PRICELESS POSSESSIONS
PSALM 46.
Amherst, Massachusetts. Cassie Miller – Single mother. Picking up her two children from school. Drunk driver broadsides her. Kills her 12 yr. Old son and leaves Cassie and her 7 year old daughter crippled for life.
A man, his two children and his mother were driving the road to the Kanawha State Forest when a tree hit their car, his mother was killed his father had just passed away in March and she was preparing to move here to be closer to her children.
Where is God in a world like this?
Is there a God?
How can we live in a world like this and trust God?
This is the song of the Christian warrior. All who have put on the whole armor of God, to resist the principalities and powers of evil, should sing it often. Each note of this Psalm is an inspiration. There are in it -
I. AN INFALLIBLE REFUGE. God is our Refuge and Strength. The life that is hid in God is surely as safe as God can make it.
The eternal spirit of man needs the "Eternal God as a Refuge" (Deut. 33: 27). The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them.
To hide IN God, is to hide in His Love, and in His Mercy, and in His Power. This means not only perfect safety, but also perfect self abandonment to God, to His will and work.
II. AN IMMOVABLE CONFIDENCE. “Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed," (vs. 3 4). What has the removing of the earth to do with a soul that is dwelling in GOD?
His house is built on the eternal Rock, therefore the rain, floods, or winds cannot shake it. The Lord, in whom we trust, is " Mightier than the noise of many waters." We can’t let the dins of iniquity of this world drowned out the sweet sound of the restful waters of God.
How peaceful is a river? ** NEW RIVER ON THE OCEAN FLOOR**
III. AN INFINITE SUPPLY. "There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God" (v. 4). Rivers of delight flow out for the soul that has found its refuge in God; they drink now of " the river of Thy pleasures " (Ps. 36: 8). They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
They are led by the still waters of God's great thoughts, and refreshed and strengthened by the living streams of eternal truth. The supplies for the new man are found in his new hiding place (Isa. 32: 2). And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Song – Shelter in Time of Storm
IV. AN UNFAILING COMFORT. “God is in the midst … God shall help … He uttered His voice … The Lord of Hosts is with us" (vv. 5 7). His abiding presence is our continual protection, and the guarantee of rest in service (Ex. 33, 14 15). And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And Moses said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.
When God, by his Spirit, is in the midst of us, and when He utters His voice, then the earth, and the things of the earth melt.
V. AN ASSURING PROSPECT. “Come, behold what desolation He hath made . . . He maketh wars to cease," (v. 8 9).
Charles Spurgeon writes, There is here a backward look and a forward look. He hath made desolations of men's works and ways in the past, and He will yet break, and cut to pieces, the instruments of destruction, and make wars to cease, unto the end of the earth. The angelic song at the Nativity, "Peace on earth and goodwill among men," will yet be perfectly fulfilled at the coming of the King.
VI. A PEACEFUL ATTITUDE. “Be still, and know that I am God." Only those who have faith in God can possibly be still, when circumstances are apparently adverse. But it is in this stillness of soul that we learn to know God. “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength "
(Isa. 30, 7 15). Stand still and see the salvation of God. Hush; and let God utter His voice.
VII. A TRIUMPHANT RESULT. “I will be exalted . . . I will” (v. 10). The Lord above shall be exalted in that day, when He becomes the Refuge and Strength of His people. It is so now, in our individual experience; it will be so then, in His coming kingdom, when He shall be all and in all to His own.
