t imagine that because we look at the earth that we live in that is so stable. And so what the psalmist is doing here, he says look alright. First think of these things are very stable, the earth and then the mountain alright. Verse 2: “though the earth be removed, and though the mountains”. The earth and the mountains. We don’t think of these things as weak. In fact, we think of these things as strong. And then having mentioned these stable things as it were giving us a picture stability, and then he thinks of the two most destructive forces. The two most stable things, and then the two most destructive forces.

Of course, the earthquake is one, having mentioned alright. The earthquake being the earth trembles. And even “the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea”, being swallowed up. And then he thinks of tsunami. Tsunami, “though its waters roar and be troubled”, verse 3. Now you see that is a scene here and that can happen to us. In other words, now sometimes in our life as Christians, you know we hear from time to time from our Christian friends or even our loved ones who are believers coming to us and say to us suddenly something happens in their life.

You see suddenly some things can happen to us, and then our world collapses. It just crumbles. Everything about us, all around. Our lives is being shattered. That is a picture here. Things that seem so stable, so dependable, things that we trusted in, suddenly they crumble. They just crumble. They just fall apart. The airlines, we will never imagine if you have been working in the airlines that one day just overnight as it were, the whole industry crumbles.

Just last week I was reading in fact watching a kind of news of a pilot selling nasi lemak on the roadside, and some journalists went and kind of interviewed him. He said never imagined. It comes suddenly, and his whole life is changed. Sometimes we think of our family. It may seem stable, but it can crumble and you’re crumbled in the sudden. Young people, now we think that our youthful strength is so dependable. And then one day it’s gone. So this is the issue that the psalmist is addressing here alright. 

This is the point alright- the thing that the psalmist is teaching, telling us that trouble can come to us. Not just trouble but big trouble, and they can come to us suddenly. And things that seem so dependable, so reliable can suddenly be taken away and our life is in the shadow. The question is: What do you do? Now that is a reality. That can happen to a child of God, to a godly man, or a godly woman. That can happen to Job. That can happen. But when it happens, what do you do? 

So that leads us to the second thing that the psalmist is teaching us alright, he’s trying to show to us. And so now that we know alright. Now that we realise that as Christian we do face problems and our lives can be shattered, we need answers alright. We ask: So what do we do? And here the psalmist answers the question. In answering the question, here he’s like a counsellor. He’s providing counsel to people whose lives have been shattered. And his counsel is this, I want to ask you: What do you tell people like this? Where do you point them to? What do you say to people whose life has been shattered?

Do you tell them: Oh, it’s not possible. If your problem comes to you, it’s maybe because you have not enough faith or because you are not a Christian because you are a true child of God, if enough faith your life should be okay. No  Job, we are told early on in the book that he was a blameless man. He was a godly man. He’s a man to fear God, and he comes to you and says: What is my problem? What is my problem? Is it that I’m not faithful, or what? What should I do now?

Well, back to Psalms- Psalm 46. Now what the psalmist does is this as he counsels a person like this, he points such a person to God. He points such a person to God. That is where we should point people to because there’s nowhere in this earth- nowhere in this earth, I mean no one in this world that can be the ultimate answer to our problem. It’s not the bank they can give you more loans or cut down you know your repayment for six months, whatever. It’s not your boss, it’s not your friends, not your family. Finally, the psalmist says here turn to God alright.

So he points us to God. And as he points us to God alright- as he points us to God, he tells us two things about God. He tells us two things about God alright that will provide assurance and comfort. He points us to God, and firstly he tells us that God is an unshakeable refuge. God is an unshakeable refuge. Verse 1: “God is our refuge and strength”. You see in other words, we need to know something about God as we turn to God and say: So what? What about God that will be helpful to me? The psalmist says He is our unshakeable refuge. You know a refuge is you know a place of safety. Sometimes we use another word for it. We say a ‘shelter’. A refuge is a shelter. 

There’s a place called Shelter in Singapore alright, and basically, it simply means a place of protection, a place of safety. That place is meant for people who are you know in danger- abused women perhaps, abused children, or abandoned kids. Now there are many such places. Now that is what refuge is. It’s a place of protection, a place for those people who are in trouble. And that’s what the psalmist is telling us here that if you’re in trouble, that is the place to go to. Ultimately that is a place of safety. Now you might ask: What kind of a place is that? What kind of God is He that you know that He is our unshakeable place of safety or protection. 

Now here we see two things here. Now as he points us to God and underscores that He is our unshakeable place of safety or refuge, now he says here that God, and he uses the word God in verse 1 and that is Elohim, which is kind of a plural. So the question is: Why does the psalmist use that word instead of just El, which is a singular? Now you see, that word is used sometimes in the Bible is to impress upon us that God is not a plural God and in the sense that there are many gods. So we turn to the gods.

Now that’s not what the psalmist is saying but to the true and the living and the triune God. But that word used in this way or in the plural sense is also meant to impress upon us that this God is the almighty God. He is Gods, not in the plural sense or in the sense that there are many gods but He is Gods in the sense that it is used to intensify the word. He is God. Whom you can trust? He is the sovereign God. Now that is the point that he’s trying to make: He is the almighty God.

It’s used in the same way as Psalm 91. So you flip over to Psalm 91:1-2, which actually draws on the same theme whereas the psalmist in Psalm 91 is also trying to help us see God as our refuge, as a place of safety. And so in verse 1, he said: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High”. And the word ‘secret place’ literally means refuge. Or in some translations, it’s translated as ‘shelter’. The secret place means that the place of safety, that there is God.

And so that’s what he said. He who dwells in the secret place or in the shelter or under the protection of the Most High “shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, “He is my refuge and my fortress””. You see, the same idea here. The picture here is to see God as a place of safety and He is strong, He is powerful, He is the almighty God, He is a sovereign God. He can provide us absolute safety. That is the picture that is being painted here.

And so back to Psalm 46. Psalm 46, where the psalmist is trying to impress that truth upon us concerning why we should turn to God. He said because He is that kind of a God, an all-powerful God. In other words, God is all-powerful. Verse 6 of Psalm 46: “The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, and the earth melted.”. You see again to underscore the power of the Almighty, that He is the almighty God. He’s the all-powerful God. Verse 7: “The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.”. And the expression there “the LORD of hosts”. Hosts simply mean army. 

Whether it refers to what kind of army is not indicated, but the picture generally refers to God’s army and there is the angelic armies as it were the angelic hosts, again to help us see that this God whom we can turn to is an all-powerful God, He’s the almighty God, and He is the commander-in-chief of a host of army and they will do His biddings. They are all at His disposal. And we have seen many such incidents before in the Bible where God sends His angel to protect His people or to defeat the enemies of Israel. And they know, and therefore they understand what the psalmist is saying. And that is our God. He has everything at His disposal to help us. God is all-powerful. 

So He is our shelter, He is our unshakeable shelter in that first of all He is all-powerful. But also secondly, He is our unshakable shelter or refuge in that He is the all-present God alright. Verse 1 again says: “a very present help in trouble”. He’s not only all-powerful but is all-present. He’s ever-present. The “very” means He’s always there. He’s always there. Now we can think of a child when in trouble, now what gives the child that great consolation, that great comfort? It’s when dad is around alright. When dad is around he says okay, no problem. Although the problem is still there (the dog is still there), but dad is around alright. 

Now that is what the psalmist wants to assure us that God is powerful and God is always present with us. Now then the next picture here, the psalmist used a picture-word, he says turn to God. He points us to God because He is unshakable refuge, stable. And then he says God is our sustaining river. He uses and he changes the picture here. First He’s a refuge, a place of safety. Now he uses the picture of the river. Verse 4: “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.”. God is our sustaining or is a sustaining river to us.

Now what the psalmist does here is that he seems to have in his mind an incident recorded in Second Chronicles 32 alright. So you flip over to Second Chronicles chapter 32, and this is the incident that the psalmist seems to have in mind as he writes this psalm. Second Chronicles chapter 32, look at first of all the first three verses: “After these deeds of faithfulness, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and entered Judah; he encamped (that is he surrounded) the fortified cities of Israel, thinking to win them over to himself. 

And when Hezekiah (the king of Israel) saw that Sennacherib had come, and that his purpose was to make war against Jerusalem, he consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city; and they helped him.” (Mistakenly mentioned “king of Israel”, supposedly “king of Judah”). And so here is the situation that the nation was being surrounded by the enemies, and the king Hezekiah is now thinking alright what to do.

And then we read in verse 7, the exaltation: ““Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid nor dismayed before the king of Assyria, nor before all the multitude that is with him; for there are more with us than with him. With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.” And the people were strengthened by the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.”. 

Now you see, they were in a worst-case scenario alright. They were being surrounded by the enemies, and they were doomed to destruction. And here’s an encouragement. So we are more than they, not literally in numbers. We are more than they because God is with us. Someone says if God is with us we are the majority, never mind how many people we have. Now that is the encouragement, we have God with us. Christians, do we not realise that, that in our deepest troubles we have God with us?

And then he continues: After Sennacherib (verse 9) king of Assyria sent his servants to Jerusalem (but he and all the forces with him laid siege against Lachish), to Hezekiah king of Judah, and to all Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying, “Thus says Sennacherib king of Assyria: ‘In what do you trust, that you remain under siege in Jerusalem? Does not Hezekiah persuade you to give yourselves over to die by famine and by thirst, saying, “The LORD our God will deliver us from the hand of the Assyrians”?”. Now you see, the enemies is taunting at them and say you think you are going to win just because you are saying that God is with you?

Now you see the strategy of the enemy is this by surrounding the city of Jerusalem, and then they will just wait till the resources in the city dry up. No more food, no more water, and then they die. And then they will come and attack them. And so they know that they are in a sense they are at the dead-end alright. It’s finished. They’re doomed. They’re in big trouble. There’s nothing they can do to save themselves. Or you can say you trust in God. The enemies just say: “You just trust. Nah, we will just wait here till you die.” Now that is a picture alright. Now so with that picture in mind, so what is the psalmist is saying here?

Again Second Chronicles 32, now you look at verse 30. Now that that is the picture that the psalmist picks up in verse 30: “This same Hezekiah also stopped the water outlet of Upper Gihon, and brought the water by tunnel to the west side of the City of David. Hezekiah prospered in all his works.”. In other words, unknown to the enemy that Hezekiah actually had dug a tunnel alright to bring water into the city. There is already constant water supply, and that saved the city from the enemy.

And so when we look at Psalm 46:4 when the psalmist writes here: “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God”, now he has that in mind you see. Just as that tunnel that brings water and refreshes the city and saves the city from the enemy, God is like that river to us. God is like the river to us. God is there just as the water is there to sustain us and to refresh us. And so God; turn to God. That is the psalmist’s answer when disaster strikes.

Now that leads to the third thing that is the implications. So what is the implication of this truth? Christians can be struck by troubles. In times of trouble, we should turn to God because God is the unshakeable refuge. He is like a sustaining river or water to us. So what is the implications for us? Now what the psalmist finally is saying to us is this: the psalmist shows us our great need, our true and great need. You know what is your true and great need? Well, the psalmist says it is this, verse 10: “Be still, and know that He is God”. That is what we all need.

The problem with people in times of trouble is they are not still and they do not know God. And they do not know God. “Be still (God says), and know that I am God”. That is our true and great need, especially in times of trouble. Do you know God and do you know who He is? What is it that you need to know about God? Verse 5, we need to know God. We need to know that “God is in the midst of her, and she shall not be moved”. You see, there are a lot of Christians, they don’t get this. They don’t realise that even in times of trouble that God is in their midst. When in trouble we think that God is elsewhere.

And so we ask questions like: Where is God? Where is God at a time like this? Where is God when I’m in trouble? You do not know God because God never leaves you if you are His child. The Bible says: “God is in the midst of her”. We need to know. Verse 6: “The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, and the earth melted.”. We need to know our God, and we need to know how easy it is for Him to remove our troubles if it is His will. Nothing is impossible with God.

We are not talking about a God that is helpless when we are in trouble. He is an all-powerful God. We need to know verse 7 that “the LORD of hosts is with us; and the God of Jacob is our refuge”.  The God of the LORD of hosts. As I explained earlier on, this God who is in command of a host of army, that everything is at His disposal. He is the commander-in-chief in the universe. He is with us. And then he says: “the God of Jacob is our refuge”. Now you might wonder why the God of Jacob? Why not the God of Abraham? Why not the God of Isaac? Why the God of Jacob?

Well, I think what the psalmist is trying to impress upon us is this: Jacob. We all know Jacob. We all know that there’s something particularly pathetic about this man- a deceiver, a cheat. And yet God helped him, not because he deserved God’s help, not because he was a good boy, not because he was faithful but a rascal as it were. But God helped him. And so we can have the assurance that God will help us not because we are faithful, not because we are godly, but despite- despite of our rebellions against Him, the fact that we are not living as we ought to every day in our lives in obedience to Him, but God just as He helped Jacob, He is our refuge. He will help us.

We need to know God, and we need to know verse 8. We need to know that He is powerful. Consider all the things that He has done in the past. “Come, behold the works of the LORD, who has made desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire.”. Now think about the works of God. That’s what the psalmist is inviting His people to do.

You have forgotten God. You don’t realise that He is such a God, a God who rolled back the waters, a God who brought down the walls of Jericho, a God who defeated the armies of Israel, a God who rained manna from heaven to feed His people, a God who brings waters out of the rock to quench the thirst of His people. Now this is our God. He does mighty things. So the implication the psalmist is saying this: Do you know God?

That’s what we need to know. Our true and great need is to be still and know that our God is God and He’s such a God. Now I want to ask you as I bring this to an end: Have you experienced some troubles in your life? Now, what do you think is the worst-case scenario for you, the biggest- the biggest ever alright trouble that you can face in your own life? Maybe for some of us, it is aging alright. You look at old people and they’re struggling and they’re sickly. And it’s coming. One day I’ll be there. Worst case scenario, I’ll be on the wheelchair. We fear that.

Or maybe you say the worst-case scenario for me is death. And suddenly there’s a death sentence. You’ve got pancreatic cancer or something like that alright. And they say oh, worst-case scenario. Let me say that as far as the Bible is concerned, your worst-case scenario is this. It’s not aging, it’s not even death, for the Bible says for it is appointed for men to die once, but after that, judgement. Judgement. That will be the worst-case scenario for many, many people. That day will come we will stand before the judgement seat of Christ. 

Now turn with me to Psalm 2 alright- Psalm 2, and what the psalmist says here? So what? How do you prepare for that day? How would you face God in the day of judgment? Psalm chapter 2, beginning in verse 10: “Now therefore, be wise, O kings”. The powerful people in the world, he said be wise “O be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in the LORD.”.

That is the only way to be ready for the worst trouble, the worst-case scenario- the Day of Judgement. If you do not have the Son, if you have not made peace with the Son, you are doomed and doomed forever. Let us pray.

“Our Father in heaven, again we read in Your Word and reminded once again that in this life we shall have tribulation. And we know that we can face severe, even big troubles in our lives such that it’ll break our hearts and shatter, it will perhaps cause our life to crumble and be torn apart. And yet Lord, we are comforted by Your Word that we who are Your people have someone to turn to and that the God whom we have come to trust is indeed such a great and almighty God. He is indeed our refuge and our sustaining river, for this we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.”

This transcript has been lightly edited for readability.