Life is full of turmoil and often, often that turmoil breads fear in our hearts. And instead of stopping, we just kind of – go with the fear. Well it’s time to stop and know that God is God.

 

Our Refuge and Strength

This week is the third message in a series of programmes that I have called “Do Not Be Afraid”. Fear is an incredibly powerful force – for two reasons. Firstly it is a natural response when something happens to threaten us or our loved ones or our possessions, fear grips us. In a sense, it’s a human response. But the more we go through that; the more we experience fear, the more – for many people – they learn the habit of fear. In other words, fear becomes more and more the normal response.

There is an alternative of course; to learn how to deal with fear; to master fear with each new experience. But most people instead of growing through fearful experiences, actually, they go down and down and down into a bondage of fear and life is full of fear and worry. So many people spend so much of their lives worrying about this, that or the other.

Do you think I am over estimating, do you? Do you think I am overstating the problem perhaps? Recently, during the global economic crisis, it was interesting to watch how it was reported – even the TV reporters and the newspaper reporters were fearful. You could see it in their faces on TV – you could hear it in voices on the radio – you could see it in the headlines on the front page of the newspaper – "THE WORST GLOBAL FINANCIAL CRISIS IN DECADES". "BANKS ON THE BRINK". "GOVERNMENTS SHORE UP BANKS".

Sure, it was international; the banks were at risk, but here in Australia at least, we were blessed by a very solid banking system, but if you listen to the media and the government and the banks, oh, it was terrible and they needed to be propped up. And the more they reported fearfully, the more fearful we all became and the worse the world economy became.

See, fear is a downward spiral; fear is about a loss of confidence. On the TV news, one well known crisis counselling service reported a dramatic increase in the numbers of people experiencing not only stress, but in fact, mental illness through the fear of losing their homes – up from just a handful each year to several hundred per week.

Now we generally don’t cope well with fear. When we are afraid we start thinking irrationally. Fear truly grips us – we see all the fearful things and let our imaginations run away with those and we forget to take stock of our assets – the things that we actually have; the things that are on our side.

And so what these four programmes are about, in this series “Do Not Be Afraid”, is kind of giving us an opportunity by looking at what God says in His Word, an opportunity to relearn our response to fear. So what we have to do, instead of resorting to panic, resting in the sovereignty of God. And so today, I just want to look at one Psalm, Psalm 46 which is all about that very thing. Let’s read just the first few verses together:

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change; though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam; though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

That’s a good start!

God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in time of trouble.

And really it’s only in time of trouble that we are afraid. It’s only in those disastrous times that we are gripped with fear and doom and gloom; when the world is against us; when people are against us; when the economy is against us. And now look at the picture that the Psalmist paints – I want you to understand something about the Hebrew culture which is the culture that the Psalmist was writing into – they love picture language, and this language evokes real emotion. Psalm 46, verses 2 and 3:

Though the earth should change; though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam; though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

Ever been in an earthquake? I have, just a small one, actually it was some years ago now when my wife Jacqui and I were on our honeymoon on the South Island of New Zealand – one of the most beautiful and picturesque places on the planet – truly – and we were staying at a Bed and Breakfast on a sheep farm.

We were having breakfast in this old country kitchen with a few other couples in this beautiful place – big old blue and white plates on display on the sideboard and the bacon and eggs was cooking away and you looked out the window and there were green fields and white sheep and snow capped mountains in the background.

It was all good – life couldn’t have been better – we didn’t have a care in the world. Then all of a sudden the ground shook – man did it shake – there was this immediate sense of panic.

And that’s the picture the Psalmist is painting here:

Though the earth should change; the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; the waters roar and foam; the mountains tremble with tumult.

See, the Hebrews; they weren’t a seafaring nation. The notion of foaming waters and mountains falling into the ocean was absolutely horrific to them.

And it’s when our life gets shaken to the core like that that fear grips us. It’s not until then that we have a deep need to hear God’s Word in our hearts – “Do not be afraid.”

When we look like losing our homes in a financial crisis, we are shaken to the core. When a loved one is dying, we are shaken to the core. When we discover that the child we love is addicted to drugs or injured in an accident or ... or whatever it is – when the mountains collapse into the roaring, foaming sea and the earth beneath our very feet shakes, then … then we need something – then we need an antidote to our fear.

Listen to these few verses again. Listen, let the words sink in: “There is a river”, verse 4, Psalm 46:

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 that city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in uproar, the kingdoms totter; He utters His voice and the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

See, this is the solution to the problem – God is our refuge; God is our strength; God is our very present help in time of trouble. In other words, He is right here … right here when we need Him – no "ifs", no "buts" – right here. The problem is we can find that so hard to believe – it’s so counter intuitive – it’s so impossible. How can God possibly … possibly make a difference in the middle of my fear? Well!

 

Gladness in the City of God

In the days when this Psalm was written, nations often invaded other nations – it’s just the way it was. And of course, little has changed in this world. There are still somewhere between forty and fifty wars raging in this world today – here and now. I just had an email from one of our staff in Africa who is having difficulties getting the programme CDs through to a couple of new stations who want to air them, because of the fighting that is going on around in those areas.

Back when this Psalm was written, what the people did was they fortified their cities. They built walls around them to protect them from invading armies. They built defences and towers so the cities were safe. And they were often sited strategically on hilltops or with natural obstacles around to make them much harder to attack. In fact those walls were often so strong that they were impenetrable and so armies who wanted to attack them would lay siege to them. Sieges could last weeks, months, years – the idea was to starve them out of that impenetrable citadel.

We read about one such siege – if you have a Bible, open it at Second Kings in the Old Testament, chapter 6, verse 25. Let’s just read about a siege for a moment.

As the siege continued, famine in Samaria became so great that a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver and one forth of a kab of dove’s dung for five shekels of silver. Now as the King of Israel was walking on the city wall, a woman cried out to him, “Help, my lord King!” He said, “No! Let the Lord help you. How can I help you - from the threshing floor or from the wine press?” But then the King asked her, “What is your complaint?” She answered, “This woman said to me, “Give up your son; we will eat him today and we will eat my son tomorrow.” So we cooked my son and ate him. The next day I said to her, “Give up your son and we will eat him,” but she has hidden her son.” When the King heard the words of the woman, he tore at his clothes.

Desperate stuff, isn’t it? Can you imagine mothers eating their children and the King has no hope? And you see, when there is an army ready to strike you down; when we feel like we are under siege, as these people of Samaria were in their citadel, it’s not enough to have a safe place to flee. We need to have food and water and joy and peace in that place.

You see these Samarians were under siege – they were in a safe place but they were dying of starvation – they had no hope, no joy, no peace. So many people in fear – they retreat to what they think is a safe place; they think it is – they cut other people off, they withdraw, they build defences, they close off the rest of the world and yet this is such a miserable, fearful place. People live for years under siege of fear like that and it ruins their lives.

So come the next four verses of this Psalm. We looked at them earlier; we are going to look at them again now. They tell us about a place of refuge and strength that is quite different. Have a listen again. Psalm 46, beginning at verse 4 – remember the Psalmist just talked about the mountains falling into the sea and the seas foaming and this fearful thing happening. Have a listen to his answer again. But …

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 that city and it shall not be moved. God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; He utters His voice, and the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

See, this city … this citadel, is not just safe but it is glad: “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.” A citadel, God’s protection but also God’s blessing in that place. Rivers of holy water – something Jesus talked about in John chapter 7, verse 38, the Holy Spirit flowing into us and out of us. Here, God talks about His River, of His Spirit and His joy and His peace flowing into our place of refuge when we take refuge in Him.

It’s not only safe but glad because God Himself is in the midst of that city; in the midst of this place and it shall not be moved. It is rock solid! Psalm 46, verse 1 says:

God is our refuge and our strength; a very present help in trouble.

You know something? The worst time when we are afraid is night time – have you ever noticed that - the sleepless nights – tossing and turning and things churning around in our minds and descending into this dark pit of fear, deeper, deeper into the abyss of fear?

And that’s why, here in verse 5:

God will help when the morning dawns.

You know that sick feeling of fear in our stomachs; when we are petrified of what will happen to us? This isn’t just for fruit cakes or losers or people who will never succeed – this is for all of us – we all go through times of fear and God wants us to hear His Words: “Do not be afraid”.

There is such a sharp contrasting picture here – between the mountains collapsing into a roaring fearsome sea; between the earthshaking and on the other hand this rock solid city … this city of God into which flows the river of God’s gladness in which God Himself dwells with us. “The nations are in an uproar; the kingdoms are tottering but He utters His voice and the earth melts. The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.”

The nations may well be in an uproar; there may well be wars raging; the world economic system may well be in meltdown but when God speaks the earth melts – God is with us; He is our refuge. How does God speak? Through His Word! When is God speaking? Right now!

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, the mountains tremble with its tumult. 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 the city and it shall not be moved. God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in uproar, the kingdoms totter; He utters His voice and the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Problem is how do we believe that? How do we get a handle of that? How do we experience that? How can we dwell in that city of safety and gladness – come on – how?

 

Be Still

Let me ask you that same question again. The question is: how do we believe in this city of gladness? How do we get a handle on that? How do we experience that? Well, God give us the answer in the last four verses of this Psalm. Let’s take a look together: Psalm 46, verses 8 to 11:

Come, behold the works of the Lord; see what desolations He has brought on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end 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 am exalted among the nations; I am exalted in the earth.” The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge

When it comes to fear, we have short memories. We go through something scary and God shows up and somehow it all works out fine. Perhaps we remember to say “Thank You, God”, often we don’t. And then things calm down again. They go along just brilliantly for a while and then the next storm hits and it’s raging and we are afraid and fearful and life’s a mess and we are running around like chooks with their heads cut off and we are living through some excruciatingly debilitating, immobilising fear – fear that comes when the ground moves beneath our feet. And we forget … we forget to look back and remember all the times that God showed up and brought us through those storms before.

And even if we don’t have many of those to look back on; let’s say, worse case, we have none of those to look back on – let’s assume that you and I have just, this moment, come to faith in Jesus Christ – just this moment put our lives in His hands – we’ve not experienced enough to look back on where we know that He showed up, without doubt, but He stepped in and saved us. We forget to look back on the God of the Bible and see how many times He stepped in to help His people. We do! It’s what He does!

And that’s what the Psalmist is reminding us here in these words: Psalm 46, verses 8 and 9:

Come, behold the works of the Lord and see what desolations He has brought on the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and shatters the spear and burns the shields with fire.

God is saying, “Don’t you realise that this is what I do? I protect My people. I make sure that it all works out. Get a handle on this!”

"But God, how ... how can I get a handle on this? You don’t understand; I’ve got all this pain happening. I’ve got all this fear happening. People are after me – my finances are in a mess. My loved ones are sick. My emotions are on a rollercoaster. The mountains are falling into the sea. The sea is angry and foaming and the ground is shaking and the nations are raging ... how do I get a handle on this?" Here’s the answer, right here in God’s Word – listen to it, remember it, let the Spirit of God write it on your heart. Psalm 46, verse 10:

Be still and know that I am God! For I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.

It sounds so simple, “Be still and just know.” But you know something? When we are afraid often the last thing we do is get still before God. Even when we are praying, we rant on and we don’t shut up for long enough to hear Him speak - over and over and over again, I have had to learn this one.

I’m like you – this doesn’t come naturally. It is something I have had to learn – when I am travelling through fearful places and situations and times, more than ever, those are the times to take the time to get still before the Lord. Not just once, not just twice ... every morning; every time fear grips our hearts – just to draw away for a few minutes and just rest and say, "Lord, just speak to me – just witness Your Spirit to me. Just give me your peace. Lord, I’m here, I’m afraid, I just need to get still before You."

I want to open a few simple passages … passages that God put there to write His faith into our hearts. We are going at these passages a whole bunch more next week on the programme. This particular Psalm is a favourite of mine – I come back to Psalm 46 again and again when I’m in one of those places of fear and turmoil. But listen to Philippians chapter 4, verse 13:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Romans chapter 8, verse 31:

For if God is for us, who can be against us?

Now when we just get still before God, those two verses are so short, even I can memorise them. Philippians 4:13:

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

Romans chapter 8, verse 31:

If God is for us, who can be against us?

When we get still before God and we let those two Scriptures ring out in our heart, watch out devil; watch out fear because they are going to go away.

When we just get still and focus on God and wait, day after day, wait! Because of what Psalm 46 tells me is the reality of God’s gladness and His power and His protection – that He is so far above my circumstances. What Philippians chapter 4 tells me – that I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. What Romans chapter 8, verse 31 tells me – that if God is for me, who can be against me?

See, God’s Word promises us this! And then, it tells me just to sit still and wait and you know what happens when I do that? I experience the confidence that I need to make it through – not self-confidence, God confidence. I get a handle of the great unseen reality – God Himself – His power flows into me and through me. His peace guards my heart and mind and all of a sudden the panic goes away. All of a sudden the fear is replaced with faith. All of a sudden I have the clarity to think through the problem and to face realities and to do what I have to do and to trust in God for the things that I can’t do.

Let me tell you, ten minutes later – half an hour later, half a day later – the panic wants to come back; the fear wants to come back and when they come knocking on the door of my heart, I get still with God again – I go back to Him again. I wait on Him, expecting and waiting – that’s what it means to live in that city and to drink of the streams of that river that make glad the city of God.

We need to drink … drink Him in; His presence; His Spirit; His Word and then a peace that surpasses all understanding, guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Be still and know that I am God.