Psalm 46 – “A Mighty Fortress is our God”
This is part of our summer Psalms series in 2009, where we are preaching through some of Pastor Duane’s favorites Psalms. This week is an exegetical sermon on Psalm 46 titled A Mighty Fortress is our God. This sermon looks at fear in times of trouble, joy in the midst of attack, and praise to God because of his victory and peace. This sermon was originally preached July 26th, 2009 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
July 26th, 2009
Psalm 46 – “A Mighty Fortress is our God”
I. A Fortress Against Fear in Time of Trouble (v1-3)
II. A Fortress of Joy When Attacks Mount (v4-7)
III. A Fortress of Praise in Victorious Peace (v8-11)
Introduction
Welcome church family those who are new with us today. In the study of our Bibles together on Sundays we are in summer Psalms series. Today we are looking at Psalm 46.
This is a mighty song, full of gusto. It was a favorite of the great reformer, Martin Luther, who inspired the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” Which is where I stole my sermon title from. The theme of Psalm 46 is the presence and comfort of God in difficult times…a good hospital & funeral text. If you’re having tough time lately it will minister to you or it will prepare and teach you where to go when the tough times hit.
Often times Martin Luther experienced intense spiritual struggle, as most Godly men do. When trouble would hit would say to his friend and protégé, Philip Melanthon, “Come Philip, let us sing Psalm 46.”
Let’s read Psalm 46 and pray over it (read text and pray).
The way this Psalm is divided up is clear with the “Selah” which are musical commencement mark for when this Psalm was sung at church. Selah simply means “so be it” or “forever so.” Each break focuses on a different aspect of God’s presence as a fortress for us…we see how God is a fortress against fear, a fortress with joyful provision under attack, and a fortress of praise and the place of peace.
I. A Fortress Against Fear in Time of Trouble (v1-3)
Let’s look at the first one.
The first line of the Psalm is monumental, one of the most encouraging lines in the Bible. To know that no matter what kind of trouble you face God is present and available…not too busy and far off.
The first line is like the thesis for the Psalm. God is a refuge, a strength, a fortress…and therefore when trouble we can find him and go to him as such.
The Bible is very aware that this world is full of troubles and hardships. In just this last week I talked with a family who has to commit bankrupcy, a man who lost his job, a couple whose marriage is falling apart, and a dude who is extremely discouraged in in the midst of a lot of realational strife. There is a lot of trouble about in the world.
The claim of this Psalm is that there is always a place to turn and run to in trouble. God, he is a refuge. A refuge is a place to run to in order to escape from harm. That’s why we call people who seek asylum in the US from oppressive governments “refugees.”
In the OT story, Promised Land, places of refuge were a big deal…cities of refuge. Cities of refuge were places where a “manslayer,” someone who killed another without intent, could flee to in escape of the avenger. In Joshua 20, these cities of refuge are described. There were 6 cities, the manslayer would go to the gate, explain his situation to the elders, the elders would then take him into city, and protect him until he could stand trial before a congregation.
The reason refuge is needed is because of fear. When the unexpected happens, when things look dark and grim, the affection that fills the human heart is fear.
People fear all kinds of things. Some people get afraid of little things…they just spook. Things like spiders, rats, heights…then there are the real fears… Fear of future (saftey, health etc.), fear of man’s opinion, fear of failure, fear of lonliness, fear of cancer and death.
This Psalm probably not David. Some think this Psalm written either before or after a man named Sennacharib, the king of Assyria came up to assault and take over Jerusalem. The story is recorded in three places in the Bible so it’s pretty likely that it actually happened.
Here’s the story from 2 Chron 32 & 2 King 19…Sennacharib and Assyria are rising to power, defeating everyone, wanted to win Jerusalem. They come up to the city. Jerusalem is protected by a high cement wall all around and is a city set on a hill. Sennacharib taunts them, makes fun of God, and tells of how they’ve defeated all these other nations and cities.
Hezekiah, the king of Jerusalem, and the people of God pray. Then, Sennacharib gets word of a skirmish where he troops need help so they leave. While he’s gone Hezekiah fortifies the walls and he stops up the springs outside the city so that if Sennacharib came back the troops would not have water supply.
But it doesn’t work. Sennacharib hears of it and sends a letter. Here’s what the letter says:
“10 “Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. 11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’” (2 Ki 19:10-13)”
When Hezekiah gets the letter he’s torn up. He literally rips up his clothes and goes crying into the house of God. That is, he takes the letter to church, lays it out before God, running to God as a fortress and says these words,
“15 O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19 So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.”O Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands 18 and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. 19 So now, O Lord our God, save us, please, from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, O Lord, are God alone.” (2 Ki 19:15-19)”
Sure enough Sennachrib and his army comes and surround the city and it looks like it will be overtaken. I’m sure it was a dark, scary night. But then something happened. That night the Bible says God sent one, just one, of his angels who went out in the night and struck down 185,000 Assyrian soliders. When everyone woke up there were just dead bodies everywhere.
We’ve heard Hezikiah’s prayer, how he turned to God as a refuge and strength in trouble. Now hear why Psalm 46 says there is no reason to fear. It goes a step further than even the threat of an army.
“…through the mountain be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountians tremble at it’s swelling (Ps 46:2-3)”…even then we will not fear.
Psalm 46 takes it to creation itself. The mountains and the earth, two immutable and impregnable forces, cast into the raging tempest of the sea. This is the picture of a world thrown into convulsion. The very frame of nature coming apart. Not just an army with a vendetta. This is utter catastrophe. Even then, God is a refuge…even if the whole world comes apart at its seams.
This Psalm has been a comfort to many thousands of Christians throughout the centuries who have faced things like earthquakes, tsunamis, tornados, floods, and fires. The point is that there is no trouble we will face in this life, where God is never ever ready and present for us to run into and be safe.
II. A Fortress of Joy When Attacks Mount (v4-7)
The next stanza, or verse in the song, says God’s fortress not only quelles our fears but gives us joy…even in the midst of when things are the hardest. Let’s look at it.
Verse 4 is phenomenal. Another sentence full of depth and beauty. Re-read
Water almost always is a sign of God’s Spirit in the Bible. Water is all over the Bible. At creation God hovers over the waters. In Eden there are rivers of water. In Psalm one the righteous are planted by streams of water. In Jeremiah 2, God’s people are to be held is the waters of God’s cistern. In John 4, Jesus says he gives living water. The theme and point is that no matter where we are God’s spirit is able to reach us. Ever been on a hike up a mountain and seen how a river cuts through it? It creates these visible lines that cut down the mountainside. A drop of water is inconsequential but a river is mighty, can’t be stopped by mountians.
This Psalm talks about the city of God. God’s streams make her glad. St. Augustine wrote a book titled the city of God which is essesntially about the contrast between the city of man and the city of God. The city of man is the city man builds by his own ideas, philosophies and experience. Something that is quite popular to do these days, come up with your own philosophy or theology. In contrast is the city of God, the true city, the way things really are, the way God has told they are as revealed in his word. It’s the difference between doing theology from the bottom up starting with God versus doing theology from the top down, starting with God. Augustine and Francis Schaffer are the best on this. I encourage you to read them.
Look at where this Psalm mentions the city. City buildings don’t get glad do they? People do. Cities are people. If that’s true then look at the next words…”the holy habitation of the most high.” it’s claiming that God, who is the most high over all, makes his dwelling place with his people. He habitates with them.
When the people of God were wandering through desert for 40 years after exodus…God was present in cloud by day and pillar by night. In New Testament, Jesus promises the other “comforter” and gives us the deposit of his Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 10:13 we’re told that all believers in Jesus have his spirit. That’s why when you meet a stranger for the first time and you find out they’re a Christian, you feel this automatic closeness.
God inhabits his people. Because God’s habitation is with his people the city, no matter where they go or what they do, verse 5 says, “he is the midst of her” she shall not be moved. Mountain may move and be cast into the sea but God’s people will not.
This is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints. One of the most assuring truths of the Bible. Those that know and love God know come to know his goodness and we get roots. Since it didn’t start with us it can’t end with us. God’s city is like a tree, with roots, storm comes, we bend but don’t break because we got roots.
The next part of verse 5 and then including verse 6 states what many of us know pretty well…and that’s that things often get worse before they get better. God’s help comes in the morning. But often before the morning is the greatest attack when the nations rage and the kingdoms totter. In fact the darkest part of the night is self is just before dawn. And it’s in that hour that faith is often born.
Calvin says this, “Faith is really and truly only tested when we are brough into very severe conflicts.”
This is what Christianity offers, hope for the morning. When you face the real evils and sufferings of this world, truly face them, there really is no hope or chance for morning outside of God.
This verse speaks to the power and the might of God. God created the world with a word. “Ex nihilo,” out of nothing. God spoke and it came to be. With one word, he utters his voice and the earth melts. It’s the picture of wax. Imagine a globe made of wax put over top of a flame and it just melts. It’s like something from the Sci-fi channel. Or if you remember the story of when God gave the 10 commandments…what happened? God’s fire descended on the moutains and scorched and melted it.
Itt’s why verse 7 calls him “The LORD of Hosts.” Because of his power. Lord of hosts is literally the commander and chief of all the armies. God not only has great power just in his word, but has a whole army of angels at his command. And as we learned from 2 Ki 19, just one of them can take out 185,000 people.
This Psalm is filled with man named for God. A God of refuge and strength. A God with a city. The Most High. The LORD of hosts. And then last part of verse 7 adds, the God of Jacob.
When the Bible uses the phrase the “God of Jacob” it’s a reminder of the covenant with Jacob. A continuance of his Abraham, Isaac covenant. Jacob, a liar and deceiver, wrestled with God, but God of a promise to make a city for himself not based on our goodness but on his.
That’s why you’ll notice so much in scripture is about the “sake of God’s name.” It’s about him and his glory not ours.
III. A Fortress of Praise in Victorious Peace (v8-11)
The last verse, stanza continues this same line of thought and gets real practical with some good instructions. A Fortress of Praise in Victorious Peace.
Tells three things to do. 1. Behold works of God. 2. be still and know God. 3. Exalt and worship God.
Check ‘em out.
1. Come behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth.
A couple things here. First, it’s the same advice from last week, where you remember the past works of God. One of the biggest tools, weapons, enouragements for the soul is to remember times when God has been good and worked in your life from the past. In fact, the biggest impetus for our praise to God is to consider and remember who he is and what he has done for us. Why we sing about it.
Second, we get another name for God added here in verse 8. Yahweh. As I’ve taught before, all caps is yahweh. It’s the one name God gave for himself that others haven’t given for him. And when he gave it was when he brought some of the greatest desolations on the earth…the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt.
If you’ve ever read the book of Exodus, seen the movie with Charles Heston, “The 10 Commandments” or the movie “The “Prince of Egypt” you know it….Rivers turning to blood, swarms of gnats, frogs and locusts. Hail, darkness, and then the parting of a sea that then collapses on an army and drowns them.
Here in Psalm 46 in verse 9, God, YHWH, is described as a warrior. Ex 15:3 calls him that, it says, “The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name.”
I read an article this week on the the Bible’s theology of YHWH as a divine warrior. Here’s what it said. “Yahweh is a divine warrior, a warrior-king. God swoops down to terrify enemy forces. With smoke, dark clouds, burning coals, and darkness…he mounts the cherubim like a king would a chariot and flies like a bird on the winds. He fights with hailstroms, bolts of lightening, and rain. All creation serves at the command of Yahweh, the commander in chief. He is sufficiently powerful in all situations of life…he has invincible and immeasurable power.”
It’s like “Lord of the Rings” stuff, when the trees start fighting. You can’t beat that kind of warrior. What God has at his disposal if he so chooses to use it!
Verse 9 says he breaks the bow and shatters the spear and burns the chariots with fire. Bows, spears and chariots were the modern weapons of war at the time. Powerless against him. What are our weapons, bombs, guns, f-16′s, and nuclear power. God breaks the bombs, shatters the tanks and burns up the jets. They are no match for him.
I like that kind of God. God is a God of love for sure. He is a good and great father. But he ain’t no panzy. He is mighty.
Peace is his goal. Notice the beginning of verse 9 says he makes wars cease. We’ll come back to the actual peace and how God accomplishes it.
The interesting thing here is that the main tenor of this Psalm is written with the perspective of looking at trouble in front of you, not behind. So actual peace isn’t there yet, trouble is still present, yet because of who God is, knowing his power and his joy and his ultimate plan for peace enables us to rest.
Which is the second specific thing this Psalm tells us to do: be still and know that I am God. Often when we have a lack of peace, when we are overcome with fear, we do foolish, rash, stupid things.
Here we’re told not to. Just stop. Wait. Trust. Be still. Drink in the power of God and his destiny for the world. It is really and truly learning to rest in his Sovereignty. My wife and I joke about it sometimes when we need to hear it from each other. We’ll ask each other when one is struggling, “Do you need some sovereign medicine?”
The result of resting in God’s sovereignty is peace and then worship. Twice here, “I will be exalted, “I will be exalted.” It’s a call for us to exalt him.
I know it sounds upside-down but in time of trouble God is fortress and one of the main ways that we experience his fortressness is worship. Rather than doubt and distrust and freak out…we turn and exalt and worship him. He is with us, no matter what. Several times in Scripture we are promised by him, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Conclusion
Okay, let’s start to pull this together. I think there is one main thing, one question this Psalm begs to be answered, that is lingering in the back of it’s mind and maybe yours.
Here it is. If this is looking at trouble in front. Are the promises of this Psalm only true if God delivers physically and follows through? Is that what it is teaching?
That God is a refuge because he’ll heal me of my cancer? That God is a refuge because he’ll give me back all my money I’ve lost? That God is a refuge because he’ll save me from natural disaster? That God is a refuge because he’ll enable us to win the wars we fight?
I don’t think so. I think the Psalm looks beyond that and I think that’s it’s very point. That even if the earth kills us, even if another country takes us out, even if God himself strikes us…we are safe in him if we belong to him…if we are part of his city.
The end of the Psalm actually gets increasingly prophetic. He’s going to make wars cease. He is going to be exalted. There is a plan in the works.
When Jesus entered the world we saw the divine warrior swoop down like never before. He didn’t fight with divine power and might like we had seen him fight in the past, he fought with the weapons of humility, grace, restraint, and purity…and then he went to the cross to take care of the real reason for all the wars of history and all the turmoil of the human heart: sin.
He went after the only thing which can bring us peace, and that is to make a way for man to be right with God and thus then be able to be right with each other. Col 2:15. Sin, death, Satan and hell no longer has it’s sting or power.
Martin Luther’s hymn does perhaps a better job of interpreting this Psalm and showing how it relates to the gospel then my entire sermon does. Let me read you it’s words.
A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevaling. (mortals who need help)
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; (Satan)
his craft and power are great, and armed with cruel hate,
on earth is not his equal. (no match for God)
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing, (no strenght in ourselves)
were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing. (we need someone greater)
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he; (it’s Jesus)
Lord Sabaoth, his name, from age to age the same,
and he must win the battle. (he will make the wars cease)
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
we will not fear, for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. (the gospel will overcome)
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
his rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure;
one little word shall fell him. (the one voice that makes the earth melt)
That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth; (kingdoms are at his hand)
the Spirit and the gifts are ours, thru him who with us sideth. (the river that makes us glad)
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
the body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still; (it may overtake us)
his kingdom is forever.
Hebrews 12:22 says for those who ” Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering.”
For those who have embraced Christ we have become part of the heavenly city. Where when our life here ends or when Jesus returns we will live forever.
In the book of Revelation we get the picture of Jesus warrior as a warrior. He’s no longer looks like a poor peasant carpenter. He’s got a robe dipped in blood from battle, his eyes are flames of fire, his hair is blown back as he swoops down out of heaven on a king’s white horse, he’s got a sword and golden sash around his chest, and the wind blows back his robe on one leg enough to see a tattoo on his thigh that says “King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:16).” And when Jesus returns like that he will set up his physical eternal city here on earth…an eternal fortress forever.
Whatever going through today, know that the gospel is our fortress. I’ve been reminded this week that we are in a spiritual war. A war for our souls and much threatens to undue us. But our God is great so we look to him.
I’ll close with a word from Luther and a word for the kids.
“We sing this Psalm for the praise of God because God is with us and powerfully and miraculously preserves and defends his church, an dhis word against all fanatical spirits, against gates of hell, against the impacable hatred of the devil, and against all assaults of the world, the flesh and sin.”
For the kids here, the message today is simple. You can trust God, no matter what, even when things are hard, dark, and scary. When you get scared, turn to Jesus, because in him you are safe…because if you love him, he died for your sin and you have nothing to fear.
God is our fortress!
Let’s pray.
