Troubles

Sermon Summary: Troubles come in so many different ways. There’s the unexpected phone call, the email, the letter that looks like any other piece of mail, the “routine” physical, or the friendly knock on the door. But within seconds, the news can shatter our world. Somehow, we sense that life will never be the same. What will we do? How will we cope? Will we ever recover?

Psalm 46 was born in a context of severe turbulence. Most feel that it was written after God delivered Jerusalem from Sennacherib’s Assyrian Army in 701 B.C., when Hezekiah was king. Like the people of ancient Israel, we also need to learn to sing this “song of faith for troublesome times,” as Martin Luther called it. It is the basis of Luther’s hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”

1. Stanza 1: God is the Protector of His people (46:1-3).

2. Stanza 2: God is the Sustainer of His church (46:4-7).

3. Stanza 3: God is the Victor over His enemies (46:8-11).

Take Away: We all know what it is like to experience tumultuous times. When it becomes our experience, God doesn’t ask anything of us, except simply to say, “Lord, I trust You and I love You!” He asks us to believe that He is God, and to understand that He can turn our turbulent times into opportunities for growth. They stop us! They force us to look up and to say with confidence: “The Lord Almighty is with me; the God of Jacob is my fortress!”