This is the day the Lord has made. We will trust in Him, and worship and praise
His Holy Name. He blessed us with a joyful Sunday. It was a great day to be in
the house of the Lord praising and worshiping Him, declaring His Majesty and His
greatness. In worship, praise, and service the Lord of Joy infuses us with His
Joy unspeakable.
The storm warnings have been posted since last Friday. The storm, Hurricane
Sandy is supposed to make its land fall in our area today. She is packing a huge
wind event over a very large geographic area. I am reading this morning from
Psalm 46. In Psalm
46:3,
the psalmist said, "though the waters thereof roar and be troubled." Here he's
talking about the trouble which comes with the sheer fury of a
storm.
sometimes trouble comes not with the finality of an
earth-quake, or the fury of a storm, but with the force of a flood. So, in the
end of verse
3, he
says, "Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof." Here you have the picture of everything
shaking, with the swelling of the flood and everything being absolutely
overwhelmed. "God Is Our Refuge and Strength, a Very ... Present
Help ... In Trouble."
How should we react when trouble comes? Three things are outlined for us in
Psalm
46.
First, we
realize when trouble comes that God is a Refuge for His people. Secondly,we
realize, according to verse five, that God is Resident among His people.
Thirdly, we realize that, according to verse four, God sends a River of blessing
to His people. It is the understanding of these three things that equip people
to cope with the trouble that either will come, or has come, or is still here.
When we
declare that God is a Refuge for His people it is reminiscent of the Cities of
Refuge that they had in the Old Testament. You can read about it them Numbers.
God, who gave instructions for the building of His ideal nation in Israel,
insisted that they should have certain cities dotted around that land that were
"Cities of Refuge." A Refuge is continually available to His people
."
God is
continually available. God our Refuge is not only continually available,
but He is thoroughly adequate. For it says in this verse, God is our Refuge, but
also our Strength.
Verse
4,
"There is a river, the streams thereof shall make glad the city of God." It is
interesting here that He is talking about a river that makes glad when in the
beginning of the psalm it's "what to do in time of trouble." Of course, the two
can be fitted together when you begin to comprehend that God is the One who
sends a river of blessing to His people. Ezekiel
47,
and of John
7:37-39 speak of the River of God. If you look into these
passages, you'll see that the River of God that flows in the City of God is a
fabulous picture of the activity of the Spirit of God. The Lord Jesus said in
John
7,
"If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He that believeth in Me,
as the Scripture has said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of
living water." I see God is my refuge; I see God is a resident; I
see God sends a river. "There is a river, the streams thereof make glad the City
of God." It is a vast river with many, many tributaries. If you choose to
explore the tributaries as the work of the Spirit of God in your life, this will
make you glad. You will discover that wherever the river flows it has a reviving
effect.
God is a Refuge, God is a Resident, God is a River" . In light of this, fear is illogical. God is
a refuge, therefore, I will not be troubled. I will discover that if God really
is my refuge, I have no logical grounds for fear. if God is resident, the City of
God is immovable. Verse
5
says, "God is in the midst of her, or within her, she will not fall." Therefore
she will not be moved.
"Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He has made in the earth."
If you want to see the bigger picture of desolation, go and have a look at that
dank, empty tomb. He made the tomb desolate. He shattered it. "Come, and see
what the Lord has done, and if you're in trouble see your trouble in the light
of what He has done. Then , you respond by rejoicing in what He promises.
Verse
10
says, "I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the
earth."
Psalm
46:10 says, “Be still and know that I am God.” After
affirming that God can be trusted even when the mountains give way, the psalmist
calls all of us to cease our striving. “Be still” means literally to stop, to
cease our frantic going to and fro and simply to rest. It can even mean to be at
leisure. As long as we are busy, we cannot hear the voice of God speaking to us.
But in the silence that comes after a tragedy, we may know that God is
present.
When God says “Be still,” this is not the
stillness of inactivity, much less the stillness of despair. One writer explains
it this way: When God says, “Be still,” He enforces the stillness
of waiting — of watching the unfolding of ways and the development of thoughts
which are as much higher than ours as the heavens are higher than the earth."
(E. E. Jenkins)
Very often we simply do not understand why God does
what he does; our knowledge is incomplete. But we also confess our trust that
the purposes of God are working themselves out even in the worst things that
happen in the world.
Blessed be His Name.
In Him,
Brown
A Special
Thanksgiving Worship;
Saturday, November
17, 2012
Location: First
United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Ave., Endicott
Sponsored by: Union
Center United Methodist Church
Speaker: Dr. Dino
Pedrone,
President, Davis
College, Binghamton,
Special Music :
Worship Band of Davis College,
Organist : Yancey
Moore
Pianist: Aric
Phinney
All are welcome. For
Information call: 607-748-6329
or
607-748-1358
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