WINNING THE BATTLES OF LIFE
Psalms 46
In God’s word, life is often compared to a series of battles.
In the book of Ephesians, the Apostle Paul advises Christians to prepare themselves for the day- to-day combat of life by putting on "..... the full armor of God"
As he faced his own death he described his life by saying, “I have fought the good fight....”
And I think it is accurate to picture life in these combative terms because our days on this earth are often a series of struggles....
Today I want to lay some groundwork by focusing on the foundational truth that, as Christians, no matter what battles we face in life----we can win.....
The 46th Psalm is one of many passages in the Bible where life is described as a battle.
So, let’s read it together and see what basic strategy it contains....
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.
5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.
6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.
10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."
11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
I don’t know if you noticed but this Psalm gives some very unexpected advice for fighting a battle.
It says, “Be still....” Other versions translate it as, “Cease striving...” The Hebrew here that we translate, “cease striving” or “be still” literally means “relax”. It means “to let go, to let your arms down to your side....RELAX!”
So, in this verse God advises that as we see a battle on the horizon of our lives we are to respond by RELAXING...
Of course....this is not our normal response to the onset of “battle”....so this advice doesn’t seem to make much sense.....any time I have been involved in a struggle I have wanted to do something....
Think how vulnerable you feel when you drop your arms, let go, cease striving, and relax! Yet, this is what God instructs us to do in this Psalm. But God doesn’t just tell us what to do here....He doesn’t just tell us to “relax”....He also tells us how to relax.
He says “Be still.........AND KNOW that I am God.” In other words, there is something we can KNOW to help us cease our striving in the midst of the battles of life.
There is something we can KNOW that will help us to relax when things get rough.
Often we respond to problems in life emotionally... based on feelings of fear and insecurity and panic....but in this Psalm, God challenges us to respond...not emotionally but cognitively...to respond on the basis of something we KNOW....instead of something we feel.
When we face the struggles and battles of life we may not KNOW how things are going to work out but this Psalm says we can be still...we cease striving...we can relax....because even though we don’t know how things are going to work out we do know Who is going to work things out.
And knowing God is better than knowing the outcomes.
Life is not good....often the battle turns against us....we do WIN some and LOSE SOME....life is fickle...good for some and bad for others...but God is always good.
And we can relax in this comforting fact.
Verse one of this Psalm lists three things that we can know about God that will help you relax in spite of the outcome of any battle you face....
I. FIRST, GOD IS OUR REFUGE (v.1a)
In any battle you need a safe place...a fortress where you can go to rest and recoup and think...and this text reminds us that God is that place in our daily struggles.
One of the most beautiful pictures of spiritual refuge is found in Psalm 91:4 where it says, “God will shield you with His wings.”
Have you ever seen little chicks hop around, chirping, pecking, doing “little chick stuff”?
If the mother hen becomes aware of a predator or a threat to her offspring, she responds by lifting her wings and within seconds, all the baby chicks disappear underneath them.
And then, where once there was a doting hen and several perky sidekicks, now the predator sees nothing but one mean-looking mama who just dares the enemy to take a step forward.
She is a refuge for her children.....she is their protection. Now eventually, the chicks will have to crawl out and face the real world again.
But for a season, there is nothing quite like the soft shelter of those wings---the downy feathers caressing their heads; the mother’s warmth stilling their shakes; her heart’s steady beating gradually calming their fears.
And this Psalm reminds us that God delights in spreading His protective wings and enfolding His frightened, battle-weary children.
God is our refuge!...and one way that we let God be a refuge for us is to simply talk to Him about our struggles. Psalm 62:8 says, “Pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”
So in a curious way, the passwords that open the gates into the refuge of God are the soul- wrenching words that flow out of our hearts when we finally decide to trust God enough to tell him about our struggles.
Somewhere in the middle of taking that step of faith, the gates open, and God’s wings extend.
In his book, The God You’re Looking For, Bill Hybels reminds us that Jesus modeled this practice of taking “time-out” from the struggles of life to find refuge under God’s wings.
Nobody before or since has faced the responsibilities, duties, and pressures that Jesus bore...
.....yet sometimes He would take an entire day and an entire night, grab a couple of disciples, and retreat to a safe place---a boat, the far side of a mountain, a secluded spot in the desert..
And there, Jesus would enter the refuge that His father had prepared for Him.
Surrounded by safe people, Jesus could pour out His troubles to a God who would hear the passwords and cover Him with His wings.
In that place of shelter, Jesus could regroup, restore His strength, and sense of purpose, and get ready to go back into the world, working with all His might to claim it for the Father’s love.
So this morning, hear the words of God’s word...and remember that as you face the battles of life you can relax because God is our refuge.....
II. SECONDLY, GOD IS OUR STRENGTH (v.1b)
1 Peter 4:11 reminds us that anything we do for God we do... “with the strength God provides.”
And this Psalm echoes this truth. God is our strength...our source of power for facing any battle of life.
In his book, GLIMPSES OF GOD, Scott Walker chronicles the story of the Herold family....a godly couple who had gone here in the Philippines as teachers around the turn of the century.
The Herolds opened schools for tribesmen known as the IGOROT who live in the remote mountainous regions of this country....
Mr. Herold combined his teaching duties with efforts to build roads through this region.
The work was back-breaking and was made even more difficult by the fact that there was no modern machinery....all they had was dynamite and their bare hands.
So they’d blow up a huge section of rock and then the Igorot people would move it piece by piece by hand.
One day Mr. Herold rode horseback into town for supplies and while there he spotted a crate filled with brand new wheel barrows.
He could not believe his good fortune, so he quickly bought them, loaded them on an old borrowed truck, and hastily bumped and banged his way up the rutted new roadbed.
When he arrived at the base camp he instructed the Igorot foreman to guard these novelties so they would not be stolen and immediately drove back to town to return the truck.....
He then retrieved his horse, finished his shopping and started back. It was three days later that he returned to the work site.
When he rode up he almost fell off his horse with laughter. There before him were the Igorots energetically and enthusiastically using the wheel barrows.
But, having never seen a wheelbarrow, the Igorot foreman had assigned four men to each wheelbarrow. They would quickly fill the wheelbarrows to the rim with rock and dirt.
Then the four men would each grab a corner of the wheel barrow, grimace as they lifted it, then grunt and groan as they carried it on their shoulders to a ravine where the dirt was dumped.
For them, a wheelbarrow was simply a large metal container to carry. They had never seen a wheel and so they never even considered using it.
There was amazing power at their disposal as they struggled to build that rode but they never used it. And Psalm 46 reminds us that often we face the battles of life on our own limited strength when the strength of God is at our disposal.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 1 “How very great is His power at work in us who believe. This power working in us is the same as the mighty strength God used when He raised Christ from death."
This means that we have access to God’s power as we battle our way through the struggles of life. However, we often find ourselves in the same plight as the Igorot tribesmen with the wheelbarrow.
We want to fill our lives to the brim with the weight and responsibility of our world and then carry it all on our own shoulders....when we should heed the instruction of this Psalm and relax as we rely on the power of the Spirit of God.
In fact to access His power we must RELAX....Jesus said, “My power is made perfect in weakness....”
So Psalm 46 reminds us that we can relax even in the midst of the battles of life ... we can cease striving....because God is our refuge...our strength and ...
3. THIRDLY, GOD IS OUR HELP (v.1c)
In other words, He doesn’t leave when tough times come. Verses 7 & 11 of this Psalm both affirm that. “The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our stronghold.”
So you can relax because you can know that God doesn’t leave you when life goes in the ditch.
When the battle rages, He doesn’t cop out and run away. In fact He is very near to us in times of trouble.
And we can always win...if we feel and know that God is with us.
As God’s children facing the battles of life we can know that our Heavenly Father is near to us....we can relax...we can REST in Him...
In Isaiah chapter 43 God speaks and says “When you pass through the waters I will be WITH YOU.”
So...you and I can relax...we can be still because we know that God is our refuge..our strength...a very present help in time of trouble.
God bless!
