The Best Help You Will Ever Have Series

Summer Psalms #7 - The Best Help You Will Ever Have

Psalm 46:1-11

Sermon by Rick Crandall

McClendon Baptist Church - July 15, 2009

*Most of you have probably heard about the terrible bus wreck Sunday morning involving the Youth Group from FBC in Shreveport. They were on their way to a camp in Macon, Georgia. One of the students was killed.

*Today Candy G. forwarded an email from one of the families involved the Murchison family. -- Listen to the opening paragraphs:

*“By now many of you know of the terrible accident near Meridian MS yesterday AM involving the FBC Shreveport Youth Group traveling to Youth Camp in Macon GA.

*Our daughter, Lauren Murchison was one of three children pinned under the bus after a tire blew out and the bus rolled off of I-20. God was watching over them as a bus load of National Guard soldiers was behind the bus, picked it up, and the medics in the Guard Unit began triage for the bus riders.

-(They also) reportedly called in the medical flight that brought Lauren and her friend Maggie Lee Henson to the University Medical Center Children’s hospital in Jackson, MS. God was there with the soldiers and our children.”

*That was a terrible accident, but it was wonderful that a whole bus load of National Guard soldiers was there to help. They even picked up the bus! -- But the Murchison family knows that their help ultimately came from God.

*The best help you can ever get comes from God. And He wants to help you. How should you respond?

1. First: Rely on His help. Charles Spurgeon said this Psalm could be called “The Song of Holy Confidence” (1), and you can be confident that God will help you.

*Verses 1-3 give some excellent reasons why you can surely rely on God’s help:

1) First: Rely on Him, because He is always by your side. As vs. 1 says, God is “a very present help in trouble.” That word “very” means God is present exceedingly much in a mighty, forceful, abundant way. And the word “present” carries the ideas of being able to find God, to recognize Him, and to meet with Him.

*“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” David helped us understand God’s presence in Psalm 17:8, where he prayed to the Lord: “Keep me as the apple of Your eye.” Eddie Snipes tells us that the word picture there is for someone to be so close to you, that you can look into their eyes and see your own reflection. (2)

*“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” As Rodney Johnson said, “God is present in the worst moments of life. Man can ignore God but no one can avoid Him. Everywhere we go, we will run into Him. A local God could not be God. Everything is immediately in His presence. Nothing and no one is beyond His All-Seeing eye. We cannot flee from the presence of God. No sparrow can fall beyond His view.

*So today, know this; that God is here. If God is everywhere, it means that He is present with you today. God was at this church-house before you arrived. No matter what you face, God is at your side.” (3) Rely on God’s help, because He is always by your side.

2) In vs. 1, also rely, because God will be your shelter. That’s the meaning of “refuge” in vs. 1. God will be your shelter in every storm of life.

*That’s why Augustus Toplady wrote, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in Thee.” Augustus Toplady knew about the storms. Most of his life he was afflicted with sickness. He died at the young age of 38, and his final words were, “My heart beats every day stronger and stronger for glory. Sickness is no affliction, pain no cause, death itself no dissolution. My prayers are now all converted into praise.” (4) Rely on God’s help, because He will be your shelter.

3) Also rely in vs. 1, because He will be your strength. “God is our refuge and strength . . .”

*The Apostle Paul reminded us of the Lord’s strength in 2 Cor 12:8-9, where he prayed for healing. And the Lord said to Paul: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Then in Eph 6:10, Paul tells us to “be strong in the Lord & in the power of His might.” Rely on God’s help, because He will be your strength.

4) And because He will be your security.

1. God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.

2. Therefore we will not fear, Though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;