Sunday, June 7

Let's pray. Let's pray. Let's pray.

Good morning. We are glad that you are here with us this morning. Here in our building for our service, or if you're watching outside in the parking lot, or if you're watching online, we are thankful that you are here. We're going to go ahead and begin with a word of prayer, then we'll read some Scripture and spend a few moments this morning in song. So would you pray with me? Father in heaven, I just ask that you bless our time together as we sing, as we gather around the table, as we open your word. May you encourage us deeply. May you strengthen us. May you convict us of our sins. May you help us to see your goodness in the midst of chaotic and troubled times. It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. I'd like to begin by reading from Revelation, the fourth chapter. And John, in his Revelation, writes this:

"And the four living creatures, each of them with wings, are full of eyes, around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.' And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who is seated on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, 'Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they exist and were created.' And in Revelation 4 you have the angelic choir singing 'Holy, holy, holy.' You have the saints gathered around casting their crowns in worship,

and you have this picture of God firmly seated on His throne in control of the events that are in our world. So we're going to go ahead and stand and sing "Holy, holy, holy," number 262, if you want to follow along in your hymnal.

Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. Early in the morning our song shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty. God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Holy, holy, holy, all the saints adore Thee. Casting down their gold, wear golden crowns around the glossy sea. Cherubim and seraphim, falling down before Thee. Who was then God, and evermore shall be? Holy, holy, holy, though the darkness hide Thee. Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see. Only Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee. Perfect in power, in love and purity. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, all my works shall praise Thy name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. I'm going to go ahead and be seated. That is one of Luke's new favorite songs. We're not sure if it's because it's holy, holy, holy or because one of his favorite cousins is named Holly and he thinks he's singing Holly, Holly, Holly. We're going to go ahead and sing It Is Well With My Soul.

When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever, my Lord, Thou hast taught me to say, "It is well, it is well with my soul." "It is well, it is well with my soul." "It is well, it is well with my soul." "Though come, it is well with my soul." "Though Satan should buffet, though trial should come, let this blessed assurance control, that Christ has regarded my helpless estate, that hath shed his own blood for my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. And Lord hates the day when the faith shall be sight. The clouds be rolled back as a scroll. The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well, with my soul.

It is well, it is well, with my soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. It is well, it is well, with my soul. As we prepare to gather together around the Lord's table, if you haven't had a chance or you didn't get any of the communion elements, they are available in the back hall there. You're welcome to stand up and get those if you need them. As we prepare our minds together around the table, we're going to sing, "I Stand Amazed." As I was listening to the songs last night and this morning and thinking about them, I realized that it says, "I Stand Amazed," not "I Sit Amazed." We're not a church that stands up and sits down all the time, but we are going to stand up for this, because it seems like it's right that we should sing, "I Stand Amazed," well, "Standing Amazed." Let's sing, "I Stand Amazed," 512 if you want to follow along in your books.

I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene. And wonder how He could love me, a sin I condemned unclean. How marvelous, how wonderful, and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Saviour's love for me. For me it was in the garden, he prayed not my will but Thine. He had no tears for his own griefs, but sweat drops of blood for mine. How marvelous, how wonderful that my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Saviour's love for me.

He took my sins and my sorrows, He made them His very own. He bore the burdens of Calvary, and suffered and died alone. How marvelous, how wonderful that my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Saviour's love for me. When with the ransoming glory, His face I at last shall see. 'Twill be my joy through the ages to sing of His love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful that my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Saviour's love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful that my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Saviour's love for me. How marvelous, how wonderful is my Saviour's love for me. So our dog, Dodger, sometimes he gets fixated on something, and it's really, really hard to get his attention. A lot of times that is the cats that roam through our neighborhood, and if there's a cat walking through,

he's not angry about the cats. He just thinks that they want to play, and they don't want to play, and so they decide to leave the area, and Dodger says, "Well, they're going to go play, so I'm going to go play with them." And it's so hard to get his attention. So I was talking to our neighbor about that, and he said, "Well, get some tennis balls, soft tennis balls, and when you're trying to get his attention, just kind of throw a tennis ball near him and see if that grabs his attention." And so the other night, it was like 11 o'clock, and we took Dodger out, and we're kind of walking around here, and then he kind of looks up, and you can tell what's going through his little dog mind, is that I bet there's some cats over there that really want to play with me. And so, thankfully, I was prepared

with some tennis balls, so I lob a tennis ball at him, and he kind of just turns and stares at me. I go, "Dodger, let's go home." And I throw another one at him a little closer, and that finally gets his attention, and we go home, and I don't end up having to chase my dog through the neighbor's backyard in the middle of the night. And there are times when you and I are like that. We are fixated on something, and God needs to get our attention, and God does so in a lot of different ways throughout Scripture. But one way that I want to draw our attention to this morning is gathering around the table. This is a serious moment. Paul talks about the seriousness of this in 1 Corinthians, about those who eat and drink

in an unworthy manner. This is a moment designed to get our attention. It's a moment designed to focus us. It's a moment designed to remind us of the good news of the Gospel. One of the amazing things that I've noticed recently about Scripture is that God feeds His people. From the very beginning, Adam and Eve in a garden provided with all of the food that they wanted. As you move through, you see God providing for His people in the famine that comes to Egypt and the land surrounding them, providing by sending Joseph into Egypt ahead of his family. In the wilderness, God provides food for His people. And it's not just an Old Testament picture, but in the New Testament as well, as Jesus is surrounded by crowds. And He notices they're a long way from anywhere. Nobody's going to get home in time for dinner. He calls His

disciples together and instructs them to feed the crowds. And Jesus does so miraculously. One of the things you find through Scripture is that God wants His people to be fed. We're getting ready to gather around the table this morning to celebrate this meal. And as a physical meal goes, it's not very much a little square of bread and a little cup of juice. But this meal is not to nourish our physical bodies, to take away our physical hunger, but it's to nourish our spiritual hunger, to nourish our spiritual needs. And in fact, Jesus, as He's feeding the 5,000, will finish with a sermon about how He is the bread of life. And those who come to Him will never go hungry. That those who are in Christ and who seek their satisfaction in Christ are nourished by Christ. And so we come to the table this morning hungry. We've seen

very clearly in the past months and in the past weeks the brokenness of our world. And we come hungry for something more. We see the hurts, and we see the fears, and we see struggles, and we see injustice, and we see disagreement, and we see conflict, and we come hungry for something more. And God nourishes us with the Gospel. That Jesus, the Son of God, came and He took our place. He died for our sins. He rose again for our victory. And this reality nourishes our soul. It's why Jesus calls the disciples to eat this meal. It's why He calls us to eat this meal. So I'm going to pray, and then we will partake of this meal together. Father in heaven, thank you for your word and your church. Thank you that you get our attention. And may

this small piece of bread and this small bit of juice grab our attention away from our distractions, our fears, our worries, our struggles, our hurts. May we bring those to you, understanding that you care for us and that you love us. And may we focus on your goodness and on your grace. And may we focus on the sacrifice of your son. As we break this bread, may we remember his broken body. As we drink this cup, may we remember the new covenant that is paid for by his blood. May we do so in remembrance of him. May we be a people and a church who declare his name until he comes again. It's in his name we pray. Amen. As Jesus gathers together with the disciples, he takes the bread and he breaks it. And he said, "Take, eat. This is my body. Would you eat with me?"

And after dinner, taking the cup, one of the four cups of Passover, the cup that reminded the people of God's promise to redeem them with an outstretched arm, and the disciples not understanding that Jesus was about to do that very thing, he takes that cup of redemption and says, "Drink of this all of you, for it is the blood of my covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." Drink with me. Father, thank you for this meal. Thank you that you nourish us, not just physically, but spiritually. May we look to your Son. May we look to the good news of the Gospel. May you help us to see in the hopelessness of the world the hope that is found only in you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Before we move into our message this morning, I want to sort of show you a short preview video.

Starting next Sunday, we are going to move into the book of Genesis, not for a long time with the 50 plus chapters in Genesis. It would probably take us, you know, for the rest of some of our lives to get through Genesis. But we want to spend a little bit of time in Genesis, and we're going to start where the Bible starts in the beginning. And oftentimes when we come to the beginning of Genesis, we focus very much on the how of God creates. How did he create the heavens? How did he create the earth? How did he create man? And what I want us as a church to focus on as we come to the beginning chapters of Genesis is the God who creates. His power, his design, his plan, his goodness, his love, and ultimately his

justice. And so as we move through a little bit of Genesis during the course of the summer, we'll see that God creates. We'll see that man sins. We'll see that God promises, that God saves, that God provides. And so part of that, before the pandemic, we had announced we wanted to do a movie showing of this movie, The Riot and the Dance. It's a movie about creation, not specifically about how God created, but rather how creation points to the goodness of God. As the 19th Psalm says, "The heavens declare the glory of God." And so as part of what we're doing on the 26th of June, we're going to have an outdoor movie. We'll have a projector, a screen. We'll gather together. And so I just want to show you a preview before we move into our sermon time this morning.

I love being on land. I feel much more at home. I feel like this is my habitat. Putting fins on, going into the sea, does not make you a fish.

One artist invented water. He invented every liquid habitat and ecosystem that has ever existed. And he fills every inch with life, with death, and perpetual renewal. I'm Gordon Wilson, and this is Riot in the Dance: Water.

Let's all go, and she hopes, and she hopes for me. So we'll be in Genesis beginning next week, June 26th. I encourage you to join us. Invite a friend. It's a Friday night. We'll be outside. We'll watch that. If you want to sort of get a head start on this, there's a previous film, "Riot in the Dance Earth," that focuses on the animals of Earth. And that's available if you have Amazon Prime. You can watch that for free there. So, we're going to go ahead and move into our message this morning, and we're going to be in the 46th Psalm. And over the years, I've come to love the Psalms. For a lot of years, I was sort of skeptical. You kind of read through, and you think, "Well, these are ancient songs, and how do they apply, and how do they change my life, how do they transform me?"

But what you find are the Psalms are designed to engage our minds. They're designed to engage our hearts. They're designed to engage our souls. So, I'm going to read the 46th Psalm this morning, and then we'll spend some time in it together. It begins like this: "God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, and she shall not be moved. God will help her when the morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters His voice, and the earth melts.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how He has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. This is the word of the Lord. Father, be with us this morning as we gather into Your Word. May You instruct us. May You encourage us. May You convict us. May Your Spirit be working and moving in our hearts as we see these words written thousands of years ago

that still encourage us deeply and powerfully today, that still teach us deeply and powerfully today. Be with us during this moment. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Now, I think probably all of us know, even though maybe we haven't voiced the thought in these specific words, that context is important. So, for example, a hundred miles an hour may not be fast on a racetrack. It is very fast if you're driving down Pleasant Valley Road. And if you're doing a hundred miles an hour down Pleasant Valley Road and the local police department finds you, you're not only going to get a ticket, but you're probably going to spend some time in jail. Or, with our kids, sometimes they'll wake up in the morning and maybe they'll say, "Dad, can I have this piece of chocolate?"

And I'll say, "Yes, but after breakfast." And there may have been a time where they come in and they're eating chocolate. Well, Dad said we could, right? Context is important. I said they could, but what? After breakfast. And so, context is important. And most of us, I think, in certain situations are good at judging context. For example, just take the simple three-letter word, B-O-W. Now, that word, depending on context, can be used or pronounced as bow, right? You're in a dance class, they say, "Take a bow," and you bow. Or if you're in a medieval castle, they say, "Take your bow," right? Same word, same spelling, just pronounced a little differently, and it all depends on the context. And so we're used to, in many areas of our life, looking for context about what something means.

And this psalm contains a verse that, in many ways, and by many Christians, has been taken out of context. And some of you know exactly the verse that I'm referring to. Verse 10, "Be still and know that I am God." And if you've been around Christian culture very much, you've seen this verse. We have it on coffee cups. We have it on posters. We have it on Bible covers. We have it on little notebooks. We have it on just about every kind of merchandise that you can have. And the implication, the common interpretation of this verse, "Be still and know that I am God," is this sort of peaceful, relaxing picture of somebody sitting back with their coffee and watching the sunrise or the sunset, depending on if you're a morning person or a night person.

And there's this picture of peace and relaxation. Now this verse does contain deep and abiding peace. Wonderful peace. And while the implication is to not be afraid and to be at peace, this is not a passive verse that simply says just sit back, drink your coffee, watch the sunrise, and be still. This verse is deeper, more powerful, and more active than all of that. Maybe you've seen the movie Captain Phillips, right? It's based on a true story of a ship's captain whose Somali pirates come and take his merchant vessel. And in the movie, there's a scene where the pirates are boarding the vessel, and they make their way to the bridge, and he's trying to shut things down and be in control of the situation. And the pirate, holding his rifle, looks at him and goes, "Look at me! I'm the captain now!"

And in essence, when you hear these words, "Be still and know that I am God," this is not a passive call to relax. But rather, this is the creator of the universe looking at you and me and saying, "Look at me!" And he's not saying, "I'm the captain now." He's saying, "I have always been the captain, and I always will be the captain." And you, Christian, in the midst of trial and difficulty and hurt and fear and unrest and physical disaster, "Be still. Look at me and know that I am God." You see, this is a verse to the struggling and to the overwhelmed and to the hurting. It can literally be translated, "Stop striving." "Look at who God is." And you say, "Well, how does looking at God help me in the midst of my struggle and my turmoil?"

Let me show you from the text, verse 1. "God is our refuge and our strength, a very present help in times of trouble." Three things in this verse. He starts at the very beginning. And one of the things I love about the Psalms is they generally don't just give us an instruction, "Praise the Lord," or "Be still and know that He is God," but rather they lay a foundation for those things. So if you're a person like me who is prone to asking why, one of the wonderful things about the Psalms is with a command often comes the answer why you should do that. And so maybe you're saying, "Why should I be still and know that He is God?" It starts like this, "God is our refuge." And it's not just said once here, but it's repeated in different ways throughout this.

The God of Jacob is our fortress, verse 7. Verse 11, again, the God of Jacob is our fortress. And the picture is of a safe place, that we have a safe place, that we don't have to run because we are in the refuge of the Almighty God. I mentioned earlier that Dodger, when he sees something running, he sort of sees it as a tennis ball thrown by God, whether that's a cat, a squirrel, or a rabbit. And so the other day I was taking Dodger up to run around, and we have a little rabbit that's been hanging out in our front yard, and in the front yard of the church and in the play area. And so Dodger, we take him up to the play area so he could run as fast as he could without having to worry about him running to the neighbors.

And I take him off the leash and close the gate, and at that moment I realized that that little rabbit was sitting right in the middle of the pen. And Dodger sees the rabbit, and the rabbit sees Dodger, and they freeze for a moment. And then the next thing you know, Dodger's like, "Hey, this thing wants to play!" And the rabbit very decidedly did not want to play, and so he just takes off, and he runs straight into the fence. And thankfully the rabbit was fast, so he bounces off the fence and runs toward the other fence, and bounces off the fence, trying to find a safe place. And thankfully the rabbit finally came toward the gate, and I was standing there, and I opened the gate, and the rabbit ran out, and I shut the gate, and then Dodger ran into the fence.

The rabbit was simply running back and forth to try to find a safe place. You and I in our life, in so many ways and in so many times, we're just like that rabbit. We're running around trying to find a safe place, and maybe we can find it here, and we bounce off the fence. And maybe we can find it there, and we bounce off the fence. And here is the Creator of the universe, Almighty God, looking at us and saying, "I am your refuge. I am your safe place. Come to me and hide yourself in me." The second thing he says is that God is our strength. Most of us have felt weak at one time or another. Most of us have needed help at one time or another. And we look at events in this world, and we say, "Maybe I'm not strong enough to deal with them."

And God says, "I am your strength." And to give you an idea of the picture of this. In Exodus, the 15th chapter, and if you remember the context of Exodus 15, it's the song of praise after God has delivered His people out of Egypt and across the Red Sea. And so they have seen God perform powerfully, whether it's the plagues in Egypt, or whether it's splitting the sea in half so they can walk across on dry land, being led by a pillar of fire at night in the cloud during the day, and how God stands Himself in between the people and the Egyptians, and how the water of the Red Sea closes over the Egyptians. In Exodus 15, it says, "Speaking of how God brings His people out of Egypt, you have guided them by your strength."

And so when you hear these words today, that God is our refuge and our strength, it's the same God who brought Israel out of Egypt, the same strength that parted the Red Sea, the same strength that brought destruction to the Egyptians, the same strength that led His people, that is the strength that God brings to us. God is our refuge and our strength and a very present help. And what's interesting about this is that those two are present. And present literally means found. In fact, it's used elsewhere. If you remember the story of Joseph when his brothers come, and eventually they bring Benjamin. And remember what Joseph does. He hides his cup in the grain. And then he sends his servant out and says, "You guys have been stealing from my master Joseph." And they open up the grain and there it is. The cup was found.

That's the picture of present. That it's right there. It's been found. And notice what he says, "A very present help." Literally, much present. Much found. Very right here is what this is saying. And it's not just said here, but we find it again later on, that in the midst of the heavenly city, God is with his people. And then again, two more times. The Lord of hosts is with us. The one who commands the heavenly army. You're not alone. Have you heard it? He says, "You're not alone." Very present. Not distant, not far away, not waiting on your call, not will show up when you need help, but he is here, and he is here right now. He is very present. And the result of this truth, that God is our refuge, our strength, our very present help, is this result in verse 2:

"We will not fear." And you might say, "Well, that's all well and good," to say, "Don't be afraid." You don't know how bad the world is. You don't know how bad my struggles are. You don't understand how difficult I find myself in. And you might say that to the psalmist, "Yes, I understand that God is near, that he is present, that he is my strength, that he is my refuge, and I shouldn't be afraid." But you don't understand how bad it is. Look at our text, starting in verse 2: "Therefore we will not fear." Now does it say, "We will not fear when things are great and good, and there is plenty of food, and everybody is happy and gets along?" That's what it says. "We will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though its mountains tremble at its swelling."

And what it says here is that even if the world falls apart, this is a big deal, right? We're talking about complete collapse. Mountains, which we look at, that seem so timeless and strong, and they were there before we were born, and they'll be there after they die. The psalmist says, "If those mountains were to dissolve into the midst of the sea, natural calamity." God is our refuge and our strength and our very present help in times of trouble. Though the waters roar and foam, this is not a comforting picture, right? We've seen little floods. In fact, we had a really, really, really heavy rain on Friday. And sometimes when it rains really, really heavily, really, really, really fast, the water comes around our house and comes toward our basement. There was a little spot. I thought I had all the spots sealed and filled, but Rachel calls me.

I come over from the office, and there's a little drip of water kind of coming through the bottom of the foundation. So I sealed it up and we dried it up and turned on the dehumidifier. That's not the picture here. It's a little stream of water. Maybe you saw the video a couple weeks ago of those dams that were overflowed and then failed. And you see the ground just split away in that flood of water and destruction coming through. That's the picture here. The mountains dissolve. The water comes raging like a tsunami. We're not talking about a calm and peaceful situation. And the psalmist says, "I am able to not be afraid because I understand that God is my refuge and my strength and my very present help in times of trouble." And notice it's not just natural chaos. The mountains and the seas.

The nations rage. And the kingdoms totter. And in verse 9, you have this reference to wars, bows, spears, and chariots. And to us, a chariot is not something that is overly terrifying. But if you were a soldier in this time, a chariot was the worst of the worst. It was the mightiest of the mighty power. They provided protection for the occupants. They were fast. They were dangerous. They could hurt you badly and very quickly. Chariots were the epitome of battle power in this time. And so you have this natural disaster, the mountains dissolving, the floods coming. You have political and society problems with conflict and war and strife and difficulty. And in the midst of this chaos, natural or man-made, look at the message of the psalm. God is our refuge and our strength, our ever-present help in time of trouble. Therefore, we will not fear.

The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. And not only is He with us, but look at the transformation that is found in this text. Starting in verse 2, "Therefore we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, the mountains tremble and swell in this picture of absolute collapse." And then, verse 4, "There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God will help her when the morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter. He utters His voice, and the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress."

And so on one hand you have chaos, and on the other hand you have the city of God, and there's a river. And it's not a flooding, raging river full of destruction, but it is a peaceful river that nourishes and refreshes and strengthens this city. And then in verse 8, "Come, behold the works of the Lord, and how He has brought desolation on the earth." He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He makes the bow. He shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Those things that terrify you, bows, spears, chariots, God's bigger than all of them. Whether it's natural disaster, whether it's man-made conflict, God is present with you in it, and He will triumph with you over it. And at the heart of this, you see God's power over the things that terrify us. Whether natural or man-made, God is stronger.

And He's not just here with us, but He is in control. And you see the rage transformed to a peaceful city. One of the things that I love about this is you see the past work of God, you see the present reality of God, and you see the future promise of God. So throughout this text, you see the faithfulness of God reminded when He says, "The God of Jacob is your fortress." What is He doing? He's reminding them the same God that watched over Jacob, the same God that has been present throughout the history of Israel, the same God who has kept His promises, the same God who has provided, that God is with you. And so in part, this text calls us to look back to how God keeps His promises, and how God provides, and how God has worked in the midst of these situations.

But it also is present that He is with us, that He is a very present help. We're not like the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel who pray, and we hope that we can get our God's attention, and we hope that He can hear us, but rather we're like Elijah who prays and fire comes down and consumes the altar because our God is present with us. But not only does this call our attention to look back and remember how God has been good, not only does it encourage us with the fact that God is present with us now, but it also calls us to the future. You see, you and I as Christians were members and citizens of a spiritual city. Not just a physical nation or a physical city. People ask where I'm from, I say Winchester, Virginia.

But as a Christian, that answer is a little bit different. I'm a citizen of heaven. And remember this text calls us to a picture of a city, and spiritually you and I, if you're a Christian, are a member of that peaceful city. But it's not just a spiritual reality for us now, it's a physical promise for us in the future. In Revelation 22, I don't think it's any accident that you hear these themes repeated. The angel showed me the river of the water of life, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the streets of the city. And also on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month, the leaves of the tree were for the healing of all nations.

No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of the God and the Lamb will be in it, and His servants will worship Him, and they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads, and night will be no more, and they will need no light of lamp or sun. For the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever." You see, there's a future promise for us as Christians who were citizens of that city. One day, we will be residents of that city. Where the river flows through and brings peace, and the leaves of the trees bring healings to the nation, and there is peace. So I'd say this, in the midst of our striving and our worry and our fear, we hear these words: "Be still and know that I am God."

"I will be exalted among the nations." "I will be exalted in the earth." This is not a verse telling us to be still in the sense that we just sort of sit back. Nor is it a verse telling us to be still and we cower in fear, but rather a verse calling us actively to direct our attention to the Almighty God. You see, we don't just see stillness in this verse. Maybe you noticed, if you were following along in the text, there's a little word at the end of each of the three stanzas: Selah. And we don't know exactly what it means, but there's three pretty good theories. One is that this word "selah" at the end of each of these stanzas is very similar to the Hebrew word "to hang in a balance" or "measure in a balance."

And you've seen those scales that are a balanced scale, and you hang the weights on one side, and you hang the item that you're trying to weigh on the other side, and you see how it measures up. And so some think that this word "selah" is a call for you and I to pause and measure. To measure our life by the Word of God, to put the weight of the Word of God on one side, the weight of these promises, and measure, "Am I living in step with what has been said?" But it can also be a combination of words, and there's a combination of Hebrew words that means to lift up that sounds very familiar. And the picture is the lift up in praise. And so other people have thought this is a moment to pause and to consider the thoughts and lift up in praise.

To raise our holy hands in praise for the fact that God is sovereign over the calamities of the natural world, over the struggles of politics and mankind. That He is our refuge, our fortress, our ever-present help in times of trouble to stop and just to praise God for these truths. Some have thought that it's a musical term. That it literally means to stop and take a breath. If you're reading music and you see that little notation of a rest and you stop for a beat. Some have thought, because these are directed to musicians to play for God's people, that this is a moment to stop, take a breath and consider what has been said. And we don't know which one of these is the intention of this word "selah." But they all have something in common: to stop and to consider.

Whether that's to consider our lives in relation to the Word of God, whether that's to consider and praise, or to stop and consider and simply rest in the truth of God's Word. To focus our attention on the One who is sovereign over all. May this be a moment, as we have looked at this psalm, that God stops us and gets our attention. In the midst of our troubles and struggles and conflict and chaos, God snaps His fingers and says, "Look at me. Be still. Look at me. And know that I'm your refuge. I'm your strength. And I'm your ever-present help in times of trouble." Will you pray with me? Father, help us to see you, to see your goodness, your love, the fact that you are our refuge, our strength, our ever-present help. And whether it's natural calamity or man-made calamity, that ultimately, you are in control. And that you bring peace out of the chaos.

That you have been faithful in the past, you are faithful now, and you have faithfully promised us a future in a city where the water of life flows from your throne. So encourage us this morning. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to sing a song here in just a moment. Before we do, I want to read from the 103rd Psalm. And the 103rd Psalm, I'm just going to read from the first five verses. It says this: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good, so that your youth is renewed like the eagles."

So we're going to stand and sing a song, depending on where you're from, entitled "Bless the Lord" or "10,000 Reasons." And it's a song that is written based on these five verses of the 103rd Psalm. So would you stand with me, and let's sing "Bless the Lord."

Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul. Worship His holy name. Sin like never before, O my soul, I'll worship Your holy name.

Sun comes up, it's a new day dawning. It's time to sing your song again. Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me, let me be singing when the evening goes. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul, Worship His holy name. Send like never before, O my soul, I'll worship Your holy name. You're rich in love, and You're slow to wander. Your name is great, and Your heart is kind. For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing. Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find. Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul. Worship His Holy Name. Sin like never before, O my soul. I'll worship Your Holy Name. And on that day when my strength is failing, the end draws near and my time has come. Still my soul will sing Your praise unending. Ten thousand years and then forevermore.

Bless the Lord, O my soul. O my soul. Worship His holy name. Sing like never before. O my soul. I'll worship Your holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul. O my soul. Worship His holy name. Sing like never before. O my soul. I'll worship Your holy name. Lord, I'll worship Your holy name. Lord, I'll worship Your holy name. A couple of announcements as we get ready to close this morning. First of all, Wednesday night Bible study. We're going to be in 2 Peter. So if you would like to follow along with us, one of the things that I found helpful are the Scripture journals. They have the text on one side, lined paper on the other side. There are some on the back table. So if you would like to do that, we're going to begin in 2 Peter. Just a note about them.

You may know the covers are a little bit rumpled, and so what happened is I went and got the mail, set them on the picnic table, ran to the house, came back to the office and totally forgot about them and it was raining. So they're all dry now, but there is a little bit of evidence of that. They still work just fine. So if you would like to follow along with these, one of my personal goals is to eventually have the entire Bible sort of filled up with these. So go ahead and pick one up if you want, and you want to make some notes and follow along with us. We'll be in 2 Peter this Wednesday night. Also, coming up, let's see if I can make this work. There we go. Next Sunday, we'll be in Genesis chapter 1 and 2, looking at creation.

Our goal isn't, as we said earlier, to look at the specifics of how, but rather to see the God who creates. And then, on the 26th, Friday night, we'll be showing this. We'll have some more details about time as we see when the sun's going to go down. The good thing is, we'll be out here in front, so we get a little bit of shade on our screen earlier, so we don't have to be as late. We invite you to join us for this. I'm going to go ahead and have a word of prayer. And then we'll sing one more song. Father in heaven, thank you for caring for us, allowing us to worship and gather this morning. Be with us, whether we are here in person or out in the parking lot for drive-in or watching online. May you encourage us and strengthen us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him, above ye heavenly hosts. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Praise God, Son, and Holy Spirit. Praise God, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's pray.