Triumphant Over Trouble - Psalm 46 - David Jeremiah

Read Textual Sermon from David Jeremiah

Turning to the Psalms in Trouble

Whenever Christians face difficulty, we almost always turn to the Psalms. Here in the Psalms we find words to describe what we’re feeling. Here we understand that we’re not alone in our trouble. Here in the Psalms we find that there is hope in the midst of the storm. We read the Psalms and we find our story is written before it ever occurred.

I mean, still—no wonder the first book published by the Puritans was the Bay Psalm Book, printed in 1640. It was not possible for them to print the whole Bible, so they printed the Psalms. Asked why they printed that portion of Scripture instead of other portions, one author replied: because there was no other collection that so encompasses the range of human experience and the wonder of God’s response to that experience.

The Puritans needed such arming. Not the hardship imposed on them in those early years, not the harshness of the elements, the scarcity of provisions, the regular visitation of sickness and death, the attacks of enemies and betrayal of friends, or the weakness of sinfulness in their own hearts and minds—none of this surprised them or left them defenseless, because they had already read it all right there in the Psalms.

Just the reading of the Psalms brings blessing—without comment, without messages or lessons. But when we go behind these Psalms and we research the reason behind their having been written, the blessing is doubled, and we will never again be able to read the Psalms without remembering all that was going on to cause them to be written.

Hezekiah, Sennacherib, and God’s Deliverance

Such is the case with our psalm today. To understand it, we must go back to a period in the history of Israel when things looked mighty black for the people of God. It was the year 701 B.C., and Sennacherib was king of Assyria. Now, Sennacherib was an expansionist and was leading the dreaded Assyrian army through Syria into Israel and on south to Judah. At the time of Sennacherib’s rampage, Hezekiah was king over Judah. He was assisted by the prophets Micah and Isaiah, who taught him to trust God and do right. King Hezekiah led the people of Judah in a great revival. He reinstated the Passover, reestablished the temple as the central place of worship, and called the people back to obedience to God.

We read these words concerning Hezekiah in the book of Second Kings: he did what was right in the sight of the Lord according to all that his father David had done. He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor were there any before him. For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments which the Lord had commanded Moses. And the Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went.

As we begin our story, the northern kingdom of Israel had already fallen to Assyria, and the people of Israel were carried away captive. Now the bloodthirsty army of Assyria was on its way to Egypt, and anything and anyone that got in its way was destroyed. Standing in the path of Sennacherib’s intentions was the little kingdom of Judah and the walled city of Jerusalem.

In 701 B.C., the Assyrians sent their armies to Jerusalem, and as the leaders of the Assyrian army stood outside the walls of Jerusalem, they began to taunt the people and blaspheme Jehovah God. Here are their words, straight from the 18th chapter of Second Kings: “Thus says the king: Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you. Nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, ‘The Lord will surely deliver us.’ Do not listen to Hezekiah.”

At the same time as the threatening message from Sennacherib reached the ears of Hezekiah, he also got a message from Isaiah the prophet. In his time of trouble, Hezekiah was going to be given a word from the Lord. And now here is Isaiah’s message to Judah’s King Hezekiah (2 Kings 19:6–7, NKJV):
“Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.’”

The Bible says that Hezekiah took the threatening letter from Sennacherib, and he went up to the house of the Lord, and he spread the letter out before the Lord, and he began to pray. Here is his prayer: he prayed, “Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.”

What a picture of our current situation. On the one hand, we’re listening every day to the voices of fear and dread. The virus of fear has been almost as dangerous as the coronavirus itself, and when we allow these words of fear to totally control us, we are paralyzed and immobilized and rendered useless to God and to those who look to us for hope and help. But on the other hand is the voice of God—or in this case, the voice of Isaiah speaking for God. It is not a voice of reckless abandon that calls us to be oblivious to our enemy. No, it’s a voice of promise and of hope—a strong reminder that we serve a mighty God, and He is in control, and we do not need to be afraid.

So here’s the picture: the dreaded Assyrian army has surrounded the city of Jerusalem. Judah’s leader Hezekiah has prayed for God’s miraculous deliverance—and God is about to intervene. Now let’s look at 2 Kings 19:35–36 (NKJV):
“And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh.”

What an incredible victory God won for His people that night. Walled in by trouble, surrounded by certain disaster—on paper Judah was about to be destroyed. But God intervened, and God caused all the people to know that He was God.

To commemorate that victory, Psalm 46—this hymn of praise—was penned. Maybe it was written by Hezekiah, perhaps by Isaiah, maybe by an unknown poet laureate of Judah, but there is little doubt that it was written to immortalize the triumph of the angel of the living God over the army of the foe. John Phillips says this: so great and glorious was the victory, so marvelous the deliverance, that Jew and Christian alike have turned instinctively to Psalm 46 whenever disaster strikes—when it seems that all hope is lost. Psalm 46 is where we go, for this psalm assures us that God can handle, in His will and in His own good time and way, things which seem like total disasters to us. Ladies and gentlemen, did we not need Psalm 46 for this day?

As we examine the eleven verses of this psalm, notice first of all that there are three clearly marked-out sections. Each of the sections has praise for God’s deliverance, and each has a different picture of the reason for deliverance as we face our troubles and our walled-in situations. We can learn from this psalm how to have victory in our own lives. We can discover how to weather our storms and continue to be triumphant. Here, then, are three principles for times of trouble in your life.

Three Principles for Times of Trouble

Number one: When trouble comes, retreat to your refuge (Psalm 46:1–3).
We learn in the first part of the psalm that we have an awesome refuge. Psalm 46:1 (NKJV):
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
This doesn’t say that God has been a refuge and strength, or that He will be. The verse is present tense: the Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Does this verse have an expiration date? Are there a limited number of refills? Will it ever lose its potency? No, no, and never.

So here are five things from the 91st Psalm about awesome refuges—Psalm 91 is kind of a commentary on this.

1. Our refuge is safe. Psalm 91:9–10 says that when the Lord is your refuge, no evil shall befall you. You’re safe in God, never separated from His love.
2. Our refuge is strong. Psalm 91:7—thousands may fall at your side, but numbers don’t matter when it comes to God’s refuge. God and you are greater than any opposing force.
3. Our refuge is secure. Psalm 91:5—you shall not be afraid of the terror by night nor of the arrow that flies by day. People who are secure in God don’t live in fear of what might happen.
4. Our refuge is solid. Psalm 91:2—I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him I will trust.” Think of the solid walls of a mighty castle or fortress—God is like that: solid, immovable, indestructible.
5. Our refuge is a shelter. Psalm 91:1—he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. A shelter is a covering. When you dwell under the shadow of God, you are covered by Him forever.

The word refuge literally means a place to which you go quietly for protection. We see Hezekiah going up to the temple, spreading out the threatening letters before the Lord, and he found his refuge and his strength. We have often heard our choir sing these words: “You are the source of my strength; You are the strength of my life.” To sum it all up, here are the words of Deuteronomy 33:27: the eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

It was October 31, 1517—sometimes called the Fourth of July of Protestantism—when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Cathedral of Wittenberg, and the Protestant Reformation was ignited. One of the important products of the Reformation was the rediscovery of congregational singing. Luther had strong convictions about the use and power of sacred music. He often expressed his convictions in statements like this one: if any man despises music—as all fanatics do—for him I have no liking; for music is a gift and grace of God, not an invention of men. Thus it drives out the devil and makes people cheerful. And again he said, the devil, the originator of sorrowful anxieties and restless troubles, flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God. Finally, Luther wrote: I would allow no man to preach or teach God’s peace without a proper knowledge of the use and power of sacred song.

The single most powerful hymn of the Protestant Reformation movement was Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” This hymn became the battle cry of the people, a great source of strength and inspiration—even for those who were martyred for their convictions. This hymn has been translated into practically every known language and is regarded as one of the noblest and most classic examples of Christian hymnody. There are more than sixty translations of this text in English alone. When difficulty or discouragement would come to Luther or to his friend Philipp Melanchthon, Luther would say, “Come, Philip, let us sing the 46th Psalm,” and they would sing themselves into a victorious spirit again. The first line of this national hymn of Protestant Germany is fittingly inscribed on Martin Luther’s tomb in Wittenberg.

Yes, it is true: you have an awesome refuge—God is your refuge.
Number two: You have an accessible refuge. Continue reading in Psalm 46, and the second part of the first verse describes our refuge as a very present help in trouble—the word for “trouble” could be translated “in tight places.” God is a very present help when we are in tight places. These words “very present” convey the idea that God is easy to be found, and when He is found, He is enough for any situation we might ever encounter.

Here’s what Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote about this phrase: God never withdraws Himself from His afflicted. He is more present than friend or relative can be—yes, more nearly present than even the trouble itself. To all this comfortable truth is added the consideration that His assistance comes at the needed time. Said Spurgeon, God is a friend in need and a friend indeed. And this is what God said to Moses—and it was meant for us as well: “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Number three: You have an ageless refuge (Psalm 46:2–3).
“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.” The psalm now reminds us that nothing can change the safety and security of the refuge we have in God.

If you think of the coronavirus pandemic and the other disasters of our time—if you picture in your mind the mountains being cast into the sea and the earth itself being destroyed, and the waters of all the oceans overflowing their banks, or the mountains shaking to their very foundations—if you see that with your mind’s eye and you begin to contemplate the total destruction of the earth, here’s what the psalmist wants us to know: when all that is happening, you still have nothing to fear. Your refuge is secure in the midst of it all. Remember, God is your refuge—He is awesome, He is accessible, and He is ageless.

That’s what I think the psalmist was writing about in Psalm 102. Let the Psalms teach us the Psalms. Of old, God laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of His hands. They will perish, but He will endure. They will all grow old like a garment, but He is the same, and His years will have no end. When the world is changing—when everything we know as reality is no longer reality—there is a reality, and that reality is Almighty God. He is the ageless refuge.

So the first section of this psalm teaches us that when trouble comes, we need to retreat to our refuge—we need to go to God and hide in His shelter.

Second: When trouble comes, rediscover your strength (Psalm 46:4–7).
What is your strength? You have a power within. Listen to the fourth verse of Psalm 46: “There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High.” Notice what this is all about. Whenever an ancient city thought they might be held captive within their own walls, they feared most of all that the water supply would be cut off from outside the walls.

So when Hezekiah realized that the Assyrians were coming toward Jerusalem, he took great care to make sure the city would be protected. Out in the Kidron Valley, outside of Jerusalem, there is a deep spring called the Spring of Gihon. This spring was Jerusalem’s water supply and had to be protected. So Hezekiah redirected the waters of the spring through a conduit that was 1,777 feet long, hewn out of solid rock. By means of this conduit, Hezekiah was able to divert the water from the Spring of Gihon into a reservoir inside the city walls of Jerusalem. The conduit project was done with such precision that the Assyrians never found out about it and did not know that, in the midst of the walled city, with their enemies on every side, the people had a source of water that would never run dry.

What a powerful reminder to all of us who are walled up by the coronavirus and all of its problems: we have a source of supply that is within us in the midst of the trouble. We learn what this is about when we come to the New Testament (John 4:13–14; John 7).

Jesus said (John 7:37–38, NKJV):
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

So we have a secret power within—the Holy Spirit is within us. In the midst of all this stress, all of this difficulty, if we know God, we have a fountain of living water within us, and we can count on the Holy Spirit.

But number two: we have a secret person within us. Here again from the psalm (vv. 5–7): 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. Selah.

Like the fourth person in the fire with the three Hebrew children, God is in the midst of our trouble with us today. Like the Lord Jesus asleep in the back of the boat when the storm came upon the disciples, Jesus is with us in the storm as well. He has promised to be with us, even to the end of the age. And you know the word “with us” is Emmanuel—the Lord of hosts is Emmanuel.

When Martin Luther and his friend Philip Melanchthon were fighting the battles that came as the result of the Reformation, sometimes Melanchthon would lament that he feared the Reformation would be destroyed before it could survive infancy. Luther would comfort him with these words: “Melanchthon, if we perish, Christ must fall too, for He’s in the midst of us. And if it must be so, be it so. I had rather perish with Christ, that great Ruler of the world, than prosper with Caesar.” And oh, how right he was.

Proverbs 18:10 says that the name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.

Third: When trouble comes, redirect your thoughts (Psalm 46:8–11).
First of all, review the works of the Lord. “Come,” says the psalmist, “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.”

I love the expression in the story of Hezekiah’s victory when the text says (2 Kings 19:35): “And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead.” I remember the first time I read that. Of course, if they’re corpses, they’re all dead—what’s the deal about that? But the deal is this: the people of God didn’t have to do anything except behold what God had done. The battle was His all the time—even when they failed to realize it, even when they thought they were finished.

We will take great courage and comfort in our lives today if we just take a few moments and review what God has already done, and what He is doing. We should read our Bibles with this goal in mind. We should even read the newspapers with this goal in mind: see how God triumphs even in the midst of tragedy; see how He gets glory to His name—even in the midst of the coronavirus and even when it seems like our economy is falling apart. How great is our God. His wonders are everywhere evident for the person who will look.

I got a little email this week from one of the viewers of our online service, and she said that she had taken some time to write down the ten most important things God had done for her in her life. She shared them with me, and I thought, what a tremendous idea—what a great way to get perspective on what’s happening with you right now. Take some time and really think about this. You’re going to have to eliminate a few things, add a few things, get your master list, and then edit it down: Here are the ten greatest things God has done for me in my life. Husbands, your wife better be on that list. Same, wives—your husband.

Second, reclaim the words of the Lord (vv. 10–11).
Psalm 46:10–11 (NKJV):
“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. Selah.”

These verses call us to be quiet long enough to hear the Lord—to know that He is with us. Could I just insert right here, my friends, that perhaps one of the reasons why we have been sheltered in our homes is so that God can get us quiet? In the routines we follow, it is so hard for us to become quiet. And when we become quiet—when we are still and we know that He is God—then we learn that He has a plan for our future. This is God’s plan: to be exalted among the nations, to be exalted in the earth. He also has plans to be exalted in our circumstances. Hear me now, carefully: God will be exalted in the coronavirus. He is being exalted in the coronavirus. And the more we see what He is doing, the more we trust Him to keep on doing it.

For the second time this psalm reminds us that the Lord of hosts is with us, and He tells us that the God of Jacob is our refuge. Who is this Lord of hosts? He is one and the same with the angel of the Lord who smote 185,000 Assyrians in answer to Hezekiah’s prayer. He is the Lord of hosts, and He is with us. He did not send another angel to help us—He is with us Himself. We hear sometimes about people having their own guardian angel. Why would you want an angel when you could have the Lord of the angels—Jehovah God Himself? “Be still, and know that I am God.” That’s what the Scripture says.

When author and pastor Gordon MacDonald was a high school senior at the Stony Brook School in New York, he was required to take a class called Senior Bible, taught by the school’s infamous headmaster, Dr. Frank E. Gaebelein—or, as the boys called him, “the Gabe.” Dr. Gaebelein was a deep-thinking, devout Christian who was serious about Bible memorization. In fact, he was so serious about Scripture memorization that he required each of his students to memorize more than 300 separate Bible verses over the course of their final year in school.

I like the way MacDonald recalls the weight of these expectations. He wrote that if the headmaster met a student on the pathway from the classroom to the dining hall, he might say, “Gordon, give me John 13:34, please.” The headmaster expected a boy to summon from his memory one verse out of 300 already memorized and to launch into its recitation without faltering. Many a student in Senior Bible took detours around campus during those times of day when Dr. Gaebelein was expected to be walking from one place to another—and you surely can understand why.

Psalm 46 was one of the passages Dr. Gaebelein assigned to his students, and when he called on students to recite the psalm or write it out in its entirety, he expected them to be perfect—not only about the words but also pronunciation and capitalization. As a result, his students often included verbal clues in their practice recitations to help identify each capital letter and every mark of punctuation. For example: “Big G—God is our refuge and strength, comma—a very present help in trouble, period.” Gordon and the other boys did not understand the value of Dr. Gaebelein’s instruction during their year of Senior Bible. In fact, they complained to anyone who would listen—except the Gabe himself, of course.

But decades later, Gordon MacDonald came around, and now he treasures the gifts he received during his year with Dr. Gaebelein. Here’s how Gordon told the story in one of his books. He said his doctor called: “Gordon, this is Dr. B. I have some difficult news for you. There’s a tumor in the back of your head, in the lining of the brain. It’s not malignant—you won’t die from this—but it will have to come out, and that means surgery and some recuperative time in the next few months.” Gordon MacDonald said, “I have spent my whole life helping other people face Dr.-call moments like these. Now it was my turn.” And as the doctor went through further details of his situation, the first thing that began to surge through his mind—the very first thing—was: “Big G—God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble, period. Big T—Therefore we will not be afraid, period, period, period.”

He said, “When I was a teenager, a brilliant and godly man pumped me full of Scripture—you could say that he bullied us with all the insistence on punctuation, spelling, and capitalization—but now his effort is paying off. Psalm 46 is the first thing I have turned to so that I can order my world and enlarge the spiritual work I will have to do in the next few months. Thanks to Dr. Gaebelein and Psalm 46, I may be concerned, I may be cautious, but I am not fearful—exclamation point.”

I hope that is the confidence you have in your life as well. People ask me all the time what to do about the fear that seems to be raging in the hearts of people. Let me tell you: the answer to that fear is Big G—God. He is the One who has promised to be with us. He is your refuge; He is my refuge. But that is only true if we know His Son, Jesus Christ, personally. The Bible says that we come to God through Christ—that He is the way, the only way, to God.

And my question to you, as you listen to this message and we close this service: do you know this God through His Son, Jesus Christ? Have you ever accepted Christ into your life? Have you ever, in the midst of your challenging days, bowed before God and said, “Dear God, I believe that Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe that He is the Savior of the world, that He died on the cross, that He came out of the grave on the third day, victorious over death, and I believe that He loves me and wants me to be His. Lord Jesus, I accept You as my Savior. I invite You into my life. I repent of my sin. I want to live for You all the days that are left to me.” If you put Jesus Christ on the throne of your life, you will have God in your heart, and Big G—God—He’s enough for whatever you’re facing or will ever face. And to that I add, with Gordon MacDonald, exclamation point.

Father, thank You for this great psalm. Thank You that You are our refuge. Thank You that we have the resources of the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus in our lives. Thank You that we have the record of what You have done in the past and what You are doing and what You will do. Thank You that when we are still and know that You are God, we feel that incredible peace come over us, which is described in the New Testament as the peace which passes understanding. Father, we need that peace now in our homes, in our hearts, in our families. For all those who have prayed with me to receive Christ, may the peace of God descend upon them and theirs. May they know that this God of whom we have spoken is their God, and that He is in the midst of them, in their family. Thank You for hearing our prayer. Thank You for giving us this portion of Your Word to encourage us for such a time as this. And now we pray that the Word of God will be blessed to our hearts. Keep the enemy from stealing it from us, and let us go forward in the strength of it this week. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

1. Psalm 46:1 — “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”
2. 2 Kings 19:6–7 — “Thus says the Lord: Do not be afraid… Surely I will send a spirit upon him… and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.”
3. 2 Kings 19:35–36 — “The angel of the Lord… killed… one hundred and eighty-five thousand… So Sennacherib… departed… and remained at Nineveh.”
4. John 7:37–38 — “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink… out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”
5. Psalm 46:10–11 — “Be still, and know that I am God… The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.”

Questions this sermon answers:

1. Why do believers turn to the Psalms during crises?
2. How does Hezekiah’s story illuminate God’s protection in impossible situations?
3. What does it mean that God is a “very present help in trouble”?
4. How can Psalm 46 guide us to find refuge, strength, and peace today?
5. What “river” or inner resource sustains Christians in seasons of pressure?
6. How do we practically “be still and know” God in anxious times?
7. Why is a personal relationship with Jesus essential to experiencing God as refuge?