Psalm 46 - God is Our Refuge and Strength! - Part Two

By Dennis Edwards (To go back to Part One click on link.

Psalm 46:2-3 Therefore, will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

When we face the emotional turmoil or the tsunamis of life, we need to not fear for God will be with us. He will be a very present help in our time of trouble. In Isaiah we find various promises that we can put to memory.

Isaiah 43:10 “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God: I will strengthen you; yea, I will help you; yea, I will uphold you with the right hand of My righteousness.”

God’s goodness will hold us up.

Isaiah 43:1b-2 “Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow you: when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon you.”

No matter what happens in our personal lives, or in the world around us, God has promised to be with us. We know from the Bible prophecies that the evil days will come. Evil men will wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, 2 Timothy 3:13. “Men’s hearts (will be) failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken,” Luke 21:26. “And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your salvation draws nigh,” Luke 21:28.

In other words, God is saying, Do not be discouraged. Lift up your heads. My coming is at hand. God has also promised a place of refuge for His children, Proverbs 14:26b. He has promised to nourish His children for that 3 ½ years of persecution, “And to the woman, (the Bride of Christ, the church of believers) were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place, where she is nourished for 3 ½ years, from the face of the serpent,” Revelation 12:14.

Yet, on the other hand, we know that, “some of them of understanding shall fall, to try them, and to purge them, and to make them white, even to the time of the end,” Daniel 11:35. In Revelation we see “the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: crying out to God, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, do You not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?... And it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled,” Revelation 6:9-11.

God has not promised us a bed of roses. Annie Johnson Flint wrote the following poem:

God hath not promised
Skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways
All our lives through;
God hath not promised
Sun without rain
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.

But God hath promised
Strength for the day,
Rest for the labour,
Light for the way,
Grace for the trials,
Help from above,
Unfailing sympathy,
Undying love.

Beside all of the above, God has promised to be with us to the end of the world. Apostle Paul wrote, “All that live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” 2 Timothy 3:12. Jesus said, “If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you,” John 15:20. In the sermon on the mount, Jesus encouraged His followers with these words, “Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you,” Matthew 5:11-12.

Apostle Peter likewise has shared the same idea. “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you; but rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ’s suffering; that, when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you; for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you: …Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf…Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator,” 1 Peter 4:12-14,16,&19.

If we are called to suffer for His sake, He has promised to have His spirit of glory and of God to rest upon us. He has promised to be with us, therefore, we should fear not.

Psalm 46:4-5 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

In the above verse, our thoughts have been translated away from persecution and earthly troubles of the moment, and into the peace and assurance of the heavenly realm, to the city of God. “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manners of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the trees were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever,” Revelation 22:1-5.

God will help us in our times of trouble. Our objective is to keep looking unto Jesus, to keep our eyes on heaven, to keep the heavenly vision. We are compassed about in the spiritual realm by a great cloud of witnesses. God admonishes us to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily besets us, and to run with patience the race that is set before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who endured the death of the cross for our sake and for the joy He would receive as a result, …(therefore), let us not be wearied and faint in our minds,” Hebrews 12:1-3.

Psalm 46:6-7 The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

The heathen have already been raging against God and have done so down through history. The French Revolution in 1789, the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966 are some of the extreme examples in recent years. At times, Christian communities in Africa and in other parts of the world have suffered severe persecution. Some 310 million Christian around the world today are living in conditions of severe or extreme persecution. Christianity is the most strongly persecuted religious community in the world.

In Revelation 11, when the seventh angel sounds the trumpet at the end of the 3 ½ year period of Great Tribulation, the rapture takes place. “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign forever and ever,” Revelation 11:15. “For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air,” 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.

“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound (the seventh trumpet), the mystery of God should be finished, as He has declared to His servants the prophets,” Revelation 10:7. “Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep (in death), but we shall be changed, at the last trump (the seventh trump): for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead (in Christ) shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed,” 1 Corinthians 15:51-52.

“Immediately after the (3 ½ year) tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken: and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet (the seventh trumpet), and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other,” Matthew 24:29-31.

While the elect spend time with God at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, (Revelation 19:7-9), and prepare for the Battle of Armageddon to physically take over the kingdoms of this world, God will begin to pour out the vials of His wrath upon the wicked and unbelieving who have refused to turn from their evil ways to the ways of God’s truth, love, and mercy.

“And He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked,” Isaiah 11:4b. “Howl; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, shall all hands be faint, and every man’s heart shall melt: and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall be in pain as a woman that travails: they shall be amazed one at another; their faces shall be as flames.

“Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and He shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I (the Lord) will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible…Therefore, I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, and in the day of His fierce anger,” Isaiah 13:6-13.

It will be at that time, that heathen will really rage, “And the nations were angry, and Your wrath is come…and that You should destroy those which destroy the earth,” Revelation 11:18. The 75 days of God’s wrath will be poured upon the wicked and unbelieving who refused to accept the witness of Christ, who refused to believe on Him for their salvation, and turn from their wicked ways.

Psalm 46:8-9 Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He has made in the earth. He makes wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaks the bow, and cuts the spear in sunder; He burns the chariot in the fire.

At the end of the wrath of God will begin the new dispensation called the Millennium. “And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore,” Isaiah 2:4. “They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” Isaiah 11:9.

“And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years,” Revelation 20:4.

Psalm 46:10-11 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.

God will finally be exalted in that day. Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that Jesus is Lord of Lords, and King of Kings, to the glory of God the Father, Philippians 2:11. “And, behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as His work shall be. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city,” Revelation 22:12-14.