Living in the 21st century is a very stressful experience. There
are over 800 web sites telling us how to handle our stress: from the
music CD to the Chinese folklore medicine of gold powder. There is
this ad: Money management is what we do. Actually we're pretty good
at reducing stress, too. Our stresses are from the environment, from
work, from personal relationships and family problems as well. Resulting
in high depression and divorce rates.
This morning we want to turn to Psalm 46 for a handle on how to live
in this high pressured and stressful world. This Psalm is known as
Martin Luther's psalm. The song we sang earlier, "A mighty fortress
is our God" is based on this psalm.
Most biblical scholars feel that events in this psalm occurred during
Hezekiah's reign of Judah. Hezekiah was the king who built a water
tunnel into the city of Jerusalem. Since Jerusalem is built on a hilltop,
so this water tunnel surfaced as a spring near the Jerusalem east
wall. During his reign, the city was surrounded by the Assyrians who
insulted and threatened the king and its citizens. Jerusalem was under
siege. Don't we sometimes feel the same? When we are surrounded by
unexpected and uncontrollable events in life, where do we turn to?
In this passage we want to explore a simple truth: when we find ourselves
under siege by life's uncontrollable situations, we are to turn to
the sovereign God.
I. Troubled life. vs2,3
In Psalm 24:1-2, "The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas
and established it upon the waters." Psalm 33:6-9, "By the word of
the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of
his mouth. He gathers the waters of the sea into jars; he puts the
deep into storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the
people of the world revere him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he
commanded, and it stood firm." In these two passages is a fact of
faith. The psalmist believed that God is the one who established the
sea and the land. He is the one who kept it firm.
But vs 2,3 is a fact of observation. "Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of
the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with
their surging." This appears to be a description of earthquakes and
tsunami. However there is no record of earthquake in the biblical
historical books. So it is speculated that the psalmist may be referring
to the national crisis Jerusalem was in during the Assyrian siege.
Today we are aware of the natural disasters. If you look at the Sunday
newspapers, you'll see there are about 11 earthquakes every week somewhere
in the world. There are draughts in Taiwan and in the southern United
States. In China there is the continuous "desertation". These are
natural phenomenon that we cannot control. In the 70's we have the
fear of Nuclear Winter. In the 90's it is the global warming. How
about the future?
There are other events in life that are beyond our control. They
cause troubles and they are the source of our stress.
Even though the economy is slowly recovering, many are still without
a job. We still hear news of large scale lay offs by major companies.
In our society, companies seem to live for the Wall Street. We are
pressured to produce results that can be measured in financial gains.
These are sources of stress in life.
In a certain yearly family newsletter, the following experiences
were told by the wife. That year, her father died. Two friends died
of cancer and she knew of seven others who received a cancer diagnosis.
She and her husband were in a head on car crash. Her husband had kidney
stone surgery. Two friends went to prison. Her brother was alcoholic
and suicidal, but entered an AA program. Her brother-in-law left his
wife and family due to cocaine abuse. To top it off, one day while
she was having lunch with friends by the beach, right in front of
them, an elderly man in a wheelchair pitched himself over the rail
in the ocean in an attempted suicide.
I am certain that many of us can come up with a list of events that
are bothering us. They are crises which bring distress to us.
II. Troubled Family Life.
Not only does the psalmist talk about troubled life, in vs 7, 11,
he wrote, "……God of Jacob." Why God of Jacob and not Abraham or Moses?
To understand this, we will have to know what is unique about Jacob.
About two years ago we studied Jacob's life story extensively. Jacob
lived for 147 years. His life events could be made into 147 episodes
of soap operas. He and his twin brother had started their sibling
rivalry even before birth. The parents played favoritism; the father
favored Esau and mother favored Jacob. Jacob manipulated Esau to sell
him the right of the elder son. With the mother's help, Jacob deceived
the father and gained the blessing. For fear of revenge from Esau,
he ran away from home and arrived at the uncle's home.
He liked his uncle's younger daughter, Rachel, and worked 7 years
in order to marry her. But the morning after the wedding, he found
out that he had married the older daughter, Leah. The deceiver was
deceived. To marry Rachel, he had to work for another 7 years. There
was constant rivalry between Rachel and Leah, competing with each
other on who had the most children. Talk about a stressful family
life.
When Jacob and his family eventually went home, on his way, he met
God and was crippled. He ran away from home over 20 years ago, but
now returned as a cripple. This was not over yet. His younger son,
Joseph, was his favorite. And Joseph was betrayed by his 10 brothers,
sold to Egypt.
Therefore this term, "God of Jacob" calls our attention to Jacob's
stressful and troubled family life.
Some of us can certainly identify with him to a certain degree. We
too have unresolved conflicts between husbands and wives, parents
and children, and among the siblings. In some families we experience
the pain of seeing our children drifting away from God into a secular
life-style. There is dissatisfaction in marriage. There may be deception
and betrayal within the family. In Thursday's Ann Lander's column
was a father who spent all the money that was in his two 15 year old
daughters' trust fund. Or, one spouse being betrayed by the other
because of infidelity or physical abuse. These are the stress as we
face in our families.
Not only is there trouble and stress in our family, there is also
III. Troubles in God's city.
The city referred to in v4 is Jerusalem. It is God's city. The trouble
was about its siege by the Assyrians. The citizens and the king were
publicly insulted and humiliated. One can imagine the chaos and confusion
inside the city. There is fear, prices of daily commodities must have
gone sky high. No one knows what will happen tomorrow.
However, in the Bible, Jerusalem, the city of God is also a reference
to God's visible city on earth, the church. So this passage is also
telling us of the trouble and stress God's church faces in different
times.
Looking at the church in general, what are some of the troubles we
face? There is no objective truth anymore. Everyone is reading the
scripture through his own unique spectacles. Your opinion is just
as good as anyone else. No more objective truth.
In the church today, there is also the rampant spreading of the wealth,
prosperity and health gospel. If you truly have faith in God, if you
truly follow him, then you will be successful. We gauge ministry not
in terms of a person's spiritual maturity, his quality of life, but
in terms of numbers of people we have. We focus on the exterior, the
superficial rather than inner quality. We have also somehow succumbed
to the Wall Street phenomenon.
Then there is also the mentality that our private life can be separated
from our public ministry. As long as I do well in my public ministry,
as long as I can show you results, how many people I have led to Christ,
how I live privately is irrelevant. We have compromised our integrity.
These are the problems, stresses we face in today's world.
IV. Be Still and know God.
What shall we do in such moments? Some would fight, others avoid,
escape or being compliant. It was shown that in many families, within
1 to 2 years after a major crisis, 70%of the marriages break up. What
do we learn from this Psalm?
Vs 10, "Be still and know that I am God." Be still means stop, or
rest. When we are in stress or under pressure, instead of reacting
to the situation, be still, stop, and rest. Instead of analyzing the
situation back and forth, be still and know God. Too much analysis
leads to paralysis. So, in times of stress, pressure, we are to stop
and know God. What are we to know about God?
1. God is our refuge.
Last summer while I was in a fishing boat with a friend in Lake Michigan,
a storm moved towards our location. It was a very scary experience.
We turned the boat around and went back to the condo where we were
staying. The moment the boat entered the harbor, the waves stopped.
It was quiet and peaceful. The harbor was the refuge in times of storm.
One can also think of Noah's ark. With the storm raging outside,
those inside the ark were peaceful. It was a refugee and shelter in
stormy days.
God's word teaches us that when we face the pressure in life, we
are to come to God. He is our refugee. He alone can provide the peace
that transcends all circumstances. Instead of fight or flight, stop
and find rest in him.
2. God is our strength and help.
What happened to Jerusalem when it was under siege? Vs5, "At day
break", God helped the city and the enemy withdrew. As the psalmist
wrote about "at break of day", he must be thinking of another daybreak.
Exodus 14:27, "Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak
the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward
e it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. The water flowed back
and covered the chariots and horsemen-the entire army of Pharaoh that
had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived."
This is the exodus story. At day break how God destroyed his people's
enemies. Now several hundred years later, at another day break, God
demonstrated his power and defeated his people's enemies, the Assyrians.
Vs 8,9, "Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has
brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with
fire." There are situations when the lord almighty is our strength
and helps us change our external circumstances which we have no control
over. There is more.
V6, "…he lifts his voice, the earth melts.." This voice refers back
to the genesis creation account. With his voice, God created the heavens
and the earth. Psalm 33:6-9, "By the word of the LORD were the heavens
made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. He gathers the
waters of the sea into jars; he puts the deep into storehouses. Let
all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere
him. For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm."
It is God's voice, his word that established the heavens and the earth.
And it is also his words that will fend off the attacks from the enemies.
What do we do when we face attacks? Back to God's word. When we face
the pressures and troubles in life, in family, let's go back to God's
word. Use God's word as our anchor in life. Use God's word as our
guidelines. When the church is under attack, go back to the Bible.
Let God's word dictate how we are to live rather then using God's
word to justify how we live.
When Dr. Ling shared with the prayer groups two weeks ago, he encouraged
us that for the 21st century church to stand firm in a secular world,
the Christians must go back to the Word. Rev. Calvin Wong of WHCC
will be serving in China with CCI. CCI's vision in China is that the
Chinese churches will be firmly built upon God's truth, the Bible.
And their vision is that beginning with the churches in China, Chinese
churches overseas will also begin to go back to the Bible. Not just
paying lip service that we believe in the Bible, but our practice,
will reflect that we are a people of the Bible.
3. The God of Jacob.
What does it mean to know this God of Jacob when we are in the midst
of crisis, pressure and stress?
What happened to Jacob? Looking at Jacob's life, especially his family
life, is really an embarrassment to the OT literature. Certainly not
a model for the present day Christians. But you know what? Throughout
his life, throughout all those rivalries and tragedies, God was there
working, molding him into a stronger and more mature person. At the
cross road before the river, he wanted God to bless him. Instead,
God touched his life. He was crippled. He was a broken man. Yet he
had met God face to face, and his life was changed.
This is the truth we must hold on to tightly. Yes, sometimes the
mighty power can change our circumstances. Other times, instead of
changing our external world, he would choose to change us.
As the famous song says, "all I have to offer is my brokenness, and
you made something beautiful of my life."
Conclusion:
If we live in a real world, it will be full of situations that are
beyond our control, thus bringing stresses into our lives. Certainly
we can learn skills that can reduce our stress.
Yet, we also need to remember to turn to God's words. In times of
stress, we learn to rest, to stop and to know or re-know our God.
He is God, the one who is in control. He is our refuge and shelter.
In him alone, we can experience the peace that transcends all circumstances.
He is our strength and help. In his own sovereignty he can change
our situations. Open that locked door to let us come out. Then there
are times he'll simply come into our lives, at the most unexpected
moments to change and mold us into a stronger and more mature person.
You know what? No matter what he does, we have the knowledge that
he is in control. He will take care of it. The pressure is off of
us. Because he is our refuge, our strength and help, he is the one
that can change us, we don't have to be afraid.
