As children, when we visited my grandmother, my brother and step sister, many cousins and I played a game.  Perhaps you’ve heard of it?   Hide and Seek. I am told it could be a video game these days.  Nonetheless, back in my day, my grand- mother and step-mom and a few aunts sat on Adirondack chairs, chatting and drinking lemonade under a huge weeping willow tree.   Soon after the one who was “IT” finished counting, all the other kids scattered to hide.   Periodically, I could hear Grandma’s raised voice sort of yell out either, “Tobacco” or “Cucumber.”  I admit it took me a few rounds to figure out she was actually helping the hiders to come in free – or to stay hidden safely….depending on where the “IT” person was.  Now some of us kids hid where it was quite easy to be found, right around the corner of the house, or behind an aunt at the chairs.  Others hid in really difficult places – in the out house down the walk - making it difficult  to be found – and easier to get in safe and free.   Here in Psalm 46 we learn that God does not hide.  God wants us to find Him.   

You are familiar with Psalm 46, because it was the foundation for Martin Luther’s famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”  Luther’s song expresses the confident and reassuring sentiment of a group of praise and celebration psalms - especially #46.  Also Pastor Dave preached the first 3 verses of Psalm 46 at the prayer service following the events of 9/ll.  Another reason many of you are familiar with this psalm is because I have prayed it through with you during hospital and home visits.

Read Psalm 46.

            I am a member of the American Association of Christian Counselors.   Did you know there are reportedly over 10,000 counseling techniques in the United States today?    Hundreds of thousands of words have been written or spoken to help people cope with the stresses and crisis of life.   And yet not one word is more powerful than the first seventeen words in this psalm.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 

THEREFORE, we will not fear….”

God is our refuge.  The Hebrew word for “refuge” means a place of safety.   The authors of the books of Isaiah and Job used it to describe a shelter from the storm.   We each experience and live through many storms, from business, families, finances,  school, relationships, to our own spiritual lives.  But through each of them we have a built-in place of safety.  A refuge.  God.

God is also our strength.  It does not matter how much we lift weights, hike, work out, walk, swim, or go to the gym, or have a personal trainer, we are nothing. Nothing!  You see, God is our strength…not our spouse.  Not our children.  Not our home.  Not our job or money.  Not even our health.  God is our strength.  

God is a very present help in trouble.   He is our very present help in trouble.  This means He is with us now.   He does not tell us to wait until tomorrow or next week.  He does NOT say, “Give me a sec here.  I need to finish this Jorge’s request, then Mary Lou’s and Breanna’s is at the tope of the list…and that list just goes on.”  No!  God wants us to know He can be found TODAY, in every moment, in every situation and need.  He is even available for praise and thanks.   He is not hiding.  This so clearly tells us that God not only redeems our souls – He redeems our sorrows and our loved ones, our time and situations in life as well.  We do not need to look around the corner, behind the bushes, or even in the out house down the walk.   God is right with us.  He wants us to look for Him and He wants us to find Him. 

THEREFORE…what a great word – therefore.  Everything that has been said is – therefore - foundational for everything yet to come.   THEREFORE is not even a suggestion.   It is a statement of fact.   The psalmist makes the statement, then lists several catastrophic events.  Remember the first seventeen words of this Psalm as I list several events.  We live in earthquake country.  I don’t think I need say more.  Other areas of the United States experience other weather crises and storms.  The need for refuge and strength and God’s personal presence is sometimes all we can claim and hang onto while the earth changes and the mountains tumble.   Concern, insecurity, weakness and fear all become realities during of events like:  Katrina, or the cyclone that hit Myonmar, the rains and flooding in the mid west or the fires up north – or the fires that hit around here a few years ago.   And yes, unfortunately wars continue in Iraq and Afghanistan , and other areas.  And there is the growing HIV and AIDS pandemic in the world.  The threat of a nuclear blast or even terrorists actions, haunts many people today.   With god as our refuge, strength and security, therefore, we need not fear.

Therefore, even IF the earth changes, the mountains slip into the ocean, and as the psalmist says: the waters rise, roar and foam, the mountains quake; even though the nations verbally and physically battle and earthly kingdom crash.  Yes, even IF our personal worlds end - therefore – we will not fear.   This means we are not to be like “Chicken Little” running around, aimlessly and frightened beyond reason, yelling, “The sky is falling!  The sky is falling!” Or perhaps today’s mantra is tempted to be “The prices are rising!  The prices are rising!”  

And perhaps we are like the little boy had a part in the church drama.  His part read, “It is I; be not afraid.”  When he came out on stage and the appointed time, he said, “It’s me and I’m scared.”    It’s good and alright to acknowledge our feelings and fears, but then we need to put those fears in their proper place.   Therefore, we are to have the quiet confidence in God’s ability to save us.  In the midst of total financial destruction, health devastation, families breaking apart, it is clear that God is our refuge.  He is not just a temporary reprieve.  He is our security through every imaginable circumstance.  

The psalmist tells us the worst imaginable earthly circumstance in which the “earth gives way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea.”   This is like the reverse of creation.  Creation was the forming of something out of nothing.  It was creating substance out of darkness and nothingness.   The worst imaginable is the reverse.  When 9/11 hit, New Yorkers and the world experienced this “worst imaginable.”   Others sitting right here today are living this “worst imaginable” as you live with and cope and deal with cancer and other medical situations.   Or you have a loved one in a war zone so they are living the worst imaginable…and therefore, you are living the worst imaginable.  All this is the reverse of our plans, the reverse of our dreams.   It is utter chaos!  Life is like that sometimes.  Our very foundations because of job loss, a move across the country, pending divorce, our own catastrophic illness, shakes us to the core.  We feel that we are being taken or pushed out to sea…or being suspended in space – into nothingness.    But as God’s people we find God sufficient in all times of trouble. You and I can only relax emotionally and physically and spiritually when this truth actually encases our very souls.  Let God begin the take hold and encase your soul today.

I love how the psalmist used water to reinforce God’s strength and help for us.  He refers to a flowing, running, living water of a river and its streams.   For those of us who live in a country in which the turn of a spigot will bring cold or hot, clear, clean water in any quantity can scarcely understand how precious water was = and still is – in the middle east and other countries.  In those very hot, dry places water is literally life. 

  Many great cities have rivers flowing through them.  This is a source that sustains the people living within the city – through agriculture, trade with other cities and daily survival.   This would be especially important in middle eastern cities, now and then.  The cities were the strongholds during wars.  A river could sustain the city dwellers, as well as those from the surrounding areas who would come in for protection.   The city gives refuge, safety and protection.  God is even stronger than the city.  A river gives new and renewing life.  God sustains people’s lives, here and through eternity.  

All this means that nothing in this universe can be a comparable refuge to God.  Some of us, even some who are here today, think security is only when we have enough money.   So we lay up money in bank accounts, stocks and other tangible assets.   And like the rich man of Jesus’ parable in Luke’s gospel, those people say, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years.  Take life easy, eat, drink and be merry (Luke 12:19).”  Jesus called such a person a fool – since in the end death still comes and he or she must stand before God at that final judgment.  So you see, money cannot protect us from judgment.  It cannot even shield us against heartbreak, failure, sin, disease, or disaster.

            Others of us think we will be secure because of our specialized training, skills, or personal talents.  But even the best-educated and highly skilled people suffer sudden reversals.  There are some highly educated homeless people right here in Ventura County .   There are some within this church family who are out of jobs – a sudden reversal.  They want and need jobs. 
            Still others of us expect security from our families, friends or business connections.  While these are good to have and are very helpful, these are all only human supports.  They are uncertain at best.   And at any time even they can be suddenly gone.   Situation after situation.  Crisis after crisis.  And through it all we often say, or hear others say: My faith will get me through.

But, you know, faith does not need a crisis to create it.  Faith fosters stability. Faith is expressed as the human means of security I’ve been talking about.   Here it is God’s presence that guarantees stability and security…in Him!  God is in the center of everything.  Knowing this helps our faith not to slip or break!  And when it does, for we have all been there, God will help our faith at the break of dawn.  The reality is that when God, through His Son Jesus, dwells within our hearts, He equips us with faith.  Then His protective presence is our means of security.   Sometimes we don’t feel it or know it until after the crisis.   And you know, just in the past several months I have lost tract how many times I have heard many of you say: How do people without faith – without God in their lives – survive?  Or how do they even manage a single day when cancer hits or possible death at a very early age or job loss or other personal , community or national crisis hits?  I do not know.  And I don’t want to find out.   Thank God we have God and know He is our ultimate security.  Therefore, we have a never ending supply of help, defense, and renewing strength, security and hope that God gives today.   One writer says, “Because He is our eternal refuge He can certainly provide strength in any earthly circumstance.”

I find it interesting that, the psalmist did not know at the time of the writing of Psalm 46 that the river spoken of that gives  life, and flows through the city, actually takes us directly to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament.   The passage that Laurie Loring read – Revelation 22:1-5 – holds a promise of things yet to come.  This is as our one praise song says: the greatest treasure for those who choose Christ now.    It tells us that we are promised – assured - that the chaos of everything will be calmed, there is no longer a curse, that there is ultimate healing.  That healing begins to take place when we receive Jesus Christ.    The curse of eternal darkness and eternal death is broken through the victory of Christ’s empty tomb. Unfortunately war and destruction are inevitable.   The good news is that God’s final victory is also inevitable.  We have not seen the wars cease, or the breaking of the bow and the shattering of the spear nor have the shields been burned.  Not yet.  But the end of wars will happen.  And the bow and spear will be broken and the shields will be burned.   In our lives on earth with Jesus this looks like reconciliation.  That is the throwing down and breaking of our weapons of war and personal defenses:  gossip, lying, ignoring others, cheating, not helping when we know we ought and can.   Through Jesus Christ we are assured these and more victories will come to pass…in our earthly life time and throughout eternity.   

            And that means we can believe the psalmist’s exclamation:  “He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.”  This is not just our own internal wars, or our moral or theological wars.   This is not just our financial and relational wars.  It is not even presenting God as a peace negotiator.  But rather we see God as THE conqueror that He IS.  In other words, this peace is not to be compared to the SALT treaties of a few years ago, or any other negotiated party.   That is why we hear God’s words:   “Be still, and know that I am God.”  This is not advice to us to lead a contemplative life, nor a suggestion to take time to be quiet with God (although these are important and have their place).  It means God says with boldness:  “Be still and Know that YOU ARE NOT GOD….I am God.  Lay down whatever your weapons.  Surrender all to Me.  Acknowledge that I am the one and only victorious God.  Take refuge in me for I am in control.”  

This is the peace that surpasses all our understanding the Apostle Paul speaks of in Philippians.  And no time is as good as the present time to surrender all to God and perhaps for the first time accept Christ as your redeeming savior.  Now is the time to surrender a situation, a relationship or crisis or your own life to God. Turn it over to His strength and power today. 

This is one of many reasons I am so glad and excited that we begin a new prayer ministry this morning…and after each service Sundays going forward.  A prayer team will come forward during the singing of the final hymn and be available to pray with you after the benediction.  Come up for prayer for a situation, a concern, a praise, a relationship or your walk with God.  It is all in confidence.  Come for prayer.

Be still and Know that you are not God…God is God.   God is God.  Lay down whatever your weapons and defenses.  Surrender all to God.  Acknowledge that He is the one and only victorious God.  Take refuge in Him.  He has you covered.  He is not hiding.  He is right here. He is in control.  THEREFORE, we need no fear.