Psalm 46:1-3 (NIV)
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. Selah
Once again today in my devotional time I turned to this 46th Psalm. Then I went to my digital library and pulled up a sermon preached on the date of my birthday, February 27th, but in the year of 1887. It is a message that was delivered in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in Newington, England by C.H. Spurgeon.
The first point in his sermon, that was titled Earthquake, but not Heartquake, was Let us consider carefully the Confidence of the Saints. I would like for you to read what he said that day in light of where we are in our world today.
Spurgeon preached:
God’s people have a sure confidence. Other men build as best they may, but true believers rest upon the Rock of ages. Their confidence is altogether beyond themselves. In this song there is nothing about their own virtue, valour, or wisdom. The heathen moralist boasted that if the globe itself should break, his integrity would make him stand fearless amid the wreck. But the believer has a humbler though a truer reliance. Though the earth be removed he is undismayed; and this does not arise from his own personal self-sufficiency, but from God, who is his refuge and strength. He is fearless, not because of his original stoutness of heart and natural firmness of will, but because he has a God to shelter and uphold him. If he does not fear calamity, it is because he fears God, and God alone.
Our psalm begins with God, and with God it ends:—“The God of Jacob is our refuge.” We may be as timid by nature as the coneys, but God is our refuge; we are as weak by nature as bruised reeds, but God is our strength. We never know what strength is till our own weakness drives us to trust omnipotence; never understand how safe our refuge is till all other refuges fail us. When the earth is removed, and the waters of the sea roar and are troubled being driven both from land and sea, we hide ourselves in God. You who are strong in yourselves imagine strength where only weakness can be found; you seek the living among the dead, and substantial confidences amid the “vanity of vanities.” If we look to ourselves for courage we shall fail in the hour of trial. When the earth is removed, the mightiest men are the first to shudder; the greatest boasters become the worst of cowards. For confidence and peace we must say unto the Lord, “All my fresh springs are in thee.”
Spurgeon, C. H. (1887). Earthquake, but Not Heartquake. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 33, pp. 122–123). London: Passmore & Alabaster.
As I read those words this morning I was reminded of another one of the Psalms that we have sang a version over the years in our worship services.
In Psalm 73:26 Asaph wrote,
My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
That is the song of my heart today, God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever!
Have a Blessed Day!
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