Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Find your place there in Psalm 46 and read along with me.
[00:00:07] God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
[00:00:13] Therefore we will not fear.
[00:00:17] Though the earth give way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, Though its waters roar and foam, I Though the mountains tremble at its swelling, There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in her midst. She shall not be moved.
[00:00:40] God will help her. When morning dawns, the nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters his voice. The earth melts.
[00:00:50] The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress.
[00:00:56] Come, behold the works of the Lord. How he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes war cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire.
[00:01:09] Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.
[00:01:20] The Lord of hosts is with us.
[00:01:23] The God of Jacob is our fortress.
[00:01:28] One thing you should notice as we read through this psalm is that almost everything is shaking.
[00:01:34] The earth gives way, the mountains are moved into the heart of the sea. The waters roar and foam, and the mountains continue to tremble. Nations rage and kingdoms shake. But what is the one place that remains secure in this psalm, the one place that shall not be moved?
[00:01:52] It's the city of God.
[00:01:53] And why does the city not move? The text tells us directly because the Lord of hosts is with her. The Lord of hosts is in her midst.
[00:02:05] What I want us to see from Psalm 46 this morning is this.
[00:02:10] Because God is with us, we are unmoved while everything else shakes.
[00:02:17] Because God is with us, we are unmoved while everything else shakes.
[00:02:25] We're going to walk through this text in three movements and then spend some extended time in reflection and application.
[00:02:32] So because we're going to spend some more time in reflection and application, I'm going to move through the exposition a little bit more quickly. So if it seems like we're moving quickly, that's why the text of this psalm naturally breaks into three parts. We'll see in verses 1 to 3, the world shakes. In verses 4 to 7 we'll see the city stands. And then in verses 8 to 11 we'll see the Lord speaks.
[00:02:55] So let's walk through this text together. The world shakes, verses one to three.
[00:03:01] Well, as you see there noted in the superscription, this psalm was composed by the sons of Korah.
[00:03:06] We don't know the precise circumstances that occasioned them to write it. Though some commentators point to Israel's threat from foreign armies, we know throughout the Kings and the Chronicles that Israel was constantly under threat from foreign enemies.
[00:03:20] What is clear, though, is that Israel found itself in a circumstance where everything around them, everything near to them, felt like it was under threat.
[00:03:29] And so these sons of Korah appointed the community of Israel to to the one and only place that could truly and finally keep them steadfast. The Lord of hosts, the God of Jacob.
[00:03:40] In other words, this psalm knows and assumes that God's people of the past, God's people of the present, and God's people of the future will face circumstances that shake us to the core.
[00:03:52] God, by His Holy Spirit, inspired this word because he knew the church would need it. He knew our church would need it. He knew that God's people throughout the ages would need this psalm. And so this psalm equips us to turn to God.
[00:04:08] What do you notice at the beginning of this psalm? In verse one, there's three descriptions of God that front load this psalm. God is refuge, he's strength, and he's help.
[00:04:18] All of these words get at the same idea. God is able to ensure the safety of those who find their protection in him.
[00:04:25] And thus verse two proceeds from this declaration. Therefore, because God is these things, even when the world is literally coming undone, we do not have to fear.
[00:04:37] We'll reflect more in just a little bit on the refuge nature of God in our application section. But even here we see a model for how the Christian life ought to be lived. Confession of what we know to be true grounds our perception of what is true amid the shaking trials around us.
[00:04:55] When trials come, they shake us and they shift our eyes away from what we know to be true. And our perception then paints what we believe to be true. But we must confess from God's word what we know to be true as the ground of our circumstance.
[00:05:10] To put it differently, being a Christian means that we must bank our faith on God's character. And when we do, we can persevere even through the worst of trials.
[00:05:21] Notice the language of cosmic upheaval in verses 2 to 3. The earth is literally giving way.
[00:05:28] One of the great joys of being a boy, any boy in the room could testify to this, is that it doesn't matter if you're 5 or 50 or 30. You can derive great joy from picking up a big rock and throwing it into water. Amen.
[00:05:42] There's just something gratifying about that in the soul of men.
[00:05:48] Now Imagine seeing a literal mountain moved into an ocean.
[00:05:54] This scale is unfathomable.
[00:05:57] The psalmist is clearly using hyperbole to show us that this is a circumstance that is the worst of any circumstance. If you see mountains moving into oceans, you're in trouble. We're in trouble.
[00:06:11] Why do you think the psalm starts this way?
[00:06:15] The psalmist wants to paint a worst case scenario to help us grasp the scope, the scope of the disaster that God's people are called to trust him through.
[00:06:24] Our English Bibles read that God is a very present help which gets at the idea of proximity to help. But the Hebrew word here underneath it gets more at the idea of being proven. It isn't just about God being nearby, though that's true. It's about God being tested and found to be true. In other words, the psalmist declares that God has proven himself to be a help to his people even in those cosmic changes and circumstances that leave our world shaking.
[00:06:52] You know something that these first few verses don't resolve is the shaking.
[00:06:58] We know that God is our refuge, but everything shakes around us. And so where can we turn when everything is shaking?
[00:07:06] This leads us to verses four to seven. The city stands.
[00:07:10] There's an immediate contrast between the water in verse three and the water in verse four which indicates a natural shift in structure. In this psalm. The water is roaring and foaming and causing chaos in verse three. But in verse four, what do you see? What do you notice? Look down at verse four. The water forms a river whose streams make glad the city of God.
[00:07:30] This symbolic river demonstrates how God sustains his people.
[00:07:35] If you think Back to Psalm 1, many commentators note that Psalm 1 and Psalm 2 frame our understanding of the rest of the Psalms. And so back in Psalm 1 we see that this river, this stream that the righteous man is planted by sustains him. It keeps him. And so the psalmist here, the sons of Korah, pick up on that theme. We see throughout the Psalms and recognize that the stream that God supplies steadies us. It provides sustenance and life to us.
[00:08:04] We see this modeled in the New Testament as well, this motif of water where Jesus describes himself as living water that nourishes and causes flourishing for those who take of it.
[00:08:16] We also see this is where the Psalms key wordplay lands in this text. Look down in your Bibles again, look back to verse two.
[00:08:24] The mountains move.
[00:08:26] Look at verse six.
[00:08:27] The kingdoms totter. But then look at verse five. The city does not move.
[00:08:34] That word move is the same word that's used in all those places because the psalmist wants us to see again.
[00:08:40] Everything around us will move.
[00:08:44] Anything that can be shaken will be shaken, except for one thing.
[00:08:49] The city where God dwells.
[00:08:54] When a child is alone and afraid, where do they want to be? Where does a child go when they're alone and afraid? They reach for their parent.
[00:09:04] Why?
[00:09:05] Because in the presence of a parent, they find someone who's trustworthy. They find someone who's an able helper, who makes them feel steady. That's the picture here. Except the steadiness of God's presence is absolute.
[00:09:21] He's always available. He's always near to us. He is always in our midst.
[00:09:30] This section comes to a close by invoking the covenant name of God, Yahweh, marked in your Bibles by the all capital L O R D. This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
[00:09:44] Thinking of God in this way, Israel would have remembered his provision through the centuries.
[00:09:49] Freedom from Egypt, through the Red Sea, manna in the wilderness, victories over enemies far greater in number and power.
[00:09:56] Satan uses shaking circumstances to make us forget our redemptive history. But this psalm reminds Christians they belong to a covenant keeping God, who has sustained his people, sustained his church through generations and many dangers and toils.
[00:10:15] And the covenant God here is called the Lord of Hosts, the Lord of endless armies, whose forces will prevail against any threat.
[00:10:24] And that same refrain of verse 7, repeated again in verse 11, makes the point personal. The Lord of Hosts isn't fighting for his people in the abstract.
[00:10:33] The Lord of Hosts is fighting for his people personally because he is with them.
[00:10:39] And what do we know from the rest of Scripture? We know that God's own Son, the One to whom all nations will submit, would be further proof of this promise that the Lord is with his people.
[00:10:50] And as Jesus came to be with us as a man before he ascended back to God after His death and resurrection, what did he promise to his disciples in the great Commission of Matthew 28? Behold, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.
[00:11:06] In this way, the psalm anticipates a present lived reality for new covenant believers who are united to Christ and who share in his salvation. And so we can know that when the psalmist describes that the Lord of Hosts is with his covenant people in Israel, that the same is true for us because we've been united to Christ and Christ is with us.
[00:11:28] Let's round out our study of the text with verses 8 to 11. The Lord speaks verses 1 to 7 as you've noticed are full of statements and confessions.
[00:11:40] Verse 8 turns that into a command. Come behold the works of the Lord. This is an invitation first to God's own people, and by extension any onlooker, to see for themselves whether these confessions hold up and are true.
[00:11:56] Is God really a help when the world is undone? Is his city actually secure?
[00:12:03] Take a good look and see that he alone possesses all that the power, and that he is worth anchoring your hope to.
[00:12:12] And then the call of verse 10 continues to carry the submission theme of these verses forward. The Lord speaks and issues forth a command. Be still and know that I am God.
[00:12:24] You may have heard this expression used. It's a pretty popular expression in the Christian life. This command is often individualized, but in context, this is actually a call to to the warring nations and rebels against God, like those in verses six and those in verse nine, to stop their fighting, to stop their striving, to let go of their power and to submit themselves to God, who is steady.
[00:12:48] But I also think it's appropriate to say that God is also speaking to any in the covenant community who allow the chaos around them to overtake their hopes and shake their foundation.
[00:12:59] God is graciously summoning all people to stop putting their hope and their strength and their striving in anything outside of Him. He's saying, be still.
[00:13:11] Know that I am God.
[00:13:13] Know that I'm the God who has delivered you in the past. Know that I am the God who will deliver you today. And know that I am the God who one day will bring you into glory with myself.
[00:13:25] God is gracious to call us to himself, just like a father tenderly with a child who woos their child to trust them and to come into their arms. God wants to woo us back to Himself.
[00:13:39] And so this call, this command, may at first seem like a rebuke, and in some sense it is. But it's actually a gracious invitation to trust him, to set down your own control, to set aside your anxieties, to look to him as your only hope.
[00:13:58] Though it's not a direct textual connection, this scene has clear thematic ties with Mark 4. You may have picked up on that if you read Psalm 46 before this. When the disciples found themselves on a boat in the middle of a raging storm on the Sea of Galilee, they cry out to Jesus to do something. They say, jesus, do you not care that we're perishing? And so what does Jesus do?
[00:14:18] He turns to the raging storms, the chaos around him. Everything is moving. And what does he say?
[00:14:25] Peace be still, our God is in the business of looking at chaos and rebuking the chaos and bringing stillness to the chaos.
[00:14:35] And he can do the same for us in our lives.
[00:14:41] Finally, this psalm closes with the same refrain of verse seven, and the through line is now clear.
[00:14:48] The Lord of hosts is with us.
[00:14:50] The God of Jacob is our fortress.
[00:14:54] Everything that can shake in this life will shake. Only the place where God dwells is secure.
[00:15:02] But because God is with us, we can stand while everything else shakes.
[00:15:09] We're about to transition into a time of some more extended application and meditation on this psalm. But before we do, I want to take a moment and address any listener who wouldn't identify as a Christian.
[00:15:21] You see, as believers of ubc, we gather because we believe God is the living God.
[00:15:28] He's not the God of the past. He is the God of the present. God is living and active with us. And this word that we read is his living word.
[00:15:38] And God is calling you through his living word to turn from your sins and to trust in the only means of salvation that he's given to us, His Son, Jesus Christ.
[00:15:49] And so if you're sitting here and you're listening and you're thinking, what in the world is going on in this text? What is happening? What is this psalm that you're explaining and talking about? Well, I hope what you've seen here is that there's a picture of a world that shakes and one place that's secure.
[00:16:07] The reality is, is that if you don't align yourself with God, you're subject only to a world that shakes.
[00:16:14] And ultimately, as we see from this text, the Lord will speak judgment into this world against those who rebel against Him. He has to, because He's a just and holy God.
[00:16:25] But the graciousness and mercy of our God is found in the fact that he calls all people to turn to Him. He extends an invitation to say, you can believe in My Son, Jesus Christ and be saved. I've sent him into the world for you to pay the penalty that your sins deserved. If only you lay down all of your own effort, all of your own strength and trust in him, and trust in him alone.
[00:16:51] So, friend, if you're here and if you don't align with God, come talk with me. After talk with someone next to you.
[00:16:59] Discover that God is gracious and wants you to be saved, and he has provided a means of salvation for you. Turn from your sins and trust in Him.
[00:17:10] Well, brothers and sisters, it's my sincere desire that Psalm 46 penetrates through your mind. And into your hearts. And so I want to take some time to really reflect on four points of application here for us.
[00:17:22] First, because we are united to Christ, God is always with us.
[00:17:29] Because we are united to Christ, God is always with us. With us.
[00:17:33] Psalm 46 had taught Israel to sing, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. And the prophet Isaiah had gone even further, promising a child whose very name would be Emmanuel, God with us.
[00:17:47] For generations, that phrase was Israel's hope and her song. But she waited in silence for God to speak.
[00:17:55] Finally, after centuries of seeming silence while Israel is under foreign occupation, Matthew's Gospel announces a child whose name is Emmanuel, God with us. God loves his people so much that he sent his very own Son into the world to be with us to conquer our enemies, including our greatest enemy, sin and death.
[00:18:16] Now here's why this is significant and why it relates to Psalm 46. Do you remember the city in Psalm 46 was never told, you are strong enough to withstand anything. She was told that God is in your midst, and that's why she could not be moved. Don't get the order wrong. She's not a strong city. The only strength she possesses is because God is in the midst of her.
[00:18:41] Paul takes that same logic to its final conclusion in Romans 8. Neither death, nor life, nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
[00:18:54] Our stability in this life, it's never been ours. It's only been Christ who resides in us.
[00:19:03] If for a moment you think that by your own strength, by your own wisdom, by your own spiritual disciplines, by your own way of life, that you can secure a steadfast future for yourself, you're mistaken.
[00:19:20] It is only because Christ is in you, because God has graciously, by his grace, given him to you, that you can stand steadfast.
[00:19:31] Our stability rests entirely on whose midst we stand in. And because that God has a name now, Emmanuel, the ground we stand on isn't doctrine. It's not a well contrived plan of confidence or protection.
[00:19:45] The ground we stand on is a person that cannot be moved. As the hymn Sundays, the church's one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord.
[00:19:55] Brothers and sisters of ubc, if you have believed in Jesus, you have been united to Him. This is the doctrine of union with Christ. And you can be confident that because you've been united to him, the ground on which you stand is stable and secure.
[00:20:09] You may face trials and tribulations in this life, but but you will be ultimately delivered. But I also want to encourage you with this. You can find a form of hope and deliverance in the present as well. We know as Christians that ultimately, eschatologically, in the end time, we will be delivered from trials or difficulties that we face. But God's Word also tells us that we can find comfort in the present.
[00:20:36] These doctrines are not just for the future, they're for us now.
[00:20:41] Difficult trials and circumstances tempt us to take us take our eyes off of Christ's provision. They tempt us to devise our own methods of securing peace or resolve.
[00:20:52] But it is only when we resolve, day by day, moment by moment, to depend on Jesus that we can persevere in faith. That's why Paul could say, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. He wasn't talking about touchdowns. He was talking about the fact that in the gravest of circumstances, the most intense suffering that I can face, I can do all things because Christ strengthens me. Christ is the one who supplies the very grace that I need to persevere.
[00:21:26] You see, this is the difficulty of the Christian life.
[00:21:29] God's economy doesn't work the way that our world does.
[00:21:33] When we face difficulty in this life, we're problem solvers. We want to do the next thing to help us.
[00:21:39] But God's Word teaches us that it is not by our striving that we can find help.
[00:21:45] It's not by doing anything that we can find help.
[00:21:49] It is simply by pleading with God to dispense his grace through His Son, Jesus Christ, that we can find help. It's simply by turning to His Word, pleading with God to show us Christ from the text that we can be given the strength.
[00:22:09] I know it's not easy. And I know that many in this congregation are going through immense personal, family or other trials even now.
[00:22:18] Wayward or difficult children, difficult health circumstances with your children, marriage trials, unresolved hopes, failing bodies lost, trust in people you love, financial hardship, temptation and sin struggles. The list can go on.
[00:22:36] I know these things plague us. I know these things are difficult.
[00:22:43] May God grant us the grace to look to Christ daily by cherishing him in his word.
[00:22:51] Jesus is not like manna that we can gather up a month's supply of and then be good to take our eyes off of Him.
[00:23:00] Just like the Israelites, we have to learn to go gather what we need for the day and then pray and trust by faith that tomorrow God will supply the grace we need for that day as well.
[00:23:14] If you operate by your own strength, brother, or Sister, it will fail you.
[00:23:20] Your world will feel to be shaken.
[00:23:23] But if day by day you remember that you've been united to Christ and that he's in your midst and he's the sole one you can look to for grace, you will not be shaken.
[00:23:35] The days may be hard, the trials may be heavy, but day by day the Lord will see you through.
[00:23:43] As Paul says, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.
[00:23:50] Second, God himself is our only sure refuge.
[00:23:58] God himself is our only sure refuge. This is how the psalm begins. It begins with a confession. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, the ground we will not fear.
[00:24:16] As Spurgeon would quip, all other refuges are refuges of lies.
[00:24:22] Psalm 46 is like an X ray machine. It comes up to us and it sees through us and diagnoses the places we find our security outside of God.
[00:24:32] You know, in simplest terms, a refuge is a place where we find safety, security and and comfort.
[00:24:38] And so a good way to know if you've made someone or something your refuge is this. If that thing is taken from you, do you feel shaken as we have seen? Psalm 46 makes a clear contrast between what shakes and what's steadfast. And we know that everything except the place where God is will shake.
[00:24:59] Therefore, we shouldn't be surprised when the things we find refuge in outside of God leave us shaken in times of trial.
[00:25:07] Now, I say this simply to say that these things are true. It's not to say that you're wrong to feel this way. Any of us who have experienced trials know that these things often catch us off guard. But then what does the Lord do through those things? He draws us into greater dependence on Him.
[00:25:26] I may have mentioned this to some of you before, but I've battled with anxiety around severe sickness for many years, since my dad's first cancer diagnosis when I was in high school. Anytime a loved one gets sick, my mind often goes to the worst case scenario. I have to fight off the thought of worse possible outcomes.
[00:25:45] I often think that my faith in God's sustaining care is a strong refuge until something happens. And then that anxiety takes me and my stomach's in knots. My appetite goes away and I can't stop thinking about it.
[00:26:01] It's only been by God's grace that I have learned little by little to truly heed the Command of Psalm 46:10 over the years.
[00:26:09] Be still.
[00:26:11] Know that I'm God.
[00:26:14] Trust that God is with you and that he is working all things for good.
[00:26:19] Even if your eyes can't see what he's doing just yet, I've had to learn how to speak to my own soul and to tell it to be quiet before the Lord, to wait on him to act.
[00:26:31] You see, it feels painful, but it is actually an act of God's grace and mercy. When he exposes the things we take refuge in outside of him, it leaves us with dismay, it leaves us with confusion, it leaves us with anxiety. And yet it draws us closer back to Him. The one place that is stable, steadfast, insecure.
[00:26:54] God is gracious to expose the people, the places and the things we find refuge in.
[00:27:01] We can trust that God is always working to draw us closer.
[00:27:06] Friend, where do you run for refuge?
[00:27:10] What might God be trying to teach you?
[00:27:15] Third, Christ Church has prevailed and will continue to prevail through many trials. I think this is something we see in Psalm 46. Christ's Church has prevailed and will continue to prevail through many trials. The great reformer John Calvin, when reflecting on these verses, said this.
[00:27:36] The great security of the church consists in this that God dwells in the midst of her. The holy city shall not be moved or shaken, because God dwells there and he is always ready to help her.
[00:27:53] Do you believe that?
[00:27:58] Do you believe that?
[00:28:01] Do you believe that God even wants to help our church?
[00:28:05] Are you praying toward that end?
[00:28:09] Do you believe that we serve a living God of miracles?
[00:28:19] It's easy to confess these things.
[00:28:22] It's harder when we face circumstances where we don't have an easy solution, to be on our knees and beg God.
[00:28:30] But that's what God wants. He wants our hearts.
[00:28:34] He wants us in dependency to go before Him.
[00:28:38] He doesn't want our strength. He doesn't want our wisdom. It's foolishness.
[00:28:43] He wants us on our knees, in dependence, asking for his help again. We know that Christ's church will ultimately prevail. Just as Jesus promised in Matthew 16, the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.
[00:28:59] But what encouragement do these principles have for a specific local church in a specific place during a specific time?
[00:29:07] Well, we know that no one can guarantee that any individual church will be able to keep its doors open until Christ's return.
[00:29:15] Many great churches, many faithful churches through the years have departed with sound doctrine. They've turned away from the truths of the gospel.
[00:29:28] Yet when a church faces an acute threat or trial, they can find comfort in the ground floor reality of this psalm, that God sustains those who depend on him alone.
[00:29:40] Of course, there are always times when it may Be wise to act according to the free will that God has given us. But God knows best how to care for his church.
[00:29:49] So hear this church. You don't have to carry the weight of this church or any church's future on your own shoulders. You only have to walk faithfully with the God who is already carrying it. He is in our midst and he is stable and steadfast. Do you rely on him alone?
[00:30:10] You know. In the space of about two years, the reformer Martin Luther watched the ground shake on every side of him.
[00:30:17] Imperial armies were sacking Rome and moving to crush the Reformation by force of law. An Ottoman army of well over 100,000 men was laying siege to Vienna.
[00:30:27] Plague had broken out into Luther's own hometown of Wittenberg, while Luther refused to flee and to remain to help bury the dead.
[00:30:38] And in the middle of all of this, in a letter closest to his, to one of his closest friends, Luther confessed that he had spent more than a week in what felt like death and hell itself, his body trembling, feeling utterly abandoned by Christ.
[00:30:53] It was out of that season, not a moment of triumph, but a season of siege on every front, when everything was shaken, that Luther turned to Psalm 46 and gave the church the words of the hymn that we're going to close with A mighty fortress is our God.
[00:31:09] Luther himself recognized that Even if Psalm 46 doesn't provide a silver bullet of next steps and actions, it does provide a hope that and an assurance to cling to. As you fight for faith day by day, may God graciously grant us the resolve to do the same. May God graciously grant us the faith to simply day by day, look to him, to trust him, to ground ourselves in the promise that he is in our midst and he knows how to sustain us.
[00:31:40] And then to pray and plead for practical wisdom for what to do.
[00:31:47] Fourth, and finally, observe and remember God's providence as a means of strengthening your faith.
[00:31:57] I think Psalm 46 teaches us to observe and remember God's providence as a means of strengthening your faith.
[00:32:07] Providence is all over Psalm 46. God is at work sustaining his church. And in response, even when everything around us shakes, we are called to behold God and to still our restless minds.
[00:32:21] Gym enthusiasts will work to convince you that a particular workout like squats or deadlifts are the all around best workout that you can do for your body.
[00:32:32] You can probably tell from my physique that I am not a gym enthusiast.
[00:32:37] I am a faith enthusiast though, and I can guarantee you that one of the best exercises to strengthen your Faith is to observe and to remember how God acts broadly and personally in your life.
[00:32:55] Is this a regular practice for you?
[00:32:57] Do you regularly seek to look to the ways that God has provided for his people through the years?
[00:33:04] Do you look to the lives of brothers and sisters around you and see how God has worked to sustain them?
[00:33:10] Have you looked at your own life to see the ways that God is working all the time to sustain you, to keep you, to uphold you?
[00:33:23] We've reflected on the need to fight for faith daily. And again, this is one of the most practical ways that we can do that.
[00:33:30] I may have gotten out of order. So let me define providence for us. Providence is a Christian term used to describe the fact that God rules or governs all things, even hard things, and he uses them for good.
[00:33:45] So let me go back to read that again.
[00:33:47] Providence is a Christian term to describe the fact that God rules or governs. He works. There's nothing out of his control, all things, even the hard things, and God uses them for good.
[00:34:01] God's own good and our good.
[00:34:04] Many of you may remember the story of Joseph in Genesis. This is an interesting case where it's very clear that Joseph has been the subject of injustice. He has been sold into slavery. He's been put into places that he doesn't deserve to be. And yet what does Joseph reflect at the end of his life?
[00:34:24] What you intended for evil and what you did evilly God intended for good. And so we know from God's word that he uses all things under the sun to work toward his good.
[00:34:38] God is working all the time to sustain, to uphold, to govern and to keep his people.
[00:34:46] To put it in practical terms, God is always near. He's always strong. He's always in charge, even when frightening things happen.
[00:34:56] In Joshua 4, when the people of Israel cross over the River Jordan, the Lord commands Joshua and 12 men to set up stones as a memorial.
[00:35:04] Why does he do this?
[00:35:06] When your children ask in time to come, what do those stones mean to you? Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.
[00:35:27] Is it a pattern of the Christian. It is a pattern of the Christian life to remember how God has acted and continues to act to preserve us and to help us.
[00:35:37] What are your stones of remembrance?
[00:35:41] No matter the trials we face, we can be sure that God has provided for us because His Son Jesus Christ came into the world and endured the worst trial of history, enduring a cross of shame on behalf of sinners, where he received the full cup of God's wrath against sin.
[00:35:57] What would it look like to set up a note on your phone or somewhere in your home where you mark down the means of God's provision to you?
[00:36:05] There is not a day that goes by that God's providence is not working to sustain us.
[00:36:11] This isn't original to me. I picked it up from somewhere, someone, somewhere along the way. I don't remember who it was, but they have this simple prayer. They pray with every meal.
[00:36:20] They pray, thank you, God, for feeding us.
[00:36:24] This is a sign of your love for me and I love the simplicity of that prayer.
[00:36:30] I pray it every night with my family because it reminds us that even in little things that we often take for granted. The food on my table, God is feeding me through that food. I didn't go acquire it myself.
[00:36:43] God is graciously working through everything.
[00:36:46] We live in such a society where there's prospering all around us, where we have access to resources that, I mean, it's just, it's insane.
[00:36:58] And one thing that, that tempts us toward is self sufficiency.
[00:37:02] But God's word is in the business of reminding us that everything we have comes to us from God's hand.
[00:37:10] And so it is a good practice for all of us to look and see.
[00:37:14] How is God's providence working to sustain you?
[00:37:18] You woke up this morning. God filled your breath with lungs. You ate breakfast this morning. God fed you that food.
[00:37:24] You possess spiritual life. God gave you that spiritual life.
[00:37:28] You used your legs to walk in here. God gave you those legs.
[00:37:32] You used your voice to sing this morning. God gave you that voice.
[00:37:37] There is not anything in this world outside of God's control.
[00:37:43] God orders all things, God upholds all things, and God is doing all things.
[00:37:52] You can ask any Christian who has gone through trial or who's presently going through a trial, and they will be able to testify to both the difficulty of the trial but also to the sufficiency of God's grace in that trial. And so when times of trial or difficulty come knocking, God graciously calls us to look backward before we look forward and try to figure things out. Keep a register of God's providential provision so that in time of difficulty or trial, when things shake, you can look back to see how God has sustained you as a means of strengthening you to endure the present trial.
[00:38:27] Faith always looks back to how God has acted. Fear looks ahead and tries to figure things out on its own.
[00:38:35] I am convinced that the doctrine of God's providence is one of the best antidotes to navigating the difficulties of life in a fallen world. If you'd like more resources or like to think about this doctrine more, please reach out to me after the service. I would love to help connect you and I can guarantee you that if you look for it in your life and if you look for it in the Scriptures, you will see it all around you.
[00:39:00] Brothers and sisters, there are countless other applications and meditations to be gleaned from this psalm, and so I would encourage you take time this week to reflect further on it, to ask God to help you find ways to feel its truths deep in your heart.
[00:39:16] UBC Family, I love you. We love you. It is a great joy to be one of your elders. And it's an even greater joy to, by God's grace, have all of our names, those of us who are in Christ, written in the Lamb's Book of life together.
[00:39:31] And so as we leave here, let's remember that God is with us. And because God is with us, we can stand no matter what trials we may face. And because God has united us to His Son, Jesus Christ, we can always stand steadfast. And as we share in the Lord's Supper here in just a moment, we can remember that God, through this supper, is reminding us of our union with him and our union with one another. And we can take heart that he restores. He binds, he helps. And where God is in the midst of his people, they will not be moved.
[00:40:06] Let's pray.
